America 2040 - Golden World Part 12

The scout was driving at top speed directly toward the surface of the planet, the hull beginning to glow red from atmospheric friction.

Ivan panicked. Instead of firing retro-rockets, he tried to slow the s.h.i.+p's deadly velocity by extending the wings; as they popped into position, he realized his mistake. The relatively fragile wings peeled, metal surfaces flaking back and off. Within seconds the surface of the wings glowed red, then white hot. and their disintegrating pieces clanged and slashed at the hull of the scout as, finally, Ivan began to use the rockets.

The sharp bite of the harness caused Theresita to cry out as she was thrown forward. Then she blacked out.

TEN.

Life was getting incredibly complex for Duncan Rodrick. The Omega colony was, of course, technically still a part of the United States, and its citizens subject to United States laws. It had been known from the beginning, however, that never in history would a colony be so effectively cut off from its mother country.President Dexter Hamilton, a student of history, had decided that theSpirit of America would leave Earth carrying her own const.i.tution, which was based closely on the Const.i.tution of the United States but with provisions for total self-government once the colony had been securely established. In the beginning, though, the captain was to be in sole command until the settlement and building phases were completed.

It was a big job for one person. It was impossible for Rodrick to be expert in all fields, and yet he had to make decisions concerning the work and actions of scientists in every discipline.

Rodrick's primary concern was for the safety of the colony. His ban on field expeditions had created some tension, for all the colonists had been eager to get on with the job and satisfy their curiosity about the immense planet.

After the rea.s.suring visit to Grace Monroe's lab during which they discussed the miners' probable intelligence, Rodrick went directly to the bridge, punched up an all-s.h.i.+p, all-colony circuit on the communicator, and ended the ban for all units. The scout s.h.i.+ps and scientific teams began to leave the s.h.i.+p and the town immediately.

But Rodrick still felt vaguely uneasy. He looked at the holographic projection of the planet's globe.

There was just so d.a.m.ned much of it; the eight major land ma.s.ses, of which the continent Columbia was by far the largest, represented four times the land area of Earth, and it had taken centuries for modern man to explore the remote corners of Earth. Furthermore, everything was bigger, taller, or longer on Omega. Even with the aid of the swift scouts and high-tech instruments, it would be a long time before all the hidden secrets of Omega were revealed.

It was difficult for everyone to adjust his or her frame of reference to comprehend the land areas involved. Mandy, whose staff biologists, zoologists, and entomologists were overwhelmed with work cla.s.sifying, naming, and studying specimens of animal, plant, and insect life, had to envision Earth distance in comparison even to begin to appreciate the size of their new world: On Earth, the largest land ma.s.s was the Eurasian continent. The longest straight line that could be drawn across that land ma.s.s, roughly from the Rock of Gibraltar to Vladivostok, measured just under eight thousand miles. A line drawn from the point where the equator crossed the western coast of Columbia to the permanent ice cap of the northeastern corner of the continent was over twenty-two thousand miles. From coast to coast at the lat.i.tude of Hamilton, the distance was just over ten thousand miles. The smallest continent in the eastern hemisphere, a land ma.s.s nestled in the sea bounded by Columbia's east coast and the other two giant continents of the eastern hemisphere, was the size of South America.

Meanwhile, Omega was slowly giving them hints of her totally alien nature-in the matter of the miners, for example, and the enigma of the dead city. Then there were the seas of Omega, vast watery distances, with depths in proportion to the size of the planet. The onsh.o.r.e waters had begun to give up specimens of sea life to the marine scientists. One husband-wife team, without asking permission, had sat down to a candlelight dinner of fresh fish. The fact that exhaustive laboratory tests had shown that several marine varieties were safe for human consumption didn't lessen Rodrick's concern. The long-range effects of eating alien foods of any kind was just one more worry for Rodrick, but there was nothing to be done about that except wait for something to happen months or years down the road.

The s.h.i.+p's supply bunkers still contained huge quant.i.ties of food because everything was recycled-but no one wanted to go on eating recycled food forever. Mandy Miller was concerned that foods grown on Omega would be lacking in the trace elements-zinc and iron, for example-that were needed for the Americans' health. Before the s.h.i.+p's own supply of vitamins and minerals ran out, the scientists would have to find a way to obtain them from Omega, either in natural food items, such as the marine life, or in concentrated form. To manufacture food supplements meant the building of manufacturing plants. Andthe raw material had to exist.

Two days after the work teams were back in the field, the oil drillers. .h.i.t a large pool at shallow depths.

