Her father, as the new director, didn’t share his view, and so the maglev train now ran between Micavery and Darlith.
The outskirts of town were filling up with new housing units being built by residents, but as they approached Main Street, there were a number of businesses already in operation. One of these was a café serving morning brew, the local equivalent of coffee. It was more of a tea, really. Andy liked it a lot more than coffee.
Another was a new store specializing in barter and locally made merchandise.
“The last time I was here, there were maybe three or four buildings.” Colin looked around in wonder.
Andy nodded. “Dad has me go over all the manifests. There are new people coming in all the time. He’s been trying to use some of the refugees here, the ones with building skills, but many of the refugees aren’t much good at practical things.”
“I’d imagine they are mostly those rich enough to have bought themselves passage up here.”
“That and the lucky ones.”
Andy checked her mount into the stable from where he’d come, and Colin slapped Shadowfax on the rump, sending the horse back home.
There was a lively farmer’s market going on along the main street, with all kinds of produce—apples, corn, berries, lettuce, nuts, and much more. The produce came in from the farms around Micavery and the new estates that were springing up on the outskirts of Darlith, like the one Colin and Trip ran.
People were trading produce for crons, the small lightweight coins manufactured by the world-mind in a variety of colors.
The air in the city was festive and alive.
They approached the train station, a one-story building built out of brown bricks. There was no landscaping to speak of in front of the building; it was strictly utilitarian. It was capped with a sloped roof for rain runoff, and in the middle, a bell tower stood another two stories above the main structure.
Andy glanced sideways at Colin, wondering what this place looked like to him. “The camp’s on the other side of the mountains, closer to Micavery. Hey, looks like we’re just in time!” She pointed down the tracks. One of the magnetic trains was just pulling up to the station from the north. The train consisted of an engine, three passenger cars, and three platform cars, all loaded down with produce. “Come on, let’s see if we can get a good seat.”
Colin followed her.
“The train won’t leave for another fifteen minutes,” she explained. “They have to unload the cargo first.” They climbed aboard one of the passenger cars, looking for seats. There was no cost to ride, as it was subsidized by AmSplor.
Andy found them seats on the east side, where they’d have the best view as the train climbed into the mountains.
As they waited for it to depart, they talked more about Old Earth.
It had always held a fascination for Andy, someplace mythical that she never expected to visit for herself.
Colin was full of old stories from when he’d grown up there, on a farm in California. Dealing with livestock, riding under that big sky, surfing the waves at the beach.
She tried to imagine California, a place where the highways stretched on forever and the ocean was even bigger.
An ocean. What a strange thought.
Out here, the only ocean was the depths of space.
At last the train lifted off the tracks silently and began its progress up toward the mountains that separated Darlith and Micavery. The village was quickly left behind, and soon they were climbing through the foothills.
The ceiling was clear, affording them a view of the world above. Andy watched as it came slowly closer.
It was hard to make out any details, but she could see the edges of farmland, patches of forest, and little streams that ran through the land up there.
Then the train plunged into the blackness of a tunnel. Andy pressed her face against the glass, trying to see the tunnel walls in the darkness.
They burst out on the other side of the mountains a moment later. Once again, the entire world was laid out before her, Lake Jackson ahead and the McAvery Peninsula jutting out into it like a long finger.
This was her normal stomping grounds when she was Forever-side, but rarely did she get such a great view of it. The South Pole loomed ahead, the elevator and Topside launching platform all but invisible from this distance. The dark rock was a hazy blue from there.
The train hummed to a stop. “We’re here.” Andy grabbed her bag.
“Where’s the camp?” Colin asked.
“It’s about a ten-minute walk.” She pointed down into the valley to the east, where a makeshift structure stood. “Come on!”
A DEEP rumbling in the ground below his sleep sack woke Eddy up. He opened his eyes to see the cavern shaking, dust and debris raining down on him. He closed his eyes and started to scramble for the entrance, drones be damned, but then the shaking stopped. The rain of dirt and pebbles settled down to a cloud of disturbed dust.
“What the fuck was that?” Eddy wiped dirt from his face and stared outside. The world looked normal, early morning in the Monongahela National Forest.
“Let me grab the x-band.” Davian opened the truck door. “We’re lucky the whole place didn’t come down on our heads.”
Eddy scratched the scar on his left temple where he’d had his loop removed. It was too easy to be tracked these days with the implants. “It’s been here longer than either of us has been alive and will probably be here long after we’re gone.”
Davian snorted. He turned the tuner on the little black radio. Mostly there was just static.
Finally he found something.
“—not sure if it’s more widespread. Repeat, Pittsburgh has taken a direct hit from a pulse weapon, likely of Sino-African origin. Initial casualty estimates are in the low millions….”
“Jesus. Turn it off.” Eddy spat on the ground.
Davian shot him a look. “Still think this place is gonna survive?”
“How the hell would I know?”
