Firestorm

Prolog: Red Caps at Dawn

      Leda waited impatiently as the last images were processed.   Done and done in, the tired techs finally collapsed into soft chairs to view the results of their hard work.

      On the left screen a dirigible hovered above a forest canopy, first light of dawn reflecting off its silvered shell.   The picture stopped while techs adjusted the image.   You could see them now below the boat, Red Caps hanging frozen from a dozen ropes.   Then the downward repels continued in eerie silence.   Leda listened for the scream of rope sliding through smoking gloves and the favored shouts of these men.   She heard only the hacking cough of a technician nearby.   As the last Red Cap hit the ground, the dirigible lifted fully into the light, climbing second by second upwards, again all in silence.

      On the right a less ordered scene itself played.   West of their home, the villagers piled brush and tree limbs unto several high piles.   Then the torches appeared in villager hands, flaming sticks of yellow heat.   Leda wondered, How do satellites see through treetops anyways?   Earth science is still beyond us.

      These scenes were the collaborative evidence the Red Caps demanded of her.   With her part done she could leave.   Then the right image broadened to show flames climbing to the treetops and smoke growing dense.   The wind was already shifting and the fire was spreading.   She knew what was coming and wanted to leave, but her hands clenched tight the arms of her chair.

      The left screen changed to a village view.   The smoke of cook fires beginning to merge with the smoke of a burning forest.   The right screen, still on the fire, pulled back to view the villagers fleeing the flames.   There was no sight of the advancing Red Caps.   As the scenes changed for the worse Leda gripped the chair arms tighter.

      She knew history a half year old couldn't be changed, still she asked, Why did it have to happen?

Touchdown Council Chambers

      Good morning, people.   For those of you who don't know me, I'm Councilor Juarez and I chaired the commission reporting to you today.   Introductions complete, I give you the Jerusalem Firestorm report.   Thank you for making your way through our first snow storm this year.   Touchdown winters are not kind.   Well, ah, it looks like everyone has a copy of the report, so let's get started.   I thought we would just hit the main points and if we have time, open the meeting to questions.

Jerusalem Woodlands

      A tall femme, taller than most, Leda's height rested in muscled legs.   An active life had kept her strong and vigorous and it also had taken its toll.   A host of minor scars told of healed wounds, a slight limp spoke to a broken leg and pulled tendons left her favoring one arm.   Life in the outback was not easy on settlers and explorers.

      And there were other changes, too.   Fifty some years had grayed her hair, filled out her face, made her waist less trim and padded her buttocks; and her breasts, well they had lost the youthful firmness she once cherished.   In her late thirties and early forties Leda had fought back with more and more exercise.   She even considered regeneration once, but decided she could not afford the time away from her busy life.

      Now she didn't try to do everything herself.   More and more she had come around to using the still young and strong about her to do work which was time consuming, physically hard or mentally tedious.   Between the Academy and the DiSeppe, she had a steady flow of these young apprentices, all bright and eager, and all willing to do for her in order to learn from her.   Even Sanctuary had gotten into the act by giving her Bear.

      But then Leda always trusted the male reaction more than her mirror image.   She was satisfied men still took double takes as she passed and vied to dance with her at Touchdown dinners.   She didn't kid herself about these men and her ties to the Pascal family.   From DiSeppe to the Council, Auroran power was deeply rooted in politics of the flesh.   Knowing all this, she still partook of the occasional bed dance.   What harm was there in the gratification of both senses and ego?

Touchdown Council Chambers

      The Jerusalem Firestorm, now a quarter year past, is a truly sorry event in Auroran history, one we wish never to repeat.   You should have all received a copy of our report.   The report is actually incomplete as I will explain later.   But we felt it was important to get this report out now.   First because it is unfair to the Red Caps not to clear their good name as soon as possible.   Secondly because the rumors flooding out of Captain's conference happening down the hall.   With this report you DiSeppe envoys know what we know.

Ming's Camp

      A slim girl somewhat gaunt in appearance and needing of bath, she lay concealed behind the stump.   There were signs of beauty beneath the smudged on dirt.   Long dark hair and high fine bones and eyes so blue they disappeared into her face.   One could also see the signs of a lost girlhood - signs like a nose twice broken and a gently rounded stomach on an otherwise thin frame.

      Suppressing her sobs, the girl peered worriedly over the tree stump.   Someone was coming, walking unerringly toward her, toward her place of refuge.   It was too late to flee.   Too late.   "Why do you come after all this time.   Leave me alone," she whispered.   "Why won't you leave me alone!"   Having no more tears to give she curled into a tight ball as sobs silently racked her body.

      A touch to her shoulder made her curl tighter, cringing, waiting.   A touch again, a gentle stroke, a caress.   Gentle words and soft caresses.

      "It's okay, Ming.   I'm here to help.   I won't hurt you.   I want to help you.   There is no one here but you and me.   It's okay.   You know me.   Leda.   I've been to your village.   You know me."

      The minutes went by, unknown, unknowing to Ming.   Tense muscles began to relax, the tears slowed, and she slipped into the world of sleep.

      Leda stood up slowly.   She had been kneeling much too long in this awkward pose.   Leaning into a tree she methodically stretched one muscle set after another.   She talked as she worked, "Well Leda, it looks like you've got yourself in deep again.   Last time I take a comcon call on my way home.   'Sure I can swing through Jerusalem, no problem.'   Sharks, no way this girl was lost.   I'd say she's hiding from something terrible.   The question is what?"

      Leda walked around inspecting Ming's camp.   Inspecting items and replacing them as she found them.   From her pack she extracted a medkit.   The exam was short.

      "So what have you gotten yourself into this time, Leda?   Dirty little secrets.   All those dirty little secrets.   But why do they have to hurt children, hurt children like Ming.   Well maybe I'm wrong; maybe she sought pregnancy.   Sharks and double sharks, I hope I'm wrong.   But if I'm right, I'd hate to deliver this girl back into the hands of some bottom-feeding predator.   No use heating up the comcon.   Those gutless polits back in Touchdown won't hesitate to say 'take her back.'   You've got to decide this one for yourself Leda.   Maybe call Fra Madera.   Oh sharks, do it be done with it.   Make a decision."

      Leda's eyes closed, her breathing slowed and tension drained from her face.   A few quiet minutes later the woodland sounds began to steal back toward the clearing.

Cup Of Tai

      Leda watched Ming toss and turn in troubled sleep for some time.   Reaching down she stroked the girl's hair.   "Your dreams are not pleasant, are they little one?"   She pulled the coverlet up about Ming's shoulders.   "Sleep deep and dream well."

      Using a penlight she paged through the medkit screens.   Hum, should I or shouldn't I?   Everything here is short term and the nearest autodoc is a thousand kilometers away.   Maybe we should try a natural sleep this night, then again I have business elsewhere to attend. Oh well, life is full of compromises.

      Leda sat waiting till the drugs took effect before she strolled out of camp.   She was quite confident the girl would sleep till dawn.   About a half-klick down slope she stopped, listened to quiet woods and sighed softly.   She was too tired to play hide and seek tonight.   "Bear, it's Leda.   I've come for my Tai.   Where are you?"

      From behind a fallen tree nearby a dim light flickered into existence.   "I be here," a gruff voice answered back.   Bear like his namesake the cave bear looked to be all chest, torso and shoulders to which someone attached equally well muscled arms and legs.   He was as he appeared, a massive man with abundant power, stamina and incredible strength.   But unlike his lumbering namesake he had surprising speed and agility.

      Beside him a pot of Tai steamed over a smokeless fire and two mugs sat waiting upon the ground.   One hand stirred the fire and the other hovered ready over a meter long blade.   Few on Aurora could wield a sword as well as Bear.   Even fewer could beat him.   None used a sword as a meter long extension the way Bear did.

      Many stories existed about how Bear earned his name.   There were stories of changelings and feral children, even stories a biolab gone wrong.   The most common tale told a duel between a man and a real bear.   Leda liked that story, Bear was certainly ferocious enough to have accomplished such a feat and the claw marks from face to chest certainly flavored the story.   Whatever the truth, Bear had fully embraced his name.   If he ever had another name, no one knew it.   Bear was a man with no remembered past.

      Bear, the man, brightened the lamp another notch and began speaking with his hands.   "I be right, girl hurt?"

      Leda spoke with both hands and voice.   She knew words confused him, particularly when the words spoken and the words signed differed.   She had learned hand talk for Bear, but wouldn't give up talking.   If she missed anything out here in the wood, it was someone to talk with.   Bear certainly wasn't a sparkling conversationalist, with or without his hands.

      "May the sharks eat your tough liver, Bear.   I fear you're right.   I examined the girl.   No major marks or broken bones, but there is a look of repeated injuries.   Not a pretty picture.   And she is with child.   Hardly a femme and pregnant already.   Yes, Bear, they hurt her.   People can be so appalling."

      Bear signed back, "What be now?"

      "Well Ming and I will stay here awhile.   Maybe she will be able to unburden her soul on me, maybe not.   But whether she chooses to talk or not, I will have to gain her trust before we take her east to Sanctuary."

      "Go now!"

      "No, Bear.   We can't go back to Sanctuary now.   I know I promised you we'd return when we finished that archipelago research, but this is something I have to do and I need your help doing it."

