Rescued From Paradise

by Robert L. Forward

  "The midday eclipse is about to start, boys," Richard said to the others. "Sit down and take it easy."

  Nels, Dirk, Adam, and Freeman lay down their tools and planks and made themselves comfortable. Freeman started a small fire that would provide them some illumination for the upcoming two-hour eclipse period, while the others started unpacking their lunches wrapped in feebook leaves. Shannon remained aloof and standing, not joining the others.

  "Oh!" said Richard, finally noticing her. "Sorry. I meant people."

  Shannon smiled, accepting his apology. In a society with little technology, simple physical strength had separated many of the daily tasks along gender lines. The women, as the majority, had been aware of this problem and had done their best to make the men feel that their physical labor was just as valued as the more complex intellectual tasks of the women. They quietly conspired to be sure that one of them would go along for the more mind-numbing and back-breaking physical chores—a token female would show the men they weren't being treated as mere muscle. Still, if she was willing to go along to help muck about in Wide Pond, Shannon insisted she be acknowledged.

  Shannon shifted her brightly painted sarong into a more modest position as she settled cross-legged onto the ground with the others, and straightened her back so that her long tangle of red curls wouldn't quite touch the ground. She had found that thin braid tips made from her auburn tresses worked quite well as paint brushes to apply her natural dye paints to the soft white paperlike fabric that the humans and Jollys used for clothing. Several long slender braids now snaked down her shoulders, ending in a wisp of bright green or red or blue where the paints had permanently stained her hair. The rest of the unruly mass had been gathered into a thick loose braid that hung down her back. While Shannon rarely brushed it, she was careful to keep it clean enough that she could gather up a new braid-brush as needed.

  As the light started to fade for the midday eclipse, Shannon studied the group of men around her. Nels and his son Dirk, both blond and tall, sat together quietly The two had grown much closer since Dirk's daughter Mirth had been born to Maria and Dirk had assumed the responsibility of fatherhood. Maria had made it clear that having Dirk's daughter did not tie her to Dirk, however, and that she was not ready to settle down. Once Mirth was weaned, she left her in the care of Dirk and Carmen. At first Carmen tried to take over completely, but Nels had talked with her, and now Dirk was the little girl's main parent. Dirk made a surprisingly good parent, and Mirth was now the only "woman" in his life. Carmen accepted the lesser role of grandmother, baby-sitting her granddaughter whenever Dirk had to leave her behind. Nels and Cinnamon also took care of the little girl on occasion, for Dirk had become part of their larger family after Jinjur's death.

  Richard and his son were also sitting together in silence. Freeman was smaller than his muscular father, but his slender body was agile and strong. Years of following Richard on his long trips exploring the geological makeup of the island had honed his young body into a fine-tuned machine. Shannon, looking wistfully at Freeman, felt a twinge of jealousy that Eve had so captured the heart of this darkly handsome man.

  Adam was the odd man out. Blue eyes sparkled mischievously out of the dark face, and Shannon realized that while she had been watching the other men, Adam had been watching her. Shannon fought down her irritation. Adam was smart and strong, but despite their occasional flirtations, Shannon had always considered him to be too arrogant. He deferred only to the parents. As the "eldest" of the firstborn, even though it was only by a few hours, Adam assumed the lead in all their joint endeavors. The worst thing about all his plans, Shannon thought, was that they usually worked. She wished he had experienced more failures. If he could only be taken down a peg or two, he would be a nicer person.

  All of them were lounging on the ground in the darkness, lit only by the tiny fire, when the first vibrating tremor rippled beneath them. They each looked around, searching in each other's faces for confirmation of what they felt.

  "What was that?" Adam asked the two older men.

  "An earthquake?" hazarded Nels.

  "I don't think so," said Richard, puzzled. "It's too gentle and it's lasting too long." A deep, quiet grumble echoed through the valley. "It feels more like the volcano is rumbling inside."

  "What?" Shannon squealed, leaping to her feet.

