Other Worlds Competition - Runner Up

‘In half an hour we’ll get close enough to be able to establish contact with Base.’
Ellen watched Jake put his arms behind his head and turn his chair towards her. He was smiling broadly, his long body relaxing in anticipation of the end of their mission.
‘You don’t look very happy, Ellen. Is anything the matter? Where are Matt and Jess?’
She hesitated a moment before answering.
‘Resting.’
‘You should rest, too. I can take care of everything here.’
Ellen knew that. And she was so tired. She had hardly slept since returning from Nova, but she couldn’t rest just yet.
‘I’m fine’ she replied. ‘I’ll sit with you, if you don’t mind. Actually, I’d like to talk to you before we get in touch with Base.’
She could see him becoming alert and it almost made her smile. The way Jake straightened his back and lifted his head reminded her of Tutu, her partner’s dog, when he heard a noise outside.
Oh, Tessa, my dearest love, would you understand what I am about to do? Would you be able to forgive me? But then, you’d never know…
‘What is it, Ellen?’ Jake spoke softly. ‘Is it about Guy? Are you worried about reporting his death?’
‘I’m not worried, no. But I need to tell you about what happened.’
‘Haven’t you already done that?’
‘I lied. Guy had no intention of breaking any of the Strict Orders. Do you understand what that means?’
She didn’t need to ask. Jake’s face was always easy to read.
‘Did he attack you, Ellen? I never liked him, I admit, but I don’t believe he was capable of that.’
It wouldn’t even cross Jake’s mind that Ellen could be to blame. She was touched, but it was time for the truth.
‘I killed him in cold blood.’
Ellen leaned in her chair, observing the emotions twisting Jake’s face into open-mouthed bewilderment.
She thought back to the time when they first approached the recently discovered planet, so like Earth that it was almost uncanny. How excited they were! Ellen and Guy, as mission leaders, had been given permission to land on the planet for a short period, if they judged it was safe. They had been given strict orders not to interfere with anything or anyone they found there, not to remove any object and to ensure that they were unobserved. The orders were so stringent that they were expected to shoot their colleague rather than let them disobey. Too much was at stake. The United Earth Council needed to develop a plan of approach regarding the planet and its inhabitants, if indeed life existed there as they had anticipated. So Ellen and Guy were to act as mere scouts, their mission to observe and report on what they had seen.
The spaceship had circled the planet for some time while they took measurements and observed its topography. Then their ship hovered over a section of continent comparable to central Asia. They saw herds of large animals on its plains, then dense forests, rivers, lakes, mountain ranges and smoking volcanoes, but no cities or any other signs of advanced civilisation. After a few days, Guy and Ellen decided to leave their ship in a drone. They headed towards a wooded area and, landing in a clearing at dusk, set out to explore.
‘I was so scared’ Ellen began softly. ‘We had no idea what to expect. It all had a kind of Ice Age feel, you know? I thought of sabre-tooth tigers and mammoths and fierce prehistoric hunters. I took out my gun and listened to all the sounds of the forest. Can you imagine being in a forest of which you can see no end?’
Jake could not. All that was left of forests on Earth were tiny copses in otherwise heavily cultivated or urban landscapes. You could cross them in a few steps.
‘I swear it breathed. And when it started to get dark, it was really dark. No lights, just the stars. We held hands and crept slowly along a path we found. I hoped that it hadn’t been made by some giant predator. Guy said nothing, you know how he liked to maintain his macho image, but his hand was sweaty and I knew he was as scared as I was. And then we saw a small bonfire among the trees.’
‘So there were people there after all’ Jake said slowly, in wonder. ‘Why did you lie, Ellen?’
‘I couldn’t bring myself to talk about them. They were so beautiful. I had never imagined anything of such beauty. It wasn’t in their form. After all, they looked like us. A man, a woman, two children and a baby. All naked, because it was so warm. They were asleep on animal skins, outside a primitive hut made of branches. The beauty was in their total innocence. You could sense it. The mother had very long hair. It glimmered red and gold in the light from the fire. The baby sucked on her breast and she cuddled it close and smiled in her sleep. The smile of pure love and happiness. The man lay on his back, with his arms under his head. His big body was completely relaxed and unprotected. A girl, about ten years old by our standards, and a younger boy, slept together, wrapped in a perfect embrace. He was sucking his thumb. No one taught him that he shouldn’t do it. Why? Why do we tell our children off for that?’
‘It makes their teeth grow crooked’ Jake answered and thought of his daughter.
‘We stood there for ages, no longer afraid, just looking at them. At one point the boy opened his eyes for a moment. He must have seen us. I keep wondering if he remembered us after he woke up the next day. What did he take us for? Gods? Maybe he will grow up to be a cave artist and we’ll end up in one of his paintings. And in thousands of years anthropologists will make up theories to explain who we were.’
Ellen smiled, her voice dreamy, then serious, as she continued her story.
‘Guy and I, we both realised the same thing. There were no predators. Those people lived in paradise. The creation myth had a happy ending there. Eve had refused the fruit or maybe there had never been any serpent and the original sin hadn’t been committed. When we turned back, the forest was full of fireflies. I saw this little furry animal, a kind of dog with big ears and a bushy tail. It was blue, Jake! And completely unafraid. Its eyes reflected the glowing insects. It was like looking into the vastness of another universe.’
The radio cracked static suddenly, but no words came. They were not close enough. Ellen kept talking.
‘Then Guy spoke. Think of the natural resources, he said. And he was on! Colonising, mining, the quality of the timber, you name it. In an instant, I saw how it would be. The Council might talk about protection and research, but there would be lots of people just waiting to exploit that planet. To tear it apart. I couldn’t allow it. So I shot him. I killed Guy so he wouldn’t tell people what we saw.’
Jake hid his face in his hands, trying desperately to process what Ellen had just told him. She could see he understood it all, even more then she had expected him to. He swallowed audibly and said:
‘You can trust me. I won’t breathe a word of it to anyone. We can make something up. Tell them there was no life on the planet or that it was dangerous or…’
‘It’s not going to work, Jake. Something like that can never be kept secret. New missions will follow…’
Ellen’s voice trailed off. When Jake looked up, she was pointing a gun at him.
‘I am so sorry’ Ellen whispered. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Again there came a crackling noise. And words: Base to Columbus, Base to Columbus.
‘Leave now’ she whispered.
He rose slowly as she reached for a headset.
‘Columbus here. We cannot begin landing and shall ascend shortly. The craft will self-destruct once we reach the minimum safe distance.’
She pressed a few buttons on the control panel.
‘We are contaminated with an unknown, highly infectious, lethal disease. We have lost three crew members already. We only returned to warn you that Nova is deadly for humans. Do not ever send any more scouts there. Do you copy?’
When the confirmation came, Ellen switched off the handset, cutting off all further contact.
The ship moved upwards, away from Earth and back into space.
Away from Tessa.
After a while Jake returned, his tear-stained face gleaming like wet marble.
‘I wish I had seen it.’
Ellen smiled sadly.
‘Who knows? Maybe we’ll be born again there. Maybe that is Heaven we’re supposed to go to after we die. I’m going to domesticate one of those blue dogs. I’ll call him Tutu.’
Jake said nothing. In silence, they waited.