      "Go NOW!"

      "No, Bear.   There is nothing I would enjoy more than ride a tram ride up the mountain, but it isn't going to happen.   We agreed to look into this Jerusalem situation and it's too late to turn back."

      You.   Not Bear."

      "Yes, I agreed to look into this, not you.   But you know what Fra Madera will say if you return home without me."

      "No good."

      Leda wished she could pout back a reply the way Bear did, but it didn't work for her.   "I agree, it's not fair.   But I need you here.   End of discussion."   On the other hand raising her voice with pretend anger worked very well with Bear.   He'd do almost anything to avoid her anger.

      "We no go, girl no go?"

      "Ming, Bear.   The girl's name is Ming.   Please use her name.   Do it for me.   Say it."

      "Ming ... Ming," he experimented with the sound, inventing a sign. Leda watched him put his new sign into use.   "Ming no go home?"

      "No, Ming no go home.   The villagers already think she is dead.   We'll just leave her that way, at least for the moment."

      "See no body."

      "Good point.   Here, this is her dress.   Blood it for me and take it down to the village.   Let them think Ming is dead and buried."

      "No good lies.   No want Leda alone.

      "No one is good at lies, Bear.   Just hand them the dress and leave.   Say nothing.   Just leave.   And as to leaving me alone.   Scout the area before you leave, satisfy yourself that we will be safe while you're gone.   If you leave with the dawn you can have my Tai heating here this time tomorrow night.   Okay?"

      "Yes, Leda.   Bear go.   Bear do."

      Leda felt a momentary pang of guilt commanding Bear in this fashion.   It wasn't like he had a choice in the matter.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      First let's tackle the blame issue.   The New David's received improper clearance for the Jerusalem settlement.   We're not ready to name names, but the problem grew out of the new regulatory agencies created to streamline the government.   Unfortunately the Council did not create review policies for these agencies and a few individuals ran wild.   Though it is tempting to lay all the blame on these few, there is more than enough blame to be shared by all, including the Council. Enough said on this topic, let's move on.

      Second, the cult issue.   I want you to understand the Council is not on a cult witch-hunt or conspiring against any religion or religious group.   One of the more controversial aspects of Council governing has been our attempt to balance the rights of the individual against the needs of society.   When I speak of individual rights, I include the right to all personal beliefs including religion.   Need I remind you, we've come a long way in the last two hundred years.   When we first landed the Council was a military triad ruling through strict military discipline.   Today we're almost a republic with a Council thirty strong.   I don't need to tell you five of these Councilors are of DiSeppe origin.   They are a welcome addition to this once all male bastion.

      What I'm trying to say is the government is redefining itself.   I see change.   I see a near future where the Militia Council and DiSeppe Forum come together as one governing body.   Farther away I see a thousand outback cities and a hundred religions wanting the same autonomy the DiSeppe once demanded.   But with change comes turmoil and with turmoil means unease.   Change is never easy.

Getting Acquainted

      Leda was on about her tenth cup of Tai when the sun rose.   Vat brews like Tai were suppose to be free of side effects, but she knew better.   She enjoyed the taste of hot Tai too much to consider changing an old habit.   Food would settle her stomach down.

      The girl Ming was likewise sipping a cup of Tai.   She cradled the steaming cup in both hands as Leda worked on the fire.   Ming broke the silence, "How'd you find me?"

      "It's what I do, child.   I find people, things and ways."

      "But you're the census taker."   Ming sounded truly puzzled.

      "Well sometimes I am.   It's one the many faces I put on."

      "Huh?"

      "It's like this, Ming.   I go to a lot of different places, meet different people, do different things and carry different titles.   Tell me, do you have a girl friend?"

      Ming tossed the coverlet aside.   Even in this dense shade there was the makings of another hot day coming.   Leda realized the girl was avoiding the question with a stall.   Ming was testing her.

      "Yeah, kind'a," she finally answered.

      "Well do you do the same things with your friend as you do with your mother?"

      "Don't be silly."

      "So you do friend things and daughter things, depending on who you are with.   Is that right?"

      "Yeah, I guess."

      Well it's the same for me.   Everywhere I go people measure me for what I do and name me accordingly.   Since I go a lot of places I have a lot of names."

      "But you're the census taker, right?"

      "Yes, I take the census, but only because I'm the closest thing to a militia court your village has.   Someone has to record marriages, births, deaths and contracts; and someone has to hold court.   I take the census because someone has to, not because I enjoy the job.   Right now though I am not a census taker.   I am nothing but a tired guide tracking down a lost little girl.   At least I thought I was tracking down a lost girl.   Turns out your not so little and not so lost, are you?"

      "Who told you?"   The defensive posture and tone returned full force.

      "No one, child.   I figured it out.   The villagers told me you disappeared some weeks back, long enough for them to give up hunting.   I expected to find a dead girl in a ravine or a river bottom.   Instead I find this girl hiding only kilometers from the village.   Not only is she alive, but she has erected a shelter, found food and water, and borrowed tools from her village."

      "You're taking me home!"   Ming voice bordered on hysteria.

      "No, not necessarily.   Can you tell me about it?"

      "About what?"   She began edging away from Leda, readying herself for flight.

      "Why I shouldn't take you back?   Why you are hiding out here in the woods?"

      "I like the woods.   Something wrong with that?"   It was less a question and more a hostile challenge snapped out in quick crisp words.

      "Okay by me.   I like living in the woods, too.   Mind if I stay awhile too?"

      "Why should I?"   Ming was back to mumbling into her hand.

      "Well, I can show you: how to set up a better shelter; how to trap food; what herbs spice up a stew; what plants you eat to stay healthy.   In turn maybe you could: teach me some new songs or tell me a new story."

      The hand dropped as she looked Leda over, "You can do all those things?"

      "Those and more, Ming.   As I said before, it's what I do.   Can you tell stories or sing?"

      "Yes."   Her voice was stronger, less hesitant.

      "Well, I guess maybe I'll stay then.   Do you think I should stay?"

      "I guess so.   You won't tell them I'm here, will you?"

      "No, Ming.   I won't tell them.   I promise."

      "But how did you find me?   I was so careful."

      "I had some help."

      "Who?"

      "Well, there were these black birds, they chattered about someone hiding under the trees."

      "But they chatter about everything."

      "Well if you don't believe the black birds told me then you certainly won't believe I told a big hulking cave bear to find you."

      "You don't need me to tell stories.   You already know a bunch."

      "Ah, there are enough stories, little one.   I always like a new story, or even an old one told a new way.   So tell me one your favorite stories, entertain me while I unpack."

      "Um, ah.   When the prophet came upon the chosen land he . . .."

Woodlore

      The next several days Leda kept Ming busy.   She showed Ming how to string a tarp, bank a fire, read the weather, set traps and a hundred other things.   A bright girl, Ming quickly grasped theories, but suffered the usual novice awkwardness.   Leda, who had seen countless trainees before Ming, took it all in stride, praising Ming no matter how disastrous the results might be.

      "Okay, once again.   Talk your way through the identification of this plant."

      "Let's see.   It has three long narrow leaves attached at the base with parallel veining."

      "And when they're attached at the base, what do we call them?"

      "Ah, base, ah, um, basal, that's it.   Basal for base."

      "Very good, continue."

      "Stem ten to twenty-five centimeters, feels hairy, kind'a scratchy.   Flowers are a white flat clump, um, a penumbra.   Oh darn, this is one of the plants you told me not to touch.   You called it Sticky Weed."

      "Good ID job.   I suggest you go wash your hands with hot water before you rub the irritant into your skin.   If you hurry you just might beat the itch."

      Leda chuckled to herself, "Well at least she'll remember Sticky Weed from now on.   Nothing like a little harmless scratching to imprint a memory.   Caution is not an easy lesson for one so young to learn."

      Then a little louder she said, "Follow the girl.   She's the one you should protect."

      There was a momentary rustling of leaves at the forest edge, then quiet.

Bear

      Bear stood at the woodland edge watching the girl moving about the camp.   He didn't like this hiding.   Like the stalking of predators he stayed aware, seeing and feeling everything.   So much awareness, too much awareness.   Soft jersey feeling safe.   Why must he hide?   Not fair.   Girl get Leda, not he, not Bear.

      The dappled sunlight struck his eyes hard.   A gentle breeze played through his hair, yanking on the hair and whistling in his ears.   Back to Sanctuary go.   Back to my room of four walls white.   No light, no noise, no wind.   Safe, safe, safe.

      Bear turned away from the camp and his rambling gait started down slope.   He pulled his fur jersey tight - fur turned inwards to be soft and safe.   He'd go, not hide to protect.   Make the Tai and wait.   Leda come, bring good feelings of her nearby.   Better feelings, better feelings than this.   To make Tai.   To wait.   Yes this he would do.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      Several people have asked why did we sent in Leda Pascal instead of Red Caps.   The answer is we had no reason to suspect anything was wrong with the New David's settlement.   So saying, why would we send in the Red Caps?   Census taking is done by the ranking militia member which in this case was this Lt. Pascal.   Truth is we would never have prevailed upon the lieutenant if we had known how potentially dangerous this group was.   I suspect the presence of the sword wielding Bear kept Leda safe.

