Paul Collins - Earthborn The

Sarah's face was oddly expressionless. "You're going to seed a new civilization?"

Again the eager nod, the bright eyes.

"Once you get rid of ours?"

Welkin barely heard her, still lost in the vision of his ancestors.

This kid has been infected with a dream, Sarah thought. And I must admit, it's the kind of dream that could inspire an entire people. Or create a race of murdering fanatics . . .

"I wondered why they were sending boys out to do adults' work."

"I'm fourteen!" Welkin said hotly. "And an ensign!"

Sarah grinned. "Adult status on Colony, maybe—but here you'restill a kid. You'll see what I mean when you meet others of your age. Refresh my memory. Why Tau Ceti?"

"Earth control detected a continuous signal indicating intelligence."

"So NASA picked up some beam back in 2010. The news made everyone happy. Just like when those guys first landed on the moon." She smiled at Welkin's frown. "You might think we're savages. But some of us have hoarded books and CRCs. Compact replay crystals. The Colony fiasco was well documented."

Welkin stared, perplexed. "Earthborn can read?"

"We can even tie our own shoelaces. Most people thought Colony was a myth, a way to make what was happening here less . . . awful. After all, if humans prospered around some other world, some new Earth, then maybe it didn't matter if this one died. A lot of cults sprang up. One bedraggled old visionary even said Colony would return one day and lead us from darkness. They stoned him to death. But I guess he knew something the rest of them didn't. Anyway, what happened to the aliens?"

Welkin shrugged. This was ancient history so far as he was concerned. "Colony discovered that the signal came from an automatic beacon left behind thousands of years ago by some unknown race."

"How come the ship crashed when you got here?" Sarah ducked beneath a low-hanging support beam. She was smiling.

Welkin thought she was being sarcastic, and pride flared within him. He wasn't going to let this Earthborn scum smear Colony's, reputation, no matter how badly they had treated him. He replied hotly,

"We weren't meant to survive in space for that long! We were a terraforming project. Nobody expected us to go all the way there and come back. We barely made it. Colony was constructed to become a ready-made habitable city for us when we landed on Tau Ceti III. But the return journey deteriorated that facility. Major systems have been cannibalized to bring us home."

Sarah snorted. "Your ancestors' prime objective, Welkin, was to populate the galaxy. That doesn't mean colonize one planet. It means found an empire. The fact that Tau Ceti III was uninhabitable isn'tan issue. Your people either hit a glitch in the cosmic program, or simply forgot their original directive and decided to hell with it, let's give up the ride and head on home."

"That's not true! This is our true destiny!"

"So you said. But pardon me for not giving a damn. The success of your 'destiny' seems to require the

failure of mine," Sarah said.

Welkin wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I might be degenerate scum, Skyborn, but I'm not stupid. And I know something of your history that you probably don't. Can't see your elders broadcasting the fact that the majority of passengers who gained berths on Colony did so through subterfuge and murder." Sarah bit her lower lip as she dug into old memories. "Most of those assigned to travel never made it."

"My ancestors?" His voice was filled with momentary doubt.

"Some changed their minds, some had their minds changed for them. The world was heading rapidly toward global warfare. Earth wasn't a good bet back then. Berths on Colony were priceless and black marketeers killed and maimed to gain them."

"Anything else?" His lips were compressed in a thin white line. Who did she think she was?

"Don't get uptight. This country was founded on convicts and it worked out pretty well. It's just a shame that such a promising idea— a spaceship full of specialists in every field of earthly expertise—

wound up taking more than its fair share of scum."

"Not everyone was bad."

"Maybe not, but it had enough bugs to make most of the barrel rotten."

"Degenerative genes have been bred out of Colony personnel," Welkin said firmly, though before he could stop it, a truly chilling thought intruded: But maybe not out of the elders . . .

"Seems like you got rid of morality at the same time." He was about to flare again. "Eyes open, Skyborn! We saw survivors of the crash escaping from the lower decks. Your people shot them in the back. Some of them were just kids."

Welkin wanted to deny her accusation, not because it was false, but because it made her despise the Skyborn. And for some odd reasonher opinion mattered to him. "They're rebels," he explained. "We had a mutiny at Tau Ceti. Not everybody wanted to come back to Earth. They didn't understand our destiny.

The mutineers that survived were confined to the lower decks. We've been battling them ever since."

"And crash-landing was supposed to wipe out the lower decks. Yeah?"

Her guess was disturbingly accurate. She didn't stop there, though. "You're a reject, too, aren't you?

That's why they sent you out." She watched his reaction carefully. "They don't care if you live or die.

They just want to know how dangerous it is. Am I right?"

"They'll take me back!" Welkin shouted. Tears of rage blinded him. "I'm Skyborn!"

"Nice try," Sarah said. "But your elders have fooled themselves about one thing. They're so bloated with arrogance, so convinced that we're completely vulnerable to their technology, that they've forgotten one of history's great lessons. Germs."

Lucida sprang to Welkin's mind. "We're healthy. Our hygienic drenches are fully operational."

Sarah shook her head. This kid was so raw it hurt. He'd be more than a handful to look after. In the pit of her stomach she knew she shouldn't take him under her wing. "I'm talking about viruses that Earthborn people are immune to but that your people probably have no immunity to. You ever heard of measles? It was a killer disease once."

Welkin brushed his face with his hand. It felt clammy, like it did when he was working in the hydroponic gardens. He kept well clear of the spiderwebs and the fungus-riddled walls.

Thought of hidden bacteria made Welkin squirm inwardly. This woman seemed so ... so omnipotent.

Like the elders. He wanted so badly to pull her down from her throne. "Maybe we've brought back something we're immune to that you're not."

Sarah tilted her head and stared at him. The look of wonder faded from her face. "That's one thought you'd best keep to yourself. The others? They're not so easy to get on with as me."

She smiled abruptly. "You'll be safe for the time being. Keep your mouth shut, Skyborn. And remember, eyes open!" She turned to go, then stopped. "One more thing, Welkin. I'm the only friend you have right now. Stay on my good side."

The tunnels wound around and around in an endless maze that made Welkin dizzy. The unevenness of the ground sprained his ankles, and he could feel them swelling inside his boots. He knew that taking the boots off would be a big mistake. Several times he banged his head on the low tunnel roof and felt blood

trickle warmly down his face.

It was a nightmare that never seemed to end. He was more tired than he ever remembered feeling.

Spent. His legs were leaden; lifting them, putting them down, lifting them again, was torment. All he wanted to do was rest. But he couldn't let this Earthborn show him up. He had to keep going.