neither acknowledging the others presence in any way either they were beyond their marital connection now or were so used to operating in concert that they didn’t need to acknowledge one another as they functioned together the egg that had spoken to me a few seconds earlier but a series of gasping exhalations that may have been an attempt at laughter I looked at the dismembered woman and said hello cheetah puck.
CHAPTER 17
Damocles Skyee
Most cities are mercantile they
have industries to justify all the psychological and bureaucratic bullshit that goes along with concentrating so many sentience on top of one another endeavors like manufacturing or shipping or government or military infrastructure or even organized religion that required teeming throngs of people and all the headaches that go along with them cities are so dependent on the forces that drive them that it’s rare indeed for one to be formed by Fiat create a reason why a city is needed one will arise on the spot
not so much summoned as congealed Nureyev was one of the few exceptions there was no real reason for it dance pilgrims didn’t manufacture anything they didn’t engage in trade they paired and tripled up but didn’t form families they had no children to school no religious beliefs that require the construction of churches or temples they were retrofitted to their environment in a manner that minimized their need for shelter from the extremes of broiling heat or freezing cold dropped almost anywhere on Vlad they could either survive off the land or if they ever encountered dire nead appeal to help from the native lani who had up until now always been careful to care for them if not as pets then at least as a valuable imported resource there seemed to be no reason for all the extra work that went along with building a permanent settlement for a few hundred thousand people not to mention bringing in their food and carting away their shit except for one human beings even substantially altered human beings crave community and a planet of human beings who for the most part all believe in the same thing will inevitably create its own Jerusalem its own Mecca its own place to turn when faith itself is not enough hence nori of a joke by the standards of most of mankind city’s little more than a teeming metropolis of jury-rigged tents all gathering their own layers of brown dust beneath the winds of the surrounding desert a sorrier gathering didn’t exist outside of the refugee camps formed wherever human beings are displaced by disaster or war and yet this was clearly a place that had been planned with some thought the dwellings were all lined up in neat rows thousands of them in a line with navigable alleyways between them there were large open areas no greener than the rest that served as parks even a primitive agriculture of sorts that farmed the fast-growing protein-rich lichens that grew in the shallows of the nameless sea behind it the neighborhood closest to its centralized mass outhouses could carry the taint of sewage if the wind changed direction without warning but it was not the miasma Creek that passes for atmosphere in cities where the problem has so overwhelmed the residents that they have given up and resigned themselves to living with the stench the pilgrims who spent much of their time traveling anyway as they competed for the favor of the powers that decided who won the supreme honor of performing in each year’s ballet did what they had to do to keep things comfort if not at all close to pleasant or luxurious it was a place to go to and come from not one where anybody wanted to stay and certainly no place anyone would have chosen for their last stand but that’s what it had become in recent days refugees had come pouring out of the desert telling tales of massacres witnessed and hunting parties fled tents emptied by occupants travelling elsewhere and likely either dead or hiding had now filled with refugees the overall mood had changed from hope to dread the expressions on the faces of the people had altered from the amiable contentment of those secured in their own greater purpose to the shell-shocked loss that marks the lost there were more of Lani every hour hundreds of them every minute none venturing closer than 20 kilometers away they came no closer to the shoreline and this gap in their ranks along the narrow strip of land closest to the sea allowed the admission of more human refugees who may have known that they were trapping themselves but preferred to face what was coming among thousands of their own kind to perhaps being caught in smaller groups out where the mad Villani were still killing everything that walked on two legs the dance pilgrims were already outnumbered and the forces that had them backed against the sea were gathering faster than their own nobody wanted to say what they all sensed that there was only one reason the Villani army hadn’t advanced yet they were waiting for their already overwhelming advantage in strength and numbers to become as terrible as a single annihilating blow from the fist of God for kilometers south of Nureyev the flats near the shoreline blossomed into a low ridge 000 metres high it was the only higher elevation in the region and would have presented no protection from the Villani had they decided to storm it as any one of them starting from its base could have scaled it in a couple of dozen determined steps but the summit was broad and flat and windswept buffed by millennia of winds until its soil had become nothing but a fine layer of grit over a polished table of rock as long as the Villani themselves kept their distance it presented offworld observers with a fine vantage point to survey the slaughter to come it was safe enough that’s where Skye and the rear Gaul found two dozen sentient who stood upon the ridge facing the tableau of encircled City and gathering army the grim group had all left their skimmers hovering a few steps away at what amounted to waist height and but for the three who might have travelled here on foot were all ready to hop back aboard and fly off the instant they knew that the flag had gone up one was Confederate ambassador wall stern cried still fat and naked and seething beneath the blanket he clutched to his shoulders for warmth his grimace looked a lot like the satisfied grin of a man whose hatreds had been vindicated the seven indentures he had with him all of whom wore their brown coveralls which were likely more comfortable than bearskin at these