“I might have a clue,” Amfi said. “Our captive Next is named Jhailing Jim and says he is one of many copies of himself, although they are all unique now. I think there are more of him here.”
“I met a Jhailing Jim on Satwa station.”
“Way out there?” She fell silent, staring at the flames.
“Yes,” he said. “It wore a robot suit that changed shape as if it were water. It amazed me.”
“It wasn’t the robot itself?”
“I believe the older, more powerful Next can move between bodies. Maybe they don’t need bodies at all.”
She looked contemplative. “Thank you. I’ll take that information back. There’s another thing you need to know. While they have been killing, they seem to have done it to protect what they came for. Everyone they killed discovered them.”
“That would apply to Freida and her family.”
“Yes,” she said. “They haven’t killed anyone who didn’t know about them, as far as we can tell. They don’t appear to kill for sport. Nor have they killed anyone new since the announcement by the Next, even though we killed one of them.”
“Have you learned what they want from us?”
“They’re mapping our plants and animals and even our people. They’re looking for some specific things. We believe they want minerals, although only a few of the ones they seem to be hunting are used in our own technology.”
He moved his feet back away from the heat of the fire.
She ate a handful of nuts. “Our captive Next would like to meet you. He asked that you bring the other two with you.”
“What other two?”
“The two you brought with you. Jhailing Jim saw them on one of the security cameras at the station.”
Which implied that her magical network existed. “We’ll go in the morning.”
She took his hand, touching him for the first time. “Thank you.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
NONA
Nona jerked awake, suddenly aware that she had fallen fast asleep with her head on Dr. Nevening’s shoulder. The room’s day lights were brightening, illuminating figures sprawled across the floor.
The guards were still there. One of them looked at her curiously as she stood and started to pick her way through the sleepers to use the privy. The Historian stirred briefly and then curled into a fetal position, taking up all of the floor space she had shared with him, and snoring lightly.
Her stomach felt empty and skinny, pasted to her back. There had been nothing new except water set out since the meager meal last night.
Satyana sat in a corner, brushing out her hair in long strokes. She looked unusually rumpled. Nona tiptoed to her and folded onto the floor, hugging her knees to her chin. “How are you?”
“We have to get out of here,” Satyana whispered.
Nona eyed the guards. “That’s going to be hard.”
“We also need to find a news source. I want to know what’s happening out there.”
“Me too. I hope it’s not too bad. Last night, Dr. Nevening said major technology changes often destroy forms of government. He told me we’ve been the same for so long that we’ve probably forgotten.”
Satyana smiled faintly. “That’s why we have a Historian on the Council.”
“He’s really worried.”
Noises started up in the kitchen, robot wheels rolling along the floor. Small clanks came from the room. “I guess we all get up now,” Nona said. “Maybe we’ll learn something.”
Around the room, sleepers stirred. The Historian sat up and rubbed at his eyes. Leesha slept in long form on the couch, her bare feet dangling over the edge. Two of her toes were half-covered in gold rings.
Robots rolled a tray of water and stim into the room.
Satyana asked one, “Will there be food?”
It replied in an annoyingly upbeat voice. “There have been no deliveries.”
That couldn’t be a good sign. Nona chose two glasses of stim and brought them to Satyana, who was eyeing the single door and the two guards by it. “I don’t see a good weapon,” she mused. “Although maybe we could use Leesha’s shoes.”
“We can’t fight,” Nona hissed. “It would risk the Council.”
“We can’t do nothing.”
Nona sipped her stim, feeling it sour her empty stomach. She didn’t like the bitter, spiced flavor nearly as much as chocolate stim. “The Council isn’t going to do anything, are they?”
“If we had someone to negotiate with, I’d bet on them. But not in a physical fight.”
That made sense.
The door opened. Two small drones zipped through it and spun in the air, making slightly fizzy noises. The guards fell, slumping. Stunned.
They were rescued.
Nona started to stand up.
Satyana put a hand on her arm and kept her down.
“What?” Nona whispered. “That has to be the military. Stun drones are illegal for anyone else.”
“Don’t be naive.”
Five blue-uniformed figures walked slowly into the room, checking corners and poking their heads into the kitchen. Their white and gold insignia confirmed Nona’s suspicions. Diamond Deep military.
Two assistants rushed over and started thanking their rescuers. The Biologist hesitated and then joined them. “Thank you.”
The first person who’d come through the door—a man in a safety suit with an impressive array of hand weapons—used a loud voice to command them. “Gather your things.”
Nona breathed out a long sigh of relief and stood up, offering Satyana a hand.
She was surprised at the look Satyana gave her, part exasperation and part warning. Well, she could worry about that after they were someplace dry and warm and someone gave them a plate of food.
Even the Economist was up and moving. Leesha slid her feet into her shoes and pulled the pins out of her hair, fluffing it with her fingers. Three jewels fell out. She knelt and gathered them up carefully and stuck them in a pocket. Only then did she stand all the way up and slowly, regally, look down her nose at the leader. “Who are you? What’s happening? We need to know.”
