Finches of Mars (14 page)

Stroy went behind a screen, sat down on a chair and cried considerably.

The matron in charge of the overall running of the hospital day-by-day, Herrit, was comparatively new on Tharsis. She had arrived by the most recent manned ship. Even with the lighter Martian gravity, she needed support at first, since the journey had weakened her heart; it pumped more slowly, leaving her faint and gasping. Only under the carefully graded routine exercises, supervised by a cardiologist, was her health returning. She took charge of Ficht. Now she was in the position of being able to nurse others more seriously damaged than she had been.

Herrit saw Stroy crying. She did not interfere. There was weeping enough in the hospital beds.

The general cleaner was making his rounds. He arrived at the hospital with his ride-on vacuum-scourer, and greeted Herrit with a smile. ‘How's that heart of yours today, Herrit? Feeling any better?'

‘All the better for seeing you, Rasir, dear.'

Rasir's skin shone like ebony. He was lightly built. His head was shaved. He had a sullen expression except when he smiled, but he generally smiled, as now, since he had taken a particular liking to Herrit.

She asked, in a teasing way, ‘Are you still sleeping up in the Astronomy?'

‘Well, I like to be close to the stars. And I don't snore. So they put up with me.' The brilliant smile flashed on.

Herrit tried not to imagine what it might be like to be in bed with him. ‘Have you found any dragon-flies up there?'

Rasir shook his head. ‘We seem to be on the wrong part of Mars for dragon-flies.'

Mention of dragon-flies was a grim joke, they had between them.

Back on Earth, in Africa—this was the story Rasir had told Herrit when she had first arrived on Tharsis and was feeling low—he lived with his family in a village on the banks of the river Kasai, only three days' walk to Kinshasa. There were a lot of problems and some elements of the family had become separated. They called themselves Freedom Fighters and had been given a gun of sorts and a meal now and then.

‘How can you have Freedom if you become a Fighter? It is a deception. Freedom comes only with peace.' So said Rasir's wise old dad, whose brother had joined this bad army. He said it every morning when he got up and went to piss in the river. Of course Rasir was not called Rasir in those days, nor had he any aspirations, though he did regard his father as holy.

One day, he was told by his mother to go to Kinshasa to get some medicine for his father's throat, which was hurting him.

On the way, Rasir was walking through what was left of the forest when he encountered some Freedom Fighters. And there, to his delight, he saw his uncle, now calling himself Binja La Shithole (pronounced Shi-Toley). Rasir ran towards him, arms wide, calling him by the family name.

Binja also advanced.

When Rasir was up close, his uncle landed a savage blow on the boy's face.

Rasir fell unconscious. He lay sprawling in the dust. When he awoke, there was no one to be seen. But on his arm outstretched in the dirt a dragon-fly had settled. Its body was of a diaphanous blue, finer, purer, than any gown woman ever wore. Its wings held the thinnest veins of gold, which fluttered gently all the while. Its eyes were little green balls which peered ahead.

Many such insects had Rasir seen before, but never so close or so available for study. At Rasir's slight movement, the dragon-fly took to its wings. It circled above his head and then was away, making for the river. He watched until he could see it no longer.

What he told Herrit was that this beautiful creature had been a spirit messenger. It had awakened him to the fact that somewhere there was a place where poverty and ignorance did not exist and members of a family did not attack one another.

He got up to make for Kinshasa. And work. And study. His nose was still bleeding.

Food rations were getting smaller, but they had no worries about water shortages; or rather, they had not thought to worry about its running out: soundings had shown that the cavern containing the subterranean water was vast.

No complaints then until the water became a little cloudy. Anxieties were aroused that possibly they had drained an underground river, now drying up. After some discussion, it was agreed that a volunteer should go down into the great subterranean cave and report on the state of affairs.

Thirn, the woman who had run a shop by the sea, volunteered to investigate. She had frequently, in her more youthful days, swum in the sea at night.

