The Ascension Factor - Destination Void 04
Frank Herbert
Bill Ransom
1988
1. Destination Void
2. The Jesus Incident
3. The Lazarus Effect
-> 4. The Ascension Factor

INTRODUCTION
When Frank and I began The Jesus Incident series in 1978 we made only one agthraetemoeunrt:work together would be fun, that at no time would the story interfere with frieWndeshsihpo. ok on that, as fellow natives of thPeuyallupvalley are accustomed to dWo. e had been friends for a long time, and
intended to keep the friendshiWp. riting a book together, like buying a car together, was something we approached with due caution.
It was a little like getting married, this coauthor busAinsesist. turns out, each book in the series was
marked by a personal tragedy for one or the other of us, but our stories
Osavveerd fiufste. en years I
never laughed so hard or so often with anyone as I did working withThFeraAnks.cension Factor, a book that we had planned to enjoy together, weathered the greatest tragedy of thTehme baollo. k goes on. I guess that's the way it is with writers.
Frank worked through the plotting and character development of The Ascension Factor, but circumstance left the last writing chore to Amfete. r all these years it was easy to keep him here looking over my shoulder, muttering one-liners as I wrote up the last of what we'dMsytargterde.atest fear was
that I would lose that sense of presence, of good companionship, when this bookWeitnhdeFdr.ank, of all people, I should have known better.
Bill Ransom
Port Townsend
1987

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneatiht: is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest. . . .
-- William Shakespeare, The MerchantVeonfice, Vashon Literature Repository
Jephtha Twain suffered the most exquisite pain for three days, and that was thTehepoWinat.rrior's Union thugs were professionals, if he passed out he simply wasted theiIrntihmise.three days at their hands he had never passed oTuth.ey knew that he was no good to them right from thTe hsetaret.st of
his agony had been the penalty he paid for wasting theirWtihmene. they were through tormenting him at last they hooked him up, as he knew they would, to the obsidian cliff below the higShurbevaecrhseivse. s
were often hooked up to die in full view of the settlement as a lesson -- the exact meaning of the lesson was never clear.
The three from the WarrioUrn'sionhooked him up there in the dark, as they'd taken him in the dark, and
Jephtha thought them cowards for thHisi.s left eyelid was less swollen than the right, and he managed to
work it openA.
pale hint of dawn pried the starry sky away from the black cheek ofPrtehdeawsena.
lights of a commuter ferry wallowed at the dark dockside down below him in the seLttilkeemethnet. rest, it loaded up the shift changes of workers at Project Voidship.
Running lights from the submersible ferries flickered the night sea's blackness all the way from the settlement at Kalaloch out to the project's launch tower comAplemx.aze of organic dikes and rock jetties fanned out both up- and downcoast of Kalaloch, supporting the new aquaculture projects of Merman Mercantile, none of which had hired Jephtha after his fishing gear had been seized and his
license revoked.His partner had kept a couple of fish for himself instead of registering them dockside.
The Director's "new economy" prohibited this, and the Director's henchmen made a lesson of the both of

them.
Under the opening sky of morning Jephtha felt himself lighten, then separate from hHise bpoedeyle. d
the pain from himself, his self wriggling free of its wounded skin like a molted skreet, and watched the sagging wretch of his flesh from atop a boulder a couple of metersThaiws afya.r south, Pandora's days
lasted nearly fourteen hoursH. e wondered how many more breaths he had left in his sack of cracked ribs and pain.
Marica, he thought, my Marica and our three little TwhoetsW. too. . . .
arrior'sUnionsaid they'd hunt them down,
They would think maybe she had something toThteelyl. would claim that his woman and their three little ones were dangerous, subversiveT. hey would start on the children to make her talk and she could say nothing, she knew nothingJ.ephtha squeezed his good eye closed against his blood and shame.
The Director's "special squad" of the WarrUionri'osnhad pierced Jephtha's chest and back with maki hooks, steel fishhooks with a cruel incurve the size of his tThhuemyb.caught the glimmer of fresh daylight like armor across his chesTt.he steel snaffles and cable leaders hung to his knees likeTahekigltl.itter of
the hooks, as well as the smell of his blood, would attract the dasher that would kill him.
Jephtha had caught thousands of maki on hooks like these, set tens of thousands of these ganions on
hundreds of longlinesM.
ost of them hung free now, clinking with his movements or the rare morning
breeze. His weight hung from two dozen of themtwe-l-ve puncturing the skin of his chest, and twelve through his backH. e thought this had a significance, too, but they had not told him whaBt uit twhaeys. had told him what he'd wanted to know for years.
The Shadows are reaJle!phtha played the thought over and ovTehr.e Shadows are real!
Everyone had heard about these Shadows, but no one he knew had ever mNoetwoinne.the last few months had come the mysterious broadcasts that came on the holo or the telly or the radio made by "Shadowbox." Everybody said those were the work of the ShadoTwhesr.e were stories in every village about their fight to depose the Director, Raja Flattery, and hamstring his hired TmhuescNlei.ghtly News reported daily on Shadow activitiedse: toured supplies, food theft, sabotagAe.nything unpopular or
harmful to the Director's cause was laid at the Shadows' hatch, including natural d"isSahsatedrosw. box," using pirated air space and great expertise, reported on the Director.

Jephtha had whispered around many a hatchway trying to join up with the Shadows, but no word came forward. "Shadowbox" had given him enough hope that he had set out to strike his owHne blow.
understood, now, that this was how the Shadows worked.
He'd wanted to destroy the seat of power itself -- the main electrical station between the Director's private compound and the sprawling manufacturing settlement adjacent to it, Kalaloch.
The power station that Jephtha chose was a hydrogen retrieval plant that supplied hydrogen, oxygen and electricity to all of the subcontractors in the Director's space proBgrlaomw.ing the plant would set
Flattery's precious Project Voidship and his orbiting factory on its heels for aThwehipleo.or of the town were used to doing without, Jephtha reasonTedh.ousands didn't even have electricitIyt. would be this new Voidship project and Flattery who would be most cripHpleeds.hould have known that the Director's security had already thought of that.
The interrogation had been very old-fashioned, as most of themHwe'edreb. een caught easily and forced to stand naked under a hood for three days while being tortured for Nn owhinag.host of steel snaffles clinked against hooks whenever any of his muscles moHviesd.wounds, for the most part, had
stopped bleeding.That just made the flies sting him mTowreo. fluttering their wings in some ritual dance, but neither bit.
poisonous flatwings crawled his left leg,
Dashers, he prayedI.f it's anything, let it be dashers and quTihcakt.
was what they'd hung him out there
for -- dasher baitT. he hooded dasher would strike him hard, as is their habit, then it would get hung up on the maki hooks and snare itsTelhf.e hide would bring a pretty price in the village mIatrkweat.s an amusement to the security guards, and he'd heard them planning to split the change they'd get for the hide. He didn't want to be nibbled to death, a dasher would accommodate himHnisicemlyo.uth was so
dry from thirst that his lips split every time he coughed.
In this hungry downslide of his life Jephtha had dared to hope for twtoo tjhoiinngsu:p with the
Shadows, and to glimpse Her Holiness, Crista GHaleli. had tried his best with the ShadoHwesr.e,
chained to the rocks overlooking the Director's compound, Jephtha watched the stirrings of the great household through his darkening vision.
One of them might be her, he thouHgeht.was lightheaded, and he puffed his chest against the hooks and thought, If I were a Shadow, I'd get her out of there.
Crista Galli was the holy innocent, a mysterious young woman born deep in the wild kelp beds

twenty-four years agoW.
hen Flattery's people blew up a rogue kelp bed five years back, Crista Galli
surfaced with the debrisH. ow she'd been raised by the kelp underwater and delivered back to humankind was one of those mysteries that Jephtha and his family accepted simply as "miracle."
It was rumored that Crista Galli held the hope for Pandora's salPveaotipolne. claimed that she would feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the dyTihnge. Director, a Chaplain/Psychiatrist, kept her locked away.
"She needs protection," Flattery had sa"iSdh. e grew up with the kelp, she needs to know what it is to be human."
How ironic that Flattery would set out to teach her how to beJehpuhmthaan.knew now, with the clarity of his pain-transcendence, that she was the Director's prisoner down there as much as all Pandorans were his slavesE. xcept for now, at the base of the high reaches, Jephtha's chains had been invisible: hunger chains, propaganda chains, the chain of fear that rattled in his head like cold teeth.
He prayed that the security would not find Marica and theThweotsse.ttlement sprawled, people hid people like fish among fish.
Maybe . . .
He shook his head, clink-clinking the terrible hooks and snaHfeflefse.lt nothing except the cool breeze that wafted up from morning low tiIdteb. rought the familiar iodine scent of kelp decomposing on the beach.
There!At that port high in the main building . . .
The glimpse was gone, but Jephtha's heart raHceisd.good eye was not focusing and a new darkness was upon him, but he was sure that the form he'd seen had been the pale Crista Galli.
She can't know of this, he thouIgfhts.he knew what a monster Raja Flattery is, and she could do it, she would destroy himS. urely if she knew, she would save us all.

His thoughts again turned to Marica and the wThoets.thoughts were not so much thoughts as dreams. He saw her with the children, hand in hand, traversing an upcoast field in the Tshuenlisginhgt.le sun was bright but not scorching, there were no buTghse.ir bare feet were cushioned by the fleshy blossoms of a thousand kinds of flowers . . .
A dasher shriek from somewhere below jerked him out of his Hdreeakmn.ew there was no field without bugs, nowhere on Pandora to stroll barefoot through blossHome sk.new that Vashon security and the Warrior's Union were known for their persistence, their efficiency, their ruthleTsshneeyssw. ere
after his wife and their children, and they would find Hthiesml.ast hope was that the dasher would find him before they hooked what was left of Marica up here by his side.
Again we have let another Chaplain/Psychiatrist kill tens of thousands of us -- Islander and Merman alike. This new C/P, Raja Flattery, calls himself "the Director," but he wWillesehea.ve kissed the ring
and bared the throat for the last time.
-- First Shadowbox broadcast, 5 Bunratti 493
First light through the single plasma-glass pane stroked a plain white pillow with its rosIyt
fingers.
outlined the sparse but colorful furnishings of this cubby in shades oTf hgeracyu.bby itself, though
squarely on land and squarely gridded to a continent, reflected traditions of a culture freely afloat for nearly five centuries on Pandora's seas.

These Islanders, the biowizards of Pandora, grew everythTinhgey.
grew their cups and bowls, the
famous chairdogs, insulation, bondable organics, rugs, shelves and the islands themsTelhviess.cubby
was organically furnished, and under the old law warranted a heft of supply chits that converted easily to food coupons.Black-market coupons were a cheap enough price for the Director to pay to assimilate
the Islander culture that had been dashed to the rocks the day he splashed down on the sea.
As the grip of dawn strengthened into morning it further brightened the single wall-hanging of clasped hands that enriched this small cubbRye.d and blue fishes swam the border, their delicate fins interlacing broad green leaves of kelOp.range fin and blue leaf joined at the foot of the hanging to form a stylized Oracle. The tight stitch of the pattern and its crisp colors all rippled with the progress Aof dawn. sleeper's chest rose and fell gently on the bed beneath them.
The night and its shadows shrank back from the plasma-glass window at the head ofIsltahnedebresd. had always enjoyed the light and in building their islands they let it in wherever thTeyheycoupledr.sisted in light, even though most of them were now solidly marooned oInn lathnedi.r undersea dwellings
Mermen put pictures on their walls of the things they wallIsolaunt d-e-rs preferred the light, the breezes, the smells of life and the liviTnhg.is cubby was small and spare, but light.
This was a legal cubby, regularly inspected, a part of the shopkeeper's qIut awrtearss.a second-floor
street room above the new Ace of Cups coffee shop at Kalaloch from a steel rod beneath the window.
Aharhbuogr.e white coffee cup swung
Almost synchronous with the sleeper's breathing came the slup slup of waves against the bulkhead below. Respirations caught, then resumed at the occasional splashings of a waking squawk and the wind-chime effect of sail riggings that clapped against a host of masts.
Dawn brightened the room enough to reveal a seated figure beside tThehebepdo.sture was one of alert stillness. This stillness was broken by an occasional move of cup to mouth, then back to Tthhee knee. figure sat, back to the wall, beside the plaz and facing theFhirast hli.ght glinted from a shining,
intricately inlaid Islander cup of hardwood and mother-of-peTahrle. neither delicate nor calloused.
hand that held the cup was male,
The figure leaned forward once, noting the depth of the sleeper's odd, open-eyed sTluhme bperro.gress
of light across the bay outside their room was reflected in the hardening of shadows inside, and their relentless crawl.

The watcher, Ben Ozette, pulled the cover higher over the sleeper's bare shoulder to ward off morning dampness. The pupils in her green irises stayed wide with the onset ofHdeawclno.sed her eyes for her
with his thumbS. he didn't seem to minTd.he shudder that passed over him uncontrollably was not due to the morning chill.
She was a picture of white -- white hair, eyelashes, eyebrows and a very fair porceHlaeirn sshkaigng.y
white hair was cropped around her face, falling nearly to her shoulders in thIte wbaska. to those green, bright eyeHs.is hand strayed to the pillow, then back.
perfect frame
His profile in the light revealed the high cheekbones, aquiline nose and high eyebrows of his Merman ancestry. In his years as a reporter for Holovision, Ben Ozette had become famous, his face as familiar planetwide as that of a brother or a husbLanisdte.ners worldwide recognized his voice immediateOlyn.
their Shadowbox broadcasts, however, he became writer and cameramaster and Rico got out in the lights -- in disguise, of courNseo. w their family, friends, coworkers would feel the snap of Flattery's wrath.
They hadn't exactly had time to pDlaunr.ing their weekly interviews, they both noticed how everyone, including compound security, stayed well out of microphone range as they Ttahpeedn.ext time they
walked the grounds as they taped, interviewing with guTshteon.
last night they simply walked oRuitc.o
did the restT. he prospect of being hunted by Flattery's goons dried Ben's mouth aHelitstliep.ped a little more water.
Maybe it's true, maybe she's a construction, he thoSuhgeh'ts.
too perfectly beautiful to be an accident.
If the Director's memos were right, she was a construction, something grown by the kelp, not someone born of a humanW. hen dredged up at sea she was judged by the examining physician to be "a
green-eyed albino female, about twenty, in respiratory distress secondary to ingestion of sea water;
agitated, recent memory excellent, remote memory judged to be poor, possibly absent. . . ."
It had been five years since she washed out of the sea and into the news, and in that five years Flattery had allowed no one but his lab people nearBheenr.has asked to do the story out of curiosity, and
wound up pursuing more than he'd bargained Hfoer'.d learned to hate the Director, and as he watched
Crista's fitful sleep, he wasn't the least bit sorry.
He had to admit that, yes, he knew from the first that it had always been a matHteer'doffotuimghet. Flattery and Holovision too openly and too long.

A recent Shadowbox accused Holovision of being a monopoly of misinformation, Flattery's propaganda agent that would not regain credibility until it became worker-owBneend.had leveled the same attack at
the production assistant the previous day.
Ben found himself being preempted by propagandistic little specials that Flattery's technicians were grinding out.Ben and Rico had bought or built their own cameras and laserbases to minimize the company's intimidation and Flattery's interferencNe.ow they had full-time, nonpaying jobs as air pirates with Shadowbox.
And fugitives, he thought.
Ben Ozette eased back into the old chairdog and let the sleeOpefr allile.the deadliness on Pandora,
this sleeper could be the most deadIlty.was rumored that people had died at her touch, and this was not just the Director's professional rumor mBille.n had dared touch her, and he was not yet one of the dead. It was rumored she was very, very bright.
He whispered her name under his breath.
Crista Galli.
Her breathing skipped, she sniffed once, twice and settled down.
Crista Galli had green eyeEsv.en now they opened ever so slightly, turning toward the sun, visible but not waking.
Eerie.
Ben's last love, his longest love, had brown Seyhe .had also been his only love, practically speaking.
That was BeatrizH.
er coffee-colored eyes became vivid to him now against the shaYdoews,s.Beatriz.
They were still good friends, and she would take this Bheanr'ds. heart jumped a beat whenever their wakes crossed, and they crossed often at Holovision.

Beatriz took on her series about Flattery's space program, she was away for weeks
Batena time.
freelanced docudramas on earthquake survivors, Islander relocation camps and an in-depth series on the kelp. His latest project featured Crista Galli and her life since her rescue in the kelp.
Flattery agreed to the series and Ben agreed to confine the material to her rescue and subsequent rehabilitation. This project led him into Raja Flattery's most sacred closets, and further away from Beatriz. The Holovision rumor mill claimed that she and the Orbiter Commander, Dwarf MacIntosh,
were seeing each other latelyT. hrough his own choice Ben and Beatriz had been separated for nearly a year. He knew she'd find someone else eventuaNllyo.w that it was real he decided he'd better get used
to it.
Beatriz Tatoosh was the most stunning correspondent on Holovision, and one of the tLouikgeheBste.n, she did field work for Holovision Nightly NeSwhse. also hosted a weekly feature on the Director's "Project Voidship," a project of great religious and economic controvBeresaytr.iz championed the
project, Ben remained a vocal opponeHnte. least she didn't have to be on the run.
Those dark eyes of hers . . .
was glad he'd kept her away from the Shadowbox Aptlan.
Ben snapped himself alert and shook off the vision of BHeaetrrizw. ide eyes and broad smile dissolved in the sunrise.
The woman who slept, Crista Galli, put quite a stutter into his heartbeat the first time hTehosuagwh her. she was young, she had more encyclopedic knowledge than anyone he'd eveFracmtsetw. ere her thing. About her own life, her nearly twenty years down under, she apparently knew veBryenl'isttle.
agreement with Flattery prohibited much probing of this while they were inside the Preserve.
She had dreams of value and so he let her dHre mw.ould ask about them when she woke, keep them with his notes, and the two of them would make a plan.
This, he realized, was something of a dream in Tithserlfe. rest of it as soon as he was told what it was.
was already a plan, and he would follow the

Today for the first time she would see what the people had made of the myth that was Crista Galli, the holy being that had been kept away from them for soShloengc.ould not know, closed away from
humans as she'd been for all of her twenty-four years, what it meant that she had become the people's god. He hoped that, when the crunch came, she would be a merciful god.
Someone entered the building below and Ben tensed, setting his cupHaesipdea.tted his jacket pocket where the weight of his familiar recorder had been replaced by Rico's old Tlahsegreunw. as the rush of water and the chatter of a grinder downstaAirsr.ich coffee fragrance wafted up to him, set his stomach growling. He sipped more water from the cup and half-relaxed.
Ben felt his memories pale with the light, but the light did not still hiTshuinngesaswe.ere out of control in the world, that had made him uneasy for yHeaers.had a chance to change the world, and he wasn't letting go of it.
Flattery's totalitarian fist was something that Beatriz had refused tHoesreed.reams lay out among the stars and she would believe almost anything if it would take herBethne'sred. reams lay at his feHete. believed that Pandorans could make this the best of all worlds, once the Director moveNdowasidthea.t things were out of control in his personal life it made him, for the first time, a little bit afraid.
Ben was glad for the ligHhet. reminisced in the dark but he always felt he thought best in tThehelight.
fortune, the future of millions of lives lay sleeping in this humanity or its destroying angel.
Or neither.
Ccurbisbtay. could be either the savior of
Shadowbox would do its best to give her the chance at Bsaevnioarn. d Crista Galli stood at the vortex of the two conflicts dividing PandoFral:attery's handhold on their throats, and the Avata/Human standoff that kept it there.
Crista Galli had been born in Avata, the Skheelp.represented a true Avata/Human mix, reputed to be the sole survivor of a long line of poets, prophets and genetic tinkering.
She had been educated by the kelp's store of genetic memories, human and otShherewkisnee.w
without being taughtS. he'd heard echoes of the best and the worst of humanity fed to her mind for nearly

twenty years.There were some other echoes, too.
The Others, the thoughts of Avata itself, those were the echoes that the Director feared.
"The kelp's sent her to spy on us," Flattery was heard to have said "eNarolyteollnin. g what it's done to her subconscious."
Crista Galli was one of the great mysteries of genTehtiecsf.aithful claimed she was a miracle made flesh.
"I did it myself," she told him during their first interview, "as we all do."
Or, as she put it in their last interv"Iiewm:ade good selections from the DNA buffet."
Flattery's fear had kept Crista under what he called "protective custody" for the past five years while the people clamored worldwide for a glimpsTeh.e Director's Vashon Security Force provided the
protection. It was the Vashon Security Force that hunted them now.
She could be a monster, Ben thouSgohmt. e kind of time bomb set by Avata to go off . . W. whyh?en?
The great body of kelp that some called "Avata" directed the flow of all currents and, therefore, all shipping planetwide.It calmed the ravages of Pandora's two-sun system, making land and the planet itself possible. Ben, and many others, believed that Avata had a mind of its own.
Crista Galli stirred, tucked herself further under the quilt and resumed her even brBeeanthiknnge. w that
killing her now while she slept might possibly save the world and hHime sehlafd. among the rabid right, among those accustomed to working with Flattery.
Possibly.
heard that argument

But Ozette believed now that she could save the world for Avata and human alike, and for this he vowed to guard her every breath -- for this, and for the stirrings of love that strained in old traces.
Spider Nevi and his thugs hunted the both of themBnenowh.ad wooed her away from the Director's very short leash, but Crista did the rCersits.ta and RicoB. en knew well that the leash would become a
lash, a noose for himself and possibly for her next time and he had better see to it that there was no next time. Flattery had made it clear that there was nothing in the world more deadly, more valuable than
Crista Galli.It was certain the man who'd made off with her wouldn't be lightly spared.
Ben was forty nowA.t fifteen he'd been plunged into war with the sinking of Guemes MIsalannyd.
thousands died that day, brutally slashed, burned, drowned at the attack of a huge Merman submersible, a kelp-trimmer that burst through the center of the old man-made island, lacerating everything in its path. Ben had been rimside when the sudden lurch and collapse sent him tumbling into the pink-frothed sea.
The years since and the horrors he had seen gave him a wisdom of sorts, an instinct for trouble and the escape hatch.This wisdom was only wisdom as long as he kept alive, and he remembered how easily he
had thrown instinct out the porthole the time he fell in love with HBeathraizd.
not thought that could
happen again until the day he met Crista Galli, a meeting that had been half-motivated at the possibility of seeing Beatriz somewhere inside Flattery's compounCdr.ista had whispered, "Help me," that day, and
while swimming in her green-eyed gaze he'd said, simply, "Yes."
In her head sleeps the Great Wisdom, he thoIufghsht.e can unlock it without destroying herself, she can help us all.
Even if it wasn't true, Ben knew that Flattery thought it was true, and that was good enough.
She rolled over, still asleep, and turned her face up at the prospect of the dim light.
Keep you away from light, they say, he thoKugehetp.
you away from kelp, keep you away from the
sea. Don't touch youI.n his back pocket he carried the precautionary instructions in case he accidentally touched her bare skin.
And what would Operations think if they knew I'd kissed her?

He chuckled, and marveled at the power beside him in that room.
The Director had already seen to it that no interview of Crista Galli would everNboewa, iraetd.
Flattery's direction, Holovision had lured Beatriz with an extra hour of air time a week glorifying Flattery's
"Project Voidship."
Beatriz is running blind, he thougShhte. the price that Flattery's exacting.
loves the idea of exploring the void so much that she's ignored
Flattery's fear of Crista's relationship with the kelp had kept her underThgeuaDrdi.rector sequestered her "for her own protection, for study, for the safety of all humaDnkeisnpdi.t"e weekly access to Flattery's private compound, Beatriz showed no interest in Crista GShaelli.lobbied his support, however, when Ben had requested the interviews.
Maybe she hoped to see more of me, too.
Beatriz was wedded to her career, just as Ben was, and something as nebulous as a career made pretty intangible competition.Ben couldn't understand how Beatriz let the Crista Galli story slip through her
fingers. Today he was very happy that she had.

Fire smolders in a soul more surely than it does under ashes.
-- Gaston Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis of Fire
Kalan woke up from his nestling spot between his mother's large breasts to loud curses and a scuffle a few meters down The LinTe.he chime overhead tolled five, the same as his fingers, same as his years.
He did not look in the direction of the scuffle because his mother told him it was bad luck to look at
people having bad luckA.
pair of line patrolmen appeared with their clTuhbesr.e were the thudding
noises again and the morning quieted down.
He and his warm mother stayed wrapped in her drape, the same one that had shaded them the day before. This morning, at the chime of five, they had been in The Line for seventeeHnishomuorsth. er
warned him how long it would Abet. noon the previous day Kalan had looked forward to seeing the inside of the food place but after everything he'd seen in The Line he just wanted to go home.
They had slept the last few hours at the very gates of the fooNdowplahce. heard footsteps behind the gates, the metallic unclick of locks.
His mother brushed off their clothes and gathered all of their conHtaeinearlsr.eady wore the pack she'd made him, he hadn't taken it off since they turned in theirKsaclraanp.wanted to be ready when she negotiated rice, because carrying the rice back home was hisThjeoyb. had made it right up to the warehouse door at midnight, then had it locked in their Hfaicsesm. other helped him read the sign at the door: "Closed for cleaning and restocking 12-5H."e wanted to start his job carrying the rice now so he could be going home.
"Not yet."His mother tugged his shirttail to restrain hi"mT.hey're not readyT. hey'd just beat us back."
An older woman behind Kalan clucked her tongue and collected a breath on an inward hiss.
"Look there," she whispered, and lifted a bony finger to point at the figure of a man trotting down the street. He looked backward toward the docks more than forward, so he stumbled a lot, and he ran with his hands over his earAs.s he ran by he crouched, wild-eyed, as though everyone in The Line would eat him. As two of the security moved to cross the street, the short young man skittered away down the

street uttering frightened, out-of-breath cries that Kalan didn't understand.
"Driftninny," the old woman sa"idO.ne of those family islands must've groundIet'ds. hardest for them."
She raised her reedy voice to lecture pi"tcThh:e unfathomable wrath of Ship will strike the infidel Flattery
. . ."
"Shaddup!" a security barked, and she muttered herself to silence.
Then there arose in The Line a grumbled discussion of the difficulties of adjustment, the same kind of talk that Kalan had heard muttered around the home fire when they first settled here fromHethedidsena't.
remember the sea at all, but his mother told him stories about how beautiful their little island was, and she named all the generations that had drifted their island before Kalan was born.
The Line woke up and stretched and passed the word back in a serpentin"eKreiypsplue:p.""Hey, keys are up!""Keys, sister.Keys up."
His mother stood, and leaned against the wall to balance herself as she strapped on her pack.
"Hey, sister!"
A scar-faced security reached between Kalan and his mother and tapped the side of her leg with his stick.
"Off the warehouseC. 'mon, you know better . . ."
She stepped right up to his nose as she shouldered her carryall, but she didnH'te sdpiedakn.ot back down. Kalan had never seen anyone who didn't back down to his mother.
"First tickets up, alphabetical order, left to right," heTshaisid.time he tapped his stick against her bottom. "Get moving."

Then they were inside a press of bodies and through the gates, into a long narrWowhereomKa. lan
had expected to see the food place, he saw instead a wall with a line Aonf sattatellnsd. ant and a security
armed with stunstick flanked each stall, and out of each one jutted what he thought must be the nose or tongue of some great demon.
His mother hurried him and their things to the furthest stall.
"Those are conveyer belts," she explain"eTdh. ey go way back into the building and bring out our order
to us and they drop it heWree. fetches it for us."
give our order and our coupons to this woman and someone inside
"But I thought we could go inside."
"I can't take you inside," she s"aSido.me things we can get on the way home when the market I'ollpens. take you around to see all the booths and vendors . . ."
"Order."
His mother handed the list to the guard, who handed it to the atTtehnedattte.ndant had only one eye, and she had to hold the list close to her face to Sreloawd lyit,. she crossed off certain itemKsa. lan
couldn't see which onesH. e couldn't read everything on the list, but his mother had read it to him and he
knew everything by where it wHase.
could see that about half of what they wanted was crossed out.
The attendant typed the remainder of the list onto a keybItoahrudm.
med and clicked and then they
waited for their food to come down the great belt out of the wall.
Kalan could stand at the very end of the belt and look along its length, but it didn't give him a very good view of the insides of the food plHacee. could see that there were lots of people and lots of stacks of
food, most of it packaged.
His mother told him they would get their fish from a vendor Houetstihdoeu. ght it funny, his father was a
fisherman but they couldn't eat his fish, they had to buy it from vendors like everyOone melsaen.
who
had fished with his father for two years disappeaKreadla.n heard his parents talking, and they said it was because he smuggled a few fish home instead of turning them all in at the docks.

The first package off the belt was his rice, wrapped in a package of pretty green paper from the
Islanders. It was heavier than he thought five kilos wouldHibsem. inside his backpack, a perfect fit.
other helped him slip the package
Suddenly there were shouts from all around them at Hoencae.nd his mother were knocked down and
they curled together for protection under the lip of the conveyeHr ebaevlyt.
doors slid down to close the
opening over each belt and the larger gates that they'd come through clangeAd warehouse and the security was battling them off.
A dozen or more burst through before the gate was shut.
"We're hungry now!" one of them shou"tWed.e're hungry now!"
mshoubt. had rushed the
They fought with the guards and Kalan saw blood puddle the deck besiTdheehmime.n from the mob carried strange-looking weapons -- sharpened pieces of metal with tape wrapped for a handle, sharpened pieces of wireP.eople furiously slashed and poked and clubbed each oTthheer. Line people like Kalan and his mother curled up wherever they could.
One of the looters grabbed Kalan's pack but the boy held oTnhteigmhta. n swung the pack up and snapped it like a whip, but Kalan still heldThoen.man's sunken-eyed face was spattered with blood from a cut over his nose, his gasping breath reeked of rotten teeth.
"Let go, boy, or I'll cut you."
Kalan had a good grip with both hands, and he kAepgt uiat.rd struck the looter on the back of his neck with a stunstick set on higKha. lan felt the tiniest tingle of it transmitted from the man's hand to the bag to Kalan. The man dropped with an "oof," then he didn't move any more than the bag of rice.
Kalan's mother grabbed him and hugged him as the guards clubbed the rest of the looters unconscious. He tried not to look at the pulpy faces and splatterings of blood, but it seemed they were eAvesrywhere. he burrowed his face deep between his mother's breasts, he felt her weeping.

She stroked his head and wept quietly, and he heard the security dragging off the bodies, beating some of them who were coming around.
"Oh, babe," his mother cried and whispered, "this is no place fTorhisyoius. no place for anybody."
Kalan ignored the barking of guards around them and concentrated on his mother's softness, and on the tight grip he kept on their rice.
Human hybernation is to animal hibernation as animal hibernation is to constant wakeIfnulnitesss. reduction of life processes, hybernation approached absolute staIst isi.s nearer death than life.
-- Dictionary of Science, 155th edition
The Director, Raja Flattery, woke once again with a scream in hisThtheronaitg.htmare tonight was typical. A tenaculous mass had snatched his head and wrenched it off his shoIut ldisrms.embered his body but it held his head in its own slithering members so that he could watch tThheeactetinotnac. les
became fingers, a woman's fingers, and when they pulled the meat from his body's bones there was only a sound like a match flaring in a stairwHe l.woke up trying to gather his flesh and reassemble it on the bone.

