A Larger Universe (23 page)

"There isn't a mystery.  I told you the answer when you
came in.  Lord Ull wants the ship repaired.  She thinks this arrangement will
make that happen."

Valin stood.  "Have you eaten your evening meal?  Since
you have solved the mystery for me, perhaps we can now discuss what your sudden
elevation means to my efforts to translate the computer books."

"I'll join you," Tommy replied, "but there
won’t be an issue with the translations.  The more apprentices I train to do
this work, the more help you'll have.  Reading the books in English will be
part of the training."

#   #   #

Again, everyone in the meal room fell silent when Tommy
entered.  His own apprentices gave him furtive glances and turned back to their
tablemates without acknowledging him.  He and Valin were halfway through their
meal before the conversations started again, and, if the glances were any
indication, most of the talk was about him.

However, this was nothing to what occurred the next day, a
rest day.

Tommy hadn't seen Forset in many weeks.  This seemed a good
time to go to Forset's service in the farmers' church, then visit with Forset
afterward.  He had been attending the artisans' services, but he knew of no
rule to keep him from returning to the farmers' services.  He was also honest
enough to know he wanted to show off his new status to the first Jack and the
others who had mistreated him.

His arrival in the meeting room set off an immediate
reaction among the gathered farmers.  They withdrew from him in a wave as each
individual noticed his presence, until he was left standing alone near the
door.  Those who arrived after him edged past and joined the congregation
watching from the perimeter in complete silence.

Forset entered as usual, with head down and cowl covering
his eyes and walked to the room's center, taking no notice of either Tommy or
the arrangement of his congregation.  He turned to face the entrance, where
Tommy stood alone.

"We are far from home," Forset said.

"We carry our home with us," only Tommy replied.

Forset raised his cowl and searched for his congregation,
his eyes wide.  He started to say something, then saw Tommy standing in front
of him. 

The silence lengthened until Tommy shrugged his shoulders
and smiled contritely.  This hadn't been his intention. 

Forset returned Tommy's smile.  "They are our
lords," he said.

"They are not our Lord," Tommy replied.

"We are their servants," Forset said.

"We still have our souls," Tommy replied, but this
time a few of the congregation joined him.

"We go where they will," Forset said.

"We will return."  The response was bigger.

"We have no one to lead us," Forset said.

"He will come."  And bigger.

“Why will He come?” Forset asked.

"Our faith will bring Him."  Tommy couldn't hear
his own voice.

"What must we do?" Forset asked.

"We must have faith."  Their voices were a roar.

 At last, Forset began his walk back toward the entrance,
and the congregation moved toward Tommy and gathered behind him, spiraling out
around the walls of the chamber.  When Forset entered the labyrinth, the crowd
forced Tommy to follow and become second in line.  The chanting by the congregation
continued to be loud, every "We must have faith" almost shouted
following Forset's "What must we do?"  Meditation was impossible. 

Every person Tommy passed touched his clothes or looked up
at him.  The moving crowd became a wall of hands and faces, confining him,
scrutinizing him, judging him.  He wanted to run to his room and hide. 

The slow, quiet pacing became a tramp, not faster, but with
each person placing their feet firmly on the floor with a stomp. 

When the walk finished, the room reeked of sweat.  Tommy’s
clothes were soaked.

The closing chant was as loud as the first had ended.  Tommy
tried to leave quickly, but, when he turned, he almost stumbled over the first
Jack kneeling in front of him.

Both of Jack’s hands were on top of his head and his gaze
was at Tommy’s feet.  “Please forgive me, Tommy.  I should’ve known.”

Tommy took a step back.  “Should’ve known what, Jack?  And
as for forgiveness, well, perhaps I should be, but I’m not mad at you.”

“I should’ve known that no human born on this ship could
take us back to Earth,” Jack replied.  “Only a human from Earth could be the
One to return us there.”

