Finches of Mars

by Brian W Aldiss

  Rather more noticeable than any of this, two of the trio carried weapons resembling lances, which were pointed at Tad and Gongcha.

  The unarmed member of the trio held up a hand, possibly in greeting, and said something incomprehensible.

  ‘Sorry,’ said Tad. He felt that his bones were turning to water. ‘We—we understand what—oh, I mean we do not understand what you are saying.’ Even as he said it, he shuddered with a thrill of—was it fear or even excitement?—somehow realising he was addressing—well, someone from another world … The awe of it made him gasp.

  Gongcha spoke up in his stead. ‘We are surprised by your arrival. We have our own language and you will hardly expect us to understand yours. This makes communication difficult, if not impossible. So’—she bit her lip uncertainly—‘would you prefer to go away, please?’ Gongcha lifted her arms to indicate the possible ease of take-off.

  The three arrivals seemed to laugh without showing any amusement on their faces.

  Tad registered the shape of their heads, where foreheads protruded above enlarged eyes. He was occupied with their strange beauty when the newcomers began communicating wordlessly.

  The communication came in a wave, by way of stars, planets and planetesimals, winds, oceans, currents, swarming cities, cloud features and flights of birds ever a-wing, lifetimes of grandeur and squalor, circumstances and inheritance, and much else Tad could not understand, although he recognised that his misunderstanding was inevitable. Such knowledge came as a whirlwind.

  Oh that communication!

  This bolt from the blue, from those protruding foreheads, made it clear enough that these visitors were inheritors. Humanity’s pained struggle to give birth in alien places had succeeded in only two more fleeting years from that point. Amniotic adjustment, in restoring generation—but many generations later—had resulted in these strangers now visiting; these, standing here now, on the wide pavements of Tharsis.

  And she whom Tad loved, coming from another country—he saw she too had received this glorious puzzlement of communication. She and Tad clutched one another in a kind of rapture. ‘They’re sus–speaking Mandarin!’ she gasped.

  But rapture and shock. For all the grandeurs of their armies, their artists, their autocrats and kings, humanity—the communication made that at least clear—humanity was but one life form among a myriad more.

  Tad recovered himself sufficiently to address them again.

  ‘We are astonished. If you are what you seem, then this is an archi–architival situation. No. I meant to say archetypal. Did I? You look remarkably like us. Many generations ago, our forefathers descended from apes. It may be the same with you … Sorry—I’m babbling …

  ‘Perhaps you have been mistaken in believing that we speak Language A, when all the time we speak Language B. Since we are residents of this planet, we believe that you should use Language B when in conversation with us. My hope is that you understand my speech after that great wordless—that wordless communication of yours.’

  Gongcha stared at him in astonishment. ‘What are you on about?’

  Tad closed his eyes, still unable fully to believe this meeting was happening.

  ‘This is as incomprehensible as my dream.’ Gongcha looked about her but there was no one else to be seen. ‘How can we cope after that … what was it? The vision they communicated?’

  After holding a brief word with one another, two of the three newcomers retreated into their machine. They returned after some minutes—minutes evidently devoted to extrapolation—with what looked like a slender glass booklet. The gadget spoke perfect Mandarin and English.

  ‘Your speech is welcome. We see you are carrying no injurious weapons. That is well. Accompany us to your living place.’

  ‘The rudiments of a living place, at least,’ said Tad, as they set off back to the towers, followed by the newcomers, who said nothing more. Their craft followed them. Silent. Alien. Hull just above ground.

  Tad clutched Gongcha’s arm. ‘Can you believe this? Is all this real?’

  She was staring at the newcomers. ‘Is it destiny? I want to touch one of them. Could this be the irresistible reason—hidden from all of us—why we came to Mars in the first place?’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  Then, suddenly agitated, ‘Just suppose they turn on us, kill us—know till your dying breath I loved you.’

  ‘Oh and I you, dearest. But these are linguists. Linguists don’t kill. Do they?’

  ‘How can I know?’ she said. ‘But at least that great communication teaches us there are many things we do not understand, even about life itself …’

  They had to leave their tractor where it stood.

  32

  Descendants from the Present

  They were awaited. Many people had left the five remaining towers spurred by curiosity or apprehension or a combination of both. Above them, above the towers, above Tharsis, now hovered a great grey machine, its nearside flank reflecting the rays of the sun. It was the shape of a slice of melon, although its size was far more grand. It was the main ship, to the shuttle that Tad and Gongsha had encountered.

  If the ship was not from Earth, which seemed apparent from the ship’s design, then from whence did it come? Was it hostile? Several humanoids emerged from this machine, descending in a mighty elevator, to look about with intense interest.

  People continued to emerge cautiously from West and China towers, and then from the more distant towers. They were fearful and stood in small clusters, muttering among themselves. Everyone, it seemed, had received the great enveloping communication.

  Silence. No movement. At length, a separate door in the elevator slid open. A small man in saffron robes emerged. On his head he wore a kind of crown from which simulated flames arose. He bore a placard on which were glowing the words:

  HAVE NO FEARS—WE ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF YOU PRESENT PEOPLE HERE

  Much muttering from the crowd. ‘Supposing they are descendants,’ Doran said. ‘Do they happen to love their parents?’ It was a nervous joke, and his lip trembled.

