Phillip Jennings - The Runaways

“Anomalies? What’s that?” Peder asked.

“Bad kinds of changes.” Carmen shook her head. “Here’s the deal. We’ve got to go into exile. We’ve got to pull Hidalgo far into the outer system. But then we won’t get more customers for the institute. We’ll be too far away. It takes a long time to fly from Earth to the innermost asteroids. Then too, when we’re far from the sun, even our bucky-black albedo won’t keep Hidalgo warm and Earthlike. We’ll depend on solar mirrors in inner system orbits, and they can be sabotaged.”

Carmen sat forward and sighed heavily. “We’ve got to move, but moving will cripple our independence and put us out of business. We can’t figure a way out of our trap. Maybe the best thing is to give all our kids Cra 103, declare you cured, send you to other asteroids, and switch off our Higgs generator. That’s it, unless I think of something when I’m smarter than I am right now.”

“We could go to Earth,” Peder suggested.

“Immigration is forbidden. Immigration by kids whose parents went ahead and had seconds—you’d be put to sleep. It’s a gentle injection and a gentle euphemism. The fact is you’d be killed. Being on Earth makes you criminals.”

“We’d be super strong on other asteroids,” Michiko said.

Carmen agreed. “They’ll put you in quarantine until you adapt. It’s in the interests of public safety not to have bodybreakers on the loose. In ultra-low gravity one of two things will happen. You’ll waste down and become Ectos, just skin and bones. Or else you’ll put on masses of fat and become Endos. Either way you’ll live long unhealthy lives, with lots of medical intervention. Women don’t menstruate when they’re too thin or too fat. Sex can be difficult. Endo-Endo sex is often impossible. During your quarantine you’ll have your ovaries removed to save eggs for artificial reproduction. Have I said enough?”

“These are our only choices?”

Peder spoke up. “What’s wrong with closing the institute? When everybody’s smart we won’t need it anymore. We could move Hidalgo, and make it a colony, and just—well, farm or something.”

“Solar mirrors cost money,” Carmen said. “What can our colony produce to earn money to position a few dozen mirrors, so we don’t freeze?”

Peder looked at Carmen. “This problem is new to us, but it’s old to you. You and Doctor Moeller and all the others on the staff, you had this same talk. You wanted to find a way to make money. That’s why we’re here!”

“What are you talking about?” Hakim demanded.

Peder explained. “Now and again some medicine comes from Earth that the doctors don’t know about. They know how it’s supposed to work, but they need to try it on people. So which people? Us! They test it on us, and you watch to see what happens.”

“We don’t test every medicine that comes along,” Carmen said, looking from face to face. “We’re careful. Just medicines that promise good things for you. Now you’re smart, so that phase is over. Otherwise you’re right. You’ve been test subjects. That’s been your job for the last five hundred trifts. We got paid so much per head. Does this upset you?”

“We’ve got to move to other asteroids and become Ectos or Endos. Or else we test medicines for money. Or freeze. Or go to Earth where they want to kill us,” Olga summarized. “You should take Cra 103. Get smart enough to give us more choices.”

“It only seems fair,” Carmen agreed.

“One thing,” Peder persisted. “Us being upset? Why did you sound worried about that?”

“You can guess,” Carmen said. “Certainly Earth’s upset. You have important parents. We get money from them. We need more. We’ve needed more ever since business slacked off. We tried to be sneaky about the drug testing program, but some of those parents found out. From Earth’s view there are two Hidalgo problems. One; we’re getting too massive. Two; we’re being bad and victimizing innocent kids. Maybe we’re willing to do worse things to get money. It’s called survival, but on Earth it’s called blackmail.”

“You aren’t bad,” Hakim said.

“I’m glad you think so. Obviously we’re not perfect. There are ethicists on Earth calling for a rescue fleet to get you. The radio talks about musterings and activated units. We’re actually supposed to be worried!” She shook her head. “They’re too damn cheap. For a fraction of the cost of a fleet, they could subsidize us and we wouldn’t have a problem. That’s all we ask for.”

“Do we have guns?” Peder asked. “If they send a fleet we can fight them, like on those TV shows. We’re strong and we’re smart.”

Carmen reached to pat his butt. “Better a lover than a fighter. No, our armory is small. Cattle prods, kitchen knives—laughable. Anyhow, we’d be outnumbered.” She stood up. “Come along, Peder. All this nude pessimism is making me want to have a baby. Let’s go back to the nurse’s office.”

Behind the locked door of the nurse’s office, Carmen and Peder balanced on a narrow hospital-style bed. Eight minutes of daylight winked by, and twenty-one minutes of night. Another day came and went. Peder spent himself and rolled off to recover his energies. Despite the popcorn, his stomach growled with hunger.

Outside the window, a buggy puttered up to the commissary door. Carmen sat up and looked for her clothes. “Wash and go collect the others,” she told Peder.

The group helped unload the buggy. Back in the kitchen, Rachel provided an on-the-spot lesson in making hot porridge. “There’s been another final ultimatum from Earth,” she told Carmen.

“I’ve told the kids everything,” Carmen answered. “I can’t believe they understand it all, but that’s okay. I don’t either. They make the right noises.”

“Are they ready for schooling? Will they rebel again?”

“Yes. No. We want to learn,” Peder told Rachel. “We want to help Hidalgo.”

“Amazing,” Rachel said. “Quite a change from throwing rocks.”

“We’re sorry,” Michiko said. “It’s my fault.” Unexpectedly she started to cry.

“Could we have clothes again?” Olga asked.

“In less than a trift they’ve gone from preschool to late teens, in terms of the socialization of violence,” Carmen went on. She patted Michiko. “They’ve volunteered to fight any Earth rescue force. I think they’d try, if we let them. Maybe even if we don’t.”

“We could take Cra 103 twice, and get really smart,” Sanjay said. “Then we’d invent weapons like Doctor Zul-tar of Sky Force 9 on TV.”

“Uh-huh,” Rachel said. “It’ll be interesting seeing you try to enjoy your favorite videos, now that your intelligence has gone up so much.” She turned. “Olga, I’ll fetch clothes next trip.” She turned back to Sanjay. “No more medicine. Too many neural connections and your brain might get wired solid. Signals might jump every direction at once.” “If it’s dangerous for us, it’s dangerous for Carmen.”

Rachel looked to Carmen. “You told them about that too? This crazy ambition of yours? Jesus!”

To Peder, watching smart people argue was an education. Carmen answered: “I didn’t say I was going to take a dose, not unless it seems safe. But I’m not scared off by your ‘solid-brain’ metaphor. We’ve got a CD library of every kind of neural problem known to humankind. Where do you see these solid brains? You’ve made them up.”

“You call it invention,” Rachel said. “I call it extrapolation. In any case you promised to wait a hundred trifts. That’s minimum time for observing these kids.”

“Is Earth going to give us a hundred trifts?” Carmen asked.