Building Harlequin’s Moon (58 page)

Data streams flowed haltingly from all over Selene again. A full grid of data was healing itself, routing into a complete net. The flare hadn’t damaged
John Glenn
. It was shielded against far worse, against interstellar dust at relativistic speeds.

Safe Harbor
bobbed at the dock below him; they had ridden it over this morning, the five of them tiny on the huge boat. Refuge was invisible, blanketed by water, holding the few thousand refugees who had filled Clarke Base.

Gabriel moved in a circle, looking around, feeling the warm damp air, absently stretching his arms. He was frozen without a clear direction. Where did he fit in this new Selene, where deep conspiracies excluded him, and old women saw him as a useful tool, but flawed?

He recalled the heady feeling of making this place, of forming the sea, of landing Refuge perfectly. And still Selene defeated him. Apollo with its flares, Selene itself with its quakes and finicky atmosphere.

A rattle of sliding rocks carried through the still, warm air. Others were walking upslope toward him. Gabriel watched them. John and Treesa held hands. Rachel and Ali walked close to each other, heads down, talking. From time to time one of them gestured.

Rachel came to take his hand and lead him back up, away from the others. When they got to the top and gazed down at the Sea of Refuge, she put an arm around him before he had a chance to respond to her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She shook her head. “That question is driving me nuts. I will be, okay? I have to be okay.”

Where do you get your hope?
“Why?”

“My people need to come back up from underwater and find . . . something good waiting for them. Beth—Beth is brave and wonderful and caring. Sarah needs me; she’s lost as much as I have. Harry lost a son. I could go on.” She fell silent for a few steps. “You need me too, I think. Or not me specifically, but we all need each other after this; Council and Children and Earth Born together.”

He looked at her wonderingly. Her face was turned toward the sea, looking down on the floating dock above Refuge. A strand of red hair pulled loose and floated near her face.

“The AIs too, Gabriel. They’re scary, but they’re alive . . . conscious anyway.”

“But . . . but . . .”

“You’ll need Astronaut if you ever fly away.”

“I thought you wanted us to stay.”

“And we’ll need Vassal.”

She fell silent again, and they walked, closing on Council Aerie. She had surpassed him; still working on solutions when solutions seemed beyond reach. Even given what she had just done; burying a lover and a childhood enemy, she looked calm and fresh and beautiful. Young. Sixty thousand years . . . a few hundred spent warm, against what, twenty-five? That used to be one’s prime, on Earth, a long time ago.

“They could force the matter of the collider,” he said.

She shrugged. Gabriel said, “I think I’m with you. We can’t risk generating antimatter on Selene. It’s—inelegant. We might be all of the human race left, on Selene and
John Glenn
. Convincing anyone else will be hard, and Liren could still block us, and . . . I just don’t know where else to put antimatter.”

Council Aerie looked fine, of course. Geomagnetic
storms didn’t damage plascrete. As they drew closer to the Aerie, he realized how much he really did like the design; it was arches and bubbles and curves, with windows everywhere. It sat, a soft thing on the hard edge of a crater, on an impossible world.

“I’ve never been here,” Rachel said.

He turned and held her, folding her slender body in his arms. She should have been here. “I’ll show you around. We can stay here while we figure out what to do next.” Her hair smelled of dust, of Selene. Gabriel realized that he wanted very much to kiss Rachel. He pushed aside the impulse sternly. For the moment, he would give her some privacy to heal in.

T
REESA AND
R
ACHEL
sat outside on the short wall that bounded the path leading down to the dock. Rachel watched the evening sky gather the last brightness of dusk, briefly, and then breathe out the beginnings of darkness. She had slept through a virtual meeting the others had with Erika, Rich, and Clare.

Enough light remained for Rachel to see the calm on Treesa’s face. Rachel asked, “They didn’t say what they plan to do with Justin and the others?”

Treesa shook her head, staring at the darkening sky. “Not yet. John argued for a meeting tomorrow morning, said that you need to be heard.” Treesa sighed. “It was hard. They’re used to making all of the decisions. I think what turned the corner was that they’re also used to following John—he was captain for so long. Erika’s strong, but
still new to command, Clare has always been moderate, and Rich isn’t much of a decision maker. I think maybe Liren discredited herself some coming down here. She wasn’t at this session, and no one mentioned her. We argued for you to be heard, so there’s time set aside tomorrow. You represent the Moon Born. I’m sorry so much has to fall on you now, but what you say will be important.”

