Ignaqua: First Sapient Life Form Encounter

By William Malic

The quest into space progressed far beyond the solar system. Several exoplanets settled, the human population continued to grow beyond sustainability and critical resources exist throughout the Milky Way. Dominating the Galaxy as the only sapient beings, humans were not alone. Near the edge of the Galaxy, a mining company exploits an expendable planet. Technology evolved throughout the centuries after taking the first small step for man, one giant leap for mankind; human nature remained constant. Like early pioneers a mixture of miners, scientists and support staff eke out an existence in an alien land far from everything else human. When a team of conservationists reach the outpost to review the planet’s classification, there is fear they will threaten the existence of the Company’s operation, threatening jobs. Rumors abound of strange creatures lurking in the night. Forming an alliance, the two opposing factions make a monumental discovery. Sapient life other than human does exist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9780359808373

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Ignaqua: First Sapient Life Form Encounter

Ignaqua

First Sapient Life Form Encounter

Chapter 1 - Cowboy

A swirling gritty cloud trailed the sand sled as Cowboy Jim Farrell raced across the open desert wasteland. He left an unmistakable trail of disturbed sand and injured vegetation behind him; in this environment it could take a long time for the planet to repair itself.  Though the winds would soon obliterate the scar the compaction of the soil and injury to sensitive underground roots might never recover. The souped-up machine was a converted utility sled originally brought to the planet for the survey crew, but Cowboy commandeered and modified it to perform well beyond original specifications. Wantonly destroying any material in environmentally sensitive lands is generally illegal.  For Cowboy it was always a horse race and there were no real laws governing the colony.  That’s not to say there weren’t rules, there were guidelines, but with Cowboy only one rule applied; if Cowboy wanted it, he got it, by hook or crook. 

Cowboy’s lineage traced back to Denton County, Texas, good Old U.S. of A., North America, Earth, Sun’s Solar System, Local Interstellar Cloud, Local Bubble, Orion–Cygnus Arm, Milky Way; hence the moniker Cowboy. Truth be it; Cowboy had never wrangled a live cow let alone rode a horse, but that did not matter.  Little mattered to Cowboy, except speed, more speed and the most speed he could generate.   ‘Hurry up’ was not only his favorite phrase but the mantra that controlled every facet of his existence. A treasured gem midst the flotsam and jetsam of the mining company, Cowboy earned his pay protecting the disparate crew. 

Opinions varied concerning Cowboy; though everyone had a sentiment.  Those whom he had saved saw him as a champion.  Others were more likely to describe him simply as an ass or at the least a pain in that area.  Managers avoided him if possible, not because he was disrespectful to the bosses; he was disrespectful to everyone.  He never proffered suggestions, he demanded changes always with ‘hurry up’ tagged on the end.  Cost’s didn’t matter.  Lives mattered.  Production crews appreciated his input which increased production without jeopardizing personnel.  No one truly could call him a friend. 

His wiry body, somewhat thin but strong was not awe inspiring, yet he could woo a tick off its favorite dog. When it came to women a wedding ring had never been a deterrent.  It was an attribute which raised the hackles of many a scorned suiter demanding monogamy from his mate.  Confrontations generally resulted in the disparaged slinking off in shame; nursing abrasions, bruises and commonly bleeding.   Cowboy fought dirty.  Cowboy fought to win.

He had notched his gun many times in the past, though his hurry up style often left many ladies less then satisfied.  Still, they returned for more of the insanity, perhaps hoping for a different outcome.  Sexual unions were a favorite means to relax after the many hours of grueling labor for both men and women.  When cowboy did take the time to relax, he had never been without willing partners; they literally kneeled in line.

He was the root of more than one girl on girl confrontation as competitors for his affection vied for a chance to bed down with him.  Girl on girl fights were popular entertainment, garnering betting.  Losers, the woman and the men who took the wrong bet, turned to drinking.  Drinking let to more conflicts.  Cowboy of course arbitrated.  No one resisted Cowboy until one person did.  Cowboy became smitten by one woman, rejected at first and now his wife of almost two years.  Female carousing ended then.  Still some of the other girls didn’t stop trying.

