\nIn a rowdy Arab bar orbiting Betelgeuse, the blue-lipped, blue-haired jacky tapped his forehead, and a red monochrome hologram projected from his eyes. Sitting in the booth across from him, Freja watched it carefully.\n<\/p>\n
\nThis hologram was a security camera feed of an operating room. Must be a far-arm colony somewhere, Freja thought. There was a very pregnant woman on the table. The surgeon dipped scissors in an old-style steam autoclave. There were two men, dressed in samurai regalia, watching.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe jacky\u2014rather Colonel Peters, the jacker\u2014pulled a cord embedded in the flesh behind his ear and slid it across the table. Freja took the headset and put it in her ear.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHey sweetie, can I get a smoke?\u201d Peters shouted to the waitress above the mesh of country and traditional sitar music that rattled the cups on the table.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja instinctively watched the doctor\u2019s hands. Must be an unlicensed implant job, camera planted in the kid\u2019s ear or eye for nutjob voyeurs. Or a drug-dosing, where they\u2019d hold the baby\u2019s health hostage for the dosage. That\u2019s the only crime far-arm colonies ever had the tech for.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI don\u2019t see anything,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere\u2019s the rub, Freja,\u201d Peter\u2019s said in an electro-tinged voice. \u201cIt\u2019s what we don\u2019t see.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe woman grunted and screamed. The surgeon was waiting for the baby, and then he wasn\u2019t. There was the afterbirth, the blood, and no baby.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cVideo manipulation?\u201d Freja said, but already doubted that. Only one person could work with low-tech footage like this, but the Grey Ghost wouldn\u2019t be caught dead on a backwater planet like Dawn.\n<\/p>\n
\nPeters frowned. \u201cDon\u2019t know. We only get what was uploaded to the comsat. They\u2019re blocking that baby\u2019s ID for one reason or another. Unless of course\u2026\u201d Peters leaned in. \u201cThe kid\u2019s invisible, and what we\u2019re looking at is the goddamn invisible man.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHe laughed at his own joke.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t even know who these people in the video are,\u201d Peters continued. \u201cFacial scan doesn\u2019t work with tech this old.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSlavery then,\u201d Freja said. \u201cNot enough AI\u2019s to do the work there\u2026which is?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDawn\u2019s still settling. Two generations in, but there\u2019s a lot of forest to comb through. Still a Class-3 life-potential planet. They\u2019re moving slower than Rigellian treacle. Gotta be careful not to disturb all that potential sentient life down there, right?\u201d Peters chuckled. \u201cMakes you wonder when Eden will give up the hunt and realize we\u2019re alone out here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnother thing,\u201d Peters said, sliding a small box across the table.\n<\/p>\n
\nIt was labeled with Freja\u2019s full name, the Old-Earth one she had tried to forget.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCan\u2019t believe you\u2019d trust a jacky with a package,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAstral Corp has good insurance. Guy that looks like this,\u201d Peters pointed at his face, smiled. \u201cHe\u2019s all show, no substance.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja opened the box. There were plant seeds in it.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThey\u2019re specific to Dawn\u2019s environment. Engineered on Old Earth. Where she died.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cQuite a coincidence,\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cChambers, down in the Rez Division is good about this sort of thing. Must have checked your itinerary.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBut\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThen Peters was gone from the jacky. The red light faded from the man\u2019s eyes, and a cough burst from his throat as his own biology came back online.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja slammed the box shut. What did it matter how she got the seeds?\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHey, Baldy, where you going?\u201d the jacky said, watching Freja slide out of the booth. \u201cDon\u2019t you want to get to know the man behind the jacker? We\u2019re good for more than flesh you know.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHe looked down at the ashtray and burning cigar on the table. \u201cChrist, told them I don\u2019t want no smokers. Lady, was he smoking?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe waitress\u2019s skates shrieked on the glass floor as she stopped in front of the booth. \u201cAll done here?\u201d She slapped down a bill.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cFucking Eden cheapskates,\u201d the man shouted. \u201cWas he smoking?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nGod\u2019s Cross, the only settlement on Dawn came into view through the window of Freja\u2019s starship. Japanese-style towers and temples, katana-sharp edges at every angle, egg-white color. The planet was tidally locked, ninety-five percent of the surface drowned in a glassy ocean. A star, Azrael 108-B, sat eternally on the horizon from the vantage point of God\u2019s Cross.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe city sat in the middle of that five percent, perched atop a plateau that looked down on the sun-side, a fungal forest that stretched to the steaming ocean, and the dark-side, a desolate, windswept place that remained forever in the shadow of God\u2019s Cross.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOh boy! We\u2019re here,\u201d Lena said.\n<\/p>\n
\nLena was an AI, eight legs attached to a large compound eye. She wasn\u2019t quiet, and she wasn\u2019t much for stealth. Just how Freja liked her. Lena\u2019s eyeshell blushed green. She was excited. Then again, she was excited all the time.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCheck the logs,\u201d Freja said, when they stood in the cold, rarely used docking station. Detox slugs scooted across the ceiling. Nothing but darkness out the windows.\n<\/p>\n
