Flash Meridian bobbed along for a while at the surface of the ocean. He watched the antics of the whales while he gathered his thoughts.  Whales had become significant in his life lately, beginning with the ones that burst out of Olo’s crust, and then in the mysterious caves of the ice age planet. Now here he was again, surrounded by them.

There was something else here that Flash was enjoying. The sunlight was intense, and he longed to open the windows and breathe the warm fresh air.  The waves rolled over the ship in foaming crests and gentle swells, so he absorbed the rays through the glass. The rocking motion of the ship was relaxing, and his mind wandered off. 

His priority remained finding plant material that could be disassembled and used to replenish the table of elements.

His computer scanned the sea floor. He was looking for shallow water where photosynthesis could occur.

The pod of whales moved on and the sea became calm.

 

When an alarm beeped, he couldn’t be sure whether it had awakened him from sleep or not.  It alerted him to a smooth sea floor below, and Flash dove again beneath the water.

  A sand bar stretched as far as he could see, and he glided along above its barren expanse.

  The water refracted the light, projecting it in ribbons across the sand and through the cockpit.

Then something else came into view. It was the mer creature from the spires, though Flash did not recognize him at first. He looked like a green cloud. As he came closer, he resembled a submerged island, and finally, someone carrying a large quantity of foliage toward him.

He stopped in front of the TNI2, and held the swaying bundle of seaweed out before him like an offering.

Flash was grateful and remotely opened the deck of the rear storage compartment.  The creature placed the stalks into the compartment and swam up to Flash’s window. Flash and the sea person were only inches from each other, and once again looked into one others’ eyes.

How could Flash say thank you?  He longed to communicate, but all he could think to do was to place his palm against the glass. The creature did the same, placing his palm against Flash’s, separated by a pane of invisible glass.  His fingers were much longer than Flash’s, and the suction cups at his fingertips adhered to the window.

  “Thank you,” he said. The creature only stared back with huge, unblinking eyes.

That he understood the request at all was so amazing that Flash could only believe that he understood this message as well.

When the cups eventually released and the creature swam away again, Flash pointed the ship upward and accelerated.

The ship burst out of the sea and rose into the air, climbing higher and higher.

By the time he docked the pod onto the mother ship, most of the seaweed had been digested and incorporated into the life support system. The table of elements was replenished with pure separated molecules of every kind known to man. 

65 Spires

Waves of multi-colored light streamed through the windows of the ship.

Flash could make out something that looked like a peak of coral reef in the distance, so he dove deeper, heading toward it.

The purple spires loomed and Flash searched for seaweed. The submerged mountain peak was littered with sea stars.

The forms were reminiscent of Olo’s towering features. They were beautiful, but he could see no signs of plant life.

As Flash scrutinized the watery terrain, something impacted his ship, violently jostling it. A long appendage reached across the window, attaching itself with suction cups. He glanced around and surmised that a huge cephalopod had the TNI2 in its grasp.

He could not propel the ship out of its grip.

How long might it hold him before it realized the ship was inedible? Then it occurred to Flash that octopi feed on crabs, clams and snails. In other words, they are adept at breaking through hard shells to get at the meat inside. A creature of this size might be able to breach the fuselage of the ship with its enormous beak, so he decided to take action. He simply activated the force field, stunning the animal. It recoiled, releasing the ship, and slunk away, camouflaging itself within the reef to recover.

“Sorry about that,” Flash said softly, mindful of the fact that he was a guest here.

He continued on his quest for large seaweeds, but kept watch on the area for other predators that could pose a threat.

Something was moving among the tall formations, not wanting to be seen. He couldn’t tell exactly what it was. It was about the size of a porpoise or other small whale, but more fishlike.

He rounded a pillar, following it.

The creature he saw there was humanoid from mid-torso up, with a few obvious differences. Its skin was green, and there was definitely something fishy about his face… his large unblinking eyes, ear flaps on the sides of his head and gills on his neck. His fingertips widened into suction cups like a tree frog. From the waist down, it looked like a fish.