      As for the girl Ming, she is currently in residence at Sanctuary.   Doing quite well as I understand.   We expect her to stay at the monastery for some time to come.   But let's make it perfectly clear that Lt. Pascal did not kidnap the girl Ming from the Jerusalem settlement.   The girl was a run-away.   The government has no policy of kidnapping cult members nor do we have an obligation to return run-aways.   Yes I've heard the stories of youths being romanced into government service.   I also know of youths released for early return to their DiSeppe families.   I know because I've put my signature to some of these requests.

      Leda acted on her own best judgment when she decided not to return the girl to her family.   Our failure to discuss this issue in greater detail is not an attempt to hide the truth, but rather our attempt to protect the girl Ming.   This is one time where I am in complete agreement with the Sanctuary Brethren.   The girl Ming desires a life free of public scrutiny.   Take note, it may be another decade before the Brethren and I agree again, on anything.

Nightmare

      Ming thrashed about in her sleep.   Her head jerked from side to side, her arms struggling to free themselves from the sleep bag.   It was the dream again, the nightmare that haunted so many of her nights.   The dream started innocently enough with the harvest meal.   Mid-day and her family and village had gathered in the square to celebrate.   The sun beat down through the leaves of the tall trees.   Faces swung past Ming as the people moved through her dream.   Faster and faster they sped past her, the images flickering and finally jumping as the dream speeded up.   Sounds of flute and lyre danced upon the air, sometimes melodic, sometimes jarring.

      The tables, the large long tables.   The tables were covered with food and drink, platters and casks, bowls and pitchers.   The corn had done well and vineyards better.   There would be no hunger this winter.   There was joy and gladness in the village.   The music and dancing went on and on, the scene becoming a dizzy blur of moving bodies.   The sun beat down through the trees, burning off the clouds, burning off the leaves, burning its way into Ming's brain.   She was burning up, thirst overwhelming her.   She ran stumbling to the wine casks, only to be pushed brutally aside.   Everyone was crowding together in fight for the spigots.   Ming fell to the ground and they stepped on her again and again.   Her own father kicked her as he clawed savagely through the mob.   She tried to cry out, but the words stuck to throat, coming out as unintelligible croaks.

      She knew the madness would overtake her and trap her again in a lifeless body.   She edged her way from the village seeking a quiet place to hide from the madness.   The madness of the villagers and the madness of her own.   But this was not to be for the villagers were now afire with drink, their faces bright red with the burning.   Burning.   Burning.   She watched from the shrubs where she hid, cringing each time the mob surged past.   Then as before, there was nothing.

      Ming awoke suddenly from the dream, sitting up she gasped for air, disoriented and fearful.   A voice came to her out of the dark.   "Are you okay, Ming?"

      Slowly the fears dwindled, but the disquiet remained.   "I . . . I'm okay, Leda.   Just a dream.   I'm okay now."

      Leda said more, but Ming didn't hear.   The memories were still hard upon her.   She remembered the next day when she awoke in the village square, surrounded by the dead, the injured and the unconscious.   She limped awkwardly to the river, tore off her tattered dress, and dove into the water.   She wanted to wash her body and mind clean of the night, but the bruises would not wash away.   Someone had used her frozen body.   Her worse fear had come true and she was angry.   Her mother and the prophet had both promised to protect her from wrong.   Where were they when she needed them most?   The anger would not wash away.

      As the villagers buried their dead Ming stole out of the village with a heavy satchel and troubled heart, determined never to return again and never to trust anyone again.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      This next item for discussion is still in the preliminary stages of investigation.   I caution you from over reacting.   I only bring it up today to show we consider this item as important as any other fact yielded by this investigation.   Cautionary note aside, what we have found is evidence in our food chain of a previously unsuspected neurotoxin.   This evidence was gleamed from a bioassay taken from the girl Ming.   The Ademn biolabs have put a great deal of effort into characterizing this compound.   The chemical structure, they say, is suggestive of a hallucinogen.   Given they are working with trace quantities, they are as yet limited to the range of studies they can perform.   Our initial interpretation of this anomaly was that the girl acquired the drug from some native plant she ingested while living alone in the woods.   However computer analysis has suggested a more insidious source for this compound.   We now think our own biolabs coded up a batch of seed corn containing this toxin.   We find this very disturbing.

Lost Minutes

      Ming stared at the camp.   She felt the memory void and dulled feeling typical of an attack.   It must have been short given Leda was still seated across the way, but whether it had been the blink of the eyes or several minutes long, Ming could not tell.   There was no time sense during attacks.   It was like losing pieces of your life, minute by minute.   Even the minutes leading into the attack were lost to her.   Small attacks like this one weren't bad.   Frozen in place she could generally figure out her last activity by what she had in hand or the pose she held.   The small attacks she could hide from people.   Since she had no memory of them it was easy to pretend they never happened.

      But why?   Weeks had past since her last remembered attack.   She was beginning to believe she had escaped more than just the village.   The Prophet said dream walking, as he called it, was a gift, a gift of the corn ceremony.   Not since she left the village had she consumed the corn, nor would she ever again.   Not ever.

      Ming never understood the attacks.   Other than the corn ceremonies, there was no pattern.   It wasn't pace.   They could occur during tranquil moments just as easily as hurried events.   It wasn't mood.   One had happened during argument, another during evening meditations.

      The Prophet said it was a gift from the gods honoring her with a view to the beyond, but Ming had decided she wanted neither the honor nor the gift.   What she wanted most was to be normal.   Already a year fertile and only a few had approached her and none suggested a twirl flirt, not after she went rigid in a young man's arms by the river's edge.

      Did they think her visions were as contagious as Redfern's plague?   Did they think intimacy might make lesser men of them?   No man's going to build me a birthing hut or bless me with children.   I'm destined to be one of those who only get to care for others' children.

      If being the village seer made her unwanted, then she wanted nothing to do with it.   She would not be seer and would not ingest the corn.   She frankly cared nothing of what the Prophet Ab'Dian said of obligations to the village.   She wanted a life of her own.   And what was the point?   She never remembered viewing heaven during an attack.   She remembered nothing at all.   How could she talk to the gods if she couldn't remember what to tell them?

      Right now there was a stack of dirty cookware before her and a cleaning rag in hand.   She continued her chore work, hoping Leda had not noticed the lapse in time, hoping there would be no more attacks.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      Sit down, people!   I will not have anyone rushing out to make ill-formed reports to the DiSeppe families concerning biolab food production.   If you do not care to consider your responsibilities in this matter, consider this.   Preliminary evidence from the labs suggests the toxin was contained in the kernel substrate, not the DNA.   This means the fruit of these plants is quite safe to eat.   You would have to eat the seed corn for this toxin to get into your system.   This would suggest the Jerusalem settlement was eating their seed stock.   It doesn't make sense they should have eaten this expensive food source, but there it is.   Something was very seriously wrong with the management of Jerusalem.

Helping Hands

      Leda put pride into her campfire cooking.   Food, she concluded, was crucial to wilderness survival.   The right food in the right quantities kept your team healthy and energetic and there was no reason to limit yourself to trail rations.   A spice kit and a creative flair could make eating an adventure.   It could even entertain.   She once kept up morale of a snow bound expedition through cooking competitions.   Waiting out a life-threatening blizzard was bad enough, trapped in a small shelter with several others was worse.   Cooking kept their minds focused on something besides storm and each other, made the food palatable, and ate away the hours.

      "What'd you want to do with these, Leda?"

      "Oh, just chop them up nice and fine, then sprinkle a hand or two atop the slices of nerat.   The leaves give the meat zing."

      "How come we eat so much meat, Leda?"

      "Why do you ask?"

      "Well, back home we ate only what we raised ourselves: corn, tatoes, vegetes, milk, eggs, cheese and all those things.   Here we eat fish and nerat, a few forest greens, and some of regular food from your pack.   Why the difference?"

      "Ah, yes, the founder's diet."

      "Founder's diet?"

      "Oh it's a bit of history.   When the first settlers came to Aurora they knew nothing about the ecology.   Since they couldn't go back to Earth if things went bad, they assumed the worse and ate only the Earth stock food they grew or produced, things like corn, tatoes, vegetes, milk, eggs and cheese.   Well it turns out the food situation was not as bad as they feared.   What with the Transformation we now eat native plants and animals with little danger, but we still need Earth foods to get a balanced diet.   We do this well on native foods only due to the skill of the medicos who genetically transformed us some eighty years back.

      "Your village is basically eating the same diet that the first settlers ate, the founder's diet.   It is good diet, no doubt about that.   It will keep you healthy and minimizes the village ecological impact to a few Earth crop plantings.   There are many people, including your Ab'Dian who firmly believe the founder's diet is the ... um, ah ... right diet.   Me?   Well frankly I enjoy diversity and variety.   I have no problem, religious or otherwise, with eating native foods.   Besides by living off the land I don't have to pack all my food in."

      "The reason we eat so much meat is it easier to trap small game like nerats than spend the day foraging for tubers and greens.   I'm sure you've noticed how few plants grow on the forest floor.   Most of the plant food is way up there in the treetops where the sun shines.   Besides, given the rate at which nerats reproduce, we could trap out twenty a day for a year and there still would be a hundred nerats scuttling about."

      Ming looked doubtful, "I guess I understand.   But why do you measure everything in hand fulls?"

