Chapter four - Brittle yarn

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God of a Man

Across Two Eternities

“Knowledge is useless without understanding.”

Chapter Four: Brittle yarn

Dated: 10th November, 2460

Knowing is not half the battle won, rather it is the beginning. Understanding what you know is the real challenge. An apple had always fallen down to the ground, and the entire humanity always knew it. Yet it was for Newton to question why an apple did so, that humanity finally understood gravity. And while knowing where an apple would go once detached from a tree never served much purpose for humanity, understanding gravity filled up libraries across its world, and for the first time humanity began to understand worlds beyond its own.

An idea is a seed that cannot germinate without the soil and moisture of knowing what it could lead up to, and what could or should be done to make it materialize. An idea can originate in many variations across many minds, yet it is the mind that conceptualizes the most practical iteration of it, that really makes a fruitful contribution. Practicality of course is undeniably linked to the understanding of how things might work, and thereafter workout.

Nurturing minds and their conceptual abilities is thus half the battle won. The rest is all about indulging them into intellectual work. Bodies will follow what minds would command, and aware of this are minds onboard Spaceship Maa, who find themselves situated in the unenviable position of pioneers of a new world.

“You can’t just walk in through there with a light in hand Captain,” Jhiang argued as he explained why he didn’t support Captain Aman Ahluwalia’s plan of manually scavenging the underground, “Firstly, even if we pump out all the liquid built up in there, which shouldn’t take us more than a couple of days, it wouldn’t make it any safer underground. It is more likely to make the structure more unstable, as the buoyancy of the fluid would be lost. And who knows how long these ruins have been buried under this thick blanket of solid frozen matter. It could all collapse all around your team, and we would have neither any way of locating you, or rescuing you quick enough to save your lives.”

“Then how about we just leave the fluid in there and just float through it,” Aman came up with another suggestion, “We would be using oxygen cylinders anyway.”

“I am afraid that’s equally impractical,” Jhiang however was quick to put in the dampener, “Firstly it is not clear water in there that we are talking about. They are highly cooled gases turned into liquid. You will freeze into mummies down there in spite of your safety gear. Secondly, who knows what debris float or lie buried in there, leave alone the allergen or poison contamination levels? The only action recommended is to send in an unmanned small drone to scan the interiors, spot the points of interest, and then dig closer to those points. Even this shouldn’t be undertaken until it is absolutely clear what matter makes up the atmosphere deep in there. The last thing we need is an explosive mixture of highly volatile components igniting and destroying your team above the ground. There will be plenty of oxygen in there, and there is plenty of it outside to make exactly that happen.”

“But at this pace of progress we might be stuck here on this planet till next dark ages,” Aman however complained.

“I would much prefer to be stuck here then lose any of my crew Captain,” Anne however decided it was time to make the decision, “You are not going to risk your life when it can be avoided.”

“But,” Aman however wanted to argue further, alas Anne was in no mood to give in to his demands.

“No Captain, I will not allow any of my crew to be put in harm’s way,” Anne exclaimed forcefully as she held up her hand to stop Aman’s words in his mouth.

“No one else needs to go down there, I’ll do it alone by myself,” Aman however came up with a lame argument.

“And I will not let you do it,” Anne however had already made up a clear decision.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to do it,” Aman however tacitly reminded her of the compromise she had reached with him, that she would not ask him to do what he doesn’t approve off, taking Anne by surprise, as her jaw dropped down, and a blank stare was all that was left marking her eyes, as she stared deep into his eyes haplessly.

“Of course, she doesn’t want you to do it,” Doctor Suzanne Dillon, who was unaware of the arrangement between the two, jumped on to Anne’s side.

“I am sure she won’t stop me,” Aman however knew what he wanted to do.

Anne was left motionless for a fleeting moment, not even a breath escaped her, when finally, dejected at her powerless position with him, she almost choked on her next few words, “Not under my watch Captain; never under my watch!” And she immediately turned around and walked away, barely holding back her tears. Jhiang too looked at Aman, shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t care, for he had already made his views amply clear, and then walked away towards his research area. He had set up Gas Spectrometry tests, to run on the samples of condensed gaseous mixture collected by Aman’s team the previous day.

“What is wrong with you?” Suzanne however wasn’t done with Aman, “Don’t you care about her feelings?”