Its huge round eyes gave it an expression of perpetual surprise. Flash and the creature locked eyes, and Flash wished he could communicate with it.

It seemed as curious about Flash as he was about it, and he was glad it did not swim away.

He turned his computer screen toward it, displaying images of seaweed.

The creature looked wide eyed at the monitor and then turned and swam away. Flash watched as it disappeared into the distance, and then ascended from the sea floor. He rose from deep blue into lighter water when his sonar picked up something approaching his ship. It was actually a signal he had seen not too long before. Soon, he was surrounded by a pod of whales that rose with him to the surface.

64 Rainbow

Flash examined the earthenware vessel. It was simple, functional and beautiful.  It was glazed with natural minerals and appeared to be fired at an extremely high temperature.  This was a perfectly functional container. Part of it’s beauty came from imperfections in the glaze. Solidified drips were captured permanently by fire, and in one spot, sharp edges were left by a bubble that exploded in the intense heat. 

The object raised more questions than answers for Flash.

Who had made this?  And when?  How long had it been encapsulated in the ancient ice, and how did it get there?  Was anyone left from the race that created it?

It was hard for Flash to picture a kiln, burning red hot on that frozen planet. There were trees for fuel. He held the evidence in his hand, and reveled in the mystery. 

The depletion of elements due to the gift of lettuce was a serious issue, and needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.  Flash no longer had the luxury of a joyride through space, but desperately needed to find a planet with plant life. 

The table of elements had been designed as a closed system, where nothing left, but was continuously complete and rearranged. Restoring balance was critical for his survival. 

He set a course for another blue sphere orbiting a star ahead of him, and began scanning it for signs of life. It was surrounded by a delicate bubble of atmosphere, and below that, a planet-wide ocean of salt water. 

Finally, his spacecraft plunged into the sea. A great splash of shining water burst in the air, and the TNI2 was immersed in the bubbling brine. 

The bubbles quickly rose back to the surface and the view cleared. Shafts of dancing light pierced the water, and Flash found himself floating through a liquid rainbow. 

63 Cup

As the hatch opened, the sound of the clicking K. D. head welcomed Flash back to the mother ship.  He gathered his cold weather gear from the TNI2, and grasped the handle of the bucket which he had almost forgotten about since he left the cave.

Emblazoned across the screen, Flash could see the brilliant blue and white planet he had just left.

 

This seemingly hostile place had held surprises and insights that Flash could scarcely have imagined.  While he had felt that he had chosen this place, he was now convinced that it had chosen him. 

He dropped his outerwear to the cockpit deck and turned his attention to the bucket.  Only a small amount of water remained, and Flash lifted the stone into the light.  This was no ordinary rock. It had been hollowed out to form a cup or deep bowl. Looking at it, Flash could see that this had been intentionally formed.

What unexplored mysteries had that planet held?  Intelligent life. Kindness. Compassion.  Mystery.

Flash looked out at the vast expanse of space.  If this tiny blue speck could contain so much significance, then an infinite universe was too much to bear. 

He was faced, as never before, with the reality that he was nothing more than a grain of sand on an unending beach.  Rather than making him feel insignificant, Flash celebrated being a part of something so beautiful.

He was the lucky one, having been given the opportunity to travel outside of his own solar system to see what lay beyond.

The infinite blackness felt both unfathomable and intimate at the same time, and Flash realized that wherever he went, he would be home.

The cup he held in his hand was symmetrical and smooth. Scratched into the bottom of it were marks that he could not read, an anonymous signature.  It might as well have been Flash’s own name because of the connection he felt with it.

He clasped the cup to his chest, and gazed upon the blue planet’s ice floes and seas from his refuge above.  He loved this place. 

He could not watch as the mother ship broke from it’s gravitational pull, but turned away from the screen still clutching the cup to his heart. 

62 Warm PlanetFlash was relieved to be alive, and thrilled to be able to interact with these ice age mammals.  The bitter wind picked up and his hands and feet were going numb. He knew he could not survive much longer out here. Still, he found it difficult to pull himself away. 