“Fair enough.” He put the x-band away. “Any friends or family there?”
Eddy shook his head. “Not really. Just an ex-boyfriend.”
“Me neither.”
“We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?” Eddy walked over to the cavern entrance to look out at the darkness. “Wreck the whole goddamned world?” The cavern faced south, and Pittsburgh was—had been—to the north. The view was deceptively serene.
Davian put a hand on his shoulder. “Nothing we can do about it. Just have to work on getting our own asses off this rock faster, is all.” He was a dirty mess, like Eddy was, but they had little time to waste with personal hygiene.
They used a couple of towels to clean themselves off with some water from the tank they’d hauled up with them. A quick meal of ready-packs and Eddy was back in the jumper, checking over the rest of the ship for leaks.
As he worked, he wondered what had happened to Tim, the guy he’d met in basic training who hadn’t cared whether he was physically male or female.
Who had spent a year with him in the Asian Pacific theater before Eddy had met Davian.
Who had likely just lost his life in the attack on Pittsburgh, 150 miles north of where they sat.
He shook his head and returned to work.
DAVIAN TRIED hard not to show it. The dirt on his face probably helped.
The attack on Pittsburgh had shaken him to his core.
Though he’d abandoned them long ago—or more accurately, they had abandoned him—his parents had lived in Green Tree, a suburb just outside the city.
He still remembered his mother standing in her doorway, her look of disappointment clear on her face after he had flunked out of college. His suitcases had been packed, and she’d brooked no argument as she sent him away.
“A man must make his own way in the world.” She’d refused his entreaties to let him stay.
He had nowhere to go, no friends to speak of, and no money.
“Your father an
d I can’t take care of you anymore. You’re twenty-one. At your age, I was already through college and working for the state.”
“But Mamma….”
She turned her back and closed the door behind her, leaving him on the porch, alone.
Of course, it had been as much about the drinking and the fighting as it had been about leaving school.
He’d enrolled in the NAU Armed Forces the next day and had never gone back home.
He’d carried the bitterness of that parting with him these past six years, but now… now they were probably gone, and he’d never get the chance to set things right between them.
It changed nothing.
They were leaving this place soon anyway, and he never would have seen them again, in any case.
Somehow, knowing they were gone was different.
“You’re awfully quiet down there,” Eddy called from the Moonjumper, up in the truck bed. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.” He hoped Eddy didn’t hear the catch in his throat. Goddammit. “Just thinking about all those people.”
Two of them, in particular.
Chapter Four: Refugees
COLIN STOOD on the slight rise above the encampment, taking in the picture of human misery there.
It was like the slums of Venice, California, where the saltwater had invaded the low-lying lands and the original population had moved out, leaving only those who were too poor to leave.
Maybe it wasn’t that bad, but the ramshackle shelters, made of sheets of plas draped over wooden poles, seemed to stretch for miles. He could see that the river ran foul, even from here. There were just too many people in one place, without adequate facilities and services.
Several columns of smoke drifted up from the campsite; off to the left, an entire stand of alifir trees had been chopped down for fuel. They would grow back, but still, this encampment represented a cancer on the land, the virgin territory of Forever. It hurt him to see it abused like this, though there was no denying the need.
A traxx was unloading food—mostly fresh produce—probably brought in from some of the working farms inside Forever. A long line of people waited to collect their share, and it was clear that there wasn’t enough for them all.
“How long has it been like this?” he asked Andy.
She shook her head. “It’s been growing by the day. We’re struggling to keep everyone fed.”
He shook his head. All that food in Darlith, and the people here were fighting over scraps. “What about the farmer’s market?”
Andy shrugged. “We’ve asked. No one wants to give up their goods. They’d rather sell it at the market to make a profit.”
Colin frowned. Business run amok had been the downfall of Earth, in his estimation. He’d have to see what he could do to prevent the same thing from happening up here. “Come along, then.” He gestured for Andy to follow him. “Let’s find out what’s going on down there.”
ANDY FOLLOWED the ex-director down the hillside to the edge of the camp. The food from the traxx had just run out, and the line, still hundreds of people long, was starting to dissipate with a lot of grumbling.
They approached the two-person crew standing behind the traxx. “Dania, Trent… it’s good to see you again!” He held out his hand.
“Director!” Dania’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, it’s good to see you too. What are you doing down here? I thought you’d retired somewhere in the wilderness.”
“Director Hammond called me out of retirement to try to do something about the immigration crisis we’re facing.” He indicated the ramshackle shelter.
“Yes, sir. We’re doing what we can.”
“Is there any kind of organized authority here from Transfer Station?”
Dania and Trent looked at each other and shook their heads. “Just us, sir. We’re all spread kinda thin.”
He nodded. “Can I borrow one of these?” He hefted an empty crate into the air.
“Of course.” She gave him a big grin. “Going to get up on your soap box?”
“Something like that.” Colin set the crate on the ground upside down and climbed on top of it. He put his finger and thumb between his lips and let out a piercing whistle.
