Starship Home (43 page)

Zachary and Marine dragged Harold back onto the ledge and they lay there panting, and then Zachary looked up at the Don, who was still holding Meg. ‘Can we get into that valley and back by midday?’ he asked.

The Don shook his head. ‘It’s a five day trip.’

‘Ropes?’ suggested Zachary. ‘We could abseil?’ but the Don again shook his head.

‘So far so good then,’ said Zachary, and put his head in his hands, panting like a winded hound.

In the village, three chairs now stood in a row on the verandah of Our Mother’s house. The central chair was the chair of office and the two which flanked it were smaller by half. Several of the older women were now sweeping the last of the ashes from Helena’s funeral pyre and sprinkling the area with water, and other village women were gathering, while Marlowe watched from the doorway of his hut.

In Our Mother’s house, Maze and Zoe sat on the floor as one of the elder women explained what was to happen. ‘Since some in the village want Maze, the Choosen one, and some want Zoe the Twice-Born, we must go into Clan session and divide until there is no more division. You will each sit one side of the seat of power,’ she said and stood and beckoned them to follow her outside. They rose and went out of the hut and on the verandah she assigned each of them one of the smaller chairs flanking the seat of power. ‘You will sit in these chairs until the women of the Clan have divided until there is no more division.’

The women of the Clan had now assembled, and the elder woman who had been instructing Zoe and Maze stepped forward. ‘Before you is the Choosen and the Twice-Born One. There is division among us as to which of them will become Our Mother. Let us divide until division ends.’

The women silently divided. Some moved to the side of the village square opposite Zoe’s chair and some to the side opposite Maze’s. A clear majority favored Maze. Zoe breathed a sigh of relief. ‘That’s it then,’ she said to Maze, ‘most of them want you.’

‘Most is not all,’ said Maze, ‘and here there is no tyranny of the most. In Clan session, all must agree.’

‘Can I speak to them?’ Zoe said.

‘In Clan session all may speak.’

So Zoe rose to her feet and addressed the assembled women. ‘I came back today because a very wise woman told me it would bring chaos and disaster to the Clan if I didn’t. What I have to say to you is this. I’m flattered that some of you want me to be Our Mother, but that was not my sister Helena’s wish. She too was a very wise woman and she wanted Maze to succeed her. Some of you believe I came back from the grave. I can’t explain this very well, but I’m not returned from the dead, just from the past before the Great Exit. I was born before my sister Helena, but in many ways I’m younger than Maze here. It’s her that you need, not me. She was born for this, trained for this, and is the choice of the last Our Mother. And I urge you. Divide and choose her.’ She sat down and waited and there was silence for a moment, and then some of Maze’s supporters moved over to Zoe’s side, making the clear majority with her. Zoe stood, appalled. ‘Did you not hear me! I said to choose her, not me!’

‘You just showed wisdom, generosity and foresight,’ Maze said to her, ‘and that is why they are now choosing you.’

‘I’ll never understand people,’ Zoe said, looking up at where the sun was now behind the tops of the trees, ‘never.’

The Don had sent the rest of the Trolls back to Trollcastle and so it was only he, Meg, Zachary, Harold, Marine, Ulf and Rocky who rode disheartened into the clearing before the starship. As they dismounted, Meg said to him, ‘Shouldn’t you be trying to get your people away?’ while knowing it was hopeless. Guinevere had to lift at midday to avoid self-destruction and there was no time now for anyone to escape the area which would be destroyed.

‘A hopeless task,’ the Don said, ‘and I’d sooner face death than run from him.’ Then he smiled. ‘And if I’m to die, I’ll die with my Lady Henderson beside me.’ Then he turned to Ulf, moved to him, and embraced him. ‘To your own family, Ulf. Your Don gambled and lost. Goodbye, old warhorse.’ Ulf slapped the Don on his back, nearly winding him, then mounted and rode out, and now the Don turned to Rocky, who simply shook his head and said, ‘I have no family but you, Don Robert,’ and the Don put one arm around the boy’s shoulders, and one arm around Meg’s waist, and they followed Zachary, Harold and Marine up the ramp into the starship.

