Mystery of Mana: Io, Key to the Lost Land

By Farshad Sanati

It is mid 21st century. Alex, a young Greek astronomer is leading a research team assigned to examine unexplored areas of the solar system in search of possible signs of life. After dedicating much time and effort they come up with some positive results on IO, the mysterious moon of Jupiter. To further investigate the discovery, a highly qualified team of scientist are summoned and sent on this mission to IO. When they stop on the way of this journey the team does not have the slightest idea what theyre going to witness. Theyre about to unveil secrets that could lead the source of the unknown yet quire astonishingly familiar signs of life to another planet in the system.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jun 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462863372

Farshad Sanati

Farshad Sanati Safakhaneh was born in Iranian Kurdish family in 1973. He finishes high school in Tabriz and continued his tertiary studies in mechanical engineering. He began writing short sci-fic novels at early ages. He didn’t succeed quite much in Iran because sci-fic novels weren’t rather liked and accepted in the society at the time. Hence his family persuaded him to try and translate his first novel which is now held in your hands.

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Farshad Sanati.

Translated by Dr. Masoud Raee Sharif

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011906526

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4628-6336-5

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4628-6335-8

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4628-6337-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

0-800-644-6988

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

[e-mail]

301550

Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE                Research on IO Planet

CHAPTER TWO               Dispatching a Life Explorer to IO

CHAPTER THREE           The Biggest Discovery of the Space History

CHAPTER FOUR              Exploration and Research team on Set

CHAPTER FIVE                Launching Deiokes and Dispatching the Exploration Team

CHAPTER SIX                   Moving to the Base

CHAPTER SEVEN            Starting the Experiments

CHAPTER EIGHT            Information on the Computer Inside the Base

CHAPTER NINE               Discovery of the Missing Land

CHAPTER TEN                The Beginning of Fight in IO

CHAPTER ELEVEN        The Lost

CHAPTER TWELVE       In the Depths of the Atlantic Ocean

CHAPTER THIRTEEN   The Shelters

CHAPTER FOURTEEN  The Island of Sao Miguel and the Young Saviour!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN       Start of the Excavation and Discovery of the Last Shelter

CHAPTER SIXTEEN      Tini: Key to the Atlantis Mysteries!

INTRODUCTION

It is year 2070, and the world’s population has been lingering on four billion for quite a while. The world has undergone transformations in all grounds, and many human activities have been affected by the digital revolution.

Communication went in the direction of fibre optics in the beginning of the century, but at the peak of the technology in mid-2040s, a new wave revolutionised this industry. The wireless communications changed into a new form of electromagnetic connections called mega wave, and most communication centres on the face of the earth were gone. People were identified all over the world by a specific code they were allocated to since birth.

Early in the century, the fossil sources of energy were faced with gradual decline, and by the mid-2040s to 2050s, most fossil sources were finished; so new efforts have started to develop energy sources relying on water, wind, and the sun. By the second half of the century, the clean sources of energy from the sun, wind, and water were meeting the needs of humans. Still, the scientists had achieved good progress in accessing the energy hidden in plasma form of the substance. By the end of 2050s, the cars’ and spaceships’ hydraulic or electric fuels had been replaced by plasma fuels.

Electricity conductor networks were impacted by the polymer industries. Metal wires or light fibre were replaced by superconductor polymers. While the scientists had found samples of superconductors at the end of the previous century and the industry was being utilised, they were still after maximising the electricity output to 100 per cent.

Medical science was advancing rapidly. Scientists had defeated many diseases. They had special kits the size of a single grain of lentil. At the age of two, kids would get the kit implanted under their skin. The implants were miniature yet advanced labs, which would get recharged by the body temperature of the hosts. This small lab could continuously analyse blood factors and check the vein and neuron pulses of the host. They then communicated with general physicians’ care centres constantly, reporting the host’s overall health condition; and even before the persons themselves would know about their problems, the centres would start the persons’ treatment or hospitalisation. However, there were still some micro-organism mutation diseases that the doctors were struggling with.

Economy and trade were transformed. Bills and coins had gone down history, and only in museums could one find them.

Starting the third decade of the twenty-first century, with the decrease of fossil fuels, transportation had to come up with a replacement which was nothing except solar and hydrogen energies. By the 2050s, magnetic energy of plasma fusion replaced the previous forms of fuels. Since this fuel was not polluting the air, it was easy to suspend any object with any weight on the air. By late 2050s, there were no wheeled cars any longer. Cars had become small or large spaceships. However, for various reasons, cars could not rise up much. The flight height was no more than a foot from the ground.

Similarly, education and research had undergone the same major transformations. In different parts of the world, there were a lot of internationally operated research centres. Their findings were available to all scientists for free. Some of these centres were dedicated to research on industrialisation of the space and accessing further spaces. One of the biggest of these centres was the International Research Center of Florida.

