by Nancy Kress
Marbet had money. Kaufman, the career soldier, had not wanted to go underground for their expedition. Kaufman, the decent man, hadn’t wanted to break the law. Kaufman, the ex-military attaché to the Solar Council in the war’s hub at Lowell City, of course knew the people who knew the contacts.
There was no way Kaufman or Marbet could give practical help to Tom Capelo. They weren’t even close friends; neither Kaufman nor Marbet had seen the physicist in nearly two years, although Marbet chatted occasionally via comlink with Capelo’s daughter Amanda. She was a nice child, with a schoolgirl crush on Marbet. But Amanda had much closer ties, friends and family, in this awful crisis. When Kaufman thought of everything that had happened on World, it was no longer Thomas Capelo he thought of, but Dieter Gruber and Ann Sikorski. Left behind on World by his, Kaufman’s, decision, in the middle of a toppling civilization Kaufman had single handedly wrecked.
Marbet pulled out her case to start packing.
FOUR
LUNA CITY
A manda couldn’t believe it. Marbet was gone.
“Are you sure?” she said to Marbet’s neighbor, the fat, kind woman who lived in the next apartment in Marbet’s strange underground “building.”
“I’m sure, honey,” the woman said, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. She had a strange accent. Somewhere behind her a baby wailed. “She gave me the code to her place, in case there’s some sort of emergency. Went off to join her lover, she did.”
Amanda folded her hands tightly together, a new habit. “Could I see inside her apartment?”
The woman hesitated.
“Please. I’m her niece. My stepfather and I weren’t told she was going anyplace.”
The woman glanced from Amanda to Father Emil, standing several paces back in the curving corridor. Father Emil wore black pants and shirt, although both were cleaner than they had been at his mission. The woman shook her head.
“I’m sorry, honey. Marbet didn’t say I could let anyone in. You look all right, but she didn’t say I could.”
“But—”
The woman’s kind eyes grew harder. Behind Amanda, Father Emil said, That’s enough, Jane. Come on, now. Thank you, ma’am.”
The woman nodded, looking troubled. Amanda could see she wanted to help, but she also wanted to protect Marbet. That was nice; many people were too uncomfortable around Marbet to want to be friends. Amanda tried to smile at her before trudging back to Father Emil. Amanda had never thought beyond getting to Marbet. Now Marbet was on Mars, or so she’d told this neighbor, and what was Amanda going to do now?
“I’m sorry, honey,” the woman called after her. “But I know you want your aunt to be happy. It wouldn’t surprise me if she married that Colonel Kaufman on this romantic trip they’re taking.”
Amanda stopped walking. Marbet and Colonel Kaufman? He was all right, she guessed, but for Marbet … he wasn’t good enough for Marbet! He hadn’t even liked Amanda and Sudie much and her father said Colonel Kaufman was one of those people that couldn’t appreciate children …
Her father …
She clasped her hands more tightly together. The knuckles turned ashy. That was necessary, sometimes. Her father always said you couldn’t accomplish anything worthwhile in tears.
“Who’s Colonel Kaufman?” Father Emil said.
“He was the head of the expedition to World,” Amanda said shortly. “The one where Daddy found the Protector Artifact and figured out what it did and how it worked. I told you.”
“I didn’t memorize every name you gave me, child. Not every detail of your life struck me as all-consuming, I’m afraid. Strive for a little humility.”
Amanda ignored him. She hadn’t realized, when Father Emil said he’d get her to Luna City with his secret friends, that he was going to go with her. Although at first she’d been glad he had come. It was scary getting on a ship with strangers, carrying a fake passport that said “Jane Verghese,” listening to the news holo about her father’s kidnapping, and then the news stories about her own.
The reporters had found out that Amanda wasn’t with Carol and Sudie, or with any of her friends, and so they’d assumed she had been abducted along with her father. But the people who took her father must know that wasn’t true. Maybe by now they also knew that Amanda was a witness to the kidnapping. They were probably looking for her. It was scary, and she’d been glad that Father Emil was with her, even though he was the most irritating person she’d ever met.
