Empire of Bones (18 page)

Your conceptual vocabulary is limited. Clearly, the Tetyiein project will not, after all, be suitable
for ripening. Must I spell it out? Lin't-bonding has failed. The Receiver's subspecies is not, as I
feared, at an appropriate level of development. Her modu-lations are crude to the point of
destructiveness. Link^-bonding is an ancient and traditional ritual, which has rarely gone awry
over countless millennia. But instead ofjaya's ovum being fertilized by the ship's seed after the
gathering process, she has infected it
.

"You blame the Receiver?" Sirru said, as the knot of fear that had been contracting within his abdomen snapped and expanded, spreading a chilly weakness throughout his body. Jaya glanced sharply at him, clearly trying to work out what was going on. He motioned her to stay quiet.

/
see no other casual agent. Do you
?

"But the
desqusai
can't afford another failure, not after Arakrahali," Sirru said, failing for once to guard his words. Silently, he cursed the slip. Ir Yth's serrated shoulder blades rippled beneath the folds of her robe.

That is a
desqusai
problem; nothing to do with me. I must now go to the translation chamber and
appraise the Core of the project's collapse. Then you and I will return to our First Bodies
. She seemed to brighten.
We'll be going home
.

"What about Jaya?" He gestured toward her, and felt her question. "What about the colony?"

Ir Yth's eyes widened in surprise.
The Receiver will remain here, of course. The colony will be taken
care of as the ship's orbit decays. Once I have permission from the Core, I will activate the spread
of kjller spores. Best that the colony be brought to a tidy end
.

Thinking fast, Sirru inclined his head. "As always, I will be guided by your actions."
True enough
, he thought as Ir Yth swept from the room. He waited for a moment, then checked that the setting of the scale was still at maximum closure. In a way, he reflected, it was a good thing that the ship was so dis-tracted—it was unlikely to betray his presence to Ir Yth. His head started to throb. Jaya touched his arm, made gestures. She pointed toward the wall opening.

"Ir Yth?" she asked. He could feel her mood: a steely coldness.

/Ir Yth/
he confirmed. Jaya was already heading through the opening. Swiftly and silently, they followed the
raksasa
along the decaying corridors of the ship.

16. Depth snip/ orbit: tarth

The pungent odor of green decay filled Jaya's nostrils as they hurried through the passageways of the ship. Trailing skeins of skin were peeling from the walls and ceiling, revealing a tarry ooze. Jaya had understood little of the conversation be-tween Sirru and Ir Yth, and she hated not knowing what was going on. But it felt good to take action again, after the aim-less, unsettling time on the ship. They hurried through the growing chamber, and with a sick dismay Jaya saw that the seeds had died in their tanks, turning to pondweed and slime. A film of mold covered the surface of the nutrient vats. The place smelled like a stagnant marsh.

Sirru paused, turning from side to side. He reminded Jaya suddenly of a hunting dog; it was as though he was scenting the air. Was he searching for a trace of Ir Yth? Striding off, he led her down a narrow corridor.

"Sirru," Jaya hissed, though she had little expectation of being understood. "Where are we going?" She was certain that she had never been this way before. Sirru stopped so abruptly that she cannoned into him. He thrust an arm against her, pinning her against die wall, and she almost cried out. Peering over his shoul-der, she could see into a small, glowing chamber. Banks of mov-ing lights were writhing up the curved walls like underwater fireworks. After a moment, Jaya saw Ir Yth, sitting hunched in die middle of the chamber with her back to the door. Her form was indistinct, wavering in the light. All four hands were a swift blur of movement. Jaya plucked at Sirru's sleeve and pointed.

"What's she doing?"

Sirru exuded dismay.
/Ir Yth
—
homelAlonellMust not!/

Had she understood that correctly? Was Ir Yth running out on them? Sirru looked down at her, and Jaya could see a sudden uncertainty in his face. Alien though he was, she rec-ognized that look. It was the expression of someone who was entertaining second thoughts. Then she remembered the alarm that had poured from him.

