A Planet of Isolation- Chapter 2
A sci-fi AU for elsanna week on tumblr. Rated T. No incest, no explicit sexytimes.
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Author's notes:
It has come to my attention that younger fans may not realize that this story is a homage to the 1956 movie, "Forbidden Planet", which was in part based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest".
This iconic movie is a CLASSIC of early science fiction movies. It set up many of the familiar tropes we expect today. Seriously, go look it up on TV TROPES, and Wikipedia. Robbie the Robot, for heaven's sake!
Even 60 years later, it stands up to modern sensibilities. (Except for the sexism, hey, 1956, okay? And the all-white male crew.) The special effects were done by DISNEY. The soundtrack was done by a husband-wife team and is believed to be the first movie soundtrack that is entirely electronically synthesized sounds.
Please, go find it on youTube or netflix or hulu or Amazon video. It's a great movie. You'll love it. This has been a paid genre-savvy announcement.
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"And just WHAT – " Anna pounded her fist onto her desktop as she roared her outrage at her first officer, " – in the name of Zeus did you think you were doing with that girl!?"
Kristoff stood braced in an attitude of attention that would have brought tears of joy to the eyes of his drill instructors back at the Academy. "Begging your pardon, Captain, she's a woman." It was a feeble excuse but it was the best he had.
Anna's glare would have gone right through the shielding Olaf had delivered that morning. "She. Is. Not. A. Woman. She has grown up on this planet with no one except her father, HER FATHER, and is absolutely INNOCENT of what you were trying to introduce her to! She is still a CHILD when it comes to romance or kissing and I had thought you were BETTER than someone who would take advantage of that!" She was breathing heavily and let him stew for a moment, then barked, "Well?"
Kristoff's facade of confidence wavered, his eyes grew wider, then he said, "Permission to assume 'at ease', Skip?" Anna nodded and Kristoff relaxed and rubbed the back of his neck. "You … you're right, I screwed up. I didn't think about that. She's so smart, and clever. When we were chatting in the garden while you were talking to Agdar, she ran rings around me in the conversation. It's like she's got twelve advanced degrees. I guess I let that cloud my judgment."
"Running rings around you in conversation isn't that hard, Kris." Anna snorted, shook her head and sat down. "Sit, you idiot."
"Agdar was right about her needing more development," Anna continued. "Just another reason to get them back to Terra and away from this 'paradise'." Kristoff could hear the quotes.
"Skip, she's off limits, for all of us. I'll make sure the rest of the crew knows that, and knows why. It's too easy to go by her intellect and forget about her growing up in isolation." Kristoff was contrite now.
"Do that. Now, go make sure we're getting the long-range communicator up and running. The sooner I can dump this pile of reindeer dung on HQ the happier I'll be."
"I always meant to ask you, what the hell is a reindeer, Skip?" Kristoff had heard Anna use that expression a lot and never got around to asking about it.
"It's a large, extinct animal from the northern continent of Europe, and much smarter than you are!" She smiled. "Okay, go, and sin no more. Or at least not until you can find someone to match your sexual IQ."
Kristoff stood, snapped off a crisp salute and got out of Anna's office before she could change her mind.
For her part, Anna brooded on the dilemma confronting her. If she had needed a lot of hand-holding, she would never have gone into a career that put her out of contact with superiors for years. On the other hand, this situation was far outside the scope of even her flexibly-worded orders, and there was something going on beneath the surface as well, even if she couldn't put her finger on it. Agdar's behavior could just be a father's inherent protectiveness of his daughter. Or … not.
"Bah!" Anna snorted, got up, grabbed her uniform cap and went out to follow up on the construction.
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The sky was clear tonight, the strange stars of far-from-home twinkling, the pale light of the two small moons not enough to drown them out in glare.
There were dim, reddish lights on the ship, and the guards had night goggles to flip down if the scanners spotted something. The patrols followed their assigned paths, alert for anything that might want to explore the ship. All was quiet and in order.
The next morning Anna was again glaring at crewmembers braced at attention in front of her desk.
"Strong and Grey, last night during your watch this ship was entered and valuable government property was sabotaged. The two of you claim to have been at your posts and awake. Yet this ship was entered, the heavy-duty hatch was raised and latched back, and neither of you saw or heard anything?" Anna tried to control letting her disbelief show. But Strong and Grey had been conscientious, competent crew for the entire trip. This was out of character.
"No, Captain. Nothing." Strong answered for the both of them and Grey nodded.
She focused on the third person standing before her and went on, "And, Youngerford, let me see, you were asleep in your bunk... and you think you had a dream. A dream!"
She fumed for a moment, then growled, "Pending more evidence of dereliction of duty, you are fined one month's pay and loss of VR recreational privileges for one month." Both of them winced. On a year-long voyage, the VR privileges kept boredom from becoming overwhelming.
