by John Varley
Oceanus kept moving west. Without realizing it, he was laying a communications net that would unite the six rebellious lands.
He found his strongest ally in Iapetus. If only he had been closer, they might have overthrown Gaea. But the tactics they imagined depended on close physical cooperation, so he and Iapetus could only plot together. He was forced to fall back on his alliance with Rhea.
He made his move around the time the pyramids were being built on Earth. Without warning, he stopped the flow of coolant fluids passing through his immense body and through the support cables he controlled. At the far eastern end of the sea that dominated his frozen landscape, he had control of two river pumps—huge three-chambered muscles that lifted the waters of Ophion into western Hyperion. He stopped their massive beating. To the east, Rhea did the same with the five pumps that raised water over her eastern mountain ranges, while speeding the operation of her pumps near Hyperion. Shut off from the west and sucked dry from the east, Hyperion began to wither.
In a few days, Ophion ceased to flow.
“I got all this second-hand from Rhea,” Gaea said. “I had known I was losing control of my peripheral brains, but no one had mentioned any grievances. I had not imagined they could exist.”
It had grown gradually darker as Gaea told of the rebellion of Oceanus. Most of the luminescent floor panels had gone out. Those remaining gave off a flickering orange glow. The walls of the room receded in the gloom.
“I knew I had to do something. He was about to destroy whole ecosystems; it might be a thousand years before I could put them together again.”
“What did you do?” Gaby whispered. Cirocco jumped; Gaea’s quiet voice had nearly mesmerized her.
She held out her hand, slowly made a fist that looked like a lump of stone.
“I squeezed.”
The vast, circular muscle had been dormant for 3,000,000 years. It had only one function: to contract the hub and draw out the spokes behind it, just after the Titan was born. Gaea’s network of cables depended on it. It was the center of her rigging, the mighty anchor that held her together.
It jerked.
Gigatonnes of ice and rock leaped into the air.
Ten thousand square kilometers of Oceanus’ surface rose like an express elevator. The frozen sea turned to slush, embedded with ice cubes the size of city blocks. All over Gaea, cable strands snapped like rotten rope, raveling, snarling, flailing the land beneath them.
The muscle relaxed.
For one giddy moment weightlessness reigned in Oceanus. Kilometer-square ice floes drifted like snowflakes, turning in the hurricane that had begun to blow from the hub.
When Oceanus bottomed out, fifteen cables twanged the deadly music of Gaea’s revenge. The sonic energy alone stripped ten meters of topsoil from the surrounding regions and hurled opposing dust storms a dozen times around the rim before their fury abated.
Like a hand squeezing a ball, the muscle in the hub contracted and relaxed in a two-day rhythm that made Gaea vibrate like a plucked rubber band.
She had one more trick, but she waited until the cataclysm had flayed Oceanus to the bare rock. She had only six other muscles. Now she flexed one of them.
The spoke that towered over Oceanus contracted, squeezed to half its normal diameter. Deprived of water for over a week, the trees were tinder-dry. They fractured, sloughing off their tenuous grip in Gaea’s flesh, and began to fall.
On the way down, they began to burn.
Oceanus was an inferno.
“I meant to burn the bastard,” Gaea said. “I meant to cauterize him for all time.”
Cirocco coughed, and reached for her forgotten drink. The ice cubes clicked alarmingly in the silence and near-darkness.
“He was too deep, but I put the fear of God into him.” She chuckled quietly. “I burned myself in the process—the fire damaged my lower valve, and from then on I’ve blasted him with hurricanes and noise every seventeen days. The sound is not my Lament; it’s my warning. But it was worth it. He was a very good boy for thousands of years. Make no mistake, you can’t have a dozen Gods running a world. The Greeks knew what they were talking about.
“But the catch, you see, is that his fate is linked with mine. He’s another part of my mind, so in your terms, I’m insane. It will destroy us all, eventually, the good with the bad.
“But he was on his best behavior until you came along.
“I had planned to contact you a few days before you arrived here. It was my intention to pick you up with Hyperion’s external grapples. I assure you I could have done it delicately, not breaking any glassware.
“Oceanus exploited my weakness. My radio transmission organs are on the rim. There were three of them, but one broke down ages ago. The others are in Oceanus and Crius. Crius is my ally, but Rhea and Tethys managed to destroy his transmitter. Suddenly all my communications were in the hands of Oceanus.
“I decided not to make the pick-up. Not having been in contact with me, you would surely have misinterpreted it.
“But Oceanus wanted you for himself.”
The battle raged beneath the surfaces of Oceanus and Hyperion. It was fought in the great conduits that supplied the nutrient fluid known as Gaea’s milk.
Each of the human captives was encapsulated in a protective jelly while their fates were decided. Their metabolic rates were slowed. Medically, they were comatose, unaware of their surroundings.
The weapons of the war were the pumps that impelled nutrients and coolants through the underworld. Great pressure imbalances were created by both combatants, so that at one point a geyser of milk broke through in Mnemosyne and spurted a hundred meters into the air, to fall on the sands and fuel a brief spring.
