by Diane Duane
"But they're all black around here," said Gabriel.
Rov winked at him as he turned around his own glass of chai, waiting for it to cool. "Makes it easier to name them."
Enda looked up from her notes."You are responsible for the vegetables. Let me finish this, then I want to talk to you about those."
Rov grinned. "We're becoming a gourmet's paradise," he said to Gabriel. "People come, oh, tens of light-years for our food, but it would be nice if more of them came back more than once. We get so many of these one-time charlies."
Gabriel chatted with the two Sunbreakers while Enda finished her notes. As he had suspected, it turned out that most people in the settlement worked for either Alaundril or the Regency of Bluefall. There was not a lot else to do here. However, the settlers seemed to consider one administration about as good (or bad) as the other, and Gabriel heard Marielle or Rov refer to "the government" and mean both sides of the colonial divide.
Maybe, Gabriel thought, it's because this place is so small and isolated. Making a big deal over one side or the other wouldn't get you far. They're all stuck here together, a long way from anywhere else. They were eager enough to hear what news Gabriel had to pass on from Grith. Everyone in town knew about Rae Alwhirn's outburst of the previous evening, but no one knew what it was about or had connected recent events at Corrivale with them. Marielle and Rov listened without much comment to Gabriel's much-edited story of his visit to Rhynchus in company with Enda and Helm. "That guy," Rov said in reference to Helm, "looks like he might own a gun or so." Gabriel agreed. When he finished telling about their arrival at Grith and the standoff between a VoidCorp dreadnought,Falada, and a group of Concord cruisers, Marielle whistled softly. "There's why Rae got so upset. He's sure that VoidCorp's trying to shut him down."
Gabriel blinked. "But they were trying to shutus down. I'm not sure why he was angry at us for being on the wrong side of them. ."
"Rae's got more conspiracy theories than a riglia's got cilia," Rov said. "He's always been on a hair trigger, seeing something hiding behind every rock. He's had a lot of trouble in his business. Bad luck, mostly. A power failure a while back cost him a lot in insurance; there were lawsuits. . Now Rae thinks everything that happens around here is aimed at him." Rov scratched his head. "Have to admit, I haven't seen him pop like that before. He must think you're out to get him in particular because you're infotraders."
"Did he treat the I.I. people the same way?" Gabriel asked.
"Frikes, no, they were here six years before he started. They've been trading in and out of this system, to Aegis and Tendril all that while, but you see the problem." Rov gestured around him. "We're so small here, and so quiet. Our Grid's so small you could spit across it. A lot of people don't like the idea of them," he jerked a desultory thumb over his shoulder, "the riglia." Enda pushed her notepad aside. "Do you not like the idea of them either?"
"Don't see that they care about my opinion one way or the other," Rov said, "but they were here first. We didn't know when we came that they were more than dumb animals. A lot of us came a long way to settle here, got ourselves set up, and then what do we find?" He pulled his head down between his shoulders as if seeking protection from something. "Government shoulda checked things out more carefully before they let anyone settle here, before those fraal scientists came in and told everybody 'Guess what, you've got company.' " He sighed. "Sorry, lady. I know it wasn't your fault. Anyway, there are people leaving all the time. The feeling that you're being watched… it gets to you after a while." "I've felt that," Gabriel said. "An uneasy kind of feeling."
"That's right," Marielle said. "Well, it's the riglia, I suppose. They're mindwalkers, so they can do that. There are a lot more of them than there are of us." She sighed. "Some day maybe there'll be nobody but them here again, but meantime a lot of us have spent everything we had to come here. We can't just go. There's nothing to gowith." Gabriel nodded and took a drink of his chai.
"This isn't a busy part of space, anyway," said Rov. "No other well-settled systems are nearby. There are some useless ones— stars but no planets, or planets that're just rocks, no point even in mining 'em. You hear stories, rumors about one world or another that got missed when they did the surveys, but you can't take things like that too seriously."
