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Inter Ice Age 4 Page 18


  On the screen appears an iron door on which is painted in white the numeral 3.

  A young man in a white coat enters. He turns and looks squintingly at the audience.

  — First of all the birthing room. I’m going to ask you to take a look at your child. [Turning to the young man.] Ready?

  — Yes, sir. Room 3.

  — Never mind the explanation. Just show us Professor Katsumi’s son.

  [The young man nods and opens the door. The interior is almost the same as the pigs’ growing-room. The young man goes up some iron stairs and disappears inside.]

  — When we go all the way down this corridor to the right, we come out immediately behind the building we saw last evening-I wonder if you remember, the pool where they were training the dog. We’re planning on building something on the order of a small-gauge trolley, since it takes over half an hour on foot by the long underground passages.

  [The young man comes back holding a glass receptacle.]

  — Everything all right?

  — Yes, sir, fine.

  [Close-up of the glass receptacle. A curled-up fetus, the shape of a minnow. The transparent heart pulsates like a filament of air shimmering in the heat. Blood vessels like bursts of fireworks in a dark, gelatinous substance.]

  — This is your child. What do you think? He seems very healthy. Let’s go on. [Dark.] Ah, just a moment. They’re getting ready. This aquan breeding-farm is divided into three main sections: production, rearing, and training. But we’ll cut the production division because it’s the same as for other animals. Now the difference between the rearing and training sections is that the former handles aquans from birth to age five, and the latter from six on. However, children over six started when we were still in the experimental stage, and we are working on an extremely small scale for that age group: one eight-year-old, eight seven-and-a-half-year-olds, twenty-four seven-year-olds, and a bare hundred and eighty-one six-year-olds. When we get to the five-year olds, the number suddenly jumps to forty thousand; and from four on down, it increases every year, reaching ninety to a hundred thousand. Consequently from next year on the training section should reach regular proportions, and we’re now pushing ahead with construction in several different sites on the open floor. Since the number of trainees admitted to a training division runs from three to ten thousand, we’re building some twenty-one places altogether.

  — Sorry to have kept you waiting.

  [A voice interrupts, and the screen grows light. Underneath the water in an enormous pool, as far as the eye can see, long shelves partitioned into small compartments stand side by side in many rows and on numerous levels. In each compartment aquan sucklings are floating in whatever position they please.]

  — This is the nursing room, part of the infant-rearing division. They’re brought here directly from the delivery room; we exceed five hundred a day, on good days a thousand. It would be ideal to keep them here five months until they’re weaned, but if we did that we’d have to provide berths for at least a hundred and twenty thousand. It’s quite out of the question. Consequently we keep all the babies up to two months, and then from each monthly batch we keep three hundred for testing purposes. The total comes to nine hundred. As for the rest, when they get to be over two months, they’re sent to the child-rearing divisions attached to specific submarine exploitation sites. In the aggregate we’re badly lacking in instructors, and this is a source of concern. But the death rate is surprisingly low. There are five pools similar to this one with thirteen thousand, and then there are child-rearing and training divisions-model pools for those from three to five months and for those who come from these model pools. I’m going to show you everything in order, but first I’d like you to see the nursing facilities. [The camera zooms in on one of the compartments. It is a box made of bakelite. Inside, a whitish aquan baby covered with wrinkles, working its gills, is sleeping in a curious position, its large head downward, its body floating above. At the upper part of the box is a row of protuberances, each one connected to a slender tube which in turn is linked to a large pipe running along the top. A similar pipe runs along the bottom too, but in each box there is only one outlet.] -The upper pipe channels the milk, and the lower one is for the disposal of waste matter.

  [A technician wearing an aqualung swims up, nods, and taps lightly on the top of the box with his finger. The baby awakens, and its gills furiously open and close. Slowly it rolls over on its back, its head floating up, and begins to suck on one of the protuberances at the top. Its expression is exactly like that of an ordinary child, except that it is most strange how, with each mouthful, milk spills out from the gill openings. At length the inside of the box is completely white. It is clear that the old water and the fresh water are circulating through the lower pipe.]

