The Earthrise Trilogy

by Colin Owen

  "But that would imply intelligence Roly..." Eric stopped short as he contemplated what he had just said. "This just keeps getting worse doesn't it," he said, they had to agree with him.

  "Now we really have a dilemma," She said. "If these things are poisonous, hostile and breading like rabbits, what are we going to do about it?"

  No one volunteered an answer for that one.

  "We don't know for certain that they're hostile Kay," Bill said, "so far, we've killed them!"

  "Yes, and what parent wouldn't want to protect its young," She countered.

  "There's another possibility," Bill added, "the opening may lead to a colony of them, we don't know that there are only two."

  "That's it," Kay said, "I'm going home, with any luck, Sam will have something good to say. Good night guys."

  Sam had been working on the snake, performing an autopsy. When Kay arrived home she was in a state. "Oh my," Sam said, "that bad eh. Well, I hate to do this to you, but these little guys are lethal. One bite from an adult would kill a man in a few minutes, but a bite from one of the babies would just be rather painful."

  "That's all I needed to know," she said, "we'll have to warn everyone about this, and pray that these critters don't turn nasty, I'm off to bed, today is now officially over!"

  "Yes, boss," Sam smiled back at her, and followed her up stairs.

  ❧

  The next morning, Danny went to work as usual. There was little to make him think that today would not be just like any other day, but he was wrong. On reaching the farm, he found no sign of Seth, he called out several times but got no reply. Danny knew by instinct that something was wrong, that sixth sense the berries had given him told him so; it also told him Seth was in danger.

  Danny ran to the field where the snakes had been found, it seemed the logical place to find trouble. It was over a mile so it took him a couple of minutes.

  On arriving, he again called out, but got no reply. He couldn't see Seth anywhere, but that sixth sense told him that Seth was not far away. He headed directly for the section of the field where the damaged crops were, and there, he found Seth lying on the ground covered with little snakes. He had been severely bitten and was barely conscious.

  "Da..." He tried to speak, on seeing Danny, but couldn't get the words out. Danny didn't stop to think, he just ploughed into the little snakes scattering them in all directions. He was bitten several times, but ignored the pain and carried on uncovering Seth. He got the last of them off Seth, and bent down to help him up. He had Seth half way to his feet when Seth struggled and tried to point. Danny turned and saw the serpent moving towards them at high speed, its wings flapping like a bird, helping to keep its head up. It stopped just yards away and rose up like a Cobra, it's wings now extended in threat. Danny didn't wait for the impending strike, but leapt into the air right over the serpent's head, some three meters in height. He landed firmly on his feet on the far side of the beast, which turned to face him. 'Good' he said to himself, 'now you're not thinking about Seth!' The serpent struck at him, but Danny was also very fast and was able to dodge the incoming head. He struck it a blow as it went past, and the serpent reeled from the force of it, but quickly recovered and prepared to strike again. Danny waited for the strike to come. It did, and this time he jumped out of the way and landed a blow just behind the serpent's head with all his might. The serpent was stunned and fell to the ground. Danny looked to Seth and said, "Sorry Seth..." Then he bent down and snapped the serpent's back like a twig.

  Seth was still motionless on the ground as Danny went over to him to help him up. He was unable to walk so Danny hoisted him over his shoulder and turned to take a last look at the defeated foe. To his horror, he saw hundreds of tiny snakes crawling all over the adult eating away at the flesh. "Yuk," He said, and turned towards the farm.

  The walk to the farm would be tough. Seth was heavy for Danny and he had to stop several times to rest. Through out all this, Seth had been unable to talk or move much. The amount of toxin in his body was substantial, and Danny was well aware that he had to get Seth to Sam for treatment, and quickly, but carrying Seth was very difficult for him. Eventually, Danny decided to put Seth down and run for help. He did so and said, "I'm going for help, I'll be as fast as I can."

  Seth managed a nod, and Danny set off at full speed.

  Carrying Seth and fighting the serpent had tired him considerably, but Danny was no fool and prayed, "Please Lord help me to get to Sam quickly."

