The Voyage of the Minotaur

by Wesley Allison

  “Is it ready to go?” Zeah asked Egeria as he stepped up to her side.

  “They’re lighting the coal on the other side now,” she replied, and then she reached out and enveloped his right hand in both her small ones.

  “I have to admit that I’m expecting something grand,” he said.

  “Then I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed. We won’t be doing anything other than a few tests today. Tomorrow, I start working with the survey data.”

  They waited until a small whistle of steam began pouring out of one of the release valves. Then Egeria turned a series of knobs. She pressed all of the large buttons, Zeah now counted sixteen of them. Then she pulled the first lever. The depressed buttons popped back out. Then she pressed every other button—the even ones, and pulled the lever. She then pressed the buttons she hadn’t pressed the last time—the odd ones, and pulled the lever. Once again she pressed all of the buttons and pulled the lever, but this time she then pulled the second lever. Gears began to turn. Pulleys began to move up and down. Then entire device acted as though it was about to get up and walk away. Zeah heard what sounded like typing, and he stepped around to the far side of the Result Mechanism to see a sheet of paper emerging from a slot in the side. Egeria followed him, and as she reached out to take the paper, the gears and windings of the machine came to a stop, though it still hissed with steam. She read the paper and then handed it to Zeah, who in turn read it.

  Congratulations.

  If you can read this information, you have correctly set up the Result Mechanism.

  Serial Number: 000001

  Data Format: HXD

  Location:

  Environment: EWL 1.0

  Version: 1.001a

  “Well, I guess congratulations are in order,” said Zeah. “Where is Professor Calliere, anyway?”

  Egeria shrugged.

  “One would think he would want to be here to unveil his wonderful invention to the world.”

  “It’s just a toy to him,” said Egeria. “He came up with the idea of this machine—a machine that could do incredibly fast calculations, but he doesn’t really understand what this could lead to. As far as the professor is concerned, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing is all that it does. It just does it incredibly fast.”

  “Isn’t that all it does?” wondered Zeah.

  “Yes. That’s the beauty of it. All God needed to do to make all of creation was to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Math is everything. It underlies the universe. Numbers are everything. They’re colors. They’re shapes. They’re lengths, widths, durations. Calliere supposes that incredibly quick calculations will allow more accurate trajectories for artillery fire, and it has—I’ve already written that program—but if you replace numbers with colors and shapes, you could create your own world. You could define your own plane of existence. You could predict the future. You could be God.”

  “Well now that you have tested the machine, and approached deification, what are you going to do?” asked Zeah.

  “I thought I would go watch the little dinosaurs.”

  “Then I shall accompany you.”

  The little herd of dinosaurs penned into an enclosure southeast of the barracks had grown to six—one ankylosaurus, three triceratops, and two iguanodons. All were feeding from a large pile of local vegetation placed in the pen by their keepers and supplemented by vegetable and fruit scraps from the colonists’ tables. Several women and a few older children were working in rotating shifts, taking care of the beasties. Fetching fresh water and large piles of food was far less difficult than the other necessary task—shoveling out the pen. Today Mrs. Kittredge was on duty.

  “Etta!” called Egeria, when she saw the other woman. “How are you? Are you ready for the wedding?”

  “Oh yes,” said Mrs. Kittredge, bending over slightly to give Egeria, who was a head shorter, a hug. “I’ll be happy when it’s all said and done.”

  “It’s just the day after tomorrow. Do you need help with anything? It seems so rushed.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t have waited this long if we had been back in Brech,” she said, and Zeah thought that she gave him a sideways look.

  “You’re very lucky,” said Egeria. “I think Corporal Bratihn is a fine man.”

  “Yes, Lawrence is a wonderful man.”

  “I hope you’ll be very happy,” said Zeah, conscious that it was inappropriate to congratulate the bride.

  “Thank you,” said Mrs. Kittredge. She looked wistfully off into the distance. “I hope we can start a family. I would love to have more children.”

  Egeria placed a comforting hand on her arm.

  “Mr. Kittredge and their two children died of fever,” she explained to Zeah.

  “I’m sorry,” said Zeah. He was actually pleased that the conversation had turned in this direction. The topic of death did not make him nearly as uncomfortable as the topic of starting a family, so very near was it to the topic of sexuality.

  “Well,” said Mrs. Kittredge, wiping away a tear. “I had better get back to my duties. You would be amazed at how much manure six little animals can create.”

  “I really wish she wouldn’t use the word ‘manure’,” said Zeah, after the woman had stepped away.

  “I think she used that word for your sake,” said Egeria. “The words I’ve heard her use for it at other times would make you blush. Not everyone. Just you.”

  “I suppose you think I’m an old fuddy-duddy.”

  “A fuddy-duddy, yes. Old, no.”

  They leaned against the fence of the enclosure and watched the dinosaurs eat. After several moments one of them, an iguanodon, walked over to where they were, and stood up on its hind legs, resting its forelegs against the fence. It sniffed at the two humans. Egeria reached out and stroked the back of its head. The little creature closed its eyes and pressed against her hand.

