Jasmine was still unconscious when Andrew arrived back at the hospital, but James and David were awake and greeted him joyfully when he appeared. Andrew hugged them both together, laughing and crying with relief, and they hugged him back while the hospital staff watched with smiles of genuine happiness. This was the best part of their job, seeing a sick patient pulled back from the bring of death and reunited with joyful loved ones, and everyone who wasn't busy with essential work turned up to share the moment.
Then the Birches remembered Jasmine, though, and they went through into the private room to watch over her. James and David took one of the girl's hands each, gently squeezing it whilst staring down into her face for any sign that she might be emerging from her coma.
The doctor came over to join them. "I had hoped she might have come out of it by now," he said in reply to Andrew's pleading eyes. "All we can do is wait."
"But she will wake up sooner or later?" said Andrew, brushing a lock of hair away from her face with a finger.
"I am hopeful that she will, yes. How long it will be, though..." He made a 'who knows' gesture with his hands.
Susan entered the room at that moment, looking tired, and she pushed the boys aside to see her daughter. "I had hoped..." she said, but then she turned to put her hands on James and David's shoulders to look at them. "But you're awake!" she said happily. "It's so good to see you awake again!" She pulled them close for a hug.
"What about you?" asked James when the hug was over. "You look terrible!"
Susan shared a glance with Andrew before looking back at her son. "I'm fine, James. It's just been a long day. Why don't you watch over your sister while I talk to your father?"
"Talk about what?" asked David suspiciously.
"Nothing for you to worry about," Susan lied while smiling reassuringly. "We'll be just outside."
The two boys watched nervously as their parents left the room, then looked at each other for any clue that the other boy might know what was going on.
Outside, Andrew and Susan met up with the other adults, who'd been checking up on their own children. They moved as a group further down the room to where they couldn't be overheard. "They're not going to let us leave," said Philip, frowning unhappily.
"But, they can't keep us here!" protested Halona, holding tightly onto her husband's hand. "We've done nothing wrong."
"They don't want New London to find out they exist," said Andrew. "They think them not knowing gives them an advantage."
"It's not a competition," said Philip angrily. "Both cities would be stronger together."
"It's the military mindset," said Andrew grimly. "They see everything as us and them. Anyone who's not us is a potential threat. Their ancestors took this city by force and I think it's left them with a feeling of terrible guilt. They think of themselves as interlopers, as killers of innocent people, and they think that's how we must see them as well."
"But that was two hundred years ago," said Halona. "They're not responsible for the actions of their ancestors."
"But they think we might hold them responsible " said Andrew. "They have a paranoia that's preventing them from seeing us as friends and allies. And anything we say to try to convince them otherwise, they'll think it's because we want them to let us go."
"So what do we do?" asked Philip.
"We try anyway," Andrew replied. "There's nothing else we can do."
The doctor had emerged room the private room and Andrew went over to talk to him. "May I ask you a question?" he said. "If you've been told not to answer that's okay. We'll understand."
"What's the question?" the doctor asked.
"What's the population of this city?"
The doctor glanced around at the soldiers in the room. They were watching warily but none of them were close enough to overhear. Besides, if the new arrivals were going to be staying in this city permanently then they were going to find out sooner or later. "About thirty thousand," he said in a soft voice.
"But I'm guessing your population was rather lower a few generations back." said Andrew, watching him carefully.
"A lot of vital equipment was destroyed in The Takeover," the doctor replied. "Most of the algae farms. There was starvation. People fought over what little food there was. Twenty years after The Takeover we were down to just a thousand. It's taken us this long to claw our way back. Create new sources of food."
Andrew nodded grimly. "A thousand people," he said. "That must be right at the lower limit for a viable population, and most of them white anglo saxons. Very little genetic diversity. You have a serious problem with inbreeding, Doctor. I've seen some of the people of this city. I've seen the signs.
"I'm afraid that's one of the reasons you're being kept in this city," said the doctor, looking down at the floor apologetically. "They are hoping that the fresh blood you will bring to this city will help ameliorate the problem to an extent."
Andrew's eyes widened with alarm. "What are you saying?" he demanded.
"Each of your men will be bred to as many women as possible. Your male children as well when they're old enough." He shuffled with shame and embarrassment. "Your women will bear the children of high ranking members of the military..."
"They will not!" exclaimed Andrew angrily. The other New Londoners looked round at him in alarm. Susan started towards him but Andrew waved for her to stay back. She did so, but there was deep concern on her face as she continued to look at him.
"They will not," Andrew repeated in a lower voice. "Susan is my wife. If anyone so much as looks at her..."
