Jane said slowly, “Yes, I think Lieutenant Brodie was right. Lieutenant Lamont was ready to shoot another Terran, a child. And Brodie-mak saved so many more of lives on World by to obtain the call-back device before it was destroyed.”
“Did he stay on World to avoid court-martial?”
“What is that?”
“A judgment about the killing, with possible punishment.”
“No, he did not stay on World because of that. He stayed to help rebuild, and to make an army on World for if the Russian ship comes back. Also, he signed a mating contract with Isabel Rhinehart from the Friendship. You asked me many questions, Colonel. May I ask now?”
He looked surprised. “Yes, I suppose so. But first—Major, do you have any additional questions?”
“No, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
When Major Duncan had gone, Colonel Jenner turned back to Jane. “Ask your questions.”
“When I waited for a soldier to bring me to you, I talked to some of children. They were very unpolite. One said there is not room enough in the dome for us and we will became told to leave. Is this true?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Two adults stood near. They permitted the children to be unpolite and they did not tell the children we can stay. Why?”
“Jane, politics—do you know that word? Good—are complicated here. Not everyone agrees on everything. Surely that was true on World as well?”
“Yes. But no one goes against bu^ka^tel.” Not quite true, but she was angry now.
“What is bu^ka^tel?”
He was the first Terran at Monterey Base to ask. She said, “It is what makes us human. To serve and protect Mother World, to obey the Mothers who gave us life, to put the good of others equal with the good of us-selfs, to honor the ancestors, to understand that to give is the only way to receive, in the Great Web by which we all need. That is best I can say it in English. There is more, but it does not translate. Every child learns this down to the bones before they may walk alone outside their lahk.”
“And everyone keeps to this bu^ka^tel? What about the Worlders you just spoke about who tried to steal vaccine?”
“No. They did not keep to bu^ka^tel. I am sorry—I did not say true. But bu^ka^tel is the right path, even when a Worlder breaks it. To violate bu^ka^tel is to… to violate others and Mother World. It is to become outside the lahk. Nothing is worth that. Even those people who try to steal vaccine had their lahks with them in the camp. Even the Worlders in Lieutenant Brodie’s new army have permission of the lahk Mothers.”
Colonel Jenner rose and gazed out the window. Jane didn’t see anything happening out there, but she rose to take in more of the view. The sunglasses deepened the wilderness to an even lovelier green. Branches waved gently and puffy white clouds drifted through a blue sky—so blue! A flock of birds flew overhead.
He finally spoke. “So you think that Leo Brodie was justified in breaking bu^ka^tel when he shot Lieutenant Lamont.”
“Yes. But it hurt him, I think.”
“And you don’t think he stayed on World to avoid court-martial.”
“No. He wishes to rebuild, and he signed the mating contract with Isabel for five years.”
“Five years? Marriage expires after five years?”
“Expires?”
“Is ended.”
“Yes, of course. Some contracts are for two years or three.”
“On Terra, marriage is supposed to be for life.”
She heard but did not understand the bitterness in his voice. She said gently, “That must be difficult, I think. Sometimes people change, or what they want changes. To force people to stay married… that would not show them respect. It would not be bu^ka^tel.”
Abruptly Colonel Jenner turned away from the window, back to her. “You are going to be our translator and you should understand our life here. When my grandmother recovers, I’m going to take her outside the base to a coastal settlement. We’ll go by quadcopter, which is not completely without danger but not too bad—we fly lower than New America’s radar can detect. I would like you to come along. There is someone I would like you to meet.”
“Yes,” she said instantly. A chance to see Terra outside the domes! More than she had hoped for. “Who will we be to meet?”
Now his voice held even more complicated layers. “My brother Colin.”
Marianne stuck one bare foot out of bed and put it on the floor, then the other foot. The floor, made of alien-dome material she had not touched in thirty-eight years, tingled faintly, just as she remembered. She stood, relieved to feel neither weakness nor vomiting. Expanding her lungs as far as they would go, she took in a huge breath of Terran air.
No weakness or gastric distress. When her gut microbes had been changed on World, the more primitive process had nearly killed her. Score one for Terran science, marching forward even as everything crumpled around it.
Her cell in quarantine—you couldn’t really call it a room, too monastic—held only a bed, sink and toilet, and an array of monitors. Sometime in the night, someone must have unhooked her from them. Marianne wore a thin hospital gown open in the back—okay, not everything on Terra had progressed—and didn’t see her clothes. Before she could figure out how to ring for a nurse, Lindy Ross came in.
“Dr. Jenner! You look much better.”
“Yes. No. But I can’t… I need to talk to Jason. Colonel Jenner.”
“He probably isn’t available. Let me examine—”
“I need to talk to him!” To her own horror, Marianne heard her voice rise to a shriek. “I need to! Now!”
Dr. Ross gazed at her a long moment. “Okay, I’ll send for him, if you let me examine you now.”
“Yes! Just… I need to talk to him.”
Dr. Ross left, speaking in a low voice to someone in the corridor. After a moment she returned. “I’ve sent someone to Enclave Dome to tell him. Dr. Jenner—”
“‘Marianne.’ I’m sorry. I just need to—”
“I know. I’m Lindy. Would you like something to calm you a bit?”
“No.” Marianne tried to steady herself; she must have appeared hysterical. Maybe she was hysterical. “How… how are the others from the ship doing? Where is the ship?”
“Back in orbit. You’re the last to wake up from the microbe adjustment. Everyone is doing fine except for Kayla Rhinehart. Physically she’s well but she seems deeply depressed, maybe dangerously so. She cries constantly. Was she like that on World?”
Lindy’s tone, soothing but not condescending, was helping Marianne. “Kayla varies. Claire says she’s bipolar. Do you have lamotrigine?”
“We use something newer now. There’s no psychiatrist on base, unfortunately, and the meds can have rare but powerful psychotic side effects. I’ve prescribed them here only once. Let me consult with the Army doctor, Captain Holbrook.”
“You’re not in the Army?”
“No.” Lindy put a stethoscope to Marianne’s chest. “Cough, please.”
Marianne coughed. “Will Jason come here?”
“I’ve sent for him.”
Not an answer. Marianne had to keep talking or she would disintegrate. “I want to know more about what Jason did at the… the Collapse. Do you know him well?”
Lindy took a step backward. “I think you must not have been told, Marianne, that Jason is my ex-husband. We’re divorced, or at least as divorced as you can be when there is no government except the military.”
No, Marianne had not known that. “Do you… did you have any children?”
“No. If you’d rather have Dr. Holbrook attend you…”
“No. I… no. I just need to see Jason.”
“I’m here,” he said.
Lindy said something to him, too low for Marianne to catch, and then left, closing the door behind her. Marianne clutched Jason’s arm. “It’s all gone, all of it?”