The Crucible of Empire (54 page)

A leaving time was near. Everyone knew that. The dreadful Ekhat had hunted them down to exterminate this colony and the
elian
would flee. The
dochaya
would be left behind. They were the unwanted and that was
sensho
, the way of things.

But Tully said it did not have to be so, that the unassigned could leave too. Such a strange idea, that anyone would care what happened to the denizens of the
dochaya
. They were the dust of the city, fit only to be swept out of sight. Such startling new thoughts made her eyes stay open, when others had piled onto the platforms to slumber. It made her head go on thinking after the sky had darkened and the wind blasted and pale-blue snow sifted against the windows, piling up outside the doors. It made her—hope.

She remembered hope from the Children's Court, when she and her fellow youngers had played at being chosen by
elian
. She had always wanted to enter one of the artistic crafts, the Patternmakers, perhaps, or the Stonesculptors, even the Treebinders, just someplace where she could fashion beauty and contribute to the colony's elegant fabric of life. Instead, she had been rebuffed at every door. Her skin was too dull, her aureole unbalanced, her legs positively thin. She would not bring grace to anyone's house. She was, everyone decided, fit only for the
dochaya
.

So many doors, so many refusals. Remembering those days of trying so very hard to be appealing without success still made her chest ache. But then Pyr, who was equally unappealing in appearance, had been accepted by Jaolore. This was a new thing, escape from hopelessness. Even if Jaolore never accepted another from the
dochaya
, it had happened once and so became a part of
sensho
. It might happen again, someday.

And this funny looking human, who was really quite short and thin-shanked itself, said the unassigned should evacuate with the
elian
, that they could find safety on a faraway world called Urth, then help to build another colony under a new sun. That new colony would need beauty, she was quite sure. Maybe even they would have need of other new
elian
, like Jaolore. Even if she were not accepted by one of them, as Pyr had been, perhaps she would at least be allowed to serve.

That was more than she'd ever had. She walked up and down the rows of sleeping platforms, softly repeating her new English words: fre-dum . . .rites . . .tir-ran-ee . . .jus-tis.

She did not really know what they meant yet, but Tully had said they were important, that they had once changed everything for a large number of humans. That was an interesting concept. Lleix life went on always the same from world to world, generation to generation,
elian
to
elian
. They took solace in preserving the steady course of life in its every aspect, doing their best to see that nothing ever changed. Lim was eager to hear what this Tully would say tomorrow.

Tully went to the
dochaya
every day after that, leaving Lieutenant Miller and Krant-Captain Mallu to oversee the restoration of the dilapidated
elian
-houses they had appropriated. He designated Kaln in charge of the techs working on Lleix ships at the landing field and then handpicked twenty human jinau to go with him to the
dochaya
, obstensively also to occupy themselves with repairing, but really to speak with the unassigned.

The slum residents labored alongside his troops, seemingly in awe that humans would put their hands to grunt-work in such low-class surroundings when there were unassigned available. As the days passed, the unassigned trailed after him wherever he went, always pestering for "more English, more!"

Higher ranking Lleix turned away when they came across the sight, obviously offended by his attention to those they had long ago designated unworthy. He didn't care. In his opinion, the
elian
were nothing more than a bunch of arrogant elitists who had cowered here on this barren world for generations, distracting themselves by ornamenting their city while waiting for the Ekhat to hunt them down. Insofar as he had any sympathies for the Lleix, they were bestowed entirely on the inhabitants of the
dochaya.
The
elian
could rot in hell, as far as he was concerned—or get fried by the Ekhat.

Many of the Jao under his command also thought his preoccupation with the downtrodden was nuts. In accordance with Jao values, everyone should make himself of use in whatever way benefitted the greater good. Unassigned were not useful so they did not matter.

Mallu, though, was more thoughtful. Over the centuries, Krant had experienced its own measure of social oppression from the other better-situated kochan. The Krant-Captain did not fully understand what drew Tully to the Lleix slum, but he was intrigued, and several times even accompanied Tully to the
dochaya
.

Some of the more enterprising unassigned even organized English classes, which were conducted when Tully and the rest retired at night. Each morning thereafter, he was greeted with a larger audience and better English conversation than the day before. Young Lim, who turned out to be female, was particularly adept at picking up the new language, then teaching it to others. She seemed to have boundless energy.

He supposed the young female was homely in terms of what a Lleix might find attractive, but it was difficult to fathom that some
elian
hadn't perceived her mental quickness and recruited her anyway.

The subject of "Caitlin, Queen of the Universe" cropped up from time to time because those in the
dochaya
had gotten the improbable story from Pyr, but, when it did, Tully always just changed the subject. Jihan had decided it wasn't time to reveal the truth, but he was damned if he was going to perpetuate the lie. They were going to have a lot to answer for once the real situation between Jao and Humans came out. He didn't see any point in heaping error upon error.

Fifteen days after they had first landed upon Valeron, the
dochaya
had been transformed. That morning, Tully noted with satisfaction, as he peered into barracks after barracks, the floors were swept clean, the windows repaired, splintered sleeping platforms mended, sanitary facilities spotless, and the formerly ubiquitous trash removed. Once his troops had begun renovations, the unassigned had joined in joyfully. If they weren't about to leave this world, he had a feeling they would be sculpting trees and digging streams next so that the
dochaya
would resemble the rest of the city.

