Esoteric Journey

1 Panspermia

Joe chewed slowly on a slice of tender salty, rare, steak with blue cheese melting across it as he sat and contemplated the diverse thinking that was flowing slowly through his mind.

He did not have anything against conventional religions, but he could not accept the biblical genealogies that creation of the human was only six thousand years which made Adam and Eve six thousand years young.

Nor did he believe that the two of them were about fifteen feet tall.

That really messed with his mind.

His mother had taken him to the small Lutheran church in Canadian when he was young and he had been grounded in the New Testament with the belief that the Old Testament was the history of earlier times. It was history but the timing was mucked up.

His father and Uncle Ted were not church goers, so Joe let most of the teaching in his younger years linger.

Now he was being challenged by the discovery of people that were duplicate of Earthlings and new concepts had taken hold.

He was thinking well beyond the most accepted theory of biochemical evolution and focusing in on Panspermia.

This was a mind expanding thought.

He took a sip of his lemonade and thought about the fact that humans may have originated elsewhere in the universe and been transported to Earth.

He understood Panspermia to be the concept that life originated elsewhere in the universe and reached Earth through space travel.

He was contemplating people were placed on Earth by advanced extraterrestrial beings that had made that journey many eons before.

This made him a Pre-Adamist in his thinking and put him well outside of most conventional thought.

He understood Panspermia (from Ancient Greek πᾶν (pan) 'all' and σπέρμα (sperma) 'seed') was the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe and could be distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and planetoids, as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms, known as directed panspermia.

He was also at the edge of Panspermiatic thinking in that he was thinking about the directed panspermia that had placed life on multiple planets not by accident by beings with the specific intent of expanding their species.

He was accepting the thinking of Leslie Ogel and Nobel prize winner Francis Cick who published the idea of "directed panspermia", meaning an advanced life form sent life to Earth to fulfill a purpose.

He was one step beyond that when he envisioned a specific space vessel delivering the beings to Earth.

As he thought about how far out his thinking was and that it was based on the Pyramid of Gaza that had nine base points with a tenth point being the top of the pyramid, he realized that he was stretching the Rare Earth hypothesis that argues that planets with life, like Earth, were exceptionally rare and virtually refuting very famous persons who argued that Earth was a rocky planet in a typical planetary system, located in a non-exceptional region of a common barred spiral galaxy.

He was instead taking the position that Earth was special in its location and that similar planets existed in specific locations in the universe that he needed to discover.

Joe continued his ruminating as he thought about the other theories of the origin of life. He had looked into the theory that life began in ice, another that life began in clay, there was the RNA theory of life’s origin and there was the theory that life had begun in the deep sea vents.

He was also aware that for at least a hundred years, physicists, cosmologists, and philosophers have pondered the possibility that Earth and the people on it are far from unique. It seemed that scientists today believed it was very likely there were infinite versions of earth like planets and beings like earthlings out there somewhere.

Joe looked around the table, realized that no one was talking, and everyone was looking at him. He wondered what he had done to attract attention.

Lydia smiled and said that she had never seen him attack a steak with such vengeance and animosity and asked him what was running through his mind.

Uncle Ted asked if his steak deserved such rough treatment.

Joe laughed and said that he was being possessed by the cosmic powers mentioned in Ephesians 6:12, cosmic powers over this present darkness...spiritual forces found in heavenly places. He added that more specifically he was thinking about other Earth like planets out in the universe and the concept of panspermia.

Uncle Ted chuckled and asked if panspermia was a brand of kitchen pots and pans that he had not heard of and if, so he was willing to buy a set if they allowed him to prepare steaks that Joe did not try to extract vengeance on.

Once again Joe laughed and said that he loved the steak, and he was not talking about pots and pans but about the universe and beings that had seeded the Earth.

His father spoke up and added that he had never been a devout religionist, but it sounded as if he was on the edge of accepted theories of life on Earth. He went on to say that it sounded like he might need to put up high razor topped fences to keep all the devout Baptists, Catholics, and most other religions from storming the ranch.

Lydia nodded and said that once they finished dessert she and Joe should do some heavy duty riding so his brain could get back into the rhythm of the saddle, and his feet would once again be in the stirrups versus somewhere up in the clouds.

