136 A Colonial Rebellion (1/2)
”This is crazy,” Sean said. ”You want us to walk barefoot for over a hundred kilometers, without any food or water?”
”It won't be a hundred kilometers. I and Susan will meet you halfway. We will bring food, water, and and footwear for all of you.”
”Footwear? Who's your shoemaker?”
”Susan makes very nifty sandals. Admittedly they don't last long. But they'll definitely last long enough for you to complete your trip.”
”I'm not doing it.”
”What?”
”I said I'm not doing it. It's insane.”
”It's the only way, Sean. If Deacon - the governor - finds out we've been playing tricks, we could lose our licenses.”
”First of all, let's get something clear here,” Sean said. ”You've been playing tricks, as you put it, from Day One. You started an illegal settlement in the New World.”
”That wasn't quite like that. We started it before all the rules and regulations were announced.”
”You didn't turn over all the gear you got from the cube, either. Let's not split hairs, Dad. Besides, if you're so determined to play fair and square now, why aren't you coming with us?”
”Well, we wanted to make things easier for you by meeting you halfway.”
”Harold and Gladys can meet us halfway, too.”
”Sean!”
”Dad, don't 'Sean' me. You've panicked. You're not making sense. How the hell will Deacon know we didn't launch our settlement from Yule Point?”
”I told you that he's investigating what's going on.”
”He can investigate all he likes. He agreed you and the Pendeltons can merge colonies. You'll tell him you launched from Yule Point like he told you to, and instantly set out to join the Pendeltons.”
”If he finds out we lied to him - ”
”You've been lying to him all along.”
”That's why we have to stop. Every consecutive lie increases the chance of getting caught out.”
”Dad, if you're serious about me and Maureen and the kids having to trek barefoot for two days then we're out. We're not doing it. I'm sorry.”
”What do you mean?”
”I mean we won't be joining your settlement.”
Dave Ramsey was struck speechless. He circled the room, and came to a stop in front of Sean. He said:
”Sean, I have to remind you that I'm the license holder.”
”And I have to remind you,” Sean said, ”That you paid for that license with my money.”
”Sean, I had to help the Pendeltons. They had very little money saved. The cube landed on their property. Harry generously offered to share everything with us; I owed him something in return. We all owe a lot to Harry. He was the first to enter the New World, all this was his idea. And thanks to him, we have a cache of implant kits, more than we got together with our licenses.”
”That's very noble of you,” Sean said. ”It doesn't change the fact that I paid for your license. I did it happily. And now you're starting to play power games.”
”Yes you are. Anyway, that's beside the point. Regardless of everything else, I refuse to take my family barefoot through the bush just because you've decided it's time you started playing nice with Deacon. You want to play nice? Play nice with me.”
Dave didn't know how to respond to that. After a while he said:
”I'll have to talk this situation over with Harry.”
”You do that,” said Sean. ”And I'll talk it over with Maureen.”
Dave found that his hands were trembling when he went to wake up Harry. His friend looked so happy, stretched out on the silvery mat atop his bed, that Dave hesitated. He disliked to be the bringer of bad news. It crossed his mind that all of them felt much happier in the New World than they did back at home, on good old Earth. Except Earth wasn't so good any more. Earth seemed to be going through one of its periodic transformations.
Dave Ramsey was a man full of intellectual curiosity. He wanted to know as much as possible about the world he lived in before he died. This led him to read about the history of Earth. Among other things, he found out that Earth had been covered in an ice sheet all over on three separate occasions during its existence - well, some experts argued there was a thin band of ice-free water at the Equator.
Another fact he learned was at at the beginning of life on Earth, as much as the entire planet was covered by a warm ocean, so thick it resembled a soup. Gazillions of primitive bacteria happily swam around in this soup, finding plenty of nourishment and multiplying like crazy. Luckily or unluckily, their waste - their bacterial shit - consisted of oxygen. The amount of oxygen they released changed Earth's atmosphere, killed off most existing forms of life including the oxygen-shitting bacteria, and ushered in a new era in the planet's development.
Life on Earth had chosen to commit mass suicide 2.5 billion years earlier. History liked to repeat itself. Dave often thought that life on Earth was headed toward another mass suicide event. A few hundred million years later, new living organisms would evolve in Earth's new environment.
Dave liked Earth as it was. It distressed him to see it change. The only change he would like would was a change to the way things were a couple of centuries back: less people, less noise, less trash, cleaner air. He fell in love with the New World from the moment he arrived there. All of its hardships paled in its pristine beauty.
It made him feel vaguely guilty, but he had to admit it: he liked his life in the New World more than the life he had on Earth.
He knew that his old friend Harry felt the same way. When he woke him up, he said right away:
”I'm so sorry, Harry, but something's come up. We need to talk about it.”
”Hang on a moment,” Harry said. ”I need a drink. I'm bloody parched.”
He drank noisily from the half-full glass on the night table by the bed. Dave said:
”You drank half that glass twenty minutes ago, and you woke up feeling parched?”
”I was doing a lot of running around over there, and felt very thirsty,” Harold said. ”It sort of carries over. You know what I mean.”