The Eleusian Effect
Chapter 17 A Galactic Surprise

We exited the shuttle and I did an atmospheric analysis. “Commander, this air is breathable. It has slightly more nitrogen the Earth’s but it’s otherwise identical.

“Incredible, Doctor. Is it safe to take our breathers off?”

“As I would express extreme caution, it is. I would put them back on if the vegetation changes, plus everyone should keep their gas analyzers on.”

“All right. Everyone can take off their breathers but have them ready.” Tanner was flush with excitement. “Check in every 15 minutes.”

As we moved towards the east we discovered a path. We saw that it was well worn, and we found footprints. I made an entry into my log as the camera panned across the path. We had confirmed that there was human or humanoid life here. The discovery just created more questions. Who were they? How did they get here? We continued down the path and came to a clearing. Beyond the clearing there was a garden. We didn’t recognize any of the fruit, but it was definitely cultivated by someone. The vegetables (I assumed they were) looked lush and delicious but I opted to leave it alone. I have memories of ancient movies where the space traveler ends up being eaten by a hungry plant. Something cheesy like that. I chuckled to myself and moved along with the others. I thought to take a sample of one of the plants but I waited. I wanted to replace out what else was here in case something else was more significant.

We finally got to the first metal structure and I felt my jaw drop. I look up over the slanted doorway and saw the American Flag. Next to that was the name, USS Tempest. My team fanned out around the repurposed ship. While I was documenting this incredible replace, I heard a voice behind me. “Who are you?” Startled, I turned around fast and kept the camera facing in front of me. I saw a grey haired bearded man in his mid fifties. He was rugged, in good shape and dressed in some type of tattered uniform that was vaguely familiar. “I am Doctor Endana Obama, from the USS Kennedy. Who are you?” “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Right now, all bets are off on anything. Try me.”

“I am Captain David Marteen, of the USS Tempest, or what left of it.”

“You have to be kidding me. The Tempest was launched eighty years ago and lost.”

“A suicide mission to say the least. It seems GASA has advanced enough to send you folks out here, or it was another one of Bradley’s ‘sacrifice for the future of man’ missions. Come on into my home and I will explain.” Marteen walked past me and into the hut. I contacted the Captain immediately. “You aren’t going to believe this.” “I think I will. We will come to you.”

I followed Marteen into the dwelling. It was on its side so the décor was surreal. There was century old technology repurposed for daily use. Some of the alterations were quite creative. “Coffee?” Marteen was very cordial.

“No, thank you.”

“You must have many questions. Ask.”

“How in the WORLD did you get here?”

Do you believe in God, Doctor?”

“Yes.”

“I am a full believer. It was only by Divine Providence that we even survived that trip. When we landed a lot of us were banged up but we survived.”

“How many of you are here?”

“Thirty. Well thirty original crew members. Once we realized we were marooned here, we pretty much became a community. A family. We have close to 100 people here now, including the children.” I was still trying to wrap my head around it. “The odds of you even making it out of the solar system were astronomical!”

Marteen flashed me a wry grin. I realized what I said, “No pun intended.”

“Well, to be perfectly honest, we don’t know. I was in command of the Tempest. See that bracket on the wall over there? That was my command chair. We started out from Earth. All of us either had some terminal disease or nothing to live for. I was supposed to be dead in two years or less. I was one of the better ones. Some had six months or less. Anyway, something hit us in space. We were able determine that it was an energy blast of some sort, based on the trajectory and direction, it could have come from this planet. It was an odd affect which seemed to put us into some kind of field, almost suspended animation. When we woke up, we were in the Alpha Centauri system and heading here. We could not change our course so we just held on for the ride. Once we entered the atmosphere, the ship began to spin, fast. Most of us were pinned to the walls and pretty shook up. We have no explanation as to what or who sent us here; what we do know is that if there was some type of intelligence, Supreme Being, God, whatever you choose to call it, it wanted us to survive.” “Captain Marteen, this is all well and good but you should be dead of old age. You are a middle aged man. It would have taken almost 300 years for you to get here with a ship like the Tempest. Even sub-light speed was theoretical when this ship launched.” “That’s crazy! It’s only been about 15 years since we’ve landed here.”

“Captain Marteen,”

“David.”

“David, today’s Earth date is September 22, 2169.”

Marteen was incredulous. “By our clocks, it’s April 5, 2096.”

“Let me show you.” I took out my pad and pulled up ship’s logs and the latest archival updates. Marteen took the pad and stared at it for a long time. “I can’t believe it. How is this possible?” I turned to CPO John Huang, Science Technician, assigned to our team. “What do you think, John?”

“If I had to guess, whatever pushed you out here did it at speeds it was not possible to achieve when you left Earth. ”

I thought for a moment. “I agree, but even if they could, how could the Tempest have maintained hull integrity? Even at light speed, it would’ve been vaporized.” Huang mused. “Again, blame the energy blast. It may have created some kind of protective field around it. That’s as plausible as anything else.”

Marteen paced as he thought. “We had a ton of experimental technology on board when we left, anti-matter engines, xenon laser cannons and more.”

John was curious. “Did you have any cobalt-beryllium diodes on board?”

“As a matter of fact we did. But we had discovered a significant flaw in the core. The uranium bands were degrading 6 times faster than the GASA scientists theorized. By the time we figured it out, the core was going critical and we couldn’t stop it.” Marteen paused for a moment and then laughed.

