Hot Sleep

Hot Sleep Read Free Page B

Book: Hot Sleep Read Free
Author: Orson Scott Card
Tags: Science-Fiction
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station only a few corridors away from Jas's flat. The man didn't let go of his iron grip until Jas's mother opened the door.
    "Jas, you're all right." She hugged him, acting for all the world like a parent who had been worried that her little boy might be hurt. But Jas knew what the real fear had been. Though he was already a little tired of looking into people's thoughts, it was almost reflex already, and he saw his mother's flashing memory of a visit from Hartman Tork.
    "Thank you, officer," she said, tears of joy in her eyes.
    "Any time, ma'am." The man left. Jas's mother closed the door. She looked at Jas in fear.
    "Hartman Tork came," Jas said. She nodded, biting her lip in an exaggerated show of fear. Again, Jas was convinced for a moment that she was mad.
    "Looking for you," she said. "He has proof. He said you had passed the second test, that it was proof positive —"
    "Proof when I passed it?" Jas asked, surprised.
    "He said it contained information that had only been fed into the computers this week, completely and totally restricted, there was no way you could have studied the information, so obviously you got the answers by —"
    "But I didn't look into anyone's mind, mother. I just used logic, I just figured it out —"
    "Apparently," she said bitterly, "your logic has just caught up with the latest advances in astrodynamic theory."
    Jas leaned against the wall. "I thought the test went the other way. I thought that if I failed it they'd think it was proof that I'd cheated, or something else. I thought I had to get a good score."
    years ago, seven–year–old Jason leading her from the park to the zoo to the dome to the cave, all the sights; and she proud, happy, following where he led, devoted to him.
    But he was no longer seven years old. He was thirteen. He was frightened. He was leading his mother on an excursion that had no destination, whose only goal was escape. Where to, on a planet where there was no outside except the thin sky, no away except on starships —
    Colonies.
    The sign blinked. Colonies were one of the few projects the government considered important enough that they could be allowed a lighted sign.
    Colonies put people on starships and sent them far beyond the reach of Mother's Little Boys. Colonies asked few questions, and answered none. To go with the Colonies was the next thing to dying.
    But it was only the next thing. And when dying was the alternative... Jas stood for a moment, looking at the sign. He had the option of joining the Service. His mother didn't.
    So Jas led his meekly following mother through the impressive archway leading into the plush Colonies reception room. Lighted panels on the walls depicted huge fields of a golden plant, extending to the horizon, with blue sky and a yellow sun. "Earth Colony," the panel said, in a muted, feminine whisper. "Return home again." Another panel was in motion — hundreds of tiny human beings scrambling over red rocks and black cliffs, raising a mesh of fine metal strands. The mesh began to glow. "Catch stars on Manookin," the virile masculine panel–voice said, "and bring them home as frozen light."
    Bring them home — Jas laughed silently, bitterly. No one came home from a colony. A hundred years just to get established with any degree of security. Another two hundred or so before anything worth exporting could be developed in exportable quantities. And without the somec sleep, who would still be alive? None of the original colonists. None of their great–great–grandchildren, either.
    "A new home," sang a chorus of children's voices, "where children have room to run and play under the sun. Carter. The children's dream planet."
    And they were at the desk. "Both of you?" the woman asked.
    "Just her," Jas answered. "A place where you can walk around in the open."
    The woman pretended to think hard. "Capricorn? It's a yellow sun planet, just like Capitol."
    Jas wasn't taken in. Obviously Capricorn was what they were pushing today.

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