A paper-thin pipeline was rolled out from the s.h.i.+p to the wellhead, and soon the huge building machines, with their own internal factories, were turning out building blocks at a pleasing rate.

The automated building machines were interesting to watch. The software for their computers included a variety of designs, which had been made back on Earth to meet any imaginable conditions in which humans could survive. The home designs for the climate of Eden were open, s.p.a.cious, and sprawling, and the town was being quickly transformed.

A prefabricated hydrogen reclamation plant was rapidly taking shape on the sh.o.r.e of Stanton Bay, for one of the first needs would be to manufacture fuel to keep the scout s.h.i.+ps in the air. Without them, planetary exploration would come to an end, and the colony would be without air and ground transport since hydrogen was the fuel for the crawlers, too.

The colonists had been warned that there would be a return to basics during the early years of settlement. The multiplicity of items that an American could buy, even in the twenty-first century, the century of shortages, would be missing from the colony's early output. The s.h.i.+p's data system held the chemical formulas for hundreds of thousands of different products, and someday those items and more might be made and sold on the new planet.

The drugs and medicines that increased life expectancy were high on the list of priorities. Most drugs could be synthesized by the labs aboard the s.h.i.+p, and factories would be built in Hamilton to manufacture drugs as soon as possible.

It was all Duncan Rodrick's responsibility, with the help of his advisers and the various committees, to choose the proper path and then run like h.e.l.l. If life-style suffered in some respects, that was only a temporary condition, but comfort and health had to,be maintained in order to keep everyone working at maximum efficiency.

The life of each person aboard was precious, but if there had been nuclear war on Earth, each life was doubly precious. If war had killed all humans or created a race of mutants, then the Americans might be the only h.o.m.o sapiens in the universe. Also, the colony would need all its human resources to prevent a relapse into pre-industrial living standards.

Amando Kwait's semirobotic machines turned sod for the first time in the verdant river valley. Seeds germinated, and it became an evening pastime for people to walk along the banks of the Dinah River and Jumper's Run to comment on the green shoots of wheat, corn, barley, and rye. All the good vegetables of Earth began to grow as if Omega's soil pleased them. Anyone who cared to could stake off a garden plot, requisition seeds from Amando's storehouse, and have his own garden. Flowers began to sprout in beds around the homes. Exploration teams brought back exquisite flowering plants for transplant.

Life began to settle into a routine of work and play. Fish became a part of the diet, and Amando Kwait sampled fruit brought back from the tropical areas of the continent and found it to be delicious. It had been decided to begin to breed a small herd of cattle for milk, b.u.t.ter, and meat, so embryos were being formed in the nutrient fluids of the artificial wombs in the Life Sciences sections.

The zoologists on Mandy Miller's Life Sciences staff had been agitating for permission to mount expeditions into the tropical areas to investigate the huge life signals that were picked up by scout s.h.i.+ps.

Rodrick asked them to hold off for a while. The intimidating job of surveying and investigating their ownhuge continent came first.

Animal life was not nearly so varied as on Earth. In general, there were three types of animal life: gra.s.s eaters of a half-dozen species; three types of predators, all catlike; and a family grouping of small gra.s.s- and insect-eating rodentlike creatures, the largest species of which was the size of a rabbit. But what the animal world of Omega lacked in variety, the plants and insects overcompensated.

The first child born on Omega came during the time when everyone was concerned with the threat of the miners, and the event pa.s.sed almost unnoticed. Then there was another and another. A twin boy and girl were named in memory of Pat Renfro and Dinah Purdy. Jack Purdy was asked to be G.o.dfather.

Somehow, the birth of children gave a sense of permanency to the colony. People who, when referring to home, meant Earth, began to say, "back on Earth," and when a field party finished work and turned the crawlers toward Hamilton, they were headed home.

Clive Baxter, the nattily dressed, diminutive chemist, found Rodrick the next morning in the vehicle park.

Rodrick had arisen early to walk down to the bay before sunrise, and the activity in the vehicle park had drawn him to watch the field teams preparing to venture out for the day's work. It was a beautiful summer morning with Omega's sun going to work early. It would be hot, but experience had told them that by early afternoon a cooling breeze would begin to come from the sea.

"Good morning," Baxter said, and before Rodrick could answer, "you're a hard man to find, Captain."

Rodrick didn't answer that.

"Ah, Captain, there's to be a meeting this evening in the meeting room in Section Two. We'd all be pleased if you could attend."

Rodrick had taken a quick look at his calendar for the day, and he had no meeting scheduled for the evening. "What sort of meeting?" he asked.

