EFFECTS OF OPENNESS / CH. 11:TREATIES
ATLANTIS, FRIDAY, 7TH SEPTEMBER, 2277
Harry found Lara just outside her tower, holding a rope and looking up it.
“What's on the other end of the rope?” Harry asked.
“My brother.”
“Pardon?”
“He's been experimenting with his hover-chair. I'm apparently here just in case he needs extra weight. I just hope me pulling on the rope doesn't tip him out.”
“Oh. Has he told you anything... personal?”
“He looked pretty happy when he came back from Karella's last night.”
“Right.”
“What?”
“I got a message to pass on to him from someone I knew on Mars. She asked me not to mention her name, unless Boris did.”
“Secret messages to my brother?”
“Patience is a virtue.”
“Hmm. Tell him that. Hovering around on thin air.”
“What is he doing?”
“'Testing things for the Mark two', he said. By which I guess he means the second version of his spaceship.”
“Oh, the manned version?”
“What?”
“Ooops. I guess I know too much.”
“Boris! Come down, or I'm climbing up!”
“Hey, good test!” Harry heard from far above his head.
“Right. Harry, you're on the rope, I'm going to see if he meant that.
“Be careful.”
“I'm climbing up a rope supported by my brother's latest invention. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Who tied the knots?” Harry asked.
“I did.”
“Oh, OK, then. I'll try to catch you if you fall.”
“You'll get crushed.”
“I'm not going to stand by and let you get pulped, Lara. Hey, any chance of some kind of big bag full of air? That's what stunt men use.”
“It's OK, Harry. Boris invented personal forcefields a while back, I've got one on, so's he for that matter. If I fall, I'll be OK. So don't try to catch me, all right?”
“OK. What's holding him up? Forcefields?”
“New sort he's invented, he calls it a graviton repellent.”
“Antigravity?” Harry asked.
“It can't be,” Lara said, starting to climb the rope. “That's theoretically impossible, I learned it in school.”
“Hey!” Boris yelled from above, “Don't jerk so much Lara!”
“Sorry! What's wrong with your forcefield? It fells like I'm pulling on a air-bag.”
“What's that?” Boris asked.
“Underwarter lifting thing.” Lara replied.
“Oh?” Boris replied. “Good analogy.”
“Boris?” Lara asked, when she was about ten meters off the ground. “Antigravity's impossible isn't it? They proved it.”
“He swapped a plus for a minus, Lar, Easy mistake, even for a genius. Karella gave me a new name last night.”
“Do I dare ask it holding on to your rope fifteen meters above the ground?”
“Probably not. Experiment a success, going down.”
When her feet were on the ground, Lara let go of the rope, and Boris bobbed up quickly. “Wheee! Please don't do that, Lara, I need to adjust the drive.”
“What's the new name, Boris?” Lara asked.
“Gravitymaster.”
“You've done it?”
“You've just climbed it, Lar. Feel anything pushing on you? Any rush of air? That's because there wasn't”
“My genius of a brother's cracked antigravity?”
“Yep.”
“You're fantastic!”
“Remind me to remind you that when you're next telling me to get on with my work, OK?”
“I'll try.”
“Promise?”
“'course not. You know how I get when I'm mid-argue.”
“Yeah. Lara?”
“Yes.”
“Personal question, Hi Harry, by the way. Why has no one ever cooked me any potion?”
“What? Mum did, surely?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“She said it wasn't time yet, or something like that.”
“No one?”
“Karella was pretty shocked too.”
“Why didn't you ask?”
“'Cause when you think you're a freak you don't ask for more evidence.”
“You're not a freak.”
“That's what they called me at school. My toes.”
“Who? I'll give them toe problems.”
“It was ages ago, Lara.”
“So? They're separating the Mer, you can't do that.”
“I should have asked you I guess.”
“Dad was Outer Mer, Boris. Didn't you know?”
“No. Mum never said.”
“I always wished I had Dad's toes,” Lara said.
“You've got the rest, haven't you? You're faster, you're stronger? I never realised.”
“You got the brains though, the imagination. That is Outer Mer too.”
There was a pause while Boris digested that, then Harry said “This might be the time to mention that I'm confused about what you're talking about, but Boris, I've got a message for you.”
“Oh? Who from?”
“Girl who was at the fellowship I went to on Mars, about your age. Long dark hair, pretty. Wants her name a secret until you say it.”
