Lost Past (27 page)

             
“Nine conspiracies to hold them,” Arthur said firmly. John could see Arthur was in control of his fear, and even enjoying passing off his spurious calculations as real science. “You can see I used the numbers of the total reported
Plict
population and the total Bud population, adjusted for the hidden Buds. Also, there is at least one more major Bud conspiracy on a larger scale than the one that visited you.”

             
The
Plict
holding the tablet said, “I see those numbers, but I don’t understand the calculations.”

             
“It doesn’t matter if you do. Maybe you have someone who can in
Aipot
.” It sounded like Arthur doubted they could. “I am a
Plict
citizen and have come to collect my wife and child, who are also
Plict
citizens.”

             
“You’re no
Plict
,” said the leader.

             
“I am officially a mouthed
Plict
citizen. John, carry the food into the ship.” John realized that Arthur was giving him an order as if he were
Plict
, ordering a human from
Vigint
City. “I was given all the rights of citizenship, as was my family. My wife is on the ship, whose computer was never on during the computer problems, so she’ll be able to send out a message detailing their kidnapping long before you can storm the ship. I admit that the message may not be read for some time, due to the computer problems, but someone will read it. You can’t erase that you held her here, even if you kill us all.”

             
John walked toward the ship, carrying the food. All the weapons turned on him, but he kept going.

             
“You are bluffing,” said the leader. “You may be a citizen, but she isn’t, and neither is her child.”

             
“My wife and my child are citizens. I made sure of that.” Arthur’s voice was confident and contemptuous. Arthur’s confidence was no longer an act.

             
Before John reached the ship, Patience came through a gate, leading a goat. Several goats followed her and headed for the garden. John handed the food to Natalie on board the ship. On a hunch, John tossed several pine branches into the ship. John lifted the goat onto the ship, and was rewarded by a smile from Patience. They
boarded and
took off without further incident.

             
“What’s this about citizenship?” asked John as he headed south along the coast. The
Vigintees
compound should easily be visible from the air.

             
“A special law was passed,” Arthur said. “I insisted on it before I would spend a lot of time here. Actually, it was your suggestion.” John didn’t remember, of course. “I was given special status, a citizen who couldn’t be tried for laws he was unfamiliar with, and could leave at any time, and so was my family. If I remember the wording correctly, that would include Patience.”

             
“Why didn’t you tell the Buds?” John asked.

             
“I thought they would just kill me.”
             

             
That seemed like a good reason.

             
Since they were looking for an island, not a coastal community, they flew a few miles out to sea. John paid attention to the route while Natalie and Arthur talked.

             
“Why don’t they go near the pines?” Arthur asked Natalie.

             
“Most
Plict
are allergic to pine. The mouthed
Plict
usually get a stopped-up blowhole.”

             
“Which would kill a
Plict
without a mouth,” Arthur said thoughtfully.

             
“They were rather excited about it at first,” Natalie continued. “They thought they could plant a few of them in pots around town, and keep buds away. They even did some genetic engineering to make the trees grow much faster, but they found them too irritating for any
Plict
.”

             
The information about the pines was a useful explanation, but they needed some way of finding the wormhole.
John gave Natalie and Arthur brief lessons in flying the ship while going toward the island. “I might be able to find the wormhole without the computer, but I’m not sure. I think there are some
kind
of beacons, which are computer controlled. If
I’m not here, get well away from the planet before turning on the computer.”
He wasn’t sure that would work.

             
John paid attention to the route while Arthur
did
something with the pine branches. All the while, Arthur and Natalie talked. Arthur answered her eager questions about Linda and Tom. When they landed on the spit of land near the door to the basement, Arthur handed him his water bottle and belt holder, which still had water in it, but was now stuffed with pine needles as well. When John hesitated to take it, Arthur said, “It’s not a weapon until you open the bottle.
Possibly not even then, because they may have to breathe in the fumes.
It should be safe until then.”

             
John could be relatively anonymous in
Vigint
City, but the others couldn’t. John’s clothing would blend in, and between the epidemic and the computer problems, he might be able to sneak in and free Linda and the others. Natalie took string from a sack of beans and fashioned a rough belt for him. John tied the belt onto his waist with the water bottle in Arthur’s carrying case, and headed for the door to the basement.

*
* *

             
Linda was brought through relatively empty corridors, and it wasn’t hard to guess that many of those she saw were recovered flu patients. The pace in the corridors was slower and the people she saw didn’t have the freedom of motion of people who spent hours exercising every day. They took Linda into what looked like a private room, but instead of being an apartment, it was clearly a waiting room, with chairs lining the walls. There were three children about two years old and five adults. One child was playing in a small playroom, but
two others were held by their mothers
. Linda was no expert, but one looked like he had the flu. The other’s face was buried in his mother’s shoulder. She wondered why they were allowing the flu to be spread by this gathering. 

