Analog SFF, November 2009

by Dell Magazine Authors

  On Day 37, the CSUs of Helen Gorgos and Dominic Oporto were found in deep water not far north of New Landing. Helen, a physicist, struck Jacques as a gentle, thoughtful lady while Dominic was short, bright, and bubbly.

  After he'd recovered from his ascent from his CSU and been apprised of the situation, Dominic announced that he was not giving up the mission. “I will return to 36 Ophiuchi!” he declared. “I do not care if a thousand years have passed. If things have not changed there, I will try to change them. That is what I left everything to do, so it is my life. It is my goal."

  Jacques smiled at that. “Mine as well. If I have to rebuild civilization from the stone age up to do so, I will do it!"

  * * * *

  Finally, on Day 39, they declared the rescue effort over. Of 200 CSUs on the Resolution, they had found a total of fifteen in the lake, six with live occupants. If there were others, elsewhere on this planet, they were beyond reach for now.

  Gabe, who had some experience as a lay minister, led a memorial service at the lakeshore. “We give up them up to God,” he concluded, “and pray for his guidance as we take up the task of our own survival."

  That night, they sat around a fire on the beach and talked about what they wanted to do. They might explore nomadically as a group or they might establish a settlement, then send out expeditions. Doc and Gabe, respectively, were the proponents of these positions.

  "We have much to learn about this world,” Doc argued. “And what we learn will affect what we do. We may find a much better place to start a city. It is very hot here, and this is an active volcano."

  "But we gotta get our feet on the ground,” Gabe countered, “start acting like human beings instead of a bunch of naked savages—not that I mind the scenery, but the Lord made other plans for us long ago. Anyway, we need some place for explorers to come back to, if they run into trouble. If we all go exploring, it's a single point failure. One disaster and boom, we're all gone!"

  "Smaller exploration parties would be easier,” Soob said. “The surplus from the labors of the larger group can be concentrated to supply the exploration group and they can operate more efficiently, spending less time on provisioning."

  "Yes, at some point,” Doc said. “But it should be sited at a better place. There are four huge mountains around us. There will be some place on their slopes where the air and the temperature are more Earth-like."

  "Maybe even above the altitude where the dragons fly,” Collette added

  Even she, Jacques thought, had started using Gabe's names for the life forms on this planet. He had, almost pointedly, refused to adopt Jacques’ names, and it being a matter of no particular importance to anyone, others had begun to adopt Gabe's nomenclature to avoid confusion.

  The trouble was, on the issue at hand, Jacques agreed with Gabe. Small exploration parties made more sense. The dilemma was that to support that position would be to accede leadership to Gabe, which, for some reason, bothered him greatly. But he didn't want any kind of formal leadership position for himself. He might lead by example—not by argument or politics.

  The discussion was winding down without his input, in favor of Gabe's. But many were waiting for him to say something. He was, after all, the first settler and the one who had organized their rescues. That should still count for something. What could he say?

  "I am,” he said, finally, “going to look for a better place for a colony on this world, and, eventually, a way to rejoin the rest of humanity. But I think it would be best to spend a few weeks in this area to recover more technology and learn more about where we are. Will it be a permanent settlement? That is a question for the future. If the volcano is active, it is not very active. The cave here at New Landing is large enough to house us for the foreseeable future. We can fish. We can try growing flute plant or even bitterwood. We can forage over the rim."

  Doc looked at him thoughtfully. “I would choose days instead of weeks. Each day grows hotter, and to reach cooler high elevation we must first descend into even warmer low elevations and cross an ocean. Each day we wait will make that more difficult. But I must concede we are not ready to go today."

  There were murmurs of assent around.

  "Well then, it's settled,” Gabe said. “Now let's start organizing who does what. Arroya, why don't you get busy with the other women and come up with some clothes for us. Evgenie and Doc, we need some more fish. I'll take Soob over the rim and get some more game for us. Jacques, why don't you go up to the rim and try to figure out where we are. Okay, everyone?"

