Walt Trizna's Blog, page 43

THE SUPERIOR SPECIES: PART V, THE BIRTH

                                           THE BIRTH

 Bill March had three women he had used as surrogate mothers in the past who refused to see the babies for whom they had made life possible.  They were ready to perform the function again.  All were young, in their mid to late twenties and all were single.  They were all paid for their service and all three shared similar feelings about their pregnancy.  They wanted to provide a family to couples who needed help.

The three women were each implanted with two of the Neanderthal embryos.  They were all told that the fetuses belonged to a very wealthy couple, and that they would be paid well for their services and their confidentiality.  When it came time to deliver the babies, the births would take place at the couple’s country estate.  All preparations had been taken to equip a room at the estate with the criteria of a delivery room, all the latest equipment necessary to handle whatever emergency might occur.

Two of the women miscarried.

These miscarriages revived the doubts March originally felt about the project. 

Pat Meyers carried the last two fetal Neanderthals to term.  She knew she was pregnant with twins, but she grew no larger than she had when she carried a single child.  This disturbed her.  She also knew she carried two boys.  Even with her doubts, it made her happy to know she was bringing joy and creating a family.  She was making it all possible.

Two weeks before her due date, she was moved to a country estate in northern Connecticut.  The house belonged to Gold and had been in his family for many years.  Mark told the two nurses who would assist in the delivery, “The babies may seem somewhat peculiar.  You will be paid to overlook anything out of the ordinary.  After all, we must be sensitive to the parent’s feelings.”

Pat went into labor and had an extremely easy delivery.  Although she had carried the babies to term, both were less than four pounds at birth.

Each nurse cared for one of the infants.  The boys were covered with a fine down of black hair.  One of the nurses whispered to the other, “Look at his head.  It’s so misshapen after such an easy delivery.”

Once the babies were settled in the nursery, the nurses left the estate.  As they walked to their cars one said to the other, “Those infants were indeed peculiar with their misshapen skulls and covered with hair like an ape.  But the one thing I will never forget about them was their eyes.  They weren’t the eyes of any baby I’ve ever seen.  They had a weird look to them, like intelligence.  I felt they were looking right through me.

The other nurse responded, “Did you also get the feeling that they feared our touch.  I’ve never seen that in a newborn before.”

THE SUPERIOR SPECIES: PART IV, THE CLONING

                                       THE CLONING

John Sanders received the frozen tissue samples from Gold.  As he gazed at the sample packed in dry ice, he could not believe he was peering into a box containing a tissue sample of a ‘man’ dead thirty thousand years.  Sanders’ ego did not get the better of him.  He knew he had been out of the lab for too long to attempt the important work that lay ahead.  He employed a promising PhD candidate, Michael Rose, to do the actual work.  He would tell Rose as little as possible about the nature of the experiment.  The meeting at Gold’s study had left him with the feeling that he was involved in a conspiracy rather than an experiment, the fewer people that knew about the true purpose of the experiment, the better.

Sanders’ first meeting with Rose went well.  “Michael, I would like you to help me in a special project.”

“Certainly Dr. Sanders.  I’m a little desperate for a new project now that the study I’m working on is going nowhere.”

Sanders said, “It’s a cloning experiment.”

“Fantastic,” said Rose.  “What will we be cloning?”

Sanders hesitated, and then answered, “A non-human primate.”

“Has that ever been done before Dr. Sanders?”

“Not to my knowledge.  We would be making history.”

Rose could not believe his luck.  He was going from a dead-end research project to an historic experiment.

“When do we begin?”

“Immediately,” Sanders said.  “I already have a tissue sample from which you can extract the DNA for the cloning.  I also have a list of references I want you to read and extract from them the method used to fertilize the egg and develop it into an embryo.”

                                                      * * *

Two weeks later Rose had the DNA extracted and the materials he would need for the union of the egg and extracted DNA to begin their journey to a living entity.

Sanders called Mark, “Bill, we’re ready to implant the DNA into the eggs.”

“I’ll ship them out by express mail,” said Mark.  “Good luck!”

