Space for Evolution

by Zurab Andguladze

  For a giant planet that glowed like a night star, they again combined two words: Selena—the symbol of the moon—and Jupiter, to create the term Seler. Another planet got the name of Tail because it always was as if catching up with Seler.

  The great river was called Quiet because no one had ever threatened the settlement from there. They didn’t name other parts of the landscape, deciding to give them names later, in the process of exploring new territories.

  Chapter 29

  Two more years passed. On a stuffy and cloudy day, the teenagers were uprooting the stumps of felled “trees” on the western border of the farm. At home there only three: Ama, Dme, and Arfina were on duty. Breakfast was long since eaten, and they were preparing the day’s dinner of fried meat with onions and garlic. In addition, they planned to serve beans cooked with tomatoes, as well as cheese, herbs, corn tortillas, and apple juice.

  Dme and Arfina cooked the meat and vegetables. Ama made the fire, chopped wood, and pressed juice from fresh apples with a wooden press. After that the boy went to the edge of the plateau.

  Sitting here on the grass and resting, he examined a barely noticeable flow of the River Quiet and the opposite shore, almost two kilometers from him. Of course, with the naked eye he couldn’t see much, only a mysterious dark coastal line. He often thought about the day when he would be able to sail to that shore. Satellite photographs had only aroused his curiosity.

  Here the boy noticed some movement from the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw an animal named the RLH-1. The creature had just crawled out of the river. Ama assumed that it was looking for some edible plant. The robots didn’t exterminate these harmless herbivores, which due to their clumsiness, couldn’t even climb this gentle slope and get closer to the settlement.

  Ama, unexpectedly, began to think about this. By the rules, the children, having noticed a predator, must either run to the robots, or hide in the nearest shelter and activate the alarm on their universal device. From the age of seven the children had almost constantly worn this device on their wrists.

  About herbivore creatures the instruction said that you should be careful and not approach them. At the same time, Ama comprehended at that very instant, that the rules didn’t say anything about the possibility of killing them. The teenager now thought precisely about this uncertainty: if you could not get close to them, and it was not forbidden to kill them, then what? Could it be done remotely?

  Ama scratched his head and remembered that he couldn’t use a maser because he was not allowed to spend energy to kill the creature. Because of that, about six months ago, they’d made bows, and arrows with metal tips. For the bowstring, they’d utilized electrical wiring insulation from now-useless equipment. The making of that auxiliary weapon would allow them to charge masers less often and thus decrease the energy consumption.

  After that, during the last few months, all the teenagers had been practicing shooting both bow and maser at least one hour a day. Here he remembered one more restriction: the colonists couldn’t yet deploy any of these weapons without the supervision of the robots.

  Then how can I kill it? Ama turned to the kitchen and looked at his comrades with the intention of asking them for advice. He changed his mind immediately. There was no reason to ask them this question, because they had the same knowledge as he. He should find a solution on his own.

  He thought a little and outlined his problem: he could not use weapons without permission, but at the same time there was an animal that needed to be killed. Here, the boy recalled the explanation of the robots who said that they were the first people on Neia, and therefore they were short of tools.

  Ama groped for something in his memory—that the first people had killed animals using stones and sharp sticks. There were no stones around, but what about a stick? Could he find a pointed stick? The boy thought for a moment, and soon he remembered the poker with which he’d turned over firewood in the kitchen stove a few minutes before.

  Ama also recalled that this L-shaped rod had a wedge-shaped tip. He returned to the kitchen, took what he wanted, and without saying anything to Dme and Arfina, headed back to the river.

  While he went for the poker, the teenager had managed to think over the expediency of his forthcoming action. To dispel any doubts about it, the boy reminded himself that the RA-5 and the RB-5 themselves were killing everything. Although for them, killing this creature was a waste of electricity, even if they used a bow. After all, their batteries were now far from their original capacity.

