A Fire Upon the Deep

by Vernor Vinge

  Note 947

  There was murmured gobbling in the ranks behind them, Scrupilo’s own cannoneers. By all the Powers, would they hold this against him? Welcome to the middle ages. Stupid people. Even cut to pieces, Scrupilo had saved their behinds, and now —

  She put her hands on two of his shoulders. “We did it before, you and I. Remember?”

  Note 948

  The heads nodded. “Some. That one part of me alone … could never have done it.”

  “Right. And neither could I. But together we killed a wolf- nest.”

  Note 949

  Scrupilo stared at her a second, eyes wavering. “Yes, we really did.” He came to his feet, frisked his heads so the cannoneer muffs flapped. “Yes!” And he moved his white-headed one closer to her.

  Johanna straightened. She and White Head walked out into the open space. Four meters. Six. She kept the fingertips of one hand lightly on his neck. When they were about twelve meters from the rest of Scrupilo, White Head’s pace faltered. He looked sideways, up at Johanna, then continued more slowly.

  Johanna didn’t remember much of the ceremony, so much of her attention was on White Head. Woodcarver said something long and unintelligible. Somehow they both ended up with intricately carven decorations on their collars, and were headed back toward the rest of Scrupilo. Then she was aware of the crowd once more. They stretched as far as she could see under the forest canopy — and every one of them seemed to be cheering, Scrup’s cannoneers loudest of all.

  * * *

  Midnight. Here at the bottom of the valley there were three or four hours of the dayaround when the sun dipped behind the high north wall. It didn’t much feel like night, or even twilight. The smoke from the fires to the north seemed to getting worse. She could smell it now.

  Note 950

  Johanna walked back from the cannoneers section toward the center of camp, and Woodcarver’s tent. It was quiet; she could hear little creatures scritching in the root bushes. The celebrating might have gone on longer, except that everyone knew that in another few hours they would be preparing for the climb up the valley’s north wall. So now there was only occasional laughter, an occasional pack walking about. Johanna walked barefoot, her shoes slung over her shoulders. Even in the dry weather, the moss was wonderfully soft between her toes. Above her the forest canopy was shifting green and patches of hazy sky. She could almost forget what had gone before, and what lay ahead.

  The guards around Woodcarver’s tent didn’t challenge her, just called softly ahead. After all, there weren’t that many humans running around. The Queen stuck out a head, “Come inside, Johanna.”

  Inside, she was sitting in her usual circle, the puppies protected in the middle. It was quite dark, the only light being what came through the entrance. Johanna flopped down on the pillows where she usually slept. Ever since this afternoon, the big award thing, she had been planning to give Woodcarver a piece of her mind. Now … well the party at the cannoneers had been a happy thing. It seemed kind of a shame to break the mood.

  Woodcarver cocked a head at her. Simultaneously, the two puppies duplicated the gesture. “I saw you at the party. You are a sober one. You eat most of our foods now, but none of the beer.”

  Note 951

  Johanna shrugged. Yes, why?“Kids aren’t supposed to drink before they’re eighteen years old.” That was the custom, and her parents had agreed with it. Johanna had turned fourteen a couple of months ago; Dataset had reminded her of the exact hour. She wondered. If none of this had happened, if she were still back at the High Lab or Straumli Realm: would she be sneaking out with friends to try such forbidden things? Probably. Yet here, where she was entirely on her own, where she was currently a big hero, she hadn’t tried a drop…. Maybe it was because Mom and Dad weren’t here, and following their wishes seemed to keep them closer. She felt tears coming to her eyes.

  Note 952

  “Hmm.” Woodcarver didn’t seem to notice. “That’s what Pilgrim said was the reason.” She tapped at her puppies and smiled. “I guess it makes sense. These two don’t get beer till they’re older — though I know they got some second-hand partying from me tonight.” There was a hint of beer breath in the tent.

  Johanna wiped roughly at her face. She really did not want to talk about being a teenager just now. “You know, that was kind of a mean trick you pulled on Scrupilo this afternoon.”