Nightmares like this one had dogged him throughout the twenty-five years since the hybernation ordeal.
He had not wanted to admit it, but it was true that they were worse since the incident with his shipmate, Alyssa Marsh.There was that pattern, too. .N.ig.ht after night he felt the raw pain in each muscle anew
as something pulled his veins and fibers apHairst. early training as a Chaplain/Psychiatrist on Moonbase had been little help this timTeh.e physician had given up trying to heal himself.
Get used to it, he told himsLeolfo.ks like it's going to be here for a while.
Even in its after-fright reflection, his face in the cubbyside mirror oozed Hdiissdauipnr.aked black eyebrows raked upward even further, adding to the appearance of diHsdeainfe.lt he wore that look well, he would remember to use it.
What color were her eyes?
He couldn't rememberB. rown, he guessedE. verything about Alyssa Marsh was becoming indistinct as sun-bleached newsprint.He'd thought she would become unimportant, as well.
Flattery's brown eyes stared down their own reflecHtioisn.attention was caught by faint flickerings of
colored lights through the plaz from a kelp bed beyond his cItubwbays.
a much more mature stand than
he'd suspected.Early studies debated whether the kelp communicated by such liIgfhstso., to whom?
At the Director's orders, all kelp stands linked to Current Control were pruned back at the first sign of the lights.A safety precaution.
After the lights, that's when the trouble stHarets.was sure that that patch had been pruned just a week ago at his directiveB. oth Marsh and MacIntosh had harped on the kelp so much that Flattery had stopped listening to themT.he one thing that both of them said that pricked his ears was their common reference to the kelp's recent grow"thE:xplosive." They had both showed him the exponential function at
work on the graphs but he had not appreciated their alarm untiFl lantotewry. this stand of kelp pruned today.
dispatched a memo to have
Beyond the kelp bed sprawled the greater lights of Kalaloch where bleary-eyed commuters already

lined up for the Project ferry and The Line was stirring at miIdftohwe nw. ere outside now he might hear the thankless clank of mill machinery or the occasional blast of an explosive weld.
Crista Galli, he thought, and glanced at the Otimnley. an hour since he'd fallen asleWeph. erever she
was, she and that Ozette, they wouldn't dare move until curfew Nlioftwed.is when it would be easy for
them. Now when the roadways fill with people for the day, they will be bodies in a throng, anonymous. .
. .
A steady stream of dirtbaggers found their way to Kalaloch everHyedwayo.uld order the press to quit calling them "refugees" so that he could deal more directly withNthoewm.that he had Holovision under control, he could focus on wiping out this maverick broadcast that called itself "ShadoHwebokxn.e"w in
his gut that Ozette was the prong of this most annoying thorn, a prong that Flattery was going to enjoy blunting.
Through the plaz the Director could make out the dull glow of a ring of fires from one of the dirtbag camps a little farther down-coasTt.he Refugee Committee's report was due this mornHineg.would use whatever was in it to have the camp moved farther from the settlement peMrimayebteer. downcoast a
few klicks.If they want protection, they can pay for it.
The dirtbagger presence as a potential labor crop kept the factory workers and excavation crews sharp. Dirtbaggers attracted predators -- human and otherwiFslea.ttery's real objection was to their numbers,
and how they were beginning to surround him.
He keyed a note to change the name of the Refugee Committee to "Reserve Committee."
Raja Flattery, long before he became known as "the Director," was always at work before dawn. Rumors had come back to him that he went months without sleep, and there were months when he thought that was trueH. is personal cubby resembled a cockpit in its wraparound array of formidable electronics. He liked the feeling of control it gave him here, putting on the world likeNaesgtlleodve.
there at his console, shawl across his bare shoulders, Flattery flew the business of the world.
He woke every night sweating and in stark terror after only a few houHrse' sdlereapm. ed himself both
executioner and condemned, dying at his own hand while screaming at himself
Itto wstaosp.all mindful
of Alyssa Marsh, and how he had separated her magnificent brain from the resTt hoifs hwears. a
subconscious display of vulnerability he could not allow to sIhtomwa. de him reclusive in many respects, as did the distrust for open spaces that had been deeply instilled in him at Moonbase.

Flattery had not yet slept with a Pandoran woHmea'dn. had a brief fling with Alyssa back on Moonbase just before their departure for the voAidn. attempt to continue the liaison on Pandora had faSihleed.had preferred her excursions into the kelp to bedding the Director and had suffered the conseqNuoewnces.
it appeared that he suffered them, too.
With Pandoran women there were trysts in the cushions, yes, and lively sex as often as he liked, particularly at firstB. ut each time when it was finished he had the woman sent to the guest suite, and Flattery slept what little he could before the dreams had at him.
Power -- the great aphrodisiac.
He didn't sneer, it had served him well.
He supposed he should take more advantage of favors offered, but sex didn't impassion him as it used to. Not since he'd been flying the worAlds. miserable a little world as it was, it was his world and it
would stay his until he left it.
"Six months," he muttere"dA. fter twenty-five years, only six months to go."
Nearly three thousand humans had orbited Pandora in the hybernation tanks for a half-dozen centuries.
Of the original crew, only Flattery and Dwarf MacIntosh still survTihverde.
were the three Organic
Mental Cores, of course, but they weren't exactly human anymore, just brains with some fancy wiring. Only one of them, Alyssa Marsh, had received OMC backup traTinhiengo. ther two had been infants selected personally by Flattery for their high intelligence and early demonstration of emotional stability.
Smaller than Earth, but bigger than the moon, he had thought after being wrenched out of hybernation. Pandora is an adequate little world.
It became inadequate soon enough.
The native stock who preceded him to Pandora, descendants of the original crew of the Voidship

Earthling and the Earthling's bioexperiments, were humans of aFsloatrtte.ry found them repulsive and decided early on that if one Voidship had found Pandora, another might find somethingEvbeentteifr.it didn't, Flattery fancied Voidship life to be a sight more comfortable than this.
They can all rot in this pest-hole, he thoIutgshmt. ells as if they already have.
On clear evenings Flattery derived great pleasure from watching the near-finished bulk of his Voidship in glittering position overheadH. e'd pinned a magnificent jewel to the shirt of the sky, and he was proud of that.
Some of these Pandorans are barely recognizable as living creatures, much less human beings! he thought. Even their genetics has been contaminated by that . . . kelp.
All the more reason to get off this plHaniset.life at Moonbase had taught him well -- space was a
medium, not a barrierA.
Voidship was home, not a prisDone.spite great hardship, these Mermen had
developed rocketry and their undersea launch site sophisticated enough to bring Flattery and the hyb tanks out of a centuries-old orbIift. they could do that, he knew from the start he could build a Voidship like the EarthlingA. nd now he had.
If you control the world, you don't worry about cost, he thHoiusgohnt.ly unrestrained enemy was time.
His only trusted associate groundside was a Pandoran, Spider NNeevvii.hesitated at nothing to see that the Director's special assignments, his most sensitive assignments, were carriedFlaotutet.ry had thought
Dwarf MacIntosh, shipside commander on the Orbiter, to be such a man but lately Flattery wasn't quite so sure.The squad he was sending up today would find out soon enough.
The more fascinating man, to Flattery, was Spider Nevi, but he never seemed to get Nevi to open up to him though he had presented ample opportunity.
How do you entertain an assassin?
Most of Flattery's fellow humans died immediately with the opening of the hybernatioTnhetairnks.
original Voidship had been outfitted to bring them out properly, sWafehleyn.
the time came the ship was

long-gone over the horizon, leaving the Pandoran natives in pursuit of the hyb tanks and firm as ever in their belief that the Ship itself was God.
Died immediately!
He snorted at the euphemism that his mind dealtInhitmha. t moment that the medtechs called "immediately," he and his shipmates had experienced enough nerve-searing pain to last twelve lifetimes. Most of his people who survived the opening of the tanks, who had known no illness during their sterile lives at Moonbase, died in the first few months of exposure to Pandora's creatures -- microscopic and otherwise.
Among the otherwise that Flattery learned to respect were the catlike hooded dashers, venomous flatwings, spinarettes, swiftgrazers and, deadliest of all in Flattery's mind, this sea full of the kelp that the locals called "Avata."The first far-thinking Chaplain/Psychiatrist to encounter the kelp had had the good
sense to wipe it ouFt.lattery diverted more than half of his resources to pruning progKrailmlinsg. was out of the question, so far.
it off
He had spent his recovery studying Pandoran history and the horrors that the planet had in store for him. He and his shipmates had splashed down in the middle of Pandora's greatest geological and social
upheaval. The planet was coming apart and certain civil disputes were flIatriwnga.s a propitious time to be construed as a gift from the gods, and Flattery took swift advantage of it.
He used his title as Chaplain/Psychiatrist, a position that still carried weight among Pandorans, to lead the reorganization of Pandoran mores and economiTchs.ey chose him because they had never been
without a Chaplain/Psychiatrist and because, as he was swift to remind them, he was a gift from the Ship
that was GodH.
e waited a good while to tell them he was building another one.
Flattery had been perceptive, shrewd, and because he noted some distracting murmurings among their religious leaders, he changed his title to, simply, "the DirecTthoirs." freed him for some important
economic moves, and the Ship-worshipers stayed out of his way during the crucial formative years.
"I will not be your god," he had told "tIhewmi.ll not be your prophet to the gBoudts.I will direct you in your efforts to build a good life."
They didn't know what Flattery knew of the special training of Voidship Chaplain/Psychiatrists.

Pandoran histories revealed that Flattery's clone sibling, Raja Flattery number five of the original crew, was the failsafe device and appointed executioner of the very Voidship that had brought them all to Pandora.
It is forbidden to release an artificial consciousness on the unTivheersed.irective was clear, though it was generally believed that any deep-space travel would require an artificial consciouTshneessO. rganic Mental Cores, "brain boxes" as the techs called them, failed with meticulous regTuhlaeritFyl.attery
number five model had failed to press the destruct trigger inThtiims eS. hip that he had allowed to survive was the being that many Pandorans worshiped as a god.
Raja Flattery, "the NickelN."ow why didn't he blow us all up as planned?
Flattery wondered, as he often did, whether the trigger that was cocked in his own subconscious still had its safety onI.t was a risk that kept him from developing an artificial consciousness to navigate the
Voidship.
There was only Flattery left to wonder why he had been the only duplicate crew member in hybernation.
"They wanted to be damned sure that whatever consciousness we manufactured got snuffed before it took over the universe," he muttered.
Flattery calculated that any one of his three OMCs would get him to the nearest star system with no trouble. By then they'd have a fix and a centripetal whip to a first-rate, habitableTshyestenmec.essary adjustments in the individual psychologies of each Organic Mental Core had been made before their removal from their bodies for hardware implaItnt.was Flattery's theory that behavioral rather than
chemical adjustment would help them maintain some sense of embodiment, something to prevent the rogue insanity that plagued the whole line of OMCs from Moon-base.
Flattery rubbed his eyes and yawnTedh.ese nightmares wore him ouQt.uestions nagged at the Director
as well, taking their yammering toll, waking him again and again, exhausted, soaked in sweat, crying out. The one that worried at him the most worried him now.
What secret program have they planted in me?

Flattery's training as Chaplain/Psychiatrist had taught him the Moonbase love for games within games, games with human life at stake.
"The Big Game," was the game he chose to play -- the one with all human liTfeheatonstlaykeh.umans in the universe were these specimens on Pandora, of this Flattery was thoroughly conHveincweodu. ld
do his best with them.
He avoided touching the kelp, for fear of what ammunition it might find should it probe his mind. Sometimes it could do that, he had seen incontrovertible evidFenacscei.nating as it was, he couldn't risk it.
He had never touched Crista Galli, either, because of her connection with tHhee khealrpb.ored a kind of lust for her that his daydreams told him was seated in the thrill ofHedahnigmers.elf had provided the danger. His labtechs gave her a chemistry appropriate to the fictions he released aboWutithhoeurt.
Flattery's special concoction, the people that touched her would suffer some grave neurological surprises, perhaps death.It would just take a little time . . .
What if the kelp probes me, finds this swIiftcIh?am the trigger, who is the finCgerirs?ta Galli?
He had wanted Crista Galli more than once because she was beautiful, yes, but somethiIntgwmasore. the death in her touch, the ultimate dHaree.feared she, like the kelp, might invade his privacy with a touch.
A wretched dream of tentacles prying his skull open at the sutures kept comiFnlgattbearcyk.heard that
the kelp could get on track inside his head, travel the DNA highway all the way to geneticThme emory. search itself might set off the program, put the squeeze on a trigger in his head, a trigger set to destroy them all.He needed to know what it was himself, and how to defuse it, before risking it with the kelp.
Flattery's greatest fear was of the kelp using him to destroy himself and this last sorry remnant of humanity that populated PandoraT.his Raja Flattery did not want to die in the squalor of some third-rate world. This Raja Flattery wanted to play the Director game among the stars for the rest of his days, and he planned for a good many of them.
Should I be god to them todhaey?wondered, or devilD? o I have a choice?

His training dictated that he dHidis.
gut told him otherwise.
"Chance brought me here," he muttered to his reflection in the cubbyside plaz, "and chance will see me through." Or not.
His eyes glanced to the large console screen flickering beside hTishebetdo.p of the screen, in bright
amber letters, read "Crista GalliH."e pressed his "update" key and watched the wretched news unfold -- they hadn't found herT.welve hours, on foot, and they hadn't found her!
He slapped another key and barked at the screen, "Get me Zentz!"
He had promoted Oddie Zentz to Security Chief only this year, and until yesterday Flattery had been pleased, very pleased with his servicIte.had been a bungle in his department that let Ozette get her out of the compound.
Late last night Flattery had ordered Zentz to personally disassemble the two security men responsible for this breach, and Zentz had at them with apparent Ngloeteh.ing was learned from either man that wasn't
already in the report -- nothing of value, thTathaist. Zentz did not hesitate to apply the prods and other tools of his trade to two of his best men pleased Flattery, yes, but it did not unspill the milk.
I'll have Zentz kill two more of them if she's not found by noon, that should put a fire under them.
He slapped the "call" key again, and said, "Call SpiderTNelelvhi.im I'll need his services."
Flattery wanted Ozette to suffer like no human had ever suffered, and Spider Nevi would see that it came to pass.

That is the difference between gods and men -- gods do not murder their Tcheilydredno. not exterminate themselves.
-- Hali Ekel, from Journals of Pandoran Pioneers
It looked like an ordinary stand of kelp, much as anyone on Pandora might resemble another fellow human. In color it appeared a little on the blue Bsiydep.ositioning its massive fronds just so, the kelp diverted ocean currents for feeding and aeratiTonh.e kelp packed itself around sediment-rich plumes of hydrothermals, warm currents that spiraled up from the bottom, forming lacunae that the humans called "lagoons."
Immense channels streamed between these lagoons, and between other stands of kelp, to form the great
kelpways that humans manipulated for their undersea transport of people and
Tgohoedsk.elpway was a
route significantly faster and safer than the surfMacoe.st humans traveled the kelpways wrapped in the skins of their submersibles, but they spoke to each other over the sonaTr hbisurbstl.ue kelp had been eavesdropping and long harbored a curiosity of these humans and their painfully slow speech.
Humans liked the lagoons because they were calm warm waters, clear and fullThoifs fbislhu.e kelp
was a wild stand, unmanaged by Current Control, unfettered by the electrical goads of the IDt irector.
had learned the right mimicry, suppressed its light display, and awakened to the scope of its own slavery. It had fooled the right people, and was now the only wild stand among dozens that were lobotomized
into domesticity by Current ControSl.oon, they would all flow free on the same current.
Certain chemistries from drowned humans, sometimes from humans buried at sea, were captured by the

kelp and imprisoned at the fringes of this lagIotofno.und that it could summon these chemistries at will and they frightened human trespassers awaBye.tween lapses in available chemistries, the kelp taught
itself to read radio waves, light waves, sound waves that brought fragments of these humans up close.
A human who touched this kelp relived the lives of the lost in a sudden, hallucinogeMniocrebuthrsatn. one had drowned, helpless, during the experienAce.great shield of illusion surrounded the kelp, a
chemical barrier, a great historical mirror of joy and horror flung back at any human who touched the periphery.
The kelp thought of this perimeter as its "event horTizhoins."kelp feared Flattery, who sent henchmen to subjugate free kelp with shackles and bladFelsa.ttery and his Current Control degraded the kelp's intricate choreography to a robotic march of organic gates and valves that controlled the sea.
The kelp disassembled and analyzed their scents and sweats, each time gaining wisdom on this peculiar frond on the DNA vine marked "Human."
These analyses told the kelp that it had not awakened with its single personality, its solitary being intact. It discovered it was one of several kelps, several Avata, a multiple mind where once there had been but one Great MindT. his it gleaned from the genetic memories of humans, from certain histories stored
among their tissues themselvesL.arge portions of the Mind were missing -- or disconneOctred. unconnected.
The kelp realized this the way a stroke victim might realize that his mind is nothing like it was before. When that victim recognizes that the damage is permanent, that this is what life will be and no more, therein is born frustrationA. nd from this frustration, ragTe.he kelp called "Avata" bristled in such a rage.

Right is self-evidenIt.t needs no defense, just good witness.
-- Ward Keel, Chief Justice (deceased)
Beatriz Tatoosh woke from a dream of drowning in kelp to the three low tones that announced her ferry's arrival on the submersible decHke. r overnight bag and briefcase made a lumpy pillow on the hard waiting-room bench.She blinked away the blur of her dream and cleared the frog from her throat. Beatriz always had drowning dreams at the Merman launch site, but this one started a little early.
It's the ungodly press of water everywhere . . .
She shuddered, though the temperature of this station down under was comfortably reSguhleated. shuddered at the aftermath of her dream, and at the prospect of escorting the three Organic Mental Cores into orbitT. he thought of the brains without bodies that would navigate the void beyond the visible stars always laced her spine with a finger ofTeicmep. erature was also comfortably regulated aboard the Orbiter, where she was scheduled to be shuttled in a matter ofIthowuorsu.ld be none too sooLni.fe
groundside did not attract her anymore.
Somehow the surgical vacuum of space surrounding the Orbiter never bothered heHr eart faml.ily had been Islanders, driftninniesH. ers had been the first generation to live on land in four ceInstluarniedse.rs
took to the open spaces of land life better than Mermen, who still preferred their few surviving undersea settlements. Logic couldn't stop Beatriz from squirming at the idea of a few million kilos of ocean overhead.
The humidity in the ferry locks clamped its clammy hand over her mouth aIntdwnoousled.
be worse at
the launch siteM.
ost of the full-time workers down under were Mermen and they processed their air
with a high humidityS.he sighed a lot when she worked down unSdheer. sighed again now when her ferry's tones warned her that she would be under way to the launch site in a matter oTfheminutes. loading crowd of shift workers bound for the site rumbled the deck on the level above her.

The drone of hundreds of feet across the metal loading plates made Beatriz squeeze her eyelids tighter yet to keep her mind from conjuring their faTchees. laborers were barely more active, had barely more
flesh on their bones than the refugees that clustered at Kalaloch's sad Tcahme plsa.borers' eyes, when
she'd seen them, reflected the hint of hoTphee. anything, even that.
eyes of the people in the camps were too dull to reflect
Imagine something pretty, she thougLhti.ke a hylighter crossing the horizon at sunset.
It depressed Beatriz to take the ferrBieys.her count she'd slept nearly five hours in the waiting room
while a hyperalert security squad leader sprang a white-glove search on the ferry, its passengers and their possessions. She reminded herself to check all equipment when the security was done -- a discipline she picked up from BenH. olovision's equipment was junk so she, Ben and their crews built their own
hardware to suit themselvesI.t would be tempting to a security with cousins in the black mShaerket. sighed again, worried about Ben and worried about the insidious business of the security squad.
I know that he and Rico are behind that Shadowbox, she thTohuegyhth. ave their distinctive style, whether they shuffle the deck and deal each other new jobs or not.
About a year ago, the second time Shadowbox jammed out the news and inserted their own show, she nearly approached Rico, wanting iBn.ut she knew they'd left her out for a reason, so she let it go and
took out the hurt on more woNrko.w she thought she knew the real reason she'd been left out.
They need somebody on the outside, she thouI'gmht.their wild card.
She had been called in to replace the missing Ben on Newsflash last night, reading, ". . . Ben Ozette . . on assignment in Sappho . .kn."owing full well that his assignment this Starday, as it had been every
Starday for six weeks, had been Crista Galli herself, inside the Director's personal compound and under the Director's supervision.
He was with her at the time she was missing, his presence wasn't mentioned aHnyew'shmeries.sing, too, and the Holovision high brass is covering it up.
That scared herO. rders to cover up whatever happened to Ben made the whole thing real.

She had thought somehow that she and Ben and Rico were immune to the recent ravages of the world.
"Paid witnesses," Ben had called the three of th"eWme.
are the eyes and ears of the people."
"Lamps," Rico had laughed, a little buzzed on boo, "we're not witnesses, we're lamps . . ."
Beatriz had read on the air exactly what the Newsflash producer had written for her because there hadn't been time for questionSs.he saw now how deliberate it had been to catch her off guard.
Holovision had incredible resources in people and equipment and she meant to use them to see that Ben didn't disappear.
Ben's not just a witness this time, she cautioned heHrese'llf.ruin everything.
She had loved him, once, for a long Otimr ep.erhaps she had been intimate with him once for a long
time and had just now come to love Nhiomt . in the other way of loving, the electric moments, it was too late for thatT. hey had simply lived through too much horror together that no one else could understand. She had recently shared some electric moments with Dr. Dwarf MacIntosh, after thinking for so long that such feelings would never rise in her again.
Beatriz blinked her raw eyes awakSeh. e turned her face away from the light and sat up straight on a metal bench.Nearby, a guard coughed discreetlSy.he wished for the clutter of her Project Voidship office aboard the OrbiterH. er office was a few dozen meters from the Current Control hatch and Dr.
Dwarf MacIntosh.Her thoughts kept flying back to Mack, and to her shuttle flight to him that was still a few hours away.
Beatriz was tired, she'd been tired for weeks, and these constant delays exhausted her evSehne more.
hadn't had time to think, much less rest, since the Director had her shuttling between the Project Voidship special and the newsN. ow today she was doing three jobs, broadcasting from three locations.
She rode to the Orbiter on the shoulders of the greatest engines built by humWahnekninsdh. e blasted off Pandora her cluttered office aboard the Orbiter became the eye of the storm ofNhoeronlief,e.not even Flattery, could reach her there.
The tones sounded again and seemed distinctly longer, saFdidnearl. boarding callT. he tones once again
made her think of Ben, who was still not found, who might bHe edewaads.
no longer her lover, but he

was a good manS.he rubbed her eyes.
A young security captain with very large ears entered the waiting-roomHheatncho.dded his head as a courtesy, but his mouth remained firm.
"The search is finished," he sa"iMd.y apologies.It would be best for you to board now."
She stood up to face him and her clothing clung to her in sleepy folds.
"My equipment, my notes haven't been released yet," she"Istaiwd.on't do me a bit of good to --"
He stopped her with a finger to hisHliepsh.ad two fingers and a thumb on each hand and she tried to remember which of the old islands carried that trait.
Orcas?Camano?
He smiled with the gesture, showing teeth that had been filed to horrible points -- rumored to be the mark of one of the death squads that called themselves "the Bite."
"Your belongings are already aboard the ferry," he "sYaiodu.
are famous, so we recognize your needs.
You will have the privacy of a stateroom for the crossing and a guard to escort you."
"But . . ."
His hand was on her elbow, guiding her out the hatchway.
"We have delayed the ferry while you board," he"Fsaoird.the sake of the project, please make haste."

She was already out in the passageway and he was propelling her toward the ferry's lower boarding section.
"Wait," she said, "I don't think . . ."
"You have a task already awaiting you at the launch site," the capta"iInasmaidto.
inform you that you
will be doing a special Newsbreak there shortly after arrival and before your launch."
He handed her the messenger that she usually carried at her hip.
"Everything's in here," he said, and grinned.
Beatriz felt that he was entirely too happy for her own coCmerftoarint.ly the sight of his teeth gave her
no comfort at alSl.he was curious, in her journalistic way, about the hows and whys of the death squads. Her survival instinct overrode her curiosiTtyh.e security escort met them at the gangwHaey. was short,
young and loaded down with several of her equipment bags.
"A pleasure to have met you," the captain said, with another slighHtebhoawn.ded her a stylus and an envelope. "If you please, for my wiSfeh.e admires you and your show very much."
"What is her name?"
"Anna."
Beatriz wrote in a hasty hand, "For Anna, for the future," and signed it with the appropriaTteheflourish. captain nodded his thanks and Beatriz climbed aboard the fSehrrey.had barely cleared the second lock when she felt it submerge.

Worship isn't really lovAe.n object of worship can never be itsReelfm. ember that people love people, and vice versaP. eople fear gods.
-- Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, Current Control
The early morning light clarified the new drift that Ben's life hadHetakkenne.w that he would use
Crista's holy image on Shadowbox, much as Flattery had used it on Holovision, to manipulate the people of Pandora.He would use Crista to whip them up against FlaHtteeryk.new that doing this would further
bury her humanity, her womanhooKd.nowing he would do it cost him something, Htoeo.vowed it
would not cost them their love that he already felt filling the space betweeTnhethremw. ould be a way .
. .
Damn!
Ben had not wanted anything to step between himself and the story he'd set oNutowto hgeet.was the
lead story on prime timHe.e and Crista had watched the Holovision newsbreak the night before in one of the Zavatans' underground chambersT.hough it didn't surprise him, he found it ironic that Beatriz was taking his place.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," she began, "I'm Beatriz Tatoosh, standing in for Ben Ozette, who
is on assignment in SapphIon.
our headlines this evening, Crista Galli was abducted a few hours ago
from her quarters in the PreservEei.ght armed terrorists, thought to be Shadows . . ."

Maybe she thought she was doing me a favor, he thought.
But it was no favor, at least not toHBeenw.as not on assignment in Sappho, and there had been no eight armed terroristsT. hey'd simply walked awayB. eatriz read the lines that Flattery's hired maggot fed her. Wrapped up as she was in the Orbiter and Project Voidship, she probably didn't know the difference.
Ben wondered what was going on in the boardroom of Holovision righHtonloovwis.ion was owned by Merman Mercantile, and the Director had acquired control of Merman Mercantile through bribery, manipulation, extortion and assassinationT.his was the story that Ben had begun to broadcast on Shadowbox. What had started as the biggest story of his life had become an act that would change his life forever, probably change Crista's life forever and perhaps save the people of Pandora from the Director's backlash of poverty and hunger.
Now Crista was hiding out with hHime . had touched her and liveHde.
had kissed her and liveEdv.en
now, it took great self-control to keep Ben from moving that pale lock of hair out of the corner of her mouth, to keep from caressing her forehead, to keep from slipping underneath the silky cover and . . .
You're too young to be an old fool, he thought, so stop acting
Ylikoeu ocnoeu.ld be a dead fool.
He reflected on the combined coincidence, fate or divine inspiration that had brought them together, at this time, in this cubby, on this world a millennium at light speed from the origins of humans tIht emselves. had taken thousands of years, travel from star to star, the near-annihilation of humankind to bring Ben and Crista Galli togetherA. vata, too, had been nearly annihilated, but a few kelp genes were safely
tucked away in most Pandoran humanPse.rhaps they were all altered for eternity and these stray bits of the genetic code would bring them together at last.
Why? he wonderedW. hy us?
This was one of those times when Ben wished for a normHael ldifide. not want to be the salvation of society, the species, or anybody's salvation but his oTwhnin.gs weren't working out that way, and it was too late now to change thNato. w, against his better judgment, he was once again in love with an impossible woman.

In the long scheme of things Crista was much more human than Avatan -- at least, in aWppheaatrance. her kelpness held in check was anyone's guess, including CriIsntat'sh.eory, it meant she had many complete minds, capable of thinking and acting independenTtlhyi.s had been discovered in one of the
Director's cherished studiesC. rista herself had exhibited only one personality during her five years under scrutiny, and it was the one subject that she was reluctant to speak of with Ben.
She was alleged to be the daughter of Vata, and Vata was the "Holy Child" of the poet/prophet Kerro
Panille and Waela TaoLinVi. ata had been conceived in a thrash of human limbs and the intrusion of Avatan tendrils and spores inside the cabin of a sabotaged LTA centurieSsheagwo.as born with a total genetic memory and some form of thigmocommunication common to theSkheelpl.ay comatose for
nearly two centuries.
The human purported to be Crista's father, Duque, had Avatan characteristics instilled through his
mother's egg in the labs of the infamous Jesus Lewis, the bioengineer who once wiped out the kelp, body
of Avata.He very nearly destroyed humanity along with the kVealpta.
was the beloved saint of Pandora,
symbol of the union of humanity with the gods, voice of the gods themCsreislvtaesG. alli, beloved of Ben
Ozette, was no less godlike in her power and mystery, in her beauty, in the shadow of death about her. This did not make loving her easy.
Ben knew that the kelp -- Avata -- had been the survival key to humans onIt Pwanads odraif.ficult, maybe impossible, for humans to relate to a sentient . . A. nkdelpth. is new kelp was not the same creature that the pioneers had encountereBde.n had studied The Histories enough to agree with the experts -- this kelp was fragmented, it was not the single sentient beingMoafnyoldo.f the faithful among the people of Pandora claimed that this was why Avata formed Crista Galli, to present itself in an acceptable form.This theory was fast gaining support.
Then what does it want?
To live!
The sudden thought intruded on his mind like a shout, startling himIt walaesrt.a voice he almost
recognized. He listened deep inside himself, head tilted, but nothing more
Tcahme es.leeper still slept.
The kelp, the body of Avata, was responsible for the stability of the very plaOnente itmseolfo.n had
pulverized itself to asteroids while several continents had ripped apart like tissue paper after the kelp was killed off by the bioengineer Jesus LewNiso.w, the kelp was replanted and the land masses returned

after a couple of centuries under the Hseuam. ans were relearning to live on land as well as on or undersea. It pained Ben that people were still just scratching in dirt when they should be thriving.
That's the Director's fault, he reminded himself, not the kelp's.
The Director refused to recognize publicly the sentience of the kelp and used it simply as a mechanism, a series of powerful switches that controlled worldwide currents and, to some degree, wEevaethryero.ne
knew this was getting more difficult daTilyh.ere was more kelp daily, and very little of it was hooked up to Current Control.
The kelp is resisting Flattery, he thouWghht.en it breaks completely free, I want it to have a conscience.
Ben's diligent research, with a few leads from Crista, uncovered the secret reports and he knew the real depth of Flattery's interest in what one paper called "the Avata PhenomBeneonn.h"ad spoken with the
Zavatans, monks in the hills who used the kelp in their rituals.
Crista says the Director should be consulting the kelp! he thAoungdhtI. get the same story from those monks.
She stirred again, and he knew she would wake Sshoeonw. ould see the dockside shops fill with vendors and hear the morning calls from the stree"tMoilfk: ! Juices!" "Eggs! We have licensed squawk eggs today!"This was one of the many small pleasures that the Director had denied her -- human companionship. Ben knew that he, too, in his way, would deny her this.
For now, he reminded himseSlfo.on, we will have all the time in the world together.
From the coffee shop below he could hear the faint scrape of furniture, the metallic clink of utensils and china.
Ben Ozette leaned back against the wall and let out a long, slowThboreuagth. he'd refused to admit it
until now, he was surprised to be alHivee'd.
not only touched the forbidden Crista Galli, but he'd kissed
her. It was twelve hours later and he was still breatThhinegy.'d made it through the night without Vashon
Security hunting them downH. e waited for Crista to wake, for Rico's code-knock at the door, to see

what they would make of the rest of their lives.
When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, "A shower is coming," and so it comes to pass. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, "There will be a scorching heat," and so it comes to pass.You hypocrites! you know how to judge the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that you do not judge this time?
-- Jesus
Crista Galli's first memory of waking up that morning on Kalaloch was of the way the light caught the carved cup in Ben Ozette's hand, and of his hSahned.wanted that hand to touch her, to brush her cheek
or rest on her shouldeIrt. was so still, that hand balancing the cup on his knee, that she lay there for a while wondering whether he had fallen asleep sitting up beside thSehbeedsh. uddered at the thought of
sitting in one of those pieces of ghastly Islander furniture, a living creature that they called "chairdog."
Kalaloch, too, was waking outsidSeh.e heard the stirrings of people and the stutter of engines starting as the dozer and crawler crews headed for another day's work advancing the perTimhetehru.ngry and
homeless of a dozen grounded islands also woke from their sleep in the gritty folds of greater Kalaloch.
Crista listened to the closer, warmer sound of Ben's quiet breathing.

God, she thought, what if I'd killed him?
She stifled a giggle, imagining the news lead as Ben himself might have w"Hritotelonviist:ion's popular
Nightly News correspondent Ben Ozette was kissed to death last night on assignmeTnhte. w. a.r"mth,
the taste of that kiss replayed itself in her mThinisd. was her first kiss, the one she'd nearly given up on.
Ben suffered no ill effects, which she attributed to the action of Flattery's daily dose of antidote, still in her system.Yet she had received the flood of Ben's past with the touch of his lips to her own, a cascade of memories, emotions and fear that nearly paralyzed her with its unexpected clarity and force.
There were these matters of his life that she preferred not toBken'oswf:irst kiss, a pretty redhead; his last kiss, Beatriz TatooshB. oth of these and more lingered on her ownSlhipes.witnessed his first
lovemaking through the memory of his cells, witnessed his birth, the sinking of Guemes Island, the deaths of his parentsH. is memories impregnated her very cells, waiting for her own emotional trigger that would call them to life.
She had received his memories with his kiss, too stunned to teHllerhidmre.ams that night were his
dreams, his memoriesS. he saw Shadowbox as he saw it, as the organ of truth in a body riddled with lies. She knew that he, like herself, was vulnerable and lonely and had a life to live fSohreodthidersn.ot
want to keep this from him, the fact that she now owned
Shihse lidfeid.
not want to lose him now that
they had finally found each other, and she did not want to be the death of him, either.
Ben was not afraid of "the Tingle," as people called it -- this kelp death that supposedly lurked in her touch as it did in some kelp, within her very chemSiosmtrye.times she didn't believe it, eithFerla. ttery
himself had developed the antidote, which he saw to it that she receivedIt didilyn. ot diminish the chemical messages she received, such as Ben's memorIitesm. erely muted those that her body might send. Still, none dared touch her and all of her attendants in Flattery's compound kept her at a safe distance.
This was the first morning in her memory that she did not wake up to attendants, endless tests, to the difficult task of being a revered prisoner in the great house of the DCiriscttaorh. ad slept the refreshing
sleep of the newborn in spite of their escape, their hiding, her firAstn keimssptiness rumbled through her stomach as delicious aromas rose to her of pastries, hot breads, coffee.
Somewhere beneath them hot sebet sizzled on a Mgreilalt.
was something she craveFd.lattery's

labtechs had explained this to her, some mumbo-jumbo about her Avatan genes affecting her protein synthesis, but she knew this simply as hunSghere. also hungered for fresh fruits of all kinds, and nuts and grains. The very thought of a salad gagged her and always had.
Though they'd fled here in the night, Crista had memorized the warrenlike underground system they took to get from the Director's complex at the Preserve to this Islander community at KSahlaelowcha.s
reminded of the maze of kelpways down unSdhere. knew nothing of the local geography save that she was near the sea, relieving some other hunger that rumbled within.
She heard the sea now, a wet pulse over the babble of street vendors and the increasing traffic of the day. Pandorans were an early lot, she'd heard, but unhurIrtieids. difficult for the hungry to huOrrnyl.y a
very few remained on their traditional organic islanDdrsif.ting the seas had become much too dangerous a life in this day of jagged coastlines and sea lanes choked witThhekemlpa. jority who settled landside
still called themselves "Islander" and retained their old manners of dress and cTuhstoosme .Islanders
whom she'd known at the Preserve compound were either servants or security, close-mouthed about their lives outside Flattery's great basalt waMllsa.ny were horribly mutated, a revulsion to Flattery but a fascination to her.
Crista Galli tucked the cover under her chin and stretched backward, unfolding to the sunlight, aware of some new modesty in the company of Ben OzSehttee. had all of the intimacies of his life stored in her
head, now, and she was afraid of what he might think of her if hSeheknfelt .herself flush, a bit of a voyeur, as she remembered his first night with Beatriz.
Men are so strange, Crista thougHhet.'d brought her here on the run from Vashon security and the Director, assured her that they were safely hidden in this tiny cubby, then he sat up all night beside her rather than join her in beHde. 'd already proven immune to her deadly touch, and she liked the kiss as much as the daring gesture of the kiss.
The attentions of other men, the Director among them, had taught her something of the power of her beauty. Ben Ozette was attracted to her, that had been clear the first time she'd looked into his eyes. They were green, something like her own only daSrkheer. treasured the one magic kiss they had shared before she sleptS. he treasured his memories that now were hers, the family she shared with him, his lovers . . .
Her reverie was interrupted by a shriek in the street below, then a long, high-voiced wail that chilled her in spite of her warm beSdh.e lay quiet while Ben set aside his cup and rose to the window.

