Terra Two

by Francis Rosenfeld

  The consequence of this habit was that her grandparents' house was some form of sheltered extension of the outdoors where one experienced nature without being impacted by it.

  Of course on Terra Two the weather was a non-issue, since the temperature never changed and the rain didn't really fall like it does on Earth, evenly distributed from a large and undefined cloud formation. Rain on Terra Two felt like the amusement park giant bucket, you had to be right under the condensation cloud at the precise time it poured out.

  "She's in her lab", sister Jove said, trying to catch her breath and keep up with Seth.

  "As grateful as I am for all the wonderful innovations sister Roberta contributed to our community I have to say I am a little worried about whatever she's doing right now that occupies all her attention. I still break into a cold sweat whenever I think about her mega magnet antigravity machine."

  Seth and the sisters reached the weather station where the former recorded the 82 degree temperature and the 87% humidity on her tablet and observed the wind direction: N to NW. She turned on her heels and started rushing back, with the poor sisters being pulled in the vacuum she created behind her like small boats in the wake of a coast liner.

  "She's working with Sarah", sister Novis added, and this piece of information made Seth stop and turn around.

  "Now I really have to know what they are doing", Seth frowned, curious. She changed direction suddenly and started towards the lab.

  In the middle of the room a holographic projection of Sarah's insides floated two feet above ground, while sister Roberta was asking the machine to peel off layers and turn organs and body systems on and off. Ten feet to the left, like a commentary on the virtual image was Sarah in the flesh, also floating two feet above the ground, but fortunately with her epidermis fully intact. All around the device the cats of Terra Two gathered in tight concentric circles, so close together it was really difficult to walk towards it without stepping on them. They all looked delighted and their collective purring almost covered the strange low hum that emanated from the machine.

  Sister Roberta kept giving commands to the machine, asking it to slice thin layers and magnify, magnify, magnify.

  "Here they are, the sweet little darlings", said sister Roberta as she watched a little immortal colony move about its business on the surface of a mitochondria, graciously assisting in the metabolism of glucose while keeping the lion's share of boron for themselves. "They look very healthy and happy."

  "As they should, I never ate so much cabbage in my life, there should be enough boron in my system to feed three times as many!"

  Sister Roberta increased the magnification to a wavelength of 10nm. An enormous image of one of the immortals filled the room in exquisite detail.

  "Wow!" Seth couldn't help exclaiming. "How did you do that?"

  "I modified the clarity of the boron lens. Magnify!" she ordered again.

  The zoom reached molecular level and they all watched the dizzying buzz of electrons moving around the nuclei. The immortal kept generating enzyme keys that rearranged the cellular components, fixing broken chains and restoring symmetry.

  "Magnify!" said sister Roberta again. The machine looked deeper into the enzymes' composition, a stuffy and repetitive chain of amino acids vibrating silently with an electronic buzz. "Freeze frame. Identify chemical formula."

  "Are you trying to duplicate these?" Seth asked.

  "If we can, I'm not sure what they are made of yet. Or how they function at cellular level."

  The machine diligently wrote down an exhaustively long series of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and germanium arranged in every combination possible, clustered together in long strings, endlessly repeating but no two the same.

  "Germanium?" asked Seth. "This life form is germanium based?"

  "Stranger things have happened", sister Roberta replied, watching with fascination how the long organic molecules kept fixing and rearranging Sarah's chemistry, in an almost obsessive focus on restoring perfection into any system that seemed out of balance.

  "Zoom out", sister Roberta said. The machine brought magnification back to cellular level and they all watched with their mouths open as the enzymes digested a damaged cell and spit it back out, rearranged the pieces in the right order and dissipated.

  "Congratulations, Sarah, whatever cells you have right now will live forever in everlasting perfection."

  "What happens with the new cells?" asked Sarah.

  "I guess your little immortal friends sent signals to your body to stop generating them unless they're absolutely needed. I never thought I would experience this in my life, but as far as biological beings go you are now in a state of perfection: every functioning system is optimized."

  "Do you think you can synthesize the enzyme?" asked Seth.

  "That would be quite easy, I just don't know how to introduce it to a living entity and if it would work the same. I don't know who would volunteer to be a human guinea pig."

  "Test it on other creatures first and then I'll try it myself", said Seth. "By the way, what's with the cats?"

  "They just like the hum of the electro motor. It soothes them. No connection."

  "What's it like being immortal?" sister Mary-Francis's question resonated in Sarah's memory.

  "I guess you are going to find out", she thought, smiling.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  "We don't exercise our talents and skills for their own sakes, what would be the point of creating new things, of advancing technologies, of changing the way we see life if there was nobody to pass them on to. We are only a link in an endless chain of existence and our greatest joy, our most cherished goal is to move our kind one step forward, cure one more disease, fulfill one more need, make hope one granted wish stronger."

  "When children were born on Terra Two it was as if our race had been reborn, not from the past, but from a future we didn't know we were contemplating. We didn't realize until we saw them roam happy, curious and care free through the lush green fields that they were the first humans born to paradise."

