End of Exile e-3

by Ben Bova

  The screen hummed for a moment. Then, “MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR HYDROPONICS SECTION: CODE SEVEN-FOUR-FOUR.”

  “What?” Linc said. “I don’t understand.”

  The screen suddenly showed a picture of the buttons on the desk. Three of the buttons had red circles drawn around them.

  “MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR INFORMATION FOR HYDROPONICS EQUIPMENT. PUNCH CODE SEVEN-FOUR-FOUR.”

  It took Linc a while to figure out what the strange words meant. He poked at the buttons indicated, and some even stranger symbols appeared on the screen. He told the screen that the pump was broken. The screen jabbered more meaningless words at him, then showed some pictures. Gradually, Linc realized that they were pictures of the pump: its insides as well as its outside.

  It took a long time, so long that Linc was certain the workday would begin and the farmers would come in and discover him there.

  In pictures, the screen showed him that the tools he needed were stored in a special wall panel. Linc found the panel; it hadn’t been touched for so long that it was crusted over with dirt, but he pulled it open with back-straining desperation.

  Some of the tools the screen’s voice spoke about just didn’t work. Something it called a “torch” stayed cold and lifeless, even when the pictures showed that a flame was supposed to come out of it.

  Maybe I just don’t know how to work it, Linc thought.

  But the screen was patient, and staggered Linc with its flood of knowledge. With pictures and the steady, unhurried voice, it showed Linc how to unfasten the pump’s cover, disconnect its input and output pipes, check the seals and screens and motor. Linc, sitting in the midst of scattered bolts, metal pieces, lengths of plastic pipe, found that the main inner chamber of the pump was clogged with weeds and dead leaves. He cleaned it as thoroughly as he could, then followed the screen’s instructions in reassembling the machine.

  “ACTIVATE THE POWER SWITCH,” the voice said at last, and the picture showed a yellow arrow pointing to a tiny switch at the base of the pump.

  Linc went back and pushed at the little toggle. The whole pump seemed to shudder and clatter for an instant, then settled down to a smooth steady hum. Above his head, in the crop tanks, Linc could hear the sudden gurgle of nutrient fluid flowing again.

  He should have felt exultant. Instead, he merely felt tired. He managed a weak smile, went back to the screen, and said:

  “Thank you, whoever you are.”

  The screen did not reply. Linc clicked it off, then turned just in time to see the first group of farmers entering the big, echoing room.

  6

  Linc’s first impulse was to run.

  But as the farmers noticed him there, sweat- and dirt-streaked, they seemed more surprised and curious than angry.

  Why should I be afraid? Linc asked himself. I fixed the pump. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

  The farmers were walking up to him, slowly, looking puzzled.

  “Linc,” said a lanky girl called Hollie, “what are you doing here?”

  “What’s going on?” Slav’s strong voice came from behind them. The broad-faced, sandy-haired leader of the farmers pushed past Hollie to stare at Linc.

  Linc was so tired that all he wanted to do was sleep. He pointed to the pump. “I fixed it,” he said. “I saved the crops.”

  “What? You must be crazy,” Slav said. “Nobody can fix the pump. It’s dead.”

  Linc grinned at him. “Go see for yourself.”

  A crowd of farmers was gathering around them now. With a good-humored shrug, Hollie said, “Won’t hurt to look.”

  She went to the pump, bent down and listened, put a hand on it.

  “It’s working, all right!” she shouted.

  Everyone rushed to the pump, leaving Linc standing alone. Slav clambered up to the top of the nearest crop tank. A few other farmers followed him, bumping each other in their haste to climb the metal rungs. Others dashed to other tanks.

  “The nutrient’s flowing again!” someone yelled.

  They all rushed back toward Linc. Slav grabbed him in a bear hug that almost cracked his spine. The others pounded Linc on the shoulders, laughing and shouting, congratulating and thanking him. They half-carried him toward the airlock doors.

  “Hey, no—” Linc objected weakly. “Let me go… all I want is some sleep.”

