Prisoners of Crabs

 

'Mayday. Mayday. Repeat, Mayday. Our engine has been hit by a volcanic bomb and is out of service. We may have to crash-land.'

Commander Zeeshan pushed off the recording switch. He ordered the onboard computer of our Corvette, "Wait for one hour and thirty minutes and then start sending this message continuously. Attach your updated position at the end of the message. Inform us as soon as there is an answer."

There was no point in sending any message just then, but I doubted if any of us would be alive after one hour and fifteen minutes. Bhaskara, our mothership, was then on the other side of the planet. There could be no radio contact with it until it was in our line of sight. But one and a half hours for us might be the same as one and a half years. We needed to find a suitable landing spot within ten minutes; the corvette would not stay in the air any longer. To top it all, our landing gear was out of commission.

'Move away from this volcano. I cannot see anything down there. Three o'clock.' What did the Commander have in his veins? Blood or liquid nitrogen? We were facing death, yet his voice was as steady as a rock. One glance at me, and he understood my agitation. 'I repeat, three o'clock. I am surveying the land down there; you fly the corvette.'

The engine was dead. I was flying the corvette as a glider. Three o'clock, the Commander had said. I automatically replied, 'Yes, sir', and took a hard turn at ninety degrees to our right. Fortunately, the rudder was still working. I had no control over the aileron or the flaps on the wings. Close to the volcano, the air currents were crazy. I could not find a thermal to gain altitude. I had followed every safety rule in the rule book; how could I anticipate a volcanic bomb at such an altitude and with such power? It pierced a wall of the corvette and smashed the fusion bottle, our primary power source. Immediately, the engine shut down. We were running on emergency power, but it would not last long.

Only five hours ago, Captain Saunders called me to the bridge of Bhaskara. 'I am sending you on a special mission. Take the Corvette and get these two scientists to Herschel B. They want to observe a new volcano. Commander Zeeshan will captain the mission.'

Herschel has two landmasses, rather prosaically named Herschel A and B. Vast expanses of oceans separate the two continents. Herschel A had been the centre of our attention till then. Herschel B is much smaller. We had not really explored it but only photographed it from space.

‘Aye aye, sir. Will we have to land? The landing gear problem will require at least two more days.'

Saunders swung his seat to the left. 'I have already told you the situation. So it's now up to you. Will you wait? Or will you go for only an aerial view? I must warn you that I cannot guarantee immediate use of the corvette even after we solve the landing gear problem.' Then, turning back to me again, he asked, 'Do you know these two scientists?'

‘No, sir, ' I replied.

‘Arati, meet planetologist Professor Elan Parma and planetary physicist Dr Len Sian. And here is Atati, our Second Officer. She will pilot the corvette if you decide to go.'

That was my first mission beyond the solar system. Herschel is a planet orbiting Vega, twenty-five light years from the Sun. It is the only planet in the habitable zone of the system. The first spacecraft that visited Vega was the robot ship Galileo. Two Earth-years ago, the instruments aboard the robot mission detected life on Herschel. The mission of Bhaskara was to study the lifeforms of Herschel. I had been a copilot on a few trips from Bhaskara to Herschel A; this was my first chance to pilot solo on that new planet.

'Captain, Bhaskara has two corvettes. Why cannot we take the other one?' Parma asked. He was the senior of the two.

‘The other one is a frigate, not a corvette.' I had to struggle hard to avoid a smile. It was difficult to differentiate between a corvette and a frigate, even for me, let alone anybody outside the Exploration Fleet. The frigate is much larger. The corvette is just right for four people, including the pilot.

Captain Saunders continued, 'The frigate is now on a mission. It is also booked for the next three days. You know our priorities now; it will be difficult to arrange any ferry to B soon. You are getting the corvette only because the landing gear problem has ruled out its use for ferrying people and equipment to Herschel A.'

After a brief discussion between the two scientists, Parma said, "We will go now. If the corvette becomes available after repair, we will revisit the site.'

The discovery made by Bhaskara was the most significant news after the invention of Einstein's interstellar drive. Galileo's mission was to visit as many star systems as possible. It only informed us that Herschel has lifeforms. Bhaskara was the first mission to establish contact with an intelligent species. This species had been named garuda for its resemblance to the famous hero of Indian mythology.

Garudas resemble human beings to some extent. They walk on two legs and have two hand-like appendages. But the likeness stops there; nobody will ever mistake a garuda for a man. They are taller than men, and their hands are more like the tentacles of an octopus. The face resembles a falcon, hence the name Herschel garuda, garuda for short. They also have long tails. Technologically, they are at the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age stage. Nothing like a structured language has evolved yet. Our scientists observed a group from far away before revealing themselves. Naturally, the garudas were terrified at first. The fear subsided once they found that we did not mean them any harm. They then became more or less indifferent to us. Our top priority was to study garudas, but scientists other than biologists, anthropologists, or linguists felt left out. That was why these two scientists wanted to study the volcano on Herschel B. That such a routine mission could bring disaster never entered my mind.

We had left the volcano far behind and were beyond the reach of ash or smoke. But we were flying so low that I feared hitting a tree. I glanced at Commander Zeeshan, glued to the view screen. We needed an area devoid of trees and as level as possible; only then could I try to coax the faulty landing gear to perform a miracle. The forest had no thermal updraft; we would have to get down within the next five minutes.

'Eleven o'clock. There is a gap in the canopy,' Commander Zeeshan suddenly said. I did not have any time to study the view screen.; I just turned the corvette thirty degrees to the left. For a few seconds, it stopped descending and stabilised. I looked up through the front window of the cockpit. Luck had not entirely deserted us; a small lake was in front.

The Commander inquired, ‘Can you do it?’

“I have to; there is no other option." I did not trust my voice in this emergency and started typing instructions on the keyboard.

