by Kate MacLeod
“To your ship?” Scout asked, feeling like he was trying to lure her into that assassin trap despite his assurances to the contrary.
“No, just to walk your dogs around. The little fellow should get some gentle exercise to keep his healing on track, and the big one clearly needs to burn some energy off.”
Scout looked down at the dogs. Gert was poking Shadow over and over, trying to instigate a play fight, but he was grumpily refusing to engage.
Then she looked up at Geeta, who gave her the slightest of nods. It was possible Bo was trying not so much to lure her away as to get one of them outside of the listening room. He might tell Scout something more than he could say out loud inside the hospital.
“I’ll come,” Scout agreed, getting to her feet and fetching both of the dogs’ leashes from the little shelf under her cot.
She wondered what this man would offer her. She didn’t even know what she could possibly want. He seemed to know Emilie and Geeta pretty well, but did he know her?
She was half afraid she would find he knew her better than she knew herself.
16
It wasn’t his ship, but Bo seemed to know every centimeter of it anyway. He led Scout down the length of the marketplace to where it ended in a wide staircase with shallow steps spaced so far apart it was almost not even a staircase. The dogs trotted along beside her, occasionally smelling the air. Then they started to pull at the leashes, trying to urge her on faster.
“Where are we going?” Scout asked as she fought to keep a firm hold on their leashes.
“The park,” Bo said, sounding surprised. “Did no one show it to you?”
“No,” Scout said. Her tour of the ship had been a pretty abbreviated affair, limited to the places Sparrow liked best.
“It’s perfect for dogs,” Bo said.
“I guess so,” Scout said as the dogs whined, anxious to move up the seemingly endless staircase just a little faster.
“You can let them go. Nothing will befall them,” he said.
“I’m more worried about what they might do,” Scout said.
“They’ll be fine,” Bo promised. “Consider it my first demonstration that I’m worthy of trust.”
Scout gave him a hard look but decided he was probably right. The dogs could look out for themselves, and if Gert ended up mauling another cat, it would be on his head.
She bent to untie the cords from the collars, Gert first because she was generally calmer about it, but even she was jumping again and again, anxious to be free. At last, the knot slipped off her collar, and she turned to charge up the stairs.
“Hey, wait for your brother!” Scout called after her. Shadow whined pitifully but sat at rigid attention until she had the cord untied and he could make his way more slowly after Gert.
“See, he knows how much he can handle,” Bo said. “He’ll be back up to speed by this evening, I’m sure.”
Scout wrapped the cords up into tight coils and slipped them into one of the many pouches on her belt.
“That was Gertrude Bauer’s belt, wasn’t it?” Bo asked.
“Yes,” Scout said with what she hoped was a tone that would encourage him to drop the matter, but she should have known better.
“I saw her cross the barricade,” Bo admitted as they slowly continued their climb up the stairs. Scout could see a bright light at the top of the stairs that had the warm yellow feel of real sunlight. “That was a bit surprising, a galactic marshal breaking a barricade like that. I did a little research and learned why she was there. Tragic story.”
“Tragic ending,” Scout said.
“I would have preferred she got her man, to be honest,” Bo said, “but at least her man was got. And good riddance.”
“She shouldn’t have died,” Scout said. “Do you know the details about that?”
“Just that she was there with you in that bunker,” Bo said. “I won’t ask you to tell that story. Nothing that involves eight of you going in but only you coming out can be a fun tale to tell.”
“No,” Scout said. She tried looking up again, even shading her eyes with her hand, but all she saw was the dazzle of sunlight.
“The governor still doesn’t know the fate of his daughter and her ward,” Bo said. “What do you think, Scout? Should I tell him where to find her? Knowing that in finding her he will surely discover she was planning to betray him?”
“She hadn’t decided that yet,” Scout said.
“She took a lot of steps in that direction,” Bo said.
“Stop offering me decisions that affect other people’s lives,” Scout said. “I don’t want that responsibility. You decide what’s best, since you know so much already.”
“Fair enough,” Bo said, tuning out the growing anger in her voice. Then he inhaled, filling his lungs deeply. “Stars, I love that smell.”
Scout gave him a puzzled look but then smelled the air herself. It had a rich green aroma. The closest she could compare it to was the prairie after the rains came, when everything started to bloom, but it was far beyond that.
And she could hear birds chirping. Hundreds of birds, all cheeping and whistling and singing at once.
Then they were on the top step, and Scout stepped through an arching gateway to a space easily as large as the engineering room below, but where that place had been eerie and dark, this was filled with sunlight. The entire ceiling was lost to it.
A path started at the top of the stairs, and past the archway machined out of the metal of the ship was a second archway, this one of living trees. The trunks bent inward ever so slightly, and their branches extended over the path, tangling together over Scout’s head.
On Amatheon, the only trees Scout had seen were the stunted, wind-twisted varieties that clung to rock faces in the mountains. That and her brief glimpse the day before as Emilie flew them over the forested continent.