They've found someone, she thought, someone who's been killed.
Ben had told her about the bodies in the streets in the morning, but it was something too far from her life to imagine.
"The death squads leave them for a lesson," he"Bsaoidi.es are there in the mornings for people to see when they go to work, when they take the children to their Scroemchee.have no hands, some have no tongues or headsS. ome are mutilated obscenelyI.f you stop to look, you are question'Dedo: you know
this man?Come with us.N'
o one wants to go with theSmoo. ner or later a wife is notified, or a mother or
a son.Then the body is removed."
Ben had seen hundreds of such bodies in his work, and she had glimpsed these the night before in the speedy unreeling of his memories into her oTwhni.s wail she thought must come from a mother who had
just found her dead soCn.rista was not tempted to look outsiBden returned to his watch at her bedside.
Had he seen anything of her when she kissed Shuicmh? a thing happened sometimes with the kelp, but
seldom anymore with herselfI.t had happened with others who'd touched
Fhierrs.t, the shock of
wide-eyed disbelief; then, the unfocused eyes and the trembling; at last, the waking and the registry of stark terror.For those who had been lucky enough to wake.
What did I show them? she wondeWredh.y some and not alSl?he had studied the kelp's history and
found no help there, precious little comfSorhte. reference to her "family tree."
still smoldered over some research tech's pointed
She remembered how she had been kept alive down under by the cilia of the kelp that probed the recesses of her bodyS.he received the ministrations of the mysterious, nearly mythological Swimmers,
the severest of human mutationAs.dapted completely to water, Swimmers resembled giant, gilled salamanders more than humansT.hey occupied caves, Oracles, abandoned Merman outposts and some kelp lagoons.She had been one with the kelp, more kelp than human, for her first nineteeTnheyrears.
were some of Flattery's people who thought that she had been manufactured by the kelp, but she herself believed that couldn't be true.
A lot of other Pandorans sported the green-eyed gene of the kelp, includiAngt aBelnit.tle over a meter
and a half tall she could look over the heads of most women and looked most men nearlyHiner the eye. surface network of blue veins was slightly more visible than other people's because she was nearly pale enough to be translucenTt.he blood in her veins was red, based on iron, and incontrovertibly human --

facts that had been established her first day out of the kelp.
Her full lips puckered slightly when she was thinking, hanging on the edge oHfera sktriassig. ht, slender
nose flared slightly at the nostrils and flared even more when she was angry -- another emotion she dared not indulge among Flattery's people.
Crista had been educated by the touch of the kelp, which infused in her certain genetic memories of the humans that it had encountereBd.efore Flattery took power, most humans contacted the kelp by being
buried at seaS. he had to shut out the flood of memories that came rolling in with the sounds of the nearby waves.She treated herself to another languorous stretch then turned to Ben.
"Did you sit up all night?"
"Couldn't sleep anyway," he said.
He stood slowly, working out the kinks in his body, then sat on the edge of her bed.
Crista sat up and leaned against his shouTldheer. disturbance below their window was goTnhee. y
faced the plaz, the morning sunlight off the bay, and Crista was lulled into a half-sleep by the warmth from the window, the coziness of Ozette beside her, and the harmonious chatter of the street Ivnenthdeors.
distance she heard the heavy machinery of construction tear into the hills.
"Will we leave here soons?h"e asked.She was invigorated by the sunlight, the plop-plop-plop of waves against the bulkhead and a whiff of broiling sebet on thTeheaiyr.ears of lies and imprisonment at the hands of the Director washed through her like a current of cold Ebvleoroyd.morning that she had
awakened in his compound she simply wanted to curl up under those covers anTdoddaoyz,e.wherever
Ben Ozette was going, Crista was going with him.
Someone whistled at their hatch, a short musical phrase, repeatedItonwcaes. whistle-language that she'd heard from dockside the night before.
Ozette grunted, rapped twice on the deAcks.ingle whistle replied.
the same kind of

"Our people," he sai"dT. hey will move us this morning, much as I'd like to show you the neighborhood. Rico is setting it uTp.he whole world knows by now that you're gTohne. reward for your return, and
for my head, will be enough to tempt even good people . . . on eiTthheerresiidse.much hunger."
"I can't go back there," she s"aIidw. on't.I have seen the skyY. ou kissed me . . ."
He smiled at her, offered her a drink of his Bwuattehr.e did not kiss her.
She knew that he would be killed if caught, that Flattery had already signed his deathThwe arrant. Warrior's Union would take care of it, had probably already taken care of every servant and selected others at the Preserve.
The night before, emerging from the underground, they had dodged from building to building along the waterfront streets, fearful of security patrols enforcing Flattery's curCferwis.ta had stopped in the open
to look at the stars and at Pandora's nearer moSohnes.bathed firsthand in the touch of a cool breeze on
her face and arms, smelled the charcoal cookery of the poor, saw the stars with only the atmosphere in her way.
"I want to go outside," she whispe"reCda.n we go out soon, to the street?"
Always the answer from the Director had beenIt nwoa. s always no".The demons," they would say at first, "you would hardly make a meal for thOemr,."later, "The Shadows want you killed," the Director
would say.Lately, he had repeated, "You can't tell -- the swine could look like horrible if they got their hooks into you."
Iatnywoonuel.d be
The Director had a particular leer that gave her the creeps, though to hear him tell it there was no one
who could protect her but him, no one she could trust in the world Fbourt
mhimos.t of that five years
she had believed himS.hadowbox changed all thaTt.hen Ben Ozette came to do his story, and she
realized that the only reason Flattery forbade her touch was his fear that she would learn something from him, from his people, and expose his intricate system of lies.
"Yes," Ben said".We'll get out soonT.hings are going to get very hot here very soon . . ."

He stiffened suddenly and swore under his breHaeth.pointed at a Vashon security patrol working their way down the pierside toward themtw:o men on each side of the strTehete.y poured an insidious
stillness over a choppy sea of commuters and shoppers in the markeTtphlaecep.ress of commuters crowding toward the ferries parted for them without touching.
Each guard carried a small lasgun slung under one arm, and from each belt hung various tools of the security trade:coup baton for infighting hand to hand, charges for the lasguns, a fistful of small but efficient devices of chemical and mechanical restraTinht.ey each wore a pair of mirrored sunglasses -- trademark of the Warrior's Union, the Director's personal assassination sqAumado.ng the people there
was much smiling, headshaking, shoulder-shrugging; some cringed.
Crista watched the pair work their way along the dockside street and felt the small hairs rise on her arms and the back of her neck.
"Don't worry," Ben said, as though reading her mWinitdh. his hand on her bare shoulder like that she believed it was possible that he was reading her mind -- or, at least, her eSmhoetiloonvse.d his touch. She felt a new flood of his life enter through herIt ssktionr.ed itself somewhere in her brain while her eyes went on watching the street.
The security team left one man in front of each building in turn while the other searcThehdeyinside. were close.
"What do we do?" she asked.
He reached to the other side of the bed for a bundle of Islander clothes and set them in her lap.
"Get dressed," he said, "and watSctha.y back from the plaz."
There was a sudden, concussive whump and a flash of orange from the harbor, then a roil of black smoke. The street turned into a scramble of bodies as people ran to their boats dockside and to their firefighting stations.Pandorans had used hydrogen for their engines and stoves, their welding torches and power production since the old dayHsy. drogen storage tanks were everywhere, and fire one of their
great fears.

"What . . . ?"
"An old coracle," Ben said, "registered to Tmhey. we were aboard."
will be busy for a whWilei.th luck, they will believe
Another whump took Crista's breath away, and as she pulled on the unfamiliar clothing she saw that the security squad had not disappeared with the croTwhde.y came on with the same precision and
deliberation, door to doorT. he street was nearly empty as everyone else who was able-bodied fought the fires or moved nearby boats to safety.
While Ben stood watch beside the window, Crista pulled on a heavily embroidered white cotton dress that was much too big for hHeer.r breasts, though not small, bobbled free insSidhee. held the fabric
away from her flat belly and looked questioningly at Ben.
He tossed her a black pajama-type worksuit of the Islanders that appeared identical to the one he wore. From a drawer beside the bed he pulled a long woven sash and handed it to her.
"I don't know how to tell you this, but you're preQgnuaitnet.a ways along, too."
When she still didn't follow his intent, he said, "Strap the worksuit on your belly to fill out the dress," he said. "You'll need it laterF.or now, you are a pregnant IslandIera.m your man."
She strapped the worksuit around her as instructed and adjusted theIndrtehses. mirror beside the hatch she did look pregnant.
Crista watched in the mirror as Ben wrapped a long red bandana around his head, letting the tails fall between his shoulder bladesI.t was embroidered with the same geometries that appeared on her dress.
My man, she thought with a smile, and we're dressing to go out.

She patted the padding on her stomach fondly and rested her hand there, half-expecting to feel some tiny movement. Ben stood behind her and tied a similar bandana around her forHeheeagda.ve her a floppy
straw hat to wear over it.
"This manner of dress is the mark of the Island I grew up on,""Yhoeusahiadv. e heard about Guemes
Island?"
"Yes, of courseS.unk the year before I was born."
"Yes," he said".You are now the pregnant wife of a Guemes Island surAvimvoorn. g Islanders you will receive the greatest respecAt. mong Mermen you will be treated with the deference that only the guilty can bestow.As you know, it means absolutely nothing among Flattery's peWopele.have no papers,
there wasn't time . . ."
Two whistles at their hatcThw. o different whistles.
"That's Rico," he said, and matched her sm"Niloe.w we get to go outside."
The things that people want and the things that are good for them are very diffGereant. a.rt. a.nd

domestic bliss are mutually incompatiblSeo. oner or later, you'll have to make your choice.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
Beatriz dozed awhile on the couch after shutting off her Talhaermd.ark, plazless office at the launch site helped keep the fabric of her dream alFivree. d from the confines of her mind, it flowed about the room with the ease of a ghoIsnt. a way, it was a ghost.
She had been dreaming of Ben, of their last night together, and there were parts of the dream that she wanted to savorI.t was two years ago, the night before she made her first trip up to the Orbiter, before she met MackS. he was nervous about her first shuttle flight to the Orbiter, and Ben was going off to the High Reaches to meet with some Zavatan elIdners. pite of the fact that they'd been lovers for years, they both felt awkwardI.t was ending, they knew it was ending, but neither of them could talk about it.
It was early evening, clear and waArms.hot of sunset still streaked the horizon pink andTbhleuye. sat aboard one of Holovision's foils at dockside, in the crew's quaSrhte sr.emembered the familiar
shlup-shlip of water against the hull and the occasional mutter of wild squawks settlingChdilodwrenn.
played their evening games before being called in for the night and they whistle-signaled from pier to pier. She and Ben had talked of children, of wanting them and of bad Tthimisinngi.ght the rest of their crews
had discreetly left them alonSeh. e found out later it was at Rico's suggestion. "Women are the answer," Ben said, handing her a glass of white wine. "And what was the question?"
She touched glasses with him, sipped, and set it doSwhen. did not want to ride a rocket into orbit in the morning with a hangover.
Ben's green eyes looked particularly beautiful against his darkHsiksinle. an, muscular body had always
been perfect with hersS.he couldn't understand why he had to go off on his wild projects chasing down
Shadows when he could stay and work with Shheer'.d covered as much death as she cared to, it was time they thought of themselves.

I want to report on life, advances, progress. . . . "Women represent life, advances, progress," he said. The hair prickled at the back of her neck.
"Are you reading my mind?"
"Would I dare?" he asked.
Those green eyes twinkled in their way that shot something straight into heWr hhaetaervte. r it was was warm, and it always melted downward like a hand inside her undeBrweaetarri.z was a strong woman,
and she knew iSt.he also knew that Ben Ozette was the only man who ever made her weak in the knees. She sipped her wine and kept the glass at her chest.
"What am I thinking now?" she asked, feeling she had to change the subject.
"You're wishing I'd get on with whatever it was I was going to say so that we can get on with the evening."
She laughed a little louder than she liked, and ran a hand through her black hair.
"Why, Mr. Ozette, what kind of girl do you think I am?"
He ignored her flirtatioHn.is manner turned serious.
"I think you're the kind of girl who wants to see the best for everyone -- for the refugees, yourself, even

Flattery. You've covered some of the most horrible disasters and bloodiest atrocities this world has seen. I know because I was theNreo. w it won't go away, so you're going awYaoyu. want to see progress,
you want to see good thingWs.ell, so do I . . ."
"But look what you're doingS!h"e fisted her thigh and scooted back in the co"OucKh,.
security is more
than enthusiastic, that's bad enougIhf. you make heroes out of the people fighting them, then more will join them.They will have to fight the same wTahye.re will be no end to the cyDclaem. mit, Ben, that's
why they call it 'RevolutionW.' heels turn and turn in place and the vehicle gets mired Id'voewnco. me
damned close to dying more times than I can count -- most of those times with you -- and now I want to get somewhere.I want a family . . ."
Ben set down his glass and grasped her hand across the table.
"I know," he sai"dI. understand.Maybe I understand more than you thiInkw. ant to offer you life, advances, progress."
Neither of them spoke for a while, but their hands conversed with each other in the familiar language of lovers.
"OK," she saidS.he tossed off her wine, trying to appear lighthearted, "what's the plan, man?"
"I don't know the plan, yet," he
"saBiudt.
I know the keIyt.'s information.Our business, remember?"
"Yes?"She refilled her glass, then h"iEs.xplain."
"You didn't see any women in Flattery's security force, and you set out to do a story, rWemhaetmber?
happened?"
"Not approved, we never shot a centimeter . . ."
"And how many times has that happened?"

"To me?Not much.But then, there are plenty of stories to do, more than I'll ever live to do, I just find another one or take an assignment . . ."
"An important point," Ben saHide.
hunched over their little table, tapping the top with his index "fIfinger.
Flattery doesn't get flattered, the story, whatever it is, doesn't get Haeireids. from a different world -- literally, a different worldH. e is from a world that starves women and children because they are on the
wrong side of an imaginary line, and he won't allow them to cWroessarite.
from a world that used to
teach: 'Life, at all cosPt.reserve life.'Pandora has been adversary enougWh. e haven't been able to afford the luxury of fighting amongst ourselves."
"So, I don't get where . . ."
"Half of the shows I do get dropped," Ben"Ista'sidn. ot because they're not good, it's because it's getting harder and harder to keep Flattery from looking like the hood thaWt hhaet iws.ould happen if people refused to have anything to do with hirmefu-s-ed to speak with him, feed him, shelter him -- what would happen then?"
She laughed again.
"What makes you think they'd do thItatw? ould take --"
"Information.Show him up for what he is, show the people what they
Tcahnis dwo.hole world's been a
disaster since Flattery took oveHr.e promises them food and keeps them hunHgrey.keeps us in line because we know what he can do toIfups.eople knew they'd be no more hungry without Flattery, without the Vashon Security Force, would they put up with him?"
"It would take a miracle," she finished.
She couldn't look him in the eTyhei.s was the conversation she really didn't want to have on their last night together.He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm sorry," he sai"dI.'m running off at the mouth agaIini.nterviewed a group of mothers today who are petitioning the Chief of Security for news of their sons and husbands who have disaAppneoatrheedr.
group, over five hundred mothers, says that they had sons killed but there was never an investigation, never an arrestT. hey say security did it, there are witnesNseosw. , I don't know about thWat.hat I do
know is that mothers are the ones on the mHaroclho.vision's refusing to pick up on it, forbidding me to
report on what people have the right to knTohwer. e has to be a way all."
He kissed her again on the cheek, then lifted her chin.
I.'m. .just thinking out loud, is
"I'll shut up now," he saHide. kissed her lips and she pulled him down to the carpet beside the table.
"Promise?"She kissed him back, and untucked his shirt from his pants so she could get her hands under his clothes, onto his smooth, warm skin.
His hands unbuttoned her Islander blouse, unpeeled her cotton skirt and found her bare under both.
"Pretty daring," he muttered, and kissed her belly as she undressed him.
"You realize we're going to get rug burn."
"I thought you promised to shut up."
Her alarm went off again and startled Beatriz out of her wakingSdhreeasmhu. t it off and sat up to give herself some energyB. en had been right about the rug bTurhne.y'd kicked the wine over on themselves, too. She was sure that had been the night that Ben conceived the idea for ShadSohwe bsoigxh. ed, trying
to lift a heavy sadness from her chest.
Too bad we couldn't have conceived a little one, she thIotumghitg.ht've saved us both.

If they had, she wouldn't have met MHacekr . relationship with Ben prepared her for MaHcek. was a little older, and because of his upbringing on Moonbase he wanted a family as much as she did.
Beatriz pressed the "start" key on her pocket messenger and it anno"u0n6c3e0d:. . .S"he twisted the volume knob down and massaged her tired eyelTidhse. preliminary briefing from the Holovision head
office would be followed by more details before air time so she half-listened, intent only on news of Ben
Ozette. Another deep sigh.
The smell at her launch site office down under was distinctly Merman -- air swept clean of particulate, saturated with the scent of mold inhibitors and sterile wLaitgehrt.ing in Holovision's small broadcast
studio always dried things out a bit and helped her breathe easier onSthhee sauirs.pected she would be on the air again in less than half an hour.
She pulled the legs of her singlesuit straight and unbunched the wrinkled sleeves from herHearmpits.
office was backlit in the Merman way, so her reflection in the plaz was a warm one, capturing the glow of her brown skin and the sheen of her shaggy blackHhearirg. eneration and Ben's was the first in two
centuries to have more children born to the ancient norm of human appearance thBaenatrnizot.did not pity the severely mutated, pity was an emotion that most Pandorans could do wShitehotuhta.nked the
odds daily for her natural good looRkisg. ht now she wanted a hot shower before facing her messenger's latest story of woe.
That's what Ben always called it, she thouSghhet. spoke it aloud, "'Another story of woe.'"
Fatigue and a half-sleep deepened her voice enough that it sounded vaguely Iltikme ahdise. her want to
hear his voice, to argue with him one more time about who worked the hardest and who got the shower
first. She smiled in spite of her worIrtyw. water together.
as more than symbolic that they had always wound up in hot
It was fear for Ben that made her not want to face the messengerItjuwstasyehta. rd enough to face the fact that she still loved him, though in an unloverly way.
Suicide, she thoughHt. e might just as well have run the perimeter on a bet and let a dasher have at him.
Beatriz knew the signs, and it was Ben who'd made her aware oCfrothsseimng. survival matter.
the Director was a

She dolloped enough milk into her coffee to cool it off, then sipped at the rim while she replayed the brief, chilling message.
0630 Memo:
Location brief, Launch Bay Five, air time 0645. Lead:Crista Galli still in hands of Shadows. Second lead:OMCs to Orbital Station today.
Detail:ref terrorists, arms, drugs, religious fervor, ShadowFisn.al assembly of Voidship drive in orbit, OMC installation imminentI.tems follow on Location.
Secondary discretion:Mandatory at 0640.
Time out0: 631.
Beatriz glanced at the processor's time disp0la6y3:6.
"Secondary Discretion!" she muttereTd.hat meant they were doing a time-delTayim. e enough that
Holovision could run a pretaped Newsbreak if she didn't show up or, worse, if they didn't like what she said on the airB. en had warned her it would come to this.

"Damn!"
What else was he right about?
The elevator to the Newsbreak studio at Launch Bay Five was only a dozen meters down the passageway from her officeS.he fingered the tangles out of her hair and hurried out the hatTc he ay. hurry didn't slow her worrying one whit.
Ben had something to do with this Crista Galli thing, and she knew that Flattery knewWthya,t, too.
then, was there still no release on BTehne?
chilled her to think it.
answer was one that Ben had tried to warn her about, and it
They'll see that he disappears, she thouIgfhthere's nothing on him in the briefingSh. e. d. idn't want to think of that.
Flattery knows about us . . . about Ben, she thSohueghkt.new about the disappearances, the bodies in the streets of Kalaloch in the morninBges.n had warned her about this more than once and shown her firsthand, finally, how it happeneSd.he knew that unpopular people disappeareSdh.e had never thought
it would happen to one of them.
Another thought shook her as she faced the elevator.
If I don't say something about him on the air, then he's going to disappear for sure!
She was scheduled to fly with the crew that delivered the OMCs to the Orbital Station for their Voidship installation. He must know about her budding relationship with Mack, that was no Tsheecreint.stallation
of the Organic Mental Cores was a nice piece of propaganda for Flattery that would take her conveniently out of the picturIet. would also make it impossible for her to investigate Ben's disappearance on her own.
She hadn't known what to think last night when she'd had to fill inSfhoer'dBreena.d the prompter cold, too surprised at the lie on her screen, at the suddenness of the lie, to challengFelaitterthyerhea.d finally tossed her a gauntlet.

What is the worst? she asked herself now.
The worst would be that they would both disappear.
She squeezed into the elevator among the press of techs and mechanics, left their greetings unreturned. They were a sweaty bunch in the cramped humidity.
What is for sure?
For sure Ben would disappear if she said nothing, if Holovision Nightly News continued to lie about his absence.
She rounded the passageway into the studio suite of the Holovision feature assignmeIntt wcraeswan engine assembly hangar with ten-meter-high ceilingTsh.e makeup tech's hands were fussing over Beatriz's hair and face as soon as she entered the hatchSwomaye.one else helped her slip into a bulky pullover blouse with the Holovision logo at the left bAresasut.sual, several of the crew were talking at once, none of them saying what she wanted to Shheear.wouldn't be doing this Newsbreak unless Ben were still missing.
She had seen Ben and Crista Galli together a few days ago at Flattery's coBmepnouannd Crista, in
the hibiscus courtyard, Ben leaning toward Crista in that intent way hBeeahtaridz.
knew then that he had
fallen in love with the gSirhl.e also knew that he probably didn't know that yet himself.
I should have had a talk with him . . . not a lover talk, a fNrioewnd htealkm. ight be dead.
She patted her cheeks flush and the lights turneIdt wupa.s nearly time, and still she spoke to no one, heard little, viewed the blank prompter with a certain measure oHf efeahra.d held her own gaze intently hundreds of times over the years, dozens of times with the same argument.
"I look at the big picture," she'd "sPaayn.dora's unstable, we've seen thaWt. e could all die here on any

given day at the whim of meteoroloWgye. now.
need another world . .A.n"d he would always argue for the
"People are hungry now," he would
. . ."
"sTayh.ey need to be fed now or there won't be a later for any of us
She always felt insignificant in the studio in spite of her fame, but today as they scrubbed and dusted her face, fluffed her hair and placed her earpiece she was writing her own script for the Newsbreak -- one that she hoped would keep Ben in the news but keep Flattery off hSerhebalcoko.ked into the
prompter, adjusted the contrast and cleared her thrSohate. had thirty secondsS.he cleared her throat again, smiled at the lens cluster and took a deep breath.
"Ten seconds, B."
She let the breath out slow, blinked her eyes for the shine and said to the red light, "Good Morning, Pandora. This is Beatriz Tatoosh for Newsbreak . . ."
Since every object is simply the sum of its qualities, and since qualities exist only in the mind, the whole objective universe of matter and energy, atoms and stars does not exist except as a construction of the consciousness, an edifice of conventional symbols shaped by the senses of man.

-- Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Alyssa Marsh lived in the past, because the past was all that Flattery could not stripHferomhadher.
tried chemicals, laser probes, tiny implants but the person who had been Alyssa Marsh survived them all.
He is afraid, she thougHhte.
is afraid that my life here has made me unfit as an OMC -- and he's right.
He had taken her body away fiber by fiber, or taken her away from hHeerr bcoadryot.ids and jugulars
had been bypassed to a life-support system and she had been decapitated, then Flattery himself excised the remaining flesh and bone from around her unfeeling bTrhaein.only sense she retained was the
vaguest sense of beingS.he no longer felt much kinship with humans, and had no way of knowing how long she'd felt that waUy.ntil someone hooked her up to her Voidship she had no means of measuring time. Time became her newest toTy.ime, and the past.
Even fog has substance, she thought.
Logic told her that her brain still existed or she wouldn't be entertaining herself with these thoughts. Training in her Moon-base creche hundreds of years ago had prepared her for her responsibility as an OMC -- purely mental functions, making human decisions out of mechanically derived data -- but
Pandora had opened up other possibilities, all of them requiring a Hbaovdiyng.
a child, something she'd
never have been permitted as a Moon-base clone, changed her perspective but it didn't change her indoctrination. She kept her child's birth secret, especially from his father, Raja Lon Flattery number six, the Director.
Without eyes or ears she would have thought herself a perpetual prisoner of a completely silent darkness. Without skin she expected not to feel, and without the rest she imagined she'd sniffed her last blossom, tasted her last bootleg chocolaNteo. ne of this proved to be true.
Alyssa had expected to be cut off from her senses, but reality proved her to be free of them instead. Like the gods, she was free now to clench the folds of time and replay her life at will, mining sensory details that she'd missed when they filtered through her emotSiohnes.did not miss her emotions much,
either, but she allowed as this might be a simple denial process protecting what was left of Alyssa Marsh from the full horror of what Flattery had done to her.

"You'll be the Organic Mental Core," he had announced tHo ehespr.oke of it as privilege, honor, as the salvation of humankindH. e might have been right about the salvation of humanAkitndth. e time, even drugged as she was, she didn't buy the first Sthweo.recognized that she was listening to one of the oldest arguments for martyrdom known to her species.
"Be reasonable," he'd told h"eAr.ccept this banner and you will live in a thousand bTodhieesV. oidship itself will become your bones, your skin."
"Spare me the speech," she slurred, her tongue thickened by "dIr'mugsr.eady.If you're not going to let me go back to my studies in the kelp, if you're not going to kill me, then just get on with it."
She now felt that the major difference between herself and the kelp was that the kelp's entire body was also its brainT. he tissues were integrated and the appropriate accomplishments measuraFblalett.ery
would hear none of this.
He had spoken to her of an Elysium of sorts, of a pain-free and diseaseH-freeerelmifien.ded her that
an OMC in its harness was the closest that humans came to immoTrhtaislityd.id nothing to comfort her.
She knew the insanity record of other OMCs, the rate at which they'd turned rogue and destroyed their host ships and their expendable cargoes of clones, clones like herself, and Flattery, andIndMeaecdk, .
the same thing had happened aboard the Voidship Earthling, which brought them all to PTahnredeora. OMCs went crazy and the crew had to fabricate an artificial intelligence to save theItir bsrkoiungsh. t them to Pandora and abandoned them there.
I'm understanding that more and more, she thouI'gdhtl.ike to meet this Ship sometime, interface to interface.
Words had always amused her, and a lack of flesh to laugh with did not seem to diminish that amusement. Thinking of her son was always serious, however, especially since he'd made such good headway in Flattery's security servicSehe thought of him now because her one regret was not seeing him face to face before she . . .
. . . Shucked my mortal coil, she thouIgwhta. nted to see him with my own eNyoes.. . I. wanted him to see me before . . . this.

She had given him up to an upwardly mobile Merman couple rather than risk what would happen if Flattery found out she'd borne him a sSohne. had been afraid he would kill her and take the son, turning him into another ruthless Director.
I should've kept him, she thougHhet.'s turned out like Flattery, anyway.
The boy would know by now -- she'd left the appropriate papers hidden in her cubby before Flattery reduced her to a convoluted lump of pink tisIstuhea. d been her last act of sentimentality.
"Your body betrays you," Flattery growled that last"Ydaoyu.'ve had a childW. here is it?"
"I gave it up," she sa"iYd.ou know how I am about my wIorhka. ve no time for anything but the kelp. A child . . . well, it was only a temporary inconvenience."
It was the kind of argument that Flattery would make, and he boHueghntevite. r seemed to suspect that the child was hisT.heir liaison had been brief enough and long enough ago that Flattery seemed not to remember it at alHl. e had made no further reference to it after she left his cubby for the last time more than twenty years backH. e only grunted his acknowledgment, probably thinking that the child was the product of a recent indiscretioHn.e could not deny her passion for her work in theOknelylp.Dwarf
MacIntosh shared her passion for delving into this mysterious near-consciousness that filled Pandora's seas.
I should have kept him with me in the kelp, she thNoouwghth. e's become what I'd most feared and I've lost his presence, too.
In her present state, the OMC Alyssa Marsh dwelt often on that birth and those few precious moments
her child had been with hHere.
had stopped crying immediately after birth, happy to watch the Natali as
they cleaned up his mother and the roHome .had a full head of black hair and seemed fully alert right from the start.
"He was a month overdue," the midwife
"sLaiodo. ks like he wasn't wasting his time in there."
After a few minutes she handed him to the couple who would give him thFeirrednearmicek.
and

Kazimira Brood had visited her weekly for the past few months, and they had made full arrangements for
his care.It would cost Alyssa dearly, but she wanted him to have the best of
Fchlaatntecreys. was
determined to turn Kalaloch into a real city, the center of Pandoran thought and comHemehracde. hired the young Broods -- an architect and a social geographer -- to build the security warehouses and garrisons for his troopsT.here was talk at the time that they might get the university coWnthroactc.ould have foreseen the changes in Pandora, the changes in Flattery then?
I could, she thoughIt.thought development of the kelp as an ally more important than raising my son.
If she had had her body with her, she would have let out a long, slow breath to relieve the tension that
would have been brewing in her beSllhye. free of emotion.
had neither belly nor breath and her reason now was relatively
I did the right thing, she thouIgnhtt.he grand scheme of humankind, I did the right thing.
Even if they, with minds overcome by greed, see no evil in the destruction of a family, see no sin in the treachery to friends, shall we not, who see the evil of destruction, shall we not refrain from this terrible deed?
-- from Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queets Twisp, elder

Flutterby Bodeen unrolled her precious bolt of stolen muslin across the dusty attHicerdethckre.e young schoolmates clapped in their excitement.
"You did it!" Jaka cheereHde.
was twelve, lanky, and the only bHoiys. father, like Flutterby's, worked
down under at the Shuttle Launch Site, or SHLisS.mother also worked at Merman Hyperconductor, so their family received nearly double the usual scrip at The Line.
"Shhh!" Flutterby warned them"W.
e don't want them finding us noLwee. t, did you get the paints?"
Leet, at eleven the youngest of the four, pulled four thick tubes from under her bulky cotton blouse.
"Here," she said, without looking up, "I couldn't get black."
"Green!"Jaka blew out an impatient brea"thY.ou want them to think we're ShadowYso?u know they all use green . . ."
"Shush!"Dana emphasized her point with a finger at her lips and an exaggerated"Mscaoywble.
we are
Shadows now, did you ever think of thTahte?y'll treat us the same if we're caught, you know."
"OK, OK," Flutterby interrupte"dW.
e're not going to get caught unless we're here allDdaanya., Jaka,
we're supposed to be practicing our music, so you two play aLweheitlea.nd I will each make a banner, then we'll play so you can do two."
"Security's all over the street this morning," Dana warned.
"It's because of Crista GaMlli.aybe they think she's around here, somewhere . . ."
"Maybe she is around here . . ."

