EFFECTS OF OPENNESS / CH. 22:NEW NAMES, OLD CUSTOMS

EMBASSY OF ATLANTIS, TUESOL, 2ND DECEMBER, 6PM

“I bring you the conquering hero,” Hathie said to Robert, Ruth and the other Mer in the room as the airlock let them in. “And I hereby present my Boris with two new names, one of which he can glory in if he wants to, the other which he possibly wants to forget.”

“Urm, Hathie, what are you doing?” Boris asked.

“Making you the centre of attention, of course, my Boris. Boris I offer you a name you spoke under the drugs earlier — Hathellah-chosen. And for your exploits later on I name you Doctor-kicker. I do not claim the telling of either of these names.”

“I can guess what the first one is, looking at your ring, Hathie.” Robert said, “congratulations.”

“The story of the first name is that Hathellah has made her free choice,”

Boris said, looking into her eyes, “and made me a very happy man.”

“Come on Boris,” Ruth asked, “tell us more.”

“Hathie?”

“It is your story, Boris,” Hathie said.

“Last night, as I was about to enter the hospital, I was overcome by fear that I would not leave, and I asked Hathellah if she would look after a ring I meant to give her, so that even though I thought it was too early to ask her a question that normally went with it, I would know she had it. And she let me put it on her little finger, as a promise of a question I knew I wanted to ask her some time, but feared to ask. As I awoke from the anesthetic, I found Hathellah waiting for me. She greeted me in Mer, and called me hers, and the ring had moved fingers. And so I am rightly called Hathellah-chosen. For she has free choice, and declared us engaged to the nurses before asking me what I thought. Of course, if she'd asked what I thought of course I would have been happy, and I'd probably have asked her. But I am happy for Outer and Inner Mer to know that Hathellah lives, and can make decisions where others fear.”

“Boris... that last bit sounded like you're saying that one day I'll split the Mer,” Hathie protested.

“Please, highness, never say never.” Ursula said. “It is not just children that utter cruel jibes. Four years ago, I was sixteen, I was dating a seventeen year old. I darted him because he thought cruel words meant nothing. He then made claim against me to the council, and stated I should be punished for the manner in which I had insulted his honour. He admitted to the council what he said had been thoughtless, but said it mattered not because Hathellah had died. Karella darted him before he could say more, and stated that he was acting the dangerous shark, splitting the Mer, and the council had no need to hear the words of a dangerous shark. The council agreed, but the poison of prejudice is still amongst us. I am sure he did not just speak his own thoughts.”

“Does this shark and son of a shark still walk amongst Mer?” Emilia asked.

“He does not, for he was proud, and claimed the right to speak further to the council under the old law. He sought to show his honour by swimming a kilometer, and became shark-food.”

“My daughter, my nephew, and my princess,” Emilia said, “Let me state publicly and clearly, my brother was clearly marked as Outer Mer, just as his son. It is clear to me that I would not have my speed of hand nor accuracy of strike were it not for my heritage. I believe that I am as Outer Mer as my brother, and Ruth, you can be impetuousity in the flesh, else you would not be here.”

“An Outer Mer characteristic,” Ruth said, “and if my mother claims to be Outer Mer, what then can I say, but admit that there were times I wished I could claim the heritage I thought my cousins Boris and Lara had from their mother's side.”

“Princess of the Outer Mer,” Matthew said, “this is not a right that you can demand. But there is an old custom that you may request, and I think perhaps it is time for it to be remembered. It is a custom for dates of significance, for example the announcement of your betrothal, or you taking your place at council. Do you know of this custom?”

“No, master archivist, I do not.” Hathellah replied, “I beg that you teach me about it.”

“It is that those with good claim to Outer Mer blood step forward, and make themselves known first to their families, and also to their neighbours by the flying of a pennon. And that the pennon be red for those who have experienced wrong based on race which they've reported but has been unpunished and blue for those who have known peace and safety except from the sea. Those who have kept their hurt as a secret of the deep should fly both, if they are willing to share it now.”

“And these pennons would fly for a day?” Hathellah asked.

