Chapter 38

Sarah tapped on the podium before saying, “Time is slipping away. It looks like everyone is here, so let’s hear the plan for settling our new home.” As soon as she tapped the podium, everyone began moving to their seats. On each ship the models stood in the center of the meeting room, positioned so that they were visible by everyone.

Amy’s Clan stepped up to the podium and began with, “Our presentation is in two parts. First is a review of the topographical features and environmental aspects of the island. Following this is an initial proposal or starting point for establishing our first settlement there. This is a key step in establishing our new home and settling the planet. If anyone has suggestions, positive or negative, please share them today or at any time they occur. Even if we make no changes today, we expect that there will be a need for modifications once we are there. This is something we experienced when we started building An Clochán, and virtually every time we’ve settled a new planet. A significant advantage this time is that we know much more about the location and its environment.

“We prefer to go through the presentation twice. During the first pass, we ask that you hold your questions until you’ve seen the whole thing. After lunch we will review the presentation one step at a time, clarifying points, answering questions, and listening to suggestions. Does anyone object to this approach?”

Amy’s Clan paused a few moments to see if there were any objections, and then continued, “From our perspective, the island we’ve chosen is unique. The first thing everyone notices is the high rock walls surrounding, it which are now highlighted. The island is encircled by these rock walls, apart from a 65 km long segment on the south end. At this point, a river valley separates the beginning and the end of the rock walls. It is through this valley that the island’s rivers empty into the ocean. Note that for most of the length of this valley the rock walls are between 200 and 300 meters high on both sides.

“For a moment, let’s pretend we are in a boat approaching the southern end of the island, with the inland bay as our destination. For this virtual trip the monitors on the wall will show you a simulated view from our boat. To successfully enter the river by boat, we need to be at least 3 km from the island. Looking to the NNE, we will move parallel to the island until we can see a relatively calm line of water between us and it. At that point we turn toward a location that is 2 km west of what appears to be an offset in the rock wall. When we are 0.5 km from the rock wall on the right, we begin to turn to starboard, or east, while maintaining our position in the middle of the current. Why the middle? There are many rocks along both sides of the channel we are following and some of them intrude quite a distance into it.

“During the first three kilometers after heading due east, the river channel narrows from 1.4 to 1 km wide. Apart from the first kilometer of this segment where the rocks on the ocean side start as tall piles of large boulders, the rock walls now tower some 200 to more than 300 meters above the river on each side. We will travel another 62 kilometers before reaching the bay. We suspect that there will be a fairly strong wind at our backs as the prevailing wind blows in the direction we are heading.

“Before we enter the bay, let’s pause our trip up the river and a look at the island in general. First consider the rock walls, or cliffs, around the island. These vary from overhanging the ocean to being at, at least, a 75 degree incline. There are narrow paths on many of them. It is conceivable that a skilled hiker/climber could follow these trails to the top. However the waves and rocky shore would make transferring from a boat to land very dangerous, if not impossible. The rock wall is seldom less than 300 meters above the ocean and then only by a few meters. Where the top does not blend into a mountain or tall hill, it is at least a few meters wide before it descends into the island’s interior. In some places the top of the wall is a flat area several kilometers wide. Recent data shows what appear to be entrances to caves in places, so these will need to be checked.”

Amy’s Clan pointed out more details regarding the exterior of the island before shifting back to the bay. “Now let’s resume our trip up the river. As we enter the bay, on the right the rock wall separating the river and bay from the ocean continues as far as you can see. On the left, the rock wall decays into a rocky point of land between the West River and the bay. Just before entering the bay there is a brief opportunity to see the long sandy shore, even so, you can’t tell that there is a river on the other side. The West River flows east into the bay. This is the same direction that we are traveling. By the time we are far enough into the bay to see the river, the current may have pushed our boat to the right. This is due to the river’s flow. The danger on the right is due to the many large rocks at the base of the rock wall, and some of these extend into the bay. We expect the current for the next kilometer or more will be quite treacherous. This is due to the river flowing easterly near the north shore while water in the bay is flowing west toward the ocean.

“Once past the end of the point on our port side, we can see the mouth of the West River. The mouth is a little over 2 km wide. At the northeast side of this river a sandy beach begins, extending some 2.5 km along the shore. This beach also extends a fair distance inland from the shore. Moving past the beach, the shore line is very rocky with short sections low cliffs. The rocks vary in size but only extend inland a short distance before the terrain becomes a combination of brush and grass lands. This rocky shoreline continues all the way to the mouth of the East River. Once past the mouth of the East River the shore transitions into cliffs with an elevation that quickly rises to meet the rock cliffs comprising the right-hand side of the bay and the outer wall of the island.

