1

Nurse Gee made the surprise announcement at the end of an otherwise routine briefing,
“Now, before you go, children! I have something to tell you…! You have been aware since Marta’s adventure…” Gee allowed herself a smile,
“…or perhaps I should say, since the first of Marta’s recent adventures, you have been aware that we have been less than frank with you about some aspects of the Dome…and about some of its inhabitants…!”
Nurse Gee paused,
“After discussion, we have decided that this must change…! We have determined that the time has come to ‘come clean’, as it were…as you are now old enough to cope with some of the more challenging aspects of our life here…”
The children had frozen in the act of leaving the briefing room,
“Accordingly, tomorrow’s Mission activities will be postponed for one day…Instead, we will conduct a tour of those areas of the Dome previously considered off-limits…and we will introduce you to the other children…”
Nurse Gee surveyed her charges,
“We will meet here at 0900 hours. That is all!”
As soon their nursemaid exited, the children sprang back to life and the room filled with their excited conversation,
“…you see, I didn’t imagine it…she did say that we would meet the others…” this from Marta,
“…we weren’t sure whether to believe you or not…!” this came from Sal who seemed to have forgotten that he wasn’t talking to her,
“…I told you, I saw where they live…in the forbidden zone…”
“What I want to know…” interrupted Jorja, “…is why we couldn’t see them before…I mean, do they have horrible disfigurements…?”
Marta shuddered, thinking of what she’d seen in the laboratory below ground level,
“…I think they just have, like…disabilities…I don’t think they are going to show us the ones that are really bad…I mean…we couldn’t really talk to the ones I saw because…because, I don’t think they’re really aware of anything…”
The children were silent as they took this in. Surprisingly, it was Han who spoke next,
“Um…I don’t know about you…but I do know a bit about the subsurface level…”
“Really…! Why didn’t you say anything…?”
Han was now the centre of attention and starting to look like a frightened animal caught in a searchlight,
“Look…because of my role looking after Dome security…the Nurses, they showed some parts of the areas underground…look, I swear I didn’t know anything about other children…or monsters, or anything…! They just showed me big hangars where they keep equipment that we don’t use at the moment…”
“What sort of equipment…?” asked Marta,
“…the big machines that they used to build the Dome…before there were any children…! Look, they said that I couldn’t tell you, right! For s-s-security reasons…”
Han was beginning to stammer…something he hadn’t done since he was a small child,
“Stop looking at me like that …I was just doing my job, right!”
An awkward silence ensued, Sal broke it,
“I think, in future, that we shouldn’t have secrets from each other…”
The others all nodded, including Han who now looked thoroughly miserable…
“Anyway, what I was going to tell you is that they have asked me to show you the hangars…! Then Nurse Gee will take over and show you the others bits…” finished Han dully.
Marta now felt sorry for the boy, whose big moment had been spoiled. But then it occurred to her that he had known about Six Gee’s announcement before the meeting, and had kept it secret… She felt a whole series of complex emotions…but mainly she felt hurt. Not by Han, but by the fact that Nurse Gee had told him about the sub-surface level, but hadn’t told her…! She couldn’t help feeling slightly betrayed…
0900 hours saw them all in the briefing room. Marta was glad she was apparently no longer being shunned. Equally relieved was Priya, who could now talk to her openly, without incurring the disapproval of Sal…
Gee duly appeared at the appointed time, but had a surprise for the children. As she faced them, the wall behind her began to lift…revealing a brightly lit chamber beyond. A ramp led off and down…
“Shall we…?” said Nurse Gee.
The descent started off like an outing, or at least how Marta imagined an outing would be, based on her reading of twentieth century literature…
However, as the descent continued the mood changed, and the children fell silent. This part of the subsurface levels was clearly much deeper than anything Marta had encountered on her previous visit…
As they rounded the final corner, the full scale of ‘the hangars’ became clear…
A low whistle from Rai echoed in the stillness…
