Rescued From Paradise

by Robert L. Forward

  "Maria has heard from George. The Earth ship Succor has started deceleration and will be in the Barnard system before the end of the year. They will be able to pick us up before the next high tide."

  Nels turned to Cinnamon and his huge arms folded the tiny woman in a hug. Relief surged through his body as hope filled him. He longed to be back in space, free from the constant dragging pull of gravity. For decades he had lived in space moving freely with no legs at all. Once he returned, he would be able to leave the canes behind and go back to doing the work he enjoyed in the fields he had pioneered.

  Adam waited for a moment until he regained the attention of Cinnamon and Nels. "Their intentions are to pick us all up, give us a drug that will put us in suspended animation, seal us in capsules, and take us back to Earth. The drug is an improvement on No-Die in that we will not age significantly during the entire fifteen-year return journey."

  "Great!" said Nels. "With the great advances they have made in human medicine since we have gone, they can not only cure my arthritis, but even reverse much of the aging we old geezers have suffered. I can't wait to go home!" He turned to Cinnamon. "We'd better start packing!"

  "But not all of us want to go," said Adam, dropping his bombshell.

  Cinnamon, Nels, Reiki, and Richard looked at each other in shocked bewilderment. Then, as they looked around at the gathered children, it was clear that they were the last ones to hear of this ridiculous idea.

  Nels forgot his pain and leapt to his feet. "Don't be absurd!" he bellowed. "This is not our planet! Already we have been interfering with the natural development of the natives. We have introduced them to cooked food, which they may love, but which they can't have without one of us to light the fires. We have stopped the war between the Jollys and the weresharks, which was providing a sort of natural selection. We even saved Seetoo's seedlings from the lava flow."

  Shannon leapt to her feet. "Of course we saved the seedlings! They might have still been more plant than person, but they were still sentient beings! We would no sooner abandon them than abandon our own children." Shannon and Everett had just had a daughter, Shirley, and the baby had brought out strong maternal instincts in Shannon. She had even piled up her mass of red curls into a messy bun to keep Shirley's tiny fingers from tangling in the titian locks when the baby nursed.

  "That's just my point. Humans are too emotional. We persist in getting involved because it is the 'right' thing to do," insisted Nels. "We lead with our feelings instead of our brains every time. Think about it now. Think about that lava incident. What would have happened if we had let nature take its course?"

  "All those wonderful little trees would have died," said Shannon through clenched teeth. "Weeshee, Taachee, Shaapoo ... all of whom have grown up to be brave and intelligent stronglimbs would have been burned alive."

  "Yes," agreed Nels. "All of Seetoo's seedlings would have died. But if Seetoo had survived, because his leadership had led the tribe into disaster, he would have been retired as chief."

  "Seetoo is our friend! He has always helped us! Were we supposed to plot his downfall?"

  "Not plot. No! That's interfering, too," said Nels, "but allow ... We must allow the planet of Eden to mold its occupants. If we had not interfered, the Jollys would have had a new chief and the next crop of younglings would be of a different genetic strain—one less likely to lead the tribe into future danger. The whole future of the Keejook Tribe was altered because we felt sorry for them ... because we had to interfere ... because we are only human."

  Everett stood and Shannon yielded her place to him. Still a small man, adulthood had stripped away the last traces of softness from his features. Fine bones gave him chiseled features and a wiry compact frame.

  "Okay, Nels. You're right. We are human. We are emotional and interfering and adaptable. We are also Edenites. We are as native to this planet as the weresharks and the Jollys and the boobaa trees. This planet has shaped us and we will shape the planet."

  "You are an infection. You are ruining this whole island for study! That is why we came here, remember? To study the planet, to study the way it developed, study the lifeforms that developed here. Every Earth crop we plant, every waste product we dump, pollutes the island—taints it. If you really love this planet, you will leave it."

  "Even if we did leave—" Everett started. Shannon's hand reached up to grasp his, but he looked down at her and she held her tongue. "Even if we did leave, there would still be humans in the equation. Earth is sending more follow-on missions to study this whole section of space. There are going to be scientists studying the flouwen, the gummies, the icerugs, and the Jollys. Nothing is going to stop human interference. Call it pollution, call it infection, call it fate, call it salvation. This planet is going to have to deal with humans. The point is, which kind of humans do you want it to have to deal with?"

  Nels could no longer stand. The pain shooting up from his joints forced him to sink back into his chair. He seemed smaller, older, than he had only moments before. Eve got to her feet and touched Everett's shoulder. Everett joined his wife, and gave the floor to Eve.

  Eve moved gracefully over to her parents and knelt before her father so that she could look into his eyes, her head level with his own. Her long black hair swept the floor behind her and her young face, so like her mother's, smiled at Nels with love.

  "You parents, you came from Earth with a mission, and even when it looked like you might fail, you carried on. You survived the crash and went on to study this planet the best you could without the tools that would have allowed you to do the job so much better and faster. But you did more than that. You thrived, you had us, and you raised us to help you with your work, learning about and studying Eden.