They battled for the better part of a year. Then at last, Oceanus knew he was losing. The prizes began to flow toward Hyperion under the staggering pressure Gaea built from Iapetus, Cronus, and Mnemosyne.
Oceanus changed his tactics. He reached into the minds of his captives and woke them up.
“I had been afraid all along he’d do that,” Gaea said, as the room lights threatened to gutter into oblivion. “He had a link into your brains. It became imperative for me to sever that link. I used tactics that I don’t think you’d understand. In the process, I lost one of you. When I got her back, she had been changed.
“He was trying to destroy you all before I got you—your minds, not your bodies. That would have been easy enough. He flooded you with information. He implanted the whistle speech in one of you, the songs of the Titanides in two more. That any of you survived with your sanity is a source of amazement to me.”
“Not all of us did,” Cirocco said.
“No, and I’m sorry. I’ll try to make it up to you, somehow.”
While Cirocco was wondering what could possibly be done to put things right, Gaby spoke up.
“I remember climbing a huge stairway,” she said. “I passed through golden gates, and stood at the feet of God. Then a few hours ago it seemed like I was in the same place again. Can you explain that?”
“I talked to all of you,” Gaea said. “In your condition, mentally pliable from days of sensory deprivation, you put your own interpretation on it.”
“I don’t recall that at all,” Cirocco said.
“You blanked it. Your friend Bill went further, and blanked most of his memories.
“Interviewing you through Hyperion, I decided what must be done. April was too far indoctrinated with angel culture and customs. Trying to return her to what she had been would have destroyed her. I transported her to the spoke and let her emerge to find her own destiny.
“Gene was sick in his mind. I took him to Rhea, hoping that he would remain separated from the rest of you. I should have destroyed him.”
Cirocco sighed.
“No. I let him live when I could have killed him, too.”
“You make me feel better,” Gaea said. “As for the rest of you, it was imperative that you be returned at once to full
consciousness. There was not even time to bring you together. I hoped you would make your way up here, and in time, you did. And now you can go home.”
Cirocco looked up quickly.
“Yes, the rescue ship is here. It’s under the command of Captain Wally Svensen, and—”
“Wally!” Gaby and Cirocco said it simultaneously.
“A friend? You’ll see him soon. Your friend Bill has been talking to him for two weeks now.” Gaea looked uncomfortable, and when she spoke again there was a hint of petulance in her voice. “It’s a bit more than a rescue mission, actually.”
“I thought it might be.”
“Yes. Captain Svensen is equipped to wage a war with me. He has a large number of nuclear bombs, and his presence out there is making me nervous. That’s one of the things I wanted to ask you. Could you put in a good word? I couldn’t possibly be a threat to the Earth, you know.”
Cirocco hesitated a moment, and it was Gaea’s turn to look uncomfortable.
“Yes, I think I can straighten it out.”
“Thanks so much. He didn’t actually say he was going to bomb me, and when he discovered there were survivors from Ringmaster that possibility became more remote. I’ve picked up some of his scout ships, and they are in the process of constructing a base camp near Titantown. You can explain to him what happened, as I’m not sure he believes me.”
Cirocco nodded, and said nothing for a long time, waiting for Gaea to continue. She did not, and eventually Cirocco had to speak.
“How do we know if we can believe all this?”
“I can give you no assurances. I can only ask you to believe the story as I told it.”
Cirocco nodded again, and stood up. She tried to make it casual, but no one had been expecting it. Gaby looked confused, but got to her feet.
“It’s been interesting,” Cirocco said. “Thanks for the coke.”
“Let’s don’t be hasty,” Gaea said, after an astonished pause. “Once I return you to the rim I won’t be able to speak to you directly.”
“You can send me a postcard.”
“Do I detect a hint of anger?”
“I don’t know. Do you?” Suddenly she was angry, and was not sure why. “You’re the one in the position to know. I’m your captive, no matter what you call it.”
“That’s not quite true.”
“I have only your word for that. Only your word for a number of things. You bring me to a room straight out of an old film, show yourself to me as a dumpy old woman, give me my only vice to indulge in. You bring down the lights and tell me a long and unlikely story. What am I supposed to believe?”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.”
Cirocco shook her head tiredly. “Skip it,” she said. “I’m feeling a little let down, that’s all.”
Gaby cocked one eyebrow at her, but said nothing. It irritated Cirocco, and it didn’t help when Gaea seemed interested in the statement, too.
“‘Let down’? I can’t imagine why. You’ve done what you set out to do, against formidable odds. You’ve stopped a war. And now you’re going home.”
“The war bothers me,” Cirocco said, slowly.
“In what way?”
“I didn’t swallow your story. Not all of it anyway. If you really want me to go to bat for you, tell me the real reason the Titanides fought the angels for so long, to so little purpose.”
“Practice,” Gaea said, promptly.
“Say again?”
“Practice. I have no enemies, and nothing in my instinctive behavior to help me cope with war. I knew I would meet humans soon, and everything I learned about you underlined your aggressiveness. Your news, your films, your books: war, killing, predation, hostility.”
“You were getting ready to fight a war with us.”
“I was exploring the techniques, in case I had to.”
“What did you learn?”
