Authors: Sheri S. Tepper
‘When’s all this climaxin’ goin’ to take place?’
‘After the commission reconvenes to consider its findings, but before those findings are announced. While the observers are still here, needless to say. Probably tomorrow.’
‘It would’ve been nice to have a little more notice,’ the Captain said mildly. ‘Not complainin’, you understand. Just commentin’.’
‘Sorry, Captain. We’ve only known about it ourselves for the past day or two. We’ve acquired some unexpected allies. It was … well, to say the least, it was a surprise.’
‘You wouldn’t care to tell me….’
‘Can’t. Sworn to secrecy. You’ll know when it happens.’
‘You want to tell me where?’
‘You know where the commission members are housed, Captain?’
‘Justin fixed up an old BDL residential building out at the east edge of town.’
‘Right. I’d keep an eye on that if I were you.’
‘How can I help?’
‘Captain, it would be useful if there were a few troops on Jubal that Justin couldn’t get at for a while. Just in case some very important orders arrive, you know? Orders that replace the current chain of command? Since you were given the assignment of keeping order here in the city, you’re elected. Of course, your opinions have been noted, too, along the way.’
‘My big mouth,’ murmured the Captain.
‘Let’s say you let it be known where your sympathies lay. Well, as I said, it’d be a very good thing if there was a good-size body of men elsewhere. Elsewhere, but not too far away. Say, oh, an hour’s move, if possible. Needless to say, they should be ready for action on receipt of orders.’
‘Who – ah, who might they expect to get orders from?’
‘Someone very high up, Captain. Someone outranking the Colonel by a good bit.’
‘Sayin’ they’re my men, I’d be in the clear then?’
‘Oh, yes, Captain. You’ll be in the clear. Better than in the clear. Your cooperation with legitimate authority will be noted.’
‘If I can stay out of Colonel Lang’s way until then.’
‘Yes. There is that.’
‘I’m not sure enough of the men would back me in outright mutiny.’
‘I understand the problems.’
Verbold frowned, drumming his fingers on his desk as he considered the situation. ‘You know, Justin has his own security forces. BDL people. They’re spread all over, watchin’ everyone, runnin’ back to the BDL building carryin’ tales. I suppose you know that Justin doesn’t trust just anybody. That bunch is hard and mean, and I wouldn’t want to tangle with ’em.’
‘Hm. Damn. I’d forgotten that. Is there anything you could do to be sure they are where they won’t give you any trouble? Say at BDL headquarters.’
‘Ah.’ Captain Jines Verbold thought quietly for a time, stroking his chin. ‘If his security forces are in the building, then you’ve got all the maggots in one hole, don’t you? Well, I might call Justin and tell him to be sure his own men are guarding BDL because….’
‘Because you’ve had rumors of ah … an assassination attempt among … ah, covert Crystallites,’ suggested Rheme. ‘People who didn’t get rounded up when the others did. People he didn’t identify, because he didn’t buy them in the first place. Real converts. Real religious fanatics.’
‘Oh, yes. Covert Cystallites. Why, I’ve been hearing about this assassination business from covert Crystallites for some time. Yes. I must let Justin know. He’ll pull his men in and then I think I’ll take mine out on maneuvers tonight. Out, but not too far out.’
‘Do that,’ agreed Rheme, drily. ‘Just be sure I’ve got a way to reach you.’
During the night, a fog came up. When morning arrived, there were cottony mists hiding the environs of Splash One. At the building on the outskirts of the city, which had been remodeled for their use, members of the CHASE Commission and various observers from the PEC got out of bed, looked through their windows, and sighed. Many of them had not slept particularly well. There had been strange tremors in the night, shiverings and rollings. Not enough to panic anyone, but enough to rouse some and cause bad dreams in others.
On a usual morning breakfast would be served on the terrace. On a foggy morning like this, the somber dining room would probably be substituted, to no one’s satisfaction. In preparation for this event, and others that would follow, members washed themselves and cleaned their teeth, scratched themselves and engaged in other, moreindividual, wake-up practices. Some of the commission members considered what findings they would give. Others didn’t bother. In their cases, the findings had already been paid for and needed no consideration.
