Lotus World

by Andrew Barber

When Mark West woke up, it was like pushing through thick sheets of molasses. Each time he moved through one, he had more clarity of mind. He also needed rest before the next push. Finally, with some effort, he opened his eyes. There was one of the ship's doctors.

"Good morning," she said in a sing-song fashion. "Groggy? Let's give you a stimulant." She gave him something through the dozen hoses and wires going into his body. He was immediately awake. 

"Are we there?” Mark asked.

"Yes. We're here. Shri’s a lucky ship. We've dropped drones into the low atmosphere, and it's looking good. Vegetation. Animal life. Let's unplug you. This will take a while, so relax. A little soup today, and then your first real meal in 30 years tomorrow."

Red, Mark thought. Red, and orange, and yellow. Not a scrap of green. I'm sure I'll get used to that. The lander skimmed the brush and the tall, thick bushes that were almost trees. It was like flying over the best of a New England autumn.

The woman across from him could have been reading his mind. She looked from her port and said excitedly, "Anthocyanins and carotenoids, or something like them. They play a role in collecting light for photosynthesis. These do something similar to chlorophyll. Sorry. You want to enjoy the yellow and reds. And here I am lecturing, as usual."

"That's quite alright. Those are my favorite colors of M&M's," he hadn't flirted in well over 30 years. He held his hand across the aisle. "Mark West. Engineering.”

“I'm Luthien Barns. Biology."

"And studier of colorful plants. A botanist?"

"Zoologist. And whatever they need me to be. It's time to land the drones and wander the ground ourselves."

"I'm sure you'll see wonders."

"

When I get someone to wander out with me. Traveling in pairs is required for now."

Was that a hint? Mark went on the assumption it was. He volunteered some of his off time. Luthien accepted.

"What did you dream about?" Luthien asked as they sat around the camp lantern. 

"Exploring. Various places. Captain Cook's voyages. The Arctic and Antarctic. Did you know they actually flew dirigibles to the North Pole? They were like the Hindenburg but more dangerous." Luthien simply nodded. She didn’t know the historical reference. "The Moon and Mars landings. Just the fun parts like it's programmed to be. They mostly faded away quickly."

She nodded. Like natural dreams, those stimulated by the Dreamchaser system in the hibernation pods were mostly in short-term memory. Mental stimulation was necessary for multi-year sleep. But manufactured dreams could be too idyllic. They couldn't be both better than real life and well-remembered. People could quickly become addicted to a false reality. 

"My parents loved the old Lord of The Rings books. Hence my name," she saw Mark's questioning look. He'd read them but didn't place the name. "Luthien is a heroine. There's even an opera now called Beren and Luthien. I wandered a peaceful Middle-Earth. What I recall was so wonderful not even a new world like Lotus could compare. I promised myself a visit to Middle-Earth before I died, so if things hadn't worked out…" her words drifted off, and then she shuddered just a little. The colony ship had to be a one-way journey and couldn't support 2,000 colonists indefinitely. Euthanasia had been a very real possibility. Colonists were a special breed. 

"Well, we made it." Mark reached out, and Luthien took his hand. He squeezed it and smiled—friendship. It was only their second expedition from camp together and the first time they had stayed out overnight. She looked down shyly for just a moment. When she looked up again, he saw her smile, and her eyes had shifted beyond friendship. It only took a few kisses before they retired together to her tent.

"Look! Look! There it is." Luthien whispered excitedly. 

The two peered discreetly over a piece of shoreline rock. The beach met exceptionally calm water but had many rocky outcrops and tide pools.

It was the first Lotusian they had seen beyond drone images. They were like giant six-legged starfish with sonar collectors and stubby manipulators at the end of each limb. Through their transparent membranes, one could barely make out pale organs soaked in what seemed like dirty water. Atop each arm were large fans that acted as sails when the buoyant creatures were in the water. They also had furled fans underneath to act as fins or catch currents. The creatures were amphibious, being submerged or floating as much as they moved slowly along a muddy shore.

"See, Luth? It has a pointed stick," Mark whispered as they watched it spear something trapped in a small tide pool. The thing thrashed about like a fish and then was still. 

After that, they mainly stayed silent. Mark videoed while his brand-new bride took still images. She knew what to look for and was the better photographer. 