The eggs arrived in a container of liquid nitrogen.  The paperwork indicated that there were ten eggs contained in the container.  When all was ready, with Sanders at his side, Rose began the cloning experiment.

The eggs were rapidly thawed.  Once thawed, Rose removed their DNA and inserted the ‘primate DNA’ he had prepared.  Each egg was given its own petri dish of life sustaining fluids and put into an incubator.

Both Sanders and Rose periodically checked on the eggs.  Initially, all ten began to divide.  But soon four of the small balls of cells died.  The remaining six progressed to a point where they could be slowly cooled, then frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen until they could be implanted into a uterus.

Rose was excited as he entered Sanders’ office.  “Dr. Sanders, the embryos are frozen.  I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the experiment.”

Sanders said, “I’ll let you know how things progress.”

“Do we have the monkeys that will carry the embryos to term here?”

“No Michael, the implantation will be done at another institution.”

After Rose left, Sanders sat at his desk and thought, You’ll be told the embryos all died after implantation.  For you, this experiment is over.

Strangely, Sanders found himself feeling envy for Rose.  His dreams had recently been haunted by what this adventure might produce.

SUPERIOR SPECIES: PART III, NEW HAVEN CONNETICUT

             New Haven, Connecticut

 It was a wild night with a howling and frigid wind buffeting the windows of the senior faculty house on the Yale campus.  Sheets of rain kept all the details of the world beyond the windows indefinite.

Four men, leaders in their fields, sat before a roaring fire, the flames reflecting off the dark wooden panels of the study walls.  Each man held a brandy stiffer and appreciated the ambiance of the room and the moment.  The men were in one of the faculty houses provided to senior members of Yale.  The residence was that of Dr. Carl Gold, an evolutionary psychologist.  Gold was in his mid sixties, and with his trim build and gray mane of hair, would not be out of place in the boardroom of a major company or arguing on the floor of the senate. He was a leader in his field with a worldwide reputation. 

Gold had invited three men he knew by reputation as giants in their own fields.  He also knew them all personally, in varying degrees, and was confident that what was discussed this stormy night would not go beyond the walls of his study. 

Across from Gold sat Fred Fielding.  Tall and gaunt, Fielding had a permanent tan from his many field trips as physical anthropologist.  Next to Fielding was John Sanders, a world-renowned human geneticist.  Sanders published his work in all the major journals, but most of his work was now tied up in the debate over the use of human stem cells.  Sanders, with his short thick build, was the opposite of Fielding.  With his thick black hair and swarthy complexion, he was often mistaken for a maintenance man.  The broken nose he earned during his collegiate boxing career added to the image.

The last of the three invited guests was Dr. Bill Mark, a fertility specialist and adjunct professor in Yale’s medical school.  Tall, slim and blond, with his athletic build, he appeared to be in his mid forties although he was well on the way to sixty.  As each man introduced himself and discussed their specialties, Mark wondered if he had been summoned to this meeting by mistake.  His discipline did not fit in with the others present.  He was not a researcher.  He was a physician.

Gold surveyed his colleagues and friends.  “Gentlemen, the storm that rages beyond these walls will be dwarfed by the storm that may rage within these walls tonight.  I’m sure you are all aware of the magnificent discovery made in the Swiss Alps.  The body of a perfectly preserved Neanderthal, using carbon dating, is estimated to be thirty thousand years old.  I have spent my life in the study of these creatures.  From the time the first Neanderthal skull was found in 1848, this subset of man has remained a mystery.  We are still trying to fathom the extent of their intelligence and how they fit into the human tree of development.

“There are many facts about these distant relatives of modern man that lead to fascinating conjecture.  To begin with, their brains were ten percent larger than that of modern man, yet they are thought to be simple brutes.  We now know that Neanderthals manufactured tools and produced art.  The mask found on the banks of the Loire in France was an unexpected find.  The fact that they produced art indicates they had an appreciation of life beyond their own existence.  They apparently did lack one skill.  They were not as adept at fashioning weapons as their fellow bipeds.

