Fierce September (7 page)

‘Well, that’s different,’ Nixie said. ‘It used to be every three years.’

Willem nodded. ‘That’s right. But elections cost money, so the country voted to extend the term of office. The Enviro Party is in power at the moment. They were voted in after the ’78 pandemic.’

Marba raised his hand. ‘With respect, Willem – what are the problems in your country right now?’ An excellent question. Would Willem answer it? And would he speak the truth? But it seemed that sheltering us wasn’t part of his plan.

‘Well asked,’ he said. ‘Yes, there are problems. Big ones. Our population is now only about one million.’ He waited for the shocked cries of the older generation to subside. ‘The more remote rural areas are now very small and often quite cut off from the rest of the population. Some of these groups have formed their own societies and they don’t abide by the laws of the land.’

Leng showed us a series of photographs of a group of houses surrounded by farms. The houses looked unkempt and the farms raggedy. Another shot showed a gathering of people practising with firearms.

‘As you see,’ Willem said, ‘this group is armed. They shoot, they don’t ask questions. There are others like them. Some groups seem to be reverting to superstition and witchcraft.’ He paused as if making a decision. ‘Which brings me to a very important item. Most of these groups are very much against the use of any sixth sense and will seek to destroy any person who appears to exhibit such tendencies. But there is at least one group who believe such people are the way of the future. They have kidnapped children and some adults who are said to have these abilities.’

We were taking Hera into danger.

‘And so,’ he continued in his even, uninflected voice, ‘I urge all of you to be careful not to speak of the child Hera’s prediction that this boat was coming and that Taris was breaking.’

Mother jumped to her feet, Hera hugged tight in her arms. ‘Promise!’ Her voice was high and urgent. ‘Please, my people! Please give us your promise.’

‘We do. We promise. We will protect her.’ The reassurances came from every part of the room.

Mother sat down again and burst into tears. Hera patted her face. Dad put his arms around them both. All four of my grandparents sat shocked and motionless, until Grif stretched out a hand to my parents and said something to them.

Justa, who had been my stratum’s teacher all our lives, raised a hand. ‘How many days before we arrive?’

Four, they told us – and we would have meetings each day at this time to continue learning about our new home.

Chatter broke out as the Outsiders left. Marba leaned forward to speak to us without the others hearing. ‘Juno – teach us to read.’

‘And write,’ Silvern added.

‘Sure, but we’ll need things to write on, stuff to read.’

Marba jumped up, stretching out his hand to me. ‘Come on. We’ll go and ask Fergus.’

Okay, I didn’t mind asking Fergus. He was kind. But when we found him in his cubbyhole labelled
Purser’s
Office
, he looked at us for a moment then said, ‘I’ll take you to Willem.’

What sort of society was this? Couldn’t anyone do anything without asking Willem? Marba touched my arm, and sent me a swift grin. It was all right for him. He loved all the cloak and dagger stuff.

Fergus led us to the room where we’d received our first grilling from Willem, and told him of our request. Willem’s steely gaze drilled into us. ‘You can’t read or write?’

‘I can,’ I said. ‘My grandmother broke the rules and taught me.’

‘Hmm. Your grandmother’s name? Her Outside name?’

‘Ann,’ I told him. ‘We call her Grif, and I don’t know the rest of her Outside name.’ She had chosen the name Grif because it was as close to
grief
as she could get – grief for all the things they had lost.

‘Very well.’ He didn’t mess around once he’d made a decision. ‘Fergus will give you the materials you need.’ He turned back to the computer he was working at, and Fergus ushered us out with a sweeping bow towards the door.

‘Why did you have to ask Willem?’ Marba asked Fergus as we followed him down one of the interminable corridors.

‘I didn’t have to,’ Fergus said, ‘but I knew he’d want to know that most of you can’t read. We’re building up a picture of life on Taris. Everything is important.’

Lab rats again. Marba should be delighted.

Fergus showed us a small room with display boards and computerised writing pads. ‘You can work here,’ he said. ‘This room’s free most of the day, but take care with the equipment. The pads are very easy to use – look …’

And so, for the remainder of the voyage, I began to teach my learning stratum how to read and write. Hera demanded to be there too. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘but you have to play quietly or you go back to Mother and Dad.’