As they entered the bridge, despondent at their failure, the Wyzen rolled on her back and purred, which was her way of getting humans to lighten up. Usually the ploy worked, but today it had no effect. ‘We blew it, Guinevere,’ Zachary said, ‘we were that close,’ and he gestured with finger and thumb and then flopped down onto an acceleration couch. ‘I keep thinking,’ he said after a while, ‘that I’ve seen another crystal exactly like it right here in this ship.’ Everyone thought hard, but so exhausted were they, that no one could think where Zachary might have seen such a thing.

In the village, a clear majority now stood in front of Zoe. A few more on Maze’s side now silently crossed the invisible line and added their numbers to Zoe’s side. ‘They’re making the wrong decision,’ Zoe murmured to Maze.

‘What you say has no meaning,’ replied the child. ‘A Clan session decides. A decision is. It is not right or wrong, it simply is.’

‘I don’t understand that,’ Zoe said.

Maze patiently took her through it again. ‘The Clan meets, decides, and what is, is.’

And again, Zoe did not understand her, and knew how alien this culture was from her own. Then, in the corner of her eye, she was aware of movement, and looking up she found that more village women had joined her side, leaving only three supporting Maze’s right to succeed Our Mother.

Zachary slept, while Meg, Harold, Marine and Rocky sat in silence on the bridge of the starship, waiting for the end. Guinevere was manifest, sharing an acceleration couch with her Wyzen, sometimes, disconcertingly, seeming to occupy the same space. And as Zachary slept, he dreamed, and his dreams were a jumble of many of the things which he had lived through since the Great Exit. Wild animals, Looters, Sullivans, the salt trek, the cell on the Starship Charles de Josselin all flickered through his dream and then he dreamt he was standing on the bridge, and the countdown clock was open, and there before him was the crystal within it! He woke, swung off the couch, and strode to the clock, and opened the hatch. There was the crystal, pulsating light, and he turned to the others. ‘There! I knew I’d seen one!’

‘Zachary,’ Meg said very slowly as if to someone who was not very bright, ‘that crystal is the trigger mechanism of a bomb.’

Zachary looked at Guinevere. ‘If we could get it out and feed it to you, would that work?’

‘Yeees?’ said Guinevere very carefully.

‘You can’t feed Guinevere a bomb!’ protested Meg.

‘Why not,’ said Zachary with growing excitement. ‘Show me the law that says you can’t eat a bomb. It’s a crazy idea but it just might work!’

Harold felt he had to inject a note of reason. ‘Zachary, in real life, no one ever says that.’

‘Well I’m saying it now! Guinevere, can we get it out?’

‘Perhaps.’

‘Perhaps?’ said Harold, ‘we’re down to “perhaps” now?’

‘It’s try it or self-destruct and if there’s a third option somebody please tell me.’

Harold was thinking fast. Had it been his idea, he by now would have been selling it as hard as he could. The fact that it was Zachary’s idea suggested to him that there was something intrinsically stupid about it, but for the life of him he could not see what that stupid part was. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘we cut the bomb out and feed it to Guinevere. What do we use to cut it out with?’

The Meg looked at the Don. ‘You kept back a single Slarnstaff when you broke our deal.’

‘I already thought of that,’ lied Harold, ‘but,’ he said, improvising fast, ‘if we use it the Slarn’ll come running.’

‘And if we don’t use it,’ Zachary argued, ‘kapowie! Guinevere? Can you hold the Slarn off long enough for us to pull this off?’

‘Perhaps,’ she smiled, the warrior side of her surfacing, scenting battle, ‘perhaps I can.’

In the village, the last two of Maze’s adherents crossed to Zoe’s side, and the elder women began chanting ‘Our Mother! Our Mother! Our Mother!’ as two of the eldest walked up to the hut, passed between Zoe and Maze and entered the darkness beyond. ‘This is it?’ Zoe said to Maze, who nodded and said, ‘they’ll bring out the robe of office and put it on you and you will be Our Mother.’