The space revealed was at first shrouded in gloom, but then a series of overhead lights flared into life, starting directly above them but then racing away across the void. Han had said big machines, but nothing had prepared them for the Brobdingnagian engines now revealed. The nearest one sat on vast wheels at least twice the height of Marta’s head,
“Pretty neat, huh…!” said Han,
“…what are they doing down here…?” asked Priya,
“Well, at the moment they’re mothballed…!”
The children looked blankly at him,
“…it means kept in storage until they are needed again…!” said the boy,
“Why would we need things like that…!” said Jorja,
“Well, when we need to build another Dome…we’ll need them then…”
“Why would we need to build another Dome…there’s only six of us?”
Han was clearly struggling, so Nurse Gee stepped in,
“We are thinking about the long term, Jorja…! The settlement will not always be the small number we have now…! When you are older and have children of your own, and they have children… Then we will need more than one Dome…”
“Oh…”
Marta looked at the incomprehension on the faces of the children,
‘They don’t really get it!’ she thought, ‘they just think that things will be like they are now, forever! They don’t seem to realise that this is just the start…of a colony…Earth’s first colony in the stars…’
She had noticed that none the machines appeared to have a cab, or anywhere where a human operator could sit,
“How do we operate them?” she said
Gee again answered,
“Well, when these machines were used, there were no children to drive them….so they were guided directly by Mission AI… However, they can be adapted for human operators…when the time comes…”
Han was getting visibly impatient,
“Can I show them the drones and aircraft…?”
“Yes, I’d like to see those…!” said Rai, Sal looked equally enthusiastic.
So they set off down a long aisle between the big machines. Marta noticed that everywhere had a thin coating of dust, and the hangar appeared to go on for miles,
‘It must extend underground, outside the Dome!’ she thought.
The feel of an outing resumed, Han was busy telling the other boys about how the various machines were used to dig the enormous space they were walking through, and to erect the Dome itself…and how other machines had mined various minerals out of the soil of A5 to make the construction materials. Han pointed to one enigmatic structure, describing it as a ‘foundry’ used to produce steel, titanium, and aluminium, another one apparently made plastic and composites. Marta found the scale of it all overwhelming. It occurred to her that they’d always taken the Dome and everything associated with it for granted, and had never really thought about the labour needed to bring it about…
Beside her Jorja and Priya were engaged in a deep conversation about children and babies… She would have liked to have joined in, but they had now arrived at their destination,
Han turned to the others,
“This is one of the Mission drones…!” he said excitedly.
Seen close up, the drone reminded Marta of a large plastic insect, maybe a dragonfly. Marta had never seen an insect, much less a dragonfly, but she had seen film of them in the nature documentaries stored in Mission AI’s vast library,
‘So, this is the machine that came to our aid in the crater!’
She could now hear the excited chatter of the boys further along the aisle, and registered that she had been left behind by the other children. When she caught up she found Han was standing proudly beside a big white machine that looked like the granddaddy of the drone,
“This is what I really wanted to show you…this is our aircraft…! And Nurse Gee says we can ride in it soon!”
Han looked at Gee for confirmation as he said this. The nursemaid smiled benignly,
“At first, you will be passengers. Mission AI will fly the machine remotely from the ground… But soon we intend to start teaching you to fly…”
The looks on the children’s faces, their shining eyes spoke to their enthusiasm for this idea. She had their rapt attention now, even Jorja, who’d been making disparaging remarks about boys and their toys, was now hanging on her every word,
“Teaching you to fly will greatly expand the range of our operations. This is a big planet and we have only explored a tiny section of it. Human pilots are needed because Mission AI is only able to control the aircraft while it is within range of one of our repeater stations. With you in control there is no limit on how far we can explore…”
“Can we sit in it?” asked Priya,
“I see no reason why not…! Han…! Will you do the honours?”
Han opened the hatch and the children spent the next few minutes happily taking turns sitting in the cockpit and working the controls. Eventually Nurse Gee called them to order,
“We need to move on now, children, because there are some people who want to meet you…”

