Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds Read Free Book Online

African sectors were coloured red, green and yellow. Blue swatches, squeezed between the major geopolitical subdivisions, indicated claims staked by smaller nation states and transnational entities. Arrows and text labels picked out the major settlements, as well as orbiting bodies and vehicles in cislunar space.
    Geoffrey voked away the layer. The naked Moon was silver-yellow, flattened-looking. Any other time of the month, cities and industries would have spangled in lacy chains and arcs in the shadowed regions of the disc, strung out along transit lines, political demarcations and the ancient natural features of the Lunar surface. Rivers of fiery lava, seeping through a black crust. But the fully lit face, too bright for any signs of habitation to stand out, could not have looked so different to Geoffrey’s moonstruck hominid ancestors.
    He still found it difficult to accept that Sunday wasn’t sitting right next to him, but was up there , on that bright nickel coin hammered into the sky.
    ‘Did you see that strange little girl at the scattering?’ he asked her.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘I was going to ask if you knew who she was. I tried resolving her bind, but—’
    ‘It didn’t go anywhere.’ Geoffrey nodded. ‘That’s weird, isn’t it? You’re not meant to be able to do that.’
    ‘Doesn’t mean there aren’t some people capable of doing so.’
    ‘Like your friends?’
    ‘Ah, right. I see where this is going. You think she has something to do with the Descrutinised Zone. Well, sorry, but I don’t think she does. Plexus are monitoring Earth–Lunar traffic and they didn’t pick up anything that looked like an unresolved ching bind. Not that they’re infallible, of course, but my guess is that she wasn’t chinging in from Lunar space. Somewhere closer, maybe.’
    ‘Still doesn’t tell us who she is.’
    ‘No, but if I allowed myself to get sucked into every little mystery surrounding this family . . .’ Sunday left the remark unfinished. ‘Someone must know her, and that’s all that matters to me. What other possibility is there? Someone showed up at our scattering without an invitation?’
    ‘Maybe everyone just assumes she was invited.’
    ‘Good luck to her, in that case. No secrets were revealed, and if anyone wanted to eavesdrop, there were a million public eyes they could have used. Sorry, but I’ve got other things on my mind right now. Deadlines. Bills. Rent to pay. That kind of stuff.’
    Sunday was right, of course – and given Geoffrey’s shaky grasp of the internal politics of his own family, it was entirely possible that the girl was some relative he’d forgotten about.
    ‘I can’t even point to the DZ,’ he said, grasping in a single remorseful instant how little he knew about her life.
    ‘It would be a bit weird if you could, brother – it’s on the other side of the Moon, so it’s never actually visible from here.’ She paused. ‘You know, the offer’s always there. You can get a tourist visa easily enough, spend a few days with us. Jitendra and I would love to show you around. There’s something else I’m dying to show you, too. That thing I did with Eunice’s face . . .’ Sunday hesitated. ‘There’s a bit more to it, it’s kind of a long-term project of mine. But you’d have to come and see it in person.’
    Geoffrey delved into his box of delaying tactics. ‘I need to get a couple of papers out before I can take any time off. Then there’s an article I need to peer review for Mind .’
    ‘What you always say, brother. I’m not criticising, though. You love your work, I can see that.’
    ‘I’m flying out tomorrow. Want to come and see the herd?’
    ‘I . . . need to report back, about this body,’ Sunday said. ‘Sorry Like you say: maybe next time.’
    Geoffrey smiled in the darkness. ‘We’re as bad each other, aren’t we?’
    ‘Very probably’ his sister answered, from wherever on the far side of the Moon her flesh-and-blood body