by Merry Farmer
He glared at the doorway as Carrie let the blanket fall shut behind her, sinking them into deep shade. Kutrosky shrugged. “Jimmy wouldn’t have been any better. He was on the lead tech team. I don’t see any computers around here, do you?”
“Your ship. If we could get the emergency ships to work again, there would be plenty of computers. We might be too far from anywhere to call anyone for help, but surely we could— ”
“No.” Kutrosky shook his head. “Jimmy wasn’t on your ship, was he?”
Grace pressed her mouth shut, her back itching with discomfort at the diversionary tactic. “We don’t have anyone named Jimmy. Everyone on ES5 was in the executive sector when the alarm sounded.”
“The executive sector?” Kutrosky blinked in genuine surprise. “What were you doing all the way up there?”
“We had a morning meeting,” she told him as if it happened every day.
“In the executive sector?” Kutrosky’s incredulity grew. “I thought only Governor King and Terra Project insiders were allowed up there.”
“It was a last-minute adjustment.” Thinking about the eerie coincidences of that day sent prickles of anxiety down Grace’s spine, so she changed the subject.
“How did you manage to board an emergency ship?” she turned the questions on him. “I’m sorry,” she backed off just as quickly. “It doesn’t really matter now.”
“You want to know how I escaped from a locked and guarded cell fast enough to get on an emergency ship when the alarms went off?” He grinned like a cat and extended a hand to the line of seats against one wall. “Easy. All doors on the Argo automatically unlock in an emergency. I was able to make a break for it. And I almost didn’t reach ES26 in time.”
Grace nodded and helped herself to a chair. She didn’t believe his explanation. She should give Kutrosky the benefit of the doubt, but instinct told her he was lying.
Carrie sat stiffly in the seat beside her, crossing her arms, eyes darting around the dim room. Stacey lounged in her own seat, throwing her arm over the back of Carrie’s chair and crossing her legs.
“We were all exceptionally lucky.” Grace leaned forward, clasping her hands together as though they were paying a social call. She stared at her hands as she thought about how to proceed with her mission.
“Yes, lucky.” Kutrosky laughed. He sat in a chair that looked as though it could have belonged to the pilot of ES26. His eyes darted past Grace to Carrie. He didn’t trust her, that much was plain. Grace could see without looking at her friend that the feeling was mutual.
“Luck can only take us so far.” She raised her eyes to meet his. “We’ve got a long road ahead of us, Brian, if we’re going to make a successful colony on this moon.”
“Sure we do.” Kutrosky stretched out his legs and rested his arms on the arms of his seat as if she was boring him.
She forged on past the irritation he provoked. “Since we know that there’s no hope of rescue, we have to focus our energies into creating a sustainable civilization. That means building a stable infrastructure, cultivating plant and animal life for food and clothing, establishing a system of government and,” she paused, “and reproducing.”
He laughed, slapping the arm of his chair. “No need to pussy-foot around the issue, Grace, no pun intended. You’re saying we need to keep the women knocked up.”
The way he spoke had Grace and both of her friends writhing in offense. Whether her face went red from embarrassment or anger she couldn’t decide and she hoped he couldn’t tell.
Kutrosky waved a hand and sniffed. “Don’t worry about that part too much, Grace. No matter what you do, that sort of thing seems to take care of itself. Human nature.” He chuckled and winked. “Why don’t you concentrate on playing Terra Project, like I know you want to?”
Grace had no idea where to go from there. Her skin crawled. When she realized her mouth was hanging open she closed it and cleared her throat. She was the leader. She had a job to do.
“We do need to plan a settlement, put effort into construction and farming, but that extends beyond my group or yours. You may want to consider that there are other people stranded on this moon with us. Have you taken those numbers into consideration?”
A slow smile spread across Kutrosky’s face. “I see what this is about. My scouts told me there are only about forty of you down there in the woods.” He leaned closer to her. “I can see right through all this talk of bringing the tribes together. You’re scared. You want me to protect you.”