2

The children were subdued again as they left the hangar, and their apprehension increased as they took a large elevator back up to the inhabited part of the Dome. Once out of the lift, they hung back, as if unwilling to face what was coming. Gee was in no- nonsense mode,
“Come on, children! The others are waiting…!”
Marta recognised the room she had seen before on her adventure in the hidden zone, but this time she was approaching it from the other direction…and now there were people in it,
“Children, I would like to introduce Jorge, Su-Ying, and Raj…!”
Six Gee indicated each in turn and then turned back to face Marta,
“This is Marta! She’s the same age as you, Jorge…! Rai is next, Han and Jorja are hatch-mates, and finally we have our youngest crew members, Sal…and Priya!”
Marta felt a frisson when Nurse Gee introduced Jorge, ‘Surely my hatch-mate wasn’t viable, but here he is…!”
Marta studied the boy…like Raj, he was in a wheelchair, but he looked tall and lean…and handsome…! Her heart skipped a beat,
“Hi….” she said shyly, realising almost at once that Jorge was blind, “I’m Marta….I think I might be your hatch-mate…..”
“Hola, Marta…! I think you are very beautiful…”
“Can you see me…?” she was confused. Jorge’s eyes moved randomly, not focussing on any one thing…like a documentary on people with visual impairment that she had seen,
“My visual cortex did not develop, but I have another sense, a bit like radar, which I can use to see your shape…and your voice is very beautiful…”
She felt herself blushing as embarrassment warred with desire…
Although the rest of the universe seemed to have vanished as soon as Jorge spoke, Marta was vaguely aware that Han was talking to Su-Ying, while the others, led by Rai were talking to Raj…all this retreated when Jorge spoke again,
“Perhaps, I can show you where we live…?”
Marta nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Stupidly, she tried to push Jorge’s chair, as she had seen people do in feature films from Earth. Jorge affected not notice her faux pas, and confidently steered his way across the cluttered room and through into a corridor leading off,
‘He must be guiding it with his interface…’ she thought,
“The room we just left is our common room…where we play games and relax…this is our classroom…” said Jorge, indicating a room to their left, “…and this is our briefing room…”
Marta noted that these spaces were identical to their counterparts outside the hidden zone,
“…but I really wanted to show you this…this is my room…!”
Marta was touched that he should want to show her this. In their realm, the children jealously guarded the privacy of their bunks…she felt her heart melting again…
Jorge’s room was crowded with stuff. Marta noticed wall hangings made out of some rough fabric unfamiliar to her, she also noticed a strange object made out a dull yellowish metal…a complicated object with lots of small spheres held on metal rods… She had a sudden insight,
“Is that a model of the planets…?”
“…how did you know…? It’s called an ‘orrery’, and it’s a model of the solar system, back where Earth is…” He picked it up, and his fingers found the various orbs,
“…this is Mercury and this is Venus…and Earth, of course…and Mars…”
“Why are there only seven planets…? I thought there were eight…”
“When orreries like this were made, we didn’t know about Neptune…” explained Jorge, “… I like it because I can feel how the planets move…”
There were also strange items on a sort of shelf that she couldn’t place, then she remembered where she’d seen them before,
“Are those books…?”
“Do you like them…? I got the Nurses to print them for me…”
“I think they’re wonderful…” looking to Jorge for approval, she reached over to the shelf,
“Go on, pick one up…”
Marta did so, and immediately became aware of the smell. She put it to her nose,
“It smells like…history…!”
She opened the volume, thinking all the while how strange it was to see writing like this flat… on a page, rather than on a screen or floating in front of your eyes, But, looking more closely, she noticed the writing was lumpy, and unlike anything she had ever seen,
“What language is this…?” she asked
“It’s Braille…It’s a language for people who can’t see…you read it by feeling the writing…”
She tried this out,
“Yes, I can feel it…it’s all rough…! Can you read a whole book this way…?” Jorge nodded,
“…I’m learning Portuguese so I can understand MDG back in Sao Paulo…” a thought suddenly occurred to her,
“Jorge…! Do you have a …an Earthbrother?”
“Yes, he started sending me packets about a year ago… He lives in a place called Guadalajara….in Mexico…! He’s also called Jorge…”
“Does he look like you…?”
“I can’t see him…” reminded Jorge gently. Marta blushed at her own stupidity,
“…but he does sound like me… He can see ‘though, and he doesn’t have to use a chair…” Jorge sounded slightly wistful, “What’s your Earthsister like…?”
“She’s called Miss da Guia…and she lives in Brazil…in Sao Paulo…! She’s very stylish…you know, she wears very fashionable clothes….” Marta floundered as she tried to put it in terms she thought Jorge would understand, “…she doesn’t come right out and say it…but I think she’s quite famous…in Brazil…! I’m not sure of the word, but I think she’s a…a celebrity…! You know, like someone everybody knows…”
“Does she look like you…?”
“Well…sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn’t… If I look at her closely she does look like me, around her eyes and the shape of her face…! But she keeps changing the way she looks, sometimes with her interface…but, I know she’s had surgery to change the shape of her nose…”
“Yes, I heard of that…” said Jorge, “I think it’s called ‘cosmetic surgery’”
“You know, it’s so nice sitting here just talking to you…” said Marta,
Jorge then did a really unexpected thing. He reached up and tenderly put his hand on the side of her face…
“Why are you doing that…?”
“I want to feel you smile…”
She put her hand over his,
“Well can you…can you feel me smile, now…? Because I am…”
Time seemed to stop for her at that moment, but they were rudely interrupted,
Marta, Jorge… Are you coming…? We need to move on…”
It was Nurse Gee calling them to order…

