A Deepness in the Sky (15 page)

For a moment, Benny's expression was opaque...and then he suddenly smiled. "I know, Ezr. I know."

Benny led him along the wall in the general direction of the rest of his work crew. "Let me show you the other things that we are up to." Ezr followed as the other pointed to this and that, described the changes the Emergents were making in the dock protocols. And suddenly he understood a little more of the game.The enemy needs us, expects to be working us foryears. There's lots we can say to each other. They won't kill us for exchanginginformation to get their jobs done. They won't kill us for speculating aboutwhat's going on.

The whine of the pumps died. Somewhere beyond the plastic of the docking cylinder, people and cargo would be debarking.

Wen swung close to the open hatch of a utility duct. "They're bringing in lots of their own people, I hear."

"Yes, four hundred soon, maybe more." This temp was just some balloons, inflated a few Msecs earlier, upon the fleet's arrival. But it was large enough for all the crews that had been packed as corpsicles for the fifty-light-year transit from Triland. That had been three thousand people. Now it held only three hundred.

Benny raised an eyebrow. "I thought they had their own temp, and better than this."

"I—" The gang boss was almost within earshot.But this isn't conspiracy. Lord of Trade, we have to be able to talk about our jobs. "I think they lost more than they're letting on."I think we came within centimeters ofwinning, even though we were ambushed, even though they had knocked usdown with their war disease.

Benny nodded, and Ezr guessed that he already knew. But did he know this: "That will still leave a lot of space. Tomas Nau is thinking of bringing more of us out of coldsleep, maybe some officers." Sure, the senior people would be more of a risk to the Emergents, but if Nau really wanted effective cooperation...Unfortunately, the Podmaster was much less forthcoming about the "Focused."Trixia.

"Oh?" Benny's voice was noncommittal, but his gaze was suddenly sharp. He looked away. "That would make a big difference, especially to some of us...like the little lady I have working in this duct." He stuck his head partway through the hatch and shouted. "Hey, Qiwi, are you done in there yet?"

The Brat? Ezr had only seen her two or three times since the ambush, enough to know she wasn't injured and not a hostage. But more than most, she had spent time outside of the temp and with the Emergents. Maybe she just seemed too young to be a threat. A moment passed; a tiny figure in a screwball harlequin outfit slipped out of the duct.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm all done. I strung the tamperproof all—" She saw Ezr. "Hi, Ezr!" For once, the little girl did not swarm on him. She just nodded and kind of smiled. Maybe she was growing up. If so, this was the hard way to do it. "I strung it all the way past the locks, no problem. You gotta wonder why these guys don't just use encryption, though." She was smiling, but there were dark shadows around her eyes. It was a face Ezr would expect in someone older. Qiwi stood in the relaxed crouch of zero gee, with one checkered boot slipped under a wall stop. But she held her arms close at her sides, her hands clasping her elbows. The expansive, grabbing and punching little monster of before the ambush was gone. Qiwi's father was one of the still-infected, like Trixia. Like Trixia, he might never come back. And Kira Pen Lisolet was a senior armsman.

The little girl continued talking about the setup inside the duct. She was well qualified. Other children might have toys and games and playmates; Qiwi's home had been a near-empty ramship, out between the stars. That long alone-time had left her on the verge of being several kinds of specialist.

She had several ideas for how they might save time with the cable-pulling the Emergents required. Benny was nodding, taking notes.

Then Qiwi was on a different topic. "I hear we're gonna have new people in the temp."

"Yes—"

"Who? Who?"

"Emergents. Then some of our own people, I think."

Her smile blazed for an instant, and then she forced her enthusiasm down with a visible effort. "I-I was over at Hammerfest. Podmaster Nau wanted me to check out the coldsleep gear before they move it toFarTreasure. I...I saw Mama, Ezr. I could see her face through the transp. I could see her slow-breathe."

Benny said, "Don't worry, kid. We'll...Things will be okay for both your mom and pop."

"I know. That's what Podmaster Nau told me, too."

He could see the hope in her eyes. So Nau was making vague promises to her, becoming poor Qiwi's lifeline. And some of the promises might even be true. Maybe they would finally cure her father of their damn war disease. But armsmen like Kira Pen Lisolet would be terribly dangerous to any tyrant. Short of a counterambush, Kira Lisolet might sleep for a long, long time...Short of a counterambush.His glance flickered across to Benny. His friend's stare was completely blank, a return to the earlier opacity. And suddenly Ezr knew that there really was a conspiracy. In a few Msecs at most, some among the Qeng Ho would act.

