'Forget it!' Victoria snapped. She jammed the shovel into the ground.
I'll dig up every square meter of Starfarer with a shovel, Victoria thought angrily. I'll catch fish to put in with the corn seeds. I'll stand up to my knees in water to set out rice plants. But I will not pull a plow!
Infinity headed for an access tunnel to the surface of Starfarer. fie needed to get outside for a while. At least out in space he would be safe from more of Gerald Hemminge's cold messages, like the one Arachne handed over this morning:
'Do not ever contradict my orders again.'
So much for government by consensus.
The nearest hatch lay beyond a patch of temperate forest. The shade of the fast-growing trees and the green-gold coolness made Infinity happy.
A small creature squawked in terror. It struggled and fluttered, pummeling the ground.
Infinity sprinted toward the sound. Last year's fallen leaves deadened the thud of his boots.
He stopped.
A bird lay on the ground, a sparrow, its brown feathers blending in against the forest colors. Infinity knelt and touched it. The heat of its body radiated through its soft ruffled feathers, but it was dead. He turned it over. Its blood dripped to the ground, bright red, wet.
Whatever had killed it had disappeared. It left no footprints, only disturbed ground.
Infinity picked up the bird and took it off the path. He left it where Starfarer's scavengers would find it.
But what had killed it? Falcons and a pair of eagles lived on the wild side, but Alzena had not, as far as he knew, introduced predators into Starfarer's campus cylinder.
Maybe Alzena had let loose some small carnivore. She might even have reported it in the daily news. If she had, Arachne's crash had lost it. Curious, Infinity followed the scuffed-up leaves. He wondered if he was seeing a real trail, or a path his eyes and mind were making up. The dead leaves glistened,
black from winter, damp and rotting into the soil. Here and there the leaves rumpled, like a carpet pushed into folds by a scampering child.
Each step released the fertile, musty smell of leaf mould. The young forest basked in the hot spring sun, green and gold, the new leaves nearly full. A life cycle began above Infinity's head and circled beneath his feet.
Alzena had planned the ecosystem carefully. First she had prepared the soil and the free-living microbes. Then she had established the plants and the pollinating insects, the invertebrates, the scavengers. Then she added the smaller herbivores, the songbirds, the bats. When each branch of the environmental network made its connections, she added to its complexity.
She might have released a mammalian predator, a badger, a ferret, a fox. The time was right. Otherwise the forest's life cycle would overbalance. Had she had time to complete the network? Infinity did not know.
He reached the edge of the forest. The trees gave way to a meadow. Infinity blinked in the sudden brightness of hot sun. The stream's reflection dazzled him; water brushed past him with a musical sigh.
A piercing whistle cut the air.
Infinity barely caught the quick motion at the top of a tumble of stones. The black tail of a small furry animal vanished behind the rocks.
Infinity sprinted for the bank. He clambered up the slope, pebbles sliding beneath his feet.
When be reached the top, only the stream's humming disturbed the silence. A dragonfly hovered, vibrated the air, vanished, and reappeared five meters away as if it had teleported.
Infinity sank down, lying flat on the slope. The stones pressed the heat through his jeans and into his skin. He was glad of his leather vest.
For a long time, nothing moved.
Whatever it was, I lost it, Infinity thought. It ran off into the bushes, or along the stream bank out of sight. . . . And maybe it didn't have anything to do with the dead bird. Maybe it was just minding its own business when I jumped out and scared it. But what was it? The tail was wrong for a squirrel or a chipmunk, but it wasn't naked enough for a rat.
I hope. We're in trouble if the campus has rats.
The rocks beneath him had not had time to weather. They were sharp and raw.
Enough of this great native hunter business, he thought. I'll get Arachne to keep watch on the spot. . . .
Just before he moved, a creature scampered to the highest point of the bank. It moved with a smooth canny pacing gait. It rose on its hind legs, its back to him, counterbalanced by its tail. It gazed upward, watching for predators. Paws crossed on its belly, it turned to survey the land.
It saw Infinity. They stared at each other for a split second, each as surprised as the other, the creature peering with shiny black eyes through a black mask of fu r.
It cried out in warning; it dropped to all fours and fled, pacing quick-footed down the slope and between some rocks.
It was one of Europa's meerkats.
'Damn!' Infinity said softly. He rose from the sharp-edged stones, no longer trying to hide.
He supposed he should trap it, or even shoot it. It had no business here. It did not fit this environment. It was a creature of heat and deserts. Why'd Europa leave it here? he wondered. Or did she leave it? Maybe she just forgot how many she brought with her. Maybe this one got lost.
The arrival and departure of the alien humans had been abrupt and confused enough for the disappearance of one small critter to attract no notice.
I wish we had noticed, Infinity thought. If Alzena knew a weasel was running lose in her ecosystem, I bet she'd have snapped out of her funk.
I bet she'dve stayed.
In response to Infinity's request, Arachne set a watch on the mouth of the den, and began a simulation
of what effect the meerkat could have. Infinity decided not to do anything until the simulation produced results, not even to tell anyone he had seen the creature. Someone might panic and come out hunting it. Infinity felt sorry for the meerkat, stranded in an inhospitable environment, a communal being left all alone.
J.D. descended into the basement of the administration building. Her hands and her hair reeked with fragrant citrus oil. She had spent the morning helping sort and store yesterday's oversupply of oranges. Ordinarily J.D. liked the smell of oranges. After two days of it, though, it was the last thing she wanted to smell.
That was what she thought until she entered the basement.
She nearly gagged. The stench of rotting AS brains filled the cavernous room, intensified rather than attenuated by the flow of air pushing past her. Esther must have turned the ventilation up to maximum, and still the sick-sweet odor overwhelmed everything. Including the scent of oranges.
A few ASes stood on one side of the room, hooked up to nutrient feeders.
A larger group stood in ranks, carapaces open but empty. The majority of the mobile artificials remained in a large ragged crowd that stretched into the darkness.
Esther glanced up from an open AS.
'Hi, J.D. What's up?'
'Can I help?' She took a long breath through her mouth.
Esther smiled wryly. 'It is pretty awful, isn't it? We're trying to get the bad part done before it gets worse. Still game?'
'I guess SO.'
Esther took her to the clump of ASes where her volunteers were working. 'It's not that complicated,' she said. 'Just nasty.'
Stephen Thomas looked up from the AS that had spattered him with grayish slime.
'And if you need advice,' he said, 'I consider myself an expert. Hours of technical experience.'
Esther chuckled. She opened the carapace of the housekeeper in front of them and cleaned out the broken brain. J.D. watched, fighting nausea. 'This is disgusting,' J.D. said. 'And I have a strong stomach. It doesn't bother me to eat raw clams. It didn't even bother me to eat sea urchins or beche de mer.'
'Not to mention those things with the legs,' Esther said.
'Those were pretty good, honestly,' J.D. said. 'I don't know about this, though.'
Stephen Thomas shuddered theatrically. 'Eating doesn't come into the equation,' he said.
J.D. grimaced. 'Sorry. I should have thought how that would sound.'