“No, princess, they would fly for as long as it takes until all pennons flown be one colour, whether that's blue or red.”

“So that's what it means in the song!” Hathellah exclaimed.

“Yes, highness. Your Grandmother taught you well if you know the song I presume you must mean.”

“It is in the archive I keep, master archivist, but in English, and I don't know the tune.”

“Ah. Well, it would be good for you to learn it in Mer also.”

“Dad, what song?” Ruth asked.

“Princess?”

“Let all the flags be flying,

and Outer Mer stand true,

Let all the flags flow blood red,

let all the flags swim blue.

The Inner Mer stand watching,

what will Hathellah do?”

“Ah!” Matthew exclaimed, “You have a singable version! Excellent! I hadn't heard that translation.”

“What's the tune?” Ruth asked, reaching for her pipe.

“Hathellah's choice, of course,” Ursula said.

“I don't think I know it,” Ruth replied.

“It's not a very popular tune,” Ursula said, “My grandmother told me it was never popular among Inner Mer and too sad for Outer Mer after Hathellah died.”

“If you can play it through first, I'll sing the Mer version,” Boris said.

“First, can we hear your second story, Boris, then we can all learn this almost lost song.” Ruth asked.

“My second story?”

“Of the second name I offered you Boris.”

“Oh! All the doctor's fault. He asked me to waggle my toes. Not much movement, he asked me to try flexing my ankles, not much. He asked me to try bending my leg at my knee; sort of did something. He asked me to lay on my side, and tell me what I felt when he he did 'this', and then stuck some sort of pointy thing into the sole of my foot. It hurt and he got my knee in his stomach, so I told him it felt rather like a bit of shooting pain, a bit of remorse and rather a lot of joy at the progress. He said, yes, well, fair enough, he should have said he meant me to lie the other way round. Then he said he wanted to see me tomorrow and asked Hathie to take me away from his sensitive rib cage.”

“Boris, that's wonderful!”

“Doctor didn't really think so,” Hathie giggled, “Oh, the nurse might come visiting, Ruth. She has an aunt with the pain. Descendents of urm, who was it Boris?”

“Japathe Smith, grand-daughter of Karella of London.”

“Oh, is she?” Emilia asked, “Then she should be talking to Sarah, shouldn't she, Matthew?”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

“Sarah?” Ruth asked.

“Almost got named queen instead of Karella,” Boris said, “But she had some good excuses. Like having the pain didn't make her Mer, and she already had two jobs. Karella called her in to help us decide if we could come out of hiding.”

“Oh. I'm glad we decided to,” Ruth said.

“Me too,” Boris said, grinning at Hathie.

“Songs first, or news first?” Ruth asked.

“News? What news?” Boris asked.

“Alchemy sets work quite quickly, stone piles shrink really quickly when you've got lots of helpers and a hungry alchemy set, and we need a different thermostat.”

“You've filled the pool?” Boris asked.

“No, but there's a good metre of water in the deeper parts.”

“What's up with the thermostat?”

“I got impatient,” Ruth admitted, “and didn't let Robert check before I bought it.”

“And then it couldn't handle the load, and melted,” Robert supplied, “probably because it was intended for at most a three kilowatt heater. What I don't understand is how the water came out of the magic box at barely above freezing point.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“I guess I got the settings wrong.” Boris said, “Sorry. Urm... you used it inside?”

“Yes.”

“what did you do with all the Nitrogen and Oxygen?”

“We got an alarm about that, fairly early on,” Ruth admitted, “So had to partially vent the dome.”

“Sounds like you've been busy,” Boris said.

“Yes.”

“What does the alchemy kit do?” Hathellah asked.

“Basically, it's an efficient heat pump with lasers and fusion and stuff. Heat the atoms until they break up the way you need them to, let them condense into the right things, say carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen, extract some energy so chemical reactions work, extract some more energy. Whether it needs to dump energy or needs feeding depends on the settings and the exact ratios of what it makes, but you try to get it to balance as closely as you can, otherwise you've got some gigawatts to supply or waste. But I'm pretty sure I can make it make warmer water and hotter gasses, as long as it's outside. I was just playing with it, really.”

