1

“Ola Marta, minha irmã valente nas estrelas…!”
Notwithstanding her rather florid greeting, ‘brave sister among the stars’, indeed, Marta Fernandes could tell that her Earthsister had something important to tell her and could hardly contain herself. Marta was viewing her latest packet in the privacy of her laboratory. She noticed that Miss da Guia was experimenting with tattoos and wondered if they were real. Her question was answered when the bird on her shoulder suddenly morphed into a set of enigmatic symbols. Her hair (now a shade of shocking pink) and makeup remained otherwise unchanged… The other woman was speaking again,
“You remember, Marta, when I told you I was thinking about a career in the media…”
Marta did, it had taken up a large part of her last packet… She was also beginning to be aware of ‘the media’ as a large amorphous entity of enormous power and influence, almost a living thing,
“Well, I was up for presenting this new show…and I’ve got a part…” Her Earthsister paused to peer conspiratorially at her cam, “…of course, it’s not quite the part I applied for, that went to an experienced presenter…but, I got another role… I get to interview people in Sampa as a sort of roving reporter…and if this goes well then I may get the chance to introduce bits of the show in the future…!” Miss da Guia paused for breath,
“Of course, I’ll have to learn Standard as it’s going out globally, but I’ve been taking lessons… Would you like to hear…?”
MDG now switched to Standard,
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen…and welcome to our show…”
Marta noticed that her accent, although still noticeable was now far less pronounced. She was also curious as to what this programme was going to be about, and could sense a certain amount of reticence on Miss da Guia’s part in telling her… The older girl seemed to sense this, and switching back to Portuguese she said,
“I wish I could tell you more…but I can tell you that the show will be about the Mission…You are very famous and well loved back here, Marta! Remember this…!”
Her Earthsister then turned to other matters… Her new boyfriend, friends, fashions…her new apartment in the heart of Sao Paulo…
Marta wished that magically, the communication could somehow become two-way… She wanted to ask so many questions… Had there been any more attacks by the Camposettas…? Had the next Mission been cancelled or not…?
But all too soon the packet had finished and she was left staring at her interface menu. An enormous amount of data was sent constantly from Earth, but recent news was hard to come by… This was obviously being censored, whether by Earth authorities or by Mission AI, Marta couldn’t tell…
She was also intrigued by her Earthsister’s comments about Marta’s own fame back on Earth… The idea that anyone apart from MDG, her close friends, and the Mission Planners, was even be aware of her was still something she found difficult to comprehend… The idea, that she, Marta Fernandes, could be famous just didn’t compute. She couldn’t make the leap from her community of eleven…to a world of billions, many of whom apparently knew her name…
She turned back to the work in hand. She was still worrying the problem of how to gain more insight on the inner world of the pseudo-crustacean…and how to achieve a breakthrough in communicating with them. But she faced a serious obstacle, how to get one of the creatures to engage when she couldn’t confront it directly. The other difficulty she faced was more insidious. The whole issue of crusty intelligence appeared to have been sidelined. Essentially, no one was now interested apart from Marta and Priya, the question of crusty intelligence having been trumped by the much more sexy, and immediate matter of ‘pod intelligence’. Her other great insight, the connexions between climate change and the apparent decision by the large pseudo-crustaceans to throw in their lot with the pseudo-plants more than fifty thousand years ago, provided a more promising avenue… But it would mean collaborating with the very people she most uncomfortable with…Han, Rai, and Jorja…and she wasn’t quite ready to do that yet…!
‘Still, it wouldn’t hurt to talk to Han about his fossils…’ she thought, ’…and she felt more comfortable with the idea of approaching him…
The extent to which Rai and Jorja had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat was only now becoming clear. What had started as a reckless act of defiance, which could have cost them their lives, had rapidly turned into a series of scientific coups that appeared certain to transform the life of the settlement. Their experience on the plateau had changed both of them, especially Jorja…! From someone who had been less than conscientious in carrying out her scientific work, she was now one possessed! Her research into the composition and effects of the sap was already yielding results. Sap apparently caused some areas of the brain to release neurotransmitters, including dopamine, stimulating the brain’s pleasure centres. It was thus analogous to cocaine, and highly addictive. It also boosted the olfactory centres. Marta’s guess that the pod produced something akin to a pheromone, and it was this that had drawn Rai to the sleeping crusty at the heart of the grove, proved to have been correct…but it was exposure to the sap which had sensitized the boy to this chemical messenger,