"We should have a lookout . . ."
"They won't come in while wots are practicing," Flutterby said, and put her hand up to quiet the others. "Who wants to have anything to do with music lessBoenssi?des," she sniffed, and her chin raised a
fraction, "my brother's a securitIy.know how they think."
"Yeah, and he's up in Victoria," Dana
"sTaihde.y think different up therYe.ou know they split them up
so if they shoot somebody it won't be family."
"That's not true!" Flutterby sa"idT.hey just don't want them working the same district as their family because -- because --"
"They're going to walk in here if we don't get busy," Jaka inteHrruisptveodi.ce was changing, and he tried to make it sound authoritativJea.ka lived at the edge of Kalaloch's largest refugee cHame pw. as more fearful than the others of the immediacy of hunger and the reprisals of Asetcutwriteyl.ve, he had
already seen enough death from boHthe.
uncased his well-worn flute and snapped the sections together.
Dana shrugged, sighed and uncased her caraIctsol.new strings glistened in a stray sliver of sunTlihgeht. swirled black back of its huge shell shone with the polish of four generations of fingers.
"Give me an A," she said.
Jaka obliged, and as they proceeded to tune the caracol the other two youngsters tore the cloth into four equal lengths of about three meters each.
"Has your brother ever killed anybodyL?e"et whispered.
"Of coursenot," Flutterby said. She smoothed out the wrinkles in their cloth without meeting the other girl's eyes.

"He's not like thaYt.ou've met him."
"Yeah," Leet saidH. er brown eyes brightened and she giggled.
"He's so cute."
Flutterby found that she got her banner lettered with less than half a tube Iot f wgarseedn.ark green and would be nearly as visible as blaTckh.e large block letters read, "WE'RE HUNGRY NOWIt !h"ad become the rallying cry of the refugees, but she'd heard it mumbled everywhereAslatseclyar. city spread and rations declined, Flutterby had even heard it whispered in The Line.
The Line, where everyone stood for hours to get into the food distribution centers, was where she chose to hang her bannerL.eet's would go over their school, which faced the concrete-and-plasteel offices of Merman Mercantile.Jaka wanted to smuggle his into Merman Hyperconductor, and Dana said she'd
hang hers from the ferry dock, within easy view of Holovision's offices on the pier.
Dana ran up and down the scales a few times, then she and Jaka played a fast, lilting dance piece they'd practiced at schoolF. lutterby thought it the best her friend had ever plaJaykead. struggled, as usual, but
diligently played on.
"Do you think the Shadows kidnapped Crista Galli?" Leet asked.
The bulky tube was difficult for her to handle, and she was going over her letters twice to make them bold enough to be read at a distance.
"I don't know," Flutterby sa"idI. don't know what to believe anymoMrey.
mother grew up on Vashon,
and she says that Crista Galli is some kind of god or somMethyindga.d says she's just another freak."
"Your mother?"

"No," Flutterby giggled, "Crista Galli, you stoHoep. says that the only way to feed the world is to keep control of the currents, and that if Crista Galli helps control the kelp then the Director is right to make
sure she doesn't get away, or turn it againsWt
huas.t do your parents think?"
Leet frowned.
"They don't say much of anything, anymore," she "sTahide.y're both working all the time, every day. Mom says she's too tired to hear herself thMinyk.dad won't even watch the news anymHoree. doesn't say anything, just bites his lip and goes toI btehdin. k they're afraid . . ."
An explosion in the harbor startled them bDoathn.a set her caracol on the deck with a thump.
"That was close," she saDida. na had a lisp that came out when she was nervous, and it slipped out now.
The four of them crowded the tiny plaz porthole at the far end of Athesmauttdicg.e of black smoke blotted the sky to their right at the end of the Lsotroekeitn. g up the street to the left, Flutterby watched the giant cup on the Ace of Cups sign swing to and fro from the coTnchuesssiotrne.et was packed with morning commuters and vendors at their little tabFlelust.terby heard a gasp from Dana, and looked where she pointed, straight beneath them.
"Security!" she whispered".He's covering the hatchT.hey must already be inside!"
"We've got to hide this stuff," Jaka said, his whisper cracking into its hig"hIf rtahnegye.find this, they'll kill us."
"Or worse," Dana muttered.
They scrambled to gather up the paints and to roll up the two wet banners, but it was too late.
The flimsy hatch burst aside as a fat, no-neck security kickeAdniotthiner., nearly identical to him, slipped inside and waited with his back to the wall.

"Look here," he said, straightening the banners with the muzzle of his w"Aeapliottnle. no?"
nest of flatwings,
Without waiting for a reply he snapped two bursts from his Jlakgauna.nd Leet dropped to the deck, dead.
Flutterby wanted to scream, but she couldn't catch her breath.
"They're wots," his partner sa"idW. hat did you . . . ?"
"Maggots make flies," the other sa"iWd.e have orders."The muzzle came up again and Flutterby didn't even see the flash that killed her.
Mankind owns four things that are no good at sea: rudder, anchor, oars
and the fear of going down.

-- Antonio Machado
Ben undogged the hatch and Rico LaPush rushed inRsicoe. nodded once to the girl, who looked ghastly pale, and handed Ben the pocket messenMgeor.st of the briefing on it was already outdated, but Ben would want to hear it, anywRayic.o was careful to keep from touching the girl.
"Ready?" he asked. "Ready," Ben said. "Yes," said the girl.
Rico scratched his chin stubble and adjusted the lasgun in the back of hHise phaandts.been with Ben since Guemes island was sunk, more years than Crista Galli had beenHiaslivmei.strust of people had kept them alive more than once, and he did not intend to let his guard down with Her Holiness.
"Deja vu," he said to Ben, nodding at her Islander "dSrheessr.eminds me of the old days, when things were simply toughT. he streets are crawling with security, she'll need a good act . . ."
"You can speak to me," Crista interrupted, her cheeks flushed with a run o"If
hanagve .ears to hear,
mouth to answerT. his sister is not a chairdog, nor a glass of water on her brother's table."
Rico had to muster a smHilee.r Islander accent was perfect, her phrasing perfSehcet. was a very quick study -- of course, she had more intimate ways of getting inside people's heads . . .
"Thank you for the lesson, sister," he
"sYaido.u are most cheerfully dressed, my compliments."

Rico noted Ben's smile, and the fact that his partner's gaze never wavered from Crista Galli's perfect face.
Rico's cameras had taped the faces of many beautiful women for Holovision and he had to admit that everything he'd heard about Crista Galli was tWrueh.en Ben became a reporter, Rico LaPush signed on
as a field triangulator with the holography crAeww. ell-placed lie got him the job, but his facility for learning kept itH. e had filmed more pomp and more horror in any given year than most cameramen witnessed in a lifetime.
She's pale, but beautiful, he thougMhta.ybe the sun will give her some color.
Operations said to keep her out of the sun, but Rico thought that, given their recent bad luck, this would be impossible.Operations, whoever they were, didn't have their butts on the line.
"We'll be walking for a while," Rico told t"hDemon.'t hurry."
He nodded at the messenger in Ben's hand.
"Don't bother," he sai"dY. ou might as well shitcan that thiTngh.ey tell us we're going by air but the airstrip's already locked up by Flattery's boWyse. 'll have to do it by water."
"But they said . . ."
"I know what they said," Rico snapp"eTdh.ey said the airstrip would be secuTrhe.ey said keep her away from waterL. et's move."
Crista Galli carried a sadness about her that Rico didn'Ht elikceo.uld take fear, or anger, or even hysteria but sadness felt too much like bad lTuhckey. 'd started out with thaWt. hen she reached out a tentative hand toward Ben, Rico stopped her with a word.

"No," he said".I'm sorry.I can't let you touch him."
"Your fear?" she shot back, "or this 'OperatioHnes'?is clothed."
"My fear."
She was hurt when Ben remained silent.
Crista shrank back from him, and Rico slipped into the Guemes dialect that he'd set aside years ago.
"Among Islanders, I am merely advising one of my sisters that she needs to recognize the depth of trust and love that the people have for her," he said, with a curt nod of "hTishehyeasdp.eak out to her when
the speaking is painful."
"And the fear?"
Good! Rico thoughSt.he won't be bullied.
He continued to speak to her in the manner of the Guemes Islanders.
"This sister apprises the brother wLelelt.
the brother remind the sister that only the unknown is feared.
Perhaps the sister will set this brother at ease, in Sthimalel .we begin?"
She was quiet then, and Rico liked that abouWt hheart.ever curse she carried, she carried it with grace. He had known Ben Ozette for twenty-five yeRarics.o had fallen in love with a dozen women during that time, but Ben had only fallen onRceic.o remembered that Ben had looked at Beatriz Tatoosh the same way he now looked at Crista Galli.
It's about time, he thought, and smiled to himBseealtfr.iz is tight with that guy MacIntoBshe.n needs

somebody solid, too.
Everybody knew that relationships within the industry had to be short-lived, and that families were impossible. With all of the travel and stress something, somewhere, had to give and it was usually the relationship. Rico had given up long ago and was currently seeing a redhead who worked full-time for Operations.
"The harbor," Rico said as they started down the
"raItm'spa.
madhouse there and so far no security
near the Flying FishV. ictoria's as secure as Victoria gets, so we'll head up Rthieskrey., but not so risky as this."
They turned right, walking slowly down the pier, toward the crowd at doRcikcosidtera. iled slightly behind the couple, keeping buildings and hatchways close, and didn't sHpeakn.early stumbled into the
Galli girl several times as she stopped suddenly to stare at some of the shops and the relics of herself that
were sold thereA.
t each shop, she pulled the mantilla closer about her face.
So, it's true, Rico thougShth.e doesn't know!
He watched her reach out toward a tasteless vest in a glass case that bore the in"Vscersipt tioofn:Crista
Galli, worn at age twelvNe.ot for sale."Also arranged about the case were various microscope slides
with blood smears on them, a clipping of hair too obviously dark to be hers and several bits of cloth -- all
with price tags, all claiming to come from "Her Holiness," CristaAGbaolvlie.
the case was scrawled a
hand-lettered warning:"Extreme danger, do not toucSh.afety packaging included with each sale."
You'd think she'd never seen a dog before, he thought, watching her, or a chicken -- she sure went loony over those goddamn chickens.
Rico dawdled close behind them and tried not to listen to theiHr etalhka.dn't eaten since the previous morning and the charcoal spatter of hot food set his stomach rumHbelinwga. s a little nervous, plenty could still go wrongB. ut the diversion had taken one patrol off their backs.
If the boys are doing their jobs, we shouldn't see a security between here and the boat.

Just as he thought it he knew better, but there was no calling the thought back and there was no calling back the two security guards rounding the corner ahead of Rthiecmo .pressed a switch on the broadcast
unit in his pockeAt.
third explosion went off near the harbor but neither guard took tRheicobasiti.ghed
and adjusted the lasgun at the back of his waistbItanwda. s an older model, short-rangHee.
remembered thinking, as the two guards veered across the street toward them, how difficult it had become to buy spare charges.
Ben and Crista saw the security and slowed to aCostmopm. uters and street vendors pressed past them in waves.Rico stopped, too, a few paces behind them and in front of a deep haWtcihthwatyh.e new
explosion there was a renewed flurry among those crowding toward the harbor, and Rico was not happy that Ben had stoppedB. oth of the men approaching wore the khaki fatigues of the Vashon Security
Forces, rank fourT. hey were both burly, armed only with stunsticks, nearly normal but with the creased ears and fat lower lips betraying certain internal defects typical of Lummi Islanders.
Just as Rico's hand clutched the grips of his lasgun, Crista Galli stepped forward, exaggerating the rolling walk of the heavily pregnanSth. e spoke, her hand upraised and head tilted in the Guemes fashion of
greeting.
"Brothers," she said, "this mother cannot find a rest station and she is in greTaht isnesehde."delivered matter-of-factly, and turned her palm uTph.ough the guards were obviously jumpy, the response was automatic.
"Up two streets, one street lTefht.e shops --"
The other security gave his partner a shove and interru"pTtheids: could be the start of a Shadow attack .
. . let's moveS!ister, get out of the streYeto. u two," he pointed to Ben and Rico, "get her inside someplace and lay low."
The two guards huffed toward their station at the harbor and Rico let out the breath he'd been holding in a low whistleI.t was a coded whistle, from their childhood days, that any Islander wot would recognize
as "all clear."
"You sure made Rico happy," Ben said, grinning.
"Got it all on tape, too," Rico
Hsaeid.tapped a tiny lens at his shirtfr"oInt'tl.l look great in your

memoirs."
He nodded at Crista.
"Good job thinking, helluva good job actinHge." rechecked the charges in the camera at his belt and buffed the lapel lens with his sleeTvhe.e lens looked like a small pin made of a glossy gray stone.
"Shouldn't we get out of here?" Crista as"kYedo.u heard what he said, the Shadows --"
"Are us," Rico interrupted in a whisper, "and there will be noTahtetacvkil.lagers might bust loose, though. Things are pretty hoTt.he Flying Fish is down therHe."e pointed out the "Pier Four" sign just ahead.
One of the huge cross-bay ferries had surfaced dockside, unwilling to risk explosive damage in the comparatively shallow waters of the baFyo.ot passengers from all over Pandora streamed out of the rear hatch, while two- and three-wheeled vehicles crowded the roadwThaye. morning dust changed to mud
under all the feet and hosewater, and mud splashed up from wheels to stain the hems of fine Islander embroidery. Islanders even dressed up to go to market.
About half of the crowd that elbowed back down the pier wore the plastic ID tag around their necks that marked them as Project Voidship employeWesh. atever they did, they did it for Flattery's paycheck. This was a huge village, huge enough to strain the bonds of family, and today many of the dockside vendors threw catcalls and curses after the workers from the shuttle launch site.
The pier itself was a bridge between two subway mouths -- one from the village to the pier, and another that loaded onto the submarine ferrVye. ndors crowded the station entrances, selling tubes of suntan
lotion, sodas, dried fruitsH. ere the smell of charcoal and the spatter of grilled fish were drowned out in the babble of the crowds.
Suddenly, one of Rico's greatest fears was made ArenalI.slander refugee, carrying a placard and wet to the skin from a firehosing, rushed down the crowded pier and attacked one of the coTmhmeyuters.
both fell in a tumble and, out of reflex as much as anger, the knot of commuters began kicking at him. Several dozen refugees tried in their weak way to free him, then to fight back, but within a matter of blinks they were all set upon and beaten.

Rico and Ben closed tight on Crista Galli and Rico looked for a way downScthreeampisero. f anger
turned to grunts of pain all around thBemod.ies splashed into the bay and the hot morning was filled with curses and the wet red smack of fists on skin.
Crista kept her arms folded in front of her and her hands in her sleeves, like many of the old Islander women. She seemed locked in position with her hand out, like a figure from a wot's game of freeze-tag. As they worked through the crowd she stumbled on the Islander's battered placard and Rico saw that it read, "Give a Brother a Break!"
A splintering sound and the wail of bent bracing came from behind them, then screamRsicoof sfaeawr,.
over his shoulder, that a portion of the pier had given way and hundreds of people spilled into the water.
That might cool things for now, he thought, but not for long.
"Walk slower," Rico said at Crista Galli's "eYaor.u're tired and pregnant and haven't eaten since last night."
He knew that the last was tHruee. thought of all the meals he'd missed as a wot, wondered when was the last time Crista Galli or the Director had missed aHmeeanl.d Ben missed plenty working the news business, but that was differenWt. hen Rico was a wot, he hadn't chosen to go hungry.
He scanned the beach where it broke out from the Islander settlement on the coast and flattened to a grassy plateau at the village perimetSere.curity gathered there in their black personnel carriers, waiting
for the crowd to tire before it was their turn to work themA obvloeor.dy frenzy this close to the perimeter, and relatively open to beach and bay, might bring in daTshheersight of a hunt of dashers
would disperse the crowd, then security could take down the dashers and hardly wrinkle a crease in their fatigues.
Rico's visual and electronic sweep of the area detected no signs of security on the
Hpier hiatsdelf.
nothing that would detect the high-power listening devices that the Director favored lately.
Crista stared straight ahead as they walked, eyes widely dilated, and Ben took her elbow.

"Tell them before we go that they are allMoankee. them understand that they are all the same being and if they cut off their arms and legs they'll die . . ."
Ben gripped her elbow and gave it a shRaikcoe. saw her eyes as she turned to face Thhimey. went
from wild, wide and unfocused to normRailc.o noted that Ben was careful and didn't touch her skin.
"We're going to Port Hope," he lied, talking quickly as they w"Talhkeedla. ke there is beautiful this time of year, and even with the altitude you will find it warm aTt hneigohltd. er Islands are too vulnerabWle.e have strong loyalties among the Mermen but you can't move freely in their settlements dowOnuur nder.
immediate danger is securityT.he Director's got spotter planes up all along the coast, particularly near the
Preserve. Of course, there are his SkyhawkAst.
sea we are vulnerable to the kelp," he paused, and
when Crista looked his way he nodded, then continued, "and the Director's new fleet of foils, some of which he conveniently sold to Vashon securOityf. course, we also have his spies among us."
Rico was relievedW. hat Ben had said was for the benefit of listening devices, not for CrisHtaeGalli. was sure, by her blank stare, that she had not understood a word.
She shuffled on through the shouts and cries along Pier Four as though she heardRincoothsinawg.
that
there were more boats burning now, maybe a dozen, and firefighters were trying to push them away from the others.One of the Vashon Security Forces power foils steamed full-tilt toward the blaze from the Preserve side of the water.
The Flying Fish, Holovision's private foil, was within sight at the end ofRthiceo sfleiplt.
the tease of
adrenaline in his bellyH. e hoped that Operations had briefed Elvira, pilot of the FlyingShFeishd.idn't
much care for sudden changes of plans, and she really didn't like encounters with Vashon Security.
Elvira was the toughest pilot that Holovision had ever Nhioredo.ne inconvenienced ElviraT.o Rico's knowledge she had no politics, no hobbies, no friends and no religious convictions whaHtsoerevseorl.e passion was to pilot the hottest hydrogen-ram foil in the world as often and as fast asInposussrifbalcee. mode she was highly competent; in undersea mode or flight she had no equal in thSehewhoardld.flown Ben and Rico in and out of more hot assignments than he couldThciosunwt.ould undoubtedly be the hottest.
Ben caught Rico's gaze and raised a quizzical eyebrow, nodding toward the girl.

Rico scratched his two-day bearCdr.ista turned to stare past him at the crowd that now had worked its way up the pier, gathering bodies and momentum, and was now fanning out into the streets of Kalaloch.
Everyone who was to remember this event recalled that the morning air split with a crack like summer thunder, or a whipN. o echo, not a breath of breeEzve.en a cluster of fussing children nearby silenced themselves in their mother's skirts.
Rico touched a fingertip to each of his ears, acutely conscious of the scratchings at each contour, each follicle and foldI.f a shock wave had hit his ears, they'd still be ringing.
She did that in my . . . in our minds!
Crista felt the sudden clap of stillness crack with her Sahnegewr.as glad that Ben and Rico were the first to recover, though what she saw in their eyes was clearlTyhefeamr.ob had stopped, momentarily
stunned and looking about for a weapon, then it boiled anew at the onslaught of the truckloads of Vashon
Security that came to meet it.
Crista spun away from them and boarded the Flying Fish, still affecting the wide-beamed walk of the largely pregnant.She stood on the deck, beside the cabin hatchway, hugging herself and looking out to sea. The children started fussing again, stunned villagers rubbed their ears and began toRimcoove.
noticed that the boat fires had spread to the pier itself and some of thBeosthhofpesr.ries at the slip had submerged, empty, for safetyR. ico approached Crista at the rail while Ben cast off the lines.
"This was coming for months," Rico said, "you could tell by the feel in thTehesytr'vee sh. ad enough.
It's too soon, and they're not organizIetdw. ill fail, for themSo. me will be drawn out after Suosm.
e, to
the harbor.Others, to the attack that is inevitable inside the settlemThenat. will leave the Preserve weak
. . ."
"It's too well-protected," she said, her voice matter-of-"fTachte.y will fail."
She fixed Rico with those striking green eHyes.noticed, once again, that they were dilated in spite of the sunlight.

"I know how you felt now, back there, when you were so afraid of mSyhetouscmho."othed the dress over her makeshift belly".What I know of the Shadows and what you know of me are thIe osnalmy e. know what Flattery told mIe.don't know whether you should fear my toDucoh.you know whether I should fear yours?"
When he didn't answer she turned and shuffled into the cabin of the Holovision foil in silence.
Evil is in the eye of the beholder.
-- Spider Nevi, special assistant to the Director
Lights had been suitably dimmed in the Director's holo suite, and one tight spotlight illuminated his face from below.This effect accentuated Flattery's height, nearly a head taller than the average Pandoran, and it added an imperiousness to his stature that pleased him.
An empty holo cassette teetered across the red armrest of his favorite rOecnleineflru. orescent orange sticker on the cassette read "For Eyes Only," and under that was handw"TriDtte, nS: . Nevi only.U" nder that was stamped in blac"kE: xtreme Penalty."Flattery smiled at the euphemismA.t his direction, all those who violated the "Extreme Penalty" sanction became the homework of Spider Nevi's apprentice

interrogators. Messy business, security.
"Mr. Nevi," he acknowledged, with a nod.
"Mr. Director."
As usual, Spider Nevi's face was unreadable, even to Flattery's expert training as a Chaplain/Psychiatrist. Nevi had been prompt, unhurried, arriving in a snappy gray cut of a Merman lounging suit right at the first blood of dawn.
"Zentz hasn't found them," Flattery saHidis.
voice was clipped, betraying more anger than he wished.
"It was Zentz who lost them," Nevi countered.
Flattery gruntedH.
e hadn't needed the reminder, especially from Nevi.
"You find them," he said, and jabbed a finger at the air betwee"nBrtihnegmb. ack the girl, wring what you can from the otherSs.ave Ozette for a special occasioHne. 's at the bottom of this Shadowbox and they've got to be shut down now."
Nevi nodded, and the agreement was struBcoku. nty would be worked out later, as usNuaelv. i's terms were always reasonable, even on difficult matters, because he liked his Hwisorwk.as the kind of work that might go unpracticed if it weren't for the Director.
Every art has its canvaFsla. ttery thought.
"The airstrip is secure," Nevi sa"iTdh. ere were preparations for them there, including a half-dozen collaborators, so we have cut them oSfofl.id intelligence.Zentz's men are turning the usual screws in the village. They will be forced to move the girl sOoovne.rland is out, that would be insaInte.would have to
be by water, and under diversion to get out of Mhyereg.uess would be VictoriIat. would pay to wait and make as big a sweep as possible, don't you think?"

"You have the docks under watch?"
"Of courseT. he Holovision foil is bugged, a precautiYono.ur sensor system is now keyed intoNite.v"i glanced at the clock on Flattery's conso"lYe.ou should be able to tune them in just about any time."
Flattery shifted slightly in his command couch, betraying his uneasiness at this loss ofNceovni trwoal.s second-guessing his moves, and he didn't like it.
"Well," Flattery said, splitting his face with a smile, "this is magnWifiecenwt!ill have them all -- and you
will be rewarded for thiZs.entz grumbles that you steal away his best men but, dammit, you get the job done." He slapped his palm on the tabletop and held the smile.
Spider Nevi's expression did not change, and he said noHthiisngo.nly response was the barest
perceptible nod of his horrible heaTdh.e shape of it was more or less normal, except for the mucous slit where the nose should bNe.evi's dark skin was shot through with a glowing web work of redHivseins. dark eyes glittered, missed nothing.
"What do you want done with the Tatoosh woman?"
Flattery felt his smile droop, and he tried to pick it up a bit.
"Beatriz Tatoosh is very helpful to us," Flattery "sSahide. has a passion for the Voidship project that we could not buy."He raised his hand to stop Nevi's interrupt"ioI nk. now what you're thinking -- that little tryst between her and OzettTe.hat's been over for over a year --"
"It wasn't a 'little tryst,'" Nevi interrup"tIetd.lasted yearsT. hey were wounded together at the miners' rebellion two years ago --"
"I know women," Flattery hissed, "and she will hate him foRrunthniisn.g away with a younger woman . .
. sabotaging Holovision and the VoidshDipi.dn't she do the broadcast as written last night?"

A nod from Nevi, and silence.
"She knows as well as we do that mentioning Ozette as party to this abduction would lend it a popularity and a credence that we cannot affoIrtd.is over between them, and as soon as he's back in our hands everything will be over for Ben OzeTtthe.e Tatoosh woman will be aboard the orbital assembly station
this afternoon and out of our hair."
At Nevi's continued silence, Flattery rubbed his hands together briskly.
"Now," he said, "let me show you how I've kept the kelp pruned back for the last coupYleouof years. know how the people resist this, it always takes a disaster to get them to go alonWgelwl,itthheit.kelp's
will was breached long ago by our lab at OTrcoaos.complex to explain, but suffice it to say it is not merely a matter of mechanical control -- diverting currents and thTe hlaiknek.s to the neurotoxin
research we tapped into its emotionRse.member that stand of kelp off Lilliwaup, the one that hid the
Shadow commando team?"
Nevi nodded". I remember.You told Zentz 'Hands off.'"
"That's right," Flattery saiHd.e drew himself upright in his recliner and snapped the backrest up to meet him. He keyed the holo and automatically the lights dimmed fuBrthetewr.een the two men, in the center
of the room, appeared in miniature several monitor views of a Merman undersea outpost, a kelp station at the edge of a midgrowth staKnde.lp lights flickered from the depths beyond the outpTohset. kelp
station had been built atop the remnants of an old Oracle.
Oracles, as the Pandorans called them, were those points where the kelp rooted into the crust of the planet itself.Because of the incredible depth of these three-hundred-year-old roots, and because the Mermen of old planted them in straight lines, Pandora's crust often fractured along roIott wliansess. uch
a series of fractures that had given birth to Pandora's new continents and rocky island chains.
Flattery's private garden, "the Greens," lay underground in a cavern that had once been an Oracle. Flattery had had his people burn out the three-hundred-meter-thick root to accommodate his landscaping plans.

Three views clarified on the holo stage in front of the twTohemefinr:st was of the inside of a kelp
station, with a balding Merman fretting at his control console; the second, outside the station, from the kelp perimeter, focused on the station's main hatch; the third, also outside the station, took in the gray mass of kelp from the rear hatTche Merman looked very, very nervous.
"His children have been swimming in the kelp," Flattery"Hsaeidi.s worriedT. heir airfish are due for replacement. All have been dutifully taking their antidoTthe.e kelp, when treated with my new blend, shows an unhealthy attraction for the antidote."
There were occasional glimpses of the children among the kelp fTrohnedys.moved in the
ultra-slow-motion of dreams, much slower than undersea movement dictated, considerably slower than the usual polliwog wriggle of children.
The Merman activated a pulsing tone that shut itself off after a few blinks.
"That's the third time he's sounded 'Assembly,'" Flattery Asanitdic.ipation made it difficult for him to sit still.
The Merman spoke to a female, dressed in a worksuit, wet from her day's labor of wiring up the kelp stand for Current Control.
"Linna," he said, "I can't get them out of theThkoeslpe. airfish will be dry . . . what's happening out there?"
She was thin and pale, much like her husband, but she appeared dreamy-eyed and unMfoocsutseodf.
those who worked the outposts did not wear their dive suits inside their living fringes of what the Mermen called "the Blue Sector."
Squhaertweros.rked the
"Maybe it's the touch of it," she murmu"rTehde.
touch . . . speciYalo. u don't work in it, you don't
know. Not slick and cold, like befoNreo. w the kelp feels like, well .S.he." hesitated and even on the holo Flattery could detect a blush.

"Like what?"the Merman asked.
"I . . . lately it feels like you when it touchHesermbel."ush accented her crop of thick blonde hair. "Warm, kind ofA. nd it makes me tingle insidIte.makes my veins tingle."
He grunted, squinted at her, and sigh"eWd.here are those wots?"
He glanced out the plaz beside him into the dim depths beyond the comFlpaottuenryd. could detect no flicker of children swimmingH. e felt a niggling sense of glee at the Merman's growing apprehension.
The Merman activated his console tone again and the proper systems check light winked oHniswith it. finger snapped the scanner screen.
"They were just there," the man blur"tTedh.is is crazyI.'m going code red.H" e unlocked the one button
on the console that Flattery knew no outpost wanted to
Cproedsse: Red.That would notify Current
Control in the Orbiter overhead and Communications Central at the nearest Merman base that the entire compound was in imminent danger.
"You see?" Flattery sai"dH. e's getting the idea."
"I'm going out there," the man announced to his wife, "you stDayo
pyuotu.
understand?"
No answerS. he sat, still dreamy-eyed, watching the fifty-meter-long fronds of blue kelp that reached her way from the perimeter.
The Merman scooped an airfish out of the locker beside the hatch and buckled on aHetoolbelt. grabbed up a long-handled laser pruner and a set of chAarsgeisf. on second thought, he picked up the whole basket of airfish, the Mermen's symbiotic gills that filtered oxygen from the sea directly into the bloodstream.
Ghastly things, Flattery thought with a shudUdenrc.onsciously, he rubbed his neck where they were

customarily attached.
Once outside, the Merman's handlight barely illuminated the stand of kelp at the compounTd'hsisedge.
holo had been made at the onset of evening, and the waning light above the scene coupled with the depth darkened the holo and made it difficult to see detail of the man's face -- a small disappointment for such a good chronicle of the test itself.
As the Merman reached the compound's perimeter within range of the kelp's longest fronds, he whirled
at the click-hiss of an opening hatHchis.
wife swam lazily out of it directly into deepTkheelp.
atmosphere from their station bubbled toward the surface in aHreushm.ust have realized then that everything was lost as he watched the sea rush into their quarters through the un-doggeAdll hatch. sensors went blank.
Flattery switched off the holo and turned up the lNigehvtis.sat unmoved with the same unreadable expression on his horrible face.
"So the kelp lured them and ate them?" Nevi asked.
"Exactly."
"On command?"
"On command -- my command."
Flattery was pleased at the trace of a smile that flickered across Spider NeIvt i'ms ulispts.have been a luxury that he allowed himself for the moment.
"We both know what will come of the hue and cry," the Director said, and puffed himself a little before
continuing. "There will be a demand for vengeanMcey.
men will be forced, by popular demand, to prune
this stand backY.
ou see how it's done?"

"Very neatI.
always thought . . ."
"Yes," Flattery gloated, "so has everyone eTlshee.
kelp has been a very sensitive subject, as you know.
Religious overtones and whatnot.A" nother dismissive wave of the hanFdla. ttery couldn't stop bragging.
"I had to accomplish two thinIgsh:ad to get control of Current Control, and I had to find the point at which the kelp became sentienNt.ot necessarily smart, just sentienBt.y the time it sends off those
damned gasbags it's too late -- the only solution there is to stumpWthee lloostt. for a lot of years that way."
"So, what's the key?"
a lot of good kelpways
"The lights," Flattery saiHd.e pointed out his huge plaz port at the bed just off the t"iWdehlienne.the
kelp starts to flicker, it's waking Iutp's. like an infant, then, and only knows what it'sThtoeldl.anguage it speaks is chemical, electrical."
"And you do the telling?"
"Of courseF. irst, keep it out of contact with any other Tkhelapt'.s a mustT. hey educate each other by touch. Make sure the kelpways are always very wide between stands -- a kilometer oTrhemore. damned stuff can learn from leaves torn off other stTanhdes.effect dies out very quickAly. kilometer usually does it."
"But how do you . . . teach it what you want?"
"I don't teachI. manipulate.It's very old-fashioned, Mr. NevQi.uite simply, beings gravitate toward pleasure, flee pain."
"How does it respond to this kind of . . . betrayal?"
Flattery smiled". Ah, yes.Betrayal is your department, is it nWot?ell, once pruned and kept at the

light-formation stage, it doesn't remember mucSht.udies show that it can remember if allowed to develop
to the spore-casting stageY. ou have just seen what the answer is to that -- don't let it getAtlhsoat, studies show that this spore-dust can educate an ignorant stand."
"I thought it was just a nuisance," Nevi "sIaiddi.dn't realize that you believed it could think."
far.
"Oh, very much sYo.ou forget, Mr. Nevi, I'm a Chaplain/PsychiatrTisht.at I don't pray doesn't mean . .
. well, any mind interests mAen. ything that stands in my way interests Tmhei.s kelp does both."
"Do you consider it a 'worthy adversary'?" Nevi smiled.
"Not at all," Flattery barked a laugh, "not worthyIt,'llnoh.ave to show me more than I've seen before I
consider this plant a 'worthy adversarIyt'.s'
merely an interesting problem, requiring interesting solutions."
Nevi stood, and the crispness of his gray suit accentuated the fluidity of the muscles within it.
"This is your business," Nevi told h"iMmi.ne is Ozette and the girl."
Flattery resisted the reflex to stand and waved a limp hand, affecting a nonchalance that he did not at all feel.
"Of course, of courseH."e avoided Nevi's gaze by switching the holo backHeonk.eyed it to the
Tatoosh woman's upcoming NewsbreakS.he would accompany the next shuttle flight to the Orbiter, a shuttle that contained the Organic Mental Core for hookup to the VoiAdlsrheiapd. y the OMC was an
"it" in his mind, rather than the "she" who used to be Alyssa Marsh.
Flattery seethed insideH. e'd wanted something more from Nevi, something that now smelled distinctly
of approval.He didn't like detecting weakness in himself, but he liked even less the notion of letting it pass unbridled.
"Whatever you need . .Fl.a"ttery left the obvious unsaid.

