The Diamond Deep (50 page)

Ruby poured a cup of stim and sat at the breakfast table. KJ, Jali, and Dayn were already there, although there was no sign of either Min or Ani. “How do you feel?” Jali asked.

“Better for the day's rest. I'll have to thank Naveen for that.”

“You'll get a chance,” KJ said. “He messaged me that he's on his way to pick you up for breakfast.”

Her shoulders tensed. “Am I entertaining?”

“As far as I know it's just Naveen.”

“Good. You're going?”

“I'm sending Dayn. I've got to go check out the next venue.”

So he thought wherever they were going next could be more dangerous to her than breakfast with Naveen. “Any specific fear?”

Dayn answered before KJ could form a sentence. “Let's see, you just tried to plant a seed of revolution on the biggest space station in the whole system by singing a song designed to make people hurt. Only a seed, mind you. You could have tried to shove a whole forest of revolutionary ideas at them. I know you have it in you.” He was grinning. “And then the most powerful man in the system threatened to kill you if you sing the song again. And if I know you, you will.”

So he knew about the meeting in the little room. And she was going to have to live with him all through breakfast.

KJ added, “There have been a few other threats. And a lot of appreciation. I'm not sure which scares me more.”

“Life is becoming . . . interesting.” Ruby sipped at her stim, which tasted extra spicy this morning. Good. “Jali, let's go get me ready.”

Dayn laughed. “Can't get dressed by yourself anymore?”

Jali turned around and slapped at Dayn, the move playful but edged with a warning nonetheless. She made a little extra swing happen in her hips as she walked away, so it was all Ruby could do not to burst out in laughter.

Jali, bless her, always organized a closet full of Ruby's clothes no matter where they stayed. It was work; they moved every two to three days, and they'd be moving again tomorrow after tonight's concert. She rummaged through it. “Something simple?”

“Pants, and a purple shirt. The soft one.”

“Not the uniform pants,” Jali warned.

“Okay. You pick.”

“What are you doing to do? Are you going to stop singing about the Brawl?”

“Probably not.” Ruby reached a hand out for the simple black pants Jali offered. “The idea of it won't let me go. It's the only thing I truly hate here.”

“Hate isn't the only thing you sing about.”

Ruby wriggled into the pants. “Of course not.” She turned to look Jali full in the face. “You have no idea how tempting it is to become like these people.”

Jali laughed. “I never know what to think of you. One moment you're all about having all the power you can, the next you're professing that you'd rather be poor.”

“Life's confusing.” She took the purple shirt and dropped it over her head. “I suspect it's harder to be me than to watch me.”

“I wouldn't bet on that.” Jali tugged the shirt down to straighten the neckline and belted it, her hands soft and sure where they touched Ruby's waist. “Just don't get yourself killed, okay?”

Ruby sobered. “I've never been able to promise that.”

When Naveen met Ruby and Dayn at the door, his face looked unreadable, but conflicted. That was the best way she could think of to describe it, anyway. It disturbed her, although she couldn't really explain why even to herself.

If Naveen was surprised that Dayn was going instead of KJ, he didn't signal that in any way. He simply told everyone good morning, and led Ruby and Dayn on a short, crowded train ride to a large station, and from there down a corridor to a small and sparse waiting room that held three other people. The bare walls offered no clue as to the purpose of the room. No breakfast looked likely to appear; the room smelled like cleaner rather than stim. “What is this?” Dayn asked.

“A ferry point.”

Before she could ask Naveen for the definition of a ferry, a soft bell went off and a robotic voice said, “Ferry approaching. Stand away from the door.”

The blue wall slid open from the middle. Another set of doors opened behind it, revealing what looked like a train car. Two young women stepped off the car. The other people in the room left with them, so Ruby, Naveen, and Dayn had the ferry to themselves.

They boarded a small, bubble-like ship with windows all around the middle and both ends closed up. There were twelve seats. They strapped in just as the ferry lurched forward a few hundred meters and stopped. “Hold on,” Naveen said.

The ferry began accelerating, as if a big hand pushed them ever-faster from behind. Then it floated free.

“It will take us about thirty minutes to reach the catch point on the other side.”

The set-up reminded Ruby of her trip with Satyana. “Is this a safe place to talk?”

Naveen smiled, and although he looked pleased with her, his features didn't show the attraction she usually saw there. “And if I was, what would I want to talk about?”

She smiled. “I suppose you'd want to talk about what you heard yesterday.”

“You should have told me you were going to sing about the Brawl.”

Dayn laughed. “And you should have expected that she would. You showed it to her. You're marketing her as a revolutionary.”

“I showed her the Brawl so she would understand the dangers here.”

“Well, you didn't think it through very hard, did you?” Dayn was on a roll. “You're making more from every concert than we are, more for one person than we're making for thousands. Without Ruby, this wouldn't be happening.”

“It wouldn't be happening without me, either.”

They sounded like little boys in a play yard. Out here, the
Deep
loomed large in the windows on one side, and open space went forever on the other, the lights of two arriving ships the only thing Ruby could see except stars. Dayn and Naveen kept sparring, but Ruby tuned it out. She needed to think. KJ would have been a better guard. He seldom said anything he didn't need to, while Dayn often said things he should regret.

She had been impetuous. If she was going to change things here she needed a strategy. She needed songs that pricked people deeper, and she also had to set them up right.

They couldn't stop earning credit.