  "We didn't sign up for this mission, but we were born into it and raised with it. It means as much to us as it did to you. We have all learned from the Teachers. Even on Earth we would be considered to hold advanced degrees. Earth is sending scientists? Eden has scientists right here. Scientists who know this planet, scientists who love this planet ... who better to finish what you started?"

  Nels loved his daughter. He loved all his children it was clear that they had made up their minds. But he didn't agree with them, he would never agree with them, and he had only one option. He struggled to his feet, trying to leave the room. Cinnamon tried to help him, but Eve slipped her arm around her father's waist while her husband Freeman supported him from the other side. Together they helped Nels back to his home. Cinnamon paused before following them out of the room.

  "Whatever the rest of you decide," she announced, looking around the room and seeking out her daughters, "Nels and I will be leaving with the Succor. For us the ship is aptly named. If Nels is to survive, if this brilliant man is to continue his work, he needs to get away from the painful pull of this planet. If any of you are staying, I suggest that one or more of you start advanced medical training, because I will have gone with him." She went to join her husband.

  Attention focused on Reiki and Richard. Richard sighed and got to his feet. "I think I understand what is really going on here. I think that you are all just afraid of going to live on a planet you have never seen."

  A chorus of denials rumbled through the room. Adam rose to the challenge. "Afraid? Is that your plan, Richard? To shame us into going back to Earth?"

  "I thought I'd give it a shot." Richard smiled. He studied Adam's face as he laughed. Adam had grown tall and strong with his father's Kennedy features and blue eyes, and his mother's dusky skin and dark curls. But Adam had inherited something more from his mother. It showed as a way of standing, a way of holding himself, but it was deeper than that. It was a whole way of thinking, an innate sense of superiority—of command. The son of their highest ranking officer, Major General "Jinjur" Jones, the first of the firstborn, Adam had, since birth, been the leader of everything the children had ever planned. He stood tall and strong at the head of the Meeting Hall and the others looked to him to guide them. If Richar
d hoped to sway them, he would have to win Adam to his side.

  "The move to Earth will be a big one," Richard started. "And it will mean a big change in your lives and the lives of your children. All the technology that you have seen and studied on your Teachers will be available to you. All the things that steal your time away from research and learning—the farming and hunting and latrine digging and cooking—all that will no longer interfere with your lives. You, and your children, will have all the advantages of all of humanity's past achievements so that you can add on achievements of your own. Mankind has been growing and expanding all the years we have been away. Things have been happening so quickly, even the six-year communication delay from Earth to here means that our latest updates are already obsolete. By the time you reach Earth, fifteen more years of learning and growth will have improved things even more. Your parents, all of us, knew when we had you that you would be able to return to Earth one day and claim your inheritance, your birthright as members of the human race. All of mankind's achievements are waiting for you to reach out and take them!"

  Richard started pacing the floor. "We have worked on this planet for twenty-five years and we have literally only scratched the surface. Why? Because we have had to do all our research without the benefit of mankind's technology. Can you imagine how much more we would have accomplished if we had had even half the tools available on Prometheus? Far, far too much of our time and energy has been eaten away just trying to survive, to find nourishing food ..."

  "And to raise your children?" interrupted Adam. "We don't need to go to Earth to benefit from Earth technology. Earth technology is coming to us. The Succor will bring us new tools to aid our research here and in the rest of the Barnard system. As for our other chores, the growing of food, the hunting of game, the raising of children, we have no desire to be free of these tasks. Maybe on Earth they are no longer necessary, but some of us not only are good at them but enjoy them, enjoy being good at them."

  "So you are afraid," challenged Richard. "Afraid that your skills in farming and cooking will no longer have worth in a place where robots can do them just as well. Too much of your ego has been invested in your skills at low-tech living. You are afraid to test yourself in a new world where more of yourself than you've ever explored will be allowed to stretch and grow. Adam, don't you see? You will be limiting yourself if you stay here ..."

  "Oh," Adam interrupted again, "I'm not staying. I want to go back to Earth. I'm just arguing for the right of some of the others to stay. They feel ..."

  "We feel," said Lavender getting to her feet and looking at her father, "we feel happy here and we see no other way to insure our happiness than by staying here."

  "Oh, Lavender ..." Reiki sighed.

  "You called this planet Eden because it seemed like paradise to you," replied Lavender. "It is more than just a comfortable home that we are afraid to leave. It is a planet of fragrant warm oceans where we can swim and fish and play with the flouwen. Can you say the same for Earth? For Mars? For any other planet Earth has colonized? Yes, space is large. Yes, there are new worlds discovered every year. But why go looking for happiness when we have it right here?"

  "But the flouwen aren't staying!" Richard protested.

  "Are you sure?" asked Lavender. "They want to go back to visit their primary bodies on Eau and tell them what they have learned, but they also want to stay here and explore some more. Fortunately for them, they can do both. They will send buds back to Rocheworld while the rest of them stay here. They told me they will stay as long as there is ammonia enough to keep them healthy, and we are their best source of the chemical. As long as there are humans on Eden, there will be flouwen."

