Blue Planet Rising (Pebbles in the Sky Book 2) Read online

  Chapter 15

  May 9th, 2045

  Farside Lunar Base

  Brianna Driskall walked through the underground greenhouse in amazement. Accompanying her, and acting as her guide, was Senior Chief Alice Drummond. “This is absolutely amazing,” said Brianna. They were in greenhouse number four. That particular underground green house had been modified to provide a rest and relaxation area for the residents of Farside Base. They stopped beside some small free standing ponds with water lilies. If she looked closely, Brianna could see some very small minnows darting around under the floating Lilly leaves. An occasional butterfly could also be seen fluttering among the flowers of some hanging plants.

  “I hadn’t heard that you had introduced any animals or insects to the greenhouses here” Brianna said excitedly.

  Alice Drummond, the Life Support Systems Specialist responsible for the greenhouse smiled proudly. “Now that we are actually producing a surplus of fresh food and oxygen for the base, we decided to convert this one into a park like setting so the crew could come here and enjoy it. We introduced the butterflies about four months ago and so far they are doing very well. The small darters in the ponds were brought up from Earth and smuggled in by one of the lunar cargo ship pilots. Captain Allan had a fit when he found out, but we’ve discovered that the ammonia they produce in their waste actually fertilizes the lilies and the other water plants. So, we allowed them to stay. They are reproducing quite well and seem to do fine in the lower gravity.”

  “I notice that a lot of the plants are still being watered and fed completely by hydroponic nutrients,” said Brianna.

  “Yes, we found out very early in the project that the lunar regolith does not like plants very well. The dust is almost like glass slivers. The plants wouldn’t root well in it even with soil supplements and they end up dying. Recently though, we’ve devised a way to make our own soil. We take the basaltic ground rock from deep underground, pulverize it, and add our dead vegetation and a liberal dose of human waste as organic humus. Then, we mix in some ground bacteria from back on Earth. Finally, we add some missing nutrients and a lot of patience. We’re slowly making our own fertile soil. All the potted trees you see are in soil that we’ve produced here. We still don’t have enough to completely fill a greenhouse floor with it so we still have to use pots for the trees. The goal is to eventually have everything here growing in ground soil with no pots or drip nutrient systems.”

  They passed through an airlock into the next greenhouse. The greenhouse was twenty meters wide and about three times that in length. There were about a dozen people going down rows of hydroponically grown squash, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables. The sound of subdued ventilation and the laughter of the base personnel picking vegetables seemed totally out of place on the moon. The moon was a cold and unforgiving wilderness, but here in the underground greenhouses, you could almost believe you were on Earth.

  Brianna laughed with delight. “Now, that has to be the best duty on the base.”

  Alice shook her head. “The vegetable picking isn’t a duty. It’s done by volunteers. The crew loves to come here and relax. Getting to grow and eat fresh veggies is a great reward when you’ve been living up here for months on end.”

  They walked down between two rows of hydroponic green beans. The rows had been recently harvested of mature pods, but the next growth of young immature beans were intermixed with blooms on the plants. Alice beckoned Brianna to stop.

  “Listen closely,” she whispered.

  Over the soft sigh of the ventilation fans and the harvesters subdued conversations, soft buzzing could be heard.

  “Is that bees I hear?” Brianna asked in wonder.

  Alice nodded and motioned her over to some bean plants. Moving from bean blossom to blossom were honey bees. “We introduced them to pollinate our plants that aren’t self-pollinated. At first, they didn’t do well and seemed disoriented by the lower gravity and lack of direct sunlight. But fortunately, subsequent generations have adapted and now we have some fresh honey as a treat to go with our veggies.”

  “Alice, I have to admit I’m totally in awe with what you and your people have done here. Are all these plants gene altered?”

  “Most of the vegetables aren’t. Most of them are a result of selective breeding. The algae tanks in greenhouses one and two do have a gene altered algae that was tailored specifically for removing large amounts of carbon dioxide and processing human waste,” Alice explained.

