*
To Mathew’s fury, Sarah called a meeting and explained to the whole group what a predicament they were now in.
“You mean we can’t go home?” Shouted one man. “We’re trapped here?”
“What about our children?” called out a woman. “We bought our children!”
There were cries of horror and disbelief as people realized just how much trouble they were in and that they could not even get back to Terra. They were trapped here.
Sarah called out, “There are options. We are working with some local lawyers. We are going to lay a complaint…”
“You say there was no invitation? But if no one invited us here how come we got in without visas or passports or whatever the equivalent. We have diplomatic status and that proves it!” Yelled Mathew.
It was some time before order could be established, various people argued while Iwygin said to Sarah,
“He has a good point there. You must have been smuggled in.”
“We came in late at night.”
“Ah. Paswalda could have bribed Customs Officials. This could help your case,” it said annoyed it had not thought to ask how they had got in without documents or data bracelets. And no money. It was illegal to be here without means of support. “How did you register at the hotel?”
“We didn’t. We just were allocated rooms by one of the crew.”
“I wonder if Paswalda told them you would pay after he cleared your cargo. If so, we can claim that cargo is yours. I will look into this,” Iwygin said thinking which students could be assigned to that task.
Sarah turned back to the meeting and explained what Iwygin had just told her and, “I disagree with Mathew. Where are the People who invited us? Think about it. Would you invite people to stay and then not meet and greet them when they arrived? Would you leave the hotel with no one to bill? The hotel Manager told me Paswalda booked us in but assured that we would pay.”
There was great anger. Those who in good faith had brought their children were the most upset. Paswalda had encouraged them to bring children because he said it was a sign of good faith and trust. This would help to negotiate Treaties,they had been told. Paswalda had not told them that children were popular as slaves. Iwygin had told Sarah but she decided not to pass on that further worry. She called for silence then went on.
“We assumed Aliens with a high level of technology would be civilized. Most seem not to be. In the main, they have turned out to be rude, unethical, immoral, arrogant, extremely competitive and self centred. And we’ve only been here three days. In the political league we Terrans are just not in their league having just enough awareness to see that we are missing most of the cues. We are 418 mis-matched Terrans, mostly scientists and politicians, 34 being children under the age of 16. It is up to us whether that is our strength or our weakness.” Sarah looked around at them.
“Think of every way you can make money, save money, earn something, do something.”
“What about music, busking?” a voice called out.
“We need to catalogue what we brought with us and what we can sell. Some of us brought trade goods, samples. We did. We have a large data base.” Sarah looked over for the speaker. He was one of the men that had come with Mathew.
Dan called out, “We have been recommended another trader, a firm, to negotiate sales of goods.”
“This is on a commission basis,” called out Helene, “and we have promised future sales commissions to this firm in order for them to take minimal commissions now. They are gambling on a future monopoly for trade for Terrans. Remember, there is a potential novelty market for everything you bought with you because it originated on Earth.”
“There are heaps of clothes thrown out, mostly those cloak things, out of date due to style and colours. We can wear them and sell our clothes,” called out one child.
“But they won’t fit most Races.” Called back another child.
“They might fit their children or they could buy them just as a novelty,” the young girl’s voice shot back. “Can we sell to rival fashion houses?”
“Do they have fashion houses?” Asked another girl.
“Find out,” said Sarah. “We’ll have to start washing ourselves and our clothes in water, we can’t afford the Cleaners.” There was a collective moan but the point was well taken. Nothing here was washed in water which was thought of as being dirty and primitive. Water was not drunk by itself except by slaves who had nothing else. Sonic type Cleaners were built into every accommodation place. This meant the housework and all washing was done at the touch of a button. But the button was expensive. A charge was levied every time it was used. Yet it was considered essential, as a sign of civilization, that all people and their clothes be scrupulously clean. Mainly so they could minimise smell which was unacceptable.
Li and Stella looked at each other. Li wondered if Stella was regretting her insistence on coming. Yet she herself wasn’t.
“At least we’re together,” Stella said softly. “I might never have known what had happened to Mum and that would be worse.”
Li nodded wondering if Stella was a mind reader or were they both idiots?
The meeting went on for hours. The response was heartening. People were designated to sell, look for accommodation, sort out busking (was a license needed?), look at selling music of each type. That started another debate as Helene told them all that,
“According to the Commercial Law here, there is no copyright on another planet; copyright is only valid on its planet of origin. That includes books, intellectual property, art, music, patents etc.”
The ideas exploded. One woman was a sculptor. There were several artists. One child had surmised that all fabrics looked and felt synthetic and if so woollen, silk, cotton, linen and leather garments might have an added rarity value here in fabric.
Several people were writers or journalists and were going to try to get stories published. Several of these had been bored and written stories on the voyage here.
An engineer, a draughtswoman and a real estate agent were going to look at selling ideas and designs to architects. Almost everyone had brought music on varying storers.
And everyone was delegated to look for or think of any service, product, ideas, device, invention etc whether the thing or the design could be sold.
By the time the meeting closed, spirits were revived and people were rising to the challenge.
Iwygin watched, listened, and surreptitiously recorded to get accurate and verifiable evidence. It listened to their suggestions and possible solutions to various problems. None would solve the problem of course, but it was very interesting and revealing to listen to how they thought and how they problem solved.
“We must find a Race or Person to sponsor us. Iwygin will not sponsor us but has given us valuable advice and will aid us in other ways. It suggests we ask the Priskya to be sponsors as this is their planet. The Priskya are large fish that look a bit like sharks. We can speak with them via the Translators. Dan and I will try to negotiate this. Alan and Iwygin are in the process of negotiating the equivalent of temporary work permits for us all.
