Last Shadow (9781250252135) by Card Orson Scott

Author:Card, Orson Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan

* * *

Sprout was resisting all the way. “Not till Wang-Mu gets back,” he said. Thulium knew that he was just as concerned about Peter, but Sprout also knew that mentioning Peter’s name would make Thulium even angrier. “This is crazy,” Sprout said. “We’re not ready. We don’t have our equipment.”

“We have cameras. We have sampling devices and specimen pouches.”

“Why did you send Peter to get all that other gear if this is all we need?”

“Because I could!” Thulium knew this was silly and irrational but that’s how she felt right now.

“So the personality transplant was a ruse,” said Sprout.

“Did you think I’d forget Peter’s outrageous insult?”

“The word is perfidy,” said Sprout.

“The only person who really believed I was taking it well was you,” said Thulium.

“Because I trusted you,” said Sprout. “No one has a monopoly on perfidy. Besides, Peter never actually agreed to the plan of the two of us going on our own. He just didn’t bother arguing.”

“Not arguing is agreeing.”

“Except when you’re the silent one,” said Sprout.

“Are you coming with me?” asked Thulium.

Sprout didn’t answer at once. He regarded Thulium steadily and said, “Will you listen to me, I mean really listen and consider? Or are you just going to do whatever you want? Because if it’s the latter, go get yourself killed alone.”

“Wang-Mu stays with Peter.”

“She’s his wife! You’re my cousin. My younger cousin.”

“I do listen to you,” said Thulium. “Always.” As she spoke the words, she knew the truth.

“By ‘always’ I believe you mean ‘never,’” said Sprout.

“Every time you make sense!” cried Thulium.

“Your definition of making sense is ‘agrees with Ultima Thule.’”

“You call me that?”

“I’ll have your back in everything,” said Sprout, “if you let me be a partner in this. My science in this is better than yours and you know it. Yet science is your pretense for why Peter should follow and obey you. Why not me?”

Thulium still had rational faculties engaged, and these words calmed her down. Why not Sprout? He had never led her astray.

“You want to be in charge?” asked Thulium.

“We might try it sometime,” said Sprout.

“All right, you’re in charge. What’s your first decision?”

“We don’t go until Peter and Wang-Mu get back.”

“All right,” said Thulium. “Agreed. Done. Do we know when they’re coming back?”

“They don’t have a portable pocket ansible with them because it hasn’t been invented yet,” said Sprout. “So no, we don’t know when they’re coming back until they come back and show us.”

“Then let’s go to Q-Bay and watch for their arrival.”

“Or we could sleep,” said Sprout.

“Go to the lab with me and sleep while I watch for them,” said Thulium.

Sprout reached out his hand.

“No,” said Thulium. “I need to test whether I can carry you with me if we need to leave suddenly when we’re physically separated.”

Sprout put his hands behind his back and waited.

And then they were in the lab outside Q-Bay.

A pequenino said, “Why are you two here? You clocked out and went home.”

“As if we had a home on Lusitania,” said Thulium.

“We want to be here when the expeditionaries come back,” said Sprout.

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