The Diamond Deep (18 page)

Onor hesitated in the doorway to Jaliet's studio. Onor credited her with changing the way Ruby dressed and walked and even how she wore her hair and what she washed it in.

He had expected the studio to be an explosion of color and perhaps chaos, but instead it was neat and orderly. Colorful drawers lined one wall, a mirror another, and a third was all hanging closet. Jali herself sat in a single chair that rotated on a base bolted to the floor. He had seen her in public at events and occasionally beside Ruby, always perfect and maybe even otherworldly. At the moment she looked like a normal human being: she wore a soft gray shirt and simple blue pants and low shoes that looked both comfortable and homemade. Her black hair had been tamed in a neat braid that accentuated her generous mouth and dark eyes. She wore no ribbons or jewelry except a single thin rope of braided colors around her neck, the universal symbol for support of Ruby and Joel.

“Come in,” she said. “It's good to see you again.”

They'd only spoken in passing. He found himself a tiny bit tongue-tied. “Ruby talks well of you.”

Jali smiled. “And of you. Did she tell you what we're doing?”

“She said something about developing a style.”

Jali laughed. “That's right. We want to meet our makers in something coherent, beautiful, and simple. In all of our colors.” She appeared to be genuinely having fun, which might explain why she was so good. “It will have to be something we can fight in if we need to, but also something we can attend a party in.” She paused and cocked her head. “What do you think?”

“I think it's a scheme of Ruby's.”

“Of course it is. All good things on the ship come from Ruby.”

“Really?” he asked. It was hard to tell if she was teasing, although he thought he heard a touch of cynicism. “What about Joel?”

“Ruby keeps him in power.”

“You can't think that.” He felt slightly offended.

She laughed and rummaged in a drawer, pulling out a long measuring tape. “What do you think?”

“Ruby couldn't hold the command or logistics levels.”

“Joel would never have won without her.” She walked around him, as if she were noticing every detail. “You can relax here,” she said. “There is nothing to guard against in my studio.”

Except for maybe Jaliet herself. “I
am
relaxed,” he replied.

“No,” she said. “You're not. Drop your shoulders. Hold them back a little. Chin up. Relax your knees.”

As he complied with each demand, he did, in fact, feel better.

She measured him and wrote notes, muttering. Then she made him move, so she could see him walk and stretch and reach into invisible pockets.

“Are you doing this for everyone?” he asked.

“I'm making the design for everyone. Daria and a small army are going to help make and fit the uniform onto as many people as possible.”

Daria and Jali might be natural friends. They both worried about how everyone dressed and moved; Jali just did it at a higher and more precise level. “How are you going to get enough material?”

“We've collected old uniforms and found a way to dye them black. That's being done now. Well, almost black.”

“So we're all going to be gray?” The thought made him smile.

“With touches of color. It will be one uniform for everyone, with purple and orange insignia that spans all of the old levels.” She held up swatches of colored cloth. “Ruby asked me to fit all of her friends myself. The list is forty people long.” She made a face. “I don't suppose you have any idea how much time I have?”

“I wish. We're actually in-system now, you know. Ix doesn't appear to know where to go, so we just have to choose.”

“I know. I'm not sure that damned game described this system at all.” She stepped back and stared at him again, a slight frown touching her lips. “Do you like the idea of
Diamond Deep
or the idea of circling Lym?”

“I've always wanted to go to a planet, to have a sky. But apparently there's almost no one there.”

“Are we even sure we ended up in the right star system?”

She had said it with a smile, but it knocked him off-balance. “The planets and the sun are in the right place,” he replied. “There's just new stuff here, too. More stations. Ix says people have built whole planets they live inside of.”

“Almost like living in the
Fire
,” she mused.

“Well, they're bigger,” he offered. “We can't do that. Live here. The
Fire
needs repairs.”

She paced. “From the classes Ix is teaching us,
we
haven't changed much. I keep thinking half of this place could be robots like the one that almost got you and Marcelle.”

A familiar voice came in over his shoulder. “Did I hear my name?”

“Come on in. You're a few minutes early.”

He hadn't seen Marcelle for days, except on the exercise floor, sweating to Conroy's commands again. She looked surprised to see him there, and perhaps a touch hesitant. The dark ringlets of her hair framed her face in a way he found enchanting enough to wipe away the slight regret he felt. If it weren't for the dark circles under her eyes, she would look truly beautiful.

Jaliet addressed Marcelle. “Ruby told you what we're doing, right?”

“I love it.” Marcelle came up close to Onor, put a hand briefly on his arm as if it was drawn there. “Will you stay until she's done, and then share a meal?”

He felt the tiniest bit trapped, and guilty for feeling trapped. “Of course. I'm free for the next hour.”

Jali measured Marcelle and moved her from pose to pose. She managed to keep up a stream of small talk that included both Marcelle and Onor, to brush out Marcelle's hair until it shone, and to pin it up in a way that made Marcelle's thin face look broader and softer.

As he walked out with Marcelle, he said, “That woman could run the ship.”

Marcelle grinned. “She could. I love the uniform idea.”

“I like that we'll all be gray.”

Marcelle slid an arm around his waist. “You've been busy the last few days.”

He swallowed. “I have duties. To Joel and Ruby.”

