Annah and the Children of Evohe

by Clay Gilbert

  “Of course,” Kyrin said. In the days since the trouble with Jonan had ended, Kyrin had come to be one of Annah’s closest friends. Annah knew that she understood what it was like to have things happen that one did not choose, for good or ill, and it was a bond between them. “What is it?”

  “I know that the attendant for a seed-maiden who is to be Promised is usually chosen by her Grove. They chose for me once before, and their choice was a good one. Even so, this time I would like to choose for myself.” She hesitated the briefest of moments, and then smiled at the girl. “And I would choose you again, if I may.”

  “You may,” Kyrin said, now smiling herself with an expression that looked like relief. “It is a far happier day.”

  “It is,”Annah said. “My compliments to Serra and whoever else was responsible for all of this,” Holder said. “Our compliments, I should say,” he added, glancing at Annah.

  “You are quite welcome,” Kyrin said. “And you should know, Holder, that since Jonan behaved so dishonorably toward Annah, and you defended her so well, opinion of you in the Grove, especially among the seed-youths and seed-maidens, is quite changed. Even Moren, who was most suspicious of your union, has come around.”

  “I didn’t do that much,” Holder said with a grin. “Annah had basically taken care of him already.” “I can speak for myself, Kyrin,” said a russet-haired seedyouth with brown eyes, getting up from his place at one of the blankets and greeting Holder. “I am Moren. I always prided myself on knowing the laws of our world and our people. But the monster that Jonan made of himself convinced me that sometimes, law needs to be looked at with different eyes. And sometimes, it must change. Oh— Ardan did tell me about the book he temporarily liberated. And, as you see, he still lives.” Moren laughed. “I wish the two of you nothing but joy, and a fruitful union.”

  “Thanks,” Holder said, clasping Moren’s hand. From, the distance, then, there came a rumbling like the sound of thunderor the stabilizer field from a ship coming out of hyperspace, Holder thought, a sinking feeling in his stomach. In another instant, the appearance of a point of fire high on the horizon, like the sudden rising of a second sun, told him he was right.

  Goodman, Holder thought, it has to be you. I don’t know how exactly you found me, or why you’re here. I know I told you that you could come, but this timing sucks. And I’ve never actually met you, but I might have to kill you.

  The reactions of the youths gathered on the Temple lawn were mixed. Both Kyrin and Ardan looked startled; even shocked at the sight of the craft, which was both larger and sleeker-looking than Holder’s ship. Moren looked fascinated, which was a bit of a surprise to Holder. He was standing back with Meri, who looked frightened.

  In the distance, Annah and Holder could see that the ship had landed, and a man was getting out of the cockpit. “I suppose we should go and say hello to him, Annah.”

  “It is that Goodman, is it not?” Annah asked, looking displeased. “The one we heard on the speakbox in your ship.” Her blue eyes flashed.

  “It is,” Holder said.

  “What is he doing here, Holder?” Annah asked, in a tired, tense voice. “On our Promising Day?”

  “I don’t know, Annah. I suppose he has a reason. We did decide he could come, you remember.”

  “I remember. I hope we do not come to regret that decision. I suppose we must go.”

  “I’ll go to meet him,” Holder said.

  “I think it is only right for me to come with you.”

  Holder could tell from her tone that what he had to say didn’t matter. “All right,” he said.

  “We will be back,” Annah told the others. “Try to enjoy yourselves.”

  “Are you sure you do not need anyone else to accompany you?” Moren asked.

  Annah gave a slight-a very slight-smile. “I think this is something Holder and I should investigate ourselves.”

  * * * I hope this wasn’t a mistake, Goodman thought. It looks like Homesec got more than one thing wrong about Evohe. It’s still here, somehow-and there are people still here. People. That wasn’t how the new Commander back on Earth would think of them, he knew. It wasn’t how that slime Caminos would think of them. And it wasn’t how a lot of his own people would think of them. Still, he’d gotten close enough while the ship was landing to see the faces of some of these Evoetians, and they looked pretty strange, that was true, but their faces—couple of them looked scared; couple of them looked like it was the coolest thing they’d ever seen in their lives—but they looked like people. Just people in different skin from mine.

