Edge of Dark

by Brenda Cooper

  “I suppose that’s one way to force the issue,” Charlie said.

  “It’s a ship,” Manny emphasized. “Not a station to ground shuttle. A fucking starship.”

  Charlie fell silent. “I didn’t know that.”

  “It’s going to scare a lot of people and piss off the rest.”

  It had already pissed Manny off, a fact left unsaid but written on his face.

  Charlie nodded. “I’ll give you the short version. The gleaners have been seeing Next and Next robots for a long time. You know that.”

  What did Manny actually need to know? “They’ve been scouts. You do understand that the Next gave three locations the ability to decide for all of humanity, and that we aren’t on that list?”

  Manny took a drink of something that looked serious. “Yep. We’ll hear what they decided soon.”

  “When? And when are the Next coming?”

  “Did you really give them room for two cities. Cities?”

  “Didn’t you make me your ambassador?”

  “And the right to import their own humans who aren’t part of our society?” Manny rolled his eyes. “Deals usually require some form of approval.”

  “I agree. I’m bringing it to you.”

  Manny didn’t look appeased.

  “Don’t imagine I enjoyed this, or that I wanted to do it. But we aren’t powerful enough to keep the Next from landing here, and they didn’t give me much of a choice.” He couldn’t believe he was saying what he was saying. It felt like he had switched sides, and he hated it. “There’s someone important coming in with me—a gleaner who convinced the Next to negotiate. I followed up on what she started. We’re better off than we would be without her. Amfi. Do you know her?”

  “You let a gleaner help you give away parts of Lym?”

  “It’ll be all right. Maybe. It’s better than no deal. Better than war.” To his surprise, as much as he hated that he had given anything away to Jhailing, he found that he believed his words. Funny how which side of a conversation you were on made it feel different.

  “When will you be here? The Next are landing by late morning. They demanded you and the Next you’re bringing.”

  It would be a two-hour flight. “I’ll be there by an hour after dawn. We need to sleep.”

  Manny’s voice had grown more controlled, but Charlie could still hear the anger in it. “Can you send me the outline of the deal now? So I can think about how to explain it?”

  Charlie’s thoughts raced. There were so many opportunities for misinterpretation. “No. No. I need to be there.”

  Manny’s eyes narrowed. “Is it that bad?”

  “If this is the final deal, we’ve given up more territory than we wanted to, but they got less than they wanted. A lot less. I did the best I could.”

  “The Next think it’s binding.”

  “It’s better than being overrun,” Charlie said.

  “After you explain, will you turn it over to me to sell to people? Please.”

  “Oh yes.” He felt lighter already. “Absolutely.”

  Manny didn’t look any lighter at all, but he did look a little less angry than he had at the start of the call. Good enough. After a few logistics, Charlie hung up.

  Charlie gave himself five minutes of jotting notes on his slate to try and organize his thoughts before he returned to the group in the kitchen. He went to Jhailing. “I need to go get Cricket and feed her. Will you come along?”

  “What’s a Cricket?”

  Charlie smiled. “I’ll show you.” As soon as they got through the door, he said, “What Next ship is landing?”

  “The Sunward. We have permission now.”

  “Not until more than just me gives it to you!”

  Jhailing didn’t answer him.

  “Can you call your ship off for a while?”

  “No. That is beyond my authority.”

  Charlie doubted it. “Do you know what a tongat is?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Have you met one?”

  “No. They are wild predators.”

  “Yes. Mostly.” They rounded the corner to Cricket’s kennel and Charlie opened the door. She stood on her hind legs, put her one front paw on his shoulder, and licked his face. It was the best moment of the day so far, maybe the only truly happy moment. He leaned forward, balancing against her weight and ran his hands through her fur for a full two minutes before he commanded her to step down.

  Jhailing seemed quite interested in the relationship. He followed Charlie around asking questions, and Charlie felt more like an ambassador than he had the whole time he and Nona were flying to and from the Satwa. The Next, of course, had no contact at all with flesh and blood animals other than the occasional human. They’d read about them and observed them, and occasionally seen them on smuggler’s ships, but they had no real experience.

  As Charlie scooped Cricket’s dinner into her bowl, Jhailing spoke thoughtfully. “It’s possible that the relative differences in mental capabilities between you and Cricket is similar to that between humanity and the Next.”

  Charlie wanted to laugh, but he managed to hold that in, take three breaths, and say, “In some ways Cricket is smarter than I am.”

  “How do you mean that?”

  “Packs of tongat survive very well in the wild, and they stay together with perfect loyalty from birth to death.” He put Cricket’s food down for her. “That is, except for a few very specific ritual exchanges of females which keep breeding populations diverse. They almost never fight, although as high-status predators, if they need to kill, they do so expediently. We humans are far messier in our relationships.”

  “I see.” Jhailing said, although Charlie suspected he didn’t. But then Jhailing said, “Maybe we and the tongats are more alike than I thought.”

  Wow.

  After they watched Cricket finish wolfing down her food, Charlie asked Jhailing to check on Yi and Jason while he and Jean Paul took Cricket for a walk.