“And can get it to output the carbon in solid form? We don't really need extra CO2 in the atmosphere.” Ruth asked.

“Would you like graphite or diamonds?” Boris asked.

“Hmmm... diamonds, I think.”

“Size?”

“Quarter of a carat.” Ruth said, decisively.

“Really? Why?”

“Possible trade goods. I'd like to see how many carrots I can get for a quarter carat diamond.”

“Just carrots?”

“No, I just liked the pun.”

“If you make kilos of diamonds, you're going to totally crash the gem market.” Hathie pointed out.

“Not garotte it?” Ursula suggested. Everyone groaned at the pun.

“OK OK, once I've got about a hundred quarter carat diamonds, switch to graphite.”

“Oh, sorry.” Boris said. “It's not going to work.”

“Why not?”

“Only two output channels on the little kit you've got, I've just remembered.”

“So water down a hose to the pool and gasses straight to the atmosphere?”

“Yes. Unless you want graphite in your pool water? I can make it lumps, I guess.”

“Boris, how clever is that machine?” Hathie asked.

“Urm, alchemy itself isn't clever enough for you?”

“That's just magic, like forcefields. What I was wondering was if it could count, and do graphite sticks for kids and artists to use, which say one in a thousand have a diamond in them, of varying sizes. Once you've made Ruth her first hundred or so, of course.”

“Sounds challenging. The point being?” Boris asked.

“A nice surprise?” Hathie suggested.

“Not nice if it scratches a hole in your drawing.”

“I don't want to introduce gambling to Mars,” Ruth said.

“Oh, yeah.”

“Hathie, what's your old classmate who's always moaning about regolith being to soft to be called a proper abrasive called?” Robert asked.

“Norbert, you mean? You're thinking of industrial diamonds?”

“Yes.”

“Good idea,” Ruth said, “I bet there's a reasonably constant demand for that. And I think I know what I want you to do, Boris. This is supposed to be a demonstrator for filling seas, isn't it? Let's have diamond sands at the bottom of our pool. And make sure you get the salinity right too, Boris.”

“Please, not in the water, Ruth.” Ursula begged, “normal rounded beach sand is bad enough under scale, but sharp diamonds? You'll regret in the first week.”

“So spare carbon either ends up wet and lumpy enough to pick up, or blasted out with the gasses, to make black regolith or sparkly regolith. Does there need to be carbon produced at all, Boris?”

“I don't know.” Boris said, “It all depends the exact mix of elements you've been feeding it.”

“Oh well, we can't solve everything now,” Ruth said. “Boris shall we go down to the pool-side to sing?”

“Can we invite my parents?” Hathellah asked.

“Of course.”

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LEVEL 4 BELOW MER EMBASSY, MARS

“That's quite a military-sounding tune,” Robert said.

“It is, in effect, a call to stand up against oppression.” Boris said. “The Mer version has an extra verse, too.”

“Two, actually” Matthew said.

“Could you translate them?” Hathie asked.

“Of course. Verse one: Ask once more that flags be flown, ask once more that Outer Mer stand high. Gather strength and stand together, let all the flags be red or blue. Inner Mer must now be silent. It's all Hathellah's choice.

“Verse two: Outer Mer are often bullied, Outer Mer are often shamed, By Inner Mer who think it doesn't matter, by Inner sharks who think its fun. Now they see who would be leaving. It's all Hathellah's choice.”

“Verse three: Outer Mer stand up, be counted. Outer Mer, make known sharks' crimes. Is the council become polluted? Must the crown be lifted high? Let all Mer see where the knife will cut, it's all Hathellah's choice.”

“In a way, it's emphasizing the ethnic divisions, isn't it?” Hathie said, “Is it really a good thing?”

“Three thousand years, the division is still there.” Ursula said, “There have always been stupid people, even stupid Christians, who refuse to believe that unity and conformity are different things.”

“Also,” Matthew said, “Every red pennon is both an acknowledgement of bitterness and a plea to the council for justice, for reconciliation.”

