Second generation, p.17
Second Generation, page 17
Now Judi took shelter with her new friends from Russia. She had learned their language, happy to forget her own. It brought her pain to speak English again, but it also brought a sense of peace. She never thought she’d grow old, but she had. Among friends.
Hanta’s story was the strangest. He had been hunting seals off the coast of Greenland with his boy, Innik. “Innik means son. Hanta means hunter.” He smiled, “My family had little imagination!” Then he frowned again. “We knew Goliath was coming. We wanted to die together, hunting. The sky burned. The sea rose. It carried us on our ice shelf very far away, over the burning forests, across seas and mountains. Eventually it stopped, we did not know where. When the acid rains came we burrowed into what was left of the ice. We hid, only coming out to gather the dead carcasses off the land around us. Dead fish from the sea. Dead cattle from the fields. We kept their bodies frozen in the ice. We had expected to die. Sometimes we begged for death, but it passed over us, just as our ice shelf passed over many lands. When the ice had all but gone, we walked. We had no idea which way. Not until we met Judi and Alyona and the others.”
So, a few had come from Alaska and Greenland. A few from Japan and Canada. They had migrated in search of food and better climate, much as their ancient ancestors. And just like those ancestors, they had discovered a land bridge between two continents, across the Bering Sea. They stayed because the climate was now far warmer here than it had been many millennia ago. The sun pushed through the clouds more often here, the food more plentiful.
It had seemed a haven until the fish-people emerged.
“We don’t understand,” said Leo. “Do you mean people who go fishing? Other survivors?”
“No,” said Hanta, his eyes infinitely sad. “They are not human. They are not fish. We think they have been made under the island.”
“Under the island?” asked Leo, even more puzzled.
“There is a winding stair that leads deep into an island off the coast, nearby. We think it must lead to another bunker. Perhaps someone is in there, breeding these creatures. It is the only explanation that makes any sense to us.”
“Will you take us there?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because whoever is there will take you. You will never come back.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My granddaughter, Mishka, had a baby last spring,” he gestured to a young woman sitting beside him, with her head in her hands. “The fish-people came at night and took her baby away.”
“Why?”
“I think they might make her into one of them.”
Demetria looked at Mishka. A tear rolled down her cheek as she buried her head against Hanta’s chest.
14
Winding Stair
Aleutian Peninsula, Earth – Leo Meier
Leo sat on the balcony of a treehouse, looking out across the treetops towards the inland sea. He was making a very long report to Stef, which would be passed to Sam, Trish and the rest of Mars as well. Stef had confirmed his reinstatement as landing team leader now that the crisis with Demetria had passed, but he was anxious to prove her trust in him.
The discovery of survivors on Earth was momentous. He had recorded everything from first contact to the stories they told around the fire the previous night. Although Stef and the Mars Mission Control had seen and marvelled at the headcam recordings, Leo wanted to provide a commentary with input from all his teammates. They sat around him while he set a recording going and led the discussion.
“We have achieved several of the Earth mission goals,” he started, formally. “We have established that it is possible to survive on Earth. We know that the temperatures are bearable, even pleasant here at the fifty-fourth latitude. We have found plant and animal life far beyond our expectations: rushes, pine forests, insects, rodents, fish. And we have found survivors, albeit in exceedingly small numbers. There is a community of thirty-four on this peninsula, what used to be part of Alaska. Mostly descendants of Russian, Japanese, Inuit, Canadian and American peoples. And, after a misunderstanding,” he paused, looking at Demetria who managed a smile, “they have accepted us. Though I sense an understandable mistrust. As if we had abandoned them for four decades before coming to look for them.”
“We have yet to find the source of the signal. The village of survivors deny any knowledge of it. I and many of my teammates believe it likely the signal is connected to the community’s reports of a bunker within an island off the cost, about six kilometres from their settlement. Their verbal report aligns almost exactly with our predicted signal location. The eastings and northings given in the signal itself. I propose that our next task is to look for the island and conduct a search, while taking suitable precautions to ensure no more… misunderstandings occur.”
