Part 11 (1/2)

”What?”

She stepped forward and studied him, her gaze direct, disconcerting. ”It's harder than you thought, isn't it? Running an office, a city-a world. Especially as you must work by persuasion, consent.” She walked around the room, ran a finger over the data slates fixed on the walls, and paused before the window, gazing out at the glistening rooftops of the Conurbation, the muddy blue-green of the ca.n.a.ls. Hama could see the Spline s.h.i.+p rolling in the sky, a wrinkled moon. She said, ”It was difficult enough hi the era of the ax, whose authority, backed by Spline guns.h.i.+ps, was unquestionable,”

”And,” asked Hama, ”how exactly do you know that?”

”This used to be my office.”

Hama reached immediately for his desktop.

”Please.” The girl, Sarfi, reached out toward him, then seemed to think better of it. ”Don't call your guards. Hear us out.”

He stood. ”You're a jasoft, Gemo Cana.”

”Oh, worse than that,” Gemo murmured. ”I'm a pharaoh ... You know, I have missed this view. The ax knew what they were doing when they gave us jasofts the sunlight.”

She was the first pharaoh Hama had encountered face to face. Hama quailed before her easy authority, her sense of dusty age; he felt young, foolish, his precious philosophies half-formed. And he found himself staring at the girl; he hadn't even known pharaohs could have children.

Deliberately he looked away, seeking a way to regain control of the situation. ”You've been in hiding.”

Gemo inclined her head. ”I spent a long time in this office, Hama Druz. Longer than you can imagine. I always knew the day would come when the ax would leave us exposed.”

”So you prepared.”

”Wouldn't you? I was doing my duty. I didn't want to die for it.”

”Your duty to ax occupiers?”

”No,” she said, a note of weariness in her voice. ”You seem more intelligent than the rest; I had hoped you might understand that much. It was a duty to mankind, of course. It always was.”

He tapped a data slate on his desk. ”Gemo Cana. I should have recognized the name. You are one of the most hunted jasofts. Your testimony before the Commission-”

She snapped. ”I'm not here to surrender, Hama Druz, but to ask for your help.”

”I don't understand.”

”I know about your mission to Callisto. To the enclave there. Reth has been running a science station since before the Occupation. Now you are going out there to close him down.”

He said grimly, 'These last few years have not been a time for science.”

She nodded. ”So you believe science is a luxury, a play-thing for easier times. But science is a thread in the tapestry of our humanity-a thread Reth had maintained. Do you even know what he is doing out there?”

”Something to do with life forms in the ice-”

”Oh, much more than that. Reth has been exploring the nature of reality-seeking a way to abolish time itself.” She smiled coolly. ”I don't expect you to understand. But it has been a fitting goal, in an era when the ax sought to obliterate human history-to abolish the pa.s.sage of time from the human consciousness ...”

He frowned. Abolis.h.i.+ng time? Such notions were strange to him, meaningless. He said, ”We have evidence that the science performed on Callisto was only a cover-that many pharaohs fled there during the chaotic period following the ax withdrawal.”

”Only a handful. There only ever was a handful of us, you know. And now that some have achieved a more fundamental escape, into death, there are fewer than ever.”

”What do you want?”

”I want you to take us there.”

”To Callisto?”

”We will remain in your custody, you and your guards. You may restrain us as you like. We will not try anything- heroic. All we want is sanctuary. They will kill us, you see.”

”The Commission is not a mob.”

She ignored that. ”I am not concerned for myself, but for my daughter. Sarfi has nothing to do with this; she is no ja- soft.”

”Then she will not be harmed.”

Gemo just laughed.

”You are evading justice, Gemo Cana.”

She leaned forward, resting her hands on the desk non chalantly; this really had been her office, he realized. ”There is no justice here,” she hissed. ”How can there be? I am asking you to spare my daughter's life. Later, I will gladly return to face whatever inquisition you choose to set up.”

”Why would this Reth help you?”

”His name is Reth Cana,” she said. ”He is my brother. Do you understand? Not my cadre sibling. My brother.”

Gemo Cana; Reth Cana.

In the ax world, families had been a thing for ragam.u.f.fins and refugees, and human names had become arbitrary labels; the coincidence of names had meant nothing to Hama. But to these ancient survivors, a shared name was a badge of kins.h.i.+p. He glanced at Gemo and Sarfi, uneasy in the presence of these close primitive ties, of mother and brother and daughter.

Abruptly the door opened; Nomi Ferrer walked in, reading from a data slate. ”Hama, your s.h.i.+p is ready to go. But I think we have to ...” She looked up, took in the scene at a glance. In an instant she was at Gemo's side, with a laser pistol pressed against the pharaoh's throat. ”Gemo Cana,” she hissed.

”How did you get in here?”

Sarfi stepped toward Nomi, hands fluttering like birds.

Hama held up his hand. ”Nomi, wait.”

Nomi was angered. ”Wait for what? Standing orders, Hama. This is a Category One jasoft who hasn't presented herself to the Commission. I should already have killed her.”

Gemo smiled thinly. ”It isn't so easy, is it, Hama Druz? You can theorize all you want about justice and retribution. But here in this office, you must confront the reality of a mother and her child.”

Sarfi said to Hama, ”If your guard kills my mother, she kills me too.”

”No,” said Hama. ”We aren't barbarians. You have nothing to fear-”

Sarfi reached out and swept her arm down at the desk- no, Hama saw, startled; her arm pa.s.sed through the desk, briefly breaking up into a cloud of pixels, boxes of glowing color.