A Fire Upon the Deep

by Vernor Vinge

  Under other circumstances, Steel might have backed off and simply watched. Failures like this could be enlightening; they let him identify the weaknesses in his subordinates, who was too bad (and too good) to continue in their jobs. This time was different. Amdijefri were aboard the starship. There was no view through the wooden walls, and surely there was another whitejackets on guard within, but— Even as he lunged forward, shouting to his servants, Steel’s back-looking member caught sight of Jefri coming out of the compound. Two of the pups were on his shoulders, the rest of Amdi spilling out around him.

  Note 704

  “Stay back!” he yelled at them, and in his sparse Samnorsk, “Danger! Stay back!” Amdi paused, but the Two-Legs kept coming. Two soldier packs scattered out of his way. They had standing orders: never touch the alien. Another second and the careful work of a year would be destroyed. Another second and Steel might lose the world —all on account of stupidity and bad luck.

  Note 705

  But even as his back members were shouting at the Two Legs, his forward ones leaped atop a pile of stone. He pointed at the teams coming out of the trench. “Kill the invaders!”

  His personal guards moved close around him as Shreck and several troopers streamed by. Steel’s consciousness sagged in the bloody noise. This was not the controlled mayhem of experiments beneath Hidden Island. This was random death flying in all directions: arrows, spears, mattocks. Members of the digger team ran about, flailing and crying. They never had a chance, but they killed a number of others in their dying.

  Note 706

  Steel backed away from the melee, toward Jefri. The Two- Legs was still running toward him. Amdi followed, shouting in Samnorsk. A single mindless team member, a single misaimed arrow, and the Two-Legs would die and all would be lost. Never in his life had Steel felt such panic for the safety of another. He raced to the human, surrounding him. The Two-Legs fell to his knees and grabbed Steel by a neck. Only a lifetime of discipline kept Steel from slashing back: the alien wasn’t attacking, he was hugging.

  Note 707

  The digger team was almost all dead now, and Shreck had pushed the surviving members too far away to be a threat. Steel’s guards were securely around him only five or ten yards away. Amdi was all clumped together, cowering in the mind noise, but still shouting to Jefri. Steel tried to untangle himself from the human, but Jefri just grabbed one neck after another, sometimes two at a time. He was making burbling noises that didn’t sound like Samnorsk. Steel trembled under the assault. Don’t show the revulsion. The human would not recognize it, but Amdi might. Jefri had done this before, and Steel had taken advantage even though it cost him. The mantis child needed physical contact; it was the basis for the relationship between Amdi and Jefri. Similar trust must come from letting this thing touch him. Steel slid a head and neck across the creature’s back the way he had seen parents do with pups down in the dungeon laboratories. Jefri hugged him harder, and swept his long articulate paws across Steel’s pelt. Revulsion aside, it was a very strange experience. Ordinarily such close contact with another intelligent being could only come in battle or in sex — and in either case, there wasn’t much room for rational thought. But with this human — well, the creature responded with obvious intelligence — but there wasn’t a trace of mind noise. You could think and feel both at the same time. Steel bit down on a lip, trying to stifle his shivering. It was … it was like having sex with a corpse.

  Finally Jefri stepped back, holding his hand up. He said something very fast, and Amdi said, “Oh Lord Steel, you’re hurt. See the blood.” There was red on the human’s paw; Steel looked at himself. Sure enough, one rump had taken a nick. He hadn’t even felt it till now. Steel backed away from the mantis and said to Amdi, “It’s nothing. Are you and Jefri unhurt?”

  There was a rattling exchange between the two children, almost unintelligible to Steel. “We’re fine. Thank you for protecting us.”

  Fast thinking was something that Flenser had carved into Steel with knives: “Yes. But it never should have happened. The Woodcarvers disguised themselves as workers. I think they’ve been at this for days waiting for a chance at you. When we guessed the fraud, it was almost too late…. You should really have stayed inside when you heard the fighting.”

  Amdi hung his heads ashamedly, and translated to Jefri. “We’re sorry. We got excited, and t-then we thought you might get hurt.”

