The Disestablishment of Paradise

by Phillip Mann

  ‘Just one? And what’s that?’

  ‘I’m thinking about what we were talking about. With all the pain the Dendron must have been broadcasting, I can’t understand why the Michelangelos didn’t come like a swoop of avenging angels and simply wipe everyone out. They could have treated the human invaders like a pestilence, and got rid of them.’

  ‘And how could they do that if they didn’t know how to hate?’ Hera had no answer. ‘I think the Michelangelos had no more understanding about what was happening than the Dendron. If you want to know the truth, I think they were stunned, and so they backed off, sharpish. You’ve got a bit of a down on them because of what happened to you. But I think they’re the jokers in the pack.’

  ‘Well, I hope you’re right. And if we end up with three deaths, well, there’ll be two more little bodies on Paradise beside them. This place is not getting friendlier. I just hope we don’t fail.’

  ‘Fail? “But screw your courage to the sticking-place,/ And we’ll not fail.” ’

  ‘It’s unlucky to quote Macbeth, you know?’

  ‘Who’s that? I was quoting my granny.’

  ‘Hm! Get out and do your thinking. I’ll call the platform now.’

  24

  A Closer Ecounter

  Hera did not sleep well that night.

  Though she had tried many times, she had failed to make contact with the platform above. She had always known in the back of her mind that the shuttle platform was up there, a last line of retreat, available if needed, though she was determined not to use it. Now it could not be contacted at all, and that made her feel very isolated. Her unease was compounded by a growing feeling that her presence on Paradise had become more marginal. She was still important, still had a part to play, but events seemed to be moving on past her.

  She lay still and thought of Mack. Perhaps he was asleep by now, or still out there by the Dendron, trying to work out the quickest way to save the two young trees. Or perhaps he had reached his conclusion and was now lying back and staring at the stars, gathering his strength for the morrow, or snoring like an ox. Hera could not hide from the fact that Mack now seemed in some ways more at home here on Paradise than she. The Michelangelos which frightened her didn’t seem to bother him. And what was more, he seemed better able to grasp the realities of their situation, and that of the Dendron, than she. That intuition of his carried him deep, to the very heart of things. Was she jealous? I think she was, a bit.

  Finally, at four o’clock, she slipped from her bed and went up to the control cabin and instructed Alan to try again to contact the shuttle platform. One last try! She heard the tracking signal, the calibration, and then the call sign. Several minutes passed, and then – just as she was about to close down – the call signal was answered. Alan locked on immediately, a link was made and Hera found herself looking at the tired face of a young tri-vid operator. Hera identified herself and asked to be put through to Captain Abhuradin as quickly as possible. The operator hesitated. Obviously Hera’s name meant nothing to her and she was under strict orders. ‘Captain Abhuradin will be resting. Shall I log the call for delayed transmission?’

  ‘Check the coordinates I’m calling from first, sunshine, and then put me through.’

  Hera saw the operator’s surprise, quickly followed by the long-suffering look the young reserve for those seniors who insist on causing trouble. Hera was pleased to see that look change to one of near disbelief when the coordinate check was complete. ‘It says here you are calling from the surface of Paradise. That’s not—’

  ‘So tell me about it. Now put me through.’ Hera saw her nod and then establish the cross links. ‘Sorry for the delay, Captain Melhuish, but all the communications have been crazy of late. Strange things have been happening. You are through now.’

  Inez Abhuradin’s face appeared, but Hera hardly recognized her. The face was puffy with tiredness and her fine features were partly hidden behind a large dressing. ‘Hera, I’ve had half an hour’s sleep in the past forty-eight, so this had better be good, even from you.’

  ‘Inez. What’s happened?’

  She groaned. Not in pain, but at the prospect of explanation. ‘Of course, you don’t know, do you? Just a minute.’ Abhuradin moved out of view and moments later, when she reappeared, she had a glass of water with some pills bubbling in it. ‘I’ll make more sense when I’ve had this.’ She downed the contents in one swallow and blew out like a swimmer that has just finished a race. ‘I’ve had everything, Hera. We lost a freighter a few days ago coming out of fractal. It just vanished. Blink, like that. We sent a trace in and it vanished too. We tried to contact the Space Council, and nothing was getting through. And then it was discovered that the fractal point had vanished. Gone. It took a few hours for things to sink in, and then I had a riot. People thought we would be trapped here for life and panicked. People thought we were going to run out of food, so the kitchens were attacked. I had to declare martial law and there were running battles. Up and down the corridors. Can you believe that?’

