Terra Two Read online

  "So what are we going to do now?" asked sister Mary-Francis.

  "I don't know, do you want to volunteer to become the first human/table hybrid?"

  "No, do you?" The spirits rose again after the near miss and the tempers came right back with them.

  "Look on the bright side, we may be the ones to restore alchemy to its rightful place in science."

  "Yea, we may use this opportunity to turn you into a dishwasher, that pile of dishes kept following me around for hours."

  "Hey!"

  "Please, can we talk reasonably?"

  "She sure can't!"

  "Seth, what do you think?" The commotion finally subsided.

  "If we manage to find out how to duplicate the experiment we might find a use for it, I'm not exactly thrilled to live the rest of my life in a tuna can". She was lovingly referring to the modular dwelling units that were going to become their first home on Terra Two.

  "Sister Roberta, since you found it in your heart to revolutionize science in such close quarters please take a break from your daily chores and spend the next three weeks to research what happened and share with us the modeling equations for an experiment that would SAFELY recreate the result".

  Sister Roberta set diligently to work and indeed produced what was expected of her, since being focused and dutiful were her best attributes, but it would take guts of steel to test the validity of her theories, all things considered.

  ***

  "Stand back, please", said sister Roberta, with a reassuring smile.

  "Oh, that's surely going to help us if we get exposed to space", mumbled sister Jesse, morosely.

  "Shut up, jinx!" hissed sister Joseph. "So help me, if anything goes wrong I'll blame you!"

  "Please be quiet", said Seth, with a firm but calm voice that didn't reveal her inner tension. "Go ahead, sister!"

  If sister Roberta had any misgivings about the experiment going wrong only she and her Maker were privy to that secret because she executed it flawlessly according to the new theoretical model and the results were exactly as predicted. After a while they fine tuned the technique using various blends of potentially compatible materials and found a very interesting combination of metal and ceramic that was not only extremely strong, but the combination was reversible at a specific laser wavelength, so the materials could be used and reused endlessly.

  "So much for recycling", sister Joseph mumbled, unenthused, for as every one in the group knew there was nothing short of rapture that would ever impress her.

  Chapter Eleven

  "If we were shown thereafter, I don't know. If our eyes and minds deceived us, I don't know. If our entire experience was real, I don't know. I can only bear testimony to what was my perception of our surroundings to the best of my knowledge."

  "If I will be so blessed to be welcomed to Paradise when the Lord decides to take me home I now understand that my previous expectations were but a pitiful shadow of His infinite beauty. If Terra Two is real, or even if our minds could fathom it as a vision, then the boundaries of our inadequacy can't allow us to imagine Heaven. Perceiving a universe of infinite dimensions would be as impossible as appreciating the mastery of a symphonic piece if you've never been endowed with hearing. It would be as impossible as defining the color purple if you don't know sight exists."

  "We have eyes but don't see. We have ears, but don't hear. We are so small, so feeble, so incomplete."

  An unusually bright light shone through the view screen and in the first seconds of her awakened state Sarah didn't fully realize where she was. The fact that she woke up from her sleep while the real light penetrating her eyelids was interpreted through her REM state into a very vivid dream about her childhood made it even more confusing. In her dream the sun was shining brightly over the wheat fields and her brothers were flying colorful kites in the midst of a racket of barking dogs and fiendish shrieks.

  It took her a few moments to remember how far away that image was and to become aware that the surrounding light was not part of the dream. A few other sisters were also awake, staring intently at the window.

  Covering half the view screen in strong contrast with the blackness of the void shone Terra Two, formally known as 90354 ENOS. Its surface was a stunning paisley pattern of islands surreally iridescent in light chocolate and deep rose and its sky was studded by a million shiny metal dots that sparkled in the light of dawn, scrumptiously delightful like an enormous chocolate raspberry soufflé bedazzled in rhinestones.

