Rescued From Paradise

by Robert L. Forward

  The next morning, on the men's bend of the stream below the village, Richard unwrapped his loincloth and joined the boys in the bow-shaped pool. Little Red and Little White were at the men's bend, while Little Purple had taken Warm Chirring Pink and Cool Blue Trill to the women's bend. As Richard waded into the thick red jelly of Little Red's body, carrying the stone tablet in one hand, the water around him spoke.

  "Pee!" it demanded, and Richard let loose. After he had finished, he spoke.

  "I have something to show you," he said, putting the tablet into the water. The red jelly around his hand firmed up and took the tablet from him. "It's a diagram, with numbers next to some of the lines. It looks like a binary numbering system, because it only uses two symbols, cross and bar. But it isn't binary, since if you use a binary base to assign weights to the various places in the numbers, the numbers don't add up right. If it isn't a binary base system, what is it?"

  "Too easy!" replied Little Red, almost instantly. "It not tri'-nary base, it 'prime'-nary base!" He passed the tablet to Little White with disdain, then slithered downstream toward the ocean, muttering, "Humans dumb!"

  "Prime-nary base?" repeated Richard at the disappearing red spot in the stream, not understanding at all. Adam, seeing the tablet supported in the water by Little White, came wading over to hear what Richard was learning about his strange find.

  Little White patiently stayed behind to explain. "Numbers on tablet make sense if position weight is prime number—one, two, three, seven, thirteen, twenty-three, and forty-seven."

  "I see!" said Adam, understanding instantly. "That means that two crosses are one plus two, or three; while three crosses are one plus two plus three, or six—twice two crosses! Just what it needs to be!"

  "That doesn't make sense," said Richard. "Why didn't they use something easier, like the binary sequence of one, two four, eight, sixteen and so on?"

  "Maybe they just like prime numbers," Adam suggested.

  "Prime numbers very interesting," Little White added.

  "But why those particular prime numbers?" asked Richard.

  "They are first prime equal or smaller than sum of previous primes plus one," replied Little White.

  "Sounds very inefficient and complicated to me," protested Richard. "Even simple things like addition and subtraction are going to be complicated, while multiplication and division is going to be nearly impossible. There is even more than one way to write the same number. Three can either be two crosses or one cross followed by two bars."

  "The Romans built an empire, constructed temples, calculated taxes, and figured out gambling odds using their crazy system," said Adam, who had listened to a long lecture on the subject by Shannon.

  "So what we are looking for is an intelligent underwater creature that likes prime numbers—to the point of stupidity!" concluded Richard. "Little White ... have you or the others seen any strange creature in the ocean that might have been intelligent enough to have made this drawing?"

  "No," replied Little White. "Only creature we see in ocean that is big enough to have large brain is big sharks that live in deep ocean. But they do not talk, so they not smart."

  "Have you ever seen the sharks with artifacts, like this stone tablet?" asked Richard.

  "Not see sharks much," replied Little White. "They run away and hide in rocks in deep ocean when we come near. We not go after them. They too dangerous. Ate some of Little Red."

  "You're both forgetting the Demonfish," Adam reminded them. "They live in the ocean and are big enough to have a large brain."

  "Those mindless destroyers?" replied Richard. "Impossible!" He strode to the shore, wrapped himself in his loincloth, and he and Adam picked up their slings and set off on their morning hunt. As they walked into the jungle, Richard's mind was busy with the puzzle of the missing intelligent species that had etched the diagram into the stone tablet. Tonight at dinner, he would have to tell everyone about Little Red figuring out the solution to the puzzle of the tablet.

  They should now encourage the flouwen to look harder for unknown creatures in the ocean. Maybe the flouwen would find the Eden equivalent of an octopus or squid—or something with an even more bizarre body shape. Something that had a large intelligent brain, used a crazy number system, and built underwater houses from stone blueprints.

  DEMONFISH

  PRECISE Talker hated herself.