‘No, I should go,' Squirrel said quietly to Thirn. ‘Everyone thinks I'm bad—I want to show them I am not bad.'

She regarded him coldly. ‘But you had sex with your mother, didn't you? Don't deny it—she told me. I'll keep it confidential—but for her, not for you.'

‘She needed it as much as me.'

Unmoved, she said, ‘Sorry, Squirrel, I got my needs too, so shut it.'

26

Life on Mars! The Capture of Things

The pale daylight lit a number of people coming from the West tower.

A hole had been excavated in rough and broken territory some distance from the tower. Two guards stood by it. Thirn came and stood shivering beside them.

‘Don't worry, old pet,' said one guard reassuringly. ‘There's nothing to harm you down there.'

‘I'll see about that,' she replied. ‘Fool that I am for volunteering.'

A crowd had gathered to see Thirn being lowered down into the depths. They were uneasy, but anything happening on a dead world ranked as an Event. Some people clapped as Thirn was lowered into the hole. A silence fell. Almost immediately there came from this intrepid woman a cry like a reverberating belch, magnified by the hollow chamber. It was followed by a shriek to be hauled up. As soon as her head emerged above ground, a head seemingly bodiless, Thirn cried out—not from cowardice but out of need for a net.

‘Things!' she cried. ‘A net! Quick! There's something big down here!'

Such was the urgency of her tone it compelled people to start running about in that high-kneed Martian way. Until as if by magic—magic prohibited on Mars—a net was produced.

Thirn grabbed the net and commanded to be lowered again into the depths. Her head disappeared from the watchers' sight.

Everyone waited. What for? For life? The crowd fell into an anxious silence, the lonelinesses of the planet seemed to close in about them.

Shrieks and splashes magnified by the hollow of the cavern were as sounds issuing from a great throat. Then a perfectly clear cry of triumph, ‘Got you, you bastick!'

‘Are you okay?' shouted those clasping the rope above ground.

‘Haul up! Haul like mad …' came the bellow.

They hauled. What appeared first was a largish lizard-like thing, struggling furiously in the net. Or was it two lizard-like things?

Yes, two of them—and followed by Thirn, heaving herself from the hole, gasping, shaking herself like an old dog. A towel was thrown round her. A guard gave her a breathing mask. She shook the towel about her ample shoulders, growling about the cold.

Attention switched immediately to the two struggling things. Little scientific curiosity here—not in the face of something to eat. The creatures were dragged back into the tower—straight to the kitchen. Pushing her way through the excited mob of people came Noel, cucumber-cool.

‘I forbid you to kill these creatures. Science must come first. Get out of the way!'

‘But they are real food,' Stroy protested.

Noel looked as if she was about to attack Stroy. ‘Food! You must be mad. Can't you understand? Get a grip of yourself. We have found life on Mars! Life on Mars! Not just micro-organisms. Bodily life on Mars! This is our saving, do you realise?'

The crowd fell back before her.

‘I found them, don't forget, Noel,' said Thirn, still wrapped in her towel.

‘Correct, madam,' said Nivec, addressing Noel. ‘Thank you. Life on Mars! This discovery will justify UU in the eyes of the world. We just need to find what category of beasts we have here. Nothing very pleasant, by the looks of them.'

‘Yes, not “it”—but so much better—“them”! Stroy, shut these creatures into a container and take them immediately to the science rooms.'

So said Noel, and her order was obeyed. She clutched Nivec's arm. ‘Wonderful!' she exclaimed. ‘Wonderful—And you too, Thirn, you're wonderful.'

‘I'd say we're all wonderful,' said Nivec. ‘Or will be when Earth gets our news …'

Thirn, now dressed in her usual overalls, sat on a chair in the corner of the lab. She wore a circle of stiff paper on which she had written ‘I DISCOVERED LIFE ON MARS'. Because of her new status, she was allowed into the science rooms.

