by Merry Farmer
“They use selective breeding to produce animals with more meat, tastier livers. In the last hundred years or so they have gotten so adept at engineering those desirable qualities that the legs of the breed of cattle involved can no longer support the weight of their bodies. They’re genetically crippled from the moment they’re born. So they’re kept in cages where they can’t move around. All they can do is mate and be slaughtered.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, even as the pieces tried to come together in her mind.
He shifted closer to her. “Twenty years ago, a team of geneticists at the University of East Iowa and their graduate assistants were charged by the shadow government of America to use those same principles to engineer humans strong enough and intelligent enough to replace drone warfare with live soldiers who could blend into the population. Those physically and mentally superior covert agents could then be used to bring down enemy governments from the inside and win the cold war.”
“Soldiers?”
He nodded. “I was a graduate assistant when the Project was first conceived. The geneticists were given rolling access to the nation’s medical databases, millions of people, millions of genetic profiles and traits to choose from. It was my job to sort through the files and crunch the numbers to find the most suitable candidates. Only the very best of those millions were chosen.”
“To create the perfect race of soldier-spies?” She cringed in disbelief. “Danny, that’s a little too science fiction even for you.”
He lowered his head, shaking it slowly. “Not a race, Grace, just enough. Enough to get the job done. Terra is not a colony. It’s a laboratory. And once the experiment was finished—once America had regained its supremacy on Earth using the new generation bred from the ideal candidates—the Project and all of its subjects was to be terminated.”
Terminated. Her eyes lost their focus and she glanced over his shoulder as the information settled. Her momentary relief crashed into crippling dismay.
“It’s all a lie? There’s no colony? No new civilization? No better world?”
“There is, Grace.” He pushed himself to kneel in front of her, laying a hand on the side of her face. “It’s right here, right now. And it’s there on Terra now too. Thanks to you.”
Her mouth fell open but she had nothing to say. Her thoughts wouldn’t stay together. She closed her mouth and shook her head. “I don’t understand. How can it be because of me? I’m no one.”
“You’re wrong, Grace. You are very much someone.”
He reached for her, pulling her into his arms. At the back of her mind a voice told her she should have been terrified. She was numb.
“All I’ve told you are the facts about the Consistory, the truth about The Terra Project,” he continued. “The larger reality is everything you’ve been saying since the moment we crashed here. Mad and devious as it all was, The Terra Project is in the past now. The Argo was the only ship capable of traveling the distance to Terra and back to Earth and it’s been destroyed. So all of those people who traveled to Terra like lambs to the slaughter will live full, happy lives without an axe hanging over their heads. They will have generations of descendants. And you and I,” he held her face in his warm hands and kissed her lips, “you and I can be together.”
In spite of the beauty of his kiss, Grace frowned. “We would have been together anyhow, wouldn’t we? Somehow?”
He stroked her face, eyes alight with the freedom of telling her everything. “I’m forty years old, Grace. The age limit for The Terra Project was thirty-two.”
Her heart beat in her throat. “So if we had made it to Terra, then they wouldn’t have let us be together anyhow, no matter what arguments we made. They would have stuck you in a lab somewhere or sent you back to Earth and paired me up with someone else, with Sean.” She didn’t bother asking it as a question. Everything was clear now. The truth sapped the last of her energy. First Kinn’s betrayal, now this. She was a blind fool.
She circled her arms around Danny’s back and held him close, buzzing with terror and sorrow. Carrie had been right all along about the kind of man Danny had been, but that was irrelevant now. Grace was gladder than ever that Danny was there with her, that she was on his side. Kinn or no Kinn, she and Danny belonged together. She was afraid to imagine what would have happened if they hadn’t crashed on the moon.
In a flash her stomach went cold and she leaned back.
“Danny, did you blow up the Argo?”
He took far too long to answer.
“No.”
She wanted so desperately to believe him. “Are you sure?”
