Transport 2_The Flood

by Phillip P. Peterson

  “Do you prefer the idea of being eaten by wild animals?”

  Russell looked at his weapon.

  She noticed where he was looking. “That won’t be much help against a whole pack of wotans.”

  Russell forced himself to smile. “Then I won’t use it on them. . . .”

  Ellen frowned. A solitary tear rolled down her cheek. “I can’t change your mind.” It was more of a statement than a question.

  “No.”

  For some time they sat silently together, her hand warm in his.

  “Then at least come back to bed for an hour.” She stood up and led him back to the bedroom.

  Chapter 13

  Russell’s gaze wandered over the plateau. The approaching dawn cast the barren landscape in a bluish, ghostly light. Despite the early hour, half of the colony had turned out to witness the departure of the doomed traveler. All the people whom he regarded as friends were here, as were the few involuntary colonists who had never forgiven Russell for the fact that they could never return to Earth. Heading up the latter group was Ben Hawke, who stood alone on a little knoll and watched the spectacle with folded arms.

  “Which one do you want to take?” asked Albert. From the gloomy undertone of his voice, it was clear what he thought of his friend’s undertaking.

  Russell had found what he was looking for. “That one!” He pointed at one of the whales on the escarpment.

  “Why that one precisely?” asked Albert.

  “It looks so robust, but isn’t too big. It won’t fly as high and far as the others. How long do I still have?” Russell asked Christian Holbrook.

  His friend looked at his watch. He had one of the few watches that still worked; the mechanical wind-up mechanism didn’t require batteries. However, due to the difference between the length of the days here and on Earth, the time needed to be constantly converted. But the astronaut didn’t mind. “Half an hour until sunrise.”

  “More than enough. Come on!”

  Russell went past the other whales. None of them would stir before sunrise. About a dozen of them had gathered on the plateau the night before to sleep. The spot was high enough and inaccessible enough to provide a safe resting place for the fascinating creatures. They had come across these whale-like creatures on their very first visit to the planet, serenely gliding across the sky like hot-air balloons. Heated up by sunlight, the creatures rose into the sky at sunrise and fed on microorganisms, which they absorbed through their skin. There was an abundance of these microorganisms in a layer of continuously humid air around a mile above the ground.

  Russell came to a halt in front of “his” whale. In awe, he looked at the creature with which he would go on his final journey. Its skin was like brown leather. Very dark, to absorb the rays of the sun. It looked thicker than it actually was. Small, tentacle-like protuberances anchored the creature to the ground as it swayed gently back and forth in the breeze. It didn’t appear to have any eyes, ears, or a mouth. Around twenty-five feet tall and wide, and twice as long, these flying whales were a breathtaking sight when they rose up into the air. Like balloons, they couldn’t direct which way they drifted, but they could control how high they went thanks to several valve-like organs. The whales also had two protruding humps, one on either side. According to Jenny, these probably contained some kind of sensory organs—a kind of compass perhaps—but it was hard to know exactly without carrying out an autopsy. The biologist had always shrunk away from killing one of the creatures purely for research purpose. She still hoped to find a dead whale one day, but it seemed that the animals retreated to some distant place to die. How often had Russell dreamed of riding one of these creatures!

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Christian whispered in his ear.

  Russell smiled at him. “Actually, I’m absolutely sure it isn’t a good idea.”

  The former astronaut looked at his friend in confusion but said nothing in return.

  “If not now, when?” Russell added.

  “You won’t come back.”

  “That’s the whole point.”

  Christian said nothing, but frowned.

  Russell reached for the net he had slung over his shoulder, and threw it in a high arc over the whale. Attached to the net were loops he could grab onto. With a carabiner on his belt he was able to hook himself to the mesh of the net so that he wouldn’t fall down even if there was turbulence. Albert and Christian helped him to fasten the net to the animal with ropes. When they were finished, Katrina Cole came up to Russell and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to the meteorologist and smiled.

  “What’s the forecast, Katrina?”

  “The weather should be fair today. A light breeze from the south-west, on the ground as well as at a height of nine-thousand feet. In the afternoon, the wind will probably change to an easterly direction. Then you have to be careful that it doesn’t take you out to sea.”

  “Don’t worry, the whales don’t land on water. If necessary, it would go down earlier and wait on the beach until the wind changes direction,” Jenny Baldwin said, joining the group. The biologist had studied the animals and had already suggested their potential as a means of transportation some time ago. She was thrilled that someone was now daring to try it out, and hopped excitedly from one foot to the other. She was less thrilled about the fact that Russell wouldn’t return to tell them about his adventures.

  “At any rate, I think that you’ll cover between fifty and sixty miles today. When you go down near the sea this evening, you’ll be about twenty-five miles further north than we were able to get on the expedition to the sea that we started a few years back.”

  “So it’s absolutely unchartered territory.” He smiled at her.

  “I can’t really share your euphoria,” said Jenny. “We don’t know what kind of creatures live there. But we have already established that the lowlands are dangerous.”

  “I think I’ll be safe on shore,” said Russell.

