Rescued From Paradise

by Robert L. Forward

  "But ..."

  She silenced him with another kiss.

  "Darling, if we are going to try to work this out, there is a phrase that you are going to have to learn. What you say now is: 'Yes, dear.' "

  "Yes, dear."

  She pulled off her loosened sarong and sat back, straddling his hips. "When we get back to camp, you are going to move into the hut with Eve and me."

  "Yes, dear."

  She pulled off his loincloth. "And as much as we love Dirk, we are going to leave Shirley to Jinjur."

  "Yes, dear."

  "See? That wasn't too hard. But this is, isn't it?"

  "Yes, dear," said Nels, shuddering at her touch. He looked up at the permalight. "Don't you think we ought to turn off the light?"

  "Let's not bother about that now. We've got other things to do."

  "Yes, dear."

  SEETOO moved away from the back of the hut as quietly as he could, although he was not likely to awaken the sleeping lovers. Cinnamon had been right, not only about Nels coming back to her, but that Seetoo would find the resulting exchange interesting. Human beings were so interesting ... odd ... repulsive and yet intriguing. Seetoo would have to replay the views many times in order to make sense of it all. Seetoo wished he could talk the event over with Nels, but Seetoo had promised Cinnamon not to let Nels know that he had managed to educate the Jolly Chief after all.

  THE NEXT day, Nels went upstream to watch Beefoof and Haasee fishing in Sulphur Lake. That afternoon, he returned carrying a heavy bundle wrapped in soaking-wet peethoo leaves on the inside and waterproof feebook leaves on the outside. Behind him, like mice following the Pied Piper of Hamelin, were six gatherers, each carrying a smaller bundle in their two front limbs. The gatherers all gave a whistle at about the same distance from the upper entrance in the thook wall, and the procession entered the slowly opening gate. The gatherers immediately took their loads to a large shaded tank built into the ground near the irrigation ditch, where they unwrapped six live medium-sized fish and put them into the water. They then headed back to their masters, still fishing on Sulphur Lake. Nels brought his catch to the human camp.

  "Come and see this beauty!" he cried out. "Come on, Cinnamon. I bet you've never seen a fish like this before!"

  Around the village, the humans left the Jollys they had been visiting, and with a haste that unsettled more than one Jolly worldview, they gathered to see what Nels had brought.

  "Did you catch yourself?" asked Arielle dubiously.

  "Sort of," said Nels. "The two Jolly fishermen had it in their net, but it was too heavy for them to get onto their raft, so they hauled it to shore, and I waded in and grabbed it. It must mass over fifty kilos—good thing the gee level here on Eden is only twenty-eight percent, or I couldn't have carried it this far." He unwrapped the large fish. It had not survived the journey as well as the smaller ones and was motionless. "The Jollys call it a 'poosheesh', or lake-fish."

  "Six eyes!" exclaimed Cinnamon, poking at the two rows of three bulging eyes along each side of the head. "I can understand the six fins along the side; everything on Eden has six legs. But two eyes is all you really need for binocular vision."

  "Its soft to hold, not scaly like most fish," said Nels. "It's got fur like a seal, but the shape of a shark."

  "This furry shark have sharp teeth!" exclaimed Arielle, who was examining the creature's mouth.

  "The better to eat you with," joked David, pinching her in the rear.

  "I eat it!" exclaimed Arielle. "I tired of veggies. I want meat."

  "Raw?" exclaimed Richard, his nose wrinkling.

  "Sashimi is good," Reiki reminded him. "You know that we mustn't have fires—flames frighten the Jollys."

  "Pootee's kiln has just finished its run and is cooling down," said David. "We could sweep out the fire chamber and roast a slab of fish inside that."

  "It's going to be tough getting a good fillet off that monster with only this," said Richard, holding up the five-centimeter-long blade of his Swiss Army Mech-All. Arielle slipped away from the group.

  "I want to do an autopsy on it first," objected Cinnamon, taking the Mech-All. While Richard laid the fish out on a shelf of the storage shed, Nels started getting out sample bags.

