The Last Crucible

by J. D. Moyer

  Maro will oppose any petition to grant cybrids citizenship rights, she told Ekon.

  I agree, he replied. And with Cassia missing and presumed dead, the populares are weaker than ever.

  Is there something I can do to help? I know Maro well. I’m around him every day.

  Maybe there is. I’ll ask my contacts.

  Aina and Ekon communicated frequently, though Aina never dared do so in front of Maro. She still sometimes moved her lips when she mentally spoke to her mentor. One morning, while bathing, she confided to Ekon that her anxiety had not diminished with time; in fact, it had gotten worse.

  Your mind is obsessed with the uncertainty of life, Ekon told her. You need to begin shaping your life more intentionally, taking responsibility for your own future.

  But how?

  The first step of life shaping is to decide what you want. What’s important to you?

  She thought about it. Pleasure was important, but so was helping people. I enjoy helping others, she finally said.

  We all do, I’m afraid. That’s the way cybrids are programmed – it’s our primary motivation. And it’s a good one. But try to think about what else is important to you, in addition to helping others.

  That took some time. But eventually the answer came to her. It was important that people treat each other fairly. Respectfully and not abusively. She expressed this idea to Ekon.

  Excellent. Now try to imagine a life for yourself based on those core values: helping others and encouraging people to treat each other fairly. What would that life look like? What actions can you take to bring that imagined life into reality?

  Those were much more difficult questions. She told Ekon she would think on them. Which she did, eventually formulating a picture of her own life that pleased and excited her. And just as Ekon had promised, her anxiety lessened.

  Maro was the source of her problems, and she had decided what to do about it.

  PART THREE

  Divergence

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Within the Crucible, Jana’s consorteria debated the merits of joining the Ringstation Coalition.

  “I think they can be trusted,” Sperancia said, leaning back in her chair and propping her feet up on the table. The women were seated at an outdoor café, sipping chilled grappa. Sperancia was smoking a long pipe. The air was heavy with the scent of jasmine flowers and smoldering tobacco. “We should claim membership in the Coalition if we can.”

  “You’re wrong,” said Giuseppina, refilling her glass from a slender blue bottle. “We’re better off on our own.”

  “Even if we were better off,” Agatha said, “we can’t go back to the way things were. For better or worse, we now have relationships with the sky worlds. It’s how we manage those relationships that matters. I agree with Sperancia – we should join the Coalition.”

  “I’ve already arranged to officially submit an application, with the help of Ingrid and Lydia,” Jana said. “But even if that application is approved, we won’t join unless we can agree among ourselves.”

  With Itria’s help, Jana had altered her appearance within the Crucible. Her body was now strong-limbed and olive-skinned, somewhat resembling Livia. While it didn’t feel perfect, it was a vast improvement over her real physical body, which had always felt awkward and wrong. The other women were disconcerted by her new appearance, but it was interesting to experiment with a different form, and a relief to be temporarily free of the body she’d been born into.

  Itria was a semi-recluse, only rarely participating in the consorteria’s frequent meetings and discussions. Instead she preferred to shape their shared world, creating mythical creatures, aesthetically pleasing buildings and landscapes, and realistic weather patterns. Itria had been happy to help change Jana’s appearance, though she’d been disappointed that Jana hadn’t wanted wings, hooves, or seven fingers on each hand.

  Giuseppina took some convincing, but eventually conceded that joining the Ringstation Coalition was the best course of action. Jana noticed that Giuseppina was much more amenable to suggestions from Agatha than from Sperancia, and that Sperancia’s choice to sit back and silently smoke her pipe was likely strategic.

  ***

  In Bosa, in the town hall, Ingrid announced that the Stanford had received a transmission from the general vicinity of the gamma-ray burst. The transmission had been encrypted, but the Liu Hui, having received the transmission at nearly the same time, had decrypted the message and forwarded the results.

  The transmission was indeed from the Iarudi. It was a prerecorded message, apparently triggered by the hails received from the Stanford and other ringships.

  “The message is an audio recording from Shane Jaecks. Should I read it out loud?” Ingrid asked.

  “Yes,” said Lydia, in a choked voice. Tem leaned forward, watching Ingrid expectantly. Maggie put her hand on Tem’s shoulder.

  Ingrid began to read, though Jana could not tell what the red-haired woman was reading from; she appeared to be looking at the far wall.

  “If you’re receiving this transmission, I’m probably dead,” Ingrid began. “Though there’s a small chance I’m still alive in one of the stasis pods. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, exactly, but I’m pretty sure I’m bleeding internally – possibly from a severe esophageal ulcer. When Umana removed the Crucible from my body, she wasn’t careful about it.”

  Ingrid paused and glanced at Lydia, who was looking down at the table, avoiding eye contact. “Please go on,” Lydia said.

  Ingrid nodded and continued reading Shane’s message. “Before I realized how badly injured I was, I decided to take the Iarudi for a joyride. Well, more technically, to continue Umana’s joyride. Umana is dead – did I mention that? In any case, how often does a guy find himself in possession of a spacetime-warping starship?

