MEEK

by Richard Johnson

  The President and the elders were left with a problem. The old could be removed next year, within two years they could “be here with us.” However, those who had been left behind had originally chosen to live out the remainder of their lives on Mars and Earth believing they would not live long enough to complete the journey. It would mean a task force willing to spend a year of their lives organising their removal would be required, a big ask with possibly a big no as the payoff. A lot of debate took place, hearts were searched and in the end there was only one answer, the ultimate answer. Give them the choice. If nothing else was achieved other than letting those left behind know that the Tuathans were safe and had an assured future, it would be worth doing.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  1962 AD.

  “Choosing where you die means identifying your true home.” Wisdom of the Elders.

  In the enclave, the last enclave in England, two elderly Tuathans had come to the point in their lives where they would have to choose where to die. Some had died in their enclaves which had self–destructed, leaving no trace they were ever there. Others, not wishing to spend their last year or two living in a hole in the ground, had called for the last remaining disc ship on Mars to come and take them back to the projector facility where they would be among friends. Most took the latter option. They were in contact with others in Ireland and had decided to ask to spend their last days with them. Their wishes were relayed to Mars and the last remaining disc ship was sent. The development of air defence systems had made the use of the disc ship more hazardous. It was still used however, not just for moving the last survivors but also for data collection destined for the projector. The ship came at just before sunrise and took the old couple away. They watched sadly as the enclave imploded and vaporised silently, leaving an indentation in the topography with no vegetation around it. In a few weeks it would be covered in weeds and grasses. The disc ship rose silently. The light from the anti-grav coil at the base of the disc glowed to match the rising sun. Arriving on the west coast of Ireland in county Mayo, the couple were deposited near the banks of Lough Corrib. They would spend some time here before making the final decision. The enclave only had one resident, a lady of 178 years who was also wondering if she would last another winter. She was grateful for the company as her bond partner had died two years previously. She had buried him in the forest by the water’s edge, no markers were allowed and she had covered the spot with leaves and sticks. It was a quiet, pretty and secluded spot. The disc ship took off again, this time for Mars. The disc ship’s captain had reached the point where these sorties were a tiresome chore. He was alone. The ship basically flew by itself and the captain was a solitary man by nature. He liked Earth but his duties were inevitably sad ones, now.

  The Mars projector facility was hardly perceptible from space. It was the same colour as the landscape. The ship was landed and then was automatically covered by a camouflaged dome. The captain went through an airlock and down a ramp into the facility. It had once been cramped but now was fairly spacious, with only twenty people living here excluding him. It had been turned into a strange mixture of home and museum as returnees had brought with them souvenirs. These people who had finally given up life in the enclaves to come back to Mars had often done so reluctantly and had brought with them a large collection of personal mementoes. The captain – he was called that by everyone – had become leader of the last remnants of Tuathan society. It was for him a melancholy position and weighed heavily on him. At 161 years of age he was the youngest and faced the prospect of being the last living creature on Mars in the not-too-distant future. They all sat together at dinner nowadays, with the captain at the head of the table.

  “Well, come on captain tell us how was the trip?”

  He had gone through this so many times, but he always played along. His news had more relevance to them then that constantly being siphoned from Earth and sent at NLS into space. The transmissions from Mars had lost their sense of reality. Like a message in a bottle cast into an endless ocean, would they ever be read? The Captain was real, his adventures were contemporary and were a source of entertainment and specualtion. “Usual stuff, I did a slow fly by over the United States then crossed the Atlantic. Their planes are getting faster and better armed, so I hardly ever land except at my target destination anymore.”

  “And the couple, are they well?”

  “Yes, they are well but quite frail, now.”

  “So the total on Earth is now only five captain, is that so?”

  “Yes, only five. In one or two years there will be none, I fear, and no evidence that we even existed.” One of the ladies was looking at him sympathetically. “You will be alone soon, captain. What are your plans?”

  “I will carry on with my duties transferring the data. I will probably even make one or two earth trips, just for amusement, until the disc gets too old. Then when the time is ripe I will set the destruct for the moment there are no more life signs in this facility.”

  “Captain, all the AIs in the facility are predicting the natives will survive for at least another twenty years and that they will be able to reach the Moon in that time, if there are no more wars. Does that concern you?”

  The captain shrugged. “It’s a moot point. There is, according to the AIs, little chance of them ever reaching Mars and if they did there will be no trace off us to be found.”

  The old lady smiled. “That’s good, I would hate for them to find you here captain.”

  Now the Captain laughed. “I would have a lot of explaining to do, that’s for sure.” The subject gave rise to a few jokes followed by light-hearted reminiscences. The evening ended happily.

  In close proximity to Saturn’s rings, an orange-gold circle appeared. Out of it, slowing down from near light speed, came a disc ship three times the size of the one on Mars. It slowed rapidly and went into an observational orbit around Mars. Once satisfied the coast was clear, it moved to a low geostationary orbit above the projection facility. Alarms started to ring in the facility and its inhabitants were all running towards the control area.

