New Earth (13 page)

Totally unconcerned about the storm, Adri pointed to the building ahead and explained, “This is what you would probably call a dormitory.” He cocked his head slightly to one side, then added, “Or perhaps a hotel.”

“You must have other cities here
and there,” Jordan said. Another flash of lightning and an immediate peal of thunder.

“Oh no, this is our only community. We have no need for more.”

“Farms, factories? That sort of thing?”

Nodding, Adri replied, “Yes, they are all here, on the edge of our city. The farms are enjoying the rain, I should think.”

“Everything we need is here,” Aditi said.

“You mean to say that the rest of the
planet is empty?” Brandon asked, unbelieving.

“Not empty,” said Adri. “This world is teeming with life.”

“I mean human life,” Brandon said.

Adri smiled at him. “Our entire human population lives here, in the city. The rest of the planet is for the other living species.”

Jordan thought a moment, then asked, “That means you must keep your own numbers at a stable level.”

“Yes, certainly.”

“We have to,” said Aditi. “Otherwise we would put a strain on our natural resources.”

With a sigh, Jordan said, “I wish our people on Earth were that wise.”

“It is necessary,” said Adri. “We must live in balance with the planet’s resources.”

Brandon said, “Back home we use the resources of the rest of the solar system.”

“And our numbers keep growing,” Jordan added.

“Yes, that may be so for
you,” said Adri, “but as you can see, we have no other planets to exploit. We must live within the resources that this single world can provide.”

With that, they approached the main door to the dormitory building. It opened for them automatically.

VISITORS’ QUARTERS

The interior of the building was richly decorated with swirling, colorful abstract murals.

“Each corridor is color-coded,” Adri explained. “The predominant tone in this main corridor is orange, as you can see. Side corridors are in cooler tones: blue, green, lilac.”

“Impressive,” said Jordan. “And delightful.”

“I’m so pleased you enjoy it.”

Brandon asked, “Do you sleep
here? In this building?”

“Yes, we do,” Aditi answered. “On the upper floor.”

Adri stopped at an intricately carved door. It slid open at the touch of his fingertip.

“I hope this suite will be comfortable for you,” he said, ushering Jordan and Brandon in with a sweep of his arm. “It has two separate bedrooms connected by the sitting room, here.”

Aditi remained out in the corridor.

“Aren’t
you coming in?” Jordan called to her.

She broke into a bright smile and stepped into the sitting room.

Jordan looked around the room. It was handsomely furnished with a long, low sofa, several armchairs, two desks on opposite walls. The walls themselves glowed slightly, a pearly gray. Wall screens, he realized. He noticed a faint trace of a floral scent. Jasmine? he wondered.

“If this is a
dormitory room,” Brandon said, grinning, “I can’t imagine what your luxury hotel suites must look like.”

Jordan saw that the doors leading to the bedrooms were both open. The bedrooms looked identical: large, comfortable, attractively appointed. He caught a glimpse of a small gray creature that scurried beneath the bed in one of the rooms. Startled for an instant, he recovered his composure.
Vacuum cleaner, he reminded himself.

“You can communicate with your ship,” said Adri, “using the wall screens.”

Aditi said, “The closets contain robes in your sizes. We were uncertain as to what you would prefer for clothing, so we merely provided the robes. I hope they’re satisfactory.”

“Perfectly satisfactory,” Jordan said.

Brandon joked, “I hope whoever’s in the room above us isn’t a flamenco
dancer.”

Adri’s expression went so perplexed that Jordan had to stifle an urge to laugh.

“Flamenco dancer?” Aditi asked, also obviously puzzled.

“It’s a form of entertainment,” Brandon explained, and he stomped his feet a few times while snapping his fingers.

“I see,” said Adri, still a bit uncertain.

But Aditi broke into laughter. “It’s a joke! You were being humorous.”

“I was trying,”
Brandon said.

Quite seriously, Adri said, “I can assure you, whoever is residing above this suite is not a flamenco dancer.”

Jordan said, “We’re glad to hear that.” And he studied Aditi’s vivacious, happy face, reveling in the sound of her laughter.

Adri said, “If you don’t mind, we’ll leave you two to familiarize yourselves with your quarters and relax awhile. Shall I call for you for dinner
in a few hours? Will that be all right?”

“That’ll be fine,” Brandon said.