Shadow and Gert came charging down the path, delighted that she had joined them. Gert collided with Scout, her heavy paws knocking Scout back a step as the dog jumped up on her. Then something skittered in the undergrowth, and both dogs pursued it, tails wagging madly.
“See? The perfect place for dogs,” Bo said.
“You were right,” Scout said.
“I’ve often thought of getting a dog,” Bo said. “Just a small one, one I can take with me on my travels.”
“If your ship is anything like this one, I don’t know why it’d have to be a small dog.”
“My ship is somewhat smaller,” Bo said. “But sometimes I travel in a little one-seater, just on my own. I would need a dog about the size of your little one if I wanted to take him with me in that.”
“Shadow,” Scout said. “And the big one is Gert.”
“Gert,” Bo said, raising an eyebrow.
“For Gertrude,” Scout said.
“That’s a fine way to honor her memory,” Bo said.
Scout just shrugged. She really didn’t want to talk with him about Gertrude.
“I have a menagerie back home in galactic central,” Bo said. “I’d love to show it to you when we get there. Even if you arrive with the Months. I don’t hold grudges.”
“What’s a menagerie?” Scout asked.
“A collection of animals,” Bo said. If he had noticed the pinkening of her cheeks she had felt at having to ask, he gave no sign. “I collect animals from all over the galaxy, and I have a team of zoologists who set up their living spaces and supervise their diets. I like to keep my animals happy.”
“What kind of animals?” Scout asked.
“I have five sections to my menagerie,” he said as they strolled out from under the trees to an open space covered in green grass. Some of the stalks were turning to seed on top, and an occasional flower danced among the blades, but this was a very different sort of grassland than the red-gold, monster stalks of grain she was used to back home. “The first is my aquatic world. Most of it is saltwater creatures, but I have a separate tank for freshwater creatures and even an arti
ficial river.”
“Must be big,” Scout said, only half listening as she looked back down the path for her dogs. There was a rustle of ferny plants, and then they emerged. Thankfully, neither of them had a little animal in their mouth.
“Next is the polar area,” Bo went on. “Some people think the cold environments don’t harbor much life, but they couldn’t be more wrong.”
“Ah,” Scout said. She wasn’t sure what the correct response was. She knew nothing about the animals of other planets. She knew a little about the animals from Old Earth from her school days, but that was it.
“Then I have a tropical environment,” he went on. “That’s always the first place I visit after a long trip in space. I’m always so cold every minute when I’m traveling. The tropics are hot and humid. It’s the perfect antidote to cold, dry ship air. And the animals are so diverse and colorful. Really, you must see them for yourself.”
“It sounds lovely,” Scout said. She was starting to mean it. She too had been cold every minute since she’d left the surface. Emilie and Seeta had given her warmer clothing, but it was like her very bones were cold.
Although the bright sunlight of the park felt lovely, it wasn’t quite the same.
“The fourth area is a temperate forest. Rather like what we just walked through, but bigger, and mine is full of butterflies.”
Scout smiled. She had seen pictures of butterflies before, but never the real thing.
“Some of them are tiny, smaller than the nail on your littlest toe, but others are immense.” He held his hands up farther than shoulder width apart and smiled at her. “They’re fascinating.”
“I bet,” Scout said, watching Shadow’s head bob up out of the grass before disappearing again.
“But the fifth is my favorite. That section is like the steppes back on Old Earth. It’s larger than the other four sections put together, but I need all that space for my herd.”
“Herd?” Scout asked.
“Herd of horses,” Bo said. “Have you ever seen a horse?”
Scout shook her head. “Only in images.”
“They are magnificent. Nothing in this galaxy compares to the feeling of riding on the back of a horse across the grassy steppes.”
Scout smiled but said nothing.
“I really do want you to see it,” Bo insisted. “I would like to build something similar down on Amatheon, so all the people who live down there can get just a glimpse of the great diversity the rest of the galaxy has to offer. Don’t you think they’d love it?”
“I suppose so,” Scout allowed.
“You could help me plan it,” Bo said. “You could help me with lots of things if you like. I value the input of the native population whenever I undertake one of my improvement projects.”
Scout didn’t answer, but she may have flinched a bit when the word “value” had popped up again. But he kept glancing over at her as they walked, clearly waiting for her to respond. She had to say something.
“I don’t know what I could contribute,” Scout said. “You’d be better off working with the governor.”
“I don’t think so,” Bo said, all the cheer gone from his voice. “The people on the surface who call themselves your government—” He broke off, heaved a sigh, and started again. “I can appreciate why the workers rebelled. I respect it, even. But that was generations ago, and the people who call themselves your leaders now are not acting in anyone’s best interest but their own. No, the first step will definitely have to be moving them aside.”
“I don’t like politics,” Scout said.
“Who does? But there’s no better way to negotiate what’s best for the most people. You do know what the alternative is?”
“No,” Scout admitted.
Bo blinked as if he hadn’t expected that answer. “The alternative is violence, Scout. The strong take as much as they can, and the weak fight each other for what’s left. Politics is how we find better solutions. I admit it’s not easy, and it’s frustrating at times when it seems like giving up would be the best answer.”
