Rescued From Paradise

by Robert L. Forward

  During the long bright afternoon, John was careful to see that the batteries for the permalights were recharged. That night Shirley delivered her son, a blond giant whom she named Dirk. This time the laboring mother had the coaching and support of one who had already been through a similar ordeal. Jinjur sympathized, cheered, and cajoled her lover throughout the night. John was hardly needed, except to care for Adam while his mother took care of the patient.

  Nels, the father of this baby, thanks to the manipulations of Josephine, peeked in once or twice, but Shirley was too busy to notice. When the long night was over, and Dirk was hungrily nursing, Nels returned to see his second child. He stroked the soft round cheek, but Dirk was too engrossed in his meal to tolerate any disruption, and his tiny fist reached up to bat the tickling finger away. Nels didn't mind; he knew that this child would be primarily Shirley's to raise.

  Carmen and John's daughter Maria was the last of the firstborn to make its appearance. For several days, John had followed Carmen around ... it had been like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Carmen had wandered from home to home, visiting the new parents, playing with the babies, collecting tips and advice, and a few horror stories of labor. Warned that labor always lasted too long, Carmen had not been in a hurry to stop work. Besides, she was waist-deep in the warm waters of the bay, and the painful tightening seemed eased by the supportive water. It took a strong contraction to persuade her to leave the gentle waves. Fortunately, John had been watching for her and ran to meet her, helping her into the Shack. Cinnamon joined them to act as midwife while John observed from his place as father at Carmen's shoulder. Cinnamon caught the baby girl and presented her to them, and for once John was able to bask in the joy of the birth without the messy details of stitches and afterbirth. Together John and Carmen cuddled the baby as she suckled, and as she fell asleep, replete, her tiny fingers were clasped around his little finger. John was inordinately proud to be the father of this particular baby, for Maria was the only baby of the six that had been naturally conceived.

  A FEW days later, Richard and Reiki took their baby boy to the warm freshwater lake above the camp for his daily bath. They supported the naked baby between them, holding him securely while washing him gently but thoroughly.

  "Doesn't that feel nice, my poppet?" crooned Reiki, smoothing the warm lake water over the tiny feet. "Steady does it, my little one, let's get all those fat wrinkles rinsed off." The baby stared into the two hovering faces, its small face intent and solemn, but unafraid. Richard relinquished his hold and waded to shore for the soft barkcloth blanket; Reiki followed, and they wrapped the infant snugly.

  "I'll take our catch up to the fire," said Richard. "You can come along when you're ready." Richard knew Reiki preferred to feed their son in privacy, and she smiled back at him before settling down to lean comfortably against a handy tree trunk. Richard stood, oddly irresolute, looking down on the two dark heads so close together.

  "Umm, Carmen's baby's been named Maria, and Cinnamon calls her little girl Eve, so I guess that's her name. Have you thought of anything, besides 'poppet'? I don't really mind," he added hastily. "But maybe something ... kind of ... more like a boy? It'd be a good idea, I think, to get it settled."

  He reached to stroke Reiki's breast, where the baby busily suckled, and then strode briskly down the beach. Reiki studied the little face dreamily, lost in contentment, until the noisy slurping slowed with satiation. She lifted the round little body to her shoulder to pat it until rewarded with an unselfconscious belch, and then laid the baby along the top of her legs to look into his round dark eyes. The baby gazed back at her quietly.

  "We all talked about you, before you were born, you know. How we'd teach you all about everything on Earth, as well as everything we've learned here. We have such dreams for you and the other little ones, too! But we keep running up against problems.

  "Why teach you Earthly things, even though they're your heritage? It's so doubtful you'll ever experience any of them—families, or countries, or beautiful scenes, or buildings—or even anything cold! All our own names come from that different world, and we can't even seem to make original names for the things we find here—Jolly Green Giants, for heaven's sake. But what to call you, my precious lambkin-love!"

