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“You think Mercenia caused it?”
“They were leaving right around the time all the raskarrans were dying. That seems like a very large coincidence to me. Too large. I wondered at first if they were experimenting with diseases. Biological warfare type stuff. But then Brooks said about the breeding program, and it doesn’t seem likely to me that they would be doing both.”
“No. They often combine stuff when the objectives are complementary, or at least don’t work at cross purposes. But trying to create life and trying to destroy it at the same time - that’s really unlikely.”
“So they brought an illness with them? Something one of the team was infected with that spread into the raskarran population.”
“They would have had protocols to prevent that. Isolation periods. How long did the journey out here take?”
“A couple of months.”
“I’m not an expert by any means, but that sounds like long enough to eliminate the possibility of anyone being contagious with anything.”
“So I’m supposed to believe there’s no cause and effect between the sickness and Mercenia leaving?” The scepticism in her tone is thick.
“No, I think you’re right. It’s too large a coincidence to be unrelated. My guess would be the illness originated here and the research team was concerned about interspecies transmission in the other direction.”
“Really?”
“Forgive my crudeness, but even if this illness killed most of the raskarrans, it didn’t kill all of them. There would have been enough left behind to continue the experiment. A single male raskarran could have fathered hundreds of children. I don’t know how many they would have needed to ensure future generations of half human, half raskarran children weren’t too inbred, but I bet it wasn’t many. How many are in your tribe?”
“About fifty.”
“Two or three tribes of a similar size would probably be enough. If the illness originated in the human population, they wouldn’t have any cause to fear it. They would have stayed. Carried on.”
“But if it came from within the raskarran population and they were afraid they might catch it…”
“It would certainly explain why they didn’t pack up their stuff when they went. Why they left me and the others behind.”
She doesn’t look entirely convinced, but after a moment, she nods. “Okay. That’s all reassuring, but I’d still feel better if we knew for certain that’s what happened. Do you think that’s something you’ll be able to find?”
I turn to the computer. The sea of files on Farrow’s desktop tells me he wasn’t exactly a tidy computer user. Will the information be there? Maybe. But will I be able to find it?
“I’ll do my best.”
She nods, pushing to her feet. She moves slowly, like her joints and muscles have set while we’ve been sitting here talking, heading for the door.
I turn to the computer, go to click on one of the files, but one last warning message pops onto the screen, an error sound playing.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Liv says, turning back.
“Depends on your perspective,” I say, squeezing the words out of my suddenly thick throat.
She comes back round to the screen. I thought bottom tier people weren’t taught to read, but clearly she can, because she breathes a sigh of relief at the words that are now framed at the centre of the computer screen. The words that have doomed any chance I might have had to send out a message. If I even wanted to anymore.
Unable to establish network connection.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Rardek
My Angie does not emerge from the hut all evening. Liv tells me she is trying to find information on themachines- answers as to when and why Mercenia left these trees. Lorna has been doing the same, but Liv is of the impression that my Angie is uniquely skilled at using themachines.
“She has a quick headspace,” I say. “I am sure she will be able to find your answers.”
“I hope so,” Liv says. “Then we do not need Dawes. Good to have her, but…”
“Better not to rely on what just one person is prepared to tell you.”
