While Novik ran scans of the strange archway, Jaysn explored the woods surrounding their encampment, trying to keep the well-worn trail the humanoids used to enter the city in his line of sight. He noted they traveled in greater numbers at night, though aside from the occasional wary glance, none of them gave the interloper in their midst a second thought. It may have helped that he stayed several meters away in the trees and avoided direct eye contact.
Night didn’t last long, nor did it get overly dark, as the skies started to lighten again, he turned back, dreaming of orange juice, bacon, eggs, and mushrooms. It was the first time hunger had set in since they arrived on this world. He wasn’t sure if it was a product of his modified biology or simply adrenaline finally wearing off.
He emerged from the thickest part of the trees and found himself on a mesa top overlooking a gentle slope to the valley below. Great rock walls, nearly vertical, curved behind him and to his right, though the ones behind him were definitely much higher. He decided it may be a trick of distance and the slope of the valley itself.
Not a valley, though. He realized he was standing inside a large crater. Most likely it was the one he had spotted from orbit. The only trace of nature on a world engulfed by technology. A picture began to form in his mind. The city must have been here first, at least; he could see no reason to leave a crater-sized hole in a city when it could have easily been built over. The age of the crater, with vegetation and primitive humanoid life, meant that the city must have been built and abandoned for far longer than they had originally guessed.
The sky continued to brighten, and he could make out the sun peering over the distant clifftops through the haze of the atmosphere, cutting the valley floor with a line of light. Never in his life had he seen anything like this. For that matter, he would have bet nobody else had either. As the sun continued its slow journey upward, the entire valley came alive with color and birdsong.
For just a moment, he didn’t care if he was only here because of a trap set up by some corporate machine, or that aliens who thought little of him might be watching him like scientists standing over the rat maze. He smiled and gave a thumbs-up to the sun. “Well done, gods of this crazy, messed-up world. I’ll give this view 10 out of 10: would definitely recommend to others.”
“Is that what passes for prayer to you?” a familiar voice asked.
Jaysn whirled and was surprised to see Tamana lying on her side at the base of a large tree. Her ear was pressed to the ground, and she appeared to be hugging the base of the trunk.
He cocked his head to one side and attempted to make sense of the scene. “I wouldn’t call it prayer, more just an acknowledgement and appreciation. Why, do you think I offended someone?”
“Difficult to say,” she said and closed her eyes.
“Disha, what are you doing?”
“Conducting research.”
“I see, because it looks like … well, I don’t know what I would call it. Tree hugging?” He smirked.
“I’m still a biologist, Jaysn.”
“This doesn’t look like any type of biology I’ve ever seen.”
“You’ve never read your Simard? Volkov?”
Jaysn thought for a moment. “Wood wide web theory?”
“Very good,” Tamana nodded as if handing out marks in a classroom.
“I thought much of that was fringe stuff. Not necessarily empirical.”
“Mycorrhizal networks are most definitely real. Fungi are spread all over the floor of the forest. They provide plant roots with water and minerals, and they take back sugars and carbohydrates.”
“I’m not seeing an application,” Jaysn admitted.
“The theory is that plants communicate chemically across the fungi layer, even across species.”
“If true, that’s impressive, and generally more than animal species ever do for each other.”
Tamana smiled. “So, somewhere in this forest is the oldest tree. The one that touches and watches after all of the others, guiding water and nutrients where they might be needed more.”
Jaysn nodded in understanding. “Gaia theory, panpsychism. I had a colleague who studied the old Canadian and Alaskan tribes who followed it. I’ve never been convinced, myself.”
“We came very close to proving it on Mycion a couple of decades ago. Some of their flora are centuries older than the oldest trees on earth.”
“The Gaia suit? I didn’t know you were part of that.”
“You’d be surprised what I was involved with as a researcher or assistant back in my day.” Her voice trailed off, and she slowly sat up again, brushing dirt and leaves from the side of her face. She looked at him helplessly for a moment, then finally decided to address the weight in her eyes. “I know forgiveness is a bit much to ask, but I hope, someday, you will find it–“
Jason held up his hand to cut her off. “Disha, life is too short for grudges, and anger is too exhausting an emotion to feed. I just need to understand why you did it. Is this it? Because you were witness to one too many great discoveries and never got to make your own?”
“I’m not like you, Jaysn. I don’t see simple joy in watching a sunrise. I don’t take pleasure from being in the presence of the greatness of others, and I certainly didn’t want to waste a lifetime watching my successors make discoveries that changed the galaxy and influenced thinking for centuries to come.”
“I find it difficult to believe that you’re jealous of us.”
