“At night, going to the forest is a violation of the rules,” Hafa said pensively,“ Although, to not establish a connection with Earth means the failure of the fifth expedition in sum.”
“I am ready for the tour,” Omis said, and looked at his comrades to find out who wanted to be the third volunteer.
At first, no one said a word. The young people weighed their abilities and suitability for such an expedition. Again, the leaves of the apple tree began to dilute the silence, but this time they were not alone. The barely perceptible crowing of a cock, and the lowing of a cow, also audible only to a trained ear, supported them.
“I think I have realized something,” Bame spoke up suddenly, and with an ardor strange for Neians. “Maybe this situation is connected to a task that we cannot so far solve?”
“What do you mean?” Fof asked.
“I mean,” Bame began, already without bustle, “the SQP project did not provide the expeditions with spare parts. But we, the humans, are not just devices, so we obviously should have spare… mmm-m, units.”
After these words he looked over at his mates again. This time they looked at him with increased attentiveness and curiosity.
“We have thought many times over why it happened that the LAI-5 created sixteen boys and fourteen girls. So far we have not found any explanation of this oddity. And I think, maybe, that this inequality exists precisely for cases similar to the one in which we are now. When it is necessary to make a sortie by violating the safety rule, according to which we cannot travel at night outside the colony. You can only be near a bonfire or in a tent.”
These words made the young people think deeply. From time to time they threw perplexed glances at Bame. He grabbed the edge of his desk and, with the appearance of a man guessing a difficult riddle, began to swing his large body on the back legs of his chair.
“If it really is the way you say,” Fof began, “then there should be three extra people in the colony. After all, the rule requires that the outing team should consist of at least three members.”
Bame first shook his head, and then said with the same certainty: “Maybe these backup people were not created for such a tour, but for other reasons that we are not yet aware of?”
“And can you tell why exactly the guys were made as spare units?” Daf asked him.
Bame thought for a moment, and answered: “I do not know, maybe because the guys are less functional—I mean they cannot get pregnant and cannot create a new generation of people inside their bodies.”
Another period came for general reflection, after which Mafkona calmly asked: “Then who are these reserve units, Ama and Omis? Why exactly should they be the spare parts of the colony, and not you, for example?”
Bame, having heard these words, at first remained calm, but gradually the smug expression disappeared from his face, leaving no trace. For a while he looked at the girl, puzzled. The other settlers waited, wondering what Bame would answer the girl. What would he come up with? Soon after, he spoke, albeit reluctantly: “I expressed a version, but, of course, a human being on a new planet is such an important phenomenon that they could not be considered simply as a consumable.”
“The accuracy of the arguments of our ancestors sometimes get an unexpected confirmation,” Mafkona said, eyeing Bame with strange look.
The young man frowned in reply.
“With a strong incentive, a person becomes very inventive,” the girl continued. “A minute ago, Bame said that some of us are just spare parts, but when the question arose of why this person cannot be himself, he immediately stated that we are very exclusive and therefore cannot be spare parts.”
Hearing this, Bame was clearly at a loss. And his inability to give the girl a quick and accurate answer brought him out of the calm state that was usual for all the colonists. He even blushed. Ama, having seen this, frowned, but still reminded his comrades serenely: “As I said, we need another member; time is slipping away.”
“Since Bame believes that we are in such a bad situation because of me, I must correct my mistake, as we always do. I am the third in the group,” Mafkona said firmly, without hesitation.
This statement came as a surprise to Ama. On the one hand, he did not see Mafkona as a member of such a squad; he would have preferred it to be one of the strong youths. On the other hand, the girl had declared her desire faster than the others. Thus, in accordance with the rule, she got an undeniable advantage.
At one time, the robots had introduced a custom that encouraged the children to constantly train their ability to quickly and accurately respond to unexpected offers or events. The child who was first to respond to such an occurrence acquired the right of first choice.
In addition, Ama noticed that no one else had expressed a desire to go on this trip. However, he immediately realized the reason for this—after Mafkona’s announcement, the detachment was already staffed.
Chapter 47
Thus they finally decided that Ama, Mafkona and Omis would go on the expedition. They took four kilograms of food each, and leather flasks on their belts. In addition, the detachment had three masers, a longbow with ten arrows, and one sheathed knife. The list of things to be carried also included a raft-tent, a hammer-ax, and, of course, UDs on their wrists. Naturally, they distributed this burden in three backpacks.
The preparation lasted two hours. Then, after the scouts had had lunch, they took each of their rucksacks and placed them on their backs. Before leaving, Ama turned to Memi and once again enquired: “When exactly should we return?”
Memi checked the time, looked at the countdown in the upper right corner of his screen and answered: “The crystal should be here no later than at one o’clock in the morning of the fourth day, counting the current day.”
