Frontier

  “You’d better go and change into dry clothes, Amalie.”

  I dropped the lunch pail to the floor with a clatter. “I’ll just put a jacket on. I need to go out again and see to the chickens.”

  “They’re already safe in the barn,” said Mother. “The window shutters are all closed, Father’s checking the stables, and Henri and Ansel are getting the last of the outdoor oddments under cover.”

  She took a closer look at my face and frowned. “Have you got one of your headaches?”

  I chose my words carefully. “I had one earlier today, but the Jains took me to see a specialist. I’ve had the treatment I need, so the headaches won’t be a problem in future.”

  Mother smiled in delight. “I’m so grateful to the Jains for helping. I was getting really worried about you.”

  I winced. I couldn’t tell her about the people I’d seen in the waiting room. How could I confess I’d stolen their places in the queue, taken the treatment they should have had, and been freed from my pain while they were sent away still suffering? There’d been small children in that room!

  “You’re a lucky girl to be marrying Rodrish Jain,” Mother added.

  I winced again. If I told Mother I was going to break my betrothal, it would destroy all her enjoyment of the Founders Day celebrations. There’d be a risk of the twins finding out and telling the whole neighbourhood as well.

  “I’d like to lie down in bed and rest quietly for a while,” I said. “Can I sleep in the linen room tonight?”

  Mother shrugged. “If you prefer that.”

  I went upstairs, shut myself in the tiny linen room, sat on the mattress, and took out my lookup. Not the fancy lookup that I’d have to return to Rodrish Jain, but the old, familiar, flickering lookup that was truly mine.

  Jain’s Ford School would have closed the moment it was clear there was a storm coming. I needed to know if I still had the chance to study off world. I used my lookup to send Teacher Lomas a one sentence, text-only message.

  “Have you found another candidate to be a lecturer at University Miranda?”

  I was startled when my lookup instantly chimed for an incoming call from Lomas. I hesitated before tapping it to accept the call.

  “I didn’t mean to interrupt your plans for the rest of the day,” I said.

  A faintly green version of Lomas’s face frowned at me from the lookup screen. “What plans? Nobody’s going out to visit friends in this storm. What the chaos did your message mean, Amalie? You want to be one of our lecturers after all?”

  I wasn’t stealing anyone else’s place again. “Only if you haven’t found another candidate.”

  “We haven’t,” he said. “Oddly enough, unattached intelligent girls with an innate love of history are in short supply on Miranda. I don’t see how you plan to combine studying on another world with marrying Rodrish Jain though.”

  I pulled a face. “You have to keep this secret for a few days, because I can’t break my betrothal in the middle of the Jain’s Ford Founders Day celebrations, but I’m not marrying Rodrish Jain.”

  Lomas raised his eyebrows. “Breaking your betrothal to a son of the Jains is going to make you dangerously unpopular whenever you do it. What went wrong, Amalie?”

  I flushed. “You won’t understand the problem. No one will. Rodrish Jain could give me a life of luxury.”

  “I may understand more than you think,” said Lomas. “I wouldn’t be comfortable with unearned riches either. It’s going to be difficult to explain it to other people though.”

  He paused to think. “Your course won’t start until after next Year Day, but in the circumstances I think we should arrange to send you off world as soon as possible.”

  “That’s a kind thought,” I said, “but I can’t run away from this. I’ve just been diagnosed with type 4 portal intolerance, and need to finish a three month course of treatment before I can portal off world.”

  Lomas groaned. “Moving you somewhere else on Miranda won’t help.”

  “I’ll just have to cope with the consequences of my own stupidity,” I said. “I wondered if there was any chance of me studying medicine rather than history. We desperately need more doctors on Miranda.”

  “Our medical candidates started their studies two years ago,” said Lomas. “It takes a long time to become a medical specialist, but Miranda needs a history expert just as desperately as it needs doctors. Didn’t you listen to any of the things I told you about University Miranda?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  He sighed. “I told you the Planetary Development Board decided to concentrate a lot of our resources on founding University Miranda. I told you they came to that decision after studying what happened in Delta sector. If we want to make the best decisions for Miranda’s future, we need to look at the lessons of the past. We need a history expert to tell us what’s succeeded and what’s failed on multiple other worlds, even on Earth itself.”

