Blohm turned his head. His face grew still when he saw two figures watching him. “Who’s your friend, honey?” he asked.
“Her name is Ljesn, Caius,” Mirica said.
The children were as like as two peas. Of course Mirica was on the skinny side for a human kid.
At the bonfire twenty feet behind them, Seraphina Suares sat with her contingent of orphans. She saw Blohm and waved. “Come join us, Caius,” she called.
“Leesin?” the striker said.
The other child covered her mouth and giggled. “Ljesn,” Mirica said severely.
“Hey, cut me some slack,” Blohm said, starting to relax. “I wasn’t some base camp hero, I was a scout. When I needed to talk to a, a Kalender, I let my helmet do it. Leesn?”
“Ljesn,” the Spook child said. She was wearing an orange apron like she’d had at Active Cloak, but this one wasn’t scorched by the grenade blast.
“You’ll have to practice, Caius,” Mirica said. “But that’s better.”
“Guess I will,” agreed Caius Blohm. “Now, how do you figure we’re going to bring down something this big? Rockets at the base I guess, but I can’t figure how we get it to drop in the right direction if we do that. Maybe . . .”
The three of them stood before the giant tree, contemplating the future.
EPILOGUE
The psychology of the Kalendru required them to battle the Unity for primacy where another human society would have been willing to coexist with us. When the Kalendru knew that we had the secret of biological control, they ceded that primacy to us without qualification. A Kalender does not fight when he cannot win; and in that too, they differ from us humans.
The Unity will face more enemies and fight more wars—life itself is a struggle against entropy. But for the time being, the armed forces can be reduced. We will finally release troops whom our need retained though they were worn to shadows of humanity.
I regard my experiment as a success. There will be more colonies sent to dangerous planets and more redliners for their security element. I will lead some of them. Tamara, whom I must again call Miss Chun, believes I am paying debts to men and women whom I used until I had used them up. She is wrong: I can never pay those debts.
But I can do penance.
Miss Chun will return to the Unity administration, as is wholly proper. She had nothing on her conscience to justify what she underwent on BZ 459, though I believe she will be a wiser administrator for the experience.
In thirty years Miss Chun will be ready to retire. The problem of redliners will not have vanished; and perhaps by then Miss Chun will have sins of her own.
My aide when I take out the next colony will be a former attorney named Matthew Lock. I do not see that he has anything to repay. He was a victim, after all; my victim.
But I have learned that we never know what is in a human heart, even our own heart.
For we are all human.