  Most agreed immediately. Jacques felt something important had happened to which he should object, but couldn't come up with a clear reason or argument against anything Gabe had proposed. Even spending time on clothes—if they went up a mountain to where it should be cool enough in the hot season, it might be too cool when the weather turned. So he stayed silent.

  But Collette did not. “I will go to the rim with Jacques."

  Gabe frowned momentarily, then said. “Let's go, everyone. God be with you."

  Suretta and Arroya stood up, then stopped as everyone else sat still.

  Jacques simply stood up and nodded. The others then rose and dispersed as well.

  * * * *

  Chapter 7

  Finding a Place in the Universe

  Jacques thought he would be glad for Collette's company, but what he got on the ascent to Rim Cave was a tongue-lashing.

  "You are letting him walk all over you,” she concluded after rehashing the morning's events.

  She was in the lead, and her flute plant staff sent shards of lava flying to punctuate every point she made. There was actually a kind of cadence to it; she was a natural orator, he decided. A pause in her monologue perhaps meant he should say something to defend himself.

  "Really, Gabe was just making common sense observations about what needs to be done. I would have said very similar things."

  "No, you would not have! You would not have relegated all the women to making clothes. You would not have ignored everything I said because I'm a woman. You would not slip in references to mythological deities every other time you open your mouth."

  Jacques had to admit she was right. “Okay, he betrays his origins. That's probably the way it is on New Jerusalem. We'll straighten that out when we get back. I think Doc and Soob can keep him in check. Collette, he gave me just what I wanted; a chance to get away from politics and worrying about who does what and how everyone's going to eat. I have a couple of days now to stop and think about where we are, what we've got and how we can get back."

  She stopped, turned, and walked into his arms. He held her for what seemed minutes.

  Finally she said, softly, with her lips at his shoulder. “Jacques, I just do not want any part of what Mr. Gabe is dishing out. I am thinking I may just go away and start my own civilization. I would like to bring you along. Also, I have a mass murder and an individual murder to solve."

  Jacques was still focused on recovering their technology base and getting out of here. “Perhaps that's a bit premature."

  "Is it?"

  "Collette, how can I tell? I'm an engineer. Give me an engineering problem and I fix it. I don't like fighting with people.” He squeezed her a little tighter. “If there's a split, though, I think I'd rather be with you."

  She kissed him, then broke away. “We have to hurry up to Rim Cave before we become dragon meat."

  "Megabat meat, Collette. Megabat."

  "Hey, that's the spirit,” she answered with a big grin, and seemed to fly away from him up the trail in big joyful leaps.

  In the cave, he and Collette spent much of the night with their multitools, a nonfunctional wrist comp, and Ascendant's CSU control module. When he was done, he had the wrist comp's power jack twist-wired into the CSU control module. That was as far as he could go without sunlight. Morning would tell whether he got it right.

  There was one more chore. He took a look outside. It was hazy, but he was pretty certain that he saw dis
torted Orion and Antares setting in the west. It wasn't a real measurement; he didn't even know if the time of night was comparable. But what he saw suggested that their little world had completed something like half an orbit in the intervening forty rotations or so.

  He went back into the cave and lay down on the space blanket by Collette.

  "Uh, hi.” She yawned.

  "Hi. Collette, I think I've got our orbit worked out, roughly. The period should be about eighty of our days here, which is about ninety Earth days—that kind of fits with red dwarf luminosity and our atmosphere. The sun is getting larger, maybe half again the size it was when I got here, so the orbit is fairly eccentric and we're probably getting closer—approaching periastron."

  "Tell me all about it in the morning, okay?” She turned away and went to sleep.

  * * * *

  He was up for sunrise. He stood behind the cairn marking Rim Cave and noted where the sun rose behind the small hill to the east of him. He put another cairn there. By now, he was pretty sure this line wouldn't change, but even with this primitive setup, he should be able to confirm that lack of change to a fraction of a degree.

