“For what?” Bain's voice cracked.
“Our grandparents were almost mutants. People would get mad if they knew all of us had been born.” Gorgi scowled as he spoke.
“That's stupid."
“Yeah? What do you know?"
“If your grandparents had mutated genes damaged badly enough to make them outlaws, none of you would have been born. Or the mutations would have geometrically progressed with each generation of in-breeding. You wouldn't look like normal people."
“Yeah?” This time Gorgi didn't look quite so angry. “How do you know that?"
“I studied it in my genetics text. Besides, people tried to classify Spacers as mutants when my ancestors first showed the gift. Spacers are careful about things like that, so other people don't get hurt."
“Then how come my grandparents and all the others came here, instead of real colonies?"
“This looks like a real colony to me.” Bain shook his head. “Somebody has been telling you a lot of wrong stories."
“You're not a Spacer."
“I am too."
“You're too little."
“You're a Spacer from the day you're born."
“Uh huh. And I'm a Ranger."
“I thought you were scared of Rangers."
“I'm not scared of anything!” Gorgi stopped short, coughing, his shoulders shaking and his face turning red. Bain watched him, holding his own breath as he waited for the other boy to stop coughing.
“Who says Rangers are going to hurt you?” he asked softly, when the other boy lay back in his bunk and rubbed the sweat off his face.
“Uncle Snow."
“Rangers are too busy fighting the Mashrami to care if you had horns and your skin turned purple."
Gorgi rolled over and just stared at Bain for five long heartbeats. Then he grinned.
“What's it like, being a Spacer?” the older boy asked.
“A lot of studying. A lot of boring times when all you do is watch the control panel and try to figure things out before Ganfer tells you what the numbers mean."
“Who's Ganfer?"
“That's the ship-brain."
“Why'd you give it a name?"
“Ganfer's not an ‘it', Ganfer is a person. He's from one of the really old ship designs, back before the Downfall, when computers had personalities."
“Wow,” Gorgi breathed. “Can I meet him?"
“Sure. You can come with me when I go back to my ship.” Ban hoped he would be allowed to bring Gorgi. He had no idea what mood Lin would be in when this whole mess was over.
“When's that?"
“Whenever your uncle lets me go."
“Let's you go? What's that mean?"
“He stole me from my captain and he took my collar link so Ganfer can't find me, and he won't let me go until Lin agrees to take all the well kids away from here."
“But—” Gorgi shook his head. “Uncle Snow said the Spacer captain was our friend and he was going to help us."
“Lin is a she. I bet she probably would help if your uncle had just asked her, instead of demanding and making threats and beating up on us."
“Oh.” The older boy seemed to wilt a little bit. “I bet she'll be mad when she gets you back, won't she?"
“I'll tell her you're my friend. She won't be too mad at you, I'll bet. Lin's great. Ganfer says she still thinks a lot like a kid, so she understands things we do. She doesn't get mad like lots of other grownups."
“Yeah?” Gorgi tried to smile a little. “What's it like, in space?"
For more than an hour, Bain described free fall and the music of space, his lessons, some of the people who had traveled on Sunsinger and some of the people he had met. Gorgi listened with wide eyes and his mouth sometimes hanging open. Bain had to stop when Morna came in with breakfast and to examine all the children in the makeshift infirmary. He promised Gorgi in a whisper that he would tell him more later.
Bain's fever had left during the night, so Morna wouldn't let him stay in bed any longer. That didn't make sense to Bain, since he had to stay in the infirmary with the others anyway. There was nothing else to do, after all, and sleeping was as good a way as any to pass the time when he couldn't talk to Gorgi.
The other children slept through the day. It was an effort to get them to rouse to eat their meals. Morna didn't make Bain help feed them, which the boy appreciated. He held the tray for Gorgi, though. His friend was still slightly feverish and cold, but at least he kept his food down and he emptied his bowl. Most of the others didn't eat even half their portions at any meal that day.
