A New Star

A New Star

By

Michael Gray

Smashwords Edition

******

Published By:

Michael Gray at Smashwords

A New Star

Copyright © 2011 Michael Gray

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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A New Star

Chapter 1

Cannington Ridge

I often think about the changes our species instigates, intentional and unintentional, also what life will be like in another few hundred years if the Human race survives itself. Our expanding knowledge and abilities will put power in our hands that will eventually take us to the stars.

This is a favourite spot of mine, on this hill and out of earshot of the organised paranoia that is human civilisation. I look down on a medium size market town set in the southern UK and known as Benbury which is my home. I often sit in the lush grass of this hilltop and watch the sunset gradually reveal the night sky. It demonstrates to me that we’ve hardly scratched the surface of knowledge and understanding.

The relative isolation of my hilltop, known locally as Cannington Ridge, allows me to daydream of living in the future and of travel between worlds where other species live. Flying in a plane is an adrenalin rush but imagine watching the Earth become smaller as our shuttle to the Mars colony leaves orbit and the slight jolt as the shuttle’s primary propulsion system kicks in to take us to cruising speed. I certainly don’t regret my life, which has spanned the 20th and 21st centuries, but I feel somewhat cheated that I won’t see some of the magical technologies that will make much of my day dreaming a reality for later generations. Oh well, I should be thankful for small……’wow! That’s a bright star where did that come from?’

I couldn’t take my eyes off of this ‘star’. It was so much brighter than anything else in the evening sky and it seemed to be getting bigger! No, couldn’t be. I could feel my heart pumping as the possibilities ran riot with my imagination, which didn’t need much convincing at the best of times. I sat transfixed on this phenomenon fully expecting it to disappear or turn out to be a high-flying passenger jet’s landing lights and on a trajectory head-on to my location. I’ve seen exactly that before and it can be very convincing but the affect doesn’t last long. This point of light was increasing in luminosity and size. I was considering calling somebody. I always carried my mobile now, so useful. Who would I call? The Greenwich Observatory maybe, the Police or NASA? I logged into my phone. The small screen lit my face with a ghostly blue light.

By now the object had become large enough to reveal that it was a perfect sphere and that it wasn’t a plane or a meteorite and it hadn’t deviated from its relative position in the sky, which meant that it was headed directly at me! A mild panic grabbed me for a few seconds but I rationalised that if it was still in orbit, touchdown on the Earth could be anywhere in a vast area. I watched it for another few seconds as it enlarged to the size of a Golf Ball, relatively speaking and decided it was probably time to get out of the area. I started to run down the path towards Benbury but was hurled ten or fifteen feet by a pressure wave from the object as it passed low overhead. I was flung into some long grass, which cushioned the impact and left me with only a bruise or two. I scrambled to my feet to locate the ‘visitor’. There had been no explosion or sounds of impact just a low frequency hum as it had skimmed over my head and now just the rustle of the breeze through the grass.

I stood motionless, listening and waiting for something to happen but nothing disturbed the evening air. Did I imagine it? This was unreal. Something obviously large, passing through the atmosphere at such speed and landing with so little fuss, wasn’t a piece of rock. My curiosity was prompting me to take a look around. The best vantage point would be the top of the hill, so I made my way back to the highest point fully expecting to see an alien spaceship somewhere near. Not a sausage! Not even a pulsating glow, which was mandatory in all the sci-fi films I’d seen as a boy. Where’d it go? You can’t hide something that big on an open hilltop. I reckoned, from the brief glimpse I’d had, it was a sphere with a circumference about the same as the London Eye, you know, the big wheel on the Thames Embankment. That would give it a diameter of somewhere around three hundred feet plus! Hell! Where’s it gone?

I was wandering about on the grassy hilltop trying to make sense of the situation when I banged my head! That’s right I banged my head on an open, treeless hilltop. I stepped back and squinted at the fading panorama of the rolling countryside still visible through the dusk. I stretched both arms out in front of my body and cautiously stepped forward. Less than three steps forward and I felt a solid wall or was it a ceiling! In fact it was somewhere in between. I placed my palms flat on the surface I could feel and followed it backwards and it got very gradually higher but forwards, very gradually lower. Of course! I hardly dared believe it. I‘d walked into the base of a very large sphere. I backed off as I tried to make sense of the situation. What now? Find an opening? I started to feel my way around the sphere’s perimeter. Twilight was fading fast now. I didn’t have a lot of time. A complete circumnavigation revealed no access point and I couldn’t see what I was doing anyway so I reluctantly accepted that a return in the morning would be the best plan. On the way home I deliberated on how I would break this to Frances, my wife. She wasn’t exactly a sci-fi enthusiast and possessed a limited interest where this sort of thing was concerned. A spaceship has landed on Cannington Ridge. No, she’d think I was winding her up. In any case it might frighten her. No, I’ll keep it quiet for the moment but tomorrow’s Saturday and I usually help with shopping. My visits to Cannington Ridge are no surprise but on a Saturday morning would take some innovative explaining.

