Boulders in the Stream – A Science Fiction Short Story

Talamade sat on the well-padded banquet chair as waitstaff brought out plates of jolfé. The room was buzzing with conversation after the last speaker’s announcement about two new schools opening on Elani.
Talamade’s table was far from the stage and mostly empty. The university had offered complimentary tickets to this banquet. He took up the offer hoping to meet with conglomerate project managers. Specifically project managers that could get him assigned to other geological survey projects like the one he’d successfully completed on Elani. He had no desire to go back to Elani, as it was currently the most undeveloped planet in the Central System.
He recognized a few other faces in the room and the mostly empty table indicated the university’s tickets were not in demand. Two women sat across the table from him laughing about some shared experience they’d had while on Elani. Their stories sounded like they were teachers at the planet’s capital city, the most common job on the planet for off worlders. The Central System established positions teaching pre-university courses but also skilled labor and even advanced research positions were being filled. All to prepare for the wildcat colony’s first population infusion.
The only other person at the half full table sat next to him. Her elbow rubbed his with every bite she took. She was tall with wide shoulders like most Elanies. Talamade had felt dwarfed by almost everyone that came from the planet despite his average stature. She’d introduced herself as Gabriella when she first sat down but they hadn’t had much time to get to know each other due to the parade of speakers across the stage.
Neither of them were engaged in the teacher’s conversation. They used slang and constantly skipped the climactic parts of their stories, focusing on reacting to the ridiculousness more than recounting the events. It was clear they were catching up, not trying to share stories with the table.
“Tastes like week old porridge,” Gabriella said after taking a bite out of the jolfé. Her speech was accented but hadn’t diverged from Common Tongue so much that it was incomprehensible. Her comment didn’t interrupt the teachers but it caught Talamade by surprise.

He spooned some into the bakan leaf. He’d never gotten the hang of scooping the rice up with just the leaf, even though Elanies made it look effortless. He took a bite. The bakan leaf wasn’t nearly as bitter as what grew on Elani, and the rice was sweeter without the sharp pricks of spicy peppers. “It’s not so bad,” Talamade admitted.
Gabriella buzzed her lips, launching spittle out. Talamade ignored her gesture and hoped nothing had landed on his plate; for the first time he might actually finish all of this jolfé. The pair across the table stopped their conversation and laughed like they were watching a comedy from the net.
“If you were teaching in the capital schools then surely you had jolfé at Hibbera’s,” Gabriella said. “It’s the only place worth eating near the CS schools.”
“I’m actually a geologist,” Talamade clarified. The teachers went back to their conversation excitedly talking about a mischievous student well known at their school, uninterested in a geologist’s experience on Elani. “I was on the bay side of the city when I was there.” He’d also spent most of his time eating ration bars to avoid the local flavors.
“The fish is very good in that part of town,” she said. “Did you try any antui?”
Antui was a dish he’d heard about before he ever shipped off on the assignment. Elani’s fish were misshapen and had scrawny bodies with large heads that were considered divine. Locals skewered the fish and roasted them with tangy seasonings. The Elanies ate the snacks at least twice daily; he didn’t have the guts to look something in the eyes while he ate it.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to try any.”
“You’d have to go out of your way to avoid eating it. I hope your teachers can give our youngest generation that sort of dedication.” Gabriella chuckled to herself as she folded a leaf around some more of the jolfé. “What did you like about Elani? Or was it just the paycheck that brought you there.”
“No, no, it wasn’t that. I thought the whole place was beautiful. I haven’t seen a planet so peaceful from orbit. And I’ve never gotten to fly over such dense forests.”
“Peaceful?” Gabriella started snacking on the large bits of palmu roots in the jolfé. “When I came here the whole dark side was lit up brighter than the stars in the void. Our planet likely looks quite dim from your perspective, with only one city shining into the dark.”
“Most colonies appear that way before their fourth or fifth population infusion,” Talamade said.