  Reiki stopped, and sifted again through the names she and Richard had considered. Japanese names, Indian names, names of powerful leaders—but all from the world of the past. Yet what could they be sure of in the future here? Names were important, of that Reiki was sure. They were a gift from society. In this fledgling society, how did Reiki and Richard wish their small son to be known? She looked around her, at the alien skies, the thick growth of strange blue-green plants, the sun whose red hue would probably be the only one they'd ever see again. She knew for a certainty that she would do everything in her power to ensure her son's survival, and was there anything more she would wish him? Reiki was wise enough to know that no one can make another happy—that was always up to oneself, if ... Then thoughtfully, she decided.

  "Your name is Freeman, my wee bairn—and free may you live, wherever you live." She bent forward to kiss the small nose and stood up.

  THE NEXT day, as the ritual "bathing of the babies" time came to a close at the shallow end of the lake above their camp, Carmen called everyone to come together. John and she had discussed this beforehand, and had agreed to spring this surprise on the whole group rather than discussing it around Council Rock. At Carmen's insistence, everyone moved to form a loose circle.

  Carmen handed little Maria to her father. She, like most of the freshly washed infants, was now tightly wrapped in soft white folds of pounded bark-fiber cloth. Carmen stooped, filling a pink peekoo shell with a bit of water from the lake. Then she stood and faced her baby.

  "I baptize thee," she said, tracing the sign of the cross on Maria's forehead with a dampened thumb, "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

  Then Carmen turned to Cinnamon, a question in her eyes. Cinnamon hesitated, but then held Eve out to her.

  "I baptize thee ..."

  Jinjur leaned over to John and whispered furiously. "Perambulating pandas! I don't like this! I'm not Catholic!"

  "She won't do Adam if you don't want her to, but after all, what harm is there in it? It's only a ceremony."

  Carmen had moved on to Reiki and Richard, and a small cross was being traced between their baby's dark eyes.

  Jinjur was not convinced. "It's a ceremony of an agreement to bring the child to God, to teach him to be a Catholic. I'm not going to promise to do that."

  "It's also asking all those present to act as godparents; to look after the child."

  "They will do that anyway!"

  Shannon's red-blond curls darkened as the water dripped from her forehead.

  John sighed. "Look, Carmen has become more interested in religion ever since she first found out she was pregnant. She wants to make sure that these kids have everything we had when we were growing up, even if we don't have the technology. Didn't your folks raise you with a religion? Weren't you baptized?"

  "With us, baptizing came later. It was supposed to be a rebirth."

  Shirley was holding Dirk out to Carmen. He did not even wake as her cool fingers touched his warm skin.

  "This can symbolize whatever you want it to. Consider it a welcome to this life, to this planet."

  Carmen was standing in front of them. Jinjur thought for a moment, and then slowly brought Adam down from his position on her shoulder. Carmen murmured the blessing softly, but as her cool wet fingers caressed the baby, Adam started awake and began to howl lustily.

  "Humph," Jinjur snorted. "Be glad no one insisted on a bris!"

  FLOUWEN

  AFTER a long strenuous afternoon of playing surf-tag, the flouwen were especially hungry, so instead of prying out some delicious pink peekoos from their hard-to-open shells, they went to a vent bed where there were plenty of ripe oosheesh. The oosheesh were nowhere near as tasty as the
multieyed, six-legged peekoo, but they provided a filling meal for the flouwen's hungry cells.

  The ocean grew warmer as they approached the site of the deep bed of hot water vents that squirted out from the side of the submerged slope of the island volcano. Around each major vent, spaced almost as if they had been deliberately planted there, were a number of large underwater plants that the Jolly fishermen called the oothoo. The oothoo had large leaves that floated up toward the weak sunlight filtering down from the surface, doing their best to supply the plant with nourishment from photosynthesis. Photosynthesis in the weak red light from Barnard was a meager source of energy, however, and the more successful plants on Eden had evolved additional sources of nourishment. For the oothoo plant, it was the oosheesh, or filter-fish, as the humans called them.

