Stepping Stones (17 page)

“Let it go, Megan.  Please.  I’ll fill you in later.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I don’t have much choice,” said Jake.  Then,
in an effort
to change the subject, he
turned to
a small boy wh
om Lara had missed earlier.  The child
was
standing quietly behind Megan, regarding the other humans solemnly.

“Hey, who’s this good-looking kid?”
Jake asked, ruffling the child’s hair.

“Hi, Jake,” the boy said, his face breaking into a grin.

“
Hi, Adam. 
Ready to go to your new home?”

“You bet!”

“
We all are,” said Cameron, still staring at
Lara
.  “You know which shuttle you’re on?”

“Not yet,
”
Jake answered.

“You’d better check.  I’ll go with you.”

Jake turned to Lara.  “Stay here,” he said.  “I’ll be right back.  Please don’t hurt anyone,” he added softly.

As Jake and Cameron headed across the loading platform, Megan regarded Lara
for a long moment
.  “What did he mean—don’t hurt anyone?”

Lara remained silent.

When Lara didn’t respond, Megan pushed on.  “Nice outfit,” she remarked dryly.

Finally Lara spoke.  “Jake supplied these clothes from his closet.  He said they belonged to
a human female named
Tiffany.”

“I recognize them.”  A
nother
long pause, then, “You’re the cyborg
that
the authorities are searching for.  Where’s your collar?  I thought cyborgs couldn’t function without
a collar
.  And how’d you get past the N-scope?
  Speaking of which, how did you even manage to get past the gate without a colony ID?
”

Again Lara didn’t respond, sensing something
dangerous about the human named Megan
.

“Why is Jake taking you with him?”

Briefly, Lara considered silencing the troublesome human.  She rejected that
course, deciding too many others
were present. 
At any rate
, the mental
effort
she was using to manipulate the one called Jake
—not to mention deceiving the humans at the admission gate and at the N-scope station—was both tenuous and tiring.  S
he concluded from Jake’s demeanor
that the safety of the woman, as well as that of her husband and child, might be a more effective way
to
control
his actions.

“You’re not going to an
swer?” Megan persisted.  “
Lara, or whoever you are, I hope you understand what Jake is
sacrificing
for you.”

“He is sacrificing
nothing. 
He wishes to leave this planet.  So
do I.  We made a
pact
.”

“A
pact
?  We’re leaving everything
behind—home
, family, friends.  When we arrive at Regula
-4
, Cam and I will have each other, a
nd Adam.  What will Jake have?  A pact with you?  That’s not enough.
”

Lara’s thoughts returned
unbidden
t
o the lost members of her Triad, and she felt a terrible loneliness welling within
.
  Unexpectedly, she understood what the human named Megan meant by her words.

“N
othing to say?” Megan
continued angrily.  “All right, then. 
I’ll make this simple.  I don’t understand what’s going on
here
, but Jake and I have been friends
for
a long time.  If any harm comes to him because of you,
I will make you regret it
.”

Lara sat beside Jake on the shuttle as it ascended
a
magnetic
transit
loop into low orbit.  During the journey she felt the eyes of many upon her.  Ignoring them, she rode in silence.

After matching velocity with the
Patriot
—
the giant warpship that would be the
colonists’ home for the upcoming weeks during transit—
the shuttle docked and Lara
disembarked with the others, g
rateful to feel the sensation of gravity again
on the warpship.  Gradually,
the nausea that had tormented her
new body
during the shuttle ride
gradually
began to abate.  The
organic shell
in which
she had
cloaked herself seemed so sensitive at times, so frail.  She wondered how
this
race of beings had survived as long as they had.  Granted,
their history
wasn’t that long, but still . . .

Shortly after
boarding the
Patriot
, all colonists were placed in stasis.  It was a routine procedure; even a ship the size of the
colony transport
could not provide food,
water, and
waste disposal for five hundred colonists during
transit.  Unlike the humans
,
although her body was inactivated like theirs,
even in
stasis Lara remained aware, and d
uring the early days of the
journey
she spent a good deal of time puzzling over why she hadn’t heard from Command.  Although
she had
been unable to
send a call for help,
for
doing so would disclose her position to the Dark Ones, those at headquarters must surely
be aware of her absence.

Why hadn’t they
sent help
?

