Hellspark (34 page)

“The sprookjes—” Tocohl began.

“You don’t believe that and neither do I. The sprookjes may have had the chance but they don’t have the know-how.”

Tocohl shifted to address the arachne. “On the available evidence, Maggy, what’s the probability that

Megeve planted those jammers?”

“Roughly twenty-five percent.”

“Not high enough,” said Tocohl.

“High enough for me,” Om im said; drawing his knife, he began to hone it again.

“Not good enough for Buntec, or she’d have rammed it down Kejesli’s throat the moment she saw him,” Tocohl pointed out. “And you, swift-Kalat, could you speak of Megeve’s treachery?”

“I could not,” swift-Kalat said. “

Someone attempted to isolate the four of you from contact with base camp, but I do not know who or to what purpose. Megeve had the knowledge and the opportunity, but every member of the team also had the opportunity. Perhaps others had the knowledge.”

“Maggy?” said Tocohl.

Maggy recognized this as Tocohl’s shorthand way of requesting further information. “According to the personnel records, three other members of the survey team have also spent time on Hayashi: Hitoshi

Dan, Edge-of-Dark, and Om im.”

The rasping noise from the side of the cot stopped abruptly. “Count me out, Maggy. Suicidal I’m not;

if the daisy-clipper was sabotaged I was meant to go down with the rest of you.”

That made sense and made Maggy reexamine the evidence. “Then if the daisy-clipper was sabotaged,” she concluded aloud, “there is a thirty-three percent probability that Megeve planted the jammers. Would that be high enough?”

“Wait up, kid,” said Buntec firmly, “you’re doin’ this wrong.”

“Tocohl?” Maggy said.

“Let Buntec tell you, Maggy. I’m too tired.”

Buntec turned to the arachne. “

I’ve been on Hayashi—tearin’ up the local Port of Delights with an old buddy isn’t the kind of thing Old Rattlebrain or the Older Rattlebrains that tell him when to wipe his nose would care about. What’s more, I’ve seen those jammers sold on a half-dozen other worlds. You can’t just go by that. Not enough info.”

“Oh,” said Maggy, revising her tactics. Now it seemed, she had no way of estimating the probability.

Buntec punched her palm, twice, with force. “If only I could eyeball the innards of that daisy-clipper… Toes, and toes again.”

“Mind your language, Buntec,” commanded layli-layli calulan

.

That surprised Maggy who knew perfectly well that toes were not obscene to an Yn. From
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Buntec’s

expression, it surprised her as well, but grudgingly she said, “Yeah, right. Not in front of the kid.”

“Not in front of my patients. They need calm and rest, all of them.”

Layli-layli calulan touched

Buntec gently at the right temple, so Maggy knew that one of the patients referred to was Buntec herself.

The shaman went on, “Using language you consider obscene is far from calming.” She spoke quietly to

Buntec for a few moments longer.

The words she spoke did not seem as important as her soothing tone and her soothing touch, but when she had finished, Buntec’s face had lost some of its anger. Even her voice was calm.

“Thanks, layli-layli

. Lot more shaken up than I realized—lightning blastin’ away no more’n an inch from my face!

You wouldn’t believe… !”

“I believe it will make a good story,”

layli-layli calulan said, drawing a rich chuckle from Om im.

A broad grin spread slowly across Buntec’s dark face. “Oh, will it ever

!” she agreed.

“Then stick to that,” Tocohl said. “Save the jammers for the sequel. We still have to know more.”

The sensors in the 2nd skin told Maggy how tired she was; drooping eyelids confirmed that.

Tocohl forced her eyes open; with effort she raised a hand to stop Buntec from rising. “Give Old

Rattlebrain a real teaser, Buntec”—a hint of smile touched the corners of her mouth—“tell Old

Rattlebrain I’ll be out to talk to his sprookjes as soon as I’ve had my nap.”

She grinned at the astonished faces looking down at her and added, “And if Alfvaen wakes before I

do, please tell her that her serendipity is unrivaled.”

The room was quiet. Buntec and Om im had gone to make their abridged report to Kejesli;

layli-layli and swift-Kalat bent over Alfvaen, taking further readings and speaking in whispers so soft

Maggy had to enhance to understand them.

Tocohl’s eyes were closed but Maggy knew from her sensors that she was not asleep. Maggy settled the arachne beside her pillow to keep watch. Then she recalled the priorities… she pinged furiously for attention, before the odd lapse could occur again.