Like a surfer dude who lives to ride the waves, Cowboy the wave rider, rode on the forward or face of a moving wave of sand, which usually carried him more rapidly forward.  Shooting to the top of a dune he sailed into the air freestyling hoping to land wheels down.  Skidding and fishtailing he succeeded in staying up right.  Tumbling over would have been calamitous.  The maintenance chief would have had a fit.  Cowboy had no desire to land up in the dispensary. The hell with maintenance.

The desert was a demanding opponent but governable if you had the right grit.  Those who challenged her sphere didn’t always fare as well.  Cowboy had directed too many rescue parties for missing personnel turned into salvage exercises after finding wrecked dune buggies with the mangled bodies of the occupants still inside or scattered along a line of destruction.  Often, scavengers had beaten him to the quarry.  Scarcity of resources drove all sorts of beasts or man to seek any advantage opportunity provided.

The desert areas nearly covered all land masses.  Rainfall was as rare as hen’s teeth Cowboy liked to say.  Even rarer were surface bodies of water.  The exoplanet was barely more than a very large rock, hardly a planet, where wind erosion had broken down a thin layer of sandy silt.  Water did exist in underground reserves and in verglas and scattered glaciers at the poles.  Indigenous life forms, both plant and animal had evolved producing species that were a hardy lot, specifically adapted for the harsh environment.

Temperatures ranged from sub-zero at the poles to an average balmy 19 degrees Celsius along the equator.  Those were daytime temperatures.  During periods of darkness the thermometer plummeted.  Daylight extended however from the expected since the system was a binary star consisting of two stars orbiting around their common barycenter.   The planet itself followed an erratic path in its orbit as one star’s gravitational pull exceeded the other, essentially whiplashing the wayward globe.  Having no tilt on its axis there were no true seasons.  However, the competition from the gravitational force of the stars caused interior water supplies to fluctuate.   An internal tide caused ground water to flow so that distances from the surface to accessible water waxed and waned in predictable cycles.  These anomalies added to the obstacles faced by water dependent life.

Surprisingly, terrestrial plants existed along with epiphytes and lithophytes.  Low shrubs or scraggy trees seldom over a few meters high dotted the hills and small mountains precariously clinging to the substrate. Like most vascular plants they processed the star’s emitted energy through photosynthetic mechanisms.  Other low-profile plants resembling moss grew in widely dispersed colonies.  In addition, lichens, composite organisms that arise from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship, found abundance.  Lichens coming in many colors, sizes, and forms punctuated the landscape and relieved the tedious humdrum of tan to grey sand. 

Herbivores feasted on the sparse plant life.  Consisting of a variety of insect-like creepy crawly forms to reptilian species the planet literally teamed with organisms that preferred to remain unseen, some having adapted amazing camouflage defenses.  One had to be careful in some terrains as to where to step.  Hit a wrong spot and you found yourself engulfed with tiny creatures that ascended your boots looking either for revenge for the disturbance or a little snack.  Though annoying, most were not venomous, but they could be quite irritating.

Cowboy again threw the sled into full throttle and raced ahead towards a humongous dune.  It marked a way point he used to navigate back to the colony’s main encampment.  Cowboy carried no charts, he piloted from memory and instinct.  Cresting the dune, the sled flew into the air.  This time he was better prepared for the aerial stunt having experience the adrenalin rush this mound gave numerous times.  On the other side of the dune was a field of rocks and boulders.  Some were as large as the sled itself, but most were small enough for the high-rise sled to maneuver over without scraping bottom.  The prudent maneuver here was to slow down and weave one’s way through the labyrinth.  Cowboy was no fool, just a dare devil.  He gunned the engine ones more.  Slipping and sliding around boulders he drove like a mad man bent on self-destruction.

His line of site obscured; he rounded the largest boulder in the field.  When he saw it, it was too late to avoid the impending collision.  The sled roared over a helpless animal in his track.  Avoidance maneuvers could have been disastrous; he had no choice. 