  “I — Yes. I talked to him about it beforehand. He didn’t want it, but I thought he was just being … is stiff-necked the word? If I had known how upset he was, well—”

  “He practically fell apart out there in front of everybody. If I understand how things work, that would have been his disgrace, right?”

  “… Yes. Exchanging honor for loyalty in front of peers, it’s an important thing. At least the way I run things; I’m sure Pilgrim or Dataset can say a dozen other ways to lead. Look Johanna, I needed that Exchange, and I needed you and Scrupilo to be there.”

  “Yeah, I know. ‘We two saved the day.’”

  Note 953

  “Silence!” Her voice was suddenly edged, and Johanna remembered that this was a medieval queen. “We are two hundred miles north of my borders, almost to the heart of the Flenser Domain. In a few days we will meet the enemy, and more of us will die for we-know-not-quite-what.”

  Note 954

  The bottom dropped out of Johanna’s stomach. If she couldn’t get back to the ship, couldn’t finish what Mom and Dad had started… “Please, Woodcarver! It is worth it!”

  “I know that. Pilgrim knows it. The majority of my council agrees, though grudgingly. But we of the council have talked with Dataset. We’ve seen your worlds and what your science can do. On the other hand, most of my people here,” she waved a head at the camp beyond the tent, “are here on faith, and out of loyalty to me. For them, the situation is deadly and the goal is vague.” She paused, though her two pups continued gesturing forcefully for a second. “Now I don’t know how you would persuade your kind to take such risks. Dataset talks of military conscription.”

  Note 955

  “That was Nyjora, long ago.”

  “Never mind. The point is, my troops are here out of loyalty, mostly to me personally. For six hundred years, I have protected my people well; their memories and legends are clear on it. More than once, I was the only one who saw a peril, and it was my advice that saved all those who heeded it. That is what keeps most of the soldiers, most of the cannoneers going. Each of them is free to turn back. So. What should they think when our first ‘combat’ is to fall like ignorant … tourists … onto a nest of wolves? Without the great good luck of you and part of Scrupilo being at the right place and alert, I would have been killed. Pilgrim would have been killed. Perhaps a third of the soldiers would have died.”

  “If not us, perhaps someone else,” Johanna said in a small voice.

  Note 956

  “Perhaps. I don’t think anyone else came close to firing on the nest. You see the effect on my people? ‘If bad luck in the forest can kill our Queen and destroy our marvelous weapons, what will it be like when we face a thinking enemy?’ That was the question in many minds. Unless I could answer it, we’d never make it out of this valley — at least not going northward.”

  “So you gave the medals. Loyalty for honor.”

  “Yes. You missed the sense of it, not understanding Tinish. I made a big thing of how well they had done. I gave silverwood accolades to packs who showed any competence during the ambush. That helped some. I repeated my reasons for this expedition — the wonders that Dataset describes and how much we lose if Steel gets his way. But they’ve heard all that before, and it points to far away things they can scarcely imagine. The new thing I showed them today was you and Scrupilo.”

  “Us?”

  Note 957

  “I praised you beyond the skies. Singletons often do brave things. Sometimes they are halfway clever, or talk as though they are. But alone, Scrupilo’s fragment wouldn’t be much more
than a good knife fighter. He knew about using the cannon, but he didn’t have the paws or mouths to do anything with it. And by himself, he would never have figured out where to shoot it. You, on the other hand, are a Two Legs. In many ways you are helpless. The only way you can think is by yourself, but you can do it without interfering with those around you. Together you did what no pack could do in the middle of a wolf- nest attack. So I told my army what a team our two races could become, how each makes up for the age-long failings of the other. Together, we are one step closer to being the Pack of Packs. How is Scrupilo?”

  Johanna smiled faintly. “Things turned out okay. Once he was able to get out there and accept his medal,” she fingered the broach that was pinned to her own collar; it was a beautiful thing, a landscape of Woodcarver’s city, “once he’d done that, he was totally changed. You should have seen him with the cannoneers afterwards. They did their own loyalty/honor thing, and then they drank a lot of beer. Scrupilo was telling them all about what we were doing. He even had me help demonstrate…. You really think the army bought what you said about humans and Tines?”

