“Not yet. He may be holed up in his house.”
“Okay. Keep us posted.”
“I will.”
From time to time, Jean Paul tried calling Manny but got no answer. After three failures, he showed her how to do it, and then had her give up after three more failures.
Eventually the lights of Nexity shone over the horizon and grew quickly dominant, the whole fabulous marvel of the Wall glowing with inner light. No wonder the people were upset. The Deep had gone from being the strongest force in the solar system to one under threat from an outside force, but Lym had been invaded.
A building burned. The wild arcs of flame crawled up her spacer’s nerves, but Jean Paul merely grunted. Even from this distance it was possible to make out the squat, squarish figures of robotic firefighters, and she had the irrational hope that the people recognized that they, at least, were not Next.
She tried to reach Manny again and got no answer.
Jean Paul broke his long silence. “Close your eyes.”
She obeyed. When she opened them, the inner and outer lights of the skimmer had come on, and it was much harder to see the town clearly, even though they were flying right into it. As they neared the town center, streetlights revealed more people, mostly traveling in small groups. Here and there, light glinted on weapons. In a place full of predators, the average person had far more deadly capabilities than almost anyone on the Deep. “I’m glad Charlie kept Cricket with him.”
“Me, too. Manny’s place is just ahead. I’m going to just fly in there like we belong. Hang on in case I need to change that plan at the last minute.”
He looked grim, his eyes wide and wild. She watched out the window as they flew low and fast over streets that were now full of people and, here and there, bicycles. Most people were going inward, but a few struggled to go the other way, some tugging children behind them.
People mobbed against a fence around Manny’s house. At one end, the fence had been torn free, and a few people at a time streamed through, chanting and calling. Jean Paul muttered under his breath, “They’re on the landing pad.”
A fire licked up the edges of one wall of the house. Two people tried to smother it, as a small mob lit more fires. She had been there; it was a beautiful place. The senselessness of the violence sickened her.
Beside her, Jean Paul clenched his jaw so tightly it was white as bone, and a small mewling sound escaped his tightly closed lips.
Someone pointed at them, and then someone else. Something pinged hard against the skimmer’s metal skin.
Jean Paul pulled up quickly and banked right.
No one else shot at them, but then there were other skimmers in the air, and they might not be identifiable as friend or foe. Nevertheless, he banked hard enough to throw her against the door and took them toward the spaceport.
Out on the tarmac, every possible light shone; night was like daylight. Uniformed human Port Authority guards stalked the grounds. She leaned into Jean Paul. “Is this smart? Didn’t Gerry say the Port Authority supports the rebels?”
“There are no smart choices,” he growled. He landed them smoothly next to another skimmer with ranger markings and started turning things off in measured order. Except for his shaking hands, he seemed eerily calm.
They climbed out. He locked the doors behind them and walked quickly but with control toward the main spaceport building. They saw no one. “I expected it to be more chaotic here,” he said.
She nodded, afraid to make noise, wanting to tell him to whisper. His deep calm infuriated her.
Their steps echoed. All around them, skimmers and, in the distance, bigger transports. Beyond that, the Next ships that were melting into the glowing Wall.
A Port Authority guard stepped out in front of them. “State your business.”
Nona recognized the woman who had warned them earlier. Farro watched them both closely as Jean Paul said, “We’ve come in from patrol. We heard there were problems in here and decided we should come in and help. But first, I need to protect Nona here. She’s an ambassador for the Diamond Deep. We need to find Manny for her.”
Farro glanced toward town, and then shook her head. “Manny escaped.”
“Do you know where he went?” Nona asked.
“No one does.” Farro listened into her ear for a moment before giving Jean Paul a command. “They want you on the perimeter. They have a partner for you.”
Jean Paul’s face was still hard from the fire and the flight here; she couldn’t tell if this was an additional blow or acceptable to him.
Farro apparently had a better read. “You have to,” she said. “They’ve called martial law and that means we trump you rangers.”
He glanced at Nona. “I can’t.”
Farro followed the look. “She can go someplace safe. She’s not one of us.”
He looked apologetically at Nona before replying. “Of course.” His attention returned to Farro. “Nona’s no fighter. Can she wait in the observation deck?”
Nona bristled at the truth in his assessment.
Farro looked torn for a moment. “Maybe she should stay here, in your skimmer. Lock it down.”
“It will get cold,” he replied.
“It’s safer than the observation deck,” the uniformed woman said.
Nona didn’t need them to tell her what to do. “I’m going to town. At least I might be useful there.”
Jean Paul’s jaw tightened but he didn’t contradict her.
Farro glanced at Jean Paul, “You’ll stay?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No.”
Nona didn’t understand the ranking system here, but she had to assume Jean Paul was doing what he needed to. “I’ll be careful,” she said.
She headed toward town the way she had gone with Charlie her first day here, crossing open landing bays in the shadows of silent ships until she was through them all and the town was across a long field in front of her. A fire still burned, and it made a reasonable beacon as she headed toward it.
