Xeelee: An Omnibus: Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring

by Stephen Baxter

  For long seconds the younger man held his gaze; then he dropped his eyes - just a flicker, but enough for Pallis to know he had won.

  He let his muscles relax, and the glow of his tiny triumph faded quickly. Two threatened fist-fights in as many minutes? Terrific.

  Gover said, ‘You took long enough to get here.’

  Pallis allowed his gaze to roam. He murmured, ‘I’ll not speak to the puppet if I know whose hand is working him. Tell Decker I’m here.’

  Gover flushed with frustration. ‘Decker’s not in charge. We don’t work like that—’

  ‘Of course not,’ Pallis said tiredly. ‘Just fetch him. All right?’ And he turned his full attention on the excited group near the edge.

  Gover stalked away.

  His height allowed Pallis a view over the milling crowd. They were clustered around a crude breach in the Platform’s glass wall. A chill breeze swept over the lip of the deck; Pallis - despite his flying experience - found his stomach tightening at the thought of approaching that endless drop. A metal beam a few yards long had been thrust through the breach and out over the drop. A young man stood on the beam, his uniform torn and begrimed but still bearing Officer’s braids. He held his head erect, so bloodied that Pallis failed to recognize him. The crowd taunted the Officer, laughing; fists and clubs poked at his back, forcing him to take one step after another along the beam.

  ‘You wanted to see me, tree-pilot?’

  Pallis turned. ‘Decker. Long time no see.’

  Decker nodded. His girder-like frame was barely contained by coveralls that were elaborately embroidered with black thread, and his face was a broad, strong mask contoured by old scars.

  Pallis pointed to the young Officer on the beam. ‘Why don’t you stop this bloodiness?’

  Decker smiled. ‘I have no power here.’

  ‘Balls.’

  Decker threw his head back and laughed.

  Decker was the same age as Pallis; they had grown up boyhood rivals, although Pallis had always considered the other his superior in ability. But their paths as adults had soon parted. Decker had never been able to accept the discipline of any Class, and so had descended, frustrated, into Infrastructure. With time Pallis’s face had grown a mask of tree scars, while Decker’s had become a map drawn by dozens of fists, boots and knives . . .

  But he had always given more than he had taken. And slowly he had grown into a position of unofficial power: if you wanted something done fast you went to Decker . . . So Pallis knew who would emerge smiling from this revolt, even if Decker himself hadn’t instigated it.

  ‘All right, Pallis,’ Decker said. ‘Why did you ask to see me?’

  ‘I want to know why you and your band of bloodthirsty apprentices dragged me from my tree.’

  Decker rubbed his greying beard. ‘Well, I can only act as a spokesman for the Interim Committee, of course—’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘We have some shipments to be taken to the Belt. We need you to lead the flight.’

  ‘Shipments? Of what?’

  Decker nodded towards the huddle of Scientists. ‘That lot for a start. Labour for the mine. Most of them anyway; we’ll keep the young, healthy ones.’

  ‘Very noble.’

  ‘And you’re to take a supply machine.’

  Pallis frowned. ‘You’re giving the Belt one of our machines?’

  ‘If you read your history you’ll find they have a right, you know.’

  ‘Don’t talk to me about history, Decker. What’s the angle?’

  Decker pursed his lips. ‘The upswelling of popular affection on this Raft for our brothers in the Belt is, shall we say, not to be opposed at present by the prudent man.’

  ‘So you’re pleasing the crowd. But if the Raft loses its economic advantage over the Belt you’ll lose out too.’

  Decker smiled. ‘I’ll make that leap when I come to it. It’s a long flight to the Belt, Pallis; you know that as well as anybody. And a lot can happen between here and there.’

  ‘You’d deliberately lose one of our machines? By the Bones, Decker—’

  ‘I didn’t say that, old friend. All I meant was that the transportation of a machine by a tree - or a fleet of trees - is an enormous technical challenge for your woodsmen.’

  Pallis nodded. Decker was right, of course; you’d have to use a flight of six or seven trees with the machine suspended between them. He’d need his best pilots to hold the formation all the way to the Belt . . . names and faces passed through his thoughts . . .

