“It is more than a fad,” Edmond said. “They are totally serious about it. In fact, they are developing a whole new language for themselves. Not slang, not an argot, a language.”
“They don’t reject us,” Dagny said. “Not really.” She had to believe that. And they did remain amicable toward their parents, in their individual ways, and if an aloofness dwelt beneath it, was the pain this gave her more than she had given to hers? “It’s just that they are—different, more different than anybody foresaw. They’re trying to learn what their natures are, and, and we can’t help them much.”
Guthrie rubbed his chin. “Not simply adolescent rebellion, then, eh? Though Lord knows, looking at Earth and Earth’s officials on Luna, they have a fair amount of justification.” He knocked back his beer. Edmond took the mug and the shot glass for refills. “Graciasr amigo. Can you sort of fill me in on them?”
Dagny put recent sequences onto the screen, in succession, and found a few words about each.
Brandir. Anson. Sixteen. Two meters tall, wide-shouldered, supple; ash-blond hair, silver-blue eyes, marmoreal skin on which no beard would ever grow. His face was not purely Lunarian, it bore traces of his mother’s. He often clashed with his father, but not too seriously, and she thought he stayed emotionally closer to her than his siblings did or could. It didn’t stop him from cutting a swath among Earth-gene girls. As-for females of his kind, what happened was their choice as much as his. They appeared to have parallel interests of their own, an independence taken so for granted that they didn’t bother to assert it. Whatever had become of school-age sweethearts?
Verdea. Gabrielle. Fourteen. Almost Earthlike in looks, of medium height, buxom, round snub-nosed countenance, brown eyes, brown curls bobbed short. Quiet, studious, and, when she wanted something, steely determined about it. A literary gift, expressed in poems and prose sketches that baffled Dagny. (Starstone freedom: Achilles/Odysseus—) While a couple of other young geniuses had written the program that constructed the basic Lunarian language, she seemed to be among the leading contributors to its expanding and ever more subtle vocabulary. Dagny had cause to wonder whether she was sexually active, but what did a mother know? Lunarian children kept their doings to themselves, and Verdea scorned Earth-gene boys.
Kaino. Sigurd. Twelve. Big for his years, strong, redhaired, blue-eyed, features sharing much of his father’s ruggedness. The athlete of the bunch, the loudest, impulsive, sometimes wildly reckless. In sibling rivalry with Brandir, but it seldom manifested itself in quarrels. They would stalk by one another for daycycles on end, unspeaking, and then abruptly, for a while, be the closest of comrades. Kaino’s all-dream was to pilot spacecraft. He would not, could not accept that the heredity which made Lunar weight normal for him likewise made high accelerations a death barrier.
Temerir. Francis. Going on ten. Slight, platinum-blond, gray eyes oblique and enormous in a visage ascetic save for the full red lips. Even more than Verdea was he a reader, a student, soft-spoken, asocial. He showed great scientific talent.
Fia. Helen. Seven and a half. Still entirely a child, though you saw that she would be beautiful, black hair, umber eyes, face a feminine version of Brandir Y Already almost as reserved as Temerir. She might be highly musical, but it was hard to tell, and she disliked most of what she heard. Maybe she’d create the first truly Lunarian music.
Jinann. Carla. Four. A little redhead, as her mother had been, vivacious and affectionate. Her Lunarian name she had from her siblings, and often forgot to use it. But who could say what she would become?
“Are the youngest at home?” Guthrie asked.
“In the playroom, I suppose,” Edmond answered.“You will meet them soon, when Clementine has made them presentable.”
“They demand that,” Dagny explained. “They’re excited about your visit, but none of them likes … outsiders . .”.to see them at a disadvantage.”
Guthrie raised his brows. “You’ve found an actual nurse for them? My impression was the servant problem on Luna is so intractable nobody remembers what the word means. An au pair, maybe?”
“No, no. Clementine’s what we call their robot.”