GROUND / CH. 17:CHEMISTRY
GROUND, OLD YASFORT
“You are mine and I am yours until death parts us.” Sathie said as she completed her vow, putting a ring on Mick's finger.
“May the One True God keep us true to our vows,” Mick said, giving the traditional reply, “may He let death take us before we fail to keep and honour our vows, may He preserve us by His mighty hand and grant us children and grand-children who honour Him.” He took a breath, grinned, and said “Now, James, your turn.”
“Pardon?” James replied.
“Don't pretend I didn't hear you.”
“Oh! Right. Maggie?” James asked, a bit sheepishly.
“Yes, James?” Maggie asked with a slightly distrustful note in her voice. What was he planning, what had Mick heard?
“Is there any specific reason that we don't say vows to each other? I mean, generally you're busy, and I'm busy. But...”
“Now you mean?” Maggie asked, surprised.
“I'm pretty sure we're both certain about each other, after all. And...” he indicated the little crowd of witnesses they'd rounded up at short notice, “We do have all our closest friends and family this side of Alpha Centuri here, and...” he suddenly found himself very shy.
“Everyone's on this side of Alpha, but I'll let you off that. It's rather short notice, don't you think?”
“Sorry. I know springing it on you like this means you don't get to wear your grandmother's dress...”
“I didn't really expect I would, James.”
“Sorry to interrupt, you two,” Heather interrupted. “But if you could wait a bit more, I'm sure your parents would be really happy to witness the happy event. Oddly enough, they dropped everything as soon as they heard we'd made contact with Mick.”
“Mum's actually left her lab?” Maggie asked.
“Of course she has,” Heather said, and then turned to James. “I think there's your specific reason, young man. Give Maggie's parents the chance to share your joy.”
“Of course! That's OK, isn't it, Maggie?”
“Of course it is. And we'll also give them a day to recover from travel, another to see the sights, plus a day to catch up with Mick.”
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GROUND, LITTLE YASFORT
By the middle of next morning, Uza had started the chemistry to produce the vaccine, and sent the radio message about a new deadly virus, found in a slime-creature colony. The query came back: slime-creatures on the edge of the desert? No, she replied, the virus had been found by a traveller, now at the village, in a colony that was presumed to have attached itself to their travel kit before they crossed the mountains. It was partial truth, but truth nevertheless, and the situation wasn't at all unusual, nor was the approach of ensuring the slime-creature had been removed by checking it with skin organisms. It shouldn't arouse suspicion.
'How deadly?' someone wanted to know. She replied: the odd spiky slime-creature organism had been noticed and taken to a ready cell to investigate; the spikes were unstable, and the organism had burst while being examined. The ready cell had been infected, as had skin organisms. The traveller had communicated the dying ready cell's description, and their organisms confirmed the formulation. She added that so shocking was the virus that fire had been used to destroy the expelled virus carriers. That deadly.
There had been no more questions. But Uza still had some, and was glad when Lana arrived. “Mick said he sent his ready cells onto Sathzakara, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Might some of her defensive enzymes have weakened it?”
Lana thought back to her hosting of Mick's body. “Yes. Or even other parts of her biochemistry. I had to filter some things out of his bloodstream.”
“So there is no guarantee that the virus is always a ready-cell killer.”
“No guarantee it's not, either.”
“No. We must be careful around these aliens, and they must be careful around slime-creatures,” Uza said.
“Unless they've been eating poison bulbs.”
“These aliens are very alien. They have so much to teach us!”
“Much they could teach, yes. Some of their technology is beyond our wildest fantasy. There is a party amongst them who say we are damaged by any contact at all, that we should find our own future.”
“What do you think?”
“I worry about what politics will do to this.” Lana said, “Tradition will take that side, progress will be in paroxysms of joy at more changes than they can imagine. I look forward to the return of the reason party to power, for some sense of balance.”
“I admit that I've not thought about the political dimension at all. We're too far away for it to bother us, really.”
“Yasfort is about to be in the centre of a storm, Uza. Let's hope it's not a war.”
“Will we? Will we really be noticed? Jakav's report was laughed off as a career-damaging joke. Will the political parties really take any notice?”