“Would you still love me if I had?” he asked, stroking the side of her face.
She lifted her hand to twine her fingers with his. “Will you still love me after tomorrow?”
“Touché.”
His lop-sided grin tugged at her heart. He leaned forward and kissed her.
“I loved you from the moment I first saw you, Grace, and I will always love you. No matter what happens. I’ve already staked my life on that.”
She would remember palm trees. Palm trees and waiting in the hot sun. She would remember cracked tarmac and fading white lines. She had shielded her eyes and glanced up. A vee of drones had flown overhead, the noise of their engines a faint whisper against the chatter of over a thousand people bidding their families goodbye forever.
“We’re so proud of you, son.”
Grace glanced down to watch a matronly woman wearing a flowered blouse and khaki pants saying goodbye to a tall, handsome man with a military insignia on his lapel. A large crowd milled around the parking lot, but their group caught her attention.
“This is the last time we’ll ever see you.” The mother sniffled, stepping back to hold the handsome man’s face in her hands, then breaking into tears and hugging him as if she wouldn’t let go.
“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, Ma.” He crushed her in an embrace. “A chance to be a part of something huge. And I will be able to send letters back every couple of years. Pictures too. I’m sure they’ll develop technology to beam sound and images across the light-years in a matter of seconds. It’s not like you’ll never hear from me again.”
The woman continued to cry on her son’s shoulder until her husband pried her gently away. He moved to clasp his son’s hand, thumping him on the back in a manly embrace. “We are proud of you, Sean.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
Grace smiled at the scene and picked up her suitcases, one in each hand, all her earthly belongings. The line she stood in shuffled toward the bus that would transport them out to the launch pad. From there they would take the rocket up to the satellite dock to finally board the Argo.
A wail from the mother drew Grace’s attention back to the scene. She winced in sympathy. Maybe it was a blessing she had no one to send her off or miss her when she was gone.
The line stopped and she plowed into the woman in front of her.
“Hey, watch it,” the young, dark-haired woman barked.
“I’m so sorry.” She dropped her suitcases to reach out and help the woman regain her balance. “I’m clumsy, I know. Are you all right?”
Rather than tell her off, the dark-haired woman broke into a laugh. “Calm down. All you did was bump me.” She had an expensive levitating suitcase propped against her leg but most of her attention was on the handheld she had been reading. She clicked it off and secured it under her arm. “I’m Carrie Gartner,” she smiled.
“Grace Hargrove.” She offered her hand.
Carrie took it, breaking away momentarily to nudge her bag forward in the line.
“So no tearful family goodbyes for you either?” Grace asked as she lifted her bags and took a few steps with her.
“No,” Carrie laughed.
“Did you say them already?”
“There weren’t many to say.” Carrie shrugged. “You?”
She shrugged. “My mom died years ago and I haven’t seen my grandmoth
er since I entered the Project.”
“Family, eh.” Carrie sniffed.
The line moved forward again and Grace hoisted her bags into her tiring arms as Carrie easily pushed hers to float a few more feet forward.
Carrie shrugged when they were settled again. “I don’t know why anyone with family would volunteer for this anyhow.”
Grace hummed. “I guess when the Project contacted them, some people took it as a higher calling. Like that man.” She nodded down to the tall man whose parents had called him Sean.
Carrie leaned past her shoulder and raised her sunglasses to take a look. “Damn.” She grinned. “I’ll be his Terra Project any day.”
Grace laughed, her face flushing. No one in Project training had ever talked to her like that. Everything had been strictly professional, to the point of being sterile, in the world she’d called home for the last ten years.
Carrie lowered her sunglasses and pointed at Grace’s skirt as the line moved forward. “What’s with the dress? You going to a costume party or something?”
“I always wear a dress.”
“In God’s name, why?”
“I always have. My grandmother insisted.” Her explanation faltered as she fumbled one of her suitcases.
