The fist opened and dropped to his side. “But that was long ago,” he ended flatly.
A tingle went up Kyra’s spine. “Not in space,” she said.
“For those like you, I suppose. If they are willing to forego that imitation of nature that is left on Earth. If they are of the small number chosen. And will it last through our lifetimes?”
Boris shook himself. He snapped forth a laugh. “Oh, but I am croaking like a raven, am I not? Forgive me. Help me forgive myself, that for a minute I forgot what delightful company I am in. Come, let me show you the rest.”
He was a charming escort thereafter, in his slightly over-earnest fashion. At midday he proposed they flit from town to have lunch at an inn he knew in the country. Walking to the parking garage, Kyra felt anew how peaceful these streets were, nothing like the frenzy of Erie-Ontario.
Peaceful, she wondered suddenly, or hollow? Sunlight poured warm over pavement, walls, windows. The buildings were antiquated but in good repair. Trees along the way rustled to a breeze and dappled the ground with a dance of shadows. Yet vehicles went past well apart. Blankness in more than half the windows spoke of vacancy behind. A little girl came by, sweet in her pigtails and starchy frock, but quite solitary. Three women gave lackadaisical study to a display in a natural food shop; maybe the wares were too expensive for them, maybe they had nothing else to do. A vendor tried shyly to interest her in his handmade jewelry, but took it for granted when she declined after a cursory look. An open portal revealed a courtyard in which were several tables where men played chess. Their hair was gray or white. A soft, nearly subliminal pulse pervaded the air, but that was from the machines at their work, the vital organs of the city.
Bueno, she thought, it was only to be expected. She’d seen this kind of situation plenty often before, on the multi or sometimes in person, also in a lot of North America. Population had to come down, but the transition made new problems—might have been impossible, what with the skewed age distributions, except for the machines and their productivity. When a people took the need as seriously as the Russians had done ever since the Dieback showed them the alternative, they were bound to suffer radical changes throughout their society.
Decrease wasn’t really necessary any more, was it? Had it ever truly been? With rational management (which was what the hypercomputers did best, wasn’t it?) Earth could support many billions, sustainably. Of course, such a cram-crowded, regimented existence wouldn’t be for her. As was, how god-lucky that she’d have space to escape into. Nevertheless, for a shuddery moment she wondered whether she didn’t prefer the human sea in which Toronto Compound stood like an island, to this . . . emptiness. Were folk here being rational and altruistic, or had the spirit gone out of them?
Crack! What had gotten into her? She was as bad as Boris. They were supposed to have fun on this date of theirs, not brood like Dostoyevsky characters.
The hop to the inn was pleasant, as rural as you could hope for. She did spy a factory in its park, but that was all right; the buildings were a subtlety of hues and geometry, the nanotanks inside grew robot parts. Boris swung north of the endless plantations and flew over a preserve that was being developed. Hormones would make the forest tall within half a decade. “They will stock it with native animals,” he told her. “Deer, elk, bears, wolves.”
“Aren’t some of those extinct?” Kyra wondered.
“M-m, I believe most species can be found in zoos, abroad when not in this country. Otherwise, I suppose, genomes are recorded and they can be cloned. Have you heard about them re-creating the tarpan in Siberia?”
“Yes.” She smiled. “What’ll amuse me is the mammoths, when they make them. Although I am puzzled. I’ve heard they must repair the DNA from the Ice Age specimens before they can map it. How do they know it hasn’t deteriorated too much? Are they sure they can make it the same?”
“If they produce a shaggy elephant with long, curving tusks—”
“And if it has polka dots, they’ll know they got it wrong. Do you think anybody will ever actually try for a dinosaur?”
The inn nestled in the Valdai Hills among birches white and golden-green. It was new, but built according to fashionably traditional styles and motifs. It offered excellent food and drink, plus live service by young men and women in old folk costumes. A singer accompanied himself on the balalaika. The help were kept busy. The couple who owned the place must be getting rich.
And why not? Should they sit idle on citizen’s credit and relieve drabness with multiception? Here, they might find reason to beget a child or two.
Kyra pushed the thought away. The setting was too nice for it.
Fakey, of course. A let’s-pretend. But what harm? Enjoy. Tomorrow she’d be back in school, grinding away, afraid to ease off for a moment lest she fall behind in the race to qualify for a berth in space, where everything and everybody was real.
* * * *
12
Database
A
breeze blew cool from the sunset, down a road of burning gold. The schooner ghosted along before it, her sails catching the light as well as the air, white against a blue that shaded nightward into violet. Waves shone in still more multitudinous hues, from horizon to horizon across the Coral Sea. They slipped small beneath the schooner’s bow, whispered and chuckled the length of her hull, swirled aft in a wake filled with the molten glow.
Anson Guthrie and Juliana Trevorrow stood at the taffrail, well-nigh alone. The helmsman paid them no heed; other passengers and crew were on the main deck, voices lost in the sounds of the waters.
