The Alejandra Variations (18 page)

She continued, "It has been long believed that you would awaken like the Hearts of the other Clans upon the earth, but your sleep has lasted many, many lifetimes. You are
our
Heart," she smiled. "But you are
my
Heart as well. Please, tell us how you are feeling."

Nicholas craned his legs over the edge of the stasis couch, feeling very weak indeed. His head seemed to spin from a welter of detail. Hearts, Clantrams, flowers.…

He realized, with an awful shock, that he must have been sleeping, like Rip Van Winkle, on that couch for thousands of years. He certainly felt like he had. Every one of those years creaked in his bones.

He stood up slowly on the cool metal of the floor. Suddenly his knees buckled. With a surprised cry he fell to the floor.

The women rushed to him and helped him to rise. He shook in Cesya's arms. She held him firmly.

"You must take things very slowly, Heart. You've been sleeping in the Unit for a very long time. Your body must take its time adjusting. Are you in need of medication?"

She was formal and considerate. He felt like a family heirloom newly discovered in an old attic.

"I'm fine," Nicholas told her. Her breasts were warm against his arm as she supported him. Her strength was both unexpected and welcome.

"How long have I been… like this?" He indicated the couch with a weak hand. "Where am I?"

There were crisscrosses of tiny crow's feet at the corners of Cesya's eyes that creased when she smiled.

"You have been with us for generations beyond generations. Even we don't remember. When the first Blossoms of the dead world bloomed, you were among the first to be found."

"Blossoms?"

Some of the women—the younger ones—giggled and were summarily shushed by the older ladies. Cesya held Nick so that he could see out through the wide windows that lined the room. The view seemed to say it all.

"Oh, yes," she said with reverence. "The Blossoms gave us this beautiful world. All of our Hearts come from the Blossoms that the last empire left us. Because of you, we have survived."

Nicholas gazed beyond the window. The world beyond the Clantram was green, lush, and bounteous. The window through which he stared was entirely open—there was no glass or protective quartz. Air circulated freely, with it came the sensuous smells of the fields which surrounded them.

What was the half-life of uranium 235? Two hundred and fifty thousand years, he seemed to recall. What about all the reactor-core plutonium released in ground bursts? How long would that take to break down?

Two hundred and fifty thousand years! And much more.

Nicholas staggered to the window and took in a deep breath of air. The capillaries in his lungs seemed to sprout like the limbs of a tree. It was as if he hadn't breathed for millennia.

How could the world of DefCon—so eternally bleak on the outside, so unmitigatedly decadent on the inside—lead to this Edenic vision? Had a quarter of a million years gone by?

"Don't think, Heart," Cesya whispered gently into his ear. "You are where you belong—and it is no dream."

Nicholas stared at her closely. There was no malice in her eyes. She seemed all too willing to dote on his needs for the moment. Yet, there was an assumed connection between them he didn't comprehend.

"Heart," she had said. He was her Heart.

Cesya smiled, squinting in the wind as she leaned out the window. The breeze tugged softly at her featherlike golden hair. "Since I became leader of the Tejadas, you have been under my care. I have long awaited the day when I would be your wife. There were times when I dared not think it could come true. Now it has."

"My wife?" Nicholas said, stunned. "Now, wait a second. You're going way too fast for me. I just woke up. For a while I thought I was dead." He recalled the flight from DefCon, and the shark.

"I want some answers."

Just then he heard a voice from behind the other women. It was another voice of authority.

"Cesya! I have just heard the news!"

The women toward the rear of the compartment stepped aside, revealing a large portal where daylight slanted through. An elderly woman climbed in from a ladder stationed just outside the portal. When she gained the room she didn't look as old as he'd originally thought. Her uniform was very similar to Cesya's. Perhaps they were almost equal in rank.

Taken all together, these were a remarkable race. Their beauty, their vigor were unparalleled in his experience.

The older woman smiled when she saw that Nicholas was up and about. She moved toward him with an easy step that made him think that her apparent age was only a disguise.