The creatures she had captured lay on the bench in transparent water-filled plastic tanks. They were unmoving until they would suddenly rise up and scratch in a fruitless endeavour to escape from their prison. They possessed long bony heads. Their eyes were large and milky—‘Like poached eggs,' Cood muttered. Their four legs were flat and fin-like, held close to the scaly body. They measured not more than two feet long.

Their bodies tapered into a stumpy tail. At their maximum, these bodies were not more than four inches wide and six deep. They were covered with something resembling scales, shiny and black, showing green in certain lights. When one of these creatures was turned over, its belly showed smooth and hard and of a pale white.

When they snarled, sharp curved front teeth showed. Behind these fangs lay only two pointed teeth on either side of a grey mouth.

‘They are quiet and seem to be breathing easily in air,' said Cood. ‘But I suspect that it's been just a few generations since they were only fish, do you agree?'

Nivec asked Thirn if she had caught them swimming.

‘There were others of these same critters attacking them, or chasing all round, till I appeared,' said Thirn. ‘A ridge of rock comes above water level down there. These two brutes were resting on top of the rock, out of the water.'

‘So, a different species from the ones you saw in the water?'

‘I can't say about that. It was dark and they were gone quickly. There's a tunnel leading from the main chamber and they were off down it in a flash.

‘These two I caught, I thought they were a bit tired. Breathing air—there's oxygen underground, to some extent.'

‘Thank you. Your account was very clear, Thirn,' said Nivec.

‘Of course it was clear. I'm not a fool.'

Thirn's discovery had evidently banished her former shyness.

Cood said, ‘We've got hold of a bit of history. History? Prehistory, I should say. Radiometric dating determines the end of the Permian Age as about 252 million years ago. We're talking Earth times here, of course.

‘The Permian suffered a serious catastrophe. Some thing or things hit us—hit the Earth—and it took several million years for a biomass to recover. But out of that big black pit crawled–'

‘Hang on,' Nivec interrupted, placing a retaining hand on Cood's arm. ‘Look, we must talk about this before an assemblage of the whole tower—and link up with the other towers. Everyone here on Tharsis has to understand just what we have got hold of. I figure this is the most terrific bit of Darwinian news ever. Right?'

‘Right.'

‘Don't leave me out,' cried Thirn, jumping up.

The assembly hall was packed. Noel was effectively in control.

All junk was cleared out of the way. Everyone was revitalised by the discovery of life on Mars, which until now had been merely one of those crazy science-fiction imaginings.

Sitting on the panel were the two doctors, Nivec and Cood. Thirn was also on display.

Nivec opened the proceedings. ‘Thanks to the courage of our friend Thirn here, we can say with confidence that yes, there is native life on this planet, although life rather different from that envisaged by Professor Percival Lowell some centuries ago. My colleagues and I wish to give you the scientific background as we understand it at this stage.'

He then spoke of the Permian-Triassic event, some 250 million years ago, when a great percentage of marine and terrestrial genera perished. It seems most probable that this wholesale destruction was caused by more than one violent impact from space. These bolides, passing through the solar system, were unlikely to have impacted Earth alone.

Nivec warned the audience that he was talking hypothetically. But something resembling the P-Tr event could have occurred on Mars, in what might tentatively be labelled the Martian Permian period.

The severity of the event on Earth may be judged by the fact that 30 million years passed before diversity was re-established. On Mars, diversity was never established.

Climbing out of that great pit of extinction were therapsids and later cynodonts, mammal-like reptiles. Cynodonts form part of the long trail that leads to the origins of mankind.

He said that there was a possible resemblance between some therapsids and the creatures just discovered under the Tharsis shield.

‘And I discovered them!' shouted Thirn, jumping up and waving her hands above her head. Some in the audience laughed and clapped.

Nivec could not help smiling. ‘So you did, and we sha'n't forget it!'

He then went on to emphasise his main point. ‘Therapsids evolved and evolution was and still is continuous. Yes, our ancestors came down from the trees, but long before that, more ancient ancestors climbed out of the pit of P-Tr's vast extinction event into the trees. Don't forget that first of all trees had to appear.

