Book Two: The Fixed Stars – Chapter 1 Happy Families

Marta chafed under her long confinement. She spent the days either in her bunk, visiting the twins, or in her lab. She rebuffed a tentative attempt by Jorge to contact her,
‘…the bastard didn’t even check I was OK,’ she told herself acerbically…
At first even Priya stayed away, and during the long hours when she wasn’t either working or sleeping she found herself becoming addicted to playing Confucius on her interface.
The word game, based on the gnomic utterances of the sixth century BC Chinese scholar, had become a craze on Earth about twenty years before. Han had introduced it to the crew, and for a while all of them had played it avidly. Marta had stumbled on the self-play version by accident, but now she couldn’t stop playing it.
The object of the game was to solve clues and arrive at one of the philosopher’s famous (or less famous) aphorisms in the fewest number of steps. Each clue suggested a word from the saying, but they were not delivered sequentially,
Confucius say: ‘no kidding’
‘Hmmm, park that one,’
Confucius say: ‘after you’ (phrase)
‘Still no,’
Confucius say: ‘creative process’
‘Mmmm…making?’
Confucius say: ‘animating principle’
“Life…life! ‘Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated!’” she said aloud,
‘Next puzzle,’ she directed her ’face,
Confucius say: ‘reaches towards heaven’
‘Next word,’
‘That which follows’
‘Next!’
‘Contend’
‘This was too easy,’ aloud she said,
“‘…when anger rises think of the consequences!’”
‘Is Mission AI doing this deliberately?’ she wondered, ‘…choosing aphorisms that suit my situation…to provide a moral lesson, maybe. Or is fate trying to tell me something? Or is this just coincidence and I’m becoming paranoid?’
She decided that she’d had enough of hiding away wasting time and needed to get out and speak to people. She ’faced Priya,
going mad in here, need company…sorry so grumpy recently…
The answer came in five minutes,
meet by the portal in one hour…bring flowers…
*******
Alph was dropping towards the horizon by the time they set out across the shale into the desert. Marta had known where Priya was going as soon as she read the word flowers…
They had buried Sal beneath a simple cairn two kliks from the Dome. Priya made the solitary pilgrimage every day,
“So, what have you been up to?”
“…nothing much, playing Confucius, mainly…”
Priya rolled her eyes to indicate her exasperation with her friend,
“…couldn’t you find better things to do? like talking to Jorge, for example,”
“…he wasn’t there for me…”
Priya obviously wanted to say more, but left it for the moment and they walked in silence,
“…it’s a bit like having your own cyber version of the Book of Changes,”
“I’m sorry?”
Marta clarified,
“…playing Confucius is a bit like consulting the I Ching,”
“How so?”
“…well, the aphorisms are chosen at random, like in the Book of Changes…but I can’t help thinking that there’s nothing random about the one’s that come up,”
“…for someone who was a total rationalist less than a year ago, you seem to have gone completely off the deep end when it comes to spirituality,”
“…well, fusing with an alien consciousness can have that effect on you…”
Marta smiled,
“….but seriously, the two that came up just before I ’faced you were, ‘Life is very simple but we insist on making it complicated’, and ‘When anger rises think of the consequences.’ I mean spooky or what?”
“…all it proves is that he was a very wise man, and virtually every one of his sayings applies to each of us at some time in our lives. Marta, I think you’re getting far too fatalistic. Rather than sitting around waiting for prophecies, you should be taking action. You should be making your own future,”
“…easier said than done when you’re confined to the Dome…I’m surprised that they let me go this far,”
“…I’m sure if it looked like you were going for another ‘walk in the desert’, they’d be after you like a shot,” Priya turned to her friend, “…have you talked to Gee about maybe relaxing things a bit,”
“…yes, but no dice! They don’t say it, but I can tell they’re displeased because I’m deviating from the plan,”
“…you mean you and Jorge…”
Marta nodded,
“….can’t have a colony without colonists. I’m sorry!” she held up her hands, “…I’m so stupid, so selfish…I just don’t think, sometimes,”
“…it’s alright, Marta…but maybe you should appreciate what you have…”
Marta felt thoroughly chastened, but a little voice told her,
‘…but he’s got to make the first move…’
They were now climbing up the rocky path that led to the outcrop where they’d placed Sal’s cairn. The rocks were now casting long shadows out into the desert,
“…did I tell you that one of the crusties has started to visit his grave?”
“…no! How do you know?”
“…well, I’ve seen tracks,”
“…it hasn’t disturbed anything?”
“…no, nothing like that! I just think they feel our loss…and come to venerate him, that’s all!”
