“Another wasted opportunity,” Stephanie said sadly. “They do mount up, don’t they.”
“Someone is coming from the town,” Choma announced. “They are walking towards our encampment.”
Stephanie automatically turned to look back over the mud prairie behind them. She couldn’t see anything moving.
“It is only five people,” Choma said. “They don’t appear hostile.” The serjeant continued to give them a commentary. A squad
was dispatched to intercept the newcomers, who claimed they were leaving Ekelund, disillusioned by the way things were in
the ruined town. The serjeants directed them to the headland group.
Stephanie watched them approach. She wasn’t surprised to see Delvan was with them. He was dressed in his full nineteen-hundreds
army officer regalia, a dark uniform of thick wool with plenty of scarlet, gold, and imperial purple-ribbons.
“Phallocentric military.” Rana sniffed disdainfully, and made a show of turning round to gaze out over the precipice.
Stephanie gestured to the newcomers to sit down. They all seemed apprehensive about the kind of reception they’d receive.
“You dudes had enough of her, huh?”
“Admirably put,” Delvan conceded. He turned a sleeping bag into a tartan-pattern blanket, and lounged across it. “She’s gone
completely batty. Mad with power, of course. Saw it enough times back in the Great War. Any spark of dissension is classed
as mutiny. I expect she’ll have us shot, if she ever sees us again. Quite literally.”
“So you deserted.”
“I’m sure she’ll see it that way, yes.”
“We believe we can keep her forces away,” Sinon said.
“Glad to hear it, old chap. Things were getting pretty dire back there. Ekelund and Soi Hon are still preparing for some kind
of conflict. She’s got the power, you see. Now there’s no beyond for souls to flee back into, the threat of discipline is
jolly effective. And of course she’s in charge of dishing the food out. A whole bunch of silly asses still believe in what
she’s doing. That’s all it ever takes, you know, one leader with a bunch of loyalists to enforce orders. Damn stupid.”
“What does she think is going to happen?” Stephanie asked.
“Not too sure about that. I don’t think she is, either. Soi Hon keeps sprouting on about how we are as one with the land,
and how you serjeant chaps are ruining our harmony. They’re egging each other on. Trying to convince the rest of those poor
sods over there that everything will be dandy once you’ve been thrown over the edge. Utter bilge. Any idiot can see this chunk
of land isn’t going to be the slightest use to anyone no matter who’s on it.”
“Only Annette could think that this island is worth fighting over.”
“I agree,” Delvan said. “Sheerest bloody folly. Seen it before. People become obsessed with one idea and can’t let go. Don’t
care how many die in the process. Well, I’m not going to help her. I made that mistake before. Never again.”
“Yo, man, welcome to decentville.” Cochrane held out a silver flask.
Delvan took a small nip, and smiled appreciatively. “Not bad.” He took a larger drink, and passed it on. “What exactly are
you all looking for out there?”
“We don’t know,” Sinon said. “But we’ll recognize it when we see it.”
______
Jay spent twenty minutes correcting and castigating the universal provider after breakfast that morning. It kept reab-sorbing
the dress and extruding a new one for her. The variations were small, but Jay was determined to get it right. Tracy had sat
in on the session for the first five minutes, then patted Jay lightly and said: “I think I’ll leave the pair of you to it,
sweetie.”
The design she wanted was simple enough. She’d seen it back in the arcology one day: a loose, pleated reddish skirt that came
down to the knee, and blended smoothly up into a square-cut neck top that was bright canary-yellow, the two colours interlocking
like opposing flames. It had looked wonderful on the shop mannequin two years ago, expensive and attractive. But when she
asked, her mother said no, they couldn’t afford it. After that, the dress had come to symbolise everything wrong with Earth.
She always knew what she wanted in life, but she could never get to it.
Tracy knocked on the bedroom door. “Haile will be here in a minute, poppet,” she called.
“Coming,” Jay yelled back. She glared at the globe floating over the wicker chair. “Go on, spit it out.”
The dress glided out through the purple surface. It still wasn’t right! Jay put her hands on her hips, and sighed in disgust
at the provider. “The skirt is still too long. I told you! You can’t have the hem level with the knee. That’s awful.”
