Valhai (The Ammonite Galaxy) (18 page)

IT WASN’T UNTIL two weeks later that Grace suddenly came up with the solution. She had been going over and over things in her mind, with no success. Then, in a dream, she was presented with the complete solution. Her unconscious had solved the conundrum for her.

She sprang out of bed and scuttled over to the back lift without bothering to change out of her sleeping robe.

“Arcan!”

“Grace?” The answer was instantaneous.

“You said you could move the bubbles anywhere within you?”

“I did.”

“Then, does that include the ortholifts, and the orthotubes?”

Arcan took his time, to consider the reply. “Anywhere where there is a direct connection,” he said cautiously. “There are some lifts which are not connected directly, but if I can follow connections to reach them, then yes, I think I could transport the bubbles.”

“Then I might just have the answer.”

“That is what I expected of you, Grace.” The lift shimmered slightly, showing its pleasure. “Your mind is small, but I have found it to be quite efficient.”

“It may not be exactly what you are looking for,” she told him cautiously.”

“And?”

“I was just thinking that, if you sent the bubbles along the orthotube that connects the ice-side ortholake, then you deposited them in whatever lowest potential you find there, you could retreat a little, and because it is in the ice zone, near the south pole, they would ice over within a few days, and so would be preserved forever.”

There was a considering silence. “I don’t like it very much,” said Arcan. “It means that I have to pull back from a small part of the area I occupy on the ice-side lake. But I suppose it would satisfy the conditions I gave you. Yes, we will do it.”

“Great. We will have a sort of ceremony . . . if you can transport Diva and I, that is. I could make some music, do a music square honour dance, read some Sacran funeral rites or something.”

“That is acceptable Grace, but I would also like you to make a sign which we can place over the mass grave. Then anybody who wants to can see what happened to these people, and who was responsible.”

“Diva and I will make one for you,” Grace agreed. “Are you sure you will be able to transport us that far?”

“Judge for yourself.” And Grace suddenly found herself encased in a mini-bubble of air inside the lift. Everything outside the bubble went cloudy and there was a sensation of change. The floor abruptly conformed to the curvature of the bubble, and she slid to her knees, though there was no other sensation of movement.

And then . . . Grace gave a gasp of amazement. She was way into the ice zone! All around her she could see only white capped hills, except for the ortholake her bubble was resting on. She looked up. The star patterns were at a slightly different angle, and there was no sign of Cian! The freezing temperatures had created a slight mist over the ortholake, a violet-greenish tint to it.

Grace spun around inside her protective bubble, her hands held out as if to touch the beautiful view. “Oh!”

Then the bubble was disintegrating around her, and her feet found flatness underneath. Again she stumbled, this time against the wall of the lift which had reappeared. She was back in the skyrise.

“Fantastic!” she told Arcan.

“Yes, I am much more . . . versatile . . . than I thought,” he said, pleased with himself. “It is good to know that I can transport you anywhere. Sometimes I have been worried about the danger I have been putting you under.”

“I feel safe with you,” Grace told him. “You frighten me some of the time. But I feel safe all the same.”

“Thank you Grace. I said you would come up with the solution. You are a special person.”

“I wish!” she retorted. “I am not genetically modified. I have never been much good at anything.”

“I had to wait thirty thousand years to begin to realize my potential.” Arcan signed slowly. “You just had to wait longer than other Sellites. Now, you have found a very special skill, something nobody else on Sell has, or could modify. Perhaps your people have been wrong all this time with their genetic modification.”

“Wrong?” The idea stupefied her.

“There is always something new under the sun,” he finished mildly. “I have proved that!”

The day they chose for the mass funeral was so special that Grace marked it in the 48
^th
floor significance book. She couldn’t openly say why it was marked, so she made do with “memorial service for those departed”. She knew what it meant, and she hoped that anybody else would simply think it referred to her father.

She and Diva presented themselves at the back lift dressed in dark robes. They wanted to show respect for the dead donors, too. Between them they dragged a heavy sign which Diva had made, beautifully inscribed in perfect manuscript lettering.

“It was one of the things I was very good at on Coriolis,” she said, as she caught Grace’s admiring stare. “That, and being superior!”

“You still are,” Grace stated bluntly. “Superior to me, anyway!”

“You shouldn’t underestimate yourself, Grace,” Diva said. “You don’t need to feel inferior to anybody, especially not me.”

“You are so . . .” Grace thought about it, “. . . so sophisticated. So sure of yourself. You hold yourself like a queen!”

“I am bad-tempered, used to having my own way, not as intelligent as even Six, and now I am sterile! Believe me; you don’t want to be me.”

“Does being sterile hurt all that much? I didn’t realize.”

“Didn’t realize? How on Almagest did you think I felt?”

Grace lowered her eyes. “I am sorry Diva, I suppose I hadn’t really given it much thought. See? That just goes to show that I am not a good person.”

Diva reached over and gave the Sellite girl a hug. “No, I was brought up not to show my feelings, so how were you to know? But, believe me, I feel things just as much as anybody else, whatever Six might say. It’s just that at home . . . what used to be home I mean, we . . . we never ever showed feelings. I am sorry.”

“Me too.”

They manhandled the sign into the lift and signaled to Arcan that it was ready. A bubble appeared out of the wall, enveloped the sign and it disappeared. The girls used the time they had to wait to contact Six.

“Big day today?” he greeted them.

“Aren’t you in class?” Grace asked.

“Yes, I am signing on the chair. Atheron is in mid exposition, he probably wouldn’t notice if I dropped dead out of boredom. He likes the sound of his own voice so much!”

