Oxygen Please!

The space-craft was on it's way back home.

Aboard the space-craft Bharadhwajan was on a new high. Coming back home after a long foray into space was always nice. The consignment of precious ore mined on a way-side asteriod sitting snugly in the payload added to the elation. Back on earth it would be worth millions, enough to make him a super-rich guy. Sure enough reason to make him the hottest eligible bachelor. The most beautiful girls on earth would be vying to get him. As he began to sing softly, buoyed up by the lifting moods, the emergency alarm went off, cutting short his riverie!

The control panel emergency light sprang into life and red lines came over the monitor screen:

FUEL TANKS ON FIRE

Damn! He stopped singing and studied the fuel-control screen. Spotting the tanks on fire he pressed the command:

DELINK ALL FUEL TANKS

Seconds later, red lines came over the monitor- screen:

NOT POSSIBLE. DELINK SYSTEM BLOCKED

Oh, God! That meant he had to lose the whole space-craft. That included the capsule which would serve as a shelter till such time someone came along to rescue.

Without any further thought, he swiftly picked the survival-kit, tucked it into his space-suit, sat on the ejection seat, fastened himself to the seat and pressed the ejection button:

ZOOM!

The next instant, the escape-hatch opend out and he was propelled skywards with a tremendous thrust. He continued to rise high and high and high ..... there was no gravity to counter his acceleration upward. The propulsion motor beneath the ejection seat still whirred to elevate him farther up.

Eventually, he came to a halt at a very high altitude.

BANG!

The space-craft exploded underneath at the same moment he came to a grinding halt. He gloomily watched the space-craft disintegrating into tens of millions of pieces. Now he was a lone man somewhere in the black space.

Pulling himself together, he opened the survival kit and took out the inflatable dome. He drew out the air-pump from the space-suit, connected it to the opening in the dome and pumped the air in. The dome swelled and floated up before him. He opened the hatch, crawled inside and closed it tight. 

Till such time someone came over to rescue him the dome was his sole means of survival. Specially built to serve as a shelter on exigencies of space craft being abondoned. It was made of special grade material to withstand the zero gravity depressurisation. In a depressurised atmosphere things tend to expand and expand with no full stop and the dome managed stay put in fixed size due to the toughest special grade material. Deflector shield on the outer wall, warded off cosmic rays without which he would be radiated to death.A battery powered lamp illuminated the interior and there was a pothole for observation. Once inside, he reclined on the sleeping couch and operated the built-in transmitter. 

"HELLO, HELP, HELP, HELLO!"

 

Soon after he started sending SOS signals, a space-craft arrived and pulled up beside the dome. The next moment, Bharathwajan was taken into the space craft. He looked at those inside the space craft- he was shocked! They were aliens!

They gestured to the terrified Bharadhwajan to stay calm. When they make to lie down on a platform and started examining him, he began to choke.

"What's the matter"

"Oxygen"

"Oxygen?"

"Yeah. That's what i inhale. It is almost exhausted" he said pointing to the oxygen cylinder attached to his suit.

The alien inspecting him called out:

"Verola"

Some one came near. She was a girl!

Verola bent down to look at Bharadhwajan and asked,

"Is this what you inhale?"- pointing to the cylinder.

"Yes. Oxygen is it's name"

"Oh! we have no Oxygen. Timitron is our breathing gas. Anyway let us see whether we can produce this"

She went to the cylinder, opened the valve, siphoned off a sample quantity into a flask and left.

After some time, she came back with a cylinder.

"I produced this in the lab. More or like it is like Oxygen"

She connected the cylinder brought by her to tube leading into his nose.

The gas from the cylinder gushed into his nostrills and he stopped choking. His breathing became even again.

On Earth, only Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Sulphur and Phosporous are the basic elements essential for survival. The aliens, perhaps, had a different element chemistry. In that backdrop, it was indeed baffling to see that the gas produced by them suiting him. Nevertheless he was content to be safe and alive and the day passed off peacefully.

The very next day, Bharadhwajan started choking again.

