Zenn Scarlett Part 5

"So, the animala"

"Yeah, you get p.o.o.ped out."

"I repeat. I would not volunteer for such a journey. I will acknowledge your enthusiasm, although I fail to understand your eagerness."

"I'm eager because I've been looking forward to it forever. Plus, I know I can do it. I've screened every v-film on in-soma insertions that we have in the scriptorium library. And I've re-run them till I see the control panel in my sleep. A high score will help make up for the whalehound."

Hamish was quiet for a few seconds.

"Novice Zenn, I haven't been in-cloister long, but to forget a fence-switch, to allow an animal to escape. That doesn't seem like your usual standard of behavior, if I may say so."

Until the last few weeks, Zenn would have agreed.

"Thanks," she said. "But I guess we all make mistakes." Whatever happened, she wasn't eager to dwell on it. "So, how are you settling in so far?"

"Oh, settling well. Although there is much to do. I'm learning that a cloister s.e.xton has a mult.i.tude of demanding ch.o.r.es and tasks. Cleaning of pen and corral s.p.a.ces, repairing items, feeding of the animals, more cleaning, running here and there."

"It's not what you expected?"

"Not entirely. Especially the chanting."

"Chanting?"

"There is no chanting. Or wearing of brown cloth robes with hoods. I was under the impression there was considerable group vocal chanting at a cloister such as this. And robes. But there is not. This was disappointing."

"Hamish," Zenn said. "Did you look at the message shard we sent you, before you came to Mars? The information packet about the cloister?"

"I did not." He admitted this with no apparent embarra.s.sment.

"Well, the shard would have told you all about life here, the responsibilities of a s.e.xton, the lack of chanting, things like that."

"I understand. You are saying my knowledge of the cloister was deficient and if I had viewed the shard I might have decided cloister living was not to my liking."

"Yes, Hamish, that's what I'm saying."

"But the Queen Sp.a.w.n-Mother selected me from among all my sibling hatch-mates to come to Mars as s.e.xton. I would therefore be sent despite any prior knowledge I might or might not have, if you see my situation."

"Oh. I knew things on your world werea highly structured. But I didn't know that's how things worked."

"That is its working. But still, I cannot help but feel it's unfortunate there are not more students in attendance here. To help with the many tasks."

"I've noticed Liam helping you out," Zenn said.

"Yes, the person Liam Tucker. He is quite willing to a.s.sist me. He is very friendly, and curious, for a local human. Very curious, to know about the animals."

"That's great, though, isn't it? A towner taking an interest. Maybe there's hope for those people after all."

"Hope? Are they otherwise hopeless?"

"Well, like those two boys and the whalehound. People can be afraid of things they don't know anything about. Maybe Liam will tell others what it's like here. That the animals aren't just huge, dangerous alien things. He might tell them howa interesting they are. And that we're just trying to help them."

"He might well do this. And that might have instructive value," Hamish said, then he looked down at the line of closed doors. "Novice Zenn, do you recall the time when there were more students at the cloister school? Helping with tasks?"

"Not really," Zenn said. "The Rift with Earth had already started when I was born. So, it's basically been this way for my whole life."

His question prompted her to imagine, not for the first time, what it was like when the entire dorm had been buzzing with activity. Did students talk and joke with each other as they hustled out of their rooms every morning? Were they all good friends with each other, sharing their excitement about the animals they would work on or learn about that day? And did her mother join in the banter, when she was Zenn's age and going through her novice year?

"Were you not lonely," Hamish asked, "growing up in the absence of others in your hatchling group?"

"No, actually, I'm used to being the onlya hatchling around here," she told him.

"And what of your friends in the surrounding environment? With the townfolk in Arsia indisposed toward alien animals and those of us who deal with them, do you in fact have friends.h.i.+ps or a.s.sociations with others?"

"Um, no," Zenn said. "I don'ta a.s.sociate all that much." The truth was, even if she was inclined to ignore the Rule about making friends, kids in Arsia City and the valley didn't stay around. They grew older and left. They moved to Zubrin, or went to find work in one of the other larger settlements.

Friends leave. Everyonea leaves.

Talking about it, thinking about it was making her feel testy.

"Besides, it would be weird to have lots of others here," she said. "All those bodies and voices, all those faces, swarming around all the time. I'm not really sure I'd like it." But even as she said it aloud, she could feel the tug of curiosity. What would it be like? Other bodies, other faces, other personalities all around, every day, day in and day out? The strange mix of emotions this train of thought provoked made the whole idea almost overwhelming. No, she decided. It was better as it was. Less confusing. Safer.

"Zenn?" It was Sister Hild, calling up from downstairs. Zenn walked to the banister and looked down. The Sister was in the entryway of the calefactory hall. Next to her, Otha was pulling on his heavy work chaps.

"So, the princess awakens," her uncle said, glancing up. "Good. You can a.s.sist. Get dressed and meet me in the courtyard. Did I hear our new s.e.xton up there?" Zenn turned to see the big coleopt attempting to move quietly back to his room.

"He's here," Zenn said, then immediately felt guilty. "Sorry," she whispered as he came to join her on the landing.