"Just a few concerned citizens," Baxter said. "I feel that it's important that you be there."

"What are the citizens concerned about?"

Baxter looked away. A crawler pa.s.sed, engine humming, treads lifting dust to settle on Baxter's perfectly s.h.i.+ned shoes. "I'd rather not say at the moment," he said. "It's not my place to speak for the committee. I'm only one member."

"Well, Dr. Baxter, I have nothing scheduled for the evening. I can stop by."

"Thank you," Baxter said. "Eight o'clock, then. "

The scouts began to hit the air in scattered flocks, the entire complement going out, and Rodrick wished that he were up there with them. He wondered again what Baxter's concerned citizens were concerned about, but there was a busy day ahead of him: Allen Jones, the underwater architect, was beginning a survey of the ocean just offsh.o.r.e, using swift, maneuverable underwater craft, which had been most valuable in building underwater cities on Earth. That was going to be very interesting. And scout s.h.i.+p pilots forApache One andApache Two , Jacob West and Renato Cruz, were going to make slow treetop-level flights over the southern jungles near the equator in an effort to find a break in the densecanopy of the jungle for a clue to the strong life signals that were thickly scattered in Columbia's tropics.

Since the miners were no longer fiercely defending their burrows, Stoner McRae, Paul Warden, and the admiral used the camera-carrying pipeline crawlers to explore as many tunnels as possible. Stoner would review the film at night, running it through at fast speed, his eyes peeled for indications of metallic deposits in the stone of the tunnel walls.

Jackie Garvey had drawn the midnight-to-dawn watch. She was finis.h.i.+ng her log when her relief, Ito Zuki, came in with a cheerful morning greeting and a craving for coffee. She chatted with Ito for a few minutes and then, yawning, left the bridge, wanting nothing more than a shower and sleep. She lingered in the shower for a self-indulgent period, then turned the water jet to cold, danced in the chill stream, and hopped out refreshed to wrap herself in a huge towel. She turned on the entertainment channel, found soothing music, finished drying her legs, left the damp towel on the carpet, and fell across the bed. She had just closed her eyes when her door bong signaled a visitor.

"Go away," she said softly.

But the call bonged again, insistently, and with a frown she reached for her robe and padded barefoot to the door.

"Hi," Rocky Miller said, smiling. "I hope I caught you before you fell asleep."

"Just barely," Jackie answered.

Rocky produced a thermal container from behind his back. "Hot chocolate, fresh. It'll help you sleep."

"Thank you, but-"

Rocky took a step toward her, bringing his face so close to hers that she took an involuntary step backward, giving him room to slip past her. "I wanted a chance to talk with you alone," he said.

She reluctantly got two mugs, poured the steaming hot chocolate, and sat down on her couch, pulling her robe together as one bare knee tried to peek out. "What can I do for you, Commander?" she asked, using the t.i.tle to set a military tone.

"We always seem to be on opposing watches lately," Rocky said. "We've never really had a chance to get to know each other."

Jackie's first reaction was to tell him to go away and let her get to bed. The words formed, but for some reason she hesitated. "You pick a h.e.l.l of a time to want to socialize, Commander," she said.

"Let's drop the service formalities," he replied, with an engaging smile. "I know you're tired. I'll get out of here in a minute and let you get some sleep. I just want to tell you that you have been doing an excellent job."

"Thank you," she said. She had been surprised to see Rocky at her door. He was a married man, and at first she had thought that he was there on s.h.i.+p's business. Even when he started talking in that smiling, friendly way, she took him at his word. It wasn't a convenient time, but it was good service policy for a more senior officer to get to know his junior officer better. She was unprepared for Rooky's next gambit.

"You look great in uniform," he said, "but in something feminine, like that robe, you're extraordinary." "Thank you again," she said, standing.

Rocky was not a subtle or a patient man. "And we have a lot in common."

"Oh?"

"We've both been pa.s.sed over," he said, his handsome smile a bit crooked.

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

He rose, finished his hot chocolate at a gulp, smiled at her over the mug. "Think about it," he said. "I hear you're quite a tennis player. The courts are under construction. Be finished in a couple of days. I'll give you a call when they're ready."

She closed the door behind him, and when he was gone she let irritation and puzzlement show on her face. Then she shrugged and got into bed. She had not been pa.s.sed over for promotion. She did not have enough time in grade to be due a promotion. He could have meant only one thing.

