David sat on his haunches and surveyed the scene. “These places are often good for tucker. Plenty of stuff in the mud.”
She squatted beside him and followed his arm as he pointed out areas of interest. She saw it first, a slight ripple in the water. He squinted his eyes and watched carefully.
“It’s small, maybe platypus sized. It’s foraging. See the way it moves. A predator has more purpose. Could be good tucker.”
“You want to kill it?” she asked, strangely excited by the idea.
“Nah, catch it. Check it out.”
“Don’t platypus have a poisonous barb or something?”
“Yeah, but only the males. Why, are you chicken?” He gave a cheeky smile. It was a challenge. “C’mon. It’ll be like catching goanna. You gotta be quick, grab it at the back of the neck.”
“Okay, you lead the way.” She stood and placed the small pouch carrying her tablet on a rock. She knew that David was testing her. Seeing if she would trust his judgment.
They entered the shallow marshy water. There was a thick layer of mud that made progress difficult. He waved his hand to suggest she walk around to the left while he approached from the right. She used her feet to feel carefully for rocks or sharp sticks but there was only mud. He pointed to his eyes to tell her to keep a keen look out. She saw a rustle of purple marsh grass but he gestured for her to stop and look. He was telling her to study the way it moved. They inched closer; close enough for her to dive onto the creature. He nodded. It was time for her to act. She wiggled a little in preparation, when she saw a ripple in the water she leapt at where she thought the head should be. She misjudged and slammed full body into the mud and water. She was determined to succeed and floundered about until she grabbed what she guessed was a limb of some kind. The thing began to squirm violently and she struggled to wrestle it into submission. Finally she got a second hand around it as she got a mouth full of muddy water. She stood shakily, spluttering, the creature still wriggling to free itself. When she caught a sight of David he was bent over laughing. She looked down at herself. She was totally covered in grey mud.
When he recovered from the hilarity he took the creature from her with one hand clamped tightly around its neck. The other offering her a steadying hand. She stubbornly refused it.
Rather than shaking with disgust or fear, she was shaking with exhilaration. In a primal way it had been fun.
“Good catch,” he said holding it up. “Fucking ugly though.”
She looked closer. It was hairless with wrinkly grey skin. Her first thought was that it looked like some sort of hairless rodent.
“Should we let it go?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Looks like it’s got a bit of meat on it. Besides, don’t you want to study it?”
“We’ll have to kill it.”
David acted quickly. He twisted its neck in one quick action and handed the limp corpse back to her. She wasn’t sure what to do with it. “Tuck it under your belt. Here…” He reached for her belt, pulled it out to create a gap and tucked its head under so that it hung limp at her side. “That way you keep your hands free. Now you’re proper blackfella.”
She smiled because she knew it was a serious compliment. “We need to find somewhere to clean up,” she said looking down at her mud-covered body.
“Who for?” asked David just before he flopped in the mud. “Pity it’s not a better colour. If we find some berries or coloured clay or something, I’ll cover you in traditional markings. Then when you walk back into camp you can say you really did go native.”
“Okay, deal.”
As they walked the mud began to dry and crack. It was an odd sensation, part erotic, part ticklish, part pure childish fun. When they got back to camp David expertly sliced the carcass open and skinned it. Li Li was unmoved as she dissected its organs.
“I can’t quite work out some of these organs. I mean I can see a heart, lungs and a digestive tract, but I’m not sure about livers, kidneys, spleens.” She opened its skull. The brain seemed primitive. “It’s not animal, in the sense of Earth vertebrate. Its genome will be interesting, certainly the most complex genome we’ve encountered so far.”
“The flesh looks good. Shall we roast it, blackfella style?”
“Well, I’ve taken all the samples and images I need for now. So yeah, chuck it on the barbie mate.”
David smiled at her poor attempt at an Australian accent.
The meat was delicious. It was unlike animal flesh, more like fish and lizard, with a distinct nutty flavour. David thought it was a significant find and was excited at the prospect of even larger specimens, stating that the long-term survival of the colony depended on finding good sources of protein.
They cleaned up in the small waterfall that had become their shower, had sex and watched silently as the sun set and flocks of flyers settled for the night. To amuse themselves David told Li Li Dreamtime stories and taught her traditional dances until they tired and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
The bright light of Eros woke her. She tried to fall back to sleep but her mind would not settle. Fireflies were flitting about. She wondered about their behaviour, whether it was feeding or mating, then decided to go for a short walk. Eros was waning and was at half moon, but it still cast sufficient light for her to find her way to the top of a large rocky outcrop.
The view was breathtaking. The second moon Psyche was beginning to rise and it cast a weaker, second shadow. She looked out across a broad canopy dotted with dancing fireflies. She turned a full three sixty and saw no sign of civilisation. She was utterly alone. She looked at the strange night sky. She had no idea in which direction Earth lay. This allowed her the illusion that it no longer existed. Rather than be filled with dread she was filled with awe. She could imagine that she was the ruler of this wild paradise, the top order predator. She felt utterly confidant, safe and totally free. She spread her arms as if to invoke the planet’s spirit. If there was a god, She had placed her here for a reason.
