Jay leaned against her friend, watching Ione put her sandals on and start back up the path to the tube station. There was
a slightly distracted expression on the woman’s face, that Jay knew meant she was busy talking to the habitat personality.
She didn’t like to dwell on the topic. More than likely, it would be the possessed again. That was all the adults talked about
these days, and it was never reassuring talk.
Haile’s arm twined around Jay’s, the tip stroking her gently.
You taste of sadness.
“I don’t think these horrible possessed will ever go away.”
They will. Humans are clever. You will find a way.
“I hope so. I do want Mummy back.”
Shall we build the castles of sand now?
“Yes!” Jay grinned enthusiastically and started splashing her way back up to the beach. They’d made the discovery together
that Haile with her tractamorphic arms was the universe’s best ever builder of sand castles. With Jay directing, they had
made some astonishing towers along the shoreline.
Haile emerged from the water in a small explosion of spray.
Betterness.You have happiness again.
“So do you. Ione promised to come back for the words.”
It is the best niceness when the three of us play together. She knows this really.
Jay giggled. “She turned purple when you said that. Good
job you didn’t say fuck to her.”
• • •
The
Oenone
, Ione reflected.
Why do I know that name? Atlantis. Oh, yes. And a certain interception in the Puerto de Santa Maria star system. We received
an intelligence update from the Confederation Navy last year.
Oh, bloody hell,
yes
.
Captain Syrinx wishes to talk to you.
Ione sat down in the tube carriage and began towelling her hair.
Of course.
The affinity contact broadened, allowing Syrinx to proffer her identity trait.
Captain,
Ione acknowledged.
I apologize for the haste, but please be advised a Confederation Navy squadron will start arriving in another nine minutes
and thirty seconds—mark.
I see. Is Tranquillity in danger?
No.
What then?
I am carrying the squadron’s commander, Admiral Meredith Saldana. He requests an interview at which he can explain our full
strategic situation to you.
Granted. Welcome to Tranquillity.
The captain faded from the affinity band.
She was curious about you,
Tranquillity said.
It was quite plain from her emotional content.
Everybody’s always curious about me.
She borrowed the habitat’s external senses to observe local space. They were in Mirchusko’s umbra, with Choisya and Falsia
hovering just above the gas giant’s crescent horizon. Apart from the flotilla of blackhawks on patrol around the habitat’s
shell, there was little spaceship activity. The
Oenone
was the first starship to arrive in seventy-six hours. Some MSVs and personnel commuters continued to glide between the counter-rotating
spaceport and Tranquillity’s bracelet of industrial stations, but they were running a much reduced flight schedule. A lone
dazzle-point of fusion flame was rising up past the drab grey loop of the Ruin Ring, an He3 tanker en route from the habitat’s
cloudscoop to the spaceport.
Program the squadron’s arrival into the SD platforms,
she said.
And warn the blackhawks, we don’t want any mistakes.
Naturally.
Meredith Saldana. That’s two family visits in less than a month.
I don’t think this is a family visit.
You’re probably right.
• • •
It was a suspicion which was proved unpleasantly correct soon after Syrinx and the admiral were shown into the audience chamber
of De Beauvoir Palace. As she listened to Meredith Saldana explain the proposed ambush of Capone’s fleet at Toi-Hoi a swarm
of ambiguous feelings lay siege to her mind.
I don’t want to involve us in front line campaigns,
she confided to Tranquillity.
To be pedantic, we’re in the campaign, not the front line itself. And the eradication of the Organization fleet is not a strategic
opportunity which can be overlooked.
No choice?
No choice.
I still think we’re too important for this.
But safe. The safest place in the Confederation, remember that.
We hope. I’d hate to put that to the test, right now.
I don’t see how it will. Not from this action. We will essentially be a supply and rendezvous base.
“Very well,” she told the admiral. “You have my permission to use Tranquillity for your task force’s port station. I’ll see
that you get all the He3 you need.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Meredith said.
“I’m slightly concerned by this flight restriction you wish to place on starships until the ambush, although I do appreciate
the logic behind it. I currently have over twenty blackhawks deploying sensor satellites around the orbit where the Laymil
home planet used to be. It’s extremely important research work. I’d hate to see it jeopardized.”
“They would only have to be recalled for three or four days at the most,” Syrinx said. “Our scheduling is very tight, here.
Surely a small delay wouldn’t effect the research too much?”
“I’ll recall them for now. But if you’re still here after a week, I’ll have to review the policy. As I said, this is part
of the effort to find an overall solution. That is not to be regarded lightly.”
“Believe me, we don’t, ma’am,” Meredith said.
She stared at him, trying to work out what was going on behind his blue eyes. But his answering stare offered no clue. “I
have to say, I find it ironic that Tranquillity has become so important to the Confederation and the Kingdom after all this
time,” she said.
“Ironic or pleasing? Chance has finally brought you the chance to vindicate your grandfather’s actions.”
There was no humour in his tone, which surprised her. She’d assumed he would be more sympathetic than Prince Noton. “You think
Grandfather Michael was wrong?”
“I think he was wrong to pursue such an unorthodox course.”
“Unorthodox to the family, perhaps. But I assure you it’s not chance which has brought us together. This whole situation will
prove how right he was to act on his foresight.”
“I wish you every success.”
“Thank you. And who knows, one day I might earn your approval, too.”
For the first time, he produced a grudging smile. “You don’t like losing arguments, do you, Cousin Ione?”
“I am a Saldana.”
“That much is painfully obvious.”
“As are you. I don’t think every Confederation admiral would have coped as well as you at Lalonde.”