Nevi left everything unsaid, nodded, and then left the Fsluaitttery felt a profound sense of relief, then checked it.Relief meant that he'd begun to rely on Spider Nevi, when he knew full well that reliance on anyone meant a blade at the throat sooner or Hlaeterd.id not intend for the throat to be his own.
And out of the ground made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
-- Christian Book of the Dead
A trail left the beach about a kilometer beyond the limits of the PItrewsearvsea.
Zavatan trail, used by
the faithful to transport their gleanings of the kelp from the beach to their warrens in the high reaches. Because it was a Zavatan trail it was well-kept and reasonablyItssarfees.t spots were ample and
afforded a sweeping vista of Flattery's huge PreseTrvhee.
jumbled, jerry-rigged tenements of Kalaloch
sprawled from the downcoast side of the Preserve, covered today by a cloak of blackMsamzeolikkee. channels of aquafarms and jetties branched both up- and down-coast into the hDoriisztaont. screams and explosions echoed from the panorama below up the winding trail.
Two Zavatan monks stopped to study the clamor rising from the settlement a few klicOksneawmaayn.
was tall, lanky, with very long armThs.e other was small even for a Pandoran, and moved in a scuttle
that kept him tucked inside the larger man's shadBoowth.
were dressed in the loose, pajamalike gi of the

Hylighter Lodge:durable cotton, dusky orange that represented the color of hylighters, their spirit guides.
A gith of hylighters lazed overhead, drawn to the scene by their attraction for fire, lightning and the arc of lasguns from building to buildinTg.he hylighters dragged their ballast rocks from long tentacles and
circled widely, audibly valving off hydrogen and snapping their great sails in thSehwouinldd. they contact fire or spark, the hylighters would explode, scattering their fine blue spore-dust, which the monks gathered for their most private rituaMls.any of the monks had not left the high reaches, except to walk this trail, for ten years.
"It's a shame they don't understand," the younger monk m"uIfsewd.e could only teach them the letting go . . ."
"Judgement, too, is an anchor," the elder war"nIet di.s Nothing that they need to know -- the No-thing that frees the mind from noise and perfects the senses."
He lifted his mutant arms in a long skyward reach, then turned slowly, rejoicing in the morning glow of both suns.
This elder monk, Twisp, loved the press of sunlight on hiHs eskhinad.
been a fisherman and adventurer
in his youth, and what drew him to the Zavatans was not so much their contemplative life as other possibilities that he saw in theLmi.ke most of the monks, Twisp had been wooed by the romance of the new quiet earth that rose from the Tsehae.y summarily rejected the petty squabblings of politics and
money that raged across Pandora to establish an underground network of illegal farms and hideaways.
Twisp, however, had remained entrenched in Pandora's civil struggles, something he troubled few of his fellow Zavatans aboutN. ow, once again, all was changing, he was changHineg.had more to offer
Pandora than contemplation, though he refrained from telling the younger moHnke swoa. s not religious, merely thoughtful, and he had made a good life among the ZavItatwanosu. ld pain him greatly to leave.
Two hylighters tacked toward them and Mose, the younger monk, set down his bag and began his
Chant of FulfillmentW.
ith this chant he hoped to be swept skyward by the mass of tentacles and
transported to a higher level of beiTngw.isp had experienced the hylighter enlightenment at the first awakening of the kelp a quarter century pTahsta.t was before Flattery's iron fist came down, and before the people he loved were killed.

Hylighters, though born from the kelp, remained indifferent to humans, treating them as a wonderful curiosity. Mose's chant became more vigorous as the hylighters drew near, their magnificent sail membranes golden in the sunlight.
"These two want their death today," Twisp
"sDaido. you really want to go with them?"
It was the fire that attracted them, and Mose should knowThethayto. unger monk had eaten too much kelp, too much hylighter spore-dust over the yeTawrs.o humans in the open near the Preserve usually meant armed securityH. ylighters wanting the-death-that-meant-life learned how to draw their fire.
Now the musty smell of their undersides filled thTeheairm. usical flutings of their vents lilted on the breeze as they valved off hydrogen to drop cloMseors.e's chant became more tremulous.
Each hylighter carried ten tentacles in the underbelly, two of them longer than Uthsuealrleyst.these two
carried rocks for ballasHt. ylighters that felt the death need coming on sought out lightning, often gathering in giths to ride the afternoon thunderstormSpsa. rks or fire attracted them as well, setting them off in a
concussive blaze of flame and blue spore-duSsotm. suicide, an ultimate orgasm.
e dragged their ballast rocks to spark a grand
Twisp breathed easier when the two great hulks tacked back toward the PHreeserinvtee.rrupted
Mose, whose eyes were closed and whose stubbled face was pale and sweaty.
"This tack will take them into range of the Preserve's perimeter cannon," "hTehesraeidw. take back for the others."
ill be dust to
Mose silenced himself and followed Twisp's long pointing Tahrme .two hylighters tacked in tight formation, using all that they could capture of the slight breeze blowing up from the shore.
"Flattery's security will wait to fire until the hylighters are over the settlement," Twisp w"hTishpaetred. way, the hylighters become a weapoWn.atch."
It was almost as he saEidit.her the cannoneer was a fool or one of the Islanders got in a clear shot, but the hylighters exploded over the Preserve in a double blast that took Twisp's breath away and stung his

eyes with lightM.
uch of the main compound aboveground was incinerated in the fireball and the great
wall of the Preserve was breached for a hundred meters in either direction.
A lull in the fighting brought his ears the cacophonous screams of the charred and sound that Twisp remembered all too well.
Itht ewdaysinag.
The young Mose came down this trail seldom and had been only twelve when he went to live in the high reaches. He did not have much of a life in the outside world, and knew little of the ways of human hatred and greed.
"All we can do is stay out of it," Twisp mu"tTtehrey. will have at themselves and leave us in peace."
The wet patter of hylighter shreds fell among the brush and rocks below them.
There will be the refugees, too, he thouAglhwt.ays the homeless and the hungWry.here will we put them this time?
The Zavatans supported refugee camps all along the coastline, turning some into gardens, hydroponics ranches and fish farmsT.wisp calculated that there were already more refugees both up- and downcoast than Flattery housed in KalalocTh.hough it was true everyone was hungry, only those in Kalaloch
starved. This was the story he hoped Shadowbox would tell.
In time, the Director will be the hungry one.
Twisp remembered Guemes Island and the refugees of twenty-five years ago, hacked and burned and
stacked like dead maki in a Merman rescue station down uTnwdiesrp.
and a few friends hunted down
the terrorists responsible, and a hylighter executed the leaAdeCr.haplain/Psychiatrist had been at the bottom of the trouble that time, too.
Flattery had burrowed as much of his compound below the rock as above it, and Twisp knew of bolt-holes that led to escape routes along the shFolarett.ery wouldn't need them this timTeh.e older
monk had seen fighting before, and knew Flattery's stratleugrye: as many of the rebels inside as possible, then kill them alLl.et them think, for a time, that they mightBwlaimn.e it on the ShadowTs.he rest, who

lost everything but their lives, would not rise so easily to anger again.
Mose pulled at his garment, straightening the foHleds.faced away from the horror beloHwis.
eyes did
not meet Twisp's, but focused in the middle distance beyond theHitsraiwl.ere eyes sunken deeply for one so young, for one dwelling among the untroubHle .was attempting inner peace at breakneck
speed. He shaved his head daily, customary these days with younger Zavatan monks and many nuns. Many ragged scars crisscrossed his scalp from his reconstruction surgery.
Twisp was one of a handful of exceptiHoinss.full head of long, graying hair was tied into a single braid at the back, mimicking the family style of an old friend, longHidseafdri.end, Shadow Panille, was said
to have been of the blood lines that led to Crista Galli.
"We should get the others," Mose s"aWid.e'll need lasguns if we're going dust-gathering in the valley."
Twisp shaded his eyes and surveyed the scene beAlowbl.ur that must be villagers spilled into the Preserve's compound.Running the other way, like fish fighting their way upcurrent, Flattery's precious cattle from the Preserve stampeded out the breached wall and into the unprotected valley.
Security had kept the demon population at a minimum near the Preserve, but with the scent of blood thick on the air and cattle milling about loose dashers were sure to Tfhoilnlogws .were going to get nasty enough without a new hunt of hooded dashers slinking aHboeutg.runted himself out of reverie.
"Spore-dust goes bad," Twisp sa"idIf.
we're going to bring any back, we'll have to do it now."
He and Mose stored the kelp fronds they'd collected in the shade of a whMitoeserosctkil.l did not look Twisp in the eye.
"Are you afraid?" Twisp asked.
"Of course!" Mose snapped back, "aren't yWoue? could be killed down theDrea. shers will smell the . .
. the . . ."

"Just moments ago you wanted to die in the arms of that hylighter," Tw"iWsphasat'isd.the difference? There are demons up here, toYoo. u feel safe on the trail because we say the trail iYs osuafek.now that some have died here in the past, others will die in the Yfuotuurest.ick to the trail, with no cover except these scrub bushes and the rock, no weapon but your body."
Twisp pointed past the flames below them and out to sea.
"Weather will kill you as dead as any demon, on or off tIht eistra l.danger now, as dangerous as a dasher. It always stays alive, to kill another dIfayd.ashers come, they will go to the blood, not Itfo us.
anything, we are safest nowT.his is the present, and you are alSivtaey. alive."
in the present, and you stay
With that he shouldered his empty bag and set out in long strides for the valley and the spore-dust below. Mose stumbled along behind him, his nervous eyes too busy hunting fears to watch the trail.
To think of a power means not only to use it, but above all to abuse it.
-- Gaston Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis of Fire

Two old vendors hunched in a hatchway, protecting themselves and their wares from the jostlings of a
mob that muscled its way toward the PreseOrvnee. bleeding nose against his sleeve.
munched a smashed cake, the other nursed a
"Animals!" Torvin spat, and a fine spray of blood came w"Iisththiet.re anyone left who is not an animal? Except you, my friendY. ou are a human being."
His free hand patted the other's shoulder and found a large rip in the fabric of the older man's coat.
"Look, David, your coat . . ."
David brushed crumbs from his chin and pulled the shoulder of his coat across his chest, closer to his good eye.
"It will mend," he sa"idA.nd the mob is passinIgf. there are dead, my friend, we should get their cards for the poor."
"I'm not going out there."
Torvin's voice was muffled by his sleeve, but David knew he was firm on tIhtatwpaosinjut.st as well.
His eyes were bad, and his feet not quick enough to outrun the sIetcuwraitsy.a shame when the security
got the cardsT. hey sold them, or traded theEmv.ery day Torvin and David risked their lives to give a bit of stale cake or a rind of dried fruit to a hungry one withouDt avicdarsdh. ook his head.
What foolishness!
He worked beside Torvin, they were friends, yet he could not trade him a cake for a Hderiehdadfruit.
to have a marker on his card for the fruit, and Torvin would have to punch it out, and then he could have it. If Torvin didn't have a pastry marker on his card, David could not give himFoar Tcaokrev.in to
possess a cake without a proper punched card would mean losing his next turn in TUhnedeLrinthe.e
best of conditions, he would not have expected a turn for at least Ua nwderekt.he worst conditions, he could starve with a fistful of coupons.

"This is craziness!h"e told Torvin". It is well I am old and ready to die, because the world makes no
sense to meO.
ur children run about killing each othIter.is permissible to have food on one table but not
another. We have a leader who takes food from the mouths of babies so he can travel to the stars -- good riddance, I sayB. ut what will he leave behinHd?is bullies, who are also our childrTeno.rvin,
explain this to me."
"Bah!"
Torvin's faded blue sleeve was crusted with blood but the bleeding on his nose hadDsatvoipdped. could tell by the way he said "Bah!" that the nose was stoppHeed ruepm.embered that time the security slapped him, the fragrant burst of blood in his nose.
"Thinking will get you into trouble," he heard Torvin warning"Whiema. re better off to keep quiet, dry
our allowance of fruit, bake our allowance of cakes and be thankful that our families have something to eat."
"Be thankful?"David wheezed one of his silent laug"hYs.ou are no youngster, TorviWn. ho taught you
to be thankful to eat when someone across the wall has noTthhienrge? is no greater sin, my friend, than to eat a full meal when your neighbor has none."
"We give cards to the poor . . ."
"Graverobbers!" David hissed".That's what they've made uGs.raverobbers who can be shot for
throwing scraps to the hungrTy.his is craziness, Torvin, such craziness that this mob is making sense to me. Burn it all and start ovTerh.ey are hungry now . . ."
"Those . . . animals who beat me, they are not hTuhnegyryh. ave cardsT. hey work down under and we see them here dailyW. here do they get off chanting 'We're hungry now' when --"
"Listen, Torvin, to me an old man now gone
Lcriaszteyn.. We are old, you andYIo. u, not so old.
Would you have given them something if you could?"

Torvin stuck his head out the hatchway, looked up and down the street, then hunched back inside.
"Of courseY.
ou know me, I'm not a greedy mIahna. ve done such a thing."
"Well, listen to me, old mTanh.e mob we saw, yes, they have caYrdess., they bring a little food home
-- for a family of foIufr.there are six, eight, ten then the card still only feeds a family of four."
"No one argues with that," Torvin s"aWid.e can't breed ourselves out of --"
"When you or I get too old and have to live with our children, Ship forbid, that will be one more on a card of fourT. ake in a refugee who has no card, my frYieensd,. that makes it six on a card of four and
the average of people who have cards is eight.
"The ones without cards, the stinking ones who are dying at the settlement's edge begging for food, begging for work, sleeping in the mud -- they cannot run through the streets themselves to shout 'We're
hungry now,' because they can barely staWnde.
give crumbs from our guilt, from our shaTmhies. mob
gives their bodies, their voices to the hunTgrhye.y give whatever they have."
David leaned heavily on his folded table and got to hTishefeemt.ob had moved on quickHlya. d his
body allowed, he might have followed theHme. watched Torvin test his nose gingerly with his fingertips.
"I am afraid, David, of people like Tthhaety.
might have killed uIst. could have happened."
Torvin sounded as if he had corks in his nose.
David shrugged.
"They are afraid, too, because only the card gives them a place in The Line, and then only when their
turns come aroundW.
ithout a card, how long before you or I wake up in the mud dowHnocwoast?

many nights, Torvin, could you sleep in the mud and still wake in the morning?"
Torvin tested the bridge of his nose again, wincing.
"I don't like this, DavIid.don't like getting beat up . . ."
"Such drama," David sai"dT. he man was pushed in heYreo. u were hiding under your table and the corner hit your noseT.hat is not a beatinTg.he Poet, over there, now that man took a beating."
David's nod indicated a dark shape pacing the hatchway across fromThtheemst.reet was nearly clear, only a few stragglers scurried about, dodging the stunsticks of secTuhrietyL. ine to the warehouse was reforming already as the bravest, or the hungriest, came out of hiding.
Only one adult and one child of a card could wait in line, so the chore usually fell to the strongest unemployed member.Whoever did the shopping might have to carry out a two weeks' supply of foodstuffs for eight people or moSree.curity protection was good in The Line, but spotty elsewhere, so there were actually two lines, one on one side of the street going in and one on the other going out.
Licensed vendors like David and Torvin worked The Line, selling to those who were afraid they wouldn't get inside today, or who wanted a little something different to take home to the wots.
The man they called "the Poet" across the way worked his way up and down The Line each day, babbling of Ship and the return of SHhiep. was careful not to speak against Flattery's Voidship project. He had done that once, and come back a broken TmheanP. oet had not stood upright since, but walked in a shuffle, bent nearly double at the wDaiasvt.id could hear him now, shouting after the tail-end of the mob:
"I have been to the mountaintoLpe!t freedom ring!"
"That one?"Torvin snorted, and started his nose bleeding ag"aTinh.at one has been into the spore-dust once too often."

David smiled at his frienHde.
and Torvin were nearly the same age, in their sixties, but he hadn't known
Torvin long.There was much he had never told him.
"I was taken once," David whisper"eAd. security wanted cakes without a marker and I wouldn't give
them to himI.
knew if I did he would be back everyHdeayb.ullied meI.
would rather give them to the
poor, so I did a foolish thiIngt.hrew them into The Line, and there was a scraWmbelle,. I knew I
would be arrested, but I forgot about the othTehresy. punch on the card and took them in."
rounded up everyone who had a cake without a
Torvin's face paled".My friend, I didn't know . . . what did they do to you?"
"They took me to a shed that had cubicles in it, separated by
Icnurteaaicnhs. one they were doing
something to someoneT. he screams were terrible, and the smell . . ."
David took a deep breath and let it out TshloewP. oet was still gesturing and railing from his hatchway.
"He was there, in the cubicle next toHme ew. as an important man from down under who was the director of all of HolovisioFn.lattery had taken over -- I didn't know that -- and this man had commented on the air that Flattery wanted to brainwash the world."
"A brave man," Torvin saHide.
appraised the Poet in a new light.
"A fool," David sai"dH. e would've been better off to find a way to fight inside, or hidden out to do something like those Shadowbox people are doiHnge. must've known what would happen."
David dusted off his threadbare trousers, put on his cap and leaned against the hatchway, his gaze very distant and his voice low.
"Well, I'll tell you what happened to Thihmey.
put him in a metal barrel, bent over double, and tied a
block of concrete to his testicleTsh.ere was no floor in the barrel, so he could move it around by shuffling, but he had to keep bent over, and his knees bent down, to keep the weight off hHisistesticles. hands were tied behind his back, and throughout the day they would beat the sides of the barrel with

those sticks they carry.
"They seldom fed him, but when they did he had to take food and water from the floor, bent over like
that, an animal inside the barrHele.
was a learned maIn.never heard him cursHe.e only prayedH. e
prayed to every god I've heard of, and many that I don't Tkhneoywm. ade him crazy to discredit him -- who would believe a madmanP?articularly a madman who eats bugs and scraps and sometimes dirt to stay alive."
Torvin was quiet for many blinks, digesting what his friend had toTldhehiPmo.et continued his rant, and the few security patrolling nearby ignored him.
"My friend," Torvin said, "what did they . . . were you . . . ?"
"They beat me," David sa"idIt. was nothingI.
was in and out in a day for being insubordIindaoten.'t
think the captain cared much for the security guard who chargeAdt mane.y rate, he was never seen on this street againL. ook, now.It is clear, and we should go sell what weI cwaann. t to get home and
check on my AnnieS.he worries about me in times like this."
Both men strapped on their little folding tables that fit around their waists and hurriedly neatened their wares. As they stepped into the muddy street Torvin heard the Poet's hoarse voice exhort him, "Brother, brother, let freedom ring!"

Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the
light of day will be hateful to yYoouu.
are my creator, but I am your master.
-- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Vashon Literature Repository
Spider Nevi watched Rico pull the gangway up and onto the deck of the Flying Fish, then he manipulated the sensor for a close view of Rico's back as he turned away.
"Lasgun there," Nevi said, and tapped a finger against the s"cBreltn, . middle of the bacCk.arries himself like a fighter."
Nevi never once glanced at the security officer watching the screen at hAis tshidee.Flying Fish
departed moorage he switched to another sensor at the mouth of the harbor, one that confirmed Crista
Galli's presence on board.
At Nevi's command, the sensor zoomed in on the cabin of the passing foil, revealing LaPush in the copilot's seat and Crista Galli buckled in behind Ohizme.tte sat to her left, behind the pilot, and was
speaking to herN.
evi recognized the pilot, Elvira, and cursed under his breath.
"If your security launch tries an intercept, it will be outclassed," h"We
hsaaitd.then?"
"There will be a show of force," Zentz said, "then a warning shot."
"And then?"
Zentz cleared his throat, stroked the swollen area near the middle of his face that functioned as a nose.
"Shoot to disable."

Nevi snorted at the ridiculousness ofAitl.aser cannon strike on a hydrogen-ram foil could ignite a fireball a thousand meters widHe.e thought that a rather narrow definition of "disable."
Zentz continued, flustered at Nevi's silence.
"The Director declared a 'state of security' almost a year ago," h"eYosuaidk.now the routine:
mandatory interception and search of all vessels, except company ferries, that enter or leave Kalaloch;
search of any air or ground craft entering or leaving the perimeter . . ."
Nevi let Zentz go on with his tedious recital.
Flattery's precious Preserve was his nest, and Nevi knew he would take no chancBeust hNeerev.i was
sure that any interception of the Flying Fish right now could easily be bungled into a disaster of the greatest proportions.Flattery had just called him to duty because Zentz had permitted such a bungle.
"We want Shadowbox and Crista Galli," Nevi nest. This foil, intact, will lead us there."
"sTaiod. exterminate nerve runners you have to bum their
Zentz, ramrod-stiff in his seat, cleared his dry throat and offered, "We suspect LaPush has been a
Shadow commandant for about six years . . ."
"Your crew is not to interfere with this vessel," Nevi orHde ekde.yed in the security frequency on his console. "You can give the order right herHe.e" flipped a switch and looked Zentz in the eyes.
Zentz cleared his throat again, then leaned toward the microphone.
"Zentz hereT. hirty-four, disregard white class-three foil departing harbor."

"Sir," a young voice came back, "by the Director's orders we're to seize any vessels sighted but not searched."
Zentz paused, and in that pause Nevi enjoyed the exquisite dilemma that was now added to the Security
Chiefs fatigue.There was only one way out, one way to satisfy the by-the-book greenhorn officer, one way to keep the Director at bay.
"I searched it personally at dockside," Zentz
"saWide.
know what's on board."
Nevi switched off the connection, satisfied with the choice he'd made inIfZietnctza.me right down to it, Zentz would be the perfect sacrifice in the holiest of games, survival.
"Young officers haven't learned their priorities yet," Zentz said, forcing a smile.
"They have only learned fear," Nevi s"aTidh.ey mature when they understand greed."
Zentz rubbed at the back of his thick neck, only half-listHeneinhga.d spent the entire night interrogating
two of his best guards as an example to the rest, and now that Nevi had ordered Crista Galli out of his
grasp it looked as if he was going to have to go through it aFlrloamgatihne.
moment he'd freed the foil
Zentz could feel a tightening at his collar that he didn't like -- it was a nooselike grip, unrelenting as baldness, cold.
Nevi would be the death of him, this he was beginning to undWersithandth.is came the understanding that there was nothing he could do about it, nowhere he couldThheiddea. sher coiled to spring, that was what Spider Nevi saw when Zentz met his gaze.
"I am going to make you a hero," Nevi"Isahida.ve a part for you to pIlfayw. e hand the Director
Shadowbox we hand him back PandoTrah.e implications for you and me are obvioYuosu. course, prefer this to whatever the Director has in mind for you here?"
will, of
Zentz did not clear his throat, he did not sHpeakn.odded once and his grotesque lump of a jaw quivered with what Nevi presumed was the clenching of his teeth.

"It will be just you and I," Nevi "sTahide. more we can tell the Director about these vermin and their warrens, the happier he will bYeo. u desperately need to make him happy."
The white foil slipped under the bay's waves, keeping the burning wreckage between itself and the Vashon Security foil oppositeT.hey would be suspicious of not being challenged during an alert, this Nevi knew, but he still had the advantaTghee.y knew he was behind them, they didn't know how close.
Nevi used the sensor system to pan the riot that was now in full bloom in Kalaloch. "They're working their way toward the Preserve," he n"oCteadn. your men handle this?" Zentz's wattles rose in indignation.
"Security is my business, too, Mr. NIevhia. ndle it my waWy. e will let them throw their tantrum and trash their nest, then we will slaughter them here at theThweayll.must be made to be very sorry that
they attack the PreserveT. he damage they do to their streets will keep the survivors busy for a time."
Nevi flipped off the sensors and stood, straightening his tight suit with a tug.
"Secure one of Flattery's personal foils," Nevi snap"pFeudl.l gear for two, plus a week's ratioSnese. to
it there's coffeeM.
eet me in the Preserve hangar in one-half hour."
His eyebrows indicated dismissal and Zentz rose to lNeaevvei. saw the seed of hope in Zentz's eyes, a
seed that Nevi would nourish to a rich blossom and snip, when necessary, to make just the right bouquet for the Director.

I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust mIotleosok. .up.on the judgment of right
and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons.
-- Buddha
Crista Galli reclined in a leather crew couch that smelled faintly oSfheRicgori.pped the armrests, eyes
closed. Noise and the press of the crowd had always frightened her, at least since she had been blasted free of the kelp five years paMste.mory of her life before that blast seemed hopelessly lost.
The supple leather couch and roomy cabin muted the pierside cTlahmeoor.thers had finished casting off and were returning to the cabAin. green circle flashed on the pilot's screen for each hatch they dogged behind them.
Their pilot, a severe, sensuous woman in her mid-thirties, prepared the ballast tank pumps and other predive systems.She spoke the sequences aloud crisply as she completed her checkoff.
"Taking on ballast."
Three fuel tanks flared together from the fire at the center of the bay and Crista felt the concussions puff her lungs.A three-headed rage of fire boiled up from the waters off their bow, heeling the foil over in a lurch to starboardB. en and Rico sealed off the cabin and strapped in.

"Going down?" Rico asked, and laughTedh.e pilot didn't miss a beat.
"No security challenge," she reporte"dT.wenty-meter level-off mandatory until clear of marker five-five-seven . . ."
Since boarding the foil Crista had felt a calm such as she'd not known for several years, in spite of the madness outside.She felt something pull her toward the mouth of the harbor, to the open water beyond. Ben handed her a child's dessert stick from his pocket.
"You'll need the energy," he sa"iOd.nce we're clear of the harbor we can raid the gIasllethye. too dry for you?"
cabin air
"No," she shook her head, "it feels Lfiinkee.
my room at the Preserve."
This was the cool, processed air that Crista had breathed for five years at the Preserve, free of the charcoal odors of the street braziers, the whiff of raw iodine from the beaches and scant wet blooms of upland slopes.It was air swept nearly clean of humanity -- the humanity that idolized Crista Galli, the humanity she had only known now for less than a single day.
It was midmorning yet, second sun just clearing the horizon, and Crista felt the race of sunlight through her surging pulseS. he was outside the Preserve noRwe.gardless of the circumstances, she intended
never to go back, never to be a prisoner of walls again.
Watch yourself, an ancient one inside her warned, that you don't become a prisoner of action, or words. And remember, when you make a choice you abandon freedom of choice.
She'd had no choice in her appearance among humans, and Flattery had given her no choices since that time. She had been plucked from the vine of the kelp and dropped into Flattery'sCbriasstaketth. ought
that if the people of Pandora thought her a god, it was time she acted Nliokwe otnhea.t the water had begun closing about the foil, she felt an energy surge her blood that she'd never felt before.
What could she do that would help herself and these people who were still alieEnveton
hBeern?,

though she felt a love for him, was a straSnhger.had tried daily for five years, and could summon no memories of her earlier life.
Everyone, everyone is a stranger.
She'd had this thought before, but today it didn't surround her with the loneliness that it had in the past. She'd touched Ben Ozette, and seen that he, too, had these thoughts and he'd lived among humans for his whole life.
This is what they could learn from the kelp, she mWuesedar.e not alone because we are elements of one being.
She listened as Rico muttered loudly to no one in particular.
"Operations won't like it," he sa"iUd.nder no circumstances is she to be allowed near theOfsea.
course, they're welcome to drop in here and give us a hand after they promised us the airstrip . . ."
She could tell that Rico felt more comfortable in thHe efohila.d smiled, finally, and though he seemed to be complaining he was complaining with a smile.
"Ever ride a foil?" Ben asked her.
"Never," she said, her wide eyes trying to take in everything a"tI'voencwe.atched them from the
Preserve. This one is beautiful."
"Let me point out our three-way option," he said, and indicated certain diagrams on his control panel. "We are riding Pandora's finest vehicle on, above or under thTeheseah.ydrofoil mode is fast on the
surface, but the foil struts clog up easily in thickEkxeclepp. t in flight, these class-one foils use the old
Bangasser converter to retrieve hydrogen from seawater, a virtually infinite source oIf air, we have to remember that the fuel tanks do get empty."
fwuel.go to the

He glanced over at Elvira's indifference and shrugged.
"We're going down under," he sa"iTdh. eir lasgun's no good underwateBr.ut this guarantees we'll be tracked, all the kelpways are heavily wired --"
"It might be something bigger than Flattery doing the tracking," Rico inter"rHupetaedds. down."
up, we're going
He paused and, when there was no response from Ben, he assisted Elvira with the dive Wchheilcekout. they busied themselves with tasks at their consoles, Crista watched the water close over the cabin.
Ironically, it was probably Flattery who best understood her life among thIen kheislph. ybernation,
Flattery had lain nearly lifeless, his vitals monitored and maintained by several devices on and inside his body. According to Flattery's lab people, Crista Galli had lived in symbiosis with the kelp, a hundred million kelp cilia inside her, breathing for her, feedingTheyr. claimed that these tiny projections
supported her for her first twenty years, until Flattery had this stand of kelp blown up, lobotomized to the needs of Current Control.
"It's like being an embryo until you're twenty," she'd told"TBhere.'s no other way I can explain it.
You don't eat, breathe, or move around muTchhe.
only people you meet are in the dreams that Avata
brings. Now I don't know what was dream and what was me, it's all coTnhfuersedw. as no me until . . . until that dayB. ut Flattery knows something of how this feSeols.does that Dwarf MacIntosh, and that brain that Flattery's hooking up to his ship."
"It sounds horrible," Ben had said, and she realized that it probably did.
In dive mode the engine shift vibrated so much that it rocked her from side to side in her seat, forcing he attention back to the present.
Crista fought back a tear, and couldn't turn away from the green water surging ahead of the cabin.
There are laws against touching me!

She thought of that kiss again, the one that had lasted only a blink in real time but would replay forever i her mind.Even in the hot climate of Kalaloch, Crista wore the coverings dictated by the DBiurtector.
alone, in the privacy of her suite, she had often shucked her clothes in spite of Flattery's sensors, which she knew to be everywhere.
Any portion of her skin left bare tingled at its awareness of breezes aInfdshlieghnto. ticed nothing else in a day she noticed the thousand tiny touches between humans arounItd hhaedr. become difficult to
think of herself as humaNn.ow, having glimpsed the public idolatry focused on her, she felt the frayed tether weaken even more.
A surge in cabin air pressure popped her ears, and the great plasma-glass dome of the cabin settled completely under the wavesS.he caught herself holding her breath and cautioned herself to Srehleax.
heard the susurrations of voices rise and fall with the pulse of the engines.
"Are you all right?"
Crista felt herself rising above Ben's voice to the ceiling of the cabin, through the ceiling and higher yet, above the PreserveS. he was a thousand meters above Kalaloch, and beneath her writhed a mass of
brown tentacles.
She was a hylighter, tacking her great sail across the breeze to keep the shadow of their foil in sight below. She was aware of herself, of her own being inside the foil, but felt every ripple along the hylighter's supple body as well.
Ben Ozette was calling her name, barely audible at this disItansecem.
ed she shared an umbilicus from
his navel to her own and he was pulling her in by it, reeling her back to the Flying Fish hand over hand.
Ben touched her cheek and Crista snapped awHakee.did not take his hand away.
"You scared me," he sa"idY.our eyes were open and you quit breathing."

As she sat forward, resisting his gentle pressure, she saw that Rico also stood over her, an open medical kit beside his feeHt. e was wearing glovesW. hat had been blue sky covering the plaz of the cabin was
now the green-gray twilight of the middle deTehpe.y were riding a kelpway, and somehow she knew that they had already cleared the harbor, heading north.
Rico stared at Ben's hand stroking her cheek, then at Crista.
"I was gone," she sa"idS.omewhere above usI. and brought me back."
was a hylighter watching this foil and you reached out
"A hylighter?"Ben laughed, but it was a tight, very nervous la"uTghha.t's a strange enough dream.
' Gasbag from the sky How her tentacles writhe for me . . .'
Remember that song'?Come and Gone . . .'"
"I remember that it was some tasteless play on words, ridiculing the hylighter's spore-casting function. And this was no dream."
She saw the snap in her voice reflected in the tightening of his lips, a closing off that she didn't know how to stop.
Rico turned without saying anything and stowed the kit beneath hCisrissetaat.smelled something like anger, something like fear pulse from Rico's turned bAacllk.of her senses washed back into her trembling body, delivering her into a state of hypersensitivity that she had never known before.
The undersea landscape of blues and greens blurred past her like the settlement had blurred past her -- too much wonder, too little time.

Of everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and of him to whom they have entrusted much, they will demand the more.
-- Jesus
Beatriz was awaiting her cue for the two-minute windup of News-break when the fully armed security detachment entered the studio, sliding from the hatchway with their backs along theThweyallhsu. ng
back beyond the fringe of lights, which blazed their reflection in the squad leader's mirrored sunglasses. Her mouth was suddenly dry, her throat tightening, and she was due for the wrap-up in thirty seconds.
Still on the air, she thougThht.e preempt isn't running yet.
Her console showed her what the three cameras saw, but the monitor at the rear of the studio showed what went out on the aNiro. w it showed Harlan fast-talking the weather.
It could be bypassed.