“Sorry,” the provider murmured meekly.
“Well I’ll just have to wear it now. But you’re going to get it right when I come back this evening.”
She hurriedly pulled the dress on, wincing as it went over the bruise on her ribs (the edge of the surfboard had whacked her
hard when she fell off). Her shoes were totally wrong as well: white sneakers with a tread thick enough to belong on a jungle
boot. Blue socks, too. Sighing at her martyrdom one last time, she picked up the straw boater (at least the provider had got
that right) and perched it on her head. A quick check in the mirror above the sink to see just how bad the damage was. That
was when she saw Prince Dell lying on the bed. She screwed her face up, riddled with guilt. But she couldn’t take him with
her to Haile’s home planet. Just couldn’t. The whole flap over the dress was because she was the first human to go there.
She felt very strongly that she ought to look presentable. After all, she was kind of like an ambassador for her whole race.
She could imagine what her mother would say; carrying a scruffy old toy about with her simply wasn’t on.
“Jay!” Tracy called.
“Coming.” She burst through the door and scampered out onto the chalet’s little veranda. Tracy was standing beside the steps,
using a small brass can with a long spout to water one of the trailing geraniums. She gave the little girl a long look.
“Very nice, poppet. Well done, that was a good choice.”
“Thank you, Tracy.”
“Now just remember, you’re going to see lots of new things. Some of them are going to be quite astonishing, I’m sure. Please
try not to get too excitable.”
“I’ll be good. Really.”
“I’m sure you will.” Tracy kissed her lightly. “Now run along.”
Jay started down the steps, then stopped. “Tracy?”
“What is it?”
“How come you’ve never been to Riynine? Haile said it’s really important, one of their capital planets.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Too busy when that kind of sightseeing would have excited me. Now I’ve got the time, I can’t really be
bothered. Seen one technological miracle, seen them all.”
“It’s not too late,” Jay said generously.
“Maybe another day. Now run along, you’ll be late. And Jay, remember, if you want the toilet, just ask a provider. No one’s
going to be embarrassed or offended.”
“Yes, Tracy. Bye.” She pressed a hand on the top of her boater, and raced off across the sand to the ebony circle.
The old woman watched her go, over-large knuckles gripping the handle of the watering can too tightly. Bright sunlight caught
the moisture poised at the corner of her eyes. “Damn,” she whispered.
Haile materialized when Jay was still ten metres away from the circle. She whooped, and ran harder.
Friend Jay. It is a good morning.
“It’s a wonderful morning!” She came to a halt beside Haile, and flung an arm round the baby Kiint’s neck. “Haile! You grow
every day.”
Very much.
“How long till you get to adult size?”
Eight years. I will itch all that time.
“I’ll scratch you.”
You are my true friend. Shall we go?
“Yes!” She did a little jump, smiling delightedly. “Come on, come on!”
Blackness plucked both of them away.
The falling sensation didn’t bother Jay at all now. She just shut her eyes and held her breath. One of Haile’s appendages
was coiled comfortingly round her wrist.
Weight returned quickly. Her soles touched a solid floor, and her knees bent slightly to absorb the impact. Light was shining
on her closed eyelids.
We are here.
“I know.” She was suddenly nervous about opening her eyes.
I live there.
Haile’s tone was so eager Jay just had to look. The sun was low in the sky, still casting off its daybreak tint. Long shadows
flowed out behind them across the large ebony circle they’d arrived on. It was out in the open air, with the rumpled landscape
sweeping away for what seemed like a hundred kilometres or more to the horizon. Flat-cone mountains of pale rock, crinkled
with pale-purple gorges, rose regally out from the lavish mantle of blue-green vegetation; not strung out in a range as normal,
but spread out across the whole expanse of steppe. Large serpentine rivers and tributary streams threading through the vales
glinted silver in the fresh sunlight, while tissue-fine sheets of pearl-white mist wound around the lower slopes of the mountains.
The vista was nature at its most striking. Yet it wasn’t natural; this was what she imagined the inside of an Edenist habitat
would be like, but on an infinitely larger canvas. There was nothing ugly permitted here; designed geology ensured this world
would have bayous rather than dark, stagnant marshes, languid downs instead of lifeless lava fields.
