Finches of Mars (18 page)

33

Reception in the China Tower

The noble person waited until the shouting died before proceeding to speak again.

‘We have become discerning. The ceaseless multiplication of our race is not necessary. Demand must not exceed supply. Do I say that correctly? Too many is too much.

‘Humans are no longer divided into two separate sexes, as with you and with those before you in these earlier ages. Or rather, in our generations we carry both sexes within us. For half a year, the masculine comes into play, in the other half the feminine is activated. The conflicts that existed between the sexes, a cause of much friction once, have been annulled; we now experience emotions and sensations from both sides and sensibilities. In my female phase, I can bear children, and have done so. Such is the current reality.'

He listened unmoved to expressions of surprise from the crowd. He stood tall and unmoving. When the crowd grew silent, he continued.

‘I believe that even in your day—your Now, which carries you along—it is a commonplace that there exists something of the female in the male and something of the male in the female, in a healthy individual. It's hardly surprising. So that feature has gradually developed from psyche into flesh. This happened long before my grand famoth's time. I trust I make myself clear? All things change, as does the wind.'

After a pause, he said, ‘We have been initially surprised to find this planet all but uninhabited. It is easy to shift into conflicting reality veins.'

He had finished, but added smilingly, ‘Like you, we live our short and humble lives of four hundred summers and then it's over and done with. Like you, we know well metanipoko …'

The noble person and two of his company were shown into the China tower, it being the most decorative of the five towers. The noble person announced himself as Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan. He refused the food they offered. He said they took food only at what he called ‘the noon of the slight week'. His companions had set a translation box on the table between them.

‘It is instructive for us to see Mars Planet in one of its earlier states. You are to be congratulated on preserving it almost unspoiled.'

Noel thanked him for his sentiments.

Gerint asked Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan how many planets he had visited.

‘I have never been physically on a planet before this time,' came the answer. ‘I was born on board our ship. Although I find this floor rather uneven, it is a valued experience to be here.'

Gongcha expressed her surprise. ‘Were you happy to be confined on your ship all your life?'

‘I was very happy. We have made “happy” one of the constants for usage. It means moderate. I saw many suns and planets and many other manifestations of the cosmos and I had an opportunity to acquire knowledge. In particular some knowledge of Reality.' He seemed to correct himself by adding, ‘The shifting sands of Reality …'

‘So you were never sad?'

He gave a light laugh. ‘I was made melancholy when we found a planet where the people were eating native animals and fish, precious denizens of their environment. The lives of such people were spent hunting or killing and slaughtering; the effects pervaded all levels of their societies. We never stayed there. We feared the inhabitants might try to eat us. There was a cult of the knife.'

Tad whispered to Gongcha that he was sick of what he called ‘all this rigmarole'. He wished to disappear to consider the grand communication he had received. But she felt differently and felt the need to respond in full to what the great man had said.

‘I believe we are carnivores when we get the chance. At least in our generation. Herbivores spend much of their time grazing or browsing, and so do not develop intellect. Also herbivores tend to specialise in their diet, and thus do not spread to other territories, as they might wish. They are more vulnerable to famines or floods.

‘In China, we used to have pandas, members of the
Ursidae
family. Their diet consisted almost entirely of bamboo, although some in captivity would eat fish and eggs. But they became extinct because their diets were so limited.'

‘They were killed off and eaten,' said Dr Gior sharply.

‘Certainly in the terrible time of famine the panda was an easy target, but after that we did our best to preserve the creatures. But their limited habitat could never be ours. We and not pandas have become Martians and Mars-dwellers.'

‘Mankind is best considered as an omnivore,' said Gior. ‘Hence, in part, our success in spreading. But it does seem that if you stick to vegetables and fruits you are less likely to suffer from various ills—cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure. You may remember that the British used to speak favourably of “the roast beef of old England”. That beef was generally washed down with beer. Result—early deaths.'