  The Lord answered the young man's prayer, and Danny fairly flew on reinvigorated legs and feet. If anything, he was even faster than he had been before, he tore into the settlement calling Sam's name loudly. Fortunately, Sam was at home and so heard Danny coming some way off. He rushed out to meet him calling, "What's wrong, what's wrong?"

  Danny reached him and said, "Sam, come quick, Gareth has been attacked by the baby snakes and badly bitten, he's paralysed and can't speak."

  Sam rushed into the house to fetch his bag and together they took off for the farm. Jake and Zeek saw them running like fury, and realising something was wrong, gave chase. They caught the others up and were told about Gareth. Jake and Zeek rushed on ahead in case the babies decided to have another go at Gareth. Sam and the now slower Danny followed on as fast as they could.

  When Jake and Zeek reached Gareth, he was hardly breathing and had turned a deathly pale colour. Jake knelt down by him to comfort him whilst Zeek went into the field where the attack had taken place. On reaching it, he found the half eaten carcass of the adult serpent, but no trace of the babies. He had a good look around to make sure they were gone, and headed back to where Gareth was.

  Sam and Danny had arrived by the time Zeek got back, and Sam was leaning over Gareth, but his face said it all. He stood up and turned to the other three.

  "He's not going to make it, I can't do anything for him."

  "What about the berries?" Danny asked, desperately.

  "He doesn't want to take them," Sam said, "at least, that's what he told us when we visited him the other day."

  It went quiet for a few seconds and Danny spoke up again.

  "Sam, you took an oath..."

  It was all he needed to say.

  Sam looked at him with a look that said both, yes, you're right, and thank you. Sam fished around in his medical bag and pulled out a syringe and a small bottle.

  "Gareth, I've got some anti-toxin to give you, it's worth a try."

  Gareth nodded and Sam administered the berry juice. When it was done, Jake and Zeek carried Gareth back to the farmhouse, where they helped Sam put him to bed, then they left, to report what had happened, to Kay and the rest of the Edenite community. Sam and Danny stayed at the farm to make sure Gareth was all right.

  Kay listened patiently, tears welling up in her eyes. "And Sam says he'll be all right?" she asked.

  "Actually, Sam didn't say anything, but we assume the berries will do their stuff and he'll be all right in no time."

  "I'm going to pay him a visit," she said, leaving straightaway. Kay walked quickly to the farm, and was glad to see Gareth sitting up in bed though still very groggy. Sam took her to one side and said, "I gave him an injection of berry juice and told him it was anti-toxin. He doesn't know!"

  "OK," she said, "I'll be careful."

  Kay went over to Gareth and sat by him on the bed.

  "Sam tells me you've had a narrow escape, can you tell me what happened?"

  Gareth was sipping some hot sweet tea that Danny had made for him.

  "I'm alive thanks to this young fellah," he said, patting Danny on the shoulder. "He fought the serpent and killed it. I've never seen anything like it, it struck at him, but he moved like lightning and hit it. And when it struck again, he jumped right over its head and stunned it with a rabbit punch. Then he snapped its back like it was a dry twig...Incredible."

  Gareth's voice trailed off and his eyes closed for a few seconds.

  "Thank you for telling me that," Kay said,
"but how did you get into trouble in the first place?"

  Gareth opened his eyes and said, "They were waiting for me. I went to the field to check the crop. I didn't put any more spray down after seeing so many of them dead. They left a path for me to walk through, and then closed in on me from all sides. I didn't have a chance, there were hundreds of them." His eyes closed again and Sam came over.

  "I really think we should let him rest now. The anti-toxin will take some time to work."

  Kay and Danny left the farm together, leaving Sam behind to care for Gareth. "So, you fought the serpent and beat it?"

  "It wasn't difficult," Danny said, quite humbly. "The serpent was fast, but I was faster. I've been practicing my jumping on the way to the farm each day, so I was ready for it."

  Kay smiled at him in a motherly way and said, "Well, young man, you saved Gareth's life at the risk of your own, I'm proud of you, and I'm sure everyone else will be too."

