Beowulf's Children

The chamels were muddied and streaked; in fact, they rolled happily in the mud. She let it touch her heart, bleakly. There was death here, but wonders too in a world that could produce creatures as beautiful as these.

A crowd gathered around them to hear the speech Aaron had promised them. Carey Lou gaped worshipfully. Beside him, little Heather McKe

Just holding hands. Almost i

Jessica was confused. And not a little jealous, and wasn't entirely certain why. She had all the sex she wanted. Why the hell would she covet... holding hands with Edgar?

"We have to rebuild," Aaron said. The sun burned down between the clouds, as if trying to make up for the burst of rain. It was lying to them: Geographic promised another downburst within a day or two. "We have paid too high a price. We must claim this continent for our own." His voice quavered. She had never seen him like this, never seen him quite so honest, so close to the bone. This was a new Aaron. Her father was dead, and into that vacuum had stepped a new leader.

She sca

But in the end, there would be Aaron. Aaron, who had led them back to the mainland. Aaron, who had risked his life in vain, to save the one man he loved more than any other.

She could see it in their faces. This tragedy would finally knit the entire colony together.

Dogs barked anxiously at the periphery of the camp. Jessica peered out over the crowd to see...

The impossible.

Just beyond the double electrified fence, a torpedo shape crawled through the mud. Slowly. Gradually. Tentatively.

The entire camp was utterly silent. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Aaron's face, and it was ashen. Whatever he had been about to say had simply died on his lips.

A grendel. A huge grendel. It approached slowly. And it was... dragging something.

Unmistakably, its barbed tail was hooked through the pant leg of a.... a man. A black man. Trish's rifle went up to her shoulder, and Big Chaka Mubutu, standing beside her, said, "No."

"Oh, my God," someone said. "It's little Chaka."

Little Chaka???

"He's alive," Big Chaka said. Jessica felt frozen in place, unable to move. How... ?

She looked back up at Aaron, and his eyes were wide. Too wide, and she felt as if she were falling into them.

Aaron had seen Little Chaka die! Had seen him torn to pieces by... by grendels. Her world spun, and her eyes locked again on the enormous shape that had paused just at the outer ring of buildings, and made a kind of cooing sound.

Oh, my God. It was trying to speak to them.

"The fuck you don't—"

That was Edgar's voice. A slapping sound. Jessica heard a gunshot, loud enough to stun her hearing, blasting right next to her ear. Mud kicked up a few feet in front of her.

The grendel's head cocked. It watched them.

Edgar's hand was on the barrel of the gun. Aaron tugged at it. He was in such shock that he couldn't harness his strength, couldn't pull it away from Edgar for a critical second.

"It killed Cadma

Big Chaka spoke quietly. "I thought you said that it was a raft of small ones. It was spawning samlon killed Cadma

Aaron was silent. Trish looked at Aaron, eyes murderously cold. It was a community of guns, and guns were turning toward Aaron.

"Jessica," Aaron whispered. "It isn't what it looks like."

And in that moment she knew. She couldn't make the part of her that knew talk to the part of her that could act. She couldn't. But she knew for an instant, she felt the shields slide back and looked into the core of herself and knew, and felt herself falling into the abyss, and sealed it back up, teetering. Heard her own voice quavering, heard the lie as she spoke it to herself. "Of course. I don't know what they're—"

Big Chaka took a step forward. The grendel shook its tail, detaching it from Little Chaka's leg, and then backed up a few feet.

"My God," someone said. "It's smart."

"It brought Chaka back." Big Chaka punched a code into his comm card, and the fence power died. He swung the gate open. The crowd moved forward, the grendel retreating as they did. It backed up a dozen feet, and watched them carefully.

Big Chaka's yelled. "No one touches that animal. NO ONE." It was the first time that she had ever heard him raise his voice. Jessica stood with Aaron. Edgar's hand was on the rifle. Somehow, Trish had moved over behind Aaron. Her hand was on Aaron's other arm. Tight.

Aaron was frozen. His tongue dipped pinkly out of his month, moistening his lips. His hair hung down to his shoulders stringily. There was no life in his face.

"No," Trish said quietly, and her eyes met his squarely. "If you raise that rifle, I swear to God I'll kill you. Or Edgar will."

Aaron looked to Jessica for support. She was numb. This was all happening too damned quickly. Her chest felt like a skeeter had landed on it.

"My boy... ?" Big Chaka wept. "My boy."

The small man cuddled his son's body in his arms. They stayed like that for along time. There was a stillness to the world, something that penetrated deeply, and Jessica couldn't bring herself to move.

Under Big Chaka's direction three of the crowd picked Little Chaka up and carried him back into the camp. They swung the gate closed behind them. Outside, the grendel watched them. Big Chaka's eyes were on fire. He walked toward them, one hesitant step at a time. Then she realized that he struggled to keep from ru

Big Chaka whispered something. When he got closer she could hear what it was. "He was shot," Chaka was saying over and over again. "He was shot."

"I told... I told you," Aaron said, trying to find words, trying to find anything to fill the void of silence that had suddenly opened all around him. "I tried to help. I fired at the grendels... " There was spittle on his chin.

"You had a grendel gun!" Chaka screamed. "My son was shot with a bullet!"

"I... I... "

"Do you want to know what my boy said?"

Aaron shook his head numbly. A vast buzzing filled Jessica's head.

"He said: ‘Aaron shot us.' That's what he said."

Suddenly, without any warning, Trish's belt knife was at Aaron's throat. "You incredible bastard," she hissed.

The center of Jessica's world was falling away. Aaron was crumbling in front of her. She didn't know what she was doing. Trish pulled the rifle from his hands. Limp hands.

Trish on one side, Edgar on the other. Aaron too shocked to fight, still staring at the grendel as if looking into the face of Judgment.

"You will stand trial," Big Chaka said. "And my son will testify against you."

Aaron struggled to find an answer, but before he could voice it, they were interrupted by a scream:

"Bees!"