  Note 708

  Steel made comforting noises. At the same time, two of him looked around at the carnage. Where was the whitejackets that had deserted the stairs right at the beginning? That pack would pay — His line of thought crashed to a halt as he noticed: Tyrathect. The Flenser Fragment was watching from the meeting hall. Now that he thought about it, he’d been watching since right after the battle began. To others his posture might seem impassive, but Steel could see the grim amusement in the Fragment’s expression. He nodded briefly at the other, but inside Steel cringed; he had been so close to losing everything … and the Flenser had noticed.

  Note 709

  “Well let’s get you two back to Hidden Island.” He signaled to the keepers that had come up behind the starship.

  “Not yet, Lord Steel!” said Amdi, “We just got here. A reply from Ravna should arrive very soon.”

  Teeth grated, but out of sight of the children. “Yes, please do stay. But we’ll all be more careful now, right?”

  “Yes, yes!” Amdi explained to the human. Steel stood forelegs- on-shoulders and patted Jefri on the head.

  Steel had Shreck take the children back into the compound. Till they were out of sight, all his members looked on with an expression of pride and affection. Then he turned and walked across the pinkish mud. Where was that stupid whitejackets?

  * * *

  Note 710

  The meeting hall on Starship Hill was a small, temporary thing. It had been good enough to keep the cold out during the winter, but for a conference of more than three people it was a real madhouse. Steel stomped past the Flenser Fragment and collected himself on the loft with the best view of the construction. After a polite moment, Tyrathect entered and climbed to the facing loft.

  But all the decorum was an act for the groundlings outside; now Flenser’s soft laughter hissed across the air to him, just loud enough for him to hear. “Dear Steel. Sometimes I wonder if you are truly my student … or perhaps some changeling inserted after my departure. Are you trying to screw us up?”

  Steel glared back. He was sure there was no uneasiness in his posture; all that was held within. “Accidents happen. The incompetents will be culled.”

  “Quite so. But that appears to be your response to all problems. If you hadn’t been so bent on silencing the digger teams, they might not have rioted … and you would have had one less ‘accident’.”

  “The flaw was in their guessing. Such executions are a necessary part of military construction.”

  “Oh? You really think I had to kill all those who built the halls under Hidden Island?”

  “What? You mean you didn’t? How—?”

  The Flenser Fragment smiled the old, fanged smile. “Think on it, Steel. An exercise.”

  Note 711

  Steel arranged his notes on the desk and pretended to study them. Then all of him looked back at the other pack. “Tyrathect. I honor you because of the Flenser in you. But remember: You survive on my sufferance. You are not the Flenser-in-Waiting.” The news had come late last fall, just before winter closed the last pass over the Icefangs: The packs bearing the rest of the Master hadn’t made it out of Parliament Bowl. The fullness of Flenser was gone forever. That had been an indescribable relief to Steel, and for a time afterward the Fragment had been quite tractable. “Not one of my lieutenants would blink if I killed all of you — even the Flenser members.”And I’ll do it, if you push me hard enough, I swear I will.

  “Of course, dear Steel. You command.”

  Note 712

  For an instant the other’s fear showed
through. Remember, Steel thought to himself, always remember: This is just a fragment of the Master. Most of it is a little school teacher, not the Great Teacher with a Knife. True, its two Flenser members totally dominated the pack. The spirit of the Master was right here in this room, but gentled. Tyrathect could be managed, and the power of the Master used for Steel’s ends.

  Note 713

  “Good,” Steel said smoothly. “As long as you understand this, you can be of great use to the Movement. In particular,” he riffled through the papers, “I want to review the Visitor situation with you.”I want some advice.

  “Yes.”

  “We’ve convinced ‘Ravna’ that her precious Jefri is in imminent danger. Amdijefri has told her about all the Woodcarver attacks and how we fear an overwhelming assault.”

  “And that may really happen.”

