Squidgies: Book 3 of the Eeks Trilogy

By John Standingford

The first native Goldiloxian Humans are approaching their 16th birthdays, and will be eligible to vote in the next election. Leonora and Wangzi are surprised when their son, Kabil, announces his intention not only to vote but to stand as a candidate.
People have found ways to get along in the domed city Xinjia. They venture outside, but only in spacesuits. There are long-term hopes of adapting the Human genome to allow survival in the thin Goldiloxian atmosphere, or geo-engineering the planet, but the Earth-born migrants are less ambitious than their children.
Through Human ingenuity the Squidgies are 'upsiding' from their subterranean home and gaining sight and mobility. They find places in the Human economy and social life. They even find a way into the hearts of Human females.
But some of the younger Humans are uncomfortable with Squidgy intrusion into the upside world and look for ways to achieve Human dominance of Goldilox. Some young Humans display a near-religious belief in Human supremacy. How far will they go to assert it? How far will the Speeks go to restore harmony?

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Standingford
• Release date: Nov 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311685407

John Standingford

John was born in London, grew up on Merseyside and now lives in Adelaide, Australia. This is his wife Mary's home town, but they met and married in Bangladesh in the year of the first moon-landing. They now have two grown-up sons and two grandsons.John's life has been spent mainly as an itinerant economist, working in most countries in the Asia-Pacific region and most of the former Soviet republics.Now he is fulfilling a lifelong ambition to be a creative writer. His first work was The Eeks Trilogy, which uses speculative fiction to explore questions about Humanity's essential nature and likely future. All three books are now available in a single volume entitles Goldiloxians. His next book was HM4MEN - a light-hearted manual on household management for men.He has completed a fourth novel called Bobby Shafter, set in 1950s Britain, which was published conventionally by Elephant House Press and is now available (for a sixth of the price) as an e-book. John's latest book is Farley's Bend, the sequel to Bobby Shafter, set three years later.

Book preview

Squidgies

John Standingford

Book 3 of the Eeks Trilogy

Published by John Standingford at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 John Standingford

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contents

Chapter 01    On Thibault Hill

Chapter 02    Just Another Day on Goldilox

Chapter 03    The Richest Man in the Universe

Chapter 04    Strains

Chapter 05    Unforeseen Circumstances

Chapter 06    Humans Need Ritual

Chapter 07    Congratulations, Mister President!

Chapter 08    Couples

Chapter 09    Wonders of Science

Chapter 10    Infinite Humanity

Chapter 11    Old Friends, New Ideas

Chapter 12    Mother and Son

Chapter 13    Back Doors

Chapter 14    Visitors

Chapter 15    Surprise!

Chapter 16    A Narrow Escape

Chapter 17    Agendas

Chapter 18    Birds and Bees

Chapter 19    You Have to Believe in Something

Chapter 20    Scientific Research

Chapter 21    Tragic News

Chapter 22    Sunset

Epilogue

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Other Books by John Standingford

This story is set on the planet Goldilox, almost 17 terrestrial years after the arrival of 57 Human migrants. They live in the enclosed city of Xinjia which was built for them by Speeks – robots sent out in the middle of the 21st century to find an Earth-like planet and make it habitable by Humans. Unknown to the Speeks, Goldilox was already occupied by the subterranean Squidgies.

This third and final book of the trilogy starts as the first progeny of those migrants are about to celebrate their 16th birthdays.

Chapter 01    On Thibault Hill

Hey, are you reeming me?!

Kabil stopped stroking the RST touchpad on his arm. Just checking the frequency, he said, grinning.

Well it was working pretty well yesterday and I haven't freeqed you out!

I thought you liked it.

I do. Uhuhh! Especially there! But just wait till we're at the top and we can relax, OK?

Anything you say, Cee. I'm yours to command.

Celia reached for a pad near her left wrist and pinched it hard between her fingers and thumb. She laughed to see Kabil's reaction. Oh, sorry, sweetie! Did I startle you?

Remote Sensory Transmission had started as a high school science project. The teenage boys and girls working on it quickly realized its potential to enhance the outdoor dating experience: it was hard to express deep affection from inside a spacesuit. RST Inc became the first really successful tech start-up on Goldilox, though with such a limited market none of the founders would become rich. No young couple ever climbed Thibault Hill to watch a double sunset without their touchpads and their strategically placed receptors.

* * *

Leonora waited until Wangzi had settled into his vibrochair with a beer before saying, We need to talk about Kabil.

Wangzi sighed. What about Kabil? He's smart, he's healthy, he's doing well at school, he's got a girlfriend…

Is he happy? You haven't mentioned 'happy'.

