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The girl’s face broke into a smile and she giggled. “You speak funny.”
“I know,” Paige agreed. “I am human.”
The little girl’s eyes sparkled as they widened into dark moons of surprise. “Can I touch your hair?”
“Sure.” Paige leaned forward and the child’s fingers combed her strands.
“It feels like my hair,” she said. “It is golden. Are you made from gold?”
Paige laughed. “No, I’m just a little different, that’s all.”
The grandmother gathered the child’s hand in hers. “Thank you,” she said. “We must go. It is a long journey home.”
Paige watched them progress through the crowd, struggling to find a route that didn’t impinge on some other group or queue. They reached the wall, and the exit, and walked past Gawen. The burly man was still there, watching Paige. Her skin prickled with unwanted goosebumps that unnerved her. Why was he there?
* * *
Jamen examined her report later that day. Atlas had assisted her with the prioritizing, but he disagreed with her when she placed Meeve and the leaky barrier near the top.
“Let Jamen decide,” she’d countered when he frowned.
“Meeve,” Jamen sighed, when she presented him the list. “Again.”
“What’s this barrier thing?” she asked.
Jamen’s desk rotated so that she could see the main screen in front of him. He projected a 3D image of the planet and it spun along its axis until she saw the other side of Halos. The landscape was red and black, covered with plumes of ash and smoke. The angry mountains had erupted into volcanoes and split apart the continents, forming rivers of lava and boiling seas. Near the polar regions, the ice had melted and disappeared. Gradually, closer to the habited areas of Halos, the hostile landscape retreated.
&n
bsp; Jamen zoomed in on the ribbon of land between the two zones. “This is the barrier. A force field that filters the air and keeps out the heat radiation caused by the eruptions. Unfortunately, given its length and the battering it takes from constant earthquakes, it often leaks.”
“Meeve, where is it?”
He honed in on one spot. A small city with outlining farms. “The barrier is costly to maintain. Eventually, Meeve will have to be evacuated. But we have little space for refugees in our major cities. They are likely to be sent to an off-world colony.” Jamen deactivated the screen.
“Can’t they make a better barrier? What about all your terraforming technology—won’t it stop the eruptions?”
He shook his head. “We need stable landscapes for terraforming. And, basically, our planet is dying. We need a new home. Not tomorrow, or next year, but in a few generations’ time. For now, we can fix the barrier, but it won’t last forever.” He tapped on his screen.
“You’ll get it fixed? The poor child—”
He glanced up. “Meeve is near to my home city. I will request a maintenance crew. However, I think Meeve’s days are numbered.”
She thought of the little girl. Her grandmother might not live long enough to see the city emptied, but her grandchild would one day see her home destroyed by ash and poisonous air.
“Pity.” A pathetic comment; she wished she could do more.
In the evening, she visited the Yulta with Sava. Elga continued to avoid her company, which worked for Paige, too. She told Sava all about her encounter with the woman from Meeve. Sava nodded sympathetically.
“It’s so often the women who suffer when the barrier breaks. The men escape by serving the warrior clans or joining the armies. They travel across the galaxy and face different dangers.”
Paige listened to the singing in the background. Happy women with no cares in the world. Yet, across the other side of the planet things were very different. “It costs to repair the barrier. I guess nobody wants to pay for poor farmers.”
“The district taxes must cover the cost. Senator Hosta has to choose what is most important. The air or the water.”
“Water?” Paige picked up a glass of crushed fruits and took a sip.
“The aquifers get contaminated too.”