  Note 714

  “Yes. Woodcarver really is planning an attack, and she has her own source of ‘magical’ help. We have something much better.” He tapped the papers; the advice had been coming down since early winter. He remembered when Amdijefri had brought in the first pages, pages of numerical tables, of directions and diagrams, all drawn in neat but childish style. Steel and the Fragment had spent days trying to understand. Some of the references were obvious. The Visitor’s recipes required silver and gold in quantities that would otherwise finance a war. But what was this “liquid silver”? Tyrathect had recognized it; the Master had used such a thing in his labs in the Republic. Eventually they acquired the amount specified. But many of the ingredients were given only as methods for creating them. Steel remembered the Fragment musing over those, scheming against nature as if it were just another foe. The recipes of mystics were full of “horn of squid” and “frozen moonlight”. The directions from Ravna were sometimes even stranger. There were directions within directions, long detours spent in testing common materials to decide which really fit the greater plan. Building, testing, building. It was like the Master’s own method but without the dead ends.

  Some of it made sense early on. They would have the explosives and guns that Woodcarver thought were her secret weapons. But so much was still unintelligible — and it never got easier.

  Steel and the Fragment worked through the afternoon, planning how to set up the latest tests, deciding where to search for the new ingredients that Ravna demanded.

  Note 715

  Tyrathect leaned back, hissing a wondering sigh. “Stage built upon stage. And soon we’ll have our own radios. Old Woodcarver won’t have a chance…. You are right, Steel. With this you can rule the world. Imagine knowing instantly what is happening in the Republic’s Capital and being able to coordinate armies around that knowledge. The Movement will be the Mind of God.” That was an old slogan, and now it could be true. “I salute you, Steel. You have a grasp worthy of the Movement.” Was there the Teacher’s contempt in his smile? “Radio and guns can give us the world. But clearly these are crumbs from the Visitors’ table. When do they arrive?”

  Note 716

  “Between one hundred and one hundred twenty days from now; Ravna has revised her estimate again. Apparently even the Two-Legs have problems flying between the stars.”

  “So we have that long to enjoy the Movement’s triumph. And then we are nothing, less than savages. It might have been safer to forego the gifts, and persuade the Visitors that there is nothing here worth rescuing.”

  Note 717

  Steel looked out through the window slits that cut horizontally between timbers. He could see part of the starship compound, and the castle foundations, and beyond that the islands of the fjord country. He was suddenly more confident, more at peace, than he’d been in a long time. It felt right to reveal his dream. “You really don’t see it, do you Tyrathect? I wonder if the whole Master would understand, or whether I have exceeded him, too. In the beginning, we had no choice. The Starship was automatically sending some sort of signal to Ravna. We could have destroyed it; maybe Ravna would have lost interest… And maybe not, in which case we would be taken like a fish gilled from a stream. Perhaps I took the greater risk, but if I win, the prize will be far more than you imagine.” The Fragment was watching him, heads cocked. “I’ve studied these humans, Jefri and —through my spies — the one down at Woodcarvers. Their race may be older than ours, and the tricks they’ve learned make them seem all-powerful. But the race is flawed. As singletons, they work with handicaps we can scarcely imagine. If I can use those weaknesses….

  “You know the average Tines cares for its pups. We’ve manipulated parental sentiments often enough. Imagine how it must be for the humans. To them, a single pup is also an entire child. Think of the leverage that gives us.”

  “You’re seriously betting everything on this? Ravna isn’t even Jefri’s parent.”

  Note 718

  Steel made an irritated gesture. “You haven’t seen all of Amdi’s translations.” Innocent Amdi, the perfect spy. “But you’re right, saving the one child is not the main reason for this Visit. I’ve tried to find out their real motive. There are one hundred fifty-one children in some kind of deathly stupor, all stacked up in coffins within the ship. The Visitors are desperate to save the children, but there’s something else they want. They never quite talk about it … I think it’s in the machinery of the ship itself.”

  “For all we know the children are a brood force, part of an invasion.”

