The Fila Epiphany

Chapter Two-1

Chapter Two

After two days of searching, Ethan had been forced to conclude there were no survivors of the flooding at the caves. As he flew the flitter away from the last few remnants of the disaster that had been washed ashore, his mind turned to the journey that lay ahead of him.

He’d been forced to pack hastily for his expedition, aware that injured Gens might be clinging to life on the beach, hoping for rescue. He had warm clothes and blankets, plenty of dried food, a full water tank, and a device that purified water. The portable appliance had been quickly put together by a mechanic called Osias. Ethan also had an instrument that tested for substances that were poisonous to humans. Cariad had advised him to only use it if he became desperate for food. The plant and animal life on Concordia could contain unknown toxins, she’d said.

The most essential items Ethan had stowed in the flitter were two weapons. He had the gun he’d been issued as a farmer and a second weapon that Cariad had given him—one of the Guardians’ that she’d persuaded Strongquist to donate.

Whenever Ethan left the flitter he would be vulnerable. As well as the creatures that had preyed upon the colonists during the First Night Attack, capturing and quickly digesting their victims, Concordia was also home to predatory aquatic thread organisms. Ethan’s friend, Cherry, had nearly been dragged into a lake by one of them.

What other threats the planet held, Ethan didn’t know but he hoped to find out. Concordia wasn’t supposed to harbor any animal life any larger than the average insect, but the information the probes had sent back was inaccurate or it had been tampered with by Natural Movement followers. Now, no one knew what might be out there.

Cariad had tried to persuade him to take an interface along. If he got into difficulties, he could comm the settlement and they could send a flitter out to rescue him. She’d said he would be able to access the network via satellite from anywhere on the planet. It might take a while to reach him, depending on how far he roamed, but it would be a safety net.

But Ethan had refused. He knew he was risking his life by going off alone as he was. He couldn’t expect others to risk their lives too in order to help him. Also, he didn’t want to be in contact with the settlement. He couldn’t explain exactly why he felt so opposed to the idea, but it was something to do with the reason for his need to get away. His gut told him the answer to his problems lay in solitude out in the wilderness. The only electronic device he’d brought was a small recorder. It hung around his neck, ready to vid his journey and any organisms he came across, especially anything that seemed dangerous.

Night was beginning to fall. The sun had set and the ocean waves and beach were growing shadowy in the dusk. Although the flitter had lights, Ethan preferred a full view of his surroundings in the uncharted territory. He would have to stop soon, but he decided to while away the short time remaining by recording the events of the previous two days. He turned on the recorder and began to speak.

“This is Ethan, and it’s the third day of the fourth month, year one, Concordian Calendar. It looks like no one but Cherry survived the cave disaster. I haven’t managed to find anyone else still alive, though I saw one victim five minutes’ flight down the coast from the caves.” He paused and swallowed as he revisited the memory. “I was stupidly optimistic. When I saw the body, it didn’t occur to me that the person was probably dead. I flew straight at the figure, but then as I got closer, I realized that the body’s position and stillness could mean only one thing. I lowered the flitter to the sand and climbed out.

“It was a man. He was lying face downward, the waves lapping at his feet, his arms at awkward angles. I lifted his shoulder and turned him over. His face was swollen and disfigured, and small sea creatures had already begun to eat it. I guess I should have made a vid of the creatures but I couldn’t bring myself to. The sight was too horrible. I backed up. It wasn’t possible for me to tell if I’d known the man.

“I retraced my steps to the flitter. I called out several times, hoping other survivors might be lying nearby. When I didn’t hear a response, I took out a weapon and went to investigate the undergrowth, thinking someone could be unconscious in there and hadn’t heard me shouting. As I got close to the vegetation, I called out again, asking if there was anyone there and if they were injured. I told them to make a noise if they couldn’t reply. I didn’t hear anything.” All he’d heard was the waves on the shoreline.

Ethan had recorded a vid of the plants that bordered the beach, which were different from the trees in the area surrounding the settlement. They were smooth-skinned and branched out from a central point in the ground. Each limb split into four or five more at intervals roughly as long as Ethan’s forearm. Cup-shaped receptacles stuck out from the ends of each branch.

He’d peered between the plant stems to look for survivors but hadn’t been able to see anything. The plants were clumped so closely together, it wouldn’t have been possible to move through them without leaving a trail of damage, and there’d been none that he could see. Leaving the undergrowth, he’d checked up and down the beach for signs of disturbance, but it was unsullied by any footprints other than his own.

