Нэнси Кресс - Terran Tomorrow

Like, for instance, mammals.

No, he did not at all want to discuss that possibility, not until he and Toni had found a way around it. Horizontal gene transfer of a drive that interfered with reproduction—that would be a zebra fatal enough to do what RSA had not, ending human life on Earth.

Unthinkable.

Kill all the birds? Was killing all that these Terrans ever thought about?

Disgust flared Jane’s nostrils, knotted her stomach as she rushed along the corridor. World was not like this. Every small child knew that each species needed the rest, that all of Mother Nature was a harmonious whole and could no more function smoothly, optimally, than could a human body if you cut off its arm. And if what you sliced out was not a limb but a liver or heart…

And she had liked Zack McKay. How was he different, really, than the Gaiists who’d tried to kill humans? Were human lives so much more valuable than birds? The hawk she’d seen from the quadcopter, swooping over meadows and forest—wasn’t it sentient to some degree?

Murder. The soldiers with their weapons, the scientists with their genes. All Terrans were so—

No. Not all. Colin Jenner and his group were different. When Jane had looked at Colin, she’d seen a Kindred, not a killer. Although he let the babies at his dome die—but he did not make that decision—

“Jeg^faan!”

Glamet^vor¡ stopped her headlong race to the privacy of her sleeping room. He was a convenient target for her anger and confusion. “Don’t call me that name! I told you!”

“I greet you, Jeg^faan,” he said, not courteously.

“Let me pass, please.”

“You are becoming as demanding as the Terrans. I—”

“Jane!” A shrill, grating voice behind her. Jane went immobile, but this World signal for privacy did not stop Kayla Rhinehart. Nothing stopped Kayla.

“I want to talk to you, Jane!”

“I greet you, Kayla.”

“Yeah. Whatever. I heard that you—”

“This is Glamet^vor¡.”

“Hi. I heard that you went to Colin Jenner’s Settlement!”

“I did go there, yes.” Kayla’s eyes looked almost as big as a Worlder’s, although of course they were not, and too shiny. She had been given some sort of Terran medicine for her crying sadness—had the medicine made her like this, talking too fast and unable to stay still? If so, maybe the sadness was better. More human.

Kayla breathed, “What is it like? Tell me everything!”

“It’s a farm. Everyone is RSA survivor so no person wears esuits. They have a dome but the airlocks are open except of attacks. They live very simple. No weapons, no killing animals. They—”

“It sounds like Eden!”

Jane didn’t know what that was. She said, “But children—”

“What is Colin Jenner like? Is he handsome?”

“I am sorry, I don’t know that word but—”

“Is he good to look at?”

Jane saw again Colin’s smiling, expressive face, his strong hug to his chilly brother, the affection in his eyes for Marianne. The way he’d gazed at Jane. “Yes. He is good to look at.”

“Mated?”

“No, I don’t think… no one said…”

“I hate living in this dome,” Kayla said. “It’s worse than World.”

“It is different. But Colonel Jenner is trying to—”

“He’s the worst thing about this fucking place!”

Jane was silent. Her head ached. She wanted to be alone to think.

Kayla said, “Colin Jenner’s dome sounds wonderful. How far away is it?”

“I don’t know. We went in a flying machine.”

“A plane? A helicopter? A dirigible—what?”

“I don’t know those words.”

“I wish it wasn’t so hard to talk to you!” Kayla flounced off.

Glamet^vor¡ said in World, “What did you and Kayla say?”

Jane didn’t want to repeat the entire pointless conversation, nor talk about Kayla’s mental condition. “My head hurts, Glamet^vor¡. Excuse me, please.”

“My head hurts, too.”

That caught her attention. Were the Worlders becoming sick with some Terran microbe? She said swiftly, “Do you know if my father or La^vor or Belok^ have headaches, too?”

“I don’t know. You were talking with Kayla about Colin Jenner.”

“Yes. Glamet^vor¡, I must go. Where is my father?”

“In the other dome, you can’t go there without an esuit and ‘military escort.’ Fah!”

La^vor and Belok^ weren’t at the other dome. They were here. Jane pushed past Glamet^vor¡, but he caught at her arm. “When you said ‘Colin Jenner,’ you didn’t look like your head ached.”

What? How had she looked? Jane felt warmth rise from her neck through her face, and knew that her blush was only making things worse. She broke free of Glamet^vor¡’s hand and went to the tiny sleeping room shared by the three World siblings, their own small lahk.

La^vor and Belok^ weren’t there. But there were only a few other places where they could go. Jane began to search, hoping that both of them felt fine, that her own headache and Glamet^vor¡’s were due merely to the newness and tension of everything in this terrifying, fascinating, always tense world.

All at once the dome exploded into activity. Soldiers ran toward airlocks. Lindy Ross tore out of the corridor leading to sleeping rooms, followed a moment later by more people and a robot carrying heavy medical equipment. From another direction, Claire Patel sprinted past.

“Claire!” Jane called. But no one answered.

The Return had landed.

Jason hadn’t been sure that Branch Carter, who admitted that he didn’t understand the alien ship, would be able to follow Li’s directions to land on an upland meadow a mile from the signal station. Carter wasn’t, after all, a trained pilot, not even for Terran craft. But Carter had succeeded, and Jason and Li slapped hands in a high-five gesture that Jason hadn’t made since the Collapse. Jason was surprised that Li, younger, knew the high-five at all.

Jason spoke to the Return through the comsat; communication was so much easier with New America’s comsat out of commission and unable to pinpoint their location.

“Lieutenant Allen, are you also able to lift and land the Return ?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. You, Carter, and Specialist Martin will remain aboard. Dr. Jenner says she needs some supplies and specimens from the ship. I’ll send a FiVee to pick up whatever Carter thinks the scientists will need, everything suitably protected from contamination.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And then—”

Jason’s earplant erupted into sound. “Colonel Jenner, Hillson here. Perimeter received a report of an attack on the Colin Jenner Settlement at the coast. New America ground troops. Play recording?”

“Yes. Allen, stand by.” Jason’s guts twisted. He’d insisted on providing Colin with radio equipment to contact the base if necessary. Reluctantly Colin had agreed to leave it hidden in woods beyond a bean field. The equipment had never been used before. Contact now meant that at least one person was outside the dome and that the attack was severe.

The recording came on. A woman’s voice, shrill and terrified, gunfire in the distance. “They’re here! They’re shooting at us, at everybody who couldn’t get to the dome in time… some people are dead—please come help! Please! Help us! They—”

A burst of automatic fire, deafeningly loud, and a dull thud. She was gone. Then Hillson’s voice. “Sir?”

“Any more intel? Did anyone on site say how big the attack force is?”

“No. That recording is all there is.”

Jason couldn’t risk quadcopters; New America had shoulder-launched missiles. He said, “Load the FiVees with two lockers of C-11w’s. Full complement of both infantry and medical. Have them drive to that flat place by the river three miles from the dome, unless New America is too close to there. If so, have them stop farther away at some largely open area and wait.”