by Kate Elliott
“I have done my part,” said Robbie, taking the dish she handed him. “I have delivered Arcadia to Jehane with the least possible violence. Councils of war are not a place where I have any expertise.”
“But for all you did,” Lily insisted. “I’d think you at least deserved a place there, whether or not you spoke.”
Robbie regarded her solemnly. “Lya, I did not work all these years for some material reward that will prove as fleeting as the day is short in winter. I worked for the people.”
Lily laughed. “Hoy. You’re the only person I know who can say that with such perfect sincerity that I believe it.”
He narrowed his eyes, puzzled. “Have you grown so cynical in so short a time?” he asked, sounding almost pained. “I hadn’t thought to see that quality emerge in you.”
“Cynical?” She rested her elbows on the flat edge of the opaque plastine sink. “I hope not cynical. That’s a rather ugly philosophy. But clear eyed, I hope, enough to distinguish sincerity from the trappings of altruism that often disguise purely selfish interests.”
“The ability to read the human heart without error is a talent that not even I can claim,” said Robbie with the briefest of smiles.
“No,” said Lily softly. “I’m not sure anyone can.”
“In any case,” continued Robbie with the unerring scent of a hound, “I believe we were not talking about the human heart, but about this Formula that Kyosti has discovered.”
Lily sighed again, realizing that she would not divert his attention so easily. And yet, it was right that Robbie be told. Behind them, Bach sat plugged into the apartment terminal, monitoring the various nets, official and unofficial, that had sprung up to accommodate the chaos on Arcadia. All transmissions into and out of Central had been blocked so thoroughly that not even Bach could access them.
“No,” she replied. “He didn’t discover it. Remember he’s from the League—”
“Yes. It’s still difficult for me to believe that the League exists, or at least that we can have been in contact with the home worlds at long last. But it seems also to me appropriate that Kyosti’s gift—for it is a gift, a gift for all humanity—to the citizens of the Reft springs out of the journey of a few intrepid explorers from the place that birthed us, come to find their lost children.”
“And stuck here when they couldn’t go back,” Lily murmured, but replied in a normal tone, “What I’m trying to explain, Robbie, and why I’m telling you, is that we have to make sure that everyone gets this gift. Not that it’s reserved for a privileged few, like the old drugs that only rich people like the Sars, or the Senators, can afford.”
“There.” Robbie lifted a hand as any orator does when the point returns to their favor. “As you say. The Hierakis Formula will be the crowning glory of Jehane’s triumph. He can see that it is disseminated to all the people, even to the meekest and the poorest and the most insignificant.”
“Even to the Ridanis?” she asked caustically.
“Of course to the Ridanis.”
“Even with the terrible prejudice there is against them?”
“But not in Jehane’s forces. He has decreed it so.”
“Decreeing it so doesn’t make it so. You know that.”
“Yes, but the example must begin somewhere. Then, like throwing a stone into a pond, the ripples begin to spread out until they have thrown waves up on every shore.”
“Oh, Robbie,” Lily said, exasperated. She handed him the last dish. “Remind me not to argue with you. You’re impossible.”
“Then you see the necessity of informing Jehane?”
“No, I don’t.” She considered. “Not yet. Let me talk to Kyosti first.”
“Lya.” He was stern, now. “This Formula is not some possession you own, to dispense at your will.”
She took her hands out of the water and turned to face him. “Would you tell Jehane even if I ask you not to?”
He bowed his head, raised it to gaze at her with the fierce honesty that invested his entire being. “Yes. This is too important.”
“I’ll see if I can reach Kyosti now.” She dried her hands off and went across to stand behind Bach. “The council won’t be out for a few hours, I hope,” she added to herself before whistling for Bach to get a channel to the Forlorn Hope with all haste.
