Building Harlequin’s Moon (59 page)

Erika leaned forward, her voice clipped. “Very well. We will hold everyone for up to three months, but they are accused, not convicted. That means everyone may go completely free, or may yet face more punishment.”

Rachel nodded. “Thank you.” Inside, a little bit of fear leaked away. Erika had heard her.

Erika said, “Now, next, we want to hear your version of what happened. We’ve fast-forwarded through the tapes, but we want to give you a chance to present your side of the story.”

Rachel cleared her throat, hoping to steady her voice. She had given hundreds of classes. She could do this. Her hands shook, and leaned forward, facing the assembled power of the Council of Humanity.

“I used a weapon yesterday. I didn’t want to, but if Andrew had shot Liren or Gabriel, we would have truly been lost. I knew that yesterday; I still know it today. We all suffered losses yesterday. I lost my fiancé, and the day before I lost my father. Two days before, my brother. These were personal losses. There are more important losses. We have lost our voice with you.” Rachel’s mouth was dry, and her tongue felt thick. She swallowed, drank more water, and continued. “You gave us life, but you did not give us voice. If you leave the way you plan, you will give us death. Which would be a loss for you. Maybe not much loss to those of you who have never been on Selene. But for these
people, for my friends and counselors here, it would be a loss. A death. You can give us life, hope, even after you leave.” Her hands shook and she clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palm. “It means that you must lose some of your fear.

“My hands were covered in blood twice during the last few days. Once, when my brother Jacob died in my arms, and once more when Dylan was shot on the roof yesterday. That blood is also on your hands. But I believe . . . I believe I know you, and that you made choices that led us to this place based on fear of real things in Sol system.”

Erika’s eyes had widened; she looked surprised that Rachel knew their history. Rich watched thoughtfully, scribbling notes in his pad. Kyu offered a half smile, one eyebrow cocked. Rachel wished she could tell what they were thinking. Was she reaching them, any of them?

“Yes,” Rachel said, “I know some of your history. I had to learn it to understand you at all. Council—you—were always such a mystery to us. Like gods. You had strength and power and we needed you, but we didn’t understand you. But that isn’t what I’m here to talk about.” She took a deep breath. Time to reveal the plan that had kept her awake all night. “We can’t survive without you. Fires and flares have taught us that. Every time we see the
Water Bearer
, we remember how Gabriel saved us.

“There are three things we want—and if you give them to us, I think you will leave for Ymir with clean hands. First, it will take technology to leave Selene habitable. Help us learn the skills we need to stand a chance of living here long enough to build a real civilization. I’ve studied Earth before the AI disasters, before the horrors that set you running. Perhaps different choices can be made. We will try to make good choices; to learn from mistakes made in Sol system. If we fail”—she shrugged for emphasis—”if we fail, we are isolated here anyway.”

There was silence all around her. Silence from the ship. Rachel licked her lips.

“Second, build Gabriel’s flare kite. You turned it down once, because it would take too long, too many resources. You have the resources. Give them to us, share them, so that we are free to live without fear of flares.

“Third, generate your antimatter entirely outside of Harlequin’s moon system.”

To Rachel’s surprise, Erika raised a hand, gesturing to Rachel to continue. Her face was unreadable, intense, focused tightly on Rachel.

Rachel spoke directly to Erika. She was the power here. “We would not try to change your dream. I thought that was what I wanted; to keep you here, keep you prisoners in Apollo system. That is an unacceptable choice to you. There are choices unacceptable to us. We must have a voice in what you do with our world, in what you do here. We cannot allow—and yes, you can kill us all and start over—but we cannot allow antimatter to be made here. I don’t believe you would do that. We are your children, as well as the Children of Selene.

“Vassal and I have looked at the math. It feels strange to be echoing Ma Liren, but how did you let your sense of proportion get so disaffected? You can’t even use the moons, they’re all too close, an antimatter accident would still destroy Selene.”

