While Joe’s efforts to wheedle more information out of Harlie about the Watchers failed, he had more success with the proposed destination.
“Joe, I am allowed to show you an image of the planet.”
A white wall instantly displayed a planet against a black background. After a few seconds, the orb rotated to show the entire surface, and superimposed lines indicated the equator. Resolution was sharp, though no fine details were discernible. In the first view, major land masses covered 40-50 percent of the surface, with a large continent in the northern hemisphere, three smaller in the southern, and islands were scattered around the larger masses. However, once the planet rotated, Joe could see the opposite side was devoid of land except for scattered islands. Ice and snow extended farther toward the equator than on Earth, and he couldn’t see if the white covered land or water.
When the viewed returned to the planet half with most land, and stopped, Joe could see mountain ranges and the largest rivers and lakes. The land was shades of brown and a darker green than on Earth. Cloud cover was similar to that shown on satellite views of Earth, and several low-pressure whorls suggested the planet’s version of hurricanes.
There was no sign of human artifacts. Then again, would he have seen anything on Earth from space before megacities arose? He remembered the astronauts said the only single structure they could identify was the Great Wall. Wait . . . were there some pinpricks of light just inside the night portion? Several of them on the coast near the equator. Cities?
While Joseph studied the image, Harlie droned a commentary.
“There are significant human populations on all the major land masses and larger islands. The social and political systems are unknown at present, other than there seem to be a variety. The level of technology resembles Earth at approximately the years 1650 to 1750.”
Joe flashed on images of Stone Age humans, tribal societies, the Roman Empire, medieval Europe, Mongol hordes, and other times and places on Earth he wouldn’t have wanted to find himself. However, by around 1700 there were also reasonable civilizations.
His positive attitude dissipated when he remembered that in 1700 on Earth, plenty of Stone Age and tribal places existed, along with more advanced cultures in which he wouldn’t have lasted long.
“Where would you leave me on this planet? Is there any way for me to know more about the local conditions and have a choice where I end up?”
“No to both of your questions,” said Harlie. “However, I am allowed to give you basic information about the planet itself. The planet is cooler than Earth, has a 329-day year, a day equivalent to 23 hours, and gravity 1.18 times Earth’s, due to the planet’s larger diameter and mass.”
Making a rough calculation, Joe figured a year on this planet would be almost nine-tenths of an Earth year, 20 years equivalent to nearly 18 on Earth, and so on. More disturbing was gravity. His 175 pounds on Earth would translate into 206 on this planet.
“It’s hard enough that I’ll be dumped into a foreign society where I’ll know absolutely nothing, not even languages, but to make matters worse, I’ll weigh more and be more physically stressed. I admit to not being much of an athletic specimen, but this’ll decrease my chances of survival.”
“Do not be concerned. We made minor adjustments to your body to account for the increased mass.”
“Adjustments?” Joe frowned. “What kind of ‘minor’ adjustments?”
“We altered your physiology by increasing the efficiency of your cells’ energy-producing organelles.”
“Energy organelles? You mean the mitochondria?”
“Yes, the mitochondria. The increase in efficiency should result in more muscle mass and faster reflexes.”
“I’m not sure I’m reassured by the ‘should’ part. How does it work?”
“Basic Earth physiology is relatively simple, and it only required replacing a few genes.”
“You mean, like, actually replacing genes? Everywhere?”
“In most of your cells. Not every cell had the relevant genes replaced, but enough of them to have the same effect as a total replacement. The nuclear genome was too complex to modify in the short time available. Fortunately, the smaller DNA content of your energy-producing sub-cellular organelles was easier to change.”
Joe didn’t like the sound of this. Humans had nowhere near this technology, so how confident should he be that some alien race could do it in such a short time?
Which brought forth another question. “Say, just how long has it been since you crashed into my airliner?”
“Two of your years,” Harlie replied.
“Jesus! Two years!”
“Yes. It took time to fully analyze your biochemistry, physiology, and genome structure. Since you were our first physical specimen of Earth biology, the repairs to your injuries were carried out with caution. The actual gene replacement took only a few hours.”
Two years. Two years! Everyone he knew believed he’d been dead for two whole years. As far as they were concerned, time had passed and they’d moved on without him. Julie? Where was she? What about the baby? Was there even a baby?
One shock after another, and Joe stayed surprised at how he continued to accept everything with relative equanimity. But after the previous revelations, what were a few more? It must be the drugs or whatever they’re doing to me that keeps me semi-sane.
“All right, so let’s say I’ll be strong enough to compensate for the increased gravity. What about diseases to which my immune system won’t have any resistance?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “And what about me giving them diseases? I may have latent viruses and bacteria that will find a virgin field—a whole population without resistance. I could accidently kill most of the people on the planet!” Joe thought about the devastation of the American Indians by diseases brought in by the first Europeans.
“That is not a problem. As part of repairing your body, it was necessary to preserve your parts from external contamination. Microscopic elements were designed for your basic physiology and biochemistry to exclude foreign entities and were injected into you. You will neither transmit any microorganisms to other humans nor be subject to external microorganisms.”
Two simultaneous concerns intertwined in Joe’s mind. He wasn’t sure if he wanted more details of his “parts” that they had to preserve, because they invoked scenes from grotesque movies. Then there were these “elements” they’d put into him.
“Are these like the predicted nanomachines—microscopic machines that could be put into a person to remove arterial plaques?”
“I know nothing of your species’ predictions. Such elements, or nanomachines, as you call them, are a normal step in technological development.”
“What exactly do these elements do?”
“They recognize and destroy anything not belonging to your body. This includes bacteria, viruses, fungi, or any other organism types, as well as any cells of your body that escape the normal limits on proliferation. The only negative aspect is that you cannot receive transplants from other humans or animals.”
“So,” Joe said cautiously, “if I understand correctly, I will not get sick, will not get cancer, but cannot have organ transplants?”
“Correct.”
Well, he thought, it wasn’t like there would be any heart transplants with the level of medical technology on the planet, so it was a pretty good trade-off. No illness and no cancer. Joe hated to admit it, but given what had happened, they seemed to be making a genuine effort to do right by him, apart from his never seeing Earth again.