Having picked up on the protocol, Mohr bowed. “I hope to see you again soon.”
The Vice President left to gather his small entourage, leaving Mitchell and Reynolds with the two dinosaurs.
“Well,” said Mitchell, “shall we head inside and start figuring out what needs to be done?”
“Yes,” replied Garlmek. “There is much to do, and we are eager to begin.”
As Mitchell and Reynolds started inside, Garlmek motioned Touolok to hold back for a moment. When the humans were out of earshot, he turned to her.
“I was most encouraged by what Roger said. I think he was correct when he expressed the opinion that we had luck on our side.”
“I agree, dearest. I have new hope that we might soon begin to bring the Offspring to life. But let us see how much of what we have been told is followed with action before we disclose any information about them to the humans.”
“Yes. Though I am encouraged, I agree we still must proceed with caution.”
The Noaud couple turned together and followed the humans into the house.
•
Garlmek stood on the low hill that overlooked the compound and the gardens to the West and surveyed their new home. Two months had elapsed since their arrival, and already the progress was easily visible.
Much of the original gardens had been replanted with seeds the Noaud had brought with them, and the gardens had been enlarged to twice their previous size. In the original sections were numerous varieties of Noaud vegetables. In the new section, the plants used in Noaud construction were already more than three feet tall; within another two months they’d begin to be ready for harvest. Barges had been bringing in slabs of granite from quarries in the United States, which lay in the workshop ready to be used in constructing the first pyramid.
Touolok had produced her first egg, and carried it within her.
Life had settled into a comfortable routine. The humans seemed to have slowed their pace somewhat in response to Noaud rhythms, while their energy had prodded the Noaud to pick theirs up a bit.
The United States government had ceded Aliello Island to the Noaud, renamed New Tarsill, and signed a treaty of friendship and protection. Garlmek and Touolok felt that if the United Nations approved the resolution that the Americans planned to introduce in three months granting them status as an sovereign nation, it would then be time to take the first steps toward reviving and gestating the Offspring. They knew that this would have to be handled very delicately, since it would entail revealing a lack of complete forthrightness on their part.
Shortly after the government declared the island independent, Reynolds and Mitchell announced their intention to marry. Their initial plan was to return to Berkeley to do so, but when Douglas pointed out that Garlmek, as head of state, certainly had the authority to perform a wedding, the couple jumped at the chance to be the first humans to be united in a Noaud ceremony. At the request of the President, Congress unanimously passed a bill recognizing marriages performed in New Tarsill.
The simple ceremony had been held in the courtyard on a bright, warm late winter Saturday. In accordance with Noaud traditions, a couple who were already joined performed the rites for a couple to be joined. In their ceremonial robes, Garlmek and Touolok stood together along one side of a triangular table. Mitchell stood to their right along another side, wearing a long off-white dress with lace at the collar. To their left was Reynolds, dressed in a Mexican wedding shirt and white slacks. Flowers from the botanical gardens filled the courtyard.
The Noaud each had a cup of water, while the humans each had an empty cup. In the center of the table was a bowl. Garlmek lifted his cup, and recited the ancient words first in Noaud, and then in English.
“From water we arose, and by water are we sustained.” He turned to his mate. “For many years have we shared our water.” He poured his cup into the bowl.
Touolok picked up her cup. “From water we arose, and by water are we sustained. May we share our water for many years to come.” She poured her cup into the bowl.
Now Reynolds picked up the bowl and turned to Mitchell.
“From water we arose, and by water are we sustained. I share with you my water.” From the bowl he poured water into her cup.
“From water we arose, and by water are we sustained. May we share our water for many years to come,” responded Mitchell, pouring from the bowl into his cup. They both raised their cups and drank.
By Noaud tradition, they were now mates. But Garlmek had decided that the ceremony would benefit from a human touch, and made an addition in English.
“You may kiss the bride.”
As they kissed, the assembled crowd whooped and applauded as Garlmek added, “May I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Harold Reynolds.”
