Chapter 56

We got back in before the sun was too high. They were just finishing up with the fish so we waited and then rinsed everything down. We hoisted one of the females up and they started the butchering and skinning. I just helped with the hoisting and changed carcasses when needed. Once the people were done with the butchering and skinning, I rinsed the wagon and truck out and the floor of the garage and went into the main cave. Cherrine came over and had a large bag in her hands. It seemed so heavy she could hardly hold it. I took it from her and asked what was in the bag, although I thought I knew. She said, “Do you plan to honor all of the men here in this camp Bob?”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because with all the teeth and claws in this bag and the other one I gave you already I thought you would be honoring every man here. You certainly have enough mementos for all the women now.”

“Well I just might have to do that, but not all at once, just a few at a time, ok?”

“That would be ok, I guess, but I don’t want to wait too long for my big tooth.” And she scurried off before I could say anymore. I think she would be a dynamo in bed. I really may have bitten off more that I could hope to chew. Time would tell I guess.

Lunch was served and we had fresh cat steaks and veggies. Tonight was going to be fresh fish fillets. I would have to ask Fred about a big cauldron to deep fry fish. We could use the leftover animal fat for grease. Something to think about; anyway, I had left Fred alone for about 18 hours now so we should have some more data back now, I hope.

“Fred old buddy, old pal, any news for me yet?”

“Yes and no Bob. Ok, let me explain. We now know that the radiation is a result of an interaction of the binary suns, we have also figured out that the gas giant has passed the primary within about 473 thousand miles just eight weeks ago, we think the increased gravity of the two stars brings the planet closer to them in its orbit. The gas giant’s orbit is almost like the infinity sign, or a figure eight, it actually crosses over itself near the binary stars. That is why the funny orbit. But the bad news is we can’t figure out why it does this. That shouldn’t be possible {It isn’t}and yet we can see it. We have followed the path of its orbit back for 117 days and that is what it is doing. Can you explain that?”

“No Fred, it is an anomaly; something that should never exist, but then so is a black dwarf or dead neutron star either. Black dwarfs have been named, but have never been seen and catalogued, so we are not sure they exist. We think they do, but ... Now, how were you able to back trace the orbit of the gas giant for 117 days?”

“We saw its tail. It gives off a kind of tail like a comet. We were able to follow the path, discounting the solar wind, of the orbit back that far before it is dissipated. Is that important, Bob?”

“Yes it is Fred. Ok here is my theory. One; the dead or black dwarf is still pulling material from space to feed its appetite for power. But it is not enough to produce visible light. The radiation may be in the lower spectrum say from 300 HZ to 300 kHz (Kilohertz). Then we would really have to look for it in the spectroscope. Ok anyway the secondary is trying to draw energy from the primary, but the primary has too strong a gravity and magnetic radiation to allow for that. Then every so often this gas giant comes by, trailing a tail of helium and hydrogen along its orbit which crosses either just in front or just behind the binary pair. Now all that free gas is out there for the taking, each star picks up some of the gas as it goes by and the primary gets brighter and the secondary emits very low frequencies of radiation, but alas it can only draw a small amount as there is no electromagnetic field to draw more in. What it does get creates the low frequency radiation that makes your people go into a reproduction cycle. The waves are so low they kind of tickle your tentacles and cause your cycle to begin. The primary however is producing mass amounts of high frequency radiation, which is bombarding our people, causing sterility and miscarriages. It is also curing diseases like cancer that reacts favorably, most times, to high frequency radiation like gamma rays. I think we just solved our dilemma. Now how fast is the gas giant orbiting the binaries?”

“It is moving very fast now, but slows down at the end of the swing and heads back toward the stars. Every time it approaches the binaries it is accelerated and shoots past the stars at tremendous speed. We can’t say for sure, but we think it may be a 5-6 year cycle between times it crosses its path close to the binaries.”

“Right and I’ll bet that depending upon whether the gas giant is coming toward or away from the binaries and which binary it passes first depends upon the amount of effect it has on this planet.”

“Bob, I can see that now. That is brilliant. I think we have the how and why solved. Now we still have the ‘can we fix it’ and ‘how to prepare for the next one’ phase of the crisis to solve.”

“Well I might have an idea about the first. We will need George. George, what is the largest item in area or mass that you can move with the transporter”

‘Bob I think we can move about the size of half of this planet, why what did you have in mind?”

“No nothing George, it was just a silly thought. It doesn’t matter now. Thanks anyway.”

“Bob, what we have on this ship is a small transporter. There is a ship of the Trwennkleihjof; that has a larger capacity. I would guess about 5 to 10 times the capacity of this one.”

“George, would it be large enough to transport a gas giant the size of the one causing all our problems? This one is about 400 times this planet’s size, but only 275 times the mass. Or better still, could it nudge it into an elliptical orbit, so it doesn’t cross by the stars?”

