Chapter 53

Authors Notes: The next few chapters deal with some very heavy science FICTION. Some of the facts are right, but most are wrong regarding how we deal with it. So please do not inundate me with science fact contradicting my findings here. It’s all smoke & mirrors and a lot of BS wrapped up in literary license. But enjoy. BR

I woke early, showered, and dressed. I went into the kitchen and started coffee and realized we would need more shortly. I went into the office to talk to Fred.

“Bob we have some really good news; we think. George sent the probes out yesterday evening and we got a big surprise. This sun is a binary, but the other star has imploded and is a neutron star that will eventually develop into a black hole. The stars are far enough apart that there is little interaction between the two. We think that when the neutron star imploded and went super nova, some of its debris was expelled. The pressures of a super nova can cause material of the star to spin off at speeds up to one tenth the speed of light. This material could have hit a planetoid or planet and the resulting debris field is the cloud we see today. Because it hit the planetoid, a lot of the momentum would have been absorbed by the planetoid exploding causing it to disintegrate. The cloud we see is approximately 3.2 million miles long; just over 12 thousand miles high and 21 thousand miles thick. The gap we see is about 11 thousand miles long. But the material itself is mostly about 1 to 3 feet across. And at a half a million miles away you would see nothing of the cloud. Some light would be reflected, enough to give you the colorful sunsets and sunrises too.

“Now what to do about all this? We don’t know yet. This is just what we found out since the probes established their locations early this morning. The data is coming in on such a low frequency that the radiation is not having much effect. We are stuck as to what to do next, do you have any ideas?”

“Not at the moment Fred, but let me think on this for a while. I’ll let you know when I have something. By the way, how are the women doing?”

“They are all sleeping now. Doctor Phil and Kathy have scanned everyone and they are all healthy and the babies are all doing fine. They have given them a shot for prenatal medicines and to help strengthen their bodies. Your people are eating healthier now than in the past, so that helps too. I will keep you informed of their status as soon we know something different. We are trying to set up some sort of picture communications that will be shown on the big screen in the main cave. Yes, I installed it last night. We are still working on translation, but your suggestion to teach them all English is gaining acceptance. But that is all postponed until we can get through this crisis.”

“Thanks Fred. Can you play cartoons all day, I think it would help. I also have some travelogue DVD’s you might play too.”

“Yes Bob that would work too. Get the adults interested. Good thinking.”

“I will let the people know we will have entertainment today; also what about the sunglasses?”

“Everyone now has a pair. We left them on top of their drawer unit. The lenses are a composite plastic so you don’t have to worry about breaking them easily.”

“Thanks Fred, you do good work.”

I went into the main room and breakfast was being served along with cartoons; mainly Bugs, Daffy, Porky and Elmer. I had some of the old singing ones too. Of course what grandpa didn’t have Disney animation movies?

Everybody just stared at the pictures. Soon the children were laughing and before long so were the adults. Valkorla asked me what this was, and I said, “Just some of my old movies. They are funny things that have been reproduced here on the big screen. Just sit back and enjoy the entertainment.”

When the first movie ended, everybody foot stomped until the next one came on, then it was silence, broken only by laughter and people pointing to something and looking at a friend to see if they were watching too. It did keep the people entertained, time this morning flew by, soon the show ended and I looked at my watch and it was already 11:30, time to start lunch. Everybody was waiting for the next movie and I stood and said, “Time to fix lunch. We can watch more movies after lunch.”

I got a lot of foot stomping for that remark. While everyone was enjoying the movies and cartoons, I was thinking about our problem. What did the dark neutron star have to do with the bright times? How could a neutron star affect the brightness of a binary star? Was it close enough that if it was leaking gases like hydrogen and helium into space and the binary star was accumulating the extra gasses and was burning brighter, But a neutron star, by definition has very high gravity from the core all the way to the surface, but are gases such as helium and hydrogen affected by gravity? But the gases should be controlled by the star’s magnetic field. Starquakes could blow huge amounts of gaseous core material out at tremendous speeds. I just don’t know. But starquakes are not regular. Maybe it’s the orbits of the binary stars in that the neutron star has about a five year cycle of orbit around the primary star. No, that would be the secondary star, as the primary is the neutron star; or is it vice versa. Anyway if the two stars get closer every five years, then one of them has an erratic orbit, and every 30 years they are close enough to interact and ... What? I don’t know. Maybe Fred has some more news from the probes. Boy I sure hope so; this is a real brain twister.