\nLena plugged a tentacle into the AI interface.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDenied,\u201d Lena said.\n<\/p>\n
\nOf course. They were hiding something.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja had been on a breathable-air planet once before. Old Earth when she was a child, when she still lived in that guarded, al-Oregon-Territory compound with her neurotic mother.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe docking-station door hissed when it rose. Freja stared out at plant scrub, a dusty path that led to God\u2019s Cross. The place was so backwoods they didn\u2019t even have a rover waiting for her. They had to walk.\n<\/p>\n
\nIt was a bustling little town. Teahouses, Zen and Buddhist temples, traditional Japanese theatres. There were stalls lining the main drag where farmers sold produce, the local cuisine and synthetic staples. Lena questioned a stocky man in a cone-shaped hat about his gourds.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not here to sightsee, Lena,\u201d Freja said. She had the box under her arm and her pack over her shoulder. \u201cWhere\u2019s the hospital?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSun-side, we follow Dawn-road-00X down the mountain, past the first Rilke encampment,\u201d Lena said, swiveling her eye to Freja. \u201cCan you believe it, real life trees?\u201d Lena snapped pictures at the strange purple plants that stabbed through the mist where a sliver of Azrael 10-B peaked over the horizon. The air smelled like fresh-cut grass on Old Earth.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDoesn\u2019t look like any tree I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe can get a carriage ride from the teahouse to the hospital.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCarriage ride?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThey use horses here, no rovers.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nJust how backwoods was this place?\n<\/p>\n
\nGeisha in dazzling kimono filled the synth-bamboo teahouse with music Freja had never heard. The tea steam was so thick, it condensed on Lena\u2019s eye shell. Freja flashed her credentials to the hostess and inquired about getting to the hospital. The hostess told her a samurai named Nakamura was already on his way.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja sipped a milky purple brew that tasted like chocolate and not the synthetic kind, while she stared at the box Peters had given her. Lena wouldn\u2019t shut up about the teahouse.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cGeisha haven\u2019t been seen outside of holograms for years, Freja. Dawn has resurrected a culture lost to everything but records.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja didn\u2019t feel like bursting Lena\u2019s bubble, telling her these weren\u2019t real Geisha. These were entertainers hired and sent in from off-world. Most of these girls lived on rice-farms with their husbands and had families. Nothing real Geisha ever had.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s rare for a planet to embrace an Old-Earth culture so completely,\u201d Lena said.\n<\/p>\n
\nLena was right about that. Were any old Japanese customs that involved selling children or using them as slaves? She\u2019d have to ask the samurai.\n<\/p>\n
\nNakamura showed up in a kimono and sandals. There was a sword at his side. That worried her. Freja recognized him as one of the samurai in the grainy video.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja stuck out a hand and Nakamura bowed. His grey eyes struck her as familiar.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou guys are really all-in on this Old-Earth thing,\u201d Freja said. She was bad at introductions.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe are also polite to strangers,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\nShe must have broached some taboo. Asking about what she had seen on tape was probably out of the question, so she took out her frustrations on the samurai. \u201cDid the Japanese embrace child trafficking as well?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nNakamura laughed. \u201cYou should be glad I came rather than some of my brothers. They would have struck you dead where you stand for suggesting such things.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnd Lena would have caught every frame of it, and a whole troop of Eden soldiers would be landing within a standard week, probably shutting down the whole colony for the crimes.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nNakamura turned on his heels. \u201cCome with me.\u201d Then he said, \u201cWho is in the seeds?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe question hit her like the blast from a volt gun. \u201cMy mother.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nThe horses clopped through the blood-red mud, occasionally slinging some up on Lena, until she tired of wiping her eye and spidered atop the carriage, craning her head into the lower stories of the strange trees which littered Dawn\u2019s sun-side landscape. The landscape was beautiful, but it carried the eerie silence that all non-earth planets did. No sound but the occasional wind through the trees and the horses\u2019 hooves beating against the path.\n<\/p>\n
\nNakamura pointed out potential spots for where Freja could bury her mother, while he gave her a rundown of Dawn. \u201cWe\u2019re nearly self-sufficient,\u201d he bragged. \u201cWe use the terrace farming of Old-Earthers. The rain that drops in God\u2019s Cross flows down sun-side where we use it to grow kumo and banana-apples. The tea you had was flavored with kumo. You liked it yes?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja nodded. He was being too kind to her, she thought. But then again, these far-arm places have that reputation.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHave you found life beyond the usual?\u201d Lena asked.\n<\/p>\n