"Me, too, Captain?" asked Youngerford.
"No, 'me too' will stand extra watches for the next month. I will have less dreaming on this ship! Get out!" Anna barked.
When they were gone, Anna turned to Kristoff, who was standing behind her. "Well? Can the damage be repaired?"
He shrugged. "Most of it. There's one piece of the communicator that we can't fix, however. No spare, and the material is … unique. So, we're out of luck on calling HQ."
Anna thought about it. "A unique material, huh? Maybe our friend Agdar and his pet robot can help out. Grab the gear, we're going to pay them another visit."
It took the Terran groundcar quite a bit longer to travel the ten miles to the Morbius home than the streamlined version Olaf had used. Anna and Kristoff pulled up, got out of the car and approached the house. Olaf was standing in the doorway.
"Good afternoon, gentlebeings. How may I assist you?" He made no move to let them enter.
"We're here to see Doctor Morbius. We have a serious problem and need his help," Anna told Olaf.
"He is working and not to be disturbed."
"Can we wait for him until he's finished? I'm sure he's going to want to know about our problem, since we can't leave until it's fixed," she said, then waited for the robot to process this.
"I will take you to his study to await his return. Follow me." Olaf turned to lead them through the house.
As they walked toward the study, Anna heard sounds coming from the garden. "Kris, go wait for me. I'll join you in a bit." Kristoff just nodded and followed Olaf.
When Anna walked out into the garden, she heard splashing. Following the sound, she realized that her initial impression of a swimming pool had been correct. Elsa was in the water, her hair loose and spread out on the water, only her head and arms visible as she gently swam.
Elsa looked up as Anna brushed through the shrubbery surrounding the little pool. "Good morning," she called cheerfully, apparently over her anger of yesterday.
Anna smiled and said, "Good morning. That certainly looks pleasant."
"Come on in."
"Didn't bring my bathing suit."
"What's a bathing suit?" Elsa asked as she swam toward the shore where Anna was standing.
"OMG, OMG, OMG!" Anna backed away blushing furiously.
"Never mind, I'm coming out." Elsa splashed out of the water. Anna had beaten a hasty retreat and turned her back to the pool.
"You just wait right there," Elsa said. "It'll only take me a second to get dry."
"I'm over here, not looking. Nope, not looking at all." Anna looked at the trees, the house, anywhere except back toward the pool where she could hear … sounds. Sounds that led to imaginings. She blushed even more.
"If that's the way you feel about it." Elsa sounded … hurt. "Don't worry. You're not going have to look at me anymore."
"Wait, what?" Anna was puzzled and almost turned around but caught herself in time.
"You'll see."
"Now wait a minute, Elsa, if you're planning on..." Anna turned when she felt a slap on her shoulder. She whirled, to see Elsa standing there, hands on hips, dressed in a gorgeous creation that was rather more concealing than her previous dresses but fit her shapely form tightly and glistened like … ice. Anna gulped.
Her face in a pout, Elsa said, "I didn't expect to see you today after the way you spoke to me yesterday."
"I'm very sorry about the way I spoke to you yesterday. I was sort of bothered." Anna admitted sheepishly.
"Nothing shows through, does it?" Elsa looked down at her dress. "I had it made especially for you."
"Oh, I thought you weren't expecting me today." Anna chuckled to see Elsa blush.
"I wasn't." She led Anna toward a bench near the pool and sat down, a sad little frown on her face. She patted the bench, and Anna also sat down, as far away as she could.
Elsa said, "I guess there's just something about me personally you don't like."
"You always look just beautiful," Anna assured her.
"Then why don't you kiss me like everybody else does?" Elsa's question was plaintive.
"Everybody? Hasn't your father warned you about strangers?" Anna gasped.
"Well, he says I'm terribly ignorant … " Elsa seemed embarrassed by this admission. " – but I have extensive study in poetry and mathematics, logic, physics, geology, and biology and human sexuality." Blushing, she went on, "Of course, that part's mostly on the theoretical side … so far."
Anna felt a deep sympathy for the girl, no, a woman, even though Elsa had no idea what she was feeling. Growing up alone except for her father, no one to share and play with, not even a mother to explain what her body was going through and how to deal with the feelings she suddenly found welling up in her. Alone on a planet of isolation.
Edging just a bit closer, Anna patted Elsa's hand and tried to speak gently. "Elsa, growing up, maturing, is scary for everyone. For you, alone here, I can't imagine. But … I can't … we can't, we shouldn't be taking advantage of your innocence with kissing."
"But why not? I want to try it!"
"And you should, and that's okay. But … but … it's hard to explain. It would be taking advantage of you."
Elsa drew back and wrapped her arms around herself and sniffled. "I'll never get kissed."
