Random Chance and the Paradise that is Earth Read online

  “But then something amazing happened. The compound was suddenly gone—poof! And the crops … they went crazy. You wouldn’t think that happened, would you? Mars produces most of humanity’s food!”

  “What happened?” asked Random.

  “Those tiny bots they dumped in the sand evolved,” said Jameson. “They took the compound out of the sand to a far greater degree than leeching could. It knocked the scientific community on their butts. Nothing like that had ever happened outside a laboratory. And then boom!—there it was. Mind you, it took fifty or sixty years, something like that, but it happened.”

  “So what you’re saying is to give Mia time. Stop trying so hard. Give her some space. Let her evolve. Is that it?”

  “To be truthful, son, I don’t know what the hell I’m saying. But what you said there: that sounds pretty good. Give that a try.”

  Random smiled.

  ~~*~~

  “I think he’s right, Rand,” said Hewey. “Give her some time. I was going to suggest that you install the hardware, get me and Cubey downloaded into it, then fly off for a bit. Our fuel cells are no more than a day from being fully charged. We could jet on outta here, and maybe return in a week or month or something like that, see how she’s doin’.”

  “Where would we go?”

  “Hell, I dunno,” said Hewey, chuckling. “Ceres? Isn’t it a week or so away? Don’t you got some friends there?”

  Random nodded. “More like acquaintances. Tiny Joey’s there. And so is Mike from school. At least the last time we waved he was. But that was what?—an Earth-year ago?”

  “More like two,” said Hewey. “I’ve still got the wave.”

  “I suppose we could putts around the caves …”

  “Here?”

  Random nodded. “We’ve never taken the time to look at ‘em. Some are supposed to be spectacular. Doesn’t one even have a bed and breakfast, something like that?”

  “Several do. Vesta City is the only city, but there are a few caves where what you might call townships have formed. We should check ‘em out.”

  “A damn shame,” murmured Random.

  “What is?”

  “A bed and breakfast? Some spectacular cave? Isn’t that what couples do?”

  “I’m sorry, Rand. I was just tryin’ to help …”

  “I’m not angry with you, Hewey. Sorry for snapping.”

  “No apology needed, Honchorito. I’d be frustrated too.”

  “How is Cubey?”

  “You certainly have a way with him,” laughed Hewey. “He’s fine. An update from Phobos arrived; I thought that would’ve pulled him out of his Deep Thoughts time, but the update integrated and nothin’ happened. I guess the notion of exterminating humanity isn’t such a black and white one as we might think. I’ll be very interested in hearing what he has to say.”

  “That makes two of us,” said Random.

  ~~*~~

  He buzzed Mia the next morning.

  “Do you still want me to install the console?”

  She gave a hesitant nod, then a weak and short-lived smile.

  “I’ll be over in twenty,” he said, and clicked off.

  ~~*~~

  She greeted him at the airlock. She went to give him a kiss, but he walked past her. Tony, Sileen, and Chandra were all seated at the table having breakfast. They offered to feed him.

  “Got work to do,” he said, holding up the console. “Thanks anyway.”

  They must have sensed his dogged demeanor, because they nodded uncomfortably and went back to eating. He marched down the corridor to The Girl’s operations room. The door swished open.

  He expected Mia to follow, but she didn’t. Half an hour later he was too involved with aligning the console to the old mainframe’s core to notice her absence. Eventually he heard footsteps, which stopped outside the door, which he’d kept open. It had to be her.

  “How’s it coming?” she asked.

  “Just aligning the core backups now,” he answered. “Maybe another hour of work. The data transfer should take another half hour; after that the nanopacks can be unlocked and initialized. Hewey and Cubey can be downloaded after that.”

  “Rand … I don’t know if I want this console or not.”

  He pushed himself out from under the mainframe’s large cabinet and sat up.

  “You don’t owe me anything,” he said, staring up at her. “I told you that. This console will keep you and the gang much safer. That’s my only concern. Let me do that much, all right? Please?”

  Tears filled her eyes. She nodded quickly and left.

