Forge of Heaven

by C. J. Cherryh

  But again the Ila thwarted them. She heard rumors of odd goings-on, and brought the affected people to her capital, endangering a major element of the Outsiders' plan.

  But her bringing those particular people in brought the Outsider team an unexpected chance. Marak Trin Tain, a young man with leadership abilities as well as political importance, reached the Ila in person. Through him, using the implanted tech, the Outsider team delivered a warning to her, to evacuate her base and seek shelter in the east.

  It was a warning Marak Trin Tain didn't wholly understand, but the Ila certainly did. She evacuated the city and saved her records as a bargaining leverage, exactly what the Outsider mission wanted.

  The ondat attack had already begun. The Outsider team continued to try to stall the planetkillers, claiming one of their team was out in the desert and in trouble. Whether or not their appeal actually delayed events, or that the larger planetkillers, coming from farther out in the solar system, lagged behind others that served as ranging shots, Marak and his party, including the Ila, reached the Refuge before the first true planetkiller fell on the other side of the world.

  So the Outsiders got their hands on the Ila, on hundreds of years of records, and on a great number of refugees.

  The hammer came down. And the world became a volcanic hell.

  The Outsiders continued to transmit new discoveries to ships in orbit-and the ondat seemed to accept their presence on the world so long as that stream of knowledge flowed. Earth didn't leave the vicinity, nor did the Outsider ship break contact with their team from orbit. Nor did the ondat leave. There were things to learn. There was a lingering threat here to keep an eye on.

  The ondat understanding of humans was insufficient to let them reason out quite what humans were up to, after everything that had happened. But humans were perfectly willing to indicate that they would not lift the team off the planet, nor visit them, and that they would establish a permanent base in orbit to guarantee that permanent state of affairs.

  The ondat evidently believed this-as long as ondat stayed to guarantee it, too. A station grew. Earth naturally moved in an official to govern it. The Outsider Council established a matching governmental structure aboard. The ondat, still unseen, set aside a section of the station and moved in a capsule which became incorporated in the structure, and ultimately integrated with it.

  The name of the new station was, hopefully chosen, Concord. A trade route was set up, from Arc, to supply it.

  Below, the planetkillers had done their work. The impacts had sent shock waves through to the other side of the planet: volcanic plumes melted hot spots in areas of weakened crust. Vast lava flows choked the sunlight planetwide in thick clouds of noxious vapors. The planetkillers had vaporized undersea carbonates in the sea off the west coast of the inhabited continent, killing the food chain planetwide.

  The hardiest life survived in the depths of the seas and the crevices of the earth, along with extremophiles of various sorts, some of which were likely foreign, imported by the Ila, some native, both unpredictable in their potential, given the conditions that prevailed.

  The world had a lengthy course to run before the atmospheric balance reasserted itself. not, however, as lengthy a course as might have been without the nanisms that now played their part in an accelerated evolution.

  Observers up on Concord remained hopeful, but highly skeptical.

  CONCORD AND THE NEW AGE

  Concord itself grew over the centuries, an establishment mostly Outsider still with the colonial government Earth installed and maintained-and, unique to Concord, at least one, and perhaps a handful of ondat observers. This arrangement made it an overwhelmingly important station, a very influential Earth governorship, and an equally potent Outsider chairmanship, in many ways independent from the Outsider Council at Apex. No one was sure about the ondat.

  On the planet, life reasserted itself and interlaced in biological cooperation. The doors of the Refuge opened and human scouts traveled out into a vastly changed world, to hand-spread more seeds prepared by Outsider science-and to shed their own nanisms into the world, hoping for the best. Seeding operations began to spread hardy plant life the Outsiders claimed contained remediating nanoceles, creations intended to spread throughout the biosphere, attracting and eliminating certain of the runaways, themselves changing and reproducing into beneficent microorganisms.

  Nothing dangerous in the original sense had yet turned up-but, certain doubters could point out, there was necessarily one place where the Ila's nanoceles still flourished: in the Ila herself, and in a handful of other survivors, whose lives had passed ordinary human limits, notably Marak Trin Tain, who was the earliest and hardiest explorer of this new world. He became a contact point for the observers aloft; he became a known quantity, a continuing, reliable guide, about whose doings the ondat were extraordinarily curious, whose activities they wanted to know, at all points-one single human being, a benchmark, perhaps, about whom their records were continuous, who perhaps embodied their understanding of the species with whom they shared, and did not share, a station.

  The original team likewise availed themselves of that long life. They had become living laboratories of Outsider attempts to contain the Ila's science. The nanotrackers, potent against the runaways, failed to attack the First Movement modifications in the Outsider team and in the Ila-a circumstance that some pessimists aloft called proof of the danger inherent in First Movement tech, and others, more optimistic, called proof of the fine control the Outsider team already exerted, on their way to remediation.

  The Outsider team simply said it was not to their advantage to kill themselves-since with those internal nanisms, they were, in effect, immortal-a rumor that caused nervous shivers far beyond Concord.

