Lys was right about another thing, too. They did have a lot of violent crime on Eden. I had listened to Archie’s figures. I guess she did a thorough job of researching that aspect of Eden’s society—it was pretty appalling. There had been literally thousands of people murdered there—over six thousand, in fact. That was over six murders per year! Almost eleven thousand reported rapes—Archie made this distinction because, evidently, there was some kind of stigma attached to sexual activity that caused people to be reluctant to report them.
I started to wonder if it wasn’t safer on Brainard’s Planet.
But the hardest thing was learning the dialect. It’s difficult enough to learn a language when you share all the concepts, but the Edenites’ way of thinking was as obsolete as their speech. They’d obviously had to regress to a level of technology much more primitive even than when I was a kid on Mars. All kinds of weird things—I’m still not sure what a ‘mailman’ is. A guy who delivers letters? You put letters together to form words, I understood that, but why would you need them delivered? I mean, they were just conceptual until you wrote them down, right? It wasn’t like you could run out of them. I asked Yuri about it and he gave me the titles to some movies he thought might help.
And speaking of writing, my wrist was sore. I couldn’t believe people had to go through this to communicate. Thank Allah for downloading or I never would have learned all this stuff.
It was like going back in time. Take familial relationships. They really threw me for a loop and that surprised me—after all, I’d had a family—but I was running into words I’d forgotten a thousand years ago. They kept talking about “our suns and dotters” this and “our suns and dotters” that. What do suns have to do with families and what the heck do dotters dot? Then I learned how to spell and it finally clicked. Sons and daughters. I had been a son. My sister, sister—there’s another word—my sister had been a daughter.
It was tough emotionally, as well. When I realized that I had forgotten the word ‘sister’ I just started crying. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop for a long time.
Steel or Archie and I started to get together for coaching sessions whenever any two of us were off watch together. They were helping a lot, but it was going to be a real challenge.
We’d already freewheeled and were backing down into the Eden system when I ran across something that really worried me—it just didn’t look right. I brought it up with Steel at our next cramming session:
“I think this one word is wrong,” I said.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Well, it’s a word we use, but not in this context. It doesn’t make sense to me that they would use it this way. It pre-dates their split with Draco by—I don’t know—centuries, anyway. It’s really archaic.”
“What is it?”
I booted up our training program, called up the glossary and played it for her.
“No, that’s right,” Steel confirmed. “That’s the word they use.”
“I just don’t see why. I mean, why wouldn’t they use—”
“Use what?”
I shook my head, “That’s just it. I can’t think of it. It’s the word we used when I was young, you know, when I was a kid—” I looked to her to help me out but she obviously didn’t know what I was talking about. “It’s what I called my—I just can’t think of it.”
“Well,” she said, trying to help, “there are several variations: mommy, mom, mama. Any of those—?”
“No, no. Those are all too old. Way too old, centuries too old. It was something ... something else.” It was just beyond reach. I could lead up to it, but I couldn’t get there. “Boy, you know how it is when you can’t think of something? I’m just afraid I’ll remember it when we’re down on the surface and slip up and use it instead of this one.”
“I’m sure you’ll be all right. We’ve done a lot of drilling.”
“Yeah, you and Archie have done this before. I mean, I’ve done some extended improv, but nothing like this.” It worried me. “I’ll just have to stay in character. If it happens to occur to me I’ll just—It’s driving me crazy that I can’t think of it!” I shook my head again. “I’ll just have to stay in character, that’s all.”
Part V
Eden
Chapter 18
Eden floated below us, huge, round and seemingly barren. I knew it wasn’t, but the area that had been cultivated was so insignificant it had been swallowed up by the vast expanse of the planet that was still pristine. The Edenites lived along a narrow strip of land on the western shore of the main landmass, with a few communities tucked into slot canyons that wound back into the high plateau. I could see the plateau off to the west, just coming over the horizon, painted in buff and tawny hues rising to the base of the huge escarpment we were going to use as a landing point.
