Skip Boylin paddled into another perfect 20' left hand
wall. In front of him, on the earlier wave, Rosie Connelly
pushed her 9'2" gun through another vertical turn off the
lip of the breaking wave, and accelerated down into the
pit. Approximately 17.5 miles along the southern equatorial
coast of the Emerald Planet, the ship's engineer, Dat Hulko,
cruised placidly in the eye of the barrel.  He had paddled
out earlier that morning.

Skip stood, and dropped, thrusting down the 20' face, from
the high point of the wave.  As he matched the speed of the
perfect breaking crest, and accelerated beyond it, up to
the shoulder ahead of the break, he glanced back - a final
look at the remainder of the morning's lineup - to one
other surfer, who held place just outside the break and
impact zone in front of the SurfAhoy Groundstation on the
Emerald Planet.

"See you down the line aways, Ko".  The local audio comms
channel had been unusually quiet as Skip and each of the
crew members became familiar with the local surfing
conditions. Locked in on their own waves, like an extended
yoga session, the contrast of the oceanic calmness and the
chaotic fury of the breaking seemed to invite total
absorption of mind and body.

"Righto Skip", Ko signalled the disappearing surfer.

Ko Moku, the captain of the DSV Crescent IV in a
geostationary orbit above, had received a summary message
from the controlling powers of the Crescent Review. They
were to stand over on the Emerald Planet for a period of
two terran days. During this period, a number of mission
critical intelligence gathering exercises were to be
conducted in relation to known and unknown aspects of the
incident previously outlined.

On the morning of the second day, the swell had appeared,
as Skip had foretold, and Ko had suggested that the crew
avail themselves of the SurfAhoy facilities.  He had
personally located and examined Pedro Goofo's spare board.
As he sat on this board and watched Skip disappear down the
line on his wave, Ko looked up to the groundstation
observation deck windows, and gave Jerry Johnson, the
ship's navigator, the thumbs up sign.  Jerry had drawn the
short straw to become planet-keeper, while the other crew
went outside the groundstation.

Ko purposefully let a few large set waves go by.  He had
given thought to the nature of the surfbreak here on the
Emerald Planet.  Any wave that he selected today would
break for a minimum distance of over 8,000 miles along the
equatorial crystalline band which formed the only land
surface here. On the other side of the planet, a rift in
this equatorial band forced all but the largest groundswell
to close out across its mouth.

Earlier, the crew had taken the ship's shuttle around the
other side of the planet to check this natural geographical
feature. The rift in the crystalline cliffs was spectacular
in its isolation ... a singular flaw in an otherwise
perfect equatorial band of coastline.  Analysis of the rift
had revealed it to have been caused only recently in the
geological time scale of the planet, probably by an impact
of a small meteorite or comet. Essentially it was a bay,
half a mile in width and depth, which broke the symmetric
extent of the equatorial band.

Through forethought, the SurfAhoy operation had
successfully applied to the Crescent Review and Galactic
Navigation Center to move the orbit of one of the original
geostationary holographic unit satellites directly above
the rift.  On the day following their reception of Pedro
Goofo's subspace beacon message, the ship's archivalist had
analysed the data in this Holographic Unit for the last few
terran years.

An important fact had emerged from this study ---  only
when the groundswell exceeded 40 feet in height would the
waves continue to break across the front of this coastal
rift.  Waves smaller that this would closeout across this
crystalline bay.  The HAU record of Pedro Goofo's
successful crossing of this rift revealed that the size of
the wave which had carried him around the entire planet, as
was measured at the rift, was 45 feet in height, measured
at its face.

As he waited for the wave of the day, Ko knew he would not
be trying on this occasion to travel half way around the
planet, but would be content to get the feel of the new
board, to make the adjustment to liquid ammonia ocean of
the Emerald Planet, its carbon dioxide atmosphere and the
standard issue Enviro-Suit which enabled comfortable
inhabitation of the otherwise hostile environment.

The wave finally came through. Jerry, from the height of
the groundstation observation windows, had seen its dark
ribbon-like appearance arise on the south-western horizon.
He saw Ko catch sight of it, and commence to paddle out
further from the regular impact zone.

"I think this may be the one, Ko".  Jerry broke into the
common audio channel, relieved that his skipper had spotted
the larger than average set of waves bearing down into the
vicinity of the place of take-off.

"It'll do, thanks, Jerry", replied Ko, paddling a little
faster outwards than he had started.  "I'll see you in a
few hours time".

