Edge of Dark (52 page)

The vote had split so far.

She had no read on the Futurist. Hiram stood formally at the microphone, letting a few beats of silence pass. He surveyed the room, looking up toward the seats as if there were people in them that he could see. “The future is usually improved with risks. But sometimes it can be destroyed by them, as well. We should not fight the Next. They are more ruthless than we are, and than we ever will be, in spite of the atrocity that we saw the Shining Revolution perpetrate. We should not help the Next, because it creates a temptation to become the Next. We've already seen this at work, the perilous sweet call of even longer life, of stronger bodies. I say that we
Allow
.”

Nona had expected the Futurist to be less conservative, and to choose
Help
.

Satyana looked slightly dismayed, although Nona suspected that she was the only one who would see that, except maybe Gunnar. “I will call on the Voice.”

Nona's heart beat faster. She suddenly wished she weren't here, and told herself that was ridiculous. She tapped her right foot against her left ankle hard enough to hurt until she felt focused again.

Satyana surveyed the crowd and looked into the cameras. “I call on Gunnar Ellensson first.”

He looked startled. Nona suspected he had wanted to be third so that his words could be the last influence on the social reckoning. In spite of that one look, he seemed comfortable and sounded convincing as he played his part. He was, of course, the most imposing figure on the stage. “If we help them, if we work with them, we may be able to mitigate the damage they do to Mammot and to Lym. Many of you know that I have interests in Mammot. But I would point out that you do, too. Ten percent of our trade—of our economy—comes from Mammot and through the Diamond Deep. A strong economy and a strong society require change and growth, and risk. I say we take this risk together. I say
Help
.”

Nona wondered how many other people saw Gunnar's response as disingenuous. He was almost certainly trying to protect his nearly infinite lease of land and mines on Mammot.

Winter moved deliberatively during a time when they needed to hurry.

Nona's foot felt twitchy and she forced it to be still.

Winter spoke slowly, but not very much. “I represent all of the social groups on the station, all of the people of the Deep. Most of them are workers, common people pursuing dignified lives. I vote to follow the Economist and choose
Allow
.”

Four for
Allow
and three for
Help
. If she chose
Allow
, that would happen. If she chose
Help
, either could happen. The vote would be saved for the people. She took a deep breath. It seemed that Satyana called her name from a far distance, and that she had to walk through mud, trying not to trip, as she took her place as the speaker. The spotlight heated her face and stole her peripheral vision.

Satyana had put her in this position when she called on Gunnar first, and Satyana never did anything important by accident.

Nona blinked in the light, took a deep breath, and repeated her mantra quickly in her head. “I speak for my friend, Chrystal. Chrystal who was just murdered by the Shining Revolution. For that is what it was. Murder. Chrystal was still . . . Chrystal. There were some differences—how could there not have been? But her spirit was her own. She laughed at the same things and worried about the same things. The woman who was just taken apart in front of us all is the same woman who was born on the Deep and went to school with me on the Deep, and who I loved dearly all of my life.” She had to stop for a few big gasping breaths, and then she had to go on before she couldn't. “Because of that linkage, I believe that there is more true and good in the Next than we know, and so even though I am frightened and angry, even though I can't be sure of the right thing to do, and I don't think any of us can, on stage or off, I am voting that we
Help
the Next.”

Her legs shook as she walked back to her seat. She had used a lot more words than she meant to.

She barely heard Satyana say, “Thank you.”

She looked up, hoping to catch Satyana's eye, but the other woman was looking out at the audience. “Now it is
your
turn. We will open the vote in a few moments. We will accept your votes for the next three minutes after that. I advise you to decide alone and uninfluenced. We have talked about this for months now, and it is time to decide each for each and thus reveal our collective wisdom.” She fell silent, bowed her head, and then lifted it again. Her voice rang out in a loud call. “The vote is open.”

Someone handed Nona a glass of water and she downed it in one long sip. Fear made her thirsty.

