The Rowan

by Anne McCaffrey

  The female of the species has always been more deadly than the male, Reidinger, the Rowan replied, though she couldn’t remember where she’d heard that maxim. It didn’t have the same ring as one of Siglen’s.

  Defending its young. I suppose even beetles can have maternal imperatives! If it IS the same blasted beetles. His grumbling tone faded from her mind.

  As the Rowan turned back to some minor domestic chores – ’porting fresh water from a Welsh artesian well for the Callisto cisterns, the weekly supply of comestibles and special household orders of those who lived on the Station – she waited with half a mind open for Jeff’s progress report.

  We’re beyond Deneb’s helipause by two AUs, he said. I brought the squadron out myself. Fine Captain, excellent crew, he added with a mental picture of the ZAMBIA’s bridge and the exceedingly handsome woman occupying the Captain’s chair. The officers seated at consoles were all reasonably young and attractive, too. Picked less for pulchritude and more for vestiges of Talent. You have no competition, my love!

  I won’t dignify that with a reply.

  Then shall I be magnanimous and say they confirm your perceptions about the approaching vessel? Not all the crew’s female but those who are have exhibited the same symptoms Isthia reports en masse on Deneb. I’m feeling distinctly left out of all this and I’m supposed to be highly perceptive!

  Be glad you don’t pick up on the aura, Jeff! You can really call it evil, or even truly malicious, but it emanates an intensity – an anticipation of destruction – that is frightening. If I were a barquecat, every hair on my body would be standing stark out. And don’t call the phenomenon ‘it’. Mauli echoed a ‘many’ – a many which will not be diverted from their purpose.

  Exactly how Captain Lodjyn summed up her impression of the intent of this Many. And they’re unequivocably headed toward Deneb. I may be slightly paranoid about what happens to my planet, but I really can’t quite make myself believe the vessel is going through Denebian space for a shortcut when Deneb VIII will just happen to be in their way. What I can’t understand is how they will avoid impaction at the speed they’re going. It takes time to decelerate from the speed at which they’re now traveling. Or maybe beetles stand multi-gravities better than us fleshy sorts?

  Rowan, sensing suspicious peripherals from Jeff’s mind: Just what are you doing right now?

  Taking a look. Too much ‘noise’ on the ZAMBIA.

  She didn’t like the thought of him in a vulnerable personal capsule, far from the nebulous safety of a multiweaponed scout vessel. You should have taken the Captain with you. You won’t hear a thing.

  I did and Mauli’s along. And we’re in the Captain’s gig. I’ve some sense for a mere man, my love.

  You reassure me no end!

  Jeff’s tone turned wry. I thought this would, cariad. Mauli’s echo is going to come in real useful.

  Like never before!

  He was silent though his mind kept contact. So, putting everyone on the Station on a Yellow Alert status, she left the Tower, with Afra, Mick, and Ackerman in charge, to attend to her son. It was soothing to feed Jeran his lunch before settling him down for a nap. Most of the time she did not have to reinforce his natural rhythm with a mental suggestion, but he had been a little off normal schedule since the Deneb ’portation so she gave him a nudge. She gazed down at him for a long moment – he was endlessly enchanting. Then she stretched out on her bed, one arm flung across the side which Jeff usually occupied, and relaxed, clearing her mind.

  WOW! The awe in Jeff’s voice was sufficient to rouse her totally from the light doze she had entered.

  Mauli’s reaction was less awed and considerably more fearful.

  Jeff: We seem to have a lumpy-surfaced oval planetoid rolling towards us at speeds which make even gestalt-assisted movements seem crawler-paced. It is currently twenty AUs out but closing faster’n I like. That defense ring which Fleet is so proud of is going to be no use against a vessel this size. More like a flea trying to swat one of those large men Procyon breeds. Easy, Mauli. I don’t care what instrumentation it might have, it can’t see us. We’re less than a mote. You may feel it, but if it had sensed us, we’d really be motes.

  The Rowan, briefly touching Mauli’s panicked mind to reassure the girl, heard Jeff’s chuckle.