As she took deep breaths of the pure air she made a promise. She would not let civilisation spoil Eden as it had spoiled Earth.
This would be Paradise before the Fall, a Paradise in which Eve would eject the tyrant God. To mark the promise she pissed out over the edge and let out a wild ululation.
Eve had returned to take back Paradise.
89
Cynthia
She had begun to notice people disappearing, more than could be accounted for from the official missions. More were arriving, volunteers inspired by the official announcement, and there was an air of excitement and purpose buzzing through the camp.
She had tried to forget Aris by focusing on her training and she was doing so well that she had been given command of a small unit of specialist saboteurs. Yet Aris was still on her mind: a regret, a longing, a thing unfinished.
The order to depart came quickly. She barely had time to collect her thoughts. She spent her last hours alone. Her colleagues had opted for a night of sexual excess before they had to submit to the discipline of their mission. She had no idea what lay ahead. Instructions would be given when they arrived.
They left before light. It was a basic troop jumper, not one of the fancy new combat models. They filed in and settled into the gel chairs, with all the usual laughs and wise cracks people used to try and dispel their nerves. It had already been loaded with their gear. She looked back at her team of ten and caught the eye of a young bird-eye. She smiled to reassure him and he nodded, his eyes wide with fear.
At that moment a nano screen formed before them and an image of magnus Shimazu appeared.
“Hi everyone. This will be a short mission. In and out. I understand that you will be easily distracted by new sights and sounds. You will be on Earth. But you have trained for this and I trust you will execute the mission with discipline. You will do a night drop, locate the target, destroy it and retreat to a predetermined pick up point. If all goes well you will be back on Eden in eight hours
. Do not engage any Terrans unless you come under direct attack. Everyone is to come home, that is non-negotiable.”
There were murmurs at the back and Cynthia turned and glared at them to be quiet.
“The target is a bridge spanning a strategic river. It is constructed of steel and concrete. We do not have diagrams, which is why we rely on your expertise. You are to destroy it completely with minimal explosives. Good luck. All the intel you need has been downloaded onto a handheld. Your guardians will not function on Earth.”
Cynthia swallowed. This was serious.
The jumper kicked into supersonic and made a low orbit jump. There were gasps as their screens displayed an image of a full moon rising over a dark Earth. They plunged toward a large, dark land mass. As they got closer they could just make out a small smattering of weak artificial light and the reflection of the moon in a winding river. The jumper hovered as they dressed and armed themselves. The hatch opened and a freezing wind cut through them. Cynthia called out the drop sequence. She was the last. She fell out and plummeted at high speed toward darkness. The antigrav slowed her descent and she began to make out detail: a river, broad open farmland, a small village of mud brick huts, a mountain range in the distance. She landed in the crouch position and jumped when she heard a sharp animal sound. They had been warned about them. Dogs. Perhaps one had sensed something was wrong? Perhaps it was barking at nothing?
She found the others and made sure they were hidden in a ditch along a road. She smelled the air. Dust and smoke. She looked up into a strange sky. Earth’s moon might be full but it cast nowhere near as much light as Eros. She missed Eros already. Earth’s moon was pockmarked and ugly.
They made their way along the road, keeping low. After just five minutes the road curved to reveal the bridge. She signalled her team to stay low as she worked her way around to get a good look at the structure. The low light lens on her handheld allowed her make a detailed examination. Concrete pylons, steel beams and an asphalt road. A simple construction. To destroy it completely they would have to lay a series of charges at key structural points, eight in all. If they placed small charges in the exactly the right places, the structure would be weakened. Another blast designed to send a shockwave through the structure would cause it to collapse. They didn’t need large and noisy blasts. It wouldn’t be silent, but it also wouldn’t wake the whole countryside. It might sound like the rumble of a small earthquake, a phenomenon common to many areas of Earth.
She spoke softly into her headset and ordered the necessary equipment. They would be selected on board the jumper and carried to them by drone. It wouldn’t take long. She gathered her team in a hustle and explained the plan.
“It’s so strange,” said a young bird-eye girl. “Hard to believe we are light years from Eden.”
“I understand,” said Cynthia to reassure her. “Try to stay focused on the task. Use your training. This isn’t a sightseeing trip.”
The dark shape of the drone hovered up beside them. It opened and she handed out the charges. “Quickly and quietly,” she said.
She watched as eight dark figures ran in the shadows toward the bridge. “Keep a lookout down the road,” she commanded the remaining defender.
She looked about nervously. She knew that time could stretch in these circumstances. She tried to focus but she couldn’t help but wonder about the lives the people in the houses. What did they look like, what did they think? She had heard that many parts of Earth had not advanced much in thousands of years. Is this what Earth had looked like all those centuries ago? Is this where she really came from?
“Something’s coming,” she heard in her earpiece.
“What?”
“A vehicle of some sort I think.”
