“It’s more of a gentle reminder, like a crucifix reminds us of what Christ suffered, and why. It means I don’t suffer a lack
of faith in the work the research team does. I know we have to find the reason.”
“Why, though? Why do you and your father, and your grandfather, all consider it so important?”
“Because the Laymil were ordinary.” That got through to him, she saw. A frown crinkled his brow below the sticky strands of
tawny hair. “Oh, they have a substantially different body chemistry, and three sexes, and monster bodies, but their minds
worked along reasonably similar lines to ours. That makes them understandable. It also makes us dangerously similar. And because
they were at least equal to us, if not more advanced, technologically. Whatever it was they came up against is something that
one day we are also going to encounter. If we know what it is, we can prepare ourselves, maybe even defend ourselves. Provided
we have
some warning. That’s what Michael realized, his revelation. So you see, he never really did abandon his duty and commitment
to Kulu. It’s just that this was the only possible way he could hope to safeguard the Kingdom in the ultra-long-term. However
unconventional, it had to be done.”
“And is it being done? Is your precious team any closer to finding out what happened?”
“Not really. Sometimes I get afraid that we are too late, that too much has been lost. We know so much about the Laymil physically,
but so little about their culture. That’s why we nabbed your electronics. That much stored data might be the breakthrough
we need. We wouldn’t need much, just a pointer. There’s only two real options.”
“Which are?”
“They discovered something that made them do it. Their scientists uncovered some fundamental physical truth or law; or a priest
group stumbled across an unbearable theological revelation, that death cult you mentioned. The second option is even worse:
that something discovered them, something so fearsome that they felt racial death was a preferable alternative to submission.
If it was the second, then that menace is still out there, and it’s only a matter of time until we encounter it.”
“Which do you think it was?”
She squeezed her legs just that fraction tighter against him, welcoming the comfort his physical presence bestowed. As always
when she thought about it, the brooding seemed to sap a portion of her will. Racial pride aside, the Laymil were very advanced,
and strong… “I tend to think it was the second, an external threat. Mainly because of the question over the Laymil’s origin.
They didn’t evolve on any planet in this star system. Nor did they come from any local star. And from the spacecraft fragments
we’ve found we’re pretty sure they didn’t have our ZTT technology, which leaves a multi-generation interstellar ark as the
most likely option. But that’s the kind of ship you only use to colonize nearby stars, within fifteen or twenty light-years.
And in any case, why travel across interstellar space just to build habitats to live in? There’s no need to leave your original
star system if that’s all you’re going to do. No, I think they
came a very long way through ordinary space, for a very real reason. They were fleeing. Like the Tyrathca abandoned their
homeworld when its star blew up into a red super-giant.”
“But this nemesis still found them.”
“Yes.”
“Has anyone found remnants of an ark ship?”
“No. If the Laymil did travel to Mirchusko in a slower-than-light ship then they must have arrived around seven to eight thousand
years ago. To build up a population base of seventy thousand habitats from one, or even ten ships, would take at least three
thousand years. Apparently the Laymil didn’t have quite our fecundity when it comes to reproduction. Such an ark ship would
have been very old by the time it reached Mirchusko. It was probably abandoned. If it was in the same orbit as the habitats
when they were destroyed, then the secondary collisions would have broken it apart.”
“Pity.”
She bent over to kiss him, enjoying the way his hands tightened around her waist. The hazy blue-shadow images she had poached
from Tranquillity’s sensitive cells, the private cries she had eavesdropped through the affinity bond, had been borne out.
Joshua was the most dynamic lover she had ever known. Gentle and domineering; it was a lethal combination. If only he wasn’t
quite so ruthlessly mechanical about it. A little too much of his pleasure had come from seeing her lose all control. But
then that was Joshua, unwilling to share; the life he led—the endless casual sex offered by Dominique and her set, and the
false sense of independence incurred from scavenging—left him too hardened for that. Joshua didn’t trust people.
“That just leaves me,” he said. His breath was hot on her face. “Why me, Ione?”
“Because you’re not quite normal.”
“What?”
The intimacy shattered.
