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The Chief Optimizer paused. Nicole had paled during his description of Ellie’s mistreatment. The octospider leader turned to Dr. Blue. “Should I continue?” she said.
Max and Patrick were standing in the doorway. They could not, of course, understand what the Chief Optimizer was saying, but they could see the pallor on Nicole’s face. Patrick walked into the room. “My mother has been quite ill . . .” he said.
“It’s all right,” Nicole said, waving him away. She took a deep breath. “Please go on,” she said to the Chief Optimizer.
“Nakamura,” the Chief Optimizer continued, “has now convinced himself and his main lieutenants that our threat is a bluff. He believes that even though our technology is very advanced in some areas, we possess no military capabilities. In his last staff meeting, only a few terts ago, he agreed to a plan to bomb us into submission, using all available firepower. The first of the massive raids will come in the morning.
“We have therefore reluctantly concluded that we must now fight back. Failure to act could put the survival of our colony in jeopardy. Before coming to see you, I authorized the implementation of War Plan Number Forty-one, one of our intermediate-strength responses. This plan does not result in the total annihilation of all the colonists in New Eden, but should be devastating enough to bring the war to a quick end. Our analysts estimate that between twenty and thirty percent of the humans will die.”
The Chief Optimizer stopped when she saw the pained expression on Nicole’s face. Nicole asked for something to drink. “Are we allowed to know any more details about your attack?” Nicole said slowly after she finished drinking the glass of water.
“We have chosen a microbiological agent, chemically much like an enzyme, that interferes with cell reproduction in your species. Young, healthy humans below the age of forty or so have sufficiently strong natural defenses that they will withstand the onslaught of the agent. Older or unhealthy humans will succumb quickly. Their cells will not
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be able to reproduce properly and their bodies will simply stop functioning. We have used blood, skin, and other cells taken from all of you here in the Emerald City to verify our theoretical predictions. We are quite certain that the young will be unharmed.”
“Our species regards biological warfare as immoral,” Nicole said after a brief pause.
“We are aware,” the Chief Optimizer said, “that within your system of values, some kinds of warfare are more acceptable than others. To us, ail war is unacceptable. We fight only if we absolutely must. We can’t imagine it makes any difference to the dead being if it has been killed by a gun, a bomb, a nuclear weapon, or a biological agent. Besides, we must fight back with whatever weapons we possess.”
There was a long silence. Nicole sighed and shook her head. “I guess,” she said at length, “I should be thankful that you have told us what is happening in this stupid war, even though the specter of so many deaths is very frightening. I wish there could have been some other outcome.”
The three octospiders prepared to leave the room. Max and Patrick were asking Nicole questions before the visitors had even departed from the house. “Hold it,” Nicole said wearily. “Call the others in here first. I only want to explain what the octospiders told me a single time.”
Nicole could not sleep. No matter how hard she tried, she could not stop thinking about the people who were going to die in New Eden. Faces—older faces, mostly, faces of people that Nicole had known and worked with during her active days in the colony—swam in and out of her mind.
And what about Katie and Ellie? Nicole thought. What if the octospiders have made a mistake? She pictured Ellie as she had last seen her, in her house with her husband and her daughter. Nicole recalled the arguments that she had witnessed between Ellie and Robert. His tired, worn visage remained fixed in her mental image. And Robert, she
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thought. Oh, my God. He’s older, and doesn ‘t take care of himself at all.
Nicole squirmed in her bed, frustrated by her inability to do anything. Finally she decided to sit up in the darkness. / wonder if it’s too late, Nicole asked herself. Again she thought of Robert. / don’t agree with him. I’m not even certain he’s a good husband for Ellie. But he is still Nikki’s father.
A plan had begun to develop in her mind. Nicole gingerly slid out of bed and walked across to the closet. She put on some clothes and tiptoed into the hall. She did not want to wake Patrick or Nai, who had been sleeping in Ellie’s room since her heart attack. They would just make me go back to bed.
Outside, in the Emerald City, it was almost as dark as it had been inside the house. Nicole stood at the doorway, hoping that her eyes would adjust enough that she could find the house next door. Eventually she could make out some shadows. She stepped off the porch, heading to the right.
Her progress was slow. She would take half a dozen steps and then stop to look around. It took her several minutes to reach the atrium of Dr. Blue’s house.
When she entered the octospider’s sleeping quarters, Nicole tapped lightly on the wall. A firefly dimly illuminated a pair of octospiders in a single heap. Dr. Blue and Jamie were sleeping with their bodies pressed together and their tentacles tangled in a confusing pattern. Nicole walked over and touched Dr. Blue on the top of the head. There was no response. She tapped a little harder the second time and Dr. Blue’s lens material began to move around.
“What are you doing here?” Dr. Blue said in color a few seconds later.
“I need your help,” Nicole answered. “It’s important.”
The octospider moved very slowly, trying to untangle her tentacles without disturbing Jamie. She was unsuccessful; the young octospider awakened anyway. Dr. Blue told Jamie to go back to sleep and shuffled into the atrium with Nicole.
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“You should be in bed,” Dr. Blue said.
“I know,” Nicole replied. “But this is an emergency. I need to talk to the Chief Optimizer, and I would like for you to go with me.”
“At this time of night?”
“I don’t know how much time we have,” Nicole said. “I must see the Chief Optimizer before those biological agents start killing people in New Eden. I’m worried about Katie, and all of Ellie’s family as well.”
“Nikki and Ellie will not be harmed. Katie should be young enough too, if I understood—”
“But Katie’s system is screwed up by all the drugs,” Nicole interrupted the colors. “Her body probably acts as if it’s old … and Robert is all worn-out from working all the time.”
“I’m not certain I understand what you are telling me,” said Dr. Blue. “Why is it that you want to see the Chief Optimizer?”
‘To plead for special treatment for Katie and Robert, assuming of course that Ellie and Nikki are all right. There must be some way, witty your biological magic, that they can be singled out and spared. That’s why I want you to come with me—to support my case.”
The octospider didn’t say anything for several seconds. “All right, Nicole,” she said finally, “I will go with you. Even though I think you should be resting in bed. . . . And 1 doubt if there’s anything that can be done.”
‘Thank you very much,” Nicole said, forgetting herself for a moment and hugging Dr. Blue.
“You must promise me one thing,” Dr. Blue said as they walked together out the front door. “You must not push yourself too hard tonight. Tell me if you are feeling weak.”
“I’ll even lean on you as we walk,” Nicole said with a smile.
They moved slowly into the street, the unlikely pair. Two of Dr. Blue’s tentacles were supporting Nicole at all times. Nevertheless, the day’s activities and emotions had taken a toll on Nicole’s meager energy supply. She was feeling fatigue before they reached the transport stop.
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She stopped to rest. The distant sounds she had been hearing, but not noticing, became more prominent. “Bombs,” Nicole said to Dr. Blue. “A lot of them.”
“We were told to expect helicopter raids,” the octospider said. “But I wonder why there were no flares.”
Suddenly part of the domed canopy over their heads exploded in a great fireball. Moments later Nicole heard a deafening sound. She held tightly to Dr. Blue and stared at the inferno above her. In the flames she thought she could see the remnants of a helicopter. Burning pieces of the dome were falling from the sky, some landing no more than a kilometer away.