Ivan Cat - The Burning Heart of Night

The big man stood by the body. There were traces of blue-black stains on his neck, Jenette noticed.

Stains that would not scrub off. And there were gouges on his arms.

"Rough Sacrament?" she observed.

Burke nodded, clutching the fabric of the shroud, not wanting to let go. "The restraints broke. Wasn't his fault."

Jenette nodded. "Of course it wasn't...."

Silence for a while, and then:

"Why do you do this?" Burke asked. "I couldn't."

Jenette shrugged.

Burke persisted. "The dead ones aren't even part of your job."

Jenette shrugged again. "I drop them off. I pick them up. It's not a big deal." That was a lie. The truth was that Jenette made herself do it, no matter how hard it got. The problem would not get any better if she looked the other way.

Burke's lip quivered. "Good-bye, Trum."

Jenette studied the sky, embarrassed by the big man's grief.

When the tailgate closed, she looked back. "Come by the nursery tomorrow and pick up another domestic."

Burke was confused. "But you already gave me a... new friend for Rusty."

"Not for you, for Panya."

Burke was more confused. "But Panya doesn't need another domestic. Tengen's only on his first Sacrament."

"Don't argue," Jenette scolded. "This guy's the pick of the last raid. It won't hurt anyone if he doesn't enter the cycle for a while."

"Feral strong," Arrou agreed. "Bright light."

Burke began to see what Jenette was up to. "If he's so strong, there must be higher-ups in line."

"Screw the higher-ups. I don't see them pregnant." A lot of risk went along with having children on New Ascension. "Panya needs this Feral more than anyone else. His immune rating is very high. First Sacrament should be twice as strong as normal. Panya gets him."

Overcome with emotion, the big man scrubbed an arm over his eyes. "We owe you so much. I don't know how we'll ever repay you."

"You'll repay the whole Enclave with those babies."

"Panya and I were afraid to even try before you helped? "

"I don't want to hear it," Jenette cut in.

"But it's important," Burke persisted. His voice lowered and his hands clamped around Jenette's thin arms. "I want you to know I'm going."

"Burke," Jenette hissed, "not here!" She looked around. Fortunately, no one could see them.

"I want you to know that," he insisted. "I'm going with the envoy."

"No you're not," Jenette insisted back. "Panya's not going and you're not going either. You're going to be a father any time now. End of discussion."

A importunate voice from the house cut further argument short. "Burke? Burke?" it called. "Where are you? I need you."

"Coming," Burke called. Then to Jenette, "Whatever you decide. You can count on me." He hurried into the house. Rusty followed.

Shortly, Panya Hedren came out of the house wearing Burke's sloppy big boots. She was a rare quantity on New Ascension, just like her husband. Panya was a fully matured woman, even though she was the same age as Jenette. Womanly curves filled out Panya's short nightgown. Her bosom protruded, ripe and full. Her hips swayed, seductive and hypnotic. Lately, everything swayed and protruded more than normal due to the enormous distention of her pregnant belly. Panya got a lot of attention because of her good-looking body? and the danger that went along with it. Jenette felt distinctly boyish in comparison and Panya never let her forget it.

"Panya," Jenette said, "should you be out like this?"

Panya tossed her hair haughtily. "I never felt better, Jinny."

Jinny. Jenette gritted her teeth.

"Here," said Panya, "this is yours."

She handed Jenette a little black book. It was a stimpaper collection of Jenette's private prose? erotic prose. Jenette never intended it for public scrutiny. But, as dangerous as pregnancy was for females on New Ascension, the fluctuating testosterone levels associated with sexual activity were even more dangerous for males. Any change in the level of the hormone could trigger the onset of Scourge, and that knowledge often had a stifling effect on the male libido. In a concession to the greater needs of the Enclave, Jenette had loaned the book to Panya when she and Burke initially had trouble conceiving.

Panya's lip curled, ever so slightly. "I found it... innocent."

Jenette fumed at the jibe. Panya had conceived within days of borrowing Jenette's book. The innocent material must have had some effect.

"I made some notes," Panya continued, "to race it up a bit. Of course there's no way you could have known, but that kind of stuff is what really gets a man going."

The self-inflated, nose-in-the-air bitch had written in Jenette's book. Jenette wanted to strangle Panya.

The more Jenette bent over backward to help Panya, the worse Panya behaved in return.

Jenette did not understand it, but she reminded herself that Panya's arrogance was the very reason why she had risked a pregnancy in the face of such deadly odds. She simply did not believe she could die. Jenette, and every other New Ascension colonist, envied her that.

Jenette bit her lip. "Thanks."

Panya preened. "Thought I'd give you some pointers, for the future."

Tengen, Panya's present domestic, had followed her out He exchanged strobing signals with Arrou.

Panya shielded her eyes. "Stop that! It gives me a headache." Tengen obediently went dark. "Burke told me about the new domestic. He'll be flashing day and night," Panya complained. "I'll dust off the prod."

"He won't need the prod," Jenette said quickly.

"I always use a little prod at first," Panya intimated. "Lets them know who's boss." Her eyes skirted Trum's body on the crawler. Jenette didn't notice any sign of emotion.

Two more Sacraments would find Tengen wrapped in such a shroud. The new domestic would then advance to go through Sacrament with Panya. The cycle of exploitation would continue.

With Jenette aiding and abetting.

Panya winced sourly. She clutched her abdomen.

"Are you all right?" asked Jenette.

"Oh, fine, fine." Panya said suddenly sweating, but trying to keep a proud face. She glanced at the cottage. "I better get back. Just in case I need to use the personal, for the twelfth time today." With an affected wave of her wrist, she waddled hurriedly off. "Bye."

"Bye." Jenette climbed into the crawler, generally disgusted with recent events. "Come on, Arrou.

We're going."

Arrou hopped up to his place on the cowling. Jenette powered up and cranked the drive levers hard over. The crawler pivoted, right wheels going forward, left wheels backward, and then lurched into forward motion. But Jenette heard a telltale clink and stopped. Reaching back, she examined Trum's shroud. The coins had fallen together because of the vehicle's jostling.

Jenette adjusted the cloth so that the coins did not show and drove away.

The crawler idled. The fork to the left led toward the inner edge of the ring-island and the incinerator.

The fork to the right led to the political center of the Enclave, the great hall, and someone Jenette had skillfully avoided for weeks.

Her father.

A confrontation was coming that Jenette longed to avoid. She had hoped that the triumph of Panya's imminent births would lessen the mounting anxiety, but it had not. Rather, the meeting with Burke and Panya had crystallized Jenette's convictions? convictions that were diametrically opposed to those of her father.

The confrontation, of course, would center around Scourge.

Everything in Jenette's life revolved around that deadly pathogen. No plant or animal on New Ascension escaped its clutches, and she was no different. Every living thing on the planet was infested.

And, eventually? short of accidental death, conflict, or suicide? every living thing on the planet would die from it. The Scourge was diabolical in its evolution, able to shift its own genetic code as needed to infest plants, animals, even nonindigenous humans. It could lie dormant for years, preferring to attack after its host had reproduced, almost as if it knew that a pathogen that drove its host to extinction would soon be extinct itself. The Scourge was why everyone took hormone inhibitors, to forestall the dangerous condition of puberty and the reproductive readiness that went with it. The Scourge was why the men around Jenette feared sex and the women pregnancy. It was a terrible burden to the whole Enclave.