Authors: Gillian Andrews
“Yes, but he has adapted quickly and has been a major force in persuading the other Dessites to agree this alliance. Now they have agreed, their attitude has changed quite dramatically.”
“They have no plans to hurt us?”
“At the moment, they seem to have embraced this treaty. They feel that their future will be much more secure if the orthogel entity can transport them to a new system. All the travelers have been working full out to detect a suitable planet. Now that distance is not a factor, they have been given permission to travel far out into the arms of the galaxy.”
“The change of attitude is surprising.”
“Not when you think about it. The reason for their desperate race to explore the galaxy was the overcrowding in the homeworld. Now that they know they can transfer 50 billion of their population to another planet, they are quite happy to accept limited budding. I think, over time, they will realize that my suggestions should have been accepted long ago.”
“I wouldn’t expect too much from them.” The visitor still wasn’t convinced. “And they treat you well?”
“They are wary of me. They do not wish to befriend me, but they are beginning to respect me. They have seen that the chemicals work; already there has been a notable decrease in budding; the overall population is just beginning to fall. There is still a long way to go, however. They need to respect other lifeforms. They remain too convinced of their own superiority, but I am hopeful that gradually we shall see changes.”
The visitor flashed his approval. “Then Arcan’s plan is working well?”
“Yes. You may tell him so.” Exemphendiss hesitated. He wondered whether he should tell the visitor about the feeling he had had recently that some part of the collective mind was successfully being hidden from him. But then, it was only a sensation and he could well be mistaken. Perhaps he should say nothing. He would not wish to cause any misunderstandings over what were, after all, merely unproven suspicions.
“And the Ammonites? Have they tried to attack?” This was the first time that the visitor had contacted his ancestor since the Dessites’ agreement with Arcan, and he had no idea what had happened between the two species in that time.
Exemphendiss dismissed his vague doubts and concentrated on the visitor’s question. “They made an initial attempt, but there are not enough of them, despite their power, to overcome so many billions of Dessite minds. They were forced back fairly easily, and have not tried again. Although they are able to greatly enhance the Dessite abilities, they are not strong enough to destroy them. They make good allies for the Dessites, because of their ability to weaken the canths so much, but they would be crazy to launch a full-blown attack on the Dessite wall. It is formed of so many minds that even though the astrand is so dangerous, and could kill and main many of the Dessites, the Enarans would be overcome long before they were able to neutralize all of the mindwall.”
“Perhaps they have learned their lesson.”
“I doubt that, though it would be good if they had.”
“What about you, Exemphendiss? Are you content?”
“I have been given another chance to live. My ideas are now being implemented. And part of my genetic pool has been transformed into a category 1 being, an incorporeal. Why should I not be happy? I may even be allowed to bud in the future myself, which would mean that I could establish another genetic pool. I am extremely satisfied.”
The visitor scintillated, pleased, but felt obliged to put the record straight. “I am not a category 1 being. Not quite.”
“You are near enough for me.”
“I am happy that the Dessites are listening to you.”
“I don’t know what the council of guardians saw on Enara, but they came back with a different mindset.”
“Perhaps it was the actual fact of traveling across the galaxy so easily that convinced them.”
“Possibly. But they also saw how quickly Arcan dealt with the Enaran Ammonites. I think that made a forcible impression on them too.”
The visitor shimmered. “Arcan is quite extraordinary. It is indeed better to have him as an ally than as an enemy. I just didn’t expect the Dessites to see that so soon. Their acceptance of his conditions surprised me.”
“You have a powerful friend.”
“I have been very lucky. He saved my life.”
“Then you must always fight to preserve his.”
“I shall.”
“There is some other news. They think they have found a planet suitable for colonization.”
“That is the buzz of anticipation that I am picking up, then?”
“Yes. Every Dessite is aware that a suitable place may have been found. I have been asked to contact Arcan, through you, to see if he is in agreement with the colonization of this new planet.”
The visitor spun slightly. “I will tell him. Can you show me where it is?”