“I see. You should take into account that perhaps we would be forced to start the séance in the daytime.”
Memi just nodded back. After that, the three turned and took measured steps to the north.
That night, the founders of the new civilization went to bed without feeling any anxiety. Indeed, why should they worry? Their comrades had experience in hiking; they had both weapons and space navigation, and they could contact the colony at any time.
Only one uncertainty loomed in their minds—did anyone on Earth really remember a date which was not even included in the plan of colonization? At the time of receiving a message from Neia, this plan itself would be ancient for humanity; it would be four hundred years old…
Chapter 48
Medea patiently waited her turn at the hairdresser. The whims of a woman in her forties, who could not explain to the stylist what she wanted to do with her hair, didn’t annoy Medea. She was calm because now she wasn’t late for work, didn’t have to hurry to take care of her children, or even her house.
She no longer had reason to rush; neither did Johan. They’d retired almost simultaneously, and they had plenty of free time, really quite a lot. The time of their lives when they’d previously thought that they’d finally live for their own pleasure, without worrying about work or the moods of their superiors.
Although it soon turned out that when only further aging waits for you in the future, dealing with such a long vacation is not that easy. When you’re not planning any education, because you don’t have time to use new knowledge; you aren’t preparing for a career because you have already finished it; you don’t dream of love and a happy family, because you’ve had them both for a long time already.
Medea and Johan had nothing to embody, or beget. Their aspirations belonged to the past. They could only watch how their grandchildren were growing, and what they would achieve, because the story of their daughter and son was already more or less clear: neither of them had become world famous, or rich on the same scale; fortunately, they just lived with their happy families.
The couple engaged itself in their household, visited their relatives, exhibitions, new performances and in general, their life looked normal and eventful. Nevertheless
, sometimes it seemed to Medea as if they were going around in some final circle, because all these activities were just constantly repeating.
Now she pondered whether they should go to their grandchildren, but doubted that seeing them so frequently might cause callosities on the eyes of their offspring. Medea giggled at her joke, but still didn’t stop thinking about her free time. She wondered how other pensioners spent their time, and decided that she should ask Johan about it.
The fastidious client’s haircut finally ended, and Medea took her place. Thoughts followed her. The old woman tried to remember what other pensioners did to fill up their extra time—hmm, extra time.
We complain that life is short and flies by at lightning speed, but it turns out that in the end you have a huge amount of time and you don’t know what to do with it. As if you’re waiting for something and pretending that you didn’t know what you’re really waiting for.
“Do you want me just to tint your hair, or to shorten it a little, too?”the coiffeur asked.
“Yes, cut it, please, Sylvia, but only a little. Are your parents retired? How do they spend their time?” Medea asked unexpectedly, even to herself.
The stylist was surprised by this question, although not very much. She had long been accustomed to the quirks of her clients.
“Yes, they’re retired. They live in another town. I don’t know in detail what they are busy with in everyday life. I think they’re simply living, resting after their working career.”
“I see. They’re resting from the life which they strived for in the beginning so fervently,” Medea concluded with a joyless smile.
The hairdresser didn’t quite understand the strange mood of her regular client. So she simply smiled and said, “Yes,” just in case.
A coat of dye was applied to Medea’s hair, and she was asked to take a seat for drying. April was drawing to a close, and autumn already almost reigned in Johannesburg, although sometimes the summer weather still tried to resist it. Today it was just very warm, especially at the hairdresser’s, and Medea felt thirsty.
Fortunately, near the drying chair, at arm’s length, there was a transparent plastic container with drinking water. Next to it, on a shelf, stood a stack of cardboard glasses inserted one into another. The woman bent, but not so much as to be outside the stream of warm air, and at first she took the glass, then put it under the tap and poured water into it.
Quenching her thirst, Medea threw the cup into the bin and pulled her phone from her purse. She inserted the headphones into her ears and turned the gadget into TV mode. It showed a commercial about a toothbrush. The next channel praised an e-book reader. Finally, after several shifts, she stumbled upon something that at last aroused her curiosity.
“…But this fact itself wouldn’t matter if it were not for another circumstance.” A middle-aged man was talking on the screen.
“What do you mean, sir? Isn’t the age of the SQP project the reason for its shutdown?” The dark-skinned hostess of the television studio asked him, a woman with big eyes and pitch-black hair, with a parting in the middle.
“Of course it would have ended someday, but the completion of such a grandiose experiment, the only one in which all of humanity took part, couldn’t have happened just like the closure of some bankrupt restaurant. We thought there would be a solemn, albeit sad, farewell ceremony…”
Hearing these words, Medea was at first surprised, and then she gradually stopped listening to this nondescript person with a small face, unusually low-set ears and a bald head.