  Collette came out with some warm tanglegrass root mash for his breakfast. Thanks to Gabe's predations on the kangasaur population, they had bone spoons to eat it with. He was scraping the bowl when Collette called his name and pointed to the sky.

  "Jacques, what's that? A supernova?"

  A star had appeared in the daylight sky, well above what Jacques had decided was the projected plane of their planet's orbit. It was far too bright to be a planet, he thought. Collette was probably right.

  "If so, it's not near enough to affect us, I think."

  "That's the first since 2148, and we're probably the first ones to see it."

  Jacques laughed. “Too bad that we cannot file a report. Well, let us see if I've succeeded in anything. This is going to take some time. While I'm at it, do you think you could draw a map from what you see from the high point on the ridge south of us?"

  "On what?” Collette laughed. “Wait, I have an idea.” She grabbed a shard of rock and scratched the deep ebony skin of her arm. The line stood out clearly, much lighter than the skin.

  "Ouch,” Jacques said. “That must hurt."

  "Not much. Okay, see you later.” She grinned and gave him a peck on the cheek, her left breast brushing his arm as she did so—but neither of them did anything to acknowledge this accidental intimacy.

  "Be sure to be back well before nightfall; remember the megabats,” Jacques said.

  She nodded seriously and was off. As she left, Jacques, to his wonderment, found himself following her with his eyes. She was not what he had grown up with thinking was beautiful, particularly in her wide hips, curly hair and projecting face. Still, she moved with an easy, powerful grace. But it was her mind, he thought—its quickness and spirit—that attracted him and made her body seem beautiful.

  He sighed. He would have to deal with this complication in his life later.

  He spread out the array and carefully plugged it into the various wrist comps. Two of them lit up. With the multitool, he very carefully cut off the back of one that didn't work at all and one that lit. He worked painstakingly on this all day, and when he was done, he had a working wristcomp, although it could not operate without the solar array.

  With the sun setting, he hurried to the highest point of the rim and queried it for any other signals. It found three. One was another wristcomp, about the right direction and distance for New Landing, another was a CSU in the forest below, and the third was apparently midway between the northernmost mountain and the easternmost mountain.

  The wrist comp identified the third as the Fortitude, an atmospheric shuttle carried aboard the Resolution.

  One survived! The wrist comp would never reach it at this range, but if he could get nearer...

  It should be looking for them. The joy of seconds ago turned into a cold cramp in his stomach. Even if damaged in reentry, it was self-repairing and nuclear powered. Its AI should know where the CSUs went down and should be seeking them out, unless told not to.

  Someone may be playing games with us, Jacques thought.

  The wrist comp abruptly shut down as a shadow fell on Jacques and the array. His head spun away from the display to show a huge megabat gliding down toward him, beak open. He quickly looked around for his staff—in his excitement over getting a wristcomp working, he'd forgotten it. Nor had he thought to set up near a lava tube. The nearest trees were too far to reach before the megabat arrived.

  He would make the thing work for its meal, anyway, he resolved, and started scrambling toward the trees, keeping his eyes open for sticks, loose chunks of lava, anything.

  The megabat deviated from its course to follow him. About a hundred meters away now, its wings filled the sky.

  Coming over a ridge, Jacques leaned far over, gathered his legs beneath him, and leaped toward the forest edge with as much strength as he could muster. Landing from his ersatz flight could be painful, he thought, but his speed had increased greatly. He couldn't spare a look back at the megabat, and resigned himself to the big crunch that would end it all. As he lost altitude, he brought his legs under him, and seeing a smooth spot, kicked off of that, staying airborne. His body, he realized, was acting as an airfoil in the thick atmosphere.

  He risked a look back. The megabat had landed on its hind legs—the wing webs joined the legs far enough up the leg to let it do so—and was swinging its head back and forth between where Jacques was now and where he had been. Up close, the monster's sharp-edged beak was bigger than he was.

