Detina Chapter Three: Vital Statistics AT SCHOOL THE FOLLOWING MONDAY, DAVID TOOK HIS INCREDIBLE STORY TO THE WORLD. He simply could not wait to share his discoveries with those unsuspecting souls who were his classmates, and to watch them succumb to the dizzy audacity of his truth. Unfortunately, his peers did not react to his revelations in the way that he expected. It was Nathan who he told first. It was during the brief window of free time before classes began, and the gang were in the main quadrangle, playing handball - that perennially popular Australian pastime in which in each player was given a designated square, and needed to hit a tennis ball that entered their zone such that it bounced only once on its way to another square. Upon David's arrival, Nathan gladly offered his friend a vacant square, but Dave was far too excited to play. At once he started babbling about Detina and his extraterrestrial origin. Nathan, deeply engrossed in the game, barely even heard him. It was only the persistent drone of his rambling that made him finally stop and listen. First, he disbelieved, assuming it to be another one of the boy's delusions. Then, when David began to insinuate that Nathan was also an alien, he stopped and bore him out. By lunchtime, he was totally convinced. Richard, on the other hand, was harder to persuade. Hailing as he did from a working family, he had a typically no-nonsense attitude and an aversion to fantasy. He was quick to dismiss David's tale as the result of an overactive imagination. He refused to accept the assertion that David and Joshua were Detinian, and particularly ridiculed the claim that he himself was not of this world. Of the other children in class, most paid little attention to the boy's stories, and had completely forgotten them by the end of the day. That is, all except one. Adam Grant was a popular kid from David's class, gifted with a cheeky sense of humor and a magnetic charm. Unfortunately, he was also associated with some of Trundle's junior ruffians, and was close friends with Darren Howard. That made him a borderline bully as far as the Red Hand Gang was concerned. Nonetheless, David found him to be rather companionable, in the classroom at least. This particular morning, he was seated directly behind him, and had therefore heard a great deal of David's attempts to convert Richard to his cause. Halfway through the first period he had caught on to the Detinian matter, and seeing some fun in it, decided to investigate further. <<What's this ya goin' on about?>> he interjected, leaning forward between the two. <<I come from Detina>> David said proudly, unconcerned with the jocular smile that was forming on Adam's face. <<It's an alien planet.>> Adam burst into laughter, much to David's disgust. <<It's true!>> he insisted. <<How do you know, though?>> Adam quizzed him. <<I just know somehow>> David replied, realizing that it wasn't a very convincing argument. <<I even remember some bits and pieces from my life there. I'm not really making it up.>> <<Sure, I believe you!>> Adam said in a contradictory tone. At that moment Mrs Hetherington raised her voice to extinguish the numerous blazes of conversation raging around the room, and announced the next class exercise: a survey of each student's place of birth. One by one they reeled off their birthplaces, many of them nearby towns - Tullamore, Trangie, Condobolin, Parkes - but in some cases more exotic locales further afield, such as Sydney or Canberra or even Bangkok, Thailand. Richard informed the class that he was born in Forbes. And then it was David's turn. He hesitated for a moment, then blurted: <<I come from North Detina!>> Adam broke into another round of laughter. Mrs Hetherington took it in all rather impassively, unimpressed, not saying anything. The remainder of the class treated it like some kind of private joke... with the exception of three, that is. A WEEK OR SO later David was sitting on the edge of his bed tossing a pen in the air and deep in thought. Over the past day he had accumulated more knowledge on Detina than in the previous seven, and he felt the desire to put all this information on paper, to help build up a concrete and complete analysis of the world. So he conjured up a notebook, and then in a steady hand, began writing: DETINA: Vital Statistics Diameter: 14,762 kilometers. Distance from Sun: 162,304,000km. Average Temperature: 6 degrees Celsius. Moons: 2. Atmospheric Composition: Nitrogen (75%), oxygen (23%), argon (1%), carbon dioxide (0.001%). Orbital Period: 385 Earth days. Rotational Period: 22 Earth hours... He had no idea where these facts were coming from. They were just flowing through him, as if he was taking dictation from the ether, like a medium at a seance. It wasn't until he stopped writing and read his composition that he consciously understood the nature of Detina. Compared to the Earth, it appeared to be