Cape Paterson

By Claude Joseph

"Science fiction enthusiasts and adventure books fanatics are in for an innovative and thought-provoking read as author Claude Joseph presents Cape Paterson.

Cape Paterson follows Jessica Trellis, the daughter of a palaeontologist, who, while helping her father dig for dinosaur fossils at Cape Paterson, uncovers an alien knowledge tablet in the Cretaceous layer buried for one hundred million years. With this discovery, she builds an alien-designed star ship, and later the same technology is used for missions to Mars and beyond the solar system. For some mysterious reasons, the star from which the aliens come from has drifted closer to Earth since one hundred million years ago. With her friend Wilson, Jessica is determined to find out why and what became of the aliens. More exciting surprises await everyone as the whole story unfolds.

It is partly set in the fossil sites and farmland near Inverloch, Victoria both in the prehistoric past and in the future. At various times the following things descend on Cape Paterson - dinosaurs, aliens, robots, palaeontologists, developers and enemy agents. Jessica Trellis has to deal with everything from the Bass Coast Shire Council to an annoying classmate Megan Swan. Through all the zany situations that arise, Jessica ends up embarking on a galactic journey of discovery and excitement."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 21, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453594735

Claude Joseph

Claude Joseph studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of New South Wales. He then started his career as an engineer in the Overseas Telecommunications Commission in the satellite and data engineering branch. Later he studied Food Business Management at Monash University. More recently he project managed major power system upgrades and portal development projects at Woolworths. Claude is married with two daughters in university and lives on the NSW Central Coast on the Bouddi National Park peninsula. His interests are in astronomy, the environment and playing tennis.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Iota Horologii System, 100,000,000 BC

In the indigo sky, a planet, twice the size of Jupiter, was visible. Below, geysers gushed out of the ground, their waters lapped into a forest floor. The forest carried an odour like cabbage stew and fig trees within exhibited different stages of growth.

Young trees clung to their host tree. Other trees tried to support their own weight with the wooden legs they dropped to the ground, while a mature tree walked on mud. Another creature, a mendome, saw it. The walking tree’s movements showed it was perturbed by the mendome’s presence. The tree started to move away. The mendome snatched some figs and then moved on. It returned to its compound.

A loud thundering sound was heard. Another two mendomes came into the forest, one carried some sort of contraption.

‘Watch where you test that thing!’ yelled one mendome to the other. All of a sudden, all the figs on a stand of walking trees got gravitationally compressed and splattered fig fruit all over the place, splashing on the mendomes faces. ‘You numbskull! Mad professors like you have more brains than sense. You have damaged the walking trees. We need them for our food.’

Professor Bigthought was testing a new Hyperblast drive that could be used for a journey to Earth. He looked like a giant octopus, but walked upright on four legs. His head was translucent, so his brain could be seen, and when he was thinking, it would light up. His feet and hands were pitted, providing fine sensory control.

• • •

This time Professor Bigthought tried testing his contraption in a moving object. He put on a spacesuit and then went outside. He harnessed himself inside a small capsule. The capsule had a jet pack on the outside for propulsion, his charged Hyperblast drive for acceleration, and a parachute on the outside for the return to ground. Once he was airborne, he switched on the Hyperblast drive and shot into space. It had worked! However, on the way down, the parachute didn’t slow the capsule sufficiently. A few moments later, his capsule came crashing down straight through the glass roof of a female mendome’s compound.

The female mendome had been bathing in the indoor stream, when all of a sudden there was a crash of glass and a loud thud as the capsule hit the floor and splinters of glass rained down. The female mendome screamed while Professor Bigthought moaned. He got out of the capsule and lifted the parachute off his head to see where he was.

The female mendome noticed his brain was lit red with embarrassment.

Once they both composed themselves, the female mendome said, ‘Why have you crashed through my home, you imbecile! Who are you anyway?’

‘Professor Bigthought, I’m a rocket scientist. I am very sorry for the damage. It was an accident. I will call a robot to repair your roof and sweep the glass off your floor.’ He gathered his equipment and hurried off. Although his test flight ended badly, he was satisfied that it had shown that Hyperblast drive could push a rocket through space. This would create a paradigm shift in space travel.

• • •

The rocket-certification mendome was due to report on the new Hyperblast drive testing. However, he first had to go to the solar power plant. He had been told that there was a situation in the sunlight storage room.

The certification mendome opened the door of the room and saw the mendome operator looking anxious.

‘What’s the problem?’ the certifier asked as he was about to enter.

‘Careful. Don’t step any closer!’ the operator yelled.

