Planet Search

By Tony Sakalauskas

Captain Dale and his first officer Lt. Zachary visit 62 planets to look for a habitable place for 100 million Earth people to live. Along the way they meet all sorts of strange creatures and experience all sorts of strange happenings.

An Alice in Wonderland type of book where our heroes find aliens who can melt wood, or have flat faces, or have two thumbs on each hand or experience echo sickness or dream sickness or have rubber bodies and so forth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tony Sakalauskas
• Release date: Mar 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458016744

Tony Sakalauskas

Tony is a 56 year-old writer from Halifax, Canada.

Book preview

PLANET SEARCH

By

Tony Sakalauskas

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

PUBLISHED BY:

Tony Sakalauskas on Smashwords

Planet Search:

Copyright 2011 by Tony Sakalauskas

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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*****

Chapter One

The first time I met space aliens was almost 20 years ago when I was a teenage tourist in Mexico. I was walking by an undiscovered pyramid (which I knew was undiscovered because it was not on any map and it still had some vegetation on it), when I saw two strange beings, with greenish-skin, studying the hieroglyphics on one of those stone structures. I asked them who they were and what they were doing there.

They told me that they were from another planet in another solar system close by. They said that their spaceship was the very first spacecraft to leave their world and this was the first place they landed on.

They were ecstatic about their discovery of the pyramids; they had never seen anything like it. I, myself, had never seen anyone so happy in all my life. They went on to say that there were thousands of pyramids all over the planet, on every continent, and that over 99% of them were covered in vegetation or ice and snow.

At first I didn’t know what they were chattering about. Then finally, they told me that they came from a planet that was flat, no mountains, no hills, nothing like that, it was all flat. So then it dawned on me that they think the pyramids and the mountains are all the same thing. They think the mountains are man-made pyramids covered in vegetation or ice and snow.

I tried to explain the difference to these guys but they wouldn’t listen to me. They just talked about stripping away the vegetation, or ice and snow, from the mountains and getting their hands on all those man-made objects and treasures they think they’re going to find underneath. I walked away from those guys and said to myself, Boy, are they in for a big surprise.

The second time I met aliens was at a formal party given in their honor by the Space Agency. Aliens from two different planets were being hosted. The first group was like us, Homo Sapiens.

On our planet we have what we call an ‘Invisible Prison’, said the first alien who talked to me about correctional systems.

We spray prisoners with a liquid solution that makes them invisible. They become visible again when sprayed with water. The convicts are put in an open-air prison in a desert where it never rains and where they are watched by guards who wear invisible-vision glasses. Just as night-vision glasses helps the wearer to see at night, invisible-vision glasses helps the wearer see invisible people.

I asked him how all this invisibility began and he told me that the army started it. He also told me that soon after the discovery some criminals were able to get their hands on the invisible solution and were able to make crime pay. It didn’t take long before invisible-vision glasses were invented.

Then someone came up with the idea of making these prisoners invisible while they spent their time in jail. If the crooks like to be invisible so much, let’s see how they would like it if they had to stay that way for a few years.

At the penitentiary the guards sit on lawn chairs, and wearing their special glasses they laugh their heads off as they watch the convicts bump into each other and fall over each other all day long.

Our people pride themselves on the different ideas they come up with when it comes to punishing criminals, said the second alien.

Take for instance house arrest. On our planet some of the lawbreakers live in coal houses. In other words, houses made out of coal.

Coal houses? I said. Isn’t that dangerous? Coal is a highly flammable rock.

I know. That’s why we built those places for them. They can’t start a fire in their homes because if they do, they could burn the place down and kill themselves. And every time the weather goes below freezing, we think about those guys in their coal houses and we laugh our heads off.

Another way we punish criminals is to make them wear clothes that shrinks when it gets wet, said the first alien.

This is done during the start of the rainy season. Those crooks have to stay in their houses for weeks and weeks and can’t go anywhere because if they do, their clothing would shrink in the rain and they could suffocate to death. And we laugh our heads off at that too.

I bet you think we have a wild imagination don’t you? asked the alien.

Yeah right, that’s exactly what I think, I said as I rolled my eyes and walked away.

The second group of extraterrestrials was called ‘Triclops’. They were named that because they had three eyes; the third eye was in the middle of their forehead.