Sleep didn’t come easily that night and what did was brief. My mind was buzzing with possibilities but eventually I succumbed. Next morning no explaining was necessary as I couldn’t keep it to myself and blurted it out during breakfast. She did think I was joking at first but it soon became apparent that this was no joke. Much to my delight she displayed a healthy curiosity and wanted to accompany me on my return visit. We approached the ‘landing site’, which in daylight provided an unmistakable clue. The long grass that covered the hilltop had been depressed in a massive saucer shaped crop circle. It was obvious where the sphere was now, to me anyway.

‘But there’s nothing here Christian my sweetheart’, Frances stated through a wry grin to indicate her diagnosis of my temporary insanity and to reassure herself that it wasn’t really true.

‘Just walk slowly into the centre of the circle’, I suggested.

‘But we’ve seen crop circles before and agreed that they are a joke!’ she protested.

She studied my expression for a few seconds, shrugged her shoulders and edged towards the perimeter of the circle. Of course, long before she got near it there was a dull thud as her forehead contacted the sphere.

‘Oh! That’s not funny. What are you doing?’ She couldn’t decide whether to wince or whinge and I was being a little unsympathetic as I tried to stifle my laughter.

Our impromptu comedy was suddenly interrupted by a very low-pitched whine and a sort of rippling effect in the air above the grass circle.

The sphere was becoming visible and was taking on a silvery blue metallic sheen. It seemed to be almost fluid. Frances let out a muffled scream and backed away from the gigantic ball that had passed only feet above my head the night before and now towered over three hundred feet above us.

‘Oh my God!’ My involuntary statement did nothing to reassure Frances who was now clinging to my arm like a five year old. We just stood rooted to the spot and mouths agape as the spacecraft completed its transition to the visible spectrum. The noise stopped. I glanced at Frances hanging onto my arm. ‘Told you’.

She wasn’t impressed. ‘I want to go home’. She whispered as if not to let the occupants of the sphere know we were there.

‘You go’ I suggested. ‘I want to see what happens’.

She shook my arm vigorously. ‘There could be something really nasty in there and you want to wait for it to come out and jump on us?’

I tried to make light of the situation. ‘Oh c’mon, those are just sci-fi writers imaginary alien creations. It’s done to make films more entertaining’.

Frances just gave me a sickly grin and was doing her best to crush my arm.

I was absorbed by the construction of this ship and marvelled at the perfection of its form.

‘Excuse me!’ Frances was pointing a trembling finger at the spaceship. A rectangular section of the sphere’s smooth underside dissolved in front of us revealing a featureless, black interior.

I will freely admit I was also feeling apprehensive and we backed off a few more metres. An aperture opened at the end of what appeared to be a short passage and a light spilled out, illuminating the passage and a rectangle of grass below the opening. Frances gasped as her breathing became heavier.

I was just mesmerised by this stuff. A humanoid figure silhouetted in the internal doorway and moved down the passage towards us. Neither of us could have animated our legs for a getaway at that point if we’d tried.

‘Sredull cinn badu Fulluru si Attmadu.’ The humanoid figure was out in the daylight and speaking to us!

‘Sorry’. My response was automatic.

‘Sredu... my apologies, I had not activated the universal translator’.

‘Oh my giddy aunt!’ I couldn’t hide my surprise. For all intents and purposes a Humanoid like us but suited in a flexible, plastic like, one-piece garment with multiple stylised pressure points or buttons, whatever, placed in strategic positions. He had pressed one of these to activate the translator.

‘Take me to your leader?’ I asked facetiously.

‘Pardon me’ he queried.

‘Sorry, local joke’, I explained. He nodded.

‘I am Fulluru and have travelled from Attmadu, my home world.’

I extended a hand and he flinched. ‘It’s a local custom and indicates I mean you no harm and am inviting friendship’.

He again nodded understanding and extended his right hand, which I shook gently.

He smiled.

‘I am Christian Jamieson’ I announced.

‘This is a good start’, he observed.

‘I’d say so, I agreed’.