He had always envisioned Earth’s prehistoric ages as violent and barbaric. But perhaps there was more to the story. Of course prey had to be killed for the survival of predators. That was still true, and man had become the most ruthless killer of all.  But Flash had also seen friendship between species.  Cats and dogs curled up in a ball together on couches, and even kindness between cats and birds.  Perhaps those relationships had their roots in a history like this one.  He walked back toward his ship with one hand on the withers of a saber toothed tiger, and the other grasped by the prehensile trunk of a wooly mammoth. 

Upon reaching the TNI2, Flash stooped to say goodbye to his other-worldly companions. He opened the hatch and boarded the ship. The beasts looked on as the door closed. 

The interior of the ship was warm, and Flash leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. He pulled off his boots and gloves, and his hands and feet burned. The pain was excruciating, and all Flash could do was to wait it out. 

Flash awoke to darkness. The control panel glowed softly, filling the cockpit with green light.  The pain had all but subsided.  The entire landscape was enveloped in blackness, so Flash turned on the exterior lights. 

There in the yellow glow, he saw a ring of mammoths forming a circle around him, protecting him as he slept. 

For all the bitter cold, this had proved to be a very warm planet.

 He had slept soundly, shielded from unknown danger by a ring of mammoth hearts.  

The ship lifted off, and Flash gazed down on them, wanting to repay their kindness. 

He called upon the table of elements and ordered a large shipment of lettuce, which dropped from the hatch on the underside of the ship. He would just have to find a green planet where he could replenish the molecules. 

With that, Flash Meridian headed up, up, up until the stars burned brightly, unencumbered by atmosphere.

The homing device drew him directly to the mother ship, and Flash was home. 

During his time away, the ship’s computer had mapped the entire planet and stored the information for eventual transmission back to Earth. 

For Flash, returning home was always the best part of any trip. He had everything he needed right here, but he had begun to feel that even the most inhospitable place could feel like home. 

61 One Of Them

The photographs in this episode were taken by Anne Cervenka of Palmer Alaska. She made the animals as well. Thank you, Anne, for always being such an inspiration to me!

The mammoth stretched its serpentine trunk toward Flash Meridian, and the saber toothed tiger licked his chops and crouched.

What could he do?  He would not be able to outrun them, and so he backed up against a tree trunk and pulled the pelt tighter around his body.  They might see him as one of them. It seemed more likely, however, that they were the ones who had devoured the flesh of the animal whose skin he now wore.  Well, the tiger, anyway. That was not such a pleasant thought. The only thing he felt confident about was that he would not freeze to death.

The mammoth snorted and trumpeted a short echoing blast into the air. 

Flash closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable.

He felt a burst of hot air in his face and turned his head away. His eyes were still closed. 

He became aware of a deep tone. A rumbling humming sound so deep he and the tree he leaned against seemed to vibrate. The sound was so deep he couldn’t be sure if he actually heard it audibly. But he was very aware of it. 

Then he felt a blow to his chest. A punch that was, thankfully, softened by the pelt and his heavy clothing. He opened his eyes. The mammoth poked him again. The tip of its trunk was like a finger. 

For the first time, Flash noticed the scale of the animal.  It must have been a dwarf, about the size of a small cow.  It was shorter than him, and covered with a long protective coat that cascaded in knotted cords to the ground. It’s ivory tusks reached out toward him, curving dramatically. 

Another rumbling sound began. This one was clearly audible. The growling came from the great cat as it approached him. Once again, Flash closed his eyes and prepared for the worst. 

He had never before considered that he would meet his end by the fangs of a saber toothed tiger. What a way to go!  It was a shame that no one would know. 

The growling grew louder, and flash nearly lost his balance when the beast pushed against him. 

He opened his eyes again and saw the huge feline head rub against the black pelt… purring!

Instinctively, he reached out and petted the animal, digging his fingers into the heavy orange and brown coat as though it were an enormous house cat. 

“Hey, boy…” he cooed, afraid that the friendliness might be short-lived.  It paced back and forth, rubbing itself against Flash, who was constantly amazed at the wonderful things he was privileged to see. 

