Garden of Unearthly Delights   

Garden of Unearthly Delights                  
             
1
Nova
 
     The star, Riga, was a brilliant glowing orb filling the monitor at the moon base. Phillip had news that would soon cast darkness over the future. He approached Gudonov. “I’ve got the results of the solar probe, Helios. We have 100 years at the most. Then life-giving Riga will become like the Hindu god Shiva, death, the destroyer of worlds.”  
     “You mean nova?”  
     “It’s a certainty.”  
     The child sat before the luminous computer monitor. She punched - enter - file - history of the lunar colony at Riga. It read: The colony is on the moon of the fourth planet, Barion, in the Riga system. It is 30 light years from the nearest major colony orbiting the star Vega.  
     Excerpt from the diary of Myrna Harrison, an original colonist: “We crossed the depths of the blackest night. The name of our ship was the Leif Erikson. We were the first generation of our multi-generational journey that would see sunrise across Barion, a gas giant, from its moon Fairhaven. We had a smooth trip. Five years before arriving we could observe the planet. As we got closer, we could watch swirling storms passing across the planet.  
     Soon the moon was visible. It was brown, with white streaks of exposed ice forming brilliant star patterns around the craters. We settled into orbit around Fairhaven. After a week of observation, we found a crater suited to our purpose. Commander Thorn led the construction of the base. Fifty of us occupied the base. It was made up of hermetically sealed geodesic domes colored white and spread across the crater in a hodge-podge pattern. That’s how it is today.” – A brief history of moon base - end.  
     The young girl turned the computer off. She went to sleep and dreamed of ships crossing the galaxy, with paths like spider’s webs linking the stars.  
     Phillip organized a council to consider what measures should be taken. Phillip began, “Vega could send a ship at fifty percent the speed of light. It would take sixty years to reach us. However, the message would take thirty years to get there. That would mean ninety years before help arrived. We know there is an uncertainty of give or take ten years before Riga’s nova.”  
     The message made its way across the depths of space. It was a universal S.O.S. followed by a description of Fairhaven’s circumstances. The radio waves would be unheard until received thirty years later at Vega.  
     In a room on the base, there were oriental paintings. They had delicate bamboo shoots and Japanese sages in pink and white hues. The walls were pink with shining golden furniture. The smell of incense pervaded the room. A man with a ponytail, wearing a white robe, sat on a golden cushioned chair, playing a melancholy wistful melody. It was entitled, “Babylon” and mourned the Jew’s exile from their homeland in Israel. It reflected the player’s mood, with a secure home so far away for the doomed colonist of Fairhaven moon base. He knew that Fairhaven would soon be a ghastly inferno.  
     Satusha Suzuki put down his guitar. He knelt before the statue of Buddha and recited the Diamond Sutra in Japanese. Through the corridors of history, his ancestors had passed. He was light years away from Japan and generations away in time from his earthly ancestors. However, he carried on his people’s traditions across space and time. He was eclectic and drew his music and rituals from the rich tapestry of world cultures from far away earth.  
     Satusha was there, in the communications room, when the message arrived. As he watched the computer screen, his eyes lit up. His exhalation was irrepressible as his shout, “Hallelujah!” echoed across the corridors. The message read:  
 
Starship Long march estimated time of arrival at   Fairhaven colony sixty years from now. Departure was thirty years ago as of arrival of this message at Fair-Haven. Cargo manifest: New construction equipment for expansion of colony. Stand by for further information  
 
    Years passed by without seasons. Only the vacuum of space and magnificent desolation were found outside the antiseptic corridors of the moon base. Long March arrived in orbit. It could be seen as a bright cylinder crawling across the atmosphere- less sky. The inhabitants of the Fairhaven colony were ferried from the moon base to Long March.  
     The nuclear fusion engines ignited with an exhaust like a comet’s tail spreading out behind the ship. They were to journey across the light years to a new star one hundred years and fifty light years away.  
 
