Spear of Light (30 page)

The next morning, he set an early alarm. To his surprise, he found the kitchen already flickering with light. Losianna sat by a banked cooking fire with her legs crossed, daintily sipping at a steaming drink that smelled of sweet bark and nutmeg. “Good morning.” She lifted her cup. “Would you like some?”

“I have to run an errand.”

“Don't you need something to eat first?”

“I have some supplies in the skimmer.” Although nothing in the skimmer was fresh. He should take her up on her offer.

“I'd like to talk with you for a minute,” she said, her head tilted so the firelight played across her face.

He felt cautious. “All right.”

She moved about the kitchen like a wisp of efficient fog, and before long he had a steaming cup of exactly what she was drinking in front of him, as well as toasted flatbread with tree nuts baked into it and a sweet jam spread on top. He bit into the bread, immediately grateful that she had talked him into staying. “This is fabulous.”

Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly as she moved her cup and took a seat at the table opposite him. “It just came out of the oven.”

“How long have you been up?”

“A few hours. Look, you don't mind?”

Odd that this woman who shot two people with no particularly obvious guilt was so nervous to have a simple conversation with him. “Anything. Go ahead and ask.”

“You spent time with Jason and Yi on your way down here, right? You flew here. A whole space journey worth of time?”

“Yes. And Chrystal, at least at first. It was me and Nona, Chrystal, Jason, and Yi. They were newer then, fresher. In some ways they were still discovering what happened to them.”

“Aren't they still? Jason told me he wakes up and discovers he's a little different every day, that he's . . . deeper.”

Charlie shrugged. “I've been watching Yi. The first Yi—the one who flew with me. He's smart. Every time I see him he's become better at being a robot. The others are struggling more—even Chrystal struggled some. But Yi is happy. He's going to be a Jhailing. Well—a Yi. But like that. I've no doubt at all.”

“What does that mean?”

“He'll transcend himself. I think maybe what they become is very mystical.”

She smiled. “Isn't that what we all want? To understand the world?”

“It also means he'll be inside their circle.”

She sipped at her tea. “But Jason. Will he be like that? Transcendent?”

He remembered that she possibly fancied herself in love with Jason and decided to be blunt. “If he stops wishing he were dead. Jason is living in the past and eating old hurts in place of food. That's a place for old humans, not new robots.”

“Do you want to be one? Ever? Even when you're old?”

He shivered. “Never. The time I spent in space was enough. And the time I spent with them taught me how tortured they are. Even the Chrystal who died, she was tortured about what she had lost. Remember, they have no children, no sex, no simple physical pleasures like a deep breath. That tea you're drinking? You would never taste it again. This bread—which is delicious by the way—you would never have it again. You would never sleep, never dream, never cook or eat a meal.”

Losianna laughed. “So I would be done with the work of living?”

“And all of the happiness.” He frowned. “Chrystal often spoke of how they were murdered.”

“So she lived in the past, too?”

He shook his head. “Not like Jason. She accepted what she had become. I think it's possible to embrace a new life and still mourn an old one.” All of the philosophy was making him profoundly uncomfortable. He took the last bite of bread. “I need to go.”

She reached a hand out for his plate. “Will you take me with you?”

“I'm just going to do some rangering. There's a place I need to check on.”

“I'd like a chance to get out of the cave.”

Maybe he shouldn't go at all. He tried to think it through. If he refused her and then walked in with the soulbots, he'd feel bad. If he took her, and he didn't find the soulbots, then no harm would happen except he'd have to try to explain why he was tromping around in caves. If he took her and he found them, then that really wouldn't cause any problem either, not that he could think of. Except that his instincts about trouble had woken up as soon as Gerry showed him that footage.

Losianna sat quietly, waiting for his answer. She was frustratingly naive, and right now she looked lonely and vulnerable.

“All right.”

Fifteen minutes later, they had left a note for Amfi and were on their way. He'd collected the coordinates by mapping the video against one of the more precise geography programs that the skimmer used for navigation. “We'll be in the air for about half an hour.”