      "My, we are full of questions tonight, aren't we?"

      "Well you never seem run out of answers?"

      "I'll ignore that so I can answer your question about hand fulls.   Measuring food with your hands is another bit of Aurora history.   It seems there was a shortage of measuring cups when the first settlers landed.   All the cups were needed by the scientists in the laboratories.   So the cooks got in the practice of just using their hands to measure out everything.   When the cooks got real busy, too busy to dry their hands between ingredients, other people helped out by using their hands for measuring.   This, by the by, is where the expression 'Let's give the cook a hand.' originated."

      "Oh Leda, you're just funning me again."

      "You mean you don't believe nerats reproduce so fast?"

      "No, not the nerats.   That story about hand measuring is just plain silly."

Field Work

      Ming trudged tiredly behind Leda climbing a series of hills, never ending and always higher.   She hoped they would stop before reaching the snow-capped mountains of Leda's stories.   She wondered if Leda would ever find a wood patch she'd like.   From the description Ming was sure they passed it a dozen times already.   And just when she was ready to collapse, Leda stopped in a fire blasted meadow open to the sky.

      Using a weighted throwing rope, Leda ascended a tree adjacent to the clearing where limbs grew closer to the ground.   Ming marveled at how fast Leda moved up till it was her turn to follow.   The climber, a mechanical device, pulled her up a thin rope at a dizzying speed.   Pitch after pitch they moved up the tree till they reached the foliage line.   Here the ascent slowed as Leda cut and climbed her way up.   Between the rapid ascents and the rain of cut foliage, Ming wondered why she agreed to this adventure.

      Atop Ming found a rainbow carpet of leaves and flowers reaching off the horizon.   She now knew why she had come - the flowers, they were wonderful.   Leda meanwhile busied herself assembling a silvered dish which she pointed to the horizon.   Ming couldn't understand how Leda could ignore such beauty.

      "Wha'ya doing, Leda?"

      "Looking for a satellite.   Somewhere on that horizon is a satellite we put in before first landing.   It's amazing the satellite still works after two centuries.   Thank goodness Earth engineers built long lasting equipment.   I just hope it holds together till we get our space program up and running."

      "Are there people on the satellite?"

      "No, it's an automated satellite, no people.   The satellite sends pictures of the planet down to us.   Gives us lots of useful information from weather to land usage.   One of those pictures saved my life once."

      "How did it do that?"

      "Oh, I was on a dirigible that crashed in the desert.   We used the satellite imaging system to tell Touchdown where we were.   A rescue dirigible made it in just ahead of a sandstorm.   I'm not sure they would have found us without the satellite."

      "Wow."

      "It's a wow now.   Back there on the desert I was beginning to doubt our survival.   But enough of my ramblings, let's get to work."

      For Ming the species diversity study was a bore.   She merely sat at the comcon reading in the numbers Leda called back to her.   Leda wouldn't let her walk more than a couple meters, said she might fall through.   If Leda didn't fall through, why would she?

      As they finished Ming picked an armful of flowers.   She never imagined the forest top could be a colorful flower garden.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      Quiet.   I said quiet!   Sit down!   I'm not done and no one is leaving before I have my say on this matter.

      You only need look out this window to see our history.   Out there in the bay is the fusion plant powering this entire area.   A mere two hundred years ago that plant powered an interstellar spacecraft.   In the safety of Touchdown city we sometimes we forget people are not native to this planet.   We forget our dependence on genetic manipulation is total as everything from food to medicine comes from the vats.   Some things, like biogene products, exist only because of the vats.

      Starting a panic would be grossly irresponsible of you.   Without the biolabs our survival on a planet alien to mankind would never have gotten off the ground.   Even the Transformation, some hundred years back, was a biolab wonder.   That we can now digest local foodstuffs has not freed us from our need for vat brewed foods.   Humans need at least three amino acids not found in the Auroran food chain.

      So you grew up learning the Transformation was the answer.   Well I have news for you, the polits back then wanted us to believe the Transformation would solve all our problems.   It was the only way they could sell it.   True it was a step in the right direction and without it we wouldn't have the outback program running.   But the Transformation created as many problems as it solved.   With the ability to eat Auroran foods came susceptibility to Auroran diseases.   We all know the Redfern Plague story.

      We might make it without biolabs, but I'm not sure I want to gamble with our very existence, not with the potential for another Redfern-plague.   We need more time to complete our ecological survey work on this planet.   Fieldwork and lab work cost time and credits to carry out.   It is our responsibility to make sure this information is dispersed to the greater public in a proper, non-panicked fashion.

Night Stalker

      The night was cool and the fire warm.   Curled up at Leda's feet, Ming watched the flames dance as she listened to Leda's old Earth tales.   With voice, tone and hand gestures Leda gave energy to her tales, but in truth she distracted.   For some time she tracked the movements of large animal at the encampment edge.   Though she displayed no outward signs to Ming, Leda went through stages of worry, anger and finally amusement.   Only when Ming drifted into sleep did Leda finally act, sprinting into the wood before her night stalker could react.

      "Bear, what are doing here?"

      Charging had been a mistake.   She'd threatened his territory and he regressed.   As she watched him rocking back and forth, knees pulled tight, she cursed the fates who made Bear this way.   She cursed a medical community decades away from even considering people like Bear.   She cursed herself for not considering Bear had no defenses when it came to Leda.

      Sharks, after fifty years you'd think I have learned patience, but no I had to catch Bear doing wrong!

      "Not wrong," Bear growled out loud.

      "Shush, you'll wake her." Leda couldn't believe Bear had recovered so fast.   Maybe he was getting better.   "I told you to stay out of sight of the girl.   That's what you did wrong."

      "In woods, not by fire.   See only fire."   He was back to hand talk.

      "I saw you," Leda responded in same.   It was an apology Bear could understand.   He liked when she used hands only.

      "You be you, not she."

      "Okay, okay.   But why are you here at the edge of the camp?"

      "Want tell."

      "Tell what, Bear."

      "Girl go wrong.   Sleep awake in wood."

      "I don't understand, Bear.   She took a nap in the woods today?   What's the harm in that?"

      "No sleep awake, awake sleep.   Bear no word have."

      "Okay Bear, something happened to Ming in the woods.   Something you have no words for.   I'll ask Ming about it come morning.   If it happens again, you come get me.   Meanwhile let's go down the hill.   I'll tell a couple of stories while you're brewing my Tai.   Will that be good?"

Touchdown Council Chambers

      So what are we doing about this situation?   Well first off we are going to accelerate our survey of Auroran ecologies.   We intend to have more people doing more field research in more places.   These will be people dedicated to this task and this task only with none of the usual departmental borrowing.   And on the topic of borrowing, we will process field research in a timely manner.   There will none of the customary archiving of data for future processing on future budgets.   I can promise you this because the Council will personally oversee this project.   There will be no delegating of responsibilities this time.

      And where will we find the people for this survey, you ask?   We will obviously need to look beyond the Academy halls.   We can not continue to depend on luck to shape researchers like Lt. Leda Pascal.   We need to seek out potential candidates and shape them ourselves.   I'm sure we can find talented people, particularly in outback settlements where survival and knowledge go hand in hand.  

The Red Queen

      "Did I tell you I grew up not too far from here, Ming?"

      "No.   Where?"

      "Frasca.   It's a company town about twelve hundred klicks south."

      "What's a company town, Leda?"

      "Oh, that's where one of the trading companies sets up a new settlement to develop some local resource.   There are a lot of company towns sprinkled across the Aurora outback.   Most of the larger settlements are, or were, company towns.   Frasca was chosen for its excellent fishing and sheltered harbor.   The dirigibles ship tonnes of Frasca fish to Touchdown every year."

      "Aren't they afraid the fish will run out?"

      "Worried, no.   Concerned, yes.   Do you possibly remember a couple years back your village damned up a river for crop irrigation?"

      "Yeah.   Everyone in the village was angry when the Red Caps came storming in.   They made us tear out the dam.   It will take years to build the canal system the Red Caps suggested.   Was that about fish?"

      "You guessed it.   These coastal rivers are the breeding ground for the ocean fish.   Blocking off a river or stream prevents the adult fish from migrating upstream to reproduce.   It also stops the flow of nutrients to the estuaries at the river end.   Breeding grounds for countless species including fish.   I don't usually agree with the heavy handed tactics that the government uses, but damning off rivers is a bad idea."

      "You must of have been rich with the fish you sold."

      Leda chuckled, "Well, I suppose we were rich compared to Jerusalem, but we weren't wealthy rich.   I mean a lot of credits flowed through Frasca, but at the end of the year we counted ourselves lucky if we broke even.   It takes a lot of credits to keep a town like Frasca going.   The fishing boats are always in need of repair and spare parts shipped from Touchdown don't come cheap.   The fish freezers in the processing plant drink kiloliters of fuel, all flown in from Silver City.   And food?   Well, Frasca sits atop a salt marsh.   There isn't much in the way of cultivable soil.   Even if we had good land, virtually everyone is needed to catch and process the fish.   Needless to say we buy almost all our food from the company.   Medicine, teachers, clothing, cook gear everything is bought from and brought in by the company.   Like the Red Queen, Frasca has to run twice as fast just to stay even."

