money and share in the products of our labor equally?
“Yes,” he interrupted me, shaking his head. “But it’s different here—Jeb has a gun for the slackers.”
Everyone looked at Jeb, who winked, and then they all laughed.
Jeb was in attendance about every other night. He didn’t participate; he just sat thoughtfully in the back
of the room, occasionally grinning.
He was right about the entertainment factor; oddly, for we all had legs, the situation reminded me of the
See Weeds. There had been a special title for entertainers there, likeComforter orHealer orSeeker. I
was one of theStorytellers, so the transition to a teacher here on Earth had not been such a change,
profession-wise, at least. It was much the same in the kitchen after dark, with the smell of smoke and
baking bread filling the room. Everyone was stuck here, as good as planted. My stories were something
I was in about my fourth week as an informal teacher when life in the caves changed again.
The kitchen was crowded, as was usual. Jeb and Doc were the only ones missing besides the normal
two. On the counter next to me was a metal tray of dark, doughy rolls, swollen to twice the size they’d
started at. They were ready for the oven, as soon as the current tray was done. Trudy checked every
few minutes to make sure nothing was burning.
Often, I tried to get Jamie to talk for me when he knew the story well. I liked to watch the enthusiasm
light up his face, and the way he used his hands to draw pictures in the air. Tonight, Heidi wanted to
know more about the Dolphins, so I asked Jamie to answer her questions as well as he could.
The humans always spoke with sadness when they asked about our newest acquisition. They saw the
Dolphins as mirrors of themselves in the first years of the occupation. Heidi’s dark eyes, disconcerting
underneath her fringe of white-blond hair, were tight with sympathy as she asked her questions.
“They look more like huge dragonflies than fish, right, Wanda?” Jamie almost always asked for
corroboration, though he never waited for my answer. “They’re all leathery, though, with three, four, or
five sets of wings, depending on how old they are, right? So they kind of fly through the water—it’s
lighter than water here, less dense. They have five, seven, or nine legs, depending on which gender they
are, right, Wanda? They have three different genders. They have really long hands with tough, strong
fingers that can build all kinds of things. They make cities under the water out of hard plants that grow
there, kind of like trees but not really. They aren’t as far along as we are, right, Wanda? Because they’ve
never made a spaceship or, like, telephones for communication. Humans were more advanced.”
Trudy pulled out the tray of baked rolls, and I bent to shove the next tray of risen dough into the hot,
smoking hole. It took a little jostling and balancing to get it in just right.
As I sweated in front of the fire, I heard some kind of commotion outside the kitchen, echoing down the
hall from somewhere else in the caves. It was hard, with all the random sound reverberations and strange
acoustics, to judge distances here.
“Hey!” Jamie shouted behind me, and I turned just in time to see the back of his head as he sprinted out
the door.
I straightened out of my crouch and took a step after him, my instinct to follow.
“Wait,” Ian said. “He’ll be back. Tell us more about the Dolphins.”
Ian was sitting on the counter beside the oven—a hot seat that I wouldn’t have chosen—which made
him close enough to reach out and touch my wrist. My arm flinched away from the unexpected contact,
but I stayed where I was.
“What’s going on out there?” I asked. I could still hear some kind of jabbering—I thought I could hear
Jamie’s excited voice in the mix.
Ian shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe Jeb…” He shrugged again, as if he wasn’t interested enough to
I was sure I would find out soon enough, so I shrugged, too, and started explaining the incredibly
complex familial relationships of the Dolphins while I helped Trudy stack the warm bread in plastic
containers.
“Six of the nine… grandparents, so to speak, traditionally stay with the larvae through their first stage of
development while the three parents work withtheir six grandparents on a new wing of the family
dwelling for the young to inhabit when they are mobile,” I was explaining, my eyes on the rolls in my
hands rather than my audience, as usual, when I heard the gasp from the back of the room. I continued
with my next sentence automatically as I scanned the crowd to see who I’d upset. “The remaining three
grandparents are customarily involved…”
No one was upset with me. Every head was turned in the same direction I was looking. My eyes
skipped across the backs of their heads to the dark exit.
The first thing I saw was Jamie’s slight figure, clinging to someone’s arm. Someone so dirty, head to toe,
that he almost blended right in with the cave wall. Someone too tall to be Jeb, and anyway, there was Jeb
just behind Jamie’s shoulder. Even from this distance, I could see that Jeb’s eyes were narrowed and his
nose wrinkled, as if he were anxious—a rare emotion for Jeb. Just as I could see that Jamie’s face was
bright with sheer joy.
