She smiled. “A bit of vid sex. Let’s watch each other masturbate.” The camera widened to reveal her parting her sarong to expose her vulva.
“It’s not the same.” He was only partly lying. He was becoming aroused, but he was also shocked at her boldness.
“You’ve still got reservations haven’t you?” she asked.
“I still find it narcissistic.”
“Be honest, it’s the taboo that makes it exciting; the lure of the forbidden, or should I say the once forbidden?”
He had to agree she was right. All his philosophical training had taught him to examine each desire without self-censorship. The only sin was to be held captive by unconscious, irrational desires and impulses and although his desire for Ana came from somewhere deep, it was now conscious and well, rational. It both excited and scared him.
A red light flashed on his screen to tell him she was being called.
“Damn, I have to get this. Sorry Papa. Next time.” She smiled and cheekily parted her labia before removing her hand and replacing her sarong. The screen went blank.
Nuku was scanning aerial shots of the territory controlled by the Northern States searching for signs of environmental degradation, agricultural production, supporting infrastructure and population density. She was particularly puzzled by what appeared to be large patches of recovering vegetation. Clearly these areas had once suffered some form of destruction. Some seemed to flow from a single point to follow a dispersion pattern caused by prevailing winds. Other areas had no obvious dispersion pattern and spread across the landscape in a chaotic fashion. Her first thought was that it might be due to contamination. But what was the source? Had some industrial complex collapsed releasing toxins into the local area? Had there been an explosion of some chemical or biological weapon? Then she remembered that silos containing nuclear missiles had once dotted the old US. Had some exploded, the radiation spread by prevailing winds? She asked the AI to super-impose the locations of silos. There were matches, but not as many as she expected. She asked the AI to superimpose infrared, ultraviolet and gamma readings. These confirmed her suspicion about some of the areas. Clearly the missiles had either exploded or leaked radiation. This was a problem no one on Eden had considered. What impact had the radiation had on the local ecology? How stable were the remaining missiles? What could be done about decontamination?
She scratched her head and took a sip of tea. She zoomed in on one of the chaotic areas. Perhaps the source of contamination wasn’t above ground? She asked the AI to provide a summary of mining practices in early twenty-first century America. The process that leaped out her was coal seam gas extraction. As she skimmed the summaries of relevant scientific papers she formulated the hypothesis that these areas of degradation had been caused by Artesian aquifer contamination. Yet how could it be? Were humans so greedy and shortsighted they poisoned the water they needed for agriculture? She asked the AI to superimpose maps of aquifers and was dumbfounded by the results. There was a seventy-three percent match. As she read further it became clear that there had been a resources rush in coal seam gas as oil supplies began to dry up. Of course it had only delayed the inevitable by a decade or so. The Earth still ran out of carbon fuels and this caused the GEI (the Great Economic Implosion, so named to distinguish it from the earlier GFC – Global Financial Crisis). It was a moment of insanity. After the GEI, arable land and clean water were the most valuable resources of all, and yet these fools had poisoned and destroyed the aquifers.
But it wasn’t all bad news. As she zoomed in and looked at the detail there were signs of recovery. Life was adaptable. It would be fascinating to look at the mutations and adaptations.
As she scrolled across the landscape she came across a valley with a curious pattern of vegetation. As she zoomed in she realised it was a farm, but it was no standard Earth farm made up of large fields dedicated to monoculture, such as corn, barley or wheat. It seemed to be based on the principles of Permaculture; of companion planting, micro-ecological management and sustainability, principles well established on Eden. It was one of the contradictions of Earth that the large factory farms of agribusiness had co-existed with experiments in small-scale, sustainable agricultural production. The former had been designed to maximize profit whilst the later had been designed to maximise productivity and food quality. Could it be that the Northern States had rediscovered sustainable farming methods? She asked the AI if there were other areas that displayed a similar pattern and it responded by highlighting several areas. She asked if these were connected by transport infrastructure and it displayed a network of roads and rail that replicated the pattern that would have been found in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She asked the AI to highlight collapsed and restored bridges.