Tamana stared at the sun low on the cliff edge. “No, it’s not jealousy. That implies I would take it away from any of you. You all deserve this. I would never deny you your destinies. It’s more … pride, I suppose. You, in particular, have made such a huge mark in just the first few years of your career – big enough that someone wanted you here, specifically, for this. If we make it back home, your life, the trajectory of your career will change completely. This was my last chance. Now, if I’m remembered at all, it will be for the Faustian bargain that brought you all here. The price they asked me to pay was too high. I never should have entertained it. I know that now.”
“Well, assuming we make it back, for better or for worse, your name is still going down as the one who assembled the team and brought us here. Wherever ‘here’ is.” Jaysn gestured with his arms. “So, what’s with the tree-hugging? Are you trying to get a footnote in Volkov’s history as well while you’re here?”
“Just a hunch. Find the oldest tree. Maybe it’s wired into whatever runs this place.”
“Okay, but you’re not wearing a Gaia Suit.”
“I also don’t breathe and see this well in an argon-rich atmosphere, or shrug off the effects of a heavy gravity environment like I am doing, but I felt something, Jaysn. Just a hum, or maybe a vibration, but it felt exactly like when I was wearing the Gaia Suit.” She studied him for a moment. “You don’t believe me.”
“So, you think, because you believe in a mycelia network, and you believe you once felt it, the powers that run this place programmed the ability to hear plants into your new physical body?”
“Is it any less plausible than when I was 40 years younger a few minutes ago?”
“Touche. What does it mean, though? How do we use this to our advantage?”
“Not everything is tactical, Jaysn. Sometimes it’s just helpful to reframe. The mother tree doesn’t instruct the other trees. The forest doesn’t have a hierarchy or even a plan. It simply exists. The Gaia Suit changed our perspective on that by showing us the trees don’t live in isolation. They are aware of each other on some level, and they share their burden without communicating, without command, and without control.”
Jaysn marveled at the thought but quickly caught himself. “Disha, it would be irresponsible of me to point out that all this may be a manifestation of your need to make a significant discovery after you’ve been discarded as leader of the expedition.”
Tamana began laughing. The longer she laughed, and the closer she got to hysterics, the more Jaysn grew concerned for her sanity. A sudden flash in the distance caught his attention. “Lightning,” he said, as a test of her sanity.
“Yes,” she said, her laughter subsiding. “I’m surprised you didn’t mention it before. It’s been going off regularly in that exact same location for quite some time.”
Jaysn rubbed his forehead. “And you didn’t think to mention that while you were hugging trees?”
“I’m a botanist, not a meteorologist. That could be a perfectly natural phenomenon based on air currents, static buildup, or mineral formations.”
Jaysn regarded the flat, rectangular, cloud-like objects that they had seen hovering over the entire planet when they arrived. “Those aren’t storm clouds, though. They’re artificial.”
Tamana stopped laughing and regarded them for a moment. Jaysn bounded further up the hill to get a better look at the area where the lightning was striking. A familiar, almost expected sight met him less than a kilometer from the point where the lightning had struck. In the distance beyond a thick patch of jungle, he could just see a tell-tale grey/white plume of smoke rising up from the valley floor. “Well, hello. Seems somebody has discovered fire,” he said, getting his bearings.
The smoke was on the edge of what he could see clearly, possibly five kilometers away down the natural slope of the valley. Roughly the direction the path the humanoids were running came from. He assumed the fire, if not the actual source of the humanoid trail, might be one stop along the way.
Mind made up, he sauntered back to where Tamana was still sitting, running her hand along the bark of the large tree. “Disha, what do you say to taking a bit of an investigative walk? We’re not due back for an hour. We can at least move down the path to the next clearing and maybe determine whether the fire was intentionally set or caused by the lightning.”
She got to her feet with the help of the tree, feeling her age again. “We should alert Dr. Novik before going off exploring on our own,” she said, fixing him with a stare.
Jaysn smiled and nodded, and they started the ten-minute walk back to the camp. Solvig was still asleep while Novik ran scans of nearby fruit-bearing trees. His appendages continued to work while his head-like servo spun 180 degrees to meet them. “You’ll be happy to know, most of the fruits and berries I’ve cataloged so far are not only edible, but also optimally nutritious for your modified bodies, and there is a freshwater creek from the cliffside runoff about a kilometer over those hills, so survival seems highly probable at this point.
“It depends on whether or not we can make decent wine out of them,” Jaysn said, taking a handful of assorted berries from a pile Novik had made. They were bitter, but full of moisture.
“How’s Dr. Solvig?” Tamana asked, ignoring Jaysn’s jocularity.
“She was slightly more lucid the last time she woke up, but admittedly didn’t remember much. She’s been asleep for the past hour. I am certain she will be just fine.
“Good news,” Jaysn said. “In the meantime, we’ve come to ask our fearless leader if we might investigate the source of a strange recurring lightning strike and a strange plume of smoke a few kilometers down in the valley.”
