Building Harlequin’s Moon Read Online Free PDF

her fail. It was easy to earn Council’s disapproval. She looked over at Sharon, who gave her a beseeching glance. Rachel smiled, the only help she could afford to offer.
    Ali shifted her questioning to Andrew, perhaps to give Sharon time to recover her composure. Andrew delivered a well-organized example of the way the tiny measuring pods communicated wirelessly with one another, collectingand sending information about soil, atmosphere, and any plants they were attached to. The pods were ubiquitous—data flowed from all over Selene to be gathered up at Aldrin and forwarded to space, to the carrier ship
John Glenn
. Ali pushed him quietly, eventually questioning past his ability to answer confidently.
    Question and answer had been running for an hour now. Rachel was so mad at Andrew she could spit. He’d monopolized all of the best questions. Some of her answers were better, but Andrew didn’t give her time to say them. And what Andrew hadn’t answered, quiet Harry had answered perfectly. Rachel couldn’t smack Andrew in front of Council, and she couldn’t seem to think faster either. Ursula hadn’t done too well; Rachel wanted to prod her out of her shyness. Things were
not
going well.
    Finally Ali looked over at the two girls and asked them, “Why do we plant in this grove with our hands and not with machines?”
    Andrew started to talk, but Ali pushed an open hand toward him to warn him off, and he closed his mouth again, fidgeting. Rachel glanced at Gabriel—they’d talked about this once on a walk. She licked her lips. “So that we get a feel for the plants and see them as living parts of an ecosystem. If we touch the plants, and know them, we can remember that later, when we are using mostly machines.” She looked at Ursula. “Ursula knows this too.”
    Ursula looked gratefully back at Rachel and narrowed her eyes, plunging in bravely. “When we work by hand we know what the soil feels like. We know what the tree feels like.” Ursula hesitated a second. “And it’s
ours
, so we’re proud of our work here.”
    Ursula ran out of words and elbowed Rachel, who said, “Terraforming Ecology is a form of engineering. Gabriel says engineers need to do things themselves to understand how to avoid mistakes.”
    Ali broke in, “Do you think that’s true?”
    Rachel stayed quiet for a moment. “Yes. I think we’ll know the plants better. I’ll always know the ones I planted here, and if I want to keep that, I’ll stay in some physical contact even when—if—I pass and work on planting machines.”
    Andrew interrupted, “Besides, who’d want machines tearing up our soil? They were already here once: this whole grove has been prepared with the right basic soil. Why use machines where you don’t need them?”
    Of course
, Rachel thought,
that must have been the right answer. Why do I always miss the simple stuff?
    Gabriel changed the subject. “While you were talking with Councilwoman Ali, I downloaded some problems for you. You’ve got an hour, so take your time, but stay here in the meadow.”
    The children separated and bent over their wrist pads. Rachel answered half of the questions easily, and struggled with the next few, sweat beading on her forehead as time ticked away too fast. Knowing that there must be cameras recording, Rachel kept her face turned toward her pad and didn’t look around at all.
    After they’d all sent their answers back to Gabriel, the children scattered for lunch. Ursula and Rachel sat together. At first the girls ate quietly, swapping carrots for berries, and sharing two types of bread. Ursula looked dejected. “I didn’t even get through it all. What happens if I’m not picked?”
    “I didn’t have time to finish the last question either,” Rachel said. “And besides, we don’t know how the others did yet.”
    “I missed three. But I know Harry and Andrew finished it all.”
    “How do you know that?” Rachel asked her friend.
    “I watched them. They beamed