“God never wants humans to go to war, Amanda.”
“So why are we at war? Why doesn’t God stop it?”
“He’s given us free will. We’ve chosen to go to war with the Fallers.”
“I know that’s not true,” she said triumphantly. “The Fallers attacked us first. So they’re the ones who chose the war.”
“But the Fallers don’t want war, either.” When Father Emil got very intense, his scraggly little beard bobbed up and down as he spoke. “No intelligent species wants war. This war is kept going by human leaders, and perhaps by Faller leaders as well, who are using it as a way to gain, keep, or increase their own power.”
That actually made sense; Amanda’s father said the same thing. But then Father Emil spoiled his own point.
“If General Stefanak really wanted to end the war, he’d communicate that wish to the Fallers.”
“But the Fallers won’t communicate with us!” Amanda cried, exasperated. “They refuse to say anything at all! Everybody knows that!”
“I don’t,” Father Emil said. “It’s just more government propaganda. The masses, such as for instance you, believe whatever political propaganda you’re fed by your leaders.”
“Well, then, priests, such as for instance you, believe whatever religious propaganda you’re fed by your church!”
She saw immediately that she’d gone too far. Father Emil drew himself up to his full unimpressive height and said, “You cannot recognize false witness. Nor the Anti-Christ. Such are the signs of the Time of the End, and such is the sorrow of the slaughter of innocents.”
Amanda decided he was crazy and tried to tune him out.
But that was scary, too. What was she doing with a crazy man as the only one to protect her? Father Emil had left the Wrath of God back at the Mission, with another person also called “Father.” It was needed, he said, for “the work.”
The ship that had brought them to Luna was small, designed for six people, but it was a real ship, not just a shuttle. It had bunks, a galley, storage areas, a tiny bridge. The three-man crew, two men and a woman, had not spoken to Amanda at all. They just watched her, wary and hard-eyed. It made Amanda nervous. If she’d gone around the house that sulky and rude, her father would have reprimanded her sharply. She asked Father Emil who they were, and he replied that God chose His own instruments to accomplish His glory, and it was not up to human beings, especially children, to question His choices.
Amanda decided that if these people were God’s choice for instruments, then God was as crazy as Father Emil.
Now she trudged along beside him, in the long circular corridor that ringed H level of Luna City. A small tram rounded the curve, stopped beside them, and said cheerfully, “Hello! I make a circuit of this residential level every ten minutes, stopping whenever you instruct me to do so. Or, if you prefer, you can walk. All entrances to residential clusters are found on or just off this main circular corridor.”
“We’ll walk,” Father Emil said, and the tram glided off.
“Father Emil—”
“Be quiet, Jane, I’m thinking,” he said, with such an emphasis on the “Jane” that Amanda knew he was reminding her to not talk until they were back aboard ship. That was another thing. Father Emil was the most paranoid person alive, worse even than her father. Daddy always thought the universe was out to harm Amanda and Sudie. Father Emil always thought the government was out to listen to every little boring thing he said.
They reached the elevator, ascended, and came out u
nder Luna City’s dome, below the black sky set with glittering stars. It was a small dome, nothing like the domes on Mars. Father Emil said only eight thousand people lived here, all “Pharisees: scientists, technicians, military, and their rich dependents. No poor that can fit through the needle’s eye.” All the living and working places were below ground, safe from meteor bombardment. On the surface, under the dome, were only some foamcast buildings, a playground for little kids, and a garden with raked smooth sand set with boulders, benches, and some beds of what looked like genetically modified flowers developed from fungi.
The flowers were the first thing Amanda had seen since the kidnapping that stirred her interest, and she would have liked to kneel and examine them. They had broad, almost transparent green leaves and tiny blossoms in pale yellow. Probably they were genemod for low light. But Father Emil hurried her into her suit, out of the airlock, and onto the empty rocky plain between the dome and shuttle to the spaceport.