“Another intriguing discovery found in the Kebara Cave in Israel was a Neanderthal bone of extreme importance.  The bone I refer to was a Neanderthal hyoid bone.  This find dispels the theory that Neanderthals could do nothing but grunt.  The presence of a hyoid bone indicates they were capable of speech.  Taking into consideration other aspects of their skulls, it is thought that Neanderthals had a high, nasal voice.

 “There are many questions to be answered, and now we have the means at our disposal to journey from conjecture to fact.  I have obtained a sample of the newly discovered Neanderthal.  The reason I have called you all together this evening is to formulate a plan, that my utilizing modern genetics and in vitro fertilization, will produce a Neanderthal.  We shall be able to answer all the questions that have plagued modern man about the Neanderthal enigma.”

Fred Fielding was the first to speak.  “As a physical anthropologist, I look forward to examining the body of the recently discovered Neanderthal.  But your point is clear.  To see how the physical characteristics, whose meaning we assume to deduce, come into play in a living specimen would mean phenomenal advances in our knowledge of man’s distant relative.”

John Sanders, the geneticist, now spoke up.  “With a specimen from this newly discovered Neanderthal, modern genetics could solve, once and for all, the debate of where Neanderthals reside in man’s family tree.  However, what you propose is to produce a living individual.  To do that would require cloning, a method too dangerous to try on a human – to say nothing about it being illegal.”

Gold said, “My dear Dr. Sanders, you would not be cloning a member of the Homo sapiens species.  You would be cloning an example of Homo neanderhtalensis.”

A smile crept across Sanders’ face.  This argument would be viable, until the law caught up with the science.  “In that case, I am willing to isolate the DNA.  What we would need next is a human egg and female willing to carry the Neanderthal to term.”

All eyes were now on Dr. Mark, the fertilization specialist.  He said, “I now see where I fit in.  I see how we all fit into this project.  I will not mince words.  I feel uncomfortable about this proposition.  The mechanisms of the plan would be simple.  I have a supply of donor eggs.  We can remove the egg’s DNA and using cloning methods described in the literature, insert Neanderthal DNA and initiate mitosis.  I also have a group of women we use in my practice who are willing to carry babies as surrogate mothers, but refuse to see the baby after birth.  They want no chance to form an attachment to the child.

“I think the experiment Dr. Gold proposes can be accomplished.  My question is should it be done?  By using the scientific name of the Neanderthal as a loophole, we feel we are free to create an individual who may possess human emotions, who may possess a soul.  This is much different than cloning a sheep or a cat, no matter how much we choose to belittle the difference.  I am not sure I can proceed with this endeavor.”

Gold said, “I picked you, Bill, because I knew you would not go easily with this plan.  What we are planning to do is of profound importance, and also of profound scientific and moral complexity.  Yet, for science to advance, sometimes risks must be taken.  I appreciate your arguments.  I know there are risks, but we have the capacity to venture into the unknown and bring light to a land of mystery.  Through our expertise we can gain knowledge of the beginning of our humanity.”

The debate went on until dawn lit the study windows.  Fielding and Sanders warmed to their initial confidence.  Mark persisted in his initial skepticism.  But in the end, as a new day on Earth began, a new chapter in mankind’s knowledge was agreed upon.

THE SUPERIOR SPECIES: PART II, THE DISCOVERY

                                       THE DISCOVERY

John and Paul had hiked the Alps of Switzerland for most of their lives.  Friends in England since their youth, they both chose to seek employment in Switzerland to be near the mountains they loved.  Both enjoyed the solitude, hiking the mountains high above the point where novice hikers would stop.  As they hiked that June day, they would have an experience they would never forget, an experience that would alter mankind’s perception of his place on this planet.

While on the lower levels of the Alps, they drank in the fragrance of the sentinel pine.  And as the winter ice retreated, they had to climb higher and higher to enjoy the solitude they cherished.  This June day, they hiked into an ice-shrouded valley that was new to them.  Paul was the first to notice a dark mass protruding from the ice halfway up the valley wall.  It stood out black against the pristine ice.

“Do you see that, John?”  Paul pointed.  “I’m going to check it out.”

As Paul approached, a slight wind ruffled Paul’s quarry.

“John, come up here!  It’s hair.”