The size of the surf today was about half the size of the
surf in which Pedro Goofo had disappeared, but nevertheless
the waves were sizeable, more than triple overhead, with
the set waves substantially bigger.

Jerry watched as Ko propped and turned the unfamiliar
surfboard beneath his weight.  The black glossy sheen of
the Lemming Wool Envirosuit glistened in the binary
sunlight of Cygnus Foon 181.  For an instant the
holographic record of Pedro Goofo's initial takeoff flowed
through Jerry's mind.

As the board gained momentum, and as he passed the takeoff
point, Ko stood, and committed himself to the energy of the
wave.  A long perfect green wall of liquid ammonia yawned
ahead. He found Pedro's spare board to be unusually fast in
its gravity slip-sliding along the wall, and highly
amenable to the thrust generated from out of his free-fall.

Above, on remote and with the communications line relayed
to the SurfAhoy Groundstation, the DSV Crescent IV followed
the line of its own free-fall about the fourth planet of
the binary star system in the 181st quadrant of the Milky
Way.

As he watched the rest of the crew select their waves and
disappear down the coast,  he studied each of the
continuous succession of perfect waves break across the
front of the groundstation. Jerry regretted drawing the
short straw. The other three member of his crew, and Skip,
were now all out of visual sighting.  He watched the next
perfect green barrel break past the window of the
observation deck and glanced at the mini-shuttle robotics
navigation grid, where four small points of light were
strung out down the coast.

He noted that all four surfers were still independent of
their retrieval robot, and were between 2 miles (Ko) and
20 miles (Dat Hulko) down the coast.  He wondered which of
them would first pull the pin in their Envirosuit.  Skip
had advised that this would activate the robotic shuttle's
retrieval operation, whereby the surfer and board would be
plucked from the ocean, and at any nominal depth, and be
then transported back to the groundstation airlocks.

Jerry wandered over to the locker room and selected one of
the standard sub-space beacons from stock.  Somehow, Pedro
Goofo had used one of these to transmit a message from
across the other side of the known universe.  He examined
the unit carefully for the umpteenth time. It was about the
size of a small adult finger nail.

A single physical unit with no perceptible moving parts or
components, he had studied this technology during his
traineeship for galactic navigation with the Crescent
Review. He recalled the history of development and
manufacture of these standard issue sub-space
communication beacons.

These units were all based on the well known GR navigation
systems that had descended from the Terran GPS array of the
late 20th century.  This, and other technological
developments had culminated in the invention of the "Torch
Engine", which had powered the Alpha Fleet out of the solar
system, and which had powered the first exploratory decade
of the Milky Way, locally restricted to the stellar
environment of Sol, the Terran sun.

The unit was shaped like a disk, with a raised center on
one side and a small recess on the other.  The theory, as
Jerry had studied it, explained that the raised side was
responsible for the transmission and reception of
communication signals while the recessed side was
responsible for the data processes.

The sub-space beacon unit from the SurfAhoy store room was
no different from the units used by the Crescent Review for
the purposes of galactic navigation.  The only difference
was the network of such units.  Here on the Emerald Planet,
the SurfAhoy operation only required a terrestrial
solution, capable of tracking the individual surfers within
the terrestrial system.  The enormous array of units
deployed by the Galactic Navigation Center (GNC) in
consultation with the Crescent Review, covered, in
contrast, most of the quadrants of the Milky Way, and had a
distribution density that varied according to the
communication and navigation requirements of the local
stellar environment.

Jerry returned to the systems console and glanced at the
array of lights presented by the robotic network of
shuttles.  All of his fellow crew members were still
powering down the coast on their waves, and had not
activated the retrieval mode. They were spread out at a
distance of between 16 miles (Ko) and 34 miles (Dat) down
the break.

Jerry watched a few more perfect barrels thunder past the
observation deck before he succumbed to the lure of the
coffee robot.  It had been a hectic 30 terran hours since
that first contact had been made directly by Pedro Goofo,
who by all accounts had somehow relocated himself over half
way across the visible universe, from the Virgo
supercluster to the Hydra Cluster of galaxies.

Awed by this momentous event, he sipped his coffee and
again examined the tiny subspace beacon unit still held
in the palm of his hand.  How could a signal travel such
enormous distances?  How such a thing could be possible?

Breaking his reverie, he stood and crossed again to the
Groundstation's systems console, where the tell-tale lights
slowly moving over a terrestrial navigation grid pin-
pointed his crew members' progress.  Jerry put his coffee
down, and with assistance from the console based micro-
scanner, took note of the serial number etched into recess
on the thumbnail sized unit.

