Earth's Last Angel (34 page)

Months pass and nothing happens, then as they approached Ceres someone places an egg in each of Endorok's spacesuit boots. The eggs were on the turn when they were placed in the boots, two weeks later they are fit to bust, going soft and green. Putrid would be a good word to describe the waiting stink bombs!

Endorok wears his coveralls and neoprene bootees fitted with high grip rubber soles. He opens the back of his spacesuit, climbing in oblivious to the waiting surprises in his suit boots. He wiggles his feet into the space boots and with a muffled pop both eggs go off simultaneously. Still with no clue, Endor seals his suit and fits his helmet. As the auto seal mechanism activated, so does the pressurized air supply, giving Endor an experience he'll never forget! The stink is horrendous, his eyes instantly water as a massive fountain of vomit power spews, out of his mouth, splashing all over the inside of his helmet visor. By this time the entire crew is on the suit floor squealing with laughter and slapping at his helmet. They let him suffer a little longer, then rescue him from the evil smelling suit!

Maxxy collapses on his sleeping bag, howling with laughter holding his belly.

‘You're too much, Granddad!' he wheezes.

‘From that day on horseplay is banned!' I say, making a fake scowling face straight at him, sending Maxxy into another fit of laughter.

After Maxxy settles down a bit, I continue with the story.

Ceres is classed as a small planet. She is 1003 km in diameter, with an icy water mantle containing more fresh water than Thera, some 200 million cubic km of water. The surface temperature varies from 168 Kelvin to 235 Kelvin.

‘Approaching landing target, back off thrust just a fraction, Adam,' instructs Mindy the pilot, to her co-pilot.

It's a fine balance of thrust and steering to position the vessel correctly for landing. Gently the vessel touches down on the rock outcrop. The slab of rock is approximately 10 kilometers long and about five wide. The rock slab is actually floating on a sea of liquid gel, much like melting permafrost. The exploration team are already suited up ready to check out the rock.

‘Nev, check this out!' calls Jamey.

Nev walks over to Jamey quite quickly in his powered suit ‘What's up?' he asks as he arrives, squatting down next to Jamey looking over the edge of the rock.

‘I reckon the surface down there is liquid like a thick milkshake.'

‘Good pick up mate! I'll get Chris to bring out the probe arm and we'll check it out before anyone steps out onto it. It could be like quicksand, and we don't want anyone disappearing in that lot!'

Probing confirms Jamey's suspicions and no one is allowed to venture out onto the slushy surface.

Andy drives the drill rig over to where Nev and Jamey are standing close to the edge of the rock. He jumps down to have a look with the lads.

‘It looks a bit dodgy to walk on doesn't it?' he comments to no one in particular.

‘Yep, you won't see me walking around out there,' Nev comments back.

‘How big do you think the core is?' asks Jamey, his mind wandering off for a second.

‘I'll fire up the drill and we'll find out, I think because this asteroid is so soft and liquid its core may be quite large and soft too.'

‘I'm here to look after the data side of things, so it may be a dumb question, but why do you think it could be soft, Andy?' asks Nev.

‘No, your question is not dumb at all Nev, the core tends to be large and soft when the crust is soft.' Answers Andy. ‘When the crust is hard and that hardness penetrates down into the core it creates pressure, and as it does the pressurized core becomes smaller hotter and denser, sometimes either remaining a dense superheated molten liquid, or it cools and becomes solid.'

‘Never thought of it like that before, thanks Andy.'

After punching a few exploratory holes down around the edge of the rock into the soft surface layer, a decision is made to probe deeper towards the core. After six days of continuous drilling they finally enter the core. Two days later they get the first sample from the core. The material is a thick, dense, brown glop that stinks like the aroma of wet sweaty socks left in a plastic bag for a month! Amanda, the geologist, is ecstatic with the discovery.

‘I'll run this sample through the molecular ID profiler and see what we have here!' she blurts, hardly able to contain her excitement.

As she disappears back into the bowels of the vessel, Nev looks at Andy: ‘what's all that about?'

‘I've seen her like this before, when she first discovered tirillium. I think we may have stumbled onto something new here as well, lads.'

