“I am not,” she said.
“Well, I don’t say I blame you. He is kind of hunky.”
Suki looked at her, eyes wide.
Sabine laughed. “Man, the look on your face right now. Don’t worry, my little innocent. I’m twice his age, and besides, I think he’s more afraid of me than you are now.”
Sheldon had left his encounter with Nathalie fired with enthusiasm. He ditched his clothes for the same practical warm-weather gear the male colonists wore and made sure to get some sun, to work on coloring that pale skin of his. He pitched into helping the others with a zest that surprised everyone, including himself.
His thoughts often drifted toward working with Nathalie – or, for variety, just toward Nathalie.
He let a few days pass before going in search of her again, hoping to catch her at work on astronomical matters, and sure enough an opportunity presented itself.
Haven had no observatory; instead there was an office where the connection to the Hope’s telescopes could be controlled. Sheldon found Nathalie there one afternoon, poring over the data from that week’s observations.
“There you are, Sheldon,” she said, as he entered the room. “I wondered when you would join me here.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You’ve been waiting for me?” He’d begun to wonder if she’d forgotten about him.
Nathalie laughed. “I could see you had your hands full helping with the houses, and now I hear there’s a spaceport to build. I knew you would come when you could.”
Sheldon’s heart lifted. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice told him he should focus on his work, but he didn’t care. What could be more important than attracting Nathalie’s attention?
Before he’d met her, he’d had visions of taking control of the astronomical studies in Haven, with Nathalie acting as his assistant. He’d worked through conversations in his mind in which he set her straight when she objected. He felt sure he had prepared for everything. But his world had changed. Now he would gladly be her assistant.
“Come,” Nathalie said, patting the chair next to hers. “Sit here and I’ll explain what we are doing.” She crossed her legs and smiled as Sheldon swallowed and hastened to obey.
“You see,” she said, “The Hope’s telescopes are trained almost full time on the inner asteroid belt, on David’s orders.”
“They are? But what about observations of other bodies? I assumed you would take advantage of a second observation point to contrast data from Earth.”
“Sometimes I do,” she assured him, “but David insists that ninety-nine percent of the time we focus on the asteroid belt.”
Sheldon frowned. “Such a waste, though!”
Nathalie shrugged. “We have plenty of time for this in the future.” She tilted her head as she looked at him. “You take the life extenders, n’est ce pas?”
Every adult in Haven took the various drugs and supplements that extended human life. Once they reached their early twenties, the children would too. Combined with superior medical technology that cured most forms of disease, including cancer, they could expect at least a hundred good years of life, followed by another thirty to enjoy their retirement. But some people refused to take the drugs, regarding life extension as unnatural, so her question wasn’t baseless.
“Of course,” Sheldon said. “But I want to do this science now.” He crossed his arms, and despite his infatuation with Nathalie, a hint of petulance leaked through.
Nathalie laughed and touched his face with an open palm, and Sheldon became her acolyte again. “You have of course noticed we have many circular water features on our land, oui?”
Sheldon hadn’t, but he didn’t want to admit it.
“Of course!”
“Then you understand why David insists we search for asteroids. I do too. There is lots of good science we will do, you and I, but first we must make sure we survive to do it, d’accord?”
Sheldon’s eyes widened as realization hit home. “Of course, you’re right! How could I have not seen this?” He furrowed his brow and his eyes drifted to the displays on Nathalie’s desk. “Have you identified any impact candidates yet?”
Nathalie smiled. “Five.”
Sheldon’s eyes widened. “Five!”
“In fifteen years, we’ve identified five asteroids that will pass close enough to Serendipity to cause concern. I calculate a seventy-five percent chance of a significant impact event within the next fifty years, and a ninety-five percent chance within one hundred years.”
“My god,” Sheldon said, his eyes still wide. “How large?”
“The most likely candidate is approximately half a kilometer in diameter.”
Sheldon lost all interest in stellar observations and gained a lot of interest in asteroids.
“What are we doing about it?” he asked.
“Well,” Nathalie said, “to start with, you’re going to help build us a spaceport.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
They called themselves “The Middles”, the group of pre-teen children that hung together. The boundaries of their tribe flexed at either end of their age range, but the core stayed the same. Tobias Thompson, Daniel Merrick, the twins Lidiya and Liliya Kovelevskaya, Yana Baumgartner, Élise Duplessis, Viktor Coultas, and Kevin Miller. The Miller-Ng dog, Rex, always tagged along as well – he recognized them as the best fit to his energetic personality.
Now James van Zyl joined them. They wanted to hear about Earth, and James wanted to be accepted as one of them.
Other children in the right age bracket included Tyler and Jody Kendell, but they rarely ventured outside their little house other than to seek food. Once, Tyler had walked over the bridge, but turned and retreated when he saw the others. To him, they seemed like half-feral, brown savages, while they found him incomprehensible, a pudgy enigma. They didn’t understand why he kept to himself or what caused him to be so big. None of them had heard of obesity, let alone seen it in the flesh.