Nona started running into people fleeing before she even got to town. They circled the spaceport outside of the brightest lights, a scattering of refugees rather than a line. She stopped beside a woman with two children in tow and a huge and unbalanced pack. “Where are you going?”
“We have a farm.” She pointed inland. “We can walk. It’s going to take all night, but we can walk.”
The children looked to be half-grown; they stood behind their mother and peered at Nona with wide eyes. “What are you running from?” Nona asked.
“They killed my sister for being rich enough to have housebots.”
Maybe civilization was breaking. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t go in there. Come with us.”
“I need to find Manny,” Nona said. “Do you know what happened to him?”
“He’s fled to Nexity. The damned pirates he fell in love with have taken him in.”
So the fleeing woman was scared of both the townspeople and the Next. A tough situation. “Are you sure?”
“I saw it happen. A Next ship came and got him.”
“How do you know it was a Next ship?”
The woman looked frustrated. “It wasn’t ours. Will you help me with the pack?”
“What do you need?”
“I can’t carry it like this. It’s too heavy.” She dumped her pack out on the tarmac, spilling food, clothes, shoes, and a blanket. “Help me organize?”
“Can the kids carry some?”
The woman pursed her lips, but the older child, a boy, said, “I’ll take the blanket and Su can have the flashlight. She can show us the way after we get out of the light.”
Nona smiled at him. “Very good.” She bent to help gather up the heavier things and started putting them in the pack. She asked the woman, “What’s your name?”
“Amica Earl. The farm is Earl’s. That’s its name. Earl’s Farm. It’s a safe place.” She squinted at Nona in the eerie fluorescent lig
ht. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”
“I can’t.”
“There’s no point in finding Manny. He’s a traitor.”
“I don’t think so,” Nona said. “I just got back here today, but the last time I saw him he didn’t want the Next here at all.”
“You could have fooled me. Besides, you can’t find him now anyway. Come with us. You can help carry things.” Amica’s eyes grew slightly cunning. “I have food.”
“I have things to do.” Like rejoin Charlie.
The kids helped fold clothes into corners of the pack, leaving three pairs of shoes and a dress out when they didn’t fit. Nona helped Amica fasten it correctly.
The slight woman smiled at her. “Earl’s. Find us if you need a safe place.”
Nona smiled at her. “Thanks. I will.”
She watched them walk away, the youngest child flashing the light at the sky and then the ground and then the sky, even though they were still on the spaceport property and the grounds were well-lit.
Amica said something under her breath and the light went out, turning the little family into receding shadows in the near dark at the edge of the civilized part of Lym.
Nona turned and angled across the spaceport toward the tall, bright Wall of Nexity. Twice, she had to hide from patrols, the first time behind a small shed. The second time, she knelt in shadow under the belly of a skimmer. Eventually she was free of the port proper, walking carefully under faint starlight. For about twenty minutes she wished for a flashlight herself, but as she neared the Wall the light it threw illuminated the ground under her feet. At least she’d put her boots on and changed out of the ridiculous sexy dress she’d chosen to meet Charlie in.
Nothing had come out the way she’d expected.
Or hoped.
As she looked up, the Wall loomed above her, so tall she had to crane her neck to see the top of it. To her left, a river of lights showed the thread of material pouring off of the spaceport as the Next transmuted matter. Nanotechnology, surely. But a far more facile use of programmable matter than Nona had seen anywhere else, even in the richest and most elite enclaves of the Diamond Deep.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
YI
Even with Jason carrying the injured gleaner, the group moved far more slowly than Yi liked. It took almost half an hour for him to lead them to the bagor tree he had left the skimmer underneath. The spreading leaves and darkening sky made the vehicle hard to pick out at all, even once they were close. The Next vehicle had slimmer and squatter lines than anything the rangers used, looking like a leaf itself, except for the bubble sticking out of it for the passengers.
It was also one seat short.
Yi glanced at Jason. “You could run alongside the riverbank under us. It might be a good way to find out if anyone else is around, anyway.”
“I might draw attention.”
From satellites. “I suppose. I won’t leave you here.”
“I’ll fit in the storage trunk.”
“I brought our repairbot.”
“Oh.”
Losianna mumbled. “I can sit on his lap.”
That solved a problem and relieved a worry. He’d been certain the gleaner girl must be frightened of them. She’d been very silent. Perhaps it was curiosity rather than fear? Not that it mattered. “Suit yourselves. But get in.”
Their immediate enemies had apparently left or were occupied with whatever was going on in Manna Springs, but Yi still felt exposed. Even though the evidence was gone, the destroyed robots had surely left a record of their last known location.
It took five long minutes to get Charlie, Cricket, Jason, and Losianna neatly into the back so the tongat wasn’t lifting a lip and Charlie and Losianna could both breathe. Yi helped Amfi climb into the front seat and made sure her hurt ankle was comfortable. “Where to?” he asked her.
“Remember the cave where we did the negotiation?”
He did; behind them and not too far. He turned the skimmer and took them near the edge of the cliffs. He flew directly over Davis’s body. “Do you want to bury him?”
Amfi blinked back a tear. “Later. I want to get behind doors now.”
