The Lights of Ceres
Copyright 2017 William Petersen
*****
Alex gripped the handholds on the wall to keep himself stationary in the low gravity as he stared out the porthole of the cylindrical craft. His body was silhouetted by the ethereal, azure light streaming in from outside. His blue eyes glowed a ghostly white with reflected illumination, his blond, closely-cropped hair became translucent, while his face was tinted a soft cobalt. “As soon as they saw the lights, I knew this was something special,” Alex said to no one in particular.
“If that was the case, then why did it take three years and a marine biologist to identify the wavelengths as those characteristic of bioluminescence?” Kat called back without hesitation.
“You just won't let me have anything, will you?” Alex teased.
“Not if you didn't earn it,” Kat declared as she worked to complete the last stages of sealing her suit. A grin manifested itself, and despite her best efforts, she couldn't get it to go away.
“You know what? Kat-with-a-K,” Alex began, using his nickname for her, “For an astrobiologist, you sure are one cold b...”
“Alright, that's enough. Let's keep our focus,” Captain Adam Conner interjected as he ran a hand over his rapidly balding head, “This isn't the time to be playing around.”
Alex turned away from the window, “C'mon, aren't you even a little bit excited?”
“Of course I am, but that doesn't mean I'm going to act like a giddy teen before a first date,” he retorted without expression and without looking away from the display. “Let's wait for the message and keep our minds on the job.”
The captain stole a glance at Kat, still working on her suit and seemingly oblivious to the exchange. Her long, brown hair was loosely braided and dancing in the microgravity like a floating horse tail. He didn't want either of them so see him watching her, so he turned his attention back to the display screen on the communications console.
The craft was too small for more than one person to move about while in their suits, so both men were stuck in their positions until Kat was finished. Alex turned back to the window and mumbled, “Wow, I would have expected the first person about to set foot on an asteroid to be a little less crabby.” Then he reiterated loud and clear what all three of them were thinking, “It doesn't matter anyway, they're just going to call it off at the last minute, like they always do.”
“Well, they're going to have to pull the trigger soon,” Kat chimed in, “We have less than thirty hours left on this rock.”
“What if they abort it?” Alex whispered.
“No way, man,” Kat affirmed, “We didn't come all this way for nothing.”
“But what if they do? I feel that we have an obligation to find out, even if there are people back home who think we should leave it alone. I have to know what it is and how it came to be way out here. We can't just leave without...”
“If they tell us to stand down, we will stand down,” Captain Conner stated. It was intended more for Alex than for Kat. The younger man's seat-of-the-pants mentality required constant restraint, and the captain was never shy about vocalizing it. He also despised the fact that Kat seemed to be developing a crush on the younger man but had spurned his advances since the early days of their training.
Something changed on the display, distracting the captain. He held still and remained quiet for so long that it drew the attention of the others. Alex and Kat maneuvered themselves to peer over the captain's shoulders at the message on the screen. Mission Control: Go For Egress - Repeat - Go For Egress. Confirm.
“Looks like we're going out after all.” Conner muttered with a hint of reluctance as he typed in the required response and sent it on its long journey back to Earth. Alex and Kat stared at each other, grinning like mischievous children.
Alex turned and pulled himself down to begin unsealing the interior door of the sally port. He released the three locks, and the door slid upward into its recess. The sally port was only big enough to hold one person at a time, so Alex pushed himself aside to allow the captain access to the port. Captain Conner employed the various handholds positioned around the tubular craft to make his way into the tiny room that led to the outside.
All three donned their helmets and tested the communications, then Alex pushed the buttons to close the inner door. As soon as the captain affirmed his readiness with a thumbs-up through the rectangular view port, Kat started the sequence to open the outer door.
Yellow lights blazed inside the small compartment as dust and tiny debris were whisked out of the growing gap. Minute reflections of light signaled the sublimation of the air in the compartment into minuscule ice particles that followed the other detritus out into the void of space. Captain Conner approached the threshold of the door and paused, “For the future of all mankind,” he stated, then placed his right foot onto the largest body in the asteroid belt, Ceres.
A puff of powdery black and gray dust rose up around his boot, moving in what seemed to be slow motion, and hung suspended. He stepped all the way out and looked upon a jagged, two-tone landscape of slate and black, sparsely freckled with vivid, blue pools. The captain watched on as the faint shadows cast by the habitat and surrounding landscape rapidly lengthened and moved. The speed of the motion reminded him of a time-lapse video on fast forward.
