Building Harlequin’s Moon

by Larry Niven

  “Hey, little brother,” Rachel called out. “How are you?”

  Jacob grinned. “Strong.”

  “Can you go check on Dad later? He looks as bad as he did yesterday.”

  “Sure. I’m off-shift in an hour.”

  Apollo’s light sparkled on the glass tube as the three young people lined up the cart near the elevator for Council Aerie. Rachel stood, waiting for them to finish.

  Jacob unstrapped the tube and lifted one end from the foam cradle the tube rested in for travel. They would hand-carry it to the elevator, where three other tubes just like it waited in a special container designed to take the fragile glass safely up the crater wall and back down the long dock to be loaded onto the Safe Harbor.

  Two Council approached, both men, lost in conversation. Rachel glanced at them—she’d met each of them briefly on the ship—and tried to remember their names. The tall blond man was Paul, and the smaller, darker one was . . . Terry?

  “Ready?” she heard Jacob’s voice behind her and turned away from the Council members. Jacob held his end of the tube up, almost over his head, and Kyle and Beth picked up the other end, preparing to balance the whole thing on their shoulders. Kyle whistled softly at Beth, and she turned to grin at him, losing her balance briefly, pulling the tube off Kyle’s shoulder. They both reached for the falling glass as the weight jerked the cylinder off Jacob’s shoulder. Jacob twisted, managing to hold on to his end. The far end bounced against the metal edge of the cart, shattering with a loud crash.

  The Council members were just two feet away. The one closest to the cart, Terry, turned toward the noise.

  Jacob, unbalanced, held the longest remaining part of the tube. He set his foot onto a bright shard of thick jagged glass, and screamed in sudden pain. He pitched forward, and he and the broken glass landed directly on Terry, knocking the Councilman down.

  A yelp went up simultaneously from both of them. A sliver of red stained the Councilperson’s white shirt; a cut from the long shard of glass Jacob still held.

  The second Council whipped his body around, kicked at the glass, and fired his weapon.

  Just for an instant, Rachel saw a pink spark flare under Jacob’s shirt, high on his chest. Jacob jerked violently, then fell into glittering shards of glass. He went limp and still. Blood seeped onto the glass, dulling it.

  Beth screamed.

  The Council with the weapon, Paul, turned toward her, raising his hand, pointing his weapon at Beth.

  Kyle darted in front of Beth. Rachel yelled, “Stop,” and ran to stand over her fallen brother. “No. I saw it. It was an accident. He didn’t mean to do it.”

  Paul blinked in the light, his weapon pointing at Kyle and then at Rachel, and then finally, at the ground. He reached a hand out for Terry, helping the smaller man stand up. Blood stained Terry’s hands where he clutched at his wounded chest.

  Rachel turned toward Jacob, repeating, “Accident. It was an accident.”

  Rachel knelt by Jacob. Glass ground into her knees. The weapon. It must have been on stun. It had to be. Vassal said they were always on stun. Jacob wasn’t dead, he was stunned.

  She put a shaking hand out to Jacob’s chest. It rose, faintly. His head was turned way from her, blood pooling underneath it. She used her index finger to turn his head toward her, and gasped. A shard of glass had cut deeply across the artery in his neck, and blood poured out, a waterfall of blood.

  Beth knelt beside Rachel, cupping Jacob’s head. Vassal’s voice rose and fell in Rachel’s ear. “Put pressure on the cut.” She set her shaking hand onto his fragile neck. She pressed down, and blood oozed up between her fingers. “More,” Vassal said. “Much more.” She set her other hand over the first one, pushing down hard. Both hands were covered in blood.

  Kyle stood over them, fists balled. Beth sobbed.

  Star ran up to the scene, glanced at Rachel and the two Councilmen, and shook her head. “I’ve called a medical team,” she said, peeling Terry’s hands from his chest and poking at the wound.

  Blood stopped pouring out over Rachel’s hands, and Jacob stopped breathing. Rachel screamed, “Star! Star, you’ve got to do something. Jacob’s dying!”

  Star glanced over at Rachel. “Someone will be right there.”

