Jason, like the others from Urth, had something he apparently could see before his face as his fingers made small movements in front of him. But he kept looking away from that, staring at the world with a wondering expression at odds with his earlier sullenness. "Is it all like this?" he asked Kira.
"Do you mean our world?" Kira asked. "Different places are different, but it's all Dematr. I think Tiae is beautiful, but other places are nice as well."
"It's hard to find something like this on Earth," Jason said. "You guys are so lucky."
She didn't know what to say to that. "Was the trip hard?"
"Huh?" Jason stared at her as if puzzled that she would ask.
"Was the trip to this world hard?"
"For me?"
"Yes," Kira said. "For you."
"Oh, uh," Jason fumbled. He seemed unused to having people express interest in him. "It wasn't too bad. Boring, I guess."
"Are you the only person your age on the ship?" Kira asked, trying to find something to talk about. "I know how hard it can be, surrounded by older people with no one close to your age to talk to."
"Yeah," Jason said, his gaze on her astonished. "Why are being nice to me? Why do you care?"
"You're a guest," Kira said, trying to understand his attitude. "And you're a person. I care because everyone matters."
"Who told you that?"
"My mother and my father," Kira said, getting a little annoyed at the tone of the last question. "Sometimes they don't understand things, but they do know stuff. And you are a guest of our world, so I am trying my best to be polite and welcoming even though I'm really having a hard time figuring you out."
"Huh. Um…your name's Kara?"
"Kira," she replied. Did he have to emphasize her irrelevance by not even getting her name right?
"Okay. How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Sixteen? Your years must be close to Earth Standard. What do you guys do for fun here?"
She gave him a skeptical look, trying to judge whether the question was sincere. "Read, ride, walk, talk, sail, work on hobbies, fight wars, blow up things, and slay dragons."
"Yeah, games are fun, right?" he replied.
"Games?"
"Yeah. Virtual games." Jason laughed. "You can't blow up stuff for real!"
"I do," Kira said. "Aunt Alli taught me how. What's a virtual game?"
He stared at her. "You don't— You've never— How do you—"
"I'm doing my best to keep this conversation going," Kira said, getting irritated. "But you're not helping."
"Is everybody here like you?" Jason blurted out.
"No. Everybody is different."
"But you're here." Jason seemed to come to some decision, his fingers dancing on the air before him. "That's enough. Okay. They can't hear us."
Kira frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"
He jerked a thumb back to indicate behind them. "Keep looking forward. Don't let your face be visible to the ship when you talk to me. If they can see your lips move, they can analyze the video to tell what you're saying." He indicated his belt buckle and the insignia on his chest. "These things have monitors in them."
"Monitors?" Kira asked, keeping her head pointed away from the ship.
"They're supposed to be primarily for monitoring our health status, but they can provide audio feeds to the ship's central data core, as well as visual of whatever they face."
"Audio feeds?" She had seen those terms. In the once-banned tech manuals. "That's like a far-talker, right? You mean they can listen to anything you say wherever you are?"
"Yeah. But I have an app that can fool the feeds. It blocks them from actually hearing us and substitutes a few words of conversation every now and then. That's why I had to get you to talk a little bit." He grinned triumphantly. "I'm not supposed to have the app. But it comes in handy."
Kira gave the boy a measuring look out of the corners of her eyes, wondering if she should reappraise her first assessment of Jason. "Why?"
He looked ahead for a moment as if steeling himself. "My name's Jason."
"I know. We were introduced. I'm Kira, just in case you still don't remember that."
"Uh, sorry." He swallowed nervously. "There's something I have to tell you. I didn't know if I would tell anyone. But if there's even one person in this world like you who can talk to me like I'm worth talking to, I have to let you know."
Kira thought she recognized the behavior and braced herself. This didn't look like a prelude to danger. It looked more like Jason was about to…what? Ask her out? "Look, I don't know you, and—"
"You have to tell your parents and everybody else here not to agree to anything my mom or the others on the ship ask you to do or say yes to."