Cowboy typically would have continued with little to no regret.  Even if he had not been in a hurry, which he was, he probably would have once again revved the engine and returned to full speed ahead.  Instead Cowboy skidded to a stop.  Turning the sled, he slowly retreated to the spot where the poor animal writhed in the sand.  It was less than two meters in height.  Little was known about the strange species.  This was not an exploratory planet, so study of the indigenous species was lacking.  Mauled by the undercarriage of the sled there appeared little hope the beast would survive.  He thought about euthanizing the desperate creature but all he had was a pistol and ammo was in short supply.  There was no way he was going to exit the sled and club it to death; he had a schedule to complete, he had to hurry up.

Turning back to his original direction, Cowboy pushed the throttle forward but did not speed off.  He drove more moderate from here on.  On Cowboy’s scale, he crawled the rest of the way to the colony.  He had seen death before, even killed himself.  He hardly ever thought much about it.  Nature had a way to compensate for the loss of individuals.  Perhaps the death of this one would allow another to live.  Resources were scarce.   No one knew on what or how these animals survived.   No one cared.

Rolling into the compound peppered with sturdy constructed buildings used by the mining company, Cowboy skidded to a stop.  Without fanfare he exited the sled and began to walk to his quarters ignoring the approach of Sam, the maintenance supervisor.   Sam always inspected his fleet of mechanized equipment when they returned.

What the hell, Sam bellowed.

Cowboy was going to ignore the man at first but stopped anyway.  To piss off Sam was not a good idea.  He would need the sled soon and he had a meeting to attend and didn’t need any trouble.  Cowboy walked back to the sled.

Sam was slithering under the sled holding a handkerchief to his mouth and nose.  My God, man, Sam’s muffled voice echoed.  This is one hell of a mess.  I mean it Cowboy this time I am not going to just pass it off.  I am going to report this.  Our equipment is like gold here.  We can’t’ have some scoundrel destroying these machines.  Sam extricated himself from under the sled and stared menacingly at Cowboy.  What the hell did you run over this time.  Sam was a big man, taller and wider than Cowboy and maybe meaner.  Still Sam had a gentle side to him, but not when it came to the abuse of his fleet.

Come on Sam, Cowboy quipped, it was just a desert rat, and a little one at that.  What damage could it have done to this beast?

Sam pointed to the underside of the sled still holding the cloth over his mouth.  He didn’t say anything.  He didn’t have to.

Cowboys shrugged and walked to the sled going to his knees.  The wind stirred and sent a whiff in his direction.  Cowboy coughed and gagged.  Tears clouded his eyes.  What the hell is that smell?  Cowboy retreated.

Well asshole, Sam retorted. appears you brought a little of the beast back with you.  Sam was probably the only one in the colony that could get away with calling Cowboy an asshole.  They had a mutual like for each other though it was hard to discern sometimes.

Never been close to one before, Cowboy wiped his eyes.  I heard they stink to high heaven.  Guess this proves it.  Look all you must do is clean it up a little.  The wind and sand will take care of the rest.

Wrong! Sam bellowed as loud as he could, which was quite loud.  YOU have to clean it up, and I can’t spare any water, you know that.

Come on Sam, buddy, Cowboy pleaded.  You know I am busy, and I am in a hurry.  Surely you can get some lacky out here to sand blast the undercarriage or something.

Sam huffed, seeming to grow in stature.  Someday, Cowboy you and I are going to have a go at it, and it isn’t going to be pretty.

Break it up you two, a voice bellowed.  Derek Williams, the Colony’s Director, stood a few yards away.  As he stomped towards the pair, he sniffed the air.  I know we ration water, but damn you two need to take a bath at least once a week.  You guys stink.

Sam was about to protest and set things straight, but the Director waved his arm in dismissal.  Cowboy get yourself cleaned up and meet me in the conference room pronto.  Your running late.  We have a meeting scheduled.  Sam get this sled ready as soon as possible; no sooner.  Cowboy is going to need it.