This time, the cylinder brought by Bharadhwajan himself was tried and he regained normal respiration as some more oxygen was still left in his cylinder.

But the oxygen was on the brink of exhaustion. Unfortunately, the gas produced by Verola did not suit him.

Now everyone aboard the space craft ringed him and inspected the Oxygen cylinder. With very little oxygen left, they decided to put it on ration reducing the flow from the cylinder. Not enough, of course, still enough to give him some more time to prepare for any alternative. They weighed his chances.

"It would be ok for another half a day. Not more"

"Oh!"

There was a sudden gloom in the atmosphere. No one talked. The aliens were silently staring at him. All seemed genuinely concerned about this stranger they had never seen before. The girl Verola was the most affected over his plight. She was weeping.

"Father! You must save him"

"Verola I wish I could but ....."

said Zorum, Verola's father, standing near to Bharadhwajan.

"No but's. You must save him. You are a biologist and an electronic expert. You can save him if you try"

Zorum looked astonishingly at his weeping daughter. How strange! This girl had never seen this stranger before. Still she has come to love him like anything. Anyway his daughter Verola was everything to him and he had to save this alien for her at any cost.

He was silent for some time. Suddenly he had a flash! Oh! He could try it.

"Verola. Stay calm and sit beside him"

"Ok, but are you going to do something?'

"Yes. I 've an idea"

"What's it?"

"Got to verify it first. I am going to the laboratory to do exactly that. I'll tell you when i come back"

With that he left.

Verola sat beside Bharadhwajan. He looked soothingly at her.

"Don't worry. I am an alien, after all"

"May be, but I won't let you die"

She seemed insane to him. What was she saying? 'I won't let you die'! All he had was half a day's Oxygen and half a day's life left and nothing more. His survival seemed virtually impossible. Nevertheless he appreciated the girl's spirit and said,

"Thank you"

"Thanks for what?'

"For being so nice". He soothingly placed his hand over hers. Both fell silent, continuing to look at each other. It seemed an interminable time since Zorum left. Probably he was afraid to come back, afraid to tell them that he had no means to save him. Now everyone was resigned to the inevitable. Hours relentlessly dragged on. 

And Zorum came back. All surrounded him.

"We can save him" he announced.

Verola jumped to her feet. "Father you are superb"

"Wait, wait, my girl. Hear me first"

He explained his plans.

First, he was going to produce a brand-new body with brain and all internal organs with their chemistry with the aid of the bio-processor. Then Bharadhwajan's brain would be scanned, every bit of memory would be recorded and then all the memories would transferred to the brain of the body produced by the bi-processor. Since all the memories constitue what Bharadhwajan was, he could start living in the new body anew with their chemistry. He could inhale Timitron, eat their food and be one of them.Still his present body need not be thrown away. It could be kept in suspended animation. If Bharadhwajan could go back to his planet and live in his original atmosphere he could swich back to his present body.

"So you are going to transfer my memory to a body with your chemistry?'

"That's the only way out. I need your permission to do that. First, the body has to be produced, brain has to be scanned, memories recorded, transferred to the new brain and your original body has to be kept in suspended animation.All these operations have to be carried out in double quick time before your Oxygen cries out"

Bharadhwajan thought for some time. He had to acquire new body and live as an alien with them. The chances of getting back to Earth appeared very slim and he had no choice. He had to carry on living. He could not have access to Oxygen either. All that led to only one way out. He made up his mind. Banishing the persistent cry within him - the OXYGEN PLEASE - he said to Zorum,

"Yes"

The alien set to work on him straightaway.

In the next few hours, he transformed into a new man, AN ALIEN! But Bharadhwajan still. Only difference was he had sweet Verola with the OXYGEN PLEASE SYNDROME forever gone.

                                                              *******

-Mohan Sanjeevan

The Reverse Evolution

“Ready for touch down,” Naren, maneuvering the space-ship, announced.

The long awaited rendezvous with the planet Omega was due in few seconds.

