The Redwood Trilogy Box Set Page 11

  “I’m thirteen! I’m of age! I have the right to decide for myself!”

  Physician Patel finally convinced her by showing her there just wasn’t room to take anyone else. Professor Cruz agreed, and helped calm her down. He wanted her to know she’d have a critical role to play.

  “We need you and Aneeta here to take care of the children, and monitor communications while we’re gone. If something happens and we need to know about it, you’re going to be our lifeline.”

  Anusha still wasn’t completely mollified, but she agreed to stay behind. Or rather, “accept” her “fate,” as she put it.

  That left me and Professor Kalinowski as the odd men out, numbers 31 and 32. Fortunately I had the QC, which could carry two. Jenkins and Professor Cruz had concerns about that, though.

  “We’re not sure the QC can avoid the catapults, Marcus, even if you turn its navigation back on.”

  I nodded. “That’s okay, Professor. I think I can avoid some falling rocks.”

  They weren’t happy about it, but eventually they decided to let me tag along in the QC with the birds despite the risks. Then the arguments erupted over who should fly shotgun with me.

  Professor Kalinowski was happy to volunteer.

  “M’boy’s a fine pilot. I’ve flown with him before, to get here. Besides, if I get shot down it’s not such a big loss.”

  Self-deprecation notwithstanding, he was vetoed and the argument continued. For a while it looked like one of the triplets would fly with me. They were certainly eager to face any kind of danger and the idea of zooming through the air on a stolen QC, dodging giant boulders slung by electronic catapults, actually seemed fun to them.

  But then Dee Dee stood up and volunteered.

  “I’ll go with him. We both have recuperative powers the rest of you don’t. If we get shot down, the two of us have the highest chance of survival.”

  That put an end to all arguments and the matter was settled.

  Another big preparation involved securing the Ranger station’s data. The researchers had years of information from planetary observations, agricultural experiments, exobiological readings, and tons of other stuff. Not all of it had been backed up off-planet over the years, and the Professor decided now was the time to do it. For one, he explained, concerns over monitored data transmissions were fewer now that New Texas was no longer controlled by the State.

  Anusha, Dee Dee, and Jason configured a transmitter and prepared the station’s servers for the data dump.

  “Send everything to Lonestar One. Redwood City doesn’t know about it, and it can relay the data in bursts through the Janus,” the Professor said.

  Lonestar One, I learned, was a stealth satellite New Texas A&M put in place just for this purpose. Although no one in Redwood City knew about it, concerns over data monitoring on New Texas limited its use. But now that those concerns were no longer, the Professor seized the opportunity to upload twenty years worth of research and observations to the University.

  “Haven’t you been sending stuff to them over the years?” I said.

  “Yes, but not all at once. This will serve as a good backup of compiled data. Especially our more recent observations of Fred and Anna.”

  Anna was the name given to the dead female monkey we retrieved. Connie named it, after deciding it needed a name better than “Female Specimen Alpha.”

  The first time she visited it with the Professor, she looked at the monkey and decided, “She looks like an Anna.”

  The name stuck, and everyone called her that now.

  Fred had ripped Anna’s throat out, but the rest of her body was intact. The most surprising discovery the Professor made concerned Anna’s age. As near as he could figure, she was rather old, nearing the end of her life cycle.

  I listened in on one of the Professor’s oral notations he made before transmitting the latest data on Anna to Lonestar One.

  “It appears Fred might be serving in a predatory role for the primates. We’ve seen no real predators in our many years of observing Monkey City. The hunter-gathering teams emerge, collect food, and re-enter the city in relative safety. Outside of Fred, at no time are they seriously threatened, even by the giant snakes in the forest. They seem to be top of their food chain, and the awareness of their surroundings is so acute, even if a threat like a snake came close, they could probably evade it in time to avoid getting eaten.

  “It seems possible that Fred chose to pursue Anna because she is the oldest, hence the weakest, and hence the slowest. If so, Fred may be acting like a lion chasing down the slowest antelope, culling the herd of its old and lame members.”

  It was kind of a troubling thought. Survival of the fittest. If anybody ever thought Dee Dee and I would start filling that kind of “role,” as the Professor put it, as humans . . . Suddenly I didn’t feel so comfortable living at Ranger Station Alpha.

  The Professor sensed my unease, and sought to reassure me.

  “Humans are not animals. We don’t cull our weakest. Neither will you. Morality has prevented you from fulfilling your needs by force these years you’ve been infected. You’re not an animal, you can make higher order decisions.”

  -+-

  One night after a group meal and yet another meeting to finalize preparations for the assault, we broke up and everybody headed back to their houses. I wandered over to the garden, which had been neglected lately in all the other preparations.

  It was night time, and a slight breeze found its way through the outer edge of the forest. Dee Dee was there, lying on her back.

  “Oh, hi. I like to come here at night sometimes. It’s the only place I can see the stars.”

  I nodded, sat down next to her and leaned back, clasping the back of my head with my hands.

  “Yeah, it’s the only place with direct sunlight. Clear view of the sky for crops.”

  After staring up at the stars in silence for a while, I worked up the nerve to ask her something I’d been wondering about since meeting her.

