The Stars That Beckon by Kevin J Simington

Author:Kevin J Simington [Simington, Kevin J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-18T07:00:00+00:00

36

Six days later, they had been in high-altitude orbit around the planet for two days, and the ship was abuzz with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. The excitement was due to the obvious beauty of the planet and its suitability for human settlement. It was temperate and lush with vegetation. There were two small polar ice caps and two continents on almost opposite sides of the globe, separated by oceans that encompassed 78 percent of the planet. Earth-like photosynthesis appeared to be in operation and the atmosphere was perfect for humans. In short, it appeared to be a paradise.

Except for one thing. It had been previously occupied. At least, they hoped the occupation was previous and not current. The planet was encircled by an artificial ring in the shape of a giant cylindrical “hula hoop” that orbited about 250 kilometres directly above the equator. During the final three days of the ship’s approach, Genesis had bombarded the planet with friendly “We come in peace” messages, transmitted on every available bandwidth and in multiple languages, but had received no reply. Neither had scans been able to pick up any electromagnetic radiation from either the ring or the planet itself. The planet seemed entirely dead in terms of sentient life. High-resolution images of the planet’s surface revealed nearly 60 small cities or towns, spread over both continents, but without any sign of current intelligent habitation.

The “hoop,” as it was now called by the colonists, was the subject of much speculation, as were the cities below it. Who had lived there? And where were they now? Endless theories abounded: Perhaps they had all been wiped out by a plague. Or, maybe they had transcended to a higher dimension. Perhaps they were in hiding, underground, and were waiting for the right moment to attack. No one knew.

As Genesis drew closer, the ship’s high-resolution cameras revealed that the hoop was not perfectly uniform, but bulged out into spherical balls, evenly distributed around the hoop, like a string of pearls. There were 12 of these spheres, leading to speculation that the builders used a base 12 mathematical system. The spheres were about 200 metres in diameter, and the tubular hoop that linked them was 50 metres in diameter. From the vantage point of Genesis’s much higher orbit, the entire structure appeared to be made of a dull, black substance that gave off no emissions itself and did not reflect radar or other scanning emissions from the ship. It looked dull, black and dead, except for the perfectly geosynchronous orbit that the entire structure maintained.

Although all kinds of theories abounded concerning the nature and purpose of the hoop, everyone was in agreement about one thing: the builders were clearly thousands of years more technologically advanced than the Genesis colonists were.

The council had been meeting every day to discuss the latest findings from scans of the planet’s surface. The continents had been mapped, and animal life had been identified, including herds of animals of various sizes apparently grazing in areas of grassland.

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