Kingdom of Cages Read Free

the animals, the birds, dead and dying. A wave of nausea washed though
     Tam. Oh, it could get worse. It could get much worse. From the faces of the councilors, he knew they were thinking the same
     thing. Jace was turning green. Sick amusement accompanied fast by shame rolled through Tam.
    One muscle in Father Mihran’s cheek twitched. “And the Authority would of course stop anyone from invading Pandora.”
    “If we knew Pandora was doing everything possible to help put an end to the Diversity Crisis, we just might,” replied Commander
     Poulos.
    “So…” Father Mihran groped for his chair and sat down heavily. “If we refuse, we have the choice of the Authority destroying
     us or the Authority allowing us to be destroyed.”
    “Your people aren’t the only ones who learned the lessons of the pillage of Old Earth.” Commander Poulos touched her ring
     and blanked out the image of the burned ruination. “If we don’t move now, we will lose our chance.”
    Father Mihran dropped his gaze to the council. There should have been argument. There should have been raging debate. The
     whole family should have been called in. The city-mind itself should have raised its voice.
    But none of this happened. There was only silence, until Father Mihran spoke again.
    “It will take time.”
    Commander Poulos inclined her head once. “We know.”
    “Do you?” snapped Father Mihran. “I am not speaking of months. I am speaking of years. Possibly decades.”
    “We know,” the commander repeated. “That is why we are here now, while we still have decades, perhaps even as much as a generation.”
     Her face grew hard, and Tam knew she was seeing disasters that were to her at least as horrible as the crater she had opened
     in the Vastness. “There will be too much suffering, but there will be survivors. We’ll be able to start over.”
    Father Mihran opened his mouth and closed it again. “Which world’s generation are you picking for our clock, Commander?”
    The small, grim smile returned. “Why, Pandora’s, of course.”
    Tam felt it then, the dizzy sensation of watching something begin to slip away, like a leaf in a stream, and knowing with
     terrified certainty that it was one of a kind, and when it was gone there would be no more. Everything changed today. His
     world, his life, his vision for his future, everything, it all slid farther away with each heartbeat.
    He also knew that this feeling, like the image of the Vastness crater, would never leave him. The Authority had won. They
     had let the Authority win. With their single act, Commander Poulos and her people had altered the lives of every human being
     living on Pandora.
    And the Pandorans, in turn, would change the entire world, whether they wanted to or not.

CHAPTER ONE

A Mud Hut in the Jungle
    I t was late when Tam finally left the experiment wing and crossed Alpha Complex’s central lobby. Outside the dome, the sky’s
     summer sapphire hue had deepened to indigo, and the first three stars shone over the forest, which stretched its long shadow
     across the marsh toward the Alpha Complex. Silhouettes of wading birds—paddlers, skimmers, and shimmies—stood stark and still
     in the peach and fuchsia light.
    The beauty of the sight stopped Tam. He leaned on the railing in front of the triple-insulated windows, giving himself a minute
     to watch the marsh’s many dances. Fish and insects rippled the water. Bats skimmed overhead. One of the wading birds stabbed
     its beak into the water and came up with a patch of darkness, maybe a frog. Snap! The meal was done and the bird strutted
     away.
    It might have been Old Earth out there. It almost was. Pandora was one of the few worlds to score a perfect ten on the Almen
     Compatibility Scale.
    The scene tugged at Tam. He wished, as he had on a thousand other evenings, that he could walk out of the complex with its
     pillow dome, insulation, sealed portals, and water-cooled walls. He would step into the pink