“What’s the point of being right if nobody notices…” had been her rather jaundiced comment to Priya when this came out,
“Well, you have the satisfaction of saying I told you so…”
“But seriously, what’s happened to Jorja…? Three months ago you couldn’t get her into a laboratory, and now you can’t get her out of it…!”
“She needs to understand what happened to them out there…specifically what happened to Rai…” Priya had replied, “…she felt completely helpless at the time…completely unable to help the person she loves most, and this her way of coping…”
But it was an almost incidental discovery by Jorja that would have the biggest impact. The girl had heated a sample of the sap as part of her work, and noticed a number of changes. Defying the strict instructions they’d all been given, she ingested some of the substance, and waited… She experienced nothing untoward, the narcotic effects of the substance having apparently been neutralised by boiling, and further analysis revealed that the proteins and vitamins that made it nutritious were still present… At a stroke she had transformed a dangerous drug into a source of calories, an ingredient which could be added to their diet and go a long way towards solving their nutrition problems… Preparations were already underway to begin exploiting this new source of food.
Rai had been almost equally successful in the months since his recovery. Always more conscientious than Jorja in the past, he’d been beavering away for years at the problem of how to produce viable varieties of terrestrial crops that could survive outside in Alphane conditions, without much success. Since his recovery he’d made incredible strides forward, and had been able to use gene splicing techniques to create a new hybrid form of kale which appeared to be thriving in his test sites. If the crop proved to be viable and nutritious then this was another huge step toward self sufficiency…
Thinking back over the last few months, Marta couldn’t help being slightly suspicious of all this progress. Prior to his contact with the pod, Rai had been hard-working and conscientious, but had essentially lacked the insight and creativity to come up with new ideas. She had always regarded him as a plodder when it came to science, and couldn’t help thinking that there was a connexion between his sudden transformation, and the time he’d spent connected to the pseudo-plant,
‘…of course’ she conceded to herself, ‘this could just be sour grapes…’
She also felt slightly uncomfortable with the ethical implications of all this… On one hand the pods were potentially an intelligent and self-aware species, but on the other, they were now being viewed as a source of food, and it was this that was taking priority…
Marta decided that it was pointless staying in the lab not working and decided to visit the newborns. The twins were now nearly five months old, and growing rapidly…
She hailed Amber five, their regular nursemaid,
“How are the little monsters today…?”
Nurse Amber turned from her duties changing the nearer girl’s nappy,
“Alpha is spending her time rolling from her tummy onto her back…and then back again, and thinks this is great fun…while Beta, well she’s nearly succeeded in sitting upright… I’ll think she’ll crack it in the next twenty four hours…”
Marta noticed that both girls now turned their heads towards them when they started speaking. Their eyes focused upon her as she approached their crib, Alpha smiled and reached out to her…
She liked Nurse Amber, who seemed to have far more personality than most of the nursemaids, almost like Six Gee, in fact…! But the fact that Amber had been forced to improvise temporary names for the twins reminded her that they still hadn’t been able to come up with permanent ones… Or rather Rai and Jorja hadn’t, Marta had finally decided,
“I’m thinking of naming Alpha, Madeleine, Nurse Amber…!
“That’s a pretty name…” the nursemaid paused, “…we can call her Maddy for short….”
The name immediately felt right… Marta had chosen the name of her hero, Madeleine Park, the last president of the United States…but of course it would need to be shortened. She had also taken it upon herself to name the elder child, ‘born’, if that was the right word, from her artificial womb, sixty eight minutes before her sister,
“I don’t think we should start using her name until we have named her sister…”
“Yes, I agree…” said Amber, “….we must be consistent, and fair…children notice things, even at this age…”
“I’ll speak to Rai…and see if they’ve managed to come up with a name for Beta… Have either of them visited…?”
“Jorja has dropped by a few times…” said the nursemaid, “…but she never stays long, and she still hasn’t picked either of them up…”
Marta could forgive Jorja her disengagement, but Rai was their father, whether he liked it or not…
Would you like to change Beta…?
“Yes…please…!”