The escarpment was what had given Archie the idea of visiting Eden in the first place. Half again as tall as Olympus Mons at its highest point, it reached right up out of the troposphere. The barometric pressure at the summit was negligible—the skyhook could literally drop us off. Start at orbital speed, slide down a twelve-hundred kilometer rope, then just step off onto the ground. The concept was fascinating, in theory. Floating in the spool bay, waiting to hook onto the tether, staring at the awesome planetary mass of Eden turning majestically below us, it was exhilarating, to say the least.
No, I’m kidding myself. It was terrifying.
The sensation of being out of control was exacerbated by weightlessness. I suppose if I’d been under gravity my knees would have been jelly; as it was every muscle in my body was trying to run in a different direction—with nothing to push against. Shakes would start, just take me over for a moment and then subside again.
The idea was to keep our cross-section as low as possible, just in case Traffic Control was looking. A crate with our supplies and such was already on the surface; we’d lowered it the day before. Now Steel, Archie, Alice and I were waiting to be lowered with nothing around us but space suits.
Jemal was checking Archie’s equipment. Steel and Alice were helping each other. Marcus and Tamika were in control, getting ready to fling us into the night. Yuri floated over to me. I could see his grin through his helmet. “You ready, Big Kahuna?” he asked.
“I guess so,” I said with a laugh, “I suppose it’s too late to exercise the escape clause in this contract.”
“You’d have to talk to Her Highness about that.” He tugged on the rigging of my harness, making sure all the hasps and backup hasps were closed. Of course, I’d checked everything three times, myself. “It’s a wild ride, a lot different than coming up.”
“At least I’m on Steel’s system now,” I mused.
“That’s right!” Yuri affirmed, “If you get a bit scattered across the countryside we’ll just put you back together!” I tried to laugh. We both looked over to where Steel was checking Alice. I knew what he was thinking—it was what I was thinking: Alice couldn’t re-boot. As scary as this was for me, it was just that—scary. For Alice it was dangerous. I wanted to go over there and tell her in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t going on this date tonight and to go back to her room NOW. But it wasn’t my call, or Yuri’s.
We pulled ourselves over to where the base of the tether was slowly, almost imperceptibly, rotating around the spool. It was hard to imagine how fast the other end was moving, twelve-hundred klicks away. Yuri backed me up to the tether and clamped me into the armature. Since I was the heaviest and Alice was the lightest we would ride together, with Archie and Steel just over our heads. He went over each connection twice, with Jemal right behind him checking things off. I could hear Steel carrying on a running conversation with Tamika in control, calling and confirming each indicator as it turned from red to green.
Yuri turned back to me and clapped me on the shoulders. “There’s a barometric and a radar altimeter in this thing. It’s designed so it has to let go of you at the lowest point of the swing.” He to
uched his helmet to mine so he could talk to me acoustically without anyone else hearing. “The hook works,” he said. “I might decide to risk your life, but I’d never risk Alice’s.” He whapped me on the top of the helmet. “KOWABUNGA! Have a good trip,” he grinned and floated back over to the airlock where Jemal was already waiting to cycle through.
I leaned over and touched helmets with Alice. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m petrified.”
She laughed nervously, “Yeah, it’s gonna be pretty strange going home.”
“Oh. Right. Actually, I was referring to riding this insane Ferris wheel. But I see your point.” I wondered how old she had been when she left. “Do you think it will have changed much?” I was just making conversation—trying to subdue the shakes that kept hitting me every so often.
“I don’t know. It’s been longer for them than it has been for me.”