She heard a strident edge in her voice. She stopped for a moment, fighting to regain control, then continued in a slower, surer voice. “We can run your factories here. You brought Refuge here—you can find a place to build the collider. You need our industry, our hands. We need the tools to make Selene more than you envisioned it”—she looked over at Gabriel—“even though you envisioned much, you gave us much with this place.” She stopped for the space of a breath, held her hand out to indicate that she wasn’t done.
“We have come to love Selene—to love how the Sea of Refuge rises and falls with the breath of Harlequin, the way the ground shudders from time to time to remind us that Selene is as young as we are.” There were words coming out of her mouth that were more than she had thought before—the coming together of things she had learned and seen and dreamed about into a higher truth. She had to make them see it!

“We must make a new plan, all together. With our voices. Earth Born, Moon Born, and Council. Some Earth Born, and maybe even some Council, need to stay here. We need their skills. Some Earth Born have told me they are willing to stay, to work with us on Selene.” And now she took the greatest risk of all—“And the two AIs also need a voice.” She rushed to take them past that idea, so it wasn’t the last one. “I know—we know—that Selene will never be an Earth. It will always need human engineers to keep its heart beating. But—” She stood and gestured toward the windows. “Selene is real.” She held up a fist, opening her palm to show it empty, holding her fingers wide. “Ymir is a myth!

“We need the chance to make Selene, to keep it alive, and to grow into whatever we can become. Maybe we will make it to the stars ourselves.” She had to put the whole list on the table. It was a living thing in her head; the subject of endless nighttime talks and plans. “Leave us some ships, just to keep the balances here—but not all of them. Not even most of them. If we are to live, we’ll need to be able to build our own. Give us ships to copy.”

Erika interrupted. “Selene can’t survive that long.”

Clare spoke, contradicting Erika lightly. “Human environments on Earth were artificial too. Green spaces couldn’t survive without human input either, not for hundreds of years. We’re architects. The flare kite will buy time.”

Rachel felt a surge of hope. Maybe Clare was with her.
That was two of them, counting Kyu. “We may die attempting this. But with enough technology, and a copy of the Library, and an AI ally who needs to see us succeed to survive itself—we have a chance. We have a right to that chance. And in return, we will support your goals willingly. We will work for you, help you, and see you safely out of Apollo system and on your way.”

Rachel let silence fall. She waited a breath. Two breaths. She could hear her heartbeat.

Erika smiled. “You’ve given us much to think about. Now, we will go and talk about the things you’ve said.” Her voice gave away nothing.

The video from the ship disappeared, and where Rachel had been looking at Council, she saw through windows that overlooked Selene. The crest of the far crater wall rose above the sea, a ragged dark line against a clear blue sky.

Everyone in the room was looking at her. Gabriel’s hand stole back into hers, squeezed it, and then he got up and walked to the window, his back to them all. What was he thinking? She needed his support as much as the High Council’s. He had made Selene. Surely he would help her protect it?

She stood, shaking. She walked over and stood next to him, not touching him, looking at the sea. Apollo had fully risen, and Harlequin. Wind kicked up small waves on the surface of the water.

Gabriel said, “You have eaten from the tree of knowledge.”

She didn’t understand the reference, but she heard the approval in his voice. It was enough.

An hour later High Council reopened the window. Erika spoke for them again. “We cannot give in to your three demands at this time. But we are willing to start a discussion, including everyone. Moon Born, Earth Born, Council, and High Council will form a working team. We will not accept any decisions that prevent us from leaving this place for
Ymir. There will be bounds upon the discussion.” She leaned in, and for a moment she lost the severe look she had started with. “Rachel—you’ve told me what you want. What I want, more than anything else, and at least as much as you want your home, is to go away from here and find mine.”

Rachel smiled back. “I understand.”

“We will accept nominations for members of a working group.”

Rachel waited, silent.

“It will include the two AIs. They will not vote, but they will be heard.”