They were both carrying white lilies, Priya also had a bottle of water with her to top-up the urn,
“…see! Just there where the sand’s gathered…”
Marta could see the characteristic pattern made by the creature’s many legs,
“…I think it’s left something. Look!”
They had now reached the cairn. Marta’s eyes followed where her friend was pointing, and saw the brilliant amber-coloured crystal, placed just-so before the memorial, sparkled in the last of the sunlight,
‘…selected not worked,’ she thought to herself,
“…hard to believe it just came upon something that beautiful,” said Priya, apparently mirroring those thoughts,
“…the pseudo-crustaceans don’t believe in manipulating or altering nature,” replied Marta. Her friend looked quizzically at her so she added,
“…something I found out, while I was linked…”
Priya had now finished placing the fresh flowers in the urn and had topped it up with water from the bottle,
“…it’s just impossible to keep things tidy,” she said, referring to the dead dried-up flowers piled in heaps by the rocks,
“…I mean…nothing ever rots here!”
Marta moved to put her arm around her friend, divining that the state of the grave was not the real issue,
“…don’t fret, love! We’ll bring the rova up the path next time and we can have a good tidy up. OK?”
“…it’s just that I miss him so much…every day…every hour…every minute…I don’t want to forget him, but…”
Marta held her friend for a while,
“…better be getting back,” she said at last.
Alph was now dropping rapidly towards the horizon.The cairn faced the Dome, and they could see its lights standing out against the darkening plain. Marta re-read the inscription on the copper plate set into the ground before the cairn,
Salvatore Medina 2096-2110 beloved of Priya, loved by all. Recipio in Pacem…
She shivered suddenly in the gathering gloom. The night held fewer terrors for the children now the essentially-benign nature of most Alphane life had been divined, and their interfaces would ensure they didn’t stray off course. But there was the danger of a stumble leading to a fall (and a broken bone), so Marta wanted to get down off the rock while they could still see. She instructed her interface to enhance her night vision as much as possible, and gently urged her companion forward…

2

They said little on the way back, needing their full concentration on where they were putting their feet. The scent of cinnamon became even more pronounced as night fell, and Marta felt she could almost see the haze of spores issuing from the pseudo-shrubs. If she could have brought herself to break the silence, she would have wanted to ask her friend if the Nurses had said anything more about the accident that led to his death, but she didn’t dare…
They were still down to a single flyer while the nursemaids pored over the wreckage of aircraft two, ostensibly in their role as accident investigators. She found their lack of any firm conclusions, or even any recent updates, deeply suspicious.
The lights of the Dome were now illuminating the shale in front of them. While they were cycling through the portal, Priya turned to her friend,
“Thank you…for coming with me,”
“…what are friends for,” Marta felt slightly embarrassed,
“…I don’t know what I’ll do…when you’re gone,”
“…that won’t be for ages, yet…besides, I was wondering if you’d like to come and live with us. I mean, it hasn’t really been discussed…where you’re going to live,”
“…don’t think I’m being ungrateful, Marta…and it’s not just you, Rai and Jorja have also offered…but I’ve made my decision. I’ve discussed it with Nurse Gee, and I’ve decided to stay here at the Dome. They’re going to need someone here…to look after things, and I’ll be very busy soon enough,”
“…but, you’ll be lonely…”
Her wan smile was answer enough…
Later, Marta sat alone in her bunk, and brooded. His absence weighed heavily, but there was a more practical issue to be faced, their work meant that they would have to start communicating again, sooner rather than later…
One of the incidental aspects of Salvatore’s death had been the necessity to reallocate his work duties. Marta had taken on his role as Mission astronomer, and with it the responsibility of supplying Jorge with the observations and raw data he needed for much of his work,
‘…that might be better,’ she thought to herself, ‘…a neutral topic to at least get us talking…’
Lacking anything else meaningful to do, she called up a map of the new geography on her interface. The graphic representation of their small corner of the planet swam into life before her.
Dead centre lay the Dome, Priya’s name and image were already appended beside it,
‘…so it’s a fait-accompli already,’ she noted, ‘…funny how I’m always the last to know…’
To the south, between the huge discontinuities of Carl Sagan major and minor, lay ‘Harvey’s Grove’, as this putative estate had already been informally named. Appended by this were the names and images of Jorja, Rai, and Raj.
To the north-east, currently lacking a name, lay the demesne of Han and Su-ying, soon to be joined by their new baby. The estate lay close to the grove where Rai and Marta had found the infant pseudo-crustacean.
