Putting Up Roots

Chapter Twelve

The storm continued for half the night. The animals outside were subdued by the elements, or perhaps they had gone far off to seek shelter. At any rate, they were quiet. Josh slept deeply, and awoke determined to do a more thorough exploration of the forest. Last night’s discussions had taken them nowhere. Ruby had hardly noticed the piled umbrella leaves, and he hadn’t been able to get a useful word out of Dawn. As for Sapphire, all she did was shake her head and look wretched.

He came outside to a drenched but sunlit world and learned that he was not the first one up. Topaz was in the kitchen with Dawn, drawing on a pad resting on the tabletop. Sig was by her side, watching. When he saw Josh he scowled and turned away, as though embarrassed by his own interest in what mere girls might be doing.

“Did you go already?” Josh came to Topaz’s side and stared down at the pad. It was the letters of the alphabet, upper- and lowercase.

“Go where?” Topaz carefully added another, the letter K. Dawn copied it, easily and accurately.

“Did you go and look for the pile of umbrella leaves that Ruby was sitting on?”

Topaz raised her dark eyebrows. “Give me a chance. It’s only been light for half an hour. We didn’t even eat yet. If you’re so keen, why don’t you go?”

“I think I will.”

Josh was irritated as he headed out of the kitchen. Topaz probably thought she could make Dawn less autistic, but based on the evidence it was working the other way round—Topaz was becoming as inscrutable and impenetrable as Dawn.

He had gone only a couple of paces when he halted. He was facing away from the rising sun, and something had flashed bright silver in the corner of his eye. He turned to stare. It was moving fast across the sky, a stubby little dart that left behind a thin plume of white.

It could not be Sol Brewster and the cargo aircar. The shape was wrong, and the path that the ship was taking would bring it nowhere near the camp.

“Sig! Topaz! Come see this.” He turned to make sure they were on the way.

They weren’t—they were still staring at Dawn and that stupid pad. “Did you hear me? Hurry!”

Already the speeding ship was halfway to the horizon and shrinking in apparent size every second. Sig had finally begun to move, but with no great haste. Topaz was behind him, staring down at the pad she was holding. Dawn did not move an inch.

“Look at this, Josh.” Topaz began to speak before she was fully outside. “I didn’t spell it out or anything. She just did it for herself!” She lifted the pad and turned it.

Josh glanced at the pad impatiently. The drawing was unmistakable—it was of Topaz, smiling and in half-profile. At the bottom, in the right-hand corner, the word “Dawn” was neatly printed.

“She can write her name!” Topaz wasn’t looking at Josh or where he was pointing; she was too busy grinning at the signed picture. “I bet if I keep working with her, she’ll be able to read and write anything.”

Normally Josh would have been as excited as Topaz, but the speeding ship was on the far horizon and the sun glint from its body was already lost.

“Never mind the picture.” He pointed. “Look over there.”

It was almost too late. Josh could see the dark dot of the ship, but that was because he knew exactly where to look. The plume of the exhaust was no more than a tiny white feather in the sky.

Sig and Topaz were squinting up into the bright morning glare, but he could tell from their puzzled expressions that they were missing it.

“Look at what?” Sig said. “I don’t see anything except clouds.”

“It was a ship. A space-rated vehicle, like the one that took us up from Earth. You can still see its exhaust.”

But it was obvious that they couldn’t. Sig turned from scanning the sky to stare skeptically at Josh.

Topaz seemed even more dubious. “There are no ships around Solferino at the moment,” she said. “It’s supposed to be another week before the medical center service ship comes back here. Brewster said so. You just imagined you saw something.”

It wasn’t an argument that you could win. How could you prove that something now vanished had ever been there? Josh was ready to try anyway, with the indignant statement that he had seen a ship, definitely, certainly, undeniably; but a new sound from behind stopped him before he could start. Even before he turned, Josh recognized the familiar whine.

“Oh, that’s what it was,” Topaz said. “A cargo aircar.”

“No, it wasn’t!” Josh began, and gave up. No matter what he said, he wouldn’t get their attention now.

The aircar feathered down beside the camp. As it touched, blowing a ripple of dew across the wet ground, Ruby, Amethyst, and the Lasker twins came hurrying from the camp dormitories. They had heard the arriving car.

