The Margarets Read online

  The Margarets

  Sheri S. Tepper

  In fond memory of

  my friend of sixty-three years,

  LAMBERT J. LARSON,

  without whose encouragement

  I would never have written a word

  Contents

  What the Gardener Told Me Might Have Happened

  I Am Margaret/on Phobos

  I Am Wilvia

  I Am Margaret/on Mars

  I Am Margaret/on Earth

  Who Is Margaret?

  I Am Gretamara/on Chottem

  I Am Ongamar/on Cantardene

  I Am Naumi/on Thairy

  I Am Wilvia/on B’yurngrad

  I Am Gretamara/on Chottem

  I Am Margaret/on Earth

  I Am Naumi/on Thairy

  I Am Margaret/on Earth

  I Am Ongamar/on Cantardene

  I Am Gretamara/on Chottem

  I Am Naumi/on Thairy

  I Am Margaret/on Earth

  I Am M’urgi/on My Way to B’yurngrad

  I Am Mar-agern, Going to Fajnard

  I Am Ongamar/on Cantardene

  I Am Margaret/on Tercis

  I Am Wilvia/on B’yurngrad

  I Am M’urgi/on B’yurngrad

  I Am Mar-agern/on Fajnard

  I Am M’urgi/on B’yurngrad

  I Am Margaret/on Tercis

  I Am Margaret/on Tercis

  I Am Naumi, with Fernwold

  I Am Mar-agern/on Fajnard

  I Am Wilvia/on Hell

  I Am Gretamara/on Mars

  I Am Margaret, at a Birthday Party on Tercis

  I Am M’urgi/on B’yurngrad

  I Am Ongamar/on Cantardene

  I Am M’urgi/on B’yurngrad

  I Am Margaret/on Tercis

  I Am Margaret, with Hayraiders on Fajnard

  I Am M’urgi, with Fernwold on B’yurngrad

  I Am Margaret/on Fajnard

  I Am M’urgi, with Fernwold on B’yurngrad

  I Am Margaret/on Fajnard

  I Am M’urgi/on B’yurngrad

  I Am Gretamara/on Chottem

  I Am M’urgi/on B’yurngrad

  I Am Margaret and Mar-agern on Fajnard

  I Am Gretamara/on Chottem

  I Am Ongamar/on Cantardene

  I Am Gretamara and Ongamar/on Chottem

  We Margarets Assemble/on B’yurngrad

  I Am Gretamara/on Tercis

  I Am Naumi/on B’yurngrad

  We Margarets Walk

  About the Author

  Other Books by Sheri S. Tepper

  Cover

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  THE MARGARETS

  PLANETS LOCATIONS INHABITANTS OF

  MARS

  Human bases on Phobos and in Valles Marineris

  Margaret Bain

  Louise and Harry Bain, her parents

  Chili Mech, a technician

  EARTH

  The worldwide Urb, occupying the entire planet’s surface

  Dr. David Mackey, Margaret’s husband

  CHOTTEM (Human colony planet, partly occupied by the Gibbekot)

  Perepume, a continent occupied by the Gibbekot

  Manland, a continent partially settled by humans

  Within Manland: The city of Bray, a sea city

  Stentor d’Lorn, Founder and Tycoon

  Mariah d’Lornschilde, his daughter

  Von Goldereau d’Lornschilde, a cousin

  The village of Swylet

  The Gardener, a longtime resident

  Gretamara, [a Margaret] foster daughter of the Gardener

  Benjamin Finesilver, artist and dreamer, husband of Mariah

  Sophia, his daughter

  Grandma Bergamot, Grandfather Vinegar, and other herbal persons

  CANTARDENE (Mercan planet, occupied by the K’Famir)

  Om-Bak-Zandig-Shadup (Crossroads of the Worlds) freeport

  Bak-Zandig-g’Shadup (Street of Many Worlds) pleasure district

  Ongamar, [a Margaret] bondslave, seamstress

  Adille, a K’Famira, a pleasure-female, Ongamar’s owner

  Bargom, Adille’s patron

  Lady Ephedra, K’Famira, owner of House Mouselline

  Progzo, Adille’s father

  Draug B’lango, Adille’s clan leader

  The Hill of Beelshi (site of unspeakable rites)