They spent the morning showing James around, swimming, playing hide and seek and pickup baseball. Rex joined in, barking and jumping up as he always did. He could be a nuisance at hide and seek, but useful in the outfield.
After baseball they used their remaining energy to play tag. Yana burst into the clearing under the western dome, chased by James and Liliya. She giggled as she darted and sidestepped to avoid their outstretched hands. She pulled up short to avoid running into a stranger, looking up to see a woman dressed in black. She had pulled her dark hair back into a ponytail and painted her lips glossy red.
“Why, hello,” she said, looking at Liliya. “I’m Carla.” She smiled. “What’s your name?”
Yana’s eyebrows drew together for a moment, then she spoke up. “Yana.”
“That’s a pretty name. Who are your friends?”
Yana looked back at her two companions. “Liliya. And this is James.”
“Ah, yes, James. You’re one of us, aren’t you?”
“Um …”
“You came with us on the Inspiration, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes!” he said, understanding. “But I’m with them now.”
Carla’s smile faded. “I see. Well, I mustn’t keep you from your games.”
She looked at each of them, and Yana stepped back, although she couldn’t have said why, as Carla’s gray eyes drilled into her own. Carla tossed her head, turned and walked away across the clearing, heading toward the far end of the cavern.
The children watched her go, then Yana said, “Come on! Let’s find the others!”
Within minutes they’d forgotten about Carla as the game of tag resumed.
Even children run out of energy sooner or later, so they stopped for a rest after a swim in Crater Lake. They lay about like seals, baking in the sun on the wild lands shore. Rex did what every dog does after getting wet – trotted up to them and shook himself out, drops of water glistening in the sun as they flew everywhere. Loud complaints drove him away and he retreated into the forest to find his own amuse
ment. Soon enough, they’d call for him.
Rex snuffled along, nose to the ground, lost in a world of scent only he could follow. All kinds of interesting creatures could be found in the woods, including rabbits, gophers, and squirrels. Haven’s ecosystem had expanded to include many familiar animals that thrived in the diversity of the forest.
He stopped at a spot on the forest floor, catching a hint of a new, unfamiliar scent. He lifted his head and sniffed, orienting himself. Deciding on a direction, he went crashing through the undergrowth and came to a small clearing to find his quarry – the human woman dressed in black.
She smiled when she saw him, and squatted down, holding out a hand.
“Here boy. Come see what I have for you.”
Rex barked and trotted over to greet his new friend, his mouth open and tongue hanging out.
Hunger drove them to leave. There’s a fine line for a twelve-year-old between not hungry and ravenous, and after half an hour lying in the sun, most of them had crossed that line.
“Rex!” Kevin called. “Time to go!”
They picked their way along the shore, heading for the bridge upstream of the lake.
“Rex!” Kevin called again. He frowned. Rex never strayed so far he couldn’t hear him call.
“There he is!” Liliya said, pointing. Ahead of them, between the beach and the trees, was a small clearing. Rex was lying on his side in the grass.
Kevin’s forehead wrinkled. Rex didn’t doze off like this, not at this time of day.
They walked over to him, Kevin breaking into a run when he saw Rex was lying at an unnatural angle. Ants with icy feet crawled down Kevin’s spine as he took in the line of disturbed fur around his neck.
“Rex,” he said, dropping to his knees, his hand reaching out to touch his still form. “Rex!”
“There is no doubt,” Veronika said. “Someone strangled Rex. It couldn’t be clearer.”
Six of them had gathered to discuss this new development. The children stayed at home, shocked and frightened. Grace and Nathalie comforted the little ones, who were distraught at the loss of their friend.
The adults had known the children would one day have to face the fact that dogs didn’t live long. But for Rex to die so soon and like this defied belief.
David stood, unmoving. This whole incident seemed unreal. They felt sad at losing Rex, but the knowledge that someone in the colony had killed him made this much, much worse. None of them would commit such an unspeakable act, so it must have been a newcomer. But who? And why?
“This is disturbing on several levels,” Nigel said. “There’s a well-known connection between violence toward animals and violence toward people. It’s possible whoever did this might progress to harming a human, if they haven’t already done so in the past.” He shook his head. David knew he’d hoped never to use his skills as a psychologist in this way.
“Why would they do this?” Heidi asked. “What could they hope to gain? Or did this twisted, perverted person do it for pleasure?”
Nigel shrugged. “Perhaps someone wanted to send us a message. But doing it for enjoyment is the most likely reason, I’m afraid.”
Heidi shuddered as she contemplated the horror of Rex’s demise, and the even worse prospect of what could happen next.
“Who was out there?” Josh asked.
“Apart from the children? Only one we know of,” Veronika said.
David’s head snapped around. “Who?”
Veronika glanced at Josh and then looked at David. “Yana said they ran into Carla at the western dome.”
“Carla.” John spat her name like a curse. “I might have known.”
“We don’t know she did it,” Veronika said. “Only that she was there before it happened.”
David looked at Nigel. “Nigel, what do you think?”
