Paradise
It was a splendid morning; the early morning breeze was slightly chilly but is neither too cold nor too windy. Nitesh Singh stood on the edge of the valley gazing across the horizon to the spectacular landscape bathed in the early morning sunlight. The wide open landscape was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, the small hills in the far distance, the small lakes of clear still water and patches of vegetation spread for miles completely untouched by civilization. It was even more beautiful in the morning as the water glittered in the sunshine reflecting a shade of green over the entire landscape. What made this morning even more impressive was that it was one of those rare occasion when both the suns rises together, the red Davos was half up across the horizon and the small blue Lunos was slightly to the right. You will never get this kind of a view on Earth only Geisha can produce such beauty of nature.
He had woken up early specially for this view, unlike his teammates he couldn’t bear to miss a moment such as this. Though all of them were having trouble adjusting to Geisha’s 16.7 earth hour day-night cycle.
He came all the way across the galaxy just for these views and would always be already to capture magnificent moments of this alien planet with his camera, be it the early morning rise of the two suns or the nightfall view of the three moons.
His most cherished picture had been of the two smaller moons, Korat and Bretat in a perfect alignment perpendicular to the asteroid belt scattered out of the broken moon Abrat. Abrat is the biggest satellite of the planet which is broken into two parts by some unknown phenomena, pieces of it are scattered across the planet’s orbit. Many of which would have bombarded the planet in its ancient history while rest are hanging over its sky in a majestic trance.
Nitesh with his team consisting of Priya Rathore, Sonam Patel, Anand Kumar and Mukul Kapoor are the second team to arrive at Geisha. Their job is to study the planet for the purpose of colonization, the standard procedure dictates the first team of explorers travel to an identified planet of interest to study it habitability and the second team goes for further extensive study to understand in every aspect so that the plans for colonization could be formulated.
Obviously this planet doesn’t require any terraforming since it has a perfectly breathable atmosphere possessing 33% oxygen, 14.1 pounds per square inch of pressure with the most pleasant of climates which are never too cold or hot, gravity of roughly about 0.847 G; you can say it is a paradise.
“Good Morning” Sonam said
To Nitesh it always seemed strange to hear such earthly terms on this alien planet.
“Good Morning, you’re up early” Nitesh replied
“I wanted to witness the twin sunrise too” there was a tone of disappointment in Sonam’s voice
“But I guess I can always see the photographs you took” she said with a little hint of excitement
“Sure”
“Hey Nitesh”
“Yeah”
“This planet is beautiful”
“It sure is”
“I don’t wanna go home, it’s so lovely here”
“I feel the same”
“But sometimes I miss Earth too especially the 24 hour day, do you miss Earth?”
It was hard for him to answer that for all the time they had been here on this planet he had fell in love with this planet, now it seems like this is the planet where he was suppose to be born and Earth seems like an alien planet.
“I don’t know”
“What do you mean I don’t know?”
“I mean it’s hard to explain, this planet… I just feel so… connected, it’s like I was meant to come here and it’ll be hard for me to leave it”
“I can understand, this is a beautiful planet like a paradise. I really wish I could come back here with the settlement convoys”
Sonam was probably the only person on the entire team who understands him no one else not even his best friend Anand, yet this time she failed to understand what he is actually feeling.
He doesn’t want to go home and he doesn’t want anyone to ever come here as well, he is fairly aware of what humans do and what they have done to Mother Earth. Polluting, exploiting, destroying nature, he could just imagine the vast landscape in front of him littered with plastic plates, wrappers, aluminum cans and other rubbish. This planet is too beautiful, too sacred for such a fate, but he has no control over OSEASC: The Outer Space Exploration and Settlement Committee where he works as a mere geologist.
Anand came out of the housing module looking weary with a bit of red in his eyes, naturally he and Sonam would’ve been drinking last night in there chambers which they share. They have been couple for three years now.
“Good Morning” Anand said to both of them “Damn this planet’s morning never agrees with me”
“It’s not the morning but your hangover” Sonam giggled
“Well whatever, we are leaving soon anyway” Anand said “Have to say I’ll miss this place a lot, despite its rotation and polarization”
Anand’s words pinched Nitesh because he speaks the truth as in 3 Geisha days they’ll leave for Earth and doom this planet by initiating the infestation that will be mankind, like it had been for all other planets.