larger and colder, with a shorter day and a longer year. It was fourth out of 11 planets in orbit around a very Sunlike star. David was initially disappointed by these similarities, but then realized that even minor differences could produce profound variations in life on the surface. Being about eight degrees cooler than the Earth, Detina could well lack lush tropics circling its equator, and harbor expanded polar caps. He deduced that there were two main continents: one in the northern hemisphere, the other in in the south. The next day David fed his newly acquired data to Joshua and Nathan. He returned home excitedly, planning to add yet more details to his "Vital Statistics" dossier, which he'd left sitting alone on his bedside table. He carried with him a pile of astronomy textbooks, borrowed from the school library, which he also hoped to devour with avid curiosity. He stashed his bicycle on the back porch, and hurried into his room. He found his mother standing over the bedside table, duster in one hand, his precious notebook in the other. She looked up at him eagerly as he approached. <<Did you write this yourself?>> she asked, gesturing the neat rows of analytical figures interspersed with the odd scribbled diagram, star chart or map. <<Well, yeah... in a way>> David replied, slightly ashamed. <<Why?>> <<You should show it to Mrs Hetherington>> she said. <<It's very inventive.>> <<Well, you see... I didn't invent it. Detina's a real planet.>> <<I've never heard of it before>> David's mother insisted, although her scientific knowledge had never been so great to begin with. She was once believed, for example, that the Earth was the center of the solar system, and that stars floated around in the upper atmosphere, like sparkling balloons. <<It is very far from here>> David tried to explain. <<Like really, really far. Not even in this galaxy. It's in the Small Magellanic Cloud, to be precise. About 200,000 lightyears from the Sun. That's where I come from, and am going to be return.>> Mrs White struggled to suppress a chuckle. <<Oh honey, that's just your imagination talking. You were born here. I should know: I gave birth to you.>> <<Mum I don't understand it>> David pleaded <<it's just a feeling. I can't explain how it happened, but I know that it's true. I was sent here for a mission. Not just me - Josh and Nathan were sent here too. And now it's time to go home.>> <<You've always had a vivid imagination>> his mother said. <<But you're getting a little too old for fairytales.>> She promptly departed his room, and resumed the dusting. David was left alone with his thoughts. He stared skeptically at the Vital Statistics notebook, while his Mum's words resounded in his mind. You're getting a little too old for fairytales. It's true that her knowledge of the Universe was pretty limited. But now the seeds of doubt had been sown. Perhaps she's right... how do I know Detina even exists? he thought. What if I am just an ordinary kid with an extraordinary imagination? It was entirely plausible, and indeed more plausible than the alternative. But David did not want to consider the possibility. He didn't need to think, he knew that he was right. What would Mum know? he thought. Rarely did she ponder upon the mysteries and marvels that existed beyond her cramped and confined sphere of existence. She didn't even know what a lightyear was! Though she did nurture and cultivate the seed of daring or excellence in her progeny, she could not abide any traits or convictions that deviated from the prevailing doctrine. Try as he could, however, he couldn't get his mother's words out of his head. She had always had this remarkable power to deflate his mood, just the right dose of skepticism and scorn. You're getting a little too old for fairytales. As he submitted himself to bed David tried to calm his mind, but it was to no avail. Eventually he fell into the clutches of sleep, for a couple of seconds at least. Before he could sink further into that blissful oblivion, one accusation arose out of his mind, to unsettle him: You're getting a little old for fairytales. THERE SOON FOLLOWED WHAT was called the "news event of the decade": on September 22 Lufthansa flight LH700 flying from Frankfurt to Tokyo was shot down after accidentally veering into Soviet airspace near Kamchatka, in the Bering Sea. David at his tender age had a rather rudimentary understanding of geopolitics, but his television made a big deal about this tragedy, as did Mrs Hetherington at school. Both West Germany and Japan were allies of the United States and members of the same club that included Australia. If they went to war against the Soviet menace then so would we, that was the general view. The clouds of conflict were gathering, and the hitherto Cold War was threatening to turn hot. FIRST CONTACT (c)opyright Rob Sullivan 1988-2024. 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