Her face flushed. Was it that obvious to everyone on board? She tried to put it all out of her mind, but it was difficult. She still remembered Duncan Rodrick's first overture toward her, just after they'd finished the rocket-firing sequence that had sent theSpirit of America away from Earth. He had smiled at her and asked her to join him in being the first to try out the s.h.i.+p's swimming pool.

Jackie was a proud woman; she'd held her own all her life, and the fact that she had been chosen for the Spirit of America expedition was proof that she had done well. She'd never had any difficulties in her relations.h.i.+ps with the opposite s.e.x. In fact, she had fully understood that, as a member of the s.h.i.+p's crew, she'd be expected to have a family after the colony was established. With healthy curiosity she'd checked out each single male colonist even before the s.h.i.+p left Earth. In her survey of available men, she had, of course, looked at the captain, but military thinking had excluded Duncan from her speculations. A full captain, a s.h.i.+p's captain, just didn't fraternize with the junior officers. In Duncan's arms she realized that all the old rules had been left behind when the s.h.i.+p accelerated outward toward the far limits of the solar system.

She tossed on her bed, seeking sleep, trying not to even think about how good they had been together.

She felt a great resentment toward Rocky for stirring it all up again. She had just about had her hurt under control. For some reason Duncan had gone, well, not cold, but indifferent, and she'd spent an agonizingly long time wondering why. She was not egotistical, but she knew she was a beautiful woman. He had very definitely enjoyed her company. During the early part of the voyage he had sought her out-not just for lovemaking, but for companions.h.i.+p. He had never totally loosened up with her, she knew, but before the big chill he'd been very comfortable with her- they'd had long talks about things past and future, about his ex-wife, his hopes for a new world, and although marriage had never been mentioned-come to think of it, he'd never even told her that he loved her-it was, at least on her part, understood that it would be Jackie Garvey and Duncan Rodrick together on the new world.

Pa.s.sed over?

She remembered the look on Rocky's face as he'd used those words. A crooked grin. He'd said, "We've both been pa.s.sed over."

She shook her head. No. Duncan wasn't the type to go after a fellow officer's wife. But why was Mandy Miller always on the bridge during times of crisis or interest? Looking back, she could remember a lot of times when she'd seen Duncan and Mandy Miller together, and times when he'd left word on the bridge that he could be reached in Dr. Miller's office. But Mandy was head of the Life Sciences department, a very important department. Duncan would, naturally, have need to consult her on matters in her field.

Rocky's crooked grin, and his words, stayed with Jackie as she fell into that state of near sleep. That grin had the look of a proud man trying to hide his hurt-or his shame. He had said they had been pa.s.sed over.

She decided, just before falling asleep, that it was possible that Rocky knew something she didn't know.

And the last feeling she had before sleep was a shamed anger, a suspicion that she had been used.

Someone was yelling at her. Theresita opened her eyes and saw an endless expanse of the greenest jungle she'd ever seen. There was a roaring whistle in her ears. She couldn't understand what Ivan was trying to tell her. She looked over her shoulder. The hull had been ripped open by a piece of the disintegrating wing. Ivan punched her on the shoulder and pointed down.

"Water-" That was all she understood over the roar of the wind in the slowly expanding hole in the hull, and then she was thrown forward again. The s.h.i.+p slowed. The sound was not so loud now.

"Rocket fuel low!" Ivan screamed at her. "Used too much to slow us. " He pointed toward the water. It was a wide river, brown, slow moving. To all sides was endless jungle extending flatly to the hazy horizons.

"This b.u.t.ton!" Ivan yelled. "I'm going to use the last of the rocket fuel in the front retros to try to stop us just before we hit the water. There'll be only a four-second blast. When you hear the rockets cut off or we hit the water, push the b.u.t.ton. It blows the hatch. Then hit your harness's quick release and get out.

The water looks deep."

"I understand," she yelled back.

The water was coming up very fast. Ivan was tense, his finger poised over the rocket-fire b.u.t.ton. He had no time to program the on-board computer. He would have to judge the distance himself.

"Brace yourself!" he yelled.

She was jerked violently forward into the harness and things dimmed, but she did not black out entirely.

