Edge of Dark (54 page)

“And I you.” Charlie pushed himself aside to allow room for the others to disembark. He watched closely. Manny had lost so much weight he looked like half of Manny. He looked—haggard. Not old. He was no gleaner; he took his meds. Still…

Of course, Charlie probably looked different as well. It had been almost a year.

Jhailing was next. Manny held his hand out. “Welcome to Lym.”

“Thank you,” Jhailing said. “I am Jhailing Jim, and I am a member of the formal team of ambassadors who will accept your agreement.”

Surprise flashed on Manny's face for a moment, and a hint of dismay. He recovered quickly, giving a warm greeting to Jason and Yi.

Charlie decided that Manny had expected the ambassador to be more imposing and the soulbots to be less—human.

Charlie nodded. “How long do we have?”

“Twenty minutes.”

Twenty minutes to explain so much loss. He started in, and from time to time Amfi added a nuance.

Manny frowned and chewed on his knuckles.

All six of them stood on the tarmac, waiting for the
Sunward
to descend. Charlie was between Manny and the soulbots, with Jhailing on the far side of Yi and Jason. A cool wind slapped at Charlie's cheeks; he zipped his jacket. “Here we go,” he said to Manny. “Let's hope for success.”

Manny stared up at the sky. “What is success in the middle of a nightmare? It's not like we can just wake up.”

“You get used to it.”

“I hope not,” Manny said. He saw the Next ship first, pointing out a small silver square glinting in the sunlight.

All of landing pad C had been cleared, and for a moment, Charlie thought that might not be enough. The
Sunward
was a big block of a ship, an ugly thing with no apparent thought given to aerodynamics or grace. In spite of that, it moved so smoothly it might as well be guided down on a gossamer string.

“They must have gotten better at gravgens than we are,” Manny said.

Jhailing Jim answered. “We've learned to handle far more mass without disruption.”

“I presume that's an understatement,” Charlie said.

“Will you teach us that technology?” Manny asked Jhailing.

“It can be discussed.” Jhailing's eyes were on the
Sunward
, which settled smoothly down in front of them. “Later.”

After the
Sunward
landed, it looked more like a new building had sprouted up in the spaceport than like a ship had landed. Maybe they were just going to build their cities out of starships.

He turned back to Manny. “Thank you for taking this on.”

“Quite a team. A politician, a gleaner, and a ranger. All we need to do is add a smuggler and the whole population will be represented.”

Charlie laughed. “We're going to survive. At least now that we have you where you belong.”

“I hope so,” Manny said. “For all of our sakes.”

A single Next, wearing the large silvery and flowing form Charlie had seen on the Satwa emerged from the
Sunward
. It used the fluidity of the form to lope long and low across the tarmac toward them, easily outdistancing its human escort and looking effortless and full of grace and power. If it reminded Charlie of anything at all, it was the long run of a tongat about to bring down a grazer. The image disturbed him.

The Next started to slow, changing into a large humanoid form.

“Stand up straight,” Manny said. “This is historic.”

“Yes, Uncle.” Charlie teased.

Manny gave him a look.

They walked toward the robot, acutely aware that news-bots would send photos and analysis of this moment out to every corner of the Glittering.

Jhailing and the others all stayed behind.

Charlie waved Amfi forward. For a moment it looked like she might refuse, but then she joined them.

The Next held up its huge silvered hand in greeting and spoke out loud in a pleasant and distinctly feminine voice, saying, “I'm Colorima Kelm, and I'm here to finalize the work that Jhailing Jim, Charlie Windar, and Amfi the Gleaner started.” As she said their names, she nodded at Charlie and Amfi.

At least he wasn't going to have to figure out how to deal with two Jhailing Jim's at once.

Charlie, Manny, and Amfi escorted Colorima to the hangar, the Next bulking over them.

While they were outside watching the
Sunward
land, Manny's staff had redecorated. A plush carpet covered the hangar floor. Benches and good lighting surrounded a table set with water and fruit.

Colorima flowed over to the table. Instead of dwarfing one of the existing chairs, she changed form so that she looked like a normal-sized human sitting in a large chair, only she was both chair and human. A casual display of power.

Manny sat opposite her with Charlie and Amfi on either side of him.

Yi and Jason stood, looking uncertain.

Charlie whispered to Manny. “Can they sit with us?”

Manny shook his head ever so slightly. “Not at this moment.”

The soulbots looked at each other and nodded, their faces neutral. They pulled two chairs back from the table and sat in them, picking a place where they could watch both sides.

Charlie felt sorry for them. Not only had they lost Chrystal, but neither side appeared willing to claim them. He whispered back to Manny. “Are you sure? They helped us back . . . where we were.” He had promised Amfi not to give away the location of the complex of caves.

“I can't,” Manny said. “Not unless you want whatever final decision we get to be repudiated by the people of Lym. How would they—or we—ever know if they negotiated on our side or the Next's?”

After ten hours of sitting, Charlie was happy to be up and pacing around inside the small office of the hanger. This break in the negotiations might be their last. It had mostly been an exercise in duplicating the conversation Charlie had had with Jhailing in the cave, except that Manny had required fair compensation for any minerals that were removed. Charlie had missed that; his thoughts had been centered on protecting Lym more than on her coffers. Manny had had to trade one more small space for a city for it.