\nNakamura scratched his arm. \u201cNo, though our scientists delve farther into sun-side every day.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhy the carriages?\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cFeel the wind in your hair and smell the beasts in front of you. Hear the music of their hooves. Is it not evident? How much better the old ways were. Before the days of universal corporation rovers and logos plastered on everything. If I ever see any more Rilke Corp red, I\u2019ll scream.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nOf course Dawn harbored anti-corp sentiment, Freja thought. Freja\u2019s mother would have loved knowing she\u2019d be buried on a planet that sided with her politically. She didn\u2019t mention to Nakamura that Rilke probably owned these horses.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHow long have you been here?\u201d Freja asked.\n<\/p>\n
\nNakamura scratched his arm again. \u201cAbout five years. Who keeps track of the time anymore?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe hospital was the largest building on the surface of Dawn according to Nakamura. A Japanese castle styled after the Old-Earth Shimabara castle, blood-red terraced levels of adobe that grew smaller with each floor. Lena prattled on about the architecture, until Freja told her to hush.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe two of them watched Nakamura and the carriage disappear farther downhill where the forest thickened. A man wearing a Nehru jacket and slacks was waiting for them at the top of the hospital steps, tiny spectacles tottering on his nose. Freja recognized him as the other man on the security camera.\n<\/p>\n
\nNow I just need to find the mother, Freja thought.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cInvestigator,\u201d he said. \u201cYour reputation precedes you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nWhat reputation? Freja thought. Breaking the arm of the Old-Earth ambassador? Or did he mean\u2026\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYour mother is an inspiration to all of us living upon colonial worlds. Her teachings of self-sufficiency and anti-violence to protect life inspired me as a young man.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cShe was an anarcho-environmentalist who never left Old-Earth,\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja had often encountered far-arm colonies who preached self-reliance, but every time she checked the books of such planets, she found that they took every handout Eden offered them and frequently begged for more.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cImprisoned for most of it,\u201d he said. \u201cIn my excitement I have forgotten to introduce myself. I am a doctor and the elected governor of Dawn. You can call me Montana\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja told him why she was there, then cut straight to the chase. \u201cI need to see your security logs. My AI, Lena, was denied access to the logs at the docking station.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nOnly after introducing himself to Lena, did Montana address Freja\u2019s request. \u201cWe believe, after your mother\u2019s teachings, in the rights of a planet and the rights of a people. That includes certain records outlined in her manifesto\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI know what my mother\u2019s teachings were. And they conflict with Eden policy. Now, I\u2019ll be seeing those records, or your planet will be stripped of the rights it now possesses.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe Japanese theme was eased slightly in the interior of the hospital. Nurses dragging their feet and doctors bore the scars of SleepAway injections from their residency years. Same as every hospital in every far-arm colony across the galaxy, except for the swords hanging from the sides of some of the staff.\n<\/p>\n
\nIn the security room, Lena plugged into the feed and downloaded the hospital logs. They were encrypted, not to mention massive, and it would take Lena hours to find the records Freja needed among the raw data.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHappy now?\u201d Montana asked.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI need to see the maternity ward.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nNothing in the ward seemed suspicious. In the nursery, Lena stepped on a toy that squeaked beneath her feet. She was happy the children paid no attention to her. The figure was naked and blood red with a ferocious horned face.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a Tengu,\u201d Lena exclaimed. \u201cA fierce Japanese spirit. A harbinger of war.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI don\u2019t like it,\u201d Freja said, kicking it across the room.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe children turned to watch her.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja had no evidence of any wrongdoing and it ate at her. She\u2019d need to go over the logs after Lena had decrypted them.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou know what the penalty is for child slaving?\u201d She asked Montana.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI imagine it involves a gravity-free prison, constant darkness, and being fed intravenously. Not to mention whatever form of crackpot therapy goes on there nowadays. Have they cycled back to shock treatments yet?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019ll be in touch, Dr. Montana. You have a few days, if that, to confess your crimes and tell me why I shouldn\u2019t turn this planet over to the highest bidder for resource mining.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cTell me, Freja. Do you happen to have any of your mother\u2019s books upon your person? It seems some of her lessons may be of some benefit for you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nLater, in her top-floor apartment in God\u2019s Cross, Freja sat watching the dark side of Dawn through the patio door, cold winds swirling dust across the desolate plain. She was feeling tipsy from the sake. She fingered her seeds and thought of her mother, the helicopter trip she\u2019d taken with her up the eastern seaboard of the former United States. The limestone had been bombed barren from the Carolinas to Maine. Nothing but rocks and ash.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt could have been avoided,\u201d her mother had said.\n<\/p>\n
