As Reiki and the other humans watched the floodlight-illuminated platform, they could see a human figure getting out of the capsule door while brushing off the attentions of one of the ever-present androids. At the other end of the space capsule, another android was screwing off what looked like the cover cap to a fire hose connection. As the cover came off, there was a rush of water, which started out clear and quickly turned a bright vermillion color.
"LETS SURF!!!" came the shout across the waves as the red puddle flowed to the edge of the landing pad and slipped into the water. The red blob was followed by a white one and a purple one.
"Little Red's back," remarked Richard with a smile.
"I hear me!" said the red blob waiting in the shallows off the beach. "I go see me!"
"Hmmm ..." Richard pondered. "Can't call the new bud of Loud Red, Little Red, 'cause Little Red's still here. Or at least the part of him that didn't go back to Rocheworld to tell his primary self what he had learned on his exploration trips with us. Newer Red?"
"I don't think it really matters, dear," said Reiki. "They don't come when called anyway. Besides, from what we have observed before, they don't really like being separated into pieces—lowers their intellect level—so I suspect they are going to soon be joined into one entity, and we will be back to one Little Red, anyway."
Just then the red blob returned—much larger than it had been before. It seemed to be talking to itself.
"Stuck in capsule for days! Go surfing!"
"Just been surfing! Tell me about Water!"
"Surf first!"
Another flouwen voice interrupted the argument.
"Laugh ..." rasped Little Purple, who had recombined with his newly arrived portion with little problem.
There was a long pause as both humans and flouwen tried to understand why Little Purple had made the comment. Then the red flouwen understood. With a whoop, the back of its body pushed through the center and out the other side, turning the red blob into a whirling red smoke ring, shrieking with laughter at the ridiculousness of its recent argument with itself. Soon the cells in Little Red had been thoroughly intermixed and were all sharing the memories of not only all that had happened on Eau since the original Little Red had left with the humans, but also the memories of a recent long session of surfing. Now completely satisfied, Little Red became calm and went out with the rest of the reconstituted flouwen to escort the incoming canoe to the shore with its important visitor from space. The visitor nimbly jumped off the bow of the canoe and onto the shore without getting his feet wet.
"Is that really you, George?" Reiki asked, not quite sure in the dimmer moonlight from the half-phase Gargantua that had replaced the stronger light from Barnard. The last time she had seen a picture of George, he was wearing a half-body Christmas Branch brace as an aid.
"Sure is!" said George, giving her a hug with one hand while shaking Richard's hand with the other. "And it's great seeing all of my old friends again." He looked around at the tall, lanky youngsters. "And my new friends, too," he added. "Where's Cinnamon and Nels?"
"They're back in the settlement preparing a welcome feast," said Reiki. "It's a bit of a walk. Because of your stroke, and this being your first time in planetary gravity, I had the youngsters bring a litter chair to carry you."
"No need," said George cheerily as he started up the beach with an active stride. "Lead the way, and on the way I can tell you more about what the Solarians are doing out there."
As they made their way from the beach and through the moonlit forest paths, the trails became steeper, and soon Reiki and Richard found themselves trailing George, who had no trouble keeping up with the youngsters.
"You are in good shape," puffed Richard as he caught up with George at a level portion of the trail. "How do you do it? You're much older than Reiki and I."
"The Solarian robodocs fixed me all up," said George. "You two ought to consider visiting them before the big ship leaves for Sol. They have these little nanomachines that go inside you and correct all those little things that have gone wrong. They can't rejuvenate your cells—they still are designed to die. Seems it's good for the survival of the species to get the old versions of the species out of the way, so the younger versions have enough food and room to try out their new gene-recombination models. They also can't restore memory loss due to brain cells dying, but they can at least make you feel decent, until one day every part of you collapses at the same time—like the proverbial one-horse shay.
"Besides, this is only twenty-eight percent gravity. I've spent the last month at thirty-four percent, out on Zapotec visiting Laura and Adam as they start Laura's robogang on terraforming the planet for the first wave of Solarian colonists. A few primitive lifeforms were found out there, surviving in the sand, but it was quickly established that all of them had originated elsewhere in the system and had ridden there on debris tossed up by large meteor strikes on the other moons and planets. They even found some primitive versions of flouwen cells from Rocheworld. The primitive Rocheans and the other lifeforms failed in their attempt to colonize Zapotec, but the Solarians now think they can do it by applying brain instead of brawn."
"But the planet is as dry as a bone," protested Richard as he unfastened George from the sling seat that had carried him across Lava Canyon on the cable crossing.
"Lots of frozen water and other volatiles in the permafrost," answered George. "That's why they constructed those large space mirrors to raise the temperatures at the poles. Besides, there's another barren planet with an excess of water and organic-type hydrocarbons—Zouave. It's covered miles deep with ice and has enough organics in its atmosphere to provide plenty for fertilizing the soil of Zapotec, while still leaving more than enough to feed the plant life on Eden for hundreds of millions of years. The Solarian robots are going to strip most of the organics out of Zouave's atmosphere and store them as frozen balls in a safe holding orbit until they are ready to be delivered to either Zapotec or Eden as needed. Then, they will mine away the ice where it is shallowest until they get down to dirt solid enough for the colonists to start building on. The ice removed will go to Zapotec, and the rest will turn into oceans as the planet heats up from the space mirrors."
