The knocking was very soft the next morning, but they were all woken by it.
The guard outside said something in his language. Kat clipped the translator to her ear, swung the pickup to her mouth and said, "Can you repeat that?"
"Ardon, our leader, wishes to invite you to breakfast."
Bruce used one of the wristcomps and connected it to the translator, and set it on the table. It repeated what the local said.
While leaning over it, he asked, "And if we don't want to go?"
"We would understand, but I am sure you are hungry and Ardon does need to speak with you. We are taking a big risk just having you here.
"Look. If we wanted you dead, you would be dead. If we wanted to hand you over, you would be chained up with more than one guard watching you."
Bruce turned to the group, and said, "We might as well go at this point."
With that, they got dressed and allowed the guard to lead them to a building a short distance away. The guard was armed but there was something that put Kat at ease about him anyway. Something about the way he walked that make her think of a man walking in his home, rather than a guard trying to watch everything at once in a place he does not trust.
They arrived at what looked like a dining room set up for a dozen people. Ardon was at the head of the table going over what looked like handwritten notes. He looked up when they entered and said, "Good, it looks like you slept well."
"Yes, thank you," Bruce said, who was wearing the translator. They all took seats on the other side of the table. The guard stood behind them.
"Please sit down, Joe. They are our friends and you're making them nervous." The guard slowly took a seat across from them.
Kat still found it odd how the translator assigned names. Half the time, it provided a name that sounded like the local version. The other half it decided the sounds were too different and just picked one at random.
"The other leaders of our group should be here shortly with the food. We try to have breakfast together. Once the day starts, we are all quite busy."
At Kat's left, Bruce said, "To be honest, sir, it's kind of...disconcerting how similar this situation is to Tyra's factory, where we escaped from."
They could all hear the translation from the wristcomp on the table, but only Bruce could speak.
"We were given food, clothing, beds, and every other luxury he could get that he thought we would want. In return, we were prisoners and expected to work."
Ardon paused then said, "Do you know what we do here?
"Making weapons is our best guess"
He smiled, "No, we do something much harder and more valuable. We raise children from two years until the start of adulthood, when they lose the compulsions. Then, after they are adjusted to adulthood, we sell them to others for advanced training. We are left alone by the various leaders of the incorporated cities because we are very good at raising children. Better than any other group that I know of.
"In every other facility, less than one child in ten makes it from two to ten. Over half of those are put down before they can start an adult job because they are thought to be useless or damaged. As most people get older, they forget what it was like to be a child. They treat children as they would adults and beat them when they are a bit slow to learn or do anything they are not allowed to do.
"We are good at raising and training children because we are all, without exception, adult children. We understand the children in ways others can't. If this was known, we would never be trusted again. Best case, we would have to split up and look for other ways to survive. Worst case, we would all be killed.
"You have asked for what safety we can offer, and I have granted it. You will need to justify the great risk we are taking. If you do your part, we will treat you as we treat our own."
---
"Okay, try again."
Kat heard the local spout gibberish and the large boxy display froze, then cleared up.
"I never thought getting a voice interface working would be this hard."
Bruce laughed, "Technology being old does not mean it's simple. Try making a first-generation video screen sometime—, amazing that they could ever get the damn thing to work. Or for that matter, slide rules."
They had spent the last several days fulling the agreement with the teachers.
"Will you go the comp and make sure it's getting a clean signal? The problem may be the analog to digital converter."
Kat had never realized how many things they used comps for before she started living with people without them. From what the locals said, their comps were very rare and costly. Even simple stuff like recording video was beyond the teachers; all records were kept on costly paper.
Kat heard a local behind her say something and turned around to see Sing, the chief of security for the compound, walk in. He was a short man who must have been in a serious fire a long time before. He still had scars from burns over half his face.
He walked up to Kat and politely motioned with his hand. Kat put on oversized headphones, which were connected to a large local radio that clipped onto her belt, she made sure it's antenna was good then flipped it on.
Sing repeated himself, "You can record everything that is sent to the computer?"
She said, "Yes, the storage will last for years."
When it was put on and adjusted, Sing said, "Good to hear that, it will be very helpful. But that's not why I'm here. Could you be spared tomorrow? We have some kids coming in and need to up the guards for about four hours tomorrow. You willing to help?"
Kat got the idea that the question was more important than he was letting on.
"Sure, I'm not that used to your guns though."
"No problem, I told them to expect you at the range."
---
She unloaded one clip into the target. The first couple went wide, but the rest were easily inside it.
She practiced reloading a few times then unloaded a few more clips. The gun felt different than what she was used to, but not as different than she would have thought.
Sing put his hand on her shoulder, so she took off her ear protection and turned around.
"Not bad. Better than I thought, given you've never used our guns before. I'm not going to lie, I asked you mainly because I wanted to see if you were willing to help. But if you can shoot that well, I'll be glad to have you."
He looked relieved.
"Thanks, I spent months on the way to the system here learning."
"You didn't know before?"
She sat down and practiced reloading while they talked.
"No, had no reason to. The Erikson isn't a violent or dangerous place. Most people don't know how to use guns, even on planets. There's little need."
"Really? So they really don't know how to defend themselves?" Sing sounded unsure as he pointed back to the building that Bruce was working in. "Honestly, the more I hear about your home, the more I think you can't be lying. No one would be stupid enough to make up something like that."
---
Kat climbed onto the wall. She had been given one of the larger jackets with a hood in case anyone recognized her or her skin tone.
She felt the wind on her face and wished the air was temperature controlled like it should be.
She was watching the sunrise when Mary walked next to her, her steps echoed into the new day. Mary was a short woman in her twenties who Kat had seen watching with some of the younger children.
"I thought you were a teacher."