      "The Red Queen?"   "Sorry, the Red Queen is a character in an Earth ancient children's book.   It was one the first books I read when I was a little girl.   What kind of books have you read, Ming?"

      "Um, well.   I can't read.   The prophet says only men need to read, and then only the holy tablets."

      "And how do feel about that, Ming?"

      "Oh, I don't know.   Can we go to the meadow to pick flowers?"

      Leda was getting used to Ming's evasions of any topic matter dealing with Jerusalem.   From the beginning Leda decided she would not press the issue, but wait till Ming was ready.

      "Sure.   Why don't you get that basket you just wove?   On the way there I'll tell you about Alice and the Red Queen, and the mirror garden."

Touchdown Council Chambers

      Let me assure you this will not be a government talk-talk program.   The Council will be make credits and equipment available.   We will commit the Academy and the Red Caps to provide training, guidance and leadership.   We of course count on the usual help Sanctuary and Ademn, but also look to the Traders and DiSeppe for help.   This is to be planet wide push involving all aspects of Auroran society.   A project every bit as a big and important as the conversion of the Mud River Basin to Earth foods in our first decade upon this planet.

      This means the Council will be reevaluating our budget and resources.   And as you suspect this means service reductions in other areas, which areas I can't say yet.   Perhaps we'll start with the eats on that back table.   A credit saved here is credit available there.

Moguls & Monsters

      Leda was trying out her new stool, stirring up what might be her best stew of the year.   Ming made the stool for Leda, her first piece of stick and lash furniture.   There was great pride in her face as she gave it to Leda.   Later by firelight Leda redid a couple spots before she put her full weight on it, careful to mimic Ming's still clumsy style.

      Suddenly Ming came crashing out of the wood.   "Leda, a giant, a monster.   It tried to kill me."   Her face reflected her fear.

      Alarmed, Leda gathered the hysterical girl into her arms.   "What happened, Ming?   What happened BEFORE you saw the giant?"

      "Before?"

      "Yes, this is important.   Ming, what happened BEFORE?   Talk now, cry later."   Leda's had grown a stern note of authority.   Ming choked back her tears.

      "I was gathering herbs.   The ones you showed me.   In the glen.   In the glen down that way."

      "Yes, go on.   What happened in the glen?"

      "There was a mogul.   It jumped down from the trees.   I didn't have time to run, it was going to kill me."

      "It didn't though."

      "No, this giant threw me to the side, struck the mogul to the ground, and cut off its head with a great sword.   He looked like a bear, a giant killer bear.   I ran before he could catch me.   I ran all the way back."   New horror grew in her eyes.   "Oh, no!   He'll follow me.   We've got to run."

      Leda was laughing, the stern tone gone as quickly as it came.   "Calm down, child.   We're okay.   Everyone is okay."

      "What about the bear?"

      "Oh yes, Bear.   Don't worry, that was my Bear."

      "Your bear?"

      "My Bear, child.   Bear is my protector, our protector.   Look behind you, do you see anything chasing you?"

      "No."

      "Okay then, relax.   You're perfectly safe.   Nothing is going to hurt you.   You trust me, don't you?"

      "Um, yes certainly."

      "Will you believe me if I tell you Bear is not trying going to hurt you?"

      "I guess so."

      "Good."

      Leda turned her attention to the wood, "Bear, are you okay?"

      The giant Bear stepped into view.   Slowly, quietly he approached the two.

      "What's he doing, Leda?"

      "He's answering my question, child."

      "But he isn't talking.   He isn't talking at all."

      "Bear, child.   His name is Bear.   Please use it!   To answer your question he's using hand talk.   Bear can speak, but he prefers not to.   He said his jersey was ripped by the mogul.   He is also apologizing to me for killing the mogul when it wouldn't let go."

      "But why doesn't he talk?"

      "I'll explain later, child.   Right now I need to talk to Bear.   I'll need my hands free.   Why don't you stand here beside me."

      Ming cautiously unwound herself from Leda's protective embrace putting Leda between her and Bear.

      Leda turned her attention toward Bear.   "I understand, Bear.   You did good.   I know it hurt to have that animal clinging to your arm and I don't blame you for killing it.   Now sit down, have some stew.   Say hello to Ming."

      Leda shook her head in dismay as Bear signed his greeting to Ming.

      "Bear says hello."

      "How do I say hello?"

      "Just say it.   He can hear as well as talk.   He is just being stubborn.   He pretends not to hear when he is annoyed or angry."

      "Hello, Bear."   Ming voiced shyly.

      "Good.   Now that everyone is introduced why you go get my sewing kit for me, Ming.   Oh and get a sweetmeat for yourself and one for Bear.   Go, child."

      Ming circled wide of Bear, still leery of this giant man, but doing as Leda asked, trusting Leda's judgment.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      Lastly, even if the genetic viability of our corn is not threatened, the Council intends to follow up on this problem.   No matter how small the danger is, we will not tolerate toxins in our food chain.   Even as I speak the best minds of Ademn, the academy and Sanctuary are working out new safeguards for the biolabs.   It is a difficult problem.   Plants have always used noxious or even poisonous substances like alkaloids to make themselves less eatable.   It is very tempting to make our corn kernels likewise chemically unappealing to local species, but we can not and we will have unsafe corn.

      It may be a difficult problem, but not impossible.   We will solve it.   I have complete faith we will succeed.   I also have complete faith the answers generated by our scientific community will be expensive to implement.   Rest assured we are not going to mend over the tears in this garment.   The fabric of society depends on us - you, me, the Council, and the scientists - all of us.   We will not fail the Auroran people.

Crisis

      It had been a quiet day in the camp.   Ming cleared breakfast away, gingerly washing dishes in steaming hot water.   Leda set about updating her journal - editing research notes, labeling pics and the like.   It was a simple task, but one only she could do, so she dug in.   Suddenly muffled scream cut the quiet air.   Leda looked up to see Ming doing an awkward back crawl away from Bear.   Bear was a frozen tableau, his sword hanging in space half way to the space Ming once stood.   The girl was still alive so the immediate crisis was over.   Leda had but to sort out the pieces before the situation changed.

      She took a deep breath and walked between Bear and the girl.   As she did so, Ming began disintegrating into tears.   Leda wondered if Bear would react to this new stimulus.   Loud noises, especially discordant noises, were bad.   Leda steeled herself.   The Brethren had conditioned Bear to physically freeze when faced with extreme emotional turmoil.   They had strengthened this conditioning before sending him to her.   The Brethren hoped the momentary freeze would give the situation time to resolve peacefully.   But Leda well knew this solution wasn't hundred percent.   Six years ago two Red Caps fools died when they continued to tease Bear during such a freeze.   Leda had been instrumental in saving Bear's life at the court marshal.   Being a Pascal by adoption and a Red Cap associate, they listened.   Contingent upon yearly reconditioning by the Brethren and his service in the Red Caps it was decided the court decided to spare his life.   He was of course ruled unfit for further duty in the Red Caps.   A year later Fra Madera convinced Leda to take Bear on as an apprentice helper during her summer foray into the wilderness.   Bear had been with her ever since.

      It was time to act.   Leda again ran through the alternatives and decided she could risk a handclap.   Startled Bear might continue his sword swing, but she was now in the pathway of his swing.   The Brethren conditioning was particularly strong when it came to Leda.   Bear would die protecting Leda from harm.   Leda was confident she could deflect one blow, probably two.   All that Red Cap combat she received had to mean something.

      Leda clapped, then clapped again.   Only Bear's head moved to face Leda eye to eye.   Leda wasn't sure how alert he was, but slowly raised her hands to face level.   She signed one word.   She signed it again.   Bear turned and lumbered off into the woods.   Leda's shoulders slumped as tension drained from her body.   She had signed 'protect' at him.   Tonight Bear would be by far the most dangerous animal walking the woods.   She pitied any predator who might cross his path this night.   The sunrise, one more piece of program trickery, would wash the violence from his soul and the memory from his mind.

      The girl continued to cry.

      Later Leda would explain to the girl what happened and why.   She would reinforce in Ming's mind the importance of not touching Bear unless he invited contact.   She suspected her mistake had been not explaining about the conditioning to Ming initially.   How could Ming know about Bear otherwise?

      Later, though.   She really wasn't up to it right now.   Maybe tomorrow.

Hiatus

      The heat lay heavy upon the woods.   Sweat dripped down Ming's face and clung to her clothing.   The morning had been too long and the trail was too hard to travel.   It sounded like an adventure last night.   A few hours stroll to a lovely flowered meadow with a snow feed lake to chill your toes.   Leda talked of the smell, the colors and the beauty.   She talked of a meadow opened to the sun by some past fire and of the animals that came there to feed.   An adventure.

      It had been days since Ming last saw the sun and the forest flowers looked as pale as she felt, but now the adventure was loosing its appeal.   Leda promised this meadow was closer than the tree top field they trudged to the other day, but the thing Ming wanted now was to dangle her feet in the camp creek and admire pale forest flowers.   She was tired; very, very tired.   She hadn't felt this tired since . . . No o o o!

      Hiatus.   Ming collapsed to the ground in an awkward pile.

