Fierce September

by Fleur Beale

  I didn’t feel the same draining of energy that I’d felt on the mountain. I’d been more desperate then. I tried again, bringing all my terrifying fears into my mind. If I was right that the pandemic was deliberate, then many more would die – perhaps more of my grandparents … Dad.

  CALL ME.

  Better. I hoped it would be enough. Maybe it would only work when the danger was strong and immediate.

  Five minutes passed. Ten.

  The talk icon beeped. I leapt for the mini-comp.

  ‘Marba?’

  I looked up at the television screen. All my stratum were there. Hera was there too, with Brex. I waved at them all, homesickness in my heart. Hera blew kisses.

  ‘Juno! It works at a distance!’ Marba bounced around his lounge, jumping over those sitting on the floor. ‘I never thought it would. Amazing.’

  Silvern grabbed his shirt. ‘Sit down before you crush somebody.’

  Paz said, ‘What’s up, Juno? This isn’t a social call, is it?’

  ‘No.’ Where to start? ‘I was reading Sleeping Beauty –’

  Biddo groaned. ‘For the love of Taris, Juno! I thought this was going to be important.’

  ‘And it got me thinking about things that sleep.’ I told them of my ideas about how maybe, just maybe, the bacteria had been deliberately released so that we would be blamed.

  Yin said, ‘Nice idea but won’t fly, I’m afraid. Think about it, Juno – none of the cases were in Wellington, and the whole country knew we were landing in Wellington.’

  I leaned forward. ‘Listen! What if those activists found people who had booked to travel to Wellington two days before we were due to arrive? But what if the bacteria acted more quickly than they thought it would and they couldn’t leave, or they got stuck halfway?’

  But Yin shook his head. ‘Why go to all that trouble? Why not just infect people in Wellington if they wanted us to be blamed?’

  I hadn’t thought of that, but it was obvious. So much for my brilliant idea.

  But Shallym was frowning. ‘Did everyone know we were coming to Wellington? The idea makes sense if they didn’t decide where we’d be landing till the last few days. What if we weren’t supposed to land in Wellington at all? What if it was either Auckland or Dunedin?’

  Nobody said anything for long seconds, then Paz said, ‘It’s possible, I guess. We’ll need to find that out before we go any further.’

  ‘I’ve thought about it so much,’ I said, grateful they were taking it seriously. ‘Sometimes it seems too far-fetched, but it won’t leave me alone.’

  Rynd counted points on his fingers. ‘First we need to find out where the ship was supposed to dock. Second, were the activists anywhere near the sick people at the critical time?’

  Silvern stuck out a foot to prod Biddo. ‘Hey computer boy, could you find out that stuff?’

  He shook his head. ‘Don’t think so. Don’t know enough about how the world works Outside.’

  ‘Not to worry,’ Silvern said. ‘I’ll ask Willem.’ She gave her evil grin. ‘I’m so bored I’m likely to do something really dumb just for variety. Probably better to stir up old Willem than flood the building or chuck chairs off the roof.’

  Wenda said, ‘Juno, it’s pretty horrible here. We’re all driving each other mad.’ She turned to Silvern. ‘I’ll come with you.’

  They all wanted to go. Marba watched them, his eyes bright – his lab rats were busy again.

  I said, ‘How does it make you feel, Marba, to think that people could be so evil?’

  He grinned at me. ‘I’ll have to wait until I find out whether they are so evil before I can know that, Juno.’

  I laughed. He was hopeless. Logic would win over emotion every time.

  Dreeda said, ‘We won’t be able to speak to Willem till he comes in tomorrow, so how about we each go home and search the net for anything that might be useful?’

  Silvern jumped up. ‘Excellent idea. Work to do. The chairs are safe for another day, the building remains dry for another day.’ She waved to me. ‘Thanks, Juno.’

  ‘We’ll talk again at four,’ Marba said. ‘Don’t forget.’

  As if we would.

  They switched off, and I was alone again. But Silvern was right. It made a difference having to think, to work and to fight.