Chapter 2
Having expected some totally insincere declaration of romantic interest, Kira found herself thrown off balance. "Why not?"
"They want to cheat you," Jason said in a rush. "Don't look at me! Keep looking forward! I have to say this fast because I don't know how long it will take for the ship's monitoring routines to suspect the feed from me isn't real. It's like this. Universal Life Systems is the biggest outfit in Earth's solar system, with major influence on Earth and Mars, all the colonized moons, and every orbital habitat. They sell designer genetic packages so parents can be sure their kids are free of defects and look like whatever the latest trends are."
"Wh-what?" Kira demanded. "You can design children?"
"Yeah, of course we can. The important thing is, getting something new to sell has become pretty hard." Jason glanced at her again. "You, this planet, your mother and father, are all new. Mom wants you to agree to something that will look like no big deal, but in the fine print it will grant full control of all of your genetic material to ULS."
"Full control of our genetic material?" Kira asked. "Why?"
"So they could put it into designer packages. Especially cosmetic genes. They're going to want girls that look like your mother. I mean, lots of people back on Earth are interested in colony-world blood because they think it's going to be more pure and strong and other nonsense. They'd pay my mom's company to create kids for them that have mostly their genes, but are nearly identical external copies of your mom, and you I guess, cleaned up internally with some colonial genes left in to make it look cool."
Kira stared straight ahead, feeling both horrified and confused. "Girls on Urth. Babies. Made to look like my mother? And me?"
"It would be a thing," Jason said, sounding disgusted. "Really fashionable. That's why Mom was so happy to see that you and your mom looked exotic. That'll increase demand. There'd be hundreds of thousands of people paying for their babies to match you, even at the huge prices ULS would charge."
"Hundreds of thousands?" Kira inhaled deeply, calling on her father's Mage teachings to calm her mind. "Who look like me and my mother?" The idea was too weird.
"And they're not only going to get the rights to your genetic material, they're going to cheat you," Jason continued. "You won't get money or knowledge out of the deal, just some cheap toys that they think will really impress you."
"But we thought your ship would bring us some devices and information to help our world recover from what was lost," Kira said.
"No," Jason said, looking unhappy. "We know you've got the survival technology manuals from the colony ship, but even if my mom and her company wanted to provide extra stuff, they couldn't because we're legally restricted from giving you anything important."
"What? Why?"
"There are a lot of people back home who think you need to be protected because you've got this unique culture that shouldn't be 'disrupted.' Nobody asked you whether or not you wanted to be disrupted, right? But my mom and her company don't plan on giving you anything worthwhile anyway. They just want to cheat you."
Kira put her hands to her mouth, trying to think, her mind focusing on one word. "What exactly does exotic mean?"
"Uh, unusual, different, exciti
ng. You know."
"My mother? Me? You think we're…beautiful?"
"No," Jason insisted. "Exotic. That's not the same thing. Beautiful is easy. Just select for widely admired appearance traits. Exotic is a sort of random thing, where features come together in unexpected ways."
Features coming together in unexpected ways. That didn't sound like a compliment, even though Jason apparently thought it was. "Why would anyone want to look just like me?"
"Uh, not like you," Jason said, sounding apologetic. "Your mom. Lady Mari. Back on Earth there have been vids and books and stuff. I'm sure the details are all wrong, but the basic thing is, your mom is really famous and sort of a folk hero."
Kira heard someone laughing and realized it was her. "My mother is so famous on Urth that people want to make their children copies of her?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, that's just so…awful." Kira managed to stop her bitter laughter. She had spent her life worrying how she could ever live up to being the daughter of the daughter. But her mother's shadow extended out to the stars. Even on Urth people would look at Kira and see simply a copy of Lady Mari, a copy who could never match the original.
She had to fight off the urge to scream.