“That takes what? Forty or Fifty years?” Gabriella’s words were fast and accented. A little calmer she said, “Elani was established generations ago, independently.”
Talamade, and every other Central System citizen, was surprised they’d lasted that long. Elani’s first settlers left before the Central System was established, when space travel was new and only a few conglomerates funded it.
Wildcat colonies, rogue ships that independently settled a planet and silently established a colony without communication or interaction with the Central System, were rare and dangerous. When wildcats were caught now they were charged for contract defection or misallocation of life. However, Elani’s original conglomerate had gone bankrupt in the first Industrial War so Elani was invited into the Central System independent of all other conglomerates.
“And it’s quite impressive that you’ve survived so long alone in the void.” He immediately regretted the words. They’d seemed like a compliment in his head but sounded dismissive as he spoke them aloud.
Gabriella made the dismissive spittle again. “How could we not? ” She pushed some of the food around on her plate as if she was searching for a taste of home in the dish. “It’s not a planet terraformed to be Earth-like. It’s naturally Earth-like making it rare since it has plants we can digest, fish we can eat, and a comfortable climate.”
Comfortable was not how Talamade would describe the climate, nor the shacks that he had to sleep in while there. “Elani is quite beautiful. A guide took me up a mountain road one day and I could look across the whole valley that the capital sat in.”
“Was it Beckdale’s pass or Hitomi ridge?” Gabriella asked. There was an excitement in her eyes brighter than a kid’s on Elder’s Day.
“I’m not sure,” Talamade answered after trying to remember what the guide told him months ago. “But I could see all the intertwining roads, patches of neighborhoods, the capitol building and the elevator being constructed near it. It was all sitting in a sea of green bakan trees and palmu vines.” He was sure there were other plants and trees there too but couldn’t remember their names either.

“That damn elevator takes up half the view from the ridge,” she waved her long arms like she was going to tear it down herself. Getting another chortle out of the teachers. “You must have gone to the pass. They should have built it outside the city or not at all. Don’t see what the problem with the current launch pad is.”
“Launch pads are slow and use up too much fuel. Once the space elevator is built, getting things in and out of orbit will be a breeze.” There was no way Gabriella didn’t already know that though.
“It’s just another technology they’re forcing onto us. Like the schools and the hand terminals.” She grabbed her terminal out of her pocket and tossed it on the table as if it was a piece of dirty dish going in the recycler. “All for what purpose? So we can travel to places like this? To sit in small chairs and eat bland jolfé?”
“It’s not like the Central System forced itself onto Elani,” Talamade said. “Your leadership agreed to let the elevator be built.”
The Central System held reverence towards all sapient life since it was so rare in the cosmos. The Central System did everything in its power to eliminate war, famine, and disease so that humanity could prosper. Earth-like planets were rare, and not every planet in a goldilocks zone could be terraformed. Despite this it was made clear early on and often that the wildcat colony on Elani would not be forced into the Central System or any existing conglomerate despite the countless humans the planet could sustain.
“The councilors that agreed to it weren’t working with Elani’s best interest at heart,” Gabriella replied. “Most of them now live here or somewhere else in the Central System. It’s unlikely they’ll ever step on Elani soil again. But at least they can’t get a good meal.”
“You can’t know everything that they had to take into consideration. I’d never assume I could make the tough decisions minister judges have to make with every trial.”
“No, I don’t think you could.” Gabriella let out a friendly chuckle. “But I know that within a year of the Central System finding us half of the eldest council was replaced by new members. Members that had met with CS ambassadors and ministers.”
“Younger generations always embrace change easier and you can’t adopt a technology you don’t understand.” Many of his senior professors had a hard time adopting the newest research equipment.
“You sound like the first speaker of this evening.” Gabriella’s tone indicated it wasn’t a compliment. “Maybe they were acting in our best interest. But a bakan tree doesn’t grow large leaves by leaving room for other plants.”
“Then why don’t you become a councillor and change things?” Talamade wasn’t sure if Elani usually had women politicians but the Central System would have implemented equity laws as a prerequisite to giving them new technology.