  “I think so. In my own language, I can be very eloquent. I’ve bred myself to be.” Woodcarver was silent for a moment. Her puppies scrambled across the carpet, and patted their muzzles at Johanna’s hands. “Besides … it may even be true. Pilgrim is sure of it. You can sleep in this same tent with me and still think. That’s something that he and I can’t do; in our own ways, we’ve each lived a long time and I think we are each at least as smart as the humans and other creatures that Dataset talks about in the Beyond. But you singleton creatures can stand next to each other, and think and build. Compared to us, I’ll bet singleton races developed the sciences very fast. But now, with your help, maybe things will change fast for us, too.” The two puppies retreated, and Woodcarver lowered heads to paws. “That’s what I told my people, anyway…. You should try to get some sleep now.”

  On the ground beyond the tent’s entrance there were already splashes of sunlight. “Okay.” Johanna slipped off her outer clothes. She lay down and dragged a light quilt across herself. Most of Woodcarver already looked asleep. As usual, one or two pairs of eyes were open, but their intelligence would be limited — and just now, even they looked tired. Funny, Woodcarver had worked with Dataset so much, her human voice had come to capture emotion as well as pronunciation. Just now she had sounded so tired, so sad.

  Johanna reached out from under her quilt to brush the neck of Woodcarver’s nearest, the blind one. “Do you believe what you told everyone?” she said softly.

  One of the “sentry” heads looked at her, and a very human sigh seemed to come from all directions. Woodcarver’s voice was very faint. “Yes … but I am very afraid that it doesn’t matter any more. For six hundred years, I have had proper confidence in myself. But what happened on the south wall … should not have happened. It would not if I had followed Vendacious’s advice, and come down on the New Road.”

  Note 958

  “But we might have been seen—”

  “Yes. A failure either way, don’t you see? Vendacious has precise information from the highest councils of the Flenser. But he’s something of a careless fool in everyday matters. I knew that, and thought I could compensate. But the Old Road was in far worse condition than I remembered; the wolf-nest could never have settled by it if there had been any traffic during the last few years. If Vendacious had managed his patrols properly, or if I had been managing him properly, we would never have been surprised. Instead we were nearly overrun … and my only remaining talent appears to be in fooling those who trust me into thinking I still know what I’m doing.” She opened another pair of eyes and made the smile gesture. “Strange. I haven’t said these things even to Pilgrim. Is this another ‘advantage’ of human relations?”

  Johanna patted the blind one’s neck. “Maybe.”

  “Anyway, I believe what I said about things that could be, but I fear the my soul may not be strong enough to make them so. Perhaps I should turn things over to Pilgrim or Vendacious; that’s something I must think on.” Woodcarver shh ed Johanna’s surprised protests.

  “Now sleep please.”

  Chapter 32

  Note 959

  Note 960

  There was a time when Ravna thought their tiny ship might fly all the way to the Bottom unnoticed. Along with everything else, that had changed. At the moment, Out of Band II might be the most famous star ship known to the Net. A million races watched the chase. In the Middle Beyond there were vast antenna swarms beaming in their direction and listening to the news — mostly lies — sent from ships that pursued the OOB. She couldn’t hear those lies directly, of course, but the transmissions from beyond were as clear as if they were on a main trunk.

  Note 961

  Ravna spent part of each day reading the News, trying to find hope, trying to prove to herself that she was doing the right thing. By now, she was pretty sure what was chasing them. No doubt even Pham and Blueshell would have agreed on that. Why they were being chased, and what they might find at the end was now the subject of endless speculation on the Net. As usual, whatever the truth might be was well hidden among the lies.

  Note 962

  Note 963

  Crypto: 0

  Syntax: 43

  As received by: OOB shipboard ad hoc

  Note 964

  Language path: Triskweline, SjK units

  From: Hanse [No references prior to the fall of Relay. No probable source. This is someone being very cautious.]