“Can I help with that?” A soft tenor voice made both her and Carrie stop and turn.
The man that approached her didn’t have any luggage. He was older than her, with spiky hair and large blue eyes framed by glasses. He took one of the suitcases from her hand before she could ask for help.
“Thanks.” She smiled. His hand brushed hers as he took the second suitcase from her. “No goodbyes for you either?”
He laughed, his mouth tweaking into a lop-sided grin. “A few good-riddances, but no. No goodbyes.”
The breeze blowing off the nearby ocean whipped her hair into her face.
“Well, since neither of us has any goodbyes, I’ll offer you a hello.” She pushed her hair out of her face and held out a hand to him. “I’m Grace.”
He blinked at her hand, his wry grin shifting into a smile. “I’m Dr.…I’m Danny.” He stuffed one suitcase under his arm and shook her hand.
The line continued to move forward. Danny stood still, smiling at her as though he’d been handed a pleasant surprise. Her face flushed pink under his admiration. No one had ever admired her like that before.
“Here.” He shook himself out of his thoughts. “Let me take these up to the bus for you.” He juggled her suitcases to hold one in each hand and started forward. “Save me a seat on the bus?”
“Um, sure.” She smiled, a curious prickle filling her chest as she watched him carry her things to the front of the line where the attendants were loading the bus.
She turned back to find Carrie stifling a laugh behind her hand. “Okay. Now I see the reason for the dress.” Grace lowered her eyes in a sheepish grin as her new friend went on. “But you really need to watch out who you make friends with, Grace.”
She blinked. “What? Why?”
Carrie leaned in closer. “Didn’t you see his insignia?”
“What insignia?”
She lowered her voice even more. “He’s a geneticist.”
“So? That doesn’t mean anything.”
Carrie’s face grew serious. “Stay away from the scientists, especially the geneticists. They’re up to something.”
“Up to something?” Grace arched an eyebrow.
“They’re…they’re bad news.”
Grace narrowed her eyes and sent her new friend a doubtful grin. She couldn’t be serious.
The line moved forward. Grace glanced ahead to where Danny helped the attendants load her luggage.
“He seems nice. What difference does it make if he’s a scientist?”
Carrie looked like she would answer but changed her mind. She blew out a breath and scanned the crowd. When she saw what she was looking for she lowered her sunglasses and grinned across the lot with a flick of her head.
“Now that’s where you want to be looking.”
Grace’s brow knit in confusion as she followed her new friend’s glance across to a line of soldiers standing at attention in the hot sun.
“Oh my gosh, are those soldiers? Real, live soldiers?”
“Well they’re not drones, that’s for sure. Not with asses like that.”
Grace blushed and laughed out loud, drawing looks. She cleared her throat and went on. “I didn’t know there would be soldiers on this mission. They aren’t part of the Project, as far as I know.”
“Oh yeah,” Carrie grinned. “I heard they’re a late addition, for some reason.” She slid her glasses back against her face and bit her lip. “They’re the ones you want to cozy up with. You can’t trust the sciencey types. You never know what they’re up to.” She arched her eyebrow. “But you can trust a soldier. They’re too dumb to fool you.”
Grace glanced from the line of soldiers back to Carrie and over her shoulder to where Danny had finished loading her luggage. He now spoke to a tiny woman with glasses who wore a suit and had her dark hair pulled back in a tight bun. She tapped something into her handheld, then shared whatever it was with Danny. Danny nodded and glanced up at Grace. He met her eyes and smiled.
“I think I can trust him,” Grace told Carrie.
“Wow, Grace. You’ve been living in a bubble, haven’t you?”
Carrie gave her a flat look over the rim of her sunglasses. She shook her head and hooked an arm through hers.
“You got a lot to learn, kid.” She laughed. “Stick with me and you’ll be all right.”