Conner watched the dust lazily drift back down around his boots as he waited for the others. Alex soon emerged and immediately announced, “That's one small step for Alex, and one giant boost to Alex's ego.” Kat's giggle was heard inside the helmets of both men; the captain turned and glared at Alex until she had exited.
The trio stood and took in the first unobstructed view of their surroundings. The sky was pitch and studded with a million points of light, all the brighter for the lack of any atmosphere. What appeared to be several nearby, extremely large and bright stars, were actually other asteroids chasing each other through the belt. Sunlight barely penetrated down into the crater in which they had landed, but it wasn't really needed; the mysterious pools bathed the areas around them in a soft, cobalt glow.
Alex reached down and retrieved the outer collection box, breaking their pause, and Kat followed his lead by gathering the two sample containers. Captain Conner assembled the collection arm, a long metal rod with a vial-shaped receptacle at the end, and led them off towards the edge of the nearest pool.
The bulk and rigidity of their suits forced them to employ a sideways skipping movement that kicked up dust and rocks which lingered in place for hours, marking their paths. Added weights throughout their suits, and in the bottoms of their boots, prevented them from rising too high or potentially launching themselves into orbit.
After traveling about fifty feet, Alex stopped and put down his collection box. He hopped to his left and stooped to grab a large rock, about the size of a reclining chair, with both of his hands. He then stood, picking up the jagged boulder with ease, and gently hefted it upward. The huge stone leisurely crept higher and higher, until it was several hundred feet above the surface, where it seemed to stop and levitate, softly glowing with the faint, reflected light of the distant sun.
Kat skipped up beside him and shot him a questioning look, “Now it has a moon,” he said with a grin, “And since I discovered it, I get to name it. I christen you, Xela!” he declared with feigned pride while holding both arms out at length and gazing up at the floating rock as it spun erratically.
“It's not going to stay up there. You know that, right?” was all she said, but she continued to watch the temporary satellite and grin.
“Yeah, but it's not coming down any time soon. And besides, I'll know it was there. So, I've got that going for me.” he immediately replied, and Kat erupted
into laughter.
“Quit messing around, and get over here with that stuff,” blared into their helmets. Captain Conner had stopped a few feet from the edge of the mesmerizing body of fluid and watched as the others approached, “Hold there,” he instructed them when they were within a few steps of his position.
Kat's voice echoed in the helmets of the others, “Oh, wow.”
The central depression of the crater spread out directly in front of them, covering an area the size of a city block, and it was filled to roughly a foot deep with a glowing, white and blue conglomerate. A two-pronged, rocky spire protruded from the middle, rising several stories high, denoting the rebound effect from the impact that originally formed the crater.
The pool extended around and behind the monolith, wrapping it in bands of lazy shimmer. The strange blend of blues and sporadic white streaks briefly hypnotized them all. Even at their current distance, it was evident that there was motion within the pool.
A closer inspection revealed several distinct shapes moving about within the strange substance. The darkest and most vividly blue of them were also the largest. The creatures resembled a common wood louse, though the size of a football, and colored a deep blue. As the trio watched on in fascination, the things temporarily disappeared when viewed from certain angles.
Kat instantly recognized it, “It's a defense mechanism common among ocean animals. They reflect certain light waves away from the observer, essentially making the creature invisible. Kind of like sea sapphires, or hatchet fish, if you know what those are.” The lack of any comments told her that, as was the case more often than not, neither man knew what she was talking about.
Smaller, more agile beings raced around the larger ones, streaking trails of white light as they went. Even more minuscule creatures, appearing only as tiny dots of luminescence, drifted about inside of the gel-like medium. To Kat, the entire scene was reminiscent of life around volcanic vents in the deep seas of Earth; except that she was looking at it on the surface of an asteroid.
“Holy crap.” Alex commented, staring at the gently undulating mass of gelatinous material.
“That's real poignant, Alex,” Captain Conner replied in a dry tone, “Get set up, we're on the clock here.”