During the morning, Bain finally learned why Snowder and his supporters wanted so desperately to get the healthy off the planet.
“Uncle says nobody really recovers from the plagues. He says he thinks there really aren't any Mashrami, but it's just a bunch of lies to keep people from settling more planets,” Gorgi said. He dropped his voice to a whisper when one of the girls in the closest bunk whimpered in her fevered dreams and stirred restlessly in her bunk.
“The Commonwealth is spread out pretty thin, yeah,” Bain admitted. He thought back to one of his last conversations with Lin. “But I don't think the Council would do anything that bad, just to stop people from spreading out."
“That's what I think, but you can't tell Uncle Snow anything. He says he thinks the plagues are a bunch of new viruses to get rid of people with bad genetics."
“Then why would we be flying all over the Commonwealth delivering medicine and taking sick people to hospital ships?"
“He says people who get sick are taken to a deserted planet to die, not hospital ships."
“I've seen them,” Bain insisted. “I've seen people get well, too. You're getting better, aren't you? I brought the medicine they gave you."
“Yeah, I know.” His new friend shrugged. His sheepish, lopsided smile told Bain his friend was changing his mind about something he believed and felt stupid for believing at all.
“If he thinks the plagues are just to weed out bad genes, why does he want all the healthy people to go to another planet, and leave the sick people here like he told my captain?"
“Well.... “Gorgi scratched his head. “See, Uncle says that if he's wrong, then everybody left on the planets that are getting sick could be left behind for the Mashrami to fight. He says we're expendable, since we weren't supposed to be a colony at all. The Commonwealth is going to leave us here to get in the Mashrami's way and slow them down."
“I wish he'd make up his mind,” he grumbled.
“Me, too,” the older boy said with a snort of laughter. “Have you ever seen a Mashrami?"
“Nope, but I saw their homeworld once."
“Yeah?” His eyes got big and his mouth dropped open. “What's it like?"
Bain wondered if what's it like? was actually one word, and the most often used word in Gorgi's vocabulary.
“Well, the sensors say the ecology is all poisoned and everything is dying and there's too much radiation for Humans to live there very long. There's been a lot of star trouble in that sector, and Lin figures the Mashrami homeworld is dying. She figures that's what pushed them into attacking all our worlds, to try to take them for their own colonies."
“But we have so many colony worlds. Why do they have to take them all?"
“Mashrami are stupid. They'd rather fight and take than ask for help and be friends. Can you keep a secret?” Bain glanced over his shoulder, checking for unwanted listeners.
“Sure.” Gorgi made a gesture with his finger, crossing his heart in pledge.
“The Mashrami are dying out,” he whispered. “In another generation or two, there won't be any Mashrami. Then the war will be over."
“Yeah? How come nobody told us?"
“Nobody is really sure yet. There's a bunch of scientists checking out everything to be sure. They aren't going to say anything until they're sure."
“When will that be?” Gorgi asked.
“Maybe five more years.�
� He shrugged. “Who knows?"
“What are you going to do when the war is over?"
“Huh?” Bain stared at his new friend. Where had that question come from, and what did it mean?
“When the war is over and you don't have to work for the military anymore, what are you going to do?"
“We don't work for the military now,” he said with a grin. “They ask us to help them, and Lin agrees. If we said no, they couldn't make us."
“Why are you doing this, then? You could get hurt really bad. Your ship could get blown up."
“Because ... because it's the right thing to do. Lin says if we don't work together, we're just helping the Mashrami beat us. Know what I mean?"
“Yeah. I guess so.” Gorgi shook his head. “It just sounds so weird, people helping because they want to instead of because they have to, or because they'll get in trouble if they don't."
“It's the right thing to do. Fi'in tells us we should help each other."
“Fi'in?"
“You never heard about Fi'in? Who do you say your prayers to?"
“Nobody. Uncle says only weaklings pray."
