The Bellurian Conundrum

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

But the pressure was building up and I was steaming inside. Nothing anyone could say would calm me down. We left Belluria six months ago. We still have two years to go. Small team; six people, all cramped inside this tin can. Tempers grow wild in the close quarters of our beloved Rosetta 2 spacecraft. Who would have guessed that among us was a murderer? We all have been scrutinized about our past, our personal and professional lives. Security was atop everyone’s minds. And now, news from Belluria came about a vicious senseless crime using a laboratory-engineered bug that killed seven people six months after our departure, and our xenobiologist Tij stands accused.

My screaming was the least of Tij’s worries. She was so calm and composed at this moment.

“What the heck happened Tij, tell us!” I shouted at her.

Standing in the corner of the main cabin, next to one of the life support systems, her exoskeleton glistening in what would be way too hot normally, but now seems so appropriate. Tij looked detached and expressionless simply replied “It had to be done”.

“Why?”

“The things they did to me, you have no ideas. They banded together and they all did it to me. They deserved to die.”. “I just needed a good excuse to get them together, a special occasion so to speak. That is when MICT was activated. That was a very special occasion indeed. Lots of planning it required, but, it is done. It was glorious”

Muntol and Berral were ready to tie her up for the rest of the trip. Everyone was on edge.

“Did you bring a version of MICT onboard?” I asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I surely did not. My use of MICT was reserved for my ‘close’ friends and family that did me wrong.”

I needed to find out why Tij committed such a heinous crime. This could potentially make or break our mission. Our crew is at risk. “What did they do to you to deserve this?”

“I am not ready to talk about it. In time, when ready, I’ll tell you. But for now, I will not speak”.

She seems so full of herself. That confidence and nonchalance she exudes, in a very disturbing way.

“How can we trust you?”

“Do you really think that an engineered entity would have bypassed the bio-filters when we came onboard? Come on. Have I done anything wrong to any of you since we left six months ago?” Tij exclaimed.

In the confines of space, millions of kilometers away from Belluria, Rosetta 2 speeds towards a small planet of interest named only M-8080. It is one of five planets where life might have once flourished. Five teams were launched around the same time to different regions of space in a massive effort to discover if life could have existed in our proximity. M-8080 was deemed the most promising, and team Kylad was assembled from among the best of the best in their respective fields of expertise.

I am the pilot. The bus driver if you wish. I have the responsibility to get the team of experts to the destination and hopefully back as well. Our vessel is large enough to accommodate all of us but it never seems big enough no matter what. Rosetta 2 is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery for exploration. However, it is not equipped to deal with a … murderer.

“Belluria high magistrate declared you a murderer”

“Alleged” Tij said.

“Did you do it?”

“Yes,” she replied, giggling.

Is she evil or just out of her mind? What kind of trouble are we getting into? Not that we have much of a choice. Six months of almost complete harmony; no major fights, no major conflicts, and no murders among the crew. I am the Mejuriad for this expedition. The decision to do or not do something comes back to me in the end.

This mission has been in the works for decades. It is too important to abort based on one deranged individual. On the other end, what kind of mayhem can she cause? In any case, we can’t abort. The ship cannot be turned around.

Tij is tall for a Bellurian female; slender and in good physical shape. She has been a good team player and participated in all of our exercises, security drills, and briefings with no complaints. She concentrates mainly on the study of alien life, and what form of life could be found somewhere outside Belluria. Having no frame of reference, Tij has to extrapolate from what our science is telling us so far and guess what is in the realm of possibility for extrabellurian life.

Every member of this expedition has a personal pod. The pod is about twice our body size. Circular in nature, it contains all you need to survive the duration of the flight both ways. She could be locked in there. Cruel, but it would work.

The orbiter has four sections. The cruising module for the six of us; the building module which contains all the robotics necessary to build a habitat and life support on the surface; the retrieving module which has the satellites, communications, surveying components, and landing capsule that will bring us down to the surface and up again and finally the fuel module which needs no other description than it’s necessary.

We have no gravity control. This is no science fiction; this is real life. Essentially we do not need much space and we maximize all that we have. We use the building module to exercise. Some of the equipment serves multipurpose. We do not want to lose strength in our exoskeletons, so we exercise a couple of hours every day.

Could we use the building module to secure Tij and isolate her from us? Is it necessary? What kind of measure can the team, or I, take to protect ourselves in case she goes completely mental?

How would we know? Can we just ignore the issue altogether? Is she a wild card?

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On Earth, the QUALT is getting powered up. It’s the first time the device is getting this far in the process. Earth is nearing the end of its life-supporting existence. Only a few million people can be evacuated before it’s too late via the Translink.

Earth was never able to band all the countries together to avert total catastrophe. Everyone for itself was the motto. YOLO they say and now they will.

We have the technology but not the will. We have the power but also the misguidance. We have beliefs but no common sense. We had some time but now, no more.

The QUALT will allows individuals and groups to travel 3.5 billion light years in an instant using the Translink to a place that used to be early Earth. It’s been called Earth Prime. Untouched, pure, and ready to be developed properly this time.

