Trappist-1_The Tree of Life Read online

  Trappist-1

  ________________________________________

  Todd Fries

  N26W22214 Glenwood Lane

  Waukesha WI 53186

  [email protected]

  [email protected]

  Twitter @tfries

  ASIN: B073T3N6BD

  Copyright © 2017 by Todd Fries. All rights reserved

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Edition 2017

  Credits:

  Scripture quotations have been taken from the

  Zondervan King James Version Teen Study Bible,

  Revised, Copyright © 2009, by the Zondervan Corporation.

  Used by permission.

  The Physics of Christianity

  Frank J. Tipler

  Copyright © 2007

  Published by Doubleday Publishing Group, New York

  www.doubleday.com

  Cover photo by PEXELS and Pixaby – Royalty Free

  Alone

  Admiral Richard E. Byrd

  Copyright © 1938

  Published by G.P. Putman’s Sons

  All constellation maps are by IAU and Sky & Telescope Magazine

  Roger Sinnot and Rick Fienberg.

  Designed and built by Ghislain Bonneau at gbphotodidactical.ca.

  Fiction

  Any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  INTRODUCTION:

  The Tree of Life, also known to the ancient Hebrews as the Kabbalah, is a map that reveals the divine nature of the created universe, the human soul as well as the spiritual path of man. When a group of scientists and scholars discover this same mystic symbol might also contain a hidden message for mankind; a divine instruction on where and how to establish the first human colony on a distant world, they set out to solve the mystery before time runs out.

  Knowing that Individual letters in the Aramaic and Hebrew language also have a symbolic and mathematical meaning known as the Torah code, they unlock a series of clues that reveal a divine plan to save mankind from certain destruction. The intended destination? A planet circling a star system known as Trappist-1. A red dwarf with 7 rocky worlds and a necessary ingredient for life. Water.

  Incorporating the latest scientific and agricultural theories, they plan the details of seeding life on a distant world so that humans might secure a place in the universe for millennia to come, but will this new planet really be suitable for life? Join their adventure as they fight to reach the Promised Land and to explore their new home for the first time.

  ALSO BY TODD FRIES

  Fiction

  Elias

  My Parents’ Generation and the Year the World Changed

  A Shattering of Innocence

  Apollo 19

  Orion 1

  SM1

  The Backyard

  (Combines Apollo 19, Orion 1 and SM1 into one book)

  Dedicated to free will and the awe

  inspiring journey of man.

  In Nomine Jesu

  REGRET

  THE REPORT

  THE BRIDE

  THE DESERT

  JACOB LOGAN

  SECONDARY MEANINGS

  THE TREE OF LIFE

  JILLIAN GREEN

  THE BREAK

  BOTANY

  THE PARTY

  UPHEAVAL

  THEFT

  CONFUSION

  ASTROPHYSICS

  ALFRED TAYLOR

  SM1

  TIME AND SPACE

  ANGER

  BREACH OF CONTRACT

  EXODUS

  PLANNING

  GEBURAH

  ESCAPE

  HAP WASHINGTON

  PRISON

  THE HOLY-7

  ALONE

  BAPTISM BY FIRE

  CONQUEST

  SILENCE

  BOMBSHELL

  PREDESTINATION

  PAYBACK

  TRAPPIST-1e

  SURVEY

  DISCOVERIES

  OTHER BOOKS BY TODD FRIES

  REGRET

  It was 1979. He remembered it like it was yesterday. Excavating on the southwestern slope of the Hinnom Valley in Jerusalem, the “Shoulder of Hinnom” contained tombs dating back to the Davidic dynasty and as he slowly broke the seal of an ancient burial repository, he could smell the musty scent of time rushing out to meet him. Peering inside with the help of a small flashlight, the beam illuminated hundreds of burial gifts including pottery, silver jewelry, arrowheads, bone, ivory and alabaster vessels.

  After enlarging the opening, he squeezed through the hole and found himself standing in a small cave that dated to the seventh century BC. It was strange to see such riches. This man died in the aftermath of the Babylonian destruction of the city, so he must have been a person of wealth and power. As he surveyed his surroundings, he saw beads and rare coins, but among the silver items, he spied a rolled-up amulet bearing the tetragrammaton, the name of God, YHWH.

  His hands trembled as he bent down to examine it. The scripture passage on the amulet was from the Aaronic or priestly blessing found in Numbers 6:24-25. The owner must have worn it in life and those who buried him must have believed it should accompany him in death. In the end it would prove to be the oldest extra-biblical evidence for the name of God recovered in the city, but who could have known the hidden meaning within that name would ultimately send him to another world.

  Nickolas tossed and turned in his bed. It had been several months since his arrival at Area 51 and while he appreciated the warmth and hospitality of General Reynolds and all the “lifer’s” at the base, he still longed to be that archaeologist of old. Exploring the mysteries of ancient cultures and resurrecting people who lived and breathed thousands of years ago. It was all he could do to look out upon that vast desert surrounding him and then force himself to ignore a landscape which beckoned him to hike its rolling hills, picking at bits of rock and gravel where scraps of humanity were most certainly hidden.