The hair on the back of Grace’s neck stood up. “We do need to form one settlement, but only when everyone is ready. My people are managing on our own for now.”
She wouldn’t tell him about the treasure chests. She wouldn’t breathe a word about the tents, or even the caves, the orchard, or the river.
“Are you sure?” he pressed. “I could make it worth your while. I’m exactly the sort of person you want on your side when…when things come to a head.”
“I’m sure,” she answered too fast. Between the caves and the tattered appearance of his people, Kutrosky’s idea of a colony and protection left her cold.
“Well, that’s your choice.” Kutrosky shifted to lean back in his seat, crossing his legs. “How’s that military lawyer friend of yours doing?” He changed the subject before Grace could get back to her point. “Murphy or something like that.”
“Sean?” She and Carrie both sat straighter. Stacey arched an eyebrow at the two of them.
“Yeah. Has he got you all good and organized yet?” Hard lines formed around Kutrosky’s eyes and his loud voice took on a sharp edge. “Boy, he loves to throw his weight around, doesn’t he? You should have seen him at my sentencing,” he spoke past Grace to Carrie and Stacey.
Carrie’s face was rigid with suppressed fury. “I was there, remember?”
Kutrosky ignored her. “I thought he would exhaust himself arguing over how I should stay locked up far from the rest of you. Didn’t he say that I would be a corrupting influence? Weren’t those his words, Grace?”
“They were.” She nodded once. Now, months later, considering the state of Kutrosky’s camp, she could see Sean’s point. “What happened on the Argo is in the past. We’re never going to see any of those people again. We all need to focus on pooling our resources to begin anew.”
“Oh, sure, of course,” he agreed as if her statement was trivial. He bent to reach for a bottle on a piece of scrap from his ship that had been made into a table. “You ladies want something to drink? I had this water hauled up from the river just this morning.”
He held the bottle out to them. Grace declined with a shake of her head and Carrie and Stacey followed suit.
“No?” He shrugged and took a swig himself. “If that bastard Kinn would let me move my people closer to the river we wouldn’t have this problem. You know that he said he’d shoot me on sight if he saw me,” he informed Stacey as if gossiping over lunch.
“I heard,” Stacey replied with a level nod, expression guarded.
“Are you able to get enough water?” Genuine concern for the people under Kutrosky’s influence pushed Grace to look past his attitude.
“Sure.” He nodded. “I’ve designated a group of the women to carry water just like I’ve divided the men into hunters and guards and established another group to forage. Well, I’m sure you know, Grace, what with all your emergency planning experience, that it’s important to impose structure in a chaotic situation. Everyone has their place and their job. It keeps things from getting out of hand.”
“And that’s part of why I’ve come to talk to you today.” She shifted to her mission once more.
Kutrosky’s eyebrows went up and he set the bottle on the table.
“It may not be our most important consideration in the present, Brian, but from the standpoint of long-term survival, it’s going to be important for us to ensure the continuance of as many different sets of genes as possible if our descendants are going to avoid certain metabo
lic diseases and complications.” She was impressed by how much she had actually picked up from Danny’s genetics books and from his rambling explanations in their private conversations.
Kutrosky only stared at her.
She scooted to the end of her chair, drawing on all her powers of negotiation. “What I mean is, ultimately it’s not going to be effective if, for example, one set of men passes on their genes multiple times with multiple partners while other men die without issue, bringing an end to their line and shrinking the gene pool for everyone.”
She stopped and glanced at him to assess if he was following her. His expression had gone blank. She took that as a sign he knew exactly where she was headed.
“You have far more women than men. Kinn has the opposite problem.”
Kutrosky’s nostrils flared and he sucked in a breath. He pushed forward in his chair. “What are you suggesting?”
