Terraform (an Ell Donsaii story #15) Read online

  Terraform

  An Ell Donsaii story #15

  Laurence E Dahners

  Copyright 2018

  Laurence E Dahners

  Kindle Edition

  ASIN: B07K7XSDZP

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only

  Author’s Note

  This book is the fifteenth in the series, the “Ell Donsaii stories.”

  Though this book can “stand alone” it’ll be much easier to understand if read as part of the series including

  “Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story)”

  “Smarter (an Ell Donsaii story #2)”

  “Lieutenant (an Ell Donsaii story #3)”

  “Rocket (an Ell Donsaii story #4)”

  “Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5)”

  “Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6)”

  “Habitats (an Ell Donsaii story #7)”

  “Allotropes (an Ell Donsaii story #8)”

  “Defiant (an Ell Donsaii story #9)”

  “Wanted (an Ell Donsaii story #10)”

  “Rescue (an Ell Donsaii story #11)”

  “Impact (an Ell Donsaii story #12)”

  “DNA (an Ell Donsaii story #13)” and

  “Bioterror! (an Ell Donsaii story #14)”

  I’ve minimized the repetition of explanations that would be redundant to the earlier books in order to provide a better reading experience for those of you who are reading the series.

  Other Books and Series

  by Laurence E Dahners

  Series

  The Hyllis Family series

  The Vaz series

  The Bonesetter series

  The Blindspot series

  The Proton Field series

  Single books (not in series)

  The Transmuter’s Daughter

  Six Bits

  Shy Kids Can Make Friends Too

  For the most up to date information go to

  Laurence E Dahners website

  Or the Amazon Author page

  Table of Contents

  Preprologue

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Author’s Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  Preprologue

  Ell’s father, Allan Donsaii, was an unusually gifted quarterback. Startlingly strong, and a phenomenally accurate passer, during his college career he finished two full seasons without any interceptions and two games with 100 percent completions. Unfortunately, he wasn’t big enough to be drafted by the pros.

  Extraordinarily quick, Ell’s mother, Kristen Taylor captained her college soccer team and rarely played a game without a steal.

  Allan and Kristen dated more and more seriously through college, marrying at the end of their senior year. Their friends teased them that they’d only married in order to start their own sports dynasty.

  Their daughter Ell got Kristen’s quickness, magnified by Allan’s surprising strength and highly accurate coordination.

  She also has a new mutation that affects the myelin sheaths of her nerves. This mutation produces nerve transmission speeds nearly double those of normal neurons. With faster nerve impulse transmission, she has far quicker reflexes. Yet her new type of myelin sheath is also thinner, allowing more axons, and therefore more neurons, to be packed into the same sized skull. These two factors result in a brain with more neurons, though it isn’t larger, and a faster processing speed, akin to a computer with a smaller, faster CPU architecture.

  Most importantly, under the influence of adrenalin in a fight or flight situation, her nerves transmit even more rapidly than their normally remarkable speed.

  Much more rapidly…

  Prologue

  The day was hot, though every day was hot. Worse since the start of the drought. Cabo took a little sip of water and wished he could go back to school. Cabo loved learning, but just the fact he could sit in the shade at school made it wonderful.

  However, the drought had made things hard for his family.

  Cabo’d been worrying about water for months. Since the drought worsened recently, he’d been worrying a lot more. The land in their area of northern Somalia—near Ethiopia—was arid and covered with low trees, patchy grass and thorny bushes. Water shortages were common. The grass’d turn brown and the brush would wither to some extent. Some of the sheep and goats would get sick and a few would die.

  But always, the rains came back. The streams ran and the land greened.

  It was just a matter of keeping your sheep and goats alive until Mother Nature provided again. Since the start of the drought, Cabo’d had to herd the goats farther and farther for less and less water. For a while after the streams dried up, he’d been able to dig holes at low spots in the streambeds. Water would seep into the holes. He thought it might work even now, but he was pretty sure he couldn’t dig deep enough.

  Cabo was watching his goats when the stranger arrived, wearing bright red and blue clothing and riding a strange kind of bicycle. The bicycle had big, man-high, spidery wheels that Cabo could see rode over the bumpy land more smoothly than one with ordinary, smaller wheels would. The man wasn’t mounted up over the wheels like a normal bicyclist, but down between them so that he was still about the same distance from the ground as a normal rider.

  The stranger waved and spoke quietly in some foreign language. A louder translation came from the region of his chest, where he must be carrying some kind of AI that spoke for him. In Somali it said, “Hello. Is the drought causing trouble for your animals?”

  Cabo nodded slowly, thinking that—even to an idiot—the answer to that question must be obvious. Looking the man over, he thought, This man’s the kind of idiot who probably won’t live much longer. Like many Westerners, the man was wearing a broad-brimmed hat to shade his face. The rest of him was almost completely covered with brightly colored synthetic fabric. It was easy to see he didn’t have any water or food with him. He’s going to die of exhaustion, overheating and dehydration. Cabo blinked when he realized that the oversized bicycle had no pedals and must, therefore, be some kind of motorcycle—even though no motor was visible.

