Planetfall Read Online Free Page A

“What?”
    â€œSung-Soo can stay, can’t he?”
    â€œI don’t have any objections,” he says diplomatically. “But you must understand, we have to speak to the rest of the colony and give them the chance to ask questions and voice any concerns.”
    Sung-Soo nods. “Very fair. I can hunt and I can carve well and I’m strong, when I’m rested.”
    Hunting and carving? Such primitive words. I slip my hand down to hold his and feel for calluses. When I find them, I’m relieved, but why? Did I think he was lying? What else could they have done to survive?
    â€œIt’s going to be fine,” I say, and Sung-Soo smiles as if I meant the words for him.

3
    MACK IS GRADUALLY steering us in a different direction for the return journey so we’ll go around the outside of the colony and enter at the north gate, right next to his place.
    We’re silent as we trudge through the grasses, Sung-Soo exhausted and malnourished, Mack and I trapped in our own little spirals of guilt and dread. He’s taking us on a route that makes it far less likely we’ll be spotted, but there’s still a chance. He’s probably trying to work out what to tell everyone else and buying time to figure that out at his own pace.
    I’m trying to make something more like a mental flowchart out of the tangled mess of what-ifs and thens in my mind. I give up. We’ve learned so many times that, no matter how carefully we plan, something unpredictable will destabilize the system.
    The northern gate is again just a couple of pillars, but more ornately designed than the western one. There are stylized plants and flowers intertwined with overly fussy representations ofthe skeletal structures that form the frames of our houses. I think it’s a bit childish and overdone as a representation of our aspirations to live as sustainably and naturally as we can, but the majority liked it. I think “majority” is one of my least favorite words. It’s so often used to justify bad decisions.
    Mack’s place is based upon one of the round designs, looking like an igloo with spokes coming out of it to end in half-submerged bubbles. We’re experimenting with a new membrane on the outside of the central hemisphere and it’s looking good; several of the native species we’ve planted on it are thriving.
    Half of the structure is aboveground, the rest submerged below. As Mack touches the patch to the right of the door I can’t help but check on the transition between above – and belowground. Some of the earlier experiments with the new coating resulted in unexpected interactions with the soil, but this variant seems okay.
    â€œAre those . . . fish?” Sung-Soo points at one of the windows.
    â€œYes,” I say, refreshed by his wonder at the things I barely notice now. “We harvest energy from sunlight using the aquarium algae. Some of the other houses do that through the outer skin—” I wave a hand at some of them. “But Mack likes fish.”
    The door opens and its motion makes Sung-Soo dig his heels in a little. “Is it . . . alive?” he asks, staring at its edges compressed against the door frame.
    â€œSort of,” I answer. “It’s based on a heart valve, loosely speaking.”
    He lifts his arm from my shoulder; I let go of his hand so he can brush the structure with his fingertips. “What is it made of?”
    â€œA composite organic material, a bit like cartilage.”
    â€œCome inside,” Mack says, eager to get him out of sight.
    The door sighs shut behind us and the lights come on,bathing the main living area in the daylight spectrum. There are familiar comfy chairs and the central sunken fireplace for when Mack wants some primal reassurance given by control over fire. I’m drawn to the antique orrery displayed above the nook housing his home printer, the only trinket he brought