Ione tried not to laugh. “How many big strikes have you had this year, Joshua?”
“It’s been a reasonable year,” he said evasively.
“It’s been a stupendous year, Joshua. Counting the electronics stack, you found nine artefacts, which netted you a total of
over eight million fuseodollars. No other scavenger has ever earned that much in one year in the hundred and eighty years
since Tranquillity was germinated. In fact, no other scavenger has ever earned that much, period. I checked. Someone earned
six hundred thousand fuseodollars in 2532 for finding an intact Laymil corpse, and she retired straight away. You are either
amazingly
lucky, Joshua, or…” She trailed off, leaving the suggestion hanging tantalizingly in the air.
“Or what?” There was no humour in his tone.
“I think you are psychic.”
It was the flash of guilt which convinced her she was right. Later, she made Tranquillity replay the moment countless times,
the image from its optically sensitive cells in the mock-marble walls providing her a perfectly focused close up of the flattish
planes which made up his face. For a brief second after she said it, Joshua looked fearful and frightened. He rallied beautifully,
of course, sneering, laughing.
“Bollocks!” he cried.
“How do you explain it, then? Because believe me, it hasn’t gone unnoticed amongst your fellow scavengers, and I don’t just
mean Messrs Neeves and Sipika.”
“You said it: amazingly lucky. It’s sheer probability. If I went out into the Ruin Ring again, I wouldn’t find a single strike
for the next fifty years.”
She stroked a single finger along the smooth skin of his chin. He didn’t have any stubble, facial hair was another free fall
irritant geneering had disposed of. “Bet you would.”
He folded his arms behind his head and grinned up at her. “We’ll never know now, will we?”
“No.”
“And that’s what made me irresistible to you? My X-ray sight?”
“Sort of. It would be useful.”
“Just: useful?”
“Yes.”
“Why, what did you expect me to do for you?”
“Make me pregnant.”
This time the fright took longer to fade.
“What?”
He looked almost panic stricken.
“Make me pregnant. Psychic intuition would be a very useful trait for the next Lord of Ruin to have.”
“I’m not psychic,” he said petulantly.
“So you say. But even if you’re not, you would still make a more than satisfactory genetic donor to any child. And I do have
a paramount duty to provide the habitat with an heir.”
“Careful, you’re almost getting romantic.”
“You wouldn’t be tied down by any parental responsibilities, if that’s what bothers you. The zygote would be placed in zero-tau
until I’m reaching the end of my life. Tranquillity and the servitor housechimps will bring it up.”
“Fine way to treat a kid.”
She sat up straight, stretching, and ran her hands up her belly, toying with her breasts. You couldn’t be any more unfair
to a male, especially when he was naked and trapped below you. “Why? Do you think I turned out badly? Point to the flaw, Joshua.”
Joshua reddened. “Jesus.”
“Will you do it?” Ione picked up the nearly empty liquor bottle. “If I don’t turn you on, there is a clinic in the StAnne
starscraper which can perform an in-vitro fertilization.” She carefully let a single drop of Norfolk Tears fall onto her erect
nipple. It stayed there, glistening softly, and she moved the bottle to her other breast. “You just have to say no, Joshua.
Can you do that? Say no. Tell me you’ve had your fill of me. Go on.”
His mouth closed around her left breast, teeth biting almost painfully, and he started sucking.
What do you think?
Ione asked Tranquillity hours later, when Joshua had finally sated himself with her. He was sleeping on the bed, ripples
of aquamarine light played across him, filtering in through the window. High above the water, the axial light-tube was bringing
a bright dawn to the habitat’s parkland.
I think the blood supply to your brain got cut off when you were in the womb-analogue organ. The damage is obviously irreparable.
What’s wrong with him?
He lies continually, he sponges off his friends, he steals whenever he thinks it won’t be noticed, he has used stimulant programs
illegal on most Confederation worlds, he shows no respect to the girls he has sexual relations with, he even tried to avoid
paying his income tax last year, claiming repairs to his spacecraft were legitimate expenses.
But he found all those artefacts.
I admit that is somewhat puzzling.