It was a sixteen digit alphanumeric "2248AC0419991510".  He
recognised the first four digits as the (Terran) year of
the units manufacture, the next two alphas AC as the code
of the location of the manufacturing plant (Alpha Centauri),
and the final 10 digits as a unique sequence number
representative of each unique unit manufactured in that
year at that plant.

He brought up the network component window,
and selected the ADD function.

From his notes he typed the serial number of the unit he
held, and registered it within the network. Then he
selected the unit and switched it ON.  Immediately a fifth
tell-tale light winked on at the grid's central
coordinates, marking the SurfAhoy groundstation.  Jerry
switched it off, and ran a check by name allocation for the
serial number of the subspace beacon issued to Pedro Goofo
... "2252AC0021101980".

There were only three manufacturing plants for the standard
issue subspace beacons.  The Alpha Centauri plant was the
largest, followed by the plant on Io, and the plant on
Earth itself.  Jerry marvelled at how such an energy
transmission could travel more or less instantaneously
across the Milky Way.

And now it seemed that it permitted more or less
instantaneous communication across the entire visible
universe. Then he recalled that the missing surfer, Pedro,
had somehow managed to transmit himself and his surfboard
across the same, almost inconceivably enormous, physical
gulf of space.

Jerry set the miniature subspace beacon down of the table,
and refreshed his coffee, while keeping his eye on the
unit, as if it held some important secret of nature, not
previously understood by the civilisation of mankind.

He was hoping one of the others would pull their pin and
return to the groundstation via the robotic shuttle system.
Jerry was hanging out for a wave, after seeing so many of
these perfect enormous barrels power past the windows of the
observation deck.

Being alone on the oceanic expanse, not reliant on the
coast, and far from the cares and worries of the galaxy, a
surfing session provided opportunity for the sharpening of
mind and body, for the contemplation of deep and meaningful
questions and for the appearance, sometimes gradual and
sometimes immediate, of resolutions to problems many and
varied, that inhabited the environment space of the
surfer's soul.






Meanwhile, at that very moment at the galactic rim on the
very edge of the 17th quadrant, Fred Jetson, the long-term
acting CEO of the Crescent Review, was also hanging out for
a surf.  He had been coordinating top priority research
teams for the last 30 odd terran hours in reference to this
Emerald Planet incident.

By what means could a standard sub-space energy
transmission bridge the colossal distance between the Milky
Way and the Hydra Cluster?  More so, by what means did this
surfer and ex-navigator transverse this same - universal -
expanse?

He and his staff had been working around the clock.  He
knew that if in fact, as his intelligence had informed
him, there was both travel to and transmission from the
other side of the known universe, then he was seeing
history unfold in his lifetime.

Fred was a cautious man.  His primary concerns were data
integrity and security.  Commander Ko Moku and he had
agreed to a course of action for the next 48 hours.  Ko and
his crew already out at the Emerald Planet were to
investigate the other surfboard and its implemented
machinery left behind by Pedro Goofo, while Fred would
follow up with any relevant information which could be
obtained about Pedro from his previous record from the
Galactic Network Centre and from the Crescent Review
archives.

Born in the Terran Year 2216 on the planet New Hawaii XIV,
in the Centauri System, Pedro Goofo had served as a ships
navigator for the Crescent Review and for various private
exploratory networks, from 2237-2263.  A number of
outstanding achievements had been won by the missing surfer
in his career, including the honour of being listed as the
originator of the TGH navigation system which had now been
fully deployed in use for a dozen years. The TGH or
Tran-Galatic-Hub navigation problem under the Elbie drive
had existed since the invention of the Elbie engine in 2210.
It related to specific navigational turbulence problems
encountered when making FTL journeys across the galactic
hub of the Milky Way galaxy.  Pedro Goofo, much to Freds'
astonishment, had solved this navigation problem in 2242.

Fred thought back to his first and only personal contact
with the missing surfer.  The 19th Emerald Planet tour of
2264.  Fred had personally toured and surfed at that time.
News of the surf located on the Emerald Planet had spread,
and it was not long before the tours were booked out
gradually in advance.  Beside the obvious, there was
nothing surprising about the 19th tour of 2264.  Fred had
spent 10 glorious days surfing the biggest and most perfect
waves of his surfing life.  The length of his rides often
did not reflect his ability as a surfer, as Fred often
purposefully pulled off the wave he was on, in order to
again experience the exhilaration of paddling into the
following wave or a wave a few sets later.  He always
pulled the pin, and returned to the Surfahoy groundstation
before the binary sun set on the Emerald Planet.  Fred was
a creature of the day.