  "Do you have to tell them?" Danny asked.

  "I think we should Danny, it'll be a lesson for all the other kids, and a great encouragement for the older ones. Folk have been worried about these snakes for some time, and the fact that you, a teenager killed an adult will reassure them."

  It went quiet for a while until Danny asked, "What are we going to do about the rest of them, there were hundreds?"

  Kay looked at him a little worried. "I don't know Danny, right now, I just don't know what to do."

  The following day a meeting was held in the centre of Eden. "It's obvious that these snakes are intelligent," Kay said, "they set a trap for Gareth and deliberately attacked him. The thing now is, do we attack them and try to get rid of them, or do we wait and see what they do next?"

  The peace loving folk of Eden came down in favour of waiting to see if the snakes would come back, and Kay was happy to go along with them; the thought of attacking these creatures was abhorrent to her. "Nonetheless," she said, "I think we should investigate the opening in the lake further and determine if there is a colony of these things down there."

  The meeting broke up in agreement, with Eric and Bill commissioned to do the survey the following day.

  The next day, Eric and Bill reported for duty. Roly told them that he had strengthened the weaker parts of the sub still further, and that it was unlikely that any creature in the water would be able to damage it.

  "Remember guys, the thing can't see you, you're behind Bicrylic."

  Both Eric and Bill had forgotten about Bicrylic's one-way visibility, and somehow, it made them feel better. They entered the sub and closed the hatches.

  "Oh look," Bill said, "Roly's installed a radio." He picked the mic up and was about to speak when Roland beat him to it.

  "Come in fish supper, this is dry land calling."

  "Watch it Roly," Eric answered, "Or I'll land this thing on top of your house."

  "In that case guys, have a good trip, and report directly anything you find, over and out."

  "How on the Moon did we get roped into this in the first place Bill, I mean, why us?"

  Bill just laughed. You could never tell if Eric was being serious, which he usually wasn't.

  They submerged and headed for the opening. There was no need for stealth now, so Bill put the lights on full to make sure he could see everything that went on. The sub glided smoothly through the water and directly towards the opening. As they approached it, Eric made a quick mental decision.

  "I think we can get this baby in there Bill, fancy it?"

  "Not on your life old son, but you're at the controls so you decide."

  Eric already had and went straight into the opening, though at a very slow pace. The powerful lights lit up the tunnel beyond very well.

  "Base, this is fish fodder calling, we've entered the opening and are proceeding, somewhat slowly, along a tunnel on the other side over."

  "Understood fish face, keep us posted, over."

  They had travelled about twenty meters into the tunnel when they saw the discarded skins. Eric brought the sub to a stop.

  "Base, we are looking at hundreds, no, make that thousands of discarded skins, all sizes up to mummy and daddy, but no sign yet of any live ones, over."

  Eric moved the sub off again deeper into the tunnel. Suddenly the tunnel narrowed and became too small for the sub to go any further.

  "Base, we've reached as far as we can, but it's obvious that there is a current flowing towards us from wherever the tunnel leads, so there must be another way out somewhere else, over."

  "OK guys," Kay's voice came over the radio, "good job, come home."

  "Yes, boss, you don't have to tell us twice, over and out."

  Reversing out of the tunnel was a deal more tricky than going in forwards, and Eric had to learn a whole new skill set just to be able to do it.

  On reaching base, the two, somewhat relieved, Edenites exited the sub and closed its hatches.

  "I'm glad that's over," Eric said, "they must have gone back through the tunnel to wherever they came from. Hopefully, they won't come back, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one."

  "Sadly," Kay said, "I think you're right...We need a contingency plan in case that happens. Spread the news will you and let's see if we can come up with something."

  Kay called all the heads of departments together along with Chris and Katy Forester.

  "Guys," she said, calling them to order, "we need to make some sort of plan in case the snakes come back, let me hear your thoughts."

