Part 6 (1/2)

Interlude One of the questions the data from the Cristobal Colon Cristobal Colon could not answer was, ”Why?” Another was, ”How?” The last was ”Who?” could not answer was, ”Why?” Another was, ”How?” The last was ”Who?”

None of these questions was ever to be entirely satisfactorily answered, though theories abounded. Answering the last by calling the ”Who” of the matter the ”Noahs” was hardly a satisfactory explanation. Some other questions could be answered, though. Most of these were about Earth.

It was learned, for example, from a video recording made and transmitted by Parachute Lander Number Two, that Smilodon, Smilodon, the saber toothed tiger, was an ambush hunter and did use its long canine teeth to rip open the bellies of its prey, wherever that was possible. the saber toothed tiger, was an ambush hunter and did use its long canine teeth to rip open the bellies of its prey, wherever that was possible.

Because this is what the Cristobal Colon Cristobal Colon had found: an Earthlike world, teeming with life from well before the last ice age but after the age of dinosaurs. The trees were there, the flowers and plants, the mammals, the reptiles. Everything was there except for man, though there were small groups of pithecines scurrying about. These, apparently, had been seeded before the mutation or mutations that led to had found: an Earthlike world, teeming with life from well before the last ice age but after the age of dinosaurs. The trees were there, the flowers and plants, the mammals, the reptiles. Everything was there except for man, though there were small groups of pithecines scurrying about. These, apparently, had been seeded before the mutation or mutations that led to h.o.m.o sapiens. h.o.m.o sapiens.

Moreover, several low pa.s.ses by the glider drones had indicated the presence of huge numbers of whales, of shoals of fish, and of birds. Number One Drone had almost come to an early end as a result of failing to note, until it was almost too late, an enormous flock though flock hardly did the thing justice of pa.s.senger pigeons over the southern part of one of the lesser continents.

There were dodos and there were great auks, though that news awaited further exploration as neither drone nor lander had seen any. There were cave bear, giant ground sloth and great Irish deer, though the rediscovery of these, too, took time. Phororhacos, the eight foot tall carnivorous bird of South America was there, as was the giant moa.

There were no dinosaurs, though there were a number of fairly large reptilian species. There were also no horses, though eohippus was found in some numbers.

There was no trace of who had done this, no archeological remains, no cities, no settlements, no landing sites. Yet it was clear that at some time between the end of the dinosaurs and the arrival, or at least flouris.h.i.+ng, of man, some people or some things had made an effort to preserve life as it was found on Earth at that time. Close estimates, based on the flora and fauna to be found in the new world, suggested a timeline of between three million and five million years, BC. Yet not all the animals and plants found fell into that range. Some seemed newer, still others older. Some were completely alien to both New Earth and Old.

It was then suggested that evolution on the planet itself had continued, creating new species through the same mechanism as on Earth. This, however, failed to solve the riddle of the older animals, thought extinct on Earth well before the presumptive date of the transplanting. Some believed that the fossil record on Earth was by no means complete; scientists and explorers could have missed or misdated any number of species. Moreover, since coelacanth had hung on for some fifty million years longer than scientists had thought before it was rediscovered, why should not have archaeopteryx?

The fossil record of the new world was quite limited. There were no missing links and most of the animals found seem to have suddenly appeared.

It was not and is not known if the Noahs who had seeded the planet had also created the rift that allowed instantaneous transport between the Solar System and the other or if they had merely used something that was already there. As to whether man could make use of the rift, reliably, that awaited events.

In the event, man being man, extinct species on the old world tended to become extinct species, extinct out of zoos anyway, on the new.

Chapter Five.

In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.-Herodotus

Cochea, 12/7/459 AC Hennessey had first laid eyes upon his future wife at a national festival. She had been seventeen then, one of the dancers garbed in the national costume the Balboans had brought with them from Earth, the pollera. Linda's hair had been done up in an intricate array of gold and silver. There was no word adequate to describe her. Perhaps ”stunning” came close.

As he had first laid eyes on her, so had she without at the time knowing laid hands upon his heart. In a phrase, he had fallen, abjectly and completely. And he didn't even know her name.

In his dream, Hennessey again watched the dance, again pushed his way through the crowd, again steeled himself for a very informal self-introduction.

The dream Linda, as she had so many years before, smiled warmly...friendly...confident as only beautiful young women are confident. The brash gringo had a certain something. She admitted as much to herself.

They walked as in a dream and the walk was a dream. ”I am going to marry you someday,” Hennessey said. ”You and only you.”

Linda had scoffed. ”You just met me. We haven't even been properly introduced.”

”No matter,” he answered. ”You and only you.”

”You are so sure? What makes you think I would marry you? Besides, I am only seventeen.”

”No matter. The girl is mother to the woman. I will wait.” He seemed very certain.

She laughed, white teeth flas.h.i.+ng in the sun. ”How long will you wait, brash gringo?”

”Forever...if I must,” he answered seriously.

”Forever is a very long time,” she countered.

”For you, and only you, I would wait 'forever.'”

Young Linda inclined her head to one side. Her eyes narrowed, judging, studying. ”Hmm...perhaps you would at that.”

A face rapt with amus.e.m.e.nt turned suddenly serious. ”Do you smell something?”

Hennessey's nose wrinkled. He sniffed. ”Smoke. From where?”

