by James Wilson
While eating at the camp, Dione asked, “Lapetus, what happened to Joha? Why isn’t he here with us?”
“I think he is trying to finish up his dock. He only had a few more pieces to put in.,” Lapetus said.
After they finished eating, Tethys prepared a bowl of food for Joha and walked down to the shore. “Hi, Joha. We missed you at dinner today, so I thought I’d bring you something to eat.”
“Oh, thank you. I’m really hungry too!”
She handed him the bowl and sat next to him on his dock. As he started eating, she complimented him on his handiwork.
“Thanks,” he said with his mouth half full. “I was hoping to finish it today, but I think it will still take one more day.”
He threw the bones and scraps into the river as the two continued to talk. A short while later, he noticed a few fish were picking at the river bottom right where he had thrown in the scraps. “Look at that: they’re eating the food I threw in the river,” Joha said before they walked back to camp.
The next day, with only one more piece to put in, Joha ran out of rope. He remembered he still had the net he made for gathering rope weed leaves. As he was about to remove a few bits of rope from the net, he thought for a minute. Then, rather than finishing his dock, he actually disassembled the last piece of his dock to get some of that rope. He attached some more rope to the ends of his net and called out, “Argus, can you please help me for a minute?”
Argus came over. “Sure, Joha, what can I do?”
Joha spread the net out on the bottom of the river and handed two pieces of rope that were connected to one end of the net to Argus. He took the rope connected to the other end and said, “First, let’s practice. When I say pull, you pull your two ends up.”
After a few trials they put the net back on the bottom and Joha said, “Ok, now we wait.”
After what seemed like forever, a large blue tail fish finally swam over the net. Joha gave the word and they both pulled the net up out of the water with a living fish flopping around inside.
That night Joha couldn’t sleep, so first he made some more rope; then he added several more pieces to his net, making it both wider and longer. The next morning before heading to the river, he dug through the waste pile and took all the leftover food scraps. He also grabbed the largest clay pot he could find. When he got to the river, he searched for a suitable spot; there were two rocks with just the right distance between them. He laid out his net between the rocks.
This time he asked Lapetus for help. When Lapetus got there, Metis came too, to watch. Joha pointed and said, “Okay, you stand on that rock and hold those two pieces of rope.” Joha got on the other rock, and threw some of the food scraps into the water. Within a few minutes there were a few fish swimming over the net. He waited another minute, and several more fish joined in. At that point, Joha said, “Ok, Lapetus, pull your rope up high.” The net came out of the water with six fish caught inside.
Lapetus said, “Wow! In only a few minutes we caught six fish!”
“Yeah, and they’re still alive too,” Joha responded. “Metis, can you please grab that pot behind you and fill it halfway with water?” When he did so, Joha and Lapetus put the fish into the pot. Once again, they put the net into the water, added bait, waited, pulled the net out, and got another five fish. It was a bit more than the pot could hold.
That evening when Eos heard the news he said, “Tonight we will have a party. And tomorrow everyone can take the day off. Joha has revolutionized the way we eat and live. In ten minutes, they caught enough fish to feed this village for three days, and on the third day, the fish will be as fresh as it was when it first came out of the water! What you have done is amazing, Joha! Great job!”
That night they opened their first container of spring berry wine to celebrate, and everyone enjoyed themselves for the first time since the Vere Pars, the first day of spring.
CHAPTER 13
RUN TO THE HILLS
After dinner the next day, Joha went to talk to Eos. “I think it’s time to start to plan my trip to get more rope weed leaves.”
“I think you’re right, Joha. What do you have in mind?”
“Well, we’re almost out of rope weed leaves and probably almost out of Boli stalks too. We need lots of both for the new village, and we need to make more nets for fishing. I propose that me, Argus, and Demeter take the carts to get Boli stalks for the next couple of days, while the ladies turn the rest of the leaves into rope. Then, we can make one more net, and in about three days when we run out of fresh fish, I will take Lapetus and Metis to the river to ensure they can use the net to get fish. The day after that, I’ll take Argus and Demeter to get more rope and palm leaves. While the two of them gather the leaves, I will conduct my experiments on the vent gas.”
“Ok, Joha. It sounds like you thought the whole thing through,” said Eos. The only thing I might change is that you should take Metis with you for the first couple days to get the Boli stalks. While you guys are doing all that, we will continue to work on our new village.”
Four days later, the three boys got up early. They packed a dozen fresh fish, one new net, Joha’s old sled, and plenty of water. Joha’s original net was the larger of the two, so it was left with Lapetus for fishing. Joha also brought several items that he intended to use at the vent. The boys walked during the day and took shelter from the Summer Sun under the carts at night. The nights were very hot as the Summer Sun was at its peak.
After four long days of walking, they arrived at spring berry camp.
After the Summer Sun set the next morning, the boys hiked into the hills. Argus and Demeter got started gathering leaves, and Joha went back to the hammerstone quarry. He started by simply putting objects in the path of the gas to see the effect. He found that living items like insects, bugs, fresh leaves, and sticks slowly deteriorated in the gas. Old dead leaves and sticks, rocks, and dirt all showed no effect in the gas.