She looked back to see beams of light piercing the dust and smoke. She heard an unusual rumble. An engine? A combustion engine? It was coming closer. She ordered her team to hide and freeze. It was going to cross the bridge. It was the middle of the night. Weren’t people asleep? She didn’t think Terrans used combustion engines anymore, not since the collapse of the oil industry back in the twenty-first century.
“Wait till it crosses,” she whispered into her headset. “Stay calm.”
Wheels. The thing was on wheels. A truck of some kind, open tray, and there were people sitting in the back. She caught a glimpse - bearded men and a figure with a sack over its head. It made no sense. No sense at all.
The truck rumbled onto the bridge. She held her breath. Hurry up she cursed. But it stopped. Why? “Hold your position,” she hissed into her headset. “Do not even breathe.”
She used her handheld to get a better view. She was shaking from the adrenaline pumping through her system. She heard yelling and laughter. A strange language. The men in the truck hauled the hooded figure out roughly. It was hard to tell but the figure was naked and seemed to have its hands tied behind its back. What were they doing? The figure stumbled and one of the men kicked it and laughed. They hauled it to the side of the bridge. She could see it clearer now. It was a woman, small, bloodied and dirty. She was horrified. They were going to throw her into the water. She reached instinctively for the gun holstered over her left shoulder. She wanted to stop it but all her training told her not to. She could not afford to jeopardise the whole mission. She wanted to avert her eyes but she had to keep a close eye on their every move, two of her people were hiding under the bridge near the truck. She couldn’t do anything to endanger her team. The men positioned the woman at the edge of the bridge as one tied her feet. The woman was clearly shaking. She was pushed and fell like a stone into the water. She would not be able to save herself. She would drown. Cold anger seeped through her veins as she watched the body disappear in the rapidly flowing river. The men were laughing as they got back into the truck. She felt sick.
“Everyone okay,” she said, barely holding back tears.
“What happened?”
“I’ll explain later. Finish the mission.”
“They killed her.”
“What?”
“Stop talking,” she snapped. “Focus. Do your job.”
“Okay, but that was murder.”
She slumped in her spot. She had never seen anyone killed.
It seemed an eternity before her team began to return. Some were crying as they checked in. She wanted to comfort them all but she had to focus. She found the ignition switch and flipped it. They heard dull thuds and saw small puffs of concrete dust. She waited a minute and then flipped another switch. Two larger explosions sent a deep shudder through the bridge framework. It wobbled. One support pylon collapsed then another. There was a chain reaction and a deep rumble. The bridge was gone.
“Okay everyone, jump.”
She watched as her team jumped into the air, their antigrav switching to negative mass so Earth’s gravity would repel them into the night sky. When they had reached the right height small drones arrived to guide them back into the jumper.
They were all in shock as they huddled at the back, some were crying, some were shaking.
“I saw her drop. She was only young.”
“Why?”
“It’s what they do.”
“They probably raped her too.”
“I know it was shocking,” she said. “But you have to focus. We can’t jump until you are in your seats. The gel will heat your bodies. Quickly. Let’s get out of this hell hole.”
They helped each other undress, holding and hugging each other. When they were all settled in their gel seats the gel detected their high levels of distress. It warmed them, a drinking tube gave them a comforting hot drink and most importantly, it released a sedative directly into their skin.
Cynthia had one last task. She sent a short message. “Mission complete. Code blue distress.”
The jumper pushed into hypersonic and when it was on the other side of Earth and over an ocean, it jumped.
Back on Eden the thera were waiting. They would do everything they could to heal the
emotional trauma caused through witnessing a cold-blooded murder.
90
Tshentso
She was four when she learned to quieten the storm in her mind. Her mother Rinzen had been teaching her meditation in front of the family puja and the ancient statue of Yeshe Tsogyal that her ancestor Tshering had brought to Eden.
“The self is an illusion.” (She was speaking in Sanskrit).
“By illusion you mean construct?”
“Yes, a story. I am this. I like this. I do this. Meditation is a way to control the story you tell yourself.”
“A metaprogram?”
“A metaprogram is just another story, one that explains all the other stories.”
Tshentso frowned. She didn’t like it when her mother patronised her. “It’s what meta means mama.”
Her mother smiled. “Are you angry Tshentso?”
She was about say yes when she noticed the soft smile forming on her mother’s lips. It was a leading question.
“Anger arose…”
“From where? And why did you make it a part of the story, I am angry?”
Her conscious mind was confused. Thoughts arose all the time. Her brain contained more neurons than the average Edenoi. It was constantly making new connections. It was out of ‘her’ control. Her brain kept working even when ‘she’ was asleep. She would wake and her brain had solved a problem she had been working on the day before. She would dream and the solution would arrive in symbols and metaphors. In reality her mind was a collection of multiple sub-routines. ‘She’ was just another sub-routine that her mind had devised to communicate with the sub-routines of external minds. She understood it now. The self was an illusion and a damned interfering illusion at that. It thought it ran the show. It didn’t. It’s job was simply to translate the words, gestures, scribblings and body signals of external minds so it could communicate back using the same set of signals. It had been a sub-routine constructed to allow the cooperative group behaviour necessary for survival. Humans after all, were social animals.
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