Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5

by Gillian Andrews

  Unfortunately the man who contrived children managed to string the whole thing out for half-an-hour, by which time Six would have fulminated him with his gaze, if he could. He was visualizing throttling the man slowly, to choke off some of those thousands of words, when he realized that the man was drawing to the end of his monologue.

  “By the colours vested in me, I announce that Valhai Diva and Valhai Six will share their colours from this moment on, for as long as they both may live.” The functionary removed the swatch of material which had been gently placed over their two hands as a symbol of their bonding, and gave a wide, if yellowing smile. Diva nearly cringed as she saw the dark stubs of teeth, with remnants of his last meal conspicuously present.

  Then the five witnesses stepped forward to congratulate the new lifesharers. Apart from Bennel and Tallen, the canth keeper and the director of the donor headquarters were there, together with a tall Xianthan they hadn’t met before. There were handshakes, and best wishes. The man who spoke to canths came closer to them. “The journey you are about to undertake will be dangerous; the canths can feel that. And I can sense uncertainty between you. But this journey will imbibe you both with equal colour; it will eliminate any colour imbalance between you. Remember that it is not only a rescue mission; it is a journey of the spirit as well. You must both do the very best that you can. No more, no less.” He joined their hands together, laid his own over the top, and tightened his fingers. “I wish you both well. May your journey of colour be a journey of light.”

  Six looked sideways at his bride, who was looking anything but sunny. “Sweetness and light,” he murmured to himself ruefully, as he saw Diva’s fierce expression. Then he grinned. He wouldn’t change one hair of her head, and certainly neither of them could be described as sweet.

  He was aware that behind the frown Diva was disconcerted. Her world had changed so drastically in the last few days that it was hard not to feel for her. Six hoped that the canth keeper’s comments would come true. If anybody needed to find themselves, it was Diva. She looked as if she had lost an emerald and found a pebble. The trouble was, he thought he might be the pebble.

  The man who contrived children took Diva and Six aside after the ceremony.

  “It’s about your children,” he said.

  Six and Diva exchanged a glance. “Is anything wrong?” asked Six.

  The Xianthan shook his head. “It is a question of colour,” he said. “You told me that one of your children would inherit Coriolis, I believe?”

  They nodded.

  “Then it is necessary to decide which one.”

  Six raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t they a bit too young for that? They are only a few months old.”

  “That is true, and normally any decision of that kind would be left until they were much older, but the council of panchromes has decided to rescind the usual Xianthan laws in this case, and award on-going majority custody to the parents.”

  Diva’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?”

  “—That you and Valhai Six will be able to have the child in question with you for almost the whole of each year, instead of the one month which is customary.”

  “Terrific!” Six looked pleased. “He or she can come and live with us by the Emerald Lake, then.”

  “Indeed.” The man who contrived children bowed. “But the question is ... which of the fifty children is the one to inherit Coriolis? Last time we spoke it was left very unclear.”

  Both men looked in Diva’s direction. She hesitated. “By Coriolan law, it is up to the mother to designate her body heir. She normally chooses her first-born, of course, but that is more a custom, than a law.”

  “Then how will you choose?” asked Six. “After all, they are still only tiny. What can babies do at eight weeks old?”

  “Some of them can react to stimuli; they may get excited when they see food arriving, that sort of thing. They can focus at a distance, and follow people around a room. They are just learning what are parts of themselves, and what are external objects.”

  “Can they walk?” asked Six.

  The Xianthan stared at him. He appeared to undergo a short struggle with himself, and then shook his head. “No, Valhai, they can’t. They usually start walking after six or seven months.”

  Diva began to laugh. “Shows how much you know about babies, no-name!”

  Six was offended. “Well, stands to reason. Never had anything much to do with them.” He grinned at her. “Lucky you are such an expert, eh, Diva? At least one of us will know what to do when we get him or her full time.”

  Diva suddenly looked aghast. “Look after them? When they are little?” Her eyes took on a hunted expression. “How are we going to do that?”

  He grinned again. “Great parents we are going to make. The only things we know about are fighting and getting into trouble! Wonderful attributes for stability!”

  The man who contrived children was obviously in agreement, but was trying not to show it. “It was considered necessary, in view of the complicated future that your heir would be facing. We deliberated about it for some time, and the majority view ...” he stressed the word ‘majority’ as if disassociating himself from it, “... was that a much higher level of contact with the parents would be necessary.”

  “When are we to be given custody?” asked Six.

  “You will take over at four months of age. Occasionally, the child will be required to spend some weeks at the donor headquarters, for standard tests to be run, but apart from that you are to have full custody, although you will be required to provide the most complete education possible on Xiantha. The council has also agreed to waive the prohibition against children under 14 traveling abroad in this particular case, although they would ask that such journeys be of limited duration. It may otherwise be difficult for the child to find its own colour.”

  “We understand.”

  “Then, perhaps you would like to come with me to choose your body heir, Valhais?”