"Speaking of Zouave," said Reiki, "how is my darling Lavender doing as Orson's apprentice?"
"She's having a great time, ordering around massive gangs of robots through her control screen. Orson mostly lets her do the work and just sits watching over her shoulder and giving her advice once in a while. Little Purple was disappointed with the trip, though. He had gone along to Zouave with Lavender and Orson in case they found liquid water under the ice. They were going to drill holes until they found water, then pour Little Purple down the hole to see if there were any lifeforms there before they started terraforming. Not only did they not find any indigenous lifeforms, either under the ice or on the surface, they didn't even find water. It was solid ice all the way down to bedrock—just like drilling in the center of the main glacier covering Greenland. Little Purple was so annoyed he left. In fact, he was in the habitat tank on the water side of the capsule that I landed in. He joined us at the Rocheworld-Zapotec transfer rotovator station and rejoined the part of himself that was returning from Rocheworld."
"I guess I really ought to take Mirth to see all those things before we go back to Earth," said Dirk quietly.
"You really should," said George. "There's all kinds of things to see out there. Those robots can make a silk purse out of a sunbeam. They have a robot replication factory and a tether manufacturing plant set up on Zen, between here and Zapotec, and they have a space mirror fabrication facility on and around Zeus. At twenty-four kilometers across, Zeus provides plenty of raw materials for the space mirrors, while its gravity is low enough not to cause problems with fabricating the large flimsy structures. Your daughter will be amazed to see a mirror as wide as an ocean and thinner than an oil film. We could have used that technology when we were building Prometheus."
"I notice that the Solarians are building a large sail near Prometheus," said Reiki. "What is that for?"
"It's a retromirror," said George. "Remember when we came to a halt at the Barnard system? We had two sails, then. The circular one that Prometheus has now, plus an outer ring sail that was ten times larger in area and slightly curved. Before we arrived, we separated the sails and let the ring sail go ahead, while turning the inner sail carrying our habitat around so that it faced the ring sail. The laser beam from the solar system then hit the ring sail, and was reflected off from it and focused down on the smaller sail carrying the habitat. There was now ten times as much reflected light pushing on the sail to slow it down as there was coming from the solar system trying to speed it up, so after a year we came to a halt in the Barnard system. Unfortunately, that same laser light pushed the ring sail mirror out of the Barnard system, so we couldn't use it again. The Solarians are building Prometheus a replacement mirror. There is a slug of laser light on its way from the solar system. According to the plans, it was supposed to be started on its way about five years ago. When it arrives next year, it will bounce off the big mirror the Solarians are making and be reflected onto Prometheus's sail, pushing it back to the solar system, where fifty or so years from now, it will be brought to a halt with one last burst of laser power. It will then be the main exhibit in the Solarian Space Museum at L2."
"I guess they'll give the bodies of the crew in the deep freeze on Prometheus a burial then," remarked Reiki somberly.
"That's too long and risky," said George, also in a somber tone. "I'll be taking them back with me on Succor." He paused. "It's the main reason I'm going back instead of staying here on Eden with you. The last duty of a commander is to see that his troops are returned home."
They had passed through the moonlit forest trails and were now crossing over the ridge to Meander Valley. From their vantage point they could look down on the Jolly village, with all the tall trees slumbering quietly in front of their tall huts. The winds were quiet this night, and there was no danger of being blown over, so the Jollys rested outside so their fronds could pick up any light and nourishment that might fall from the sky.
"I understand that none of the Jollys want to go back to Earth with us," said George quietly.
"The elders are too rooted in their ways, and the young, while interested in the possibility, have not developed enough, self-assurance to challenge the wisdom of their elders," said Reiki. "I expect that in five or ten years, however, we may see a young stronglimb decide to venture into space rather than challenge the chief."
"It is the same with the gummies," said George, "although I expect it will happen faster with them. Did you know that the gummies are now the primary pilots for Dragonfly II on Rocheworld? Since they don't need drysuits to board the plane, they are much more mobile in the cockpit and at the science consoles. Even though they are burrowers by breeding, they seem to be natural fliers."
"Nels mentioned once that if we humans had waited a few more thousand years before coming to Barnard, the gummies would have come out to meet us, whereas the flouwen could never have made that transition," said Richard.
"Similar to the unreasonable effectiveness of the anthropoid brain," said George.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Richard.
"We humans are just naked apes," explained George. "We have brains that evolved from the anthropoids—tailless, omnivorous, tree climbers. Yet that same basic brain allows us to be expert space pilots, graphic artists, baseball pitchers, operatic singers, bridge builders, and mathematical cosmologists, while displaying thousands of other talents. What is it about the anthropoid brain that makes it so unreasonably effective in doing all of those things that have nothing to do with surviving in the jungle? There is no good answer.
