Free Earthseed by Pamela Sargent Page B

Competition meant a lot to them. Your team decided that other things, such as helping injured friends, meant more. If you feel you did the right thing, then you should feel satisfied.” Ship paused. “Come to the screen. I would like to show you something.”
    Zoheret reluctantly rose and sat at her screen. She was gazing into black space; pinpricks of light fled from her. Again she marveled at the blackness, the ocean of night; Ship was only a tiny speck in its vastness. Ahead, she saw one star larger than the rest. Five metallic creatures with spidery legs and wide, shiny wings flew out, moving toward the distant star.
    “I have sent out my probes,” Ship said. “They will study your new home while you prepare for your new life in the Hollow. There is so much to learn, so much to see. One could journey through space forever without encompassing all its wonders.”
    “Ship?” she said, suddenly afraid, but Ship did not respond.

7
    Zoheret closed the last bottle of fruit and handed it to Serena, who put it on the shelf. The large kitchen, even with the screened windows opened, had become hot and oppressive, filled with the heat of wood stoves. She leaned against the long table, wiped her hands on her apron, then wiped her brow with one arm. She looked up at the colorful rows of bottled fruit and canned vegetables and longed for Ship’s food dispensers, which Ship had allowed them to use only until they had put up their houses and planted their fields.
    There had been protests. Why did they have to give up the dispensers when they would have them to use after they reached their destination? Ship had lectured to them about too much dependence on technology they might not be able to reproduce for generations, and the dangers to those who were too separated from their world. They had dined on a dull diet of venison, chicken, eggs, and edible plants while waiting to harvest what they had grown. But now the storehouse was filling up with food, and Zoheret’s pants were growing tighter around her waist.
    It was work, feeding themselves: They worked to eat and did not have much time for other pursuits. Most of the things Ship had taught them seemed useless here. Lillka had said that all of human history could be summed up by saying that people worked hard so that they could find ways to keep from having to work.
    “You can go, if you want,” Gowon said to her and Serena. “I’ll clean the pots.”
    Serena narrowed her eyes; her thin lips tightened, forming lines at either end of her mouth. She tucked a stray curl of short brown hair behind one small ear. “For what? What’s the price?”
    Gowon thought for a bit. “If you sweep my floor later and mop it.”
    Serena frowned. “It probably hasn’t been mopped since we planted the corn.” She glanced at Zoheret.
    “All right,” Zoheret said quickly, anxious to leave the stuffy kitchen. Serena nodded. “It’s a deal, as long as we can do it tomorrow.”
    “Agreed.”
    Serena tore off her apron and fled. Zoheret left more slowly, ambling out through the storeroom with its shelves of lanterns and bags of grain and flour. A large, heavy door to her left led to the cooler. It had been fourteen days’ work to put the cooler together, and Anoki often had to tinker with the small generator that powered it.
    She went through the doorway and stood on the porch. They still had no dining hall; people lined up for food and ate in the clearing together or took the food to their shacks. In front of the storehouse, Robert and Miriam were butchering a dead deer. Lillka, sitting by the long, rectangular stone grill, was dickering with Ho. They sat facing each other, legs folded; Ho had brought three wicker baskets filled with fresh fish. Two people were with him, a small, pinkfaced girl named Dora and a big-boned, bronze-skinned boy named Vittorio.
    Lillka stabbed the air with one finger, obviously hoping to finish the bargaining so that the fish could go into the cooler. Brendan