  ‘But if it’s true …’ Tuot’s voice was shrill. ‘If it’s true then the question of childbirth is solved.’

  This seminal fact was discussed only later, for now they concentrated on the grand visitors who had appeared from the visiting ship.

  An object resembling a sunshade was switched on and one of the visitors held it above the head of the tallest of their group.

  This imposing person began addressing the crowd in his native tongue, to the mystification of all. It was Ooma who cried out suddenly, ‘Did you hear? He used the word “metanipoko”! Our word! Our coinage!’

  The grand person broke off his speech to repeat, smiling, the word ‘metanipoko’.

  He ran forward and embraced Ooma, then held her shoulders at arm’s length.

  It was at this juncture that Tad and Gongcha arrived with their escort.

  Noel crossed to Tad and was informed that they had managed to speak to the newcomers; but how, she puzzled, had they been able to use this word ‘metanipoko’, coined here on Tharsis?

  ‘Come on, Noel,’ someone interjected from behind her. ‘Does it matter? Don’t think we’re not amazed and absolutely delighted!’

  Aided by the translation box, the leading newcomer addressed the crowds still gathering. For some it appeared he spoke in English, but to Gongcha and others who had come out from the China tower to stand silent in wonder his speech was Mandarin.

  ‘We gain pleasure from finding you. I will tell you things of great importance …

  ‘Perhaps you people here do not realise that the concept of “the universe” is a relic of pre-Copernican thinking. At that time, Earth was supposedly the centre about which the so-called heavenly bodies revolved. Even when the advance of knowledge proved it seriously incorrect, I believe you ancient peopl
e continued to use the term for convenience.

  ‘Reality is far larger and more nebulous than you could ever have supposed. Even Einstein long ago declared in his special theory of relativity that time dilation was a possibility. Fast-moving ships will experience time at a different rate to a stationary observer. On our ships, we slow time down almost to a halt.

  ‘It was Noh Ma in your times who laid the foundations for a new understanding of our Reality.

  ‘Gallowan, two centuries ago—our centuries, I fear, not yours—estimated that there were methods whereby a fast-moving body could enter and ride the time spike forward or, indeed, backward. This is what we refer to as the Gallowan Equation or a GE, an adaptation of Noh Ma’s work. It would take a day to explain these equations, and then I doubt if you people are entirely equipped to understand. You would require training beforehand.’

  ‘Condescending bastick!’ exclaimed Daze. The process that delayed Martian aging to near immortality had slowed the rate of growth from child to adult, too. But, Daze had long been adult now, and was a full and working member of the Martian community.

  ‘But he’s probably right,’ said Piggy.

  Daze raised her hand to ask a question, saying, ‘Who is this Noh Ma of whom you speak? Or are we too primitive to hear it?’

  The noble person smiled, saying with grave courtesy, ‘You may indeed be too primitive for many things, but for sure you have heard the name of the Japanese astrophysicist who first opened the way to Reality space. His name was at one time anglicised. It was Noh Ma Nikasaki.’

  The noble person smiled and continued his discourse.

  ‘The modification and application of Gallowan’s equation led to the construction of a small working model which they sent backwards in time. It sent us a signal to say we were correct in our calculations. The faster than light trail existed, binding reality together. That was before the model disappeared entirely.’

  Gongcha was listening and watching Tad. Tad was listening with his mouth slightly open. Seeing that Gongcha was looking at him, he said in a whisper, ‘What power! D’you reckon they’d take us to their future?’

  She shrugged, thinking, Is it power or adventure that arouses him? I can see it’s going to be over between us, sooner or later. Alas. In any case … Well, I was tiring of him.

  She tuned in to what the noble person was saying.

  ‘… building the sizeable vessel which you see anchored above us. When moving, it easily exceeds the so-called speed of light. Passageways winding between the gravitational pull of various solid bodies—they help. So we can travel where we will among star systems. It also means we can travel to the past. As you have just observed …’

  Gior found herself trembling. At this extraordinary evolutionist moment, she felt they should be hearing the most valiant silver music—and there it was …

  ‘Shouldn’t we be offering them something?’ Gior whispered to Gerint. ‘If they’re that puissant?’

  ‘What do we have that would not make us appear abject in their eyes?’ said Gerint.

  The noble person repeated himself, just in case he had not been understood. ‘Under Gallowan’s and his team’s modifications, we are now able to travel to our distant past. With no harm to ourselves.

  ‘You, my friends, primitive though you may be, are our honoured predecessors. Do you understand this? You are our predecessors in the great chain of being. We have developed mentally and bodily. Of the mental aspect I will say that when we converse together, we conjure pictures or pictograms as in groups of words in Chinese scripts.

  ‘These we can alternate as Obscure or Factional, as the situation requires. Our progeny master all such language versions–’ here he paused ‘–I suppose around fifty or fifty-five versions.