  They left him at the doors and turned back to their work. They were all smiling. One voice picked up an ancient work song, something about Hi Ho, whatever that was. Other voices joined the chant.

  Linc smiled, too, as he headed down the passageway toward his bunk.

  He was jolted out of his sleep when one of Monel’s guards kicked his door open. Before Linc could get up from the bunk, they were on him, three of them. Two grabbed his arms and yanked him to his feet.

  The third said, “Monel wants to see you. Now.”

  They pushed Linc out into the corridor and led him down to Monel’s little room.

  He was sitting at the desk, fingering the plastic chips. Jayna sat back in a corner, looking frightened, staring at Monel with big unblinking eyes. Monel himself seemed furious. He was flexing the chips in his fingers, bending them as if he wanted to break them into tiny bits.

  For a long time Linc simply stood there, crowded against the doorway by the three husky guards.

  Finally, Monel looked up at him. “You tampered with the food tank.” His voice was pure acid.

  “I fixed the pump.”

  “You touched a machine when you knew it was forbidden!”

  Linc repeated stubbornly, “I fixed it.”

  “That’s a crime! And you know it.”

  Stepping up closer to the desk and leaning his knuckles on it so that he loomed over Monel, Linc said, “I made sure that we’ll have enough food for everybody. So you won’t have to decide who’s going to eat and who should starve.”

  “You committed a crime,” Monel insisted.

  “That’s for the priestess to decide; not you.”

  Monel glared at Linc for a moment. Then a teeth-baring smile spread across his face. “Oh, she’ll say it. Don’t worry about that. She’ll say it, and you’ll be condemned to outer darkness. Or maybe you both will!”

  They let Linc go back to his room while the workday wore on. After lastmeal everyone would gather in the meeting room to hear Magda’s decision about Linc.

  He sat on his bunk and stared at the wall. Magda won’t sentence me, she’ll thank me. I did it for her. She’ll be glad.

  But still he worried.

  The time for midmeal passed. Linc didn’t bother going out to the galley, and no one brought him any food.

  But then he heard swift footsteps outside his door. The door slid open, and Magda stepped into his room.

  He stood up and reached for her.

  “How could you?” she whispered.

  He blinked, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “How could you cause all this trouble? Fix the pump! You know that it’s forbidden to tamper with the machines.”

  “I didn’t tamper with it,” Linc said stubbornly, “I fixed it. I figured out how to use the wall screen in the farm section, and the screen told me—”

  But her eyes were wide with horror. “Linc! Do you realize what you’re saying! No one’s allowed to touch the machines. You can’t play with viewing screens.”

  “But the screens know how to fix the machines.”

  She covered her mouth with one hand and paced the length of the room in four rapid strides. Turning back to Linc, she asked:

  “Have you told anybody about the screen?”

  “No… I don’t think so.”

  “Good. Now listen to me. When we meet after lastmeal, say nothing about the screen. Or—better yet, tell them Jerlet appeared on the screen without you touching it.”

  “I was trying to get Jerlet to speak, that’s why I turned the screen on.”

  “Listen to me,” she urged. “Don’t say that you turned the screen on. I’ll t
ell them that I was meditating and looking for an answer to our problem all through the night. Which is no lie. I was. And Jerlet must have seen me, or heard me… and fixed the pump for us.”

  “But that’s not true,” Linc said. “I fixed it. I did it by myself, with my own hands.”

  She shook her head impatiently. “Monel will destroy you … both of us, if we give him the chance.”

  “But I saved the crops. Nobody will go hungry.”

  “Which is why he’s angry.”

  Linc pounded his fists against his thighs. “The people will be glad that the pump’s working again. The farmers were singing!”

  Magda glared at him. “Linc, people don’t behave like machines. Don’t you see what Monel will do? He’ll say that it’s a crime to tamper with the machines, yet you went ahead and did it anyway. This time it worked, but if you’re left free to tamper again, you could destroy something and kill us all.”