  He’d seen lots of different shit when he was on Active, out in the field. Back before the HPF had started getting their fingers in everything, which really hadn’t been that long, when Goodman stopped to think about it, it hadn’t been unheard of for native-that’s humanand Offworlder soldiers to fight side-by-side. They fought just as hard, bled just as much, missed their families just as much, and died just the same as any other trooper in a trench. He’d known E.T.’s who loved Earth just as much as he ever had, and more than he loved it now. For some of them, it was the only home they’d ever known. And now, because the HPF had the new Commander in their pocket, their ‘home’ was kicking them out. Yeah, that was the thanks people got for doing a job sometimes, and these were people, too. Wait, Goodman thought, there’s Holder, but who’s that with him?

  “Don’t be mad,Annah,” Holder said. “At least not yet.”

  “I am not mad, my dearest. I am confused. I do not know why this man is here.”

  “He’s here because he’s trying to get out from under some bad shit on Earth. You know about it. We’ve talked about it. We talked to the Elders about it, for God’s sake.” “I know. I guess it is one thing to think something is all right when it is only being discussed—and sometimes different when it becomes a reality. This is our home, Holder. At least, it is my home. I thought it was beginning to be yours, as well.”

  “You are my home, Annah.”

  She smiled. “And yeah, Evohe is starting to feel like another home to me, too. But none of that would have happened if you hadn’t taken a chance on me.”

  “You are right. Let us give him a chance.”

  “Hello, Goodman,” Holder said. Goodman had made it halfway across the field between the structure he’d seen from the air and the place where he’d brought the ship down when Holder and the native-girl, he saw now she was a girl-had caught up to him.

  “What’s up, Holder?” Goodman shook Holder’s hand, and found he had a firm grip, the kind of handshake you gave someone you’d just met in the barracks, measuring them up. Doesn’t seem like he’s gone all fucked up out here, Goodman thought. So what’s the story with the girl?

  “Nice to finally meet you, Goodman. Your timing’s a little inconvenient, but—never mind. How’d you find us? I figured I’d have to send you some coordinates or something.”

  “Heh. That ship’s pretty souped-up. I picked it up from a guy back on Earth. It’s pretty crazy when just about the only guy you can trust is about the next best thing from a pirate. Anyways, the ship can track most signals, and it’s got a cloaking device so it can’t be seen unless the pilot wants it seen. Who’s your friend?”

  Annah frowned, and slid her arm around Holder’s waist. “Goodman, this is my girlfriend, Annah. I guess I should really say she’s my fiancée, but the Promising ceremony’s not til tonight.”

  Annah held out her hand in greeting, the way she’d seen Holder do many times now. Goodman took it, pressing it not so firmly as he had Holder’s. Annah thought Goodman looked as though he thought he might hurt her. Perhaps this one is all right, after all, she thought, and smiled at him. “Hello, Goodman. Do all of the people of Earth only use their family names, or is that merely a custom of the males?” She tilted her head, as if to punctuate the question.

  Goodman laughed. “No, it’s more a military thing. I’m pleased to meet you, Annah. You can call me Kale, if you want.”


  “I appreciate that. It would not be right, though, to be more intimate with you than I am with my own mate. Thank you for explaining it to me, though, Goodman.”

  She leaned against Holder, and he stroked her hair. “Come with us,” Annah said to Goodman. “There is food and drink, and you are probably tired. I will warn you, though, there will also be questions.” She smiled.

  This is already getting interesting, Goodman thought. Real food, thought Goodman, lying back on one of the blankets that had been spread on the lawn, in front of what Holder had told him was called the Temple of Promise. Fruit, meat, and bread: unsullied by chemicals, and unsynthesized by machines.

  “Thank you,” he told Holder andAnnah, yes, that was her name, Holder’s Evoetian girlfriend—no, fiancée, he’d said. Holy shit. Who’d believe it? “Seriously, thank you. That’s the best meal I’ve had in ten years.”