Why wouldn't he be happy?

It was Leonora's turn to sigh. I went to see his teacher today.

Pedanticus?

No, the other one. Pandora. Tall, dark-skinned, long green hair…

I know the one. Likes to encourage her kids to think outside the box. So…?

She thinks Kabil's getting some strange ideas. He's been talking about Humans being special, better than Speeks and Squidgies, even putting that sort of thing into his essays. And Pandora says he's influencing others in the class.

Wangzi took a slow sip of his Two Suns lager before saying, He's young. Everybody goes through a phase of being a communist or an anarchist or something. He'll settle down in a year or two. He doesn't know what he thinks or even who he is.

Yes, I accept all that. But we've worked hard for the last sixteen years to build trust between the species. It hasn't always been easy but it's worked because of mutual dependency. Humans, Speeks and Squidgies all get something out of it. But if we upset the balance, if we give the others a reason to think they can do nicely without us…

I know, said Wangzi, interrupting. We're the most vulnerable. If the Speeks pull the plug on our oxygen, our food, our water, everything, we quietly disappear.

"And then there were two: Speeks and Sqiudgies. And the reality is, they could do quite nicely without us."

Except for our special gift of imagination. They wouldn't be anything like as well off as they are today without us. They know that.

They know what we've done for them in the past, but their very lack of imagination means they can't envisage what we might do for them in the future.

Except finding the next planet to go to. The Speeks know full well that every planetary system has a finite life. They're still hard-wired to protect us – Humans and Squidgies, Humanity and Squidgity. There's no time limit on that. The best estimate is that we could all live happily on Goldilox for about 1.5 billion years.

So we have to find Goldilox 2 before then.

And we have to take the Squidgies with us.

Wangzi laughed at Leonora's startled expression. You know, I'd never thought of that, she said. As long as we need the Speeks …

That's right. They wouldn't let us head off into space leaving the Squidgies on a doomed planet. That would violate the modified Laws of Robotics.

Maybe we could find two planets: Goldilox 2A for us and Goldilox 2B for the Squidgies. They need a nice soft surface they can burrow into. We need… well, we just need a planet with a reasonable amount of gravity, energy, water and all the chemical elements that can be made into stuff for us to breathe and eat.

And drink, added Wangzi, holding up his empty glass. If you're going anywhere near the coolbin…

We haven't finished talking about Kabil. You were about to say that you'll talk to him and make sure he understands that Humans, Squidgies and Speeks bring their own special qualities to our shared community, and we all benefit from living together in harmony and mutual respect.

"You put that beautifully. Why don't you talk to him?"

Because 15-year-old boys don't take any notice of their mothers. Any other questions?

Yes. What makes you think they take any more notice of their fathers?

Because, for better of worse, fathers are role models for their sons. You're the psychiatrist, you should be explaining this to me.

OK, OK, I'll talk to him. Where is he anyway?

On Thibault Hill with Celia and a bunch of others – to watch the double sunset, or so they want us to believe.

We can't discourage teenagers' natural interest in sex. That's what we're all here for after all: copulate and populate. But I thought he went to Sigmund's Philosophy Club meetings on Thursday evenings…?

Alternate Thursdays.

Their conversation was cut short by the noisy arrival of half-a dozen children. Wangzi and Leonora had four children of their own, the youngest having just turned seven. Their household also included the five children that Wangzi had fathered with Gabriela, who was still living happily with Adam the Ebo. She visited two or three times a week and the children visited her irregularly. There was still no such thing as marriage on Goldilox, but Gabriela and Adam were as much a couple as Wangzi and Leonora were.

In addition Wangzi had fathered ten children with his other DSPs: Kim-Ly, Asel and Rivka. They lived with their mothers most of the time but came to stay for a week or a month at a time, usually during school holidays. Thanks to the Edoms, ad hoc visits were no great inconvenience.

Wangzi and Leonora had six regular Edoms and could order up more if needed. They could also call on Sputors (Speek-tutors, as you probably guessed) to help the older children with their homework and expose the younger ones to intensive play-learning. Theirs was a typical household. Each of the models proposed by the Relationships Committee had been tried by at least one man and his DSPs, but Modified Monogamy gradually became the preferred one.

When the children had finished pouring out their news of the day and the Edoms had taken them off to baths, beds, homework or educational play, Wangzi raised another question.

How are the plans for the mass birthday party coming along?

Oh, you know, people have different ideas, but it'll be alright on the night.

By 'people' you mean…?

