Mary Rosenblum - Horizons

Engoko sighed.”We reviewed the videos of the autopsy of the creature.”

Dane stood, pushing against the crushing weight of this world. It wasn’t gravity, he thought. It was the accumulated weight of millennia of xenophobia and genocide. “That was not a creature,” he said softly, aware of the collar around his neck, hands at his sides. “I named her Aliya. She had a name for herself, but it wasn’t a word, rather an image and a feel. I suppose in English, I would translate it as Joy. She was twelve years old. She liked to play tag, and she loved flowers. She wove blossoms together into intricate sculptures. Just because they were beautiful and they gave her pleasure. I was there when she was born, and I watched her learn to get around on her own in the microgravity of the hub garden of NYUp.”

He paused for breath, his eye traveling along the table. Some of the committee looked down, refusing to meet his eye. The Indian woman and Engoko both met his gaze.

Engoko nodded. “I would like to hear what you have to say about these people.” She did not hesitate before the word “people.”

Dane nodded. He began at the beginning, repeating the history of Koi’s family as he had explained it to Ahni. He recounted his own doubts about their origins, his DNA scans, the rapid evolution he had observed. “In a handful of generations, they have changed a lot,” he said thoughtfully. “They are almost entirely telepathic now, although they use speech if they have to. Nearly all of them will talk to me in English. They are highly intelligent and learn quickly when they choose to.” He lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know where the changes will end. They are biologically adapted to microgravity. Their circulatory system depends apparently on venous peristalsis and ciliated cells for fluid movement in non venous spaces.

Their bones are to some degree cartilaginous and flexible. I don’t have the equipment at hand to do molecular assays, but their circadian rhythms seem to run to a thirty hour cycle. From the notes I’ve kept, I’m guessing that the cycle is lengthening, that it was no more than twenty-eight hours when I first encountered them. They are… playful for the most part. I have never seen a single instance of interpersonal violence among them. If you transport them down to the planet’s surface, they won’t survive long.” His last words dropped into a vast silence.

After a moment, Engoko stirred.”What is your opinion, Mr. Nilsson,” she said, her expression severe.

“What are they?”

He met her eyes. “The next evolutionary step for Homo sapiens.” The table erupted in a babble of conversation. Dane made no attempt to listen to the individual conversations. He didn’t need the words to follow the flow of the debate. We do not like the other , he thought heavily. He raised his eyes, found Engoko looking at him, and the pity in her eyes confirmed the flow of the discussion. I am sorry, Koi, he thought. I am so sorry for all of us.

Engoko turned her head sharply, as if someone had called her name. Tilted her head in a listening posture, eyes narrowing, then lifted a hand. The room fell silent.

“I have just received a request.” Her eyes slid briefly toward Dane. “Chou Zhen, Chairman of China has requested to present evidence before the Committee as an interested party.”

A low murmur made its way around the table.

“He understands that this is outside of the usual procedures, but claims that the evidence he has to offer has only recently come into his hands.” Engoko spread her hands, palms up. “I see no reaason to refuse him.”

“I do.” Gallic man bounced to his feet. “China thinks it can throw its weight around any time it chooses.

The rules of procedure are clear and they apply to all nations and alliances equally. China needs to abide by those rules the same as the smallest island state.”

“Are we concerned with protocol here?” Engoko’s tone was icy. “Or are we concerned with justice…

which may be served by the evidence Chou Zhen holds?”

“Perhaps your country needs to bow and scrape to China, but we don’t.”

Engoko said nothing, but after a moment or two, Gallic man broke their locked stare and looked down at the desktop. “We don’t need this,” he growled. “I think we’re all ready to vote.” He looked around the table for confirmation, but only two members nodded. “Fine.” He flung himself back in his chair, tight lipped.

“Please invite Mr. Zhen to bring his evidence into the chamber,” Engoko said pleasantly.

A door slid open and they all looked toward it, expectantly. Dane’s eyes narrowed as the Chairman of China’s huge empire strode through the door. He was a hand’s-width shorter than his son, and something about his face caught Dane’s eye. He reminded him of someone–Ahni, he thought. It was something about his eyes and the shape of his cheekbones. The Chairman carried a small child, his legs wrapped around the Chairman’s waist, sitting astride the Chairman’s hip. He was dressed in a ceremonial jacket and pants of thick brocaded silk, a rich crimson embroidered with gold-thread dragons. An embroidered cap covered his head and he buried his face against the Chairman’s shoulder.

The Chairman stopped beside Dane’s chair and with a murmured word, the boy slid to the floor, to lean against the Chairman, clutching his hand in both his small, long-fingered hands. Dane looked at the long fingers, too long, eyed the delicate bones of the boy’s face and caught the faintest milky translucence of his corneas as the boy looked curiously up at him.

The Chairman bowed to the Committee. “I have read the summmary of the case before you that was published for Council members,” he said in crisp, perfect English. “You do not have all the facts before you.”

“So you tell us.” Engoko bowed her head a hair less than the Chairman had bowed his.”What facts do you wish to present to us?”

”You have a limited data set as regards the DNA origins of the female whose body was brought to the Council by the Council’s forces,” Zhen said in crisp, perfect English. “I wish to add to that data set.”

“Proceed.” Engoko inclined her head again.

Without another word, Chou Zhen bent and gently unfastened the carved ivory buttons of the boy’s silk jacket. He removed it, then unfastened the stiff, brocaded pants and the boy grabbed his hands and with a grin, hopped out of the heavy outfit. The crimson silk folded to the floor and for a moment, the boy swung lightly from Zhen’s hands, wearing nothing but a pair of underpants as the Chairman lowered him gently to the floor. He stood barefoot, smiling shyly, his dark eyes glazed with as if with frost. His limbs looked too long for his skinny torso and his long toes splayed across the floor.

Soft intakes of breath punctuated a rapt silence.

“This is my grandson, Ren Zhen.” Chou Zhen spoke quietly as he lifted the cap from Ren’s hairless scalp, but his voice filled the well of silence. “He was born to my son Li Zhen and Jin An, an administrator in our orbital colony. I have submitted a detailed analyysis of the DNA of both parents and the child for your examination. There has been no contamination of this child’s genetic material. This child has had no contact with the man on trial before you today.” He did not look at Dane.

Dane smiled at the boy. “I know someone who would play with you,” he said softly, thinking of Koi.

The boy looked at him and smiled, and Dane caught a fleeting image of Koi and one of his sisters somersaulting in a dark space. The images were a bit warped with a child’s perspective, but he reccognized Koi for sure. Felt the boy’s happy smile. The boy tottered over to him, his steps uneven, clambered into Dane’s lap. Dane felt Chou’s brief, intent scrutiny, ignored it. The boy’s curiosity cascaded through him. He probably didn’t speak English, Dane thought, so he envisioned the hub garden, the tubes of peppers and bok choi and spinach. Felt a happy burst of recognition, and then the boy showed him the scenes back, but with Koi and his family present. He had been in the garden. Dane itched to know just what had happened. Realized suddenly that the room had fallen absolutely silent.