  "I've got to get to Mirth," said Dirk determinedly, also getting up.

  "Calm down, everybody," said Richard, holding up his hands. "There is no need to panic. Look at the Jollys. They have been living on the sides of this volcano ever since it made topsoil. They aren't panicking."

  "How could you tell if they were?" demanded Dirk. "They move so slowly."

  "That's just the point," said Richard. "They move very slowly, and yet for years they have been safe living on the side of a volcano. It isn't like living on a huge bomb or something; it only means that the magma is closer to the surface."

  As he was speaking, the tremors underfoot were growing stronger.

  "Any lava that comes out is going to follow the channels already followed by the previous flows," Richard continued calmly. "Lava from the main caldera travels to the sea through the lava valley to the west of our settlement, and there is a high ridge between it and home." The initial fear had faded, and Richard felt the group calming down. "Even if the lava should break through somewhere else, lava moves rather slowly. It's not hard to escape."

  "Tell that to the people of Pompeii," muttered Nels, although he knew that Pompeii had been buried by a choking ash flow, not lava, and this volcano didn't emit much ash.

  "Our primary duty is to our own settlement," said Dirk solidly. "Not fixing a dock. I say we head back home now. The rest of them might need us."

  "It's an hour's walk back to the village," said Adam.

  "All the more reason we get started now," insisted his brother. "If there is a lava flow and if it threatens the village ..."

  "Those are pretty big ifs," said Nels. "Besides, the rest of the camp is perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and all the little ones—including Mirth."

  Dirk didn't feel convinced, but the rest of the work gang relaxed a bit. It was more likely that the others back home would be worrying about them, rather than needing their help.

  Shannon took her Teacher out of the pouch on her belt and activated the screen. She didn't use the computer much as a "Teacher" anymore, for she was now almost nineteen and had finished her compulsory school lessons long ago, but she kept it around because of its special sketch-pad screen and its art programs. The versatile minicomputer had other functions, however, including being a two-way radio. Her long fingers danced over the touch-screen as she set up the comm program, and the speaker squeaked to life.

  "... men to Shannon. Shannon do you read me?" Carmen's voice sounded tinny through the small speaker.

  "Yes, Carmen, I hear you. We're all fine. How are things there?"

  "And how's Mirth?" Dirk called over.

  "Mirth is fine," replied Carmen soothingly. "We are all fine. But as a precaution, we're going to leave the forest area and go down to the cleared areas near the stream."

  Richard took the Teacher from Shannon. "That's a good idea," he said. "Even a little eruption can send out embers or hot ash that might start a forest fire—even though Eden's plants are all pretty flame resistant." He smiled. They had all experienced how difficult it was to light the damp green wood found on Eden. Except during the driest seasons, wood had to be keep under cover from the daily rains or it wouldn't burn.

  "Mirth?" called Dirk. "Take your Teacher with you so you can talk to Daddy."

  "Dirk ..." Carmen replied with a patient tone. "The Teachers aren't strong enough to communicate directly with each other over that distance. The only reason I can reach you now is that I'm using the main comm unit. But ... don't worry. While the others will be heading out of the forest, I am going to stay here and will relay any messages."

  "Will you be safe there?" asked
Nels.

  "Safe? This house has always been the safest. I'll be fine. But that Teacher doesn't have much reserve. Turn it off now and only use it for emergencies. Also, don't forget there's a comm unit in the center of the Jolly village. It should be powerful enough to contact the Teachers of the others directly. If you do talk to the others, however, don't forget to keep me up to date, too. I worry. Carmen out."

  Shannon broke the connection and switched the unit to standby. Carmen was right. The little handheld unit was light-powered, and now that the eclipse had started, its small batteries would be drained rapidly by long transmissions. They would have to use the Teacher only if they had a serious problem, not just if Dirk was worried about his daughter.