The whole group froze, waiting. When the door of the vehicle opened and Brewster stepped down the three-rung ladder, the tension increased. Yesterday might have been hectic and scary, but at least Brewster had not been there to push people around.

“Where are Winnie Carlson and Sapphire Karpov?” Brewster didn’t waste any time on greetings.

No one answered, until Topaz provided a reluctant, “I guess they’re in bed.”

“Indeed?” From the tone in Brewster’s voice, it might have been after midday. “If they are in bed, go and rouse them. The rest of you, get to work. We’ll be breaking camp as soon as possible. I don’t want to waste another minute here.”

Brewster did not wait to see that his order was obeyed. He was striding back toward the aircar when Josh raised his hand and said, “Sir!”

He was surprised by his own boldness, especially when he saw the impatient glare that Brewster gave him.

“Yes? Kerrigan, isn’t it? Didn’t you understand what I told you? Or do you have a hearing problem?”

“I did understand, sir.”

“So what are you standing about for?”

It occurred to Josh that everyone was standing about, wondering what Brewster was going to do to him. But he was committed.

“I think something very important happened yesterday, while you were gone.”

At least that got Brewster’s full attention. The pale eyebrows raised above the dark eyes. “Important in what way?”

“We found a new animal.”

“That is hardly a surprise. Humans came to Solferino only three years ago. The planet must have a million species that have not yet been cataloged. What did it look like?”

“It was a rupert.”

“Then it is not a new animal at all.”

“But this one was different, sir. I mean, it was a different sort of rupert. I mean…”

Josh knew what he wanted to say, but his tongue was tripping over itself. He started to explain what had happened, then realized he could not tell Brewster that Ruby got lost because her sister was drugged out of her mind. He tried to edit what he was saying as he spoke, and heard things coming out choppy and illogical. No one else helped him out, and it was a real relief to see Topaz returning with Sapphire and Winnie Carlson in tow. Winnie looked awful, pale-faced but dark under the eyes, and yawning as though she had been awake all night.

Brewster turned on them. “Ah. It is nice of you to favor us with your presence. I hope you are enjoying your Solferino vacation.” But then it was at once back to Josh.

“So, Kerrigan, let me get this clear. An animal was discovered in the forest. Not by you, and you did not obtain a clear view of it. But despite the fact that you did not see it, you believe that it is intelligent. Who did see it?”

Josh didn’t want to do it, but he had no choice. While Sapphire looked pure murder at him, he pointed to Ruby and Dawn.

Brewster’s eyebrows went up farther. “You saw this animal?” he said to Ruby She nodded without speaking.

“Describe its appearance.” And, when Ruby hesitated, “What did it look like?”

“It was gray, and a bit smaller than me. It looked very cuddly.”

“Did it do anything?”

“Yes. It stood there, and it stared at me while I stared at it. It had little beady eyes, like black pebbles.”

“I don’t care what it looked like. Did it act intelligently? Did it have tools with it, or wear clothing? Did it try to speak?”

“Oh, no. Nothing like that.”

“I see.” Brewster turned back to Josh. Everyone else was silent. Hag and Rick were grinning at his misery, while Winnie Carlson, the only one who might have been able to help, stood with her head bowed and her eyes staring at the floor in front of her feet.

“Well, Kerrigan,” Brewster went on. “You didn’t see the animal, and the only person who did see it detected no signs that it might be intelligent. So how did you reach your own conclusion? By mind reading? By divine inspiration?”

“No, sir.” Josh knew this was only going to get worse, but he could think of no way to stop it. “It was the pictures, sir.”

“The rupert drew pictures?”

“Yes. Well, I mean, no, not exactly. Dawn drew them. She drew the pictures. Pictures of pictures that the ruperts had made.”

“No gibbering, if you please.” Brewster turned to Dawn, but she was not looking at either him or Josh. She was staring at the stream, as though no one else were around.

Brewster returned his attention to Josh. “So she told you about the pictures. Of course. But naturally, since she talks to no one but you, there is no way of checking what she said, is there?”

“She didn’t actually tell me. I realized…” Josh didn’t try to finish the sentence. Under Brewster’s questioning, everything that he said sounded ridiculous. He had trouble believing it himself.