      Leda, some meters down the trail, was lost in her own thoughts.   Dream walking Fra Madera called it.   Preoccupied with thoughts whirring a thousand klicks times faster than her feet, she was little attention to Ming skipping on ahead of her.   A collage of facts, words and images hung before her - daring her to make sense of them.   The village, its history, her visits there, Ab'Dian, the Council, the people and their huts.   She sure there was a pattern there somewhere.   She had yet to see it or understand it.   The clue lay in her conversations with the girl.   A slight blurring of the eyes sharpened the inner image.   She could almost see the solution.   It was almost there when her focus point, the girl, disappeared.

      Yanked from her dream walk, Leda sprinted up the trail arriving in time to see the first tremors.   It began as a twitching of the legs and grew quickly in intensity.   Soon Ming's entire thrashed about with such violence she flipped herself face down into the forest mulch.   Fearing injury or worse, Leda flipped her back over and attempted to hold the girl down.   She had never seen or heard of such a thing.   Fear touched her and panic began, she couldn't pull the medkit free while holding down the girl.   Just as suddenly the thrashing gave way to rigidity, ending in a drawn out breathe and complete collapse.

      There was a strange smile on the girl's face.   Medkit diagnostics, once applied, indicated deep sleep and the dialog scrolled a discussion about deep sleep following orgasms.   "An orgasm?   You stupid machine, that wasn't pleasure I witnessed. You're no help."

      Leda put the medkit away and began constructing a crude sledge.   She considered calling in the nearest dirigible for an emergency medical.   Then reconsidered.   She'd drag Ming back to camp.   No need to panic.   As she pulled the heavy sledge she wished Bear was there to help, he'd of simply shouldered the girl and strolled home.

Sibling Jealousy

      Ming lay quiet for some time, waiting for sleep.   The attack had drained her of energy, but charged her mind with excitement.   She evaded Leda questions, saying the attacks were infrequent and left only the bruises like the ones now on her arms and legs.   There had been one when she broke an arm and an occasional pulled muscle, but nothing serious.   Looking quite dissatisfied, Leda suggested she turn in for the night.

      At the campfire an animated conversation was proceeding, one sided in that Ming could find no words in Bear's rumbling murmur.   It was like listening to her younger sister Sarah when she talked to her dolls.   The dolls never answered, but her sister kept chattering on as if they had, carrying on her one person, two way conversations.

      "Give her time, Bear.   She'll learn."

      "No, she isn't trying to make them suffer.   That was her first time working a trap line.   She hasn't seen an animal suffering in a trap, or found the remains of a gnawed off paw.   She needs a chance to learn."

      "Yes I know it's easier if you do it yourself.   You know all the little tricks, she doesn't.   She won't learn though if you don't let her make mistakes.   She has to do it, not watch you do it."

      "Bear, you're a special person.   Not even I know as much woodlore or mountaineering as you do.   No one learns something the first time like you do.   Everyone is different, has different strengths and different weaknesses."

      "No, I didn't forget about your sword.   Even Colonel Merin admits your skill with a sword."

      "Okay, okay.   Set the traps by yourself the next couple days.   There are some things Ming I can do together.   I've been meaning to talk to her.   That will work out fine."

      "No, no, no.   I am not angry with you.   I may get angry at something you do or don't do, but I could never be angry with you.   You'll always be my Bear."

      "Thank you, Bear.   I like you, too.   So where's my Tai?   Surely you haven't forgotten my Tai?"

      Ming fell asleep to the sounds of Bear shuffling about the fire.   She was glad to know she wouldn't have to go with Bear tomorrow.   She really didn't feel she was up to keeping Bear's fast pace.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      Okay, if you must leave, do it now, but keep in mind your treatment of this information will determine your standing in the Council and government services awarded by them.   This is no idle threat.   The Council will not depend on others to do our watching this time and, we will go as far as declaring DiSeppe families renegade.   We all, as the expression goes, brew our own Tai.

      For those of staying, I'll continue.

Bare and Bear

      Ming and Leda sat chin deep in water.   A short ways downstream a fallen tree pooled water warmed long enough to be exhilarating instead of freezing.   After Ming's first scrub session, the two had come to enjoy bathing in this pool.   Leda closed her eyes and narrowed her mind to all but the cold water.   Back to back emergencies and a tantrum had emotionally drained her.   She needed time to unwind.

      "What's wrong with Bear, Leda?"

      So much for unwinding, she thought, duty calls.   "What do you mean, child?"

      "He's, um, not right in the head, is he?"

      "No, Bear is not totally 'right in the head.' Near as I can figure he had an accident that would have killed an average man.   Bear not only lived, but somehow crawled into an outback village.   The villagers brought him back from the edge of death, but they had limited medical facilities.   They couldn't do more than sew up the wounds and treat him for exposure."

      "What happened then?"

      "Well the villagers called for help and a dirigible transported Bear's comatose body to Sanctuary.   The Brethren, bless their souls, never gave up on him, never considered cutting him up for spare parts.   As I understand it, they accelerated the healing process with forced regeneration.   One day Bear woke up."

      "But why didn't the regeneration fix his brain?"

      "It's question of timing.   The longer it takes to begin restoring damaged brain tissue, the lower the success rate.   There is no telling how much time elapsed between the accident and the morning Bear crawled into the village.   It was several days before he reached Sanctuary.   I think Bear's brain began making it's own healing linkages while he was still in the mountains.   The regeneration process doesn't differentiate between good and bad, just enhances what is already there."

      "End of story?"

      No, not really.   Bear was like a new born baby.   Between the accident and the healing process, Bear's mind was wiped clean.   The Brethren had to teach him everything.   I mean everything - how to walk, talk, everything."

      "Did they teach him how to use that sword?"

      "Well no, he was a Red Cap for awhile.   They taught him survival, combat and all that stuff.   He learned woodlore from me.   He learns fast and remembers everything."

      "Unfortunately he has a very serious flaw.   He lacks the ability to do higher order thinking including judgment.   Bear views life in absolutes, black and white with no grays, yes and no only.   When you talk to Bear you have to be careful what you say and how you say it.   And he hates physical contact, as you learned the other day when you tried to hug him."

      "I don't understand this black and white thinking stuff."

      "Well, take the mogul.   I told Bear to protect you.   The result was he threw himself into the path of mogul without a moment's hesitation.   In a contest between mogul and Bear, I'd bet on Bear every time.   However do you think Bear would survive an attack by a grak?"

      "I don't know?"

      "I don't know either.   I do know, however, that Bear would not hesitate to throw himself in the path of a grak in the same situation.   I just hope I don't have to bury Bear someday because of something I've said."

      "I hope so too, Leda.   I'm glad you told him to protect me.   Thank you."

      "Your welcome, child.   But I'd much prefer a hug."

      Leda was making progress with Ming.   Ming no longer flinched from human contact, was even willing to initiate it.   Now if she could only Ming to open up and talk about Jerusalem the summer would be success.  

      "Leda, if they fixed Bear once, can't the Brethren fix Bear again?"

      "Well yes, but ... but the repair process would likely wipe his brain clean again.   It would be like killing Bear a second time.   I for one couldn't do that to Bear."

      "But surely there must be way?   Surely they could save his memories?"

      "Yes and no.   They know how to read and store memories, even play them back into a brain, but knowing a thing and doing it are sometimes two different things."

      "Why is that?"

      "The slowboats that settled Aurora could carry only so much stuff.   Instead of sending us with a lot of equipment, the project designers choose to send us a library, the collective knowledge of mankind.   Using this knowledge, we have been building the technological foundation stones necessary to support all this knowledge.   We are still decades away from using all of it."

      "Why has it taken so long?   You told me we've been here two hundred years.   That's a long time.   We build a whole village in only five years."

      "Long, child.   It took Earth five thousand years to accomplish what we've done in two hundred.   Pretty good when you consider we also had to adapt to a planet outside our evolutionary experience."

      "Evolutionary experience?"

      "Why don't we save that discussion for another day?   I think it's time we got back to camp.   Bear will be back shortly, he'll be as hungry as a, a bear."

Spirit Born

      Strolling back to camp Ming continued her queries, "Are you sure he isn't a cave bear?"

      "Well there are some Earth old religions that believe people, upon dying, are reborn into another body - sometimes another human, sometimes an animal.   Who's to say a bear can't be reborn as a human."

      "Then Bear is a spirit born?"

      "You'll have to tell me what a spirit born is first."

      "You don't know?"

      "No, should I?"

      "Well yeah, everyone should."

      "So tell me."

      "When you die you can either climb the nine limbs of the great tree to heaven, descend through the tree's roots to the underground, or remain trapped as a spirit.   Of course everyone wants to climb the nine limbs, but all those who fail to follow the ways of Ab'Dian will be at best be trapped in this plane as spirits or descend below.   Never will they ascend the heights."

      Startled Leda blurted out, "But I thought you were Christians."

      "We are the only Christians, the ones who have returned to the true ways."

      Leda's mind was racing.   She'd never been particularly religious.   When pressed she told people, "Fra Madera is minding my soul."   What had Fra Madera told her about Christianity?   Oh yes.   On Earth religions grew their numbers through conversion of people and absorption of beliefs.   The beliefs were not easily absorbed and frequently conflicted.   So over the centuries religions would fragment into hundreds of sects and orthodoxy's.

