Proxima Logfiles 1: Marchenko's Children: Hard Science Fiction

by Morris, Brandon Q.

  “It still seems wrong to me,” said Eve. “They can build spaceships, but they can’t grow enough food for everybody?”

  “It’s a question of mathematics,” said Adam. “Each female lays almost fifty eggs every year. If all the hatchlings were to survive, no planet would be able to accommodate that many Grosnops.”

  Eve sighed. “Maybe I made a mistake.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Marchenko.

  The aquarium. Adam had a sense of what was about to happen. Eve stood up and walked around the sofa to the bathroom. They had separate bathrooms. Eve had insisted on a large tub, while Adam preferred to have a shower. She opened the door and pointed to the container that was filled with water about one meter deep. On the ground was a frog about 30 centimeters high with two pairs of arms, two strong legs, and a conical head.

  “I named him Groni,” said Eve. “Little Gronolf.”

  * * *

  “So what do we do now?” asked Marchenko.

  They were sitting around the table again.

  “We have to report it to Gronolf,” Adam said.

  “No way. He’ll kill the little one,” said Eve.

  Maybe she was right. The way he threw the egg with the hatchling into the water... Gronolf was certainly not a revolutionary who would question the hatching ritual, and now Eve could be in great danger.

  “How did you do it?” he asked.

  “ I went back to the beach at night. I just wanted to check if he’d gotten out of harm’s way.”

  “And how did you find him?” asked Adam.

  “He was somewhat warmer than the water around him, probably because he’d struggled so much. There was a crack in the ice, and one of his touch-arms was stuck in it. I could see it with the infrared. So Groni hadn’t been able to get to safety. He was lucky that he hadn’t suffocated. Then he latched onto my finger. I simply had to take him with me.”

  “I assume there’s no way you would want to release your hatchling again,” said Marchenko.

  “Over my dead body.”

  “Well, if there’s a Grosnop who finds out, you might have to follow through with that promise. But I believe we can keep it from going that far. You’ll get your aquarium on board the Majestic Draght. Gronolf has supreme command there. If you can’t hide it anymore, you can expect the mildest punishment from him. At least that’s what I’d hope. But apart from that, we just have to keep it a secret. During the flight the crew is frozen anyway, and there is also plenty of food for Grosnops on the ship. Here in your bungalow, that will be harder to get. And you can’t always just leave him in the bathtub. The hatchlings grow rather quickly. So we have to launch as quickly as possible.”

  “That sounds like a good plan,” said Eve.

  For her and Groni, it was an almost perfect plan. But what about for him, Adam? Did he really want to board a ship to fly through empty space for years? He could also stay here alone, with Marcus and Kirsten and all the Grosnops he didn’t know. No, he didn’t want that either. Definitely not. He thought this other pair of humans who looked so much like him and Eve seemed profoundly boring. They had some kind of married life. Admittedly, he felt drawn to Eve now and then, especially after learning that they weren’t biological siblings. But he’d known her for so long that it still seemed like incest somehow. Was it even possible to fall in love with someone you’d known for 20 years and been in diapers with?

  But who knew? Maybe there would be an Eve for him on the planets they were going to visit. A woman with whom life would be exciting again. That would make it worth it.

  “Yes, fine, I’m in too,” said Adam.

  Eve looked at him gratefully.

  “But how do we get Groni on the ship?” she asked.

  “It won’t be a problem,” said Marchenko. The giant robot rose up on his chassis and opened the stomach flap. “I have almost one cubic meter of storage space in here that I’m also able to seal. The hatchling can stand it for a while.”

  “When do you want to get going?” asked Adam.

  “As soon as possible. But I have to take care of the aquarium first. I’ll have one installed in each of our cabins, and I’ll simply pretend that humans like swimming in such tanks. Who could provide any evidence to the contrary?”

  Brightnight 5, 3882

  “You want aquariums in your cabins? What’s that all about?”