  The sun peeked from behind Terra Two, festooning its edge with a very thin and sharply intense sliver of light that broadened quickly, casting coffee colored shadows on the chocolate rose surface, shimmering on the plane of the water and making it shine like old gold. The images of the methane containers echoed on the restless liquid surface and thin wisps of foam got carried by the breeze to form even and delicate crests between the islands. The waves interfered and harmonized creating complex ephemeral patterns almost as if the planet was trying to tell the newcomers a story in a language so ancient and abstruse only it understood.

  Everyone stood absolutely still in awe of this sight which indeed looked as if it were not of this world, as if it could not have happened because of the whims of an oblivious universe, but was crafted by a most sophisticated artist to impassion the soul.

  A steady streak of tears flowed freely down Sarah's cheeks, tears she wasn't even aware of in the ecstatic experience of bonding with this strange new home, this world of coffee caramel sunsets bedazzled by a million artificial stars.

  Since Sarah still hadn't figured out whether she was alive or dead this moment brought to her attention that she might be contemplating Paradise, or at least her understanding of it, for what other place in creation would be so beautiful, calling directly to her soul like a forbidden siren song?

  The planet got larger and warmer as they continued approaching, lost its curvature showing dimples and ridges and waves crashing softly on the islands' perimeters. As they pierced the edge of the atmosphere the light diffracted in the thin air, creating a refined interpretation of the Northern Lights, if one could imagine them in a warm range of chocolate, rose and rust.

  The sun was now high above the horizon, or suns, was more appropriate to say, to the confusion of them all. Terra Two didn't have two suns, just one, but one of its natural satellites was a gaseous moon that refracted light like a sparkling gemstone. Following the path of two suns in the caramel sky was a hypnotic experience, made even more disorienting by the fact that they were following completely different trajectories. Their paths brought them at times very close together and soon following at complete odds, so one couldn't tell if it was morning, sunset, or high noon until the very second the real sun hid behind the horizon and took with it the reflected light of the satellite. Both suns disappeared suddenly as if they melted in the hot chocolate of the sky, soft like marshmallows, leaving behind nothing but one subdued corona of opalescent gas.

  The sky of Terra Two was so fascinating they almost forgot to breathe. So overwhelmed they were by the continuously changing backdrop that nobody bothered to look down at the deserted surface covered with a fine debris that no root could grab hold of, a wretched mix of what looked like crushed brick with little pieces of cement mixed in, the perfect combination of nutrients, the ideal agricultural land, the miraculous cradle of life that was the soil of their new home.

  Chapter Twelve

  "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and we all thought Terra Two was beautiful. Not as we see it now, with lush fields of soy beans and corn and orchards weighed down with fruit, but as we first laid eyes on her, dusty, sparse and vulnerable, an empty field open to all possibilities, a place for dreams to come true."

  "Maybe we were all crazy, too daring for believing that we could breathe life into a mineral world just through the power of our resolve but once there we didn't have the luxury of fear because it would have been useless and defeating. How does one fear the world one
lives in, the sun(s) that sustain it, the sky overhead? We loved Terra Two and she loved us back, furthering a new frontier for the human race with her unmatched plenty."

  The shuttle touched the ground gently and everything became very quiet. A sense of permanence crept in, a feeling that this was no longer a daring adventure but their reality from this day forward. Even though they haven't yet stepped foot on the soft brick colored dust they could feel it under their soles, after all they had spent years puttering in Terra Two's dirt back home, half a galaxy away.

  The words 'back home' were going to linger in their vocabulary for months or years to come until each and every one of them realized that 'back' was not home, Terra Two was home, their real home. They had all lived and breathed the vision of her despite disapproval, concern and ridicule and became so attached to the possibility of this brand new mysterious world beckoning to them from afar, a world they all knew they could reach but didn't really expect to, that living on earth was but a shadow, a preparation for fulfilling this dream.