  Rachel felt the hot spurts of blood between her fingers slow. She looked down at Jacob. His eyes stared up at the sky. Rachel looked into them and they were empty, like glass. She was afraid to move her hands from his neck. “He’s not breathing, is he?” she whispered to Beth.

  Beth set her right palm on his chest. She waited. She moved her hand, and then shook her head and reached for Rachel.

  Rachel leaned into Beth, and Beth put an arm over her shoulder.

  Star knelt by Jacob, picking up his wrist and holding it lightly. When she looked at Rachel and Beth, Rachel saw a flash of pain and fear, and something that might be regret. Then Star separated Rachel and Beth, prying Beth loose gently and helping her stand, taking her near Kyle. She left Rachel next to her brother’s body and turned to talk to the two Councilmen.

  Rachel sat, empty, trailing her bloody hand along Jacob’s chin. Jacob was her brother. He was family. She folded her arms around her legs, hugging herself and rocking. Kyle stood with his jaw locked, fists clenching and unclenching, legs shaking. Beth cried silently, shaking, tears falling down her face.

  Rachel had never seen a Councilperson raise a hand against anyone.

  Justin came running up the path, and skidded to a stop in front of Rachel. He mouthed the word “No,” and fell to his knees next to Jacob’s body, touching his twin’s face.

  Two Council, the medical team, pushed Justin and Rachel away. Justin started to struggle and Rachel whispered in his ear, “Not now, not now. Wait.” She held Justin’s hand tightly, keeping him next to her, and they watched the medical team close Jacob’s eyes and then lift his body onto a stretcher.

  Star stood in front of them, looking worried. “I need a witness.”

  Rachel glanced at Kyle, who was standing and holding Beth, sheltering her. It would have to be him. He nodded, and Rachel worked her other hand around to grasp Beth’s hand, pulling her loose from Kyle.

  Justin was shaking.

  Star looked at him, and said, “You come too.”

  “Why?” Rachel asked. She didn’t know what Justin would do. She could feel his anger.

  “I want him where I can see him.”

  Rachel nodded. “Send him home soon. My father will need him. He’s sick.”

  Star smiled wanly, looking exhausted. “I’ll try, Rachel, but no promises.”

  Kyle came and stood by Justin. “We’ll go together,” he said.

  Justin nodded, and then as if drawn by the stretcher carrying Jacob’s body, he began walking behind the medical team. Kyle kissed Beth quickly, and jogged to catch up with Justin. Star followed, and soon the path was nearly empty.

  Why hadn’t everyone come? Didn’t they know? Rachel stepped around the puddled blood and shards of glass, holding Beth’s hand, feeling as if she were walking through a dream.

  She had not seen Ursula die. She remembered how unreal Ursula’s death had seemed . . . but she’d seen Jacob’s slack face and the blood.

  Rachel held most of Beth’s weight as Beth sobbed into Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel’s head spun. She couldn’t think about the . . . about Jacob dying. Blood loss from the glass had killed Jacob, but a weapon had knocked him unconscious first. A flash of Apollo’s light, a moment of inattention, the slip of a smooth surface on sweat, and Jacob was—gone.

  Rachel realized they were approaching her house. She guided Beth to sit on the stoop, not ready to go inside. Telling her dad would make it more real. She didn’t want anyone in the house until she could tell him.

  She stroked Beth’s hair, and when she looked down, her hands were still blotched black with blood, and Beth’s hair had become sticky and dark. Rachel stopped, not moving or breathing for a moment, listening to the normal sounds of the base.
How could anyone be normal? She had told Star it was an accident. What would Council believe?

  She kept watch up the walkway; Gloria and Harry were the first ones to come to them. Gloria gathered her daughter up, and Harry held his hand out to Rachel. She took it. He glanced down at her bloody hand and then pulled her to him. Rachel bent into his shoulder, smelling him, feeling his arms around her, and sobbed.

  CHAPTER 58

  ANGER

  IT SEEMED TO Rachel that she stood there, buried in Harry’s arms, for a long time even though she knew it was only minutes. She heard wings, and footsteps, and voices calling her name. She held Harry tightly for another moment, taking a deep, shuddering breath, then pushed herself away, standing near him, no longer touching.