The usual suspects. The people who think it's no fun to be on a committee unless they disagree with everybody else.

"Especially the Chairbeing.'

I'm quite neutral! I really don't mind how we celebrate the coming of age of our firstborns. I just want us to agree on something so we can get on with it. It has to be reasonably dignified, obviously. There has to be a sense of occasion. And it must be forward-looking. We don't want terrestrial nostalgia creeping in.

But you're quite neutral.

Absolutely.

Perhaps you should have left it to Hepplewhite to arrange everything. He'd have done a good job.

Now you're being provocative, but I'm not rising to the bait. Hepplewhite and I get on very well, as you know, but there are some things that Humans ought to do for themselves. Planning their children's birthday parties is one of them. By the way, you haven't forgotten that Hepplewhite and Minerva are coming to dinner tomorrow, have you? Gabriela and Adam are coming too.

Three Humans, three Speeks. No Squidgies?

If that's meant to be a joke, it may not be funny for very long. They're already driving around in thought-controlled cars – testing them anyway – and with the next upgrade their artificial eye implants are going to give them sight as good as ours. We're working on speech synthesis but that's proving harder than we thought. Pretty soon they won't just be dinner party guests, they'll be hosting dinner parties themselves.

Hmm. You know what I find the most surprising thing?

About the Squidgies?

About everything. The whole… Goldilox thing.

The fact that we still don't have a national anthem?

"No! It's that our children find this all totally normal. It is their normality. I remember reading Earth history about babies being born to mothers in prison and spending all their childhood in prison – I forget where, it might have been Burma."

Goldilox isn't exactly a prison!

Of course not. But we can't go outside the domes without a suit and we depend on the Speeks to provide all our basic needs. In a way they're like benign jailors. We have to get along with the Squidgies even though we don't have much in common with them…

Yet.

OK, I'm looking forward to chatting to them over sautéed fungus au gratin one day, but at the moment I'm not sure how I'd open the conversation. 'Exuded any interesting sidekicks recently?' Anyway, what I'm getting at is that Humans and Squidgies are like rival gangs in prison…

Oh, come on! That's pretty far-fetched!

Hear me out. We have totally different cultures and we'd probably prefer to get on with our own lives without having much to do with each other. But we're obliged to share the same space and be nice to each other so that the guards – the Speeks – don't think we're about to start a gang war and they have to step in to stop it.

I still don't see a Burmese prison as a good analogy!

Maybe not, but it's true that our kids are growing up in a very different environment from the one we grew up in. That must affect the way they think, how they see themselves.

Yes, of course, and that's a good thing. They're growing up to be Goldiloxians, not displaced Earthlings.

Did you say 'misplaced' or 'displaced'?

I said 'displaced'. We're not misplaced. That'd mean we're lost. This is where we wanted to be and intended to be and it's where we belong.

I know, I was just prodding you with a stick to see how you reacted!

Well, I hope I didn't disappoint you.

You never disappoint me! Come here He patted his knee and Leonora came and sat on it.

We're not teenagers any more, Wangy, she laughed as he stroked her leg.

Do I have to be a teenager to be turned on by my favourite DSP?

Your what?!

Well, you're not my wife because we don't have marriage on Goldilox. Or did I miss something?

Most people say 'partner'.

I've never liked that – it makes our relationship sound like a business arrangement.

What about 'spouse' then?

That still implies marriage. How about 'cohabitant'? Kiss me while you think about it.

* * *

Meanwhile on Thibault Hill the real teenagers were preparing to go home. They had night-vision attachments to their helmets of course, but once the double sunset was over and they had explored all the sensuous possibilities of RST there was little point in staying outside.

I'm going to get another receptor, said Celia, for my lower back. Gulnara's got one there and she says it feels good if Jubal strokes it.

OK, Cee, said Kabil, I've got a couple of spare touchpads. Let me know the frequency and we'll try it out on Saturday.

Saturday? Do we have a date?

Haven't you done your Earth History assignment yet? In twentieth century America, if a boy and a girl were going steady they had a default date every Saturday night.

Going steady…?

Oh dear! Pandora's not going to be pleased with you tomorrow. Going steady meant being in an exclusive romantic relationship, but not actually engaged to be married. You've got some Bumbling to do before you go to bed.

I don't see why we have to Bumble everything. Why can't Pandora just give us the sources and let us read them?

You know why. She thinks we remember things better if we've had to find them ourselves. And if we Bumble we'll find other things that aren't directly relevant to the assignment – 'to enrich your peripheral cognizance'. He mimicked Pandora's voice very well and Celia rewarded him