The Web and the Stars (30 page)

“Go quickly,” Eshaz said, as they reached the smooth plax deck outside. “I will remain here with my people in our small moment of triumph and renewal, working with the few hundred wild podships we have, practicing with them on the podways that are protected by the starcloud.”

“Your moment of triumph will not last long.” She narrowed her eyes. “Is that all you’re going to say to me? Just go, and good luck to you? Don’t you understand the immensity of this?”

“The Council has spoken. We must do as they command.”

“You’ve argued with them before.”

“I’ve tried to
persuade
them of certain things. But after working with them for so long, I know when it is utterly hopeless, and when it is certain to raise their ire. I must say, they don’t trust you, don’t really believe you. The truthing touch did not reveal any of this additional information, so they’re assuming it’s an insidious Parvii trick, and they wonder what else you might have hidden. They would rather spend their time and energy on shoring up the defenses here.”

“I’m very worried about this. Woldn is going to strike back, using ancient weapons.”

“With the stakes so high, we won’t be routed easily.”

“I hope you’re right,” Tesh said. “But won’t you come with me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“For reasons you can never understand. Now go! You’re wasting time.”

While packing her things and readying for departure, Tesh heard a rap at her door. Touching a remote pad to open it, she greeted Acey and Dux.

“Eshaz told us about your diplomatic mission,” Dux said. “Let us go with you.”

She frowned. “For the sake of adventure, or to really help?” she asked.

“I don’t think I can give you a good answer to that,” Dux admitted. “If I say what you want to hear, you’ll think I’m lying.”

“That’s about the only thing you could have said to please me,” she said, with a grin that flashed white teeth.

“We won’t get in the way,” Acey promised. “We just want to go with you as your friends.”

“Be careful,” she said. “You might say something that doesn’t sound sincere.”

Acey looked crestfallen, and Tesh added quickly, “I would like both of you to come along as my friends. I appreciate your devotion, and I’ve come to believe that all the races must work together. Woldn will not be pleased to see you, but such contacts must begin someplace.”

“So we are emissaries?” Dux asked.

“Isn’t every member of every race, whenever they come into contact with another galactic species.” Looking both boys over, Tesh added, “You couldn’t possibly be spies.”

“Do you include the Mutatis in your vision of races working together?” Dux asked.

“Well, perhaps there are exceptions,” she said, with a small smile. “You must be on your very best behavior, though, and the trip will be dangerous. There are tremendous perils on the way to the Parvii Fold, and as I told you I am an outcast, forbidden to mix with my people ever again.”

Dux, who could wax philosophical at times, responded, “Safety is never more than an illusion anyway, no matter where … or who … you are.”

“I travel light,” she said, in a cheery voice. “How about you guys?”

“We’re ready!” Acey said.…

Eshaz secured the necessary departure permission from the Council for the last-minute inclusion of the teenage boys. The Elders were only too happy to let the Parvii woman go, along with the Humans.

“Even assuming the best about her, she is on a fool’s mission,” Dabiggio said.

“So it seems,” Kre’n said, wrinkling her bronze-scaled face in worry. “But what if we’re wrong?”

“Not even worth considering,” the big Tulyan responded.

In the tension of the Council Chamber, Eshaz wisely remained silent, then bowed and left.

After delivering the clearance to Tesh, Eshaz caught a shuttle home. On the way, he saw her podship slide away from its docking bay and head into space. The sentient craft accelerated, and vanished in a flash of green light.

Chapter Sixty-Five

It is a deadly, ancient clash of inbred racial purposes, those of the Tulyans and those of the Parviis. And at the middle of their conflict is yet another race, the Aopoddae, the most enigmatic of all … and perhaps the most important.

—Noah Watanabe,
Reflections on my Life,
Guardian Publications

On board the podship, Tesh left the teenagers in the passenger compartment, then entered the sectoid chamber by herself. The boys understood in general terms that she was piloting the ship, and had asked her for details, but she avoided telling them very much. They were her friends, but she had not felt comfortable discussing certain subjects with them yet, things that she had been taught from an early age were important Parvii secrets.

Already, she had gone farther than any Parvii was permitted. If Woldn learned what she told the Tulyans, she could be put to death, but the galactic stakes were so high that she had to take the chance. Secrets. She was beginning to think it was a dirty word, and a tool with which she and others like her had been controlled for so long.

Tesh was violating another prohibition now, in taking the boys to the Parvii Fold. Oh, she had excuses worked out in her mind for Woldn, that the Human teenagers were Guardians as she was, and they were working with her to maintain the integrity of the galactic web. This was all true, but she would have to do a lot of smooth talking to convince the Eye of the Swarm. There was also the matter of the Tulyan she had befriended, an alien who had been facing similar challenges regarding his own racial secrets. To Tesh, and she suspected Eshaz felt this way as well, such secrets didn’t matter anymore. The integrity of the entire galaxy was at stake, not territorial claims or racial power structures.