She shuddered in her newfound paranoia and thought that the floor director would probably stop Harlan if they'd gone to tape, but she couldn't be sure anymore.
Maybe they want to see just how much more I'd try to say.
She had deviated from the prompter, amid the waving hands of the producer and Sdhierechtaodr.n't
linked Ben with the Galli kidnapping, she'd just listed him as missing, along with Rico, on asSsihgenment. noted signs of surprise and muttering among the crew when she Bsaoidth itB. en and Rico were admired
in the industryI.ndeed, many of Rico's inventions and innovations made the holo industry possible.
Harlan finished morning fishing patterns, and the countdown went to BTehaetrizo.fficer of the security squad had moved up in the studio and placed a man beside each of her camSehreamheand. the sudden, weighty thought that her crew might not be on the shuttle this afternoon.
Harlan finished and smiled from the monitor, and the floor director's fingers counted heTrhrdeoew, n:
two, one . . .
"That's our morning Newsbreak from our launch site stuEdvioesn.ing Newsbreak will be broadcast live from our Orbital Assembly StatioOn.ur crew will have the opportunity to accompany the OMC, Organic Mental Core, and take you, the viewer, through each step of installation andOttehsetirngn.ews
that we will follow at that timthee: abduction of Crista GalAli.s you know, there is still no word from her abductors and no ransom demanMd. ore on this and other news at eighteGeono. d morning."
Beatriz held her smile until the red light faded out, then slumped back into her chair wTihthe studio erupted around her in a babble of questions.
"What's this about Ben?"
"Rico, too?Where were they?"
"Does the company know about this?"
a sigh.

They caredS. he knew they would care, that most of Pandora probably cared, and that was her power. As the mirrored sunglasses made their way through the crew toward her, she knew that there was nothing he could doE.ven if they'd preempted and run the canned show, the crew knew and there would be no keeping this leak plugged.
When the security officer reached her, the babbling in the studio fell quiet.
"I must ask you to come with us."
These were the words she'd been afraid she might Thheeasre.
words, "Come with us," were what Ben
had tried to warn her about for the last couple of Hyearhsa.d said more than once, "If they ask you to
come, don't do iTt.hey will take you away and you will disappTehaery.
will take the people around you
away. If they say this to you, make whatever happens happen in public, where they can't hide it from the world."
"Roll cameras one, two and three," she announTcheden. we preempted?"
she turned to Gus, the floor direc"tWor.ere
"No," he said, and his voice trembHleed.was sweating heavily even though she was the one under the lights. "If a preempt signal was sent, I didn't seYeouit.went out live."
God bless Gus! she thought.
She turned to the security.
"Now, Captain . . . I didn't get your name . . . what was it you wanted of me?"

What then shall we do?
-- Leo Tolstoy
"Trimmed and steady," Elvira reporte"dN.o pursuit.Course?"
When Ben didn't answer, Rico said, "Victoria."
Elvira grunted.
It was obvious to Crista that Elvira trusted both Ben and Rico comSphle ehlya.d seen loyalty at the Preserve, but never trusSt.he had manipulated the distrust rampant throughout Flattery's organization to open the hatch for her escapTeh.at same distrust would bring Flattery down, once and foOrf atlhl.is she was certain.
"Flattery's people hoard information like spinarettes at the web," she tol"dIt'Bs ebna. rter to them, a
medium of exchangeS. o no one has the full picture and rumor guides the hand that blesses or damns. That's why Shadowbox has threatened him more than anything else."
"There's food in the galley," Rico announced, and she saw the accompanying green indicator flash on the console at her right han"dB. en, you two take a breaBkr.ing me back some coffeWe. e're a few hours
out yet.Elvira would like the usual."

Ben led Crista to the galley behind the cabin with a hand at heHr eerlbloegws. seemed wobbly in spite
of the even-keeled submersible run of the
Sfohiel. had been hungry now for houHrse.r head ached with
it, and the memory of broiled sebet on the village air charged her stomach.
"We live in the galley," Ben told "hWerh.en we're on a job, this room is jammed, it's where everything happens."
She stepped from the semidim cabin into a warm yellowTghleowg.alley was a bright room of wood, yellowpanel and brassS. he could imagine a Holovision Nightly News crew spread out over the two tables with coffee and notes in the half-hour before air Itimwea.s a clean, well-lighted spacHeo. lo
cubes of the crew in action on various assignments sat in a rack against the inboard Cburilskthaeasda.t at the first of two hexagonal tables and pulled down a couple of the cubes to look at.
"These really stand out at you," she said, moving the holograms through different angles"Noofthliignhgt. in Flattery's collection matches these for quality."
"Thanks to Rico," Ben sa"idH.e's a born inventorH. e'd be a rich man today if Flattery's Merman
Mercantile hadn't jumped into the middle of thinOgusr. equipment himself.We always roll with the best."
stuff is good because Rico makes up the
"She's very pretty," Crista said, holding a scene of Ben and Beatriz with their arms around each other. "You two have worked together for a long tWimeer.e you in love, the two of you?"
Ben cleared his throat and pushed a few butStohnes.heard the whirr of galley machinery at work.
"Now it's hard to know whether we were truly in love or whether we'd just survived so much together that we felt no one else could understand -- except maybe Rico, of course."
"And you made love with her?"

"Yes."
Ben stood with his back to her, staring at the backs of his hands on the c"oYuenste, rtwoep. made love.
For several yearsG.
iven our lives, it would have been impossible that we didn't become intimates."
"But now you're not?"
She saw the slightest shake of the back of his"Nheoa."d.
"Does that make you saDd?o you miss her?"
When he turned to her she saw the consternation on his face, the struggle he seemed to be having with words. She thought perhaps he'd started out to lie to her, but with a sigh he changed his mind.
"Yes," he said, "I miss hNeor.t as a lover, that's past and would be too clumsy to reIkimndislse. working with her because she's so goddamn good at getting people to talk in front ofRciacmo eras. handled the techno stuff, and between us she and I could get to the bottom of mostI atnhyinthkinsgh.e's in love with MacIntosh up in Current Control, but I don't think she's admittedIf iitt,'sytertu.e, it should make life easier for both of us."
"If one of you is in love, then that takes the heat off?"
Ben laughed". I suppose you could say that, yes."
She lowered her gaze to the cube that her hands passed back and forth in fro"nCtouolfd hyeor.u ever be in love with me?"
He laughed a soft laugh and gripped her shoulder.

"I remember everything about you," he s"aTidh.at first day I saw you in Flattery's lab, when you looked
at me over your shoulder and smiled . . . I had a feeling when our eyes met like I've neverI
still get it every time I see you, think of you, dream Iosfn'tyothua.t something like love?"
had before.
Her pale skin flushed red from the neck of her dress to the roots of her shaggy white hair at her forehead.
"It's the same for me," she s"aBidu.t I have nothing to compare wAithn.d how could I live up to whatever you've shared with . . . her?"
"Love isn't a competition," he sa"iIdt. happens.There were tough times, living with B, but I don't have to bring up the bad parts to punish myself for missing the friendship, the gooIdthpianrkts.she and I are
both people who refuse to dislike someone we've loSvheed'.s an exceptional person or I wouldn't have loved her.There was a lot of bliss, a lot of turmoil, no boredomThaet abllli.ss part she called 'our
convergent lines.'Ultimately we each blamed the other for being impossible when it was our situation we couldn't bear . . ."
"Did you take the job of interviewing me because you knew that she was working with Flattery at the
Preserve?"
He laughed again.
"You have me pegged, don't youT?hat's a yes and no answIerth. ought, and still think, that your story is the most exciting thing I can show the rest of PaIndwoorau.ldn't have tried for it otherwiBseu.t, yes, I did hope, in a moment of wallowing in loneliness, that I'd see her again."
"And . . . ?"
"I didT. he thrill was gone and we were good frieGndoos.d friends who still work very well together."
"You knew that Flattery was buying us both off with those interviews, didn't you?" Crista asked.

She set her hat beside her on the deck and peeled off her headband andSmheangtialvlae.
her matted
hair a shakeS. he was relieved that he smiled at this as he gathered their utensils at the sideboard.
"I figured it out," he sa"iTdh. at's why . . . thFisla. ttery pulled the corporate strings, denying air time before the first can was shBotu. t no one was tolId.was paid, you were interviewed at length on five occasions -- and this was the story of the cenHtueryp!aid to have it done so he could kill it."
"Yes," she said, "with no pangs of conscience whatsoLeovoerk.
what it got himW: e are here, together.
I, at least, am happieAr.nd hungry," she indicated her disguise, "in spite of how it looks."
Ben patted the lump of clothing strapped to her "bAelnldy. fulfilled, too," he teaseHd.e dared to stroke her cheek again with a smile and then busied himself setting out the food.
She watched the seascape as their foil slithered through the kelpways, her quick breaths fogging the plaz. Though the Preserve was a seaside base camp Crista never once had been allowed down to the shore. Flattery feared her relationship with the kelp, and saw to it that others around her did, too.
Ben nudged her shoulder and pointed through the starboard port toward the skeletal remains of a kelp
outpost, dimly visible in the foil's deepwater ligThhtse. stumps for a thousand meters all around.
kelp itself had been burned back to knobby
"Report says kelp killed three families here, sixteen people," he"Vsasidh.on Security did their
retaliatory number on the kelp, as you can Tsheey.
call it 'pruning.'"
Though it was shadowland beneath a weak wash of light and though the engines had quieted in
submersible mode, Crista focused on the tingle at her shoulder where Ben had touchSehde
hfoeur.ght
back tears of joy at his touHcho.w could she explain this to him, who touched people and was touched at will?
He pulled two hot trays out of the unit and set them on tHhee tdaebalelt.
out napkins, spoons,
chopsticks. She knew she needed food, strength, but some dreaminess had caught her up since boarding the foil and she didn't really want to shake it.

Sunlight strengthened her, this she kneTwh.e beautiful kiss from Ben, that strengthened her, too. Something about this Rico LaPush also strengthened her, but she didn't know what.
Crista glanced again at Ben, beside her, as his eyes searched the dimness of the passing landscape.
"The Preserve is under attack," Ben sSahide.
didn't respond". You can watch it onscreen if you want."
He indicated the briefing screen against the aft galley bulkShehaed.preferred the old word "wall," but not many used iTt.ribute to Pandora's watery history.
Though Ben talked on, Crista concentrated on her meal, eating half of Ben's as well, leaving him the vegetables. His words buzzed like a fat bee in the warm galleAyll atihr.e while a lullaby kept running through her head that no human ear had heard in two thousand years.
Hush little baby don't say a word
Momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird . . .
She had learned to be cautious wandering her memoriesW, thoeon.
the flashbacks started sometimes
they took over, unpeeling whole sections of other people's
Tlivhey. lasted longer each time, dragging
Crista through hours of lightning-fast memoriTesh.ere was no focus, no fine-tuning, simply off or on.
First it was blinks, then seconds, momeAntsm. inute of high-speed memory, lived with a full sensory component, could wring an entire lifetime out of the wet cloth of heHr emr inlads.t flashback had terminated only after exhaustion and heavy sedatiIotn.had lasted nearly four houTrsh.ough conscious immediately, she had been dazed and unable to speak for threeFldaatytesr.y had used this as an excuse to further limit her life at his compound, and to adjust her medications.
She felt that same dazedness now, but no onslaught of memories, no sweat, no fear.
"Crista Galli," Ben said, "you have quite the life awaitingYoyuoua.re 'the One, Her Holiness,' a living

legend. You are the most important person alive today."
She felt an uneasiness at what he said, and sought reason to feel uneasy at the wayShhee fsoauidndit. none.
"'The One'?"she muttered."'The One' to do what?"
"You are the One for whom they have waited in suffering for so long,""Dheepesnadidin. g on whom
you believe, you are the last salvation of humankind, or you are the kelp's secret weapon to eradicate humans forever.In your glimpse of the people of Kalaloch you must have felt yourTphoewreeri.s a lot
for you to learn, and quickWly.e will help you with thBatu. t because one does not touch a god, one
does not come before a god scratching one's fleas, you will see only the best side of the faithful, and the worst side of the rest."
"When the people know me, know it's all a --"
"They will not know you," he interrup"tNedo.t the 'you' that you meaTnh.ey want to believe something else too much to stop theFma.ith can do that.
"You must be careful, you must be qAuinedt. you must be a mysterWy.e need that mystery to beat Flattery. You will see plenty of need before very much longer, and I think you will agreeEwatiththeme. rest if you are hungrWy. e may not always be among those who have food."
She was hungry, very hungSryh.e drank the broth from her soup, left the vegetables and picked out the meat. She also picked out the meat from the sandwich he madSehehear.te the bread in tiny bites to
make it last longer.
She thought she could tell Ben, tell them all something oTf onuecehd. was a human need and she was mostly human.At times someone would touch her by accident or quickly in a breathlesTshedadrea.ring ones, she recognized now, must be the religious zealots, the Zavatans that Ben had told hTehr earebout. was no way to know which way it wouldembbea:rrassment or death.
When she let Ben kiss her the previous night she had known it was possible that he Swhoeuhldaddie.

the strongest feeling that she would die, too, and somehow that made it aFlol rritghhet. first time she felt mortal, and risked iWt. hen neither of them died, she even kissed him back aHleitrtleh.eart pumped something like fear, even at the memoAryft.erward, in his green eyes so nearly like her own, there was the glitter of laughter and a good dare taken.
He looked so happy!
She remembered that few people around her had ever looked happy, except the DMiroesctltyo,r. they seemed afraid.
"Why did you kiss me?" she askAedf.lush crept out of her colSlahre. finally couldn't help iHt. e was smiling.
"Because you let me."
"You weren't afraid . . . ?"
didn't want to look at him but
"Afraid you wouldn't like Yit?es. Afraid of what you might do to mNeo?." He laughed."I have a theory. If people expect to go crazy when they touch you, then that's what tIht'esyadhoy. steria, that's all . . ."
She put her palm on his chest and said, evenly, "You don't know anything aYbout wmeer.e lucky . .
. we were lucky.S"he patted his shir"t.You didn't sleep," she sai"dI.f it's necessary that one of us sit up, I can do it from now on."
Something dark passed over his expression.
"There were arrangements," he said, "with some of the women we'll meet upcoast -- you were to stay with them.It was assumed that you would prefer . . ."
"It has to be you," she insis"tYedo.u have no woman in your life, isn't that right?"

"That's right, but it's not a matter of . . ."
"What's it a matter of?" she blur"tDedo.n't you like me?"
Maybe it was the surprise that lifted the darkness from his face, or maybe it was "Ithelikbeluysohu.," he said."I like you a lot."
"Then it's settled," she sa"idI . can stay with you."
"It's not as easy as that."
"It is if we make it so," she "sGaiedt. some rest between now and thIefn.you really are immune to me, you're going to need it."
Intervention into destiny by god or man requires the most delicate care.

-- Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, Current Control
Raja Flattery's private bunker lay safely beneath almost thirty meters of PandoranHisgtho,ned.omelike
ceilings held back the psychological crush and some well-chosen holograms draped the walls with scenes from outside the wallsA. bove him, in the rubble of his surface compound, Flattery's security finished the last roundup of resisters.
"Stand down the fighting and send in the medics."
Thanks to the hylighters, there would be a lot of Hbuernssp.oke the order into his console and didn't
wait for acknowledgmentH.
is bunker area was honeycombed with cubicles, and those cubicles were
occupied by the underlings who carried out his orders and asked no queFsetwioenrs.than a handful had personal access to the Director.
Ironic, how a little fire can cool things down.
His security teams mopped up the carnage overhead and formed stark little shadows hunching under Pandora's unforgiving sunsT. hough the sterile images of battle came into his bunker by holo, the Director thought he sniffed a distinct stench of burning hair beside him at the console.
The imagination . . . the mind . . . what incredible tools.
His personal security team waited just outside his hatch, a precaTuhtieorne. was no place on Pandora that he could flee to that would be as secure as his own comCpeorutanidnl.y there was nowhere as luxurious. A brunch of sebet simmered in Orcas Red spread out at his lefTt hhearendw. as a fine bite to these Pandoran wines that pleased him, even early in the day.
"Captain," he spoke to the shadowy figure at his hatch, "that camera team, were they deployed as scheduled?"
"Yes, sir," the captain's back stiffen"eCda. ptain Brood's men have been at the launch site since

daybreak. They know what you want."
"And the Holovision people, the ones the studio sent out to cover this . . . mess?"
"Captain Brood suggested letting them film,Wsihr.en it's done, his team can access their film, as well as their cameras and other equipmenHt.e says --"
Flattery shouted at his attendant, "Captain, did anyone give this . . . Captain Brood . . . permission to start thinking?Did you?"
The stiffened spine stiffened even more.
"No, sir."
Flattery was thankful that the shadows hid the man'sTfhaecree.
was no profile to Wit.here the captain's
nose should be there were two moist slits that separated a very wide set WofheenyeFs.lattery talked
with Nevi, at least he could focus on the man's Tehyiess.man wasn't that interesting, and Flattery had all too much time to dwell on the malformed face.
Flattery spoke in his most reasonable tone.
"I want nothing to go on Holovision today without my prior apBprovoadl'.s team is to receive priority treatment, even if we have to replace the entire production staff, understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Get their manager into my office within the hour, that puffy little maggot MWielhonuese.d cooperation
and I don't want any slip-upTse.ll him to bring some canned stuff that we can use to preempt today until
Brood's men get their tapeNs.o sense in the rest of the world getting inspired by what's going on here."

"Right, sirR. ight away, sir."
"Captain?"
"Yes, sir."
"You're a good man, CaptaYino. ur family will be pleased that you're working with me."
"Yes, sirT. hank you, sir."
The man's back retreated through the main hatchway to the oFfflaictteesr.y sighed.He watered the wine a bit and raised a glass to his own firmness under dHuerestos.asted his search teams, who fanned out even now to burn the last of the bodies up in theTrhoicskws.as a Zavatan influence, this burning of bodies. It was a practice that Flattery welcomed and suppoTrthede. traditional burials at sea turned into a ghastly sight and a health hazard on Pandora's few beaches.
Bodies washing up everywhere . . .
He suppressed a shudder at the memoItryw. as more than disgusting, it was a religious and economic disaster. Every nitwit who touched the kelp in the process came back a pTrohpeheetn. tire Pandoran
social structure was shattered by the recent geological changes alone, but this kelp business made it a madhouse.
Women of the settlements wouldn't buy fish for a week after a traditional seTahebyuridaild. n't want to take a chance on eating fish that had eaten old UncleThDearek. were times, early in Flattery's rise to
power, when he had seen hundreds of embroidered burial bags washed up on the beach at a time, and the local fleets wouldn't fish for a moFnltaht.tery's answer was to buy out the importers, stockpile
everything, and control the seaways.
"Control," he muttered".That's the keyC. ontrol."

Flattery toasted the holo that played in the center of his quHairstemrse. n had been forced to inflict
heavier casualties than he preferred, and it would raise hob with the work force just at a time when he needed things smoothS. till, their way was besTt.here were plenty of replacements, though starvation
made them dim-witted weaklingsT.hings would be slow during the training period.
My way, he thoughIt'v. e had to teach them everythinLge.ft to themselves, these Pandorans couldn't get anything done.
Flattery still marveled at his own progrHeses'd.
built and fortified a city, unified politics and industry
under one banner, and prepared a Voidship for lauTnhche. Voidship would present them with more
options than this stinking little hell-hole of a planet and Alyssa Marsh, the OMC, would point the way. Pandorans had been here for hundreds of years and hadn't made nearly the progress he'd made in the past twenty-five.
The trap topside had been sprung and was nearly ready for clTeahnisingm. ight come close to
destroying any significant Shadow resistancTe.here couldn't be many of them left, and the rest . . . well, he'd see to it that they were too hungry to fight.
Except among themselves, for scrapMs.y scraps.
Flattery's losses, other than replaceable materials, were minimal.
He pushed the meal aside and drained his gTlhases.mop-up operation would be a boTrhe.e last of the mob would be torched outside the hatch in a matter of two or threHe ehokueryse. d in his command post and noted the air of celebration among the junior officers.
Nothing like a well-executed victory to lift morale, he thoNuogthi.ng more dangerous than an army with no one to fight.
Flattery knew that they would not turn on him, or each other, as long as they had the Shadows, food thieves and the kelp to contend with.

The idle brain is the devil's playground, he chuckled.
Once again, Flattery keyed the voice frequency on his console.
"Update me on the Holovision foil's position, Colonel."
"Still submerged," Colonel Jaffe reported, "about fifty klicks downcoast from Victoria."
"Any sign of escort?"
"No.The foil is proceeding solo through the accustomed channels."
"And the kelp is not interfering?"
"Not exactly," Jaffe sai"dO. ur instruments show a marked increase in tension on the grid -- the kelp's fighting the signal from Current Control."
"The grid is holding?"
"Yes, sirW.
e're preparing to detour traffic to the outside in case we
Tloesnesiiot.n's rising fast, we're
getting some oscillations at this poiAntl.l vessels with Navcom are probably getting instrument
disturbances, too.We'll try to warn them, but as you know the sonic transmission stations down under have a very limited range . . ."
"I understand, ColoneIl.nstruct Current Control that this is a priority one situaTthioeny. are to maintain this grid at all costSstump that stand, if you have to."
"Will do, sirC. urrents remain stableA.
re they to be intercepted in Victoria?"

"That is not your jurisdiction, Colonel," Flattery snap"pAed.White Warrior team will take care oWf eit. will root out the brass of this Shadow operation this time, I'mNostuifrye. me of any sign of kelp interference, anywhere."
He broke contact without waiting for a reply, and smiled.
Yes, root them out, he thought, but not all of Ttheym.will find new leaders, then we will hunt them down, too.
He poured himself half a glass of wine and filled the rest with water.
Moderation, he mused, it's a lot like patieWncee.will prune them back, like my roses, to the very brink of death.They will always blossom under our control, always ready for the picking.
Flattery stood at his console and stretchHeed.liked the privacy of his bunkIet r.was as spacious as the compound above him, with all of the attendant comfTohrtes. view through his view-screens was not nearly as satisfying as real plaz looking over the real world -- hisSowoonrldh.is Voidship would be
manned and stocked, and he would hand over the husk of this world to anyone who planned on taking Beatriz Tatoosh with him.
Hweanted it.
Flattery had monitored her broadcast, as was his cusHtoemn.oted both her loyalty to Ozette and her
restraint. It proved she had due respect for his powers, but not a blinTdhisfeahre.
admired in heSrt.ill,
he did not want to underestimate Ozette's influence onTher.man had been pouring poison into her ear for quite a few years.
Flattery smiledH.
e wasn't one to leave much to chance, and he had a backup plan for Beatriz Tatoosh.
She would meet Captain Brood, one of Flattery's more innovative White WaBrrriooords.'s plan would
take out a number of those troublesome Holovision people and finish a clean sweep of that little rat's nest. They would go the way Ozette was goTinhga.t would teach the lot of them to back off when the Director said "Back off.A" nd it would keep them from helping out that Shadowbox, wherever it was hidden.
I expected them to get on the air right away with Crista Galli, heWthhoautgdhot.es that tell us?

That they hadn't got her to their broadcasting equipmenHt eyestm. iled in anticipation.
They'd better hurry, he laughed at the thought, they won't want to broadcast what they get once the drugs take over.
Captain Brood's plan would clean out Holovision and soften up Beatriz TFatloatotsehry.
always liked a
plan that worked on more than one leBverol.od would be the bad guy, and at just the right moment
Flattery would whisk her out of Brood's clutcThehse.n she would join him gladly in the command cabin
of the VoidshipH. e planned an opulence for that cabin befitting a leader of his caliber, a woman of her grace and beauty.
Our children will populate the stars, he mused.
He drank to the future, and to the careful execution of plans.
She shows no sign of any of the Pandoran mutations, he thHoeu'dghmt. ade sure that she'd had no surgical corrections to mask any of the Pandoran defWectes.could start quite a world, the two oIfn us.
his wine-tinted reverie Flattery saw the two of them naked in a great garden, heady with the scent of orchids and ripe fruit.
The ready light winked on over the hatchway to the Greens, indicating a foil approaching the docking well. Only Flattery and Spider Nevi knew the coded sequence for docking inside the HGereegnlasn. ced
at his timepiece, then grunted his surprise and opened the hatch.
Nevi's a quick one, he thougThot.o quick.Others, like Brood, guess at what pleases Nmeev.i figures
out my thoughts, my moves even before IThdaot.
will have to be dealt with.
He stood and adjusted his black dasherskin Wsuhite.n he wore this suit in the Greens, his pets were much more affectionate, more attentive to his neHedes.tried his look of disdain on the miIrtrosrt.ill worked. The suit was a nice touch.

His console reported on the docking foil and identified two occupants.
That fool! he thoughBt.ringing Zentz into the Greens . . . a wTaosote.late to worry now.
When the time came for Zentz to be silenced he would remind himself to have Nevi attend to it personally.
The Greens was the Director's preserve below the PresPelravset.eel welders and laser cannon had
spent two years quarrying four square kilometers out of Pandora's
Cstroynseta. llized particles of the old
kelp root glittered like stars overheaTdh.e domed ceiling arched to twenty meters at the center and shone with the black gloss of melted rock.
The Greens itself was a lush underground park maintained by an old Islander bAiotlotigmiset.s Flattery called it "the Ark.N" o one who had worked inside the Greens had lived to leave the comSppoiduenrd. Nevi came and went as he chose, and exterminated those who couTldhenyotw. ere easily replaced, and just as easily forgotten.
The hatchway from the Director's quarters in his bunker opened to the edge of a deep salt-water pool, circular, about fifty meters in diametAer. blue glow rimmed the lower portion, light diffusing in from the lamps installed around the lip outsidTeh.is had been the rootway gnawed by the kelp, the last vestige of
a great Oracle.
A gentle grassy slope led down to the pool, as well as three small streams that issued from the rock bulkheads. Animals did not do as well in the artificial light as Flattery would have liked, but his flowers, trees and grasses thrivedF.rom where he stood inside the hatchway, Flattery admired the thickest concentration of terrestrial foliage in the world.
He maintained no human security inside the Greens itself but his secret did not want for
Aprsotection.
the bubbling hiss of the ascending foil seethed the waters of the pool, the Director's trained dasher, Goethe, lay in waiHt. e knew that the other three remained hidden, stumpy tails twitching, somewhere within a quick boundN. evi's personal signal toned three times, then repeated itFslealtft.ery dogged the
hatch behind him.
The foil that rose from the pool was one of several that Flattery had designed for his
Towhenseneeds.

were the last foils manufactured by Merman Mercantile before the great quake had destroyed their manufacturing complex two years agTo.hese were capable of flight but with a limited range and payload. They cruised faster submerged than any other modAelsg. lance into the cabin and Flattery put on the proper mask of disapproval for Nevi, frowning and shaking his head.
Well, Mr. Zentz first.
Nevi secured the foil beside one of its twins and waited on deck for Flattery to give the dashers their "all clear" signal.Zentz stood in obvious awe at the hatchway to the cabin, the snags of teeth in his lower jaw glistening saliva.
At the Director's hand signal Goethe slunk back into the fTolhiaegeo.ne he called "Archangel" crouched between himself and NevAi. rchangel, unlike Goethe, was an extraordinary hybrid of a successful
gene-swap between the cats in hyb and the hooded dashers of PaTndheoyra.were faithful and wished
to please their master -- two traits that Flattery admired in anyone, so long as he was the master.
Archangel's eyes watched Nevi's every move and he bristled when Zentz, too, approached the Director. There was another backup "at ease" signal for Archangel, but Flattery didn't give it.
Zentz is cornered, he thought, and cornered animals commit the unexpected.
Since Zentz would be killed soon, Flattery spoke freely in front of him.
"Mr. Director," Nevi said, inclining his head slightly.
"Mr. Nevi."
This was their ritual greetinFgl.attery had never known Nevi to shake a hTanod.Flattery's knowledge,
Nevi only touched the people he killHede. did not know Nevi's record with women and did not intend to ask.

Flattery smiled and indicated the Greens to Zentz with a generous sweep of his hand.
"Welcome to our little secret," he said, and strolled briskly from the docking pool toward a section of fruiting trees.
"Pity there isn't time for a tNouera.r-tropical heat, but you don't know much about the tropicsB, oerhe?
deep enough into rock and you get hFeeawt. er than one hundred people have seen this garden."
And fewer than five survive.
Zentz swallowed audibly".I -- I've never seen anything like this."
Flattery did not doubt him.
"One day all of Pandora will look like this."
Zentz brightened so much that Flattery forgave himself the lie.
He turned to Nev"iY. ou saw the trap sprung topside?"
Nevi nodded". Looks like we burned about three hundrCedre. ws are out chasing down the wounded. So far, nobody bigA. s we suspected, their eagerness outstripped their readiness."
"We cannot make that same mistake," Flattery war"nTehda.t is why you must bide your time with Crista
Galli and the othersH. er abduction must be turned to our advantage in every way poTssoibtlaek. e them now would be easy, and foolisRhe.member, from now on she's only the bait, not the quarry."
A pair of white butterflies tumbled the air between them and Zentz backed away.

Flattery smiled". They aren't dangerous," he sai"dB. eautiful, don't you thinkW? e've released these topside. They drink the wihi nectaTr.hey have already multiplied the wihi threefold in and around the Preserve. You know its value for defense -- a natural boobyAtrappro. blem, at times, with the
livestock. The larvae of these beautiful creatures . . . well, anotherI thimavee. your mission."
two specific demands of
Flattery strolled to a plot of young trees, carefully planted in rows, in various stages of bloom and fruit production. Nearby, several hives of bees kept audibly buNseyv. i did not care for the bees, this Flattery
well knew.He enjoyed Nevi's mastery of the neutral expressHioen. picked each man a fruit.
"Golden Transparent," he sai"dA.
very hardy apple Earth-sidSe.ince I am developing a Garden of Eden
of sorts I thought them most appropriate."
He indicated two carved stone benches under the largest of the trees Nanedvi swata. s clearly impatient to be off on the chase, but Flattery could not let them Ngor yceot.uld he bear watching Zentz make a slobber of his magnificent fruit.
"There are objectives more important than their capture," he empha"sOizzeedt.te must be discredited.
He was popular on Holovision, and his disappearance has already been aired, thanks to Beatriz Tatoosh. This only firms our resolve to expose him as a moHnestemr.ust be seen as a madman in the clutches of madmen, with the deathly ill Crista Galli as their sWlavee.will play on her beauty and her innocence,
leave that to me and to HolovisiTonh.at is the first thing I require of your mission."
"And the second?" Nevi asked.
Such a question was uncharacteristic of Nevi -- how much he must want to be oFnlatwteirtyh it!
wondered what this enthusiasm would add to Nevi's performance.
"Crista Galli will be a problem for them shortly," he"Tshaeidy.'ll want her off their handWs.e want her
to be seen asking for our heSlhpe.
must want the Director to save her and the people must knoIwt
this.
is our only way of guaranteeing absolute control after this little action topside -- our only way short of all-out extermination of these pocket villages and little Zavatan monasteries that are the breeding grounds for these Shadows."

"Interesting," Nevi said".This will require some carMe.aybe it's a job for your propaganda people at
Holovision. Have you found any drugs to be useful for her . . . persuasion?"
"Details of her drug program are in the briefing you will receive in the foil," FlaHtte yglsaanicde.d at his timepiece."I will say that if she has eaten, she could be catatonic anIynstrmucet.ions, precautions
and drugs have been prepared and are stowed with your briefing maHtereiralps.ersuasion is completely up to youT. he manner of persuasion, too, is up to you."
Nevi smiled one of his rare smTilehsa.t was what Flattery liked about the man . . . if one could call such a creature a manH. e rose to a challenge.
"The Tatoosh woman, does she launch today with the drive system and your OMCs?"
"Yes," Flattery said, "as planneWd.hy do you ask?"
"I don't trust her," he said, and shrug"gSehde.'ll be up there with Current Control and we're going into the kelp . . ."
"She will be no trouble," Flattery s"aSidh.e's been very helpful to uBse.sides, she's my problem, leave that to me."
Zentz had finished gnashing down his apple and was once again gawking about the Greens.
"Any of those Zavatans ever tunnel in hTehree?y have hidey-holes all over the high reaches."
He still has his uses, Flattery reminded himself.
"My pets love exploring," Flattery answered, indicating Archan"Dgeild.
you know that 90 percent of
their brain tissue is dedicated to their sense of smNeoll?one has tunneled in yet, and whoever does will face Archangel.Then we booby-trap the tunnel for the rest."