Guthrie savored filling his lungs and slowly exhaling. “Ah, that’s good,” he murmured. “Not many places left where you can draw breaths like these.”
Trevorrow nodded. “Nor have such sights and do such things.” The cruise included the Great Barrier Reef, snorkels or aqualungs issued to those who wanted them.
“I’m glad we came while time remains.” The tourist hordes were forcing further tightening of restrictions. “I thought I couldn’t afford the price, but then figured I could much worse afford to lose what might be my last chance.”
“Likewise. Well, in my case time rather than money was the problem, but you’re right.”
He liked hearing Trevorrow speak. It was in a husky contralto, and though she hailed from Sydney—or because she did?—the accent seemed less Strine to him than British, a tone from motherland greenwoods long since vanished. He liked her looks, too, tall, leggy, blond hair around features nearly classic. There was strength in those hands resting on the rail. She’d been a tad standoffish at first, but after several days had evidently decided she’d let acquaintance ripen further.
He grabbed the opportunity. “You’re busy, then? May I ask what’s your line of work?”
“You Americans would call it real estate and development, I believe.” She met his gaze and smiled. “No, not knocking together little row houses. I began in my father’s firm. He’s been buying abandoned sheep range since the bottom dropped out of the wool market and applying biotechnology to convert it to agricultural land. Lately I have gone into business for myself.”
“Not quite the same stuff, I’d guess.”
“No, I’m now a licensed contractor in northern Queensland. Workers building the space center need every sort of supplies and services, at the back of the outback where they are. The entire area does. For example, we should do decent landscaping and plant the proper ground cover at the outset, even for temporary housing; forestall troubles with erosion, water, and pests. We should prepare to grow and ship tropical fruit, once transport is adequate; a potential cornucopia there, which among other benefits could let the Abos earn a reasonable income. Oh, the possibilities are unlimited.” She sighed. “But it’s hard for a new business to win a foothold. From a practical standpoint, I was idiotic to take a holiday.” Laughter. “How fortunate, that attack of feeblemindedness.”
Joy jumped in him. “Hey,” he exclaimed, “what a coincidenc
e! I’m aiming at exactly the same target.”
“Are you?” The interest appeared genuine. “How?”
“Depends. I’ve got to scout the territory. Should’ve commenced as soon as I stepped off the plane, no doubt, but— Anyway, I have some experience in construction and some money to invest in high-tech, computerized equipment, the kind that lets one man do the work of twenty.” He did not taste this breath that he drew. “Uh, maybe we could be . . . mutually helpful. Not to push you or anything, but maybe you’d like to talk about it, at least.”
“Perhaps,” she said carefully. “Aren’t you being rather venturesome?”
Guthrie shrugged. “More fun that way.”
“I should think you’d best try it out first closer to home.”
Guthrie shook his head. His tone harshened. “I’d lose my shirt, and pants and union suit as well.”
“Why?”
“You must know what it’s like in the States these days. Though probably a person has to experience it directly to realize how bonkers the country is going. Canada too. I admit—well, I came back from years in South America, the money I spoke of caterwauling to be used, and it was like wading into a swamp of glue.”
“I know the Renewal movement is on the upswing.”
“Yeah, that’s a large part of it. Environmentalism run amuck.”
She frowned a little. “The planet is in a bad way.”
“Sure. No argument. I’ve been a conservationist since I graduated from diapers. Cloth diapers. But if anybody calls me an environmentalist he’d better be quick on the draw. Hell, Ju— Beg pardon. Miss Trevorrow, from what you tell me, you and your dad are doing some of the things that’ll repair the damage and prevent more. What won’t do it is, for instance, closing down nuclear powerplants so people have to shiver in winter and breathe the garbage spewed out by coal-fired generators—not just carbon dioxide and carcinogens, but more radioactivity than nuclear accidents ever released. Or paying jewelry prices for solar units that might on a clear day furnish the juice for one light bulb per square yard of ecology they cover up. Or banning plastics that could perfectly well be made recyclable, in favor of paper that demands we turn the last of our forests into monoculture plantations. Or saddling business with such a load of taxes, regulations, and paperwork that it breaks the backs of all but the fatcat giant corporations. Or—”
He must pause for air. “Yes, I’m aware of that, and more,” she said. “We’re getting it in Australia too.”
“Not as bad, I gather.” Guthrie’s smile was rueful. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to rant at you. Actually, I think eco-fascism is just one side of the evil. It’s fascism generally, or puritanism if you like. H. L. Mencken once defined a puritan as a man who wakes during the night in a cold sweat at the thought that somebody, somewhere, may be having a good time. So let’s protect the poor, ignorant consumer from himself. Tax alcohol, tobacco, and junk food out of reach and propagandize against them with the aim of eventual prohibition. Indoctrinate and train the school kids, draft them into teams for the proper sports, Kraft durch Freude. Tax fuel a thousandfold; joyriding is wicked, and keeping your house at a comfortable temperature is antisocial. Make sure every medicine bottle needs a hacksaw to open, or a charge of nitroglycerine.