Joe smiled and said that living on the ranch was the reason he had not so far been disqualified from his position but unless his theories hit home he would soon be questioned about where he was taking the Cosmos Quartet.

A few days later, back on the Cosmos Voyager, Joe called a meeting of his inner group to discuss his thinking. He asked if Tom, Linda, H Cubed and Darian had decided if the planet they had found was an innie or an outie.

Darian spoke up and said that he wanted to explain because if H Cubed were to explain none of them would understand. He added that simply put the planet they had found was an innie and the next targeted star should be the location of an outie planet.

Joe let them know that their idea of finding nine base planets and a tenth as the origin of the nine put all of them on the very fringe of any concepts of how life emerged on earth.

They were so far on the fringe that he added they were way outside all parks of any sport. He added that Jackie might finally declare that he had gone over the edge and order a straitjacket for him.

Lacey chuckled and said that if she had followed conventional thinking she would still be stuck on the ground. She would rather follow his unconventional thinking and go where no one else had gone before.

She chuckled when that got a groan from everyone in the meeting.

After a pause she continued and added that everywhere that Joe had led them, they had found beings of many different kinds. It would not surprise her that at some point in time a superior race decided to plant their species in multiple locations as a way to ensure its continuation.

Samantha said that this journey would be different in that the others they had so far gone on they were now four cosmos space vessels that were flying together, and they had decided that all four ship commanders would rotate and relieve the captains on a regular basis. Only when they were initially going through the Hole would one of the Captains be in direct command on all four ships. This concept was also being extended to each of the operating systems to allow a more flexible amount of time for everyone during the journey.

Joe commented that he liked the idea and suggested that on the time off, everyone be given the opportunity to do one thing they wanted to do but they must also put in extra time doing some sort of physical routine. He suggested that he would take time off and at that time one of the Captains would take his seat.

He then asked if Tom had the coordinates of the next Hole.

Tom let him know that they were programmed in.

Joe asked if Lakland control was ready for the departure of the Cosmos Quartet.

Jorge chuckled and said they were ready and ready to listen to the music of the Quartet.

Lacey laughed said that the music would not be played by a quartet it was going to be the Marcha Radetzky by Johann Strauss, and everyone should clap along.

It had been selected to thank everyone for having made this next phase of their journey out to the beyond possible.

As the music hit each of the final passages, the Hole cannon fired, next the cleaning lasers went through, the protection lasers followed and then the Cosmos Quartet disappeared and the clapping stopped.

There was a cheer from ground control and Jorge knew that Joe was off to a very different journey. He wondered if it would work out as expected. He also knew that so far every journey had entailed adversaries that either panicked and attacked or attacked on purpose.

In either case Joe had managed to have his team come out on top. Jorge was sure that Joe had practiced the Quartet long and hard enough that they would not easily be defeated.

Once through the hole Joe had Tom looking for the star that would most likely have the desired planet circling it. He knew that now the innie or outie question would be answered. He waited patiently before giving any additional orders other than to hold defensive positions and stay on the alert.

Tom, H Cubed and Linda were frantically looking for the star and planets circling it that would answer the question. There were three stars that were in position that would make the answer an outie as they hope it would be. Each star had multiple planets and several around each star were in the goldilocks zone.

They split up the evaluation and each of them took on one star and rapidly evaluated the planets for advanced civilizations.

H Cubed was the one that suddenly let out a “Voya, Voya…Voya” as he pumped his hand up and down.

It’s an outie he shouted as he stood up and pointed to the sixth planet circling his yellow star.

Yara came over to him and gave him a hug and suggested he sit back down and set up the coordinates that would get them near the planet to see if the people there were indeed another human colony.

Tom kept quiet as the coordinates for the planet that H Cubed had identified were determined. Just before the Cosmos Quartet was to make the transit. He quietly suggested that he had a competitor planet that could also be their quest. He suggested that they spend more time to penetrate each of the planets to determine which one they wanted to go to first.

There was a quiet moment before Joe took the opportunity to speak up. He said that as the umpire, referee, and ring master of the team he was calling a time out. They would take the time to do a closer analysis of the two planets and might visit both to see if they had found two different intelligent species in two nearby stars.