  And Decker was grinning at him. Pallis frowned, irritated. All a man like Decker had to do was throw him an interesting problem and everything else went out of his head.

  Decker turned to watch the activities of his co-revolutionaries.

  The young Officer had been pushed a good yard beyond the glass wall. Tears mingled with the blood caked over his cheeks and, as Pallis watched, the lad’s bladder released; a stain gushed around his crotch, causing the crowd to roar.

  ‘Decker—’

  ‘I can’t save him,’ Decker said firmly. ‘He won’t discard his braids.’

  ‘Good for him.’

  ‘He’s a suicidal idiot.’

  Now a figure broke out of the ranks of cowering Scientists. It was a young, dark man. He cried: ‘No!’ and, scarred fists flailing, he launched himself at the backs of the crowd. The Scientist soon disappeared under a hail of fists and boots; at last he too was thrust, bloodied and torn, onto the beam. And through the fresh bruises, dirt and growth of beard, Pallis realized with a start that he recognized the impetuous young man.

  ‘Rees,’ he breathed.

  Rees faced the baying, upturned faces, head ringing from the blows he had taken. Over the heads of the crowd he could see the little flock of Scientists and Officers; they clung together, unable even to watch his death.

  The Officer leaned close and shouted through the noise. ‘I ought to thank you, mine rat.’

  ‘Don’t bother, Doav. It seems I’m not ready yet to watch a man die alone. Not even you.’

  Now fists and clubs came prodding towards them. Rees took a cautious step backwards. Had he travelled so far, learned so much . . . only for it to end like this?

  . . . He recalled the time of revolution, the moment he had faced Gover outside the Bridge. As he had sat among the Scientists, signifying where his loyalties lay, Gover spat on the deck and turned his back.

  Hollerbach had hissed: ‘You bloody young idiot. What do you think you are doing? The important thing is to survive . . . If we don’t resume our work, a revolution every other shift won’t make a damn bit of difference.’

  Rees shook his head. There was logic in Hollerbach’s words - but surely there were some things more important than mere survival. Perhaps when he was Hollerbach’s age he would see things differently . . .

  As the shifts had worn away he had been deprived of food, water, shelter and sleep, and had been forced to work on basic deck maintenance tasks with the most primitive of tools. He had suffered the successive indignities in silence, waiting for this darkness to clear from the Raft.

  But the revolution had not failed. At last his group had been brought here; he suspected that some or all of them were now to be selected for some new trial. He had been prepared to accept his destiny—

  —until the sight of the young Officer dying alone had cut through his carefully maintained patience.

  Doav seemed calm now, accepting; he returned Rees’s gaze with a nod. Rees extended his hand. The Officer gripped it firmly.

  The two of them faced their tormentors.

  Now a few young men climbed onto the beam, egged on by their companions. Rees fended off their clubs with his forearm, but he was forced to retreat, inch by inch.

  Under his bare feet he felt an edge of metal, the coldness of empty air.

  But someone was moving through the crowd.

  Pallis had followed Decker through the mob, watching the deference the big man was accorded wi
th some amusement. At the wall Decker said, ‘So now we have two heroes. Eh?’

  Laughter rippled.

  ‘Don’t you think this is a waste, though?’ Decker mused loudly. ‘You - Rees, is it? - we were going to keep you here. We need good muscles; there’s enough work to be done. Now this stupidity of yours is going to leave us short . . . I’ll tell you what. You. The Officer.’ Decker beckoned. ‘Come down and join the rest of the cowards over there.’ There was a rumble of dissent; Decker let it pass, then said softly: ‘Of course, this is just my suggestion. Is the will of the Committee opposed?’

  Of course not. Pallis smiled.

  ‘Come, lad.’

  Doav turned uncertainly to Rees. Rees nodded and pushed him gently towards the Platform. The Officer walked gingerly along the beam and stepped down to the deck; he passed through the crowd towards the Scientists, enduring sly punches and kicks.

  Rees was left alone.

  ‘As for the mine rat—’ An anticipatory roar rose from the crowd. Decker raised his hands for silence. ‘As for him I can think of a much tougher fate than jumping off that plate. Let’s send him back to the Belt! He’s going to need all his heroism to face the miners he ran out on—’

  His words were drowned by a shout of approval; hands reached out and hauled Rees from the beam.

