1
Much of the time, especially after a protracted dry spell, there is not a well-defined channel of deeper water running out of the Noosa River. In those circumstances, a sand bar runs unbroken across the whole river mouth. This makes attempting a crossing, even on flat days, hazardous due to the shallow water. Many a keeled yacht has run aground and got stuck in the sand in those situations. Fortunately, there had been good rains prior to the arrival of the time shifters. The runoff swelled the river and flushed the built-up sand out to sea. A deep channel was gouged out across the western side of the bar. Going upstream, across what used to be known by the local fishermen as the ‘Frying Pan’, the channel crossed the river to the eastern side and then again to the western before opening out into deeper water.
Ben acted as pilot as Lloyd motored Mecca along the whole mouth of the Noosa River. He decided to use the diesel for the bar crossing because he felt that he would have finer control of the boat that way. They were literally in front of the dunes on the western side of the river before Ben instructed Lloyd to turn the boat shoreward.
It was virtually impossible to see the channel that day as there was no surf breaking across the bar and the afternoon sun was reflecting off the water.
‘I can’t pick the deep water,’ said Lloyd.
‘It’s there,’ said Ben, ‘but it’s tricky and not very wide. The channel turns left as soon as we get in over the sand bar.’
Eva adopted their standard routine for bar crossings. She stood on the bow wearing her Polaroids and guided Lloyd with hand signals.
‘It’s nice to give the diesel a run,’ said Lloyd nervously as his eyes darted from Eva to Ben to the depth sounder.
‘I think we’re past the worst of it,’ commented Alex, clearly not fully appreciating the tension of the moment.
‘I am glad that you are so calm about everything, Alex,’ said Lloyd. ‘I’d hate for anyone to panic.’
After a few minutes of very judicious motoring, they rounded one last bend and arrived in the sanctuary of the river proper.
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2
Like a wondrous vision from a faraway time the Raman tepees of the new settlement, located on the eastern bank about a mile upstream, seemed to glow in their own light in the blazing afternoon sunshine.
‘The spot where the settlement is located used to be called Munna Point,’ Ben explained. ‘There is a creek there, which enters Noosa River, called Weyba Creek.’
‘It looks like an Indian camp,’ said Sophia. ‘All the tents look like tepees.’
‘We call them wams,’ said Ben, ‘and the overall camp is called a dom.’
‘That sounds like the Slavic word for home,’ said Lloyd, ‘and wam sounds like an abbreviation of wigwam.’
‘The Rama have always been travellers and explorers since time immemorial,’ Ben explained. ‘No one knows how many times this planet has actually been discovered.
Certainly, the common words would suggest at least twice. As I understand it, Lloyd, Rama history fades darn near into infinity. You might find this hard to believe, but they are about to outlive their own star, their sun, which fortuitously has given birth to a new star, a new sun. We are not aware of any other people, in the totality of our explored universe, that have achieved such a feat.’
‘You amaze us, Ben.’ said Eva astonished.
‘I doubt that any of us could have even imagined such a thing,’ said Lloyd.
Suddenly everyone looked at Sophia. She smiled and said,
‘No, this is something beyond even my imagination.’
‘I’m shocked,’ said Alex.
‘I think we are all shocked. You see, Ben,’ said Lloyd looking at Ben, ‘Sophia is usually way ahead of the rest of us, especially with inconceivable concepts.’
‘They are all exaggerating, Ben,’ said Sophia chuckling. ‘I am just a simple waitress, that is all.’
The conversation reverted to the settlement as Mecca slowly motored up the Noosa River.
‘Do you see those tents just a bit further up the river?’ Ben pointed.
‘Yes,’ said Lloyd.
‘That is the American camp. They arrived in the big transporter ship parked across the river there. There is quite a story about three of them, but I won’t spoil it. I’ll let you
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find out when you settle in. Their story is as unbelievable as the one about the two suns of Rama.’
‘We shall await the telling of that tale with bated breath, Ben,’ said Eva.
‘Is that a horse?’ asked Alex pointing into the distance.
‘Affirmative,’ said Ben, ‘he arrived with the trio I just mentioned.’
As Mecca approached the dom they could see people waving to them. The crew waved back. There were happy faces everywhere.
Lloyd kept an eye on the depthsounder as they motored closer to shore. Eva positioned herself on the bow and prepared to release the anchor.
‘We must remember that it is high tide now and must thus anchor in slightly deeper water,’ explained Lloyd.