  “Well, if you ever need a plant that needs to be specifically adapted in any way, have them contact my parents,” Brianna said. “Since the DNA Ark Project is about finished collecting samples, they’ve started a small company that genetically alters plants. As a matter of fact, they’re going to be supplying the seed stock for our greenhouses that we will set up on Elpis.”

  “Brianna, I have to admit I’m so jealous of you. I would give anything to go on that mission and grow the first plants on another world!” exclaimed Alice.

  “We may not be the first,” said Brianna. If those probes that were launched by the South American space group are successful, there may be some scattered plant life already there when we arrive. We’ll have to see.”

  “Brianna, Brianna, over here!” They both turned to see a young man in a flight jumpsuit and the silver bars of a Lieutenant waving at them from several rows over.

  Alice looked at Brianna. “Do you know Lieutenant Greco?” she asked.

  Brianna smiled. “Yes, we’ve met a few times. We’re both on the Elpis landing team.”

  “Hmmm,” said Alice. “If I wasn’t enlisted and him an officer, I might go after him myself. Good luck girl,” she whispered. “I think I’ll make myself scarce. Alice turned and walked the other way as Jason started moon hopping down the row toward them in the low gravity.

  “Hey, Brianna,” Lieutenant Jason Greco said as he landed beside Brianna. “I heard you were on the moon. I was filling in as a relief pilot on one of the cargo shuttles and when I heard you were here so I came looking for you.”

  “Well, you found me. What gives?” smiled Brianna.

  “Nothing really important,” blushed Jason. “I just thought that we might have supper together before I leave in the morning. This is my last trip to the moon before I report for training on the new lander. I may not get to see you again until we start the team training. We’re now just twenty one months away until we leave for Elpis. Are you getting excited yet?”

  “Well, twenty-one months is still a pretty long time. A lot can happen between now and then,” said Brianna.

  “The time will fly by,” said Jason.

  “Where’s your brother?” asked Brianna.

  “Oh, he’s guiding a robot across Mars at the moment, I guess,” said Jason as he stood looking dreamily at Brianna.

  “He’s on Mars?” asked Brianna with confusion.

  “Virtually, only,” Jason laughed. No Mars landings yet. He’s driving a robot crawler by virtual reality control from a ship in stationary orbit around Mars. He’s been operating out of Phobos base for a couple of months now. A manned landing on Mars is low priority with Elpis sitting there begging for us to come visit.”

  “So, do I have a date for dinner?” Jason asked.

  “Do I need to bring a chaperone?” asked Brianna. “I’ve been warned how you Space Force pilots are.”

  “That’s the old Space Force you’re speaking of. We are now a multi-national force. The new name is the United Alliance Space Force. Except for the French guys that are still in training, all of us are officers and gentlemen,” grinned Jason.

  “In that case, I accept your offer.”

  “I’ll be on my best behavior, Miss Driskall. Now, shall we go see what’s being served in the dining hall?” Jason said as he offered his arm.

  Brianna felt herself flush warmly as she took his arm. “Spending four years on a deserted planet with this guy just might be very interesting,” she thought to herself as they left the gr
eenhouses and started toward the dining hall.

  Chapter 16

  July 1st, 2045

  Pacific Ocean

  Takao climbed back up onto his floating island while holding the rope in his teeth. He braced his bare feet in the crisscrossing spider web of ropes that held his island together and pulled. Slowly the wreckage of the huge wooden dock and his island came together. Then, like the sea-spider that he envisioned himself to be, he started lashing the piece of dock to his ever growing island with a web of ropes.

  Takao had been sixteen years old when the tsunami had hit the small harbor that his family kept their fishing boat anchored in. when the tsunami caused by the brown dwarf star ravaged the Japanese coastline, Takao had been swept back out to sea clinging desperately to a giant piece of plastic coated styrofoam that he had managed to climb up on. His life boat had been a piece of the flotation material commonly used to float the docks of his village. As he was swept further and further out to sea, he had gathered other wreckage and debris and lashed it together with pieces of rope and line that he found floating in the water. By making daily notches on a piece of a wooden post that was part of his island, Takao reckoned that he had been lost out at sea for over two years.