  Subject: Alliance for the Defense fraudulent?

  Distribution:

  Threat of the Blight

  War Trackers Interest Group

  Homo Sapiens Interest Group

  Date: 5.80 days since Fall of Sjandra Kei

  Note 965

  Key phrases: Fools’ errand, unnecessary genocide

  Text of message:

  Note 966

  Earlier I speculated that there had been no destruction at Sjandra Kei. Apologies. That was based on a catalog identification error. I agree with the messages (13123 as of a few seconds ago) assuring me that the habitations of Sjandra Kei suffered collisional damage within the last six days.

  Note 967

  So apparently the “Alliance for the Defense” has taken the military action they claimed earlier. And apparently, they are powerful enough to destroy small civilizations in the Middle Beyond. The question still remains: “Why?” I have already posted arguments showing it unlikely that Homo sapiens is especially controllable by the Blight (though they were stupid enough to create that entity). Even the Alliance’s own reports admit that less than half of Sjandra Kei’s sophonts were of that race.

  Note 968

  Now a large part of the Alliance fleet is chasing into the Bottom of the Beyond after a single ship. What conceivable damage can the Alliance do to the Blight down there? The Blight is a great threat, perhaps the most novel and threatening in well-recorded history. Nevertheless, Alliance behavior appears destructive and pointless. Now that the Alliance has revealed some of its sponsoring organizations (see messages [id numbers]), I think we know its real motives. I see connections between the Alliance and the old Aprahant Hegemony. A thousand years ago, that group had a similar jihad, grabbing real estate left vacant by recent Transcendences. Stopping the Hegemony was an exciting bit of action in that part of the galaxy. I think these people are back, taking advantage of the general panic attending the Blight (which is admittedly a much greater threat).

  My advice: Beware of the Alliance and its claims of heroic efforts.

  Note 969

  Crypto: 0

  Syntax: 43

  As received by: OOB shipboard ad hoc

  Note 970

  Language path: Schirachene->Rondralip->Triskweline, SjK units

  From: Harmonious Repose Communications Synod

  Subject: Encounter with agents of the Perversion

  Distribution:

  Threat of th
e Blight

  Date: 6.37 days since Fall of Sjandra Kei

  Note 971

  Key phrases: Hanse fraudulent?

  Text of message:

  Note 972

  We have no special inclination toward any of the posters on this thread. Nevertheless, it’s remarkable that an entity that has not revealed its location or special interests — namely “Hanse” — should be smearing the efforts of the Alliance for the Defense. The Alliance kept its constituents secret only during that period when its forces were being gathered, when a single stroke of the Perversion’s power might destroy it entirely. Since that time, it has been quite open in its efforts.

  Note 973

  Hanse wonders how a single starship could be worth the Alliance’s attention. As Harmonious Repose was the site of the latest turn of events, we are in a position to give some explanation. The ship in question, the Out of Band II, is clearly designed for operations at the Bottom of the Beyond — and is even capable of limited operations within the Slow Zone. The ship presented itself as a special zonographic flight commissioned to study the recent turbulence at the Bottom. In fact, this ship’s mission is a very different one. In the aftermath of its violent departure, we have pieced together some extraordinary facts:

  Note 974

  At least one of the ship’s crew was human. Though they made great efforts to stay out of view and used Skroderider traders as intermediaries, we have recordings. A biosequence of one individual was obtained, and it matches the patterns maintained by two out of three of the Homo sapiens archives. (It’s well known that the third archive, on Sneerot Down, is in the control of Human sympathizers.) Some might say this deception was founded in fear. After all, these events happened after the destruction of Sjandra Kei. We think otherwise: The ship’s initial contact with us occurred before the Sjandra Kei incident.

  We have since made a careful analysis of the repair work our yards performed on this vessel. Ultradrive automation is a deep and complex thing; even the cleverest of cloaking cannot mask all the memories in it. We now know that the Out of Band II was from the Relay system and that it left there after the Perversion’s attack. Think what this means.