Rescued From Paradise

by Robert L. Forward

  "Should we go a set a new fuse?" asked John.

  "No ..." Just then they heard a loud thump, and the precariously balanced pile of stones tumbled down, splashing into the fast-flowing water.

  "Hurray!" They all cheered and ran to the other side of the dam. The water began to drop dramatically and only a thin trickle leaked from the stone-filled hole at its base.

  "A few days of silt and debris will fill up the fine cracks," said Jinjur, smiling with approval. "Come on, men, let's set the wheel!"

  Together they eased the heavy wheel onto the wooden axle. Even now, the water level was creeping up the sides of the ravine, and up the rocky face of the dam itself. Once the water level reached the top of the dam and began to spill over, the wheel would begin to turn. A system of gears would transfer the turning power of the wheel into the energy they needed to grind wheat, and turn the lathe and potter's wheel.

  "Jinjur?" came Carmen's voice from the Teacher. "The water in the stream has dropped. Is it all clear?"

  "Yes!" called the General, panting with exertion. "All is wonderfully clear!"

  The children didn't wait for permission, but burst from Carmen's hut like the seeds from a peethoo pod. The long-legged teens ran with the ease of youth down to the water and up the wet and empty streambed. Several of them stopped to gather up the bewildered fish that had not found safety in the deeper pools.

  Adam, Everett and Shannon were the first to reach the area near the dam. Warned by their parents that they weren't to get near the edifice until the adults had judged it sound, they moved away from the waterline. They pushed on up the hill and ran through the woods where the going was slower. Finally they came to a stop in a quiet glade, struggling to catch their breath. The three of them were almost surrounded by the tall green trees, but here there was a break in the greenery. They sank down to rest in the shade where they could watch the rising level on one side of the dam and see the water's first fall over to the other.

  "Say, Shannon, I wanted to thank you for not saying anything about our own experiments with the black powder," said Everett with a smile.

  "Experiments? You mean the gourd rockets you were exploding in the lava flow? Terrifying all the game in miles?" Shannon chuckled.

  Shannon had watched entranced as the boys had dropped the powder-filled gourds into the trench filled with smoldering red lava. They had exploded in bright flashes as they reached the terrible heat that rose from the molten rock. It had taken the deepest reds of her palette to recreate the glowing background to the brilliant bursts of light. She had been further entranced at their cavorting in the stream later when they washed off the telltale smell of the gunpowder. Especially on the one occasion when they had taken Maria to watch their "experiments".

  "Don't worry. I'll keep your secrets." said Shannon "I'll even keep the one about Maria," she said teasingly.

  "What about Maria?" asked Everett nervously.

  "You know," she said mysteriously.

  "Don't pay any attention to her," said Adam contemptuously. "She doesn't know anything."

  "Oh? I don't know anything?'' Shannon smirked. "I know enough to know that your back wasn't the only thing Maria was scrubbing the gunpowder smoke off of."

  Everett paled. "We were only playing." He smiled wanly. "You should know. You've gone swimming with us before."

  "Yes, but I've never done that before," said Shannon, enjoying his discomfort.

  "Oh, pay her no mind, Everett." said Adam. "She's just a kid. She doesn't understand about such things."

  At that Shannon's temper flared. "Just a kid! I'm only a few hours younger than you, Adam Kennedy, and I do so know what you and Maria were doing. I just think it's awful that she would do it with both of you ... as if you were all three married or something. And you just better watch out. I won't have to tell if you make her get a baby."

  "You can't make a baby unless you take those pills the men take," said Adam contemptuously.

  Shannon laughed. "The pills make babies not come. Didn't your mom tell you anything about sex?"

  Adam just glowered.

  "She told us something," Everett stammered, "but it was all about Jolly's pollinating and flouwen merging and how babies come after people merge."

  "Yes," said Shannon. Her temper had improved with the chance to prove that she knew more than the boys did. "Babies come after people 'merge' unless the men take their pill. If they don't take a pill, sometimes babies come, sometimes they don't."

  "Oh, God!" said Everett. "I only did it that once!"

  "Then what are you worrying for?" Shannon got back to her feet. "Maria had her period last week."