  "You autopsy insides and other side," said Arielle, quickly returning. She had somehow talked Seetoo out of his long, sharp obsidian dirk. She grabbed the furry shark by the gill slot and started to remove a large fillet. "I have this side cooked by time you are done."

  Shortly thereafter, Arielle found herself the center of a large collection of gatherers, their molelike noses twitching at the enticing smells coming from the bottom oi Pootee's kiln. She gave each gatherer a small bite from around the edges. Soon they were back, whistling, "Taste good!" "More!" Some even said "Please!"

  MORE ROOM

  MONTHS AFTER the visit to introduce the children to the Jollys, the humans finally located an ideal location for a safe, stable site for their settlement. After surveying where the flood level had reached during the most recent quadruple conjunction extreme high tide, they found a meandering stream in a valley upriver from the Jolly village. The stream in "Meander Valley" came from Sulphur Lake, which was filled with many delicious lake-fish, while the water flow in the stream was large enough to supply plenty of water for drinking, washing, and irrigation. In fact, the humans wondered why the Jollys did not settle this area themselves. On their next trip to the Jolly village to help the Jollys clean up after the recent flood, they asked Chief Seetoo and were surprised to see the branches of the chief shivering in fright in response.

  "That is the valley of the ..." the dreaded word was finally forced out of a trembling gatherer, "... Aaee-sheesh."

  "Aaeesheesh?" asked Jinjur. "What are they?" She then regretted her question, as the branches of the chief started to shake once again, and it took some minutes before they were once again under control.

  "Demons ..." whispered Chief Seetoo finally, "... in the shape of fish. It is taboo to speak of them."

  "Then we will not," said Jinjur firmly, knowing that it was more important to keep the friendship of the Jollys than to press them for more information about these so-called Demonfish—which were probably just a tribal superstition anyway. She changed the subject to other things the humans could do to help the Jolly village.

  Nearby, Shirley was working side-by-side with John helping to repair a Jolly irrigation ditch. "I wonder what these Demonfish are that have Seetoo so scared?" she asked him.

  "Well, the Jollys use gods and demons to explain the natural world around them. We have been trying not to interfere in their lives too much, and we certainly don't want to abuse their sensibilities, so none of us have talked much with them about their religious beliefs."

  "Yes, I know." Shirley sighed. "In fact, Jinjur and Carmen have gotten into several arguments about it. Carmen wants to convert them."

  John frowned. "You have to look at the Jolly beliefs from their point of view. These imaginary Demonfish must be attempts to explain the bad things that happen to them during the darkness, such as these midday eclipse floods. The Jollys slow down when they are in the dark. Even a cloudy day can make them sluggish. So imagine falling asleep and waking to find your whole world drastically changed by a flood. It might seem as if while you slept, demons had been roaming the island. Look at this mess ... Would you immediately believe that all this damage could have been caused by a little water?"

  Shirley looked around. Branches, rocks, torn-up plants, and the bodies of unlucky animals lay in piles scattered by the receding water. Strange currents formed twisting paths between the piles, giving the destruction a planned, almost calculated look. It was as if a giant child had abandoned the sandbox in the middle of play.

  "I guess I might blame it on demons. But wouldn't it be a good idea for us to educate the Jollys? We could show them how to better prepare for the floods, and that there are no Demonfish."

  "Who are we to say what is best for them?
" asked John. "We may think that our way is best, but their ways have been working for them for thousands of years."

  "Of course. You're right. If we can accept Carmen's religion without trying to change her, I guess we can accept the Jollys' Demonfish."

  THE STREAM in Meander Valley was shallow enough to ford with ease, but deep enough that the flouwen could come upstream to the settlement for conversation and their daily doses of urine. The humans could clear small flat fields on the treeless midstream islands for their essential Earth crops, while the groves of trees along the stream supplied building materials and firewood. Their first responsibilities were to care for the children, but as scientists on a mission, they also had a responsibility to increase their own knowledge of the planetoid around them for periodic report back to James on Prometheus, and for later transmission to Earth. Farming was not the most constructive use of their time here, and these highly fertile, easily irrigated fields would practically tend themselves.

