Terran Tomorrow

by Nancy Kress

  He sketched another diagram, suppressing the insane idea to draw birds instead of letters. Too bad he hadn’t had Caitlin “prepare his briefing materials.”

  “Then those birds mate, and every one of their fledglings carries the alteration, on through the generations.”

  Zack turned back to the table. “A gene drive creates a ‘selective sweep,’ spreading like wildfire and so eventually wiping out all other versions of that gene. This is a known phenomenon, occurring both naturally and through lab creations pre-Collapse, although there it affected insects, not birds.”

  One of the new captains said, “But Dr. McKay, what are these two gene drives you’re trying to create going to do?”

  “I was coming to that. One of the gene drives we’re working on would hinder birds’ ability to carry RSA. The other—”

  The captain interrupted him. “But you haven’t achieved that gene drive, have you? In fact, Monterey Base research hasn’t advanced on any of your three fronts.”

  “Well—we get closer every week.”

  Toni raised her eyebrow at this blatant exaggeration. The captain looked skeptical, or unimpressed, or something else that annoyed Zack. All at once a new thought hit him—was he in the middle of some sort of turf war between Jenner and HQ?

  No way to know. He turned back to the board. “The other gene drive will render male sparrows sterile. The result will, eventually, be this.”

  There was silence. His attempt to lighten the atmosphere had fallen as flat as his dead bird.

  The captain said, “And just why hasn’t this gene drive succeeded so far?”

  “The main difficulty of the complex gene drive is resistance to it that develops after a few generations of bird breeding. We’re hoping to get around that by combining three different gene drives, so that resistance by mutation is minimized. But obviously that’s a difficult task. Sometimes the alterations interfere with each other. The gene-editing tool doesn’t cut or insert where it’s supposed to. Or it cuts the target but doesn’t complete the delivery.”

  Marianne Jenner said, “But … apart from the difficulties … May I ask questions, too?”

  Zack braced himself. Marianne, undeterred by considerations of either rank or turf wars, was probably going to put her very capable finger on every reason that Zack’s research shouldn’t even exist.

  She did. “I’m wondering how you can create a gene drive capable of being carried by more than one species of sparrow, since their genomes do differ.”

  Zack said, “We’re piggybacking on RSA itself, which infects all species of sparrows, and only sparrows.”

  Her voice rose. “You’re further altering the virus that killed so many people?”

  “Yes.”

  “What if your alterations—”

  “We’re doing extensive testing.” Both of them, and probably everyone else in the room, knew that “extensive testing” wasn’t possible with their limitations of resources, personnel, time, birds. Zack was doing what he could with what he had.

  Marianne said, “You mentioned pre-Collapse gene drives in insects. I’m sure you know that when the bacterium Wolbachia was used to create a gene drive to infect mosquitoes that carry malaria, the researchers also discovered that some strains of the bacteria were capable of transferring horizontally to other arthropods. What if your gene drive—either of your gene drives—jumps to other species and changes their reproductive biology?”

  “I think,” Zack said, “that you already know it can’t jump to humans. And that the chances of it jumping to species more closely related to birds is small.”

  “But not zero. Altered genes have been transmitted through bacterial and parasitic plasmids.”

  “Yes. We are trying to build in safeguards.”

  “Doctor—you know that isn’t possible.”

  Zack hadn’t wanted to do this. But if he didn’t, his entire team might be shut down by HQ. And nobody present except Toni would know he was about to utter a half-truth. “It wasn’t possible in your time, Marianne. We know more now.”

  She was silenced.

  The visiting captain was not. “But even if this gene drive can’t jump species, wiping out all the birds on Earth will wreck the entire ecology, won’t it?”