2
Oats Sown On a Wild Shore
 
     Jim would no sooner try to circumscribe the reflection of forever in her eyes than circum-navigate the infinite sea they set sail in.  
     From the observation deck, the milky blue marble adrift in the ancient and vast cosmos was a hypnotic pendant rendering the couple susceptible to subliminal seduction. Jim’s hand slipped onto Rochelle’s derriere. “Are you copping a feel?”  
    Jim replied, “How could it be copping when you’re my wife?”  
     “Point taken. You know my ovulation is primed for procreation.”  
     Gordon sneaked up behind them. “You two look ready to populate this planet. As expedition leader, I approve of your foreplay. But in the interest of genetic diversity, it would be beneficial to have more than one sire.”  
     Rochelle said, “Are you volunteering, Gordon?”  
     “I’m just making a biological point which is yours to consider.”  
     “Gordon, my chromosomes will pair with Jim’s like hybrid tomatoes resistant to the blight of male chauvinism.”  
     “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,” Gordon quoted the Bible.  
     “That is good advice, but it works better when complemented with instructional media on technique such as the practice videos in our library.”  
     Gordon said, “Excuse me for interrupting you two. My neuronal computer interface is sending me distress signals.”  
     Rochelle said, “Am I disturbing you? I thought you wanted to participate in the propagation.”  
     “I was being facetious.”  
     Rochelle said, “That is one of those it’s a joke if I say no but for real if my answer is yes.”  
     “The most fatuous lies lead to the truth.”  
     Rochelle said, “Shush yo mouth boy.”  
     Jim replied, “I never knew you studied twentieth-century southern American patois.”  
     She said, “I done learned enough bitching to put the fear of the Lord into men that do me wrong.”  
     Jim said, “Gordon, watch out, once we settle down on that planet and grow trees she’ll take a hickory stick to you if you cross her.”  
     “Rochelle, you don’t look so mean. I bet dollars to donuts you wouldn’t whip me” Gordon said.  
     Rochelle said, “Don’t count on it sucker. When I get to bitching it ain’t long before I get to switching.”  
     “Well I’ll keep my britches on around you milady,” Gordon responded.  
     Rochelle said, “You sure better because I don’t evah wanna see that tail wagging between yo legs. Now git your heinie on down the road fore I get all sassy and chew yo sorry ass out.”  
     Gordon said, “You talking some real shit ma’am. I’ll be on my way.”  
     Generations had passed onboard Long March. People dreamed of the open spaces and greenery of a planet like the mythical earth. They approached the new solar system, eager with anticipation.  
     Through their telescopes, they had sighted the distant planet. Spectrum-analysis showed it had enough oxygen to breathe. As they got closer they found that the equatorial region had equable temperatures, much like the North Atlantic of distant earth.    
     They settled into orbit with silent grace. After studying the planet for six months they decided to send the first landing party. The air was thick with excitement on board Long March. The landing craft looked like a spider with folded legs. There was a silver cone-shaped heat shield on the bottom. The stars were visible, glowing like candles in a sacred ceremony.  
     Below them, the ocean fanned out in an azure dream. Rochelle was squeezed between Jim and Gordon in the landing capsule like a baby bird in her nest. Long March, the only home they ever knew, looked like a caterpillar lost in the infinity of space hovering above the clouds of the planet. It drifted away until it was a pinpoint of light, then vanished. While checking systems they passed into the night, where far below in the sea of darkness Jim could see the glow of volcanoes.    
     The final systems checks had been completed and the inertial guidance system was initiated. Lilith plunged through the atmosphere. A red fire blazed around the craft as it raced towards the planet’s surface. Parachutes billowed in the air, slowing the descent. Rockets fired with brilliant fireworks. Then with a thump, they landed. The crew tested the atmosphere for poisons. They analyzed the surface and spent a week meticulously studying their surroundings. Finally, they departed the craft. The air was cool and salty. The soil was dull red and powdery with green lichen-like plants covering small boulders. Out in the distance, there was an azure blue ocean. The sky was deep blue. They were on a rise in the land and had a magnificent panorama.  
     They camped out that night below a starry sky. The stars twinkled in the atmosphere, something none of them had seen in the vacuum of interstellar space. The wind rustled Rochelle and Jim’s polyurethane tent. She said, “Jim we don’t know the climate here as observed over years. For all, we know this could prove to be an uninhabitable world incapable of supporting life. So I want to make this night count.” Their comrades heard only the unmistakable sounds of lovemaking from them.    
     Misty-eyed, Rochelle unzipped his coverall trousers. He was bewitched by her face aglow from the light waves from the lantern splashing upon her cheeks like the surf from the sea they would soon see. His betrothed was so near and so palpable that he surrendered to her in the trembling moment of desire. He felt her body so warm and enticing in his arms along with the spicy sensation of her caress.  
     Rochelle sat naked on the floor clasping her upturned knee in her hands. She looked so soft and vulnerable bathed in the lantern light. Her nude form cast in the lamplight seemed so fragile and delicate. Jim broke the silence. “Honey, don’t be a prophetess of doom just when we’ve arrived.”  
     Rochelle replied, “Look at you, so handsome and manly, sitting next to me in the nude. This is your finest hour. Come on Jim, you know as well as I do only a preliminary assessment was done on whether or not the soil can support crops here. The decision to establish a colony here was done hastily.  
We don’t know how harsh the winter will be.”  
     “Jack Frost nipping at my penis.”  
     “How about, Jill frost nibbling on my nether niblet? Mine isn’t singable.”  
     “Still, I like yours better than mine.”  
     “Oh, you and your earthlore. Leave it to you to bring up two-thousand-year-old song lyrics when I’m talking doom. But hey I needed that. I owe you some optimism. You know, this landfall couldn’t have come at a better time, just before my biological clock made conception impossible.”  
     “Well, since the window of opportunity is small, we need to maximize our production. Would say a baby a year for the next five years be too much? After all, overpopulation isn’t a problem here.”  
     Rochelle said, “What a male thing to say. This oven can only handle two buns in a row. After that you get yourself fixed.”  
     “Our ancestors were Italians who had big families. Let’s carry on the tradition.”  
     “I can make you as much pizza as you can stomach but only two bambinos.”  
     “Never argue with the Donna of the house,” Jim said.  
     “My family came from Sicily and settled in Louisiana. So I come from redneck stock. I still have enough pink on my neck not to be messed with.”  
     “Land of Goshen, I got me a country girl. I bet you can chop wood and carry water as well as the men.”  
     Rochelle said, “You’re buttering me up to do the heavy chores. This gal can carry her weight but you’ll be the woodchopper of the house.”  
     “I’ll build you a log cabin with my bare hands.”  
     “This ain’t Appalachia and you ain’t Paul Bunyan.” They awoke at dawn and saw the sun float above the horizon glowing yellow and warm.
     Soon there would be amber fields of grain with tassels waving in the breeze. Houses would be constructed. There would be villages with white cottages by the sea, like on the coast of New England, light years away. It would be a Garden of Eden for a while. It was the natal hour on the new planet, Eden. This was a place to start anew.  
     The starship’s pattern of colonization would  
stretch across the galaxy from star to star carrying sentience to the worlds. Their paths would trace between the stars, in patterns like spider’s webs linking the suns. Planets would be terraformed and made verdant. Starships would light across the galaxy, their nuclear engines blinking on and off over the centuries like fireflies in a forest at night.
 