Chapter 2 – Man’s Quest

With over twenty-seven billion humans, according to the last census, mankind was intensifying its territorial expansion across the galaxy.   A handful of earth similar planets which were candidates, sought out for the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to become like the environment of Earth and make it habitable by Earth-like life would soon augment already colonized bodies.  In addition, exploratory forces were engaged in finding resource rich worlds to exploit.

The galaxy has an almost infinite number of masses charted, some as small as a football field to giant planets. Giant planets are any massive planet, primarily composed of low-boiling-point materials, rather than rock or other solid matter, but massive solid planets also exist.  Though supplying a seemingly inexhaustible source of resources, most were too inhospitable for humans to be of any use.  These were simply space junk.

The potential of expanding the human population beyond the confines of Earth had been a dream for centuries.   Major obstacles existed.  Vast expanses of space posed logistical problems due to time of travel from point A to point B.  From the beginning in Africa, humans tended to not stay in one place.   Over thousands of years man’s ancestors walked all over the continent, then out of it. When they came to the sea, they built boats and sailed tremendous distances to islands they could not have known were there. Eventually humans could exist in all but the most uninhabitable places.  Yet man wanted more.  He looked to the sky.

Getting off Earth takes serious energy; if an object on Earth’s surface wants to fly free, it needs to shoot up and out at speeds exceeding 40,233.6 kph.  It also took serious financial resources at first.  However, hurtling through space is easy. It’s a vacuum, after all; there is nothing to slow you down. Propulsion needed a radical new method.  Chemical, then nuclear and plasma rockets improved over generations.  Once man set up space-based launch sites were mass was much less, i.e. the gravitational pull required less initial launch speeds, some of these problems alleviated.

Space is not empty.  Just the space junk, inoperable satellites and broken parts cluttered the sky from early attempts to reach further into space.  A massive cleanup project and strict surveillance networks which tracks rogue debris solved some of the problems but even at this advance age of technology charting paths through a labyrinth of floating objects is taxing.  Less of a problem existed on colonized extra-stations however where there is civilization there are satellites ranging in function from communications, charting to defense.  Developing a system to intercept and destroy potentially harmful materials like the archaic Iron Dome, a mobile air defense system, improved survivability. Interplanetary as well as interstellar space craft officially became sanctioned to employ these safety measures.   Not all transports applied for licenses however, themselves causing problems and potentially being victims of the defense deployment and potentially adding to the debris.

The expanded Deep Space Network, a collection of antenna arrays was the early navigation tool for space. Everything depended on it to stay oriented. An ultraprecise atomic clock on Earth timed how long it takes for a signal to get from the network to a spacecraft and back, and navigators use that to determine a craft’s position.  Atomic clocks on the crafts themselves cut transmission time in half, allowing distance calculations with a single downlink. Higher-bandwidth lasers handled big data packages, like photos or video messages.   The farther rockets go from Earth, however, the less reliable this method becomes. Radio waves travel at light speed, but transmissions to deep space still take hours. The stars can tell you where to go, but they’re too distant to tell you where you are. Deep-space navigation autonomous systems collect images of targets and nearby objects and use their relative location to triangulate a spaceship’s coordinates; no ground control needed.  A deep-space positioning system, DPS for short, constantly upgraded, extended as man ventured farther from home base Earth.

Outside the safe cocoon of Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, subatomic particles zip around at close to the speed of light. This is space radiation, and it’s deadly.  When these particles knock into the atoms of aluminum that made up early spacecraft hulls, their nuclei blow up, emitting yet more superfast particles called secondary radiation.  The solution; plastics; they’re light and strong, and they’re full of hydrogen atoms, whose small nuclei don’t produce much secondary radiation.  Scientists developed a magnesium diboride superconductor that would deflect charged particles away from a ship. It works at minus 263 degrees Celsius, which is balmy for superconductors, but it helps that space is already so cold.