“Hathie wrote? Already?”
“Who's Hathie?” Lara asked.
“Ruth's boyfriend's sister. She asked me out,” Boris said, “Just as soon as I get to Mars.”
“Ruth's got a boyfriend?”
“As of yesterday, apparently. Hathie keeps the family tree. She's a fierce one, Lara, you'd approve. She threatened Karella, even.”
“What! Why?”
“Because it's one of her duties.”
“Threatening the queen is one of her duties?”
“You said it yourself, Lara, you mustn't divide the Mer,” Boris said, “Did you know Hathie's Grandmother, Harry?”
“Hathellah? Yes.”
Lara stopped dead, and turned to Harry, “What name did you say, Harry?”
“Hathellah. Nice old lady, followed her son to Mars. Spent a lot of time with Hathie.”
“Who's name is also Hathellah?” Lara asked.
“Yep. That's my as-soon-as-I-get-to-Mars girlfriend.”
“I don't know you need to put that delay in there, Boris.” Harry said, “At least, she asked me to give this message to 'her new boyfriend Boris' She's sent a short video message too.”
“My little brother is Hathellah's boyfriend?”
“That's Hathellah granddaughter of Hathellah granddaughter of Hathellah great-granddaughter of Hathellah, in case you're wondering. Ruth knows more, apparently, but Karella got a bit confused, and didn't want to get it wrong. But anyway Hathellah the younger who died had a brother walking among landmen, and his mother wrote and told him to name his daughter Hathellah, and teach her.”
“Hathellah lives.” Lara said.
“Indeed,” Boris said, “And she doesn't want a crown, but if she needs to take it up to stop prejudice, she will.”
“Every Mer child must be reminded,” Lara said.
“Karella agrees, Lara. She said she will address the people tonight, with me. Come with me? Please?”
“If you want, genius. Princess-friend, Gravitymaster.”
“Yeah. She said she wanted to get in first, before someone after fame and glory grabbed me.”
“She can always grab you back if she's that convinced.”
“No pressure, she said, she just wants to see if we get on. Harry, my back; do you think it's operable? Hathie said she thought it would be possible.”
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“One of my wounds cut my spine, I know that. Regrowth therapy hurts like anything. Not always, but something like seventy percent of people. All those little pain receptors connecting up. It goes in stages, one day it's your little toe, the next it's your knee cap, next it's your big toe, you don't know what'll hurt when, but give it a month or so and it's mostly done, then there's loads of physiotherapy, rebuilding muscles, and so on. Don't think instant miracle fix. But the good thing about regrowth is it's you. It's not electronics that might go wrong, or transplant that might get rejected, it's you, back the way you should be. But if they can't get regrowth to work, there are those other ways. Artificial legs, they work on land, but I don't know how keeping the electronics dry would work with swimming.”
“Thanks, Harry. Good to know. Apparently there are a lot of doctors on Mars.”
“Good ones too. And dome-building on Mars being what it is, they deal with more accidents than most do on Earth. Want to hear your message?”
“Please.”
“Come on Lara,” Harry said, “I want to ask you some questions.”
“Questions, questions, why is it always questions?”
“Because I want to learn.” Harry said.
“Oh. Good answer.”
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JAMES' FIELD DOME, SATURSOL, 10TH SEPTEMBER. 9 A.M.
James looked at his potato plants, and worried. The leaves had withered, and the stems seemed to be dying back. The plants looked like they'd come down with some disease. “Margaret? What's happened to my potato plants? They looked fine a few days ago!”
“They're just telling you to stop waiting, James. Don't worry. They always go like this when growing time is over.”
“It's harvest time?”
“Yes.”
“Next Saturday?”
“First we need to get a fork and a bucket. Let's take Alice some evidence of what's been happening underground. Race you to your tool-shed. Catch me if you can!”
She sprinted off, taking enormous bounds in the low Mars gravity.
Laughing, James chased her, and he did catch her, just before the shed.
“Do I get a prize?” he asked.
“Yes. You get a kiss and then you get to carry the bucket and fork.”
“Oooh, what a lucky man I am. Two kisses?”
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FINDHORN-BUNTING COMPLEX. 10 A.M.
“We come bearing evidence.” James announced.
“James happy, Margaret happy. Princess Mermaid happy.” Heather said, looking round from what was her normal seat at the window.
“Princess Mermaid?” James asked.
