The Days of the Dying Sun

02 - Fish

The darkness of night was a welcome reprieve. Merlin walked slowly toward the Seat and began the long climb up the three hundred steps. He and Dandara had built this first, a comfortable armchair from which he could view their new world. To gain the viewpoint it required, they had placed it atop a wide pedestal of strong stone thrust into the sky, and then ringed the pillar with a coiling staircase. The laborious effort to reach the Seat was important, ensuring that this place of perspective was not sought lightly. Merlin was fit; their first fifteen days in the world had provided them all with plenty of physical exercise, so his ascent was not too exhausting. He settled into the warm cushions and weathered upholstery with a smile. It looked like the cracked leather of old, but was purely synthetic. The two of them had discussed the idea of curing animal skin as the ancient humans must have done, but dismissed the concept as barbaric and unnecessary.

The educational value, they decided, was minor compared to the moral distaste.

From his vantage point, Merlin could see far. His eyes were fresh and without any sort of degeneration, and may even have been superior to a birthed human—as yet, he had no comparison to make. What he knew was that he could scan far to sea and along the beach to north and south without really having to strain his neck. There was a lever that rotated the Seat a hundred and eighty degrees, giving him a full view inland, but that was not his interest tonight.

Tonight, he was focussed on the fish.

Lucifer had seen one first. That morning, in the burning heat of the expanding sun, he had called that there was movement in the water. Neither of the others had believed him at first, but as hours of investigation passed, they too had seen the tiny creatures. Sea-life where no sea-life should exist.

Now, it passed to Merlin to contemplate why.

He rubbed his hands together, watching carefully as his skin warmed and smoothed from the friction. Had any of them done this same thing over the water? Dropping fragments of potential life into the sea, for it to evolve and mutate at speed? They had all gone swimming, it was true, relishing the feeling of the warm water on their suffering bodies. A corporeal nature had been long coveted, but now he was experiencing it for real, there were more problems that had ever been anticipated.

Had they passed life and DNA into the swirling sea for it to use? It seemed ridiculous, but then, so did the alternatives.

Earth had been without life. That was a core truth that had formed the mission from the very first. The universe was without life, and without life the universe would cease to be. Merlin and his companions had come here to prevent that end. Earth was the first source, the first place that life had come to exist. It held all the ingredients that still they didn't quite understand, everything needed to make—what? Life? Consciousness? Soul?

Merlin smiled. That final word would not be heard well by either Lucifer or Dandara. It went against the teachings of Taskeriu, and argued against transcendence entirely. Simply put, if there was soul, then everything they knew simply couldn't be, at least, not in any way they understood.

What was happening in the ocean?

And should it worry him?

"You are up late, old man!" Lucifer called from below. Merlin leaned forward to see his friend already half way up the steps. Lucifer moved like a master, as if he had forever inhabited a body and had full understanding of its limits. He danced up the staircase in a way that Merlin envied, and arrived at the summit with no shortness of breath.

"Considering our fish."

"Ah, yes, as I thought you might." Lucifer slipped behind the chair and leaned on the back. "Did it not occur to you to make this platform a little larger? I could fall."

"It is meant for one. For contemplation."

"Yet we both are here, now. That short-sightedness is something we must consider when developing the nation."

"Perhaps. There is no rush."

"Except my own eagerness." Lucifer thumped his chest. "Come on, Merlin, we should get started properly. Habitats, people, vehicles."

"Not until we understand. Or would you fall to your own short-sightedness through haste."

Lucifer laughed, as he often did. "So what did you learn of the fish?"

Merlin leaned forward. "Is it magic?" he asked.

"That was quick. Ready to assume some impossible-to-quantify force already?"

"We do not know what makes this one world so special."

"I'm still not convinced it is. We could create our new civilisation on any world." Lucifer pointed. "See there; Mars. Why not choose that one?"

"Because this is the one that works."

"That worked, past tense. And they created life on Mars."

"After untold millennia of evolution, research and technology. Martian life is synthetic, Lucifer. Earth life is real."

"We could debate that for hours."

"And doubtless will, but back to the fish."

"Perhaps they were here before we were."

"Impossible."

"Because of what? Because of your belief that all life in the universe was dead?"

"It's not a belief, it's fact. And something you agreed about."

"Maybe, once. A lot has changed."

"In fifteen days?"

Another laugh. "Fifteen days, Merlin! It feels like fifteen lifetimes. No doubt you feel it too, when you shoulders ache after too much carrying, or your legs throb just from the walking. Eyes that slip closed when you don't want them to, forcing you to sleep. And sleeping! What is that? What are the visions it brings?"

"Dreams."

"Not the word, my friend, the essence! Something we never experienced before, and yet, here, plagues us through every moment of unconsciousness. Dreams, Merlin, are tied to the physical body. Tied to exhaustion and that need to rest. Without the physical, there's no need for unconscious imaginings. How can that be? You stick to your fish, be my guest, but my thoughts lie elsewhere. I accept the fishes' presence; they are tangible. We have all tried to catch them today and watched as they dance through our fingers. I know they are there, but the sleeping mind—it is an enigma I mean to crack."

"I am pleased you are getting as much from this experience as I," Merlin commented.

"I am! I am!"

"We need to consider the fish."

"No! Let them be."

"It could mean so much for our civilisation."

"Yes; it means sustenance. It means our people will have something to eat without our extending yet more effort to provide them with food."

"You would have them eat the flesh of another creature?"

"As they once did, yes, I would."

"And would you partake, too?"

"Of course! To experience it. Were I able to catch one of them, I would have done so gladly, and had it slip and swim down my throat as I swallowed it whole, relishing on the adventure."

"Then you just accept the fish?"

"I do."

"Sadly, I do not." Merlin turned back to look at the sea.

"Pah!" Lucifer jumped to the nearest step, a drop that left his eyes level with Merlin's seated knee. "I will leave you to it."

"Thank you, friend."

Merlin blinked and continued to watch the water. With the red giant star absent for the brief night, his vista was lit by the light of a thousand further celestial bodies, and the moon; blooded and pink, an ancient lady watching over her dying world and unable to do anything about it.

Except, perhaps, in the seas she moved.

Merlin shrank into the Seat and considered.