Kakuloa: A Rising Tide Read online

  KAKULOA: A RISING TIDE

  a novel of T-Space

  Alastair Mayer

  Mabash Books

  Kakuloa: A Rising Tide

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  © 2018 by Alastair Mayer

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed, electronic, or other form without permission. E-book editions of this book are available wherever fine e-books are sold.

  Cover © 2018 by Mabash Books

  Cover image credits:

  Beautiful view of exotic islands from aircraft © d.travnikov, Depositphotos.com

  V-Class Starship Entering Atmosphere © Alastair Mayer

  Interior map © Alastair Mayer

  Images used by permission.

  T-Space is a trademark of Alastair Mayer

  For announcements about other T-Space books and special offers, sign up for Alastair Mayer’s mailing list at http://www.alastairmayer.net/

  A Mabash Books original.

  First printing, December 2018

  Mabash Books, Centennial, Colorado

  Amazon Kindle edition

  Trade Paperback Edition: ISBN-13: 978-1-948188-07-4

  Acknowledgments

  Much of the information about Earthly octopus and squid is thanks to the book Octopus: The Ocean’s Intelligent Invertebrate, by Jennifer A. Mather, Roland C. Anderson, and James B. Wood. It’s very readable, and worth doing so if the subject at all interests you. I barely scratched the surface of what these cephalopods are capable of. (Of course, none are known to actually climb trees, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus notwithstanding.)

  The report of post-Cretaceous ammonite fossils is not made up. (See: Machalski, M. & Heinberg, C. 2005-12-31. “Evidence for ammonite survival into the Danian (Paleogene) from the Cerithium Limestone at Stevns Kline, Denmark,” Bulletin of of the Geological Society of Denmark, Vol. 52, pp. 97-111.) If true (the paper is reasonably convincing), it very likely was a dead clade walking. Or swimming, in this case.

  The “old movie reference” that Newton refers to about the name Disco Volante is of course the James Bond film Thunderball, in which in the climactic scene, Emilio Largo’s yacht (the Disco Volante) sheds its cocoon and attempts to escape on hydrofoils. I’d been interested in SCUBA diving even before that movie, but loved it all the more for all its many underwater scenes. Some years later, I was lucky enough to do a couple of dives on what was left of the set for the sunken bomber scenes, by then mostly just scaffolding with landing gear.

  The work on octopus exposure to MDMA is very recent, hitting the news when I was nearly finished with this book. (Edsinger, Eric and Dölen, Gül: “A Conserved Role for Serotonergic Neurotransmission in Mediating Social Behavior in Octopus,” Current Biology, Vol. 28, Iss. 19, P3136-3142.e4, October 08, 2018). It fit very neatly into the story.

  As always, I’d like to thank my kids, Robert the paleontologist and Selena the marine biologist, for their early feedback; writer and diver Robert Williscroft (he literally wrote the book on diving, more than one in fact) for checking what I remember from my SCUBA days; and Jill for her several proof-reads (and error corrections) of the manuscript. Any remaining errors are mine, but as I remind my son Arthur the computer scientist, a real programmer blames the hardware. (grin)

  — Alastair Mayer, Colorado, December 2018

  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, extrasolar edition

  Alpha Centauri Expedition

  This page was last modified on 27 May 2083, at 20:07 (UTC)

  In the aftermath of The Unholy War, Dr. Algernon Brenke, while investigating force-shield technology[citation needed] instead discovered and developed a working warp drive. At about the same time, China had perfected the compact fusion reactor, coincidentally capable of powering such a drive. In July, 2069, a multinational expedition was assembled to visit the two Earth-like planets discovered[when?] to be orbiting the two main stars of Alpha Centauri. The ships comprised the American flagship, USS Robert A. Heinlein, the Chinese Xing Hua, as well as three ships capable of landing: the Indian Chandrasekhar, the Russian Krechet, and the American backup lander, the Poul Anderson. A sixth ship, the European Jules Verne, had issues on its test cruise[citation needed] and the crew was redistributed among the other ships.

  The Xing Hua disappeared just as the fleet reached the Alpha Centauri system, presumed destroyed by collision with a comet fragment. It was later discovered that it faked the explosion and returned to Earth so China could reverse-engineer the warp drive.[disputed - discuss] The rest of the fleet continued with the mission, checking both planets from orbit and landing on Baker, the planet at Alpha Centauri B. The first team landed in the Chandrasekhar. The Krechet landed later about 250 km away.

  The explorers found evidence that the planet—renamed by the landing team to Kakuloa because of the landing site’s similarity to Hawaii—is Earth-like because it had been terraformed. The lifeforms show genetic divergence from Earth life approximately 65 million years ago.[citation needed]

  Tree squids and squidberries.

  During a flight in an ultralight between the Krechet and Chandrasekhar sites, the plane struck multiple birds and went down midway between the two ships. The pilot and passenger, Doctors Fred Tyrell and Ulrika Klaar, were forced to hike overland the rest of the way. During that trek, they discovered a grove of trees by the coast where octopus-like creatures were climbing the trees and eating a berry growing on a vine in the tree. Tyrell dubbed the creatures tree squids. They took samples of the so-called squidberries.