One immediately caught her attention: a bridge in the process of construction. She zoomed in as far as the resolution would allow and saw mechanical equipment and piles of steel. She remembered that Prax had said it was an economy based on pulling apart the large cities and recycling the remnants, in this case steel beams. But recycled metal still needed processing so there had to be factories, and factories needed energy. Were they using fossil fuels or had they developed renewable methods? The most likely candidate would be hydro and wind; solar panels required a sophisticated manufacturing base. And what of transport? Earth’s industrial revolution had relied on steam power before converting to fossil fuels. Might they have developed steam engines for heavy haulage? There was no reason engineering equipment couldn’t run on sophisticated hydraulic systems. She recalled a lecture that had detailed the sophisticated hydraulic systems of the Roman Empire, including factory sized milling systems powered by water wheels.
She was about to ask the AI to search for signs of dams, water wheels and irrigation systems when Prax’s image appeared in the bottom left of her screen.
“Yes Prax?” she asked as his image filled the screen.
“Hope I’m not interrupting?”
“No, actually the timing is good. I’ve made a few discoveries I’d like to talk over and you’re the perfect person.”
“Oh good. I was going to come up to eat and wondered if you’d like to join me?”
“Sure, meet you there.”
She knew something was wrong the moment she saw him. He seemed distracted. The canteen was busy with mechs, defenders and support staff so they found a quiet corner outside. He asked her about her theories and asked intelligent questions, adding some important detail about hydraulic engineering, including the fact that global warming had increased the rainfall in the Northern States and that this had increased the flow of water in the rivers and streams. She understood it was all a distraction from what was really troubling him. When they reached a natural pause in the conversation she came directly to the point. “You seem sad,” she said softly, reaching to touch his hand reassuringly.
He nodded and his face dropped the mask of politeness to reveal his true emotion. “I may sometimes seem to be in control, but events have been overwhelming.”
“We must support each other. It’ll just be us for a time, on Earth.”
He nodded and then began to tell her everything: Cynthia, Aris, Ana, his impending fatherhood. She was initially shocked at Ana’s subterfuge but she was not in a position to complain about breaking the incest taboo. She had pleasured, and been pleasured by her sister Aloha (as many siblings did), and then there was Isla. But his emotion wasn’t guilt. It was more complex than that. She let him talk as he tried to articulate what he was feeling. The core seemed to be loneliness; part existential and philosophical, part emotional longing. The two great emotional drives of humanity were the need for meaning and the need for acceptance. In times of great change both needs were challenged. It was something she had pondered as she explored the Tiangkok Peninsula. She had had long periods of isolation and plenty of time to think, plenty of time to miss meaningful human contact. Oh, there was a certain freedom; a certain thrill at being the first human to stand
on a pristine beach. The first time she realised that hers were the only footprints on the beach she had screamed at the top of her lungs, danced around crazily and then masturbated so furiously that when she came she collapsed onto the sand, laughing hysterically – behaviour that would have raised an eyebrow if it had been witnessed. But at others times she had suffered intense loneliness and was desperate to share even the most trivial of her discoveries with someone, anyone, even a yellow pseudo-monkey patiently putting up with her chatter in the hope of food.
“I realise it’s not wise to keep these things in,” he sighed.
“But you haven’t,” she reassured him. “Yes, perhaps you might have shared this earlier, but these are extraordinary times. I expect we will have to exercise considerable restraint on Earth. I believe Terrans did not value emotional sensitivity, especially in men. They saw it as weakness.”
“Perhaps my mistake was to think I needed to steel myself in preparation…”
“I can understand that. We may have to put on the mask of self-control on Earth.”
He nodded. “Diplomacy is all about masks. They’ll be wearing them too, layers of them. I sometimes wonder if I am up to the task.”
