A Learning Experience 2: Hard Lessons

by Christopher G. Nuttall

  She jabbed a finger towards a handful of diners at the far side of the room. The leaders seemed to be a pair of insect-like creatures, but they were being served by a handful of green-skinned creatures that bowed and scraped whenever their masters looked at them. Kevin couldn't help thinking of negro slaves from before the War Between The States, pretending to be submissive whenever they were watched. He hoped the slaves he was looking at were planning their own escape, the sooner the better. But what would happen if they tried to escape and failed?

  “Anything,” Sally said, when he asked. She shuddered. “The contract I have with Mr. Ando grants me some rights, but others are practically slaves. There’s even a slave market down near the ghettos, if you happened to want a slave while you’re here. I imagine you could even take one back to Earth, if you wished.”

  “Shit,” Kevin said. “I dread to imagine what would happen if I turned up with a slave in tow.”

  “Depends,” Sally said. “They might simply free the slave – or they might put you in prison.”

  Kevin shuddered. There had been a time, before the Solar Union, when several Arab states had had slaves, in all but name. Some of those slaves had fled, when they’d been taken to America and had a chance to escape, others had become excellent sources for the CIA. And yet, the bastards who’d brought slaves to America had been left unpunished, because they had diplomatic immunity. There had been nothing anyone could do.

  “Depends on the contract, I assume,” he said, finally. Selling someone into slavery was illegal; signing a contract that made one a slave was merely stupid. “But it isn't something I want to think about.”

  “There will be diplomatic incidents, sooner or later,” Sally predicted. “If Earth becomes more important, more and more Galactics will make their way to Earth. And some of them will have slaves.”

  “We shall see,” Kevin said. There were relatively few Galactics – as opposed to exiles – in the Sol System. The longer it stayed that way, the better. “And we’ll probably come up with a way of dealing with it by then.”

  Sally smiled. “Good luck,” she said. “Make sure you warn them on Earth, all right?”

  Kevin nodded.

  He would have enjoyed the dinner, under other circumstances. The chance to meet a pretty girl, one who wasn't awed by his family’s reputation, and just to sit back and relax would have been worth almost anything. But he knew he had to pump her for information, in the hopes she might prove a useful intelligence source. There was no way he could simply relax and enjoy himself. And she might well pick up on it, even if she hadn't set eyes on another human for years.

  “I wouldn't recommend anything they consider suitable for desert,” Sally advised, when they finished their main course. “I have something at home I’ve been saving for a special occasion.”

  Kevin glanced at the menu, then nodded in agreement. The most appetising thing on the list looked like a melted banana split, but he rather doubted that the ingredients included bananas, nuts, ice cream or anything else that had been within ten light years of Earth. Instead, he paid the bill – fifty-seven GalStars – and then allowed Sally to lead him back along the darkened walkways to her apartment.

  “Is it safe to live here?” He asked. “What is it like compared to Earth?”

  “Moderately safe,” Sally said. “The local Law Guardians – the police, to you and me – patrol regularly. If you’re not a Varnar and you commit a crime, they won’t hesitate to rough you up and dump you in the cells for the night, then your employer will be forced to pay for your ticket back home. You won’t be allowed to return. If you’re an illegal, you will probably be shipped to a penal world and put to work. They don’t police communities so closely, but anything that spills out into the mainstream will draw a harsh response.”

  She shrugged as they entered the apartment block. “There’s no shortage of blue collar crimes here, everything from information theft to financial fraud,” she added. “But any crime of violence will be punished. It keeps everything reasonably peaceful.”

  “I see,” Kevin said.

  Sally led him into her apartment, then closed the door and motioned for him to sit down on a comfortable sofa. “Mr. Ando wished me to give you this,” she said, as she sat facing him and crossed her legs. There was a small Galactic-issue datachip in her hand. “He thought you might find it of interest.”

  Kevin felt his eyes narrow. “And what is the price?”

  “There isn’t one, now,” Sally said. “Mr. Ando gives it to you as a gesture of ... good faith and of his hopes for a future relationship. If you want to turn it down, I dare say he won’t care too much.”

  “I imagine he won’t,” Kevin said, slowly. Did Mr. Ando know who they were? He was an information broker, after all. The Stuart Family was largely unknown outside the Solar System, but someone who traded in information might well have heard the name, then put two and two together. “What’s on the chip?”

  “He didn't say,” Sally said. She held it out, resting it on her hand. “Do you want it?”

  Kevin hesitated, then took the chip. “I’ll have a look at it,” he said. It would be a very careful look, in a sealed compartment. The Galactics were old enough to have forgotten more tricks than humanity had ever learned. “And then I’ll let him know what I think.”

  “Good,” Sally said. She leaned forward. “I have a question for you. Are you married?”

  “No,” Kevin said. “My wife and I separated peacefully seven years ago.”

