The Alejandra Variations (12 page)

And if you were living underground, there weren't too many places you could go. DefCon was all there was.

Captain Lazlo had given Nick the impression that DefCon was a small community, an isolated fortress of nuclear survivors deep in the mountains, descendants of barricaded military personnel.

That wasn't quite true.

Nicholas stood at a sumptuous plate-glass window that stretched forty feet above him and let in a great deal of light, even at sunset. The glass was thick, keeping years of airborne plutonium at bay, and afforded the underground city some access—if only visual—to the outside world. Nick could see in the waning light that similar windows covered the mountains everywhere he looked. DefCon wasn't at all what he had expected it would be.

Although he knew he was underground, he had yet to feel it. He had been in DefCon only one week, and he still found a unique pleasure following the many creeks and rivers that flowed throughout the city. Plants grew everywhere because light from the outside world was filtered in everywhere. Even in the deepest reaches of DefCon, many stories beneath the blasted surface of the earth, trees grew and fish frolicked in fountains of light. The rooms and halls were cathedrallike and enormous. Moving sidewalks and escalators ranged to even the farthest reaches of the community.

DefCon was the kind of civilization that would have had to evolve if man was to survive the holocaust. If people were to remain healthy and sane, they had to have their diversions. And DefCon definitely had diversions.

Nicholas soon discovered that "diversion" meant
genna
. From what he had learned from Riordan,
genna
was a vital element in the evolution of their civilization.
Genna
was a hybrid offspring of the slime mold,
stemonitis axifera
, which had survived underground. Its relatively harmless hallucinatory powers were universally recognized as the panacea DefCon needed.

The city had been notified of Nick's discovery—which was both good and bad. Lexie, when she wasn't at the Academy discussing the mission, paraded him around to the authorities and ruling Council. She was jumped a grade to Journeyman Historian, and her sudden authority seemed to eclipse that of her powerful father. Nick hadn't seen Lazlo since their arrival.

Riordan was Nicholas's new companion. As they stood together in the light that poured through the huge window at the mountain's top, Nicholas suddenly realized that he was happy to be away from the ravenous Lexie.

"It still amazes me that DefCon survived like this," Nick said.

Professor Riordan laughed avuncularly. He was a tall, stately man, unexpectedly tanned and healthy. In his late forties, he seemed to radiate power. Perhaps it was because he was their current ruler, or Counselor, as he called himself. Historian that he was, he found Nicholas very fascinating.

"Man is always a survivor," Riordan pronounced. "Like yourself, he pulls through."

"I don't think I had any choice in the matter," Nick muttered.

Behind them, a moving sidewalk hissed through a parklike arrangement of plants, trees, and flowers. Delicate Japanese-style footbridges crossed a single, burbling creek that paralleled the sidewalk leading to the windows. The creek wound down the large hall, made a few turns, then lowered—through a series of pleasant cataracts—to another level. Nick had given up trying to trace one such creek near Lexie's condominium complex. He'd have time enough to explore later. The city-nation of a hundred thousand people was extensive. Both he and it would be around awhile.

Nicholas watched the sky darken and the lights of DefCon come on across the mountain range. There was a slight buzzing sound not too far from his ear. He turned to face an ever-present hovering camera. Knowing that he was perpetually followed and monitored amplified his feelings of strangeness. Riordan told him it would be necessary for a few weeks. When he'd become fully acquainted with DefCon's ways, he'd be free of it.

Staring out the window, Nicholas mused. "In a way, I guess it's beautiful."

"It's not as bad as you might think," Riordan said.

"I'd say it's worse," Nick muttered. "You've never known the country as I have."

Riordan put a fatherly hand on Nick's shoulder. "I suppose back in your time, when the forests were green and the sky was blue, it must have seemed impossible that anyone could live beneath the earth's surface."

"You make it sound as if it's an achievement."

"Well," Riordan began, "DefCon is a better way of living in some respects."

"Name one," Nick turned to him. "Name just one."

Riordan laughed gently. "The disease of the Eridani cannot reach us any longer."

The camera moved in to catch Nicholas's reaction. As every citizen in DefCon, Nicholas carried a gun of sorts. He wasn't told why, only that he'd know when to use it. He felt like blowing the drifting orb into the creek behind them.

