N-Space Part 54

Reseda and three younger children served lunch, then joined them at the table. Three more came in from the fields. There was considerable chatter. Terry found he was doing a lot of the talking.

Dessert was mangoes still hot from the sun.

Brenda went away and came back wearing a bantar-cloth coverall. It was the garment she'd worn the day she reached the hospital, like as not, but much cleaner. The three adults spend the afternoon pulling weeds in the sugar cane. Brenda and Bob Maddox instructed him by turns.

Terry had never done field work. He found he was enjoying himself, sweating in the sun.

The sun arced around the horizon, dropping gradually. Other children came flocking from the rice fields shortly after five. The adults pulled weeds for a little longer, then joined the children in the courtyard. He could smell his own sweat, and Bob's, different by race or by diet.

Twenty children all grinned at some shared joke. Brenda must have briefed them. When?

"Brenda, I can sort them out," Terry said.

"Go ahead."

"The Mayor already told me Reseda was his. The freckled girl must be Ventura Maddox. h.e.l.lo, Ventura!" She was big for twelve, tanned dark despite the freckles, and round in the face, like Bob himself. A tall girl, older, had Brenda's tightly kinked black hair, pale skin and a pointed chin. "I don't know her name, but she's . . . . . . Lex's?" Lex's face, but it would still be a remarkable thing. Lex's?" Lex's face, but it would still be a remarkable thing.

"Yes, that's Sepulveda."

"h.e.l.lo, Sepulveda. And the boy-" Tarzan grinned at him but didn't wave. Tactful: he didn't know whether they were supposed to have met. '-is mine."

"Right again. Terry, meet Tarzan."

"h.e.l.lo, Tarzan. Brenda, I set down in the rice field before I got here."

She laughed. "Dammit, Terry! I had it all planned."

"And they're named for suburbs of some city on Earth."

"I never thought you'd see that." that."

A different crew served dinner. Bob and Brenda took one end of the table. Terry and Tarzan talked as if n.o.body else was present, but every so often he noticed how the other children were listening.

But tracks in his mind ran beneath what he was saying. They look good together. He's spent time with these children, probably watched them grow up. She should marry him. They look good together. He's spent time with these children, probably watched them grow up. She should marry him.

She can't! Unless I'm all wrong from beginning to end. Wouldn't that be nice? "We've been carrying kudzu grain in the cargo ever since. Someday we'll find another famine-" "We've been carrying kudzu grain in the cargo ever since. Someday we'll find another famine-"

She must have been carrying Tarzan when she took up with Lex. She held his attention while she carried Tarzan to term, and she held him after Lex knew Tarzan wasn't his, and then she had Sepulveda. She could have held him if she'd married him, but she didn't. Held him anyway.

Quite a woman. And then she gave him up. Why?

Terry took the car up into the orange sunset glow and headed north. En route he used his card and the car phone to get a hotel room. By nine he had checked into the Arco-Elsewhere and was calling Maria.

"Want to see the best hotel on the planet? Or shall I get a cab and come to you?"

"I guess I'll come there. Hey, why not? It's close to work."

He used an operator to track down Charley and Sharon, and wasn't surprised to find they had rooms in the same hotel. "Call me for breakfast," Sharon said groggily. "I'm not on Dagon time yet."

Charley seemed alert. "Terry! How's Brenda?"

"Brenda's running the planet, or at least twenty kids' worth of planet. One of the boys is mine. She looks wonderful. Got a burly protector, likable guy, wants to be her fiance but isn't."

"You've got a kid! What's he like?"

Terry had to sort out his impressions. "She raised 'em all well. He's self-confident, delighted to see me, taller than me . . . . . . If he saves civilization I'll take half the credit." If he saves civilization I'll take half the credit."

"That good, huh?"

"Easily."

"I've been working. We've sold the big Langston Field generator. Farmer, lots of land, he may be thinking about becoming a suburb for the wealthy. I got a good price, Terry. He thought he could beat me at the Mirror Game-"

"He bet you?"

"He did. And I've signed up for eight tons of borloi, but I'll have to see how much bulk that is before-"

"Borloi!"