“Fred have you gotten any more data from the probes that will help us?” I asked as I came into the office.

“No Bob, we need time to predict a path for the stars. Why, did you come up with anything?”

I relayed my thinking to Fred and asked, “Does any of that nonsense help at all?”

“I don’t know Bob, but those were some good deductions; and we now have more questions we need answers to. But it does push us in a direction; we didn’t even have before. Whether it is right or wrong, it is at least a starting point. Do not feel dejected, we will figure this out together.”

“Thanks Fred, I guess lunch is ready. Can we have some travelogues this afternoon and then maybe some Three Stooges or Max Sennett comedies?”

“Sure Bob maybe that will help with the gloominess out there. The cartoons were great, but once we quit, everyone started thinking about their own mortality and the great burden you had on your shoulders. They want to help you, but think they are too dumb to be of help. But with your help and your upbeat attitude, it might work. I have installed a camera at the bottom of the big screen so we can have your conversations with the loved ones tonight.”

“Thanks Fred, I’m sure it will be appreciated.”

I left and went into the main cave area, as soon as I came in it was if I turned a light on, they all perked up and looked at me. “Well the sky spirits have more knowledge now, and they are waiting for the sun to move some more in the sky so they can find out more information. I also found out that tonight on the big screen we can see and talk to our loved ones, and they can see us too.” I noticed a little change in the atmosphere in the room after I said that. I think it gave them that little nudge toward being a little happier about the whole situation. I talked to several people and we planned an outside excursion for early tomorrow morning. I wanted some more veggies and fish. I thought I might see if I could get a couple aurochs and maybe get some females to follow me to the fence. I could use Harlou and Fretail on the ATV’s and Gerona on the tractor and me in the truck to herd them into the fence. I know people do herding on ATV’s back home all the time. I would have Sothenar and his bowmen go fishing early. They could spear what they can for about an hour and then beat it back here. I can get Merthar to man the fence, no I will have him come with me, so when we get close to the fence he can open it and close it down after we get the auroch in. That should make for a better day than today. After lunch I discussed the trips for early tomorrow morning. I would wake the men while it was still dark, we could eat and then go once the sun came up. They all agreed that this would be better than just sitting around. The kids we put up for naps and we watched more TV. The travelogues we ok, but the Three Stooges and silent comedies were better.

We all waited for supper time so we could see our loved ones. I could see it would be a very emotional time on both ends.

Supper time came and went and then the big screen lit up and there were our loved ones all sitting in comfortable chairs in a stark white room. There were a lot of cheers from both sides and Phil came on screen in the forefront. “Bob and all the people of your tribe, I have very good news for everyone. All of your women are very healthy and we are getting them on a new regiment of pills to help all through their pregnancy. But you don’t want to hear from me; you want to hear from your loved ones, Barbara, who is first?”

Grounto and Sealia came on screen and said that they were fine and have been treated so nicely. Grounto asked, “How has it been there? Is everyone alright, we are all so worried that something will happen there and we cannot help.”

I said, “Grounto, everyone here is just fine. We had some entertainment here on a screen not unlike the one you are viewing us on. It is here in the main cave as you can see. We plan to go out tomorrow morning and get some fish and maybe some auroch, but we have plenty of food and water. The sky spirits have given us some sun glasses so we can go out in the day time, just not during the middle of the day.”

“Yes Bob, we too have seen some of this entertainment on the viewer here in this room. We are glad we will have the same back home. Thank you for easing our minds about you at home.”