There is no viable surface to build a city on. So the decision is made to move onto the next target asteroid Vesta. It will take at least six months to get there. Traveling through the vastness of the asteroid belt holds a few surprises.

‘Shit! What was hell was that!' screams Mindy, as she heaves on the controls in an evasive maneuver.

A massive rock shoots past the vessel, missing it by a hair. Endorok scrambles up to the flight deck to see what all the fuss was over.

‘Endorok, we were nearly a hood ornament on that flip'in huge rock that just flew past!' Mindy yells over her shoulder as Endorok enters the flight deck, still recovering from the evasive maneuver Mindy had just executed.

‘Was that just a rogue rock, or is something else going on?'

‘I'll get the long range scanner flicked over to close range and see what's going on,' comments Adam, as he climbs into his seat wiping the sleep from his eyes.

Endorok looks out the flight deck windows, looking for more angry rocks hell bent on pulverizing them.

‘Endorok, check this out!' Adam yells, his voice tinged with panic, ‘we've strayed into a hot zone!'

‘Get us out of here girl!' he breathes in to Mindy's ear.

‘You don't have to tell me twice!' Mindy responds hauling on the controls.

‘Endorok, we are not out of the woods yet, this seems to be a mobile hot zone. I've never seen anything like it!' squeaks Adam.

‘Adam, can you establish a pattern in its movement? And hopefully predict what direction it's going so we can get as far away from it as possible?'

‘Give me five and I'll see what I can do.'

By this time the entire crew has crowded onto the flight deck various levels of concern on their faces.

‘OK guys, I need the flight deck cleared, can you all wait in the galley? I'll join you as soon as we are clear of this anomaly. Mindy and Adam need their space to figure out what exactly we're dealing with and how to get us out of here. Thanks guys.'

Everyone except Endorok and the flight crew file out to the galley.

‘I'll get a brew on,' comments Nev, ‘anyone else for a coffee?' he asks. Judging by the tight nods he gets from his crew mates they want coffee, and answers.

After 20 minutes or so, Endorok enters the galley.

‘Great news, guys, we are finally moving away from the anomaly. I believe it's a mobile hot, spot the first I've ever encountered. We've managed to capture some significant data as we made our escape. It should help us identify them quicker and avoid going anywhere near them in future.'

A collective sigh of relief sounds as everyone relaxes a little.

‘Mindy saved us from becoming a smudge on that rock guys. I'm sure you'll be keen to thank her for being on the ball.'

A unanimous head nod confirms the crew's gratitude, everyone then files up to the flight deck to thank Mindy. She is a little taken aback by the crew's hugs and thanks. Secretly, she is delighted by the response.

After the intensity of the close call it's a relief to have a couple of weeks of noneventful flight, but, the asteroid belt is not quite finished with them yet, however. It still has a couple of surprises in store for the explorers, the first happens about two months later. Adam spots a strange anomaly on the long range scanner. It looks like a gigantic beating heart! 1700 kilometers across!

‘Endorok, you'd better get up here and take a look at this! In fact you all should come up and have a look,' Adam announces to the crew on the ship's communications link.

The flight deck quickly fills with people trying to guess what the anomaly is on the screen.

They skirt the outer edge of the spectacle, not wanting to get too close. Using their modified scanner they are able to penetrate into the center of the beating heart, past the asteroids forming the loose, beating, outer layer. It is no big surprise to find a large 496 kilometer diameter supercharged magnetic asteroid at the centre. The surprise comes as the scanner penetrated even further into the core of the mini planet. The core structure resembles a large spinning cylinder in a hollow chamber. As the cylinder makes its rotations, its magnetic field either repels or attracts the iron asteroids that surround the core asteroid. making them appear from a distance like a huge beating heart!

‘I never expected to see anything like that!' whispers Nev to himself, in total awe of the spectacle.

‘Such is life, I guess,' mutters Endorok, his eyes still glued to the massive beating heart outside the vessel.

‘Should we name it? Endorok?' Mindy asks.

‘Aye what a grand idea! what should we call it lass?' he asks Mindy, breaking in to his thick brogue accent.

