| s-1
| The Cost to Be Wise |
| s-2
| Veronique stayed with me that night, lying next to me in my blankets and furs. |
| s-3
| She didn't sleep, I don't think. |
| s-4
| I was listening to her breath. |
| s-5
| I felt as if I should help her sleep. |
| s-6
| I lay there and tried to think if I should put my arm around her, but I didn't know. |
| s-7
| Maybe she didn't want to be touched. |
| s-8
| And she had been a stupid girl, anyway. |
| s-9
| She lay tense in the dark. |
| s-10
| 'Are you going to be a teacher?' I asked. |
| s-11
| She laughed. |
| s-12
| 'If I get out of here.' |
| s-13
| I waited for her to say more, but she didn't . |
| s-14
| 'Get out of here' meant to make someone leave. |
| s-15
| Maybe she meant if she made herself. |
| s-16
| 'You come here from Earth?' I asked. |
| s-17
| To get her to talk, although I was tired of lingua and I didn't really want to think about anything. |
| s-18
| 'My family came here from Earth,' she said. |
| s-19
| 'Why?' |
| s-20
| 'My father, he's an anthropologist,' she said. |
| s-21
| 'Do you know anthropologist?' |
| s-22
| 'No,' I said. |
| s-23
| 'He is a person who studies the way people live. |
| s-24
| And he is a teacher.' |
| s-25
| All the offworlders I had ever met were teachers. |
| s-26
| I wondered who did all the work on Earth. |
| s-27
| 'Because Earth had lost touch with your world, the people here are very interesting to my father,' she said. |
| s-28
| Her voice was listless in the dark and she was even harder to understand when I couldn't see her properly. |
| s-29
| I didn't understand so I didn't say anything. |
| s-30
| I was sorry I'd started her talking. |
| s-31
| 'History, do you know the word ' history '?' she asked. |
| s-32
| Of course I knew the word 'history.' |
| s-33
| 'I study history in school,' I said. |
| s-34
| Anneal and Kumar taught it. |
| s-35
| 'Do you know the history of this world?' |
| s-36
| It took my tired head a long time to sort that out. |
| s-37
| 'Yes,' I said. |
| s-38
| 'We are a colony. |
| s-39
| People from Earth come here to live. |
| s-40
| Then there is a big problem on Earth, and the people of Earth forget we are here. |
| s-41
| We forget we are from Earth. |
| s-42
| Then Earth finds us again.' |
| s-43
| 'Some people have stories about coming from the Earth,' Veronique said. |
| s-44
| 'My father is collecting those stories from different peoples. |
| s-45
| I'm a graduate student.' |
| s-46
| The clans didn't have any stories about coming from Earth. |
| s-47
| We said the first people came out of the sun. |
| s-48
| This somehow seemed embarrassing. |
| s-49
| I didn't understand what kind of student she was. |
| s-50
| 'Are you here for stories?' I asked. |
| s-51
| 'No,' she said. |
| s-52
| 'Ian is old friends with your teacher, from back when they were both with the survey. |
| s-53
| We just came to visit.' |
| s-54
| I didn't understand what she'd said except that they were visiting. |
| s-55
| We were quiet after that. |
| s-56
| I pretended to sleep. |
| s-57
| Sometimes there was gunfire outside and we jumped, even Mam on the bed. |
| s-58
| Everyone but Bet. |
| s-59
| Once Bet was asleep it was impossible to wake her up. |
| s-60
| I fell asleep thinking about how I wished that the Scathalos outrunners were gone. |
| s-61
| I dreamed that I was at the offworlder's home, where it was summer but no one was taking care of the stabros, and they were all glad, and so I was a hero - and I was startled awake by gunfire. |
| s-62
| Just more drinking and shooting. |
| s-63
| I wished my da would come home. |
| s-64
| It didn't seem fair that we should lie here and be afraid while the men were getting drunk and singing. |