“They might. I did preach about what the One has done to the combined astronomy department, and I've heard that my brother's church is growing now that he's lacing his sermons with grace.”
“You preached? That in itself will upset the tradition party.”
Lana grinned, “Well, I expect they'll say I just declared God's goodness. But a lot of them really respect Lak. Speaking of Lak, last night Magalena asked me what the interpretation would be if they built a tower outside old Yasfort that almost reached to the clouds. I think I need to pass that one onto Lak, but I'm asking you, too. I did ask why, and her reply was 'because that's how we build them at home, you get really pretty views from the top, and it'd make it even harder for people to deny that we're not just some strange atmospheric effect if everyone crossing the mountains can see an impossibly tall building. But also, perhaps as offices and classrooms.”
“She was exaggerating, wasn't she?”
“The material that Mick's ship was made of is incredibly strong, and quite light. They use it for building too. She said that a hundred rooms high is not unusual, but they need good rock for the foundations, like at old Yasfort.”
“That sounds like a lot of stairs to climb.”
“That's what I said. They have machines to help, apparently. She wanted to know if it would be taken as some kind of threat, or a sign of pride or something like that.”
“Probably someone would. I don't suppose they could make a tunnel through the mountains instead? That'd be useful.”
“Oh, I'm sure they could. But would you really want slime-creatures and herd-beasts wandering through and eating the harvest?”
“No.”
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THE UNIVERSITY, GROUND, TEN DAYS LATER.
“Reverend Lak, we wonder if you can shed some light on the disappearance of two individuals of your acquaintance?”
“One being my sister, by some chance?”
“Yes. The other being Kalak of the astronomy department. Do you know where either of them are?”
“Right now? Not precisely, no. I expect in the far South, talking to the aliens.”
“Talking to the aliens,” the official reiterated, looking bemused.
“Yes.”
“You say that as if you believe these aliens are not just an elaborate political hoax.”
“I am a scientist and a pastor, officer. I split my time between considering revelations from God and exciting developments in our understandings of the universe he made. I'm not so good keeping up with politics. I have no doubts that my sister has talked to at least one alien, and she sent me a message telling me that she was going to talk to some more of them.”
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“Her university flat is empty.”
“She has resigned from her post at the university, how could she keep the flat?”
“What does she intend to live on then?”
“I imagine that life in a frontier village like Yasfort is not as expensive as here. She knows how to live frugally.”
“Yasfort?”
“She has contacts there, I don't know if that's where she is, but it's where I'd start looking. I have my suspicions that Kalak has connections to there too.”
“Kalak, previously known as Unf.”
“Yes. A permanent staff-member of the astronomy department.”
“For how long?”
“Permanently, as I said.”
“No, I mean how long has he been accorded that privileged post?”
“Unf held the post forty years, before transferring it to Kalak. Before Unf held the post, it was held by one bearing the name of Kev, before Kev, by Win, before Win, by one called Thamek. He held the first permanent post in Astronomy.”
“Are you aware of the significance of that string of names?” the officer asked, shocked.
“I am not entirely ignorant of history, officer, nor did I fail to read the personal memoirs of Kovan when Kalak offered them to me.”
“I'm not aware of that publication... I must look it up, but as a scientist, what do you think the chances are that the Astronomy department offers its permanent post only to people named after the conspirators against Takan?”
“If I may correct you, officer, Kovan's memoirs have not been published. The copy I read was bequeathed to his friend Takan, who having retired from public life, survived him. As to the names, well, perhaps there is a message there for those able to join the pieces.”
“I do not have time to bandy words, Reverend Lak. Please tell me what you know.”
“I suspect, officer, that the permanent chair passed from name to name, but not person to person. Kovan's description of Takan was as a quiet man with great curiosity, who disliked public roles because disrespect triggered his war-form, but who was nevertheless able to step to the fore in times of crisis. This matches the enigmatic Kalak who was once known as Unf. The permanent position was explicitly ruled as not a teaching role, so there would be no disrespect from students. When Unf entered war-form, his war-shout was the same as that of Takan, according to the histories — 'stop the disrespect'. I further notice that he did not kill, a thing attested to in histories of the war, but not normal in spontaneous war-form cases. The death of Takan has never been recorded, property historically held by him is still listed as his.”
