"There are always a few who want to turn space into some kind of reserve. 'Preserved eternally unpolluted, pristine and unchanging. Like the rainforest ought to be.' Well, life is a pollutant. Twenty-five percent of particulate pollution alone is biological. Lichens eat rock. Plants spew chemicals. Animals respire, animals fart. And without that pollution, there is no rainforest. And the only eternal thing in the universe is change."
Transcript of the testimony of
Dr. Michael Da Silva, Chair of Zoology, to Senate Select Committee on Space exploration, 1/4/2037.
"We're going have to do this in two trips," explained Kretz, when they arrived at the airlock. "Abret and I have decided that we'll take the people needing to go to Icarus habitat first, then the uThani. It's a lot safer for both of us to pilot the lifecraft."
Howard knew that the time had come—and he was no nearer to a decision himself about where to go. All he was sure about was that he was going to stay with Lani. She was plainly thinking about the same thing. She squeezed his hand.
"Nama-ti needs to come with us for surgery and rehab first," said Zoë. "And we'd like Mister Ji and his daughter for a while for some psychological counseling."
Dandani grunted. He'd been very silent on the trip back. "Nama-ti go die," he said. "Even if no die, hand gone. He no pull a bow again. Better dead than no hunt."
"Believe me, we can fix, at least partly. One thing about a danger-sport culture, we're good at orthopedics and prosthetics."
Dandani looked incredulously at her. "Fix?"
Zoë nodded. "So that he at least has some use again." She turned to one of the other two fliers. "What do you think, Isaac?"
The flier nodded. "Forty percent use at least. He'll keep the index finger and thumb anyway."
Dandani was smiling again. "You fix, I bring pile of feathers, high as you." He looked at Lani and winked. "You know, healer woman even better wife than strong woman."
"He's back to normal," said Lani shaking her head. "Look, take them and move them out of here. We—Howard and I and the locals—will get into the airlock as soon as you've cycled it. We'll get everyone suited up and ready to go."
Howard nodded, and looked thoughtful. "That translator device you took off the other Miran body: would it work for English to Ji's language?"
Kretz looked at Abret. "It could be set to do that, yes," said Abret.
"Could you leave it with us? Then I can explain what they have to do."
So Howard was left with Derfel's Transcomp, and the Miran and fliers, and the uThani set out. Farewells were brief—time and danger pressed.
"Be happy together," said Howard, awkwardly, to Amber and Zoë. It was . . . unnatural, he still felt. Not as much as he had at first, though. You grew accustomed to it and realized that they were still the same likeable people. They weren't hurting anyone. If they were so plainly transparently joyful together, was it wrong? It was a bit too complex for Howard. God was better fitted to understand and judge than he was. He seemed to have blessed the relationship with a degree of bliss, and that was enough for Howard.
Dandani made things more complicated. "I speak for you with chief. Place in uThani for you. Brother." He winked at Lani. "Or you can leave him behind and come with me." He ducked and laughed.
And they went into the airlock, and closed the door.
With his fingers twined with Lani's, Howard watched until the red airlock light turned green. Then he cleared his throat and turned to the watching locals. "It is time for us to go. Don't worry. There is a better world out there. It is different, but you will be looked after."
The woman holding her children, with a small cloth bundle as their sole possessions, nodded. "Yes, he-who-brings-the-ancestor. We are ready."
They'd have to learn to call him something else. "Good. Let's go. Once we're in there and suited up, you're safe."
Inside the airlock he showed them where the suits were kept. He and Lani helped to fit the children and bemused adults into them.
When they were sorted it was their turn.
At the end of suiting up, Howard had done his thinking and reached his decisions. He turned to her. "Lani, New Eden would be your idea of hell. You might love me now, but you'd come to hate me, I think. You would be miserable."
She looked coolly at him. "Are you giving me the push, Howard? Are you telling me to go back to Diana and get out of your life?"
He shook his head and took her gauntleted hand. "No. I don't, at this stage, see any place except New Eden for these people. I can't send them back there alone. I want you now and always to be my wife. My partner. Call it what you like. I love you, and I want you beside me. I can't change that. So I am asking you to come back to New Eden with me, and help me change it."
"You already belong to me," she said gruffly. "And I'm a cop. If you go without me, I'll have to follow you, and keep you in safe custody." She put her arms around him. "Like this." She looked up at him. "It's not everyone who has someone offer to change the world for her. I don't think I could have refused that, even if you didn't already belong to me. Now kiss me, before I put this helmet on." Her eyes were very moist.
He did. For a long time. When he came up for air he touched her cheek and said, "With you beside me, I could change any number of worlds."