Exemphendiss opened his mind, privy as all of the Dessites were, to the details of the new planet. The visitor immediately transported to Valhai to share the news with Arcan, who examined the incoming mental images with interest.
Then the visitor flickered. “Arcan asks me to tell you that – even with just the information we can see from the Dessite minds – we can detect lifeforms already on this world.”
“The planet has just cooled sufficiently for the seas to form, and has only recently started to oxygenize. The council believes that there can be no objections to colonization by the Dessites.”
The visitor consulted again with Arcan. “If there are indigenous lifeforms Arcan will not permit colonization. He says that the terms of the treaty were to find a planet with no autochthonous fauna. He is irritated that the Dessites should propose a planet which so clearly does not meet these specifications. He thought the terms of the agreement were extremely clear.”
Exemphendiss couldn’t avoid allowing his mind to seep some of that historical news, and since he was in a meeting of the guardians, the members of the council were able to pick up on it. Despite being top security information, in principle limited only to the twelve guardians, it was somehow retransmitted all over the planet. A huge backwash of resentment ran through the whole of the homeworld, surprising the visitor in its intensity. He hoped that Arcan had not made a mistake in assuming that the Dessites would hold by the treaty. After all, they had not respected the pact they made with the Enarans for very long. He had the unfortunate sensation that Arcan might have underestimated the Dessite capacity for duplicity. He hoped that the orthogel entity wouldn’t live to regret his generosity, and that he himself would not have reason to be even more ashamed of the planet he had been born on. He was not optimistic about that.
SIX AND GRACE were side by side, in the tree house in the tallest tree by the Emerald Lake. Six had thought he would be on his own there, but had not counted on Grace’s persistence. She had pulled herself up the iron stakes on either side of the trunk with difficulty and reached the platform a few minutes earlier. After staring out at the starry sky for some minutes, Grace stirred.
“She will come, Six.”
He tried to smile. “I know. It is hard for her to spend very long away from Pictoria, but she will be here. I was just looking to see if …”
“… I know. I miss her too. I was thinking about the last trip we took, when we went to the bottomless pool.”
Six looked gratefully at her. “Yes. I can almost see her, making her canth dance on its toes. Can’t you?”
Tears filled Grace’s eyes. She nodded. This was still so hard. She rested one hand on his. Six stared down at it. There was hardly any scarring now. The skin across the amputations was the same colour as the rest of her hand. He patted it with his own, knowing that he still had a good friend.
“Does it hurt, Gracie? You never say anything.”
A faint look of discomfort crossed her face. “It didn’t use to,” she said quietly. “But lately … since Ledin and I were caught in space … well, yes, it has been bothering me a bit.”
“What does Vion say? Have you told him about it?”
She nodded. “He says it’s neuropathic pain, and he gave me some medicine. That works well, though of course I don’t like to take it.”
Six nodded. Grace had never been one to take many pills.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Why?”
“For not asking. I got a bit caught up in my own life. I should have asked you sooner.”
Grace punched him in the shoulder. “Shut up!”
Six grinned. “We are getting old.”
“Old? Speak for yourself; I’m still only 21! That isn’t old, by anybody’s standards.”
But Six had stopped listening. His eyes were searching the sky, watching for that small flash of light which would tell him Diva had come. Something inside him sagged as he realized that she wasn’t there. But it didn’t really matter. He knew that she would come, one day. Their time together burned in his memory, regardless of all the danger they had passed, as a time of fierce happiness. Despite everything that had happened, she had been there, with him. He had been able to touch her, feel her beside him. Now he was just waiting, like a shuttle in geostationary orbit – unable to go up or down, anchored in the same spot by gravity and momentum.
Grace looked to her right. She realized that Six had gone far away, deep within his own memories. He was no longer aware of her sitting beside him. Perhaps it would be kinder to leave him there. She had come to keep him company, but perhaps his vigil was one he had to undertake alone. She could feel that he wanted to do this unaccompanied. He would know, better than anyone, that it might take days or it might take years for Diva to recover. Perhaps this ritual of waiting in the tree house was one he needed to do, to make himself keep her close in his memory. Would she fade, otherwise?