For just one moment, the temptation of power struck Zoe like a thunderbolt. She could rule the Clan as her sister’s successor, guide them, give them of her wisdom, and then just as suddenly the dream and the temptation were gone and she knew that the crossroads Guinevere had warned her of were here and now, and she must do something that would take both her and the Clan on the right path. Her mind returned to the images Guinevere had shown her: Maze dead at Zoe’s hands, Zoe dead at Maze’s. ‘This is wrong, Maze. I’ll make mistakes and for the Clan’s sake they’ll have to replace me, we’ll be on opposite sides, and terrible things will happen!’ The elder women had come out of the hut again, carrying Our Mother’s ceremonial cloak of office. They stood behind Zoe and were about to put it on her shoulders when she got to her feet and stepped forward. ‘Wait!’ Zoe shouted, and the chanting stopped. She looked at Maze, and said, ‘I love you, and what I’m going to do now is for you and the Clan.’ Then she turned to the assembled women. ‘There is still division! We are still divided on this question! Not all of us want me to be Our Mother. I have not yet cast my vote.’ And she stepped off the verandah and crossed to face Maze. ‘I choose the already Choosen. I choose Maze. And I will stand here until you all choose her too.’

The women began to move from Zoe’s side to Maze’s. In a slow wave they moved, and when all were facing Maze they began again to chant, ‘Our Mother! Our Mother! Our Mother!’ The elder women moved forward now and placed the robe of office on Maze’s young shoulders and Zoe stepped back onto the verandah intending to embrace the child, but found that she was no longer facing a child, but Our Mother, who extended her hand for Zoe to kiss. ‘Stay,’ she said, ‘be my sister. Advise me.’

‘I’d always be a cause of division,’ Zoe said, ‘and there are those who’d set us against one another. I give you instead an adviser who can never be Our Mother. Never be a cause of division.’

Maze looked at her hard, as if seeking the answer in Zoe’s mind, and then she smiled. ‘A man. A man can never be Our Mother.’ She looked across the village square to where Marlowe sat before his hut. ‘Uncle Marlowe! Come!’ Marlowe stood and strolled over to them. ‘Zoe the Twice Born gives you as my adviser. Sit.’ And she gestured at one of the smaller chairs. Marlowe smiled a wry smile, and took his place and was grateful for it. Here was a place among the people of his mother’s line where all his vast store of accumulated wisdom could be used. He had come home at last. Maze looked at the sun. In an hour it would be noon. ‘You want to go to your own people?’ she asked Zoe.

‘You’re all my people, but …’ Zoe hesitated, not able to find the words.

‘I understand. Go!’

Zoe turned and ran for the starship as the chanting villagers moved in to salute their new Our Mother.

Outside Trollcastle, Rocky waited with two spare saddled horses, while inside Father John opened the padlock on a huge iron-bound chest. Within the chest lay ingots of gold, jewels, bags of coins, a treasure trove, and lying on top of it all a Slarnstaff. Father John took it out and handed it to the Don, and said, ‘Use it in justice.’

‘The cause is just,’ answered the Don, and turned to Ulf who was waiting behind him. ‘I need every man we have. Tell them to farewell their families. Father John will shrive them before they go but we must move quickly.’

Meanwhile in the clearing before the starship, Guinevere’s manifestation was briefing Harold, Zachary and Marine. ‘The attack will come from here,’ she said, ‘As soon as e’er the Slarnstaff belches flame, those in the starship above will hear.’

‘Can’t Charles stop them from detecting it?’ Harold wanted to know.

‘Charles’s mind is still partway in chains. They will hear.’ Guinevere looked at Marine, who said:

‘First response will be to transport in a section of three marines to investigate. Guinevere can block them from transporting to inside the ship, so they’ll arrive here, and find the hatch closed.’

‘This will tell them that I live,’ Guinevere said.

‘And that’s when the waste product’ll hit the turbine,’ Marine said. ‘They’ll send in a hand of five marines, maybe even two hands. If they think they can capture Guinevere alive, that’s a big investment.’

‘And this is where the Trolls come in?’

‘I’ sooth,’ said Guinevere and her face was bleak. She, who had seen battle, was aware of the cost that the day might bring. Her eyes went up to the sun, rising above the trees. ‘Why do they tarry?’

But the Trolls were not tarrying. The party from the castle, led by the Don, Meg, Ulf and Rocky were riding hard toward the starship and some from the outer observation posts were swinging through the trees on ropes, hastening to the rendezvous. As Zoe ran back toward the starship she became aware of the sound of their passage through the trees overhead and quickened her pace.