  Pallis murmured, ‘Decker, if I thought it would mean anything I’d thank you.’

  Decker ignored his words. ‘Well, pilot; will you fly your tree as the Committee request?’

  Pallis folded his arms. ‘I’m a pilot, Decker; not a gaoler.’

  Decker raised his eyebrows; the scars patterned across his cheeks stretched white. ‘Of course it’s your choice; you’re a citizen of the Free Raft. But if you don’t take this Science rabble I don’t know how we’ll manage to keep feeding them.’ He sighed with mock gravity. ‘At least in the Belt they might have some chance. Here, though - times are hard, you see. The kindest thing might be to throw them over that edge right now.’ He regarded Pallis with empty, black eyes. ‘What do you say, pilot? Shall I give my young friends some real sport?’

  Pallis found himself trembling. ‘You’re a bastard, Decker.’

  Decker laughed softly.

  It was time for the Scientists to board the tree. Pallis made one last tour of the rim, checking the supply modules lashed to the shaped wood.

  Two Committee men pulled themselves unceremoniously through the foliage, dragging a rope behind them. One of them, young, tall and prematurely bald, nodded to him. ‘Good shift, pilot.’

  Pallis watched coldly, not deigning to reply.

  The two braced their feet on the branches, spat on their hands, and began to haul on the rope. At length a bundle of filthy cloth was dragged through the foliage. The two men dumped the bundle to one side, then removed the rope and passed it back through the foliage.

  The bundle uncurled slowly. Pallis walked over to it.

  The bundle was a human, a man bound hand and foot: a Scientist, to judge by the remnants of crimson braid stitched to the ragged robes. He struggled to sit up, rocking his bound arms. Pallis reached down, took the man’s collar and hauled him upright. The Scientist looked up with dim gratitude; through matted dirt Pallis made out the face of Cipse, once Chief Navigator.

  The Committee men were leaning against the trunk of his tree, evidently waiting for their rope to be attached to the next ‘passenger’. Pallis left Cipse and walked across to them. He took the shoulder of the bald man and, with a vicious pressure, forced the Committee man to face him.

  The bald man eyed him uncertainly. ‘What’s the problem, pilot?’

  Through clenched teeth Pallis said: ‘I don’t give a damn what happens down there, but on my trees what I say goes. And what I say is that these men are going to board my tree with dignity.’ He dug his fingers into the other’s flesh until cartilage popped.

  The bald man squirmed away from his grip. ‘All right, damn it; we’re just doing our job. We don’t want any trouble.’

  Pallis turned his back and returned to Cipse. ‘Navigator, welcome aboard,’ he said formally. ‘I’d be honoured if you would share my food.’

  Cipse’s eyes closed and his soft body was wracked by shudders.

  Slowly the flight of trees descended into the bowels of the Nebula. Before long the Belt hovered in the sky before them; gloomily Rees studied the chain of battered boxes and piping turning around the fleck of rust that was the star core. Here and there insect-like humans crawled between the cabins, and a cloud of yellowish smoke, emitted by the two foundries, hung about the Belt like a stain in the air.

  Numbly he worked at the fire bowls. This was a nightmare: a grim parody of his hope-filled voyage to the Raft, so many shifts ago. During his rest periods he avoided the other Scientists. They clung to each other in a tight circle around Grye and Cipse, barely talking, doing only what they were told.

  These were supposed to be men of intelligence and imagination, Rees thought bitterly; but then, he reflected, their future did not exactly encourage the use of the imagination, and he did not have the heart to blame them for turning away from the world.

  His only, slight, pleasure was to spend long hours at the trunk of the tree, staring across the air at the formation which hung a few hundred yards above him. Six trees turned at the corners of an invisible hexagon; the trees were in the same plane and were close enough for their leaves to brush, but such was the skill of the pilots that scarcely a twig was disturbed as they descended through miles of air. And suspended beneath the trees, in a net fixed by six thick ropes, was the boxy form of a supply machine. Rees could see the remnants of Raft deck plates still clinging to the base of the machine.

