Scavenger Blood

by Janet Edwards

  He sighed, and the coldness in his voice was replaced by weariness. “We’ve discussed this before though, Tad, and I’m willing to concede that Earth was heavily overpopulated and polluted back then. Your family’s big mistake wasn’t giving humanity the stars, but letting the number of colony worlds get out of control so Earth’s infrastructure collapsed under the strain.”

  “And I totally agree with you,” said Tad. “If I could go back in time and change history, then I’d make it so we had far fewer colony worlds and a cleaner Earth with all of its old glory. Unfortunately, we have to deal with the situation we’re in now.”

  Tad shook his head. “I didn’t start talking about Gateway Station and the Earth Flight mission to upset anyone, but because you wanted me to do something to prove who I am. I daren’t play around with the New York power supply. I can’t use portals to run impressive diagnostic sequences because there aren’t any working portals in New York. I can’t do anything with wall vids because those all stopped working when this area lost access to the technical area of the Earth data net back in 2389.”

  He shrugged. “I was struggling to think of something that I could do which clearly couldn’t be done by anyone else, but then I realized Gateway Station passes over us every night. Given the Kerr Monument is on the banks of the Hudson River near Tarrytown, the answer was obvious.”

  “It was?” asked Donnell, in a bemused voice.

  “Yes,” said Tad eagerly. “When Major Kerr died, my family arranged a tribute to him on the night of his funeral. Millions of people stood in the streets of New York to watch it then. I’m hoping to recreate that tribute for you, so you can watch it tonight. Gateway Station should have enough power to do it, but it’s been abandoned for a long time, so there’s a risk of component failure messing this up. If that happens, I’ll have to think of something else.”

  Tad pointed at the sky again. “That’s Gateway Station now, just coming into view above the buildings on the horizon.”

  I spotted a moving dot of light.

  “I’ve noticed that dot moving across the sky before,” said Ghost. “Are we expecting it to do something special this time?”

  “Yes,” said Tad. “I’ll give you a countdown. Three, two, one ... Now!”

  The dot in the sky suddenly got vastly brighter, and started alternating colour between a brilliant blue and white.

  “It’s never done that before,” said Ghost, in a startled voice.

  “Gateway Station is flashing blue and white, honouring Major Kerr with the main colours of Earth as seen from space,” said Tad. “Now look upriver. You can’t see the Kerr Monument from here, but that doesn’t matter. You just need to look at the sky above it.”

  He paused. “Actually, I’m not sure I can make the Kerr Monument bit work. There seems to be a problem with the control circuits.”

  “I don’t think that matters,” said Deuce, in a dazed voice. “As far as I’m concerned, dramatic flashing lights in the sky are quite enough proof of who you are. Don’t you agree, Knave?”

  “Yes.” Knave made a gulping sound. “More than enough proof.”

  “Ah, the problem wasn’t with the control circuits,” said Tad. “It was the ...”

  Multiple great beams of light appeared upriver, sweeping across the sky in swathes of blue and white. I heard everyone gasp, and Rebecca shout out. “Pretty!”

  “The Kerr Monument returns the salute of Gateway Station,” said Tad, in a voice that was ragged with emotion.

  We stood there, looking between the lights of Gateway Station and the lights coming from the Kerr Monument. I noticed Knave go to stand next to where Diana was cradling their baby, and how she edged a significant inch or two closer to him.

  Gateway Station moved slowly across the sky. When it vanished below the horizon, the light show abruptly stopped.

  Everyone sighed, and Wall’s eight-year-old nephew, Fleet, called out hopefully. “Can we see it again, Tad?”

  “I’m afraid no one will ever see that sight again,” said Tad, in a grieving voice. “It would take several years for Gateway Station to accumulate enough solar power to repeat it, and the station is out of fuel and in a decaying orbit. About two years from now, Gateway Station will enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.”

  There was a long silence. We’d seen a sight that no one would ever see again. A last vision of past magic that would soon be gone forever.