  Realizing that he had been had, Everett lunged at her. "Why you ... !"

  The slender redhead had no trouble keeping away from him. Her laughter lingered in the glade as she ran down the hill to the rapidly filling lake.

  "Adam?" said Everett quietly. He didn't want to assume that Shannon had really gone. "I only did it that once ... but you ..."

  Adam sighed. "I'll talk to Dad about it. There has to be some advantage to having the doctor for a dad."

  "But what if he tells Mom?" Everett asked.

  "Everett," said Adam, "I don't even want to think about it." The two of them followed Shannon down the rocky path to the river, but even the first slow turning of the wheel did little to lighten their mood.

  RESCUE

  "OKAY, OKAY! Damas y señores! Everyone settle down!" Carmen called the group to order. She had asked that all of the scientists and most of the fourteen-year-old firstborn attend this meeting. Now they all settled quietly onto the benches she had set up outside her hut as the comm expert turned up the volume of the link to Prometheus so that they all could hear.

  "Okay, George, go ahead," said the little señorita as she took her seat. Time had turned her black curls the color of iron as her generous curves settled into a more matronly silhouette, but her dark eyes still sparkled flirtatiously. "We are all awaiting your slightest word."

  "Wonderful, wonderful," came the reply from George. The view of his face on a Teacher hooked up to the comm-link widened to show that all the remaining crew, Red, Thomas, Linda, Tony and Deirdre, were standing around their commander. Caroline had passed away only a few days ago, but the scientist's faces were wreathed in smiles. "I wanted us all to be together when I brought you this news," said the eldest member of the crew. Time had been kind to him and his thick white hair framed the face of a cherub.

  "When we set out from Earth, we all expected that this was going to be a one-way mission of discovery and exploration. None of us ever expected to see Earth again. But this system that has been our home for so long has proven to be full of wonders. We have discovered the flouwen, the gummies, the icerugs, and the Jollys ... life, intelligent life ... beyond all Earth's expectation."

  "We know all this!" Adam grumbled.

  "Shh!" said Cinnamon. "He's having fun."

  "Just wish the old man would get on with it."

  "Earth has come to realize, as we all have, how important it is that the Barnard system be fully explored and studied, and it seems that they are not willing to leave it to us old folks ... or to our descendants," said George, with a nod to the firstborn. The youngsters had grown up with observation and scientific method as their watchwords, and with the help of the computer Teachers, most of them were budding scientists themselves. "My friends ... truly, my family, I am pleased to inform you that the follow-up mission is underway. Six years ago, Earth launched the rocket ship Succor to bring us displaced Earthlings back home. Following behind them is a major scientific exploration team to further study Barnard and its planets, and maintain contact with the intelligent races we have found."

  The cheerful rumblings that had started at the first mention of a follow-up mission gave way to enthusiastic applause. The old folks cheered and hugged their spouses and children, thrilled at the confirmation that their offspring would be able to rejoin the rest of the human race.

 
"The advances in space propulsion that have occurred since we left, means that the Succor will have a shorter trip than the one we took on Prometheus, and we can expect company in about nine years," George continued, although he had lost most of his audience. All formality had disappeared and questions flew back and forth, slowed only by the slight delay as the signal bounced from the ship to the planet and back.

  Carmen brought out the wine and the newest astronauts were toasted. Even the firstborn were allowed small sips of the fruity beverage. The youngsters, however, were not as excited at the thought of rescue as their parents. They had learned about Earth and its technology from their Teachers, but Eden was all they had ever known, and the thought of leaving it all behind forever seemed intimidating. Still, the ship was still nine years away and they would be twenty-three before they had to worry about it. They would be old by then.

  Finally the mood settled. Rescue would mean that the children's futures were assured, but nine years was a long time. Arielle took Eve, Shannon, and Maria and they left the gathering. The comm-link with the ship was cut and John moved the discussion on to more serious matters.

  "Okay!" he called, holding his hands up to call for silence. "I know that we all are overjoyed with this news, but there are a couple of things, not quite so pleasant, that have to be discussed." All eves turned toward him.

  "The sad news is that not all of us will be here to greet the follow-up mission. I am saddened to tell you this, but Arielle has cancer."