/Ir Yth/danger/

It was a terrible risk, but it wasn't the first time she'd had to act on little knowledge for high stakes. She wormed swiftly past Sirru into the chamber. Another stride took her to Ir Yth. Before the preoccupied
rahsasa
had time to turn, she struck Ir Yth as hard as she could on the side of the head. The
rahsasa
crumpled to the floor without a sound.

An intense humming filled Jaya's head, and she clapped her hands to her ears. She seemed to stand on the edge of a vast gulf. Stars drifted beneath her feet, suns caught in the galactic tides. A red and sparkling world hung above her. She saw a tiny speck, outlined against the shoulder of the planet, and then a face. It swam in the air before her: long and narrow and black, like the face of a horse, with two hot-coal eyes. Jaya reeled backward. The creature's jointed mouth hinged open, and soon everything was gone—the humming stopped and the lights faded out. She was standing in the little chamber. Ir Yth lay motionless at her feet. Sirru was nowhere to be seen. A little trickle of oily blood leaked from Ir Yth's ear.

Jaya knelt beside the
raksasa
. She had no idea where Ir Yth's heart was to be found. The human pulse points of wrist and throat were still. Gingerly, she slid a hand beneath the
raksasa %
robe and found surprisingly soft, cool skin between serrated ridges. The chest rose and fell; Ir Yth was still breath-ing, then. Jaya wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or not. The
raksasa
was scorched down her right side, as though she had been licked with a long fiery tongue.

The opposite wall began to open, and Sirru stepped through, carrying something in both hands. It was wet and round, trailing filaments, and was a pale, watery green traced with scarlet veins. It looked organic, but Jaya had no idea what it might be. At her feet, Ir Yth stirred, then sat up.

What happened
? Her voice echoed wanly in Jaya's mind. Jaya was half inclined to hit her again, but the memory of that lightning bolt of pain shooting up her arm dissuaded her. They'd have to deal with Ir Yth later. In the meantime, it seemed that they had prevented the
raksasa
from doing what-ever she had been trying to accomplish.

Ir Yth struggled to her feet. /
am burned! The communica-tion plate must have malfunctioned
.

Thinking quickly, Jaya replied, "I think that must be what happened. We went to find you, then just as we entered the chamber there was a flash, and you were knocked uncon-scious." Doing her best to sound concerned, she added, "Are you all right? Can you walk?"

Everything is going wrong! We have to leave.

For once, Jaya found herself in agreement with the
raksasa
.

"Come on." She gestured to Sirru. They made their way back up through the rotting ship, and at last came out onto the high corridor overlooking Earth. Bharat basked in sunlight; clouds swirled in milky patterns above the Himalayas.

Sirru set the thing in his arms down carefully and ran a hand along the wall. Filaments started to move outward, creeping down to the floor and exuding a chain of tiny hooks, which locked into the shriveling flesh of the ship. The wall bulged out. Jaya watched with fascinated revulsion as a pulse traveled die length of one of the filaments. Some kind of para-site, perhaps? It smelled green and ripe. Its surface was cov-ered with a satiny coating of moisture, which glistened in the light. It was growing, expanding as she watched, like a water-filled balloon. Sirru touched the pod and it split. Then he picked up the small pod, which was still resting on the floor, and placed it in the folds of his robe.

He motioned to Jaya, who suddenly found herself balking. The thought that the ship might be about to take revenge for its injury came to her. It would stifle her, she thought, extend-ing its fibers down her throat and into her lungs. She flailed Sirru's hand away before she could stop herself. There was the usual rush of reassurance, but this time Jaya wasn't buying it; adrenaline was forcing it away. And the ship said inside her head,
I am dying
.

It spoke with a small, clear voice like a child's. Ir Yth looked wildly upward. Sirru grasped her shoulder, but Jaya had ceased to pay any attention to him—she was listening to the ship. It was not its time to die, it told her, but nonetheless it was content. It had lived for a very long time, ever since it was grown from a fractional bundle of cells, millions of years ago, the child of some unknown
desqusai
and another ship. It showed her how it sped out into the darkness of space until it came to a small blue world and split its pods, releasing the spores that bore carefully engineered skeins of genetic mate-rial into the DNA of existing life.