“You make quite a convincing case.”
“I have not discussed this with anyone, certainly not the good Kalak. I have merely noticed it. I feel it would be disrespectful to the one who ended the war to force him into publicity.”
“The flaw in your argument is that no one lives to eighty years, let alone a hundred and eighty.”
“Kovan lived to eighty-five, officer. It was reported that those who had survived fighting in the wars had more drive to live than most people, and baring accident did not die until they had achieved all their goals for their lives. Kovan writes that his friend was always curious, always wanting to find out more. If that's been his goal in life...”
“Do you really expect me to not only believe that the aliens are real, but that Takan is still on Ground a hundred and eighty years since the end of the war, and he's gone off with your sister to talk to them?”
“What you believe is up to you, officer. May I return to preparing my sermon?”
“No, reverend. I believe your fantastic tale means that you are in some way also involved in the conspiracy to overthrow the government alongside your sister and the astronomer Kalak. I am placing you under arrest.”
Lak laughed. “Lana plot to overthrow the government? She's a scientist, she has no interest in power. Let me point out to you that there is no scientific explanation known to our astronomy or physics that can hold that ball up there. No process known to our physics or engineering to make the arrows that were given as gifts to the archery club last week by an alien probe. But you think it's a conspiracy? Arrest yourself and whoever sent you for political bias and wasting police time, officer.”
“I am placing you under arrest,” the officer repeated.
“I understand that. I do have rights, however, officer.”
“Lak?” Una called, “What's happening?”
“Apparently I'm being arrested on charges of planning to overthrow the government because I told the officer here that it's probable that Kalak who used to be Unf had yet another name as a podling, that is to say ...”
“Takan,” Una interrupted, nodding. “I used to do some work at the pay office, officer, and the pay office knows all. We just don't say; that would be really disrespectful. Oh, does that mean you're going to arrest me and the rest of the staff at the pay office? And how does knowing the name of a hero who wants to be left in peace mean someone is planning to overthrow the government? I'm missing several logical steps here.”
“Neither of you leave the city, under any circumstances,” the officer warned.
“I believe, officer, that you will have to allow us some exceptional circumstances, such as an official summons.”
“You know what I mean,” he said, turning and leaving.
“May the One guide your steps,” Lak said.
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“Lak?” Una said.
“Beloved?”
“What was that about?”
“The tradition party are in power. The aliens are not traditional, so it seems they deny they exist, and warp truth.”
“But...”
“Your intervention prevented my arrest. Once again, I owe you my life and my freedom. It may be that the tradition party will make it illegal to talk to the aliens, or even of the aliens. We must do what we can to prevent that.”
“How can we? You surely can't plan to undermine the authority of the ruling party? That's what he accused you of!”
“I will stay within the law as it was last week, but I will not keep silent about the message of grace, or about accepting reality. Nor will I ever deny the truth, that we have talked, in this house, with an alien about God's grace. I will also remind all who listen of the constitutional law on parties that states any party that tries to pass laws to distort the truth shall be expelled from office.”
“I'm scared Lak.”
“Let us spend some time in prayer.”
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OLD YASFORT
“Sorry I couldn't come up to meet you, Mum, Dad,” Mick said, hugging them. “The whole decontamination protocol thing is too dangerous for me.”
“Maggie told us, yes. But you are OK?”
“I'm OK, because most of my skin isn't my original skin, most of my muscles aren't my original muscles, and so on. Did you hear what almost happened to Sathie?”
“Yes,” his mother replied, with a shudder.
“I'm sorry you missed the wedding,” Sathie said, “but, urm, we felt it better to marry as soon as we heard we'd ignorantly crossed a moral line.”
“Especially since we had ourselves filmed doing so,” Mick added.
“And now you're living down here, full time, Sathzakara?” Mick's father asked.
