The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper Read Free Book Online

collapsing, everything on Earth would soon die. The Gentherans said too many Earthians were in fact barbarians who didn’t care what happened to Earth because they believed they’d be off in some lovely afterlife by that time.”
    “Would they be?” I asked, wonderstruck at this idea.
    “I sincerely doubt it,” Mother snapped.
    “Didn’t anyone listen?” I asked.
    Father said, “The Gentherans weren’t talking to the people, they were talking to our leaders. The Earth governments went as far as they could when they formed Earthgov and started the colonies, but they wouldn’t do anything about depopulating Earth because they thought the public would start riots.”
    Mother added, “The government decided to break it to us slowly. They told us about the colonies, how colonists had been sent along with all the animals we had left in zoos…” Her voice trailed off.
    Father sighed. “People were excited about that.”
    Mother said, “The news programs ran these lovely fantasies about all the people who were crowding us moving away…” Her mouth worked. Her eyes brimmed, and she shook her head impatiently. “A silly dream. Even if people shipped out every hour of every day and night, we couldn’t keep up with the birthrate. We could never accomplish what the Gentherans said we had to do.”
    “What did we have to do?” I demanded.
    She wiped her eyes and stared at her knotted hands, saying nothing. Father rose to his feet, face twisted in distaste.
    “I can’t deal with this, Louise. You tell her.”
    “Harry! Damn it. You’re the one who…you’re her father!”
    “You’re her mother, and you’ll have to. She needs to know, and I can’t.” He left the room, closing the door behind him.
    “What?” I said, thoroughly confused. “What should I know?”
    Mother’s cheeks were scarlet, and her mouth pursed, as though she had bitten into something sour. Her voice trembled as she said, “The Gentherans told us to apply a numerical rating to every person born on Earth. If a baby is its mother’s first child, it gets one point. If the child is its father’s second child, it gets two points and adding them together makes the child a three. Only those rated two, three, and four are allowed to have children or any scarce commodity. You’re my first child and your father’s third child, so you’re a four…”
    I cried, “Father has other children! I have a brother or sister?”
    Mother choked. “No. When he was quite young, he had a relationship with a woman. She had twins who died as infants.”
    “But, if they died, then I’m his first child who lived…”
    “It doesn’t work that way,” said Mother, nervously licking her lips. “Any child born alive is counted, whether the child lives or not. That isn’t…isn’t important. The Gentherans claimed it’s the fairest way to reduce population. It doesn’t cut off any genetic line and it leaves the gene pool as broad as possible.” She paused, her hands knotted. “Finally, Earthgov passed the two-three-four laws, but they did it secretly.”
    Mother wiped moisture from the corners of her mouth with one knuckle of her clenched hands. “Earthgov was debating how to publicize the laws and begin enforcing them when the Mercans and the Omnionts showed up. You know what happened then! The Combine and the Federation said they’d salvage us. We begged for help. They offered to buy our people for water. Earthgov shilly-shallied, as usual. They thought they had a choice.
    “They didn’t have a choice! They couldn’t get it through their stupid heads that there was no choice! ISTO says a living planet is more important than the members of any race on it, and if a race of barbarians or animals threatens a planet, the race has to be ‘reduced,’ and they were about to reduce us. It couldn’t be kept a secret any longer. The story broke everywhere at once: the offer to buy our people, thethreat from ISTO, the laws that had been secretly