  Sally quirked her eyebrows. “What happened?”

  “We just got sick of each other,” Kevin said. “There was no way we could spend the rest of eternity together, not when we were both functionally immortal. We separated, very calmly, and resumed our separate ways. I believe she married again, two years later.”

  He sighed. There had been a time when he’d considered marriage sacred – unlike Steve, who had refused to marry Mariko for fear of federal interference. Kevin had never had the heart to tell him that so long cohabiting had probably given her legal rights anyway, long before the Hordesmen had arrived. But now ... the idea of staying together until death took on a very different meaning when death could easily be thousands of years away. The Solar Union had a depressingly high rate of separation, then divorce.

  But at least we’re not locking people up for adultery, he thought, sourly. Doesn't that make us better than some human nations?

  Sally smiled. “And you didn’t?”

  “I spend most of my time on trading ships,” Kevin lied. “There aren't that many opportunities to meet people.”

  It wasn't that great a lie, he told himself. Having a relationship as the Director of the Solar Intelligence Agency caused all kinds of complications. The girl he picked up in a bar one night might be nothing more than just someone seeking a partner for the night, or she might be a spy trying to get into his heart so she could pump him for information. It was far easier to remain alone and watch pornography, or hire a sexbot, rather than be forced to vet anyone he might like to date.

  “There aren't that many opportunities here either,” Sally said.

  She leaned forward, then placed a hand on his leg. “Let me be businesslike,” she said. “I haven't had sex for over a year, since the last handsome spacer visited Varnar and had time to meet me. I would like to take you to bed. But I can't promise anything else, either support from my boss or future sexual encounters. If that's all right with you, then start taking off your clothes.”

  Kevin blinked – blunt propositions were somewhat outside his experience – then started to take off his jacket. Sally stood, reached behind her neck and undid her dress, which fell to the ground and pooled around her feet. Kevin stared, feeling his heart suddenly start to race as he looked her up and down. She was gorgeous.

  I love nanotechnology, he thought, as he removed his trousers. And so does everyone else.

  The following morning, she cooked breakfast and then urged him out of the apartment. Kevin
understood – she had to go back to work – and settled for giving her a kiss on the cheek, before starting the walk back to the teleport zone. Twenty minutes later, he was back onboard the Rory Williams, studying the chip through a small sensor array.

  “Seems to be a normal chip,” Julian said. “Did you have a good time last night, boss?”

  “Yes,” Kevin said. “Can we remain professional, please?”

  Julian smirked. “And sleeping with a lady on another world is professional?”

  “You might be surprised,” Kevin said. “I once slept with the wife of a senior Al Qaeda leader.”

  “Bullshit,” Julian said.

  “I shit ye not,” Kevin assured him. “The poor girl’s bastard of a rapist – sorry, a husband – had tastes that ran towards small boys, not girls of any age. By the time we started poking around, she hated him so passionately the only thing that kept her from killing the fucker was the certain knowledge she would be murdered by his followers. I used her to target the guy, took him alive and then dragged her into protective custody. She used to be living in Oakland with a decent guy from Norway.”

  “Lucky her,” Julian said. “I still don’t believe you.”

  He looked up from the display. “There’s a few pieces of information on the chip, but not much else,” he said. “I think we’d have to read it.”

  Kevin nodded, then watched as Julian connected an isolated terminal to the computer chip. A handful of files sprang up on the display, headed by one marked WATCH ME FIRST. When Julian clicked on it, a voder-voice stated to speak.

  “You may find the information on these files useful,” it said. “There are others who share your interests. If you would like more, feel free to ask.”

  “Jesus,” Julian breathed. “This is their entire plan!”

  “Then we use it,” Kevin said. Was Ando actually offering to help without payment? Or was something else going on? “And pray he isn’t trying to lead us down the garden path.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Malaysian Government deployed upwards of five thousand soldiers to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, in the wake of riots that left the centre of the city devastated. Government sources blame the riots on uneducated immigrants from Indonesia, but locals suspect that the riots were used as a pretext to put troops on the ground prior to the planned independence referendum.

  -Solar News Network, Year 52

  “Yolanda!”

  Yolanda looked up and stared. “Martin?”

  “It’s me,” Martin assured her. He gave her a hug, very loosely. “How do I look?”

  Yolanda stepped backwards, shaking her head. Martin had never been weak, but now he was covered in muscle. His skin seemed darker, somehow, and there were hints of scars covering his face and lower arms. The uniform he wore – a dark green uniform with a single bronze star on his right shoulder – showed off his new appearance to best advantage. She couldn't help a faint flutter in her heart as she looked at him.

  “Different,” she said, finally.

  “I’ve got muscles on my muscles,” Martin said, cheerfully. He was grinning from ear to ear. “And can you believe I'm one of the smaller people in the training platoon?”