“Coming.” Heather pointed, “Ruth happy too, and Thingumy”
“Thingumy?”
“Ruth boyfriend, Thingumy.”
“Ruth's got a boyfriend?” Alice asked.
“Coming.” Heather reported.
“Oh, It's Robert.” Alice said, peering through the window.
“Yes, Thingumy Bobert.” Heather said.
“Heather, his name's Robert.” Alice said. “I only called him Thingumy because I was busy and couldn't remember his name yesterday. It's not really his name, Heather love.”
“Good name. He say Thingumy lots. He Thingumy.”
“He says, Heather.” Simon corrected. “So, do tell us the story of this bucket of fresh dug spuds.”
“James got all worried this morning because his potatoes had all gone wilted and dying back. We dug up some to show you.”
“Half a row's a big much to dig as a demonstration, but congratulations.” Alice said.
“We picked a row at random, and dug up a plant. I couldn't believe my eyes so we picked another row and another plant, and then another one.”
Simon shook his head in amazement, “Three plants? You've almost filled that bucket with just three plants?”
“It seems that God has been good to us, Simon.” James said “Urm... Alice...”
“What time next Saturday?” Alice asked briskly, before he'd finished.
“Tom suggested ten.” Margaret said.
“Come in Ruth,” Alice said on the intercom, “and keep next Saturday free.”
Once the airlock had cycled them in, Ruth asked, “What's happening next Saturday? Oh! Do I spot a significant bucket of potatoes?”
“You do, yes. Ten o'clock.”
“Congratulations. Of course I'll be free next Saturday. And what's my favourite Seeer seen this morning?” Ruth asked Heather, as she climbed into her arms.
“Mermaid princess happy, Ruth happy, Ruth boyfriend Thingumy happy.”
“And when are you going to start using the word 'is'? Didn't we practice that last week?” Ruth chided.
Heather screwed up her face in concentration, “Mermaid princess IS happy. Good?”
“Yes, Heather, that's good. Alice, Simon, I think Heather's done the introductions, but allow me to fill them in a bit. May I present Hathellah, granddaughter of Hathellah, granddaughter of Hathellah, great-granddaughter of Hathellah, undisputed princess of the Outer Mer, and you know Robert, but Heather is right, we're walking together. Other news is that my official seal and a few home comforts ought to be arriving on Frisol.”
“You've been a bit vague about those home comforts, Ruth. Any specifics?”
Alice asked.
“Well, I'm going to get a proper knife, James's request for a rock-cutter has also been approved, so he might be doing some stone whittling for you, Margaret. I've also got approval for my request for a little gift of friendship to keep my friends safe. James, Margaret, Alice and Simon will all get a little box to wear on your waist. And Simon in particular needs to swear an oath not to try to look inside it or try to work out how it works. Turn it on and it's a personal forcefield, with three modes, just protecting your back, but total freedom of movement, back and front and bending down is hard, and the last one is a full protective bubble. Lovers, Mothers, fathers and carers of little ones will be glad to know that in both protected front and bubble mode anyone in your arms is in the protected area too. In case you end up falling, the bubble also acts as a shock absorber. Sorry, Robert, you'll just have to stay close to me if things ever get nasty.”
“And Hathellah?” Alice asked.
“Hathellah's will be arriving in the next shipment.”
“There's going to be another cargo pod?”
“Probably, but there's also going to be a piloted version, once the pilot has convinced everyone it's totally safe.”
“Boris?” James asked.
“Yes, Boris Fieldshaper Gravitymaster,” Hathellah said.
“Boyfriend.” Heather added.
“Yes Heather, we've agreed to go out once he gets here.”
“Gravitymaster is to do with him building spacecraft?” Alice guessed.
“No, We'd call him Spacesailor or Astronaut something like that,” James said, sounding puzzled. “Ruth, do you know where he got that name?”
“Karella gave it to him.”
“It can't mean what I think it means!” James protested.
“The disproof was wrong,” Hathellah said, enjoying the reflected glory. “I think my boyfriend Boris is going to be very famous as well as being funny and clever. So I asked him out before anyone else could.”
“And he could hardly refuse his princess, could he?” James asked.
“Will one of you please tell me what Boris has done?” Alice asked.
“Only worked out how to repel gravity,” Hathellah said smugly.
“But gravity is bent space-time!” Robert said, “How do you repel it?”