windy Heights included a pale and wide-eyed for roll Hammersmith and two others Skye remembered from her own brief visit to the embassy Clifford Dunbar and the younger woman Petra prime speaker Krag stood beside another skimmer of cheem manufacturer with another of his own people so did a single grave kiss and Houghton motionless in its shell and did not a very distressed burst Eenie shaking their round little heads as if mere denial could be enough to stop the nightmare in mid breath the three other sentient on the ridge were all dance pilgrims two slender men with long telescoping arms and legs and a round-faced blonde woman whose enhancements had reduced her to a head and torso at the center of a thicket of lonny whips from their angry gestures and grim faces they had spent some time trying to talk into croix between the dance pilgrims whose forms were not cut for conventional human clothing the pathological nudists croix and Skye herself the amount of human skin on display on the mountaintop was well beyond what anybody would have expected of any critical war council since the days of the hunter-gatherers as Skyee hopped from the rear gulf skimmer hammersmith almost moved to embrace her but thought better of it satisfying himself with a sickly grin hello Skyee it’s good to see you alive you too Skyee said not enough of it going around these days
your other half and the counselor can’t help you I’m afraid we’ve been cut off I’d like to know who I’m talking to the head and torso said Petra the indenture who had been doing anything she could to keep her stare above Kreutz waist was now trying to avoid beholding Skye excuse me ma’am I think we have another uniform in the vehicle Skyee didn’t give a shit one way or the other but saw no reason to make a point of it fine she turned to the dance pilgrims what’s happening here the ambulatory head and torso glowered why don’t you ask this ambulatory sack of shit Kroy shot the dance pilgrims a glare of unlimited disgust rendered both more terrible and more ludicrous by his sagging flesh and bloodshot eyes and why don’t you go down to your little nest of cultists if you are so determined to die excuse me Skyee said I think I need a catch-up here his look at Skyee betrayed no recognition do you have the right to on
e Dunbar murmured she was with the councillor Court Kreutz already pinprick eyes narrowed still further as his suspicion turned to open hostility you’re one of her pets aren’t you I’m Skye Porrinyard I could have you placed under arrest as an accessory Skye didn’t flinch you and I are both naked sir there’s nothing to accessorize this isn’t a joke I thought it was pretty funny but hold on a sec she caught the brown coveralls Petra had just tossed her and slipped them on almost as soon as she stepped into them from the open flap in the front she regretted the concession to modesty as the material was coarse dusty from recent use and far too warm against her skin but the mere act of getting dressed had derailed Kroy by forcing him to wait for her and so she pressed her advantage even as she adjusted the straps now sir what’s this about an arrest don’t pull that shit with me bondsman I know what you are and I know that you were involved in every real sense of the word even if your body wasn’t there true but all the counselor and my other half did in the first place was defi an illegal arrest order by an alien government that has no real jurisdiction on this planet and that has already rescinded the order in any case Croy glared past her the two rear Gaul is this true it has proven counterproductive her path mourned then get yourself to safety and leave me alone this doesn’t concern you I’m afraid it does sir especially if the argument I’ve interrupted here is about what I think it is the head and torso moved closer to Skye her ersatz Villani limbs undulating in distress more human than marionette he’s starting something he can’t stop only a couple of words into her sentence Kroy broke in his face purpling as he tried to win with sheer volume I’m trying to save all your lives and they were off the three dance pilgrims shouting at CROI that nobody had ever asked for ham-handed help Kreutz screaming back that he wasn’t about to stand by and watch while thousands of human beings were slaughtered by God forsaken bugs Dunbar and Hammersmith trying to quell the argument with reason nobody paused for breath nobody stopped to listen the sense vanishing even before the hubbub could be carried away by the wind just about the only parties present capable of entering the argument by virtue of equal Authority were the rear Gaul and Chi ambassadors but neither seemed inclined to break into the madness of human beings reg because it probably confirmed every contemptuous thought he had ever had of our species and her path because there would have been no point Skye just thought the hell with it I’ve already decked an ambassador today and pinched her right hand tied around a pressure point at the junction of Kreutz neck and shoulder it was a grip designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain with the minimal amount of damage he dropped his protective blanket and sank to his knees gasping his stunned but hate-filled eyes promising dire consequences as soon as he had enough air in his lungs to power speech again everybody shut up at once Skyee addressed the dance pilgrims allow me to present my credentials I am Skyee Porrinyard personal guard - Andrea Court counselor at large for the dip core of the hamsa Confederacy I don’t outrank this man but she represents an authority he can’t even guess at you have until the Ambassador catches his breath back to tell me calmly just what this is all about but be clear I’ve been out of circulation the three dance pilgrims glanced at one another unsure of how to proceed and then once again it fell to the head and torso your dip core - how do we know you’re any better Skyee released cried who collapsed face-first muttering obscenities you won’t know a thing until you open your mouth and tell me what you’re talking about none of you have ever been willing to grasp the significance I’d hate to have to incapacitate you and let him talk the head and torso muttered a few words in some human language Skye failed to recognize the two men with the elongated limbs answered in the same tongue and once again the role of spokesperson fell to her I go by the name Misa I represent the dance pilgrims and there are many disputes with your