One Triclop, whom I was talking to, showed me some photos of his kids. One boy had a patch over his middle eye and I asked him what that was about. He told me that this kid was dressed for a masquerade party. I then asked him what his kid was dressed as. The guy seemed surprised that I had asked the question.

Can’t you tell? the alien asked.

No, I can’t tell.

He’s dressed as a pirate. You had pirates here on Earth, how could you not tell? Are you stupid or something?

No, I’m not stupid. I don’t know anything about your planet.

Then I walked away from him. I hate rude people. I don’t care if they’re from Earth or someplace else; I just hate rude people.

***

Anyway, I’m a space pilot who’s talking to you from the future, close to the turn of the century. I had regularly flown people back and forth from Earth and Mars, but in the end I flew more people from Earth to Mars rather than the other way around. The father planet was dying and a new home had to be found for our people. Mars was not big enough to take everyone from Earth, so a planet outside the Solar System had to be found for 100 million people.

At about the same time space travel technology had increased tenfold. Previously it would have taken us a few months to travel to a planet outside the Solar System; but now we can do it in a few days or weeks.

The two best space pilots Earth and Mars had were a man named Bob and me. The Space Agency had to choose between us. Bob asked me to decline. He told me that he wanted to get away from a couple of people who were following him around. At the time I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I said yes

They wanted Bob to discover an uninhabited planet. That’s fine if you can find one. But according to some aliens who had visited us, all habitable planets close to our Solar System are occupied. That meant that we would have to live with some other aliens on some other world. I said to myself, "Good luck in trying to find an alien race that we can live with; a race that is not stupid, cruel or rude.

Planet Number One

Bob’s first mission was to visit a planet that belonged to a Solar System that was closest to our own. We didn’t know it at the time but these aliens, on this new world, were telepathic people who usually communicated by reading other people’s minds.

Bob was mentally ill. Nobody knew this, not even Bob. Just before he was to blast off, he dropped by to visit me. He told me that a couple of Leprechauns were following him around. But because I didn't’ know he was mentally sick it didn’t occur to me that he was hallucinating. What did occur to me was the thought that Bob was probably playing a trick on me, something he had done a few times before. I was determined that this time he wasn’t going to catch me with my pants down and then say Ha, got ya! No way was that going to happen again. I told him to stop worrying about the Leprechauns, to ignore them and to act like he didn’t see them. And that’s exactly what he did.

On the trip to this first planet none of Bob’s travel companions knew what was going on in his head. He began to see more Leprechauns, about a half dozen of them. They were all over the place: sleeping in his bed, sitting in his chair, following him around and so forth.

When they arrived at this new world Bob told his crewmates that he wanted to visit the aliens without them. He told them that going to meet these aliens with six other people was enough. Of course, those under him didn’t know what he was talking about; all they could see was one person, Bob.

On this planet no one suffered from mental illnesses; telepathic people didn’t have that problem. They knew nothing about hallucinations, and they knew nothing about Leprechauns.

When Bob first met these people they probed his mind to find out what he was thinking. They soon found out; Bob was thinking about the Leprechauns. The aliens began to see what Bob was seeing and became very confused.

Bob’s crewmates were, of course, worried about him and sent down two people to find out what was happening. When they encountered the aliens they got a big surprise.

Hey! Watch out! Don’t step on that Leprechaun! said one alien.

Hey! Don’t touch that! Will you tell your Leprechaun friend to stay away from my car? said another alien.

The other aliens began to talk that way too. It didn’t take long for Bob’s crewmates to haul him back to the spaceship and to consider the planet a write-off.

Before this astronauts had only to pass a physical test before they were allowed into space. But since this episode, they now had to pass both the physical and mental tests.

***

It was now my turn to find a new home for 100 million of our people. The spaceship that we used was called the Nikola Tesla. It was the biggest, fastest, most powerful spaceship that man has ever made. There were eight crewmembers aboard our spaceship; four men and four women. I was called Captain Dale (my first name) and my second in command, the co-pilot, was a man named Felix (also his first name).

Planet Number Two

Felix, what are you doing? I asked as he was speeding in our space car above this next planet.

I know what I’m doing, he said. I’m trying to reach that city before that storm comes.

