Paradise Reclaimed

by Raymond Harris

  “Didn’t you say you know her?”

  “Yes, Zoe and I had her over, after my bout.”

  Biyu froze the image at the point Sakamura leapt at the beast and asked for a close-up. She rotated around the animal, looking at its response.

  “Have I missed something or are all runners this wild?”

  Biyu laughed. “No, Kat is a cut above. Maybe it’s some side effect of her enhancements, but she’s very physical, primal. You of all people should know that. Sometimes you learn more by engaging closely with nature instead of remotely through instrumentation.”

  She manipulated the image to show the moment Sakamura leapt, one leg still planted on the ground and fully extended, the rest of her magnificent body reaching out, every muscle in full relief. She zoomed in on Sakamura’s face. “Look at her confidence and concentration. All senses in play, smell, hearing, those bird-eyes watching every muscle twitch. The beast had no chance.”

  “But she was wounded.”

  “Sometimes you have to take a blow.”

  She advanced the vid to show the moment the beast slashed at Sakamura’s arm. “Look at its eyes. It saw the blade. Impressive. They have the intelligence to learn. We would not know that if Sakamura hadn’t engaged with it directly.”

  Nuku had to agree. She was experiencing a rush of adrenaline as she watched. She commanded the vid to turn it’s view to the rest of the party, the defenders with their weapons drawn, the science team cowering – all except Isla. She was standing calmly, watching it all. Nuku zoomed in on her face. She looked excited.

  “The report said Isla approved Sakamura’s tactic,” said Biyu. “She’s a surprise package.”

  Nuku’s thoughts returned to the night of the celebrations. Isla had been voracious, taking the lead in suggesting sexual combinations. There was only one word to describe her. “She’s ambitious, hungry for experience and knowledge.”

  “I hope not for power,” said Biyu as an aside. “We’ve just given her an entire planet.”

  “Won’t she have to get past Sakamura?”

  “Yes and she’s formidable. Still, from what you’ve said, maybe the little bitch has her in hand.”

  Nuku looked at the image of Isla standing watching. It was a contradiction. A naked child standing like a queen, her chosen warrior sent into battle. She wondered if she should try and talk to Isla directly. It might be difficult, not technically, but only because she would be busy and she had a feeling she had just slipped down the waiting list.

  They ran through the sequence again. There was no doubt it was thrilling and arousing, despite the brutality. They were about to check on the anatomy of the beast when the screen went blank and a priority override displayed the image of strategos Shimazu. It was not to be a conversation. “Please be ready to leave for a priority meeting in the capital, O-600.”

  There were four waiting as the hover settled: Nuku, Biyu, Prax and Torv. Biyu looked at Nuku with a subtle expression that questioned Torv’s presence. Were they about to be told that Torv had joined the mission?

  The only topic of conversation on the journey was Calliope. Torv, like all the defenders, was fully behind Sakamura. Prax seemed unusually reserved. Nuku looked directly at him. “You don’t approve?”

  He closed his eyes as if he were carefully contemplating an enigmatic answer. “I neither approve nor disapprove. I merely wonder at the timing and the consequences.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” asked Torv.

  “I don’t know yet,” he said as he closed his eyes to end the conversation.

  They landed near the Common and walked briskly to the southwest dome, which housed the Council of the Elders. They looked at each other nervously and Prax again made an enigmatic remark. “Listen very carefully to what is and isn’t said. There has been an important shift in the political wind.”

  They were escorted in the council by two preebs, a boy and a girl dressed in the gold sarongs of the Council, an honorific awarded to the two top pre-Academy students.

  It was not a full session, rather a sub-committee composed of equal parts justices and elders, six each, with Madame Carabajal sitting as chair. Nuku looked nervously around the ornate chamber. A large mural depicting the history of Eden ran the full three-sixty degrees of the circular chamber, starting with the exploits of the First, followed by the arrival of the Second, the birth of the first Edenoi, Zhang Chu-Hua, the arrival of the Founder and the Two Thousand and ending with most notable members of the Second Generation of the Native Born. She had seen images of the mural before but never in situ. It was a privilege and she felt a mixture of awe and pride at seeing the face of her ancestors, Eva Teixeira and Tehani Kaluhiokalani. She wondered what it might be like for the others, especially Prax and Biyu, who could trace their ancestors back to the First, and for Torv, whose ancestor Andreas played such a pivotal role amongst the Second Generation. Of course, it occurred to her that the location of the meeting had been carefully planned. These things always were.

  They were brought forward and they bowed formally. It was justice Goya who stood, her stomach flat after having recently given birth. The others sat. It was theatre, letting them know that what was about to be said came with the highest authority possible.

  Nuku thought justice Goya looked radiant; the sunlight was streaming through the east window, spotlighting her position, no doubt another deliberate act. The justice did not mince her words.

  “The parameters of your mission have changed. Tshentso Jayarama has requested that you join her in Thimpu. You leave tomorrow. Tshentso will instruct you further.”

  The pause indicated they could ask a question. They all looked to Prax. “What is the nature of her authority?” Nuku was shocked at such a blunt and formal question.

