Confluence

1 Astounding Discovery

The Savitar was now functioning as an Earth escort and a science project platform.

Zack had been elected the first president of the Savitar.

It was a neutral entity considered to be the Switzerland of Space.

Except for the fact that living space was limited and managing the Savitar to remain a viable entity was a task that kept all inhabitants totally engaged, life was as good as it was for those people on Earth.

Signs of a previous intelligence began to surface as the pictures taken by the Savitar, on its journey out to capture the black hole that was now the heart and power of the Savitar, were studied.

This had been the startling discovery made by Craig and his team as they traveled out to the Savitar. They kept this quiet and low key.

After the arrival to the Savitar, Craig waited until everything quieted down and then approached Zack and Enrico.

“Gentlemen, Let, me share what my team and I believe we have discovered.

We have found signs of a previous intelligence.

There are indications on Mars and on a moon of Jupiter and most clearly on a moon of Saturn. I would like to utilize the equipment of the Savitar to scrutinize the moon of Saturn and determine if an expedition should be sent to investigate it more closely,” Craig said as he put the pictures with the evidence in front of Zack and Enrico.

“Such a discovery would be astounding. It is hard from these pictures to conclude this is the case. What am I missing,” Zack asked as he took in Craig’s words?

“Here, see the rows along the wall of this deep canyon. This is a picture taken of a deep mantle canyon on Mars. This seems to suggest there are multiple floors cut into the mantle.

Now look at the picture of Europa a moon of Jupiter. See this huge post. It appears to be some sort of giant anchor with a ring at the top. It is almost totally buried in the ice, but we were able to enhance the picture to see it more clearly. It appears to be fabricated and put there for some purpose we have not yet determined.

Finally, look at the ruins of some giant structure on Titan the largest moon circling Saturn. We did not see it until we were able to screen out the thick cloud cover.

This picture seals my belief of some intelligence traveling our solar system in the distant past.” Craig said as he explained the pictures to group.

“Let’s agree to the exploration of Titan as our first scientific investigation. I am not sure I have bought into Craig’s interpretation of the pictures but investigating and learning about our solar system is what we are about.” Zack commented to the leadership team.

Enrico made the official proposal to travel in toward the orbit of Saturn. The leadership team agreed and the first scientific journey for the Savitar was put into swing.

The Savitar would move part of the way toward Saturn, but it had to stay far enough away to prevent any undesired effects their presence might have. Having a captive black hole worked well to provide the Savitar with an almost perfect one G gravity but it still exerted its presence on the paths of the various objects in the solar system.

The Rama was identified as the vessel to go the rest of the way for this initial investigation.

The journey to Saturn was much slower than the journey out to the black hole. They were now moving carefully and staying away from the orbits of the planets. And moving the Savitar meant determining where they might be going next.

Currently the Savitar was moving in essence standing still relative to the motion of the solar system. It chose to slow down just a bit and move toward the Saturn just a bit.

A bit was the best they knew how to communicate what a slight deviation was to be. They were still in the learning process on pushing the black hole in the direction they desired.

The Rama was made ready for the exploration of Titan. The Indian crew was excited to be the ship to be named to be engaged in the first exploratory mission.

Craig would lead this first expedition. The Rama was capable of landing on the surface and taking back off from Titan. This would allow for firsthand exploration.

As the Savitar got closer to Saturn they verified earlier analysis of the makeup of the atmosphere and the seas of Titan to be a methane-ethane mixture.

It was in essence a sea of gasoline.

The Rama would not be able to land after all. Their engines would potentially ignite the atmosphere and the seas.

The powerful telescopes scouring the surface of Titan and the ability to filter out much of the cloud cover revealed a ring in the surface ice of the moon. The ice appeared to be over a land mass next to a sea of the liquid methane.

The ring was a duplicate of the one found on the moon Europa.

The second ring confirmed the existence of a previous intelligence.

Zack complemented Craig on his team’s thorough and correct analysis.

“You would have to have a mighty big dog to hook his chain to that ground ring,” Janet joked as she stared at the ring.

Her comment caused Zack to jump up in excitement, “It’s the ground side of a space elevator. It is the anchor point of a cable.

We of all people should recognize it.

The Savitar is held together by cables. We rode up and down on the welding elevators for several years. There were huge rings at the ends of those cables. How could I have missed it when Craig first showed me the pictures?”

It made sense.

They would not be able to land in such an atmosphere, but they could hook up an elevator and go up and down with little risk.