She took a breath. “I’m suggesting that you be the one to start the process of bringing everyone together by moving some of your women into Kinn’s camp. In return, Kinn is willing to—”
Kutrosky snorted. “You want me to abandon the women in my care to the carnal urges of those savages?”
Frustration rippled down Grace’s back. He was being deliberately unhelpful.
“What I’m suggesting is that you work with Kinn, with me, to create equilibrium. It goes beyond mere reproduction. Consider it a distribution of labor, a sharing of skill-sets. It’s in the best interest of the whole. Surely you have to see that.”
He stared at her, leg bobbing in a fast, unconscious rhythm as he contemplated her suggestion. His hand gripped the arm of his chair. Grace held her breath. If he would just agree, if they could just balance out the camps, then she could go home and consider settling. She could consider Danny.
“No.” Kutrosky gave her his answer in one swift bark and stood. “No.”
“Brian….” Grace stood as well. Carrie and Stacey followed.
“I’m not going to do that to them.” Kutrosky continued to shake his head. “I’m not going to offer a single woman up as a lamb to the slaughter for that man. Can you imagine what those soldiers would do to them?”
“I assume they would integrate them into their settlement, learn from the skills they have, share what they know,” she answered with studied calm.
Kutrosky barked a laugh. “How does someone so highly placed in the Project get away with being so naïve?”
He took a step closer to her and she had to summon the strength not to back away from him.
“Do you want the imprisonment and repeated rape of a dozen women on your conscience, Grace? Because I sure don’t.”
“I hardly think it would come to that. Human nature, as you call it, has already been showing itself to be a driving force amongst the survivors and it’s as likely as not that—”
Kutrosky snorted and strode toward the door, throwing the blanket aside and gesturing for them to get out. Grace sighed and followed. Mina jumped up from her seat by the door, dropping her spindle. Kutrosky glared at her as she skittered away.
“He put you up to this, didn’t he, that bastard.”
Grace kept her back straight and her chin up as she walked out into the sunlight.
“Kinn asked me to come talk to you, yes,” she admitted. “But I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t agree with him. Why don’t you talk to the women in your camp and ask them how they would feel about moving?”
He looked at her as if she were raving. “How they would feel about trading safety for violence?”
She sighed. “I’m as much a pragmatist as you could hope to find in this situation, Brian, but I’m also a woman. As important as structure and stability is, strong bonds and harmonious relationships are key for us. We like to choose our own lives.”
He listened to her with fists clenched, sweat breaking out on his balding head. “And have you chosen your life, Grace?”
“Yes,” she answered without pause.
“Or did it choose you?”
Her urge to shoot back a reply was crippled by the idea that The Terra Project had sought her out, recruited her straight out of school. That didn’t mean she hadn’t joined freely or that this life wasn’t better than where she’d started.
Brian caught the conflict in her eyes. His smug grin widened. “We know what’s best for you, Grace. Leave the big decisions to the men. We’re better suited to deal with them. We know more about what’s really going on here than you do. Your ideas are cute but naïve. If you’re so fired up about getting back to the basics of life and legacy, then why don’t you do just that? You’ll have enough to keep you busy once you start popping out kids anyhow. It’s what Nature intended.”
“Nature intended for women to be enslaved by men?” She dove into the argument, face and neck as red as her hair, limbs shaking.
He laughed at her. “No, Grace, not slaves at all. Women are too important to be slaves, far too valuable. You are the nurturers. You are the tender-hearted care-givers. We men would be lost without you. I’ve always believed that you should be returned to your rightful place in Nature’s plan. None of this living the same lives and being the same kind of soldiers as men that The Terra Project was so intent on.”
He took another step closer to her. She fought the urge to back away.
“Women should be homemakers and mothers, Grace. You shouldn’t be politicians and warriors. That’s what I’ve stood for from the beginning. You shouldn’t be manipulated into being killing machines. Or into incubating them either.”
Her patience had reached its end. “You know, Sean was right. You are out of your mind. No one is manipulating anyone.”