And finally, to the north-west, Oswald’s Grove. the domain of Marta, the twins, and (in theory) Jorge. She hadn’t said it out loud, but she had rather been hoping that Priya would consent to live with her, in case Jorge didn’t…
Their corner of the planet was tiny, a postage stamp compared to the heroic scale of the world. Alpha 5 was nearly a third larger than Earth, although its lower mass ensured that gravity was virtually the same as on the home world,
‘…fortunately for us,’ thought Marta, ‘…as I don’t fancy the idea of growing up with legs like tree trunks…’
And how much did they really know about the rest of the planet? The boundaries of their psychic space, the margins beyond which ‘there be monsters’, were drawn so close.
She considered how much they really knew about the terra incognita that lay just over the horizon.
If you disregarded the environs of the Dome, and lands now parcelled up into their three estates, very little!
Their direct experience extended south to the barrier range and across to the equatorial plains beyond. If you went north, it reached as far as the start of the ice sheets. The equatorial region was now considered off-limits, an area too hostile and hazardous for the crew even to visit, and they knew from experience there were monsters in this benighted region. She had gleaned an extraordinary amount of data from her short time linked to the pods, far too much to have properly assimilated and understood. One thing she had learned was that the equatorial crusties were not sentient, they lacked the brain size needed. This made them both unpredictable and dangerous, and who knows what lurked beneath the placid waters of the lakes?
Their short sojourn on the ice cap had demonstrated that it was essentially a desert, lifeless and unremittingly hostile.They never had gone back. The Mission had been overtaken by events and some things had just fallen off the radar…
Marta reviewed what they knew from remote observation. The Probe had surveyed the entire world when it first arrived in the system. The data was all stored in the vast memory of Mission AI for anyone to access. The Probe had however been looking for specific things and had tended to ignore anything that wasn’t relevant to its primary objective. The primary objective was, of course, finding a suitable site for the colony, so there was endless data on the specific criteria by which it had evaluated would-be sites; including average temperature, diurnal temperature range, the presence (or absence) of surface or subsurface water, local topography, subsurface mineral deposits, prevailing wind speed and direction, and the nature and incidence of local flora and fauna…
Part of the Probe remained in geosynchronous orbit over the Dome (this was what they now referred to as Earthcomm downlink), and had a grandstand view of much of the world’s surface, in this hemisphere, at least. But there was a limit to what scanning from distance could tell you, you had to be on the ground…
There was, of course, a vast new source of data, the Gestalt consciousness and unimaginably ancient memories of the pods, but only two of the crew had ever accessed this, and Rai’s experience had been fragmentary and partial at best.
Which left her…
This took the girl neatly back to her major source of frustration. Her confinement denied her access to the pods and to Oswald, the pseudo-crustacean she had bonded with… Why Mission AI would want to cut off communication at this point baffled her. She could only assume that as they lacked any means of communicating with the gestalt themselves, they wanted to stop anyone else having access.
Which of course was completely illogical, and wasn’t machine intelligence supposed to be rational?
*******
Another day, and this one promised to be contentious. They’d all been summoned to a meeting by Six Gee who had promised a ‘significant announcement.’ In deference to the necessity for some of the crew to travel back from their demesnes, the start time had been put back to noon.
This left Marta with time to kill, so she decided to visit Maddy and Milla,
“Hi little monsters!”
Milla did her best monster impression, growling with scary conviction and slashing at her mother with imaginary claws. Maddy was more needy, reaching up imploringly with her arms,
“…pick up, pick up, mama!”
She obliged, which of course, meant Milla also wanted to be picked up. Thus burdened she turned to Nurse Amber,
“How have they been?”
“…no change…since your last visit…”
Marta couldn’t be sure, but had a suspicion the nursemaid was being ironic, as she’d only visited the twins twelve hours ago. The young woman had been sensing different vibes from Amber since her ‘grounding’. Maddy was squirming,
“Mommy…must show!”
She lowered the child, who tottered off on the yielding floor surface of the creche. Milla contented herself with pulling an errant strand of her mother’s hair, Marta could feel her warmth and breathed in the characteristic sour milk smell shared by all infants,
“…Maddy’s got something she wants to show you…if she can find it, that is…”
The child had now reached a loose pile of kid’s ‘stuff’, she turned to her nursemaid,
“Amba! Must find…where?”
“…under your pyjams, dear…”
With the prize secured the toddler raced back,
“Look mama!”
With Amber’s help she unfolded the picture on the floor before them,
“…she did this all by herself on her interface,” said Amber.
The picture showed three distinct figures and two locations. In the foreground, a misshapen (but clearly female) figure was cradling a smaller figure, the woman had bright blonde hair. Maddy was patiently guiding her audience through the tableau,
“…this is mommy,” said Milla, pointing at the blonde, “…holding Milla,”
“…and where are you, Maddy?” prompted Amber,
“Silly…I’m painting!”