  But there was a great gulf between him and those layers of earth. It was in the form on an electronic fence. A barrier of sensors and cameras that littered the ground with impunity and anything attempting to cross that minefield was discovered and collected, like the samples he longed to reveal under its blanket of dust. For almost anywhere he looked, there was evidence of man’s past just waiting to be found. Archaeology wasn’t just about major finds like “King Tuts Tomb”, but about points of time as specific as a few minutes in the life of some person who was born, lived and died, thousands of years ago.

  As an archaeologist, he understood his own great strength came from being able to visualize the activity of some ancient human by studying the remnants of life. When he looked at a spear-point and rolled it in his hands, he appreciated that someone took the time to carefully craft it into a weapon of choice. He could picture a man skillfully striking the stone as he rapidly fashioned the blade, creating an edge that was sharper than the best razors of today. And when complete, he held it up in approval, knowing this was an instrument of survival in a harsh and unforgiving world.

  The arrowhead was bone dry now, but how many times had it been wet with blood after a long and arduous chase, taking the man into the open places, sniffing out a trail of blood, spattered across the ground like crumbs. It was only through the death of some animal that he was able to secure life for another day, and as he held up that carcass for all to see, he felt a sense of pride, knowing his efforts had been rewarded.

  Perhaps this man passed this lucky tip from son to son until one day their prey escaped, taking the blade with it until it died on some unknown hilltop. And then, when wind and weather had reduced the body to bones and dust, the spear-tip settled onto the dir
t, where it lay undiscovered for thousands of years until some archaeologist picked it up, just as he did several days ago.

  In his own mind, as he explored each detail of the obsidian artifact, he considered that someone once handled and cared for this object and using his imagination, made contact with this kindred spirit of so many years ago. He visualized the dark hair, the dark beard, the naked chest and free flowing kilt that allowed for maximum flexibility and movement. This was an athlete of unprecedented power and strength who could draw aim on the tiniest of targets, making him the true predator of the natural world.

  And from this one stone, a miniature empire was built, no larger than the distance a man could walk in a single day. Everything before him was his for the taking and using his God given intellect, he mastered his world and secured dominion over its borders. This ancient human was the king of all he could see, and for him this valley was the extent of his entire kingdom. Anything beyond his limited range of mobility was a frightening and dangerous mystery. To explore any further was to risk life and limb and for the moment, this space served him and his family well.

  Eventually he would conquer the unknown, but the dark spaces would only be revealed after his family grew into a tribe and then; when the land was no longer able to support their developing population, they branched out, seeking the next hill, the next valley and all that lay beyond. With each new discovery, their fear melted away until they became like nomads, moving from place to place as they maximized their resources, never stopping; never slowing down.

  One day, perhaps due to internal strife or dwindling resources, a portion of their tribe broke off and formed their own group and in doing so, unknowingly secured themselves from future disasters. Disasters that might strike the entire population at one time. Unknowingly, it was through these actions that real growth occurred and as he contemplated this single spear point, he understood how important this tiny stone was in the grand scheme of creation.

  Nickolas opened his eyes again and scanned the vast wilderness before him and being unable to search out its secrets, he rose from his bed and considered his surroundings. This is where he’d spend the rest of his natural life. A prisoner in a gilded cage, separated from everyone and everything he’d ever known, and his only crime was being part of a covert mission to the Moon that ended with a nuclear detonation.

  It wasn’t actually his first visit to the Moon. The first time was in 1975 on Apollo 19. As a young military pilot in the old U.S.S.R., he’d been ordered to join the Americans on an expedition of extreme importance. As a trained archaeologist, he was the only one in the world who was also an experienced cosmonaut and given the time constraints, the two nations conspired to investigate a strange structure on the lunar surface that wasn’t a natural formation.

  When he first saw the photos, he was skeptical. They were grainy images taken by one of his country’s early probes, but when he saw the high definition photos taken by the Apollo missions, there was no doubt as to the nature of the construction. It was definitely of intelligent design and not a coincidence of nature. The sharp edges and gentle curves reflected the sunlight in ways that could only be designed by intelligent beings, capable of forming complex shapes and patterns of unimaginable beauty.

  At the time, it was all he could do to keep his hands from trembling. To witness intelligence beyond this world was almost too much to process and the agony of waiting months for training and preparation was an impossible task, but a necessary one. A trip to the Moon wasn’t simple or safe and with the Apollo missions winding down, it would take the skills of two countries to send a team back to that lonely outpost in space.

  The timing was right for both nations to mount one final mission and using the remaining Apollo components, combined with a Soviet booster, they explored a place named Stellae Mysterium, where he came face to face with one of the most compelling structures ever documented. This was like nothing he’d seen before and by the time the survey was complete, a whole new field of science was born. Alien archaeology.

  Nickolas paused and then continued to make his bed, straightening the sheets and re-folding the blankets. He still performed the task like he was a new recruit in Russia. It was a routine he never forgot, but there were many things he couldn’t forget, like the face of the Soviet cosmonaut he killed on the Moon.

