The Settlers (35 page)

The insurgents would die in isolation, banished by the fleet government for treason.
But Onyx was overturned, and monuments were constructed to remember those who fought for equality.
Station Meili, the long-rumored thirteenth station, will not continue the Onyx tradition.
If the station is even real.

For nearly one hundred fifty years, there is quiet.

The fleet ends communications with Earth.
Mankind has come to a fork in its road, and now travels in both directions, each cluster separate from the other.
 

Man becomes a creature of the stars.

There's no sensation of movement.
The Earth seems fixed in the sky.
No stars are visible.
The moon is a speck in the distance.
 

Tasneem turns away from the window and stretches out on her cot.
 

These shuttle rides are nice, she says.
 

They take a very long time
, David replies.
But then, I've nothing but time.
So do you.
 

Tasneem puts her arms behind her head and looks up at the ceiling.
The panels there are transparent, but the only thing she can see is darkness.
 

Sometimes I think that I just want to steer the shuttle off-course a little bit, she says.
What sort of supplies does this thing carry?

Not enough for you to go off the reservation
, David says.
 

I guess you're right, she says.
Hey, are you nervous?
 

That's one of the beauties of not having a body
, David says.
No nerves to get
ous.
 

She smiles.
They're going to have a lot of questions for you, aren't they.

You don't think they'll be distracted by the new station?
People make a very big deal out of things that were built without their knowledge.

Oh, they'll have plenty of years to gasp about Station Meili.
Shiny new objects are only shiny and new for so long, though.
No, I think they'll be much more interested in you, Tasneem says.

I have a confession to make
, David says.

What's that?

I am a little nervous
.

Don't be, she says.
You're the smartest man in the fleet.
And you're the man with the plan.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, though.

Well, she says.
It'll come to you.
 

I just have a strange feeling
, he says again.

It'll come to you, she says.
You're David Dewbury.

Yeah
, he says.

But he is uncertain.

Tasneem has almost drifted into sleep when David speaks.

Tasneem
, he says.
Do you ever think of Audra?

Tasneem doesn't open her eyes.
If you would just read my thoughts, you'd know the answer already.

I don't like to invade your privacy that much
, he says.
 

Thank you.
 

Do you?

Almost every day, Tasneem says.
Do you think of Heidi?
 

I never stop thinking of Heidi.
 

You and Audra made a lovely daughter, Tasneem says.
If there's one thing I ever could have done, I think I would have had a daughter.
 

Nothing is stopping you,
David says.

I'm stopping me.

Did you ever love?

Tasneem hesitates.
Once, maybe.
 

But you never did anything about it?
 

I watched people distracted by love, she says.
I watched my mother wither when she lost it.
Maybe I never consciously decided to take a pass on romance, but I did, anyway.
 

Do you ever regret it?
David asks.

Not generally, she says.
 

But you're immortal, or close to it,
David says.
You don't miss companionship through the long, lonely years?

I have you, Tasneem says.
 

They're silent.
Outside the shuttle the black passes by, always the same.
 

I sometimes hate Heidi for her choice
, David says at last.

I know.
She knew that, too.

She was my daughter,
David says.
It pains me to outlive her.
 

She made her choice, Tasneem says.
For her, it was the right one.
Soma was banned, so it wasn't like she could preserve her body forever, like we've done.
 

She could have preserved her mind, though,
David says.
Her mind is what mattered.
Eventually, we'd have been able to give her a new body.
Just like one day I'll --

He stops.

Do you want a new body, David?
 

He is silent for a moment.
Then he says,
I don't know.
This arrangement, yours and mine, serves a great many purposes.
 

But when we make the announcement, secrecy is less important, isn't it?
Maybe you could work on a way to build a body then.

I don't know.

Tasneem looks outside.
I think I can see the station.
It's big.
 

Tasneem,
David says.

Tasneem is quiet.

Heidi has been dead for seventy-one years,
he says.
Audra has been dead for one hundred thirty-nine years.
 

I miss them both, Tasneem says.
 

I wish I could die, too
, David says.
 

Tasneem nods.
But you can't.

But I can't
, he agrees.
There are too many things to do.
It sounds terrible to say, but --

But mankind needs you, she finishes.

But mankind needs me.
Yes.
 

Maybe one day they won't, David.

I fear that day is very far away
.

Are you tired of being an eternal consciousness?

When I became one, my mind was clean.
Pure.
 

And now?
 

And now I have lost my loves.
 

Tasneem wraps her arms around herself and squeezes tightly.
 

David can feel it.
It's nice, but it's not enough
, he says.

She relaxes her arms.
I know.

They fall into silence again and watch Station Meili as it grows in the viewport.

Tasneem says, It's you and me, David.
For as long as forever is.

You and me
, he says.
 

But she can almost feel his sadness.
 

Station Meili looks like something from a horror movie.
It's an enormous sphere sliced into a hundred cross-sections.
Each segment of the station rotates independently of the others, some at great speeds, some more slowly.
The station is the first to be constructed as a complete universe unto itself, and nobody is quite sure how it was built in secret.
It's far too large to have stayed secret for long.
 

And yet for seventy-eight years, its secret was kept.

Tasneem's shuttle is still hours away, but the station looms into view.
 

Wow, she says.
Do you see this?
 

Well
, David says,
not in so many words, but yes, I understand what you're seeing
.
 

It is absolutely enormous, she says.
 

The chatter I've seen on the network says that each segment is a perfect capsule of human interest, David says.
There's an agricultural segment, a waste management segment, an education segment.
The most interesting level to me is the alternate reality deck.
I imagine a person could spend their entire life plugged into that system.

An alternate reality deck, Tasneem says.
I didn't know those were real.

This one is
, he says.
Program the system, let it build a false reality for you, plug in, and enjoy.

That's going to be an interesting thing for someone to manage, Tasneem says.
What else?

Manufacturing level, many city levels, many residential levels, arboretums, gardens.
There's an oceanic level.
Entire thing is submerged.
 

Wow, Tasneem says.
 

There are a few levels that haven't been discussed yet
, David says.
I'm very curious about them, but there's not much information available on the network yet.
 

And you have no idea how they kept this thing secret all this time?
 

Well, they didn't, did they,
he says.
There were plenty of rumors about it as early as 2198.

It's really, really big, she says.
 

Yes,
David says.
They say it will be the first station capable of supporting one billion residents.

It looks like it
,
Tasneem says.
Jesus.
One billion.

The station is covered with scattered lights, many of them slowly moving as their respective segments rotate.
 

How should we do this?
Tasneem asks, nose still pressed to the window.

There's a ribbon-cutting ceremony
, David says.
We can crash that.
 

I don't want to crash anything, she says.
 

No, I mean diplomatically.
Find a journalist, and let the rest handle itself.
 

I've never asked you how this feels.