  Linc sank down onto his bunk. “That’s stupid.”

  “But that’s just what he’ll do. And then he’ll tell me to get Jerlet to speak to us, and Jerlet will just answer with the same words he always speaks, and I’ll have to condemn you. I’ll have to!”

  “I did it for you,” Linc muttered. “You wanted a miracle.”

  Her look softened. “I know. But we’ve got to be careful about how we explain it to the people. You’ve got to say that the screen came on by itself, and Jerlet told you what to do.”

  With a frown, Linc said, “And how do I explain why I went into the farms in the first place?”

  Magda bowed her head in thought for a moment. Then she came up smiling. “Oh, it’s easy! You say that Jerlet came to you in a dream, while you were sleeping, and told you to go to the farms.”

  “But that’s not true!”

  She sat on the bunk beside him and put a finger to his lips. “Linc, you couldn’t have fixed the pump without Jerlet’s help. We both know that.”

  “But…”

  “We’ll just explain his help a little differently from the way it really happened. It’s not really lying; it’s… well, it’s bending the truth a little, so that the people won’t get frightened.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “Trust the priestess,” Magda whispered. “I want to help you.”

  With a shake of his head, Linc answered, “But you don’t understand what’s really important. I found out that the screens … they know how to fix things. They show you what to do. We can fix all the dead machines…”

  “No!” Magda snapped. “You mustn’t say that. You’ll frighten everyone … you’ll be playing into Monel’s hands.” She got up from the bunk and started pacing the floor again.

  He looked at her. “Am I frightening you?”

  From the corner of the tiny compartment she returned his stare. “Yes,” she said at last, in a hushed voice. “Yes …a little.”

  He reached a hand out toward her, and she rushed over and sat beside him on the bunk. She gripped his hands hard, and her fingers were ice cold.

  “Magda, we can fix everything…”

  “Hush.” She bent forward slightly, squeezing his hands with a strength he never knew she possessed. She pressed her eyes shut, and began to tremble wildly.

  Linc had seen Magda entrance herself before. She was searching the future, trying to see what would happen, what they should do.

  She stopped trembling and eased up the pressure on his hands. She straightened up and looked into his eyes. Her own deep black eyes were rimmed with red and glimmering with tears.

  “Linc… you’re going to Jerlet.” Her voice was a frightened whisper. “You…you’re going to see him, talk with him. But before you do… you’ll see Peta again.”

  Linc pulled his hands away from her. “That’s what you see in the future, huh? All that means is that you’re going to have me cast out, just the way you cast out Peta.”

  “No—” she gasped.

  He jumped to his feet. “I know how to fix the machines, but you and the others are too scared to see the noses on your faces!”

  ‘You think I’m wrong?” Magda’s voice went rigid; it was the priestess speaking now, not his friend.

  “The screens can tell us how to fix everything—”

  “It is forbidden to touch the screens, or any other machine. You have committed sins and you’re telling me that you’re not sorry about it. You’re telling me that you want to do even worse things.”

  “I want to save us! If we can learn how to fix all the machines, maybe we can push the yellow star away.”

  “You’ll make Jerlet angry at all of us.”

  “No, I want to save us all.”

  Magda walked past Linc to the door. She stopped, facing it. He could see from the stiff back, the way she held her head high, that every centimeter of her slim body was rigid with tension and anger.

  She whipped around and faced him once more. “Linc, I want to help you, but you’re going against everything we know. Everything we have. So you fixed one pump. That might have been luck or even a trap…”

  “A trap?”

  “Yes!” she insisted. “You think you know how to fix all the machines. Suppose Jerlet is just testing you, seeing if you’ll tamper with more machines. You’re going against his rules, Linc! I can’t let you do that.”

  For the first time, Linc felt anger seething inside his guts. “You just don’t believe that I can fix them. You believe all this stuff about not touching the machines, but you don’t believe me.”

  “No one can fix them.”