Rachel’s feet scraped against the wall below her and her fingers gripped the edge tightly. “What should I tell them?”

“That’s up to you. I cannot counsel you, and neither, I think, can any of us. I will say that Justin’s fate is not the bigger issue here.”

“What did they say about Vassal?”

Treesa looked out over the dark bowl of the Sea of Refuge. “They’re angry, and although they won’t show it, they’re scared. Not Kyu, I think, and I can’t read Rich. I don’t know Liren’s standing after this. That complicates things.” Treesa paused and frowned. “But I’m not answering your question. Ali and I both admitted our role in making Vassal; we left you out of it. Council knows you can speak with both AIs, and you may have to choose what to say about your part in the initial decision. Perhaps it won’t come up. We tried to structure this as a speech, asked them to just listen. I don’t know what they’ll actually do.”

Rachel leaned forward, looking down at the drop below the wall. Rocks littered the sheer fall toward the sea, jagged teeth in the near-dark. “We need the AIs before you can leave. We need Vassal. And I don’t want either of them to die.”

“Die?”

“Have to start over. I want them to keep their memories. I want them to know us. Vassal identifies with us now, and . . . and I like Vassal. I was afraid it would sell me out down there, that it wouldn’t let me make my own choices. But it did. It helped me, even though it disagreed.”

Treesa nodded. Rachel could hear the older woman’s
slow calm breathing. The damp night smelled of water and dead algae, burned by the flare’s radiation load.

“I’m scared,” Rachel said.

“It’s okay to be scared. You can use your fear to make you strong.” She twisted sideways and stood on the path, as agile as Rachel. “Stay out here and think about what to say. There is no one else to represent the Moon Born. Tomorrow, you will just have to trust yourself. We all support you, and Kyu does as well. That’s five against three.” She smiled down at Rachel, that same calm warm smile that Rachel wanted to find inside herself.

T
HE EARLY-MORNING AIR
was cool and lightly misty, bracing her awake. Rachel walked, mumbling, trying out things to say. There was an outline in her head, but the detailed words came out different every time she tried. It was important to make Dylan’s death mean something. Make Andrew’s death mean something. Her mind shied away from that last bit—she had murdered Andrew. Like the Council murdered Jacob. Accidents. A seed of forgiveness lay in that thought. She had to make it matter.

She paced the trail, walked along the shallow wall she and Treesa had sat on the previous day, looked at Refuge and then at Clarke Base. She held the little tree her father had made so many years ago, turning it over and over in her hands. Her father had died of old age and shock, but he had also died because Council would not give him the tools to live. And now, somehow, it was up to her to secure the Moon Born’s future. Everything she’d done for years led to this moment, to this morning.

People stirred in the kitchen. She put the tree in her pocket and went in and helped Treesa get coffee and breakfast ready, grateful to have something to do. In five minutes they would hear from the ship. Rachel breathed in and out quietly, but her nerves didn’t calm. Gabriel paced. Ali sat
in a corner brushing out her hair with long measured strokes. John and Treesa stood arm in arm, looking down at the Sea of Refuge, whispering together.

Treesa disengaged from John and came to put a hand on Rachel’s shoulder, then took her seat. They all settled around the kitchen table, Rachel in the middle, Gabriel and Ali on one side, John and Treesa on the other. They completely filled one side of the table.

John opened a data window. There would be a short delay between answers; the usual latency between
John Glenn
and Selene. The connection was completed from the other side.

High Council had chosen the main boardroom. Erika sat in the middle, Clare and Kyu on either side, Rich on Clare’s side. Erika and Clare and Rich looked clean, and each wore a simple uniform. Kyu was more subdued than normal; she wore a simple black skin suit with a black lace scarf tied around her waist. The only color in her outfit showed in deep brick-red ribbons plaited into the four braids she wore. Rachel looked twice; Liren was not there.