“Of course I do,” Aman, taken aback, retorted back, “What has anything got to do with her feelings? It is just a job that someone needs to do!”

“And this is all that you make of the situation, of what is going through her mind,” Suzanne asked him as she grabbed him by his arm, “Through her heart?”

“What has it got to do with her heart?” Aman however was taken by total surprise now.

“Can’t you see?” Suzanne however complained, “She loves you!”

“What?” and her words shook Aman to his core, as he fell a couple of steps back, “That’s not true! We are just friends!”

“Oh yes you are,” a frustrated Suzanne quipped, “But for you only!” By this time however she was beginning to feel really impatient with him, “You and your brother; two masterpieces of their own kind.” She then took two steps towards Aman, grabbed him from both his arms this time, pulled her face next to his, and then literally threw the words straight at him, “Damn it Aman, she’s a woman!”

“But I love Jenny,” Aman struggled to blurt out his reply.

“And you think you will find her now?” a disgusted Suzanne finally gave up on him and walked away.

One can walk away from their love, their responsibilities and even their life, but what one can never walk away from is their own inner self. And this inner self never fails in reminding them what they are about to leave behind, and would always reason back as to why not to leave behind what is about to be left behind. The only time one makes a mistake is when they lose the argument to their inner self, and yet follow up on their decision.

Jenny had just finished drawing up the last remaining sketch of her family; Rear Admiral Gurubaan Ahluwalia. Jack, who had just woken up, walked up to her side and asked, “Who is he?”

“He’s my father-in-law,” Jenny replied before a sadness took over her heart, “I wish we hadn’t missed his team when they came looking for us. I wish we hadn’t gotten us stuck into that situation.” And then she broke down.

Situations happen not because they have a tendency to happen, but because they are an eventuality of the vast probability at play. However, they are governed as much by the events leading up to them, as much they are a function of the probability that might transpire out of that events’ play.

“How is your work coming up young man,” Rear Admiral asked his Chief Engineer Marcus Dodd.

“Great Sir,” Marcus replied, “I have updated our radar software and data algorithm. Now we can detect any artificial movement half a light year away in one light year time.”

“That’s still too slow I am afraid,” Rear Admiral replied with a deep sigh, “We are dealing with unknown intelligent life that can probably travel faster than light. We would still be nothing more than sitting ducks even if were to detect their exact position half a year ago.”

“Sir, unfortunately we don’t have the technology to speed up our radiations,” Marcus shook his head as he reminded his Commanding officer what their technical limitations were.

“And our unknown friends or enemies probably have,” Rear Admiral quipped as he contemplated on something. He then gave a further instruction to his flight team, “Chief Flight Officer Marks, please make sure we are always aware of closest rocky neighbourhoods including asteroid belts where we could take refuge should an emergency arise.”

There was a silence in the cabin for a moment, as everybody let the feeling of haplessness sink in. Finally Chief Flight Officer Antonio Marks asked his officer, “Sir, do you think we would ever see our families again?”

“I certainly hope so son,” Rear Admiral replied without a hesitation, “For I love my kids, and I love my wife.”

Love has a strange habit of cooking up situations that people are happy to get entangled into, but curse every moment of living through them. None leaves this web until they have realized how ugly they could be at their worst. And yet, it leaves memories that are the most cherished of all time.

“Here, I made you a coffee,” Doctor Rukhsana Leung said as she pushed a cup towards Doctor Xavier Adams, who was obviously surprised.

“Thanks,” he exclaimed as he took the cup from Miss Leung’s hand, as she looked back into his eyes, making him uncomfortable. “I just came to check up on Mrs Ahluwalia,” Xavier fumbled out his explanation, “She is Captain Connor’s adoptive mother.”

“Yes, I know,” Doctor Leung replied as she took a sip from her cup, looked at Mrs Ahluwalia, and then again looked back at Doctor Adams. “I actually admire what you did for your friend Suzanne,” she exclaimed as she giggled like a school girl, “Who in this day and age puts their own life at peril for their friends like that?”

“I am flattered,” Doctor Adams replied as he took an uncomfortable sip from his cup, “Actually, it is just a matter of perspective as to whose life is really in peril.” And the two finally gave out a comfortable laugh.

Peril of life always feels lesser than the peril of heart, and peril of heart always lesser than the peril of limb. It is hard to live with a broken heart, and harder to comfort a heart that beats in a body deprived of a limb.