Grace slipped out of the tree house and let herself slowly and quietly down through the warm night air to the ground. Then she stared across at the lake.
It shone silver in the dark sky, looking like a dream. Cian was reflected along a line which seemed to reach right from the distant planet to her eyes. The water was so still that the reflection was very nearly stationary. She could only hear the occasional plop in the distance, as a fish leapt – perhaps trying to see the moon?
With one last, upward look towards the tree house, she ducked along the path which led to the houses. She had children and a husband to feed. But she wished she could have done more for Six.
The stars moved in an arch across the sky and the night began to take on a slight chill as Cian slowly went over the horizon. Now Valhai was visible in the left hand part of the sky, but only as a low, glowing crescent.
The night owl began to make its regular, metallic, repetitive call. Every three seconds it sounded across the lake. ‘Innnnnnnn ………. innnnnnnn ………. innnnnnnn.’ The small Xianthan bird was calling for another to acknowledge its cry, calling for a partner to bring an end to solitude.
Six heard the owl start up his nightly warble, and smiled wryly. It had been repeating its monotonous call every night for the last six months. He felt a certain affinity with it. He hoped that tonight would be the night one of them would finally receive an answer.
SIX’S CHIN HAD dropped onto his chest and he was half asleep when he was woken up by a faint buzz of reproach in his right ear.
“Six, you are the limit. I come all this way, and here you are, doing a very good imitation of a log.”
He scrambled up, hitting his head on the ceiling in the confined quarters of the tree house and glaring at her accusingly, as if it were her fault. “Diva? You chose a fine time to reappear, I must say!”
She hovered beside him. “I couldn’t come before. I am sorry.”
“You are here now.”
“I came as soon as I could. You knew I would.” She gave the morphic equivalent of a sigh of pleasure. “It’s good to be back.”
“It is a beautiful night.”
They both stared out at the stars.
“It’s stunning,” she said. “I am glad I am here to see it with you.”
“It is tough to wait here, alone. I wish I could be a firemorph like you. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here without you.”
“But you aren’t alone; you are surrounded by people. Anyway, Raven needs you. All the other children need you too.”
“It is hard. I miss you. I feel incomplete without you here.”
“I think there may be a way to solve that.”
“How?”
“We could try a mindmerge. I think we would both be the same as always in a mental merge, wouldn’t we? That might help a little, don’t you think?”
Six’s heart gave a lurch. “I hadn’t thought of that. Yes, I suppose it might. Here? Now?”
Diva shimmered in the velvet obscurity of the night. “Why not?”
“Are you sure we will both be all right?”
The sphere rippled with amusement. “I am not going to eat you, if that is what you mean.”
He stiffened. “I just meant … well, we are different now.”
“That shouldn’t matter. —Don’t you remember that very first mindmerge? When the visitor tried to connect us all to the Dessites?”
“Yes. Of course. I was forgetting.” His face looked suddenly eager. “Then … can we?”
“We won’t know if we don’t try.” Diva moved away from his shoulder until she was directly in front of him. Then she pulsated slightly as she tried to establish a mental link with him.
Six closed his eyes. It was hard to make his own mind blank, especially knowing that Diva was hovering so close, but he concentrated on falling back into the darkness behind his eyes.
For a long time he felt nothing. Then, at last, he became aware of a light in front of him. It seemed to be beckoning him on, calling to him.
He was aware of a slight bump as his mind freed itself from his body and moved slowly out to meet the blue light.
Closer up, he could see the cobalt blue that represented Diva. It was exactly the same as it had been before she died. He could sense the leaping flames that characterized her, mixed in with the crisp sharpness of her personality. It was tantalizing to find her again, just as she had always been. He edged closer to her light.
Where their minds merged, golden flecks appeared in the cobalt, and a warm pattern of sunbeams played amidst the fire.
They twirled around each other in the mindmerge, and suddenly all the barriers of being in different forms disappeared. Six could sense Diva as she had always been, as the love of his life, as the only woman he could ever want. At that moment he realized that it was enough, that it would always be enough.