\nAh, Mom couldn\u2019t you just have lived a quiet life, couldn\u2019t you have made life easier for your daughter like all the other Old-Earth moms? Freja thought. What did you even accomplish?\n<\/p>\n
\nNothing but writing a few books, paltry royalties barely enough to pay Freja\u2019s way into Antorus-Jackson Military school on Titan. Why would you fight against what brought so much good in the world, just to save a few trees?\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m finished, Freja,\u201d Lena said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDid you find anything?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nLena\u2019s processors hummed. \u201cI don\u2019t see anything,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ll have to look.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nShe spidered over to Freja, lowered herself, and slid the access port on her head open. Freja flipped out the keyboard and started pecking.\n<\/p>\n
\nLena projected a hologram. \u201cNow in order mode,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cGo to Old-Earth year 2081, May 8th, 13:29. Maternity Ward Camera 8.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe familiar projection of the pregnant woman. The elated surgeon cutting an invisible cord. Montana wiping a tear from his eye. Nakamura stone-faced.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAgain.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nNothing.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAgain,\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n
\nStill nothing. She put away the controls. \u201cDid you figure out who the mom was?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThere was a meowing outside. A little too drunk on the sake, Freja staggered to the door and checked the hall. Nothing there. As she closed the door she heard it again. Meow. So close, but she saw no sign of it.\n<\/p>\n
\nLena said, \u201cThere was only one woman giving birth that day. Michiru Honduras. Deceased. Thirty-one Old-Earth-years. She worked in the Noh and Kabuki theatres. She was a costume designer.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nLena closed the door. She had no time for ghost cats. \u201cCause of death?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cChildbirth.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThat was a forgery. Michiru had not died during the pregnancy, if what was on the tape was even real. But if the pregnancy was staged, wouldn\u2019t Montana have come out and said so? It would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cShow me last video. Twenty-x speed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja watched twenty-four hours of footage of nurses bringing Michiru meals, her going to the bathroom. No sign of sickness. There was crying. Freja balled her fist.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThey took her damn baby,\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n
\nMore footage showed that there was an argument between Michiru and Montana, her pounding his chest with a balled fist, her sitting alone on the edge of her bed for hours. Then Michiru dressed, packed, and left the hospital room. There she was walking down the steps of the hospital, long shadows falling over her and Montana. Nakamura waiting at the bottom, smoking a synth cig, brushing one of the horses\u2019 coats.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDoes Montana look like a man in love, Lena?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know that, silly.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat about Nakamura?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja watched Nakamura help Michiru in the carriage, get in himself, and drive. Not up into God\u2019s Cross. But farther into the forest.\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nBubbles came up from the milk when Freja slammed Nakamura\u2019s head into the bowl of milk.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhere is Michiru?\u201d Freja yelled.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe Geisha scattered like pigeons, short steps in long dresses, tall wooden sandals clopping against bamboo.\n<\/p>\n
\nNakamura\u2019s chin dripped milk and blood. She had broken his nose. He was smiling. \u201cMontana was wrong about you. You aren\u2019t like your mother.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNo, I\u2019m not.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nNakamura\u2019s sword leaned against the wall. Freja grabbed it and drew the gleaming blade. \u201cYou murdered her. You took Michiru out in the forest and killed her.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nLena was moaning. \u201cCan\u2019t we go out to the woods, Freja? Can\u2019t we look for her?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou are as blind as the rest of the Eden scum,\u201d Nakamura spat.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja raised the blade. A cry of protest rose behind her. A guffaw. Not Lena\u2019s. Something less metallic. She turned to see nothing, but the nothing was coming towards her, porcelain shattering as the nothing knocked teacups from the tables. She could hear it. Running. The blade was knocked from her hand.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBlind,\u201d Nakamura said. He was lighting a cigarette.\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja spun toward him. \u201cLena show me thermal.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja gasped when she looked upon Lena\u2019s screen. The room was full of odd… things that only appeared in thermal vision. One squatted atop a table like a large frog, chest that rose and fell like an inflated bubble, another hung from the rafters with three limbs, cleaning itself with the other three. On the table behind Nakamura, a small bipedal creature cowered behind him.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNakamura, what am I looking at?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHe said nothing.\n<\/p>\n
\nShe directed Lena around Nakamura, toward the biped. Freja looked at it with her own eyes. If she strained, she could see a haze, like engine exhaust rising around it. Looking again through Lena\u2019s eyes, she thrust her hand at the shape. It moved in response.\n<\/p>\n