  Donnell finally spoke in a brisk voice. “We should go back to the Parliament House now. I realize that everyone’s head is full of images of lights in the sky, but please remember to watch where you’re putting your feet.”

  The others began shuffling their way back along the worn and rutted path, but Tad stayed looking up at the sky. I left him in peace until everyone else had gone, then tapped him on the arm.

  He gave me a startled look, as if he’d forgotten he wasn’t alone out here, then glanced after the retreating crowd. “Yes, we’d better get back to Parliament House before you get frozen again.”

  I took my flashlight from my pocket, aimed it at the path, and we started walking.

  “It’s silly of me to get so emotional about Gateway Station falling from orbit,” said Tad. “It was abandoned back in 2320. That was when Thaddeus Ignatius Wallam-Crane had Major Kerr’s ship taken apart, and the pieces portalled to Adonis for reassembly. The Earth Flight ship is now on display, encased in glass, in the Courtyards of Memory.”

  He shrugged. “Ignatius felt it was unrealistic to do that with something as large as Gateway Station, and he thought it was better for people to be able to look up from Earth and see it in orbit anyway. Ignatius arranged for a couple of special missions to refuel Gateway Station, and correct its orbit so it was safe for at least another eighty years. He expected his heirs to arrange more refuelling and orbit corrections, but it’s not possible to do that any longer. Even if it was, there are far more important things to save than an old space station.”

  “You’re entitled to feel sad about Gateway Station burning up,” I said. “It’s a symbol of the drop portal programme and the Earth Flight that gave humanity the stars.”

  “For me, it’s not just a symbol of the drop portal programme, but interstellar portal technology and human civilization as well,” said Tad. “We’re on the verge of losing interstellar portal technology, and if we do then civilization will fall on five hundred worlds. I can’t save Gateway Station from falling and burning, but I must save civilization.”

  He gave a shake of his head and stopped moving. “Forget civilization and the rest of humanity for now. I asked you a question, and you said you wanted to answer it in private. We’re alone now.”

  He paused and held out his hand towards me. “Now that we’ve dealt with Cage and his supporters, can you see enough hope for the future for us to have a relationship again, Blaze Donnelly?”

  I smiled and took his hand. “I can see plenty of hope for the future, Thaddeus Paul Wallam-Crane.”

  We walked on in silence after that. When we reached the glass-walled front of Reception, I looked into the brightly lit room, and saw the division members had all taken off their coats and gathered in their own areas.

  Donnell and the other division leaders were standing by the glass and looking out at us. Wall raised his hand to give us a cheerful wave, and I automatically waved back.

  “The division leaders seem to be waiting for us,” said Tad. “Any idea why?”

  “No.”

  I led the way inside Reception and saw Donnell beckoning to us. Tad and I hastily took off our coats, dumped them on the empty knife and bow tables, and hurried over to join the division leaders.

  “Is there a problem?” I asked.

  “We’ve just got one final thing to sort out.” Donnell turned to the other division leaders. “Let’s do this.”

  Wall nodded and held out his right arm, palm down. “Manhattan.”

  Raeni placed her hand on top of his. “Queens Island.”

  Sh
e looked at Ghost, and he rapidly stepped forward to add his hand to theirs. “Brooklyn.”

  Ice added his hand in turn. “London.”

  I’d seen this ritual performed once before when London division joined the alliance. I looked at Donnell, expecting him to complete the sequence on behalf of the Resistance, but he pointed at me instead.

  I was confused, but took a deep breath, moved forward, and placed my right hand on top of the others. “The Earth Resistance.”

  Donnell beckoned Tad forward. There was a split second of delay, which probably meant Tad was looking up alliances on the Earth data net, and then I felt the warmth of Tad’s hand on top of mine.

  “Thaddeus Paul Wallam-Crane.”

  Donnell placed his hand on top of the pile. “Alliance.”

  We all kept our hands in position while everyone in Reception applauded, and then relaxed and moved apart. Donnell and the other division leaders went back to their areas, leaving Tad and me standing alone by the glass wall.

