Unnatural

CHAPTER 7

  The Terrestrial-Lunar Transportation Base lay at the heart of the city, and inside it was a firestorm of activity. Frantic supervisors of the operator robots more than compensated for the absence of travelers and incoming citizens. A minority group of rioters still followed officials into the base, demanding the privilege of giving “proper burials” to their loved ones or of ensuring the welfare of Earth-bound animals, domestic or otherwise.

  Those riding the command module Strange hastened to receive all the preparation they could get for a mission that could very well go horribly wrong. Most relevant to Sabrina’s concerns, the scant engineers and physicists had to work out the kinks of the sole Sonic-speed Space Capsule.

  “Sonicap S7-B is among the swiftest of spacecraft for singular transport, capable of a trip from the moon to Earth in no more than ten hours,” said Zolnerowich as she walked with Sabrina toward the closest elevator. Spacecraft were launched from a chamber of high altitude that bridged the aerobic and anaerobic regions of the moon. “The catch is that Sonicaps were not designed with Organics in mind. It is simply more cost-effective to make space travel the domain of Transhumans.”

  “You could have told me this before I committed!”

  “Relax. There is an alternative to a quick and risky Libertas installation. You know Vladimir Ivanov?”

  “Yes, he’s one of my most esteemed colleagues.”

  “An esteemed colleague who designed a spacesuit that can help you.”

  “Of course, the Hybrid!” Vlad had shown her some schematics of the suit’s design, but she’d never viewed the Hybrid as anything more than a provision for extremely rare emergencies until now.

  “Right. It basically acts as a Libertas you can put on, and then some. Useless for someone who needs to walk in Earth gravity – its cooling, pressurizing, and radiation-resisting devices are clunky – but as a stationary passenger of the Sonicap, you will benefit from it.”

  “And you know I’ll be safe in this, riding such a rapid spacecraft?”

  Zolnerowich smiled. “That’s the attitude that can save your life.” You know you’ve impressed her when she uses contractions. “And I can assure you our engineers have shared it. They have done their maths, run countless tests, and concluded that an Organic with a Hybrid on will be at no greater risk in a Sonicap than a Transhuman in a slower vehicle. This is even taking your, er, physical youth into consideration.”

  She gave a “don’t-mention-that-if-you-know-what’s-good-for-you” look before pretending the subject had never been raised. “Well, you can never be too careful with the last human uterus left, can you?” she said with a smirk to match Zolnerowich’s.

  The governess didn’t take this as a joke. “So you really think that I am playing matchmaker?”

  “This wouldn’t be the first time a government has claimed authority over its nation’s reproductive choices.”

  “If you refer to China’s one-child policy, we are of the same mind there.” They stepped out into the chamber. This was the only trans-dome passageway that wasn’t at ground level, rather as high up as two Burj Khalifas, which would be more impressive if the laws of geometry didn’t render the city’s surface area little more than three square miles.

  “Yes, it’s so easy to denounce that,” said Sabrina, trying not to look too awestruck at the expansive space around her, “but when things get difficult, I suspect you’d have no qualms mandating a one-child minimum to keep the train of human achievement a-rollin’.”

  “Was I the one who wrote, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’?”

  “I think God would prefer that I know who my future spouse is and choose him for his character instead of for his, ahem, gametes.” They strolled toward one of many reduced-gravity training modules on that floor. “Not like I’ll find Uriah attractive even in a skin-deep sense. What with my anachronistic hormones and all,” she added after a pause in which she almost blushed. “H-How old is he?”

  “He looked to be in his older twenties.”

  “Could be worse, but then …”

  “He might be bewildered by the moon’s effect on your body?”

  By this point Sabrina was giving no eye contact whatsoever to Zolnerowich, looking only at the impersonal and non-judgmental comfort of the door to the Weightless Wonder. Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say.