  The justice allowed herself a faint smile to indicate she liked directness. “Tshentso has left the Accord and is no longer a citizen. She has returned to Earth. She will receive you at her monastery. She will explain the rest. We recognise her as our greatest ally and take her advice seriously.”

  Nuku considered the answer carefully. If her instincts were right, “take advice seriously” actually meant Tshentso was running the show.

  “For how long?” asked Biyu.

  “For as long as necessary. You will leave with a contingent of defenders.”

  “And the situation in the Northern States?” Prax asked.

  “Our request for a diplomatic mission caused a major disruption. There was an attempted coup. We have to wait until things have settled. We have only just learned of this ourselves.”

  “Do you know who?”

  “The details are messy. We think a merchant faction loyal to the Pope. Tshentso has people on the ground. She will inform you.”

  “And the chain of command?” asked Prax.

  “On Earth you obey Tshentso. You have effectively been seconded to the Buddhist Republic. This officially cancels any agreement you have made under the Accord. You may resign from this mission if you wish.”

  Nuku looked nervously at the others, there was genuine fear in Torv’s eyes.

  “I take it we will we be free agents?” asked Prax carefully.

  Nuku drew in her breath. She would not have thought to ask such a question. It meant that they would be disconnected from their guardians and any action they undertook would not be recorded. It also meant they were no longer diplomats but spies.

  Justice Goya waited patiently to give them time to consider what was being asked. After a minute she spoke again, this time more softly. “I take it your silence means acceptance?”

  They nodded.

  There was an awkward silence as Madame Carabajal whispered something to the justice. The justice stood back and Madame Carabajal rose shakily and with her voice quavering addressed then in a more personal tone. “The Elders would like to thank you all personally. These are challenging times for Eden. This is big history and such moments demand extraordinary actions. Trust Tshentso, she holds the future of
Eden and the completion of the Founder’s vision in her heart.” Then she did what she was not required to do. She bowed in gratitude toward them.

  “We have prepared a buffet for you before you leave. On behalf of the Council let me express our gratitude. We know what we ask.”

  The Council began to stand, pushing their lev chairs back silently. Nuku instinctively thought something was out of place. “Excuse me, if I may,” she asked loudly. They stopped and looked at her. “Justice, I hope you are not offended. You had a child. Where is it?”

  The justice froze, her expression turning to sadness. “I don’t know,” she said turning away before tears began to overwhelm her.

  82

  Akash

  It was unlike Aviva to have tears in her eyes. “The cunts finally did it.”

  He recoiled at the expletive; it was totally out of character. At other times she objected to the use of a word for female genitalia as the worst profanity possible, but she was furious.

  “Who? What?”

  “The fucking Texans, I’d like to rip their hearts out myself and piss on them. Akash, it’s too much.”

  “What Aviva?”

  “They wiped out the populations at the refugee camps at Mumei and Kutum in Darfur…”

  “The cholera epidemic? But…”

  “I have the evidence Akash, the electronic trail…”

  He shook his head with disbelief. The use of biological weapons to target problematic populations had until now only been a theoretical possibility. “But the UN…”

  “Wouldn’t know if its ass was on fire. It’s useless. It was a test case. A new strain of cholera, immune to the normal defences.”

  “Are you saying the Texans…?”

  “A pharmaceutical division secretly contracted by the North Sudanese to wipe out the South Sudanese, the Christians, animists; to complete the genocide. They’ll sell it to any government who wants to solve their refugee problem once and for all.”

  “Can we do anything?”

  She sighed. “Target the pharmaceutical company, wage war on the Texans.”

  He slumped in his chair. It was beyond their ability.

  “Can we release any data?”

  “Of course, but the water has already been well and truly muddied with a thousand stupid conspiracy theories, the Illuminati, the Bilderberger’s, the reptilians…”

  “The reptilians?”

  “Don’t ask. The best we can do is attempt to raid their database for the genome of the bacteria and distribute it to the frontline agencies and hope they can figure out an antidote, but my guess is it’ll have been designed with a short life, to contain its spread. It’s not the disease itself. It’s the fact they’ve actually crossed the line. It might not be cholera next. My concern is that there are more than a few governments who would want to cull their populations.”

  “And our assets?”

  “We had no one in Darfur, the rest are safe, for now.”

  Akash slammed the desk with his fist. He felt helpless. The planet seemed intent on suicide.

  “Okay, do what you can. Alert our people. Anything else?”

  “Alice rang to say they’re finally on their way. It was close.”

  He nodded. “Good, how is she?”

  “Remarkably calm considering, she said Nour is fast asleep in her lap.”

  He sighed with relief. He had almost pulled the mission when the bomb went off: a large truck bomb in Amman, the work of Salafist jihadis seeking to destabilise Jordan. The country had gone into high alert and Nour’s trip to the airport had been delayed at a checkpoint. Security police had searched his private jet and threatened Alice and the crew with assault rifles. One of the police molested Alice during a body search. If he had known something like that might happen, he would never have sent her. When he heard he ordered Aviva to follow up and deal with him, but Aviva refused, arguing that they had few reliable assets in Jordan.