  The ground beneath their feet was still trembling, but after so many minutes, they had almost gotten used to the vibration. Still, the attitude of the human work crew had changed to one of wariness. Instead of closing their eyes and resting in the darkness, their eyes now scanned the distant primary caldera of the volcano Hoolkoor in the west for any sign of lava. The first indications of lava, however, did not come from the distant caldera, but a place much closer.

  "Look!" cried Shannon. "Over to the east!"

  There, almost directly up the mountainside rising above them, they could see pinpoints of glowing orange.

  "But that's not where the mouth of the volcano is," objected Dirk.

  "No ..." said Richard, slowly. "But there's a smaller secondary caldera up there. Freeman and I have explored that region."

  "It looks like that caldera wasn't as dormant as we thought it was," replied Freeman.

  The two of them had often gone hunting near the mouth of the small crater. There had been little plant life inside the crater, since the warm ground emitted toxic fumes, but the birds enjoyed riding the thermals generated by the heat. They had experienced good luck with a sling as long as the prey didn't fall into the middle of the crater where the fumes were the heaviest.

  "Is that light caused by lava or a forest fire?" asked Nels.

  "Hard to tell," said Richard. In the darkness the orange glow on the hillside seemed to merge with his retinas afterimages. The shape, and even the position of the flickering light, seemed unstable.

  Shannon had inherited the excellent color sense of her father, David, and her younger eye had less trouble focusing on the apparition. "It's moving slowly," she said. "But I can't be sure if it is molten rock or burning trees."

  "Up or down?"

  "What?" asked Shannon puzzled. Freeman rarely said much, but he usually made more sense than that.

  "A forest fire burns uphill, lava moves down," Freeman explained.

  Shannon looked again, concentrating. The golden-red glimmer was almost directly overhead, making it hard to judge its direction. "Both," she said finally. "There is a lava flow coming down, and forest fires spreading out from it—going up."

  "It doesn't sound good," said Adam.

  "I'm not exactly sure," mused Richard, continuing to look up, "because in the darkness one ridge line looks like another, but it looks like the lava is coming out of a fissure in the side of the secondary caldera ... and it's flowing down the river valley that leads right here ... and goes on down by the Jolly village!"

  "We need to warn the Jollys," said Adam.

  "Won't they see it for themselves?" asked Nels.

  "The Jollys' eyes are used to flying up close to things to see them," Adam reminded him. "Their long-range vision is almost nonexistent. And, since it is dark and all their eyes are in their nests resting, they can't see the distant danger like we can. While they may feel the vibrations and know that the volcano is causing them, they probably won't be able to add the threat of the lava to their worldview until it is right on top of them."

  "We'd better go warn them, then," said Richard. Together they felt their way down the quaking slope toward the Jolly village, the beams from their permalights flickering across the rough path ahead of them.

  When they got to the bottom of the ridge and reached the banks of the river above Wide Pond, they were able to look up through the gap between the ridges that formed the sides of the steep river valley. There was a menacing orange glow, high up near the top of the valley. It was moving slowly toward them. They stopped to look up in awe at the sight.

  "Freeman?" said Richard. "Do you remember that remnant of a lava tube I pointed out to you in this valley? It looks like that old worn-down lava tube is about to be replaced with a fresh one."

  "I can see more fires now," said Nels. "Although the plants along the river valley are as fireproof as most vegetation on Eden, they are burning like an Earth forest fire."

  "The heat from the lava seems to be drying out the trees first, then setting the dried wood on fire from a distance," said Shannon.

  By the time they reached the Jolly village, it was nearly the middle of the eclipse period. The Jollys were all standing at the doorways to their huts, their eyes in their nests, waiting out the darkness. Richard stood still in front of Seetoo and called loud greetings to the chief, while lighting his face with his permalight so that the Jolly's eyes would be able to see him. After a few moments, the chief awoke and whistled acknowledgment.

  "Hoolkoor is hungry and is shaking his fronds!" the Jolly said. "Soon he will disgorge his digestive fluids and take a fiery taste of the vegetation in the valleys to the west!"

