CHAPTER 6

 

Washed and hair tidied Rose and Ray headed out towards the shuttle landing pad. Dane fell into step as they headed past his barracks.

“Hold up a second.” Dane held his hand up as they rounded the barracks end. “Gift wanted to meet us here.” Gift was Dane’s best friend - most of the time. He had a similar stature to Dane but none of his physical ability and constitution. He did however, have an acerbic wit and a natural quiet confidence that made him a bit of hit with the young Dianian women. He was known as Gift because of a joke someone had made about him years ago.

“Always welcome, like a birthday gift.” When Dane and Gift did fall out it was usually because Dane got jealous of the time Gift spent with Rose.

Streams of people were now heading in groups towards the shuttle port. Most wore the standard blue dresses, pants, and shirts that were locally made from a synthetic yarn that CDSE issued through G-Port printers. Occasionally other splashes of color were evident. Diana had no large animals but had abundant insects and a rich microbial life. Like Earth, plants tended to reproduce via wind-blown spores or by insect pollination. One species had evolved a ball of fine silky fibers that acted as tiny sail, transporting seeds on the wind. The small bundles of fluff were similar in size but finer than the buds of cotton grown on Earth.

In recent decades, enterprising Dianians had researched historical spinning and weaving techniques and had managed to produce some usable fabrics. With limited free time, progress was slow and dyeing of the fabrics lagged somewhat behind. The most successful color thus far was a rich golden yellow that had been discovered by Rose’s horticulture teacher after washing a dress with a forgotten vine cutting in the hip pocket. After further investigation, the color was isolated to the bark of the vine which, when boiled with the fabric, imparted the brilliant yellow color. There was also a dull red-brown that lasted a few washes and a faded purple derived from the roots of a small shrub.

Dianian plants largely relied on scent for attracting insects rather than color and with no large animals to eat them the fruits served mainly as fertilizer for the seeds that dropped. Likewise, Dianian fruit did not need to be brightly colored to attract animals so the native plant life was a fairly uniform green compared to the variety of colors found on Earth.

Ray wore her newest blue work dress and a bright yellow shawl that she had traded with one of the hobby weavers for a recycled Com-Port. The weaver had told Ray that she liked the way the gold complimented her copper red hair and Ray was sold. She had, thus far, been extremely disciplined with its use for fear of ruining it. This was only its third appearance after she wore it to a social dance, six months ago and also during a spur of the moment decision to try and get Mitch’s attention on a walk with friends a month before.

Like Ray, Rose wore a standard blue dress on which she had clearly modified the neckline adding a white trim and laces that she wore almost, but not quite, modestly laced up.

Finally, Gift trotted out of his barracks with his wet hair slicked down, tucking his blue shirt in hastily. He jerked to a halt upon seeing Ray and spun on his heal play-acting dizziness. Apparently regaining his composure, he bowed low before her and circling his face with his right hand he kissed his fingertips and raised his hand towards the sky.

“As beautiful as the sun.”

Ray blushed grinning and slapped Gift’s shoulder with the back of her hand. Gift held up two fingers and looked down at the spot where Ray had struck him.

“I swear I will never wash this shirt again,” he signed solemnly. Ray lifted her scarf up, hiding her mouth like she had seen in old movies and fluttered her eyelashes outrageously. Gift grabbed his heart and pretended to be faint once again.

Rose rolled her eyes at their antics and started walking.

Ray liked Gift, and once, when they were both twelve, they had even had a bit of a kiss and a fondle out in the forest, but things had never developed from there. Many people assumed they would eventually get together because of the way they teased each other and the level of ease they seemed to have in each other’s company. For some reason, however, Ray just couldn’t see Gift in that light anymore. She couldn’t put her finger on why but suspected it had something to do with his inability to be serious.

“We’d better hurry,” Rose added, looking at the stragglers bustling up the path. “I don’t want to miss this.”

Dane nodded in agreement and began to move checking out of the corner of his eye that Rose was moving too.

They cleared the ring of barracks and headed out past Ray’s mother’s house where Sparks (named for his ability as an electrician) met them with his on again off again girlfriend Nettle. Ray acknowledged her brother with a nod. Sparks lifted his blond, stubbled chin at the bustling crowd and made the sign for

“Circus.” His clear, honest glinted and he winked at Ray.