As
the
days passed, Lara grew bored.  Idly, she perused the ship’s
onboard
computer
.  E
ventually
she
absorbed th
e entire contents of its memory,
including a vast library of fictional works and a diverse selection of technical publications covering subjects from physiology, anatomy, and molecular biology to mathematics, chemistry, medicine, and physics.  And gradually, despite the humans’
obvious
limitations, she began to find a few of their aspects intriguing.  Their music,
for instance, was fascinating—
far more than the sum of its parts.  And who would have guessed
that
their social interactions, even without mind-to-mind contact, could be so complex?

To relieve her boredom
, she
also
turned her mind inward and examined the
growing
spark that was developing in her womb.  At first
she had
been content to simply monitor its
development
, but before long
she began to take
an active part—making small additions and subtle alterations to the minuscule clump of cells.  It was an interesting diversion, but
one
she knew
she
couldn’t continue much
longer.  Help would soon come, and she had
made irreversible modifications to the physi
cal form that she’d taken.  W
hen she
departed,
her body would perish—
along with the child
she had
started within.

But slowly, as the insignificant bit of life unfolded and changed and grew inside her, Lara’s new body began to change as well.

Twenty-two days after departure,
ship’s coordinate time,
the
Patriot
dropped out of warpspace and emerged
once more into the
space-time continuum.  Dead ahead t
he central star of th
e Regula system burned brightly,
and six hours later the colony transport swung into orbit around the fourth planet
out
.  Upon scanning the new world, the
Patriot’s
sensors revealed that Regula-4 had undergone
significant climatic
changes s
ince the Company’s last survey.  T
he planet’s mean surface temperature had fallen nearly two degrees—not much in the geologic scheme of things, but enough to begin locking
up water-ice in the polar caps.  S
now now covered
a large portion
of the landmasses in both hemispheres.

The science team was unable to determine whether the meteorologic development was a temporary cycle or
a
harbinger of something worse.  Nevertheless, because the
Patriot
carried insufficient fuel to
transport
all five hundred
emigrants back to Earth,
most
had no choice but to depart.  Although it
was
possible for a few to return
home
, of the five hundred colonists
who had
made the journey, four hundred and ninety-one elected to
stay
.

A revised landing site was chosen
closer to the equatorial plane, and t
wo days later all forty-seven cargo shuttles, laden with passengers
, supplies,
and equipment, descended to the surface.  Shortly afterward the
Patriot
lifted out of orbit, leaving the colonists to fend for themselves.

The first weeks on the wintry planet were
devastating
.

Each night the air turned colder; each day the winds grew stronger.  Shelter and warmth being of primary concern, all energies were initially devoted to assembly of the null-field domes, leaving a huge mound of mining gear, farming equipment, and transportation vehicles to be reclaimed after the spring thaw . . . if it ever came.

A dome of sufficient size to house the entire c
ommunity, at least temporarily, was quickly erected.  Next, l
esser
domes were energized.  B
y the time snow from
the
escalating storms covered the frozen ground, the core of the base had been constructed—central fusion reactor operational, hydropon
ic tanks and food processors on
line
, medical facilities functional
.  At that point, although nine colonists had succumbed to the hars
h environment, morale was high.  The
settl
ement’s chief problem consisted
of several
puzzling
cases of fever that had broken out in one of the perimeter domes.  Concluding that Company physicians had missed an organism
when
they were
developing their ino
culation regime, the colony medical
team quarantined all sick members and began searching for the fever’s cause.

During these first days, having decided her best course lay in avoiding all unnecessary interaction
with the humans, Lara requested separate quarters and
spoke to no one, not even Jake.  E
xcept to eat,
she remained
in her cubicle
in
the main dome.  As a result,
more and more she was shunned.

It came to a head late one evening of the third week.  Lara was sitting by herself i
n the nearly deserted cafeteria, eating
a gruel of pr
otein and carbohydrate—
a product of the newly functioning hydroponic tanks.  She found it delicious.  Eating was one thing about her present
situation that
she had
come to enjoy, and enjoy immensely.  And
curiously, no matter how much she ate, she always seemed to be hungry.

Nearing the end of
her meal, she noticed Jake crossing the room toward her.  She ignored him, concentrating on
finishing her
meal
.

Jake sat across from her at the table.  “Is this how you keep your part of our
pact
?” he
demanded
.

Continuing to ignore him
, Lara
got up
and started for the door.

Jake
rose
and grabbed her arm, spinning her ar
ound.  “Hold on.  I have
something to say.  And you’re going to listen.”

Noticing others watching, Lara hesitated.  “Say it, then.”