Leesha, who had voted differently than Nona, came over and put a hand on her shoulder and said, “You spoke well.”

“Thanks.”

Leesha whispered, “If I weren't the Economist, I would have voted with you.”

As odd as Leesha was, Nona relished the moment of intimacy between her and the tall woman with gems in her purple hair. So unexpected.

Above them, numbers spun too fast to read, except for
Uphold
. Satyana came and leaned close to Chrystal and said, “At least most people don't want a war.”

“Good,” Nona and Leesha both said at once.

A stray thought suddenly seemed important. “Do you know what the other two stations have decided?”

“Not yet. I think everyone is waiting for the last minute.”

Satyana glanced at the spinning counters. “Speaking of the last minute . . .” She returned to the spotlight and waited while the counters finished. “Thank you. We've had a good turnout. One hundred seventy five thousand for
Uphold
. Five hundred and sixty-four thousand for
Allow
, and six hundred and three thousand for
Help
.”

Satyana waited, letting the numbers sink in before she spoke. “The Council, the Voice, and the Headmistress through the people of the Diamond Deep have chosen. They have said that we as a station will help the Next as they come into the light and live near the sun. This means that we set aside our previous interpretation of the Deeping Rules. We accept this new interpretation, born for this time and this moment. We will act as one station, together.”

She dropped her hands.

The house lights came up and Nona could see that the seats had in fact been over half full. A thousand people or so.

Sporadic clapping and cheering floated toward them, punctuated by silence. With such a close vote it wasn't surprising that some of the audience wasn't happy.

Satyana turned to Gunnar. “Tell the ambassadors.”

“I will.”

“Wait,” Nona said. “What ambassadors?”

“The Next. There are some in a nearby ship. They've been waiting for our decision.”

There were Next close by and they hadn't helped Chrystal?

Satyana turned to her. “You did a great job up there. You were poised and you had feeling.”

Nona shook her head, dumbfounded. Angry. Betrayed. “Why didn't the Next save Chrystal?”

Gunnar narrowed his eyes. “What would that have done to the vote?”

Nona fell silent. It would have started a war. It would have changed her vote. It still skewered her, sharpening the pain of Chrystal's loss. She looked at Satyana and said, “This is so hard.”

Satyana smiled sadly. “Diplomacy is the hardest job in the world.”

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

CHARLIE

Charlie had to land in near dark, the bright colors of sunset painting the sky above him orange and red. Jean Paul waited to greet them. “I've put dinner on.”

“Thanks.”

While Jean Paul cooked, Charlie called Manny. He caught him sitting at his office desk reading the news, pictures of some of the parts of Lym that still needed the most restoration hanging behind his head. When he noticed Charlie's face he looked both relieved and angry. “You should come here.”

“I'll be there soon. There's something I need to warn you about. I have a Next with me.”

“I know.”

“Not the two I brought with me.”

“I know that, too. What gave you the right?”

Charlie stiffened. “Tell me what you're talking about, and then I'll tell you what I'm talking about.”

For a moment, he didn't think Manny was going to respond. Manny was used to calling the shots and certainly not at all accustomed to Charlie telling him what to do. Manny leaned back and chewed on his lip for a second. “There's a Next ship landing here. Landing. They said you told them they could, and that they looked forward to meeting their neighbors. If I tell the people that, they'll tear you apart.”

“I suppose that's one way to force the issue,” Charlie said.

“It's a ship,” Manny emphasized. “Not a station to ground shuttle. A fucking starship.”

Charlie fell silent. “I didn't know that.”

“It's going to scare a lot of people and piss off the rest.”

It had already pissed Manny off, a fact left unsaid but written on his face.

Charlie nodded. “I'll give you the short version. The gleaners have been seeing Next and Next robots for a long time. You know that.”

What did Manny actually need to know? “They've been scouts. You do understand that the Next gave three locations the ability to decide for all of humanity, and that we aren't on that list?”

