Venus of Dreams

by Pamela Sargent

  “Excuse me,” Amir replied. “You two will want time to yourselves now.” An odd look passed across the bearded man’s face; Chen could almost believe that Amir was jealous of him. The Linker stood up. “I must be off anyway. We’re having another conference with a few of the Habbers, and I must prepare myself for it.” He left the table quickly.

  Iris leaned over and kissed Chen on the cheek. “I’ve missed you,” she said. “Everything’s changed so much since you left.”

  “I noticed. Fei-lin and Tonie asked a few friends to their room tonight. I told them we’d both come. I think they’re finally going to tell us they’ve decided to have a child — they’ve been waiting long enough. Fei-lin told me they’d talked to a Counselor on the Bat about it, so —”

  She touched his hand. “We could do the same thing now.”

  “Maybe.”

  “If all goes well with the dome construction, we could all go there together as settlers, and our daughter would still have some years on the Islands first, to prepare herself.”

  Chen frowned. “I don’t know.”

  “You haven’t changed your mind?”

  “It isn’t that, Iris. I just can’t help worrying. This may not last.”

  “Now you sound like Amir.” She nibbled at some fruit. “He’s worried too. Earth hasn’t done anything, and he wonders what they might be planning. I keep telling him that there’s probably nothing they can do at this point — the longer Earth waits, the less they’ll be able to do. But Amir’s been exploring, trying to get some answers through his Link, and he keeps running into blocks. Apparently our cyberminds here aren’t picking up as much information from those on Earth. When a Linker runs into blocks, he begins to wonder what’s being hidden.”

  Chen felt uneasy; Amir’s concerns only gave his own worries more substance. “I thought he agreed with Pavel and the other Administrators.”

  “Oh, he felt they had no choice. But we have, as he puts it, faced the Mukhtars with a dilemma. The Mukhtars don’t want to threaten the Habbers, because they don’t know what the Habs might be able to do against them. At the same time, if they leave things as they are without coming to some sort of agreement, they’re acknowledging that they’ve lost control of the Project. People will begin to think the Mukhtars are weak, that they can’t act, and some Nomarchies still resent the Mukhtars. There could be uprisings on Earth if people believe the Mukhtars are powerless.” A line creased Iris’s brow. “I sometimes wonder what might happen in Lincoln then. That’s one thing that does worry me. Sometimes it seems that everything we do is bound to bring grief to someone.”

  “Your household may be safer than we are now.”

  “You do sound like Amir. It’s odd — in a way, I’m more worried at hearing this from you than I was from him.”

  He said, “I don’t know why you have to talk to him at all.”

  Iris reached for his hand. “There’s nothing between us now. You know that. I don’t think there ever really was.”

  How could he say what he felt? He would have preferred to see her go to Amir’s bed; he had accepted that part of her nature. “Why do you see him at all, then?”

  A look of annoyance flickered across Iris’s face. He sighed; he had thought that they were past these useless confrontations.

  “I don’t know, Chen. He seems to need to talk to me now. I haven’t encouraged him, believe me, but he says he still has some feeling for me, though I think that’s mostly guilt about what happened between us before. He’s sorry about what happened, and in spite of it, I can’t condemn him. I’ve been guilty of enough cruelty to others myself. It’s time we forgot those old wounds. We can’t carry them to a new world, and I don’t want to pass on old hatreds to our daughter when she lives.”

  “I see. I suppose Amir would be useful to you then.”

  “You know I don’t care about that any more, but if it troubles you so much, then I’ll try to avoid him as much as possible.”

  “I won’t ask that of you,” Chen said. “How can I blame him for feeling the way he does? Just as long as you don’t feel that way about him —”

  She laughed. “You know I don’t. You have to know that by now.” She leaned forward. “I haven’t even asked you what you’ve heard on the Bat. Has anyone told you about the progress we’ve been making?”

  “I’ve heard a little. Not much, though. We’ve had enough to do just keeping up with our own work.”