He said that everyone should take a break, visit the mess hall, enjoy the dinner that was being offered and then follow the standard rotation schedule.

He called a meeting of his inner team. This time Jackie, their psychologist, and Billian their DNA specialist was include. He let them know that they would visit the planet that won out by being the most likely to have their human counterparts. He was at the edge of anxiety and was hoping that they indeed were on the right trail.

If they found their counterparts, then they would have to revise how they perceived the history of Earth.

2 The Outies

The sphere was sitting stationary. Zacker had a team scrutinizing its actions. Its appearance had surprised he and his team in that it did not come across the void but just appeared. He had played back the recorded visuals multiple times. One moment the area was empty then a series of rockets appeared and fired lasers inwardly and then an equal number of rockets appeared and positioned themselves in the same spherical configuration but took no action. Then an oblong object that seemed to have no purpose positioned itself to the edge of the sphere of lasers. A few seconds later the small sphere appeared at the center of all the lasers. He had watched the video multiple times before taking any action. He was not clear what he would recommend to the Leadership Council.

He communicated the appearance of the sphere to the leadership council who activated all the defense forces. They instructed him to monitor the alien vessel and to let them know if it made any hostile moves.

He was aware that the space exploration unit was on the verge of launching the first satellite and he was also aware that the defense force did not have weapons that went as far out as the alien sphere was located.

He had his team using the most powerful ground based five-hundred-meter aperture spherical reflector dish to zoom in on the sphere and was able to see that it seemed to be made of four separate units that were operating as one. Each unit was rotating, and his team was able to theorize that the rotation created almost the same gravitational force that was experienced on Gaja.

It surprised him that the aliens would be generating a force that was so close to what Gaja had as gravity.

Zacker noted the fact that the entire sphere had stopped rotating and only one of the rotating wheel sections was pointed at the planet. With a higher magnification of the sphere, he was able to see that there seemed to be several physical instruments that to him looked like telescopes. This made him wonder if the sphere was looking back at him and Gaja.

And he would be surprised later to learn later that indeed he was being watched by Tom, H Cubed, Linda and the rest of the personnel on the Cosmos Quartet. They were carefully scanning each of the seven planets that circled the star that they were referring to as the Outie Star.

The planet closest to the star was similar to Venus and was not in the goldilocks zone. The second planet was in the very middle of the zone, and the third planet was out at the edge of the goldilocks zone but looked like a frozen ocean world. Tom utilized all four of the Quartet’s telescopes to create a more powerful one.

This let him zoom in on outie planet two.

He was surprised to see what reminded him of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. He announced that he was sure that there was intelligent beings on the outie planet number two.

H Cubed commented that he had been able to make out what he took as planes flying and cities that seemed to be as large as Atlanta or New York. So, the beings were definitely technologically advanced.

Joe thanked Tom and H Cubed and asked that Kashanti beam down his picture with his empty hand raised as a sign of friendship.

Zacker almost fell out of his seat when he saw the picture of the alien. He looked almost like his brother in law. He looked as mensia as anyone on Gaja. He dropped everything and contacted the leadership council head and showed him the picture. He added that he interpreted the picture with the raised empty hand to indicate a desire to be friendly. He verified that he should reply with a similar picture in response and got that agreement.

Joe and everyone on the Quartet let out a call of “Voya…Voya…Voya” when the picture was flashed up on the screen. The all knew that they had found the planet that verified the theory that humans were indeed seeded around the universe.

Joe asked Kashanti to send a series of pictures that showed and had labels for a male, female, children, eye colors and start the process of establishing communication with the being on the planet. He also wanted to know what the beings called their star and their planet. Kashanti let him know that his team would spend every moment to get the communication at as high a level as possible.

Joe then called a meeting of his leadership team. He suggested that they retrieve the Door module and proceed slowly toward the planet.

Lydia asked if anyone had any issues with what Joe was suggesting.

Samantha suggested that they repeatedly send out the visual of Joe holding up his hand as they slowly approached planet number two.

Joe agreed that they do exactly that. He then gave the order for the Cosmos Quartet to move slowly toward planet two.

Kashanti announced that as close as he could translate the pictures and the language the planet was called Gaja, and the star was Bintang.

