Page 22 of Ancient Rising
“Why a handmaid?”
“I held out hope for a family one day.Having a female would have made that process easier.”
She blinked.“Uh, yeah.It can’t be easy just to gestate a child in a canister at your size.”
“The size isn’t the issue; it is the energy required to grow a child of my kind.I will need to remain with you about ninety percent of the time and make sure your energy levels are up.It is taxing for the gestating parent.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.”
He chuckled.“I have no need to travel.If my people need me at all, they can come to me.To us.”
Harwin looked at him, and then, she looked at the rising city that they were flying past.“You had a world buried beneath the surface.There must be huge machines to bring them to the surface.”
“Displacement does most of the work.There are small engines to start it, but then, the soil and sand run under the city and push it upward.I thought it was quite clever at the time.I buried two cities this way on your world, but I am guessing they were never discovered.”
“Not in my lifetime.Now, they never will be.”
He smiled slightly.“Are all your people gone?”
“Yes.The survivors are all off-world.The rest starved to death.”
“Ah, well, I can set off my beacon then.I will do it after we are settled.There will be calls.Many, many calls.”
“Why?”
“Because your world is mine, and they did not contact me before stripping it of my people.”
“Oh.”
“Yes.If the beacon responds, all the funds gained by the station with your people will go to me.”He chuckled.“I am very good at choosing resilient species.”
She blinked.“Resilient?We died when that rock hit the surface.”
“You survived long enough for the station to arrive.That is a feat in and of itself.”
There was genuine admiration in his tone.
She didn’t have anything to say.He continued their flight, and it was when the pyramid came into view that he asked, “Why did you only list females on your list?”
“There were males, if they were bonded to humans, but human males get aggressive when they see their own species’ females attracting males of other species.Not all, but many.Too many.They want to mate with the other species’ females but don’t want their female counterparts to experience partners of other species.It’s stupid.It is not all humans, but it is enough that I don’t want the ladies to be uncomfortable.They deserve a stress-reduced environment when they don’t have to watch who they talk to.”
“That does not sound like society has improved since I was there.”
“Some parts advanced, and others regressed.It just takes the wrong person in power to send ripples through an entire country or the right person.I guess.”
He smiled.“So that has remained the same.”
“As technology has advanced, there are fewer physical barriers to men and women doing the same work, and that has caused whole other problems.”
“And now your world is dust, and you are here.You cannot do what I can, and I cannot do what you can, so we have a partnership.”
She chuckled.“It is more than most unions started with back home.At least we have a basic understanding.”
“We do.”
“Do you know why the thief arrived on the surface?”
“Oh, yes.He and others like him spend time in orbit waiting for an opening in the global protections to attack in search of some of the riches I have stored.Also, some of my technology is still vastly superior to what is on the current market.”