"My goodness!" she grinned happily. "You've awakened fully." She gazed upon him with affection, as if he were a lost grandchild. "And you're in wonderful condition, too."

She began poking him in various places, feeling his arms. He backed away from her, bumping up against the stasis couch. "Hey," he cried in alarm, "watch it!"

The women in the compartment all broke out in laughter.

Cesya approached him reassuringly. "This is Ariuzu, our physician. She administers to all of our needs. She's been your guardian ever since she became our healer. You have no need to fear her."

In a strange, almost scary way, Ariuzu reminded him of his own grandmother—his mother's mother. She smiled kindly, and laughed a little. "Forgive my excitement, Nicholas. It is just my way. We have all lived for a moment like this. Can you understand?" Her voice sounded like that of a bird, a rather charming bird at that.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm new to all this."

Cesya touched him with a firm, yet tender hand. "This is a joyous occasion," she announced. "Your awakening has been foretold for centuries—and here you are!" She bubbled with ecstasy, hugging him. She then held him away from her and turned to her followers. "We will celebrate! Yes, this calls for a night of celebration!"

Her followers spoke to each other in excited tones, clapping their hands. But Ariuzu frowned and interceded.

"No, Cesya, not yet. The Clan must move on before we can pause for a celebration. It is the Law. We are days away from a Blossom, and besides, Nicholas is very new to us, and we to him. He is like a newborn child, and we must initiate him gently into our ways. We will stop when we get to a place of Blossoming—unless you wish to incur the wrath of a Keeper."

A sudden, almost deadly silence struck the women in the compartment. The younger girls cowered at the mention of the Keeper.

Cesya lost some of her enthusiasm and almost seemed to pout, but her regal bearing was unshaken. "You are right, Ariuzu. I respect your wisdom. It isn't every day that a woman gets a mate who's been sleeping for centuries. I can wait."

"Very good," the elderly physician said.

Nicholas, who had been sitting on the edge of the stasis couch, stood up. "Wait a second," he broke in. "Don't I have any say in this?" They had spoken of him as if he were tribal property, and he didn't like it.

He recalled how little Lexie had treated him upon his initial awakening, and where such presumption led.

Cesya touched him. "You are entirely at the center of our universe, Heart. You may say anything you wish." Her eyes were very kind.

Her candor and consideration were disarming.

"But, for now." she continued. "we will move our Clantrams on. Relax and let Ariuzu tend to your physical discomforts."

The servant girls withdrew to another part of the craft. The other women stepped down the ladder outside, leaving Ariuzu and Cesya alone with Nick in the large imperial chamber.

As the others were leaving the craft, a woman of about Cesya's age entered from a room at the fore of the vehicle. She wore a headpiece that came down completely across one eye, looking as if it was part computer and part vision-assembly. She had the look of bad news about her.

"Mistress, the Unit has received warning of a Violation of movement," the woman said.

Nicholas glanced through the door and saw that she had come from the cockpit of the vehicle. A computer, with its many-colored lights, showed through the door. A single bucket seat was in front of it.

"A Violation?" Cesya suddenly looked ill. "Is a Keeper
that
close?"

"Apparently. I recommend that we proceed at once." The woman had given Nicholas a sidelong glance, but retained the air of a good pilot waiting for instructions. He found the device over her eye rather disconcerting.

"Then move the Clan onward. There will be no Violation as long as we are moving. Try to locate a Blossom for us. The Keepers will not bother us for more than a day if we reach a place of Blossoming. We
must
celebrate."

Then the pilot did smile somewhat. There was a sense of camaraderie here that Nicholas had yet to fathom.

The pilot returned to her room, and moments later the whole craft shook as the Clantram fell into gear. Nicholas went over to the windows. Both women watched him as if they were great-aunts and he a youngish nephew seeing his country estate for the first time.

Their Clantram made a wide, languid turn, and Nick could see that it led a long line of vehicles. There were twenty-five Clantrams riding on very large wheels that moved ponderously, but efficiently, over the grassy ruffles of the meadow.

