Second generation, p.29
Second Generation, page 29
Hal stepped up to the lectern and engaged the vid screens that circled the chamber. He showed a split screen that compared aerial views of the Martian North Pole and the Earth South Pole, each marked up to highlight the radial tunnels and the locations of the chambers within them. The patterns looked identical. A murmur of surprise spread across the benches.
“Pictures speak louder than words,” said Hal. “You can play spot the difference between these photos if you like. Our team has been playing it for the last few months while Stef’s team flew back from Earth. There are no material differences between the two patterns of tunnels, except those caused by natural erosion over time. Both tunnel complexes were formed fifty thousand years ago.” He waited for the intake of breaths.
“We know you’ve been carbon dating the egg and the walls of the Martian tunnels,” said the elder Sofia Philippou, “what about the Earth findings?”
“We now have data from the pickaxe Mishka found,” said Hal, “and samples taken from each of the tunnel walls, kept frozen on the voyage. The results are preliminary, but they indicate the same age.”
“A coincidence?” asked Sofia.
“Humans were using stone hand axes and hunting in small family groups at that time,” said Hal. “There is no evidence of a technologically advanced human culture concurrent with the formation of the tunnels. Nor have we found any evidence of an advanced Martian culture. What we have found is a pickaxe designed to fit a hand with six digits and two sets of twelve tunnels. It was Demetria who first suggested the link between them.”
“You seem to be implying the tunnels were not formed by humans,” prompted Sofia.
“Humans commonly have a pair of hands with ten digits and we count to ten. The tunnellers may have had twelve digits and counted to twelve.”
Sofia shook her head, “But… that’s conjecture.”
“That’s the evidence we have. And it’s the only theory we have which fits the evidence.”
The next silence was broken by Jan Wojcik, “What none of you want to say aloud is that we have found our first evidence for a non-human intelligent culture. Extra-terrestrial. Aliens, if you will. It seems we find the thought threatening. Why? We found evidence for life on this planet which we thought had always been dead. Instead we find it was alive, though we missed its peak by millennia. That’s two out of eight planets we know supported life. How many other planets or moons in this solar system might have supported life or yet come to nourish it? How many solar systems are there in this galaxy, let alone the universe? The statistical chance for life in other systems is far higher than we ever dared consider. Logically the chance of intelligent life should also be higher.”
“Why is this the first time we found anything?” asked Sofia. “It’s not like humanity hasn’t been looking.”
“Don’t you see what Hal has been telling us?” asked Jan. “The greatest barrier between us and other intelligent peoples beyond distance is time. The people who dug those tunnels flourished fifty thousand years before we took our first baby steps to the Moon and Mars. The chances are they all died long ago. What is extraordinary is that we coincided at all. Just long enough for them to leave us a message.”
“A message?” asked Sofia, echoing the shock in the chamber.
“Peter had a theory that the pattern of the Martian tunnels was a message. It was Bimpe who reminded us of the Ark Three mission, the one Noah said was sent to Gliese 667. So I looked at the tunnel pattern again with Trish and Sam. Specifically at the position of the chambers and their relative distances from the pole. We believe they’re a graphic representation of the planets orbiting Gliese. Now we have two patterns on two planets, telling us the same message.”
“What? You think the tunnellers came from Gliese? But that’s over twenty-three light years away. They couldn’t possibly have travelled here.”
“Why not? Those planning the salvation of the human race sent a ship there.”
“But it will take hundreds of years, the crew would be dead.”
“If the tunnellers from Gliese had the technology to fly to our solar system, they may also have had the technology to hibernate.”
Sofia opened her mouth again to challenge the seemingly impossible challenge, then shook her head and fell silent. Leo guessed she must be grappling with the reality that none of them could guess where scientific advances would lead next. He had had his share of shocks in the bunker under the sea on Earth.
“The tunnellers left us a message to say where they came from,” said Jan. “Where to come and find them. I believe that sending Ark Three there is blind coincidence. Yet at another level it is no coincidence at all because it’s heading towards the nearest system with the highest likely number of habitable planets. Humanity is already on a journey to look for our neighbours. We only realised that after the mission was sent.”
Tithonium Central Park, Mars – Demetria Philippou
Demetria stood between her mother and father, staring at the freshly turned soil and the newly planted sapling. A pine. Taken from Earth, just like Verena whose body now lay beneath it. Nourishing its growth, just as she had nourished the growth of Tithonium City. The crowds had departed. Friends had offered their condolences. The most heart-breaking was Stef. She seemed bereft. Verena had been her close friend and she looked lost. Sam and Trish took Stef by the elbow and gently guided her away with them and Mishka. The elderly scientists seemed to enjoy their role as unofficial adopters of waifs and strays from across the solar system, making their observatory a kind of homely refuge. Now Leo had found his family again, so Sam and Trish had room for a couple more.
The Meier-Philippou family stood alone together.
A part of Demetria wanted to cry for the passing of her grandmother. She had deteriorated rapidly after the session in the Elder Chamber. Passed away within a fortnight. But another part of Demetria wanted to celebrate her life. An extraordinary life. She looked forward to the future her grandmother had helped shape.
Now she looked beside her, to her mother. Georgia looked sad yet thoughtful. At peace with the way the world was moving. On her other side stood her father, Leo. He no longer looked like a man still running to catch up. At last he seemed to have accepted all that had happened to him. Proud of the moment when Verena had invited him to join the elders as their representative on Earth. She saw Hal and Lena standing opposite. She was glad they would be coming with her back there too.
Demetria gave Leo and Georgia’s hands a squeeze, then placed them together. She slipped away, between the other trees in the park and found an apple tree to sit beneath, while staring at the night sky through the dome above.
“Hi.”
Demetria turned her head. It was Chen.
“I’m sorry about your nanna.”
“I’m not,” said Demetria. He looked surprised. “She lived to see and do so much. I hope I get to do that.”
“Sure you will,” said Chen, sitting beside her. “You’ve already done more than most of our generation. Been to another planet and back. Swum with a new species of humans. Helped discover proof of extra-terrestrial life. What next?”
Demetria’s eyes wandered from the night stars back to Chen. “Don’t know yet. But I hope I’ll do it with you.”
Epilogue
In Flight
A man is running. Running at a track that curves up in front of him. The track is looped around the inside of a cylindrical chamber, broad enough to accommodate a small forest. Either side of the track are hydroponic tanks brimming with plants. Bright artificial lights glimmer in rings held over the tanks, making the leaves shine. Bees flit from leaf to flower, humming busily as they work. One bee zigzags over the flowers then peels away, upwards. It slows as it nears the centre of the chamber, where the simulated gravity fades. It wobbles, then spirals dizzily back towards the planters near the running track below. The man stops running, puts his hand out and catches the falling bee on the palm of his hand. He lays it gently on a broad sap-green leaf and waits. The bee shakes itself, crawls to the edge of the leaf, then takes off again, in search of more flowers.
The man watches the bee go. Then he wanders to a view port in the curved wall of the chamber, peering out.
Looking down he sees the sparkle of distant light catching the solar sails that radiate from the end of the chamber. Looking up he sees the broad curved surface of the next chamber as it bulges outwards. ‘Ark Three’ stencilled in bold letters on its side. Looking beyond he sees stars.
“You have been running a long time. Time for a rest now, Adam?” asks a calm and neutral voice behind him.
The man called Adam turns away from the view port. Two figures stand side by side, watching him. One looks male, one female.
Yet neither look entirely human.
THE END
Adam’s story will be told in ‘Distant Son.’
Chris Gregory, Second Generation
