Creation Rings

Part 4 - Unexpected Call

It had been nearly three full days since the Rings began to shine. The news continued its endless cycle, like a broken record.

Like my colleague Mussa had said, it could be a fungi bloom that required the more exotic elements of the Rings to survive. Regardless, it was not the first time our cave had turned bioluminescent, and it was not the first time someone had tried to con Quamans with some elaborate trick. The Rings had once "cried blood". Turned out to be an elaborate stunt by the Cult of Origin, in efforts to ignite the flame of faith and recruit followers. For an entire week, people had flocked to the Rings from every city, the High Priest of Origin lead large ceremonies at peak tide, exalting our ancestral gods. They believed the Rings to be the spaceship that brought us here, its builders/gods our ancestors and their knowledge lost because we crash-landed here.

The blood was confirmed to be blood, but there was a suspicious amount of anticoagulants in it. By the end of the week, some researchers had permission to climb up to the rings to take a look and found the cause: the blood was contained in three compressed algae boxes that slowly soaked the blood up and began leaking it. Quite brilliant, I thought; the delivery was timed and, given a few weeks, would have been untraceable as the algae would lose cohesion and fall somewhere.

In the end, they had been defeated by their brilliance. The stunt had worked too well, the massive amounts of attention it got accelerated the permissions to climb up there and see what was going on. The Cult denied it all but retreated to the shadows in shame. The city was probably delighted, though, tourism was up for quite a while. In fact, maybe this time it was their doing...

The Rings had always attracted attention and controversy, and it never amounted to anything. So, I still wasn't impressed by the recent developments.

The last day of the weekend came. The aqua-sphere ferry would be waiting for me early first tide. So, I decided to turn my video games off and prepare for bed. Had a warm cup of Dunaliella infusion while I quickly revised some of the points for tomorrow's meetings and went straight into the warm pool that contained my bed.

As I quickly started drifting towards the abyssal blackness of sleep, I was startled by the ringing of my phone.

Caller unknown. "Fantastic," I thought.

"Hello?" I picked up.

"Hello, is this Dr Vatu of the QSA Surface and Space Survival team?" a raspy voice asked from the other side of the phone.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"This is President Walar. I am told you are the closest thing we have to an expert on life in other planets. Is that correct?"

"The President of Qualiak?" I asked incredulously

"The very same. Are you the astronomist?"

"Astrobiologist" I heard someone correct him on the background

"I am an Astrobiologist, yes. And, as far as I know, there are no others interested in that field other than my late mentor. What is this about?"

"What's this about!? I take it you haven't been paying attention to the news then?" he sounded annoyed now.

"The Rings of Creation thing?"

"Is this really the only guy we have for this?" I heard him say over the muffled phone. A long paused ensued, and there was an audible sigh.

"Yes, the Rings thing..."

"Well if its an unknown organism coating the rings then you best talk to my colleague Dr. Mussa. She is the one with expertise in microbiology. I am more multicellular. Complex life if you will."

"Listen" he sighed again "for the sake of urgency, I am going to send you a car to pick you up and someone will update you on the way. How long until you can be ready?"

"Take me where!?"

"THE RINGS!" he screamed. "Really?? This idiot is who QSA recommended?" he continued off the phone "When this is all over remind me to slash their dam funding and apply it to schools as I should have in the first place!"

I was baffled at this guys' short fuse. I had heard he wasn't great and had won the election mostly due to his good looks and his father's money, but this attitude was not helping my confusion. I was ready to start spouting insults when another voice picked up the phone.

"Dr Vatu? Are you still there?" a polite female voice asked.

"Against my better judgment, yes."

"This is Maalam Sade, Secretary of the Qualiak Science Ministry. My apologies on behalf of President Walar, the situation has him under a lot of pressure." She continued in a very calm and polite tone. "There have been some very recent developments that you might not be aware of, and we are in need of your expertise. We would like to bring you to the Ring's Museum, which we are currently using as a center for the coordination of efforts dealing with the Ring's phenomenon. We are trying to put together a task force to deal with the situation and require someone with your knowledge. We could have a car outside your apartment in 15 minutes. There will someone to brief you on the latest developments while you are on your way here. Is that agreeable?"

"Ok..." I muttered still uncertain. "I will get dressed and head down."

"Thank you, Dr. I will see you soon."