I can help; I know I can.The official coordination of all Emergent orders passed through Ezr Vinh. If he were on the inside...But he was also the most closely watched of all, even if Tomas Nau had no real respect for him. For a moment, fury rose in Ezr. Benny knew he wasn't a traitor—but there was no way he could help without giving the conspiracy away.

The Qeng Ho temp had escaped the ambush without a scratch. There had not even been pulse damage; before they maimed the local net, the Emergents had a great time mining the databases there.

What was left worked well enough for routine ops. Every few days, a few more people were added to the temp's population. Most were Emergents, but some were low-rank Qeng Ho released from coldsleep detention. Emergents and Qeng Ho, they all looked like refugees from disaster. There was no disguising the damage the Emergents had suffered, the equipment they had lost.And maybe Trixia is dead. The "Focused" were kept in the Emergents' new habitat, Hammerfest. But no one had seen any of them.

Meantime, conditions in the Qeng Ho temp slowly got worse. They were at less than one-third the temp's design population, yet systems were failing. Part of it was the maimed automation. Part of it—and this was a subtle effect—was that people weren't doing their jobs properly. Between the damaged automation and the Emergents' clumsiness with life-systems, the other side hadn't caught on. Fortunately for the conspirators, Qiwi spent most of her time off the temp. Ezr knew she could have detected the scam instantly. Ezr's contribution to the conspiracy was silence, simply not noticing what was going on. He moved from petty emergency to petty emergency, doing the obvious—and wondering what his friends were really up to.

The temp was actually beginning to stink. Ezr and his Emergent assistants took a trip down to the bactry pools at the innermost core of the temp, the place where Apprentice Vinh had spent so many Ksecs...before. He would give anything to be an apprentice forever down here, if only it would bring back Captain Park and the others.

The stench in the bactry was worse than Ezr had known outside of a failed school exercise. The walls behind the bio-weirs were covered with soft black goo. It swayed like old flesh in the breeze of the ventilators. Ciret and Marli retched, one barfing inside his respirator. Marli gasped out, "Pus! I'm not putting up with this. We'll be just outside when you're done."

They splashed and spattered their way out, and the door sealed. And Ezr was alone with the smells. He stood for a moment, suddenly realizing that if he ever wanted to be completely alone, this was the place!

As he started to survey the contamination, a figure in goo-spattered waterproofs and a respirator drifted out from the filth. It raised one hand for silence, and passed a signals unit across Vinh's body. "Mmph. You're clean," came a muffled voice. "Or maybe they just trust you."

It was Jimmy Diem. Ezr almost hugged him, bactry shit and all. Against all odds, the conspiracy had found a way to talk to him. But there was no happy relief in Diem's voice. His eyes were invisible behind goggles, but tension coiled in his posture. "Why are you toadying, Vinh?"

"I'mnot ! I'm just playing for time."

"That's what...some of us think. But Nau has laid so many perks on you, and you're the guy we have to clear every little thing with. Do you really think you own what's left of us?"

That was the line that Nau pushed even now. "No!Maybe they think they've bought me, but...Lord of Trade, sir, wasn't I a solid crewmember?"

A muffled chuckle, and some of the tension seemed to leave Diem's shoulders. "Yeah. You were a daydreamer who could never quite keep his eye on the ball"—words from familiar critiques, but spoken almost fondly—"but you're not stupid and you never traded on your Family connections....Okay, Apprentice, welcome aboard."

It was the most joyful promotion Ezr Vinh had ever received. He stifled a hundred questions that percolated up; most had answers that he shouldn't be told. But still, just one, about Trixia—

Diem was already talking. "I've got some code schemes for you to memorize, but we may have to meet face-to-face again. So the stink will get better, but it's going to continue to be a problem; you'll have plenty of excuse to visit. A couple of general things for now: We need to get outdoors."

Vinh thought of theFar Treasure and the Qeng Ho armsmen in cold-sleep there. Or maybe there were weapons caches in secret places aboard the surviving Qeng Hoships. "Hm. There are several outside repair projects where we're the experts."