“The mouth of the East River is a little over 1.5 km wide. The bay is roughly 20 km wide and 43 km long. Traveling inland from the bay’s shore, the ground between the two rivers rises roughly 28 meters to a line of hills that is over 60 km from the bay. This line of hills stretches from the West River to the East River, with the tops being more than 154 meters above the sea level. The valleys between the hills are all more than 132 meters above the bay.”

Amy’s Clan paused, letting the group soak up the information before continuing, “Some of you may have jumped to the conclusion that this is where our settlement will be located. We initially considered it as it looks very enticing. However, there are several serious problems with this location. Based on the change in elevation between the hills and the bay, both rivers have strong currents as well as a series of waterfalls to get past. A more serious issue for the area abutting the bay is flooding. The visual evidence indicates that all the land adjoining the bay floods frequently. This flooding appears to reach levels sufficient to raise the bay some 20 meters. Weather modeling indicates that the deepest flooding in the bay area occurs when an intense storm approaches from the southwest and the rivers are at flood stage. When the storm comes from this direction, the storm surge pushes the ocean up the river valley toward the bay.

“Looking inland to where the East and West Rivers cross the line of hills to the north, there are a series of waterfalls on each river. These begin around 58 km up river from the bay. The total height of the falls on the East River tops out at some 132 meters above sea level. The West River is 6 meters higher. Both rivers are a little less than a kilometer wide at the top of the falls. Upstream from the falls both rivers spread out to form large loughs (lakes). These continue for more than twenty kilometers upstream and are more than 5 km wide in places. As you can see, there are many small islands in the loughs of both rivers. Only a few of the lough’s largest islands are high enough not to flood during high water.”

Amy’s Clan went on to point out the features of the valleys, hills and mountains as their focus moved toward the north end of the island. They pointed out many of the large lakes that lay along the path of the two rivers and their tributaries. The various animals that inhabited each valley were noted as the overview moved north. Areas that could be used for crops were also noted as well as those best used for pasture or left for woodlands and marshes.

“Now that we’ve thoroughly refreshed your view of the island’s terrain, let’s move on to the weather. The temperature varies between 14 and 24°C although short excursions down to 8°C have been observed. There is usually a breeze of around 10 to 25 km/h. Rain fall averages a little more than 2 meters a year, but can be as much as 3 meters. The rain appears to be fairly uniformly over the island. Most severe weather appears to be in the form of rain with high winds and/or intense thunderstorms. Either of these conditions can last from several hours to a day. As you would expect, these intense storms lead to extensive flooding along the lakes and rivers.

“As we noted earlier, flooding is the main reason that we initially chose to avoid placing the settlement in the bay area. For a visual representation of the flooding, the models will now show the runoff from a heavy rain. The flickering green lights indicate runoff while the yellow lights indicate the water level in creeks, streams, lakes and rivers. This storm is a little above average but still fairly common. Rain begins falling and increases to 0.5 cm/h, which is on the high side of a moderate precipitation. After several hours it becomes heavier, increasing to 1.8 cm/h over the next three hours, it then continues for another two hours before tapering off.”

As Amy’s Clan was speaking, the indicators began showing the flow of the runoff. After three hours the rivers were out of their banks. By the time the rain ended all the low lying areas were flooded. The bay had risen until the shore was under a half a meter of water. Once the rain stopped the rivers and the bay continued to rise until all the land within 10 km of the shore was under water before the water began to recede. “This scenario was not of a large or strong weather front. If it were part of a large front, then the bay would have risen even more due to the storm surge up the river valley connecting the bay to the ocean. There is evidence of flooding of all the land back to the hills. This is a more than 20 meter rise above the bay’s current normal level. The land rises just 28 meters from the bay to the hills. This extreme flooding appears to have occurred frequently enough that we can see multiple indicators. We could go through several more scenarios but we think this illustrates the situation.

“A key point to make about the bay is that we don’t really know how frequently it floods or how severe the floods are. The evidence we have tells us that we need firsthand information before considering a settlement on or near the bay.

“There are other reasons for avoiding the bay but flooding is the key one.”

“The proposed location for our settlement is on this southern plateau in the north central area. This plateau is high enough that we will be able to see nearly all the surrounding ocean from the upper levels of our residence buildings. The plateau is almost 950 square kilometers in area and is fairly level, well, perhaps rolling hills is a better description. There appears to be sufficient tillable land to support us for the first few years. As you can see there are also forests and brushy areas on the plateau. Nearby there is a lough covering 200 sq km that appears to have a broad, deep bottom. This has the potential of being a suitable location for building space ships. A detailed mapping of the sides of the plateau remains to be done. There are springs both on the plateau and emerging from the sides, so fresh water should be readily available. On the west side there is a fairly wide slope that appears to descend to the bottom of the plateau. It needs to be surveyed as much of it is obscured by forest and brush.

