Earth Legend (16 page)

"I won them in a poker game."

"I bet you play beautifully."

"I don't play. I liked the look of them,
that's all, so I kept them."

We stared at one another. He dared me to
argue farther and I knew he'd never acknowledge his ability. So I
changed the topic. "It's going to be a busy day. There are apples
in the orchard ready to be harvested and since we're joined at the
hip, you're about to be educated on the finer points of picking
fruit." I pointedly ignored the expression on his face. "Got a pair
of heavy, cotton work gloves?"

He didn't need them, of course, but I made
him get some from the store in town so people would think we
harvested crops the same way everyone else did. By hand instead of
by conversing with the trees and bushes and convincing them to
gently lay their fruit in my cart. When I suggested he rub the
gloves on a few trunks to get them dirty, he did so with a dazed
expression. I tried to make him feel better. "You're not the only
one who feels odd about this situation."

"Odd?" He stared at his gloved hands. "Is
that what you call talking to trees? Odd? Even odder is that they
listen and do what you want."

"I told you it's a gift."

He leaned one hip against the cart and took
an apple and turned it every which way as if doing so would help
him figure me out. "I wish I knew how it works."

I sank to the ground, crossing my legs as I
went downward until I sat easily between a lovely apple tree and
the cart it had proudly deposited apples in. And I tried to explain
something no one in my family had ever explained before. "Think of
the orchard as an orchestra. The trees want to make the best music
possible and they are wonderful individually but they need someone
to coordinate their efforts. To show them how to produce the best
music … the best apples … possible. I know a lot about growing
things so I have a lot of ideas and they listen to me."

"You're a botanist."

"I have a degree in botany and that helps,
but mostly it's intuition."

"Like any good music depends on the ability
of the musician as much as on their training."

"Exactly. So now you understand."

"Except for the fact that most people can't
talk to trees. Or understand their language."

"There is that."

"You were born with that ability."

"It's the gene thing. My abnormal genetic
makeup."

"The reason none of you were accepted as
colonists."

Instead of answering, I leaned back and
stared at the faux sky that was my new normal. Cullen slid down
beside me and we sat in companionable silence for a while.
Companionable? Cullen? I marveled that I was comfortable with him
but I enjoyed his silence because I hate people who babble on just
for the sake of talking.

I wanted to take his hand but didn't. Saw his
hand move towards mine, then move back without touching. And
thought about us because suddenly, unexpectedly, it felt like there
was an 'us.'

Not Cullen. Not now, not ever. But some part
of me kept asking 'if not Cullen, then who?' There was no one
besides me on the Destiny with my abilities so marrying within my
own kind wasn't an option. And the idea of a popsicle fathering my
children made me shudder. So why not Cullen?

I shook my head, shaking the image out of my
mind, checked the time, started the engine on the cart and we took
our harvest to town where Cullen's presence was followed by stares
and whispers much the way the passage of a shark is followed by a
wave as it swims through the ocean.

We had lunch at the café with Wilkes Zander
and his whole, extended family in what looked like a friendly
gathering and was, in reality, a business meeting between the head
of Security and the Mayor of New Rochelle, something everyone knew
by then and respected. In this new world the colonists were
creating, new norms were being created every day. Meetings were
both social and business and it worked.

People gave the two men privacy even as
Cullen pulled me close because I was his job and he wasn't about to
let me get too far from his protective bulk. That bulk felt pretty
good even though I'd just figured out that I should be avoiding him
like the plague if I didn't want to find my emotions all tangled up
and just being close seemed to do that. As for Cullen, nothing
about our relationship was personal. He could do two things at
once, hold me in a way that made us look like lovers and discuss
business with Wilkes Zander.

I settled down and set about shoving Cullen
from my mind as the two men talked. I'd long ago vowed to fall in
love carefully because people in my family have power. Lots of
power that could do terrible things if used unwisely. So I'd never
let myself get serious about anyone.

