Ifelt completely out of place. I had conversed with a seven-year-old child as ifshe was an adult. Lemony, seeing two of her friends standing at the edge of thetree village, started running to meet them.
“Dora,don’t worry about it!” Tania said. “I’m sure Lemony is quite happy that someonefinally talked to her as a grown-up and not as a child.”
Ilooked at the ground. We stayed silent for a bit.
“Whatplants do you grow on those fields?” I asked to change the subject.
“Oh,all sorts of stuff. Potatoes, corn, carrots, tomatoes…”
“Dothey naturally grow here?”
“Theydon’t grow wild, if that’s what you mean. They were planted. Compliments of thetransfer manager.”
“Ido not understand.”
“Ah…they were cryo-stored in the same installation we were transferred to.”
Ipondered that for a moment. Whoever had the authority to transfer them to the safeunderground installation—whoever overrode the hundred-year wake-up plan—hadalso some hope that they might de-freeze in the far future.In that case, they would be in need of nutrients. Whoever this person was, he’dgiven them the best possible option for a food supply.
“Dora,there is something else I wanted to tell you. I just saw Stevanion. I think he’sdoing worse than this morning. He seems to have developed a cough. We’ll keephim in the infirmary for a few more days.”
“Canyou show me where this infirmary is? I would like to see him.”
“Yes,of course, Dora. Come with me.”
Theinfirmary was a cottage one bridge away from Tania’s. It was bit larger thanother cottages, and it had six tightly aligned beds. All the beds were emptyexcept the last one to the right.
“I’llbe in my cottage,” said Tania. She gave me a gentle smile and left.
Iturned to face the room again but stayed where I was.
Whatshould I say to him?
Ididn’t even know him that well. He just happened to be porting with me. Andhappened to get stranded on Earth.
Iapproached his bed, my leathery shoes soft against the wooden floor.
Ifhe hadn’t accompanied me on my port, he would still be in Uni. And he would notbe ill.
Isat down on the neighboring bed. He was so still that for a moment I thought hewasn’t breathing. Then all of a sudden he gave a throaty cough. My heartskipped a beat.
What should I do?
Iturned around to see if Tania was there so she could help him, but the nextmoment he relaxed and continued sleeping.
Iremembered my Vision of Stevanion—the first one I’d ever had in an awake state. If the Vision was true, then he was seriouslyill. The only way I could help him would be to return him to Uni and take him tothe Anas, who could cleanse his whole body. They could save him.
Itook a deep breath and held it for a moment.
Ifwe’d been ported here, it was feasible that porting would work in the otherdirection as well. Earth obviously didn’t have porting chambers, but my E-band mightbe able to generate a hyperspace resonance field that could potentially connectto the same porting channel that brought us here.
Ibreathed out.
Ineeded to find some kind of power source for recharging, or a working computersystem where I could load up my E-band. That was the only way I could at leaststart the process and then hope to enable the porting link.
Itwas late afternoon and I was strolling along bridges, not following any pattern,simply taking one turn at a time. I was mostly looking down, seeing the forest groundthrough the gaps in the branches of the bridges, or looking up, seeing theclear blue sky through the crowns of the trees.
Everynow and then, I saw a bird flutter between the trees. The sounds of the forestwere ever present. There was not one silent moment. And I enjoyed it immensely.
Thisworld…
Thisworld was perfect—full of colors, sounds, and smells—and I tried torecord all I could on my nanoprobes. I needed to see it, to smell it, toremember it after I leave.
Itook a deep breath and trapped the air in my lungs, savoring all the oxygen.
Itwas not my world, but would I want to leave it?
Iclosed my eyes.
Ifthe Vision was true, if Stevanion was really so ill that he needed the help of theAnas, then I had no choice on the matter.
I need to leave.
Iopened my eyes and continued walking, accessing the map of the bridges on mynanoprobes. Tania had said there would be a meeting in the evening, in theclearing on the south side of the village. She had said I should come to hercottage so we could go together, but I was in a new area, and my nano-map didnot show a direct connection to Tania’s place.
Aroundme, several people were coming out of their cottages and heading in the samedirection. I assumed they were going to the meeting, so I followed.
“Hi!Are you hungry?”
Iturned. “Hello, Patrick,” I said, happy to see a face I knew. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
“Good,because there’s always a lot of food at the bonfire meetings. What have youbeen doing today?”
“Taniatook me to a small lake pool in the morning. I took a bath.”
“Didyou like it?”
“Yes.A most unusual tactile experience. I would like to doit again.”
“There’llbe plenty of opportunities, don’t worry.” Patrick looked at me sideways and grinned.His skin was a lot darker than the other Humans I had seen, and his hair was threadedinto thick shoulder-length strings. “This way,” he said, pointing to the bridgeon the right.
“Hey,Peter, Tania!” he shouted.
Peterand Tania turned. Peter had his arm over Tania’s shoulder and their bodiestouched sideways. They were very, very close.
Icouldn’t take my eyes off them. This, I remembered, was called a hug. And thememory induced such a strong emotional response in me that I could barelycontrol it. I closed my eyes. The picture burned in my memory looked exactlythe same. Only the faces were different. I exhaled slowly.
“Youokay?” I heard Patrick ask.
“Iam… fine.” I attempted a smile.
Hesmiled back. Then he turned to Tania and Peter. “Where’s your bunch?”
“Rick’shere.” Peter pointed to a young man in front of him. “But the others