“I don’t trust that bitch,” Margaret exclaimed as she chatted with ‘Rocker’ Jean Perry.

“I don’t understand why you hate that poor creature so much,” Rocker replied back, as both sat in the cabin, oblivious to Doctor Dillon who had just walked in.

“I can’t trust a bitch that can get into my mind whenever she wants to,” Margaret however was quite upfront of her distaste for Mishansa.

“Don’t worry,” Rocker quipped, “I am sure Bradley will take care of her.”

“Bradley,” Suzanne exclaimed in surprise as she joined in, “What would he do with her?”

“Well hello! Where have you been?” Rocker replied with a surprise, “This is the talk of the ship; the two are an item!”

“Bradley and Mishansa,” a shocked Suzanne asked.

“Who, Bradley,” even Margaret was slightly shocked and surprised, “But I thought she was hitting up on Captain Ahluwalia!”

“Now wait a second,” Rocker however confronted her on her assertion; “Whoever gave you that idea?”

“But she is not with Bradley, is she?” a shocked Suzanne looked back at Margaret, trying hard not to raise any suspicions.

“She always is with Bradley,” Rocker however replied.

“No way,” Margaret countered him, “I see her way more with Captain Ahluwalia.”

“But why would she need to hit on Bradley?” Suzanne asked, but then realized she was sounding too obvious, so added, “I mean, we don’t even know what has happened to him.”

“She doesn’t care,” Rocker quipped.

“I swear she is not with Bradley, but with Aman,” Margaret however replied.

“Wait!” Suzanne however had had enough of this disagreement, “Is she with Bradley, or is she with Aman?”

“Or is she playing them both,” Anne stepped inside the cabin, having overheard all their conversation.

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Chapter three - Spirituality of science

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God of a Man

Across Two Eternities

“Every privilege is tied to a history that justifies its existence and a responsibility that guarantees its continual enjoyment.”

Chapter Three: Spirituality of Science

Dated: 9th November, 2460

No need arises until experience has lost its innocence to an eventuality. And then when the need arises, not every need may inspire a universal demand for relief. But the ones that manage to stir up such gigantic hue and cry, generally leave the posterity enriched with privileges that guarantee safety against such situations, should they arise in future. These privileges are there not for enjoyment, but rather to safeguard. It is another matter than intellectual beings generally do not distinguish use from enjoyment, unless they are arguing at an abstract academic level. But the nature of privilege aside, there are two more aspects that give a privilege its aura and life; the historical context that created the privilege, and the responsibility that needs to be fulfilled to ensure its uninterrupted and continuous tenure, respectively.

Deep in history lies the story of inception of a privilege; a story that spells out both the reason why, and the detail as to how, a privilege came to be. This history foretells a distant future that may or may not materialize were the privilege to be lost in the sands of time, for history has a tendency to repeat itself, for history is linked to organic psyche. The story of the turmoil that makes up every history is the warning about the cost posterity might have to pay, were the privilege to be lost.

Thus tied to a privilege, out of necessity, is the responsibility to ensure its sustenance. And this responsibility could be a simple one commitment demand, or a multi-dimensional investment of fortitude and effort. A posterity that fails to fulfil this demand is bound to lose the privilege and suffer history as a part of its future. This they know, those who seek natural wealth of an unknown world, to secure their future. Thus conservation would be the key, even when the opportunity to spoil their selves is tantalizing.

The shrill sound of the drilling machine appeared to have destroyed the tranquillity of the entire ghostly planet, and done this unashamedly for hours, digging through frozen ice and carbon-dioxide. It took Captain Ahluwalia’s team close to ten hours to finally get to the level of an artificial structure. But now the only thing left to be taken out of the way had almost yielded.

“We are ready to break in,” Captain Ahluwalia radioed back to the ship, before turning to his two allies in that mission, “I’ll get the hose in place while Harry pulls out the drill. Liandra; turn the compressor on as soon as I signal.”

“I’m ready when you are,” Liandra Folly, a mechanical engineer, knew what her job was.