  “Then I’ll have to fill you in.” She spoke rapidly, almost tripping over the words; as Chen listened, his own worries began to fade, and he began to feel that he had been foolish to entertain them. The Habbers, according to Iris, were making improvements on al-Anwar and Oberg, the two completed domes; it seemed that the domes had already been named. The third dome, al-Khwarizmi, also named for a scientist prominent in Earth’s history, would be completed in less than a month. Iris gestured expansively as she talked of planned excavations, robots, improved structural materials for the domes, and ecosystems designed with rapidly maturing plants. The Habbers, interestingly, had not simply usurped the place of supervisors and Administrators; they were sharing their knowledge freely, consulting with the Island specialists at each step. The Islanders would learn much; everyone would benefit from that.

  “Once, you hated the Habbers,” Chen said during a break in the conversation.

  “It’s true. But now, I can even feel that everything that happened might have been for the best. Think of it, Chen. Someday, we might even see Benzi again. He might be able to come to Venus.”

  Chen was almost afraid to hope. His darker mood was beginning to pull at him again. He had entertained hopes before, only to see them dashed.

  “Are you worrying again?” Iris asked. “Look at you. Aren’t we together? Hasn’t everything turned out well after all?”

  He nodded, shaking off his mood. “How much work do you have left for today?”

  “I’ve got a meeting with my team in about an hour. A few Habber climatologists are supposed to show us some of their computer models. Apparently they’ve analyzed —”

  He stood up and reached for her hand. “Then we’ve got another hour. Let’s go home, and I’ll show you how much I missed you.”

  She thrust her arm around his waist as they left the table.

  As Chen had predicted, Tonie and Fei-lin had made their announcement. Their contraceptive implants would be removed in less than a week; they were planning on a son.

  “Using stored stuff?” Olaf asked.

  Fei-lin laughed. “I think I still have enough here to make a kid.” He cupped his groin.

  “Well,” Catherine said, “since you’re not going to get to work on it tonight, I guess we can all stay.”

  Eight of the couple’s friends had come to the small room. Chen sat on the floor, wedged between Iris and another woman, as Tonie’s friend Dorcas passed them a plate of raw vegetables. Catherine and her bondmate Olaf were sitting in the open doorway; the sound of conversation in the hallway outside was dimly audible. Chen listened as the group inside the room laughed and talked. Some of the people here had not come to see him off thirty years earlier, when he had been exiled from the Islands; a few of them had avoided his presence after Benzi’s flight from the Project. All of that had been forgotten; as he looked around at these people now, he could almost believe that no time had passed. Olaf had grown only slightly heavier with age, Fei-lin was as lively as ever, rejuvenation had kept Tonie’s beautiful face smooth and unmarked. The past had been erased along with the signs of aging, it seemed.

  “And when are you two going to stop putting things off?” Dorcas said to Chen. She seemed about to say more when a man suddenly thrust his head through the open-doorway. “Turn on your screen,” the man shouted.

  Fei-lin was sitting on the bed; he stood up quickly, nearly putting his foot in a bowl of food. “What is it?”

  “The screen,” the man replied. He disappeared, and Chen realized that the corridor outside the room ha
d grown silent.

  Fei-lin turned on his screen. “… will be here in one day,” a voice was saying. A gray-haired woman was speaking; shadows darkened the hollows under her tired eyes. “We’ve been ordered to allow these ships to dock here. We must follow that directive.” The woman paused and tilted her head, apparently listening to a message through her Link.

  “Who is she?” Dorcas muttered. “What’s she talking about?”

  “I’ll repeat the message,” the woman said. “I am Kerie Ord, a member of the Project Council on Anwara. I have just been informed that a fleet of eight ships carrying Guardian forces left Earth orbit more than a week ago and will be here within one twenty-four-hour period. All Habber vessels in orbit around Venus must leave this area immediately and return to the nearest Habber world. If the Habbers disregard this request, the Guardian forces have been ordered to attack any remaining ships with missiles. This is not an idle threat. The ships from Earth are armed, and will act.”