Yara smiled and said that now she could quit laughing at calling the planet and outie.

Zacker watched as the sphere retrieved the object that he had been calling a cube and all the lasers. He then watched as the sphere began a slow movement towards Gaja. At the same time his communication specialist informed him that the sphere was repeatedly sending the picture of the individual with a raised hand.

Since there was not much that he could do about the situation he gave instructions that they should reply with his picture and his hand raised.

He did notify the leadership council leader about the situation. He was asked to find out whether the beings in the approaching space sphere were the ones that had long ago seeded Gaja.

Joe and the rest of the leadership team were not surprised when they received a series of pictures that had the planet Gaja showing people being lowered from the sky to its surface from the Cosmos Quartet. He suggested that they reply with a picture of that crossed out the people going down and instead had a picture of the Earth with him on the ground and picture of the Gaja with their current interface standing on the its surface.

Kashanti suggested that the follow up with a picture of the Bintang solar system and the Earth’s solar system diagrams showing where they came from. He added that he and his team were making great strides in defining the alphabet and the numbering system that was used on Gaja. He said that his team had sent the alphabet down to the planet with pictures and were making amazingly rapid progress in getting the Gaja equivalent. He shared the fact that what they were zeroing in on was very similar to the Phoenician alphabetic script with distinct letters for vowels as well as consonants. He said that it was so close to the Latin alphabet that in a few days they would be able to have a translation module that would allow full conversations to take place.

Zacker was very pleased with the progress that his team was making with the beings that he now understood to be the equals of every one on Gaja and not the beings that Gajans historically considered the beings that had seeded the planet.

However, it was clear to him that though the person being shown was shown as a brother, the person up in the sphere was sitting in space, had mysteriously appeared, was able to move about at will and now sit in a stationary position above Gaja. This was a display of such superior technology that he wondered how it was all possible.

He eagerly waited until he would be able to ask questions that might provide some understanding that for him was for the moment lacking.

Tom was analyzing the cities that appeared on Gaja. He commented that based on what he was seeing, the planet had been developed in a much greener way than what had occurred on Earth. He added that it appeared that a few Gajans got around by using flying vehicles just like the sci-fi movies on Earth but given the size of the cities he speculated that much of the in city transit was underground.

He then went on with his speculation that the transportation to other cities was also underground because there did not seem to be any air transportation between them. If that was the case then there must be massive tunnels beneath the oceans that like the Earth was eighty percent of the planet’s surface.

Joe facilitated a meeting to discuss how they should handle Gaja and when they would continue to the fourth planet of the nine they were seeking.

Lydia suggested that they establish contact, enter into a discussion with the beings on the planet, get approval to put a Door module into orbit around the planet and get the Intergalactic Diplomacy Corps to continue to develop the ongoing relationship with the planet.

Linda agreed that was a good approach and wondered if they would be able to accomplish that in a thirty day period at each planet. If the greeting at a planet was friendly as it was at the moment they could also operate at a lower staffing level and allow part of the crew time off. During the time off she suggested that the personnel rotate back to Earth.

Lacey agreed that bringing in the Diplomatic Corps as soon as possible was the way to go. She could get that organized and set up with the folks that were currently running the organization. She added that now that they were on the trail around the base, the Diplomatic group could be hiring and getting their staff increased to match the number of worlds they would be working with.

Joe had listened to his team and was in agreement with most of what they were suggesting. He knew that he would need to return to Earth to work through the details on a firsthand basis.

He was now sure that they would find the other planets that housed humans and most likely find additional other types of intelligent beings. He was also aware that the first connection had been made because the Nivians were in desperate need and accepted the fact that Earth could provide the needed support to save all the people on a planet threatened by a dying sun.

The Gajan was a world that had some very interesting technology and no apparent war armament or missiles. He accepted this as a hopeful sign for the subsequent worlds that the Cosmos Quartet would find.

That was not going to reduce his preparedness for interacting with a world more like Earth that might have a very negative reaction to the arrival of the Cosmos Quartet.

He figured he had found two of the easier planets to work with. He was sure that he would find that the spectrum of what the Quartet would face would span across a relationship spectrum from the easy, the moderate to the hard. He needed to communicate this to the President and to get an agreement on how to handle each situation.