Proxima (32 page)

‘Your camp – you’re pretty mobile, right?’

Dorothy said, ‘Well, we stick around long enough to raise a crop of potatoes, grow a field of grass. Raw material for the iron cows – it must be the same for you. Maybe a year in
each place. But then, yes, we move on.’

‘We’re following the river south,’ Anna said. ‘Upstream.’

‘Why that way?’

Dorothy said, ‘We like the idea of maybe reaching the source one day.’

‘Maybe that will be at the substellar,’ Delga said. ‘You remember that place, the storm system, the clump of forest, we all saw it from orbit? The navel of this world.
What’s there, do you think?’

That had never occurred to Yuri, the significance of the substellar point. Maybe because he had never imagined he’d find a way to reach it.

‘But it’s not just that,’ Anna said. ‘We need to head south anyhow. Seems to some of us that the weather’s getting colder, bit by bit. You must have noticed the
sunspot swarms on Proxima.’

‘Yeah. And then there’s the volcanism.’

Dorothy frowned. ‘What volcanism?’

‘To the north of here.’ He meant the slow uplift that seemed to have triggered the builders to move the
jilla
lake.

She pressed, ‘How do you know about that?’

Delga asked, ‘Is that why you’re on the move, Yuri? You and your people?’

He said nothing.

Anna touched his arm again, a surprisingly gentle, friendly gesture. ‘Leave him alone. We went through it all with Klein, remember, when we met
him
and his gang of thugs. Let Yuri
tell us whatever he wants, in his own time.’

He asked now, ‘How did you find the river?
We
were dumped in the middle of a dry landscape, almost a desert, at a sort of oasis.’

Delga snapped, ‘If that’s so how did you get out?’

‘Hush,’ Anna said. ‘Yuri, it was hard. A trek. But we knew which way to go. We had a map.’

‘A map?’

‘A map of this whole quadrant of the planet,’ Dorothy said. ‘I’ll show you.’ She stood, and ducked into one of the tents.

Yuri said sheepishly, ‘We have a map too. Kind of. I always carry it.’ He produced Lemmy’s battered map from his pocket, unfolded it. ‘It doesn’t look much, but
Lemmy Pink took weeks over this after the astronauts left . . .’

Dorothy returned with a map of her own, a single piece of paper. She folded it out on the ground by Yuri’s. Dorothy’s map covered just the north-east quadrant of the starlit face of
Per Ardua – or ‘the Bowl’ – but it was a professional piece of work, properly printed, showing coastlines, seas, rivers, mountain ranges, the features even assigned
tentative names. And there were little shuttle symbols, scattered across the quadrant, which Yuri guessed signified landing sites. He looked up at Dorothy. ‘Where did you get this?’

‘I bribed an astronaut. Oh, not with sex, the usual currency. I used to move in influential circles, back home. I happened to know something about this woman’s family which she did
not want revealed to her colleagues . . . With this we could tell how close we were to the river. It was tough, but we made a dash for it when the children were still small.’

Delga stared at the two maps. ‘Look. This long scribble of the rat boy’s just has to be our river. Which
does
go all the way to the substellar point. Wow.’

‘We may never get that far,’ Dorothy said. ‘It’s a hell of a long way. Especially if we have to stop to grow a crop of potatoes every fifty klicks. And isn’t the
climate there supposed to be difficult? Too hot—’

‘If the whole world is getting cold,’ Anna said reasonably, ‘then that might solve the problem.’

‘And besides,’ Delga said, ‘where the hell else is there to go?’ She faced Yuri. ‘So what about it, Earthman? You going to join us?’

He couldn’t see a choice. There would be better protection in a larger group, a better chance of survival. And at least with this group there would be other kids for Beth to meet – a
choice, at least, of partners for life. Maybe even more in Klein’s group, and he glanced that way.

Delga noticed the look. ‘Yeah. You’re going to have to go face the big man.’

‘But bring your people here first,’ Anna said. ‘Maybe you ought to go and tell them they aren’t alone any more.’

Yuri stood, and thanked them for their hospitality. He felt like his manners were rusty. Then he set out alone for the
jilla
lake and home, wondering how he was going to break all this
to Mardina and Beth.

W
hen they came back to the camp by the river, it was as a convoy: Yuri and Mardina walked, and Beth rode on the hood of the ColU.

