Heirs of the New Earth Read Online Free PDF

cup and threw it into the trash, picked up his teleholo dais, then trudged out of the break room. He saw Louise Sinclair staring out of the big window to the street beyond. He couldn't quite tell from where he stood, but it looked as though tears glistened on her cheeks. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door of the workshop and stepped inside.
    Jerry Lawrence sat, staring mutely at the control chip of a teleholo. He held a test probe listlessly in his hand.
    Gibbs cleared his throat, but his supervisor didn't respond. “Mr. Lawrence?” he said, tentatively.
    At last, Lawrence looked up. “Sorry, Gibbs ... I guess I was lost in thought. What do you need?"
    "I was wondering what you wanted me to start on,” said Gibbs.
    Lawrence set the test probe down and looked up into Gibbs’ eyes. “It almost seems pointless, doesn't it? I'll be surprised if we have a single customer come in today, even to pick up things that are promised."
    Gibbs stepped over to the workbench and sat his malfunctioning teleholo unit down. “Sir, do you have any kids?"
    "I don't know,” said Lawrence with a wan smile. “Although, now that you mention it, I had a dream about a daughter last night."
    Gibbs snorted. “I had a ... a dream, too ... at least I guess it was dream. It was about my son. Then I had a dream about my mother."
    Lawrence nodded slowly. “My daughter was a prostitute in Central Texas. She looked at me with drug-clouded eyes and accused me of being a bad father; of leaving her to an abusive mother instead of raising her myself.” Lawrence looked down at his hands. “I didn't even know I had a daughter. I have no idea who her mother is.” He took a deep breath then let it out slowly. Finally, he looked up at Gibbs. “I hope your dream was better than mine."
    Gibbs stood and moved over to the storage shelf and stared at it. After a moment, he grabbed a teleholo dais at random. He took it back to his workbench. “I think I need to work, whether or not we have any customers today,” he said. “It'll help take my mind off bad dreams."
    Lawrence nodded. “You're right.” He looked at the teleholo dais Gibbs had taken from the shelf. “That one's got a particularly tricky problem. I was going to assign it to you. Judging from the symptoms, I'd say the central processor is malfunctioning. However, I've tried replacing the processor and the problem doesn't go away."
    "Sounds like fun,” said Gibbs, his smile genuine. He set the teleholo dais on the workbench, glad for anything that would take his mind off of his dreams. He retrieved his tools and turned on the diagnostic computer then let his mind escape into the puzzle.
    * * * *
    At the end of the workday Timothy Gibbs found himself dreading the return home. He feared another dream about his mother or something worse. With unaccustomed sadness, he downloaded his end-of-the-week pay and stepped out into the showroom, just remembering to retrieve his own teleholo dais that he'd stayed late to repair; though, he hadn't actually been able to find anything wrong with the unit. He saw Louise Sinclair getting ready to step outside. Their eyes met briefly, but she flushed red and quickly averted her eyes, then ducked outside. His brow creased when he realized that she normally turned right to go home. Instead, she turned left. Gibbs shook his head to clear it of pointless speculation, and then strode across the showroom and out the door himself.
    As he walked toward his apartment, his mind began filling with dark thoughts. He wondered if he had abandoned his son and his mother. He wondered how many children he had, in fact, abandoned. Gritting his teeth, he tried to clear his mind of the pointless thoughts, telling himself that he hadn't abandoned anyone; he simply lived life the way most people in the thirtieth century lived life. However, that caused his mind to take an even darker turn. He found himself questioning the very point of human existence. If humans are so