  John hated the thought of moving so far away from the submerged lander and the computer-run sick bay that could do so much more for his patients than he could. But since the dangerous jury-rigged diving bell was the only way to get to the inhuman aid, getting rapid emergency help from Josephine was almost impossible. If the patient was well enough for an unassisted underwater trip in a cramped sealed capsule, then the extra walk from the new settlement to the beach wouldn't make any significant difference.

  It had taken months to construct the new settlement. The building had gone slowly because other responsibilities came first. They had agreed that each would help the others build their homes, and all would move in at the same time. Their two years on the planet had taken them through more than six of the wet-dry seasons on Eden, which gave them sound ideas for the best architecture for the climate. The constant rain during the rainy season made sloped roofs a must, while the occasional earth temblors called for light flexible frames. Although the new location would not be affected by the flood waves at the extreme high tides, the occasional heavy rains and the resultant flooding of the stream over its banks would soon have made low floors soggy. The best sort of home for each of the individual families seemed to take a little from each of their original buildings. The woven rush-covered sapling floors were supported between the trunks of three boobaa trees. Part of this deck was left open, while a rounded roof covered an area large enough to protect the family from the rain. The lower walls of the dome were made of waterproof feebook leaves that could be removed to let the air flow through when the weather was warm. Light feebook screens divided the enclosure to give an illusion of privacy.

  While each family wanted a separate dwelling, they all agreed that they needed a larger gathering place where they could continue their communal dinners. They chose a site where a climbing vine had attacked one of the boobaa trees. The infected tree had allowed itself to shrink far below the canopy of its neighbors, which were still growing strongly around it. They had cut off the dying tree some six meters from the ground and removed the soft inner core from the stump. An opening was cut into the side, and after lining the inside with clay, the tree was used as a fireplace and chimney. The fire, in turn, was protected and could easily be kept alive to revive the small fire of each home. With its deep-seated roots intact, the chimney was also a strong support for the roof of the meeting hall. The plank floor was two feet from the ground, supported by a layer of river rock rolled from the nearby streambed and painstakingly leveled. Inside, the tables and benches were large enough to accommodate them all at one time.

  Finally the Settlement was, ready. The Meeting Hall was closest to the main stream and in the center of the cluster of huts. John's own home was directly behind the Meeting Hall. As this home was also the sick bay, he planned to use the Meeting Hall for a hospital if necessary. Cinnamon, as his assistant, wanted also to be near, so she and Nels had their home against the base of the nearby ridge, about fifty meters downstream from John and the Meeting Hall.

  Jinjur and Shirley made their hut about a hundred meters above the Meeting Hall and well away from the riverbank. A conduit made from hollowed-out peethoo saplings and flexible tubing salvaged from the crashed lander brought a thin trickle of water from the ridge creek into the house itself, enough for drinking and household use. Carmen's home for herself and Maria was near the top of the ridge. An antenna at the top of one of the trees that supported her home provided a line-of-sight link to the comm unit in the penetrator sitting on the beach.

  On the other side of the stream, Richard and Reiki, with Freeman, settled in a home directly across from the Meeting Hall. Cinnamon's warning to Reiki to use birth control came too late and the prim anthropologist was again swollen with pregnancy. A vine bridge gave them direct access to the Hall when the stream was too deep to ford safely upstream, where the stream narrowed down and the tree groves grew close together, Arielle and David lived with their Shannon. Originally it was intended that they would also use the bridge, but David had come up with an idea, and for the last five days he and John and Richard had been working on it in secret. Arielle had grumbled when they hadn't brought home any game and was in a surly mood when David finally took her to see their handiwork.

  "Is what?"

  "It's a surprise," David repeated. "Go on up."

