“And Pema?”
“It will be good for her to visit some of the great cultural centres before she leaves for Eden. We will take trips to Paris, Rome, London, Berlin, New York. So in that sense it is good.”
“Is the threat that serious?”
“We must hope for the best but prepare for the worst. The best of humanity must always act to protect itself from the worst. This means it is sometimes necessary to hide your treasure.” Tshering reached forward to take Alice’s hand. She lowered her voice and spoke softly so that Alice was forced to pay attention. “If you are to stay I must ask you to take your commitment to this family even more seriously. Freya is still going to Eden. You will have to take her place, especially as my pregnancy progresses. If you love Akash, if you love Pema, then I ask you to dedicate yourself to them. If you truly see yourself as a wife then serve your family first. It will require self-sacrifice, placing your personal ambitions second. If you find you cannot, then we must release you from any obligation. You cannot have it both ways. We must be able to rely on you.”
121
Calliope
Kat made it look easy but it involved a great deal of skill. Isla had already misjudged several times and had the scratches and bruises to prove it. But she was determined to master it. You had to push with your legs and apply just the right amount of antigrav. Too much and you overshot; too little and you fell short. Then you had to find the right place to aim for: a natural ledge, perhaps a fork in a branch; or a smaller branch you could grip. She had just seen Kat leap a distance of ten metres, grab a branch and swing herself over to a fork on the main trunk. She looked down. Kat had warned her not to. She was overcome with vertigo. It was at least sixty metres down. She watched another defender make their way up the tree, effortlessly leaping from branch to branch.
“Come on Isla, you know you want to do this.” Kat was squatting on one branch whilst holding another for balance. “You know you can’t fall.”
It was easy for Kat to say. She had grown up climbing trees and her enhanced eyes made it easier for her to spot the best branches. She took a deep breath, focused her eyes on the branch she had selected and leapt. She had judged correctly. She grabbed the branch with one hand and used the momentum of the swing to propel her to a fork in a neighbouring tree. She landed a little heavily and had to steady herself by grabbing a branch. The worst thing you could do was fall and find yourself suspended mid air, unable to reach out to a branch. Then you would then have to let yourself fall gently to the ground and start all over again.
“Well done, you’re starting to get the hang of it,” yelled Kat.
She smiled and looked around her. She could see the other members of the foraging team leaping from branch to branch. The canopy had turned out to be a rich source of fruit, nuts, seeds, fungi and edible greenery. This meant they were not the only foragers. There were all sorts of climbers, leapers, crawlers and fliers feeding off the canopy and each other.
She pushed again, this time straight up. She grabbed a branch and swung herself over to straddle it. She stood carefully and inched her way out on the branch. The antigrav made her light and she was able to half float, half walk out to where clusters of dark purple fruits were hanging. She took several images and then picked one, putting it in a knapsack strapped securely to her chest. Then she watched as a small insect fluttered into view. It alighted on a leaf, perhaps resting, perhaps looking for food. It was a new sub-species of a familiar flyer. She carefully reached for the small net sitting in a tool holster strapped to her right leg and attempted to catch it. She missed and the insect fluttered away in alarm. No matter - they were very quick and hard to catch.
She inched her way back to the main trunk. On the way she released her bladder, carefully checking to see that there was no one below her. She watched the stream of piss fall and the wind catch it and scatter it before it hit the ground. Overhead she saw a defender make a massive leap high in the canopy.
They had relocated to the banks of a large lake complex. The construction corps had been busy building log cabins and a large wooden fence to keep out the ground predators. It was like an ancient Roman fort. There was little they could do about the raiders and pests that invaded from the canopy, but they were more of a nuisance than a danger. They were only interested in food, so everything had to be secured. Some had been quite cheeky and grabbed food from people’s hands, but only if you weren’t paying attention. There were also things that bit and stung if your skin was exposed – the gel repulsed most of them.
It was a warm day and when they reached the lake’s shore at camp most of them dropped their equipment and dove into the ice-cold water. The gel compensated but the initial shock was exhilarating and refreshing. Isla dove under and headed toward the silken underwater grass. It looked beautiful with the sunlight filtering through the water, the grass swaying with the shifting current and a school of golden swimmers darting about feeding on plankton. It had taken weeks to make sure the water was free of predators. There were still dangers, but nothing that would come lurching out of the depths and pull her under or take a limb. The lake system had also proven to be another rich source of food: delicious, fleshy swimmers, equally scrumptious crustaceans and shellfish, and micronutrient rich flora.
When she climbed out she found Kat drying herself on a large flat boulder, letting the sun and heat of the rock warm her. She couldn’t resist and carefully bent over to kiss her vulva. Kat opened one eye and smiled. “Oh, don’t stop. I was drifting off and having some erotic thoughts.”
“About me?” she said as she reached up to kiss Kat on the mouth.
“Sorry sweets, not this time, I was recalling a time when I was a child and I was lying on a rock in the sun, just like this. It was the most sensuous, delicious feeling of erotic oneness with nature. I had an orgasm without even touching myself. You ever had that experience?”
