The Diamond Deep (53 page)

“Which ear?” Evie asked.

Onor shrugged.

Evie lifted her right hand and tucked a black curl behind her ear. She showed him an empty hand, and then her face screwed up in an odd way.

“Are you okay?”

She said “Yes,” but her face stayed so tight she
looked
like she was in pain.

The Jackman shook his head ever so slightly. A refusal.

Onor leaned his head onto his hand, trying to look natural in case the robot actually was watching them. He used his index finger and his thumb to push the earbug into his ear canal.

It burrowed, warmed, and seemed to spread out. It felt alive. Nothing had ever moved so deep in his ear, and for a second he wondered if it was going to pop his eardrum. Even though it didn't actually hurt, it felt strange enough that he understood the look on Evie's face.

“I was wondering if you were ever going to talk to me.”

He whispered as softly as he could. “Hi, Aleesi.”

“You don't have to make any noise at all. Just think you're talking.”

“What?” He could still hear the word. He tried again. “Like this?”

“Yes.”

Evie's voice, only in his ear and not from beside him at all. She wasn't even looking at him; her head was turned toward The Jackman. “Yes.”

“She's got it,” Aleesi said. “Try again. You don't even have to form the words.”

He glanced over at the Jackman, who still had his fist closed over the earbug. “Do it,” he said out loud.

“That's worse,” Aleesi said into his ear. “Softer.”

Damned machine
, he thought.

“Better.”

He laughed.

The train stopped, and the doors opened automatically. No one got on or off.

The Jackman still looked dubious. But then, he hadn't spent any time with Aleesi. If Aleesi hadn't started out chasing Onor with intent to kill, he might actually like her. She felt more human than Ix ever had.

It took almost half an hour for all three of them to be able to talk to each other and to Aleesi. He subvocalized the way Aleesi had taught him. “This is like on the
Fire
, when we could all talk to Ix, only then we had to speak out loud.”

“You can still talk to me.” Ix's voice. “Through Aleesi.”

Onor hadn't realized it would work like that. “That's great.”

“Can Ix talk to its copies?”

Ix answered. “I cannot.”

“Ix is old,” Aleesi elaborated. “It wasn't designed to do that. So let's get on with restoring your riches.”

The Jackman spoke, loud enough Onor could hear his whisper as well as the sound of his voice amplified through the earbug. “Why do you care?”

“I don't like the way that you've been treated. Koren should not have been able to get away with what she did. Out on the Edge, we have morals.”

“And your morals are why you attacked us?” The Jackman said, again too loud.

“Subvocalize,” Aleesi said. “The only way that my masters at the Edge can get new resources is to capture them. We're forbidden to go into the inner system. If they opened trade, we wouldn't be pirates.”

The Jackman made no response, although Onor had the feeling he was intensely uncomfortable.

Evie spoke. “Didn't your masters capture you?”

“The usual captures were asteroids or comets or derelict ships. Let's get on with this. Exchange Four is bigger than Exchange Five: in addition to nearby habs, it serves one of the main ports where ships bring goods into and out of the
Deep
.”

The Jackman said, “Okay.”

“I've downloaded a map to all of your slates. I've noted the places Haric stopped and the people he talked to. I recommend that you start with the last people he saw before he disappeared. Ix and I will send information to your slates as we get it. I'm going to be watching you, so if whatever happened to Haric happens to you, I may be able to record it.”

“How are you going to watch us out here?” The Jackman asked.

“There are open cameras throughout the exchanges that any AI can access.”

“Just AIs?” The Jackman looked unhappy. “Not people?”

“It would take you seven point three days to watch the combined video from five minutes of all of the cameras through Exchange Four.”

Evie leaned forward, looking excited. “Can you show me the video you have of Haric?”

“I've put it on your slate.”

“So, what is Ix doing to catch Koren?”

“It's studying the Deeping Rules.”

“So what should we do now?”

“I'm watching video,” Evie said. And she was, one earphone dangling against her chest and the other in her left ear, so she had one for the AI and one for the video.

“I'll look at the layout of Exchange Four,” The Jackman offered, pulling his slate out of his pocket.

Onor sat back, the train seat digging against his shoulders. The blue-haired woman still snored behind him, the robot still appeared asleep, and the two men had stopped talking. One was absorbed in his slate and the other appeared to be listening intently to something. Even though absolutely no one was looking at them, Onor couldn't shake the idea that they were being watched.

Satyana stood in the doorway, her unnaturally blue eyes staring from Ruby to the medical robot and back again. Fury tightened her jaw so sharply that Ruby took a step back. She pressed into Jali who murmured, “Easy.”

“Sit down,” Satyana said.

“I have to go sing. Really. It's time.” Whatever information kept the robot here and brought Satyana had to be cruel. “If you've got bad news, you can tell me after the concert.”

Satyana kept looking at Ruby as she said, “Jali. Go tell Naveen she'll be a few minutes late.”

Jali put a hand on Ruby's back, as if holding her up. “I want to stay.”

Satyana shook her head.

Jali looked at Ruby, who nodded. “I'll tell you what she says.” Jali stepped away, slowly, and then hesitated again by the door, looking back. “Go on,” Ruby said. “Keep Naveen out of here until I come out. He's not going to like me being late.”