There had only been one off-putting moment at the start of the clean-up, when a pair of his jinau, Debra Fligor and Gary Young, had broken into an off-key rendition of "Oh, Susannah!" to pass the time while they caulked windows. At the first note, the Lleix had regarded them with obvious horror, then fled the barracks, bawling in alarm.

"Jeez, Major," Gary said, staring after them, his face flushed. His dark-brown eyes blinked. "We weren't
that
off-key!"

"It's more than that," Tully said. His heart was pounding as he glanced around the barracks. It was deserted, not a single cowering Lleix left in the building. Only dust motes hung in the shafts of thin winter sunlight to mark their passage. "They must have a thing about singing." He realized then he hadn't heard anything remotely like music since landing on this world, and then he remembered the whistling incident when they'd first landed. He'd gotten a similar panicked response.

Cautioning them against further performances, he went to find Jihan and see what the problem was. Unassigned were skulking outside the barracks, their coronas flattened, their hands a-dither. They turned away and did not speak to him.

He located the Jaolore at her
elian
-house, as always poring over the old records in the back room she called the Duty Chamber. Pyr and Kajin were with her, each absorbed in a viewer. "Something strange just happened in the
dochaya
," Tully said, shrugging out of his coat. "I am hoping you can explain."

Kajin gave him a sideways look. His eyes were very narrow, which Jihan had told Tully was considered highly attractive. Tully thought it made him look sly. "It does not matter what happens in the
dochaya
," the Lleix said with a ripple of his corona. "You should not concern yourself with such." He turned back to his viewer.

"Several of my soldiers sang an old song," Tully said, "just something to pass the time, but it upset your people."

With an exclamation, Kajin jerked off his stool and backed against the wall as though Tully had threatened him. Jihan and Pyr turned and stared at Tully, their eyes gone positively wide, which was unusual for a Lleix. "Humans
sing
?" Jihan said, her voice a strained whisper.

"Yes," Tully said. "Do the Lleix not sing?"

The three Lleix glanced at one another, then Pyr bowed his head, his corona flat around his face. "Ekhat, the great devils,
they
sing," the youth said.

Kajin straightened, seeming to recall his dignity, then returned to his stool. "Before I became Jaolore," he said, "I had the great honor to be Ekhatlore. I spent my life studying the great devils. They value patterned noise above all else and destroy entire worlds in its name. Their songs are abomination!"

Tully began to get an inkling what was wrong here. "So the Lleix fear music?"

"Music belongs to the great devils who eat the universe," Kajin said. "It is their wicked creation."

"Humans create music too?" Jihan said. She seemed incredulous.

"Yes, they do, but they do not kill in its name," Tully said. "It is—a pleasure to them, a relaxation, even an art, like when the Lleix prune their trees into attractive shapes or carve faces into their houses. If you come to Earth, there will be much music."

"We find all structured noise an abomination," Jihan said. "If Humans sing like the Ekhat, does that mean their minds think the same way?" She drooped, making herself small. "I am far too young to think this situation through. This needs the wisdom of Sayr or Grijo."

"No," Tully said. "Do not bother the Eldests with this right now. There is already too much upset over the impending evacuation." He paced the room, trying to decide what to do. "Let me talk the matter over with Caitlin. In the meantime, I will make sure no one else sings while we are on Valeron."

And that had been the end of it for the moment, but it was another unfortunate revelation that had to come out before all was said and done: Humans sang. They loved music and it infiltrated many aspects of their day-to-day lives. If the Lleix came to Earth, as they surely must to survive, they would encounter music over and over. Somehow they would have to learn to cope.

But for now, there could be no careless humming, no tuneless whistling, not even fingers drumming on a table. Their hosts were perhaps understandably phobic about patterned noise of any kind and they would have to respect that.

It was just surprising it hadn't already come up. He had pulled out his com to spread the prohibition, once he understood, and from that moment on, the jinau were careful.

Kaln was once again working through the night at the Lleix spaceport, if a landing field that housed so few working ships could be dignified with such a designation. Lleix tech was fascinating in theory, differing from Jao designs in significant ways, but the ships were frightfully old and hadn't been properly maintained. Not that she could blame the Lleix. If they did not have the resources to craft parts, they simply did not.

But why had they not left Valeron when that became apparent? By staying here, they must have known they were tying themselves to this world, no matter how secluded, where the Ekhat would eventually sniff them out. Their ancestors had long ago chosen to die on Valeron. Now their Last-of-Days was coming true.

She went to one small ship after another out on the frozen field and repaired what she could anyway. It was not in her nature to sit idle. Perhaps the Bond of the Ebezon would authorize help for the Lleix, and perhaps they would not. No one truly understood the ways of the Bond. They saw deeper beneath the surface of things than the kochan did. But until the
Lexington
returned, Kaln could make herself of use while learning a bit about the alien tech and it pleased her to do so.

The other Krant and jinau techs worked with her through the daylight, but humans required longer periods of dormancy than Jao, and they returned to their assigned quarters at night. Some of the Jao stayed behind, though, busying themselves, and she found herself working alongside one of her Krant shipmates.

"What do you think of these humans?" she asked Braltan, as the two of them wedged themselves into yet another engine compartment. The youth was a terniary-tech on his first voyage after being released from his natal compound. She reached for a wrench, then flattened her good ear when its span proved far too wide for its intended target.

"They talk a lot," he said, his body settling into the lines of unabashed
weariness
. He was an unusually handsome youth to have been generated by Krant, with a lighter colored nap that allowed his
vai camiti
to stand out.