‘But on Mars, being of lower mass and on the fringes of the comfort zone of the Sun, evolution, we'd guess, proved more difficult. These creatures just discovered by—we know who, don't we?—are Martian equivalents of therapsids, living evidence of a system calamity Earth has long outgrown.

‘I want you to realise that scientific study of the remote past can enlighten us regarding the present. The fact that today's evidence might be edible should not blind us to the discovery we are now about to announce to the whole world.'

AS WE ALWAYS KNEW THERE IS LIFE ON MARS

HEROIC GIRL DISCOVERS HIDDEN LIFE (Pic. p 6)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON RED-HOT PLANET

SCI-FI COMES TRUE

One person was not at the lecture. He had other things to attend to. Tad had moved into the Chinese tower with Gongcha. Gongcha had put her deputy in charge, so that her affair with Tad would not be interrupted.

It was important to both Gongcha and Tad that he should be kissing the enchanting dimples on her behind. He had kissed almost everything else on offer, sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes entirely without thought.

Gongcha had responded ardently, indeed almost acrobatically on occasion.

‘I am pleased to be pleasured. If I may play with words?' she asked.

‘Oh, you can play in any way—even in ways we haven't tried yet.'

She rolled over on to her back to clutch his prod. ‘This poor lonely item! I must give it shelter at once …'

Smiling mischievously, she did so, but teasingly slowly.

Tad clutched her tightly. ‘Oh, oh, oh, Gongcha, my darling, you prove to me there is life on Mars. Real life …'

Nevertheless Chang Mu Gongcha had things on her mind other than sex. An invitation had come from the West tower to inspect the new animals caught in the water course running under the ground between West, China, and on into the unknown.

Gongcha accepted and, at an hour fixed between them, presented herself with Chin Hwa, her chief scientist, and an escort at the gate of West. Noel and a scientist awaited her there. Showing the Chinese Director every courtesy, Noel took her and Chin Hwa to the science laboratories. Here the two captive fish-like things had been transferred to one fair-sized tank. Lights had been lowered to suit the imagined preferences of the pseudo-therapsids.

Nivec appeared, polite and formal. He described briefly the discovery and capture of the creatures, omitting the name of Thirn. He told Chang Mu Gongcha of the theory that these animals, part reptile, part mammal, were the equivalent of the terrestrial therapsids and the later cynodonts existing some 260 million years ago. He made no mention of what might become of the two specimens they had.

There was talk of an expedition to catch more specimens.

Then Nivec bowed and left Gongcha and Chin Hwa to their inspection and her thoughts.

A wooden plank provided by the building department gave the creatures something to rest on. They lay half in and half out of the water, unmoving. As she walked slowly round the tank, their great eyes followed her. Otherwise, they were unmoving, their long bony heads flat against the plank they clutched. Their legs were fin-like, with a firm hold on the plank.

Chin Hwa was making notes into his watputer. ‘To categorise these animals as equivalents of ancient Permian animals is premature. No research has been done. We have no evidence of bodily scales on therapsids. These creatures must live in water to obtain their oxygen quota …'

Chang Mu Gongcha scarcely listened. She stood looking at the captive fish-like beings. They stared back at her. No trace of emotion from them to her—or, for that matter, from her to them. No repugnance.

She stood with one hand against the tank that contained them, steadying herself against her thoughts.

Their hardship. Their struggle to live. Their need to reproduce. Their instinct to continue. Their deaths, of course. Whatever passed through their heads by way of response to their environment.

What was it she found here so horrible, so enduring, so inarticulate? Was it not that these faculties she imagined in them, however dark, however ancient, however alien—all such faculties which rose unbidden to her inner vision—she herself shared, and with all humanity, trapped as they were in time?

She turned finally to Chin Hwa. ‘Record that we saw them alive.'