"I know. The main thing is to get the right people on the crews, and in the right job slots. We'll get you some names."

"Right."

"Another thing: We need to know about the ‘Focused ones.' Where exactly are they being held? Can they be moved fast?"

"I'm trying to learn about them,"more than you may know, Crewleader. "Reynolt says they're alive, that they've stopped the progression of the disease."The mindrot. That chilling term was not from Reynolt, but the slip of tongue he'd heard from an ordinary Emergent. "I'm trying to get permission to see—"

"Yeah. Trixia Bonsol, right?" Goo-sticky fingers patted Vinh's arm sympathetically. "Hmm. You've got a solid motive to keep after them on this. Be a good boy in every other way, but pushhard on this. You know, like it's the big favor that will keep you in line, if only they'll grant it.... Okay. Get yourself out of here."

Diem faded into the shrouds of odiferous glop. Vinh smeared out the fingerprint traces on his sleeve. As he turned back to the hatch, he was scarcely conscious of the smell anymore. He was working with his friends again. And they had a chance.

Just as the remains of the Qeng Ho expedition had its mock "Fleet Manager," Ezr Vinh, so Tomas Nau also appointed a "Fleet Management Committee" to advise and aid in its operation. It was typical of Nau's strategy, coopting innocent people into apparent treason. Their once-per-Msec meetings would have been torture for Vinh, except for one thing: Jimmy Diem was one of the committee members.

Ezr watched the ten troop into his conference room. Nau had furnished the room with polished wood and high-quality windows; everyone in the temp knew about the cushy treatment given the Fleet Manager and his committee. Except for Qiwi, all ten realized how they were being used. Most of them realized that it would be years, if ever, before Tomas Nau released all the surviving Qeng Ho from coldsleep detention. Some, like Jimmy, guessed that in fact the senior officers might occasionally be brought out, secretly, for interrogations and brief service. It was an unending villainy that would give the Emergents the permanent upper hand.

So, there were no traitors here. They were a discouraging sight nevertheless: five apprentices, three junior officers, a fourteen-year-old, and one doddering incompetent. Okay, to be honest, Pham Trinli didn't dodder, not physically; for an old man, he was in pretty good shape. Most likely, he'd always been a goofball. It was a testament to his record that he was not being held in coldsleep. Trinli was the only Qeng Ho military man left awake.

And all this rather makes me the Clown of Clowns.Fleet Manager Vinh called the meeting to order. You'd think that being fraudulent toadies would at least make these meetings quick. But no, they often dragged on for many Ksecs, dribbling off into pickle-headed assignments for individual members.I hope you enjoy eavesdropping on this, Nau scum.

The first order of business was the putrefaction in the bactry. That was under control. The widespread stench should be flushed by their next meeting time. There remained some out-of-control gene lines in the bactry itself (good!) but they posed no danger to the temp. Vinh avoided looking at Jimmy Diem as he listened to the report. He'd met Diem in the bactry three times now. The conversations had been brief and one-sided. The things Vinh was most curious to know were just what he absolutely must not know: How many Qeng Ho were in on Diem's operation? Who? Was there any concrete plan to smash the Emergents, to rescue the hostages?

The second item was more contentious. The Emergents wanted their own time units used in all fleet work. "I don't understand," Vinh said to the unhappy looks. "The Emergent second is the same as ours—and for local operations, the rest is just calendar frippery. Our software deals with Customer calendars all the time." Certainly, there was little problem in casual conversation. The Balacrean day wasn't far off the 100Ksec shift "day" the Qeng Ho used. And their year was close enough to 30Msec that most of the year-stem words caused no confusion.

"Sure, we can handle weird calendars, but that's in front-end applications." Arlo Dinh had been an apprentice programmer; now he was in charge of software mods. "Our new, um, employers are using Qeng Ho internal tools. ‘There will be side effects."' Arlo intoned the mantra ominously.

"Okay, okay. I'll take—" Ezr paused, experiencing a burst of administrative insight. "Arlo, why don'tyou take this up with Reynolt? Explain the problems to her."

Ezr looked down at his agenda, avoiding Arlo's annoyed gaze. "Next item. We're getting more new tenants. The Podmaster says to expect at least another three hundred Emergents, and after that another fifty Qeng Ho. It looks like life-support can tolerate this. What about our other systems? Gonle?"