Part 5 (1/2)

THE ETER OF.ALL THINGS.

I.

Hard PursuitToby eyed Besen warily. Why couldn't she leave him alone?

Like most women, she a.s.sumed that talking about things that bothered you, getting it all out, made them better. Obviously. Automatically.

Toby's experience was that pretty often that just made them worse.

Bringing vague, smoky feelings into the glaring open daylight, sharpening them up bright and s.h.i.+ny with words, making them more concrete--well, then the problems looked even harder. At least to him.

He sighed. They were eating in the clattering, chattering, communal cafeteria. All around them people were murmuring earnestly, the big room alive with excited speculations about their mission.

It had been a week since Killeen's dramatic speech at the Gathering. A week spent hamm. ering their way in toward the blazing, star-swarming True Center. A week when Argo throbbed and lurched and rumbled in the buffeting plasma winds. A week that people seemed to be enjoying.

Pulse-pounding adventure was better than sitting on your haunches, mulling over matters. Family Bishop was tired of the soft life in Argo. A wonderful s.h.i.+p, a grand inheritance from their distant, time-dimmed ancestors, sure--but in the end just a smart can. In Toby's judgment, Bishops weren't at their best when they were cooped up with nothing better to do than talk. Like right now.

”I appreciate your asking and all,” Toby said at last, struggling to be diplomatic. After all, Besen had been trying to cajole him out of his moody silence. ”Don't get me started, though.”

Besen smiled sympathetically. ”Sometimes you close up tight as a vacuum seal.”

”There's a lot of adrenaline pumping lately, that's all.”

”Why, sure.” She looked startled, her lips canted in puzzlement.

”We're leaving those mechs way behind.”

70.

”Huh!” He snorted. ”A rat in a cage can dash back and forth all it wants.””We're not caught?”I don't see any way out--do you?””Plenty. We haven't even sighted the disk around the black hole yet.

There may be room to hide, then--””The mechs know this place. They've got telltales planted aroundhere, for sure. Smart snoopers.””We don't know that.””It's a good bet. Something at True Center has been a fixation of mechs for a long time--Quath says so.””You believe everything that big collection of pants says?””Sure do.” Toby shot back. ”At least Quath doesn't try to cheer me up.”Besen frowned prettily. ”Ummm. You are down in the mouth.””I'm not celebrating, is all.” Toby sipped his lotus juice and picked up a grain cube. He rapped it against the table and a small white weevil came squirming out. ”Only way to get these bugs out, far as anybody knows,”

he said with disgust, sweeping it away.”It was that Erica, she let them get free.””Easy mistake to make when you can't read the directions.””She could've asked her Aspects!”Erica had mistakenly let the self-warming vial of frozen soil-tenders escape years ago, but their daily irritations reminded everybody and brought her name up like a curse.Toby was sympathetic. Who could have known that the ugly squirmers would pop out of their container, all ready to start eating?-which was, after all, their job. They startled poor Erica into droppingethe vial. Who could guess that then they'd get into all the grain crops? The worms belonged among the vegetables and apple trees, just as the inscription said, in some dead language. Just Erica's bad luck--and theirs--that she was in the grain dome when she opened the cylinder. He shrugged. ”She'd been working hard seeding.””I think the Cap'n should've whipped her for it.””He doesn't like whipping.””What a Cap'n likes and doesn't like, that doesn't matter,” Besen said stiffly. ”What's good for the Family, that comes first.””Sure. And a smart Cap'n gets his crew all fired up about what he wants.”Besen blinked. ”Oh, so you're saying Cap'n's got us dancing hisdance, only we're hearing different music?””Could be.””And you don't want to say anything in public? Out of loyalty?”

”I don't like to go against him.”

”Well, you'd sure be unpopular.”

71.”Yeasay--and I got to admit, everybody's spirits are running pretty high.” He gestured around at the cafeteria, jammed with animated faces.

There was an electric smell of skittering excitement. People so long on the run greeted a hard pursuit with elation; the thrill of familiar danger.Besen's lips pursed with concern. ”You really don't think this is just a way of getting away from the mechs, do you?””I don't know what it's really about.” Toby rapped his grain cube angrily. Another weevil fell out onto the table. With relish he squashed it with his thumb. ”Pays to be careful, is all.”Besen smiled. ”Look twice for weevils?””Weevils can be anywhere.”Besen gathered herself visibly and tried to s.h.i.+ft their mood. ”Let's go up to observation, see if we can spot any.””Great.” He tossed aside the grain cube, then thought again, rapped it a third time--no more weevils--and bit in. ”Umm, not bad--when you're starving.””You're always starving. And since the sail-snake and the rest, we have plenty to eat.””Let's go.” Toby was grateful to her for giving him an exit from an uncomfortable conversation. He didn't like his brooding to color the mood of the s.h.i.+p, not when his father had pulled everybody together so well, had them putting in long hours of grunt labor and smiling about it.They made their way up the broad helical ramp at Argo's core. All crew were working harder now, dealing with the agro domes. The level of radiation from outside was climbing by the hour. Smoldering infrareds, sharp ultraviolets, unseen spectra biting at the crops. They had polarized the domes to the max, but stinging energies still got through. So it was a relief to forget all that, to slump into the netting of an observation chamber and watch the stunning brilliance outside.In the cool, dim core of the s.h.i.+p the observation room was crowded and Toby could not get a good clear view. The field of glowing stars was confusing, crisscrossed by eerie splashes of radiating gas. Then the Bridge switched to a Doppler-s.h.i.+fted frequency, and details leaped out. Going to blue-rich frequencies picked out things moving toward Argo and dimmed everything else.And there they were: brilliant pinpoints of blue, eight of them evenly s.p.a.ced around a circle.”Impossible to miss,” Toby murmured.”The mechs must not care whether we notice,” Besen said.”Or else they really want us to.””Why would they? More effective to sneak up, I'd think.”