It was a caravan of sorts, and Nicholas could see the women who had been present at his peculiar awakening running back to their own trams. They seemed as agile as creatures of the African veldt, bounding up ladders which were quickly drawn inside the open portals. The engines of the machines were amazingly quiet—even where he stood, he could hear the joyful cries and shouts of the bronze women in the other vehicles.

Ariuzu came to him as he stood looking out at the new world. "Nicholas, you must relax. I know there are many questions in your mind, but there is time to learn all the right answers. If you will come with me, I will show you your chambers."

There was something soothing in her voice which harmonized with the sounds of the Clantram engines and wheels as they moved along. Perhaps the liquid he had drunk had something to do with how he felt. But he no longer felt threatened. There was so much space out there! DefCon had long since disappeared. That horrible world was gone.

In an odd way, he felt at home.

Behind him, Cesya stood watching. Eden was never like this.

Chapter Three

THEY TRAVELED ACROSS what seemed to Nicholas an endlessly beautiful panorama of plains and low, forest-studded hills. They journeyed for days on end, rarely stopping, even at night.

The Clantrams, all twenty-five of them, kept their slow, steady passage over the earth at an intentionally calculated crawl. The wheels turned slowly, but turn they did. As far as Nicholas could tell, they had no particular destination. They followed the contours of the land, forded rivers where they appeared, and avoided large mountains or thick forests. The computer—or Unit—acted like something of a forward scout. It always knew where to go, and where not to go. Roads were nonexistent, and nowhere could Nicholas find any sign of civilization.

That a world such as this could have descended from a past that had known a full-scale nuclear exchange seemed impossible. Still, the sunlight seemed wan and tired, supporting the facts. Hundreds of thousands of years had indeed gone by.

The Unit of the Clantram, though, was remarkably poor in information. It contained no history, no dates of importance—merely guided them through this innocent world.

Ariuzu insisted that his first days and weeks with the Clan be as stressless as possible, and Nicholas took that as a tacit hint that few questions were to be asked, and even fewer answers given. Nicholas protested, but the medication he'd been given to revitalize his body kept those protests from being effective. It fired him up, yet calmed him down. For the time being, it was enough to enjoy paradise as the Clans lumbered over the earth.

Cesya was with him often, mostly during meals, which were taken always in motion—but the meals were long and pleasant. She had developed some patience in her courtship, for she expressed no immediate need for any kind of union, either social or physical. Ariuzu also insisted upon this time of peace.

Their search for a place of Blossoming—whatever that was—continued. The medication continued. Nicholas felt much better. Cesya was playful with him when she had the time. Her duties were many and mysterious, often taking her to the other vehicles.

During their third week of steady continuous travel an incident occurred which caused Cesya so much concern that Nick felt it necessary—if only for his future survival—to immediately wring some history of the Clans out of her.

His chambers were in the rear of the lead Clantram, next to Cesya's and Ariuzu's. He had been sailing in the euphoric effects of his medication, lost in the Clantram's easy swaying, when the vehicle ground to a halt. It was a clear, starry night. Nicholas put on his kilt, and stepped outside in the corridor. Cesya had been in her own bower, preparing herself for sleep, and emerged obviously alarmed.

"What is it?" he asked.

Then the lights in the vehicle went out entirely and the engines cut off—or were intentionally shut down. He couldn't tell.

They passed through the large stasis chamber which was now strewn with ornately decorated pillows. The couch had been disassembled. Ariuzu came out of her chamber in a bulky robe, sleep crusted in her eyes. There was a quiet commotion in the maids' chambers.

The pilot—a different woman this time—was sitting in front of the Unit control board. The cockpit lights were also out, but a single screen glowed palely before her.

Cesya and Nick stepped into the small room. "You found a Keeper," were Cesya's first words. "Where?"

"No, mistress," the pilot said in a low voice. "It's another Clan."

Cesya gasped. Night sounds came to them from the outside. They stared through the fore window. Cesya then made a gesture to the pilot, and the woman turned the screen off. In the complete dark they were able to see much more of the night before them.