“What is it, Maggy?”

(Just for you,) Maggy said, (Layli-layli calulan said I was to tell you—

only you—the first time we renewed contact. I’m sorry I didn’t; I don’t understand why; I ran a diagnostic—)

(You’d better get on with it then.)

Maggy relayed layli-layli calulan

’s message in the shaman’s own voice, using her taped recording of it. Then she added, (In Hellspark, that would be, ‘Megeve may be responsible for the equipment failures,’ right?) (Right.) There was a pause, a long one by human standards. (So layli-layli thinks Megeve may have had something to do with Oloitokitok’s death too,) Tocohl said at last. (What led up to that, Maggy—any idea?)

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(What swift-Kalat told her, I think. I’m not sure.)

(Show me.) She opened her eyes.

That meant picture as well. Maggy obliged with the arachne’s eyeview of the exchange between swift-Kalat and layli-layli calulan that her lie had brought about.

When the tape was finished, Tocohl said, (I see. Megeve “fixed” the transceiver while we were missing, just as he fixed it while Oloitokitok was missing. Neither swift-Kalat nor layli-layli likes the coincidence. I see the point, too. An Hayashi jammer doesn’t affect anything out of its range. It wouldn’t have affected the transceiver at this end and Kejesli would have known something was wrong at our end.

He’d have sent out a search party immediately.)

(He wanted to fix the arachne too,) Maggy said. (I wouldn’t let him. Neither would layli-layli

.)

(Good thing, too, under the circumstances.) Again she paused. (But what would he stand to gain by killing us? Even if we assume he’s an Inheritor of God, that the Inheritors want this world… ) The sensors in her 2nd skin spiked suddenly. (Maggy! Did Megeve tell Kejesli about the gift the sprookje gave me?)

(No. Buntec will be pleased: she can still see the look on Kejesli’s face. Should I tell her?) (Buntec will be far from pleased, Maggy, and I’m an idiot for not thinking of it. With the four of us dead, Megeve was the only witness to the exchange of gifts—and he told no one!) (A gift is evidence of sentience?)

(Not evidence, no, but strongly suggestive. Even Kejesli would have held his report on the strength of that.)

(Then, by killing the four of you, Megeve would gain nothing. I recorded the event.) (Ah, but he didn’t know that, Maggy. I’m not sure he knows that even now. Perhaps he was only casting doubts on the arachne’s reliability because you were so adamant that something had happened to us.)

(Or perhaps he was right to cast doubts on my reliability,) Maggy said.

The sensors spiked again. (What’s wrong, Maggy?)

(Nothing that I can find on a diagnostic but—)

(But what?)

Maggy explained about the shifting priorities that had prevented her from carrying out layli-layli calulan

’s instructions.

When she was done, Tocohl said thoughtfully, (The message wasn’t delayed long enough to do any harm, if that’s what’s worrying you. That your priorities shifted without your being aware of the shift is a little surprising, Maggy. It’s worth investigating certainly. But… I did the same thing myself—I had to know first if you were safe. Everything else was secondary.) (There’s something else.)

(Tell me.)

(I acted on probabilities lower than those I’ve ascribed to Megeve.) Maggy could tell from Tocohl’s expression that she did not understand, so she explained, (I could accept the high probability that you were dead and do nothing, or I could accept the low probability that you were being jammed and act.

Layli-layli calulan was also willing to accept the low probability. She called it a “hunch”; is that correct usage?)

(Absolutely.) A slow smile spread across Tocohl’s face; the sensors in her 2nd skin told Maggy that she had calmed as if no longer worried. (

And

, please note, that’s absolutely consistent with your shifted priorities. You were right about the
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jammers. Stop worrying.)

(Yes, in this case the low probability was the true one. So—in the future, how should I assign priorities?)

(Like the rest of us. It’s something you learn by doing. I will say, however, that it always seems to help to have someone else to talk it over with—even if you don’t take their advice once you’ve done it.)

(With you,) said Maggy. (

Layli-layli calulan comes.) Through Tocohl’s spectacles Maggy watched layli-layli calulan approach. The shaman, her broad mouth stretched broader in the smile Maggy had recorded only once before, bent over Tocohl. (Beautiful smile,) Tocohl said drowsily; and Maggy was careful to note that she had correctly anticipated Tocohl’s reaction. “You’re disturbing my patient, maggy-maggy

. She does need the nap she spoke about.”

