A Dream From The Past

It was called one of the most amazing discoveries in astronomy, right up there with the discovery of the first extra-solar Earthlike planet that showed signs of life. In 2017 the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was making a routine sweep through the night sky when an interesting blip was spotted that blocked all the feeble light of a distant star. At first astronomers thought it was a glitch in the image, because the next image showed nothing there. It wasn’t until two years later when a new image was taken in the same patch of sky with a similar blip backlit by the infrared light from a distant galaxy. Now this little blip spawned a lot of curiosity and excitement among the science community and multiple observatories were trained in on this spot in the sky looking for clues as to what this object could be. This object shouldn’t be there; however there it was. Careful study and calculations of the mounting images of this object showed that it was slightly larger than Mars and appeared to be orbiting our sun at nearly 75o off the planetary orbital plane and on average about five and a half light months away. This was the largest and oddest object of any other found between the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud, but scientists were in for more surprises still.

It was discovered that there was more than just one object floating around up there. Several years later and after many observations, modeling, and a whole lot of debating, scientists had to add a totally new category of objects within our own solar system. These strange new worlds—it was concluded—must have been stripped away from another solar system as our two solar systems collided in a glancing blow approximately four billion years ago during the Late Heavy Bombardment. Another conclusion that was hinted at, but wasn’t proven until many more years later when we sent a probe to investigate, was that these worlds and their moons were once one planet almost twice the size of Earth.

After much debate, two new planets and several new moons had to be added to the science textbooks, classified as stellar captured planets. Since the planets were found to be covered in water and ice over rocky cores, they were given the names of Oceanus (the great earth-encircling river Titan) and Amphitrite (the goddess Queen of the Sea). In fact, if the planets were to orbit the sun as close as Earth does, they would be completely covered by an ocean. The second probe to be sent there, decades later, found intriguing evidence of potential life forms locked in the ice—most likely dead but possibly well preserved.

Due to this new and very intriguing data, the International Space Agency decided that a deep space science team should be dispatched to check it out further. Tykhe (named for the daughter of Oceanus and the goddess of good fortune), the largest and closest moon to Oceanus seemed to be the perfect location to set up a scientific space base. The moon had all the raw materials to create everything from the protective walls of the space base, to the rich organic soil for growing food, and the moon itself could easily be studied for signs of ancient life. Ancient life indeed was found there, and incredible new discoveries were made. So exciting and on the edge was this new base that scores of scientists, astronomers, and astrobiologists jumped for the chance to make the five and a half month long teleportation trip to the new base. In all 348 humans now called Tykhe Base home.

Marina was born there, and with that came the distinction of being the first child born that deep in space on a once extra-solar world. For most of her life she enjoyed—or rather had thrust upon her—the celebrity status. Although it had no effect on her, for she lived several billion miles away from ‘civilization’ and she was too young and naïve to understand why many of the adults around the station found her so fascinating. So she had no inkling of her fame until her parents finally rotated home when she was about fifteen years old, but by then the uniqueness had worn off and several more children were born on the station.

For Marina, growing up on a space station had been an adventure; she had gotten to be so proficient at wearing spacesuits that her parents had taken her on several expeditions to the planets and moons for science and sample gathering. She got to bounce around the surface of Tykhe on nearly every one of her birthdays as far back as she could remember. It got to be a tradition, and no one ever told her that you didn’t have to go out and take organic samples on your birthday. It didn’t matter to her that she was working—it was fun. However, her parents knew that eventually they would have to take her home, so all the while they would take her to the holo-rooms and show her scenes of home; even her bedroom would have moving pictures of scenery from earth.

It worked, for by the time she was fifteen, she was ready to go to Earth and see all the wonders she had been missing. Not to mention, it was time for her to get her college degree and her parents adamantly wanted her to go to college, and the Oceanus planetary system had no colleges to speak of. After years of debating and sifting through all the literature from the time she was ten, Marina had already decided where she was going to get her astrobiology degree, and that was going to be Berkeley. After two years, she had finished her associate’s degree and was working on her bachelor’s when she met this strikingly handsome young man in his early twenty’s working as a teacher’s aide for her professor of astrometry. His tall, slender body, blond hair, hazel eyes and calm demeanor instantly got her attention. He was incredibly brilliant, but overly modest and yet still managed to keep the attention of the class while filling in for lectures his professor had to miss. She soon realized that this was what her parents really meant by the wonders she had been missing.