“The plan is to place the buildings on a rectangular grid, as now shown on the settlement model. The grid shown covers a 5 by 5 kilometer square. For this presentation we will use the following terminology: The center square is ‘zero’ or simply ‘Central Square’. From there the squares are numbered by direction, so 2E would be 2 squares east. We will be focusing on the southeast corner. All buildings in this grid will be connected underground. One tunnel will be for utilities and the other for people.

“The first residential area will be in 2E 1S and will consist of a Common building surrounded by 16 residential buildings. The next one will be in 1E 2S, beyond that it is yet to be decided. The Common buildings associated with residence towers are to provide offices and medical center, dining, recreational and meeting areas. Initially they will include accommodations, but long term the space could become stores, restaurants, theaters and so forth. The residences are 14-story buildings arranged in two concentric circles of 8 buildings each offset from those in the adjacent row.

“The residence Common building, often referred to as the Hub, is to be 306 meters in diameter. This will provide a little over 73,500 square meters on a level. It will have the potential for four levels above ground and three underground. Medical facilities are on Sublevel 1. Sublevel 2 provides connections to other buildings as well as an armory and office space. Beyond that the details are still being sorted out but it will include basketball and volleyball courts, an auditorium, a music room, martial arts and other special purpose community areas.

“There are 16 residential buildings in each group with each being 80 meters in diameter and having living space on 12 floors. Initially each floor will be configured to accommodate 16 clans. As we near completion of the complex at 1E 2S, the space provided to each clan will increase, presuming no large change in population. Even with 16 clans per floor, each will have over 300 sq m of living space. This is significantly more space than we now have on our space ships. The second floor in each tower will contain a common area and learning centers. The first floor has areas for some recreation, exercising and a swimming pool. Sublevel 1 is the armory and storage area for IPTPs. Sublevel 2 provides connections to other buildings. Sublevel 3 is utilities.

“Manufacturing and other similar operations will be in these other round buildings which are shown in the center of their 1 km squares. These are slated to be 440 meters in diameter and tall enough to have 4 levels above ground. All will have 3 levels below ground, but unlike the other buildings the sublevels will only be under a portion of each of them.

At this point Amy’s Clan began reviewing the details of the manufacturing buildings proposed for 1E, 2E and 1S 1E. This included time lines for their completion. They followed this with a review of the residential building’s layout and finished with a close look at the proposed layout of a clan’s suite.

“The last item is flight operations. Initially these will be located in an area north of 2W to 2E. While not shown on the grid, permanent facilities will be north of 6W to 6E. What those will consist of is a work in progress, although we could start off with a manufacturing building that has minimal sublevels.

“This completes the presentation on the island and the settlement,” said Amy’s Clan. “This went a little faster than we expected, so we hope we haven’t missed something. We’ve noticed some of you taking notes so we expect that there will be a lot of discussion after lunch. Now, there is one more topic we would like to consider before we break for lunch.”

“This is an adjunct to the presentation we just completed and is rather abstract. We need to consider our families future growth. In particular, how fast do we want our family to grow? Some are probably wondering: Why are we raising this issue? And, why raise it now?

“This is because the rate at which we add new babies to our family has ramifications and consequences for all of us. Some of those are subtle and may not be anticipated.

“We have children in pairs, so each birthing will be in multiples of 2, and it is not unusual for a birthing to be 4 babies. We are capable of repeating this approximately every seven to eight months, or 28 weeks. With 4 babies a year per woman, a clan of eight would grow to have 84 babies in three years. At this point, there would be 1 adult for every ten children.

“From the looks on your faces, we suspect that many of you realize the problem. This is a much faster rate than we can support. Also, repeatedly bearing children every eight months or so will very likely lead to long term health issues for the mothers. Even with our technology these health issues will be difficult to treat. This number of very small children creates a situation where it will be difficult, if not impossible, for a clan to adequately care and provide for them. From birth until a child is three to four years old is probably the most formative time of their lives. It is during this time that their interaction with parents and other adults provides the basis for their development. A part of this is your physical interaction with them, but another key part is your mind link with them. Loss of this interaction leads to long term social and learning issues.