  They walked in silence through the dusk, Cricket a bit of ahead of them. “Will you stay here?” Charlie asked Jean Paul. “I don’t know how safe Manna Springs will be.”

  Jean Paul looked down at the ground. “For Cricket.”

  “For your safety, too. This could go sideways. This place is well-protected, and you have the other rangers. Besides, we may need to retreat if the city thinks I negotiated badly.”

  “Will they?” Jean Paul asked.

  “I don’t know.” Stars pricked the sky like bright jewels. A cold wind slapped at Charlie’s cheeks, carrying with it the earthy scents of fall forest.

  Jean Paul picked up a rock and sent it skipping across the edge of the landing pad. “You might need to be rescued.”

  “I might. Or you might. I feel like we’re in the middle of a windstorm. I wish we had more time. But the station’s decisions will be made by now, and we’ll be hearing soon. Jhailing might already know.”

  “Will Jason and Yi stay here?”

  “They’re coming with us.”

  Jean Paul frowned. “They’re killing house bots in there.”

  “I know. They know. They’ll pass at a distance in the right clothes. Besides, Jhailing expects them to go.” Poor things. “And they’re heartbroken. They’ll be better if we keep them busy.”

  “Be careful,” Jean Paul said. “I like it that you’re back home. It would be nice to keep it that way.”

  “Okay then.” Charlie clapped his friend on the shoulder, and then gave him a hug instead. He wondered briefly if the Next had simpler relationships. “I’ll be back.”

  That night, he broke one of his own rules and let Cricket sleep on the floor beside his bed.

  They piled out of the station in the dark of early morning, just as one edge of the sky had started to grey. Jason settled Amfi between himself and Yi. The gleaner took each of their hands and proceeded to ask them what Lym looked like from space.

  Jhailing strapped into the front seat beside Charlie. Jea
n Paul waved good-bye, Cricket at his side.

  “This is going to be hard,” Charlie told Jhailing.

  “Yes. But you are still the Ambassador for Lym.”

  “I’m not going to lie and tell them I made this all up in space.”

  “You can tell them you met me in space.”

  “Did I?” Charlie asked. “I thought that wasn’t how it works.”

  “Practically? No. Not really. I haven’t seen the instance of my self that you met on the Satwa for all of the many years I’ve been here.”

  Charlie flinched.

  “And we have had different experiences. Entirely different. If we meet, or get close enough and have enough bandwidth for it, we’ll swap some or all of our memories. That’s sharing. We may even—for a time—relive our memories with each other. That’s braiding. When we braid, we almost lose our individuality as we become immersed enough in each other to share the experience of an event—which is different than a memory of an event.”

  Charlie fell into contemplation as he guided the skimmer past the edge of the ranger base and over a set of small scarps until they were above rolling hills punctuated with dark ribbons of water.

  Light started kissing the tops of the mountains.

  When he and Nona had been side by side in bed on the Star Ghost the night after they watched the robots fly naked through the cargo bay, they had wondered what it must be like to live with no sex. Now he wondered if maybe the Next had a different way to be in each other’s skin, and what that felt like.

  Was it better? Less messy, anyway.

  The thought made him smile, although he rather liked messy human sex.

  As they passed out of the controlled flight zone around the station, he increased speed.

  Jhailing’s voice interrupted Charlie’s reverie. “We are separate beings, but all of us that started from the same copy of the same human are a single legal entity from the viewpoint of your laws. That’s why it is true that you met me on Satwa.”

  “You’re reaching,” Charlie said. “And I won’t lie to anyone. Including you.”

  “Thank you.”

  Charlie still worried. “Did the Diamond Deep announce a decision?”

  “They will help us.”

  “Have you heard anything about Nona?”

  Jhailing fell silent for a moment and then smiled. “She’s okay. She helped make the decision to help us.”

  Really? Charlie wondered how that had possibly happened.

  The light fell more fully on the grassy plains below, turning them a pale gold. The morning hunt should be beginning. Charlie flew low, looking closely. “There’s a pack of tongat surrounding a huge herd of hinta grazers down below and to the right.” He pointed.

  Jhailing’s gaze followed Charlie’s finger. “I see them.”

  “I’m pleased the Deep decided to help,” Charlie said, surprised at himself yet again. But then, there had only ever been two options for Lym. Fight or cooperate. The Next had been clear from the first moment that they were coming here. He still hated it; it felt like agreeing to haul rock because someone held a gun on you and asked you to please help.

  “But the Golden Starshine decided to fight, and we are uncertain whether or not humans can control groups like the Shining Revolution people that killed Chrystal.”

  Charlie watched the herds until they flew past them and he couldn’t see them anymore. “I don’t know if we can either, but I suppose we’ll have to try.”

  “You could always throw Vadim and his people out beyond the Ring.”

  “Even though I’m sure that’s a bad joke, I would like to do that to the particular group we just watched.”

  “I thought it was a very good joke,” Jhailing said.

  In the back, the conversation had gone from the view of Lym in space to what Yi and Jason thought of a sky.