  Time flowed around them like a lazy river, bringing accomplishments and events, weaving a beautiful tapestry, rich and complex. Its layers interweaved with the development of the planet, the changes of society, the dwellers' own advancement in wisdom.

  The most significant change was the gradual transformation of their little colony from a professional group exclusively focused on performing highly specialized terraforming tasks to a diverse and colorful society complete with social activities, artistic endeavors, spiritual pursuit and most of all, the birth of children.

  The first baby of Terra Two was born to a physicist and an energy engineer, but really she belonged to all, since her arrival was anticipated, discussed, and cherished by each and every human being on the planet. Lily, named after her grandmother, arrived at the cusp of evening, just as the suns melted suddenly in the coffee sky, a healthy and vivacious bundle of joy. Her chocolate skin had the warm glow of Terra Two's sunsets and her eyes were a liquid shade of blue-green that reflected the surface of its sea.

  The sisters showed varied levels of enthusiasm about the event, but Sarah spent so much time around the baby that the parents almost had to expand their home to build sleeping quarters for her.

  Many children were born in the next years, and play spaces, schools, exploration trails followed, together with the need for a lot more caring hands and watchful eyes. The little ones managed to find their way everywhere, from the astrophysics lab to sister Roberta's experiments and Sarah's bio-chemistry shed, they ran across the fields picking food right off the vines and were the only ones capable to spot and apprehend a cat in less than fifteen minutes.

  Their skins reacted quickly to the light intensity on Terra Two, whose suns, though muted in the hazy skies, put out a lot of ultra violet radiation; they developed a healthy glowing tan. The parents were worried at first but then remembered that the synthesized enzyme they now carried repaired the
damage, if there happened to be any.

  Visitors doted on these little humans who grew wild and free among giant tropical plants, for whom the two sunned coffee firmament studded with metal dots was the only sky they ever knew, for whom cats were supposed to be fragrant and who couldn't understand the concept of winter. The kids' favorite activity was chasing rain showers, they liked to catch the moment of downpour and show up at home in the evening completely drenched and beaming with satisfaction.

  The birth of a new generation set in motion a whole series of changes, from the building of schools to the arrival of teachers, pediatricians and candy shop owners, but the kids really didn't stay within boundaries, intensely curious, and learned by watching the civil engineering team how to build roads and move terrain, or by following the weather teams how to record temperature and humidity readings, or by chasing after sister Joseph while she was checking on the health of the live stock what it took to be a veterinarian. They made the latter mumble constantly under her breath about the parental lack of responsibility and the unfairness of life.

  Sarah enjoyed teaching the little ones how to plant seeds and bioengineer the outcomes in ways that were nothing short of miraculous and spent long afternoons under the soybean tree telling stories from her childhood and amazing the children with descriptions of surreal mountains, blue skies with just one bright yellow sun, strong summer storms and the purest white snow. Incredulous eyes grew wider with wonder as the neural interlink bracelets projected the extraordinary Earth images into their minds, and they shared life stories with the children on that remote planet the grown ups called home, children whose delicate skin never ceased to astound them.

  A new chapter opened in Sarah's life when she saw her own childhood experiences through the eyes of her parents. She knew not to ruin the wonder, the joy and the explorer pride of the young lives asserting themselves in a large welcoming universe.

  Since there was no way to keep curious little noses away from her experiments Sarah set up equipment and tables and started a semi-formal course of instruction in the fundaments of organic chemistry and herbal medicine. Some adjustments had to be made, of course: the felines found permanent accommodation in the rafters, staring down at the noisy group with round attentive eyes and from a safe distance.

  Terra Two was swarming with visitors who saved and sacrificed to visit the cradle of everlasting life, although the sisters and an army of scientists were trying very hard to explain that it was not immortality but a generous extension of natural life span that the enzymatic compound provided.

  Sarah thought that ever since she met the sisters she couldn't think of many moments when she didn't have ten or more people around her, sometimes the sisters or members of the engineering team, but more often than not complete strangers. What was it about this group that attracted people like a magnet to watch whatever they were doing, even the most mundane activities, with bated breath?

  Chapter Twenty Six

  "We occupy ourselves with doing until what we do becomes who we are. The world of Terra Two grew around us quietly and we discovered it all grown and rich with events, a lot more sophisticated than we expected it to be, full of personality, confident and free."

  "We never got used to it, partly because it constantly changed, partly because we weren't born of its essence. We carry the blue sky in our blood, the brightness of the sun, the majestic mountains and the painted clouds and as long as our lives last we'll keep yearning for them."

  The sisters were quiet, gathered in a semi-circle on the crumbly dirt. The atmosphere was a little tense, there'd been a while since Seth found it necessary to call for an assembly meeting. They were all wondering what this was about.

  Sarah was sitting in the back with Solomon in her lap, trying to keep the cat from chewing on the draw string of her overalls. The year had been quite fruitful, she thought as she watched the tall goldenrod panaches swing gracefully in the breeze. The animals were thriving, the barns were full, work on their fancy translucent building was almost complete, and due to their microscopic indigen friends they were all in glorious health.

