Nancy Kress - Crossfire 02 Read Online Free Page A

deceleration much closer in. Why take the extra time?”
    The mayor said tentatively, “Maybe to investigate what he’s coming back to. After all, he’s been gone thirty-nine years.”
    They all contemplated this. Thirty-nine years, Jake thought. And for Karim, how long? A year, maybe. Maybe less, depending on how much time they’d spent under McAndrew Drive. Karim and Lucy would still be around thirty years old. Lucy, whom he’d once held in his arms, kissed, loved … Stay in the present.
    Alex said, “Caution could be the reason for Karim’s radio silence, too. Waiting until we contact him.”
    “No, no,” Jake said, suddenly glad to be paying attention. “It’s not caution. There’s no radio on the Franz Mueller. Remember, I told you all—it’s a captured Fur ship! They use quee, and Greentrees no longer has that capacity. I told you!”
    “I forgot,” Alex said.
    “You all have forgotten too much! I’ve tried for decades to keep up the war preparations for this city because I told you it would happen, but each year there’s more and more slack, and if we get an actual Fur attack I don’t know if anyone is prepared at all, and…”
    Jake stopped. Wrong, wrong. He was ranting, sounding exactly like an old man no one would heed. And no one was, except Alex, who was listening out of compassion rather than belief. Even now, with a ship coming in…
    Lau-Wah said, “What is the state of war preparations? Who is in charge of that?”
    Mayor Shanti said uncertainly, “Isn’t it Donald Halloran? Or, no, he died and so his assistant must have taken over. Alex?”
    She shrugged, not looking at Jake. “I know we all received a com about it, but I can’t remember the name. An Anglo, I think.”
    “Well, it would hardly be a New Quaker,” Jake said curtly, and Alex laughed. A second later her face showed how much she regretted the laugh.
    The mayor said, “I know it’s serious, Jake. This ship … Alex, find out who the new defense admin is and call him here.”
    Alex nodded and opened a comlink. “Siddalee? Who’s the defense admin since Donald Halloran died? … Well, find out and get him or her here, please.” She closed her link.
    And that was another thing, Jake thought—in his day, they could have called up the information by computer. But fewer and fewer computers still worked, and Greentrees simply did not have the resources to manufacture many replacements. What they did create or adapt was usually assigned to the genetics lab, but even there people had taken to keeping the bulk of their notes on paper. Mira City numbered—what?—maybe fifteen thousand people now (once he would have known the exact number), but that wasn’t enough to sustain every aspect of a fully digital society. And a lot of those people were New Quakers, who weren’t interested in machinery, and neither were Larry Smith’s ridiculous Cheyenne… no, wait, Larry Smith was dead long ago, somebody else led the tribes, Larry had been the founder, when the Cheyenne were still learning how to live off the land and glorify it with the spirit dances Jake had attended once, at dawn in the—
    He was wandering in time again.
    “—evacuation if necessary,” Mayor Shanti said.
    “How would we do that?” Lau-Wah said. “Where could we evacuate that many people to?”
    “Our people aren’t exactly good at living off the land,” Alex said. “Maybe the Cheyenne had the right idea all along. No, don’t scowl at me, David, I was joking. There’s Siddalee comming back.”
    She listened to her call, while Jake studied her. Such a strong face. Not pretty, exactly, although her slim body curved nicely. Her features were too big and angular for feminine beauty, especially her jaw, but she had thick glossy hair, brown only slightly touched with gray, and undeniably beautiful eyes. Deep gray, wide, fringed with black lashes. Expressive eyes. Too expressive, maybe; Alex was not good at hiding her feelings. She’d had a very bad