\nShe recoiled. \u201cExplain this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAh, if only I could.\u201d Nakamura blew a smoke ring.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHe cannot,\u201d came a voice from behind. Montana stood in the doorway. Glasses traded in for thermal shades. \u201cNo more than any of us. All we know is what you\u2019re looking at is native to Dawn\u2019s ecosystem. Life, Freja. Intelligent life.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nLena fluttered on her feet, four legs flutter like sea anemone tentacles. \u201cNew life? Oh boy!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja\u2019s mind raced. There were things to be done. Quarantine protocol. A whole host of steps to preservation that she knew Montana hadn\u2019t taken.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLena, open\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe breath left Freja as she hit the floor. Nakamura stood over her with his sword pointed at her, one eye swelled shut. Some of the milk dropped from his chin to her face. It smelled so bitter.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe can\u2019t let you contact Eden. We wish you had cooperated. I would have shown you when you were ready, but you had to resort to violence at the first opportunity,\u201d Montana said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve both just dammed yourself to prison,\u201d Freja said. \u201cI hope you like eating your ricere through a needle.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou contact Eden and what do they do?\u201d Montana said. \u201cThey send in the Rilke clowns, and destroy the fragile ecosystem here. There\u2019s a reason we use carriages, Freja. Artificial forms of energy kills them. It\u2019s a miracle they weren\u2019t wiped out when Rilke first landed on the planet.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nFreja hated it, but if Montana was telling the truth, he was right. Delicate operations were a thing of the past, especially on worlds like Dawn where news traveled slowly, where news would be doctored by a public relations team before reaching Dawn. Any company willing to come this far out into the galaxy would never agree to a low energy mandate.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cShow me,\u201d Freja said. \u201cKill one and I\u2019ll believe you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nMontana\u2019s eyes grew wide. \u201cNakamura was right, you are not at all like your mother. Put her in chains, Nakamura.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere are dangers you don\u2019t\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI understand the dangers,\u201d Montana yelled. \u201cI have lived here decades, checking and double checking every change in pressure and humidity, monitoring for infections among the settlers.\u201d Spit dribbled off his chin. His face was red with anger. \u201cEven letting your ship land rather than blast it out of the sky was a miracle I granted you. Ryo lives were lost.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cRyo? You\u2019ve named them? How arrogant. All naming rights belong to the company who powered the expedition.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOur argument is done. I\u2019ll see you in your cell.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nNakamura sat in front of the bamboo bars, staring at Freja. He was smoking a real cigarette. It made Freja cough. Montana had slid a book between the bars. Her mother\u2019s most famous work Lifesong.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe walls here filter the nasty stuff out. What doesn\u2019t go into my lungs, anyways,\u201d Nakamura said.\n<\/p>\n \nFreja picked up the book, tried to read it, then threw it across the room. If Montana thought she would read her mother\u2019s work and magically agree with him, he had another thing coming.\n<\/p>\n \nHad Michiru given birth to one of those\u2026Ryo? Freja wondered. She couldn\u2019t tell from watching the security cam. It only recorded light in the visible spectrum. And how had Rilke not discovered them first?\n<\/p>\n \nIf Rilke discovered them, they would be in chains now, and Dawn would be a tourist attraction. Perhaps her mother had been right about some things, Freja thought, despite herself.\n<\/p>\n \nNo, she told herself. Dawn\u2019s residents would be wallowing in money if Rilke had found the Ryo first, money that would go to infrastructure, schools and hospitals. That wasn\u2019t true either. That money would go into Rilke shareholder pockets. Rilke would own everything, and that couldn\u2019t be good, could it?\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cCan they communicate?\u201d She asked Nakamura.\n<\/p>\n \nNakamura said nothing.\n<\/p>\n \nA Geisha slid her a meal of synth salmon, fried local vegetables on a wooden tray with chopsticks. They weren\u2019t starving her at least. Three days passed this way, Nakamura coming in when the artificial lights kicked on, leaving when they went off, smoking a cigarette in the interim.\n<\/p>\n \nOn the third day, Montana showed up with a pair of thermal goggles. \u201cI want you to come with me, Freja. If you think you can behave yourself.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nFreja knew Montana\u2019s back was against the wall. If Peters came calling, and she told him she was in a cell, the whole planet would be swarming with Eden agents.\n<\/p>\n \n \nEquipped with thermal shades, Freja saw the forests brimming with strange creatures. Ryo sprang from tree limb to abandoned Rilke research huts, swooped in and out of the top layer of the alien canopy. She heard them now, crunching through the knee-high flora. Montana drove, hurtling further into the forest, past the hospital, the way Nakamura had taken Michiru.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe were worried. The Ryo seem to shut themselves down somehow in the presence of strangers. When you came and walked among the streets, most of the Ryo ceased movement.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cRyo is the Japanese word for spirit,\u201d Lena said, excitedly.\n<\/p>\n \nThe AI had been blissful since they had left the teahouse. Lena had detected the lifeforms since disembarking from the ship, but had no context to put what she detected in. It may as well have been random radio waves or cosmic noise, which often bombarded her senses in every locale. Now that she knew, now she could begin to catalog.