”Maybe they want to spook us.”

”Into doing what?””Maybe just what we're doing,” Toby said grimly.

72.

”Hey, we're gettin' away from them!” a big, hawk-nosed woman protested on Toby's left, gouging him with a sharp elbow. She was an Ace, from the wastelands of Trump. Trained to follow her Family leader.

”Yeasay, throwin' dust in their faces,” a man joined in. A River.

”We can outrun any d.a.m.n mech,” another woman announced proudly. Her accent was of Family Deuce, so thick Toby could barely understand her.

Toby gritted his teeth. ”Yeasay, yeasay. I was just wondering--”

”Not right, Cap'n's son going' on like that.” The hawk-nosed woman's elbow poked him again.

”Sorry, brothers and sisters,” Toby said, though he was getting irritated. ”Uh, 'scuse me.”

He got up and worked his way out of the press of bodies. Everybody seemed to be looking at him, sour-faced. Or else avoiding his eyes. Besen followed, whispering, ”That old hag, she's a flap-mouthed gossip. All those Trump Families are.”

Toby was already feeling bad about the incident, and he stopped before leaving the room to catch another glimpse of the screen. Family Bishop members were murmuring, speculating, even laughing--and not just among the Snowglade folk, either. They argued and elbowed and laughed with tbLe Trump Families, too. An electric smell came from the crowd, a fidgety excitement.

It struck Toby that the room was jammed not so much because they wanted to see the gaudy pictures, but to provide a place to gather, gossip, and grumble. All to sharpen their sense of themselves as a fragile human Family in the face of the abyss outside.

That was essential--holding together. Argo held mostly Bishops, from Snowglade, but also Families of the planet they had just left, which itsnatives called Trump. Those Families had names Toby didn't under-stand--Aces and Deuces, Jacks and Fivers. There were Queens, though, which by logic should have had the same customs and history as the Family Queen of Snowglade. But they didn't.

Killeen called these Trump Families the Cards. They were fiercely loyal and p.r.o.ne to follow hot-eyed leaders. Back on Trump some had obeyed the crazy man who called himself His Supremacy, a fierce-faced type the Bishops had finally had to kill. Somehow this had .meant that the Cards then transferred their loyalty to Killeen.

It made no sense, but then, not much about Trump did. Toby flatly disbelieved the idea that the Cards had gotten their names from some ancient game. Maybe a game had been made up using those names, sure.

But Families were ancient and hallowed and not the stuff of trivial matters.

Still, the Trumps were a bit hard to take, b.u.t.t-headed and ignorant.

But the Snowgladers were no prize, either, when you looked close.

Rooks liked to blow their noses by pinching the bridge of the nose and letting fly into the air. They laughed if anybody was in the way. The hawk-nosed woman was a Rook, true to form.

73.

On the other hand, p.a.w.ns saw nothing wrong with taking a c.r.a.p in full view of anybody who happened by. A perfectly natural function, they said. What's to be embarra.s.sed about?Knights burped and farted at the most formal occasions--they didn't even seem to notice doing it.Bishops spit whenever they felt like it, which was pretty often.Rooks preferred to pee on plants, maintaining that since this was part of the Great Cycle of Life, it must be good for them.And Kings would cough smack in your face, smiling after they did it.

Some said that in the old Citadel days the lost Family of Queens had even made love in public, feet pointed at the ceiling, rumps thrusting in the air free as you please. They had some sort of theory about doing it as a show of demented social solidarity. Toby didn't really believe that, it was utterly fantastic--but who could truly say what people of the deep past had believed and done?Still, the Snowglade Families overlooked these differences, acts that seemed to others like gross social blunders, and held together. And aside from minor incidents, they extended the same hand to the Trumps, even if they were b.u.t.t-stubborn and ate with their mouths open. The Family of Families.Toby knew he had an obligation to keep the social glue in place. Not that he had to like it. He smacked a fist into his palm as he walked away from the jammed room.Concerned, Besen asked, ”She really got to you?””Naysay. Forget it.” But he knew he wouldn't.

