by Greg Bear
Rosa stepped from a side corridor, Jeanette Snap Dragon close behind. They blocked Erin and Martin’s way. “We need to talk to Martin,” Jeanette said.
Erin stepped aside. “Don’t take too long. I’m going to show off the costumes.”
“For a masquerade?” Rosa asked caustically. She looked if anything even more exhausted than Hans.
“You should leave,” Jeanette said pointedly to Erin. Erin looked to Martin.
“If she wants, she can stay,” Martin said.
“This is a private audience,” Jeanette said.
“Who’s giving the audience?” Martin asked.
“I thought you might have some promise,” Rosa said. “Now I have my doubts. Let her stay, men. Word will get around faster.” Rosa turned her full attention on Martin. “There’s a separate crew forming. We’re choosing a new Pan.”
Martin folded his arms, too tired to express much surprise. “Oh?”
“I’m inviting you to join the crew. Some have said you’d be an asset.”
“I said you would,” Jeanette added, as if defying him to disappoint her.
“What good is a separate crew?”
“The ship is splitting,” Rosa said. “Those who go with me have their freedom, Those who go with Hans… That’s up to them. Will you join us?”
“We’re dividing in three to perform a mission,” Martin said. “There’s no plan to let you or anybody take a ship.”
“We’ve voted to split,” Jeanette said, face flushed, left hand quivering. “You shouldn’t stop us. Hans shouldn’t. It would only prove how much freedom we’ve lost.”
“I have concluded that Leviathan is innocent. We’re in the wrong place,” Rosa said.
“You’ve been told?” Martin asked without sarcasm.
“I’ve been told,” Rosa said. Erin lifted her eyes and tilted her head to one side.
“Let’s talk with Hans about it,” Martin suggested.
“Hans is our enemy,” Jeanette said. “He’s—”
“Please,” Rosa said, touching her arm. “Nobody’s our enemy.”
“How many agree with you?” Martin asked.
“Enough to make a difference,” Rosa said.
“I’ll meet with your people, then,” Martin said.
“Without telling Hans?” Jeanette asked.
Rosa watched him closely, expression taut but not agitated.
“Without telling Hans. Erin, I’ll see the costumes a little later.”
Erin nodded and marched off.
“This is strictly between you and me,” Martin called to her.
“Of course,” Erin said. “Your secret.”
“I’ll call the people,” Jeanette said.
“Do that,” Rosa said. Jeanette ran down the corridor, vanished around a corner. “Hans taught me that extremes accomplish nothing. If I receive privileged information, I’m not about to give it to just anybody.”
“Good,” Martin said.
“You needed my words once, didn’t you?” Rosa asked.
Martin saw no reason to lie. “They were attractive.”
“But Hans’ influence soured you. You thought I supported him and his plans, that he had co-opted me.”
“It seemed that way.”
“It wasn’t that way. Hans took what he wanted from me, and I learned what I needed to learn. I must say, I miss the innocence of those first few weeks, when I could behave as the word took me.”
“The word of God,” Martin said.
Rosa shrugged. “Something speaks to me. Call it God if you need a name. For me, it’s just a very powerful friend to all of us. We live in confusion… It clears away the confusion.”
Jeanette returned. “We’re meeting now,” she said.
Rosa had made new quarters for herself on the perimeter of the ship’s second homeball.
Fifteen Wendys and five Lost Boys had gathered among the flowers. Rex Live Oak squatted on the floor next to a potted rosebush, glancing at Martin, turning away after a brief staring contest. The air thickened with an unpleasant mix of flower scent and stress.
Rosa took the center of the room.
“I’ve brought Martin here to explain our position,” she said. “We are not planning a mutiny. We are simply asking to be allowed to go our own way. We opt out of the Law.”
How can they? Don’t they feel it, the dying Earth, hear it in their blood and flesh?
“We’d hate to lose so many of you,” Martin said. “I’m willing to listen, though.”
“The aliens who have joined us are not acceptable,” Rosa said. “They don’t like us, and frankly, most of us don’t feel comfortable with them.”