  Even now the flight was a sight that lifted his heart. Humans were capable of such beauty, such great feats . . .

  The Belt became a chain of homes and factories. Rees saw half-familiar faces turned up towards their approach like tiny buttons.

  Pallis joined him at the trunk. ‘So it ends like this, young miner,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’m sorry.’

  Rees looked at him in some surprise; the pilot’s visage was turned towards the approaching Belt, his scars flaring. ‘Pallis, you’ve nothing to be sorry about.’

  ‘I’d have done you a kindness if I’d thrown you off when you first stowed away. They’ll give you a hard time down there, lad.’

  Rees shrugged. ‘But it won’t be as hard as for the rest of them.’ He jabbed a thumb towards the Scientists. ‘And remember I had a choice. I could have joined the revolution and stayed on the Raft.’

  Pallis scratched his beard. ‘I’m not sure I understand why you didn’t. The Bones know I’ve no sympathy with the old system; and the way your people had been kept down must have made you burn.’

  ‘Of course it did. But . . . I didn’t go to the Raft to throw fuel bombs, tree-pilot. I wanted to learn what was wrong with the world.’ He smiled. ‘Modest, wasn’t I?’

  Pallis lifted his face higher. ‘You were damn right to try, boy. Those problems you saw haven’t gone away.’

  Rees cast a glance around the red-stained sky. ‘No, they haven’t.’

  ‘Don’t lose hope,’ Pallis said firmly. ‘Old Hollerbach’s still working.’

  Rees laughed. ‘Hollerbach? They won’t shift him. They still need someone to run things in there - find them the repair manuals for the supply machines, maybe try to move the Raft from under the falling star - and besides, I think even Decker’s afraid of him . . .’

  Now they laughed together. They remained by the trunk for long minutes, watching the Belt approach.

  ‘Pallis, do something for me.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Tell Jaen I asked about her.’

  The tree-pilot rested his massive hand on Rees’s shoulder. ‘Aye, lad. She’s safe at present - Hollerbach got her a place on his team of assistants - and I’ll do what I can to make sure she stays that way.’

  ‘Thanks. I—’

  ‘And I’ll tell her you a
sked.’

  A rope uncurled from the trunk of the tree and brushed against the Belt’s rooftops. Rees was the first to descend. A miner, half his face ruined by a massive purple burn, watched him curiously. The Belt’s rotation was carrying him away from the tree; Rees pulled himself after the trailing rope and assisted a second Scientist to lower himself to the rooftops.

  Soon a gaggle of Scientists were stumbling around the Belt after the dangling rope. A cluster of Belt children followed them, eyes wide in thin faces.

  Rees saw Sheen. His former supervisor hung from a cabin, one brown foot anchored in rope; she watched the procession with a broad grin.

  Rees let the clumsy parade move on. He worked his way towards Sheen; fixing his feet in the rope he straightened up and faced her.

  ‘Well, well,’ she said softly. ‘We thought you were dead.’

  He studied her. The heat-laden pull of her long limbs still called uncomfortably; but her face was gaunt, her eyes lost in pools of shadow. ‘You’ve changed, Sheen.’

  She spat laughter. ‘So has the Belt, Rees. We’ve seen hard times here.’

  He narrowed his eyes. Her voice was almost brutal, edged with despair. ‘If you’ve the brains I once believed you had,’ he snapped, ‘you’ll let me help. Let me tell you some of what I’ve learned.’

  She shook her head. ‘This isn’t a time for knowledge, boy. This is a time to survive.’ She looked him up and down. ‘And believe me, you and the rest of your flabby colleagues are going to find that quite tough enough.’

  The absurd, shambling procession, still following the tree rope, had almost completed an orbit of the Belt.

  Rees closed his eyes. If only this mess would all go away; if only he were allowed to get back to his work—

  ‘Rees!’ It was Cipse’s thin voice. ‘You’ve got to help us, man; tell these people who we are . . .’

  Rees shook off his despair and pulled himself across the rooftops.

  8

  The winch mechanism impelled the chair towards the star kernel. Rees closed his eyes, relaxed his muscles and tried to blank out his mind.