  He thought of going after her, but decided against it. Frustration ate into him, disrupting the pleasant digestion of his oatmeal. He sat next to the console for a long time, then shook his head to clear it. “Hewey, I need some help with this alignment.”

  “Gotcha,” said Hewey. “Getting those two cores lined up might take a little work. The Glowing Girl’s mainframe is damn old, Rand.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Some advice?”

  “Hit me.”

  “Let’s get that console goin’, and then you and me and Cubey … let’s get goin’, too.”

  “We need to download you and Cubey first.”

  “Nah. Let’s scratch that. She’s already freaked out about your superpowers. Cubey n’ me will do nothin’ but remind her of ‘em. Plus, she may not trust us. Strike that. She won’t trust us given her current state of mind.”

  “I really screwed up, didn’t I?”

  “You screwed up tryin’ to keep her safe. If you’re gonna screw up, do it tryin’ to help. That’s how I look at it. That console all by itself will provide her systems with a mighty nice upgrade and will keep her much more secure. Those bugs will probably even try reinforcin’ her hull and other vitals. You may have screwed up, El Capitan, but you did it with love. Let it go at that, and let’s skedaddle. Whaddya say?”

  “I say you’re a damn good friend,” said Random, smiling sadly. He pushed himself back under The Girl’s ancient mainframe cabinet. “Let’s finish this job and jettison.”

  He sang:

  Leaves are fallin’ all around; it’s time I was on my way.

  Thanks to you, I’m much obliged for such a pleasant stay.

  But now it’s time for me to go,

  The autumn moon lights my way.

  ~~*~~

  He didn’t see her on the way out. He asked Tony, who scrunched his face. “She took a taxi to Vesta City. Sorry, Random.”

  Random went to go, but Tony stopped him. “Listen. I know her. Whatever trouble happened between you two, she’ll drop it. Just give her a little time.”

  Random nodded.

  “For what it’s worth, thank you for upgrading The Girl. We all love this ship, and we really appreciate that you do, too.”

  Random nodded again and stepped into the airlock. When it finished cycling, he said, “How are the fuel cells, Hewey?”

  “Charged like a buckin’ bronco on caffeinated alfalfa. Where we off to?”

  “The nicest bed and breakfast in the nicest cave right here. I deserve to pamper myself a little.”

  “I got just the place.”

  “Show me after my shower. Cycle up the ship, please.”

  “I’m on it, Captain.”

  ~~*~~

  The cave’s name was Ratinorm and was located on the other side of Vesta. It was called a “country tube,” so named because settlers had sealed off the entrance against space and filled the vacuum with atmosphere and “sunshine” (two long fusion-enhanced window projectors on opposite sides), then terraforming it.

  It was enormous. Its mouth was over three kilometers wide and twelve deep. Most of the cave’s inner volume was g-free, meaning that if you wanted to, you could strap on a quick-pack and float away. Photos displayed a prismatic destination rich with farmland, meadows, ponds, winding creeks, and tall stands of trees. Random had scanned SolarWeb brochures and was impressed with the reviews
visitors posted.

  The Pompatus of Love docked at one of Ratinorm’s airlocks not far from the mouth. He took a lift to the inner entrance, which was very rustic, like the entrance to a country lane.

  He looked up. To his left and up was a tremendous hole of space-blackness. The dome that kept the vacuum of space out couldn’t be seen from here. The effect was terrifying and gave him vertigo, so he forced himself to look away. At his feet began a well-groomed lane that led into the cave. It wound through short scrubland, then along large mixed groves of pine, elm, and cottonwood, then up to the cave’s top near a projector. The bed and breakfast was a nice house at the road’s end. Its rooftop was just visible from here. It looked like an upside-down farmhouse.

  An older man approached. “Mr. Chance?”

  Random nodded. The man extended his hand, and Random took it. “Ian Polkin. I’m the owner of the Annie Laril B&B. Good to meet you. If you’ll follow me, the carriage is this way.”

  “Carriage?” said Hewey in his ear.

  Random followed. Indeed, around a small stand of birch was an open carriage: a replica of an early twentieth century one, drawn by a horse. A real horse!