  There was a shocked silence.

  "Is there anything you can do?" Jinjur asked.

  "I'm afraid it has spread too far. I'm not even sure what I would have done had I caught it earlier, but now there is simply nothing I can do."

  David interrupted. He and Arielle had wanted all of the others to be aware of the situation, and wanted to be sure that John would not have to shoulder any blame. "Arielle has already been down to visit Josephine in the submerged lander. Even with everything aboard the sick bay there is nothing we can do for Arielle except keep her as comfortable as possible for as long as she has with us. We wanted John to let you know so that you would understand that neither Arielle or myself will be available for assignments."

  "No," said Jinjur sympathetically, "of course not. From now on your only assignment is let us know if there is anything we can do ... anything at all ..." Jinjur knew how painful loss could be, but the right words just wouldn't come. David had a long hard journey ahead of him, and all of them would do all they could to lighten his load.

  "Thank you," said David simply, and he left to follow his wife home.

  "Oh, John!" said Carmen. "How ... how long?"

  "It's hard to say. It looks like it might be related to the cancer that attacked all of us on the trip out." John sighed. Hodgkin's disease had cost them their original medical doctor, Dr. William Wang, who had not lived to reach the Barnard system. Now it was claiming another victim. "She is not in pain now, but that will probably change. Josephine has made me a supply of painkiller, and ... if Arielle fights ... she may have a year, maybe more."

  "Now," he said, standing with his arm around Carmen, "there is one more rather difficult thing we have to discuss. Carmen?"

  Carmen straightened. Behind her back, she gripped John's hand for support. "I'm sorry ... I regret ... Oh, hell. The fact is ... Maria is pregnant."

  The meeting exploded.

  "What!"

  "She's only fourteen!"

  "She's just a child!"

  "Who's the father?"

  "ADAM!" said Jinjur, turning on her son.

  "Dad!?" beseeched Adam as he backed away from his mother.

  "Jinjur," said John, coming to his boy's aid, "this is one thing you can't blame Adam for, although it apparently wasn't for lack of opportunity. Adam came to me months ago, and while I gave him quite a lecture about having sex with his half-sister, I also gave him a dose of our birth control pills. God knows I haven't needed to dose myself for years now. I also called Everett in for a talk as well. Rest assured that this baby will not be a product of incest."

  "Who does Maria say the father is?" asked Cinnamon.

  "She will not say," Carmen confessed. "She says that it could be any of the older boys. She says that the baby is only hers and it does not matter who the father is. She says that if I was willing to break the rules to be a mother then I should not fault her if she does the same.

  "Suddenly I don't know her. Half the time she doesn't talk to me and then when she does, what she says makes no sense."

  "I know," said Cinnamon reassuringly. "We all know. We all have teenagers. I find myself wishing my parents were still alive so that I could thank them for letting me live though my own adolescence."

  "The fact remains that she freely admits sleeping with all of the boys, and if Adam and Everett were using protection that leaves ..."

  "It was not me," said Freeman, crossing his arms over his chest. "I would not sleep with her."

  "Freeman," said Richard severely, "I know that Maria was hanging about, following you around. If you have done anything, if you might be responsible ... well, I want you to tell the truth about it. Right now."

  "Maria did want to do it, but I did not. I would not." The boys implacable black eyes met his father's directly.

  "You turned her down?" asked John incredulously. "Why?"

  Freeman turned to face the rest of the group. He took a moment to choose the right words but when he spoke it was with conviction, forcing all of them to see the truth of his word. "I would not sleep with Maria because that would hurt Eve. I love Eve. I will make love only with her."

  "Oh ... my ... God ..." whispered Cinnamon. Eve's mother closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Nels slipped his arm around her.

  Reiki looked up at her son's face. He looked so much like his father that she looked in vain to see any sign of her solemn little baby in his face. "You are only a child," she implored, wishing that it were still true. "What do you know of love?"

  "I know that it is love for Eve that keeps me from wanting Maria," Freeman answered his mother simply. "When I am ready, when she is ready, I will share such things only with Eve."

