Children of the Comet (25 page)

“Then what is it good for?”

“Trading, for one thing. Captain Goncalves would give you goods for it.”

Chu exchanged a glance with Irina. “It's too early for money, Skipper,” he said.

“Wait a minute,” Martin said. He'd become Chu's chief engineer when Joorn retired, and since
Time's Beginning
's colonists had put down roots on Mars, he'd been doing a lot of in-system work. “Now that the Trees are within striking distance of the asteroid belt, we can teach them asteroid mining, help them become self-sufficient in metals. They're naturals for airless, low-gravity work, aren't they?”

Torris was quick to pick up on what they were saying. “And this Goncalves star dwarf would pay for metals?”

Jonah must have been scrolling frantically through his human database. “That is gold, which is worth gold,” he said. “An old Portuguese proverb.”

“We'll do the prospecting, and they'll do the mining,” Martin said excitedly. “You can't have an advanced technical civilization without metals, but they can't work under a planet's gravity. This is the only way they'll get their metals.”

“We're getting ahead of ourselves,” Nina said. She turned to Ona with a smile. “You're doing just fine, building up your meatbeast herd, Ona. This is work for your children. And your children's children.”

Tatiana reached out and took Ona's hand. Despite the extreme difference in height and musculature,
Homo sapiens
and
Homo cometes
did not look at all incongruous next to one another.

“I've decided what I want to do, Mother,” she said. “I don't have a scientific brain like you, but I know I can do useful fieldwork here, help Ona teach her people to begin an agricultural society.”

“Fieldwork?” Nina said doubtfully. “That sounds daunting. It's not exactly like accompanying your father occasionally on one of his expeditions and living in a survival shelter with all the comforts. It's a way of life you're not adapted for.”

Ona showed that she had inherited her mother's acerbity. “I will teach Tati,” she said dryly. “There, I can help.”

“I've already spent a night in the cave without my spacesuit,” Tatiana said. “Shared meals. Helped the women with their communal tasks. Babysat for them.”

Torris nodded in agreement. “If I could learn to live among you dwarfs, Tati can learn to live among our people.”

Nina turned to Joorn. “Grandfather …”

“It's a start,” Joorn said.

Just then, the inner door of the airlock opened, and a party of travelers came through, equipped with extra air sacks for a trip to one of the new Trees that had joined the convoy. They were burdened with unwieldy bundles that probably contained trade goods they would try to unload on the new arrivals.

They recoiled in alarm when they saw Jonah lolling halfway out of his travel tank, but they recovered right away. Everybody knew about the talking beast by now.

They made proper obeisance to the star travelers, then offered a further gesture of respect to Torris and Ning. They gave the dolphin tank a wide berth on their way to the stovebeast cages, where they exchanged their animals for fresh ones. They bowed again as they went out. They looked too burdened to rely on leg power for their jump, and would probably use the public catapult that Ning had installed.

“It starts,” Chu said. “After six billion years, the human species has managed to get itself born again.”

“We've made it this far.” Joorn nodded. “And we're still only halfway to eternity. Karn was right. There's a long way to go.”

“Goncalves won't be the last, you know,” Chu said. “They'll be coming back for centuries. Maybe till the end of time.”

Joorn shivered, perhaps from the cold the travelers had brought in with them. Irina and her children drew a little closer to him.

Outside the crude little shelter, the stars continued to burn out and die one by one, the galaxies to flee out of reach, matter to disappear forever into black holes, the Universe itself to inflate beyond comprehension. But Omega was not yet.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2015 by the Estate of Donald Moffitt

Cover design by Mauricio Díaz

978-1-4976-7846-0

Published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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