Earthfall (Homecoming) (12 page)

“Take me to see Father,” said Chveya. “When I see that he’s unharmed, I’ll give you the Index.”

“The ship is not that large,” said Elemak. “I can find it without you.”

“You can try,” said Chveya. “But the very fact that you’re so reluctant to let me see my father proves that you’ve hurt him and you don’t dare let these people know what a violent, terrible, evil person you are.”

She thought then, for a few moments, that he might hit her. But that was just an expression that flickered in his eyes; his hands never moved; he didn’t even lean toward her.

“You don’t know me,” said Elemak quietly. “You were just a child when we last met. It’s quite possible that I’m exactly what you say. But if I were really that terrible, evil, and violent, why aren’t you bruised and bleeding?”

“Because you won’t make any points with your toadies if you slap a girl around,” said Chveya coldly. “The way you treated Oykib shows what you are. The fact that you aren’t treating me the same just proves that you’re still not sure you’re in control.”

Chveya would never have dared to say these things, except that she could see with every word, with every sentence, that she was weakening Elemak’s position. Of course, she was bright enough to know that this was dangerous, that as he became aware of his slackening control he might behave more rashly, more dangerously. But it was the only thing she could think of doing. It was the only way of asserting some kind of control over the situation.

“But of course I’m not in control,” said Elemak calmly. “I never thought I was. Your father is the only one who wants to control people. I have to keep him restrained because if I don’t, he’ll use that cloak thing to brutalize people into doing what he wants. All I’m looking for is simple fairness. For instance, all of you overgrown children can go to sleep for the rest of the voyage while
our
children get a chance to catch up halfway, at least. Is that such a terrible, evil, violent thing for me to want?”

He was very, very good at this, Chveya realized. With just a few words, he could rebuild all that she had torn down. “Good,” she said. “You’re a sweet, reasonable, decent man. Therefore you’ll let me and Oykib and Mother all go and see Father.”

“Maybe. Once I have the Index.”

For a moment Chveya thought that he had given in. That she had only to tell where the Index was, and he would let her see Father. But then Oykib interrupted.

“Are you going to believe this liar?” demanded Oykib. “He talks about Nafai brutalizing people with the cloak—but what he doesn’t want anybody to remember is that he and Meb were planning to
murder
Nafai. That’s what he is, a murderer. He even betrayed our father back in Basilica. He set Father up to be slaughtered by Gaballufix and if the Oversoul hadn’t told Luet to warn him—”

Elemak silenced him with a blow, a vast buffet from his massive arm. In the low gravity, Oykib flew across the room and struck his head against a wall harder than ever before. Gravity might be lower, but as all the children of the school had learned, mass was undiminished, and so Oykib’s full weight was behind the collision. He drifted unconscious to the floor.

Now the adults did not keep silence. Rasa screamed. Volemak leapt to his feet and shouted at Elemak. “You were always a murderer in your heart! You’re no son of mine! I disinherit you! Anything you ever have now will be stolen!”

Elemak screamed back at him, his self-control momentarily gone. “You and your Oversoul, what are you! Nothing! A weak, broken worm of a man. I’m your
only
son, the only real man you ever begot, but you always preferred that lying little suck-up to me!”

Volemak answered quietly. “I never preferred him to you. I gave you everything. I trusted you with everything.”

“You gave me nothing. You threw away the business, all our wealth, our position, everything. For a
computer
.”

“And you betrayed me to Gaballufix. You are a traitor and a murderer in your heart, Elemak. You are not my son.”

That did it, Chveya knew. In that moment, though fear remained, all loyalty to Elemak evaporated. People would still obey him, but none of them willingly. Even his own oldest son, eight-year-old Protchnu, was looking at his father with fear and horror.

Rasa and Shedemei were taking care of Oykib. “He’s going to be all right, I think,” said Shedemei. “There’ll probably be a concussion and he may not wake up very soon, but there’s nothing broken.”

