Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4)

by Scott Rhine

  “But—” Toby objected.

  The commander on the screen held up a hand. “This mission is a constant battle to balance doing the research right versus making our window for returning to Earth. I’ll be down for the conference in a couple months. We’ll reexamine the decision then. We’ll be exchanging water for acrylics and nanofabricated equipment.”

  Lou asked, “Boss, how are we going to load and balance that much water in the passenger space?”

  Without thinking, Toby said, “Ice. You can make it using the ammonia in the fuel we’re producing. We have tons of it now.”

  Yvette pulled her head back in surprise. “Your genius continues to amaze me.”

  “I’ve been reading Mosquito Coast as part of my attempt to find ways to improve aboriginal quality of life. It wasn’t a big leap. We can put a tracker and microphone on the backpack full of leaves that the other trader had,” Toby suggested.

  “That might work. What guarantees another trader will pick it up?” Zeiss asked.

  Toby shrugged. “I’ll throw in a few obsidian spearheads and waterproof the pack better. Mainly, he’ll want it because the leaf is a mild narcotic that a lot of the workers chew. It functions similar to cocaine and enables them to work longer and care less.”

  “Well,” Lou said with a snort, “I think we know now why bagdut is a popular trade commodity. Thanks for sharing.”

  ****

  In the end, they went with the usual bugged spear plus a camera in the backpack. Yvette placed the surveillance bait in the path of a trader who they spotted from the air. The young merchant who scooped up the bait had black hair and swore frequently. Toby placed him at nine years old. When the others seemed surprised, he explained, “Pandas on Earth are sexually active at four and fully formed at less than eight. To convert to human equivalents, multiply by three. At four, they’re teenagers living on their own. They learn to fight and forage as cubs.”

  To show she’d been paying attention, Yvette added, “With a life expectancy of twenty-five, he’ll be middle-aged in three Earth years.”

  Lou dubbed the panda ‘L Pacino’ due to his charisma and potty mouth. He had thick hands and white elbow ruff, which was rare. The male aborigine led the scouts on a merry chase from one end of the canyon to the other. As predicted, Pacino was a fountain of societal information and led them to several tribes. Almost every interaction increased Lou’s word count.

  The cliff dwellers he traded with next seemed more advanced than the Greens, almost to the Incan or Anasazi level: ropes, ladders, sun-dried pots, cooking fires, flour, vegetable oil, terraced farming, and primitive irrigation. The Gray tribe seemed particularly skilled at stonework, though they employed flint instead of the obsidian found in the mass grave. They added the site to the list of places to bug.

  Herk was able to make a small-scale ice machine in the utility room in just a few weeks. They chose the distillery dome because of the toxic materials involved and due to Toby’s experience managing fussy fabricators. The availability of artificial, large-scale refrigeration created a social sensation. Although everyone made excuses to ‘check on Toby’s progress’ in the cool room, only Oleander teased Yvette about wanting to go up for a ‘piece of ice.’

  The dingy, little room with the add-on freezer became the social water cooler of the base. Toby learned to filter out the noise because of the popularity of his office. He tracked time only as a series of missions where Yvette was out of the base and at risk. After the first multi-day mission, he met her in the shower room with a small box. “To help you survive.”

  “You already packed the scouting kit with everything you could think of.”

  “Please. This is more personal.”

  She opened the gift, unsure what to expect. Inside, he had placed his field wrist computer and a bracelet strung with six polished, obsidian spearheads. Two points of each triangular spearhead had been rounded so they had the aspect of a Valentine. “Jewelry. What’s the occasion?”

  “One for our wedding and the other for our first anniversary. This is the first time I thought you’d accept them. The wrist computer can identify any native life I’ve catalogued by comparing photographs. Obsidian is the closest thing I could get to diamond on this world. If I ever frighten you again, you can make those into weapons.”

  “Très chic. What can I give you in return?”

  “Come back,” Toby requested.