  There was one piece of good news, but even that was problematic. A division of Shunyata under the direction of Jing had finally engineered commercially viable levitators. They were not especially glamorous, just a set of functional shipping containers, pallets and discs, but the implications for the transport and logistics industries were enormous. It had taken Jing’s team time to fix a stability problem - the prototypes had dropped suddenly due to local gravity fluctuations. A problem eventually resolved by incorporating powerful onboard computers, only made possible by advances in other areas. They were still expensive, but reducing mass would help offset fuel costs, making the pallets a worthwhile long term investment for the larger corporations, and of course, the military. In time the economics of scale would make antigrav affordable for domestic markets.

  He had initially wanted to delay the release because it would provide a clue to void physics, but Tatiana had assured him that the technology was securely protected by patent laws, and Jing had assured him the tech had been designed to foil reverse engineering. He knew that he really had little choice; that the board would go ahead without his approval. He could not deny Jing the honour of finally conquering antigrav. He might have provided the theory, but Jing has solved the complex engineering problems and made it a reality. Still, he remained fearful. The very existence of antigrav technology would be enough to trigger new areas of research. He could think of a several teams of physicists who were tantalisingly close to independently discovering void physics. In the end he agreed, provided some of the profits be used to subsidise devices to assist the Third World. For example, the small levitator designed to be placed in military backpacks to decrease the weight could be adapted to help villagers carry water from a well, usually a backbreaking task.

  It came at the right time. Shunyata needed to increase its cash flow. It wasn’t the cost of the mission; it was the security budget that had exploded. The world now worked on bribes and it was impossible to budget for greed.

  Tshering suggested they all travel to Paro to collect Alice and Nour. He expected he would be in some sort of trouble with Tshering, but she dismissed any notion of blame. It was an anxious drive. The weather was fortunately clear. Paro was the most dangerous airstrip in the world and crosswinds could cause serious difficulties. The sunlight was fading as the plane made its approach. It taxied to its birth at the north end. They waited in the car until it stopped and the ground crew positioned the ladder into place. The pilot was the first to appear, standing at the door to guide Alice and Nour down the ladder. They all piled out of the van and ran to them, Pema rushing into Alice’s arms and Tshering and Freja gently hugging the frail figure of Nour.

  He headed to the crew first. They deserved his personal thanks and a bonus (per their contract). The two pilots and attendant assured him everything was in order, that it was simply an example of officious police pushing their weight around. They were too embarrassed to mention Alice’s assault. He did not keep them, they were eager to get home to their families.

  He turned to see Nour staring directly at him. She was tiny, no doubt malnourished and traumatised. Yet she did not shy away. She walked slowly toward him, extending her tiny hand, her deep brown eyes holding his gaze. She looked archetypically Arab, with thick black hair, her dark eyebrows dense with fine hair that almost met the fine hair on her temple. “Thank you sir. I hope you will teach me mathematics and physics. Alice tells me you are very clever,” she said in carefully articulated but unconfident English.

  He smiled. It seemed a bizarre thing for her to say considering her circumstances. “It will be my pleasure. I understand you are very clever yourself. I am sorry we could not save your sister or your parents.”

  “Alice says you know how to get to jannah, perhaps I will see them there?”

  He looked up at Alice who had joined them. “The Garden,” she translated. “Paradise.”

  “Oh, I see, of course.” He pulled Alice aside. “I’m so sorry about what happened. If I had known…”

  She looked at him strangely. “Why are you
sorry? If I had known I would still have gone. It was a minor humiliation. I stared him down. He did not win and he knows it.”

  “But…”

  “It happens to women and girls all the time. Perhaps you forget this. It was not unexpected. The women and girls in Nour’s camp suffer much worse. What do you think happened to Ovadia, Nour’s sister? She was raped before she was killed. He knows I would have slit his throat if I had had a knife. They are scared of women. He was pathetic,” she spat out the words.

  “She is right,” said Tshering. “When I was in Delhi we faced daily humiliations. We had to travel in a group.” She was clearly angry. “The Hindus and Arabs are the worst. You know this.”

  There was nothing he could say. Tshering was right. Sexual violence was rife in India. It was a moment where he had to retreat. Any healing would happen between the women, his wives, and they were strong women.

  “Well okay then,” he said walking toward the van.

  “First we have to get ice cream. I promised Nour,” said Alice.

  He was perplexed. Where could he get ice cream in Paro at this time? Tshering calmly gave the answer to their driver. “The Zhina Ling hotel.” She opened her phone and rang ahead. “We might as well make a meal of it.”

  They got in past Pema’s bedtime but an exception was made. He was excluded from the bathroom as Alice and Pema bathed Nour and washed and combed her tangled hair. He retired briefly to his office to check his emails. There was a brief vid from the team on Eden. They had packed up the first camp and were about to relocate. Akoi appeared on screen and he wondered if he should tell her about the massacres in Darfur. He knew that some of the remaining members of her tribe were in those camps. She looked stunning, her black skin glistening with a plant based oil they had discovered. They were an extraordinary looking people, tall, thin, powerful, but they were fast becoming extinct, their land stolen for oil. She may very well be one of the last of her people, at least, as they had once been.