  That was an old fear and — after watching Amdijefri — Steel saw no chance of it. There could be other traps but, “If the Visitors are lying to us, then there is really nothing we can do to win. We’ll be hunted animals; maybe generations from now we’ll learn their tricks, but it will be the end of us. On the other hand, we have good reason to believe that the Two-Legs are weak, and whatever their goals, they do not involve us directly. You were there the day of the landing, much closer than I. You saw how easy it was to ambush them, even though their ship is impregnable and their single weapon a match for a small army. It is obvious that they do not consider us a threat. No matter how powerful their tools, their real fears are elsewhere. And in that Starship, we have something they need.

  “Look at the foundations of our new castle, Tyrathect. I’ve told Amdijefri that it is to protect the Starship against Woodcarver. It will do that — later in the Summer when I shatter Woodcarver upon its ramparts. But see the foundations of the curtain around the Starship. By the time our Visitors arrive, the ship will be envaulted. I’ve done some quiet tests on its hull. It can be breached; a few dozen tons of stone falling on it would quite nicely crush it. But Ravna is not to worry; this is all for the protection of her prize. And there will be an open courtyard nearby, surrounded by strangely high walls. I’ve asked Jefri to get Ravna’s help on this. The courtyard will be just large enough to enclose Ravna’s ship, protecting it too.

  “There are many details still to be settled. We must make the tools Ravna describes. We must arrange the demise of Woodcarver, well before the Visitors arrive. I need your help in all those things, and I expect to receive it. In the end, if the Visitors are treacherous, we will make the best stand that can be. And if they are not … well I think you’ll agree that my reach has at least matched my teacher’s.”

  For once, the Flenser Fragment had no reply.

  Note 719

  * * *

  Note 720

  The ship’s control cabin was Jefri and Amdi’s favorite place in all of Lord Steel’s domain. Being here could still make Jefri very sad, but now the good memories seemed the stronger … and here was the best hope for the future. Amdi was still entranced by the window displays — even if the views were all of wooden walls. By their second visit they had already come to regard the place as their private kingdom, like Jefri’s treehouse back on Straum. And in fact the cabin was much too small to hold more than a single pack. Usually a member of their bodyguard would sit just inside the entrance to the main hold, but even that seemed to be uncomfortable duty. This was a place where they were impo
rtant.

  For all their rambunctiousness, Amdi and Jefri realized the trust that Lord Steel and Ravna were placing in them. The two kids might race around out-of-doors, driving their guards to distraction, but the equipment in this command cabin must be treated as cautiously as when Mom and Dad were here. In some ways, there was not much left in the ship. The datasets were destroyed; Jefri’s parents had them outside when Woodcarver attacked. During the winter, Mr. Steel had carried out most of the loose items to study. The coldsleep boxes were now safe in cool chambers nearby. Every day Amdijefri inspected the boxes, looked at each familiar face, checked the diag displays. No sleeper had died since the ambush.

  Note 721

  What was left on the ship was hard-fastened to the hull. Jefri had pointed out the control boards and status elements that managed the container shell’s rocket; they stayed strictly away from those.

  Note 722

  Mr. Steel’s quilting shrouded the walls. Jefri’s folks’ baggage and sleeping bags and exercisers were gone, but there were still the acc webbing and hard-fastened equipment. And over the months, Amdijefri had brought in paper and pens and blankets and other junk. There was always a light breeze from the fans sweeping through the cabin.

  It was a happy place, strangely carefree even with all the memories it brought. This was where they would save the Tines and all the sleepers. And this was the only place in the world where Amdijefri could talk to another human being. In some ways, the means of talking seemed as medieval as Lord Steel’s castle: They had one flat display — no depth, no color, no pictures. All they could coax from it were alphanumerics. But it was connected to the ship’s ultrawave comm, and that was still programmed to track their rescuers. There was no voice recognition attached to the display; Jefri had almost panicked before he realized that the lower part of the screen worked as a keyboard. It was a laborious job typing in every letter of every word — though Amdi had gotten pretty good at it, using four noses to peck at the keys. And nowadays he could read Samnorsk even better than Jefri.