  Here he grasped one more thing that slightly surprised him. Someday the teacher-machines would finally stop, and then the people themselves would have to destroy the local animals. So, this hunt would be a useful training for him.

  As soon as he’d clarified the situation for himself, Ama began to fulfill the mission. When the boy came back to the edge of the plateau, he saw that the animal had moved even farther from the water, and had already crossed the several-meter-wide sandy shoreline. Ama went down the slope and came to a stop near the RLH-1.

  The amphibian glanced at the approaching creature, but didn’t react to him. This thin animal, which had neither large teeth nor a dangerous trunk, seemed harmless to it.

  Was it really an amphibian? No one knew. The LAI-5 had classified it as such, and given it the abbreviation RLH, because this herbivore lived on both land and in river. The four-legged, clumsy animal had yellowish-tan leather scales on its back. The rest of its body was dark brown. Its long neck ended with a round head, on which a yellowish eye oscillated in its gutter.

  The boy approached the beast to a distance of one step. At last, the animal was alarmed. It raised its head and wheezed. Having carefully examined the amphibian, Ama noticed that it had rather large teeth—more so than a cow’s, although similarly blunt. At this, the boy stopped exploring the features of the animal. He grabbed the poker with both hands, lifted it with all his strength and stuck the sharp end of the instrument deep into the neck of the RLH-1.

  The creature made a gurgling sound. Caught off guard and feeling severe pain, it was so confused that it didn’t even try to run away or counterattack. The boy took advantage of the RLH-1’s inaction, pulled his curved “spear” from the gash and hit the animal again. Luckily for Ama, the poker hit the same place on the neck of the animal and went through. In the boy’s opinion now the wound looked mortally dangerous: it orange blood already flowed from both sides of the neck.

  Then, the animal’s instinct for self-preservation at last woke up and made it rush to the river in search of salvation. At the same time, the creature took the poker with it, pulling it out of the boy’s hands.

  Ama wasn’t at a loss. In two steps, he caught up with the animal, grabbed his “spear” and dug his heels into the sand, trying to restrain the creature. A healthy WLH-1 would have easily overcome the boy’s resistance, but it had already lost a lot of blood, was barely breathing due to the metal object in its nape, and was essentially struggling to move forward. Nevertheless, the amphibian had still managed to drag the young hunter knee-deep into the water.

  The river caught the blood and brought it to a predatory “fish” swimming nearby. It followed the smell and soon found itself at the scene of a battle. It didn’t understand who had attacked whom and who was injured. The small water predator didn’t dare to attack the large amphibian and instead assaulted another creature, a smaller one.

  By that time, Ama had already realized that he couldn’t continue the fight with the RLH-1. He, like his comrades, was forbidden to enter deep waters. So he just pulled out his instrument from the animal’s neck and turned to the shore.

  Ama didn’t notice the new danger. The beast, although smaller than the amphibian, was nevertheless at least a meter long; it had a thin serpentine body and mouth full of small sharp teeth. The river predator seized Ama exactly at the moment when he took a step to land. Raising his limb, the boy felt that someone had grabbed his sandal and painfully scratched his foot.

/>   Looking down into the transparent water, the frightened teenager saw awl-like teeth clamped onto the sole of his right sandal. Sudden, unforeseen danger forced Ama to cry out loud and tug his foot.

  This effort brought him nothing. The predator didn’t unclench its jaws, and the leather sandal didn’t come off. Ama remained the captive of an animal that was trying to pull him into the depths. The boy was already hardly keeping his balance on one foot, and felt that he was on the brink of falling.

  Ama hurriedly looked for an algorithm in his memory that he could use in that moment. Thoughts raced in the boy’s mind, and the next second he remembered the rod in his hands; the young hunter, without lifting it, hit the enemy with the sharp end against its eye. The river predator twitched sharply and quickly got rid of the hook that had not penetrated deep into the wound. The bone groove of the eye didn’t let it in.