Next, on the advice of Iwygin and Helene, we have altered our debt from a collective debt to an individual debt. This means we each have the equivalent of 8,400 units, owed to the Civil Police. We are disputing the debt. We are trying to reduce or eliminate it claiming false representation and the fact that we made payment in advance, and for a return journey. We are claiming the price paid for the return journey, which we now won’t get, should more than cancel out the debt of the American Team. We are therefore claiming;
- Deliberate false representation,
- That Paswalda accepted payment for a service without acknowledging such nor giving a receipt,
- Fraud via paying for something which is now denied us (the return journey),
- something called ‘intent to cause jeopardy via debt peonage,’
-‘malicious intent’.
We are c
laiming to have been overcharged and to owe nothing, explaining that we paid in trade goods. Of course the trader claims that he bought the goods off other Terrans, but at this stage the Civil Police have judged our explanation to be reasonable. Our Slavery Debt Level has been fixed at 16,800. Iwygin says that’s reasonable, a bit low but not unreasonable. Going individual makes each one of us responsible for our own debts but no one else’s,” she said looking pointedly at Mathew whose extravagant tastes were well known. There was the sound of a disruption and Mathew and most of his Toadies walked out. Sarah ignored them and continued.
“Oh and a 10% interest charge starts from tomorrow.” There was a collective groan. “Each of us must look for any way possible, but legal, to both earn money and live as cheaply as possible. The method must be legal. Penalties here are fines, slavery and execution. Eat only the food we brought with us, don’t try to buy any food and waste trade goods.” She paused.
“Our problem though is that we must also balance the cost of legal action against our lack of ability to pay for it which will increase our debt. Bit of a ‘catch 22’ there. But we can start off with the equivalent of pro bono and then legal aid if we have a good chance. Our status (or lack thereof), seems to be the main problem, not our actual predicament. There is no one to guarantee us of course. No embassy. Add to that that we have a large debt each, no assets, no income, no sponsor and no visible means of support and we do present a poor financial prospect,” she said dryly. “Luckily for us, since one of the major incomes from this planet comes from education, there are students here. A lot of them. Law students among them. See where I’m going with this? This is where we get the pro bono and legal aid from. The pro bono from junior students and the legal aid from the senior year students. Iwygin is a lawyer and a tutor. It says the law students are taught via a lot of practical experience. They must complete a certain number of cases a term. They are marked on these cases. It suggests we set up several students sort of in competition against each other by getting several of us to employ several students to each try a different method of fighting our case for us. Of course a lawyer we could pay would be a better option but since we can’t pay Iwygin suggests this system.”
Iwygin wondered at the gullibility of these Terrans. They believed everything it told them. The students would indeed be in competition. This would make a good lesson in fraud, peonage, misrepresentation, commercial law, contract law, etc. It could be set up as an assignment. Some would win their cases but most would lose. The winners would get an A pass. The losers would be judged as to how good their argument was. If it was well reasoned, they would pass. But their losing clients would be enslaved. Of course the rest of the Terrans would then know which student to employ who had come up with the correct solution to get one of their kind off, but there were no guarantees that Paswalda wouldn’t simply get a better lawyer and one who fought a better case. The argument might not work the next time.
Did these Terrans have no knowledge of adversary legal systems? Right or wrong was irrelevant. It was the beauty of the argument that won a case and a knowledge of what the law could be used for. It was this that had attracted Iwygin to law. It was the gamble, the fight, the joy of the argument, the besting of one’s opponent. A fight with no risk or injuries and one got well paid for it as well. Very well. Perfect. Of course some of the client’s didn’t see it that way when they lost. Especially when they were innocent and lost. Iwygin switched attention back to Sarah.
“We need to brainstorm this one,” said Sarah. “All ideas to Alan, Anne, me and Dan. They will further research or delegate. Don’t negotiate to sell anything or sign any contracts yourselves. Check all contracts first with Helene. Commercial law here is so complicated you’ll get ripped off. Mathew thought he had sold his antique Mont Blanc pen. What he actually sold was all the trade and manufacturing rights to a pen of that type. The fact that Mont Blanc did not give him those rights is irrelevant here.”
“Remember that copyright from another planet is not valid here,” called out Helene.
“That doesn’t feel right,” argued Donny.
After some more discussion, Mahmoud suggested, “How about only one work of each writer, composer etc will be sold as I agree it doesn’t feel right to breach copyright. Except for things like songs which are out of copyright or when the artists, writers, inventors etc have died.”
By the time the meeting closed, spirits were reviving and people were rising to the challenge.
“We will all meet at the sea tomorrow at noon as the Priskya want to see us. They may be able to come up with some suggestions too. We have to move out of our hotels tomorrow. Bring your luggage with you. Tue and Nancy have offered to stay and guard it. Hopefully by tomorrow night we will have found somewhere to live but we’ll probably have to live in the slaves quarters unless there is such a thing as a job with accommodation here.”
Helene and Sarah had already talked to the hotel manager. The manager had taken it surprisingly well. Everyone was to sign out individually tomorrow and agree to the amount owed. If this was done, the manager would not involve the Civil Police. Iwygin had told them that the debts that were not disputed were almost always paid first. That lessened the number of complaining creditors. It therefore lessened the pressure the Civil Police were under. For most of the Terrans, the debts they had were only to the hotels. If they started paying the hotels off, in excess of the rising interest, the hotelier would not complain. With local interest at 3% as Torroxell had minimal inflation, at 10% interest, the hotelier was onto a winner if the interest and principal were being repaid.
Food (goop), was free. There were dispensers of it in several places around the city in places where slaves were allowed to go. Water was next to it. It was considered the ultimate humiliation for any Person to use either but to live with the emotional and cultural knowledge of this was one thing. To not grow up with this knowledge then hear intellectually of this and have no choice was a little different. It wasn’t so bad for them.
