Space for Evolution

by Zurab Andguladze

  She meant that, according to their rules, the day began along with the rise of Ro and ended with its set, fourteen hours later, and therefore, noon came at seven o’clock.

  At her words, the travelers again checked their devices. Except Omis; instead of following the common example, he gazed at Daf—who was sitting next to him—as if seeing her for the first time.

  The girl noticed his gaze. “What are you thinking, Omis?”

  “Do you know what have I contrived just now?” He looked away from her and addressed everyone. “We planned that on the coast we would have about an hour for dinner and two hours to walk along the shoreline and explore the place.”

  "Yes, we had planned it so, but what now?" Daf asked.

  “Let us reduce the exploration time to one hour,” Omis replied. “Anyway, it is impossible to study the coast for just an hour or two.”

  “Omis, I do not understand the ultimate goal of your reasoning,” Nim admitted.

  “I think,” Omis said, “that one hour will be enough to see the ocean and its shore. And we can spend the saved hour on another attempt to get around the spikes.”

  The teens sunk into silence, pondering on his words.

  Eventually Fof, a girl with a round face and surprised almond-shaped eyes, expressed her opinion: “Let us resume the hike. Our challenge is to take another step in our self-development by exploring a new place. Therefore, we must use every opportunity to achieve it.”

  “Does anyone see any inaccuracy in Fof’s reasoning?” Memi asked loudly.

  No one answered him.

  “So, since we all agree with Fof, let us continue the walk and not waste any more time,” Ama summed up.

  Chapter 31

  The travelers rose and continued their journey, walking non-stop until the UD rang on Memi’s wrist, informing him that the squad had finished another stretch of the trip.

  “An hour has passed,” he informed his companions.

  Slowing their steps, the youngsters stopped and turned to him.

  “The time is up, but the thorny shrubs are still here. Our attempt has been futile.”

  They stood speechless for a minute and then Daf offered her advice: “Let us rest near that stream and stock up with water before we head back.” She showed her companions a barely noticeable water source among the plants about twenty or so steps ahead, which had only been visible to her because she was standing facing that direction.

  The scouts headed for the water, but Ama, still looking at the thorny shrubs, said, “Wait, there’s something there.”

  The wayfarers stopped and turned. They glanced where Ama pointed and saw a black gap in the shrubs, like the entrance to a cave. They exchanged curious gazes with each other and then headed towards the obscure opening.

  The explorers saw a free space about one meter wide, an entrance indeed, but not to a cave. It led to a trail through the impermeable shrubbery. On both sides the same thorny shrubs—about five centimeters thick—stood like rows of guardians. Only about ten centimeters separated them from each other and sharp thorns about a finger in length covered them from the roots to the top. At a height of three meters the shrubs grew over the path and formed a perforated roof. Only a dusky light could penetrate the passage. After about fifteen steps the path turned left, and they couldn’t see anything beyond.

  “A strange place. How could such an opening form among such dense shrubs?” Omis mused.

  “Look down.” Ama pointed to the bottom of the path. “Do you see? Solid stone has formed the floor of this passage, so no plants can take root here.”

  “I wonder why there is a stone pathway here?” Fof asked.

  “Who knows? Maybe these are the remains of some ancient mountain range that crumbled over time. Is not Neia much older than Earth?” Nim suggested.

  Fof surmised, “If this path leads to the ocean, then we can resume our expedition, can we not?”

  “Wait,” Memi grasped at her idea. “We can check it via satellite, although… I’m not sure it is wide enough to be seen from…”

  The scouts again watched his searches on their own screens and soon they received the new data from space.

  “As you can see,” the boy commented, “from a distance of thirty-six thousand kilometers, satellite optics cannot determine whether this track will lead us to the ocean or not.”

  “That device is not intended for checking such details.” Ama raised his hand to the sky. “Perhaps even a real telescope would have not helped us, because this is not a path. Actually, this is a tunnel through the bushes.”

  Fof, looking at her wrist, remarked, “At least the distance to the ocean is still three kilometers.”

  “So, are we continuing the hike or not?” Daf asked.

  “We do not have enough data,” Omis answered. “Maybe the path zigzags and it’s far longer than three kilometers, or it doesn’t lead to the coast at all. It could well be a loop.”

  “If that is the case, we may not get back to the colony before dark,” Nim continued the thought of his comrade. “We will be forced to spend the night outside the settlement. This is forbidden, so we must return.”

  Lost in their thoughts, the young pioneers, as usual, followed the logic of the machines —their mentors. Ama managed to announce the results of his meditation first: “We are here to explore the coast, to get to a new place and deal with an unknown situation. Is that not part of our training?”

  “Yes, obviously,” Omis agreed. “And...?”

  “So, if we do not get to the ocean, then today’s trek will morph into an ordinary sortie into the forest. Nothing new, no additional experience, only a waste of effort.” He paused briefly and completed his thought, “Maybe it is time to change the rule that forbids us to stay outside the colony at night.”

