Faisal said to Singing Mountain and his delegation, "Please come with me. We have a tent set up in the park, with food and drink. We can talk there." The tent had been Gail's idea. No one had known what to expect from the Cheyenne, despite the delegate's report; he hadn't stayed that long among them. A tent seemed more prudent than a reception in the heart of Mira City.
Jake said in a low voice to Gail, "Is Nan here?"
"No. Out searching for Furs."
Jake was relieved. Nan was still an unpredictable force, a lieutenant in the new army but "detached for special duty." When she was in the city she stayed with Gail, who seemed to have accepted this situation. Nan never saw her father. Which reminded Jake of his conversation that morning.
"Gail," he said in a low voice as they trailed Faisal and the Cheyenne delegation through the park, "Dr. Shipley came to see me this morning with a formal request."
"What?" She was gazing in fascination at the beading on a Cheyenne tunic a few yards ahead of her.
"He wants to go out as a missionary among the first group of aliens, Vines or Furs, that ever shows up on Greentrees."
She stopped dead on the flower-bordered path. " 'Vines or Furs'?"
"That's what he said."
She shook her head. "I always knew that old man was crazy."
But Jake wasn't so sure anymore. The Cheyenne merging with the natural without despoiling its beauty and benefaction, the peaceful Vines "dreaming in the sun," the New Quaker emphasis on simplicity and truth and peace—were the three really all that different? And were they really worse than the place to which "advanced" technology had led Mira City—or Earth?
Jake didn't know the answer to that. And it wasn't really his question anyway. His question was how best to keep the humans on Greentrees alive. He had a new title now. From lawyer to murderer to space entrepreneur to CEO to Commander, Greentrees Provisional Army. He had been reinvented as often as gunpowder.
And maybe, in the long run, it was that protean ability to adapt that might save humanity. From whatever was out there.
"Come on, Jake, we're falling behind," Gail said. "I need to make sure this meeting is supplied with everything it might need." Gail Cutler, Quartermaster General, Greentrees Provisional Army.
She hurried ahead. Jake lingered a moment longer. Above the narrow, purplish trees, the sky was clear and bright, empty of clouds, not even a moon on the morning horizon. Nothing to see. He gazed up anyway, eyes straining against the light, wondering what would come roaring next from the dark space beyond the benevolent sky.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
Greentrees would be as ready as he could make it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In the early nineties, Nancy Kress took the SF world by storm with her multiple-award-winning novella, "Beggars in Spain," which became the basis for her extremely successful Sleepless Trilogy (comprising Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride). Since then she has written more than a dozen novels, most recently the well-received Probability Trilogy, which Booklist praised, saying, "Kress's characterizations are as sound as ever, but many will be agreeably surprised at her proficiency with military hardware and action scenes. Very impressive." And Kirkus, in a starred review, simply raved: "Kress's always excellent characters wrestle with a splendid array of puzzles and problems, human, alien, and scientific: another resounding success for this talented, sure-footed writer." Now comes a brand-new science fiction epic:
Nancy Kress, CROSSFIRE
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