His self-doubt surprised her. “Would they have selected you otherwise?”
He laughed sarcastically. “I may be a sacrificial pawn. I’m sure you have considered this, but we will be the first legation and historically they have not always ended well.”
“The dangers of first contact? Yes, I have thought of it. And it scares you?”
“Yes, even more so now that Ana carries my children. I have a longing to father them, be part of the parenting agreement.”
“Yes, it seems cruel to manipulate you into fatherhood whilst removing you from participation.”
“Ana will do fine without me, they will do fine without me. I suffer no illusions.”
“But you may not do fine without them?” She wanted to say she understood, but she was yet to have children, yet to experience the strong pull of parenthood.
“I’ll survive. I just wish it were otherwise.”
“It makes you wonder about the first Earth explorers. At sea for years, away from families, the shock of new cultures, the return home with their world turned upside down.”
“Or the first settlers who left for a strange planet and never returned…”
She gave a small laugh of resignation. “Human ambition eh? Our restless natures are our own worst enemies. A mere two hundred years and we have outgrown Eden.”
He considered her words carefully. “One of the many human contradictions… We love home but feel trapped if we can’t leave.”
It was something she understood. She leant over and kissed him. The time for words had ended. There was a better way of communicating emotion.
Later that night, her arm draped over his chest, she wondered if Prax might father a child for her. With their shared intimacy he had shown a softer, sensitive, almost feminine side. She liked what she saw. He was an attentive and adept lover, sensitive to the subtle shifts of emotion. She felt a connection beyond the rationality of her prefrontal cortex and knew her basal ganglia had been instantly attracted.
Would it be crazy to conceive on Earth? Surely it would happen at some point: the descendants of Edenoi growing up on the home planet, as well as Calliope and Erato, and whatever new worlds were soon to be discovered.
71
The First
Li Li took a deep breath and grabbed David’s hand tightly. She looked around the van and checked on the others, their faces displaying various forms of excitement and trepidation. They were close now, just a few minutes from the entrance to the drab factory complex that housed the jumpers.
Like the first manned expedition, the factory complex looked dark and forbidding. There were no bright lights and no waiting dignitaries, just three bland looking spheres, barely visible in the shadows, sitting next to fuel tanks as camouflage.
The van pulled up followed by a second van carrying the Crickets, who insisted they be present (because they would be next and wanted to see that it was real).
The mood was somber as they milled about, whispering goodbyes. Anaïs made no attempt to hide her relationship with Prosperous and was giving him a passionate, farewell kiss. The goodbyes gave Li Li a chance to see how the other Crickets interacted with the team and she noted the way Constance lingered around Jules.
Finally the time for departure arrived. A small group of technicians helped them climb into the two passenger jumpers. It was a tight fit: Li Li, David, Archimedes and Anne entered one, and Prosperous, Constance, Shunji and Akoi the other. Anaïs lingered at the door and when Prosperous had settled, leant in to give him one last kiss. The doors were sealed and the Crickets directed to stand back. After five minutes they noticed a strange, barely detectable shimmer around the capsules. The cargo jumper was the first to lift. It did so silently and effortlessly. They watched awestruck as it disappeared quickly into the night sky. The next to follow was the jumper carrying Prosperous. Anaïs waved, but doubted Prosperous would catch it on the internal monitors. Then, after a pause designed so that each jumper would avoid the departing implosion and arriving explosion (the blast wave having dissipated), Li Li’s jumper disappeared into the night sky.
The Crickets paused for a moment, lost for words. Freja was the first to turn and rush to the van, eager to get back to the command centre to watch the team’s arrival on Eden. The trip back seemed instantaneous because they were filled with excitement, talking over each other to share their impressions.
Li Li held her breath as they watched the ground disappear beneath them and the lights of Thimpu turn into shimmering ribbons that followed the contours of the nearby valleys. These quickly turned to mere dots as the spider webs of lights from larger Earth cities came into view.
