Authors: Gillian Andrews
Her mind couldn’t help but dwell on Diva, too. It would have been her 21
st
birthday this month. Bennel had told her Diva’s date of birth. It turned out that all the Coriolan companions knew the birthdates and deathdates of the leading meritocrats. He had seemed surprised they didn’t all know. Grace thought back to the day when they had got Diva out of the orthobubble, on Valhai, the day she had shown the Coriolan girl the 256
th
skyrise. She could remember asking her which floor she wanted to use, and Diva had said the 21
st
, because you became ‘of age’ on Coriolis when you were 21, and they gave you a big party.
Grace found herself frowning as she remembered that day – the day she had finally met Diva. The girl had grinned, had more or less told her that she never expected to live see her 21
st
birthday.
Tears sprang into her eyes. Because she hadn’t. She had gone a few months before it. It seemed awfully young to die. Though Petra had been much younger, of course.
Grace was frozen to the spot, her mind replaying the moment that Diva had told her about it, then following it to when the Coriolan girl had chosen the viewing platform for her sleeping quarters, so that she would be able to see the stars, to feel free. It felt such a long time ago, but it was still so clear in her mind. Death seemed so unfair. It took vibrant, unique people and carelessly eliminated them, erasing them between your own heartbeats. All you were left with were the memories, which became suddenly so heavy – so terribly, draggingly cheerless.
She stared into the distance for quite some minutes, until she became aware that Temar was squirming in her arms. He didn’t like her still sadness and was glaring up at her with baby indignation. She shouldn’t be carrying him: not now, not for so long. She shook her head at herself, placed him gently on the ground and led him back to the house. She too, needed to put aside those memories that came up and choked her throat. She had Temar and Ledin to take care of.
ONE MORNING SOON after that, after classes in the new faculty had started, Six found that he couldn’t concentrate. He was shuffling papers around on his desk, but the truth of the matter was that he was not actually managing to concentrate on anything. He stared at the schedule of classes which he was trying to finish, but it blurred as he did so.
Eventually, he got up and went over to the rexelene window, resting his hands against the panes. He couldn’t think why he was so restless; working was usually a solace. He could normally lose himself in the plans for the new university for hours at a time, something he was very grateful for. And now he had classes to prepare on top of the other work; he was the only person on Xiantha even partly qualified to teach higher physics. He had no excuse to be avoiding work.
He found himself staring out at the rich vegetation surrounding the house. He couldn’t see the three children, but their cries were clearly audible – they were playing near the canths, he could hear.
He leant slightly in towards the window, the morning light striking the deep shadows under his eyes, the angular planes which now jutted out of his face.
Then a shiver of awareness rippled through his spine, making all the hairs on his arms stand up. A tingle of recollection had overwhelmed him. For the panes of rexelene seemed to be pushing gently against his fingertips. And they were signing to him, signing in the language he and Diva had invented back on Valhai, all those years ago.
Six forgot to breathe. He didn’t dare move. He waited, frozen, for the movement to repeat itself, for the tiny push against his fingers to be noticeable.
At last, he allowed himself to take a long, ragged breath. He had deciphered the words. The touch was a slim caress, almost a whisper. “N-o-m-u-s …”
He gazed at his hands.
“S-i-x …”
Suddenly, he became galvanized into action. His fingers flashed, tapping out his heart onto the rexelene pane.
“Diva? DIVA! Is that you?”
“Y-e-s …” It was still only a faint touch, almost unnoticeable.
“Did it work? Are you a trimorph?”
“Y-e-s …” It was as if a feather were pushing against his finger.
“Come, then. Come here!”
“C-an’t … y-e-t …”
“Are you on Pictoria?”
“Ye-s …”
“Then I will come to you.” He was so excited that he pulled his hands away from the window pane, and then cursed himself. He stumbled back, and tapped more words onto the rexelene.
“Diva? I will come. DIVA?”
“C-o-m-e …” The word was so weak that it was almost imperceptible.