Do you think he attacked Neeves and Sipika?
No. Joshua was not in the Ruin Ring when those other scavengers disappeared.
So he must be psychic.
I cannot logically refute the hypothesis. But I don’t believe it.
You, acting on a hunch!
Where you are concerned, I act on my feelings. Ione, you grew inside me, I nurtured you. How could I not feel for you?
She smiled dreamily at the ceiling.
Well, I do think he’s psychic. There’s certainly something different about him. He has this sort of radiance, it animates
him more than any other person I know.
I haven’t seen it.
It’s not something you can see.
Even assuming you are correct about him being psychic, why would your child retain the trait? It’s not exactly something sequenced
into any known gene.
Magic passes down through families the same way as red hair and green eyes.
This isn’t an argument I’m going to win, is it?
No. Sorry.
Very well. Would you like me to book you an appointment in the StAnne clinic’s administration processor?
What for?
An in-vitro fertilization.
No, the child will be conceived naturally. But I will need the clinic later to take the zygote out and prepare it for storage.
Is there a specific reason for doing it this way? In vitro would be much simpler.
Maybe, but Joshua really is superb in bed. It’ll be a lot more fun this way.
Humans!
The hot rain falling on Durringham had started shortly after daybreak on Wednesday; it was now noon on Thursday and there
had been no let-up. The satellite pictures showed there was at least another five hours’ worth of cloud waiting over the ocean.
Even the inhabitants, normally unperturbed by mere thunderstorms, had deserted the streets. Scummy water swirled round the
stone supports of raised wooden buildings, seeping up through the floorboards. More worryingly, there had been several mudslides
on the north-east side of the city. Durringham’s civic engineers (all eight of them) were alarmed that an avalanche effect
would sweep whole districts into the Juliffe.
Lalonde’s Governor, Colin Rexrew, received their datavised report phlegmatically. He couldn’t honestly say the prospect of
losing half of the capital was an idea which roused any great regret. Pity it wasn’t more.
At sixty years old he had reached the penultimate position in his chosen profession. Born in Earth’s O’Neill Halo, he had
started working for the astroengineering giant Miconia Industrial straight after university, qualifying with a degree in business
finance, then diversified into subsidiary management, a highly specialized profession, making sure semi-independent divisions
retained their corporate identity even though they were hundreds of light-years from Earth. The company’s widespread offices
meant he was shunted around the Confederation’s inhabited systems in three-year shifts, slowly building an impressive portfolio
of experience and qualifications, always putting his personal life second to the company.
Miconia Industrial had taken a ten per cent stake in the Lalonde Development Company, the third largest single investor. And
Colin Rexrew had been appointed Governor two years ago. He had another eight years of office to run, after which he’d be in
line for a seat on Miconia’s board. He would be sixty-eight by then, but some geneering in his heritage gave him a life expectancy
of around a hundred and twenty. At sixty-eight he would be just hitting his peak. With a successful governorship under his
belt, his chances of nabbing the board seat were good verging on excellent.
Although, as he now knew to his cost, success on Lalonde was a slippery concept to define. After twenty-five years of investment
by the LDC, Lalonde wasn’t even twenty per cent self-financing. He was beginning to think that if the planet was still here
in eight years’ time he would have accomplished the impossible.
His office took up the entire third storey of a dumper on the eastern edge of the city. The furniture itself was all made
by local carpenters from mayope wood, Lalonde’s one really useful resource. He had inherited it from his predecessor, and
it was a trifle sturdy for his taste. The thick bright jade carpet of kilian hair had come from Mulbekh, and the computer
systems were from Kulu. A glass-fronted drinks cabinet was well stocked, with a good third of the bottles in the chiller containing
local wines, which he was acquiring a palate for. Curving windows gave him a view out over the cultivated rural areas beyond
the suburb, a sight far more pleasing than the backward mundane city itself. But today even the neat white clapboard houses
were afflicted by the downpour, appearing dowdy and beleaguered, the usually green fields covered by vast pools of water.
Distressed animals crowded onto the island mounds, bleating pathetically.