“There won’t be lights on Eden, no electricity,” she said to no one in particular.
“Like back home in the bush,” said David to reassure her. “Just a campfire. You see the night sky better that way.”
“They’ll be different stars,” said Anne. “New constellations. Imagine that. We’ll get to name them.”
“And two moons. Ever since I saw Star Wars as a child I wanted to look at a sky with two moons,” Archimedes added.
As they rose higher the sunrise broke over the horizon and they could see the full curve of the Earth.
“What’s that?” asked Archimedes pointing to a strange grey-brown cloud over the US.
“Wildfires in the Western states: California, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah… It’s been a bad season. I’ve been following it on the news,” said Anne.
“Bad in Australia too – a planet on fire,” said David.
“Oui, so let us hope we don’t fuck up the next one,” sighed Li Li as she was distracted by the sight of a brilliant, clear moon.
They had a moment to experience zero-g as they headed towards the departure point. David couldn’t resist pulling a pen out of his pocket and letting it float around them as he hummed Strauss’s The Blue Danube, which lightened the mood considerably. They became serious again when the onboard computer counted down the jump. Li Li expected something to happen when it hit zero, some shudder, thump or flash of light. All that happened was a slight interruption to the onboard screens as the last image of Earth was replaced by an image of Eden, with its smaller moon rising over the horizon. At first it didn’t seem real. They had all seen vid of Eden, yet it seemed impossible that in just an instant they were actually in orbit, about to descend. It was then they heard Akash speak and his image appeared on the screen.
“Congratulations. Everything went smoothly. The other jumpers are on their way down. How does it feel?”
“Surreal,” said David.
“Incroyable,” gasped Li Li.
“I’m told conditions are perfect. It will be early morning, an expected top temperature of thirty-two degrees Celsius, seventy-five percent humidity, with a slight ons
hore breeze,” he said.
“Just like Tahiti,” said Li Li.
“Another day in paradise,” David added.
“You sound like a flight attendant,” said Archimedes.
Akash smiled. “Well then sir, I hope you enjoyed your flight with Shunyata.”
“It feels like that,” observed Anne. “But it’s sort of an anti-climax. No g-force with lift off, no turbulence, no thud on the runway when landing.”
“That’s why it feels unreal,” said David. “Like in the movies, they always shake up the camera to give the impression of movement. This was smooth as.”
“Okay, well, I’ll speak with you again when you’ve landed and are ready to set foot on Edena firma,” said Akash.
“Hah, I like that, good one boss, Edena firma,” David said with an appreciative, but slightly nervous snigger.
Akash’s image disappeared to be replaced by the sphere of Eden growing steadily larger. Each crewmember sat silently absorbed in his or her own thoughts as the jumper entered the atmosphere. Li Li felt both a sense of wonder and fear. Surrounded by the comforts and familiarity of Earth she had made the momentous decision to be a part of a colony on a new world, but now that it had become a reality, all the doubts returned. She felt a pang of regret at leaving her family and friends. She had talked to many for the last time, unable to tell them that she would effectively disappear and they would have to presume she was dead. The birth of her new life was not without grief. It had been the same for everyone and their last days on Earth had been bittersweet. How do you leave knowing that many you hold dear will think you dead and grieve your loss? And yet that had to be balanced with alternating periods of manic expectation and excitement at the realisation they were perhaps making the most important step in human history.
David reached for Li Li’s hand and gripped it tight as the white sands of beaches began to resolve into greater detail. The jumper made a slight lateral adjustment to return it to the correct course and the landing site came into view, a natural, triangular coastal valley protected on two sides by high cliffs that narrowed to a deeply forested cleft dominated by a high waterfall, with the third side open to the ocean: a site carefully selected by Akoi, Prosperous, David and Anne to afford them optimum protection from predator attack (although David had joked about accidentally landing on the nesting site of sea monsters).
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