‘Hera good,’ she said – and she was, more or less.

News of the reading lessons spread through the rest of our people, so Grif began teaching others who wanted to learn, using a computer which projected images onto the big screen. There were no writing materials but she had the whole room in fits of laughter, making them draw letters in the air, on each other’s backs, on the floor. From where we worked in our room down the corridor we could hear them laughing and chanting words.

‘They’re having more fun,’ Brex said, ‘but I reckon we’re learning more.’

The thirteen of them were very focused, determined to learn as much as they could. They stretched my own knowledge so that I often had to ask Grif for help.

Halfway through the second day, Danyat came and sat in with us. I was surprised when he offered to help with the lessons. I hadn’t imagined he’d be able to read and write, but of course he could – and so could everyone who had lived outside Taris in their youth.

By the time the voyage neared its end, everyone had mastered the basics. Now there was an air of excitement among us, of looking forward and of wanting to know more about our new home.

‘Tomorrow,’ Leng told us, ‘we’ll be there. We’ll drop anchor around mid-afternoon. People are impatient to meet you. There will be television crews, and radio. You’ll be much in demand for a while.’

Silvern called out, ‘Is there any way we can wash our clothes before we land? We’re a bit grubby.’

Leng looked startled. ‘You just wear them in the shower.’ Then she laughed. ‘I’m sorry – we should have explained. The fabric dries quickly. All you need to do is jump up and down a couple of times.’

Silvern sat back. ‘Excellent. I’m liking the sound of Outside the more I find out about it.’

And we would be there tomorrow. A shiver of anticipation went through me. What would it be like to wander around in a place big enough to get lost in? A place where others didn’t know you? 

T
HE SHIP CAME WITHIN SIGHT of land with the coming of dawn, not at mid-afternoon as Leng had told us would happen. We braved the cold wind to stand at the rails and watch our new home slide past, all of us shivering in our thin clothing.

‘It doesn’t look welcoming,’ Mother said. ‘How will we live in a landscape like this?’

The hills appeared bony, their surfaces only lightly clad in stunted bushes, the slopes too steep to live on, too exposed to farm, and we saw no sign of people or their dwellings.

Dad pulled Mother in close, wrapping an arm around her and transferring Hera to his other shoulder. Before he could reply, Bazin said, ‘Don’t fret, Sheen. This isn’t Wellington yet. The wind would blow you off these hills. It’s different once you get into the harbour.’

‘Let’s go inside,’ Mother said. ‘We’ll have breakfast, warm up and give our new land a chance to show a more kindly face.’

I wished the ship had windows for us to look out of. I hated not being allowed to see every single detail of the land as we approached. Luckily, my grandparents were feeling the same way, and soon we were back at the rails. All my stratum were there, but Mother was jittery and kept me glued to her side. I rolled my eyes at Silvern but didn’t try to join her, Paz and the others.

‘There’s Wellington,’ Leebar said. ‘It looks the same.’ She smiled at the other three grandparents. They all had tears in their eyes. Would I feel the same about going back to Taris? Oh yeah, I could never go back to Taris. Not now, not ever. I watched my new home instead.

We could see buildings towering tall just like ones we’d seen in documentaries. Houses spread up hillsides more gentle than the ones we’d first seen. These looked greener too. There were a few other boats in the harbour, some heading, as we were, for the city, one passing us in the other direction, and several were tied up where the sea and land met.

I willed our ship closer. I wanted to see people, cars, curtains in the windows. I wanted to be able to picture myself walking along the grey streets, vanishing into canyons between the towers.

Mother was so twitchy – jumping every time I moved, as if I might throw myself into the sea, or leap to the wharf and run away. I tried to be patient with her, for I knew all too well that my previous escapade had frightened her badly. I wanted to ask why we’d arrived early, but Grif shook her head. ‘Early is good. Unless you want to star on prime-time television?’

But her words were calming ones, not the truth of what she felt. I moved closer. ‘You think there’s trouble waiting? That they’re trying to keep our arrival time secret?’

