The Symbiotic Travelers

The symbiotic Travelers

The Mission

BADSAM

"We are not gathered here today to say good-bye to a brother and a sister. We are here to celebrate the entrance of Lilian and Satchel into God's kingdom, knowing that they will be eternally happy in their union with him." The elderly minister looked up and pursed her lips in a sad smile and then looked down at the two preteen children, clutching hands and lying side-by-side in their plexiglass enclosed bier. The children's parents are quietly crying, as are several onlookers. Others are just standing by in solemn respect. The clergywoman closed her eyes in sorrow and gently clasped her counterpart's hand; he lovingly squeezed hers in return.

Yaphet and Zlatex are among those watching and listening to the eulogy; she too has tears in her eyes. They are the Godparents of the two children. Yaphet loved helping Lilian with her homework. Together, they had just finished a social studies project about the birth and growth of their nation, the United Governments of Ameraland. She and Zlatex had hoped to watch the two preadolescent siblings grow and mature into adulthood.

Meanwhile, in another churchyard, in another part of the metropolis, a similar gathering of beings is saying good-bye and offering their prayers for another pair of symbiotic partner children.

The same scene is being repeated in several areas of Starman City on the planet Herth. A school bus with ten syngeneic equivalents plunged off a cliff the previous day, killing eight pairs of children along with the driver and his female consort. An investigation discovered that the driver lost control of the vehicle as it slid into a curve on a wet, slippery road and then plummeted 45 meters down to the rocky bottom.

After a few moments, Satchel and Lilian, as well as the other children, the bus driver and his lover in the various churchyards of Starman City, then dematerialized into a glowing display of colored lights. As soon as the light dispersed, one bloodred rose, and one white orchid momentarily appeared where each body lay. Next, after a brief pause, the flowers then dissolved into nothingness.

Yaphet quietly, solemnly approaches the children's parents to offer her condolences; Zlatex, standing behind her, nods respectfully. Then they leave the gathering; they have to prepare for their departure to Herth-II.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Twelve years later.

As the spaceship approached its destination, SAM, the Simplified Automatic Mainframe onboard computer processor, sent electronic stimuli to the two sleeping pods. It was time to awaken the two alien symbiotic occupants from their deep hyper-sleep.

After several seconds, the clear plexiglass dome of each pod opened. A small cirrus cloud arose from each cubicle and then dissipated into the air.

When Yaphet opened her eyes a few moments later, the first thing she thought of was Zlatex, her male equivalent. She looked to her left. His pod was open too and she could see the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. He was still in deep hyper-sleep. She breathed a sigh of relief. They both made the multiyear journey through space safely. But then, since they are syngeneic beings, the death of one of them would automatically bring about the death of the other in about an hour or two. In fact, even if one of them gets sick or hurt in any way, the other also feels that illness and that pain.

Like all symbiotic beings of the planet Herth, they cannot be physically too far away from each other in any fashion. If they do become separated by more than about ten meters or they are divided by a barrier with a density of more than ten grams per cubic centimeter, like lead, gold, uranium, silver or platinum, then all their bodily functions will soon begin to fail. If they remain disconnected for an extended length of time, they will both die when their hearts stop beating. What one physically experiences and feels, the other experiences and feels it too. Because of this, many conservative Herthians refuse to wear gold, silver or platinum jewelry.

However, like all Herthians, they are also different in many respects. They both have their own likes and dislikes, dreams and normalities, idiosyncrasies and impracticalities, needs and desires for their future.

Yaphet stretched her arms and legs and then arched her back. Her naked breasts, lightly covered with a gentle sprinkling of ice crystals, bounced like two golden gelatin spheres. Next, with a little effort, she sat up and yawned. She winced; a dozen years of hyper-sleep had caused her muscles to stiffen somewhat. She wasn't worried about that. She would be back to normal as soon as she got something to eat and exercised.