      So what did it mean returning to true ways, going back to the first Christians or back further to the local religions?   She was in over her head.   Any other she'd already be on the comcon conferring with Fra Madera.   Philosophy and religion were his bag, not hers.

      "So continue, child.   There's heaven, the underworld and our world.   Which plane do the spirits live in?   Heaven?"

      "No, of course not.   How could they?"   There was scorn in her words.   "The spirits are those trapped here after death.   In seeking escape from the spirit plane they meddle in our affairs.   Ab'Dian says the dancing Southern lights were spirits trying to ascend the heavens, failing night after night.   He says their only way of escape is to be reborn so they might live a life good enough to ascend heaven the right way."

      "Oh," was all Leda could say.   'Reincarnation,' she asked herself?   "Um, ah.   If Bear is a spirit born I don't think the spirit got it right this time either.   Maybe next time."

      "But that's just it.   The reborn frequently repeat their mistakes over and over.   Only prophets like Ab'Dian can show them the way."

      Leda's mind raced, 'Oh sharks!   Ab'Dian sees himself as prophet and savior.   Do I call this in on the comcon?   Who would I call?   Only Fra Madera would have the background to evaluate this information.   I've got to get this girl to Sanctuary.'

      "Let's talk more about this later, Ming.   Right now we've got to think about feeding Bear.   He's always hungry as a bear after a day in the woods."

      She didn't want to use the comcon for this.   All too often signals bounced across the skies turning private conversations very public.   Besides summer was almost done.   A week or two wouldn't matter.   A week or two would give her a chance to figure it all out.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      It has been asked countless times why we don't provide more technology and education to our settlements?   The answer is we would if we could, but we don't have them available.   The plain truth is we need the settlements to develop new resources; we need the resources to develop new technologies; and the settlements need the new technologies to develop the resources.   And on and on the argument goes in continuous circle.   Anyone from mid-twentieth century Earth would recognize the equipment the settlements have, for it is all Auroran made and our industry is just closing in on the twenty-first Earth century.   Of course with an Earth library at our disposal it all a matter of time before we reach the twenty-fifth century mark when the slowboats left Earth.   From then on we will be developing new technologies to put in our library.   But this is getting off today's subject matter.

Folktales & Ballads

      The three sat around the fire.   With long pointed sticks they roasted chunks of nerat, flames leaping up to engulf the meat as grease dripped down.   Then they carefully ate the charred mouth burning meat off the sticks.   Leda kept moving about the fire trying to evade the smoke chasing her about the circle.   Ming giggled each time the smoke found Leda anew.

      "Ming, did Bear tell you about his song?"

      "No.   I didn't know he sang."

      "He can't actually.   No ear for music what so ever.   The song is about Bear.   He doesn't think it's funny, but a friend of mine wrote a song about him - appropriately called 'The Ballad of Bear'.   My friend contends Bear is the stuff of legend, future Auroran folklore in the making.   He wrote the song as a joke to entertain me, but I've heard bits of it sung all across Aurora.   The ballad is taking on a life of its own.   It makes me wonder if the myth isn't far behind."  

      "How does it go?   Can you sing it?"

      "You'll have to ask Bear.   I'll sing it only he wants you to hear it."

      Ming scrambled around the fire to where the big man sat.   "Please Bear, can I hear your song.   I promise I won't laugh."

      "Aagh."

      "Oh come on, Bear.   I'll do your kitchen duties tomorrow.   I really want to hear it.   Please, Bear.   Pretty please."   Ming went on for some time slowly wearing Bear's resistance down, then scampered off to get Leda's music pad.

      Leda played her music pad wandering from tune to tune, laying on chords, rhythms and instruments until she was happy with the sound.   The pad was a gift from another friend, one of the first such devices from Aurora's burgeoning electronic industry.   The few grams it added to her pack seemed more than off set by the enjoyment it brought her to play it.   Of course she might not have felt the same about the pad if Bear wasn't so willing and able to carry the bulk of Leda's equipment load.   She played the tune through humming to warm up her voice, then started in -

Eight stanzas later Leda paused.   "There's a lot more verses, a lot more than I can remember.   I sometimes suspect my musician friend keeps writing verses just to confound me.   He's a terrible tease."

      Bear signed Leda as he retreated into the wood.

      Leda giggled.   "What did he say?"   Ming asked of Leda.

      Leda held up her roasting stick and giggled again.   "Hum ... , in not so polite terms he suggested we serve poet well roasted.   Take a pretty big stick to roast my friend."

      Ming burrowed into the safety of her coverlet.   Leda sighed.   It was tough having two kids under foot, especially when they were both full-grown.   Leda continued plucking tunes until she found a song or two that Ming knew.   They sang on into the night.   Bear wasn't back till dawn.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      Another common question asked is why we didn't shut down the New David's when the Red Caps made their first incursion into Jerusalem.   The answer is we had no reason to distrust the New David's or the application process.   Point in fact, we have neither the desire, nor the time to investigate every transaction that occurs on Aurora.   The government of touchdown has grown too large for the Councilors to manage.   If we didn't delegate some of this work, planetary trade and development would come to a near stand still.   Yes, the evidence was in there in the reports submitted by the Red Caps, but no one viewing those reports had the perspective to recognized a problem existed.  

      If we had sent in the Red Caps, what do think the chances are you would now be standing here demanding us to explain heavy handed government policies.   Yes detaining the New David's leader Ben Ab'Dian would have saved lives, but we didn't do it.   We didn't know to look at Ben Ab'Dian's background.   It is obvious to us now that the man was a potential sociopath.   Psychist interviews of his computer composite indicate that he went over the edge out there in the Jerusalem woods, way over the edge.

      We, you and me, value personal freedom.   In our drive to be tolerant of all religions, the government was far too lenient of Ab'Dian and his followers.   No trading company would abuse outback contracts as blatantly as the New David's did.   We wouldn't tolerate such behavior from a trading company.   Perhaps it is time the Council reviewed again the relationships between government and religion.   The price of freedom shouldn't be so high as to require the burning of outback villages.

      But as I stated already, we can only hope to do better in the future.   Perhaps with more computer automation coming on line we will be able to put together diverse information threads.   Perhaps we will better be able to see patterns before they become problems.

Winter Winds

      Every morning Ming picked a fresh bouquet of flowers for the worktable, but with summer drawing to a close it was getting harder to find flowers.   Wanting this summer to never end, Ming persisted in the flower hunt.   She had never been happier.   She felt confident about her wood skills now.   She needn't leave, but if she did Leda had shown her femmes could do great things.   She still questioned Leda's attitudes toward men and children.   Granted men were a task, but children were a blessing and a privilege.   No wonder the Prophet Ab'Dian was upset whenever Leda showed up in her village.   A femme with the power of a census taker and a mind of her own was a threat to the prophet's control.   Well Ming was beyond the prophet's power.   She would control her future and Jerusalem was not part of it.   She'd miss her family, but she would start her own soon.   It would all work out.   She would find other fathers for other children.   She'd find love.

      "What are you doing, Leda?"

      "Packing.   Autumn is upon us and I have places to be and commitments to keep."

      "What other places?"

      "Well, the Academy for one.   I teach natural history and do a little research.   I am getting too old to stay out year around."

      "What's natural history?"

      "It's the stuff I've been teaching you, Ming.   Plants and animals, rocks and weather.   How they all interact with another.   It's a rather deep bowl of soup."

      "What about me?"

      "Well, I've been talking to Bear, and he's thinking of spending the winter visiting the monks at Sanctuary.   I'm sure he'd be glad to have you along.   Sanctuary is a nice place to visit in winter - warm, fun and civilized."

      "Why can't I just live here in the woods?   I don't need civilization."

      "Tell me, child, what is this?"

      "A knife."

      "Where did it come from?"

      "I got it from the village.   They have plenty, they won't miss it."

      "I wasn't accusing you of theft, Ming.   Morality, an interesting idea.   A civilized idea, but let's not lose focus here.   You got the knife from the village.   Fine.   Where did the village get the knife?"

      "I suppose they bought it."

      "Ah, commerce.   Another interesting idea.   A civilized idea, but again let's keep focused.   Where did the seller get the knife?"

      "He made it?"

      "How did he make it?"

      "I don't know."

      "Well let me help you then.   A knife is made of steel.   Steel is an alloy made principally made of iron ore.   Iron ore is dug out of the ground.   You need some way to dig up the iron, to ship it, to smelt it into steel.   Once you have the steel, you need some way to cut it and shape it.   Finally you need some way to ship it out to the villages where it's needed by people like yourself."

      "So what, they know how to do that."

      "They, Ming?   Who are they?"

      "The people.   The people who made the knife."

      "People - more than one person.   People working together.   Cooperating to make a knife for someone they never met.   What do you suppose we should call this collective action of these people?"

      "Um, ah, civilization?"

      "Yes.   Civilization.   I won't argue whether you need civilization.   You're a bright girl; you can make up your own mind.   I think however civilization needs you.   I know that someday, somewhere you're going to do something important.   It may a big thing like discovering a better way to make knives, or a small thing like giving birth to a baby."

      "You know!"

      "Yes, Ming.   I know.   I've known since the first day I arrived here."

      "What are going to do about it?   Take me back?"