60 HideBy the time Flash made it back to the snow-covered plain, the animals were gone. 

He swooped down low over the area where he had seen them, and was able to follow their tracks toward an area where giant tree trunks protruded through the surface of the drifts. 

Here, he lost their trail, but the colossal trees intrigued him. He brought the ship down in a clearing that was more or less protected from the wind. 

The surface was firm, but Flash moved with caution on what could be unstable terrain.  He approached one of the trees but then stopped dead in his tracks.  It appeared that he was not alone. 

He drew his ray gun and pointed it at a large hairy animal laying in a hollow at the base of another tree.  Other than the wind blowing its shaggy black coat, the animal did not stir. 

Flash stood frozen in his tracks and barely breathed. Whatever this creature was, he did not want to startle it. But it was too cold to stand motionless for long.  With his ray gun aimed in self defense, he hollered.  Nothing happened. 

He threw a snowball at it. Still no response. Could it be hibernating?  

A barren branch jutted out above where the creature lay. Flash blasted the base of the branch which fell directly onto the animal. Still, it remained motionless, and Flash made a wide circle around it.  This was no living thing. He approached it and prodded it with part of the branch. It was a wooly black hide, and Flash stretched it out on the snow. It had been picked clean. 

The hide could come in useful. Flash gathered it up and headed back toward the TNI2. The pelt was heavy, and the wind was bitter, so Flash wrapped the hide around himself, and followed his tracks back to the ship. He heard something, and raised his gaze. A mammoth and a saber toothed tiger stood between him and his craft.

Wooly mammoths had a number of adaptations to the cold, most famously the thick layer of shaggy hair, up to 1 meter in length, with a fine underwool, for which the wooly mammoth is named.

59 The Hunt

Flash raised his binoculars to his eyes to determine exactly what was out there.  At first glance, it looked like a boulder, but it was moving. When he brought the image into focus, he could hardly believe what he saw. 

Moving slowly across the ice floe, waving its trunk in the air, Flash saw a wooly mammoth.  If this planet truly was like Earth, it was like Earth 10,000 to 150,000 years ago.  If natural selection had produced the specimen that stood before him, Flash wondered what other life forms he might encounter here. 

Even as this thought crossed his mind, he saw something else moving in contrast to the expanse of white. The second form moved faster than the first, and seemed to be stalking it.  It fell beyond the rise of a drift before Flash could get a good look at it, and so he lowered the glasses and scanned the area.

It reappeared much closer to the pachyderm, and Flash prepared himself to observe an attack.  No person alive had seen an actual living mammoth, and now it seemed unlikely that this one would be alive for long.  Flash pressed the record button on his binoculars in order to capture the events that were about to unfold. 

The saber-toothed tiger, which Flash could see clearly now, was enormous. It was almost the size of the mammoth, which Flash now surmised to be a calf.  How could this be?  The creature had enormous, curving tusks. 

The great cat leapt into the air and came down on its prey.  Flash watched in fascinated horror, observing the primal laws of nature play out before him. 

No blood stained the pristine landscape. As He watched, the ancient elephant rose and charged the tiger. As the two circled each other, Flash Meridian realized, among paw and trunk slaps, head butts and posturing, that these were animals at play.  Their actions were much like those of a basket of puppies. 

At last, the cat sat, panting as the mammoth gently stroked its side with its powerful trunk. 

Flash found it difficult to pull himself away from this scene, but he had no wooly coat to protect him from the frigid temperature. The wind was picking up again, and so he reluctantly turned and went back to his ship. 

He boarded the TNI2, replaying the playful hunt over and over in his mind. And then he had an idea. 

While it was light out, he could survey the area from above. 

In the warmth and safety of the craft, Flash levitated and swung the ship around in the ample underground passageway.

He burst out into the bright light, hovering between sky blue and uninterrupted white. 

He crested the highest peaks, and followed their tapering slopes to the west. Deep chasms split the frozen surface in places, revealing deep blue openings, but most of the vista was smooth white. 

This exhilarating experience stood in stark contrast to the oppressive darkness of the cave the night before.