  At first, food had not been hard to find. There had been packages of pre-processed food and water bottles floating in the debris field that he was trapped in. He found all sorts of fishing gear in the water and had collected it. There were also the rats. It seemed that many of the rats that were the unwelcome residents in most coastal villages had been washed out to sea also and had climbed up onto the debris. Takao had his first run in with them one night when he woke up to find three of them trying to eat his foot. Instead, the rats became breakfast for him. As the packaged food and bottled water became harder to find, he became more dependent on eating raw fish and the occasional sea bird he could trap. The drowned and dead human bodies that had been washed out to sea had rotted and been eaten by fish or had sunk in just a few weeks. Luckily, he had never become so hungry that he had considered that source of food. Takao had also set up a bunch of empty buckets and barrels and collected rain water to drink.

  As the months went by, he had added to his island until it had grown almost forty meters across. Takao didn’t know it, but his floating island of debris had become caught in the middle of the Pacific current vortex that had become notorious for collecting the garbage that human society dumped into the ocean. The flotsam was brought by currents and winds into the middle of the vortex. The huge tsunamis during the encounter had swept massive amounts of debris and trees out to sea and now it was Takao’s domain.

  After Takao made sure the wreckage of the dock was securely fastened to the island, he made his morning rounds. He found he had caught about a dozen small fish and one nicely sized tuna on his fishing lines. The small fish he dumped into the cage where he kept several dozen rats. He watched in amusement as the rats fought over the food. When the fish were not biting, he would claim one of the fast breeding rats for his daily meat. He took the Tuna back to his hut and gutted and filleted it. The filets and liver he would eat. The other organs and the head would make bait for his fishing lines for the next few days.

  Takao ate his breakfast of tuna, then went and cut another notch into his calendar pole. According to his pole, today was day seven hundred and two. He stood and looked out to the sea beyond the floating garbage dump that he called home. Tears moistened his eyes as he thought of his father, mother, and sister. The last he had seen of them, they were being swept down the street of his village by the wave of water. He went and lay back down in his hut for a nap. It was going to be another cloudy and humid day.

  …

  At 0900 Captain Tuller checked his vessel’s GPS position and called down to the deck on the ship’s phone. When the phone was answered he spoke. “Doctor Higgins, this is Captain Tuller, I can give you about one more day and then we have to turn back toward home. Our fuel level are getting to the point where we can’t stay out much longer if we want to make it back to San Diego.”

  Doctor Mark Higgins acknowledged the Captain and hung up the phone. He stuck his head out the door of the lab and called to the members of his research team. “The captain says we have to head home after today. We need to get the last of the water samples taken and put away. Be sure you catalogue any additional debris you bring up and add it to the database before we leave.

  The oceanographic research vessel Pitcairn V was completing a three month voyage through the Hawaiian Island chain. Over the past week, it had left the islands and steamed north to document the amount of debris that had been swept out to sea and had collected in the Eastern Pacific Vortex. The tsunamis in the Pacific basin caused by the encounter had washed millions of tons of debris and garbage out to sea and a large part of it that hadn’t sunken had been slowly collecting in the Vortex. The research team had never seen so much floating debris in their lives. They had found items from just about every country that bordered the Pacific. The researchers were recording their findings and planned on doing a documentary on both their expedition through the Hawaiian Islands as well as their trip into the vortex.

  Later that day, Captain Tuller was in the air conditioned salon trying to escape the midday humidity when his first mate called down. “Don, we have a pretty big radar contact about fourteen miles to the northwest. There’s no known shipping in the area and we aren’t showing any boat transponders. Doctor Higgins wants to check it out before we turn for home. I wanted to get your permission to change course and get a closer look. From the radar return, it appears to be some pretty big pieces of debris.”

  “Go ahead and change course, Tara. Keep your speed down and post a lookout on the bow. We don’t want to ram any flotsam that can damage the hull. I’ll be up to the pilot house in about half an hour.”