They had let Beth pick out her own favourite clothes, which were all colourful cut-downs from the old ISF gear. And she packed a bag with gifts for the children, from old toys to choice potatoes
from the latest crop, and pretty rocks she’d found over the years. Though whether she had a clear idea of what ‘children’ were going to be like, Yuri had no idea. She might
imagine some version of the builders, Mister Sticks grown large and wearing human clothes.

Yuri had suggested to Mardina that they wear what was left of their own ISF-issue gear, in order to blend in with the crowd a little better. But Mardina went to the opposite extreme, picking out
her drabbest stem-case work clothes, her coolie hat, even her bark sandals. ‘This is who I am now,’ she said evenly.

Not for the first time in his life, Yuri couldn’t read her mood. But he went along with her decision.

The whole of Delga’s camp turned out to watch them approach, the men and women in their little huddles, the kids behind the women.

‘Not exactly welcoming,’ Mardina murmured.

‘At least they’re not waving crossbows this time.’

Beth just stared at the children, stared and stared. And the ColU swivelled its camera mounts to inspect the mutilated machine that stood patiently at the edge of this colony’s potato
field.

They got to within about ten metres. Then one of the women stepped forward, staring at Mardina. ‘I know you. She’s a fucking astronaut!’

Mardina murmured to Yuri, ‘I take it you didn’t explain my particular circumstances.’

‘I didn’t tell them anything.’

‘Fair enough—’

‘An astronaut! I always hated you bastards, even before I got on the ship.
Jones
, that was your name.’

‘It still is.’

‘Why, you mouthy—’ And the woman launched herself out of the group and went straight for Mardina, running flat out, her hands outstretched as if to grab Mardina’s
throat.

Mardina stepped aside, stuck out a leg and sent the woman sprawling. ‘Ten years out of the service but my ISF training’s still there. Good to know.’ The woman was up on her
knees, spitting dirt out of her mouth. ‘Now, one quick chop to the neck—’

Yuri held Mardina’s arm. ‘Leave her to the others.’

Some of the women, and one man, came running up. They hauled the woman to her feet, her arms firmly held. ‘For God’s sake, Frieda, we have to live with these people . . .’

Dorothy Wynn stepped forward to apologise. Delga just laughed.

They were brought into the camp reasonably peacefully. Yuri and Mardina sat by the women’s fire and were offered more nettle tea. The men of the colony hung back,
evidently curious. The ColU rolled away to inspect its silent brother by the potato field.

Beth stared at Delga’s stump of an arm. And then, wide-eyed with astonishment, she was cautiously welcomed by the children.

‘Play nice, Freddie,’ Delga called with a hint of venom. ‘So, ice boy. Full of surprises, aren’t you? Only two of you. Two survivors, of fourteen.’

‘It’s a long story,’ Yuri said.

‘And not all that dissimilar to yours, I’ll bet,’ Mardina said levelly, pointedly looking around at the group, the eleven adults.

‘More extreme though,’ Delga said. ‘We’re all survivors, I guess, here in the Bowl. But you two evidently pushed it to the limit. Respect.’

Dorothy Wynn said, ‘I’m sorry how Frieda took a pop at you like that.’

Mardina shrugged. ‘She’s right. I am ISF crew, or was.’

‘But I’m guessing you didn’t volunteer to stay down here.’

‘I filled a gap in the manifest. The drop group was short . . . I had the right genetic diversity. Lucky me.’

‘We’re all here now,’ Dorothy said firmly. ‘Which is all that matters.’

Anna said, ‘And you had a kid, even though it was just the two of you? That took some guts.’

Yuri and Mardina shared an awkward glance. This was very private stuff, but these others had been in a similar position. Yuri said at length, ‘I think we concluded that it took less guts
than not having a kid.’

‘And another? Did you think about having more?’

This time neither of them was willing to answer. Even after Beth was born they’d found such issues difficult to discuss. Their whole world was focused on one person, on Beth; somehow they
hadn’t been able to imagine breaking that up with a second child. Maybe someday they would have got around to it, the alternative being to let Beth grow old and die alone. But that, Yuri
realised slowly, was the old game, under the old rules. Looking around at these people, he saw that everything was different now – for Beth too.

Still they weren’t answering Anna’s question, and the silence stretched. Yuri was relieved when another familiar figure walked over to break things up.

‘Hey, Yuri. I thought you were dead, man . . .’