  At the same time, the beast continued to hold the limb of its enemy. Balancing on his left leg, Ama again hit with his poker, now with all his might, and this time he pierced the body of the animal. At last, the beast opened its jaws, waved its tail and, turning in place, and rushed straight into deep water. Ama, like a stone thrown from a sling, jumped out onto the shore.

  Hearing his scream, Arfina and Dme ran to the edge of the plateau. Looking down from there, at first they saw a huge RLH-1, almost hidden in the water. Their companion was standing in the sand, carefully examining his foot. They went down to the river, came closer and also began to study his leg. Ama, meanwhile, had removed his sandal and showed a bloody scratch on his foot. Seeing this, Dme and Arfina simultaneously looked at the river, where the amphibian had completely disappeared into the water. After some thought, Dme asked measuredly, “Did the RLH-1 do this?”

  “No, it was something else,” Ama replied, still busy with his leg.

  “Did it bite you?” Arfina asked.

  “It grabbed my sandal, and at that moment its teeth scratched me. The animal tried to drag me into deep water. I hit it twice with my poker.”

  “Have you killed it?” The girl wanted more details.

  “I do not know. It disappeared into the river, leaving a bloody trail. It seems that the RLH-1 will die. I pierced its throat through.” At last, he averted his gaze from his foot and looked at his comrades.

  “Your cuts are not deep. Let us go and put on a bandage, and when the others come, you can tell us all how it happened,” Arfina suggested to him.

  In the evening, after dinner, the young colonists stayed in the dining room. In the silence that accompanied Ro’s setting, they listened to Ama’s account of what had happened, and the reasons that had prompted him to hunt the RLH-1. He also described the unknown river beast that had attacked him.

  “Why have we never seen it before?”Fof asked, after the boy had finished his story.

  “Perhaps it lives in the depths,” Lif suggested. “Or maybe it lives in the middle of the river and rarely approaches the shore.”

  “Interesting,” Memi began to say thoughtfully. “Who else lives there? Maybe the name ‘Quiet’ does not quite fit this river?”

  “Yes,” Ama supported him. “We really know nothing about this river, because we have no business in it; we’ve only learned to swim inside the enclosure.”

  In saying ‘enclosure,’ Ama had in mind a small bay that arose at the junction of the river and the rivulet. Some time ago, the colonists had separated this bay from the main stream of the River Quiet with wooden pillars. Now, while learning to swim, they were at all times in a completely protected area.

  “This case has shown us that although Ama did not violate any of the existing rules, he nevertheless faced a potentially deadly danger,” Memi uttered. “Therefore, let us not do anything new in the future without general discussion.”

  Chapter 30

  Three years after this event, the colonists completed their first stage of training. Ahead, they next had the mastering of professions through electronic lectures. The teenagers had to carefully consider which of the fifteen crafts they wanted to acquire. They needed to study two or three related sciences at the same time. For example, physics, mathematics and astronomy; or history and philosophy; or agronomy and animal husbandry; or medicine and biology, and so on.

  Almost from their birth, the robots had inculcated into their minds that they must pass the baton of knowledge to the next generation. Otherwise, to their descendants, it would be just as hard to understand computer records as for people on Earth trying to decipher the documents of ancient civilizations.

  Of course, after such training, they weren’t real physicists or doctors, but they could provide first aid to a person, or fix equipment. And, most importantly, they could pass on information to the next generation.

  Also, the children began to take hikes in groups of at least three people, each at a distance of no more than ten kilometers. These campaigns had two goals. The first—to exterminate the remaining animals near the settlement and thus improve their hunting skills. The second was the diversification of training methods. The colonization law said that the exploration of new places was learning that could not be replaced with lectures.

  After excursions to the north along the river bank, and mostly to the west of the settlement, the colonists planned to explore another direction—to make a sally southwards and see the ocean with their own eyes.

  To prepare for this journey, the young pioneers used two sources: data obtained from orbit, and their own experience. From the first one they learned the distance to the ocean, which turned out to be little more than sixteen kilometers. From the second they knew that the ocean couldn’t be reached in a straight line.

