Ben Bova - New Earth

“I … I’d like to hear what the rest of us have to say,” Brandon temporized. “Mitch, what about you?”

“I’ll go into the city with Jordan, I will. I want to learn about their energy shields.”

Longyear raised his hand. “I’ll go, too. I want to see how their biolab works, how they created people from DNA samples they snitched from Earth.”

“And their astronomers,” Elyse added. “I want to see the evidence they have for this gamma blast.”

Brandon turned to Meek. “Harmon, what about you?”

“I’ll stay right here, thank you,” Meek replied primly. “We shouldn’t all put ourselves in the lion’s mouth.”

From the screen Hazzard said, “For what it’s worth, all the ship’s systems check out fine. We can light up and leave whenever we want to.”

Jordan shook his head. Maybe you can, Geoff, he said silently. But if you try to, I don’t think you’ll be able to get away.

The meeting broke up. The eight men and women got up from the table and left the dining area in groups of two or three, talking among themselves. The display screen went dark. Meek drew himself up to his full height, cast Jordan a scornful look, and walked out alone.

That’s a good sign, Jordan thought. Neither Longyear nor anyone else is going with him.

As Brandon and Elyse passed him, heading for the doorway, Jordan jabbed a finger against his brother’s shoulder. Hard. Brandon wheeled toward him, scowling.

“I didn’t expect that from you, Bran,” Jordan said, his voice halfway between a whisper and a growl.

Brandon’s face flashed surprise, then disdain. “Tell the truth, Jordy, how much of the story they fed you would you have accepted if you weren’t sleeping with Aditi?”

“That’s got nothing to do with it!”

“Doesn’t it? For all you know, she was cooked up in that biolab of theirs just to snooker you into believing whatever they tell you.”

Jordan’s hands balled into fists. But before he swung at his brother, he saw Brandon reflexively flinch back and put up his hands to protect himself.

Elyse cried, “Jordan, don’t!”

Very deliberately, Jordan relaxed his hands. Taking a deep breath, he said, “We shouldn’t be enemies, Bran. You’re my brother. We should be able to settle this as intelligent men, not street brawlers.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that,” Brandon agreed, shakily. But then he went on, “I still think that you’re prejudiced in their favor, though.”

“Perhaps I am,” Jordan admitted. “But if what they’re telling us is true, if only half of it is true, the whole human race is in grave danger.”

Elyse said, “But they’ve promised to help us.”

“For a price,” said Brandon. “And I’m not sure we’ve heard what their real price is.”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Jordan insisted.

“By going to the city,” Brandon muttered.

Early the next morning, Jordan, Thornberry, Longyear, de Falla, and Elyse Rudaki—with Brandon sitting hip to hip beside her—piled into one of the buggies for the drive back to the city.

Longyear drove. As they started out, Jordan thought, Bran doesn’t like me sleeping with Aditi, but he’s practically welded to Elyse. Can’t say I blame him. Even in the drab once-piece jumpsuit she was wearing, Elyse’s generous figure was eye-catching.

As he expected, Adri was standing at the edge of the stone walkway that circled the city, stroking his furball of a pet. The animal gazed at their approaching buggy with big, round, solemn eyes. Adri’s expression was almost the same, although as Longyear braked the buggy to a halt he broke into a warm smile.

“Welcome friends,” Adri said, slipping the pet into the folds of his robe.

As they piled out of the buggy Thornberry stepped up to Adri and asked, “Do you truly consider us your friends, Adri?”

Blinking with astonishment, Adri answered, “Yes, of course.”

“All right, then. I want to know how those energy shields of yours work. I want the whole story, even the basic physics behind ’em.”

Adri nodded solemnly. “Of course.” Turning to Longyear, he said, “And you want to learn about our biology.” To de Falla, “Geology, I believe.” To Elyse, “Astronomy, I know.”

Elyse said, “I want to see your evidence for the gamma burst you told Jordan about.”

“That can be easily arranged. For the rest of you, I’m afraid you’ll have to subject yourselves to a rather intense education.” And he turned and started to walk into the city.

Thornberry moved up alongside him, his bulky body more than twice Adri’s slim frame, although Adri was several centimeters taller. As usual, Thornberry wore a rumpled shirt that hung over his loose, comfortable slacks. Jordan, trailing behind them, thought of Thornberry as a sloppy, overgrown child, Adri as an orderly, wise old grandfather.

“Intense education, is it?” Thornberry said. “How long will it take?”

“A few hours, perhaps a bit longer.”

Longyear, on Adri’s other side, gasped, “A few hours ? How much can we learn in a few hours?”

“Quite a lot, if the equipment functions properly. It always has, but then we’ve only used it on ourselves. You are genetically similar to us, of course, your brains are structurally and functionally similar. Yet—”

Jordan realized what he was trying to explain. “Adri, are you saying that you can download the information directly into our brains?”

“Yes, very much the way you downloaded your own memories when you were revived from cryonic stasis.” Before anyone could say anything, Adri went on, “Or is it uploading? I’m afraid I get the two terms confused.”

“You can download a physics education into my brain? In a few hours?” Thornberry asked, incredulous.

“Yes,” Adri replied. “That’s the way we learn, through direct neural stimulation. You have similar systems.”

“They’re illegal,” said Thornberry.

Adri stopped walking and looked at Thornberry, clearly puzzled.

“But you used your ship’s computer to store your memories while you were in flight, and then downloaded them back into your brains.”

Jordan stepped between Adri and Thornberry. “What Mitchell is trying to explain is that on Earth such direct brain stimulation is forbidden.”

“But why?” Adri asked, clearly perplexed.

“There’s too much of a chance that unscrupulous people would use it to manipulate others, to plant false information in their minds, get them to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do.”

“Unscrupulous people,” Adri murmured, as if it was a new concept to him.

“Salesmen, for example,” Jordan said.

“Politicians,” Thornberry added. “And religious zealots.”

Brandon pushed his way into the discussion. “Our shipboard system is an exception to the law. We had to get approval from the World Council.”

“I see,” Adri said. “I understand.”

Brandon said, “I’m not sure that we should allow ourselves to be subjected to your direct brain stimulation.”

Adri’s seamed face eased into a bitter smile. “You are afraid that I might be one of those unscrupulous people.”

As they walked through the city, Adri tried earnestly to convince Thornberry and the others that their fears were unfounded.

“I assure you, the neural stimulation will be restricted to the subjects you are interested in. Physics, for you, Dr. Thornberry.” Turning to Longyear, he continued, “Biology for you. And for Dr. de Falla—”

“Nothing for me,” de Falla snapped. “Not until we can be sure that you’re not going to brainwash us.”