  As if it weren’t already wrecked. Zack put both palms flat on the table and leaned forward. “Look, I’ve tried to make clear that this is last-ditch, final-resort, hope-to-God-we-don’t-need-it research in case the work by the other two scientific units fails. We cannot stay cooped up for generations in the few remaining domes. Ninety-six percent of children being born aren’t immune to RSA, and we can’t even discover which six percent are immune without exposing our children to overwhelming odds of a horrible death. If someday the choice comes down to the death of all birds or the death of humanity, which would you choose? I know my preference. And what I want is for us to have the means to have a choice, if it comes to that. That’s what this research is about.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Jenner said. “I think we’re done here. Captains, this way, please.”

  The room emptied. Toni lingered, but Dr. Vargas called her aside to ask her something. When everyone had gone, Zack hunted for an eraser to wipe the board of his clumsy diagrams. There still wasn’t one.

  As he used his hand to erase, smearing his palm with black ink, he saw that in the second diagram, he had misspelled “inheritance.”

  * * *

  The briefing left Marianne feeling shaky. Not that she hadn’t known most of it before, since Zack’s first explanations in the signal station, but somehow this meeting had made the full horror more real. At night she dreamed not of the Collapse she had never seen, but of the result that she also hadn’t seen. Cities overgrown by wilderness, or else H-bombed into rubble. Vast empty stretches of farmland reverting to prairie. Primitive settlements of survivors trying to hang on. And in Europe and Asia and Australia and Africa and South America, probably more of the same. A mixture of technology from Bronze Age to late twentieth century to alien artifacts like domes and esuits, used but not understood. The mind had trouble grasping it.

  And yet people went on, replacing abysmal loss with everyday activities: prepare communal dinner, work in labs, educate children, prepare for dome defense. The new normal.

  She made her way through the crowded, overpopulated Lab Dome to the infirmary. Children from the Settlement, who evidently had no trouble adapting to a change of “normal,” pushed past her in some sort of excited game. Their parents looked bewildered and unhappy, although Marianne knew that the more enterprising of them had already begun to plant a vegetable garden right outside the dome walls, under the watchful eyes of Jason’s guards, where they could be hustled back inside in case of attack.

  Halfway to the infirmary, Kayla Rhinehart grabbed Marianne’s arm. “Where are you going?”

  “To see my son.” Marianne peeled Kayla off her.

  “I want you to get me in to see Colonel Jenner!”

  “I can’t do that, Kayla. I almost never see him myself and I have no authority.”

  “You’re his grandmother!”

  Marianne wanted to say And this is not a matrilineal lahk, but she didn’t. Kayla looked dreadful. Claire must have adjusted her meds again, still without finding the optimum dose. Mania had been replaced not with depression but with desperate anxiety. Kayla had lost weight, and her thin face looked cadaverous. Marianne said, “Can I help?”

  “No! Only Colonel Jenner! I want him to send us back to World on the Return!”

  Marianne said as gently as she could, “That isn’t going to happen, Kayla.”

  “It has to! I hate it here! And so does Glamet^vor¡ and La^vor and … and everybody!”

  Marianne had not observed La^vor hating Earth. Jane’s friend was mostly occupied with her younger, mentally challenged brother: playing with him, teaching him, looking after him. At fifteen Terran years, Belok^ had the lively curiosity of a three-year-old, although not as large a vocabulary.
La^vor seemed the most loving of caretakers, the sort of woman born to be a wonderful mother.

  Kayla said, “I want to go back to World! This isn’t the Earth I came here for!”

  As if it were for any of them. “Maybe someday we’ll go back. But for right now—”

  “You won’t help me! You’re no different from the rest of these fuckers, Marianne!”

  “I—” But Kayla punched her on the shoulder, turned, and stalked away.

  Marianne rubbed her shoulder. She would need to find Claire and tell her about this. But first she was going to see Colin, still in infirmary.

  In the infirmary corridor, she met Lindy Ross. Lindy’s face was creased with worry, and Marianne’s heart clenched. “Colin? Is he—”

  “No, no, he’s fine. Healing well.” Lindy hesitated. “Marianne, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure. Go ahead.”

  “When Jason was a child, was he vindictive? No, that’s the wrong word. I mean, did he feel that scores had to be settled even if there was no immediate threat?”