             
Hernandez led her to the end of the room, saying, “Linda Saunders. She’s expected.”

             
“Yes. Send her in,” the receptionist replied.

             
“But we should go with her,” one of the clones protested.

             
“
Jorxt
is expecting us,” Hernandez said.

             
“I was told to send her in,” the receptionist said. “I wasn’t told to send you in.”

             
Linda wasn’t certain who
Jorxt
was, but she didn’t want to be with Hernandez. When the door was opened, she walked in quickly.

             
There was a large room with a number of doors off of it and no mirrors. No cameras here, she thought. Although the ceiling was unnaturally low, the room didn’t have the cramped feeling of the other rooms in this city. She knew the being about ten feet in front of her was a
Plict
. In her computer search, she saw many pictures of them, which allowed her to identify this as a Bud. He gestured for her to follow and she did.

             
They passed a room with a naked two-year old human with two
Plict
leaning over him. The child appeared to be sedated. She paused to watch, and a voice came from behind her.

             
“Treatment,” he said. “All two year olds are treated. They are sterilized. Sperm and ovaries are harvested later if needed.” It was a
Plict
with a mouth. “I’m
Saxant
, by the way.”

             
Saxant
was about one and a half times as massive as the Bud, but no taller. He wore a loose, bright green garment that bore more of a resemblance to a sari than to any other Earth garment. It was decorated with purple leaf-like structures. The Bud wore one-piece black clothing. Linda couldn’t see how it could be removed.

             
“There were adults without children in the waiting room.”

             
“Adults are looked over every twelve years. Sometimes we make minor modifications. You met someone who had them.
Reidar
, who gave you the translation disk, was too tall for the ceiling. His legs were operated on to remove some bone, taking off about four inches of height. His genome won’t be used in future generations.”

             
Linda asked. “Did he recover from the flu?” Not that she felt any attachment to him, but it seemed a reasonable question.

             
“No. Neither did John Graham’s ex-wife,
Katrine
. I think you were told about Baldur, but you didn’t meet anyone else who died.” Linda didn’t feel sorry that
Katrine
died, remembering her treatment of Cara, but wondered if John would be upset.

             
“You know that because we’ve been watched constantly?” Linda asked.

             
“Except when it was too dark to see you or when you covered our cameras,”
Saxant
responded.

             
“Who is watching us?” Linda was still annoyed with herself for covering the cameras.

             
“You have quite a following. There are millions of us watching you, Wilson, and Cara. You are a very profitable show.“

             
“Why?”

             
“Wouldn’t you watch us? The
Vigintees
are getting boring to us. We know what they do and how they’ll act. Your group is more interesting. There were numerous bets placed on what you would do, but I don’t think anyone anticipated you would bring down our computer system.”

             
“You brought down ours first.”

             
“I know, which is an excellent defense.”

             
“No it isn’t,” said another
Plict
who just entered the room
from one of the many doors
.

             
“This is
Jorxt
,” said
Saxant
. “He’s angry with you because the virus went through his computer and many are blaming him.”

             
Jorxt
was thinner than
Saxant
, and wore a form-fitting pink garment that matched his eyes.

             
“She has to fix it,”
Jorxt
said. “They’re blaming me, but it went through dozens of other computers after it went through mine. They’re just as much to blame.” Linda didn’t know how to determine if
Jorxt
was angry, frightened, or just irritated from his voice or manner, but she guessed that one of those emotions applied. “It was humans who temporarily stopped your computers, and they didn’t hurt the computers, just the connections between them. How could you do something so destructive?”

             
She remained silent, doubting he really wanted an answer to that question.

             
“You must fix it,” insisted
Jorxt
.

             
“Can you fix it?” asked
Saxant
.

             
“I’m not sure.” There was a possibility. She would use a virus-killing virus, but it would have to replicate itself, but not too virulently, or else it would become a problem in itself. It would have to find the code and neutralize it. Connections would have to be up for it to do so. But it would leave huge gaps in the code on the original computers. But being able to fix it was not the point. “Why should I?” she asked, genuinely puzzled.

             
Linda didn’t understand the contortions that appeared on
Jorxt’s
face, but it looked like an extreme emotion.
Saxant
explained, “
Jorxt
is very unhappy with you, and furthermore, he’s unhappy that you aren’t obeying him instantly. He’s forgotten that you weren’t genetically engineered to worship him.”

             
Jorxt
left abruptly, and
Saxant
offered her a chair and a beverage. “Don’t worry,
it’s
human food,” he said. It tasted rather weirdly of strawberries and onions, which was an odd combination, but still more interesting than the food previously available.