  Nobody wanted a return to the bad old days of the Gene Wars: no one wanted the ondat to resume their attacks or retaliate in kind. The ondat seemed happy as long as they had regular reports from Marak Trin Tain, and apparently cared little for communications from the station itself.

  But rumors of immortality scared Earth. Earth, overpopulated as it was, could see social collapse if the immortality modification ever reached the black market. and only the information needed travel. The Outsiders' entire hope to remediate the political situation with the ondat hinged on their team's efforts to rehabilitate Marak's World-and on the contact they maintained with the ondat, and on the ondat's fixation on Marak's successful, healthy life. The Outsiders wanted no provocative new tech to exit the world, but they were glad enough to know their team was as immortal as Marak-the team, by now, having a tremendous accumulated knowledge. and being, like Marak, one constant that transcended the careers of individual administrators in orbit.

  So everyone stayed. Everyone carried on above, on Concord, as if this ages-long occupation of a ruined world and a handful of immortals were the modus vivendi they had discovered. To Concord Station, the curious situation was forever; a condition of life like light and warmth, essential, but the maintenance of which happened outside the understanding of nine-tenths of the lives inside Concord's spinning wheel. The population had diversified far, far beyond the scientific mission.

  Commerce went on. Human lives did, briefer than what they observed. In the mind-bogglingly long time since the Gene Wars, new civilizations sprang up. Governments and institutions rose and fell. Languages and cultures changed. The Ruined Worlds deep inside Outsider territory grew stranger and stranger, one with continents nearly covered in algaes and slimes, one with a population that could no longer be called in any sense human.

  Marak's World, however, showed signs of health. The population had been ordinary humans in most particulars: they still were. The surface of the world was metal-poor. Newly arrived metals, largely aimed to miss the area of human habitation, were mostly inaccessible to them. That had not changed. But the reawakened geologic forces that were rearranging the planet would change that picture, bringing up metals from the core-slowly, over time only the immortals cou
ld survive.

  Meanwhile the Refuge maintained a few aircraft of fused fiber; it used trucks of metal, fused fiber, and cast ceramics. It had brought down fusion for its own needs. It harnessed water, wind, biomass, and solar power; the latter fragile in the vast, long-lasting sandstorms. Fuel cells provided power for outlying installations, but the fuel cells themselves used scarce materials. Life showed signs of health in this new age. Technology struggled, not according to ancient patterns, but making ample use of exotic, synthesizing nanochemistry. For civilization, it was still an uphill climb.

  The Concord Station that now monitored the planet was the third station to orbit there, the other two outmoded and abandoned, the ondat having transferred their section as a unit to each in turn. A fourth station was under construction, a subject of the usual debate and wrangling, but nothing important was likely to change when the population migrated over to it. Concord still spoke the language it had always spoken. It still believed what it had believed. The ondat still sought their daily information on Marak. Only outward appearances and trends underwent revision, never the laws that governed its interaction with others.

  Life was comfortable for all concerned at Concord.

  Biological change on Marak's World was a slow process. and a constant guarantee of employment.

  ii

  Positional Map

  iii

  Power

  EARTH AND ITS ENVIRONS

  Earth, with its federation of the Sol System planets and moons, Luna, Mars, et al. Its current center of government: Adacion, in New Brazil, its legislature comprised of representatives of ten regional earthly councils, plus five space-based councils.

  Earth maintains strict immigration control over its space. Its large military establishment, partly robotic, enforces the Quarantine Laws.

  Earth appoints governors for all stations, except Apex. Earth made the Treaty that ended the Gene Wars, and Earth continues to enforce Treaty Law.

  It does not permit immigration and does not trade in material goods.

  THE INNER WORLDS

  From roughly twelve lights of Earth outward to a distance of twenty lights: three successfully colonized worlds and fourteen stations in the area are administered by Earth governors. They are much more Earthlike than Outsider in philosophy and law, and impose purity laws nearly as stringent as Earth's.

  OUTSIDERS

  Comprising the bulk of the human species, Outsiders remain nominally under Earth government, as regards Treaty Law, but govern themselves and trade freely.

  APEX

  Apex Station, the military and governmental center of Outsider culture, orbits an Earthlike planet, Apex Prime, which has been successfully, though sparsely, colonized.

  The Apex High Council elects the Chairman General, the chief executive over Outsider Space. The High Council, called the Apex Council everywhere but on Apex, appoints the Supreme Judiciary as well as the twenty-odd chairmen who serve as Outsider executive authority on stations throughout Outsider Space. These chairmen share civil power with Earth-appointed governors on various stations, and have authority over Outsider citizens, whether in trade or civil law.

  THE RUINED WORLDS

  Four sites, including Aldestra and Luzan, inhabited worlds, once subject to ill-advised terraforming, and carefully monitored from orbit. Direct contact is not permitted. Aldestra possesses a seasonally nomadic culture. Luzan's population clings to life.