Sparks’ girlfriend Nettle brooded at his elbow. In Dianian circles she was considered extremely alternative. The East Asian genetics showed through strongly in her, but she was taller and thinner than most women. She cropped her jet-black hair fiercely short, had multiple homemade piercings and tattoos and wore pants and shirts almost exclusively. Today Ray noticed a new addition to the collection of piercings in her ears. A pair of polished metal fragments hung from wired hooks. One was laser etched with the CDSE logo and one with the word SLAVE.

Nettle (and therefore Sparks) were part of a mostly young group of Dianians who were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the relationship between Diana, the UN, and CDSE. Nettle saw Ray looking at the new earrings met her gaze like a challenge.

“What?” she signed.

Ray flicked her eyes away, always intimidated by Nettle’s prickly temper, but Gift jumped in.

“That’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

Ray winced but Nettle was already on the attack.

“Too much that we are little more than animals? Too much that CDSE can murder us the second they land if they like.”

“The UN court case got delayed again,” Sparks explained. “The UN is trying to get us classified as meta-human Dianians and CDSE are dragging it out. The latest is that they require a six-month recess to conduct a full review of all genetically modified human material in order to decide what is and what is not human.”

“Pisses me off,” Nettle interjected. “We are clearly not human. We should be definitely be Dianians with tribal sovereignty over our own planet. The whole thing is just horse shit”

The court cases between the UN and CDSE had been going on for at least eight years. The UN wanted to protect Dianians but lacked the money and resources to bully the CDSE. In the early days CDSE had appeared to side with Nettle and her ilk. Four years and millions of dollars were spent fighting a court case that found for CDSE that Dianians were not human. This of course led to a raft of new court cases and lobbying of governments to properly characterize and regulate Meta Humans, as they were now called. The litigation had dragged on until the present day with little progress either way.

Ray looked away as if she hadn’t noticed Nettle’s tirade. Sparks smirked at the exchange but joined Ray and Dane in the procession. Ray’s tension ratcheted up a notch. Sparks was difficult at the best of times, but Nettle made him worse. She could do without being part of their childish protests today. Sparks leaned forward into their view.

Gift couldn’t seem to help himself. “Who cares,” he signed, shrugging. “CDSE agreed years ago that we are not human. Who cares what Earth calls us? We know who we are.”

“Because, you dumb fuck,” Nettle jabbed Gift in the bicep with her finger, “if we are not human and not Dianian, then we default to alien fauna. We’re legally animals. The only laws protecting us right now are cruelty to animals and environmental protection laws, which may not even hold out here. Those CDSE assholes could butcher us for food and it may actually be legal.”

“They’re not going to do that.” Gift signed. Earth would go nuts. Besides, you would taste bitter as hell.” Dane ducked as Nettle swung a slap at his face.

Ray fell back behind Rose and Dane, letting her brother and friends take the lead. Gift fell in beside her, looking pointedly at Nettle.

“She’s trouble,” he signed, frowning in Nettle’s direction.

“I just hope she doesn’t drag Sparks into anything stupid,” Ray replied.

Their journey took them on a winding path through the forest. Fresh cuts in the undergrowth indicated that the path had been cleared in the past few days. The infrequency of shuttle landings meant it was not worth maintaining a permanent trail.

With the foliage hacked back the path was a good meter wide and flat from the habitat bot’s attentions. The Crowd bottlenecked, and progress slowed until Ray’s group shuffled along at a frustratingly slow pace. The shuttle port lay a good three kilometers from Atlas and Rose was clearly starting to fret about missing the big show.

Finally, blue sky appeared through growing gaps in the forest canopy as they approached the landing pad. A flattened earth circle in a natural forest clearing, some six hundred meters in diameter, greeted them as they finally broke through the trees. There was plenty of room for the pilots to avoid the taller trees and it was far enough from town that disasters were unlikely.

The top of the mound had been carefully leveled by habitat bots and recently scrubbed clean. The undergrowth had been cleared back from the fringes to make space for the spectators who milled around the edge conversing with rapid fingers. Rose was already looking skyward trying to peer through the perfect Diana sky and out to the waiting ship that must be out there somewhere.

To permit shuttle access, there was a gap in the EURO-NET, so no ghostly apparition of Earth interrupted their view. Dane stood beside Rose matching her gaze.

“Here we go then.” He signed as if to himself.

Ray looked at her friends’ profiles for a second then raised her own eyes up to watch the new Diana approach.