  Aftermath

  Later, the crew of the Krechet, which had no fuel to reach orbit, transferred to the Chandrasekhar for the return to space.

  In light of the discovery that the planet has been terraformed, Elizabeth Sawyer, the mission’s second in command, took a crew of volunteers in the ship Anderson down to the surface of Able, the planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, to investigate it in detail. They did this knowing they would not immediately be able to return; their refueling module had been lost with the Xing Hua. The plan was for the Heinlein and Chandrasekhar to return to Earth, obtain the backup refueling module, then return to pick up the Anderson crew.

  Complications arose.[clarify] Neither of the returned ships was considered reliable enough for another interstellar mission without overhaul, and the Chinese were no longer providing fusion reactors. Planet Able (later, Sawyer’s World) turned out to be terraformed, and the Anderson crew settled in to survive as best they could until someone returned to pick them up.

  Follow-up Expedition

  On Earth, one of the pharmaceutical companies[which one?] examining specimens returned by the original expedition discovered a potential anti-aging drug, cephalomycin, in a yeast growing on the squidberries. Commodore Drake leveraged this[citation needed] to get the company to help finance a return mission, which required developing new ship technology. Four years after that, in 2074, the three-ship return expedition arrived at Alpha Centauri. The Endeavour and Vostok landed on Able (Sawyer’s World), and found that the Anderson crew had all survived, and five children had been born during their isolation. The Victoria continued to Kakuloa to further investigate squidberries. [See Alpha Centauri: Second Expedition][See also: Kakuloa, Sawyer’s World, Terraformers, Treaty of Alpha Centauri]

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Wikipedia: Alpha Centauri Expedition

  Map of Kakuloa Landing Areas

  Prolog: January, 2070

  Part I: Second Visit

  1:
Krechet’s Landing (2074)

  2: The Next Resort

  3: Greystone

  4: Vostok

  5: Mangroves

  6: Chandrasekhar Valley

  7: Boat trip

  8: Rendezvous

  9: Treaty of Alpha Centauri

  10: Berry Harvest

  11: Road Trip

  12: The Return of Franklin Drake

  13: Reassignment

  14: Lab Report

  Part II: Squidberries

  15: The Squid Problem (2076)

  16: Preliminary Survey

  17: Greystone

  18: Tourist Trap

  19: Mother

  20: High Finance

  21: To The Moon

  22: Shipboard

  23: Kakuloa Arrival

  24: Newton’s Berry Farm

  25: Dinner

  26: Orientation

  27: Cephalobots

  28: The Flight Video

  29: The Lab

  30: The Other Video

  31: Dive Trip

  32: Construction

  33: Alone

  34: Fish

  35: Search and Rescue

  36: Washed Up

  37: Lost

  38: Dude, Where’s My Helicopter?

  39: Recovery

  40: Death of a Decoy

  41: Displays

  42: Taprobane

  43: Uneasy Feelings

  44: Vision

  44: Here’s Looking At You, Squid

  45: Results

  46: Departure

  47: The Voyage Home

  Part III - A New Cephalopod (2078)

  48: The Offer

  Epilog

  Prolog: January, 2070

  Dive boat Sea Squirt, Earth

  Ellie Greystone handed up the camera and then her flippers to the man at the top of the dive ladder, then, ignoring the weight of the rest of her gear, hauled herself up and climbed aboard. Her dive buddy and boyfriend, Patrice Beauchamps, was right behind her, handing his own fins up before climbing out.

  “How was it?” Ron, the dive-master, asked as he helped Ellie off with her tank.

  “Fantastic! I got some great footage of three octopus coordinating a hunt; at least that’s what it looked like. I want to analyze their skin patterns and see what I can sort out.”

  “Oui, she spent most of the dive chasing those octopus. I should ’ave known better,” Patrice said.

  “Octopuses? Coordinating?” said Ron. “Humboldt squid do that, but I’ve never heard of that in octopodes. Are you sure you’re not reading more into it than was there?”

  “I t’ink she was,” said Patrice.

  Ellie glared at him. “We’ll know for sure when we get another look at the video. I suppose it’s possible there was something else going on, but it looked like two of them chased the prey to a third.”

  “Did it share it with the first two?” Ron asked.

  “Well, no.” As she said that, she realized that the third cephalopod might just have made an opportunistic grab for the prey, with no real coordination. That made more sense. Octopus tended to be loners; it was squids that swam in schools.

  “You need to be careful to eliminate all the likely explanations before going for the unusual,” Ron said. “Especially if you decide to go for your doctorate. Even your master’s thesis will be torn to shreds if you don’t.”

  He was right, she knew. Although he was “just” their dive boat captain, Ellie knew Ron had a background in academia before giving that up. She still had plenty of research to do before finishing her master’s, let alone applying for a PhD track.

  Patrice gestured to the powered-up datapad perched on the console. “You are surfing porn while we’re down?” he said. It was a joke; the screen showed a news feed.

