“I couldn’t sleep, Mother,” Ellie said. “I have been going over everything in my mind and it doesn’t make any sense. I feel as if I have been betrayed.”
“I know, Ellie,” Nicole said. “I feel the same way.”
“I thought I knew the octospiders,” Ellie said. “I trusted them. In many ways I thought they were superior to us, but after what I saw tonight…”
“None of us is comfortable with killing,” Nicole said. “Even Richard was horrified at first. But after we were in bed, he told me that he was certain the street scene was carefully staged for the benefit of the matriculators. He also said that we should be careful not to jump to too many conclusions or let ourselves react emotionally to one isolated incident.”
“I have never before watched an intelligent being murdered before my very eyes. And what was her crime? Failure to report for termination?”
“We cannot judge them as we would judge human beings. The octospiders are an entirely different species, with a completely separate social organization, one that may be even more complex than ours. We are only beginning to understand them. Have you already forgotten that they cured Eponine of RV-41? And allowed us to use their technology when we were worried about Marius’s birth?”
“No, I haven’t,” Ellie replied. She was silent for several seconds. “You know, Mother, I’m feeling as frustrated now as I did often in New Eden, when I kept wondering how human beings, who are capable of so much that is good, could possibly tolerate a tyrant like Nakamura. Now it looks as if the octospiders can be just as bad in their own way. There is so much inconsistency everywhere.”
Nicole tried to console her daughter with a hug. In her mind’s eye Nicole again saw a highlight montage of the night’s incredible activities, including the fleeting glimpse in which she believed she had seen an unknown human woman in an octospider mural. And what was that about, old woman? she asked herself. Was it really there, that face, or did your tired and imaginative brain create it to confuse you?
8
Max finished shaving and washed the rest of the approximation of shaving cream off his face. Moments later he pulled the plug and the water disappeared from the stone basin. After wiping his face thoroughly with a small towel, Max turned to Eponine, who was sitting on the bed behind him nursing Marius.
“Well, Frenchie,” he said with a laugh, “I must admit I’m damn nervous. I’ve never met a Chief Optimizer before.” He walked over beside her. “Once, when I was in Little Rock for a farmers’ convention, I sat next to the governor of Arkansas during a banquet. I was a little nervous then too.”
Eponine smiled. “It’s hard for me to imagine you being nervous,” she said.
Max stood silently for several seconds, watching his wife and infant son. The baby made soft cooing sounds as he ate. “You really enjoy this nursing business, don’t you?”
Eponine nodded. “It’s a pleasure unlike any I have ever experienced. The sense of… I don’t know the exact word-maybe ‘communion’ would be close-is indescribable.”
Max shook his head. “Ours is an amazing existence, isn’t it? Last night, when I was changing Marius, I thought of how similar we probably were to millions of other human couples, doting on our first child… yet just outside that door is an alien city run by a species…” He did not finish his thought.
“Ellie has been different since last week,” Eponine said. “She’s lost her spark and talks about Robert more.”
“She was horrified by the execution,” Max commented. “I wonder if women are naturally more sensitive to violence. I remember after Clyde and Winona got married, when he brought her back to the farm, the first time she watched us slaughter a couple of pigs, her face became white as a ghost. She didn’t say anything, but she never came to watch again.”
“Elite won’t talk much about that night,” Eponine said, switching Marius over to the other breast. “And that’s not like her at all.”
“Richard asked Archie about the incident yesterday, when he requested the components to build translators for the rest of us. According to Richard, the damn octo was real foxy and did not give many straight answers. Archie would not even confirm what Dr. Blue told Nicole about their basic termination policy.”
“It’s pretty scary, isn’t it?” she said. Eponine grimaced before continuing. “Nicole insisted that she made Dr. Blue repeat the policy to her several times, and she even tried several different versions in English, in Dr. Blue’s presence, to make certain that she had understood it correctly.”
“It’s simple enough,” Max said with a forced grin, “even for a fanner. ‘Any adult octospider whose total contribution to the colony over a defined period of time is not at least equal in worth to the resources necessary to sustain that individual will be entered onto the termination list. If the negative account is not corrected in a prescribed amount of time, the octospider will then be terminated.’“
“According to Dr. Blue,” Eponine said after a short silence, “it’s the optimizers who interpret the policies. They are the ones who decide what everything is worth.”
“I know,” Max said, reaching down and caressing his baby son’s back, “and I think that’s one of the reasons Nicole and Richard are anxious about today. Nobody has said anything explicit, but we have been using a lot of resources for a long time-and it’s pretty damn hard to see what we’ve been contributing.”
“Are you ready, Max?” Nicole stuck her head in the door. “Everyone else is out here by the fountain.”
Max bent down to kiss Eponine. “Will you and Patrick be able to handle Benjy and the children?” he asked.
“Certainly,” Eponine replied. “Benjy’s no effort, and Patrick has been spending so much time with the children that he’s become a child care specialist.”
“I love you, Frenchie,” Max said, waving good-bye.
There were five chairs for them outside the Chief Optimizer’s operating area. Even when Nicole explained the word “office” to Archie and Dr. Blue a second time, their two octospider colleagues still insisted that “operating area” was a better translation into English for the place where the Chief Optimizer worked.
“The Chief Optimizer is sometimes a little late,” Archie said apologetically. “Unexpected events in the colony can force her to deviate from the planned schedule.”
“There must be something really unusual going on,” Richard said to Max. “Punctuality is one of the hallmarks of the octospider species.”
The five humans waited silently for their meeting, each engrossed in his or her own thoughts. Nai’s heart was pounding rapidly. She was both apprehensive and excited. She remembered having had a similar feeling as a schoolgirl when she was waiting for her audience with the king of Thailand’s daughter, the Princess Suri, after Nai had won a top prize in a nationwide academic competition.
A few minutes later an octospider bade them enter the next room, where they were informed they would be joined in a moment by the Chief Optimizer and a few of her advisers. The new room had transparent windows. They could see activity all around them. Where they were sitting reminded Richard of a control area for a nuclear power plant, or perhaps for a manned space flight. Octospider computers and visual monitors were everywhere, as were octospider technicians. Richard asked a question about something happening in a distant area, but before Archie could answer, three octospiders entered the room.
All five humans rose in a reflex action. Archie introduced the Chief Optimizer, the Deputy Chief Optimizer for the Emerald City, and the Optimizer Security Chief. The three octos each extended a tentacle to the humans and handshakes were exchanged. Archie motioned for the humans to sit down and the Chief Optimizer began speaking immediately.
“We are aware,” she said, “that you have requested, through our representative, that you be allowed to return to New Eden to rejoin the other members of your species in Rama. We were not completely surprised by this request because our historical data indicate that most intelligent species with strong emotions, after a period of time living in an alien community, develop a sense of disconnection and yearn to return to a more familiar world. What we would like to do this morning is provide some additional information to you that could influence your request that we permit you to return to New Eden.”
Archie asked all the humans to follow the Chief Optimizer. The group passed through a room similar to the