  ‘What happened to your face?’

  ‘I stopped a bottle. It’s nothing. Cheekbone not broken, thank God. But don’t make me laugh, all right?’

  ‘Are you OK now?’

  ‘Yes, order restored. But then yesterday, just when we’d got the situation under control, all the communications gear went dead. Power failed. Lights out. Even the solar panels were on the blink. We switched over to emergency and I started to evacuate whole wings. I really thought we were coming apart, Hera. We have forty-eight hours of oxygen in reserve, that’s all. I tried to get a message down to you. There was nothing I could do. And then suddenly everything came back on. Like nothing had happened. And the fractal point was back too, and the freighter just coming out of it. We tried to contact it, but no response. It was drifting. You know that old story about the Marie Celeste? That’s what I thought of. So I sent one of the tugs out and we brought the freighter in by remote. We docked it today and – you are not going to believe this. When we opened it up, all the people on board were children – eight-, nine-, ten-year-olds. It was the crew and the passengers. They’d been regressed, somehow. I’ve got a couple of fractal engineers here now and they are going crazy trying to fathom it. So then I had a platform full of crying children. Everyone is very frightened up here, Hera. But at least we are functioning again.’

  While Abhuradin had been talking Hera had been remembering Shapiro’s prophecy linking changes on Paradise and the fractal.6 She was also remembering the stunning effect of the last howl of the Dendron. They had been protected, but the shuttle station had not. ‘I think I can guess what happened to you, Inez, and it’s connected to what has been going on down here.’ Inez frowned. ‘I’m not going to be able to explain, and there are time anomalies that don’t make sense, but there is a link between the way Paradise functions and the way the fractal works. We’ve discovered a lot, Inez, and we’ve been through a storm of our own, but ours was psychic. We were protected because . . . because. Hell, this is so strange. We were protected because we were on the track of a live Dendron.’

  ‘You were what?’

  Hera spoke slowly. ‘We were . . . No, I’ll give you the update. We’ve found a live Dendron. Now don’t go asking me more questions because we are both too tired, and for the moment don’t tell anyone. It is probably the last, and . . . But listen, this is what is important for you. For some reason, the Dendron are able to generate an incredible psychic energy, which links to the Michelangelos, and . . . when it gets out of balance, it can twist space and time and you and me and . . . That is what happened. But I think you’ll find it will be quiet now, because we’ve found the Dendron, and today, tomorrow, whenever it is, we are going to try to divide it.’ Hera paused. ‘Why are you looking at me like that, Inez?’

  ‘I haven’t understood a word you’ve said. But you have found a live Dendron?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Are you all right, Hera?’

  ‘Yes
and no.’

  ‘You haven’t been . . . taken over?’

  For the first time Hera was able to laugh as she understood what Captain Abhuradin was thinking. ‘Hell no. Nothing like that. There’s a lot to tell, and no time to tell it. When we’re up with you again, we can sit down and I’ll try to explain . . . if I can. But the longer I’m down here the less I understand. But it all sort of makes sense too. Even children coming through the fractal – a kind of renewal. But we have to accept that we’re not in control.’

  ‘ “We”? Do you mean you and that Mack fellow? How is it working out with him? Is he behaving?’

  ‘I think he understands this place better than I do. But look, time’s short. Just take my word for it. I think you’ll find that the fractal will have settled down now. But I would move people off the platform as fast as you can. Forget the cargo – junk it, fire it into the sun – because if we fail down here, then there could be trouble up there. Not could be, would be, will be. I’m serious. Please, please, trust me on this, Inez. I know it doesn’t make sense, but you’ve seen what can happen when the fractal goes just a little bit crazy. Next time it will be worse.’

  Abhuradin nodded.