  “It gets lonely,” Ron said, playing along. “But no. There was an announcement on the radio. The Alpha Centauri mission has returned. I was trying to find out more.”

  “The Alpha Centauri mission?” Its departure had been big news the previous summer, but Ellie hadn’t been following the details. She grabbed a towel to dry her hair.

  Ron nodded. “Part of it, anyway. Heinlein and Chandrasekhar have entered the solar system. They’ll be landing on the Moon in a couple of days. No word yet on the other ships, that’s why I was checking the news feed. But so far very few other details than that.”

  “There were five ships, n’est ce pas?” Patrice said. “What ’appened?” He was an engineering student, and he had followed the story of the departure closely.

  “They haven’t said yet. But they did say the planets were remarkably Earth-like, and they brought back biological samples.”

  “Earth-like?” Ellie, who had been buried in the towel as she dried off, raised her head. “Do you suppose they have anything like cephalopods?”

  “I’m sure they found invertebrates. But anything more than that would be an incredible coincidence, don’ you t’ink?”

  Ron nodded in agreement. “Assuming they found animal life at all, invertebrates make sense.”

  “I suppose you’re right. Still, it will be interesting to see what they did find.”

  “Don’t tell me you are thinking of switching to exobiology?” Patrice said.

  “Ha, no.” She shook her head. “Let me finish this degree first.”

  “I would love to visit another planet,” Patrice said. “Maybe I will switch to exobiology.” He grinned broadly. He had met Ellie through the school’s dive club.

  “So would I,” Ellie said.

  “If they find intelligent aliens,” Ron said, “maybe you’ll learn to talk to them.”

  Ellie laughed at that. “Somehow I doubt a background in cephalopod behavior would have much use at Alpha Centauri.”

  “There’s a job title for you,” Ron said. “Speaker-to-Squids.”

  Patrice looked at him, shaking his head slowly. “You read too much science fiction.”

  Ron grinned back. “There’s no such thing as too much.”

  Ellie laughed.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The call came as the Sea Squirt approached the dock. Greystone’s omniphone chimed, and she dug it out of her bag to answer it.

  Patrice had been admiring the lines of her face as they cruised back from the dive, both of them sipping on post-dive beers. He watched her now as she glanced at the screen, a slight frown wrinkling her brow. Must be a junk call, he thought.

  “Hello?” she said, holding the omniphone up to her ear. “Yes, this is Ellie Greystone.” A pause. “Yes, she is. Why, what’s happened?”

  Patrice sensed the stress in Ellie’s voice. He put his beer down and sat forward.

  “Is she all right?” Ellie continued. “She what? Was anyone else hurt?” She listened for a while, then shook her head. “No, no, not that I know of.” She slumped forward, propping her head up with her free hand, elbow on knee. “Oh. I see...No, I’m out of town. I can be back tomorrow evening...”

  Tomorrow? That caught Patrice by surprise. They had planned another day of diving. Whatever it was must be serious.

  “Yes. You’re sure she’s okay?...I...Thank you. Goodbye.” She thumbed off the omni and molded it around her wrist. She looked up. Her eyes were haunted.

  “What’s wrong?” Patrice asked.

  “I have to get back. I’m sorry, we need to cut this short. My mom was in a car crash.”

  “Oh no!” Patrice wanted to ask, ‘Is she all right?’ but that was a stupid question; they wouldn’t have called if there was nothing wrong. “How is she?”

  “Shaken up, but not seriously injured. They want to keep her in overnight for observation.”

  “Quoi? But if she’s not injured?”

  “Apparently she blacked out before the crash. A witness said it was like she was asleep, but with her eyes open. She’s never done that before. At least, not that I know of...” Her voice trailed off. Was she remembering another incident? “Anyway, they want to run some tests.”


  “It’s an old car?”

  “What? Why...oh, right. No, it’s not autonomous. Mom doesn’t trust them.”

  Patrice stepped over and put his arm around her shoulders. “The important thing is she is not hurt, right? And nobody else was?”

  Ellie nodded. A short, hesitant nod.

  “Bien. Let’s gather up the gear. We check out tonight, we can be there in the morning.”

  Ron had obviously been aware of the conversation but had stayed out of it, focusing on docking the boat. Without a word, he started gathering their dive gear and putting it ashore.

  Ellie looked at the gear, then back at Patrice, her brow furrowed. “You want to drive overnight?

  It wouldn’t have been his first choice, but under the circumstances, he didn’t have a problem with it. Besides, he was an engineer; he did trust his car’s autonomous systems. “You want to get back as soon as possible, I understand.”

  “I... thank you.” With Patrice’s help, she stood up and started to disembark. She stopped abruptly, one foot still on the boat and the other on the dock. “Wait, my video.”

  Patrice had already grabbed the camera. He held it up to show her. “Right here.”

  PART I - Second Visit

  Alpha Centauri System, 2074

  NOTE: The details of Endeavour’s (and later Vostok’s) landing on Sawyer’s World to rescue the Anderson crew are given in Alpha Centauri Volume 3: The Return.

  Chapter 1: Krechet’s Landing, 2074