  Her last looker had finally worked its way back through her thick mat of red hair and settled down in its socket, blinking to wipe the stray hair strands from its eyeball. Through its feeding teat, the looker fed into Precise Talker's surroundview the most recent views it had gathered with its eye and chirper. They showed Precise Talker meditating in the Green House altar room.

  Precise Talker looked at herself in her surroundview and hated the way she looked. She hated the way she felt. She hated the way she smelled. She hated everything. Irritably, she sent off a grabber to spit a complaint to Insightful Thinker about the lack of water flow. Then, shortly after the grabber had left, she hated herself for having done so, since there was probably plenty of fresh water circulating in Green House—it was just her thick mat of hair that was making her feel too warm.

  It was only fivesix tides ago that she had beseeched her ancestors that she be freed of this burden of the flesh. But, even back then, as she was going through the devotion of Telling 101 to her ancestor, Exceptional Mathematician, the Great Mother of Tides, she had felt the pre-sentient tingling at the tips of her front fins. Those tingles had been the first indication of what were now hideous sharp claws on the ends of grotesque stubby leg-fins. Her other two sets of fins were now unobservable under the ugly mat of curly red hair that now replaced what formerly had been her beautiful pelt of smooth gray fur.

  With her six lookers now hidden beneath the stinking ropy strands drooping down her face, she looked like the monster she felt like. A monster of the flesh, whose belly was painfully swollen with eggs, and whose mouth itched to hold a baby. She almost wished that she would be killed this spawning by the blackglass-pointed spears of the Demontrees, or the sharp shining weapons of their new allies, the Swiftmovers. At least death would release her from this horrendous, loathsome transformation she was subjected to every Great Tide.

  She finally got herself calmed herself down by Telling 11 with her jar of red coral stones. She reminded herself that death was not the only way to obtain release. She had survived many, many Great Tides and was growing older and wiser with each one. If she would but continue her meditations to her ancestors, and especially if she would continue to find new large prime numbers, then she was sure the pure spiritual effort expended in those praiseworthy tasks would allow her to raise herself up from the mundane muck of the flesh into the blessed nirvana of the spirit. Those who lived in the Great Home of the Elders had done so, and she knew that if she persevered with her meditations, then she too could join the Elders in Great Home—free from the trials of the flesh.

  But now she was of the flesh—and hating every moment of it. Fortunately it would not be for long, for the Great Tide would soon be on them, and she would ride the Smooth Wave up the river with the others to complete her mission and bring back her new Baby.

  The thought of the new Baby quieted her, and by the time she had finished Telling 11, she hated herself a little less. Precise Talker was now prepared in her mind for what she must do at the time of the Great Tide—which would arrive exactly at the middle of the coming night.

  REIKI led a delegation of humans down Meander Valley through the morning sunlight to Wide Pond for a meeting with the Jolly Elders. Tonight, at midnight, there would be a nearly perfect quadruple conjunction and a maximum high tide. Riding in on the bore wave caused by the tide would come the swarming Demonfish. The night before, the humans had come to a joint conclusion on how best to deal with the expected invaders, but they would need the cooperation of the Keejook Tribe. Reiki was sure that the process would involve much discussion, so she was prepared to spend the
whole day if necessary. The flouwen, who had already paid their usual early morning visit to the human encampment just after daybreak, followed the humans down the meandering stream, each of them giving one or more children a ride. By the time the humans and flouwen arrived at the meeting dock that the humans had constructed at Wide Pond, the dock was already crowded with the tall, long-fronded bodies of Chief Seetoo, Assistant Chief Tookee, and the Elders of the Keejook Tribe, so the human adults stood in the shallows around the dock, surrounded by the colorful bodies of the flouwen. On the shore, where they could hear what was being discussed, were gathered many of the stronglimb warriors of the tribe and the firstborn of the humans, now almost seventeen. On the periphery of the gathering, the younger members of each group played, the second-born slow-jousting with some of the younger stronglimbs using blunt spears, while the young flouwen, Warm Chirring Pink and Cool Blue Trill, quietly played "tug-stick" with the younger humans that weren't required to stay back at the nursery with Maria.