Omega. If time rewound 10,000 years back, it was then a bunch of young men and women were sent on a colonization mission to this planet. Dozen men and women to be exact. Soon after the send-off they were forgotten, It took 10,000 years from then — now — for this team from Earth to come on a fact-finding-visit to see how they fared. The reason why they were left to themselves made a bizarre yet interesting story.

10,000 years back, a team of aliens landed on Earth. They had in their possession a marvel what the Earth failed to produce. A super space-ship that traversed millions of light years in a jiffy. Aliens offered to lift a team of from earth for colonizing a planet similar to Earth. The Earth agreed.

But there was a rider. The team got the help only to raise settlements and grow-food crops. That done, aliens would blast off to newer worlds leaving the men and women to themselves, as they were constantly on the look out for newer worlds.

A rider hard to swallow. The Earth still swallowed and agreed. Setting up a space colony had been a long-cherished ambition . What it lacked was the space-ship capable of traversing light years in space. No wonder when the offer came to lift a team for colonization, the Earth gleefully grabbed the opportunity. Volunteers were called in and a dozen men and women came forward. Those were the young men and women who took off with the aliens. Before take off, they gave the location and description of the planet they were bound for. Omega was where the aliens took the team to.

The Earth had no space-ship to traverse the light years and the colonizers had to remain cut off from Earth till it found the means to build one. The Earth managed to build such a space-ship only a year back .When the search party from Earth reached Omega, exactly 10,000 years were gone.

The space-craft carrying the team from Earth approached the planet and landed. A feather-soft touch down. First, Dr. Silvan got out from the space-ship and Naren, Vinodhan, Niranjan, Ramse and Vimali followed suit. They expected to see a large gathering of people to welcome them. Not a single soul was in sight!

Closer to the site of landing was a clearing and after that there were trees. All took a walk around and scanned the vicinity. No signs of life!

Dr. Silvan and Naren ordered others to stay put and proceeded for a personal inspection in the vicinity. They crossed the clearing and entered the dense column of trees. Inside, it was frighteningly quiet!

“Strange!. Everything seems supernaturally quiet”

“Yes”, agreed Dr. Silvan.

They kept moving. Still it was quiet. Even the usual clatter of birds usually chirping on tree-tops was missing. They continued moving into the noiseless vacuum. Suddenly, Naren snapped his hands.

“Listen”

“What?”

“I heard a sound”

Dr. Silvan listened. Yes. There was the sound of leaves rustling in the air. He listened, intently. Presently, he heard the chirping from tree-tops.

“Heard that?”

“Yaa. The noise of rustling leaves and the chatter of birds”

“How come the noise missed before?”

“I think, from the moment we landed, our ears were fully blocked. Could be due to the difference in air pressure. Still we heard each other and our hearing was probably to that level only. Now we are accustomed and our ears have cleared.”

“So that explains the eternal silence”

“Yaa.”

They laughed.

The sense of hearing lent them fresh hope. They moved about excitedly. Nothing happened for a while. Then abruptly, there was a movement, They looked up. It was a monkey! So funny that they should stumble upon a monkey first, ironically the forefather of man!

On the way back they saw an ape. That was a step up in the evolutionary ladder. Just one more step up needed to find a man.
A car was lowered from the space-ship and sent for scouting the landscape ahead. Ramse and Vimali were in the car. A plane was dismounted and parked on the make-shift air-strip. Vinodhan and Niranjan climbed aboard and took off for an aerial survey.

After seeing them off, Dr. Silvan and Naren scooped some soil and brought it to the space-ship’s laboratory for analyzing. The soil was reddish and seemed ideal for cultivation. The ubiquitous micro-organisms were roaming about in the soil. That was a good sign. They waited for the scouting parties.

The plane returned first. Vinodhan and Niranjan reported sighting apes — full of them. But human beings? No. No signs of settlements either. It seemed strange. The plane had covered thousands of kilometers far and near and it should have spotted humans if at all they were there. With the aerial survey turning inconclusive, they waited for the car.

The car returned after the night fall. Ramse and Vimali had nothing new to report except sighting a number of apes
The result of the land and aerial surveys was bewildering. It was pretty difficult to explain the failure to spot a single human being. What happened to those who came here 10,000 years ago? Had they gone into hiding somewhere and watching amusedly the frantic search for them? Or else, had they become extinct? The mystery still remaining unresolved, they retired for the day deciding to resume the surveys, the next day.

