Read The Disestablishment of Paradise Online
Authors: Phillip Mann
Worse, though, was the damage done to Hera’s reputation. The excellence of her early work notwithstanding, she was now branded as an advocate of weird science, mystical science, and hence
a crank and a fraud. The ‘case’, for so it was described, was seized on in the popular press, and headlines such as
PARADISE GURU ACCUSED OF BLACK ARTS
and
ORBE LEADER EXPOSED AND DUMPED
and glared at her. The hospital was besieged by reporters, and it was only with the help of the hospital administrator that she was able to
escape. As soon as it was safe for her to move she fled as a fugitive to Io, the place where she grew up. Her arm was still strapped in a sling and the injuries to her face and neck were hidden
under a hood.
The paparazzi were waiting for her at Angelique-above-Io and Hera refused to disembark but stayed on for the next stop, which happened to be Anchor Hold-over-Europa. A lucky
chance
.
Anchor Hold-over-Europa is a monastery dedicated to the memory of Julian of Norwich, and it was here that Hera found sanctuary. She was already known to Sister Hilda, who was in charge of the
monastery, as Hera had been there more than once when she was younger.
However, those who took her in and gave her a room and simple food never suspected the depth of the damage done to Hera. Nor need we dwell on it. But she felt her life was ruined, and so, the
night after her arrival, she waited until the small community on Anchor Hold was asleep and then, in a state of black despair, she took a knife and attempted to kill herself.
And she would have succeeded had it not been for Sister Hilda, who
by chance
found Hera collapsed on the floor and summoned one of the night sisters, a surgeon by profession, and
together they saved her. This attempt at suicide was previously only ever known to a few of the sisters at the monastery.
I have italicized ‘by chance’ since Sister Hilda, by her own account, awoke from a dream in which she was warned that Hera was in danger, and it was this that sent her hurrying to
Hera’s room.
When chance events become persistent, they cease to be chance but part of a new order of knowledge. Such I believe to be the case here. As we shall see, as Paradise awakes, so the rational order
whereby we regulate our lives becomes disturbed by chance events. Coincidences mount up and heightened intuition becomes a cause for action.
We have reached a turning point in Hera’s journey.
It is now time for us to know more about her.
While researching this book in the Julian Library on Anchor Hold-over-Europa I found the following handwritten reference among Sister Hilda’s papers. It is a letter, written many years
earlier, in support of Hera’s application to join the ORBE project on Paradise.
Dear Professor Shapiro
When Dr Hera Melhuish came to me recently asking for a reference, I at first refused. I know nothing of her academic qualifications. But Hera was insistent, as she can be!
She assured me that she did not want an academic reference but something more like a testament, a document that would speak about the other sides of her being.
While not a frequent visitor, Hera, as a young woman, visited us in her hour of need. She came to us, seeking to reconcile two sides of her being. On the one hand she was still the dreamy
and innocent little girl who, perched atop a laboratory stool, watched her father as he pruned and grafted and ‘chuntered’ to his plants, ‘mussing them with his blunt, soiled
fingers’, as Hera put it. It was there, listening to his storytelling, that she learned her plant lore and discovered her own intuitive understanding and deep love of Nature.
The other side of her being – one she identified most closely with her mother – is the high-achieving committed scientist, who can flare up in anger when she feels her beliefs
are challenged. This anger, which so troubled Hera and frustrated her social life, is the dark side of her honesty. Her ardent desire to protect life forms is a simple reflection of her
maternal instinct. The paradox (and I am not sure that Hera has finally come to terms with it) is that her anger derives from the same source as her innocence.
However, this does not excuse it. Hera does not have much patience for those she sees as fools or for those who, having achieved a position of power, fail to use it openly and in ways which
she would consider wise. She makes her point of view known, bluntly and openly. She can be a ferocious critic and a thorn in the side of anyone in administrative authority whom she sees as
stifling initiative.
