Carogan looked at his instruments once more. All were reading normally. The time to launch ticked away. The timing was critical, only a slight deviation would mean failure. He rehearsed the training he had received in the simulator one more time. All was in order. He tensed as the last few moments before the launch approached, then relaxed as the launcher charge ignited. No amount of training could prepare him adequately for the crushing acceleration of a launch, but the ship was well built and the stress was endurable. As Carogan recovered, he underwent the momentary disorientation of weightlessness before the gravity controller restored normality. He signalled to base that the launch had worked successfully and prepared for the long journey to his destination.
The briefing had been as thorough as it could be. The scientists were agreed that the nearest planet was inhabited. Telescopes had shown the development of features which could not have been of natural origin. The seasonal variations were well known. From time to time it appeared that the inhabitants used lights to signal to each other and it was assumed that acoustic communication was very likely in the thick atmosphere. The design teams had used what little was known about the nearest planet to the best of their ability. They had built the best and brightest light signalling equipment into the vehicles. They had also allowed for the thick atmosphere in the design of the acoustic communicators. The unknown factors were the shapes of the lifeforms and the languages used on the planet. As he was to be the first to make planetfall, Carogan had the responsibility of making first contact. He had been given a very thorough briefing on the rules for making the first contact. The basic rule was: Copy whatever the indigenous beings appeared to do - that way they would be able to understand that they were with intelligent and friendly beings. Carogan settled himself for the long period of time which would elapse before he reached the nearest planet. He prepared for the drug-induced sleep which would continue until the alarm wakened him.
He awoke suddenly; his brain was clear and alert. The planet which had been hardly more than a point of light in the sky was now too large to be seen in its entirety. The white clouds floating in the blueness were clear and distinct. Their shadows could be seen below them, making the ground details harder to interpret. Carogan set the controls for entering the planet's atmosphere. It had been planned that the descent to the surface should be made as quickly as possible. It was hoped that this would cause the minimum of alarm to the indigenous creatures on the planet. This also meant that a short sub-orbital flight would enable a landing near one of the largest of the unnatural features.
Carogan watched the instruments carefully as the shield heated up. The atmospheric friction had been accurately calculated. Deceleration was smooth and rapid, and only the smallest of course corrections was needed to ensure that the landing would be in the targeted area. The gravity balancer worked perfectly at the moment of impact. The ship had neatly buried most of its length below the surface.
Carogan checked his instruments once more. The gravity unit was compensating for the increased gravity and the hull was well able to provide protection from the heavy atmosphere.
There was a lot of work to be done. The ships signaller had to be extended, the transporter had to be assembled, and communications had to be established with the remainder of the expedition. It seemed as if he had hardly begun the work when the signaller's optics provided the first view of one of the indigenous creatures. The heat rising from the shield disturbed the thick atmosphere, making seeing difficult. The creature was small and covered with some sort of protective material. It appeared that it was holding a crude reflector at the end of one of its appendages. The scientists had been correct in their assumptions - these creatures used light to signal to each other. Carogan adjusted the signaller to align with the creature and gave the universal flash of friendship.
The creature had disappeared. This was completely unexpected. No-one had even imagined that the beings on this planet could use teleportation but the evidence was there - or rather wasn't there, but had been. Carogan searched the area for signs of other creatures but the distortion of the atmosphere made seeing difficult. The light outside was far brighter than had been predicted. The signaller's optics couldn't cope with the brightness properly. Carogan withdrew the signaller to see if any adjustments could be made to improve the way it operated in the bright conditions. He sealed the hull and opened the airlock to the transporter stowage.
The optical head of the signaller showed signs of deterioration. The lenses seemed to be cloudy. Using the controls carefully it was still possible to use the signaller's optics to read the instruments in the cabin without difficulty but the quality had fallen off considerably.
Carogan continued with the task of assembling the transporter. It had been designed to cope with any terrain. The legs were long enough to permit a good view of the surroundings and the controller compensated for the high centre of gravity. The last stage of the work was to transfer the signaller from the ship's optics to the transporter's optics. Carogan noticed that the cloudiness of the lenses had lessened somewhat and vision was almost back to normal.