That didn’t stop it from being truly lovely, though.
There were buildings nestled amid the contours; mainly Kiint domes of different sizes, but with some startlingly human-like
skyscraper towers mingled among them. There were also structures that looked more like sculptures than buildings: a bronze
spiral leading nowhere, emerald spheres clinging together like a cluster of soap bubbles. Each of the buildings was set by
itself; there were no roads, or even dirt tracks as far as she could see. Nevertheless, undeniably, she was in a city; one
that was conceived on a vaster, grander scale than anything the Confederation could ever achieve. A post-urban conquest of
the land.
“So where do you live?” she asked.
Haile’s tractamorphic arm uncoiled from her wrist and straightened out to point. The ebony circle was surrounded by a broad
meadow of glossy aquamarine grass-analogue bordered by clumps of trees. They at least looked like natural forests rather than
carefully composed parkland. Several different species were growing together, black octagonal leaves and yellow parasols competing
for light and space; long smooth boles, capped with a fuzzy ball of pink fern-fronds, had stabbed up from the tops of more
bushy varieties, resembling giant willow reeds.
A steel-blue dome was visible through the gaps in the trees half a kilometre away. It didn’t look much bigger than the ones
back in Tranquillity.
“That’s nice,” Jay said politely.
It has difference to my first home in the all around. The universal providers have eased life greatly here.
“I’m sure. So where are all your friends?”
Come. Vyano has been told about you. He would like to initiate greetings.
Jay gasped as she turned to follow the baby Kiint. There was a huge lake behind her, with what she assumed could only be the
castle of some magical Elf lord. Dozens of featureless, tapering white towers rose from its centre; the tallest spires were
those right at the centre of the clump, easily measuring over a kilometre high. Delicate single-span bridges wove their way
through the gaps between the towers, curving around each other without ever touching. As far as she could understand it, they
followed no pattern or logic; sometimes a tower would have as many as ten, all at different levels, while others had only
a couple. The whole edifice scintillated with brilliant red and gold flashes as the strengthening sunlight slithered slowly
across its quartz-like surface. It was as dignified as it was beautiful.
“What is that?” she asked as she hurried after Haile.
This is a Corpus locus, a place for knowledge to grow and ripen.
“You mean like a school?”
The baby Kiint hesitated.
Corpus says yes.
“Do you go to it?”
No. I am still receiving many primary educationals from the Corpus and my parents. First I must understand them fully. That
is a hardness. When I have understanding I can begin to expand my own thoughts.
“Oh, I get it. That’s like the way we do it, too. I have to receive a lot of didactic courses before I can go on to university.”
You will go to university?
“I suppose so. I don’t know how on Lalonde, though. There might be one in Durringham. Mummy will tell me when she comes back
and things get better.”
I hope for you.
They had reached the lake’s shore. Its water was very dark, even when Jay stood on the shaggy grass-analogue right at the
edge and peered over cautiously she couldn’t see the bottom. The surface reflected her image back at her. Then it started
to ripple slightly.
Haile was walking out towards the white towers. Jay paused for a moment to watch her friend. There was something not quite
right about the scene, something obvious which her mind couldn’t quite catch.
Haile was about ten meters from the shore when she realized Jay wasn’t following. She swung her head round to look at the
girl.
Vyano is in here. Do you not want to meet him?
Very slowly, Jay cleared her throat. “Haile, you’re walking on the water.”
The baby Kiint looked down at where her feet-pads were dinting the surface of the lake.
Yes. Query puzzlement. Why do you find wrongness?
“Because it’s water!” Jay shouted.
There is stability for those wishing to attend the locus. You will not fall in.
Jay glared at her friend, though intense curiosity was a strong temptation. Tracy’s warning rang clear in her mind. And Haile
would never trick her. She put a toe cautiously on the water. The dark surface bent ever so slightly as she began to apply
pressure, but her shoe couldn’t actually break the surface tension and get wet. She put even more weight on her foot, allowing
her whole sole to rest on the water. It supported her without any apparent strain.