But Cullen Vail was the epitome of
responsibility. His children would be intelligent, responsible and
stubborn. He was precisely the kind of father my children should
have if the colonists were to thrive on whatever planet the Destiny
reached. I glanced at him sidewise and pictured him as a patriarch.
It was easy.

Then he and Wilkes Zander finished their
conversation and the table erupted into conversation because the
business part of the meeting was done and the visiting could
commence.

The women asked Cullen what we should wear
for the first ever upcoming visit from the Captain. Another meeting
that would be both a social visit and an official function. It
would be the first ever so no one knew what constituted proper
attire. This meeting would set the protocol for all such future
meetings so what to wear was important, at least to the women at
the table. Cullen said stiffly that he had no idea what women
wore.

Alicia's mother finally offered to ask a
friend in Center City who knew Darlene Smithers what she planned to
wear. We could all take our cues from the captain's wife.
Remembering the quiet, artistic woman with an African violet in her
hands, I wondered if we'd all end up in long, silky, artist-type
dresses and whether the store in town carried such things.

Chapter Eleven

The Captain's wife asks a favor.

We did indeed wear sheer, long dresses, the
kind the nearby store didn't stock because this was a farm town.
But Alicia's mom got them for us in a rush trip to Center City. She
had our sizes and we trusted her. She returned with a rainbow of
colors. Mine was green. "Because you're a redhead and a
farmer,"

"I love green," I replied, pretending to like
it while thinking back to a childhood of being thrust into green
outfits because I'm a redhead. I'd worn enough green to last a
lifetime but I sighed and tried it on. Purple would have been
lovely, or pink, but green it was.

The official part of the visit went smoothly
with the Captain inspecting everything there was to inspect, which
wasn't much, and smiling as if he knew what it was used for, which
he probably did. Then he and Darleen retired to an empty apartment
that had been turned over to them so they could dress for the
evening's festivities, a dance in the town square.

Cullen and I changed in my apartment.
Our
apartment because we were joined at the hip. Soon after
I was ready Cullen emerged from his bedroom in the stiff, black
dress uniform that matched both his demeanor and his dark hair and
eyes.

I had something to say, a request to make. I
started innocuously. "The plants are healthy, the crisis is past.
Everything is normal again."

He flicked an imaginary speck of dust from a
sleeve, an unnecessary gesture because no dust would dare sully
Cullen Vail's perfect image. "So?"

"So the Destiny is safe and so am I. It's
about time you moved back to your house in Center City."

"I'll go when the captain orders me to and
not one moment before."

"You could ask him tonight."

He muttered something unintelligible and I
swished imperiously around his granite self, trailing green gauze,
and headed for the door. He followed and slammed the door hard
behind us. But I had made my point and in the process came to
wonder why I'd ever considered him as father material. The man was
impossible.

We reached the town square a little early, my
diaphanous dress billowing against his black uniform. "I feel like
I'm wearing curtains that should be decorating a window and blowing
in the breeze."

"Except on the Destiny there is no wind."

"There should be. A mistake in planning.
Plants need wind. It's how they communicate."

"There were no mistakes made when the Destiny
was designed." His voice was stiff. "The best minds on earth
designed her."

"Huh!"

We couldn't argue further because at that
moment the captain and his wife appeared. The pink and white cloud
that was Darlene Smithers in an even more diaphanous dress than
mine saw me, veered from her husband's arm and made a beeline for
us. For me. Her eyes bored into mine, then drifted towards
Cullen.

Cullen read Darlene's expression. "She wants
to talk to you. Alone." He looked around uncomfortably. "But I stay
wherever you are."

I followed his gaze around the town square.
"See any thugs who want to snatch me?" I swung my arm wide. "No one
is out to get me because I don't need protection." He scowled as I
pointed to Captain Smithers watching his wife walk towards us. "The
captain isn't busy. You could ask him to rescind his order of
protection." I rose to my tiptoes and gave him my most truculent
stare. "You can still see us and have your gun drawn in case
someone tries to abduct me."

