Eden: A Sci-Fi Novella by Martin Roy Hill

Author:Martin Roy Hill [Hill, Martin Roy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: 32-32 North
Published: 2014-11-15T02:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

NINMAH WATCHED THE TRANSPORT craft they called margidda set down and waited for Enki to emerge from its cabin. Her mother, Nammaa, had arrived earlier in the afternoon. Ninmah had no concept of what we called earth's continents today. I gathered from her narrative that Nammaa's margidda had flown from somewhere in the African continent, while Enki's craft had to take a longer suborbital course across the smaller of the two tiamatu, or great oceans, which I assumed was the Atlantic. Her brother had relocated to oversee mining operations in a distant continent, one she said was blanketed by lush jungles and bathed by regular torrential monsoons that fed giant rivers which crisscrossed the land. I concluded she was referring to South or Central America. With him, Enki had taken many of the Adamu—as others had done in other parts of Ki—to work new mines and new sources of hurasam.

Ninmah had been left to run the original mining operations, and that made her happy. Her Adamu had evolved into strong, hard workers, expanding from just digging in the mines to building a grand city centered on her ziggurat. The damu had progressed even faster. More intelligent than the non-mixed Adamu, the hybrids became supervisors. Most married other hybrids, producing children far superior even to their parents. A class system began to emerge, with the hybrids as leaders and the non-hybrids as miners, workers, and servants. The worker Annunaki now had more luxury time—too much, Ninmah thought—passing the days in their own houses of splendor, served hand and foot by Adamu. The Adamu called them ilu and ilati, gods and goddesses. Ninmah was not pleased by it.

Nor was she pleased by her brother's visit.

Enki had already communicated his reason for calling a meeting of the family. There had been problems among the Adamu working his mines. The generations of Adamu that evolved across the great ocean had developed their own culture, their own language. They had also become more independent. Many had run off into the jungles, established their own communities, their own cities. Those remaining had, through covert visitations, learned of the lifestyle of these wayward Adamu, a lifestyle involving hunting and farming, not the dangerous, bone-crushing work in the mines. There were similar reports from other mining outposts, even here where Ninmah ruled. But far from stopping it, Ninmah encouraged her Adamu to be more independent. Unlike Enki's, most of Ninmah's workers chose to stay with her.

The margidda's door slipped opened and Enki stepped out. He was wearing a dark one-piece suit adorned with piping of sparkling spun hurasam. A large golden medallion hung at his chest, suspended by a thick chain of the same precious metal. His blue eyes scanned the landing field, spotting Ninmah. He did not smile. He simply nodded a greeting and proceeded into the grand meeting room.

"Ah, my son!" Nammaa seemed to glide into her son's arms and gave him a maternal kiss. "It is so good to see you."

"And you, mother," Enki said, glancing sideways to watch Ninmah enter the room.

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