At dinner that night, Joha wondered how fish would react in the presence of vent gas. The next day he brought the remains of the fish they ate for dinner, along with a live fish. He found that the gas caused the dead fish to slowly decay, but the bones, the mouth, intestines, and stomach were completely unaffected. Before he put the living fish in the gas, he had to first see how the fish did after simply being taken out of the water. He found that he could take the fish out of the water for several minutes without a problem, but much longer than that and the fish appeared to have some difficulties. However, after only about one minute of vent gas exposure, the fish died.
CHAPTER 14
CONTROLLED BURN
When the boys got back from their trip, there was a group-wide focus on completing the new village. They immediately built a small pond for holding fresh fish.
Joha was regarded as a hero for the development of his new fishing techniques. Now that he had a little more information about what the vent gas would do, he still had two questions on his mind: how did Artemis’s head catch on fire, and why are fish intestines immune to the gas? Over the next few months, he spent a portion of his free time working with the fish intestines and found that he could bond two pieces together simply by laying them out with a portion overlapping, get them wet, and let them dry out. Once dry, the bond was air- and water-tight and mechanically quite strong.
As summer turned to fall and fall to winter, Joha began planning the next set of experiments he would conduct with the vent gas on their annual spring berry run. He constructed some containers out of fish intestines and hoped to use them to collect some of the gas. He also wanted to try to recreate the conditions that killed Artemis. The same group of boys would be going, but this time Metis would also be joining them to get the berries and other supplies.
After the first Vere Pars at the new village, the boys set out to the hills at the center of their valley. The first thing Joha wanted to do was see if he could fill one of his containers with the vent gas. He connected a tube of intestine to the top of a ve
nt and sealed it with some rope. Then, he connected one of the intestine balloons he made to the end of the tube. Slowly the balloon filled, but much to Joha’s surprise, as the balloon filled, it also started to rise. The vent gas was lighter than air.
Joha had a fish head mounted on a stick. He filled his largest balloon with gas, disconnected the balloon from the tube, and aimed the opening of the balloon at the fish’s head. Next, he squeezed the balloon, forcing the gas out very fast right at the fish. Before the balloon was half empty, the fish’s head caught fire. As Joha had suspected, gas normally comes out of the vent at a low flow rate. When the Korkidilla stomped on the ground, there must have been a burst of gas exiting the vent at a high flow rate just as Artemis was over the vent. The only explanation he could come up with as to why the fish intestine did not deteriorate in the presence of the gas was maybe something the fish ate caused them to develop immunity to the gas in the intestines and mouth.
CHAPTER 15
TONITRUA PEDE’S END
Thirteen years later, just two days before the Vere Pars, Tethys woke suddenly. “Joha, what was that?” The sound of thunder shook their hut. The three little ones came running into Joha and Tethys’s room crying. Little Zumas said, “Daddy, it’s Tonitrua Pede—he’s here.”
“It’s okay, little boy. Tonitrua Pede can’t get to us here. Our village is safe,” Joha reassured little Zumas, Kronos, and Heras.
Before Joha could finish getting dressed, Argus was at his door. “Metis is getting the cart. Are you ready, cousin?” he asked.
“I’ll be out in one minute, Argus,” Joha answered. He gave his wife Tethys a kiss and then kissed their triplets. He told the three, “Now I want you three to help Mommy out. I will be back in a few days and we’ll have a big party, okay?”
Joha, Argus, and Metis headed toward the center of the valley with one loaded cart.
The group made good time despite the ground shaking and the earsplitting sounds of thunder. After less than two days of traveling, they made it to the outsides of the center of the valley, and they could see just ahead where the ground had been mangled by the beasts. Before the Center Sun set, they started watching the monsters so they could see where they went to sleep; they were near the river. After they went to sleep, the guys rested for a little while and ate before heading toward the monsters. The plan was to attack them as they slept, but when they reached them, they were sleeping in the water. This was not going to be as easy as they had hoped. There was no way to get to the monsters: their faces were too far out into the river. They would have to wait till morning.
As the Center Sun started rising, the large Korkidilla started to move. Joha grabbed his catapult and loaded one of the gas-filled clay bombs. He fired the bomb. His aim was true, but unfortunately, the monster moved his head just in time to avoid being hit. As Joha reloaded he could see the white stripes on the monster’s head, just as Eos had described from Kronos’s story. This was the same creature that destroyed his grandfather’s village and probably the same one that destroyed his village too so many years ago.
Just as the first bomb hit the river, Joha fired his second one. This time it hit the creature right in its nostril, exactly where Joha had aimed. The thin clay shell of the bomb shattered on impact inside the creature’s nose. Nothing happened. The confidence that the three Tecta Capillo had so much of only moments ago, in an instant, turned to fear. All of a sudden, Tonitrua Pede’s head burst into flames as the monster gave out a last loud scream that was heard throughout the valley.
The second smaller Korkidilla saw the three little fur-covered animals on the shore and what had happened to her captor. She smiled with joy and dove head first into the water and was never seen by the Tecta Capillo again. Tonitrua Pede’s head burned bright for several seconds before its body fell half in the water and half on shore. The three shouted with joy and Joha reached into the cart and pulled out a container of wine which they drank as they watched Tonitrua Pede burn.