Silence held for a long time after her words. Oykib would be all right—but nobody could forget who had caused the injuries he did have. No one could forget the utter savagery of the blow, the rage that was behind it, the sight of Oykib flying through the air, helpless, broken. Elemak would be obeyed, that was certain. But he would not be loved or admired. He was not the leader of choice, not for anyone, not now. No one was on his side.

“Luet,” said Elemak softly. “You come with me and Chveya. And Issib, too. I
want
you to witness that Nafai is all right. I also want you to witness that he is not going to be in command on this ship again.”

As Chveya followed Elemak down the ladderway to one of the storage decks, she wondered: Why didn’t he just take her to see Father when she first asked? It made no sense.

How childish of him.

Well, he’s done
that
.

It gave her a glow of triumph as she followed Elemak to the storage room where Father was imprisoned.

The glow dissipated quickly, though, when she saw how they had treated him. Father lay on his side on the floor of a storage compartment. His wrists had been bound tightly—savagely—behind his back. She could see the skin bulging above and below the twine, and his hands were white. They had also tied his ankles together, just as tightly. Then they had pulled his legs up behind him, bowing him painfully backward, and had run two cords from his ankles up over his shoulders, twisting them before and after so they were held tight along his neck. Then they ran the cords down his stomach to his crotch and passed them between his legs to where they fastened them, behind his buttocks, to his bound wrists. The result was that the cords exerted constant pressure. The only way Father could relieve the pressure on his shoulders, at his groin, was to pull his legs even higher or bend himself backward even more. But since he was already pulled in that direction as tightly as they could force his body, there was no relief. His eyes were closed, but his red face and quick, shallow breaths told Chveya that he was in pain and that even breathing was hard for him in that impossible posture.

“Nafai,” Mother murmured.

Nafai opened his eyes. “Hi,” he said softly. “See how a little storm at sea can disrupt the voyage?”

“How cleverly you tied him,” Issib said with venom in his voice. “What an inventive tormentor you are.”

“Standard procedure on the road,” said Elemak, “when a needed person is being stubborn about something. You can’t kill him and you can’t let him get away with his defiance. A couple of hours like this is usually enough. But Nyef has always been an exceptionally stubborn boy.”

“Can you breathe, Nafai?” Mother asked.

“Can
you
? asked Father.

Not until that moment had Chveya realized that the air
was
rather close and stuffy.

“What do you mean by that?” demanded Elemak.

Issib answered for him. “The life support system can’t handle so many people awake all at once,” he said. “It’s straining already. We’re going to get lower and lower on available oxygen as the hours go by.”

“Not a problem,” said Elemak. “We’re putting all the sneaks and liars and their overgrown children back to sleep for the rest of the voyage.”

“No you’re not,” whispered Father.

Elemak regarded him quietly. “I think when I have the Index, the ship’s computer will do what I want.”

Father didn’t even answer.

“The Index, Chveya,” said Elemak. “I kept my word.”

“Untie him,” said Chveya.

“He can’t,” said Issib. “Nafai has the cloak. It can’t be taken from him. So if he ever lets him go, Nafai will be back in control in moments. No one could stand against him then.”

So this was what holding the twins as hostage had accomplished. Father had willingly submitted to being tied like this, so that his little ones would be unharmed. For the first time, Chveya really understood how powerless parents were. Only people without children were really free to act on their own best judgment. Once you had little ones to care for, you could always be controlled by someone else.

“Can’t you loosen the cord?” Chveya said. “You don’t have to twist him up like that.”

“No, I don’t have to,” said Elemak. “But I
want
to. After all, I’m evil and terrible and violent.” He eyed her steadily. “The Index, Chveya, or your mother goes down on the floor beside him. It doesn’t hurt him, not really, because the cloak heals him, but it won’t heal
her
.”

Chveya could feel how Mother stiffened beside her. “You won’t,” said Chveya.

“Won’t I? Since you and Oykib and Father have already got everybody hating me, it won’t make things any harder for me. And if I prove that I can treat a woman just as badly as a man, maybe I won’t have to put up with any more interference from big-mouthed little bitches like you.”