But last night, and early this morning, it had seemed obvious that the ruperts must be intelligent.

“I think that’s more than enough nonsense for one day.” To Josh’s relief, Brewster seemed to have done with him. “I’m going to say a couple more things, and then we’ll go to work and get out of here. I have a low tolerance for nonsense, as you will learn. And it’s nonsense to give me a far-fetched story about an intelligent rupert, when every survey of Solferino shows there’s no such thing. It’s not just the surveys. It’s common sense, too. The smartest animals are all carnivores and omnivores—either they have to develop brains to outthink their prey, or they have to be able to find something edible where other animals can’t. That’s why a sheep doesn’t have one-tenth the intelligence of a wolf, and why humans can live just about anywhere on Earth. But every animal on Solferino big enough to have a thinking brain is a herbivore, and it just eats plants. You don’t need to be clever to catch a plant. And don’t get confused because an animal shows some of the signs of intelligence. Did any of you ever see a beaver lodge?”

There was a general mutter, which Brewster took for agreement. “So you know that it seems impossible for an animal to build that lodge without being very smart,” he went on. “But a beaver isn’t intelligent, it’s still just an animal. Same for a beehive, or a termite colony. Very complex, and you might think whatever made it had to be intelligent. But we don’t go around saying bees and termites are intelligent. We know better. Same with ruperts. It’s also nonsense to say that you saw a rupert which had eyes, when everyone knows that ruperts navigate using ultrasonic signals, the same as bats.

“I told you when you arrived, if you take your orders from me you’ll be all right. But I go away for a day, and what happens? With no one in control, even when there’s supposed to be”—he stared hard at Winnie Carlson—“you start doing crazy things and thinking crazy thoughts, before my vehicle is off the ground.”

He glanced at his watch. “All right, that’s enough wasted time. I want this camp clear, so I wouldn’t know we’ve been here. And I want it done in fifteen minutes or less. If you are still here then, you’ll wish you weren’t.”

Josh wasn’t much impressed by Brewster’s arguments about the ruperts. All the man had done was say how intelligence had developed on Earth. Why couldn’t it have developed for quite different reasons on Solferino? And Josh was pretty sure that beavers only ate plants, and they were one of Earth’s smartest animals. He also wanted to ask about the ship that he had seen, but only a total fool would mention it now. He had even less evidence for that than for the smart rupert. As they cleaned up the camp and the buildings folded themselves away, he hunted for the great leaf on which Dawn had done her drawings. There was no sign of it.

He gave up after two minutes, when he noticed that Brewster had his eye on him. He joined in the general mad scramble to clear the camp area, and twelve minutes later he was boarding the cargo aircar with the others.

He considered where to sit. He didn’t want to be anywhere near Brewster—nobody did, though Winnie Carlson had no choice. Brewster had summoned her to sit next to him, probably to tell her what a fool she was to let the camp get out of control. There would be no words of praise for bringing everyone safely through last night’s storm. That wasn’t Brewster’s style.

Josh was heading for the rear seat, until he noticed that Rick and Hag Lasker were already there. He was sure they were still out to get him, and just biding their time. This wasn’t likely to be their chosen time and place, but why take risks?

He settled for the third and middle row. Sig and Sapphire were already there. Josh sat down next to her, and was amazed when she said, “Thanks, Josh. For not telling how Ruby got lost. And I’m sorry for what I said about you and Topaz. That was really dumb, and I wouldn’t normally have said it. Topaz is big enough to look after herself.”

Josh looked doubtfully at Sig, but Sapphire went on, “It’s all right, Sig knows about my problem. It’s hard to keep secrets in a group like this, even when you’re not zonked out of your mind. I guess everybody knows, except Brewster. I hope he never finds out.”

“If he does, it won’t be from me or my brothers.” Sig jerked his head toward the rear of the aircar. “I told those two they’re dead if they ever even hint at it. The one to worry about is Winnie. She’s all right when Brewster’s not here, but once he shows up she turns into Jell-O. I bet if he asked her, she’d spill her guts to him about Ruby and everything. I don’t know why she doesn’t stand up to him. I mean, she works for Foodlines headquarters. She doesn’t have to take his crap.”

Sapphire shook her head. “It’s not that easy. She’s scared of him. So am I.”

