The Embryo of the Star Read online

  “Moment later, another spheroid was ejected after a long lull. This time it’s very big, even bigger than the rest of the sister planets combined. . .. This brilliant ‘pillar of fire’ is so huge that it requires a great quantity of gases before it is transformed into another giant planet. It is emitting powerful ultraviolet rays that serve as an infinite light on all the orbiting planets attracted to its strong gravitational influence."

  After this long and tedious explanation, Mark dug his hand into his pocket and got a white handkerchief and gently rubbed the falling dew on his face. His detractors could not find any more faults; they were caught by a storm.

  “You’re right, kid! . . . according to the ancient Sacred Hindu Scriptures, in the beginning the Earth was like a brilliant ‘golden egg’!” Moreet Singh, a scholar of the Hindu religion, reaffirmed.

  “Mark, it’s very amazing! . . . But if you don’t mind, please try to elaborate it further. Are there some more proofs or facts that the Earth has really expanded?”

  “Yes . . . there is substantial evidence, my lady. . .. Perhaps you are aware of the geography of the Earth in the twentieth century. . .. Here . . . observe.” He pointed to the Dark Continent with an aluminum stick. “The Atlantic coast of Africa snaking to Europe doesn’t that fit with the Atlantic coast of Latin and North America? . . . Don’t tell me that those continents were just floating in the water and carried away by a strong current and drifted apart. . .. This colossal geological anomaly was the byproduct of the radioactive central core’s intense pressure built up beneath the Earth crust that failed to diffuse. . ..

  “Which then pushed the continental plates into an east-west and north-south direction. In the case of the north-south direction, Antarctica, which was once a verdant forest inhabited by enormous primeval reptiles, was originally joined to South America, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. . .. Lands also develop a vertical thrust. Most visible evidence is the presence of carbonate sedimentary rock strata found on some elevated mountain ranges that basically indicates that it was once submerged in the seabed. The vertical thrust has likewise resulted in the displacement of liquefied soft, vast land that may answer to the popular legend of the lost continent,” Mark explained. “Does this satisfy your query, madam?”

  “I don’t understand what you’ve been talking, kid. It’s confusing. . .. It all started from nothing’. . .. Then the hardened gas has been screwing into the hole . . . then presto! Out of nowhere a star is born! . . . Can you make it simpler, kid?”

  “Yes, madam. . .. Madame, are you a mother?”

  “Yeah, I’m a proud ma for two kids.” A quick reply came from this chink lady, whose accent resembled that of her Asian ancestors.

  “Thank you, ma’am. Certainly, you’ve also got a deep hole to have those kids." There is laughter in the hall. “I’m sorry, madam; I don’t want to offend anybody. Perhaps, the right terminology is womb. If a mother has a womb to develop an embryo, so the stars likewise deserve motherly wombs.”

  “You’re very mysterious, Mark. What’s the relevance of this cosmogenesis of the universe you’ve unveiled in respect to our twilight situation?” Another question raised was by a pretty lady, Kareen.

  “Does somebody already fill a place in your heart, my lady?”

  “At present it’s empty; probably in the near future it will be filled up, if that stupid guy has enough courage to propose." A sweet answer came from Kareen.

  “I do hope that you possess a real heart, my lady.”

  “It’s an original one, Mark, and my doctor can attest to, whether it was replaced by a bio-heart,” the pretty lady assured him.

  “If our bio-heart specialists have successfully transplanted a new heart mechanism into a dying cardiac patient and transformed the patient into a rejuvenated man . . . perhaps our planet deserves a try.” Simultaneously spreading his arms.

  “It’s a very impossible dream, kid. It’s wishful thinking, I suppose. How sure are you, young man, that the Earth’s great crystal was really damaged?” his lawmaker detractor struck back.