Alex and Kat deposited their containers on the ground, each took a shuffling step backward as the captain positioned himself to attempt gathering a sample of the alien substance. He extended the pole in a hand-over-hand method until it was several feet out over the pool. He carefully dipped the end into the goo, and the strange material immediately began sliding up and over the vial. The white and blue mixture crawled up the shaft of the rod with frightening speed, and the captain was spellbound by the sight.
“Drop it!” Alex screamed, and the captain complied without hesitation.
“RTB! RTB!” Captain Conner yelled as he awkwardly turned himself around to face the others, “Get back to the ship!”
Kat didn't need any further prompting and began her retreat, but Alex lingered, staring at the scene unfolding at the edge of the pool. The rod had been overtaken by the substance, but it had stopped there, and it was only the gelatinous material. None of the lifeforms in the pool were on the rod, just the slime, insinuating to Alex that the medium itself was alive.
It wasn't crawling across the surface towards them, and this reassured Alex that there was no imminent danger. As he looked on in growing wonder, the rod seemed to twinkle and then glow ever so slightly. His wonder gave way to fascination as the once opaque, gray rod, turned a translucent blue so clear that he could see the rocks and dust beneath it.
“Go!” Captain Conner yelled as he pushed Alex, nearly knocking him onto his side and creating a mini dust storm in his wake. Alex stole one last look at the rod, then followed the others through the trail of suspended dust. The captain pushed Kat aside and fumbled with the controls for the door, abandoning any gallantry as he fled inside. He immediately activated the sally port override, indicated by a bright, red light burning at the corner of the door. The captain had locked the outer control panel.
Once inside the inner door, he positioned himself to look out one of the porthole windows and spoke into his helmet's microphone, “Turn around, all the way around.”
“What?” came from Alex and Kat at the same time. They looked at each other through their visors, sharing a confused expression.
“You heard me. Both of you hold your arms out, and turn all the way around. I have to make sure neither of you is contaminated.”
“You know we're not. We were never close enough, look...” Kat chimed in as she turned in place to grant the captain his inspection. The older man's attention then turned to Alex, who stood still, glaring up at the window.
“Do it, Alex,” the captain's voice sounded inside of his helmet. Alex looked back at Kat, and the pleading look on her face forced him to abandon his stance. He reluctantly followed the instructions, but the captain wanted more, “Face away, and lift up your feet.”
Alex frowned, annoyed by what was either a show of power or an onset of acute paranoia, but he complied to hasten the process. He would take up the argument in earnest once he was face to face with the man. “You want me to squat and cough too?” Alex teased, but no response came.
The red light at the top of the control panel dimmed and faded out. Kat went in first, where she was again subjected to a visual inspection before the captain would open the inner door. The process was repeated with Alex, whose annoyance had turned to anger.
When Alex entered, Captain Conner and Kat had already removed their helmets. Kat moved forward and began to assist Alex with removing his own. The captain watched as a frown slowly overtook his brow, then began to dislodge himself from the rest of his own suit. He turned to the control panel and began compiling his report to send back to Earth.
Alex pulled his head free and took in a deep breath, but before he could unload, Kat pulled down on the arms of his suit. Her actions distracted him long enough for her to lock eyes with him; Alex saw the urgency, accompanied by the slightest of side to side head movements.
He realized that he should indeed hold his tongue, at least for now. As usual, Kat had kept a cool head and thought things through. It was better to let the captain send the report, and then confront him. There was no need to frighten people back home with the thought of a mutiny unfolding millions of miles out in space.
Kat began the task of removing her suit, while Alex moved to look out his favorite window and give her the room needed to complete the task. He stared out at the silent, pitted landscape bathed in blue as another brief day came to a close on Ceres.
Kat stripped down to her layer of insulated underwear and traded places with Alex. As he performed the ritual, Kat discretely stole glances at precise moments, taking in the flexing of his muscles, his grunts and exhalations. The clicking of the captain's fingers on the keyboard momentarily distracted her, and it occurred to her just long he had been typing.
Messages were always kept short and to the point; it took around thirty minutes to get a message to Earth, then a decision had to be made and the instructions sent back. So why was he writing a book? She leaned to her left to peer over the captain's shoulder and saw, 'Some type of parasite. Hostile organism,' appear on screen one letter at a time.
“What are you doing? You don't know that,” Kat said as she leaned towards the captain, no longer concerned with hiding her actions.
Conner stopped typing but did not look away from the screen, “I know what I saw, and that's enough for me. It's hostile, as far as I'm concerned.”