  OTHER OUTSIDER STATIONS

  Orb, Arc, Serine, Momus, and the other Outsider stations all have a bilevel government. Earth-born governors serve as the station executive, overseeing maintenance, heavy manufacturing, and trade, and ruling over a separate society of Earthborn and Earth-affiliated citizens, who are generally financiers, traders, industrialists, technicians, occasional religionists, and providers of specialized services-all well-educated, generally well-monied individuals. Earthers are relatively few in number on the stations they govern-a layer of technical administration serving to keep the station mechanicals working and guaranteeing stability. Like gravity on a planet, it costs relatively little, has assured a firm footing for a long time, and no one is particularly interested in challenging it.

  More numerous, Outsiders reside usually on a separate deck, with their own trading associations, hospitals, social services, and mercantile endeavors, their political factions, and their labs-that essentially defining item of Outsider culture. Outsider trade and use of biotech nanisms make Earthers very reluctant to mingle with the darker elements of Outsider communities. This guarantees that real law enforcement rests with the Outsider Council and the local chairman.

  CONCORD STATION

  Marak's World might be counted as a fifth Ruined World, except for the extensive remediation efforts that are an ongoing basis of Earth-Outsider-ondat cooperation, on which the all-important Treaty rests, and no one ever suggests failure. Its solar system, of which it is now the sole life-bearing planet, lies within that region of unintended overlap between ondat and human space.

  Concord Station is an important trade partner of Apex, Arc, and Orb. It speaks a language ages-vanished, and all incoming media have to be translated for the majority of its citizenry.

  Concord's governor is, as elsewhere, Earth-appointed. Its Outsider chairman is Apex-appointed. No one understands how the ondat observer is chosen. but one exists here, making Concord unique among stations: ondat ships visit here, another anomaly. The total ondat population at Concord is fewer than five-humans think. No one asks or knows what their power structure may be, how long they stay, or what they report to their distant authority. No one has ever gotten a clear view of an ondat, though shadowy images are in classified files.

  The Planetary Office installation, whose director is appointed by the Apex Council and who reports to that body, is unique to Concord. The PO, as it is called, constitutes an Outsider authority independent of ordinary station administration, one specifically charged with overseeing remediation efforts on Marak's World.

  That three nations and two species can coexist here argues that an ondat-human peace, like planetary life, is evolving slowly. There seems to be progress,

  But remediation, and therefore the peace itself, is still in doubt.

  Forge of Heaven

  1

  Grozny was where Lebeau Street mingled with the Style, where the low haunts of Blunt Street flowed into the Trend and rubbed shoulders with the rich and carefree.

  Heart of the Trend on Concord Station, Grozny Street, where the Style walked side by side with gray-suited, slumming Earthers from exclusive upper levels, the ruling class making their own statement in shades of pearl and charcoal. Flashing newsboards warred, streaming stock and futures tickers under cosmetic adverts and the dockside news. A ship from Earth was coming in. That was major news, rare and interesting, but it didn't immediately affect the Trend, and it didn't affect Procyon, n‚ Jeremy Stafford, walking home from dinner, an easy stroll through the neon and the crowds.

  There was Jonah's Place, and The Ox, there was Right Ascension, Farah's, and La Lune Noir, there was The Body Shop and the Blue Lounge-and the Health Connection, which cleaned up the Body Shop's done-on-a-whims. There was Tia Juana's, the Ethiopia, and the high-toned Astral Plane. not to mention the exclusive little shops that sold everything from designer genes to boots-and there was The Upper Crust, that very nice little pastry shop that Procyon did his best to stay out of.

  The whole station came to Grozny to relax-well, except those solid citizens content with the quiet little establishments in their own zones, or with the output of their own kitchens. Most day-timers to Grozny took the lift system into the Trend. Very few citizens had the cachet or the funds to live here.

  But Jeremy-who preferred to be Procyon-had the funds, a fact clear enough in the cut of the clothes, the precious metals of the bracelets, the small, tasteful modifications that an observer might automatically suspect were at issue here, since the body was good-looking.

  He was twenty-fiv
e and single. He was a former Freethinker turned Fashionable because he liked it, not because he lived by the social tyranny of the Stylists. And he was fit and in condition the hard way, not because he had any great fear of mods, but because of a certain personal discipline. He spent every third night working out at Patrick's Gym, every next night taking laps at the Speed Rink, and only every seventh night carousing with friends down at Tia Carmen's or wherever else their little band of affluent young professionals decided to gather.

  He had turned toward home tonight from that seventh-night gathering, warm with drink and the recollection of good company. Home was a little behind the main frontage of Grozny, so to speak, a T-shaped pocket, a pleasantly lit little dead-end street called Grozny Close, which protected its hundred or so apartments from the traffic and rush and the slightly higher crime rate of Grozny Street proper. Number 201 Grozny Close, sandwiched between a highly successful lawyer and a retired surgeon, had a blue door, a shining chrome arch, and a tall orchid tree that Grozny Close maintenance changed out whenever its blooms failed. The whole Close was a riot of such well-kept gardens, and the air consequently smelled less of the restaurants out on the street and far more of the lawyer's gardenias.