3

The tour resumed. The new children took over and showed Marta and her friends where they had been living, a lot of this was now familiar to the girl, who tried to keep as close as possible to Jorge without actually touching him. She was already getting looks from the other children, especially Jorja. However she was not alone in taking a particular interest in one of their new companions. Han and Su-Ying seemed inseparable and were conversing quietly in a language Marta assumed was either Mandarin or Cantonese. Six Gee took over again, and took them on a tour of the subsurface laboratories, announcing at one point,
“This, my dears, is where you were all born…!”
They were back in the chamber of transparent boxes and flashing displays. Marta thought born was not strictly accurate, this was where they were made…! But she kept her mouth shut while they shown the artificial wombs that had sustained them in their first months, and the incubators where they been cared for until ready to crawl… Marta noted that there were several other omissions. No mention was made of the printing technology that had brought the children into being, and there was also no sign of either of the foetal specimens she had discovered in her expedition behind the door, or of the severely disabled children she had seen being kept alive in their incubators. Clearly the Nurses had decided that they were still not ready for a warts and all view of their world.
Nurse Gee had one last surprise for them. Herding the children back into the large elevator that had brought them up from the hangars, she took them right to the very top of the Dome, and into a secret garden…
Unlike the familiar sections of the Dome, the garden had large skylights open to the heavens. Alph had almost reached its zenith, bathing the room with orange sunlight…the space was filled with every conceivable type of Earth plant. Marta, used to the dusty purple pseudo-plants found planetside, was overwhelmed by the riot of colour, the deep green of the leaves…! The flowers were intermingled with unfamiliar brightly coloured objects hanging from the branches. It took a while for the girl, used to hydroponics, to register that these were in fact fruit, oranges and lemons, hanging from real fruit trees. She was also overwhelmed by heady mix of scents in the garden, she noticed a sudden movement, and watched what she had assumed was just another flower suddenly spring into the air and flap away higher into the branches,
‘My God, it’s a butterfly…’ she marvelled, realising that she’d just seen her first real insect,
“What a magical place…” breathed Marta. Without realising it she had taken Jorge’s hand, his answering squeeze brought her back to reality and she realised that Six Gee was speaking,
“We created this place for Jorge, Su-Ying, and Raj…!” said Nurse Gee, “…when we decided to segregate the two groups of children, a decision we now regret, it was thought unfair that one group would have access to the planet’s surface…while the others were confined to the Dome…! We were also concerned that planetside was too dangerous an environment for our other children…” Gee paused to look at Jorge,
“We were able to use the data stored in Mission AI to replicate the various species you see here…the flying creatures are butterflies, insects from Earth, that are needed to pollinate the flowers as part of the plant’s life cycle… We also have small colony of bees…although these have been modified to have no sting…” she added, noticing the look of alarm on some faces.
Marta registered that the low hum she’d been hearing for the last minute or so came from one of these creatures…
Gee had paused,
“We have determined that our previous policy was mistaken…from now on you will live and work together… All above ground areas of the Dome will be open to all of you…all children will henceforth participate in planetside Missions…and all of you will have access to the Garden…! Jorge, perhaps you could now demonstrate the viewing platform!”
Jorge glided forward onto an area free of vegetation in the middle of the room. Marta watched him go, but he turned and beckoned her over,
“Hold on tight…” he whispered.