  Fei-lin stepped back from the screen; Tonie reached for his hand as he sat down again.

  “There is another message for the Islands from Earth,” Kerie Ord continued. “I’ll speak it now.” She lifted her head. “People of the Cytherian Islands, hear our words. Occasionally, well-meaning people can be misled, and the Habitat-dwellers are always prepared to take advantage of such weakness. We do not seek to harm those who might have felt only that they were acting in the Project’s best interest, but the Nomarchies cannot let this incident pass. The Habbers must leave, but be assured that the Project will go forward. There is no shame in acknowledging an honest mistake. The Habbers, by acting as they have without a request from the Council of Mukhtars, have violated our agreement.”

  Iris’s hand was in Chen’s; her fingers were icy against his palm.

  “The Habbers will fight them,” Fei-lin said; his face was taut with rage. “They must have ways.”

  Iris said, “Their ships here, as far as I know, have no weapons.”

  “They’ll have to do something.” Fei-lin looked around at his friends.

  “I have one last thing to say,” Kerie Ord went on. “Those of us on Anwara were not privy to your actions. Before we knew it, Habber ships were on their way to Venus. We wish you no harm on the Islands, and can even understand why you acted as you did, but we will not oppose Earth — we haven’t the means or the desire. You must see that —”

  The image disappeared, as if someone had cut the Linker off.

  “I thought Anwara agreed with us,” Olaf said.

  Iris sighed. “They probably did, as long as they thought we’d get away with it.”

  “But didn’t Mukhtar Pavel tell them what we were going to do?” Tonie asked.

  “I don’t know,” Iris said. “He might have told those he trusted. He might have figured that, after the Habber ships were here, it wouldn’t matter what Anwara did.”

  “There’s one thing we can do,” Olaf burst out. “We can flee to the Habber ships and get away. They won’t stay here to fight our battle, I bet.”

  Chen turned his head toward the big man. “Would you really leave the Islands for a Hab?”

  “Your son did.”

  “Our son was wrong,” Iris replied. “You’d better calm yourself, Olaf, you’ll just spread panic. Anyway, use your head. There are almost fifty thousand people on the Islands and Bats now, counting the Habbers. We couldn’t possibly get them all to the ships in time.”

  “But the Habbers can leave by themselves.”

  “I suppose they can, if they leave soon.”

  Chen was silent. He was sure that some of those on Anwara must have known ships from Earth were on their way before now; had they warned the Islanders earlier, an escape might have been possible. He scowled. The Anwarans, whatever their sympathies with the Islanders, had proven their loyalty to Earth by remaining silent until this moment.

  “The Habbers can fight,” Fei-lin said as he struck his palm with a fist.

  “And then what?” Iris asked. “What happens to Earth? Things would be harder there if there’s a battle with the Habs. And what happens to us?” She held out a hand. “Listen, Earth has to be careful. If they’re so concerned about controlling the Project, they can’t risk destroying us. This might just be a show of force designed to show everyone the Nomarchies aren’t afraid to act. Maybe Earth is ready to give us the help we need, now that they’ve seen how desperate we’ve grown.”

  Chen bowed his head. He felt no surprise; somehow, he had been expecting something like this to happen, and he suspected that this wouldn’t end the matter. Given a choice between preserving the Project and showing their power, the Mukhtars might risk the destruction of everything here.

  Iris felt that the dome had closed in around her. She would pace along the paths or stumble through a garden or wood, and no matter how far she walked, she would always come within sight of the platform that circled the Island and the dome that imprisoned them all.

  The threat from Earth, she knew, however she tried to minimize it, was real enough; this was only the first move in the game, and she was not sure where it would lead, yet at the same time, the threat seemed unreal. During the past hours, the Islanders had clustered around the screens that were their only link to outside events. They had seen images, transmitted by orbiting sensors, of the Habber ships, those oddly elongated slender cylinders attached to the giant globes that housed their engines. They had viewed charts and diagrams that plotted the course of the approaching Earth ships. They had listened to the hum of messages from the other Islands, whose people seemed to be looking to the Administrators of Island Two for some sort of solace. Yet it all seemed distant, as if the Islanders were enclosed in an impermeable bubble. Words flowed over them and faded; the diagrams and images were only pictures of events that were happening elsewhere.