Forset grabbed Tommy by the arm. "Come to my
quarters."  He said, pulling him away from Jack and through the excited
crowd.  When some attempted to follow, Forset turned and gave them a chilling
glance and continued to the stairs.

"I wish you'd told me you were coming to my
services," Forset said.  "Perhaps I could have warned you, though I
wasn't expecting anything like this."

"Warned me about what?"

"The farmers, most of them anyway, think you destroyed
an enemy ship.  The shaking we received damaged buildings and pipes all over
the Commons.  Many artisans were required to make repairs.  As best as I can
tell, one of the artisans mentioned your part in the battle while working on an
irrigation pump, then, near the end of the day, another artisan said you had
become guildmaster of a new guild.  The story has grown until you, with no help
from anyone else, reached out and smote the other ship with godlike powers and
were then rewarded by the lords."

Tommy burst out laughing.  "Forset, that is a pile of
horse shit.  Farmers will believe anything, won't they?"

"What is the truth?"

"You know why I was brought here?"

"Yes, to help with the translation of some books of a
technical nature.  Instruction manuals I was told.  I've never seen them."

"Well, the job evolved until I was installing the
devices the manuals were for.  The latest project was repairing the ship's
guns.  We were preparing for a trial shoot when we emerged in this star
system.  When we were fired upon, I fired back and we won."

"And soon after, you were made guildmaster of a new
guild by Lord Ull?"

"Yes."

"So, if I understand this, you repaired the guns, you
defended the ships with those guns and defeated the enemy, and you were
rewarded by being made guildmaster.  The only thing missing from this story is
the godlike powers.  Perhaps my farmers aren't as stupid as you think."

"But why did they act that way during services?"

"You gave them hope that things might change.  This
ship offers no hope.  You came here and showed them change is possible." 
He reached out to touch Tommy's sleeve as many had done that morning. 
"But what worries me is what else they might see in you."

#   #   #

Tommy's first act as guildmaster the next day was to give
Potter the freedom to roam his new guildhall.  He put a litter box, food, and a
water bowl just inside the door, then released Potter to explore among the
pallets. 
Now, this feels like it's mine.

Well, not truly mine
, he thought, as Lord Ull's voice
echoed from several speakers placed on the perimeter of the warehouse. 
"Feral, if you are there, go to deck 501.  I will meet you."

The elevator door opened to a large open chamber, dimly lit
from overhead and from the gleam of small red, blue, and green lights scattered
about the room and walls.  As he hesitated in the doorway, trying to understand
what he saw, the dark figure of a lord loomed over him. 

"Good, you wasted none of my time," Lord Ull
said.  "Follow me.  Do not speak to anyone unless I give you
permission."

Lord Ull led Tommy almost a third of the way around the
ship's central column.  At this level, the column engulfed four-fifths of the
available space. 

What a strange design with too much wasted space
, he
thought. 
The column is as massive here as it is in the ship's waist.  It
must contain more than banks of elevators and cable shafts.
  A movement
above made him look up.  Overhead, spinning chunks of
The Extended Claws
reflected light from the nearby star.  A lander moved across his view.  The
entire ceiling circling the central column was a dome made of the same material
as the windows in the observation rooms.  As his eyes became accustomed to the
lighting, he could see a few lords moving across the chamber or seated in front
of desks similar to those originally in the targeting room.

Lord Ull's path left the column and wound among the control
desks and displays to a large semicircular desk a third of the way from the
column to the wall.  "This is the navigation station," she said. 
"Both the primary and secondary computers are below this floor."  She
grasped the recessed handle in a trapdoor beside the desk and lifted.  "Go
down ahead of me."

A set of narrow steps took him down into a blackness that
became complete when Lord Ull closed the trapdoor behind them.  "When you
enter and leave here, the lights must be off to protect the vision of those
above."  He heard a faint sound, and the lights came on, still dim, but
much brighter than those in the chamber above. 