Manny took a drink of something that looked serious. “Yep. We'll hear what they decided soon.”

“When? And when are the Next coming?”

“Did you really give them room for two cities. Cities?”

“Didn't you make me your ambassador?”

“And the right to import their own humans who aren't part of our society?” Manny rolled his eyes. “Deals usually require some form of approval.”

“I agree. I'm bringing it to you.”

Manny didn't look appeased.

“Don't imagine I enjoyed this, or that I wanted to do it. But we aren't powerful enough to keep the Next from landing here, and they didn't give me much of a choice.” He couldn't believe he was saying what he was saying. It felt like he had switched sides, and he hated it. “There's someone important coming in with me—a gleaner who convinced the Next to negotiate. I followed up on what she started. We're better off than we would be without her. Amfi. Do you know her?”

“You let a
gleaner
help you give away parts of Lym?”

“It'll be all right. Maybe. It's better than no deal. Better than war.” To his surprise, as much as he hated that he had given anything away to Jhailing, he found that he believed his words. Funny how which side of a conversation you were on made it feel different.

“When will you be here? The Next are landing by late morning. They demanded you and the Next you're bringing.”

It would be a two-hour flight. “I'll be there by an hour after dawn. We need to sleep.”

Manny's voice had grown more controlled, but Charlie could still hear the anger in it. “Can you send me the outline of the deal now? So I can think about how to explain it?”

Charlie's thoughts raced. There were so many opportunities for misinterpretation. “No. No. I need to be there.”

Manny's eyes narrowed. “Is it that bad?”

“If this is the final deal, we've given up more territory than we wanted to, but they got less than they wanted. A lot less. I did the best I could.”

“The Next think it's binding.”

“It's better than being overrun,” Charlie said.

“After you explain, will you turn it over to me to sell to people? Please.”

“Oh yes.” He felt lighter already. “Absolutely.”

Manny didn't look any lighter at all, but he did look a little less angry than he had at the start of the call. Good enough. After a few logistics, Charlie hung up.

Charlie gave himself five minutes of jotting notes on his slate to try and organize his thoughts before he returned to the group in the kitchen. He went to Jhailing. “I need to go get Cricket and feed her. Will you come along?”

“What's a Cricket?”

Charlie smiled. “I'll show you.” As soon as they got through the door, he said, “What Next ship is landing?”

“The
Sunward
. We have permission now.”

“Not until more than just me gives it to you!”

Jhailing didn't answer him.

“Can you call your ship off for a while?”

“No. That is beyond my authority.”

Charlie doubted it. “Do you know what a tongat is?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Have you met one?”

“No. They are wild predators.”

“Yes. Mostly.” They rounded the corner to Cricket's kennel and Charlie opened the door. She stood on her hind legs, put her one front paw on his shoulder, and licked his face. It was the best moment of the day so far, maybe the only truly happy moment. He leaned forward, balancing against her weight and ran his hands through her fur for a full two minutes before he commanded her to step down.

Jhailing seemed quite interested in the relationship. He followed Charlie around asking questions, and Charlie felt more like an ambassador than he had the whole time he and Nona were flying to and from the Satwa. The Next, of course, had no contact at all with flesh and blood animals other than the occasional human. They'd read about them and observed them, and occasionally seen them on smuggler's ships, but they had no real experience.

As Charlie scooped Cricket's dinner into her bowl, Jhailing spoke thoughtfully. “It's possible that the relative differences in mental capabilities between you and Cricket is similar to that between humanity and the Next.”

Charlie wanted to laugh, but he managed to hold that in, take three breaths, and say, “In some ways Cricket is smarter than I am.”

“How do you mean that?”

“Packs of tongat survive very well in the wild, and they stay together with perfect loyalty from birth to death.” He put Cricket's food down for her. “That is, except for a few very specific ritual exchanges of females which keep breeding populations diverse. They almost never fight, although as high-status predators, if they need to kill, they do so expediently. We humans are far messier in our relationships.”