The Commander activated the intercom. "We are landing on a lake. Arati has activated the rash cocoons for water landing. Do not leave your seats." The steel in his voice calmed me.

I cannot describe what happened in the next thirty seconds. Once the corvette was on the water, I activated the landing sequence. Immediately, the emergency cocoon surrounded me, completely cutting off any view of the world. There was a huge bump, the unmistakable sound of water rushing across, and then the corvette tilted with the nose going up. We were sinking in the lake; was this the last moment of my life?

A few seconds later, the corvette stabilised and came to a rest. I could feel the slow swaying motion of a boat on the water. We were alive but for how long?

After a few seconds, the emergency cocoon opened automatically; it had done its job. Only a flotation belt remained around my waist. The Commander announced on the intercom, "Any damage?"

‘We are unharmed.’ Parma’s voice came over the speaker.

‘Please wait a few minutes.' Commander Zeeshan started looking at the diagnostics of the corvette on his screen. 'We have to physically look out and see what is outside using our eyes. All the external cameras are gone. We all owe our lives to Second Officer Arati. I would not have believed that such a flight without an engine is possible.'

The Commander extended his right hand towards me. “Thank you, Arati.”

Did I deserve his praise? I had no time to think, only doing what seemed necessary. It was the attitude of the Commander that had calmed me. The Commander was surely aware of the truth, yet he was waiting with his hand outstretched, though with a knowing smile on his lips. I mechanically shook his hand. 'Thank you, sir.'

'Everyone treats an emergency in their own way. There is no shame in being afraid; that is a natural reaction. The point is you did not panic and saved us all,' the Commander softly murmured before releasing my hand.

He became all business again. "The fusion bottle cannot be repaired outside the workshop of Bhaskara, and we do not have a spare, so flying is out of question. The radio antenna is severely damaged. That has to be repaired; otherwise, we cannot send a signal, and nobody will find us. So at least one of us has to go out. The outer door is above the water; I am going to open it.'

A few things on Herschel favour men of Earth. The gravity is nearly earth-like, and we can breathe its air. The air pressure at ground level was roughly equal to the cabin pressure, so one could open the inner and outer doors of the airlock at the same time.

The Commander opened the airlock, and a gust of cold air rushed in. Only then did I notice the inside of the cabin to be almost unbearably warm. Studying the scenery outside, the Commander said, 'It is less than fifty metres to the shoreline. The task will be easier if we can take the corvette close to the firm ground.

‘But, how do we reach there, sir? Should I use our emergency power and rig something like a paddle? I am sure I can manage something.'

The Commander attached a grappler to his belt. It had a long, lightweight rope with the other end connected to a winch.'That will not be necessary. Let us save our power for a real emergency.' I wondered what would constitute a real emergency in his dictionary. 'I will swim to the shore and attach the grappler to a suitable rock. You then manually turn the winch to take the corvette to the shore.'

‘But Sir, there may be dangerous animals in the water.’ Herschel has its quota of such lifeforms.

‘You are there for that. I know about your proficiency with a projectile gun or a laser pulse rifle.' For once, the praise did not make me happy, but you cannot argue with your Commander for long. Fortunately, my marksmanship was not needed. Commander reached the shore safely, and soon, we all stood on dry land.

The two scientists had been very impatient; they immediately climbed out once the Commander gave the permission. They had been eager to touch down on Herschel B, and now they had the opportunity, though I was not sure about our return to Bhaskara. They immediately started to discuss the formation of the lake, the rockforms around us and the distant volcano, all of which were Greek to me. Of course, I did not have time to listen to them for long. I started assisting the Commander to replace the main antenna. Usually, the repairs to the corvette are done in space under weightless conditions; it is difficult to carry out them in the presence of gravity. After I looked up after finishing my part, it was already afternoon. Surely, Bhaskara was looking for us by that time.

'Have you noticed that there is hardly any animal nearby? We can see a few, that too at a distance.' Parma said.

‘The crash must have scared the animals away,’ I replied.

'Maybe, but none have returned even after so long.'

The Commander was still working on the repairs. After about ten minutes, he suddenly spoke up. 'Here is our invitation committee.'

We followed his eyes to see a group of animals at the edge of the forest three hundred metres away. I picked up my binoculars. 'Very strange looking beasts. Looks like giant crabs, as big as a midsize dog. Appears to have a hard shell.'

Sian was also observing the animals. 'Okay, let us call them crabs for now. They resemble no known animal on Herschel A; does not appear to have a bony skeleton. Perhaps the two continents separated billions of years ago or were never together. Evolution has followed completely different paths on the two continents.'

‘You mean that these big animals do not have backbones.’

'We are yet to find any example of spine on Herschel A. Bones, yes. Spine, no. These here appear to have a very thick exoskeleton, possibly they do not require bones.'

A few crabs were adventurous; they ventured towards us. Suddenly, the green light on my belt radio lit up. The radio was short range, surely one of the other three had switched on his radio by mistake. But others were also looking at their radios. Where was the signal coming from? Had Bhaskara signalled to us? Even if it had, we could not answer as our range was at best two kilometres. It definitely did not reach beyond the atmosphere. Was the frigate nearby then? These thoughts raced through my mind as I switched the radio on. There was no sound except for a continuous humming; as if a few crickets were calling together but at different pitches and with modulation. I switched on the direction finder, the arrow was pointing straight towards the crabs. That meant the forest beyond was the source of the radio signal, I thought.

‘Commander, we should find where the signal is coming from. Surely, radio has not been developed on Herschel. Is there some other expedition like us? From some other star?' Sian voiced what we all must have been thinking.