‘Though I have to say,' remarked Dorian in his relaxed manner, ‘that I was dining in a vegetarian university in the States once, and they went to the effort of serving me roast beef, but with a glass of water—I could hardly eat the stuff. Give me wine with my meat, every time. Or even without it. Only humans can cook—or serve wine with the joint.'

Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan looked confused by this conversation.

‘But surely the intestinal length of carnivores –' began Tad, when Noel interrupted. She was not entirely pleased to have to greet manifestly superior visitors. Addressing Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan directly, she said, ‘Of course we are delighted to have your company here, sir, but tell us the object of your visit?'

‘That's easy to guess,' said Squirrel, scoffing. ‘To his Lordship we must seem like Stone Age people. This is an archaeological trip they've laid on.'

Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan appeared undisturbed by this sarcasm.

‘I have heard it said that when strangers arrive somewhere they are suspected of being in some way hostile, or a threat. That is not so in our case. We have every reason to be friendly and helpful to you.'

He waved his hand at one of his comrades, who then spoke.

‘We see you have created just enough oxygen for your own needs, and are impressed you've achieved even this with your, I apologise, primitive technology. We present you with an OEM or oxygen-excavation machine. You may inspect it outside. It will bore automatically into volcanic rock and release oxygen to breathe. This will create an oxygen rich environment, which will encourage the birth of healthy children, but also support the population boom you will experience in about three years time. In addition, we would like to present you with cuttings and seeds of various vegetable life which will flourish on Mars, and, incidentally, support your continuing adaptation to this planet.'

Together with his comrades, male or female, Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan, gravely bowed to acknowledge reception of the rapturous applause which broke out.

A mere onlooker, Aymee stood with Rooy. She recalled that long ago prophecy of that odd fellow, Herb. What
had
happened to Herb? He had said that strange people would come. Now they had come. Had he then truly been given the gift of prophecy? That Lord of his—which those on Mars did not acknowledge—could there be such a person? Every living thing that ever was had been living, unbeknown to it, in a binary system. Life had existed for millennia. Only in the last two centuries had they known their sun was not alone. Till they saw it, they refused to believe in it. Was this the only thing about which they assumed too much?

Suppose that Lord Herb so revered existed, but could not be seen by mortal eyes …

Perhaps she might find a chance to ask Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan.

34

A Great Resource

The OEM was installed and began its work immediately. The cuttings and seeds were shared out between the towers. The visitors solemnly said farewell. They allowed themselves to be surrounded by crowds and to be questioned. They smiled with sorrow in their eyes. Yes, there could be questions and in some cases answers; but no more revelations.

The Martian exiles watched as the visitors were carried up in their surf board-like vehicle, up to the mother ship waiting overhead above the towers.

One minute the ship was there, the next it was gone, riding on the Reality track.

‘I'm glad no one mentioned the Tanzanite,' said Vooky. ‘It's surely even more of a resource in their distant time.'

‘No, we are the great resource,' said Noel. She looked immensely serious.

It was only when tucked up in her bed that night she fully realised the significance of her own statement. Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan and his team had travelled all those millions of light years and centuries to help the little colony on Tharsis because—and she recognised it as one of the bewildering truths of continuing existence—if they, the exiles, her comrades, failed, if the Martian colony failed—there would be no Angul Sotor Aret Bila Bilan, no hope, no human future.

Moved by her own perception, she climbed from her solitary bunk. She stared through the narrow slit of window. There lay the prospect, silent as if waiting.

‘We are the great resource,' she repeated to herself.

Appendix

The Unsteady State
or, Starting Again from Scratch

By Herbert Ibn Saud Mangalian

A synopsis

The human species has developed so far and no further.

Not so long ago the world was conceived as having two power blocks, East and West. Before the West found itself too rich to fight amongst its interlocking nation states, it carried out wars that were territorial, religious or dynastic, or all three at once. At any one time there were aspects to be praised, others to be condemned.