  "Okay, so you're happy here, and even though you admit that you might also find happiness on Earth, you don't want to leave the life you know. Right?" Richard looked around. Most of the young people were nodding.

  "But for all that we named this planet Eden, it has hardly been a paradise. Of the original ten crew members, six have died! We have faced flood and tsunami, lava and earthquake. There will always be accidents and drought and disease. Now that Succor has arrived, you will have some of the advantages that it will bring, but you will still be living out here on the edge of human space, on the frontier, in danger. Can you understand why we want you to move to Earth to bring up your children, our grandchildren, with all the safety and advantages that Earth can offer you?"

  Adam took Lavender's place. "Succor is only the first of many ships, and 'human space' is growing right toward us. We won't be on the frontier long. Your children and your grandchildren will help give mankind a foothold here, a foundation with which to build on, and we will have an advantage—by being here first."

  Richard knew he was losing. Adam was going back to Earth? Earth would never be the same. "Reiki, why aren't you helping me out here?" he whispered down to his wife.

  "Because you were beaten before you began, dear," she answered him calmly. Stunned, Richard sat down. Reiki moved to the head of the room and gestured for Adam to yield to her.

  "Of course," she started, "anyone who wants to stay should do so. They are quite right to fear that there are things they enjoy about their lives here will be available nowhere else. Earth's oceans are hardly swimmable anymore, and farming, hunting, even child-rearing are no longer valued on high technology worlds. But just because robots can do something doesn't mean that those who enjoy them must give them up. I suspect all of you will find aspects of life on Earth at least as enjoyable as you find life here on Eden. But you are big enough to make that choice for yourselves. We have raised you well, and I am proud of all of you and whatever decision you make; whether it is to go, whether it is to stay, or whether it is to go to Earth later on another ship, I trust that all of you will be making the best decision for yourselves. We all have to make the best decisions for ourselves and ..." she paused and looked at Richard "... unless my husband can come up with some, better reasons than he has so far for going back to Earth, I will be staying here."

  Lavender hugged her mother as Richard jumped to his feet.

  "What?" he cried.

  "I am happy here, too, Richard," Reiki said calmly. "I am ninety-nine years old and I have no desire to do any more exploring. When we left Earth, we had no expectation of ever returning. I said good-bye to Earth forever at that time, and I have had no regrets. Eden is my home, and if you will stay here with me, Eden is where I'd like to stay. To me, this place has always been paradise, even during the droughts and the floods, even when I've lost friends. Don't you see? The original ten castaways didn't dwindle into four survivors; we blossomed into twenty-seven!"

  Richard threw up his hands. "Alright, alright. I give up. You're going to stay ... we're going to stay." He paused, then looked around at the group thoughtfully before continuing. "There is one minor problem. Up on Succor is a group of people that were sent here by Earth with instructions to 'rescue' us and ship us back to Earth in cold storage. The head of the expedition is a General Winthrop, which means this is Earth military we're dealing with. General Winthrop is not going to want to sit around twelve years waiting for permission from Earth to change his marching orders. He has instructions to bring us back, and if I know the military mind, he is going to do all in his power to follow those instructions. How exactly are we going to convince him and the others to do things our way?"

  Reiki smiled. Richard knew that smile. He'd better get used to the idea of staying on Eden.

  "That," she said softly, "is all just a matter of diplomacy."

  GEORGE'S first communication sessions with the people on the incoming ship were brief, for a roundtrip message time of one hundred days made it difficult to engage in brilliant discourse. Besides, both of them were busy collecting data. George now had Prometheus in a slow spiral about the north pole of Barnard, mapping it from the polar regions outward. As the year passed and the rocket ship of the follow-on expedition drew closer, George visited the communicator more often. When they we
re a month of travel time away, the roundtrip communication time became about twenty-four hours and he enjoyed a short one-way conversation each morning at breakfast. It was about this time that he was able to use the science telescope to pick up the faint speck of the blazing exhaust from the braking antimatter rocket as it entered the outskirts of the Barnard system. A few weeks later, when the time delay was only an hour, and they were only a few days from zero relative speed, George suddenly realized that he was going to have visitors and the place was a mess. He canceled the science plan, put the Christmas Bush to "cleaning up", and began to prepare for company.

  The huge interstellar exploration ship dropped into an orbit about Barnard. A small sleek flitter from the ship flew smoothly in under the giant sail of Prometheus on a nearly invisible jet of antimatter-energized hydrogen. George watched them approach from the bottom science dome, then floated over to the airlock console and readied the lock. The first to cycle through was one of the new general-purpose robots. Built along the same lines as a human, they could replace a human at any station. They, of course, did not need spacesuits.

  The robot exited the lock. It looked carefully around, then fixed its eyes on the human. George noticed a gold caduceus on the breastplate of the shiny black plasticoid. Probably a medic of some sort. There was a dramatic increase in the light display on the Christmas Bush, and George realized that James and the robot were trading information. The robot drifted toward him, propelled by a precision flick of its foot on the airlock hatchway, and drifted to a halt just an arm's length away. It spoke in a deep baritone voice.