Sarah explained this adding, “Remember, from tonight you are personally paying for everything you use. No Cleaning and for food and water use the dispensers.”
There was a collective groan but again the point was well taken. The goop tasted worse than the dehydrated food they had brought with them; a lot worse. But Sarah’s foresight meant a lot of flavourings had been brought with them. This included catering quantity packets of salt, pepper, lemon pepper, curry, mustard, onion powder, cheese powder, cans of powdered soups, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, manuka honey, vanilla, dried basil, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. She had also brought dried fruit and vegetables in large quantities. They had luckily not left them on the ship because they wondered if they could sell them. This meant the goop was palatable. And free. Free was affordable. Free was all they could afford.
Dan had been talking with the helpful Iwygin who told him, “Most civilised planets consider it is bad economics to let slaves starve or freeze and locked night shelters are provided for slaves and for the destitute for a while. There are no bags. Slaves sleep naked on the floor. When the destitute debt reaches the ‘slave level’ they become slaves and are sold at auction. As slaves, they have no rights. Killing or injuring slaves is not a crime against the slave but rather a crime against the owner.” Dan decided not to explain this for now. They all had enough to contend with.
Iwygin went back to its apartment delighted. This was much better than it had thought it would be. These little creatures were quite innovative. And they thought Iwygin was being nice to them. They were quite delightfully naive. It could finish its research paper on this. The students would help it write it too. This would complete its degree. Up one more level. Substantially more pay. It would put down the best of the Terrans ideas as its’ own suggestions and take credit for that too. These Terrans would sign anything it told them too. They couldn’t read and by tomorrow would not be able to afford Translators. In the meantime, it would make itself indispensable to them.
>
Mathew was furious. He did not understand why people did not listen to him. To Sarah and most of the Terrans, as a leader he was turning out to be appalling. He considered everyone else’s views not worth listening to. He would not delegate according to ability or training but had promised jobs to his ‘yes men’. Totally lacking in adaptability and compromise, he was way out of his depth. He and his Toadies had stormed out soon after Sarah had taken over the meeting.
But Sarah was wrong. Mathew did understand that they were in trouble. He just didn’t know how to deal with it. However Mathew was not stupid no matter what Sarah thought. He knew he couldn’t find the solutions but thought Sarah probably could. Yet in Sarah, her acceptance by the others and her obvious abilities were a constant threat to his own ambitions. She was someone he itched to crush. Yet he knew he needed her. Torn by indecision. He had done almost nothing openly against her.
Sarah, watching his appalling leadership style, constantly wondered why he had come on this trip. She had been quite prepared to work with him for the good of the mission but had found it harder and harder to do so. His attitude to her, and everyone else, infuriated her although she tried hard to control this reaction and do her best to get on with him.
But Mathew’s main problem was one he could do nothing about. By the time they arrived on Torroxell, Sarah was established as the real leader. Not him. And Mathew’s problem now was how good a leader the others thought she was and how well she was respected and liked. He was not held in the same regard as Sarah and he knew it. It incensed him and he could not see a way to alter it.
They were both natural organizers but they worked very differently. Mathew simply told people what to do. Sarah asked their opinions, listened, compromised, worked with people, adapted, but ensured things were done. When she delegated, she left people alone to get on with it. She delegated based on ability. She believed most people knew how to do their jobs. After all, they were doing them. It is truly amazing how many bosses do not understand this simple fact. Mathew was one of them.
Mathew delegated based on who owed him favours or who he owed favours to. Ability was irrelevant. The Terrans were divided. Everything Mathew and his team tried to do or take over, revealed to the others just how far out of his depth he was and his Team also. So they tried to stop him where it was important and bypassed him where they could. Otherwise, they simply ignored him. Sarah had rostered her SETI Team members to stay at the lobby to wait for contact from those that allegedly had invited them. She did not plan to immediately inform Mathew when contact finally occurred. If it did. She did not plan to tell him that either. It was not her usual tactic to undermine others but, she reasoned, his incompetence necessitated that she bypass him. They had problems and he would not or could not deal with them. He therefore left her with no choice. Deceit and undermining someone did not sit well with Sarah but she saw no alternative.
She hoped the Priskya would listen and that they would help them. Talking to fish was going to be interesting. She had organised to meet them tomorrow morning and they had agreed to see as many as wanted to come. Mathew was furious about this also. He would not be attending. Sarah smiled. Good.
Reclassification
Sarah and Dan went down to the sea to talk to the Priskya, armed with Translators. They were accompanied by a great number of interested and concerned adults, followed closely by their children because worried parents produce frightened children. Frightened children cling to their parents.
“Are we supposed to remain on land or get in with them? Which is better protocol?”
“I don’t know Dan, but no one else seems to go near the water. I asked around. A lot of the children have been down here and they told me they saw no one in the water, although some have gone out in some of the boats. Maybe the Priskya consider it as their exclusive territory.” Sarah went to one of the jetties. She wondered how to contact them. They had been told there was a red message flag.
“There it is,” Dan pointed, “We have to pull it out. I hope they will listen to us. No one else seems to be at all concerned.” Dan unravelled the flag and placed it in the water. They sat and waited, still more people coming down to see intelligent fish that could talk. There was a brief silence.
“Do they talk like dolphins?” A child asked Sarah.
“I think the Translators always talk in the language of the recipient so they will sound to us like Humans but we should also be able to hear their speech. I think.” Added Sarah.
“How do fish talk?”
“I have no idea.”
“Don’t you need air to talk?”
“Obviously not if they can talk. They are not like dolphins. They are fish. Dolphins are mammals and breath air so they will sound a lot different, I think. Why don’t we wait and see?” There was another silence as the several children wriggled and talked among themselves. Sarah heard to her amusement that they were certain they would sound like dolphins and thought Sarah must be wrong.