‘I think,’ she said slowly, ‘that Willem is aware of dangers he’s decided not to speak of. I think he’s doing his best to protect us.’

Oh well. Good. If we were in danger there wasn’t a thing we could do about it. I grinned at her. ‘But don’t you feel it too? Like life is pulsing in the air, like all we have to do is breathe it in and things are going to happen?’

Excited babble filled the air, the wind throwing the odd word in our direction:
hills … towers … boats …
sunshine …
Would we ever get used to this great rushing wind?

Hera suddenly buried her face in Dad’s shoulder, her arms nearly strangling him. ‘It’s all right, poppet,’ he said, stroking her hair. ‘Don’t be scared.’

Grif said, ‘Hera, darling, tell us. What’s frightening you?’

She muttered something, but the words were muffled. Dad prized her head away from his shoulder. ‘Say it again, honey.’

She clutched at his clothing and gave one terrified glance in the direction of the wharf. ‘Bad peoples. Want to hurt us.’

I was off and running before Mother could shriek at me. Mentally I apologised to her – I’d meant to be so good, so compliant … so unnoticed. Silvern caught sight of me, and after a quick word to her parents wove her way through the crowd.

‘What?’

‘Hera. Where’s Willem? Can you see him?’

‘Over there.’

We hurried towards him. He was surrounded by a gaggle of Outsiders – some were sailors from the ship but others must have come on board when the ship docked. We pushed through them. ‘Excuse us. Please – excuse us.’

Willem looked up at the disturbance. ‘Juno. Silvern.’ He nodded to the people around him and they fell back, leaving us and him in a circle of space. ‘A problem?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said, feeling foolish and suddenly uncertain. ‘It’s Hera. She’s frightened.’ I told him what she’d said, how she’d suddenly cowered when a second earlier she’d been relaxed and happy.

He frowned. ‘We’ll check it out.’ He turned to go, calling back over his shoulder, ‘Tell her all will be well.’

We stared after him. ‘Wow,’ Silvern gasped. ‘Didn’t expect that! No questions. Just accepts the word of a two-year-old.’

‘Yeah.’ I was shaken too. ‘Come on. I’d better get back before Mother thinks I’ve jumped overboard.’

She pulled a face. ‘Mine jumps every time I blink.’

We wriggled our way back through the press of people, many of whom frowned at us and turned away, not exactly withdrawing but making it plain they thought we were stepping outside the bounds of compliance yet again. But each one of our stratum managed to intercept us and ask why we’d run to Willem.

‘I wonder what it’ll be like,’ Silvern mused, ‘if we ever get to live apart.’

‘It’ll be weird but so good,’ I said. ‘Think about it! You could walk down the street on your hands and there’d be nobody saying,
Have you heard? Silvern’s gone crazy!
’

She smiled. ‘I wonder if we’ll miss it?’

‘Yeah, like you’d miss a broken leg!’

I hurried back to my family and hugged Mother before she could scold me. ‘I’m sorry, I’m trying to be good.’

She just shook her head.

‘What news?’ Leebar asked.

‘Willem’s going to check it out.’ I put a hand on Hera’s shoulder. ‘Hera, he says to tell you that all will be well.’

She lifted her face and Mother wiped away the tears. ‘There, there, Hera darling. It’s all going to be fine.’

I caught Grif’s eye. Like me, she plainly thought things could well be far from fine.

By now, people were beginning to ask what the holdup was and why we weren’t disembarking. It was cold on the deck and we didn’t have outdoor clothing to wear, but none of us left – we’d seen enough of the inside of the ship to want never to go back in there again.

At last Willem’s voice boomed out over a loudspeaker. ‘My friends, there’s a slight delay. Some formalities we’d overlooked. I apologise for the oversight and ask for your patience while we get it all sorted.’

He did bland reassurance extremely well.

My grandparents whispered among themselves, then they began to sing. Gradually other voices joined in until we were all singing the Song of Taris, then the joyful song of welcome we’d sung when Willem, Malia and Fergus came to us through the mist on the mountain. Next was a lament for our lost home and after that a spirited song about heroes and action. We were in the middle of the eleventh song when our voices trailed to a halt.