At this point of the river the current was running quite slowly, one to two knots at most. Lloyd positioned Mecca in the chosen spot, pointing upstream about fifty feet from the bank, slipped the propeller-drive into neutral and instructed Eva to ‘drop the pick, darling,’ which she dutifully did. He then let the boat drift backwards in the current until it took up tension on the anchor chain and the anchor bit into the sandy bottom. He shut down the diesel and declared, ‘she might swing a bit when the tide changes, or if the wind comes up, but she won’t touch anything … so we are here, we are at journey’s end.’
Everyone smiled and gave a rousing hooray.
Lloyd shook Ben’s hand and thanked him for ‘a fine bit of piloting’.
Ben said that it was his pleasure and then suggested that if they didn’t need him anymore, he would leave them and allow them to get themselves sorted out. They all watched him lift off the deck and fly the fifty feet over the water to the riverbank.
3
The dinghy, tethered to Mecca’s stern, was constructed by Lloyd out of Huon Pine.
He built both it and Mecca at the same time using the carvel technique. It is fair to say that they were both absolute works of art.
‘The first thing we will need to do,’ said Lloyd, ‘is unload most of the things out of the dinghy in order to make room for us. We can put everything up on deck.’
They brought the dinghy alongside, removed the tarpaulin and began unloading the cargo. Every now and then they would pause and one of them would glance around and say something vague in a pensive tone.
‘Well, here we are,’ said Lloyd.
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‘It’s a long way from where we used to be,’ added Eva.
‘Not just in distance, but in time as well,’ said Alex.
‘That is because of you,’ said Sophia accusingly.
‘Well, we’d all be a long time under the sod if it weren’t for the Ramans and their time chips,’ responded Alex.
‘I believe they refer to themselves as the Rama, not the Ramans,’ said Lloyd taking a long, almost hypnotic look at the white tepees just beyond the riverbank.
‘Their camp looks almost magical,’ said Eva dreamily.
Lloyd snapped them all out of their fancy, saying, ‘Let’s finish unloading the dinghy and then venture ashore and meet everyone.’
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Just prior to setting off in the dinghy, Lloyd thought that it might be a good idea to go over the names of the people they had already met.
‘So, first we met Adam and his son Ben, back in Watson’s Bay. Then we met Adam’s wife, er? …’
‘Ambriel,’ Eva remembered.
‘Yes, thank you, darling, Ambriel, what a lovely name. Then, down in Pittwater we met, er? …’
‘Zeke,’ said Sophia.
‘Yes, that’s right, Zeke. Thank you, Sophia. Zeke made the gravity sail for Mecca and came with Adam and Ben when they brought it from, er, I still have trouble coming to terms with this, er, Andromeda would you believe?’
‘He seemed a touch eccentric,’ said Alex.
‘I concur with that observation, Alex,’ responded Lloyd, ‘however that is par for the course for an inventor exploring the edge of the envelope.’
‘He must be doing something right to be living with a Rama family on their own planet,’ said Eva.
‘Yes, especially considering that virtually all the rest of his species are all extinct,’
said Alex rather dramatically.
‘Not us,’ Sophia whispered in a haunting voice.
‘Fiddle-faddle,’ said Eva. ‘Let us go and greet the future.’
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5
They came ashore right in front of the dom. Ben and Adam were first to welcome them ashore and they helped pull the dinghy out of the water. Ambriel hugged everyone and introduced them to Lucy and Kane. Noah was also there, having just brought the Americans across the Pacific the previous day. Adrian was visiting as well at that time. He was checking up on some of his time-shifted bird flocks. Zeke and Iapetus had just returned from a day trip to Rama. Iapetus flew Zeke back to his workshop in order that he might pick up two special gifts, one for the Mecca crew and another for the Americans.
The intention was to present them with these gifts at the gathering the following night.
When in Noosa, Zeke stayed with Lucy in their wam. Iapetus slept in the wam of the rising star, which Noah graciously vacated in honour of the great man.
Because it was so late in the day, the Mecca crew decided to sleep on the boat and set up their camp the following morning. They met all the Americans around the fire that night. Stories were swapped and friendships were forged, and a quite mind-expanding herb, which Adrian brought back from a planet called Canaba, was smoked. Even Sophia tried some. Much laughter and plenty of beautiful singing resulted, imbuing the nocturnal serenity with rapturous sentience.
…….
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