“Here comes one!” yelled a sharp eyed child as first one fish appeared, then several more. Sarah looked down, fascinated as were the children. They were bluish grey on the top and varying sizes, ranging from small dolphin sizes to about twice the size of a dolphin but they swam like sharks and had very similar fins. As a small one rolled over, Sarah saw they were much lighter underneath. They stayed under the water but the Translators floated above them. The voice that came out did indeed sound Human but Sarah thought the children would be disappointed because the voice of the Priskya couldn’t be heard. Sarah was left wondering how they made sounds and how they talked to each other.
The very long and hot afternoon wore on. The kids got hot and bothered. They grumbled and bickered, interrupting and distracting Sarah as she tried to talk to several Priskya. There had been long introductions. The Priskya were very patient as Sarah explained the trouble they were all in. Pikdaa, who was mostly speaking for the Priskya, seemed to be explaining that there was nothing they could do when there was a commotion and one of the children pushed another child into the water. One of the adults angrily dragged him out.
The Priskya seemed disturbed. Several had gone over near to the child. Sarah apologized profusely for the rudeness and tried to go on.
“We are confused. Why did one child push this one in to the water? Is the child now sick?”
“Why is the child who committed this dreadful act not remorseful or punished? Why do you call this rudeness? Could this child not have died? We thought you were a species that closely supervised and cared for your children!” Added another Priskya who had previously been in the background. Sarah couldn’t remember its name or gender; it was large and probably male.
“We are very sorry. The child was in no danger, he can probably swim.”
There was a major disturbance among the Priskya with Sarah only catching a few muttered words.
The larger Priskya spoke again, “We do not understand. You are land animals. You drown. You die. How can you swim? You are not equipped to swim.”
Sarah was puzzled, “we can,” she said. They now seemed even more disturbed. Had we broken yet another protocol she wondered? “Do you mean we are not allowed to swim, that we are not allowed in the water? Is it forbidden? We will order the children not to go into the water.” Oh she’d tan their hides. Little sods. We need all the help we can get she thought in frustration!
The disturbance continued with the Priskya really upset. They had turned the Translators off and looked to be chattering away under the water but Sarah still couldn’t hear anything. Finally another one came over,
“What do you mean when you say you can swim? Explain”
“May I show you?”
“Yes.”
Sarah stripped off her shoes, Translator and iphone, stood up and slid in, careful not to hit any Priskya. She swam around under water, surfaced, demonstrated several swimming strokes and finally hauled herself up onto the jetty steps enough to grab the Translator but remained mostly in the water
. She noticed the murmuring among the Terrans and then saw many more Priskya had come up. There looked to be 30 or so and more coming. What was wrong?
“Would you show us more swimming please?”
Again Sarah demonstrated, mostly under water this time. She kept the Translator on. It was waterproof, she had forgotten that.
Yet another Priskya finally came over. “How many of your species can swim?”
“Most can. All have the ability to learn. Please, what is wrong?”
“Can more of your race do this swimming?”
“Probably most. I don’t know. Is it important?”
“Please ask others to show us also.”
Sarah passed this request on. With squeals of joy all of the children jumped, dived, or ran in, closely followed by adults. A few adults remained on land. Simone and baby Dieter were quickly surrounded by interested Priskya. Simone demonstrated that Dieter was quite happy in the water but he couldn’t really swim yet. Sarah couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Some much smaller Priskya had come up and headed for the children. Sarah assumed they were Priskya children as they and the Terran children were playing. Sarah started to be concerned.
“Could you please tell your children that ours can only breathe air and that they can drown and die. Our children tend to be over-confident. They love being in water but they can get into trouble. When they can’t breathe they panic.”
Predictably, some did get into trouble and were hauled up spluttering by both Races. All stayed in the water. Some of the Priskya children also got into trouble accidentally beaching themselves and screaming in panic. By this stage, Sarah had noticed that they could make noises both in and out of water though she wasn’t certain how they did it. The screams were obvious in any language and the Terrans immediately rescued them. The playing lasted for an hour or so before things calmed down and some of the adults and children alternately sat in the shallows then went out to play again. The Priskya loved towing the children out to sea but Sarah noted they were followed by adults. Sarah thought there must now be hundreds of Priskya.
“I wish to talk to you. I am Siwijal.”
Sarah turned; this Priskya looked old and had an entourage, and had something different around its neck. It (she?), had a device that looked like a ipad. An underwater computer? Watching the Priskya, she realised it would have to be voice activated. Well that was logical since they didn’t have hands!
“Do you give birth on land or in water?”
“What the heck?” Thought Sarah. “We can do either.”
“Do your children swim first or walk first.”
“They can swim long before they can walk if they have the opportunity to learn. They have to be taught to walk properly. It is not instinctive.”
“Do they have to be taught swimming or do they do it instinctively?”
“Swimming is instinctive but only if they get enough chance to practice. Most don’t, so they are taught to walk first then taught to swim.”
“Why can the baby not swim then?”
“I guess because he has not been in water much. Almost all our children are brought up on land, not sea. Because of that, they have to be taught to swim.” At this point Alan, Dan and some of the others came over to listen and to help.
“How far can you swim?”
“Miles with training, some of us, around 20 miles or more.”
“How far down can you go in water?”
“Ten meters or so, thirty or more with training.”
“The pearl divers can go further than that, and they keep diving all day,” added Dan. “I remember the free diving record recently reached 120 meters. I can’t remember the guy’s name. There’s a big prize for the first one to reach 125 meters.
“How long can you hold your breath under water?”
“Three minutes or so, more with training. Up to about five minutes I think,” the others nodded.
“What water temperature can you tolerate? What is your range?”
