Seeds of Earth (2 page)

But Greg knew that his companion was anything but restful. In the light of the pathway lamps, the Uvovo stalked along with head down and bony, four-fingered hands gripping the chest straps of his harness. They were a slender, diminutive race with a bony frame, and large amber eyes set in a small face. Glancing at him, Greg smiled.

'Chel, don't worry - you'll be fine.'

The Uvovo looked up and seemed to think for a moment before his finely furred features broke into a wide smile.

Friend-Gregori,' came his hollow, fluty voice.

'Whether I ride in a dirigible or make the shuttle journey to our blessed Segrana, I am always amazed to discover myself alive at the end!'

They laughed together as they continued down the side of Giant's Shoulder. It was a cool, clammy night and Greg wished he had worn something heavier than just a work shirt.

'And you've still no idea why they're holding this
zinsilu
at Ibsenskog?' Greg said. For the Uvovo, a
zinsilu
was part life evaluation, part meditation. T mean, the Listeners do have access to the government comnet if they need to contact any of the seeders and scholars .. .' Then something occurred to him. 'Here, they're not going to reassign ye, are they? Chel, I won't be able to manage both the dig and the daughter-forest reports on my own! - I really need your help.'

'Do not worry, friend-Gregori,' said the Uvovo. 'Listener Weynl has always let it be known that my role here is considered very important. Once this
zinsilu
is concluded, I am sure that I will be returning without delay.'

I hope you're right,
Greg thought.
The Institute isna very forgiving when it comes to shortcomings and unachieved goals.

'After all,' Chel went on, 'your Founders' Victory celebrations are only a few days away and I want to be here to observe all your ceremonies and rituals.'

Greg gave a wry half-grin. 'Aye . . . well, some of our "rituals" can get a bit boisterous . . .'

By now the gravel path was levelling off as they approached the zep station and overhead Greg could hear the faint peeps of
umisk
lizards calling to each other from their little lairs scattered across the sheer face of Giant's Shoulder. The station was little more than a buttressed platform with a couple of buiidb gs and a five-yard-long covered gantry jutting straight out. A government dirigible was moored there, a gently swaying 50-footer consisting of two cylindrical gasbags lashed together with taut webbing and an enclosed g< ndola hanging beneath. The skin of the inflatable sections was made from a tough composite fabric, but exposure to the elements and a number of patch repairs gave it a ramshackle appearance, in common with most of the workaday government zeplins. A light glowed in the cockpit of the boatlike gondola, and the rear-facing, three-bladed propeller turned lazily in the steady breeze coming in from the sea.

Fredriksen, the station manager, waved from the waiting-room door while a man in a green and grey jumpsuit emerged from the gantry to meet them.

'Good day, good day,' he said, regarding first Greg then the Uvovo. 'I am Pilot Yakov. If either of you is Scholar Cheluvahar, I am ready to depart.'

T am Scholar Cheluvahar,' Chel said.

'Most excellent. I shall start the engine.' He nodded at Greg then went back to the gantry, ducking as he entered.

'Mind to send a message when you reach Ibsenskog,' Greg told Chel. 'And don't worry about the flight - it'll be over before you know it. . .'

'Ah, friend-Gregori - I am of the Warrior Uvovo. Such tests are breath and life itself!'

Then with a smile he turned and hurried after the pilot. A pure electric whine came from the gondola's aft section, rising in pitch as the prop spun faster. Greg heard the solid knock of wooden gears as the station manager cranked in the gantry then triggered the mooring cable releases. Suddenly free upon the air, the dirigible swayed as it began drifting away, picking up speed and banking away from the sheer face of Giant's Shoulder. The trip down to Port Gagarin was only a half-hour hop, after which Chel would catch a commercial lifter bound for the Eastern Towns and the daughter-forest Ibsenskog. Greg could not see his friend at any of the gondola's opaque portholes but he waved anyway for about a minute, then just stood watching the zeplin's descent into the deepening dusk. Feeling a chill in the air, he fastened some of his shirt buttons while continuing to enjoy the peace. The zep station was nearly 50 feet below the main dig site but it was still some 300 feet above sea level. Giant's Shoulder itself was an imposing spur jutting eastwards from a towering massif known as the Kentigern Mountains, a raw wilderness largely avoided by trappers and hunters, although the Uvovo claimed to have explored a good deal of it.