“In a recent poll we found that there are 44 clans who will be adding babies to their clan during the first six months in Celia system. Most of these clans will be adding two or three sets of twins, but there are a handful that will add four sets. We are not suggesting that this is a problem, but feel that we now need to talk about our population growth rate and the potential ramifications.

“First lets consider what is involved in child care. For the first few years of a child’s life they require a significant amount of support from adults, initially this is very intensive. This is the time when the child’s bond with their parents is established, which has a lasting impact on their development and growth. As they grow and mature, the intensity of this support tapers off to an extent, though in reality an adult’s role changes from being a care giver, to instructor, to mentor, then counselor and finally a friend or companion.

“Many of you likely plan on continuing to work in your area of expertise during pregnancy and return to work shortly after your babies are born. We know that is true for the clans currently expecting children. In our world, our family groups make this fairly easy to accomplish without anyone feeling as though they are being stretched beyond their abilities. Nearly all of you’ve seen and experienced the way we assist or support each other, whether it is one of our spouses or another family member. This carries over to raising our children. To help with this there are child care areas adjacent to each work area.

“Now, Sarah’s Clan has some 70 children. At one time, all of their children were under the age of 3.” There was a gasp, mostly from the newest people. “Remember, their clan has more adults than most. At that time it consisted of 14 adults, which if you do the math is about 5 children per adult. Due to the needs of the family, they chose to recruit some college students to help them care for their children. They chose well, and we were blessed as those young ladies decided to become a permanent part of our family.

“Why so many children in such a short period of time? Well, when Sarah’s Clan conceived their children, our family was in a state of flux, as most of you know or have read about. If conception had been delayed for several months, we suspect that they would have spaced them further apart. As it was, they all had 2 sets of twins, except one who had three sets. Later three of them each had two more sets of twins. Even with all of these children so close together in age, they’ve always been able to fulfill their role in our family’s growth. This was possible because of the support we gave them, in addition to the dedicated assistance from the nannies. We think their children have turned out very well and many are already working as they continue their studies.

“Some of you may be asking ‘why did they do it?’. Well, the full story is in the library. The short answer is, because at the time it appeared to be the best way of growing our family to avoid its potential extinction.

“In certain circumstances, our desire to add children to our clan is exceptionally strong; in fact it is almost a compulsion. Settling a new world is one of the strongest of those times. As nearly all of you know, Órarduine women actively regulate when they are fertile and the number of eggs released. As we noted earlier, our children are conceived as sets of twins unless there is a medical problem, which fortunately seldom occurs. We can bear children until well into our seventies without any worry regarding health issues due to the mother’s age. Another way to put it is, we can bear children through roughly the first third of our life span, and perhaps a little longer. Combined, this gives us an advantage over other species who have multiple births, in that we can plan and space out the arrivals. As a group, this benefits us by making it easier to plan and provide the required support resources, like affection, food, homes, mentoring, learning tools and so forth.

“So, why are we telling you all of this? Well, all of us are first generation Órarduine, although some of us were Connemare who have similar traits. As a result many of us missed out on information that we would normally have been given by our parents or gained from observation and experience. Generally a clan should not have more than 8 children in diapers at one time, and the number of children under 5 years old should not exceed twice the number of adults in the clan.

“We urge all of you to talk this out with your spouses as you start planning your families’ future and possible growth. It is a clan’s decision as to whether, and when, they add children, and the number of children. Also, at some point, our medical staff will hold classes on child bearing and care. We suggest you attend these as a part of your family planning. There is also a lot of information in our library.

“In spite of what we said earlier, we will answer a few questions on our families’ growth. Ciar?”

Ciar said, “Seventy is quite a bit older than Earth’s humans can have children.”

“Yes, it is considerably older,” responded Connie of Amy’s Clan. “This is due in part to us aging at a slower pace, and also our bodies doing a better job of handling our pregnancy. Most of us will live to be 200 or more by our calendar. We should note that unlike humans, we don’t have the increase in medical issues as we age. If a woman gives birth every 8 months, then as you would expect, aging is significantly accelerated and other health issues increase.”

“Logical bipeds as well?” asked Lynn of Sharon’s Clan.

“Presuming you mean aging, yes. They wear out just like bio bipeds. All of us will have maintenance needs as we grow older.” Many chuckled at the way she phrased it.

Connie said, “These recommendations are based on our perceived ability to mentor our children as they grow. As parents, all of us want our children to be well adjusted, know love, and grow up to use all of their abilities responsibly. We think these guidelines increase the likelihood of achieving those objectives. Again, these are guidelines and should not be considered requirements or limits, as circumstances do vary.”

“You have a question,” said Amy to the woman on Iarracht who stood while Connie was speaking.

