Hybrids np-3

by Robert J. Sawyer

  Ponter nodded. “There are some hunting lodges, but no large-scale habitation.”

  “It’s hard to even recognize the geography without the roads.”

  “We will pass over one of the Finger Lakes shortly—our name for them is the same as yours; the imagery is obvious. You should have no trouble recognizing them.”

  Jock looked out the window again, mesmerized.

  The Exhibitionists didn’t get to fly south with the contingent from the United Nations, although Bandra said there would be others on hand when they arrived at Donakat Island. In the interim, Bandra told the Voyeur to shut off, and it did so. She then turned to Mary. “We didn’t speak much last night about…about my problem with Harb.”

  Mary nodded. “Is that—is that why your woman-mate left?”

  Bandra got up and tipped her head back, looking at the ceiling. Hundreds of birds were painted on it, representing dozens of species; each meticulously rendered by her. “Yes. She could not take seeing what he did to me. But…but in a way, it’s better that she’s gone.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s easier to hide one’s shame when no one else is around.”

  Mary got up and put an arm on each of Bandra’s shoulders and stepped back a pace so that she could look her full in the face. “Listen to me, Bandra. You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

  Bandra managed a small nod. “I know, but…”

  “But nothing. We will find a way out of this.”

  “There is no way,” said Bandra, and she moved a hand up to wipe her eyes.

  “There must be,” said Mary. “And we’ll find it. Together.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” said Bandra softly, shaking her head.

  “Yes, I do,” said Mary.

  “Why?”

  Mary shrugged a little. “Let’s just say I owe womankind one.”

  “And here we are, ladies and gentleman,” said Councilor Bedros. “Donakat Island—what you call Manhattan.”

  Jock couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He knew New York like the back of his hand—but this!

  This was gorgeous.

  They were flying over the South Bronx—except that it was old-growth forest, walnut, cedar, chestnut, maple, and oak, the leaves afire with autumn colors.

  “Look!” shouted Kofi Annan. “Rikers Island!”

  And indeed it was, sans penal colony, of course, and only a third the size of the artificially expanded island Jock knew. As the chopper went over it, Jock saw that there was no bridge leading south to Queens. Nor, of course, was there any airport off to the left, where LaGuardia was in his world. Instead, there was a harbor there. Jock was taken aback when he spotted what looked like an aircraft carrier—he hadn’t thought the Neanderthals had such things. He hated encouraging the Neanderthal next to him to begin his endless chatting again, but he had to know. “What’s that?”

  “A ship,” said Ponter in a tone that made it sound as though the answer were obvious.

  “I know it’s a ship,” replied Jock, miffed. “But why does it have that wide, flat top?”

  “Those are solar collectors,” said Ponter, “to power its turbines.”

  The pilot had clearly been told to meander in, giving them the grand tour. They were flying west now, over Wards Island, which was dotted around its periphery with buildings that looked like cottages.

  The helicopter continued on. It was as if Central Park had expanded right across the width of Manhattan, from East River Drive to Henry Hudson Parkway.

  “Donakat Island makes up the ‘Center’ of the city we call Pepraldak,” said Ponter. “In other words, it’s female territory. In Saldak, there are many kilometers of countryside separating the Rim from the Center. Pepraldak’s ‘Rim’ and ‘Center’ are simply separated by what you call the Hudson River.”

  “So the men live in New Jersey?”

  Ponter nodded.

  “How do they get across? I don’t see any bridges.”

  “Travel cubes can fly over water,” said Ponter, “so they use those in summer. In winter, the river freezes, and they simply walk over.”

  “The Hudson River doesn’t freeze over.”

  Ponter shrugged. “It does in this world. Your activities modify your climate more than you think.”