I was surprised. “What’s so funny?”

“We jettisoned the core in order to save our lives. A ship full of terminally ill, suicidal people. How ridiculous!” I could see the dark humor Marteen was talking about. “Still, something happened that brought you here.” “Damned if we know. We tried figuring that out for a long time. Even after we landed here.” Marteen moved over the oblong window the was once the ship’s viewscreen.

I had a gnawing feeling in my gut. Their presence here made me ponder and I figured it had something to do with Eleusian technology. I snapped out of my daze. “We may have some resources on the Kennedy that could shed some light on this situation.” Just then a group of three people come in. An attractive woman with two preteen children, a boy and a girl, dressed what I would call tribal clothing entered and looked at us. For obvious reasons, they were surprised to replace us there. The woman walked over and kissed Marteen. “Darling, meet Dr. Obama, of USS Kennedy.” She got excited. “Are they here to rescue us? They’ve finally found us!”

“Not quite, but, sorry, forgive my manners. Doctor, this is my wife, Lieutenant Commander Barbara Baskin. She was my first officer.”

“That’s a new level of loyalty.”

“We barely knew each other when we were assigned to the Tempest. She was a breast cancer patient. She had a double mastectomy but it was too late. They said she had about 8 months to live when we launched. We seemed to work well together then we got to be friends then when we got here we just stayed together until nature took its course. These are my children, Mark and Amanda.” “It’s nice to meet you.”

“We will meet the rest of the Community in a few hours. We typically have our meals together.”

“Interesting. I would like very much to meet them. Captain Marteen, I do have a request.”

“What is it?”

“I like to examine some of your crew members. It’s seems you’ve outlasted your illnesses, and I’d like to know why.”

“That’s reasonable. They will have to give you their permission, though. We are somewhat of a democracy, here. We help each other but everyone pulls their weight. Even the children.” “Fair enough. Maybe we can give tours of the Kennedy.”

The children’s face lit up. Marteen smiled a father’s smile. “We would like that, and if what you say is true, my people will have a lot of questions.” “I will make the arrangements. Let me contact my commander.”

I stepped outside and called Tanner. I told her about what we found and the conversation I had with Marteen. I also mentioned that I believe much that has happened to these survivors has something to do with the Eleusians. “I will need to check the drives to replace out for sure.” Tanner agreed. “Absolutely. We’ve found survivors too and they said their leader was Marteen. We’ll need to compares notes to figure out the next step.” “Roger that. We are going to have lunch with the survivors and then meet up.”

“We’ll be joining them for lunch, too. See you then.”

The next few hours were enlightening. Marteen showed us their garden, water purification, housing, systems and even games. They had a makeshift baseball field and other areas for recreation. Much of their lifestyle depended on repurposed materials from the Tempest. Fortunately, they had tools to develop natural available resources. Wood, sand for glass, and more. Once we had seen much of what they built, Marteen asked to speak to me privately. “I haven’t told them this but we are in trouble.” “In what way?” I was curious to replace out what could be wrong in such a Utopian setting.

“For a number of years, several of the original crew thought we could leave here. It took a great deal of effort to convince them otherwise, if at all. Now that you have arrived that is going to stir up emotions and desires to leave.” “You see that as a problem?”

“All of us were sick. That’s why we were chosen for the mission to begin with. None of us expected to go back. We said our goodbyes and made peace with the finality of it all.” “Go on.”

“As you have probably already figured out, this planet has given us a new lease on life. No one has been sick in a long time. Either we’ve been cured or there’s something keeping us alive here.” “Have you tried to replace out what it is?”

“Yes. For a long time after we outlived our illnesses, we wondered if it was temporary or permanent. We used all the salvaged equipment that we could replace and make work but it wasn’t enough. Anything we found was inconclusive. Hopefully, you can replace out what it is.” “We’ll do our best.” I was confident that we could replace the answer to this quandary.

Lunch time came and we met the rest of the Community. The Elders were the original bridge crew of the Tempest. They were considered more like advisors than leaders but their influence was pretty strong. The Community was peaceful and there didn’t seem to be any animosity. We enjoyed very exotic fruits and vegetables. There was no meat offered due to the lack of any animals larger than a mouse. We talked with the children and the young adults.

It was somewhat idyllic existence yet they wanted more. They wanted to explore. Several of the original crew surveyed the land about 500 miles in each direction. They even built a bridge across the great river at its narrowest. Once we finished eating, I asked a couple of the original crew members if I could take blood samples and they were cooperative. I then asked some of the older teens and young adults and they cooperated as well. I secured the samples and got ready to return to the Kennedy. I found Marteen and spoke with him before I left.

“We are not in a hurry to leave. As a matter of fact the Captain is very interested in this planet and what happens here.”

“I’m glad to hear that. If so much time has passed on Earth where things are not familiar anymore, some of us may stay.”

“If that’s the case, you won’t be cut off. We’ll make sure of that.”

“Thank you, that means a lot.”

Three Kennedy crewmen unloaded some communication equipment and supplies for Marteen and the Tempest Community. We shook hands as I got into the shuttle. We were airborne for a few minutes and I had a horrible thought. Our heightened pheromones! The Eleusian Effect! I had no idea if our enhanced pheromones had affected anyone on the planet. There was a much higher oxygen content in the atmosphere plus some unknown but harmless organic material. This will have to be considered. Research on the blood samples will take a while but we might be able to figure out this mystery. We had more questions than answers.