  ‘As for bodily development. It is necessary that I show you an example by way of demonstration.’

  As he spoke, this noble person opened his curiously formed drawers.

  A gasp went up from the crowd as his naked flesh was revealed. Wrinkled proboscis-like skin was bisected by a vertical crack where it seemed there was a closed lip of flesh capable of opening when needed.

  Reactions were mixed, gasps, laughs, a ‘Disgusting!’ from Phipp.

  Enclosing his remarkable anatomy within his drawers again, the noble person said, ‘You may deduce from this development that many years have passed between your lifetimes and ours. And also changing environments.’ He spoke plainly, almost with indifference. ‘Evolution is a continuous process, improving our survival rates.’

  A babble of discussion arose. ‘And modesty is extinct,’ someone giggled.

  ‘Be quiet!’ Herrit shouted. ‘We are not Palaeolithics. Hear him out. You men, you find this funny?’

  ‘Why, it’s nigh on miraculous …’

  ‘Why does he bother?’

  ‘I wish I understood the language shifts he spoke about.’

  ‘I don’t like this at all.’

  ‘Oh dear, what’s to become of us!’

  ‘Why, this, you ass …’

  And sundry other comments.

  33

  Reception in the China Tower

  The noble person waited until the shouting died before proceeding to speak again.

  ‘We have become discerning. The ceaseless multiplication of our race is not necessary. Demand must not exceed supply. Do I say that correctly? Too many is too much.

  ‘Humans are no longer divided into two separate sexes, as with you and with those before you in these earlier ages. Or rather, in our generations we carry both sexes within us. For half a year, the masculine comes into play, in the other half the feminine is activated. The conflicts that existed between the sexes, a cause of much friction once, have been annulled; we now experience emotions and sensations from both sides and sensibilities. In my female phase, I can bear children, and have done so. Such is the current reality.’

  He listened unmoved to expressions of surprise from the crowd. He stood tall and unmoving. When the crowd grew silent, he continued.

  ‘I believe that even in your day—your Now, which carries you along—it is a commonplace that there exists something of the female in the male and something of the male in the female, in a healthy individual. It’s hardly surprising. So that feature has gradually developed from psyche into flesh. This happened long before my grand famoth’s time. I trust I make myself clear? All things change, as does the wind.’

  After a pause, he said, ‘We have been initially surprised to find this planet all but uninhabited. It is easy to shift into conflicting reality veins.’

  He had finished, but added smilingly, ‘Like you, we live our short and humble lives of four hundred summers and then it’s over and done with. Like you, we know well metanipoko …’

  The noble person and two of his company were shown into the China tower, it being the most decorative of the five towers. The noble person announced himself as Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan. He refused the food they offered. He said they took food only at what he called ‘the noon of the slight week’. His companions had set a translation box on the table between them.

  ‘It is instructive for us to see Mars Planet in one of its earlier states. You are to be congratulated on preserving it almost unspoiled.’

  Noel thanked him for his sentiments.

  Gerint asked Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan how many planets he had visited.

  ‘I have never been physically on a planet before this time,’ came the answer. ‘I was born on board our ship. Although I find this floor rather uneven, it is a valued experience to be here.’

  Gongcha expressed her surprise. ‘Were you happy to be confined on your ship all your life?’

  ‘I was very happy. We have made “happy” one of the constants for usage. It means moderate. I saw many suns and planets and many other manifestations of the cosmos and I had an opportunity
to acquire knowledge. In particular some knowledge of Reality.’ He seemed to correct himself by adding, ‘The shifting sands of Reality …’

  ‘So you were never sad?’

  He gave a light laugh. ‘I was made melancholy when we found a planet where the people were eating native animals and fish, precious denizens of their environment. The lives of such people were spent hunting or killing and slaughtering; the effects pervaded all levels of their societies. We never stayed there. We feared the inhabitants might try to eat us. There was a cult of the knife.’

  Tad whispered to Gongcha that he was sick of what he called ‘all this rigmarole’. He wished to disappear to consider the grand communication he had received. But she felt differently and felt the need to respond in full to what the great man had said.

  ‘I believe we are carnivores when we get the chance. At least in our generation. Herbivores spend much of their time grazing or browsing, and so do not develop intellect. Also herbivores tend to specialise in their diet, and thus do not spread to other territories, as they might wish. They are more vulnerable to famines or floods.

  ‘In China, we used to have pandas, members of the Ursidae family. Their diet consisted almost entirely of bamboo, although some in captivity would eat fish and eggs. But they became extinct because their diets were so limited.’

  ‘They were killed off and eaten,’ said Dr Gior sharply.

  ‘Certainly in the terrible time of famine the panda was an easy target, but after that we did our best to preserve the creatures. But their limited habitat could never be ours. We and not pandas have become Martians and Mars-dwellers.’

  ‘Mankind is best considered as an omnivore,’ said Gior. ‘Hence, in part, our success in spreading. But it does seem that if you stick to vegetables and fruits you are less likely to suffer from various ills—cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure. You may remember that the British used to speak favourably of “the roast beef of old England”. That beef was generally washed down with beer. Result—early deaths.’