They conferred. “We get uncomfortable over about 40 degrees centigrade and under 20.” Alan contributed. “We can tolerate colder for short periods.”
“We can only last four minutes in water that is about four degrees,” said Sarah, “I’m sure of that.”
“Where do you mostly live, on land or water?”
“Mostly on land. Some live permanently on water in boats or on platforms over water. At one time in our distant past, as we evolved, we lived only in the oceans. Then we moved onto the land, then back into the water because the land was mostly covered in water or unsafe. We’re not sure. That was before we had recorded history.”
Sarah had read Elaine Morgan’s books. Many disputed her theory of ‘The Aquatic Ape,’ but it read true to Sarah. It made logical sense. It was also not dominated, like other theories, by male attitudes that everything revolved around sex and men. It made a lot more sense than other theories and answered more questions and in Sarah’s opinion, with much more likely answers. In pre-history, Sarah considered children and their welfare would have mattered a lot more to women, and survival of the species, than sex and men. She suspected one reason history was skewed by men was that men had had the leisure to make rock drawings and talk while the women had done the work and looked after the children. That did not automatically make women less intelligent and men more. It meant one sex had done less work! Still true today thought Sarah reminded of her lazy ex husband who had got out of so much work by claiming to be in a lot of pain.
After a pause and some consulting among the Priskya, the questions continued.
“Can you eat and drink in water.”
“Yes, but usually we wouldn’t.”
“Can you sleep in the water, without a boat or platform or floating device?”
“We have the ability but it is almost unheard of now. Most of us can’t.”
“Can you mate in water?”
Good heavens, thought Sarah blushing, “I’m not sure. We generally wouldn’t.”
“Do most of your people who live on land, live near water?”
“Yes.”
“Why.”
Sarah thought hard. “Most of our big cities are beside water because we need water to drink, wash with and we use water as a transport, and for food and fun. We like being near water. We find it relaxing.”
“You drink water and use it for washing? Do you not have sonic cleaners?”
“No.”
“What do you mean when you say you use water for fun?”
“Well, a bit like what we’re doing now. We swim, use boats, have holidays, play sports, have fun, fish (oops, she thought).” She wondered how this was being translated and how accurate it was. What on earth (oops again) was all this about? Where were they going with this? Why was it so important?
“What quantity of your sports involves water?”
Sarah considered. She thought of the Olympic Games. Heck, if you counted the Winter Olympics that was all on water albeit frozen. “I don’t know. A lot.” Dan reminded her of all the types of motor racing, “maybe more on land.”
“What do you mean when you say water is relaxing?”
“I don’t know. We choose to be near it.”
“Do you have images of water in your homes?”
Sarah was astonished, “Well yes we do.” She said, thinking of the seascapes in her house and wondering why that mattered.
“Do you keep pets?”
“Yes.”
“Pets that live in water?”
“Yes, but also land pets.”
“Do all your people have an affinity for water? Would you say it is instinctual?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know why I am asking all these questions?”
“No!”
“You have been wrongly classified. You are not land animals, you are amphibians. Who classified you?”
“I don’t know. Does it matter? If we were classified, Mathew was in charge while all that went on. I don’t know what went o
n. He told us nothing,” Sarah said remembering Mathew coming back saying he had been ‘In Diplomatic Talks’ but not telling her what about or with whom. It had been some members of his Team that had kept telling Sarah that they still didn’t know who had invited them and often Mathew had no idea who he was talking to or misidentified People as officials when his Team suspected they weren’t.
“It puts your ranking down.”
“Oh he means the pecking order or status, of these poncy Aliens,” Alan said. “Mathew will be furious. Does this make our situation worse?”
“No, as it immediately solves a couple of your problems. We have a little influence with some things. One is that we insisted that the builders of the cities add accommodation for amphibians and that it must be free. There is also free water, of course, that goes into the accommodation and the universal food which is also free. If you are not proud, you can eat that. So now you can live free. Also the accommodation for Tree Dwellers, Avians and the Troglodytes is free. Only the Terrestrials pay, but then they are by far the most populous races. And they demand many times more expensive facilities.”
“Oh dear. Brace yourself for a shock. We can live in all those places. Some of our children are visiting the Avians and the Troglodytes. You mean we can live free in any of those places?”
“Yes, but what do you mean? You can’t possibly live up a tree or down a cave! You can’t occupy all of those niches. No race ever has!”
“Now we have your permission just watch us! We’ll move out of the city today! This is wonderful! We can stop our debt rising and start paying it off. Thank you so much!”
“I don’t understand,” she almost wailed. “Please explain.”
“On our planet we do occupy all of those niches, we have to. Our planet is mostly water, nearly eighty percent and there are mountains, ice, lakes and rivers in abundance. I think we only occupy ten percent of the planet. We can live in caves, some of us do. We also have whole villages in the trees. One village I know of is thirty feet above the ground. In that particular area, they have to live that far up to avoid a pest called a mosquito which comes out at night and bites people in their sleep. It causes diseases and injury.”
“But don’t the children fall?”
“No, that also is instinctive. The fear of falling is instinctive and children know to be careful. Of course there are accidents but people have accidents on the ground as well. We think that at one stage of our evolution we lived in trees because the animals on the ground were too dangerous. And we lived in caves before we evolved enough to build.”
“And I suppose then you are omnivores.”
“Yes.”
“You realize that also is rare.”
“Yes we were told that. We have been eating both our own food and that universal food since we left our planet because it was on the ship. It tastes the same and looks the same so I assume it is the same. We have not eaten the food for sale here. Not only did we have no money to pay for it but we were not sure if it would be compatable with our physiology. Under the circumstances, our caution has prevented our debt increasing. But we are running low on the food we brought from our own planet and unfortunately we left most of it on board the ship that brought us here.”
