David led Leelee through the bustle of the Martineztown station. He shifted his satchel so that she could put her arm around his. The farther they walked the less steady her steps were. Her arm curled around him like ivy clinging to a pillar, and he could feel the stiffness in her muscles and hear it in her voice when she spoke. Her pupils were dilating with pleasure and the chemical cascade in her brain. He wondered what she was seeing.
You never try the stuff yourself? she asked again, unaware that it was the third time.
No, David said again. Im finishing up my senior labs. There isnt really time for a night off. Later maybe. When I get my placement.
Youre so smart, she said. Hutch always says how youre so smart.
Ahead of them, near the platform, a crowd of something close to fifty people were chanting together and holding up signs. A dozen uniformed cops stood a few yards away, not interfering, but watching closely. David ducked his head and turned Leelee away at an angle. Maybe if they headed toward the restrooms there would be a way to the platform that didnt involve walking a tripping girl past the police. Not that the police were paying much attention to the foot traffic. Their attention was all on the protest. The signs were hand lettered or printed on standard-sized paper and glued together. A couple had thin-film monitors playing looped images that fuzzed out to a psychedelic rainbow swirl when the signs flexed.
HIT BACK! and ARE WE WAITING UNTIL THEY KILL US? and EARTH STARTED IT. LETS FINISH IT. This last slogan was accompanied by a bad homemade animation of a rock slamming into the Earth, a massive molten impact crater looking like a bloody bullet wound in the planet.
The protestors were a mixed group, but most were a little older than David or Leelee. Blood-dark faces and the square-gape mouths sent the sense of rage radiating out from them like heat. David paused, trying to make out what exactly they were chanting through the echoes, but all he could tell was that it had seven syllables, four in a call and three in response. One of the police shifted, looking at David, and he started walking again. It wasnt his fight. He didnt care.
By the time they reached the platform, Leelee had gone quiet. He led her to a formed plastic bench that was intended for three people, but was snug with just the two of them. It ticked and popped under his weight, and Leelee flinched from the sound. There were small, distressed lines between her brows. The arrival board listed six minutes for the tube that would eventually get them to Innis Shallows, the seconds counting down in clean-lined Arabic numerals. When Leelee spoke, her voice was tight. He didnt know if it was from sadness or the expected side effect of the drug.
Everybodys so angry, she said. I just wish people werent so angry.
Theyve got reason to be.
Her focus swam for a moment, her gaze fighting to find him.
Everyones got reasons to be, she said. Ive got reasons to be. Youve got reasons to be. Doesnt mean we are, though. Doesnt mean we want to be. You arent angry are you, David? The question ended almost like a plea, and he wanted to tell her that he wasnt. He wanted to say whatever words would smooth her perfect brow, and then take her back to her room in the housing complex and kiss her and have her strip off his clothes. He wanted to see her naked and hear her laugh and fall asleep, spent, in her arms. He coughed, shifting on the bench. You arent angry, are you? she asked again.
The soft tritone sounded.
The tube cars here, he said, forcing a smile. Everythings going to be fine. Just relax, right?
She nodded and tried to pull away from him.
Its all red. Youre red too. Like a great big cherry. Youre so smart, she said. So you never try the stuff yourself?
On the tube car, things werent better. This leg of the trip was an express for Aterpol, and the men and women on it were older than he was by a decade. Their demographic weight had the public monitor set to a newsfeed. In some well-appointed newsroom on the planet, a thin, gray-haired man was shouting down a swarthy woman.
I dont care! the man said. The agent they weaponized came from some larger, extra-solar ecosystem, and I dont care. I dont care about Phoebe. I dont care about Venus. What I care about is what they did. The fact isand no one disputes thisthe fact is that Earth bought those weapons and
Thats a gross oversimplification. Evidence is that there were several bids, including one from
Earth bought those weapons and they fired them at us. At you and me and our children and grandchildren.
The doors slid silently closed and the car began its acceleration. The tubes themselves were in vacuum, the car riding on a bed of magnetic fields like a gauss round. The lurch of acceleration was gentle, though. Theyd cover the distance to Aterpol in twenty minutes. Maybe less. Leelee closed her eyes and rested her head against the back of the car. Her lips pressed thin and her grip on his arm tightened. Maybe they should have waited for her to take the pill until shed gotten to someplace quieter and better controlled.
And Earth also provided the tracking data that shot them all down, the woman on the screen said, pointing at the gray-haired man with her whole hand. Yes, a rogue element in the Earth military was involved, but to dismiss the role that the official, sanctioned military played
Sanctioned military? You make it sound like theres a civil war on Earth. I dont see that. I dont see that at all. I see Mars under a persistent, existential threat and the government sitting on its hands.
Tell me a story, Leelee said. Talk to me. Sing me a song. Something.
Ive got music on the hand terminal if you want.
No, she said. You. Your voice.
David tucked his satchel between his feet and turned toward her, dipping his head down close to her ear. He had to hunch a little. He licked his lips, trying to think of something. His mind was blank, and he grabbed at the first thought that came through him. He brought his mouth to the shell of her ear. When he sang, he tried to be quiet enough that no one else would hear him.
Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen
Leelee didnt open her eyes, but she smiled. That was good enough. For ten minutes, David went on, quietly singing Christmas carols to Leelee. Some he got into and didnt remember the right words, so he just made things up. Nonsense that fit the rhythm of the music, or nearly did.
The detonation was the loudest thing David had ever heard, less a sound than a physical blow. The car pitched forward, rattling against the walls of the tube, throwing Leelee into him and then back. The lighting flickered, failed, and then came on in a different color. They were stopped between stations. The monitors clicked to a pinkish-gray as they rebooted, then glowered back to life with the emergency services trefoil.
Is this happening? Leelee asked. Her irises were tiny rings of brown around deep black. David? Is this happening?
It is, and its all right, he said. Im here. Were fine.
David checked his hand terminal, thinking that the newsfeeds might tell him what was going onpower failure, rioting, enemy attackbut the network was in lockdown. An almost supernaturally calm male voice came over the public monitors. The public transport system has encountered a pressure anomaly and has been shut down to assure passenger safety. Stay calm and a maintenance crew will arrive shortly. The message was less important than the tone of voice it was spoken in, and Leelee relaxed a little. She started to giggle.
Well this is fucked, she said and grinned at him. Fucked, fucked, fucked, fucked, fucked.
Yeah, David said. His mind was already jumping ahead. Hed be late getting home. His father would want to know why, and when it came out hed been in Martineztown, thered be questions. What hed been doing there, who had he been seeing, why hadnt he told anybody. All around them, the other passengers were grumbling and sighing and arranging themselves into comfortable positions, waiting for the rescuers. David stood up and sat down again. Every passing minute seemed to relax Leelee and shunt that tension into his spine. When he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the glass of the tube doors, the boy looking back seemed furtive and scared.