Chapter 35

The choice turned out to be dictated by the anatomy of the Ark's Eden passengers—part­ly the Edenites themselves, but considerably more the wildlife accompanying them.

It took Heisinger a great deal of effort to describe the situation clearly enough for the Edenites to understand. They had only the vaguest notion of the concept of gravity, and none at all that it could be variable. To them one remained on the ground simply because it was natural for non-aviators to remain on the ground, and the force that kept one there was of course constant and immutable. Finally she had to resort to metaphors, such as one Edenite riding another's back, to make her point.

Once they'd grasped the idea, though, the on-board Gagugakhing was quick to tell her that none of the Eden creatures could handle more than the minimum one-and-a-half-times increase in weight that MacPherson had propounded, even for short periods. For the Edenite females the problems would be least severe; in anticipation of the physiological changes they'd undergo once they bred—more than doubling in size of their upper bodies—they were genetically equipped with considerably sturdier legs than their male counterparts.

For the males, though, and for all of the land animals traveling with them, a significant increase in body mass would be crippling. Unlike Earth creatures, they had no bones as such; their skeletal support was composed of a much more malleable chitin-like substance that lacked the rigidity of osteochondrial bones, especially the compact long bones of the limbs.

In a sense the mature Edenite body was comparable to that of a human infant, in that the skeleton had flexibility. But the comparison stopped there. In humans or other Earthly mammals curvature imposed in infancy soon becomes a permanent deformity; the bones have little elasticity, and as they harden over time any deviation in alignment quickly becomes irreversible. In Eden creatures it was the opposite; considerable elasticity existed throughout life, but with a concomitant reduction in structural strength.

An Edenite rarely suffered the inconvenience of a broken bone, and lesser injuries were soon repaired by regeneration. But they had far less adaptability to withstand external increases in pressure. At two gravities most male Edenites would be literally unable to walk, as would the majority of their livestock and the comparatively few wild animals collected aboard the Ark; their legs would simply fold beneath them. At much more than that their entire skeletal structures would begin to collapse, exerting fatal pressure on internal organs.

Once they'd managed to surmount the communications difficulties, Heisinger and Gagugakhing were quickly able to agree that only MacPherson's original proposal—a constant level of one-and-a-half gravities for the duration of the ship's acceleration phase—would be liveable. Even that would severely reduce the mobility of all in the Edenform bay; the aviators, for example, would be wholly unable to fly and would have to have food strewn for them near where they perched or sat, and the land animals would be appreciably restricted in their ability to forage. (The few aquatic creatures would be largely unaffected, protected by the buoyancy of the water in which they lived.)

When Heisinger reported this decision back to the captain he agreed to stage the change as gradually as he felt safe. Each day for the next five, he told her, the compensators' output would be reduced at a ten percent rate, to phase them as gently as possible into the final hundred-and-fifty percent level. But it was the best he could offer if adequate power were to be diverted to the ship's thrusters.

As expected, the increased gravity took a significant toll on the humans as well. When you find your weight half again as much within a matter of days your energy level, as well as your desire to move about, is going to take a beating. And as the days of steady higher gravity aboard the Ark dragged on, the entire crew found it preferable to remain in bed longer, and spend a greater proportion of waking hours supported by comfortable chairs and couches, than ever before.

Even the comparatively youthful Igwanda, and MacPherson, burly as he was, fell victim to this progressive lassitude. And all of the humans gradually began curtailing their heretofore daily visits to the Edenform bay, a decision the Edenites themselves seemed to share. They, too, were oppressed by their greater weight and difficulty of movement. Between them the humans and Edenites managed to lay out fodder for their now far less mobile animal and aviator companions, but in general they had little enthusiasm for any more interaction. The Edenites' further indoctrination into the differences their prospective home on New Eden would bring to their lives would have to await the worm transit.