  “Dee Dee, how did you get here? How did they smuggle you in from New Texas? And why’d you have to leave there, anyway?”

  “I never told you? It was easy. Well, I’m sure the preparations for it weren’t easy, but getting here was. It’s one of my earliest memories. I was three years old, and smuggled aboard a spaceship going from New Texas to Redwood. One other thing was smuggled onboard with me, an extra escape pod.

  “Just before entering Redwood’s atmosphere, the pilots put me in one of those pods. They were super nice, and entertained me the entire month-long trip. When putting me in the pod they both gave me a hug, told me not to worry, that I’d be safe, and to wait in the pod until somebody came to pick me up.

  “I found out later that after they sent my escape pod out, they put in the new one they brought along, and fixed the ship’s computer to delete any record of an ejection. When the ship landed in Redwood, nothing seemed amiss. Everything was intact, and there was no record of a pod being used before landing.

  “It was peaceful going down, at first. I saw stars everywhere, then Redwood’s surface. Then the pod hit the atmosphere and things got kind of rough while the temperature inside heated up. It was pretty scary for a three year old girl.

  “But eventually I landed, safe and sound in a field of really tall grass. I followed the pilots’ instructions, and stayed in the pod. I don’t know how long I was in there, maybe two or three hours. Eventually I heard the sound of bird wings. Ranger Jones was the one who found me.

  “I remember his first words. ‘Welcome to Redwood, Diane. You’re home now.’

  “Then he took me up on the bird, and I sat in his lap, and we flew here.”

  “And the Cruzes adopted you.”

  She nodded. “Connie was about my age, and they weren’t going to have any other children. They thought it’d be nice for Connie to have a sister. They’ve been really good to me. I couldn’t ask for a nicer family.”

  “But why did you leave New Texas? I mean,
why did somebody go to all the trouble of sneaking you out like that?”

  “That’s a good question, and I’ve talked with Daddy about it some, over the years. I was an orphan like you. And orphans are often made Servants of the State. Somebody didn’t want me assigned to that position. I’m not sure who that somebody is, and I’m not sure Daddy knows, either.

  “Or if he does,” she flashed a grin, “He’s not telling.”

  I mulled that over for a bit. If the Professor didn’t know, no one did. At least, not on Redwood.

  “Anyway, somebody in a position of power to do something about it got me out of the orphanage and placed me on that spaceship. Obviously, somebody at New Texas A and M knew about it, because they sent me on the smuggling route. I learned the escape pod trick was a common way of supplying the ranger station, especially in the early days before we became more self-sufficient.”

  “So do you know who your biological parents are, or were?”

  “No. I have no memories of them. Mom speculates the State had them eliminated for some reason. She says they might have been working for the University, and somebody close to them made sure I got away.”

  That seemed like a good theory.

  We talked and stargazed for some time. Finally she got up and said, “I better get back before anyone gets worried.”

  I stood up too, and dusted off my pants.

  She gave me a hug.

  “Thanks for listening.”

  “Thanks for talking.”

  She laughed, then kissed me. On the lips. I felt like electricity zapped through my whole body.

  When we broke away, she smiled.

  “Good night.”

  She jogged off into the darkness toward home. I followed at a distance, walking slower. I watched her go into the Cruzes’ house, then made my way back to the triplets’ place.

  I stayed in bed for a couple hours listening to the triplets snore, thinking about her.

  Finally, I decided this must be what love feels like.

  With that happy thought, I fell asleep.

  Chapter Twelve

  Finally, dawn for the day of departure came. We were all to meet on the landing platform, and load up backpacks with food and weapons. The plan was to spend the day flying to a field near the desert, set up camp then attack the city the following morning.

  The triplets flew down a zipline to the landing platform, but I decided to take the long way and walk. I slid down the pole, and went by the mess hall for a final look at the place I’d spent so many hours working. As I passed the small chapel near the mess, I noted people inside. Out of curiosity, I stuck my head in the door. The light filtered in red and yellow through the stained glass windows. The Professor and Mrs. Cruz were on their knees, holding hands, heads bowed. Several other couples were in there with them. I noted the Patels, the Ngs, the Joneses. They looked up when I opened the door.

  “Sorry.”

  “No, that’s alright, Marcus. We were just praying for what’s ahead.”

  Prayer sounded like an excellent idea to me. I continued toward the landing platform, saying a silent one myself.

  Dear Lord, bless us today and tomorrow.

  At the platform, everyone hurried about. A sense of urgency permeated the air. Anusha, Aneeta, and the Jones children were there: Estelle, Raymond, Azure, and Hunter. Little three year old Hunter cried while holding his sister Estelle’s hand. Raymond held Azure’s hand. The Patel girls hovered near them. As their parents streamed in from the chapel behind me, they hugged all the kids in turn.

  I walked over to the QC and popped the canopy open. Dee Dee walked up with her backpack.

  “Ready to go for a ride?” I said in a tone with more confidence than I felt.

  “You bet. Our first date!”

  I blushed.

  The Cruzes walked up about that time. The Professor raised his hand. Everybody stopped what they were doing and focused on him.

