The Disestablishment of Paradise (41 page)

She nodded and yawned. ‘I got through last night. Finally. They’ve had troubles on the platform. Amazing stuff. But I have the tri-vid link working. It’ll be on now.
Live.’ If Hera had hoped for a warm response to her news, she was disappointed. Mack merely grunted and went on sharpening the axe. ‘So,’ she continued, ‘if you want to talk
to any of your team, I’m sure they’ll be pleased to hear from you.’

He nodded. And then he put the axe down. ‘Listen, Hera. You’re going to have to deal with all that. If I need to talk, to get help or something, I will. But apart from that I
don’t want to talk to anyone. That clear?’ She nodded, disturbed somewhat by his manner, by his quiet and his intensity. ‘Today is the make-or-break day, Hera. Once we start
there’s no stopping. By the end of today, we’ll know whether we can save her –’ he nodded casually at the dark blue side of the Dendron ‘– or not.’

Hera absorbed this. He’d said as much last night. ‘Is she . . . still all right?’

‘As far as I can tell. Her codds are warm so she’s thinking about us. She’s drinking. Had a bit of a pee about dawn. The cherries haven’t started to drop so the two lads
up front are still fine. So, all in all, we’re in there with a chance.’ He smiled at her for the first time.

‘Have you eaten anything, Mack?’ she asked. ‘Had a coffee or breakfast?’

He shook his head. ‘My stomach was in knots this morning.’

‘I’ll get something ready while you finish sorting the tools.’

She was on her way before he could argue.

It was strange setting out a table near the vast shape of the Dendron. Hera noticed that the smell had changed. It had lost the sour taint that Mack had found so unappealing.
It was the same kind of smell but sweeter. Not primroses or pineapples. Itself.

Once, as she was bringing things out, the Dendron’s codds gave a great heave and Hera nearly dropped the two bowls she was carrying. Mack, up on its back, using a paint spray to mark the
places where he would cut, paused and was ready to jump. But the beast didn’t move.

Then, as Hera finished pouring the coffee, a call sign rang out from the SAS, and she jumped up to answer it.

Perched on her chair in the control room, Hera could see the tri-vid picture of Mack working on the back of the Dendron. It was clear and sharp, and this was the image that was being transmitted
up to the shuttle. On the line she heard a man’s voice: ‘Hi there, Captain Melhuish. Dickinson here. Just thought we’d call to see how the old man’s treating you.
We’ve got your camp on visual. If you could open the lens a bit wider, we would be able to see the tips of the Dendron’s horns – if that’s what you call them. Looks nice
down there. Nice stream. Miss Annette Descartes wants to know, and I quote her verbatim, “What the fuck is that thing the old man’s climbing about on?” Is that a
Dendron?’

Hera laughed. ‘Yes. Believe it or not, we have to try and help it divide. I can’t really talk now. And I know that Mack doesn’t want to be disturbed so . . .’

‘Say no more. We know what he’s like. When he’s thinking he can’t talk. And when he talks, he sure as hell isn’t thinking, half the time. Just tell him the reserves
are all on the bench. He’ll know what I mean.’ A woman’s voice cut in. ‘Tell him that Polka and Netty send him a biiiiiiig kiss.’ Dickinson came back on line.
‘You got that all right? That was Polka. She’s the polite one.’

‘Yes . . . er, I’ll give him the message.’

‘Now, there’s someone here wants to talk to you. Over to Miss Kowalski.’ There was a thump and a scraping sound, and she heard Dickinson’s voice off mike saying,
‘You’re standing on the cable, Miss Kowalski. You can sit up here with me.’ Then Tania was there, very loud and breathless.

‘Hera. Hera. Tania here. Is that for real? I can’t believe it. Shit a brick, Hera! I mean . . . after all these years. Is it OK? Is it alive? Hera? Hera?’

‘I’m here, Tania. Just let me get a word in.’

‘Yeah, yeah. When I heard the news I tried to get that cow Haveagin to let me come down. But she won’t. She—’

‘Yes, and you mustn’t, Tania. You mustn’t. It’s too dangerous now. Forget everything you ever knew about Paradise. Everything. I mean it. If anyone comes down here just
now we could be in trouble. What we have is a brand new situation. Nothing like we’ve ever seen before. We have Reapers back, and you know what that means. Even the Tattersall weeds are
getting mobile. The planet’s rejecting everything of Earth. Bodies coming back to the surface. But it’s good too. I’ll explain as much as I can, later. I’ll come back on
line as soon as I’ve given Mack his breakfast.’