“Yes. The air is perfectly breathable, if rather dry,” Sathie said. “So far, we've found that colds are potentially lethal to the people here, but so far nothing they catch crosses the species barrier. The micro-biologists are more worried about some diseases and parasites that the grazers and the semi-intelligent canine-like animals have, but it looks OK. Plus of course the canines are all dangerous sharks as far as we've discovered.”
“And the plants?”
“I've lived here for six years, Mum. Not even a rash so far. OK, Lana was managing my biochemistry, but... she didn't tell me about any special treatment. I've got a lot of her organisms and I'm getting better at communicating with them.”
“You've had problems?”
“Sometimes they're too helpful. I dreamt of flying last week — Lana flies pretty much everywhere, these days, so I was certainly used to the experience. I woke up famished, with my arms half-changed into wings.”
“Ah, oops. Did I hear something about you having powerful digestive system?”
“Sort of, yes. I've been discussing how it works so fast with Lana and some others. My so-called stomach is actually a pouch of specialist organisms and blood vessels; I shovel food in and then my organisms grow into the food, just as you might expect with a mould, but sped up. So it goes straight from pseudo-stomach to bloodstream in one step and the potential digesting area is massive. I just have to tell them what to digest from of it, and in a few seconds I've got extra sugars or proteins in my blood. An odd thing is I don't have much of a fat store — just my original one. Changing shape takes a lot of energy, and burns up protein, too, and so on, and with not much buffer except my bloodstream and of course undigested food, I need to tell my stomach what I'm going to need in a few minutes. Lana was pretty staggered at the thought of humans able to go for a week with an empty stomach.”
“Very different biologies,” his mother replied.
“Very. But nerve signals work in almost entirely the same way. Lana could tap into my optic nerve and see, and use my ears to hear. Our eyes are intrinsically more sensitive than theirs in the dark, by the way, and more sensitive to motion, but they see in higher detail, and they usually grow extra lenses so they can zoom in for a better view. I've got some eye organisms from Lana, otherwise when I regrow my own body then my podling — the organisms she gave me and that I'd send on their way as a separate person - would be blind. So I plan to try using them sometime — that's sort of needed too, for them to be passed on properly — but at the moment I'm not /at all/ sure how to wire extra eyes into my visual cortex.”
“So you will be regrowing your body?” Mick's father asked.
“At least partially. Having reprogrammable muscles and skeleton are wonderfully flexible, but also slow, Dad. I'll never catch fish in this body, and my thought-hearing range is rubbish, worse than landfolk. So I want to grow a bit more of old me back if I can: arm and leg muscles, for example. Also, if humans have to leave... at the moment that means I'm morally obliged to stay behind, or get Sathie to make something to freeze and then cut off my head, to let the regrowth guys try to grow me a whole new body. I'd like to not have to make such a drastic decision. Taking my cooperative organisms off-planet means condemning them to death, and that'd be the worst sort of betrayal. My organisms and me are a really connected team.”
“And I like his head just where it is, your highness.” Sathie added, remembering that as well as being Mick's father, the man she was addressing was also presently second in line to his sister's throne.
“Rule number one, for daughters in law when addressing my highness: call me John.”
“Yes, sir.”
“John” Prince John insisted.
“Yes, John.”
“Good, I'm glad that's settled. Now, did I hear you're planning to move Mick's ship?”
“What we can, yes. Certainly the antimatter battery, it wasn't meant to be a teething ring for canines.”
“What are you planning to do with it?” John asked.
“Build Mark-II?” Mick's mother suggested.
“That was my idea,” Mick said.
“If I do, then before Mick goes near it I'm going to work out how to give it enough sense of self-preservation to turn on its own forcefields and/or put on the brakes when it's heading for a planet.”
“You make it sound like it was all my fault.”
“It was, Mick,” Maggie said, “You stood up into the cupboard door that you had left open and knocked yourself out, and you ignored protocol about leaving the ship accelerating when not in the pilot's chair.”
“Fine, you can be the pilot, sister dearest.”
“I am.”
“I know. And I can't be; my reactions aren't fast enough. I wouldn't cope with the slightest bit of turbulence.”
“But you are alive, not to mention mine.” Sathie said. “I'll settle for those things.”
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