  And, the man wasn’t sweating. In fact, he looked… comfortable. He looked more comfortable than Cabo, something very unusual for a Westerner, even a dark skinned fellow like this one.

  The man smiled and got off the motorcycle, stepping closer, “I’ve come to bring you help for your animals.” He reached into a pocket of his brightly colored jacket and pulled out a grey object a little larger than a fist.

  “We can’t afford it,” Cabo said abruptly.

  “That’s okay, you don’t have to pay unless you want to keep using it next month.” The man held the object up and pointed to a green button, “Press here to set it up.” The man pressed the button. With a hissing sound, the grey object began to expand and unfold. It rapidly enlarged, beginning to take on a shape like an elongated trough.

  Interrupting Cabo’s wide-eyed stare, the man said, “Press the red button to close it back down.” The man pressed the red button and the device immediately began to shrink. “But for now,” the man said, pressing the green button again and restarting the expansion, “let’s have it finish setting up. I only wanted you to understand how to make it small again when you’re ready to leave.”

  In a few more minutes, the device had formed a long trough; an arms-length wide, a half-knee-deep, and as long as three men
were tall. It was gray, ribbed and seemed slightly translucent. The end the man was holding onto stood higher than the rest of the trough. Apparently, the whole thing was as light as tissue paper—not surprising considering that the whole thing had blown up out of something no larger than a big man’s fist. The far end of it was lifting off the ground in the hot breeze. “It looks like a water trough,” Cabo said, “but we have no water to put in it.”

  “Ah, there’s the crux of it, isn’t it?” the man said. “Now, we’ll try asking for water. You can do that part. Just say, ‘Turn the water on.’”

  Cabo studied the man, sure this was some kind of elaborate prank.

  The man said, “Go ahead. Say, ‘Turn the water on.’”

  Cabo shrugged, “Turn the water on.”

  Water immediately began spurting out of an opening at the high end of the trough. It splashed into the bottom of the trough. Cabo’s goats immediately lifted their heads at the sound and smell of water. In moments, they were moving toward the trough.

  Cabo stared, then trying to restrain his excitement, he said, “Is that done with one of D5R’s ports?”

  The man nodded. “They’re sending them to places having droughts—just now Somalia. I was lucky enough to be chosen to deliver them here in the northern high lands. My father came from this area so I wanted to be part of the deliveries.”

  The goats were shouldering in around the trough, heads down in the bottom of it after the water. Cabo sobered and shook his head, “It seems wonderful, but my family can’t afford it.”

  “Ah,” the man said, “but they can’t afford to have their goats die either, right?”

  Cabo was still shaking his head, “But we don’t have any money now. We won’t have any until we sell some goats.”

  The man shrugged, “D5R’d give this to you for free, except they’ve learned that things they give away hold little value to the people who get them. Free gifts aren’t cared for and, when they’re lost or destroyed, the recipients think they should get another for free as well.” The man lifted his chin to point at the trough, “And something like this? If it’s free, people waste the water. They let the trough overflow into the desert.”

  Cabo wanted to keep the man talking, at least until the goats had their fill. I’d just as well barter. He lifted his own chin, “How much do you want?”

  The man smiled, “Nothing now. But, next month, if you want more water, then you’ll have to pay for what you used this month.” He shrugged, “That’s to keep you from wasting water this month.”

  “How much?” Cabo asked, dreading the answer.

  “A penny for 50 liters.”

  Like many other poor countries, Somalia used the US dollar for its currency, but Cabo decided he’d better be sure he understood. “A penny? One-hundredth of a US dollar?”

  The man nodded solemnly.

  “So, a dollar’d buy us 5,000 liters?”

  The man’s eyes widened a little, but he nodded again.

  Waving at the trough, Cabo said, “How many liters does that hold?”

  “Five-hundred liters.”

  “So, I could fill the trough ten times for a dollar?” he asked, thinking about the hundred-dollars he could sell a goat for. The hundred dollars each dead goat cost them. And, I won’t have to completely fill it for 120 goats. They drank four to six liters per day, so a full trough would be enough to last all day, but it’d be easier to let them drink a little, then move the trough to a new grazing area. He could move it several times a day.

  The man’s eyes widened again, “Yes.” He smiled, “You’ve been to school.”

  Cabo nodded bitterly, “Yes, but not since the drought. My father’s searching for work in the city, so I have to tend the goats.”

  The man grinned, “You seem very bright. Would you like to go to school while you’re tending the goats?”

  “Sure, but,” Cabo grinned slyly, “half the fun of going to school’s being in the shade where it’s cool.”

  The man said, “You drive a hard bargain. Here, I’ll give you a jacket like mine.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a light blue jacket made of some synthetic.

  Cabo took it, then, holding it, looked the man in the eye. “You’re giving this to me?” he asked. He thought, It may be useless, but at least I could sell it.