All haste still took over half an hour, as it involved several illicit relays patched through planetwide nets and at least two satellites out to the perihelion orbit beyond Arcadia’s moon in which the Forlorn Hope and several smaller ships circled the planet. Most of the rest of the fleet, minus their ground mercenaries, had been sent out to patrol the outer system and the web of shifting windows that gave access to the rest of Reft space beyond.
Finch was on comm.
“No,” he said, his replies delayed by the distance. “Our mercenary tens have not been transferred downside. We’re the only ship that didn’t have ours sent. But we’re on a skeleton crew in any case, so it isn’t a strong complement. Why? Is the assault beginning?”
“Finch.” She rested a hand on Bach’s cool surface as she spoke into the terminal. “Please recall that despite the blocking, Central may be able to monitor this.”
“Oh.” A longer than usual pause. “I’ve got the com linked through to Medical. Do you want to go ahead?”
“Just one question, Finch.” She hesitated and glanced back at Robbie, but he was cleaning up the rest of the counter. “Have you—I mean you, personally—had any problem since Hawk came back on board?”
This time the pause was so long that Lily thought the connection had been cut. Finally Finch’s voice crackled back over the terminal. “Lily. I swear to you that that man is—maybe he’s not insane, but he’s not—normal. If you mean, has he tried to attack me, no, he hasn’t. But every time he comes into the same room I’m in, he insists on coming over and”—even though disembodied and strung out across uncounted hundreds of kilometers of atmosphere and empty space, the slight shake in Finch’s voice was discernable—“and putting a hand on me, touching me, like he’s proving something to me, or to himself. I don’t know. It’s weird, Ransome. I’m doing my best to avoid him.”
Lily had not realized that she was holding her breath. She let it out now. “Thank you, Finch,” she answered, aware that her voice also shook slightly as she spoke. “Thank you for—forgiving him.”
“Oh, certainly not.” Distance muted the sarcasm—a quality, she noted bitterly, that he had not possessed those years ago on Unruli. “Consider it my pleasure. I’ll put you through to Medical now.”
There was no identifiable shift as Kyosti’s voice superseded Finch’s. The change came so abruptly that for a startled instant Lily thought that Finch’s voice had suddenly been altered by some trick of comm.
“Lily? Is there a problem? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Hawk. But I need to talk to you about the Formula.”
“Is this line screened? Is it being monitored?”
“Kyosti. I told Robbie.”
A break in sequence as Kyosti took in this information. Robbie walked out of the small common room into the tinier sleeping chamber, and shut the door discreetly behind him.
“Lily.”
Another break. She could not tell from the single word whether he was furious, exasperated, or thrilled.
“Well, Lily. This limits our choices, I think.” The tone reminded her fleetingly of Master Heredes. “I suppose he wants to tell Jehane.”
“Of course. But considering where you and I are now, I thought it best to bring one more person in on the—facts.”
“Yes.” Static spit and hummed as he considered. “I wish I had gotten the opportunity to speak privately with you—under circumstances in which I could speak.” A pause while she—and perhaps he—considered the last circumstances under which they had been truly private.
“You’ve had a plan all along,” she broke in, scattering the static.
“Yes.” Another break. “We’ll
have to act fast. It’s time to bring in accomplices up here. We have no choice. I don’t trust many people, Lily—” He let the comment hang, without finishing the thought.
“Sometimes you have no alternative.”
“Damn,” he said, but she thought there was a smile in his tone. “I might even be surprised by their trustworthiness. When is Jehane’s council?”
“It’s going on now.”
“Why aren’t you there?”
“I wasn’t invited. Robbie wouldn’t go.”
“Lily, my heart, then we must really act fast, if you weren’t invited. I’m going to send Pinto down with a shipment and some instructions. Where can you meet him?”
She whistled. Bach, where is the nearest port? Watched as Bach pulled up a zoning map on the screen and flashed a location. “Merrimet Port.”
Crackle studded the quiet stillness of the apartment as Kyosti did calculations on his end of the transmission. “Meet him there in seven hours. Give me a berth number.”