As Garlmek stood on the hill remembering the party that had followed the ceremony, he found himself thinking of the day he and Touolok had been united in their own ceremony more than 50 years ago. No, he realized — more than 65 million and 50 years ago.
Dan Lightfoot and his family had come to the island for the wedding, and were in the fifth day of a week-long visit. His offspring, a five-year-old female and an eight-year-old male, were interesting creatures. While physically nowhere near as mature as Noaud young would be at the same ages, they had bright, curious and amusing minds. They made both Noaud long to see their own offspring at play.
Touolok had spent several hours each day with Lightfoot’s offspring, ostensibly teaching them Noaud language and custom, but studying human development in the process.
Garlmek turned and surveyed the rest of the island. At just over 90 acres, it was slightly larger than the central part of Tarsill, though not all of it could be developed due to the topography. With the help of the Berkeley team, he and Touolok had laid out plans for a small village of Noaud pyramids. With laboratories, public buildings and residences, it could support a population of two or three hundred Noaud. With the limited space for farming, and with no large animals on the island to provide meat, New Tarsill would not be self-sufficient. Initially, this had bothered Garlmek, until Mitchell and Behling explained the concept of patents to him, and assured him that the Noaud would have no trouble securing an income that would allow them to import anything they needed.
He and Touolok had decided that when the time came, they would start by reviving and incubating 17 of the eggs. The first 17 hatchlings would join the one that Touolok now carried within her. When the first 18 reached the age of four years and could help with additional young, they would revive and incubate another 162, with each of the adolescents taking care of nine of the hatchlings. Thus they could expand the population gradually.
Within nine years, they would need to expand to a larger island. Here, the United States government had assured them that possible candidates were already being considered.
It was late afternoon, and the sun was getting low. The light washing over the island had a golden tinge to it. He was about to start down the hill when he saw Touolok coming up to path to join him.
“Greetings, dearest.” he said as she reached him.
“Greetings,” she responded. She moved to his side, and crouched. He lowered himself to match. They stayed silent for a while, both drinking in the scene arrayed before them. Finally, he broke the reverie.
“It is all so much different than what we had envisioned. Yet I think we will do well in this new world.”
“Sharing Our Place with the humans will not be easy,” she replied. “They are irresponsible and unpredictable.”
“Yet they have also shown generosity and a desire to learn. The first nine years will be the hardest. Once we can establish a permanent home and install our own defenses, I will feel secure. If we can reach that point, then we will have achieved our goal. Our kind will have survived.”
She said nothing, but leaned towards him. He leaned to her, and they nuzzled. Together they watched the sun set over the water.
•
Alone in the
Penthouse library, Florence Hummford was finishing her day’s work. All of the library had long been catalogued, save a series of tablets that were numbered instead of titled. She’d been going through these, and found that they were mostly either raw recordings or manuscripts waiting to be edited and titled. There were more than 30 of the numbered tablets, and after examining the first five in order, she’d decided to spot check the rest of them.
After spending months sitting on stools to work at the stations along the wall, she’d decided to make herself more comfortable, and now worked at a human table using one of the portable computers while sitting in a proper ergonomically-designed chair.
She took the next-to-last tablet and placed it in the receptacle. The screen came alive, and she read the title: “Modifications to the Administrative Mastaba.”
There was a diagram of Town Hall. She touched the Penthouse portion, and the screen showed an overhead layout of the upper level. She touched the center of the diagram, and the screen shifted to overhead and two side views of the suspension pods. The text links obviously led to descriptions of the pods and their mechanisms. “Why couldn’t we have found this one first?” she muttered to herself.
She backed out to the overview of Town Hall, and then touched the lower portion. The screen now showed a diagram of the lower level.
Like the upper level, the lower part had a central chamber surrounded by six outer rooms, though these were much larger than the ones in the Penthouse. Between the central chamber and the outer rooms, however, was a second chamber that surrounded the inner one. Curious, she touched the diagram, and the screen shifted to show this triangular ‘donut’ feature. The text next to it described it as containing the power cells that maintained the suspension systems. It was independent of Town Hall’s main power systems.