Orangan and Therssa came on then and talked to Dignar for a while. Therssa said, “Bob I hope you are making sure Dignar is not chasing any of the new unmated women down there. If he is I will make him sorry. He can’t do that until we return home to point him in the right direction.”

“Therssa, I promise that I will make sure he behaves himself. Now do you have someone in mind or was that a general statement?”

“General for right now Bob, but we will see once we get home. He has two mates to satisfy right now and when we get home he will be weak for a few days. He may even sleep late once or twice like you.”

Everyone laughed at that remark and Dignar blushed a deep red. Then everyone noticed him and laughed even harder. This was a very good sign that they were becoming more at ease with the situation.

Heglina and Valkerita came on then and Valkorla and Grunto took center stage. Both women looked radiant and they were soon talking softly so we all kind of turned a deaf ear to their conversation. Majorne and Glormon came on and talked to Grojan.

I got to talk with my wives, Marlit, Barbara, Pauloa, and Ambat. They said they all missed me and that it was hard sleeping in a double bed with just one other person. They didn’t have any bigger beds there for all four of them to sleep in. Barbara also had a surprise for me. “Bob, do you remember Cynthia? Well she is pregnant too, about 3 months along. She is not sure about the father or fathers, but they are all catering to her. I think it will be a multiple marriage like ours but opposite. She is so proud. She thought she was beyond that. Phil says it had something to do with your pheromones that jumpstarted her ovaries and over rode her implant. Phil had to take it out when he found out a couple days after we left the ship. I have asked him to remove mine too. Is that alright?”

I said, “I would love for you to have my child, but let’s wait a little while, we will have three at once and then we can wait about a year for more. OK?” Barb agreed and then Phil came back on and said that they would have to cut this short as it was late for us and they needed to get the women back to resting. We all said our goodnight’s and I love you’s and they were gone. We all sat for a while and talked then, slowly, most of the people drifted off to bed. I remembered that I had to get up early and said goodnight to the few left and went to bed.

The alarm woke me the next morning and I really didn’t want to get up. But I did, showered, and made coffee. ‘Fred, can we get some more coffee, I am almost out, and I sure need it especially on days like today.’

“No problem Bob, I will make the can replenish itself every day; anything else?”

‘Well now that you mention it, could we get some flour, yeast and whatever else goes into making bread? We could use a good video showing how to make it so the women could make some. I’ll try to make some kind of big oven so we can bake several loaves at ones. With this bunch we would need to make probably 50 loves a day. But we don’t need to eat that much every day, but sandwiches at lunch would be a nice change now and then. We could also make dumplings and biscuits too.’

“Bob let me see what we can do; it will probably have to wait until the current crisis is over though.”

‘Yeah, no problem. It’s time to wake up the sleepy heads and head out.’

“You don’t have to Bob I took the liberty of waking the ones going this morning. They should be in the main cave shortly.”

‘Thanks Fred, see you soon.’

I filled a couple thermoses with coffee and grabbed several insulated cups and headed out to the main cave. I saw Harlou, Gerona, Joulnar, Merthar, Nonatao, Haritof, Olaffer, and Fretail waiting for me. All had their glasses in their hands. We had a quick breakfast of dried meat and fruit then we went to the practice cave and picked up our weapons and loaded up. We took the fishermen to the river and waited until dawn, then let them out and headed back toward the plateau. By the time we reached the plateau we could hardly see anything through the glasses so we turned our backs to the sun and could see much better. We waited about one hour and then turned back. We could see a small herd of about 20 to 25 or aurochs eating. As we got closer we could see they had their eyes closed. They had a second eyelid that closed thus giving them some visibility. We just drove around them and slowly had them going in the direction we wanted, back to our ramp. Once we got to the top of the ramp they went down of their own free will. Once in the meadow we had to round them up again and head them toward the gate. I swung around on one of my passes and dropped off Merthar at the gate. He swung the gate out and we tried to drive them into the gate. I guess they saw all the nice tall grass and we were able to drive them all in. We ended up with 23 aurochs with only one bull and the rest were cows. Their teats and udders were not very large, but constant use may change that.