---

2

Marta had arranged to see Han in the common room after lunch. She was feeling rather apprehensive. Although they’d been Out on Mission together a number of times since the events at the Equatorial camp, this was the first time since then they would have been alone together outside of work hours,
“Could we make this quite quick…Su-ying’s waiting for me…” Han looked distracted,
‘Not a promising start…’ thought Marta,
“Sure…this was Priya’s suggestion, actually…”
‘Great…you’re already becoming defensive…’ her nagging inner voice told her,
Han was looking at her in that disquieting way of his, waiting for her to continue,
“Um…she told me that you’d made some more discoveries…adding more data to what we already know about the fossil record. Obviously, I’m interested in this because it ties in with my research on climate change, raising the possibility of a causal link between this and recent extinction events…”
She waited, in vain, for Han to say something and was forced to fill the silence,
“So…! Could you tell me what you’ve found out…”
“…well, the disappearance of the medium-sized arthropods happened very quickly…very quickly indeed…! They are present in large numbers in one stratum. But, less than a thousand years later, they’re gone…! There is also an apparent decline in populations of the smaller arthropods, with evidence in the same strata, of large numbers dying contemporaneously…!”
“What happened to the large pseudo-crustaceans…at this time…?”asked Marta,
“Surprisingly little…! Of course, there would have been far fewer of these top predators… But there is no apparent increase in the number dying during this period…although, I did find evidence in the stomach of a fossilised crusty that they were feeding on smaller arthropods…”
“Yes, that would make sense…”
“But, it’s what I’ve found in more recent strata that’s really surprising…” Han paused.
‘Looks like I’m going to have to drag it out of him…’ she thought with resignation,
“And what was that, Han…?”
Well, about three thousand years ago they disappear from the fossil record completely…at least in the areas where I did my research…!”
“I don’t understand…”
“There are no more recent fossil remains of the large creatures we call crusties in our local area…or rather there is only one set of remains, old but not old enough to have fossilised…”
Han waited while she took in the implications of this,
“Are you saying…are you telling me that they just stopped dying…?”
“Well, that’s one possible explanation…they could of course be going somewhere else to die, which in itself would be an unexplained change to their behaviour…” Han looked at her steadily,
“…if I didn’t know better, my interpretation of the data would be that the creatures entered a long decline…essentially stopped breeding, and finally went extinct, about three thousand years ago…”
“But the obvious flaw in that theory is that they’re still here…” finished Marta,
“Precisely…”