  Pavel had taken advantage of the air of unreality. His face had appeared on the screens intermittently; his voice had been soothing. Iris could no longer recollect what he had said, but it didn’t matter; he had sounded unperturbed, with no worries for the Islands’ future. He had seemed prepared for Earth’s move; she wondered if he had in fact foreseen it or was only trying to avert panic.

  She heard voices up ahead, beyond the trees; people had gathered in front of the Habbers’ stone dwelling. The Habbers would have to leave very soon if they were to join those on their ships above; she wondered how the crowd would react at seeing them go. She turned away and walked on until she came to the wider path in front of the Administrators’ ziggurat.

  More people had assembled here. Iris stood at the edge of the crowd. A few Administrators stood at the top of the steps, flanked by a few Guardians. Iris shivered. What would the Guardians do if Earth ordered them to act? Would they continue to obey their commander here, and understand that they were too few to act against the Islanders? Or would they try to take control of the Islands? It would be futile to do so, but many people could die or be wounded in the meantime.

  “Listen, all of you!” one of the Administrators was shouting; his voice could barely be heard. Amir Azad was near him, gazing out over the crowd. “Pavel will soon have more to say. Go to your residences, keep your screens open for messages. There’s no need to gather here.”

  The people below were silent.

  “Very well, then. If you must wait here, we’ll give you Pavel’s next message as soon as we can.” The Linkers began to retreat toward their entrance.

  Amir had caught sight of Iris. He descended the steps as the people around him began to seat themselves. She waited until he had come up to her, then tugged at his sleeve as she led him away toward the trees.

  In the dim light and the shadows, she could not see Amir’s face clearly. “What are the Habbers going to do?” she asked.

  “What do you think? They’re going to remove their ships.”

  Iris felt mingled relief and disappointment. “Then they can’t defend them.”

  “That isn’t what they’ve said,” Amir
replied. “They say that if they showed their true strength, many lives would be lost. They say that they won’t take the lives of those aboard Earth’s ships, who are only following the orders of those above them. Pavel is with some Habbers now. They’ll make the announcement with him.”

  Iris leaned against a tree. “There’s more,” Amir continued. “The Habbers who are here now intend to stay. They say they want to go on with their work.”

  “But Earth asked them to leave.”

  “Their ships were asked to leave. The Habbers here will stay on the Islands. It’s a technicality, I suppose, but Pavel believes it may be to our advantage. There won’t be hard feelings and possible disorder, as there would be if our people had to watch them escape. It also shows that the Habbers here don’t fear any action Earth might take.”

  “But if their ships leave,” Iris objected, “that will show fear.”

  “That’s not how they see it. They want to avoid a destructive conflict. They’re prepared to back down for now. But the Habs will warn Earth that if any harm comes to the Habbers here, Earth will pay for it, and their presence may give us some protection as well.” Amir chuckled mirthlessly. “Why, I’ve been told that the Habbers have enough materials on the surface now to continue with dome construction for some time, as a sign of good will and a demonstration that they believe this crisis will be resolved.”

  She let out her breath. “Then we’re safe?”

  “For now. Until Earth decides what to do next.”

  She plucked at his sleeve. “You have a Link. Why aren’t the Linkers here speaking directly with those on Earth, trying to —” She paused. “Or have you already?”

  “Oh, Iris.”

  “Some on Earth might listen to you.”

  “Don’t be a fool. First, it was blocks, closing us off from certain channels of information, so that we couldn’t ascertain Earth’s plans. We are now cut off completely. Do you understand? We’ve been severed. Even our cyberminds are no longer Linked with those on Earth.” His fingers dug into her shoulder. “I shouldn’t be telling you that. If others knew —”