He recalled briefly conversing to Pedro Goofo on one of the
last of those days in the lineup out the front of the
GroundStation.  There were, that first morning on the
Emerald Planet, a crew of about a dozen surfers waiting
their turn in the lineup of the first session of the day.
Fred had been taking his time getting his bearings in the
prevailing groundswell of 15-20 foot, and adjusting to the
enviro-suit controls which maintained life-support systems
in the otherwise hostile environment.

In recall, as it was at that time, it was the sheer perfect
nature of the waves that had captivated his attention. Fred
spent about an hour of study watching set after set roll
down through the lineup, and he recalled that he was very
surprised that there were any other surfers left there at
the takeoff point. He remembered the names of one of those
two surfers, and they had exchanged some small talk about
the break.  Pedro Goofo was one.  The other was a navigator
from the Old Earth itself, but his name for the moment
eluded Fred.

Fred had been the next surfer to paddle into a wave, and
had left the two there, in the lineup.  All he could recall
hearing from Pedro during that brief time was that Pedro
was waiting for the seventh set, and that this was his
third tour to the Emerald Planet.  Pedro was a tall and
thick-set man, particularly in his upper torso.  He had
struck Fred as being of good cheer and will, if indeed
such a brief encounter might permit any gauge in character.

Fred's reminiscing was cut short by the intruder alarm
panel warning lights, normlly used for after-hours, but
which Fred had been employing for early warning of visitors
to his wing of the administration since "the incident" had
placed his entire administration on active alert. He had
been expecting them.

One of his better research teams, gathering for their daily
progress review meeting.  He had assigned to this team the
task of assembling all available information on the missing
surfer Pedro Goofo.  Fred assembled his own independent
research notes.  In important issues it was his approach to
run an independent thread of his own data collection.  He
was always careful to let on to his team that he was
essentially double checking specific areas of their work.

Over the years, this practice had been effective in the
management of various sensitive issues, and provided great
assistance to Fred's guidance of his team members.

Fred walked through a connecting door from his office into
a meeting room, where four of his best information
researchers were waiting for him, and helping themselves
to the coffee machine.

Fred welcomed each of the reports and sat patiently through
their delivery.  This team had been privy to a copy of the
recorded transmission between between the missing surfer
and Skip and the crew of the DSV Crescent 4, now 40 hours
ago.  Fred could sense the undisguised traces of genuine
awe by which these people regarded the incident, and the
missing surfer.

Each of them knew that at the successful end of this
project lay the schema of some form of mechanism by which
man was no longer confined to the galaxy of the Milky Way.
That they were seeing unfold in their very own lifetimes
the emergence of a new era in the civilisation of mankind,
borne on the breaking wave of a new form of travel and thus
navigation.

When Fred received the final briefing, and had counselled
each over the finalisation work required over the next 8
hours, he thanked each of them for their work and returned
to his office.  Sitting back at his desk he reviewed the
extra items of information made available to him by his
team:

(1) Although working as a ship's navigator for the last 12
years, the Elbie TGH Navigation subroutines developed by
Pedro Goofo had, since then, earned him a substantial
fortune in royalties from Elbie Systems Inc.  This fortune
had enabled him to effectively book back-to-back tours with
Surfahoy Tours on the Emerald Planet.  He was their biggest
client by miles.

(2) The Galactic Network Center Intelligence sources in the
Centauri System, containing Pedro's home planet, had met
unforseen difficulties in trying to establish secure
correspondence with any of Pedro's "family".  Essentially,
it had been finally established that Pedro's family were a
small number of reclusive surfers located in a small island
group called New Hawaii, in the sparkling blue expanses of
the Great Ocean on the planet VX (short for "New Home VX").

(3) The islands of New Hawaii were an elliptical group of
mountain peaks that protruded above the sea.  Numbering
about 64 in total, the geological report had stated that the
island group were in fact the remnant peaks of an ancient
meteor crater rim.  The government report was short and
succinct, classifying the islands as a registered Navhome,
and listed all relevant details.  Navhomes were essentially
communities of retired navigators, or othr ships personnel.
Often located in remote strands of the galaxy, the hundreds
of Navhomes registered and operational all shared one
common characteristic.  They were all very much self
sufficient, and many contributed significantly to their
planet's environmental and power resources.




END of PART IV





NEXT Chapter - The Emerald Planet (Part V in progress)