“Don’t risk anything!” Diva instructed.

“Why, hello Diva! Your usual gentle touch I see.”

“Atheron hasn’t managed to teach you any manners then?”

“Oh very droll. Actually, he is very pleased with me at the moment. I am
such
a good student, you see.”

“Well done.” It was Grace’s turn to talk. “Wish you could come today.”

“Me too. But even Atheron might just notice if my orthobubble and I wafted totally away for a few hours. Unfortunately. Don’t think I wouldn’t like to swap places with Diva!”

“Can’t say I blame you!” Grace had never had a vocation as a student. She was not of the type who could recall many happy hours at school. “We will tell you all about it later. Have fun!”

“Sure. Can’t think what I did with my days before I discovered studying.” Then Six gave the sign to finish the communication. Atheron must have been paying more attention than he had thought.

“Are you ready?” Now it was Arcan, signing for them to put their masks on. They had decided it would be best to wear masks even when traveling inside the bubble. They would need them outside in the ice zone, and they didn’t want any mistakes once they were on their way.

Both girls slipped their masks on and checked the other three mask packs hanging around the waists of their bodywraps.

“Ready.” Diva confirmed after a glance at Grace. They waited until each was surrounded by a thin bubble and then sank to the floor. Grace had passed on the experience learned in her inaugural trip.

In a flash they found themselves in a new place, but it was hard to see where they were because they were surrounded on all sides by the orthogel. Diva held back a shudder. It reminded her of her time spent studying in the bubble with Atheron, and that wasn’t something she needed to remember! Grace turned around in her bubble until she could see Diva, and put one thumb up.

“I wish!” Diva sighed, but returned the gesture anyway.

The girls didn’t have long to wait. Within seconds a first bubble touched gently their two, and then they could see another, and another until there were bubbles extending as far as they could see in one direction. Grace swallowed. It was impossible not to see their gruesome contents. She closed her eyes, as bile came to her throat. It had been her ancestors who had ordered these donor apprentices killed! It was not a comfortable fact to know. She had never felt less like a Sellite.

Suddenly the bubble she was encased in receded, together with the rest of the lake covering the area. She and Diva were left squatting unprotected on the edge of the slope down to the uncovered lake basin, where the bodies of the apprentices were.

Grace teetered, and only just managed to save herself from falling down the slight slope which separated them from the cadavers. She pushed her face mask to her face, an unnecessary gesture because it was already tightly fastened. A shout from Diva drew her attention back to the dip in front of her.

The skeletons were toppling, colliding. Some of them had been lying on the beds, which had also disappeared into the orthogel, leaving the corpses to fall a metre or so. This small distance was enough to give them some momentum and the dead bodies tangled together, making a dull crashing noise. Bone on bone, and remnants of flesh on bone, and remnants of flesh on remnants of flesh. It was a horrible mixture, and both girls took a couple of involuntary steps back.

It didn’t last long, however. The two girls stood, heads bowed, as the skeletons finally settled into some kind of gruesome order. The sounds gave way to a frozen silence, which was even more frightening in its immensity.

The girls began to read out over the dip, the holy words of the Sacran funeral rite. It took them about a minute each to intone the most indispensable words. They had honed it down to a minimum because they had calculated that they had only a very short time bare planet in the ice zone before they froze to the ground. Then Grace performed the complicated Sell cross in the air, and whispered some of the secret Sell funeral words. She felt that her treasonous use of sacred Sell words in the presence of a non-Sellite might help to expiate the sins committed by her people on these Sacrans.

All that remained was to drag the sign into position, and fix it upright in front of the mass grave. It would be an icy and silent testament to these teenagers.

Even the short time it took to perform these deeds had exhausted both girls. They had to help each other as they staggered back from the edge of the dip. Already a white sheen had taken hold of the sign – the bodies would be under a thick layer of ice within a few hours. Arcan had assured them that the spot he had decided on would cover up to a minimum of three metres depth of ice, in time. It would be enough.

They stopped to change mask packs, and Grace found she couldn’t tie her new one into place; despite the bodywrap enveloping her she had lost all movement in her hands because of the cold. She felt the adrenalin punch into her heart, leaping panic.

Then a calming arm touched hers. Diva was gesticulating with her own mask. She hadn’t been able to fasten hers, either, but was holding it tight to her face with both wrists. Her eyes signaled desperately to Grace to do the same. At the same time she pushed the Sellite girl with her elbow, forcing her to continue stumbling towards the surface of the lake, about fifty metres ahead.

Together they managed to put ungainly, desperate foot after desperate foot, until they reached the sanctuary of the orthogel. It closed about them as they stumbled to safety. As soon as they were immersed, Arcan transported them back to the lift.

“Ghghhh!” coughed Diva, letting the now useless mask drop to the floor of the lift. “Hot water, quick!”

Grace was shaking all over. She was shivering so much she couldn’t even talk. They made their way to the bathing chambers and slowly let the water warm up around them. Neither of them tried to take their bodywrap off; they would have peeled off layers of skin if they had.

“Phew, that was close,” Grace managed to whisper, after about ten minutes.

“I had no idea it would be that cold, that fast,” agreed Diva. “Still, we’re all right. That is what counts.”

“And we did it!” Euphoria came surging up into Grace’s heart. It felt really good to have achieved something as big as that. They slapped their palms together in exultation.

“We did!” Diva smiled widely. “Wait till we tell Six. He will be so mad that he didn’t get to come with us!”

“Won’t he just!” Grace checked she had regained the use of all her limbs, and then began to get out of the pool. She needed to check in on her mother.