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"And they're not sure we can eat any of the native vegetation. When the formics first attacked Earth, they simply destroyed all the vegetation in the part of China where they landed. They had no intention of eating anything that grew here naturally. We don't know if our plants can grow on their planets. All the colonists might die."
"The survivors of the fleet that defeated the formics will already have those problems resolved by the time we get there."
"Mother," said Alessandra patiently. "I don't want to go."
"That's because you have been convinced by the dead souls at the school that you are an ordinary child. But you are not. You are magical. You must get away from this world of dust and misery and go to a land that is green and filled with ancient powers. We will live in the caves of the dead ogres and go out to harvest the fields that once were theirs! And in the cool evening, with sweet green breezes fluttering your skirts, you will dance with young men who gasp at your beauty and grace!"
"And where will we find young men like that?"
"You'll see," said Mother. Then she sang it: "You shall see! You shall see! A fine young man with prospects will give his heart to you."
Finally the paper fluttered close enough for Alessandra to snatch it out of Mother's hands. She read it, with Mother bending down to hover just behind the paper, smiling her fairy smile. It was real. Dorabella Toscano (29) and daughter Alessandra Toscano (14), accepted into Colony I.
"Obviously there's no sort of psychological screening after all," said Alessandra.
"You try to hurt me but I will not be hurt. Mother knows what is best for you. You shall not make the mistakes that I have made."
"No, but I'll pay for them," said Alessandra.
"Think, my darling, beautiful, brilliant, graceful, kind, generous, and poutful girl, think of this: What do you have to look forward to here in Monopoli, Italia, living in a flat in the unfashionable end of Via Luigi Indelli?"
"There is no fashionable end of Luigi Indelli."
"You make my point for me."
"Mother, I don't dream of marrying a prince and riding off into the sunset."
"That's a good thing, my darling, because there are no princes--only men and animals who pretend to be men. I married one of the latter but he at least provided you with the genes for those amazing cheekbones, that dazzling smile. Your father had very good teeth."
"If only he had been a more attentive bicyclist."
"It was not his fault, dear."
"The streetcars run on tracks, Mother. You don't get hit if you stay out from between the tracks."
"Your father was not a genius but fortunately I am, and therefore you have the blood of the fairies in you."
"Who knew that fairies sweat so much?" Alessandra pulled one of Mother's dripping locks of hair away from her face. "Oh, Mother, we won't do well in a colony. Please don't do this."
"The voyage takes forty years--I went next door and looked it up on the net."
"Did you ask them this time?"
"Of course I did, they lock their windows now. They were thrilled to hear we were going to be colonists."
"I have no doubt they were."
"But because of magic, to us it will be only two years."
"Because of the relativistic effects of near-lightspeed travel."
"Such a genius, my daughter is. And even those two years we can sleep through, so we won't even age."
"Much."
"It will be as if our bodies slept a week, and we wake up forty years away."
"And everyone we know on Earth will be forty years older than we are."
