The Diamond Deep (23 page)

In the middle of the beast, Onor felt small. Up here, so close to the center of Aleesi, he had to stand with one foot on each of two legs near where they joined in the middle.

Looking down, he saw a cage longer than his arm and slightly thicker than his thigh. Inside the cage, a rounded blue oblong had been propped up by metal supports and protected against sudden movements. The brain.

“I will release the webling that holds my soul,” the machine wrote across his journal. “You will then be able to reach in and remove the cylinder from the cage.”

The mass of metal below him moved. The slight shifting of legs that occurred nearly caused him to lose his balance.

The metal cage that had been hidden at the center of the robot snapped open with a single, silky movement and the blue oblong inside darkened.

Even though his instinct was to crush it, Onor leaned down and pulled the object free. The webling. It was bigger in his hands than he had expected, and the surface felt oddly slippery.

A few moments later they were sliding up the traverse lines, the spider dancers quite close to Onor, as if they knew he was of two minds about the thing he carried. At least it was quiescent under his arm, and light in here with the low gravity.

The lunch with Koren had become nearly unbearable. Ani, Ruby, and Jaliet finished off a small plate of Kyle's best cookies, and Koren polished off every little square bit of food that she'd brought.

Ruby felt talked out, full, and wary. She wanted to be away from Koren, and to find out if Onor had succeeded in getting Aleesi hidden.

Koren pulled a stoppered flask of something out of her box. “Do you mind if I drink?”

“Of course not,” Ruby answered. “Do you mind telling us what you're having?”

“It's a mild stimulant, much like the drink that you call stim.”

“We will join you and have some stim then,” Jaliet said, nodding to Haric.

Koren waited while Haric prepared drinks for the other three, and left a fourth glass on the countertop. Ruby laughed and said, “Yes, Haric. You may have some.”

He gave her a thumbs-up.

Koren sipped her drink. “Tell me about the trip. What were the other planets like?”

“We had not been born,” Ruby said. “My grandfather's grandfather was the last one to see a planet. I could tell you what we learned in school.”

“I already know that. I'm interested in stories.”

“Stories?” Ani asked.

“Things that you've passed down, generation to generation. Maybe things that got recorded in poetry or songs.” She looked at Ruby. “You're a singer.”

“Yes.” The stim must be hitting Ruby; her senses felt more alive and a slight anger crept up her spine. “But first, how do you know what we learned in school?”

“Your AI knows.”

“So you know?” Ani leaned in.

“We've been mining your AI since you agreed to come here.”

“So you know everything that Ix knows?” Ruby was repeating Ani, but the idea was too vast to imagine. She didn't know much of what Ix knew.

“All data that comes into the station is shared with us. Without that, we would never be secure.”

Koren knew things Ix had never told Ruby. Koren knew about Aleesi. Ruby felt cold deep inside, and certain her smile was as fake as the white-haired woman's smile.

Jaliet asked the question Ruby should have thought of. “Even if you did get all of the data from Ix, how would you be able to know it all now? It's only been weeks, at most. And Ix has been running the
Fire
since we left. There's generations of information.”

Ani followed it before Koren could answer. “And why is Ix part of the quarantine if you already have all the data? And for that matter, why can't Ix talk to us?”

Koren raised her little bottle and took a long, slow, sip. She seemed to like being watched.

Ruby felt like throwing something at her.

Koren put the bottle down. “I'm certain Ix is performing its life support duties.” She paused. “Is there anything specific that you need?”

“Yes.” Ruby leaned in so close to Koren that she could see the gold on gold edges of their captor's ancient eyes. She barely managed to keep her voice quiet. “
We need
to have as much information about you as you have stolen from us.
We need
to know how things work on the
Diamond Deep
, and how to behave.
We need
to know how to succeed there.”

“We are your hosts.” Koren packed her bottle and the napkin she'd used back into the box that she had brought here. “Without your engines, you cannot live without us. Our power keeps the
Fire
going and sustains everything from life support to lights. If we allow you to set foot on the
Diamond Deep
, we will teach you what you need to know to survive here.” She said all of this lightly, as she weren't discussing the lives of real people at all.

Ruby tensed and bit her tongue, struggling for control.

Koren's robot slid a few inches from the wall, stopping close to Ruby as if it sensed her taut nerves.

Jaliet put a hand on Ruby's arm.

Ruby took a deep breath and smiled as broadly as she could manage. “We are pleased you joined us for lunch.” The polite words nearly gagged her. “I hope that we see you again soon.”

“You will.” The exotic woman turned and left, her pet robot following after her.

Onor stuck close to Joel as their group of fifteen people threaded into the nightclub that formed the center of the cargo bars. The chatter and shifting movement of hundreds of people surrounded them, a throbbing energy that drove Onor closer to Naveen.

“Where are we?” Naveen asked him.

“These are the cargo bars. Our ancestors apparently didn't need all of the space we have for stuff. This whole section has been home to cargo rats for years.”

“Excuse me? Cargo rats?”

“Sorry. People who live out in the cargo bays instead of having regular jobs. I didn't know it existed when I was a kid: I found out during the fighting. It's one of the best places on the
Fire
.”