  Tad glanced around the room. “A lot of people are looking at us,” he whispered. “Are we sure that we don’t have to hide our relationship any longer?”

  “We don’t have to hide anything any longer,” I said. “Cage and Bronx division are imprisoned in the Citadel. Everyone remaining here has proved their loyalty, and been told all the secrets we were hiding. Now we just need to escape from New York, and the alliance can have its golden future. You and I will have to wait a little longer for our personal golden future, because you need to go to Zeus to build your interstellar portals, but we’ll be together here on Earth in the end.”

  “In that case ...”

  I expected Tad to kiss me, but instead he took hold of my waist and lifted me high into the air, grinning at me in celebration. “Don’t worry, Blaze. I won’t let you fall.”

  I smiled down at him. I knew that Tad would never let me fall. I didn’t believe that he’d let civilization fall either. The magic of the past was fading fast, and would soon be lost forever, but the last of the magicians was with us and would create his own new magic for the future.

  Message from Janet Edwards

  Thank you for reading Scavenger Blood. This is the second book in the Scavenger Exodus series.

  You can make sure you don’t miss future books by signing up to get new release updates at https://www.janetedwards.com/newsletter/

  I’d like to thank Juliet Lai, Cindy Smith, Alice Mercer, Charlotte Staines, Rachel Krosky, Jennefer Jones, Christina Sherwood, and Zarqa Malik for Beta reading Scavenger Blood. Any remaining problems are entirely my fault.

  Best wishes from Janet Edwards

  Books by Janet Edwards

  Set in the Hive Future

  The Hive Mind series:-

  PERILOUS: Hive Mind A Prequel Novella

  TELEPATH

  DEFENDER

  HURRICANE

  Set in the 25th Century of the Portal Future

  The Scavenger Exodus series:-

  SCAVENGER ALLIANCE

  SCAVENGER BLOOD

  Set in the 28th Century of the Portal Future

  The prequel novellas:-

  EARTH AND FIRE: An Earth Girl Novella

  EARTH AND AIR: An Earth Girl Novella

  FRONTIER: An Epsilon Sector Novella

  The Earth Girl trilogy:-

  EARTH GIRL

  EARTH STAR

  EARTH FLIGHT

  The Earth Girl prequel short story collection:-

  EARTH 2788: The Earth Girl Short Stories

  Other short stories:-

  HERA 2781: A Military Short Story

  Set in the Game Future

  REAPER

  Please visit https://janetedwards.com/books/ to see the current full list of books.

  Make sure you don’t miss the next book by signing up to get new release updates at https://janetedwards.com/newsletter/

  About the Author

  Janet Edwards lives in England. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, including a huge amount of science fiction and fantasy. She studied Maths at Oxford, and went on to suffer years of writing unbearably complicated technical documents before deciding to write something that was fun for a change. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.

  Visit Janet at her website: https://janetedwards.com/

  On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JanetEdwardsAuthor

  On Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanetEdwardsSF

  You can make sure you don’t miss the next book by signing up for email updates at: https://janetedwards.com/newsletter/

  Preview of Telepath

  Amber is one of over a million eighteen-year-olds in one of the great hive cities of twenty-sixth century Earth. She’s about to enter the Lottery of 2532, which will assess her abilities and decide her hive level, her profession, her whole future life. Amber’s dream is to be level 10 or above, her nightmare is to be a level 99 Sewage Technician.

  When Lottery discovers Amber is a rare and precious telepath, she must adapt to a new life protecting the people of the crowded hive city. Her job is hunting down criminals before they commit their crimes, but she doesn’t know she’s being hunted herself.

  Chapter One

  Forge and Shanna led our group out of the lift into the forbidden territory of Level 1, the highest of the hundred accommodation levels in our Hive city. I stopped for a moment, dazzled by the splendour of the shopping area in front of us. The Level 1 shopping areas always had the finest decorations in the Hive, but this was the last day of Carnival, the annual Hive festival of light and life, so there were added gold and silver streamers everywhere.