  This may only be a captain’s gig but it’s scanner’s the best so Fleet’ll have the printout as confirmation. I’m getting no readings on mass or composition. Scanner says ‘no accurate assessment possible at this distance’. That’s a lot of comfort. Tut-tut! And it’s running dark. Ignoring the basic laws of spacemanship! That seems to be upsetting the Fleet more than its size. No, that’s a cover for the pure funk even admirals are feeling over my evaluation. They’re making contradictory preliminary assessments, demanding that I increase the resolution. I did: it’s on the max right now. What do they think I’ve got on this skiff? A portable sun for illumination?

  The Rowan refined the contact with Jeff sufficiently to see, through his optics, what he and Mauli were viewing on the skiff’s scanners: a darkness that flowed across the backdrop of stars. Quite a Leviathan, isn’t it? I understand why adrenaline is pumping through your veins.

  Leviathan? An interesting choice of phrase, my love.

  Jeff Raven, if you go in any closer to that … that menace, I’ll kill you, she added, abruptly seized by a gut-generated terror.

  Jeff chuckled. That’ll teach me a lesson. Rest easy, cariad, I’m as close as I care to get, and closer than Mauli or the good Captain Lodjyn think wise.

  Do they hear anything useful?

  Well, Mauli does and she doesn’t. She’s let me merge and I can sense great industry and bustle, orderly activity, and some areas with no sound at all. I think the damned planetoid was once just that and has been hollowed out for its travels. Mauli’s picking up a lot more than I am: six or more different mental entities. His tone became attenuated as he spoke to her privately. Mauli’s in a muck sweat of terror from the level of ‘dedication’ … purpose is too weak a word … that she perceives. I’m taking us back before the poor kid dissolves. Even the Captain’s sweating and throwing out fear phenomes.

  Rowan: When Deneb was attacked, the merge didn’t sense any great dedication, purpose, or intelligence from the occupants of those vessels.

  Jeff: You’re assuming that the ship we deported from our system went scurrying back to this big Mama?

  Rowan: Why not? You thought then that they were softening Deneb up for an invasion. Why couldn’t they have been preparing the planet for the arrival of what’s bearing down on Deneb now?

  Jeff: And the ‘mother’ ship is why only females sense its intent?

  Rowan: Don’t you dare snicker!

  Jeff: Believe me, dear heart, whatever reservations I might have privately entertained at the outset are null and void. We are in big trouble and I thank all the Powers of Balance for my mother’s long ear! As it is, we’re going to have to plan our campaign against that Leviathan very carefully. That’s the hard place, and Deneb’s the rock and we – Mankind – are between it. There was a brief pause. And so I’ve just informed Earth Prime! This time he also has no reservations. In the second pause, Jeff chuckled wryly. However the League may well just argue us all to our deaths. Would you believe it? They are now debating the ethical point of whether we have the right to interfere with the approaching vessel simply on the grounds that it might – get that, might – have hostile intentions?

  Rowan, aghast: You can’t mean it?

  Jeff, sardonically: Now just how do we prove hostile intent? They haven’t launched any missiles – yet – that I can lob at Earth and scare the doubters.

  Afra: You said Leviathan is clearly on a course to Deneb, did you not?

  Jeff: Yes, Afra, I did and the squadron’s computers all confirm that. Unless this Leviathan decelerates when it reaches Deneb’s system, present calculations confirm that it will smash right into Deneb VIII. Captain Lodjyn is extrapolating the repe
rcussions of such a collision.

  Reidinger: It will NOT come to that! Talent does not bust its balls for the Nine-Star League to have them disregard a considered warning of imminent invasion of a possibly hostile force of unknown potential.

  Jeff: And what have you in mind, Earth Prime?

  Reidinger: I am in conference with the Nine-Star League Councillors and you may rest assured that they will be persuaded to act, not argue. Ah, good! My first order from the Councillors is to dispatch the flagship Beijing to the Denebian system. It will deploy one-half AU beyond Deneb’s helipause, the Welcome and Identify modules which were so successful with the Antarians sentients not dissimilar to the beetle-type species of the first assault.

  Rowan, exasperated: Of all the stupid face-saving ploys! Haven’t we TOLD you that the main sentience of this vessel is motivated by destruction, the annihilation of Deneb VIII?

