Chamberlain's Folly (The Terra Nova Chronicles)

by Robert Dean Hall

  The treaty, under its final review before coming to a vote in the Zunnuki senate, was to define diplomatic relations and promote military cooperation between the Zunnuki, the felines and the visitors from Mu’a Asari, The Water World, that circled Uttu; the yellow star, that shone brightly in the direction of the constellation known as the ‘Throne of the Queen’.

  The irony of the name, Terra Nova, the original invading Earth men had given to Zunnuki, was not lost on Buzami or the rest of his people.

  According to legend, the Zunnuki people originally came from Mu’a Asari, or as it was called in the most ancient texts, Ki. The name Zunnuki was actually derived from the phrase Su’u’nu Ki, which meant Second World, or New World in that most ancient dialect.

  The ancient texts which spawned the only existing Zunnuki religion, told fantastic stories of how god-men came here in incredible flying machines to escape the Great War raging among the planets of the Uttu system. A war fought with weapons that could disintegrate whole planets with ‘sounds that could be felt, but not heard’ or burn them to a cinder with ‘a heat and light greater than those of a thousand suns’.

  Those who did not subscribe to the Zunnuki religion passed the texts off as incredibly imaginative myths with no basis in reality until the planet had entered its own space age approximately three hundred years before the first earthmen arrived.

  Taken literally, the texts told of three warring factions, two were human and one was a race of upright-walking serpents. The three factions continuously fought over and held possession of most of the planets in the system at various times. The race that spawned the two human factions came originally from the fifth planet and the serpents came from the third, but there were human and serpent presences on all of the habitable planets and moons in the system.

  The war resulted in the complete destruction of the fifth planet and the ripping away of the atmosphere and oceans of the fourth, leaving it uninhabitable. Fearful groups of humans and serpents left the system before the destruction of the fifth planet, and were said to have settled on planets in every system with an orange or yellow sun for at least fifty light years in all directions from Uttu.

  The legends promised the return of these human god-men, to Zunnuki to collect everyone and take them back to resettle the third planet in the system. Those who still adhered to the Zunnuki religion awaited the call to return to Ki.

  When the Zunnuki people were informed where the Armstrong battle group came from, the faithful expected that call to come from them, but they waited in vain. Almost nobody else on the planet made the connection.

  Buzami looked across the table at the Combined Earth Forces general and the feline colonel proof-reading the treaty along with him. Both looked back with similar amounts of exhaustion clouding their visages. Buzami decided to take the gambit and suggest breaking for the day.

  “If I have to look at this document a minute longer, General Gupta, my eyes will cross,” he said, and then glanced toward the feline, hoping for some sign of agreement.

  “I must agree with Governor Buzami, General,” the feline added. “We’ve been at this for fourteen straight hours and I believe unless we break from it for a while, we will become careless. I am not sure I could say I haven’t missed an important detail or two already.”

  Gupta looked at the other two. He was just as tired as they were, but the three were under a deadline to finish examining the treaty and it was up to him to ensure the deadline was met. Fourteen other triads, each made up of a representative from Earth, one Zunnuki and one feline, were also going over the document.

  The teams had been given seven days to review the treaty. At the end of seven days the triads would contact the Zunnuki senate and inform them of any difficulties the members had with the treaty. The issues would be discussed on the floor of the senate with representatives of the felines and Earth government present.

  “We only have one day left,” Gupta stated.

  Buzami and the feline, Colonel Calf-Stealer, looked at each other as if they knew what was coming next.

  “General,” Buzami replied, almost reflexively. “We haven’t run into any real difficulties with the major principles of the document and I have a feeling none of the other groups have gotten as far as we have. I believe the senate will have to reconvene the triads after the briefings for at least another three days.”

  Gupta looked at Calf Stealer. “Do you concur, Colonel,” he asked.

  Calf Stealer nodded in agreement.

  “Well, gentlemen,” Gupta said. “I could certainly use some dinner and a rest myself. Governor? Colonel? Should we find the nearest tavern?”

  The Zunnuki and the feline smiled and grabbed their jackets. They followed the Terran general out of Buzami’s office and down the hallway to the front entrance of the district seat.

  They had not been on the surface for six days and Calf Stealer was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. It was late in the evening so the group decided they should leave the city center and find a place to relax and have dinner closer to their quarters. They walked the half kilometer to the central train station to make the ride to the residential section of the city.

  It usually took thirty minutes to make the trip during business hours, but this late in the evening, the trip should be much shorter. Once they got to their train stop, there would be a host of dining and drinking establishments within walking distance of their final destination, Buzami’s apartment complex.

  Once they were off the train, the trio took the nearest stairway up two levels to the station’s central dining area, and found a sidewalk table in front of Buzami’s favorite tavern. All three ordered ales and Gupta asked for a menu. He needed no help reading it. He had learned Zunnuki quickly.

  Gupta was a linguist who fluently spoke every major language on Earth and was also an expert in primitive Earth cultures and ancient languages, especially Sumerian and Sanskrit. The familiarity with Sumerian was the big reason he was chosen as one of the Earth representatives to the Zunnuki senate for the treaty negotiations.