Sarah quickly got everyone together and explained. The relief was palpable. The children picked up the atmosphere of hope as well. After a search, Sarah found the child who had fallen in and his mate the pusher-in. She picked them up and hugged them both, thanking them profusely. They all headed up to pack up and move. They were in with a chance after all! Something was finally going their way.
Moving House
Within something over an hour, everyone except Mathew and his Toadies, was packing up and moving. They declined the porter machines that followed them, and carried their baggage themselves. Sarah explained the situation to the hotel owners, and their individual debts were accepted. The hoteliers were reasonably OK with this. Interest was accumulating on the debt from today and they knew they would be paid one way or another…
By midday, they were all out of the city. Then the fun started. There were a range of apartments by the sea and going out into it. They were all rounded in shape, like giant tawny boulders. No guttering here. Walking in, Sarah noticed some were sort of like standard beach apartments back home; so long as you thought very laterally. All had large doors and some had windows with glass. They varied in size both in height and room size. The ceiling height rose up to six feet in the smallest ones and about twelve feet in the biggest, while the rooms varied from about twenty feet square to about thirty by twenty-five. Interestingly, she saw there were storage areas which did look to be designed for clothes. Almost all the Terrestrials wore clothes. Did amphibians also, she wondered; apart from us of course. Sarah and Dan were allocating. These apartments went to the likes of the protesting Alan, embarrassed that his physical condition precluded him from a lot of the other apartments.
There were twelve apartments like these free, the other four already occupied by another Race. That took care of 62 of the more physically frail, those with small children, and the two adults who were afraid of water. Pure luxury, (if not so crowded), they had sort of bathrooms and goop and water dispensers. No cooking facilities though. It was eat goop or starve. A lot of people were going to lose a lot of weight! And it was going to be very crowded. Most apartments had a living room and one or several other rooms. Some had just one big room. There were sleeping platforms, of varying sizes, raised up off the floor, but a lot of people would have to sleep on the floor. There were no mattresses, nor the things that seemed to pass for beds here which were like giant bean bags. They weren’t cold because the floor was heated. There were no bean bags, linen or blankets here. It would not be comfortable but it would be dry, weatherproof, warm and affordable! Sarah and Dan went to the next ones.
They saw apartments similar but with a jetty inside the living room or they had a raised pool which went into the ocean down a series of weirs. Obviously these were for creatures that had to sleep out of water and maybe rest out of water but spent much time in the water. Like seals back home. These also had the goop and water dispensers but no bathroom. Sarah allocated these to fit adults and those with older children who could swim. There were 19 of these, so that took care of another 91. But these apartments were larger again. Meant to house communities? Sarah wasn’t sure. They could hold a lot of seals.
Further down the fish scale, so categorized by one of the children, were 15 varying sized and similarly proportioned apartments that were partly filled with water but with what could be used as sleeping platforms above the water line. Sarah decided she would hate it but the kids thought these were cool. Luckily the water was warm. The apartment was built so that the frequent tides could flush them out. Another 35 decided to stay there.
And the last were similar to these but out in the ocean and with swimming access only to them. They were only platforms and had no shelter. No takers there. Sarah didn’t bother looking. People were better off under the trees and the sand would be softer to sleep on.
“Thank heavens there is sand,” said Dan who liked his luxuries. He had been getting a bit morose.
At this stage, those still unallocated were looking to alternatives. The Nedris and several others had already left for the caves, some of which were empty. That took care of another 26. Sarah and Dan joined those heading for the Avian shelters which, Sarah saw, were only about ten feet off the ground. They were like pole houses with large landing platforms. Off these platforms was a small, weather and draught proof dwelling like a tree hut; and with plumbing! Inevitably, these too were a hit with the children. People were already making ladders, out of bits of driftwood and a fibrous seaside plant, to get up to them.
There were shelters used by tree dwelling creatures. Many disappointed children really wanted to stay in these tree huts too. But the lowest were about twenty feet up and they would have to climb up the trees to get to them. Not practical. Sarah looked up
puzzled, wondering why the tree dwellers lived higher up than the Avians. The reverse would seem more logical.
The rest were on the beach. Now re-classified as Amphibians, they were allowed to sleep on the beach and would not be picked up for vagrancy. But the climate control of the city did not extend to the beach. There would be a little problem with rain and wind…
Inevitably, there were those who complained, felt others were treated more favourably, and generally bitched and moaned. They were very much in the minority. Sarah blessed the legal mind of Helene who had thought of what questions to ask and who had recommended their debts be individual. All were very aware of their debt and striving to reduce it. No one could bludge. A few snide comments were made as to where the likes of Sarah and Dan were going to sleep but they shut up when Sarah cheerfully responded that because she and Dan were fit and youngish and not accompanied by children, they were unallocated so would sleep on the beach. Of course if it looked like rain, they would head for the tree huts, she added.
The children were their saving grace. Inquisitive and curious, they had hated the restrictions, protocols, rules and regulations of the city. The rudeness of other races had shocked them. Some children had been literally brushed away or knocked down. It had been a shock to discover that some races did not nurture their children, but left them to fend for themselves. By races like these, children were not valued, even by their parents, but were seen as a nuisance.
In the middle of the afternoon Anna and Steve Nilsen came up to Sarah and Dan and Steve said, “We’ve been talking to the Priskya. I came up with a few suggestions for their sub things which, we think, are a poor design. My wife is a biologist and I used to be an engineer. We think we can design a self propelled sub which will be a great improvement on these.”