  Richard didn't want to get into a theological debate, he just wanted the Jollys to be aware of the imminent danger. "The lava flow to the west is not the only one! There is a new lava flow. It's coming right down this river valley and is setting fire to the vegetation all along the banks. You must get your people away from the river to a safe place, far from anything that might catch on fire."

  "We will redirect the water in the irrigation channel to water the thook hedge. Once the thook has drunk its fill, it will not allow the Flame-Demons to overcome it."

  "A well-watered thook hedge might be safe from flying embers," said Richard, "but that lava flow is so hot it will ignite anything near it, watered or not. And that includes you and your people."

  "We will defend our village," replied Seetoo. "And if Hoolkoor decides to take us into his mouth, we will accept his judgment," said the Jolly chief fatalistically.

  While they talked, Seetoo used a gatherer to fetch a pictotablet of soft clay and was now painstakingly writing out instructions for the defense of the village. As the first light of Barnard appeared from behind Gargantua, the chief sent the gatherer to Proclamation Rock with the pictotablet. The gatherer gave a whistle and soon eyes from all of the tribe came to Proclamation Rock for guidance.

  Although the Jollys moved slowly by human standards, their thick legs were strong and their independent gatherers were nimble. The stronglimbs moved to protect the village, while coping with the trembling ground and the fear of falling it produced in them. Soon the gentle flow of water from Wide Pond that was normally used to irrigate the seedling fields and the jookeejook pens had been increased in flow. Some of the water now flowed into a shallow ditch that ran along the thook hedge. The leading thook plants greedily absorbed the first of the flow, and it was several moments before the water moved on to quench the thirst of the next plants. Richard guessed that it would take almost an hour for the entire perimeter hedge to be replete.

  "Seetoo!" insisted Richard, trying to make the Jolly understand. "Even if this water protects the village from the forest fires started by the lava, it is not going to save the seedlings! The seedling bed lies right alongside the river. The fronds on your seedlings will burst into flames from the heat!"

  "We will soak the seedling bed and sprinkle their fronds with water," replied Seetoo.

  "Getting them wet will only 'boil' them instead of burning them!" shouted Shannon, now highly concerned. Chief Seetoo didn't understand what the human word "boil" meant, but it sounded deadly.

  "We've got shovels," Nels said to Richard. "Let's dig up the seedlings and transplant them at a safe distanc
e."

  "Seedlings cannot be moved," replied Seetoo. "Their roots are tender. If the roots of a seedling are ever disturbed, the seedling always dies."

  "We've got to think of something!" cried Shannon. "We can't just let them stay there and die!"

  "If they die," said Seetoo, "then I will die with them."

  "What do you mean?" The humans were aghast.

  "The fruits from my pollen are being threatened. I must stay and fight for them. Even if there is no defense against the fiery bile of Hoolkoor, I will not desert them." Seetoo, who had eyes and gatherers roaming over the entire village—making sure that all was in readiness—now started moving slowly and steadily toward the riverbank that bordered the seedling bed. Once there, the chief settled into a position along the bank between the seedlings and the oncoming lava stream that threatened them.

  "Richard!" insisted Shannon. "There has to be something we can do."

  "Like what, Shannon?" yelled Richard irritably. "Look, I don't like this any better than you do, but lava is one of those irresistible forces. We can't just erect an immovable object to meet it."

  "What about a dam?" asked Freeman. "If we went upriver and built a barrier in that narrow cleft just below where the water from our stream comes into the valley, we could divert the lava flow eastward into the next ravine. If you remember, when we were surveying that region, I mentioned there is only about five meters elevation separating this valley from the next at that point."

  "Build a dam with what?" responded his father angrily, not wanting to admit defeat. "If we had a week or two, we might be able to move in enough dirt and rock to divert the lava enough to save the seedlings. But we have an hour—maybe two. How are we going to build anything large enough to make the slightest bit of difference?"

  "We could use the black powder we have stored back at home," suggested Adam. "We could blow rocks off the walls of the valley to block—"