Messages from the Deep (9 page)

“I have to admit that technology does have
its benefits and, if it will help to make us parents, let’s start
the count-down. In the meantime, how about trying the usual way,
just in case that may still work?” says Alex, rowing the boat
straight for a small beach with some shady bushes.

The eggs finally arrive and two are
fertilised in vitro and implanted in utero. Zeus later tells
Mariada that, when he introduced the sperm, after a few seconds two
of the ova gave off tiny sparks as they were fertilised. It was
these two that he selected.

A few weeks later, Mariada and Alex are
swimming in the little bay. Mariada has developed a close
friendship with the dolphin that greeted her first after their
arrival. She has named her Corky as she loves to stand upright in
the water, bobbing up and down like a cork as she talks excitedly.
Just then, as though she knows they are talking about her, Corky
appears out of the blue. Mariada has not told her or, in fact,
anybody else, of the implantation as she fears it may not work.
Corky suddenly becomes very quiet, so Mariada comes closer.

“What’s up, Corky? Shark got your
tongue?”

“You’re pregnant, Ada. Do you know?”

“I have been hoping, but how do you know,
Corky?”

“I’m not deaf, you know. Anybody with sonar
could hear and see that. But maybe something you don’t know is that
you’re expecting twins. At your age. Just when I thought I was
starting to understand you humans.”

Eight months later, Mariada gives birth in
the shallow, warm water of the little bay, ably assisted by the
doctor and Corky as midwife. The babies, a girl and a boy, are the
first people to be born on another planet.

A few months later, as they sit on the beach
with their babies, Mariada feels as though her grandparents are
with them. She sees her grandmother at nearly 98 years old, a
matter of weeks before she died, but radiating so much positive
spiritual energy that she was already almost not of this Earth, and
her grandfather at 99 years, asking her if she had seen gran
because he had seen her nearby, even though she had died a year
before, and then he also died.

And now her parents are the same age, and she
realises that she has done all that she ever hoped to do.

A pod of dolphins swims up to them, showing
great excitement, and saying that they will have visitors very
soon. They notice a bright, pulsating light coming straight down
out of the sky, materialising as a space ship about as big as an
ocean liner. Aliens alight and greet them warmly and
peacefully…

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

1. HOW DID THE HUMAN CHARACTERS DEVELOP
?

Mariada de Villiers’ background and
application for the ‘Life on Mars’ mission is clearly based on
Adriana and ‘Mars One’, for which she gave permission. Adriana’s
great grandmother was a de Villiers. Her grandparents did live
until almost 100 years old. But everything else from the present
(2016) onwards is obviously fictitious.

Alexander Zhivago’s background is partly
based on a variety of people, and so his initials go from A to Z.
But my inspiration for the character came from Alejandra Vargas,
hence the similar name and research interests. I have been inspired
by her dedication to believe that it may not be long before we can
communicate with cetaceans.

Noriko, one of the Martians, is the name of
Adriana’s friend in Japan. Konichiwa!

Aziz is the name of a man who trusted and
trained me during the anti-apartheid years in London. Viva!

2. WHAT INSPIRED SOME OF THE INCIDENTS?

Adriana has generously passed on her
knowledge of Mars and space travel to many people, and there are a
few references to this in the story. It was also easy to imagine
Adriana as Mariada on Mars and beyond.

On reading about dolphins, I was amazed by
the knowledge of the ancient Greeks and Romans, like Aristotle and
Ovid, about them; about their evolution on land and in the sea,
their intelligence, the belief they are the equals of humans in
law, and their love of music. Ovid inspired me to put dolphins on
Earth 2, like Jupiter did.

The incident recalled by Alex when he nearly
drowned at Keurboomstrand is based mainly on Adriana having had a
close shave there, but fortunately not the near death experience
described.

The dream of being chased by a lion was my
own, but the advice given was not by my dad but by me to children
when they tell me about similar dreams. Just hearing that advice
seems to help, as I reserve judgement on whether one can actually
script one’s dreams. (“Dear brain, Tonight I want one lion chase
dream, with full confrontation, but no sticky ending, please.”)

3. WHAT ARE THE MAIN THEMES OF THE STORY
?

I was inspired by a short film I saw in the
early 70s, where the viewer goes through a mosquito into the human
body, down to the smallest cell, and then back out to the skin and
into outer space, through the Solar System and the Milky Way to the
furthest galaxies, and then back again. It seemed to show the
immense complexity of the inner journey of deep microbiology and
the beginning of life, and the outer journey to deep space and the
origin of life in the Big Bang. The link between these inner and
outer worlds was a smooth continuum, showing that we are an
integral part of the universe. Within you and without you, we are
one.