Next morning, at first lights, the car and the plane departed resuming their land and aerial surveys. The day before, the surveys were in east-westerly direction. That day, the surveys were to proceed along south-north course. By noon, the plane returned. It had news.

“We found a masonry, appears to be a monument” reported Ramse.

“Monument?

“Yes, with stone inscriptions. But it is impossible to decipher the meaning. The words are cryptically coded”

“Sounds interesting indeed! Now all of us must proceed by the plane to the monument. Naren will accompany us. He will crack any mystery.”

Naren was indeed the mission’s utility man. The navigator of the space ship., an archaeologist and an expert in decoding stone inscriptions.

All of them climbed aboard and the plane took off again. The space-ship was left unguarded, anyway no creature intelligent enough was around to disturb it. After an hour’s journey up-north, they reached an open ground.

There was the monument. The car had already arrived. So all the mission members were at the monument now. In the vicinity of the monument, stood the remains of a dilapidated buildings. Built of chipped-off blocks of stone, the monument stood like a raised platform. The inscriptions as reported by Ramse and Vimali were there for all to see. While they all watched, Naren studied the inscriptions. His facial expressions kept changing as he went deep into the inscriptions. When he finished, he seemed extremely sad. When they were wondering what could be the reason for his dismal appearance, Naren narrated the story in the inscriptions. It was an incredible story.

The aliens had indeed landed the dozen young men and women on Omega, as they promised. When they arrived, there were
already birds and animals. But there were no human beings and they were the first-ones, planted, rather than born on the planet. The aliens had indeed helped them grow food-crops and built settlements as promised. That done, they left leaving the colonizers to themselves to start living on their own.

At the out set, it was O.K. All perfect. They ate, slept, started going for reproduction of more humans, thoroughly enjoying themselves. It was only when they started producing their off-spring, the problems surfaced. All the children were different, with features very unlike human beings. Several generations passed with babies becoming more disfigured generation after generation and it was at some point of a following generation, they were in for a shock. The babies were simply apes and monkeys!

This defied the very basis of the principles of evolution. Starting from a molecule of DNA capable of duplicating itself evolution progressed through ----stages of one-celled organisms, multi-celled organisms, birds, animals to apes. The apes evolved into human beings. But on Omega, the trend reversed. A human being gone down the evolutionary ladder to become an ape!

Though the present day consisted only of monkeys and apes, there were enough old men to realize what was happening. They left the stone inscriptions before they became extinct to make the message clear if and when any one visited from Earth to see what happened to the colonizers. That was most bizarre happening indeed! The scheme if colonization nose-diving into a scheme of reverse-evolution!

All the members were aghast when they heard the story. The cause of reverse-evolution on this weird-planet was the subject of the ensuing debate. The Omega’s erratic atmosphere was the suspected culprit being unable to stop the seeping cosmic rays mercilessly exposing the hapless colonizers to the radiation triggering the reverse evolution. Or else something in the planet —a radically different atmospheric chemistry, mix-up of a

different soil, different breed of food-crops — either one of them or a combination of all of these or still a cause still unknown might have triggered the reverse evolution. Incredible but that was what transpired in Omega: 'the reverse evolution'.

That was the lesson they learnt from the Omega expedition. It also threw up questions about the span of the evolution period and the time taken for the reverse evolution. It took several hundred crores of years for the evolution to complete. It took more than 20 Iakh years to evolve into the stage of human beings from monkeys.

It had just taken 10,000 years to go back in the evolution to the stage of monkeys and apes from human beings. It only reminded how easier is destruction than construction. Take the case of tall towering buildings on Earth. It takes years to build a 100 storeyed skyscraper and it takes only few minutes to being down the entire structure by artificial detonation.

It also focused on the dangers of colonizing an unknown planet. More expeditions will follow to study the causes in depth to serve as a future reference.

-Mohan Sanjeevan