Riordan went on. "You see, the human spirit is tempered only under adverse conditions. DefCon is what it is because of the Eridani legend. Those of us who are enlightened in these matters know the difference between that and the real causes of our plight."

"The Russians," Nick responded.

Nick had learned a great deal in his one week in DefCon. And so had Riordan. Nick's first contribution to his new home had been to tell Riordan—and the rest of the city-nation, via the nosy camera unit—that "DefCon" meant "Defense Condition." DefCon started during the war—and whether they knew it or not, they were living in a constant state of Defense Conditions.

The computer lead which had enabled Captain Lazlo and the Boremen to find him in the first place was a prime example. An immense, far-reaching network of computer lines lay buried, undiscovered until isolated influxes of energy or information reached DefCon. That trickle—and many others yet unexplored—gave DefCon the suspicion that there were "others" out there somewhere in the wasteland America had become a millennium ago. The influxes also perpetuated the legend of the Eridani, investing them with mythic hugeness.

In the Last Days, according to the most conservative estimates, over fourteen thousand warheads found targets on the earth. The burst of radiation was so enormous that it acted as something of an interstellar beacon. For years, there was no time for anything more than the struggle to survive. But then, the DefCon scientists discovered that shortly before the cataclysm, an earth-orbiting satellite twenty-two thousand miles out had picked up a powerful burst of gamma radiation from the star Epsilon Eridani. Some concluded that a nuclear war had occurred in one of its planets, and believed some kind of technological "disease" had been transferred to the earth, causing World War III. To Nicholas, it made little sense.

Though DefCon's society was already quite technologically advanced, people were people, and the survivors needed to blame someone. Blame the inhabitants of a faraway star. Blame the ones in the twentieth century who caught their disease. Blame anyone or anything, Nicholas thought bitterly, except the human conditions of fear and mistrust which were the root causes.

Robbed of a past, he retained his native reasoning capacities. Unsure of the people of DefCon, he still felt alienated and threatened everywhere he went. Riordan, and of course young Lexie, tried their best to make him feel at home, but the actions of a perhaps mythical
Eridani
a thousand years ago and several light-years distant made it impossible for Nicholas to imagine adjusting to or being accepted by life in DefCon.

What a way to attract interstellar attention: have a nuclear war. Even Mnemos had never thought of that one.

The sun went down behind the sawtooth mountains to the west, and Nicholas felt his spirits going with it. There was a commotion behind them in the park. They turned to see a group of people, mostly young adults, gathered on the moving sidewalk. They didn't see Nicholas and Riordan beside the window. They got off the sidewalk and ran to the footbridge nearest the two men.

One woman caught sight of them silhouetted phantasmagorically against the thick glass of the lounge window—and recognized Nick immediately. The camera orb raced around to record everything.

"It's the Eridani," she gasped, buttonholing the others.

Every one of them was high on
genna
, and Nicholas could see the ancestral fear flash through them. Two young men, formerly preoccupied pursuing a couple of the young ladies, turned and stumbled into the lily-covered creek.

Riordan quickly stepped between them and Nick. "Citizens! Please be calm!" he said, smiling.

"It's him," another of the women whispered. "It's really him! I didn't think he was in this sector.…"

Like children discovering that ghosts are indeed real, Nick suddenly thought.

One of the young men who had fallen in the creek came up with his long-barreled pistol drawn. The pistol shook slightly in his hand. The boy was terrified down to his toenails.

Nicholas went for his own gun—and was much faster bringing it up.

"Now, wait!" Riordan's voice was strong.

Unlike marijuana,
genna
was not diminished by any kind of adrenaline rush. The kids were so hyped up that they were capable of anything, and Nick knew it by the looks on their faces. Riordan's presence must have reassured some of them, for about a half dozen had jumped back up onto the sidewalk and were on their way out of trouble.

Three people stayed behind. Riordan walked over to them confidently. Two were girls, Historians, and the other was the youth with the drawn gun. His tunic indicated that he was an Apprentice Climate Control Officer.

