The Silver Ship and the Sea

by Brenda Cooper

  I dragged my gaze from her, from her third cry in as many days, to watch Tom’s face, and Paloma’s.

  Tom chewed at his lower lip, and looked like he was working hard to swallow words that begged to come out of him. I caught a glance between Paloma and Kayleen. Kayleen seemed to know how to interpret Paloma’s look, because she slid over close to Alicia and set an arm on Alicia’s shaking back.

  Tom leaned over to Joseph, ignoring Alicia and her outburst. “Yes, we came here to fix the net. Good job.”

  Joseph took one of Alicia’s hands, but answered Tom evenly. “Well, I see you’ve been working on the maps. Can we start this afternoon? I want to finish the ones that are broken, and then I think we’ll have time to pick up even more of the net than we planned. I’d like to see Akashi and Liam before we go home.”

  Tom glanced at Paloma, who said, “I can ride. Can Sugar Wheat go yet?”

  Tom hesitated briefly before answering. “Yes, but I don’t think we should ride her. Or run her. Maybe Chelo and Joseph can double up.”

  Alicia turned back toward us and removed her hands from her face, exposing red cheeks wet from tears, and said, “We don’t all need to ride. We can keep up. Go ahead and ride Ink, and I’ll run. If I get tired, I’ll trade with one of the others.”

  Once more, I saw Tom swallow his first reaction. He nodded curtly. “Well, then, pack up. There’s a rough spot on the trail about two kilometers ahead. We should be able to get past it tonight if we get packed in the next half hour.”

  Packing took us forty-five minutes, but at least four hours of daylight remained when we rode on, passing through the narrow end of the valley to ride along the lake. We followed a beach trail, winding between forested cliffs and the water, dotted here and there with trickling waterfalls.

  Sure enough, Alicia ran just ahead of us. The hebras moved just faster than our natural walk, and so Alicia loped along with plenty of time to make small side trips to pick up stones and throw them in the water or just run ahead and stand, watching and waiting for us, her hands on her hips.

  After a while, Joseph dismounted and handed me Legs’s lead line, running alongside her. They ran easily, laughing and pointing out waterfalls to each other, looking like young healthy gods. I scratched Stripes’s ears. “Hey, girl, I’d love to run, too, but someone has to ride and manage you and the pack animals.” Stripes turned her head back toward me and lifted her lower lip in what I fancied was the hebra version of a smile.

  We rounded a corner in the path to find a quake-slumped cliff. Gray and brown gravel and boulders, broken bushes, and shattered trees spilled across the path and into the lake. Tom rode along it, inland and down to the water, and back again, looking for a passable trail.

  Joseph and Alicia clambered up on the fall. Finally, Alicia stood on the top of the unsteady berm, calling out, “There’s djuri tracks here. I bet if we lead the hebras they’ll make it.”

  Joseph carried Paloma. Tom led two pack animals while I managed Stripes and Legs, Alicia took Sugar Wheat and Ink, and Kayleen led Sand and her own hebra, Longface. Even without our weight, the hebras sometimes sank almost to their knees in the loose material. Joseph’s idea to take them across without extra weight had been right. We sank in sand to our ankles, and once I fell in a soft sinkhole up to my waist and Kayleen had to pull me out with a rope. It took nearly an hour to get all of us across the berm.

  We rode another hour, tired. I kept wondering when we’d stop, but Tom appeared to have a destination in mind. Finally, we came up over a little hill. There, in the middle of a valley that had been purposely cleared, stood the biggest tent tree I had ever seen. A guild hall would fit under its canopy.

  We camped inside, near the huge spreading trunk, tying the hebras on the other side of our camp but still under the canopy. We strung the barrier right at the edge of the tree and left two people at a time to tend a small fire all night. No animals bothered us, but it was no place for the projector.

  Tom assigned Alicia and me the last watch that night, and we sat sleepily feeding small sticks into the fire, making sure it neither winked out, nor grew big enough to flood the canopy with smoke or threaten the tent tree.

  “Have you ever seen a tent tree this big?” I asked Alicia.