"There's nothing you can do about it," said the doctor. "They have guns. You do not. They will do what they want with you and there's nothing you can do about it."
"But it's not necessary! All twelve cities were stocked with thousands of fertilised eggs from parents of all races. You can implant them into your women..."
"The stocks were destroyed," said the doctor. "During The Takeover, some of the residents of the city took refuge in the storage chambers. The invaders didn't know what was in there. They just used explosives to blow the doors open then killed the refugees with machine gun fire. All the cryogenic storage chambers were destroyed."
Andrew stared in shock, but then he brightened. "Ours weren't," he said. "We in New London still have nearly half our stockpile left. We can give you as many as you need."
"The soldier think they have another solution," the doctor replied. "They think they can solve the problem by sterilising everyone with deformities. Prevent them from breeding. Everyone you see with visible signs of inbreeding has been gelded or spayed. They think that, eventually, all the bad genes will be eradicated from our population and that, after that, everyone left will breed true."
"I don't think it works like that."
"I'm a doctor and I can tell you that it definitely doesn't work like that, but they won't listen. They think that your arrival will simply hasten the solution that they've already decided upon. I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can do." The doctor was growing bolder, as if he saw no way to avoid being the bad guy and had decided to simply go with it. "The best thing would be to just accept the inevitable and try to see the benefits."
"The benefits?" Andrew's hands clenched into fists by his sides.
"You and your sons will spend the rest of your lives making love to the most beautiful women in the city."
"While our women will be raped repeatedly."
"I know enough history to know that arranged marriages have been quite common in many cultures. The married couple often grow to love each other."
"It is not going to happen."
"And how will you prevent it? Look, you will all have positions of high status and privilege in this city. Your wife will be married to one of the Generals. She'll be one of the most important people in the city. She might even come to enjoy it..."
Andrew's hands flew to grab the lapels of his white coat and he felt his face comforting into a snarl of fury. The doctor grabbed his wrists, fear appearing on his face, and Andrew forced himself to let go. It wasn't this man's fault. Battering him into a bloody pulp would accomplish nothing. "Go away," he hissed under his breath. "Get out of my sight." The doctor did so, almost running.
"Andy!" said Susan, running over to join him. "What's wrong? What's going on?" The other adults came over to join him as well.
"We've got to get out of here," said Andrew, still trembling angrily. "We have got to get the hell out of this awful place."
"We're not leaving unless they let us leave," said Philip soberly. "If you're thinking about somehow sneaking back up to the rover's, forget it. The lifts will be guarded. They may even have stripped the rovers of anything useful."
"Is there any chance they'll just let us leave?" said Valentina. She had a scared look that made Andrew think she knew what the New Philadelphians had in mind for her. Perhaps her interrogator had let something slip during her questioning. She reached out to take Susan's hand, taking comfort from the other woman. Susan looked across at her, and her eyes widened as she also guessed what had scared her. She'd seen the same evidence of inbreeding as Andrew.
Andrew saw this and put his arms around her. "I won't let anything happen to you," he promised. "Or Jasmine."
Susan stared in horror. "Oh God!" She exclaimed. "Jasmine! Oh God, she's only sixteen!"
"Stacey," growled Philip angrily. "If they touch her..."
"If we want to save her, we have to think of a way to persuade them to let us go," said Lungelo. "This is a military dictatorship. Perhaps we can..." He looked around to make sure the soldiers were still out of earshot. They were still standing against the wall but some of them were watching them suspiciously. When Lungelo spoke again, therefore, he made sure to keep his voice low while trying to stand casually as if they were discussing nothing more important than their evening meal. "Perhaps we can rally the civilians to rise up against them."
"That would take years," said Andrew. "And it probably wouldn't be possible no matter how much time we had. And even if we had the time, that's how New Beijing fell, and New Richmond. These cities are fragile, it's a miracle they survived The Takeover when the army broke in. As it is, they lost most of their industrial capacity in the fighting. No, it's out of the question. Any kind of armed conflict could kill the whole city. We have to think of something else."
"Like what?" asked Lungelo.
"Well," said Andrew thoughtfully. "What do they want? Fresh blood to solve the inbreeding problem. New London has that. Industries so they can replace worn and damaged equipment. New London can give then that as well. Our city has everything they need."
"Which is why they're planning to attack us," said Philip. "Take what they need by force."
"But what if they don't have to?" said Andrew. "We want to leave this planet, right? Return to the inner solar system, and when we go the entire population of the city has to go. There aren't enough people with key skills for us to divide our population."