  Arielle peered up the tall thin boobaa trunk. The bottom of a small platform was just visible against the foliage. She, like most of the others, found it easy to climb the polelike trees in the low gravity of Eden, but David had made it even easier by adding a vine, so one could "walk" up or down the tree at an easy angle without having to grasp the rough bark with one's knees.

  "You want me go up there?" she asked "Why?" She looked at him suspiciously. "You want to make love where baby not see, I bet. But she not care ... and up there is too small!"

  "Just go, woman!" David said. Arielle began to climb, with David right behind her. At the top they stepped off onto the small platform. It was not quite two meters on a side and had no railing.

  Arielle looked around. Trees surrounded them on all sides, so there was not much of a view. "Is nice ... is pretty. But there is not much room." She began to take off her sarong.

  "No," said David. "That's not why we're here. Look, didn't you ever see a Tarzan video?"

  "Sure. Is monkey boy," she said dismissively. "And good swimmer," she conceded.

  David took one of the woven vines that had been fastened to the trunk above her head. "See that other platform over there?" he said, pointing through the trees. "Watch." He tightened his hold on the vine and leapt.

  "AAAAAeeeaaaaeeeAAAAeeeaaaaaeeeAAAAAA," he yelled in the prescribed manner. He had hardly landed on the opposing platform before he heard a "Wheeeeeee!" coming up behind him, and Arielle was beside him again.

  "Is wonderful!!"

  "I've set up a whole string of them," said David, internally apologizing to the others for taking the credit. "We can swing all the way to the stream and across if you like."

  "Like? I love! Where is next landing?" She was peering through the trees.

  "If you need to go to a higher platform, you have to jump up to push off, and if you get stuck, the vines are long enough for you to crawl down and safely jump!" he called out after her as he tried to follow her flight through the trees. The sound of her laughter helped him keep track of her progress, as did the occasional squawk of startled birds. Then he looked up to see her swinging back toward him and she landed in his arms, breathless with delight.

  "Oh, David! You let me fly again!" She sighed.

  The platform was big enough after all.

  REIKI floated in the warm water of the bay, the familiar underwater landscape spread out below her. Shirley had finally managed to make the mask watertight around Reiki's small face, and long practice let her breathe through the snorkel easily. Now it felt as if she were a natural part of the life in the bay, soaring like a hawk over the submerged hills and valleys. A few leisurely kicks of her flippered feet took her far
from where her little raft held her earlier catch of filter-fish.

  Reiki enjoyed fishing more than any of her other chores. Now that she was more than eight months pregnant, the water gave her welcome support. The two pregnancies had come so close together it seemed to Reiki that she had spent years adjusting to her own rapidly changing body. In the water of the ocean, she once again felt graceful and in control.

  Working slowly, with no sense of urgency, Reiki moved in behind a large pink peekoo. Taking care that she not let her shadow fall on the peekoos eyes to warn it of her approach, Reiki dove and slid the obsidian blade of her knife under the flat bottom shell before the peekoo could use its six tiny legs to secure itself to the rocks beneath it. If taken by surprise, the peekoos were helpless, but once they managed to get a firm grip on the rocks, and especially if they were able to establish suction between their domed upper shell and the rock beneath, they were almost impossible to remove. Here in the deeper water the peekoos grew larger, some to over a foot across. It still took patience and care to collect enough of the crustaceans to feed everyone, but the work wasn't arduous.

  Reiki carefully placed the clumsy creature into a net. Then, treading water, she inflated one of the envelopes Shirley had made for her out of feebook leaves. Tied to this float, the peekoo would be kept away from the safety of the ocean floor until Reiki came to collect it on her way back to the raft. As the afternoon wore on, Reiki left in her wake more and more of these little floats. Once in a while a balloon would fail and allow the tasty morsel to escape, but the method still worked better than constantly ferrying the take back to the raft or carrying the struggling prey with her while she hunted. Also, this way, the peekoos remained fresh until ready to eat, either raw on the half-shell or cooked into chowder.