“…that told you,” observed Marta,
‘…seriously, is this child bright or what?’ she mused, ‘…the fact that she conceived of herself as being outside of the scene, recording it, showed a frightening degree of sophistication,’
“…I wish my hair really was that colour…and who’s this?” she added pointing to an oddly shaped, but clearly human figure, somewhat in the background,
“Jorge!” cried the child,
“…oh, I can see now…he’s sitting in his chair, and this is the wheel. And what’s this?” asked her mother, pointing to a silver coloured blob positioned just below the lilac streak (Marta interpreted this as ‘the sky’), near the top of the page,
“Dome!” said Maddy in triumph, “…silly mommy,”
“Wow!” said Marta, “…I’m seriously impressed! And what’s this?”
“New Dome,” said the child, “…this is Oswald,” she said, pointing to a purple smudge, “Pods!” she added, pointing again…
These were rendered in bright orange and appeared to be floating in mid-air,
“…I’m astonished, where did she get all this from?” she turned to Nurse Amber,
“Well from us, actually,” said the twins’ nursemaid, “…she was really fascinated when you told her about Oswald…and I showed them some pictures of pods and pseudo-crustaceans. And you remember, when we took them on that picnic, and she spent all that time staring at the Dome…they internalise all that stuff,”
“…but, what about all this stuff about their new home…how does she know this?”
Marta was utterly flabbergasted,
“…children listen to adult conversations. We think they’re not, but they’re actually taking it all in…she started talking about the ‘new Dome’ a couple of days ago, and asked when she could see it,” replied Amber,
“…that might not be for a while,” said Marta ruefully,
“…I think there may be some news on that,” said Amber with an enigmatic smile…
Milla was now wriggling and her mother placed her on the floor,
“…me show now! My turn…”
The child raced off,
“…whatever next?” said her mother,
The child returned,
“Oswald!” she said proudly, holding up the soft toy,
“….it’s a new craze on Earth…arthropod cuddly toys,” said Amber, “…I had them printed yesterday…”
Amber turned to Marta,
“…I know it’s not for a while yet. But when you do move to your new estate…I’d like to come too,”
The young woman felt tears start in her eyes,
“…of course,” it was a while before she could continue, “…of course you must come with us! They would miss you so much…”

3

Soon enough it was time for the meeting. Her extended goodbyes with the twins meant she only just made it. Everyone was there, including Jorge. Marta sneaked a look at him before taking a seat beside Priya,
“Ah Marta! glad you could join us, that’s everyone so I may now begin…”
The robotic equivalent of clearing your throat followed before Nurse Gee beamed out again at those assembled,
“…you will remember that before we embarked on our new endeavour and commenced work on the new estates, I told you that we would need to make provision for an anticipated rise in our population. We have the twins…”
Gee glanced briefly at Marta,
“…and I assume you are all aware that Su-ying,” the nursemaid beamed at the girl, who blushed and lowered her eyes demurely, “…is expecting her first child…”
Nurse Gee adopted her serious face,
“…the new child will be the first naturally conceived human baby born on this world. But you are young, and cannot be expected to produce all the necessary colonists yourselves, by fully natural means…”
A sudden hush had taken hold of the room,
“…consequently, we have taken the decision to re-employ the methods used to bring Madeleine and Jamilla into this world, this is fully in accordance with the standing orders originally given to us by the Mission Planners. We have made use of genetic material provided by each of you, and I can now announce that the fertilization process was successful, and eight new children are now developing towards term. They will be ‘born’ in six months time…”
Marta had been watching the faces of the others while Gee spoke. There was surprise, yes, but surprising little resentment, and no hint of protest this time. Instead a weary acceptance seemed to be the order of the day. Having been done once, they had all assumed that it would be done again, and the process now had a human face, in the adorable shape of Maddy and Milla…
She now remembered Priya’s apparently cryptic remark about ‘…soon having more than enough to do,’ it occurred to her that by this means Priya could become a parent, as could Sal…
She wanted to discuss this with Priya once the meeting concluded, but to her alarm she was immediately approached by Nurse Gee,
“…if I may have a word with you, my dear…”
Marta said nothing, waiting for the nursemaid to continue,
“…you may feel that we have been unduly harsh with you, Marta…but life is full of lessons, some unpleasant, that we must all take on board, in order to become better people,”
‘…so far, so patronising,’ thought the girl,
“…but we have decided that enough is enough, and your confinement should end. Consequently you and Jorge, the twins and Nurse Amber, will visit your new demesne in two days time, you will see that great strides have been made in your absence…”
Nurse Gee turned to leave,
“…your friends have been asking for you, my dear…”
Before she could ponder the meaning of that last statement, Jorja appeared in front of her. Marta felt a degree of exasperation as she had also thought about going over to speak to Jorge once the meeting had finished, but glancing ’round the room she could see that he had already left, as had Priya,
“…have you got a minute?”