"And New London would be left empty!" said Susan in delight. "The New Philadelphians could just move in without firing a shot."
"All they'd have to do is let us go back to LaSalle and finish getting the dysprosium," said Andrew as the others nodded hopefully. "We get what we want, they get what they want..."
"So let's go tell them," said Susan excitedly.
She turned and headed towards the nearest soldier, the others following close behind. The soldier looked alarmed to see the small crowd striding towards him and shifted his grip on his gun nervously. Andrew reached out to grab Susan's arm to stop her, then took his place at the head of the procession. He was relieved to see the soldier fix his attention on him instead.
"Hi," he said, smiling broadly. "We would like to speak to your superior. We have a suggestion that I think he'll be very interested in."
☆☆☆
Andrew was disappointed with the way his proposal was received by General Wayne, though. "It's an interesting idea," he said. "I would very much like to believe that it's true, but I suspect you just want to contact your city and warn them against us. I think you want them to send people to rescue you."
"Rescue us how?" said Andrew frantically. "An army wouldn't be enough. The full resources of our city wouldn't be enough. Besides, I'm sure the others all told you the same thing I did, that we have no way to contact New London. Neither in our own rovers or back at the habitat."
"You could all have agreed to say that before you came here."
"We were in no condition to plot anything. We were dying. And if we could talk to our city we would have arranged to be resupplied by rocket with antibiotics."
"If you're telling the truth about having supply rockets, which I doubt."
"Will you at least pass on our proposal to the President?" pleaded Andrew. "He might think differently."
"I doubt it, and in any case I will be advising him against agreeing to your plan."
"But you will mention it to him."
"I will," the General promised.
Several days passed, though, and they heard nothing. Andrew repeatedly pressed the soldiers for an answer but the reply was always the same, that they would be informed the moment the President reached a decision. Andrew was pretty sure that he'd already dismissed the proposal, though, as had the General before him, and he could only wonder why they didn't simply say so.
Jasmine remained in her coma, and Andrew saw the doctor growing increasingly concerned for her prospects of awakening. "It seems the overdose caused some trauma to her brain," he said grimly. "Only time will tell whether the damage will heal itself, but I'm afraid that, with every day that passes without her regaining consciousness, the likelihood of an early recovery diminishes."
Andrew was under a black cloud of depression, therefore, the next time he saw General Wayne. The General entered Jasmine's private room just as Andrew was leaving and the two men froze at the same time, staring at each other. "Yes, of course," said the General at last. "I should have made the connection sooner. You're this woman's father."
"She's only sixteen," said Andrew with a warning glare. "She's still just a girl."
"We'll past marrying age in most cultures throughout history," said the General. "And even in a coma she can still bear healthy children..."
It was as if someone flipped a switch in Andrew's head. All rational thought vanished under a red haze of fury and he punched the General full in the face. The General flew backwards out of the room and Andrew threw himself after him, his fists clenched, ready to throw more punches. The General recovered quickly, though, and dodged the second punch, following up with a hard fist in Andrew's stomach. Andrew gave a great whoop and doubled over as the air was driven from his body and then the General grabbed his arm and twisted it up behind his back. White agony shot through Andrew's arm but he had no breath left with which to cry out and could only gasp helplessly while the General waved for the armed guards to relax and return to their posts.
The General threw Andrew away from him and the New Londoner landed on the tiled floor, sobbing with pain and fear. He tried to speak, to warn against any molestation of his daughter, but his body was still spasming with shock and he could barely take any air into his lungs. He twisted around and sat with his back to the wall, then slowly climbed back to his feet.
"I understand how you feel," said the General as he wiped a trickle of blood from a split lip. "I have a daughter not much older than yours and I know how I would feel if any harm came to her. You need have no concern. If she fails to regain consciousness she can be insemination artificially by the doctors. There will be no need for any man to do what you fear."
"And what if she wakes up?" Andrew managed to say.
"Then she will make someone a fine wife. I was thinking of marrying her myself. My wife passed away from something a few years ago. I can never remember the name. It's passed down in the family, though, which means my children very likely have it as well. I want healthy children, Mister Birch. Your daughter will give them to me."
"Never," said Andrew, taking a step forward. The soldiers also came forward, though, their guns aimed at him. Andrew looked around at them, then staggered back to the wall, sobbing with helplessness and despair. "You can't," he said. "You can't."
"Grow up, Mister Birch," the General replied. "We are in control here. We can do whatever we wish."
He had then turned and marched from the room, leaving Andrew hurrying back to stand beside his daughter, tears streaming from his eyes as he held her hand helplessly.