  THAIRY (Human colony planet, also occupied by the Gibbekot)

  Town of Bright

  Naumi, [a Margaret] foster son of Rastarong

  Mr. Wyncamp, school manager

  Mr. Weathereye, elderly, odd personage with one eye various citizens and louts

  Fort Point Zibit (site of the academy)

  Captain Orley, commandant

  Sergeant Orson, in charge of first-year cadets

  Grangel, cadet and lout

  Jaker, Flek, Poul, Caspor and Ferni, cadets and Naumi’s friends

  TERCIS (Human colony planet, divided into “Walled-Offs”)

  Hostility (a Walled-Off )

  Rueful (a Walled-Off ) Contrition City

  Repentance (a large town)

  Remorseful (a small town, site of the school, also a river)

  Deep Shameful (a hamlet)

  Crossroads (a village in The Valley)

  Grandma Mackey [a Margaret]

  Dr. Bryan Mackey, her husband

  Maybelle and Mayleen, Margaret’s daughters

  James Joseph Judson ( Jimmy Joe), Maybelle’s husband

  Til and Jeff, their twin sons

  Gloriana, their daughter

  Falija, Glory’s fosterling

  Billy Ray Judson, Mayleen’s husband

  Joe Bob and Billy Wayne (twin sons)

  Ella May and Janine Ruth (twin daughters)

  Benny Paul, son, twin died at birth

  Trish, daughter, twin died at birth

  Sue Elaine and Lou Ellen, twin daughters

  Orvie John, son, twin died at birth

  Little Emmaline, daughter, twin died at birth

  [At time of story, Billy Wayne has gone off to the army, Ella May has joined the Siblinghood of Silence, and Janine Ruth has moved to Contrition City.]

  Pastor Grievy

  Abe Johnson

  Bamber Joy, Abe’s foster son

  Others mentioned in passing

  FAJNARD (formerly Gentheran planet taken over by the Frossians)

  The Fastness—where Gentherans still live

  The Grasslands—occupied by

  The umox farm

  Medicines sans Limites. Volunteer doctors, human

  Frossians

  Mar-agern, [a Margaret] bondslave, herdswoman

  Umoxen, wool-bearing animals, or perhaps not

  Ghoss, humans, somewhat modified

  Deen-agern, a Ghoss

  Rei-agern, a Ghoss

  Various Frossian slave drivers and overlords

  Howkel and Mrs. Howkel, hayraiders

  Mirabel and Maniacal, two of their children

  Gizzardiles: inimical creatures

  HELL (distant, little-known planet with a tragic history)

  One buried Gentheran ship

  Wilvia [a Margaret]

  CRANESROOST (Human colony planet)

  EDEN (Human colony planet)

  B’YURNGRAD (Human colony planet)

  The prairies, temperate zone

  The Siblinghood

  The Tribes, former bondslaves of violent disposition

  Dark Runner, a tribal boy and man

  Wolf Mother, a shamaness

  M’urgi, [a Margaret] her apprentice

  Fernwold, M’urgi’s lover, a member of the Siblinghood

  The icelands, an area of severe winters

  B’Oag, an oasthouse keepe
r

  Ojlin, his son

  G’lil, a young woman rescued at the last moment

  Ogric, a worker

  AMBIGUOUS INDIVIDUALS OR THINGS OF VARIOUS OR UNCERTAIN LOCATION

  Ghyrm, a deadly parasite

  Mr. Weathereye

  Lady Badness

  The Gardener

  Dweller in Pain

  Flayed One-Drinker of Blood

  Whirling Cloud of Darkness-Eater of the Dead

  Sysarou, Gentheran Goddess of Abundance and Joy

  Ohanja, Gentheran God of Honor, Duty, and Kindness

  NONHUMAN RACES

  Baswoidin: ancient, secretive, superior

  Elos: Omniont race, graceful, sneery, arrogant

  Frossian: Mercan race, boneheaded, vaguely humanoid, malign

  Garrick: related to the Gentherans

  Gentherans: mysterious, beneficent

  Gibbekot: humanoid, furry, small

  Hrass: Omniont race, tapirlike, unassuming, dirty, cringing

  K’Famir: Mercan race, four-legged, four-armed, vicious

  K’Vasti: Mercan race, distantly related to K’Famir, less vicious

  Pthas: ancient, very wise, now presumed extinct or departed

  Quaatar: Mercan race, ancient, prideful, arrogant, vengeful

  Thongal: Mercans, hireling spies and killers

  Trajians: a very ancient itinerant race, famous as entertainers

  ORGANIZATIONS

  Siblinghood of Silence: a secret organization including humans and Gentherans

  ISTO: Interstellar Trade Organization. A regulatory organization of all races engaging in interstellar trade