  “Good answer,” she said, putting one gift on each wrist and kissing him.

  He lived for those rare moments of hope.

  ****

  With the advent of piña coladas, Yvette invited Herk and Risa to the office to celebrate the planting of Toby’s first crop of defensive weeds. Toby couldn’t have any alcohol, but Yvette accepted a small, blue-tinted glass from Risa. The former nurse missed socializing with colleagues. “I spend a lot of time alone, and I only get one day off an L week. I have to take R and R when I can. These are nice glasses.” Condensation formed on the outside of the tumbler as soon as the drink was poured. Humidity collected and dripped off. Even so, this was a little piece of home.

  Risa smiled. “Thanks, I made them myself. They’re a little lopsided, but the color is pretty. I’ve been experimenting with the local sand, adding different elements. I think glassblowing would be a good gift.”

  “That’s right,” Toby said. “The conference is coming up soon. I haven’t prepared yet.”

  Herk nodded. “Z moved the date up a little to deliver our goods before the flare. That way, the commander can spend an L day here and return safely before they have to batten down the hatches.”

  “Flare?” Yvette asked.

  “It’s not likely to happen for a couple weeks. The boss likes a big safety margin. Next week, we’ll cover up all the mesa skylights and shutter the windows on the sun porch.” A tunneling mishap had turned into an observation port on the south side. Natural light was rare enough in the base that the team made it into a solarium.

  “But there won’t be any danger to those in the canyons, right?” Yvette asked with concern.

  “No. Shadows, cloud cover, plus layers of fur and fat will keep them safe,” Toby assured her. “We’d probably be fine up here if it weren’t for skin cancer.”

  “I know Yuki is sending down a chip upgrade for the translation headgear,” Yvette said. “What else are the folks from Sanctuary delivering?”

  “Parts for your aqua sled,” Risa explained. “We were able to modify specs from an existing vehicle we used for underwater training at the academy. It can travel for hours with an electric trolling motor. We’ve adapted it to have a clear frame and accept the same solar-rechargeable batteries as your sneak suit. Nadia also had them fabricate four more battery packs. These only take four hours of sunlight to recharge.”

  “Will the sled be strong enough to climb upstream?”

  “For shorter periods. Downstream to where the help is needed will be fast, though.”

  “The natives won’t see it?”

  “Clear plastic is practically invisible in the water. Sojiro painted native fish pictures over the engine. When the sled isn’t in use, drop anchor and hide it under some branches. You can stay out in the field indefinitely.”

  Taking a sip when the idea struck her, Yvette almost spilled her drink. She would have a week to practice with the sled and pack. While the others were scrambling to prepare for the radiation surge, she could leave for Meteoropolis. She’d have almost an L week to search until the flare. Zeiss would shutter three days prior to the predicted event for maximum safety.

  “That automatic translation system is phenomenal,” Herk said, returning the conversation to familiar territory. “Lou’s told me a lot about it. Most of the local animals and plants don’t have a straight, one-word conversion. Fortunately, the names are descriptive enough that we can tell exactly what they mean. That tree with big leaves is good for wiping, so it becomes wipe-leaf.” Risa bumped him for the potty talk. “What? This is a breakthroug
h. Lou has all these charts for building complex nouns from smaller ones, like they do in German. Sojiro captured that intelligence in the chip so it can adapt on the fly. With this addition, his dictionary in memory has reached 4500 words, almost to our first goal.”

  “It still sounds like islander pidgin to me,” Risa countered.

  Toby shrugged. “I’m not a xenosociologist. However, the translation for the word ‘guard’ seems to have changed to have a negative connotation.”

  Herk mumbled, “Yeah, we didn’t advertise that because we’re not sure yet.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Yvette.

  “I mention it only because you’re in harm’s way in the field,” Toby explained. “The guards are really overseers, and the names aren’t flattering: fat one who hates talk, scratch ass squints, killed seven with club.”