That said, I have said the worst about her – and I dare to suggest that it is people such as Hera Melhuish who have, in times past, given us a wider vision of what is possible by
daring to challenge orthodoxy. I am thinking of our patron, Dame Julian of Norwich, who put herself at risk by daring to call God ‘Our Mother’.
Of course, Hera gained enemies. But the inner truth of Dr Melhuish, one which her critics fail to understand, is that, to her, to hold a flower is to draw close to heaven. When she sees the
complex economy of nature – everything in its place, nothing wasted – she swoons. The underlying drive behind all her work is her desire to express her delight in things living.
Those whom she battles and who see only a woman with piercing blue eyes, possessed of a ready wit indeed but more importantly of an absolutely dogged determination, they never suspect the
tender, somewhat mystical creature that lives within.
May I wish you well in your deliberations.
Sister Hilda
Julian Retreat,
Anchor Hold-over-Europa
As we know, Hera gained the appointment, and some ten years later became head of the ORBE project on Paradise following the death of Professor Israel Shapiro, a position which
she held until the planet was disestablished and the project closed down.
So there you have her – an anatomy of Dr Melhuish. All that I wish to add is that sometimes Hera Melhuish has been her own worst enemy, but not in terms of her anger as Sister Hilda
suggests. Hera’s passion, her quick manner of speech and her extravagant physical gestures (allied to her smallness of stature) made her an easy target for caricature – and there is
always something slightly ridiculous about the excessively zealous, is there not? But, strange to relate, those who were most successful at mimicking her were invariably those who liked her and
admired her the most. Those who wished merely to belittle and ridicule her revealed only their spite, for they failed to understand the inner truth – the water of the woman if I may so put it
– so well conveyed by Sister Hilda in her final sentences.
It is with sadness that I record that Sister Hilda died just fifteen days before the publication of this volume. May she rest in peace.
We return to the living Hera, recovering on Anchor Hold.
To Hera, the period between her attempted suicide and her first night alone on Paradise seemed a ‘long, dark, necessary journey’. During that time she had more or
less given up direction of her own life. In retrospect, it seemed to her like a life being lived by someone else.
Be that as it may, to us that ‘journey’ is filled with paradox and mystery. I am aware that many things need to be explained in this chapter. I am also aware that many things cannot
be explained. One of the differences I have discovered between writing fiction for children and this fact-based documentary writing is that fiction can be made consistent, reality can not.
For the first time we begin to see clearly that the life of this woman who has been pilloried for being a ‘mystical scientist’, is itself patrolled by mystery. Why and by whom
remains unknown. And perhaps the questions are more important than the answers for the moment. We will begin with questions.
At what point did Hera’s life begin to change and shape her for Paradise? Was it when she applied for a position with ORBE? Or when she decided to write the preface to Professor
Shapiro’s little book of wisdom? We could probably pick any one of several points of entry and all would lead us inevitably to the conclusion that there were forces beyond her control shaping
her life. For the most part they retain the mask of the ordinary, by which I mean that they have acceptable causes and predictable effects. However, as we come closer to Hera’s solitude on
Paradise, strange events manifest and the normal rules of life begin to change. For a start, comedy begins to take over from tragedy.
It is two days after Hera’s failed suicide.
Sedatives have had a disastrous effect and Hera has spent the days collapsed in her bed with a headache like ‘the worst black hole of a hangover’. Hera has a massive thirst for cold
water, but even the clink of ice cubes in the glass is like the detonation of cannon between her ears. Urination, necessary frequently, is achieved crouched over that ancient symbol of
civilization, a chamber pot. Anchor Hold maintains interesting links with tradition so that the humble and human is never lost from sight. During the crouching, Hera, much to her embarrassment, is
supported by one of the junior sisters, who sits vigil with her. Meanwhile, the room moves as though viewed from a swinging pendulum
On the morning of the third day, always auspicious, Sister Hilda hobbles into the room, her stick in one hand, a letter in the other. It is a genuine old-fashioned letter and it has been
delivered by fractal transmission. It bears the impress of the Space Council and, although stamped confidential, has been opened.
‘I opened it by mistake,’ says Hilda with a twinkle in her eye. ‘Sorry.’