“I agree,” began Georgia. “But I think there are now two equal priorities: the other should be to study this community of survivors, with their consent, and understand exactly how they live off this land. To catalogue the plants and creatures they know of. To record more of their stories.”
“Absolutely,” agreed Samaira. “I also wish to discuss their memories of the climate changes since the meteorite impacts, and their experience of current seasonal changes.”
“I’d like to understand the technologies they use and how they innovate,” added Feng.
“I think we owe them an explanation of our own story,” said Demetria. “Alyona’s already started pushing me and it’s only fair they know.”
“You’re right,” said Leo. “They deserve to know.”
“I want to find these crazy fish-people,” said Ursula, ruining the attempted professionalism.
Leo couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You were all doing fine up until the ‘crazy-fish people’ bit,” said Stef. “But I agree with your agenda. What I want to know is how you intend to avoid more ‘misunderstandings.’”
“We send a team of four to the island, we keep together, we keep in contact with you and the other team members, we don’t do anything that looks dangerous, and we look before we leap,” said Leo. “If we don’t like the situation we’ll pull out and re-think.”
“What do you think they mean by fish-people?” asked Stef, openly.
“Best not jump to any conclusions,” said Georgia. “They could be misreading what they see. They could be embellishing what they know out of fear and grief.”
“Hmm. I leave it to Leo and the rest of you to agree your teams,” said Stef. “I’ll be big sister, watching you all from orbit.”
Despite her forced arrival, Demetria was happy to remain with the community in their treehouse village for the time being. Once Alyona learned she was a medic with access to modern medicine she was keen to introduce her to those who suffered and needed treatment. Some would be easy to treat, some not. Feng and Samaira would stay with her to start an informal series of interviews with the survivors.
Although she wanted to be in both places, Georgia agreed she was the best person to go with Leo in search of the bunker and the so-called fish-people. They would need a biologist to understand what they were looking at. Chen and Ursula were logical choices to track the signal and negotiate whatever technical obstacles they might find.
As the four explorers gathered their equipment they heard a distant rumble, like rocks falling over a precipice, far away. Samaira looked up at the sky. It was starting to cloud over.
“My instruments say humidity is rising. We may be in for a storm, so don’t stay there long.”
Leo nodded. He remembered the lightning laced clouds they crossed over the Pacific Ocean. He didn’t want any of them to be caught in that.
Even as they drove along the shoreline in the rovers, they noticed the light fading and the clouds darkening. A light wind whipped the crests of the waves, making them froth and foam. After about half an hour, after passing a turn in the shoreline, they saw a rocky peak with a flat top, rising above the sea. It seemed odd, out of place. As they drew nearer they could see traces of sand clinging to the crevices in the shoreline.
“Perhaps it was an undersea volcano, exposed now the sea level dropped?” suggested Georgia.
“Possible,” said Leo. “We’re on the edge of the Bering Sea so this land must have been part of the Aleutian Islands, along the Pacific Ring of Fire. Doesn’t look that far off. Worth a reconnaissance in the dinghies before the weather turns bad?”
“I’m up for it,” said Chen.
“Me too,” said Ursula.
“Well, we didn’t come all this way to turn around again,” agreed Georgia. “But we should keep a check of what those clouds are doing.”
As if in answer, there was another rumble, a little louder and nearer than before.
Chen and Ursula inflated dinghies and fitted fresh batteries. The dinghies bounced and lurched across the waves, which were getting higher. Leo was starting to get nervous. He noticed the others frowning, looking about them as if they were afraid of some scaly face jumping out of the water at them.