“Sure!”
‘…I’ve nothing else to do,’ she thought with a certain amount of irritation, ‘…all the people I really want to speak to have left the room,’
“…you remember we were discussing where the twins should live…”
Marta did. She remembered the girl virtually demanding that Jamilla come and live with her and Rai, at their demesne. Marta had pointed out, quite reasonably she thought, that it would be out of the question to split up identical twins. This had led to a huge argument, culminating in the other girl accusing her of being ‘completely self-centred’, before storming out,
“Yes,”
“Well…I’ve been thinking…we’ve been thinking, actually…”
Marta waited,
“…and we accept that we couldn’t possibly split Maddy and Milla up…it just wouldn’t be fair on them…so we were thinking that perhaps the twins could spend part of each month…over at our estate. Nurse Amber would of course come with them, to minimise the disruption…”
Marta sighed,
“OK! one week each month…my final offer,”
“….thank you for being so understanding,” Jorja was smiling sweetly, now, “…I’ll go and tell Rai…”
She scurried off and conferred briefly with the boy, who looked over at her with some annoyance, or so it seemed to Marta,
‘…it would be unreasonable to deny them that, after all, Rai is their father,’ she told herself, but nevertheless it rankled. Jorja and Rai had played virtually no part in the twins upbringing up to now, but nevertheless here they were demanding access.
She noticed that she was now the only one left in the room,
‘…nothing like being popular…’

Postscript

She now had two pretexts for visiting Jorge. As well as an overdue discussion on her recent astronomical data, there was also the planned visit to their new demesne. She thought about ’facing him first, but decided a surprise visit was probably her best shot at getting through the door…
She went before nine, knowing that he was an early riser. She had to make a conscious effort to keep herself on track, and her apprehension grew with every step. She hit the door signal, hoping that he would just open the door without checking who was there first. As she’d hope the door whispered in,
“…it’s open!”
She stepped through gingerly,
“…uh, sorry for not ’facing you first, but I thought we should talk…”
Worryingly for her, he didn’t look at all pleased to see her,
“…better make it quick, I’m expecting Han in ten minutes,”
‘…pardon me for living!’ she thought with sudden anger. Trying to keep her voice calm she continued,
“…sorry to interrupt your busy schedule,” she said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, “…but we have one or two things we need to discuss…”
Marta took his silence as an invitation for her to continue,
“…we need to discuss the data from my latest observations, or have you now forgotten I’m the new Mission astronomer, and Nurse Gee told me that a visit has been arranged to our new demesne…and I think she rather assumes you will be coming along…”
Jorge had a hard, almost contemptuous, expression on his face…the pause lengthened,
“…so…when it suits you, you want to talk! When I want to talk, you ignore my messages,”
“…I was angry,”
“…note the personal pronoun…as usual Marta, it’s all about you, what anyone else might be thinking or feeling just doesn’t figure, does it?”
“…I think I’ll come back…”
They both turned to see Han hovering in the doorway,
“…no, do stay Han…we’re just finishing up here,” he said sarcastically, but Han had already turned and walked off down the corridor,
“…so I guess we’re stuck with each other,” said Marta, “…look, I’m sorry! I know should have returned your calls, I don’t know what gets into me at times…but you didn’t seem interested, I mean you didn’t check that I was OK,”
“Marta, you’re always OK…you lead a charmed life, and besides, I did check to see that you were alright, I checked with Nurse Gee,”
“…but, you didn’t come to see me…that hurt me, Jorge, it hurt me a lot,”
‘…this is your life, Jorge Mendoza…it really hinges on what you say next,’ she told herself,
“…OK, I apologise…it’s just…it’s just that I don’t know how to deal with you sometimes…you scare me, I never know what you’re going to do next,”
“…I can’t help the way I am…none of us can. Look, I don’t expect things to just go back to the way they were, just like that…but life’s just too short to bear grudges, we all need each other…and besides, I miss you…”
There it was, she’d laid it on the line…
He held out his hand,
‘…such an intimate gesture,’ thought the young woman, “…we hold hands with children…and with lovers…”
She crossed the room and took his hand,
“…no-one said it would be easy, my love,” she was now looking into his eyes, “…life’s just something you have to work on…”

THE END