  "Jacques!"

  It was Collette. He turned his head to see her waving from a hundred meters or so down slope, on the edge of the trees, hurrying toward him.

  "Jacques! Electric fields! You, me, the solar array!"

  Damn! The monster must locate living prey by their electric potential, like a shark. If it thought his power supply was something to eat, the entire small community could be condemned to decades of struggle. Putting his feet in front of him, he managed a not-too-painful halt on a hillock of smooth lava.

  Collette charged toward the monster, waving her arms in the air. It turned its head away from the array, toward her.

  They could probably out-jump the thing, he realized; their reactions and one-g muscles might be more than a match for it. He took a deep breath and strode toward it yelling “Here, here!"

  It swept its head from Collette and lunged for him, incredibly quickly. Jacques’ eyes found a large, somewhat dish-shaped fragment of lava and picked it up. With more instinct than deliberation or aim, he whipped the piece of lava toward the megabat's head, using the reaction from his throw to push him down to the ground much faster than the low gravity would take him. The piece of lava missed, but whether the flying rock had distracted the monster, or Jacques had simply ducked too fast for it to follow, the beak snapped shut on empty air just centimeters above him.

  There was only one place to avoid the next bite. Jacques jumped up, grabbed the neck of the megabat, and pulled himself up behind its head, his hands gaining relatively easy purchase in its hairy pelt. The creature swung its head slowly side to side in confusion.

  While trying to figure out what to do next, he felt a tap on his back.

  "Fancy meeting you here!"

  "Collette!” Jacques shouted. She'd jumped onto the creature as well.

  "Hang on, I think we're going for a ride!” She grabbed handfuls of hair with both hands.

  Behind them, vast wings rose and the creature gathered itself and uncoiled for a stately stretch into the air. The downstroke of the wings was hardly audible, but the whoosh of their backstroke was deafening.

  They gained altitude like an airliner and were soon soaring hundreds of meters above the lake and the landscape.

  "It's a square!” Collette shouted.

  Jacques looked around. Above the local cloud cover now, he could see the layout of the land as
a whole for the first time. The four huge distant mountains, indeed, formed the corners of a huge square that looked almost geometrically perfect from their viewpoint. He shook his head; what this implied seemed impossible.

  "It looks like a square,” he shouted back to Collette.

  In turning back to her, he'd shifted his grip and his hand found a firm ridge of flesh, almost hidden in the hairy pelt of the back of the megabat's head. As his hand grabbed it, the megabat screeched and turned its head to the right, banking right in the process.

  Jacques shifted his grip to a less sensitive place and their course straightened out.

  "I think I found its ears!” he said.

  A sharp bank to the left in response to a tug indicated that they must be very sensitive organs.

  While it was still light up where they were, a deep shadow had quickly covered the world below them, leaving the rim of the caldera for last.

  "Let's see if you can make it go down!” Collette shouted.

  Jacques nodded, instinctively pushing the rim of the megabat's ear down. Its head also went down, and they descended. By pushing, tugging, and pulling he was able to get it to land in the fringe of the forest just below the rim of the caldera.

  Collette laughed. “They're so big they don't have to be smart!"

  With unspoken assent, both Jacques and Collette jumped for the branches of a passing blackwood tree. Just as well: on the ground, the megabat ducked its head to where its huge claws could reach its ears. Scratched, the megabat swung its head up, then, seeing them, moved quickly away, as a person might avoid a bumblebee. With a screech, it fled into the sky.

  Jacques and Collette dropped from the trees, made their way up to the Rim, collected Jacques’ apparatus, and made their way into the shelter of Rim Cave.

  "Wow!” Collette said, “Just wow!"

  Whether from the adrenaline coursing through their veins, or the mutual realization that they'd come very close to losing each other, and that suddenly mattered, they were quickly in each other's arms. When they let go, Collette had a silly grin on her face, and Jacques realized his life had changed forever. However, from natural reticence, or prudence, he said nothing.