The crowd went silent, and everyone turned to look at him.
“Excuse me. I’m here from the Station Authority.”
The crowd gathered around him. Their faces were gaunt. They’d probably had little to eat on the journey up from Earth, and not all that much here either.
“Are there any leaders in this community?” he called out.
The gathered mass looked at one another and shrugged.
“There’s Mestra Vaughn,” one of the men near the back said. “She’s been looking after people who are injured.”
“That will do. Is she here?”
“No, but I can go get her.”
“Please. In the meantime, I want to assure you that we will get things sorted out. We didn’t expect such an influx of new faces up here.”
Andy admired how he stepped up and took control of the situation. Her father was like that too.
“Where’s the food?” a young black woman called. “My kids are going hungry.”
“We’ll get more food. The important thing—”
“What about sanitation? We have no restrooms, nowhere to bathe or shower besides the river.” This from an older man with gray hair, dressed in a torn shirt and jeans.
“We will take care of that too, I promise you. We must all stay calm—”
“What about clothing? Blankets?”
The crowd murmured, and Andy could see the director was losing control.
“All your complaints will be addressed in good time—”
“We don’t have time!” a bearded man shouted. “We’ve been here for weeks without basic necessities. Why are we being kept out in the woods like animals, while others get to live in houses in Micavery and Darlith, with roofs over their heads and meals in their stomachs?”
There was general assent, and the crowd inched forward menacingly.
“Maybe we should get out of here?” Andy whispered. She’d never seen anything like this in her short life, though she’d read about the water riots in Arizona and Texas in her history texts. One thing she was sure of—she didn’t want to be in the middle of one.
“Everyone calm down.” A black woman of indeterminate age with dreadlocks stepped out of the crowd. She was dressed in bright gold and orange in a traditional African pattern and leaned on a walking stick. “Thomas Jones, leave the poor man alone,” she said to the man with the beard.
The man looked down at the ground sheepishly.
“I’m sure Mr.—?”
“McAvery,” Colin supplied smoothly.
“I’m sure Mr. McAvery is here to help. What good will it do to chase him away before we have a chance to hear what he has to say?” She came to stand in front of the director, putting both hands on the top of her walking stick and staring at him.
Although Colin was standing on a wooden crate, she seemed his equal in stature.
Colin seemed to sense it too. He stepped down and held out his hand to her. “Ms. Vaughn, I assume?”
“Mrs. Vaughn, though my husband is long dead.” She took his hand and shook it warmly. “You’re Director McAvery, I presume?”
“Ex-director. But yes.”
“Okay, y’all, there’s nothing more to see here. Back to your families.” She shooed the crowd away, and they dispersed, though some shot Andy and Colin dirty looks.
“This is Andy.” Colin pulled her forward.
“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
Mestra snorted. “You can always count on the young ones to remind you how old you are.” She turned back to Colin, giving him an appraising look. “You are here to help, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “Andy’s father, Director Hammond, called me in. Maybe we could start with—”
“Let’s start with a tour. Once you have a better idea what we’re de
aling with here, you can tell me what you can do about it.”
Colin looked at Andy, who shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Andy liked her instantly. She was one of those take-no-crap people.
“Come on, then.” She beckoned them to follow her and led them into the camp.
Someone had driven poles into the ground at various intervals, and wide sheets of gray plas were stretched from one to another, making a tent structure. “The plas isn’t continuous, so it leaks quite a bit when it rains.” It was also fairly dark inside the structure, with no plants to shed light underneath. Only the ambient light of the air provided a little illumination.
The wind kicked up, and the plas rattled, sounding like thunder.
“Try sleeping through that at night.”
“I can imagine.” Colin looked back at her.
Andy shook her head. “I couldn’t.”
They followed Mestra along a track worn into the trampled grass that led toward the center of the tent.
Andy looked around. Groups of people sat on the ground or against the poles, staring back at her grimly. Their faces were covered in dirt, and their clothes were grimy too. There were hundreds and hundreds of them.
The lucky ones were eating the produce they’d gotten from the traxx, earning them dirty looks from their neighbors.
“First of all,” Mestra was saying, “there’s not enough food to go around. They deliver enough for a quarter of the camp each day, and we’re lucky there haven’t been more fights over it yet.
“We also need medical help. These people come from all over the globe, and some of them brought influenza with them, as well as various types of rhinoviruses. They spread quickly in such close quarters.”
“Are you a doctor?” Andy asked.
She shook her head, her dreads dancing. “No. I was a nurse for many years. We do have a couple doctors here, though. Dr. Schmidt is from Seattle, and Dr. Bui is Filipino, from Hawaii. They’re struggling to provide treatment, with no medicine and little in the way of equipment.” She waved at a little girl who stood by the pathway, staring at them. “Hey, Raisa!” She ruffled the girl’s hair. “Run back to your mother now.”
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