by Robert Reed
None of the AIs moved.
To the human ear, none made even the tiniest sound.
Washen laid a hand on Locke’s shoulder, telling him, ‘They’re interested. They’re considering it now.”
He said, “Good.”
Mother and son walked out onto the gangway, looking between their feet at the dim black face of Marrow. Every available engineer was waiting above them, ready to begin pouring hyperfiber into the base camp, then the access tunnel. This wouldn’t be a catastrophic collapse. They would take their time, slowly and thoroughly plugging this gaping hole in the chamber’s otherwise perfect wall. Plainly, the Builders had reasons for what they did. As far as Washen or Pamir could see, the only sensible course was to seal the prison again, making things much as they were before and doing it as permanently as possible … the only change being a few small, impossible-to-find security eyes stuck to the chamber’s slick silver wall, watching over her millions of grandchildren …
For a moment, as she stood on that gangway thinking about her grandchildren, Washen felt the sudden strange urge to throw herself at Marrow.
But she took a breath and the feeling passed, and with a practiced motion of her hand, she looked at the time. Then to Locke and the AI scribes, she announced, “We need to be leaving. Now.”
The machines stood and gathered in a neat line.
“Have you thought about what I told you?” Locke asked them.
One of the machines replied, “Naturally.”
“Will you have answers soon?” he pressed.
The rubber face merely smiled, and with an appealing haughtiness, it said, “Soon. In a century or a million years. Yes. Soon.”
Washen barely heard the voice or her son’s hearty laugh.
Kneeling on the gangway, where the new hyperfiber would be poured first, she set out her mechanical clock with its silver lid opened, and she left it there. It was the hardest thing in the world. But she managed to stand and walk away, muttering to herself, “For later. I’ll leave it here for now and come back to get it later…”
BOOKS BY ROBERT REED
The Remarkables
Down the Bright Way
Black Milk
The Hormone Jungle
The Leeshore
*An Exaltation of Larks
*Beyond the Veil of Stars
*Beneath the Gated Sky
The Dragons of Springplace (story collection)
*Marrow
*denotes a Tor Book
Within the Ship …
The explorers had all arrived. With a crisp efficiency, they mapped every tunnel and crevice, giving each a precise designation. Great seas of water and ammonia, methane and silicone, were found in my interior, at many depths. Banks of machinery could make them suitable for a wide range of life forms. The humans adjusted one of the water seas to their liking, its temperature warm on the surface and cold beneath; they built a little city overlooking the sea’s black-bouldered shore.
Whatever the humans discovered inside me, I discovered too.
Until that moment, I had never fully comprehended my greatness, or my own glorious, well-worn beauty.
I wanted to thank my guests, and could not. Just as I couldn’t make them hear my plaintive warnings …
“With his command of prose, characterization and ideas, Robert Reed is the new country’s most compelling SF voice. Marrow is the highest of high concepts one of the most original visions in a long while.”
—Stephen Baxter
“The ship is an imagined construction to compare with the Ringworld and Rama, and the planet Marrow a complex and entertaining mystery. This is my favorite of Reed’s novels to date.”
—Science Fiction Chronicle
“Marrow is magnificent. It combines epic sweep with living characters and a depth of vision that we see all too seldom.”
—Jack McDevitt
“This is a wonderful adventure, with idea piled upon splendid idea in a continually fascinating narrative.”
—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Gold Award Winner of the first Writers of the Future contest, Robert Reed is the critically acclaimed author of nine science fiction novels, including The Remarkables, Down the Bright Way, Black Milk, The Hormone Jungle, The Leeshore, An Exaltation of Larks, Beyond the Veil of Stars, and Beneath the Gated Sky.
Also a prolific writer of short fiction, Reed has been compared to both Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick and nominated several times for the Hugo Award. His short stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Science Fiction Age, and many other magazines. A selection of his short work has been collected in The Dragons of Springplace.
Reed has gained a reputation for cutting-edge hard science fiction bound together by strong characters and intricate plots. He and his wife, Leslie, reside in Lincoln, Nebraska.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
MARROW
Part of this novel appeared in substantially different form in Science Fiction Age, July 1997 issue.
Copyright © 2000 by Robert Reed
All rights reserved.
Edited by James Frenkel
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN: 0-812-56657-2
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-028689
First edition: August 2000
First mass market editon: September 2001
eISBN 9781466846234
First eBook edition: May 2013