  Have you heard? Trebe says Dunedin looks just as hilly as Wellington.

  Have you heard? Creen says nobody’s making any progress on discovering a treatment to stop the disease. She says they’re all worried and all working long hours.

  Have you seen the web? There are now more than a thousand people signed up to the Expel-Taris website. Wellin says the comments are so horrible he’s sorry he’s learnt to read.

  www.warningtheworld.blogspot.com Chickens zooming

  home to roost

  Latest Outrage

  14

  SEARCHING THE NET

  HOW MANY ACTIVISTS WERE THERE? I searched the internet and my body went cold. Three women and two men had been arrested for attacks at the gardens where Dad was working. My father had placed himself in danger, but the danger had come from people, not from the disease.

  I wanted to speak to him, see him on the screen and know that he was unhurt, that he was well. He hadn’t told us even a part of the peril he’d been in. I also wanted to talk to Mother, to share my worry. I paced the room knowing I couldn’t – what was the point of upsetting her when neither of us could do a thing to help?

  I went back to the mini-comp to continue searching. I didn’t find out where the ship was supposed to have docked, and I didn’t like what I did find – rabid rantings about us, video footage of people spitting their hatred, great strings of discussions accusing us of deliberately setting out to sabotage the country that had taken us in. We had brought the bacteria, they said, and released it. They were convinced we had a cure but that we’d killed two of our own to make it look as if we hadn’t.

  I couldn’t read any more.

  That afternoon when I spoke again with my stratum they looked different, more alive. Their eyes shone, they held their backs straight, and their energy fizzed from the screen. Words spilled from Shallym.

  ‘Guess what, Juno! Jidda found out where the ship was going to dock!’ She plopped down on the sofa, wriggling into a too-small space between Yin and Jidda.

  ‘Where?’ I would not speak of what I had found. ‘Tell me!’

  Jidda tried to look casual and failed. ‘I was lucky – just stumbled on it. They were heading for Dunedin, then because of the weather they changed to Auckland. Couldn’t find the reason they swapped again to Wellington, but that decision was leaked two days before we arrived.’

  Leaked? What did that mean? Before I could ask, Marba said, ‘Somebody found out. Told the media. It was meant to be kept secret.’

  I stared at them. ‘So it could be true? Somebody could have released the bacteria so that we’d get the blame.’ I glanced at Marba, but now wasn’t the time to ask him how he felt about such evil.

  We pooled the rest of our findings, starting with the news broadcasts reporting Vima’s message: I am Vima, one of the five hundred citizens of Taris. We need your help and some of us want to live Outside.

  Pel shook her head. ‘Hard to believe she sent that just seven months ago. It feels more like a lifetime.’

  We watched experts speculating as to whether the message was a hoax. We saw the investigation that proved it was genuine. We sighed as we listened to question after question about why Taris no longer responded to messages.

  ‘Because Hilto smashed the communication equipment to extinction, you morons,’ Biddo muttered.

  Some still believed that Hilto, Majool and Lenna were the only survivors on Taris and had died in some catastrophe, while others said it was plain the three so-called survivors had been lying, had hidden the truth about Taris from the world for their own ends. The world had a duty to rescue us, these people said.

  ‘Looks like we owe our lives to Willem,�
�� Fortun said.

  Yes. The anger towards him I’d kept carefully burning in my heart died.

  ‘He’s got guts to keep hassling the government like that,’ Wenda said. ‘But why do you reckon he did?’

  We considered the information we’d discovered about him. He was principal of a school in New Plymouth. He was asked time and again why he was so concerned about mounting an expedition to rescue a bunch of people who might not even exist. Every time his reply was the same: We sent them there, we have a duty to rescue them.

  ‘I wonder why he felt so strongly about rescuing us,’ Marba said. ‘Did anyone find out anything that might say why?’

  ‘All I could find,’ Biddo said, ‘was that people respect him because he fights for what he believes to be right. People come to him for help when they have problems with the government.’

  Silvern frowned. ‘There’s got to be more of a reason than that.’