"No, no, you will get kissed, you will. But … give it a little more time, get to know people better. It's a big step and you need to know you can trust someone not to hurt you!" Anna wanted to wrap her arm around Elsa's shoulder but fought down the urge. She settled for a gentle touch on her arm.
Elsa looked at her with those deep blue eyes and said, "I trust you," so softly Anna almost didn't hear it. Anna leaned closer to Elsa …
Anna wondered later what would have happened if they hadn't been interrupted by the crowd of little snogies running and hopping up to them, several of them bouncing up onto Anna's lap and squeaking happily. Elsa laughed and Anna had to join in, relieved to be distracted from … from what she wasn't sure.
"See? They trust you, too!" Elsa giggled and scooped up one of her little creations to snuggle it and kiss its tiny head.
Anna looked at the sun and realized that quite a bit of time had passed, so she gently put the snogies on her lap back on the ground and stood up. "Elsa, we need to speak to your father. But I promise you, you and I will talk about … kissing more, until you know all about it, and you feel you're ready for more than theory. Okay?"
"I can accept that. Thank you, Anna. I know you care, and I know I can trust you. Come on, I'll take you to my father now." Elsa stood and shooed the snogies away and the the two women entered the house.
Elsa led Anna to her father's study, then said, "I'm going to go discuss dinner with Olaf. You'll stay for dinner, won't you?"
"With your father's permission, sure. Go, we'll talk later."
Elsa smiled and gave Anna a little hug, then left.
Kristoff was sitting on the couch outside the closed study door. He had stood when Elsa and Anna walked up, and smirked at Anna when Elsa was gone. "So? That way, huh, Skip?"
"It's not like that, Kris!" It was a feeble protest. Kristoff could tell Anna's heart wasn't in it.
Chuckling, Kris waved her off. "No hard feelings, Skip. She's got her eye on the right one."
Anna decided to switch to a more comfortable topic of discussion. "No sign of Agdar?" nodding at the closed study door.
"Not a peep, not a whisper."
Thinking that over, Anna strode over to the door and slapped the switch to open it. "Let's make sure there's no back door and he's given us the slip."
They entered the study. It was empty. No back door, not even a window. Anna turned to glare at Kristoff.
"Hey! I've been outside the whole time! The robot must have lied to us!" Kristoff protested.
"Olaf is incapable of lying, Lieutenant." Agdar's voice came from behind them. Whirling, they saw him standing in a strangely-shaped doorway that hadn't been there a moment ago. "If you were looking for valuables, my daughter's jewelry is in her room."
"We're here, Doctor, because last night someone broke into our ship past all our safeguards and sabatoged the equipment we need to contact Terra HQ." Anna glared at him.
This pronouncement seemed to trouble Agdar. His demeanor changed, worry clear on his face. "And you suspect me?" Anna nodded. Agdar seemed to come to a decision. "We … must talk. It is time for more clarification of some things I was reluctant to share with you. Please, sit." Agdar sat in his own desk chair and Anna and Kristoff sat on a bench in front of it.
"Well, Doctor?" Anna finally asked after a few minutes had gone by with nothing more being said.
Without any preamble, Agdar began. "In times long past this planet was the home of a mighty and noble race of beings which called themselves the Krell. Ethically, as well as technologically, they were several million years ahead of humankind for in unlocking the mysteries of nature they had conquered even their baser selves."
Anna and Kristoff's jaws hung open as they listened to Agdar reveal that humanity was not alone in the universe. In their explorations to date, the United Planets had not found another intelligent race.
Continuing his explanation, Agdar went on, " – and when, in the course of eons, they had abolished sickness and insanity and crime and all injustice, they turned to a project that was to crown their entire history. But then, on the threshold of this supreme accomplishment this all but divine race perished in a single night!"
He looked at them sadly. "In the thousands of centuries since that unexplained catastrophe even their cloud-piercing towers of glass and porcelain and adamantine steel have crumbled back into the soil and nothing, absolutely nothing remains above ground."
Kristoff asked, "What were they like?"
Shaking his head, Agdar said, "No visual record of their physical nature has survived except, perhaps, in the form of this characteristic arch. I suggest you consider it in comparison to one of our functionally designed human doorways." The doorway Agdar pointed to was about 7 feet high at its peak, but wider at its base and tapered to a point at the top.
Getting to his feet, Agdar walked towards the doorway and said, "If you will follow me, I will show you some of their other remaining artifacts."
Following him, the little group walked for a few minutes down a corridor with gleaming walls. They came to another doorway, this one at the top of three low steps, with a control pod of some sort set next to it. Agdar pointed at the door and turned to Anna.
"Krell metal. Try your blaster there, Captain."
Anna pulled out her sidearm and fired the blaster at the door. It absorbed it without even a wisp of smoke. She ran up the stairs and tentatively, then firmly pressed her hand to the spot. "This spot should be molten. It's not even warm!" She exclaimed in surprise.