He shrugged. “Would she do such a thing? It’s hard to say. I haven’t of course done a clinical examination, but from what I’ve heard of her already she exhibits some of the characteristics of a psychopathic personality. She manipulates others, she can be charming, has a high opinion of herself, and she’s latched onto a powerful figure, something a psychopath may do. But I’m unaware as yet of any evidence of shallow emotional responses or lack of empathy, or impulsive behavior.”
“She did it. She’s a dead-cert psycho,” John said, curling his lip. “I've got a good mind to sort her out right now!”
David pressed his lips together and frowned. “We don’t know if she did it. Opportunity is one thing, but what motive could she have?”
“What motive does she need?” John asked. “She’s just a crazy bitch doing crazy bitch things. What more do you need to know?”
“I need evidence,” David replied. “As much as we might like to go do something, take action, if we accuse someone without evidence we’ll be on very shaky ground.”
John paced around the room. “So we do nothing, is that it?”
David shook his head. “No one will accuse Carla of killing Rex. But we’ll keep a close eye on her and tell the children to change their behavior.” He looked at each of the others. “The age of innocence in Haven has come to an end. From now on, we all need to be careful.”
The shuttle engines started to wind down even as the spacecraft settled onto the scrubby grasses dotting the landscape. They landed on a plateau about a hundred and fifty meters above sea level, located five hundred kilometers south of Haven.
Inside the shuttle, twenty passengers pressed noses to windows, feeling somewhat daunted. The engineers had badgered David without end until he’d agreed to bring them down to New Canaveral, christened by none other than Josh, the master of place names beginning with “New”.
David turned and looked at his passengers. “Has everyone got their masks?”
This triggered a scramble to put masks on and make ready to leave. David smiled. He couldn’t fault them for enthusiasm.
He eased out of the pilot’s seat and walked to the door to release the lock. Nico Thompson remained in the copilot’s seat to safe the shuttle’s systems.
David opened the door and ran the steps out, standing aside to avoid the stampede of engineers and scientists as they rushed to check out their new project.
John had been correct when he said they’d found the perfect site for a spaceport. It was on the east coast, but high enough to eliminate danger from storms. The land sloped away until it came to a sheltered inlet thirty kilometers further south, that could serve as a harbor if needed.
John’s team had already made a start. A raw gash of soil traced a line that disappeared over the northern horizon, marking the road, although in this case “road” meant little more than leveled soil. A small collection of earthmoving bots huddled to their right, the stiff sea breeze whistling as it channeled through their exposed arms and other bot appendages.
“Well,” said Ernie, using his favorite sentence opening. “It’s good to have a challenge.”
All the original colonists and their children were gathered at the Miller-Ng house. They’d pushed the table against one wall and opened the double doors between the family room and the lounge so they could squeeze everyone in.
The children had come for the “stranger danger” talk every Earth parent gave their children, but no one in Haven had ever needed.
Until now.
David stood up and waited for quiet to fall. “Hi everyone, we’re ready to start.” He felt disappointed and angry they needed this meeting. Judging from the thin-lipped expressions on the other adults’ faces, they shared his discomfort. The children were wide-eyed, and the little ones held on to their parents. He grieved for their lost way of life.
“Earlier today we lost one of our friends. I know you all loved Rex, despite the way he licked your face to wake you up in the morning, chewed your clothes, and barked to let others know where you hid.”
That drew smiles as they remembered the way Rex had touched their lives.
“But he’s gone now. As you know
he didn’t have an accident or just get old. Someone took his life.”
He looked around again. The adults had decided they wouldn’t mince words, not even for the little ones. They needed to know, because if they didn’t understand what had happened, they wouldn’t be forewarned.
“At Haven, we’ve been very lucky. Everyone here loves everyone else and we haven’t been afraid of someone doing something bad to us. You’ve learned about Earth and what a wonderful place it could be. You also know a few Earth people did bad things. We’ve never had to worry about people like that, until now.
“I don’t like telling you this, but a few bad people on Earth liked to hurt other people. Sometimes, they even hurt children. Today, we’ve discovered at least one of those bad people have come here to Haven, and they hurt Rex.”
Emma cried and Grace hugged her close.
“Now we need to ask you to be careful until we find this person. Some changes are needed to the way you do things, to keep you safe. Here’s what we need you to do.
“One – never be alone with one of the newcomer adults. If one tries to talk to you by yourself, just say you’re sorry but you have to go because your Mom or Dad needs you.
“Two – from now on, don’t be away from home after dark, unless you are with a grown-up.
“Three – when you go swimming, don’t take off your clothes.”
“But they’ll get wet,” Vasily said. “That’s just stupid.”
David looked at his son and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I wish we didn’t need to do this, I really do. But you need to understand that on Earth people wear clothes when they swim – special clothes called swimsuits, and we’ll make some for you.”
He sighed, his eyes gazing into the distance. “There’s no easy way to say this. Some bad grown-ups have even hurt children by touching them in their private places. You remember we talked about those?”
The children nodded, faces solemn.
The Seasoning Page 12