After a lot of toing and froing of potential names, finally they settle on ‘Iron Heart'.

The months slowly pass as they push on for Vesta, the next possible candidate. As they approach the mini planet, long range scans reveal that Vesta is 525 kilometers in diameter with a surface temperature of 85 Kelvin to 270 Kelvin. Now they are only two days away.

‘On final approach to Vesta, Endorok, surface scans are giving me the go ahead to land wherever you choose, it's all pretty solid on the crust.' Mindy reports to Endorok.

‘That large flat area over there,' points Endorok, ‘set her down at the far end. That should set us up with a good size drill floor.'

‘Copy that Endorok.' replies Mindy, as she maneuvers the massive prospecting vessel ‘Croc's Eyeball' to the spot Endorok has pointed to.

Gently the craft touches down on the rock surface.

Drillers and geologists, or rock lickers as their mates call them, are the first teams out on to the surface. Drill teams are busy pacing out a grid pattern and spraying colored dots on the rock floor where they will drill their core sample holes. The geological team explores the rock outcrops, chipping away at loose rocks and cracks in the rock face, looking for samples to identify.

After six months of extensive survey, many new minerals and elements are identified and logged into the data base. This little rock is a full on treasure trove! However on drilling down to the core, a shocking discovery is made. Its core is a totally new nuclear isotope 20,000 times more powerful than weapons grade plutonium! Endorok has the hole sealed off, and annexes Vesta as off limits, with strictly no access until adequate safety and mineral extraction protocols are put in place. Their hearts sink as Vesta shrinks behind them, she promised to be an excellent prospect to build the great city. But the risk from the core is too great. Their last real hope is the largest rock of all, the rock that hides behind the red planet. the mini planet called U'kala.

The long journey to U'kala is taken up with mineral sample and data analysis. A sacrificial pod is towed behind the ‘Croc's Eyeball' to conduct studies and experiment with the new minerals and elements. If something should go wrong, then the pod can be cut loose, preventing the loss of the ship and her crew.

‘Endorok, we are closing in on U'kala, data from the scanner is starting to come in.' Mindy informs Endorok.

U'kala has a diameter of 2146 kilometers. Its surface temperature is from 143 Kelvin to 267 Kelvin. Learning from their previous mistake, the first task is to drill a hole straight down into the core. Three months of tenacious drilling later reveals a solid pure iron core, everyone is relieved. Now the survey can swing into full speed ahead. Six months later, with the survey complete, Endorok opens communications with the Sobek.

‘Captain, we believe our search for our new home is over! I am sending you a data parcel listing the total breakdown of U'kala's internal structure. I believe with the ice deposits at the polar caps we have more than a 100 year window, supporting up to two million souls. This is the Goldilocks rock, it's just right! You will be able to build whatever size city you want.'

‘The data is as solid as a rock!' Endorok laughs at his own joke to the Captain.

Back on the Sobek, Val communicates with his older brother using the implant in his head. Nolack-1 boosts the signal for him to reach the Croc who is busy back on Thera.

‘Hey big yin…good news!'

‘What?…Better than me getting hitched?' putting on a fake sulk.

‘Maybe…' Val teases his older brother.

‘Endorok and the survey crew have confirmed our hunch. It would seem from the data parcel Endorok sent me that U'kala will be the pick of the asteroids to build ‘Sky Jewel'. I'm having Nolack-1 send you the data parcel now. I must admit Vesta is a massive surprise, a radioactive core 20,000 times more powerful than weapons grade plutonium! Who would have guessed?'

‘Mmm…could be useful in the future I guess.' murmured the Croc.

‘Well…we will stay well clear of it until we can safely extract it and the other useful minerals and elements that are on Vesta.'

‘Yes, good plan, we'll get our best people on working out a safe recovery plan for Vesta.'

‘So how is your lovely bride to be?'

‘Taneasia has just completed her diplomacy module. She seems to be taking it all in her stride, although I suspect she hasn't quite come to terms yet with the fact that she will be Queen of our kingdom.' Croc smirks with his younger brother.