She shook her shoulder length fiery red mane, and snowflakes fell silently to her bare shoulders and tits. She glanced down at her pubic mound. Her blazing red hair was speckled with a light coating of frost, reminding her of a yuletide red bough decked with slivers of ice. She reminisced and smiled, her favorite season of the year. Then she shivered; the spacecraft was cold. She removed the two pads and wires attached to her wrists and her temples and the three wires and pads affixed to her chest, one below each pink areola and nipple and another above her sternum. Then she detached the one just above the flaming curls of her vagina and the two pads and wires stuck to her ankles.

Ignoring the Velcro slippers and clothes lying near her feet, waiting for her to awaken, the nude astronaut immediately crawled out of her hyper sleeping pod. She went to the control panel on the other side of the room. She pressed some buttons to raise the inside temperature of the craft.

Immediately, a metallic female voice welcomed her. "Hello Yaphet, it's good to perceive that you are awake and up. Your male counterpart is in the process of arousing from his hyper-sleep. Is there anything I can do for you at this time?"

"No thank you SAM," she answered the computer. "Although after I get dressed, I'll want something to eat. So, I guess you should warm up some water and heat up the kitchen area."

"Right away, Yaphet."

She glanced over to Zlatex's pod. He was just starting to wake up. He had removed the pads and wires from his wrists, his temples and his chest and was rubbing the back of his neck. Then, "SAM, how far away are we from the star which Herth-II orbits around?" The astronomers and cosmologists of their world got together and named their target planet Herth-II, to match with their own world, Herth.

"The spaceship is just beyond the spherical debris field of ice, stone and iron rocks left over from the solar system's development. You and your syngeneic equivalent are approximately 175 million kilometers from Herth-II. If you recall, a similar Uort cloud surrounds Proxi, the star you and Zlatex departed from twelve years ago. I'll put the target planet's location relative to its star up on the computer screen if you like."

"Yes, do that for me, will you SAM."

She stood naked in front of the gigantic screen, leaned over and intently scrutinized the solar system before her. Ice crystals, looking much like frost on a field of hay, cling to the flesh on her smooth back, perfectly round buttocks and shapely thighs and legs. They glistened in the dim light. Some of them were starting to melt and formed little streams trickling down and dripping onto the floor.

The arrangement of the planets on the monitor was purposely not to scale. The computer displayed it that way so that whoever was looking at it, they could get a comprehensive view of the position of their destination planet, Herth-II, relative to its star and the other planets and the many dwarf orbs of the system.

Yaphet could see that it would take them at least two weeks to reach the orbital plane of Herth-II. That was great. It would give her and Zlatex enough time to get their spaceship cloaked, plot a trajectory to the planet and then familiarize themselves with their new surroundings, the physical topography of the world they are going to explore, i.e., its geography, its atmosphere and the life forms living on it, particularly any intelligent life forms that may inhabit it. They will cloak their spacecraft because they want to examine the biosphere without being detected by any intelligent life forms that may exist there. If in fact it harbors any such life; there may not be any advanced life forms living on the intended planet.

Although Statlick and Yada, the supreme planet analyzers of Herth, and their team of astronomers and cosmologists, were able to find a star with a world suitable to sustain life, they were unable to determine if any intelligent life lived there. They had not detected any electronic broadcasts coming from Herth-II. For all Yaphet, Zlatex or anyone knew, the planet may not have evolved any sophisticated forms of life. Maybe they haven't progressed scientifically or industrially. They may still be in some kind of middle age or dark age without any modern conveniences. Or, maybe warm blooded animals have yet to dominate, and the planet is still in its dinosaurian stage of development. In fact, maybe life is just getting started there and the planet may not have progressed beyond its bacterial stage of evolution.

Yaphet hoped that australopithecine type hominoids or possibly Neanderthal type hominids and early Cro-Magnon type hominins were the most intelligent animals on their destination planet. Maybe that was the reason no electronic transmissions had been identified coming from their future home.