“And so if I asked for this, I would be giving the council more work, just as they negotiate treaties?” Hathie asked.

“You would be helping them do their job,” Emilia said.

“I am Inner Mer,” Pania said, “but if I had a neighbour flying a red flag, I would go to them, and ask 'Who is the fool that divides the mer so?' 'Who needs correcting in their ways?' 'Who owes you an apology and restitution? Let me try to reason with them, that unity can be restored and we do not need to go to the council.'”

“Thank you Pania,” Hathie said. “Then, I'll make the hard decision. I have heard of one sad account that was resolved well. And others that have not been so well resolved and left scars. I would like to know what coloured flags fly across Atlantis. Boris, can you send your name-stories to Lara and anyone else you know?”

“I don't think I'm going to claim the second name, anyone.” Boris said, “But I'll happily write the story of the first.”

“And I will write to my colleague archivists what I have told you princess, and ask them to place before the council the details of this custom.”

“I just wish I hadn't burned out that heater.” Ruth said. “I think I'd like to propose we all have a good swim before we send this little bombshell into Karella's lap, and I don't fancy swimming in ice-cold water when there's no gems or gold to find.”

“You didn't burn out the heater, Ruth.” Robert said, dipping his fingers in the water. “and I'm also glad that we turned on the pumps and things, or this water might be boiling one end and freezing the other.”

“What are you saying?” Ruth asked.

“Urm.. I'd guess it's reached about twenty five. So, last one in the water helps Ursula with the washing up? Except Boris. I imagine it'll take you quite a while to get ready, my future brother-in-law.”

“Not nearly as long as someone who's got nowhere except the top floor of the tower to change in,” Boris pointed out.

“Why would anyone want to change up there?” Robert asked the world in general.

“I claim the bathroom!” Hathie shouted.

“See?” Boris said, over his shoulder, as he flew — literally — round up the steps towards his room.

“I'm confused,” Robert said.

“I think you've got no where to change, Robert, until your sister's finished.” Ruth said.

“Oh! That's what he meant. I expected a swim, actually. See you when you've changed, my mermaid.” He pulled off his top and trousers, and stepped into the water.

“Do you think I'm going to be last in my own pool?” Ruth asked him.

“If you don't go find your scale soon.”

“Who needs scale, when it's about avoiding washing up? Now gentlemen don't watch ladies changing, so turn round please.” Robert soon discovered he wasn't the only one who'd made their plans earlier. “Ohh, this is nice and warm, isn't it?”

“Ruth, my love, shall we swim?” Robert asked the most beautiful woman in his world.

“Yes. And then we'll see how long we can hide in the sneaky side-tunnel before anyone notices we're missing.”

“Oh is that what the sneaky side-tunnel is for?” Ruth and Robert had worked on it before the others had arrived, and initially, he'd thought it was going to be a water-entrance to the tower. Then he'd realised it was going the wrong way for that, and she'd cut a hole in the ceiling for the pump input there. But he was fairly certain that wasn't why they'd made the tunnel — the narrowest the extruder could line. Mainly he thought that because after the pipe there were some more turns and it opened into a dome with a ledge around the wall.

“Not really, but it'll do for now.”

“So what is it for, Ruth?”

“It is for future plans, my future husband. Ask no more questions, please.”

“I'm very curious.”

“Good. Stay that way. Hold onto the thought that you've got to be curious and not ask any more questions, and that we've got the whole pool to ourselves for all of three minutes, maybe, and they're going to swim faster than us.”

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LEVEL 4 BELOW MER EMBASSY, MARS

“Hathie,” Boris said, “You'll stay close to me in the water?”

“Of course,” Hathie said, “and I'm going to enjoy doing something I planned to do when we first met, and no one is going to stop me now.”

“What's that?”

“Pick you out of your chair so you can kiss me without me bending over.”

“You don't like bending over?”

“That's not the point. The point is you get to be all spontaneous about it.”

“Oh. Who stopped you?”

“All the other people around, fear of public censure, that sort of thing. Nervous you'd let me but wouldn't want me to.”

