Read Beowulf's Children for Free Online

Amazon is glacier water, poor in minerals. Mama Eel is making sure her babies have food."
    "Cannibals?"
    "No, this is a salmon trick, Jessica. The salmon of Earth swam upstream and died. Mama here only leaves her tail, but it's the same trick. Tail will rot. Parasites in the tail will multiply drastically as tissue decomposes. Insects come to dine. Water boils with insects and worms and such. Hatchlings have their dinner, won't they, Mama?"
    Outside, the clouded sky cleared for a moment, and Tau Ceti glared through the Aquatics building's domed ceiling, dimming the holos. The ceiling polarized, and the holos brightened.
    Slowly, the eel began to twitch again.
    "Let's get a closer look," Little Chaka murmured.
    The eel ballooned up before them. Its skin disappeared as Cassandra obligingly bounced ultrasound through the water, and then adjusted the scans. "Ah ha—"
    The door burst open, and Zack Moskowitz stormed in.
    Avalon's chairman was about fifty-five Earth years old, thirty-eight Avalon, and a slightly heavier gravity hadn't been kind to him. His shoulders stooped, and his face was deeply lined. The mustache and eyebrows that gave him an unfortunate resemblance to Groucho Marx were thinner now, speckled with white. Care and woe, stress and responsibility had bent him as if physical burdens.
    "Jessica!" he roared. "I gave you a direct order to kill that thing."
    "Why?" she asked mildly. "And by the way: hi, Zack."
    "Standing Order Municipal Rule One-four-two. ‘Until adjudged otherwise, all new species are to be considered hostile.' This is the first time something this large has returned to the island. It has pronounced amphibious tendencies."
    "So does my niece, but that doesn't make her a grendel."
    "Look at this." Chaka slid into a swivel chair, lacing his thick dark fingers behind his head. The eel's head became orca-sized, revealing a mouthful of tiny, even, sharp-looking teeth. "Mama eats small fish. She might take a chomp out of your leg if you tromped on her. Sorry to disillusion you, Zack, but you wouldn't be her idea of lunch."
    Zack grunted, then turned back to Jessica. "I don't care," he said.
    "An order is an order."
    "I know," Jessica said, her voice still extremely even. "Rules are rules, because we can't trust individual judgment. You can't trust your individual judgment." And I was never frozen. I don't have ice on my mind. "Zack, my father wrote most of the Standing Orders, remember?"
    "You're taking advantage," Zack said. "Cadmann will be back tomorrow."
    Jessica leaned forward. "What makes you think that I care? The Grendel Scouts are controlled by Second Generation. Biomed is controlled by Second Generation. This is for Star Born, not Earth Born."
    "At the moment."
    "The eel was spotted by—"
    "—sensors created and monitored by adults. First Generation. We set up the alert and sent out the skeeter. You commandeered it, and directly countermanded my order—"
    Jessica's blue eyes narrowed hotly. "Cadmann's Bluff is not incorporated into the township of Avalon Town, never has been, never will be, and you damned well know why. The eel was captured there. My father is incommunicado. Justin and I are in command of the Bluff until he returns. I made my decision based upon my authority on the Bluff and my control of the Grendel Scouts. Chaka?"
    Chaka spun in his swivel chair. "Mother Eel is secure, Zack. We can put a net over the tank, if you want."
    "You know damned well that isn't the issue. The issue is that you exceeded your authority. I am responsible for the security of this colony—"
    Jessica's smile was hard, but her voice remained even and untempered. "And although I had no hand in giving you that authority, I have abided by the decision. Until now. But I think we can learn more about Avalon from a live creature—and we have eggs coming down the mountain—"
    "Eggs?" Zack was furious. "I want them destroyed—"
    "You are the civilian authority, and as such have control of ordinary emergencies.