Nona turned around, peering in all directions. “Are they weapons?”
Yi chose his words carefully. “We’re not certain. They haven’t been tested, and we don’t know how to get them out of the cave to test them. We have no idea what propels them or what protocols to use to move them. We know very little about this place other than how to find it. They can’t be used in this fight in this moment.”
Neil stepped away from the group and walked up to a large ship with a light shining down from the roof of the cave and illuminating a nose-cone. It was three times his height, with no real visible seams, although the edges of a rectangular door showed halfway up, and a few squares that must be access hatches existed near the base. He held a trembling hand out and touched the surface. “Smooth,” he said.
Yi walked over to him and touched his shoulder, turning him back toward the middle of the corridor. “Later,” he said. “The cave goes on for miles, and all of it is lined with objects as fascinating as this. If we stop at each one, we’ll be here for far too long.”
Dr. Nevening’s eyes widened, and a smile filled his face.
Yi tried again. “We have a job to do now.”
“Context might be important.”
“We’ll tell you what we know on the way down. The ride will take fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes worth of information isn’t that much.” But the doctor followed him back to the group.
As they approached the elevator, a figure peeled itself free of the wall, eliciting a gasp from Nona.
Jason.
I didn’t expect to see you here, Yi said.
I’m curious. I want to see the doctor’s face when he sees what’s here.
Are Losianna and Amfi still at home?
Of course. They’re almost ready to go to sleep. I left them at half day, intimating I might be going to town. I’ll go back near their morning.
Jason moved into the light so everyone could see him. He looked so pleased to have surprised them that Yi forgave him and said Good to see you, love.
Nona made the introductions. “This is Jason. He’s part of Chrystal’s family. And Yi’s.”
Dr. Nevening held out a hand with no hesitation. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“And this,” Nona said, “is Dr. Neil Nevening, who once taught at the same school I taught at, but who went on to become the Historian up on the Deep.”
Jason didn’t seem surprised. His response came out smooth and casual. “I’ve never met a member of the High Council of the Diamond Deep before.”
Neil smiled. “I’m not that. Not anymore. I get to carry the title around for my whole life, but I’ve no power now. I’d really just as soon be called Neil.”
“That’s good,” Jason said. He was dressed in flowing black pants as dark as the cave and a simple white shirt. He’d dyed his hair a deeper purple than usual; Yi pictured him and Losianna working on it together. He noticed some tiny piece of himself rejecting that image, and he wondered briefly if he was rejecting the idea of physicality between what they had been and what they had become, or if it was simple jealousy.
All right. Yi checked the time. Seven fifty-two in the evening. He looked at Neil and Nona. “Are you hungry?”
Neil shook his head, but Nona said, “Yes. And I’m certain we’re even less likely to want to stop and eat when we get wherever we’re going.”
The Historian’s face softened. Yi had already decided he had a serious soft spot for Nona; the look in his eyes confirmed it.
Chrystal opened her pack and took out a small blanket and set out two plates of sandwiches and fruit. Out of the six people in the wide empty spot on the badly lit cave floor, only two could eat. To alleviate the awkwardness of the moment, Yi said, “I’ll tell you what we know so far.”
Dr. Nevening nodded, his mouth full.
The Colorima folded into a seated position just a little above the group, sitting in such a way that she could look down and see everyone at once.
“We found this cave weeks ago, but we haven’t actually had that much time to explore it. The opening we found has been occupied by gleaners for some time. It’s in Ice Fall Valley, which is actually about thirty-seven kilometers away from here as a crow flies. We found it by accident, when we were looking for a back way out of that cave in case the front was attacked.”
“I was there, wasn’t I?” Nona asked.
“Yes. You and Charlie and Amfi all slept while Jason and I explored.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
Yi hesitated briefly. “Because of what you asked just a few moments ago. Yes, we think some of these things are weapons. But they are very old, and we have no idea how reliable they are. We don’t know what they do or how to operate them. We think they are built for machines like us, although a few look like they could be operated by humans. There are generally only one of each type, which implies this may be more like a museum than a storage location.”
Dr. Nevening had stopped eating. “Why a museum? Museums are for the present to understand the past. But if whoever built this left it for us, then couldn’t it be a university rather than a museum? A way for us to study whoever left these? Is there a chance it’s as old as the first colonists?”
The Colorima held herself so completely still she could be a statue.
“I don’t see how,” Jason said. “It’s clearly meant for machines rather than humans. It’s sized wrong for humans, and there are hardly any places to cook and almost no privies. That alone suggested it’s more for us than for you.”
“So what do you think happened?” Neil asked.
“I only have a theory,” Yi said. “If this was built between the age of exploration and the age of explosive creation, then it may represent our birthplace. This could be the place where humans first created machine-like versions of themselves, the first place that uploads happened. This might have been where humans moved beyond their bodies and embraced the power inherent in eternal life, in technology.”
Jason stared at him and then spoke in his head. You’ve gone all the way, haven’t you? You’ve become a robot first and barely a human anymore at all.