Anna continued, “We had a really good look at their subs. They use a sort of device that oxygenates the water, and they have a filter for waste disposal device as well so the Priskya don’t contaminate their own water. They can also have food in there and, of course, they can drink the water. So that part of the job was well designed. They can stay in these things a whole day. But them being so heavy and not self propelled is the big problem. The Priskya would love to explore their own world and they can’t. So Karl came up with some designs for them. He thinks putting an engine on would be relatively easy. I think it wasn’t done, in order to limit where the Priskya could go and to ensure they don’t find out just how much damage is being done to their world. The Priskya think I’m right. Also these subs are not equipped with anti-gravity which is ludicrous.”
“So I’d like to recruit a few tomorrow to help with this.” Steve spotted Con and Nial and was off at a run.
Anna smiled. “He’s like a kid with a new toy. He used to be an engineering genius but couldn’t cope with mediocre people, small minds and bureaucrats. He just wants to get on with things and do them. He switched to politics to try to understand why he couldn’t cope with people. I thought it would be a disaster but he’s calmed down a bit. He doesn’t take it personally any more.” Sarah looked at her. Anna seemed the calm type. Probably the steadying influence on him.
Near evening, Karl and Julia came up to Sarah. They were laden with fish. Bea had found out that they were allowed to catch all the fish they wanted and were also allowed to cook it! Another advantage of being re-classified as amphibian. Bea was off with some other children gathering shellfish.
Hastily supervised by Ludmilla, one of the Russian scientists, a willing group of volunteers was found to taste test and safety test the fish and shellfish, cooked and uncooked. They ate tiny pieces raw and waited for any reaction. Then they ate tiny cooked pieces with each person restricted to just the same type only. That eliminated only one type of shellfish, two fish and one eel like creature. Ludmilla decided to wait two hours before declaring food probably safe. She advised against a full scale barbeque tonight but was politely ignored.
While all this was going on, an impromptu fishing contest began. There were points awarded for size, ugliness, taste (to be determined later), colour (brilliance), original methods of capture, and the smallest child who caught the biggest fish. It was Alan’s idea so he got to be the judge. Any piece of metal available was being turned into a fish hook and shellfish found themselves the bait. Others were gathering shellfish in the rock pools. Pocket knives were lashed onto poles to make spears. Many eagerly asked Julia and Karl how they caught the fish they had but they had to confess some Priskya children had caught them. That gave Bea an idea. Sarah favoured the sneaky method and headed for a rock pool. Her father had taught her to tickle trout.
People started to straggle in with all sorts of normal looking and unusual looking fish. A huge cook-up began of all the foods that had passed Ludmilla’s safety test although she thought they really should wait two days especially before eating any quantity. Out voted, she then insisted that all were to carefully note what varieties they had eaten in order to know what foods made people sick, if any did. She further advised everyone only eat one variety of food each. Additionally, she was unhappy that people, especially children, were drinking sea water. She argued that although it was clearly not salty like the seas at home, no one knew if there were any toxins, poisons, harmful organisms or even minerals that could cause harm. Although her arguments made sense, most had the attitude that they would chance it. Ludmilla thought this attitude was stupid. Sarah understood both opinions. Privately, she had decided to obey Ludmilla’s advice but not to make a point of it. But the fish smelled so good, she gave in and ate one variety. Sarah had only caught some small prawn like fish. They were tawny, the same colour as the rocks, and soft bodied. They were also amphibian so confining them, while she went after others, proved to be a problem. In the end, she beheaded them after many had escaped. Another safety check was that Ludmilla checked each variety with the Priskya before she allowed it to be eaten.
Some children had introduced themselves to some of the other amphibians and invited them to the party. Some came, but those that ate, ate their food raw. Sarah noted they had yet to meet any race that liked food hot. Also no People knew how the goop was made. They didn’t know if it was cooked and cooled or just combined. Interestingly, no one had reacted badly to it, except for the taste.
Steve and Anna Nilsen explained to the others that they were redesigning the Priskya’s subs and that the Priskya had decided to pay the debt for Steve, Anna and Donny in payment. Steve said to Simone, “I’ve had a few other ideas and as I develop them I’ll pay the debt for you and Dieter first. The Priskya say they were charged a great deal of money for these inventions. They also said I came up with a few applications they never thought of.” Steve had his drafting book, which he never went anywhere without and to the amusement of many, he was drawing as he was talking.
There was an air of hopefulness. Now four people’s debts were paid, or earned (Mathew had promptly paid his in trade goods), the task no longer appeared impossible. The debt had stopped rising, and was starting to be repaid.
The children had already told their new friends about the trouble they were in. One Race suggested catching fish and selling it at the seaside. Trade rules stopped at the edge of the city. The Priskya did not accept any trade restrictions, or tax, including Goods and Services Tax, Value Added Tax, or anything else. So they could sell fish and keep all the credit. This was fantastic! They also found out they could use the boat-like craft. Some had cabin-like construction. Would they be allowed to sleep in them? That would need to be checked tomorrow. The inevitable singing started up accompanied by various instruments.
But it had been a long tiring day and many were exhausted. The impromptu party wound down after only an hour of singing and people straggled off to what passed for their beds. Many, like Dan and Sarah, wriggled a nest in the sand, well above the level of the multiple tides a day.
But it was to be a long night. Ludmilla’s prediction was correct. Within four hours of eating, people started to be sick w
ith vomiting, diarrhoea or both. All those with medical knowledge, in anticipation, had organized a roster for the night, Bert in overall charge. Alan was among the sick and he was very sick.
“I only ate one type of shellfish but I ate a lot of them!” he confessed. “It was a type cleared both by Ludmilla and the Priskya. The little yellowish one with the shell like an abalone.” Sarah was chastened to find that all the medically trained, with no exceptions, had eaten only goop for tea in anticipation. Feeling guilty, she took orders and started to learn to be a nurse aid. Some felt OK after a while and went off to bed. Two women with nursing training spent the long night going around checking on the sick. The seriously ill were kept together on the beach. Most just needed basic care, but Alan, two others and three children needed intravenous fluids. No one died.
