Earth Legend (10 page)

A huge sigh shook her frame. "Mom says I'm
eating too many cookies."

"Maybe one?"

She sat on the couch and nibbled a single
cookie slowly so as to make it last as long as possible. While she
nibbled, she crossed her ankles primly. "Mr. Vail asked about
you."

"I know. You told me."

"I mean again. He came again."

Fear crawled through my stomach. I had to
force myself not to double over. "When?"

"Just now. When I was on my way here. I
showed him my tree. He said you might be able to help it. Then he
asked questions."

I won't panic. I refuse to panic.
"What kind of questions?"

"You know. Questions." And that was all I
got. Her miniature cherry tree was so healthy it glowed, Queenie
was getting restive and the cookie was long gone. "I have to go
now." So with a cat under one arm and a cherry tree under the
other, she left and I was left alone to try and make my stomach
settle down. I folded over and stayed that way for a long time.

Then I went to the window. Stared at the
apple orchard and a group of kids playing baseball. The everyday
scenes should have made me feel better but they didn't. Nothing
could because Cullen Vail was on the edge of the field and he was
talking with Alicia. I had no doubt I was the topic of
conversation.

I closed the curtains and waited as I fought
nausea and told myself that Cullen Vail wouldn't come. He wouldn't.
He'd go back to wherever he came from and would forget all about
me. Still, I folded my hands over my stomach and wished I was
somewhere else. Anywhere else. Like back on Earth.

When the knock came it was almost a minute
before my body could unknot enough to answer but I couldn't delay
forever so eventually I swung it open. As I'd expected, Cullen Vail
stood before me. Taller than I remembered, solemn of demeanor,
almost grim, but polite. Oh so polite. "Miss Olmstead?"

"My name is Elle."

I gestured for him to come in but he stayed
where he was, framed by the doorway, filling it, a perfectly formed
man in a perfectly rectangular opening. Both man and opening were
functional and impersonal.

"Miss Olmstead, it has come to my attention
that your name wasn't on the Destiny's manifest at launch. Nor was
it on any list of colonists. Nor did it appear anywhere at all
until after we'd past the outer planets and were approaching the
edge of the solar system."

"Really?" Would it help to pretend I didn't
know what he was talking about? "I can't imagine why not."

"Miss Olmstead?" He folded his arms and
waited.

I wilted. Died. Gave up right then and there.
I'd tried but, like my cousins, I'd failed. I didn't have any
tricks up my sleeve, no story that he'd believe, no way to prevent
whatever he had planned. I wasn't cut out to be a felon, I didn't
have the stomach for a life of crime. "I don't have any
explanation."

He stepped inside, filling the apartment as
he'd filled the doorway, competent and authoritarian. "Miss
Olmstead, you are a stowaway. Accordingly, you are under arrest for
the crime of boarding the Destiny illegally. I'll have to ask you
to put your hands behind your back." I did so and felt binders
tightening around them. "Now I'll ask you to come with me." He
ushered me towards the door.

"What about Braveheart? My kitten? What'll
happen to him?"

"I'll talk to Wilkes Zander. He'll think of
something."

"Someone has to take care of Braveheart until
this is straightened out."

"You mean
if
it's straightened
out."

"It will be. It's a mistake, it's just a
mistake."

"Then you'll be home shortly."

If I wasn't? Would Braveheart suffer the same
fate that awaited me? I couldn't bear to think of both of us being
tossed out of the airlock. He was a sweet kitten, he deserved
better. What I'd done was deliberate but his only crime was being
born. Barring a miracle, though, I'd not be back to save him and
we'd both be treated like yesterday's trash.

Everyone in New Rochelle watched me being
dragged ignominiously towards the elevator. Alicia was there, along
with her mother and grandfather.

My eyes met those of Wilkes Zander. He didn't
like what was happening but there was nothing he could do. I
blinked to let him know that I'd not betray him. No one would ever
know he'd willingly helped a stowaway.