  Cinnamon had been watching Freeman closely, and now she nodded. "Thank you," she said to Reiki, who was looking at her son with loss and pride battling in her eyes. Then Cinnamon turned to her mate. "Well, Nels, I think the next move is up to you." Pointedly, she took Jinjur's arm and the two of them left the room.

  One by one the rest of them filed out until Nels was left alone with his only son, Dirk. Throughout the discussion Dirk had stood sullen and withdrawn. The heavy blond youth was handsome and well muscled; like all the children of Eden, he had grown up tall and healthy. The look of the man he would become had already marked his features. His blue eyes watched this father of his warily.

  "I know it's a little late for me to play much of a role as your parent," said Nels, wishing that those blue eyes, so much like his own, would soften. "You know the facts of your conception."

  Like all the firstborn, Dirk's parentage had been decided by a computer. Shirley had been delighted that Nels had been matched with her but had also made it clear that the baby was to be hers alone to raise. After her death, Jinjur had clung to her lover's sons as if their existence were all that kept Shirley's memory alive. The General had jealously taken over every part of the boys' lives and Nels had been relieved. Cinnamon had become so important to him that Nels was grateful to Jinjur that she considered Dirk's parentage a trivial technicality.

  "I have never been much of a father to you," he conceded. "But it looks like you are about to be a father yourself. You'll find out for yourself that it's not easy, and God knows I haven't given you much of an example to follow. But I have learned a great deal about parenthood in the last fourteen years. I have been able to be deeply involved in the raising of my daughters, and I loved every minute of it. If I had known what I was giving up when I agreed to let Shirley and Jinjur have the privilege
of raising you, I'm not sure I'd have made the same decision. Children are wonderful, rewarding, and a huge responsibility. Maria is not Shirley or Jinjur. She's no more an adult than you are. She's going to need your help, and you are going to need mine. If you'll take it." Nels held out his hand.

  "Thank you, sir." Slowly Dirk reached out and grasped the offered hand. A shy smile softened the strong young face. "I want to do the right thing ... I hope you'll help me figure out exactly what that means." They might never have lived in the past as father and son, but they were prepared to deal with the future, supporting each other, man to man.

  WAVE

  RUTH'S GOLDEN hair shone in the rosy sunlight as the ten-year-old splashed about in the tiny warm waves of the ocean, which were lapping up against the shoreline, sounding like a kitten drinking milk. Cinnamon straightened up from her task and rubbed the small of her back as she kept an eye on her fourth and youngest daughter playing on the distant ocean beach. The small baby peekoo "crabs", which Cinnamon, Eve, and Freeman had been stalking so diligently, were tricky to catch, and bending over to see them crawling on the muddy bottom of the brackish marsh was hard on Cinnamon's stiff back.

  The baby peekoos had gathered in the sheltered marshy delta of a small stream that fed into Crater Lagoon, only a few hundred meters from the original Council Rock. The stream ran by the large grove of boobaa trees that occupied a high knoll not far from the beach. The tree-covered knoll was like a blue-green island in a sea of yellow-green grass-covered dunes. The tall boobaas in the grove supported a platform that had been built long ago as a lookout to keep track of those out on the water fishing. The firstborn had occasionally used the platform for a clubhouse since then and had kept it in good repair. The little girl had wandered around the lagoon and down onto the main ocean beach, where the sand was toasting redly in the morning sun.

  Cinnamon had taken the children on a long-promised "trip to the beach", which had culminated with the routine "monthly" harvest of the six-legged baby peekoo crabs. Every eighteen Eden days, just prior to the triple conjunction caused by the lineup of Eden between Zulu and Zouave, the mature peekoo shellfish would release their eggs and sperm into the ocean waters. The fertilized eggs would then be washed up into the fresh-water stream-beds during the high tidal pulse caused by the triple conjunction. The resulting young peekoo would thrive and grow in the fresh water of the stream, and at the time of the next triple conjunction, the more mature of them would congregate in the brackish lower reaches of the stream, ready to ride the tidal backwash out into the deep ocean, to join their elders in the rock beds. Although two or three of the adult peekoo pried up from the rock beds in the deeper parts of the ocean were enough for a meal, it took dozens of the tiny but delicious soft-shelled babies to make a decent pot of peekoo chowder.