“That’s right.” It made me think about the things she had experienced since she’d left Eden. Earth, space flight, freewheeling, the Institute on Circe, things she never would have known about had she stayed on her home world. The fragility of her hit me right in the chest. There she was, cocooned in a suit that protected her from vacuum that would terminate her life irrevocably. I had forgotten what a dangerous place the universe was—a seemingly infinite catalogue of risks started running through my head, and I wanted to protect her from every one. I wanted to say something comforting but I couldn’t come up with anything. We’ll be okay? No, if anything went wrong I’d be okay, but—I didn’t want to think about it.
She must have seen my discomfiture, because she said, “Don’t worry. I’m all right.” She smiled at me and my heart just broke.
“You sure are, Alice,” was all I could answer, “you sure are.”
Steel came on the intercom, “Just remember to relax your knees—be ready to drop and roll. The suits should bring you into a soft landing and the gyros should keep you upright, but stay relaxed in any case.”
“Roger, Captain,” I replied, wondering how I was going to comply. We wouldn’t actually step off the hook onto the ground—I guess they weren’t that crazy—but we’d get pretty darn close. The hook would release us at about ten meters above our landing site. Little maneuvering jets in our suits would cushion our landing—if everything worked right. I started to get the shakes again.
Marcus was timing the start of our descent so that we would arrive at the end of the tether just as we reached our drop off point; this was so we’d have to spend as little time as possible at a full six Gs. We just hung there waiting, strapped to the top of the galaxy’s tallest carnival ride, turning ever so slowly around the long axis of the Lightdancer.
We’d made almost a full rotation when Marcus’ voice sounded in my helmet: “Descent commencing in ten seconds ...” the shakes started again, “five ...”
The release itself was a bit of an anti-climax. We were already in free-fall so there was no sensation of falling. Just a little thump to get us started and the bulkheads of the spool bay began to move past us. I think the adrenaline content of my blood managed to get even higher, although I don’t see how it could have and still leave room in my veins for corpuscles. Then we were out in open space and starting to pick up speed. We were using our own centripetal acceleration to propel us down the tether. We’d reach a speed of over two thousand klicks per hour relative to that super-diamond clothesline before the brakes kicked in.
It was very strange. The only thing close enough to give us any sense of motion—besides the tether itself—was the Lightdancer, and it seemed to be moving away from us instead of us from it. Eden kept turning below us, but as yet we couldn’t see it getting any closer.
As I slid down the tether, I could feel it pushing against me more and more, decelerating me from orbital speed, but the Gs built up so slowly it was like watching my hair grow. I’d never felt so naked in my life. With as much space travel as I’d done I’d never had a reason to be out in it before. Space is really big. When I looked at my feet (it still wasn’t down) I could see the tether stretching out to infinity. The stars wheeling slowly past weren’t getting any closer but the tether kept zipping toward us faster and faster. It looked like we were going to shoot right out through the bottom of reality and into the nether regions. I hoped I was keeping all my Holy Shivas, Allahs and Jesus H. whatevers subvocalized.
As we continued to rotate around the ship it came between us and Eden and suddenly we could tell how far we’d traveled. The Lightdancer was a tiny needle silhouetted against the planet, growing smaller as we watched. Then we swung slowly—achingly slowly—around beneath the ship and we could see the planet swell toward us and I knew we were falling, but it swung past and away again. By the time we made it to the top of the next loop, the Lightdancer was too far away to see. The tether just dwindled away to nothing—even Eden seemed significantly smaller—but we continued to swing down and down and down until I was sure we’d smack right into the immense, tawny desert. We weren’t even halfway down.
On the next upswing the brakes cut in and the Gs built up rapidly. At first it was nice having weight—it settled my stomach and got rid of the shakes—but all at once I knew how fast we were moving. The brake system, I’m sure, was top-notch and as smooth as Yuri could make it, but as the Gs continued to climb, any vibration at all became more amplified and violent. I had to hold my head perfectly upright to keep from wrenching my neck.