“I’m General Finlay. We came to save you from the Shining Revolution.” He glanced briefly down at the stunned former guards. He peered around the room. “Where’s the Architect?”
“Don’t you have him?” Leesha asked.
General Finlay’s features hardened. “No.”
Satyana asked, “If you don’t have the Architect, do you at least have news?”
The general looked irritated, but he gave them some crumbs. “We’re driving the Shining Revolution back from the Deep to their ships. Forward, there’s a huge peace protest that has managed to kill seven people while the actual invaders are only up to six on body count. No one seems to be fighting aft of here, so we’re taking you there.”
Leesha took a step closer to the general. “We need to hold our formal meeting. The Next gave us a timeline.”
“I know,” the general said. “We have the Headmistress.”
“Who we don’t actually need for the meeting,” Satyana pointed out. “She gave up her vote.”
The general ignored her. “We’ll be going aft to a military training bubble. It has good communications, and it’s near our ships in case the fighting gets worse.”
The Futurist, Hiram, spoke up. “Has there been any more word from the Next? Have any of the other stations made their decision?”
“No and no.”
Dr. Nevening hadn’t budged. He stood right in front of the general, and in a very serious voice, he said, “If you have the Headmistress, is she in charge right now?”
“We’re in military lockdown until the fighting stops.”
Nona suddenly understood the problem. If they accepted the safety of the military they gave up their power.
The Biologist stared at the Historian. “Do you have a better plan?”
Dr. Nevening looked uncomfortable. The others in the room all
looked ready to leave.
“We will leave in five minutes.” The general turned to one of his men. “Make sure the corridor is still clear.”
Nona asked him, “Have you heard anything about Chrystal?”
“The robot girl? The Shining Revolution has her.”
“Is she okay?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea.” He turned away, clearly not all that interested.
Most of the military in the room were men. Nona tugged on Satyana’s arm and headed for the bathroom. The Futurist was already in there, poking at her hair in the mirror. “How bad is it?” Nona whispered. “What happens if we refuse to go with them?”
The Economist looked at her as if she didn’t have a brain in her head. “They kill us.”
When Satyana didn’t contradict her, Nona bent over the sink and splashed cold water onto her cheeks.
They filed out of the room they had been held captive in, passing through a gauntlet of soldiers. Nona had never spent much time around the military, who had always seemed like a separate society that lived on the fringes of the real world, and didn’t matter much.
Of course, they might matter now.
Still, the men and women in neat uniforms with neatly carried weapons felt like better captors than the Shining Revolution.
They walked two by two. In a few places she saw evidence of fighting. Overturned desks in one office and a door to a living hab that looked like it had been kicked in. A painting of birds had been ripped from a wall and torn into three sad pieces.
They walked for so long that Nona’s feet hurt. They traveled between bubbles on shuttles once, which clearly made the military antsy. They stood looking out of the windows with weapons poised as if they could or would shoot from inside a shuttle into the vacuum of space.
Maybe the trains were down, or compromised.
At first, she walked beside Satyana, who kept silent and checked every doorway and corridor, although she never said what she was looking for. Then she walked next to Leesha, taking two steps for every single step the Economist took. Leesha muttered at all of the damage they saw, but wasn’t really good company. When she dropped back to walk by the Historian she felt better, as if their long talks and her sleeping on his shoulder had built a friendship between them.
After about half an hour, the group bunched in a wide space, spilling slowly into a common meeting room.
Food and water had been laid out on tables. All of the captives practically rushed the table. Nona couldn’t remember when water had tasted so good. There were crackers and protein spreads and dried nuts. Even after she ate, she felt hungry. She looked around for Satyana and found her talking with Leesha and Dr. Nevening.
The group looked so serious Nona felt like an interruption when she asked, “So what happens if we don’t get to decide? How will the Next interpret it?”
Dr. Nevening asked her, “What do you think will happen if the military gets to choose?”
It seemed obvious to her. “Won’t they want to fight?”
“Maybe,” Satyana said. “But they’re primarily a defensive force. They won’t have what they need. Not unless they join forces with the Shining or something.”
“Would they do that?” Nona asked. “Why? Because they both want to fight?”
“It’s funny to think how close we live to anarchy,” Dr. Nevening said. “I didn’t really understand that before.” He glanced meaningfully toward the Biologist, who was talking to the general. “It’s hard to tell who’s willing to join with whom in times like these.”
“Okay,” Nona said. “But I still want to know what happens if no one decides.”
Leesha turned the question around. “You’ve been around the Next far more than we have. What do you think they’ll do?”
“Kill something.”
“That seems to be everyone’s idea,” Leesha said. “You’d think space would be big enough to accommodate us all.”
Nona smiled. Maybe the Economist had just indicated how she would vote. If she got to vote at all. “Well, I don’t really know. I’ve been around Chrystal a lot. She would protect us. I’ve met the other, older Next. They aren’t us. We can’t know what they’ll do.” She glanced at the Futurist. “I guess that’s why they’re a wild card.”
Hiram nodded and Dr. Nevening smiled. “Well said.”