Among the ancillary personnel, and of those last to arrive on Jubal, was a tall, moustached gentleman of unmistakable military bearing, who openly carried PEC observer identification. There was another, rather different set of papers in a hidden compartment in his travelling case. This morning as part of his preparation for the day, this observer removed the papers from hiding and transferred them to a breast pocket, where they would be readily available. They bore, on the lower left-hand corner, the linked ellipses that were the sign of CHAIN.
Outside of town on a low hill, Tasmin got off his mule and helped Clarin down as well. Donatella had not yet arrived, but they expected her shortly.
‘Foggy,’ said Clarin.
‘He said it would be.’
‘Why do you call him he?’ she asked. ‘I mean, why do you call it he?’
‘I don’t know. It had a deep voice. Mostly. I guess that’s why.’
‘I guess that’s why I did, too. Then I got mad at myself for doing it.’
‘Do you think the new one is ready?’
‘He … it … the Black Tower said it would be.’
‘What’s its name?’
‘Nobody said. I guess we’ll ask it.’
‘Where’s Bondri?’ Tasmin asked.
‘Could be anywhere. Most likely is anywhere. He’ll come when we call him. He says.’
‘I kept thinking the viggies were going to reinstitute the taboo.’
‘Not after their Great Ones told them not to. According to Bondri, our whole tribe has become a debt of honor, Tasmin.’
‘Tribe?’
‘Tripsingers. Explorers. Us. We’re the good guys.’
‘The bad guys have all the guns, though.’ He was staring at the city before him, a thoughtful look on his face.
‘What are you thinking about?’
‘Donatella’s lover. Link. She told the giligees about him. They may be able to fix him.’
‘I wonder if the debt would extend that far.’
‘No. They sang about that for quite a while and decided it was a private matter. They have a word for private reproductive or affectional matters, but I’ve forgotten what it is. Anyhow, she’d have to pay for it.’
‘With what?’
‘Meat. Bantigons, I guess. They say they like bantigon. Hell, so do I.’
‘Look. The fog is burning off,’ she said.
They watched as the slow veils lifted. Donatella rode up beside them and joined the quiet scrutiny.
‘There it is,’ whispered Clarin.
‘Where?’
‘Over there. A kind of greenish shadow between us and the residence where the CHASE people are.’
‘God! It’s so big I didn’t even see it.’
‘With the top of it hidden that way, it looks like a huge new building, sort of.’
As the fog rose, the new Presence came clearly into view. Green as new grass in the dim light, growing more glowingly emerald as the mist burned away. Two hundred feet high, perhaps. A narrow tower of living crystal in which the light danced and played.
They didn’t grow it that fast!’
‘No, it’s been there, deep down. They pushed it up from underneath, according to Bondri.’ Donatella yawned, shaking her head.
‘Without an earthquake?’
‘According to Bondri, just a few shivers.’
‘Where did you see Bondri?’
‘He’s back there,’ Donatella gestured. ‘He says he’ll come out later on. Right now he and the troupe want to watch and sing, so they can remember it right!’
When it became obvious the fog was burning away, the manager of the hostelry told the dining room supervisor to serve breakfast on the terrace as usual. The supervisor set up the tables and the buffet, never lifting her eyes from the level of utensils and plates. The commission members and observers, when they arrived, sought hot drinks and companionship. Fog still lay mistily above them, a low ceiling of shifting veils that hid any distant view. It was several minutes before the gentleman of military bearing, who was somewhat older and less gregarious than the rest, said in a tone of astonishment, ‘Was that there yesterday?’
The others looked out and then up, seeing a bulky structure nearby, its top hidden in the fog. They continued to stare as the mists shifted away, perceiving the crystal tower for the first time. It wasn’t a building, as some of them had assumed when they had subconsciously noticed the bulk. It wasn’t a building, and it hadn’t been there the day before.
Some of the members, those who had been paid to bring in certain, predetermined findings, began to entertain horrible suspicions.
These suspicions were verified a moment later.
‘Good morning, members of the CHASE Commission and observers from the Planetary Exploitation Council,’ caroled the looming green tower in impeccably articulated harmonic fifths. ‘For your convenience, you may address me as Emerald Eminence. I am here to testify before you as to the sentience of the Presences on Jubal.’