The two men approached.  They could make out a shape in the ice beneath the hair.  They peered into the ice, and both came to the same conclusion.  Buried in the ice was the body of a man.

                                                     * * *

The two police officers responding to the Englishmen’s call were used to this sort of thing.  Hikers were often lost in the Alps.  When egos outdistanced skill and training, along with a lack of preparation, the results were often disastrous.  And when the weather became unforgiving, they weren’t found until the first thaw.  The two officers worked to reveal more of the body by chipping away some of the ice.  The face was revealed along with other details.  The more ice they cleared from the body, the more both men knew they were not uncovering an ordinary hiker.

“We had better place guards and call the university in Zurich.”

                                                      * * *

Dr. Hans Bueler looked down on the body.  He could not hide his excitement.  As he examined the corpse, he talked to the policemen protecting the site.

As his investigation proceeded, he said, “Gentlemen, I do not know if you appreciate the magnitude of this find.  This is, by far, the greatest discovery in the study of our ancient ancestors to date.  You will notice the prominent brow, wide nose and lack of chin.  Also notice the muscular shoulders.  I will require further study, but I am positive this is the body of a Neanderthal.

“I am sure you also have noticed the cause of death.  I refer to the spear point protruding from this individual’s chest.  Gentlemen, this is a crime scene, a murder.  However, you will never apprehend the murderer, for this crime took place thousands and thousands of years ago.

THE SUPERIOR SPECIES: PART I 30,000 YEARS IN THE PAST

                  This is an unpublished story.

                            THE SUPERIOR SPECIES

                            30,000 YEARS IN THE PAST

The two men sat atop a snow-covered mountain looking down on a land that would one day become Switzerland.  Their prominent brows and wide noses marked them as a distinct species, one of two inhabiting this land.  The other was an aggressive tribe that they watched.   That they feared.  With their high nasal voices, the two communicated their feelings to each other, the love for the land that lay before them.

They did not see the band of ten savages obscured by the falling snow approach the hill on which they sat.  They appreciated the beauty that surrounded them.  The area was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and they were sure that there would be more to come.  Recently, the period of snow and ice had been extreme.  The lithe figures approached, preparing to attack.  With spears held high, the savages crept up on the pair.  As one of the muscular men talked to his companion, a spear pierced his breast.  His companion rose and was himself impaled by a spear.  The savages celebrated their kill in a most gruesome fashion.

PRDICTIONS IN SCIENCE FICTION

                        PREDICTIONS IN SCIENCE FICTION

It is a well-known fact that writers of science fiction have been known to predict the future. In the story which will follow is a series of posts, in which I predict the past.

Two famous writers of science fiction have shown foresight in predicting the future in their work, Issac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke.

Asimov, in his work, saw the move from incandescent bulbs to fluorescent bulbs and on to LED bulbs. Also, the introduction of robots in his work is well-known.

Arthur C. Clarke had a host of predictions of the future in his work. In the world of computers, he predicted the Yk2 scare in the 1990 novel The Ghost from the Grand Banks.

In Clarke’s 1972 novel Rendezvous with Rama, astronomers were involved in a defense system against asteroid collisions with Earth, detected an alien spaceship. The world is now concerned with a collision with an asteroid and the U.S. has already sent a spacecraft on a successful mission to nudge an asteroid and changed its path.

Clarke also predicted the various uses of satellites. He saw groups of satellites being used for data transmission, phone calls and TV transmissions.

This article is a preamble for my short story, The Superior Species. In this story, through cloning, neanderthals are produced with surprising results. I first submitted this story on July 21, 2006. Since then, the view of neanderthals as brutes has been changing.

It’s been found that neanderthals buried their dead, made jewelry, and manufactured tools. And may have been able to speak.

What really caught my attention was the cover of The New York Times Magazine section published on January 15, 2017. It depicts an obvious caveman holding the hand of a modern-day man. The caveman is wearing a T shirt with the saying, I’M WITH STUPID, with an arrow pointing to modern man.

I will be offering The Superior Species in a series of posts. Hope you follow and enjoy the story.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE GETTING OLD WHEN . . .

