Vagabonds

by Hao Jingfang

  “Now?” Rudy struggled to keep the excitement off his face. “Of course. Anytime.”

  * * *

  In the evening, after he came home, Rudy went straight to Hans Sloan’s study.

  His grandfather stood before the window, browsing through a thick book. Behind him, thick hardcover books with gilded pages filled the bookcase like some monument. Rudy didn’t dare to make much noise, knowing that Hans disliked being disturbed while reading. From childhood he understood that the books meant quietude; they were the true protectors of this room. The words were high ideals, principles, his grandfather’s understanding of human nature. On Mars, because paper was so expensive, few books were printed, and even fewer citizens could keep so many frozen words. Rudy took pride in the books, but he knew he had to respect them as well.

  Hearing Rudy come in, Hans turned around and set down the book.

  Rudy remained at the door. Softly he said, “I’m back, Grandfather.”

  Hans nodded. “Did you leave the afternoon session early?”

  “Yes. I brought Legislator Franz to see some simulations.”

  Hans’s voice revealed neither praise nor criticism. “What did he think?”

  “He was very interested. He thought my plan was feasible. Other than the advantage of low costs from eliminating the tunnels, it also utilizes energy more efficiently. The magnetic rails could draw power from solar panels placed on the mountainside, and eventually they could even tap into hydropower from the downflow. Also—”

  Hans broke in gently. “I understand. I’m familiar with your plan.” After a pause he added, “You move fast.”

  Rudy looked at his grandfather’s face, trying to see if he meant something deeper by that. But Hans’s expression was placid, revealing nothing. The silence became awkward.

  The night before, Hans told Rudy that the decision would be made with a Boule vote. The decision to bring Ceres here and to engage with Earth had both been made by the Boule, so he would continue the tradition this time. Hans explained that the vote was only going to pick an engineering plan based on feasibility and potential, but no permanent decision about the future lifestyle of Mars would be made.

  Rudy understood, however, that the engineering plan would essentially determine the lifestyle. He said nothing at the time, but instantly he began to plan the best way to take advantage of this knowledge. Hans was referring to his quickness of mind.

  Rudy tried to break the uncomfortable silence. “Grandfather, I’m sorry to be so direct … but are you against leaving Mars City?”

  “Why do you ask that?”

  “I think you know that if you were to submit the decision to a plebiscite, most of the younger generation would choose to move so they’d be given a chance to shine through this historic opportunity. The Boule, on the other hand, is full of elders whose best accomplishments are already behind them. Naturally they’d lean toward preserving the status quo. To submit the decision to a Boule vote is to … maximize the chances of staying in Mars City. Am I right?”

  “The reasoning you’ve described … is that also the basis for your own decision?”

  Rudy hesitated for just a moment. “Yes. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I think most people think as I do.”

  “Perhaps you’re right,” said Hans. “But I don’t think it’s going to influence the final result.”

  “Why not? I think it will.”

  “As you saw today, even with a Boule vote, your side has a good chance of winning.”

  Rudy tried to find signs of disappointment or mockery in Hans’s expression, but again he came up with nothing. Hans looked back at him as though reading a book, focused, observant, but revealing no emotion. For some reason Rudy began to fear his grandfather. He had the sense that while Hans knew every step of his plan, he couldn’t make out what Hans intended at all.

  Rudy suggested that Hans extend the period of debate. Hans acknowledged the suggestion but didn’t say if he would implement it.

  Rudy left the study and stood in the hallway alone. He was anxious, and he didn’t know if his grandfather was also anxious. Even in his own mind, he had been trying to avoid the real reason he was so enthusiastic about migrating. He had imagined so many futures, and in every one of them he stood on top of the mountains, directing others to do his bidding as the new city rose around him. He could no longer accept the possibility that none of these scenes might come true. He felt ashamed for such naked ambition. When he was a little boy, he thought he would grow up to be public-spirited, making all his decisions based on what was objectively good for the collective. Today was the first time he had ever opened himself up to reveal his true desires. He wasn’t sure if it was the result of the exciting success this afternoon or some power exerted by his grandfather’s quiet words.