Some in the West conceived of China, proud representative of the East, as peaceful; others saw it as wicked. Both groups fantasised, knowing little of that culture. Certainly China, unlike the West, was non-exploratory: wisdom met with a welcome there; nevertheless it found a target for oppression in such institutions as the binding of women's feet, together with other imprisoning measures. And a contempt for the happiness of women—a contempt admittedly to be found elsewhere, but always, where it was found, impeding a nobler culture. Yet China grew in economic strength.

The West, in those little cockleshell galleons of long ago, set out from Thames and Tiber, to gather knowledge or encourage conquest. Westerners, for one example, discovered the potato, an invaluable food crop, but, at the same time, the tobacco weed.

We may suppose that the early Ming dynasty invented the restaurant, that great gift to civilization. At its tables, guests might not only eat but could converse, exchanging scandal and ideas. The West seized late on this amenity where, with exceptions, it became linked with gluttony, and gluttony with obesity. And the hospitals of the West filled with underage drunkards. In the Islamic Middle East there were no drunkards, but no hospitals worthy of the name, little sanitation.

This is what we find so often, a move for the good, a slip to the bad. Kindness, kind acts, care, friendship are common, East or West; yet it is evil that hits the headlines. Are we drawn to evil, as a cat is to milk?

As there are gulfs between nations, so there are gulfs between rich and poor within a nation. As the populations of the world increase, so, exponentially, do the differences between economic prosperity and pauperdom. Whereas once the divisions between rich and poor, income-wise, were not great; now they grow wider yearly, even as Eastern countries such as India and China boast billionaires.

Some claim the British Empire was purely authoritarian. One sees today that countries such as Burma, freed from the British yoke, endured possession by a far greater tyranny. Even under the oppression of the Soviet Union and of Russia, those unfortunates escaping the cruel imposition of famine could feed themselves; whereas now, in countries such as Turkmenistan, their food comes from sources sponsored by UNICEF and UNESCO. Such well-intentioned systems merely increase inertia in the native population.

Most attempts to raise crop yields do not succeed. The planners who created canals drawing water from the Aral Sea merely destroyed the sea and poisoned the land around.

Attempts to improve Africa have been largely futile. The child soldier is still a symbol, despite the efforts of the twenty-first century. Tyranny, warfare, rape, starvation, illness, feature almost universally. Where women are chattels, little improvement can be expected. Where women are freer (as has happened only recently even in the West) some little improvement can be expected.

Overpopulation, water shortages, increase in the unproductive aged afflict both sexes.

Despite astonishing advances in, for one instance, medical science, there can be no general advance in humanity. We evolved from creatures whose objectives were to survive at all costs and to reproduce their own kind; despite grand buildings, grand speeches, even grand endeavours, these remain the predominant objectives. So we struggle. We flounder suffering diseases of the flesh and of corruption. We find little in the way of peace and contentment.

What conclusions can be drawn from this data? That this creature who has unsparingly overrun the planet deserves its self-inflicted misery?

We cannot improve. Matters will only get worse, are getting worse, until there comes some final catastrophe. We need to separate the truly enlightened from the vast majority. That can only be done by transplanting the best of our stock and striving—on Mars and beyond—to realise true civilization. Hardship, deprivation, may bring us a more content and better humanity.

End

Acknowledgments

With thanks to Brendan Fleming for his encouragement

Brian W. Aldiss D.Litt., O.B.E.

About the Author

Brian W. Aldiss was born in Norfolk, England, in 1925. Over a long and distinguished writing career, he has published award-winning science fiction (two Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award); bestselling popular fiction, including the three-volume Horatio Stubbs saga and the four-volume the Squire Quartet; experimental fiction such as
The Report on Probability A
and
Barefoot in the Head
; and many other iconic and pioneering works, including the Helliconia Trilogy. He has edited many successful anthologies and has published groundbreaking nonfiction, including a magisterial history of science fiction (
Billion Year Spree
, later revised and expanded as
Trillion Year Spree
). Among his many short stories, perhaps the most famous is “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long,” which was adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick and produced and directed after Kubrick's death by Steven Spielberg as
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
.