THE FOREVER GENE (THE SCIONS OF EARTH Book 1) (10 page)

She did not have much in the way of personal effects and it would not take her more than a few minutes to collect them together.  A spare set of shimmer-robes, for when her primary set was in for repair, and an alternate pair of meld-boots was the only clothing she had.

She had initially regarded the human practice of using multiple sets of clothing as quaint and extravagant, as did the other members of the expedition.  Surely the humans were technologically advanced enough to have developed clothing which actively regulates temperature, or at least cleans itself?  More recently, she had come to realise that their fascination with designs and combinations of clothing served a less obvious purpose; the expression of individuality.  A few times she had amused herself by wondering what she would wear if she had the choice.

She headed back to the information centre, which took up the whole of a large dining hall.  It was almost deserted at that time of day as most of the analysts had departed for the building site on the outskirts of the city.  She gave the translator on duty permission to take a meal break and stepped into her interface module.  Deftly, she placed laser-lenses onto the surface of her eyes and, using eye movements only, checked the communication links with the Ulan Bator facility and the four new building projects in Shanghai, St Petersburg, Sao Paolo and Mumbai.

Once reports of the successful commencement of the Bangkok project had been released on the Personet, the Faerie Folk had been inundated with requests for their building technology from scores of nations around the world.  The ambassador had decided to prioritise the most populous nations, promising that all requests would be met in time.

Everything seemed to be running smoothly and, out of curiosity, she searched for the communique the ambassador had received from the Ancient Council, ratifying her genetic trial.  She couldn't find any sign of it, even amongst the encrypted data, which meant that the ambassador must have deleted it completely.  That was unusual; he was a meticulous keeper of records.

She looked around and realised that she was alone in the centre.  She hesitated, and then opened a link to Emissary, the star ship orbiting the Moon. It was notoriously difficult to predict the duration and requirements of contact missions and so the ships sent on such missions were fitted with extensive accommodation and well provisioned with food and spare equipment.

The translator on board Emissary responded and Vi listened patiently to his comprehensive report.  She didn't tell him he would soon be reporting to someone else.  Instead, she requested a wormhole connection to her home world, using her command cypher to authorise it.  Ko would be livid when he discovered the profligate expenditure of energy.  Ordinarily, she wouldn't have dreamed of opening a wormhole for her own purposes, but something within her seemed to feel that it was justified.

Since the command meeting that morning she had begun to feel alienated; a feeling exacerbated by the cryptic conversation between Ko and Ti which she had overheard.  It was sobering to discover that the other members of senior command were keeping secrets from her.  She felt a need to go somewhere familiar and speak to someone friendly.

The wormhole which Emissary opened for her was too small to carry a star ship but large enough to support an exchange of data.  She slipped a set of laser-emitters onto the tips of her fingers which, together with the built-in receptors in her meld-boots, would enable her to use the sensory immersion function of the module.  She keyed the co-ordinates of her reproduction centre, and then erased them.  Although it had been home for most of her life, she didn't think that what she needed could be found there.  Her friends would greet her warmly enough, but they wouldn't be able to relate to her experiences since leaving them.  Their hopes of fulfilling the dream of birthing young for the sake of the future of their race would be all they would talk about.

She keyed the co-ordinates of the only other place where she had ever felt at home, Translator School.  Although she had been ostracised as a freak of nature by the all-male student body at first, her ability and determination had eventually won their grudging respect.  By the time the ambassador had offered her a command post on his expedition, she had become an integrated member of their convocation.

The temperature in the module dropped sharply, and the light faded, replicating the planetary conditions of her destination.  She even felt the dull nag of Earth's slightly heavier gravity easing off and was able to stretch out her back and neck properly for the first time since the expedition's arrival.

One of five inhabited planets in a binary star system, she found herself wondering how she would describe it to the humans.  'A world of ample soil and rain where staple foods are grown for the benefit of all five planets in fertile valleys between towering mountain ranges' would be accurate, if somewhat simplified. Had humans discovered it they would have called it 'Farmworld', or perhaps 'Gardenland'.  Neither would be entirely fitting because there was far more to the planet than that, but humans did not seem to think that names had to be accurate.  On the contrary, they often revelled in names which were positively misleading.

A virtual landscape began to appear within the mist of the module.  It quickly expanded until it stretched as far as she could see. A pale yellow sky with a reddish tinge arched overhead, framed by distant mountain ranges on three sides.  All around her, fields of dark blue foliage stretched into the distance.  She could feel their fronds brushing against her legs and hips.  Behind her a grove of tall Indigo trees rustled in the cool breeze blowing across the plain from the coast.  Somewhere close by she could hear running water in an irrigation channel.

The planet had been named after the deep blue colour of the abundant flora which dominated its landscape.  The setting inspired her to consider how best to translate its name into English.  'Azura' would be a good approximation, she decided.

The first settlers of the star system were not very imaginative when they arrived aeons ago.  They were more concerned with survival than with what future generations would think of their choice of names for the planets of their new home. 'Primary Landfall' was what they named the first one they colonised.  Then, because it was considered too risky for the entire population to be on one planet, they colonised a second one.  Predictably, it was named 'Secondary Landfall'.  The modern derivatives of those names, 'Primefall' and 'Secondfall', were hardly an improvement.  Thankfully, the governing councils of subsequent generations were more effusive when naming new planetary colonies.  Still, 'Azura', 'Ellipse', and 'Rim' were some way short of creative, in her opinion.