"The brains of the gummies seem to be like that: very good in many things that have nothing to do with gummie existence. That's in addition to having the terrific IQ and memory of the flouwen, since nearly all their body cells are also brain cells. It is a good thing we have a few hundred thousand years head start on them in the evolutionary race.
"I took a ride with a gummie pilot on Dragonfly II. We were going from 'Gummie University' on the outer islands of Eau to the gummie settlement on Roche, and when going through the stormy region between the planetoids, he performed some spectacular acrobatic maneuvers while avoiding a stray twister—I thought it was Arielle at the controls."
The reminder of their long-lost comrade brought another long period of silence while the group continued its journey through the moonlit forest. When they came to Tarzan Highway, however, the pure joy of flying from platform to platform raised their spirits again.
"The swings cut almost a full hour off our trek through Meander Valley," said Richard, leading the way.
"I'm looking forward to this dinner," said George as he landed on the platform next to Richard. "I'm tired of those perfectly prepared artificial foods that the Solarians eat now. Even the bones in the slices of the rare prime ribs are artificially manufactured."
"We're having jookeejook steaks, Reiki-dough bread, and steamed keekoo sprouts for dinner, with jookeejook fruit shortcake for dessert," said Richard, taking off again.
"I brought the last three bottles of James's Pinot Noir '64 with me from the cellars on Prometheus," said George. "It's in that pack Freeman is carrying for me."
"Should make for a civilized dinner," remarked Reiki as she swung to join them on the platform.
A FEW months later, a smaller group gathered for the communal dinner at the Meeting House. Afterward, they all went out to the bend in the river that gave them the best view of the skies, except for Rebecca and Christopher, who stayed behind to do the dishes. As they sat in the warm sand and shared their bowl of fruit for dessert, the last red rays of Barnard on the evening clouds faded and the stars started to come out. With Everett's help, Shannon set up a frame holding a large cloth that one day would be a sarong, and cradling Shirley in one arm, she started painting the sunset in bright colors. Almost above them were four bright stars in a row, with another star below that looked large and fuzzy.
"The plume on that incoming science ship is getting bigger every day," remarked Richard as he cracked open a boobaa fruit and gave half of it to Reiki sitting beside him.
Eve cut off a small bite from a Jolly self-fruit and fed it to her son Nathan, who was sitting quietly on Freeman's stomach while his daddy tried to teach him the constellations.
"Look, Nathan," said Freeman pointing at the sky. "One ... two ... three ... four ... stars in a row. That's the constellation of Orion."
"Which one is Sol?" said Orson as he lay down in the sand next to Lavender.
"And you call yourself an astronaut," said Lavender.
"Those details are what robots are for," replied Orson. "I know that one end-star is Sol, but which one?"
"You expect me to be your robot?" said Lavender, laughing, then she answered. "It's the yellowish one on the right." She paused. "Are you going to miss home, now that Win and Laura are leaving to go back?"
"I'm enjoying the company here," he said, taking her hand.
"I wonder how the others are doing?" asked Maria pensively.
"When I left the Succor they were all settling in," said Orson. "The two flouwen buds from Loud Red and White Whistler were already in their tanks and rocked up for the duration. Since I wasn't going to be using my suite, the ship construction robots converted it into a series of separate apartments. Cinnamon and Nels and their kids, Ruth, Sarah, Justin, and Ernest are sharing the largest area, while Dirk has a separate apartment with Mirth right next to them. George has the high-gee penthouse at the end. Of course, none of them are going to be living in them long except when they are approaching the solar system. They go into deep sleep as soon as they leave the Barnard system."
"Where's Adam staying?" asked Reiki, then wished she hadn't asked.
"He's a permanent 'guest' in Laura's suite," said Orson, then chuckled d
eeply. "Win was sure pizz'd when he found out. Not that he was that interested in Laura himself. He is 'saving himself' for a proper breeding partner. That's why he refused to donate sperm for storage in the medic unit at the lander site to help diversify the gene pool on Eden. But since Laura had shown no interest in Win, it ruck'd him that she had taken a liking to—as he remarked to me: '... that half-breed savage—I bet he doesn't even know who his father is ...' "
Orson, who had been expecting some shocked responses to his quote, was instead surprised when nearly everyone broke into laughter. All except Reiki, who instead had a Mona Lisa smile on her face as she spoke.
"If I recall," she said calmly, "the latest news in from Sol is that a new Solar Worlds government was formed shortly before you left."
"That's right," said Orson. "And Win's father is vice president for the North America Region. By the time Win gets home in fifteen years, he is going to be in a position to pick his next job. But what's that got to do with Adam?"
"And who does Win's father report to?" Reiki continued, deliberately not answering the question yet.
"Why, President John Quincy Kennedy, of course, the present head of the Kennedy clan. With his youthful looks, great popularity, and system-wide political machine, he is going to be President of Solar Worlds until he decides to turn it over to a younger Kennedy. But what's all this got to do with Adam?" he persisted.
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