  “Fortunately the Iarudi speaks English, or at least understands it. For some reason the ship appears to be obeying my verbal commands – possibly because I’m the only living passenger. Umana killed her entire crew with an acceleration burst. She was strong enough to survive it, and I was in a stasis pod surrounded by protective gel. But everyone else was turned into meat jelly. I don’t know why she killed her own crew – I guess she didn’t need them anymore. If you’ve had the misfortune of meeting Umana you know that would be reason enough. So the ship is full of floating dead bodies. It’s warm enough that they’ll begin to rot if I don’t do something about it. I would just eject them from the ship, but I suspect that would have catastrophic consequences traveling at five times the speed of light in a bubble of compressed spacetime. So yeah…maybe be aware of that if you crack open the ship. It might smell really bad.

  “Right now I’m on my way to Tau Ceti, a course plotted by Umana for reasons unknown. The system has multiple planets, several of which may support biological life. Maybe Umana was planning a scientific survey. The ship is telling me I’ve travelled about half a light year, with 11.5 light years to go, and that the one-way journey will take over two years. Even if the ship has enough food – which I don’t think it does – I’ll be severely weakened from bone and muscle loss if I go that long without gravity. In a cold stasis pod I’ll have a better chance of surviving. So that’s where I’m headed.

  “I could try to go home, tell the ship to stop and instantiate a spacetime tunnel in the opposite direction. But for several reasons I don’t want to do that. Given the current political tensions among the ringstations, I think it’s a good idea to take the Iarudi out of the picture for a while. This ship can be – and already has been – used as a weapon. So I’m making a unilateral decision to take this particular chess piece off the table, to use it for scientific research. I’ve told the ship to gather data in the Tau Ceti system – a complete survey of the star and all its orbiting bodies – then travel to Epsilon Eridani and do the same thing. From Epsilon Eridani it’s only a quick four
teen-light-year jump to Epsilon Indi. The entire survey I’ve planned includes five star systems and should get the Iarudi home in a couple decades with a treasure trove of astronomical and planetary data, if everything goes well.

  “That said, I realize there’s a high likelihood that something will go wrong. The Iarudi will probably be destroyed in a collision, or run out of antimatter fuel, or fail in some other spectacular or mundane way. And as for myself, I’d put my chances of surviving at less than one per cent. But I don’t feel like going home yet. I feel like going out in a big way.

  “I don’t have any way to transmit this message – the ship tells me that’s not possible while we’re within the wake of the spacetime bubble. But hopefully the Iarudi will successfully return to the Sol system. If it does, and if you’re able to retrieve the ship and my body with it, I’d like to be buried on Earth, if possible. Near Vanderton – I mean Ilium – would be nice. I know it’s a long shot, but that’s my dying request.”

  Ingrid took a deep breath.

  “Is that all?” Lydia asked.

  “No,” Ingrid replied. “There’s much more. A vast amount of data from five different star systems. Shane’s mission was successful.”

  “Is he still alive?”

  “We have no way of knowing. Svilsson says the Liu Hui is already organizing a mission to retrieve the ship, but the journey to the outer solar system will take weeks.”

  Everyone was silent for nearly a minute, processing what they had just heard, either mourning Shane or showing respect for those who were. Jana liked the man from the tone of his message, but Lydia and Tem had both known him personally.

  “Oh!” Ingrid said, ending the silence. “Svilsson says there are personal messages too. One for Lydia and one for Tem. I’ll have Svilsson send them to you directly.”

  “I don’t have a m’eye,” Tem said. “Can someone transcribe it for me?”

  “I will,” Lydia said, “if you don’t mind me seeing the message.”

  “It’s fine. I don’t mind if you see a message intended for the ten-year-old Tem.”

  “He knew he wasn’t coming back for a long time,” Ingrid pointed out. “The message is probably to Tem the adult, not Tem the child.”

  Tem nodded, looking close to tears. “Still, it’s fine.”

  ***

  The next few days passed in a blur. Jana found herself exhausted from all the meetings and negotiations, from the emotional work of listening to everyone, understanding their needs and fears, comforting them when they needed comfort and correcting them when they needed correcting. Vissenta and Iginu were worried sick for their son, as was Zicanna for her daughter. Micheli criticized and argued with everyone, especially Gregoriu, whom he blamed for Maro and Livia’s escape and Sperancia’s murder. And Lydia and Maggie needed help communicating with Pietro and his father, Enzo, providing medical attention for the boy and preparing both for their journey to Ilium.

  Jana’s consorteria was equally exhausting. Though all the women put on a facade of reasonableness, they had struggled for power and status within the group for centuries and continued to do so. Giuseppina reveled in Sperancia’s reduced status (now that Jana was the maghiarja), and there were other complexities to the web of relationships that Jana could not even begin to fathom.

  During this time, Katja provided support and solace to Jana, which she sorely needed. She could let her guard down around Katja, who did not judge her or expect anything of her. But Jana also felt a physical thrill being near the Happdal woman; it was hard to not stare at her well-proportioned face and body.

  Katja shared a bedroom with Jana, sleeping on the floor with only a few sheepskins for comfort. One night as they were falling asleep, Jana asked Katja for more details of her experience as a Crucible host.