“Here we go,” Ian muttered beside me, his voice barely audible above the crackle of the flames.
The dirty man Jamie was still clinging to took a step forward. One of his hands rose slowly, like an
involuntary reflex, and curled into a fist.
From the dirty figure came Jared’s voice—flat, perfectly devoid of any inflection. “What is the meaning
of this, Jeb?”
My throat closed. I tried to swallow and found the way blocked. I tried to breathe and was not
successful. My heart drummed unevenly.
Jared!Melanie’s exultant voice was loud, a silent shriek of elation. She burst into radiant life inside my
head.Jared is home!
“Wanda is teaching us all about the universe,” Jamie babbled eagerly, somehow not catching on to
Jared’s fury—he was too excited to pay attention, maybe.
“Wanda?”Jared repeated in a low voice that was almost a snarl.
There were more dirty figures in the hall behind him. I only noticed them when they echoed his snarl with
an outraged muttering.
A blond head rose from the frozen audience. Paige lurched to her feet. “Andy!” she cried, and stumbled
through the figures seated around her. One of the dirty men stepped around Jared and caught her as she
nearly fell over Wes. “Oh, Andy!” she sobbed, the tone of her voice reminding me of Melanie’s.
Paige’s outburst changed the atmosphere momentarily. The silent crowd began to murmur, most of them
rising to their feet. The sound was one of welcome now, as the majority went to greet the returned
travelers. I tried to read the strange expressions on their faces as they forced grins onto their lips and
“It’s going to be okay, Wanda,” Ian murmured under his breath.
I glanced at him wildly, searching for that same guilt on his face. I didn’t find it, only a defensive
tightening around his vivid eyes as he stared at the newcomers.
“What the hell, people?” a new voice boomed.
Kyle—easily identifiable by his size despite the grime—was shoving his way around Jared and heading
toward… me.
“You’re letting it tell you its lies? Have you all gone crazy? Or did it lead the Seekers here? Are youall
parasites now?”
Many heads fell forward, ashamed. Only a few kept their chins stiffly in the air, their shoulders squared:
Lily, Trudy, Heath, Wes… and frail Walter, of all people.
“Easy, Kyle,” Walter said in his feeble voice.
Kyle ignored him. He walked with deliberate steps toward me, his eyes, the same vibrant cobalt as his
brother’s, glowing with rage. I couldn’t keep my eyes on him, though—they kept returning to Jared’s
dark shape, trying to read his camouflaged face.
Melanie’s love flowed through me like a lake bursting through a dam, distracting me even more from the
enraged barbarian closing the distance quickly.
Ian slid into my view, moving to place himself in front of me. I strained my neck to the side to keep my
view of Jared clear.
“Things changed while you were gone, brother.”
Kyle halted, face slack with disbelief. “Did the Seekers come, then, Ian?”
“She’s not a danger to us.”
Kyle ground his teeth together, and from the corner of my eye, I saw him reach for something in his
pocket.
This captured my attention at last. I cringed, expecting a weapon. The words stumbled off my tongue in
a choked whisper. “Don’t get in his way, Ian.”
Ian didn’t respond to my plea. I was surprised at the amount of anxiety this caused me, at how much I
didn’t want him hurt. It wasn’t the instinctive protection, the bone-deepneed to protect, that I felt for
Jamie or even Jared. I just knew that Ian should not be harmed trying to protect me.
Kyle’s hand came back up, and a light shone out of it. He pointed it at Ian’s face, held it there for a
moment. Ian didn’t flinch from the light.
“So, what, then?” Kyle demanded, putting the flashlight back in his pocket. “You’re not a parasite. How
through the silent spectators. As he got closer, Jamie still clinging to his hand with a bewildered
expression, I could read his face better under the mask of dirt. Even Melanie, all but delirious with
happiness at his safe return, could not misunderstand the expression of loathing there.
Jeb had wasted his efforts on the wrong people. It didn’t matter that Trudy or Lily was speaking to me,
that Ian would put himself between his brother and me, that Sharon and Maggie made no hostile move
toward me. The only one who had to be convinced had now, finally, decided.