  ‘I think you’re right,’ Marba said. ‘Keep it in mind, everyone, but for now we concentrate on who didn’t want us here and why.’

  Others had their own views on why we might be worth rescuing. Some said the world needed to know how we had managed to survive for so long cut off from the rest of civilisation. Others were interested in the psychology of people who had lived such confined lives.

  ‘You’d get on with that lot, Marba,’ I told him.

  Still others wanted to know if we had suffered the same pandemics as those Outside had suffered.

  ‘Look at the timeline,’ Shallym said. ‘Willem got permission three months before they actually got to Taris. That would give the activists plenty of time to get organised.’

  ‘The really horrible stuff doesn’t start till after the ship has left to collect us,’ Silvern said. ‘It almost looks like somebody wanted us to come – wanted to have somebody to pin something on.’

  Biddo said, ‘Look at this.’ He flicked up a map of the country on the television screen. ‘People were speaking openly against us from wherever there are red dots.’

  ‘You mean before we landed?’ Pel asked.

  He nodded and we stared at the map. Dots pockmarked Auckland, Wellington and Invercargill.

  ‘But I don’t get why they tried to kill us the moment we stepped off the ship,’ Rynd said. ‘It doesn’t add up. If they wanted to blame us for the pandemic, why try to kill us before we could spread it?’

  We thought about that, wrestling too with our part in causing the pandemic, just because somebody had seen how to use our arrival for their own ends.

  ‘That bomb probably wouldn’t have killed all of us,’ Brex said at last. ‘But it would have meant we wouldn’t be a strong group. Maybe somebody doesn’t want a strong group of people who … I dunno … might be different or something.’

  Marba bounced. ‘That could be right. Now let’s think what sort of person would be frightened of a potentially powerful group coming into the country.’

  Paz ignored him. ‘It’s kind of like chucking a stone into a pool. The population here is small now, so a group like us could have a big influence.’

  ‘And when they couldn’t stop us coming,’ Pel said, ‘they decided to use us for their own purpose. Whatever that is.’

  ‘Whatever that is,’ Silvern repeated. ‘That’s the question. I didn’t find an answer – did any of you?’

  None of us had.

  Silvern rubbed her hands. ‘I’ll ask Willem that too. Things are happening. If he doesn’t give us a real job to do after this, I’m going to run away and find something myself.’

  ‘Would you really?’ Brex asked.

  Silvern didn’t answer, unless looking inscrutable was an answer.

  Hera said, ‘Don’t go away, Silvern. Juno went away. Dad went away. Grif said goodbye Hera. I sad if you go too.’

  Silvern grinned at her. ‘I’m here now, Hera. Want to go up to the roof?’

  All of them waved goodbye, promising to call as soon as they’d talked to Willem in the morning.

  Over dinner I told Vima about the conversation with my stratum. She kept eating the rice, chicken and cashew nuts, but by the look on her face she wasn’t tasting a thing. Not that there was much to taste – that particular recipe wasn’t one of dehydration’s finest efforts.

  ‘That means,’ she said, ‘that the bacteria could be artificial. And if it is, then it could explain why nothing we’re trying is working.’ She shovelled the last forkful into her mouth. ‘I need to talk to Trebe.’

  Trebe didn’t answer when I tried to call her. Nor did Creen, Kalta or Aspa.

  ‘Don’t they eat?’ Vima grumbled. She stood up, stretched, then started pacing the tiny room. ‘This is crucial information.’

  ‘Tell the guys you’re working for,’ I said. ‘Does it have to be Trebe?’

  ‘Of course I’ll tell them,’ she said. ‘But I don’t know enough about their research, about how they think.’

  When Vima returned to the lab, I kept trying to contact Trebe. There was no reply. All evening I tried, and there was still no answer. Eventually I had to ask Mother if Trebe spoke regularly to anybody in the Centre.

  ‘She’s been talking to Sina each evening. Why, darling?’ Mother’s face brightened at the prospect of something new.

