Fifteen minutes after the Next Horizon took off, the Shining Danger warmed up in the waiting bay. Nayli’s hands roamed her controls, checking sequence after sequence, weapon after weapon. In the couch next to her, Vadim did the same. There were two ways to release everything, two complete systems they could use to drive the ship. They flipped control between the two and back again.
She glanced at Vadim. “I want it. I want to do this.”
He grinned. “All right.”
Permission to leave crackled over the loudspeaker. Nayli flew out as carefully as possible, doing her very best to imitate a simple trader. It took twenty very long minutes to clear the station’s airspace.
She used the time to bring Stupid up between them, this time dressing the virtual avatar in a see-through version of a simple soldier’s uniform. “Are you ready, Stupid?”
“I have a course correction prepared.”
“Do we still have time?”
“Yes.”
She smiled. “I thought so.” The moment they were free of the station’s control, she adjusted course and gave the engine twice the juice.
It responded.
The Shining Danger had never looked like much, but that was part of her cover. She had some of the best engines and controls made, and she and Vadim had crew who maintained them meticulously. Stupid wasn’t.
They didn’t have to come up behind the Next Horizon. They had to pass it.
She kept expecting to alarm it, to see it change course or to hear it had fired at them. Apparently the Next didn’t consider themselves in much danger.
Maybe the super-smart robots weren’t that smart after all.
“Ready?” she asked Vadim.
“Always.” He smiled. “Yes.”
“Stupid?”
“Forty-three seconds.” The machine started counting down at ten. Some people would let the machine fire, but she had never been one of them. The last few seconds went by slowly.
Five . . . four.
She took a deep breath.
Three . . . two . . . one.
Her thumb released the first shrapnel missile, her index finger the next. Her pinky released the fifth.
The Next Horizon didn’t react until the first bomb exploded far in front of it, sending out a net of what amounted to dangerous missiles at these speeds. They were lost from that moment.
“Oh come on, fight back,” she whispered. If it was too easy, they wouldn’t even look like heroes.
A laser weapon fired at them, broad and wide.
She was ready, and fired thrusters to move them away from the beam.
No problem.
Fights in space were slow.
Nayli started singing. She had this one. They had this one. She was so sure, she unstrapped and flicked Stupid’s image into a corner so she could easily cross to Vadim without being engulfed by her own AI avatar on the way.
He met her halfway, his mouth falling hard onto hers, his kiss demanding and exultant all at once.
He tasted like triumph.
Stupid said, “They’ve started to slow,” from the corner.
Vadim said, “Start the music.” He must have pre-programmed what he wanted; the classical music that slowly swelled into the room sounded quite dramatic and martial. Battles in space were silent, undramatic. The music gave it reality and structure, made the far-off scene vibrate through Nayli’s bones.
Stupid spoke again. “The right engine sheared off. They’re broadcasting a mayday.”
Vadim’s hand curled around her cheek.
She turned inside of his arms, looking at the monitors where Stupid was playing stats.
Vadim hugged her tight into him, folding her back against his chest. He was warm and alive, and a reminder that nothing on the ship they were destroying now even breathed.
How could she have almost lost this one true way of knowing her own soul?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
YI
Yi ran alone. Thinking. Waiting. A Jhailing had asked for him, but it had not yet told him how to get in contact, or whether it would appear inside of him or in the flesh. That was all right. He was used to waiting. In the meantime, he reveled in small motions, in diffusing heat, in feeling the sun and the breeze as they fought each other for control of the air temperature.
Nexity was growing fast. The Wall had stopped getting taller, and housing and walkways and a wider exercise track had appeared basically overnight. For the Next, matter was not only movable and formable but could be transformed into a rubbery surface that was the perfect hardness to allow speed and exactly rough enough for excellent traction. Almost all day and night, Next of all kinds ran along the path in the center of the Wall, charging themselves with the cleanest and best energy, lubricating their joints, meeting, or simply thinking. Yi would never have expected robots to be more active than flesh, or to take such pure joy in running.
He had never liked running before.
Each footfall was a chance for precision, each moment an opportunity to balance evenly, each push forward a chance to increase his velocity.
I’ll be beside you in just a moment.
The Jhailing. It came up faster than he expected, wearing a smooth bipedal body that looked less human than Yi but still more human than most Jhailings. It had no indication of gender, and it ran naked. The places where its limbs joined its body looked like water flowing.
Are you one of the Jhailings I already know?
Yes. I came from the ship that created you, and I saw you become.
I had hoped for that. I have questions.
Neither of their bodies breathed or produced sweat, but still there was elegance in the Jhailing’s movements that Yi felt certain he didn’t share.
It didn’t invite his questions, but instead said, I have an assignment for you.
Yes?
I want to know what is happening in Manna Springs. You know the woman, Nona Hall. I want you to bring us together to talk.
They will kill her if they see her speak to you. They may kill her if they see her speak to me.
I trust you will find a way. She comes to visit her lover.