Suddenly, the whole section of floor they were on started to lift into the air, Marta crouched instinctively fearing they would be squashed against the skylight… But she noticed that a section of the window was sliding to one side…at the same time an asymmetric wall topped with hand rails rose silently around the edges of the platform… She also noticed a strange sound in her ears…then the platform docked snugly with the gap in the skylight, and they were outside…
Marta shivered in the sudden chill…the perfumes from the Garden now mingled with the scent of cinnamon from Outside…the girl suddenly felt dizzy…the heavens were a lilac coloured bowl that arched over her head…she could see the fuzzy white patch that was Prox over by the horizon…Six Gee and the children seemed a long way below…she felt herself falling…but Jorge put his arm ‘round her waist to steady her…
The universe righted itself,
“Wow…!” said Marta,
“Are you alright?” Jorge was concerned,
“I’m fine…it was just a bit unexpected…! What was noise in my ears when we were going up…?”
“Oh, that’s shaped sound…! It prevents the butterflies from flying out when we open the skylight…”
She had now started to take in her surroundings and looking around she could apparently see forever…the horizon curved into a magenta haze…dark patches indicated the groves of pods…to the South she could see slopes of the crater she had visited with Han, Carl Sagan minor…beyond it she could just make out a range of mountains…she suddenly realised how small their world had been…and how much bigger it was about to become…
Jorge’s voice broke into her thoughts,
“…we’re going to have to go down now…” he smiled at her, “I think your friends want a go…”

---

When the time came Marta didn’t want to go…she realised she was clinging to Jorge’s hand…that she’d been holding on to him since they’d descended from the platform… Jorja was looking at her scornfully, but she didn’t care….a final squeeze from him and they were on their way, back to their humdrum life in the Dome…but she knew that everything had changed…
All the others had wanted to go up together to view the planet, Nurse Gee had also gone with them, leaving Marta and Jorge alone,
“Did you know about us…?” she’d asked him, once they were alone,
“Nurse Gee told us about you about six weeks ago…!,
Marta did a quick calculation and reckoned that would have been about two months after she had found her way into the hidden zone,
“How much did she tell you…?”
“Well, she told me your name…and she told me that we were hatch-mates, that came as a shock…! She also said you were the cleverest of the children…and that you’d managed to get into our part of the Dome by yourself…”
“Did she tell you that she had to come and rescue me…that I couldn’t get out again…”
Jorge put his hand to the side of her face again,
“No, they didn’t tell me that part…” Marta suddenly wanted to kiss him, but shyness held her back. Instead she said,
“Did you know about the children we haven’t seen…?”
“I’m sorry…! I don’t know what you mean…”
“When I got into…your part of the Dome, I think I saw some things that the Nurses don’t want us to see…!”
Jorge looked serious for the first time,
“What kind of things…?”
“Well…there were two children…” Marta hesitated, “Well, one of them didn’t really look much like a person… But the other one was a girl…and they were being kept…I think they were being kept alive in incubators…”
“Did you speak to them….to the girl, I mean…?”
“No…she was looking at me…but I don’t think she was really aware of anything… And I found other things…dead things, like embryos…preserved in liquid… But they haven’t shown us any of that, either…”
Marta looked at him, her eyes filled with concern,
“Didn’t they tell you anything about all this…?”
“They told us once that some children hadn’t been viable…but that was it…I never really thought about it after that…” he was clearly at a loss,
“So they’re still not being straight with us, and it makes me wonder what else they’re hiding…”
The return of the others put paid to any further conversation, and after that it was time for farewells before Marta and her friends returned to their part of the Dome…