“Smoke? Do you think it’s intentional or caused by the lightning?”
“Difficult to say, but you have to admit, it is significant. If intentional, it may be our fellow party members sending a signal.”
“Exactly,” Tamana agreed.
Novik continued, “Dr. Solvig still needs to rest. I will stay behind and watch her, as I have sensor capabilities and the most medical knowledge. We have no coms, so you two will be on your own. I don’t want to have to prioritize leaving Dr. Solvig alone versus coming to your rescue should something happen, so please don’t make me. I’ll expect you to report back before nightfall tonight.”
“We understand the risk. We’ll take it,” Jaysn said.
“In that case, good luck, my friends,” Novik said, turning back to the tree he was examining.
Jaysn and Tamana followed a well-worn trail that generally headed toward the smoke, making sure to give any humanoids who approached them a wide berth. The walk was mostly downhill, alternating between thickets of trees and grassy fields. Only occasionally did the pathway become rough enough to slow their progress.
Occasionally, a small group of humanoids would appear and walk up the path toward the dais and archway. Initially, the two moved into the trees to hide from them, but eventually Jaysn tested his luck by making himself increasingly visible as they passed, studying their reactions.
“Realistically speaking, there’s no way they haven’t seen us all long with those eyes, even when we’re hiding,” Tamana offered. “If anything, they may take standing and staring as a challenge, however.”
“I’m not overly concerned with them. They’ve never been hostile to us in the least. Honestly, I’m more concerned that whoever has altered our biology to function on this planet knew enough to remove any allergic reaction to pollen and oils from the local plant life. It would be incredibly embarrassing to die from ‘space poison ivy’ on first visit to an uncharted world because we didn’t think to pack an antibiotic.”
Tamana laughed for the first time since the mission began.
They continued for another twenty minutes before hearing a commotion ahead on the path. Not wanting to risk a confrontation, even though everything had been friendly up to this point, Jaysn steered them only a couple of paces behind a large tree. He motioned for Tamana to remain standing in case they needed a rapid retreat.
It was to his complete surprise that, instead of a group of humanoids, it was Clarc and Wolff who were making their way up the path toward them. Jaysn strode out to the middle of the road, genuinely happy to see his companions, but befuddled as to the circumstances.
“Dr. Katsaros, Dr. Tamana, this can’t be a coincidence,” Clarc said, checking behind them for signs of pursuers. Despite none, neither she nor Wolff relaxed. She motioned up the path Jaysn and Tamana had come from. “Where does this go?”
“There’s a large grass field in about a kilometer, then a thick wooded area. It leads back to our camp, which overlooks what seems to be some sort of transportation hub.” Jaysn said.
“Alcoves? Thirty-two of them? Disintegrate you and put you on another part of the planet?”
“We’ve been calling them ‘archways.’” Jaysn nodded.
Clarc nodded. “I suppose you’ve seen the wisps are actually an intelligent race of proto mammals that live in this valley.”
“I’m starting to put that together. It’s actually an impact crater—”
“Dr. Amin figured that out too.”
“Where is Dr. Amin?” Tamana asked cautiously, then frowned upon seeing the look in Clarc’s eyes.
“We failed him,” Wolff said. “We were so concerned about getting out of the village when the humanoids turned on us. We should have stuck together.”
“It’s on me, not any of you,” Clarc added. “It was my call to provoke them. We’ve found them very rational and communicative up to this point.” Clarc explained everything they had found: the strange sculpture of light rods, the alcoves, the giant ornithoids, being carried down the cliff by the humanoids, the mountain staircase, and finally, a strange self-sacrifice ritual at the obsidian obelisk. “Dr. Tamana, these aren’t wild animals in a nature preserve. They were communal. They have fire, basic tools, agriculture, and possibly a rudimentary language. I looked for evidence of textiles and ceramics, but we were a bit… pressed for time on our exit. I’m afraid as far as first contact goes, we didn’t make a very good impression.”
“Traditions and laws are a good sign, believe it or not,” Jaysn forced a smile. “What about a written or recordable language? Generational knowledge? Formal education?”
“No.” She shook her head. “In fact, written language is something we haven’t seen at all, even in the city itself.”
“Just mathematics. We noticed that as well,” Jaysn said.
“You mentioned that before,” Wolff said. “Why is that important?”
“It’s a common marker for an advanced civilization,” Jaysn said. His expression conveying this was a well-established axiom, but he quickly realized Wolff was still waiting for an answer. “Written language makes it easier to develop laws for keeping order, which then become customs for dealing with strangers, and then rules of money for making trade. Finally, they begin to produce scholars who record knowledge and ideas that have no immediate use.”
Wolff half-nodded. “That’s what makes an advanced civilization?”