“I did not cope well. I ensured my squadron survived; most of it, anyway.”
“A Confederation officer’s first duty is to follow orders. Second duty is to the crew. So I believe,” she said. “As your original
orders didn’t cover what you encountered, I’d say you did all right.”
“Lalonde was… difficult,” he said heavily.
“Yes. I know all about Lalonde from Joshua Calvert.”
Syrinx, who had been looking considerably ill at ease while the two Saldanas conducted their verbal fencing, glanced sharply
at Ione, her eyebrows raised in interest.
“Oh, yes,” Meredith reflected. “Lagrange Calvert. Who could forget him?”
“Is he here?” Syrinx asked. “This is his registered port.”
“He’s away at the moment, I’m afraid,” Ione told her. “But I’m expecting him back any day now.”
“Good.”
Ione couldn’t quite fathom the Edenist’s attitude.
Why do you think she’s interested in Joshua?
I have no idea. Unless she wants to punch him on the nose for Puerto de Santa Maria.
I doubt it. She’s an Edenist, they don’t do things like that. You don’t suppose she and Joshua… ?
I doubt it. She’s an Edenist, they have more taste.
• • •
Athene didn’t want him to come to the house. It would be too upsetting for the children, she explained. Though they both knew
it was she who was discomforted by the whole idea; keeping him away was a way of establishing a psychological barrier.
Instead, she chose one of the spaceport reception lounges in the habitat’s endcap. There was nobody else in the spacious room
when she arrived, not that there could be any mistake. The hulking figure was sitting on a deep settee in front of the long
window, watching service crews bustling around the voidhawks on their pedestals outside. It was a squadron assigned to assist
the Kulu Kingdom in the Mortonridge Liberation campaign, one of them would soon be transporting him to Ombey.
I missed this,
he said, not turning around,
I watched the voidhawks through the sensitive cells, of course, but I still miss this. The habitat perception doesn’t provide
any sense of urgency. And my emotions were not suppressed exactly, but less colourful, not so keenly felt. Do you know, I
think I’m actually becoming excited.
She walked over to the settee, an extraordinary sense of trepidation simmering in her mind. The figure stood, revealing its
true height, several centimetres taller than she. As with all Tranquillity serjeants, its exoskeleton was a faint ruddy colour,
although a good forty per cent of its body was covered in bright green medical nanonic packages. It held up both hands, and
turned them around, studying them intently, its eyes just visible at the back of their protective slits.
I must be quite a sight. They force-cloned all the organs separately, then stitched them together. Serjeants take fifteen
months to grow to full size usually; that would be far too long. So here we are, Frankenstein’s army, patched together and
rushed off the assembly line. The packages should have done their work before we reach Ombey.
Athene’s shoulders drooped, mirroring the dismay in her mind.
Oh, Sinon, what
have
you done?
What I had to. The serjeants must have some controlling consciousness. And seeing as how there were all us individual personalities
already available…
Yes, but not you!
Somebody has to volunteer.
I didn’t want you to be one.
I’m just a copy, my darling, and an edited down one at that. My real personality is still in the neural strata, suspended
for now. When I get back, or if this serjeant is destroyed, I’ll return to the multiplicity.
This is so wrong. You’ve had your life. It was a wonderful life, rich and exciting, and full of love. Transferring into the
multiplicity is our reward for living true to our culture, it should be like being a grandparent forever, a grandparent with
the largest family of relatives in the universe. You carry on loving, and you become part of something precious to all of
us.
She looked up at the hard mask that was its face, her own frail cheeks trembling.
You don’t come back. You just don’t. It’s not right, Sinon, it isn’t. Not for us, not for Edenists.
If we don’t help the Kingdom to liberate Mortonridge, there may not be any Edenists for very much longer.
No! I won’t accept that. I never have. I believe Laton if no one else does. I refuse to fear the beyond like some inadequate
Adamist.
It’s not the beyond we have to worry about, it’s those that have returned from it.
I was one of those who opposed this Mortonridge absurdity.
I know.
By committing ourselves to it, we’re no better than animals. Beasts lashing out; it’s filthy. Humans can be so much more.
But rarely are.
That’s what Edenism was supposed to be about, to lift us above this primitivism. All of us.
The serjeant put its arm out towards her, then withdrew it hurriedly. Shame leaked out into the affinity band.
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you to come. I see how much this hurts you. I just wanted to see you with my own eyes one
last time.
They’re not your own eyes; and you’re not even Sinon, not really. I think that’s what I hate most about this. It’s not just
Adamist religions the beyond undermines, it’s ruined the whole concept of transference. What’s the point? You are your soul,
if you are anything. The Kiint are right, simulacrum personalities are nothing more than a sophisticated library of memories.
In our case, the Kiint are wrong. The habitat personality has a soul. Our individual memories are the seeds of its consciousness.The
more there are of us in the multiplicity, the richer its existence and heritage becomes. Knowledge of the beyond hasn’t ruined
our culture. Edenism can adapt, it can learn and grow. Surmounting this time intact will be our triumph. And that’s what I’m
fighting for, to give us that physical chance. I know the Mortonridge Liberation is a fraud, we all do. But that doesn’t stop
it from being valid.
You’re going to kill people. However careful you are, however well intentioned you are, they will die.
Yes. I didn’t start this, and I won’t be the one who stops it. But I must play my part. To do nothing would be to sin by omission.
What I and the others do on Mortonridge might buy you enough time.
Me?
You, Consensus, the Adamist researchers, maybe even priests. All of you have to keep looking. The Kiint found a way to face
the beyond and survive. It’s here somewhere.