"They want your dad's genetic material, too," Jason continued, unaware of Kira's internal turmoil. "That Mage stuff has them stumped, if it's true, but there must be some genetic component. There's something about the Mage thing that has them excited, but I don't know what it is."
Kira's felt an odd tingle cut through her distress as if trying to focus her attention. "They want to know a lot about Mages?"
"Yeah. And they figure that you're a hybrid," Jason said, "so they want your genetic material as well. That's why she asked if you could do Mage stuff."
"A hybrid?" Kira asked, hoping that her voice wasn't trembling. "Like a farm animal?"
"Well, genetically, sort of. The term just means—"
"I know what the term means!" Think, Kira. What would Mother and Father be doing now? Trying to learn more. "Why are you telling me this? Why are you working against your mother and her company?"
"I don't want her to win," Jason said, hostility simmering in his voice. "Not her company, which I think is way too big and too powerful but hey I'm just a kid so what do I know, and especially not her."
"You don't like your mother?"
"Don't like? Yeah." Jason stopped walking, gazing into the sky. "I don't want to bore you with my hard life story. But I guess I have to explain. My parents got divorced even before I was born. They decided they hated each other before their honeymoon was over," Jason said, trying to sound sarcastic. Kira heard something else in his voice, something sad and deep, but didn't interrupt. "That's why I look different. They couldn't agree on a genetic package, so to spite each other they mix-and-matched me."
She barely managed not to look at him in horror. "How could anyone—"
"I'm just a weapon for them to use against each other," Jason continued. "They only keep me for the visitation periods because they think it bothers the other one. And they constantly tell me how messed up I am because I supposedly take after the other one. Just a useless, worthless parasite, that's me."
"Jason, I am so sorry—"
"Hey, I don't need pity. It's my life. I'm just explaining," Jason said. "Why do you think I'm here? Because I was on a six-month visitation with my mom. So, technically, she could take me on this trip and be gone for twenty years Earth time, but only have me with her for about four months on the ship. What a great way to mess up my ties with my dad, huh? Actually my dad would be really happy not to have to deal with me for twenty years, except that he never wants her to win, so he's probably raising a big legal fuss back on Earth." Jason inhaled slowly. "Yeah. It's great to be wanted."
"You're telling me all this to get revenge on your mother?" Kira asked.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I made up my mind when you were nice to me. But what they want to do to you sucks." His glance at her was challenging. "That matters. I mean, not wanting you guys to get messed over. There's nothing wrong with that. I can worry about it and want to help, can't I?"
"Of course you can," Kira said, wondering why Jason sounded like he thought he had to defend caring about what happened to others. "What about—"
"The app!" Jason was looking at the space in front of his face, his fingers moving before him. "I've got to kill it. Don't say anything about what I said. Just talk about dumb stuff from now on. Okay?"
"All right." Kira waited until Jason made a small, unhappy hand gesture toward his ears. "Uh, I've been wondering. A lot of us have. What exactly does oh-kay mean?"
"Huh?"
"Does it stand for something?"
"I don't know." Jason squinted at her as if trying to see if she was serious. "It means okay. Like, uh, good, fine, sure, all right…"
"It means all right?" Kira managed to smile naturally at Jason despite her inner turmoil. "That's what I guessed."
"Okay." Jason turned and began walking back toward the ship, very awkward now that his burst of information had been exhausted. He had seemed lively and engaged for a brief while, but once again appeared sullen and unhappy.
Based on what he had told her, Kira wondered if Jason was ever happy. "What's Urth like?"
"Boring. You people have funny accents, you know."
"How nice of you to point that out," Kira said, trying not to sound too resentful.
He must have picked up on her tone, though, giving Kira a worried glance. "I say stupid things like that all the time. I'm not too smart, I guess."
"You seem smart enough to me," Kira said, wondering if Jason was now making excuses or seeking sympathy. "When are people going to get to see the inside of your ship?"