  “No, never. He valued fairness and got indignant when people weren’t fair, but he was never mean, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Lindy nodded, her face still troubled. On impulse, Marianne said, “Forgive me if I’m overstepping boundaries here, but I think Jason still cares for you. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”

  Immediately Lindy’s face closed. “I’ve seen the way he looks at Jane.”

  Jane? Really? How had Marianne missed that? Or was Lindy mistaken? Marianne said, “Don’t be too hard on Jason. He looks exhausted. He’s holding this place together with spit and duct tape and sheer will.”

  “With all due respect, Marianne—do you think I don’t know that? Plus a lot more that you don’t know?”

  “Yes, of course. I’m sorry.”

  “No, I’m sorry.” Lindy’s mouth twisted. “We’re all just taut as catgut.”

  “I know. And you’re all doing a wonderful job.”

  “Trying, anyway.” Lindy forced a smile and walked away.

  Marianne watched the back of Lindy’s upright figure. Such a formidable young woman: intelligent, tireless, but unforgiving. Had Marianne herself ever been like that? She had. Maybe that was why she liked Lindy so much, despite Lindy’s prickliness. Well, in this situation, prickliness was a reasonable response. Much better than hysteria or despair or fanaticism.

  But … what did Lindy mean by Plus a lot more that you don’t know?

  CHAPTER 10

  Jane sat alone with Colin Jenner when he woke from sedation.

  His bed, her uncomfortable chair, and medical equipment crowded the tiny room in the infirmary, a place of hard edges and square angles and too bright lights. Each night Jane dreamed of the soaring curves of karthwood, of purplish orchards, of the broad soft sky of World. Each morning she had to find in herself the determination to face the next day without inflicting her fear and sadness on La^vor and Belok^. They did the same for her, of course, even Belok^. Bu^ka^tel.

  But at least Lab Dome held Colin Jenner. He lay under an Army blanket drawn over most of his body, but she could see that one leg bulged with wrappings or machines of some kind. One hand lay under the blanket and one on top. If he had been a Worlder, she would have taken that free hand and held it in solidarity and comfort, even though he was a stranger. But Colin was not a Worlder, and Jane was bewildered by her attraction to this stocky, sun-burned Terran with the uncut hair and mud-colored eyes that no Worlder had ever had. She knew well what her feelings were; she was not a thirteen-year-old virgin. It was the strength of the attraction that surprised and upset her.

  Sometimes, her lahk Mother had said back home, delight comes unbidden and should be honored. But this was not delight. It was all mixed up with her homesickness and Colin’s beliefs and the maternal feelings that Jane had denied too long now—she was already twenty-seven, more in Terran years, and had not provided her lahk with the first of the two children that were her duty to create for the good of all, while her eggs were still at their best.

  Her lahk was 103 light-years away.

  But—

  Colin stirred and opened his eyes.

  They focused slowly, and when they did, they gazed at Jane. A smile came and went on his lips. He tried to speak, croaked something unintelligible, tried again. “Settlement?”

  Jane hadn’t expected to be the one to tell him, but anything less than the truth was unthinkable. “Many of your people died, but the rest are here, in the domes. I am told that the inside of your dome is destroyed by … by a weapon. I don’t know the word.”

  Colin squeezed closed his eyes, opened them again. Jane said, “I am sorry, Colin Jenner.”

  “We will start again. How…”

  “Colonel Jenner destroyed the ones who attacked you and then bringed your people here in our spaceship.”

  “Is Jason hurt?”

  “No.”

  “Mary?”

  “I don’t know who that is.” A woman’s name. His woman? Jane’s throat tightened. “I will get Claire. She will want to examine you.”

  “In a minute. I’m fine.”

  His voice was stronger now, but he winced when he tried to turn his body. Jane said sharply, “Lie quiet!”

  “Yes, ma’am.” A tiny smile. “Jane, we’ll build again. Will my brother let us return to the Settlement? The crops must still be in the fields, they couldn’t have destroyed everything.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Will you find him and send him to me?”

