I didnt do anything wrong, he told himself. I was in my lab. There was a security alert and the network went down. I had to finish the experiment, and it took a little longer because everyone was trying to find out what had happened. Thats all. Nothing else.
The fifth time the bus stopped, he was as close to his familys hole as he was going to be. He lumbered out into the corridors of his hometown, his head down and his shoulders tucked in toward his chest like he was trying to protect something.
The family lived in a series of eight rooms dug out of the stone and finished with textured organics. Rich brown bamboo floors met soft mushroom-brown walls. The lights were indirect LEDs alleged to match a sunny afternoon on Earth. To David, they were just the color house-lights were. A newsfeed was muttering in the common rooms, so some portion of the system must have been taken off security lockdown. David closed the door behind him and stalked through the kitchen, fists against his thighs, breath shallow and fast.
Aunt Bobbie was alone in the den. In any other family, shed have been huge. For a Draper, she was only about the middle of the bell curve in height, but athletic and strong. She wore a simple loose-cut outfit that lived somewhere between sweats and pajamas. It mostly hid the shape of her body. She looked away from the video feed, her dark eyes meeting his, and killed the sound. On the screen, a reporter was speaking earnestly into the camera. Behind him, a lifting mech was hauling a slab of ferrocrete.
Wheres Dad? he asked.
Stuck in Salton with your mom, Bobbie said. The blowout was on that line. Securitys saying theyll have everything moving again in about ten hours, but your father said theyd probably be taking a room and coming home in the morning.
David blinked. No one was going to give him any grief. It should have felt like relief. He shrugged, trying to get the tension out of his shoulders, but it wouldnt go. He knew it didnt make sense to be irritated with his parents for not being there to fight with.
Do we know what happened? he asked, stepping into the room.
Sabotage, Aunt Bobbie said. Someone blew a hole between the tube and the maintenance corridor, sucked in a few thousand kilos of air. They took the vacuum seals off-line too, so the whole tube system popped like a balloon.
Earth?
Aunt Bobbie shook her head.
Earth doesnt think that small, she said. This is someone local trying to start something.
Why would someone local blow up our own stuff if theyre mad at Earth?
Because Earths too far away.
It didnt sound like an answer to his question, but David let it go with another shrug.
Aunt Bobbies gaze was on the monitor and not on it. Through it. Seeing something else. He knew shed been on Ganymede when the fighting started and that something had happened so that she wasnt in the military anymore and she had to live with them. The unfairness of her bringing her problems into his house chafed. She sighed and forced a smile.
Howd things go at the lab?
All right, he said.
Whatre you working on?
Just labs, he said, not looking at her.
Your dad said he expected your placement to come through soon. Find out what youll be doing for the next eight years.
Guess.
Aunt Bobbie smiled.
I remember when I first got into training. There was a breakdown in the notification system, and they wound up losing my placement for about six days. I was chewing through rocks until it came through. What about you? Are you more excited, scared, or pissed off?
I dont know, he said.
Your dads really proud of you, Aunt Bobbie said. Whatever happens, hes going to be really proud of you.
David felt the flush of warmth rising in his neck and cheeks. For a second he thought he was embarrassed, but then he recognized the rage. He clamped his jaw tight and looked at the monitor so that he wouldnt be looking at Aunt Bobbie. The mech was gesturing to a ragged hole two meters high and half a meter wide, the man controlling it speaking to the reporter as steel claws pointed out the fine cracks fanning unpredictably out from the breach. Davids teeth ached and he made himself relax his jaw. Aunt Bobbie turned back to the screen. He couldnt read her expression, but he had the feeling that hed exposed something about himself he didnt want her to know.
We have anything for dinner?
I didnt make anything, she said. Could, though.
Its all right. Ill grab a bowl of rice. I have work I need to do. Lab stuff.
Okay.
Davids room was in the back. It had been cut from the ground with the image of a standard-sized person, and so it felt cramped to him. A standard bed would have left half a meter between the footboard and the wall; Davids was almost flush. The gaming deck, the only thing hed ever spent Hutchs illicit money on, sat at the side of the desk. The wall was set to a still from Gods of Risk where Caz Pratihari was about to duel Mikki Suhanam, both men looking strong, dangerous, and a bit melancholy. When the door was locked, he switched the wall to his favorite picture of Una Meing and threw himself to the bed. The newsfeed muttered from the common room, and under italmost too faint to make outAunt Bobbies slow, rhythmic grunting. Resistance training probably. He wished he could make all the noises go away. That he could have the house to himself for once. He wondered if Leelee was all right. If shed made it home safe. If she was angry with him. Or disappointed.
His hand terminal chimed. The alert was from the lower university. In response to the terrorist attack on the tube lines, the labs would be closed the following day. Students with ongoing work that couldnt sit for an extra day were to reply to the section proctor who would either give them special authorization to come in or else do part of the work for them. He ran through a mental checklist. He didnt have anything that needed him to be there, and if he got a little behind, everyone else would, too. He didnt have any of Hutchs reagents in his lab, so if there was a security audit, hed be all right. He had a day off, then.
Leelees voice spoke in his memory. You never try the stuff yourself? Right now, somewhere in Innis Shallow, Leelees brain chemistry was cascading through a long series of biochemical waterfalls, one imbalance slipping to another, slipping to another. Her visual cortex firing in strange waves, her hippocampus blurring. He rolled to his side, reached between the bed frame and the wall, and plucked out the little felt bag. The pink lozenge looked tiny in his vast palm. It tasted like strawberry flavoring and dextrose.
David laced his fingers behind his head, looked at the woman on his wall looking back at him, and waited, waited, waited for the euphoria to come.
The lower university was one of the oldest complexes in Londres Nova; the first marks had been made by automated construction mechs when there had been only a few thousand people on the planet. The halls were simple, direct, rectilinear, and hard. In the commons areawhat everyone referred to as outsidethere had been some attempt to soften and humanize the space, but within, it was low ceilings and right angles. It didnt help that the original colonial designs hadnt recessed any of the infrastructure. Halls that were narrow already had water pipes and electrical cables crowding in at the corners. The flooring was all metal grate, and David had to duck to get through the doorways. The suction from hundreds of fume hoods venting out to the atmosphere reclamation plants kept a constant breeze blowing against the main doors, pushing the students in and then keeping them from getting out.