“I'll leave that to you to discuss with him, brother. All I know is he's promised to come and hold my hand and tell me jokes, and bring me a squid too.”
“Why do you want a squid?” Alice asked.
“Sorry, Alice, that's not really a question Hathellah should have prompted,” Ruth said, “the answer is a bit icky.”
“Very icky.” James agreed.
“I like icky!” Heather proclaimed.
“Not nice icky, Heather, make you sick icky.” Ruth said.
“Oh.”
“So, we're talking some kind of dart poison or something like that?” Alice guessed.
“Yes. Something along those lines.”
“Wasn't there something else you wanted to talk to Alice about, Ruth?” Robert prompted her.
“Oh, yes, Alice. You've got a claim on the edge of Argyre.”
“True. Blame Evangeline. I think it's going to be a lovely spot when you start flooding the crater.”
“Pardon?”
“You're not going to flood Hellas, are you? Firstly it's too big, secondly there are too many claims down there, and thirdly it's much too far away. Argyre makes far more sense.”
“So you're assuming that I'm going to want to flood it?”
“Of course.”
“Great! Do you happen to know who your neighbours are?”
“Some of them. Do you want me to put you in contact with the so-called Argyre surf-lovers community? Sorry, let me put it the other way. The so-called 'Argyre surf-lovers' community' would really love to get in contact with you, but they thought they ought to wait until you felt a bit more secure in your role.”
“Surf?” James asked.
“One of them's into ocean modelling, he thinks there ought to be some nice waves forming when the wind gets up.”
“Jits.” Ruth pronounced, “Don't they know that water and waves are one of a mermaid's favourite topics?”
“Just for reference, what are the others?” Robert asked.
“Well, there's swimming.” James said, “and knives, and blowpipes, and swimming, and catching fish, and swimming, and killing sharks, and swimming.”
“You missed out a swimming there, James,” Margaret said.
“And you also forgot compost, and first harvest,” Ruth said.
“That reminds me, Robert, Mum was asking me when you last spent any time at your field dome,”
“Urm... a while ago.” he said, looking guilty, “I had to finish the paper, and then...”
“Well next time you go for a walk with Ruth, go walk around your field.”
“Alice, I'm going to get Robert to show me his field, if he's not too embarrassed, and then I'm going to be cooking him a meal if he's interested in sharing some vegetables with me, and then I'm planning to be working on a treaty proposal for the Mars Council, the chief unresolved element of which was which bit of Mars to flood first, and if we convert rock and regolith to water, which rock and regolith would they like vanished. I'd be happy to talk to people about that.”
“If you convert rock into water, then couldn't you dig your own sea?” Hathellah suggested, “You know, somewhere even more convenient than Argyre? Not to mention warmer?”
“Hollow out a mountain?” Margaret suggested, “Or make canals on Mars?”
“I do like the idea of flooding what's there,” Alice said, “Not least because that way my waterfall might be a waterfall one day. But Robert, can you tell me something?”
“I'll try, Maam.”
“Let's imagine one of Boris's fifteen kilometre comets is coming. Your design is intended to strip it and turn it into water, yes?”
“Yes.”
“How quickly?”
“A few hours. It'll have to because of the rotation of the planet.”
“Have you worked out how much water that is per minute?”
“It's quite a big engineering problem, yes, Maam.”
“Call me Alice, remember?”
“Yes, Alice.”
“How big a problem?”
“Well... really I'd want something the size of the comet to dump it into quickly, so we can then avoid creating something like a massive tidal wave in whatever crater we put it in. And at least part of it will need to be forcefields, because of the speed of the water. Boris thinks we can do a fifteen kilometre diameter comet. I'd much prefer something smaller, but if we go with his plan, we're talking about a slowing down a jet of water which is going at almost escape velocity, and is about two hundred meters by two hundred meters. We'd then slow it down by making it fan out in a circle. If we could get that to be say five kilometres diameter, then by the time it gets to the edge it'll only be going at a hundred meters a second if it's a hundred meters tall. If we could get it to fifteen kilometres diameter, it'd only be thirty meters a second. But still a wall of water a hundred meters deep.”
“That... sounds quite a forcefield, not to mention quite a tidal wave.”
“Yes.”
“The surf club are going to be really enthusiastic, of course.” Alice added.
“Then they're mad,” Ruth said, ashen faced, “completely utterly mad. The eddy-currents alone in a hundred meter wall of water will rip their limbs to shreds, and pulverize them. Let alone what'll happen to their lungs if they're yanked a hundred meters down by one. Why didn't I think of that? It can't work, can it? It's a killing machine.”