He turned his attention to Frances who had been defrosting from her initial fright.

‘This is a female of the species?’

‘This is Frances, my wife and partner and yes, she is female’.

Fulluru again extended his hand. I had to nudge Frances to encourage her to reciprocate.

‘Right, what comes next?’ A female elbow in my ribs reminded me to watch my manners but I was impatient to see inside the sphere.

‘I will endeavour to satisfy any request you may have’, the alien offered.

‘I would be most interested to see inside your spacecraft’.

Fulluru smiled again and waved his arm in an arc towards the entrance.

I turned to Frances to try and release the vice like grip she had on my arm. ‘It’s ok my petal, relax, come and take a peek at the future’.

She wasn’t the most enthusiastic I’d ever seen her but loosened her hold a little and walked with me to the aperture in the sphere.

I was not shocked to see clean, uncluttered surfaces everywhere and the construction material seemed to be seamless.

Frances shook my arm to gain my attention. ‘Christian, the entrance has closed!’

I looked back to where the aperture had been, there was just a smooth wall with no trace of an opening. I shot a glance at Fulluru who sensed my mild panic.

‘Don’t be concerned, the ship is constructed of a material which can react to stimuli and it has detected that we have re-entered so it has resealed the aperture’.

Intelligent materials! We are only just starting to explore and develop this technology, I thought to myself. I felt better for Fulluru’s explanation and continued the tour. I can’t pretend to have understood most of what we saw but some of it was uncannily similar to my dreams.

‘Where is your home planet located?’ I enquired. Fulluru moved over to a blank section of wall. It immediately rearranged its molecules and became a star chart. He pointed to a sector of the galaxy almost opposite to that where Earth resides.

‘Attmadu is in the Gamma quadrant and is one of fifty planetary bodies in the system orbiting our sun’.

‘You appear to have evolved in very much the same way as we have?’ I observed.

He touched his planet’s location on the chart and it created a view of Attmadu, from low orbit. It was beautiful, like Earth but probably four or five times larger.

I ventured more questions. ‘It seems to possess a similar environment to our Earth’,

‘Yes, you will have noticed that I have no difficulty surviving in your planet’s atmospheric conditions and can adjust to the lesser gravitational force’.

It was then that I noticed that his biology was much more robust than Humans. His muscular definition reflected his planet’s stronger gravitational influence. His breathing was noticeably slower than ours, also due to his species development in a heavier atmospheric pressure than Earth’s.

Fascinating, I was soaking up every second of this unbelievable event and had forgotten about my wife’s initial fright. She had actually left my side and was engrossed in a console type arrangement situated on the opposite side of the compartment we were in. She waved to me to join her.

‘There’s everything you could possibly want to know’, she informed me with a newly formed interest. It was a reference system, containing the knowledge accumulated by Fulluru’s species. He joined us.

‘You are the Frenoba?’ I’d seen the name on one of the screens Francis was skipping through although she didn’t understand how. The translator appeared to be converting text as well as speech.

‘That is correct’, Fulluru confirmed. He seemed to have read my thoughts. ‘The knowledge dispenser is responding to your wife’s desires and in your native language’.

‘You mean its displaying screens because that’s what she’s thinking?’

Fulluru nodded slowly.

I had a million questions to ask and he appeared quite willing to answer them.

‘How long has it taken you to get here and what powers your spacecraft?’

He walked over to the nearest wall, which immediately provided another screen and showed a graphic of the sphere spaceship we were inside. He touched the visual at a central point on the sphere, which opened like a peeled orange. The spaceship’s internals were exposed revealing many compartments and in the centre was the propulsion system. Fulluru touched this component and it opened as did the other screen.

‘This is a flux drive, it searches for currents in the energies that every major galactic body emits and uses them to push or pull the sphere through that particular part of space. We have developed it to a point that allows us to traverse this galaxy in much less time than it took you humans to reach your moon’.

‘You know about that?’ I was shocked at this revelation.

‘You are surprised?’ queried Fulluru.

I hesitated. ‘Well yes, it infers that you have been watching us for quite a while’.

He walked away from the screen, which promptly shut down and returned to being a plain wall.

‘We observe a number of species and watch their development. It teaches us a great deal about how we evolved and evolutionary processes in general’.

I considered Fulluru’s last comment and saw the logic in what he was saying. ‘So why have you now landed and revealed yourself to us humans?’ It seemed the obvious thing to ask.

He sat down in a recess that had just formed in the wall behind him. ‘We see in you much aggression and