“Yeah. OK. I might have found it totally terrifying.”

“So. I would like to get you into a position where I'm carrying your weight, your arms are able to help if for some crazy reason mine decide you're too heavy even in this gravity, and last but not least, I don't fall over. And you can kiss me whenever you want to, and it's not way too embarrassing when my parents come in.”

“Will they?”

“I assume Ruth has her wrist unit with her to let them in.”

“And of course there's the complexity of my scales getting in the way.”

“Urm, yes.”

“We could just do the kissing bit when we're in the water. It's not that far away.”

“Hey, this is romantic dreams we're talking about,” Hathie objected.

“Well, how about we just start with my chair higher?”

“It can do that?”

“Lara was dangling off it about four metres off the ground back home.”

“Wow.”

“It did get a bit bouncy at that height.”

“Well bounce into my arms, then.”

“Oh! It might bounce into the ceiling!”

“Then let's do this the traditional way and start with your chair firmly on the ground.”

“First I'm going to be spontaneous.” Boris said, sending his chair up until he was level with Hathie's head, he leaned over and, as he kissed her, accidentally nudged the joystick, and pushed her off the edge of the pool. There was an enormous splash.

Aghast, Boris dropped his chair back to ground level, “Hathie!”

“I hope that was an accident,” Hathie said, standing herself up in the knee-deep water.

“It was, sorry!”

“I've got an idea,” she said.

“Yes?”

“You can get yourself out of that chair, can't you?”

“Yes.”

“If I come up there, I'll drip all over it. Why don't you just come to the edge of the pool, and trust me.”

“Hmm. Trust exercise with accidentally soaked mermaid.”

“Soaked mermaid princess. Don't you trust me, Boris?” She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

“Of course I do, Hathie.”

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SNEAKY SIDE TUNNEL, EMBASSY OF ATLANTIS, MARS, 2ND DECEMBER

“Ooh, look, underwater Boris coming. Hi Cousin!” Ruth said,

“Hello, cousin. It looks like unconventional delivery techniques really do work.”

“Unconventional delivery techniques?” Ruth asked.

“I'll let you ask Hathie about that, You'll excuse me if I don't stand up to admire your handiwork. Looks good, cousin.”

“Thank you.”

“You've got a whole side room here?” Hathie asked.

“Indeed. Tell you about it later.”

“Ow wow, Ruth!” Ursula exclaimed, as she entered, “It's just like at home!”

“Where do you think I got the program for my rock-cutter and the extruder?”

“Urm, yeah, that makes sense. But this is excellent!”

“Thank you,”

“Normal rules apply?”

“You help me finish it and what I think are the normal rules apply, yes.”

“I'll help, don't worry!”

“I'm not worried,” Ruth said, “I'm a bit surprised you're so enthusiastic.”

“I was just... thinking ahead,” Ursula said, blushing.

“Well if you're thinking ahead, we need to think about that squid that's been swimming around in the tank upstairs, don't we?”

“You mean...”

“If you're certain you're going to marry, then yes. If not, wait a bit. Are you that serious about him?”

“Urm...”

“It's bit too early?” Ruth asked.

“I think so.”

“Well, the squid seems healthy, and even if we don't decide to turn him into potion before you're ready, Mermaid's kiss is still kinder.”

“Mermaid's kiss?” Ursula asked.

“The old recipe.” Hathie replied.

“Oh! But that's nasty, isn't it?” Ursula said.

“If you're re-taking it, it's nastier, certainly. First time round though...”

“It's really unsuitable for kids,” Hathie said. “But if you're giving it to someone you're planning to marry and don't mind sharing some saliva with him, then OK, it tastes nasty but there's no side effects.”

“None?” Ursula asked, surprised.

“Boris?” Hathie asked.

“Yes, Hathie?” He grinned up at her.

“Well, were there any side-effects?”

“Yeah, my legs started working.”

“I think that was the surgery and regrowth therapy.”

“Oh. Urm, and the enormous bubbly happy feeling is probably you giving me the name Hathellah-chosen, so I guess no side effects.”

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