Year's Best SF 17

ENCRYPTED Note for future study: the evolutionary purpose of Wergen gender remains a mystery as it appears to play no role in their procreative processes. The prevailing theory posits that a diverse alien gene pool results in the Wergens’ varying physical characteristics and that it is human perception that assigns those attributes what we consider to be a gender.Cara rode on a disk-shaped buzzer that sped three feet off the ground, clutching the handlebars tightly. She had made arrangements to meet Beatrix in the Aaru region at the viewing post at the foot of Tortola Facula, an active cryovolcano outside the colony’s force field. Normally she might have visited Beatrix at her hearth, but she didn’t want to run into Ambus. Even after all these years, he still made it a point to avoid contact with humans, believing that they fogged his mind and skewed his perception of reality, Beatrix had explained. He’d even taken to wearing special earplugs and visors that he hoped might protect him.

When Cara arrived she found Beatrix waiting for her on a bench at the overlook, staring raptly at some newly landed seedships. The colonists stood near the yellow hash marks that signaled the force field’s perimeter, and viewed the volcano shooting spumes of hydrocarbon-rich materials miles into the atmosphere. It would later rain down onto the surface as liquid methane, feeding the thousands of lakes and tributaries in the region.

Beatrix approached when she saw her step off the buzzer. “You let your hair down! You look more beautiful than ever, Cara.”

“Come on, I bet you say that to all the humans.” She paused. “No, really.”

They laughed and hugged.

“I’m so glad you suggested getting together,” Beatrix said. “It’s been too long.”

While they spoke every few days, it had been several weeks since they’d seen each other. Ever since Cara had graduated and her parents had relocated to Axelis Colony on Titan, she’d been working with the Colonization Enterprise—thanks to some strings her parents had pulled before departing—helping to plan the next great human-Wergen expedition. The target world was a rogue planet that had escaped Cancrii 55’s orbit and now roamed freely through space.

“What did you want to tell me, Cara?” Beatrix asked. “It sounded important.”

“I think I’m in love, Bea.”

Beatrix stopped in her tracks. “Oh?”

“His name is Juan Carlos. We’ve only gone out a few times, but we seemed to have made that instant connection, do you know what I mean?”

“Yes, yes I do.”

She hesitated to see if Beatrix was joking, then continued. “He’s a doctor who works with Biotech at CE. He’s got a reputation for being quite opinionated, uncompromising to a fault—except with me. With me he’s just a big softy.”

She described his thick eyebrows and slicked-back black hair, his lean muscular physique, and she told Beatrix about everything they had in common, about their three dates together—including how they’d kissed in the empty office at CE until they were interrupted by guardbots.

Cara and Beatrix strolled arm-in-arm along the edge of a great gorge that overlooked a river. Southern Titan teemed with ridges and crevices and chasms all filled with flowing ethane and methane.

Cara noticed that Beatrix had stayed quiet for a long time after she’d spoken about Juan Carlos. Sometimes she forgot that Bea was a Wergen, that like all Wergens she couldn’t help but love her, and perhaps be jealous of her new relationship. Maybe it had been a mistake to confide in her, but Bea was her oldest and dearest friend.

She decided to change the subject. “How’s Ambus?”

Beatrix stopped. She released Cara’s arm and rubbed her shoulders nervously.

“What is it?” Cara said.

Beatrix turned away and started walking again.

“Tell me. What’s wrong?”

Beatrix stood at the lip of a precipice. “You know how Ambus has always felt about humans.”

She nodded. “Yes, he wants to avoid humans—so, of course, he lives in a colony of humans on Titan.”

“That’s not fair, Cara. He was brought here as a child. He had no say in the matter. And now that he’s on the verge of reaching maturity … I’m afraid for him. He’s found others who believe as he does, that co-exploration with human beings was a huge mistake.”

“Really?” Cara had always found Ambus eccentric but basically harmless. “Well, it isn’t as if Wergens would ever harm humans.”

Beatrix looked away.

“Bea?”

“There’s been a drug developed offworld recently, Cara. A suppressant that distorts the way that Wergens perceive human beings. It’s horrible. It mutes our natural love for your people.”

“And Ambus took it?”

“Its effects are only temporary—no longer than a few minutes. He views it as a way to ‘free’ his mind. You mustn’t say anything, Cara. You have no idea of the consequences if anyone were to know. This is a serious crime.”

“Does your father know about this?”