---

After her meeting Marta returned to her laboratory and sat there for a long time,
“We take two steps forward in our understanding of this planet…and immediately find ourselves three steps back…’ she thought ruefully. She wasn’t getting anywhere with her work, so she ’faced Jorge and arranged to meet him in the Garden…
“Hey…!” said the boy as she exited the elevator, when she didn’t reply immediately he knew something was up, “…why so quiet…?”
“Because…because everything I do just seems pointless at the moment…!” Marta hadn’t intended unloading on Jorge in this way, but it all just came out in a rush…
“Don’t say anything…just hold me for a while…”
She settled herself in his lap, and for a while he just drove them randomly through the trees and bushes… The butterflies and the bees were busy disporting themselves in the afternoon sunshine, the perfumes were heady in the moist air. Jorge knew it was best to wait for Marta to start talking, which she would eventually…
After about ten minutes or so she broke the silence,
“I talked to Han…”
“Well done…! What did ‘Captain Technology’ have to say for himself…?”
“Well, not a lot…I was keeping him from an important appointment with Su-ying, so he didn’t stay long,
“Not that he spends a lot of time with her, of course…”
“…but he did say some rather interesting things… Most of it was fairly routine stuff I could have guessed myself, about the extinction events…but right at the end he told me something really astonishing….”
She turned her face up towards his,
“…he told me, get this, that the crusties virtually disappear from the fossil record about three thousand years ago…!”
“I’m sorry…could you say that again…”
“There are virtually no fossils of the large pseudo-crustaceans in any of his study areas less than three thousand years old…”
“But that would mean…”
“…that the species is extinct, so the animals we are studying are presumably figments of our imagination…” continued Marta, “…but there is another possibility…”
“Migration…?” Jorge was struggling,
“That too, is also a possibility…it’s just that we haven’t observed them doing anything of the kind in all the years we’ve been on the planet… But the possibility I’m thinking about…”
“They just don’t die anymore…”
“Exactly…! It would appear that apart from the two I killed, no pseudo-crustacean has died while we’ve been on this world…and the only other evidence of crusty death less than three thousand years old that we’ve been able to find are the remains that ‘Oswald’ visits…”
“So…to all intents and purposes they’re immortal…”
“That’s about the size of it…”
“Which makes what happened in the crater…”
“….a really huge deal…I know, that occurred to me while I was sitting in my lab after meeting Han…I’m not sure I’m going to be able to sleep tonight…”
“…have you shared this with anybody…?”
“No…and I don’t know if Han has…”
Marta sat up suddenly causing Jorge to wince slightly,
“…the implications are huge… I remember something Rai said now, about how he thought the larger pod groves might have existed in the same place for thousands of years…” Marta’s thoughts were now racing almost too fast for her to keep up, “…and maybe this explains what that crusty was doing in the heart of that grove in Rai and Jorja’s valley… Maybe periodically, they go into this state of suspended animation…and stay there, maybe for centuries, sustained by the pod…that could explain their longevity…”
To his huge relief Marta had now levered herself out of his lap and was now pacing up and down in front of him,
“I think what we’ve got here is a simplified ecosystem…one that is no longer dynamic…it’s stopped changing…it’s in a state of almost perfect balance…! Think about it…! How many different types of Alphane creature do we know of…?”
“Well, there’s big and small arthropods…”
“Yes, crusties and arths… What else…?”
“Well, there’s the worms in the lakes…”
“…and possibly something bigger in the lakes down south… What about pseudo-plants…?”
“Pods…maroon pseudo-bushes…the mould you find in the shaded parts of the craters…”
“…and the pseudo-alga in the lakes…a few micro-organisms, and that’s it…”
“So, you’re saying we’ve got an ecosystem in a state of complete equilibrium, until…”
“We come along and start ruining it…” said Marta flatly, “…I’m even more convinced that the pseudo-crustaceans have no hostile intent toward us…or at least, not yet…! But they recognise that we are something new, something that is about to upset the planetary applecart…and they are trying to learn as much about us as they can……!”
Marta was staring fiercely off into middle distance. Jorge could feel the heat from the setting sun on his face, his newly enhanced location system could now represent her three dimensionally in his mind… He thought she had never looked more beautiful, like some pagan warrior queen… She was speaking again,
“…and what are our priorities at the moment…? Developing ways to exploit a potentially intelligent species as a food source… Will we ever learn…?” Marta almost spat the last words out…
Jorge kept his thoughts to himself, but he knew the girl well enough to know that she now had a cause…she was on her own Mission, and heaven help anyone who got in her way…

