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to get outside for a while. At least out in space he would be safe from more
of Gerald Hemminge's cold messages, like the one Arachne handed over this
morning:
"Do not ever contradict my orders again."
So much for government by consensus.
The nearest hatch lay beyond a patch of temperate forest. The shade of the
fast-growing trees and the green-gold coolness made Infinity happy.
A small creature squawked in terror. It struggled and fluttered, pummeling the
ground.
Infinity sprinted toward the sound. Last year's fallen leaves deadened the
thud of his boots.
He stopped.
A bird lay on the ground, a sparrow, its brown feathers blending in against
the forest colors. Infinity knelt and touched it. The heat of its body
radiated through its soft ruffled feathers, but it was dead. He turned it
over. Its blood dripped to the ground, bright red, wet.
Whatever had killed it had disappeared. It left no footprints, only disturbed
ground.
Infinity picked up the bird and took it off the path. He left it where
Starfarer's scavengers would find it.
But what had killed it? Falcons and a pair of eagles lived on the wild side,
but Alzena had not, as far as he knew, introduced predators into
Starfarer's campus cylinder.
Maybe Alzena had let loose some small carnivore. She might even have reported
it in the daily news. If she had, Arachne's crash had lost it.
Curious, Infinity followed the scuffed-up leaves. He wondered if he was seeing
a real trail, or a path his eyes and mind were making up. The dead leaves
glistened,
246 VONDA N. McINTYRE
black from winter, damp and rotting into the soil. Here and there the leaves
rumpled, like a carpet pushed into folds by a scampering child.
Each step released the fertile, musty smell of leaf mould. The young forest
basked in the hot spring sun, green and gold, the new leaves nearly full. A
life cycle began above Infinity's head and circled beneath his feet.
Alzena had planned the ecosystem carefully. First she had prepared the soil
and the free-living microbes. Then she had established the plants and the
pollinating insects, the invertebrates, the scavengers. Then she added the
smaller herbivores, the songbirds, the bats. When each branch of the
environmental network made its connections, she added to its complexity.
She might have released a mammalian predator, a badger, a ferret, a fox.
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The time was right. Otherwise the forest's life cycle would overbalance.
Had she had time to complete the network? Infinity did not know.
He reached the edge of the forest. The trees gave way to a meadow.
Infinity blinked in the sudden brightness of hot sun. The stream's reflection
dazzled him; water brushed past him with a musical sigh.
A piercing whistle cut the air.
Infinity barely caught the quick motion at the top of a tumble of stones.
The black tail of a small furry animal vanished behind the rocks.
Infinity sprinted for the bank. He clambered up the slope, pebbles sliding
beneath his feet.
When be reached the top, only the stream's humming disturbed the silence.
A dragonfly hovered, vibrated the air, vanished, and reappeared five meters
away as if it had teleported.
Infinity sank down, lying flat on the slope. The stones pressed the heat
through his jeans and into his skin. He was glad of his leather vest.
For a long time, nothing moved.
Whatever it was, I lost it, Infinity thought. It ran off into the bushes, or
along the stream bank out of sight. . . . And maybe it didn't have anything to
do with the dead bird. Maybe it was just minding its own
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business when I jumped out and scared it. But what was it? The tail was wrong
for a squirrel or a chipmunk, but it wasn't naked enough for a rat.
I hope. We're in trouble if the campus has rats.
The rocks beneath him had not had time to weather. They were sharp and raw.
Enough of this great native hunter business, he thought. I'll get Arachne to
keep watch on the spot. . . .
Just before he moved, a creature scampered to the highest point of the bank.
It moved with a smooth canny pacing gait. It rose on its hind legs, its back
to him, counterbalanced by its tail. It gazed upward, watching for predators.
Paws crossed on its belly, it turned to survey the land.
It saw Infinity. They stared at each other for a split second, each as
surprised as the other, the creature peering with shiny black eyes through a
black mask of fu r.
It cried out in warning; it dropped to all fours and fled, pacing quick-footed
down the slope and between some rocks.
It was one of Europa's meerkats. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]