  They followed him to a waiting magsled, and climbed up. The journey to the donor headquarters was very quick. They drew near to the impressive magmite-floored building only an hour later.

  Six looked around with interest. “Reminds me of the first time we came,” he said, rather sadly. “Before Grace, before the Xianthes.”

  Diva nodded. She remembered the original journey across the Great Plain, too. There had been something magical about it – getting used to their new canths, discovering the beautiful healing sun beating down on them. She sighed. Then Atheron and Xenon had irrupted onto the scene, to ruin everything, and leave Grace permanently damaged. She stared at the imposing doorway, as they approached. How she wished they had gone with Grace that morning, instead of staying behind enjoying the break!

  The magsled slipped past the imposing portal and around the side of the building to the garage area. Once there, it slid inside the building, and dipped to the floor.

  They all climbed out, and the man who contrived children led them towards the nursery. “What criteria are you going to use?” he asked Diva.

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I think ... I will just know.”

  “There are 50 children,” he warned. “It may not be easy to differentiate between them.”

  Six pursed his lips. He wasn’t sure he wanted any of his children to inherit Coriolis.

  But Diva seemed to be in perfect control. She swept along the corridor with no sign of doubt in her gait. Six followed, wondering what would be the result of this visit.

  THE NURSERY WAS one of the noisiest places Six had been in, short of open battle. He winced as he stood there, surveying all 50 of his offspring. He had had no idea they could make so much noise, so young. He decided that they had definitely inherited Kwaidian lungs.

  Most appeared to be crying. Some were literally bawling, and one or two were laughing and gurgling. Many Xianthan women were busy tending to them; all the babies were beautifully clean, and the area was absolutely spotless.

&nb
sp; Six began to walk along the chamber, stopping from time to time to reach down and touch one of the babies. They seemed tiny, perfect individuals, and he felt his heart respond to all of them. It was hard to see differences though, at this age. He had no idea what Diva would use to pick one of them above all the rest.

  When he had finished his tour of the room, he walked slowly back to the entrance, and looked around from there. Diva, he saw, had not moved. She had simply been observing all of the children from a distance.

  Six said nothing, but followed her eyes as they traveled around the room.

  She was observing attentively. After a short time, he realized that she was concentrating on the babies that were moving most, and that these were a minority. There were three boys and two girls who seemed to have come to her notice, and she was dividing her attention between them.

  Eventually she shook her head. “They are too far apart,” she said. “Could those five ...” she indicated which children she meant, “... be moved to a different room, please?”

  The man who contrived children nodded, and waved to some of the carers to separate them.

  The women carried all five children through to a smaller and more private room, and placed them all face up on coloured mats. Six looked at Diva, and Diva looked at the children.

  They were on their backs, staring upwards at the ceiling. One was crying, unhappy at the new environment. One was gurgling to himself, and waving his hands slightly. Two of the others were smiling placidly, and the last little girl was struggling to turn herself over. Six found himself staring at her efforts. She raised her plump little legs off the rug, kicked them about a little, then she seemed to throw one over to the left, and somehow managed to flip her whole little body over behind it. There she lay for a moment, face down on the rug, looking rather surprised, before she plumped her short little arms out to each side of her head, and reared up on her elbows, giving a short gurgle of pleased satisfaction, the dark hair on the back of her head shining black against the pale skin.

  Diva breathed out. Six realized that she had been holding her breath.

  “That one.” She pointed directly at the little girl who was still pushing her head away from the rug, and keeping it upright with great difficulty. “That is the one who will be my body heir.”

  The man who contrived children hurried up. “That young lady is number ...” he bent to examine a small flexible tag around the child’s ankle, “... seven.” He motioned to one of the carers, who immediately came forward with a new tag, and fastened it securely around the little girl’s other ankle.

  The Xianthan man observed the child for a few moments. “She is well in advance of her age,” he said. “Most children do not accomplish what she has just done until at least 4 months.”

  Diva nodded. “She is the one with the most unquiet spirit.”

  The man who contrived children seemed surprised at that comment. “Then she will be able to find much colour in her lifetime. You have made a good choice.”

  Six stared down at the tiny being who would inherit a planet. “I just hope she has time to enjoy being a child,” he said.

  Diva turned to examine him. “What do you mean?”

  “I would like them all to have a proper childhood, running and playing and enjoying their lives.”

  Diva suddenly felt sorry for Six. They were things he had never had. She moved over, and touched his arm. “We will see that they do,” she said softly.

  He had been lost in contemplation of some past event, and seemed surprised to find her hand on his arm. “What? I’m sorry; I was thinking about something else.”

  She grinned. “Well, no-name, I have chosen her, so it is up to you to choose her bespoke name. After all, you are her father.”

  Six looked at the little girl, still stretching up on her arms, although her head was dipping down towards the rug under its own weight now. The only thing he saw was the dark fuzz of hair on her scalp, shining black against the pinkish skin. “Her hair will be dark,” he said slowly. “Let’s call her Raven.”