  Reidinger: Oh, I agree with your evaluation, Angharad. I am further ordered to dispatch the Moscow, the London, and the Newyork to redeploy defensive mines one-half AU inside the heliopause.

  Jeff: Bluebells all in a row?

  Reidinger: Under the premise that a warning shot across the bows ought to be universally understood.

  The Rowan snorted.

  Jeff: Remind the captains of those vessels to get the hell out of the way before that thing gets within fifty-thousand klicks of the space mines.

  Reidinger: Now we wait!

  Rowan and Jeff in simultaneously expressed disgust: Wait?

  Reidinger: Wait! That’s the trouble with you youngsters. You don’t know when to bide your time.

  Jeff: Not when it’s my planet that’s the target.

  Reidinger: It was before and you were rescued. However, in addition to my official instructions, and Reidinger paused significantly, I have sent out a discreet alert to all Primes and Talent above grade 4, regardless of their discipline. Does that precaution reassure you?

  Jeff, diffidently: Not exactly, for I fail to see what Talent will be able to do against that Leviathan!

  Rowan: Alert for what action?

  Reidinger, malicious chuckle: I thought you’d grasp the essentials more quickly. Mull it all over, will you, while we’re waiting. And, in this interval, Jeff, I want you to proceed to Deneb. Angharad, please join him there but I would request that your son remains on Callisto.

  Jeff: Now, wait a minute …

  Rowan, beginning to catch a glimmer of what Reidinger held so tightly in his most private mind: No, Jeff. I should be on Deneb to augment Isthia. Then as soon as we know … and Jeran is safer away from the furor. It could overload him. And Reidinger most certainly doesn’t want that, do you, Peter?

  Reidinger in a growl: No!

  The Rowan did not like leaving Jeran behind: She would miss him keenly but, between the other women on the Station and Afra, he would be lovingly supervised. So she settled in her capsule and calmly waited for the generators to hit the proper revolutions before she, with Afra and Mick assisting, ’ported to Deneb. When she entered the Denebian Tower, she noticed the signs of stress in the faces of those who had maintained the Watch.

  ‘If we swallow any more sedatives, we won’t be able to hear a damned thing,’ Isthia said bleakly. However, as she gave the Rowan a quick embrace of welcome, her incredible energy seemed undiminished, bright red and tangy. ‘There’s a bottom to the well and a long dry period if I dip in too often. But those things will NOT have my planet.’ The red of her deepened.

  ‘What does Besseva say now?’ the Rowan asked, missing the clairvoyant from those on duty.

  Isthia gave a diffident shrug. ‘She’s gone into a deep trance, trying to penetrate the shell of that – what did Jeff say you named it? Leviathan—’ she went on when the Rowan put the word in her mind, ‘to see what’s inside. It’s damnably frustrating to have an unknown assailant.’

  ‘The Councillors wish to believe that they may not be hostile,’ the Rowan said in a saccharine tone of voice.

  Isthia was not the only one in the Tower to have a poor opinion of that belief. Then the Rowan took a spare couch and joined the minds merged on the approaching vessel. It had shortened the distance to heliopause considerably.

  Jeff: Get set to catch me, will you, loves?

  Isthia, privately: He must be tired if he’s asking us for help.

  Rowan: All right, then, my fine lad, into the cradle you go!

  Jeff’s step had none of its usual spring as he entered the Tower and dropped into the nearest chair. Before Isthia could motion to one of the girls, the Rowan had obtained a glass of stimulant and, placing it in his hand, laid both of hers on his temples, transferring energy to him. Closing his eyes, he accepted her gift, a loving smile turning up the corners of his mouth. You always know what I need, dear heart! My profound gratitude. I’ll return the gift on demand.

  ‘How long before we get some action?’ Isthia asked in a gruff voice.

  Jeff shrugged. ‘The Fleet wants to make its war-game moves. They believe in their invincibility. I do not.’

  Rowan: Could a focus protect them? Leviathan may have weaponry we can’t perceive.

