Lost Past (25 page)

             
Mackeli
–Bud chimed in and signed, “The supplies were outdated. We pretended not to notice an
d bought them. You were right. t
here were no Buds there.”

             
“Did you investigate the area of Earth vegetation?” Arthur asked.

             
“No. We were really frightened when we saw. . .” He turned to
Ghorxal
Bud
and signed, “Show them what we saw.”

             
It was a surreptitiously recorded picture of a Bud wearing loose clothing and a hat. Buds rarely wore hats because it interfered with their blowholes, but sometimes they wore hats with breathing space in bad weather.

             
John looked at the few seconds recording and said, “That doesn’t look like a Bud.”

             
“It’s a mouthed
Plict
with a mask!” signed
Mackeli
. “We saw him only briefly and he ignored us, but I’m sure he was planted to ease any suspicions we had.”

             
“You agreed . . .” Arthur said.

             
“I don’t care what we agreed. Do you realize this is the Buds’ worst nightmare? They are living without us. I was afraid they would kill us.”

             
Ghorxal
Bud
XIV signed, “We’ve always assumed they needed us, and couldn’t stop making Buds.
Aipot
is proof that they don’t.”

             
“No, it isn’t,” John said.

             
“Why not?”
Ghorxal
Bud
XIV signed.

             
“Because
Aipot
is an artificial community,” said Arthur. “Yes, they need plumbers and janitors, police and firefighters, but they don’t need miners or factory workers.”

             
John saw that Arthur understood, but the Buds didn’t. “Show them, Arthur.” He gestured toward, Arthur’s computer. Arthur brought up a screen showing
Aipot
. “Are there any buildings over two stories? Roofers and construction work is not so dangerous. There are only about 3000
Plict
in the town, and there are no roads leading out. Someone could walk through the mountains on foot, but if a crime is committed, the criminal can only run by sea, and there’s only one small dock,” said Arthur.

             
“Which means policing is not very dangerous,” John added. “The town only survives because of Buds elsewhere.”

             
After the Buds left, Arthur said, “We didn’t convince them.”

             
“They don’t think in terms of economics,” John said. John could see Arthur was unhappy with more than just this situation. “Did you hope to find something to help us escape?” John wrote.

             
“I hoped to find Natalie,” Arthur said bleakly. He erased the board and turned to the computer, gesturing John to sit beside him. He looked at the aerial view of
Aipot
and
rotated the image. It wasn’t terribly clear, but the plants made a picture of three letters: SOS.

             
Arthur tried to get a closer view, but the network connection went down, although his computer still worked. John gave
a massage
to get information, but he didn’t have to ask what the problem was. There was a computer virus all over the world. They thought they cut the outside connection in time, but they weren’t certain.

             
John told Arthur about this, and Arthur wrote: “I think I can do it here? Can we use this? Linda gave me the code, and I’ve stored it on my computer.” Two Buds came in, one grabbed their slate, but John had time to erase it first. The Bud signed, “They think the computer problem is of human origin. We can’t have you conspiring.”

             
The second Bud reached for the computer, but Arthur had time to mouth a few words to it.

             
“What did you say?” John asked after the Buds left.

             
“Linda’s Armageddon. I don’t have a plan, though.”

             
John smiled and nodded to Arthur, expecting that the Buds wouldn’t guess his meaning. He had a plan, but wasn’t sure it would work. The lights went off a half an hour later.

             
“Now what?” asked Arthur.

             
“We escape.”

             
John led them out into the hall, and confidently turned toward the stairs. “Twenty-three steps until a right turn, and then it’s the third door on the left.” They bumbled slowly along the hallway. Once John bumped into a
Plict
, but since the
Plict
couldn’t communicate in the dark, John said, “Since the lights are out, I thought I’d give a massage to some Buds in their rooms. I’m headed downstairs. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” Arthur was silent, and John suspected the Bud wasn’t aware he was there.

             
John was pleased he was able to escape with relatively few feelings of guilt, but he rationalized that in disobeying some of the
Plict
, he wasn’t going against all of the
Plict
.

             
The first exit door was obviously unproductive. It was open, and about a dozen Buds were gathered there in the light. John and Arthur
crept by
to the second door. No one was there and it wasn’t locked. They felt their way, moving slowly through the room and bumped into something large. John felt the object until he found a door. When the door opened, the ship’s lights came on. The ship was the kind that could carry them home.

             
“They had to have one,” John explained. “How else could they get the food for us? They probably stole the ship.”

             
“Why do you say that?”

“I’m sure there are ships that don’t go into space. This one can be used on the planet as well, which is all they need. If they bought one, they wouldn’t need space flight, so they’d get the cheaper ship.”

             
Arthur went over to the controls that opened the door to the hangar. He fiddled around for about two minutes, while John tried to conceal his impatience. The lights came on. Shortly afterwards, the door started to open and the lights went off. Arthur ran back to the ship, and climbed in. As he did so, two Buds entered the hangar. One went for the controls and the other ran toward the ship. The door opened just enough for the ship to exit, and John sent the ship through the door.

