Steady noise to her right brought her attention to the valley. A large flood had rushed through the narrow canyon and, striking the eastern hills, piled up in a vast mound. The fluid hill sagged and ushered a furious tongue of brown water northward, covering the entire valley with its turbulent carpet. The massive DFC, lifted from under its blanket of boulders by the powerful inundation, tossed about like a plastic toy, smashing into a cliff, twisting around a rocky spire, lifting halfway up the backside of the hill only to be yanked back down again, tumbling, the insistent water slapping the disintegrating vehicle’s body across wet boulders, finally coming to rest spinning upside-down in the middle of a newly-formed valley lake.
Amberle, shaking with fright, stared at the sinking hovercraft, realizing that if she hadn’t been able to exit, she would have died.
Freezing, Amberle huddled between Wes and Sarah under a sturdy overhang. Lightning had forced her stranded class from the top of the hill to the hastily located rock overhang. Constantly pulsing off to her right, the bolts struck frequently enough to make a continuous thunder. The sky glowed dimly, gently illuminating a light mist of dirty water.
“Are we going to get rescued?” asked Dave, looking worried.
John, looking at his wristcom, said, “As soon as this lightning and muddy rain stop. Our GPS is still on-line.”
“What about Seaside?” said Wes. “Wouldn’t the waves be as big up there?”
Mom and Dad! Amberle looked at John expectantly, as did many classmates.
“The tsunamis are going to be big, but nothing like the three we have just seen.” He paused, contemplating the waves. “The colony should be OK.”
Amberle wasn’t so sure of his assessment. She hoped her parents were safely away from home.
John glanced at their worried faces. “Even if Seaside is damaged by the tsunamis—the waves haven’t hit up there yet—our friends and families have had plenty of time to evacuate inland to Ridgecrest.”
Amberle felt better after hearing his words. Nevertheless, her continued shivering wasn’t entirely due to cold, wet clothes.
“I suggest that we all try to get some sleep,” said Sarah. “Staying up all night worrying isn’t a good thing.”
Unable to forget how close the wave came to consuming her, Amberle couldn’t put her mind to rest.
Nudging Wes, she said in a whisper, “I’m glad you saw me in the canyon. I was worried that you were hurt, and wasn’t thinking about the wave.”
Wes grinned, though not very enthusiastically. “I almost reached bottom when the fireball flew overhead. The quake knocked some rocks down, but none hit me, and I climbed back up.”
She nodded, remembering the landslide which had easily flattened the rear of the hovercraft.
“Thanks for looking for me, Amberle.”
“I sure gave John and Sarah a scare!”
“Things turned out OK.”
She nodded, still feeling guilty.
Warm puffs of air drifted into the shallow cavern, carrying a thick pall of fine, dry ash. The sky darkened to a more normal night and the temperature increased sharply. Lightning occasionally hit close enough to light up the dust shrouded sky, producing muted rumbles of thunder.
Amberle looked at John, barely able to see his face. He said quietly, “The cooling air and ejecta originally heated by the fireball are falling back down.” Anticipating her next question, he said, “Fortunately we’re several hundred kilometers from the impact site, giving the material plenty of time to cool.”
Satisfied, Amberle leaned back and watched the flickering electricity outside. Feeling much more comfortable in the warm air, she drifted into a fitful sleep, one full of dreams about running from strange fireballs that exploded into halos of cold water, fleeing a drowning Seaside, and witnessing entire mountains moving on their own accord.
Brilliant light caused Amberle to wake up with a start. Another fireball? She looked across the valley to see a hazy orange sun lifting above the grass-covered eastern hill. Morning!
Feeling relieved, she glanced at her resting classmates to see if anyone had awakened. Realizing that something had changed, she looked down at the valley. Blinking her eyes at the bright, fresh green, she exclaimed, “What happened?”
Her voice woke others, including John. He looked at her. “Hm?” Noticing the overgrown basin, he reached over and gently pushed Sarah awake. “Take a look at that,” he said as he rubbed the sleep and dust from his eyes.
Sarah stared downhill. A coat of fine dust billowed from her clothes as she stood. She stumbled outside, squinting in the sunlight. “I don’t believe it!”
Wincing from a soreness in her legs, Amberle stood and walked out with Sarah. She felt refreshed by a green view much more soothing than the harsh landscape of yesterday. John followed, with many other kids silently trailing, staring wide-eyed at the unexpected gift.
The vegetation reached about halfway up the hill, producing a stark line of green below the brown-gray upper slope on which they stood.
Amberle ran ahead, sliding down the loose rock and into the thick grass like plants. “How wonderful!”
She squatted and ran her hands through the cool knee-high lawn, noticing many other plants growing between the stems, some with spiral flower stalks lifting above the covering blades, and others with small, flat, ground-hugging leaves.
“I count at least seven different types of plants here,” commented Sarah, as she wandered through the instant park, “all unclassified, though one may be representative of the dead plant we found last evening.”
Amberle remembered the root she discovered yesterday, and quickly made the connection. “That’s what I was going to show you! While climbing, I found a strange root in the hillside.”
Sarah looked thoughtful. “So these plants were here all along, and we didn’t see them because they were dormant?”
Amberle nodded, saying, “And when the flood arrived,” she pointed to the small, reed-lined ponds that remained, “it helped them grow.” She traced the line of plants growing on the opposite ridge with her finger. “See how the plants are growing up to the level the wave reached?” She noticed that John had ushered the class around Sarah and her, urgently whispering for her peers to listen. She felt embarrassed by the attention and stood rigidly.
“It seems certain that the sea water induced the growth.” Sarah looked at John incredulously. “Our earlier hypothesis doesn’t seem to be correct considering this discovery.”
He said, “Goliath’s plants seem quite capable of utilizing salt water.” Amberle felt something on her arm. She looked down and saw a dark beetle-like creature crawling toward her sleeve. “Not just plants!” she exclaimed, gaining their attention.
Sarah gave the pseudobeetle a surprised stare. “Animals?”
“And not only this one.” Fearing a bite, she brushed the creature off her arm. “I also ran into some large eggs down in the canyon, buried in the hillside.”
“I think,” said Sarah, looking intently at the group, “that we’ve discovered an entire ecology that is dependent on tsunamis for survival.”
John said, “Since little rain falls here, these organisms have developed a method of survival by using the next best thing.” He looked at the class. “Apparently the impact-generated floods occur frequently enough to be crucial to life forms.”
John glanced at Amberle. “I think we have found a good debating point for convincing the council not to deflect large asteroids. This entire ecology would be threatened. We can’t deliberately destroy an ecosystem, according to the charter.”