  IGC: Intergalactic Court. The final arbiter in conflicts among races

  Mercan Combine: Confederation of vile races united by proximity, race, language, commerce

  Omniont Federation: Similar to the Mercan Combine, but less cutthroat and more concerned with ethics

  Dominion Central Authority: Oversight body set up by the Gentherans to represent off-Earth humans

  What the Gardener Told Me Might Have Happened

  Once a very long time ago, between fifty and a hundred thousand years, a small group of humans fleeing from predators took refuge in a cave. Clinging to one another during the night, they heard a great roaring, louder and more fierce than the roars of the beasts they knew, and when they peeked out at dawn, they saw that a moon had fallen out of the sky. The sun was just rising, the changeable baby moon they were used to was with Mother Sun, so the fallen moon belonged to someone else.

  The someone elses were walking here and there, clanking and creaking. Ahn, the leader of the people, noticed holes around the bottom of the moon, open holes as large as caves. The clanking things were frightening, but not so scary as the animals howling among the nearest trees. Ahn, the leader, had no memory of such things; neither did any of the other of his people. No clanking things. No falling moons.

  Ahn nodded, thoughtfully. It was harder when it was a new thing. If they had a memory of the thing, it was easier to figure out what to do. Otherwise, they had to decide, then see what would happen. It did seem to Ahn, however, that hiding inside the moon was a good idea. When the moon went back up into the sky, the beasts couldn’t follow. The holes smelled strange, so Ahn went first in case there were bad things inside.

  Just as there had been no memory of fallen moons, there had been no memory of those who owned the moon: the Quaatar, who disliked being fooled with, bothered by, or trespassed upon by anything. Even if Ahn had had such a memory, the immediacy of his people’s situation might have made him risk it. Since he did not know it, he had no qualms about leading his people up the vent tubes and thence into a hydroponic oasis.

  The ship’s robots found nothing worth ravening upon the world; the ship departed. Inside, the stowaways lived rather pleasantly on the juicy bodies of small furry vermin that infested the ship and the garden produce that fed the noncarnivorous creatures aboard. When the ship finally landed, the people went out to find themselves not in the sky, as they had expected, but rather upon some other world, where their eager senses informed them there were no predators at all. The world was a paradise, and they fled into it.

  Ahn’s people never knew how they got there; the Quaatar were and are a little-known people. The females are said to be solitary, aquatic, and planet-bound. The males return to the water only to breed. It is said if one imagines a huge, multilegged lizard, hundreds of years old, who is able to talk and count from one to six, one has imagined a Quaatar. The race became starfaring only by accident. Early in their evolutionary history, they were approached by an advanced people who offered to trade for mining rights on the several lifeless, metal-rich planets of the system. Galactic Law required that they need deal only with the most numerous indigenous group. The Quaatar demanded first that three lesser tribes, the Thongal, Frossians, and K’Famir, who had long ago branched treacherously from the Quaatar genetic line, be wiped out. Since Galactic Law did not permit such a thing, the mining concessionaires offered many other inducements, finally agreeing, among other things, to move the other tribes or races far away. The Thongal, Frossians, and K’Famir, all of whom were more agile and far cleverer than the Quaatar, had no objection at all to being removed from the dismal swamps of Quaatar and given drier planets of their own. They were accordingly transported, leaving the Quaatar alone and unchallenged in their insistence that themselves, their world, and their language were sacred and inviolable.

  For generations the Quaatar traded mining rights for fancy uniforms, medals, starships, and spare parts plus an endless supply of non-Quaatar mechs, techs, and astrogators to keep the ships flying. Though Quaatar owned the ships and appropriated all the fancy titles (captain, chief science officer, and so on), they never learned how to go from point A to point B without relying on non-Quaatar crew members who could count much higher than six to take them there.