“Close I think, enough to at least get me aroused and to start stimulating myself.”
Kat gently pushed Isla’s head back down to her vulva and she adjusted her legs to give her access. “From what you’ve told me, that was quite often.”
Kat was close to orgasm when she heard someone clear their voice. “Um, sorry, bad timing, but there’s a call from Eden… Urgent.”
“It’s okay,” Kat sighed. “I’ll finish myself off.” She opened her eyes to see a pretty bird-eye boy standing there waiting patiently. “Unless you want to do the honours? You don’t mind do you sweets?”
Isla sat up and looked at the boy. “Who?”
“The Academy.”
She stood slowly and directed the boy toward Kat. “I don’t mind babe, but you’re all mine tonight.” She looked at the boy. “You don’t object do you?” She noticed that he was starting to become erect. “I guess not, shame duty calls, it’s such a lovely afternoon for a fuck.”
She rushed toward the camp, stopping briefly to look back and see that the boy had already mounted Kat. She felt a pang of regret. “Damn duty,” she thought. “This better be good.”
She hurriedly acknowledged people as she ran through the camp (not that she needed to rush, but the increase in in adrenaline would help dampen her state of arousal). She was puffing as she entered the newly constructed science building; it’s timbers still releasing a heady scent. She found her office, took a moment to catch her breath and sat before her screen.
“Campbell here,” she said, still panting.
She had to wait. The caller was obviously engaged in another conversation. She realised she was thirsty. Fortunately there was still some water left in a flask on the side table. As she reached for it she heard the director’s voice. “Isla, sorry to interrupt you, I would have waited, but the time difference… It’s just past midnight here. I hope it wasn’t anything important.”
She sat back down, gulped some water and nodded at the familiar face of Bill Drake. “Sort of… You caught me in the middle of some recreational sex…”
“Oh, sor
ry about that… Look, there are two urgent matters we need to discuss…”
She took another sip of water.
“The Council have been very pleased with progress on Calliope. It’s gone much better than expected so they want to accelerate the colonisation. We’re sending the next group sooner than anticipated…”
“Why the rush?”
“No rush. The Council always wanted things to move promptly. The situation on Earth is volatile. It would be best if the colonies were as advanced as possible. The Council has been very impressed with the food resources. The next group will contain agriculturalists.”
“Okay, but that’s not really urgent…”
Drake’s face became serious. “No, that alone could have waited.” He paused whilst he thought about what to say next. “A probe has discovered evidence of a proto-sentient species on Calliope. We want you to put together a team and go investigate. You will need maximum security.”
“A what?”
“There is evidence of rudimentary tool making, shelter construction and communication.”
“Really? Is a vid available?”
The screen cut immediately to an overhead view of a rough settlement set in a small gully, with an entrance protected by a stone wall and sharpened logs pointing out wards. The structures seemed to be simple lean-to’s fashioned from wood and thatched leaves; smoke trails suggested open fires.
“And the creatures?”
The image cut to a band of large, fur-covered creatures half way between an Earth bear and the predators of Pangaea. They were ambling through a forest glade gathering fruit and putting it in rough fur sacks. She looked carefully at their muzzles.
“Are they carnivores?”
“We’re not sure. They seem to be herbivorous, possibly omnivorous. The current theory is that their sentience may have been a defensive strategy. We’ve found no evidence of large scale hunting.”
She shuddered from a mixture of fear and excitement. “So we have to assume they are the prey of some high order predator?”
“Yes, or predators, plural, not unlike our ape ancestors.”
“And what are the thoughts about the objectives of the mission?”
“Opinion varies. It’s well within your authority to decide. I would imagine a period of observation. Then we’ll have to decide on a policy of control and containment. Calliope is too important to abandon.”
“Are you suggesting a reservation of some sort?”
Drake seemed surprised by the suggestion. “Well yes, I suppose it might come to that. I would certainly council a policy of minimal involvement. I guess it depends how widespread the species is. If it is confined to a specific ecosystem, then it might be possible to leave it well alone. These are all questions you will have to consider. The Council will pay very close attention to your recommendations. This species will be your responsibility. This means you also have naming rights.”
Isla sat back in her seat dumbstruck.
“Unless there’s something else I need to sleep…”
“Um, no, I can’t think…” She was about to sign off. “Wait, there is something. I haven’t had time to look at the files, but how are things on Erato?”
“Very promising. Another success. They’re finding a lot of grasses with new types of grains, seeds and cereals. The word is that it is like the ancient Fertile Crescent where human agriculture began, although it seems there are more varieties than on Earth. They’ve already started small scale farming trials.”
“So it’s full steam ahead?”
“Yes, things are changing rapidly, perhaps a little too rapidly. It’s exhilarating, but it’s stretching everyone.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? Eden was becoming a bit safe and dull. We needed the challenge.”
“Well you’ve got your challenge Campbell, just come back in one piece.”