You remember being able to visit a national park without a reservation.

THE CRYSTALS OF LIFE, A SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

                 This story was accepted for publication by Books To Go Now in July 2011.

                                          THE CRYSTALS OF LIFE

Jacques Stern was tall and lean and with his Van Dyke beard, exuded an air of sophistication.  As the head of the Martian probe, THE QUEST FOR LIFE, he shouted to all in the command center, “We have a successful liftoff.”  A mighty cheer went up from the men and women in the room who had toiled for so many years on the project to bring Martian samples back to Earth.  They finally would realize the fruits of their labor, a chance to study these historic samples for signs of life.

An earlier probe, SEEKING LIFE, had identified a strange deposit of crystals.  Analysis done by the miniature lab aboard the probe yielded puzzling results.  The crystals were composed of elements found on Earth, but in a distinctively bizarre construction.  There was an unexpected find with their analysis: they could initiate some sort of metabolism when introduced to a nutrient broth.  This stymied the scientists studying the data.  Checks and tests were accomplished on Earth and no fault could be found in the probe or the programs doing the analysis.  This was a mystery that required further investigation.

A new unmanned spacecraft was designed along the lines of the Apollo spacecraft sent to explore the moon.  A mother ship would insert into orbit around Mars from which a probe would be released to gather data and samples from the surface of the planet.  There was no problem in determining where to land.  The previous less sophisticated probe found these crystals just below the surface wherever they explored the planet.  Now, to find the source of the first crystals analyzed, the new probe would have to land close to where the last probe made its discovery.

The miniature lab on the probe was much more advanced to that of the initial probe, SEEKING LIFE, which tested the crystals.  However, this probe also contained a small module that would take harvested crystals and transport them to the mother ship and bring them back to Earth.

Stern, with his vast experience with SEEKING LIFE, was made head of this latest mission.  He retained many of the scientists involved with the last Mars mission. He also enlisted the remaining members of the team responsible for the Apollo missions. With this group of scientists in place, he planned to carry out the current mission.  He hoped the current effort would be successful in returning samples to Earth because the data from the last probe made no sense.  Once the samples were brought to Earth, the mystery could be unraveled.

As he sat in the officers’ club at Patrick Air Force Base, looking out on the brilliant blue Atlantic Ocean, he questioned his friend, Tom Watson, for the hundredth time.  Watson was the exact opposite of Jacques.  He was short and portly, and with his selection of wardrobe, was often confused for one of the maintenance personnel.  He was a friend from graduate school and Jacques often went to him for an explanation of the results found by some of his projects.  Tom, as he often said, ‘was a jack of all trades but a master of none’.  He was a skilled scientist in many disciplines who was often approached to delve out the answer to puzzling data.

“I’ve spent years going over the data, Tom.  I’ve consulted the top geologists and inorganic chemists I could find; not one can explain the findings of the first probe. “What mechanism of nature could possibly allow a pure crystalline structure to show signs of life?”

Watson was used to this line of questioning; he paused to consider the data, and then said, “We have a built-in limit to what we understand.  We gauge all our discoveries by what we have experienced, not by our imagination.  We are prisoners of the known.  

“On Earth, the building blocks of life are carbon-based.  Out in space, it could be sulfur or some other element which we on this planet could never imagine being the backbone of life.  With this next probe we will be able to test the findings of SEEKING LIFE.  If the findings of the first probe are confirmed, the availability of samples will broaden our knowledge of the characteristics of the crystals and perhaps what constitutes life on the red planet.

                                                           * * *

THE QUEST FOR LIFE made its lonely passage through space, through the vacuum and cold toward the growing blood-red dot.  After traveling many months, the probe began its orbit in the ink-black sky of Mars.

Back on Earth, a mighty cheer echoed throughout the command center monitoring the probe’s progress.  Next was the anticipation of a successful landing on the red planet to analyze and gather samples, and then return to the mother ship.

