“N-no.”
“Come on, I’ll see you to the hotel, and later I’ll sort of introduce you around.” They started off. Soon they were on an unpaved road where puddles glimmered. “Because you’re a Survivor.”
Wanderer’s smile twitched rueful. “I didn’t want to advertise that right away.”
“We ran a routine check before agreeing you could come, same as we do for everybody. You eight may go pretty much unnoticed, but you sure were famous once. Your background popped right out of the scan. Word got around. I hate to say this, nothing personal, but you’ll find some folks here who resent you.”
That was an ugly surprise. “Really? Why?”
“You Survivors can have children whenever you like.”
“I … see.” Wanderer considered how to respond. Gravel scrunched underfoot. “Jealousy isn’t reasonable, though. We’re freaks of nature. A crazy combination of genes, including several unlikely mutations, that doesn’t breed true. Normal human beings who don’t want to age have to undergo the process. Well, we can’t then let them reproduce freely. Remember your history, population explosion, the Great Death, and that was before athanatics.”
“I know.” Davison sounded a bit miffed. “Who doesn’t?”
“Sorry, but I have met quite a few who don’t. They think history’s too depressing to study. I point out to them that they’ll have their chance to be parents eventually. There are accidental losses to make up, and interplanetary colonies may yet be founded.”
“Yeah. The waiting list for children was several centuries long, last time I looked.”
“Ufa-hub. But as for us Survivors, ever hear of a grandfather clause? By revealing ourselves, we opened up a treasure trove for scholars. Fair is fair. As a matter of fact, we hardly ever do become parents.” We hardly ever have partners who are eligible. And any offspring we have grew too soon alien.
“I understand all that,” Davison said. “I don’t object, myself, I’m only telling you we’d better be, uh, tactful. That’s a reason why I met you.”
“I do appreciate it.” Wanderer attempted to drive his point home: “You might remind those objectors to my status that they can beget kids every bit as lawfully, no limit.”
“Because they’re willing to shrivel and die in a hundred years or less.”
“That’s the bargain. They can drop out whenever they choose, get youth restored if they’ve lost it, join the immortals. There is simply that small, necessary price to pay.”
“Sure, sure, sure,” Davison snapped. “Think we’ve never heard?” After half a dozen strides: “My turn to say, ‘Sorry.’ I didn’t mean to sound mad. To most of us, you’ll be very welcome. What yarns you have to spin!”
“Nothing you can’t play off the databank, I’m afraid,” Wanderer said. “We were questioned and interviewed dry many years ago.”
Generations before you were born, Charlie, if your lineage is purely mortal. How old are you? Forty, fifty? I see white sown through your hair and crow’s-feet at your eyes.
“Not the same,” Davison answered. “Good Lord, I’m in company with a man who knew Sitting Bull!” Actually, Wanderer had not, but he let it pass. “Hearing it from you in person means so much more. Don’t you forget, our whole idea is to live naturally, like God intended.”
“That’s why I’ve come.”
Davison’s pace faltered. He stared. “What? We supposed you were … interested, like the rest of our visitors.”
“I am. Of course. But more than that. I guess we’d better not mention this immediately. However, I think I might settle here, if people will have me.”
“You?” asked amazement.
“I go way back, you know. To the tribes, the brotherhoods, rites and beliefs and traditions, living by our wits and .hands off the land and of the land. Oh, I’m not romantic about it. I remember the drawbacks too clearly, and would certainly not want to revive, say, the horse barbarians. But still, damn it, we had a, a oneness with our world such as ‘doesn’t exist now, except maybe among you.”
They were entering the village. Boats rocked at the wharf; men fished for the local market. Kitchen gardens and apple trees burgeoned behind neatly made wooden houses. Mere supplements, Wanderer must remind himself, like their handicrafts. The dwellers spend share and order stuff delivered, same as the rest of us. For added earnings, some of them take care of these woods and waters; or they attend to the tourists; or they do brainwork out of their homes, over the computer net. They haven’t disowned the modern world.