Chapter 5

Will resumes the narrative :

School resumed on Monday, the 8th of January 3996. Our second semester at CSM was more difficult than the first semester had been, as it delved more into the serious study of Geology. There were fewer parties, and a lot more studying.

Spring break this year was nine days in the middle of March. We and Nick worked at the space port again for Ski. Summer break which occurred just before the start of our third semester was the last week of May, and the first week in June. We were again able to get some work at the space port, but only for the last week in May when there was a big holiday celebrated in North America. This gave us the first week of June off.

The weather was fairly pleasant for Colorado and the Denver area in particular, and a lot of students spent summer break working on their tans at the school pool, at least those who couldn’t afford to go home for two weeks did. I took Mare to the pool on Tuesday, the 4th of June, and we ran into trouble again.

“Why are all of these people interested in ruining their skin by exposing it to rays of the sun?” Mare asked, as we approached the pool area.

I hadn’t noticed previously as it had been fall and then winter, but Mare always wore long sleeves and long pants whenever she went out. Of course, it had been chilly and then cold since we had met. Now it was summer, and she still dressed the same in addition to wearing dark sunglasses when outside during the day.

“Don’t you want to get a tan?” I asked before remembering that her skin has a natural built in tan – all over.

“The sun will injure your skin and cause skin cancer,” she told me.

“But people have been sunbathing and working in the sun for thousands of years. It’s not a dangerous pass-time, especially if you use sun bock to reduce the amount of UV rays reaching your skin,” I told her.

“It may not be dangerous here or on Vespa II, but no one on Telchines sunbathes or stays outside longer than necessary,” she told me.

“We’re not on Telchines,” I reminded her.

Naturally, Mare didn’t have a bathing suit, and wasn’t about to buy one the way that she felt about sunbathing. Instead she wore a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and a pair of gym shorts plus her invariable boots and her sunglasses. People did look at her a little strangely because of the boots, but many had on sunglasses. I had on some swim trunks that I had purchased here plus I brought along the towels and the sunblock.

We had been there for about an hour and a-half, and I had helped Mare rub sunblock on her exposed skin, when I decided to take a dip in the pool.

“Go for a swim with me,” I asked her.

“Swim?” she replied in a puzzled voice.

“Yes, in the water, like the others are doing,” I told her, as we could see a number of others in the pool.

“No, don’t go in the water, Will. It isn’t good for you,” she told me.

“Not good?” I asked confused.

“No, there are too many salts and other elements in the water. It’s not good for you,” she told me again in a concerned voice.

“Mare, this isn’t Telchines. The only thing in the water here is chlorine to eliminate bacteria and germs, plus the water is filtered to remove other things. It’s perfectly safe to swim in,” I told her.

“On Telchines, no water is safe. All of our water is distilled, even the rainwater that we catch. The stills are cleaned out weekly to remove the salts and other elements left behind in the distillation process. The residues are dissolved in certain acids to recover the valuable salts. They are sold at a very good price,” she told me.

“But there is nothing like that in the water here,” I assured her calmly. It took a long time to convince her to try swimming, but she eventually agreed, if reluctantly.

“You’ll need to remove your boots. They would pull you under in the water,” I told her. Mare looked at me with a stunned expression.

“Remove my boots?” she asked, as if it was a totally foreign concept.

“You can’t swim in them, they are too heavy,” I told her.

“But I’ll bounce,” she reminded me.

“Not if you shuffle to the edge of the pool,” I told her, and she eventually did remove her boots but only after a lot more cajoling. Shortly after that, she shuffled over to the edge of the pool and looked in it, but didn’t appear ready to enter it. Nobody and I do mean no body, not even Nick, was about to throw her in the pool, as several other women had been who had hesitated about going in the water. They had all heard about Mare’s adventures, both on and off campus.

Mare eventually decided to try it and got into the water to instantly sink out of sight. Fortunately, the place where she went in was only six feet deep, and she had the presence of mind to walk toward the shallow end of the pool. Her head soon reappeared above the water, but she was definitely unhappy.

“I told you this was dangerous,” she reminded me, as she continued on to the shallow end of the pool which was only a bit over three feet deep.

“You have to swim to stay up in the water,” I told her.

“Maybe she should learn to float first,” Nick suggested, as he approached us.

“Sure, why didn’t I think of that?” I asked, as Mare approached the shallow end of the pool.

“What is this float?” she asked.

“You just relax and let the water support your body, as you lay on top of the water,” I explained.

“Some people use a flotation device to assist them,” Nick added.

“There’s no movement, no thrashing around?” she asked.

“No, you just lay there calmly and allow the water to support you,” I told her.

