The Settlers (31 page)

A segment of the wall slides open.
 

Please, Tasneem says.
 

Anya follows Nathan inside, and can instantly see that the living quarters are only one small piece of a larger facility.
 

What is this place?
she asks.

Tasneem enters behind her.
The wall slides closed again.
She presses her palm against it, and it becomes opaque, invisible from the slim alley outside.

This, Tasneem says, is your war room.

Anya looks confused.
I don't understand.

Nathan says, You have to tell me what you want, right now, or we're leaving.

I agree, Tasneem says.
Please.
Sit.
 

David Dewbury, Tasneem says again.
What do you know?

Anya says, I learned about him in school.
A few years ago.

Tasneem nods.
Nathan?

My father killed him, Nathan says.
It was what led to the breakdown of the Harvard Club.

David Dewbury was a beloved thinker, Tasneem explains.
If you put him in a room of astrophysicists, he would dazzle and confound them.
If he were among a party of theologians, he would have them proclaiming that the god myth was over.
He was the sort of man for whom
genius
was too shallow a word.

And your father killed him?
Anya says.

David wanted the Soma treatment, Tasneem continues.
But he couldn't have it.
Nathan, you know why.

Everybody knows why, Nathan says.
The man's a sort of cult figure now.

Why?
Anya asks.
I can't remember.

He killed his parents, Nathan says.
He was a prodigy, and his parents were drunks and addicts.
They would lock him in closets, or tie him to furniture.
They treated him like an animal because --

-- because they didn't understand him, Anya finishes.
I remember now.
 

When people applied for Soma, Tasneem says, they were subjected to weeks of careful examination.
If you failed even a tiny component of the exam, you were denied treatment.
David knew he would never pass muster, no matter how vital his mind was to mankind.
 

He took Amrita instead, Nathan says.
 

Holy shit, Anya breathes.
And your father --

My father ran the black market for it on Aries, Nathan says.
All told, nearly seventy people died from Amrita.
Nobody survived it.
 

Anya turns to Tasneem.
This is terrible, but why the history lesson?
What does it matter?

Tasneem says, Watch.

Tasneem removes a wristband from her left arm and places it on a depression in the table.
The table begins to glow.
 

Nathan, do you mind?
Tasneem says, pointing.

Nathan follows her gaze to a square button.
This?

Tasneem nods.
Press it, please.

Nathan does.

A seam in the ceiling opens, and a tiny projector descends.
A few feet away, two more appear.
There is a rainbow flare of light, and the three projectors shine down upon the table.
A pale hologram rises from the light, and gains substance as the lights begin to flicker more quickly.

Anya, Nathan, Tasneem says.
I'd like you to meet David Dewbury.

Anya stares in wonder.
It's like watching an old movie.
 

It's not a movie, Tasneem says.
Otherwise I'd agree with you.

What is it?
Nathan asks.

It's David, Tasneem says.
Say hello, David.

The holographic figure bows modestly.
Hello, it says.

Oh, my, Anya says.
 

How?
Nathan asks.
 

It's not terribly important how, Tasneem says.
David, would you like to take it from here?
 

The figure sits down on the table and folds its legs, one over the other.
 

Sure, David says.
Pardon my appearance, please.
It's not a perfect representation, but it's what I have to work with.
Nathan, I'd like to answer your question -- what does Tasneem want from you?
It's a bigger question than that, though.
You might also ask what I want from you.
But it's bigger than that, still.
Do you know what the question is?
 

Nathan shakes his head.
 

Anya?
David asks.
 

Anya says, What does history want from him?

That's a very nice way of putting it, Tasneem says.
 

I agree, David says.

What do you mean, history?
Nathan asks.
 

You are each Machine-class citizens, correct?
David asks.

We are, Nathan says.
 

What history requires is quite simple, David says.
Tasneem?

Tasneem leans forward and looks Nathan in the eye, then Anya.
 

We want you to overthrow Station Administration, Tasneem says.
We want you to bring down the Onyx program.

Anya is stunned.

Nathan jumps up.
There's no way, he says.
Let us out.

David says, Nathan.
You've run from your name for a very long time.
Wouldn't you like to reclaim it, and redeem it?
 

Fuck, no, Nathan says.
My new name serves me fine.
I have no loyalties to the Bogleman line.

You're happy with your status as a second-rate citizen, then, Tasneem says.
 

Perfectly happy, Nathan says.
Keeps me out of sight.
It's easy to hide.

And you'd like to continue hiding, Tasneem says.

Damn straight, Nathan says.
 

And you, Anya?
Are you content with a life such as that?
 

Anya bites her lip.
I don't know, she says.
 

When he returns home late from work, Tasneem says, you'll worry.
Was this the day he was found out?
 

Leave her alone, Nathan says.
What good does it to me to go public?
Then I'm just a target for anybody who remembers my father and his crimes.

People still love a good story, Tasneem says.
Especially a redemption story.
 

It's not that easy, Nathan says.
 

It actually is, David replies.
Of course, we'll provide you with some protection, but we expect that a well-placed rumor or two would lead to a groundswell of opinion reversal.
Not to mention a rise in your ranks.
 

Nathan shakes his head.
I'm not a revolutionary, he says.
The system works just fine.

The system says that you and Anya can't have children until the government says so, Tasneem says.
Anya?
Do you want children?

Anya looks at Nathan.
We've never talked about it, but --

There's no use getting her hopes up, Nathan snaps.
 

-- but I hope every year that we're one of the few, Anya finishes.
 

Nathan stops and looks at her.
You never told me that.
 

It seemed foolish, Anya says.
Only a few hundred people are even allowed the chance.
It would probably never, ever be us.
 

Have you heard of Meili?
Tasneem asks.

Meili is a myth, Nathan says.

I assure you, Meili is real, David interjects.

What is Meili?
Anya asks, looking back and forth.
 

Meili is the next space station, Nathan says.
It's a rumor.
 

Meili construction is underway, David says.
I've been following its progress religiously.

Tasneem says, It's planned as a second Onyx station.
 

Station Argus's social experiment has proven so successful, David says, that Meili will be structured in the same way.
There is talk of rolling the program backwards across the other stations as well.

Nathan stops pacing.
They can't do that.
 

Anya says, What does that mean?
 

Tasneem levels her gaze at the two young people and says, It means that from here on, forever, the Egyptians will whip the Israelites until their backs are bloody and they die in the trenches.
It means that you, and your children, if you are so fortunate as to be allowed to reproduce, will be slaves.
Forever.
 

You see, this isn't just about you, Anya, David says.
It isn't just about you, Nathan.
If the Machine-class people of Station Argus do not rebel and claim the freedom and expression that is rightfully theirs, then almost all of humanity will join you as subservient members of a once-free society.