  I felt mean, but all I said was that Vima wanted to check something with her, I didn’t know what, and could Mother ask Trebe to call me as soon as she could. ‘How’s Sina?’ I asked. ‘And Jovan?’

  ‘They’re a joy to Hera and me. I’m so glad to have their company.’

  She passed on small pieces of other news, making me feel meaner still for not telling her what I knew. We spoke too of Grif and of Danyat. ‘He’s working himself to the bone,’ Mother said, ‘but he promised me he would be careful.’

  Trebe didn’t call till after I’d given up expecting she would. I should have known she’d be working the same hours Vima was.

  ‘Juno! It’s good to see you.’ Her smile softened the lines of strain on her face.

  ‘Can you wait a sec, Trebe? I’ll run and get Vima.’

  She raised a hand and settled back in her chair, closing her eyes.

  I ran to the office and knocked against the glass. ‘Vima! Trebe’s online. Can you come now?’

  She got up at once, waving me back into the apartment so that she could leave the lab without contaminating me. A minute later she came through the door and sat down in front of the mini-comp. ‘Trebe! Wake up!’

  Trebe shook herself awake. ‘Sorry.’ She stretched and rubbed her face. ‘Okay. I’m with you now. What’s up?’

  ‘The bacterium,’ Vima said. ‘Juno and her lot have been doing some research. We think it might be an artificial one. It’s possible somebody’s using it like a weapon.’ She leaned forward. ‘And Trebe – it’s been worrying me. This bacterium doesn’t respond to anything. What if it isn’t what we think it is? What if it’s a virus that’s been modified to behave like bacteria, except that it won’t respond to the usual treatments? If it’s a deliberate infection, something that’s been made in a lab, it could be possible.’

  ‘A virus.’ Trebe sat without speaking for long moments, and she seemed to be staring into the distance, though she was no longer lying back in her chair. Her eyes snapped back into focus. ‘Right. Vima – we’ll work along those lines down here. Can you see if your people will switch too?’

  Vima nodded. ‘James has already switched. The other two are sticking with the bacteria theory.’

  They seemed excited, energised. But I was terrified. ‘Trebe, if it’s a virus, then that’s worse, isn’t it? Worse than bacteria. You can treat bacteria but you can’t treat viruses. You can’t stop a virus.’

  ‘Don’t despair,’ Trebe said. ‘From what you and your stratum have discovered, we could have been trying to treat the wrong type of pathogen. At least now we might be on the right path. That’s good.’

  She made arrangements to talk to Vima and James at nine the following the morning.

  ‘Is
James the angry one?’ I asked when Trebe had gone.

  Vima laughed. ‘Yes, that’s James. Wants everything done ten minutes before he gives it to you.’

  It was the first time she’d laughed since I’d been there.

  James was cheerful when he came into the apartment with Vima the following morning, and showed no sign of the temper that had made him nearly hammer our door down.

  ‘Morning,’ he said, plonking himself onto the sofa. He was tall and maybe in ordinary times his brown hair wouldn’t have looked like a mess of wires escaping from some weird machine, but right now he did the mad professor look to perfection.

  Vima sat in the armchair with her feet up, feeding Wilfred. I dragged a kitchen chair to where I could see the television screen.

  Trebe called promptly at nine. Creen, Kalta and Aspa were there too. Had any of them slept? So many ideas poured out of them I suspected they hadn’t had time to.

  I tried to follow what they were saying so that I could report back to my stratum. Brex especially would be mad at me if I couldn’t tell her at least some of the science they were throwing around.

  ‘It’s definitely artificial and it’s definitely a virus,’ Trebe said.

  James nodded. ‘Yeah, we’ve come to that conclusion too. Clever though. Even when you’re looking for the signs, they’re practically impossible to see.’

  The discovery that they were dealing with a virus would make a huge difference to the control and treatment, apparently. I was about to protest that viruses couldn’t be treated, couldn’t be controlled, when James remarked, ‘There has to be a cure. Nobody’d let something like this loose if they didn’t have a handy cure locked away somewhere.’