                                                           * * *

As the probe inserted into orbit around Mars, a cold and unfeeling intelligence monitored the probe’s progress.  The intelligence was passive, subject to the whim of any life form it encountered.  Millions of years had gone by since this calculating entity had been ferried to its present home and occupied the surface of Mars waiting for a new life form to visit.  If no contact was made, it did not matter, the presence could wait millions more years until it could enact its cycle.  The intelligence occupying the surface of Mars had been patiently anticipating the arrival of a new life form, with the outcome of this encounter up to the invaders.                                                        

                                                            * * *

Stern gave the command for the mother ship to release the probe.

An intense atmosphere filled the command center.

“The probe has been disengaged,” reported one of the engineers from her station.

After a few minutes, which seemed like an eternity, another station reported, “We have ignition of the lander.”

Minutes later came word that the probe had landed on Martian soil.  Another cheer enveloped the command center.  Backs were slapped and the champagne opened.  Off in one corner stood Stern wondering if the result from the last probe could be duplicated, and if some of the more sophisticated tests incorporated in the current probe would unravel the secrets held within the mysterious crystals.

Stern, along with the rest of the staff, monitored the progress of the lander.  Again, white crystals were found after breaking through the surface layer of red soil.  A sample, uncontaminated by the surface soil, was scooped up and introduced into the chamber with nutrients which would duplicate the tests performed by the previous mission. The results were the same.  A battery of further tests was unable to explain the metabolic activity possessed by the crystal samples.  The mission staff experienced relief that the results could be duplicated, but apprehension that this mystery might not be unraveled.

A command sent to the probe had samples introduced into a chamber for transport back to Earth.  Once the mother ship obtained the proper position, the probe fired its engine and slowly lifted into the black Martian sky starting the long journey back to Earth.

“We have the returning capsule locked and secured,” called out one of the engineers.  The mother ship fired its engines and left Mar’s orbit, heading home.

The mission specialists monitored the progress of THE QUEST FOR LIFE as it glided toward Earth.  Stern spent this time conducting meetings at universities and centers of excellence in geology and inorganic chemistry.  He filled notebooks with reports speculating on the science behind the unusual activity shown by the Martian crystals; how minerals could show metabolic activity.  The common consensus was that either microbes were harbored on or within the crystals or the crystals themselves caused some sort of breakdown of the nutrient broth that mimicked metabolism.

Stern sat once again with his good friend Watson, this time in Stern’s sprawling ranch near Cocoa Beach.  “Tom, in a matter of months we’ll have the Mars probe back on Earth.  The excitement level in Houston, where the crystals will be analyzed, is tremendous.  NASA has assembled some of the world’s foremost geologists, biologists and physicists to conduct an extensive battery of tests.  This is the first time man has had an opportunity to examine material from another planet in our solar system.  We could gain knowledge of a new life form, or a chemical process not found on Earth.

“I’m disappointed that I will not be present when the probe is opened in Houston, but once it splashes down in the Pacific, my responsibility for the mission is finished.”

“These are historic times,” said Tom.  “It’s a great era in which to live.  Perhaps the answer to one of the major questions mankind has pondered will finally be answered.  Are we alone in the universe or just a speck of inhabited rock adrift in a cosmos teeming with life?”

                                                           * * *

THE QUEST FOR LIFE sailed toward a distant speck in the black void of space.  The spec grew, becoming a small disc and finally a planet with clouds in the atmosphere and dark expanses of ocean.  As the probe entered the first hint of the Earth’s atmosphere, the crystals altered their configuration ever so slightly, sensing the prospect of renewed life.

Aboard the U.S.S. Hornet, latest in a new line of aircraft carriers and named for the historic vessel of World War II, preparations were under way to retrieve the probe.  Stored below deck in the carrier’s massive hangar was the steel vault that would be used to carry the precious cargo from Mars to Houston for study.

Managers in Houston followed the probe’s path to splashdown and radioed the carrier that they should soon be able to make visual contact.  Hundreds of sailors crammed the deck and scanned the sky.  A cheer went up when the three parachutes were spotted which would bring the craft gently down in the Pacific and end its long voyage of discovery.  As soon as the probe was sighted, two Navy helicopters launched from the deck, bearing frogmen to recover the spacecraft.  The primary helicopter hovered over the probe, now surrounded by an inflatable collar, the prop wash dampening the ocean waves.  Two frogmen jumped into the ocean and attached a cable that would lift the space vehicle for transport to the Hornet.  Once it was transferred to the deck, a group of scientists examined the vehicle to ensure there was no damage.  “We have a good vehicle,” they reported.