  "The last of the Noah's arks arrived today, from now on we will have to rely exclusively on local resources. There will be some medical and equipment cargo, but mostly passenger travel from now on. If all goes well we should be able to send shipments back some time soon, our vanilla beans are already famous."

  Silence covered them like a blanket. They didn't know exactly why, but this great news weighed heavily on them, it felt like the end of an age, as if an essential connection that they thought permanent was suddenly severed.

  Not that anybody thought there would be any hardship, Terra Two was holding its own, vibrant and abundant, it was just that until then, even if they never talked about it, they still considered themselves of the Earth and receiving a continuous supply of earthly beings and artifacts nurtured this feeling.

  She didn't want to let it show, but Seth was sad too, in a deep and fundamental way that wasn't easy to put into words.

  "My dears, I'm afraid we're all grown up", the leader said.

  It felt strange, this sadness, especially while a crowd of visitors swept around their little group, almost touching them, and the kids of the island, oblivious to the elder's nostalgia, laughed and screeched with delight, playing catch and chasing rain showers.

  "We should ask them for advice", sister Joseph joked, pointing her head towards the kids, "they're the natives."

  "I noticed", Seth continued, in her even but firm tone, "that we've all been neglecting our spiritual duties lately. Fortunately for us the construction team built us this here beautifully transparent edifice and we should put it to good use. Vespers are at seven, I will be there every day, you are all welcome to join me if you wish."

  This was how the formal part of Sarah's religious life started. During the early days on Terra Two the sisters had forgone the rites and rituals of their order, since daily survival took precedence over ceremony, but found them now with renewed enthusiasm, eager to reestablish rhythm and permanence into their lives.

  Common prayer started promptly at seven in the large hall of glass that occupied the heart of the building. Light hit the crystalline edges and diffracted into rainbows, moving like ethereal artwork, bouncing and reflecting off the transparent surfaces. The enchanted backdrop of the planet surrounded them, rendered surreal by the light of the setting suns.

  The sisters had decided to dress up for the occasion and wore their ceremonial attire, intimidating in its simplicity and so formal that Sarah almost didn't recognize them at first. They were sitting on the crystal floor that glowed dimly with diffuse light, very quiet in the common meditation their connected neural interlink bracelets facilitated. There were no random thoughts, no banter, the sister's thoughts joined in prayer as one, creating a hallowed space around them, the world at peace.

  The evening descended suddenly over the transparent building, with its rich shades of chocolate and coffee, and as the lights started glowing in the crystal palace the image of their silent group became symbolic.

  They prayed long into the evening for favorable atmospheric conditions and the increase of yield, for the well-being and prosperity of their colony, for their families and friends back on Earth, for continued progress of their endeavors and for all humankind.

  ***

  Terra Two was maturing with the glow and mellowness of an expanding culture. Buildings grew like magic out of the crumbly dirt, surrounded by luxuriant vegetation, and the paisley islands became a lot more connected by bridges, ferries and shuttles, to enhance the cohesiveness of their nation of pioneers. As visitors arrived in larger and larger groups resorts developed on the most scenic coasts, dotting the island edges with a delicate embroidery of lights at night, marking runways, main streets and harbors, tracing festoon patterns along roads and around water reservoirs, and draping along the masts and sails of the boats out to sea.

  Sarah had a little hom
e built on the edge of the beach with views to the ocean. The kids often stopped by to have a pitcher of cold water or a few pears. Sarah joined them some times and would have liked to spend more time with them, but ever since the sisters started leading the prayer service the children found them a little unapproachable, they seemed so far removed from earthly cares. The children liked to watch them for a while but soon lost patience with the quiet stillness and fussed, giggling and pinching each other to the disapproval of their parents.

  "Behave!" they were constantly admonished, and they would have ignored the rebuke as always, if they didn't happen to encounter Seth's ethereal gaze. If the kids thought that Seth's intense stare was fearsome under normal circumstances, being caught in its unearthly reverie during quiet meditation was way too scary to bear. They would rather have had the annoyed looks of their mothers foretelling trouble as soon as they got home than the all seeing eyes of the 'sainted ones' descend upon their little souls and find flaw.

  Of course as soon as Seth and the sisters finished their prayer they came back to reality so to speak and were mixed in the hustle and bustle of the crowd just like everybody else. The talk of saintliness irritated Seth above all and she fought to refute this ridiculous idea at every opportunity.

  "So help me, I've broken my bones and dripped every drop of energy I had into the dirt of this planet for eighty seven years and now they're declaring me a saint for staring into space", she commented, frowning.

  Sarah tried everything she could to convince the little ones that she was not the recipient of holy grace and to stop calling her sister Sarah, but of course her efforts were in vain. Sister Sarah she remained for a generation or two of children, until she decided to take on the habit for real and chose the name of Joachima.

  "If I knew that wearing a robe would bring me this amount of deference I would have done it much sooner", commented Seth, who was no stranger to sarcasm. "Antigravity engine, endless cellular repair, breathing life into the wasteland - nothing to write home about. Formal dress and a splendid building - guaranteed sainthood."