Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Prometheus was walking along the seashore following the tracks of the Tribe. They were not far ahead now - maybe half a day.

Suddenly, the whole sky lit up with a flash of fire and almost immediately a low growl of thunder rolled out from the sea. It had a curious, flat sound and it ended abruptly as if a huge foot had stamped it out. It was like no lightning he had ever seen before. Something unspeakable was happening out at sea where the star had fallen.

Gripped with panic, he ran into a cave. Some other animal had been there before him. He could smell the musk of its fur. Something dangerous - bear or wolf. His hair rose in atavistic fear, but he was more afraid of the dreadful things happening outside and so he went on into the cave until he came to a solid wall of rock. Here he sat down amongst the bones of small animals and trembled in the dark.

Zeus slept for a day and a night; then he got up, ate an enormous breakfast and went back to his tent, where he called in the various members of his crew one at a time to get their reports. Athena spent the morning hanging about miserably outside, occasionally listening to his thoughts, but they were so boring she soon dropped out again.

"Athena, there you are!" It was Demeter, carrying a large bag, hurrying across the compound. "Do you want to help me with the planting? We can do your olive tree if you like. It's a shame to leave in it a pot now we have proper ground."

Athena looked round at the sheer rock of the compound floor, then turned back to Demeter. "But there isn't any ground."

"Not yet. I?m going to make a raised bed and fetch soil from further down the mountain. We'll grow Home plants here where it's cool and then prospect for more temperate plants further down." She put the bag down and stood for a moment with her hands on her hips, surveying the compound and the mountain slopes below. "That's the beauty of a mountain," she said in a satisfied tone. "There are so many different climates."

Athena worked with Demeter all morning. She liked being with Demeter. Most of what she did was interesting. Not like doing jobs for Hestia, which generally consisted of clearing tables, scrubbing down surfaces and peeling vegetables. Hestia had never trusted the robots to do the jobs properly and had a nasty habit of dragooning people into doing kitchen work, more often than not Athena. She was glad to be working with Demeter and out of Hestia's eye.

Together they rode a pod down the mountain a little way until they came to the tree line. There they dismounted. Demeter handed Athena a shovel to collect leaf-mould and mast, and together they filled the bag. "This will be perfect," Demeter said.

"But will we be staying long enough to make it worthwhile?"

Demeter turned to Athena, her expression suddenly serious. "Whatever happens, Athena, we're going to be here for a long time," she said. "Even if they get our message at home straight away, it will take them months to equip a ship and years to reach us. I think we have to resign ourselves to a very long wait."

Athena caught the unspoken thought. Usually she could only hear her father's thoughts with any clarity but, now and again, if she was close enough and really concentrated, she could pick up other people's. "And if they don't get it?"

Demeter frowned. She sometimes found Athena's propensity for understanding more than she should a little disconcerting. "Then we either resign ourselves to staying here forever, or we build another ship."

"Can we do that?" Athena was awestruck.

Demeter pressed her lips together in a hard line. "Oh yes, I should think so. But it will take a very, very long time".

A short beep sounded in stereo and both girls looked up simultaneously, exchanging glances. "My father," said Athena. "Zeus," said Demeter. "Better be getting back then. Looks like the meeting is about to take place."

She swung the bag of soil into the pod, they both clambered in and the small vehicle ascended towards the plateau.

~*~

Prometheus crouched in the dark, listening. He could hear nothing and at first wondered whether the dreadful explosion of sound had made him deaf, but when he scrabbled his fingers among the bones he quite clearly heard the small scratching noises. Not deaf then. Just silence.

He wondered how far he had come into the mountain. Far enough to be unable to hear sounds from outside? He didn't think so, but maybe it was. He sat and shivered, trying to imagine what dreadful beings were walking abroad in the world out there.

~*~

The crew had gathered in the clearing in front of the shuttles and Zeus was standing on a flat rock as if it were a podium. He held his pad in front of him and consulted it from time to time as he spoke.

"Greetings," he began. "I have called this meeting to inform you of our situation. I'm sure you're all aware of what happened when the ship went down. We were orbiting this planet when the main power failed. We were able to get it working sufficiently to launch the shuttles and land the ship, but we had no confidence in restoring the power to continue our journey. We were, in fact, very much afraid that the whole thing was going to blow." Here his voice shook slightly and he looked down at his pad again.

"So we decided to find a safe place to camp and strip the ship of all we could usefully use, intending to work on the power source later. Sadly, as you know, it did indeed explode just after we completed that phase." He looked up and searched the faces of the group of people in front of him. "So this is our present situation. We are stranded on a planet some twenty years' journey from home."

A sigh went up from the assembled crew.

"But we have been incredibly fortunate. This planet is almost identical to Home. The atmosphere is slightly denser, but breathable, and the temperature a little higher. We are presently in the hottest season for this area, so that will improve rather than worsen. To minimise the difference, we chose to make camp on a mountain where the air is a little thinner and the temperature cooler. It is possible, however to breathe and live quite comfortably at sea level and we will probably adapt very quickly."

He glanced briefly at his pad again.

"Demeter tells me there are many varieties of food plants we could cultivate and Artemis that there is an abundance of wildlife. We do not yet know whether any is edible, but it seems likely, given the similarity of this planet to our own.

"Amazingly" here Zeus permitted himself a small smile, "even the calendar works out almost exactly the same. This planet has a twenty-four hour day rather than twenty-five, and three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, as opposed to our three-six-nine. I am told the chances of such close similarity are millions to one. Aphrodite tells me we should have absolutely no trouble acclimatising to the new system and ─"

He was interrupted by a loud shout. "What about getting Home? You have said nothing about how you are going to get us back Home!"

It was Hera. She had pushed her way to the front and stood with her arms folded, frowning at Zeus.

Zeus sighed. His relationship with his wife had never been comfortable and the long voyage had done nothing to improve it. He and Hera had been in a state of more or less continuous conflict for at least the last ten years. More than that, he thought. They had been at odds since Athena was born. He raised his eyes to heaven and said, "We started sending a continuous message from the ship as soon as we knew we were in trouble. When we pitched camp, our first priority was to set up a communications mast, which is this very minute broadcasting home." As you very well know, he added mentally. "What else would you like us to do? Perhaps you have other suggestions?"

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