  Gronolf was standing in the front doorway, scratching his back with his touch-arms. He looked like a gigantic butterfly without wings. Did he suspect something?

  “Come on in first,” said Adam, bending down to set his hastily packed travel bag against the wall. He was surprised at how easy it was for him to say goodbye to this planet. What he already missed most of all was the furniture he’d built himself. On the other hand, his clothes had come from the fabricator, primarily t-shirts and blue pants that were all the same cut and style.

  Gronolf accepted the invitation. He noticed the ruined sofa and pointed to it. “Haha. Marchenko was here yesterday. Right?”

  “A clever deduction,” Adam replied.

  The door to Eve’s room suddenly flew open. Eve shot out and waved briefly to Gronolf, then opened the door to her bathroom and ran inside. The key turned in the lock with a click. Good. Now there was no way Gronolf would look in the bathroom.

  “Did you say something, Adam?” Gronolf asked.

  “Clever deduction, I said.”

  “After that.”

  “No.” Adam shook his head.

  “I thought I heard someone whisper when Eve ran into the bathroom. What’s wrong with her?”

  “Maybe that noise was her stomach. Maybe she ate something bad yesterday—she’s been back and forth from the bathroom all day today.”

  “Here’s where I’m luckier than you. If something bad gets into one of my stomachs, I just open the stomach fold and empty it out.”

  Gronolf opened his stomach fold. Adam looked away in time, but couldn’t keep from smelling the sour odor.

  “Thanks, Gronolf. I’ve seen enough.”

  “I just wanted to tell you that I’m very happy about your decision. You’re my favorite humans. This trip is also crucial for my species. We still know far too little about our neighborhood in the universe. And perhaps we’ll find a world that is better suited to life than the one sun system.”

  “That’s very nice of you. We like you too and are very grateful for everything you’ve done for us.”

  This was the perfect moment to confess to Eve’s wrongdoing. Gronolf seemed to be in the best of moods. If they let him in on it, everything would be much easier.

  “Gronolf?”

  “Yes, Adam? Wait. Before you say anything, I must apologize for the day before yesterday. The ceremony must have been shocking for you. I shouldn’t have imposed it on you. But I thought you would be able to understand us better if you saw the hatching ritual. It’s really important to me that we—humans and Grosnops—get along well. Having the hatchlings take this one step all by themselves and trusting them so much was the decisive revolution in our society. It was only after this that there was an end to the violence and the war. If you had met me back then, I would have killed you—would have had to kill you—for fear of competition. I wouldn’t have known that your kind didn’t reproduce through egg-laying. I never would have found out, either.”

  “I understand, Gronolf.”

  It was not a good time to share Eve’s secret with Gronolf. And it was doubtful the time would ever come.

  “I’m glad. How is Eve?”

  “She’s fine, apart from her stomach.”

  “I wanted to invite you on a little excursion. Who knows when we’ll have the chance to take one again...?”

  “That’s an excellent idea,” said Adam. “Where do you want to go?”

  “To the Mountains of the Legends.”

  “Never heard of them. But that sounds exciting.”

  “Have you finished packing?”

  “Almost. What do you thin
k about picking us up in an hour? Hopefully Eve will be feeling better by then.”

  “Sounds like a plan, Adam.”

  * * *

  “Time to get out!” Gronolf ordered.

  Adam looked at the ground. It wasn’t damp at all. So there was a dry place somewhere on this planet after all? It rained almost every day, and swamps had dominated the landscape all along the two-hour drive.

  “No. Come on, let’s keep driving!” said Eve.

  “We have to go the rest of the way on foot,” Gronolf explained.

  “Is it far?” Adam asked and jumped to the ground, which yielded slightly.

  “Just an hour, but it’s uphill,” said Gronolf.

  Of course. They were going to the Mountains of the Legends.

  Gronolf bent down and fiddled with the flight beam. Then he pulled out a plank that measured about two meters long and threw it on his back.

  “What’s that? A weapon against wild animals?” asked Eve.

