LIGHTNOVELONLINE 9. Peeping human
End of 2011
Earth
Third POV
"This is a God, an alien god… this is…fabulous.", mumbled Ishirō Serizawa with fascination, as he gazed at the first picture of the mysterious extraterrestrial titan.
It was only showing a part of the head, the rest of the body covered by a flock composed of hundreds of colorful fish similar in size to that of a manta ray while also in shape and they had a hint of a hummingbird in them.
Ishirō named them Kasei colibri, they weren't hummingbirds but since when naming new species need to follow logic. They made him think of hummingbirds and are on Mars, so he named them like that.
They were all here as if to cover or protect the titan by flying in circles around it. Maybe a sort of symbiotic relationship. But it didn't stop the humans from glimpsing at what looked like a humongous ghostly divine whale.
Ishirō was the lead biologist of Monarch, the one who made the presentation of Mars fauna and flora last week. And he didn't regret what he asked for. They hit the jackpot.
"Yay, yay. More like Flipper the dolphin on radioactive space super steroids. In my opinion.", declared Rick Stanton as he examined different screens while typing at incredible speed.
The old man grumbled under his breath as he tried to make sense of what the actual fuck the satellite sent them back.
The images were crystal clear but everything else was uuurggg that was capable of making the ordinary scientist cry out falsehood in outrage with how ridiculous they looked.
It was nearly unusable; everything contradicted everything and went against what they considered normal. Well, he took it as a challenge to try and make sense of this.
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Still Earth but six months later.
2012
"YES! FINALLY! Take this you overweight levitating bull!", Stanton triumphantly cried out.
Most of Monarch staff with the knowledge of what was on Mars already determined that the titan was male, even if its biology didn't exactly follow the one from Earth whales.
If Caelicetus knew this he would have declared that they were creeps, peeping on a naked underaged calf while also probing him with more than dubious technology.
However, he was used to being naked by this and he will stay naked for the rest of his possibly immortal life. And. Why would some ant's opinion suddenly make him shy or should even matter? No. They didn't.
Dr. Stanton was a mess, his hair was sleazy, heavy bags under his blood-filled eyes, and then he promptly fell asleep, his head smashing next to the keyboard.
He was working with a team and Ishirō on making sense of the different scans of Titanus Cetus they got for the last two months and finally did it. He was overlooking himself, by working harder and harder as PEQUOD was starting to get dangerously close to Mars.
And it was mostly the titan surface, most of the internal organs being clouded, like what they assumed was the heart or its equivalent for the titan, it was constantly and steadily pulsing with an ungodly amount of unspecified energy.
"Coffee,… Oh, you did… wow.", the lead biologist announced joyfully as his body moved automatically to the screen where the different but incomplete grey 3D models of a certain space whale could be seen.
"I'm deeply sorry my friend.", he excused himself as he rashly shoved his fellow doctor aside. Too impatient and excited to be polite.
He looked excited over the information, some he already knew, like how the inside of Titanus Cetus is as cold or even colder than liquid hydrogen while his skin is randomly fluctuating from Mars ambient temperature to gold melting point temperature.
"He isn't an adult, just like King Kong. But he is growing…incredibly fast,", he noted and smiled while trailing his finger on the screen, the last 3D model was 34℅ longer than the first.
The first being at an impressive 162 (531,5ft) meters in length from the very tip of the tail to the very end of the rostrum, and the last was 55,08 meters (180,7ft) longer, standing at a whopping 217,08 meters (712,2ft).
Making him the third longest titan discovered until now, Titanus Tiamat being the first, she is 372 meters long (1220ft) and Titanus Gojira being the second, he is 274 meters long (899ft).
The model all also had those peculiar straight marks on the skin, they slowly faded from model to model but never truly disappeared.
'Those are fresh scars from a battle and they look like what a surgical laser would do or a breath attack from another titan.', he presumed and continued on his train of thought, 'Then does that mean that this floating piece of tectonic plate is the result of a fight. Terrifying. Truly gods compared to us. And how the dead rock got covered in life by the simple presence of Cetus.'
The Gojira fanboy then zoomed on the blurry root-like structures, said's roots never touched each other, and started at three different areas, each also blurred.
The first was in the cranium and was medium-sized compared with the two others. The second was behind the supposed heart and below the spine connected to it, it was larger while the last was the smaller of the three and it was located below the relatively 'small' dorsal fin.
Though, the smaller one was a tiny bit bigger than a big pickup truck. Meaning the two others were way bigger. And he concluded that they were brains. Very, very big brains.
So big that they represented roughly 29℅ of the martian titan's total body, not mass Cetus's weight is unknown and will likely stay so. This is a lot, especially for 'animals' and 'vertebra' of this size.
He was sure that the Cetus's brains were as complex or even more complex than a human brain. Adding to that each seems separated means that Cetus's brains could effectively have independent thought.
Also, each area around the brain where the coldest temperatures were recorded. Here, he didn't know why.
On another note.
AHAB the rover was finally launched and on its merry ways to Mars.
And the NASA detected little dots moving in groups and on their way to Mars, they were coming directly from Neptune and they were fast. It was intriguing but they couldn't do much but wait.
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Mars.
One Earthly month later.
Caelicetus POV
I opened my four eyes. I paused.
'Wait. How. What. When. Since when do I have four? An explanation would be appreciated but I won't complain, my limited eyesight was frankly bothering me a bit.', I thought, bemused, I tried to move my new set of eyes. Just above my old ones, they replaced the glowing golden dot I had.
Conclusion. I can see more. For example, I could now finally see a bit of my back and my ribs through my transparent glowing skin, my four frontal fins, and the scars left by Desghidorah on my body which I didn't particularly dislike and overall simply just more.
I was bigger, I could now perceive life on Mars way better than before as if I was blind and gained a new pair of eyes, heh.
I also felt a sort of weak connection to heat, in general. Interesting. Maybe the fact that Desghidorah possibly survived isn't so bad, after all.
Now that I thought about it, isn't there another one of Desghidorah's species on Earth, his name was King Ghidorah if I remember correctly.
My stomachs grumbled in want at that.
I looked around and decided to move from my vertical position, the Flock covering my whole body while doing it. Love the little guys.
The island was now lush with life, but the plants were green instead of the usual purple and cyan. Changement is good. It was peaceful again.
'Huh?', I clicked as I glared at something high in the sky.
A satellite. Humans. They should have peeped enough. Hmm, wonder if I could access their data later on? I mean, I could do it quite easily at that. What are they going to do to throw nukes at me? That's so scary.
"To the Sun you go.", I declared and the satellite disappeared from Mars orbit. To never be seen again. The teleportation felt a tad smoother. It was easier.
I would have liked to teleport it back to Earth, at the NASA's headquarters but I don't know where it is at the moment on its orbit and humans will try again and again.
The Sun is a good alternative and it might serve as a warning, that they likely won't understand...
I will simply wait for their new toy to come and play with them.
Now, I need to repair Deimos or maybe make it into something like Saturn rings. So many possibilities.