"I am, most of the time, but we do what's needed. Today, they needed a guard. These days we're lucky to have one day off in twenty. Hopefully the recruiters can find more of us this year."
The convoy rounded the bend. It was composed of four beat-up cars. The middle two of which held the children. Marching them on foot like Kat had seen did not seem common.
"Is everyone really like us where you're from?"
"Almost all. It depends on exactly where on the grid you're talking about."
"That must be wonderful," she said, her voice almost had an element of awe in it, if the adjusted translator could be trusted, as she gazed over the city.
"Just once, I want to be able to let myself love them. To know they will be able to love me back. To know they won't stop being able to care about me, stop being able to care about anyone but themselves."
---
After the last of the new children had been ushered into the dormitories, Kat turned to Mary. She said, "I don't mean to offend, but selling children just feels...wrong. I don't know if I'd ever get used to it."
"It's not something we like. There's a reason I stay in when they leave us.
"Human life is valuable and not to be wasted." She sighed. "But we don't know another way. Living independently like this is expensive, and risky. We are tolerated because we are doing something valuable."
Mary looked at her oddly, "How are children raised on the Erikson?"
"Mostly in families, almost always one man and one woman with their children. There's always exceptions but that has proven to be the best for most people. Most healthy societies encourage that family structure. "
"They can work and have a kid at the same time? They have kids just to have them?"
"Well, for the most part, yeah."
"That must be wonderful." Mary looked dreamily into the distance.
"Do you have kids?" Mary said after snapping out of it.
"I would like to," Kat sighed, "I've talked about it with Roger. His feelings on kids are... complicated. He would make a wonderful father, not that he thinks that. Someday, we will. I want at least three kids."
They talked the rest of the shift, with Kat explaining everything from marriage to string travel.
---
Kat put her gun back carefully into the armory and with a clang, closed the door and started walking across the compound. She saw Isaac, Jacklyn, and Mary. Jacklyn and Isaac spent most of their time together, helping with the kids.
As she walked up, she saw Jacklyn with an arm around Isaac, hanging onto him as they watched a group of kids playing.
As Roger might say, they had holes in their hearts that were never going to close but seeing them like that did make her smile. It also made her miss her husband, but that was nothing new.
When she saw Kat, Jacklyn let go of Isaac and ran up to hug Kat.
After Jacklyn had got back to hanging on Isaac, he said, "Kat, will you please tell Mary we don't have an all-powerful ruler on the Erikson? She's starting to hurt my head."
"What?"
"They're saying that you don't really have a leader, and that there are rules that everyone has to follow even after the death of the people who made them?"
She looked serious, so Kat said, "That's how most governments work, yes..."
"What happens if the person picked is weak or not respected? Are the rules followed?" She asked quickly.
"Normally, yes..."
"And your leader?"
"Most important decisions are voted on. There not made by one man. Less important decisions or ones that have to be made fast are made by the council, five people elected by every adult on the Erikson. The captain is appointed by the council and is in charge of running the ship, but doesn't have any power beyond that except during emergencies."
"Your way sounds like it requires a lot of trust."
"Told you," Isaac said jokingly. Seeing him smile made Kat smile.
"You heard the news from the radio?" Jacklyn said, "They heard us! And they're coming!"
She was going home.
She was going to see Roger again.
Kat hugged Jacklyn tightly. She wanted to cry in joy.
Mary moved to where she was in front of all three. She, took a deep breath and with a look almost like shame across her face, asked, "Can I come with you?"
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They agreed to Mary's request. They could hardly have done less. They all knew the kinds of risks the teachers took by giving them sanctuary.
"Your ship can get to here fast enough to not be shot?"
"The Erik? Hell, no. It can't even enter the atmosphere. Some of the boats can land, but I'm not sure how they plan to do it. I'm sure they can find a way though."
Kat and Mary walked into Bruce's workshop. Kat greeted, "Busy Bruce?"
Without turning from his bench, Bruce said, "Welcome, have a seat. And yes, thankfully I am busy. Nothing worse than having nothing to do. Always someone to teach or some new use for the wristcomp."
His bench had one of the weird dodecahedron things.
"Right now, I am trying to figure out this thing. Can't imagine what it's for or why they are just left everywhere."
It looked just like the ones Kat passed when walking through the city. They were about the size of a beach ball with twelve faces. Each face had scratches equal to the first twelve prime numbers.
"Here's the second one, Bruce. Like I told you, they're all the same," Sing said as he walked up behind Bruce with one in hand.
Bruce turned and reached out to grab it. When his hand touched it, the artifact glowed at the places where he and Sing were making contact. A blur of light appeared in the air.
It flashed symbols that Kat had never seen before next to simple pictures or lines. It continued, speeding up until it became a blur again.
Kat didn't know how long it lasted but suddenly the image stopped changing and it showed a picture of the Milky Way. Most of the galaxy was purple. All of it, in fact, except for one spiral arm, which had one blinking star.
It zoomed into the blinking star. She saw the Sol system, then the Earth.
But not the earth she recognized from vids. It had no halo, no stations in orbit. Luna was dark and there were no lights on the night side of the planet. The image zoomed out and she saw green spheres shoot off in every direction. The image followed one of the spheres and it quickly came of a new system. Kat realized the new system was the local system.
It zoomed to the local's home world and showed a planet that looked gray and red with no obvious plant life. It showed dots landing and oceans forming. Then it showed the sphere landing and green spreading. It looked like earth, then it showed people, humans, getting out of the sphere.
Then the image zoomed out. Both Sol and Helivous were blinking. It zoomed out even more to show the entire spiral arm.
It had dozens of blinking stars.
Dozens of planets with humans.
"Oh my god," she said as Bruce dropped the dodecahedron.
ns 15.158.61.21da2