  Shanna glanced back at me. “Come on, Amber!”

  I hurried to join the others under one of the giant overhead signs that said “Level 1”. We automatically formed into a circle with Forge and Shanna standing in the centre. Twenty-two of us, all wearing traditional gold and silver Carnival costumes, and carrying masks. Forge was the one exception, conspicuous for choosing a costume and mask in the red and black colours of Halloween, the ominous Hive festival of darkness and death. Forge had constantly been challenging Hive rules on Teen Level, and wearing a Halloween costume during Carnival was his final act of defiance.

  I noticed that a couple of men dressed in the blue uniforms of Health and Safety were standing nearby and watching us. On any other day, the hasties would have been scolding us, telling us that a group of teens had no business in one of the shopping areas reserved for the most important people in the Hive, and sternly sending us back down to Teen Level 50.

  This wasn’t any other day, because we were eighteen. Tomorrow the million eighteen-year-olds in the Hive would all enter Lottery. We would be assessed, be optimized, be allocated, be imprinted. The Lottery of 2532 would decide our future lives, what profession we would work at, and whether we would live in luxury on a high level of the Hive or in a cramped apartment somewhere in the depths.

  Shanna smiled at the rest of us. “We aren’t going to be like all the other teens. We won’t split up from our friends after Lottery. Let’s promise that we’ll all meet up two weeks from today.”

  There was a muttering of promises in reply, my own among them, but we all knew we were lying. We’d lived on the same corridor on Teen Level 50 for five years, and shared thousands of moments of laughter and arguments. Now the notoriously unpredictable verdict of Lottery would send some of us higher up the Hive and others further down, label some of us a success and others a failure.

  Shanna had boundless confidence. She was sure she’d be one of the successes, even be among the elite who lived in the top ten accommodation levels of the Hive. The rest of us felt far more uncertain about what lay ahead. We wouldn’t want to meet up again if we were among the failures. I knew I couldn’t face the others if ...

  I fought back against the nightmare doubts. The verdicts of Lottery were unpredictable because of the sheer complexity of the automated decision process, but there was logic be
hind them. Everyone said I was bright and articulate, and I’d followed all the advice about spending my time on Teen Level doing preparation work. The Level 99 Sewage Technician, butt of all the jokes, couldn’t happen to me. Please, not to me.

  “Good luck,” said Forge. “I hope all of you will be high up.”

  This time the response was wholehearted. “High up, everyone!” we yelled in unison.

  There was a second of silence, and then twin chiming sounds as the doors of the two nearest lifts opened. More groups of teens were arriving, and the watching hasties were waving at us to signal that we couldn’t linger here any longer. Forge put on the Halloween mask that transformed his handsome face into something demonic. Everyone else put on the joyful masks of Carnival, and followed him across to the moving stairs in the middle of the shopping area.

  We jumped onto one of the handrails of the downway. Forge first, then Shanna, and then the rest of us in turn. Riding the handrail was the classic act of teen rebellion. The hasties usually intervened to stop it, telling us to travel sensibly and safely on the moving stairs instead.

  They wouldn’t intervene today. This was our last day as teens, and Hive tradition gave us the right to one last act of rebellion, starting to ride the handrail on Level 1 itself and continuing on down as deep into the Hive as we could.

  I caught a glimpse of us in the mirrored wall beside me. A proud line of twenty-two masked figures, spectacular in our glittering costumes. As the handrail plunged down from the Level 1 shopping area to the one on Level 2, Forge raised his right hand and shouted the ritual words.

  “Ride the Hive!”

  “Ride the Hive!” We yelled the words back to him.

  The shoppers turned their heads to watch us go by, applauded, and called their good wishes to us. “High up to you.”

  “Ride the Hive!” We yelled the words each time the moving stairs went down to the next level. We’d never be together again. We’d never be the same people again. Lottery would do more than assess our abilities, optimize our possible professions to give us the one most suitable for us and useful to the Hive, and allocate us our level. It would imprint our minds with all the information needed to do our assigned work.