She said, “Well, you see, I saw these before. My mother grew them because the entire plant is edible and it only takes a small plant to feed a person. They grow fast too. They’re actually a weed so all they need is a bit of earth and they will grow away.
“My mother actually sowed them in the seams of the floors in the tunnels that were no longer used back on Old Earth. They grew fairly wild and very well for a very long time. Until the Capo came in and destroyed the entire…”
She fell silent. His eyes rested on her face. Her lips drooped downward like the rim of the cup, and her shoulders slumped. There was real pain written all over her, and not just on her face but in her body language.
Something had happened to her parents. He knew how the Federation was. He knew, but he had to ask, “Was it not allowed to grow things there?”
Her head shook slowly from side to side. She pressed the bowl closer to her chest, and her fingers stirred the petals and stems again. “No. I mean I guess it was if you lived above ground but not where we were. We used them for food, and it wasn’t allowed. If one is to eat in the Below, one must use the credits extended to them from their work. One must… One must never have more than one is allotted by their station and class.”
Maybe Renall and Jeval were right to wonder why Talon was so dead set on helping these humans. It seemed like a great many of them weren’t even worth the effort.
But Jenny was a human. And she was worth so much more than she knew.
She looked up at him. “I don’t know how I feel about going back.”
He said, “I am not sure how I feel about going at all.”
His grin was wry, and hers was as well. Her shoulders came up and then her chin. She asked, “Do you think these would be welcome for food?”
“Yes.”
That smile came back again on her face, warming his heart. That such a small compliment could make her so happy was wrong. She was a woman who had deserved much better than what she had been dished out and now he was taking her back to the planet that had turned her into the shy and frightened thing that she was.
Maybe this was a mistake.
If it was, it was too late to do anything about it.
She said, “I’m going to take these to the food hall. I picked enough for everybody to have a little but there are so much more that we could probably eat them for eternity.”
He stepped closer so that he could see down into the bowl. The flowers had long slender green stems and bulbous pale roots. He asked, “The entire thing is edible?”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes, you have to dig the roots up, but if you want them to continue to grow and you don’t care for the root you can leave the root and just pick the stem and the flowers. They’re edible and quite delicious.”
Her eyes came up, and his went to hers. They stared into each other’s eyes for a few moments and Marik forgot to speak. Finally, he found his voice. “Why would you leave the roots? Is it simply so that more can grow?”
“That too. The roots can be a little bland and starchy. Not many people care for them. They can be bitter too if they’re not cooked properly. They’re best if you just boil them a little bit or bake them.”
His eyes went to her mouth. He wanted to kiss her. He glanced away from her full lips quickly. It didn’t matter, her face—all sharp angles and big blue eyes that were a little too large for her face, a short straight nose, and a small rosebud mouth—stayed there, imprinted on his brain.
He said, “If nobody else will try them, I will. Though I’m sure everyone will. It’s not that food is in short supply; it’s that we all have to figure out what it is that we can and will eat here.”
He turned to see her staring into the bowl again. Her voice was hushed. “If I choose to stay… That is to say, if I choose to stay on Old Earth, would I be allowed to?”
The pain that lanced through his heart nearly felled him, but he managed to stay upright. “But of course. You are free, Jenny. Nobody owns you.”
Her head came up. Her nostrils quivered. “The Federation owned us. Did you know that? All my life, everything that we did or said or ate or wore was by Federation rule. I want to go back and make a difference. I need to make a difference there. I’ve seen that there can be beauty and… And… And I want to tell them that if they’ll just… If they just remember that even though the Federation rules over us, they don’t own us, we can all have good lives.”
He was wrong. He had been wrong anyway. There was a warrior below her meek exterior. He had just caught a glimpse of the woman that she might be, given the chance. That revelation struck him so hard that he found he could not form words for a moment.
Jenny took his silence as dismissal. She said, “I shall see you at dinner then.”
She turned and started for the door. He found his voice. “Jenny.”
She turned around, “Yes?”
He said, “You will make a difference. You will. With the knowledge that you have and your willingness to make a difference, you will.”
She gave him another one of those radiant smiles and then she was gone.