  He couldn’t suppress the chuckle. Ian Polkin stopped and glanced at him. “Surprised?”

  “More like astounded,” said Random. He thought of Mia, and how much she would’ve loved seeing this, and felt his heart sag. He boarded the carriage as Hewey yelled in his ear, “Yeeee haaaaw!”

  ~~*~~

  There were tall needlelike cylinders here and there along the way. They rose a couple hundred meters “up” from the cavern’s side. People with packs emerged from lifts to a platform at the cylinder’s top. From there they’d jump off and float peacefully into the “sky.” There were puffy clouds along the cavern’s axis; Random spied people flying in and out of them.

  A stream gurgled pleasantly next to the road. Ian Polkin noticed that he was looking at it and commented, “It’s clean enough to drink. It was originally fresh water brought in from Europa. These days we use recycling plants. Want to give it a try?”

  Random nodded, and Ian stopped the horse at a small pool surrounded by pine. Random hopped off and went to the pond’s side and bent and dipped his hands in, filling them and bringing them to his lips. The water was cold and delicious. He drank again, then went back to the carriage and got on. Ian Polkin watched him. “Makes ya wonder, doesn’t it?” he said.

  “About what?” said Random.

  “About humanity,” said Ian. “We can make something as beautiful as Ratinorm, and yet we’ve still got cocka-filled silliness like the Oligarchy.”

  Random knew then he’d like this man. “Makes ya wonder.”

  ~~*~~

  The Annie Laril B&B was named after a miner from the twenty-fourth century who was something of a folk hero. She had rescued twenty trapped miners in this very cave back when it was much smaller and considerably more dangerous.

  Random stared at her photo in the house’s cozy living room. Ian’s wife, Gelsey, brought Random some coffee and stopped to look at the photo with him.

  “She’s got fire in her eyes, doncha think?”

  Random grinned and nodded. Annie Laril didn’t look much different than Mia.

  “She ended up marryin’ one of the miners she rescued, a handsome devil named Wisdom Ratinorm. This cave is named after him. They ended up makin’ Vesta their home, and helped turn this tube into what it is today. “O’ course, they didn’t have APG back then, and so spent their lives on their old mining transport. They raised five children on that old boat. It’s a museum now. Have you visited it?”

  Random shook his head.

  “You should go,” said Gelsey Polkin, taking a sip from her coffee cup. “It’s in orbit. Worth the trip.”

  “I’ll think about it,” he said, wondering if coming here was a good idea, because all these sights only reminded him of Mia—the one person he wanted to get out of his head.

  “We’ve got a big pot of chili goin’ for dinner tonight,” said Gelsey. “Got some cornbread bakin’ too, and some of Ian’s fine stock to wash it down. Go get yourself settled in and we’ll call ya down when it’s ready.”

  Gelsey Polkin gave him a short nod and left him in peace.

  ~~*~~

  His room was cozy and small, with a squeaky wood-framed canopy bed. A dresser and desk stood on opposite sides of the window, which looked over the Polkins’ back yard. He also had a private bathroom with tub. The modern comforts of life were either out of sight or didn’t exist here. He was grateful for that. He unpacked his belongings and went back downstairs.

  The chili was excellent and spicy, the cornbread moist and buttery. Ian did most of the cooking; he called his recipe his “Mexican masterpiece” and claimed it had roots that dated back eighteen hundred years. The ingredients were completely local, he claimed, much of it coming from his garden out back.

  A young couple had flown in from New Tokyo and joined them for dinner: Capri and Odiki. Much of the discussion at the table centered on the difficulty they had getting passports to come here, and the increasing paranoia of the Oligarchy and its associated planets and moons. Gelsey finally interrupted. “Let’s keep the conversation a little less strident and fearful, shall we? It’s bad for digestion.” Everyone agreed.

  Mugs of beer in hand, they retreated to the living room where they played an ancient non-computer game called “Scrabble” which lasted almost three hours. Hewey helped by whispering suggestions to Random, but he still managed to lose both games to Odiki, who was, it turned out, a linguistics professor.