\n<\/p>\n \nFreja even felt the excitement.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWhat we know of them is not enough to fill a Rilke advertisement,\u201d Montana said over the bustling feet of the horses. \u201cWe\u2019ve set up a camp where the Ryo feel most comfortable, the mostly unexplored valley on all of Dawn. That\u2019s where we\u2019re going.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cHow did Rilke not discover them when they first landed here?\u201d Freja asked.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe plant life appears warm in thermal vision at all hours, unlike plants on worlds with a traditional day-night cycle. The Ryo, already invisible to the naked eye, have the same temperature profile as the plant life. Camouflage in every spectrum. They merely hid from them. Come now, we\u2019ve arrived.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThe camp consisted of a few Rilke hovels and a Japanese-style inn with a large courtyard. A waterfall dumped steaming water into a pool which flowed into a bathhouse built onto the side of the inn. Men and women rushed in and out of the sliding door rooms, some with tools\u2014old hammers and saws\u2014others wrapped in towels headed to or from the bathhouse.\n<\/p>\n \nIt reminded Freja of Old Earth. It was in fact the closest she\u2019d seen humans with nature outside of her early childhood explorations with her mother, hiking the Oregon rainforest trails.\n<\/p>\n \nPerhaps there was something to what her mother had preached. Perhaps life was worth protecting at the expense of humans.\n<\/p>\n \nWith her goggles down, she saw that the Ryo partook of the baths themselves, hurtling here and there and for the first time, she heard them emit strange cooing sounds, which had more variation than any bird song she had ever heard.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cCan you communicate with them?\u201d Freja asked as she followed Montana through the courtyard.\n<\/p>\n \nMontana was more forthcoming than Nakamura.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe are working on it,\u201d He said. \u201cTheir language is complex and not intended for human ears. Though not without struggle, our linguists have worked out a sort of pidgin with them.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nLena snapped pictures continuously, climbing a wooden bridge under which koi swam. She was so fascinated by the Ryo that she was, for once in her existence, speechless. Freja saw something that looked and behaved exactly like a koi.\n<\/p>\n \nIt is a Ryo and it is a fish, she thought. But that doesn\u2019t make any sense.\n<\/p>\n \nAs they turned a corner, Freja saw a large creature, nearly eight-feet tall, hundreds of tentacles packed close together which it used for locomotion. It mumbled in its high-pitched voice to a woman in a lab coat, who nodded and took notes\n<\/p>\n \nMontana slid a door back and waited for Freja to step through. There was a crib in the room and a woman dressed in a kimono rocked a Ryo in her arms. Freja recognized the woman. It was Michiru.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThis is the woman I was telling you about, Michiru.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nMichiru seemed to glide across the room, taking Freja\u2019s hand in her free one.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure to meet you. My husband\u2019s been giving you a hard time, I hear.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nShe planted a kiss on Montana\u2019s cheek.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cDoes that mean\u2026\u201d Freja said weakly, not knowing how to approach the question burning in her mind.\n<\/p>\n \nMontana said, \u201cIt\u2019s okay. We were confused as you about the origin of the child. Was it mine? I spent nights staring at the dark-side, sipping sake, doubting if this was a pregnancy I wanted Michiru to carry out. Thankfully, she convinced me otherwise.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nHe put his hand on his wife\u2019s shoulder. With the other hand he reached over her and rubbed the chest of the Ryo. The child flapped its arms\u2014Freja guessed\u2014and cooed, a strange electronic sound, like someone playing with a synthesizer.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cPut on your thermals. Look at him. His name is Thom.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nFreja slid down the googles. Thom smiled at her, and yes, he was a child, she thought. Even though she couldn\u2019t say how it had happened. He had the same pointed nose and curly hair of his father. The child reached for Freja\u2019s finger and she gave it to him.\n<\/p>\n \nIts touch was electric, prickling the ends of her fingers. Her heart leapt, a feeling she had not felt since she was a little girl.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cSoon after Michiru gave birth, we noticed a new fish swimming in the koi pond. After the fish, one of the horses gave birth, followed by one of the town cats. Perhaps you heard Luna, who roams the town and meows loudly when the exterior lights are shut off?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYes,\u201d Freja said, thinking of the noise in the apartment hall. \u201cAre there more children?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNot like Thom. None of the other Ryo appear human in nature, and all the other mothers have given birth to regular children.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI don\u2019t understand. Then what of the Ryo who have no Old-Earthen analogues?\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe have only hypotheses. Since we have not seen any of the Ryo themselves become pregnant, the simplest answer is that the Ryo is a kind of obligate organism that requires a host couple and copies the host physiology.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cBut that would mean\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYes. All the creatures you see were birthed from couples of their respective species. Each creature is\u2014or was\u2014native to Dawn or\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThey came here like us, gave birth, and the Ryo copied their physiology?