  Captain Tuller arrived on the bridge when the Pitcairn was still about a half mile from the debris. “What do you make it out to be?” he asked Tara, who was looking at the debris through a set of binoculars.

  “It’s a huge pile of debris. It almost resembles a giant raft and there appears to be a small tent on top of it,” she said.

  “Reduce speed to three knots,” Captain Tuller ordered the helmsman. “Circle around it slowly.”

  There was yelling from the deck and the forward lookout was waving his hands.

  “Oh my God, there’s someone standing and waving on top of the debris. It looks like a young boy,” Tara exclaimed suddenly. She handed the binoculars to the Captain.

  Captain Tuller looked at the figure jumping up and down and waving from the pile of debris. “Helm, all stop. Tara, put an inflatable boat in the water. Tell Doctor Higgins I want him and his cameraman to come with us. I believe that whoever that is over there is requesting our assistance.

  …

  Takao woke up from his nap. It was very stuffy and humid in his tent so he decided that he would go take a swim to cool off. There was no need to get undressed since his clothes had fallen apart years ago. He went naked most of the time except when the weather turned cooler. If it got that cold, he had some old canvas that he would wrap around himself to stay warm. Takao stood up and walked over to the side of his island. The tell-tales were down on several of his fishing lines and he pulled them in. Both lines were empty, so he left them on deck to re-bait later. He looked up at the sun and then the horizon. Takao felt himself grow faint and then dropped to his knees. There, not more than a thousand meters away, was a ship. He could make out people on the ship pointing at him. Takao managed to stand up and started yelling and waving his arms. He yelled until his throat was raw. When he saw the ship stop and lower an inflatable boat into the water from a winch, he fell down and cried uncontrollably. After two years, his ordeal was almost over.

  …

  Three weeks later, the Pitcairn was approaching the new temporary pier in San Diego harbor. The old facilities, as well as the Navy base, had been devastated by the earthquakes and the tsunamis that h
ad hit the west coast. Construction and the dredging of the shipping channel was presently underway as the country slowly re-claimed its west coast harbors.

  Even with the reconstruction in progress, the pier was packed with reporters and the curious. There was also a delegation of representatives from the Japanese embassy on hand to meet the ship. Stories of hardships and survivors from the encounter had almost died out. People had become accustomed to, and somewhat numbed, to the news of the encounter. The story of the young teenage boy however, surviving for over two years alone on a floating pile of debris in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, had made all the major news networks. Using information called in from the captain of the Pitcairn, Japanese authorities had determined that most of the boy’s immediate family had perished in the tsunami that had swept him out to sea. They had managed to find an Aunt however who was on hand to welcome her sister’s son back from the presumed dead.

  After the Pitcairn tied up, Takao hugged his rescuers and shook the hand of the ship’s captain. He was ushered into a private van and taken to the airport. Since none of the commercial transpacific airlines had resumed regular service yet, he was going to be flown home compliments of the United States Air Force.

  Chapter 17

  August 17th, 2045

  Planet Elpis

  Capsule number seven fired its retrorockets in accordance with its computer program when it was about thirteen minutes from hitting the planet’s atmosphere. The computer controlling the capsule had received its final instructions from its controllers at the Bolivian space complex several days ago. The rockets fired for about three minutes and then shut down. The dice had been rolled. If all went as planned, the capsule would soon be encountering the atmosphere of the planet Elpis.

  Approximately eleven minutes later, the capsules onboard computer sensed that the outer skin temperature of the capsule was starting to rise. Another twenty seconds went by and the capsule started shaking as it was buffeted by the rapidly thickening atmosphere. The temperature started rising quickly on the outer skin. The capsule was now cut completely off from radio contact with its controllers back on Earth as it became shrouded in a hot plasma envelope. The capsule was rapidly shedding kinetic and potential energy as a result of the atmospheric friction. That energy was being lost as heat, a very large amount of heat. If anyone had been standing on the planet Elpis, they might have seen the fireballs in the sky as the capsule and those of its sisters plummeted through the atmosphere.