"Friends," Riordan smiled his Counselor's smile. "Come on over, please! Let me introduce you to Nicholas, our newest member," He was expansive. "Come, come," he beckoned.

Riordan had his arm around one girl's shoulders. The kid with the gun, calming, eased it back into his holster. He was only about sixteen years old.

"Nicholas!" Riordan said loudly. "Come on over and meet your new friends."

Riordan reminded Nick of a very polished politician. He knew how to use people, ease their fears, heighten their expectations. And as an Historian, he had no fear of Nicholas or what he possibly meant to DefCon, although he too carried a gun at his side.

But these kids didn't know any better.
Hitler … Himmler
… were echoes in his mind.
How do you do, mein Fuhrer? Wie gehts Dir, dieser apocalyptischer morgan?

Nicholas slowly stepped down from the carpeted platform in front of the massive quartz windows. The grass that grew beneath his jackbooted feet seemed as soft as that of a field in Ireland.

The young people clustered near Riordan like chickadees. Nick felt like a jaguar as he stepped into their midst. But Riordan held them all captive. He cuddled the girl. "This is Tisha, Nicholas. Her family and mine go way back. Isn't that right, Tisha?"

"Yes," the girl said meekly.

"There, you see?" Riordan smiled. "That wasn't difficult, now was it?"

Tisha shook her head. She was pale and frightened. Riordan let her go. She stepped quickly back with her friends. Riordan held out a hand to them and spoke in a voice meant to quell their fears.

"As you can see, Nicholas, our young ones need firsthand experience with any changes to DefCon. But you see?" he smiled at them all. "Nicholas here is just like you."

The young people, still jittery, said farewell to the Counselor, and jumped back across the creek to the moving sidewalk.

Nicholas had noticed that other people had entered the glade. They seemed older, but Nicholas doubted if they were any wiser.

"Professor…" Nick started.

"Forget it, Nicholas," Riordan grinned. "They are our youngest ones. They have much to learn."

Nicholas put the gun back in its holster. As he did, he heard his name called out from the opposite end of the park.

"Nickie!"
Lexie called. Nick jerked violently at the sound. Perhaps it was the
genna
, or the week of living with the insatiable girl, that made him respond so, but there was an electric tinge to her voice that gave him a jolt where he stood.

"Ah, yes," Riordan smiled. "My future colleague. She has found us at last!"

Nicholas had agreed to come to this upper level of DefCon because he needed to get away from Lexie—from everyone. He needed a respite. It appeared though that he wasn't going to get it.

Lexie bounded up to the Professor and gave him an enormous hug, then repeated the gesture with Nicholas.

Her body was flushed with excitement. "You thought you could leave me in the archives. You know it's not that easy to lose me!"

"Well, we tried." Riordan laughed.

"Let's do something
exciting!
" she squealed.

Riordan volunteered: "I was just about to suggest a trip into the gaming system for Nicholas."

"Oh, yes!" She jumped up. Nick suddenly didn't like the suggestion. "That'd be fun!" She turned to the Professor. "Do I get to play?"

Riordan frowned. "Lexia, my dear, the boy needs to be with those of his own kind."

Lexie began to pout—but it was a masquerade. She still had Nick where she wanted him as if he were just a plaything.

Just then there came a scream from the group of adults down in the glade.

"Get him! Get him! There he goes!"
Nicholas thought that they were finally coming after him.

Then Lexie screamed, seeing something rush out of the rhododendron bushes beside the creek. Nicholas almost screamed himself. It came scampering toward them demonically, antenna waving, legs clicking up over flagstones and rocks.

It was a four-foot-long cockroach.

"Jesus!" Nick yelled.

"Stop it!" Lexie screamed shrilly.
"Stop it!"

The thing moved toward them with alarming speed. But Professor Riordan, faster than Nicholas had ever seen him move, drew out his gun and fired at it—getting off five deadly blasts which reduced the roach to a number of slimy, membranous pieces.

Lexie seemed close to fainting, holding loosely to Nick's arm. Nick had his gun drawn, but his own fear of cockroaches—which went back to his childhood in the poorer parts of Tucson and Phoenix—had prevented him from directly confronting the horror. The dismembered roach fell into the creek and was being swept away by the gentle waters.