  Rose and Orion had come to visit.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  1963 AD

  “Individuality can make us strong, but we need others to teach us true compassion.” A quote from the Friend.

  “I’ll have to land outside the facility, the closed dome indicates their disc is here,” said Orion, looking at the red landscape below.

  “It looks so, so...” Rose stopped. “It looks so pathetic, compared to Tuath. Is that what you are trying to say, Rose?”

  “Oh, more than that. It was the sanctuary of our race, this was our home for a long time. It will stay in our racial memory almost as much as Earth itself.” Rose was obviously surprised at her own reaction. “It is quite a shock to be confronted by one’s past, especially as a few hours ago we were in paradise, Rose.”

  They brought the ship down in a cloud of red dust. Inside the facility the captain was telling the others to stay calm, the AI had already identified the visitors. It was not some Earth invasion but a very large disc ship, obviously Tuathan. “How did it get here? Where is it from? What do they want?”

  “We will know soon enough, they have asked and been granted permission to enter,” said the captain, his mind buzzing with questions. Rose and Orion came down the ramp dressed in space suits, but they were obviously Tuathans. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The captain gave them quarters and light clothing. They all gathered in the operations room.

  Rose did the talking. “Firstly, let me say I’m sorry if we startled you. There have been some amazing developments, please don’t worry, it is all good news, make yourselves comfortable and I will bring you up to date with events.” It took a full hour to relate the basics of what happened to the expedition. There was stunned silence through the whole saga. Once Orion and Rose had finished speaking, the little group were still sitting with mouths open, wide-eyed.

  “So let me check this ag
ain,” said the captain. “You will spend one year with us and in that time gather those who want to go to Tuath with you and head off to Saturn?”

  “Yes that’s correct. You are in no way obliged to take the offer. It is up to you where you chose to spend your last days, as always. It’s that now you have a third option, that of spending them on Tuath, a chance to see the future of our race and how the stars smile on us. A chance to be with your own kind, on your own planet.”

  “It sounds beautiful,” said one of the ladies, who turned to her bond partner who smiled and nodded at her. Everyone said they would take the offer except the captain who had been looking apprehensive. “I have a duty to fulfil here, there are also five of our people still on Earth who rely on me.”

  “The people still on Earth are to be given their choice also, captain. Please inform them of the new situation and we will visit them personally so they can see that it is not a fantasy.”

  “I’m afraid you cannot take your ship, it is too large. The natives have developed air-detection technologies and jet-propelled aircraft that carry missiles capable of destroying our meteorite shields. They also have low orbit satellite communications. Our main AI has predicted that I can only visit Earth for another eight years before it becomes too dangerous.”

  “Very well, we will spend a week here catching up with the recent history of Earth. Then we will visit the last five people using your disc ship.”

  Eight days later the captain, Rose and Orion were approaching Earth. The captain was pointing out the communication satellites. “They are a long way behind our technology,” said Orion.

  “Tuath is safe, that’s the main thing,” said Rose. “All the predictions of the AI seem to indicate they will reach the Moon, but Mars is a lot less likely. They are expected to self-destruct and either annihilate themselves or blast themselves back to the Iron Age in less than eighty years from now,” said the captain.

  Rose turned to Orion. “I’m glad we came. Just think, Briony will probably never set foot on Earth.”

  “Who knows the future? Apparently not even the Friend. So maybe she will,” replied Orion. “We will visit the three enclaves, they are all on the west coast of Ireland. All three will be vaporized, it will be quite a historically significant event,” said the captain.

  Both of the inhabitants took up the offer. Their personal belongings were packed and loaded. The enclaves were then silently vaporized. The three inhabitants of the last enclave said they would like to stay a little longer, there was no need for them to rush back to Mars. Orion told them he would return in nine months. Rose and Orion spent a boring time on Mars and, two weeks before the nine months were completed, he suggested a little camping trip in outback Australia. Rose jumped at the chance to get away from the facility, she found it cramped and oppressive. Tuath and its open vistas had already altered her psychologically.

  They scouted very carefully and eventually chose a spot on the coast in Western Australia’s Kimberley area. It was very rugged and very remote and was therefore ideal. They chose a coastal formation that was like a fjord. The disc ship was landed on the beach half submerged in water at high tide. They set up detector security beacons and settled down to swimming and cooking fish on an open fire. They collected shellfish and did some diving for lobster. They even constructed a shelter of saplings and brush to make a day shelter so that they could spend as much time away from the ship as possible. On the third night they slept in it. They felt free, just like on Tuath except this was the planet of their origin and soon they would leave it behind forever. Rose made jewellery from shells; they would be extremely popular back on Tuath, so she spent a lot of time on it. Sometimes she would collect small coloured stones which she stored carefully away to be polished later. The significance of this time was not lost on them. They revelled in it, rolled around on the sand, ran up and down the beach, made love in the shallow warm sea.