Analysis of the atmosphere and the gravitational attraction showed that the Rama would be able to land a glider near the existing ring. They could not chance using the existing ring since they did not know its true condition.

They would design a similar one to which the Rama would connect. The expedition would then go down to the surface on the elevator. The solution was simple but executing it would be a new experience.

The crew of the Rama promised that they would be able to hold the elevator line stable. They simulated keeping the Rama in place as the various forces they were able to measure affected them.

They were ready.

The news about the discovery when it hit the Earth was electrifying. The data sent back by the Savitar was now poured over as the various experts looked for additional evidence.

Every University and research department wanted access to the data and began to scrutinize it and scouring it for indication of a previous civilization.

The satellites, placed around Jupiter and Saturn as the Savitar went out to the black hole, were now programmed to examine the larger moons. Each of the major moons would have every square foot examined in multiple frequencies.

The Mars satellite began to examine the cliffs more closely on the deep canyons. They began to provide additional evidence of this previous intelligence.

The exploration of the exterior structure on Titan was carefully examined. The structure appeared to have been an enclosure designed to shield those inside from the atmospheric pressure.

Titan’s atmospheric pressure was sixty times greater than Earth’s. The expedition going to the surface of Titan would require suits capable of withstanding this pressure and providing a suitable internal environment for the individual. An exoskeleton design was selected. The person essentially became encompassed like a turtle.

Getting to the surface would not be as difficult as initially anticipated. Gravity was weak enough that a human could almost fly by beating their arms.

However, the concept of an elevator was more practical. The concept of a space elevator was not new. It had never been tried because of the extreme length of cable required for an Earth space elevator. The one for Titan would still be very long but the Savitar had already broken the mold on the size limits. They also had the two-hundred forty- mile long pull cables used to pull the Savitar full size cables into position. These were the right length and tensile strength required for an elevator to the surface of Titan.

Craig decided this was an expedition he would go on. He would be the technical leader. One of the young marine lieutenants reporting to Captain Moffett was selected to be the mission leader. He would be responsible for the logistics and safety of the team when on the ground.

He would take his direction from Craig. Craig would guide the scientific aspects of the mission. The team consisted of a four-person camera crew, three scientific analysts, four support personnel, Craig, and the mission leader.

The final design of getting the cable to the surface of Titan was labeled the Harpoon. From synchronous orbit, the Rama shot a harpoon to the surface of Titan.

The force and the heated tip drove the harpoon into the ice. Spikes shot out in radial direction from the shaft to lock the harpoon in the ice. Two of the team members glided down on the thin pull cable. They carried six additional anchors down with them.

Once on the surface they permanently positioned the initial anchor by retracting the radial spikes and sinking it to its maximum depth. They then reset the radial spikes. The six additional anchors were positioned in a circle around the harpoon anchor and sunk at an angle with their tops coming together near the Harpoon anchor. The pull cable was threaded through the eyes of the anchors and the end was sent back up to the Rama.

The team back on the Rama fed out the line until they had the other end back. They then began to feed down the elevator cable to be attached to the anchor point.

Craig waited impatiently for this activity to be completed. He was anxious to get to the surface. The atmospheric cover made it impossible to get a good view of what was on the surface.

Finally, the elevator was ready. The team would descend together. Two of the support members remained behind. They would bring down the additional equipment and supplies.

The structure was within five minutes walking distance. Walking was not really the right word. It was more of a skating motion. If too much energy was put into a step the person would launch themselves off the surface. It was much more of a motion like cross country skiing.

They approached the ruins of the immense structure. There seemed to have been rooms inside the structure. There was a feeling of extreme age. The pyramids felt young as compared to what Craig felt as he walked around what he surmised was the interior.

He stopped in his tracks. Directly ahead of him was a twenty-foot diameter circular cover. He could see no way to open it or go around it. They would need to bore down and see if they could go around it, to see what was below.

Next Craig led the team to the anchor just outside of the structure.

It indeed was exactly that.

The material was not metal. It appeared to be a highly stable and structurally sound ceramic. It was pitted, seemed, and felt to be extremely old.

On one side of the ancient anchor was what appeared to be hieroglyphic symbols. And just below the writing was a small, sealed chest of the same material as the anchor.

Craig did not know the contents of the chest, but he imagined the contents were intended to communicate with the finder of the chest.

The chest had a black spot in one corner. The spot appeared to be a seal to a hole.