It had taken the symbiotic Statlick and Yada and other astronomers and cosmologists of their own world several months to find a suitable planet for their exploratory mission. It was these two who named their future home Herth-II. It was a small planet in a solar system, only 4.24 light years from their own star, practically in their own backyard.

The planet's luminary is a yellow, medium size star, unlike their own, which is a red burning star. It is less massive than their star, which Herthians named Proxi several centuries ago. Also, unlike their own star, which is one of a triple star system, Herth-II has a single star. Studies of it have further shown that it has eight planets and several dwarf planetoids revolving around it. Only one of those worlds appears to be habitable.

The orb in question is the third planet out from its star. Its surface is covered by about 71 percent water and 29 percent land with two polar regions. The planet analyzers reasoned that it is probably salt water, but they have also concluded that where there is salt water, then there is in all probability freshwater on the terrain. Studies have revealed that its atmosphere is 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent argon and 0.1 percent trace gases with carbon dioxide making up a large percent of that 0.1 percent.

It appears to be a perfect place for Herthians to live; better than any of the other worlds that Statlick and Yada and the other planet analyzers have found. Since it is in their own galaxy, Yaphet is amazed that it wasn't discovered earlier.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

The mission of Zlatex and Yaphet will be the third undertaking to find a place the citizens of their own world can escape to. In fact, it will most likely be the last attempt. If the assignment of Yaphet and Zlatex to explore the world, and give Herthians a "New Beginning," is unsuccessful, then everyone on their planet will die when their own star explodes in a supernova. The astronomers, cosmologists, astrophysicists and other interested scientists now predict that that will occur within the next sixty or seventy years.

The first exploratory mission to find another livable planet left eight years before that prediction was made public. It has never returned. Contact with the two syngeneic beings onboard was lost within a year after they left. A year later, the second mission left; it is currently in the process of returning. After studying a planet, the two astronauts went back into hyper-sleep for their journey home. Before doing so, they radioed ahead that they discovered that the world they surveyed was too inhospitable; the atmosphere is 69 percent carbon dioxide, twenty percent nitrogen and only about ten percent oxygen, with trace gases making up the remainder. That is not enough oxygen to sustain Herthian life. Biologists, zoologists and medical doctors all agree; Herthians need an atmosphere of at least 19 percent oxygen to sustain their life.

But their radio message wasn't received until after it was revealed to the people that Proxi was going to explode in a super nova. By that time the government had already started to construct "city sized" spaceships for those who wanted to leave the planet. In the meantime, the third mission of Yaphet and Zlatex departed six weeks after receiving the second mission's notice.

Their spaceship has three main sections. The front of the craft is the guidance and control section. The entrance is located here. Next, is their living section, which rotates, giving them artificial gravity. The engine is in the rear. The living area is designed to give the two symbiotic travelers comfort after they come out of their hyper-sleep, if they need to live there for an extended period of time. The spacecraft is mainly controlled by SAM, the Simplified Automatic Mainframe computer processor. But they can override SAM using the guidance and control section. They will do that only if the need to do so arises.

Their ship vaguely resembles a giant football with five rocket engines on the rear end and a docking port on the bottom of its front end. The craft is hermetically sealed, but neither the control room nor the rear section rotates. However, the flooring in these two areas is harmonious with their Velcro slippers, allowing them to walk around if they choose to do so instead of floating to their destination within the craft. When they are in the forward or rear sectors, the ever cautious Zlatex prefers to walk but Yaphet would rather float.

The front part has an upper flight deck and a lower entrance deck. The lower level has an entrance room connected to the docking port with two airtight doors opposite each other. One is an extra wide cargo door and opens to the loading dock; the other is for going into the living quarters. There are two space suits hanging on the bulkhead for any work that may have to be performed outside the craft, one on the starboard side of the hatch and one on the port side.

Next to the entrance leading into the living section is a spiral staircase leading up to the bridge with an airtight door dividing the two levels; it is kept open except when someone needs to go outside the spaceship.

There are eight swivel cameras attached to the craft, two fastened to the belly of the ship, two cameras on the port side of the craft, another two on the starboard side and two more affixed on top of the starship.