‘What the f—’

Hera cut the volume. Tania’s reaction was predictable. But Hera now saw what Mack had meant. She was dizzy with other people already. And the questions that could not be answered. She got
Mack to come down and eat. Which he did, finally. Still absentminded. Still thinking. ‘Can I talk to you?’ she asked when he had been sitting for a minute.

‘Sure.’

‘Did you figure out the problem?’

‘Which problem? There’s a lot of them.’

‘The er . . . what did you call it last night? The place where it keeps its life?’

‘Oh that. I think so. At least as well as I can. It’s a gamble, Hera, but where’s the safest place on a Dendron?’

‘Up with the cherries and tears.’

‘Nope. Those are its hands and eyes. Why do you hide your brain in your skull?’

‘For protec— You don’t mean the stump, do you? But that’s just a . . .’ Her voice trailed away.

‘Just a what? Why is its stool standing in the water now? What do the codds connect to? Why did that Dendron the Mayday woman talked about, why did it attack part of the stump so hard and
rip parts of it apart? Now I have no idea what a Dendron’s brain is like, nothing like our brains that’s for sure, but that’s where it keeps it, in that dip in the stool. And
that’s what we have to keep alive and happy, if we can. Until the second-to-last cut. You’ll be helping with that too. I’m not going to do things the way the other Dendron did. It
had time and strength on its side. We have neither. So I hope you’re feeling fit, Doc, cos I’m going to need a lot of help today.’

Hera nodded. She read the change in their relationship. She was Doc again. ‘You’ll get it, boss. Can I have a few minutes to finish a call?’

‘Take your time. I’m laying out the cutting plan. I’ll be half an hour or so. And then we start.’ He stood up. ‘Oh, er . . . was there anything in from Dickinson or
Cole and the team?’

‘Yes, Dickinson was there. He said to tell you that the reserves were all on the bench.’ Mack nodded. ‘And some people called Polka and Netty said to give you a
kiss.’

Mack grinned. ‘That all?’

‘That’s all.’

‘It’s enough.’ He finished his coffee and reached his arms above his head and stretched.

While Mack finished planning the cuts, Hera returned to her conversation with Tania. She explained as well as she could their new understanding of how the Dendron functioned and what they were
trying to do.

Tania started with lots of questions, but these gradually ceased as the story unfolded and became stranger. And when Hera paused for breath, Tania said, ‘Hera, if it was anyone else but
you telling me this, I wouldn’t believe a word of it. But because it’s you, Hera, and because it all makes a weird kind of sense, I believe half of it. OK. I’ll ride the tri-vid
at this end – put a commentary on it when I can. But . . . O Hera, I wish I was down there with you. This is everything we ever dreamed of, and more. Now, one thing. Give me a bit of a wider
angle if you can and tilt up a bit – I’m missing the flags. And, if you get time, try to zoom in if there’s something really interesting, like when you get right inside the
Dendron.’

Dickinson came on line again. ‘Couldn’t help hearing what you ladies were saying. All sounds pretty normal to me. But hey, Prof. If you want, you can tell your AP to connect us
through to your control line. I can link with it up here. Then we can do the camera work by remote, if that’ll help. Then you don’t have to worry about it. I’ve ridden camera when
I was working security for the Vatican and I can get that focus tighter than a chicken’s—’

‘Thank you, Dickinson,’ said Hera. ‘Just hold a minute, will you? Let me check.’ She switched through to the autopilot. ‘Alan, can you connect a tri-vid control
line up to the shuttle?’

‘Yes, Hera. If they can provide a triception boost and negative interface.’

‘Hey, Prof.’ It was Dickinson again. ‘Got that. Leave it to me, eh? If your AP wants to talk techno-babble, so can I. We’ll sort it out. OK? And if big-bum Titania here
will just give me a bit of room . . .’ In the distance Mack could be heard calling. ‘Mack wants you, Prof. Leave it to us. Alan and me’ll have a chat. Good luck.’

Mack was waiting on top of the Dendron when Hera climbed the ladder. He had brought some of the tools up. ‘You’re going to be gofer. OK? You
go for
this or
you
go for
that. OK?’

‘Right. With you.’

‘The first thing I’m going to do is try to disable the crest thing, so that even if she wakes up she won’t be able to take a swipe at us. To get to the fulcrum, we’re
going to have to cut a trench down her back and round the heel of the crest. I don’t know what we’re going to find, but it is a complicated joint, so it should be easy to disable it.
Here’s a mattock and a spade. Go for it, Doc. Follow the blue lines I’ve marked out. Now dig.’

