Up Against It - M. J. Locke [37]
“Right up front. I spoke to them just twenty minutes ago. They’ll meet you at the main park entrance.”
* * *
They called Kukuyoshi an arboretum; in truth it was a full-blown ecohabitat whose spanses and terraces meandered through Zekeston’s two hundred fifty levels and two of its spokes in a network of interconnected microclimates. It was filled with a mix of temperate and cold-region flora and fauna from Mars, the Americas, and Japan. Thanks to Kukuyoshi and its creatures’ adaptations to low gravity, Phocaea had become a major research center and tourist attraction. Zekeston was the park city of the outer system, and the site of the most prestigious Upside university: Phocaea University (P-U, as its students so fondly called it), which did ground-breaking research on exobiology, gravitational biodynamics, microgee mineralogy, and pharmacology.
Kukuyoshi was the single biggest reason why Phocaea was giving Ceres a run for its money as the wealthiest asteroid-based nation, despite being a good deal smaller. Income from Kukuyoshi had funded Phocaea’s treeway system and its search-and-rescue fleet.
Well over half of Kukuyoshi ran wild, or comprised sealed-off sections accessible only to researchers. But that left plenty of volume available to the citizens. Jane and Xuan had spent years exploring the hiking trails. In the lower-gee areas, you did not even need trails—you could simply float through tangles of wood, leaf, and vine. There were camping spots as well. A low-to-high-gee ski resort with two trails and a snow-shoeing path filled Ee, the cold-climate spokeway; low-gee golf and handball and a mid-to-high-gee water park were popular resorts in warmer sections. Areas were also set aside as groomed parks and gardens. Through the largest of these wound a serpentine cemetery wall with the names, pictures, and recordings of Phocaean citizens who had died (though, of course, no actual burial sites; habitat space was far too limited). It was here that most memorial services were held.
Kukuyoshi enveloped the mourners in fragrant growth, in breezes, and the soft music of leaves, birds, and small mammals and reptiles. Be comforted, it seemed to say. Life goes on. For a few more days, anyway, Jane thought sourly. Eight, to be precise.
The prime minister’s office had spared no expense. That had been Jane’s doing. A whole new section had been grown—still slick and smelling of assembler juice. Tania’s group had programmed wandering fillips into the slick, black stonework. Rows of living tree-benches had also been grown, facing the wall, with branches that arched overhead in a bonsailike canopy. Jane ran a hand over a nearby bench trunk, and its bark dragged at her fingers. But it still had that moist, just-grown look, and smelled green, like new growth.
“Stroiders” was out in force. The motes appeared as a soft haze. She had insisted the local media be kept out of the ceremony; she wished now she had pushed to have “Stroiders” shut out, too.
Marty alerted her that the Agres had arrived. She saw them enter, and bounded over the heads of the gathered, to alight near them.
Dierdre’s face was swollen with crying, but her manner was calm, almost comatose. She returned Jane’s hug with a tepid pat. Sal, on the other hand, would not let go. His fingertips dug through the fabric of her blouse. “Thank you for coming,” he kept saying. His voice broke. “Thank you for being here.”
“Christ, Sal!” Jane said. Her own voice cracked. “Of course I came.”
Geoff hung back. Jane shook his hand. His face was pale and drawn, his back stiff, his hair wild. He looked out of place in his dress suit. Accounts had been confused, but she had learned Geoff had played a major role in saving the ice. Jane found it hard to credit, but Sean himself had confirmed it this morning in a terse e-mail, and the young man’s sammy cache seemed to provide confirmation: it brimmed brilliant green with strong community approval. Nary a trace of red anywhere to be seen.
“I hear Phocaea owes you a debt of gratitude,” she said. He shrugged, and his face flushed scarlet.