  He never understood why his own government would send a man to circumvent an already existing operation, but that Soviet pilot put them all in danger, and when the man tried to remove some of the artifacts by force, a physical battle ensued. It was bad enough he landed on the lunar surface with a gun, but in the struggles that followed, they stressed their suits to the limit and any further efforts might have resulted in a fatal breach.

  Tucking in the last corner, he closed his eyes, picturing the scene in his mind. Once he was able to gain control of the gun, he thought it was over. The cosmonaut should have accepted defeat, but instead he tried to board their LM in the hope of taking it hostage. Being he had the gun, he couldn’t allow that to happen and in an instant of self-preservation, he pulled the trigger. Due to his own actions, a man died. He tried to erase the image from his mind. The enemy pilot was in a panic; his helmet venting precious oxygen to space and all he could do was watch as the life drained from his countryman. It was almost more than he could bear, the gaping jaw, the terrified stare and the moisture from his sweaty face, boiling in the vacuum of space.

  When he returned from the first trip, he handed over all his notes, photos and artifacts and continued on with his career for another 40 years. It was soon after that he discovered that amulet in Jerusalem. By keeping himself busy, he was able to forget about those days, but every so often he would look up at the Moon and contemplate his choices. Over the years he began to heal, his emotions settling into a degree of acceptance until the agency reached out to him one last time. At first, he was hesitant, but when they revealed classified information about his first mission, he knew they were legitimate envoys and returned with them to the Cape.

  During his first debriefing, he was shocked to find that due to a cosmic cold-war, the Soviets and Americans agreed to halt all manned missions to the Moon for a period of 50 years. This meant that nothing had been done with the artifacts and decades of opportunity had been lost. After that first expedition, he was never allowed to see the artifacts again and once he returned to civilian life, nobody contacted him or asked for his advice.

  It wasn’t until national security concerns demanded an immediate response did they bother to talk to him at all. Some Chinese hacker had broken into their secured mainframe and stole all the sensitive data regarding Stellae Mysterium, and now they found themselves in a race to get back to the Moon. The Chinese were now involved in salvage operations, designed to take possession of the site and the US couldn’t allow that to happen. He was asked to return to Stellae Mysterium for a second time and to finish the work started 40 years ago, all as part of a mission designated as Orion 1.

  Being he had the most experience, he was asked to go as part of a scientific team of researchers. They landed successfully, but soon discovered that China had sent a lunar rover to investigate the excavation. Despite the Chinese intrusion, they discovered more rooms, including a reactor room and a main control room. They also deciphered a message found 40 years earlier, written on the wall of the King’s chamber. In the end, it was determined that this structure at Stellae Mysterium (SM1) was actually a flight worthy spacecraft; an interstellar vessel of unprecedented design, made of materials unknown to man, but this information came too late to save one man.

  When the Chinese discovered their presence, they were powerless to do anything about it, being they only had a small rover and no manned presence, so in an effort to apply pressure on the US, all hell broke loose in the South China Sea and to make matters worse, China launched a kinetic kill vehicle into space with the intention of destroying a ring of satellites in geo-synchronous orbit around the Earth.

  Given the
volatile situation back home, his commander, Major Brooks, was given orders to destroy the site. If they couldn’t have it, the Chinese couldn’t have it, and it was his job to detonate a nuclear device, secretly hidden in a power supply. When Nickolas found it, he asked his colleague “Jin Lei” to secretly deactivate the bomb. He couldn’t allow this magical structure to be destroyed, but saving it came at a price. For in the end, it was only through the total destruction of SM1 that the Chinese broke off their attack and destroyed their missile, but it wasn’t what it appeared. The explosion designed to destroy all traces of SM1, only destroyed one thing. Jin Lei.

  The sad truth? The only casualty of that mission was a young MIT scientist named Jin. He was a chemist and a metallurgist, who only wanted to solve the mystery of the unique material used to build the space craft, but instead, he was thrust into a situation that ended with him tripping the warhead himself.

  While the little rover did find a molten sheet of glass in the bottom of a nuclear crater, the Chinese didn’t know the expedition had been able to escape with both the lunar lander and SM1 before detonating the explosive. Since they were unaware that SM1 was flight capable, they assumed the structure had been consumed in the furnace of nuclear fission. By fooling the Chinese into thinking the alien structure was destroyed, they were able to stop a war that may have killed billions.

  Nickolas shook his head as he remembered telling Jin to disable the circuit board, but the plan backfired. When they finally understood the consequences of what they did, they were left with no other option than to detonate the device manually. Since there were now two ships to fly, he was needed to pilot SM1 and the Major was needed to fly their lunar lander into orbit. This left Jin and Hannah with the unenviable task of deciding who would sacrifice their life to save almost 7 billion people on Earth. In the end Jin volunteered, but he consoled himself with the hope that by placing one of the alien artifacts next to the bomb, the heat of the blast might separate the elements, allowing the Major to measure the isotopes released during the explosion, and it worked.