Once Upon A Planet

Dust Gliders In Love

Ever since Jupiter exploded into a minor sun a few centuries ago, Mars has become more habitable and user friendly for the construction crews from Earth. The red planet was now heated, though ever so slightly, from the two separate heat sources; the primary sun at the center of our system and now from the opposite direction, the new Jovian star. Too bad about Jupiter's inner moons being burnt to a crisp at the time of the transformation. Scientists from our home world were and still are very disturbed that they could no longer explore the tiny orbs. There were so many new probes in the pipeline ready to go out when the event took place. From Earth it was nearly impossible now to study the alien moons, even with our greatest telescopes, due to the brightness emanating from the new star.  Naturally Mars became attractive, even an appetizing alternative for exploration as it became a more livable place to work in and to conduct land development on in relative comfort due to all these not so recent but welcomed occurrences in our local universe. The small planet became more like Earth's Autumn season in the north eastern United States, with its temperate climate, not so cold frozen features and obviously without the colorful trees that we are so fond of found on our home world. Mars became altered from a constant Winter environment with sub-freezing temperatures all the time to something more habitable. Even the thin Martian air became more bearable. The workers could go out from the man made shelters for longer periods of time without having to resort to the yellow canisters of oxygen and the little blue oxygen pills to get by but that was also with the strictest proviso that they were not to work strenuously and their movements were kept at a slower controlled pace.  The attenuated ice caps began to melt. River water began to flow again after so many millions of years of dry desert conditions. Life began to spring up again. It evolved almost in the blink of an eye in just over a handful of centuries into a place that supported simple life forms. The polar caps sprouted dark blue green alien algae along the narrow banks and at the bottom of the streams, where they cling-ed to life as very small spongy cylindrical shaped objects, light weight and flowing like shimmering leaves in the icy waters.  Intelligent life also popped up in the form of ghost like creatures almost invisible. In fact they seemed to disappear into thin air; Beings we called Dust Gliders because they could move swiftly through the Martian powdery soil, kicking up fine clouds of dust in their wake. They glided serpentine like which stirred the dirt and the imagination of the observer. The aliens were a pastel powdery blue, quasi- elastically bright looking creatures. They had very long tube like legs, thin and bony at the joints, which seemed to be attached or actually looked more like one thin pipe at first glance. Upon closer inspection, the appendages were somewhat like a cylinder that had been sliced in two by a thin blade. When the legs were together they looked like one unit of movable tubing. They were surprisingly powerful limbs that ripped through the terrain, slipped through the dirt with ease and they could jump high in leaps and bounds, landing at great distances away with style and grace. The creatures were modestly curious of Earthlings but did not fear them. Mostly though, they kept their distance, maybe because they were suspicious of strangers and after all we were the foreigners.  Gliders were more bird like but without feathers. They were somewhat reptilian in structure but they have a soft humanoid appearance in many ways. The heads of the Martians are large and globe like. When they placed their eight fingered stringy hands up to their faces they almost looked intelligent.  Since they are telepathic they could speak our language but only simple short phrases and basic words. They chose to not talk to us all that much. Our particular crew had only been here for just over five years. We were only now beginning to get our feet wet in this strange wonder land. For the most part the Dust Gliders kept to themselves. They simply went around or passed Earthlings with utter indifference as if they were walking by an obstacle on their path to somewhere important. They were always busy with other activities, things that did not involve humans.  The Earthlings developed a similar indifference to the aliens. They were harmless from what they could surmise and besides, they too had monumental tasks in front of them every day. The deadlines were coming and had to be accomplished on a fine time line.  The red planet was now occupied by mostly construction workers, perhaps two thousand of them from Earth, there to build new cities and roads for the wave of humanity that was sure to follow shortly. Heavy ground moving equipment, giant tractors, sophisticated tools and tons of supplies arrived frequently to create a new life and new history for mankind. They had to bring their own lumber, food and ample aluminum for certain odd jobs. Fortunately they had plenty of rocks; solid ones, soft ones, strange ones but all very useful in their building scheme of things. The master plan is to build cities underground and make homes out of and in the sides of mountains. The new ground and cave dwellers would be the next future for the human race on this desolate world. Since the atmosphere was still very thin, it afforded very little protection against meteorite showers and harmful radiation coming from outer space and the two suns.  The Jovian sun only emitted enough light over the distance to change the viewing vantage point or ability to see on Mars but it was welcomed light in any event. The changes brought about by the small sun were subtle. The evening gray sky darkening into twilight shadows was now transformed from a dim glow into a brighter morning looking light, hardly remarkable, almost not discernible or worth mentioning. It seemed like Gliders never slept. They kept their large owl like eyes in motion all the time. We paid very little attention to them but it was obvious they were always around watching everything including us and our activities. Mostly their time was spent looking at the sky. It was a very beautiful sight. The bright pink/orange in the later morning hours and a burgundy red at night fall filled all creatures with awe.  