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“You’resureyou don’t want me to stay with you?It’ll be a sleepover, like when we were kids.”
It would be like the early days after the earthquake, too, when neither of them could bear to be alone.Hannah didn’t want to live that again.Forcing a smile to her face, she said, “I appreciate it, Jas, I really do.But I need some rest and time to think.”
“Got it.”Jasmine wrapped her in a fierce hug.“If you change your mind, you know where I am.I’ll see you in the morning.”
As she suspected she would, Hannah grabbed only a few snatches of sleep in between worrying.She gave up trying to rest when the sun’s rays peeked through her bedroom window.She quickly washed and dressed, determined to get started on the tomato picking before the meeting with the cyborgs.
The fields were a fifteen-minute walk from her house, something that she usually enjoyed because the city’s destruction wasn’t as evident on her route.But the sight of a group of giant, black-clad men already at work, pulling at the plants, shattered her calm.
Rage and frustration bubbled in her, bringing tears to her eyes.“Hey!”she shouted, and picked up her pace into a run.“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
They moved with rapid, soulless motions, plucking tomatoes and other vegetables with machine-like precision.She saw her months of hard work evaporate as they dropped them into the baskets that they must have pilfered from the supply shed, taking New Eden’s meager resources for their own.
“Hey!”she yelled again as she reached the field.She halted, trying to catch her breath.She brushed away angry tears with the back of her hand, hating that she cried when she was furious.“What’s this?”
A cyborg raised his head, fixing eyes that were an inhuman shade of green on her.“RH103 ordered us here.”
RH103 did this?The revelation made her heart hurt, though she couldn’t say why.Hannah hated that she had let herself trust him.“Why would he do that?”
The cyborg looked at her like she was crazy.“He said you were in obvious need of help with your crops.They’re going to die if they aren’t harvested soon.”
Shock had her frozen in place.It took a few seconds for his words to sink in.“He noticed that?”Now Hannah felt like crying for another reason.
The cyborg nodded solemnly.Without looking at his hands, he resumed picking.“After we scanned your planet last night, he said that many of the cultivated crops are in danger of spoiling.”
“Yeah.That’s why I’m here.”Her pent-up frustration and anger leached out of her, leaving her feeling deflated and exhausted all over again.
He tilted his head in confusion.“Why are you crying?We thought you were in need of help.”
“You have no idea.”Heaving an embarrassed sigh, she walked through the rows of planted vegetables until she was beside the cyborg and started picking tomatoes.“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bite your head off.”
“You did no such thing.”
“I meant figuratively.”
He blinked, as if contemplating her words, but didn’t respond.
“Thank you,” she added.“I do appreciate this.I just wasn’t expecting you to dive in first thing in the morning.”
“Do you not have people who can harvest?”
“I do, but there aren’t enough.And we’re not even touching on the subject of other agricultural production.We’re severely lacking in protein-based foods right now, for instance.”
“I didn’t see any meat supplies.”
“Meat supplies” was an odd term, but Hannah didn’t push it.“Most of the animals died in the earthquake,” she replied.“The chickens we still have are mostly off-limits, since we depend on their eggs.”
“We could clone the chickens,” the cyborg said nonchalantly.He moved a meter away to the next tomato plant and pulled off the ripened ones.
He spoke of it as casually as if it was nothing more unusual than a sunny day.Incredulity wound through her.“You could do that?”
“We clone ourselves with great success.Cloning livestock is well within our abilities.”
“Wow,” Hannah said, surprised.But why was she?Of course, they could clone animals.“Thank you.”
“RH103 said we must collaborate.Your people can provide the DNA, and we can replicate it.”
“Do you mean people too?Because I don’t think the people of New Eden will go for cloning ourselves.”