  “Watch out,” warned Zeah. “That beak could cause a lot of damage, I’ll wager.”

  “It just wants some affection,” said Egeria, continuing to rub the leathery green skin.

  “I’m amazed that they take so easily to humans,” said Zeah. “Professor Calliere seems to be of the opinion that their brains are too small to feel emotions. He thinks they might be raised for food stock, but they could never be beasts of burden.”

  “I think that emotions aren’t to be found in the big human part of our brains, but in the older part—the part we share with all the animals. Why else would so many mother animals risk their own lives to care for their offspring? I also think the only thing larger than what the professor knows, is what he doesn’t know.”

  “Isn’t that a line from Keiman?”

  “Well now Mr. Korlann, you amaze me? You can quote Keiman?”

  “No, not quote. But I recognize it when I hear it. I don’t remember what book it was.”

  “It was The Quality of Damiano, though I substituted ‘the professor’ for ‘Damiano’.”

  “I gathered that.”

  “Have you read Hormby too?”

  “Only The Government.”

  “Oh, you should read The Barnyard. It reminds me a little bit of our life here, actually.”

  “How so?” asked Zeah.

  “In the novel, there is a strict hierarchy among the animals, just as there are among the people in this colony.”

  “There is a hierarchy among people everywhere, not just here.”

  “Maybe I just notice it more now.”

  They watched the dinosaurs for another half hour. The other iguanodon, noticing the attention that his fellow was receiving from the strange two-legged visitors, joined him, and Zeah petted a dinosaur for the first time. The other animals remained where they were, content to munch on the pile of plants.

  “Will you join me for dinner?” he asked.

  “Are you asking me or the dinosaur?”

  “It depends on which one of you says yes first.”

  The iguanodon, which Zeah had stopped petting,
suddenly let out a great “Honk!” Both of the humans began laughing.

  “I hope you two will be very happy,” said Egeria.

  “Enough,” said Zeah, still laughing. “I’m not good enough at this playful banter to keep it up any longer. Please just say that you will come to dinner with me.”

  He waited for a long moment, as Egeria just looked at him.

  “Oh, are you talking to me? I thought that you were still speaking to the dinosaur.”

  “Enough! I never thought that in my advancing years I would end up as a plaything for a beautiful young redhead.”

  “Beautiful, eh? Then I suppose it’s true what they say about flattery.”

  “It’s not flattery. Not one tittle.”

  “All right then,” she said. “I will meet you for dinner this evening. What time?”

  “6:30?”

  “Make it 7:00. You may find me at the Result Mechanism shelter. I still have some work to do there later today.”

  The world couldn’t have been more perfect as Zeah walked along the path that had just been covered with gravel to the small tent that Miss Dechantagne was using as her office. The sun was warm and the clouds hanging in the moist air seemed so huge, fluffy, and low that one could reach out and fluff them with one’s fingers. Stepping up to the tent, he knocked on the foremost tent pole.

  “Come in,” said Miss Dechantagne from inside.

  Zeah entered and found her sitting at a large wooden desk, which had been transported around the world from the Dechantagne household in Brech. She was carefully sorting through a pile of papers.

  “Sit down, Zeah,” she said. “I’m just making sure that everything I think is coming on the first supply ship is indeed scheduled to be on that ship.”

  “It’s almost a month before that ship arrives isn’t it?”

  “Yes, almost.”

  Zeah didn’t ask anything else. He just sat down in one of several folding wood and canvas camp chairs that had been set out for visitors and waited for her to finish what she was doing. At last, she shuffled her papers aside and looked up at him.

  “How are you today?” she asked.

  Zeah almost swallowed his lip. In all the time he had known Miss Dechantagne, and he had known her since she was born, he couldn’t remember her ever having asked after his well being. At first he was simply at a loss. Then he thought that it might be some kind of trick, but looking on her face he saw neither a look of calculation, nor the façade of nonchalance that often covered a look of calculation, but which he had learned to spot many years ago. She was just quietly awaiting his reply.

  “I’m… fine.”

  “And how are the wedding plans proceeding?”

  “Just fine. Food, entertainment; it’s all arranged for the fourteenth.”

  “Most excellent. I think that this type of event is just what we need to inaugurate the colony, at least from a social perspective.”

  Zeah nodded. To his mind a ‘social perspective’ was superfluous. Shelter, food, and water had to come first. They had semi-permanent shelter in the form of the barracks, but nobody wanted to live there longer than necessary. There was a team at work on an aqueduct, but for the moment they were still bringing water to camp from several small streams in buckets. They had plenty of preserved food in cans and they could hunt for meat, but edible local fruits and vegetables had turned out to be relatively sparse, and while they had planted, it would be months before they would be able to reap that which was sown. On the other hand, he knew that ‘social perspectives’ were not superfluous to Miss Dechantagne, and she had already expressed several times that she wanted the wedding to go off without problems.