I stopped beside Alicia, letting my body go
limp so Cullen had to drag me so he had to stop. "Alicia." She came
close, uncertain as to what was going on but knowing that whatever
was happening wasn't good. "Braveheart is in my apartment. Take
care of him, will you?"

"Okay." Her eyes were big. Then, for once in
her life, she shut up.

"And the plants. Water them, will you?" She
said she would and then I started walking again so Cullen didn't
have to drag me away. By the time we reached the town square I was
walking proudly, straight and as tall as anyone five two can walk
and as far away from Cullen Vail as my restraints would allow. I
was going to jail but I'd go with my head held high.

Chapter Seven

I am thrown into prison.

The ascent in the elevator was excruciating.
Neither of us spoke, nor did we look at each other. I used the time
to watch the ground fall away and the trees and bushes grow smaller
as we rose towards the huge tube that was the center of the
Destiny, wondering when, if ever, I'd see growing things again.
Cullen had secured me to a pipe so he didn't have to touch me
during our ride. As soon as he was sure I couldn't break free he
went to the opposite side and stayed there.

As we rose and gravity grew less, we began
floating and I tried to grab a strap so as not to end up twisting
and turning against my restraints. A slight sound caught my
attention. I tried to see where it came from but when I moved my
head my entire body followed and I found myself somersaulting over
and over as the restraints on my wrists grew tighter and threatened
to cut off circulation.

I located the source of the sound but didn't
look because I was busy trying to loosen my restraints. I soon
discovered that I didn't have to look because the source came to
me. Cullen Vail coming over. He grabbed my restraints, using them
as a fulcrum and stopping my tumbling motion. He slid his comunit
over them and they released enough for the circulation to return to
my wrists. Then a hand reached out and hauled me to the floor. Once
my feet were planted precariously, a second hand guided me to the
nearest strap.

"You're not used to the elevators."

"Obviously."

"I suppose stowaways have reason to avoid the
operations center." He didn't try to disguise the contempt in his
voice. Then it hardened as he had a thought. "Unless it would be to
plant a bomb." He whirled me around so hard that it hurt. I winced
but this time he didn't care. "Is that why you're on the Destiny?
To blow it up?" I couldn't stop whirling and would have grown dizzy
had his hand not stopped me abruptly.

"How can you think such a thing?"

"I was there when the colonists said goodbye.
I saw the crowds, the riots, and I read the signs. A lot of people
would like to see the Destiny fail. They'd like to see the entire
colonization program fail. A bomb would do that nicely."

"I'd die with everyone else."

"Some people don't care. Fanatics. Lunatics.
Lots of people."

"That's not why I'm here."

"Why are you here?" He stuck his face in
mine. We were inches apart. I'd never been that close to a man
without it leading to a kiss but that was the last thing on his
mind.

I took a deep breath as we stared at each
other. He'd never believe me, but with his face so close, his eyes
so angry and his body so forbidding, I couldn't think up a
convincing lie and I didn't want to. Didn't want to have to lie any
more.

I was suddenly tired. All my life I'd been
taught to keep what we did secret and I'd done so but the doing had
taken a toll. Staring into his angry eyes, I wanted to let it all
come out. Not that the anger would dissipate but it would help to
say it out loud. To speak for me, for my ancestors, for all of my
family who'd worked so hard for so many years to save lives and
been shunned for our trouble. Been hunted like witches. Been sent
away.

So, right then and right there I made a
decision and I told the truth, knowing it wouldn't be believed
because it never is but needing to say it anyway. "I stowed away in
order to save the crops that keep everyone alive."

Some of the fire left his eyes. He knew I was
a botanist and that the crops were in trouble. He couldn't possibly
know how bad it was going to get but that scant knowledge gave him
momentary pause. He leaned back so he could see me from a safe
distance though he didn't let go for fear I'd drift off. He bit his
lips in thought.

I was emboldened. "I'm saving the crops
because I can. Because I'm different. Because I'm not like you. I'm
not like most people. I'm special. I'm very, very special."