Commander Zeeshan was silent for a minute. 'I cannot leave the corvette, in case we have contact with Bhaskara. Mission protocol demands that nobody is ever alone. If you want to explore, one of you two scientists has to stay with me, and Arati will accompany the other. Report every five minutes. Never go beyond radio contact, even if that means you do not find the origin of the signal. We can always come again.'

Not only intelligent but technologically developed beings! Maybe they are more advanced than us. If that is true, the news about garudas will pale in comparison. These were my thoughts as I handed a laser pistol to Sian, the younger of the two who had elected himself to look for the source of the signal. He reluctantly took the sidearm. For myself, I picked a projectile rifle, its explosive bullet capable of stopping an elephant.

Parma said, 'Remember, take nothing for granted.' I must have looked baffled because he went on to add, 'Maybe the radio signal is from some exploration team, but there may be other explanations.'

As soon as we started toward the crabs, they retreated and took refuge behind the trees. We also entered the forest. Almost immediately, the dense wood hid the corvette. The signal was still there, but the direction finder started to behave erratically, jumping one way or another.

‘Sian, there must be more than one radio. But where are they?’ I spoke aloud.

 

A few minutes later, we reached a small clearing in the forest. We contacted the Commander once and reported that we had not yet found anything.

I glanced at the direction finder; it appeared to show that we were surrounded by several radio sources, yet nothing could be seen. Unconsciously, I stepped towards Sian. Suddenly, something came alive under my foot. I lost my footing and collided with Sian. A yank, and then we were hanging in a net from the treetop. Sian was behind me. The net had some adhesive pasted on it, which made moving our limbs very difficult.

'Dr. Sian, what happened?' my voice shook.

‘We have triggered a trap. There was a net hidden on the ground. As soon as we two stood on it, somebody pulled it up with us trapped like flies in a spider’s web. We are at least fifteen metres above the ground. We have to contact the Commander. I cannot move my hands. Can you reach your radio?’ Sian sounds remarkably composed.

‘I had it in my hand, must have dropped it. I can move my left hand. The rifle is on my right shoulder. Shall I try to get it?’

‘Rifle will not get us out of this predicament. See if you can reach my belt radio.’

I tried. ‘No. I can touch your laser pistol. Shall I try to use it to cut the net? Though I cannot see anything.’

‘Let us keep that as the last resort. Falling from this height may also be fatal. Let me try to bend so that you can reach the radio. Press the emergency button if you get to it.’

We keep trying. Meanwhile, I asked, ‘Where are the garudas? I do not see any.’

‘How can garudas reach this continent? It is too far away.'

‘Then have we been trapped by some advanced civilisation?'

‘Unlikely. No star-faring civilisation will use such a primitive trap.'

‘If not garudas or ETs, then who have captured us?’ I asked. ‘Some intelligent species on Herschel must have invented radios. Where are they?’

‘No. We would surely have found evidence of such an advanced technology if it was there.’

‘I do not understand.’

‘Our jailers have arrived. Look below.’

I bent my body to look at the ground. I had called them crabs. From nearby, they appeared to be closer to terrestrial octopus, but with hard shells. Two antenna-like structures were sticking straight out of a nearly spherical body. Instead of the eight arms of an octopus, they had seven long appendages with flattened ends. Four of them supported their bodies and one became a tail. Two others had branched out at the ends to produce fingers capable of gripping objects. And the nearest animals were gripping…'

‘Sian,’ I croaked in abject terror.

‘I also see them. They must use those spears to kill big animals in their traps. They are much more advanced than garudas, who are yet to reach the levels of rope weaving or spear making. Can you fire your rifle? The sound may scare them off.’

‘The rifle has a built-in silencer.’ I glanced down. Some of the animals have started climbing the trees to reach us.

‘Okay, then.' Sian sounded remarkably steady. 'I am bending my body. See if you can reach the emergency button on the radio.'

'But by the time the Commander reaches us, we will be dead.'

‘No time to explain. Just try it.’

Death staring at my face must have released more adrenaline in my bloodstream. Somehow, I reached the radio on Sian's belt and pressed the button.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose. The crabs climbing the trees fell down. All the crabs started twitching as if hit by shock and then ran away. Some threw their spears at us before fleeing, but none reached us.

Sian breathed a sigh of relief. ‘We live for another day. They will not bother us before Commander Zeeshan finds us.’

‘But what happened?’ I was bewildered. ‘Why did the animals flee?’

'Our eyes have evolved for the best use of the light of our Sun. Some lifeforms on Earth also produce their own light. Vega is a source of radio waves as well as light. So some animals here have evolved to detect those radio waves, as well as produce them. These crabs are examples of such creatures. That is why when they surrounded us, the radio signals appeared to come from all sides. Most probably, they also talk using these waves because the modulation of the signals appeared to contain a significant amount of information. Some animals can create electricity on Earth; evolution has proceeded one step further of Herschel and produced radio signalling capabilities.'

He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, and I asked, "But why did they take flight?"

'When you press the emergency button, the radio emits a powerful signal over a wide frequency band. Animals are usually frightened by any sudden loud noise or light. A similar thing happened here. The radio signal was perhaps the most intense that the crabs have ever felt; the natural tendency was to take flight.'

Sian mused, "We need a better name for this lifeform; I doubt we should call them crabs any longer. We have to try to contact them. Who would have thought that a single planet could evolve two completely different types of intelligent beings? I wonder what will happen when they finally meet.'

The Commander and Professor Parma appeared and rescued us in a few minutes. Contact had been established with Bhaskara, and a spare fusion bottle was being sent to us.