On the third swing down, the horizon really started to flatten out and I could’ve seen a lot of detail in the landscape if the vibration hadn’t been so intense. It was the strangest sensation to watch the passing planet slow way down and then speed up again. Then up and away one last time, farther away, Eden shrinking to a globe—a really big globe, but still, you could see it as a ball. The Gs kept building and building as we started our final descent and Eden grew and grew, swelling and rushing toward us until it wasn’t a planet at all anymore. It was the ground, and we were flying above it. I could see the escarpment dropping steeply away to our right as what I thought was dust resolved to sand, to gravel, to fields of boulders the size of houses. I could see the large, open expanse of the landing site coming toward us, slowing as it neared. The g-forces were incredible and it seemed like we’d be flung into the rock and smashed to atoms when the hook released us. We would in fact be moving the same speed and direction as the land below us at the bottom of the swing.
I didn’t hear the catch release. I was just weightless again for an instant until the braking jets on the suit cut in. I could see them kicking up dust and sand below me, and I tried to keep my legs relaxed, but I couldn’t really tell if they were or not after the ride I’d just been on. I was glad the suit had gyros, or I would’ve fallen right over.
But I didn’t. I was standing on bare rock that sloped away into something like a wadi to my left. The glare of the sun on the rock around me contrasted with the satiny, bottomless black of the sky, which faded to the deepest violet right at the horizon. We were still above most of the atmosphere, still in space, really. I could see the inky shadow of a space suit stretching out in front of me, but it took me a minute to recognize it as my own. It was beyond my comprehension that I was in one piece and down on the planet. For a moment I couldn’t move or do anything; I just listened to my breathing resonate in my helmet, reacquainting myself with the concept of my continued existence.
Alice bulleted me, [You okay, Mo?]
“Yeah, looks that way,” I answered.
[Welcome to my home town.]
“Thanks. Nice place. Where are you?”
[To your left about fifty meters.] I turned and looked. There she was.
“I got you.” I started walking toward her. “Captain? Archie? Did you make it okay?”
Steel’s voice filled my auditory lobe, [Yes, we’re about a hundred meters south of you. Do you see the crate?]
“No. There’s a kind of rill or depression not too far from me. It might be down in it.”
> [All right. Check it out.]
“Right.” I headed that way. Alice angled to meet me there. “Yeah, it’s here,” I said. I could see it down at the bottom of the rill. “Looks like it’s in good shape.”
[Good,] Steel answered, [go on and fire it up.]
Alice and I made our way down the slope to a winding, flat floor where the crate rested. I palmed the panel on the side and the airlock extended and started to cycle. When the hatch opened we stepped in, cycled it again, and went on inside.
The lights flickered on, and everything looked to be in order: our packs were strapped to the bulkhead, the food lockers were tight, even the bunks were made up. “Home away from home,” I said.
We were taking off our helmets as we heard Archie and Steel stamp into the lock and cycle it again.
“Let’s get something to eat,” Steel said as she, too, doffed her helmet, “and go over everything one more time.”
“Right,” I answered. I disconnected my gauntlets from my suit sleeves and got some prepackaged meals out of one of the food lockers. A funny thing: the graphic on one of the package covers caught my eye. It was a brand we had sold in Sheila’s store back in Spam-town. I stopped what I was doing for a minute and looked at it. Time dilates in many different ways; the fuller it is, the shorter it seems, but the more it separates you from the past. I unconsciously reached up and rubbed my left shoulder where my meteorite used to be. Of course I couldn’t feel my shoulder—wearing a space suit is like being encased in medieval armor—but it was only a reflex action anyway.
Archie said, “Is your shoulder bothering you, Mo?”
“Huh?” I looked up at her. “Oh. No, it’s fine.”
“I can take a look at it if you want.” She came over to me.
“No, no. It’s all right,” I smiled at her, “Let’s eat.” I fired up the microwave.
Steel and Alice were checking out the smaller crates we would lower with us to set up the camps down the face of the escarpment; we had seven Mount Everests to climb down before we reached the plateau.
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