---

3

One down, two to go. Having dealt with Han, Rai and Jorja were next on the agenda. Marta ’faced Jorja saying that she needed to talk to them about naming the children, and then she waited. It took nearly a Standard day for Jorja to respond, but just when Marta thought she would need to send a reminder, Jorja appeared in her laboratory,
“So, what is this about, then…?”
‘No social pleasantries then…!’ thought Marta, aloud she said,
“I’ve come up with a name for the elder of the two girls…I’ve decided to call her Madeleine…”
‘…present her with a fait accompli…’ thought the girl…
Jorja looked askance at her before replying,
“So what do you need us for…?”
Marta swallowed her anger,
“I need you to come up with a name for the other child…we can’t start calling one by its name and not the other… Nurse Amber, the nursemaid looking after them, has started calling them Alpha and Beta…we don’t want those names to stick… Do we…?”
Jorja’s expression seemed to indicate that she didn’t much care, so Marta pressed on,
“Look, it was your idea that we should name them now, anyway…”
“OK…OK, right…! Look, I’ll need to talk to Rai, and I’ll get back to you…” then she was gone,
‘…that could have gone better…’ mused Marta…
Eventually she got a curt message from Jorja,
meet us at the common room after dinner…
‘Us…!’ that meant she’d be outnumbered. For moment she thought about asking Jorge to join her,
‘Don’t be silly…! You can handle them…’ she assured herself…
They were already there when she arrived. Rai was sprawled casually on one of the easy chairs, Jorja was leaning over him her arms around his neck,
“So, why the big meeting…?” drawled the boy insolently,
‘At least he’s speaking Standard…’ thought Marta,
“You know what it’s about, Rai…! I’ve fulfilled my part of the agreement…I’ve come up with a name, Madeleine…now, it’s your turn…!” Marta had decided to stare him out, the boy covered this by gazing up at his girlfriend,
“Cute name…!” they shared a smile,
“Named after your hero, I suppose… Hope she doesn’t turn out to be a loser as well…”
Marta turned as if to go,
“Well, if you’re going to take that attitude, we have nothing to discuss…”
“I didn’t say we hadn’t decided, Marta…! It’s just that we haven’t got the time to waste coming up with baby names…we have important research to do, unlike some people…”
“Well, I’m glad you’ve finally managed to do some research that wasn’t a complete waste of time…it’s only taken you three years…”
For a moment they just glared at each other,
“Look…this isn’t getting us anywhere…!” interrupted Jorja, whose patience had snapped, “We’ve decided to name her Jamilla, OK…”
“…and which her would that be, Jorja…? Can you even tell the difference…?”
“…the younger one, of course…! And I can tell the difference…”
Marta smiled in satisfaction,
“Well, at least you visit them…” she looked at Rai as she said this, and got a scowl in return, “OK…! Jamilla it is then…I’ll tell Nurse Amber…!” turning on her heel she left without a word or a backward glance,
‘I thought that went rather well…’

---

She decided to head straight for the nursery. Both children were asleep when she got there, watched over by the faithful Nurse Amber,
“Hi Marta…! I’m afraid you’ve missed their feed…”
“I’ve been talking to Rai and Jorja…and I have news…”
“Oh really…” Amber’s sunny countenance lit up,
“Yes, they’ve decided to name Beta, Jamilla…”
“Well, I’m glad…a child needs a name…”
Now Marta knew Amber’s concern was only a series of protocols and sub-routines, but it didn’t feel like that… It felt to her that the nursemaid really cared, for want of a better word, that she loved the children… Amber was speaking again,
“…we can call her Milla, for short… Yes, I like that, Maddy and Milla…” apparently satisfied, the nursemaid turned back to her many duties…