She backed out of the view, and touched the center area of the diagram. The screen now showed the layout of the main lower chamber. There were hundreds of objects, spaced regularly throughout the chamber. She began reading the text, and then stopped, momentarily confused. Leaning forward, she started again at the beginning, and then after a few moments sat bolt upright.
“Oh m’god,” she said to herself. “Eggs… Hundreds, maybe thousands of eggs.”
She got up and took a few steps. She’d obviously stumbled across something the Noaud had wanted to keep secret. But why?
Her mind raced as she paced the room. It had to be their uncertainty about the human reaction. With this many eggs, the Noaud could rapidly repopulate their city, and within a few hundred years, the planet. Now their plan made sense. This was the missing piece.
Among the humans, there had at one time been speculation that the lower portion of Town Hall might hold additional adult Noaud in suspension. Garlmek had led them to believe this was not the case. He’d said that the lower level held equipment and machinery along with the power cells, and all of that was true. He’d simply not mentioned the eggs.
And this also explained the incubation room in the Penthouse. With a start, she realized that Touolok had actually lied about its purpose. Garlmek had lied by omission, but Touolok had told an outright falsehood. This was so unlike the Noaud that she knew the secret was critical.
She pondered what to do. As a human, she owed her loyalty to her species. As an employee of the NSA and the government, it was her duty to pass along any information she uncovered.
But then she paused. For the better part of a year, she’d been immersed in Noaud culture and tradition, and while she couldn’t decide whether she’d come to think of herself as an honorary Noaud, or the Noaud as honorary humans, she knew that one thing was true above all else. The human and Noaud races shared one critical characteristic: intelligence. She found herself thinking that her concerns about loyalty and duty were provincial. Her highest loyalty had to be to intelligent life, human or Noaud.
She thought what the reaction of humanity might be to the news of the eggs, and she remembered Eugene Northrup. Certainly there were portions of human society that would feel threatened, and would call for their destruction. And she understood why Garlmek and Touolok had kept their secret.
She went to the door to make sure there was no one outside, and then returned to the tablet. She read the rest of the text, which described access to the egg chamber. On voice command to the Controller, the gantry would lower from the ceiling and lift the entire raised area in the center of the Penthouse’s main chamber, giving access to the chamber below.
The Controller communicator sat next to the computer, and she slid it closer.
“Controller, can you access the data in the tablet I’m working with?”
“Not on a portable unit.”
“If I transferred it to a wall station, could you then?”
“Yes.”
“Controller, is there a way to lock a tablet so that only Garlmek, Touolok or I could access its data?”
“Yes.”
“Controller, I’ve discovered a tablet that describes that which is contained in the lower level of the mastaba. I believe that this is information that Garlmek and Touolok did not wish to be revealed.”
There was a brief pause before the response came.
“That is correct.”
She pulled the tablet from the receptacle in the portable and took it to one of the wall stations, where she clicked it into place.
“Controller, please lock this tablet.”
“The tablet is locked.” The screen changed to all text. It read “Request Access.”
“Do I need a password to unlock it?”
“No. Simply ask for access, and your voice will unlock it.”
“Or Garlmek or Touolok?”
“Yes.”
She took the tablet out of the receptacle, and making mental note of its number, she returned it and the others to the shelves. The secret that Garlmek and Touolok kept would remain as such, at least for the time being, until she could talk to them.
She picked up the communicator and headed for the door. “Lights dim,” she said. The ceiling in the library dimmed.
Entering the main chamber, she stopped to gaze at the raised area. She stepped towards it, and imagined it lifted, revealing the pods that held the eggs.
Beneath her lay the hopes of an entire species, which went to sleep in one world, and awoke in one very different.
“Garlmek, Touolok,” she said very softly, “I hope I know what I’m doing.”
She turned, and as she approached the inner door, she spoke to the Controller.
“Lights out.”
And in the main chamber, the sun set.
Sapiosaurus | Out Of Time Page 35