“Good morning,” Erika opened. “This meeting is designed to allow Rachel Vanowen to give testimony regarding the Moon Born’s place in the actions yesterday.” Erika looked directly at Rachel, a deep questioning look. “Rachel, can you represent the Children of Selene? Can you speak for them?”

Rachel swallowed. “I can.” She licked her lips. This was so formal.

Kyu smiled again, and it looked as if she was encouraging Rachel. Hard to tell in the midst of a meeting like this, but Rachel let a half smile sneak back, hoping Kyu would know it was directed at her. Rachel’s stomach felt hollow and fluttery, as if she were going to be sick. A hand stole over hers. Gabriel’s. She glanced sideways at him. He was looking straight forward, directly at Erika, but he had Rachel’s hand in his, and Ali’s on the other side. Treesa
reached for Rachel’s other hand, and she and John were already holding hands. Rachel followed the chain down the table, back up. It was complete. Gabriel had started it. High Council could see it—a gesture of solidarity. Rachel relaxed for the first time that morning, drawing strength from the support of her friends.

She said, “Captain Erika—”

“A moment,” Erika said. “Ma Liren cannot be with us, but she wished to make a brief statement. Will you hear her?”

Rachel looked around, caught the nods. “Of course.” And braced herself.

The new window showed Ma Liren wearing the same neat uniform as the rest of High Council. Her hair was a coiled wave, meticulous and sharp. “This is for us all,” she said, “Council, Earth Born, Moon Born, High Council in particular. We say ‘disaffected,’ ” and she ran both hands through her carefully sculpted hair and left it a shambles. “ ‘Disaffected.’ Wonderful word, but we need something older. We used to say ‘crazy.’

“We can’t be blamed. We had a plan that made any previous human effort look like a preschool quantum mechanics game. We each and all let our bodies be
frozen dead
in sublime faith that it would all work. We woke to a hell of radiation in a dying ship. We did what we could, what we had to, but who can blame us if we went gibbering crazy?

“We were going to put antimatter where Andrew Hain could reach it!

“Yes, I know Andrew’s dead. Who should know that better than I? But I saw his eyes. He was going to kill me. Sure he was, why not? But he was ready to die himself! When we gave him a tractor, he used it to shred our plantings on Selene. What would he have done with our nano, given time, with Star to be tortured for what she knows? What would he do with ten kilograms of antimatter?

“I saw him die, jerking like a hooked salmon. I would
have cooled him down a quarter century ago! That was crazy, and I’m sorry. We can’t freeze thousands of Andrews. We’d have to thaw half the Earth Born.” Liren’s nails ripped through her hair again. “We damn near have anyway!

“We made slaves. Slavery makes Andrews.

“We cannot. Can not. Are you listening? We cannot build an antimatter generator, and antimatter storage system, and launch system, on Selene. That was crazy. We should have got well by now. Even that cursed AI should have known better.

“I’m rambling.” Liren reached out of the window and it disappeared.

Captain Erika said, “Ma Liren resigned just after making that speech. We’ll nominate a replacement, but for now there are only four on High Council. Rachel, please proceed.”

He did it
. Rachel couldn’t believe it. Andrew had made his point, with his life.

High Council waited politely.

Rachel cleared her throat. “First, all of the Moon Born that threatened or hurt Council may be kept on
John Glenn
, detained, until we sort this out.” As if she could stop them. She swept them past the question, saying, “And the same goes for Council and Earth Born. I include Paul Hen-nick, the man who shot Jacob, and whoever it was that shot Dylan.”

Erika blinked and sat back, gesturing to the others to be quiet. “Do you know who that is?”

“You have recordings. Play them.”

“All right. Everyone is here anyway.”

Rachel stood, freeing her hands, and said the next words very carefully. “Liren also.”

Erika’s answer was immediate. “Ma Liren is, was High Council.”

“Ma Liren shot at me while I was in flight. I would have
fallen to my death. She told me later that she would be happy to shoot me again, and she threatened Andrew. She’s homicidal.”

Kyu looked like she was trying very hard not to grin. Clare and Rich looked stunned, and Erika’s eyes narrowed. “What exactly are you proposing?”

“I want them all detained, or frozen
if they wish
, until we have worked out some issues. Or until they reach Ymir.” She sat back down, holding Erika’s eyes. “I think it may take us some time.”