“Tell him,” said Father. His voice sounded like defeat.

She had heard it from his own mouth. There was nothing more to accomplish by resisting. “I’ll take you,” said Chveya. “It’s in the centrifuge. You’ll have to wait until it spins down, though. You can’t get it out while it’s moving.”

“Inside the works, then?” Elemak said. “All this bother—and I would have thought of it eventually anyway. All right, get out, all of you. I’m locking this door behind me, and I’ll post a continuous watch here, so don’t even imagine that you can sneak down here and untie him. You’re lucky I haven’t killed him already.”

For a moment Chveya wondered: Why hasn’t Elemak already killed him? He tried before, didn’t he? It has to be the cloak. Father can’t be killed, not that easily. Not while he’s inside the ship, or even near it. Elemak probably can’t even touch him, let alone do violence to him, not unless Father permits it. And if Elemak tried to kill him, it might not even require a voluntary response on Father’s part to strike back. The cloak would probably lash out automatically. Or maybe the Oversoul controls it. But that’s automatic, too, isn’t it? Because the Oversoul is really just a computer.

Chveya blushed. She let Elemak herd her and the others out of the room, remembering only at the last moment to call out, “Father, I love you!”

At first Elemak insisted on getting the Index out while the centrifuge was still moving, but when he saw for himself that the Index could not possibly be removed without running a serious risk of dropping it and breaking it under the wheels, he glumly waited while the machine ran down. Then, with it stopped, he sent Obring into the opening to get it. Chveya understood why. Elemak dared not get completely down into the opening, because he then couldn’t be sure that someone wouldn’t slam the door shut. He could get out soon enough, through one door or another—there were openings leading from the roadway out into the rest of the ship—but not before somebody could make it to Father and untie him. He couldn’t trust anyone now. So it was Obring who went down through the maintenance hole, and Obring who handed up the cloth-wrapped Index to Elemak.

“I can’t believe she got it in there while the thing was moving,” Obring said.

Elemak didn’t respond, but Chveya was defiantly proud of the compliment. She
had
done well. And even though Oykib, for whatever reason, had told Elemak almost at once who had hidden the Index, she had managed to weaken Elemak’s position and visit her father as the price of telling where it was.

Now Elemak lifted off the cloth and held the Index in his hands.

Nothing happened.

He turned to Issib. “How does it work?” he demanded.

“Like that,” said Issib. “Just what you’re doing.”

“But it’s not doing anything.”

“Of course it’s not,” said Issib. “The Oversoul controls it, and he’s not speaking to you.”

Elemak held it out to Issib. “You do it, then. Make it do what I tell you, or Hushidh ends up with Nafai on the storeroom floor.”

“I’ll try, but I don’t think the Oversoul will be fooled just because I’m the one holding it. It’s still not going to submit to you.”

“Shut up and do it,” said Elemak.

Issib sank lightly to the floor and received the Index as Elemak laid it in his lap. He put his hands on it. Nothing happened.

“You see?” said Issib.

“What usually happens?” asked Elemak. “Could it just be slow to respond?”

“It’s never slow,” said Issib. “It’s just not going to work while the starmaster is not in control of the ship.”

“Starmaster,” said Elemak, as if the word were poison in his mouth.

“We’re going to run lower and lower on oxygen,” said Issib. “The ship can only break up carbon dioxide so fast, and we have too many people breathing.”

“What you mean is that the Oversoul is trying to use the oxygen supply to force me to surrender.”

“It’s not the Oversoul,” said Issib. “He doesn’t control the life support systems, not directly, and he certainly couldn’t override them in order to cause human beings harm. The machines have failsafe systems built in. It’s just the way things are.”

“Fine,” said Elemak. “We’ll just put to sleep all the people I don’t want up. I might even let Nafai go to sleep for the rest of the voyage—though I think he might stay tied up like that during his nap.”

“And come out crippled worse than me at the end?” asked Issib.