He patted his holster and grunted as Darlene
reached us. Stared at him pointedly as she raised one eyebrow and
waited for him to leave, knowing that as the captain's wife her
slightest wish would be obeyed. Cullen scowled again, gave me a
black look that said I'd better not try to ditch him, and then he
sauntered a few yards away.

Darlene sniffed. "Your boyfriend is the
strong, silent type."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"That's not how it looks to me." She bit her
lip to keep from laughing. "Strong and silent isn't a bad kind of
man. I'm married to one of the worst, but I suspect Cullen and my
husband are identical in that respect." I agreed politely and
waited to find out what she wanted. Something was on her mind. Her
next words proved me right. "Is there somewhere we can talk?
Somewhere private?"

We found a couple of lawn chairs that had
been set out for people to watch the dancing. We pulled them a
discreet distance from the growing throng. Cullen moved
fractionally to keep us in sight and the captain followed. They
spoke. I wished I knew what they were saying. Perhaps I would get
my wish and Cullen would be reassigned.

Darlene Smithers next words sent all other
thoughts from my mind. "I know what you did. I know you saved the
Destiny. Not many people know, I'm one of the few who do. You
deserve accolades and I thank you for my life and the lives of all
of us." I waited. There was more, I knew it and after a long pause,
it came. "After that meeting in our house when you brought back my
African violet, I looked you up. You and your ancestors. The
goddess Ceres. She was your ancestor, goddess of the harvest."

I nodded cautiously as she continued.
"There's a lot of information in the Destiny library so I know that
wasn't all Ceres could do." My breath slowed as I figured out where
this conversation was going. "Ceres did more than make sure the
harvest is bountiful." She unconsciously patted her flat stomach
and I knew my suspicions were right. "Ceres was also the goddess of
fertility."

Darleen looked down at her hands on her
stomach. Stared at them. "We are childless." Realizing that I was
watching, she withdrew her hands quickly. "We've tried and tried,
but nothing has happened." Her eyes raised and met mine. They were
filled with unhappiness and need. "I want a child who can become a
part of the new world we are heading for." I now knew the reason
for the longing in her eyes when we first met.

I gulped. "Those are just stories. They
aren't true. Ceres couldn't wave a magic wand and make sure anyone
became pregnant and neither can I."

"Yes you can. I know you can. It's in the
record, Ceres is the goddess of fertility and you are descended
from her so you have her powers. You can do it." She reached over
and put a hand on my lap. "Please. I'm begging you." Tears
welled.

Ceres got that reputation because she knew
plants. She knew which ones could help infertile women. But the
unhappy woman before me would never believe it was that simple.
Nothing would convince her that I couldn't help.

I made a decision. I would go for it. I would
do what Ceres had done. I would use my knowledge of herbs to help
this woman. I knew how because I'd heard the stories growing up.
Knew which herbs increased a woman's chance of conceiving, had
heard the recipe discussed. Knew how to mix them to maximum
potency. "I might be able to get some herbs that will help but
there's no guarantee."

Her smile turned the night into day. "I knew
you'd do it! I knew I could count on your help!" She rose, filled
with eagerness and the sudden energy of someone whose life has
turned around. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Don't thank me yet. I need some specific
herbs and I don't know where to find them on the Destiny."

"The greenhouses?" She leaned close, begging
me to guarantee her a child. "They grow everything there."

"Maybe, but I don't work there. I can't just
walk in and demand what I need. Unless you want me to explain what
they are for." Which I was sure she didn't. She'd arranged a
private meeting with me, she didn't want what she considered her
lack to become public.

"I'll talk to Brian." Was the captain putty
in his wife's hands? I decided he probably was, at least when they
were alone. "He'll get you a job there." She waved her hands
through the air as if painting a picture by Cezanne. "Brian will
get you into the greenhouses." She wrapped her arms around me.
"It's where you should be anyway."