“That I was terrible at it. I can destroy your ships if they approach closely, but that’s all. You could destroy me in the twinkling of an eye. I have no feel for strategy. My victory over Oceanus showed all the subtlety of arm-wrestling. As soon as you people arrived, April revolutionized the angel attack and Gene was about to introduce new weapons to the Titanides. I could have given them those weapons, of course. I’ve seen enough cowboy movies to know how a bow and arrow functions.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I hoped they would invent them.”
“And why didn’t they?”
“They are a new species. They lack inventiveness. That’s my fault; I was never high on originality. I stole the giant sandworm in Mnemosyne from a movie. There’s a giant ape in Phoebe that I’m quite proud of, but it’s another imitation. The Titanides I took from mythology—their sexual arrangements are original with me, however.” She looked smug, and Cirocco almost grinned. “I can do the bodies, you see, but giving a manufactured species a sense of … well, the sheer orneriness you humans have … It’s beyond me.”
“So you borrowed a little of it,” Cirocco said.
“Pardon me?”
“Don’t play innocent. There’s one thing—of some importance to me and Gaby and August—that you forgot to mention. I’ve believed you so far, more or less, but here’s your chance to convince me you’ve told the truth. Why did we become pregnant?”
Gaea said nothing for what seemed a very long time. Cirocco was ready to run. After all, Gaea was still a Goddess; it would not do to anger her.
“I did it,” Gaea said.
“Did you think we’d approve?”
“No, I was sure you wouldn’t. I’m sorry now, but it’s done.”
“And un-done.”
“I know.” She sighed. “The temptation was just too great. It was a chance to gain a new hybrid—one that might incorporate the best of both species. I hoped to re-vitalize … never mind. I did it, I’m not trying to make excuses. I’m not proud of it.”
“I’m glad to hear that, anyway. You just don’t do that, Gaea. We’re thinking beings, just like you, and we deserve to be treated with more dignity than that.”
“I understand that now,” Gaea said, contrite. “It’s a hard concept to get used to.”
Cirocco admitted, grudgingly, that it probably was, after 3,000,000 years of being a Goddess.
“I have a question,” Gaby said, suddenly. She had been quiet for a long time, seemingly satisfied to let Cirocco do the negotiating. “Was this trip really necessary?”
Cirocco waited, having had doubts about that part of the story herself.
“You’re right,” Gaea admitted. “I could have brought you here directly. Obviously, since I brought April more than halfway. There would have been some risk with the additional time in isolation, but I could have put you back to sleep.”
“Then why didn’t you?” Cirocco demanded.
Gaea threw up her hands.
“Let’s stop kidding each other, shall we? Number one, I don’t know if I owed it to you. Number two, I was—and still am—a bit frightened of you. Not you personally, but humans. You’re inclined to be hasty.”
“I won’t argue with that.”
“You made it up here anyway, didn’t you? That’s what I wanted to see: if you could do it. And you should be thanking me for it, because you had a great time.”
“I can’t imagine how you could think a thing like—”
“We’re being honest now, remember? You’re really overjoyed that you’re about to go home now, aren’t you?”
“Well, of course I—”
“Everything about you says you’re not. You’ve had a goal to achieve—getting up here. Now it’s over. The best time of your life. Deny that if you can.”
Cirocco was nearly speechless. “How can you say that? I saw my lover nearly killed—I was nearly killed myself. Me and Gaby were raped, I went through an abortion, April has been turned into a monster, August is—”
“You could have been raped on Earth. As for the rest of it … you expected i
t to be easy? I’m sorry about the abortion; I won’t do that again. Do you blame me for the rest of it?”
“Well, no, I think I believe what you—”
“You want to blame me. It would make it easier to leave. You find it hard to admit that even with all those things that happened to your friends—none of it your fault—you’ve had a great adventure.”
“That’s the most—”
“Captain Jones, I submit to you that you were never really cut out to be a Captain. Oh, you’ve done well, just like you do a good job of most things you tackle. But you’re not a Captain. You don’t enjoy ordering other people around. You like your independence, you like to go to strange places and do exciting things. In an earlier age you would have been an adventurer, a soldier of fortune.”
“If I’d been born a man,” Cirocco corrected.
“That’s because it’s only recently that women have had a crack at adventure on their own. Space was the only frontier available to you, but it’s done by the numbers, very civilized. It’s not really your cup of tea.”
Cirocco had given up on trying to stop her. It was all so far-fetched, she decided to let Gaea ramble on.
“No, what you’re cut out for is exactly what you’ve been doing. Scaling the unscalable mountain. Communing with strange beings. Shaking your fist at the unknown, spitting in God’s eye. You did all those things. You got hurt along the way; if you keep on that path you’ll be hurt more. You’ll freeze and go hungry and bleed and fall down from exhaustion. So what do you want? Spend the rest of your life behind a desk? Go home; it’s waiting for you.”
Far down the curved abyss that was Gaea’s hub, wind howled faintly. Somewhere volumes of air were being sucked into a vertical chamber 300 kilometers high, and that chamber was peopled by angels. Cirocco looked around her, and shivered. To her right, Gaby was smiling. What does she know that I don’t know? Cirocco wondered.
“What are you offering me?”
