An Accidental Alliance (14 page)

     
“From the look of it,” Park went on, “this long chain of mountains in the west were caused by subduction. Are there a lot of volcanoes and earthquakes along that stretch of coast? There were in my day too. What’s happening there is that the Plate that forms the basin of the Pacific Ocean…”

     
“We just call it the Ocean,” Marisea corrected him.

     
“Of course,” Park nodded. “There is only one these days, so that makes sense, but the plate that forms its basin is sliding under the plates that formed the Americas. As the stone of the ocean floor slides down it starts to heat up. There is a lot of water in that suboceanic rock; some of it is in the form of hydrated minerals and also a lot of water just goes down with the rock. It makes for an explosive mixture. As the water mixes with the mantle, it lowers the melting point, which, of course produces magma. The magma rises to the surface and erupts as lava Very often these eruptions are violent, combined with earthquakes, tsunamis and so forth. But being ocean dwellers, I suppose you know that part.”

     
“About tsunamis, yes,” Taodore nodded, “But this thing about plate tectonics is new to me. I don’t think my people know this. Do you have proof of this?”

     
“Old maps,” Park replied. “Our library may have some papers on the subject.”

     
“We have an encyclopedia in the library room,” Iris told them both. “I’m sure it will have an article on plate tectonics. It won’t have all the scientific proofs you’ll want, but it should tell you enough to devise your own experiments to prove the theory.”

     
“How much further is this city of yours?” Marisea asked suddenly.

     
“I was wondering how long it would take,” Park laughed.

     
“Take for what?” Marisea asked, puzzled.

     
“For you to start asking, ‘Are we there yet?’” Park laughed again.

     
“We’ll be there in another week, dear,” Iris told her. “We’ll have to portage the boats twice. From there it will be another day and a half. Park, we really ought to call the base and let them know we’re on our way back.”

     
“You’re right,” Park agreed, “We’ve probably been in range again for days, but I guess I got used to not calling home every night.”

     
“We both did, dear,” she told him, “but I suppose the honeymoon is over.”

     
“Honeymoon?” Park considered. “Hmm, I suppose it was. I think maybe I’ve done you wrong, though. Shouldn’t we have had the wedding first?”

     
“Maybe,” Iris gave him a crooked smile, “but where in this world would I have ever found a rabbi?”

     
Park laughed at that, “I knew we had forgotten to pack something. So where does that leave us?”

     
“It leaves us to create new traditions, I suppose,” Iris remarked, an odd tone in her voice. It seemed like a mixture of lightness and gravity. She took his hand in his and said simply, “You. Me. Us. We’re married.”

     
“You. Me. Us. From now on,” Park responded.

     
Marisea sighed and a few tears trickled down her face, but the mood was broken when Okactack asked, “This is how your kind gets married?”

     
“This is how
we
get married,” Iris told the shaman, emphasizing the “we.” “Others might opt for a formal ceremony, but it all comes down to the same thing. Why? Do you have a ceremony you would like to perform?”

     
“I would say a blessing over your union,” Tack replied.

     
“We would appreciate that,” Iris told him graciously. Park took her hand and they both turned to face the three and a half-foot tall insect. Tack looked up at them and decided he was not comfortable with the situation, so with a seeming lack of effort he jumped up on top of the cabin of Taodore’s boat. Turning once more to face the couple, he nodded in satisfaction and began speaking in a series of buzzes and clicks which the torqs did not even attempt to translate. Finally he made a few complex gestures with all four of his three-fingered hands and pronounced, “Now you are married.”

     
Park wanted to reply, “We knew that already,” but Iris was already swinging him around for the traditional kiss. Somehow they did not manage to call Van Winkle Base until the next day.

     
During Park’s and Iris’ absence, the remainder of the Project Van Winkle people had been woken up and put to work. Arn had been expecting trouble from the shock that they all had been forgotten and cast into an alien future, but with the exception of fourteen people who just wandered off one night and had not been seen in two weeks, everyone seemed to be taking it in stride as Park had predicted and most were actually cheerful about the chance to build a whole new civilization.

     
The arrival of Park and Iris along with their guests was an excuse to take the day off, however, in order to show them around the base and to allow Park and Iris to see what had been accomplished during their absence.

 
    
A small farm had been established along the south branch of the river and irrigation was already watering the seedlings. Park was a bit worried that they might still be headed into the dry season, but Taodore assured him that the dry season was nearly over and that they would soon experience two months of rain in the area. The Farmers then fretted that they would have to protect their crops from over watering.

     
Taodore was in Seventh Heaven as he hop-stepped through the facility, looking everywhere and taking verbal notes with his torq and in fact was so distracted by the wonder of the place that he failed to notice Arn’s less than enthusiastic welcome.

     
“What’s with you?” Park asked Arn as soon as he was able to get the project leader alone.

     
“What do you mean?” Arn replied stiffly.

     
“Here we have friendly intelligent indigenes to work with who seem genuinely pleased to see us and you’re doing your best to snub them. Do you want to settle down and have to carve out a civilization one inch at a time? It would be a heck of a lot easier to just join the one that already exists and enjoy the mutual benefits. We have things they don’t and vice versa, it will be a fair trade between equals. The Atackack mostly keep to themselves, but I understand some are willing to trade as well.”

     
“They’re not human,” Arn shuddered.

     
Park looked at him. He would not have suspected Arn to be a xenophobe. “Yeah, I noticed,” Park told him sarcastically. “I would have been very surprised if they were. In fact I am surprised to meet people who look as much like the Mer as they do. As for Tack, well, given the amount of time we were napping, we’re lucky not to be dealing with pandimensional cockroaches, although for all we know they’re the guys living up on the Moon.”