Soon, the native moved closer to the water. Being radial, the creatures seldom turned; they just followed a different arm's sonar image in their new direction. Then it entered the water, sails low since the wind was against it. The underside fans pushed it past the gentle breakers, and then it dove below the surface.  

"I bet you didn't expect a Lotusian on our honeymoon, did you, Mister Barns-West?" Mark shook his head.

They climbed off the rock to the mud shore. Turning around, they froze. Ten meters away were three Lotusians, holding pointed sticks but not appearing hostile—not, at least, in a way that the humans could read.

"And I bet you didn't expect your honeymoon to be the first contact with an alien species, eh, Doctor West-Barnes?"

Mark switched on his sonar translator and nodded to Luthien. 

"Attempt number twelve," she said, walking a few steps ahead of her husband. The others on the team were farther back. Since she had studied cetaceans back on Earth, she was the closest thing the colony had to a sonar linguist. She'd even spoken to dolphins, albeit briefly, as a graduate student.

The Lotusians had a wide-ranging sonar system that worked in the air and underwater. It was also chaotic, and Mark constantly adjusted his device.

Luthien reached the pale starfish, who were examining the manufactured odds and ends the humans had put out as a draw. These included no metal, a forged material the amphibians were unlikely to even conceive of, and they had likely never even seen a fire. The humans had woven some baskets and carved wooden figurines, both human and Lotusian. 

She sat on a flat stone. The natives were no longer frightened of the much taller land dwellers, but it didn't hurt to stay low. They kept their hunting spears standing in the mud, easy to grasp and an obvious sign to the humans that they could defend themselves.

So far, attempts to communicate had completely failed. Spoken words were too alien compared to their sonar squeaks and clicks. This time, she brought a few dozen small sticks, which she stuck in the mud in a neat row, saying one, two, three, and four.

Identical sticks had been left with the pile of goods. The aliens watched the biologist repeat the sequence, adding a fifth and then a sixth. Finally, the lead Lotusian picked up the sticks. It repeated the line in front of it, stopping at six. 

"Contact?" Mark mused.

"It could just be like a parrot. Let's see." Luthien pulled her sticks from the mud. She planted one upright, then two together, and another three together. She paused. Nothing. She continued with groups of four, five, and six.

Now, the Lotusian followed suit. It stood a single stick, a little away two more, following the sequence to six. Then it did a seventh, eighth, all the way to twelve.

"Twelve," said Mark. "Twice the number six? Did it seem to you that it needed us to reach six before it started repeating?"

"Six digits on each of six arms. The number may have a symbolic significance.”

"Or do they think in sixes so strongly it's hard to work with a smaller number?” 

"Maybe…."

"I know you planned on showing them primes early on, but consider skipping those for now? It might just confuse things. But you've done it, Luth! Contact has been made."

"We've done it."

The Lotusians rotated in a tight circle, or hexagon, as there were six of them. Each held a rod, intricately carved by stone flakes, in an arm extending toward the circle’s center. Arms on either side held hands with partners. The three outward-facing appendages beat other sticks in a complex rhythm. Their top sails were furrowed. Their underside fans controlled their dance movements. 

Sitting in his clear-bottomed kayak, Mark reflected on some of the significant hurdles to communication. His theory proved true: the Lotusian's way of even thinking was based on the number six. Another difficulty was that being radial, they had no concept of forward, back, or sideways; everything was simply a direction they could travel without turning. More recently, the colonists realized the natives were symmetrical from top to bottom; if they flipped over, they did not right themselves, but they just kept on going with their task.

The Lotusians, all six, tapped their rods together six times and swam in a circle, repeating this five more times. 

"They remind me of Morris dancing," said Khoa. Then, “Wow. That move is straight from Morris dancing!"

Mark looked down at the performers. They had overlapped the rods, forming a hexagon with the six ends projecting out like rays. One dancer held it triumphantly for the humans to see, then lowered it for the seafloor Lotusian audience. Then the circle broke up and, seemingly randomly, embraced each other.

"And so another group has bonded into a family," Mark said. "It was kind of them to invite us."

Anicia paddled up close, consulting her palm interface. "Mark, we just received a message. Everything’s fine, and there's no rush, but you're about to become a father."

"We're three weeks early!"

"Tell that to your daughter. She wants out," Anicia smiled.

"Well done, Dad!" said Khoa.

"I think Luth gets most of the credit."

"Well, this is the big moment for her," Khoa joked. "You did your fifty percent months ago."