A lightning cloud seemed to follow us as we sped to the city. Like Zeus, the ancient Greek god, it looked like it was ready to throw a lightning bolt at us. And like Zeus it made its mark.

The craft crashed on the side where Felix was sitting and he came out of it with a broken left leg. I survived it unscathed.

Don’t worry, I said as I inspected his thigh. It’s not a compound fracture, there are no bones sticking out.

Oh God is my leg ever sore! What are we going to do now?

The space car won’t start, I said as I pressed the ignition button. We’ll have to call the ‘Nikola Tesla’ for help. Someone will come down in another car and fix it. Meanwhile, we got to get you to a hospital.

We had a clinic on board our spacecraft and I could have gotten Felix’s leg fixed there but decided against it. I wanted to save our supplies in case we encounter a bigger emergency.

I radioed for assistance and then extracted Felix from the space car. I carried him for about a quarter of a mile before a car veered sharply around the corner and almost knocked us down.

What’s the problem? the male driver of the vehicle asked us.

My friend has a broken leg can you take us to the hospital?

At first the man said nothing. He just glanced at his female passenger with a strange look that she reflected back to him.

A broken what? he asked.

I repeated what I had just said and added on what happened to our space car and where we came from. The man told us to get into his vehicle.

The woman didn’t turn around to open the back side door. Instead, she stretched her arm backwards over her right shoulder. How could she do that I wondered. How could she bend her arm all the way backwards without breaking it? I was beginning to understand why they would be confused when I told them Felix had a broken leg.

One of the first things we noticed upon entering the city was a group of children in a playground. We saw a little girl bend all the way backwards as she grabbed the back of her heels with her hands. Next, we saw a little boy fall from a height of twenty feet and get up and walk away like nothing happened.

When we made it to the hospital Felix and I sat in the waiting area. A doctor, named Parla, who was about fifteen feet away from us, turned her head completely around 180 degrees and walked towards us. Actually, she was walking backwards towards us, but her face was looking straight at us.

I told Parla about us. She believed me, but she didn’t believe Felix had a broken leg. She had never heard of it before and as far as she knew it was impossible to break one’s leg. She immediately arranged to have his limb x-rayed.

While in the waiting area I watched a game of golf on TV. Before the golfers hit their balls, they twisted their bodies almost completely around and then let go. You should have seen those balls fly! They went fast and far. I assumed, by the way those balls disappeared, that their golf courses must be bigger than ours.

News of Felix’s x-rays traveled around the emergency room faster than that bolt of lightning that zapped our space car. It didn’t take Doctor Parla long to get back to me. This time when she walked towards me her head wasn’t turned around. I guess she could walk faster frontwards than backwards.

We can’t fix your friend’s leg, she said. This is unbelievable. We’ve never seen or heard anything like this before. His bones have solidified, like the bones of a dead person. One of the doctors here thinks that maybe your friend was dead and he was brought back to life. Is that possible?

I told Doctor Parla that Felix was never dead and that he was always alive. Anyway, we had a talk about the physical make-up of her people and the physical make-up of our people and we were able to sort things out.

It seems that these aliens have rubber-like bodies. Their bones, skin and internal organs, everything is like rubber. All their parts can twist, turn and bend but not break.

Doctor Parla told me that she would have an answer for me within a couple of hours about whether or not our people could come and live on her planet. In the meantime, I had to get in touch with my crewmates and have Felix taken back to the ‘Nikola Tesla’ to have his leg put into a cast.

When I got back to Doctor Parla I was surprised by her reply.

I’m afraid your people will not be allowed to come live here. How can we look after them if they have medical problems that we don’t understand? We’re not ready for this. Every medical doctor and surgeon on the planet will have to relearn everything. This will cost too much time and trouble. I’m sorry.

Planet Number Three

When we stopped off at this next planet I decided to visit it alone; Felix was still not

well enough to go down to the surface. After asking around I finally met an official from the planet. Named Stan, I talked with him at his office. Before I could speak, he asked me a strange question.

Your eyes are blinking. Why are your eyes blinking? Have you downloaded the wrong software? You can get the right software to fix that. And you’ll have to get them fixed or you will wear out your eyeballs.

What? What the hell are you talking about? I asked.

I was as mixed-up as he was. We soon talked our way through this confusion.

These aliens were like robots. They had a human consciousness but mechanical parts.

Their ancestors were human