While the recovery was being accomplished, NASA, along with naval personnel brought the vault topside and rolled it near to where the helicopter would place the probe.  A specifically designed forklift gently maneuvered the vehicle into the vault.  The mission was accomplished.  The vault was sealed and returned below decks for the journey to California and then on to Houston.

                                                           * * *

After the Johnson Space Center in Houston received word that the probe was safe and secure, years of anticipation had come to an end.  Now it was time to get to work and find out what those crystals were.  There was a celebration.  Jacques Stern approached the podium to address the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, today we made history.  We secured, for the first time, samples from another planet.  You are all to be congratulated for the excellent work you have done to see this mission to its successful conclusion.

“Now it is up to the scientists at Johnson to analyze these mysterious crystals and uncover the secrets hidden within their structure.”

Stern finished his speech, and that night driving home, wondered at the mysteries that might be revealed.

The Hornet’s journey to California took nearly a week.  This wait added to the eagerness among the scientists waiting to work with the crystals, for there wasn’t an aircraft able to take off from the carrier that could accommodate the vault.

Dr. Jeff Watts, a leader in crystallography, was head of the team selected to study the Martian samples.  Jeff was in his mid-fifties but looked ten years younger.  With his short-cropped salt and pepper hair and a runner’s build, he looked nothing like the world-renowned scientist he was.

Assisting Watts was Igor Stanovich, a highly respected Russian physicist.  Stanovich was in his mid-sixties, muscular, and a short solid man. He projected a no-nonsense air yet hidden beneath his gruff exterior was a caring heart for those who were willing to break through his protective shell.

The third member of the team, and youngest, was Beverly Yochum, already a legend in her field of geology at the age of thirty-five.  She accomplished an impressive number of discoveries and was an expert in the study of the most hostile environments the world offered. Blue-eyed and blonde, with a model’s figure, she often turned heads but kept busy in her work.  Married at twenty-five, she lost her husband in a car crash five years later and looked to work to consume her pain.

The team gathered in San Diego and anxiously awaited the Hornet’s arrival.  Once the ship docked, the team hurried aboard and stood in the Hornet’s hangar staring at the vault containing the samples from Mars, feeling the excitement of their quest for knowledge of another planet.

Dr. Watts said to his colleagues, “I have a great deal of anticipation for the project we are about to undertake.”  His words were refined but his voice betrayed the excitement of a child in a toy store.

The vault was brought ashore and trucked to an awaiting Air Force C-17 cargo plane to continue its journey to Houston.  The three scientists rode to Texas with their precious cargo.  They sat in silence, observing the vault and wondering at the secrets that lie within.

Even before the Mars mission was launched, construction had begun on a special laboratory, isolated from any other structure, to study the Martian crystals. It would be equivalent to the labs used to study the most highly contagious pathogens known to man.     Once completed, it was equipped with all the state-of-the-art instruments required for geological and biological research. The scientists and technicians working in the lab would go through a vigorous cleansing and gowning procedure, donning spacesuit-like gear to ensure that no contamination was released or introduced. 

While the lab was being built, Watts and his team planned the experiments needed to solve the crystals’ mysterious qualities of appearing as a mineral yet having biological properties. 

Upon reaching Houston, the vault was carefully unloaded and taken to the lab which would act as both a storage chamber and laboratory for the crystals and the probe.  Now that the vault was safely in the lab, the scientists were full of anticipation ready to examine their precious samples.

The next morning, Watts began, “Now comes the moment we have anticipated for years, and that mankind has dreamed of ever since the red planet was discovered.  We stand on the threshold to answering the age-old question, Is there life on Mars: are we alone?

Watts opened the vault and inside lay the probe.  Using a special wrench, he opened the chamber containing the crystals.  There was a whooshing sound as the sterile air from the lab entered the chamber.  Watts pulled from the chamber a cup-like device containing crystals.  The entire planet witnessed this historic moment via miniature cameras attached to the headgear of the scientists.