  Charlie fell silent and tried to decide if Jhailing had just demonstrated a sense of humor.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

  NONA

  Nona woke to the smell of stim with no idea, at first, where she was. She had been dreaming of Charlie, and of sweet moments on the Star Ghost that went on and on, like living in a spiral of quiet lovemaking and long talks with no one else in the entire universe to interrupt them, and no responsibilities of any kind.

  Satyana’s voice whispered in her ear.

  “Hmmm . . . what?”

  “There’s work to do.”

  “What?” Her sleep had been so deep it still felt like she was climbing up a reality rope, as if she’d been in some virtual world for days and had to slowly feed herself back into her body. “What do I have to do now?”

  “Well, we all voted Help. Now we have to actually do that.”

  “They didn’t help Chrystal.”

  Satyana didn’t bother to respond.

  Nona sat up and took the stim, sipping at it slowly, savoring being in her own bed. She thought about Charlie. Would he think she had sold him out, or would he understand? “What time is it?”

  “Better ask what day it is. You slept a day and a half.”

  That startled her. “Wow.”

  “I thought you might need food. There’s breakfast in the other room.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You should clean up, first. We have company.”

  Satyana had reverted to her old self, giving Nona orders. “Really?”

  “The Historian wants to see you.” Satyana’s eyes sparkled.

  Nona had to admit that she would like to see Dr. Nevening. But probably not in the way her almost-awake self was beginning to intuit Satyana thought she should. She didn’t want his friendship for political gain. Nor did she want to date him. But what harm could come from a breakfast? “How long do I have?”

  “He’s already here.”

  She showered—quickly—even though she’d showered just before she went to bed. Nothing like being deprived of water for multiple days to build cravings for it. She pulled on comfortable blue pants and a white top and hurried toward the kitchen.

  Dr. Nevening had brought two of his assistants to breakfast. He greeted her warmly, his face open and a tiny bit expectant. He held out a hand and she took it, and he covered her hand with his other hand, gazing at her. “You were very brave.”

  “How?” she asked.

  “You spoke your heart yesterday. You barely looked nervous on stage, even though the whole Glittering watched. You were brave when we were captive and when we were rescued, both.”

  She blushed. “I didn’t think I was very brave about being captured.”

  “Sure you were.” He smiled, and turned to introduce his young assistants, Gray and Hatley.

  She mumbled pleasantries and filled her plate.

  To her relief, the good doctor Nevening let her finish half a plate of food before he spoke. “I’d like to record your memories about Chrystal while they’re fresh, to make a memorial to her for future Historians.”

  Oh. For moment she felt that he hadn’t, after all, come to see her. Then she realized he would need an excuse. She was both younger and far below him in the power structure. Her place on the stage had been temporary, and she probably wouldn’t ever return to it. “All right. There will be a lot to tell you. But first, while we eat, can I ask you a few questions?”

  “Of course.”

  His assistants looked intrigued.

  “What can you tell me about the history of other societies who were overrun by people with significantly more technology?”

  Satyana came closer and sat down at the table.

  The Historian leaned back in his chair. “This has not really happened since we moved to space. There are small instances of fights over resources like asteroids or ships, or to keep the Next beyond the Ring, but stations don’t attack each other. They are almost stationary when compared one to another, locked into orbits that have been calculated never to intersect. They have no need to fight over territory.”

  She waited until she finished her bread
, and said, “I understand.”

  “The history we have is old, from when we were all on Lym.” He took a sip of stim and nibbled on a berry. “In those cases, when one roving colony group or one city was overtaken by another, they were killed or assimilated. Most often, they were assimilated. They learned the new ways of the people who attacked them and subsumed them.”

  “Will that happen to us?”

  He fell silent a moment. “I suppose in a way that is what happened to Chrystal. But I don’t think it will happen to us, not if we stay here on the Deep. It probably will happen to the people who stay on Lym.”

  Charlie.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

  CHARLIE

  Just as Charlie, Amfi, and the robots crossed into the controlled airspace around Manna Springs, Manny called.

  Charlie raised a hand to silence the backseat, where Amfi was explaining gleaner social structures. She stopped midsentence and leaned a little forward, her face slightly distorted in the mirror that showed the backseat.

  Manny sounded breathless, his words leaving little space between them. “Can you land at the main spaceport? Use pad B.”

  Charlie frowned. “I thought we were coming into your place. Will Jason and Yi be safe?”

  “Yes.”

  Manny wouldn’t lie to him. Whether it was true or not, Manny believed he could keep them safe. “Is the Next ship there yet?”

  “No. But they asked that you greet them. All four of you. They say they want an open conversation that is broadcast for everyone. There’s better security at the spaceport than in town.”

  “I see. So how is it in town?”

  “Tense. I’m already at the spaceport. I’ll meet you.” He hung up abruptly, obviously beset with other worries. Manny had always been respected by the town, but times had been easy for his entire tenure. The crime rate on Lym had been low. There had been twelve cases of illegal hunting during Charlie’s most recent year of rangering, but only one case of assault, which had turned out to be about a planned illegal hunt.