  Every time a Zunnuki spoke within range of a CEF translator, it would tell its user the language being spoken was some variant of Sumerian and then translate almost perfectly. There were a few regional dialects, but no other root language was spoken now or had ever been spoken by the natives of Terra Nova.

  The translations back into the Zunnuki language were a bit shaky since there were new concepts that ancient Sumerian didn’t have words for. And, until the translators could be tuned, the resulting attempts created some laughs, but the CEF linguists were certain the language being spoken was indeed a variant of Sumerian or an antecedent. It deeply puzzled them, but it was a fact. The linguists used what they knew about ancient Sumerian to supplement their study of the Zunnuki language and started teaching the troops to speak and read it.

  After they had finished their drinks, Calf Stealer excused himself.

  “I’m sorry, but unless I see at least one of the two suns directly instead of through a light pipe, I will go stir-crazy,” he said. “I will see you both at oh six hundred in Azir’s office.”

  He turned and walked to the nearest lift.

  “Just how far down are we here,” Gupta asked Buzami.

  “Fifty meters,” Buzami replied. “Not far at all.”

  “Your underground cities are a marvel of engineering, Governor,” Gupta said. “I would imagine that Earth’s engineers and architects could spend years studying the design and construction techniques.”

  “For my people, it has been adapt or die,” Buzami told Gupta. He then waved his hand and held up his tankard, signaling the waiter to bring another ale.

  “Although they are settling down now, the suns have been unstable for the last half of a millennium,” he continued. “It wasn’t until about two hundred and fifty years ago we had the scientific knowledge needed to determine what was happening to our people and environment. It took us nearly one hundred years to build our cities and move t
he populace underground.”

  “Of course, there were some of us who chose to remain on the surface, even as the solar winds became so strong they penetrated our magnetosphere and scorched the face of our planet evaporating away much of our oceans. Before that this district was the western coastal region.”

  “You mean,” Gupta asked in amazement. “Most of this continent used to be under water?”

  “Oh yes, General,” Buzami answered. “The western two-thirds of this continent and almost all of New Australia were completely under water. That is mostly why my people have not ventured there. It is also why Chamberlain’s people and the felines are having such a difficult time making the areas habitable. I have no idea why they didn’t try to settle on one of the other continents.”

  Buzami smiled as a waiter showed up with a tray full of drinks. He continued to speak as the waiter set two fresh ales down on the table.

  “My people were also foolish for building the cities this close to the equator,” Buzami said. “We should have known that once the atmosphere heated up, the tropical Eden that was here before would change. And it did. Not a native plant or animal on the surface of this continent survived. They were all scorched.”

  Another waiter appeared behind the first with Gupta’s dinner.

  Once the plate was in front of him, Gupta forked a piece of meat he would have sworn was curried chicken and placed it in his mouth. He chewed as he intently listened to Buzami continue his story of how the Zunnuki came to live under the surface.

  “Before we realized that an increase in solar activity was to blame, there were those who claimed that overpopulation and rampant industrialism were the causes of our climate change and the thinning of our ozone layer,” Buzami said, smiling in amusement. “It seems ridiculous now after what has happened that anyone could have believed we had the power to affect the environment so drastically. And, of course there were the zealots who pointed to the judgment of the gods as the reason we were suffering the famine and increased skin cancers. The environmentalists and zealots added a lot of noise to the debate, but gave us no real practical answers.”

  “We were dealing with something similar starting about that time,” Gupta replied. “We saw an increase in solar activity and lost some of our polar icecaps, but we came through relatively unscathed.”

  Buzami had another stiff drink and continued.

  “In the end, reason and logic won out,” Buzami said. “But, it wasn’t until we had the ability to send probes to the other planets in the system, and saw they were heating too, that it became obvious there was something going on external to the planet.”

  “We embarked on a project to measure the changes in the suns and found that both the yellow and orange suns were emitting extremely high energy x-rays at various times. Storms on both suns were at an all time high and activity was still increasing. If we didn’t find a way to shield the populace from the intensifying solar radiation, we would soon suffer mutations, or even extinction.”

  “There wasn’t enough room in the natural underground caverns for everyone. We pooled all our resources and built twenty city complexes here big enough to accommodate about eighty percent of our population.”

  “Only eighty percent,” the General asked. “What about the rest?”

  Buzami looked at Gupta and answered. His answer was cold and unfeeling, but Gupta had to admit it was the answer he expected.

  “We just didn’t have the time to build accommodations for everyone,” Buzami said. “In fact, our best calculations missed the solar maximum by minus fifteen years and the flare that knocked out our communications and navigation satellites was actually the kill shot that nearly destroyed the surface ecosystem.”

  “At the time we still hadn’t gotten the subterranean farming and manufacturing up to one hundred percent capacity. Almost half of the population was still on the surface. The government warned the people to stay indoors during the times when their locales were facing the major sun, but even that did not shield them from the extreme radioactivity.”