The three gathered around the crystals.  Watts said, “They appear to be pure white, like grains of salt but coarser.  A few have a reddish-brown discoloration which must be Martian soil.”  The excitement in his voice was evident.  After a few more moments of inspection, he carefully placed the cup on the floor of the vault and secured the door.  He then turned to his colleagues and said, “Tomorrow we begin our work.”

As the scientists slept, cameras trained on the vault were constantly monitored by NASA personnel.  The vault must be observed at all times to ensure the crystals had not been tampered with.  This would also make it certain that all findings made would not be subject to doubt of any type.

It was two thirty in the morning when the technician monitoring the vault saw the first bulge in its side appear.  By the time Watts and his team were alerted, all sides of the vault were peppered with disfigurations, as if someone was firing a shotgun at the walls from inside.  Then, before the horrified eyes of all watching the monitor, the vault’s door burst open.  From inside they could see a mass of white forms.

Watts shouted, “Quick, we have to get to the lab.”

After an abbreviated decontamination, the scientists donned their protective suits and entered the lab.  Near the vault, they could see spheres the size of basketballs with octagonal surfaces lying on the floor.  Within the vault there were several similar objects, which, although smaller, appeared to be growing.

Watts leaned forward and picked up one of the white masses.  Immediately he let out a blood-curdling scream and watched in disbelief as his hands penetrated the giant crystal.  Before his unbelieving eyes, his thick protective gloves dissolved, followed by the skin of his hands.  He looked down on his muscles and tendons and the veins and arteries, coursing blood through his hands and fingers.  Soon his hands were no more than bone and the growing globe dropped to the floor shattering and raining crystals on all three scientists.  The crystals immediately melted through the suits, seeking the life-giving water within.

The technicians monitoring the vault were in shock as it appeared that all three suits were now empty, and the crystals continued to grow at an alarming rate.

It wasn’t long before the white masses breached the lab.  The entire building was ordered evacuated.  The military was alerted and established a perimeter a half mile away from the rapidly disintegrating building.  Tanks and artillery pieces trained their guns on the growing mass of white.  Suddenly, the air was filled with the roar of fighters dropping bombs and obliterating the crystals in fire and smoke.

No scientists were consulted on this plan of attack.  If they had been, the officers in charge of the operation would have been told you cannot kill a crystal. The wiser approach would have been to bury them.  Soon Martian crystals were swept up into the jet stream.  Some were deposited in the ocean, and this provided the first clue about their survival.  Ships in the warm southern Atlantic reported monstrous icebergs.  But what they truly saw were giant mountains of crystals attached to the ocean floor and growing at a fantastic pace.  More than one vessel accidentally sailed into the crystalline islands and disappeared.

Too late to save the planet, the growth requirement for the crystals was discovered to be water.  When the probe was opened, water vapor entered and initiated the process.

Now with the abundance of water on Earth, a growth process that could not be halted was in progress.  It was not long before huge white mountains were seen where the land was once flat.  The oceans began to recede as a vast number of white crystalline islands began to appear.  The Earth’s population not directly absorbed by the crystals died from lack of water, and Earth soon resembled its sister planet Mars, barren of life.

Once every molecule of water was consumed, the massive crystal mountains began to crumble leaving the planet covered in a thick layer of white.  But the planet was not entirely dead.  It was still geologically alive.  Volcanoes erupted and earthquakes spread a thick layer of new rock and ash covering the crystals.  The great cities of the Earth, all signs of the civilization that once existed, were buried.

                    * * *

Millennia later, a bright, fast moving light appeared in the dead planet’s sky.  The light intensified and entered the orbit of the desolate planet.  From the orbiting visitor, a smaller light emerged and headed for the planet’s surface.

                                                       THE END

YOU KNOW YOU’RE GROWING OLD WHEN . . .

You remember the regular testing of air-raid sirens. Where I grew up, Newark, New Jersey, that test was done every Saturday at noon.

YOU KNOW YOU’ER GROWING OLD WHEN . . .

You remember when public and home fallout shelters were common.