"They missed Rivendale that same way," said Enda, "when they first came through the system. No one thought so small a dwarf star would have a planet."
"Well, true enough, lady," Rov said. "It's rare, isn't it? Hasn't happened since, though you keep hearing stories and rumors. People go out looking for those places and don't come back." He dropped his voice lower. "And there are ships out there, too, that nobody knows where they come from — out in the empty spaces, the 'back of the Verge,' the Barrens. Nobody sensible goes out that way. Crazy explorers,they go, but you don't see them again. We had a couple through here," he said as he reached for the wine bottle, "had themselves an exploration contract from the CSS and everything. They were on their way to someplace out past Coulomb." Gabriel looked at Enda. "What's past Coulomb?" "Nothing that I know of".
"That's just my point," Rov said, "but they were going that way anyhow. Something called Elder? Caldera? Something. . No, Eldala, it was." Enda shook her head. "I have never heard of it."
"You're not alone. But off they went, she and her friend, and we haven't seen hide or hair of them since. Hair enough her friend had, too." Rov chuckled.
"Maybe," Gabriel said, wondering what Rov's last comment might have meant but deciding not to press it. "Were they just more of the one-time visitors you mentioned?"
"I wouldn't have thought so," said Rov, drinking the last of his drink and eyeing the glass absently. "The one lady, the human, she was real taken with this place. She said it reminded her of home. Wouldn't want to think what her home looked like, but she said she was definitely coming back." He shrugged. "Infinity only knows where she is now. And there've been others. A few went missing in transit to somewhere else — Aegis, Richards, Annahoy — and didn't turn up at the other end. They found one or two ships, but no sign of the pilots or passengers.That was weird." "Where were the ships found?" Enda said.
"Just floating near their outward transit points. One of those was strange. The detectors said the ship had gone into drivespace, all right, but it didn't transit. No starfall."
"Bad coordinates," Gabriel said, "but nothing happens when you do that. You just pop out in the same place a few seconds later. You feel stupid—"
"This wasn't like that. The one ship,Wauksha its name was, should have come out at a halfway point on its way to Aegis. It didn't, though the detector showed it on its way. It turned up just out of system, over by Terivine A. They were lucky to have found it. The star would have pulled it in, in a few more weeks. The other ship was by its departure point, but it never left. They just found it, empty. . " "That is very odd," Enda said.
Marielle shook her head. "Not half as odd as some things you hear," she said softly. "Remember the ghost ships, Rov?"
Rov nodded. Marielle looked over at Enda and said, "A few people have seen this, over — what — two, three years or so? They made starfall, were coming in on system drive, and saw something on the way in. Like a big ship that just came up out of drivespace, then went away again. Can't be a ship. A ship would have to recharge. But this thing, this big dark ghost, just comes bobbing up out of drivespace like a sat relay and sinks right back again."
Gabriel did not look at Enda, though he very much wanted to. "What was it?"
"No one knows," Marielle said, "but it gives me the jillies. I may not be on kissing terms with the laws of physics, but I don't like hearing about things that can just throw them out the door like that, either." Rov nodded. "One guy — didn't hear this myself, a friend of a friend heard it — one guy who saw this said, 'I thought it was alive. It looked at me before it went off again.' " "Ghost stories," Gabriel said.
"Oh, I know," said Rov. "Every place has them. Some of them are just that.
People like to scare themselves, but this is different. You won't hear people talking about these a lot. Maybe some folks here are a little superstitious. They think that these things might creep closer if you mention them." It was a warning, however gently phrased. Gabriel nodded. "You're right, of course, but you were telling us about Rae Alwhirn."
The conversation veered off into good-natured gossip after that, though Gabriel had trouble concentrating on the chat after what he had just heard. He and Enda had seen just such a huge vessel come looming up out of drivespace at them before sinking away into the darkness again. A deep uncomfortable green color it had been… very like the little green ball bearing ships that had come after them way out in the Thalaassa system, the ones with the pilots who had once been alive but were not any more. Gabriel reminded himself once more that he needed to talk to Delde Sota about what had come of the autopsy she had done for them at Iphus Station on the body of one of those vessels' pilots. He stretched, turned to yawn, then froze as he caught a glimpse of someone off to one side of the room. Slowly Gabriel turned back forward again and leaned on the table.
