Edge of Dark (51 page)

Leesha said, “I agree. Chrystal seemed like a fine young woman. She also looked very afraid when the Shining Revolution took her. She had feelings.” She inclined her head, her hair magnificently coifed and glittering with fresh jewels. “We have work to do. We should go prepare.”

Perhaps Leesha had recognized that Nona had run out of words. Nona wanted to thank Leesha and Dr. Nevening, but there wasn't time in the hustle of being led onto the stage. Making her way to the other room felt a little like walking through gauze, as if a fog had enveloped her and made her limbs heavy and turned the walls and art on the
Star Bear
surreal.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

CHARLIE

The screen in the cave went dark. Someone brought the lights halfway down. A respectful move. Charlie watched Jason and Yi in silence, a deep anger welling up and swamping his sadness. Chrystal had made him laugh, had made him worry, had been open and so very human there were times he forgot what had happened to her.

Had she ever forgotten? Even for a moment?

Amfi walked over to Jason and Yi and touched them. She said nothing, just touched them, one hand lightly on each man's shoulder. Charlie followed suit. He and Amfi looked at each other. He noticed tears in Amfi's eyes, which made him blink back his own. Here he was, crying for the second time in as many days. He almost managed not to let a tear actually fall, but then Davis's hand was on
his
shoulder and all five of them had become linked in the shock of the moment.

Charlie cried.

Jhailing Jim came closer, but didn't join the circle. He watched.

After a time, the circle opened up and out and Charlie felt like a fully separate being again. His anger and sadness had been washed away by his tears, leaving him full of emptiness and deeply sad.

A long silence fell across all of them, and Charlie used the time to gather himself back up, to return to the task at hand.

Jhailing was the first to begin something new. He gave a respectful half-bow to Amfi and Davis, and said, “Thank you for your hospitality. You represented humanity well when you left me in a comfortable captivity and checked on my welfare. I appreciate that you came to talk from time to time, and that over that time you came to understand us more. Now that there is an agreement to ratify, I'll be going to town with Charlie to help him do it. You are welcome to accompany me.”

Davis said, “No, no thank you. I'll stay here and wait. But I'll let you out.”

“No need.”

“What?” Amfi asked. “Could you always have left?”

“I always could have found a way—some way—to leave. But I didn't fall into captivity on purpose. A piece of me broke, which affected some of my ability to communicate with machines and others like myself. I was unable to call for help. I could talk with Yi and Jason once they arrived here, but my ability to communicate long distance had become limited.

“This is how you and your friends held me after you captured me. Without the repair robot I would not have been able to complete the negotiations.” Jhailing nodded at Davis. “But now I can open your doors without help.”

Davis looked irritated. Charlie wondered about the robot and Jhailing and Yi and Jason all ending up in the same place. It didn't seem possible that it was engineered; it had to be coincidence. But it was neat.

“The little robot fixed you!” Yi sounded surprised.

“Yes,” Jhailing answered Yi. “I am grateful for the loan, but it is still your repair-bot. You may need it again before our ships land on Lym.”

“No one has permission to land yet. We have to go to town,” Charlie said.

Davis glanced at Amfi, a pleading look on his face.

She said, “I'll go. You can stay.”

Davis said, “Thank you.”

Charlie concluded Davis would be glad to be rid of all of the Next, at least for now. “We'll stop at the ranger station on the way, maybe spend the night. We can be in Manna Springs early.”

The Jhailing said, “Must we stop?”

“We need to sleep,” Charlie said.

The representative of the Next didn't reply.

What about Jason and Yi? He shouldn't tell them what to do. “Do you want to come?”

Yi nodded slowly. “We may be needed.”

Jason said, “Maybe they'll tear me apart, too.” Then his eyes opened wider and Charlie assumed Jhailing was communicating with him just fine.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

NONA

On the stage, Nona took her place on the left side between Winter Ohman and Gunnar Ellensson. The Councilors were arrayed on the right side of the stage and Satyana stood in the middle. She looked beautiful—part diva, part powerful hostess, part statesman, part ship's captain. Her black dress clung to her chest and hips and purple lace flowers cascaded from one bare shoulder down across to waist to fall almost to the floor. She raised her head and clapped her hands for attention.

The hot, bright lights made Nona crave sunshades. Only the first few rows of seats were visible: the rest faded to black beyond the spotlights. The people who came to listen to the Council were usually well-dressed, as if going to a party. Some of the people in the first few rows—all that she could see with the bright lights—were dressed up tonight as well. But others looked ragged, and tired. A few children were clutched in their mother's arms.

A screen hanging behind the stage displayed the diamond-faceted star of the station's logo over a field of stars and the Deeping Rules:

You must own yourself.

You must harm no one.

You must add to the collective.

Nona realized someone had designed the opening view of the Shining Revolution broadcast to parody this traditional backdrop to the Court of the Deeping Rules. A streak of anger penetrated the fog of her loss and grief. The Rules contrasted with the Shining Revolution's saying: “Humanity, Free and Clear.” The revolution hewed to a statement of specific value, an unwavering stickiness around a single idea that they were willing to kill for regardless of circumstance. Had killed for. Had killed her friend for. Maybe they would try to kill Nona as well after the vote.

She took a deep, shuddering breath and then another, trying to look calm for the cameras.

The Deeping Rules left room for growth. They let the station interpret the world in light of things that changed. A brief pride in the Deep and in her unexpected place in the Court drove her to sit up straighter.

She had to stop seeing Chrystal's face falling to the floor in pieces like severed parts of a doll. Again, she whispered to herself. “I am strong enough.”

In the formal Court of the Deeping Rules, there would have been a speaker to introduce the proceedings.