There was a pause, then Sig said, “Yeah. Me, too. He’s so big. He could probably take on the lot of us, all at once—and beat us.”

The aircar was lifting off. Everyone was quiet until they were safely in the air and a few hundred feet up. Then Sapphire said, “It’s not just size. My dad was a real little guy, smaller and lighter than me.”

“So how come he beat you so bad?” Sig asked. “You’re pretty big, and you look strong. How come you couldn’t stop him hurting you?”

Josh stared. Did everybody know every last thing about everybody else? But the question didn’t seem to surprise Sapphire at all.

“I didn’t know the answer to that question then,” she said thoughtfully, “but I guess I do now. He was my dad, you see—I couldn’t hit him hard. When he was hitting Ruby, I pulled him away from her with everything I had; but when he went for me, I held back. And he didn’t hold back at all. You know the worst piece? If it happened all over again, I still don’t think I’d be able to hit hard. How can you hit somebody you love—even if they don’t seem to love you?” She rubbed her fingers along the left side of her jaw.

“It doesn’t show,” Sig said gently. “I didn’t notice ’til I was told.” And then, before she could ask, “It was Topaz. But Amy told me the same thing later. You guys really look out for each other.”

“Someone has to do it.” Sapphire produced a sound between a laugh and a sniffle. “And you’re no different. You watch out for Hag and Rick.”

There was a long pause, as though she was waiting and Sig was thinking something over. It occurred to Josh that, despite the people in front and behind, this was the most private moment since leaving Earth. No one else would hear what was being said above the sound of the engines.

“How much do you know about us?” Sig asked at last.

“Not much. I know the three of you ran away, and somehow your parents agreed that you could come out here instead of going back home. Were you beat up, like us? Or did your mother dump you, like Josh?”

The shock of that hit Josh so hard and so quick that he felt his stomach lurch. Was this what everyone thought about him and his mother? Aunt Stacy had said the same thing.

And the worst part—were they right?

“Nothing like that at all.” Sig bunched up his right fist and stared at it. “I was the one who wanted to hit somebody, you bet I did, but we weren’t treated badly. Just the opposite, most people would say. Do you know who my parents are?”

Josh and Sapphire looked at each other, and shook their heads.

“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Sig. “My parents are Dietrich Lasker and Emma Mascani.”

“That means nothing to me.” Sapphire turned to Josh, who shrugged and said, “Me neither.”

“Good.” But Sig scowled. “They never hit us, but they’re the reason, no matter what Brewster makes us do on Solferino, it’s better than being back on Earth. No one here has heard of my parents. When I was ten, I thought everybody on the planet knew them.”

“But who are they?” Josh was glad to be in a situation where ignorance was better than knowing something.

“Dietrich Lasker is the most famous baritone singer in the world. I’ve heard people, talking about him, say he is the best for a century. My mother, Emma Mascani, was a child prodigy as a pianist. She was giving public recitals when she was seven. She still plays, but nowadays she’s better known as a composer. She may be the world’s greatest composer.

“They have six children.” From Sig’s tone of voice, he might have been discussing total strangers. “Three boys, three girls. Split down the middle, you might say. And split down the middle in more ways than that. My sisters are like my mother and father. They have perfect pitch, and they can remember a piece of music, with full harmony, after hearing it once. And me and Rick and Hag—did you ever hear any of us sing?”

Sapphire and Josh shook their heads.

Sig laughed. “You’re lucky. Not one of us can carry a tune—not even close. It took years and years before my parents would admit it. They gave us lessons, and they even had medical tests done on us. They couldn’t understand how anyone who was asked for a C sharp minor chord couldn’t just sing the notes, one after another. They gave all of their children names from Wagner operas—I guess they thought we might sing in them one day, or at the very least worship the music the way they do.

“When they finally had to admit the truth, they didn’t know what to do with us boys. Their families and friends were all musicians. When my mother said, ‘Siegfried is not musical,’ I could see the misery on her face. Or one of Father’s friends would say, ‘This looks like a beautiful new piece. Alberich and Hagen, why don’t you sing the soprano and alto parts, and your father and I will sing tenor and bass?’ And Father would shake his head and say, ‘Alberich and Hagen do not sight-read,’ the way he might have said, ‘Alberich and Hagen strangled their baby-sitter when they were four years old.’ I think he would rather have been able to say that.