Drake signed off but she remained fixated on the screen, watching and rewatching all the available footage of the new species. They were certainly large, around three metres. They had short, muscular legs and walked upright. Their arms were longer with three fingered hands and two opposable thumbs. There was a popular theory that intelligence co-evolved with language and tool making, the more complex the tools, the more complex the language and a bigger brain to handle the greater complexity, the bigger brain leading to more complex tools and language, and so on. If they survived as a species they might progress to the next stage - in a million or so years.
When she had seen all the footage several times over, and when her stomach told her it was well past meal time, she wandered out into the camp. Her first stop was the mess. Most of the food had gone, eaten by ravenous defenders gobbling up seconds. She had to make do with the slops of three dishes, wiped up with a flat bread. Apart from some defenders talking in a corner, she was alone with her thoughts. She ate her food quickly, still buzzing with excitement. She had to find Kat. She wanted to plan an expedition immediately.
She found her down at the lake’s edge where they had built a large campfire a few weeks ago (well away from the forest). It had become a popular place to wind down at night and she could hear the sound of music and laughter as she got closer. Kat was sitting with some of her defenders listening to someone playing a guitar, her skin glistening in the orange glow of the flames. Kat saw her approach and waved for her to come sit beside her. It was inviting. There was something womb-like about sitting around a roaring fire on a cold, dark night. Eden was different: too warm and humid, and the moons too bright. Calliope’s moon (they had called it Janus because it was a perpetual half moon) was dull, with almost as much light coming from the star cluster that marked the centre of the Milky Way.
She stood her ground and signalled for Kat to join her. She could see Kat scrunch up her face and hold up her hands in a gesture that indicated she was too comfortable by the fire. She frowned and gestured more vigorously. Kat was slow to get up, clearly under the influence of some intoxicant.
“You look too serious sweets,” said Kat as she swept Isla up in her arms.
“I am,” she complained as she wrestled out of Kat’s overly exuberant grip.
“Well?”
Isla dragged at Kat’s arm and led her away from the fire. “You were complaining you were getting bored. Well, how would you like to go on a dangerous mission, a mission in which you might get killed?”
Kat raised her eyebrows with a mixture of surprise and delight. “What, a mission that will actually utilise my training? You fucking bet!”
It took a week to organise. Reconnaissance probes mapped the area and orbital probes found features that suggested other groups of the new species. The population density suggested a species struggling to survive. As a defender Kat was primarily concerned with finding the species” predator, arguing succinctly that until they did, they could not hope study the species itself. Isla understood the argument. To properly understand a species you had to also understand its niche in the local ecology.
Eden sent a cargo jumper with darts designed to carry two people each. Kat had suggested that the best place to camp was in the canopy, reasoning from the species” defence strategy, that the major threat was a ground predator. Isla had picked one other scientist, Altan Borjigid, and Kat had selected a unit of eight defenders. Isla was head of mission but Kat had the authority in a defensive emergency.
It was a cold, misty morning when they set out. A small group had gathered to wish them well. Isla mounted the dart behind the fully armoured Kat. She hugged her tight as the dart ascended vertically into the mist. When they broke through the low cloud they were treated to an absolutely magnificent sight: the highest trees and mountains piercing a brilliant white, nebulous landscape. They paused to enjoy the view. Kat took the lead in the formation. Isla turned to check on Altan who was sitting back on the dart, slightly turned to admire the view. He saw her smiling, gave the thumbs up and returned the smile. She looked at the defenders sitting hovering, each face set with a mixture of wonder
, expectation and anxiety.
“Okay babe, let’s head out.”
Kat leant forward and the dart kicked into action. The gel thickened to protect them against the wind chill, although icy daggers still entered through her nostrils. The species was at least six hundred klicks to the south and it would take them three hours.
Behind her a defender yelled “whoo-hoo” and the others joined in with a cacophony of whoops, yells and ululations. The excitement was too much and she let out her own scream of pure exhilaration. This was an adventure – a real adventure.
122
Cynthia
This time she was angry. She had tried to control it, to achieve some detachment, but adrenaline was fuelling a steady rage. Ever since the incident on the bridge she had wanted to dispense her own form of justice, although she also understood it was just crude revenge. The target was a munitions store on the outskirts of a dusty town. These people had lost the ability to manufacture and repair sophisticated weaponry, so the store was a valuable asset. This meant it was guarded. They had been watching it for some time, first with probes and then with trained eyes. It had been agreed that they could not avoid a loss of life. The guards had to be taken out so they could lay explosives. Again they would surprise them by dropping out of the sky. It was risky, but they had one other tactical advantage. The guards had become complacent and distracted by card games, talking and smoking hashish.
The mission served two purposes. The first, and most obvious, was to deny these brutal people access to sophisticated weapons, thus potentially saving lives. The second was to create a diversion. These people were Shia, the enemies of the Pashtun Sunni to the east. It was hoped that these Shia would blame the Pashtuns and mount a counter attack. This would pressure the Pashtuns to send reinforcements to the west, leaving their border with the Buddhist Republic less defended.
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