Zentz nodded". A good arrangement," he gurgled.
"You haven't tried your apple," Flattery said, nodding to the bright yellow fruit in Nevi's palm.
"I'm saving it," the assassin replied, "for Crista Galli."
Do you know how hard it is to think like a plant?
-- Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, Current Control (from Holovision Nightly News, 3 Jueles 493)
The Immensity prickled its long, gray-green fronds and sniffed the current in its chemiTchale wsnaiyff.
did not detect a presence so much as the hint of a preItsewncaes. more a prescience than proper smell or taste, but the kelp knew that something of itself passed by now in the current.
The Immensity was a convolution of kelp, a subtle interweave of vines that sprawled, like a muscular brain, throughout the seaI.t had begun as a wild kelp, an ignored planting inside a long-abandoned

Merman outpost.It had barely known "self" from "other" when it first encountered the Avatalogical study team led by Alyssa MarsMh.ost of what the Immensity knew of humans it had learned from Alyssa Marsh.
This stand of kelp knew slavery from the human memories that her DNA held, and it knew itself to be enslaved by Current ControWl. ith the right tickle in its vines it raised them, lowered them, retracted or extended them.Another electrical tickle set off the luciferase in the kelp, lighting the passage of human submarine trade.There were other tricks as well, all of which pulsed a current through a channel --
simple servility, simple stimulation-responseT.his was reflex, not reflection.
The Immensity had all of eternity at its dispIot saalll.owed this exercise because it pleased the humans and did not interfere with the stand's extended contemplatiTohnasn. ks to Alyssa Marsh and her shipmate Dwarf MacIntosh, the kelp had learned how to follow the electrical tickle to itsEsvoeuryrtchei.ng that humans transmitted now flowed straight to the heart of the ImmeEnvseitryy.thing.
The Immensity was finally prepared to send something
Ibtacwka. s getting closer to a breakthrough to
these humans, and that breakthrough would not be through touch or the chemical smell, but through light waves intersecting in air.
Pleasing humans was a trivial matter, displeasing them waOs nncoet,.
soon after waking, this kelp had
lashed out in pain to pluck a runaway submersible from among itsTvhienehsu. ge cargo train had torn a hundred-meter swath nearly a kilometer long in its path through the Avfitneers.the kelp slapped the
deadly thing and plucked it apart, Flattery's slaves came with cutters and burners to amputate the kelp back to infancyT. he Immensity knew that it had not been able to think right for some time after that, and it did not intend to give up its thinking ever again.
A certain stirring now in the tips of its fronds told the Immensity that "the One," the Holomaster, was passing. The Immensity could unite fragmented stands of kelp into one will, one being, one blend of physics that humans called "soulD."eep in its genetic memory lay a void, an absence of being that could not be teased out of the genetics labs of the MeTrmhiesn.void waited like a nest for the egg, the Holomaster who would teach the kelp how to unite fragmented stands of humans.
Twice this Immensity gave up its body but never itIst wwialls.
capable of neither sorrow nor regret,
simply of thought and a kind of meditative presence that allowed it to live fully in the now while Flattery's electrical strings at Current Control manipulated the puppet of its body.
Reflex is a speedy response made without the brain's coRunesaeclt.ion is a speedy response made with

minimal counsel.This kelp grew up expecting to be left alIotnlee.arned reaction only after its vines twined with domestic kelpI.t learned to kill when threatened and to show no mTehrecny. it learned to expect retaliation for killing.
This Immensity expected to live forevLeor.gic dictated that it would not live forever if it continued
reacting to humansA.
nd now, the One was passinIgt !knew this as surely as the blind snapperfish knows
the presence of muree.
The original Immensity of kelp, Avata, encompassed all of the seas of Pandora under one consciousness, one voice, one "beingI.t"s first genetic extinction came early in the formation of the planet. It had been at the mercy of a funAgubs.urst of ultraviolet from a huge sunstorm killed off the fungus. Somewhere, a primitive frond lay mummified in a salt bog awaiting Pandora's first ocean.
The second extinction was by human beings, by a human bioengineer named JesusThLeewkiesl.p was teased back to life by a few DNA miners about fifty yearTs hleaterre.vitalized kelp that the Mermen resurrected was developed from these early experimenNtso.w kelp once again filled the seas, dampening the murderous storms.
Once again the great stands scattered scTenhte.y grew close with the years, their fronds spoke the chemical tongue.This Immensity itself retained two and a quarter million cubic kilometers of ocean.
The One rode a kelpway that skimmed the Immensity's rTehaicsh.particular kelpway came out of a
stand of blue kelp that had been known to attack its own kind, overpowering nearby stands, sucking out their beings and injecting its owItn.had suffered many prunings, and was sorely in need of guiTdhanisce.
the Immensity knew from snatches of terror that drifted in on torn TfrhoendOs.ne could not be trusted to such a dangerous stanAd.t whatever cost, the One must be spared.
The kelp shifted itself slightly, against the electrical stings from Current Control, to bring the One into its outmost currents, spiraling into the safer deeps of its own stand.

You have been educated in judgment, which is the essence of wJourdsghmipe. nt always occurs in the
past. It is past-thinkingW.
ill, free or otherwise, is concerned with the fuTtuhrien.king is the performance
of the moment, out of which you use your judgment to modulatYeowu ilal.re a convection center through which past prepares future.
-- Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, from Conversations with the Avata
"Course change."
Elvira's voice was emotionless as rock but Rico detected the slightest edge of worry in the flurry of her fingers across her command consolSe.he never piloted the foil in its voice mode because she preferred
to speak as seldom as possibTleh.at Elvira had spoken at all worried him -- that, and the increasing shimmy that had begun a few minutes back.
"Why?"
When working with Elvira, Rico picked up her habit of non-sSphee hs.eemed to like that.
"Channel change," she said, nodding toward her scr"eWene.'re being steered off course."
"Steered?" he muttered, and checked his own instrumTenhtesy.
maintained their position in the kelpway,
but their compass said the huge undersea corridor was running in the wrong direction.

"Who's doing the steering?"
Elvira shrugged, still busy with her keyboSarhde. had taken them deep into sub train traffic to minimize tracking, and they ran without the help of sensors that would light their progress through the kelpways.
"We're out of the wild kelp sector outside Flattery's launch site," he said, "that's where the weirdness usually happens."
One-half of his screen displayed the navigation grid projected by Current Control from its command center aboard the OrbiterT. he other half of the screen tracked their actual course through the grid, which now appeared to be bent.
Bending, he corrected himselIft. looks like our whole end of the screen is pouring down a drain.
"Anything on the Navcom?" he asked.
Sometimes Current Control changed grids through the kelp to accommodate weather conditions further upchannel or the recent stumping of a stand of rogue kelp.
"Negative," she said".All clear."
The ride began to get bumpy and Rico cinched himself tighter to hisHecokuecyhe. d the intercom and said, "Rough water, everybody cinch uBpe.n, you'd better come up here."
Below them Rico could see another cargo train careening dangerously close to the kelp, attempting to recover from the sudden changTe.heir dive lights showed him that the kelp seemed to be in a struggle with itself, fluttering the channel as if pressing against a great force.
Ben used the hand grips along the bulkhead to work his way to his console.

"Can we get Current Control?" Ben askHeed. dropped into his couch and cinched up.
"Not without giving up our position."
"We got out too easy," Ben s"aTidh.ey've got a bug on this thing, anyway . . ."
"Had," Rico said, smilin"gI. did an E-sweep when we left the harbor, thinking the sameFothuinndg. it. Elvira here jettisoned the little devil into a netful of krill that we passed about a dozen grids back."
"Good work, both of you," Ben s"aAidl.l right, then let's try that cargo train below . . ."
The Flying Fish was buffeted again by something like a huEgelvifriast.wrestled with the controls to keep them out of the kelp.
Rico knew, as they all knew, that any damage to the kelp could be construed as Aanloatttoafckk. elp
lights were active in this sectBore.sides the red and blue telltales of a waking stand, this kelp flashed its cold navigation light at random and occasionally flooded them with the brighter fiber-optic sunlight that it transported from the surfaceI.f the stand was one that had awakened, any mistake could get the foil and themselves torn apart at the seams.
"Didn't Flattery just go on the air to tell us how safe he'd made the kelpways?"
"Just goes to show," Rico said, "you can't believe that bastard for a goddamn blink."
The cargo train passing in the opposite direction beneath them was having even more trouble than they were. A relatively tiny foil could stop in midchannel and hover if necessary, but the cargo train needed to maintain a constant speed for maneuverabiliTtyh.e grid system was set up so that the trains, Pandora's lifeline, could travel the kelpways swiftly and undisturbed with minimal course chFarnogmes.what Rico
could see of the bucking cargo, the crew below at both ends of the train had their hands full.

"It's bending," Rico said, watching the Navcom monitor that marked out their grid"Tsyhsetewmh. ole grid's bending."
"We'd better surface," Ben sa"idP.repare for --"
"Negative," Elvira said".If this is a surface disturbance, things will be worse upWtheerne.eed information."
Ben grunted acknowledgment.
"Cargo train identity signal is registered to the Simplicity Maru," Elvira reported, fighting the controls to maintain hover and an equidistance between walls of the kilometer-wide chTanhnisel.ordinarily simple
maneuver was made nearly impossible by the ever-changing walls of their kelRpiwcoay.noticed a sweat beading on Elvira's brow and upper lip.
Ben keyed for a low-frequency broadcaHset. hoped he didn't have to explain the absence of their identity signal.
"Simplicity Maru, this is Quicksilver," he l"iDedo.
you have reports on current disruption?"
Static hissed back at them, then a microphone clickeTdheonm.
essage came in badly broken.
Undersea communication, especially around active kelp, was always difficult.
"Simp . . . MarNue. gative . . . into kelpT.h"ere was the sound of shrieking metal in the backgro"un. d..
. king upW.
e are preparing . . . ballaRset.peat, preparing . . ."
Elvira threw the throttles forward and in spite of a violent buffeting the foil leaped at Hherr ltiopusch. were pressed into a tight line and her knuckles shone white on the controls.
"Wait, we can't . .B.e"n said.His body pressed further into his cou"cWh.e can't go into deep kelp."

"They're blowing ballast," Elvira growle"dT.hat whole cargo train's going to pop up into us like a cork."
Rico felt every fixture aboard rattle like his teeth.
"Ben, is the girl secure?"
"She's strapped in," Ben said.
Just then they cleared the rear cabin of the Itrabilne.w past them toward the surface, containers and
cabins tumbling like toysA.
few of the containers snagged in the walls of the kelpway, walls that still
vibrated with light and that same strange force.
"This is too weird," Ben sa"iLde. t's surface and take our chances with the Director's air cTohviser. ride's getting much too ugly."
Elvira nodded curtly and the foil started its asAcesnthough alerted by their control panel, the kelp fronds began closing above the Flying FiFsihr.st they formed a canopy, then, a tight and impenetrable mesh. A sudden change of current lurched them to starboard and sent the foil tumbling end over end. Elvira righted them manually, her face very pale.
"Shit!"Ben fisted the arm of his cou"cSho. mehow Flattery must've got to Current Control .H.e ." snicked his harness release over Rico's protests.
"I'm checking on Crista," Ben said.
He had to use the handholds to make his way aft on the rolliAngt tdheeckg.alley's hatch he turned, suddenly a bit pale himself, and Rico knew what thought had just strucRkicBo esnm. iled.

"Rico," Ben said, "what if . . ."
"What if the kelp knows she's here?"
"Yeah," Ben said".What if the kelp knows she's here?"
"We'd better hope she likes us."
"She probably doesn't have any say in this," Ben said, and undogged thRe ichoatcdhid. n't care for the snap in his voice.
"Somebody has a say in this," Rico mutteTrheed. hatch slammed, dogged itselTf.hat was when Rico remembered when the kelp could have had a whiff of CristaItGwalalis. the only time that hull integrity had been breached.
That bug! he thoughTt.hat goddamn little mercuroid chip of Flattery's.
"We ejected that transmitter, Elvira, and we ejected it in cabiHneaitrh.o"ught he detected an
infinitesimal stiffening of her postur"eI.f that kelp can sniff, and I hear it can, then it knows there's more in this can than us worms."

Mercenary captains either are or are not skilful soldIfietrhs.ey are, you cannot trust them, for they will always seek to gain power for themselves either by oppressing you, the master, or by oppressing others against your wishes.
-- Machiavelli, The Prince
The young security captain, Yuri Brood, was rumored by his men to be the unacknowledged son of the
Director, product of an early tryst with a Merman woman from the DTohme ems.en based this notion on the strong physical resemblance between Brood and the Director, and on Brood's quick rise to an advisorship that went beyond the formalities of his rTahnek. two men shared a ruthlessness that did not go unnoticed outside the confines of the squad.
Captain Brood and his squad had been reared in a Merman compound near this Kalaloch district. Brood himself had been schooled privately in the mathematics of logic and strategy -- that was standard operating procedure for anyone anticipating an executive position with Merman MercaBnrtoiloed.
himself preferred the more direct solutions of physical pressure to the subtleties of Hpoislitiscusp.eriors shrugged it off as a phase, agreeing that Brood got results where others failed.
The old families, Islander and Merman alike, retained a strong sense of loyalty to their community that made the kind of enforcement that Flattery demanded impossible from wSiethciunr.ity command
removed Captain Brood's team to Mesa for their training and formation of their combat bond, then deployed them to Kalaloch and its shuttle launch site for "police wThoerky."were one another's only family, an Island adrift in a sea of eneEmveyr.yone was kept three villages away from home.
Survive your tour, advance your rank, retire to an office at the Preserve -- this was the universal goal.
The young captain was afraid, and he wasn't afraid Woftheenn.
he was afraid, heads rolleHde.
and his
team were short-timers at one month remaining, just starting their countdown toThhoemcea.ptain had something to return home to, and he intended to rotate on schHedeuilne.tended that his men rotate back home with him, alive.For a year his district had been Kalaloch and theHSisLSsq. uad's actions had
drawn more citations than a dress suit could hDouldri.ng that year either the site or his men had been under fire daily.

Today the captain faced Beatriz Tatoosh from the back of the studio, and he thought what a pity it would be to have to kill her.
Beatriz did not know what the captain thought, but fear dried out her mouth when she saw his squad enter behind the lights and fan out along the bulkhead backing the studio.
The captain pointed out each of the live cameras to three of hTishemy epnu. lled away from their squad, drew lasguns and without a word each took careful aim at a cameraman.
Beatriz heard gasps, curses, the arming of weapIot nws.as difficult to see what was happening because
of the glare in her eyTesh.e large monitor at the back of the studio cleared, then displayed a tape of the last launch, a tape cut by Beatriz and her present team.
We're not going out live! she thought.
"Dak," she alerted her floor man, "check the monitor."
When her gaze left the monitor it caught the young captain watchiSnhge hreerm. embered seeing him
before, his dark eyes flashing her a smile as he led his squad through the labyrinth of the
Hlaeunch site.
half-smiled now, and nodded at her, and with that nod his three men executed her three cameramen.
At the first shot she was stunned at the suddenness of it all, the audacity as much asAtthethehorror.
second shot it was the smell of death itself that stunneAdt htehre.
third shot she faced the immediacy of
her own deathS. he also faced the captain, who was no longer smiling.
She remembered thinking how hard everyone was breathing just then, how the second guard stood over her dead cameraman and said to the first, "Shit, man, that was no signal . . ."
"Shut up, man," the third one s"aIitd's.
done.Just shut upI.t don't change nothing here at all."

"All right!"
The captain fanned his fingers out from his left palm and the rest of the squad sealed off the studio area. She started to tremble, then concentrated on controlling it so that the captain wouldn't see.
Ben was right! replayed through her mAinndd.
who will know?
Beatriz watched the replay of herself on the monitor, interviewing the Director during one of his ritual visits to the launch sitTe.he expression on her face onscreen, one of admiration and deference, now
made her sick to her stomacEhv.en so, her eyes stayed on the screen, rather than face the unbelievable reality unreeling in her studio.
Through the shock and the trembling she heard Harlan's voice from the back of the studio, speeding
through a Zavatan chant for the deSahde.
remembered that the skinny cameraman with the fanlike ears
on number three was Harlan's cousTinh.e security who had shot him was now dragging him by the feet to the wallT. he cameraman's head bumped over the sprawl of cables across the deck, the hole in his chest burned so clean it barely bled.
The three assassins took wider positions in the rFoiofmtee. n people were being held by nine guards in a
very small studio with some very hot ligThhtse.
captain scanned the studio once, then turned to Beatriz.
He indicated the red lights on the triangulators.
"The red light means the camera is on, corIrtecist?still recording?"
She did not answeSr.he felt it was important that he didn't hear her voice qSuhaevecr.ould not take her eyes from his eyes.
He did not smile this time, nor did he nod.
"Finish them," he saiTd.hen he nodded at Beatriz, "Except for her."

The screams, the pleading, the curses with Flattery's name on them silenced in the few moments it took the captain to walk her to the hatchwItays.eemed that she walked forever, because there were the
bodies of her crew to step over, and her legs were so uncharacteristically unsteady.
"Now see what you have done," Brood said toHehesrq. ueezed her upper arm and shook what a mess your broadcast has made."
"hSeer.e
She couldn't speak or she would cry, and she didn't want to cry Sfohre hsilmap.ped away his touch
when he took her arm to steady makeup girl's.
Thehre.
last body she had to step over to reach the hatchway was the
What was her nameB?eatriz felt a new panic riIse.can't blank out her name . . . !
It was Nephertiti, yes, NephertSitio.meone pretty and dark-skinned, like herself, with wide eSyhees.
told herself to remember this, to remember it and to see that somehow, sometime the world would know.
"You're a cool one," the captain told "hYeor.u probably saw worse than this at Mesa two years back."
She stopped in the hatchway and turned, still not speaking.
"I saw you there, too," he s"aIids.aw both you and your boyfriend bounced ass over teakettle when that mine blew up your rTigh.ought you both bought it."
She nodded, started to say, "So did we," but nothing came out of her throat but a croak.
For the first time she noticed his name, stitched above the Vashon Security insignia at his left breast: "Brood." Her only wish right now was that she would live long enough to see Captain Brood die.
He turned back to the studio and its seventeen dead warm
Bboedaitreisz.
looked once again at herself
on the monitorT. he tape replayed an interview with Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster of Current Control.

He was one of the few humans, other than Flattery, to survive the opening of the hyb tanks twenty-five
years ago.He was so tall she'd had to stand on a box to do the inStehrevihewad.
met him on her first
flight to the new orbital complex, the day after her last night wiWthitBhienn.a month she was sure that she was in love.
"Bag 'em up," the captain told his m"Seqnu. eegee this place down, seal it off, then get all their production shit aboard."
He bowed to her then, opened the hatch for her and said, "We're expecting the replacements for your crew any minuteT. hey are my men, and will do as they're Mtoyld.squad and I will travel along, to see
that you do, too."
The mind at ease is a dead mind.
-- Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, Current Control
Dwarf MacIntosh floated in the turretlike chamber of Current Control and surveyed the planet below for the birth of a certain squall at Isteah.appened at about this time every day that a swirl of clouds
materialized over Pandora's largest wild kelp bIetdw.
as some comfort now to see this squall forming; it
told him that something was normal today even though the behavior of the kelp was completely loco. Today, humans didn't make much sense to him, either.

"The Turret," as he called it, was a plasma-glass extravagance of materials and workmanship that
MacIntosh had fabricated for himself before installing Current Control in the orbital station.
I'd have taken the job anyway, Mack admitted, but only to h"iKmesleplfm. aster" wasn't so much a job
to him as it was a privileHge couldn't have allowed any of Flattery's goons such an easy throttlehold on the kelp.Besides, he felt much more comfortable in orbit than he did on Pandora's surface.
Like Flattery, Mack had been cloned, raised and trained in the sterility of Moonbase, in the hyperregimentation and clonophobia of MoonbasHe.is whole life, until hybernation, had been spent orbiting an Earth that, for him and for all clones, never eIxnisttehdo.se days, Flattery had openly pined
for a life Earthside, but even then Dwarf MacIntosh looked outward, past Earth's measly system to the possibilities beyond.
From his turret Mack observed and charted many of these possibHileitiensa.med them, but not the few special names he saved for his unborn childHreen. had spent the past two years above Pandora, refusing
the usual R&R rotations groundsidIen.
that time MacIntosh had not recognized a single star that would
lead them EarthwardH.
e liked it that way.
Dwarf MacIntosh awoke from hybernation on Pandora one day in indescribable pain and found himself in the middle of nowhere, galactically speakiInng.spite of the planet's horrors he was in his own heaven among a trillion brand-new starTs.he other survivors clung to that little wretch of a planet and most of
them died thereA.
lyssa Marsh . . . well, she died, Sthoeo. died the day Moonbase started imprinting her
for backup OMC.
Mack and Flattery shared a dream of driving further into theMvacokid.felt it a pity, in a way, since he had never liked Flattery, even during training with him back at MooTnhbeaisre.differences had come
out lately over management of the kelp.
If Flattery had any idea of what we've done, of what the kelp is . . .
"Dr. MacIntosh, shuttle's set for launch."

Mack handed himself out of the turret and with one foot-thrust sailed across the huge control room to his personal console.Spud Soleus, his first assistant, busied himself at the primary terminal.
A glance at the number six display told Mack that the kelp in the SLS sector was performing as directed. The number eight display was a different story, howeTvheer. great kelp bed down-coast of
Victoria was still a writhing tangNleo. another batch of coffee.
"What's the delay?"
telling how many freighters were lost in thHeere.punched up
Spud shrugged his skinny shoulders, keeping to his console.
"They said something about replacements for the news cYreowu . know Flattery, can't do anything without crowing to the press."
"Who's been replaced?" he askeHde.
felt his heart jump a Hbiet.'d been hoping . . . no, planning to see
Beatriz Tatoosh againH. e'd thought about Beatriz Tatoosh daily from the moment her shuttle left nearly
two months agoH.
is dreams took up where his thoughts left off, and he had dreamed up the hope that
she could make a permanent base aboard the Orbiter.
"Don't know," Spud sai"dD. on't know why, eitherE.verything was cool just a while ago for
Newsbreak. Did you see it?"
MacIntosh shook his head.
"Yeah, you were in your turTreht.e Tatoosh woman did the show, said something about Ben Ozette missing. That must throw their staffing off or something."
"Yeah," Mack said, "he's a little goody-goody for me, but he meanHse'ws eslul.re been on the
Director's tail lately."

Dwarf could see Spud's frown reflected in one of the dead screens.
"It's not a good idea to get on the Director's tail," Spu"dNostaidg.ood at alIl.f you didn't see the
Newsbreak, then you didn't see yourself, either."
"Me?What . . . ?"
"That show they did when you first installed this station," Spu"dThsaeiyd.reran itY. our hair wasn't as gray two years agoI. wish that Beatriz Tatoosh would look at me the way she looked at you."
"Stow it!" MacIntosh said.
Soleus's shoulders sagged slightly, but he kept at his keyboard in silence.
"Sorry," MacIntosh said. "Inappropriate," Spud replied. "Want me to take it now?"
"I wish somebody woulWd. hat the hell's happening to our kelp?"
"It's not our kelp," MacIntosh reminded h"iTmh.e kelp is its own . . . Wseelf'r.e keeping it in chainIst.'s doing what any enslaved being with dignity does -- it's fighting the chains."
"But Flattery's men will just prune it back, or worse yet they'll stump the whole stand."

"Not foreverT. here is a basic problem with slaveTryh.e master is enslaved by the slave."
"C'mon, Dr. Mack . . ."
MacIntosh laughed.
"It's true," he sai"dL. ook at history, that's easy enougAhn. d Flattery, of all people, should know better. We clones were the slaves of our aFgires.t-generation clones had it real tougThh.ey were grown as
organ farms for the donorTs.hey needed us, but they needed us to do what we werNe otwoldh. e's
enslaved the kelp, stunted its reason, because he needs it to do what back, because he can't afford the regrowth time."
"So, what'll happen?"
Hit'es tcoalnd'.t keep cutting it
"A showdown," MacIntosh sai"dA. nd if Flattery's still groundside when it comes he'd better hope that the kelp needs him for something or I wouldn't give you two bits for his chances."
"Two bits of what?"
MacIntosh laughed again, a big bark of a laugh to match his size.
"I wouldn't want to guess how old that expression is," h"eWshaeidn.
I was at Moonbase, two bits was
a quarter, which was a quarter of a dollar, which was the currency wBeutusiteds.tarted way before that."
"We'd say, 'I wouldn't give a dasher turd for his chances.'"
"That's probably a better assessment."

MacIntosh pointed at the six red lights blinking on their messenger c"oWnshooles.e calls are we not taking?"
"The Director," Spud said, and swiveled his chair from the console "bHoearwd.ants us to do something about the kelp in sector eight, as though we weren't trying."
"Do something . . . hIafh!we push any harder we'll fry our board, and that kelp, and anybody inside it."
"I wonder what it is that the kelp wants?"
"What if we gave it its heaMd?a"cIntosh mused."That would be one way to find Wouht.at could it do that it hasn't already done?"
Spud shrugged, and said, "You've got my vHootew.
you going to convince the Director?"
A glance at the display showed the entire stand of kelp to be twisting itself into a vortex, like the whirlpool in a drainA. s near as MacIntosh could tell, Current Control was at its maximum limit of restraint.
Spud pointed at the display.
"There's a focus of electrical override hWereh.atever's bugging the kelp is right there."
"Electrical or mechanical?"
"Could be either, or both -- it's a heavy traffic area," Spu"dSosmaiedth. ing down there is definitely irritating the kelp."
"Yes," MacIntosh agreed, "that's my thougThht.e electrical override is coming from the kelp itIstelf.

must be responding to somethinTg.hat stand's not mature enough to think for itOserl,f.at least, it shouldn't be."
"Doc?"
"Yeah?"
MacIntosh watched the console review the kelp's configuration changes over the past half-hour. Something nagged at him, something that would explain the kelp's sudden . . . behavior.
"I've extrapolated the path of the override."
MacIntosh looked at Spud, who was busy at his own console, and saw a very thin, very pale assistant. Spud's pointing finger trembled with excitement.
"What is it?"
"It's a spiral, headed into the middle of sector eight."
"That means the one kelp bed is delivering something to its neighbor -- isn't that what it looks like to you?"
"Or the neighbor is snatching it away."
"Spud, I'll bet you're right."
MacIntosh stepped up to the console and tapped out a sequence with his two huge indeTxhefingers. red lights on the messenger panel went black.

"We just had a relay malfunction," MacIntosh said, and winked at"NSepxutd.time Flattery calls, tell
him it was a hardwire failure and you worked it out persoMnayllbye.
you'll get a promotioInf. I've
guessed wrong, my job will be up for grNabosw. , we might as well let go the reins on this kelp and see where the hell it runs."
MacIntosh heard Spud swallow behind him and he smiled.
"What's the big deal, SpuIdt'?s a plant, it's not going anywhere."
"Well . . . well, it's just that Flattery doesn't trust anybito'ddybe--like him to have some kind of booby-trap . . ."
"He did," MacIntosh said, "and this stand got itself blown apart a few yeaBrsut bhaeckh. asn't reset charges here yet -- the kelp's not supposed to get this frisky thisHseoowna."ited for the burst line to charge.
"There!" he said, and pressed the send sig"nNaol.w let's sit back and see what cooSkosm. ething
bizarre is inside there, and I'd like to be the first to know wIhfatwiet
cisa.n't do anything with this
stand, maybe we can at least learn fromBeisti.des," he winked again, "Flattery's down there, we're not."
A beeping signal from his console interrupted Hhiem.opened the intercom to Launch Command.
"We sling our bird your way in five minutes," the voice"Asaniyd. contraindications?"
"Negative," MacIntosh replied".Currents at your site are stable, weather will arrive your location in approximately one hour."
"Roger that, Current ControLl.aunch is a go for . . . four minutes."

Canon in D
-- Pachelbel
The Immensity recoiled with a snap from the shock of freedom, then let its tendrils and fronds drift in
their tingling blissI.t had been a long time since this union of stands had felt good, and never had it felt this good. The submarine trains foundering among its vines were inconsequential now.
A pulse went out among the fronds, a ripple throughout the Immensity from the tiny foil adrift at its outer reaches. A mass of tentacles cradled the foil and delighted in the scent of self that it gave from its brittle skin.
The little craft was slippery and the Immensity knew it to be extremely fragile, so it was gently tumbled
frond to frond inwardO. ther scents mingled with that of the OOnnee.
of these scents was familiar,
provocative, kelplike.The Holomaster, Rico LaPush, was in the company of someone that the kelp had encountered before . . . before . . . well, no mItatwteoru. ld find out soon enough.
The Immensity had learned to sniff out the holo language of humans from their spectrum of oItdd scents. decided, early upon awakening this time, that it would have to speak with humansIt toalsloive.
concluded that it would have to speak the holo language if it wanted to speak with humans.

The foil tried to wriggle out of the kelp'Ts hneeret. was much pain now through the vines, where all of the trains trapped in sector eight were trying to burn, cut, slash their way toward their precious atmosphere topside.Some of these the kelp crushed reflexively, but when the death scents of the crews mingled with the sea it forced itself to calm and to reason.
Death, it reminded itself, is not the answer to life.
The Immensity managed to open several kelpways and marveled at the easy ballet of subs heading topside. Only the bright white Holovision foil suffered the grip of the ImmIetnsttrya.ined its engines
trying to flee, but never lashed out at its tormeTnhtoisr. the Immensity would expect of the One, who was civilized in the arms of kelp, and of the honorable associates of Holomaster Rico LaPush.
In conscience you find the structure, the form of consciousness, the beauty.
-- Kerro Panille, "Translations from the Avata," The Histories
Beatriz listened to the launch crew director count down the final minute over theHsepreaskheark. y
fingers chattered the metal clips as she snugged up her haSrnheesst.ried to think of the straps around her as Mack's arms and she tried to imagine they held her as Ben's did the night they drove old Vashon

down. It didn't workN.
othing could erase the sight of her crew, slaughtered like sebet in a pen.
For a mistake, she thougThth.ey all died because that bastard made a mistake.
She knew that the captain was afraid, she could smell it on him before he gave the final order at the studio. He obviously didn't know whether Flattery would promote him or execute him for his decision. Beatriz knew that her life, perhaps many other lives, teetered in this balance.
"Ten seconds to launch."
She inhaled a long, slow breath through her mouth and let it sigh out heTr hnisoswtrials a relaxation technique that Rico had taught her when they all nearly drowned five years ago.
"Five, four . . ."
She took a little breath.
" . . . one . . ."
The compressed-air "boot" punched them up the launch tube and a pair of Atkinson Rams slung them toward orbit.This was the part of the ride she hated -- it reminded her of the time the fat girl sat on her chest when she was just starting school, and she didn't like the feel of her face flattening out against the strain. On this launch, however, she wasn't worried about wrinkles, engine failure, being trapped in orbit. She was worried about the captain, and how she could help convince him of the necessity of keeping her alive.
No one in the shuttle cabin looked famMiliaors.t of them had changed out of their fatigues and into civilian clothes.They were quiet; Beatriz thought that they must be weighing the consequences of the shootings. She didn't see the man who startedThita.t was the man she feared even more than the captain
-- Ben had always said that the jumpy ones get you killed.

How could he be so right and be so far away from me?
She rubbed her tired face and patted her cheeks to keep hysteriaSahte bnaeye.ded information, and a lot of it.
Mack, she thoughHt. e'll help me, I'm sure.
For an instant her fear included hAimfte. r all, he was an original crew member like FlaTtthereyy. had worked together long before waking from hybernation on Pandora.
What if . . . what if . . . ?
She shook off her feaIrfs.her imagination had to run away with her, she preferred that it ally her with
Mack instead of against himM. ack was not at all like Flattery, this she kEnveewn. the news when Flattery converted Alyssa Marsh to an Organic Mental Core.
Mack had cringed at
"I never believed we needed such a thing," he'd told her pri"vNaotewly,. with the kelp research, I'm
even more convinced that OMCs were just another built-in frustration, a goad to push us even further from humanity."
According to reports -- Flattery's reports -- Marsh had been found in extremis after an accident in the kelp. He explained to her how clones were property, often merely living stores for spare parts, and how Alyssa Marsh had been prepared for this moment from her girlNhowd.Beatriz realized how fortuitous
the timing had been for Flattery, how unfortunate for Marsh and her kelp studies with Dwarf MacIntosh.
What will Mack do?
He would need information, toLoi.ke, how many in this squaWd?hat kinds of weaponsD? o they have
a plan or is this just reaction to the killings groundSshidee?couldn't remember how many people worked the orbiter station -- two thousanTd?hree? And how much security did they have aloft?

Not much, she remembereJdu.st a handful to handle fights and petty theft among the workers.
She'd counted thirty-two in the captain's squad as they boarded the shuttle, and each was heavily armed. Eight of them were assigned to fill out her crew, and they grumbled under the douTbhlies lbouandc. h
carried a lot of the old, disfiguring mutatioTnhse.
gear they'd loaded aboard was mostly weapons, but a
few of them knew enough about holo broadcast to bring the bare bones of what they'd need to get
Newsbreak on the airA.
couple of techs were assigned to oversee the OMC.
Beatriz had kept the worst of the shakes at bay and now, strapped firmly into her couch, she nearly let herself go.
No, she warned herself, hold tigIhtc.an't help anyone deaId.am the only witness against them.
She hoped that the console tape survived back there, and that someone sympathetic would find it.
Who would they show it to that could do anything? she wonFdlaetrtery. ?
Beatriz grunted a laugh at herself, then felt the captain's grip on her sIht owuladserf.irm, not painfuIlt.
was not gentleI.t reminded her of her father's grip the night he died, and it lightened the same when their engines shut downT. his man was the same age as her youngest brother, but there was infinity in his dark eyes. She didn't see much wisdom.
"I know what you're thinking," he s"aIidh. ave taken hundreds of prisoners, I have been a prisoner. Believe me, I know what you're thinking."
He gestured the guard beside her away and, surprisingly clumsy in zero-gee, moved up toHjios in her. voice sounded gravelly, strained, as though it had been screamHiengc.ontinued speaking, while his men drifted out of earshot, their glances furtive and their conversations spare.
"We are both in a bad spot, you aWnde Ib.oth need out of it."

