Chapter 20

The research station was nearing completion, as The Personalia mechanoids hurried to attend to all the tasks that were required to turn the jigsaw of parts into a working building. It never occurred to The Personalia that they were conducting tasks which a human would normally attend to; they did not know, so went about their work as only they knew how.

Knowing the timetable for the station to be ready for occupation, they phoned Hubert Swanson, saying "Hubert Swanson, the station is ready to be supplied with all the food and other supplies that will be required by the human staff. Please arrange for these items to be delivered. Once they are present, we can start providing the animals for your cages."

Hubert was not pleased at this demand.

"Allow me to tell you what I need to have before we can accept any animals. I need to know what each species of animal eats, so that I can have such fare available at the station; and where this food can be found. Please observe the behaviour of the animals, and notify me of their feeding habits. I also require to know whether they are a herd animal or a lone scavenger or predator. In fact, if you can make recordings of their behaviour in the wild, that would be helpful to me."

The Personalia were taken aback at this challenge, but took it in their stride, and responded, "Certainly, Hubert Swanson. We can do that for you. It will take at least a New Eden day to collect the data, then we will forward it to you. Thank you for your advice in this matter. We are new at many planetary surface activities."

Hubert was almost apologetic, after this evidence of humility by The Personalia.

"That's all right. Thank you for your cooperation," he said, and rang off.

He had ideas he wanted to explore, which was why he was so insistent on what the animals ate. It was not just for the research station. He was thinking about these grazing animals, that looked so similar to sheep.

If their meat was edible for humans, they could be a possible farm animal, treated in much the same way as sheep on Earth, and if that was the case, these animals would be an important part of the New Eden economy.

Another question: did they have the equivalent of wool on their skin? That would have to be investigated. Even if they proved to be inedible as meat animals, their hides might be a source of leather. However, as he thought of that, he also realised that close examination would have to be paid to the microbial aspect.

Were there any dangerous bacteria on the skin, or in the meat? He would need to ask The Personalia to do some testing, rather than wait for the biologist to take his post. That guy may not be interested in that aspect of the research anyway. Yes, get The Personalia on to that, for with their nanomachines, they were already geared up for looking at the microscopic.

He immediately phoned The Personalia again and put his request to them. He was not disappointed.

"That is a valid point to consider, Hubert Swanson. We shall be very willing to do as you ask. We shall look for a newly dead such animal, and remove it for close examination. That should be an interesting task to perform. We have never performed an autopsy before."

"It is not an autopsy if it is an animal," protested Hubert.

"All biological species of animal life are still animals, so human beings are animals in that sense. From our point of view, examining any dead animal is an autopsy, deserving our full attention."

"I take your point. You are according status to every species, whether sentient or not, are you not?"

"Indeed so. We respect all life, and try to treat all species with a certain degree of honour. The Invader machine race regarded all life as abhorrent, and attacked it without mercy; we see life as an asset to the universe, and treat it accordingly. Life seems to operate in the opposite to inanimate matter, as far as entropy is concerned. You surely do not think that the human race is the only species worthy of high regard?"

Hubert gulped. "No, of course not. I have heard that there are a number of sentient species in the universe, and I would have put them on a par with humanity. I had not considered that non-sentient animals merited such concern. If we humans had done so, we would not have survived in ancient times, when meat from animals was essential for survival. We were never able to survive for long on vegetable matter alone."

"That is a valid statement. We have re-examined your ancient history, and it appears that eating animals was part of your survival strategy. We also observe that predator animals had to eat prey animals to survive, much as the predators and prey among the mega beasts of this planet. This appears to be an integral part of most of the life forms we can observe.

"We had all this information available to us, but we had not properly evaluated its importance, because it was not a factor in our continued existence. We Personalia are in the fortunate position of being able to stand aloof from such considerations, and take a moral stance without such difficulties. We apologise for our lack of recognition of your inherent inability to adopt our viewpoint."

John was tired after a tedious day at the office, faced with minor problems one after the other, that he really felt should have been dealt with by Peter Parker. He called Peter in, just before preparing to leave for home, and told him so.

Peter responded, "I completely agree with you, Governor. Unfortunately, there are not enough matters that truly merit your attention, such that could fill up your day, so I have allowed a number of less important items to end up on your desk, so that you are not bored.

"The steady workload keeps you sharp, sir. The last thing we need is for you to appear to be not needed most of the time. That would be bad for morale, and bad for you as well. In addition, all the people who have had their decision taken by the Governor feel much more important, because the Governor had to be brought in to decide THEIR question.