  A crowd was gathering; Andrew, followed by Sam and Rudy, the three of them bunched tight, with angry faces. Bruce, walking slowly, pacing, as if watching for a chance to help. Ali, tearing the wings quickly from her arms, not bothering to remove the foot spreads. Her hair was loose, a long fall of black, as if she had been interrupted. She ran to Rachel. “What happened?”

  “Jacob is dead.” Rachel hated the words, spitting them out.

  “What happened?” Ali repeated.

  Rachel took a step back. Beth was still in Gloria’s arms, but had turned, and her eyes bored into Rachel’s. Everything looked crystal clear, as if the world had shifted into some new place. Sunlight touched the crowd, and a soft breeze brushed Beth’s hair from her eyes. Rachel cleared her throat and wiped the tears from her face. “Paul killed him. He shot Jacob, and Jacob fell onto a piece of glass, and he bled to death. No one helped him, no one but me and Beth.”

  Beth stepped forward to stand by Rachel.

  “Why did Paul shoot him?” Ali asked. “I need to know. Star called me; they’re sending me back to John Glenn with Paul. I need to know what happened.” Ali brushed hair from her face impatiently. “It’s important, Rachel.”

  “He fell. They dropped one of the glass air tubes, and Jacob fell off a cart, and he landed on Terry.” Rachel took another deep breath, struggling for the details. “Jacob had a piece of glass in his hand. It cut Terry, but not badly. Jacob was trying to stand up, and Paul shot him, and Jacob fell onto the glass, and cut himself.” Rachel held up her bloody hands. “Cut his throat. He bled to death, Ali, and no one stopped it. I tried to stop it, but all I had was my hands.”

  Ali took Rachel’s hands and looked at them, turning them over, a frown creasing her brow. “He must have bled out quickly.”

  She swallowed, seeing the scene in her mind. “But Ali, they went to Terry first, Star went to Terry first, and he was barely hurt.”

  Ali’s voice was low. “Did Star know that?” Her mouth was a tight line, and her eyes bored directly into Rachel’s, demanding answers.

  “Terry was standing up. Jacob wasn’t.”

  “Is there anything else you can tell me?”

  “No, I have to go tell Daddy. I have to be the one who tells him.”

  “Okay.” Ali dropped Rachel’s hands and gave her a quick, hard hug. “I’d stay with you, but they want me now, and I. . . . I have to go. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.” Rachel swallowed, her voice catching in her throat. “I understand you leaving. They’re making you go.”

  Ali returned Rachel’s glance evenly. “I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.” Her voice shook as she reached for her wings.

  Rachel turned. Gloria and Harry stood together. Bruce was near them. Andrew, Rudy, and Sam watched her closely. Andrew caught her eyes, a mixture of anger and pain in his gaze. Surely he wouldn’t act out now, not with Ali here.

  “Stay outside, please,” she said loudly, to them all. “I need to talk to my dad.” Harry would make sure people stayed outside. Rachel opened the door, went in.

  Her father had pushed himself into a sitting position on the couch, and he gasped as she walked in. She stood near him. “Daddy?”

  “What’s all over your hands?”

  “Blood. Sit still, Dad, I’m going to wash my hands, and then I’m going to tell you about it. Please? I need to get clean.” Her voice was catching in her throat.

  “There are people outside,” he said. “I heard Ali, and I heard crying, and I heard some of what you said.”

  “Yes.” How much had he heard? She stepped to the sink and ran water over her hands. It fell through her fingers, tinged with red, hardly changing the color of her hands. She reached for soap and started scrubbing. How was she going to tell her dad? He loved the twins so much.

  There was still blood under her nails. She scrubbed harder, faster, shaking. She saw her family’s faces. Sarah. Justin. Jacob’s face as she had last seen it, empty and white. She no longer wanted to cry. She was just . . . empty.

  Rachel toweled her hands dry. Her clothes were still covered with blood. She swiped at the blood with her towel, needing it gone, but it only smeared.

  Her dad was shaking. “Now, Rachel. Tell me now.” He looked more alert than he had in days, and very afraid.

  She sat by him on the couch, taking his broken hand in hers. He was stiff, unyielding. “Something terrible happened.”

  “To Jacob?” There was no question in his eyes.

  “Jacob’s dead, Daddy.”

  He stared, white-faced, his lips shaping Jacob’s name. He reached out and held her close to him, whispering, “How?”

