The Universe of Things by Gwyneth Jones

Author:Gwyneth Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Feminist Science Fiction, Science Fiction, scifi, New Space Opera, Ecology--Fiction, short fiction, Extraterrestrial Aliens—Fiction, sf
ISBN: 9781933500652
Publisher: Aqueduct Press
Published: 2011-02-12T08:00:00+00:00

Merle was alone, most alone. She could have been in Eden before the fall. She had walked into the hills above the settlement. They had closed behind her; now there was nothing, not a whisper of birdsong or the sound of water. She followed a ridge path, deeper and deeper into a world of green crags and plunging chasms. This is Treasure Island, she said to herself derisively. Presently I will shoot a goat and dress myself in skins. Her Kirlian eyes were wide open and very still. An enormous presence watched at her back and looked down at her from the heights. She was afraid, though there was nothing to fear; and finally so afraid that she could go no further.

She sat on a rocky promontory beside the path. This is how it must have been, she thought, to wake up in the world. The first thinking thing, looking at the not-thinking. So much greater than I. The huge crags looked down at her tiny figure, impassively. She knew that to endow that green immensity with persona was a reflex of fear: fear of what it really was. Slowly, slowly, she let the fallacy slip away. And fell into unknowing…

After a while she got up and stripped off the suit. She was naked under it. She stood examining her body, wondering if she would know it among a hundred other bodies of tallish, dark-haired white women — apart from the all too familiar face. She thought not. The small white sun was warm. She could feel it, she could see the shadow it gave her. A Ma’atian child appeared, coming down the path. On seeing her naked it beamed all over its face and sat down on the edge of the promontory.

“Hello,” said Merle cautiously.

She knew this was an adolescent female, from the patterns on the tiny kilt slung around its slender hips. If you didn’t look too closely it made a pretty young woman, in spite of the fishlike teeth.

You have taken your clothes off, remarked the girl, in gesture and whistle-clicking. We didn’t think you could do that. We thought you were maybe ghosts. She touched the shed carapace curiously.

Merle laughed. “What a silly idea.”

Perhaps the laugh seemed like an invitation. The child settled more closely on the rocky perch and took Merle’s hand. I like you very much, she pantomimed. Why don’t you stay with us, don’t go away in that little box. I wish you would stay. The pretty girl seemed sweetly sincere; however, Merle understood at once that she was being tempted, and knew why. She started to giggle. It was so ludicrous. Make love not war; Sugi had said that. Which was typical of Sugi, the good-hearted simpleton. Sugi was probably the only one of them all, villagers and invaders, who didn’t know this paradise was doomed.

The natives had no way of guessing their world had five hundred years’ grace — at a conservative estimate! But Merle was not about to try and explain.

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