Abret looked at the lifecraft almost unbelievingly. Not long ago it had seemed improbable that he would ever see it again. Now . . . he would be heading toward the spacecraft. One more stepping stone towards that long journey home. To a place that smelled right to nest.
They got in through the airlocks, settled their passengers. Took their seats, and began the wonderful familiar mantra of pre-flight checks. Kretz clicked on the radio.
"This is the lifecraft to the spacecraft. Selna, are you receiving us?"
There was a silence.
And then Selna's voice. Cold. Angry. "Kretz. I've started the pre-lift sequences. I won't interrupt them for you."
"We're on our way, Selna," said Kretz, soothingly. "I have rescued Abret from the alien habitat."
It didn't have the desired effect. "I told you to come here. Not to risk yourself. Get here now. Once final sequence checks begin, I can't interrupt them."
"Stop them now, Selna. You must interrupt them. We're coming. We just can't get there yet. We have some . . . debts we have to pay."
"Debts?" she asked.
"Aliens that helped us survive and get free. They need to be returned to their habitats. We've got them on board."
She screamed. Loud enough to make Kretz and Abret tear the earpieces away from their ears. "Get the filth off the lifecraft! Get here now! I've got to get back. Get here before the launch sequence is done. Get here. Get here! Get here! Or stay with those filth forever. I've had your excuses. You lied about checks so you could rescue Abret. You have less than a third of a TU or you can stay there with him."
Abret looked at Kretz. Selna had been his lover, and those relationships often re-established after changeover.
Kretz looked back at him. Spoke into the radio unit again. "Please wait, Selna. It won't take us more than a TU. And we're not even in the optimum launch window yet."
"You have less than a third of TU," she said again.
Abret took a deep breath. "I'll fly. You keep talking to her."
Kretz nodded. "We deliver these. Pick up Howard. And then we run straight for the spacecraft. We should do it easily. She'll stop when we get there. You can embark and I'll get Howard and the others back. That way . . ."
"It is my debt of honor too, friend. You could have left me there, when you got to the lifecraft. We need to get to her, hopefully get her sedated into trance-sleep."
"It may not work," said Kretz grimly. "There have been no trials on females. There are a lot of physiological changes."
"What else can we do?" said Abret. "First stop, next habitat?"
"Yes. And then the one beyond that."
"We have to rush," said Kretz to them, "Please disembark as quickly as possible." And then he turned to Dandani and spoke to him in his language.
The uThani's mouth fell open. And then he laughed.
Dandani turned to Amber. "He is good enough sneaky to make uThani too."
Amber wished she could speak Miran. Because she'd love to know what it was that made the sudden rush necessary. The best launch window for a return to their homeworld—not due for the last bead for nearly six months—was definitely some time off.
Still, she was willing enough to scramble off the ship and be helped toward the airlock. It was odd to think that they'd never see each other again. Sad. Kretz was alien . . . but very human too.
Howard greeted Kretz with a smile and a ready, roped-together group of space-suits in various sizes. "We must run," said Kretz. "Abret is ready for a hot lift."
Abret had managed to set down right next to the airlock, tricky though that must have been.
Dandani was still aboard. "Why?" asked Howard.
"He could not do the space-walk alone. And we did not have time."
Abret was already lifting, not even waiting for them to find seats.
Howard had spent too much time with Kretz not to read his expressions. "What's wrong," he asked calmly.
The tone seemed to help Kretz.
"Selna. The other Miran survivor. She is back on the spacecraft threatening to launch without us. We cannot get home if she does that. This craft is far too small and far too slow. It has no trance-equipment or drugs. And we have insufficient supplies."
"Surely she won't do that to you?"
"It . . . is possible, yes," said Kretz reluctantly. "She's changed sex. She needs her nesting territory. Miran always return to the area of their birth to breed, Howard. And, well, Amber was telling me you humans have something called PMS."
Howard had not the vaguest idea what Kretz was talking about. But Lani obviously did. She nodded. "Yeah. Um. You'll get used to it, Howard. Do you aliens have this problem?"
Kretz nodded. "Only at changeover. There are huge physiological and hormonal changes. On Miran . . . we stay a long way from someone during changeover. Once it is over—Miran females are territorial, never move out of their nesting territory again. But they are everything else we males are not. Sensible. Conservative. But Selna . . ."
"Is having a whole life-time's PMS. Can't get to her nesting territory," said Lani, pulling a face.
Kretz nodded. "So we are going to the last habitat first. Abret will alight, try and calm her and stop the launch sequence. Then we, or rather I, will fly you back to your habitats."
"Kretz!" yelled Abret. The rest of what he said was a gabble of alien, but Kretz left at a run, shouting: "Get them into seats and strapped in."
Howard set about doing so with Lani.
Then they strapped in.
He was glad of it.