  Jenny nodded. “The whales wouldn’t land there at night if they were in danger. But to find food, you’ll have to leave the shore and go into the jungle. It could be that you don’t survive tomorrow night.” She stopped talking as Ellen and the children approached. “Good luck, Russell. You remember what I asked you to do, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I’ll mark the spot where I land and leave notes. When you make an expedition to the north some day, you’ll know how far I got.” Russell hugged the diminutive biologist, who then stepped back.

  Ellen hung back, and let a few other people go in front of her. She wanted to be the last person to say goodbye to Russell.

  Dr. Lindwall came up and gave Russell a hand-sized, square black pouch with a zipper. “I’ve put together some medication. There’s an anti-inflammatory, some painkillers and a few phials of morphine to self-inject. And some sleeping pills.”

  “I don’t think I’ll need the sleeping pills,” said Russell.

  The doctor shook his head. “If you take five of them at the same time with a dose of morphine . . .” He didn’t continue.

  Russell looked at the doctor and slowly nodded. “I understand. Thanks.” He hugged the doctor, who usually avoided physical contact, but rigidly accepted Russell’s embrace. “All the best!”

  Russell hated good-byes. He would have preferred to disappear on the quiet, but that would have been unfair to his friends.

  “It’s time,” said Marlene, who had suddenly appeared in front of him. Her expression was serious. Obviously she was sparing herself and him an attempt at a smile.

  Russell nodded. “Yes, I know.” He glanced at the heavy rucksack that was slung over her shoulder. “Do you want to come with me?”

  Now she did smile after all. “No, Ben and I are driving down to the observation post in the valley.”

  “Problems?”

  “Not as bad as the ones you’re going to encounter today.”

  Russell raised his eyebrows inquisitively.

  “And since you’ve al
ways been honest with me, I’m going to be honest with you now: I think what you’re doing is a fucking stupid idea.”

  “Christian told me the same thing.”

  “Well, if you didn’t listen to him, I can spare you my lecture.”

  “Yup. Tell me something encouraging instead. You know what I asked you. You still haven’t given me an answer.”

  Marlene glanced over at the couple’s children, who were patiently waiting a few feet away. “I’m quite sure they’re capable of looking after themselves.”

  “That’s not what I wanted to hear.”

  Marlene reached out a hand to Russell. “All the best, my friend.”

  Russell clasped her hand and looked silently into Marlene’s eyes.

  “I’ll take care of your family,” she said in a subdued voice.

  Impulsively he gave Marlene a hug. “Thank you,” he whispered in her ear. Slowly she disengaged from his embrace and stepped back.

  Russell knew that the hardest goodbye was yet to come. He hugged his friends, shook hands, clapped shoulders. Then he was standing in front of Ellen, Jim, Grace, and Greg. Ellen’s face was puffy. She had been crying again, but now she looked at him with a blank expression. Jim and Grace were old enough to understand what was going on and he had told them about his plan a few days ago.

  Jim stepped forward. Eighteen years old, he was now taller than Russell. His brawny physique and warm—if currently somewhat forced—smile evoked in Russell painful memories of his own youth.

  Good God I’ve become old. I looked like Jim when I joined the army. That was forty years ago, and I’ve spent half that length of time here. We were so busy building a new home, we never found time to think about ourselves. And now I’ve reached the end of the road.

  “Dad . . .”

  Russell wanted to say something, but he knew that his voice would break. Instead he stepped forward and took his first-born in his arms. He closed his eyes and tried to fight back the tears. After endless seconds he let his son go and turned to his daughter. At fifteen, Grace was in the process of turning into a pretty, well-adjusted, and intelligent young woman. How he would have loved to watch her further development. In a few years, she might have children of her own and he would have been a grandfather.

  It’s so unfair.

  In farewell, he kissed her softly on the forehead before turning to his youngest child. It had been difficult with Greg. Russell had tried to gently explain to his eight-year-old son that he wouldn’t be returning, but the boy simply refused to believe him, so Russell had decided not to tell him the truth. His youngest son believed that his father was simply going on a long journey and he refused to listen to any other explanation. He would grasp the truth himself after a certain amount of time had passed.

  “Look after yourself while I’m gone,” said Russell softly. “And listen to your mother!”

  “Why can’t I come with you?” grumbled Greg.

  “The journey might be dangerous.”

  “But you’ve got a gun with you.”

  Russell laughed. “Yes, I’ve got a gun with me.” He ruffled the boy’s hair. “But you need to go to school and work in the fields. And Albert has promised that you can help him in the workshop with the cars.”

  “But I’d much rather see the ocean. Will you really land there?”

  “Yes, if all goes well I’ll be at the ocean this evening. Some day you will see it too. But that time hasn’t come yet.”

  Russell leaned down and hugged his son, then turned to Ellen. He took her hand and looked into her eyes for a long time. They were brimming with tears and made her look glassy-eyed. He saw the fine lines that had been etched into her face over the past years. Just like on his face. They had been together for twenty years. A third of his life. They had been twenty good years. Everything they had achieved and built up was almost as unbelievable as the circumstances in which they had got to know each other, and which had brought them from the searing heat of Nevada to this alien planet.