  Little White started the discussion. "We have searched the ocean, but we found no sign of the Demonfish. They must be gathering for the swarming, for the time is near, but with their thick fur they are almost impossible for us to see, unless we are close enough to look."

  "We not see them until they are almost here," admitted Little Purple. "Even if we see them, we cannot stop them. All three of us must fight to kill even one of the monsters."

  "Taste terrible!" grumbled Little Red. "Fur all fluffy."

  "They are no real threat to you anyway," said Cinnamon.

  "They are a threat to us," said Chief Seetoo. "They come ashore to steal our lake-fish even though the ocean is full of food. They trample the jungle. They can crawl faster than we can walk, and they bite and crush anyone standing in their way."

  "They can't be too much of a threat to you, since you know exactly when they are coming," said Reiki.

  "And, from what I have seen in past swarmings, you can at least move fast enough to stay out of their way," said Richard. "You do nothing to stop their incoming rampage, but then you attack them when they try to leave."

  "That is how all wars are fought," explained Chief Seetoo. "When an aggressor attacks he must move into an unsecured position. A good warrior chief waits and defends against the advancing enemy. It is then that they are most vulnerable."

  "All your battles are fought like that?" asked Reiki, the sociologist in her intrigued.

  "Yes. First one side attacks. If the defenders prove that they have the bravery and strength, the attackers know that they will not be beaten into submission and so withdraw. Then it is the turn of the other side to show its valor."

  "Doesn't it seem odd to you that the Demonfish are only dangerous on their way inland? You must have noticed that they don't bite on their way back to the ocean, even when you are attacking them," said Richard. He had been in his share of battles, both as a combatant and as an observer, but he had never seen as formal and as ritualized a battle as that fought by Jollys and the Demonfish.

  The distinctive whistlelike laugh of the Keejook chief echoed over the water. "You speak as if the Aaeesheesh were thinking creatures! They are only animals! They follow only the laws of nature! When the Flame-Demons in a forest fire advance on the peethoo trees, the plant must suffer the advance. The peethoo suffers the terrible agony of having its supporting saplings burned into ashes. Then, once the Flame-Demons have advanced far enough, the peethoo's green canopy falls upon them, smothering and quenching them. The main trunk is saved by the sacrifice of the saplings. All of Nature moves in waves this way"

  The humans were silent. Maybe the Jollys were right. Maybe it was the nature of Eden wildlife to fight in this slow dance, with each side attacking in turn. The creatures of Earth might deal with their competitors in a more forthright manner, but then Earth didn't have trees that walked. Reiki shook her head.

  "That just doesn't make sense to me," she said. "I just don't believe that an animal which will fight when it's not being attacked will then retreat without defending itself. There must be something more."

  "But we have all seen it happen," Richard reminded her.

  "We have seen the Demonfish behave this way," Reiki agreed. "But, the question remains whether or not they are mere animals, or whether they are acting in a more subtle manner. That is one of the reasons why we must observe their behavior more closely."

  "Why is this?" said Tookee. "The Aaeesheesh are fearsome but honorable enemies that have battled us bravely since time began, but they are only beasts. That is why, each time, they lose."

  "But do they lose? Or do they accomplish what they came for?" asked Cinnamon. "We know from the evidence of the tablet that there is another intelligence on the planet, one that lives under the water. The Demonfish are the largest predators we have encountered, even larger than you are. Since they are at the top of the underwater food chain, it makes sense that they might be the intelligent beings we are looking for."

  All the Jollys were laughing now. "Aaeesheesh intelligent? You might as well say that flouwen are polite! You have seen for yourself the uncontrolled rage with which the Demonfish attack humans, Jollys, even trees and rocks, on their way up to Sulfur Lake," said Seetoo.

  "They are mindless animals!" insisted Tookee. "They obey the laws of nature! If they were intelligent, they would learn from their failures of the past and would not repeat the same line of attack season after season."

  "Yes," insisted Seetoo. "How can you claim that the proof of their intelligence is that they behave stupidly?"

