Page 172 (1/1)
That was the ht about Mei and her immune system The problem was tiny, really A mutant allele produced a protein that folded left instead of right A few base pairs’ difference But that protein catalyzed a critical step in signal transduction to the T cells She could have all the parts of an ien, but without twice-daily doses of an artificial catalyzing agent, the alarm would never sound Myers-Skelton Premature Immunosenescence they called it, and the preliminary studies still hadn’t even been able to tell if it was more co effect or just the high radiation levels increasing otten there, Mei had developed a massive spinal infection when she was four months old If they’d been anywhere else in the outer planets, she’d have died of it But everyone caestate, so the child health research all happened there When Dr Strickland saw her, he knehat he was looking at, and he held back the cascade
Prax walked down the corridors toward ho hit in the jaw, but it elling, and it hurt His ribs had a sharp pain on the left that hurt if he breathed in too deep, so he kept his breath shallow He stopped at one of the parks, scrounging a few leaves for dinner He paused at a large stand of Epipre They were still green, but thicker, and with a golden undertone Someone had put distilled water in the hydroponic supply instead of the -stability hydroponics needed They could get aith it for another week Maybe two Then the air-recycling plants would start to die, and by the tione to stop And if they couldn’t get the right water to the plants, he couldn’t iine they’d be able to set all theto have to do so about that
Someone else
In his rooht Without any particular conscious thought, he put his finger in the soil, testing it The rich scent of well-balanced soil was like incense It was doing pretty well, all things considered He glanced at the time stamp on his hand terminal Three hours had passed since he’d co into a kind of constantly rediscovered pain
Without her estive syste The bacteria that norainst her After teeks, maybe she wouldn’t be dead But even in the best case, she’d be so sick that bringing her back would be problematic
It was a war Kids died in wars It was a cascade He coughed, and the pain was io To get out Ganyood She was gone His baby girl was gone
Crying hurt worse than coughing
He didn’t sleep so much as lose consciousness When he woke, his jaollen badly enough that it clicked when he opened his ree better He sat on the edge of his bed, head in his hands
He’d go to the port He’d go to Basia and apologize and ask to go along Get out of the Jovian system entirely Go someplace and start over without his past Without his failed e and shattered work Without Mei
He switched to a slightly less dirty shirt Swabbed his armpits with a damp cloth Combed his hair back He’d failed It was pointless He had to come to terms with the loss and move on And maybe someday he would
He checked his hand ter the parks, checking with Dr Astrigan, and then a list of five brothels he hadn’t been to, where he could ask after the illicit pleasures of pedophilia, hopefully without being gutted by sos had children too Soh, he keyed in a new entry: MINERALIZE PARK WATER He’d need to find someone with physical plant access codes Maybe security could help with that at least
Andthe way, he’d find Mei
There was still hope
Chapter Eight: Bobbie
The Harht, half a kiloht Her interior docking bay was large enough to hold four frigate-class escort ships and a variety of lighter shuttles and repair craft Currently, it held only two ships: the large and almost opulent shuttle that had ferried the Martian aht to Earth, and the smaller and more functional Navy shuttle Bobbie had ridden up fro
The Dae-Jung’s captain was being pressured by the diploet the at a near-constant one g acceleration While this made most of the Martian civilians uncomfortable, it suited Bobbie just fine The corps trained at high g all the ti at least once a month No one ever said it was to prepare for the possibility of having to fight a ground war on Earth No one had to
Her recent tour on Gany exercise, and the long trip to Earth seeet back into shape The last thing she wanted was to appear weak to the natives
“Anything you can do I can do better,” she sang to herself in a breathless falsetto as she ran “I can do anything better than you”
She gave her atch a quick glance Two hours At her current leisurely pace, that meant twelve ularly ran for twenty anda would have her believe that half of the people on Earth didn’t even have jobs They just lived off the governs and stim parlors But probably some of the of Eartherfro, then concentrated on nothing but the sound of her shoes slapping on thebay, so when he called out to her, she twisted in surprise and tripped over her own feet, catching herself with her left hand just before she would have dashed her brains out on the deck She felt soht knee bounced painfully off the floor as she rolled to absorb the impact