“All right.” She peered out the window, apparently completely entranced with a landscape that she surely knew well. But then, the sun was just kissing the canyon awake. It had freed itself from the bottom edge of ridge it rose over, which meant a line of light bisected the jutting stone walls and patches of thick forest just above them and the water of the myriad falls fell from bright light into shadow and down to a still-dark river.

He took them all the way up through the line of bright light and over a ridge, which they flew parallel to. After about three minutes, his nav computer nudged him to the right and he followed a thin dry streambed that wound through scrub trees.

“It's amazing how different it is just over a single ridge,” she said. “It's so easy to forget.”

“Have you been over here before?”

“Sure. I've climbed both sides of the valley a few times.”

A reminder that gleaners were travelers at heart and that staying in the cave was unlike them. Perhaps she'd spoken a simple truth when she asked for the opportunity to leave the cave. Maybe being inside four walls was as hard for her as being inside of a tin can in space was for him. He banked the skimmer. “Watch for a cave.”

“I don't want another cave.”

“This one's probably smaller.”

She frowned at him. Nevertheless, she spotted the opening first. “There?”

He circled. It looked right. They'd have to land to really tell. Of course, everything nearby was boulders and small folded ridges and trees and sharp ravines. He couldn't recall the last flat place he'd seen.

She squinted down below them. “Is it big enough to land in?”

He glanced down at it. The skimmer would easily fit inside the wide mouth. The floor looked flat. “I don't know.” It wasn't his preference. But he didn't want to walk six clicks from the next nearest flat place either. “It's a risk.”

“Can you go really slowly?”

He overflew another time, nervous. He queried the nav and had it plot a trajectory. There would be room to turn around. “We'll try it.”

As he flew in, the cave transitioned from rocky mouth to a smooth, almost featureless cylinder with a hard, flat bottom. The nav AI helped him complete the turn, so the skimmer sat at the very edge of the cave with the nose pointing outward.

He set the brakes and climbed out, helping Losianna out after him.

Birds twittered outside, although the cave naturally muffled them so it seemed like he and Losianna and the skimmer had been captured by a tunnel. When she said, “So now what?” her voice sounded unnaturally loud.

They stood on a hard surface. He walked them toward the entrance and found footprints in the dirt. Not that he truly needed the confirmation; as soon as he saw the smooth walls he'd been convinced he'd found their target.

The soulbots were nowhere to be seen. “Now we wait.”

“What are you waiting for?”

He shook his head. “If it comes, you'll see. In the meantime, this is a beautiful place to watch the day come alive. We're safe and warm, and we can explore the area right around here. I'd like to record the plant life.”

“You rangers are always recording and poking and prodding. Why don't you leave well enough alone?”

Another sign that she was young. “We destroyed this place. Humans. We're rebuilding it. It still needs a hand here and there. We have to manage invasive species and protect animals that we've recently brought back and make sure they get a good start.”

The look on her face suggested he was boring her. “Here, help me count?” She stood still, looking out over the misty, ridged landscape.

“Do you want me to take you back?” he asked.

“No.” She came over and stood close to him. “Tell me what to do.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

NONA

On the day of Nona and Amanda's departure, they walked together toward the spaceport. Puddles of water left behind by night rain reflected the blue sky and wheeling birds. Nona splashed lightly in a few of the puddles, enchanted by the still water.

“You're like a kid with the puddles,” Amanda observed.

“I didn't have puddles as a kid. It's not like we leave water lying about on space stations.”

“There must be a lot you don't have in space.”

“I miss the concerts, and the food. We have such a variety of food. You don't allow any of it here, but people have made so many new spices and vegetables. Even the pastes can taste like heaven.”

Amanda looked surprised. “I always heard we had better food.”

“You do,” Nona said. “Fresher anyway. But not nearly the variety. There's a lot of bored people on stations trying to get rich with the next culinary sensation.”

