Narugar on the Shore Page 9
Narugar had come home stunned, too stunned to think. And now he stood on the shore as he had at every sunset since his ninth birthday, and gazed at the sky. The closest approach was already past. Narugar knew that within days the brilliant blue light in the sky would be fading. Already the two planets were moving a further third of a million kilometres apart each day.
As darkness fell, the wind blew again, more strongly this time, filling Narugar’s hair with the red sand. He flung back his head and opened his mouth wide, not caring about the sand that blew in. The deep, guttural scream of anguish he let out would have terrified anyone who heard it but the wind took Narugar’s cries and dispersed them across the sea.
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This hour, as every day at this hour, Narugar stood at the shore and gazed towards where the sun had been; transfixed by the beauty of the ever-changing light. The clouds that gathered over his horizon seemed to be living things, their patterned underbellies slowly rippling from the colours of flesh to the colours of fire and finally to the darkest blue. The great moon hung three-quarters full above the ocean, its silver pathway begging him to follow across the water and into the sky.
In the gathering dusk, stars were becoming visible, first one by one then handfuls at a time. No astronomer, Narugar could not name the stars he saw, but two old friends he knew; two points of light, brighter than all their fellows, had been in the sky since before the sun had set. The sharp disk of magnesium white was Jupiter. The other, a shimmering blue, was too beautiful for Narugar to bear. All his life he had longed above all else to see his ancestral home and tonight Earth looked so close that he felt he could reach out and touch it.
A sudden breeze broke the moon’s silver path into jagged shards and flung sand into Narugar’s eyes. He blinked away painful tears and continued to gaze at the sky.
Through tales passed from father to son, Narugar had learned of his brave great-grandfather who had been on that first terraforming mission so long ago. The atmosphere had been seeded and the rains had come. With the rains came rivers and oceans. Some crops had been brought from home, others had been engineered for the rigours of life on Mars. Thus had trillions of dollars worth of Earth technology been used to create a remote and primitive agrarian world.
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The settlers worked hard in terrible conditions and many paid for their dream with their lives, but slowly the new world began to grow. Mars was to be mankind’s foothold in the stars; a new home for Earth’s teeming billions, but when the Infidel War had come and gone all Earth’s efforts had turned to rebuilding what had been lost. Earth needed to renew its population, not ship them to another planet. The weekly transports had slowed to monthly then twice a year and then they had stopped. The outpost on Mars was all but forgotten.
The War had been a generation ago, when Narugar’s father was a boy. Now no-one expected government ships to land again but where there is a need, human entrepreneurial spirit will rise to meet it and Mars-Earth Line now ferried between the two planets when conditions allowed and when there were customers who could afford the tickets.
Narugar’s family kept the old tradition of counting their ages in Earth years so as a boy he had enjoyed two birthdays each Martian year. The first time Narugar saw Earth so close, it had been his ninth birthday. He had stood on this same spot by his father’s side, looking at the sky above the ocean, and made a pledge to himself. One day, when Earth returned, he would board a ship for home. Even at that tender age he had understood that the only chance for a poor farmer to afford a ticket was at those rare times when the two planets orbited into the same part of space.
With his schoolteacher’s help, young Narugar consulted an ephemeris. He found that Earth would return thrice more during his lifetime.
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He was amused that each time it would be close to one of his birthdays: his 24th, 39th and 56th. The precise dates of the close approaches burned themselves into his mind. The child believed he had three chances to live his dream. As he grew, the young man came to understand there would be but one. He expected no miracle that would deliver the huge sum required in time for his 24th birthday and by 56 he would be an old man; too old for sure to start a new life on a new planet. Rugged Mars spared few farmers beyond their sixtieth year.
Narugar was in his eighteenth year and his father was 61 when the old man found himself short of breath and took to his bed. Narugar nursed his father as best he could, but the old man kept sending him away.
"My time is over and yours is just starting. My farm is yours now. It is your future. Look after it well. Now go, go, stop fussing over me. There is real work to be done."
As the seasons moved on and Mars’s eccentric orbit made the sun shrink to a cool and distant yellow spot, so Narugar’s father faded too. One morning Narugar heated some soup and brought it with fresh-baked bread and a hot drink to his father’s room but his father was still and cold.
Narugar sent word of his father’s death to his neighbours and then set about digging the grave. At first he worked with the farm’s machinery but after a while he found he wanted to dig by hand. He poured all his feelings into breaking the hard soil with his pickaxe and spade.
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That evening, dismissing the aches in his muscles and in his heart, he carefully read and re-read passages from the Holy Scriptures looking for words with which to honour his father.
The following afternoon, he was surprised and pleased at how many people came to the graveside. They each patted his back or shook his hand. They praised the words he had chosen and each of them had a favourite memory of his father. Many offered practical help, but he politely sent them away, just as his father had done when he had tried to help.