Early space travelers had to bring everything they needed along with them, food, supplies, water and extra oxygen.  This made payloads cumbersome.  Establishing waystations, essentially space mini-marts, and self-sustaining Agra-depots extended the range of space travel.  Colonization of a series of planets not only set up reliable sources of supplies, it created a whole new system of trade opportunities. Amazon’s Interstellar Parcel System today boasts less than one-year shipping at no additional cost.

Weightlessness wrecks the body: It makes certain immune cells unable to do their jobs, and red blood cells explode. It gives you kidney stones and makes your heart lazy. Astronauts can exercise to combat muscle wasting and bone loss, but they still lose bone mass in space, and those zero-g spin cycles don’t help the other problems. Artificial gravity fixed all that.

To sign up for interplanetary travel is to sign up for a year, at least, of living in a cramped spacecraft with bad food and zero privacy; a recipe for space madness. Solution: sleep through it.  Cold storage is a twofer: It cuts down on the amount of food, water, and air a crew would need and keeps them sane.  To become a multi-planet species, we needed the capability of human stasis.

After careening through frictionless space at 32,200 kph you must land.  There’s the planet’s gravity to worry about. Not wanting touchdowns remembered as one small leap for a human and one giant splat for humankind, complex maneuvering protocols developed.  Aerobraking gradually bleeds off velocity until free fall occurs.  Deploying hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerators creates extra atmospheric drag upon entry.  As you approach the surface the ship turns around using supersonic retropulsion.   So good if there is an atmosphere.

Luckily, space is far from barren. Every planet has every chemical element in it.  3-D-printing can build whole buildings.  Mining techniques designed for alien environments developed.  Where raw materials were plentiful and in excess there were opportunities to trade with other settlements.   Whole new materials came online.

Once thought of as man’s best friend, dogs helped humans colonize Earth.  The new best friend was a robot.  Settling takes a lot of grunt work, and robots can dig all day without having to eat or breathe.  Still, humans have a big leg up when it comes to fingers. If a job requires dexterity and precision, you want people doing it, provided they have the right tools including protective clothing.

Space is big, humungous, and infinite.  To travel these vast distances required hacking the universe’s source code with physics.  The theoretical Alcubierre drive compresses space in front of your craft and expand space behind it so the stuff in between—where your ship is—effectively moves faster than light. Tweaking the Alcubierre equations gets you a Krasnikov tube, an interstellar subway that shortens your return trip.   Generations of Einstein’s worked on that one.

With all the obstacles, the question always came up.  Why go?  Earth was a perfectly good place to live.  The need to explore seems in our souls, goes one argument; the pioneer spirit and manifest destiny.  As for manifest destiny?  Historians know better.  Western expansion was a vicious land grab, and the great explorers were mostly in it for resources or treasure. Human wanderlust expresses itself only in the service of political or economic will.

Of course, Earth’s impending destruction supplied some incentive. Deplete the planet’s resources and asteroid-belt mining suddenly seems reasonable. Change the climate and space supplies room for humanity and everything else.  As far as anyone knew, Earth was the only habitable place in the universe. If we’re going to leave this planet, let’s go because we want to, not because we must.  Man wanted to and found the means to make it happen.  The rest is history and historians are still writing.

Once man left his cozy familiar place, he discovered other worlds.  First was the moon, barren and devoid of life yet it had some of the building blocks needed to support life.  Mars intrigued with the discovery of organic molecules.  Then man found the first life on a distant planet surrounding a distant star.   Life did exist outside of our world.  Was it like the life on Earth?  Yes and no; exotic but not nearly as alien as supposed.  Evolution seems to be dependent on circumstance, so life forms were uniquely different dependent on where found.   Basic building blocks were the same but complex organisms evolved into different forms than found on earth.  Some were bizarre, others hilariously unique and a few dangerously adaptive.  Confounding the discoveries, no intelligent life forms at the level of humans have emerged to date. 

Mankind might truly be unique.  Still the Universe was vast and who knew what was out there.

Chapter 3 - Mining Colony XR54SEC

Space law allows space mining, specifically the extraction of natural resources. Generally understood with the space law authorities, extracting space resources is allowable by private companies for profit.