  The oosheesh were mobile appendages or "mouths" of the oothoo plant, which swam through the water near the plant and filtered out the microscopic creatures that lived on the minerals and chemicals emitted by the hot water volcanic vents. Originally, the "mouths" of the oothoo plants were likely to have been leaves folded over to make a crude trap, with spines at the "lips" to prevent the escape of the prey—similar to a Venus Flytrap on Earth. But form ever follows function, and over the aeons, the leafy "mouths" had evolved until they looked more like a miniature baleen whale than a leaf.

  ☼Here is big one!☼ said Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion, as he plucked an oosheesh from its plant with a tug. The oothoo plant reacted to the loss of its feeder appendage by causing its other five oosheesh to scurry home to shelter between the strong, thick roots of the large plant. It would now have to grow another feeder to replace the one that Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion had eaten. The other two flouwen plucked their meals from adjoining plants.

  ◊Filling, but not much taste,◊ complained Clear◊White◊Whistle as he tore his oosheesh apart.

  □There is a strange fish over there seeing us,□ said Strong□Lavender□Crackle, interrupting his meal of oosheesh to beam a focused sonar tone at the distant animal, so the echo would make the creature stand out for the others. In return, the strange fish was seeing at them with its own sonar pings.

  ◊Strange shape,◊ remarked Clear◊White◊Whistle, as he sent a complex chirp that would enable him to determine the details of the internal structure of the strange fish. When the echo came back, Clear◊White◊Whistle was puzzled. ◊It seems to be all eye and fins—no evidence of mouth or teeth.◊

  ☼Wonder if it tastes good?☼ said Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion. He slipped into his hunting shape. The strange fish watched Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion intently as he changed his shape, then attempted to flee. It soon was engulfed in red jelly, slowly being torn apart into digestible pieces. ☼You are right. One big eye in front—tasty part. Fins along side, and tail for swimming—tail part tasty, too. Much tastier than oosheesh.☼

  □What about inside parts?□ asked Strong□Lavender□Crackle. □Sometimes those not taste good or are too hard.□

  ☼No insides!☼ replied Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion.

  ◊No insides?◊ repeated Clear◊White◊Whistle. He swam up close to Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion and sent into the red body a series of chirps focused on the chunks of flesh rapidly being digested by the cells surrounding them. ◊No insides,◊ he confirmed. ◊Just an eye, six fins along the sides, and a tail. Very strange fish.◊

  ☼There is another one!☼ said Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion, noticing another eyefish looking at him from beneath some seaweed fronds. This one was not emitting chirps to see at them, but it had obviously looked them with its single large eye and was keeping at a safe distance. Suddenly, it darted away at high speed toward the dark depths of the deep ocean.

  Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion considered chasing after it, but he still had a half-eaten oosheesh as well as the first eyefish to finish, so he settled down to digest them.

  A little while later, the eyefish was back—with two others like it. One of them approached cautiously, seeing at them as it came, with sharp chirps generated by its body, while the other two stayed off in the seaweed cover, just looking at them. One of the lookers left, then the seer left, leaving just the other looker. Soon they both were back—or were they different ones? To Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion, the return echo from one of them seemed larger than he remembered. In any case, he had finished digesting his first two catches and was still hungry, so he assumed his hunting shape and started toward the three tasty morsels. The eyefish turned and fled at high speed toward the dark depths. Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion kept his prey in sight by ping after ping of direction-finding sonar. He caught one, who responded with panicked chirps that spurred the others to flee even faster. Suddenly, Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion came to an abrupt halt by splaying out his red body into a sea anchor.

  ◊What is the matter?◊ asked Clear◊White◊Whistle, who had followed along to see if there were more of these tasty eyefish to be captured. Then his sonar pings came echoing back, carrying an ominous message. There was something coming up the slope from the dark depths! And it was HUGE!

  Strong□Lavender□Crackle soon joined them, and the three of them illuminated the large distant object with focused sonar chirps.