  Finally the dream turned into reality, here they were, on their long awaited promised land, and it was barren! As beautiful as the chocolate raspberry jewel looked from above, picture if you please a completely deserted expanse of ruddy dirt dotted by brick colored boulders in an atmosphere of uneven density that made light and sight lines bow and buckle in weird ways.

  The group paused for a second before deciding to step foot on their dream world. It looked so eerie they were a bit afraid that once they took the leap of faith out of the shuttle airlock their collective hallucination would disappear, they would fall into a gaseous mass and keep falling through it until they reached the other side.

  It was warm on Terra Two, a constant 82 degrees that didn't drop much at night, and the balmy thin air made them lightheaded. Breezes moved oxygen dense pockets around and breathing felt almost like having to share an oxygen tube under water at times, courtesy of the problem with the methane stratification that the terraforming team was so familiar with.

  Terra Two's dirt was solid enough though, just as silty and rusty as they remembered, squishing softly under their shoes without one particle of dust sticking to them. As they stood in the middle of this desolate land, a few feet away from their small shuttle, they looked like the only fish in an endless ocean.

  Seth maintained her usual composure as if being stranded light years away from Earth without food, water, shelter or emergency assistance was normal. She gathered the sisters around her while the engineering teams designated scouts to survey the terrain.

  "Sister Joseph, after it's being decided where we set the base camp please get Jesse and Mary-Francis and start assembling the tuna cans. Sister deAngelis, find the food rations, I'm sure they're buried under Sarah's earthly possessions. Sister Roberta, please use your magic and get the communication devices and the power generators running as soon as you can. Sarah, are your plants still alive?"

  Sarah didn't respond, so Seth continued.

  "I assume that means yes, start bringing the trays outside, it would be nice to get everything started before sunset, whenever that may be", she said tentatively, looking up at the two suns that danced their completely random pathways across the sky.

  "The air is too thin", gasped sister Joseph, uncomfortably.

  "It's the only air we have, the sooner you get used to it, the better".

  "I don't know what I was thinking coming here. You're never to old to be a fool", sister Joseph mumbled, frowning at the methane containers that moved gracefully over head. For any other person that image would have been a poet's dream, but the sister was not particularly impressed by poetry or fond of the great outdoors. Roughing it brought back memories of homelessness and starvation for her, so she took as little time as possible to do her work and ran back into the relative comfort of the shuttle to snuggle under her blanket.

  Seth turned to Sarah, to the dismay of the latter. Sarah had learned that whenever Seth was tense she would act out by demanding unholy amounts of detail from the person closest to her, and at this point Sarah was that person.

  "Where are the lima beans, I thought we started lima beans. Do we have them? I want to see them now. I think we should start with those, they are the most resilient. Sarah, where are the lima beans?" Sarah was holding two trays of lima beans right under Seth's nose.

  "Right here." Seth stared intently at the tiny plants, healthy and green in their peat pods.

  "Set them down in a place with full sun exposure, I want to make sure they get the best growing conditions". Sarah feared for Seth's sanity because there was no object taller than fifteen inches that could possibly cast a shadow on Terra Two except for themselves. She almost expected Seth to ask her to move so she doesn't block the sun.

  "Tomorrow we start brewing slime to mix in the soil. Do you have the bacterial cultures? We can't brew without yeast". Sarah had the bacterial cultures.

  "Bring the bedding borders", said Seth.

  "Where are the power tools?" asked Seth.

  "Do we have a light source?" asked Seth.

  "Are we done?" asked Seth.

  Sarah nodded, dragging out the last of the supports for what was to become a large trellis. The object was about a foot by a foot by eight foot long and weighed her down like led.

  "Have you seen my laser meter?" asked Seth. Sarah shrugged, dragging the very heavy pole and wondering if it could possibly occur to her mentor to lift the other end.

  The suns set abruptly as they were almost done.