He said the same thing that everyone would
say if we told them about us. "I don't believe you."

"It's true. The crops are failing. Soon
people won't have enough to eat. We knew it would happen …
I
knew it would happen … so I stowed away in order to be where I
could fix things when everything went wrong."

He shook his head. "You're lying. You could
have worked at the greenhouses but you refused. The
experimental
greenhouses. The place where changes would be
made to save the crops. If they are, indeed, dying. If what you're
saying is true, you'd have jumped at the chance to work there."

I despaired of him believing but I had to
try. "You saw how I was treated. No one there would pay any
attention to me or to anything I'd say. They'd never have done what
was needed if for no other reason than that I suggested it."

"Or you preferred to work alone because it's
hard to build a bomb with other people around but no one would
notice in the middle of an apple orchard. You lived there for a
while."

"I live in an apartment. I have friends. They
visit. They'd see anything unusual."

"What about before? You could have done your
dirty work before you got an apartment. Alicia said you lived in
the orchard for a long time."

"I lived there because I'm a stowaway and
didn't have any other place."

"Stowing away on a space ship is a
felony."

"But that's all I'm guilty of and even that
was because none of us were selected as crew or colonists. We tried
but no one made the cut."

He blinked as what I was saying penetrated.
"None of you? Are you saying you're not the only one?"
Involuntarily he looked around as if to find more of my kind.

"I'm the only one on the Destiny."

"So you say."

"You don't have to search the ship. I'm the
only one who made it on board though several of us tried." His eyes
blazed and I knew that soon the ship would be searched inch by inch
for both bombs and stowaways.

I tried again. "It's a long story." If he'd
listen but I knew that even if he listened he wouldn't believe it.
No one would. I closed my eyes in despair.

Through my eyelids I saw movement and I heard
a harrumph, followed by, "Where you're going there'll be a lot of
time to tell any story you can come up with. If I were you I'd make
it a good one because the penalty for stowing away is severe."

I said nothing for the rest of the journey
and neither did Cullen. When we reached the central tube and the
elevator slowed and stopped he pulled me behind him as he floated
towards a block of rooms beyond a door with a guard before it. As
far as I could see along the tube, this was the only door that was
guarded. Then I noticed the sign on the front. Law Enforcement.
Cullen Vail's domain.

I was photographed, fingerprinted, swabbed
for DNA, tied to a different, longer tether and read my rights,
what few I had. As I floated about, careful not to get tangled in
my prisoner restraints, I looked for the door to the prison but
never found it. There were doors but they led to more and still
more offices. When all was done, Cullen pointed me towards the
entrance. Right back where we'd come from.

One of the officers asked, "Who do you want
to escort her to jail?" So jail was somewhere else.

"I'll take care of it myself."

Work stopped. Mouths dropped open, but no one
said a word. So quickly that I knew they were covering up their
sudden work stoppage, they closed their mouths again and turned
back to whatever they'd been doing while, without seeming to do so,
they watched us. From behind paperwork, around screens, while
swabbing spilled coffee from the air. Which meant Cullen Vail never
escorted prisoners. Lesser officers handled such menial tasks.
Until now.

Ignoring the silence and the electricity in
the room, he shoved me towards the entrance. His aim was excellent,
I would have sailed right through it if not for the tether
connecting us. It was long enough that I wouldn't strangle myself
and was made of a plastic-like substance that probably reacted in
some way to the small device he held in one hand. I decided not to
find out what it was or what would happen if I made a break for
it.

He drew up to me and side by side we floated
to the nearest elevator where I was shoved inside and tied like an
animal to a pole. Again. The doors closed and we started down. I
was glad we were alone so there was no one to stare at me.

As gravity took hold, I slid down the pole
until my feet were on the elevator floor and I found myself beside
a window through which I could see the ground rushing up and the
city that was the central hub of the Destiny. I recognized the
greenhouses we'd visited earlier and the animal buildings. But from
this height, I saw other buildings too. The courthouse. Beside it,
connected by a tunnel, I saw the jail.