The helm has three large windows that wrap around the nose of the ship, three smaller ones below these and three smaller ones above them. Together the nine windows give anyone on the bridge a 260 degree starboard to port view of everything and a 210 degree view of anything from just below the front of the ship to just above the spacecraft. Whoever is sitting in the pilot's seat also has a TV screen on the console in front of them and can also use the eight cameras in order to discern what is outside the craft, giving them a 360 degree view of the universe in all directions.

The midsection is the living area. It has two levels and a central utilities area. It rotates giving the occupants artificial gravity. The central part is where the water and oxygen tanks, the hydrogen fuel tanks and many of the ship's controls are located. The living area is entered through the rear hatch on lower flight deck using an elevator room. This allows the two explorers to go to either of the two levels. There is no need to go to the central weightless utilities area, although there is a hatch for entering there if either of them needs to for some reason. The outermost deck is for storage of extra food and supplies. The symbiotic travelers live on the inner level, the first floor.

Deck one is where they reside and work. It has one large sleeping section, with a sleeping cubicle on each side of the shower room and the adjoining toilet room. When touring the craft before liftoff, both Zlatex and Yaphet questioned why there were two sleeping compartments. They were told that it was built that way in case they wanted to sleep alone. The two syngeneic lovers frowned, looked at each other and shook their heads in disillusionment. They sleep naked together every night, united in loving embrace, giving each other numerous orgasms while they dream of fantasies, surreal environments and whimsical domains.

There is a television and movie lounge with thousands of motion pictures, documentaries, biographies, serial programs and historical records on DVD to choose from. The small lunchroom has a modest variety of menus to choose from along with a microwave oven, an electric oven, an electric stove and a refrigerator as well as miniature washer and dryer. There is also a library with millions of books on DVD, a game room with one video gaming machine, one pinball machine, a billiard table, a card table and an exercise room with one treadmill, an exercise bike, a workout bench, a punching bag and some weights.

All built with the thought that the syngeneic astronauts may have to live onboard the spacecraft for an extended period of time after coming out of hyper-sleep. They could sit around, read, play cards, checkers, chess, video games, watch a movie or do whatever would keep them from becoming totally bored to tears.

The engines are in the rear of the spaceship. Entrance to the one large room is through level one of the midsection of the ship. It does not rotate but it is a hermetically sealed weightless environment.

Construction on fifty spaceships was finished three days after the first explorers left Herth's solar system. It took three years to construct these transports. They are now in the process of being stocked with various crops and vegetation, livestock, poultry and other animals and supplies, including saltwater and freshwater ponds complete with aquatic life. Also, boarding are those Herthians who wish to leave the dying world. Assembly on another twenty-five "city sized" spaceships is just getting started, with another twenty-five still on the drawing boards. All the crafts are being built in outer space. Each spacecraft is a virtual metropolis, growing, raising and producing everything that Herthians need to survive.

Each ship is expected to house over ten million residents. Except for three pairs of symbiotic pilots and copilots, all of them are in hyper sleeping pods until they reach their destination. The attentive syngeneic beings' tasks are to monitor the sleeping pods, ensure that the spaceship is on its correct trajectory, make sure that the craft's life supports are working properly, and the animals are properly fed and other general maintenance duties.

Raw material for the construction of all the transportation vessels is gotten from the stone and iron remnant debris of a planet that did not form when their solar system was formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Leaving Herth is voluntary; there are many Herthians who do not wish to go. In fact, the vast majority, almost 79 percent of the population, have made the decision to stay on Herth-I, as they now call their planet. Their reasoning is that they don't know what they will be going to. Many are afraid that once they come out of hyper-sleep they will run out of food, water and oxygen long before they reach their final destination, or that their sleeping compartment will fail and they will die before coming out of hyper-sleep. Others just do not want to leave the home they have lived in all their lives. Still a few extremists do not believe that the star around which their planet revolves will explode.