"Yes, director-abbot," Hamish said, only half-concealing his disappointment at being discovered. "I am here."

"Did you give Griselda that dose of mineral supplement with this morning's feeding?" Griselda was a crypto-plasmodial seepdemon being treated for membrane parasites at the clinic.

"I haven't fed her yet, director-abbot. I was about to attend to it. Right after breakfast." His mouthparts quivered at the mention of food, the crescent-shaped mandibles rubbing together with a sound like sharpening knives. "Do I have your approval fora?"

"You haven't had your breakfast yet?" Otha cut him off. "Early to wake, sooner to work, s.e.xton Hamish." It was a saying Zenn had heard many times. She got an uncharitable amount of pleasure hearing it quoted to someone else. Hamish's antennae drooped, and he gave her what she imagined was a coleopt's version of a long-suffering look as he went by, descended the stairs, and started off for the kitchen.

"s.e.xton," Otha said, stopping him. "Patients eat first. Remember?"

"Yes, director-abbot," Hamish said, turning reluctantly toward the door leading to the cloister yard.

"Did we get a shard?" Zenn called to her uncle. It was the same question she asked almost every morning.

"No, Zenn," Otha said, kneeling to check the contents of his veterinary field kit. "Still no message from Warra. You'll be the first to know, I promise. Hamish?"

Hamish paused, one claw on the door latch.

"Director-abbot?"

"We'll be at the south gate in a few minutes."

"Oha?" Hamish dipped his antennae at Otha, waiting.

Otha sighed. "Be there to let us out and close the gate behind us. Alright?"

"I see. Of course, director-abbot." He placed his hat on his head and adjusted it so his antenna could protrude, then he ducked out the door.

Sister Hild came up the stairs and shooed Zenn back into her room. Startled at the Sister's approach, Katie blended and was gone.

SIX.

"It's the Bodine place. Again," Hild said, taking a pair of coveralls out of the closet and handing them to Zenn. Beneath wind-burnished skin, the old woman's cheeks blushed red from the chill morning air outside, her long, gray hair gathered in a tidy bun on top of her head. No doubt she'd already been up doing ch.o.r.es for hours. She wasn't a strong-looking woman. Quite the opposite; slightly-built and smaller than Zenn with a delicate, bird-like manner about her. But she had more energy than Zenn and Otha put together, and she was the cloister's resident tech expert, repairing balky computers and aging medical equipment with apparently effortless speed and efficiency.

"Gil's new sandhog is in a bad way," the Sister said, "And he can't afford to lose this one."

"What's wrong with it?" Zenn said, pulling on the coveralls. She knew Gil Bodine had bartered away a full first cutting of high quality gensoy for the new sandhog boar. He'd already lost two sows, and he'd be more than a little upset if this hog expired on him.

"Something gastro-intestinal, from the sound of it."

"A sandhog with indigestion? There's a shock," Zenn said. Burrowing into the ground, devouring soil by the gaping mouthful and excreting it back out again, a big, grub-like sandhog could convert an acre of sterile Martian sand and rock to fertile, crop-growing humus in a matter of weeks. At least it could back on Sigmund's Parch, its home world. "Otha says Parcher hogs need to get used to Martian soil gradually before you turn them out full time. You think Gil put this one to work too soon?"

"Could well be. Patience isn't Gil's strong suit," Hild said. "If he'd taken more care with penning in those first two sows, maybe they wouldn't have disappeared on him."

"At least they were spayed females," Zenn said, contemplating the unpleasant prospect of a sandhog population boom. Hogs were useful animals, but they were also large and belligerent when riled up. "You'd think he'd be a little more careful."

"Gil just has a lot on his plate," the Sister said. "A farm that size? It's too much for one man to handle."

"I think he's had some help lately. Liam said he'd been out there a few times."

"Liama" Hild said. She gave Zenn a look. "Ah yes, Liam Tucker."

"And Hamish has him helping out with ch.o.r.es around here, too," Zenn said. The old woman continued to give Zenn a look she couldn't decipher. "What?"

"Oh, well," Hild said. "Just that Liam seems to be in evidence at the cloister more than usual lately. He seems to be acting morea friendly."

Zenn had no idea what Hild was saying. Then it dawned on her.

"With me?" She had to smile at this. Yes, Liam was interacting more with her. But not in the way the Sister was implying. "I don't think so, Sister. Liam's a towner. There are plenty of towner girls for him to be friendly with." Alright, she conceded to herself, maybe not plenty of girls, but at least three or four who came immediately to mind. The Sister's cryptic expression stayed put.

"Zenn," Hild sat on the bed. Zenn could feel one of the Sister's "little talks" coming on. "Liam Tucker has a bit of a reputation. I don't know if you're aware of it."

"A reputation?" Zenn said. "For what? For joyriding in Benji Kao's flatbed truck? It was a stupid stunt, I'll grant you. But Benji got his truck back, didn't he?"

"I'm referring more to Liam's general att.i.tude. Toward responsibility. Toward others. It's not just that he gets into trouble. Lots of boys his age do."

"Then what is it?"