  “Yes…two others. One is even bigger. Sky said it must be over a thousand years old.”

  I looked up at the thick canopy above us, the bottom leaves yellow from lack of direct sunlight. The tree creaked and groaned and made tiny snapping noises, and its leaves rubbed together almost like crickets. “It sounds like it’s singing to us, Alicia. Like it has its own song.”

  She laughed, softly, almost a whisper. “Sky told me Akashi said everything has its own song.” She stared at the small fire, and fed it a dried brown tent tree leaf, which curled in on the edges and then burst into a small yellow flame as it lost its form. “Maybe we need our own song.”

  I smiled and got up to get my flute. When I returned, Alicia put her fingers to her lips and stood, rummaging quietly in her own pack. She returned with a flute that was nearly a twin of mine, except that the wood had been worn shiny with use. Shells hung from it for decoration instead of feathers.

  “Did Liam make that?” I asked.

  She glanced down at the flute in her hands almost reverently. “It was Varay’s. I took it the day after I brought his body back. No one noticed. He would have wanted me to have it.” She turned it over and over in her hands, caressing it. “I just haven’t had the heart to play it.” Then she raised it to her lips, blowing softly, and a sweet sad song seemed to fill all of the empty space in the tent tree.

  A few minutes later Joseph joined us, gently tapping his drum and smiling at Alicia. The three of us played for twenty minutes, watching as the first light began to steal into the tree, greening the leaves and dimming the firelight.

  17

  News of Bryan

  We led the hebras out from under the canopy of the big tent tree just as full daylight painted the dew-spangled grass bright. Alicia and Joseph stopped at the edge of the path, holding the pack hebras’ lines, waiting for the rest of us to mount up.

  Tom laughed softly at them, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “I think it’s a great morning for Kayleen to run with Alicia.” He mounted Ink, gazing down at Alicia. “And stay in sight, okay? I lost track of you and Joseph a few times yesterday.”

  Alicia blushed, but her eyes darkened and narrowed. Joseph shrugged, his look more distant than disturbed. Kayleen and Alicia stood to the side while Joseph pulled himself up on Legs and took Sugar Wheat’s lead line.

  The wide path threaded through rolling grassy foothills dotted with small stands of trees, the hills rising to the mountains behind us, almost opposite the fork where we began our trip around the lake. Joseph rode by himself, keeping Legs at least three meters from all of us, even riding off-trail to maintain his distance. Kayleen and Alicia ran ahead of us, staying in sight, but barely. Tom called them back twice, cautioning them to stay near.

  After observing Joseph’s silent treatment for fifteen minutes, I rode up next to him and said, “You know, you can’t afford to make Tom angry. We need his support.”

  Joseph nodded, but didn’t move any closer to the others. His eyes stared straight ahead under the headband. After about ten minutes, my logic must have sunk in, because he pulled Legs over close to Ink, and began a conversation with Tom. I rode next to Paloma, her face pinched white with pain, and tried to distract her with chatter about the various trees and late-blooming flowers by the trail.

  We stopped briefly at the next spike. We all led the hebras to the lake bank to drink. Afterward, Tom dug out his data reader to confirm that the pod worked. As soon as Tom closed the reader with a satisfied grunt and put it back in his pack, we traded runners, boosting Kayleen onto Legs, and Alicia onto Stripes.

  Joseph and I ran near each other. The midmorning sun and the exertion of running combined to draw a light sweat on my forearms and scalp almost immediately.
We slowed to clamber over a small mud and gravel slide, more likely caused by the recent rains than the quake. He glanced sideways at me. “Thanks, sis. I’m sorry I’m so distracted. I’m having trouble understanding what’s on this darn thing.”

  “And I thought you were pouting about not running with your sweetheart.”

  “At least mine’s here.” He blushed and looked away.

  “I don’t have a sweetheart.” Damn him.

  He laughed. “Nope—you have two. You and Kayleen are going to have to work that out.” He gave me a smug glance. “I’ll stick to Alicia. She needs me.”

  Alicia needed a lot more than Joseph. But he didn’t offer anything else about how he felt, and Paloma’s suggestion to wait until he wanted advice held my tongue. “What’s going on with the headband?”