". . but it's been busy anyway," Rov was saying. "Unusual number of visitors for this time of year." Enda looked at him, then briefly past him, with mild interest. "You mean you have a tourist season?" "Not as such," said Rov. "Government pretty strictly controls the number of people who come in here. They're concerned about the riglia taking it wrong. You wouldn't have been affected. Infotraders aren't regulated, but a few ships came in over the past week. One was a tourist — another was a trader, bringing in entertainment solids."
"Oh really," Gabriel said, crossing another business possibility off an ever-decreasing mental list. "Gabriel," Enda said then, "something occurs to me. I want to talk to Helm about plans for this afternoon. Do you want to come back to the ship with me? It won't take long." "Sure," Gabriel said. "Marielle, Rov. . see you later?"
"This evening, maybe," Marielle said. "Here's my husband coming. Rov, talk to you later." Gabriel and Enda went out. "Gabriel," Enda said quietly to him as they made their way up the street toward the port entrance, "did you see where I was looking?"
He shook his head. "It was behind me. I didn't want to stare. I thought you were looking at what I'd been looking at."
"Perhaps. There was a woman sitting away at the back of the room, having chai or some such. I have seen her before."
He gave her a look. "Where?"
"In the port offices at Diamond Point. She was going in as I was coming out."
"Interesting," Gabriel said, "because I saw someone here whomI saw back on Grith. Not at the back of the room. Over on the left side."
"What a small universe it's becoming," Enda said. "Listen, Gabriel, we have more important business. After that talk with the owner of the provisioner's this morning, I would definitely bring in a load of foodstuffs when we come again. They have little here except pre-packs and staples of the most elementary kind. You would get very tired of starch noodles if you lived here long. I think we would get good results if we brought in some of the simpler dried and preserved fish and fungus packs, vegetable dumplings and so forth—"
Gabriel went along with this, and they were well into the virtues of a major dried soup brand native to Aegis, and discussing where in the ship they would stow it by the time they got up intoSunshine's lift. When they finally got inside, Gabriel laughed. "You are incredible!" "In what regard?"
"Your ability to talk about anything but what's on your mind."
Enda gave him a dry look. "I assure you, I am thinking about the soup as well. Wait a moment" She stepped over to the Grid access panel and touched it for local network access. "Helm?" "Wondered when you were going to call."
"I did not want to wake you untimely. Would you and Delde Sota come over? There are some things I want to check in our mutual inventory before lunch."
"Lunch," said Helm, immediately interested. "Be right over".
Enda turned away. "We may want an excuse to come back that does not involve data, if we are unable to pick up an outward data load or another Terivine-bound load from Grith. I am more interested in your sighting. Whom exactly did you see?"
"Like you, someone from Diamond Point," Gabriel said. "She was parked over in bond a couple of slots down fromLongshot. Little brunette woman, maybe about fifty kilos, short, with pale eyes." "Not dark ones?" Enda said.
"No. The eyes got my attention first. She was dressed as if she was from Austrin-Ontis — you know, those layered rigs with pockets all over them — not that that proves anything one way or the other. She was exchanging docs with a port official — I'm not sure whether she was coming or going at the time. She had a little all-purpose ship, a Westhame or something similar. Light haulage, possibly converted from a live-in ship." He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to see the vessel in memory. "Fairly new. I remember thinking a fair bit of money would have been tied up in that."
"Indeed. Now both of these people are here. What would you say the odds are of this being an accident, Gabriel?"
"Hard to say. 'What a small universe it's becoming.'.
"Enda reached up and thumped Gabriel on top of his head. "I will take the imitation as flattery, poor though it be. Now we face another question: which of these is the spy you have been expecting?" "Both of them?" Gabriel said.