Then there was another jerk forward as the scout's bow struck the water with a mighty splash. A small explosion sounded as Theresita triggered the hatch's quick release, and explosive bolts propelled the metal hatch away. She pounded on the quick release of her harness even as water swirled in with a roar-but she took a deep breath and bided her time, knowing that she could not move against the in-rus.h.i.+ng water. She reached out and found young Ivan's hand as the water rushed in. The scout sank deeper, and just as the water reached her chin she took another deep breath and looked at Ivan to see a metallic shard imbedded in his throat, and his arterial blood pumping from the jugular vein. He had been hit by a piece of the hatch when it had been blown off. She'd seen enough men die to know that there was no chance for him. Now the water closed over her head, and she pushed herself away from the couch, pulling upward toward the open hatch. She went out headfirst, kicking upward with all her strength, not knowing how deeply the scout had sunk. She felt a light blow on the back of her right thigh, and there was a stinging sensation there as she kicked upward. The water was brown, no visibility, even though her eyes were open. She seemed to go up and up forever and then, knowing that she was reaching the limit of the usable air in her lungs, she stopped kicking and let her natural buoyancy and the momentum she'd built up carry her upward and upward endlessly until her lungs burned and she fought their spasming efforts to suck water.

There were large areas of blackness in front of her eyes when she at last burst free, coming out of the water almost to her waist, and then gulping life-giving air even as she fell back with a splash.

She tread water with small movements of her hands until she had her breath back. She was almost in midstream, and the banks seemed to be far away. She estimated that the river was at least half a mile wide. Which bank? The current was moving her slowly downstream. It didn't really matter which bank.

She remembered the look of the jungle, dark, endless, an almost iridescent green. It had extended to the limit of visibility in all directions. It didn't matter which bank.

She began to swim with a b.r.e.a.s.t.stroke, the least strenuous one for her. Her leg was stinging. She floated on her back for a moment and put her hand down. She could feel the cut. Her finger went into flesh for a good half inch, and there was immediate pain in that spot that grew as she began to swim for the sh.o.r.e again. If she was losing enough blood, she might never make it to the bank of the river. And what kind of life was in the murky, brown, muddy waters? Something that would smell her blood and come to feed?

She remembered seeing films of South American fish with huge, teeth-filled mouths ripping and tearing.

Crocodiles on the Nile. They had grown fat and brave feeding on the bodies of the dead during the attempted Egyptian uprising. Sharks. No, this was fresh water. But still her imagination stocked the muddy waters with ripping, tearing teeth, and she found herself flailing away in a frenzied crawl that was depleting her energies rapidly.

She forced herself to relax, to float. She felt her thigh. The cut was about four inches long, and deeper in the upper end. She could not feel a large outrush of blood, so there was no arterial bleeding. Blood had shot out into the brown water from Ivan's throat. She hadn't even known his last name. And Ilya was dead. All of them, dead.

She let the current do most of the work and used her strength sparingly to angle slowly toward the bank to her right. The river entered a gentle curve to the left and aided her, bringing her to within swimming distance of the bank. She kicked herself in, then caught an overhanging tree branch. There was no distinguishable bank as such, only a maze of huge trees and ma.s.sed roots in mud and shallow water. She pulled herself up to cling to the roots of a tree and gasped tiredly, even as she looked around. A crash of thunder followed a vivid lightning bolt, and it seemed that the heavens opened. Rain thundered on the jungle canopy high over her head. Even with the rain dripping down from the roof of foliage, it was hot and steamy. She clung to the tree roots and rested.

A splash from the river behind her caused her to jerk her head around. A very large torpedo-shaped thing leaped in a high arc from the water. A second torpedo shape leaped, and she thought,Fish . A third fish left the water, then with an eruption of foam a huge square-tipped, all-teeth thing followed to s.n.a.t.c.h the leaping fish in midair. After exposing an enormous, ovate trunk behind the square, toothed head, it fell back with a splash that might have been audible for miles.

Theresita tried to crawl up onto the tangled tree roots, wanting to get even her feet out of the water. Theemergence of that water monster gave her new strength. The thing came slowly toward her, its body's awesome bulk hinted at by ripples behind the extended neck. She scrambled to her feet and waded, stumbling over the tangled roots, away from the river. She kept going even after she could no longer see the river. She was, of course, soaked, but her clothing did not even begin to dry because the sweat poured from her in the steaming heat.

She had gone, she estimated, a hundred yards when the water that surrounded the trees became shallower. She sank to her knees in mud and fell backwards, pressing her thighs and rump into the soft, warm mud. She struggled back to firmer ground, detoured, and gained soggy ground that gave way under her feet from an acc.u.mulation of decaying vegetable matter. The cut on her thigh was packed with mud. She used the side of her hand and her fingers to clean away as much as possible, wincing from the pain.

Off to her left something moved. She froze. The sounds came from deep undergrowth, which began not far from the edge of the river swamp, and they were being made by something big. She had no weapon.

She waited until the cras.h.i.+ng sounds died in the distance.