“Right.” Raef felt a brief pang of jealousy for that physical closeness, and then sensed Evangeline’s sudden curiosity about it. He changed the subject. “And you. What do you think they should do?”
[Continue mating. It seems to bring them much satisfaction.]
“I meant about the time capsule and what’s in it.”
[I think they could discuss it for the next hundred years and the correct course would still not be plain. They must choose what they will do, and make it be the right course. There are many wonderful things in there. Wolves, such as we ran with in our pretense. Elephants. And horses.]
Silver appeared briefly in his room, reared to paw at the starry ceiling, and then vanished.
“I see.”
[Many of the nurturing vats are damaged or inoperable. But I have told them I have many womb chambers. With adaptations, I could nurture many kinds of creatures. Raef, I could be Mother to your whole world.]
For a moment the image dizzied him. Then he found himself smiling and thinking, Why not? Why the hell not? She probably knew more about being a real mom than any living Human did. Then another thought intruded.
“I’m afraid we’ve all been sort of selfish.” He paced his study restlessly. “I mean, here we are, gloating over what you found for us, and teasing ourselves with just how to enjoy it. I don’t think anyone’s said they were sorry you were so disappointed. Well, I am. I know what it would have meant to you to have found little babies out there, and Wild Beasts of your own kind. I mean, you and me, Evangeline. We’re the last of us there is.”
She was silent a long time. [I had not thought friends could share each other’s pain. That was foolish of me, for I knew you had shared Jeffrey’s pain. And now I see you know of my hurt and share it. So share my comfort as well. You are not the last, Raef. There can be others like you, grown from the materials in the station. And I need not be the last of my kind. Not if I am brave and a hero, and dare to free a mate for myself. Then we could have babies, and there would again be Wild Beasts in the universe. Maybe I will be able to free more than one, and there will be herds of us again, as there once were.]
“How do you know there were herds of you?”
[Your kind might call it a racial memory. Tug’s presence in me hid much from myself; as if the parasite stands between the Beast and all the Beast must know to be free. There is something I would show you, something special.]
“What is it?”
[Your language is too small, sometimes.] She caught him up and swept him away with her, out into the stars and beyond, spreading him again, unbearably thin throughout a hundred solar systems. Stars beyond stars glittered, and this time she saw their beauty with him. She spun him up and on, and he sensed how very far they moved, and feared for his sanity. But suddenly there was a dull red star that beckoned him with a warmth that was more than solar. And then there was a planet, gold and red and brown, rich with thick winds. [Home.] She explained unnecessarily. [I knew all along. We all are born knowing where it is, even before our parents carry us there. Like the streams and rivers of your migratory fish, or the wintering places of your south-flying birds. It is where I must go, if ever I have infants of my own.]
“Can’t you just go there now? Maybe Tug was lying. You might find your own kind. Then you wouldn’t be lonely anymore.”
There was a long pause, then she spoke very gently. [Raef, there are no more Wild Beasts. I can feel the truth of what my parasite said. If I am to have a mate, I must free one from the parasites. I am not sure yet how it can be done. Perhaps I must find a bubble net of slave babies, and fight whatever Beast guards it. Perhaps I can find an old Beast, one old enough to be feeling discontent, to be sensing there is more than slavery. The how of it is something I must think about and plan. But I have time to do that; my life is thousands of yours. I feel that I have time to help your people regain their world. When this is accomplished, then they will help me with what I must do. This they have promised; it’s a deal.]
“But won’t you be lonely until then?”
[Sometimes you are not very smart. I am not lonely, now. When I am, then there will be plenty of time to seek a mate among my own kind.]
It seemed that he just turned around and was back in his study again, amid the fat chairs and the books. Already it was familiar and comfortable. Home. A place it seemed he’d waited forever to find. Which brought up another question.
“How long do you think it will be? Before … you’re lonely?”
The silence was very long.
“Dammit, Evangeline. What is it, am I already dead?”
[Not … no.]
“Then how long?” The old anger broke out in his voice.
It didn’t scare her. [You idiot. Your whole life, to me, is but a moment. How brief can be the time that is left to you? I cannot say. How long, when you live it like this, at the speed of thought? Only you can say.]
And the anger passed. He thought of a fire in the red brick fireplace in the corner, and it was so. He went and sat down beside it, picked up a skewer, and took a marshmallow from the bag. “I haven’t shown you this. Want to try it?”
[I guess so.]
“Then you’re going to have to come in. Don’t be shy.”
[Okay.] But there was a pause. Then a door he hadn’t noticed before opened just a crack, held there. She hesitated. [What should I look like?]
“Anything you want.”
[Mother.]
“If you want …” he started to say, and then paused. He didn’t really want her to be Mother anymore. She was more than Mother now. She was everyone and anyone in the world. And the only one, he thought, but she was enough. “I’m just being Raef. Be Evangeline,” he suggested and waited.
It took her a while.
And then she came in slowly. Her hair was spiky and white, like a punk, he might have said at first. But no, not at all like a punk, for it moved gracefully and softly as she came, stirring in tendrils and wavering locks that reminded him of flames. She moved as her ship body moved, smoothly, elegantly, full of purpose and yet unhurried. Her face was classic and not Human, and yet familiar, the Mona Lisa and the girl next door and a majestic Beast that moved through the stars and something else he would never have a name for. She watched the carpet as she walked. And then she looked up and their eyes met and she was Evangeline. Evangeline, pure and simple, and wise and complex. Totally alien and totally familiar.
She smiled at him.
About the Author
Megan Lindholm was born in California 1952 and majored in Communications at Denver University, Colorado. She has been shortlisted for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards and wrote a number of successful fantasy novels, including Cloven hooves, THE KI AND VANDIEN QUARTET and Wizard of the Pigeons before starting to write as Robin Hobb. Assassin’s Apprentice was Robin Hobb’s first novel, and was followed by the equally successful Royal Assassin and Assassin’s Quest, which together comprise THE FARSEER TRILOGY. Robin Hobb’s second trilogy, THE LIVESHIP TRADERS (Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny) is set in the same world. Fools Errand and The Golden Fool are the first two books of her third trilogy, THE TAWNY MAN. She lives in Tacoma, Washington.
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Other Books by Megan Lindholm
The Reindeer People
Wolf’s Brother
THE KI AND VANDIEN QUARTET
Harpy’s Flight
The Windsingers
The Limbreth Gate
Luck of the Wheels
Wizard of the Pigeons
Cloven Hooves
Alien Earth
Writing as Robin Hobb
THE FARSEER TRILOGY
Assassin’s Appprentice
Royal Assassin
Assassin’s Quest
THE LIVESHIP TRADERS
Ship of Magic
The Mad Ship
Ship of Destiny
THE TAWNY
MAN
Fool’s Errand
The Golden Fool
Copyright
Voyager
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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First published by
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc. 1992
ALIEN EARTH. Copyright © Megan Ogden Lindholm 1992. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
ISBN 978-0-58-621516-6
EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2011 ISBN: 978-0-00-739195-0
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Contents
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
About the Author
Other Books by Megan Lindholm
Copyright
About the Publisher
Alien Earth Page 44