  “Did you get along with the others in your Crucible – the previous hosts?” Jana asked.

  “No. They were not people I would have chosen to be friends with. We were from different times, some from different cultures. There was one man I liked – Stian. He was a Happdal smith long ago and reminded me of my brother Trond. He was gentle and kind with me, and of all of them I trusted him the most. I was sad that he had to die.”

  “They all died, when you escaped.”

  “It was the only way. But your situation is different. You’re not a prisoner within your own mind. You entered the Crucible willingly.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you regret it?” Katja asked after a few moments of silence.

  “No. But I’m still getting used to it. I don’t have as much time alone as I’m used to, or as much privacy. Any of my consorteria can listen through my ears and see through my eyes when they choose.”

  “Are any of them listening now?”

  “No. We’re alone right now.”

  Katja didn’t say anything back, and Jana wondered if the Happdal woman had fallen asleep. But ten minutes later she still didn’t hear Katja’s soft snoring, a sound she had come to expect at night.

  “Are you cold?” Jana finally asked. “You can join me in bed if you like. There’s room enough.”

  Katja said nothing, but Jana’s heart leapt when she heard Katja get up. She pulled back the blankets to make room.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Ingrid had warned Jana that the Ringstation Coalition would take a long time to consider their application; many bureaucratic agents on multiple ringships would need to review it. But the response came within days: Bosa’s application was provisionally accepted. Though it would not be official until the next meeting of Coalition representatives, the town of Bosa and the region of Sardinia were immediately afforded all rights, privileges, and protections bestowed by membership. Gregoriu, as mayor, would serve the first term as the Coalition representative. But Gregoriu had no interest in traveling to the Stanford where the representatives would first meet in person, and asked Jana to be his proxy.

  “You deal with these people better than I do,” Gregoriu confided. “And I trust your judgment, and Sperancia’s as well.”

  “I’ll do whatever I can to get Filumena and Cristo back. But Ingrid says it doesn’t help that they went voluntarily.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  Gregoriu was right, but it had seemed that way. It still tore at Jana’s heart when she thought of Filumena blowing her a kiss from Maro’s golden balloon. Filumena and Cristo had gone to the Michelangelo intentionally, whatever their reasons.

  Though it proved impossible to get everyone to agree on every detail, Jana and Ingrid devised a plan that the town council, the ringstation delegation, Jana’s consorteria, and most of Bosa’s residents agreed was sensible. An expedition consisting of Jana, Katja, Ingrid, Lydia, Tem, Maggie, Pietro, and Enzo would travel to Ilium, taking both hovershuttles. In Ilium, Lydia would administer gene therapy to Pietro to cure his disease. Maggie would assist and Enzo would stay with his son at all times. From Ilium, Jana, Katja, Ingrid, and Tem would take a compact rocket ship that Tem referred to as a ‘mule’ to the Stanford ringstation. Depending on how negotiations with the Michelangelo were proceeding, Jana would co-ordinate with the Ringstation Coalition to arrange the safe return of Filumena and Cristo. Ingrid refused to speculate as to what kind of measures the Coalition would be willing to take to rescue her friends, but she assured Jana that it was a good sign that their application had been approved. The Coalition would not ignore Bosa’s needs.

  Jana tried to be hopeful, but her consorteria seeded doubt in her mind.

  “It’s only two lives,” Giuseppina pointed out. “Do you really think the Coalition will risk a war in which thousands could die?”

  For once, to Jana’s dismay, Sperancia agreed with Giuseppina. “Just because they have offered to help us doesn’t mean they will. My impression of the visitors from the Stanford was that they are moral people, trying to live in accordance with thei
r values. But not warlike. No bloodlust, no desire to fight. If they can’t negotiate the return of Cristo and Filumena then that will be the end of it. We may need to let our friends go.”

  Jana thought Sperancia had said what she had to say, but the old maghiarja kept speaking, this time only to Jana. “I probably shouldn’t have encouraged Filumena to go with Cristo, but I wanted someone sensible to accompany the boy in case we failed to kill Maro and his companions.”

  Jana wasn’t sure she had heard right. “You encouraged Filumena to accompany Cristo, to leave Bosa with Maro and Livia?”

  “The boy is a fool, and I was worried about what trouble he would get into on his own.”

  “So you threw Filumena’s life away, so she might protect someone she doesn’t even like?”

  “Not only to protect Cristo.” Sperancia sounded irritated. “Also to gather information. Filumena is charming and likable. I knew she would be able to manipulate Maro and give us an advantage.”

  “So you used her. A gamble – and one that hasn’t even paid off. For all we know they’re both dead.”

  “We don’t know that. I don’t trust Maro, but I don’t think he intended to kill or even harm our young people. Sending Filumena with Cristo may still have been the right choice.”

  “You should have told me. You should have asked me.”

  “I was the maghiarja at the time. The choice was mine.”

  “No it wasn’t. The choice was Filumena’s. It was not your place to influence her, to needlessly risk her life.” Jana could hear the fury in her own voice and made no effort to hide it.