  — But the most difficult obstacle was not so much the feeding as the problem of regulating the body heat. With the creation of gills a series of changes occurred in the outer secretory glands. According to the law of interrelation we had foreseen that probably a change in the quality of the skin and in the accumulation of subcutaneous fatty tissues would occur, but we had no concrete idea at all as to what extent. Furthermore, there was the problem of the skin’s power of resistance-to objects and to infection. We were really tormented by this. If we dressed them in some sort of plastic after they grew up, we could never preserve the body temperature, since water is a bad conductor of heat. But actually we were rather successful. The question was just how warm we should keep the water during the nursing period. As you know, warm-blooded animals maintain a high temperature that is independent of the degree of heat around them and are able to expend a rather great amount of energy. But in the case of the aquans, who have undergone a radical change in form and physique, their ability of adapting to their environment has been more than usually activated; so it is quite possible, if we are not careful, that we will lower their temperature too much. For example, the temperature of a fish generally differs from the water by from four to six degrees. If in the unlikely event it exceeds that, these aquans we’ve spent so much time on would turn into worthless simpletons. Then shouldn’t they be raised in ninety-eight-degree water? you say. But it’s not all that simple. We were also concerned about reinforcing the skin and the subcutaneous fatty tissues. We were on the horns of a dilemma. But we managed to solve this problem too. Look over there. The upper pipe-you can’t tell from the outside-has two layers. The inside pipe is partitioned off in the center, one side being milk and the other forty-five-degree sea water. Usually the milk side is directed to the nipples. But by an operation in the processing room the pipe revolves three times a day, morning, noon, and night, six turns in alternating ten- and eight-second periods, and cold water instead of milk is ejected from the thirty nipples. In other words it’s a pressurized cold-water massage. This produced results beyond all expectation. Unfortunately I can’t demonstrate it to you now, but when we give the massage the children get riotous. [He waves his hand, chuckling.] But I think that’s enough for here. Let’s go on. The order is the model pool you saw a moment ago, then they go on to separate pools according to age. We don’t have too much time, so we’ll cut out all the intermediate stages and have you see only the final five-year-olds and the way they live. [Fade-out. Following scene. A pool about the size of an elementary-school classroom. About thirty children, half of them boys, are amusing themselves swimming freely around in the water. Rubber flippers are attached to their feet. They are the very image of average Japanese children, except for the strangely staring, unblinking eyes, the hair which floats about them like seaweed, the gill openings at the base of the neck, and the meager, narrow chest in proportion to the torso.

  A sound, like the scraping together of pieces of rusty metal, fills the whole area. A jungle of interlacing pipes hanging down from the ceiling and a number of pieces of wood floating on the surface of the water. Hoops to swim through and wall protuberances of complex, uneven shapes. Apparently playthings for the child
ren.]

  — The noise is the children gnashing their teeth. Aquans talk by gnashing their teeth. Their vocal cords have atrophied, but even if they had them, they would be useless in the water. They use a kind of Morse code, but the grammar is the same as Japanese so it’s possible to translate. The advantage is that you can talk with any instrument and not use your mouth at all. Two people can have an absolutely private conversation by tapping their fingers together. It is also possible to give a speech with one’s mouth full by tapping one’s foot on the floor. And with the written word too we have created symbols composed of vertical and horizontal lines. At the present time there are about eighty former wireless operators who are quite fluent in Aquan. And since we’re beginning to use a translating machine that functions with an electronic brain, we have come to the point of being able to provide them with a rather thorough education. Look, they’re all keyed up. An order is coming from the dispatcher.

  [The children stare in the direction from which signals are apparently emanating. Suddenly they rush toward the exit to the left, each struggling to be first. The camera follows them. Two women wearing aqualungs. One stands next to a large box. The other is apparently giving some kind of instruction by rubbing two sticks together. The children form a single line before them. One of the women takes from the box some objects about the size of ordinary books and passes them out to each child. One of the children who has received his portion suddenly sinks his teeth into it.]

  — It’s mealtime.

  [The woman holding the sticks strikes the eating child. It flees, gnashing its teeth.]

  — He was scolded because he behaved badly. We’re very strict on discipline. We don’t let them eat until they return to their room.

  -Was that child laughing just now?

  -Well, their emotional expression is somewhat changed. It’s not laughing in the sense we would think of it. The diaphragm has atrophied along with the lungs, so they can’t really laugh. What’s interesting is that they absolutely don’t cry. They couldn’t even if they tried. The tear ducts have disappeared along with other outer secretory glands.

  — Even though they don’t shed tears, is it different from crying in other ways?

  — As James said, man doesn’t cry because he’s sad; he’s sad because he cries. They have no tear glands for crying and so perhaps don’t even know the emotion of sadness.

  [A girl about to cross diagonally in front of the camera looks around in surprise. A small, tapering face with shining, wide-open eyes. She suddenly shows her teeth and makes a sharp noise, and, reversing direction, swims away.]

  — How cruel!

  — What did you say?

  — It’s too pathetic.

  — [Laughing.] That won’t do at all. You’re forcing yourself to feel sympathy by crediting them with your own feelings. It’s a waste of time. Let’s go on to the next. The model discipline for those over six years of age.

  — [From the television.] I’d like an intermission, if you don’t mind.

  — Yes, of course. We have to transport the camera by submarine boat since the location is some distance away. In the meantime, let’s have some light.

  An important report made by Tomoyasu, during the intermission, on the hypothesis concerning the end of Inter Ice Age 4.

  — I’m only a functionary, you realize, so I shall speak briefly and simply. Professor Katsumi is already aware of this, but again this morning there was a telephone call from the newspapers. It was about a Russian proposal for joint investigation into the activation of volcanic clusters on the Pacific floor. In fact, we have long ago finished this investigation with the co-operation of Mr. Tanomogi. Very likely the Russians have formed some general idea of what we know, but you know this is a part of their usual political bargaining.

  — Explain as simply as you can, cautioned Tanomogi.