Very soon, half the scientists converged on Herschel B, and I had the duty to ferry them once the corvette's landing gear was repaired. The crab-like beings were named karkinos, the name of a giant crab of Greek mythology, plural karkinoi. They are in the neolithic stage, more advanced than the garudas. Sian was proved to be right about their capabilities; contact was established through radio. Anthropologists were fascinated by their oral history. I am not qualified to speak on it and would mention only one thing. The karkinoi have an excellent species memory and remember the history of thousands of years through their stories and songs. They told us that we were not the first visitors from the sky to their world. Thousands of years ago, gods had descended from the heavens to appear before their ancestors. They were very powerful; they could fly in the sky, live underwater, call lightning from the sky, cure diseases, and even resurrect the dead. Their abode was a bright star, which they identified for us. It was Sirius, the brightest star in the sky of our Earth, only eight and a half light years from the Sun.

Jurassic Planet

Planetary Survey Mission: Logbook of Captain Stepina

We surveyed the Tau Ceti system immediately after coming out of the wormhole jump. The system contains five gas giants and three terrestrial planets. The second planet from the star was named Odin after a spectroscopic analysis of its atmosphere indicated free oxygen. This was later confirmed by sampling the atmosphere through probes. This fact suggests that the planet contains life. As per the mission directive, the mothership Uddalaka has been stationed in an orbit one hundred thousand kilometres above the planet's surface.

* * *

Captain Stepina tore her eyes off the viewscreen. The planet down there is partly green. There are a few deserts, while both the poles are white. One may be excused for mistaking it for the Earth. The continents have completely different shapes from those back on Earth. There are two large continents and a few archipelagos. The two continents had been designated Odin-alpha and Odin-beta. The planet is slightly smaller than the Earth and has a smaller mass. A day is about thirteen Earth hours long.

'Radio,' Stepina called out.

Radio operator Mural swivelled his seat in her direction and removed the ever-present headphones from his head. Stepina hid a smile. Computers could accurately analyse the radio signals faster than any human, yet all the radio operators she had known always put on their headphones as soon as they took their seats. She suspected that Murali listened to music through his headphones; she had seen him beat time with his fingers. Nevertheless, Murali is an excellent officer; he does not make mistakes.

'The electromagnetic signal has only white noise traced from Ceti-4 and 5.' Ceti-4 was a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter. Cet-5 is comparable to Uranus.

‘Second,’ Stepina continued to call out for reports.

Commander Marik is deputy to Stepina. He was watching the radar screen. 'Clear. No artificial satellite or space station.' Odin does not have a moon.

‘Doctor NBoa.’

Exobiologist NBoa is the Principal Scientist of the Survey Mission. He was glued to the viewscreen in front of him. At that moment, Uddalaka's main telescope was under his control. 'No sign of any advanced civilisation. No sign of any city. This means that even if intelligence exists, it will at most be at the level of the Paleolithic. No more information can be gleaned from this distance.'

‘Is there life?’

'Sure. The spectrum of the green colour exactly matches that of chlorophyll. If it is like the Earth, I would expect both plants and animals. But Captain, as I keep saying, we must keep an open mind.'

‘My mind is open enough.’

NBoa did not miss the coldness in Stepina's voice. 'Sorry, I should have phrased it differently. The first lesson in exobiology that we teach our students is that the rules that apply to the Earth biosphere may not apply elsewhere. Maybe we will not be able to tell the multicellular plants and animals apart on Odin.'

'Am I your student?' Stepinat thought but only said, 'Recommendation.'

'Let us go down to five thousand kilometres above the planet.'

Stepina grinned inwardly. This is the problem with scientists. Mission directive clearly stated how close to a planet's surface the mothership could be taken, but Nboa was obviously too eager. 'Marik.'

'I also recommend getting closer to the planet. But the directive clearly states that the mothership must never be closer than ten thousand kilometres to any planet.' Marik immediately declared.

'But Captain, the directive was made considering possible dangers. Clearly, Odin does not pose any danger to Uddalaka.' Nboa's objection was expected.

'Your opinion is recorded. Astrogator. Take us ten thousand kilometres above the planet down there. Astrogator Pen Lee ordered the computer in front of her. Nboa was clearly unhappy but raised no further objection.

* * *

Planetary Survey Mission: Logbook of Captain Stepina

Odin was observed from an orbit ten thousand kilometres above Odin for forty-eight hours. As per the Mission directive, the unmanned Lander Sanjay was lowered to the surface. All protocols were observed to avoid contamination by terrestrial microbes or viruses. Odin-alpha was chosen for the first landing.

* * *

All eyes on Uddalaka were on the view screens where the feeds from Sanjay's cameras had been projected. It was clear that large animal-like life forms existed on Odin-Alpha, but pictures were yet to be seen. Sanjay has been lowered during nighttime so as not to alarm the local fauna. Radar-assisted landing in an unknown terrain is always tricky, so infrared light was used. Since Tau Ceti is hotter than the Sun, its light is more white. The possibility that the eyes of the animals were sensitive to infrared was considered remote. Sanjay has been placed near a lake, presuming that animals will come for water at dawn.

Feeds from the cameras were placed on different parts of the viewscreen. As morning broke, suddenly, somebody exclaimed, 'Look, there at the upper right corner.'

There was movement in the forest. The trees parted, and an animal stepped out.

Everybody was speechless for a few moments. Stepina broke the silence to command. ‘Zoom in on that.’

The technician zoomed in on the frame; the picture occupied the entire screen.

‘Impossible,’ Nboa shouted. ‘It matches exactly.’

'Impossible! What is impossible?' Sitara, the youngest among the crew members, asked.

'It's a dinosaur. Stegosaurus, to be exact. How can it be here?'

'If it evolved on Earth, then why not on Odin?'

'A lesson is repeatedly stressed in exobiology. There are so many possibilities for evolution that the same lifeform can never be created in different pathways. They may be similar but never identical. Take sharks and whales; they have the same shape because that is useful to minimise the drag of water. But one would never confuse the two. But this animal is exactly like the form of stegosaurus we recreated from the fossils." It appeared that Nboa was not explaining to Sitara but was reminding himself of a lesson he had learnt in the class.