\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYes. We\u2019re not just looking at first contact with an intelligent species,\u201d Montana said. \u201cWith the Ryo, we\u2019re seeing a glimpse into the diversity of life in the universe. Suddenly the universe feels a lot less lonely, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAll this life, she thought, and how much of it would belong to Rilke International by the 8th Corporate Amendment? All of it, since Rilke had funded the expedition to Dawn. Eden lawmakers had crumbled under the pressure of Rilke and Caravaggio lobbyists, and signed away the rights of alien lifeforms for property on luxurious water worlds and stock shares.\n<\/p>\n \nHer mother had warned Eden of this day.\n<\/p>\n \nThough Eden would surely enact protective legislation as soon as the Ryo were \u2018officially\u2019 discovered, it would be years before Rilke was forced to cease control of the Ryo. By then, what would happen? Would they claim rights to Thom?\n<\/p>\n \nFreja looked from Michiru to Thom. She was breaking a family apart. \u201cIf you were hoping to keep a secret, I\u2019ve ruined it,\u201d Freja said. \u201cLena\u2019s been uploading everything to the comsat, sights and sounds, since we arrived. Eden are probably already on the way, along with a fleet of Rilke researchers and lawyers. They\u2019ve probably already began broadcasting their intentions to the rest of the universe\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYour guilt is commendable, but you\u2019ve underestimated us, Freja,\u201d Montana. \u201cOur comsat is broadcasting dummy data to Eden. Our secret is safe for now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nBut there was no one who could crack a comsat, Freja thought. Well, only one person in the galaxy who could do that. But she wouldn\u2019t come all the way out here.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe believe you and our hacker go way back.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nShe turned to see the silhouette of someone standing in the doorway, topknot and a cigarette. Black eye and a sword on his back.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNakamura,\u201d Freja said. \u201cI\u2019ve never met him. What do you mean?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou don\u2019t remember the talk we had in that Storm Garden bar as lighting struck fire to the grass sea?\u201d Nakamura said. \u201cYou told me you\u2019d flay me yourself, if I didn\u2019t confess to reprogramming all those Caravaggio AIs.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThat conversation was with The Grey Ghost. But the Gray Ghost was a woman, a grey-eyed woman. Freja understood.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt\u2019s something I always wanted,\u201d Nakamura said, rubbing the scruff on his face. \u201cBut the operation required a sponsor.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cMr. Nakamura and I made a deal. I pay for his sex-change operation and he hack the comsat for us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt was win, win,\u201d Nakamura said. \u201cThe Dawn comsat was easy stuff. Not like those Caravaggio AIs. You know they had to change their official colors from crimson to violet because of me? AIs opened fire on anyone wearing their insignia.\u201d He blew a smoke ring.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cA hacker can only get you so far,\u201d Freja said to Montana. \u201cYou need a legal team large enough to fill a star cruiser. You need a public relations team. You need everything, and you have so little.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cBut we have you, the daughter of Melinda Spjut, an investigator with a spotless reputation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI can get you nothing. As soon as my report goes through, you\u2019ll be relieved of your duties as governor. Rilke will come in and\u2026\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nShe looked at Thom again. She couldn\u2019t believe she ever suggested killing one of the Ryo. Each life was invaluable. That\u2019s one thing she agreed with her mother on.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYour mother told me you would be bound up in your duty. She said you would be so stubborn headed that we\u2019d have to lead you to the truth like a blind deer to water.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou knew my mother?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cOf course, Freja. Did you think it was a coincidence that your mother picked seeds native to Dawn? With all the cases in the universe you could have been assigned to, didn\u2019t you think that was a little suspicious?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI can\u2019t keep Rilke from coming,\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n \nMontana laughed. \u201cBut you can. All it will cost you is your career.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nFreja looked at Thom. He reached for her.\n<\/p>\n \n \nFreja met Peters in the teahouse in God\u2019s Cross. She was drenched from the showers that pelted the plateau, floating up from the Ryo valley and drenching the fields of potatoes, rice, and quinoa. She did not wear thermal shades but saw signs of the Ryo. Footprints in the scrub. The sagging branches of trees scattered about the plateau. She saw signs, but they had retreated to hiding. The Ryo sensed the presence of a stranger, even through the interface of a jacky.\n<\/p>\n \nThe jacky was a Geisha socketed into the wall outlet. She had a bowl of rice in front of her, steam floating up to the ceiling, where Japanese spirits were painted in vivid reds and orange. The steam looked ghostly in the beaming light of the jacky\u2019s eyes.\n<\/p>\n \nFreja could tell Peters was uncomfortable. He was still of the old generation, those who felt strange in the flesh of the opposite sex.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cSo what is it? Child smuggling? An implant racket?\u201d Peters asked.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNone of the above. It\u2019s the Grey Ghost\u2019s work.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cOut here? What the hell is she doing out here?