“I don’t think anyone needs to calm down,” Jared said through his teeth. “Jeb,” he continued, not
looking to see if the old man had followed him forward, “give me the gun.”
The silence that followed his words was so tense I could feel the pressure inside my ears.
From the instant I could clearly see his face, I’d known it was over. I knew what I had to do now;
Melanie was in agreement. As quietly as I could, I took a step to the side and slightly back, so that I
would be clear of Ian. Then I closed my eyes.
“Don’t happen to have it on me,” Jeb drawled.
I peeked through narrowed eyes as Jared whirled to assess the truth of Jeb’s claim.
Jared’s breath whistled angrily through his nostrils. “Fine,” he muttered. He took another step toward
me. “It will be slower this way, though. It would be more humane if you were to find that gun fast.”
“Please, Jared, let’s talk,” Ian said, planting his feet firmly as he spoke, already knowing the answer.
“I think there’s been too much talk,” Jared growled. “Jeb left this up to me, and I’ve made my decision.”
Jeb cleared his throat noisily. Jared spun halfway around to look at him again.
“What?” he demanded. “You made the rule, Jeb.”
“Well, now, that’s true.”
Jared turned back toward me. “Ian, get out of my way.”
“Well, well, hold on a sec,” Jeb went on. “If you recall, the rule was that whoever the body belonged to
got to make the decision.”
A vein in Jared’s forehead pulsed visibly. “And?”
“Seems to me like there’s someone here with a claim just as strong as yours. Mebbe stronger.”
Jared stared straight ahead, processing this. After a slow moment, understanding furrowed his brow. He
All the joy had drained from Jamie’s face, leaving it pale and horrorstruck.
“You can’t, Jared,” he choked. “You wouldn’t. Wanda’s good. She’s my friend! And Mel! What about
Mel? You can’t kill Mel! Please! You have to —” He broke off, his expression agonized.
I closed my eyes again, trying to block the picture of the suffering boy from my mind. It was already
almost impossible not to go to him. I locked my muscles in place, promising myself that it wouldn’t help
him if I moved now.
“So,” Jeb said, his tone far too conversational for the moment, “you can see that Jamie’s not in
agreement. I figure he’s got as much say as you do.”
There was no answer for so long that I had to open my eyes again.
Jared was staring at Jamie’s anguished, fearful face with his own kind of horror.
“How could you let this happen, Jeb?” he whispered.
“Thereis a need for some talk,” Jeb answered. “Why don’t you take a breather first, though? Maybe
you’ll feel more up to conversation after a bath.”
Jared glared balefully at the old man, his eyes full of the shock and pain of the betrayed. I had only
human comparisons for such a look. Caesar and Brutus, Jesus and Judas.
The unbearable tension lasted through another long minute, and then Jared shook Jamie’s fingers off his
arm.
“Kyle,” Jared barked, turning and stalking out of the room.
Kyle gave his brother a parting grimace and followed.
The other dirty members of the expedition went after them silently, Paige tucked securely under Andy’s
arm.
Most of the other humans, all those who had hung their heads in shame for admitting me into their
society, shuffled out behind them. Only Jamie, Jeb, and Ian beside me, and Trudy, Geoffrey, Heath, Lily,
Wes, and Walter stayed.
No one spoke until the echoes of their footsteps faded away into silence.
“Whew!” Ian breathed. “That was close. Nice thinking, Jeb.”
“Inspiration in desperation. But we’re not out of the woods yet,” Jeb answered.
“Don’t I know it! You didn’t leave the gun anywhere obvious, did you?”
“Nope. I figured this might be comin’ on soon.”
“That’s something, at least.”
“It’s okay,” I lied in a whisper. “It’s okay.” I knew even a fool would hear the false note in my voice,
and Jamie was not a fool.
“He won’t hurt you,” Jamie said thickly, struggling against the tears I could see in his eyes. “I won’t let
him.”
“Shh,” I murmured.
I was appalled—I could feel that my face was fixed in lines of horror. Jared was right—howcould Jeb
have let this happen? If they’d killed me the first day here, before Jamie had ever seen me… Or that first
week, while Jared kept me isolated from everyone, before Jamie and I had become friends… Or if I had
just kept my mouth shut about Melanie… It was too late for all that. My arms tightened around the child.
Melanie was just as aghast.My poor baby.
Itoldyou it was a bad idea to tell him everything, I reminded her.
What will it do to him now, when we die?