The surprise did not end with the stegosaurus. Almost all the animals that came to the lake had their exact counterparts in the Jurassic age. Somebody had the presence of mind to compare the pictures with the ones in an encyclopedia from Uddalaka's memory. As soon as a particular animal appeared, its name was splashed on the screen. Nboa's temper continued to rise. Finally, when a group of allosaurus attacked a brachiosaurus, he gave up.

'You tell me, how can two different planets in two different stellar systems produce the same lifeform. And not one or two. It seems we are watching a documentary on the Jurassic Age.' Nboa was discussing with the Mission Geneticist, Dr. Hammerschmidt.

'Calm down. Surely, there is some explanation. We need more data.'

'Yes, data. We need tissue samples. There must be something like a cell; we must know its structure. We had been thinking whether life is possible without DNA, and we find ourselves in the Jurassic age as if we have entered a time machine and landed on ancient Earth.'

'Well, our Sun was never like that star over there, and the planets also are completely different. That rules out the time machine hypothesis,' Hammerschmidt replied dryly.

'I know, I know. But I would rather believe in a time machine than disbelieve the fundamental tenet of exobiology. Who would have thought that the service of a palaeontologist would be required in a mission to an exoplanet?'

Sanjay's robot arms had collected plant samples, but there was no provision for microscopic examination of their structures from the mothership. The original idea was to bring Sanjay back after two Odis days, but Nboa insisted on an early return. It was impossible at that instant because Uddalaka was on the other side of the planet, and no communication was possible. It would again come in sight after half an hour.

All the equipment on Uddalaka was busy collecting information. Stepina was keeping an eye on everything. After half an hour, she found Murali frowning as he instructed the computer.

‘Any problem?’

‘I am not sure. I cannot raise Sanjay.’ Murali replied.

‘Maybe some animal has damaged it.’

‘Yes, that’s possible. All the electronics on Sanajay are rugged and solid state, but…’

‘ … it was not meant to withstand the weight of a brontosaurus.’ Stepina finished for him.

* * *

Planetary Survey Mission: Logbook of Captain Stepina

Commander Marik, Cadets Smith, Cyrus, and Zoologist Doctor Sayani landed on Odin using the Armstrong Lander. Their primary aim was to collect samples of plants and small animals. The secondary aim was to investigate Sanjay's circuits. Doctor Nboa wanted to be a member of the landing party, but the Mission directive had no such option. The party was led by Commander Marik.

* * *

Marik gripped the airlock handle with his right hand. His left hand held a stunner pistol. Doctor Sayani had not agreed to carry any weapon. Marik privately doubted if his stunner would be helpful against allosaurus or the even bigger torvosaurus. He would be accompanied by Sayani; of the four, only Sayani had experience of exploring an actual forest. Volunteering for the landing mission, she had said, 'Surely the Space Navy conducts a jungle survival course. I have followed Royal Bengal Tigers in the Sundarbans and gorillas in Rwanda.' They would be covered by a laser cannon from Armstrong by Smith and Cyrus.

Armstrong had landed one hour back, but various checks had to be performed before the explorers were allowed to get out of Armstrong. Permission came only after all systems showed green.

Air pressure equalised, and the airlock doors opened. Marik became the first human to step on a planet beyond the solar system. He was followed by Sayani. Marik reported to Uddalaka via radio. Sayani was busy collecting the leaves of various plants. She caught a butterfly with a net and put it in a special container.

The two walked carefully to Sanjay, which was just fifty metres away. From the outside, it seemed undamaged; at least it had not been trampled by dinosaurs. Marik started checking the circuits while talking to Chief Engineer Esteel.

'Was it struck by lightning? All circuits are completely burnt. How can the core memory be damaged like this? It was isolated.' Marik was surprised, to say the least. 'Full engineering overhaul will be required before it can be lifted. Captain, my recommendation is to leave it as it is.'

‘Recommendation recorded.’ Stepina said over the radio.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake. Marik raised his eyes from the circuits. A giant had come out of the forest and was coming to the lake. 'Supersauras,' Nboa said over the radio. 'I had no idea that it could grow to such size. Don't be afraid, it is herbivorous.'

'Maybe,' Marik muttered. 'But we are history if it steps on us even by accident. That brute must weigh fifty tonnes at least.'

From the snout to the tip of the tail, it was definitely 40 metres. Each of the neck and the tail were ten metres long. Each step was causing a mini earthquake. It looked at Sayani and Marik without any curiosity. The eyes showed no sign of intelligence behind them. It slowly proceeded to the lake and lowered its

Marik said, ‘We have travelled 12 light years, and it simply does not care. Should we be glad or feel insulted?’

Sayani said, 'It is difficult to evolve intelligence among herbivores. Their foods are not in the habit of running away, so they do not have to design complex strategies for trapping them. And an animal of this size has few predators, so it does not need to run away. Would you be happy a cow embraces you as a distant brother?'

The supersaurus slowly retraced its path. Sayani was looking at it when Marik urgently nudged her. An allosaurus must have followed the giant reptile; it had found easier prey in the two humans and was coming towards them. The bulky spacesuit made running impossible; anyway, it would not have helped them. It was not a particularly large specimen, maybe five metres tall, but enough to kill two puny humans. Marik hit it with the stunner to no effect; perhaps its one-tonne bulk did not even feel the thrust of the supersonic wave.

'Cyrus, target the smaller lizard. Low-intensity burn. If that does not bother it, kill it.' Marik said on the radio.

'Commander, what do you want us to hit?' Cyrus was clearly nervous. 'We cannot see anything beyond this giant.' The supersaurus had come between Armstrong and the explorers.