The work was eventually completed and Carogan entered the transporter. The other ships had begun to arrive and had started signalling. The messages seemed to be rather confused. Most of them reported that the locals had a habit of disappearing when greeted. One or two reported that some of the indigenous creatures had started to use crude signalling devices which combined visual and acoustic signals. No-one had been able to establish any form of intelligent communication so far.
Carogan activated the legs of the transporter to get a better view of the local area. The creatures had assembled an array of their signalling devices and began to signal as soon as the transporter had reached its full height. The shield registered a number of very minor collisions with small flying objects. As it had been designed to cope with impacts, these collisions had no effect.
Carogan signalled to the other ships in the vicinity that he had noticed a deterioration in his signaller's optics which had drastically reduced the clarity of vision. He soon received replies that all the other signallers had been similarly affected. Derefin signalled that it would be a good plan for all transporters to keep fairly close to one another in case the visual signallers deteriorated further. This was soon agreed. Refanon felt that there might be a possibility that the signallers could be harmful to the creatures. CARIXAN dismissed this idea because the natives had used very crude signallers to try to communicate with the members of the expedition. Although the signalling equipment was different, some of the more powerful signallers they used had produced visual and acoustic signals which were comparable in strength to those on the home planet. It was agreed that everyone should try to use all the possible variations which the signallers were capable of, in order to try to communicate with the local creatures. Acoustic communicators should be used when optical communication was difficult or impossible.
The problem of communicating with the natives was still unsolved when night fell. It was evident that they used continuous communication techniques with each other because many signal sources could be seen. Some of them were very large. There remained the mystery about the way they tried to communicate with the transporters. In every case they used short flashes which were accompanied by pulses of acoustic energy. CARIXAN had noted that the natives who had tried hardest to communicate seemed to be of a different tribe or species to the rest. They seemed to be of a consistent colour whereas the rest of the creatures were of many different colours. Refanon was still of the opinion hat the expedition might be harming some of the indigenous beings unintentionally. Carogan suggested that the artificial structures should be investigated when daylight returned. This was agreed upon unanimously.
The native creatures made a few sporadic attempts at signalling during the night but it was still impossible to make any sense out of the short flashes or the acoustic bursts. Otherwise the night passed peacefully. It was gratifying to know that the natives didn't consider the visit to be unwelcome. No-one reported any signs of hostile action being taken against them. When dawn broke, the group assembled in preparation for the visit to the structures. Everyone reported that their signalling optics had deteriorated further. It was still possible to use optical signalling at close range but acoustic signalling would have to be used for greater distances.
The visiting party proceeded as a scattered group, each transporter choosing its own route among the structures. Whenever an optical or acoustic signal was received from the natives it was answered with the universal flash of peace and friendship. In every case it appeared as if the natives had teleported themselves away. Carogan suggested that the universal flash was misunderstood by the natives as a signal to teleport. CARIXAN noted that the acoustic signallers affected the structures, causing them to take on new arrangements. He said that his optics were almost useless but he had been able to detect a general downward movement in nearby structures whenever he used his acoustic signaller. He put forward the hypothesis that the natives' gravity control units were affected in some way by the acoustic signals. Carogan withdrew his optical signaller to try to see why its lenses were deteriorating.
As before, the problem seemed to be the atmosphere outside. Inside the transporter the lenses slowly showed signs of clearing. Carogan signalled Derefin acoustically to tell him of his findings. Derefin suggested that the two of them should work as a pair, so that they could share the tasks of restoring and using their optics alternately. Rohicar suggested that the task should be split in three ways. Her idea was that one of the three should keep a set of optics inside until they were restored to normal working, and depend on the other two for optical guidance in the meantime. This was agreed, and the suggestion was passed on to the rest of the visiting party.
Carogan noted that there seemed to be very few natives among the structures when he erected his optical signaller again. Rohicar had agreed to alternate with him in restoring lenses while Derefin tried to get his optics into full working order. CARIXAN had followed Derefin's initiative with another group. There were fewer signalling flashes than before and the accompanying acoustic signals were weaker. By the end of the day, the expedition had not established communication with any of the natives. Carogan was beginning to feel somewhat dispirited by the failure to make any usable contact with what appeared to be intelligent creatures.
