Free Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy Page B

“They should’ve injected it deeper.”
    Edie slid out of his grasp. “It works just fine.”
    â€œHow did that happen—the dependence on neuroxin?” He seemed genuinely curious.
    â€œThe ideology of the original settlers on Talas forbade them to meddle with the ecosystem to remove the toxins. This was hundreds of years ago, before terraforming advanced worlds became illegal. Anyway, the Talasi wouldn’t do it. Instead, they used biocyph to change themselves—to break down the neuroxin they encountered in the environment.”
    â€œAnd this stuff is toxic?”
    â€œIt’s lethal to non-Talasi.”
    â€œThen your body must break it down fast. I mean, I touched you and I’m still alive.”
    â€œMy blood, sweat, and tears aren’t toxic, if that’s what you mean.” She’d explained this a hundred times to nervous schoolmates and lovers. “There’s biocyph in every cell of a Talasi’s body. It instantly metabolizes neuroxin that’s eaten or touched or breathed in, into harmless by-products. But the Talasi screwed up. Or perhaps it was deliberate—a way to ensure their descendants couldn’t be uprooted again. If the level of those by-products in the body drops because of alack of neuroxin, the biocyph metabolizes other compounds instead, like common neurotransmitters. That causes neuroshock. Death, eventually. So they’re…we’re dependent on neuroxin. I’m only half-Talasi—my mother was an outworlder—but still…”
    Her voice dwindled away. Talking about herself, especially to a virtual stranger, caused the usual discomfort to resurface. She took a moment to collect her thoughts.
    â€œAnyway, when the Crib Colonial Unit took me in for training, they developed these implants so I could leave the planet for short periods. It’s my lifeline.”
    â€œThen it’s my lifeline, too. Don’t lose it.”
    They shared a grim smile and he returned to the annex without probing further.
    Returning to her files, Edie found an appended report on Talasi history, written by a Crib ’crat but drawing on published articles by researchers who’d studied the natives. Naturally, the report reeked of Crib spin. Edie’s unique experience from both sides of the controversy had given her what she believed was a more accurate picture. Five decades ago the new colonists had arrived, bringing clumsy black-market biocyph to tame the toxic ecosystem. The resulting ecological disaster had devastated the native population, while the colonists were forced to build their city, Halen Crai, inside a mountain where their air and water and food could be controlled.
    Their forests dying, the desperate Talasi tribal elders finally allowed a small team of researchers to document their plight. The resulting anthropological articles caught the Crib’s attention, but the end result was not what the elders had hoped for. The Crib’s ever-changing tactics in its efforts to control the escalating Reach Conflicts placed Talas’s jump node in a prime position. The new colonists were allowed to stay, and the Crib sponsored the building of a gate around the node to make transit easier. While the Talasi barely clung to life in their poisoned forests, the colony of Halen Crai quadrupled in size.
    The only voice speaking for the Talasi was that of the researchers. But when one of them gave birth to a half-Talasi child, the elders felt betrayed and threw them out. The baby was left behind. Born with a dependence on neuroxin, like all Talasi, she couldn’t survive offworld. The Talasi raised her but they were slaves to their superstitions—Edie was a half-breed, born out of season, and they never let her forget that stigma.
    Shortly after Edie’s birth, the Crib moved the Talasi into camps for their own protection. In those camps Edie had grown up—among a race desperately trying to maintain its