Marik hesitated for an instant. 'Hit the big one with the cannon on the body. I repeat, the body, not the head.' Simultaneously, he pulled Sayani behind a thick tree trunk. Then suddenly, all hell broke loose. The laser cannon had perhaps only scalded the supersaurus, but it was startled to activity. The ten-metre-long tail whiplashed around and hit the allosaurus to throw it at least thirty metres away. The thick trunk saved Sayani and Marik.

The supersaurus ultimately entered the forest. Sayani and Marik exchanged glances and proceeded to where the allosaurus thrashed around. It had not died yet but was unlikely to survive; the unnatural angle of its neck meant its backbone was broken. Sayani took out her scalpel, but Marik restrained her. 'Not yet. A little scratch from its nails may damage your spacesuit and hurt you. Let Cyrus finish it with the laser cannon.

‘Tell him not to damage its head, I want to study its brain.’

* * *

Planetary Survey Mission: Logbook of Captain Stepina

It was decided that the mission's priority was to gather more data on the dinosaurs of Odin. Chief Engineer Esteel made a few lightweight, high-calibre projectile weapons, which he called rifles. Four laser cannons were mounted on drones. For safety, the strength of the landing party was increased to seven.

* * *

Odin-beta was smaller than Odin-alpha. The two continents were separated by eleven thousand kilometres. This time, Armstrong landed in the morning. The sound of the landing had driven all the big animals away from the area. Keeping two crew on guard duty, a party started out from Armstrong. Besides Marik, Sayani and Cyrus, the party included Doctor Hammerschmidt and Sitara. Everybody was carrying a weapon; even Sayani had a laser rifle.

Marik addressed Hammerschmdt the local radio, ‘It seems to me that we are trespassing in a safari park. I know it’s a stupid idea, but that’s what I feel.’

Hammerschmidt didn’t smile. ‘Or a zoo. Or someone’s personal hunting ground stuffed with dinosaurs from the old Earth.’

‘But who could have done it? And where are they?’ Sitara asked in wonder.

'I do not know. But the more important question to me is why evolution has stalled here. How can the dinosaurs have not changed in all these millions of years? I need to look closely at the cell structure once we return.'

Marik mused that the scientist was more concerned with evolution than meeting really advanced beings.

Sitara asked, ‘What do we do now? I missed the briefing.’

Hammerschmid said, ‘We are here to steal eggs.’

Sitara exclaimed, 'Oh no. I was brought up on a farm. I tried to steal an egg from a hen. The scar of the peck it gave me took years to disappear. Besides, I have also seen a movie; it was ancient, not even tri-v. Its name was Jurassic Place or something. In it, a tyrannosaurs raised Cain when its baby was stolen.'

Hammerschmidt laughed, 'That is fiction. We do not know whether dinosaurs sat on eggs. Crocodiles and tortoises do not. Besides, we are carrying such an arsenal that we do not need to fear even a torvosaurus.' He patted the projectile on his shoulder. 'I once saw a weapon like this in a museum. It was called an assault rifle and carried explosive bullets. Although this particular weapon carries tranquilisers. The quick-working tranquiliser will put a medium-sized dinosaur to sleep within a few seconds.'

Cyrus has been silent. He now voiced a question which was troubling him. ‘We have the firepower to kill any animal here. Why take so much trouble to steal eggs?’

Hammerschmidt said, ‘Better be safe than sorry.’

‘What do you mean? ’ Pointing to the drone bearing a laser cannon above them, Cyrus asked, ‘What do we have to fear on this planet?’

'So far, we have seen, you appear to be right. But how much of the planet have we seen? If we spend a few hours in the middle of the Sahara or Antarctica, can we claim that we have learnt everything important about Earth? Remember, some beings had the technology to keep the animals unchanged for aeons. We have no idea what heights they have reached after millions of years. We will not find them if they still exist here but do not want to reveal themselves. It is always polite not to kill somebody's pets in their house unless you are forced to.'

Sitara asked, 'Eggs of dinosaurs must be very heavy; would we be able to lift them?

'The drone is here if necessary, but I do not think we will need it. From the study of bird eggs, we have seen that a hundredfold increase in an adult's body mass means that the egg's weight increases by a factor of twenty. The egg of a medium-sized animal, say one tonne, should be manageable and around five to seven kilogrammes. Have no fear; we will target a small herbivore.'

The exploring party skirted the forest and proceeded silently. The dense forest was out of bounds; the flying drone would not be able to easily navigate the trees. Besides, danger might strike unseen. Fortunately, they encountered no dangerous animal. A few large dinosaurs were seen at a distance, but there was no sign of eggs.

After about a kilometre and a half, Sayani raised his hand and said, 'Stop.' Her helmet cameras zoomed in on a bush about fifty metres away.

'Sitara whispered, 'This is your idea of small? A single egg of this animal would be sufficient for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all of us.'

The bush was not very dense, so one could see the animal inside. It was taller than an elephant, and its long neck, resembling a giraffe, came above the bush.

Sayani said, 'We do not know how far we will have to travel for a smaller specimen. The tranquilisation should be sufficient for it. Sitara, there is no need to whisper; our voice is not carried outside our suit. Doctor Hammerschmidt, at least some dinosaurs sat on eggs.'

Truly, there were eggs under the animal. ‘Probably Europasaurus. Herbivore, no doubt,’ Nboa, who was following the progress from the ship, supplied.

Hammerschmidt said, 'It's better to bring it outside. Otherwise, if it convulses upon receiving the tranquilliser, the eggs might get damaged.'

Marik advanced a few steps. Switching on the external speaker of the suit, he started to make loud noises. When that did not elicit any response, he started to pelt stones. The dinosaur was puzzled by the sudden intrusion. Finally, it came out of the bush to drive away the pestering creature. Hammerschmidt raised his weapon. A loud sound and the reptile was on the ground. Within a few seconds, it lay inert.