“What I think, Ruth,” Robert said, “is we scale back down. Stick to five kilometre comets, one tenth of the flow. Then you've only got a ten meter high wall of water. Ten kilometres away from the centre it'll have slowed to three meters a second, and it'll start thinning out, surely?”
“No.” Ruth corrected, “At some point, you've got to mix this with the water in the crater. OK, I guess you could have a massive reservoir, but you're still going to have nasty currents. I think either you're going to have a seriously impressive water fall or it'll make a ring-wave like you get filling a sink, Anyone or anything swimming or boating near it will be trapped between the low and fast water and the turbulent still water that'll pile up outside the ring, like a step. But OK, it's not instant death.”
“So,” Alice summarised, “Assuming that we're still filling when the water's deep enough to swim in it, then to keep everyone safe we need a patch of Mars about twenty kilometres across, one huge forcefield, and then a thirty to fifty kilometre-wide slope that'll make a series of rapids between that and the nominated crater? Doesn't seem too hard, compared to catching a fifteen kilometre diameter comet from space, that is. I'd love to know how you're going to get the hypochlorates and so on out of it, but that's your business.”
“Actually,” Ruth said “Jimmy Durrel made a suggestion. Since we're talking about masses of water and hopefully a low concentration of salts, then rather than thinking of piping the whole of the sea through some kind of molecule selector every year and then doing chemistry, shouldn't we be thinking biochemistry. And that is a not an area we know much about at all. So I know you've been using 'we' in a nice friendly way not expecting much involvement at all, but I was wondering if that's an area we could chat about sometime. Alternatively I can get Karella to raise it with Harry. I've asked at the Mars University, and they said they're not really experts in that sort of thing, which is quite similar to biological cleanup of industrially contaminated wastes, so try an Earthling government.”
“So... how might this work?”
“You want some limited access to our tech, for example nuclear waste disposal, as well as construction techniques, we want usable seas and living space on Mars and space on your coastline, Mars wants an improved atmosphere and has space to offer. My thought is that if you help us learn about cleaning up the water in the seas of Mars, and maybe even Earth too, eventually, then that might be a very good swap for reprocessing tech.”
“Cleaning up Earth's oceans?”
“Land-folk have pumped a lot of rubbish into them over the centuries.” Ruth pointed out.
“I know. I'm just surprised you'd think of adding a modified life-form into the seas.”
“We'd do tests, of course. Divide off some test areas that aren't too big to sort out if it doesn't work. Make sure there are no long-term problems. I'm just making this all up, you understand, Not checked with Karella at all, it's just based on an idea I had when watching something on genetic engineering. But it's not a technology we know.”
“And we do.” Alice said.
“Yes.”
“Thank you, Ruth. I'm certainly going to suggest it to Harry, and I presume you'll tell Karella?”
“Of course.”
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ROBERT'S FIELD DOME
“Robert!” Ruth exclaimed, looking at what was growing in the dome.
“I know, it's a bit of waste, isn't it, but I've not been around much.”
“It's beautiful!” The dome was full with row upon row of tall plants with blue-purple flowers.
“You like it?”
“Flax?”
“Yes.”
“Complete pain to process, but linen is good stuff for cloth, and of course there's the seed, and the oil.”
“I'm... surprised you know.”
“You thought, perhaps, I'd only know about fish?”
“You know sewing, weaving, preparation of deadly dart poison, I suppose it goes without saying that you're also a botanist.”
“I knew I'd be coming to Mars, I've got a good memory, and the library on the ship was extensive.”
“You're not saying that you learned to sew and weave on the ship here?”
“Of course not. I learnt that at home. You forgot hand to hand combat in your list, and field surgery. Those things I learned at home. It's one of our strengths: every girl learns combat from her mother and her aunts. Just in case. Boys and girls learn tracking and hunting. At school we learn other things: physics, hydrodynamics, chemistry, field manipulation, history - which includes religious studies as well as philosophy and law.”
“Biology?”
“Not much. Biology is interesting but doesn't keep us hidden or safe from capture. Oh, we study medicinal herbs and what bits of what sea-creatures can be used for what as well, and foreign and ancient languages.”
“Ancient languages?”
“We need to be able to understand those old treaties if we're going to keep them, don't we?”