  I considered that for a moment. “Yes, I see that now. I’ve been misjudging a lot of things recently.”

  “It’s sometimes hardest to see the thing that’s right under your nose,” said Lomas. “If I’d been a wiser man ten years ago, I’d be talking to someone else on a different world right now. Good night, Amalie.”

  He didn’t wait for me to say goodbye, just cut off the call at his end. I stood up, went across to the tiny window, and looked out. The black clouds and pouring rain made it almost as dark as night, but then a flash of lightning briefly lit up the sky. Somewhere out in the darkness, a Military figure was standing alone with a storm raging around him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The storm didn’t blow itself out until late the next afternoon. A quick check outside showed the only damage was a broken shutter on the house, and a torn section of roof on one of the outbuildings. Lisbet hurried off to her new barmaid’s job, and the rest of my family started making minor repairs and trying to coax the chickens back to their run. I packed a lunch pail of food and headed down the track to the almond field.

  I passed at least a dozen fallen trees on my way, and had to climb over another that sprawled across the track. I was relieved to find Koulsy was safe and well, inspecting the wreckage of his old camp site.

  “You were quite right about the trees, Amalie.” He pointed to where a Mirandan tree had fallen across the stream, burying his camp fire under a mass of its fronds. The two bowls we’d eaten from yesterday had narrowly missed being crushed by the trunk.

  “Mirandan trees never die of old age,” I said. “They just grow taller and taller until they’re top heavy and blow over in a storm. We’ll be clearing them off the tracks for days, and cutting the trunks up to be used for building work and firewood.”

  “I’ve been thinking about your local Founders Day celebration,” said Koulsy. “What is it like?”

  “I thought the Founders Day ceremony was the same on every world.”

  Koulsy laughed. “The ceremony is, but each world has its own individual celebrations as well. I’ve been to them on a dozen worlds. Adonis in Alpha sector has very formal celebrations. The Adonis Knights gather to walk the desert crossing at night, carrying with them the symbolic torch of Alpha sector that represents the flame of human civilization.”

  I was awed. “You were actually on Adonis and saw the Adonis Knights?”

  He smiled. “Yes. My parents had a posting at the Military base on Adonis when I was 16 years old. The Military and their families had special places reserved for them at the main Founders Day celebrations, and I was stunned by the spectacular clothes and pageantry.”

  His smile faded. “The following year, we were on Sobek. Founders Day there was ... painful. I remember how the blue uniforms of the Military officers stood out amongst the crowd. All the civilians were wearing white on Founders Day, because that’s the colour of mourning on Sobek.”

  I gave a nod of understanding. Everyone in Epsilon sector knew that making Sobek safe for colonization had cost
a hideous number of Military lives.

  Koulsy spoke in a brisker voice. “So what are the celebrations like on Miranda? Is it like other worlds, with each settlement having its own gathering?”

  “Yes, but we don’t have any impressive traditions,” I said. “After the formal ceremony, there’s a rather silly children’s pageant, and then a big party.”

  “I can’t portal to your local gathering,” said Koulsy, “so I’ll have to walk there. How long will the journey take me?”

  I gave him a startled look. “I didn’t think you’d want to come.”

  “If I’m on this world on its Founders Day, it’s my duty to honour the roll call of the Military dead.”

  I told myself that I’d been an idiot to mention our Founders Day celebration to Koulsy. Now he was under pressure to attend it, and I’d no idea how big an ordeal that would be. If he’d lost friends in the accident that brought him here, then listening to the names of the Military who’d died on Miranda would be the mental equivalent of walking barefoot through a field of broken glass.

  On the other hand, Koulsy might have felt even worse about missing the ceremony through ignorance. What I’d said to Rodrish earlier was right. You couldn’t make other people’s decisions for them.