She was beginning to doubt many of the “sacred” teachings that had been passed on to her during her lifetime, and had been wondering how much of the information had been a clever web of deceit. Now she was taking two of her Human friends to the most clandestine of all Parvii gathering places, which could subject her to severe discipline from Woldn, but she was willing to face that possibility. She felt newly strong and defiant, and could not wait to tell him with determination and absolute certainty what needed to be done for the sake of the galaxy.

It took longer than Tesh had anticipated for her to cross space, since she ran into a stretch of bad podways on the far side of the Oxxi Asteroid Belt, and had to slow down. Only a few years ago, when she piloted other podships on these and other routes, she only rarely encountered this sort of problem. Eshaz had told her that entire galactic sectors had collapsed since then, from the continual entropic decay of Timeweb. This was of increasing concern to her, as it was to the dedicated Tulyan caretaker.

After almost two hours, the podship finally entered the treacherous Asteroid Funnel leading into the galactic fold of the Parviis. Inside the passenger compartment, Acey and Dux looked out portholes and saw grisly clusters of tiny Parvii bodies outside floating in the vacuum … along with the tumbling, luminous white stones of the funnel, stones that were slowed by the collective mass of the corpses. So was the podship, which had to carefully negotiate the funnel in order to elude the stones and thick groupings of bodies.

In the green glow of the sectoid chamber, Tesh was even more horrified than her two passengers, but she kept advancing toward her destination anyway, with tears streaming down her face. This was the most terrible Parvii tragedy she had ever seen, and in all likelihood the greatest in their entire history.

Finally the spacecraft emerged into the immense, pocketlike Parvii Fold, where even more chaos became apparent. There were clusters of bodies everywhere in sight, floating and bumping into one another, and more podships than she had ever seen before—thousands and thousands of sentient spacecraft overflowing the moorage basin. Some of the vessels were tethered together, but many were not and just floated aimlessly in the airless vacuum, as if even the life force of the sentient creatures themselves had gone out of commission.

Around the faintly glowing Palace of Woldn, Tesh saw a comparatively small swarm of Parviis—a few million of them flying to and fro lethargically, with nowhere near their usual hummingbird energy. As she tethered her ship, she saw that the grand palace was weakening, since the Parviis holding it together were losing strength and causing structural deficiencies and inconsistencies in the simulated gravity system. Many of them had a sickly, yellowish sheen to their bodies.

Leaving her personal magnification system off, Tesh entered the large palace by riding in on a shoulder of Dux Hannah, who walked beside Acey Zelk. Both of the boys wore their thick green protective suits and helmets, to enable them to breathe and to survive in the subzero environment. They were like giants entering the building, but the structure was on such a majestic scale that they still had plenty of headroom.

Inside a vaulted chamber on the second level, Woldn lay on a bed formed by his fellow Parviis and fabric, while a small number of his advisers sat or stood nearby. None of them were flying, and many looked gaunt as they walked about arthritically, with the natural color drained from their faces.

Like a Lilliputian speaking to giants, Tesh told her Human companions to find a place to sit off to one side, and they did as she wished, on the simulated marble floor.

Approaching the Eye of the Swarm, Tesh told him where she had been, and asked what had happened to him.

“You!” Woldn exclaimed, half rising out of his bed. Tall by Parvii standards, and wiry-thin, he wore a dark robe. “I forbid you to be here! And you bring Humans? What madness is this?”

“I have come nonetheless,” she said, in a gentle voice. “For your sake, my honored leader, and for the sake of all galactic races. We come on a mission of utmost importance.”

“What sort of drivel is this? Leave my sight, before I have you killed.”

Four of his aides moved toward her, but stopped when Acey made a motion to intervene. The Eye of the Swarm was sending them telepathic commands.

“You always were outspoken, weren’t you?” Woldn said, to Tesh. “Is there no escape from your meddling, even on my deathbed?” He sat up, arranging tiny pillows around him. “Once, I had high hopes for you, but you let me down. You let all of us down.”

Tesh moved closer to him, and felt herself engage with his weakened morphic field. Though Parviis could transmit thoughts telepathically to one another, and could limit what information they passed to each other through this means, she instead opened her mind and did not attempt to conceal anything from him. Feeling the outflow of her thoughts, Tesh watched the expression on his narrow, creased face as he assimilated the data and perused it. She revealed her ideals to him, how she thought Humans, Tulyans, Parviis, and other galactic races needed to work together.

“You have experienced a great deal in your life,” Woldn said, at last. “Important things.”

“Yes,” she said, softly.

“Your intentions are good. I see that. But I cannot agree with your reason for coming here. You ask too much. My people will never work on equal terms with Tulyans or Humans. For millennia, for as long as the memory expands and the stories are told, Parviis have been the dominant race of the three. That will not change under my leadership.”

She said nothing, and hoped that he would cogitate further, analyzing the information she had provided from new angles. But he was sick and weak, and might not have the capability to do so.

In a diminished, cheerless voice, Woldn said that the new defensive weapons shot by the Tulyans—comets, meteors, and radioactive asteroids—had caused immense harm to the Parviis, disrupting the energy fields that connected them paranormally with their brethren, throwing the tiny people into disarray. The damage extended to some Parviis who had been piloting podships out in deep space, causing them to fall off course into uncharted regions. It also killed most of the breedmasters and war priests, preventing the symbiotic segments from organizing a retaliatory force to strike back at the Tulyans.