  Jeff: Not over the area of space where they’ve deployed, and it’d be damned bad tactics to group them together where we might possibly be able to shield them. He gave a mirthless laugh. The Councillors are certain that Leviathan will respond reasonably to the Welcome and Identify modules. The Fleet are not so naïve as to consider that likely. However, the good Admirals are confident that Leviathan will react to the presence of the mines. Once Leviathan has demonstrated its weaponry against the mines, they will know how to defend us againt it.

  Rowan: There are women Councillors …

  Jeff: None with much more than an empathetical Talent and your report has frightened them from even the most discreet of direct contact. The W & I modules were only deployed to pacify the nonaggressive element in the Council.

  Rowan: What if Leviathan is duplicitous?

  Jeff laughed. What? Do you mean they’d respond sweetly to the Welcome and Identify and then launch missiles once we let them advance ‘in peace?’

  Isthia, consideringly: The Many is definitely not as devious as that. Single-minded is what those things are! The Many all thinking along the same line. Destroying what is in the way of their objective.

  The other women in the Watch concurred immediately.

  Isthia: And where is Mauli?

  Jeff: Resting. Which she needed, and an example that I should follow. Now, while I have the time.

  Jeff was back in the Tower when the first Welcome message was ignored. There were ten in the string, each comprising sounds, signals, and signs that were thought to have universal significance. He hauled Rowan and Isthia away from what he called ‘their compulsive watching’. He made them both sleep in the way that they had once forced him to rest and ignored their protests when they awoke.

  ‘My squadron has taken up positions behind Deneb’s moons,’ he told his mother and his wife as he watched them consume the hearty meal he had prepared for them. ‘It gives them a psychological sense of security!’ He grinned. ‘Even the male complement on board all three destroyers are believers now! And Leviathan has passed into the Denebian system proper, closing fast on the minefield.’ He rubbed his hands together, his blue eyes sparkling with anticipation.

  Isthia regarded the Rowan drolly. ‘They’re all alike!’

  ‘I beg to differ, Isthia,’ the Rowan replied with great dignity, ‘this one has a few redeeming features.’

  ‘Yes, he has learned a thing or two from us, hasn’t he? And I don’t mean cooking.’

  ‘Why didn’t you think to arrange a sleeping facility here, Mother?’ Jeff asked as they ’ported back to the Tower. The watch was just changing, but the outgoing crew showed no signs of dispersing to their homes.

  Besseva: What is really needed is enough seating for those who don’t wish to miss the action shortly to begin.

  Isthia: Oh, is that all? Stacked metal c
hairs arrived on the landing. Need more?

  Rakella answered this time: About a dozen more, cups, and say a case of a caffeine beverage and several of fruit juices. It’s going to be exciting and we’ll need to keep blood sugar levels up.

  As well, the Rowan thought, entering the building, that the west section was empty of equipment for it shortly became a spectators’ gallery. They were quiet and their presence supportive. Jeff sat at the console where screens linked up the three reconnaissance ships and two of the closer dreadnoughts, the Moscow and the London.

  Once she was settled in her couch, the Rowan nodded to Isthia and the two women, their minds strengthened by the gestalt, reached out into space. Unerringly now they perceived the intruder. It had reached the last of the Welcome devices.

  Isthia: Well, that’s that.

  Rakella, tentatively: Maybe they just didn’t understand any of the programs.

  Isthia: That’s immaterial. A pointed attempt to make communications deserves the courtesy of some response.

  Rowan: So much for the pacifist Councillors’ good intentions.

  Reidinger, gently insinuating an ironic voice in both minds: It was worth a try, wasn’t it?

  Isthia, giving a mental shudder: I suppose it salves conscience and looks good on the record.

  Reidinger: There was rather a large segment of our populations that bet that the intruder would shoot the devices up.

  Jeff: Thereby establishing a clearly hostile intent!

  Isthia: I keep telling you that hostile intent has already been unequivocably established! Those beings are really alien.

  Jeff: Who’s taking bets about their firing on the mines? Whoops! I never laid any credit on that bet!

  In the next few moments the screens were hectic with reports from the dreadnoughts and the smaller courier ships. The seeded mines were being demolished but not by Leviathan. Scanners now registered the appearance of mobile units, originating from Leviathan and speeding toward the mines.