Thus, she had to make revolution popular. That was sort of what had happened on the
Fire
, but the grays she had led there had known they were abused. She wasn't at all sure it would do any good for the people in the Brawl to revolt. They probably couldn't. The enforcer robots were worse than reds; there would be no Ben or Chitt there.

This station was bigger than she was. Was she crazy to think she could change anything fundamental about the
Deep
?

Dayn and Naveen grew so loud that Ruby decided to intervene lest she end up stitching them both up. Or stitching up Dayn. She was sure Naveen was a better fighter, and probably better armed. She'd seen him use a small hand-weapon on a too-rabid fan once, and the man had fallen down immediately as if stunned.

She touched Dayn on the shoulder. “Excuse me.”

Dayn sat back, looking a tiny bit red-faced.

She spoke to Naveen. “How many more concerts do we have scheduled?”

“Four. I'm working on three more.”

“Don't schedule those yet,” she said. “I'm tired, and I need to see my family and my people. I need to know how they are doing.”

“You have to do the four. They're under contract.”

“Okay. But I'll sing what I want.”

Naveen let out an exasperated sigh. “Can you at least give me song lists before, and then follow them? I spent all day yesterday trying to manage the spin on your last song.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I had to convince people you weren't really trying to foment a rebellion.”

She smiled as sweetly as she could. “How did people react? Outside of the audience?”

“Thirty-two percent hated the song, forty-seven percent loved it, and twenty-one percent seemed conflicted. That was in the first three minutes. After that the percentage of haters went up.”

Dayn leaned in, suddenly paying close attention. “Haters?”

“I don't think they even heard the song. I know some of them. They're the powerful, or the minions of the powerful, trying to control the story. They've made you look like a naïve, slightly-crazy woman who doesn't understand our perfect culture.”

Dayn laughed. “Apt enough.”

Ruby glared at him before she turned back to Naveen. “Raw numbers? Last I checked they were going up.”

“Yes,” Naveen said. “But so is the danger.”

Dayn sat back in his seat. “Meaning she has more enemies than before?”

Ruby said, “When I started causing problems on the
Fire
, people like Sylva and Ellis started fighting me harder.” She looked at Naveen. “So who's fighting me here?”

“Assume it's most of the people in power. And that some of them will smile at you and clap and offer you power of your own in order to try and control you, and when you refuse they'll drop you so hard you crack your tailbone. Don't underestimate how cruel power can be.”

She felt the pull of the ferry station at their destination, as if the capsule they had been floating in had been grabbed by a guiding force. They were almost out of time. “What about Koren's threat at the party? She wants Joel to stop something or she's going to get Aleesi.”

“That could be. Koren's exactly the kind of power to avoid.”

“I've never called on her. She comes to me.”

The ferry shuddered and slowed.

Naveen turned to Ruby. “Be polite for breakfast. These are the opposite of enemies, and could be even more dangerous. Don't promise too much.”

Dayn tensed, and Ruby stood and stared through the opening door.

She knew one of the three people in the small waiting room. Satyana.

Joel dismissed Onor after the morning meeting ground to an inconclusive halt, telling him to come back later that afternoon. Onor headed right to the bar and suggested Allen help him find a way to move Aleesi, only to be mostly ignored.

Onor couldn't give up. He spoke loudly, so Allen would hear him even though Allen was on the far side of the room, cleaning tables and dodging a little robot scrubber that was doing the floors. “It's important. I just know it is. In fact, I want to get Aleesi all the way out of here. Put her someplace safe. I don't want to see Ruby's face if we lose Aleesi or if anything bad happens to her.”

Allen just moved on to the next table.

“I know one of the robot spiders ate Colin. I was there, damn it. But Aleesi is helping us learn things we wouldn't know.”

“Do you really trust it?”

That stopped Onor. “I don't know.”

“At least you're not all the way gone.”

“No. But we need help. I need to find a way to prove Koren stole from us.”

Allen looked up at him. “Even if you do get a webling, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to move Ix?”

“I thought I'd copy Aleesi. I need her mobile.”

“Will that work? Her spider body was as big as this bar.”

Onor winced. “I don't know. I guess I need Naveen, but he's not here.”

“That couple came back last night, after you were already gone. I told them to be back today. Maybe if you can sneak away and get what you need, then they can help.”

“Are they familiar with AIs?”

“How do I know? At least they're from here.”

“Okay. But then I may need some more credit.”

Allen gave out a heavy sigh. “I wish people would stop seeing me as place to borrow credit.”

“Who's borrowing? I'm a small investor, and surely you want to be supportive? Besides, you're the one with a real going concern.”

“Other people could have those too, if they wanted them.”

Onor laughed. “I think they will. Especially the younger ones. I overheard two girls talking about starting a clothing store for women. I noticed because I'm going to need baby clothes.”

“I'm feeling sorry for you.”

Evie came in, running a comb through her hair and looking askance at Allen. “Sorry I'm a few minutes late.” She noticed Onor. “Hi. Have you heard from Haric?”

“Not yet.”

“We had a date—like an appointment. He was going to call me and we were going to have a half an hour to talk before I had to start work. But he didn't, and I tried to call him and he didn't answer.”

“Maybe he's still asleep.” Allen came over to them and leaned on the bar. “Or he just forgot.”

Evie bristled. “He wouldn't forget.”

Onor shook his head. “Don't you know teasing when you hear it?”

She stamped her foot with the drama available to the very young. “I'm worried.”