Children of Time, #2
Children of Ruin
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Contents
PRESENT 4: THE FACE OF THE WATERS — CHAPTER 1.
Overview
Paul, quarantined and frightened after contact with the alien prisoners, moves from rage toward reluctant empathy when the human-looking alien visibly grieves its lost companions. The aliens and Paul establish a fragile, imperfect basis for communication across the barrier. A furtive female octopus then appears and questions the aliens about forbidden matters, suggesting that a dangerous scientific faction may become involved and that Paul’s imprisonment may intersect with larger taboos surrounding the plague.
Summary
Paul, an octopus diplomat, is confined in quarantine by his own kind and experiences captivity as despair, anger, betrayal, and fear. Cut off from broad system access and from tactile contact with other octopuses, Paul is left with little support from the distributed, logical parts of his mind. The planet below, associated with the plague that ruined octopus history, reinforces the fear surrounding the humans and other aliens held nearby.
After initially hiding from the aliens in the neighboring cell, Paul decides that they are as helpless as Paul is and that Paul would already know if infection had taken hold. Paul confronts the aliens through the transparent barrier, displaying anger and threat through color, posture, and movement. The human-looking alien responds with a device that translates in crude color-signals of peace, friendship, unhappiness, submission, and apology, but Paul remains furious.
During Paul’s display, the human-looking alien loses composure. The alien’s body darkens and blotches, the alien strikes the barrier, and the translation device shows anger and grief. Paul recognizes that the alien is mourning dead or harmed companions, and that recognition makes the human-looking creature seem like a fellow living being rather than merely an ugly, mechanical thing.
The crab-like alien also begins moving in a coordinated way, using its legs almost like an octopus’s communicative reach. Though the communication is imperfect, Paul senses cooperation between the two prisoners and responds with calmer gestures. The human-looking alien places a hand against the barrier, a gesture that feels strangely familiar and comforting to Paul.
A female octopus observer then slips into the far chamber. Paul, newly protective of the fellow prisoners, angrily draws the aliens’ attention to her. The observer questions the aliens about forbidden places and subjects associated with humans, the plague, and the disaster that likely befell the aliens’ companions. Paul suspects she belongs to a dangerous, ostracized faction comparable to an Extreme Science Party, yet Paul also realizes that such heretical experimenters might be the only people willing to disrupt the system enough to free Paul.
Who Appears
- PaulQuarantined octopus diplomat who moves from fear and anger toward wary empathy with alien prisoners.
- Human-looking alienCaptive alien using a color device; visibly grieves lost companions and reaches tentative contact with Paul.
- Crab-like alienSecond captive alien who coordinates with the human-looking prisoner through leg movements resembling communication.
- Female octopus observerFurtive newcomer who questions the aliens about forbidden subjects and suggests Extreme Science Party involvement.