Nothing. Just the darkening waves and the rocky island, slowly drawing nearer. They found a cove with the remains of a sandy beach and hauled in their boats, tethering them to an outcrop. They fanned out in a ragged line to comb the small island. Hanta had mentioned a winding stair. Leo was dubious, but they would search for anything unusual. He noted that they weren’t quite on top of the location given in the signal but were so close as to make little difference. They had to start the search somewhere, so it might as well be on the island.
The wind buffeted Leo, flapping his shirt and hair. The wind caught the sea spray and whipped it across the tiny island, stinging his cheeks. A part of him was enjoying the sensation of being exposed to nature. Another, more ancient part was urging him to seek shelter. He was about to suggest they turn back for the dinghy when Ursula gave a shout and waved them over to her.
It was starting to spit with rain as she pointed down at a gap in the rocks. “A door,” she said.
Leo saw a metal door with curved top and bottom and a wheel lock at its centre. It looked like the airlocks on the space station. Or the entrance to a bunker. He tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. Ursula stepped in to help but even together it remained stubbornly closed.
“Try your trick with the spanner,” she suggested to Chen.
First he pulled a hammer from his toolkit and gave it a few encouraging taps. That failed, so he took a spanner and wedged it into the spokes of the wheel lock, like Ursula suggested. The two of them gave it a heave and finally it nudged around. There was a muffled bang and a grinding sound, like a mechanism being forcefully overridden. A few more tugs pulled the door loose and they had it open just at the clouds unleashed a downpour. They ran inside for cover.
Leo listened as fat raindrops hammered against the metal door. None of them had ever experienced more than a light refreshing shower, semi-randomly programmed to water the crops in Tithonium. This was ferocious. He could barely see his hand in front of his face, so he turned on a lamp next to his headcam. It illuminated a small round lobby cut out of the rock, with a concrete floor. At the back of the lobby was a metal rail. Leo leaned across and looked down.
A metal stair, winding down and down, into darkness.
Leo stepped back towards the door. Rain was already splashing over the threshold making a puddle, so he pulled it too. The drumming was still loud even with it closed. “Looks like we’re staying here till the storm eases off,” he said. “Stef? Can you hear me over this racket?”
“Just!” her voice was all but overwhelmed by the thrumming of rain off the metal. “Don’t go running around underground out of contact.”
“What else are we going to do?” complained Ursula.
“I suggest we form a chain of contact with the surface,” said Leo. “Chen stays within range, near the top. Ursula stays in contact with Chen. Georgia goes as far as she can with me before we lose Ursula.”
“Okay, but don’t risk going any further,” said Stef.
They organised themselves in order, Leo first and Chen last. They climbed down, round and round several turns until Chen called out.
“Loosing signal here,” he said, “I’ll take a few steps up until I get full contact… there we go. Okay, looks like I’m staying here.”
Leo frowned. They’d only descended about five metres, and it was looking like the stair stretched much further. He estimated they were already back at sea level, and it seemed likely that wherever the stair led would be well below.
They carried on down, round and round, until Ursula told them she was losing Chen and would have to stop too. They’d probably only gone another four metres. Once she had a full connection again, Leo continued with Georgia just behind him.
The constant turning of the stairs in the dark made Leo feel giddy. He held tightly to the rail, remembering the spiral stair that ascended to the elder chamber on Tithonium. Would he meet anyone down here? Was this just an elaborate entrance to an empty bunker?
“Stop,” said Georgia. “I’m losing Ursula now.”
“Hell!” cursed Leo, feeling he was descending into a kind of purgatory, neither hell nor heaven. Just a stair winding into nowhere. A glimmer of reflected light caught his eye from below. “Wait a moment. There might be an end, not far below.”
“You heard what Stef said, don’t go further. Not without me.”
Leo turned around to face her, a mischievous grin on his face, “Then come with me!”
“No! Leo, I’m not going to risk it. We’ll come back with more people and try again.”
Leo looked from Georgia back to the place where he’d seen a reflection. It might just be the stair itself. Or it might be something else. Another door? “I’m going down. Just two more turns of the stair. You can see my headlamp and you can hear me; I’ll keep talking, keep calling out each step.”