“Amanda,” he said, and she realized he was on the private channel, so his words would reach only her, “I have a confession to make. I have sinned against you.”
She looked at him sideways. If her father had said that, he would just have been being fizzy again, joking around like his usual ridiculous self. But Father Emil sounded as if he meant it.
“I lied. When I took you here to see Marbet Grant, I already knew she was on Mars.”
“You did? How?”
“My friends found that out. It was easy, you know. Marbet Grant is a famous if disliked person, and certain trivial news channels report the movements of famous persons. Actors, Sensitives, celebrities like that woman Magdalena … I knew she left for Mars, alone, three weeks ago.”
“That woman said Marbet wasn’t alone! She was with Colonel Kaufman!”
“No,” Father Emil said, “the woman said Marbet Grant went off to join her lover. Kaufman must have already been on Mars.”
Amanda said hotly, “If you knew Marbet was on Mars, why did you take me to Luna City?”
“I wanted you to see for yourself that she was gone, hear it from someone unconnected to me or the organization. So you would believe it.”
“All right, I believe it,” Amanda said. She was angry, and upset, and confused. Grown-ups didn’t talk to kids this way.
“But to obtain your belief, I lied,” Father Emil said. “I ask your forgiveness.”
“Aren’t you supposed to ask God’s forgiveness?” She had learned this from him.
“That, too.”
Really, he was ridiculous. Her father would have made terrible fun of him. But Amanda could see that Father Emil was serious. It embarrassed her.
“I forgive you,” she said awkwardly. “But where do we go now?”
“Back to the ship.”
This wasn’t what Amanda meant, but she trudged alongside him until they were through the airlock and unsuited. Then, to her surprise, Father Emil said, “Come into the galley, Amanda. The crew wants to talk to you.”
The ship’s living area consisted of a common room, ringed by closed bunks that were like sleeping in a dresser drawer, and a tiny galley into which was squeezed a table and six chairs. The three-man crew was waiting for her. She sat down awkwardly in one of the chairs, very aware of the light gravity. Father Emil remained standing.
“Amanda,” said the captain, “the time has come to talk to you about your situation.”
She nodded, a little scared. They looked so serious. She could only remember one of their names: Captain Lewis. He was a big man with a big nose.
He said, “We’ve done something for you, bringing you here to look for Marbet Grant. Now we need you to do something for us, something that will help you, too.”
Again Amanda nodded. He was talking to her as if she were a grown-up, which both pleased and frightened her.
“You witnessed your father’s kidnapping by government agents out to destroy the antiwar movement. We’re members of that movement, as is Father Emil, who rescued you on Earth. We want you to make a broadcast, which will be beamed by satellite to the entire Solar System, telling exactly how the government agents took your father.”
Now Amanda was confused. “But then the kidnappers will know where I am and come get me, too!”
“Not after your broadcast. The whole world will know where you are, and the whole world will be watching you. You’ll be much safer than you are now. Safe with us.”
“But … but I don’t know who kidnapped my father. I don’t know if they were government agents. My father does good physics work for the government. He decoded the Protector Artifact that keeps the Fallers from destroying the whole Solar System!”
“Great. That artifact makes it possible to destroy spacetime itstead,” the woman said bitterly. Captain Lewis scowled at her.
“Your father was being used by General Stefanak,” Captain Lewis said, “to help him carry on this terrible war. Dr. Capelo is a brilliant and good man, Amanda. Nobody doubts that. But he’s a scientist, and science is not the same as politics.”
Amanda nodded. That, at least, made sense: Her father always said “Science is above politics and outlasts it.” But she didn’t say that. It would be rude, since Captain Lewis was obviously more interested in politics than science. You didn’t go around insulting other people’s interests, unless you were Daddy.