  "Intelligent beings do stupid things all the time," insisted Reiki. "At least, they do things that appear stupid until the reasons behind their actions become clear. All I am saying is that the reasons for the strange behavior of the Demonfish have not been properly studied. We humans have discussed the actions of the Demonfish during the swarming and realize that we don't know enough about what is happening during that time. We would like to request that this time, the Keejook Tribe take no action when the Demonfish come ashore, so we humans can study their behavior."

  "You ask us to hold back from the fight?" said Chief Seetoo, shocked.

  "But the glory! The joy of the battle! We can't give that up," Tookee insisted.

  "But what if it isn't a battle at all? What if the Demonfish have a reason for coming up to Sulfur Lake and then are only trying to return to the sea as quickly as possible?" said Cinnamon, slowly building her argument so the Jollys would follow her reasoning. "What if the glorious battle you speak of is simply an ambush you are springing against terrified animals that do not want to fight? A gauntlet of terror that you are forcing the poor creatures to pass through as they seek only to escape back to the ocean?"

  There was a long moment of silence as the Jollys considered this perspective.

  "It would be a battle without honor," Tookee finally conceded.

  "There would be no glory," admitted Seetoo, "but there would still be plenty of meat."

  Reiki sighed. "Whatever you decide, the humans have decided not to participate in the slaughter this year. We have lost too many of our elders, and we have convinced everyone, even the firstborn, to only observe this time." Reiki smiled wryly. It had taken a good deal of arguing to get the hot-blooded firstborn to agree to stay out of the fight. She had finally had to agree to lower the voting age on Eden to sixteen. The few remaining adults had agreed that it would be worth enfranchising the children to keep them safely away from this—possibly the last attack of the Demonfish they would have to face—before they returned to Earth.

  "You have managed to convince Adam that it is better not to fight?" Seetoo was impressed. The chief had rooted for long periods with the strong-minded human teenager. If the arguments of Reiki and Cinnamon had managed to persuade Adam that the Demonfish should be watched rather than hunted, then perhaps he should allow himself to be dissuaded.

  "You wish us to let the Aaeesheesh return to the sea without fighting them?" he asked.

 
"Yes," said Reiki.

  "We want to observe closely everything the Demonfish do while they are on land," said Cinnamon.

  "They must accomplish something," Reiki explained, "or they wouldn't keep coming back."

  "We bend to the force of your wind," said Seetoo, tilting his fronds away from them. "As a sign of the friendship between the Keejook Tribe and the human tribe, when the Daylight God is beneath the sea, and the shadows of the lesser gods merge on the Eye of the Nightlight God, the Aaeesheesh will be allowed to pass unharmed."

  THERE WAS only an occasional cloud passing overhead that night as the humans and the Jollys gathered to watch the streambeds from positions at higher elevations. A contingent of stronglimbs, blackglass-pointed spears at the ready, guarded the banks of the river along the seedling beds in case a Demonfish tried to crawl up the steep bank. As the shadow of Zulu approached the nearly merged shadows of Eden and Zouave in the center of the fully illuminated face of Gargantua, both humans and Jollys could hear the whispering rush of the tidal bore making its way up the river valley, getting taller as the streambed narrowed. Some of the humans flicked on their permalights to add their white illumination to the red moonlight beaming down from Gargantua, while others took pictures with their recorders of the sight—dozens of gigantic red-mopped fish riding the bore upstream. The wave expended itself on the cluster of rocks at the base of the natural dam that formed Wide Pond, then retreated, leaving the Demonfish to proceed on their own. The humans and Jollys watched silently from the banks as the massive brutes pulled their sodden bodies through the shallow waters. The long claws in their strong front feet dug into the sand and pulled on the rocks as they marched forward, dragging their long tails uselessly behind them. The matted ropy strands of dripping hair covered their entire bodies, and hid everything but the shuffling feet, although there were glints from underneath the sodden fur at the front of the head—reflections from eyes peering out from underneath the waterlogged shaggy covering. The strobing illumination of the permalights mixed with the eerie shuffling noise of the monsters, combined with the rotting stench of their fur, gave all of them the terrifying feeling that they were living in a nightmare.