Chapter 33

"You say that name of this ship, Ark, has much meaning to you," Gagugakhing remarked to Heisinger. "Would you tell us this meaning?"

The younger woman had quickly adopted the practice of alternating with Meiersdottir in interacting with the Edenites on their voyage. Actually the brunt of the effort fell on Heisinger; the old woman was increasingly feeling the ravages of her advanced age and the efforts she'd put forth in their visit to Eden itself, and as little as an hour was enough to tire her. Igwanda occasionally spelled his wife, though usually briefly; he was far less effective than she at communicating with the aliens. One of the three, however, was with them for virtually all of the "daylight" hours in the Edenform bay, with Watesi, Yuan and Paulssen occasionally joining in.

And the Edenites seemed insatiable in their desire for human companionship and conversation. It was usually Gagugakhing with whom they spoke, but occasionally one of the other mothers—Kukhakkhing, Akakhakhing or Kagurokhing, named after the Edenite words for two, three and four in order of seniority—would supplant her. It was, of course, immaterial to which of them the humans spoke; whatever was said was instantly shared telepathically among the entire alien complement aboard the ship.

The talk was far-ranging in subject matter, but the Edenites remained as continually inquisitive as Meiersdottir remembered them from her two prior visits. They'd latch onto a topic and bombard the humans, whoever was there, with a long sequence of questions until their interest was (at least temporarily) satisfied, then move on quickly to something else with the same evident lust for knowledge. It was, all the humans quickly learned as Meiersdottir had already known, an extremely wearing process.

They'd also taken up Meiersdottir's invitation to visit the human sector of the Ark. It was mostly the males who did that, in twos and threes, although of course all information was being passed back to the collective. Aikun, Igwanda's companion (and best man) during his time on Eden, had been included in the Edenite exodus and was usually with the visiting party, often seeking the young man out. At one point he'd even escorted Aikun to the bridge to see how the ship was controlled—choosing a time when MacPherson wasn't present—and he and Cromartie had given a concise description of how the vessel was managed.

As the Ark neared Eden's sun the aliens exhibited more and more interest, and at least one was almost continually to be found gazing at the monitors displaying their approach. When the ship reached perihelion and entered its parabolic path around the star its flaming surface filled the monitors, and they marveled at the swirls and geysers of solar flares and currents that had been invisible from their planet but now appeared so prominently. Then they watched it begin to recede as the ship finished its traverse and headed out again.

Now, with their greatest danger behind them as the Ark at last moved away from the ecliptic plane, the Edenites were interested in yet another aspect of their indoctrination into the human world, the derivation of their ship's name.

"There's a tale from many, many years ago in the history of our species," Heisinger began. "It concerns a flood, a great rising of water from the rivers and seas, so great that the water finally covered all of the land of our world."

"Is this a thing that happens often in the world where you take us?" the alien mother interrupted.

Heisinger smiled. "No. It never happens, our world is safe. In fact, in reality it almost surely didn't happen this time, either."

"Then why do you make this story?"

"Well, we do have evidence that there was a very big flooding in one part of the world at this time, the part where the humans who told this story lived then," she explained. "And back then most humans didn't travel very far. So it may have seemed to them as though the entire world, or most of it, was covered with water. I mean, you know we don't have the kind of memories of the past that you do. We have to go on what the people, the humans back then, saw and passed on to us in writings that were made long after what they describe, after the words had been handed down aloud through many tens or hundreds of years. Events can become exaggerated, made more than they are, when one tells another and that one tells a third and on and on, and this is such a tale."

The mother offered nothing further, which in general was the Edenite equivalent of a silent nod, a desire that she continue.

"In this story the waters kept rising until they'd covered all of the land. No animals who lived on the land, not even most of the birds who must have a place on the land to alight sometimes for rest, could have remained alive.

"But there was one man, his name was Noah in the best-known version of this story, who knew ahead of time that this great flood would come. He tried to warn everyone, but no-one else would listen. So all alone he built a great ship, a vessel to sail the waters and float on them and to save all who came onto the ship from the flood."

"One human alone may do so great work?" asked Gagugakhing.

"Well, the story says he spent many years building the ship," Heisinger said. "But even so, no, I'm sure no one human alone could do it. The story's a little unclear on that, though, he may have had many others to help."