Rachel closed her eyes and swayed, relieved, light. Joy bubbled up, and as soon as the data window winked closed, she screamed in glee.

G
ABRIEL WOKE TIRED
. He rubbed his eyes and stretched, contemplating a run to burn frustration before they started. Today was the third meeting of the Selene Task Force. He had two hours. He ordered a small dose of stimulant from his med-feed and started out the door.

Cool damp air enveloped him as he worked up speed, warming his body enough to sprint out the worries that nagged at him. The first two meetings they’d worked out how to structure talks. They would leave the AIs where they were but disallow any further releasing of restrictions on them. They’d continue making raw materials for the collider. The cultivated regions had been checked for damage, cleaned up, and the population of Clarke Base returned to replant. So why was he so resdess?

Wayne and Astronaut were searching for a good place to build the collider. Good luck! They needed a body big enough to wrap the collider around . . . not as big as Selene, but big. There was nothing that big in Harlequin’s La-Grange positions, and those were sixty degrees ahead and behind Harlequin, as distant as Apollo and Daedalus. If they had to work at billion-kilometer distances, and mush a dozen bodies together to get something bigger . . . another ten thousand years?

Would they have to work with TNOs instead?

Would he ever, ever, get to leave Selene? Gabriel increased his running speed, his heart pumping hard enough to shorten his breath. Ymir still seemed far away to him; something unreal. His feet pounded on Selene’s surface, on a crater rim he had built above a sea he had dreamed into existence. A light mist hugged the water below him, and light spilled slowly onto it, dissipating the mist in warming air. He dug for more speed, breathing hard, smelling fresh water carried in winds blowing up-crater from the Sea of Refuge. He focused on each footfall until finally he was just a runner; a man testing his strength on a beautiful morning.

Contentment ran through his body, singleness of purpose. Then a wave of sadness, a deep sense of loss. It grew, slowing him down, dragging at his feet. He tried to run through it, past it. He stumbled, falling lightly onto his hands, and then rose again, running farther, as if he ran through a thick mist even though the sun shone, glittering on the water below him.

He stumbled again, and stayed down this time, feeling rough gravel under his knees. Wind blew against his cheek, cooled the sweat on his back. He felt Selene below him. He imagined a line from his heart all the way through the beating machinery that ran the Sea of Refuge . . . running along the fields away from Clarke Base, following water flow in the aqueducts. A net of his energy surrounded the
moon, surrounded him, entwined.
Home
. Hot tears splashed onto the soil, surprising him. He never cried. It felt wonderful, crying into the soil.

Gabriel went back more slowly than he had come, settling into a fast walk for the last kilometer. He showered quickly, the water hitting his back like an alarm, pulling him out of the sticky sad feeling that had held him so close. What had he lost? Ymir? Rachel had called it a myth. He sensed it behind him, a remembered past, now gone.

The kitchen in Council Aerie was full. Rachel, Beth, Harry, Bruce, Ali, John, Treesa, and two other Earth Born, Bear and Nadine, all gathered around the table. He took three deep breaths, surprised that he knew what he had to say. Now, before the meeting opened.

“Captain John and Treesa have already said they are staying here. I’m staying too.” Gabriel was surprised that even afterward, even after he said that, he stayed calm. It was the right choice.

Treesa smiled softly, approvingly. “Why?”

“Ymir isn’t my job. There’s already a terraformed world, or else we’ll find that the Ymir project failed using every tool I’ve got. Or
John Glenn
won’t make it there. This—I made this.” He held his hands out expansively, gesturing through the window toward the Sea of Refuge. “Or at least mostly.” He felt light as he walked over to sit by John, opposite Rachel. He looked directly at her. “I couldn’t bear to leave here.”

Rachel flashed him a huge smile, and her eyes brimmed with tears. She turned away to look out the window before he could tell for sure, and John and Treesa clapped him on the back, congratulating him.

He felt wonderfully peaceful.

He wanted his guitar.

He wanted—“Suppose we took Moon Eleven—”