  “In one month, half of those left on the surface developed aggressive skin cancers and cataracts, even with the most advanced sun screens and protective lenses we had. The flare also heated up the atmosphere and turned most of the temperate and tropical zones into deserts. All of our surface rivers dried up, and the oceans started to recede.”

  “We lost almost half our population and nearly ninety percent of the plants and wildlife left on the surface. So, you see, we didn’t have to choose who we allowed into the underground cities and who we banished to the surface to fend for themselves. A small mercy, if you consider a clear conscience vital to your well-being as your civilization faces extinction.”

  “I didn’t mean to offend you, Governor,” General Gupta said. “I have been in the position of having to send human beings to their deaths myself, and I realize there are many situations where the choice is necessary…”

  Buzami raised his open hands from the table and shrugged his shoulders as if to tell Gupta that an apology was unnecessary.

  “Knowing my people as I do, General, I must say that missing the date of the flare was divine providence,” Buzami said. “I honestly believe if that had not happened the government would have lost its resolve to do what was required of them to ensure the survival of our people. They would have brought everyone underground and our resources would have not lasted long enough to wait out the solar event. There would have been no way to contain the rioting and crime that would have followed. As it turned out we had plenty to keep us and we have been able to take our time moving the populace back to the surface.”

  “You know that my people stand ready to help with the reconstruction of the surface of your planet,” Gupta replied. “We are attempting to restart the hydroponics and livestock production facilities on the ship the expatriates left in orbit so that our people will not be a burden on your planet’s resources while we are here. We will even teach your people to run the greenhouse so you may take control of it…”

  Buzami held up his hand to quiet the general.

  “Your people don’t have to sell anything to me or mine,” Buzami said. “You have all of the advantages here. Your weapons are at least two hundred years more advanced than ours.”

  “We have spent most of the last two centuries just trying to survive,” he continued. “My people are not starving yet, but our scientists and our resource specialists all agree we will be soon, if we can’t successfully start farming the surface again. We believe we can, by ourselves, but, of course, the help of your people would be welcomed.”

  Buzami picked up his tankard of ale and took another large drink. He was fully aware of the overpopulation problem that plagued the Earth from his conversations with the leaders of the expatriates. He also knew that damage control was the reason the crew of the Ark was being persecuted even though it was close to fifty years since they left Earth.

  Buzami looked around.

  This was his culture and he had a nagging feeling this would be the last generation of his people to celebrate and appreciate it. He knew, within fifty years, anything left of the Zunnuki culture would be in a museum or history book.

  Even now, though Gupta and Calf Stealer both spoke Zunnuki almost perfectly, he found himself speaking either English or Sino, a mix of Mandarin Chinese and English, more often when he dealt with either of them.

  That was another thing about the Terrans that concerned Buzami, the fact that Earth needed more than one spoken language. He had asked Gupta why Earth had not simply adopted a single language.

  Gupta’s answer sounded convoluted and silly to Buzami. All the talk of diversity and respect of other cultures smacked of moral cowardice and signaled to him that Gupta’s people were still struggling to overcome nationalism and sectarianism and the suppressed aggression and bigotry that go along with them and constantly boil under the surface.

  He was sad about it, but he knew without the help of people from Earth, h
is civilization faced extinction. Most of the Zunnuki had lost the desire to live on the surface and the plans to move them back up were meeting resistance. He knew it would take an influx of colonists from Earth to get the rebuilding of the surface infrastructure moving and bring his people topside again.

  “What bothers me is this,” Governor Buzami continued. “I can’t see what is in it for your people?”

  “I assure you we have no intention of outstaying our welcome, Governor,” Gupta replied. He had an amused look on his face. “Our intentions are to establish diplomatic relations, if that is what the Zunnuki people wish, and to leave with our expatriates. Anything else we do is a peace offering. We want only that and nothing more.”

  “But what is your motivation, General,” Buzami asked. He was a career bureaucrat and knew nothing worth having ever came without a price tag. “Your government is trying to buy something, General,” the Governor said. “What is it we have you could possibly need?”

  Gupta was dumbfounded. He had always been up front with Buzami and he didn’t understand why the Governor suddenly seemed suspicious of him and his government’s motives.

  “We know why Chamberlain and those who were with him came here,” Buzami continued, once he saw that Gupta was temporarily speechless. “They were looking for a home where they could live out their lives as they wished. That is why we did not exterminate them, and we could have, if we wanted to.”

  Gupta looked at Buzami as if he had just met the man. This was a conversation he did not want to have with the governor; at least at this point in the treaty process. The governor’s sudden change in attitude toward him had caught him off guard. Up until that point, Gupta was confident that Calf Stealer, Buzami and he were actually forming a friendship.

  Buzami could see that Gupta was uncomfortable. He felt a certain fondness for this off-worlder and did not want to offend him, but he could not let him off the hook just yet. He knew there was a hidden agenda behind the sudden appearance of the Earth fleet only a few months ago with no advanced radio signals or unmanned probes.