The Year's Top Short SF Novels 7 by Allan Kaster

Author:Allan Kaster [Kaster, Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AudioText
Published: 2018-01-16T06:00:00+00:00

The route to Kaah this time took Petra through the ebb and flow of the crowds. Third Cluster was one of those clusters that synchronized sleep-wake cycles, to some extent—there would always be early risers and late sleepers and those who eschewed the cycle altogether, but it was consensus early morning, and human colonists filled the halls. Here and there on whatever business they had; Petra had to admit, she didn’t know what they got up to.

Sulai, her mind whispered. In one of their spats, Amad had said You’re half-Su yourself. Do you even know how to speak to real people? Nash had apologized for him, and Amad had apologized in his own way—no words, no overt gestures of contrition, but he’d brought some physical media display in from the ship and showed her an old performance of something. He’d found it hysterical. She’d found it incomprehensible, and he’d sulked off and avoided contact with her halfway to the next season.

Kaah was already Making at the outgrowth when Petra entered it, and she was beaming, inasmuch as the Su had interpretable expressions that could be read as beaming. Petra sat on the ground, crossing her legs like a Su would, and waited, with her eyes closed, watching the colony take shape in ordered lines beneath the sporadic wrath of the sky.

Finally, Kaah finished her hallway, and the bright electricity quieted down to a more latent level. She turned to Petra and gestured greeting.

“My petition for offspring has been granted,” she said.

Petra blinked back into a social mindset, then processed what Kaah had said.

“That’s wonderful!” Petra said, then had to search a moment for the traditional Su response. “The news is my joy; the benefit of the colony is my joy. Have you found a willing Father?”

Kaah gestured assent. “Suva Umet, who approved my petition. She is skilled in constructing zygotes with Father and Maker potential. As we increase our capacity for gathering energy, there will be further roles in the colony for Makers. I expect a clutch of five, potentially more.”

“It will be good,” Petra said. Then, a human phrase: “I’m happy for you.”

Kaah gestured pleasure, then said, “Your arrival is convenient. I defer to your expertise in the dimensions of family units.”

Some expertise, Petra thought. Third Cluster tended to have family homes that kept a core of children and grandchildren and grandparents all together, a few peeling off in each generation, plenty staying behind. Petra had grown in a more Su-flavored cluster; individual rooms for the most part, pairs and two-generation groupings here and there. But she had a sense for what the division of rooms should be, at least; what private areas a human expected that a Su would find extraneous, what layouts between the units would help people mix in the halls as they did in the halls below. And in any case, it was a change of subject.

Thankfully, with the Su, a conversation about pregnancy would rarely turn toward whether or not the other participants hoped for a child.

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