“I don’t know Bob, but I will have someone contact the Trwennkleihjof and see if they think it may be possible. I will let you know as soon as I have heard from them.”

“Thank you George, Now Fred, if there is a chance we can change that orbit, we could solve our problem.”

“But Bob, how could we nudge a planet into moving in its orbit?”

“That is the easy part. We transport a large object with a strong magnetic radiation and strong gravity like a small black hole. We position it to the side we want the giant to move. We draw it away from the erratic orbit into an elliptical and then take the incentive away, which should leave it on an elliptical path. See easy.”

“Bob, you are something else, I’m not sure what yet, but you are definitely something else.”

“Thanks Fred, I will take that as a compliment. Now are we all set for tonight’s big swapping party?”

“Yes Bob, we will transport everyone at once from your place and then the people from the ship. We could probably do it all at once, but George wants to be safe.”

“Thanks Fred, say good bye for me to George and thank him for trying to get in touch with the Tr ... er Twinklejof’s, however you pronounce their name.”

I went out to the main cave and called all the people together. “The sky spirits and I have been able to find out why and how the bright time comes. We are still working on a solution, but if what I think will work does, we will be rid of the bright time forever. But it all depends on some things we are unsure of at this time, so it’s not quite celebration time yet. But we are close to an answer. Remember tonight is the time of the mate swap, so if you are going up to replace someone, be ready to leave right after the talk with our loved ones. And for you husbands whose wife will be coming home, remember your manners, and I will let you sleep late in the morning. We will not be going out tomorrow at all, so you have all day with your loved ones. So you should make it count.”

My headmen came up to me again and asked if I could explain what was happening. I said I would try to explain but it may be too much for them to understand. I tried to explain in hunting terms again. “Men, have you ever tracked a wounded animal that went kind of in a circle? You know, round and round in pretty much the same path.” I got some nods so I continued. “Well there is this place in the sky, much like this place here; I mean the whole place, everything you can see and all the rest of this place that you can’t see. It is bigger than what a man can walk from one summer to three more summers. Our place, it is called a planet, is about large enough that a man could walk around it in three years. You could walk from here to the east where the sun comes up and keep walking and you would end up back here three years later. This planet is like a ball, like the ones that children play with, but much, much larger.

“This other place that is so large is also like a ball but so much bigger than this planet. Now the ball we live on is going around the sun.” I drew a picture of a round ball and another round ball bigger and put lines going out from it to show light. I explained that to them and then I drew a very much larger ball. I asked if one of them could get a couple balls from the children for a moment. Tovar gathered up three balls. “Very good Tovar, now this ball is the sun,” and I placed it on the paper sun. “Now this ball is our planet. I put it down on the circle representing our planet. I then took the ball and moved it around the sun showing how our planet went around the sun, I said, “as we go around the sun we get our seasons. Summer, (close to the sun) the fall, (further from the sun), then winter,” and I moved the ball far away from the sun and said, “In winter it is cold because we are far from the sun, in summer we are close and it is hotter.” I left the ball near summer and fall. Now this other ball is the big planet. It moves like this and I showed them the figure eight orbit of the gas giant.

Dignar spoke up and said, “But Bob that ball did not go around the sun like you showed us we did. It got very close to the sun two times and went very far away the other times.”

“You are so right Dignar. Because of the way that this big planet circles the sun, it causes the problem known as the bright time, but it also caused other things when it comes near the sun. This happens about every 5 summers. What I want to do is push this large planet over to where it does not come close to the sun and therefore won’t cause the bright time, like this.” I made the ball go a long way from the sun and our planet. “Do you all see now what the problem is and what we are trying to do?”

Teague said, “Bob, if this planet was like these balls we could help with moving it, but I can see this is something even you cannot do by yourself. How are you going to get the planet to move? As you know we would gladly help if we could but this is not something men could do.”

“Yes Teague, you are very right. I can’t do it; even the sky spirits cannot do this moving by themselves. They are asking some more of their friends if they can help us. They are explaining the problem and see if they can help. We are hopeful that these new friends will help. They have a machine that can move very large objects. We hope to move this planet enough to fix the problem. You can now see why I cannot ask you for help, as much as I would like to, it is just beyond all of us.”

Mundoner said, “I can now see why you have been so worried about this. This is something way beyond just us men, you were right to ask the sky spirits for help. I have heard that you are helping them too, but how can you help?”

“Mundoner, I have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things. One of those things is about suns and planets. I have studied these things before I came here to this planet. I have helped the sky spirits by telling them what I know about all this. They have been very grateful for this help and that is why when we found that our mates could lose their babies, they took them to safety in the sky. That is also why we are able to exchange mates tonight and every third night until this is over. It is because of my help to the sky spirits and their help with me that we have been able to figure out what is happening and how it might be fixed. If we cannot fix it, we will still be prepared for the next time this comes again.”