Higher Ground by Becky Black (notion reading list txt) 📗

the meeting later, what Korrie would make of his data—that the sudden intrusion of so much heat and desire had quite discombobulated him.

He’d thought that, unlike people such as the Franes and their child, he had nobody special here he needed to protect. But that might be changing. The urge to get Adam to safety had become stronger than the more general one to save all the residents of the colony, leaving him a little ashamed of himself. But perhaps that was normal. Wouldn’t the Franes feel the same about each other and their daughter?

Not if he didn’t persuade them of the truth of his prediction, they wouldn’t. He took a breath, clearing distracting thoughts about Adam’s tanned skin and thick hair out of his mind. Amina had finished telling him the names of her toys, and he smiled at her nervously. He had limited experience of small children. As an only child, he had no nieces and nephews, and few of his friends at home had families yet.

“Which is your favorite?” he asked. At once, she grabbed a battered rag doll with long striped legs.

“Leggy Peggy,” she said. “Grandma Frane made her. I haven’t met Grandma Frane, but I saw her on the screen saying hello.”

Zach had to bite back a wince. The Franes were relatively recent arrivals at the colony, coming here only five years ago. Amina must have been born here, and if Zach couldn’t persuade her parents to help him, she’d never meet her grandparents. They had to help him.

“Dr. Benesh,” Simon Frane said, “you seem very sure about this.”

“I am sure.”

“But why aren’t the other geologists at the Institute saying the same thing?” Visha asked.

“I was the only one studying the magma chambers. And I’m afraid I…” He sighed and rubbed his eyes, which were gritty and aching. “I didn’t go about drawing this to their attention the right way. I think I’ve prejudiced them against me. My own fault. I panicked…” He trailed off. He had screwed it up, hadn’t he? Only his decision to take the data to Professor Korrie saved him from being a complete fool. That was when he’d started thinking clearly, not rushing around half-cocked.

“Look,” Simon said, “Dr. Benesh—”

“Zach, please.”

“Zach, okay. The thing is, if we send out an unauthorized distress signal, and you turn out to be wrong, we’re in big trouble. We’d lose our jobs at the very least, and that means losing our home too. We might be prosecuted. What happens to us and Amina then?”

“I don’t know. But I know what happens to all of you if I’m right.” He glanced at the girl and didn’t elaborate, not wanting to frighten her. She was happily playing with the toys on the couch, oblivious to the matters of life and death they were discussing.

Zach took a breath, seeing the skepticism in both their faces. He had to break through it. They had no reason to take his word on this, but they couldn’t interpret the data for themselves to know for sure. He had to make them believe they could trust when he was sure of something, they should be too.

“Both my parents are scientists. All my life I’ve been taught the scientific method. I’ve been taught to research thoroughly, triple-check results, run experiments multiple times to make sure the same results are repeated, and to check the instruments and systems used to make and interpret my tests. I came first in my class for science and math almost every year in school. I graduated summa cum laude and was valedictorian of my undergraduate class. I completed my master’s degree in a year. My PhD thesis was published and has been cited several times. My IQ is 185.”

They were staring at him, and he couldn’t blame them. It sounded like the most incredible bout of egotistical showing off any man could spew, short of adding something about having an especially enormous penis. But he said it all for good reason.

“I’m only twenty-six. I’m not well established yet, so I can understand anyone not taking me seriously. But I have triple-checked this data, and in my opinion as an expert, the data is correct.”

“It certainly sounds like you’re in a position to know what you’re talking about,” Visha said.

“If you’re still worried, you could tell people I forced my way in here and took your daughter hostage to make you do as I asked.”

They gaped at him, and he realized that had sounded a little strange.

“Ami, come over here, sweetheart,” Visha said. Amina ran over, carrying the doll she’d called Leggy Peggy. Visha scooped the girl onto her lap.

“I’m sorry,” Zach said, seeing Simon tense up, ready for trouble. “I didn’t mean to alarm you. I’ve no intention of doing that.” The idea of threatening to harm a child, even for something as important as this, horrified him. “I meant it’s something you could say to people to avoid being prosecuted, if I turn out to be wrong. I’d even confess to it.”

“You’re that sure?” Simon said.

“Yes.”

“Who are we to argue with a genius? Vish, you’re the sneaky one. What’s the best way to hide the origin of a signal?”

They were going to do it. Zach flopped back in his seat with a sigh of relief. Their conversation descended into technical discussion about the best way they could start the signal going and then leave it so it couldn’t be easily stopped by someone else.

But a distress signal was only the first step. Since Ethris was the only sizeable population center on the planet, they had no ships and boats for trading and carrying supplies—those would have come in a future the island no longer had. There were two research outposts on the other side of the planet, with a couple of hundred people stationed at them. A supply shuttle took goods and people to them from Arius, but it wasn’t here on Zahara now. It would have to be summoned from the outposts to start to take