Heavily pressurised contents buried underneath the frozen matter were expected. Some of them would have condensed into liquid form, while some might have been gaseous. Oxygen was no guarantee anymore underneath that surface, but whatever was to be found inside, had to be sucked up and compressed into cylinders for later evaluation by the scientific team onboard the mother-ship. Nothing could be left to escape freely into the atmosphere, unless it had been determined to be harmless. Being there on a planet freezing at under a minus hundred fifty degree Celsius; who would have thought it could be a privilege?

The problem with thinking beings is not that they dwell too much, but that they often dwell when it is too late. Values are often realized once they have already been lost. And then new schools of learning may emerge out of that loss.

“Who knew this part of the world would ever see snow on a daily basis,” Lady Davis quipped as her secretary walked into her living room.

“They say our oceans will freeze one day,” Miss Manning quipped as she joined her leader, and gazed outside the window into a dark world, now only lit artificially, “And I thought I didn’t like the fact that it is middle of the afternoon and it is pitch dark.”

“The oceans will, but not too soon dear,” Lady Davis replied, “They are full of salt, and it will take a lot more time for them to freeze. I am more worried about our fisheries. They are what we need to feed ourselves for as long as we are still stuck here.” She then turned around to face Ivanka, and asked her, “What’s the status update on the artificial heating system fittings at all our dams?”

“It’s been taken care of,” Ivanka informed her, shaking her head in affirmative, and pushing a file towards her, “It’s the status update we received today morning.” She then paused to let Michelle have a fleeting look at the contents of the file before continuing, “Your next engagement of the day is with Doctor John Morris, from New Saisho Institute of Astronomy. Admiral Abdullah would meet us there.”

Intellect itself is a privilege that not every species enjoys. The responsibility to keep it abreast with latest knowledge is however by no means little, for like every privilege, intellect too is not confined to one minority only.

“Why do we always have to fight with aliens?” little Jack asked Jenny, as they just finished watching an old movie, “Can’t we just be friends with aliens?”

His question surprised her, for something that sounded really simple, it was indeed a question that might have skipped the most intelligent of minds. “I don’t know,” a speechless Jenny shrugged her shoulders, “I guess, we just can’t trust someone whom we don’t know.”

“But why can’t we trust them?” Jack probed her further.

“Maybe because we don’t know if they want to hurt us,” Jenny replied, “And maybe because, even they don’t know if we want to hurt them.”

“But then, can’t we just talk to them?” Jack however wasn’t the one to be satisfied with such simple answers.

“Yes, but we won’t know their language; and they won’t know ours,” Jenny however did have a reasonable answer, “And maybe even if we did, we still won’t be able to trust them, and them us.” She gently stroked his hair and continued, “And then, maybe neither of us would like to share what we have, or what we find, like say this planet of ours. Aliens would want this all for themselves, and we would want it all for ourselves. No one would want to share it with someone they don’t have to. It is not like sharing a world with rabbits which cannot own it, or kill us to take over it, or make us their pets. It would be like sharing with another someone who is as intelligent, powerful, and possibly as bad as us.”

Her answer finally quietened Jack, but not for long, “Jenny, are we bad?”

And his question made her contemplate, as she took a deep breath and held him close to her heart. “Maybe we are!” she quipped.

Bad, like any virtue, cannot however exist without a contrast. A quality is always so defined because there is always another which is nothing like it, and yet could stake a claim to same territory as occupied by that quality.

“Our calculations, now backed by the update received from the Rear Admiral’s team, confirms what had thus far only been speculations,” Doctor Morris informed Lady Michelle Davis and Admiral Mir Abdullah, as the two intently attended to his discourse. “Our earth is not exactly lost in interstellar space, but is really orbiting that very far off star,” Doctor Morris continued, “However, don’t be fooled by the looks, for that star is at least a hundred times more massive than our Sun; potentially more.”

“So we are not going to stay here forever,” Lady Davis asked, “That is; our planet is mobile.”

“Just like it always was,” the Doctor quipped, “Only this time it will take it a century or more to go around that star, and our axial movement is so slow, that it would take a few months over a year to finish one day.”

“Is there anything that we should be concerned about in our near future?” Admiral however asked the most relevant question.

“Two things,” Doctor Morris replied, “The least concerning is the fact that the other star that we see, which appears a bit bigger, about three months away, enough to make no difference to our world; would potentially come closest to us in another ten years, and then we don’t know how its gravity would affect our world.”

“We’d be long gone by that time,” Michelle quipped nodding with a conviction, “What is the more concerning part?”