     
“There’s someone living on the Moon?” Arn asked.

     
“Yeah,” Park nodded, “And it doesn’t sound like they’re there for the great view and prime real estate. But I should let Taodore tell you about them. So it’s an even newer world out there than we ever expected. So what? We were lucky to wake up and find we have friends. If the Mer or Atackack wanted us dead, we wouldn’t stand a chance, you know.”

     
“I know that,” Arn agreed. “But they’re so alien.”

     
“In this world, they’re the natives, Arn,” Park pointed out firmly. “We’re not quite aliens either. I understand these Galactics fill in for that roll, but this is their world. We’re lucky enough to be living in a part of it they don’t want and so far they seem willing to share it with us. There’s no going back, Arn. You know that.”

     
“Of course I know that,” Arn nearly spat at him. “Unless these wonderful Mer of yours have a time machine.”

     
“I doubt it,” Park laughed, “though I never asked. It’s highly unlikely though and they would remember more of their past if they did have a way to go look at it. But they do have a way to launch satellites.”

     
“So do we,” Arn replied.

     
“Once,” Park corrected him.”The Mer can do it repeatedly and they have manned spacecraft that Marisea tells me are capable of interplanetary travel, although they don’t go into space.”

     
“Why not?” Arn asked.

     
“Well, I’m not completely sure, but it has to do with a treaty they have with these Galactics,” Park replied. “It sounds like the Earth is under quarantine.”

     
“So just who are these Galactics?” Arn asked, “and who are they to quarantine the Earth and why?”

     
“The reason I was given was that the Mer are not allowed to leave the Earth because they are an artificial and gene-locked species, incapable of evolution,” Park replied. “It sounded like a silly reason to segregate a perfectly nice bunch of guys, but then so is judging people by their skin color or religious beliefs and practices. Maybe we should have Taodore explain it for you.”

     
That evening, Arn and his section heads met with the Mer in a conference room for a briefing about the world of Pangaea. Park was amused that everyone had adopted Pangaea as the name for the future Earth the moment they heard Iris and him refer to it by the name. He tried to explain that its full name was Pangaea Proxima, but the Proxima was dropped immediately. Park supposed they were correct; There was no mistaking this world with the one that had existed four hundred and fifty million years before.

     
“The Mer have cities along most of the edge of the landmass you call Pangaea,” Taodore replied. “For some reason we don’t have a special name for it although we do for the southern continent and for each and every island. Pangaea is a good name though and I intend to start using it. Our cities as I hope you will all have a chance to see very shortly are built in protected shallow waters along the coast. My people are built for swimming you understand although, with technology, we have been able to exploit the land and build vertically as well, although we rarely built anything with more than three stories. We much prefer to have our cities spread out, not up.

     
“The Atackack live across much of the eastern side of Pangaea,” Taodore continued, pointing at a map Park had pinned to the wall behind the Mer, “and are most populous down here in the lands on the eastern shores of The Sink. The Mer do not live in the Sink. The water there has a higher salinity and with prolonged exposure it irritates our skin. There are occasional scientific missions there, however, as it has a fascinating ecosystem that has long been isolated from the Ocean.”

     
Taodore went on to describe the tribal groupings of the Atackack, occasionally wandering off on a variety of minor subject, causing Park to realize his friend was not an organized lecturer. It did not matter, he realized, because once more official contact had been made with the Mer, there could be a sharing of knowledge. Finding a way to making their data storage systems mutually compatible would be high priority. Taodore had already contacted friends in the Mer government, apprising them of the existence of Project Van Winkle

     
The Mer officials were, to Taodore’s shock, surprised and suspicious of a mysterious population of ancient people living deep within the continent. It was the stuff of supermarket tabloids, the existence of which in this future world amused Park no end. At Taodore’s insistence however, his friends agreed to assemble a small delegation to visit the site of Van Winkle Base quietly and without fanfare, at least at first. If his claims proved correct, a more official sort of relationship could commence.

     
That reticence saddened Taodore, but Park and Iris were quick to point out their own governments would have reacted the same in a similar circumstance.

     
Finally, Taodore got to the subject of the Galactics. “They are by no means a single species,” he explained. “They are many species of suprahuman, that is, those claiming descent from beings such as you, and a fair number of people who evolved entirely on other worlds. They form a large confederation of worlds, covering much of this side of our galaxy.”

     
“So they do not extend throughout the Milky Way?” a man asked. Park recognized Maurice Hellinsgrove, an astrophysicist from Great Britain. He had not had a chance to practice his specialty much beyond mapping the current stellar positions since waking up, but his former administrative experience had caused Arn to offer him a council position to represent those other scientists currently forced into manual labor until they could get established. The appearance of the Mer, was especially welcomed by these displaced scientists as it meant they might be able to return to their studies sooner than expected.

     
“Not at all,” Taodore laughed. Park was not sure that the Mer had laughed quite so freely when they first met. It was Park’s instinctive reaction and it had served to put others at ease in his experience. Park thought it possible a bit of that might have rubbed off on Taodore during the long trip upstream. “The Milky Way is a very large place, indeed. We are somewhat isolated here so all we know of it is what the Galactics allow us to know and what they accidentally let slip, of course.

     
“As I told Park and Iris weeks ago, there is a treaty called simply the Covenant which was forced on the Mer so far back in history that we have no records of it; hundreds of thousands of years at the very least. According to the provisions of the Covenant no space craft or satellite from Earth may be placed over six hundred miles above the surface of the planet.”