“Okay.” He didn’t see a good place to park the skimmer, so he left it under trees again, although nothing here gave it as much cover. It would be easy enough to spot when morning came. Maybe he could move it before then. As he helped Amfi out, he asked, “Can I carry you?”
She hesitated for a long moment, but then she looked at the ground and mumbled, “Yes.”
He turned his back to her. “Put your arms around my neck.”
They marched down the path and passed behind the waterfall and entered the cave compound that way, with Amfi clutching his shoulders, Losianna, Jason, and the repairbot behind them, and Charlie and Cricket bringing up the rear.
Even though someone handed her up a light, it took Amfi two tries to manage the right sequence of codes and keys to open the door into the ancient cave complex. He recognized the room, with its straight-cut rock walls full of glittering veins of minerals, and its natural, rough ceiling.
The table was twice as big as they needed. He could replay the negotiations that had happened here. He had been a silent witness only, wanting the Next to get whatever they needed or wanted without bloodshed and for Charlie to be able to protect Lym. But even more than wanting both sides to win, he had wanted to understand the stakes. To this day, he didn’t really know why the Next were here at all.
As soon as they were settled around what had been the negotiations table, Losianna went off to get food for the three humans.
Charlie asked, “Is there a back exit?”
“I don’t know,” Amfi said. “We’ve explored a long way, but we’ve never found the end of the cave. There’s always another door.”
“Maybe Jason and I should go looking,” Yi suggested.
Charlie raised an eyebrow. “Now?”
“We don’t sleep or eat,” he reminded Charlie. “You need to do both, and we all might need another way out of here.”
He could see Charlie thinking about it. It was hard to wait when he knew what Charlie would say, but he knew better than to force decisions on humans. He spoke silently to Jason. Can you find some lights? Maybe some way to mark where we’ve been in case they need to follow us?
Of course.
Charlie looked unhappy with his choice, but he used almost the exact words Yi expected. “You’re right. Be careful. Can you be back in four hours?”
“Give us eight. You need to eat, tend to Amfi, sleep, and eat again.”
“Six.”
Are you ready?
Almost.
We have to leave the repairbot.
I know.
Losianna came back in with a tray of filled water glasses and some dried fruit. “I’ve got soup warming, but this will start us out. Charlie, can you get the medical kit?”
Yi interrupted gently, despite his growing sense of urgency. “We’ll leave now. Amfi? Is there anything we should know?”
Amfi looked up at him. Her wrinkled face was folded tight with more pain than she’d shown on the road or in the skimmer, as if she could finally relax into her own needs now that she was safe behind locked doors. “I only went in a few times, and not as far as Davis. There are doors we were never able to open. I think there’s a paper map you can look at in the office just outside of this room.”
“Thank you. Which way to the paper map?”
She pointed.
Ready.
“Be careful,” Charlie admonished.
“You’ll probably be in more danger than we will.”
The ranger frowned as he took a glass of water from the pale girl’s tray. “Let’s hope we’re all safe.”
Yi found the office easily enough. Gleaners were perfectly capable of using the net. The paper map must be an attempt to keep information secret. It had been pinned to the wall, with a light positioned to illuminate it nicely.
; The map illustrated the opening to the cave, the kitchens, a few storage areas, and some living quarters. He found the small office they stood in. The same sort of rooms went out about five layers deep, implying there might have been a pretty good-sized population living here once. Maybe more than a thousand people. The edges were covered in rougher notes in a spidery handwriting.
Long corridors out behind here. Industrial? Some doors we can’t open. Some empty. Some machines to learn about.
On another part of the map, a note: Some of this is natural cave. I heard water. Behind the note, someone had drawn a thick line.
In a third direction: This is older than the front, and smoother.
He paid careful attention to the map, looking at each part of it in detail, like taking pictures with his mind that he could hold exactly until he discarded the data. Memory shots. What do you think? he asked Jason.
I want to see the industrial part. But there might be a natural way out through the middle path.
I wonder if the lines indicate blockages?
They might.
Jason had always been the physical explorer in the family. Yi waited for him to choose.
Let’s do the industrial corridors.
Okay.
They started off, jogging slowly and easily through the well-mapped parts. Jason spoke out loud, “What do we know about these caves again?”
Yi answered out loud as well, the sound of voices welcome in the silent corridors. “Not much. The gleaners found them, and they’ve dated them somehow, back to before of the age of explosive creation. In the times when the last wars happened here on Lym. They said it might be a weapons depot or some other type of storage.”
The corridors were at best dimly lit, although faint lines of light ran about waist high and again at the crack between floor and wall on each side, so it looked like they were jogging through a box. Humans might have trouble seeing anything but the lights.
Jason remained quiet, which didn’t surprise Yi in the least. Neither Jason had taken well to being turned into something inhuman, but this Jason, Jason One, hadn’t even really achieved acceptance yet. Probably because they had lost their Katherine so early, and then their Chrystal. A double-blow of loss that would never have happened if the Next hadn’t interfered in their lives. Jason had not given up his resentment. Yet.
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