Read Teranesia for Free Online Page B

then he’d decided that
     even the oldest, cheapest keyboard-driven notepad would have corrected them as they were made.
    He added a few vaguely positive words about ‘my work’, but there was nothing new to report. His parents had gathered a wealth
     of data as they observed generation after generation of the butterfly in the setting that had, presumably, shaped its strange
     adaptations, but as far as Prabir could tell they were still no closer to an explanation. Nothing about Teranesia was wildly
     different from other islands in the region, and even eighty kilometres of water – and much less during ice ages – was no real
     barrier to migration on a time scale of tens of millions of years.
    He left any mention of politics to the end, and ran throughthe words in his head a dozen times before committing a first draft to the notepad. He had to sound like his father, but firmer
     and clearer, so Eleanor wouldn’t keep questioning his decision to stay. Instead of dismissing her fears that the worst might
     happen, he’d welcome the possibility with open arms.
    ‘By the way, I checked out that State Department report you mentioned, and I agree completely with your analysis of the situation.
     The brutal, corrupt Javanese empire is finally coming to an end! Like the Portuguese, and the Dutch, and the British, they’re
     going to have to learn to live within their own borders. And if they can’t read the lessons of history, ABRMS is going to
     have to teach them the hard way.
    ‘But please don’t worry about me and my family. The army will never even think of coming here. We have all the equipment and
     supplies we need, so we can stay holed up here for as long as we have to. And it’s not as if Radha and I have nothing to do!
     We’ll continue with our work, until it’s safe to leave.’
    Safe to leave?
That wouldn’t inspire much confidence. He slid the cursor back across the screen with his finger. ‘… until victory is accomplished!’
    Prabir hesitated. It still sounded a bit like whistling in the dark. He needed to sign off on a positive note, or Eleanor
     would think it was all bluster.
    He closed his eyes and swung the hammock, sighing with frustration.
    Then inspiration struck.
    ‘As ever, your friend Prabir. Long live the Republik Maluku Selatan!’

3
    ‘Be careful!’ Prabir’s mother shaded her eyes and looked up at him, shifting Madhusree to one side to free her arm. Prabir
     stepped off the ladder on to the gently sloping roof. There were no gutters, so there was nothing to stop him falling if he
     started to slide, but the surface of the photovoltaic composite felt reassuringly rough beneath his feet. The modified fibreglass
     gained efficiency from its lack of polish; the polymer strands could gather more light if they stuck out in random tufts.
    Prabir crouched down slowly, legs spaced, balancing carefully. He’d managed to convince his parents that they were both too
     heavy to walk on the roofs of the huts, and though he’d been arguing entirely for the sake of doing the job himself, it seemed
     he’d been right: he could feel the panels flexing beneath his feet. They still felt springy, but it probably wouldn’t have
     taken much more force to buckle them.
    He shook the spraycan and began to paint an ‘I’. His parents had argued it through the night before: no elaborate messages
     proclaiming neutrality, no Indian flag, no sycophantic declarations of loyalty to either side, no praise-be to Allah or Jesus.
     Just one word on every wall and every roof of every hut: ILMUWAN. Scientist.
    The hope remained that no sign was needed. No one had troubled them so far, and since it seemed unlikely that their presence
     had gone unnoticed, perhaps their purpose was already known. Jets had flown over the island a few times, tiny soundless metallic
     specks, so small that Prabir couldalmost believe that they were just flaws in his vision, like the swimming points of distortion he saw when he