Her mind unexpectedly dived into the past, when she, a forty-year-old woman in her prime, together with most of humanity, was waiting for a message from the fifth starship. Now, first of all, she remembered her conviction: this waiting wouldn’t last long.
Only one of the six expeditions hadn’t sent any signals after the completion of its acceleration. The rest, although they all failed back in the last century, regularly, without delay, had been sending their tell-tales and landing reports. Even the fourth ship informed Earth of its accident in a timely fashion. So why should the last ship be an exception?
All the more, its last message came exactly on schedule. It contained encouraging information that all systems were in order, that the ship had precisely followed the calculated trajectory and it would reach its goal in 2401. The next report would be sent from the surface of the planet.
This meant that on any day, beginning in March, 2457, electromagnetic waves could bring to Earth information about whether the planet was suitable for humans or not.
Medea remembered that incredibly exciting period. Then it seemed to her that everyone in the world was waiting for good news from the galaxy. March came, the days succeeded each other, but space remained silent. Months passed, and when the lull lasted more than a year, the first signs of unrest appeared.
Years went by, one after another, and during ten of them first the unrest reached its peak, and then it abated, gradually been replaced by sad doubts. Only scientists still stayed confident in success, because they knew better the rules and dates of communication.
After twenty barren years, a sense of defeat began to dominate the ranks of the scholars, too. Among them the idea took a root that this time the wreck had happened right on the planet.
“Maybe,” they speculated, “the orientation system didn’t work, and the descent vehicle fell into the ocean instead of landing, and the water pressure crushed it.”
Initially this was only an assumption; indeed, it was incapable of completely destroying their hope, but another empty ten years had turned it into reality. After the end of that thirty year period, every following day only confirmed that the gigantic project had finally failed.
Then, when more than a third of a century had passed, there was no one left on Earth who doubted that the SQP project should be forgotten. By that time, the fifth expedition didn’t even have the technical ability to communicate with the solar system.
However, everything remained unchanged; there was no one who could dare to stop the project before the end of the so-called five-year reserve period. In fact, those in charge knew that it was pure self-deception. If not for the huge scale of the undertaking, such unique radio telescopes would have long been redirected to some useful task, instead of wasting time observing an unremarkable point in the sky.
After all, this last five-year expectation was based on the assumption that there were ideal living conditions on the planet and that the new people would always behave correctly. Both of these factors could really prolong the effective working of their energy source.
However, such reasoning contained an insurmountable internal contradiction—if these residents were so smart, and behaved unerringly, and the conditions of their existence were ideal, why hadn’t they sent the message on time? Why did they postpone it until the moment when the earthlings would stop observing their planet and declare the expedition lost forever?
As a result of that event—an inglorious end for the SQP—humanity seemed to have learned that it was sentenced to death, although to one delayed for a long time. But, no matter how long the delay was, how many hundreds of millions of years life would still exist on Earth, now everyone knew how it would end.
Medea shook her head, got rid of her unpleasant memories, and returned to the device in her ear.
“Could you remind our viewers why the decision has been made to finally close this project? It is clear that someday it should be terminated, but why at the end of the next week? As far as I know, in addition to the spare term, there is also some additional period, isn’t there?”
“Most of the additional period has already passed, but that isn’t the point. This fragment of time isn’t even included in the plan of colonization. In fact, it’s just a tribute to romance,” the studio guest explained with a polite smile on his face. “Nevertheless, we have taken it into account so far. Unfortunately, because of this well-known astronomical event, there is no way to waste time on this meanin
gless fragment anymore.”
“Could you tell our viewers about the phenomenon you mentioned?” the young journalist asked.
Immediately after her words, the poorly-disguised indifference disappeared from the scientist’s face.
“Dear friends, in one of the nearby galaxies, namely NGC 2683,” he stared directly at the camera lens with an enthusiastic gaze, “three supernovae exploded on a cosmic scale, right next to each other! This is a strange, unthinkable and incredible event! This is a real miracle of nature!” He delivered this speech with the appearance of a man being struck by his own words. “It’s the same as if you won the jackpot today, the next day your child won it, then your grandchild, then you again, and so on for a whole year!”
“Hmm, that really is amazing.” The journalist was clearly surprised by this comparison, but the next second she pulled herself together and returned to the subject of the interview. “So, because of this rare occurrence, tracking the fifth expedition will cease and thereby the SQP project itself will finally be completed, do I understand you correctly?”
The guest of the program impatiently nodded to her. “There is no other way. All the telescopes and all the specialists of the world are involved in studying such a grandiose natural phenomenon.”
He sighed, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his handkerchief and resumed speaking: “Nevertheless, the scientific community of the world did everything possible to bring this project to that truly symbolic date, but, to the amazement of our academic circles, life itself ordered us to finish it.”
Space for Evolution Page 20