  Bushes with sharp, stone-hard spikes didn’t allow passage. In due time, this natural barrier had limited the expansion of the pasture further to the south. Neither man, nor any other creature larger than an insect, could get through this wall, which was three meters high. It could only be bypassed from the west, because in the east it extended to the River Quiet itself, without even leaving a narrow passage. Preliminary reconnaissance had shown that in a westerly direction, the prickly plants extended for a one-hour walk from the pasture.

  Due to the almost double length of this sortie, this time the group consisted of six people: Daf, Fof, Memi, Ama, Omis and Nim, chosen by lot. They set off at dawn, carrying food in backpacks on their backs, and with masers hanging on their shoulders. An hour later, after the squad had diagonally crossed the pasture, it approached the impassable bushes. Here, the travelers turned west, and another sixty minutes later, when the side of the thorns that faced north had ended, they stopped to rest and have breakfast on schedule.

  After their stop, they continued on their way, this time to the south. The scouts took their weapons off of their shoulders and carefully watched the forest, as they had never been in these places, and hadn’t driven away the animals. More precisely, they looked at three sides, because from the right the thorny barrier reliably guarded them.

  Meanwhile, the youngsters had passed the second leg of their journey, and made a stop for half an hour. The next stage of the journey appeared to be much shorter than the previous ones. Fifteen minutes after they’d resumed their walk, the long-legged Ama, leading the group, slowed his steps and measuredly announced, “It seems that this shrubbery is again blocking our path.”

  The others caught up with him and also stopped in front of the wall of plants, looking at it bewilderedly. They stood in a corner formed by the thorny bush. From there they could again move west, or simply return back to the colony.

  “We did not know about another obstacle. What should we do now?” Nim, a blond boy, wondered.

  He had short-cropped hair about five millimeters long. Every boy and girl had a similar hairstyle, which they renewed for each other every week with handmade scissors. They also wore identical clothes made of thin white cotton—a short-sleeved shirt, and shorts with trouser-legs to the knees, and leather belts on their waists. Their sandals had elastic, thic
k leather soles which reliably protected their feet.

  The muscular, narrow-eyed Omis replied, “The plan we’ve made appears to be wrong; we have never had such an occasion. What should we think of first of all, in order to cope with this new challenge?”

  His comrades began to think, periodically glancing at each other questioningly.

  “Let us find out how close we’ve gotten to the ocean,” red headed Memi suggested.

  With these words, he took a couple of steps and sat down on the roots of the nearest tree. Then the boy bent his legs and put his left hand on his knees, so that the screen of the device that he wore on his left wrist was raised before his eyes.

  This apparatus, two centimeters high, twelve long and five wide, was the main “assistant” to the founders of the new civilization. It’s official identification was the Universal Device, but the children often referred to it as the “Screen”. Its upper plane represented a display capable of increasing its surface area tenfold if necessary. In addition, this multi-purpose gadget included a flashlight, a camera lens and binoculars, an incandescent spiral, a goniometer, a radio and satellite communicator, removable interfaces, and so on.

  Three minutes later, the boy finished communicating with the machine in orbit, and sent its results to his companions on their screens. Sitting around him on fallen plants, they hadn’t connected to the cosmic device so as not to waste energy. Memi commented on the photos received, “We are about three kilometers from the ocean, and you can see the rest. Or rather, you cannot see anything,” he corrected himself.

  “Yes, it’s impossible to see anything in these photographs—I cannot tell where the forest is and where the bushes are,” Fof said, looking at her screen. “All the plants are the same color; we can distinguish only the mountains in the west, nothing else.”

  Daf, a lean girl, said, “Now it’s only five o’clock, we still have two hours before seven o’clock, before noon. I mean, if it were not for this new obstacle, we would have reached the ocean before noon, as we’d planned. There are only three kilometers left.”