International Space Research Center of Florida

This centre that had special facilities such as advanced radio and laser telescopes and numerous labs was a good place for outer space research. Part of this centre was dedicated to controlling outer space research satellites and telescopes. Another part of it was a communication base with two very big and advanced space stations: Izirta Station, on the orbit of the Earth, and Kanaan Station on the orbit of Mars. Most of the residents of Izirta Station were researchers, but a small part of this station was dedicated to space travel. The space travel section was because Izirta Station was located next to an old space station called International Space Station, which was almost seventy years old and was abandoned. Those interested in space travel from all over the world would go to Izirta Space Station and would go around the International Space Station by space coaches with guides. They could get off the buses, go in the station, and learn about the history of the industry. Kanaan Space Station on the orbit of Mars was smaller than Izirta. During several years, five spaceships had been sent out, some of which being space shuttles and some explorers; and eventually, the scientists discovered coal in the deep layers of this planet in 2033. To find more traces, more excavations were needed on different parts of Mars. It took thirteen years. They first established Kanaan Station on Mars’s orbit and then, through this communication station between Mars and Earth, established an excavation site on Mars. The excavation took five years, and they finally found different fossils of large and small creatures which lived hundreds of millions of years ago on Mars at 350-feet depth from the surface. Among the discovered fossils, there were eleven fossils that seemed like they belonged to intelligent creatures. Next to these creatures, there were some deformed metal tools, and on some fossils, there were some layers of dissolved polymers, which showed they were using polymers to make clothes. This huge finding encouraged the scientists to continue searching the other parts of this planet, so in four more parts of Mars, a large number of fossils were discovered of prehistoric creatures. The most valuable thing about this discovery was two points: First, intelligent lives were of two species at least. Second, even the few evident left from their civilisations could clearly indicate their high level of development and sophistication.

So excavations were continuing on this red planet. While the astronomer community was still amazed with the findings, another doubt seized the scientific world: In 2067, a Japanese spaceship named Akegata landed on the dwarf planet Ceres and found remains of a significant civilisation in its holes. But the conditions on this dwarf planet were in a way that it was not possible to estimate the age of the civilisation and the reason for its extinction. More importantly, how could such civilisation come into existence? Did they belong to the inhabitants of Mars? There were lots of questions, and the solar system was being researched. The facts were making the research centres absolute necessities. A small base was set up on the moon to facilitate transferring scientists to farther places on the solar system.

In the Space Research Center of Florida, various research groups were assigned to work on different planets or stars. These groups consisted of a number of astronomers, physicists, chemists, biologists, and other scientists. They were focused on one research subject and were working on it as a project. Among the astronomers, there was a twenty-nine-year-old Greek origin guy named Alex. He had got his PhD in astronomy from the University of Athens and had joined the centre along with some other scientists from all over the world, to study the Jupiter’s moons environment. Alex was in the team that focused on Jupiter and its moons. At the same time this group was formed, a satellite named Icarus10 was sent to Jupiter. Once Icarus10 was on the orbit of Jupiter, it collected different data on Jupiter and its moons and sent them to the centre. Icarus10 had advanced equipments: It could easily change its speed and direction and change its orbit and approach different moons of Jupiter to get more precise information for the centre. Controlling and processing the data was done by the Jupiter Research Team. The team first started the research using the data from Icarus10 on the Galilean moons of the Jupiter, but since there were water and oxygen on the Europa moon, it got a lot of attention, and most of the team’s time was dedicated to study it. NASA planned sending a spaceship called Deiokes to Europa, for which Icarus10 could help determine the landing spot for the spaceship. However, the main responsibility of this spaceship was finding signs of life on the moons or other signs of the ancient civilisation of Mars. Most of the Jupiter Research Team’s members believed that other than Europa, life was impossible on the other moons of this planet. But Alex was not in agreement with the rest of the team. He believed that the same amount of time and energy should be spent on IO moon. In the past decades, three spaceships had been dispatched to IO. The first spaceship sent to Jupiter was called Galileo. This spaceship went around IO but crashed on it. So it could not get a lot of information about this moon for the scientists. Thirty years later, another spaceship called Orion landed on IO, but did not last more than a couple of minutes before it was destroyed. The destruction of Orion showed that the temperature of IO’s surface was much more than what the scientists had thought. After that, the investigation on IO’s surface was stopped for a while until in summer 2047, the Chinese scientists sent Beijing-5 spaceship to IO. This spaceship landed far from the volcanoes of this planet and could send good info about the condition of the atmosphere back to earth. The thinness of IO’s atmosphere and also its active volcanoes had caused the drastic temperature differences in different areas of this moon, up to thousands of degrees. One week after its landing and some short roaming on the surface of this warm planet, Beijing-5 was destroyed. Since then, most scientists concluded that regarding the temperature average and surface substances, there was no possibility of life in IO. However, there were a few researchers that did not think it was a zero chance. Alex had been working on the received information and images from the previous spaceships for a while. He had found some rifts on the relatively cold parts of IO and was guessing the conditions for life, even in its primitive form, were met in those parts.