  “You are welcome, Goodman,” Annah said. “But it was neither myself nor Holder who prepared the food. Today, we are guests as well. It is our Promising Day, Holder’s and mine, and the folk of our Grove, Laughing Waters Grove, named for the stream that runs near this very place, prepared this meal in our honor. But it is no dishonor to share it with you. And so, welcome.”

  I hate the HPF, Goodman thought. Annah had said perhaps the most human thing he’d had said to him in ten years. Not military efficiency, not rank-mandated courtesy, but simple kindness. That was a dead thing, back on Earth. The new Commander, his new Vice-Commander, and everyone else Goodman could think of back at Homesec, plus that slime Caminos-they’d all call Annah, and all her people, “bugs” or “ET’s.” Goodman had learned to judge people quickly, fairly, and correctly when he’d been in the trenches. Annah was no bug, and neither, he suspected, were the rest of her people. She was worth a thousand of Homesec’s government goons. Lucky man, Holder, he thought.

  The questions that Annah had warned Goodman about had not been nearly as plentiful as he’d expected, thanks to a brief explanation he’d given about who he’d been back on Earth, some of the things that’d happened to him recently, and how he’d come to be on Evohe, now. When he told the whole story to Annah and Holder in the first place, he’d left out the small detail of the lethal little blue payload his ship was carrying.

  He was hoping to get a chance to explain it to them both in private before any unintentional, and a lot more uncomfortable, disclosure ended up getting made. Recent events had begun to change Goodman, but he was the first to admit that there was still a vestige inside him of the company man he had been: a man for whom many things were disclosed on a need-to-know basis. He did think Holder and Annah needed to know, or at least deserved to know, about the ‘marble’ and its significance—but this was not the time.

  The feast was over, and before long, it would be time for the Promising ritual they had both mentioned to him, judging from the recent arrivals of a number of other Evoetians to the temple site, all of them older than Annah and the youths he’d met earlier. Time for the old folks to see if the younger ones have taken care of everything, he thought with a smile. Oh yeah, the kids are alright, he thought, remembering that old song by The Who. They did seem to have done just fine.

  When the last of the feast-blankets and leavings of food had been cleared from the Temple lawn, Holder noticed that most of the Old Ones, who had seemed to arrive mainly for a social call and to take part, briefly, in the feast, were beginning to disperse, along with most of the youths.

  “You and Goodman must leave soon, too,” Annah told Holder. “Kyrin will help to prepare me for the ceremony, and I have told some of the other seed-maidens they may stay as well. But you must not be here, beloved, nor any other male.”

  “They do this on my world, too, but they usually wait for the night before the actual wedding-err-Choosing day. This would be thought of as an ‘engagement.’”

  “You cannot expect everything to be as it is on your world,” said Annah. “A seed-maiden, even if she is sure of her Promised One, as I am sure of you, must be allowed time for reflection. Time, even, to speak with her Elders, if she wishes. Love can endure silences, dearest. It can survive distance. And I have seen things in Vision which tell me this silence may be shorter, this distance far smaller, than ones we may be forced to endure in the future.”

  Now she tells me. He put his arms around her waist. “Annah, what-” She put her finger to Holder’s lips. “It is not for you to worry about, now. It is a Vision, nothing more, for now.” She smiled. “Now, you must go. You go with Goodman, Ardan, and the other males back to the Promising grounds. They know how to find the way, even if you have forgotten, my dearest.” She smiled, standing on tiptoe to give him a slow, deep kiss. “I love you, Holder, as the First Ones so loved the cloak of night that they gave it the shining stars as ornaments, so that all those who beheld it from the world below might better see its beauty. You are my midnight sky, and my shining stars, and no other could hope to match your light. I will see you soon, my dearest.”

  Holder found it hard to speak for a moment. “See you soon, beloved,” he managed finally. “So, getting engaged, huh, Holder?” Goodman said. He and Holder were at the front of the group of Evoetian seedyouths making their way back to the Promising grounds.

  “Yeah,” Holder said. “I thought I was done with worrying about women. Thought I’d probably just be alone. But then I metAnnah.”

  “Yeah,” Goodman said. “She seems like a great girl. But do you really want to get so involved? I mean, didn’t you tell me you have to wait a whole year--”

  “What’s your point, Goodman?” Holder was hearing in Goodman’s words a little too much of what he imagined he and Annah would run into if they ever made it back to Earth.

