FOREWORD
IN APPRECIATION TO THOSE WHO HAVE RISKED THEIR LIVES REACHING THE STARS:
ASTRONAUTS
Buzz Aldrin, William A. Anders, Michael P. Anderson, Neil Armstrong, Alan Bean, Guion S. Bluford Jr., Charles Bolden, Frank Borman, Vance Brand, David M. Brown, Scott Carpenter, Gerald Carr, Eugene Andrew Cernan, Roger V. Chaffee, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Eileen Collins, Michael Collins, Charles Conrad Jr., L. Gordon Cooper Jr., Robert Laurel Crippen, R. Walter Cunningham, Donn Eisele, Owen K. Garriott, Edward Gibson, John H. Glenn Jr., Richard F. Gordon Jr., Virgil I. Grissom, Fred W. Haise Jr., Susan Helms, Rick D. Husband, James B. Irwin, Mae Jemison, Mark Kelly, Scott Kelly, Joseph Kerwin, James A. Lovell Jr., Shannon Wells Lucid, Christa Corrigan McAuliffe, Bruce McCandless, William C. McCool, James A. McDivitt, Ronald McNair, Michael Melvill, Edgar D. Mitchell, Barbara Morgan, Story Musgrave, Bill Nelson, Ellen Ochoa, Sally Ride, Stuart A. Roosa, Jerry Ross, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Harrison Schmitt, David Scott, Alan B. Shepard Jr., Donald Kent Slayton, Thomas P. Stafford, Kathryn Sullivan, John L. Swigert Jr., David Mathieson Walker, Edward H. White II, Peggy Whitson, Sunita Williams, Alfred Worden, John W. Young, Franz Viebock, Dirk Frimout, Pyotr Iiyich Klimuk, Marcos Pontes, Helen Sharman, Georgy Ivanov, Roberta Bondar, Marc Garneau, Julie Payette, Robert Thirsk, Liu Yang, Yang Liwei, Zhai Zhigang, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, Vladimir Remek, Wubbo Ockels, Jean-Loup Chretien, Claudie Haignere, Sigmund Jahn, Ulf Merbold, Bertalan Farkas, Rakesh Sharma, Ilan Ramon, Franco Malerba, Akiyama Toyohiro, Mohri Mamoru, Mukai Chiaki, Yi Soyeon, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Rodolfo Neri Vela, Jugderdemidiin Gurragcha, Miroslaw Hermaszewski, Dumitru Prunariu, Pavel Belyayev, Valery Bykovsky, Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov, Yury Alekseyevich Gagarin, Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov, Yelena Kondakova, Sergey Konstantinovich Krikalyov, Valery Kubasov, Aleksey Arkhipovich Leonov, Andriyan Grigoryevich Nikolayev, Viktor Ivanovich Patsayev, Valery Vladimirovich Polyakov, Nikolay Nikolayevich Rukavishnikov, Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya, Gennady Mikhailovich Strekalov, Valentina Tereshkova, Gherman Stepanovich Titov, Aleksandr Volkov, Sergey Volkov, Vladislav Nikolayevich Volkov, Boris Borisovich Yegorov, Sultan ibn Salman Al Saud, Ivan Bella, Mark Shuttleworth, Pedro Duque, Christer Fuglesang, Claude Nicollier, Leonid Kadenyuk, Pham Tuan, Abdul Ahad Mohmand.
CHAPTER ONE
Air pressure? Check! Clear lens? Check! Weapons ready? Check! Time? O’ Six Hundred! Check! Okay, the plan is to go one sector north west in a sweep. Check the radio.” “Test, Testing, 1 – 2 – 3.” “Okay, radio good. Hey, Moody, you be careful out there.” “Will do. This is not going to be my last trip.” Bob is very meticulous. He misses nothing. He is what one might call a geek.
I am thankful for that. It is amazing what this man knows, and his wife Victoria, well let’s just say they are two peas in a pod. Today I am doing a sweep in the north west sector to investigate the safety of travel in the area. It should be uneventful. One never knows. It is our first time to venture out from the craft. We have been here for weeks and there has been nothing out of the realm of a normal day.
