Matthew walked back to the Corvus in a better mood than he’d been in for months—or decades, depending on how he looked at it.
For so long now, hope was something he’d lived without. His mother’s cancer, being chosen for the Exo Project, the likelihood that he’d die on a planet light-years away from his own, and the certainty that even if he lived, he’d never see his family or his friends again.
But now, this.
Matthew lifted his fingers lightly to his lips. They felt swollen, bruised a bright red from the way Kiva had pressed hers against them. Matthew smiled. Of all the things he’d imagined he might find on planet H-240, the most he’d hoped for was water, breathable air, and a temperate climate that wouldn’t kill him the moment he took off his helmet. He never expected to find life on the surface. He never expected the Vagri.
And he certainly never expected Kiva.
Matthew’s smile gradually pulled straight and turned into a frown as his mind moved again to what Kiva had told him before they’d parted. The kiss they’d shared on the plain was wonderful, but it didn’t mark the end of their troubles. Not by a long shot.
“You have a choice,” Kiva had said. “And whatever you choose, the future of my planet depends on it. The future of my people, and yours. And our future.”
Matthew had been silent after that, but he knew what she was saying. She was saying that no matter how she felt about him, no matter the way her body had gone soft under his touch and melted into his as they pressed their lips together just moments earlier, there were some things that the two of them could not overcome. Some things that she could not forgive.
Now, walking back, Matthew felt certain that he knew the choice he had to make.
He had to decide if he would tell Earth that Gle’ah was a habitable planet or not. He had to decide between the Vagri and the human race.
But did he really have to choose? What if the Vagri and the humans could learn to live in peace?
Even as he thought it, he began shaking his head to himself. No. The thought that his people and Kiva’s could live together on the planet was naive at best, and dangerously ignorant at worst. Matthew himself had admitted to Kiva that his people destroyed everything they touched. And it was true. How else to explain what had happened to Earth? Animal species driven to extinction, the atmosphere ruined beyond repair, the land bled dry of everything that humans could consume or sell for profit.
Matthew glanced out over the landscape of Gle’ah and wondered what it might look like five, ten, or twenty years hence if the human race resettled its billions to this place. In his mind’s eye, he saw small settlements crop up here and there, growing slowly upward and outward as they changed into massive, ugly, filthy cities that stretched from one horizon to the next. He saw massive machines digging the grasses away, bulldozing smooth the gentle swell of the hills. Quarries reaching down into Gle’ah, mines and oil rigs and factories spewing contaminants into the air.
His people didn’t deserve this planet. They’d destroy it, just as they’d destroyed Earth. Even the Ancestors, an alien intelligence that existed only to protect life, wouldn’t survive—some businessman would find a way to capture them, package them, and sell them to the highest bidder.
Humans were a disease. A cancer.
Matthew’s steps grew quicker as he became more sure of his decision. When he really thought about it, it was obvious. He couldn’t allow Earth to resettle on Gle’ah. The human race had had its chance in the great evolutionary struggle to survive. Now, it was up to Matthew to make sure the Vagri had theirs.
When Matthew returned to the Corvus, he saw the speeder hovering riderless just outside the airlock.
Dunne was back.
He went inside the ship and found her in the lab.
“Matthew,” she said, lifting her head. “I’m glad you’re back.”
“Where were you this morning?”
“Before you woke up, I had a visitor.”
Matthew’s brow lifted in surprise. “Oh? Who?”
“It was that boy. Po. The one who almost killed you. He came not long after you left.”
“And what did he want?”
“It was hard to tell. Without you and Kiva here to translate, we had to communicate with hand gestures. But I gathered that he wanted me to come with him.”
“And where did you go?”
“He took me to another village. It was all men. He seems to be part of some warrior culture, separate from the Vagri.”
Matthew nodded. “Kiva told me about them. She said that they’d been banished from the village. The Vagri only use them when they need to, as mercenaries.”
“Yes, that’s what I gathered. But that’s not the most interesting thing. Look at this.”
Dunne reached out her hand, and Matthew came forward to see what she was holding. It was a downy, whitish substance that reminded Matthew of cotton.
“What is that?”
Dunne shook her head. “I wasn’t sure at first. But they’re using it as a kind of drug. Eating it, smoking it.”
“Po told you all this with hand gestures?”
Dunne smiled. “Yes. It was difficult. Almost like a game of charades. But I didn’t have to guess too hard. While I was in the village, practically half the people were high on it. I could see exactly what was going on. I also heard what they call it: maiora.”
“Maiora,” Matthew repeated, puzzled. Just when they thought they’d figured out this planet, it revealed new mysteries. “Did you analyze it?”
“I did. It’s the Ancestors. The same nanite we saw earlier. But arranged together into a crystalline form.”
Matthew worked the ball of maiora back and forth in his hand, rubbing the white substance between his fingers and thumb. “Like snow,” he offered.
“Yes. Like snow. And when they eat it, or smoke it, it lets the Ancestors loose in their body, and—”
“Let me guess. Hallucinations? Visions? Telepathic communication?”
“Well, Po and I didn’t get that far. Telepathy would’ve been a hard one for our little game of charades. But that’s my guess, yes. And there was something else. Before I left.” Dunne squinted, her eyes growing cloudy.
“What? What is it?”
“Something Po was trying to tell me. I didn’t quite get it. I was trying to ask him where the maiora came from. In response, he waved his hands off toward the horizon.”
“That seems clear enough,” Matthew said.
“I suppose. But it was what he did next that was so puzzling. I still don’t know what he was trying to convey with his hand motions. But it seemed like he was describing structures. Buildings, or ruins, maybe. I don’t know.” Dunne shook her head and trailed off. “Anyway, I came back here to analyze the maiora. Maybe we can take out the speeder later to find what Po was talking about. What about you? I forgot to ask you what you talked to Kiva about yesterday. Did you get anywhere with her?”
Ears burning, Matthew turned away and glanced at Dunne out of the corner of his eye, checking her expression. There didn’t seem to be any double meaning in her words. She simply wanted to know if he’d discovered anything new about Kiva or the Vagri.
“Nothing new to report,” he said finally, then cleared his throat as he tried to change the subject. “I’ve been thinking, though. About what we talked about this morning. About what we’re going to do about Earth.”
Matthew took a long breath. Dunne looked up and waited.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Here’s what I think … ,” Matthew began, but at that moment the quantum transceiver squawked on a table in the corner of the room.
“Corvus,” came Alison’s voice on the other end. “Corvus, this is Control. Come in, Corvus.”
Dunne nodded toward the transceiver. “You’d better get that, I suppose.”
Matthew walked to pick it up. He pressed the button on the side and lifted it to his mouth.
“Copy, Control. This is Corvus.”
“This is Matthew, right? Matthew Tilson speaking?”
“Yes, Alison. Same as always.”
A pause. “Well, Matthew, we’ve got someone here who wants to speak to you.”
Before Matthew could say anything, another voice came on the line.
“Matthew? Matthew, are you there?”
He recognized the voice immediately.
Matthew’s heart slowed. His blood turned to ice in his veins. His hand clutched the transceiver in a grip so tight that the skin on his knuckles turned white. His thumb trembled as he pressed again on the button to speak.
“Mom?”