  “I do not think one group of trainees can simply make the decision to cancel such an important rule. We must contact the colony and consult with our comrades. And we also need to ask the GPC-5 about this,” Daf argued, then sat under the nearest plant and arranged a connection with the settlement. The others also found places where they could sit, on the roots or logs of fallen plants. Daf’s connection crackled to life, and the rest of the population of the planet Neia joined the conference.

  First, Ama explained their current situation, and then he relayed his last thoughts, “I have a suggestion. Instead of returning, we will continue our trip to the ocean, and if it takes longer than expected, we will spend the night on the shore. The terrain there is open, according to the photos. We will light a bonfire and set up shifts, so no one can sneak up on us.”

  His distant interlocutors participated in this council, not ceasing their affairs.

  “As I understand it, you do not know whether this path will take you ashore,” said Arfina, whose narrow face with green eyes appeared on the screens. “Then what is the point of continuing your hike?”

  “We really do not know anything,” Omis agreed. “But we will never know it if we do not pass along this way to its end.”

  “That is right,” Lomo, a boy with a white face and black hair, appeared on the screens in the foreground of the kitchen stove. “The path to the ocean will never be shortened. We will always be in the same situation as now.”

  Guf also supported the boys: “You have space navigation, you can handle weapons, in your backpacks there is enough food, your UDs can see in the infrared range. Is that not enough to be safe in an open place, even at night?”

  The planet’s young humanity thought about her question. Finally, Pamo, a black-skinned, muscular boy of average height, who almost screamed to surpass the bleating of one restless lamb, asked, “So you all want to follow this path, in spite of not knowing where it leads?”

  “Yes, I do.” All six travelers, one after another, spoke these words.

  “And yet, what about the rule?” Bame asked, whose broad pale face appeared on the screens against the background of the wood. “According to what it says, we can stay out of the colony
at night, but only after we reach the age of eighteen. We have a raft-tent for such cases. But now, when we are fifteen, this is forbidden, is that not so?”

  “I think we have a mismatch here,” retorted Mafkona. “This obstacle is obviously not the only one. Who knows what will we face in future expeditions? Then it will turn out that until the age of eighteen we shall have to go on excursions only to the same places again and again. But it would not be exploration. It would be senseless. Maybe this rule needs some correction?”

  “Let us ask the GPC-5,” Omis suggested.

  Since no one objected, Arfina, on her screen, entered the question into the GPC-5’s dialog box, and soon the machine replied: “All hiking rules are temporary. The rule which prohibits spending the night outside the colony is valid until a person reaches eighteen earthly years. This period can be shortened if there are no dangerous animals in the vicinity of the colony, if animals have not attacked people earlier or have never attacked domestic animals, and day sorties have taken place without incidents. In such circumstances, this rule may be revoked if all the people agree to revoke it.”

  “As we see, our situation exactly meets all the conditions necessary for the abolition of this rule. So we really can cancel it,” Memi said.

  “I think we’d better fix this rule and not completely abolish it.” Arfina was not prepared to completely support him.

  “What do you mean?” Fof entered into the conversation.

  “I mean that—” Arfina began to explain her thought, but then from the screens came the bleating of one restless sheep, so loud that it blocked the girl’s voice.

  “I will turn off the UD microphone and put the earphone in my ear,” Pamo shouted.

  The teens waited for him to do this, and then Arfina continued, “I say that staying next to the bonfire in an open area is one thing, and walking at night is another. So, let us make the following correction: from this day on it is allowed to stay outside the settlement at night. A bonfire should burn until dawn, and at least two persons on duty should guard those who are sleeping. Moving at night, as before, is prohibited.”

  The entire population of Neia meticulously weighed this correction and then unanimously approved it.

  Chapter 32

  Because of the tightness of the passage between the thorny shrubs, the travelers lined up in single file before entering it. Ama walked ahead, because during the shooting exercises he often scored more points than the others. Omis closed the file, and the thorns reliably covered them from the flanks.

  The space positioning system, although not global, accurately showed them their location. A satellite constantly hung over the settlement in a stationary orbit, providing communication and localization in an area small in comparison with the scale of the planet, but gigantic in reality. Although thorns compelled the travelers to follow the “corridor,” nevertheless, due to its zigzags, without space navigation they would quickly have ceased to understand where they were going—to the big water or in the opposite direction.

  After half an hour, Memi told his friends about the current trend: “We are going west again, not south.”

  Ama stopped and turned to his comrades. “We had foreseen such a possibility; therefore, if no one wants to rest, let us keep going.”

  No one wanted to stop, and the detachment continued on its way. Gradually, their doubts about the shape of the passage began to be justified. It seemed that the march through the bush was lasting forever. The passageway consisted almost exclusively of turns that followed one after another every ten or so meters, as in a maze. The travelers moved very carefully, the fear of a predator lurking in ambush slowing them down. Moreover, if this occurred, only Ama could shoot in this bottleneck.

  After another hour of walking, looking at her UD, Fof said, “We have turned south again, and five degrees east.”

  “Fof, speak quietly,” Ama muttered over his shoulder. “Better to be careful in this cramped area. It is better for us to listen."

