Whisper to me

By Maurice Sketchley

Set in the near future, planet Earth is dying and the imminent environmental crisis prompts mankind to look to the stars for a new world to colonise. The Hypatia missions are pathfinders, performing reconnaissance of potential homes for mankind. This is the story of Hypatia IV and its crew, dispatched to an exoplanet in the Vega system. Awakening from Suspended Animation they find an almost perfect world with breathable atmosphere, blue skies and plentiful drinking water; but apparently no animal life amongst the limited flora.
Jake is the mission poet in residence and Commander of the Arts Team who will prepare the non-scientific reports back to Earth. He is imaginative, undisciplined and a totally inappropriate choice for a Section Commander. Juanita is the mission Executive Officer and second in command of the mission. She is ex-military, tough and unimaginative. She believes the Arts Team to be a waste of resource, sent along as a sop to anti-military and anti-science forces on Earth. She and Jake are poles apart.
Cataclysmic events on Earth during Hypatia IV's years of journeying to the stars change the mission objectives and the demands on the crew. They carry the burden of humanity's future, but what sort of a future do they wish to build?
The crisis deepens when Jake starts to have thoughts he believes are the telepathic and threatening whisperings of some entity living on the planet. Then, when a crew member meets a violent death, Jake is accused of his murder. Is he psychotic or in touch with the alien which killed the crewman?
This is a story of the unfoldment of lives before and during the Hypatia mission, a story of integration and coming together and of cultural achievement in an unfamiliar and threatening environment, a story of diversity finding resolution in synergy. It is a story of optimism for the future we may face.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maurice Sketchley
• Release date: Mar 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301019281

Maurice Sketchley

Maurice Sketchley lives near the sea in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Suffolk, England. Recently retired from industry, he is now able to spend his time writing poetry, short stories and now a Science Fiction novel.

Book preview

WHISPER TO ME

By Maurice Sketchley

I will encamp against you on all sides;

I will encircle you with towers

and set up my siege works against you.

Brought low, you will speak from the ground;

your speech will mumble out of the dust.

Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;

out of the dust your speech will whisper.

Isaiah 29 3/4

Copyright © 2013 Maurice Sketchley.

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Epilogue

Crew List of the Hypatia 4

About the Author

PROLOGUE

Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.

Hypatia of Alexandria AD 370 – 415

Alexandria, Egypt AD 402

Theon of Alexandria walked slowly and hesitantly through the gardens of the Mouseion in the Alexandrine palace district, his ancient eyes scanning the knots of teachers, students and townspeople for his daughter. He moved on through the familiar walkways and porticos, past lecture halls, dormitories, the flower beds, fig trees and alcoves of statuary before his rheumy eyes were caught by a glimpse of a tall and imposing lady in a long white teacher's tunic at the centre of an animated group. Hypatia, Lady Philosopher of Alexandria and foremost astronomer and mathematician alive.

Theon moved closer to hear his daughter's discourse but it seemed that her lecture was concluded and she now took questions from her audience. An angry young man in grey Christian clerical garb was aggressively jabbing a finger toward her. Will you not repent your paganism and give yourself up to Christ before it is too late? We destroyed the abomination of the Temple of Serapis at this very site and we will destroy all blasphemers who refuse the one true God!

Hypatia smiled coldly at the young man before addressing her students. I am greatly encouraged to see that the spirit of disputation and the ancient skill of persuasive rhetoric live on in Alexandria, she said with heavy irony causing laughter from her students. Turning to the Christian she said, Young man, rather than ranting and rude words you should offer us some criticism we can respond to. Allow us to examine our differences and see if we can arrive at some philosophical truth.

You are a witch! he shouted back at her. You will meet the witch's end you deserve!

Some of the students were jeering at him and he turned away, his angry self-righteousness brooding over him like a thunder cloud.

The meeting broke up and Hypatia saw her father waiting for her. She drew him to a shaded stone bench and sat beside him.

Why are you out in the heat of the day, father, instead of resting in the cool? she asked.

I have a number of revisions I wish to make to my commentaries on Ptolemy's Almagest and I will need your assistance.

Oh, father, Hypatia said in a kindly voice, more revisions? Surely this could have waited?

At my age only a fool waits for anything that is worthwhile. Will you help me, my daughter?

Of course I will help you, Hypatia replied. But first we will rest here a while. Did you hear my lecture?

No, Theon replied. Only your brush with the young monk. Young people are too opinionated and too stupid these days. I fear for the future of the city when such tensions exist between Christians and Jews and supporters of the old Egyptian and Greek beliefs. This city could tear itself apart and you could be one of the victims.