As the zeplin's running lamps receded, Greg took in the panorama before him, the coastal plain stretching several miles east to the darkening expanse of the Korzybski Sea and the lights of towns scattered all around its long western shore. Far off to the south was the bright glitterglow of Hammergard, sitting astride a land bridge separating Loch Morwen from the sea; beyond the city, hidden by the misty murk of evening, was a ragged coastline of sealochs and fjords where the Eastern Towns nestled. South of them were hills and a high valley cloaked by the daughter-forest Ibsenskog. Before his standpoint were the jewelled clusters of Port Gagarin, slightly to the south, High Lochiel a few miles northwest, and Landfall, where the cannibalised hulk of the old colonyship, the
Hyperion,
lay in the sad tranquillity of Membrance Vale. Then further north were New Kelso, Engerhold, Laika, and the logging and farmer settlements scattering north and west, while off past the northeast horizon was Trond.

His mood darkened. Trond was the city he had left just two short months ago, fleeing the trap of his disastrous cohabitance with Inga, a mistake whose wounds were still raw. But before his thoughts could begin circling the pain of it, he stood straighter and breathed in the cold air, determined not to dwell on bitterness and regret. Instead, he turned his gaze southwards to see the moonrise.

A curve of blue-green was gradually emerging from behind the jagged peaks of the Hrothgar Range which lined the horizon: Nivyesta, Darien's lush arboreal moon, brimming with life and mystery, and home to the Uvovo, wardens of the girdling forest they called Segrana. Once, millennia ago, the greater part of their arboreal civilisation had inhabited Darien, which they called Umara, but some indeterminate catastrophe had wiped out the planetary population, leaving those on the moon alive but stranded.

On a clear night like this, the starmist in Darien's upper atmosphere wreathed Nivyesta in a gauzy halo of mingling colours like some fabulous eye staring down on the little niche that humans had made for themselves on this alien world. It was a sight that never failed to raise his spirits. But the night was growing chilly now, so he buttoned his shirt to the neck and began retracing his steps. He was halfway up the path when his comm chimed. Digging it out of his shirt pocket he saw that it was his elder brother and decided to answer.

'Hi, Ian - how're ye doing?' he said, walking on.

'Not so bad. Just back from manoeuvres and looking forward to FV Day, chance to get a wee bit of R&R. Yourself}'

Greg smiled. Ian was a part-time soldier with the Darien Volunteer Corps and was never happier than when he was marching across miles of sodden bog or scaling basalt cliffs in the Hrothgars, apart from when he was home with his wife and daughter.

'I'm settling in pretty well,' he said. 'Getting to grips with all the details of the job, making sure that the various teams file their reports on something like a regular schedule, that sort of thing.'

'But are you happy staying at the temple site, Greg? because you know that we've plenty of room here and I know that you loved living in Hammergard, before the whole Inga episode . . .'

Greg grinned.

'Honest, Ian, I'm fine right here. I love my work, the surroundings are peaceful and the view is fantastic! I appreciate the offer, big brother, but I'm where I want to be.'

'S'okay, laddie, just making sure. Have you heard from Ned since you got back, by the way}'

'Just a brief letter, which is okay. He's a busy doctor these days . . .'

Ned, the third and youngest brother, was very poor at keeping in touch, much to Ian's annoyance, which often prompted Greg to defend him.

'Aye, right, busy. So - when are we likely to see ye next} Can ye not come down for the celebrations ?'

'Sorry, Ian, I'm needed here, but I do have a meeting scheduled at the Uminsky Institute in a fortnight - shall we get together then?'

'That sounds great. Let me know nearer the time and I'll make arrangements.'

They both said farewell and hung up. Greg strolled leisurely on, smiling expectantly, keeping the comm in his hand. As he walked he thought about the dig site up on Giant's Shoulder, the many hours he'd spent painstakingly uncovering this carven stela or that section of intricately tiled floor, not to mention the countless days devoted to cataloguing, dating, sample analysis and correlation matching. Sometimes - well, a lot of the time - it was a frustrating process, as there was nothing to guide them in comprehending the meaning of the site's layout and function. Even the Uvovo scholars were at a loss, explaining that the working of stone was a skill lost at the time of the War of the Long Night, one of the darker episodes in Uvovo folklore.

