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“What are you?”she asked.The question slipped out before she could talk herself out of it.
“We are humanoid, same as you.”
“No, I mean,whatare you?You’re not human the way the rest of us on New Eden are.”
“We are enhanced humanoids.”
“So, like cyborgs, then.”
Was it her imagination, or did a muscle tick in his jaw?It could have been a trick of the light, or lack of it.“We are what you may call cyborgs, yes.”
“Do you all have the same parents or something?”
“We are a controlled society of clones, although at present, there are only one of each of us.”
“Oh.”She peered at a few of the faces, but none of them met her gaze, their eyes fixed on a faraway point only noticeable to them.Or maybe they were in stasis or something.“Damn.”
“You have not answered my question about the mutual benefits to our societies.”
“Oh, yeah.”She straightened.“Well, I’ll have to tell the rest of New Eden.Or what’s left of it, anyway.There aren’t many of us now.”
“Are you not the leader?”
“No, I was out for a late-night stroll and happened to come across your spaceship.We don’t have an official leader right now.”She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth.Was that a mistake to admit?New Eden was rudderless, its population of twenty-one souls just under half of what it had been before the earthquake, and completely without defenses.
Not that they’d had much in the way of defenses before the earthquake, as their planet was in the middle of nowhere, so far from trade routes that no one bothered them.The planet had been chosen for settlement by their ancestors specifically for that reason.
“You are the first person I’ve met,” he said.“We received the SOS you transmitted.Therefore, you are the leader until you introduce us to someone with that title.”
Hannah stared at him, agog.“What the fuck?”
He paused, as if considering his next words.“Perhaps we should speak with your council.”
“Yeah.”She looked back at the remains of the city outlined in the moonlight.There was no council, no government to speak of.“I, uh—yeah, that would make sense, except we don’t have a formal council anymore.Most of them...”She paused, unexpected tears clogging her throat.“They didn’t make it through the quake.Everyone else is the council now.”
If the cyborg noticed the catch in her voice, he didn’t let on.His response was as flat and emotionless as the rest of his words.“Do you need help rousing them?”
Hannah thought about how she might react if a giant cyborg hauled her out of bed and shuddered.“No, thank you.I’m pretty sure your ship woke everyone up anyway.”She looked at his ship crew standing perfectly still, as if waiting for marching orders.Maybe they were.
“Where shall we wait while you notify the rest of your people?”he asked.
She looked back at the ruined city, then at the field.“I guess you could stay here.”The last thing she wanted right now was their cyborg visitors to terrify the rest of the citizenry in the middle of the night.
He nodded.“We will wait for you to return.”
“Okay.”With another glance back at the city, she asked, “What should I call you and your people?Do I just wake everyone by telling them that there’s a bunch of cyborgs waiting in the field?”
“My designation is RH103.”
His response was a little jarring in its abruptness.“That’s it?That’s your name?”
He nodded.
“Okay.What about the rest of you?”
“We are enhanced biocybernetic organisms.”
Hannah tried not to sigh in irritation.“I mean, what do you call yourselves?This is New Eden.We call ourselves New Edeners, I guess.Very creative, right?My name’s Hannah Forsyth.I call myself Hannah.”