Naveen looked enchanted. “I love everything about being here. Look at all the people. When I signed up for this, I thought there would only be a few, and that you'd all be starving and sad and maybe even crazy. And look, you're running dances.”

Really? “Why would you think we'd be sick or crazy?”

“Being alone inside a big metal ship for generations? No growth, no new genetics, nothing new to see, ever, until now? Of course, it hasn't been as long for you as it's been for us, but still . . . I'm amazed.”

“You underestimated us.”

“Yes. Well. I would have gone crazy. Maybe the reason you survived is that you live such short lives?”

Onor didn't respond to that.

“The
Fire
's return is the most interesting thing to happen on the
Deep
in years.” Naveen craned his neck, squinting through the dim light. The tall walls and high ceiling were hung with bright strings of lights that illuminated symbols from the worlds they had travelled to. The painters were all long dead.

A group of drummers made it difficult to hear conversations happening just a few feet away. The room was so full that the outer guard around Joel had to work to keep even a few feet of space available. Beyond the guards, people danced, touched, bumped hips, and chattered enough to release a white noise that seemed to float the deep drum beats on top of it. Colored lights swept over the crowd, blue and green and white.

Naveen did a full 360 turn, taking in as much of the garish decoration as possible.

“Do you like it?” Onor asked him.

“Very much.”

“Are there places like this on
Diamond Deep
?”

Naveen laughed. “We are far more sophisticated than this, but far less—visceral.” Naveen's hand adjusted glasses that he used to scan what he saw. He recorded almost everything, and sent video out to unknown numbers of watchers aboard the stations. Naveen had said that there weren't many, but that the number was growing.

“How many people see what you see?” Onor asked.

“About twenty-five thousand.”

What a thing to tell Ruby. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her since her lunch with Koren, and he had much to tell her about the questions Naveen had asked. He had also developed the idea that Naveen didn't like Koren, and didn't trust her either. Naveen had not said so directly. Rather, Onor read it in the undertones of Naveen's posture and facial expressions, the nuances of his voice.

Onor talked about the bars. “Before the fighting, this was a place where people from different levels sometimes shared secret conversations and drinks. Even now, some people live out here in the bays and never come into the rest of the ship.”

“How do I get a drink?” Naveen asked.

“I thought you weren't supposed to eat or drink our food?” Onor hadn't been there during lunch since he had been saving the spider's brains, but he had heard about the afternoon, and joined Naveen, Joel, KJ, and other advisors for a tour of command.

“Didn't you just tell me this place was meant for breaking rules?”

“It does have that effect. But you won't get hurt by our stuff?”

“Koren's not here to care. And besides, I'm in quarantine right along with you. If it kills me, so be it.” He smiled, his eyes still twinkling. The man was having fun. “We will all die some day, right?”

It made Onor laugh as well. He felt good, even if he was wary. “Hopefully not for a long while.”

Onor glanced at Joel, who was deep in conversation with SueAnne. “Can I take Naveen to get a drink?”

“Send someone. Have them bring us all drinks.”

“
You
want still?” Joel almost never drank, even in the deeper cargo bars. Certainly never with an audience.

“Of course not.” He leaned down and whispered into Onor's ear. “Drink with him. He appears to like you. Maybe you'll learn more than we have so far. No still for the rest of us, though.”

Sometimes Onor wondered if Joel ever relaxed, even with Ruby. Maybe that's what power did to you.

Onor sent three of the outer guards for the drinks. The room felt full of nerves and bravado. Diffuse. Undirected. People were a tad too dressed up, a bit too loud, maybe a bit more intoxicated than they should be.

The drinks Joel had ordered appeared before the drums slowed. Onor handed Naveen his, which Naveen took a picture of. Then Naveen took another picture of Onor with his drink. They clicked glasses and drank, and the still hit Onor almost immediately, sitting like fire in his empty stomach.

Naveen got a funny look on his face, then he licked his lips in an exaggerated fashion and said, “To life!”

“And finishing quarantine!” Onor said.

“Same thing.”

Onor didn't know what to make of that answer. “You have bars, right?”

“Of course.” Naveen took another sip. “But this is unique. You should import it.” Naveen sipped at his drink some more. He'd started moving to the drums. His skin was too deep a brown for his cheeks to flush, but his eyes looked brighter.

The drums rose to a crescendo and then stopped. Scattered clapping rewarded the performance, just loud enough to hear above the constant conversation that swirled through the space.

Onor took a smaller sip of the still. “Watch,” he told Naveen.

Drums sounded again. Other drums, new ones, and off-stage. They changed from a low, slow beat to a fuller and faster cadence. The stage was pitch black, the lights sweeping the back of the audience. The drums sped up again. At the crescendo, a spotlight fell onto the stage. In the center of the light, wearing a stained worker's coverall, worn black boots, and ribbons of color that matched the old uniforms from the
Fire
, Ruby stood with her head bowed. She leaned on a prop that looked like a gun a tall as she was. Her red hair flowed unbound across her shoulders.