“Hold on.” She whistled, and waited while Bach scrolled through Port records. “Berth One-five-two.” Behind, Robbie came back into the room. “I’m signing off, Kyosti. Acknowledge.”
“Be cautious, my heart,” he replied. “Accepted.”
The connection dissolved with a flare of static that dissolved in its turn into the soft hum of the terminal. Bach set to work to eradicate all evidence of the transmission.
Robbie had put on his overcoat. “I’m going to the council. Do you want to come with me? In good conscience I cannot keep this news from Jehane any longer. I’m sorry if that pains you.” He regarded her seriously, intent on her feelings and yet, she saw, always ready to disregard the individual for the sake of the whole.
“Oh, Robbie.” She shook her head, unable to fault him for the philosophy that drove his entire being. “I may argue with your choice, but I can’t fault your nobility of purpose. I want the Hierakis Formula to be distributed to everyone. You know that. But the fact is that I don’t trust Jehane to see that it is done.” And waited, because she had not wanted to say it.
Robbie blinked, uncomprehending, at her. “I don’t understand you.”
“That’s why you’re Pero,” she replied, feeling that now that she had set the machine in motion, the inevitable would come. “And yes, of course, I’ll come with you.”
Jehane’s people had taken over one of the rail hubs, built underground, as their headquarters. Even with identification, Lily and Robbie had to pass through two security checkpoints—at the second of which Lily was relieved of her pistol—before a small woman in Jehanish whites ushered them into an empty suite of offices outside the concourse that had been set up to serve as the council of war.
Through two sets of open doors they heard the chaotic murmur of many voices. Lily edged forward to look, but as if in response to her presence, Kuan-yin appeared in the far doorway like a fierce warden and, seeing Lily, leveled her intense and challenging gaze on the smaller woman. A moment later movement fluttered behind Kuan-yin. Several soldiers flooded the corridor, driving Kuan-yin before them until she came out into the suite and stared at Lily and Robbie as she took up a position at the far door.
Two people Lily did not recognize entered, followed by two fleet mercenary captains she knew by sight, and Jehane. The small woman who had ushered Lily and Robbie into the suite spoke in a low voice to Jehane as he halted.
He acknowledged Lily with a brief nod, but his attention focused on Robbie.
Pero came forward and with his usual neglect of ceremony he addressed Jehane without any formality but a brief shake of hands.
“Comrade. I have great news.” Pitched to suit the small chamber, Robbie’s clear voice filled it to the corners and ceiling without seeming strained or overloud. “A gift of incalculable value for the citizens of the Reft, one that, hand in hand with your restoration of a government for all people, will crown the glory of your triumph.”
Lily slowly edged backward, effacing herself, until she stood against one wall, as unobtrusive as possible.
“Comrade Pero.” Jehane glanced briefly at his wrist-com, but without seeming impatient, and glanced up once to check Kuan-yin’s position. “I am sorry that you did not choose to be present at this council. You know how highly I value you, and how important your work has been, but I wonder if the council would not have been a better platform for your news. We have made our decision, and now have little time in which to implement our plans.”
Robbie smiled humbly. “Comrade, I would never have interrupted you had I not thought the cause urgent. In any case, I only learned of it an hour since. Have you ever heard of the Hierakis Formula?”
The effect of these words on Jehane was electric. Although he did not look at her, Lily felt the full force of his awareness center on her for a brief and searingly uncomfortable moment that made her question seriously for the first time the wisdom of telling Robbie about the Formula. But to her astonishment, Jehane’s answer, when it came, was delivered in the mildest of tones.
“I have heard the term, yes, but I know neither its origin nor its meaning.”
Robbie’s face betrayed the simple pleasure he felt in being the bearer of such momentous tidings. He hesitated only long enough to glance at Lily, as if to offer her the privilege, but she shook her head, a minute gesture in keeping with her effacement, and he went on.