  As he struggled with his conflicting emotions, he heard the crisp laughter of two girls at the other end of the hallway. The sweetness of their voices contrasted strongly with his long shadow on the floor, as crude as a rusted iron club. In the last rays of twilight, he couldn’t tell who, he or the girls, was more out of place. He really had no interest in conversation right now, but out of habit he went toward Luoying’s room.

  He saw Gielle through the open door.

  “Rudy!” she called to him happily.

  Rudy nodded at her. He turned to Luoying. “How are you feeling?”

  He saw that Luoying’s hair was a bit messy and her forehead was sweaty. She had just come home.

  “I’m good,” said Luoying, smiling. “Great, even.”

  “Liar!” Gielle tugged on her arm and grinned at Rudy. “She’s acting strange all the time. I think she’s in love!”

  Gielle giggled. Though she was talking about Luoying, her own face flushed.

  Rudy found Gielle’s theory not implausible. Luoying was at just the age to be obsessed with romance. To be honest, he had been concerned with her odd behavior lately. Sometimes she would sit by herself next to the window, her arms around her drawn-up knees, doing nothing and not answering anyone. Sometimes she disappeared for hours without telling anyone where she had been. It had been more than a month since she had come back from her adventure, and he was worried about her. He was almost glad that everything could be explained by her being in love.

  “There’s nothing of the sort going on,” Luoying said to Gielle. “Don’t gossip.”

  But her denial was perfunctory, as though she lacked the interest in making it convincing.

  “Oh, I don’t think it’s gossip.” Gielle turned back to Rudy. “You’d better interrogate her. Look at how she’s always busy working on that big project. I bet it’s a gift for her boyfriend!”

  Rudy looked where Gielle was pointing and saw a pile of random materials by the window: cardboard, metal frames, ribbons of various colors. Some were cut into odd shapes and already pieced together. He couldn’t tell what she was making, but it was obviously something quite large. He had never noticed these things before.

  “I told you, it’s not a gift,” said Luoying.

  “Then what is it?”

  “Just something to publicize an event.”

  “What event?”

  “Something for the Mercury Group.”

  “I thought you guys are under isolation.”

  “Just for a month. It’s almost over.”

  “Hmm … Who’s organizing this?” Rudy asked.

  Luoying looked him straight in the eyes. “It’s not a boy. Really, don’t listen to Gielle. Chania wanted to host a salon, that’s all. And this really isn’t a gift.”

  “Is Chania that girl I met at the hospital?” asked Rudy.

  “That’s her.”

  “Isn’t she a gymnast? What kind of salon is she hosting?”

  “Yes, she’s a gymnast, but she’s always been interested in classic essays and papers.”

  “What sort of classics, exactly?”

  “Oh, you know—”

  Gielle interrupted: “Rudy!”

  Luo
ying and Rudy looked at her, but she blushed, as though suddenly losing the courage to say what she had been about to say. “Um … I guess it’s late. I should go home.”

  “You’re welcome at our home anytime,” said Rudy, not really paying attention to her.

  But Gielle didn’t get up right away. She pointed to the side. “Can you help me carry that?”

  Rudy saw that she was pointing at a gigantic planter with some flowering plant inside. The plant seemed familiar, but he couldn’t recall the name.

  “It’s from our garden,” Luoying explained. “Gielle likes it, so I’m giving her some.”

  Rudy was annoyed but tried to hide it. He picked up the planter and walked down the stairs with Gielle. He had been hoping to seize this opportunity to have a good talk with Luoying, but now the moment was gone, as impossible to recover as dissipating smoke.