She fell quiet; not a typical state for Marcelle. She seemed to sense his hesitation, to match it. She pulled her arm off of his waist. “Will you come down and visit us? I'd like to show you the teams working on the new uniforms. We took everyone that can't fight—young or old or hurt—and they're making the new material and uniforms while they watch Ruby's classes.”

“Did you set that up?” he asked.

“Me and Daria. People in every pod are working together. Kyle brings food to the sewing lines. They're sewing off-time, so the regular shift work still gets done.”

“All this in just a couple of days?” He and Marcelle were training with the old squads again, too.

“People need to be busy. They're scared.”

Walking beside her felt confusing. He wanted to hold her and yet didn't, as if it would betray Ruby if he did. He was wrong, but knowing that didn't change the confusion being close to Marcelle caused him. They hadn't made love again, but he remembered what she felt like, and how she sighed and softened under his hands. Damn. “Are you scared?” he asked her.

“Of course I am. Surely you are, too.”

He laughed. “I'm one of Joel's guards. I'm not allowed to admit it.”

“Idiot.”

She deserved better than he was giving her. “Marcelle?”

“Yes.”

“I don't . . . I shouldn't . . .” Finding words that wouldn't hurt her felt impossible. “I have a lot to do. Joel's got me running messages again as well as being one of his three guards. I'm not going to be able to see you a lot.”

She spun in front of him, stopped him in his tracks, made him look at her. “I don't regret sleeping with you, Onor Hall. I never will. And I want to do it again. And again.” She swallowed, her chin trembling even though her voice hadn't. “You can be in love with a ghost if you want. I love her, too. I always will. I'll even follow her anywhere. But she has never chosen her partners for love, and she never will.”

“I think she loves Joel.” The words had escaped him before he thought about them.

Marcelle laughed. “She does. But would she love him if he had no power?”

“He wouldn't be Joel if he had no power.”

Marcelle shook her head. “You are so exasperating I have no idea why I love you so much.” She turned and stalked away from him.

He had been weak to sleep with her. Now there was this new awkwardness between them. He was pretty certain he was the biggest fool on the ship, but he had no idea how to change a truth that had existed forever in his heart.

Ruby.

Damn it.

Ruby spun in front of Joel, holding her arms up, doing her best to balance on one leg. “Do you like it?”

He sat on the couch in their living room, his journal perched on his knee, his face haggard. Every display in the room was lit up, showing one scene or another from the Adiamo system. Still, he found time to notice the new uniform she wore. “Tell Jali she succeeded beyond our wildest hopes.”

Ruby felt pleased. “I will. They're almost done getting everyone of fighting age fitted out. They plan to sew the scraps together for children and old people.”

“That's good.” He returned to staring at his journal. She curled up close to him, tucking her bare feet up into the slightly long pant legs. The uniform would match her best boots. There had been no way to make new shoes or boots, so that part would look handed down in spite of their best efforts. But for a ship that hadn't seen new resources for generations, it was pretty damned good.

“You smell tired,” she said.

“Of course I'm tired,” he said quietly. “We all are.”

“Maybe we should have another festival.”

“We already had the festival of homecoming. What would this one be? The festival of ignorance?”

“Is there any new news?”

He sighed. He pointed at the screen opposite them. She recognized Lym: a ball of blue and green and brown with white caps of ice. “We've found a few places in Lym's orbit big enough for us. Ix is pretty sure we can park there without damaging anything. But no one on Lym seems to know anything about us, or to care.”

“We're better suited for a planet than a space station: we have ships that will let us land on one,” Ruby said.

He pointed to a small display that usually showed the map room or one of Joel's secret command rooms where he held his councils. “That's
Diamond Deep
. They say we can dock there safely, but the first contact we had with them was a demand that we send them everything we have of value.”

“I remember. Aleesi doesn't trust
Diamond Deep
.”

“Smart robot. I don't either. What does it say about Lym?”

“
She
doesn't remember much about it. Says it's some kind of nature preserve and only approved humans can live there. She also has a friend who hated Lym. Apparently she's only got what she's heard to go on. I think she's being honest with us. But I don't know how much Aleesi actually knows. Sometimes it's more like talking to a child than an adult. At least on politics.”

Joel fell silent, staring at the screens.

“I'd like to keep Aleesi safe.”

“It's more important to save our people than your pet robot.”

“Pet girl!” That didn't sound right. Damn it. “
She
wants to live.”

“Me too.”

Ruby laughed and kissed him. “Of course. But if we can do it all, I want to.”

“You always want it all.”

She kissed him again. “What else is there to want?”

He laughed. “If Aleesi's told the truth, we have learned a few things.”

“Enough. We learned that there's no one government in the system, and no one most powerful coalition or place or planet or religion or anything, although there are some universal laws and a single court to sit over just those.”

“I don't like the idea of a court. Do you?” he asked her.

Ix had helped her study courts some on their way in. “We could have used a court here. Maybe fewer people would have died.”

“The judges would have been corrupt.”

“I suppose so.” She had been hoping he would stop agonizing and put an arm around her, relax a little. But his body hadn't shifted to allow her to fit nicely along his side and his elbow was digging into her. She stood and started pacing. “We need to choose. Now. You said there are only a few days left, anyway. What are you waiting for?”

He shook his head. “More information.”

“Well, we're not getting any.”

“I know.”

Ruby mused out loud. “Two stations and a planet right? We can't dock anywhere without permission, and once we stop, we probably can't start again. So doesn't that mean we're better off with the planet? At least we have ships that can get to the surface.”