People are saying that scientists are playing God and that they should not play dice with the universe. It will turn out badly for the human race they say. But survival is guiding our move. No other choices are possible to enable humanity to survive. For hundreds of years, the population of Earth has been warned. For hundreds of years, it has been politics, exaggerations, fake news, manipulation of the masses, senseless riots, localized civil wars, and complete degeneration of the human race. Who can blame them? Our planet is dying, nothing anyone can do about it, except save a few.

Playing with Quantum Physics combined with Space-time Continuum is working, for now.

The hope that our move will save our species, advance our knowledge, and maybe, just maybe discover more secrets of the universe. Like traveling back in time and space to the beginning of the universe is not enough…

We’re starting over.

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On Rosetta 2, the crew decided to let Tij free, but we all keep our distance. As much distance, as can be kept in the tin can.

Belluria is not sending any useful information about handling the situation other than warnings about our return and how they will deal with her. That does not help us here and now. We try to ignore these messages as we have a mission to accomplish.

For years before our launch, the whole group has been trained in the largest of Taghamet’s facilities on Belluria. Training is about everything that can go wrong: Deployment of the habitat is not working? We have to dig an underground shelter to protect against radiation. Digging equipment does not work? Use the shovels. Shovels are broken? Find a cave. Can’t find a cave? Prepare the ship for early return. The ship is not fully functioning? Open repair procedures books… you get the drift. It’s funny how we are not trained much if things are working the way they should. Only training by exceptions. That’s it. I guess a million things can go wrong and we have to be prepared to deal with every single one of them.

Maps of M-8080 taken by satellites that reached the planet before our departure were sent to us. Scanning of the surface continues so that we can find a proper place to land. Not just any place, but one that has a high chance of harboring life, or, remnants thereof.

That’s the Holy Grail; finding some kind of microbes or fossils that would show some life exists or existed before.

Tij is needed if live microbes or organisms are found. Odds are quite against it. Every indication shows that M-8080 is a dead piece of rock today. It is in the Goldilocks zone; the zone where things are not too cold and not too hot; just right. Technically it could have been sporting life a long time ago. One star, M class, third planet from that star; that is M-8080. Promising they say. We’ll see. Not holding my breath on this.

Three more months and Rosetta 2 arrives at its destination. Three weeks will be spent orbiting while a few communications satellites get deployed and a more detailed survey of the surface can be performed. That will also extend communication on most of the surface while we are down there. The building module will descend on the first week at the location where it will be our turn next to be on the surface. The massive material printers will use the regolith to build a few domes that will hold us for the duration of the stay. Liquid to make the regolith stick together has been carried aboard. Why carry it? if we can’t find any liquid water on the surface in the first few days, then at least the printers can still build the habitats.

Finding water will be one of the first objectives to live comfortably and increase our chances to find life.

It could be moisture in the air; we had some indicators showing a thin atmosphere. Maybe we can find enough for condensation and enough to increase our supply. We have drilling equipment. Mainly to make carrots of rocks to study M-8080’s geology, but at the same time used to find underground water if possible.

We have the rovers and helicopter to move around faster. One of the rovers is equipped with sleeping quarters, not for the whole crew, it can hold only three persons. If we venture too far for an overnight trip and get stuck there longer than anticipated, the crew can sleep and survive the outing. All use nuclear reactors for clean energy and long-term running. If we are here longer than necessary, we have the rover to rely on if need be.

Food is next. It has been grown on the way to M-8080. Bio labs, vertical agriculture, meat printer for proteins. Great technologies, but they all need primary matter to make them work. Limited supplies of MPG (Multi-Purpose Goo) have been provided for the trip. If we have enough light, low levels of radiation, and can grow bacteria cultures in the new habitats, then we’re good.

Research is our work. Finding life is the goal.

Why is it so important? I personally don’t care much. I am here for the pay. I have no one at home waiting for me. The sound of adventure was a great incentive. And the pay was really really good. OK, it’s six years of my life. But it will be fun, I said. Oh yes, it will be fun. Did not know I would have to deal with a murderer along the way. That makes it more exciting I would say.

What is to be found down there? Will it be just a dead planet with nothing to talk about? Or will it be something else? Will it be time to find out that we are not alone after all?

If proof of life or proof of past life is found, we’ll come back to Belluria as heroes. If not, well… good paycheck; I never have to work another day in my life and I will find myself a nice partner to spend the rest of my life with.

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On Earth, half a million people have been evacuated so far. There are still another 3 or 4 million to go before the total collapse of the planet.

Is there enough time?

Equipment had to go to Earth Prime first. Industries, farms, energy generation, and transportation needs to be rebuilt out there. It will be done right this time.

Animals, plants, seeds, art, culture, books… so much have to be saved. So much will be lost.

All of the movement of equipment and people have to be performed while dealing with mass hysteria. People had to be chosen and that fact could not have been hidden from the world. It’s too massive a scale to hide in plain sight. A large lottery system has been put in place to randomly select samples of humans from the whole planet. However, the most important spots for qualified and specialized scientists and workers had to be fulfilled first. That created a feeling of inequities and jealousy. Hence the lottery for everyone else. Families were kept together, no separations were allowed, and for just cause.

Evacuating a whole planet is impossible. Choices had to be made. Hard choices.

Transport of people and resources will go on until it is no longer feasible. Once the QUALT is shut down, the Translink will no longer be operational. There are no possible ways to turn it back on again.

Earth prime is ready for us. Are we ready for it?

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