The castle party arrived at the starship first and dismounted. ‘Ulf!’ shouted the Don, ‘secure the area, get the men under cover,’ and then he followed Meg up the ramp and inside, carrying the Slarnstaff.

On the bridge, a line had been drawn, surrounding the self-destruct clock on the bulkhead. Zachary was now checking the line as Harold and Marine studied a diagram Guinevere had extruded. Guinevere herself was manifest, the better to advise. ‘According to the diagram,’ Harold was saying, ‘it’s self-contained, but the trick is going to be getting it out in one piece, booby trap and all.’

‘Trust me,’ said Zachary, ‘I’m a welder.’ He began drawing more lines alongside the self-destruct clock as Meg and the Don entered the bridge. ‘Hi fellers, just in time. We cut this piece of the wall out on one side of it. The diagram says there’s nothing behind there. Do the same on the other side. This gives us access to both sides of the bomb or the crystal or whatever we want to call it. We now cut underneath it, and if the diagram’s right it’s still being supported from on top. We hope. Then we put poles underneath, cut through the top …’

‘Very carefully,’ added Harold.

‘Very carefully, and then we carry it on the poles down to the feeding area, put it in and then …’

The others were looking at him.
And?

‘And see what Santa brings us.’

‘Who is Santa?’ asked Marine. ‘Word ending in “a” indicates female. Is Santa a primitive goddess?’

‘Kind of,’ said Zachary.

Outside, Trolls were dropping from the trees and forming into sections as Zoe came running from the forest. The hatch was already open and she did not break stride as she headed up into the starship where, on the bridge, Zachary now had the Slarnstaff and was doing dry runs, making sure that he had enough elbow room to cut along the lines he had drawn on the bulkhead around the self-destruct.

‘I’ll see the men are in position, we’ll keep the Slarn diverted,’ said the Don.

‘‘twill be of great moment that thou do’st,’ Guinevere replied, ‘for though I may send bolts of power near to them, there are bars within my mind and slay them I cannot.’

‘I understand,’ said the Don, as Zoe entered, panting. ‘I’m coming with you!’ she said, and Zachary, Harold and Meg moved to her as one, and put their arms around her, welcoming her back into their fellowship. The Don stood to one side, watching, on the outer, and Meg noticed and turned to him.

‘I broke the deal?’ he said.

‘No, I wouldn’t keep you to the letter of that. The Slarnstaff you kept back may be what will save us.’

‘And I won’t keep you to your promise. Your heart is here with your companions, and I’d not have my bride unwilling,’ and he turned to Guinevere and Zachary and said, ‘when you hear the bugle sound the charge, you’ll know we’re ready, and you can start cutting.’

‘Don, I’m sorry, I …’

The Don kissed her hand, and with a cool formality said ‘My lady. Goodbye.’ And then he was gone. Meg sat on an acceleration couch and sagged. ‘I shouldn’t have to choose between my friends and the man I love!’ she wailed, ‘I shouldn’t!’

‘Go after him,’ Zoe told her, but Meg sat, frozen in indecision.

As the Don came out of the starship, Rocky was moving up the ramp with four freshly-cut carrying poles for the crystal. ‘Get those inside fast,’ said the Don, ‘I want you out here with me.’

‘Don!’ said Rocky proudly, knowing he was truly accepted at last, and ran inside. The Don walked on, moving among his troops, patting a shoulder here, exchanging a smile with a grim old warrior there. He paused by a pale young warrior, so young and slim that his armor hung loose on him. ‘I envy you,’ said the Don. ‘Your first battle, and it’s one that will pass into legend,’ and he moved on, leaving the young warrior with words that he would recount again and again down the years to his bored grandchildren.

On the bridge, Rocky had stacked the poles by the self-destruct and was now making his farewells, shaking Zachary’s hand and saying, ‘Lady Henderson, Marine. Zoe, I’m sorry you’re leaving. You’d have made a good Trollwife,’ and Zoe smiled with wry amusement, knowing that Rocky had meant it as a compliment. Now Rocky turned to Harold and made a curt bow. ‘Sir Harold. Wherever it is in the sky that you’re going,’ he said, ‘I know you’ll not disgrace your sword.’ And then outside the bugle was blowing and Rocky turned and ran out to take his part in the coming encounter with the Slarn.