---

Priya had immediately sought her out as they walked back,
“Well…! What’s he like…?”
“Who…?”
“Oh, come on…! Jorge…I didn’t see you talking to anybody else…”
Marta looked seriously at her friend,
“If I tell you…I don’t want you telling anyone else…especially Jorja…!”
“Can I tell Sal…? I tell him everything…”
“Only if you make him promise…not to tell…”
“Oh Marta…! Everyone can see you’re really keen on him…and he’s so into you…!”
“You must promise…”
“OK, scouts honour…!”
“Well, I just think he’s wonderful…so kind and gentle…and wise… You know, sometimes in stories, and films, they talk about love at first sight… Well Priya, I think it’s just happened to me…”
The younger girl put her arms around her and squealed,
“Oh, that is so romantic…!”
They’d purposely lagged behind the others, but heads still turned,
‘Oh well…!’ she thought, they will find out anyway…
Marta wasn’t able to see Jorge the following day, as she’d had to go out really early on Mission with Sal. The Mission was routine, yet another ground station installation, this one nearly fifty kliks away, roughly the limit of what they could achieve without staying out overnight. The first part of the journey passed in awkward silence, as memories of her recent shunning and his role in this created a barrier between them. Eventually she could stand it no longer and asked the boy directly what he thought of their ‘new’ crew members. With the ice broken, they were able to discuss the events of the previous day, albeit in a somewhat stilted manner…as each skirted ‘round potentially difficult areas. Sal made no mention of her obvious connexion with Jorge, but he did mention that Han appeared very taken with Su-Ying… The Mission day passed slowly, and both of them were too tired to engage in conversation on the way back…
When she returned it was too late to eat with the others, so she missed seeing Jorge at all that day… Instead, she contacted Nurse Gee via her interface,
“What is it, dear? I hope nothing untoward happened on your Mission with Sal…”
The nursemaid appeared to hang insubstantially before Marta in the confines of her bunk,
“No nothing like that, it was all really routine, actually…although it was a bit awkward being alone with Sal…”
She fell silent as she worked herself up to what she really wanted to say,
“I wanted to talk to you about yesterday…”
“…Well, I trust you all had a nice time…you seemed much taken with Jorge, my dear…”
Marta felt a sudden tension…it was not normal for Six Gee or any of the Nurses to interrupt before you finished speaking… She composed herself,
“I couldn’t help noticing…that you left out certain aspects of life in the restricted part of the Dome in your tour yesterday…”
The Nurse had become sphinx-like, so she was obliged to continue,
“…you left out the part about how we’re actually made…about how printing is used in the hatching process…we didn’t see the other two children…the one’s you’re keeping alive in those incubators…and you didn’t show us the dead children that you’ve got preserved…”
Marta also wanted to chastise Gee for keeping the hangars secret from her while telling Han, but thought she’d said enough.
Nurse Gee was silent for a disconcertingly long time,
“What you are forgetting once again, Marta, is that you are older than the others…further along in your development and maturity, much further along in some cases…! They are essentially children…and it is our judgement that they are not yet ready to confront some of the uncomfortable realities of our life on Alpha 5… We had hoped to spare you some of the more unpleasant aspects…but, in truth, your actions and your precocious abilities took us by surprise…! But we have judged that enough is enough, for the time being…the others will be told more when they are ready…!”
“But, what about Jorge…? He’s the same age as me and just as intelligent…!”
“We are prepared to make an exception in Jorge’s case…but, we would appreciate if you would avoid further discussion of the more unpleasant things you discovered, for the time being…”
“I want something in return…”
“What is it…?” all trace of friendliness had disappeared from Gee’s voice,