“We’re working with them,” Martin said. “We’re getting along pretty well, I think. Most of us.” He looked at Rex, but Rex did not meet the challenge.
“I have been told their work does not fit with our own,” Rosa said. “They have a different moral standard.”
“If anything, their moral standard seems a little higher than our own, from what I’ve seen,” Martin said.
“It is different, and that’s sufficient. I have been told that it is not right to mix our destiny with the destinies of those not human.”
So what is it, an abomination in the eyes of the Lord? That was Theodore Dawn talking in his head, tone bitter, voice nasal, a caricature of all that Theodore had hated.
“I don’t see that at all,” Martin said.
“I have been told, and for us, that’s enough,” Rosa said.
He conceded that for the moment. “We can’t spare you. If you leave, we might not get the Job done.”
“The Job is merely vengeance, and I have been told the races of Leviathan are innocent.”
“I wish I had your sources,” Martin said, trying to smile without showing his exasperation.
“You do,” Rosa said, nodding. “I tell you.”
“Does anybody else hear what Rosa hears?” Martin asked.
Five Wendys and two Lost Boys, Rex included, raised their hands. Jeanette said, “I don’t hear the words myself, but I see the truth.”
Others agreed with Jeanette.
“We won’t punish the innocent,” Rosa said. “Revenge is the straight road to spirit death. We cannot carry out the Law if the Law is cruel and wrong.”
Martin could not think of a wise and circumspect method of dealing with Rosa now. “You’ve done this before,” he began, conflicting impulses making the words thick in his mouth. He swallowed and held out his hands as if he might grab someone’s neck. “Rosa, there’s real danger here. You could tear this crew apart. You say you’re talking to God—”
“I never said that,” Rosa interrupted.
“You say you have direct access to the truth. That makes you… what, the fount of all knowledge, we have to come to you to be told what to do?”
“Better me than Hans,” Rosa said.
“You want to take away everything we’ve worked for, everything we’ve devoted our lives to—”
“If it’s wrong, it’s wrong.”
“But where’s your evidence, Rosa? Divine authority?”
“That’s enough for us,” Jeanette said. “It makes more sense than you do.”
“Are you all willing to throw in with… divine authority? Hand everything, your grief and your… will power, your self-respect, everything, to Rosa!”
Kai Khosrau said, “We’re tired, Martin. Revenge is useless.”
“Revenge against the innocent is evil,” Jacob Dead Sea said. Attila Carpathia, Terry Loblolly, Alexis Baikal, and Drusilla Norway all nodded, looked to each other for support and confirmation, some with expressions of beatific obedience, human sheep having given up their higher selves.
Rosa had eaten them.
She had once come close to eating Martin. He shivered and wondered what would have happened had he tipped, had he undergone a conversion to Rosa’s faith; would he be with them now, working to undermine the Job, to protest the enactment of the Law?
“We’ve judged already,” Rosa said. “We will not abide by what others say.”
“We can’t afford to lose you,” Martin said, realizing that he would lose this confrontation; that Rosa for the time being was stronger.
“You’ve lost us already,” Kai Khosrau said. “What can you do about it—lock us up?”
“Lock us all up,” Rex said. “At least you’ll keep us away from the Brothers.”
“None of us will have contact with the Brothers,” Rosa said. “There will be—”
“What is this, a list of demands?” Martin asked.
“You listen to her,” Rex said in his most threatening tone. Rosa lifted her hand.
“A list of facts,” she said quietly, firmly. “We are autonomous now. We make our own rules. We will live apart, and have no contact with the Brothers. There are places in this ship where we can live apart, without hindering anybody.”
“You won’t prevent others from coming to us,” Jeanette said.
“Anyone who needs to join us must be free to do so,” Rosa said.
“No Brothers,” Rex said. “We stick with each other.” Kai Khosrau nodded.
“The family is dissolved,” Rosa said. “Our new family is born.”