“No?” He smiled as though he’d won an argument. “Ask your geneticist about the Consistory. See what he tells you, if he tells you anything.”
“He’s already told me that the Consistory is a myth.”
“Come on, Grace, let’s go.” Carrie grabbed her arm and yanked her away.
Kutrosky’s glare switched to Carrie. “Always the protector. Think you can protect her from the truth?” He turned back to Grace. “Ever heard of a man named Leif Chernikov?”
“No, I haven’t,” Grace lied. She gladly gave in to Carrie’s tugging and started away from Kutrosky.
“He found out what men like your Dr. Thorne were up to and it terrified him. It terrifies us all, Grace. That’s why we’re here. Ask your geneticist about the Consistory.”
She blocked the sound of his voice as she and Carrie and Stacey stormed through the camp and out to the hill. They garnered more than a few curious glances as they fled, but she wasn’t going to stop to worry about them. She was livid. Her breath came in shallow gasps and tears of fury stung her eyes.
“I can’t believe I spoke on his behalf,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
“What an asshole.” Stacey raged right along with her. “Oh, he talked some pretty words, but he’s as big a misogynistic pig as a pimp on a street corner.”
“They’re living in holes in the ground,” Carrie added in a voice that was almost too tight and too quiet to hear. “They’re just sitting there, waiting.”
Grace stopped halfway up the hill and turned to rest a hand on her friend’s arm. “Are you okay? You look like you’re going to be sick.”
Carrie raised her eyes to meet Grace’s. “He makes me sick,” she spat and sucked in a breath through her nose, her jaw still clamped tight.
They held each other’s eyes for a long, intense moment. The silence was heavy with something Grace couldn’t put her finger on. She wished there was something she could do to take away her friend’s fear, to let her know it would be all right.
“Let’s get out of here.” Carrie broke away from her and stormed ahead up the hill.
They crossed over into the rocky valley and turned to head toward the river to refill their canteens rather than going straight across the fields. There was a marked difference in temperature between the open field and the th
ick forest, but it was the specter of everything Kutrosky had said that made Grace’s skin stand up in goose-bumps.
She swatted at a low-hanging branch in her way, venting her frustration, as she pushed by.
“Wait!” A call sounded behind them.
Grace turned along with Carrie and Stacey. They heard the rustling in the underbrush before the tiny figure of Mina barreled toward them.
“What are you doing here?” Carrie glared at the woman, ready to fight if she had to.
Mina stopped and caught her breath, narrowing her eyes at Carrie with equal intensity. “This is our piece of the forest, in case you forgot.”
She rolled her eyes, shaking her head, and stepped past Carrie to Grace.
“Let me ask you something.” Mina crossed her arms to stare Grace down. “Are you serious about wanting some of the women to move across the river with the soldiers?”
Grace’s eyes blinked wide. She let her shoulders drop in relief as she faced the fiery woman.
“Yes, we are. The soldiers have twice as many men as women, and apparently a third of those are already pregnant.”
“So they want us for sex.”
Grace winced, raising a hand to itch behind her ear and to brush her loose hair back. “It’s about balance and building.”
“Okay, so it’s sex.”
“That’s part of it,” Grace rushed to make the situation seem more palpable, “but we have so many other concerns. Infrastructure, sustenance, community.”
“Whatever.” Mina closed her eyes and raised a hand to stop Grace from going on. “I don’t care. I’d do anything to get out of that place, and I mean anything.”
Grace and Carrie and Stacey exchanged wide-eyed glances of surprise. Stacey broke into a snorting laugh. “Or do anyone?”
“Oh, you think it’s funny, do you?” Mina took a threatening step closer to her. She couldn’t have been more than a hundred pounds to Stacey’s athletic physique. “You think living in a tin can with a bald dickhead who thinks he’s God is something to laugh about?”
“Yeah.” Stacey kept snickering as she crossed her arms and looked down her nose at Mina.