Outward Borne (2 page)

“
For certain! I imagine the
government would confiscate the data, or steal it, even break in,
take us hostage.”

“
Yes, there is that, but I mean
dangerous, a danger to everyone, to Earth. If some nation or
organization had this knowledge, they would be able to dominate the
planet, or start a war should others try to stop them. That is the
opposite of what must happen.” DePat was drained.

I was stunned. My grandfather, all
the Voyagers, was a pawn of the alien ObLaDas and now I was drawn
in as well. I was to continue their plan, it seems. Who were they?
I wanted to know about them. How could they launch an interstellar
space mission? They seemed to be the only civilization in the
galaxy to do it. To deliberately give us knowledge far beyond
everything that we had, it could change everything here.
Why?

Chapter 2 ObLa

Minute secretions float freely
into the thick perpetual fog. The dense air reeks of film-covered
spores. Plant spawned oils coat vegetation and furtive animals
alike. So little light finds its way into the hot, humid stench of
the deep mist that the few plants that are visible through the
stagnant gloom are reduced to uniform gray tinted shadows. Distant
sounds are swallowed by the fog and replaced by the muffled hiss of
fine drops hitting the sodden ground. So it has ever
been.

This perpetually cloud-covered
planet and its two oversized moons travel in a nearly circular
orbit around a large main line star. That unnamed sun can be found
midway between the core of our galaxy and its outer rim among a
stream of closely aligned stars along the base of the spiral arm
Orion. It is an extraordinarily smooth round planet without
mountains or oceans. Its dark surface undulates like immovable
swells on a calm sea.

The equator of the dim planet is
aligned with its sun, and so it has no noticeable or even
measurable seasons. Time passes unmarked. Thick clouds retain
surface heat within its heavy atmosphere; temperatures never vary.
Neither sun, moon, nor stars can be seen through the layered clouds
and the dense surface fog. There is no indication from its sodden
surface that this dismal planet orbits its sun or that its moons
exist. There are no lunar months or solar years, nothing beyond a
recurrent change in the level of light from the dim colorless day
to an even dimmer, darker night. The universe in its wide expanse
is unknown. Nothing is known to exist beyond the surface of the
planet ObLa.

The atmosphere is especially
thick, having a surface pressure several times higher than Earth.
Wind within this dense atmosphere has an impressive power to have
its way. A breeze can blow sand and dirt into the sky and a strong
wind will topple anything standing. Storms are uniformly fatal to
anything living above ground and even ravage the planet’s surface,
tearing away plants and stripping soil from its layers. Dune-like
hills form and blow over, creeping across the land in an
irresistible desiccated slow motion flood.

Strong winds rage in an upper
atmosphere between the thick bands of unbroken cloud. Layer after
layer, each reflects its share of light as if protecting the
permanent gloom. Globe circling currents stir the thick, dense air
unimpeded; no mountain ranges disrupt its variable progress. Wild
storms frequently descend to the surface in the extreme northern
and southern latitudes where thick air flows heavily over the
well-scoured land like an invisible river in full flow. Nothing
lives in the dangerous barren wastes that bracket the prevailing
calm of the central plains.

There, thick oily fog is a
constant presence. Visibility varies marginally from day to day as
the dimly lit mist is blown about in the mild breezes that stir
languidly across the midlands of the planet. The flat, featureless
horizon is never seen. The land, the small patch of which is
visible, is without distinction or variety. ObLa’s low, wide mounds
are shallow; their slope is barely discernible. Surface water is
abundant with massive bogs, shallow ponds and broad lakes, some
quite large, but none sufficient in breadth to contain the land. So
ObLa is without oceans, the land is without mountains, and its
surface remains a vast interconnected track of low terrain
liberally splattered by wet.

ObLa is an ancient planet that has
harbored life for longer than Earth has existed. The rich warm
uniform climate once fostered a diverse plant life, but over the
eons of time, the homogeneous terrain and seasonless climate
selected only a few highly evolved survivors. Floating gray mats
grow over the edge of bogs and swamps. Low gray-leafed shrubs
dominate the landscape like dark islands on the grimy yellow land.
A ubiquitous stench drips from their outermost leaves. These oils
coat minute water droplets to markedly slow evaporation and inhibit
their coalescence so that the fine mist persists as fog and rarely
falls as rain.

These ancient, slow-growing plants
have thick, rigid, widespread branches that are havens for the
small animals that thrive beneath their protective cover. Small
parasitic plants live on these robust supports. No flowers. Flat
mats of low, broad-leaved ground cover grow within the open spaces
surrounding each plant-island. The thick mist and poor light make
escape easy, and attack must be quick and decisive. Predators are
sedentary opportunists that spend much of their lives lying in wait
for prey. No eagles or sight hounds on this planet. The pungent
atmosphere and limited light precludes most sniffing out, spying,
and chasing strategies. Lurk and leap has always been the order of
the day.

Night is filled by a flickering
darkness. The sky is black, but a dim variable glow surrounds
phosphorescent plants that pulsate for hours after night arrives.
Quick yellow and green flashes can be seen among the leaves as
small animals signal their presence. Few large animals roam the
stifling, malodorous plains. Solitary grazing animals move among
the clover-like plants and wade knee deep in the shallow bogs.
Smaller beasts flit beneath the sheltering branches of the hard low
shrubs. Long thin creatures populate the bogs and marshes only
rarely emerging from the muck to move and breed. All are covered in
a glistening slime. Nothing lives on ObLa that is not covered by
the foul smelling secretions of its oozing plants.