“Like this,” Nick told her, as he joined her in the water. He laid out flat on the water and floated for several minutes to give Mare an idea of how it was done.

“All right, I’ll try that, but if it doesn’t work, I’m drying off and going back to the dormitory,” she told both of us in a very positive voice. Nick guided her in what to do to float and supported her for a time while she got used to it. Then he released her.

Mare immediately sank to the bottom of the pool. Fortunately, we were on the shallow end, and all that she needed to do was stand up. She came up spitting out water with a very upset look on her face. It was immediately obvious that Mare couldn’t float, and I suspected that it was because her body was too dense. I recalled then what Mac had said in the gym about her weight, and what Mare had told me about the gene engineering that those on Telchines had received to live there.

“That’s it, I’m going home after I dry off and put my boots on,” she told me in a disgusted voice, but added, “ Bring my boots over here, Will.” I went to get them and her towel.

We never went sunbathing or swimming again. I went a time or two again by myself, but it wasn’t any fun without her. Mare refused to go again, as she was sure that it wasn’t safe, and for her it wasn’t. She must have been really upset with me, as she didn’t speak to me for two whole days following that. Even when she saw me in the gym, she didn’t say anything, but she did eventually forgive me.

Mare had really gotten into the study of Geology and the different minerals. She was very good in the preparation of samples and could identify the various minerals by their proper names. She was most interested, however, in the identification of various levels of strata and asked a number of questions of our various instructors. She seemed most interested in the determination of the age of various strata. Finally, one day she had a question for our instructor in Geology class and raised her hand.

“Professor, I’m worried about how I will be able to identify the age of the strata on my home planet,” she told him.

“We have gone over the various standard methods several times and have even had a couple of lab classes on the procedures. Didn’t you understand them, Miss ... Miss?” the Professor asked.

“Riedasel,” Mare reminded him.

“Ah yes, Miss Riedasel,” he said as if remembering something. “You’re from Telchines, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m from there, and I’m not sure that the standard methods will be reliable,” Mare told him.

“You may be correct,” he said after several seconds of thought. “Please sit back down, while I explain to the class the unique problems that you may have,” he requested before he began his explanation.

“Telchines, class, for those of you not familiar with it, is a three-gravity planet with an abundance of heavy elements in its makeup, and this includes many radioactives. I believe that the problem that Miss Riedasel is concerned about is the effect of those radioactives on the structure of the elements making up the various rocks over time and how that would affect determining the actual ages of the formations,” the Professor told them before pausing.

“Unfortunately, we, that is the Geology Department, are not able to answer that question at this time, as it will require further study. I would like to meet with you, Miss Riedasel following the class to discuss this problem. There are a number of us who are interested in it,” the Professor finished, before going on with the remainder of the class. We had another class following that one, and Mare arranged to meet with him following our last class.

“Go with me, Will,” Mare asked, as we got out of our last class of the day.

“Are you worried about something?” I asked, as I was sure that Mare wasn’t afraid of much by now.

“I just want a witness,” she said in an unsure voice.

“Okay,” I agreed.

When we reached the professor’s office in new Berthoud Hall, we were surprised to see not just our Geology Professor there but also our Professor from Geological Chemistry, and another from Metallurgical and Materials Engineering.

“I believe that you know these other gentlemen,” the Professor said indicating the others.

“Yes sir, we are aware of who they are,” Mare told him.

“And this is?” the Professor asked indicating me.

“This is my friend Will Rugelery. He is interested in the problem also,” Mare told them, and all of the professors smiled at us, but I don’t think they believed what she had said.

“Yes, the reason that I requested you to meet us, is that we, that is the three of us, have been interested in the problem that you asked about for some time. Now while we can predict certain reactions based on chemistry and what we know about Radioactives in general, we have no solid evidence of what is actually happening over time on planets like Telchines.

“From your classes, you know about the usual methods used to measure the absolute age of rocks by the decay of the radioactive elements in them. These are the various uranium and thorium to lead tests as well as a number of others.

“The question that you asked in class is the same that we have concerns about, namely what happens to the daughter elements over time when they are continually exposed to continued radiation. While we can and have done short term experiments here, we need to see what happens after not just a few years, but after millions, tens and even hundreds of millions or even billions of years. We can’t wait that long, so we need to obtain samples that have been exposed to those conditions for that length of time,” our Geology Professor explained in a passionate voice.

“There was a young man here previously from your planet, but unfortunately... , “ he stopped there.

“Yes, I know all about him and his temper,” Mare assured him.

“It was indeed unfortunate that he was dismissed, but you are here now, and we would like to make you the same proposition that we wanted to make him,” the Professor from Geo Chemistry told Mare, and I saw her flinch at the word proposition. It had obviously been a poor choice of words.