There are many problems, Hypatia agreed. And there are deep and ambitious forces at work to exploit them but don't worry about me. I still have the protection of powerful friends, including Christian bishops who were once students of mine. Besides I must keep teaching the value of logic and philosophy and those attributes of tolerance that you taught me to believe in. There is no other way to offset the tide of bigotry and superstition.

Theon looked around the imposing edifices surrounding the garden. Six hundred years ago Ptolemy II built up the Great Library and the Mouseion as a cradle for all existing knowledge and the melting pot for new research, study and disputation and repository for all the arts and sciences. Today it is a poor reflection of the intellectual vitality that existed even in my lifetime. Or am I just a sour old man who thinks nothing good has existed since his sixtieth birthday?

No father, I don't think that, Hypatia said in a serious and thoughtful tone. You state an objective truth, but still I remain optimistic. I still have some exceptional students and whilst they do not all fully comprehend Euclid's Elements (despite our explanatory commentaries) we see young mathematicians extending their application and new poets capable of using their art to make sense of philosophical issues. The potential for mankind to extend and deepen understanding of the natural world, of ideas and the arts is completely limitless. I truly believe that the future achievements of humanity are without limit.

I hope that you are right, my daughter, Theon said, patting her hand.

The other night, Hypatia continued, "I sat on our roof, observing the constellations and noting details of the retrograde movement of Jupiter when it occurred to me that in the distant future it may be possible to leave this globe we inhabit and travel to these sparks of light. An arrow can be loosed higher than a stone can be thrown before its energy is exhausted and it falls back to earth. Imagine now a mighty engine that can eject a projectile with such energy that it overcomes the forces that would pull it back, it escapes from earth and travels out beyond the sky. There is so much we could learn! Not least the nature of the celestial spheres and the reason for the inelegant passage of the wanderer planets.

All this is impossible, of course, she went on, unless all humanity worked to a common purpose. Christian and Jew, man and woman, Egyptian and Greek, Alexandria and Pergamum converging on a few elevated objectives. Now that would be something! If we could overcome these dualities, this integrated society would be unstoppable – truly as Aristotle says, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts - but sadly it will not be seen in our lifetime even within the confines of Alexandria.

She looked up at Theon who was nodding sleepily and gently shook his arm. Come father. Let's get you home so you may rest properly.

*

In AD 415, five years before the Visigoths sacked Rome, Hypatia was pulled from her chariot by a Christian mob and dragged into a church where she was stripped, beaten to death and cut into pieces which were burned in the street. Some historians have identified this event as the start of the so-called Dark Ages.

CHAPTER ONE

Does darkness slide like fitful sleep

Through forgotten scenes that glimpse

A cat asleep on window sill

Bamboo rustles in moonlit night

Or oleander scent in island sun?

Or is the darkness black as ink

Uniform as a Godless death

Unmoving as not existing

And timeless as a rock in space

That spins unknown, unknowing?

He thought about these words which he had penned and the questions that they asked. He guessed that he would soon find out. Would this sleep be a void or would it be perchance to dream?

Are you awake? Can you tell me your name? The voice intruded and he chose to ignore it. It went away.

Are you awake? The voice was back. This time he tried to answer. He was afraid and he felt unwell. He was unable to open his eyes but he wanted the voice to stay.

Yes, he managed to say.

Can you tell me your name? The voice was insistent, but not unkind.

Jake Hill, he replied, then wondered if he had said the correct name.

Well done, Jake, the voice replied. Do you know where you are?

"I am aboard the spaceship Hypatia IV, about to enter Suspended Animation for interstellar flight" Jake said with some considerable effort.

The voice chuckled, partly because all through training Jake had insisted on calling the craft a spaceship rather than any of the prosaic alternatives offered by the scientists and trainers.

Jake felt a hand press his shoulder. Your period of Suspended Animation is over, Jake. You are now waking up. Don’t worry, everything is OK and you will feel better soon.

Jake again tried to open his eyes but they seemed to be glued shut. Who was this fool who was telling him to wake up? He was only just going under to sleep.

No, he said. I have to sleep a long time while we are in space.

Jake, the voice said, still pressing his shoulder, You have slept for 12 years. We are now in the Vega system. I am going to release your eyes now.

Jake felt his eyes being bathed with cotton wool soaked in a cold fluid that ran down his cheeks.

Do you recognise my voice, Jake? I am Doc Peters. Do you remember?

Yes, Jake replied, his own voice sounding harsh and unfamiliar to his ears.

I was the first, Doc Peters went on. "AI-P woke me, then we woke the Mission Commander. I didn’t really believe that the time had passed until I was able to get to the Observation Lounge and see the flat sun and unfamiliar sky. That is a Wow! moment I can tell you. You will