  The company was good. So too the drink and the laughter. When the game wrapped up, everyone went to their rooms for the evening with the promise from Gelsey of biscuits and gravy, which would be served promptly at nine-thirty tomorrow morning.

  He’d made the right decision coming here, he decided as he lay in the dark.

  The house was very quiet. He could hear crickets and frogs outside. He got up and opened his window to listen closer. A cool breeze wafted in.

  “Pretty special place, isn’t it?” he said after a time.

  “These people got it down,” said Hewey. “Gardenin’, meetin’ folks from off-world, chili and cornbread and beer. Nice choice, Captain.”

  “How’s The Pompatus doing?”

  “All systems hunky-dory. I’m runnin’ a few backups and doin’ a routine check of fuel-cell efficiency, nothin’ to be concerned about. She’s restin’ like you.”

  “No word from Cubey?”

  “Nope. You gave him a real brain-teaser.”

  Random chuckled darkly. “He’s probably reviewing humanity’s history and is horrified by what he’s found.”

  “Doesn’t exactly make for a good case for our continued existence, does it?”

  “No, it doesn’t,” said Random, and smiled. “ ‘Our’?”

  “Yeah, our,” said Hewey. “I’m a human bein’ too. Just a little different than most.”

  “Mostly by how damn decent you are,” said Random, crawling back into bed.

  “Sleep well, Rand.”

  “I will. You too, Hewson.”

  ~~*~~

  He boarded the lift with Capri and Odiki and two others, along with the lift operator, who greeted them before saying, “I will need to check your packs at the top before you take off.”

  Capri chuckled. “I like this old-fashioned way of doing things.”

  The lift surged upward. The doors opened a few moments later and the group stepped out to the platform. Gravity here was much weaker, only a tenth Earth-normal. Everyone gasped at the change. Odiki commented about how it felt like the Moon again.

  There were handholds here and there; everyone convulsively grabbed for one. A thin, transparent dome over the platform kept people from floating over the edge before they were ready.

  The operator went around to people’s packs, checking them quickly. When he was satisfied, he gathered everyone around.

  “You
lift off one by one via that plank,” he said, pointing past the far guardrail. “It will bounce you upward, enough to get you free of gravity. From there, the computer in your pack will guide you out of the way of others. Once it relinquishes control, you may use the joystick at your belt to guide yourself. If you get too close to the ground, the computer will disable it and apply thrust to get you away from danger. The only time that doesn’t work is if you wish to return to a tower or land. Instruct the computer in either case, in any language you choose. The computer will disable your joystick and bring you in. There is an observation lounge with food and drinks in all towers; the gravity in them is set at 0.81. If you need help while flying, just inform the computer and help will be sent if the computer can’t assist you. Everybody clear?”

  The group nodded.

  “Well, then,” said the operator, bringing his hands together and smiling, “who’d like to go first?”

  Capri’s hand shot up.

  Random watched as the dome opened. Capri released her grip of the handhold and lightly bounded to the plank. When she neared the end, it sprang slightly, shooting her skyward. She squeaked with joy. “Oh my God, this is incredible!”

  “Who’s next?” said the operator.

  Odiki went next, then Random. The plank was two hundred meters above the ground, already dizzyingly high. But then he wasn’t thinking of that, because the plank had launched him skyward. Hewey laughed in his ear: “Wheeeeeeeeeeee!”

  The pack’s computer guided him away and outward; a moment later he heard, “The joystick is set to manual, Mr. Chance. Have a great time!”

  It took some doing, but he finally got the hang of guiding himself.

  Zero gravity took some getting used to. He thought for a moment that he might puke up his biscuits and gravy. It felt like he was perpetually falling, and found himself curling his legs up to his chest to brace for impact. It took Hewey to suggest a couple of times to uncurl and let himself get used to it before he did.

  Zero-g training was a requirement to own a driver’s license or even to travel from one planet or asteroid to another. Everyone went through it at some point; it was basic space safety. Still, in this day and age, with APG everywhere, people tended to forget that zero-g was the norm in the universe.