Grace spent the night lying in the cradle of Danny’s arms, listening as the rain died. She couldn’t sleep. Neither could he. Her mind whirred over everything she had to do, every possible way the negotiations could play out, both with Kinn and Kutrosky. Too much depended on her ability to reason with the unreasonable, and if she failed, she would pay dearly.
The same thoughts plowed over and over in her mind, making her restless long into the dark night. It didn’t matter how many times Danny quietly ordered her to sleep, how much he rubbed her back or brushed his fingers through her hair. It didn’t matter that he gave up trying to sleep deep into the dark hours and made love to her at length. It was a brief, beautiful distraction at best. The problem only knotted itself tighter.
By the time the first rays of dawn poured orange and coral through the entrance to their cave, Grace had no more of a solution to her problems than she’d had when the sun had set. A girl’s life was at stake. It could have been hers. She huddled under the furs with Danny, willing the sun to go back down and the day to never come. It didn’t listen to her.
“Come on.” He lifted her to a sitting position, dark circles under his eyes. “Neither of us are doing any good just lying here. Let’s get dressed and head out to the wreck.”
“Are you sure?” She reached for her dry dress that had been discarded the night before. “It’s early still.”
“I’m sure,” he replied, his voice hard.
She nodded, smoothing a hand along his stubbly jaw.
They got up and went through the motions of their morning routines. She bathed with a bucket of water and cloth kept near the door while he shaved using a small mirror from ES5. She dressed, braided her hair, and munched on a piece of fruit from a storage basket. Her appetite was all but nonexistent and she handed the half-eaten fruit to Danny to finish as they left the cave.
The camp was still soaked from the rain and more than just Carrie and Sean’s tent had taken a beating. Several tents were in shambles and Jonah’s lean-to had collapsed under the weight of the water that had gathered in the tarp he’d used to cover it. Her people had all the tools they needed to set it to right by the time she got back, but in the meantime the camp looked sad and pathetic.
In contrast, the early sunlight filtering down through the trees made every drop of water sparkle like a diamond. Danny took her hand as they walked through the glittering wilderness. Und
er any other circumstances it would have lifted her heart. Their new home was a paradise waiting to be explored and tamed. She squeezed Danny’s hand. Was she still willing to do whatever it took to bring everyone to the point where they could embrace it?
The stretch of forest between their camp and ES5 was silent, devoid of any other human life. Alone, without interference, she could think. Nothing could be as bleak as all that with so much promise around them.
“I’m going to talk my way out of this,” she told Danny, bristling with determination.
“I know,” he nodded, squeezing her hand. “I’m going to be there to help you.”
She pursed her lips and stole a sideways glance at him.
“Kinn has to listen to reason,” she said, “and in the end Brian will as well. If Brian really is just sitting still, doing nothing, making no preparations, he’ll be open to suggestions when the weather gets colder. I know he will.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“And as for Kinn, I’ll go across the river with him, get a look at his camp, and assess its weaknesses.”
“And I’ll come with you.” Danny brooked no argument.
“Danny.” She took a breath, clenched her jaw. “I don’t think Kinn is going to give you that option.”
“I don’t care if he gives me the option, I’m taking it.”
“Against dozens of armed soldiers with crossbows?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t help me if you get yourself killed. And,” her newfound resolve wavered, “and I’m afraid that’s what will happen if Kinn realizes we’re together.”
Danny was silent, scowling at the ground as if he would burn it as they walked. It either meant he grudgingly agreed with her or, more likely, he was unwilling to be talked out of what he intended to do anyhow.
Grace kept to the positive side of the mission. “There must be loads of things we can offer Kinn. If our tents are falling apart and Kutrosky and his people are living in holes in the ground, then I can only imagine what conditions the soldiers are living in. Between our tents and the seeds and the rope, everything from the treasure chests, there’s got to be something I can offer him. We could set up trade relations. The soldiers seem to be good at hunting. Maybe we can trade furs for food. If we can’t live as one settlement, at least we can exist symbiotically. We can do this.”