Promised Land Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  TTT

  Promised Land

  By Cynthia Felice and Connie Willis

  Copyright 1997 by Cynthia Felice and Connie Willis

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

  For Sheba and Gracie, utterly loyal,

  And to Laura, for bridging the collaboration format gaps

  Chapter 1

  There was no one waiting for her.

  Delanna stood at the bottom of the shuttle ramp shading her eyes against bright sunlight shimmering off the silvery ribbon of runway. At the other end, where the runway faded into blue-green grass, she could see a solitary shuttleport building, and an unimaginative blue rectangle that had to be the shuttleport warehouse. There was a dirt road that cut straight across the featureless landscape to a row of shiny parti-colored buildings of the town of Grassedge that seemed perched on the edge of the horizon. She pushed her hair back away from her face and turned her back to the sun. Nothing. Just a sea of grass stippled with domino like dots that must be irrigated farm fields, and somewhere out there in the east were the mountains, so distant she couldn't even see the snow-capped peaks she remembered.

  "No one here to meet you?" the shuttle pilot said as he came down the ramp.

  "A neighbor was supposed to come, but maybe he's waiting at the terminal.”

  "Not likely. People only use the terminal to camp in until we can shuttle them up to the ships."

  Delanna nodded, vaguely remembering snuggling up against her mother in a sleeping bag while they waited for the ship to come to take her to school. Then her mother had put her in the shuttle, and it wasn't until the door closed between them that Delanna had realized her mother wasn't coming along. She'd cried all the way into orbit, and hadn't been mollified until someone had given her ice cream. She didn't remember much else—riding in a solaris for what seemed like days and days, and seeing a brush fire—she had only been five years old. Grassedge and the plains around it looked only very vaguely familiar. The landscape was as barren as her mother had described it in her letters. "A sorry excuse for a planet," she'd written of Keramos. "I hope you never have to come back here."

  And now she was back, but only for as long as it took to settle her mother's estate.

  "Maybe the neighbor boy is camped out at the terminal," Delanna said hopefully to the pilot. "He couldn't know exactly when the ship would arrive, could he?"

  "Not exactly," the pilot agreed. "But there wasn't anyone camping there when I left at dawn."

  "Still, I'd better take a look."

  The pilot shrugged indifferently and gestured toward a half-mile-distant lump of green ceramic at the edge of the field. Even now she could make out the long shadow better than the terminal building itself. "Just follow the yellow line."

  “You mean walk?" Delanna said, staring at him. She knew services, even in Grassedge, the largest settlement on Keramos, were limited compared to Gay Paree, the tiny city on Rebe Prime where The Abbey was located. Her mother had told her Keramos was primitive, but this was ridiculous.

  The shuttle pilot shrugged. "Gilby has already gone home," he said. "Gilby's usually here to look after passengers when we have any, but sometimes he doesn't make it past the bars."

  "Surely there's someone else."

  The pilot shook his head. "Just me and Gilby until the cash crops in the fall," he said, then added thoughtfully, "For those that have cash crops."

  "What about you?"

  "We try to please," he said, in a tone that didn't convince Delanna at all, "but I have to get the first load off the shuttle before sundown. The pallet is solar-powered, and as you can plainly see, it's almost sundown."

  Delanna stared at the huge golden blob above the horizon, feeling, just for an instant, as lost and forlorn as she had been when she first went to Rebe Prime, five years old and in a strange school in a strange city on an even stranger planet. She had been all alone then and she was all alone now. Her friends were back in Gay Paree, her mother was in a grave somewhere near Milleflores Lanzye and had been for almost ten months. But she was no longer a little kid. She took a deep breath.

  "I'm not walking in these," Delanna said, pointing down at her ribbon-laced highups. Surely the pilot could see walking was out of the question.

  "Well, I guess if you don't mind riding on the pallet, I could take you on over to the cargo dock on it."

  Delanna eyed the pallet warily, and finally nodded. Anything would be better than walking.

  The pilot ducked under the stubby wing of the shuttle and went to the cargo-bay door. Delanna watched him pull a lever and step out of the way as the first pallet descended. Like all pallets, it was sealed, but this one had oxygen tanks attached, and a makeshift sign that said, “Livestock! Protect from extreme temperatures." She could hear-muted honking. Wonderful. She would be sharing her ride with a crate of geese. She had shared taxis in Gay Paree with stranger companions, and some of them had sounded almost like this.

  She perched on the metallic crate and clutched her travelwallet and carryit while the pilot walked alongside, guiding the pallet with a tether. When the pallet rolled off the runway, the ride became bumpy, and she had to hold on to the cranehook in the center of the crate.

  She closed her eyes against the stream of sunlight and relaxed against the cranehook. The sunlight felt warm on her face, and the air smelled wonderful, full of dust and the scent of freshly mowed grass. She felt almost like a traitor enjoying it; her mother had hated everything about Keramos, had wanted more than anything to escape but hadn't succeeded. I'd hate it, too, if I were stuck here, Delanna thought, but right now the fresh air and the warmth and the space felt wonderful after the stale-smelling, cramped ship.