Morbius nodded, "The molecules are many times more densely packed than in earthly steel yet it drinks up energy like a sponge." He fiddled with the control pod and the door opened. Apparently the pod was some sort of combination lock. The three of them entered whatever was behind the door.
It was a large room, with banks upon banks of what looked like gauges and odd looking equipment.
Agdar waved to encompass what they were seeing. "This is just one of their laboratories. You will notice that much of the equipment seems familiar though clearly designed for nonhuman technicians." He led them to a low bench in front of a screen with three flexible stalks in front of it. Sitting down on the bench, Agdar arranged the stalks until their ends resting on his temples and forehead. He closed his eyes and the screen showed a small glowing dot that expanded until it almost filled the screen.
"What's this?" Anna demanded.
"It's a combination of a teaching machine and a computer with all the knowledge of the Krell available through this interface. I stumbled on it when I was exploring these corridors. At first, I could only puzzle out a few meanings from what the machine was showing me. But, coming here every day over twenty years, I learned more than Terran scientists have ever known," Agdar explained. He pushed the stalks away and stood up.
"The first practical application of what this Krell machine taught me was Olaf. With his help, I learned more and more. Elsa has used this for her education, as well."
Anna thought this over. "So, hypothetically, this machine would allow us to learn everything the Krell ever knew, Doctor?"
Agdar's voice was unenthused. "Hypothetically. There are some stumbling blocks. I'll show you. Please, sit here Captain, and arrange the stalks on your head the way I did."
Anna did as she was asked. The glowing circle that appeared was tiny, and didn't grow very much larger. She looked quizzically at Morbius.
"That is apparently a gauge of intelligence, Captain. It measures the intellectual capacity of the person and allows the machine to meter the educational material to their capability."
"So, you're saying I'm too dumb to absorb much of this science?" Anna said.
"No, not at all. The machine gradually increases your mental capacity as you use it. The first time I used it, the circle was barely larger than your own. This dial," he pointed, "increases or decreases the speed at which the machine feeds you."
Anna reached for it and Agdar slapped her hand away. "Don't, Captain! It's dangerous. The first time I tried it, I was rendered unconscious for days. If my wife hadn't found me, there's no telling what would have happened to me." He reached down and shut off the machine.
Kristoff had been wandering around the lab while this was going on, examining equipment and trying to understand it. He came back and waved at the rank upon rank of the gauges on the walls. "What are those, Doctor Morbius?"
"Those are power gauges, young man. Each gauge measures ten times more than the one next to it, in a logarithmic scale. Ten times ten times ten, almost to infinity."
"Whoa. That's enough power to destroy a planet!" Kristoff exclaimed.
"Yes, generated by fusion reactors twenty miles on a side, tapping into the very core of this planet. Too much power to be safe without strict controls," Agdar replied.
Anna stood up and looked grimly at Morbius. "Doctor, I'm afraid I'm going to need to take control of this technology. It's of utmost importance to the United Planets."
The look of contempt on Agdar's face stung Anna. "I was waiting for that reaction, Captain. Like most military, all you can think of is control. Well, I will not turn this over to you. It is too dangerous. I must ask you to leave, now." He pointed at the door to the lab.
When they had returned to his study and he had closed the Krell door so that there was nothing but a featureless wall there again, Anna tried to reason with him again.
"Dr. Morbius, a scientific find of this magnitude has got to be taken under United Planet supervision. No one man can be allowed to monopolize it!" She tried very hard to remain calm and rational. Losing her temper would be worse than useless.
"Captain, for years now I've been constantly, and I hope dispassionately, considering this very problem and I have come to the unalterable conclusion that humanity is unfit as yet to receive such almost limitless power."
Anna shot back, "Whereas with your artificially expanded intellect you are now ideally suited to administer this power for the whole human race?"
Agdar simply answered, "Yes, Captain. Precisely. I will share those portions I deem safe and beneficial with Terra. Other things, the dangerous things, I shall withhold until I think they can be safely shared. And I will answer to no one except my own conscience!"
"That is the most arrogant, pretentious, and vain announcement I have ever – " Anna was interrupted by her communicator.
"What is it?" she snarled into her wristcom.
"Captain, it's almost midnight. You left orders that the ship needed to be buttoned up tight at midnight," Kai's voice said.
"Alright. We'll be back as quickly as possible. Adams out." She glared at Morbius and said, "Doctor, we will continue this discussion in the morning." She stalked out of the office, followed by Kristoff.
Elsa came timidly through the door, worry plain on her face. "Is … is there something wrong, father? With Anna?"
He looked at his daughter and gathered her into his arms. She could not see the displeasure, no, hostility, on his face. "No, darling. It will be fine. I promise," he reassured her, keeping his voice warm and soothing. "Now, let's go to bed. This has been a trying day."