Earth Legend (5 page)

I stopped petting the cat and rose slowly so
the movement would seem casual but I wanted to get away before she
asked a question I couldn't answer. This little girl who talked
nonstop asked a lot of questions. "Yes. That's where I live." What
excuse would get me away? "I should go now and get to work."

"Everyone else went to work hours ago." She
looked at me suspiciously.

"Not that kind of work. I meant that I need
to unpack. Boxes all over the place." She understood that and
nodded, bending her head over her cat. I started away. Then I
stopped and changed my mind about leaving. Perhaps I could ask
questions of this child that would arouse suspicion if asked of an
adult. "What do your parents do? What kind of work? Maybe I work
with them."

"They're farmers. Almost everyone in New
Rochelle is a farmer. Aren't you a farmer?"

"Uh… yes." How to defuse the suspicion
beginning in her eyes? "A special kind of farmer. I'm a
botanist."

"What kind of farmer is that?"

"It means I went to school to learn
farming."

"My family didn't have to go to school. They
just know how."

"Good for them."

"Were you harvesting apples in the
orchard?"

My heart began thudding in my chest. This
small child knew where I was from. My safety was already
compromised. Worse, if all of the residents of New Rochelle were
farmers, how long would it be before they harvested the apples and
uncovered my hiding spot? "I wasn't harvesting them, not yet. I was
checking on them. They are coming nicely. Almost ripe."

Alicia looked at me as if I was an idiot and
it hit me. Of course! The trees had blossoms and green fruit and
ripe apples all at the same time so fruit could be harvested
continuously. Genetic manipulation at work. "I mean there are a lot
ready right now. Enough that it'll be worth harvesting them any day
now. I enjoy harvesting. Do you?"

She nodded and pointed to a building across
the square that looked just like all the other buildings in the
village. "Did you sign up yet? You have to sign up before anyone
else if you want to harvest the apples in that orchard."

I gave Alicia her cat, fighting excitement.
Could I harvest them? If so, I could protect my hiding place and
look like I had a legitimate job at the same time. It was almost
too good to be true. "I forgot. Guess I should go now and sign up."
I sauntered across the park to the building she'd indicated, moving
casually so she wouldn't be suspicious. But it was hard, I wanted
to run.

The inside of the building resembled any
government facility everywhere. Touch-screens everywhere, bulletin
boards with papers pinned to them and a couple of library tables
and chairs. I'd dealt with the government enough during my graduate
days to find my way around with no trouble so soon I was signed up
to single-handedly harvest all the apples and cherries in the
orchard near New Rochelle. Thank goodness no one had already
claimed them.

When I left, my name was on one more official
Destiny list, just as if I was a genuine colonist and I could be
fairly sure that my hiding place was safe since I was the only
person harvesting anything in that particular area. I'd held my
breath while flashing the comunit tattoo across the screen because
I used my real name but Elle Olmstead still raised no red flags in
the Destiny's database.

When I came back outside, Alicia and her cat
were gone and the square was deserted. Deciding I'd accomplished
enough for the moment I took a shower in the Laundromat bathroom as
I waited for my clothes to get clean. As I dried myself, I took a
long look at my reflection in the tiny mirror above the sink and
did some serious thinking.

I'd gotten on the Destiny because I resembled
a family of redheads but now that I was on board that resemblance
could work against me. What if someone asked the family about me
and they said they had no such daughter? What if I happened to be
in the same place as that family and they denounced me? What
then?

So when I was dry and dressed I headed to the
grocery store and filled a bag with more than groceries. I carried
everything back to the cherry bushes. Digging in the bag, I pulled
out the mirror and scissors from the grocery store personal
products aisle. Then I cut my hair.

When I was done, I combed brown dye from that
same store through what hair was left. There was nothing I could do
about the curls and I didn't dare dye my hair too dark because my
few acquaintances already knew me as a redhead. But when I looked
in that mirror once more, the red in my hair was muted. I wasn't a
carrot top. I'd no longer be taken as a member of that family. I
sighed in relief. I had a place to live, my name didn't send up red
flags when I used my comunit and I was now myself instead of a
member of a family that could out me.