  Abruptly the sunlight disappeared, and she opened her eyes. The pilot had steered the pallet into the shadow of the warehouse. Its blue ceramic tile exterior was so dark that at first she didn't notice the black gap of an open cargo door. Then two men stepped out of the shadows, and waved.

  Delanna waved back. "Maybe that's him," she said eagerly. One man was older, white-haired with a brightly flowered shirt and a paunch hanging over his pants. The other was a handsome dark-haired man. She remembered the Tanner boy having been fair-haired when he was ten or eleven. He would have grown up by now, and his hair could have darkened.

  The pilot was waving, too. "That's the port veterinarian, Doc Lyle. The one with him is the prairie caravan captain, Jay Madog. The vet will be wanting blood samples from these geese, and Jay probably wants to check the bills of lading to see how much cargo space he needs for the next train east. I think he has some software licenses to sign for, too."

  "Oh," Delanna said, disappointed.

  They pulled up even with the men. " . . . see any Royal Mandarins last time you were up that way?" the vet was saying.

  "Not a one," the younger man said. They both turned to look at the pallet

  "You have the geese in there?" the vet called as he reached around the edge of the black hole, appar
ently for a light switch, for the depth of darkness was suddenly flooded with light. Inside were a few crates, far too few to fill the vast recesses of the warehouse. "Where are their importation papers? I'd like to get home in time for dinner for a change."

  "I've got them here," the pilot said. "You got anybody in there waiting for a passenger?"

  "Nope." The vet came forward to meet the pilot, who handed him a sheaf of papers without stopping. "Go ahead and uncrate them," he said, already examining the papers. "I'll be right in."

  The pilot stepped through the low doorway ahead of the pallet, ducking his head. Delanna realized that she'd never clear the overhang without getting scraped.

  The younger man, Jay Madog, his dark hair falling rakishly over his forehead, stepped up to the moving pallet. "And who might you be?" he asked, holding his arms out to her.

  Delanna hesitated, looking at the approaching door, then jumped down into his arms. Madog caught her around the waist and pulled her away from the pallet. He held her a moment too long once she was down, his wrists tight against her breasts. Then he let go, reached up to the top of the crate, and got her carryit and travelwallet. When he handed her wallet over, he asked again, "And what's your name, little lady?"

  "You're missing paperwork," the vet cut in. "There aren't any importation papers on this pig."

  "It's on the bottom," the dark-haired man said, then returning to Delanna, added, "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Jay Madog. And this guy over here giving me a hard time with my paperwork is Doc Lyle." His smile broadened, a very pleasant smile, Delanna decided.

  She shook the hand he offered. His grip was firm, but not painful like some of the boys back on Rebe Prime. The boys had always been showing off. Somehow, she didn't think Jay Madog ever needed to show off. "How do you do, Captain Madog," she said in her best school manner.

  "Everybody calls me Jay," he said, leading her through the doorway into the warehouse, her carryit still in hand.

  "Hrrrumph," she heard the veterinarian say, and she turned to find him peering at her over the sheaf of papers. "He's called Mad Dog, and with good reason."

  Jay still didn't let go of her hand. "Don't believe anything about me you haven't seen with your own eyes," he said.

  "I don't," the veterinarian replied, and returned to his papers.

  "And don't you," Jay said to Delanna. She turned to look at him. He was smiling. "Lanzye folk gossip entirely too much, but you can't hold it against them because there just isn't anything else to do."

  "And I can just imagine that you love it," Delanna said as she reached over, trying to take her carryit from him. She didn't have time for the local Lothario, even if his friendliness was refreshing. And she didn't want anyone else holding her carryit and what was in it.

  Jay held on to the carryit and pointed to a bench near a livestock pen. "But what can I do?" he asked with exaggerated innocence.

  "I'll bet you could think of something if you tried," Delanna said, following him over to the bench, "but from what I remember of Keramos, you'd be doing the entire population a disservice."

  Jay laughed. "A woman who understands me. And a beautiful redhead, to boot. Where have you been all my life? And now that I've found you, where are you staying?"

  "I'm not," she said, eyeing the carryit. "I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon."

  Jay glanced over at the pilot, who nodded. "It's true. She's reserved space to go back up to the Scoville tomorrow afternoon. Didn't even bring a trunk down."

  Jay looked crestfallen. "But why would anyone come to Keramos for a day?" he asked.

  "My business should only take a few hours," Delanna explained. "But a better question would be, Why would anyone want to stay on Keramos for anything more than a day?"

  The veterinarian, who had followed them in, harrumphed again.

  "I only came here to see a lawyer," Delanna said, reaching for the carryit again.

  Jay stuck it behind his back. "Well, then, if there's only the one night," he said, leaning close to her, "we've got a duty to make the most of it."

  "Jay!" Doc Lyle said. "Stop pestering the tourists and go check your cargo. Or come help me with these geese."

  "We'll go right to the lake for a picnic, Delanna," Jay continued, ignoring the vet. "And maybe a midnight swim if it's not too cold."

  "Aren't you supposed to be on the midnight train?" Doc Lyle asked.

  "An evening swim," Jay amended. "Or we might build a bonfire and watch the stars."