  “No, the only really dangerous animal here is the venomous hedgehog,” Gronolf answered. “But its spines are too soft to break the skin.”

  “Not your skin, but maybe ours?” Adam asked.

  Gronolf leaned down to him, felt his skin, and pinched a fold with two fingers.

  “Ouch.”

  “Yes, maybe your skin,” Gronolf said.

  “Thanks for the warning,” Adam said.

  “If you see a black or gray ball rolling across the ground, just don’t touch it,” said their companion. “They’re pretty cute and not at all aggressive, but they don’t like it when anyone bothers them.”

  * * *

  They hiked up a narrow path. So far, they hadn’t encountered any venomous hedgehogs. Their route wouldn’t have been strenuous at all if there hadn’t been streams constantly getting in their way. There were no bridges. Instead, there were small platforms made of wooden planks built on either side. Using his powerful Grosnop legs, Gronolf could jump from the planks to get across the water. Then he would just set down the plank he’d brought along with him, and Adam and Eve would balance and cross.

  It was a very pleasant excursion, especially since the weather was cooperating. The mother sun was still in the middle of the green sky and warmed Adam’s back. Was it really such a good idea to spend the next few years in black, empty space instead of here in this paradise?

  The ground shook, and subtle movements rose up his spine. Adam stopped.

  “What was that?”

  “There’s no reason to worry. The earth is always in motion in the Mountains of the Legends,” said Gronolf.

  “Mountains that shake—are we hiking on a volcano?”

  “Yes, Adam. Most of the mountains here are of volcanic origin.”

  “What I mean is, an active volcano?”

  “Active? No, you can certainly see that it’s not spewing fire. Active volcanoes are considered sacred, so we keep our distance from them.”

  “Surely it’s also healthier.”

  “We see things differently. In our culture, volcanoes are considered to be givers of life. A Grosnop who falls into the mouth of a volcano attains eternal life. If active volcanoes weren’t off-limits, there would be many devout Grosnops who’d try throwing themselves in.”

  “Then let them,” said Eve. “That would solve your overpopulation problem without your having to constantly sacrifice innocent hatchlings.”

  Gronolf stopped. He must have been distraught, because his short head moved back and forth several times. “Eve, you’re our guests. I saved you and I brought you here. Do you really think that entitles you to judge our traditions?”

  Eve turned red. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. “It... I’m sorry,” she said finally. “I wanted to... I can’t get the images out of my head, all that blood spreading in the sea, the carrionteeth swimming toward the beach...”

  “It’s my fault,” Gronolf said. “I shouldn’t have shown it to you. It is a very, very important time for us. Believe me, every mother hopes that all her hatchlings will come back to her after a year. It’s difficult to say goodbye.”

  The ground shook again—even a little more than before. Did the mountain want to shake them off?

  “Did you notice that?” asked Adam.

  “Yes, it feels weird,” said Eve.

  “Let’s keep going,” said Gronolf. “We still have enough time before there’s an eruption.”

  * * *

  “What does that mean?” asked Adam.

  “What?” Gronolf asked.

  “That we still have enough time before the eruption.”

  “The volcano is continuously gathering strength. And when it shakes itself off, we get those vibrations. They increase gradually. Usually the volcano releases so much pressure in this way that it calms back down.”

  “And if not?”

  “Then it erupts, of course. But that only happens about once a century.”

  “When was the last eruption here?” Adam asked.

  Gronolf stopped and rotated. Then he pointed to a plant around eight to ten meters high that was reminiscent of a pyramid.

  “Over there, the spiked cherry. Do you see it? The tree must be as tall as three Grosnops. It grows one yard every year, so the last eruption was... one hundred years ago.”

  “Great, thanks,” said Adam. “That’s certainly calmed me down. We’d better just keep going.”

  * * *

  “Wait!” Gronolf called, keeping him back with his touch-arm.

  Adam came to a stop so suddenly that Eve bumped up against him. He lurched, but Gronolf kept his hold on him. He was standing on a wooden platform. But this time there was no stream. Below his feet, the ground dropped steeply and he stared into a dark abyss. He couldn’t even begin to guess how far down it went.