2.

The Shredded Star Toby missed having Quath live outside. Anything that big should be free beneath the stars, not closed in.He was sure of this despite knowing that Quath's kind had evolved out of a burrowing species that liked to dig in snug and tight beneath the ground. How such a race developed intelligence was a riddle. It seemed unlikely that something that wormed into dark, smelly crannies and ventured out to hunt for game would need much in the way of smarts. On the other hand, he reflected, humans had holed up in caves a lot, or so Isaac said. What made a creature develop intelligence was a deep question.

After all, mechs came to have quick minds and n.o.body remembered when or how. Not even Isaac.ToBut the real reason Toby thought Quath should be outside was that by now had no excuse to go hull-walking himself. He felt an itchy,restless energy that he couldn't erase with workouts in zero-grav. At least when he did visit Quath, it was in s.p.a.ces so big that Toby could practice his low-grav skills.At the moment Quath was in the abandoned agro dome. The high arch reflected back Toby's huffing and puffing as he did rebounds off the walls. He would coast across the dome, maybe try to bank a little in the ventilator winds. Zooming toward the opposite wall, he pinwheeled his arms in mid-flight to bring his legs around, so that they could absorb momentum and rebound like coiled springs. A lot more fun than lifting dead weights, like some kind of demented machine.Quath stood at the dome floor's center, eyes swiveling to followToby's ricocheting. She sent a hissing note of derision:<you make=”” much=”” needless=”” effort.=””>”I wouldn't expect a giant c.o.c.kroach to understand.”<my people=”” would=”” never=”” sup=”” in=”” your=”” foul=”” kitchens,=”” as=”” did=”” roaches.=””> ”You eat stuff that would gag any self-respecting pest.”

75.<my people=”” once=”” hunted=”” such=”” as=”” you=”” for=”” an=”” occasional=”” stimulating=”” mouthful.=””>This startled Toby. He grabbed a steel strut and clung to it, panting.

”Really?”<they were=”” native=”” to=”” our=”” world=”” and=”” of=”” the=”” order=”” primate,=”” as=”” you=”” call=”” yourselves.=”” not=”” so=”” skilled=”” as=”” your=”” kind--not=”” hunters.=”” they=”” smacked=”” theirlips=”” over=”” blue-green=”” worms=”” that=”” thronged=”” in=”” brittle=”” trees.=””>”Were they, well, like us?””Ugh. I'm trying hard to think of you as a buddy, big-bug, but if you go on like this--”Toby could sense the capitals in Quath's hissing mind-voice and decided to not pursue the matter. Quath was serious. Maybe it was common for intelligent beings anywhere to think of themselves as the crown of creation--The People--and everybody else as a smart animal at best. Savvy smarts and egomania went hand in hand. Or pincer in pincer.After all, suppose Quath had been a thousand times smaller. It wouldn't matter that she was supersmart--if Toby shook her out of his bedroll he would step on her without a thought. He certainly wouldn't inquire into what she thought about the nature of life.”I think I could pa.s.s up honors like that. Anyway, many-eyes, you seem to have settled in here okay.””So generous of you. Look, I was sent here to see if you can figurewhat your own folks are doing in their s.h.i.+ps.””They're still hauling that huge ring. Only it's glowing more, a kind of ivory.”<they carry=”” their=”” great=”” burden=”” as=”” a=”” defense=”” against=”” the=”” mechs.=”” some=”” of=”” our=”” aged=”” texts=”” suggest=”” a=”” further=”” role=”” for=”” it,=”” as=”” well.=””>”It sure seems to keep them away, all right. But why are your people gaining on us?”<they may=”” be=”” needed.=”” the=”” cusp=”” moment=”” approaches.=””>”Uh, what's a cusp?”

”Oh yeah? Look, I bite into an apple, it tastes real good. Where's the geometry in that?”

76.Toby hated it when Quath said something and then the programs in his head, and in Quath's too, couldn't make enough sense between them to get the job done. All that came through was a fizzy blurt and a bland, flat [untranslatable]. ”Okay, then where's the geometry in a kiss, huh?””Oh, glad it's so obvious. How silly of me.”<my program=”” senses=”” that=”” there=”” is=”” something=”” more=”” to=”” your=”” speech=”” pattern.=””>”Yeasay, we call it 'sarcasm.'””Let's just call it [untranslatable], bug-boy.” ”Aaahhh!”This was driving Toby up the wall--literally. He was glad he could work out his frustration by climbing through the struts of the dome, leaping across wide spans, burning calories to clear his mind. It was getting hot in here--hot all through Argo, in fact. The domes were absorbing radiation from the astronomical fireworks outside.Stinging sweat dripped into Toby's eyes. He clambered over struts and beams, swung in the nearly zero-grav, and let go. He spread his arms and beat against the air, flapping like an awkward bird, and slowly fell toward Quath. The alien caught him at the very last moment before hewould have smacked painfully on the deck. ”Oooof! Thanks.”