  The chopper had now turned south, and was flying along the river. They quickly came to a slight jog in its course, meaning they must now be passing the untamed wilderness of Hoboken. Jock looked out to the left. The island was there, all right: hilly—didn’t Manhattan mean “Island of Hills”?—dotted with lakes…and utterly devoid of skyscrapers. There were clearings containing brick buildings, but none taller than four stories. Jock turned his attention back to the right side. What would have been Liberty State Park was all forest. Ellis Island was there, as was Liberty Island, but of course there was no statue on it. That was just as well, thought Jock; he didn’t really want to see a 150-foot-tall Neanderthal, although—

  Jock could hear shouts going up from those around him as others spotted the same thing he just had. There were two right whales in Upper New York Bay; they must have swum up The Narrows from the Atlantic. Each was about forty feet long, with a dark gray back.

  The chopper turned east, flying over water between Governors Island and Battery Park, then heading along the East River. Jock could see hundreds of arboriculture houses along the shoreline, and—“What’s that?”

  “An observatory,” said Ponter. “I know you put your big telescopes in hemispherical enclosures, but we prefer these cubic structures.” Jock shook his head. Imagine it ever being dark enough in Greenwich Village to look at the stars!

  “Is there much wildlife?” asked Jock.

  “Oh, yes. Beavers, bears, wolves, foxes, raccoons, deer, otters—not to mention quail, partridge, swans, geese, turkeys, and of course millions of passenger pigeons.” Ponter paused. “It’s too bad it’s autumn; in the spring, you’d see roses and many other wildflowers.”

  The chopper was quite low now as it continued up the East River, the blue waters roiling in the downdraft from the blades. They came to where the river bent to the north, and the pilot continued to follow its course for another couple of miles then brought the craft in for a landing on a wide open field of tall grass, surrounded by orchards of apple and pear trees. Councilor Bedros got out first, then Ponter and Adikor, then the secretary-general. Jock followed him, and the rest of the group followed Jock. The air was sweet and clean, crisp and cool; the sky overhead was a blue Jock knew from Arizona summers, but had never seen in the Big Apple.

  A contingent of local female officials and two local silver-clad Exhibitionists were on hand, and again speeches were made, including remarks by a woman introduced as the president of the local Gray Council. She was, Jock guessed, about his own age—which would make her what? Part of generation 142, he supposed. She had shaved off all her head hair except for a long silver ponytail protruding directly from her occipital bun; Jock thought she looked repellent, even for a Neanderthal.

  She concluded her remarks by mentioning the meal they were going to enjoy later that day, with huge oysters and even huger lobsters. Then she called on Ponter Boddit to say some more.

  “Thank you,” said Ponter, moving out to stand in front of everyone. Jock was having a bit of trouble hearing him; the Neanderthals had no notion of microphone stands or loudspeakers for speeches, since voices were picked up by and relayed to Companions without any such extra equipment.

  “We have worked hard,” continued Ponter, “to try to find the exact spot on our version of Earth that corresponds to the location of your United Nations headquarters. As you know, we do not have satellites—and so we do not have anything as good as your global positioning system. Our surveyors are still arguing among themselves—we might be off by several tens of meters, although we are hoping to resolve that issue. Still…” He turned and pointed. “See those trees there? We believe that they mark the location of the main e
ntrance to the Secretariat building.” He turned. “And that swamp, over there? That is where the General Assembly is located.”

  Jock looked on in amazement. This was New York City—without the millions of people, without the air that made your eyes sting, without the bumper-to-bumper traffic, the thousands of taxis, the jostling crowds, the stench, the noise. This was Manhattan…as it had been only a few hundred years ago, as it had been back in 1626 when Peter Minuit bought it from the Indians for $24, as it had been before it had been paved over and built up and polluted.

  The others in the delegation were chatting among themselves; those who were speaking English seemed to be echoing Jock’s thoughts.

  Ponter began walking, heading toward the shore of the East River. It was closer than it should have been—but, then again, much of modern Manhattan was recovered land. The Neanderthal knelt by the shore and dipped curved hands into the river, splashing water repeatedly against his broad face.

  Jock noted that a few of the others wore bland expressions, the significance lost on them. But it wasn’t lost on him.