  “Prior to the outbreak of the nuclear holocaust, the leadership of the Earth’s superpowers had been preaching for world peace. They’ve even reduced their nuclear stockpile to a minimum and appeased the whole world by their great achievement, but in reality, they were just fooling each other. They had secretly developed highly-sophisticated pre-engineered nuclear weapons ready for fast-track assembly at an instant’s notice. These weapons are very powerful, with the capability to wipe out one-tenth of the Earth’s population. When the nuclear war took' place, one of these bombs went astray and found entry into the navel of the Earth, right down there in an alluvial sedimentary formation situated in a mysterious seabed.

  “This stray warhead disappeared here without a trace, until it exploded beneath the seabed, which probably collapsed the great crystal. Huge amounts of gases have escaped and accumulated in the Earth’s atmosphere, creating havoc in the environmental ecology. The first victims of this disaster were the people of the great cities that had mushroomed along the winding coast; they slid down the abyss, leaving no trace at all. We are all witness to this existing evidence. The sunlight has been refused entry due to this thick filter in the atmosphere,” Mark explained gently.

  “Can we restore this lost energy, Mark?” the pretty lady asked seriously.

  “That's my very purpose in coming here. . .. As you see, I have here a track records of the space based astronomers of the twenty-first century. They were able to explore the so-called supernova, the infant galaxy, the famous black hole, whose existence was proven first by the famous physicist John Wheeler. . .. What astonished me most is that not far from the black hole’s portal periphery, they’ve able to magnify an infant planet at its earliest stage of development. They measured its energy power output, its size, and its stellar coordinates reckoned from our beloved planet.”

  “Fantastic! It’s a breakthrough, extraordinary; it’s a gift to human race indeed!” the chink lady exclaimed.

  “What’s your comment regarding this development, Professor Kalavich?” the emperor asked.

  “It’s very encouraging your Royal Highness,” the professor responded.

  “His Excellency, may I comment about the ‘boomerang’ theory of the colonel?” Mark asked.

  “Yes, you may, young fellow.”

  “Thank you, Your Royal Highness. . .. If we try to scrutinize the mechanics of this theory, I would say that we shall be endangered. . .. Our chances of survival is extremely remote.”

  Everybody was stunned by the Draconian move of the unknown young fellow.

  Stunned, the emperor asked, “Why, young man?”

  “Your Royal Highness, it's disastrous, a scientific blunder, in the sense that there’s a great danger if we continue to blast the Middle East with megatons of nuclear bombs. There’s a great possibility that the Earth shall revolve faster and spawned avalanches of rocks, icebergs, violent winds, stampeding debris, torrent floods may flatten the Earth’s surface, with those adverse effects; the continents may never be the same again. And, worse, there’s a great probability that the Earth can’t hold on to its momentum from the violent centrifugal force motion. Our planet shall be thrown farther into infinite space and may not escape colliding with millions of asteroids and stars beyond; given a Chinaman’s chance that this operation shall, we hope, succeed, still it’s only temporary. So please let’s give our deteriorating planet a chance to rest from more awful suffering,” Mark begged.

  Everybody was shocked upon hearing this explanation. The colonel’ face became pale. Unprepared to accept this predicament, he had failed to anticipate this probable danger and blamed the professor because he didn’t study the “pros and cons.” The reverend smiled for the first time since the crisis began.

  “Professor, what can you say about this comment?” the emperor asked.

  “Your Highness, that clarification is highly commendable.”

  “Siegfred,”
his fellow lawmaker whispered, “this kibitzer ruined the colonel’s future and brought down the credibility of the Royal Council. But I won’t consider this maverick as a thorn in the colonel’s dreams. He alone shall be the imperial champion."

  The Chamber’s jealousy had started to mount. The emperor received an urgent call from the nuclear control station.

  “Your Highness, all the nuclear warheads are now in the Earth’s forty-mile reentry corridor and will be dropped in the frozen Sahara and the Arabian desert. Ignition will start after the countdown. Zero minus ten . . .” The countdown began. “Nine . . . eight . . . seven . . .”

  “Professor, what shall we do now?” the emperor broke the standstill.