arrogant and abusive core it must keep you busy Skyee said and today’s dispute that son of a bitch can’t be allowed to use the situation down there as an excuse to start something he can’t stop such as the head Burstein II who had been agonizing in silence since cords fall made his decision and stepped forward to send down the fleet of Confederate bombers now monitoring this situation from orbit Skyee had been in danger before she had even been at the Ground Zero of threatened Wars before but separated from her other half still feeling the phantom pain of wounds that had almost killed her not knowing where I was or if I was even alive she had never felt as insignificant as small as she felt right now how could they have gotten here so fast it would have taken him months to mobilize and deploy a force like that that the Burstein II diplomat said is the very point mr. Rago is making just before your arrival we can all understand why they’ve been called in but their timely arrival is not possible unless your core has been party to an ethical breach of unprecedented proportions of all the miserable dip core indentures broadcasting the fervent desire to melt into the ground they’re all Hammersmith seemed the most helpless the most shamed so Skyee looked to him
veral he looked trapped there have been drop ships stationed in the outer system for more than a decade now Kroy who had risen to his hands and knees gasped an angry obscenity how many Skye demanded I don’t know enough to mount a full-scale planetary sterilization this qualified as a major crime before so much as one bomb was dropped the interspecies covenant had always placed very stringent controls on the movements of armed warships outside any one governments territory anything larger than a simple protective convoy was considered in breach unless the others were kept informed the universal compliance with this guideline was the main reason why no diplomatic flare-ups between species had ever escalated to a serious interstellar war the presence of an actual bombing fleet in the outer system of a sentient species with no spacefaring capability and the admission that it had been lying in wait there for years amounted to a secret plan for slaughter Skyee was furious you knew about this we all did hammersmith said it’s not exactly a normal situation here we all remember the massacre at D Jews embassy we all lived in fear of it happening again we had to make precautions so you prepare an evacuation force you keep that in orbit and you make sure the entire diplomatic community knows it’s there you don’t prepare a secret bombing fleet with enough firepower to wipe out all life here you do hammersmith said if a few hundred thousand confederate civilians move in and set up housekeeping despite all your warnings you do if you’re not willing to sit back and let them die if the worst happens you do if you live in fear that the Villani will start doing to all those innocents what they once did to de Jews people if you have any sense of responsibility whatsoever you prepare for that eventualities and hope that you’ll never have to put those contingency plans in motion but to keep it secret the Burstein II said from all of us when you knew we would never approve Hammersmith spread his arms in a helpless shrug what can I say excellency can you think of a better reason to keep it secret and Skye side of course an entire parade of of course of course it would have been depraved indifference indeed gross negligence for the Confederacy to do anything else and of course it wouldn’t matter that the political consequences of a military strike could only be worse than the tragedy it had been prepared to prevent and of course the lack of any further provocation for so many years had turned the strike force into a kind of war trapped in a bottle doomed to remain in its bottle as long as history never arrived to set it free but of course the increasing numbers of dance pilgrims had left a dip core witnessing what many would call a dangerous cultural contagion of course all the people with an emotional investment in seeing the Villani as an unexploded bomb would continue to push with each passing year for greater escalation and of course the contingency would only grow more and more inevitable until it approached virtual certainty Worcester Croix had spent all his years here with the dire knowledge that he was not so much an ambassador as a general empowered to let loose the dogs of war at any time a hardliner who didn’t just concur with the course official stance about the ballet but downright burned with it he must have felt a terrible raging frustration as the years of his am
bassadorship dragged on and his obscene consummation was still denied him was this the factor that had turned him into what he’d become a sagging glob of naked unwashed flesh Skye didn’t possess enough data to know Kreutz madness might have come long before he ever got here or at some point afterward but she did know that the decision was too important to be made by someone who had already been twisted by it Misa looked at her with Wonder and pity you really are as naive as you claimed you didn’t know I can see it on your face Skye said so so none of us know why the Villani has turned on us but we came here because we believed that their ballet had an important purpose one that still needs to be preserved at all costs we need you to understand that nobody in our city wants to be saved if killing Villani is the only way to do it Skyee hated the certainty she saw in that fresh pretty quintessentially human face and if we do nothing and you all die then we die the two other dance pilgrims behind Misa nodded at this as if it not only made sense but defined the structure of the rational universe Skyee contemplated an absolute implica bility that saw nothing but destiny and rendered all corpses left on its path just tick marks on a cosmic balance sheet sorry that’s not acceptable either please we can be replaced if anything happens to us more will come but that species down there they’re the key to everything you can’t let them die on that fat shits killing ground Croy had recovered enough to struggle to his feet he slapped away hammer Smith’s offer to help him up but accepted Dunbar’s and made it to his feet with only a minimal amount of grunting and cursing by the time he spoke again his voice had become a strangulated papery growl I’ll bring you up on assault charge
Andrea Cort 03: War of the Marionettes Page 23