  In response, the girl just nodded, and after that the group continued to walk on in complete silence. About forty minutes later, the thorny plants gave way to forest, and the teenagers finally left the gloomy tunnel. The young researchers immediately felt relieved. Tired of a long and non-stop walk inside the cramped aisle, they immediately set about looking for a place to rest. Glancing around, they went to the right and sat down along the bush on a carpet of dry leaves. The instruments on their wrists showed that only a few hundred meters were left to reach the ocean.

  After resting, they resumed their march and immediately noticed that the road was going uphill.

  “That’s a new smell,” said Daf.

  No one responded to her words; the travelers strode diligently through the thinning forest. Soon they found themselves on the top of a small sandy hill, from whence they saw a huge field, the surface of which flickered in the rays of Ro. Nothing grew on this plain, and they appeared unable to see its limits.

  “Are we in the right place? It is so… huge,” Fof said, expressing her curiosity.

  “Yes, we have reached the ocean,” replied Memi, also examining the expanse of water. “That was the goal of our educational scouting today.”

  “This is only the first part of the program. We must also spend a night here, and return home without damage,” Omis reminded everyone.

  They headed for the ocean, which waited for them behind a sandy coastline about three hundred meters wide. Having reached the slightly noticeable waves and stepping into them, Ama looked at his screen.

  “Now it is ten hours and forty-two minutes,” the boy informed his companions. “We have walked twenty-seven kilometers and eight hundred and five meters. Instead of the planned six hours, we’ve spent eleven hours and twenty-seven minutes.”

  “And we went an extra eleven kilometers,” Nim added.

  Memi announced: “It’s more than three hours before Ro’s setting. We have enough time to explore the surroundings. Let us have a meal first.” He wiped his forehead with his palm and added, “I am hungry.”

  “Let us call this ocean Southern, do you all agree?” Fof addressed to her companions.

  The young people just started nodding silently, and then Daf said, “It is too hot in the open. Let’s go back to the forest and have dinner in the shade.”

  The wayfarers silently agreed with her, too. They emerged from the water and returned to the forest. There they took off their backpacks and pulled out supplies wrapped in cotton cloth. They had boiled chickens, corn tortillas, cucumbers, cheese, tomatoes and parsley. They laid this food out on thin wooden plates placed on a small area of sand in the shadow of two large plants.

  Twenty minutes later, having satisfied their hunger, the teenagers lay down on the warm sand to relax. Daf contacted her comrades remaining in the colony.

  Lif answered first, her oval face appearing on the screens. “I am listening. Have you reached the ocean?”

  “Yes, we have,” replied Daf. “The water is warm, the waves are small, the ocean is huge, and we have called it Southern. We just finished dinner, and now we will gather firewood for the night. Look at the picture.”

  With these words, she pulled out a lens from her UD and began a telecast. At first, she showed the boundless ocean, lit by the slanting rays of the luminary.

  “It is yellowish, indeed,” Mafkona commented from the settlement.

  Next, Daf showed the white sand of the beach, and then her comrades, already gathering dry branches for the bonfire and big leaves for beds.

  “It is good that the path led you to the goal,” Hemu remarked.

  “Yes, our efforts have been effective. We have gotten new knowledge. Now we know the path to the ocean,” Daf said seriously, as she always did, without smiling.

  “Then the connection is over until morning,” Arfina said, finishing the conversation.

  In a short time, the travelers had gathered enough firewood and leaves. After that, they went along the ocean toward the River Quie
t. They shot video and floundered in the warm waves, although carefully, and only in knee-deep water.

  Three hours ran by fast. Exploring the coastline in the east, they even desired to walk to the very coast of the great river to see how it flowed into the ocean, but navigation showed them that it was very far, almost eleven kilometers. And then they noticed that Ro had already touched the horizon. By its setting, the surf had intensified. The scouts took this into account and decided to spend the night behind the hill, from whose top they had first seen the ocean. This elevation would protect them from the sound of the waves, and it would be easier for them to distinguish other sounds in the night.

  Omis pulled the spiral from his UD, made it red-hot and brought it against the stacked firewood. The spiral touched a small sliver. It darkened first and then, when the boy blew at it mightily, the kindling-wood burst into flame. Soon, the fire had broken out, and the travelers began taking their seats around it.

  The teenagers had barely had time to take their places when suddenly, after the flame had reached its peak, a few meters away, on the border of the light, Fof spotted a flickering strip. At first, the girl didn’t understand what it was, but the next moment, when she remembered the night glitter of the eyes of domestic animals, the girl realized that she had seen the single oblong eye of a wild beast.

  Fof immediately turned her maser in that direction and, without aiming, released several pulses of electromagnetic energy. Almost simultaneously with her action, a cry came from the forest, turning into a hiss. Then they all heard the rapidly fading rustling of branches. The scouts jumped to their feet and pointed their weapons at the sound.

  “I hit it, but I did not kill it; it ran away,” the girl informed her companions.

  “What was that? How did it manage to sneak upon us so closely?” Omis wondered.