  “Your Highness, we shall destroy those birds in outer space.”

  The emperor lost no precious seconds in signaling the technician to relay his message. “Space zero, do you read me? Over.”

  “This is space zero. I read you, Your Highness. Over."

  “This is an emergency . . . deviate all the birds to outer space! Over.”

  “Roger, roger, request for clarification. Over.”

  “Maj. Jean Andrew, the Earth shall not be bombed.”

  Eventually, the missiles changed their course.

  “Your Highness, why not aim those missiles to the asteroids so that we can observe the devastating effects of those birds?” the mestiza suggested.

  “Maj. Jean Andrew, those birds shall be aimed at a lone asteroid,” the emperor commanded.

  The missiles were reprogrammed to a new destination, traveling along the Earth’s orbital plane at a faster speed, and aimed towards the asteroid belt. To avoid suspicion, the emperor briefed the Martians regarding the sudden turn of events.

  The reverend couldn’t hide his feelings; he rushed to the young maverick and hugged him. “You made it, son. . .. I know that He will not leave us alone.”

  “Thank you, Rev’rend. . .. It’s not yet time to rejoice: we’ve a lot of things to do.”

  “Hey, Mark, do you have some specific plans on how to get that spheroid?” the professor asked.

  “Yes, Professor, I’ve got here the plans, aerodynamic design analysis, the specifications of the proposed spacecraft, the coordinates of the infant planet, mathematical calculations of space exploration, and the PERT/CPM network. . .. they are all stored in these micro-silicon chips.”

  The professor got the chips and immediately hurried to the computer room and fed them into an ultra-modern computer machine.

  After ten minutes the professor returned.

  “It’s amazing, kid. . .. This piece must be the work of a wizard from outer space. . .. Mark, with this complicated computation and design I don’t think that you did this alone; it involved lot of experts.”

  “I don’t want to claim any credit for this, Professor; what is important now is to implement these data into reality," Mark emphasized.

  “What concerned me is that the scope of work requires lots of professionals and technicians. We need geologists, metallurgists, mining engineers, chemical engineers, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, astrophysicists, aerodynamics designers, other technical men, skilled workers, ordinary laymen, and various pieces of equipment and machineries. . .. It involves a hundred thousand people or more for eight months’ work,” the professor stressed. Uncertainty could be traced on their faces.

  “Your Royal Highness, why don’t we seek the cooperation of the people?” Mark suggested.

  “Yes, we can tap the abundant know-how around us. It’s a matter of convincing them of this undertaking; otherwise, they will just run away. . .. Colonel Krispov, please gather all the people at the Royal Park this afternoon. I’ll be there at three o’clock.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is adjourned. I’m expecting all your presence at the Royal Park,” the emperor reminded them, and some dispersed silently while a few surrounded Mark and hailed his idea and offered their full support.

  “I just hope that the people will be convinced by this magnificent initiative of yours, Mark,” the Chink lady said. “Otherwise the people will pack up and may reconsider the Martian offer.”

  “We could tame the beasts, how much more humans, who are endowed with reasons," Mark replied.

  “Can you address them, kid?” the retired general requested. “If you give me a chance, why not?” Mark answered. The reverend placed his coat on his arm and approached Mark.

  “Mark, somebody has slipped this note on top of your portfolio.”

  “Thanks a lot, to all of you; see you at the Royal Park.”

  Mark and the reverend paced the hallway, and Mark opened the note which read:

  Mark,

  Can we have some pleasure tonight, a sort of celebration in your honor, for your successful one-man blitzkrieg offensive against the battery of arrogant lawmakers. It’s unprecedented, Mark. . .. I’ll prepare some steaks, barbecue, and, of course, provide champagne and cognac.

  My pad is at 2200 A.D. Eastern Galaxy Homes.

  Very truly yours,

  K.S.

  IV

  God Save the Earth

  At past two o’clock in the afternoon people gathered in front of the Royal Cultural Stage.

