Wheelers by Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen

Author:Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen [Stewart, Ian & Cohen, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Life on Other Planets, Science Fiction
Publisher: New York : Warner Books
Published: 2000-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

"With those weird vidivision people, no doubt. I wondered why you'd been spending so much time in discussions with them on the Xnet—"

Prudence exploded. "Who I interact with on the X is no business of yours!"

"Even if you do it in my house, on my node, with my electricity?" Their disputes always went this route, from childhood. Time to back off. . . "I never said it was my business. I just couldn't help noticing, and wondering ..."

"Little sister, you were a snoop when you were two and you're still a snoop today Look, I'm sorry about everything that's happened, it's tragic and awful and I feel deeply for you, and I loved Moses, too, even if it didn't show as much as it should've—but I've got to live my own life again, okay?"

Charity gave a mirthless chuckle. Prudence never could stay in one place for very long. How she coped stuck in a metal box for years on end was one of the wonders of the world . . . "You're going back into space."

"Why not?" Prudence was unusually prickly She knew very well why not. It wasn't space as such, it was what she was going into space for . . . Charity just stood there, silent, accusing.

"Damn it, Chatty, you don't need to look at me like that! It's not as if I'm betraying the human race! We can't all devote one hundred percent of our time to the War Against the Comet! We all have to eat, so farmers have to farm, and we still have to earn the money to buy their food ... Or has the Ecotopian Central Bank abolished money now?"

"Don't be foolish. Prudence." Even to Charity it sounded prissy. She'd never won an argument with Prudence. She was usually right, but that didn't imply a win.

"Look, it's not my fault that there's a bloody comet coming!" Prudence took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her polychromatic hair in an agony of indecision. "It's thanks to me that we may have a chance to divert it! Look, if the comet does hit, it will be a good idea to have as many of us as possible off-planet. You've seen the plans to revive the lunar colonies. Why don't you—"

"Stop changing the subject. Science needs those wheelers. You never should have—"

"They've got plenty, all of them my property. I found them! Now they've commandeered the lot." They both knew this was a lie: the authorities had commandeered exactly eight wheelers, of which Reliant Robin had a wheel missing and Trabant was completely seized up. Even, so, the compensation they'd offered her was pathetic, and their reason—"contribution to the comet effort"—even more so. Prudence had refused point-blank to say where the other wheelers had been hidden. She felt a foolish urge to justify her position, even now, even to her sister. "They have no idea what to do with the ones they've got?"

"That's not the point—"

"Yes, it is! Look, if it makes you

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