“Not always, but it’s a common basis of art and science, on Earth at least. Against all odds, it seems to be where these humanoids have stopped short, however,” Clarc confirmed. “All of the other pieces are in place. They have something of a food chain they’ve risen to the top of, and they have formed communities. This means they feel relatively safe. They have children and nurture them, which allows them to advance, whereas in a non-comfort society, children are immediately sent out to hunt or to farm labor. In fact, they had multiple crops, probably seasonal.”
Jaysn nodded. “That means they are able to stockpile food and eat year-round, so there is no need for constant migration and more time to advance the tribe. You said you saw no ceramics, textiles, or metallurgy, though?”
Clarc shook her head. “No, but it’s possible we missed it.”
“I would have expected ceramics at their stage. Maybe not metal yet, but definitely ceramics.”
Tamana shook her head. “Can you assume they will develop the same as tribes on Earth?”
“Not necessarily, but unless I miss my guess, they aren’t developing at all. They’re being held back, possibly deliberately,” Jaysn said.
“Because they don’t have written language?” Wolff asked.
“In a sense, yes. They have community, stability, and ritual. That braying and grunting, along with the hand gestures, must serve as a spoken language, but from what I’ve heard, it’s not complex enough to account for the amount of tradition and community stability Clarc is describing. That generally requires the formality of religion or some other analogue of that.”
Clarc shook her head. “I don’t know, the crazy marathon through the city, followed by self-sacrifice on a black obelisk to become a brick in a wall, seems exactly like a religion to me.
“Exactly.” Jaysn pointed at Clarc. “So, how is this passed on. Did you see any evidence of music, dance, or art? If Dr. Solvig were here, she could argue architecture as religion, but I don’t think mud huts qualify.”
Clarc thought for a moment, then smiled. “The light sculpture in the city. It was communal, and they incorporated me into their building of it. I don’t know if it’s technically ritual, or even art, though.”
“I’d love to get a look at that,” Jaysn said.
“It was interesting mathematically, but I don’t believe there was any organized structure to it. Perhaps Dr. Novik can provide a more thorough analysis, but my gut tells me it was unorganized.”
“I’d like to get a first-hand look at this village, myself,” Tamana said.
Clarc frowned. “We didn’t exactly make a good first impression when we left. They followed us to the outskirts and let us go, but I am positive they won’t be happy to see us again.”
“Not to mention, Lev is expecting us back at camp by sundown.”
Tamana smiled at Jaysn. “We’ve come this far. I think we at least owe ourselves a look. Then we can turn around and go right home. We won’t be very late.”
Lev Novik continued scanning the valley. He had no visual reference, but he had a distinct fix on Jaysn and Tamana, and two more distinct human life forms, which he was almost certain were Clarc and Novik.
There was no sign of Amin. He felt a twinge of fear and grief, which he quickly tried to put out of his mind. He paused and offered a moment of silence for his friend and companion, on the off chance that someone was listening. He thought about Clarc for a moment, scoffing at his synthetic version of faith back in the station galley. He had studied human faith, however, and was envious about how they managed to take away so much more from it than he ever could. To a human, such a prayer was often for self-comfort; a way of saying, “I did something. I got God’s attention and asked him to fix this problem for us.” To Novik, it was literal. He sincerely meant the words in his thoughts. “I accept what must happen, and no matter the outcome, I am grateful for what I once had and who my friend once was.”
“Dr. Novik?” a weak voice came from behind him. He turned and found Solvig, on her feet now, braced against a tree, examining everything with bewilderment. “Where are we?”
“We think it’s the wilderness section of the planet we saw when we arrived here. Doctors Katsaros and Tamana are investigating further into the valley. They saw smoke and suspected it might be a signal from Dr. Clarc’s team–”
She waved a hand and cut him off. “We have to go after them. We were completely wrong.” Her voice trailed off at the end as she became entranced by the leaves on the tree in front of her. She touched one, gingerly, moving in to examine it more fully.
“Wrong? About what?”
“All of this,” Solvig said. “I see it now. The Overseer was trying to show me everything, but it was too much.
“Slow down, Dr. Solvig. Your system has had a great shock. You need relax and recover.”
Solvig stopped herself and took several calming breaths.
“Now,” Novik continued, satisfied. “You mentioned an ‘overseer?’”
“An entity. He’s in charge of all of this. He was trying to show me everything, but there was too much. He had to cut the connection before…” She paused in thought. “I didn’t get all of it, but I got enough. We were wrong. We were completely wrong!”
“About what, Doctor?”
“All of this. We weren’t transported to a distant world. We’re data patterns encoded in the molecules of the disk back in the cave on LT-9. We’re trespassing on a modeled world, and we’re corrupting it just by being here.”