He and Linda looked downward at the same time. ”Oh,” she said in surprise.

The hem of Linda's green-embroidered pollera was on fire, the fire racing up and out. Hennessey knelt to try to beat the flames out with his hands. The fire raced on, ignoring his efforts. She began to scream as the flames reached her skin. ”Please help me,” she cried. ”Please.”

For all Hennessey's thras.h.i.+ng hands, the personal inferno spread. His hands turned red, then began to blister. The blisters broke. His hands began to char. All the time he never stopped trying to put out the flames.

Linda screamed with agony, her cries cutting through Hennessey's heart like a knife.

Hennessey looked up. The girl was a ma.s.s of flame. Fire leapt from her hands to her head. Hair crackled. Gold and silver ran like water. The flames began to consume her face.

Ignoring the fire and the pain, Hennessey wrapped his arms around the girl, hands still beating frantically to put out the fire that was eating her alive. The fire must have eaten its way inside her as well, for her eyes once brown and warm turned red, hot and then burst like overripe grapes.

Still screaming, Hennessey sat bolt upright in his bed. He wept for a little while, as quietly as he was able. Then, to the sound of antaniae antaniae outside the house calling ” outside the house calling ”mnnbt ... ... mnnbt mnnbt ... ... mnnbt mnnbt,” he walked to the liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle. He didn't bother taking a gla.s.s.

Ciudad Balboa, 13/7/459 AC Linda's family had volunteered en ma.s.se to drive him to the airport outside Ciudad Balboa so that he could catch the first plane airs.h.i.+ps made the run, as well, but were just too slow to First Landing and, perhaps, push the authorities to find the bodies. Though he'd appreciated the offers, he'd declined. The sympathy of both parents, all twenty-two aunts and uncles not including those by marriage and one hundred and four legitimate first cousins had quickly gone from warming to oppressive. They'd meant well, he knew, but seeing every face around him in perpetual tears had come to make things worse, if that were possible.

It had been good to drive, to have to concentrate on something besides his murdered family. Even the mind-diverting task of ducking the larger potholes was welcome. Through the little towns along the highway that led from the San Jose frontier in the east to the Yaviza Gap to the northwest, he drove slowly and carefully. At the larger towns he would stop sometimes, gas here, lunch there. Once he stopped to take in a view of the Mar Furioso that he and Linda had once enjoyed together. That had been painful. Finally he came to the great bridge that led over the bay to the City. He almost smiled at a particular memory of the bridge. Almost, not quite.

The City had changed since he had first seen it. It was still clean, remarkably so for a large metropolis in Colombia Central. But the buildings had grown to the sky over the last fifteen years. He looked up at them briefly, then turned his eyes back to the road as unwelcome thoughts invaded his mind.

Though much had changed, much was the same. Driving through Ciudad Ciudad Balboa's streets he was cut off, tailgated, honked at and cursed with friendly abandon. Pretty girls walked the sidewalks and the parks. Young men looked, watched, pursued. Food and flowers wafted on the breeze, competing with the sea. Balboa's streets he was cut off, tailgated, honked at and cursed with friendly abandon. Pretty girls walked the sidewalks and the parks. Young men looked, watched, pursued. Food and flowers wafted on the breeze, competing with the sea.

Emerging along the coastal road, Avenida del Norte Avenida del Norte, Hennessey almost managed to enjoy the fresh sea breeze off the high tide-covered beach and mud flats. To his left he pa.s.sed the Restaurante Bella Mar, where Linda had taught him to appreciate sea food for the first time in his life. To his right he smelled the flowers of Parque Prado. He came at length to the Hotel Julio Caesare, arguably the best hotel of any real size in Ciudad Balboa, almost certainly the most ornate.

After a bellhop had unloaded the bags, a red uniformed valet took his car and parked it in the patrolled garage. Hennessey took a receipt in return, following the bellhop through marble and gilt and gracefully hanging palm fronds to the front desk to register.

He planned to spend a few days at the hotel, using it as a base while he waited for flights to the Federated States to recommence. Nothing was allowed to fly anywhere near the FSC at the moment and none could say when air traffic would resume. It was possible that airs.h.i.+p service would begin before fixed wing did, though most thought this unlikely under the circ.u.mstances.

As it turned out, it would be several days.

He spent his evenings, and evening came early this close to the equator, drinking in the bar c.u.m disco on the ground floor of the hotel. A wretched dancer Hennessey described himself as the worst dancer in the entire history of human motion he still enjoyed looking at pretty girls on the dance floor. He enjoyed it, that is, so long as none of them reminded him too much of his wife. This wasn't a problem, generally, since most of the women in the disco were light skinned. Though of a quite prosperous family, Linda had been very mixed-race and rather dark. Since the Julio Caesare was expensive enough to be only for either the well to do (or less moneyed cosmopolitan progressives, or Kosmos, who slurped lavishly at the public and donative troughs), there were few women of plainly mestiza mestiza backgrounds. None of these had been quite pretty enough to bring forth painful memories. backgrounds. None of these had been quite pretty enough to bring forth painful memories.

His first night at the hotel a few women, either too insensitive to pick up on Hennessey's pain or kind hearted and sympathetic enough to wish to relieve the pain if possible, approached him. It wasn't difficult for Hennessey to tell the difference. The former he sent packing with few words. The latter he spoke to as much as they might care to speak, or as much as he could stand to.