“Meanwhile, of course, onward with uplift. Require employing the right proportion of men, women, in-betweens, ethnics, and ‘disadvantaged.’ Have strict quotas in the colleges for the bright and literate and those who work at their studies, to make room for the ‘mentally special.’ Keep books with insensitive remarks in them off library shelves and out of stores. Better yet, don’t let them be published. Keep ears stretched for wrong talk, reprove the offender publicly, haul him into court and fine him if you can. Or beat him up. No charges will be brought—
“Rats! There I went again. What a waste of a beautiful sunset. I do apologize.”
“You needn’t,” she said gently. “I may not entirely agree, but I like people who have strong feelings and aren’t afraid to express them, at least if the feelings are basically decent. Is this why you’ve come Down Under?”
“Not quite,” he admitted. “I could’ve gone back to South America. Lots of opportunities there, what with democratic institutions taking firm root. But . . . Australia has a live space program these days. Ours is hopelessly bogged down in bureaucracy and corporate lardheadedness. Too many entrepreneurs have broken their hearts trying to lift off on their own. One way or another, the calcified giant has squashed them flat. The Europeans and Japanese have settled down into contentment with what they’ve got, which isn’t bad but isn’t much interested in getting better, either. Besides, they don’t welcome foreigners.
“You people, you’ve finally decided to build a spaceport for yourselves. You talk about developing improved launch systems. I want to be a part of that, in however small a way. I want it very much.”
Her look was steady upon him. “Why?”
“Why, that’s where the future is, if we have any. I said I’m a conservationist. It’s true we can’t go on a lot longer taking everything out of the hide of Mother Earth. If we don’t start using the resources yonder, and soon, industrial civilization is done for, and several billion people with it, maybe all of ‘em. For any who somehow survive the crash, it’s back to the Dark Ages, permanently. I want a better prospect for my children.”
“How many have you?”
“None so far. I’m single.” Never mind, at this moment, the long-ago accident. Nor did he see any immediate reason to mention Bernice. She’d tried, and he had, in what he now knew was a clumsy fashion, and the divorce was outwardly amicable but the pain of it had helped drive him overseas.
“You’re right about the need for space,” Trevorrow said. “At any rate, I’ve similar ideas.” She hesitated. “Except for my father, I haven’t discussed them with anyone else before.”
“Nor I, much.” He grinned. “To tell the truth, I hope to make my fortune in the cause. An obscenely big fortune. Doing well by doing good.”
“Yes, we should talk more,” she said, almost shyly.
His pulse thudded, but neither of them had immediate words. They turned their faces west. The sun had slipped away and the sea ran darkling, a-glimmer with the brightness that faded overhead. The breeze gathered force, fresh against brow and cheeks. It rustled in the shrouds. A boom creaked. The ship heeled slightly and the waves ran louder. Every sound remained muted, though, beneath the enormous hush in heaven.
Venus gleamed like a beacon.
Impulse burst from Guthrie: “By God, space is elbow room as well! Newness. Freedom.”
He barely heard Trevorrow: “I’ve carried that thought about in myself.”
He laid a hand over hers. She didn’t seem to mind.
* * * *
13
Database
H
aving loose time on the Moon between missions, Kyra Davis took the monorail from Port Bowen to Tychopolis. That was where she’d likeliest catch some action. Astrebourg on Farside was staid, mainly devoted to research, and other communities had gone purely Lunarian since independence. Foreigners weren’t forbidden entry, but it wasn’t encouraged and those who went found themselves so isolated that they were happy to leave. Tychopolis continued to be Luna’s commercial and cultural interlink with the rest of the Solar System.
The ride was spectacular as always, over ashen maria and up into the highlands. Earth in night heaven sank lower as the train sped south; the shadows that its blue-and-white brilliance cast lengthened, bringing countless little pockmarks clear into sight. It did the same for jumbled regolith beneath which power cables lay buried. Transmission dishes loomed skeletal against the stars. You couldn’t sense the beams they hurled at the mother world, but sometimes when she saw one it was as if a sound throbbed in Kyra’s marrow, a song of energy clean and well-nigh limitless, a song of triumph.
The train climbed Tycho’s ringwall, swooped down again, whizzed across the crater floor, and
plunged underground near Skyview Tower. Kyra lockered her suitcase in the terminal. Later she’d bring it to the hotel where she had reserved a room. Tomorrow, universal time, she might revisit the standard attractions. She was especially fond of the gardens and zoo, the unique life forms they harbored. But sightseeing, or whatever adventures developed, went best in company. She’d begin by looking for a friend, which in turn began with having a drink.
The ornate old murals in the station behind her, she bounded upstairs to corridor level. Motion was a joy, strides long and airy-light, kangaroo leaps where space permitted, birdiike flight in Avis Park. The absence of civilian vehicles added to the pleasure. There was no call to fret about low-g effects. She’d only be here a short while; hours per day in a centrifuge weren’t necessary.
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