“You are saying we did not build it? Then where did it come from?”
“Apparently, and I only have bits and pieces of this, it came from a derelict alien ship, but I don’t know where your guys found it—certainly somewhere here in your home star system, but it doesn’t matter.
“The thing is the Varoki didn’t invent the jump drive; they found it. But Varoki intellectual property covenants, the ones which formed the basis of the Cottohazz charter, cover invention, not found knowledge. So three hundred years ago Traak and Simkitik and Kagataan and those other two guys lied on the patent.”
“How can no one know this?” he asked.
“For the last three hundred years the patent-holding houses have shared and protected the secret, no matter how bitter and violent the competition between them became, claiming the internal workings of the drive were proprietary knowledge. All that time they have been trying to reverse-engineer the process that originally created the jump drive, and understand the workings of the life form that makes it go. And you know what they’ve come up with? Nothing.”
He stared at me for a while, then shook his head again. “I do not believe you. If this is true, where is your proof?”
“Oh, I don’t have any. There isn’t any, yet.” I laughed. “That’s probably all that kept me alive the last twenty-four hours. But here’s my other secret.”
I leaned forward and he did as well, almost involuntarily, and when our faces were close I spoke softly.
“I figured out how to prove it. It’s going to take some time, a lot of work, and it may get a little dangerous, but I’m going to do it. And when I’m done, there won’t be a big war, the Cottohazz will still be around, but the Varoki won’t be on top anymore.”
He licked his lips. “You would never do that. It will reduce the value of Tweezaa e-Traak’s inheritance.”
“She’ll survive, and my responsibility is her survival, not protecting her money. Besides, when she finds this out, I know exactly what she will want us to do. What did you say when we first met? That we had corrupted her? In my experience, she is incorruptible, because her decisions are guided by her courage. Yours are driven by your fears.”
He looked at me with eyes full of fear and hatred, all mixed up together. “You think Humans will replace us? You think you can take our place?”
I sat back in my chair. “I don’t want your place! I don’t want a galaxy where people think my son’s something more because he’s Human. I just want one where they don’t think he’s something less. And that’s what I’m going to give him.”
I stood up and looked down at Elaamu Gaant for the last time.
“You were right to be afraid of us, Gaant. One way or another, we were always going to be your undoing, but not for any of the reasons you thought. It’s because we aren’t who you imagine.”
* * *
E-Loyolaan provided a very nice executive shuttle to get me out of town the next morning, ahead of almost everyone else looking for a ride. The weather had cleared and the shuttle rose out of blowing smoke from the residual fires and into a brilliant blue sky decorated sparingly with white accent clouds. As we banked over the city I caught a single flash of gold far, far to the south, reflected sunlight from the Old Tower needle. The devastation of Sakkatto City below surprised and shocked me. There had been many more fights than I had witnessed, and smoke still rose from the base of Drak’zanaat Arcology, where Zdravkova had made her last stand and a cohort of Zack Mike troopers had shot their way in to save her.
I’d had one other meeting before I left, with the new second governor of AZ Simki-Traak Trans-Stellar, a guy by the name of e-Drepaank. He wanted me to carry a personal message to The Honorable Arigapaa e-Lotonaa that the governors of the trading house had no further intention of interfering with Tweezaa e-Traak-Lotonaa’s inheritance. The governors regretted the terrible consequences of the foolishness of his predecessor, the late Vandray e-Bomaan, but they assumed no collective liability for his disastrous miscalculations. They hoped to enjoy a constructive and profitable relationship in the future.
I asked about the e-Traak family and he said he could not speak for them, which meant the truce was only with corporate, not the family, and might only last until the family made another really good offer to them. So it was more a temporary ceasefire than a lasting peace, but it was better than nothing. I told him I’d pass along the sentiment. He thanked me.
The shuttle flew almost due north, over columns of uBakai Army units withdrawing back to their cantonments and bases. Sprawling urban strips along the maglev lines showed the lingering effects of conflict as well, and everywhere vehicle traffic filled the roads. People leaving. People going home. Army units returning to a very uncertain future. I wondered what would happen when loyalist units and rebel units returned now to share the same base. I wondered, but I didn’t really care. Someone else could worry about that.
Soon the shuttle reached and started following the long deep blue coastline of the Zhak Kakavaan. After an hour we passed over the canyon which held The Valley House. I tried to pick it out and saw it, a spot of pink in the black and grey rocks below, but I felt nothing.
I’d last been there a lifetime ago, it seemed, but the span of a lifetime is negotiable. I’d left there to go to the meeting in Praha-Riz the morning of Day Ten, Eight-Month Waning. Now it was Day Three, Nine-Month Waxing, thirteen days later. Thirteen days.
I’d stopped by the med center to say goodbye to Moshe and I’d told him about my post-death experience, how it had given me some sense of comfort when facing death since then, but no more, now that I understood it better. He’d shrugged.
“You know, you’re in a spaceship falling into a really big black hole, you pass that event horizon and all of a sudden you and that ship are spread about one atom deep all over the surface of the superdense core, and nobody can tell which carbon atoms were from you and which from the ship, ’cause one carbon atom’s like any other carbon atom.”
“Yeah,” I said, “that really cheers me up.”
He chuckled.
“Well, another interesting thing about a supermassive black hole is the closer you get to it, the slower time goes. If it’s massive enough, time slows down so much you die of old age in that ship before it collapses into the black hole, even though to someone outside looking in you’re gone in an instant.
“So time is local, see? It’s not universal. Who’s to say those last things your mind makes up—that it conjures from the best of your memories and imaginings—don’t last forever? Maybe forever depends on where you’re standing.”
Maybe.
I looked down through the shuttle window as we flew over more columns of military vehicles, these driving north, probably uKootrin forces withdrawing across the frontier. And then there were no more military vehicles, no more rising columns of smoke over cities and towns. The autumn noonday sun was not directly overhead, but slightly to the south, and so our shadow raced ahead of us, flashing over fields and forests and peaceful, intact towns, guiding our way to what would be my new home, because I did not think we would return to Bakaa, at least not to live, not for a very long time.
At some point we passed from Bakaa to Kootrin, from Gaisaana-la’s country to The’On’s, but I could not tell when. They looked the same to me.
Then we began shedding speed and altitude, the ground slowly rising and the grey stains of towns resolving into discrete pixels of buildings, then the buildings resolving into unique structures made distinct from one another by their sizes, colors, designs, but not the extent of their damage.
I saw the sprawling residential complex ahead and knew that must be our destination.
The shuttle settled on the yellow-painted foamstone landing pad. The small knot of people, so familiar, so precious, turned away and protected their eyes from the dust, then turned back, faces a mixture of anxiety and anticipation and love. The hatch hissed open, the boarding stairs unfolded to rest on the ground. I came out into sun
light, the brightest, most beautiful day I can remember, and I can remember some beauts. In two long strides I was down the stairs and enfolded in Marr and Tweezaa’s arms. After a long moment I found my voice and pulled back from them a little, turned and nodded to the hatchway and the other passenger.
“Marr, Tweezaa, The’On, I’d like you to meet my sister, Avrochka.”
Come the Revolution - eARC Page 31