“Well ... I pray to Fi'in and Lin prays, and the Rangers. And we're the ones in ships and we have medicine and we know what's going on. Your uncle has been telling you a lot of things that aren't true and he's scared of things that won't happen to him. I think I'd rather be weak and pray to Fi'in than be like him."
Bain watched his new friend as the words slipped out between his lips. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to say, or the right way to phrase it. The words and ideas made sense to him, though.
“I'd sure like to be a Ranger,” was all Gorgi would say. He curled up on his side in his bunk and smiled wistfully.
“I could ask Captain Gilmore if he'd let you be a cadet and take training,” he offered.
“Yeah?” The older boy's eyes sparkled in greedy delight.
* * *
Chapter Nine
Over the next three days, as Gorgi recuperated from his brush with the plague, they talked about Rangers. They talked about Free Traders and the worlds Bain had visited. They talked about the Order and the self?defense lessons Jax had given Bain. Gorgi told him all about the colony; the mining they did and the tunnels the colonists lived in during the scorching hot months and the blistering cold months of winter; the crops they grew and the medicines they harvested from native plants. Gorgi was an orphan; his parents had died in a mining cave?in. Morna was his mother's sister and Snowder was his father's cousin and Dacia was Snowder's niece by marriage. Neither adult really liked each other, and that little revelation surprised Bain. They worked together to take care of Gorgi and Dacia. They also led the people who still believed they would be sterilized or deported from Bareen or even killed because of their ancestors’ bad genetics.
Bain racked his brains to remember everything he had learned about genetics and the mutation scares, to reassure his new friend that the people of Bareen weren't in any danger from the Commonwealth. He talked until he was hoarse and his voice cracked and changed a dozen times in an hour, telling Gorgi about history and the way things really were in the Commonwealth.
Gorgi believed him after the second day. Morna, who came by several times during the day to check on all the sick children, listened and shook her head and said nothing. She let out little snorts that Bain interpreted as disbelief, but that was the only indication he had that she really heard anything.
“I used to think the Rangers could do anything, go anywhere, handle any problem in the Commonwealth,” Gorgi said after supper of the third day. He grinned at Bain and turned around on the bench so he leaned back against the table.
Gorgi and three other ill children were allowed out of bed now. They weren't allowed to leave the sickroom, in case they could still infect the healthy children. Bain wondered how he had been able to stand the isolation for so long. Listening to the sounds of children laughing and playing and moving around freely on the other side of the wall made the enforced confinement worse. If he didn't have Gorgi to talk to, Bain didn't know what he would have done.
“They could if the Commonwealth was smaller,” Bain said after a few seconds of thought. “Lin says there are more than three hundred colony worlds. That's a lot of space to cover just for patrols. What if they needed lots of ships to fight and track down pirates or evacuate people away from solar storms and radiation flares?"
“So, they need more Rangers.” The other boy shrugged. His expression said clearly he thought that was a simple answer someone else should have thought of years ago.
“The problem is ships and supplies. I heard Captain Gil say they have more cadets and trainees than they can handle. The Order would be glad to help, if we had ships and pilots to take medicine and supplies and defense equipment where it's needed."
“You need lots of Spacers."
“There are lots of Spacers, but not enough. And we don't really work together, coordinated, like the Rangers do."
“Why not?"
“I don't know.” Bain pushed away the tray piled high with dirty dishes so it was out of his way. He leaned back against the table like Gorgi. “Whenever there's trouble, all Lin has to do is call and nearly every Spacer who's free and hears her comes running. The problem is.... “He felt a throb of excitement as he latched onto this new idea. “The problem is the time that gets wasted calling people and waiting for them to answer. You never know who hears you, and who isn't too busy to respond. We need to keep people in contact all the time and have them ready all the time."
“So, do it."
“It's not that easy."
“Well, yeah.” Gorgi nodded, but his grin just kept growing. “But we're just kids right now. When we're older, we'll be able to talk to people and get into things they won't let kids near. We'll know what to do when we're older."
