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