'Five minutes, tops. After that, it will wake up,' Hammerschmidt said.

Everyone went to their assigned tasks. Sayani took tissue samples from various parts of the animal. Cyrus picked up three eggs and put them in his backpack; it was not possible to carry more. By the time they had gone one hundred metres, the animal stood up and tottered to the bush.

Sayani told Hammerschmidt, ' We are yet to find a male dinosaur.'

'Yes, all are females. That strengthens our suspicion.'

Sitara asked in wonder, 'Then how are baby dinosaurs born?'

‘There are reptiles and insects back on Earth that do not require father to procreate. This is called parthenogenesis,’ Hammerschmidt said.

‘What are you suspecting?’ Sitara was insistent.

‘We need to know more about the cells here. I do not want to comment prematurely.’

The party was talking among themselves. Suddenly, Sitara shouted, 'Look above.'

She had not remembered that she was shouting on the suit radio. Others were startled at the loud sound but could not understand what was said. They halted and looked around to find Sitara pointing her weapon upward. A flying creature had attached the drone, taking it for a live animal. Since it had dived from above, the drone camera had missed it. The wingspan of the animal was at least ten metres. Another similar creature was circling above.

‘Pterosaur,’ Sayani said.

'Flying dinosaurs,' Cyrus said, also pointing his rifle upward. However, none would fire without an order from Marik.

‘Pterosaurs are reptiles, but not dinosaurs,’ came the voice of Nboa.

‘Later, later.’ Marik interrupted the scientist. ‘Let us take care of these two first.’

The drone was dangerously swaying. The laser cannon could not be fired for fear of inadvertently hitting somebody. It ultimately crashed, but the pterosaur's thin wings were also torn by its propellers. It righted itself but could not fly anymore. In spite of its huge wingspan, it was only as large as a German shepherd. It opened its maw towards the exploring party to reveal two sets of sharp, pointed teeth.

Everybody was staring transfixed; suddenly, Marik shouted, 'Down.' He grabbed Sayani and Sitara and dove to the ground. Cyrus also pulled Hammerschmidt and covered him with his body. An instant later, the other pterosaur flew through the area where they were standing. If Marik had not noticed its approach, somebody would surely have been mauled by then.

The pterosaur started to dive again, but this time, Marik was prepared. He was up on his knees, dropping the rifle, bringing out the stunner, and aiming it in one fluid motion. He waited until the pterosaur was only five metres away before pulling the trigger. The creature was violently thrown away. It was clear that one of its wings had suffered a sprain.

Everybody stood up. Sayani approached the first pterosaur, which bared its fangs at her.

‘It will no longer be able to fly. May we take it alive with us for study?’

Permission came easily from the Mission. Nboa was ecstatic; because of the Mission directive he had not been able to study a live specimen. He immediately started making an enclosure for it. But taking it to Armstrong was not a simple task. First, it had to be tranquilised. Lightweight ropes from Armstrong were used to tie it to a makeshift platform. It took four members of the team to haul the pterosaur and the damaged drone aboard the lander.

Sitara finally exhaled and said, 'Now tell me why this thing is not a dinosaur."

* * *

Planetary Survey Mission: Scientific report

The cellular structure of the dinosaurs and similar reptiles resembles that on Earth, with a few crucial differences. These animals are borne through parthenogenesis. Life is DNA-based, but the DNA repair method is very powerful. There are two nuclei in a cell, each carrying two copies of the same chromosome. One does not aid in protein synthesis but acts as a template for the repair mechanism. This reduces the possibility of error in copying genetic material by at least three orders of magnitude. For these reasons, the mutation rate is extremely small, and the process of evolution has become extremely slow. The genetic analysis makes it clear that the origin of the dinosaur cell is from Earth, but it has undergone massive bio-engineering to reach this form. There is no resemblance between the cells of these dinosaur-like reptiles and plants, insects or other organisms on Odin.

* * *

The mission is over, and Uddalaka is on its way back. Almost everybody who could have assembled in the control room.

Nboa looked at the eager faces around him and said, 'Let me summarise what we have known and inferred. First, the ancestors of these dinosaurs definitely came from the Earth one twenty to one forty million years ago. These cells have been engineered to stop evolution, keeping the animals exactly as they were then. We have found no evidence for the creatures that created these new lifeforms on Odin or elsewhere in the Tau Ceti system, so we think they came from some other star.'

‘Where are they now? Where did they come from?' Sitara voiced the question that was at the top of everyone's mind.

'One twenty million years is a very long time. Maybe they have gone extinct. Maybe they no longer liked this planet and left. Maybe they are nearby and watching us, but their technology is so advanced that we cannot locate them. Remember, we do not know how the core memory of Sanjoy was burnt.'

‘So, have we achieved anything from this mission?' Marik asked.

'We had come seeking answers to a few questions. We have got some answers but have come across many more questions. Surely, the next mission would seek the beings that visited the Earth one twenty or so million years ago. All these lie in the future. One single piece of knowledge gathered by our expedition justifies all our efforts and expenditures.'

Nboa was silent momentarily and then said, 'Cell repair mechanisms sometimes make mistakes. With time, these errors tend to accumulate. That is why we age and finally die. The dinosaurs on Odin can die by accident or fall victim to predators, but they do not grow old. If we can master this gene repair mechanism, human beings will never age.' He stopped again and added almost inaudibly, 'I do not know whether that will be good or bad.' 

Gautam Gangopadhyay

Nobel Prize in Physics: A Right Recipient but a Wrong Citation

In 1938, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to a scientist "for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons". The scientist was Enrico Fermi, and the citation was partly wrong by implication. What makes the story even more fascinating is that Fermi and the world knew it was almost certainly wrong by the time he went to collect the Prize in Stockholm.