"Sure, Terry, borloi had medical uses too. We'll deal with a government at our next stop, give it plenty of publicity too. That way it'll be used right."

"I'm glad to see you've put some brain sweat into this. What occurs to me is-"

The door went bingbong. bingbong.

"Company." Terry went to open the door. Maria was in daytime dress, with a large handbag. "Come on in. Check out the bathroom, it's really sybaritic. I'm on the phone." He returned. "Borloi, right? It's not worth stealing on the way out, but after we jump we tell the whole population of Gaea about it? Shrewd. We'll be a target for any thief who wants to sell sell eight tons of borloi on the black market." eight tons of borloi on the black market."

"Good point. What do you think?"

"Oh, I think we raise the subject with Sharon, and then I think we'll do it anyway."

"Let's meet for breakfast. Eight? Someone I want you to meet."

"Good." He hung up. He called, "I can offer you three astronauts for breakfast."

Maria came out to the sound of bathwater running. "Sounds delicious.' It has to be early, Terry. Tomorrow's a working day."

"Oh, it'll be early. Early to bed?" He'd wanted to use the city computer files, but he was tired too. It wasn't the time change; the shorter days would have caught him up by now. It was stoop labor in high G.

Maria said, "I want to try that spa. Come with me? You look like you need it. And tell me about your day."

They all met for breakfast in Charley's suite.

Charley had a groupie. Andrea Soucek was a university student, stunningly beautiful, given to cliches. She was goshwowed-out by the presence of three three star-travelers. Sharon had George Callahan. Terry had Maria. star-travelers. Sharon had George Callahan. Terry had Maria.

The conversation stayed general for awhile. Then George had to leave, and so did Maria. Over coffee it degenerated into shop talk, while Andrea Soucek listened in half-comprehending awe.

Eight tons of dry borloi (they'd freeze-dry it by opening the airlock) would fill more than half the cargo hold. Not much ma.s.s, though. The rest of the cargo s.p.a.ce could go to heavy machinery. Their next stop, Gaea, had a small population unlikely to produce much for export, unlikely to buy much of the borloi. Most of it would be with them on two legs of their route.

Sharon asked, "Tanith doesn't manufacture much heavy machinery, do they?"

"I haven't found any I can buy. I'm working on it," Charley said.

Terry had an idea. "We want to freeze-dry the borloi anyway. We could pack it between the hull and the sleeve. Plenty of room for light stuff in the cargo hold."

"Hmm. Yeah! Any drug-running raider attacks us, his first shot would blow the borloi all across the sky! No addicts on our conscience."

"Rape the addicts. Evolution in action," Sharon said. "What kind of idiot would hook himself on borloi when the source is light-years away? Get 'em out of the gene pool."

Andrea began to give her an argument. All humans were worthwhile, all could be saved. And borloi was a harmless vice- Terry returned to his room carrying a mug of coffee. The aristocratic phone operator recognized him by now. "Mr. Kak.u.mee! Who may I track down for you?"

"Lex Hartner, M.D., surgeon. Lived in Dagon City, Dryland sector, fifteen years ago."

"Fifteen years? Thanks a lot." But she'd stopped showing irritation. "Mmm. Not Dryland. . . . . He doesn't appear to be anywhere in Dagon." He doesn't appear to be anywhere in Dagon."

"Try some other cities, please. He won't be outside a city."

Almost a minute crawled by. "I have a Lex Hartner in Coral Beach."

It was Lex. He was older, grayer; his cheeks sagged in Tanith gravity. "Terry Kak.u.mee?"

"h.e.l.lo. I met your daughter yesterday."

The sagging disappeared. "How is she?"

"She's wonderful. All of Brenda's kids are wonderful. Are you wondering whether to tell me I've got a boy?"

"Yeah."

"He's wonderful too."

"Of course he is." Lex smiled at last. "How's Brenda?"

"She's wonderful. I asked her to marry me too, Lex. I mean sixteen years ago."

"Who else has she turned down?"

"Brawny farmer type named Maddox. Lex, I don't think she needs a man."

"How are you?"