  ☼That is BIG fish!☼

  ◊We not see that kind of fish before. I will have to tell human Cinnamon about it.◊ Clear◊White◊Whistle sent off another chirp designed to accurately measure the distant creature, then converted the echo into measurements that Cinnamon would understand. ◊Four meters long and a meter thick. Six fins along the side, and lots of large sharp teeth.◊

  □Like big coelashark, but with six fins instead of four legs, and soft furry skin instead of armored scales.□

  ◊Something like what Cinnamon say Earth sharks look like.◊

  ☼Has six holes in head. One hole has eye in it. The rest are empty!☼ added Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion, finally making sense of what he was seeing with his sonar. They all saw the two fleeing eyefish swim up to the monster shark and nestle into two of the empty holes, eye facing out. The monster shark now had three eyes.

  ◊Those holes are nests for the eyefish,◊ said Clear◊White◊Whistle. ◊Just like nests in fronds of Jollys are for their flying eyes. You are eating one of the eyes of that shark, subset of Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion.◊

  ☼Tastes good,☼ said Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion, unconcerned, as he ripped the eyefish apart until it stopped screaming and started to digest the pieces.

  The giant shark opened its mouth, and out from holes in the roof of its mouth came four strange fish with strong tails and six fins along the sides, but instead of mouths and eyes on the head portion, they bore a number of tentacles. The outside tentacles were long and thin. Inside those were muscular-looking grabbers with suckers on them, while the innermost ones were short and ended in vicious-looking pincers. One of the strange fish used its sharp pincers to detach a filter-fish from an oothoo plant. Then all four fish used their tentacles to herd the filter-fish into the shark's mouth, where it was dispatched with a snap of the toothed mouth and swallowed. The strange fish then reentered the shark's reopened mouth, but instead of being eaten, they passed over the sharp teeth unmolested and settled into cavities in the roof of the shark's cavernous maw.

  □Those fish may be like the gatherers which the Jolly use to gather food.□

  The shark reopened its mouth and one of the strange fish came out and headed toward them.

  ◊Maybe the gatherfish is coming to 'gather' us.◊

  ☼Wonder if a gatherfish tastes as good as an eyefish?☼ said Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion as he headed downward to catch the approaching gatherfish. Off to one side, two eyefish were watching.

  ◊You shouldn't be eating that creature's eyes and gatherers,◊ said Clear◊White◊Whistle. ◊It will get mad at you and attack.◊

  ☼I'm not scared!☼

  □The creature may be intelligent. If so, the humans would like to meet it and talk with it.□

  This comment brought Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion to a h
alt. The subset of Strong□Lavender□Crackle was right. They were here on an exploration mission to find new forms of life, not just to eat and enjoy themselves in the surf.

  □The Jollys talk by using their gatherers to whistle sounds,□ remarked Strong□Lavender□Crackle. □Perhaps we can attempt communication with this shark's gatherfish.□

  ☼Hello!☼ saidN Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion at the approaching gatherfish, making sure he said it loud enough that the distant shark could also hear it. Except for the continual string of sonar chirps from the shark and the gatherfish, there was no response.

  Clear◊White◊Whistle started to count, thinking that if the shark were intelligent, it would recognize that the regular pattern of sounds were indications of an attempt to communicate. If the shark then counted back, they could build on that beginning.

  ◊One, t-t-wo-wo, th-th-th-r-r-r-e-e-e, f-f-f-f-o-o-o-o-u-u-u-u-r-r-r-r ...◊ counted Clear◊White◊Whistle, giving each number a multitoned voice and multitongued pattern that epitomized the number that it represented. When he got to the final number in the flouwen's octal base numbering system, the word was a seven-toned, seven-tongued, majestic wonder.

  The flouwen waited, but no sounds were emitted by either the gatherfish or the shark except the simple repetitive sonar chirps. The gatherfish came near Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion and released a squirt of milky substance from the tip of one of its longer tentacles.

  ☼What a terrible taste!☼ yelled Roaring☼Hot☼Vermillion, backing away as the gatherfish turned and retreated into the mouth of the shark. ☼It tried to poison me!☼

  □Very complex taste,□ remarked Strong□Lavender□Crackle as a whiff of the diluted cloud wafted toward him.