  — Very well. In any event, since I’m a nonspecialist, I can only speak simply. It so happens that volcanoes over the entire Pacific floor are showing activity. The phenomenon, moreover, is apparently related to the abrupt changes in weather recently and particularly to the abnormally high summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Various explanations have been offered for some time now: sunspots, the increase in carbon dioxide brought on by the step-up in human energy output. But the phenomenon can’t be filed away so neatly.

  We know, of course, that the glaciers and the antarctic ice cap, vestiges of the Fourth Ice Age, are melting and that naturally the sea level is rising; but the rise does not follow our calculations. Like the preceding Third Ice Age that completely melted away in a thousand years. What I mean is this: Calculating that sea level will rise about three hundred feet, a number of countries have packed up their cities and factories and taken them to the higher plateaus. It’s disgraceful, but the government in Japan has simply disregarded the whole matter and let things run their course, perhaps because there are no plateau regions here.

  However, since the recent International Geodetic Year it’s become quite clear that the amount the sea level has risen far exceeds the rate of melting ice. By close to three times as much in fact, if we are to believe our calculations. Some scholars go so far as to say by three and a half times. When I think about it, I realize it’s impossible to explain this general sinking of the land by simply claiming it’s a decrease of subterranean water. It’s a case of sea water being recreated somewhere. Now subterranean volcanoes are beginning to be active on a large scale. Volcanic gas is almost all steam; the present sea water itself originally came from such gases. Perhaps it’s true, I don’t know, but it must be something like that.

  —And yet, judging from the increase in sea water, they don’t seem to be just little eruptions. Something stupendous is evidently happening. For instance, according to one new theory—of course, I’m just parroting the scientists—they claim that, originally, what we call earth came into being with the fusion and distension, by this volcanic steam, of places on the surface of the globe which were particularly rich in radioactive substances. As a result the inside is filled with hot, pulpy magma. With the passage of time, substance expands and at infrequent intervals becomes active volcanoes, but this is rather simplistic. Now as the crust gets thicker and thicker with lava, the weight increases and ultimately becomes unbearable, and the contents are suddenly ejected from the rim like a jelly doughnut squashed underfoot. Of course, such eruptions take place at the borderline of the sea floor and the land masses.

  An event like happens generally at the rate of about once every fifty to ninety million years and is apparently inevitable. When you look into it, you see that the areas around the Pacific coastal belt move strangely. This is a region of earthquakes known as the Pacific Fire Circle. Well, I honestly don’t understand it. If all is true, the rise in temperature and in sea level is not an inter-ice-age phenomenon but very likely the result of one of these great cataclysms that occur once in fifty million years. This is a run-down on the hypothesis about the end of the Fourth Inter Ice Age.

  When this hypothesis was first put forth—I don’t know where—various countries panicked and promptly dissolved the International Geodetic Year. The reason for their alarm was the notion that at some not so distant time several hundred times more volcanoes than at present will become violently active; and the sea water will immediately begin to increase rapidly, more than ninety feet every year. In forty years the increase will be over three thousand feet. It would be a catastrophe in the unlikely event this were made public. Public order and discipline would completely break down. Aside from Russia with its great expanses, Europe would be wiped out, and so would America except for the Rocky Mountains. As for Japan, they say there would remain only five or six isolated mountaintop islands. Until some sort of countermeasures are taken, it is the duty of the government not to inform the people.

  Every government decided not to meddle in the affairs of other countries in exchange for not being meddled with themselves. But since there are always constant shi
fts in governments, we could not be all that sure that the policy would go on. Consequently a kind of countermeasure committee, axed around financiers, came into being. And this subsequently developed into the Society for the Development of Submarine Colonies.

  ‘You’ve acted absolutely unfairly!”

  I felt as if some virulent acid had been poured into my stomach. Even the tip of my tongue became feverish. Was I really angry, or did I only think that I should be, or was I trying to use this provoking situation? I did not know, but I felt that at this point I must speak out at any risk.

  “If you knew all this . . . ,” I gasped, the muscles of my jaw so taut they would not obey me, “why didn’t you say so immediately? If I had known from the beginning, I would have reacted very differently.”

  “I wonder if you would have,” said Tanomogi sharply, looking up.

  “But of course I would have,” I cried, thinking to myself it was more of a scream. “Not saying anything about such a disastrous course of events is monstrous.”

  “I don’t think so. If I had brought up the events before, I think you would have floundered around, trying to cling more than ever to the existing state of things.”

  “But why?”

  “Because the collapse of the land would upset you.”

  “Well, it certainly has!”

  “And does it look as if the existence of aquans would help your anxiety?”

  I tried to answer, but I could not. I only wheezed as if I had a cold, like some little insignificant animal. The upper part of my body felt warm, but from my knees down I was curiously cold. It was quite as if death were creeping up from there.

  “And so,” said Tanomogi slowly, “I consider the business of the submarine volcanoes as something rather secondary.”

  “Why is that?” said Tomoyasu, extremely annoyed. “This isn’t just any inter ice age now, it’s the end of Inter Ice Age 4. Perhaps the beginning of a completely new geological upheaval.”