The first mining operation extracted water on the moon, first mined, then refined. The process of extracting the water was to cook it out of the soil.  Scientists were able to extract two grams of water, in the form of ice, per minute using a one-kilowatt microwave.  From this modest beginning mining operations for all sorts of materials developed.

EUSA’s (Earth Universe Space Administration) Office of Exoplanet Conservation (OEC) promotes the responsible exploration of the universe by implementing and developing efforts that protect the science, explore environments and defend Earth.   Two main directives evolved: Carefully control of forward contamination of other worlds by terrestrial organisms and organic materials carried by spacecraft to guarantee the integrity of the search and study of extraterrestrial life, if it exists. Rigorously prevention of backward contamination of Earth and other earlier explored worlds by extraterrestrial life or bioactive molecules in returned samples from habitable worlds to prevent potentially harmful consequences for humans and the biosphere.

All identified masses large enough to call for exploration where classified into distinct classes.  The largest Class U were those believed too hazards to human life and thus off limits.  Following this were Class Z, potential exploration sites yet unexplored.  Class A masses consisted of colonized area.  Earth itself was in this class.  Class A-b encompassed sites already explored, catalogued and had no known life but might supply valuable resources.  Class C planets held life forms considered too invaluable to exploit and generally were only subject to visits from scientific exploration teams.  Finally, Class X masses held life forms but harbored rare materials or highly prized commodities too important to forego exploitation. This class earned a not protected classification, unless evidence suggested higher level species, particularly intelligent species, existed.   Mining, with little regard to environmental damage prevailed.   Destruction of indigent life forms, though not encouraged, only recognized as unfortunate, did not constitute a punishable offense.

Most mining operations became private concerns, for profit.  Profit margins depended on quantity, speed and the least amount of ancillary costs.  Transportation issues also factored in.   Ancillary costs included protective measures to preserve the biome, regulatory concerns and health and safety procedures.   

Mining Colony XR54SEC was the primary site for extraction company PMAX Inc.  Long lost was the meaning of the acronym, so insiders simply used ProfitMax as descriptive of the company.  This planet was relatively far from major colonized worlds, but several rare elements were present in large quantities and accessible.  This included radioactive material.  A cursory exploration concluded the biomass was small and not well evolved, essentially meaning no intelligent species existed.  In other words, once mining no longer was profitable the licensed mining company expected to abandon the planet and reclassified it Class U.  The biomass would rely on nature to heal itself.

Facilities on the planet included mining headquarters (H.Q.) found nearly on the equator were temperatures were more moderate.  Auxiliary sites (A.S.) peppered across the globe after geological surveys showed ore deposits.  Nearly all sites fell into a band roughly 30 degrees N to 30 degrees S latitudes.  Both the Southern and Northern polar regions became waste depositories, many of which became contaminated with hazardous material.  Only the most rudimentary precautions were employed to prevent or at least limit contamination.  Personnel wore required hazardous duty outfits when entering these areas.

Cowboy had been traveling from A.S. 52 to H.Q. after receiving a notice to return for a top priority conference.  He scoffed at these meetings, which boiled down to not much more than some puffed up executive trying to exert his authority and prove his worth.  Most were worthless so proving was a misnomer.

Before we go in, Derek Williams stopped and turned to Cowboy, let me fill you in a bit, this is not going to be one of your favorite assignments.  Cowboy rolled his eyes.  Anyway, it’s something we have to put up with in this business.  I am totally against the whole thing, but powers said we must appear to cooperate.  These nerds could be real trouble.  It’s our job to listen and kiss their asses then hopefully they will go away.

I am not an ass kisser, Cowboy drawled.

Neither am I, but this one time we have no choice, Derek snarled.  These types can be dealt with and the big guys aren’t above offering the right people, shall we say, incentives.  How we conduct this will depend a lot on how much they will have to shell out.   Our job is to keep it to a minimum.

Who the hell are we meeting, Cowboy leaned back on his heels and yawned.  Sounds to me like a bunch of eco nuts.

You know, Cowboy, Derek laughed, "there are times when I think you are not very