I decided it was time to find out about this
new home of mine that was whizzing through space at frightening
speed. The Destiny had a full library accessible to anyone with a
comunit, though some subjects were restricted to crew members with
special access codes. I didn't care about those parts, I wanted to
learn about every day life. So I leaned against a tree trunk and
took a crash course on how to be a colonist. Among other things, I
learned the proper process for harvesting apples and cherries. I
vowed to do it right, to not arouse suspicion.

Using my new-found information, a few days
later I went to the nondescript building in New Rochelle that I now
knew was the harvesting center and picked up a cart and tractor. A
half hour later, the wagon was full of cherries and apples but one
of the first things I'd learned as a child was not to show off my
abilities so I waited until evening to bring the full wagon back to
the center. I spent the intervening time checking out the trees and
bushes. They were growing nicely and would fill another cart with
produce the next day if I wanted them to. But I didn't. That would
be too soon.

At the harvesting center, the wagon was
quickly unloaded and my paperwork processed. Nothing aroused the
suspicion of the clerk who didn't even look at me as he waved me
off, eager to get to the next person and be done for the day.

Soon I settled into the same routine as the
legitimate colonists. I had a job and I made sure that I did it
openly and properly. I procured groceries at the store and washed
my clothes at the Laundromat, though I only did so when it was
empty so as not to call attention to the fact that I also showered
there instead of at home like everyone else.

And I listened to the music of pan pipes
occasionally at night, though I never discovered the identity of
the piper beyond the fact that it was a man. A large man who moved
through the trees and bushes as stealthily as a cat when the music
was done and it was time to leave. He never took the same route out
of the orchard twice and that bothered me. He could stumble onto my
hideout.

With that in mind, one day I dragged the
mattress and my few possessions deeper among the cherry bushes
before leaving with my harvest. When I returned the bushes had
grown tightly around my things, encircling them with a wall of
greenery so thick no one could find me unless they knew where to
look.

The next time the piper came in the middle of
the night, I lay back without fear of discovery and let myself
enjoy the music as I regained the sanity I was in danger of losing
because I didn't truly know how to be a fugitive. The music was
enough like my aunt's songs that it reminded me that I was a
worthwhile human being after all and I was mentally transported
back to Earth and my home. I soon felt tears coursing down my
cheeks but the thick greenery muffled the sound of my sobbing. I
was grateful.

During the daytime it was easy to forget that
I was a fugitive. I came to like the area and the people who lived
there. I was happy and it was only at night when the music of the
mysterious piper took me back home that I cried. During the day, I
could almost believe I was back on Earth just outside the small
town where I grew up. I'd always thought my family lived in the
most perfect place possible.

Because of that upbringing I knew how small
towns worked and I also knew that the Destiny was organized around
a rural governmental system. I used that information and that
knowledge to blend in.

I used my comunit freely now that I knew the
Destiny communications systems accepted it as valid. I talked with
people I met on the street though I never gave them a chance to ask
personal questions. I became a member of the community.

That first week soon became another, and
another, until almost two months passed. I began to think that the
whole stowaway thing might work. I relaxed somewhat and only then
did I realize how tense I'd been. When the mysterious piper came in
the middle of the night, the music was so relaxing that one night I
fell asleep in the middle of a song and had no idea when he
left.

I grew so bold that I didn't panic when
Cullen Vail, the man who could throw me out of an airlock,
appeared, though I would have avoided him if possible. I ran into
him at the New Rochelle café, a place I'd carefully avoided
whenever anyone wearing a Security uniform was around, but twice
Cullen Vail came in when I was already there and filling my plate.
I couldn't very well drop it and run because I saw him.

