Planets, Plagues and Pandemics

By Ray Filby

Klandacia, a planet orbiting a nearby star, has a technology well in advance  of that on earth. A pandemic, similar to the outbreak experienced on earth, has caused the death of many Klandacians and. is a recent memory to the humanoid population of this planet. As the Klandacians have developed an economy which is cashless, it comes out of

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Ray Filby
• Release date: Apr 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781916048591

Ray Filby

Ray Filby qualified as a physicist at Imperial College in 1958 and went on to take a doctorate there. He has also been awarded a Master's degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering by the University of Warwick where he was awarded a special prize for his performance on this course. On graduating, Ray joined the army where he served with the REME as officer in charge of the telecommunications workshop in Gibraltar. Dr. Filby started his career as a Development Engineer at a firm involved in the manufacture of scientific instruments in London but he has spent most of his working life in teaching. He was Head of the Maths and Science Department at a College of Further Education in Coventry, after which he spent some years with the education advisory service. Among other things, this involved writing material which would provide real life contexts for the secondary school mathematics curriculum. For a short time, Dr. Filby worked as a Technical Writer for Jaguar Cars. For the last several years up until his retirement, he worked as an Information Officer with Severn Trent Water. Dr. Filby is actively involved in the work of his church, St. Michael's, Budbrooke, where he is a licensed lay minister. For many years he was sub-warden for Readers in the Diocese of Coventry. Ray is married to a former teacher, Sue, and has two grown up children, Andrew, a chartered accountant and Sarah, a doctor. He has five grandchildren.

Book preview

Introduction

Klandacia, a planet orbiting a nearby star, has a technology well in advance of that on earth. A pandemic, similar to the coronavirus outbreak experienced on earth, has caused the death of many Klandacians and is a recent memory to the humanoid population of this planet. As the Klandacians have developed an economy which is cashless, it came out of the pandemic without the economic turmoil experienced on earth as it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Klandacian Supreme High Priest receives a message from God requesting that help should be sent to earth. Although the journey to earth will take many years, four Klandacian astronauts volunteer for the mission, two men and two women. On reaching earth, the astronauts are able to acclimatise to earth’s culture during a short time spent with a Moravian community, learning key languages they will need to communicate with the people on earth as they emerge from the pandemic. The Klandacians tour the world, providing useful advice and technology but experience one serious mishap before they are able to successfully complete their mission and return to their home planet.

Chapter 1

An Introduction to Klandacia

We’ve been warned, our mission will be dangerous. Does this worry you? Does anyone want to pull out?

Four young people were sitting in a park, thoughtfully contemplating what their future might hold as the evening gathered and the gloaming gave place to night. The night wasn’t particularly dark however as illumination was provided by the three moons which orbited the planet. It was unusual for all three moons to be visible simultaneously but tonight, the two larger moons were almost in coincidence and the smallest moon would set beyond the western horizon in about an hour.

The person who had spoken was Stanilhem, a tall, thoughtful-looking, fair-haired young man.

Naturally I’m apprehensive, answered Bramensel, a slim dark-haired young woman, but I certainly wouldn’t dream of pulling out of what promises to be an absolutely marvellous adventure and experience.

Me neither, rejoined Karvilsel, the other young woman in the group. I’m really looking forward to the mission and can hardly wait until we get clearance next week.

Karvilsel had shoulder length brown hair. She had an athletic figure and had the air of being a woman who liked to be in the thick of the action.

I know how you like to be on the go most of the time. Will you be able to cope with being asleep ninety per cent of the time while we make this long journey?

This question was posed by Gavilhem, the young man who was the fourth member of this quartet. Gavilhem had a sturdy build and the appearance of being a studious person. He considered the implications of what might happen before committing himself to rash action.

Our young people lived on a planet called Klandacia. The suffixes, ‘hem’ and ‘sel’ to their names distinguished male from female.

Which star are we going to be headed to? asked Karvilsel as the sky darkened and the stars became increasingly visible.

Gavilhem pointed to a constellation between the two larger moons and the small moon setting in the west.

The star, Heston, is the one on the extreme right of Tromhem, said Gavilhem, using the name of the constellation which Karvilsel would recognise. Constellations visible from Klandacia had been given names of Klandacian men and women who were deemed to have given great service to the planet.

What was this inter-stellar mission which our young people were eagerly anticipating? Before explaining this, it is necessary to provide some key information about the planet Klandacia itself.

Klandacia had many similarities to our planet, earth. It was one of four planets which orbited a star somewhat larger than our sun. It was further from the star than earth is from the sun and thus, its year was just over six months longer than an earth year. It spun on its axis rather more slowly than the earth so that a Klandacian day lasted about twenty-seven hours. A Klandacian day, that is from midnight to the following midnight, or the period of rotation of the planet on its axis, was subdivided into twelve major time units (not 24 as on earth). A major time unit was further subdivided into twelve intermediate time units which in turn were subdivided into twelve minor time units. Thus, a Klandacian minor time unit corresponded fairly closely to an earth minute. A Klandacian week was seven Klandacian days. The fact that seven days corresponds to an earth week was not entirely a coincidence.

Thus, the make-up of a Klandacian year was as follows.

1 year = 70 weeks = 490 days.

1 year = 4 x 120 day seasons with 10 extra days.

The 10 extra days were split 2,3,2,3 between each season and were observed as public holidays.

1 season = 4 x 30 day months.

Although significantly larger than earth, the gravitational pull experienced on its surface was very close to that of earth’s gravity. This was probably due to the incandescent core of the planet being less dense than that of earth, perhaps a higher proportion of aluminium and less of iron. Klandacia was the second smallest planet which orbited its star. The smallest planet in this particular solar system was very much closer to its parent star while the two larger planets orbited the star at the sort of distances that the planets Saturn and Jupiter are from the sun. The atmosphere of Klandacia was twenty per cent oxygen, seventy-four per cent nitrogen, five per cent argon and one per cent other gases like carbon di-oxide and water vapour. Thus, a human could survive very comfortably on Klandacia as could a Klandacian on the earth.

Plants and animals had evolved on Klandacia which had strong similarities to plants and animals on earth. The animal species could be subdivided into mammals, birds, reptiles and fish with just a small set of species whose life cycle was not totally different from the creatures we call amphibians. Countless species of invertebrate existed of which insect-like creatures were the most numerous. Almost all the insect-like creatures had brightly coloured wings but only a few had wings as large as butterflies or moths.

The four young people who will be the main subjects of this story were humanoid. Although their biochemistry was somewhat different from humans, there were only two markedly different external features. They had six toes on each foot and five fingers as well as the thumb on each hand. Hence, their system of counting and numerals was duodecimal, that is, there were twelve symbols to represent numbers including zero, and twelve would be written in a way which corresponds to our ten (10) and a gross as 100. (If numbers occur in this narrative which are expressed in the Klandacian duodecimal system rather than the earth’s decimal system, they will be written thus - 10 Kl, 60 Kl, 100 Kl) Their century equivalent would be a gross of years. The life expectancy of a Klandacian was