“You can't make that judgment, you're not a biologist. And what about the other things we saw living in it? If it's so hostile, then why isn't it hostile towards them?” Kat argued.
Alex had removed himself from his suit and now donned the same gray, insulated undergarments as the others. He took up a position opposite Kat and read snippets of the message. When he looked back at her, his eyes were wide and his mouth hun
g open. The captain turned his head to meet Kat's eyes, “I'm the captain, and I've made the decision. This isn't up for debate.”
Alex glared at the back of the captain's head, “You know what they'll say if you send that message. They'll call it off. They'll bring us back. We'll have to leave without ever knowing...”
“Knowing what?” the captain snapped. He spun in his seat, “We're not taking chances just because you want to make a name for yourself.”
The outburst was expected, but the rhetoric was not. Alex was momentarily dumbfounded by the comment, and the captain didn't pause, “You just want the fame and attention for bringing it back. You don't care about anything else. Well, I'm not going to risk taking something back that could infect the entire planet just to satisfy your ego. We will wait for instruction, after I send my report. Is that clear?”
“No, it's not,” Alex snapped back, and the captain stood to stare into his eyes, their noses just a few inches apart, “I don't care about my name on anything, and you know that. I just want to know. I don't care if I'm the first or the last, and I could care less what credit is given. I just want to know what it is, where it came from and what new questions those answers will bring. But you act like you want them to call it off. And you know what I think? I think you're here for something else, and I think you're scared.”
“What do I have to be scared of?” Conner angrily inquired, dodging the insinuation.
“The same thing that scares everyone else, the unknown. You don't understand it, so you're afraid of it, and I think all of it's affecting your judgment,” Alex declared rather loudly.
“I'll give you one chance, Alex,” the captain said in a surprisingly cool tone, “If you stand down now, I'll leave it out of the report and forget about it. But if you say one more word...”
Alex cut off Captain Conner's sentence by parting the tiny space between them with the middle finger of his right hand and held it there for several seconds. He then turned and maneuvered himself up the wall using the handholds. He climbed into the hanging sleeping bag they called a cocoon and watched the turquoise shimmer stream in through the trio of portholes.
Conner looked at Kat, “Well, it wasn't a word,” she offered with a grin. The captain squinted and turned back to the display to complete his report. Kat held her position and tried to read as much of the captain's writing as she could. Alex fidgeted and grunted softly as he prepared himself for sleep.
The captain programmed the report to send as soon as the tiny world spun around to face the inner solar system again. He then climbed up into his own cocoon, and Kat followed soon after. As soon as the others were strapped in and settled, the captain powered off the lights and the interior was bathed in the blue glow. Kat looked from the captain to Alex, who was staring at one of the windows, seemingly off in his own little world. Or maybe he was out exploring this one, she thought.
A touch to her fingers startled her, and she instinctively retracted her arm and looked to her left. Captain Conner held his arm out and tried again to grasp her hand as he flashed a longing smile. Kat tucked her arms into her sleeping bag and turned her head. Conner sighed, leaned his head back and closed his eyes in frustration. When he opened them, Alex was looking at him.
The captain said nothing, he merely let his head fall forward and closed his eyes. Alex looked to Kat, whose eyes were closed as well, but even in the eerie, blue light he could see her embarrassment manifested as dark patches on her cheeks.
It seemed like hours had passed before Alex heard the low grumbling of the captain's snores, echoed by the softer purr of those from Kat. He carefully, and very slowly, unfastened one of the two straps holding him in his sleeping bag. It took several minutes of tedious maneuvering, but he managed to free himself from his cocoon without stirring the others. He strained to move only as much as absolutely needed so he could remain silent and avoid slinging himself about the cabin.
Using the handholds and letting his legs float freely, he positioned himself in front of the control panel. Alex flipped several switches and then watched diligently as lines of code and various prompts were silently displayed on the screen. He depressed the appropriate keys with great care, ensuring each keystroke was slow enough to prevent any noise.
Alex carefully made his way back to his cocoon, but instead of climbing in, he removed one of the oxygen masks from the wall and secured it to his face. Wedging one of his feet into a handhold, he waited patiently for the yellow indicator lights to glow into life. The soft whispers streaming into his head encouraged him, and they urged him on. He could now feel them, as well as hear them.