“How are you going to sell this to people?” Charlie asked Manny.

Manny raised his head and looked at Charlie, his cheeks even more hollowed than they had been. “I'll pretend it's a good deal. And so will you.”

Charlie sighed. “I don't see how we could have done better.” He hated it, hated that it had happened, hated that the Next had come. “We're lucky they're talking to us at all. We didn't negotiate with them. There's not a human alive from that time, but some Next are old enough to remember being forced out.”

Amfi looked pensive. “I'm sure we'll all realize what we missed. But we need to go on. Let's do this.”

Manny stared at her for a long time, his jaw tight and his arms crossed. Eventually, he nodded. “All right.”

Colorima sat in the position she had taken when they started this, so that she made her own chair out of part of herself.

Manny walked right up to her, coming closer than he had so far. He extended a hand. “We are ready to welcome you as our neighbors.” The words were clear and warm, even though Charlie knew Manny wanted to choke on the sentence.

Colorima regarded Manny through silver eyes above silver lips the shape of a beautiful woman's. “There is another thing to clear up,” she said, “The soulbots will stay with you for now.”

“Jason and Yi?” Manny asked.

“Yes.”

“And only them?”

“Yes. Everyone else will have to abide by the decisions we just made and stay away from your city unless invited.”

“Why?” Manny asked.

Colorima smiled a silver smile. “They have suffered. It pleases me to leave them with some freedom in return for that.”

Manny looked trapped. He had the right to refuse. This was going to be a hard sell in Manna Springs. But he had the grace to say, “Yes, of course.”

She took Manny's hand, her hand about the same size as his now. Nevertheless, the metallic strength of it looked far more powerful than Manny's flesh and blood hand. They shook.

“We have a gift for Yi and Jason,” Colorima said.

Charlie turned to look at the soulbots, who were standing a little to the side, watching in silence.

Yi raised an eyebrow—a subtle way to say he had no idea what Colorima was talking about?

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

CHRYSTAL

Chrystal stood outside the hangar door, next to a Jhailing Jim. On her other side, Katherine stood holding her hand. Katherine's long hair blew in the sweet, soft wind. Neither of them had ever been on a planet. Chrystal felt the magnificence of the sky magnified through both of their linked brains. The warmth of the sun, the amazing, amazing scents of plants and air and oil and starship that permeated the air of the spaceport. Flowers bloomed somewhere close by. Geraniums.

The hangar door began to roll up.

They stood, still and silent.

On the outside, a Jason and a Yi. She knew their story, knew how they had been hurt, knew how one of her had been cruelly destroyed. Knew that their Katherine had failed. Her own Katherine had almost failed.

She walked slowly, deliberately toward her family members, the four of them locking eyes.

The Jason and the Yi didn't believe at first, didn't dare hope. She wasn't in their heads, not yet, but she could see the mix of emotions in their eyes.

The moment they did believe lightened them.

She and they began to jog and then to race toward each other.

Soon she had an arm around Katherine and an arm around Yi, and Jason stood opposite her, smiling so broadly she couldn't help but smile back. In this moment, it didn't matter that this reunion served the Next.

The expression on the Jason's face was worth the risk.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN

NONA

“T
hey had . . . such abandon. Such precision. Charlie and I were certain they were playing. And learning.” Nona swallowed; even after all this time, the memory of Chrystal, Jason, and Yi dancing in the cargo bay of the
Star Ghost
moved her nearly to tears. “Even though they were all adults, my age and older, they were learning and playing with their new bodies. They were happy in that moment, which was nearly the last time I saw any of them except Chrystal.”

The assistants had gone silent. Satyana had left the room and gone into her office for a meeting an hour before.

Dr. Nevening stared at her with soft eyes, spellbound, the objective viewpoint of the Historian momentarily abandoned. A quiet moment fell, and Nona remembered the smell of Charlie in her arms, the grace and strength of the robots. She hadn't told Dr. Nevening that they were naked when they danced. It seemed like a breach of privacy to do so.

He cleared his throat. “Do you think Chrystal was usually happy?” he asked. “You haven't described her as happy, at least not after the High Sweet Home.”

“She seemed happy in that moment. And I think at some other times.” Nona sipped her tea. “Yi seemed happy, too, I think. Almost always. That may have been the only moment I remember Jason looking happy, though. They all looked free and ecstatic in that moment, and it was the first time I understood that they might truly be better than we could be, that there is a beauty in the form the Next gave to them. Maybe it was because they didn't know that we were watching. I wish we had recorded it.”

The youngest assistant, Hatley, looked enthralled. “Did they have a secret life? Did they have ways they were happy that you never saw?”

“How could she know that?” Dr. Nevening asked Hatley, “How can you know if anyone has a secret life?”

Satyana came in, immediately interrupting. “There's news,” she said to the room at large. “You'll want to see it.”

The wall screen lit up. Satyana sat next to Nona and took her hand.

Bad news? Satyana looked more perplexed than worried.

On the screen, Manny and Charlie stood next to each other, being interviewed. They caught Charlie in midsentence “. . . were surprised. So were Yi and Jason.”