Six stood, waiting, but he had lost her. He pressed his hands against the cool pane until his fingers went white, but she had gone.
At last, he dropped his hands to his waist and ran out of his office, out of the house. Quick as a flash, he crossed the space between the two houses and threw open the door of Grace and Ledin’s home.
“SIX!” Grace leapt to her feet, one hand automatically going to her throat. She had been painting, he saw. There was a canvas set up in the family area. “Whatever is the matter?” Her face fell. “—Raven?”
He grabbed a hold of her and plucked her off the ground, twirling her around and around until she was dizzy, tears of happiness running down his cheeks.
She couldn’t help laughing. “Put me down! What is it? Six?”
He brushed one of the tears away, tried to speak, but couldn’t.
Grace’s eyes suddenly brightened. “Diva?” she whispered.
He nodded.
“Diva has come back?” Now her whole face lit up. “As a morphic?” He nodded, still unable to speak.
She gasped and covered her mouth with both hands.
They clutched at each other again and executed a sort of bear shuffle around the middle of the room.
“How do you know? Is she here? What did she say? Can I see her?” The questions tumbled out of her mouth.
Six shook his head. “She could only sign. She can’t get off Pictoria yet. Grace, we have to go to Pictoria!”
“Of course we do! Now!” Then Grace remembered Temar and paused.
Six read her mind and grinned, almost like his old self. “You can bring Temar. We can take all the children. Why not?”
Grace stared. “We can’t take all the children off to another planet just like that! Can we?”
He grabbed both of her hands. “We can do anything now! Oh, Grace, she is alive! She is back!”
Grace blinked. Tears were coming into her own eyes. “I am so happy for you. You have …” her chin worked, “… been so good, waiting for her. You deserve this so much.”
“Call Arcan! Tell him we have to go to Pictoria! Come on, Grace, I’m in a hurry!”
A faint buzzing made them both look up. The visitor was hovering above them.
Six gave a yell. “Visitor! Diva is alive!”
“Yes, I know. I came to tell you that.” The little sphere was crackling with colour. “We found her a short while ago. She is in the ortholiquid lake, on Pictoria. But how did you know?”
Six explained.
“She must have wanted to get in touch with you really badly. I can’t imagine how she managed to contact you over such a distance. She was only formed a few hours ago.”
“Is she all right?”
“She seems fine. But you know it will take her weeks, months even, to get used to her new shape.”
“I know. We are coming over to Pictoria later today. Go back. Take care of her. Tell her I will be there soon. Tell her I love her. Tell her I miss her. Tell her to—”
“I can’t remember all that! You will have to tell her yourself.”
“Still a bit short on the neurons, are you?”
“There is no need to be rude. I came to give you the good news. The twins have gone to Ar—”
A rushing sound interrupted him, and Arcan appeared in the small room, sparkling with many colours, flanked on each side by one of the twins.
“Six! Grace! Have you heard? Diva is a morphic! She just arrived out of the ortholiquid. The twins came over to tell me. Do you want to go? I thought you might like to go over and visit with her.”
Six took a deep breath. The air sang into his lungs and almost made him dizzy. “Of course we want to go, you great lump of jelly. I want to go
now
!”
Grace looked at him, realizing suddenly that, after so long, this first meeting ought to be something private between them. “You go; the children should stay here. Their time will come, but this is something you have to do alone.”
“You don’t want to come?”
“Of course I do, but I can’t climb down to the lake, and anyway, somebody is going to have to give your classes at the university, aren’t they?”
Six had forgotten all about his classes, all about the university.
“Oh, of course.” He looked sheepish. “Thank you, Grace. You are such a great friend.”
“Hmm. Not sure your students will think I’m so great. I never got as far as you in quantum theory, remember?”
“That’s all right. We have only just started the course. But what will you do with Temar, if you are giving classes?”
She grinned. “I will take him with me. They do say it is never too early to get an education, don’t they?”
Six gave her another hug. “I love you, Grace! And thank you for taking care of me.”