Sarah spent the long night getting educated in the methods the human gut has, to rid itself of unwelcome contents. She was astonished at the attitudes of the medical people and their macabre sense of humour. They had to tolerate abuse, appalling language, awfully smelly messes, unco-operative and ungrateful patients and they did it all cheerfully.
Sarah spent some time talking to Sally Easton, a nurse, who had a broad South African accent. She was worried about Alan. So was Sally but for a different reason.
“It isn’t so much the shellfish that worries me it’s his other medical conditions. You know he’s diabetic?” Sarah nodded. “Well when his insulin runs out, he has about two years to live. That’s if his other medical conditions don’t get him first, which is more likely. No one has any idea how long we will be stuck here. Although he is Type Two Diabetic, not Type One, which is worse, he is also very overweight, unfit, he used to smoke, and he has Chronic Obstructive Respiratory Disease. I wonder how many puffers he brought with him.”
“Puffers?” Asked Sarah who decided not to tell Sally that Alan only gave up smoking when he boarded the spaceship.
“Inhalers.”
“Oh. What will happen without those?”
“His lungs will get increasingly congested, he will get recurrent infections, which he probably does anyway, and we will run out of the anti-biotics we brought.”
“How many others are in this category?”
“Too many. Modern medicine keeps a great many people alive and working who would have died a few decades ago.”
“When was insulin discovered?”
“I’m not sure. About 1930 or so. My great-grandfather was on it in the 1950’s.
“What about antibiotics?”
“They were about in the early 1950’s I think. No. I think they might have come in before the end of the Second World War. Not many countries had them though. Penicillin was invented in Britain but the sulpha drugs were in a bit before that. I think sulpha drugs came into use during the early or middle part of the Second World War. I learned all that in my training but I’ve forgotten.”
“That recent? I thought they were in well before that. I thought that they were the reason for the population explosion.”
“No, that was refrigeration, better and faster transportation of food, knowledge of food contaminants and how to avoid illness and store food properly. Inoculation helped a lot but the biggest factor was clean water! Contaminated water is still one of the biggest killers.” Sally got up to check through her allocated patients returning a while later.
“How many are sick and how serious is this?”
“None are critical, three are serious, thirty-six have been moderately ill, twenty-two have gone to bed and seem to have recovered and we’ll find out about the rest tomorrow.”
“Can you translate that?”
Sally laughed, “I thought I did. Well, so far none look fatally ill, none would be in intensive care at home, about 20 might be in hospital, at least they are sick enough, but to be truthful, on Earth, most would nurse themselves at home. Three, including Alan, are sick enough to be of concern. They were seriously dehydrated and that we fixed. Alan’s stomach is bleeding and so is Tasha’s…hey don’t panic,” she said looking at Sarah’s face. “That also is treatable and not as bad as it sounds. We get a lot of this and it’s on the increase. A frequent cause is things like all the “Ready to drink” mixed alcohol drinks the kids like, that are full of additives and preservatives. Those kids go home with stripped stomach linings and should take something like omeprazole for a month. Most recover without any treatment anyway. Some do develop stomach ulcers. We are just treating the symptoms here. In blunt reality, we don’t know if this is the fish but it is a logical assumption.”
“What else could it be?”
“Anything! The cities’ climate control included other little things like pest control, air filters and some kind of sanitiser. All things we don’t have outside. I don’t think it’s the water though. Most of the children have swallowed a few mouthfuls or more for days and none seem to have been affected. But it could be cumulative or it could be a combination. We just don’t know.”
“So how do you decide on a course of treatment? What are you treating?”
“We just treat the symptoms. Mostly the body does a good job of fixing itself but it does tend to over-react a bit. That seems connected with the potential seriousness but not always.”
“What do you mean about finding out about the rest later?”
“Some will be ill and won’t have turned up here and we don’t know if there will be any complications later.”
Sarah decided not to ask any more questions. So far 20% or so were sick. It was a bit frightening, especially considering this was their first night away from the city and its protection. The protection Sarah had taken for granted.
The next morning everyone was rounded up and there was a full scale investigation. Someone had organized a questionnaire and people had photographed most of the species eaten. Everyone was ordered to take part. Bert, Ludmilla and Kelly designated people into groups.
“Two to three people would have died last night without treatment. It is as important to find out who didn’t get sick as to find out who did,” said Kelly.
“All those who got sick go over there.” Bert pointed. “The rest over here. Although there might have been individual allergic reactions, from now on we will avoid all the marine creatures that made people ill and cook only the safe varieties.”
Everyone had to show (if it was photographed), or describe, what they eaten, cooked or raw, how much of each variety, if they had been sick, how badly and how they felt now. Sarah and Dan were among the well, and appointed themselves to looking after those who were still sick and needed help, and questioning those too sick to move. Later on that morning, Sarah went up into the privacy of a tree house to sleep. She felt beyond exhaustion. Uncharacteristically, she cried herself to sleep frightened at the implications, how much she didn’t know and the thought of losing Alan which affected her more than she had thought. If Alan had been 20 years younger she would be very interested…
Recovery was varied, but within four days, all were up, the children recovering fast. Alan looked older and had lost a lot of weight. His clothes were loose. Sally had given him a lecture and he had taken it to heart. He wasn’t the only one who apparently didn’t seem able to accept literally what Donny had said regarding the Healing Machines. It just didn’t seem possible. He was still the same. He had had about two hours treatment in all but Donny had told him many of the lights on the Healer, indicating serious problems, were still red but two were now pink indicating that that problem was lessening. Donny also repeated what Helkmid had told him which was that the Healers fixed the most serious, life threatening problems first. Alan hoped there would be some improvement. He didn’t want to die yet; life was getting too interesting.