Martin reported to Hans alone in his quarters. The vases and dead flowers had been removed, as well as the second pad. Hans lay in his net, arms behind his head, eyes closed tightly, wrinkles forming at their corners. “She’s got me in check,” he said gloomily. “I’m open to suggestions. Everything I’ve done this far has turned to shit. We don’t have time to set up a tribunal. We split tomorrow—and who’s going to take them? Kai had volunteered to go on the Trojan Horse.”
“And Terry Loblolly,” Martin added.
“We can get two to replace them, easily enough,” Hans said.
“They won’t work with me Brothers. They have to be isolated,” Martin said.
Hans looked at Martin with an expression Martin might once have characterized as shrewd, but now realized was defensive. Hans could not look frightened; it was not in his repertoire, hadn’t been since he was a child, since Earth’s death perhaps. What that took from all of us; bits of ourselves, our flexibility, our nature.
“I could resign,” Hans said. “I wish I could.”
“Jeanette would suggest that Rosa take your place,” Martin said.
“Then she could deal with herself. What would the moms do, I wonder? I mean, if we just stood down and refused to enact the Law. Would they drop us into space for being cowards?”
Martin didn’t answer.
“Is this what happened to the death ship? They just ate themselves up, no fight left for the enemy? Jesus, I didn’t expect this.”
The narrowed eyes, the shrewd expression; not just defensiveness, Martin saw. Hans seemed expectant.
“Whatever happens, it will have to be fast,” Hans said.
“You’re Pan,” Martin said.
Hans looked up at Martin and pulled himself from the net. “You’re telling me Pans do what they must,” he said. “I’m telling you, I’m open to suggestions.”
Paralysis.
“If you give up, Rosa wins.”
“Be a lot easier just to rush into her motherly arms, wouldn’t it?” Hans said, crossing his legs and flopping back on the pad. “Let it all go. Slick the Job. Slick the Law. Just grab for whatever youth we have left. Gott mit uns.” Hans gave him a fey smile. “You think I’m pretty ignorant, don’t you? Not nearly as well-read as you or Erin or Jennifer or Giacomo. But I’ve studied my share of history. Frankly, it’s depressing as all hell, Martin. Just one long series of blunders and recoveries from blunders. Blindness and death. Now it’s on a universal scale.”
“You’ve done some startling things since you’ve been Pan,” Martin said. “I know you’re not stupid.”
“That’s some satisfaction. Truth is, I feel I march in your shadow. The crew judges me against your standard. That’s why I asked you to be second when Rex wasn’t making the grade. So it’s good to know I can still surprise you.”
Martin shook his head. “We’re still not solving our problem,” he said.
“Time wounds all heels,” Hans said, his tone suddenly light. “One step at a time, am I right?”
“None of the planets around Leviathan seem affected by the explosion of Wormwood,” Giacomo said, “but if Trojan Horse doesn’t show some damage, I think they’ll have reason to be suspicious. We’ll come in broadcasting a distress signal.”
“On radio?” Hans asked.
“Why not?” Giacomo said. “We’re innocents, unseasoned voyagers, right?”
Hans grinned and acknowledged that much. “Will we use the noach to talk to each other?”
Giacomo looked to Jennifer, then to Martin. “I don’t see why not. Secretly, of course.”
“Noach can’t be detected between transmitter and receiver. No channel, right?” Jennifer said.
“The ships should be close enough part of the time,” Martin said.
Giacomo projected the orbits of the three vessels. “Shrike will be out of touch with Trojan Horse, beyond the ten-billion-kilometer range, for about four tendays, just when Trojan Horse goes into orbit around the green world. Greyhound and Trojan Horse will be out of touch for about a month, unless we arrange for a remote to act as relay.”
“That can be arranged,” Hakim said. “But it increases our chances of being detected.”
“Otherwise, no transmissions of any kind. Complete silence.”
Paola stepped forward at Martin’s encouragement. She looked nervously between him and Hans. “Paola has the crew assignments,” Martin said.
Paola projected the roster for each vehicle. “Twice Grown and I worked through our crew lists and picked out the best combinations. Where we couldn’t decide, we did a kind of lottery. The list is subject to approval by Hans and Stonemaker, of course.”
