and selling this thing to a museum.”
“Another joke! You’re a real-sorry.” Gretchen waved a hand. “Look, Ben, I’m a little strapped for money right now. I can’t afford a new house drive. Can you…?”
Ben sighed. “Give me a couple hours and I’m sure I can cobble something together.”
“Yes! Ben, I adore you.”
The words slipped out of Ben’s mouth before he could stop himself. “Then why do you give me such a hard time?”
Silence. Ben found his face was still hot and he cursed himself for it.
“Because I like you,” Gretchen said. “I don’t talk this way to just anybody. I like Kendi, too.”
Ben turned toward her. “Is that another joke?”
“Nope. Cross my heart.” Gretchen drew an X over her chest, then slid casually to the floor to sit cross-legged in the doorway. “I used to have a big crush on you, you know.”
“On me?” Ben almost squeaked, too startled to blush this time.
“Absolutely,” Gretche nodded. “Years ago, back when we were both students. I asked-okay, begged-Trish to set us up on a date, and she died laughing. I asked what was so funny, and she told me you were already seeing Kendi. That killed that.”
Ben didn’t know how to react, so he said nothing.
“Uh oh. I’ve upset you.” Gretchen pulled her knees up under her chin. “Ben, this was, what? Six years ago? Seven? When Mother Ara selected me for her recruiting team and I found out you were on it, I was glad because I figured I’d get to know you better. You’re good, Ben, and I like working with you.”
“Oh,” Ben said, still uncertain. “I, uh, like working with you.”
“No you don’t,” Gretchen laughed. “You hate me. I’m not easy to get along with.”
Ben managed a small smile. “Well…”
“See?” Gretchen shrugged. “It all goes back to my tragic childhood, of course.”
“Where did you grow up, Gretchen?” He twisted sideways in his chair to rummage through a box on the floor. “You’ve never said.”
“Earth. My family was from South Africa. Old money, but not much left by the time I was born.” She shook her head. “No one would dare be Silent in that family. Genetic freaks, all of them.”
“The Silent or your family?” Computer parts clattered and clunked as Ben sorted through them.
Gretchen laughed. “Another joke! You’re getting better at this. The freaks were-are-the Silent. So I got to grow up in a lovely house with a lovely family who thought their lovely daughter was a freak. My brothers were total shits, especially when Mom and Dad’s backs were turned.” An expression of pain briefly crossed her face. Then she shook her head. “Anyway, I eventually signed up with the Children, so here I am in a treehouse asking a cute guy who has no interest in me whatsoever to fix my house hard drive. Who’d have thought?”
Ben came up with the partially-repaired drive he’d been looking for. Multi-colored wires dangled from the ports, and the housing was streaked with dust. To his surprise, the cute guy remark didn’t redden his face.
“Fate is weird,” he said solemnly. “If Mom’s doctor had moved his hand a little more to the left, I’d still be in the freezer and you’d be asking someone else to fix your computer.”
Gretchen cocked her head. “That was cryptic. Explain.”
Ben did, surprised at how easily he was telling the story to Gretchen, a woman he had thought he disliked. “So somewhere in a laboratory,” he concluded, “I’ve got eleven siblings.”
Gretchen shuddered. “Creepy. Not you,” she added hastily. “Just the idea that you could’ve easily been someone else.”
“Anyone could,” Ben said in philosophic tones. “When you think about how many million of your father’s sperm competed for one-”
“So how’s that hard drive?” Gretchen interrupted. Ben noticed she was blushing and laughed. He laughed hard, unable to stop. Ruefully, Gretchen joined in and all tension left the air.
“All right, all right,” she finally muttered. “Score for you.”
Gasping, Ben decided to change the subject. “How do you get along with your family now?”
“I don’t.” Gretchen stretched. “I go back to Earth every so often to rub my success as a Child in my father’s face. It was hard to give up being different when I came here, though.”
“What do you mean?”
Gretchen shrugged. “I hated being different when I was kid, so after a while, I turned it into a badge of courage. ‘Look how strong I am, everyone. I’m different. I’m special.’ But at the monastery, I’m not different or special at all.” She gave Ben an idle, heavy-lidded glance. “It was hard to give up being special, even though it made my early life hell. Really hard. Happens to a lot of people, I guess.”
Ben didn’t respond.
“Well,” Gretchen said, rising, “I’d better let you work in peace. Give me a call when the drive’s done, all right? You’re a doll.”
And she left.
Ben stared down at the drive in his hands for a long time before he picked up a soldering iron and set to work.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
PLANET RUST MIDDLE OCEAN
If we do meet again, will we smile?
Prasad rose later than usual, feeling sandy-eyed and groggy. He hadn’t slept well ever since he had received the news about Dr. Kri and Dr. Say wanting to experiment with his daughter’s eggs. So far he’d managed to stall them for two days, but now they were likely to become more insistent, and he didn’t know what to do next.
The sweet smell of frying honey bread filled the air, and Prasad inhaled deeply, trying to wake himself up. He belted on his robe and shuffled into the kitchen, where Katsu gave him a half-smile from the stove. Before he could greet her, however, the door chime sounded.
“Who in the world…?” Prasad muttered. He opened the door — and froze. Standing in the corridor was Max Garinn, the blond virologist. He was twirling his mustache with fast, furious twists of the fingers. Prasad staggered, his knees weak.
Behind Garinn stood Vidya Vajhur.
Prasad stared. Vidya stared back. Her clothes were scuffed and dirty, and she wore a wide scarf around her neck. A battered carryall hung from her shoulder. Her expression was shocked.
“So you do know each other,” Max Garinn said, still twirling his mustache.
“Vidya,” Prasad managed to croak.
“I thought you were dead,” Vidya said, her voice just as strained.
“Father?” came Katsu’s voice behind him. “Who is at the door?”
“Your mother,” Prasad murmured.
“Perhaps we should go inside and talk?” Garinn offered.
Vidya rounded on him, eyes flashing in exactly the way Prasad remembered. “Perhaps you should leave us in private.”
Garinn took a startled step backward and Vidya strode into the apartment. Prasad made way for her, and she shoved the door shut in Garinn’s face. Katsu backed into the living room, a confused look on her face. Prasad faced Vidya in the entryway and found himself unable to do anything but stare. She had changed. His memory had preserved Vidya in her youth, with night-black hair and smooth, oval face. A part of him knew that this was