He immediately called for the carrying container and carefully packed the chest. It was immediately sent up to the Rama. He would take it back to the Savitar and use all the technology available to examine the interior. In the near future, he could envision himself carefully opening the chest in the confines of a sterile clean room.

He and the team returned to the structure and the circular cover to what he imagined would be a tunnel descending vertically down into Triton. He had the team examine the area around the cover. There had to be a way around it or perhaps at one time the cover was lifted from above. There did not appear to be any exterior connections for lifting.

Craig thought about it and decided it was probably designed with a failsafe mentality. This would mean the cover would be lifted from below and upon failure of the lifting system would seal itself from its own weight.

He decided trying to get past the cover should wait until the equipment to get past the cover without contaminating the interior could be brought out on a future trip. He had his team take measurements and pictures but instructed them to not to move or disturb anything. He needed some archeologists to take charge of this project.

After three days on Triton the team had a complete map of the structure and precise measurements. It was time to leave. The anchor set up by the Rama was left in place. Future expeditions would be able to send down their connection cable and utilize the anchor.

Zack was waiting when Craig returned. He watched as Craig escorted the container with the ceramic chest to the clean room in the science lab.

“We will need to design and review the process to be followed in opening the chest. Here is what I believe we will find. The black ceramic spot has material inside to allow us to establish the age of the chest. The chest itself will have ceramic or other materials with the information about the race leaving the message. It may also have some sort of high-density information media.

That is what I would leave behind if I was permanently leaving the solar system.” Craig shared with the Savitar leadership team.

“President Lansing has sent up a message saying he would like to send up a team to study the Triton site. Your theory of life on Mars seems to have been verified by additional passes of the satellites over the area where you found the cliff dwellings. There is now a massive effort to send a team to Mars.

The satellite around Jupiter is now examining the three largest moons to see if there is any indication of visitors on them.” Zack said speaking to Craig.

“It seems we will be busy for the foreseeable future studying the artifacts of the race that made it out here ahead of us.”

Once again Zack’s world had changed.

It was hard to believe that in his lifetime he had captured a black hole and put it to use.

Now the Savitar had discovered an ancient set of visitors or perhaps the first intelligent being in their Solar system.

Had this intelligence developed on Mars as Craig was now proposing?

He knew that somehow the black hole that now was part of the Savitar had been involved in what had happened to these ancient beings.

He held Janet’s hand as they walked around the garden and knew that he would be going out in search of these previous space travelers to learn more about the history of his home world and its solar system.

Neither of them had envisioned this as the next adventure but both of them were committed to finding out if such solar system history existed.

This for them was what they committed themselves to.

2 Visit to Mars

Zack and Janet established a research team to dig into the history of the Solar system. This after all had been the focus of Zack’s PhD thesis. His original focus had been on catastrophic occurrences that had affected the Earth. All the research and study that had been done to document the catastrophic events in Earth’s past all took on a new perspective.

Zack had not looked at the solar system as a whole.

Zack got support from President Lancing and reconstituted the analysis program that had been discontinued when the Savitar plans dominated and consumed the globe and its resources.

Now it made sense to look again at the data they had previously gathered.

Zack suggested that the black hole that he had capture might be the reason that Mars was in the terrible shape it was in. Perhaps it and the planet had in the distant past interacted. He asked the analysis team to determine the time that it took for the solar system to go one time around the edge of the Milky.

The answer was roughly two hundred and twenty million years.

Alex, Craig, Janet, Susan, and Mitch looked at each other and then they once again looked at the time frame they were discussing.

The possibility that the solar system had spawned two intelligent species was in itself mind blowing.

It was hard to believe, and it was humbling to know that an intelligence had potentially developed space travel more than two hundred million years before the human got down from the trees and took their first steps.

This meant that Mars would have developed intelligence during the first age of the dinosaurs.

Zack was certain that the small black hole that was now the center of the Savitar had been the reason for the dramatic damage of Mars. It was clear that Mars had suffered an earlier dramatic impact that had cracked its mantle. The current theory that had been put forward was that the destruction of the fifth forming planet by the black hole had sent a piece large enough that when it hit Mars it cracked the mantel. The impact also affected Mars core and its magnetic field.

Craig and most of the analysis team thought it was a miracle to have intelligent life arise in such an environment.

They also thought that the beings would have had to have been a tough lot to escape and survive in space.

Craig asked Zack to organize and plan the effort of discovering what was sealed in the ceramic time capsule. It was more than two hundred and twenty million years old, then it should not be opened unless those opening it were sure that they would not destroy the information that was sure to be inside.