Ten minutes later he was near the top of the path when his comm chimed again, and without looking at the display he brought it up and said:

'Hi, Mum.'

'Gregory, son, are you well?

'Mum, I'm fine, feeling okay and happy too, really ...'

'Yes, now that you're out of her clutches! But are you not lonely up there amongst those cold stones and only the little Uvovo to talk to?'

Greg held back the urge to sigh. In a way, she was right - it was a secluded existence, living pretty much on his own in one of the site cabins. There was a three-man team of researchers from the university working on the site's carvings, but they were all Russian and mostly kept to themselves, as did the Uvovo teams who came in from the outlying stations now and then. Some of the Uvovo scholars he knew by name but only Chel had become a friend.

'A bit of solitude is just what I need right now, Mum. Beside, there's always people coming and going up here.'

'Mm-hmm. There were always people coming and going here at the house when your father was a councilman, hut most of them I did not care for, as you might recall'

'Oh, I remember, all right.'

Greg also remembered which ones stayed loyal when his father fell ill with the tumour that eventually killed him.

'As
a matter of fact, I was discussing both you and your father with your Uncle Theodor, who came by this afternoon.''

Greg raised his eyebrows. Theodor Karlsson was his mother's oldest brother and had earned himself a certain notoriety and the nickname 'Black Theo' for his role in the abortive Winter Coup twenty years ago. As a punishment he had been kept under house arrest on New Kelso for twelve years, during which he fished, studied military history and wrote, although on his release the Hammergard government informed him that he was forbidden to publish anything, fact or fiction, on pain of bail suspension. For the last eight years he had tried his hand at a variety of jobs, while keeping in occasional contact with his sister, and Greg vaguely recalled that he had somehow got involved with the Hyperion Data Project. . .

'So what's Uncle Theo been saying?'

'Well,
he has heard some news that will amaze you I can still scarcely believe it myself. It is going to change everyone's life.'

'Don't tell me that he wants to overthrow the government again.'

'Please, Gregori, that is not even slightly funny ..."

'Sorry, Mum, sorry. Please, what did he say?'

From where he stood at the head of the path he had a clear view of the dig, the square central building looking bleached and grey in the glare of the nightlamps. As Greg listened his expression went from puzzled to astonished, and he let out an elated laugh as he looked up at the stars. Then he got his mother to tell him again.

'Mum, you've got to be kidding me! . . .'

THEO

Theodor Karlsson had a spring in his step as he walked up a private footpath towards the presidential villa. Tall, thick bushes concealed it from inquisitive eyes, and waist-high lantern posts shed pools of subdued radiance all along its length. His long, heavy coat was three-quarters fastened and his custom-soled shoes made little noise on the tiled path. The villa grounds were dark and still in the cool of the evening but Karlsson could almost smell the weave of seamless security which enclosed the place. There was a visible perimeter of patrols and cameras down at the main wall and gate, and a pair of guards at the side-door up ahead, but Theo knew that the best security was seldom seen. The question that loomed large in his mind, however, was who was it all meant to keep out?

The guards, both wearing dark imager eye-pieces, were muttering into collar mikes as he approached.

'Good evening, Major,' said one. 'If you could look into the scanner with your right eye.'

He stepped up to the plain wooden door, followed instructions, and moments later he heard several muffled thuds. The door swung open. Inside he was met by a composed, middle-aged woman who took his coat then led him along a narrow, windowless corridor, past a number of bland, pastoral paintings, then up a poorly lit curve of steps to a landing with two doors. Without pause she continued through the left one and Karlsson found himself in a warm, carpeted study.

'Please make yourself comfortable, Major Karlsson. The president will see you shortly'

'Thank you . . .' Theo began to say, but she ,vas already leaving the room, closing the door behind her He surveyed his surroundings, a medium-sized room with well-stocked bookshelves, a log fire burning in the herrth, and an ornate adjustable lamp hanging over a large cl
zsi .
A ceiling-high rack of shelves partially concealed a second door in one corner and a hand-eye security lock.