  We’d crossed the slide, but kept to a walk, waiting for the others to maneuver the hebras across the muddy patch. “I’m seeing a lot, but I don’t understand what I see, yet. The data button I chose seems to be about a fight—not a war, more like an argument—that happened back where the altered came from.”

  “Was it about genemods?”

  He shook his head. “No. I think it was about artificial intelligences and about money.”

  I understood both terms. Vaguely. They were in our history books. We bartered instead of using money, and we had computers. All of our computers and communications gear, even the earsets and the pods, came from dwindling stores on Traveler. But as far as I could tell they weren’t intelligent. At least, they didn’t talk or make their own decisions except within parameters we gave them. We told them what to do; they didn’t tell us what to do. “Can you direct it—I mean, can you navigate the data?”

  “Not yet.” The others were gaining on us, so we opened into a slow run. Joseph waited until we’d widened the gap before continuing. “I was trying to figure that out when you interrupted me. Part of the problem is I can’t seem to turn off the Fremont nets and listen just to the data button—I get it all.” He turned his face toward me briefly, grinning. “Thanks for stopping me from falling into myself.”

  I leaped over a particularly wide fallen log, stopped, and dragged it off the path, out of the way of the others. “Kayleen and I watched the projector yesterday morning while you slept. We couldn’t find a way to control it. Let us know if you figure out how to navigate the data.”

  “What did you see?” Joseph asked.

  I struggled for words to describe what we’d seen. “People…like us, only more. Really different. And what you saw in the cave—more of Silver’s Home. It’s big, and there are a lot of people there. Billions. There was a narrator, but we couldn’t tell what he said much either. I don’t know how to use anything we learned. We’re running out of time to figure all this out. As soon as we get back to Artistos I have to give Jenna the projector and Hunter might take your headband.”

  “No one’s taking the headband.”

  “Are we going to fight over it?” I asked.

  “I’m not letting anyone have it. I’ll try to buy us some time, set it up with Tom to fix nodes near the roamers.” He grinned at me, his eyes flashing. “Get you some time with Liam.”

  I blushed. “That’s not the most important thing on my mind.”

  He sped up a little, running ahead of me. I followed on his heels, relaxing into the easy rhythm of the run. After a while all that occupied my attention was the swell and fall of the path, the periodic slowing to allow the hebras to catch up, and the easy pleasant movement of my body.

  By the time Tom called to us to slow down because we were where the next spike was supposed to be—one we needed to replace—my breath came harder and my whole body felt flushed with exertion. A wide valley spilled out between two mountains, the valley itself dotted with smaller hills. The lake lapped at brown mud beaches lined with spiky grass, browning with fall.

  We couldn’t see the spike. Tom dug a spare pod out of its safe nest inside one of the packs, and headed up a little hill to the location he found on his data reader. Paloma and Kayleen promised to set out a light lunch of the last of the djuri meat and some of our dried food while Alicia and Joseph and I took the hebras to water.

  We took off our shoes, rolled up our pants legs, and splashed out a few meters so the hebras could drink clear water. The cool lake swirled around my ankles, sending tingles up my legs after the long, hot run-and-scramble to get here.

  Alicia smiled at Joseph, standing as close to him as possible while managing two hebras at a time, but none of us had a free hand and the two of them didn’t touch. Even so, I felt energy between them that I was no part of.

  We brought the last animals back and started taking lunch, as finger food, from a tray Kayleen and Paloma had arranged artfully. Tom glanced at Joseph. “I replaced the node. Had to dig the spike out of the ground—it had been stuck up in some rocks and must have fallen in the earthquake. The old one was smashed. You can help calibrate the new one after lunch if you’d like to.”

  Joseph took a bite of djuri and said, “It’s done.”

  Tom cocked an eyebrow at him. “Already?”

  Joseph grinned proudly. “I sensed it as soon as it came up, about five minutes after you put it in. I tweaked it. It’s operating fine.”