Only twice in the last two weeks.
So you must go to her. I will ride inside you.
He wondered if he got a choice. At first he had simply been amazed, but now he found it strange, almost violating, when a Jhailing stayed inside of him, even though it didn’t bleed into his own personality in any way. It remained spooky. Is there another way?
Can you think of one?
Not really. But isn’t it violating your treaty if I carry you into Manna Springs? Only he and Jason were allowed. And that agreement had been made with Charlie and Manny. They might be turned down now. It will be dangerous even for us, even if we disguise ourselves.
Can you get Nona into the Mixing Zone?
It was listening to him? I’ll try.
They came to the bridge where the view from the Wall was the sea, huge and vast and so bright in the late afternoon sun that his eyes adjusted to take in only the tiniest bit of light. He had been born and raised in a station, and he found the idea of water that went forever the most fascinating and terrible thing on Lym.
Two taller, sleeker Next ran around them, long legs flashing in the sunshine.
Human-like emotions troubled him more and more, made him feel weak and tied to his old self when he really wanted to just keep becoming. They were like a weight. Not all of them. Love and tenderness still felt good. But fear? Fear of big, vast things like open space and the sea were illogical, and he didn’t see any good that they did, any reason he needed them. Still, they clung to him.
Before becoming one, he would never have ascribed fear to robots. He still had his questions. Jhailing? I don’t entirely know what this place is. What is it that you want to do? Why did the Next come here?
We needed some of the trace minerals that were here, and we prefer to work with the full energy of the sun.
That is a means. Not a go
al.
A beat. There is a mystery that we hope to solve. You may have a role in helping us to solve it. But I am not yet ready to speak to you about that mystery, not in detail.
Jhailings were always frustrating. Yi counted a hundred steps before he said, Your language suggests that you and I are not the same species. When do I become one of you?
You are.
Then why are you hiding things from me?
For your own good and ours.
That answer makes me feel as if I am three years old. The sea was beside them now, on their left. A small fleet of boats bobbed on the surface of it. Fishermen? Scientists from Manna Springs?
I am sorry about that.
Yi believed it. No Jhailing Jim had ever lied to him except through omission. What can I do to become more able to separate from this body, to move between bodies the way you do?
More practice braiding. You must become separate from your ego and yet still be yourself.
No wonder some human mystics loved the Next so much.
Yi had braided with all of his family now, joined into that strange state of two-ness that left him intact but more than himself. Sex for soulbots. With his family, he could learn more of what he already knew and also small and special new secrets. It still wasn’t the same as learning what he could be. For a moment he felt like a teenager about to ask a girl on a date. Can I braid with you?
You are not yet flexible enough.
Once more he felt like a child or perhaps a rejected teen. Who would want to relive those years?
They were above the city again. From up here it looked like a series of silver baubles strung together with the black lines of pathways and, here and there, the green of a park. The parks were for the newly changed so that they had a place to contemplate what they had become when they were still human enough to take comfort in wild things.
Be careful, the Jhailing said. Becoming is balancing on the knife edge of sanity. It can be done; we all succeeded. Everyone that you see here succeeded. But in this time of accelerated becoming there is greater risk.
For all of its magnificence, Nexity was not huge. They were soon by the sea again. Other Next ran ahead and behind. One was fat and rather cute, and he wondered why it had chosen that shape.
Light bloomed close to them, a crack of sound.
Look toward the boats! the Jhailing said
Projectiles raced toward the shield. Hundreds of them; a barrage. Fast.
Yi put a hand up as if he could stop them.
Defenses activated; shadows touched him, as small and fast things flew overhead from behind. A response from Nexity.
Missiles battered the shield.
Three boats exploded, water and fire both present for a shocking moment.
The shield cracked.
The Wall itself shuddered. Only slightly. And then it firmed.
A heavy projectile slammed into the shield. It bounced off. Again. Cracks grew. Ten strides in front of them, maybe twenty, the shield shattered. The fat little Next who had just passed them fell and rolled, falling inward off the Wall, toward the city. Its body crunched against the ground.
Two more boats exploded in gouts of water and splintered wood and broken metal. Another simply slid beneath the surface of the water.
Yi glanced up at the hole in the shield. The edges were growing, reaching to rejoin. But it shattered again, more pieces falling, clinking against the edges of the Wall, bouncing and falling over the edge.
The Jhailing stumbled.
He reached for it, bending to keep it from falling, falling himself as their shared momentum tripped him. He rolled.
Go! I will be safe, but you can’t separate from that body. You can die! Go down and in.
I don’t want to leave you.
A voice inside of him. I have already left you. The metal shell in his hands had become dead weight.
He left it and ran back the way they had come until he reached one of the many doors and followed the Jhailing’s instructions. His thoughts raced each other around in circles, running outcomes from the fight. Whoever started it would be hunted down and killed; the Next would show no mercy.
He didn’t want to be caught in that.
Family.