Once more, as darkness fell, a large number of continuous optical signals could be seen. Most of them were connected with the structures. Some of them were visible through apertures in the structures. It was very odd indeed. Everything possible was done to try to make some sort of sense out of these signals but no-one in the party could make head or tail of them. Many of them gave the appearance of being remotely controlled. There were apparently no beings controlling the signals and none to whom they were directed. The eeriness of the situation was unsettling. The failing optics did nothing to help the position. The acoustic signals enabled the members of the expedition to keep in touch with each other on one hand but made them feel more isolated from the native creatures on the other. Carogan was beginning to think that Defanon had made a correct interpretation of the situation. How terrible it would be if any of the creatures had been hurt by any of the members of the expedition. There was no direct evidence to support Defanon's point of view but the absence of beings trying to communicate was very disturbing.
Rohicar took over the optical watch during the night. She recorded that he continuous signals followed a consistent pattern. In most cases, these signals started as small, low-level light sources in the rearranged structures. Then, the signals got larger and brighter. After a while they began to diminish and eventually stopped. No continuous signal was ever seen to come from the same source twice. She also noted a curious phenomenon just as she was about to complete her watch. There were moving structures which seemed to be attached to a four-legged vehicles or creatures. They appeared in a gap between the structures and then moved steadily away from her transporter. She did not try to signal to them because she did not want them to teleport. She lost sight of them in the billowing black clouds because her optics were obscured.
CARIXAN reported acoustically that his optics were back to normal. He made several observations about the problem which had caused them to become useless. The major part of the problem was a solid material which collected on the surfaces of the lenses. This material could be removed physically but would disappear quickly if the signaller cooling system was turned off. He had the opinion that the signaller's optics would function properly for a longer period if no cooling was used. This would mean that he would not be able to use the signalling light while the cooling was off, but this would not be important if he stayed with Roncanan and Ferifar.
As the sun rose on the next morning, the continuous signalling lights began to fade. CARIXAN confirmed that his optics had remained clear while the cooling system was off, but they became obscured shortly after he turned the cooling on again. He had turned the cooling off once more in order to get a clear view of the surrounding area.
CARIXAN's report was sombre and straightforward. His signaller was directed at the home planet at full power. All the members of the expedition were able to read its reflection from the surrounding clouds and structures.
People of the home planet.
This is the last report of the expedition.
WE have made gross errors in OUR assumptions about the creatures which inhabit this planet. OUR first and major error was to assume that these creatures used light to communicate with each other. OUR second error was that WE did not realise that OUR optical signallers would have the effect that they have had on the creatures or the structures on this planet.
OUR optical viewing systems were adversely affected by the combination of the cooling systems needed for the light signallers, and the gases present in this planet's atmosphere. The cooling caused one of the many gases to condense on the optics, making them almost unusable. This, in turn, prevented US from seeing clearly what was actually happening when WE used OUR light signallers. When this problem had been solved, WE discovered another gas present in this planet's atmosphere which reacted with OUR light signals. This gas caused almost anything to be consumed when one of OUR light signals was directed at it. This included the indigenous intelligent creatures.
OUR acoustic communicators killed the local life-forms at a considerable distance and caused their structures to disintegrate. The disintegrating structures reacted with the consuming gas to kill more of the intelligent creatures.
What WE took to be short communication signals on their part, were, in fact, attempts to defend themselves from the horror WE brought upon them. The continuous signals were the terrible light caused by the consuming gas. All of US have killed hundreds of virtually defenceless beings. There is only one way that WE can honourably atone for the slaughter that WE unwittingly committed. That WE will do as soon as this signal is completed. WE will turn off OUR gravity compensators, shields and cooling systems, and open OUR airlocks to the atmosphere of this planet.
May all who visit other inhabited planets in the future, learn from OUR dreadful mistakes. On behalf of the expedition to OUR nearest planetary neighbour, I offer OUR sincerest regrets and apologies.
CARIXAN.
Signal ends.
With acknowledgement to H. G. Wells. Copyright (c) 25/6/87 W. H. James. (2771 words) Revised 30/11/98
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Wilf James,106 Jarden, Letchworth, Herts. SG6 2NZ, UK.
E-mail wilf.james@net.ntl.com..
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