  "Great work, sisters, a lot more to do tomorrow". A choir of groans, moans and mumbles accompanied the comment. Sarah couldn't feel her feet and was painfully aware of every muscle fiber in her body. Her pounding headache intensified at the thought of the herculean work to be continued tomorrow.

  "Rest, you're going to need it", Seth said, and then retired to the shuttle. By the time the sisters followed she was already out like a light, in a slumber so deep that a foghorn couldn't wake her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  "It is not easy to explain the reasons for your actions when by all rational standards you look insane. I spent the first days on Terra Two mixing mud. I spent the next years on Terra Two mixing mud and watering. I wish I could invent something noble and heroic, a glorious story that may live in legend, as it is fitting for this extraordinary endeavor of ours, but it would be a lie. We spent our early years on Terra Two pumping and desalinizing water to dump onto the ever thirsty dirt. We watered day and night, until the vapors turned to clouds and the clouds blessed us with rain. We watered until the dirt absorbed all the water it could contain and the air was filled with all the water it could carry."

  "We didn't send progress reports, like the other teams, who built infrastructure with the speed and efficiency expected of them. We didn't comment on the first five crops that were completely compromised as the dirt sucked up all the water with the hissing sound of a hot iron placed on a wet shirt. We did nothing but water until we saw clouds, until we saw rain, until we saw harvest. And it was good."

  The sun popped above the horizon startling the sisters who were already awake. The satellite lit up faithfully as soon as the sunbeams reached it.

  Sarah got up, stretched her painful limbs and was quite ready to fall right back to sleep off the muscle aches, but she met Seth's stark stare half way through the move and quickly reconsidered. She sighed, got up and opened a can from the food rations. She felt more like a cat every day, if cats were able to open their own cans of food: the rations were tiny, round, and contained all the nutritional supplements required for a healthy diet in a vaguely meat-like product with not too much sodium. The sisters were all awake now, listening to sister Joseph complain about her lumpy mattress. Sarah remembered the old story about the princess and the pea, but she kept the smart-aleck comments to herself.

  "Can I have your attention, please?" spoke Seth, in a firm tone of voice. The mumbles slowly ceased. "Where is the time schedule?"

&nbs
p; Sister Felix, who was closest to the desk, pulled out the timetable on which the first week was marked with a tiny dot.

  "Today we start construction on the vegetable beds. Sisters Benedict and Abigail, this is your task. Sister Roberta, could you put your new macromolecular binder to good use and weld the corners? Sarah, start multiplying the microbe cultures, we'll need as much as you can produce as fast as you can produce it. Sisters Mary-Francis and deAngelis, build the trellises. Sister Jove, make sure we have something to eat. Sisters Joseph, Jesse, Therese, Novis and Felix, start assembling the housing units".

  Everybody got to work as fast as their aching bodies allowed. The long trip had taken a toll on their fitness levels and they weren't as spry as they used to be when they were working outside all day in Perpignan. The memory of their suspended garden brought a smile to Sarah's lips and all of a sudden the barrenness surrounding her disappeared and left way to images of wonderful songbirds, butterflies and fragrance. While she was daydreaming about scented lavender fields an air current moved the oxygen pocket she was in and got her winded. She gasped and kept dumping dirt into the trough in front of her, a wide open bin ten foot by ten foot where a slimy mud mixed with bacteria already started bubbling and thickening in the warmth of the morning.

  The sight of Sarah working hard to yield muck looked so absurd to the engineering teams, who were feverishly establishing communication lines and fresh water processing stations, starting power generators and verifying topography, that many questioned the wisdom of the Space Science Academy for bringing these resource consuming, ridiculousness proposing, deer-in-the-headlights looking bunch. They didn't say anything out loud, of course, but decided to work around the sisters and made sure they didn't get involved in anything crucial in nature. Some had heard rumors about sister Roberta's laser bonding tool but since nothing good could possibly come out of the 'flower children', as they called them, it was discounted as another one of their nonsensical make-believes.