“What concerns me more is the fact that the star that we are orbiting,” Doctor Morris replied, “Its’ equivalent of our Sun’s Kupier belt lies two months to our outside. Luckily this system has been in existence way longer than our solar system, and it appears its’ belt is not as busy as our Sun’s. But I’d be very watchful of whatever still rests there and is ready to fly in.”

“We don’t have much of an atmosphere to protect us have we,” a concerned Admiral asked.

“Given the low levels our seas have fallen down to, the rapidly declining atmospheric movements, our increasing reliance on packaged oxygen and pitch dark beyond the limits of our artificial lights,” Doctor Morris replied, “I’d be only concerned about the prospect of something hitting the Australian mainland.” Finally, to give them some relief, Doctor Morris added, “Luckily we won’t be facing outwards for another nine to ten months.”

Facing adversity also makes one appreciate the goodness of what they have with them that helps them survive the adversity. Learning, understanding and appreciation often happen together.

“What are your observations thus far?” Bradley asked Keith and Shelly, the Chemist and the Physicist onboard ‘Maa’, about the effect of interaction between the matters of the two universes; Alex’s drone and Doctor Dawson’s mittens.

“It is interesting how the matter from the two universes maintains its form and integrity, when put in contact with each other,” Doctor Shelly Dawson replied, “So much that we are surprised how you were affected so differently by your experience.” She then looked on at Doctor Keith Harvey to join in the comment.

“Our understanding is that perhaps something else intervened in your case,” Doctor Harvey added to the conversation, “Something that initiated the change that culminated in making you what we would describe as dead matter, for the lack of a better term.”

“Forget about me Doctor,” Bradley quipped shaking his head, “But are you suggesting that our people can interact with these pieces of equipment without worrying about the effect they might cause.”

“To a limited extent, and if there is no choice left, we think it’s alright,” Doctor Dawson replied, “In fact, given the findings I took the liberty to read through the instruction manual of Alex’s drone and guess what I found?”

A smile came up on Bradley’s face as he quipped, “I have no idea!”

“You remember how you could hear Alex’s voice in space while you couldn’t speak to him because of the vacuum, and you asked me how that was possible,” Doctor Dawson continued, “It so happens that they don’t use voice to communicate.”

“What do you mean?” her information intrigued Bradley.

“They use visible light to transmit voice,” Doctor Dawson’s reply left him gobsmacked.

“What? How is that even possible, when I know I heard his voice,” Bradley asked, or rather protested vehemently.

“You think you heard his voice,” Shelly replied, “But it was actually typed words transmitted as visible light that your eyes picked up. Think of it this way; when you read written words, your brain is actually reading them aloud internally while your eyes go over each one of them. What they do with their technology is, they convert written words into light signals, and beam them at accelerated speed. This way not only their messages travel way faster than anything else, but because they are using an undetectable amount of visible light to transmit messages while the enemy is busy scanning through radio frequencies, their messages don’t get intercepted. And the best part is; you don’t need any special equipment to decode the messages. All organisms are naturally born with the apparatus to decode visible light, provided they understand the language.”

“Then how come I heard his voice?” Bradley however was still not convinced.

“You didn’t,” Doctor Harvey joined in this time, “You see, our brain is a very efficient masterpiece of creation; it fills up missing details by its own construction. When you look away into distance, you only focus on a very small part of the view, while your eyes still see everything, or at least you think they do. What the brain is doing in that situation is; it is completing the picture by using average expressions of various views that it has accumulated over your life-time, as an internal stock image base. This is what your brain did when it received Alex’s message; it supplied an average voice to the message that you identified as an unknown voice. The picture for the purpose of your brain was completed when you met Alex in person for the first time, which is when your brain made the requisite connection between what you had already observed, and what you observed then; his message and his voice.”

“This is weird,” Bradley quipped shaking his head.

“Talk about weird,” Harvey chipped in response, “Who the hell would’ve thought we would meet an alien that looks just like us and speaks our language too?”

“Alex is no alien,” Bradley immediately contested Doctor Harvey’s version.

“Oh he is,” Doctor Dawson jumped to her colleague’s defence, “His kind is as much alien for us, as much we are for his.”

“Interesting, isn’t it?” Doctor Harvey quipped.

“Interesting indeed,” exclaimed Bradley as his face consternated.

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