“I searched for hours that day and the next, but I didn’t find any more bodies. Even the wreckage of the supplies that had been washed out of the caves petered out quite soon. There are plants here on the shoreline that are different from any I’ve seen before, and animals have left tiny tracks on the sand, but otherwise I seem to be the only living thing for kilometers. I don’t go near the water so I don’t know what’s in the ocean. That’s it for now.” He turned off the recorder.

Was that the kind of information he should be recording? He guessed so. He was the first explorer of Concordia and his discoveries could prove invaluable to the rest of the colony. Ethan resolved to record his observations every day.

The sky was darkening quickly. Ethan brought up the flitter’s display, which showed a map of the local terrain. He spread the map wider with his fingertips. The settlement was at the corner of it now. In one direction lay his farm and the lake that bordered it. Cherry was taking care of his land while he was gone, though he didn’t know if he would ever want it back. He was finally doing what he’d always wanted to do, and not the occupation that the Manual’s role allocation system had decided for him.

Cherry had been one of the few people he’d said goodbye to before he stowed the last of his goods on the flitter and drove through the gates of the settlement. Saying goodbye would have involved difficult conversations and questions that Ethan didn’t know how to answer.

In another section of the map lay the ocean and the cave system that had recently been destroyed. The rest was unknown territory. The continent that Ethan was about to explore was the largest on the planet, which he assumed was one of the reasons it had been chosen as the site for humanity’s first deep space colony. He had plenty of space to roam. For the first time in a long time, a feeling of calm and peace settled over him. He closed the flitter’s roof, shutting out the rapidly cooling nighttime breeze.

He was traveling south, keeping the vehicle a short distance above the beach so that he had a close view of it and the bordering land as he went along. In the fading light, the landscape was changing rapidly. The many-branched plants were giving way to low, spindly bushes similar to the ones that had once covered his farm. The terrain inland was turning flat, and the sand extended from the beach between the bushes. He hoped to find some kind of hilly ground soon. Sleeping inside the only raised object for kilometers around would make him feel exposed.

No hills appeared, however, and consulting the map told him there were none for kilometers. When he could no longer see into the distance, Ethan stopped the flitter and increased its elevation until it was about his own height above the ground. He set it to hover. A breeze was blowing in from the ocean that would probably push him inland overnight, but that wouldn’t matter much. If the flitter encountered raised ground it would automatically alter its direction to avoid a collision.

Ethan was about to take out a food parcel and eat his evening meal when he thought of something else he wanted to record. After turning on the device hanging around his neck, he said:

“From as far back as I can remember, I was told that I was coming to a new home. Everyone said we were special because we would be the first Gens not to die aboard the ship. They also told us that we were deep space pioneers. If we succeeded in building a settlement outside the Solar System, it meant that humans weren’t confined to a place that would eventually no longer support life. If we could build a deep space colony, it meant that, as a species, we could be immortal. They said our descendants would grow so numerous and so advanced that one day a colony ship would depart our new planet just as the Nova Fortuna had departed Earth. And so on and so on, throughout the galaxy, perhaps even billions of years into the future, maybe even spreading to another galaxy and on into eternity.”

He paused briefly to collect his thoughts, then went on, “I was a kid at the time I was told that, and not a smart one. I didn’t really get what they were saying. But I think I understand now. I’m the first human who ever saw the things I’ve seen today and the first to pass over the ground I traveled. And for the rest of my journey it’ll be the same, whether I make it back or not. In a way, I don’t care if anyone in the future remembers what I’ve done. I don’t want this land or that ocean named after me. But I finally get what I was told all those years ago. Though others will come after, I’m the first. When my ancestors decided to come down from the trees they didn’t know what they were doing. They had no understanding of where it might lead, and to be honest I’m not sure my own understanding is that much better. But I do get this. I feel it. I’m at the very tip of a finger of human life that’s reaching out. I just wanted to say that I’m glad and happy to be doing this, no matter what happens.”

He turned off the recorder, deciding not to play it back to check it. He’d probably spoken nonsense and made a fool of himself, but he’d spoken from the heart and he felt better for it.

Outside the flitter, all was dark except for starlight. The moon hadn’t risen yet. Ethan turned on the flitter’s light and pulled out some parcels of food. A lot of the food supplies he’d brought were dried and required rehydrating and heating up, but some of them were ready to eat. He chewed some protein strips and washed them down with water. He also took out fresh algae cakes. They weren’t a favorite but they were nutritious and light to carry.

After his long day’s travel, Ethan found he was soon ready to go to sleep. He packed up loose items scattered around the cabin and pushed down the flitter’s seats to make a bed. One folded blanket served as a pillow. He covered himself with the other. The soughing of the waves quickly sent him to sleep.

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