  “Whoa!” he said.

  “What does that mean?” asked Gronolf.

  “It means I’m very surprised.”

  “I see. Wait, Adam, I’m going to lay the plank over the outlet.”

  “Outlet?”

  “Here, the lava from the last eruption was diverted in order to get it down into the valley safely. The crevice was created artificially. Unfortunately, the plank isn’t long enough.”

  “Then we have to turn back,” said Adam.

  “No, wait here.”

  Gronolf crouched down and jumped across the abyss. He made it look so easy. Then he turned to them and held out the plank.

  “What am I supposed to do with it?” asked Adam.

  “Put it on the ground. Then walk over.”

  “But it’s too short.”

  “I’ll just keep holding it, like I am now,” Gronolf said. “It’s not a problem. Once you’ve reached the end, then I’ll get you.”

  “You want me to use the plank that you’re holding to walk across this pit?”

  “Exactly, Adam. Now come on.”

  Adam took a step backward and shook his head. “No way.”

  Eve got in front of him. She put one foot on the board Gronolf was holding with his right touch-arm and tested it. It wobbled ever so slightly. Then she crossed the abyss in seven steps. Adam was counting as she made her way. Gronolf’s left touch-arm wrapped around Eve and lifted her to the other side.

  “You see? Now it’s your turn,” said Gronolf.

  “I...”

  “If you wait much longer, the eruption will get us,” said Eve.

  Adam couldn’t help but laugh. Fighting one fear with another. Typical Eve.

  “Just close your eyes,” Gronolf suggested. “Then you won’t see the abyss.”

  Adam flipped him the bird. Then he took one step on the plank, then another. Three, four. He swayed a little. Five. The plank shook. Six. The world around him turned, and suddenly he was standing next to Eve, and Gronolf was blocking his view of the abyss.

  “Well done,” Gronolf said.

  “Thank you. Was that another quake?”

  “Yes, the mountain is shaking itself off.”


  * * *

  Fifteen minutes later they reached the highest point of their trek, which hadn’t been visible from below. It was a circular path along the ridge of a volcanic crater that measured about five kilometers across.

  “Isn’t this amazing?” Gronolf asked.

  Adam looked around. To the west was a chain of cone-shaped mountains that looked a lot like this one. Flatlands predominated to the east and the north, and in the south was the glittering sea. Gray clouds were moving across the green sky. It must have been the middle of the afternoon, as Mother Sun had made it halfway to the horizon.

  Approximately 200 meters below, a lake extended from one end of the crater to the other. Mother Sun was so low that her rays no longer reached the surface. The water was calm and almost black.

  “The lake is sacred,” explained Gronolf. “Come, let’s go down the slope a bit.”

  “Isn’t it forbidden, since the lake is sacred?” Eve asked.

  “We’re not going to the lake,” Gronolf said, and started walking.

  The path downward was so steep that Adam kept having to hold onto boulders and plants. If he wasn’t careful, he’d take a 200-meter fall. The chances were slim that he’d survive such a tumble, even if he were to wind up in the water.

  Fortunately, Gronolf came to a stop after they’d made a short climb. There was a hole that gaped in the side of the cliff.

  “This is the Cave of the Legends,” Gronolf explained.

  “Sacred?” Adam asked.

  “Yes, but we can go inside.”

  Gronolf reached into his stomach fold and extracted three flashlights. Everybody got one. Adam closed his hand around the metal handle, and the light switched on automatically. The handle felt slimy, and a shiver ran down his spine. Did he want to know what it was? No.

  The Grosnop forged ahead. It was cool and damp in the cave, and there were puddles on the ground. Many small rivulets streamed out from the walls to quickly disappear back into the rock. At first Gronolf had to crawl and Adam had to keep his head down, but the cave gradually got bigger. Yet there were neither stalactites nor stalagmites. Was it possible it had been created artificially?