“That is what a real friend is for.” She kissed him on the cheek. “Say hello to Diva for me. Tell her … tell her I miss her. Tell her to come and visit soon.”
“I will have to take the new New Independence. Arcan can’t transport me directly over to Pictoria, because of the ortholiquid. It’s a pity Diva can’t see Raven, though. Perhaps I should take her?”
“I expect Diva will soon be able to come over here. And Raven is still very small. Think how hard it would be to get her down to the ortholiquid lake. Lannie will look after her while you are away.”
Tallen came running up, bursting into the house without ceremony. “Where is Fir—” he stopped short. “What is happening?”
Six explained about Diva, and a tiny wave of something crossed Tallen’s face before the Namuri put his shoulders back and looked pleased.
“That is very great news.”
Grace saw Six look sharply at the Namuri, and a quick understanding come to him. The Kwaidian moved towards the boy and squeezed his shoulder. Tallen gave a nod.
Grace sighed. Even such good news was a reminder to somebody that their own pain would never be over. She felt for the Namuri boy. It must seem as if they had all forgotten about Petra.
Tallen, she saw, had intercepted her thoughts. He gave a tiny shake of his head, as if to tell her that he had no wish to bring his own loss up again. Then he smiled at them all, looking eager. “You are to go to Pictoria? When do you leave?”
Chapter 16
SIX SCRAMBLED DOWN the shaft to the ortholiquid lake with very little respect for his own safety. His mind was trembling. As soon as he had stepped onto Pictoria he had an unbearable sense of anticipation; such an intense expectation was flooding his whole body that he hardly noticed his surroundings.
The trimorphs, who had been waiting for him at the top of the shaft, chattered warnings at him.
“You will fall if you keep up this speed, you know.”
“If you really want to see Diva, you should slow down.”
“Yeah, like I am going to take your advice,” retorted Six. “Now get out of my way. I am in a hurry.” He batted at the twins, who simply hovered just out of reach.
“There is a … Look out!” The twin spun. “… If you would listen to me a bit more, I might be able to help. I was about to tell you about that spider when you put your great big hand right on top of it.”
“It won’t bother anyone anymore.”
“It could have been a scorpion; then who would have been laughing?”
“All right, all right. I’m listening. How is Diva?”
“Fine. Still a bit shaky. But she can move around on her own now. You will see. At least, you will if you slow up a little.”
Six ducked as a bat swooped down at him. “Can’t you two do something useful and keep the local fauna off my back?” he complained.
The twins exchanged a flicker of lights. “We can,” said one of them. “But we can’t see why we should. They are only bats, after all.”
“They have very sharp teeth,” muttered Six, panting a little now from the exertion. He clutched tighter at the rope as another bat dive-bombed him. “
Ouch!
Do something will you? You know these things are vampire bats.”
He slipped, his hold on the rope loosening for a moment as another of the flying mammals sank its teeth into him. Then the trimorphs began to pulsate and moved to protect him. The bats immediately stopped their attacks on him.
“Thank you.”
“Diva would be angry with us if you fell.”
“Nice of you.”
“Yes, isn’t it?”
At last Six slid down the final couple of metres of the rope and arrived at the bottom of the first shaft. He quickly unfastened the rope and began to half-run, half slide down the scree slope which was the next part of the journey down into the depths of the pothole.
The twins were now joined by the visitor.
“Diva is fine,” he told Six. “She is just getting used to being a morphic. It is a bit of a change, you know.”
“I don’t.”
“No. You wouldn’t. Well, you are still just a transient, aren’t you?”
“What’s wrong with being a transient?”
“Nothing. Just that they seem a bit … inadequate.”
“You are the one who is inadequate. You lost out when they were dishing out the brains.”
“At least I am a morphic. I am not limited to a pair of legs, like you.”
That was true. Six suddenly realized that Diva would now not be limited to a pair of legs, either. It was a chilling realization. She might not even be interested in a transient like him, not now that she was practically immortal! The thought made him stop, and he gave a small shiver.