  “No,” Yolanda said. “I don’t think anyone can grow much bigger than you.”

  “You’d be wrong,” Martin said. He shook his head. “I think there’s an asteroid where the gravity field is much stronger, strong enough to produce humans who are two or three times as strong as the strongest man on Earth.”

  “But that would cause health problems,” Yolanda said. Greatly daring, she took his hand – his skin felt harder than she’d expected – and tugged him through the door. “Can a child be raised in such an environment?”

  “I think they use plenty of genetic enhancement,” Martin said. “You’ve changed too.”

  Yolanda tapped the side of her head. “Mainly in here,” she said. She might not have enhanced muscles, but she did have enhanced piloting implants. The training program had been more cerebral than physical, yet it had been equally exhausting. “Right now, I can view a dozen live feeds simultaneously while flying a starship through a gravity well.”

  “Ah, multitasking,” Martin said. “No wonder most starship pilots are female.”

  “Two-thirds of the trainees are male,” Yolanda countered. “Multitasking is something anyone can be trained to do, with the right implants. You just need to keep going until it all clicks together.”

  She gave him another smile, then led him through the second hatch and into the zoo. Darwin Asteroid had no permanent human population; instead, it housed hundreds of different creatures, inhabiting an ecosystem that had been transplanted from Earth. Some of the animals, according to the brochure, had died out on Earth, hunted to death by people who thought they had a use for the dead. The guidebook she’d downloaded had poured scorn on the idea of using powdered rhinoceros horn as a sexual aide, but it hadn't stopped people trying to hunt down the last few rhinos in the wild. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

  “There are forcefields in place to keep us from touching the animals – or being touched by them,” she explained, as they started down the path. “I just thought it would be a nice place to visit.”

  “I like it,” Martin said. “I never saw the zoo on Earth.”

  Yolanda nodded in agreement. Her stepmother had had better things to do than take her unwanted stepchild to the zoo – or anywhere, really. And her school had never had the funding to take the children anywhere, not when they were required by law to insure every child against everything from accidents to deliberate mishap. In hindsight, she understood why her school had been so crappy. On one hand, they were expected to be responsible for everything; on the other, they simply didn't have the authority to handle everything. They couldn't even eject the most disruptive students in the class.

  She held his hand as they walked down the path, catching sight of a pride of lions sitting in the sunlight, watching the human interlopers with curious eyes. Most of them, according to the guidebooks, had been cloned from samples taken from Earth, a breeding program that had slowly enhanced their numbers until they had a viable population once again. But reintroducing them into the wild was a problem, even if the hunters were dissuaded from going after them once again. There simply weren't enough older animals to teach the younger ones how to live in the jungle.

  “I think they were talking about trying to clone dinosaurs,” she said, softly. “Bring life back to a dead world.”

  “I saw the movie,” Martin said. “It didn't end very well.”

  Yolanda smiled. “I don’t think that would be a problem here,” she said. “The environment on an asteroid is completely controlled.”

  “You might still lose control of your creations,” Martin said. He shook his head. “Do you think they ever lose control of the forcefields?”

  “I have you to protect me if the forcefields collapse,” Yolanda said. It was strange, really, to think that the only thing separating them from the lions was an invisible forcefield. A person without implants wouldn't even know it was there, unless they actually touched the field itself. “But I think the system is completely reliable.”

  They said little else as they passed through the hatch into the next ecosystem, which was composed of creatures taken from a hundred alien worlds. Yolanda had read that the Galactics exchanged biological samples on a regular basis, although they strongly discouraged introducing new creatures or plant life to a life-bearing world. It wasn't a bad decision, she suspected. Some alien plants and animals would spread rapidly on Earth, as they lacked natural predators, and would damage the local ecosystem quite badly. Rats and cockroaches were already a major problem on Luna and some of the other settlements across the Solar System. They seemed to be completely impossible to exterminate.

  And they will spread to other worlds, she thought, morbidly. How long will it be before the Galactics accuse us of spreading cockroaches across the galaxy?

  She pushed the t
hought aside as an alien creature came into view, poking against the forcefield as if it could sense its presence. It looked, at first, like a moving bush, but the more she looked at it, the more she saw a twisting mass of pulsating flesh below the strands, just waiting for something to be caught and eaten. The creature was so completely outside her experience that she found herself taking a step backwards, then clutching Martin tighter than ever. Beyond it, another creature – resembling a furry lobster – crawled over the sandy ground, claws clicking unpleasantly. She shuddered and took another step backwards.

  “They force us to look at the Galactics,” Martin said, as they hastily moved to the next compartment. “Anyone who shows an adverse fear reaction to any of the aliens we might have to fight is gently urged not to consider out-system duty. There aren't any treatments for people who are unable to cope with alien life forms.”