Janet immediately volunteered to be part of the effort. Mary and Jeff both volunteered as well. All three of them had been working with Craig on the investigation of the ceramic box.

Zack in discussion with President Lansing established a team that had numerous Earth-bound scientists and the team aboard the Savitar working together.

This team would have multiple goals.

One goal was to plan how to proceed in learning what was in the ceramic chest and what was below the gigantic circular seal, down on Titan.

The second goal was to set up an expedition to Mars and get boots on the ground and determine if there had indeed been a civilization there in the past.

The third goal was to plan for the exploration of each of the other moons that had evidence of previous visits.

Janet became the project leader for the Savitar contingent that would go to Titan and explore what was below the circular seal.

Craig would continue to lead the direct examination of the ceramic chest.

Zack was going to be involved in both efforts, but he did not have full time to invest. He also was the first President of the Savitar and was involved in the politics of getting the Savitar government fully functional and dealing with the interface to Earth.

Craig was the ambassador from Earth and Zack had to constantly remind him of that fact. He suggested that Mary Ringhold and Jeff Mallory should take on a greater role in the investigation of the Ceramic box.

Craig grudgingly acknowledged this fact and did as suggested.

He reviewed what needed to be done to get the box examined and eventually opened. He made the point that he did not know if the box would be opened in their lifetime.

He, Mary, and Jeff developed a draft investigation plan that entailed using all the available non-invasive technology that they could think of.

This plan was reviewed with their Earth counter parts and with the Savitar leadership.

The Rama was assigned once again to be the ship that would go to the Triton and tie to the anchor.

Zack had requested that the sea be tested to see if the Savitar could utilize it for fuel. If it were feasible, he wanted to create a fuel reservoir on the Savitar. This would ensure that they would have a supply for their engines.

He asked Conrad Zepf to lead this effort.

The ceramic Bucky ball production system was producing two thousand Bucky balls a day. These were being used to create the floor for another of the many open pentagons that made up the Savitar’s one G level.

Sampson had been one of the people that had saved Zack’s life. He now got to do whatever he wanted.

Zack asked for Sampson take charge of utilizing each day’s production of bucky balls and get another section of the Savitar covered.

Zack had rewarded the “Boss” and his team of workers by giving them the work they desired. This had been the group that had developed the self-propelled, computer driven welders that had saved the Savitar from destruction when they went around the moon on their departure from Earth.

The “Boss” was an excellent supervisor and the people working for him respected and had become his supporters. They excelled in the work they did for him.

The “Boss” was in charge of the construction of the facilities on the ceramic pentagon. He had all the materials that were required. The majority of what he was responsible to build was to be built of the ceramic sheet, bars, and planking. He, however, had the full range of plumbing, electrical and air conditioning that took a mix of materials.

The ceramic pentagon as it had come to be called was being built in record time.

Zack had expected such an outcome. He had the two best people leading the efforts.

He had plans to isolate the housing and equipment for opening the ceramic box in the middle of the newly ceramic covered hexagon.

He thought it appropriate that the Ceramic treasure box left by the mystery space travelers would be isolated in the middle of a totally ceramic based part of the Savitar that was made from the materials gathered by the Savitar.

Craig and Janet became an inseparable team as together they planned the investigation of the Ceramic container and the facility on Triton.

Though Zack had all the burners on high it still would take a significant time to get the Triton team ready and supplied with the equipment needed. Some of the equipment was coming from Earth and that took more than six months just in transit time.

The team to examine the Ceramic box faced the same issue. They had a cat scan, a pet scan, and a wealth of other equipment also being sent out from Earth.

The President Lancing had said that several specialists were also coming to the Savitar and were planning to stay for the duration that it took to examine the box and solve the mystery of who had transited the solar system in the long past.

Zack had a laugh when the several was closer to one hundred scientists. The Savitar could handle the increase in population, but he realized that it would continue to get requests for additional people to come to the Savitar.

Zack studied the photos taken of the deep chasm on Mars. As he studied additional photos, he became convinced that the beings that had traveled the solar system originated on Mars. He was sure they had faced the black hole now at the center of the Savitar.

They had apparently left the solar system after their inability to establish themselves on the various moons.

He asked Janet if she were interested in seeing firsthand the origin of the beings that had most likely drilled a shaft down on Triton.