  “I can walk there with you to show you the way,” I said. “It shouldn’t take us more than an hour. There’ll be a lot of people at the gathering, but you wouldn’t have to stand with the crowd. You could watch things from the nearby hillside.”

  “That would ...” A chiming sound made him break off and look round in alarm.

  “Sorry, that’s my lookup,” I said.

  I moved a few steps away, checked my lookup, and gave a bewildered shake of my head as I saw Mojay was calling me. I couldn’t see why he’d want to speak to me, but if I didn’t answer then knowing Mojay he’d keep calling me every thirty seconds.

  I tapped my lookup. The second Mojay’s face appeared he started speaking. “Amalie, I need you here right away.”

  “What?” I checked the time on my lookup, and saw that Mojay’s Bar should have just opened for the evening. “Lisbet must be with you at the bar by now. Is Cella late again?”

  “No!” Mojay snapped the word impatiently. “I don’t need you as a barmaid, but because you were always boring us to death talking about moon monkeys. We’re surrounded by hordes of the creatures. The minute I turned on the bar sign, they started staggering out of the trees and staring at its lights.”

  “Nuke it,” I said. “That sounds like a troop has got drunk on apples.”

  “It’s not just one troop, Amalie,” said Mojay. “There are hundreds and hundreds of them already, and more arriving every minute. Everyone knows what happens when moon monkeys eat apples. They stagger around acting drunk, then they get sick and lie down, and then they die. We’ve got a full scale ecological disaster happening here. What do I do? Turn off the sign or ...?”

  “No!” I’d been lost in blind panic for a moment, but I forced myself to start thinking. “Keep the sign on. In fact, you should turn it to maximum brightness. If that many moon monkeys are drunk, a troop must have broken into an apple orchard and called every moon monkey this side of Jain’s Ford Settlement to join their feast. Now they’ve run out of apples, they’re scattering across the countryside. We can’t help them if we can’t find them, so we want all the moon monkeys to gather outside your bar and stay there. If they’re drunk, they’ll be even nosier than usual, so your sign should attract all of them that are still on their feet.”

  I paused for a second. “We’ll need lots of wet clay and Mirandan cabbage. Call the Mayor, Teacher Lomas, and the vet, and tell them what’s happened. And for chaos sake, get hold of the Jains, because they know far more about moon monkeys than the rest of us.”

  “Clay, cabbage, Mayor, Lomas, vet, Jains,” gabbled Mojay.

  “I’m on my way now.”

  I cut off the call, thrust my lookup into my pocket, and started running for Lone Tree portal. A few seconds later, I discovered Koulsy was running alongside me.

  “Sorry, got to go,” I gasped. “There’s an emergency at Mojay’s Bar.”

  “I heard that,” said Koulsy. “You’ve got an ecological disaster happening.”

  I hadn’t got the breath or the time to say anything else. I was concentrating on running and worrying how we could save hundreds of drunken moon monkeys. There’d be plenty of men at the bar to help. A stream ran through the nearby fields, but I’d no idea whether the soil there was clay or not. I couldn’t even remember if there was a crop of Mirandan cabbage nearby. Chaos, I was useless.

  I reached the portal, selected Mojay’s Bar from the destinations, ran through, and literally fell into Mojay’s arms. He grabbed me and stood me upright. I looked round, saw the dazzling flashing colours of the bar sign at full power, and the mob of swaying, drunken moon monkeys in the nearest fields.

  Mojay hadn’t exaggerated the numbers. There were definitely hundreds, possibly over a thousand moon monkeys here. The horses that had been grazing in the closest field had sensibly moved down to the furthest corner from the bar, and formed into a nervous defensive group.

  There was a crowd of customers and staff standing outside the bar. Several men were pointing at the moon monkeys and laughing. All my panic changed into fury, and I screamed at them.

  “Stop laughing!”

  Everyone turned to stare at me, and there was suddenly dead silence. I didn’t understand the shock on their faces until I realized they weren’t staring at me at all, but at the figure in Military uniform standing next to me.

