Seeds of Change by Thomas F Monteleone

Author:Thomas F Monteleone [Monteleone, Thomas F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi., Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780889509009
Publisher: Laser
Published: 2017-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

The hours passed as Stone continually scanned the horizon, waiting for the appearance of a warmech that would probably not appear. He watched the horizon on his left slowly grow brighter as the first fingers of the dawn reached out toward his position. The deep blue had turned first to violet, and then into pink as the sun crept higher in the sky. It was the first sunrise he had ever seen; the Shield of the Cityplex had never allowed him to penetrate its layers with his gaze. In fact, he had never even thought of what things actually looked like beyond the force-field. But now that he was witnessing the sun’s explosion into day, he lacked the equipment to describe his feelings or catalogue his sensations.

He was interrupted by the rustle of canvas behind him. Turning, he saw Jessica emerge from the shelter and come toward him. “Why didn’t you wake me?” she asked. “You must be exhausted.”

“No, not really. I lost track of time out here. The night kind of captured me, I guess.”

“All right, well come down here and get something to eat. We’re due to be picked up pretty soon.”

“You said that last night, but I didn’t get a chance to ask… picked up by whom?”

“My people’ll be coming for us. They’ve been expecting us but a night rendezvous is difficult to manage so they wanted to wait until daylight.” She stooped down, rummaging in the pack, retrieving containers of processed food.

“How will they know where to find us?”

“I radioed them our position while you were sleeping in the hovercraft. They shouldn’t have much trouble.”

He looked out across the desert. “I don’t know, it seems so big… like it would take a thousand years to find us out here.”

She laughed. “It’s not so big, really. And we have fairly sophisticated methods of finding our way around. You’ll see… Here, now, eat some of this. And savor it. It’ll be the last time you eat synthetic food.”

” ‘Synthetic’? What do you mean?”

“My people don’t eat this crap,” she said, making a face of mock disgust. “We grow and produce natural foods… the way our ancestors did.”

“Interesting people, these ancestors of yours,” he said, taking a food container and sucking its contents into his mouth.

“Yes, we think so, too.” She laughed and sat down beside him.”

They sat in silence as they ate, passing the canteen of water back and forth. Then as Stone got up, walking back behind the hovercraft to relieve himself, he saw something in the southern sky. At first it was simply a black speck, bobbing and skipping across the thermal currents that loomed above the desert floor. But standing there, watching it, he saw it grow larger and resolve itself into a distinct shape: a large teardrop attached to a delta wing, with bent appendages hanging from its underbelly. It looked like a grotesquely fat insect slowly lowering itself toward its prey.

“Jessica!” he cried, pointing to the airship. “Look! Over there!”

She jumped up and joined him by the hovercraft.

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