“They loved us, in a sad way, but we knew how ashamed they were of us. Nothing that we ever did could change that. We stood it until six months ago. Then one afternoon, when a whole bunch of famous musicians were coming to dinner, we ran for it.

“Of course, we were picked up eventually, but only after we’d had four months living on the streets. Very educational, the streets are. We knew we’d have to go home eventually, so we did our best to learn to act like brainless thugs.”

“You certainly succeeded,” Sapphire said. But she spoke with a smile in her voice.

“Thanks. And I thought that here on Solferino we were losing the knack. But we had it all right when we went home. Mother and Father took one look at us and that was it. When an opportunity came along to send us here, they took it. They said they didn’t want to do it. But we wanted it more than anything in the world. Rick and Hag and me, we absolutely jumped at the chance. And here we are.”

Sig and Sapphire turned to Josh. He was convinced that they were going to ask him for the horrible details as to how he came to be on Solferino. Instead, Sapphire said, “You know Dawn a lot better than we do. Are you really convinced that she and Ruby saw some kind of intelligent rupert?”

“Yes. But I’ll never persuade Brewster.”

“Not without an actual animal sitting in front of him,” said Sig. “And maybe not even then. Saph, why don’t you ask Ruby what she saw?”

“I did. She doesn’t know about it being smart, but she swears that it had eyes. And Topaz agrees with Josh, Dawn was drawing what she had seen.”

“So you believe in it?”

“Yes. For me, the little black eyes confirm it. Ruby wouldn’t make up something like that.”

“Good. I believe it, too.”

“Then why didn’t one of you say something?” Josh burst out. “Instead of leaving me there for Brewster to roast.”

“Do you think it would have made any difference to him, if we’d said we agreed with you?” Sapphire asked gently.

“No. But it would have made a difference to me. It would be nice to have somebody suggest I’m not a total idiot.”

“Maybe. But it would also have dragged the whole thing on a lot longer. And we don’t think you are a total idiot.”

“But that’s not the real issue, is it?” Sig glanced around, to make doubly sure no one could overhear. “That’s not why I didn’t want to make a big deal of it with Brewster. We all three think there may be intelligent aliens here on Solferino. If we’re right, that’s the most important discovery in the whole of history. The real question is, what are we going to do about it?”

“Isn’t that Brewster’s job?” asked Sapphire.

“You might think so. But I’ve got an idea about that. I believe that all the rules would change if it turned out there was true non-human intelligence here. Foodlines would have to operate completely differently. Brewster wouldn’t be king of the castle any more, and he’d probably be kicked out of here.”

“I’m not going to weep about that,” Sapphire said.

“Nor am I. But it explains why he doesn’t want to think about the idea of intelligent ruperts, and why he’s behaving so weird.”

“But it doesn’t.” The others stared at him, as Josh went on. “He was being weird long before I mentioned about the animal that Ruby and Dawn found. You said it yourself, Sig. First he tells us we’ll be at the compound for days and days. Then before we know where we are, we’re on the aircar and dropped off at the camp. He leaves us to ourselves. Then he’s back, and now it’s the camp that’s the wrong place for us, and we have to rush back to the compound.”

“Josh is right, you know,” Sig said. “Brewster has been peculiar from the start.”

“And there’s one other thing.” Josh decided he might as well go all the way. “The ship. You came too late to see it, Sig, but I saw it very clearly. It was real, and low, and it wasn’t an aircar or even a lander. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brewster knows all about that ship, but he chooses to deny it.”

“But why?” Sapphire asked. “Why any of it?”

“One thing at a time,” said Sig. “We haven’t answered my first question. What are we going to do with the idea that some of the ruperts may be intelligent?”

“We can’t do a thing.” Josh looked to Sapphire for confirmation. “We’re traveling at four hundred kilometers an hour, and we’re going away from the place where we found the ruperts.”

“No argument with that.” Sig nodded. “So we have only two alternatives: Either we find smart ruperts near the compound, or we have to go back to the place where we found them the first time. That means we have to make two sets of plans.”

The way Sig said it, for a moment Josh actually thought it might be possible. Then he decided that Sig was out of his mind.

But it was a fine, attractive madness.