“No,I meant: why did you say ‘some of us’ were transferred?”
“Ah,”she said and lowered her head. “There were a lot of people who went under cryo,several hundred, I’m sure. But when we woke up, we were only two hundred.”
“Whathappened to the rest of them?”
Sheshook her head slowly. “I don’t know. I guess the same thing that happened tothe rest of the world who didn’t evacuate.”
Ilooked at her. “Did… did Jumpers tell you about Evacuation? About the selection?” My last words were spoken ina barely audible voice.
“Yes.”
Inodded, but Tania didn’t look at me.
Whatcould I say to a person who’d been left behind? Left behind to die, likebillions of other people who were not deemed valuable enough or rich enough tosave—while I was the descendant of those who were?
Iclosed my eyes for a moment, trying to chase away this thought.
“Whydid you then de-freeze—wake up—nine years ago?” I said, trying tochange the subject.
Sheshook her head and pressed her lips together in negation. “I don’t know.Perhaps it was an accident, a mistake?” She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders.“Well, whatever it was, we survived. And I am grateful for it.”
Thenshe looked forward and continued walking.
Wepassed through a stretch of forest that didn’t have many trees but was coveredin ferns. I slid my hand over the plants, touching the soft leaves, which bentunder my palm and sprang back as I released them. My mind was still overwhelmedby the stunningly diverse vegetation of this place.
“Thisis all new to you, isn’t it?” Tania asked through a smile.
Inodded. “It is wonderful. I have never seen anything like this.”
“Come.I’m sure you will find the bath wonderful as well.”
Afteronly a few more passes, we reached a small water surface, not more than four byfour IPs. The water was clear and fairly shallow, with large dark stones formingclear patterns at the bottom.
“Isthis a pool?” I asked.
“Well,not really,” Tania said, a grin on her face. “It’s more like a bathtub.”
Whenshe didn’t receive any response from me, she continued. “You’re used toshowers, aren’t you?”
“Yes.That is correct.”
“Andyou’ve never had a bath?”
“No.”
“Well,this is like a shower in that it’s meant to make you clean, but it’s much moreenjoyable.”
Much moreenjoyable. I repeated thewords in my mind, wondering how there could be anything more enjoyable than themost pleasurable and intense tactile sensation I had experienced in Uni.
“You’llneed to take off your suit.”
Ididn’t move.
“Iwill not look as you take it off, I promise. But I will have to watch you whileyou’re in the pool. It does get a bit deeper a few stones into the pool. And”—sheglanced sideways at me—“I assume you don’t know how to swim.”
“Youare right,” I said in a typical calm Senthien way. “I do not know this word.”
Taniaseemed a bit surprised with my answer.
“Hmm,well, swimming is… I guess movements you do in water to keep yourself at the surface,with your head out of the water.”
“Outof the water? What happens if you do not do these swimming movements?”
“Inmost cases, you drown.”
“Drown,”I said flatly.
“Yourhead goes under the water, you inhale water into your lungs, and you diebecause of lack of air.”
“Oh,”I said with a little bit less Senthien authority than I’d planned. “I guess Inever really thought about dying.”
“It’sbecause you’re young. Young people never think of dying. Unless somethinghappens to make them think of death.”
Shelowered her gaze for a moment and her facial features changed in a way I couldnot decipher. Then she lifted her head and said a bit louder than before, “Youseem the age of my oldest daughter. How old are you?”
“Iam three hundred ninety-two standard years old.”
“What?” Tania gasped, her eyes wide with bewilderment.
“Youlook extremely surprised.”
“Iam extremely surprised! You look, Idon’t know, like you’re twenty-three or twenty-four. Not more than twenty-five!”
“Thatis because of rejuvenation.”
“Rejuvenation?”
“Didn’tJumpers tell you about rejuvenation?”
Taniashook her head.
“Rejuvenationis a cellular healing process. It regenerates your body, taking off severaldozen years of age every time it is done.”
“Wow,I could use some of that.” She smiled. “How does it work?”
“Ido not know all the details. It is not really my expertise. Itwas developed by Booleans—another Descendant species—and ituses a virus carrier that accesses and infects every cell in the body, triggeringmajor cell division over the next several days. In this process, one daughtercell takes the majority of the excess metabolites and dies, leaving the bodywith only new cells and virtually no waste or harmful products. The dead cellsare removed by macrophages and discarded. But the details of the process areknown only to the Booleans.”
“That’s…impressive. And how long do Descendants live?”
“Athousand, two thousand years, maybe more. The technology has improveddramatically in the last one and a half thousand years, so most individualsthat came after these improvements are still alive.”
“Don’tyou get bored with living so long?”
“No,”I answered surprised by her question. “Everyone lives like that.”
“Yes,I guess it’s normal for you. I don’t know what I would do if I was grantedanother hundred years of life. But then again, if you know you’re going to livethat long, you arrange your life accordingly.”
Taniaplaced the beige clothes on a dark stone just outside the water.
“Iguess your population must be growing really fast, with children being born andpeople living so long…”
“Well,the birth rate is controlled by the Office of Progeny. They keep the number ofnew individuals slightly above the switch-off rate.”
“Newindividuals? You mean children?”
“Yes,children.”
“Interesting.So you guys have some kind of inbuilt contraceptive system?”
“Contraceptive?”
“Soyou don’t get babies when you have sex?”
Iblinked at her. I didn’t understand anything she said.
“Whenyou have intercourse?” she explained further.
“Areyou referring to Interpersonal Coupling?”
Shepaused for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders. “I guess that’s the samething.”
“Well,this process is done every fifty or sixty years, just after rejuvenation, and everyperson has…”
Tanialooked at me and then burst into laughter.
Aftera few moments of staring, I said, “I do not understand your reaction.”
“I’msorry, I just don’t see how people can refrain from having sex! Every fifty years? Seriously? Isn’t the orgasm one of thestrongest drivers of evolution? Ensuring the survival of the species and all?”
Istayed silent, watching her. There were too many new concepts