  Tom’s expression said he didn’t want to believe Joseph. He bit into a dried tomato, chewing thoughtfully. “Do you mean it’s on, or it’s talking to all the other nodes, or what?”

  Before Joseph had time to answer, Tom tapped his ear to indicate a call on his earset. “Hello?” He listened for a moment, then said, “Yes, Joseph fixed it.” He paused. “Good to hear.” He glanced at Joseph and gave him a thumbs-up. “Yes, we’re fine.”

  I waved to get his attention. “Tom?”

  He said, “Hold on,” looking at me.

  “Can I talk to Bryan?”

  Tom’s eyes flashed alarm as if my request disturbed him. He spoke carefully into the earset. “Chelo would like to talk to Bryan. Is that possible?”

  He listened for a moment, and then hung up. He didn’t look at me as he said, “He’s not available.”

  It would be a workday in Artistos. Surely that was what they meant, although I didn’t like what I’d seen cross Tom’s eyes, however briefly. “Maybe later?” I asked.

  He was silent for a moment, looking out over the lake. “I’ll see what I can do.” He switched subjects. “Nava says you did a great job on the node; it’s clearer than it was before the quake. Apparently they all are. Nava said our equipment can’t calibrate so finely. What changed?”

  It was Joseph’s turn to look away. “I feel stronger than before. That’s all. I can do more, faster.” He glanced briefly at Alicia, blushing a little. “Maybe I just grew up some.”

  Tom chewed on his lower lip, still looking unhappy. “Maybe you did,” he mumbled.

  Alicia sighed exaggeratedly. “Isn’t fixing stuff what he got sent out here to do? I don’t understand you at all.”

  Paloma put a hand on Alicia’s arm. “Yes, it is. Tom’s just tired.”

  Tom took a piece of djuri and held it up. “You caught this. You or your sister. And you’re doing more for us than you ever have, better. I…wanted you to succeed. You kids have done well in a difficult situation. But…heck…” He lowered his hand and his eyes, looking at the blanket in front of him. “Maybe I’m jealous. Maybe I’m not sure what the people in Artistos will think if you do too well.” He glanced at Alicia. “This is hard for us, too.” He returned his gaze to Joseph, who looked right back at him. “It will help to have the nodes working right, make this winter easier. Just be sure that whatever you do is for the colony. That’s all I ask.”

  Paloma took her hand away from Alicia’s arm, twisting to gaze directly into her eyes. They contrasted neatly; a tall blond woman with straight hair and soft eyes and an even taller dark-haired girl with flyaway hair and hard eyes. As thin as Paloma was, she looked rounded compared to Alicia. When she spoke, her voice was soft, pitched barel
y loud enough for the rest of us to hear. “Alicia…this is hard for you. It’s not fair for us, either. It’s just how it is, and we all have to figure out how to manage.” She glanced over at Kayleen. “Kayleen has brought me more joy than any other human being, been a daughter to me. And yet she’s always been in danger, and now, now you are all so old we can no longer protect you. And you may be in more danger than ever before.”

  Paloma’s comment went with the fear I’d seen in Tom’s eyes. “What’s going on back in Artistos?” I asked.

  Tom and Paloma both avoided my eyes.

  “Tell me,” I insisted.

  Paloma said, “Bryan got in a fight.”

  My stomach felt instantly weak, and I saw Bryan’s face when I told him good-bye, remembered the anger that was always in him. But he wouldn’t have started anything. He’d promised me. “Is he safe?”

  “He’s all right,” Tom said.

  Why didn’t they tell us before? I stiffened. “When, and how? With who?”

  “Just after we left. We didn’t want to stop Joseph’s healing, didn’t want you to want to go back home. There’s nothing you could do anyway.” Tom shifted uncomfortably, looking at his hands. “He’s locked up.”

  We were two days away from home if we kept a hard pace. Paloma’s ankle wouldn’t take that. Anger and fear crept into my voice even though I tried not to feel them. “Someone must have started it. Not Bryan. He would never start a fight.”

  Paloma whispered softly. “I told Nava that he wouldn’t have started it.” She surely knew about our periodic arguments with some of the other young people from Kayleen.