  I threw a single sideways glance at Koulsy, saw he was still dazed from the effort of making himself follow me through the portal, then faced the crowd again.

  “This isn’t funny,” I shouted at them. “We’ve got half the moon monkey troops in Jain’s Ford County here, and they aren’t just drunk, but poisoned. If we can’t help them, they’ll all die. If you’re so totally unfeeling that you don’t care about their suffering, then remember that years of our harvests will die with them. The fire plums only need panda mice to pollinate them, but the medcorn harvest will be halved without the moon monkeys, and the almond harvest will fail entirely.”

  I didn’t know if it was the thought of hundreds of pathetic, furry corpses, or the financial ruin of Jain’s Ford County that had made an impact on them, but the guilty parties had stopped laughing now. I looked at Mojay.

  “Where’s the Mirandan cabbage?”

  “We’ve got a few sacks of it in the general store,” he said, “and Guiren’s called a couple of the nearest farms. They should be loading more cabbages into carts right now.”

  I looked round and spotted Guiren in the crowd. “Get Delun and Jonas to bring the sacks of cabbage out here.” I faced Mojay again. “What about the clay?”

  Mojay waved his hands in despair. “How should I know where to get clay? I don’t sell soil.”

  I groaned and pointed at Fabian and a group of other bar customers. “You lot get spades from the store, go into that field, and start digging in different places near the stream. If you find clay soil, start yelling.”

  The men headed into the store to get spades, and I continued questioning Mojay. “Did you call the Mayor and everyone?”

  “Teacher Lomas and the vet are on their way,” said Mojay. “The Mayor is calling the Jains and then coming here.”

  The men came back out of the store carrying spades. Fabian led them towards the field, then stopped and turned to give me an anxious look. “There’s a chaos lot of moon monkeys in that field. They won’t attack us, will they?”

  I glared at him. “If you don’t get into that field and start digging right now, Fabian, I’ll grab that spade and attack you myself!”

  The men hurriedly went through the gate into the field. A moment later, Guiren arrived, followed by Delun and Jonas carrying sacks. They dumped them at my feet.

  “What do we do with the Mirandan cabbage, Amalie?” aske
d Guiren.

  “We need to get the moon monkeys to eat it,” I said. “Can you find some buckets too?”

  “We’ve got lots of buckets,” said Mojay.

  I grabbed the smallest sack, carried it into the field, dodged my way through the drunken moon monkeys, and tipped the cabbage into the trough that usually held feed for the horses. I retreated out of the field and watched anxiously.

  “The moon monkeys don’t seem very interested in the cabbage,” said Guiren.

  “I can see that,” I snapped. “They’re so drunk they don’t know what they’re doing.”

  I shook my head and called across to the men digging. “Has anyone found any clay yet?”

  “No, but I’ve found a skeleton of something really big with nightmare teeth,” said Fabian.

  “That must be one of the big lizard predators the Military cleared from this continent to make it safe for colonization,” I said.

  Guiren’s band of helpers arrived laden with buckets and put them next to the sacks of cabbage.

  “You mean those things still exist on the other continents of Miranda?” asked Fabian, in an appalled voice.

  “Yes,” I said, “but they can’t swim so they’ll never bother us.”

  “I’m not finding that very comforting,” said Fabian. “Why didn’t the Military get rid of them everywhere?”

  Koulsy spoke for the first time. “To avoid a repeat of the environmental devastation inflicted on Earth, only one continent is colonized on any new planet. The remaining continents are left untouched wherever possible. Global extermination of some dangerous migrant species may be unavoidable. Non migrant dangerous species should be limited to sufficiently distant land masses.”

  There was something odd about his voice. I had the feeling he was quoting from some Military manual.

  “I still think ...”

  Fabian was interrupted by a shout from another man. “I’ve found clay.”

  “Thank chaos for that,” I said. “The rest of you move and start digging where he is. Make several trenches. Someone bring me some buckets of clay and water.”