Captain Lewis continued, “General Stefanak kidnapped your father in order to blame it on Life Now. You’ve heard him do it on the news holo. Life Now is full of people who want to end the war, who only want peace. Don’t you want peace, Amanda? Don’t you want the war to end?”
“Yes.” Of course she did. Everybody did.
“The war killed your mother, didn’t it?”
She could only nod. Father Emil said warningly, “Lewis…”
“Look at these pictures, Amanda.” Captain Lewis opened an envelope and handed her pictures, one by one. Bodies all burnt up, lying on scorched grass, people screaming in pain … Amanda handed them back, feeling sick.
“Those are war victims, Amanda. Wouldn’t you do anything you could to end the war so no more people get hurt like this? Wouldn’t you?”
Again she nodded.
“Then General Stefanak has to lose his power. People have to see clearly the terrible things he’s doing, like kidnapping your father just to make everyone think the antiwar movement did it. People think your father is a hero, Amanda. You know that.”
“Yes…”
“And you want him back. Of course you do. Making the broadcast will help get him back because everyone will put pressure on the government to release him. He’s a political prisoner, Amanda, and that’s not right. You can tell the whole system that. Then the government will have to let him go.”
There were too many words. Amanda couldn’t think. Through her rising panic, she tried to sort through the words, understand what Captain Lewis was saying. Something about it wasn’t right …
The woman—Amanda still couldn’t remember her name—thought she was hesitating for a different reason. She said, in a new voice full of honey, “You don’t have to worry about what to say in the broadcast, dear. We’ll write it out for you so all you have to do is read it.”
“I—”
“But not if you prefer to use your own words,” Captain Lewis said, and now his scowl at the woman was ferocious. “All you have to do is tell the truth about how you saw the government agents kidnap your father.”
Now Amanda saw the thing that wasn’t right. “I don’t know if it was government agents. I don’t know who it was.”
“It was government agents,” Captain Lewis said. “It wasn’t Life Now … that’s us, and we didn’t kidnap your father. Why would we? The result is that all the news holos are blaming us, and why would we do that? It just opposes people to our cause.”
That made sense. Until Amanda thought about it. Then she said, “But … if I blame General Stefanak, then people will blame him. That would help your cause.”
“Yes, it would. And yours, which is getting your father back. Everyone would know the government took him, and there would be enormous pressure to release him.”
“Ye … eee … ssss, but … but I don’t know if the government did take him.”
“We just told you so,” Captain Lewis said evenly.
“How do you know?” Amanda said. This was familiar ground; this was what her father did with her. “What’s your evidence, Amanda? Produce your reasoning. Why do you think that” This was how science worked.
“Because we didn’t take him, and who else is there?”
Amanda was silent. She didn’t know that Life Now hadn’t kidnapped her father. Captain Lewis wasn’t producing either evidence or reasoning. But if she said that, it would be like accusing him, which would be rude. After all, she didn’t have any evidence, either.
So instead she repeated, “I don’t know who kidnapped him.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” the woman said.
“I’m sorry, but I just don’t know. I can’t say, if I don’t know for sure.” That was a fact. That was what her father would want her to do: Stick to the facts.
“Are you saying, Amanda,” Captain Lewis said, “that you won’t make the broadcast?”
Amanda’s stomach turned over. Captain Lewis’s face had changed, and his voice. She was in terrible trouble. She clung to the one thing she knew for sure, the fact Daddy would want her to stick to because it was true. “I’m saying I don’t know who kidnapped Daddy.”
“Will you make the broadcast for us?”
It took all of Amanda’s courage to say it. “I can’t.”
“No?” Captain Lewis was pushing hard.
“No,” Amanda said in a small voice.
“After all we’ve done for you? All Father Emil has done? He saved your life!”
Amanda turned to look at Father Emil, still standing in the doorway to the small galley. His face had gone white. He said, “Dennis, this isn’t what we agreed on.”