3
Planetside
 
      The years gathered speed like an automated seedpod ship whose artificial wombs would bear a future for humankind. They had ripened until their wrinkled eyes looked cute to each other. Tweaking her outie became a favorite pastime for him. After over a decade of homesteading, they found themselves kissing each other’s liver spots like they were sexy.  
     “We’ve been married for twenty years. How should we celebrate?”
     “Let’s go to the girl’s wrestling match.”
     “You just want to get an eye full of those girls going at it like Amazon warriors. You get turned on by that.”
     “Well don’t you get excited by rugby players?”
     “Are you kidding me, a bunch of hairy Neanderthals slapping each other’s butts? Hell yes! That is an earth tradition I’m glad we carry on.”
     “If you go with me to the female mud wrestling I’ll accompany you to the football game.”
     “You’re pushing your luck, Jim. With all this talk about women’s athletics, I have to wonder if you are happy with me.”
     Jim speaks to her with deep male words. “Not every guy gets a gal who got lessons in being a wife beforehand. You must have been taught by your husband in a former lifetime. I got you all prepared.  
I’m a really lucky guy.”
     “Oh Jim, you make sexism endearing. But please, tell me why you are happy. Your well-trained wife needs to know.”
     “Honey, I can always count on being your shoulder to cry on. You are moody, prone to weeping spells, and in need of constant attention. Besides that, you’re cute as a button.”
    “Oh, you are a silver-tongued charmer. Jim when you get a tickle in your throat you act like you’ve got pneumonia. When your allergies kick up you have me apply mentholatum ointment, drip salt water down your nose, and it’s like being at my moonlighting job at the infirmary. If your soy burgers aren’t well done, you curl your lips. When I substitute tofu for tempeh in your lasagna you play with your food and leave a pile of bean curd while eating only the pasta.”
     Jim said, “Honey, let’s celebrate both our anniversary and the little tyke who has blessed our life. How about we share a quart of carob Tofutti?”
     “Well, there is all that fat and sugar. But we burned a lot of calories working in the fields today, so it sounds reasonable.”
     “Maybe we should just make a gallon to last a week,” Jim said.
     “I have no self-control. But I may put on some pounds.”
     “More to love” he riposted.
     “Let’s grow fat together” she quipped.
     “Giving birth gave you those love handles which I love to squeeze. Aren’t you glad for what the stork brought us?”
     “There you go again with those antiquated earth phrases. But of course, how else could I stay sane without a toddler to break into my chocolate stash?”
 
4
Epilogue
 
     Their pioneer community was as diverse as the people of their birth world. Their founding fathers and mothers strove to include all races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations for their last chance to preserve sapient life.  But their unity of purpose, togetherness, peace, and love became divided by mistrust, social status, race, and religion while cloistered on that giant submarine in space they called home. Though their humanity united them like the arms of the Milky Way, they didn’t see the galaxy for the stars.  
     Personality conflicts proliferated with the emotional equivalent of the sting of jellyfish in a tropic sea. Crabby hermits were evicted from their shells only to bury themselves in the sand of conformity where they molted their old personas hoping for no irreparable trauma.
     But on the frontier of this new world, they relived the days when the vast continental prairies, deserts, and mountains took months to traverse. There was a feeling of kinship with their neighbors. They had barn raisings in which people would flock from across the countryside to help their neighbors in a joyous celebration of togetherness. There were housewarmings during which neighbors would chatter like chickadees. They talked of how the corn was coming along with the alien soil composition, the thunderstorm last night with its life greening rains, and about other neighbors, not in their presence of course. Once more, families ate together, worked together, and lived together. Divorce was the exception rather than the fashion.  
     From atop the watchtower, Rochelle and Jim saw their laughing children scatter across the fields whose barley stalks swayed in the breeze. Birds sang like on the first morning when the earth awoke. Life spread across the globe with the planet blushing green.