             
“
Aipot
?” John asked.

             
“
Aipot
,” Arthur affirmed.

             
Arthur disconnected the ship’s computer, worried that the virus would cause problems. They passed over a region where a broadcast was telling all air traffic to land, because computer problems made it unsafe. John ignored it and continued to hug the coast, knowing he would recognize
Aipot
from the air. He found it easily and headed for the patch of Earth plants, landing in the center of the O, crushing some beans. A circle of cabbages made the letter O. One S was onions, surrounded by tomatoes. Another S was peas, surrounded by corn.

             
A lone woman of perhaps fifty came out of the building. She was deeply tanned and had long brown, gray-streaked hair, caught in a ponytail low on her neck. “Natalie?” Arthur said tentatively. “Natalie!” He ran toward her, catching her in an embrace, which she returned. They half-separated to look at each other, both smiling at the sight.

             
“This is sort of a rescue,” Arthur said. “But we’re in trouble ourselves and also have to rescue Linda. Get in.”

             
“I can’t leave Patience,” Natalie said. John saw she recognized Arthur’s confusion. “My daughter. Our daughter. She’s not here, but she’ll be back soon.”

             
“Can we hide the ship?” John asked, ignoring Arthur’s startled expression.

             
“In the pines. They’ll see it from the air, unless we cover it with branches or something. They won’t go there.” Her English had an accent.

             
John moved the ship to the location Natalie indicated. The trees were surprisingly tall, considering they must be less than ten years old. They broke small branches off other trees and covered the ship. Natalie had an agricultural robot and a household robo
t helping them. John arranged the branches
, not only to hide the ship,
but
to make it so they would fall off if the ship was moved, to facilitate escape.

             
While the three of them worked, Arthur filled Natalie in on what was going on, never demanding she explain herself. He mentioned Mary Chen, his marriage, and her death. Natalie listened, but didn’t comment. They walked toward the house, passing a henhouse as they went.

             
They sat in a comfortable living room of an Earth-style house. Or at least Arthur and Natalie sat comfortably. The extra chair was clearly designed for
Plict
and didn’t quite fit John’s anatomy, like the chairs on the rebel base. Natalie served them apple juice in plastic glasses. She spoke in English with a bit of hesitancy.

             
“The
Vigintees
were testing me for telepathy and couldn’t find it.”

             
“But . . .” Arthur interrupted. He paused and let her continue.

             
“They went about it wrong,” she said with a gentle smile. “They tried to force it, but it doesn’t work that way. I can only read people I love, but they didn’t believe that. They’d taken out my IUD, which is why I was pregnant. I wasn’t even sure Patience was your child at first.”

             
Rape, as well as torture, John realized. Natalie must not have known that all male
Vigintees
have vasectomies before they are two. How can I know that and not know about myself?

             
“They decided to kill me after Patience was born. They didn’t care that I heard them. I might have been a pig they decided to slaughter. I mean, who cares about talking about bacon around the pig you’re going to eat?”

             
“How did you escape?” Arthur asked.

             
“I’d broken the chain and slipped out a few times. They were really sloppy about
locking me in. I made myself a raft of sorts. They never think of escaping by water, for some reason.”

             
“I’ve noticed, but I already had a life jacket,” Arthur said.

             
“It didn’t go all that smoothly. One of Hernandez’s four clones caught me. He started to drag me back and I stabbed him with a knife I’d made. There was a little bit of metal I found. I used a link of the chain to sharpen it into a knife. He wasn’t dead when I left him, but I just took off in the raft. I found out later that he died. I’m not sorry.”

             
“How did you find out?” John asked.

             
“The
Plict
here let me read the news feeds. He was found and brought up, almost dead. He named me as the one who stabbed him, and the whole thing came out.” She turned to John and said, “How come you need to ask? That’s when you went to Earth and took care of Linda and Tom.”

             
John started to explain about his amnesia, but she interrupted with, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize your amnesia was real.
” She continued,
“
I brought plenty of water, and a bit of food. I thought anywhere was better than where I was, and I knew the shore was east. I had a paddle and tried to move east, but it was cloudy and I couldn’t tell what direction it was. It took me days before I landed here. It was night and they didn’t see me. I hid at first and overheard some things some
Plict
said. I really didn’t understand the implications of them and didn’t know the language very well, but when they found me, they assumed I had understood. I gave birth to Patience about two weeks later. They thought she might become another scientist like Arthur and didn’t want her to leave. We reached sort of a compromise. They are teaching her math and science, I am teaching her English and history. They give me books from Earth and built this compound.”

             
She fingered a necklace she wore. “If I leave, they’ll know it and track me down. They said they’ll kill me if I do.” She shrugged. “They’re part of an anti-Bud conspiracy and feel Patience might become important. She’s a bright child, but she’s not going to solve their problems.”

             
“What do the conspirators want?” John asked.