  Diva smiled at both her husband and her child. “Raven it is,” she said, “though her hair may not be so black when she grows up. But that doesn’t matter. I still like the name.”

  With one last look, they turned away. Six felt a gentle tug on his heartstrings. He already loved the small being who was about to share his life.

  Chapter 4

  THEY WERE READY to leave Xiantha immediately after sunrise the next morning. Diva and Six were tacking up their canths. Both Diva’s seal brown and Six’s dapple grey were edgy and nervous, their feet treading the ground incessantly. The canth keeper and his bay mare were standing in readiness to one side.

  “I thought we were to go on our own?” said Six.

  “You are. I shall not be accompanying you down to the planet in question. But I must be in the cargo bay of the New Independence, since somebody has to be there to take care of the canths in transit. And my canth insists on coming too, as I am to be part of the team.”

  Arcan arrived with a flurry of dust. “Ready? I will drop you off close to the planet, somewhere where your arrival will go unremarked, and it will be up to you to make your own way after that. But first, we need to get to Coriolis, to attach the heavy-duty shuttle to the trader.”

  He transported them all smoothly over to the orbital space station above Coriolis, making sure that the canths went directly into the cargo hold of the New Independence.

  Six and Diva went to investigate how long it would take to attach the heavy-duty shuttle to the New Independence, leaving the ship almost immediately to find the man in charge and get an estimation of the time it would take.

  The head of the Coriolan orbital station stared at them with a certain degree of animosity. “I have been instructed to provide you ... foreigners ... with one of our new freight shuttles,” he said, very much as if he was personally not in agreement with the instruction, and with a deadly emphasis on the word ‘foreigner’.

  Diva’s head went high, and she stiffened, but Six put a warning hand on her arm.

  “Thank you,” he told the man, “we appreciate that. How is it to be joined to the trader?”

  “Our teams will undertake the coupling.” The man’s cold eyes went from one to the other. “It will take all day. I have been asked to tell you that you are not granted authority to visit Coriolis planet. You are to remain on the orbital station.”

  Six tried to give the man a pleasant smile. “That is most kind. Thank you. We will remain on this space station.”

  Diva shifted uncomfortably, but Six kept a tight hold on her. He could feel her ire as if it were tangible, but he didn’t want anything to delay their departure on the rescue mission. He turned and ushered her away, moving down a long corridor, and then, when he saw more Coriolans from the station approaching, through a half-open door.

  “You should have let me speak!” Diva was furious, her eyes snapping. “He knew who I am, and he refused to acknowledge me!”

  “I noticed.”

  “Who does he think he is?”

  “Diva ...”

  “Don’t ‘Diva’ me! You know perfectly well that he was trying to denigrate me, deny my meritocratic rights!”

  “Diva!” Six sighed. “You yourself said that we wouldn’t be welcome on your home planet ...”

  “But that man was not even a meritocrat! He had no right to speak to me like that! It’s unpardonable of him ...” She stopped, for Six was staring around him in wonder. “.—What is it? What is the matter?”

  Six turned around. “Look where we are!”

  She gave her surroundings a cursory inspection. “In some sort of a holding cell ... Oh!”

  “Yes, ‘Oh’ indeed! Do you recognize it?”

  She examined the walls around her, and then the ceiling, and shook her head, not very convincingly. “I don’t think so.”

  “Because I certainly do. This is the cell we were held in, all those years ago. Remember?”


  She shifted from one foot to the other. “Not very well. Why?”

  Six grinned, and shook a finger at her. “Now, now, Diva. Of course you remember. You just don’t want to admit it. You called me ‘grubby’.”

  She looked at her nails. “Did I? That is not my recollection, I’m afraid. I’m sure I would remember if I had.”

  Six gave a disbelieving hoot. “I don’t know how you can have the nerve to say that! I know very well that you remember. Your memory is second only to that of a Cesan catumba!”

  Diva looked around again, with her most innocent expression, pretending to come to a slow recognition. “Though, now that you come to mention it, this place does look slightly familiar.”

  Six’s eyebrows nearly hit the ceiling, before joining together in a sceptical frown. He took a menacing step forwards. “Perhaps if I lock you up in it for a few hours your ... selective memory might get a bit of a jog?” he suggested.

  Diva drew her Coriolan dagger in a flash. “You try that, no-name, and I will divvy up your brain in nice thin slices so everyone can see how few neurons Kwaidians have!”

  Six’s kris seemed to have appeared, as if by magic, in his hand, and he squared up to her. “You and whose army?” he queried. “I haven’t forgotten how to fight, you know!”

  “You were never a match for me!”

  “Now that,” he promised, “is where I am going to prove you wrong!”

  “Mind your step, no-name. I wouldn’t like you to trip and hurt yourself.”

  His eyes glittered. “Take care, lady privilege! You might find that this Kwaidian can still beat you!”

  Diva’s white teeth flashed in amusement. “You wish!”

  He laughed. “Oh no. I promise!”