That is why the first two Parts refer to
‘Going Out - Mars’ and ‘Coming In - Cetaceans’.

While the plot covers space exploration and
research into cetacean languages , and there are various themes
related to these pursuits, the main theme is environmentalism and
the need for humans to live harmoniously with nature and each
other, or face extinction. The search for alternative planets to
live on seems fuelled by this fear, but also by our hunger to
explore and grow, as shown by Mariada and Alex.

Similar themes relate to mining and
technology and whether we are simply going to do the same to other
planets as we have done to Earth, including largely to disregard
other species.

4. WHAT ARE OTHER THEMES AND REFERENCES
?

Two of the literary and musical references
are to a door opening. One of Adriana’s early sentences, at 18
months, was for us to “open the door” as she did not want to sleep.
She has always wanted to open doors of perception, experience and
opportunity, even if it may seem ‘impossible’.

There are references to voyages at sea or in
space, of no return or drowning.

Fear of, exploitation of and communication
with animals are constant themes.

The reference to ‘Lord of the Flies’ and
‘Clockwork Orange’ is a reminder of how savage humans can be.

The expression ‘behaving like an animal’ is
ironic since it is extremely rare, I understand, for an animal to
kill an animal or human out of some obscure malice or greed or for
‘fun’, as we humans do. We should rather admit and rectify our
unacceptable behaviours, or be censured by law.

5. MUCH OF THE STORY SEEMS LIKE A FILM.
WHY?

Considering that the ‘Mars One’ mission seems
largely based on funding through a Reality-TV programme, I saw much
of the ‘Life on Mars’ and ‘Life on Earth 2’ missions through a TV
camera lens, because that seems the main way the public will see it
in future. I would watch a programme like them, and I seldom watch
TV. ‘Survivor’ would seem like an image on the wall of the cave,
because this would be the real thing.

I hope a local film producer will film it
entirely here in South Africa, with South African actors, from the
Garden Route on the Southern coast around Knysna and Plettenberg
Bay, to Cape Town, to the Richtersveld in the Northern Cape,
something like the Saharan or Martian landscape, to Hole in the
Wall on the Wild Coast for the Obstacle course selections, to Sani
Pass and the top of the Amphitheatre in the Drakensberg in July,
for a touch of Antarctica, the Himalayas or Mars, to Kosi Bay near
the border with Mozambique, for Earth 2. What a wonderful invention
are the fish-traps in the Kosi estuary, made entirely from local
natural resources and able to supply many local people with a
constant supply of fish. Will future astronauts be able to make
something like this? Actors could pretend they can for the
film.

I’m not sure how the director will get whales
and dolphins to co-operate, certainly not in a dolphinarium
anywhere. I suppose technology with special effects will be
needed.

I also wonder what the prospect of doing the
story as an eComic would be, to condense it into about 25 pages of
pictures with dialogue. Loads of work for a graphic designer and
script-writer, but would there be reasonable reward?

6. WHY DID YOU WRITE THIS STORY?

I was excited by a lot of new info on space
travel and cetacean communication. When the ideas of linking some
characters and making a story came to mind, I just started writing.
Then the characters came more to life and the dialogues started in
my mind. That was fun for a while, as I got quite ‘high’ on the
power it gave me to create a quasi-real person. More ethical issues
than I had considered also started to arise, and I have probably
omitted or not fully ‘unpacked’ a whole lot more.

But when the story reached its present form
of a short novel or novella of about 20 000 words, it felt
finished. What the aliens may do and say, and what the future is
for the twins and the rest of humanity on the two Earths, is
another story, possibly.

I hope it helps to get Adriana to take that
step onto Mars, and back again onto Earth, and then…who knows?

I also hope it helps to improve Maths and
Science at schools, and Geography, History, English, Life Skills,
Swimming and Emotional Intelligence!

Talking of taking steps, here is a thought
from Taj Mahal’s ‘Take a Giant Step’:

‘Remember the feeling as a child,

When you woke up and morning smiled,

It’s time you felt like that again.

There is just no percentage in remembering
the past,

It’s time you learn to live again and love at
last.

Come with me, leave your yesterdays
behind,

And take a giant step outside your mind.’

Peace and love.

Theo.

I would love to hear from readers. Contact me
at:
[email protected]