  “You’d rather just sit here and let one machine after another break down until we’re freezing and starving. You’d sit here and let the yellow star swallow us up, without even lifting a finger to try --”

  “Jerlet’s rules are--”

  “Don’t yammer at me about Jerlet’s rules!” he roared. “I don’t care about his stupid rules!”

  Her mouth dropped open.

  Forcing himself to take a deep, calming breath. Linc said more softly, “Magda, listen to me. Suppose this really is a test? Suppose Jerlet’s trying to find out if we’ll use the brains he gave us to find out how to fix the machines?”

  “But his rules say we mustn’t tamper with the machines.”

  “We were children when he told us that… so small we couldn’t see over the galley tables. And all the servomechs worked then. Things are different now, and Jerlet hasn’t said anything new about the machines for a long, long time.” He felt a smile trying to work its way across his face. “Remember back then? Remember how I used to boost you up, so you could reach the top buttons on the food selector?”

  She grinned and looked down, so that Linc couldn’t see her • face. “Yes—”

  “But then the selector broke down…and the servomechs broke down … all the machines are dying. Jerlet wouldn’t want us to sit here and die. with them. He wants us to fix them.”

  “Then why hasn’t he told us so?” Magda asked.

  Linc shrugged.

  She came away from the door and sat on the bunk beside Linc. “And you’ve forgotten about Monel.”

  “Hmp! What about him? After I’ve fixed a few more machines he--”

  She touched his shoulder. “Linc, you might know about machines, but you don’t know about people. Monel won’t let you fix anything. I can see just what he’ll do.”

  He took her hand, engulfing it in his own. “He won’t be able to stop me if you’re on my side. Together we can convince the people.”

  “No.” Magda shook her head. “Not if you try to tell everyone that the screens speak, and you want to fix all the machines. It’s too much for them to take, all at once. Monel will turn them against you.”

  “The farmers—”

  “The farmers are glad the pump’s working again. But Monel can frighten them into casting you out.”

  “But if I just tell them the truth—”

  “If you tell them the truth, we’ll both be cast out!” Magda’s voi
ce was iron hard now. “I want to save you, Linc, but you’ve got to help me. I will not allow Monel to become my master. I will not allow him to set up another priestess, I must be the priestess here! It’s Jerlet’s command.”

  Linc could feel the coldness of outside seeping into him. “You mean that you’ll let them cast me out, rather than risk your position as priestess.”

  “It’s what I have to do.” Magda’s voice was low, almost a whisper, but still unalterably firm.

  “It’s what you want to do,” Linc answered bitterly.

  Magda sat unmoving, like a statue. Even her face seemed to have gone hard and lifeless.

  Finally, she spoke. “I am the priestess. I can see the future. I can see into people’s minds. I must stay as priestess. No one else can be priestess in my place.”

  Linc said tightly, “So what happens now?”

  Magda still didn’t move. Her voice sounded as if it came from one of the ghosts. “You will be brought before me for judgment, because you tampered with the machine.”

  He said nothing.

  “If you confess that you did it, and say nothing about the screen, and tell the people that you followed Jerlet’s commands, I can show you mercy. Monel wouldn’t dare insist on casting you out… this time. But if you try to insist that you can reach Jerlet by using the screens, and fix all the machines—”

  Her voice trailed off.

  For a long moment there was no sound in the tiny compartment except the distant buzz of an air blower. Linc felt the wall hard and unyielding against his back, the softer foamplastic of the bunk beneath him. It all seemed unreal, strange, as if he’d never been in this place before. Yet he had lived all his life here.

  “And your vision of the future,” he heard himself ask, stiffly, as if he was talking to a stranger. “You said I was going to find Jerlet…and Peta.”

  Magda nodded slowly.

  “That means I’m going to be cast out, just as Peta was.”

  Her voice was distant, as if it came from the farthest star. “Don’t force me to do it. Linc. Please … don’t make me do it.”

  He didn’t answer.

  After a long silent time, she got up and left him sitting there by himself.