Nitesh always knew that to Anand this whole mission had been one big honeymoon trip with Sonam, an all expense paid work vacation by OSEASC.
To Nitesh it is something much more, transcendence, he is absolutely consumed by this planet as if he had become a part of it, and hear its voice which exclaimed and plead to protect its virgin beauty.
It was the afternoon on Geisha and the five only humans on it sat together in the housing module. Anand was as usual explaining the team about the final reports and the modifications to be made or and taking inputs for any possible reexamining that anyone would like to make. He is one of the finest radiologist on earth and de facto leader of this team.
“So if any of you want to make modifications on the report to update their readings, please do it as soon as possible since we would switch off all the sensors and observation first thing tomorrow.”
Nitesh hardly heard anything going on at the table, he was sicken with grief
“Are you alright buddy?” Inquired Anand
“Huh, I am… fine.”
“You look sick” Priya said
“No, no… I’m fine, really”
“Then why so gloom?” Sonam asked
“It’s nothing if you don’t mind I would like to retire to my chambers now, feeling a bit tired” and he left the rest of them as soon as he could.
“He’ll be alright, just might be the day-night cycle, moving on…”
The day of the launch finally came the housing module was being closed up and stocked with the minimum standard supplies just as they found it left by the first explorers according to procedure.
“Ok everybody say goodbye to Geisha for we are going home and cheers to this successful mission, with couldn’t be completed without each and every one of you” Anand was in a high mood but was holding back on alcohol as the trip back would require him to keep his guts where they belong on the inside.
For their last day they decided to go down to the valley one last time, they had searched the entire planet and only found plants and small insects no other form of life was there, no mammals, no fishes, no winged creature. They were the first to fly across the planet on terrestrial flight crafts charting and analyzing the entire surface of this giant planet. Geisha’s is a young ecosystem that hasn’t yet developed much complex life forms.
They sat near a lake close to their landing site, which is also their favorite spot. The entire surface of the valley is always damp and largely covered by moss, their spot is surround by moss trees which are large trees with a twisting trunk and large spreading branches but instead of leafs moss grew in its stead.
At the base, these trees are surrounded by a slightly luminescence takakia like vegetation hosting a colony of small crawling insects.
The lake itself was vivid with phosphorescent activity and the movement of water played a majestic display of colors, there are various centipede insects on the edge of the lakeshore which display multicolor moving pattern as they move. The entire planet is rich with these valley and each one with a unique characteristic of its own.
“Well folks, this is goodbye we’ll miss you Geisha” Anand said and everybody laughed even Nitesh force a fake one.
Their small shuttle had been prepared to take them to their Deep Space Exploration Ship, which is stationed in the orbit, when it will come into alignment.
The display pad started buzzing with the sign to alert them of the alignment coming in and they quickly gathered their things and started to leave.
They were making their way to the shuttle as Anand threw the empty bottle away and it landed on the moss covered ground. This was the moment something snapped in Nitesh’s mind, to him that single bottle appeared to be a giant mountain of rubbish.
Inside the shuttle
“Ok everyone, strapped in?”
“All systems ready to?”
“Confirmed everything looks ok”
“Burners Igniting”
“Trajectory path confirmed”
“Confirmed and ready to go”
“Ok so on the mark of the auto pilot blast of in T minus 3 minutes and counting”
The shuttle was shaking with the burners below them everyone was anticipating the blast off and the impact of the G-force at the lift.
“T minus 2 minutes and counting”
Everyone in that shuttle was tensed except Nitesh as faint smile came across his face
“T minus 30 seconds and counting”
The thundering roar of the blasters filled the entire landscape”
“Liftoff in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0”
The sudden G-force hit crew as the shuttle protested against the gravitational pull, then the warning signals came on and the whole shuttle started to shiver. Absolute terror came on to the crew’s face as the blast off trajectory waivered and the burners started to misalign. Horror and confusion washed over everyone, except Nitesh who just smiled.