And men it drifted off to watch, dreaming, over its multitude of evolving children. Its sleep had been interrupted only by the sporadic visits of the irRas, who were keeping an occasional eye on Earth's progress. The ship was Jaya's ancestor, just as it was the ancestor of everyone on Earth; just as she and it would be die ancestors of some other world, if their seed survived. This knowledge, and the realization of a violation that she could not properly understand, was too vast for Jaya to grasp. She was left breathless and disbelieving, and the ship plucked her feelings from her with the last of its strength until she was empty.

In its fading voice it told Jaya that she had done nothing to hurt it; it was not her doing, but that of the
raksasa
. So Sirru was right! At least they knew. The ship was sorry that it had taken genetic material from her, but this was the way of things. The voice inside her head was devoid of malice. It downloaded information into her waiting brain. And it told her where Sirru and Ir Yth had come from: somewhere hot, and incredibly ancient, and unimaginably far away.

The smell of green decay was growing, as though they were in an overheated hothouse. A thick, sticky fluid began to leak from the walls. Sirru's quills rose and rattled; looking up, Jaya saw that he had understood. He radiated dismay. He placed his palm down flat on the floor. An abstracted expression appeared on his face. He muttered something before hauling Jaya to her feet and pushing her none too gently in the direction of the pod. Then he strode across and grabbed hold of the
raksasa
. Ir Yth emitted a sound like a distressed insect. Sirru grasped her firmly by an arm and dragged her after Jaya. He pointed:
in
.

Jaya was flooded with fright and relief, and a sudden over-whelming longing for home. She forced herself to step into the pod. The
raksasa
was crammed in beside her, chittering with distaste. The mesh felt viscous and moved sluggishly. Jaya shuf-fled backward as Sirru joined them, so that she was awkwardly sandwiched between two inhuman bodies. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calmness and suddenly missing the suppressing presence of the ship. The pod popped shut. There was a lurch, then a sickening sensation of acceleration as the pod was, presumably, expelled. If it had not been for the mesh that had clamped itself tightly around her lips and tongue, Jaya would have been screaming.

Unconsciousness came with mer-ciful speed.

ALLIE S

AND

ENEMIES

i

IxhaiKurriye/ Kasasatra

JZfi
There was a storm sweeping in from the north when sa^tlAnarres finally left the Core Third Marginals. She
Mil
watched from the high ledge of the wall as the control sys-
¦yf
tems seized the storm, drawing it harmlessly out over the jP ocean. Lightning flashed along the system's edge; she Bagaa tasted rain on the wind. Anarres drew the hood of her robe more closely across her face and waited for the barge. It was not long in coming. She stepped quickly over the edge of the ledge, then settled herself as the barge drifted down through the restless air. The pilot, one of the small and in-significant castes, watched her with bright eyes.

"Where to?"

"Khattuye dock."

The pilot's many hands fluttered over the controls of the barge, which shuddered as it was touched.

Anarres tried to quell the sudden queasiness in her stomach, telling herself that it was no more than the distant storm. This had to be done; she had gone too deep to pull back now. The voice of EsRavesh echoed in her mind:
Status remapping is not difficult. If one has the right connections, of course.

You are very fortunate
,

apsara,
in having such connections…And all you have to do is a small favor for me
.

Anarres swallowed hard against the thought of EsRavesh's stumpy little hands traveling down her spine.

She thought: /
should have %ept to my own caste and ignored EsRavesh's perverted desires
, but it was much too late for that now. The members of her clan were depending on her; if her own status rose, theirs would too, and she had already made some dangerous prom-ises. Anarres closed her eyes and willed away regret.

By the time they reached Khattuye dock, the skies were clear once more. Anarres left the barge, tipping the already-besotted pilot with a flicker of pheromone-drenched finger-tips, and passed swiftly through the gateways without hindrance. The signatures which EsRavesh had supplied made it an easy passage; the gatekeepers were lower caste and no match for one marked by the
'thaithoi
. The raft was half empty, with only a few outworkers settled into their mesh. Anarres stripped down to her scale and lay sinuously back. She could feel the virus under her tongue, like a small hot ball. She knew she was imagining it, but it felt so real.