He shook his head, his unhappiness deepening. "They're not. We were told none of you get to go into the ship. Too dangerous and, uh, disruptive."
Disruptive. There it was again. Kira, too shocked at the disrespect toward everyone on this planet to be angry right away, fumbled for something to say.
Jason looked over at the cavalry, standing next to their mounts in a long row, the horses shifting position slightly and occasionally trying to nip at each other. "Those are cool. Are they real?"
"Nothing is real," Kira said, unable to resist the chance to lighten the mood.
"Uh…what?"
"That's what my father says. Everything we see is an illusion created by our minds. But those cavalry are part of the illusion, yes."
To her surprise, Jason laughed. "You got me. Yeah, the observer effect and all that. From what we've heard of your, uh, Mages, scientists on Earth have speculated that their magic involves some sort of quantum-level manipulation."
Kira shrugged. "My uncle Mechanic Calu figured that out twenty years ago."
"He did? That's not in any of the background materials. Oh." Jason snorted disdainfully. "It figures that some person back on Earth would claim credit for the idea. 'Plagiarize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes!' " he said, singing the words. "Anyway, the soldiers there with their horses. Are they reenactors of some kind? Or would they actually go to war like that?"
"Sure they would," Kira said. "What's a reenactor?"
"It's somebody who dresses up like someone from history," Jason explained. "Like, a hobby."
"Someone from history?" Kira shook her head, puzzled. "But that's just like somebody now. Except for the new Mechanic weapons. The uniforms and the armor haven't ever changed."
Jason looked baffled. "Huh? I mean, like, centuries ago."
"Yeah. That's how soldiers have always looked."
He got upset, for no reason that Kira could understand. "If you don't want to talk about it you don't have to."
"I did talk about it. What's your problem?"
"Everybody knows that things don't—" Jason paused, frowning. "They've always looked like that? For centuries?"
"That's what I said." Kira glared at him. "Why is that confusing you?"
"Wow."
Jason stared around as if he had just stepped from the ship for the first time. "No change. That stuff about the, uh, Guilds? That controlled your world?"
"Yeah, the Great Guilds," Kira said, not understanding what he was getting at but hoping that she wouldn't have to talk about Her Mother The Hero.
"They didn't allow change. That's what you guys have told us." Jason stared at the cavalry again. "But I didn't realize— What's that like?"
"What's what like?" Kira demanded.
Jason looked away. Was he embarrassed by something? "I'm not making fun of you," he mumbled.
"Then what?"
"It's just…on Earth, and everywhere else, things change. All the time. The uniforms soldiers wear are different from century to century and even decade to decade. But you guys were frozen. Not your fault! I'm just having trouble getting my head around the idea."
Kira decided it wasn't worth getting her back up over, especially since Jason seemed genuinely worried that he had said something wrong. "That was how things were. We don't know anything different. The world is changing now, but it all takes time."
Jason nodded quickly. "So, those guys would really fight? With those weapons?"
"Yes," Kira said. "If Tiae went to war, the cavalry would scout and fight. You see they've got my Aunt Alli's carbines at their saddles, but we also still carry lances and swords."
"We?"
She shrugged, trying to sound as if it was no big deal. "I'm an honorary officer in the Queen's Own Lancers. I train and drill with them sometimes."
"Really?" Jason was surprised enough to drop his attitude, gazing at her with open admiration. "You mean you ride the horse and use the sword and everything?"
"Yeah," Kira said, smiling despite herself. "I've got a uniform just like that."
"No way." He stared at the cavalry. "The armor, too? Real armor to use in real fighting?"
"Yeah. The cuirass is sort of heavy but most of the weight is carried on your shoulders, so the part that feels the heaviest is usually the helm."
Jason, from a world where designing children was apparently no big deal, seemed astounded by the sight of working steel armor. "There's this junk called MORGs. Sims using VR and stuff. I've played those, but it's not real. No matter how good it is, it's not real." He looked at her, puzzled. "But you are."