  As if Jane could send Colonel Jenner anywhere! How did it happen that she knew more about life with this Army than Colin did?

  He said, “Okay, you can’t do that. Sorry. But we need to leave here. Leave this sterile and ugly environment. Get the children out of here and living free on Terra again. Anyway, Jason will need the crops.”

  She said, before she knew she was going to say anything, “I wish I can come with you!”

  His gaze sharpened, that upsetting gaze that seemed to see right into her brain. “You miss your planet.”

  “Yes.”

  His hand moved across the blanket and she took it, accepting the offered sympathy. Another electric jolt ran through her at the touch of his fingers. He said, “I understand about homesickness. You Worlders—you believe the same things we do. We Settlers, I mean.”

  “Some of the same things. Maybe not all.”

  “I want to know about World. I want to know about you. I wish you could come with us, too. But you’re not immune to RSA, are you?”

  “No.”

  Alarm crossed his face. Jane said, “You were decontaminated. All your people, when you were brought inside Lab Dome. Colonel Jenner was careful.”

  “He always is. Jason is a good man, just badly misguided.”

  “Yes.” And then, “Colin, do you have a mate?”

  He seemed startled; maybe that wasn’t a proper thing to ask on Terra. He said, “No.” And then, “Do you?”

  “No, I was meant to sign a mating contract, but I didn’t.”

  “A contract? Is that what you call it? Tell me about World. How do you keep an entire planetful of people from ruining the environment? I—”

  “Colin!” Claire Patel pushed into the tiny space, her little medical box already in her hand. Jane turned to ease out and give Claire room to approach Colin’s bed. Glamet^vor¡ stood in the doorway.

  How long had he been there? What had he heard, and did he have enough English to understand any of it? Had he seen her holding Colin’s hand?

  Claire said, “Okay, everybody out, I need to examine my patient.”

  Jane and Glamet^vor¡ faced each other in the corridor. At the other end, a group of Settler children hunched over some game involving colored stones.

  “I greet you, Jeg^faan.” His voice was tight, his face stony. It occurred to Jane that in this mood, he looked more Terran than World. She must not say that.

  “I greet y
ou, Glamet^vor¡.”

  “Will Colin-mak recover from his injuries?”

  “The doctors say yes.”

  “And will you copulate with him when he does?”

  Definitely Terran. The demands, the anger, the lack of bu^ka^tel. Mating contracts were public, but copulations were private matters. Maybe people had to come to a new environment to reveal their true natures.

  “I’m sorry, Glamet^vor¡, but that is not your concern.”

  “You have no lahk Mother here to approve a mating contract.”

  “There is no contract. Please let me pass.”

  He didn’t move, blocking the corridor. Beyond, the children shrieked in delight over their game. “These Terrans are rotten.” He used the word for decaying unburned flesh, a word that not only conveyed putrid odor and texture but was also a filthy oath.

  “They are not.”

  “Why can’t you see? You won’t see! Terrans nearly destroyed their planet, the planet that was our original home as well, and were stopped from doing so only because instead they destroyed each other. They continue to fight. The Gaiists were right—Terra should be cleansed of the disease that is Terrans! Then she can recover, and someday World can come back to colonize her as it should be done, with respect and care for Mother Earth. You believe that, too, Jeg^faan. You must believe it!”

  “I do not. Not all Terrans are a disease on the planet. The Settlers—”

  “Cannot survive. New America is wiping them out. You saw that. And then, if right prevails, New America and the United States Army”—he all but spat the words—“will destroy each other.”

  Jane stared at him, appalled at his anger, his contempt, his lack of manners toward their hosts. She said, “You are wrong. Even if New America and the Army did destroy each other, four percent of Terrans survived RSA. Do you think this little corner of the United States is all that exists? I thought better of your mind, Glamet^vor¡. There are almost three hundred million people left on Earth and—”

  “There are not. Many of those will have died of war or hunger or disease.”