  “To all citizens of the Earth, we have gathered here at this hour because the emperor has a very important explanation to make for what has been going on lately. Ladies and gentlemen, his Royal Highness the Emperor, Bent Skovllunde.” This introductory remarked delivered by a chink lady was heard over a loudspeaker.

  “My beloved people, I’ve got to confess to you, although I didn’t disclose what has really been going on lately, as your commander in chief, it’s my duty to see to it that everything is in order. I wanted to avoid panic. . .. To tell you the whole truth . . . our planet is moribund, she is in total danger! . . . mathematical calculation shows that within five years the Earth shall collide with Mars!"

  The people are shocked.

  “We’ve tried to search for some practical solution, and one of them was to push back our planet into its twentieth-century orbit. That is the main reason why we let you board the ships. But this was challenged by an unknown young citizen, and he is here, the young maverick, Mark Gouch.”

  “Thank you very much, Your Royal Highness, my beloved elders, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. . .. I’m not here like a young matinee idol to promote something for myself, but as an ordinary citizen to solicit your assistance for the benefit of our homeland. . .. Since time immemorial, many things happened in this world with a lot of parallelism. Like, for instance, during the biblical times, Noah forewarned the king and the people regarding the impending global flood. They just shrugged off their shoulders; nobody believed him except his family circle. He and his brethren patiently built a huge ark and gathered pairs of living creatures on Earth from different species and loaded them on the ship. . .. The people mocked them. Then the flood came. Those people who had laughed off at them, swam fast to reach for the floating log boat, unfortunately, it was already sealed. That was the first disaster, hypothetically claimed by mankind.

  “Then, in modern times, a British shipping company built the biggest ship known to man in the early twentieth century and christened it the Titanic. The unsinkable ship on its maiden voyage had thousands of passengers on board. The captain was warned by a passing ship’s wireless operator that there was an iceberg ahead, but he just ignored it. Subsequently, the unsinkable ship hit the thick iceberg, which caused catastrophic damage to its hull. When this accident was announced and lifeboats were lowered, only about two hundred and fifty souls responded. The rest were dancing, drinking, and gambling even though the ship was already sinking. Thousands perished because of man’s distrust and overconfidence. Don’t compare me to the boy who cried wolf.

  “And now, my elders, the Earth is in ultimate danger of destruction. We must act now. . .. We have the golden opportunity to rehabilitate our planet by snatching away the source of energy of the infant pla
net, which is still on its earliest stage of development and implant it to our deteriorating planet. This is not an easy task to undertake, folks; we need your undying cooperation in order to succeed. We need a hundred thousand workers or possibly more to build a type of spaceship never before attempted by man. . .. Can we count on you?”

  “Yes!” came a loud response from the crowd.

  “The Earth is worth dying for!” someone shouted.

  “Let’s save the Earth!" another exclaimed.

  Then the emperor walked to the rostrum.

  “My beloved people, as far as I know, some environmentalist groups in the twentieth century honored the Earth; they set a certain date of the year for the Earth’s birthday. . .. It’s ironic that we dropped the baton. . .. Can we revive this now? . . . I suggest that we offer this project as a gift on the Earth’s birthday.”

  This suggestion was warmly accepted by the people.

  In the front row a teenage girl with a Hispanic-looking face and dark hair raised her hand and asked, “Sire, why don’t we create a morale booster in order that our work will be merrier, a phrase that is most acceptable to the people, like, for instance, ‘I love Earth’ and imprint it in everyone’s shirts.”

  “That’s a very nice idea, young girl. . .. My people, a young girl has suggested that we adapt a phrase as our battle cry, . . . can you think of any?”

  The packed Royal Park was in deep silence for over two minutes. From the outslkirts of the crowd an elderly woman cried at a high pitch; “God save the Earth!!!”

  The emotional crowd broke into spontaneous shouts. “God save the Earth!” everybody shouted endlessly while clapping their hands. The reverend wept at this scenario, where a multitude of people invoked God in this age of ultra-modern technological advancement.