Climbing Olympus by Kevin J. Anderson

Author:Kevin J. Anderson [Anderson, Kevin J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780006483052
Publisher: Voyager
Published: 1997-03-31T23:00:00+00:00

RACHEL DYCEK

Not even Boris's childish tantrum could break Rachel's concentration as she stared at the rounded abdomen of the adin woman, the protective, polymerized skin stretched tight. Cora wore a too-large overall, which had probably been fitted for one of the burly adin men, but it could not obscure her pregnancy.

A baby on Mars! The thought sent Rachel's perspective reeling, and she felt her emotions warring with each other over how to react. Should she be delighted, or horrified?

Cora Marisovna's hooded eyes were shadowed, masked by protective lashes. In the back of her memories Rachel remembered a frightened young Siberian girl with glistening black hair and Mongolian features, ushered into the testing labs under the combined coercion of mother and grandmother. Rachel had focused on the test results, on the adin modifications, averting her eyes whenever she began to think of the candidates as people. Despite what she had insisted during the UN hearings, Rachel frequently refused to think of the human aspects of the adin program — but now it had reared up and struck her across the face.

In the facility at Neryungri, young, dark-haired Cora had done everything asked of her. She never complained; she seemed so trusting. Rachel had felt uneasy after seeing this innocent test subject, but she had driven it from her mind. Cora Marisovna had passed every one of the rigid physical requirements for adin surgeries, and the project had too few female volunteers to choose from. The selection had to be made, and Rachel had no regrets. But the lovely Siberian girl now looked as if she had been molded by a blind sculptor, nose and ears smeared away.

Behind the whitish cast of her polymerized skin Cora showed a slight discoloration from central cyanosis due to polycythemia and reduced oxygen saturation, despite the genetically modified hemoglobin-Y and the enhanced lung capacity. As she spoke, her tongue and the inner lining of her mouth showed a ruddy, blue-tinged appearance, as had Boris and the other adins.

Rachel viewed all this with a distracted, clinical focus, until she realized again where she was — sitting among the adins who had miraculously survived years of exile in a bleak grotto high on Pavonis Mons. This adin woman was no longer young, about thirty-six Earth years, and had lived most of that time under extreme hardship. Cora Marisovna had endured it all, as if she had no other choice. She had stayed with Boris Tiban and his petty revolution, which had no lasting effect but to make the surviving adins miserable when they could have been working side by side with the dvas and the humans on Mars.

Her hands sweaty inside the thin-film gloves, Rachel reached forward to touch Cora. In the shadows at the rear of the grotto, Stroganov stood to watch, but he did not speak. It seemed a magic moment to her. New life springing forth on a dead planet — even Jesús Keefer's grandiose terraforming plans could not compete with that.

Cora looked embarrassed and confused by Rachel's touch, but she carried a semblance of hope she had not shown at first.

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