Building Harlequin’s Moon (15 page)

Kyu Ho continued. “We grow a number of things here that you don’t yet have on Selene. Some will never grow there—they need different gravity, or different lighting, or are just too hard to alter for a semitropical environment like Selene’s. You’ll be here at least three months—you’ll study in a jungle area we’ve designed as close to what we’re trying for on Selene as we can get in this small a space.”

Small?
Rachel thought.
This place is huge. Where the river runs, it must be as wide as the whole ship!

A tall dark-haired man came in the door and Kyu excused herself. Rachel sat at the table and experimented with the melty bread. Even berries were fatter and juicier here. Where was Gabriel? Why did Kyu seem so interested in her? If she was above even Gabriel (
even
Gabriel!), why was she spending time with Rachel? What did they really want? Why bring Rachel here?

Rachel’s speculation was interrupted as a slender woman nearly Rachel’s height sat down opposite her. She
was formally dressed, white pants and a white shirt, with long straight black hair and flat-oval brown eyes. Her clothes had no decorations at all. Her stare made Rachel feel as if she had done something wrong. Instinctively, Rachel looked for Kyu Ho. She was still involved in an animated conversation with the tall man, her back to Rachel.

“So . . . a child appears,” the woman said.

“Excuse me?”

“A Child of Selene. Now we’ll see what we made.”

Rachel didn’t like the woman’s tone. She reached a hand out. “I’m Rachel.”

“High Councilwoman Ma Liren.” The woman did not take her hand. “I’ve been looking forward to the opportunity to study you.”

Another High Council member? “Everyone seems to study me.”

“Hasn’t anyone told you anything? You are the ambassador for the Children of Selene.” Her eyes narrowed. “My job will be to evaluate you—to see if you can, in fact, help us. So I’ll be watching you. Be sure you mind what you’re told.”

Something about Ma Liren made Rachel’s skin crawl. How to respond? “I will. I work hard.” Did Council always test? Kyu Ho hadn’t been so direct.

“I’ve seen that. But what are you made of? How much do you understand of why you were born?”

Rachel’s tongue knotted around her words. “Well, first, I
like
Selene. What I want to do is plant. I love working—”

Rachel felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned her head to find Kyu Ho standing stiffly behind her.

“Hello, Liren,” Kyu said. “There will be time for interviews later on. This is only Rachel’s first day, and we agreed I would orient her for her first week.”

“Well, see that she learns well.” Ma Liren stood up and walked away.

“She’s always like that,” Kyu said. “I think that’s enough new sights for one morning. Let’s get you back to your room.”

Rachel followed Kyu back through the garden, struggling to see enough to get her bearings. She did remember the symbol that marked her floor. The door to her room was a welcome sight.

Kyu looked up at her. “You did well. Your med readings are still stable, but your fatigue toxins are showing high. Rest. Don’t wander around. I’ll be back to take you to Medical in a few hours. We’ll work on your adjustment to Earth gravity.”

The door shut behind the Councilwoman. Rachel’s legs ached from the unfamiliar and shifty gravity, and her back and shoulders felt as though strings of knots were sitting in them, throbbing. She made it to the bed, closed her eyes, and began reviewing the wonders of the garden. It seemed magical that there were so many plants. The huge tree—Yggdrasil—surely trees on Selene wouldn’t get that big?

It seemed she had been gone from the room for a week, but when she checked it had only been two hours. She had to fight sleep to open her wrist pad and begin recording the experience for Harry.

G
ABRIEL SAT AND
stretched on the small spot of lawn, a few feet away from Kyu, who was all purples and yellows today, like a tiny oriental butterfly. The garden surrounded them, hundreds of shades of green and blue and brown dotted
with yellow and white and purple flowers. Tenders and floating lamps flitted overhead, and the occasional crew member. A particularly colorful set of wings went by, and Gabriel tapped Kyu’s shoulder and pointed. Kyu looked up and laughed.

“How is Rachel doing?” he asked. “Has a week on the ship worn her out?”

“She’s learning fast—seems to like to work. I plan to give her some data rights.”

“Why?”