“We?” Bain's face ached with the width of his grin. “You'll help me?"
“Sure. Why not?"
“The first thing we have to do is get out of here.” He gestured around the sickroom. “Out of here, out of the tunnels, and off Bareen.” Bain winced when his voice cracked, three times in one sentence.
“Don't worry. That won't last too long. Didn't for me.” Gorgi rubbed at his jaw. “Then when your voice finally settles down, you start growing a beard and you get all this really prickly hair on your chest."
“Thanks a lot."
“Shaving isn't that bad."
“You're not old enough to shave."
“Am so.” He leaned forward and nearly shoved his face into Bain's. “See those hairs on my chin? That's a beard."
Bain squinted and stared at the spot on Gorgi's chin. Sure enough, five stiff, curling platinum hairs sprouted from the corner of his chin.
“You're not going to shave them off already, are you?” He fought a throb of envy and sat back. Shaving a beard wouldn't be half as much trouble as his voice breaking all the time.
“Nope.” Gorgi grinned and stroked the tiny patch of stiff hair. “I'm going to let it grow and have a beard."
Silence for a few moments. Bain glanced around at the other inhabitants of their sickroom. The girls basically ignored him and Gorgi, and the other boy, Charli, was too little to be any company. Everybody else was asleep already. The sounds of life from the other side of the wall had faded while Bain and Gorgi talked. He could hear children and adults talking, but no more sounds of running feet or wheels rolling on the uneven floor or balls bouncing.
“What do you think your captain is doing right now?” Gorgi asked, almost whispering. He didn't look at Bain as he asked.
Bain was grateful. He tried not to think about Lin and what she had to be feeling or thinking or trying to do. Had she taken the load of healthy children to another planet as Snowder had demanded, or was she still on Bareen, trying to talk some sense into the council leaders? Maybe she had lifted immediately and gone looking for the Rangers.
Whatever was happening, Snowder wouldn't tell Bain
or the other children anything. He only came by once a day to check on their health, and left the rest of the work to Morna. He never talked directly to Bain. Except for the first day, when Bain was still sick, he never even looked at him.
“I don't know,” Bain finally said. “I can't see her just giving in and doing what your uncle tells her. The Mashrami aren't anywhere near Bareen and the Rangers aren't going to hurt anybody and there really is a hospital ship to take care of the sick people. Lin isn't going to waste time taking healthy people away when it's the sick people who need help."
Unless she's playing for time, or playing a trick on Snowder to keep me safe, Bain thought.
“Uh huh.” The older boy nodded and lapsed into silence again. Then he sat up straight. “What does a plague bomb look like?"
“You saw it."
“How?” Gorgi's voice almost broke. Both boys grinned. “If I knew what a plague bomb looked like, I sure wouldn't go near it."
“You went swimming after that meteor storm, didn't you? That's how you caught the plague, right? You found those meteors in the river, right?"
“Yeah. How'd you know about that?"
“Councilman Juhan told us about the storm and how everybody started getting sick after the kids found the new meteors in the river."
“How would he know?” Gorgi nearly growled. “Grownups never listen to us anyway. I bet nobody even went down to the river and looked at those meteors after we told them. Besides, that swimming hole is our private place. I bet no adults know how to get there."
“Then who destroyed the plague bomb?"
“Who says anybody did?"
For a long moment, both boys stared at each other. Bain felt a shiver run through his whole body. Was this what it was like to read somebody's thoughts? He knew what Gorgi had to be thinking right that moment.
Nobody had gone looking for the Mashrami plague bomb.
Nobody on Bareen besides the children—most of whom had fallen ill—had seen the meteors that could be plague bombs.
The plague bomb was still in the water, spreading its Mashrami?designed virus in the water.
“We have to find it and blow it up,” Bain whispered.
“How?” Gorgi whispered back.
Fever [Sunsinger Chronicles Book 5] Page 8