“It’s probably not extremely intelligent either.”
Tam just sighed and lifted the cup’s lid, inhaling the steam appreciatively. Dionte’s blended teas were works of art. Tam smelled ginger, cardamom, jasmine, green tea, and just a hint of black pepper for stimulation and to startle the palate. He removed the cover and sipped.
“He suggested to me that you aren’t doing enough to convince Helice Trust she should be helping us,” said Dionte.
Tam lowered the cup, frowning as if the tea had soured inside his mouth. “Basante wanted to force a woman who has broken no laws into the complex. Are you saying I should have let him?”
“He showed me the report.” Dionte uncovered her own cup and blew on the pale brown brew. The steam swirled and clouded around her round face as she lifted her gaze to look at Tam. Amusement sparkled behind her concern. “In fact, he pressed it into my personal system without asking me.” Tam gave a soft chuckle and nodded. When Basante got excited, he insisted that everyone get excited.
“She is nearly perfect,” Dionte went on. “Her presence would save a lot of work.” She paused. “We would need to recruit far fewer subjects.”
Tam snorted in disgust and considered handing the tea back. You should realize by now I will not play along with you any more than I will play along with the rest of our family. “So, this one time, we should be like Basante and forget the villagers are human? I can’t believe you’d do that.” You are so used to close contact with so many kinds of mind, Sister. How can anyone be an outsider to you?
When Tam and Dionte’s birth parents had told them that their Consciences would never grow to full strength, one of the ways in which they responded was by learning as much about the Conscience implants as possible. Dionte had turned that interest into her calling and became a Guardian. Now she spent her life monitoring, analyzing, and creating the implants for the family, as well as working with the organic countermeasures designed to protect Pandora and the domes from invasion or rebellion.
Dionte drank her tea, cradling the cup in her palm. “Normally I’d be the first one to agree with your sentiment. But these are not normal times.”
“Sentiment?” he said. “Don’t tell me you’ve started believing…” He looked at the way Dionte held her face, so still, so full of equilibrium. “You have.”
“No.” Dionte shook her head. “I’m just saying that if we don’t show the Authority something concrete soon, we really will be under siege. They might already be moving to make good on their threat to destroy Pandora.”
The intensity of her words startled Tam and lit a spark of suspicion inside him. What if that step had already been taken? What if that step was Beleraja’s news of her four hundred refugees?
Ridiculous. Surely, if the Authority wanted to pressure Pandora, Pandora would know it. Two thousand years of being the sole provider of transportation and trade between the Called had not encouraged subtlety inside the Authority. Surely they would never hatch a scheme like this.
Besides, Beleraja would never hazard lives in such a fashion. Or would she? Did he really know what she would do if she thought her actions would bring the Diversity Crisis to a swift conclusion?
Tam looked down into his cup. The smell of spices was rich and pleasant, but he couldn’t make himself drink it. Whether or not his suspicions about Beleraja were the truth, that was how the family was sure to interpret her actions. How would they respond? The most likely possibility was that they would insist on the Eden Project being accelerated. The argument would be that they should give the Authority what they wanted. Then the Authority would go away and leave Pandora in peace.
And how many would be forced into the experiment wing once that decision had been reached?
“Helice Trust might be willing to contribute genetic material to the project,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “I believe what she truly objects to is being made pregnant with a child that she will not be allowed to keep, and possibly having this happen to her more than once.”
“If it was her eggs that were needed, her eggs would’ve been asked for.” Dionte ran her fingertip around the rim of her cup. “You know that the real difficulty here has been the interaction between the immune system of the mother and the enhanced fetus.”
“Well, now that we have an idea of what we’re looking for, we can begin screening exclusively for other matches. We have four hundred new candidates aboard Athena Station alone.” There was no question in Tam’s mind that Dionte already knew about the refugees.