  Chris opened, "I think we can assume that they will come back, and they will use their numbers against us as they did with Gareth. They are vindictive and cannibalistic; we must assume that they would treat us all the same way. The main problem I see is their size. Danny easily killed one adult, but what if there are thousands of adults attacking at the same time...We know that the berries act as an anti-toxin, (Gareth's ears pricked up), but that doesn't stop us being eaten." Chris sat down saying, "Sorry folks."

  Sam stood. "We know that the spray Gareth used on the crops killed them, so we might be able to use that as a first line of defence. I think it's safe to assume that they will come from the lake, if they come."

  "So," Kay said, "we could poison the lake, nothing else lives there. Any other thoughts?"

  Jimmy stood. "We have the mining laser, that will easily cut through them."

  "Good point Jimmy, but it's located quite a way from Eden, any other thoughts?"

  "We have 'Jimmy's juice'," Jimmy added, "we could blow up the opening in the lake, that should slow them down a bit."

  "Now that's not a bad idea, Jimmy," Kay said, "make the preparations will you."

  Jimmy nodded that he would.

  "Bill, Eric, I want you to check out lark and make sure they haven't penetrated any of it. Roland, you check the power level, and Sarah, take someone with you and check out your hydro level."

  The meeting broke up, but Gareth stopped Sam before he could leave.

  "Did you really inject me with anti-toxin Sam?"

  "I injected you with the only anti-toxin I had Gareth, what else could I do?"

  Gareth slapped him on the back laughing, "Then I guess I'm going to see those trees mature after all."

  Gareth hugged Sam, almost breaking his back in the process, and left.

  "I'd back you against a hundred snakes any day," Sam said, rubbing his back.

  Two days later, Jimmy had perfected his explosive charge and delivered it to the sub with instructions on how and where to place it. It would be set off by radio signal when the sub had returned to base. Eric and Bill set off for their last trip to the lake, much to their delight. They placed the charge according to Jimmy's instructions and returned to base.

  "As you've had the job of going down there, I thought you might like to throw the switch." Kay said, handing the box to Eric and Bill, who jointly pushed the button. There was a distant boom and some mild vibration in the floor and it was done.

  "Right," Kay said, "that's that part d
one, now Bill, how about some movement sensors."

  "Good idea Bill said, I'll get to work on it right away."

  After a while, a general feeling of, 'it's over,' invaded Eden, and life began to settle down again, but Kay couldn't let go of the thought that the snakes would probably return...One day.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter 7.

  Journey's End

  "The ship seems to be OK Steve. I checked everywhere and didn't find anything out of the ordinary."

  "Good," Steve replied. "We'll give her another push then."

  Together they went through into the cockpit to join the ladies. Clare and Hope had been studying the star charts looking for possible places to visit.

  "The trouble is Sweetie, it doesn't look very far on the map, but distances in space are so huge that we can't grasp just how big they are. For instance, that cluster there you just pointed to, would take one hundred years to reach at light speed."

  This sounded impressive to Steve, but Hope spoke up, "Yes, but daddy, it's only one year at one hundred times the speed of light."

  Steve turned to Tris and said, "Remember what I told you about the Forester women?"

  Tris smiled.

  The Navcom was showing that they had covered about one percent of their planned journey. Steve was thoughtful. Clare touched his hand saying,

  "The ship is fine, we are fine...the dogs are fine...Let's get on with it."

  She knew he wanted to really hit the throttle, but was hesitant about doing so. Steve looked at the others who all nodded to encourage him.

  "OK, Let's do it!"

  He set the shut off for Mak C1 and pushed the engine start, the ship obeyed his commands and the engines fired up. The Trion drive kicked in and pushed them through space at ever increasing speed. The stars were now merged into blocks of blue light. As the speed increased, the blocks became elongated and almost uniform in shape. Steve was watching the speed gauge, which was moving very rapidly upwards. Just before it reached Mak C1, he hit the override to cancel engine shut off. The gauge climbed passed C1 and up at an increasing rate. C2 came up shortly after, and C3 shortly after that. Steve reached for the cut off and pushed it. The engines died. The view to the front was now of a light blue featureless sky with streaks of black here and there. The navcom display was moving steadily across the chart showing their progress. Steve was seriously impressed.