Read Online The Companions by Sheri S. Tepper - Free Book Online Page B

the premiere they called it the artistic event of the century. Matty would have loved that.
    She loved those caverns, too, even after she knew they had killed her. Until Matty died, I didn’t know that things you love can kill you.

LIAISON
    On Earth, liaison contracts are required for every human interaction that involves rights, responsibilities, and money. Every item in a liaison is enforceable by law. If Jane Somebody conceives a child outside a liaison contract, she has two months to get an ex post facto coparent, or the child becomes the property of the state as soon as it’s born and is sold to some off-world settlement where young people are in demand. People can have whatever religious or cultural ceremonies or commitments they like, but only the civil contracts are enforceable.
    Our contract was simple. Our identichips knew almost everything about us, and our Worldkeeper files knew whatever the identichips didn’t. We were rated R, which meant “Authorized to reproduce.” Ours was the usual five-year cohabitation contract with a coparenting option. Once we were liaised, we could have a baby, or we could create embryos to be stored and born later. Many young people did this, because young ova and young sperm are healthier but mature people are better parents. Every liaison contract specifies who owns any resultant embryos or has custody of any resultant children. I guess in the past people got into real wrangles about who had the right to stored embryos.
    I took my belongings to the University Tower where Witt had already put both our names in the directory. Paul was off world on some kind of fellowship (thank heaven), but we invited Taddeus to our celebration at the new sanctuary, withShiela Alred as hostess and a few of our friends as guests. Taddeus used a pocket album to record the festivities, then he gave it to us as a wedding gift. Registering a cohabitation liaison is called simply “recording a contract,” but if people are invited to celebrate the event, that celebration is still called a wedding.
    Our honeymoon consisted of splurging at ET restaurants and buying one another silly wedding presents in shops I’d never seen before, making up private jokes and experimenting with sex. Most young people experiment with concs, but I never had. They affected me deep down, like snakes affect some people who’ve never seen a snake before. I knew Witt had had concs, because he’d mentioned them, though we never discussed it. The sexual part of our relationship was agreeable though awkward, as though Witt kept having to remind himself I was there.
    We had ten days of cohabitation, and for that little time I was really quite happy, and everything seemed open and new, as though all our dreams could come true. When reality returned, it came like a monster from under the bed! That’s how it felt, even though it was only a summons from Witt’s mother. He answered the link, said yes, no, right away, got dressed and went. I stayed home and fixed breakfast. Time went by, almost noon, and he came home looking as though he’d been beaten. His face was blotchy and strained, totally unlike himself, and his voice shook.
    â€œMother the Dame found out we’re liaised.”
    â€œHadn’t you told her?” I was surprised, a little stunned.
    â€œShe went on and on about your being nobody, even after I told her who you were, who your parents were, that Shiela Alred thinks the world of you!”
    â€œSit down, Witt. Take a deep breath…”
    â€œI can’t! So then the Dame demanded to know if you were pregnant, and I told her you weren’t. She said that meant there’d be no barrier to my going on this expedition.”
    â€œExpedition?” I cried, not believing any of this. “What expedition?”
    â€œJust listen. Her cousin is with Planetary Protection Institute, and PPI is certifying a newly discovered planetary system, and the