  Risa raised questioning eyebrows, so Herk added, “There’s a chance they could be keeping slaves. My theory is that some of the workers were captured from other tribes that came to raid the Greens’ food stores and bamboo.”

  Yvette made a small noise in the back of her throat and dropped the slippery glass onto the concrete floor.

  Toby rushed to collect the pieces. “Don’t move. You’re barefoot.”

  She needed to talk to him alone. While the men were cleaning up the mess and hauling it outside, Yvette grabbed Risa’s hand. “I’m so sorry about your beautiful glassware.”

  “It recycles.”

  In a whisper, the nurse-turned-scout said, “I leave tomorrow for another four L-day tour. Could you fake being tired so I could spend a little time alone with Toby?”

  “You’ve forgiven him?”

  “Not as such, but I . . . admire him. He’s trying to change. I know he cares for me, and I seem to be the only woman around who gets him.”

  “Do you love him?”

  “I wouldn’t have made those offers or tried to save him if I didn’t.”

  “Can you trust him yet?”

  Yvette shrugged. “More than most,” she said, thinking of all the people who might betray her to the Magi. “About my personal safety, absolutely. His medication and Ethics training have held through several tests.”

  “Here’s to romance,” Risa said, tipping back the remains of her glass.

  When the others were gone, Yvette turned to ask Toby, “What weren’t you saying in front of the Herkemers?”

  “I need you to be careful. I have a suspicion that we weren’t the first team to take a test here. The walls around the bamboo plantations and the spacing between plants are too regular for aborigines.”

  “Sensei hinted as much. And?”

  “What if the other uplifters taught them slavery?”

  “That’s despicable.”

  He raised his voice. “Pandas are naturally solitary creatures. Slavery may have forced them into this form of civilization.”

  “That would prove the Magi are evil,” she said.

  “That’s why I’m trying so hard to protect you. Maybe Sensei is leading Earth to do their dirty work. We have to stop them.”

  How the tables had turned. Her former attacker was her new chief defender. He might not be perfect, but he was human. Compared to this new side of the Magi, he was practically a saint. Toby would be the perfect coconspirator, handling all the details so she wouldn’t get caught like last time. The icy alcohol had dulled her talents a little, making her feel carefree. He really did look good with muscles sculpted by hard labor on a high-g world. She found a suitable music selection on her pad and hit play. “Dance with me,” she told him.

  “But you said—”

  “Do you want to be right, or do you want me to melt in your arms?”

  ****

  While Zeiss was getting the hour tour of the mesa, Red showed everyone Stu’s baby pictures and shared news from Sanctuary with a crowd in the main cave.

  Yvette cooed. “Look at those cheeks. My God, he’s grown so much! He can’t be walking yet.”

  “It’s September tenth. In another week, he’ll be nine months old. He still holds on to furniture, but you should see him in zero g. It’s like a swimming pool to Stu.”

  The breath went out of Yvette. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d spoken to Mercy. “In the underworld, time passes differently.”

  When she moved away from the crowd to recover, Yvette overheard Zeiss speaking to the leader of the colony in hushed tones. “Like it or not, this will be the last export mission from Sanctuary. The mineral drain for your electronics and the water required for all this algae was too much. You’ll need to find other sources on Labyrinth.”

  Rachael objected, “Because of its makeup, this world doesn’t have oil fields.”

  “There are tar pits,” Zeiss said casually.

  “A couple thousand kilometers away!” Rachael replied.

  The commander shrugged. “We’ve given all we can, Lieutenant. The copper you requested is ten times what it took for us to wire all of Garden Hollow with power—thirteen kilowatts from Park’s gravity transformers. You already outproduce us in nearly every category.”

  “Mining our own copper would take another crew member, explosives, and probably the use of the shuttle.”

  “People we have. Take Pratibha or Yuki.”

  Rachael blinked. “Neither one of them could just whip up another settlement in the desert.”

  “Since that’s your specialty, maybe you should take charge of the new site. Maybe Pratibha could be the mayor here,” Zeiss said, underscoring the finality of his decision.