Bill Morgan, our primary land surveyor, seemed to be the only worker interested in the aliens. He made a point to study them. At evening he would observe their activities through his electron field glasses. He watched them intently for hours on end. He noticed they seemed to be asleep on their feet with their heads bowed down as if in prayer or in a trance. He tried having conversations with them. Their eyes would roll around in their heads when he approached to talk about everything and nothing. They would give what appeared to be a mocking smile, turn, then glide away in a heart beat. This odd behavior clearly disturbed Bill. You could read it in his face after each encounter. He would return to us, shoulders slumped, head down, dragging his feet as if he were wearing iron boots and brooding through quick sand. His companion and fellow surveyor Jim, would always comfort him with a pat on the shoulder and an invitation to drink. They both liked to smoke but you couldn't keep a cigar lit in the thin air so they had to go indoors, actually through the airlocks to get to the rubber temporary chambers where it was all around safer and more like home.  One day, without notice, without warning and we could not say for sure, something very peculiar occurred. The Dust Gliders all turned bright yellow with black markings all over their bodies. Perhaps it was a seasonal thing with them. We speculated that it might be a disease or an evolutionary anomaly. This transformation didn't seem to effect their behavior so we went on as usual as was and is our nature.  I was deep in thought one afternoon, several weeks after our friends turned colors. I was working on the plans for a water diversion system just outside New Town. A stream originating from the small near by mountain was running right through our new community construction site. Who would ever think that water would be a problem on this desert world? It just happened to be interfering with our construction lay out designs so it needed a dam or re-channeling system to resolve the problem. As I placed down my blueprints and gadgets, a Dust Glider came up from behind. It startled me. I took a deep breath from my air canister and introduced myself as “Jordan.” This one was much larger than the others. The alien warbled back, “Jordan,” in a high pitched voice, similar to or more like a trill in the thin atmosphere. It jumped five feet high then slid haphazardly away at great speed, leaving a fascinating pattern in the sand as it flitted off over the hilly landscape.  Mr. Morgan finally got some meaningful results from all his time and efforts with the Gliders. He was deeply involved in what appeared to be a genuine conversation with one of the young ones. It was a disjointed language communications encounter of the alien kind. Bill asked the creature its name. The young one replied, “There is Bill”.... “There is no other here.” Morgan queried, “Do you have parents?” The Glider responded, “There are no parents.” “There are pods.” “I am from the pod.” “We all have mental conditions too.” “Isn't that crazy!?” Morgan was thrilled and confused at the same time. To say the least, this was a monumental break through in uniquely diverse, clearly different civilizations and cultural exchange. This little critter just spouted out more information in a couple of minutes than the entire population of the species had spoken since their arrival there five years ago. The aliens had no names but understood the concept of identifying and classifying individuals since they could read human minds and understand many of their concepts.  Three weeks later the same large Glider returned to me in about the same spot we had first met. Most of their species looked the same to us except for their shape and size you could not tell them apart. This one was uniquely different. It had bright blue green markings and large round brown eyes. It stood to the left of me and said, “Jordan.” It moved over to my right ear and announced, “Jordan.” I asked it several questions. I even told it stories. It politely kept quiet and never spoke a word. It responded with absolute silence and indifference to my inquiries. It was like speaking to a house cat or gold fish.  It was hard to discern if my new found friend was absorbing our language or just plain dumb. I continued with my work as if Mr. big eyes were not there. After a while I forgot it was around and that's when it spoke again. “I love you.” It blurted out, almost in a burp, moving its head from side to side in front of me. It said it again and I corrected it. “You mean you like me and you want to be my friend.” “NO!” it said. “I love you.” “I am hungry and I am going to eat you.” With that its head expanded like a rubber ball.  The giant mouth extended out with long elastic yellow lips. A sticky black enormous tongue emerged from inside the beat. It wrapped tightly around the space explorer and swallowed him down, uniform, bones and all. Talk about home field advantage....They seem to adapt better than we do in this ever changing environment. All became quiet once again....at least for the moment.  Just then a dust storm kicked up. It had already encompassed Olympus Mons situated in the western hemisphere at approximately 18.65 degrees North 226.2 degrees East just off the Tharsis bulge. The plateau team of three, flat tops, covered over quickly in iron like dust. The western portion of the volcano lies near by in the Amazonis quadrangle and would succumb to nature soon too. None of that really matters when work is disrupted. Innocent looking silky sand, so many granular tiny objects get in the way, moved along on steady winds, called the shots on their objectives. It appeared to be a planet wide event. Small ironized rusty particles, swirling elements up in a fury, covered over thousands of miles of real estate like a plague of locust, blanketing the landscape over the next several days. All work, activity, including the inhabitants who normally rambled about, came to a dead end stop. The search crew would have to wait until the storm let up to find the missing man. Perhaps there is something in or on the sand to help them. Life is something that happens, that gets in the way of progress, that stops production if chance has a say....and just now, as an example, when, at that very moment when they were about to excavate, something like this happens to get in the way.