“The Hierakis Formula, comrade—comrades—is a life-extension serum developed and perfected in the home worlds. It is a simple draught administered to each individual, and with the slightest of side effects: about two to three weeks of flulike symptoms. And it effectively alters human”—he shook his head—“I am no physician or geneticist, comrades, to describe the physiological workings of such a treatment, but the end result is that humans can expect to live upward of one hundred eighty years.”
In the silence created by this speech, the echo of a distant rail lumbering through some subterranean corridor could be heard, the deep core of human interchange bound for further destinations.
Jehane stood poised as if on the edge of a precipice, but it was a man Lily did not recognize who spoke first.
“We haven’t had reason to disbelieve you before, comrade Pero, but even if such a—a formula exists, we were long since abandoned by the old worlds, and the ways back have long since been lost. So how are we to benefit from this now?”
“Because some people from the old worlds have gotten through to Reft space. Just a few, mind you,” he added quickly, seeing the stir that this additional revelation caused in his audience—all excepting Jehane, of course. “Not any wholesale migration, and more by accident than design, I suppose. But one of them has the Formula and has begun to manufacture it. Here. In Reft space.”
Several people began to speak at once. Jehane lifted a hand, and silence descended again.
“Comrade Pero.” His voice was soft. “What are you suggesting?”
For the first time, Robbie looked taken aback, but he recovered quickly. “According to this physician, the Formula is easily manufactured except for the minute components of its base. The base is what he has been making, with a view toward distributing it to the entire population. Comrade, as soon as Central has surrendered—which they will inevitably do—you can announce this great boon at the same time you announce the restoration.”
Jehane shook his head slightly, as if saddened by some thought that only he could comprehend. “My dear Robbie. Only consider. There will be riot if such news gets out. First we must consolidate our government. Then manufacture this Formula. Then we must develop a system of dissemination, and work out the mechanics of the administration of its distribution.”
“But I didn’t explain,” Robbie continued, breaking into Jehane’s cool recitation of these difficulties. “The beauty of the Formula is that once the base is widely available, any dispensary can blend the correct ingredients. Any clinic—even those in the poorest neighborhoods. It needs no centralized distribution. It truly c
an be available to all.”
Jehane sighed. “And what of people who manufacture it incorrectly? Who hoard it and sell it at increased prices? Poor clinics may not have the facilities. Such a valuable”—he hesitated—“such a gift must be controlled from a central source that will assure that it will be doled out fairly, and judiciously.”
“No,” said Robbie.
The force of that simple word permeating the room gave Lily a sudden shudder of fear. Kuan-yin took a step forward, but some infinitestimal movement by Jehane stopped her from coming any farther.
“No,” repeated Robbie. “I appreciate the difficulties inherent in distributing something that people so desperately want. That is exactly the reason that the information must be made available to every person—over the net, broadcast, sent to every terminal, every clinic, available to be bought in every store. Surely you of all people, comrade Jehane, understand that this Formula must never become a privilege, restricted to those who can pay enough, or who line up for rewards. The Hierakis Formula is a right, one each and every citizen of the Reft possesses, and I will do everything in my power to see that the knowledge of it, and the base that is needed for manufacture, is disseminated through every means I have at my disposal.”
Jehane smiled, looking a little tired. “Of course you are right, comrade Pero. Your argument has convinced me.”
But Lily noted that his eyes took careful stock of each person who stood in the room, or near enough to have heard Robbie’s news. She eased herself two unobtrusive steps along the wall toward the door, but Jehane’s soldiers stood as intent as ever—if not more so, now—at their posts.
“But first,” Jehane continued to Robbie, “before we send you off to begin your task, perhaps you will accompany us to Central.”
Robbie bowed his head in acknowledgment of the honor accorded him by this offer. “I have no talent for such methods of war, comrade, or I would gladly accompany you. I ask that you excuse me.”
“Ah, but there ought to be very little fighting. I long since determined that the cost in lives of our soldiers to storm the walls of Central would be prohibitive. Violence is not always the most expedient solution.”