  He wasn’t so self-absorbed as to not understand that Gielle liked him, but in his mind he was thinking only of Chania. Few girls left such a vivid impression after just one meeting. The corners of her eyes lifted up like the wings of a bird, and he liked the proud way she held herself. She was beautiful in an unembellished way. He wasn’t so much interested in what she had to say or read, but he was curious about her. Normally, he wouldn’t have talked to Luoying about a girl as he had just done.

  Outside the door of the house, Rudy looked up and saw Luoying gazing at the horizon, lost in thought.

  “I heard that you’re promoting your magnetic car technology,” Gielle said.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “That’s wonderful.” Gielle smiled sweetly. “I was thinking … maybe you could make the seats dangling from the rails shaped like the letter C, with a colorful veil draping over the front.”

  “I guess I could,” said Rudy noncommittally.

  “Could you also hang a small platform below the seat and fill it with flowers?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  “How about adding a waiting area in front of every house?”

  “What’s the point of that?”

  “So a boy could wait there as his date arrives by magnetic car, of course.” Gielle grinned at him. “Maybe there’s no ‘point,’ but life would be so boring if everything has to have a point. You have to have some creativity, right?”

  Creativity. Rudy looked at her helplessly and sighed inside.

  He thought he had finally figured out what the greatest invention on Mars was. It wasn’t the central archive or the fusion engine but the mini-maker. Programmable and easy to use, the mini-maker was capable of assembling small objects out of raw materials. By changing the programming, it was easy to get a mini-maker to output variations on the same basic object. These machines had been invented at first for isolated outposts, but other inventors had extended their capabilities. Galiman had used them in the construction of houses, and Tyler later used them for garments.

  Women always think of creativity in terms of how something looks, thought Rudy. Here they’ll change the color; there they’ll add a bow. Or maybe they’ll make a seat look like an eggshell. And then they think they’re “designing.” But they don’t care about the concept, the idea! Good thing we have the mini-maker to keep them busy all day tweaking appearances.

  We always have to keep women busy somehow, lest they make a mess of the world.

  * * *

  At half past eight, after his daily walk after dinner, Rudy arrived at Don Juan, a bar favored by many of the legislators lately. He pushed open the pseudo-classic style door and surveyed the inside. Richardson, Ward, Franz, and Juan were all there. He felt good. They are all here.

  Don Juan was pretty cramped, but it was so popular because it had long tables. Most bars had small tables placed far apart, but at Don Juan it was possible for a large crowd to all gather around a long table. The long and angled bar along the walls provided another place for patrons to stand and talk. The place wasn’t well lit and the drink menu wasn’t impressive, but the decor gave an alluring sense of possibilities, making everyone bolder in the dimness.

  Rudy found a place at the side of the long table and poured himself a drink. Soon he was drawn into the flowing conversation. He leaned back in his chair, one leg propped against the table, laughing at the racy stories being exchanged. A red-faced, balding, middle-aged man sat next to him, stuttering a bit. On the other side of the table he saw Franz engaged in a whispered conversation with another man. Richardson was at the bar, glancing at his watch from time to time as though waiting for someone.

  Rudy saw Juan making his way through the crowd toward him. His dark round face glowed from alcohol, and he guffawed loudly as he joked with the others and slapped them forcefully on the shoulders. He looked meaningfully at Rudy, and although Rudy caught his look, he pretended not to notice. Satisfied, Juan looked away.

  “You asked for cod! I remember it like yesterday,” Juan shouted at a man who appeared already inebriated.

  “No way!” replied the man, laughing. “I haven’t eaten cod in more than two years.”

  “Want to bet? We can go ask Lucy. She was there.”

  “What do you want to bet?”

  Rudy continued to converse with the balding man, but he wasn’t really listening. Holding his tumbler, he looked about, absorbed in his own thoughts. Amid the noise of clinking glasses and laughter, he reviewed every step he had taken during the last two years and his recent plan.