Satyana held her hands together as if praying. “Good evening. Thank you for attending, for watching remotely, or for viewing this in video. We are here on my stage in the
Star Bear
instead of in the courtroom for our security.” She sounded very formal, and stood straight, and Nona wondered if this might be as much of a stretch for her as being part of the Voice was for Nona.

Satyana lifted her head higher. One tear fell, and no other came to take its place. “We gather to make the decision that the Next demanded of us. This is the last day to make that decision, and so we are meeting here and now. We have about an hour to get through this, so our remarks will be shorter than you are accustomed to. While there is not enough time for our traditional process, nothing will change the fact that we are the lawful decision makers and this decision must be made.”

There was no note of defeat in Satyana's voice, but Nona sat close enough to see how tightly she held herself. This was a surrender.

She hadn't been smart enough to see that, but now she understood the military's desire to stop this meeting. The Council was giving up, yielding their ability to make choices on their own timeline to a threat larger than themselves. The people she stood with on the stage represented the biggest and best station in all of the vast Glittering, and they and the other two stations who had been driven to speak for all of the Glittering were dancing like puppets to the Next's demands.

“We apologize for the delay. Some of us were invited but unwilling guests at a party thrown by the Shining Revolution. Our military realized we might be late to this task, and helped.”

Nona understood. Satyana could denounce the revolutionaries, but the station might need the military someday.

“This is a crucial decision. One vote for each Council member. That's five. One vote for each of the Voice, which is three. A final vote for the Headmistress, which will be handled uniquely. This allows for our usual voting traditions, in short form. The council will each speak very briefly from the position they represent before they vote.

“The Voice will each speak to represent the people of the Deep in this matter. The Voice of this trial, this vote, includes Gunnar Ellensson because of his stake in Mammot and the economic benefits of that stake that accrue to this station and that the Next have said they want access to.” The audience gasped. Satyana lifted a hand for silence. “The second Voice is Winter Ohman. He will speak for the people of this station. The third Voice is Nona Hall, because her friend Chrystal encountered the Next and came back to us changed by them.”

Once more, Nona felt awed. If she were in Satyana's position, she would not have been as delicate of phrase, or as effective at reminding the audience of what they had just seen without saying it out loud.

“At this point we will have heard from the formal leaders of the stations, and from the people most directly affected.” Satyana paused for a moment, and made a small bow toward the audience. “And instead of a vote for the Headmistress, who is being held in a safe and secret place by our military forces, we will use the methods that she herself set up. The people of the Diamond Deep will be the third class of vote, the last voice that we hear, and the loudest. This vote has been ceded to you the people via a social reckoning, which
will be taken at the end of the other votes
. Tallies will display on the screen behind us.”

Satyana once more put her hands together as if in prayer, and then opened them wide. “Now we begin. We will vote on three options.

“Option one is to enforce the Ring of Distance and uphold our existing laws. That will almost certainly require coordinated military force and alliances between stations. It will require investment. We will call this choice
Uphold
.”

Nona fidgeted. This had been her first instinct. It had been Charlie's first instinct and might still be his goal. There had been no time to call him. She had wanted it at first, in the heat of dismay. It would feel good to fight.
Uphold
represented the dreams of the people who had just carved her best friend into small metal pieces.

“Option two is to allow the Next to come inside the Ring of Distance and use our resources, including Lym and Mammot. To stay as separate from the Next as we can, so that we are changed the least. We will have little to no influence on the choices that the Next make, and they will have the least opportunity to change us. We will call this option
Allow
.”

“Option three is to assist the Next. To let them in, to work with them, possibly to work beside them. We have very few details of what this means, except that by this choice we will know them. We will be signing up to assist them with goals that are invisible to us so far. We will call this choice
Help
.”

Help was a good word; it implied willing cooperation.

In the background, music came up. Orchestral, riding from soft to louder and then falling again. Only a few moments of music, but it fit Satyana, who continued after the sound fell away. “We'll start with the Architect.”

The Architect oversaw the constant build-out and structural safety of the Deep, and so his answer seemed pre-ordained. He stepped into the circle of light on the stage and simply said, “
Allow
.”

The Economist's choice was nearly as obvious, but Leesha used the moment anyway, standing regally in the center of the stage and saying, “We do not have the funds to
Uphold
at this moment, although I have started developing strategies to support a war should one occur. But it would be madness to start fighting. I find
Help
tempting because of what we might learn, but the risks are too great. I choose
Allow
.”

At least Leesha hadn't pulled her punches, and she'd called a war a war.

Nona felt queasy when the biologist came up. If Jackie Bray chose
Allow
then the deed would be nearly done. Jackie looked far less at ease in the spotlight than Leesha had, and fidgeted a bit before she talked. “We are also speaking for Lym. If we choose
Allow
, we lose all of our ability to negotiate about Lym. Yet we need the planet's biodiversity. I choose
Help
.”

Nona breathed a sigh of surprised relief. That was two votes for
Allow
and one for
Help
.

Satyana called on the Historian next. In spite of his small stature, he looked both important and brave. “I looked into our history. It appears that we may have had very good reasons to banish the Next when we did.” He paused. “That vote was close, as this vote appears to be.

“The Next have become something different now. They are stronger than they were when we banished them: we may not be able to banish them again. History is rich with examples of people with better technology swamping those with less. It is a bitter truth, but history's lessons are often bitter.

“To
Allow
also had risks. We can't be sure if the Next will actually leave us alone. Being surrounded by a powerful race that wants your resources often ends in annihilation.

“There is also danger in working with the Next. Yet there are many sayings from history about keeping your enemy close, and understanding your enemy. So that is the path I recommend. I say that we
Help
.”