Chapter 2: Lightning Bolters

Martha Masters turned her head and watched her son Roy as he climbed the stairs to his room. She wondered for a brief moment if she made the right decision to have a child. A mother was supposed to love her child and if anyone asked she would of course say that she did love him, but was she really capable of such maternal feelings?

Her husband was in the process of cycling through the air lock to enter the Institute floater and she prepared to do the same, but had to wait until the cycle of the decontamination process with superheated steam was complete. The airlock was simply too small for both of them while wearing Armor suits. Roy had reached his room and was out of sight, but despite the exciting news about the Bolters her mind kept returning to her son. His ridiculous fantasies of being outside was certainly some sort of teenager rebellion. While he was no genius, his IQ was not much less than hers or Paul’s and yet the boy wanted to join the military, what a disappointment! Well he would change his mind once he was away from Green Hell in a proper College.

Now it was her turn and she cycled through the airlock, entered the flier and there she took a seat right behind Evans inside the big armored floater. “Good afternoon,” she greeted the man who looked like a Terran turtle with its head halfway retracted into its shell, because Dr. Mortimer Evans was a small thin man and even the smallest size of the Sci-Corps issue AEGIS Suit barely allowed him to gaze above the suit helmet initiator ring.

The man behind the controls of the floater tried to turn his head, with little success returned the greetings and said. “Good afternoon, you two.”

Then he cursed silently and added. “You two make it look so easy moving around in these blasted armor suits. If this planet wasn’t so damn fascinating, I’d find myself another world to study.”

Martha nodded at her husband, who had climbed ahead of her into the floater and taken the seat next to Evans and said. “We both are here on Green Hell for sixteen years now and we wear these suits almost every day, we should be used to them by now. You will get the hang of it eventually.”

Evans pulled the CHOPER into a steep climb and smirked at her. “I am here now for almost two years now and should not be such a noob when it comes to these suits.”

Paul, who always was a bit of a nerd said. “The All Environment Intelligent System, which we call the AEGIS, is the civilian version of a military battle suit without the weapons of course and it is the only thing that will keep you alive out there.”

Dr. Evans was a brilliant researcher and like Martha, specializing in bio-electric and bio- energy life forms, leveled the skimmer far above the clouds, where even on Green Hell was nothing alive or dangerous and set the controls for a destination halfway across the planet, rolled his eyes at that comment, because of Paul stating the obvious.

Martha smiled at her husband as he, oblivious to the finer nuances of human interaction, pulled the eyepiece of the Omni-Eye periscope over his eyes. The system would give him an unobstructed view of the outside world and with simple intuitive eye movements he would be able to focus on anything around them, while a host of data was displayed right into his retina if he blinked at the small symbols at the edge of his vision field. Then she said to Evans. “I am very excited to see the Lightning Bolters actually mate. It will be fascinating to see how these gas filled leather bags choose their mates, an aspect of this life is still a complete mystery.”

Evans failing to pantomime what he had seen earlier, partially because of the suit and partially because there was just no way a human could find the right gestures to describe how two huge cloud sized organisms, mostly gas, membrane thin skin and a tiny cell center for brains and nerves would mate, so he gave up and said. “It’s like two drunken balloons, capable of unleashing electrical discharges strong enough to make the battle shields of a Union Battle ship flicker and dance in a violent storm.”

Without taking his eyes of the eyepiece, Paul said. “Not the combined discharges of all Lightning Bolters would make the shields of a Union Battle ship flicker. Not that I am any expert in these systems, but I am given to understand they could absorb the energies of a solar prominence, and that exceeds the energy output of any known bio-electrical discharge capable life form by magnitudes.”

Martha looking at the shield generator controls of the Floater and said. “I am sure Dr. Evans was expressing himself in a metaphorical fashion, but I hope the energy shield of this floater is up to the task.”

While Evans nodded at her comment, Paul did lean back to look at his wife. “We have been hit by Bolter lightning discharges before and these fliers are designed to descent into atmospheres of extreme worlds. We have not measured any bolts stronger than 40,000 amperes and transfers 15 coulombs of electric charge and 500 mega joules of energy.”

Martha knew her own data just as well, said. “I still think we need to proceed with caution, we have never been hit by more than one bolt at the time, and now we are flying towards a mating ground with dozens of them in an agitated state.”