  The man smiled again, “I can see you thinking that you don’t want it, but that you could probably sell it.” He lifted his chin again, “First, try it on.”

  A little unwillingly—because wearing it would lower its value—Cabo slowly unfolded the jacket and carefully slipped into it.

  The man said, “Now, tell the jacket to cool you.”

  Despite the heat, a little shiver went over Cabo. He’d heard of new western garments that could actively deliver hot or cool air through ports. Remembering that the man hadn’t been sweating, he looked at him again. The man still looked completely comfortable. Tentatively, Cabo said, “Cool me.”

  A moment later, he felt cool air. Blessedly cool air, slowly sifting over the parts of him that were covered by the jacket. It’d feel even better if I had on a T-shirt instead of this traditional macawis. Dreading the answer, he said, “How much does it cost to have it cool me?”

  “Nothing. Ell Donsaii…” The man tilted his head curiously, “Do you know who Ell Donsaii is?”

  Cabo nodded impatiently.

  “She told us that if we find bright young people like yourself, we should give you an HUD so you can go to school through the Khan Academy.” The man winked, “And she said it’s okay to offer a little bribe, like a cooling jacket.”

  “An HUD?” Cabo breathed. As wonderful as the cool air was, he felt much more excited about the possibility he might get an HUD.

  The man nodded. “I don’t know if you’ve heard about the Khan Academy. It has lessons you can study over the Internet. If you follow a course of study, and take the tests after each lesson, and do well, it’ll provide you a diploma.”

  “What kind of diploma?”

  “A well-respected diploma. They award diplomas for a large number of courses of study. From primary and secondary school diplomas on up to college degrees in various disciplines.”

  Cabo found himself wanting to sit down. That kind of schooling was something he’d dreamed of his entire life. Suddenly he noticed the goats were drifting away from the trough, having had their fill of the water. With alarm he realized the water was still splashing into the trough at the high end. “Trough, turn off the water!” he said urgently, not wanting to waste any of it since it cost money. The water shut off. “Um, how’re we supposed to pay you for the water at the end of the month?” he asked.

  The man shrugged, “You can do it with your phone, like any other purchase. But once you have your HUD, you can do it through that as well.”

  Cautiously, Cabo asked, “How do I get an HUD?”

  The man reached into the same pocket on his coat and pulled out a bundle. Popping off a restraint, he shook out a headband and held it out to Cabo.

  Staring at the man’s jacket, Cabo asked, “How big is that pocket?”

  “Oh,” the man said with a little laugh, “it has two ports woven into it. When I tell my AI I need something, it has Amazon or some other supplier push it through the port into the pocket.”

  Wide-eyed, Cabo pulled on the headband. The man helped him adjust it so that the little screens were over his eyes. They immediately began acting like sunglasses, which was nice in its own right. The man showed Cabo how to place the tiny earpieces into his ear canals. He said, “Just talk. Your HUD can answer almost any question you can ask. If you tell it you want to study at the Khan Academy, it’ll guide you through the steps for doing that.” The man turned and started getting on his motorcycle, “When the water trough stops working, your HUD can help you make a payment so you can get more.” He glanced up at the screens of his own HUD, and cheerfully said, “I need to go find the next herder.”

  “Wait!” Cabo said in a panic.
“Is it okay if my little sister uses the HUD so she can study at the Khan Academy too?”

  The man lifted an eyebrow, “Is a good student too?

  Cabo nodded enthusiastically, “She’s a lot smarter than I am.”

  The man reached in his pocket and held out another bundle. He frowned, “You’ll find these don’t work for playing games…”

  “That’s okay.”

  “They also only work for their first owner.” The man shrugged, “That’s to keep them from getting stolen or sold. The first owner can share it with others, but must use it him or herself at least once a day.” The man turned to go.

  “Wait. Please don’t go yet.” When the man turned back, Cabo was examining the trough. He shook his head, “This’ll never hold up out here in the desert. Thorns, sharp stones, goat’s horns; something’s going to poke a hole in it.” He looked at, “It’s going to be flat in no time. Is there a way to patch it?”

  The man waved dismissively, “It’s made of graphene. You wouldn’t be able to poke a hole in it if you tried.”

  “Wait, do you want to know where to find the next herder?”

  The wheels on the man’s motorcycle silently started turning as he pointed into the air. “I’ve got a drone up there.” He pointed to the west, “The drone’s camera says the next herd’s that way.”

  The man rode away while Cabo gaped after him.

  He’d heard of graphene and drones but never seen any.

  Now, Cabo did sit. He began to contemplate all these changes in his world.

  When his thoughts stopped swirling, he realized he was thirsty. He got up and went over to the trough, dipping his hand in, but then jerking it back. “The water's cold!” he mumbled in fright. He’d occasionally shared a cold drink with his father when they’d gone into the city, but he’d never had cold water. Staring at it, he wondered to himself, “Why’s it cold?”