I’ve embraced what I am. Someday you may have to do that, too. He recognized that he sounded more like a teacher than a lover. Or whatever soulbot families were. If only he had more time to spend with Jason.
Jason stood up, glancing toward the elevator.
Dr. Nevening was just as eager. He had already picked up the waste from his lunch and started stuffing it into the pocket of the small pack he carried.
Yi split them into two groups. He took the Colorima and Chrystal down with him, leaving Jason to escort the two humans. When they disembarked at the bottom, Yi led the Colorima over to the view screen window. You might as well see this while we wait.
She stared intently through the window. Can we get inside?
We haven’t gone in yet, but we know where the door is. As soon as the others arrive, we’ll go take a look.
You were right to tell us about this.
Thank you. Is there a chance that this is what you have been looking for?
I’m not certain we know what we’ve been looking for.
That surprised Yi. Really?
She laughed, her human-like face looking even more natural. She was a truly beautiful woman. None of us has been alive since before the age of explosive creation.
That also surprised Yi. How long have you been alive?
My human self was born a thousand and twelve years ago. This was, of course, after the exile. She paused, looking around at the cave, as if trying to decide if it was more than a thousand and twelve years old. A few of us are so old that they existed before the exile, but no one remembers our birth. Many of our records were lost during the war and exile. We have fragments, at best.
Many did not make it. The pain of becoming is far less for you, here, bathed in power and surrounded by keepers who love you.
Her words were so shocking he ch
ose to walk away and wander the edges of the vestibule, watching the others and thinking about the Colorima’s history.
Chrystal had already spent hours staring in the window, so she prowled while the Colorima Kelm stared. Yi sat on the floor and went deep inside of himself, letting his thought processes roam. He had expected the Colorimas to know almost everything. They clearly ranked the Jhailings, at least in dealing with humans. There were other old Next of course. He’d met a hundred individual Next, and among them there had been six instances of a Jhailing and three Colorimas, and one Glia who had felt older and more powerful than any of the others.
Were they looking for their birthplace? Wasn’t it obviously Lym?
If so, why did it matter so much to them?
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
NAYLI
Nayli twisted her dark braid in her fingers as she watched the planet rotate slowly below them. Vast expanses of blue-green ocean cradled brown and green and tan land bisected by blue rivers and snow-capped mountains. She hoped to go there, to feel the earth and see the sky, to hear a bird sing in the wild. They had to win for her to land; command would only work from space. It would be a fitting victor’s prize to see this most human of places, this cradle where they had matured.
She kept twisting her hair so hard it hurt, and her teeth drew blood from her lower lip.
The ship twisted faintly below her, the small maneuvering jets keeping it in place while they practically drifted. The Shining Danger remained stuck in a long line of ships waiting to dock.
This suited Nayli just fine.
Their allies had shown up. Other Shining Revolution ships waited, neatly spaced in the line of ships, all pretending to be just like the other obsessed idiots circling Lym.
They were at least six hours out. They would never arrive at the station.
She opened the channels that gave her communication to the other fronts and logged in, sending out a single phrase. “Good morning, people.”
It was time.
The stress that had been curled up inside of her melted, and her focus tightened. She dropped her braid and methodically changed Stupid into a huge clock and parked it near the ceiling.
Maureen elbowed Marina, and each woman tried to stifle a laugh and failed. Nayli ignored them. Vadim understood her obsession with controlling the pseudo-AI, but she was damned if she was going to explain it to these two. They’d eventually get it, or they wouldn’t. Vadim had also sent her music. He’d sent her two decks, one for victory, and one for defeat.
She cued them both up and dictated parameters to Stupid so that it would know what events would trigger which deck.
Maureen’s already-thin face had turned a tiny bit skull-like, as if stress were pulling her skin from her bones. Her ponytail was high and tight and her clothes tight but, as always, perfectly coordinated. She wore red and blue with a black belt and black high-heeled boots.
Marina came and stood between the two of them, one hand on each shoulder. She alone didn’t command anyone else at this moment. Her whisper came out high and yet fierce. “So it begins. Bless us in our endeavors.”
“Bless us in our work,” Nayli murmured.
Maureen simply nodded.
While Maureen and Marina watched the screen, Nayli watched the clock, which showed five minutes to seven p.m., Nexity time. Manna Springs would just be rotating far enough away from the sun for the sky to be streaked with fading colors and for dark to begin filling up the bowl of the world and stars to start shining faintly.
On a space station, the time was always the same for everyone living on the station. The idea that each part of the planet below her lived in a different time fascinated her.
But now, in Manna Springs, it was a perfect time for Maureen’s fighters.
Nayli imagined them filling in the streets of a town. She was connected enough to know that she had no real visual, although she had seen pictures of Manna Springs: a sprawling place with huge houses, tree-lined wide roads, and almost no defenses.