---

The next time she visited the twins, Nurse Amber was already using the new names,
“Hi Marta, I’ve been getting the girls used to their names… Watch…!
She turned towards the nearer of the two girls,
“Maddy…Maddy…” both girls had turned at the sound of her voice, but it was the nearer child who smiled and reached out out her,
“You try…”
Marta looked towards the other child,
“Milla…”
Again, both children turned, but only one reacted by smiling and chortling…
She was pleased that the children were responding to their names and heartened that they reacted to her, and appeared pleased to see her. She had picked up Milla up and was crooning to her. The child felt heavy in her arms. Her secret fear was that the twins would grow up regarding Nurse Amber as their mother and not her. She visited every day, twice a day if she could manage the time…but her other duties and responsibilities limited what she could do, while Amber was there all the time…
She wondered how the girls regarded them, if they distinguished between the human and the non-human. She tried to put herself in their place and think back to her own childhood…but it was no use, for Marta her nursemaids had been her whole world growing up…with only the surly and uncommunicative Rai as alternative company… But, thinking about it now she had clearly seen Rai as someone like herself, and the Nurses as different. She resolved to try and note if there were differences in how the twins responded to her and how they responded to Amber…
Just as she was leaving she nearly ran into Jorja entering the nursery from the corridor beyond…behind her was Rai…! Not wishing to stick around, Marta nodded curtly at them and hurried away… But she was pleased, maybe her sarcasm had got through to him…
Time passed as time will. Another month had gone by, when out of the blue Marta received a summons to meet with Nurse Gee,
“Ah, Marta, my dear…! it’s lovely to see you…!”
Marta was very conscious that her previously close relationship with Six Gee had cooled in recent months,
“Nice to see you, Gee…! How can I help…?”
“Well, I thought it was about time that we caught up…! I’m sorry that we haven’t made the time to do this earlier…”
It all felt rather awkward,
‘You wouldn’t have thought a machine could be embarrassed…” thought Marta, but that’s what it felt like,
“…things are fine…” she said cautiously. Gee paused, evidently waiting for her to continue,
“…I’ve had some disappointments, of course… The attempts to communicate with our crusty test subject, remotely…using a robot, have been unsuccessful so far…”
The girl sighed,
“…the problem would appear to be that the pseudo-crustaceans can tell the difference between a living being, such as me or Priya (she nearly said us, but stopped herself in time…) and something that is not alive…”
This conversation was suddenly becoming tricky,
“…and just don’t react in the same way to things…phenomena that they regard as…as inanimate…..”
“Quite…” said Gee,
“I think the only way forward, would be to rethink your prohibition on approaching the creatures in person… I mean, I would be quite happy to do this alone, and I would stay inside the rova…”
“…we will consider your suggestion…” said Gee,
‘So no support there…’ thought the girl, sadly,
“The other thing I wanted to say…” continued Gee, “…is that we have decided that now you and Rai have come up with suitable names for the children, we should have some sort of ceremony…where the children are officially named…”
“…like a Christening, you mean…!”
“Well, a naming ceremony…we must, of course, be ecumenical here…! I’ve no knowledge of your views on the subject of religion, but I am aware that Rai regards himself as a Hindu…”
“I regard myself as an Atheist…” said Marta firmly, “…and I think it is for the children to decide, when they are old enough, if they wish to adopt spiritual beliefs… But, I am in favour of the settlement developing its own rituals…”
“Excellent…the ceremony will take place in one week…I will keep you apprised of the details…”

---

The Nurses had chosen the large subsurface chamber where the twins had lain in their incubators for the ceremony… The day happened to be a Sunday… Marta had in the past questioned the Dome’s retention of Earth conventions like hours, days and weeks… The Standard Alphane day was longer than a terrestrial day, and there were more of them, as A5 took longer to orbit its primary… They’d kept the days of the week, and the notion of a week…but adopted standardised four week months. These however, lacked names, and were merely designated numerically…
Marta was standing next to Priya, with Jorge by her side, everyone was dressed to the nines, waiting for the ceremony to begin,
‘I wonder what happened to those other children I saw here…?’ she thought suddenly. Only she had seen them, and now It was almost like they had never existed…at times she doubted their reality herself. But presumably they were being maintained somewhere…in their curious half life…
Although she was not herself religious, Marta had learned about world religions, including Christianity, and it had occurred to her that the twins, as well as being the first true newborns on this world, were the product of what was to all intents and purposes an Immaculate Conception,
‘A lot of symbolic significance rests on those young shoulders…’ she mused.
Nurse Amber was bringing in Maddy, followed by a junior nursemaid who was holding Jamilla…they laid the children on a table spread with a white blanket, prepared for the occasion. Jorge gave her hand a squeeze and she approached this improvised altar,
“Maddy…” she called softly…the child smiled and reached out to her… She took it in her arms and turned towards those assembled. All the children (or at least, all those acknowledged), and more nursemaids than Marta had ever seen had packed the chamber. She cleared her throat,
“We have gathered here today, to welcome two precious children to our community… We welcome them by naming them…”
Marta turned to face Rai and beckoned him over…reluctantly the boy approached. Amber had picked up Jamilla and handed her over…awkwardly he cradled her in his arms,
“Madeleine Katravanagan-Fernandes, we name you and welcome you to our community…” she turned to the boy who said in a clear voice,
“Jamilla Katravanagan-Fernandes, we name you and welcome you to our community…”
Marta noticed Priya had reached out and taken Jorja’s hand, both looked close to tears. She faced the assembled company,
“…me and Rai, we may have donated the genetic material, but these children, they belong to all of us… We, everyone in this room….and I make no distinction between the organic and the non-organic, here… We are all parents to these children… In their fragile bodies we place our hopes for the future… It is up to us to keep them from harm…”

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Chapter 15. On the Ice >>