Everyone, including the observers from the PEC, later agreed that by the time the viggies appeared on the terrace, in full chorus with an Urthian libretto, their obvious sentience was an anticlimax.
Within moments of the first appearance of the new Presence, Justin was aware of it. The residence provided for the CHASE Commission had been well equipped with eyes and ears. Justin was not one to leave anything to chance.
Now he stared at the small holostage on his desk in furious disbelief. The image of the Emerald Eminence appeared tiny and irrelevant and he heard the words coming from it with angry incredulity. Nothing had prepared him for this. No one had even suggested that this could happen. It was a trick! Had to be. It had to be explained to the commission members as a trick. Somehow it had to be explained away….
But he couldn’t wait on that! He picked up the com and punched for Colonel Lang.
‘Send the orders to destroy,’ he snarled.
‘The commission report isn’t in,’ the Colonel objected, testily. The Colonel had eyes and ears of his own.
‘You can send the orders to your troops and apologize later, telling them you thought the commission had reported, or you can refuse, in which case I have some papers to be transmitted to your superior officers within the hour. I think these papers would solve the Jut Massacre mystery to everyone’s satisfaction. No one has ever known how the assassins got off the Jut … until now.’
Colonel Lang’s voice cracked with rage. ‘You’d implicate yourself, Justin!’
‘You think I care? I’m going to hold this planet, Lang. I’m going to take it over. I’m going to get rid of all the roadblocks and take it for myself. There won’t be any sentience to question when I’m through with it, and I’ve got some friends in very high places. Now what are you going to do?’
There was only a moment’s reluctant silence. ‘I’ll send word to the troops.’
‘Fine. Do that.’
There was a disturbance somewhere in the building. Justin went to the door of his office and listened to the uproar from the reception area below. Raised voices, one screeching, the other bellowing. Honeypeach Thonks and Wuyllum. So, they had also seen the Presence speaking to the commission and had come for asylum. Justin showed his teeth. Let them. It might come to the point that any pair of hands that could recharge a rifle would be an asset.
Justin summoned his chief of security and barked half a dozen hasty orders. Thanks to Verbold’s timely warning about the assassination attempt, all the men were present. There were enough forces and weapons inside the walls to hold the BDL building against anything the planet had available to bring against him. And in addition to that, the building had a few nasty surprises built in, surprises that Justin had arranged for, even though he had never really thought he’d have to use them.
By the time he finished – first with the Presences and then with Jubal – any power that might have opposed him would be gone!
Partway up the vertical shaft that burrowed down six floors through the BDL building walls, Gretl Mechas leaned her head against the wall and listened. The bottom of the shaft was now within inches of the goal. The last few buckets full of shattered mud brick had been hauled up and poured away. Now she could hear great disturbance inside the building, much shouting, feet hammering to and fro. Taking a deep breath, she began to ascend the peg ladder to the servants’ quarters, almost a hundred feet above where Michael waited. It was time.
Since Jamieson and Clarin had first encountered them blocking the way west, the troopers had methodically worked their way farther into the ranges. Although led initially by Explorers, most groups had long since lost their guides. As the intent of the troops had become clear, the Explorers had vanished. This did not greatly disturb the officers, who had been well briefed by Colonel Lang, although it occasioned a mild spookiness among the ranks, inclining them to start at the least sound and move hastily away from anything that resembled a Presence.
‘You don’t understand,’ a young lieutenant remonstrated with his men. ‘When we get the orders, we’re going to blow them up. They won’t be able to do anything to us if they’re blown up!’
From time to time a shadowy, dusk-hidden figure might approach a nervous group to ask some such question as, ‘How much of them do you suppose is showing? Most of the Presence is underground. If we blow up the top, what’s the bottom part going to do?’
The shadowy figure would then drift away, leaving the enlisted men to pass this question on to their fellows. They didn’t know who had asked them – just ‘somebody.’ The officer, aware that hysteria had gone a bit further than consonant with discipline, tried to find the somebody, with no success, and the Tripsinger who had started the rumor moved back into the ranges to think up something else, equally troublesome.