  Ponter Boddit had just washed his face with raw, untreated, unprocessed, unfiltered, unpolluted water from the East River.

  Jock shook his head, hating what his people had done to their world, and wishing there was some way they could start over, with a fresh, clean slate.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  “I believe we, the humans of this Earth, should commit ourselves, before another decade has gone by, to launching an international team of women and men to the red planet…”

  Mary and Bandra had watched the transmissions from the Exhibitionists on Donakat Island. It was fun seeing Ponter on what amounted to Neanderthal TV, and certainly the project to establish another portal was fascinating.

  Ponter had spent some time describing the difficulties with building a portal on the surface; his original quantum computer had been buried deep underground to shield it from solar radiation that might promote decoherence of the quantum registers. But even when Ponter and Adikor had made their breakthrough—literally breaking through into another universe—a second group of Barast researchers in Europe had been attempting to factor similarly large numbers. The members of that team had been female, and they apparently were en route to Donakat by ocean ship to provide their expertise in shielding techniques.

  “It looks like you’ve got yourself a good man there,” said Bandra.

  Mary smiled. “Thanks.”

  “How long have you known him?”

  Mary looked away from Bandra’s wheat-colored eyes. “Only since August 3rd.”

  Bandra tipped her head, listening to her own Companion translate the date. Mary thought Bandra was going to say something scolding about how short a period of time it was; after all, Mary had never lost an opportunity to tell her sister Christine that she was moving too fast, falling head over heels for one “real find” after another. But instead Bandra said, “You are very lucky to have found him.”

  Mary nodded. She was lucky. And, besides, she knew lots of people who had had whirlwind romances before. Yes, she’d known Colm a lot longer than she’d known Ponter by the time Colm proposed and she accepted, but she’d had doubts back then.

  She had no doubts now.

  When something felt this right, there was no reason to delay.

  “Carpe diem, ” said Mary.

  Bandra’s translator bleeped.

  “Sorry,” said Mary. “That’s Latin—another language. It means ‘seize the day.’ Don’t spend your whole life fretting; just grab the moment, and go for it.”

  “A good philosophy,” said Bandra. She got up from the couch. “We should attend to the evening meal.”

  Mary nodded, rose, and followed Bandra into the food-preparation area. Bandra had a large vacuum box that stored food without refrigeration, and a laser cooker, which employed the same sort of tunable-laser technology used in the decontamination chambers.

  The top of the vacuum box had a square screen set into it, displaying an inventory of the contents so that the seal didn’t have to be broken to determine what was inside. “Mammoth?” said Bandra, looking at the list.

  “My goodness, yes!” said Mary. “I’ve been dying to try some.”

  Bandra smiled, opened the vacuum box—which hissed when she did so—and selected a pair of chops. She transferred them to the laser cooker and spoke some instructions to it.

  “It must be hard, hunting mammoth,” said Mary.

  “I’ve never done it myself,” replied Bandra. “Those whose contribution it is to do so say there’s a simple technique.” She shrugged a little. “But, as you would say, the putative evil one lurks in minutiae.”

  Mary blinked, trying to decipher Christine’s translation of what Bandra had just said. “‘The devil is in the details,’ you mean.”

  “Exactamundo!” said Bandra.

  Mary laughed. “I’m going to miss you when I leave.”

  Bandra smiled. “I’m going to miss you, too. Whenever you need a place to stay in this world, you’re welcome here.”

  “Thank you, but…”

  Bandra raised one of her large hands. “Oh, I know. You only plan to come to visit when Two are One, and then you’ll be spending time with Ponter. And I will…”

  “I’m so sorry, Bandra. There must be something we can do.”

  “Let’s not dwell on it. Let’s just enjoy the time we’ve got before you have to leave.”

  “Carpe diem? ” said Mary.

  Bandra smiled. “Exactamundo.”

  * * *

  The dinner was excellent; mammoth had a rich, complex flavor, and the maple-sugar salad dressing Bandra prepared was to-die-for.