"I'm fine. Would you believe Charley Lame is fine too? He looks like you'd expect, but his groupie is prettier than mine, if not as smart."

"I did a good job there, didn't I?"

"That's what I'm telling you."

"Is it too late to say I'm sorry?"

"No, forget that. She didn't need me. Lex, you did an autopsy on the corpse of a Sauron superman. Remember?"

"A man isn't likely to forget that. They rot fast in the swamps. It was pretty well chewed, too."

"Was there enough left for a gene a.n.a.lysis?"

"Some. Not enough to make me famous. It matched what the Navy already knew. I didn't find anything inhuman, anything borrowed from animals."

"Yeah. Anything startling?"

"Nope. It's all in the records."

"A Sauron and a Weem's beast, you don't expect them to go to a photo finish."

"It must have been something to see. From a distance, that is. Brenda never wanted to talk about it, but that was a long time ago. Maybe she'd talk now."

"Okay, thanks. Lex, I still think of you as a friend. I won't be on Tanith very long. Everything I do is on the city account for awhile-"

"Maybe I'll come into town."

"Call me when and if, and everything goes on the card. I'm at the Arco-Elsewhere."

Next he linked into the Dagon City computer files.

Matters relating to Saurons had been decla.s.sified. Navy ships had transferred much of their data to city computers on Tanith and other worlds. Terry found a picture he'd seen before: a Sauron, no visible wounds, ga.s.sed in an attack on Medea. It rotated before him, a monster out of nightmare. Randus?

An XYY, the text said. All of the Sauron soldiers, any who had left enough meat to be a.n.a.lyzed, had had freaky gene patterns-males with an extra Y gene, where XY was male and XX was female-until the Battle of Tanith. There they'd found some officers.

Those pictures were of slides and electron-microscope photographs. No officer's corpse had survived unshredded. Their gene patterns included the XY pair, but otherwise resembled those of the XYY berserkers.

Results of that gene pattern were known. Eyes that saw deep into the infrared; the altered eye structure could be recognized. Blood that clotted fast to block a wound. Rapid production of endorphins to block pain. Stronger bones. Bigger adrenal glands. Powerful muscles. Skin that changed color fast, from near-white (to make vitamin D in cold, cloudy conditions, where a soldier had to cover most of his skin or die) to near-black (to prevent lethal sunburn in field conditions under a hotter sun). Officers would have those traits too.

Nothing new yet.

Ah, here was Lex Hartner's autopsy report on Randus himself. XYY genes. Six-times-lethal damage from a Weem's beast's teeth, and one wound. . . . . one narrow wound up through the base of the skull into the cerebellum, that must have paralyzed or killed him at once. one narrow wound up through the base of the skull into the cerebellum, that must have paralyzed or killed him at once.

A Sauron superman working in a rice paddy might not expect something to come at him out of the water.

Terry studied some detail pictures of a Weem's beast. It was something like a squat crocodile, with huge pads for front paws, claws inward-pointing to hold prey, a single dagger of a front tooth . . . . . . That might have made the brain puncture if the thing was biting Randus's head. Wouldn't the lower teeth have left other marks on, say, the forehead? That might have made the brain puncture if the thing was biting Randus's head. Wouldn't the lower teeth have left other marks on, say, the forehead?

So.

And a stranger, human-looking but with big bones and funny eyes, had run loose on Tanith for sixteen years. Had a man with a small daughter appeared somewhere, set up a business, married perhaps? By now he would have an ident.i.ty and perhaps a position of power.

Saurons were popularly supposed to have been exterminated. Terry had never found any record of an attack on whatever world had bred the monsters, and he didn't now, though it must have happened. No mention of further attempts to track down fleets that might have fled across the sky. The Navy had left some stuff cla.s.sified.

Early files on the Curtis family had been scrambled. He found a blurred family picture: a dark man, a darker woman, five children; he picked out a gawky eleven-year-old (the file said) who might have grown to be Brenda. The file on the Maddoxes was bigger, with several photographs. The men all looked like Bob Maddox, all muscle and confidence and freckled tans. The women were not much smaller and tended to be freckled and burly.