Hera, for whom the world is now becoming more stable, acknowledges this with a small sober nod and removes the pages. She reads.
Memo to Dr Hera Melhuish
Anchor Hold-over-Europa
With regard to the ongoing Disestablishment of Paradise, I am authorized to offer you the position of interim director of the ORBE programme. Your duties will be to oversee
the welfare of the departing staff, the termination and completion, as far as possible, of current experiments and the elimination of any dangerous experimental materials. You will be
reinstated on full pay (plus holiday allowances) for the duration of the Disestablishment process. A speedy reply would be appreciated and should be addressed to T. Vollens, Office of the
Secretary General.
The letter bore the official stamp of the secretary general.
T. Vollens was not a name that Hera recognized, but she did not consider that significant since staff changes were frequent in the Space Council. T. Vollens, whoever he or she might be, was
clearly an administrative assistant.
After discussing the matter with Sister Hilda, Dr Melhuish replied from her bed. She accepted the appointment, subject to her body healing satisfactorily, and added just one personal and highly
significant request. This was that she be allowed to stay on Paradise ‘alone if needs be’ during the period between the departure of the last shuttle and the final evacuation of the
shuttle platform over Paradise. During a Disestablishment there was always a gap of several months between the two events. In explanation, Hera maintained that with the use of an SAS flyer she
would be able to use this ‘grace time’, as she called it, to complete some personal projects. She added that she would not expect to be paid for this work.
As directed, she addressed the letter, ‘For the attention of T. Vollens’.
It is important to understand that, since the ordeal of the hearing, Hera’s sense of commitment to Paradise had strengthened. She wanted to find out what had gone wrong there. This, she
now believed, could best be accomplished alone.
Before accepting the letter for transmission, Sister Hilda perched on Hera’s bed and stared deeply into her eyes. Her gaze was of flint. ‘You are not thinking of trying to kill
yourself down there on Paradise, are you, Miss Melhuish?’
‘No. I give my word. I’m a big girl now, Sister Hilda.’
And so the letter was sent.
Dr Melhuish had no real hopes that her wish to be alone on Paradise would be granted. It was, as she confessed to me, ‘the last sad endeavour of a wounded woman’.
So it was with a mixture of sadness and hope that, two days later, Hera found herself holding a letter of reply, again transmitted by fractal delivery, and again from T. Vollens.
This letter had not been opened, and Sister Hilda lingered at the door to find out the news. The envelope was large and it contained a sheaf of documents. Hera spread them out on her bed. The
letter was quite different in tone from the previous one. It thanked her for her work, expressed the hope that she was feeling better and made clear Theodore Vollens’ pleasure that Hera had
accepted the position of interim director. Accompanying the letter was residency certification allowing her to stay down on Paradise during the grace period. Another document authorized the use of
a Delta-class SAS flyer – these being the most modern type available. There was a booklet of supply and services request forms made out in her name. With these she could commandeer essential
supplies from someone named Ernest de Lava, who was the newly appointed Disestablishment marshal. A copy of the documentation plus a covering note had been sent to Captain Abhuradin, who would be
administering the Disestablishment from the space platform. All documents were authorized by Theodore Vollens, and all had the official stamp of the secretary general.
As you may imagine, Hera sat for a long time reading and rereading this material.
Following her instincts, Dr Melhuish did not reveal this letter or mention it to anyone except Sister Hilda. However, she did try to contact Mr Vollens at the Space Council only to be told that
there was no one called Vollens working there.
So here was a mystery. At first Dr Melhuish suspected a hoax. A cruel one and an absurd one, but no more cruel or absurd than some of the things she had witnessed. But who would take the risk of
perpetrating a hoax such as this? After much deliberation she contacted Captain Abhuradin via a fractal voice link and asked her very casually whether a new posting for her had come through. Inez
Abhuradin, who sounded hassled, confirmed that she had indeed received an official letter informing her that Hera had been appointed interim director of ORBE with authorization for her to stay on
the surface after the departure of the last shuttle.