  “Do you know what arrives on the next ship?” asked Miss Dechantagne.

  Zeah nodded again. “Heavy equipment.”

  When he had seen the plans for the monthly ships bringing additional equipment and supplies back in Brech, he had expressed some reservation about having a ship full of heavy equipment sent before a ship full of additional food and other perishable supplies. He had been overruled; or rather he had been given no opportunity to express his opinion.

  “Heavy equipment and two thousand more colonists.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know what we need?” asked Miss Dechantagne.

  “Food,” said Zeah, still following his own thoughts about the preparations made back when they were all still in civilization.

  “We need a functioning government. We need a governing body in place, before large numbers of colonists begin arriving.”

  “You are the Royal Governor.”

  “Yes I am. But we need a governing council. I shall sit on the council as the governor. Augie shall sit as the liaison to the natives and Terrence shall sit as commander of the garrison. Father Ian will represent the Church. And of course Zurfina will be there as well, as per our agreement. I want several seats filled by members of the colony who are popularly elected. ”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. In fact, I would like you to gather a list of potential candidates for an election to be held in two weeks, say….the twenty ninth. That will give us time to meet and set up our basic rules of operation before the new colonists arrive. Stability is very important, and the appearance of stability is even more so.”

  “How many candidates should we have?”

  “I don’t know. Let anyone who has an interest in serving on the council, and isn’t totally undesirable, add his name to the ballot. His or her name.”

  “Women too?” Zeah said, more to himself than to Miss Dechantagne.

  “Yes,” she said, pursing her lips. “We shall be progressive.”

  “Very well,” said Zeah. “I will garner a list and have it available in… two days?”

  “That will be fine,” said Miss Dechantagne. “And make sure that your name is on the ballot.”

  “Mine?”

  “Yes. It has escaped no one’s attention that you are both valuable to the colony and popular among the people. I wouldn’t be surprised at some form of rebellion if your name were left off. And rebellion is something I simply do not have time for. I look forward to seeing the list before its general publication.”

  “Of course.”

  “Thank you, Zeah.”

  Zeah left the tent and looked around. The world had lost none of the color and appeal that it had shown a few minutes before when he had walked down the path looking at the clouds. If anything, it looked even better now. He began his new task of finding individuals who would be interested in running for office. It was a relatively easy job, but several times during the course of the day, the air was rent by the frightful scream of the Tyrannosaurus, hunting on the other side of the high wall.

  When evening approached and the cooling air began to give rise to the evening mists, Zeah freshened up in the barracks apartment he shared with Saba Colbshallow. The young man was there, lying on his bunk and reading a book by the light of a candle.

  “What are you reading,” asked Zeah, as he changed his tie.

  “Adventures in the Unexplored Land.”

  “Seems to me that you are living that book; you don’t really need to read it.”

  “Well, so far our life here isn’t nearly as adventurous as this book. In a Rikkard Banks Tatum book, people get attacked by monsters right and left. Danger lies at every turn.”

  “Exciting?”

  “Very.”

  “So what’s happening in the part you’re reading?”

  “Nance, that’s the hero, is following his arch enemy through the Forest of Screaming Death, and he’s being chased in turn by a monster.”

  “Perhaps we could persuade Captain Dechantagne to leave a large hole in the protective fence for you.”

  “The fence is fine. I just want to be able to get out on the other side of it.”

  “Maybe you’ll get your chance.”

  “Meeting your lady?” asked Saba, after a moment.

  Zeah grunted.

  “F
ine. No adventure and no romance.”

  Zeah smiled and finished straightening his tie and combing his hair. Then he stepped out the door, waving to young Saba who, already engrossed again in his book didn’t notice. He skipped lightly down the three steps and almost bounced down the path toward the shelter that held the Result Mechanism. The closer he came to the structure, the louder the noise was. The Result Mechanism was chugging along in operation. He didn’t see Egeria by the machine so he called out to her.

  “Miss Lusk!”

  There was no answer so he called out again. Still no answer, he walked slowly around the whistling steam pipes and turning gears. It was growing darker by the moment and the mist was rising from the nearby forest and the bay. A paper was printing on the side of the Result Mechanism. Several sheets had already fallen from the slot and were lying on the ground. Egeria was not there to gather them. Zeah stepped around the next corner to the back of the machine.

  “Egeria!”

  Miss Lusk was lying face down on the ground. The back of her white dress was stained dark. The failing light had drained all the color from the world, but Zeah knew that the growing spot was deep red. Blood red. He ran to her still form, dropping to his knees. She seemed to have several deep wounds. As he pressed his hands to them, he could feel the blood and the life pumping out between his fingers.

  “Help!” Over the sound of the machine he could barely hear himself. “Help!”

  No one was going to help him. No one could hear him over the whistle, clank, and grind. Zeah scooped Egeria up in his arms and ran around the corner and back up the hill. He made it about half way when he tripped, sending both Egeria and himself sprawling across the ground. He rose quickly to his knees, but she stayed in a bloody clump.