The two of them decided to take a ride on the Sprite when it returned to Earth to ferry the people from Earth to Mars.

This would give Zack an opportunity to visit his family and once again put his feet down on Earth.

Janet insisted they also go to Hawaii where she wanted to walk the beach with him.

Zack kissed her and said he would love to and asked if she would marry him once again when they walked the beach in Maui.

Craig heard about the plans and decided to join as well.

Emily was ecstatic. She knew that she of all people was truly bound to the planet of her birth. She had become quiet famous as a Chef on the Savitar and was immediately sought after by a wide following back on Earth when word got out of her visit.

The four of them estimated that their time away would give the project to examine the contents of the box and to visit the Triton facility the time it would need to get ready.

The space aboard the Sprite was reserved for them and the plans on Earth were underway. President Lancing was on his last year of his second term. He planned to honor Zack with a parade and a formal dinner event.

He also had a desire to see if he could move aboard, the Savitar

Zack and Craig each spent time studying every picture from Mars. A robot had been landed and was making its way along the chasm. The photos from it immediately convinced both of them that they were looking at a vertical city built into the mantle.

They were now impatient to get there.

They convinced the President to allow the Sprite to make a brief stop on Mars before coming to Earth.

The President’s approval meant they would be the first humans on Mars and the first to examine the ancient artifacts that were there.

Zack, Craig, and Janet were ecstatic.

Emily told everyone that she was not sure she wanted to go down to the surface of Mars. She was sure they would be visiting a tomb where many people had died. She had no idea how right that was, but she also had no idea what two hundred and twenty million years would do to any tomb.

The trip to Mars drove home that the current design of spaceships were of an inadequate and ancient design. The designers of the current generation of spaceships were planet gravity oriented.

The gravity orientation needed to be ship oriented.

He and Craig discussed this in great detail and decided they would sponsor a rotating structure design that would simulate gravity inside the spaceship.

The trick would be to get their design to feature ships with gravity like forces in a small structure and to do it in a practical, economical way.

They conferred with a design team back on the Savitar as they journeyed toward Mars.

On their arrival to Mars, Zack had the Sprite position itself over the area in the cracked mantle and slowly move along its length.

Captain Moffet, Zack, and Craig all let out a yell as their telescope showed a hole in the ground.

Image enhancement revealed another anchor deep within what seemed to be a missile launch tube. This once again was evidence of a Martian race of beings.

It was an intoxicating learning beverage.

The talk constantly went to what these being might have been like.

What was their body structure?

How did they think?

Did they walk erect similar to a human?

Where they bigger than Earthlings.

The discussions and questions seemed endless.

Zack requested permission to go to the surface to verify the presence of an anchor and whether the Sprite could utilize it.

Captain Moffet chuckled as he declined Zack’s request. He apologized but said he could not let the President of the Savitar go gliding down to the surface. It would be much too risky.

He instead named three of his people to go down and plant a new anchor for the Sprite to use. Once the anchor had been planted and the Sprite had a space elevator down to the surface Zack and his contingent could descend.

Janet knew Zack well enough to know he was super energized about getting to the surface to determine if there indeed had been intelligent life so long ago.

She was just as excited and could barely wait to go down. She also sensed that their findings might haunt them. She anticipated the history of the place was a history that had a multitude of death associated with it.

She made a joke about the fact that wisdom came with time but the amount of time that they were involved in was beyond comprehension and maybe they would find themselves to be senile before they unraveled their two hundred-million-year mystery.

Zack and Craig conferred with the rest of the team members to plan what they would do when they got to the surface.

They all agreed that they would descend into the tube where the ancient space anchor was located. They would then see if they could go beyond that point.

Janet stopped the discussion and made the point that airports and missile centers on the Earth were usually initially positioned outside of city centers where the population was the lowest. This would mean the anchor location they were contemplating might be far removed from the high-density location. She suggested that they place the anchor as close to the edge of the crack in the mantle as possible.

Zack and Craig agreed with her logic and thanked Janet for her suggestion. They once again examined their pictures and decided that the location of the existing anchor was a fair distance from the crack in the mantle.

They requested a change to where the Sprite’s anchor would be located. It was agreed that the location would be several hundred yards from the edge of the crack in the mantle.

They asked Janet to pick the spot she had in mind. Janet carefully examined the rim of the mantle crack and zeroed in on a spot that seemed to have been created by something more than nature would have done.

She was to later find that her choice put her almost at the spot where an ancient heroine had stood to watch the stars.