“So far she’s been given exactly what she needs to know on Selene, and nothing more. She’s not developing the ability to really think.”

“You’ve been talking to Ali.” Gabriel picked up a skate and tucked his foot inside. The top of his foot tingled as the boot conformed around it, fitting snuggly.

“She’s right, you know.”

Gabriel put on his other boot. “What access do you want Rachel to have?”

“What do you think?” Kyu challenged him, standing up, flexing her legs, squatting and standing, preparing to start down the spiral path. They were wearing inline skates of a fairly simple design, with three big wheels on a long axle, smart shock absorbers, brakes on a belt control.

“What will High Council think?” Gabriel fastened light goggles over his eyes, protection from the air scrubbers.

“I’m High Council.”

One of five, three warm.

She must have known what he was thinking. “I’m not going to ask permission for everything I do to help prepare Rachel. We need functioning leadership down there that isn’t us.” She pushed off with her right foot, glided on her left, a slow graceful movement here by the aft entrance.

Gabriel followed. Liren was going to hate this. He wasn’t sure
he
didn’t hate this, although he trusted Kyu. As
far as he was concerned, Liren was paranoid to the point of disaffection. But the Children did need information, and maybe that included the skill to dig it out for themselves.

“Are you going to tell anyone you’re giving Rachel rights?”

“Only if they ask.”

The main path spiraled from the garden’s pole down to the river, across a bridge, and back up to the pole at the forward end. Other paths branched off.

The skates jarred against the pebbled surface. In low gravity, and significant coriolis force, Kyu bounced high, her torso twisting and her arms windmilling to maintain orientation before she touched down. Her hair flew out behind her, light here in the low gravity.

Gabriel finally caught up enough to talk to her. “So, do you want to give all of the Children more data rights?”

“Even I’m not that brave. We don’t want to turn them into us! But at least all the teachers need enough information to think with. Unless you want to be the only teacher?”

“I don’t have time for that.” Wind from their increased speed dragged lightly across Gabriel’s face. “You could come to Selene and help.”

Kyu ignored his last comment. “Rachel is an experiment. If we don’t like how she reacts, we’ll try something else with someone else.”

“If they know too much, they’ll realize exactly what we’re doing to them.”

“That would be the responsible choice.”

“But . . . but . . .” She was gone, pulling farther ahead as the garden’s spin-induced gravity increased near the equator. She crouched low, reaching for speed, her legs pushing out in long hard strokes.

He followed, relaxing into the rush of air, bent low, whipping through the savannah’s browns and olive-greens, hitting the edge of the jungle and the deeper greens. Bright
orange and yellow flowers lined the path. They sped through, going too fast to talk.

They came close to full gravity. The spiral path was smoother here. Ahead of him Kyu leaned hard over. She was preparing to veer onto a side path.

Gabriel prepared for the sharp tight turn, crouched lower, head almost on his knees. Kyu was still ahead of him, and he watched her take the turn perfectly, not even hobbling, using the path’s entire radius. He struggled to execute as well, but had to put his hand down for balance at the apex, just a short touch, but enough to concede her the victory of a more perfect run.

They let the speed drag from them as they skated by the huge river wall. Honeysuckle vines hugged the wall, rich and sickly sweet smelling. Benches and grass made the river wall a park. The jogging and skating path they were on was designed for high-gee workouts, and they had to dodge three sets of runners.

Kyu suddenly braked and plopped on a wide expanse of grass.

Gabriel landed next to her, laughing. “Nice turn.”

“Thanks. Will you help me teach Rachel to use the Library?”

“What happens if it goes wrong?” he asked softly.

“Do you trust me?”

“Usually.”

“So lighten up.” She rose, graceful with years of practice, every bead and stitch of clothing falling into place. “Ready to go back?”

They started the long skate back up, gravity now a drag, speed increasing as spin decreased near the aft pole. Gabriel’s thighs burned. He was the first one to argue for education and some autonomy for the Children. So why did it disturb him when Kyu not only agreed but pushed his own agenda further than he would?