Narugar had never once lost sight of his childhood dream and now he worked at it with the intensity and energy he had inherited from a man who built a world. He was a proficient, diligent and careful farmer. He understood the staple crops he grew and never risked the latest products of the gene labs until others had proved their worth. He found ways to make his simple life simpler still, cutting out every unnecessary expense and many expenses that others would have thought essential. Apart from his annual investments in seeds and tools, he saved nearly all his farm’s income.
In his twenties his strong body, his quiet, assured manner and his reputation for having salted away a small fortune made him a popular man at the spring and harvest dances. At about the time of the second close approach he had nearly fallen for Jenni.
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His heart sang when he saw her and for a whole season they had played and danced together; but when he stood on the shore at dusk and looked up at Earth, he knew it was not to be. If he married and raised a family he would never be able to afford his ticket home. Jenni had not understood. She had cried, accused him of having another woman and then torn at his face with her nails. When she was gone, Narugar had cried too, but no other person saw his grief.
He had not let himself be deflected by romance again. Gradually the women his age all found their men and started to bring on the next generation.
Last year he had seen Jenni at market. As always, she was polite but cool with him. Her year old son and two older daughters had demanded her attention so they had exchanged little more than formal greetings.
Narugar did well at market that day and came home to do his accounts with satisfaction. His savings were going to be enough for a close-approach ticket with a good sum left over. He knew little of Earth’s economy but he reckoned the balance of his savings would be enough to get him started in his new home. He knew he would have to work hard for more years to make a new life but hard work held no fears for Narugar and he knew Earth was still desperate for willing labour as it rebuilt. When he thought of life on the blue planet he felt only joy.
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And then the fungus came. It attacked crops all across Mars and Narugar’s did not escape. With nearly half his harvest lost, Narugar was forced to dip into his savings just to keep the farm going. But far worse was that news of the fungus reached Earth and their government acted quickly to stop the Mars-Earth Line flights. The last thing Earth needed was a new plague.
For more than a season Narugar lived in fear that his dream would be dashed but the gene labs worked overtime and a cure was found. It was transmitted to Earth’s scientists and the quarantine was lifted. The Line reopened and Narugar breathed again.
But the cure came too late for Jenni and her husband Bill. Their farm was all but wiped out. When she came to Narugar’s door Jenni was gaunt and desperate. Her son, who should have been toddling, was cradled in her arms, too weak to stand.
"Bill is a proud man," Jenni said as they shared some soup beside Narugar’s fire. "It would kill him if he learned I came to you. You must promise me never to tell. But Little Bill is dying. He is my treasure, my hope for the future, the thing I love most in the world." It was the second time Narugar had seen her cry but these tears were very different from the tears of anger he had last seen in her eyes. They ran down her face unchecked and gathered in the hollows that had once been dimples at the sides of her mouth. Narugar remembered how those dimples had felt against his lips all those years before.
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He drove Jenni home, dropping her just out of sight of the house where they could hear Bill chopping wood.
"Narugar, take this, please." Jenni leaned into the vehicle and pressed something into his hand. Narugar looked and remembered it well. It was a single pearl, set in silver and hanging from a delicate silver chain. He remembered how the cream-coloured pearl had bounced against Jenni’s cream-coloured skin while she laughed and twirled at a long-past spring dance. He remembered how she had used it to flirt with him; daring him to touch it as it hung between her breasts for the luck of wealth that tradition said such a touch would bring.
"It was my mother’s. I told Bill I would take it to market and try to sell it. Even when times are good it would be worth only a few credits. Why would anyone buy it when we are all hungry? But I will tell him it turned out be a treasure. He will never know. And if you take it, I won’t be lying. We have your credits and you have my pearl. There! It is a sale!" and with Little Bill bundled against her breast, she ran for the house.
Narugar turned the vehicle around and started for home. He resisted the urge to look back but he could not keep his fingers from playing with the pearl, nor his mind from thoughts of how things might have been.
A deep depression settled over him as he drove.
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He knew that giving Jenni the five thousand credits had been the right thing to do. He had calculated carefully and given her all he could afford but now he barely had the price of a ticket and he started to worry about how he would make his way on Earth. Much as Earth wanted labour, a migrant with no home and no resources was unlikely to be welcome. His start was going to be harder than he would have liked.
But Narugar’s calculations had not taken into account that Mars-Earth Line was run by businessmen. Flights had been cancelled for a whole season; the season running up to closest approach when the Line should have been at its busiest. With travellers desperate to reschedule on the Line’s few ships, ticket prices rose and then rose again. When Narugar tried to order his ticket, his savings were four thousand credits short of the required sum.
“I can save four thousand credits in a single season” he had told the booking clerk and then the booking manager.
“If we were selling you a return ticket it would be a different matter” the manager had explained. He seemed kind and sympathetic to Narugar, but firm nonetheless. “Or even if this was Earth and you were visiting Mars we might be able to extend you credit. On Mars we would know where to find you. But Earth is big, there are lots of places for you to disappear. No, no, I do not think you are dishonest,” the manager raised both palms in protest. “I can see you are an honest farmer. But Earth changes people and it is my job to protect the company. I am sorry, sir, but I am obliged to sell the ticket to someone who can pay for it.” And that was that.