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)

Enrico Fermi was an Italian scientist who was working with neutrons. In 1934, he was bombarding uranium with slow neutrons, a process he had earlier found highly effective in inducing nuclear reactions. In a sudden burst of intuition, he had used paraffin to slow down the neutrons and found that the probability of reaction, cross-section in the jargon of physics, goes up enormously. He decided to bombard the heaviest element known to man at that time, uranium, with the slow neutrons produced in his laboratory.

What did he expect? The Curies, Irene Curie, daughter of the celebrated Pierre and Marie, and her husband, Frederic Joliot-Curie, had already demonstrated artificial radioactivity by bombarding aluminium with alpha particles. What emerged from their experiments was a radioactive isotope of phosphorus. This feat would earn the duo the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Isotopes of an element have different neutron numbers but the same proton number. For example, the phosphorus isotope commonly found in nature has 15 protons and 16 neutrons and does not exhibit radioactivity. Irene and Frederick created a new isotope of phosphorus with 15 protons and 15 neutrons.

Fermi knew that alpha particles are positively charged and are repelled by the positively charged nucleus of the atom. Hence, it isn't easy to cause nuclear reactions with them. The alpha particles have to have sufficient energy to overcome the Coulomb force between themselves and the nucleus. Neutrons are uncharged and can therefore easily enter the nucleus to initiate nuclear reactions. He expected that the neutrons would enter the uranium nucleus and be absorbed, creating a new isotope of uranium. The newly created nucleus would then undergo beta decay, a process in which it emits an electron (and an antineutrino). We know that there is no electron in the nucleus, so where does the electron come from in the beta decay? The electron is created in the nucleus by the break-up of a neutron into a proton, an electron and an antineutrino. Uranium has 92 protons. The new nucleus after beta decay would then have 93 protons, a new element not available on Earth. That was Fermi’s reasoning.

How would we know that a new element has been created? After all, one cannot see the nucleus or the atom. The trick was to chemically separate the newly created elements from the sample that had been bombarded with neutrons. Chemical properties are determined by the number of protons, and hence, isotopes of an element show the same chemical properties. Fermi argued that if some new properties are manifested, they must come from an element other than uranium.

Of course, the observed new chemical properties may correspond to some element created by neutrons knocking off protons or alpha particles. In that case, we would have elements, not heavier but lighter than uranium. The proton number would be either 91 or 90, the elements corresponding to proactinium and thorium, respectively.

Fermi found that the uranium sample bombarded with neutrons exhibited radioactivity with different half-lives. He checked the sample for chemical properties of not only proactinium and thorium but also for lighter elements up to lead, which has 82 protons. Since the newly created isotope did not match the properties of any of the known elements between lead and uranium, he reasoned that the radioactive isotopes must belong to elements heavier than uranium. He published his results in the journal Nature in an article entitled ‘Possible Production of Elements of Atomic Number Higher than 92’ in 1934.

Other people were working on the same field, notably the Curies in Paris and Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner in Berlin. The latter group supported Fermi, but the Curies were sceptical. A dissenting voice also came from a very respectable chemist. Ida Noddack argued that Fermi's conclusion was built on an unproven hypothesis. A negative result in chemical analysis did not prove the existence of a new element. In fact, she suggested that the nucleus could break into smaller fragments— a process we now call nuclear fission.

One interesting sidelight in this history is that so many women scientists were involved in the study of radioactivity at a time when there were few women in science. Irene was, of course, influenced by her celebrated mother, but we also have two German ladies, Ida Noddack and Lise Meitner, both of whom were later nominated for the Nobel Prize, working in the field.

Curies continued publishing their results on the bombardment of uranium with slow neutrons, but Fermi paid them no heed. He found it inconceivable that a neutron with less than one electron volt of energy could break up the nucleus, whereas alpha particles or protons with millions of times more energy do not succeed. Now, of course, we know that heavy elements like uranium do undergo nuclear fission, and it requires very little external energy. Otto Hahn and Franz Strassmann, in 1938, finally identified barium in the sample and proved that nuclear fission indeed occurs. Uranium, when bombarded with neutrons, breaks up into two big fragments. The heavier fragment is close to barium in proton number, and the lighter fragment is close to krypton in proton number. Fermi was looking for elements with proton numbers between 82 and 92, but the elements being created had proton numbers near 56. i.e. barium, and 36. i.e. krypton. How it happened was explained by Lise Meitner, who, by that time, had fled Germany to escape the Nazi's persecution of the Jews. This discovery earned Hahn the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944. Many people believe that Lise Meitner should have also shared the Prize, but that is another story.

So by the time Fermi went to Stockholm to collect the Nobel Prize, he knew that he had not made any new element. To his credit, he freely admitted it, but he believed that he had already done enough to earn the Prize. He was not wrong. By that time, he had not only discovered the enormous potential of slow neutrons but also produced the first theory of beta decay, a theory which is still taught in class, and also had discovered the statistics obeyed by subatomic particles like electrons, protons and neutrons. In his honour, we call the statistics Fermi-Dirac, and the particles that obey this statistics are called fermions. (Dirac independently discovered the statistics after Fermi.) All fundamental particles are either bosons or fermions.

Fermi had a very important reason to travel to Stockholm. He was escaping the fascist dictatorship of Mussolini, who, prompted by Hitler, had enacted anti-Jewish laws in Italy. Fermi’s wife, Laura, was Jewish. Fermi was permitted to travel to Stockholm with his family to collect the Prize. He did not return to Italy but took this opportunity to escape to the United States of America. After 1938, he would go on to show that neutrons emitted in the fission of uranium nuclei can break up other uranium nuclei, a process called a chain reaction. This led to the construction of the first nuclear reactor by Fermi himself, and later, to the nuclear bomb in whose construction he played a very important role.

  

Gautam Gangopadhyay