He fled toward his family, suddenly needing to know that everyone was safe.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
NONA
Nona sat alone on the porch of her new house on Front Street. It stood near the middle of Manna Springs, so she’d had to pay far too much for the space. Still, it was close enough to town and big enough to impress. Late afternoon sun angled between the houses across the street and painted her front steps bright and welcoming.
She wondered what color flowers to plant by the steps.
A small pack of bicyclists rode down the middle of the street, weapons strapped to their muscular calves or to the bike frames. Three men and two women. They all glanced her way. Someone must have told a joke because they broke out in peals of shared laughter.
Skimmers hummed overhead, their shadows as noticeable as their nearly silent engines. They flew a constant search pattern, even though Nona could discern no reason for it. If the Next truly wanted to take the town, they would. The only possible conclusion was that they weren’t interested.
Even though the restlessness in town made her nervous, Nona liked the house. Satyana had helped her choose it from among three options, even though she had been too busy for more than a few remote conversations and video pics in the last few days.
It was nearly done. She’d repainted it blue and white and created a sign that hung above the door, proclaiming it the “Embassy of the Diamond Deep.”
Most of the big stations had embassies on other big stations. This had been Manny’s idea. After Nona suggested it, Satyana heartily approved and sent a missive down to the current leadership of Manna Springs declaring Nona Hall as the formal ambassador of the Diamond Deep to Lym.
She wasn’t sure if it kept her safer or made her a target.
“Nona Hall!”
She looked up to see Jules and Amanda, the brother-sister twins who ran Manna Springs these days. Both were tall and thin, tanned from farming, and wore ranger’s uniforms that had been slightly modified to add piping. Their dark red hair might have been color-matched.
She stood up and went to the stairs to greet them. “Jules and Amanda Night. Welcome. I’m Nona Hall.”
They didn’t take her outstretched hand, and they stopped at the bottom of the steps.
“Come on up,” she encouraged. “Can I make you tea or stim, or pour you a glass of water?”
They looked at each other. A group of seven bicycle riders came up and surrounded them. A show of force.
“I won’t bite, and I’m not hiding any robots in my house.”
A tiny smile quirked up the corner of Amanda’s mouth, then disappeared.
Nona waited for a few long awkward moments before she said, “Surely you came here for a reason. Just come up to the porch. We can all agree to call that neutral territory, right?”
They came. She only had two seats out here so far, so she perched on the railing.
Amanda’s dark blue eyes looked purple when she turned her head into sunlight. “We came to warn you. There are death threats, and we don’t need to have anything happen to you.”
Nona noted the careful wording. “No diplomatic incidents?”
Jules looked mildly offended and didn’t answer her directly.
“Are the threats specific? Are they from anyone in particular?”
They replied in unison. “No.”
“No one specific,” Jules amended. “They’ve come in writing. A few new ones came this afternoon.” He pointed up at the embassy sign. “They came after you hung that up.”
It was probably better than not being noticed at all. “Can I make you stim?”
Amanda was clearly the good guy, the one who was supposed to make friends. She asked, “Do you have any chocolate?”
“Not yet. But I’ve ordered some. Most of my supplies haven’t come, so all I have is mint tea from your weekend market and some sweet stim that I bought from the Spacer’s Rest.”
Amanda asked for tea and Jules wanted water. This was the first diplomatic visit to her new embassy; it mattered. Unfortunate that it had come before any of the help Satyana was sending her had arrived.
Nona added a small pile of cookies. Each of her guests took their drink, and the steam infused the air with a pleasant sweetness.
Amanda said, “We’ve never had an ambassador here. Of any kind. Much less from a Glittering station. What do you want?”
At least she was direct. “Information flow. There are things you know that I need to know. And there may be things I learn about what’s happening out in the Glittering that you need to know. For example, did you know that the Shining Revolution destroyed a Next ship three days ago?”
Their faces betrayed nothing. She waited. It was their turn to offer something. After a time, Jules said, “We’re going to fight the Next. There’s nothing that the Glittering can say to keep us from that.”
A weak offering, a thing that had been stated publicly forever. Nona raised an eyebrow.
Jules sounded quite earnest as he insisted, “We can’t cede the planet to them. They’ll destroy it. They destroyed it before, and we haven’t even finished cleaning it up.”
“I understand.”
Amanda looked doubtful, and Jules said, “You can’t.”
“Lym is very beautiful,” she said. “I had never thought I would come here, but even before I came to Lym and fell in love with waterfalls and tongats and open space, I knew it needed to be protected. They teach us that in elementary school on the Deep.”
Amanda sipped her tea, apparently fascinated with the growing shadows. Once again, Nona waited her out. She said, “We thought you wanted to turn it into Mammot.”
Nona smiled. “A few might.” She thought of Gunnar, who owned the whole business of transporting minerals from Mammot to the stations of the Glittering. “Most do not. There are billions of us. We don’t all want the same thing any more than you all do. For example, the gleaners want to die, and you do not.”
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