To Aditi, Jordan asked, “Will you join us for dinner?”

“If you like,” she said.

“I’d be very pleased if you did.”

With a smiling nod, Aditi said, “I’ll be happy to.”

Once they were alone in the sitting room, Jordan flipped his pocketphone open and called Thornberry. To his surprise, the roboticist’s face appeared on
the wall screen opposite the sofa, slightly larger than life.

“All is well,” Jordan reported. Swinging the phone slowly around the room, he went on, “As you can see, they’ve set us up in very comfortable quarters. We’ll be having dinner with Adri in a little while.”

“We’ve been monitoring you through your phone,” Thornberry said, his heavy brows slightly knitted. “Glad to get visuals, though.
Now what was that business about energy domes?”

Jordan felt mildly annoyed. They’re eavesdropping, he thought. We’ll have to turn the phones off if we want any privacy.

“I’ll ask Adri for more details,” he replied. “When you come down here, perhaps you can meet with their technical people.”

“I’d like that,” said Thornberry.

“What about Meek and de Falla?” Jordan asked. “Are they coming up
to the ship or staying down here?”

Hazzard came into the picture, behind Thornberry’s shoulder. “They’re coming up here. I pointed out to them that they’d just have to go back tomorrow, but they insisted on returning to the ship. They’re really spooked, especially Silvio.”

“I’m afraid so,” Jordan agreed.

“How are the aliens treating you?” Hazzard asked.

“Very well indeed,” said Jordan. “You
can tell de Falla to relax.”

“You’re in uncharted territory, Jordan,” Hazzard said. “Be careful.”

“Thanks for the advice. I’ll call you first thing in the morning.”

“Or sooner, if you need to.”

“Yes, certainly. But for now I’m going to turn off our phones.”

“No!” Hazzard snapped. “We need to be in constant touch with you.”

Frowning slightly at the oversized image on the wall screen, Jordan
said, “I don’t feel comfortable having you listening in on every word I say.”

“We need to know what’s going on,” Hazzard insisted. Thornberry agreed with a tense nod.

Jordan saw that his brother was grinning at him. To Hazzard, he said, “Geoff, I’m going to pull rank on you. I’m going to turn off our phones after dinner. If they murder us in our sleep you’ll find out about it soon enough.”

“I don’t like it,” said Hazzard.

“I understand,” Jordan replied. “Your objection will be noted in the ship’s log.”

Once the wall screen went blank, Brandon said to Jordan, “You want some privacy when you’re with Aditi.”

Jordan tried to stare his brother down, failed, and at last admitted, “Wouldn’t you?”

*   *   *

The four of them had a leisurely meal in a sizeable dining room down the corridor
from their suite. Several dozen tables were filled with couples and larger groups. Human—or rather, alien—waiters served trays laden with steaming soups, crisp salads, and savory meats. There was no wine, but Adri introduced them to a pungent drink that somehow seemed to go well with each course.

Jordan chatted with Aditi, for the most part, leaving Brandon to talk with Adri.

“I take it that
Adri heads your government here,” he prompted.

“Government?” Aditi asked, as if the term was new to her.

“He’s your leader,” Jordan said. “He makes the final decisions about things.”

“Oh! You mean chief of the administration. Yes, you could say that’s Adri’s position.”

“And you? What do you do?”

Again Aditi looked briefly at a loss, but then her expression brightened. “I’m a teacher.”

“A
teacher? Really?” Jordan realized that he hadn’t seen any children in the city. Not one.

“Yes.”

“Can you teach me your language?”

She smiled. “It’s very different from yours. We use different tones, different parts of the vocal organ.”

“Would it be very difficult to teach me?”

“It might be,” Aditi said, her face growing serious. “The most arduous part of learning is preparing the mind to
accept new knowledge.”

“I never thought of it that way.”

“Would you like to see more of the city? The farms, the orchards, they’re quite lovely.”

Jordan felt she was changing the subject, but he nodded readily. “I’d be happy to have you show them to me.”

“Good,” said Aditi. “First thing tomorrow.”

At last they finished the meal with cups of a brew very much like coffee. Jordan bade a reluctant
good night to Aditi and Adri, then he and his brother made their way back to their quarters.

“No dessert,” Brandon noted.

“So they’re not trying to fatten us up for the slaughter,” said Jordan.