“Thanks.” After a few minutes, Nona wandered back toward the food table, which was down to scraps. She pocketed a few energy gels.
Satyana came up beside her, leaned in, and whispered low in her ear, “We’re going to try to get away.”
“Are you kidding?” Nona hissed back. “There are twenty of them.”
“And about that many of us. Besides, I don’t think they’ll kill the Councilors. Consider it calling their bluff. But for now say nothing.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
CHARLIE
Morning light spilled gold across Charlie’s bedspread and pooled on the floor. He contemplated cursing it after a restless night, but it was the first sunrise he’d seen in over a year so he stood up and stretched instead. He and Jean Paul had been up late talking. He’d expected to sleep like a baby on his first night home, but instead he had dreamed of shape-changing robots and high ships orbiting Lym.
An hour and a cup of stim later, he stood beside Cricket’s crate. The soft growl that slipped between her clenched teeth made him sad. He gave in against his better judgment as a trainer and knelt down, looking into her brown eyes. “I’ll be back in a few hours. I promise.”
Her expression implied that he might be both the most evil man in the world and the love of her life. “Sometimes,” he put a hand through the door and stroked her side, “sometimes you’re worse than a human.”
“And if you don’t step back she might find a way to make you stay,” Jean Paul commented from his position in the hallway behind the tongat. “For instance, she might bite the hand that feeds her.”
“Never.” Although a second glance at Cricket’s face did reveal a slightly snarly upper lip. Charlie latched the door and stood up. “I have to go.”
He met Jason, Yi, the repair-bot, and Amfi beside Charlie’s skimmer. Charlie was so busy feeling guilty about leaving Cricket contained that he almost tripped over the small repair-bot. Taking the thing everywhere was an inconvenience, but if he were built of technology no one else knew how to fix, he might want the strange little bot along as well. At least Jason and Yi did most of the bot-tending.
Before they boarded, Amfi stopped them all and said, “Do you promise to keep this location secret?”
Jason and Yi exchanged a glance. “No. But we promise not to tell anyone about it unless we need to for our safety, or for Charlie’s safety.”
Amfi looked briefly irritated, but she climbed into the skimmer.
Charlie piloted, following Amfi’s directions to a deep valley he’d mapped by satellite but never visited in person. By the time they arrived, it was nearly noon. They descended between steep walls covered in tall evergreens and bright red and gold deciduous trees. Almost every cliff spilled out long, thin waterfalls turned into brilliant ribbons by the full light of day. “It’s so beautiful,” Jason said.
Amfi nearly glowed with pride. “Welcome to the Ice Fall Valley.”
Charlie had forgotten again that they had never before been to Lym. “Fly them around a bit? Let them see?”
Amfi shook her head. “Another time.” She pointed to a flat meadow beside an old and abandoned-looking building that might once have been a resort. “Land there.”
Outside, the air smelled of late fall, and breathing it cooled his chest. To Charlie’s surprise, Amfi didn’t lead them into the building. Instead, she took them down a short rocky path that wound behind a waterfall. They stood behind it a moment, looking out, the spray misting their hair and eyelashes and clinging to their lips. Charlie looked for a waterfall rainbow to show the soulbots, but the sun was at the wrong angle.
Amfi stopped in front of a massive metal door, balancing on a plate on the floor. Light flashed briefly across her face. “Welcome home,” a human male voice said, and a male gleaner with a bald head and a long bushy grey beard let them in to a laser-cut vestibule with rock walls. He almost closed the door before the little repair-bot made it in. He looked nervous of it, but didn’t say anything.
They passed through a second matching door with equal security. The doors, and for that matter the light-based security system, smacked of old technology.
“What is this place?” Charlie asked. “Does anyone know it’s here?”
“We do.” Amfi nodded toward the man who had let them in. “This is Davis Chow. He found this place about twenty years ago. We’ve had a small colony living in these caves ever since. There’s old tech here, and much of it works. We haven’t even figured out what it’s all for yet. We think this might have been a secret installation where people or technologies were hidden. Maybe also stockpiles of some kind—there are two large rooms that are completely empty but have deep scuff marks all over the floor.”
Jason looked around the room in wonder. “How old do you think it is?”
Davis looked pleased with Jason for asking. “Older than the age of explosive creation.”
“Wow,” Jason said. “And it hasn’t been destroyed?”
“Not yet.”
They came off a main hallway into an unlocked room with straight-cut walls and high rock ceilings that looked natural. To Charlie’s surprise, the Jhailing Jim sat casually at a large table, poking at the air. It appeared to be playing a game of some kind that only it could see. Jason and Yi often played physical games as well. Something to ask about.
It looked more male than female and slightly more robot than human. Its body had just enough soft edges not to be too scary, although Charlie assessed it as stronger than Yi or Jason.
Charlie glanced at the others. Amfi appeared pleased with herself. Jason had no obvious reaction. Yi looked curious. Maybe even relieved.
The Jhailing looked over as they came in and said, “Welcome,” in a way that sounded as if he were welcoming them into his own living room. It irritated Charlie a little. He had expected to find it bound.
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