  ‘Now, something else I need to tell you. I want you to keep this link open. I want to feed it to our tri-vid. That means you can see what we are doing. Originally Mack just wanted to make a link so that his team could see what he was doing and help us with the Dendron. But now you’ve told me about your problems, I think it will be good for you to see too. And make a recording, because there is a real chance that if things go wrong, we’ll never make it out. I don’t want to seem dramatic – OK? But again I’ll just have to ask you to take my word for it. What is more, you may even be able to help us. OK?’

  Abhuradin nodded. ‘I hear you, Hera. I don’t understand, but I hear you. What’s this Dendron you’ve found? Like the ones in the pictures?’

  ‘Exactly like them. It is one. A live one. Different colours. But so beautiful it makes me want to weep. And I’ve found out that it is a creature of unbelievable energy – sometimes we feel it as sexual energy.’

  ‘Hera! Hera, what the hell are you talking about?’

  Hera again realized the gulf of understanding. ‘Forget it. It’s misleading. Forget I even said that.’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  ‘Listen. Are any of my people still up there?’

  ‘One or two. There’s someone called Valis Umaga. Looking after some of your ORBE samples, I think. We’ve had to repack—’

  ‘Right. Tell Valis under any circumstances not to try to send any stuff from Paradise through the fractal. Tell him straight from me.’

  ‘OK.’ Abhuradin was writing. ‘OK. Got that. And there’s a tough-looking mama called Tania Kowalski. Do you know her?’

  ‘Yeah. Biochemist. Great woman.’

  ‘If you say so.’ Abhuradin, it seemed, had a different opinion.

  ‘Get Tania on line when we link tri-vid. She knows a lot about the Dendron. Did a special programme on them. She’ll understand. She can explain better than I can what we’re doing.’

  ‘OK. Anything else?’

  ‘Just take care of yourself, Inez. I hardly recognized you. How’s your painter man?’

  Captain Abhuradin smiled for the first time, and winced. ‘He’s here now. Asleep over there. Hell, Hera. Life’s short and this job looked like it was going to drag on so . . . a few weeks ago I arranged for him to transfer. Best thing I ever did.’

  ‘Good. I’m glad. And you did right. We’ve a lot to talk about. Last thing. Mack is outside—’

  ‘Are you and he—’

  ‘No. Nothing like that. But he’s asleep, I hope, and doesn’t know I’m talking to you, but I know he’d want to get a message to his team. He treats them like family. Just tell them . . . tell them he’s having a great time. Tell them that the water’s warm, he’s learning to swim and he wishes they were here. Tell them that. They’ll understand.’

  ‘Will do.’

  ‘I’m linking to tri-vid now. I’ll leave everything running. Don’t worry. Go back to bed. We’ve a few hours of sleep yet. We’ll talk again.’

  The transmission closed, but the line stayed live.

  ‘Alan?’

  ‘Yes, Hera?’

  ‘Net this link to the shuttle platform. Priority Alpha, and join it in with the local tri-vid. Got that?’

  ‘Mobile link or static?’

  ‘Can you give me both, or cut between them?’

  ‘Intercut.’

  ‘Do that. Keep it live no matter what. But if there is a break, try to re-establish. Got all that?’

  ‘Yes. Do you want inter-edit delay facility?’

  ‘No, Alan. This is cinéma vérité. We send it out raw. Out now.’

  Hera yawned. Now she knew she would sleep. Outside, looking through the control room windows, she could see the great bulk of the Dendron. Tonic had risen and in its silver light the Dendron was like a boulder. There was no sign of Mack.

  As Hera snuggled under her covers, she thought how interconnected everything was. Inez Abhuradin, the woman who never mixed business with pleasure, now had her man with her. How could Hera ever explain that this decision was partly because there was a Dendron still alive on Paradise and Dendron did strange things to women when they wanted to divide, or join or . . . didn’t they? Did they do the same for men? she wondered. Mack seemed colder, somehow . . . No, not colder, more distant . . . but that might be the Michelangelo . . . the Reaper . . . Now if the Dendron are odd . . . Reapers are really . . . .really . . .