  She fell into his arms and hugged him tight. He had expected her to try and change his mind at the last minute, but she had obviously given up hope of that working.

  “Look after yourself,” she whispered in Russell’s ear. She freed herself from his arms. Russell took both her hands and looked into her eyes again.

  She smiled weakly. “I hope you have a good trip. Thanks for the good times we had together.”

  Russell leaned over and kissed her tenderly, then he let go of her hands and turned around. The first rays of sun were already bathing the nearby mountain peaks in light.

  “I have to go,” he said.

  Slowly Ellen turned around and went with the others to the edge of the plateau.

  Russell pulled himself up the net on the side of the whale until he had reached one of the humps three-quarters of the way up.

  First Russell hooked his equipment to the net, then himself. He lay on the hump, about fifteen feet above the ground, and tried to relax. He looked back and saw the men and women of the colony at the edge of the plateau, from where a steep path led down to the settlement. Right at the front were Ellen, Jim and Grace. He couldn’t see Greg, but there were simply too many people.

  The humps vibrated slightly. The whale was waking up! The rising sun bathed the entire plateau in golden light. Russell could feel the warmth on his skin. Not long now.

  One of the bigger whales swayed back and forth in the wind, then its sucker-like tentacles released themselves from the ground. It rose very slowly, dream-like, into the sky. As if on command, the other whales surrounding Russell began to rise into the air.

  He checked his carabiners again. Whatever happened, he didn’t want to fall off—either here or at a height of nine-thousand feet, when the creatures reached their cruising altitude. When he looked up again, he realized that the whale had taken off. They were rising very slowly, he could hardly feel the movement. After several hundred feet he could feel the gentle but steady jet stream, and they drifted off to the north-east toward the sun.

  Russell looked back. His friends and comrades were still standing at the edge of the plateau, following him with their eyes. A few of them were waving. Russell found it increasingly difficult to tell the people apart. In the background he could now see their settlement. The wooden huts, the army tents, and containers that they had brought with them looked like randomly scattered building blocks, sandwiched between the highlands and the nearby forest. Even from up here, the three-thousand-feet-high redwoods looked awe-inspiring. Somewhere in that forest was the black transporter that they had brought with them to this surreal place. Far in the west, he could make out the fertile lower mountain slopes with their rectangular fields. A dark dot at the edge must be one of the tractors.

  Everything that he could now see had been his home for the past twenty years. He had helped build it up and make it into a place where he and his friends could not only survive, but even confidently look into the future. Of this he was proud, and his pride was mixed with melancholy. How he would have loved to watch his children as they took on responsibility for their lives and for this world.

  Fucking cancer!

  Russell craned his neck and looked to the east. The mountain range came right up to the escarpment of the plateau, and he could see the narrow canyon that led gradually upward. Below, he could see a thicket of fairly small trees, whose crowns were connected by an impenetrable tangle of climbing plants. It was impossible to see the ground.

  After a few minutes, the whales reached their cruising altitude. Russell could feel it immediately. The air suddenly warmed up, so that he was no longer shivering. But although it was warm, it was also unpleasantly humid. Russell noticed that he was starting to sweat. He briefly considered taking off his jacket, but to do so, he would have had to free himself from the net and he didn’t want to take any risks. The expanse below him was immense.

  The strange atmospheric inversion was one of the biggest secrets of this planet. Katrina Cole had not
been able to discover how this constant warm layer of air came about. One idea was that it had to do with the different spectrum of the sunlight, but Dr. Dressel was highly skeptical.

  Russell had now left the colony far behind him. He presumed that he had already flown seven or eight miles. The little oil spring and their refinery must be a bit further to the south. It ought to be easy to spot, since it was in a clearing in the jungle, but he couldn’t see it.

  Russell turned onto his back to relax a little in the warm sun. Safely secured to the net with the carabiner, he closed his eyes. He didn’t have any real plan of what he would do after he landed. He had food with him for two days, then he would have to go into the jungle to find more. With the aggressive animals on this planet, it was questionable how long he would survive. He reckoned on a few days at most, then they would get him, but he would rather lose his life fighting one of those monsters than be carried off by this damn cancer. Whatever the animals did to him, it wouldn’t take as long as slowly suffocating to death. If there was no other way, he would turn his gun on himself or swallow the pills Dr. Lindwall had given him. But he didn’t want to think about that yet. Until that time came, he was determined to fully enjoy this final adventure. He looked at the jungle far below him. He thought he could hear the screeching of wild animals, but he could be imagining it, because he must be flying too high for that. For a moment he closed his eyes and only then did he notice how exhausted he was. Last night had been too short, and he let himself relax for a moment. Without noticing it, he drifted off.

  He was awoken by some kind of noise, and Russell got such a fright, that he instinctively shifted his weight. His upper body slipped from the hump of the whale on which he had rested safely up until now. Frantically, Russell grasped at the net, but he simply couldn’t get a hold. He slipped down until his head was pointing toward the ground. Fortunately, the carabiner prevented him from slipping any further and hurtling down to earth. Groaning, Russell pulled himself up on the net until he was finally lying safely back on the hump of the whale.