  “He fell, Daddy. When he fell, he cut himself on glass.”

  “I heard what you told Ali outside,” he whispered. “That he was killed. Don’t protect me.”

  “I don’t know what to do, Dad.”

  “You will.” His hand shook in Rachel’s, as if hearing the news from her released the tension and now he could feel. Tears started spilling down his face and he rocked back and forth like a child. “Where did they take my son?” His voice cracked. “I want to see his body.”

  “I don’t know. I’ll try to find out.”

  The door banged open and Sarah flew into the room. “They killed him.” Her face was streaked with tears. “Council has started killing us. Jacob always said they would,” she sobbed. “He knew it. Jacob’s dead.”

  Sarah threw herself at Rachel, and Rachel folded her arms around Sarah’s thin back and held her tightly. The door was open now, and Harry and Gloria and Beth piled in, followed by Dylan. Dylan took in the scene, the sobbing young woman on Rachel’s lap, the blood still covering Rachel’s clothes. Rachel’s father wiping tears from his face with the back of his hand. “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “How could I be?” She held Sarah more tightly. “Can you go see about Justin? And Kyle? They took them—Star took them. They have Jacob’s body too, and Dad wants to see him.”

  “Are you physically okay? Are any of you hurt?” Dylan asked.

  Rachel shook her head. “No one but Jacob.”

  Sarah sobbed even louder, and Rachel bent her head over her little sister, placing her cheek on the fourteen-year-old’s head. She could see Dylan from the corner of her eye. He resembled Andrew in that moment: anger was filling him, trying to burst out of him.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll go find Justin.”

  “Keep him safe. Bring him home.”

  Dylan nodded, then ran from the room. Gloria closed the door behind him. “The others left too,” she said. “I sent them away.”

  HOURS LATER, Gloria and Rachel sat at the kitchen table. Dark circles hung under Gloria’s eyes, and her skin was ashen white. Rachel put her hand in the middle of the table and Gloria took it. Gloria’s hand was rough from work, but a smile touched her face for just a moment.

  Rachel glanced over at Sarah, who had fallen asleep nestled in her father’s arms. Sarah’s long legs hung awkwardly off the couch, one foot touching the floor, and her head was on Frank’s shoulder. Frank was looking up at the ceiling, not moving. Rachel didn’t think he was asleep. Neither Dylan nor Justin had returned.

  Rachel needed to talk to Vassal. “Gloria, I have to go. I have to
find out what’s happened. Can you stay with them?”

  Gloria nodded, swallowing.

  “And thank you. Thank you for being here.”

  “You’ve always been here for me,” Gloria said. “It’s nothing. We would all do more for you if you’d let us.”

  “Thanks.” Rachel took her cup to the sink. Gloria had washed away all the blood. “I’ll be back soon.”

  “I’ll take care of your father. We’ll come find you if Dylan comes back, or Justin.” Their wrist pads had stopped working sometime during the late afternoon. “Do you know where you’ll be?”

  “No. I don’t know how long I’ll be out either. I can’t sit here anymore, just waiting. I have to think, I have to find people, I have to decide what to do next.”

  “Take care of yourself,” Gloria said.

  Her dad had used the same words when she left before the accident. Rachel shivered. “Okay.”

  Rachel closed the door behind her, and realized she truly didn’t know where she wanted to go. It had grown dark, and no one waited outside the door for her. “Vassal,” she whispered into the night air.

  “Yes.”

  “What’s happened?”

  “Paul and Ali left for John Glenn an hour ago.”

  “Who did they blame?”

  “They?”

  “Council.” She needed to be more specific with the AI. “I don’t know. Star? What did Star say?”

  The voice was smooth in her ear, as if Vassal was summarizing a long set of conversations. “Council decided it was all a sequence of accidents. Paul has not been accused. Star worries about what might happen here, about how you Moon Children will react. She is watching Clarke Base, and has set out extra guards. She decided to try to keep things normal, to see if all becomes calm. There are extra watchers.”

  Rachel walked toward the greenhouses, and the plots. Avoiding the watchers. They would be in town. Perhaps other Moon Born would go to the greenhouses. “Are you in danger of being caught?”