  Delanna laughed and shook her head. "Sorry," she told him. "I've got to be at the lawyer's first thing in the morning," and this time got the carryit away from him. She slung the strap over her head so he couldn't grab it again, and went over to the vet and the pilot, who were opening the crate full of geese. They were honking in alarm.

  Jay followed her. "Then I'll take you to the hotel."

  "Not till you've checked that cargo," the vet said. "I'm not staying around here all night. And don't you have some software licenses you need signed before the shuttle takes off?"

  "I want to get back, too," the pilot put in.

  "I'll go get the licenses," Jay said. "Till tonight," he whispered to Delanna, winked, and went outside.

  The pilot and vet had the crate open and were herding the honking geese into a pen.

  "Someone was supposed to meet me here," Delanna said.

  "In a minute," the vet told her, grabbing for a goose in the comer of the crate. He caught hold of it, and it honked like it was being slaughtered.

  Delanna backed away from the flapping goose, found a bench near the pen, and sat down. She opened the carryit cautiously, looked inside, and then shut it again, watching the vet and the pilot. The goose had gotten loose again and was fluttering wildly around in the crate.

  "There, there," Doc Lyle said comfortingly, "I won't hurt you." He lunged and grabbed it by one leg. Its wings flapped against his face. He got one wing tucked under his arm, but the long-necked bird was struggling so frantically that it took both his hands to control it. "Give me a hand, here, will you, Wilbur?" he asked the pilot.

  The pilot frowned and shook his head. "I tried to help you with that filly last month, and got kicked right in the—" He caught himself and glanced red-faced at Delanna.

  "This isn't a filly, it's a goose," the vet said, trying to pin the wings against the goose's body. "Come help me."

  "I gotta go sign those licenses of Jay's," the pilot said, and scurried outside.

  The vet looked up at Delanna. "You. Come here and help me."

  "Me?"

  "Yes, you."

  Delanna got up from the bench. She slid the strap of the carryit off and looked around for a place to put it.

  "Now!" the vet said. Delanna tucked the carryit under the bench and came over to the pen. She let herself in and took the frantic goose from the vet, pinning its wing firmly with the crook of one arm while supporting its chest with her hand. She controlled the long neck and head with her other hand. "Hush now, you silly thing," she said to the goose.

  The vet straightened and took a vial out of his pocket. "Looks to me like you've done this before," he said.

  "I have," she said. "Not for a long time, though.

  "The vet brushed aside some feathers on the goose's back, and stuck the vial against the skin.

  I was supposed to meet someone here," Delanna said, trying again. "Mr. Tanner. From Milleflores Lanzye. Do you know him?"

  "These are his geese," he said. He withdrew the vial from the goose feathers. "Hold on. I've got to do something else." He reached in his pocket. "If it's Sonny Tanner you're waiting for, he'll be here. He's gotta pick up these geese."

  "This afternoon?"

  Lyle pulled another vial, larger than the first one, from his pocket. "He'd better. These geese have got to be on that midnight train, too." He pressed the vial against the bird's neck. "Hold her. That's good. Where'd you learn to handle geese?"

  "My mother kept geese." And Delanna had taken a class in animal h
usbandry at school, which her mother had had a fit about. "Don't waste your time on classes like that," she'd written Delanna. "I want you learning to live in a city, not on a farm."

  "Funny," Doc Lyle said, pulling a long tube out of his pocket. "You don't think about been-tos keeping geese."

  "Been-tos?”

  "Off-planeters. Hand me her wing."

  "I'm not exactly a 'been-to,' " Delanna said, readjusting the goose to free its wing. "I was born on Keramos."

  Doc Lyle took hold of the wing and held up the tube. "Vegetable dye," he said, "so I know which ones I've done," and sprayed the wingtip green.

  The goose hadn't struggled at all at the two vaccinations, but the dye sent her wild. She gave a hysterical honk and nearly got away from Delanna.

  "Don't," Delanna said, trying to get a grip on the bird.

  She finally got it quieted. "Put it in here," Doc Lyle said, pulling a clean cage over. She poked it in, cornered another one in the crate and picked it up.

  Doc Lyle was looking at her speculatively. "You're meeting Sonny Tanner . . . your ma kept geese . . . You're Serena Milleflores' girl that went off to school, aren't you?"

  "You knew my mother?" Delanna asked.

  "Back in the old days I knew everyone in the world," he said. "Of course, there was only five hundred of us in the first landing. And I saw her quite a bit a few years back. There was a pair of nesting Royal Mandarins on Milleflores Lanzye then." He smiled for the first time. "Beautiful pair. Beautiful lanzye, Milleflores. I don't think your mother ever liked it much, though."

  That was putting it mildly.

  He pulled out a vial. "So you're here to take over Milleflores, you and Sonny?"

  "I'm here to settle my mother's estate," Delanna said, pulling back the feathers so he could give the vaccination. "And then I'm going on to Carthage."

  "Ooh, the big city," he said, giving the second vaccination. "That's a pity. Keramos has got a lot to offer."

  "I can imagine."

  “You sure are your mother's daughter," he said, splaying out the wing. "Did you ever see a Royal Mandarin while you were at Milleflores?'