“Leo!”
“See you in a minute,” and he walked on, into darkness.
“One, two, three, four…” he counted as he descended. He gripped the rail a little harder as his head began to swim. “…eleven, twelve, thirteen…” How far down must he be now? Fifteen metres below sea level? “…twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three…” Damn it, had he been imagining that reflection? “… twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-… oh!”
“Leo? Leo! Are you okay?” called Georgia.
“Another door. Like the one at the top. I’ll just try the wheel lock…”
“Leo, no!”
“Oh!”
“What?”
“It’s opening and I’m not touching anything.”
The door swung inward, away from him. A pool of blue light spilled onto the landing where he stood, swaying slightly after the spiral descent. Silhouetted against the light was a human figure, though Leo immediately noticed something odd about it.
“Good day to you,” said the figure at the door. “You may call me Noah. Please come in.”
“Noah,” repeated Leo. “As in…”
“Noah’s Ark. Doctor Rossier’s little joke.” The figure turned and beckoned Leo in. The blue light fell across their face, revealing a smooth shiny surface and two bright reflections from their eyes. Leo realised he was looking at a droid. A brilliantly programmed and crafted droid, likely with a semi-independent AI processor. A few had existed in the last days of Earth. A few simpler models had come with the Mars colonists. Very few, as they had been astronomically expensive.
“My friends,” Leo pointed up the stairs.
“Yes, please bring them too,” said the droid.
“But we should keep in touch with… others in our group.”
“You’ll find we have a relay here. You’ll be able to contact your orbiting ship from inside.”
Leo baulked. That was a heck of a leap. He opened his mouth to ask how the droid knew they had a spaceship, then decided that question could wait. Instead he called Georgia, Ursula and Chen to come down. “We have been invited to meet a Doctor Rossier in the chamber at the bottom of the stairs. Their… associate, Noah, assures me there’s a relay to keep in contact with Stef.”
Leo heard Chen check with Stef before agreeing. She hesitated but he guessed she was as eager as the rest of them to find out about Doctor Rossier and Noah. Chen gathered Ursula and Georgia on the way, stopping abruptly when he saw Noah. “Oh!” he exclaimed.
“That’s what I said,” Leo gave a half smile.
“A droid.”
“I am an avatar for the AI that serves this facility,” said Noah. My primary processor resides in a static stack. The unit you see is my eyes, ears and hands.”
Leo looked around him. There were probably other eyes and ears on the winding stair, otherwise they wouldn’t have known to open the door.
“Impressive,” said Chen.
“Thank you. Please follow me.” Noah turned and led them along a narrow passage to another door. This opened into a surprisingly large circular room with a domed ceiling. Leo estimated you could lay about twenty people end to end across its diameter. The curved wall was lined with metal drawers, each with a small clear view panel. There was a gap on the far side that looked glazed. A dim blue-green light filtered through it, but it was too dim to see anything beyond. The chamber floor was the same smooth cast concrete finish as the stair landings outside and it was crammed with lab equipment and tablets, most of them projecting stats and graphs. Bright task lamps lit the desks but the whole room glowed with a soft blue light. In the centre was a neat metal desk on a worn wool rug, decorated in fine oriental patterns. The desk was meticulously organised with a tablet, a projection space and a tall specimen jar. The jar looked as if it contained something that had once been alive. Sat at a simple black chair behind the desk was a grey-haired woman wearing a neatly pressed white blouse and faded blue jeans. She stood, smiled and approached Leo, offering her hand.
“Hello, my name is Leonie Rossier,” her voice was slightly hoarse with the hint of a European accent that he was struggling to place. Swiss perhaps? Her eyes were startlingly blue. They scanned Leo from head to toe as if she were examining a particularly fascinating, yet not altogether perfect specimen.