The arachne bobbed apology. “Your pardon,” Maggy told her through its vocoder.

The shaman’s fingertips brushed Tocohl’s temples; she murmured words incomprehensible to

Maggy. The readings from the 2nd skin began to resemble those of Tocohl when she was drowsy, a comfortable, easeful drowsiness.

For a brief moment, Tocohl struggled to rouse herself. (With me, Maggy,) she agreed, and then she let layli-layli calulan

’s touch draw her into sleep.

Tocohl woke to the sound of distant thunder and an urgent voice: (Danger, Tocohl!

Wake up!

Danger

!)

The infirmary was dark, silent. Maggy pushed the spectacles for available light without waiting to be told; in the brightening, Tocohl saw Timosie Megeve start across the room on silent feet.

She waited, tensed but unmoving: in the darkness he perceived, Megeve could not know she was awake. (Record this, Maggy.)

(I am,) came the response, audible only to her.

Layli-layli calulan was nowhere in evidence. At Alfvaen’s bedside, swift-Kalat had fallen asleep in his chair, his head pillowed on his arm, his fingers brushing her face.

Megeve paused as he neared the two.

Under the circumstances, the pause seemed too ominous to chance. “Sssh,” Tocohl said softly into the darkness, “and don’t turn on the light.

Layli-layli calulan says Alfvaen needs as much sleep as she can get.” She was rewarded by seeing Megeve jump as if she’d struck him.

He recovered quickly, counting on the darkness to keep his reactions from her, and in a quiet, controlled voice he said, “Sorry to wake you, Tocohl Susumo. I thought I’d drop by and see how you and the serendipitist were doing.”

(Maggy, I want the arachne in tripping range.) Aloud, covering the faint thump and scuttle of the arachne, Tocohl said, “Oh, we’re fine. Nothing a little sleep won’t cure, according to layli-layli

.” She raised herself on one elbow, felt the stab of pain, and knew she was at a disadvantage. She let out a hiss of breath, eased herself back down. He doesn’t know we suspect him, she reminded herself, let’s keep it that way. “You didn’t wake me, the storm did. Come, tell me what’s been happening. I seem to have missed a great deal.”

Megeve lifted a chair and brought it silently to the bedside. A soft clicking dogged his heels but
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he did not seem to notice. “Nothing much,” he said as he sat beside her. “Is it true you can speak to the sprookjes?”

(So that’s what this is about!) “Only partially true, I’m afraid,” she said, and saw him relax ever so slightly. “I can get your sprookje to echo me. It’s a step in the right direction”—

there’s an accurate phrase, she thought—“but hardly enough to satisfy the legal requirements.

I’m sorry. I know how much it means to you, especially because of Oloitokitok.”

“Yes,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. But, at the far end of the tunnel of light her spectacles provided, she saw his expression: relief.

Tocohl waited a moment, as if allowing him to get a grip on himself, then she said, “

Nothing much happened here?!

Layli-layli calulan broke mourning to look for us.” It startled her as she said it, for she had only now realized that Maggy’s tape had shown the shaman in the midst of deep mourning. How had swift-Kalat gained access to her? “And that means you had as much trouble as we did, or more.

You weren’t joking about the equipment failures… !”

The cabin’s membrane was flung open, startling them both. Om im and layli-layli calulan spattered water on the threshold; both had been running hard. Om im, Tocohl saw, carried the hand-held Maggy had given Alfvaen. (Thanks, Maggy. I didn’t realize you were in touch with them.)

“Hi,” said Tocohl cheerfully. “You needn’t put on the light, layli-layli

”—recognition gave nothing away:

layli-layli was recognizable even in the light available to Megeve—“Timosie was just keeping me from getting bored.”

Layli-layli calulan took the hint. As if nothing at all were amiss, she said, “Will the light disturb you, Tocohl? I came to change Alfvaen’s IV. It will just be a moment.”

“No, the light won’t disturb me,” Tocohl answered; in fact, as layli-layli calulan raised the light, Maggy adjusted her spectacles accordingly.

Layli-layli set about changing Alfvaen’s IV—she was alternating glucose with saline evidently—careful to wake neither Alfvaen nor swift-Kalat. That was a nice touch, Tocohl noted with appreciation, as was Om im’s pause for a brief glance at Alfvaen before he continued on toward Tocohl.