“At least they’re not waving crossbows this time.”
Beth just stared at the children, stared and stared. And the ColU swivelled its camera mounts to inspect the mutilated machine that stood patiently at the edge of this colony’s potato field.
They got to within about ten metres. Then one of the women stepped forward, staring at Mardina. “I know you. She’s a fucking astronaut!”
Mardina murmured to Yuri, “I take it you didn’t explain my particular circumstances.”
“I didn’t tell them anything.”
“Fair enough—”
“An astronaut! I always hated you bastards, even before I got on the ship. Jones, that was your name.”
“It still is.”
“Why, you mouthy—” And the woman launched herself out of the group and went straight for Mardina, running flat out, her hands outstretched as if to grab Mardina’s throat.
Mardina stepped aside, stuck out a leg and sent the woman sprawling. “Ten years out of the service but my ISF training’s still there. Good to know.” The woman was up on her knees, spitting dirt out of her mouth. “Now, one quick chop to the neck—”
Yuri held Mardina’s arm. “Leave her to the others.”
Some of the women, and one man, came running up. They hauled the woman to her feet, her arms firmly held. “For God’s sake, Frieda, we have to live with these people…”
Dorothy Wynn stepped forward to apologise. Delga just laughed.
They were brought into the camp reasonably peacefully. Yuri and Mardina sat by the women’s fire and were offered more nettle tea. The men of the colony hung back, evidently curious. The ColU rolled away to inspect its silent brother by the potato field.
Beth stared at Delga’s stump of an arm. And then, wide-eyed with astonishment, she was cautiously welcomed by the children.
“Play nice, Freddie,” Delga called with a hint of venom. “So, ice boy. Full of surprises, aren’t you? Only two of you. Two survivors, of fourteen.”
“It’s a long story,” Yuri said.
“And not all that dissimilar to yours, I’ll bet,” Mardina said levelly, pointedly looking around at the group, the eleven adults.
“More extreme though,” Delga said. “We’re all survivors, I guess, here in the Bowl. But you two evidently pushed it to the limit. Respect.”
Dorothy Wynn said, “I’m sorry how Frieda took a pop at you like that.”
Mardina shrugged. “She’s right. I am ISF crew, or was.”
“But I’m guessing you didn’t volunteer to stay down here.”
“I filled a gap in the manifest. The drop group was short… I had the right genetic diversity. Lucky me.”
“We’re all here now,” Dorothy said firmly. “Which is all that matters.”
Anna said, “And you had a kid, even though it was just the two of you? That took some guts.”
Yuri and Mardina shared an awkward glance. This was very private stuff, but these others had been in a similar position. Yuri said at length, “I think we concluded that it took less guts than not having a kid.”
“And another? Did you think about having more?”
This time neither of them was willing to answer. Even after Beth was born they’d found such issues difficult to discuss. Their whole world was focused on one person, on Beth; somehow they hadn’t been able to imagine breaking that up with a second child. Maybe someday they would have got around to it, the alternative being to let Beth grow old and die alone. But that, Yuri realised slowly, was the old game, under the old rules. Looking around at these people, he saw that everything was different now—for Beth too.
Still they weren’t answering Anna’s question, and the silence stretched. Yuri was relieved when another familiar figure walked over to break things up.
“Hey, Yuri. I thought you were dead, man…”
It was Liu Tao. Yuri could see that his old comrade from the ship had come from the Klein camp, to the north. He wore the remains of an ISF-issue coverall, with two bands of red ribbon around his right biceps.
Yuri stood up. They shook hands, embraced briefly. Yuri was unreasonably glad to see Liu. “Never thought I’d see you again. I always thought you’d come through, though.”
Liu shrugged. “Well, I lived through a spaceship crash on Mars and two years in a UN jail before I was shoved aboard the Ad Astra. So I’m a tough guy, right?”
“How touching,” Delga said. “Male bonding. We don’t get enough male bonding around here, do we, Dorothy?”
“Delga…”
Mardina said, “Klein sent you over. Right, Liu? One of his right-hand men now, are you? Hence the pretty ribbons on your arm.”
Liu shrugged. “Yeah. Something like that. He’s inviting you over for a drink, Yuri. You and Lieutenant Jones here.”
“A drink?”
“Potato vodka. Not bad, at least the stuff Gustave drinks.”
“And that’s not really an invitation, Yuri,” Delga said, smiling cruelly. “It’s an order.”
Mardina said, “I think we’re through taking orders from anybody.”
Yuri looked across at the Klein camp, and he glanced around at Dorothy, Delga, the others; he didn’t know what kind of accommodation this group had come to with Klein. “Just this once,” he murmured to Mardina. “Let him get his own way just this once. Hear what he has to say. Then we’ll figure out our own policy. All right?”
She shrugged, and got to her feet.
Anna said, “You can leave Beth here. She’s fine.”
And so she was, Yuri could see; she was running around with the other kids in some complicated tag game as if she’d grown up with it.
But Mardina picked up Beth’s bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Maybe Beth left some old toys we can give to Klein and his henchmen.”
The others laughed, but Yuri could see Mardina’s smile was forced. He glared at her. What are you up to? She looked away, making no reply, wordless or otherwise.
It was just a short walk downstream to Klein’s camp, with the way led by Liu Tao. Dorothy and Delga walked with them too. The ColU rolled alongside Yuri and Mardina, saying it wanted to inspect the machines in the Klein camp, as it had Delga’s.
The camp was superficially like Delga’s, with tents and lean-tos of the local timber evidently designed for breaking down and rebuilding. A number of fires burned. At first glance Yuri counted twenty adults here, more than one shuttle-load. There were men, women, and children, but gathered in little family groups, Yuri thought, rather than in the split-sex communal arrangements of Delga’s group.
People stared as they came through. They seemed to flinch away, fearfully, and parents kept their kids out of the way. Some of the men wore arm ribbons, like Liu’s—none of the women. And Yuri noticed injuries, burns or scars, on arms and faces. Even some of the children had been injured.
The biggest difference of all was at the heart of the camp. There was one substantial house, like a cabin with vertical walls and a pitched roof, that must have taken a lot of effort to rebuild when it was moved. And alongside the house was another ColU, or the remains of one, its dome detached, its manipulator arms lost. On top of this was set a chair, of carved wood and cushions.
And on the chair sat Gustave Klein, appearing as corpulent as ever. He wore what looked like an astronaut uniform, let out to fit his frame, black and sleek, with six of those arm ribbons wrapped around his fat biceps. He smiled down at Yuri. His head shaved, his face round, multiple chins tucked down on his chest; it was like looking up at the moon of Earth. “I don’t even remember you,” Klein said.
“Thanks.”
“But I remember you. The delectable Lieutenant Mardina Jones.” He leaned forward and sniffed. “Oh, we all had the hots for you, back in the day.”