Stranded by James Alan Gardner & Anthony Francis

Author:James Alan Gardner & Anthony Francis [Gardner, James Alan & Francis, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611941821
Publisher: BelleBooks, Inc.
Published: 2012-08-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

A couple of days later, while the four of us were eating what the food slots in the Restorers’ food court had decided to offer for a midday meal, Zashi stopped by our table.

“The new bees are growing very nicely,” he said, smiling at me. “They’ll be distributed tomorrow.” Then he gave me a speculative look. “I just came from the tank rooms. Since I was assisting you with the bees, one of the techs didn’t see any harm in mentioning that your other specimens were nicely grown and ready for dispersal. I believe you’ll find a message to that effect when you get back to work. I gather you want to give them a chance to prove themselves before offering them to anyone else?”

“Yes,” I said, feeling my smile become brittle. “That’s it exactly.”

“I don’t think you’ll find that to be an issue—at least, not with any Restorer.” He lifted his hand in farewell and went to join friends at another table.

“What other specimens?” Stev asked.

“I’ll explain later,” I muttered, not daring to look at him.

There had been a blend of amusement and sympathy in Zashi’s eyes before he left us that clearly told me he knew as well as I did who was going to make an issue out of this.

—————

When we got back to the auxiliary room, Stev read the message waiting for us and threw a fit.

“How could you?” he shouted. “How could you? I have spent years trying to put that behind me.”

“They’re pollinators. They’re viable. They work in this ecosystem. We need them,” I shouted back.

“They aren’t viable. They don’t fit! The Scholars and Instructors made that very clear when they reviewed the project.”

“I’m the Restorer for this team, and I say they fit!” If there wasn’t so much hurt under the anger, I could have punched him for being so stubborn. “They’re bees, Stev, and we need bees.”

He turned away from me.

Whit quietly cleared his throat. “Uh . . . Thanie and I have some . . . stuff . . . to do. We’ll be back in a little while.” Taking a firm grip on Thanie’s arm, he dragged her out of the room.

I barely noticed them leave.

“They’ll chew on you for this, Willow,” Stev said bitterly.

“Let them try.” I waited until he turned to face me. “I’ll put our work up against any Restorer team. I don’t know why the Scholars and Instructors made such a fuss over the bumblers. I don’t care why they did. They were wrong, Stev.” I was so angry at that point, I started to cry. “They were wrong.”

“Willow . . .” Stev put his arms around me. “Don’t cry, Willow. Please don’t cry.”

I did my best to stop, not because I was ready to, but mostly because seeing me cry made Stev feel helpless.

Stev sighed. “I guess no one will really notice a handful of bumblers.”

Obviously, he had only gotten far enough into the message to read “bumbler bees” and hadn’t actually taken in the quantity of specimens that were ready for dispersal.

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