Page 73 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

Homo Aquatilis

indigenous peoples of the world did not when the Europeans
arrived on their shores. They are looking for some relief, even from
those who are poisoning their world at an ever-increasing rate. The
scientists at a meteorological station who found their message of
desperation etched in the edge of the ice of Antarctica and made
the first tentative contact fortunately did not raise any alarms. They
knew the kind of reaction that military and political leaders could be
expected to make in this situation: capture or kill.”
“The story would be set in a long antipodean winter. No ships
or planes arrive at the base for months. The Americans and the
aquatic people had worked out a lingua franca employing slates
lowered into the water on chains. By the time the scientists reported
their discovery to Washington, they already had a plan
advantageous to both sapiens and aquatilis. One of the team had
worked on the Mars exploration project at NASA. He knew that
vast underground lakes of cold pure water lay under the red planet’s
surface. A contingent of gill-folk could be sent to Mars to live,
providing the land-dwellers living above in sealed structures
valuable information about the aqueous environment below. That
quid pro quo would protect H. aquatilis while the spaceships
designed for the interplanetary voyage were retrofitted with tanks.
Yes, fish and anaerobic kelp would be included. Once the first
contingent had landed and gotten established underwater, their
existence could be made public.”
“Well, that’s the scenario. No villains—yet. I just wonder if it has
enough pizzazz to appeal to anyone without a big heap of nastiness
and a high body count on both sides. Obviously drama needs to be
injected somewhere in this fairy tale. Maybe it needs a special
format, like a diary or some other first-person narrative. Maybe told
as a flashback? What would appeal to you?”
Izzy Azimuth had a quizzical expression on his bespectacled
face. “I think Karel Čapek’s novel about intelligent newts had the
aquatic creatures start off friendly and pliable. Somehow that seems
more realistic than another humanoid species being cooperative.
But, as you just said, it’s a fantasy with—as far as you’ve gone—a
happy ending. You can’t have a satire of good behavior—only a

72