CHAPTER ONE

Research on IO Planet

On Friday, 21 March 2070, Alex woke up with Harry’s gentle voice. Unhappy that the sleep was over, he went to the bathroom. The bathroom door opened automatically, and he went in. He looked at himself in the mirror and sleepily said, ‘What day is today, Harry?’

‘Good morning, pal,’ said Harry. ‘Today is Friday, 21 March. Remember, today is Natasha’s birthday and the day your car insurance expires. If you want, I will do your car insurance.’

Alex:      No, Harry. I like to go to town in the afternoon. What do you suggest for Natasha’s birthday gift?

Harry, after a pause, replied, ‘I pick suit shirt from your gifts’ box.’ Alex: Good choice.

Harry was his house’s semi-intelligent computer. There was a semi-intelligent computer system in every house that would do the errands for the owner by simply being connected to the electricity, air system, and house wares. These talking computers could also protect the house against hazards and theft. The owners would decide the functions of the computer. Then, they would receive the schedules and important data the owner deemed necessary and reminded them in time.

Alex had his breakfast and coffee and left his apartment on 190th floor of a tower in Miami. He went to the parking at the end of the hall, stood in front of the door, and the electric eye recognised him and opened the door. He entered the parking, raised his hand, put his watch to his mouth, and said, ‘Bandi, come down. I am late.’

As soon as he said it, the lights of a convertible green car turned on from the second floor of the low light parking and the sound of the plasma engine went off. At the same time, some moving arms moved the car from the upper floor and placed it in the middle of the parking. Alex got in and drove to the exit. At the end of the hall, he went on the open elevator and was quickly moved down the tower.

He set off to his work, the International Research Center of Florida. The centre was fifteen miles from the city towards the north-west. He quickly got to the highway, and in minutes, he was in front of the complex entrance.

After he inserted his ID card to the receptor and the door was raised, he parked his car in the main building parking and went to the elevator to get to his office. At noon, there was a big discussion among Alex, Jacque, and some other Jupiter’s research team members.

Jacque was the research group manager. He was a forty-year-old man and a Sorbonne University professor.

Alex:      Jacque! Look, I have found rifts in the cold area of IO (further than the main volcano), that its geographical conditions help create a closed atmosphere. On the other hand, the low density of the atmosphere and its being far from the main volcano results in low temperature and lower heights. The images and information from the previous shuttles also show that there is oxygen in IO’s atmosphere that can also explain the existence of vapour in these rifts.

Pierre, the young, short Belgian specialist said, ‘But, Alex! IO is too small. If there are underground activities, we must see a temperature rise going down the rifts.’

Alex:      That is the point. The existence of a big volcano will add to the pressure of the underground lava on the main volcano, and the cold crust of the planet on the other side of the volcano will grow thicker.

Jacque:      Well, what does that mean?

Alex:      It means that in lowering heights, it is an indication of the lower temperature in this part of the planet.

Fernando, an Argentinean geographer in the group said, ‘But, Alex, this is not a rule that with the crust thickness increase of a planet, the decrease of height will cause the temperature decrease. In some cases, where the crust becomes thicker, the temperature in the depths will be more than the temperature of the same depths where the crust is thinner. Moreover, the depth’s temperature depends on many factors in the crust of an active planet. Factors like the shape of the crust layers, substances, age, and many other factors.’

Sarah, another scientist of the group, who had joined the group from England, said, ‘I agree with Fernando, and I think the actual data from IO indicates the forming of primitive life on this planet of Jupiter is impossible; even impossible to imagine that on a planet where the average temperature of the atmosphere on the surface is thousands of degrees, there will be life.’

Natasha, the astrophysicist of the group, who was a pretty, young Hungarian doctor, said, ‘Yet I think that it is worth trying at least once. We can observe the conditions of IO that creates the possibility of life happening.’

Jacque:      Well, this requires using Icarus, and with the low fuel of the satellite’s plasma capsules, changing its orbit would mean finishing the usability of the satellite.

Alex:      Icarus has approached Europa several times and sent lots of information over from this planet to the earth. The information showed that the surface of Europa hasn’t got the least potential for life. Even if forms of life develop on Europa, they will be in the deep oceans of the icy surface of Europa, which is unobservable by the equipments of Icarus, while it is able to complete my data about what I am telling you effectively. Jacque, I am asking you to agree with doing it.

Jacque paused. He sat on the table next to him, raised his head, and said, ‘Look, Alex, a team of fourteen people are working on Jupiter and its moons. I have received other similar requests