Enda gave him a thoughtful look. "Well, why not? We know that the Concord has evinced interest in your movements… if only through your friend Lorand Kharls." Gabriel snorted at the word "friend." "Yes," Enda continued, "well, we know he has some interest in using you as a—'stalking horse,' your phrase was? Though from what you told me of your conversation with him, he was not forthcoming about what he was stalking." Enda pulled down one of the chairs and sat in it. "He could not come into this part of space without attracting considerable attention. So he has sent someone to keep an eye on you." "Seems likely. The question is, who's the other one?" They looked at each other. "VoidCorp," Gabriel said.
"You would not have many friends in that camp," Enda said. "Nor would I. Nor Helm, not after Thalaassa. Even Delde Sota might have crossed paths with them. She was cautious enough about the possibility that they were monitoring her medical facility back on Iphus." She sighed. "Now all we must do is discover which of these people is working for which side."
"And do what then?" Gabriel could imagine what Helm would suggest. "Besides feed them disinformation."
"All we can," Enda said, "keeping the information as mutually contradictory as possible. Indeed, it might be wise to find some way to split away from Helm and Delde Sota, so we can see which operative follows who where." She smiled, a wicked look.
"I don't know if Helm's going to be wild about letting us go off on our own," Gabriel said. "If we have no load to take back to Grith, that might change," said Enda. "Meanwhile we must let Helm and Delde Sota know about this. We should go into town again, seeing and being seen. If we see our spies, we should make common cause with them as fellow visitors. Buy them a drink and hear their lies so that we may more carefully shape our own."
The lift chimed. Enda moved to the lift column and touched the "allow" panel.
"What would you know about lies?" Gabriel said. "A nice respectable fraal like you…"
"Only that, in life as in marketing, they have their place," Enda said. "Though you must be willing to pay the price afterwards."
The four of them went to lunch at the community center but didn't see the two people they wanted to see.
Instead, they had to console themselves with another meal of astonishing quality. Gabriel was amazed, for in his marine days he had eaten on much richer and well-visited planets, but rarely as well as he was doing here.
"It's not just the vegetables," he said to Delde Sota as they fought over the last few spoonfuls of something brown but ineluctably delicious. "Oraan is a genius."
Gabriel managed to come up with a second spoon to get the last of whatever was in the bowl, but Delde Sota's braid came up and too
k it neatly out of his hand and held it out of reach. The braid had brushed Gabriel's hand in passing.
Now, amid Enda and Helm's laughter, Delde Sota said quietly, "Query: adjusted electrolyte balance recently?"
Gabriel, confused, looked at her. She ate the last spoonful of sauce and put the spoon down. "Analysis: body electrolytes are out of kilter," she said. "Just stress. ."
Delde Sota shook her head. "Negation: not the kind of shifts that are stress-related. Diet changes?" "Not until we got here. I've rarely eaten so many things that I didn't know what they were. Not even on a marine transport".
Delde Sota looked wry as she said, "Intention: to run full enzyme/endocrine series on you. Premature gray in family history?"
That brought Gabriel up short. "No. You think they're connected?"
"Etiology: impossible to judge except on case-by-case basis. Insufficient data at the moment. Require more concrete information and analysis."
"You were a Grid pilot once," Gabriel said, thinking with some distaste about what that "concrete information" was probably going to involve — blood and tissue samples and the like. Gabriel had always been able to cope with the sight of his own blood in battle, but in a clean quiet office full of ominous-looking medical instruments, blood became a completely different matter. "Can't you just sneak into my old marine records?"
"Do not have to sneak," Delde Sota said with an amused glint in her eye. As usual when dealing with medical issues, her language started to contain less of the mechalus dialect and become more common. "Copies included in your vehicle registry seals aboardSunshine and in your present personal data and credit chip. However, that data is antiquated. New data is required." Gabriel groaned. "Do I have to be conscious for this?"