Mark laughed lightly, stopping when he saw Anicia's glare. "Well, are you going to the hospital?" she asked. "They said it was no big rush, but young Kathleen seems to have plans of her own. William’s warming up your Bumblebee."

"I'm on my way." Mark started paddling toward the shore furiously.

I'm about to have a daughter.

As the couple entered the community center, their daughter walked briskly up to them. "Mama, Papa! Thank you for coming." Kathleen hugged them both. 

"We wouldn't miss your first art show," Luthien said. She scanned the room. "You know, I've seen all these, of course, but seeing them all together, I'm just amazed by the volume of your work. Oh, there's Dior. Excuse me, I need to say hello to your brother."

"I agree with your mother. I'm surprised you found the time for the recent works." The colony couldn’t afford to support artists, not yet. Kathleen was a mining engineer, but her love was creating art. She'd tried almost every form before settling on abstract sculpture.

Mark walked over to a wall. A screen read "Evolution," showing early works from Kathleen's first drawing of a house, the classic geodetic dome, illustrated here as far too tall and rather lopsided, to some "pen and ink" done on her first screen. Then, along the wall were displays of pottery, a piece of fiber art, paintings, and 3-D printings in chronological order.

Kathleen pointed to various pieces and commented, "You were pretty quiet about my fiber art phase."

"Was I?" Mark asked, surprised. "Sorry. I always wanted to be supportive."

"You were always supportive, papa." Kathleen hugged her father. Mark didn't hug her too hard; she was a month from having their first grandchild, and she’d been premature herself. She was pulled away, excusing herself so that she could speak with others attending the show.

Eventually, someone decided that Kathleen should pose for a family image. Mother, father, and brother gathered around her. Mark looked at them all. A happy 30 years with Luthien. Lots of ups, very few downs. They completed each other, being only lightly monogamish on rare occasions, which they had found was their personal healthy balance. A daughter and son to be proud of. The colony was three times what Shri had transported to Lotus. They had homes, shops, manufacturing, and a small, vibrant community center. There were even plans to expand the colony to a second settlement. 

Life was good. Once the image was recorded, Mark said, "I love you all." When the children walked away, he took Luthien by hand. "You most of all, Luth. I was just remembering when—" 

Mark West pushed through the walls of sleep and woke up. Dr. Poole was looking down at him. "Hello, Mark," she said in a serious tone. "Are you feeling groggy? Let's give you a stimulant." He was immediately awake.

Another head came into view over his hibernation pod. It was Conestoga's Commander Lockhart. He looked grim. So grim that West immediately braced himself for bad news.

"Hello, Mark. I'm speaking to each colonist as soon as they wake up. I've got some bad news. Aztec IV hasn't panned out as hoped. There's hard radiation. No water. The oxygen we thought was an atmosphere is just a lot of outgassing from the surface. It's hard to believe we could have been so wrong. But we were."

Even wide awake, the news took time to digest. Then Mark asked, "So it's a dead rock? Can we make it livable? Or build domes?"

"No, we can't. We've made a thorough study of our options. You know what that means, Mark?"

"We can't stay here. And we can't go home."

"No," Lockhart said. "I'm sorry. We all knew it was a risk."

"I understand." The words were placidly accepting the end of his life. He would have expected them to be tight in his chest, hard to say. But oddly, they were just words as simple as any others. 

"Most of the colonists chose the option that, if this happened, we leave them in their dream worlds. Just enjoy what time they have left in a lotus dream. You listed yourself as wanting to know before the end. In a few days, a handful of people who wanted to be revived will land on Aztec. They want to say at least they got all the way there. That’s a one-way trip. A few people have asked to stay awake on the ship, but that will only last five years, maybe ten. Now, of course, you can take time to decide what you want to do. But I'm telling people while they're still in their pods."

"What happens in five years when the ship malfunctions beyond repair?"

Dr. Poole spoke. "The pods will take care of things. You'll dream… until you don't."

"Yes, well…. Is there a Luthien Barnes on board? She would be a biologist."

Poole consulted her palm interface. She shook her head.

"Then just drop me back into the lotus sleep," said Mark, "before I forget the dreams."

"God protect," said the commander.

"Happiness at least, Mark," said the Doctor. Then she started his sedation process, adding, "And pleasant dreams."

As Mark drifted off, returning to Lotus and to Luthien, he thought, A pleasant dream. A happy life.