When I turned around to look for an empty
table, there he was, less than three feet away, filling his own
plate. Lasagna and an apple, probably one from my trees. His
uniform stood out in that place of casual dress.

We stared at each other too long to pretend
we didn't recognize each other. His scowl, followed by a fake
smile, told me he didn't want to talk to me any more than I wanted
a conversation with him. But his job required that he be friendly,
I'd read that in the Destiny library. Security was to keep people
safe not to scare them and Cullen Vail wanted to be the perfect
security person so if being friendly was part of the job then he'd
be friendly or die in the attempt.

He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "Got
your space legs yet?"

I looked for somewhere else to be than beside
him and saw an empty table against the wall. I slid sidewise around
his uniformed bulk and headed towards that table, tossing a reply
back over my shoulder. "I'm fine thank you." I sat down and didn't
look at him again, knowing he didn't want to be with me either,
though I watched him from the corner of my eye.

When his own plate was full he joined Alicia
and her family, sitting beside Wilkes Zander, the mayor of New
Rochelle. He was here on business. Nothing to do with me. All I had
to do was get out of there as fast as possible. I gobbled my lunch
and in minutes I was back among my nice, safe cherry bushes.

The second time I saw him things went down a
bit differently. As I filled my plate, Alicia and her mom waved to
me from a table in the middle of the room. "Come on over and join
us."

I did as they asked and, as soon as I saw who
was at the table, I wished I'd not taken them up on their offer,
but I'd already started in their direction so I was stuck. Worse,
there was only one empty seat so I had to take it. Next to Cullen
Vail, of course. Alicia's mother caught my expression as I eyed
him. "Do you two know each other?"

Cullen Vail gave me the kind of look usually
reserved for pythons. My arm brushed his and we both jumped as if
shot. Alicia's mother's eyebrows rose but she said nothing and
Alicia chatted away in blissful ignorance of the tension that
suddenly appeared. Cullen muttered something about having met once
or twice, and then he shut up.

"The kittens are old enough to leave home,"
Alicia said, looking meaningfully at both Cullen and me but she
focused mainly on me. "Are you ready for a kitten yet? They are
born and there's one left."

"I'm so sorry, but I can't."

Temporarily giving up on me, she skewered
Cullen with a look. "What about you?"

It was easy to see that he was afraid of
children, but he managed to come up with an answer. "My job doesn't
allow for pets. I'm gone a lot."

Her shoulders slumped and her eyes teared as
her mother hugged her. "Honey, I'm sure someone will want the
kitten. We'll find a home for it. There's still time."

Alicia put her head in her mom's shoulder and
sobbed briefly. Then she pulled back and stared long and hard at
Cullen and me again as she let us know what she wanted, saying
pointedly, "Yes. We. Will. Find. It. A. Home."

Cullen Vail avoided her stare by turning
towards Wilkes Zander and soon the two men were discussing the
politics of New Rochelle. I listened while pretending not to,
knowing this was a business meeting disguised as lunch and, since I
was already committed to being a part of the group, I wanted to
gather as much information as possible. Some tidbit might help me
avoid capture. But all they did was talk about people they knew and
soon Cullen Vail excused himself and left.

When Cullen Vail was gone Wilkes Zander shook
his head, grinning widely. "That's it for two weeks."

"Huh?" I didn't understand.

"There are ten villages on the Destiny.
Wilkes Zander has lunch in one of the villages every week day. He
pretends to be visiting but he's checking us out." Everyone at the
table laughed, this was an old joke. "Ten villages means two weeks.
So he'll be back after visiting the other villages. In two
weeks."

I thought back to the last time I'd met him
in the café. It had likely been two weeks ago. I checked the
calendar, now knowing when not to eat in town.

As soon as was decent, I told everyone at the
table that I had work to do, and left. It was all I could do not to
run through town and into the apple orchard. I didn't stop shaking
until I was safely surrounded by the cherry bushes and apple trees
that folded themselves around me and hid me from the world.