“I want you to tell me about the hatching programme…?”
“You drive a hard bargain…very well…!”
“The process by which you came into being was long and fraught with difficulty,” said Nurse Gee, “the original plan had been to use frozen genetic material carried from Earth on the probe…but none of this had proved viable, presumably as a result of the hard radiation it had been exposed to on the long journey… So, an alternative solution had to be found, or the Mission would have failed in its primary objective, that of establishing a human colony. A decision was made to use an untried technology… Organic printing had been used to produce plants and simple animals, but never anything as complicated as a human being! We had to wait nine years while a message was sent to Earth, suitable genetic material was scanned and the data encoded and sent to us via Earthcomm downlink… We then attempted to use our organic printers to produce viable human foetuses. Neither of the first two pairs lived more than a few months…..those were the specimens you encountered on your first visit to the subsurface levels…” Nurse Gee paused and regarded her steadily,
“We were more successful with our third attempt, which produced a viable female and a viable male… These are the individuals you know as Su-Ying and Raj…”
Marta gasped at this,
“So you’re telling me that they’re older than me and Jorge… I thought they were younger…”
“Both children have exhibited significant developmental delay, and, in the case of Raj, a condition analogous to cerebral palsy…their childlike appearance is also a result of their…difficulties…! There was some debate at this point as to whether it was wise to continue at all, but we decided to try once more….and the next attempt produced you and Jorge… You were our first unqualified success, Marta….and hence precious to us…! Jorge’s physical and sensory disabilities were severe, but it became clear that his intellectual abilities were unimpaired, indeed they proved to be quite remarkable…Jorge is our mathematician, a field in which he can excel despite his disabilities!” Nurse Gee paused to let the girl take it all in,
“After that, with the exception of Rai’s hatch-mate, the girl you discovered on your first visit, we had an unbroken run of success…but since Sal and Priya, apart from the other severely disabled child, the process has failed to produce any viable offspring…and we don’t know why…”
“So you must realise, Marta, that the hatching programme, rather than being part of some grand design on the part of the Mission Planners, was essentially the last throw of dice…! That it succeeded was little short of a miracle…which makes you, all of you, infinitely precious to us…and to everyone on Earth…”
Nurse Gee’s image seemed to shimmer in the cramped confines of Marta’s cabin,
“So that, my dear, is the story of your origin…I hope that you are able to make good use of this knowledge…”
Marta was too stunned to respond, beyond absentmindedly breaking the connexion… Fortunately, she was too exhausted to dwell on the matter, and fell almost immediately into a deep dreamless sleep…

---

She sought him out after breakfast. Their second meeting was slightly awkward. Marta made the first move,
“I hope…I hope that you didn’t think I was bit over the top, yesterday…I mean, I don’t normally behave like that …”
Jorge smiled and took her hand,
“Marta, It’s alright, I feel the same way you do…I mean you do feel that way about me…don’t you?
They were now alone in the room so Marta felt emboldened to kiss him very lightly on the lips,
“Does that answer the question…?”
Instead of speaking, Jorge reached forward and pulled her towards him, their lips met properly…
There was no need for conversation over the next few minutes, but eventually they separated and Marta told him what Nurse Gee had told her,
“…the problem is, I still think they’re holding stuff back…I just don’t trust them…!”
Jorge looked serious,
“…the problem is, they control every aspect of our lives…we have to trust them, Marta, we have no other choice…”

---

Chapter 7. Fear of flying > >>