Donald Moffitt - Genesis 01

them to suspect the extent of human dissatisfaction.”
    “There isn’t any dissatisfaction. Except for a handful of people like your friend Pite. And this Penser. Most of the people I know are happy just to go on living their lives.”
    “I was right about man’s heritage being suppressed, though, wasn’t I? You said as much.”
    “Kerthin, let’s not go through all that again.”
    “Never mind.” She bit her lip, thinking. “This dragon thing. Can you find out more about it?”
    “Of course. I can look through any file I want to, and Voth will help me get into it. In fact, I plan to tell him I intend to go on reading a little further. I just can’t work with the genetic material without a license, that’s all. No one can, not even Voth himself. Whoever tried would need the resources of the whole biocenter, anyway.”
    “Hmmm.” She pondered further. “This … dangerous life form. It might make a good weapon in the coming struggle against the Nar.” Her eyes lit up. “Anyway, Pite will be interested in the information.”
    “Kerthin! I thought you gave all that up!”
    “I told you you didn’t have to go to any more meetings. But who can tell when I might happen to run into Pite or one of the others again?”
    “All he can do is get you into trouble.”
    She laughed. “Did you hear what he said to the proctors? He gave them better than he got. They didn’t know what to do with him. They threatened to lock him up for a week. He said he’d welcome it. In the end they let him go. He refused even to acknowledge their warning.”
    “Kerthin, I don’t want you mentioning what I told you to Pite.”
    “Oh, don’t be tiresome.”
    “I mean it.”
    She tossed her head. “Oh, all right, if it means so much to you.”
    “I don’t want you telling anybody! ”
    “I said I wouldn’t.” She turned away from him. “There are some messages on the screen for you.”
    Bram went to the viewer and ran his eyes down the message list. Nothing required immediate reply. He opened a few electronic envelopes at random.
    “Hey, Kerthin, how about this? There’s an invitation from Orris and Marg. They’re already aboard their tree. It’s in a parking orbit. All the human passengers are throwing a farewell party. Arrangements have been made with the Nar to lift the guests.”
    “I thought they weren’t sailing for a couple of months.”
    “They aren’t. They’re living aboard while the tree’s being outfitted. It’s never carried humans before. The purser wants to make sure the ecology of their branch is adjusted properly, and it’ll give them a chance to settle in. Give everybody a chance for a last-minute change of mind, too!”
    He looked at her hopefully. He supposed he could go alone if he had to, but he didn’t relish the thought.
    “I’d love to go.”
    “Hey, that’s great.” He gave her close scrutiny, but she seemed genuinely enthusiastic. “I thought you didn’t care for them. Dull, you said. Stuffy.”
    “We’ll never have to see them again, will we? Besides, I’ve never been in orbit.”
     
    CHAPTER 7
     
    The orbital ferry was a sandwich of three flattened, sleek craft standing on their flipperlike tails, wrapped in a close embrace that turned them into a single deltoid shape. It was only a shiny toy in the distance, until one’s eye took in the mitelike crowd swarming about its base and adjusted for scale.
    “Is that what we’re riding in?” Kerthin asked doubtfully. Her fingernails dug into the meat of Bram’s arm.
    “The ferry’s the one in the middle of the stack,” Bram said. “The two outer vehicles peel off and land again after they’ve finished giving us a boost.”
    “Let’s take the next one,” she said with a shiver. “We can go back inside the terminal and have a drink while we’re waiting.”
    “We’re already booked,” Bram said firmly. “Come on, it’s perfectly safe for humans. Hundreds of people get boosted into space every year.”
    “They made that thing for themselves,” she pointed out. “ They fly it, they ride in it. And they don’t have any bones to get broken. And they’re not as fussy about breathing as we are. And they don’t even care if they die.”
    Kerthin was at her most petulant. But behind the petulance was a genuine anxiety that surprised Bram. He had never known Kerthin to be at a loss before. There were people who were afraid of flying, he knew, people who were afraid even to step into a bubble car, but he