It was Liu Tao. Yuri could see that his old comrade from the ship had come from the Klein camp, to the north. He wore the remains of an ISF-issue coverall, with two bands of red ribbon around
his right biceps.

Yuri stood up. They shook hands, embraced briefly. Yuri was unreasonably glad to see Liu. ‘Never thought I’d see you again. I always thought you’d come through,
though.’

Liu shrugged. ‘Well, I lived through a spaceship crash on Mars and two years in a UN jail before I was shoved aboard the
Ad Astra
. So I’m a tough guy, right?’

‘How touching,’ Delga said. ‘Male bonding. We don’t get enough male bonding around here, do we, Dorothy?’

‘Delga . . .’

Mardina said, ‘Klein sent you over. Right, Liu? One of his right-hand men now, are you? Hence the pretty ribbons on your arm.’

Liu shrugged. ‘Yeah. Something like that. He’s inviting you over for a drink, Yuri. You and Lieutenant Jones here.’

‘A
drink
?’

‘Potato vodka. Not bad, at least the stuff Gustave drinks.’

‘And that’s not really an invitation, Yuri,’ Delga said, smiling cruelly. ‘It’s an order.’

Mardina said, ‘I think we’re through taking orders from anybody.’

Yuri looked across at the Klein camp, and he glanced around at Dorothy, Delga, the others; he didn’t know what kind of accommodation this group had come to with Klein. ‘Just this
once,’ he murmured to Mardina. ‘Let him get his own way just this once. Hear what he has to say. Then we’ll figure out our own policy. All right?’

She shrugged, and got to her feet.

Anna said, ‘You can leave Beth here. She’s fine.’

And so she was, Yuri could see; she was running around with the other kids in some complicated tag game as if she’d grown up with it.

But Mardina picked up Beth’s bag and slung it over her shoulder. ‘Maybe Beth left some old toys we can give to Klein and his henchmen.’

The others laughed, but Yuri could see Mardina’s smile was forced. He glared at her.
What are you up to?
She looked away, making no reply, wordless or otherwise.

It was just a short walk downstream to Klein’s camp, with the way led by Liu Tao. Dorothy and Delga walked with them too. The ColU rolled alongside Yuri and Mardina,
saying it wanted to inspect the machines in the Klein camp, as it had Delga’s.

The camp was superficially like Delga’s, with tents and lean-tos of the local timber evidently designed for breaking down and rebuilding. A number of fires burned. At first glance Yuri
counted twenty adults here, more than one shuttle-load. There were men, women, and children, but gathered in little family groups, Yuri thought, rather than in the split-sex communal arrangements
of Delga’s group.

People stared as they came through. They seemed to flinch away, fearfully, and parents kept their kids out of the way. Some of the men wore arm ribbons, like Liu’s – none of the
women. And Yuri noticed injuries, burns or scars, on arms and faces. Even some of the children had been injured.

The biggest difference of all was at the heart of the camp. There was one substantial house, like a cabin with vertical walls and a pitched roof, that must have taken a lot of effort to rebuild
when it was moved. And alongside the house was another ColU, or the remains of one, its dome detached, its manipulator arms lost. On top of this was set a chair, of carved wood and cushions.

And on the chair sat Gustave Klein, appearing as corpulent as ever. He wore what looked like an astronaut uniform, let out to fit his frame, black and sleek, with six of those arm ribbons
wrapped around his fat biceps. He smiled down at Yuri. His head shaved, his face round, multiple chins tucked down on his chest; it was like looking up at the moon of Earth. ‘I don’t
even remember you,’ Klein said.

‘Thanks.’

‘But I remember
you
. The delectable Lieutenant Mardina Jones.’ He leaned forward and sniffed. ‘Oh, we all had the hots for you, back in the day.’

‘And I remember you, Klein, and you’re as disgusting now as you were then.’

He roared laughter. ‘Feisty, isn’t she? Well, you’re not in command any more, for all your arrogance.’ He glared at the ColU. ‘You. What are you looking
at?’

‘At the autonomous colonisation unit on which you sit.’ The ColU’s cameras pivoted to look at the group’s second unit, which stood at the edge of another potato field.
That too had had its dome removed, all its sensors, though its manipulator arms remained. ‘You acquired a second machine.’

‘ “Acquired”. Yeah. Good word, that. When we came across another group and we “acquired” them and all their gear. Mostly we acquired the women, of course,’
and he cackled laughter, leering at Mardina.