Marooned on Eden

Just what is it that makes us human? Just what quality impels us out to the stars', to search for meaning in our cold universe, to struggle against entropy and discover the nature of things?

The scientists on the first mission to BfSrnard's Star and Rocheworld thought they knew. They were confident, secure people. They had to be to have made the cut on the stringent psychological testing required."And they were at home exploring the galaxies, at home on Rocheworld with its alien mathematical genius natives, the flouwen-at home because they had all the trappings of a million years of human technological innovation with them.

But what would happen to them if they lost their safety net of computers and gadgets? What would happen if they were—

MAROONED ON EDEN

Cover Art by David Mattingly

Paperback
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, August 1993

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Typeset by Windhaven Press, Auburn, N.H.
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-72180-0
ISBN-10: 0-671-72180-1

Copyright© 1993 by Robert L. Forward & Martha Dodson Forward

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank the following people, who helped us in several technical areas: Julie Fuller, Seichi Kiyohara, and Gordon T. Baker, M.D.

The "Christmas Bush" motile was jointly conceived by Hans P. Moravec and Robert L. Forward, and drawn by Jef Poskanzer using a CAD system.

All final art was expertly prepared by the great gang of graphic artists at Multi-Graphics in Marina Del Rey, California.

I was feeling most upset. Intruders were disturbing my people's territory—and one of my eyes was late . . .

The mid-day darkness was fast approaching. All my eyes, but one, were back in their nests tucked underneath my fronds, feeding me the views they had gathered. I retired into my mind to revise my worldview. The new views coming from my eyes now contained images of strange four-limbed creatures. Somehow, the creatures managed to balance on just two limbs and didn't fall down!

My attention was next drawn to a circle of stones that surrounded the yellow horror of a fire that was blazing away in the center. These strangers must be intelligent indeed to be able to control fire!

One of the strangers was holding a stick over the fire. Impaled on that stick were a few chunks of something. The creature pulled one of the chunks off the stick and raised it to its naked mouth. I moved my view closer. Then, with revulsion and horror, I recognized the triple-jointed structure of meat and bone, and the few still-unplucked blue-green pinfeathers on the skin  . . .

The creature was eating one of my eyes!

Other Books in This Series

Rocheworld

Return to Rocheworld
(with Julie Forward Fuller)