"Liam and his family have had to contend with somea difficult times," Hild said. "He's grown up in a very different world from us out here. A harder world. I just mean he's a boy who has a certain kind of att.i.tude about life."

"So?" Zenn said, a small kernel of righteous annoyance forming within her. "Who doesn't have an att.i.tude about life?"

And if Liam had att.i.tude issues, Zenn told herself, there wasn't any mystery about it. After his father's death in some sort of farming accident years ago, his mother took up with Deg Bradden, a prospector from Syrtis Forge. Liam and Deg never got along, and things came to a head when Constable Jakstra was called out one night to break up a fight between the two of them. Shortly after that, Deg moved back to the mining camp at Syrtis and Liam's mom went with him. Liam stayed. He was related to Vic LeClerc, so he moved out to live on her ranch. Since then, he'd had other run-ins with the constable, but nothing all that terrible far as Zenn knew; fistfights with other boys, "borrowing" Benji's old truck, kid stuff. Maybe that was her main impression of Liam. Street-smart but not school-smart, self-centered in a boyish way.

"In Liam's case," the Sister said, "I'm afraid the att.i.tude is one that tells him to act first and think later. And he's at an age thata well, you're old enough that I don't need to explain hormonal surges. And the quant.i.ty of available peer group females in Arsia doesn't enter into the equation. If you're the girl he's talking to at the moment, you're the girl he's going to *be friendly' with."

"Oh, thanks a lot!" Zenn half-laughed at Hild's retort. But it was only half a laugh. "So the only reason he comes to find me and talk is that he's enslaved by out-of-control hormones? I'll have you know he's taken an interest in the clinic's patients. He's curious. He asks questions about them and he appreciates the things I tell him. Are there hormones for that kind of behavior? I guess we haven't gotten to that chapter in the textbook yet."

"It's just this," Hild said, reaching out to take Zenn's hands in hers. "You need to use a little common sense around boys like Liam. That's all." She patted Zenn's hands and released them, giving her an indulgent smile.

Zenn didn't return the smile, but bent to scruff Katie between her tufted ears.

"I think I'm old enough to know I need to use common sense, Sister."

"Hm," she said, her clear, blue, old-woman's eyes fixing on Zenn's. "Well, the truth is, I'm surprised Vic can spare Liam." She rose from the bed and started straightening the covers. "First he's here doing Hamish's work for him. Now he's going all the way out to Gil Bodine's? Seems like the boy would have plenty to keep him busy at the LeClerc place. All those goats."

"He said Vic is thinning out her herd. Not enough decent grazing land," Zenn said, knowing that Hild was just trying to direct the conversation to some subject other than the chemical changes in Liam's adolescent bloodstream. "I guess that gives him the free time to help Gil. And Hamish. And that's encouraging, isn't it? That he's willing to spend his time at the cloister, work around the animals, ask about them. Not many towners would make that kind of effort."

Hild didn't argue with this, and Zenn felt like she'd scored a point for Liam. Even though he was a towner, at least he seemed open to the idea that the cloister's animals might be something other than a toxic menace.

"So," the Sister said, going to stand by the door. "You'll be careful out at Gil's, won't you? No wandering off?"

Hild had likely heard the same rumors as Zenn. That the scab-landers stalking the more remote areas were getting bolder every month. Liam had even told her when scabs robbed the Zubrin train or held up other travelers, they weren't just stealing cargo or food. They were taking people a" and selling them to off-world slavers. Zenn found this hard to believe. But not impossible.

"I'll be perfectly safe with Otha," Zenn said, though the prospect of venturing far beyond the cloister walls always filled her with a quick rush of apprehension and excitement. In fact, she'd never been out of sight of the walls without an adult by her side. "And if Gil has a sick animal, it's our duty to go out there and help, isn't it?"

"Of course. But I still don't like it," Hild said. "Gil is one of the good ones, though. At least he sees the benefit in off-world creatures, that they have their place just like we do. Not like others I could mention."

The unmentionables, Zenn a.s.sumed, included most of the population of Arsia City. "Sister," Zenn said to Hild, her gaze drawn to the window and the compound's buildings and grounds. "What if the Rift really is ending? If contact between Earth and Mars starts up again, what will happen to the cloister?"

"I suppose we'd have Earther students enrolling again, wouldn't we?"

"But what if the stories about the Authority on Earth are true? If they got control here on Mars, with how they feel about aliens?"

"I think the Authority is changing, Zenn," Hild said. "It sounds to me like they've decided Earth can't just go it alone any more. They tried that, it didn't work out for them. They're starting to see the value of working with the planets of the Accord again." She paused, folding Zenn's robe and setting it on the dresser. "The New Law faction, they're another story. They've got some strange ideas. About human superiority. About Earther purity. About hanging on to the past, no matter what it costs. And even if the Rift does end," the Sister's voice lifted, affecting a lighter tone, "the VIPs on Earth and Mars will have more on their minds than our little cloister. And you have a patient waiting, child. Now go on with you."

Hild waved her hands at Zenn to urge her out of the room, but suddenly the bedspread seemed to come alive, making Hild take a quick step back. Katie materialized, her fur fluffed out defensively. She leaped off the bed and positioned herself between Zenn and the Sister.