"So you see, sir, it all works out to everyone's advantage, even if it may seem tedious to you. It is part of my job to look after you and your workload, Governor. This is how I do it. Please let me know if you would like it done differently."

John saw the sense in what Peter had told him, and relented.

"Very well, Peter. We shall play it your way, but please try to keep my load of less important decisions to a minimum, will you?"

"Of course, Governor. We can't have you overworked, either!"

John headed home, looking forward to a good meal and good company with his ladies, and some time with his children. His first two children were old enough to want to talk with Daddy, and he was happy to play his part in their upbringing.

The meal was fun, up until the time Penny remarked, "Carol Brelsford seems to have stopped having morning sickness now."

Muriel responded, "That's nice, dear. She will be much happier with her pregnancy now."

Penny continued, "But she was quite willing to have her morning sickness, too. I asked her about that, and she told me that there are always factors in pregnancy that you allow for, and morning sickness was one of them. She wants her baby, so is not concerned at the troubles she might have on the way. I agree with her."

Gloria interposed, "Well of course you allow for all these things, if you want to be pregnant. In the past, there was even a risk of dying, but girls still took that risk, for the joy of becoming a mother. Fortunately, modern medical science is such that dying during pregnancy or childbirth is extremely rare."

"That was what I thought", said Penny. "I want to become a mother, so I have come to accept the risks involved."

"Yes, Penny, But you have to gain your qualifications and then get married before thinking about such matters," said John.

"Oh, thank you, John. I shall look forward to marrying you."

John rolled his eyes. "Penny, you do not organise your life by presupposing that everything will go your way. Your mother never expected that her husband would have a brain condition that led to violence at times, but I am sure she realised that not every decision turns out well."

Tabitha, who had listened quietly until now, erupted. "Penny! You never told me you were going to marry John!"

Penny went red as she said, "Ooops. Sorry, Tabs. It was supposed to be a secret, but I suppose I should have told you. John hasn't actually agreed to marry me, but there is a good possibility of it. Muriel and Gloria have no objections to me, I am happy to say, but John wants me educated, as he says, "to be an asset to the Colony", so I have to knuckle under.

"Tabs, now that you know, can you keep it quiet in public, please? It wouldn't be good for John, at this time."

"Penny, you know that I would never do anything to harm my big sister, or my new Dad for that matter. Your secret is safe with me." She paused, and added, "So that means you don't have to creep quietly to go to John's bedroom, or back from it!"

Penny, still red-faced, replied succinctly, "Thank you, Tabs."

In the rail tunnel, the mechanoid in charge found a problem that required a decision, so halted the nanos in their work. It hurried at its fastest pace back to the tunnel mouth, where it could get a radio contact with the Personalia in orbit.

The Personalia took the message, but decided to consult the humans, so the Governor got a call.

"Governor, In the course of excavating the rail tunnel, we have encountered a seam of coal. We are aware that coal was a fuel that humans used for a long time, so rather than turning it into dust-sized particles, we wish to know whether you would like to have the coal excavated mechanically, for your use?"

John Wells was uncertain about his response. He decided he needed more data.

"Does this seam of coal run in the direction that the tunnel should go, or is it at a tangent to the tunnel direction? Secondly is it a seam a few centimetres thick, or is it a metre or more thick? Lastly, what kind of coal is it? Hard black coal, soft coal, or brown coal – what is known as lignite?"

The Personalia voice replied cautiously, "Our mechanoid did not supply that information. It merely stopped on encountering coal, and reported to us. We shall have to obtain the data you require. We will investigate and report to you. Goodbye."

Left to himself, John pondered.

What could we use coal for, on New Eden? Our buildings do not have open fires, or even enclosed stoves. If it is brown coal, its only use is for burning. The softer black coal can be burnt, but can also be used as a feedstock for a chemical industry. If it is hard coal, then if it is hard enough to be like jet, it could be carved into objects.

With solar panels on our buildings, fuel for heating is a non-starter; and we don't have a chemical industry. That won't happen for a long time. Hard coal for carvings would make some sense, but let's see what we have.

It was many hours later before The Personalia got back to him.

"Governor, the coal lies in a seam which lies below the tunnel, but our gradual descent has resulted in the floor of the tunnel meeting the coal seam. We do not therefore know as yet the depth of the seam, or its direction, except that it is lower than the tunnel. The coal appears to be very hard, which our research suggests comes from high temperature and pressure.

"As the mountains are the result of an asteroid impact in the distant past, that would provide the heat and pressure to convert softer bituminous coal into hard coal. That may also have twisted the layers of rock and coal, so the seam may not be consistent in its slope.