“I plan to, like my grandmother before me, but spices mixed into the pot can’t be taken out.”
“But if everyone on the planet feels the way you do then you can take action to separate yourself from the Central System,” Talamade said.
There were a few self-sufficient conglomerates that operated independently of the Central System. They were able to provide universal basic quantities of food, water, medicine, living space, and data communication access to all its citizens. By providing all basic needs the Central System had no reason to be involved. The Farook conglomerate had been doing it for a dozen generations.
“Unfortunately, I think once everyone sees your technology, medicine, and climate controlled buildings they’ll want it for themselves just like our leaders did.” Her wide shoulders slumped.
“And what’s so bad about that? You don’t want your people to know their great grandparents?” Talamade asked. With life extension drugs where they were today he had photos of his great great grandparents holding him as a child, even though he never knew them.
“Don’t question my love for my people.” Her tone was sharp. “The cost of these luxuries is too high.”
“The System is sending it to you for free.”
“The cost is infusions of people like you who come and only see bakan trees and valleys. But unlike you they don’t leave when the job is done.” She moved her hands under the table.
To Talamade it looked unnatural for an Elani to say something passionate without a large gesture.
“Do you know what I see when I hike Beckdale’s pass?” She finally asked.
“No,” Talamade said timidly. He couldn’t imagine it was any different from his view even if she’d hiked it before Central System EVs were introduced.
“I saw a neighborhood of homes I helped build with my sisters for our neighbors on their wedding days. I could point to shops where boys bought me antui and palmu flowers before harvest festivals. I could watch the flow of fishermen bringing their catches to market trading for bags of rice from the paddies or salves for their loved ones.”
“The Central System isn’t taking that away. Your memories of these places and Elani’s traditions will remain.”
Gabriella buzzed her lips in frustration. “It’s not the memories I cherish, it’s the interactions between the people. Already house printers are being built in torn down neighborhoods. Teenagers are buying gems and metals to court each other, antui is sold for intangible credits stored on computers, and it’s difficult to have a harvest festival when foreign food is grown year round in vats.” Gabriella let out a sigh. “I’m not technophobic. My grandmother was a midwife who continued to look for ways to reduce infant and mother mortality. I saw the change her innovations brought. I know your medicine and terminals will change our lives.
“I just wish you didn’t say it was free. Because the price is hordes of people who only see the bakan trees and the rocks in the ground. I don’t want you to love our food or speak our language. Every time a foreigner winces at the bitterness of bakan leaves my heart smiles.”
Talamade had no doubts about her sincerity. Her entire body, from her eyebrows to her broad shoulders, seemed to beam with that statement. “So if you wind up in power you’ll balance those two things?” he asked.
“I’ll try, but Elani is only half the equation. The Central System needs to see Elanies too, not just our medical and technical needs but our interactions and culture. My biggest fear is that you were right when you said my leaders were acting with our best interest at heart. I’m here to figure that out. I’d rather be spending time with my nieces and nephews but I want to make sure they have a chance to know about the beautiful world their great grandmother took part in.”
The stage’s microphone buzzed as another speaker began discussing how delicious the meal was. After a few more speeches, cocktails were served while people mixed together chatting about one thing or another. Talamade made small conversations here or there with project managers from the research company he’d worked for. But the whole time his eyes drifted among the crowd watching Gabriella and other Elanies’ hulking forms stick out above the crowd like rocks in a stream. He hoped that she didn’t get worn down by the flow of the water. She didn’t seem like the kind of person who could be worn down. He hoped that like a boulder that fell into a stream, she’d change the course of the river.
Gabriella’s words echoed in his mind as a starship manufacturer asked: “Are the metals in their soil high enough quality that it’d be worth setting up a manufacturing satellite?”
“Elani is an absolutely remarkable place,” Talamade said, “but it will cost far more than it’s worth to get an operation set up there.”
Unlike the water droplets in a river, he could work to make room for the boulder.