  Hera was woken when she felt the SAS move. Mack was up, had started the flyer and was moving it closer to the Dendron. By the time she climbed out, still tugging on her meshlite, he had it parked and the tool compartment was open. He was pulling out tools and setting them out. Chainsaw with battery. Solar generator. Pressure pump. Pneumatic nibbler. Scrub cutter. Three axes. Pick. Mattock. Rake. Sledgehammer. Wedges. Long saws, hand saws, solar saws, spades. Everything was out and lined up for inspection.

  When Hera came round the SAS, Mack was busy putting a final keen edge onto an axe.

  ‘It’s going to be long day, Hera. Glad you had a good sleep.’

  She nodded and yawned. ‘I got through last night. Finally. They’ve had troubles on the platform. Amazing stuff. But I have the tri-vid link working. It’ll be on now. Live.’ If Hera had hoped for a warm response to her news, she was disappointed. Mack merely grunted and went on sharpening the axe. ‘So,’ she continued, ‘if you want to talk to any of your team, I’m sure they’ll be pleased to hear from you.’

  He nodded. And then he put the axe down. ‘Listen, Hera. You’re going to have to deal with all that. If I need to talk, to get help or something, I will. But apart from that I don’t want to talk to anyone. That clear?’ She nodded, disturbed somewhat by his manner, by his quiet and his intensity. ‘Today is the make-or-break day, Hera. Once we start there’s no stopping. By the end of today, we’ll know whether we can save her –’ he nodded casually at the dark blue side of the Dendron ‘– or not.’

  Hera absorbed this. He’d said as much last night. ‘Is she . . . still all right?’

  ‘As far as I can tell. Her codds are warm so she’s thinking about us. She’s drinking. Had a bit of a pee about dawn. The cherries haven’t started to drop so the two lads up front are still fine. So, all in all, we’re in there with a chance.’ He smiled at her for the first time.

  ‘Have you eaten anything, Mack?’ she asked. ‘Had a coffee or breakfast?’

  He shook his head. ‘My stomach was in knots this morning.’

  ‘I’ll get something ready while you finish sorting the tools.’

  She was on her way before he could argue.

  It was strange setting out a table near the vast shape of the Dendron. Hera noticed that the smell had changed. It had lost the sour taint that Mack had found so unappealing. It was the same kind of smell but sweeter. Not primroses or pineapples
. Itself.

  Once, as she was bringing things out, the Dendron’s codds gave a great heave and Hera nearly dropped the two bowls she was carrying. Mack, up on its back, using a paint spray to mark the places where he would cut, paused and was ready to jump. But the beast didn’t move.

  Then, as Hera finished pouring the coffee, a call sign rang out from the SAS, and she jumped up to answer it.

  Perched on her chair in the control room, Hera could see the tri-vid picture of Mack working on the back of the Dendron. It was clear and sharp, and this was the image that was being transmitted up to the shuttle. On the line she heard a man’s voice: ‘Hi there, Captain Melhuish. Dickinson here. Just thought we’d call to see how the old man’s treating you. We’ve got your camp on visual. If you could open the lens a bit wider, we would be able to see the tips of the Dendron’s horns – if that’s what you call them. Looks nice down there. Nice stream. Miss Annette Descartes wants to know, and I quote her verbatim, “What the fuck is that thing the old man’s climbing about on?” Is that a Dendron?’

  Hera laughed. ‘Yes. Believe it or not, we have to try and help it divide. I can’t really talk now. And I know that Mack doesn’t want to be disturbed so . . .’

  ‘Say no more. We know what he’s like. When he’s thinking he can’t talk. And when he talks, he sure as hell isn’t thinking, half the time. Just tell him the reserves are all on the bench. He’ll know what I mean.’ A woman’s voice cut in. ‘Tell him that Polka and Netty send him a biiiiiiig kiss.’ Dickinson came back on line. ‘You got that all right? That was Polka. She’s the polite one.’

  ‘Yes . . . er, I’ll give him the message.’

  ‘Now, there’s someone here wants to talk to you. Over to Miss Kowalski.’ There was a thump and a scraping sound, and she heard Dickinson’s voice off mike saying, ‘You’re standing on the cable, Miss Kowalski. You can sit up here with me.’ Then Tania was there, very loud and breathless.