So they started. Each one working from a different side of the Dendron, they cut a trench along its back. The deep red of the Dendron’s back was soft, as Mack had found when he fell on it.
It cut easily with a spade, but removing the cut was hard as all the fibres went downwards and they did not tear easily. Below the tufted red fibre, the inner body was green. Hera began by trying
to be very neat. But the Dendron’s flesh would not yield to that approach and so she soon found herself using the mattock and tearing the matted fibres out in clumps. Everything in her
screamed out against this brutal treatment of matter, but she could see no alternative. The heavy green flesh slipped and slithered down the side of the Dendron and fell noisily into the stream.
There it floated away.

One problem emerged quickly. The sap of the creature came welling up, filling the trench, and they soon found themselves knee deep in slippery mucus. Mack lost his footing when he swung his
mattock and slipped over, narrowly missing one of the sharp tines of the crest. He sat in the hole he had dug like a man in a green bath. ‘OK. Change of plan. Get me the chainsaw, Doc.
We’ll talk to it with that for a while. Cut some drainage channels for all this pea soup.’ Hera buried the head of her mattock in the side of the Dendron and climbed down the ladder.
Mack threw a rope down to her. ‘Here, tie it to this.’ He watched her closely. ‘What’s that knot you’re using called?’

‘A bowline. We use it on the boats all the time. It can’t slip and—’

‘I know what it is. Up she comes.’ He pulled the chainsaw to the top of the Dendron. Hera climbed back up the ladder. ‘Now, Doc, have you ever used a chainsaw?’

‘Yes.’

‘Right. I want you to cut a couple of trenches here at the end of the Dendron so all this slop can drain away. Get your feet secure first. And watch out cos these things start with a hiss
and a roar. No grace clutch or anything.’

Hera cut and the saw ran through the flesh of the Dendron easily. She cut a V and was able to use the flat of the saw to send the cut flesh sliding away. The green water began to gully down the
side of the Dendron.

‘Good. Now there is only one problem. We need to cut lower and round the underside if we’re going to drain this lot away. Any suggestions?’

Hera didn’t bother to answer. She tied the rope round her waist and handed the end to Mack. ‘If you’d be so kind as to hold this, boss, I’ll lean over the side and cut a
beautiful deep drain.’

‘Hook your toes in the lip of the trench then.’

Holding the saw away from her, Hera leaned out from the side of the Dendron. Mack took her weight until she was almost inverted, and then she began to cut. It was surprisingly easy. The blue
fibre fell away from the blade and the only problem was the green liquid from above, which found its way inside the leg of her overalls, ran down the underside of her body, came out at her neck and
used her chin as a spout. Some inevitably ran into her mouth, nose and eyes.

It was at about this time that the tri-vid camera on the top of the SAS suddenly moved jerkily and panned round. It then retracted and advanced its lens. After a pause it turned smoothly to
follow them. Hera, despite the dribbling juice, was cutting steadily, making a deep trench in the side.

‘Stop,’ shouted Mack. ‘Don’t move till the saw’s stopped. Your hair’s come loose.’ Hera held the saw away from her and felt the harness of her overall
begin to lift. Then a hand seized her by the back of her meshlite and hoisted her upright.

‘I ought to cut it off,’ said Hera.

‘Like hell. Just needs tucking in and tying down tighter. You should see young Polka’s hair. Red as this Dendron. Lot bushier than yours. She tapes it down. So do Jason and Akira. If
I had hair like this, I’d have it long.’ All the time while he was talking Mack was tucking Hera’s hair back and then anchoring it. ‘With all this sticky shit in it,
it’ll probably set before long anyway, and then you won’t have a problemo. OK. There you are. Over the side again, McGinity.’

Ten minutes later, Hera was upright again and easing her back. Mack was whistling. He undid the rope round her waist from behind. And as he did so, she heard him whisper, ‘Don’t look
now, but they’ve got that camera working on remote. It’ll just be Dickinson arsing about.’ Out loud he said, ‘You did bloody well there, Doc – for a beginner. Go and
get yourself cleaned up a bit. I can take over now.’

Hera found her legs were shaking as she climbed down the ladder. But one thing, one thing above all pleased her. Mack was cheerful! She realized that as soon as he was working, the worry lifted.
He was into the job. She had no doubt he was thinking as hard as ever, but it was not sullen work, but lively work, full of . . . She looked for the word. Wit. Fun. Sport. All fitted. She was aware
of the camera following her as she reached the bottom. She gave it a thumbs up and headed into the SAS for a change of overalls. She heard the saw start up on the top of the Dendron, followed by
the steady
swish
and
slop
of the liquid pouring down the trenches she had cut and tumbling into the stream.