“From what Adri told me, they don’t slaughter meat animals. The grow their meat in biovats, just as we do on the ship.”

Jordan nodded. “Makes sense. Why raise an animal just to kill it when you can
grow the same meat from a culture of a few cells?”

They entered their suite. Jordan popped his phone open and called up to the ship. Trish Wanamaker’s chunky face appeared on the wall screen.

“Where’s Thornberry?” Jordan asked.

“Sleeping, I guess. He’s been at this station all day, just about. I’ve taken over the night shift.”

“I see. Well, we’ve had a pleasant dinner with our new friends
and now we’re going to retire. I’ll turn off the phones, but I’ll call you when we awake.”

Wanamaker looked troubled. “Geoff won’t like that.”

“I know. We’ve been through all that. Geoff will just have to accept it.”

With a shrug, Wanamaker said, “You’re the boss.”

“Good night, Trish.”

“Good night, boss.”

Her image winked off and Jordan clicked his phone’s power button. Brandon pulled his
phone from his shirt pocket and did the same.

“No alcoholic beverages,” Brandon observed as he went to the sofa and plopped down on it.

“That drink they served with dinner wasn’t bad, though,” he said to his brother.

“I wonder why they didn’t serve us the wine that Adri told us they make?”

Jordan shrugged. “Perhaps they didn’t want us to get sloshed our first night here.”

Brandon grinned
at him. “It’s been a helluva day, hasn’t it?”

“Indeed it has.”

“Do you think Hazzard’s right? Are we in any danger here? Should we be on our guard?”

Jordan eased himself down onto the armchair nearest the sofa. “We’re in the lions’ den, Bran. If they harbor evil intentions we’ll know about it soon enough.”

“They’ve got a high technology. Higher than ours, with their bioengineered animals and
energy domes.”

“And a lot more, I’m sure.”

Leaning forward intently, Brandon said, “I get the feeling that they expected us. They knew we were coming.”

“Well, they did set up the laser beacon to attract us.”

“No, I don’t mean that. I think they expected us to send a ship here. They probably tracked us all the way from Earth.”

“Really?”

“They’ve been studying us, Jordy. For god knows how
long. They’ve learned our language, they know where we’ve come from. It’s like they expected us.”

“They could have learned a lot by tapping into our radio and video broadcasts, I suppose. And the webs, of course.”

“Why? Why would they do that?”

“Why not? They’re as intelligent as we are. We sent probes to this planet before our mission was launched. Of course they knew about us, expected us.”

“But why didn’t they try to contact us? If they can pick up our radio and video, why didn’t they call us?”

“I’ll have to ask Adri about that.”

Brandon shook his head. “It’s all just too damned convenient. A planet just like Earth. Human beings. We can breathe their air and eat their foods. It’s uncanny. It gives me the creeps, kind of.”

Jordan said nothing.

“Tell me the truth, Jordy: doesn’t
all this bother you? Doesn’t it worry you?”

Jordan thought about it as he looked into his brother’s troubled eyes, and found that the truth startled him. “Bran, the truth is that I feel as if I’ve just arrived home.”

REBELLION

Jordan awoke and stared at the ceiling for long, languorous moments. Morning sunlight slanted through the room’s one window. A bird—a winged creature about the size of a hummingbird with feathers gleaming like jewels—was flitting back and forth up near the ceiling. Bug catcher? Jordan wondered.

His bed was one of the most comfortable he’d ever slept in; it seemed to mold itself
to his body shape. He knew he had dreamt, but he couldn’t remember what his dreams were about. Probably better that way, he thought.

He rose, showered, then shaved with implements neatly laid out on the bathroom cabinet top. His pencil-thin mustache seemed a bit less ragged than it had appeared a few days ago.

Three ankle-length robes hung in the bedroom closet, all in the same bluish gray tone.
Underwear in the bureau drawer, together with slipper socks that had padded soles. They all fit reasonably well, although the underpants felt looser than Jordan would have preferred. So they know my approximate size, he thought, but not my precise preferences.

Brandon was already in the sitting room, wearing his own slacks and wrinkled shirt from the day before, in thoughtful conversation with
Paul Longyear.

“It’s just plain impossible,” the lean-faced biologist was saying. “I spent half the night running a statistical analysis of the likelihood of a biosphere being so exactly like Earth, and the program kept blowing up in my face. Everything goes to infinity! It’s just impossible!”