“Sort of. Many of us have contemplated adding children to our clans. Several years ago, as a family, we decided to hold off until we relocated to a new home planet. Now we’re all anxious to begin adding children, especially after watching and interacting with the children surrounding us. As bystanders, it is rewarding to see them grow into mature, responsible young adults. Our clan sees your recommendation as guiding us to approach adding children to our families sensibly, rather than just quickly adding several dozen and ending up overwhelmed.” Amy’s Clan nodded their agreement. “So our question is, since we weren’t born Órarduine, how do we estimate our age? Knowing this would give us a better idea of our options on timing the growth of our clan.”

“Good question,” replied Betsy. “First, let me say that none of us were bystanders with respect to our family’s growing children. ‘Uncles and aunts’ is a better description, and maybe ‘older brothers and sisters’ in some cases. In answer to your question, for those who underwent conversion as adults, the best way to figure it is to divide your age in days before conversion by 480 then subtract a year for every ten of those years. So if you were 24 before conversion, afterward you would be 18 years and 3 months old. If you were 30 before then you would be almost 21 afterward. This means that everyone here has at least 40 more child bearing years. While it is a straight forward calculation, it is only an approximation. There is some rejuvenation that takes place during species conversion so your physical age is likely less than the number you obtain by a year or two.

“Considering our longer life span, it isn’t much of a numerical change in age. The big change is in the rate of aging and the extension of your life span.

“As to children, believe it or not, we currently have close to 1600 that are under 12 years old. Sarah’s Clan has the most children with 79. Ann’s Clan has 16 and there are 18 in ours. Several dozen are older than the children in Sarah’s Clan. These children came from an attempt by us to use humans as surrogate mothers to increase our numbers prior to Sarah’s Clan joining us. Most other clans with children have less than 10. Many of these joined us with their parents.”

“Wow, there are a lot more children than we thought.”

Ann of Ann’s Clan said, “If I may, our children’s experiences are a little different to those you had when you grew up on Earth. To us there are at least two key reasons for this; one is our environment, and the other is our telepathic link with them. The way we live and work enabled them to mature very quickly without sacrificing their childhood experiences. This was important as neither space nor Mars are friendly environments, especially for children. Our telepathic link gives them some insight into us and some of our experiences, as well as providing us with a way to guide them. This helps them with making decisions, as well as understanding and anticipating the consequences of those decisions. Our children also have a much larger extended family than any of us grew up with which helps a lot. Remember a few years ago, when the children in Sarah’s Clan were small. Every time they came to the dining room there were always at least two adults vying to give each of them some attention. We also saw it with our children, and we saw it with the children in Amy’s Clan as well as the other children who’ve joined us. We are certain it will occur as other clans have children. We suspect it will continue as we settle and grow on A-Celia. Best of all, we think our children have much less useless drama in their lives than we did.” She had a broad grin as she waited for the laughter to subside.

“Getting back to the suggestion, we think that adhering to the limits will be critical when there are only a few clans at a location. Let’s say less than ten clans, but perhaps the number is higher than that. Having a sufficient number of clans in close proximity to each other, we think, is essential to our children’s growth. While we can understand the desire by members of a clan to have their children at the same time, we know from experience that staggering births makes it a much easier adjustment for everyone.”

“Thank you Ann. We hadn’t looked at it quite that way.”

“Seven months?” questioned a person on Fiontar.

“Yes. Actually gestation averages 265 days, which by our calendar is about 6.8 months.”

“Oops, sorry I was using the wrong calendar.” Many smiled and chuckled on hearing the response.

Amy said, “Now before we break for lunch, Gao seems anxious to ask a question.” Those who had been watching him frantically waving his arm for recognition chuckled.

“Thank you Amy’s Clan. Your proposal is great and I am looking forward to begin building it. First for those that I haven’t met yet, you probably realize that I am one of the people you rescued. For that I am deeply indebted to you. You arrived at just the right time which I believe is the result of the hand of God or Goddess, or perhaps the work of their agents. Your world is much different to the Tigsu World where I grew up. My question is: When you were talking about population growth, did it include androids?”

“Yes and no,” replied Amy’s Clan with a smile. “In the context of the family’s growth we were referring to all of our family. When we refer to ‘our family’ it includes both the biological bipeds and our self-aware androids. We usually don’t make any distinction between the two types. When a distinction is necessary, self-aware androids are referred to as ‘logical bipeds’. For an android to reach a self-aware state it takes approximately 10 to 12 active years. Unlike biological bipeds not all androids become self-aware. This time frame approximates the same growth and maturity track that the biological element of our family takes.