  Mary leaned back in the saddle-seat and sighed contentedly. “It’s a pity you people don’t have wine.”

  “Wine,” repeated Bandra. “What is that?”

  “A beverage. Alcohol. Fermented grapes.”

  “Is it delicious?”

  “Well, um, that’s not the point—or, at least, it’s only part of the point. Alcohol affects the central nervous system, at least in Gliksins. It makes us feel mellow, relaxed.”

  “I am relaxed,” said Bandra.

  Mary smiled. “Actually, so am I.”

  The Globe and Mail Ponter had brought Mary had reported the results of a study to determine the funniest joke in the world. That didn’t mean the one that made people laugh the hardest—it wasn’t an attempt to replicate Monty Python’s secret-weapon joke, which would cause anyone who heard it to die laughing. Rather, it was a project to find a joke that cut across cultural lines so that almost all human beings found it funny.

  Mary decided to try it out on Bandra; since it happened to be a hunting joke, she thought the Neanderthal might enjoy it. She slipped a few appropriate references into their conversation, so that Bandra would have the required background, and then, around 9:00P.M.—late in the sixth daytenth—she trotted it out:

  “Okay, okay. So, there are these two guys, see, and they’re out hunting, right? And one of them suddenly collapses—just falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, and his eyes are glazed over. So the other guy, he calls 9-1-1. That’s our emergency telephone number, since we don’t have Companions. And the guy—he’s on a cell phone, see?—he’s all panicky, and he says, ‘Hey, I’m out here hunting with my friend Bob, and he just keeled over. I’m afraid he’s dead. What should I do? What should I do?’

  “And the emergency operator says, ‘Calm down, sir. Take a deep breath; let’s take this one step at a time. First, let’s make sure that Bob is really dead.’

  “So the guy says, ‘Okay,’ and the operator hears him put down the phone and walk away. And then—blam! —there’s a gunshot. And the guy comes back on the phone and says, ‘Okay. Now what?’ ”

  Bandra exploded with laughter. She’d been drinking pine tea; the way the Neanderthal throat was hooked up prevented it from spurting out her nostrils, but if she’d been a Gliksin, doubtless it
would have, given how hard she was laughing. “That’s awful! ” she declared, wiping away tears.

  Mary was grinning, probably wide enough to rival Ponter. “Isn’t it, though?”

  They spent the rest of the evening talking about their families, telling jokes, listening to recorded Neanderthal music pumped simultaneously into their cochlear implants, and just generally having a wonderful time. Mary had had several close female friends before she’d married Colm, but had drifted away from all of them during the marriage, and hadn’t really acquired any new ones since the split. One of the nice things about the Neanderthal system, Mary mused, was that it would leave plenty of time for her friendships with other women.

  And, despite them coming literally from different worlds, Bandra was certainly the kind of friend she would choose: warm, witty, giving, and brilliant—someone she could share a silly joke with, as well as discuss the latest breakthroughs in science.

  After a bit, Bandra brought out a partanlar set—the same game Mary had played with Ponter. Ponter’s board had been made of polished wood, with the alternating squares stained either light or dark. As befitted a geologist, Bandra’s was made of polished stone, the squares black or white.

  “Oh, good!” said Mary. “I know this game! Ponter taught me.”

  In chess and checkers, players sat opposite each other, each trying to move their armies of pieces toward the other’s side of the board. But partanlar didn’t have that directionality of play—there was no advancing or retreating. And so Bandra set the board up on a little table in front of one of the couches, and then sat on the couch, leaving plenty of room for Mary to sit beside her.

  They played for about an hour—but it was the pleasant something-to-do kind of play that Mary liked, not the competitive let’s-see-who’s-better competition Colm favored. Neither Mary nor Bandra really seemed to care who won, and they each took delight in the other’s clever moves.

  “It’s fun having you around,” said Bandra.

  “It’s fun being here,” said Mary.