  “My point is, I don’t know-she’s great, but can you and she really understand each other?” “Oh, she understands me, Goodman. You think her age means something? Her people can live practically forever, so their sense of time is bound to be a little different. I guess I’m supposed to care that her skin’s different, too; that her body’s a little different? I’m different to her, too. My peopleour people, Goodman, yours and mine-they tried to destroy her world. Evoetians have racial memory. Annah remembers that, as if she was there, even though it happened about eighty years before she was even born.”

  Holder paused for a moment, letting the words sink in; watching the look of shock in Goodman’s eyes. “She could have let me die when I crashed here. That’s sure as hell what our people would have done to her. That or dissect her. Annah and I love each other, Goodman. If Earth doesn’t want us, we’ll stay right here on Evohe, or we’ll find some other place of our own. Point is, we’ll do it together. Got a problem with that? ‘Cause if you do, you can take that pirate wagon and fly it right the fuck back the way you came.”

  “You’re right, Holder,” Goodman said, looking over at him. “Hell, man, I don’t even know what I’m saying. “I like Annah. She’s great. And if you love each other, who the hell cares what package it comes in, right? Shit. I’m probably just jealous. I’d give my left nut to have a girl look at me the way Annah looks at you. I’ll probably never have that. Thrown my whole fuckin’life away, Holder, on a government that just chews people like me up and spits ‘em back out when it’s done. I’ve got problems of my own. I can’t go back to Earth. I didn’t know where else I could go.”

  Holder stopped; let the rest of the group get ahead of them. “What do you mean, you can’t go back to Earth?”

  “I’ve been-involved in something,” Goodman said. “It started as a mission for Homesec.”

  The look in Goodman’s eyes reminded Holder of footage he’d seen of the veterans who’d come home from the last war. “Go on.” “The Vice-Commander said he wanted me to infiltrate the Human Preservation Front-you know, the anti-alien group back home. They wanted me to impersonate this guy Piscene who used to run weapons to and from Earth for the HPF. I got hooked up with a ghost-suit so I’d look just like him.”

  What the
hell? thought Holder. “You know what a number it does on your head, living in a dead man’s skin? Nah, I’m sure you don’t. No one should. Anyway, I found out the truth. The Vice-Commander wanted me up there, in part at least, to make sure things ran smoothly not for Homesec, but for the HPF. If there’s any difference anymore.”

  “Up where?” “They sent me to this station called Erewhon, run by this gangster Caminos who’s in with the HPF. And while I was up there, out of the way, Commander Reynolds got taken out. Yeah, it was a ‘terrorist attack,’ supposedly, but I’m beginning to think it was planned. Because Campbell? The new Commander? He’s HPF to the core.”

  Holder looked toward the torches of the Promising grounds. They’ll be waiting for us. They’ll be wondering what’s taking so long. She’ll be wondering. But he had to hear the rest of this. “So what’s all that got to do with you? Why wouldn’t you be able to go back to Earth?”

  “Lots of reasons. I’m not sure how many people know I’ve been ‘Piscene’ for the past several months. I’m not sure who had the real Piscene killed, or why. I don’t know if the Commander knows that Kale Goodman’s not his puppet anymore. And the worst of it—well, the worst of it is in my ship. That’s the part I hate like hell.”

  “What have you done, Goodman?” Holder asked. “Saved Earth’s ass, I hope. Anyways, Caminos gave Piscene-gave methe HPF’s latest weapon. He wanted me to take it to Earth and give it to the new Commander, I’m sure. It’s a little blue marble, looks kinda like Earth in miniature, and it’s filled with a poison gas that’ll kill nearly everything on Earth that’s of Offworld origin, and send up a cloud of poison that’ll keep Earth off-limits for who knows how long. Caminos called it an ‘alien fumigator’, but it’s basically a genocide bomb. Not only is it terrible in and of itself, but it’ll make Earth itself a target. We both know you don’t have to look something in the eye to kill it.”

  “That’s sure true,” Holder said. So this ‘killer marble’—it’s in your ship? You brought it here?”