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Chapter 18
By AC
In his office onboard the "Izumi", Raoul watched the shuttle as it returned to its bay. He had already sent his report to the Compact Capital Habitat at Lalande, and had only to wait for the shuttle before going homeward.
Just as well. The world and its colony was depressing to him.
He turned to see Tamiko enter, a perplexed look on her face. "Yes?"
"Sir? I was just doing an inventory; seeing as the rangers were no longer in use and I hate to be idle..."
Raoul nodded. "Oh? I trust everything is in its proper spot?" he said with a smile.
"No its not. A first-aid unit is missing."
He frowned. Tamiko continued, "There's more. Someone has used the ship's fabricator to produce a couple of items just before the shuttle left to pick up the rangers. A pocket stunner and a protective suit. And there's been a data-dump from the historical and technology libraries."
Raoul's frown deepened. What was going on...? In a flash, he remembered Paula's parting comments from the ship's council: /You irresponsible cretins.../
"Izumi," he said to the ship's computer, "Where is biologist Paula ter Maarden?"
"Biologist ter Maarden left aboard Shuttle Two for the planet's surface."
Raoul and Tamiko exchanged shocked glances. "Why didn't you stop her?" he demanded of the ship.
"My security protocols suffered a virus and were in diagnostic at the time. There was no way I could have stopped her without using lethal means; I am sorry."
"Not your fault, Izumi." Raoul said, now in a cold sweat. /Paula, are you out of your mind?!/
When she reached the top of the hill, Paula stopped and looked at the urban sprawl that was the Central District.
Paula had grown up in the archology of Nova Regina on the world of Tanith. A planet colonized in humanity's Second Star Era, Tanith had never seen the haphazard climb to civilization that Old Earth and so many of the lost colonies had experienced. Nanites and robots had built Nova Regina whole, and quantum-energy taps provided plentiful energy for its several million inhabitants. And in a society where matter could be shaped at the atomic level, that meant wealth for all, with none of the environmental damaged that marked the now-obsolete "city".
Nova Regina was the textbook example of the civilized settlement. Clean, functioning like a perfect organism, in symbiosis with its human inhabitants. A far cry from the almost cancerous mess she now saw.
Movement at the corner of her eye caused Paula to stop her reverie. She turned, surprised to see a native animal watching the District as well. As she stared, it turned and looked at her.
This particular animal Paula had seen before, when she had explored this world from orbit using the rangers. This particular animal, six-limbed, with two large eyes best suited for nocturnal vision was what Paula would have classified as a herbivorous lizard, with barely the intelligence of a mouse.
And yet...
And yet there was an intelligence, maybe even a /consciousness/ behind the animal's gaze. Paula felt as if she was being evaluated by the animal, but for what purpose she could not guess.
There was something else in the gaze. Where before there was a cold intelligence, it was now joined by an emotive quality. If she had to put a name to the animal's stare, /sadness/ might have fit.
Paula shook herself. If the animal was sad it had a right to be. Unless something changed -- unless /she/ intervened -- that animal would not have any children.
But, as she and the ranger started toward the city, she glanced over her shoulder from time to time. The animal was still there, it's gaze still as intense as before.
Call it a gut feeling, but Paula could not shake the notion that there was more to this world's ecology than she knew.
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