Tommy looked up to see Lord Ull still standing by the
stairs.  "The light switch is always positioned here, under the ceiling
beside each entrance to this sub-deck."

The sub-deck, as she called it, extended under the entire
deck above.  From his position, he counted thirty-two of the lords' computers,
sometimes alone and sometimes in clusters of two or three.  From each
computer's base, cables led to the ceiling, to other computers, and to what had
to be the central column wall.  He couldn't tell how many computers were on the
other side of that barrier.

Lord Ull's head almost brushed the low ceiling.  With her
height advantage of over a foot, she loomed over Tommy.  He could feel her eyes
on him.  He was glad he was forbidden to look up.  Trying to meet those eyes
with his would put a crick in his neck.

"I have arranged for you and your apprentices to come
directly to and from this station," Ull said.  "Do not disturb The
People working above.  The device on the right is the reserve navigation
computer that is no longer operational.  You may move it aside and install your
computer in its place.  Do not change the control console on the deck above. 
Create an alternate console to your computer, so the results can be demonstrated
side by side.  Inform me if you need anything to make this happen.  Now, follow
me to your other task."

When she completed this abrupt list of commands and turned
to go, Tommy called her back.  "Uh, Lord Ull, how do I get in touch with
you to inform you of anything?  Do I go to your door and knock?"

Ull considered this for a moment.  "I suppose that is
something you could not know.  I will send a guildmaster with that
information.  Now, follow me."

Tommy's other task was a compartment with an empty pond,
several levels below Lord Ull's compartment and at least five times as large. 
If there had been foliage, it had been removed, and the dirt was gray and
lifeless.

"You must make this place live again," Ull said. 
"Doing so will help me with one of the other council members."

There must more to it than that, and why did you share
that with me.
  Aloud he said, "Is there a sub-deck under this?  How do
I get to the plumbing?" 
This better not be a plumbing problem, he
thought.  I know nothing about pipes.  Surely, someone would have already fixed
a plumbing problem.

After Ull showed him the access door, she had some final
instructions.  "You are likely to see other of The People on this deck. 
Some will be young.  Some are smaller than those you have seen.  Do not talk to
them.  Do not look directly at them.  Stay focused on your business."

Tommy said, "Yes, Lord Ull," to her back as she
turned and left.

She doesn't like being near me.  Maybe I smell as bad to
her as she does to me.  No, that's not it.  Whenever she sees me, she's
reminded of my foot on her neck.  Can't say I blame her.  I would feel the
same.

The "plumbing room" circling the pond basin
contained a control device much like the boxes in the hydroponics farms.  Like
them, it had been gutted of parts.

This might be a problem  The devices are similar, but
they control completely different systems.  Will Lord Ull let me see a working
control device under an active pond?  Might as well get a complete look while
I'm here.

He circled the pond basin, trying to make sense of what he
saw.  Large pumps that could be supplying the waterfall stood near one wall. 
Following the ceiling's contour and trying to visualize it in reverse, he
decided other pumps and pipes supplied many smaller pools above the level of
the main pond and around its perimeter. 

He found an access hatch in the outer wall almost three
quarters of the way around the base of the main pond.  From beyond the hatch
came a faint throbbing noise. 
Like the sounds large pumps might make
,
he thought.  Unsealing the hatch revealed another compartment duplicating the
one he was in, except it was filled with sound and the scents of water and
growing things.  He discovered a working control device with a typical control
panel of flashing lights a few minutes later.

Following the deep throbbing of the pumps led him to what
had to be the underbelly of the waterfall splash pool.  He followed the pipes
with his eyes from the pumps and up the side of the wall, to the point where
they curved into the extended bottom of the pond.  He was about to continue
exploring when he noticed a ladder attached beside the pipes. 
I wonder what
that's for
?  At the top of the ladder he found a small closed hatch in the
side of the pond wall.  Opening this revealed a view through falling water of
the lake's surface and the shore beyond.