She couldn't see any signs of life from where she was standing and reckoned that she was some way out of the city.  It would significantly prolong the expenditure of Emissary's energy reserves for her to simulate walking there, so she simply adjusted the target co-ordinates within her module.  The peaceful pastoral scene flickered out of existence and was replaced by a bustling cityscape.  Not paved with tar or concrete, the city streets were covered with a genetically engineered dense blue moss.  The moss was impervious to the weather and almost indestructible.  It was self-replicating and able to quickly repair any damage it sustained.  It was also comfortably soft to walk on.

The mossy pathways formed an irregular lattice around and between the tall, elegant buildings which housed Azura's citizens.  The straight lines and geometric patterns found in Earth's cities were absent.  That was because there was no need for the humans' pervasive traffic systems.  The lack of smog and air-pollution gave her lungs a welcome respite from the murky atmosphere of Bangkok.

The buildings around her varied in size, shape and design, many topped by sharp spires and elaborate pinnacles.  The walls were solid wooden panels, which came from trees custom grown in accordance with the requirements of each building's design.  Most of the panels were decorated with colourful carvings of trees, animals and landscapes, although there were also renderings of celebrated characters, star ships and celestial scenes.

It struck her that the predominant concepts reflected were beauty, nature, and co-operation rather than conflict, passion, sorrow, and sacrifice, which were the common themes expressed in human artwork.  It was not that the Faerie Folk were unfamiliar with such concepts; they were just not an emotionally demonstrative race.

Although not as large as the major cities on some of the other planets in the system, Azura's principal city covered a sizable area. It was perhaps half the size of Bangkok.  Primarily dedicated to the management of the planet's agricultural industry, it was also home to a number of well-respected places of learning.  The Translator School she had attended was situated in the foothills overlooking the main sprawl of the city.

The original settlement on the planet had been situated in those foothills; sheltered by the mountain range which rose behind it.  At first the settlement was prevented from expanding by the violent storms which had lashed the valley at regular intervals.  The storms were eventually tamed by the weather modification systems installed by the first settlers.  Then the city had grown quickly, extending further and further out onto the valley floor.  Eventually, the old part of the city had decayed as citizens deserted it for the more luxurious accommodation and better facilities constructed in the newer areas.

As the population grew, schools and academies began to establish themselves.  The Planetary Council allocated them land in the foothills, efficiently ensuring the renewal of the area.  Azura's Translator School was one of the oldest of these institutions and occupied pride of place.  Its multi-tiered buildings were arranged in a sweeping semi-circle, the convex face of which overlooked the city.  The buildings were all topped by ornate spires of varying lengths and sizes, some of them sporting colourful pennants.  The carved wooden walls were faded with age, lending the campus an air of antiquity. The effect was enhanced by the avenues of mature Indigo trees which surrounded it, their yellow blooms adding splashes of bright colour to the scene.

She walked uphill towards the entrance to the school, inclining her head politely to passers-by.  Whether or not they realised she was a sensory projection she couldn't tell.  Uncharacteristically, most of them didn't return the greeting.  They seemed pre-occupied, even morose.  An older male, his long white hair hanging past his shoulders, was walking purposefully down the hill.  Unobtrusively, she adjusted her path of travel so as to draw near to him as they passed each other.  He gave no sign that he had noticed and did not acknowledge her.  His inattention made it easy for her to concentrate on his aura.  Along with a sense of his life-long occupation as a merchant, and the numerous experiences which came with his advanced age, she detected a deep-rooted anxiety.  He feared that his comfortable existence was about to change and that he had no control over his future.

Similar worries were perceptible within the auras of other pedestrians she encountered.  Although she had been aware of this general unease before leaving on the expedition, she had not realised how pervasive it had become.  She had been too focussed on events taking place in her own life.  Given the uncertain future her people faced, however, its prevalence was not really surprising.

When she reached the open gates of the school at the top of the hill, she turned to look out over the city.  Shaped like a spill of honey from a jar, it glowed serenely in the soft yellow light of day.  Glide-pods flew silently amongst its myriad spires, criss-crossing the city in intricate three-dimensional patterns.  One of the little craft was flying up the hill and she turned to watch it pass by.  As it grew closer, its stubby little stability fins grew visible, and she caught a brief glimpse of a green face staring out of the forward view-port.

Why the humans continued to rely on resource guzzling metal monsters for their transport needs was beyond her comprehension.  She was aware that they did not have the telekinetic ability which was used to propel the 'pods.  Even so, they ought to have developed more efficient vehicles than they had so far.  At least their air-vortex technology was a step in the right direction.

Her gaze drifted further out.  Swift rivers flowing out of the mountains on either side of the city joined each other at multiple points across the valley, forming a patchwork of ever larger streams of water.  They eventually flowed into a wide green lake in the middle distance, from which a single waterway wound its way through the cultivated fields towards the coast.  From her elevated position she could even see the green smudge of the ocean on the horizon, sandwiched between the dusky blue fields and hazy yellow sky.

Now that she had reached her destination, she was suddenly uncertain about who to seek out.  She was initially tempted to see which of her old classmates were still there, but that would result in the inevitable swapping of stories and re-living of shared experiences.  As pleasant as that would be, the story she had to tell was not one which would fit comfortably into such a conversation.

After some hesitation, she walked through the tall wooden gates, crossed the immaculately neat grounds, and threaded her way through the maze of corridors which led to the college of instructors on the other side of the campus.  Not many scholars were about and she saw no-one that she knew.  She made her way towards the rooms of her old mentor, Master Za, which were on the third tier of the college.  She found a levitation-well and telekinetically powered a vacant levi-pod upwards with practised ease.

She made her way down the corridor, casting about for his aura.  She found it easily; it was one of the most recognisable in the city.  He was in his contemplation room.  When he wasn't teaching, he spent a great deal of time there in a temporary escape from his duties as head of the school.  Before she reached the doorway he came out, accompanied by a male dressed in elegant grey-black robes.