Maureen closed her eyes, communing with the fighters she commanded down below. Her lips moved almost silently as she answered a question or spoke a command.
The Shining Danger hummed, readying itself.
The minute hand moved and it became seven.
It took twelve carefully counted long breaths for any news to appear on the screen. In those breaths, she was certain Vadim had died, certain they had lost, certain she would never hear from him again.
When it finally came, his voice sounded like a gift, his tone triumphant. “The Next’s Glory and the Next Respite have been destroyed. We lost three.”
She breathed out. The first part of the plan, the warning shot across the bow. The two large Next ships had been caravanning together. Vadim had sent fifty ships against them, an embarrassment of riches, but they had all been in that sector anyway. The plan had worked, and it had only cost them three ships. Three. The three together were half as powerful as either of the Next ships, if that.
She pumped her fist and yelped.
She and the other two women shared a glance, triumph touching their eyes and bringing them close.
“Now.” Nayli spoke the word.
Three of the ships who had come to join them dove toward the planet.
More waited with Nayli—a reserve force or a second wave or a rescue mission. Whatever she called them into becoming. Whatever they needed.
She smiled.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
CHARLIE
Charlie ran, Cricket beside him. The sun lengthened their shadows so they looked like tall and thin avengers, more comic than real. Cricket’s legs made shadows as long on the ground as Charlie was tall in real life.
Two families ran in front of them, including a father carrying a small girl on his shoulders, screaming in delight as she bounced up and down. Others ran beside and ahead of him, mostly adults. A few clutched satchels or bags or other belongings, but most had abandoned extra weight to gain speed.
The images from a drone festooned with cameras fed into Charlie’s glasses, giving him counts and positions for the all of the enemies who had been identified and tagged. That might only be ten percent, maybe less. Not enough to mean anything, except that he had a sense from their movements that their primary job was to herd them, to empty the town.
Why?
This was their second trip out. They had gotten the first two ships away, and two more groups of people had been flown off after coming all the way back in through town to the spaceport. This was a third trip, an early evening attempt to get the last of the regular people someplace safer.
His display also showed him the bright light of Yi Two, still searching for stray people left in town and moving far faster than any human could.
Probably not so fast that he couldn’t be shot.
Charlie worried, and ran, his pace even enough that he didn’t have to breathe very hard.
Out of the corner of his eye, someone fell the boneless fall of the stunned.
Someone else screamed from behind him, high and frightened.
The hunt had gone past the herding phase.
“Hurry,” he yelled, his own pace picking up.
The man with the child stumbled, caught himself. Charlie resisted a desire to help. He couldn’t fight with a two-year old girl draped across his shoulders.
The man managed to keep his feet, to wobble back to standing, the child wide-eyed, her hands wrapped around his forehead like a tiny hat. He plucked her from his shoulders and cradled her to his chest, running awkwardly.
Charlie turned, putting his back against a wall and peering back the way they had come. At first, nothing. His glasses suggested he look right. He and Cricket had to move two houses right before they spotted Richard and Samil.
They were tailing the man with the child.
Charlie let them draw even, and then he took aim. He wanted to hit Samil, but Richard was closer.
He chose the easier target, taking careful aim.
>
Richard didn’t see the beam coming and dropped fast and awkward.
Charlie smiled.
Samil showed the fighter’s instincts that Charlie had been crediting him with; he dropped and turned right toward them. He spotted Charlie and rushed for him, screaming, his speed almost a blur.
He covered the full width of the street in seconds.
Charlie flinched, straightened, and aimed.
A ball of fur hit Samil from the right, unbalancing him.
Samil grabbed Cricket’s ear, pulling her near him.
Cricket yelped.
Charlie tried for a shot, couldn’t be sure he was clear.
Cricket pulled free and crouched.
Samil shuddered and fell. Someone had shot him from the side.
Charlie blinked as Kyle ran up next to him. “Thank me later. Hope no one saw that. They still think I’m with them.”
Charlie let his breath out. “Thank you.”
Kyle was gone too soon to have heard his words. Charlie called Cricket to him, and they kept racing toward the Spacer’s Rest.
Friends began to appear, men and women from Manna Springs stepping out from between houses or under doorways and taking hands, running.
Some passed through them heading for their attackers, clearing their backs.
In five minutes, they stopped, panting, close enough to the headquarters at the Spacer’s Rest to see it, to feel relief at the implied safety. He bounded into the hotel, people parting for him.
Inside, Manny still sat at what had been his breakfast table, even though the day had grown into dinner time. A bowl of nuts rested untouched by his hand.
“You know we’re doing exactly what they want,” Charlie said. “We’re emptying the town so they don’t have to fight for it.”
Manny looked weary. “And the other choice is?”
“I know. But we should do something to stop them from landing here.”
“Is the Shining Revolution landing here? Aren’t these attackers coming in from the ground?”
A boy handed him a glass of water, a look of near reverence on his face.
Charlie stopped long enough to bend down and look into the boy’s eyes. “Thank you.”
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