“I don’t know much about it,” Scout admitted. “You know my history, right? Everyone else here seems to know it. My hometown was destroyed when I was ten. I’ve been on my own, working every day just to keep eating. I haven’t been to school since I was ten.”
There was no way he couldn’t notice her face turning red with shame; it felt like she was radiating heat, her cheeks burned so intensely.
“But you can read,” Bo said.
“And do basic arithmetic,” Scout said. “I haven’t forgotten anything I learned; it’s just that I stopped at that point.”
“But Scout, there’s no reason you can’t start up again,” Bo said. “I can give you the resources to do that, to catch up with other kids your age, even surpass them.”
“That sounds like too big of a gift,” Scout said, talking half a step back from him and looking around for her dogs. If he gave her such a thing, she knew she would be grateful forever. How could she not be?
But that feeling of gratitude would mean a feeling of being in his debt. And he knew that she would feel it. He had studied her, just as he had studied the others—even Gertrude, apparently.
He knew just how to get to her.
“We should get back to the hospital,” Scout said and whistled shrilly for her dogs.
“There’s no hurry,” Bo tried to insist.
“No, the others will be worrying,” Scout said, although with Emilie lost in the library and Geeta focused on her sister, Scout rather doubted that was true.
“All right,” Bo said. “I understand. But I will come again to see you all tomorrow.”
He bowed and left her alone with her dogs.
And with far too many thoughts running through her head.
17
When the door chime announced Bo’s arrival the next morning, Scout slipped outside rather than let him in. The dogs ran out after her, anxious to go back to the park.
“Is everything all right?” Bo asked, trying to look into the room before Scout quite had the door closed.
“Geeta is sleeping,” Scout explained once the door was shut.
“That’s good,” Bo said. “And Emilie?”
“Lost in your library,” Scout said, “although I gather the Months sent her something similar.”
“I thought they would,” Bo said. “Shall we?”
Scout nodded, reaching for the cords in her belt pouch.
“Allow me?” Bo said, pulling a bundle out of his sleeve. “I had my manufacturing people craft some leads for you. They clip onto the collars; they’ll be easier to undo when we get to the park.”
“Thanks,” Scout said, taking the bundle from him and unwrapping it. The leashes inside were like silk through her hands. “Is this going to be strong enough?”
“Assuredly,” Bo said. “I can show you the equipment we use to fabricate it if you like, but it’s back on my ship. Tell me, do you have spiders down on the surface?”
“A few,” Scout said, clipping the leashes to each of the dogs. Gert twisted her head about, trying to get a good look at the pretty new thing attached to her.
“The design of these leads is based on the thinness but strength of a spider’s webbing. It’s far stronger than it looks. We generally use it in construction settings, but it works for small jobs too.”
Scout just nodded, and the two of them headed back out of the hospital to the marketplace.
The Months hadn’t been by to see any of them. Scout didn’t know what to make of that. Were the sisters willing to bet anything that they would all choose to stay because Seeta had to?
Could Scout even say that was a foolish bet?
Bo kept up a stream of chitchat Scout didn’t pay much attention to as they made their way up the long staircase. It was indeed easier to unclip the leashes than to untie the cords, and they took up hardly any space in her pouch.
It had been a thoughtful gift, certainly less terrifying than
the offer of an education had been.
“I have something else for you,” Bo said.
“I really don’t need anything,” Scout said.
“Gifts aren’t about needs,” Bo said. “Or maybe I should say: the best gifts are about needs you don’t even know you have.”
“That’s exactly what I don’t like about them,” Scout said bluntly.
“Feel free to turn it down,” Bo said, “but let me show it to you first. Why don’t we go this way, down the other fork in the path? There’s a little secluded alcove where we won’t be disturbed. What I have to show you requires a little concentration.”
Scout let him lead the way, only looking back from time to time to be sure the gamboling of the dogs was trending in the same direction.
The path went through a thicker patch of forest, the tree branches overhead denser and lower, some even low enough to catch at her hair.
Bo didn’t seem to have the same problem, Scout noticed with annoyance the third time she had to stop to get a clump of hair free from a thorny branch. And he was taller, and his hair was longer. How did he manage it?
Then the trees parted, and the path turned, and Scout found herself suddenly on the banks of a little pool fed by a trickle of a waterfall. The tree branches, interlaced far overhead, gave the light a diffuse, green quality, and not the smallest sound from the marketplace below carried through all the forest behind them.
“Here,” Bo said, finding a wide, flat rock where the two of them could sit. Then he took another bundle out of his sleeve and delicately unwrapped the silk binding.
“What is it?” Scout asked. It looked like a curved rib cage of soft, pliable plastic.
“It reads memories,” Bo said, picking it up delicately and draping it over the top of his own head, the spine aligning with the straight part of his hair, the rib parts wrapping around his skull to touch his temples and behind his ears and against the base of his skull.
“That sounds creepy,” Scout said.
“I know,” Bo said. “That’s why I wanted to demonstrate first. I need a moment of silence to focus.”