CHAPTER 16
THE CREATION
Joha didn’t give a second thought to his first attempt to kill Tonitrua Pede. The compressed hydrogen and helium gas in the bomb escaped in a small explosion in the black river, one that went entirely unnoticed by both the two Korkidillas and the three Tecta Capillo that were nearby. Joha had no idea that he had just created our universe.
Less than one second after the bomb exploded in the river, the cosmic background radiation was released. Within two seconds of the detonation, the hydrogen gas from the bomb began to intermingle with the dark matter of river, forming the first stars and galaxies. Less than ten seconds after the explosion our solar system began to form, and a second later, life had taken hold on Earth. One second on Kalum takes a billion years on Earth.
CHAPTER 17
DISCOVERY UNNOTICED (FIRST SIGHTING)
The island of Maui had been frozen for over 1,800 years since the storms of the late 2990s. Activity on the island had been extremely limited. There was the six-week period of construction about 600 years ago when a new observatory was built on the island. There were about four visits for service over the centuries; otherwise, the island had been mostly lifeless. Only in the last few centuries did vegetation really regain a foothold. The Earth was finally starting to warm again as the science of terraforming made new inroads. Designed to be virtually invisible from above, the telescope structure, the small building housing the solar power plant, and all the electronics were originally constructed to blend in with the lifeless frozen soundings. About a century ago the observatory was updated to more closely match its new green and brown surroundings.
The observatory was commissioned in 4206 by the Inter-Planetary Defense Council (IPDC) as part of the Panoramic Survey Systems telescope (PSS1). It was built high on the top of Mount Haleakala on the south side of Maui, not far from the ancient site of the original PS1 telescope that was built in the twenty-first century. Its purpose was to watch for asteroids and comets that might pose a threat to Earth. With a similar purpose, the PSS1 worked in conjunction with other land- and space-based telescopes, forming a larger network of observation stations designed specifically to watch for any objects entering the solar system.
Modeled from the twenty-first century’s Pan-STARRS, the PSS was originally designed by the Earth Guard Group in 4193. The system was not built until the United Federation of Regions (UFR) formed and funded the IPDC in 4204, in response to the growing concerns over the Stellar Dimming phenomena.
Late one bitterly cold summer night in 4808, the PSS1 was busy taking its automated nightly pictures of the sky when it made an amazing discovery, one of the most important discoveries in the history of mankind. Before the Sun rose over Maui, the pictures were available to anyone with access to a SubNet connected terminal. All the data collected from all the Survey System stations for its entire 600 years of service was widely available. Flagged as a possible comet along with thirty-five others for 4808, the astonishing discovery would go unnoticed for just over a year.
CHAPTER 18
SECOND LOOK
Professor of Mathematics Alexei Karla, of the new underground Chelyabinsk University in Region E, had just finished up his last day of the term and was ready for some time off. He still had several hours before he was to meet up with Kayla at the Miass terminal. His next task was to transfer all his data to his surface-issue wrist pad.
It had been three years since he was last at his mountain retreat, and he was eager to sweep the sky with his wide-angle telescope in search of stars that were no longer visible. In addition to searching for so-called dimmed stars, he would also do his usual detailed observation of all the objects recently discovered by the Panoramic Survey System. With no access to SubNet from outside the underground city, he had to collect all the reference information for each object before he left. It was a simple matter to transfer all the newly discovered objects over the last three years to his wrist pad, and once at his lab on the mountain top, transfer the data to his telesc
opes. There were a total of 157 objects, mostly preliminarily labeled comets or asteroids.
Kayla arrived precisely on time at the Miass station after a day of packing food and drinks for their trip. The pack dog could handle as much as they needed with room to spare. A pack dog amounted to four mechanized legs that resemble the legs of a now-extinct greyhound. There were still several species of dogs in existence, but they were fairly rare.
With only about an hour before the last lift tram heading east, they still need to finish loading the pack dog. They had about two hours on the tram, followed by about half an hour to get through the underground facility. From there they would be entirely on their own with no access to SubNet. There was no wire link to the cabin, and wireless communication was restricted to emergencies only. The only connection they would have to the rest of humanity would be through the emergency satellite channel on either of their surface issue wrist pads, which they had no intention of using. Once on the surface, they had a one day hike to the half way point where there was a shelter that was built by Alexei’s father. They would spend the night there, and the next morning they would only have part of a day’s hike to the cabin on Mount Yamantau.
Alexei very much enjoyed his time with Kayla, but they also enjoyed working on their own projects. While Kayla tended to her dancing, sculpting, quilting, and several other forms of artistic expression, Alexei kept busy too. He was usually either trying to decipher alien text and artifacts that he learned about on one of the shows about First Contact, learning how to play some type of new or ancient musical instrument, or comparing different photographs of the center of our galaxy. He was convinced that the Milky Way Galaxy was losing stars at an alarming rate and that our planet was in grave danger. What he didn’t know was if that danger was imminent or far off in the future.