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nFreja didn\u2019t mention the sex change. \u201cReworking the terrestrial AI to ignore orders of Rilke,\u201d she lied.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe\u2019ll send some engineers.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou don\u2019t have to. The Grey Ghost has been apprehended. Found her sightseeing in the Kabuki theatre. Had Lena check the systems. She reverted the AI to a local state.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWhere is she now?\u201d Peters said, gazing the jacky\u2019s flashlight eyes around.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cOn my ship already. In chains. I\u2019m bringing her in\u2026You\u2019re not smoking?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cEthics committee received a complaint from the Astral Corp. I\u2019m looking down a fine.\u201d Peters sighed. \u201cBringing in the Grey Ghost will mean a promotion, Freja. Won\u2019t be long till I\u2019m reporting to you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nFreja said nothing. Stood up and started to leave.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cGoodbye to you too, honey,\u201d Peters said.\n<\/p>\n \nShe heard Peters unplug. She saw the light leave the woman\u2019s eyes and heard the gulp of air swallowed by the woman as she came back to herself.\n<\/p>\n \n \nFreja packed her things from her apartment. She felt lost. She beckoned Lena, and the two of them walked across the great plateau for the last time.\n<\/p>\n \nA cruiser arrived at the docking station as Freja said goodbye to Montana and Michiru. It was sleek black, thin, the blue sheen of its stealth system washed over its surface. Three men alighted the plane and approached them. They were dressed in black robes that fell to their ankles. Lawyers.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cFreja, meet the legal team who will be leading the upcoming fight against whoever lays claim to the Ryo,\u201d Montana said.\n<\/p>\n \nTheir ship would be the last to arrive on Dawn for at least a decade. Nakamura had reprogrammed the navsats as well. Anyone flying to Dawn would instead find themselves staring down at the uninhabitable planet of Baggot H-301, a hundred stars away.\n<\/p>\n \nMontana had told her there were people on the forest planet of Whitewald who needed the information Lena carried, people who would support Dawn. There, Montana promised, she could find work, and live quietly among the trees.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThose trees reach to the highest clouds of the atmosphere. I hope you find it as comforting as I did,\u201d he had said.\n<\/p>\n \nShe didn\u2019t know if she was ready for a quiet life and told Montana as much, standing outside of her ship.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe group that you are delivering Lena\u2019s data to needs everyone they can get. They call themselves Lifesong. Perhaps a career change is in order,\u201d Montana said.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cOr just a change in scenery,\u201d Nakamura said, shouldering a bag. \u201cLifesong needs muscle like you, Freja.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nMontana said, \u201cWhere did you end up burying your mother?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI\u2019ll hold on to the seeds,\u201d Freja said. \u201cI\u2019m not ready to let go of her just yet.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI can\u2019t wait to see the trees,\u201d Lena said. \u201cBut I\u2019ll miss the Ryo.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou will always have the records,\u201d Montana said to Lena.\n<\/p>\n \nBut Freja knew that wasn\u2019t guaranteed. Lena\u2019s information was priceless and would attract every data thief in the galaxy.\n<\/p>\n \nFreja knew the lie she told Peters would not prevent Rilke and Eden descending on Dawn like salvagers on a scrap heap, but it would buy Montana and the lawyers time before the vultures came. Thirty years, Montana had guessed. Nakamura guaranteed twenty. Freja had ventured only ten.\n<\/p>\n \nFrom the cockpit of the cruiser, Freja, Nakamura, and Lena watched the teahouses and theatres shrink to spots, saw the swell of the forest that housed countless Ryo.\n<\/p>\n \nFreja did not put on thermal shades to watch Dawn disappear. She did not want to cry in front of Nakamura.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cGoodbye, Dawn,\u201d Lena said.\n<\/p>\n \nThree hours into the flight to Whitewald, Nakamura sent a message to Eden Com, one that would go to Peters himself. It said that Freja\u2019s ship had been hijacked by the Grey Ghost.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt will take years before they track us to Whitewald,\u201d Nakamura said. \u201cI\u2019ve planted fake coms in the database as well. They think I\u2019m taking you somewhere else. By that time, I\u2019ll be living it up on a Minerva minor colony.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cLiving it up?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYeah, what else?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cLifesong needs you just like it needs me,\u201d Freja said.\n<\/p>\n \nBut she wasn\u2019t sure she believed what she said. She touched the seeds and prayed that her mother would help her again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a rowdy Arab bar orbiting Betelgeuse, the blue-lipped, blue-haired jacky tapped his forehead, and a red monochrome hologram projected from his eyes. Sitting in the booth across from him, Freja watched it carefully. This hologram was a security camera feed of an operating room. Must be a far-arm colony somewhere, Freja thought. There was …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106611,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19864],"tags":[19863],"class_list":["post-137172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-tcl-32-summer-2019","tag-the-colored-lens-32-summer-2019","entry entry-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/106611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137172"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137175,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137172\/revisions\/137175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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