  “I want all weapons unloaded. No accidental discharges today, people. Take them out, point them downwards. Be careful and do not point your weapon at anybody. Slide the bolt back and make sure your gun is unloaded.”

  Everybody dutifully retrieved their pistol or rifle, took the magazine out, slid the bolt back, and visually checked to make sure it was empty.

  When the Professor was satisfied, he raised his hand for their attention again.

  “The events we are setting in motion today will become part of the brief history of this planet. In a major revolution against State rule of the systems on the outer edge of the Janus String, what we are about to embark upon here is crucial.

  “It is quite possible that several of us won’t be coming back.”

  At this, little Hunter began to wail. The Professor looked at him sympathetically while Mrs. Jones picked him up and hugged him.

  “But, Lord willing, we will. We are not revolutionaries, but our University has chosen to start a revolution. We are not soldiers, but our University has asked us to fight. We are not violent in nature, but now we will pursue whatever means are necessary to attain the freedoms we seek.

  “Some day all people along the Janus String will hear about what we are doing today, and they will know that we understood some things are worth fighting for. Things like freedom, liberty, and democracy.

  “May God bless us all. Mount up.”

  It was a good speech. We needed it, as nobody looked very happy about going off to war. Except for the triplets. They were positively giddy.

  Everybody mounted up. One by one the synthetic birds flapped their wings and left the platform, loaded with people and equipment.

  Dee Dee and I waited and took off last. I spun the quadcopter around as we hovered for a minute, and we waived goodbye to Aneeta, Anusha, and the children. They waved back.

  I turned and followed the synthetic birds.

  -+-

  We flew about eight hours. It proved a little more difficult than my flight out with Agent Schmidt, now seemingly so long ago. Then I could set the autopilot and take a nap. With the navigation system disabled (my tinfoil still hung on, the sealant holding it tight all this time), I had to pay attention to what I was doing and where I was going.

  That meant I had to keep one hand on the controls at all times. But, I had one hand free to hold Dee Dee’s.

  We talked about plans for the assault, about people from the Ranger station, about the past and the future. Sometimes we sat in silence and admired the scenery below. Massive fields of grassland raced beneath us. Occasionally we’d pass over a herd of Redwood cattle. They’d look up from munching on the grass and watch as we sailed overhead.

  Most of all, it was pure joy to just be with her. This was the longest extended time we’d had alone together.

  We stopped for a break after two hours, landing in a clear open space on top of a slight rise. It offered a nice view for miles in all directions. Everybody dismounted, stretched their legs and sipped on water.

  Twenty minutes later we were in the air again. We flew for another couple hours before stopping on a rocky patch of land. It had less visibility than the first, but was clear of grass. Here we set up lunch. Mostly beef jerky and other foodstuff that didn’t need heating.

  Mrs. Ng brought along a couple bags of Williams’ apples. She recruited me to help pass them out to everybody.

  After one more rest stop in the afternoon, we finally reached the campsite before sundown. Jenkins and the NGs set up a proper mess, assembling a portable stove and preparing a meal of steaks and mashed potatoes while the rest of us set up our tents.

  I mentioned something about satellite surveillance. Surely somebody in Redwood City would notice a campground with 32 people this close to the desert? The Professor assured me that we’d compromised their satellites some time ago, and the Patel girls were monitoring the city’s communications.

  After supper, Professor Kalinowski passed out the last of his cigars.

  “Don’t smoke too many of these,” he murmured in m
y ear as he handed me one. “They’ll kill ya.”

  “I remember Ulysess S. Grant.”

  “That’s m’boy.”

  Eventually conversation died down, and people began retiring to their tents. The triplets and I were up with both Professors long after everyone else left, listening to them talk and plan for the morning.

  Finally, Professor Cruz looked over at us and said, “Go on to bed, boys. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

  Reluctantly, we slouched off toward our tent. But curiosity got the better of me. Once the triplets started snoring, I sneaked out and made my way back over to where the two men sat, still talking.

  “What do you think our chances are tomorrow, Milt?”

  “We might actually be able to take the city. The biggest chance for casualties is getting shot by the load bots. I’m afraid we’re going to lose some people in that fight. Most of us aren’t too skilled with guns. Heck, I hadn’t shot a gun for years myself until just recently.”

  “I know, and that bothers me. I’m not sure there’s any other practical way. If we can get a team through the Customs Entry, I think we can make it. But you’re right. We’ll probably lose some people while trying to do it.”

  “Yup. I’m prepared, though. I updated my will and sent it home with the data dump through Lonestar One.”

  “Really? That’s not very optimistic.”

  “It’s realistic, Curt. Besides, it needed updating anyway. I hadn’t touched it in twenty years.”

  They stopped talking for a while. I imagined they were lost in thought and mulling over the consequences their decisions might hold for all of us tomorrow.

  Finally, Professor Kalinowski broke the silence.

  “You’ve got two beautiful daughters, Curt. I’ve been meaning to tell you. Melody made the right choice all those years ago, with you. I’ve been acting like a foolish child, staying away from y’all all this time. My feelings were hurt, and I was mad, and irresponsible. But I want you to know, I’m happy for you and Melody. You have a beautiful family.”