‘Why not?’

‘The stored circle of sunlight has moved out of its normal position. It’s right near the door and I can’t get out.’

‘I don’t see any sunlight.’

‘You can’t because it’s invisible until it hits something.’

‘Well, close the roof. Stop the sunlight coming through.’

The operator closed the roof. ‘It’s no good. The existing circle of sunlight is already highly concentrated. It has been adding onto itself over a very long time. It will take ages before the air particles lessen its energy,’ explained the operator.

‘Can you turn off the machine that is keeping the sunlight in a circle?’ asked the certifier.

‘I could, but as soon as I do, it’s going to shoot out at a tangent, but I don’t know in which direction. It could burn a hole through me.’

‘Well, what do you want me to do?’

‘You have to find a thick metal plate to stop the sunlight.’

The certifier went to an adjoining room and searched for a plate. He found a suitable metal plate and returned to the door.

‘So where is the sunlight?’ the certifier asked.

‘It’s near the door. You will have to slowly bring the plate into the room until the sunlight hits it,’ advised the operator.

Unfortunately, the rocket certification mendome was too hasty. When he tried to stop the sunlight with the plate, it burnt a hole through his arm instead. He shrieked in pain. He started losing his translucent blood very quickly. It did bring the sunlight to an end, however, so the operator was able to get out and try and find a bandage to stop the bleeding. However, by the time he returned, the mendome had passed away.

Without a certifier, the mendomes commissioned the Hyperblast drive regardless.

• • •

The mendomes were having a meeting about Earth. Inside their compound, a running stream flowed down the centre. The mendomes partially immersed themselves in its shallow water while they discussed the prospects. They liked to keep their unclad bodies moist. Sunlight shone through the tinted glass roof, making the stream glisten.

‘What can you tell us about Earth?’ the chairman asked, chewing on some seaweed.

‘We think it has large oceans, certainly larger and deeper than our own,’ the expert said.

‘How do you know?’ the chairman asked.

‘The light reflected from the larger portion of its surface is much greater than the light reflected off the smaller portion, and since we know oceans reflect more light than land, we believe it has a large ocean,’ the expert explained.

‘What about heavy metals? I heard Earth is low on heavy metals,’ the chairman asked.

‘True. It has only two-thirds the amount of heavy metals that we have. So it will be a little harder to find materials to fabricate our structures with,’ the expert explained.

‘Earth is substandard, just as I thought,’ interjected the financier.

‘Do not interrupt. Hear him out,’ demanded the chairman.

‘How many hours in a day does Earth have?’ the chairman asked.

‘Three times more than ours because it has a moon, and the years have one-third the number of days, making the year length the same,’ answered the expert.

‘That’s fantastic! One could get a good night’s sleep for once, instead of a short nap,’ said the chairman, glancing back at the financier. ‘Is there any intelligent life?’ the chairman asked.

‘We have not been able to detect any radio transmissions, so we are confident there will not be any intelligent species to contend with,’ the expert explained.

‘That’s good. So the planet is ours for the taking,’ said the chairman. He sipped a drink of water. ‘How about food sources? Is there a rich biology?’ the chairman continued.

‘We believe the biology is a lot richer than our own planet, judging by the amount of infrared rays emanating from Earth. That is why we think Earth is the answer to our food shortage problems,’ the expert explained.

‘So what is the plan?’ asked the chairman.

‘We propose to land a starship where there is the greatest likelihood of finding food,’ said the expert.

‘And where would that be?’ asked the chairman.

‘Where there is the greatest biomass. We have nominated a site on the great southern land,’ said the expert. The mendomes wanted biomass, and biomass is what they would get.

‘Is the starship ready?’ asked the chairman.

‘Yes, the Hyperblast drive has been commissioned, but we could not get it certified because of the accident,’ said the expert.

‘We can use the Earth trip to certify it,’ said the chairman.

‘Mr Chairman, I don’t think that is a good idea,’ interjected the chief engineer.

‘Nonsense. What difference does it make if we test it here or in space?’ asked the chairman.

‘We can control the test better here,’ said the chief engineer.

‘We have already had enough delay. What is your estimate for trip time?’ asked the chairman, turning back to the expert.

‘Earth is 151 light years from Iota Horologii. Professor Bigthought designed the Hyperblast for a speed of ten light years per month, so it should take just over fifteen months to get to Earth,’ explained the expert.

‘Have you got volunteers that are willing to fly that long?’ asked the chairman.

‘Yes, Io and Bi have agreed to fly if they can take their robot with them,’ replied the expert.

‘How about