  After being a member of the Boule for two years, he had complicated feelings regarding the body. He had dreamed of making an impact right away, but once he was inside, he realized that no one cared about what he had to say. No one cared that he had graduated early at the top of his class or that he was the grandson of the consul. No one was going to deviate from established procedure because he was so exceptional; indeed, no one even thought he was exceptional. All the legislators had their own proud histories of accomplishments and issues they cared about, and none paid much attention to a junior member. For the first time in his life, he was ignored. During his first year in the Boule, he had had the sensation of having fallen from the apex of life to its nadir.

  But Rudy was adaptable. Soon he adjusted to the reality of his station as the most insignificant member of that august body. He spent hours in the central archive gathering background on every legislator: curriculum vitae, research, past proposals, voting records, feedback from the public, history of complaints, political leanings, and political styles. In his mind, the structure of the Boule was like a three-dimensional model of the landscape, gradually becoming clearer as he added more details. He could now see patterns in the conversation groups at the bar and deduce the general goals of each conversation partner. He had begun to manipulate in a way that he had once thought was never necessary. He told no one of these developments, not even his own grandfather.

  They say I’ve never suffered a setback, he thought, but that’s because no one knows my setbacks. So many mope about all day, hanging their heads as though they’ve suffered the worst fortune has to offer, but in reality it was nothing. They think not passing a test is a big deal. So absurd. The only setback worth thinking about is the distance between one’s ideals and reality. Someone with no ideals has no right to talk of setbacks.

  He raised his chin and drained his tumbler in one gulp. When he set the glass down, he saw that Juan had slipped into the seat next to him. Still laughing at some joke, Juan draped an arm over his shoulder and raised a glass, just as he did with everyone he met at the bar. Rudy felt the weight of Juan’s arm, but he strained to smile easily and clinked glasses with him.

  “Good thing you’re here tonight,” Juan whispered. “I just got a piece of important intelligence.”

  Rudy laughed exaggeratedly, as though he had just heard some great joke. Then he lowered his head and whispered with his lips barely moving, “What is it?”

  Juan looked to the side and laughed some more. “Earth has confirmed plans to build new defensive bases on the Moon.”

  “So they susp
ect something is going on.”

  “Definitely.”

  “What do you want to do, then?”

  “We have to hurry. It will be too late if they complete the bases.”

  “I understand. Is there anything you need from me?”

  “Just wait. I’ll be in touch.”

  Juan pulled away and laughed, slapping Rudy’s shoulder as though he had just told some lewd joke. Rudy put on an awkward expression and blushed to complete the performance. Juan stood up and soon joined other conversations, his rotund body swaying as he slowly headed for the bar. He stopped next to a tall man and started to talk to him loudly about some unimportant matter. Rudy looked down thoughtfully, appearing to observers like someone drowsy from drinking.

  The new engineering plan was about to take shape. Anyone could see that this would usher in a new era for Mars. Both the natural environment and the social structure would undergo complete change, like a machine being taken apart and reassembled into something new. Everyone had to think about their position in the new social order.

  Rudy had no idea how future Mars would develop, but he knew they were making history. This would be the first attempt—not just in Martian history, but in the history of humanity—to terraform a planet. Everything was change and turmoil, while the future was full of possibilities and uncertainties. Rudy felt the rising tide of excitement infuse his body. He knew that it was possible that the future would deem him a villain for being part of this transformation, but those in the future would also regret not being able to participate. In a time like this, people needed powerful leaders. Whoever contributed the most would then stand at the center of the future political stage, just like his grandfather and his companions after the war. Rudy was ready for it.

  CHANIA

  Chania took a guarded approach to the world. She was aware that sometimes she carried her skepticism too far and appeared unfriendly, but she had no choice. She thought of herself as the opposite of Luoying. Luoying was too trusting, believing in goodwill even when it was obviously nonexistent, refusing to accept facts. Chania preferred to protect herself. She didn’t believe in love, the same way she didn’t believe that those in power plotted for the welfare of the people as a whole.