Josh was slow on the uptake at first. He had seen Marina on campus, and met her a few times in class and even sat in as her lab partner a few times in astrobiology class, but to him she was just another teenager, seventeen years old and off his radar. He could tell she was smitten, but he just chalked it up to puppy love. He was polite and tried hard to discourage her without hurting her feelings. Marina was undaunted; she knew what she wanted and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She pursued Josh with the same vigor that she pursued her bachelors, and by eighteen she had managed to get both. As she went on to get her master’s, the couple grew to become inseparable. Josh for his part could not help but admire her persistence, and couldn’t help but notice her budding into a mature woman both intellectually and physically. He had to admit she was quite brilliant, and had a charm about her that could tantalize the most belligerent cobra back into its basket.

They were engaged by the time Josh had completed his second doctorate at twenty-two and she was almost twenty, when she learned that her parents were going to rotate back to Tykhe. It was both wonderful and distressing news, for she knew just how much her parents looked forward to going back, but she really didn’t look forward to being left behind. Then there was theirx graduation and a wedding to plan for, all of which had to be bumped up so that her parents could be present for the special events before they had to go. Josh had no issues with moving up the wedding; the sooner he laid claim to his bride-to-be the better. It may have taken him longer to get there, but he too was smitten, and he wasn’t about to give her a chance to reconsider and possibly run off to Tykhe with her parents.

In the years to follow Marina took a work study on Mars to finish off her doctorate. Josh followed, taking a job as a Professor at Gale University teaching Astrophysics. She then took a brief assignment to the orbiting platform around Europa to study the new life forms found there. Josh followed, taking a job as a shuttle pilot. Then it was back to Mars and then on to Earth, and Josh was able to get on as a Professor at Berkeley, his favorite college and Alma Matter. Marina got a position studying life forms that thrived at the ocean vents at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, called black smokers. Very similar to the grey smokers found on Europa, she found the work on the biology from the two sites to be so compelling, she wrote multiple papers and even a book on the subject. This kept the happy couple busy for many years. Then Marina was offered her dream job, a chance to go back to Tykhe and work with the biologists and her parents on Oceanus. Josh was game; it would be a new adventure for him.

Their five year tour was cut short when her father was killed in a transport accident. Marina’s mother lost all interest in the project, and rotated back to Earth to retire, so after only two years on Tykhe Josh and Marina rotated back with her. That was when Marina discovered she was pregnant with their first child. It was a time of mixed emotions, for Marina wanted so badly to look after her mom and had concerns about being a mother herself. Josh could do nothing but be there for Marina. He picked up his old job back at Berkeley and they bought a chateau in the south of France big enough to house them and keep her mom and their new baby. Georgia, Marina’s mom, was never really right again. She slowly let her health deteriorate; refusing medical attention and finally stopped using the rejuvenators all together. Instead she started eating fresh fruits and vegetables that she would grow in her own garden outside the chateau. She even had Josh repair the antiquated bathroom that had still been a part of the original house design, so she could shower and use the other facilities. She claimed that this was the way humans were supposed to live and eventually die.

Josh and Marina had Alana and two more children in the years to follow living in the South of France with her mom. Daniel was born just two years after Alana and then Christopher came another four years later. Everyone was happy—for the most part—mom would always be a challenge. Georgia still made a great grandma for the kids and convenient babysitter for those times when Marina would go off to work in the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, or any number of bodies of water, large or small, with black smokers or other interesting features that sustained unusual forms of life.

Sixteen years passed and Alana grew up, went off to college and met Ling, an aspiring botanist who longed for a chance to study in Oceanus. Alana and Ling were ecstatic when Ling got accepted for a rotation to Tykhe Base, and now a third generation was going to be studying the Oceanus planetary system. Marina and Georgia weren’t exactly sure how to feel about the news. Josh was happy for them, but he knew he would sure miss his baby girl—a lot. Georgia perked up some at the news, but didn’t have any plans to go back there. She was content to fill Alana with all the knowledge and advice she had for living so far away and isolated from family and friends. Marina could do nothing but cry, at least when no one was looking. She and Josh even discussed going back there. Josh had no problem with it, where ever Marina decided to go, he would follow, but what would they do about mom?

It was a hard decision for Marina to stay, torn as she was between letting her oldest daughter go away or leaving her own mom behind, possibly to die alone. Ultimately she decided her daughter would be fine without her, but her mother would not, and so they stayed. This was a wonderful move for Josh, for shortly after his daughter left for Oceanus, he was approached for the job offer of a lifetime, and a chance to finally work on a project his grandfather had started—the Time Port.

Not long after Alana and Ling got settled in to their new post, Alana announced that she had decided to get pregnant. Once again Georgia had perked up at the news, and entreated Marina to go be with her daughter for the birth. Bolstered by her mother’s new found purpose for living, Marina decided to go, but for the first time Josh decided not to follow. Marina understood, after all Josh had found his dream job and besides that, someone had to keep an eye on mom just in case.