M
A
L
IREN SAT
in the main boardroom. She drummed her fingers, looked at the clock on the wall, tried not to fidget. Captain Hunter sat at the head of the table; Liren was at the foot. A sign glowed above the captain’s head, proclaiming “Council of Humanity” in large black letters. The wall sported two nano-paint pictures that showed scenes from Sol system, switching between the verdant greens of the restored South American jungles, soft azure and deep green seascapes, and the angled blacks and bright lights of Earth orbital housing. Ghosts. All gone. It reminded her how very alone they were, how small, how vulnerable.

Kyu Ho glided to a seat next to the captain. Liren repressed a grimace at Kyu’s revealing blue and purple outfit. Ever since the tenting came off at Aldrin, Kyu had stayed warm as much as half the time, and Liren was sure she spent half of
that
time self-decorating. For about the thousandth time, Liren wished for uniforms. They had left Earth uniformed like the crew of a Mars mission, but so much about Sol system tasted so bad to the starfarers that the captain had allowed uniforms to be recycled as soon as they flew past Neptune’s orbit.

On that day he had proclaimed them free of all Earth influences and able to build their own society. Of course, they were supposed to sleep through a long journey and then become civilians at Ymir. Stage magic: it took more than removing symbols to build a new society. He was a good captain, by and large, but he didn’t understand the relationship
of strong symbols to discipline. She did. Uniforms should have been reinstated as soon as they discovered they were marooned.

Liren watched Kyu laugh at something the captain said, Kyu’s graceful fingers twining like snakes in her purple hair. Everyone liked Kyu.

Gabriel followed Kyu in and sat opposite her. He was thinner from so much time on Selene, tanned, and coolly collected; even his walk implied physical grace. His attraction to the Children grated. Maybe he needed it. He ran much of the Selene project, under Clare, who let him run free. Clare preferred the social life of
John Glenn
to the hardships of real terraforming. It was rare to see Gabriel on
John Glenn;
he spent way too much time on Selene. He went cold on his own from time to time, ensuring he stayed young. Liren was pleased to see him, even if he had brought a Moon Born to her ship.

It was time. Everyone warm that mattered was in the room.

Captain Hunter cleared his throat loudly, and the room quieted. “I’m calling the High Council Meeting of Departure Date 60,269 to order. We have a quorum of High Council present, including myself, Ma Liren, Kyu Ho, and Clare Abramson. Rich Smith is off-shift. Gabriel Aaron is an invited guest. I’m turning the meeting over to Ma Liren as Rule of Law for the first few agenda items.”

Liren cleared her throat, looking around the table, catching the eyes of each person. “I have two things to discuss,” Liren said, “training the Moon Born, and ensuring our safety. So let’s start with the rules for Rachel. I understand you chose to bring her here to learn about terraforming, background for leading crews on Selene.” Liren didn’t like that, but it was better than sending more Council to Selene. “Rachel’s training will be in the garden. I see no reason for her to go anywhere else besides the garden and her room.”

Kyu objected immediately. “Some of her lessons need the magic rooms.”

Liren looked around. No one else seemed bothered by the idea. She didn’t see enough support to refuse Kyu. “You may escort her there and back. But there is no reason for her to learn much more about
John Glenn
. Her focus needs to be on learning what she came to learn, and getting back to the surface and doing work.” Liren turned to Kyu. “How long do you expect Rachel to be here?”

“At least a Selene year,” Kyu said.

Liren sat up straighter, looking Kyu in the eyes. “What exactly does she need to learn here?”

Captain Hunter surprised Liren by speaking up. “It may be she needs to learn about us, as well as horticulture and terraforming engineering. You don’t make a leader by pasting a label on her forehead.”

Liren frowned. She had expected his support. “She’ll always have a Council boss. Kyu, see that she gets what she needs. I want to meet with her from time to time.”

Kyu’s eyes were slits, and her lips were tight, but she maintained silence. There might not be uniforms, but there
was
tradition. In an open High Council meeting, she had to show teamwork for the record. Liren allowed the silence to speak for Kyu, and then continued. “So Rachel can stay in her room, go to the garden, and be escorted to and from magic rooms. Anything else should come back before this Council.”

Kyu nodded, not bothering to look as if she were happy about it.