“Rosa and her group?” Hans asked.
“I’ve put them on inactive within Greyhound,” Paola said. “I talked with Rosa. She didn’t agree or disagree.”
Hans shook his head. “We’re treating her like another head of state.”
“I couldn’t think of anything else to do,” Paola said tremulously.
Hans crinkled his face in irritation. “Forget it. Not your fault. I just don’t like her thinking she has any say in what we do. She and her group go where we put her, that’s it. We may need to put together a little police force if they try civil disobedience.”
Brief silence.
“Who’s on the pleasure cruise?” Martin asked, hoping to distract them from the unpleasantness.
Paola projected the list.
Ten humans and ten Brothers had been assigned to Trojan Horse: Martin, Ariel, Paola, Hakim, Cham, Erin, George Dempsey, Donna Emerald Sea, Andrew Jaguar, and Jennifer. Twice Grown, Eye on Sky, Dry Skin/Norman, Silken Parts, Green Cord, Double Twist, Many Smells, Sharp Seeing, Strong Cord, and Scoots Fast were on the Brothers’ list.
Hans would be on Greyhound, Stonemaker on Shrike. The preponderance of humans would be on Greyhound with Hans; Brothers, on Shrike. Paola projected these lists as well.
“I approve, for now,” Hans said after running his fingers down the names as they hung in the air. “I’ll need time to think about it. Everybody out. Martin, you stay.”
After the others had left, they went over the list name by name. Hans voiced his concerns about suitability; Martin tried to answer as best he could.
“You and Cham on the same ship—two past Pans. Can you work with each other?”
“I’ve had nothing but support from Cham,” Martin said.
“Can you all work with Eye on Sky?”
“The Brothers aren’t hard to get along with,” Martin said. “You know that.”
“Pardon my nerves. Ariel?”
Martin cocked his head to one si
de. “She’s changed.”
“I’ve noticed. She’s gone sugar on you, Martin.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“You should take advantage. She’s smart, a good fighter, she has a strong instinct for survival. You could do worse. You slicked Paola once, I hear…”
Martin tried to keep his expression passive. Hans smiled as if scoring a point.
“Paola’s not for you, believe me.”
“I never thought she was. We comforted each other.”
Hans pushed his lips out. “Right,” he said. “If I were you—and I won’t repeat this again—I’d take up with Ariel, even if she did shovel you shit when you were Pan.”
Martin looked away stonily.
“All right. Sometimes you’re a stubborn bastard, but that’s okay. Anybody here you think will give you trouble?”
“No,” Martin said.
“Then it’s on.”
Hans’ wand chimed. Erin urgently asked to be let in. Hans casually motioned for the door to open and she entered, Ariel and Kai Khosrau behind her.
“Rosa’s dead,” Erin said, gasping for breath. “We found her body in her room just a few minutes ago.”
“You killed her,” Kai said, pointing to Hans, then to Martin. “You killed her!”
“How did she die?” Hans asked. He sat up on the pad and got to his feet.
“She was clubbed to death,” Kai said. “You clubbed her to death!”
“Shut up,” Ariel said. “Martin, she was beaten.”
“How long ago?”
“Less than an hour,” Erin said. “There’s…” She turned away and choked.
“The blood isn’t dry yet,” Ariel said.
“Who found her?” Martin asked.
“I did,” Kai said in a child’s voice, eyes glassy, in shock.
“Who else knows?” Hans asked.
“I have to tell the others.” Kai stepped uncertainly to the open door.
“Hold it,” Hans said. “We’ll all go look. Nobody tells anybody until we’ve seen what happened. Kai, stick with us.”
Kai stared at Hans. “You think I killed her? You slicking insect.”
“Stop it, stop it!” Erin cried, head still bowed. Her body trembled as she tried to control her nausea.
“Martin, we should get a mom. Now,” Ariel said.
Martin called on his wand and asked for a mom to meet them in Rosa’s room.