A band of stocky, chattering
hexapods disperse among the larger shrubs. They slink silently into
the shadows to wait. These hunters, the leading species on ObLa,
are rather more broad than tall, having six limbs, short in the
rear, longer in front, that lead down from a flabby, hanging folds
of multicolored striped flesh. They have no head that we would
recognize, only a lump with two protruding eyes in front and oval
purple lips below, constantly moving opening, tasting, smelling,
swallowing the air around it. Extremely agile, able to run, swim
and climb using both arms and legs and, when assuming an upright
stance, they can grasp and carry even heavy objects. They are a
versatile platform, open to every opportunity.

Their smooth salamander-like skin
continuously secretes a slick mucus coat that combines with the
oily mist to mask their scent. The ooze drips from their skin and
smears the ground as they move. They have no evident nose or ears,
but possess two prominent eyes capable of moving separately, and
that mobile, sucking, puckering mouth. With excellent night vision
and acute hearing, they blend into the shadows on the edge of ponds
and pathways to wait with infinite patience for their prey. Sight
and hearing are highly developed, but are warped by the dim
colorless fogbound environment. They see no color; only shades of
gray, often sitting motionless and alert as their surroundings fade
from consciousness, perceiving only movement that disrupts a barely
perceived background. They can sit as if transfixed for hours on
end, perfectly content, having a visual response to movement rather
than color or light, with hearing attuned to the unexpected among
an unwelcome background, and with an ingrained tendency to remain
idle, thinking, but not observing.

These beings are not cold-blooded,
dimwitted reptile-like brutes lying opened-mouthed waiting for
something to stumble past, though they may appear to be. They were
once a socially communicative species that lived in small groups
throughout the planet’s central regions, a hot, oppressive region
where uneaten kills spoiled quickly in the damp ObLa climate.
Catching prey was difficult and occasional. An isolated adult could
not survive for an extended period. Without food for a few days,
even the strongest weakened and their ability to capture enough to
survive diminished rapidly. From the past to the present, survival
has always depended on being part of a cooperative
group.

Coordinated hunting is more
successful than any individual could manage and, when larger
animals are brought down, all would share before spoilage. They
lived in groups of twenty to thirty where they were able to spread
out over a substantial area in search of food, while still being
close enough to come together to capture and consume large
prey.

ObLa is an ancient planet in which
the surviving animal species are highly evolved for success. The
leading species has overcome many survival challenges because of
its environmentally sensitive, hormonally controlled behavior and
reproduction. They do not have an identifiable gender until
reaching puberty, and there is no visible superficial difference
between the sexes even then. During the ever-interesting
reproductive act, they rub the designated orifices together,
hopefully with great pleasure, and exchange some bodily fluids,
among which they each have what amounts to a reproductive
half-cell. If the participants are male and female, these
half-cells may combine and produce a gender-neutral outcome. If
not, the act still had short-term rewards.

There are few secondary sexual
characteristics, so little change is need switch genders, and the
number of males and females at any time is determined by the
situation and group’s apparent needs. If times are good, the female
hormones predominate, more individuals are transformed to nurturing
fertile female body forms, and a high birth rate naturally follows.
If times are difficult or threatening, females become infertile and
convert to male types. If aggressive males take things too far,
their hormones back off and they may be switched over to a
domestically inclined female mode.

They are chemically driven to seek
what is best for their community for hormones control their
emotions, as well as their physiological functions. Personal glory,
rugged individualism, and individual success are physically
noxious, while providing for the tribe is a pleasurable occupation.
ObLa shaped these and all other successful species through the
relentless force of its constant uniform environment. The species
persisted largely unchanged in physical form while continuing to
develop a strengthening mental acuity.

The Eureka event that enabled the
beings of the planet ObLa, the ObLaDas, to overcome and eventually
rise above their oppressive surroundings was the introduction of a
semi-automated prey-capturing device. Rather than waiting around
the edge of their designated pond for some not-too-alert wiggling
prey, the trap idea allowed the inventive ObLaDa to stake out
several ponds while sitting at ease upon the local rock. Initially,
they used a simple noose made from a coarse, barbed fiber that
firmly held the entrapped quarry. This advance led to a
simultaneous increase in food intake and leisure time, which
allowed this erstwhile slug to turn its now liberated mind to
higher thoughts. In spite of its lethargic appearance, the ObLa had
an active and fertile intellect. Over time, they developed advanced
capabilities in mathematics, the sciences, and engineering, and
eventually to some wizard technology in material handling and
fabrication. All the basic sciences, but none of the arts, it
seems.

The ObLaDas never really adapted
to living in groups larger than about thirty. They grew physically
anxious and uncomfortable when in a crowd. As their civilization
developed to include advanced technologies and city living, they
still maintained small social units at the core of their daily
lives. Physical traits required by their ancient past persisted
even within a civilized culture as they were still prone to sit
motionless focused on some thought, unmoving for long periods,
undisturbed by the sameness of their surroundings, uninterested in
diversions, paintings, decorations, music, even so much as a
colored wall.

All this happened in the dim past
of ObLa and the ObLaDas went on to develop an extremely stable and
ancient culture. The pace of ObLaDa social and scientific
advancement was decidedly slow, but progress was not set back by
wars and overpopulation that many other advanced societies have
repeatedly faced. Much of the credit for this is due to the
biofeedback that is linked to their somewhat ambivalent gender
situation. It all seems to have worked rather well as the ObLaDas
have one of the most enduring technologically advanced societies
existing within our galaxy and one uniquely suited for interstellar
space travel.

For the moment, however, the
ObLaDas had no idea that the universe existed, or that anything
existed beyond the perpetual cloud cover that hung over their
shapeless heads. That, however, was about to change and that change
would lead, in the fullness of time, to the people of the planet
ObLa becoming the first civilization within the galaxy to lead a
voyage through interstellar space.