Evans said. “I will keep us at maximum observing distance, just to be safe.”

There were a few moments o silence in the flier. Martha was trying to focus her mind on the task ahead. She was a scientist and the Lighting Bolters of Green Hell had been the focus of her studies now for more than five years. She had made some great observations and written several papers about them. Papers that had been reviewed very positively by her peers and the Hive of Minds. Leading to the dream assignment of any field researcher, the mission command over a Sci-Corps explorer ship. If she was successful as mission commander, completing perhaps two or three missions; they just might ask her to take a seat in the hallowed halls of the Science Councils headquarter on Pluribus. Her grandfather, Professor Aaron Berezovsky had been the ninth person in her family to hold a chair in what became known as the Hive of Minds. Only the finest minds of all the civilizations that made up the Union were invited to these elite of intellect, science, and wisdom. The Science Council was the governing body of the Science Council and advised the Assembly in all matters of science and it was her innermost dream and ambition to one day be the tenth member of her family line.

She had been so submerged in her thoughts that she only now realized, Evans was saying something to her, and so she looked up from her PDD. “I am sorry Dr. Evans; I was just going over some notes of mine and did not pay any attention.”

The small man said with a dry voice. “I was pointing out that our sensors just registered a bolt of positive lightning with a magnitude of ten times the average discharge we have ever measured before, reaching 300 kilo ampere and almost two terawatt with intense channel ionization. The source appears to be the largest Lightning Bolter we ever encountered.”

Martha signaled that she had heard him this time pulled the optics of her Omni View Periscope close. She heard Paul talk via the Comm. Unit with Dr. Harrow back at the Institute asking for reassurance that the flier’s shields would withstand such energies; then the optic sensors slaved to her eye movements focused on the grayish green humongous, floating gas bladders. She zoomed in and the little number floating just at the edge of her field of view told her that the distance to the closest Lightning Bolter was still almost 14 kilometers. She made a few measurements and calculated that the biggest one of the nine Bolters she counted had a volume of 2322 cubic-meters. That was indeed the biggest one she had seen so far, only as she focused closer she realized it was two of them, attached, clinging to each other, barely distinguishable as two beings. The excellent optics of the flier’s scientific instruments allowed her to zoom even closer making out details. She now observed pale pinkish almost transparent tentacles of the left one sliding over the center section where the animal had its nerve and brain cluster. The movement of the tentacles appeared almost tender and caring. Despite these being totally alien lifeforms and her being a scientist, the woman in her emotionally equated what she saw with a loving caring embrace.

Martha blinked at her own thoughts and remembered that she was a native of the planet Phantas after all and like everyone of that world, gifted with Psionic powers and the ability to sense thoughts and emotions. Due to the harsh Psionic Privacy Laws of the Union she suppressed her natural gift and had learned to push the constant whisper of other minds far in the background of her consciousness; to a point where she almost forgot that she still was a telepath.

This time she focused and reached out, usually touching the mind of a non sentient life form was like trying to tune into an old fashioned radio signal without ever getting the frequency dialed in and the result was something like garbled static. Especially since she was a weak Telepath and never schooled or trained her Psionic talent, she had long quit trying. But now as she reached out she felt the scientific curiosity and excitement of her husband, the barely contained fear of Dr. Evans and then she felt the strong garbled in cohesive whisper of a million animal minds from the surface below, but she could distinctively feel emotions emanating from the two clinging Bolters. Those alien beings did feel strongly for each other.

While she made this visual and Psionic observations she spoke rapidly into her PDD dictating notes of her findings.

Paul had often seen his wife in this state and he knew to leave her alone until she had completed her observations.

Dr. Harrow had reassured him that the Flier was quite safe and should be able to absorb a barrage of lightning bolts without any serious consequences. Even though Dr. Evans had heard what the Institute leader said, Paul could see that the pilot of the flier wasn’t totally convinced.

Paul forgot about Evans and his concerned face as he also returned to watch and record the mating of the Lightning Bolters, several more started to form tightly unions in mid air and begin the tentacle caressing. To Paul the Lightning Bolters always looked somewhat like Terran Jelly fish. Specifically the Pacific Sea Nettle, except that the Lightning Bolters caps were proportionally much bigger than the cap of a jelly fish.