The look of betrayal on Jali's face was almost enough for Ruby to call her back in. She would have, except for the stoic, barely contained anger that sat on Satyana like a curse word.

As soon as the door closed behind Jali, Ruby snapped “What?”

“How long have you been sick?”

“I'm just tired.”

Satyana stared at her, unmoving. Unyielding.

“I can't stop here. If I stop, people will starve.”

“You're almost dead.”

Ruby blinked at her, a sudden wave of shivers running up her spine and goose bumps rising on her arms. She stood up. “I'm not.”

“How much weight have you lost?”

“I don't know.”

“Has Jali had to take in clothes? Make them smaller?”

“Almost everything's new.” She heard the childishness of her words, but there wasn't anything else she could do. She was fine. She had to be. Everyone needed her.

“Are you nauseous?”

“Sometimes.”

“When was the last time you felt well?”

“Before we got here.”

“Are there other people sick?”

Ruby hadn't asked Marcelle for an update in the last week or so before she left. She'd been caught up in finances and clothes and getting ready, in Aleesi and Ix, and a thousand other things. “Yes. Some. A few died. Early. We thought it was just from being here. Koren tested us all when she came, but maybe she missed the babies. Her damned robot. Looked just like the one you sent. Maybe it was the one you sent.” But then Satyana hadn't been there, not on the ship. “Anyway, most people are getting better.” She was babbling.

Satyana spoke slowly, as if that were the only way Ruby might hear her. “You need treatment. It probably won't save you. Maybe nothing can save you now.”

Ruby sat and breathed, hard and ragged.

Satyana sat in the one extra chair that was there. “I'm mad at the whole damned universe. I need you, and you need me. The two of us are enough to make change.” She sat forward, looking closely at Ruby, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You have to get better. The robot says you can't, but you've done other impossible things.”

Ruby sat and stared at her for a moment. She needed to go. Naveen wasn't going to wait forever, and there was an audience out there. “What did the robot tell you I have?”

“An allergy. A deep one. We call it the Death of Hope.”

“The Death of Hope?” How could anyone name something that badly?

“There are things we put in our food to keep us young. That's probably what Koren was testing you for reactions to. When we first started with this, some people died. Not many. But after the first generation, no one died. We thought it was gone, forever. It's like cancer, which used to kill us but doesn't any more. The Death of Hope makes you thin and it steals your energy and grows things inside you that kill you. But then, some cancers were like this; caused by things that were meant to do good.”

“Our people die of cancer,” Ruby said. “Some of the old. We know enough to find it in the young, though. If I got it now, I'd live.”

Satyana shook her head.

“What if I don't eat any more of your food? What if I go away?”

“That would have worked if you'd known before you came to live here. It's too deep now. By the time the Death of Hope shows up—by the time it steals your energy, it's really, really hard to fix. We'll try. We'll try very hard.”

Ruby's thoughts seemed to batter against a ball of pain that she couldn't let come up yet. It felt so sharp it seemed to be physical, even though she'd just been giggling with Jali. She had been feeling better than she had been for a few days. But now . . . now there was a monster inside her that might come out and steal her joy, her strength. “Some of our children lived through it. I don't remember the details, but Marcelle could tell you.” She wanted to clutch her stomach but she didn't let herself.

“What about the adults?”

Ruby shook her head. “I don't know. I have to sing. I'm going to sing and then we're going to talk about this. Jali is going to be with me.”

“She's not sick?” Satyana asked.

“No.” Ruby shook her head. “No, she's always been thin.”

“I'll have the robot test her.”

There was no time to think about any of this now. “Listen to me sing.” She could barely talk without collapsing. She stood up and stretched and breathed. “I have to sing before I think about this.”

Satyana whispered, “I'm sorry.”

“It'll be a good concert.” Ruby held her hand out to Satyana. “Come listen from backstage. But don't tell Naveen. Not yet.”

Satyana shook her head. “I have something else to do. Good luck.”

“What happens next?”

“The bot stays with you and it starts treatments.”

Ruby forced her hands not to shake. “Will it hurt?”

Satyana offered a small smile. “You already hurt.” She leaned in and gave Ruby a hug. Her arms were strong and she smelled like cinnamon and stim. “Go.”

Ruby went.

Exchange Four felt twice as big as Exchange Five. Spaceship crews wandered here and there, some with clear purpose and some gawking. Onor saw children and families and even a few people that looked old.

They passed the job market, which was still half-open. Holographic pictures of spaceships spun above the aisles with open positions scrolling through the air under them. Onor leaned over to Evie and whispered in her ear. “We should remember this. There may be a day we need to get off the
Deep
.”

“I'd love to get out of here.” Her gaze kept sweeping the crowd as if she could force Haric to emerge.

The Jackman stared at his slate, trying to orient it to the rows of booths. The Exchange felt so confusing that Onor was glad of Aleesi's voice in his ear, saying, “Fourth booth on the left. Haric stopped and looked on his way in. Come back later though. First, find the last place. The Jackman has it as a bright yellow dot.”