Venus of Dreams (79 page)

Chen took Risa's hand and drew her away from the crowd. Before them stretched a seemingly endless plain of grass broken only by the slender trunks of young trees, all of it illuminated by the dome's golden light. Microbes and earthworms had prepared the soil, and the growing plants were enriching the air. Chen sniffed, smelling the scent of a new world. He thought of the time when the dome would open to the outside, and wondered if Risa would live to see that day, when Venus lost its hostility to human life.

Chen had come home. He could almost forget that he was a man in his sixties; he felt young, as if he were just beginning his life instead of entering its last few decades.

A few of the nearly five hundred new settlers had already begun to pitch their tents on the plain; idle machines rested next to the foundations of new houses. The panes of a large greenhouse reflected the light; farther away, under the dome's center, wings were already being added to the old shelter. The air, enriched by the Habbers' sturdy, genetically altered plants, was warm and clean. It was hard to remember that outside, in the upper cloud layers, the great storms still raged and the rains still fell through the mist; that still-poisonous liquid, collected in receptacles and channeled under the dome's wall to be cleansed and chemically altered, would help feed the streams that flowed through the wrinkles of the plain.

Chen's arm was jostled. The storyteller was standing next to him; she glanced at Chen flirtatiously in a Plainswoman's manner. "I know I've seen you before," Chen said. "I'm afraid I've forgotten your name."

"Bettina Christies. My friends just call me Tina."

"I'm Liang Chen, and this is my daughter, Risa Liangharad."

Bettina lifted a brow. "I thought that's who you were," she said in her flat Plains voice. Chen tensed a little; mercifully, the woman did not go on to utter awed or respectful comments about his past exploits. "Hello, Risa. Did you like my story?"

The child nodded. "But I liked Chen's ending better."

"I can tell you more stories sometime, and maybe your father will provide some more endings for them too." Bettina glanced at Chen significantly. "Maybe later, when I've set up my tent. Care to pitch yours next to mine, Chen?"

"I wouldn't mind."

The crowd was spreading out; more tents were rising. A town would take shape here. Houses would rise, land would be tilled, more trees would grow, more domes would rise around this one until Oberg was a cluster of domes.

Chen adjusted his bags and pack, took Risa's hand, then followed Bettina until they came to a small rise in the land. Bettina flung her bag and pack down. "How about here?"

"Seems fine," Chen replied. "Is it all right if I leave my things with you for a bit? There's something here I have to see first."

"Of course. I think I know where you're going. Get back soon, though. You'll want to pitch your tent before the light fades."

"Maybe I should join you in yours, then."

Bettina laughed. "I wouldn't mind."

Chen led Risa past other settlers, who were sitting outside their tents. They smiled and waved as the two passed them; their faces were bright with hope. Chen wondered if they could sustain that hope during the years of work ahead.

At last they came to the eastern wall. Several paces from the edge of the dome stood a small column made of metal, with an inscription on one side. Chen looked up at the top of the column, where the faces of Iris and Amir were embedded above the inscription.

Iris's friends and a few Habbers had made the small monument. The Administrators, even in the midst of all the preparations for the settlers, had seen that it was placed here to greet the first arrivals. Chen himself had carved the faces used as models for those on the pillar.

Iris's large eyes would see Oberg rise around her; her proud face would be honored by her descendants. Chen had gazed at her recorded image for hours, but then had carved the girl he still saw in his mind, the face unmarked by disappointment and failure, the face of one who dreamed. Some of her brave spirit seemed to inhabit Amir's face as well, but his eyes were partly closed; Chen, not knowing how Amir had at last come to view the world, had carved a man at peace.

As he gazed at them now, captured together in the monument, he forgot the bitterness he had once felt toward Amir. Iris, at least, had not died alone. She had not forsaken the company of other men in this life; if there was a life beyond death for her, it was better that she had a companion share it until Chen joined her.

"That's your mother," he said to Risa.

The child stretched a hand toward the pillar. "Who's the man?"

"One who loved her," he replied. "Can you read the inscription to me?" Iris's friends, who had wanted the monument to provoke some thought and quiet meditation, had not included a recorded voice to recite the words.

Risa drew herself up. "It's in Anglaic," she announced as she squinted at the inscription. "In honor of Iris Angharads and Amir Azad, the first true Cytherians, who gave their lives to save our new world. They shall not be forgotten. May their spirit live on in all those who follow them. They rest forever on the world they helped to build."

"Is that all?" Chen asked.

The little girl nodded.

"Iris would have been happy to see you here."

Risa rubbed her eyes with one small hand. "I'm hungry."

Chen picked her up and lifted her small body to his shoulders. "We'll have some supper with Bettina. Maybe she'll tell you another story."

He strode away from the monument, carrying his child across the tented plain.

Dedication 

PART ONE 

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

PART TWO 

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

PART THREE 

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

PART FOUR 

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

PART FIVE 

Chapter Thirty-Five