“It is terrible to see what has happened to my brethren,” Tesh said. She nodded toward an uncovered window, where bodies floated in space.

Woldn nodded, then continued. He said he withdrew all of his people into the Parvii Fold, along with every podship still in their control… more than one hundred thousand of them. But in what had become known as “the Tulyan Incident,” at least eighty percent of the Parvii people had died. It was the greatest catastrophe in their history.

She stood and listened sympathetically while Woldn lamented at length, wondering how the tragedy could have possibly occurred when he and his followers had worked so hard, the way his people always had. Parviis had swarmed the perimeter of the Tulyan Starcloud many times before and had dealt with Tulyan defensive measures, always getting through eventually to recapture podships—but never in the past had Parviis been injured or killed by Tulyans. It used to be easy to blockade the Tulyans for punishment, driving them crazy by confining them to their impenetrable starcloud, but it was much different now.

“If I survive this,” Woldn said, “I don’t want to risk going back there for a long time.” He swung out of bed and paced around slowly, in his robe.

“The Tulyans have developed a weapon we never expected,” Tesh said, “but our troubles go beyond anything they did to us. Our plight is another symptom of the deterioration of Timeweb. We Parviis can no longer go our own selfish way as we have in the past. We must cooperate with other galactic races from now on … and especially with the Tulyans, whom we have always sought to dominate and humiliate.”

“We have never charged for galactic transportation services,” Woldn said indignantly, “and have provided them faithfully for millions of years.”

“With the exception of charging Tulyans for their limited travel rights,” she said, “by making them timesee for us.”

“Well, yes,” he admitted, folding his arms across his chest. “But that’s so minor in the overall scheme of things that it’s hardly worth mentioning.”

Tesh knew that the historical currency of her people was not money or precious jewels; it was the thrill of mastering the magnificent podships … the supreme ecstasy of piloting them across vast distances, while keeping other galactic races from doing so. But Woldn’s impassioned argument was making no headway with her at all. It didn’t alter, in the least, what needed to be done.

In a firm voice she said to him, “Your morphic field is weakened and might never recover. Forgive me for saying so, but you might die. Have you appointed a replacement?”

He stopped pacing. His shoulders sagged. His entire body sagged. “My heir apparent is dead, along with three backups. The entire order of succession that I established.” Gazing sadly at her, he said, “Once I considered you a candidate, with your strong will and intelligence. But you went too far in your defiance, and disappointed me.”

Her eyes twinkled softly. “I never would have guessed how much you liked me.”

“I have never
liked
you. I have only observed you carefully, and have discussed you at length with my top advisers.”

“And now?” she said, grasping at possibilities. “Is there still a chance for me? You have seen the loyalty in my heart, the great vision I have for the galaxy.”

He shook his head stubbornly. “Because of your rebelliousness I would never teach you the way of the morphic field, no matter the situation. But the secret will not die with me. I will heal, and so will my people.” He looked away from her, as if uncertain of his words.

Going closer to him, Tesh said, “But if you die without a successor, there will be no Eye of the Swarm. With no one to take your place and establish a Timeweb-spanning morphic field, our people can no longer pilot the fleet of podships across the galaxy. I think you should make all of the podships available to the Tulyans immediately, so that they can accelerate their critical work. Do it with them: Parvii pilots to transport Tulyans, so that they can do the web caretaking tasks.”

“Their
critical work? What about
our
critical work? Without the podships, we would be nothing.”

“I’m not suggesting that you turn the ships over to them. As I said, we can maintain Parvii pilots.”

“It’s a trick. I don’t trust them.”

“Then put a small swarm into each podship, enough telepathic power to defend it.”

“No. We are weakened, we are ill.”

“We need to get beyond this discussion,” she said. “The Tulyans must maintain and repair the galaxy the way they used to, long before you or I were born.”

“If we lose the podships,” he said with a glare, “what is our purpose? We will go extinct.”

“Our prospects are not good now. Besides, every race in the galaxy will go extinct if you don’t cooperate.”

He stood speechless for only a moment. “In time my people will heal,” he insisted, “and everything will be back to normal again.”

“There’s nothing more I can say to you then,” Tesh said, angrily.

“Everything will be back to normal again,” he repeated, with a far-away look in his eyes, as if his mind had slipped out of gear.

Frustrated at her inability to sway him, Tesh departed with her two friends. Before getting the podship underway she stood in the passenger compartment and told them, “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am at Woldn’s selfishness. I hate to say it, but if all of my people die, maybe that would be the best thing that could happen.”

“Maybe he’ll change his mind,” Acey said. His wide face was etched with concern.

“I don’t think he ever will,” she said.

“Why don’t we go see Noah and consult with him?” Acey asked. “We know he escaped from his sister’s laboratory, so he’s probably back at Guardian headquarters now.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Tesh said, brightening a little. “I’d like to see him, and with any luck it shouldn’t take us long to get there.”

“One thing though, Acey,” Dux said. “We’d better steer clear of Giovanni Nehr, or we’ll do something we’ll regret.”