Okay Bob here goes. Oh, hold on, hold on, hand me the translator. Bob reached into his pocket with a smile because he designed this fantastic piece of equipment. You may laugh but Bob likes to call it the “Bobilator”…… Give me a break. But to be truthful it is a brilliant tool that is used to communicate with different species. The amazing thing is as time goes by it becomes more and more accurate that it boggles the mind. Keep an eye on the monitors and let me know if anything is suspect. Will do Moody. Releasing outer door in three, two, one… pooossshhhhh…the door opens. Okay, Bob! I am making the exit. As I exit, a sudden sense of awareness as all of my senses have hit hyperdrive. These are the times when all senses must be at maximum alert. Who knows what may happen?
Slowly, I exit the vessel, and begin to make a sweep starting from the west moving north. It’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining, just like our Earth’s sun. Some clouds about. All in all just like a normal day…on earth. But here……is it? Out of the corner of my eye I catch a movement in the very unusual shrubbery. Did you catch that in those bushes at about 40 meters Bob? Yes I have my scanners on it. Nothing so far.
Okay so these shrubs have leaves like any shrub you might think of but with a tint of blueish pale purple. Almost like the pearl paint we use to see on the cars of years past. You know where looking straight at the car it is one color but when you see it from an angle it has a tint of another color. The leaves are blue but from an angle they have a purple tint. Very odd. I think I will call these shrubs “Blurple’s”.
Anyway my attention is on things all around but also on these blurples, and what made them move like they did. The grass is high so anything can hide in there. This is going to be a long day. My suit is cumbersom. That is to say thick, heavy and slow. But the one thing is, it is pierce resistant and the best part is that it carries an electric charge so that if I am attacked what or whomever attacks will sustain a good heavy jolt of electricity. Hopefully this will be enough. Yes I have weapons, but hopefully I will not have to use them.
Slowly I am making my way to the first planned destination. Could be 100 meters or so west and 50 meters north of the vessel and all is well so far. Again I see movement but nothing definite. Bob did you see the to my left out at 35 meters? Yes I did, said Bob, and scanners are picking up something but not sure what it is. Well I had hoped this would be an eventless undertaking, but, it is starting to look like that was wishful thinking. So many colorful birds in the sky. Reminds me of home. Along the way I am searching possible places to install temporary towers for the “Bobilator”.
The network we will install in set areas will monitor the sounds and movements of animals. This will over time allow the Artificial Intelligence algorithms to kick in and the “Bobilator” will slowly pick up the information and send it through his proprietary software and before you know it over time you have a translator that speaks to different species much like the electronic translators back home from Japanese to English, Spanish to German, etc…. only with the “Bobilator” it is actually translating From a human language to an animal language and an animal language to a human language. This is unbelievably useful!!
Again there is movement in the grasses. Bob have you gotten a fix on this movement? No not yet, but stay away from the area and move around it. I will keep constant surveillance on it as well as anything else that might show up. As I make my way towards the sector we call, “FunkyTown”, this was Bob’s contribution on the Funks since this is the area we first saw this new species we call “Funk’s”. Who knows just maybe I can get a closer look at this species and collect more info on them. All in all, I have managed to move over 50 more meters which is not bad considering how cautious we have to be. There is no second chances here. If I get hurt there is no hospital we can go to. Yes we have a medic and is well trained but there is just so much Sandy can do.
Sometimes I think back on Earth how Lisa and I would go down to the beach and hunt for shell’s and such… Bob, it is following my position. Try to not let it sneak up on me. “Got it, not to worry we have 5 different angles whatever it is, it will not get to you” Bob said over the radio. Bob is in the control room where many computers are watching every movement, poised and ready to react at a moments notice to protect me from harm. I have to admit this system is very powerful. In a millisecond it will calculate the danger and react in a way that will halt any attack yet not kill the attacker only stun and stop. That is unless it is necessary to react harsher. It is comforting to know this. The only problem is that this is based on all human knowledge. What about what we don’t know?