      "No, I am not taking you back.   You've done nothing wrong.   Having a baby is not evil, not wrong.   Being pregnant, giving birth is a normal healthy part of life.   How you became pregnant is another matter.   You might be guilty of stealing a knife from the village, but I don't think you are guilty of stealing a baby from the man who impregnated you.   I suspect it wasn't someone you invited to your bed.   The villagers would have certainly looked harder if they thought you were with child.   Can you tell me about it why you didn't go before the village elders about him?"

"He ... they ..."   Ming disintegrated into tears.   Leda didn't understand.   No one could understand.

      Leda held the girl in her arms, rocking her, petting her, reassuring her repeatedly.

      Ming later packed her satchel, setting it down next to Bear's equipment load.   She was ready to go, ready to accompany Bear to Sanctuary, ready to face the child growing within her.

      Fifty klicks and two days later they arrived at the coast.   Bear strung an antenna across some trees and connected the comcon.   The next day, much to Ming's amazement, a dirigible made an unscheduled cable pickup.   As Ming well knew dirigible captains paid homage to no one, not even the prophet Ab'Dian.   Here was a captain personally welcoming Leda aboard.   Ming wasn't so sure about Bear one day becoming a mythical figure, but she was now sure Leda had already attained legendary status.   Perhaps in Sanctuary she would ask Bear to tell her more about Leda.   There was also the Brethren, they knew Leda.   They would be better able to explain the things Ming wanted to know, much better than Bear could.

Touchdown Council Chambers

      We will probably never know exactly what happened at the Jerusalem settlement given Ming is the only survivor of a firestorm that blazed its way across a hundred million square kilometers of woodland.   Circumstantial evidence leads us to believe that the New David's started the fire to head off the Red Cap team closing in on their settlement.   If this is true then the Council must admit to another misjudgment.   We inadvertently threatened a Red Cap raid while bargaining with them to fulfill their contractual agreements.   However the fire began, a shift in the wind direction saved the Red Caps and destroyed the settlement.

      We, here and now, absolve the Red Caps of any blame for the Jerusalem firestorm.   There is no truth to any of the stories about Red Caps starting the fire.   There were no weapons discharged and the fire was not a cover up for something worse.   None of these stories are true.   The only true story is the Red Caps behaved in accordance with their highest traditions, attempting to rescue the New David's even when they knew it was hopeless.   Several Red Caps joined the dead warriors' list that night.

Epilogue

      Leda sat in the front most seats of the gallery windows watching winter scenes melt into spring.   Her mind wandered as she nursed a cup of Tai long gone cold.   She remembered back forty some years to her first dirigible ride and her first view out gallery windows.

      Early spring like this and I was leaving home for the first time along with another Frascan youth ten years my senior.   Turns out we were both running away Frasca as much as we were running toward the Academy.

      Moses, now there's a memory.   My first twirl-flirt.   Strange how we had to go all the way to Touchdown to discover each other.   Oh the wild times we had in his room.   No, make that our room.   The laughter and teasing, the arguments and word games, and the pleasuring.   Oh Sharks, the pleasuring.   Was there anything we didn't try that first year.   Kind of makes you wonder what would have happened had there been a second year for us.   Would we have partnered and had children?   Would we ever run out new things to try?

      "You'll never know will you, Leda?   You had to go off adventuring.   Yep, your whole life has been dedicated to adventure.   Always on the move.   Always looking for the next mountain to climb, the next river, the next species to name."

      "Talking to yourself, Leda?"

      "Ah Captain, welcome.   Just an old lady prattling."

      "Not so old, still a femme to these eyes."

      "Ah Captain, you flatter me.   But you're looking a bit gray too."

      "Air sickness.   It will pass."

      Leda laughed politely at his small joke.   She'd heard such a hundred such jokes from self-conscious politicians.   Aging was not something dealt with well here on Aurora.   The old had a shared guilt of surviving when so many others hadn't.   Life on Aurora was not easy.   Gravesites were many and gray haired men few.

      Leda looked down at her mug.   She watched the Tai dance in rhythm with the giant motors pushing the boat onward and thought, No one got sick on dirigibles.

      "So why aren't you in the pilot house, Captain?"

      "The bridge crew excused me.   Suggested I come down and visit you.   Personally I don't think they trust these old hands of mine."   He slowly turned his hands before, sadly studying the gnarled joints.   "Hard to believe all the old diseases have come back to haunt us.   I think we made a pact with the devil altering our genetic code to suit this planet."   He pushed his hands deep into his pockets, hiding them from view.   "But enough of this self pity.   You got to admit, every now and again my crew has a good idea.   Like visiting the beautiful femme in the front gallery."

      "Again the flattery."   Leda chuckled again, politely ignoring his moment of melancholy.   The pain must be pretty bad for Chu to complain openly, she thought.   Getting old shouldn't be this way.   Not with all this Earth science behind us.   Maybe some day we can make regeneration available to all.

      "So what takes you to Sanctuary this late-winter day, my Lady.   Nothing bad I hope."

      Twenty plus years of history has passed between us and we're still using formal titles.   Some things never change.   "Oh I wanted to talk to Fra Madera, and see Ming's new family."

      "Twins, from what I hear."

      Leda was surprised.   She thought she was the only one who knew of the twins outside the walls of Sanctuary.   "How much do you know, Captain?"

      "Maybe not as much as you, I suspect.   They had all the Captains in during the last turn around.   It must be a century since the last full session occurred.   I figure it's the port.   It must take decades to bottle enough port for a captains' meeting, especially during a weeklong snowstorm."

      Leda almost laughed this time.   By making light of the serious Chu was politely inviting her to talk.   Like the use of name titles, their relationship was well defined.   "So they want you reading from the same page, do they?"

      The captain smiled broadly, "You understand politics only too well, my lady."

      Leda held her mug before her face.   Even cold the smell set nerves tingling.   Her mind wasn't on politics.   She didn't wish to go further.

      "You were saying, Captain?"

      His smile undiminished as he repeated himself, "You understand politics only too well, my lady."

      Leda smiled, "Comes with the Pascal name."

      "So tell me about Ming's new family."

      "Well she has a pair of lovely twins, as you said.   The best part is Bear is quite taken with the twins.   I'll have to find some student helpers this summer.   I doubt Bear will be with me this summer."

      Leda stopped to retrieve holo's from her pack.   Captain Chu made all the appropriate sounds of admiration.   Leda appreciated it even if she knew better.   Chu had sacrificed everything in the pursuit of a captain's chair.   He was not a family man who cooed over babies.   They had much in common, the two of them.

      Tucking away the pictures she continued.   "The Brethren tell me Ming's attacks stopped right after they purged her of residual toxins.   I'd like to know how they did that when the biolabs are still struggling with this compound.   Seems the techs can't get the synthesis information from the vat processors that keyed up the corn seed.   These self-learning systems have a logic of their own.   Kind of makes you wonder who's running this planet, us or the AI's."

      "Yeah, the Council talked about AI's for the dirigibles at the meeting.   We were able to convince them men were cheaper and more flexible than systems.   Next time?   Well we'll cross that strut when we reach it.   But you haven't spoke about Jerusalem.   Anything new there?"

      "Fra Madera tells me Ab'Dian meant Ming to be a Shaman seer.   He had to explain shamanism to me.   Who would have ever guessed shamanism would be reborn in the wilds of Aurora?   What amazes me is the lengths the villagers took to hide their religion from us.   No one, myself included, had a clue it was all a sham.   The Shamans shammed us."   Lisa chuckled at the word play and almost laughed at Captain Chu's frown.   He was not one to appreciate bad puns.

      "I suppose the best and worst part of the story is the Red Caps were fully exonerated.   A download from the satellites showed the villagers starting the fire.   It also showed the heroic efforts the Red Caps made to rescue the villagers.   At Red Cap request I insisted the Council download the images.   Pulled in a lot of favors.   I wish I hadn't stayed to watch them.   It was horrible watching people burn to death.   I never expected the Red Caps would demand such a heavy favor of me for sparing Bear's life.   Sharks, I hate politics sometimes."

      "Not all obligations are political, Leda.   My uncle and his crew would of have died in that desert basin if not for you.   The dirigible service considers you crew, with all the perks including free passage for life.   You were, after all, an acting captain for a several weeks."

      "Thank you, Captain.   Your friendship is valued."

      The boat hurried on through the sky chasing the sun toward the horizon.   Another night and a day she would be in Sanctuary again.   She needed the rest.   The Jerusalem Firestorm had left a scar upon her soul as deep as the fire scar in the Jerusalem woodlands.   She still felt guilty for waiting for summer's end to tell anyone what she knew about the Prophet Ab'Dian and his religion.   But what really gnawed at her was the knowledge she let the image of child abuse blind her to the truth about the New David's.   Had she seen beyond her imagination maybe, just maybe, the firestorm could have been averted and the villagers saved.

      Leda now knew Ming's bruises were the result of the seizures, not someone's hand; and the pregnancy, though wrong, was not malicious.   Lastly, she now knew the girl was not fleeing the village, but a responsibility too heavy for one so young.   And the religion?   Yes she'd missed that one too.   She missed it all.

      In a life filled with success, Leda had never learned to deal with failure.   Like the dirigible crash of Chu's uncle there were many events in her success column and until now no failures.   For the first time Leda was facing what she took to be a major failure, a failure resulting in wide spread death.