  “The stars are so bright and clear here,” said Rose. “Earth is so beautiful Orion, why couldn’t we have a home here?”

  Orion knew no answer could be given, Rose knew all the reasons perfectly well. He looked at the stars and said, “They are not smiling Rose, they are crying. Tomorrow we will all be gone. They don’t want us to leave, but our home is up there with them now. Earth is our past, Tuath bears our name and our future.”

  The next morning, they loaded up Rose’s collectables and headed for the west coast of Ireland. The last three inhabitants boarded and, after vaporizing the enclave, they rose one kilometre off the ground taking recorded images. They hung in the air for a full fifteen minutes, reluctant to make the final move. They were all silent for the entire journey. Orion had intended to make a little speech before leaving but his heart wasn’t in it. The facility had its compartments that would no longer be required, sealed off except for those storing food and spares the captain might need. The captain agreed reluctantly to use the portal next year and was given the co-ordinates. Orion had told him of the camping spot in the Kimberleys and the captain said he liked the idea and would like to go there before the year was gone. They spent a couple of weeks loading the big disc ship. They loaded some of the captain’s personal belongings as his smaller disc ship would be packed solid with equipment when it came time for him to leave. Rose and Orion settled everyone in, they said their farewells to the captain, of whom they had become very fond. They left without any real formal ceremony and wasted no time getting to Saturn. The ship’s AI said they would have another thirty-one hours to wait before the portal would open. They waited nervously; it was hard to entrust your life to something you had no control over and it was so very alien that it was like putting your head into a lion’s mouth.

  The portal appeared and glowed against the background of the rings. Orion did not hesitate but gave the ship full thrust. The distance and acceleration had been programmed by the AI. They leapt into the portal and disappeared. He had already hit the maximum deceleration button as the portal closed behind them. His passengers were letting out exclamations of “Oh!” and “Aahh!” They were slowing and, as they did, Tuath in all her glory shone with a pink glow in front of them; behind them was the rocky planet which had been named Gateway because of its position in relation to the portal. They landed at the space port at the capital city. Every light available had been turned on to welcome them. The twenty-five passengers were greeted and treated as heroes. They were of course elderly so, after the presidential welcome speech, which was kept brief, they were shown to homes specially built for them. The next two weeks consisted of media interviews, formal dinners and presentations.

  Rose and Orion went to a debriefing where they explained the situation in relation to the captain. They also presented the elders with all the historical information gathered since they originally left Mars. The projector had been realigned to the co-ordinates of the portal, so the next two years’ worth of data would be received quickly. Once the captain left the facility would be vaporized; that would be the termination of any contact with Earth.

  Rose and Orion were now free of any obligations to the government and could retire to their home and settled down to a comparatively quiet life. Orion was looking forward to spending time landscaping his garden; all Tuathans loved their gardens and experimented constantly with them; Orion’s speciality was hybrid roses. Rose herself being younger than Orion took occasional contract work giving lectures at the new university in the capital. They often talked about the captain and imagined what he was doing. They decided to invite him to stay with them once he arrived, just until he had found a home of his own. It had become an increasingly popular trend to design one’s own home. A pattern had emerged whereby the capital city and to a lesser extent the towns were inhabited by the unbonded. The bonded couples generally preferred to move on to a large block, design and in some cases (skills permitting) would physically contribute to the construction. From the air the suburban circles were almost invisible. Many of the houses in order to conserve heat had been
semi-submerged underground with lawns and shrubs growing on their roofs. Some were in the forest, others made of so much glass they were almost transparent. Some revolved following the sun and then the moon. Civic building followed in general Classical lines. Japanese architecture was also favoured, especially in the parks. The new monument to the True Friend was in the classic Greek tradition but was set beside a one-hectare lake. It had been redesigned to accommodate five thousand people in an amphitheatre and surrounded by three hectares of Japanese Zen Buddhist gardens. People would make small pilgrimages to the monument as it was a delightful place to meditate on their good fortune.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  1964 AD

  “A computer is even less capable of adjusting to the unforeseen event than a man.” Unknown.

  The captain was alone; he had no problem with that at all, in fact it was pleasant. He had a year to contemplate his past and his future. The projector was now a receiver as well as a sender. It sifted information from Earth and stored it. At the end of the year a package of ‘news’ would be projected at the open portal. It would then self destruct, exactly twelve hours after the last signs of biological life ceased to exist in the facility. By the time that happened the captain of course would be landing on Tuath in his now rather outdated disc ship. The elders still had the option to collect data from Earth once a year if they wished. It would require a disc ship visiting Earth to do this, an increasingly risky proposition. The captain spent his first two weeks checking everything was operational. It became apparent that wear and tear was taking its toll on the facility. The automated biocleaner in the airlock was only working sporadically and some of the kitchen appliances were dead.