  Rachael was speechless.

  When Zeiss turned around to leave, Yvette smiled and asked, “Why isn’t Auckland here? Why didn’t you mention him when you offered Pratibha?”

  “I’m not allowed to talk to you,” the commander said, striding to the makeshift podium beside the large display screen.

  “Is he kidding?” Yvette asked Rachael.

  Rachael looked at the ground. “Auckland failed his high-gravity physical. The doc can’t come down here until he’s been through the deep scrub on one of the decontamination pods.”

  “So? Just send him through,” the nurse replied.

  “Snowflake won’t let him into a pod on his return to Sanctuary until he promises not to talk to you during his visit. The good doctor told the central computer to go screw itself. He’s refused to betray a friend.”

  “Oh, God,” Yvette mumbled, sitting in a nearby chair. The price of her rebellion kept increasing.

  “We’re burning daylight here,” Zeiss reminded those assembled. “Testing. How’s the link to Olympus?”

  “Solid via the satellite for the next hour,” Yuki confirmed on the computer screen. “A little spotty beyond that, but we should be able to hear each other till sundown.”

  “The goal of this conference is gifts to lift the L pandas out of the Stone Age. What would make their lives better? What do they need to know that we found out the hard way? We’ll start with ground rules. Everybody participates for pass one. Everyone must suggest at least one gift. We take turns, round-robin, until everyone’s done.”

  Red added, “Nobody says anything negative about other people’s ideas until pass two, and then we’ll winnow. Lou, that includes snorts, eye rolling, and jokes.”

  “How advanced can we get?” asked Herk. “I mean, could we give them the quadratic theorem?”

  “No. I’d say nothing past 1200 AD,” Zeiss reasoned. “People who aren’t sure can start by picking from the list of what our committee considered bare essentials that observers haven’t checked off yet. For example, I might select the wheel and axle. However, people who live so close to the water won’t need the screw of Archimedes for irrigation.”

  “What if we find out later that the pandas already have something?” Risa asked.

  “We’ll rank ideas and keep the top fifty,” Red suggested.

  “What if someone before me takes all my ideas,” Yuki asked. “I don’t have many good ones.”

/>   “We’ll take turns, one per person, starting with Olympus because they could drop out at any time. Mercy will be secretary.”

  “Actually,” Lou boasted, “the translation software will transcribe, and Mercy will correct it. This gives the software a chance to learn everyone’s voice and speaking style.”

  The discourse was lively and exceeded the planned hour. After eliminating duplicates and adding prerequisites, they had almost a hundred ideas.

  “Now we winnow,” Zeiss announced while the Olympus crew passed around sandwiches.

  “Oleander, Johnny, and I have to go load ice and fuel,” Herk said. “Roommates get our proxies.”

  “The next pass we each select a definite no. Everyone gets a veto,” Zeiss explained. “Then we’ll vote to rank ideas by top half, top twenty-seven, and lastly top ten. At least give me your biggest objections.”

  Oleander said, “No to bocce ball. We’re not going to teach primitives to avoid war by playing lawn sports.” A chuckle went through the crowd, and people agreed.

  Johnny said, “Okay, then no equal rights. We can’t change a civilization that drastically in one page. They wouldn’t accept the gift.”

  Red argued vociferously for the idea until it was voted down by the ‘nothing past 1200 AD’ rule.

  Herk said, “English longbows. They have too many prerequisites, and I don’t want my people eating an arrow. The shimmer armor can’t stop that tech.” Everyone approved his veto, and the trio of stevedores went topside to load goods to return to the mother ship.

  Yvette spent most of her time watching Toby. As someone who’d spent the most time in the native landscape, he had opinions about everything. Most surprising was his objection to brass, which Risa took personally.

  Risa defended her gift. “It’s harder than iron and resists corrosion. The alloy requires trade because the components aren’t found in the same place. This will promote peace in the area.”