“Oh.”

“I did choose to be here, remember?” They were getting near the town gates. “I've never been to the farms.”

Amanda smiled wanly.

Nona returned the smile and whispered, “We'll find Amy if we can.”

“I know.”

She should have known Jules wouldn't allow Amanda to leave without some ceremony over it. So she and Amanda stood behind him on a small stage while he made a short speech about the unity in Lym, as if he hadn't noticed the planet was as united as shattered glass. Thankfully, he didn't offer her a chance to talk but instead just mentioned that the embassy would be closed while Nona traveled with Amanda to visit the farms.

Only ten people had shown up for the speech, and they clapped politely as he dismounted from the makeshift stage.

Jules stayed behind, but two of his bicycle security guards rode down the main street in front of them, just fast enough to make Nona and Amanda walk too quickly to talk. Behind them there were five more bicycle guards.

This ridiculous line of people and bicycles took one whole side of the street. Amanda leaned over and whispered into Nona's ear. “Jules is making sure everyone knows we're going off to save the runaway children. He thinks forcing people to watch us leave is leadership.”

Jules seemed determined to order people around, and the looks on the bicycle guards' faces suggested they didn't enjoy their duties. She couldn't imagine Manny ordering anyone to do anything, although, to be fair, she'd never spent much time in Manna Springs before.

The florist stood outside of his shop and offered Nona and Amanda each a spray of yellow bell flowers wrapped in red and green foliage, which they took.

When they climbed into the largest skimmer she could see out in the open anywhere, the
Storm
, Nona spotted Jean Paul and Farro in the front two seats. She smiled a greeting and turned around and waved at the bicycle brigade, watching them ride slowly away.

“That was strange,” she said to Amanda, who sat beside her near the front.

Amanda sighed. “Jules always wanted to run the ranger brigades when he grew up. This is his chance to tell people what to do.”

Nona took the opportunity to ask, “How did you two end up in charge anyway?”

Amanda sat back. “There are twelve first families left on Lym. We make the decisions, usually by consensus, but when we can't get one, we vote. Manny and Charlie are both Windars, of course, and so they didn't get a vote. Out of the other eleven, only us and the Patels were interested, and we won by one vote. I wish we had lost.”

Jean Paul leaned over the seat. “Better you than them.” He spoke to Nona. “The Patels are too nice. At least Jules hasn't let the Port Authority completely overrun the town.”

Amanda looked grim.

Nona asked, “How did we get you two for crew?”

“Farro got assigned. She's one of the few Port Authority staff credentialed for Entare. She got to choose a co-pilot and she chose me.”

Nona said, “Thank you,” to Farro, who had already turned around to focus on the map and glowing weather displays in front of her. Farro's nod was barely perceptible and certainly didn't require an answer.

Nona watched the spaceport, the city, and the great Wall of Nexity shrink behind them. They flew over farmland, some of it open crops and some tall buildings open to today's weather and full of layer on layer of crops. Oddly, the buildings reminded her a little of the pods from the Diamond Deep.

Irrigation streams bisected tan, red, and deep green fields with blue, and small white bridges laced the land between the streams together, like a nearly infinite crop bubble. And this, on Gyr Island, was the smaller of the two farmed areas. By far. Maybe someday she could see Lagara, where fields and vertical farms filled the land in all directions, and sea farms hugged every calm coastline.

Their itinerary included stops at each of the five farms owned by first families, including an overnight stop at the largest, First Fields, where Kyle's family had gone after being displaced by the Next. Charlie had planned to join her, but she had called him to warn him she would be traveling with Amanda. He had promised to catch up by the time they arrived at First Fields.

She hadn't told Amanda that Charlie would join them yet, but she planned to if a good moment for it arose.

It took two hours to get to the first place, Sunny Orchards. They flew over row upon row of trees, some already barren but others heavy with orange and red fruit. Between every row, silver tracks gleamed in the sun, and here and there she spotted robotic pickers.