She had to agree.
"Up here it will be all or nothing, we are trTaphpeered. is no escape for either one of us that doesn't require both of us."
To this, too, she had to agree.
But only for the moment, she assured herself, only until I find Mack.
Beatriz realized that, much as it disgusted her, her life depended on communicating with this man.
"You are a military man, an offiHceorw.
is it that you walk yourself out the plank likeYothuis?wouldn't
have done it on refleTx.his is a plan and we . . . I simply fall into it . . ."
"My God, you're perceptive," the words came in a rush, the captain's eyes "Wagleittcearn.
only win,
Flattery is finishedW.
e have the Voidship and Orbiter -- enough food stores for Wyeearcso. ntrol their
currents and weatherW.
e have Flattery's precious Organic Mental Core -- shit, we can hook it up to the
ship ourselves and fly out of here . . ."
She didn't hear the reHste. r mind focused on what he'd said at the begin"neinogu: gh food stores for years."
If he kills everyone aboard the Orbiter.
" . . . He'll have to throw it in," the captain was"Tsahyeinrgabble will have at him down there, and he doesn't dare destroy everything that he's worked for up Whehreo.ever beats him on the ground then can deal with me."
He's really going to do this, she thouHgeh'st. going to kill everyone aboard.

He took her hand and she snapped it back with a revulsion that she couldn't hide.
"Us," he said".I meant they can deal with Yuso.u and meT. hey'll believe whatever you tell them, at least for a while.H" e leaned closer, whispered, "You don't want to make another mistake, get more people killed."
She propelled herself out of her couch, not caring where the thrust might throw her in the gravity-free cabin. No one pursued herT. he first handhold she grabbed stopped her beside a pair of security,
younger than the young captain, who were reviewing the basics of holo camera triangulation.
They really intend to go on the air, she thought.
She looked back at the captaHine. had his back to her, briefing several mTheen. tone of his voice, briskness of his gestures told her that he meant busiIntewssa. s true, he could do it without Ithewr.as
true, that by helping him she might save othSehres. could not bring herself to speak to him, to go to him in any wayS. he sighed, and interrupted her two new cameramen.
"No," she said, "with that setup the alpha set only gets fifteen degreesOoKf launch, but we'll be inside, in a small space . . ."
ipfany.ou're covering a
As she instructed the two young amateurs she saw Brood watchinHge hweri.nked at her once, and she successfully suppressed the shudder that tempted her spine.
"They'll want to see this Organic Mental Core in transport, and they'll want to know something about its
-- her -- backgroundL. et's start by getting some of that in the can."
She passed the two-hour flight instructing her camera operators, two men and a woman, none of whom she recognized from the massacre at the SLS stuBdeioat.riz preferred their company, even if they did
answer to the captainW. hether by accident or design, she did not encounter any of that squad during their flight.
The Organic Mental Core was a living brain, enclosed in an intricate plasma-glass container that made

allowances for the hookups to comAe. complex plug would connect the brain with the control system
aboard the VoidshipW.
hat she didn't expect horrified her the most.
They're supported by . . . bodies!
She had done a report on such a thing several yearSsciaegnoti.sts had connected a brain from a crushed body to a healthy body that had suffered a massive head Einacjuhryk.ept the other alive, though there had been no way to communicate with the healthy Abrtaitnh.at time it was simply trapped in there,
cut off from all sensation, alive and dreamSinhge. over.
took a deep breath and let the reporter in her take
The medtech in charge had a number of active facial tics and each of her questions seemed to accelerate them. She learned nothing about the principle that she hadn't already learned through research or through Dwarf MacIntosh.
". . . As you well know, it was because of a failure in the OMCs that we wound up on Pandora."
"I understand that the OMCs were traditionally taken from infants with fatal birthTdheifsecOtsM. from an adult humanH. ow will the performance differ?"
C is
"Twofold," the tech replie"dF. irst, this person was dying at the time of conversion, therefore it -- she -- should be thankful for an extension of her life in a useful, indeed nobSlecornodle,. this person survived
the longest hybernation known to humankind and woke to life on PaSnhdeorak.nows that if humans are to survive, it must be elsewheSreh.e can take comfort in being the instrument of that survival."
"Does she know any of this?"
The tech looked perplexed.
"Much of this was included in her early traiTnhineg.rest we extrapolate from the evidence."

"What was she like as a person?"
"What do you mean?"
The tech's tics accelerated rapidly to a very distracting crescendo.
"You're saying, essentially, that she will accept this duty because of love for huDmidansihtye. have love in her life?A man?Children?"
Her camera crew was warming to the tTahskey.
had not brought a monitor into the tiny space, and now
she wished they hadI.t might be an OK piece, after all.
While staring at this brain behind glass, Beatriz knew that it was alive, aShpeeraslosno. realized that
the tech was surrounded by the squad that had murdered her crew and he probably hadn't the slightest inkling of what had happened.
No one will know if I don't tell them, Beatriz thIo'mughlitk. e this brain, cut off but alive inIsidweo. nder what she dreams?
"I know very little about the person," he "sIat'isd.in the recordI. do know that she had a child that was given up for adoption so that she could continue her studies in the kelp outposts."
"Dr. MacIntosh stated two years ago that Organic Mental Cores were crude, cruel, inefficient and unnecessary," she said". Do you have a comment on that?"
The tech cleared his throat.
"I respect Dr. MacIntosHh.e, along with the Director and this OMC, is one of the last survivors of the original flight of the old Earthling -- 'Ship,' if you pYrese,r.it's true that there were failures, and this required some compensation, but those bugs have been worked out."

"For some of our viewers, your term 'compensation' might seem a littTleheco'lcdo.mpensation' you
refer to was the first known creation of an artificial intelligence -- one that turned out to be smarter than its creators, one that many believe is the personality 'Ship,' one that most Pandorans still revere as a god. Why did your department pursue the failed course of OMCs, severed living brains, rather than pick up
on the artificial intelligence?"
"We were instructed to take this course."
"You were ordered to take this course," she corre"cWtehdy. ? Why is the Director more comfortable with failure than with the success that saved his life . . . and hers?"
Beatriz pointed to the OMC, wired into her box, deaf, blind and dumb beside her warm, dead host.
"That's enough!"
The captain's voice behind her froze her spine and started her hands treSmhbelinwga.s stunned silent again while the tech and her crew inspected the deck and their shoes.
"I'll speak with you in the cabin."
She followed him out of the shuttle storage lockers and into the dimly lit passenger cabin.
"I had to stop you," he s"aIitd.is expected of me, no matter what my opiSnoioonn.
there will be no
need for deceptionP. repare for dockingT. here will be briefing materials for the next Newsbreak when we get aboard."
Three Orbiter security lounged at the docking bay as the hatch opened from theThsehyuttwlee.re ready for the press, for the Holovision cameras, but they weren't ready for CaptainThBerocoadp.tain remained inside the hatchway, with Beatriz beside him.

"Three men out there," he said to her in a gentleHvisoiceey.es held her with that same wild glSithteer. tried not to look at his fa"cCe.hoose one for yourselfO. ne to . . . entertain yourself."
She was stunned at the question and his calm, disarming mSahnenefre. lt a something rise at the back of her neck, something that she'd felt tingling there before the killing started groundside.
"You want none of them?" he answered for"Hhoerw.
fickle."
He pulled her aside and signaled the men behind them Itno fsierceo. nds nearly a quarter of the Orbiter's token security force lay dead on the deck.
"Dispose of them through the shuttle airlock," he told his"Imf eyno.u kill one in a room, kill all in the room. I don't want to see any bodiBees.atriz will announce that there is a revolt in progress aboard the Orbiter and the VoidshipW. e've been sent to stop it."
"Why do you do this to me?" Beatriz hi"sWsehdy.
do you tell me I have a choice when I Ydoun't?
were going to kill them anyway, but you have to include me . . ."
He waved his hand, a dismissal gesture that she'd long associated with Flattery.
"A diversion," he sai"dP. art of a game . . . but see, you are stronger for it Iatlraemaduys.es me, and it strengthens you."
"It's torture to me," she sa"iId.don't want to get strongIer.don't want people to die."
"Everybody dies," he said, motioning his men abo"aWrdh.at a waste when they don't die for someone's convenience."

Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it.
-- Machiavelli, The Prince
Spider Nevi's favorite color was green, he found it peaHceefujlo.ckeyed Flattery's private foil across
the green-tinged seas and allowed the plush command couch to soothe the tension out of his back and shoulders. Green was the color of new-growth kelp, and tens of thousands of square kilometers of it stretched out around them as far as the eye could see.
Some sunny days Nevi spun a foil out of moorage just to drift a kelp bed, enjoying the smell of salt water and iodine, the calm of all that grHee .didn't like red, it reminded him of work and always
seemed so angryT. he interior of Flattery's foil was finished in red, upholstered iTnheredc.offee cup that
Zentz handed him was also red.
"What's so special about this Tatoosh woman," Zentz gurgled, "the Director got the hots for her?"
Nevi ignored the question, partly because he wasn't listening, partly because he didHn'et cwaraes. about to have his first sip of coffee for the day when the Navcom warning light fHlicekeadlmoons.t
didn't notice it because the light, like everything else, waAs nreda.brasive warning tone blatted from the console and he started, spilling hot coffee into the lap of his jumHepsudiot.ubted that he would have missed that tone if he were comatoTshe.eir foil slowed automatically with the warning.

"Go ahead," he told Zentz, "let's hear it."
Zentz turned up the volume on the Navcom sysNtevi. couldn't stand the radio chatter while he was trying to relax, so he'd had Zentz shut it down when they hit open water.
". . . you are approaching a 'no entry'Saercetao.r eight is disrupted, kelpways not secuCreo.de your
destination and alternate routes will appear on your scrBee warning, 'code red,' you are . . ."
.prepared to take on survivoRrse. peat --
Nevi took the foil down off its step and kept the engines idling.
"Fools!" Nevi muttered".They were warned to keep her away from the kelp."
"Do you think they're in theMre?aybe they made it through before .Z.en."tz cut himself off when he saw the anger in Nevi's eyes.
"Get a display up," Nevi ordered, "I want to get a look at this 'disruption.'"
He coded in the private carrier code for Flattery's quaTrhteersw. aters around the foil had already gone from choppy to rough, and in the offshore distance Nevi could make out portions of a large sub train bobbing the surface.
"Yes?" It was a female voice, curt.
"Nevi here, get me the Director."
The display that Zentz had been working on spread across their Istcrreeemni.nded Nevi of a weather picture of a hurricane e-v- erything on the outside swirling toward the cenBteurt. this was kelp, not clouds, and it was happening undersea, almost within sight of their Hpeoinwt.as not happy with the

delay from Flattery's office.
The woman's voice came back as curt as the first time.
"The Director is busy, Mr. Nevi, we are in full alerSt ohmeereo.ne blew up one of the outer offices, a security detachment has attacked the Kalaloch power plant and there is some problem with the kelp in sector eight . . ."
"I'm in sector eight right now," he said, his voice as even as he could"Ifmhakeecaitn. 't talk, get me a direct line to Current Control."
"Current Control has been incommunicado for nearly an hour," she"Wsaeida.re attempting to find out the meaning of --"
"I'll keep this frequency open," Nevi snapp"Gede.t him on the air now!"
Her only response was to close the cirNcueivt.i pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment, staving off one of his headaches.
"You should've kept her on," Zentz s"aWid.hat did she mean, 'A security detachment has attacked the
Kalaloch power plant'?We defend the Kalaloch power plant."
"We need to figure out where the Galli woman is and we need to get our hands on her fast," Nevi interrupted. "She's our bargaining chip no matter what's going Hone."tapped their Navcom screen with
a well-manicured finger and traced the spiral pathway that wound from edge to center.
"I'm guessing she's in there somewhere," he mused, "and anything in there is heading for the center. There isn't time to bring in any hardwWare'll have to chase them down or intercept."
"You mean . . . follow them in there?" Zentz "aWskheadt.
about the attack on the power plant?
Something's coming down in the ranks and my men --"

"Your men seem to be undecided about their loyalties," Nev"iTshaeidy. can work that out among themselves. But I'll put you out here and radio for a pickup if you'd prefer."
Zentz's massive face paled, then flushed.
"I'm no coward," he said, puffing himself"Tuhpe. re's just something going down at the Preserve, where
I . . ."
Flattery's carrier frequency sounded its tone and his voice crackled in their speakers.
"Mr. Nevi, we're having some urgent problems here that need our full atteWnthioatn.do you want?"
"I want a direct line to Current ConTtrhoel. kelp out here is going berserk, and if you want the Galli woman we need to straighten it out or knock it down."
"I'm monitoring their actions," Flattery sa"iTdh. ey've applied full power to that sector and the subs have
all surfaced.Things here are getting stickAy.
bomb went off in my outer quarters about a half hour ago.
Killed my staff girl, Rachel, and that guard, EllLisoonk. s like he brought the damned thing insMideo.p
up out there as soon as you can and get backWheerme.ay go Code Brutus on this oOnuer. Security has some answering to do."
The connection was broken at Flattery's end.
Chief of
Code Brutus, Nevi thoughSt.o, it's starting alreadyA. t least out here, right now, we don't have to choose sides.
He had no doubt which side Zentz would ally FworithZ. entz, a return to Flattery meant sure execution. Too many errors, too little strategy.

Maybe he's already in on it, he thought.
Zentz was on the radio to his command center at the Preserve, chewing out somIfe tmhisajowr.as a coup from the security side, he didn't believe Zentz was in on it.
Nevi kept his attention on the screen, where the kelp configuration didn't seem to change.
Would it be worth it, going in after them?
He thought it probably wouTldh.e different factions of Pandora only needed a symbol to bring them
together, and Nevi knew Crista Galli was ready-made for theBejtotber.
his hands on her than
Shadowbox. Besides, he'd maneuvered around troublesome kelp in the past and never had problems
that he couldn't handleA. nd if a coup did come down, Nevi could be seen as rescuing Crista Galli, along with the very popular OzettTe.hat would get the media on his side.
Either way; that LaPush has to go, he thoTughhat. one's been too much trouble for too damned long.
Nevi didn't want to be the one to rule Pandora, if that was what all of thiHs ecawmaes
thoa.ppy being
the shadow, being the arranger of possibilitiHesis.
distaste for Flattery and his style grew more
unbearable by the year, but he had no desire for the hot seat himself.
Code Brutus, he thoughAt. coup attempt from within.
Nevi didn't think that Zentz was capable of carrying off a coup, though he had to admit that he was in th middle of the perfect alibi -- at sea with the Director's highest-ranking assistant, a known and effective assassin.
Zentz was finished chewing out the major in charge of the power plant and the configuration of the kelp on the monitor hadn't changed a Nbiet.vi checked his fuel reserveasl:l four tanks fulHl. e pressurized the
fuel, retracted the hydrofoils and extended the airfoil.

"We're going back?" Zentz askeHdi.s voice sounded eager, but not greedy.
"No," Nevi said, and smile"dW. e're going to pinpoint them from the air, then gWoeinh.ave enough fuel for almost an hour."
After an hour they'd be forced to set down on the water to extract more hydrogen, but Nevi planned to have everything that he needed aboard by then.
The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and irreplaceable being.
-- T. Robbins, from A Literary Encyclopedia of the Atomic Age
Beatriz was hustled through the passageway and locked inside the Orbiter's makeshift Holovision studio with three techs from Brood's creNwo. ne of the three had been at the launch site killings, but none of them had much to say to her, eitAherl.arge portable screen behind her hid the wet lights and mirrors that cluttered all six studio bulkheadTs.he same Holovision logo she wore at the left breast of her jacket emblazoned the screeni:t was an eye, bidimensional, but the pupil was a holo stage.

Beatriz loved weather and had never liked the claustrophobic world inside the Tsthuadtiows.as why
she and Ben had worked so well together and, in spite of offers, spent so many years iHetrhe field. recent promotion carried a lot of studio work, and her contract guaranteed a room with a view -- on paper. She missed the sense of drifting she'd had, growing up an Islander.
Aboard the Orbiter she was assigned a cubby rimside, more than a kilometer from the studio near the axis. From her cubby she watched Pandora wake and sleep above heHr ebredfa. ther, a fisherman,
would be taking his midafternoon break right nIonwsi.de the studio there was no time of day, no night.
Her instructions from Brood were simple and c"oRledl:ax, we'll do the worYk.ou just read what's in front of you when the red light goes on."
A small security camera mounted high on the bulkhead kept track of her everIyt wmaosvea.
toy, a
trinket compared to the personalized cameras and triangulators that her team used at the launch site. Holovision's equipment got worse every yeSarh.e missed her own gear.
They were the best, she thougAhnt.d maybe that last tape is still inside.
She wondered whether Brood's men had picked them up.
Rico made those sets, she thought, and those triangulatorsN, otoboo.dy who knew cameras could pass those up.
She felt her first rush of real hTohpe. cameras weren't down at the launch site at all.
They're here, she thought, or at least they're in orbit with us.
She didn't want to think about the taFpoers.now, she wanted only to focus on the cameras.
She couldn't help wondering what they'd do with the tapes.

Keep them, as backuRp.ecord over them when their other tapes are full.
She doubted that whatever this team planned would involve a whole lot Bouf t tathpe. techs had brought them along, her logic assured her of that.
They might still be on the shuttle.
She didn't want to go back to that hatchway, where Brood's men had shot those guards down.
Beatriz glanced up at the surveillance camera.
Is it a person behind that thing, she wondered, or tape?
She didn't think they'd waste the taTphee.
techs ignored her altogetheTr.hey worked quickly at several
editing and sound stations, coordinating something among themselSvehse. suspected it had something to do with her.
Maybe there's no one behind it.
The three-hour light flasheTd.hree o'clock in the afternoon marked the start of the assembly of the six-clock news.Getting the tapes was only one probleImns.erting them into a Holovision Nightly News broadcast with Brood's men watching posed another problSemhe. knew who could help her with the second problem, and it was the one person she most wanted to see.
Mack could get a message groundside, coded to the right frequency and digitally encoded.
She knew, because he'd done it once for her at Ben's request.

He was teaching me, she realizBede.n must've thought something like this might happen.
Most Pandorans were too hungry to fight, she knewThthoauts. ands already slept in holes dug in the
talus, under torn plastic vulnerable to demons and the weaFtrhoemr. was only one way.
her family she learned that fighting
She remembered something her grandfather had told her, something she'd told Dwarf MacIntosh last time: "Educate, agitate, organize."
Flattery had organized the worNldo. w Beatriz wanted to use that organization against him.
Communication would do to their freedom.
Pit.eople had their bodiesC. oordination of all those bodies would be the key
How to get away with it?
Maybe she couldn't get away withWiht.at kind of message would she deliver then?
It might save Ben and Rico, too, she thought, though in a part of her somewhere they were already beginning to disappearS. he tried to make her shocked and exhausted mind think through all that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, all that there was to go.
I've got to get to Mack, she thouTghhatt.
is, if Brood hasn't . . . hasn't . . .
She wouldn't allow herself to complete the thouSghhet. concentrated on what she had to work with.
This small studio aboard the Orbiter had been her project all along, her excuse to stay close to the stars. It was a little larger than the one at launchFlsaitttee.ry had had it installed to be sure that the Voidship
project received the best documentation, the best publicity, the world's complete atteSnhteionk.new
now what its primary purpose had been all along -- diversion, something to keep people looking up while
Flattery stole their boots.

The studio was divided into six engineering units and the one live set where BeatrizQuwaorrtkeresd.
were very crampedS. ix editing screens and a couple of very large clocks kept them in touch with the world. A constant barrage of images rolled across the six screens as the editorial team groundside reviewed the day's film from the field and made their selecTtihoenrse. was a small holo stage in the
center of the room for final mock-up and a large viewscreen behBinodth ithe clocks and the growl in her belly told her things she didn't want to know.
"Three hours to air time," she said.
Her console indicated she was speaking into a dead microphone.
She raised her voic"eW.
e're five hours behind schedule."
No answerT. he techs worked as though she were a piece of furnTithuerye. relayed tapes of their own groundside for editing and placement.
Beatriz rolled her tape of the Organic Mental Core up one of the screens and suppressed a shudder. This was a person, a living, thinking brain, kept alive by attachment to a comatoSshee hwoostn. dered
what it was that caused the comShae.
was certain that she knew who.
"I need to talk with Dr. MacIntosh," she said.
This was not the first time she'd said it, and the response was always the same S-h-es'dilerneccee.ived the silent treatment from the techs since docking aboard the OFrbriotemr. the occasional glances in her direction she surmised this to be orders from Brood, rather than choice.
Unlike counterparts of old, this OMC would be able to talk, using neuroelectrical Wpichkeunpsth. e
time came it could communicate with the neuromusculature of the ship, feel everything that transpired aboard. This, Flattery reasoned, would keep the OMC sane where the original OMCs had failed.
It was clear to Beatriz that Flattery didn't want to face the kind of artificial consciousness that had brought humankind to PandoraT.here were those who believed that Ship still existed, and would return.

The hyb tanks that had brought Flattery, Mack and Alyssa Marsh were evidence to Beatriz that Ship could be very much alive, God or not.
If I can get one of these techs to start talking, that would be a wedge against Brood, sAhnedthitought. might be a way to Mack.
Current Control and MacIntosh were only a few meters down the passaBgeewatariyz. could practically feel the vibrations from his throaty speech, his huge body bashing about his Couffrirceenst. Control and the Holovision remote studio shared a few kilometers of cable between them, but no haBtcohthway. areas were soundproofed.
Beatriz tried to remember what Mack had taught her about their hoHoek'udpspent a lot of time
orienting her during her trips aloWft.hat came to her were his philosophies and musings, the relaxing tone of his deep voiceS.he remembered nothing of the linkup between the two roSohmes.had already tried a
few electronic tricks of her own to contact him, but with no luck. He knows I'm due, she thougMhta.ybe he'll come looking for me. She hoped that it wouldn't mean walking into his own execution.
Manipulating the kelp electronically is like making a marionette out of a quadrTiphleegtircick becomes

keeping it a quadriplegic.
-- Raja Flattery, from "Current Control from the Skies," Holovision feature
Crista felt a pressure on her whole beItinwg.as not like the pressurized cabin, like air presIsturwea. s
some indescribable containment of her self inside some huge envelope -- like the pressure she imagined the positive pole of a magnet might feel when in the company of another positive pole.
"You don't have to be afraid of the kelp pulling this thing apart," "sFhelatstearidy.'s lab reports say it kept me alive underwater for twenty yeaItrs.can keep us alive . . ."
"Can is the operative word here," Ben said.
He didn't look her in the eye, but hung his head over her restraints as if staring at them would right the foil and set them on their w"aIyf. what you say is true, it wants you aTlhivee.rest of us are compost."
"The kelp's not like that," she s"aYido.u've been listening to RicIot.'s . . I. knew it before Flattery's people cut it back, remembeIrt? kept me alive, for all we know it kept others alive the same way."
"Lots of people spend lots of time down under," he mu"tNteorebdo.dy's seen anything like what happened to you."
"Why just me?"
When Ben's gaze did meet Crista's, goosebumps clustered her foreEavrmersy.thing that she knew about his kindness, his sacrifices for others, froze inside her with the chill of that look.
"I've wondered that," he sa"idO. thers have wondered, too."

"That's why Flattery never let me get to the sea," sh"eHseaisda.id it was to protect me, but I think he was just suspicious that I'm some kind of Avatan spy, a trigger of somMeaysboert.I was raised by a plant, but I can read people fairly wLeeltl. me . . . touch the kIetlpw. ill calm down, then, I know it will."
"Not a chanceI.f Flattery's right, if Operations is right, your chemistry is differentIt ncoowu.ld kill youI. don't want anything to kill you."
"I don't want anything to kill anybody," she said, "but the kelp is cIotn'sfujsuesdt . lashing out . . . nobody tells it anything . . ."
With that the foil pitched upside-dowBne.n hung on tight to a handhold, his face pressed into the plasteel bulkhead.
Crista tried to speak, upside-down and against the pressure of her restraints.
"Avata needs our help," she said, "and we need AYvoauta.have to help me do this, Ben."
There was that strange, stunning snap in the air, the same snap that had stilled a mob for moments at the pier. It was like the discharge of some great capacitor.
Crista felt their foil slowly roll, pull her tighter into her restraints, then rigShhteitwsealft.ched Ben drop
his hands from his ears and sit up on the deck, shaking hiTshheeadda.maged foil moaned and chattered about them like mechanical teeth, but the fist of the kelp was gone.
Crista saw the flicker of the intercom charging, then heard Rico's tight voice:
"Ben, look at the kelp."
Only one of the starboard lights still probed the dark, so the view that Crista and Ben had from the

galley's plaz was gray and black, dreamlike, cTolhde.y hadn't dared activate the kelp's luciferase, it would make tracking too easy.
A fine seawater spray wetted them both as they watched the easy dance of deepwaTtheirs kwelaps.
the same kelp that, moments ago, quivered with a tension so strong she thought it might uproot itself.
Crista, herself, felt a relief that was more than just calm after theIt swtoarsma.
release, like the elation
she had felt at the start of their journey when she slipped skyward, hitching her consciousness to the hylighter.
"Can't really see very well," Ben s"aLido.ok at the size of those vinSeos!me of them are a half-dozen meters across and we can't even see bottom yet."
"That should tell you something," she s"aIitd.should give you an idea of what the kelp's really like."
"What do you mean?"
"You said it yourselSfo. me of those stalks are nearly as thick as this foil isFowridthee. been something like handling a squawk egg with pliers to keep from crushing us."
kelp it must've
"Maybe so," Ben muttere"dW.
e're headed topside and the kelp's apparently floating
Wfreee'.d better
see what kind of damage we took before it changes its mind."
Lights dimmed in the galley, brightened and dimmed again.
"Elvira can't get the engines to fire," Ben "sTahida.t's going to make a lot of things tough -- including our oxygen production."
The gray hulks of kelp floated dreamlike outside their hull while the chunks of torn fronds and sediment ripped up by its struggle settled around them.

"See?" she said".The kelp means us no harmIf.
you would let me . . ."
"We're all staying put!" Ben sa"iTdh. e kelp simply stoppedM. aybe it got whatever it wanted, maybe
that wasn't usN.
o point in looking for more troublHe.e" nodded toward the spray that had already
soaked both of them and started pooling water across the galley"Wdeec'kv.e got a few details to clean up. Let's get at it."
Crista tugged at her harness.
"I can't do much until you get me out of this."
"Any damage back there?R"ico asked over the intercom.
"I think we popped a cooling pipe," Ben "sIat'isd.not much of a leak now that we're surfaWcinhga.t do you have?"
"We're not terminal, but we're huErltv.ira says 'topside,' so topside we
Ygoo.u two OK?"
"We got a little wet," he said, stamping his feet in the gathering pool.
At that they both laughed -- something she did not do often, something she'd discovered with him before. He opened a panel in the bulkhead beside her and reached inside.
Water plastered his hair to his heCardis.ta's felt just as flat, but when she saw herself reflected back in the plaz, a laugh still teasing her face, she liked what shHe esrawcr.op of wet white hair framed the
green flash of her eyeSs.he saw that she had twisted in her harness, which explained why, now that things had quieted down, her right breast stung so bSahdely.wriggled herself free and tugged her clothes straight.

"There's a shutoff in here, somewhere," Ben mutteHre .poked his head inside and bumped it. Whatever he said was unintelligible.
Crista's gaze fell on the holostrips of the Nightly News field crew, strips that covered the whole interior bulkhead of the galleyS.hots of Beatriz, Rico, Ben and a half-dozen bearded strangers were interspersed with location stills of Ben and Rico, Ben and Beatriz -- several of Ben andCBrisetaatridzi.dn't see
Elvira up there.
"Beatriz is beautiful," she said, raising her voice so he could hear.
"Very."
"You look happy together," she said.
"Yes," he answered, also raising his voice so she could hear.
Then she heard a curse and a thump and the water stopped spBreanyincga.me out of the access cabinet and wiped his face with the least damp spot on hiHs is igrrt.een eyes looked right into her own.
"When we were together, we were happy," he Hsaeidd.id not turn to look at the pictu"Mreso.re often than not, we were on opposite sides of the wLoartledl.y she's been up thereH."is thumb indicated the general direction of the Orbiter overhead.
"Do you wish . . . otherwise?"
"No," he sighed".It's as it should bIe.have things to do here."
Things to do! Crista thougWht.hat she wanted him to say was, "It's as it shouNldowbe.I've met you." But he didn't say that.

An odd feeling came over her, a dizziness and a weakness in the knees, a tingling in hLeirketemit ples. had been with the hylighter, like her dreams.
A year ago Crista had begun dreaming dreams that cameAttrufiers. t, they came only in the niSghet.
knew they weren't dreams, but she despaired of calling them "visLioantesl."y, they came all the time, and inside the last one she forgot to breaCthreis.ta was sure they came from the kelp, and they were getting more intense.
She had . . . feelings, that she'd always explained as "dreaming somebody else's Idtrewaamss." something she now knew came from the kelp.
Today, now, she saw two thinSghs:e saw Rico in a green singlesuit, and that suit was the fruit on a great vine of kelpI.n the distance beyond him she saw a stand of kelp with a human growing from each great vine, looking like a seascape of bowsprits with interesting carvings, or like bait.
The kelp grew a membrane, clear and gogglelike, about theirIteyseesm.
ed a part of them, like
fingernails, but never needed trimminTg.heir lungs would never want for air, their skimpy bones would soon forget land.
The second vision pulled away from the first and showed her the kelp from a tremendoOusneheight. kelp vine snaked skyward and a cold light, like luciferase, touched Tithsetivpi.ne, the kelp bed, the
planet itself began to glowIn.
the light below she watched the kelp writhe for a blink, then convolute itself
into what appeared to be an immense, glowing bSrahien. felt a sense of easy grace that only came to her now in dreams.
Just as suddenly, the visions vanishCedri.sta was a dreamer, but these were not dreaSmhes. was sure the kelp had a message for her.
I've got to get out there.
She stared into the picture of Ben and Beatriz, stared into Ben's eyes and concentrated on slowing her heart rate, slowing her breathing . . .

"I'm glad you're here, Ben," she s"aIi'dm.
glad it's as it should be with BeaIftriazl.l is well among us we
can bring Flattery downT.he kelp knows this, maybe Flattery knows it, Intosoid. e the kelp, I can find out what all this iTs.he kelp is vulnerable now, as we are vulneraItblies. stunned, not deaHd.elp me out there, I can make the difference."
"No," he said".You're not going out therWe. e'll all stay aboard the foOiln. ce we're ashore we can get to an Oracle, or the beach."
"We don't have that much time," she
"sIaidd.on't know how I know it, but right now I could -- become
Avata, be the consciousness, the command center, the conscience of theShkoewlp. me the way out."
"You don't know that," he sa"iYd.our chemistry is different, you told me so yourMsealfy.be it would keep you alive out therMe. aybe it would keep you deaJdu.st wait a few --"
"We can't wait," she pleaded.
She sighed, rubbed her eyes and went"Ionth. ink he's been using the kelp to gather Idawtaa.s blown
up while they were doing Nito. w he's found out what he wanted to know and he's heading offplanet at breakneck speed."
When she looked up she could see that he wanted to belieIvt ehahder.been the same way last night,
when she saw that he wanted to kiss Shheer. just knewA.
s she knew there was something catastrophic
imminent, and Flattery knew what it was, and Flattery was fleeing as fast as he could with as much as he could.
"Stay put," Ben saiHd.is voice was softer, as softened as everything was now that the beating had stopped. He tousled her wet hair.
"Flattery isn't getting away today, so let's get out of this fGixivfeirsRt.ico and Elvira a chance to work their magic on the foil."

She could tell that he was convincing himHseelf.was afraidS. he knew a little something about feTahr.e
day she had been blown free of the kelp had been a day much
Tlikheis tthimis.e, she was headed in the
right direction.It was quartertide in the afternoon and they were fewer than a dozen meters from daylight.
Short-term expedients always fail in the long term.
-- Dwarf MacIntosh
Beatriz had taped here for the first time during the ceremonies that had welcomed Current Control's
move aboard the Orbiter two years aSghoe.
had received a tour on the arm of the mysterious Dr.
MacIntosh, a dizzying tour that changed her life and included her first attempt to navigate in near-zero gravity.
Now a few of the captain's men held her incommunicado while the rest did what soldiers throughout history had done to secure a garrison among an unarmed and isolated poNpuolnaece.of them moved comfortably in low gravityS.ince her only contacts were with Brood's men, smuggling messages to Mack seemed out of the question.
What if they kill him, too? she wondered.

Mack was a very compassionate man, but one who immersed himself in his work and didn't often pay attention to the ways of the world more than 150 kilometers belowItthsetrmuc. k her, too, that that had
been her own problemB. en had seen it and tried to help.
I know Ben's alive, she thought, I feel it.
She hoped that Mack was alive,
Ptoaort.ly because he was someone she genuinely liked, partly
because she was sure that all of their fates depended on him.
Brood needs him, too, she thougHhet.'ll use me as his bargaining chip.
The hatch slammed open and Yuri Brood sailed throHueghr.ebounded into a safety webwork that was set up to catch rookies and keep damages miniBmraolo. d pointed to the bank of editing screens as he settled into the seat beside her.
"You think that because my men are warriors they can't do your show,"Hhee wsaaisd.out of breath
but seemed in good humo"rW.
ell, we greenhorns have something to show yTohue.
Director had us
shoot this just before we left for the launchLseioten. turned in the rough copy on his way to the shuttle."
She tried not to watch the screens, which displayed clips that Brood's three techs had shot of the
damage at KalalochA.
s each rolled up on a screen, a text of tentative script flashed across the console in
front of herT. here was no fighting apparent in any of their tIatpeosn.ly took her a glance to tell what he was up to.
"You're trying to make this look like a hylighter disaster," sh"eYsoauidc. an't get away with it -- somebody else from Holovision must've been on the scene . . . word of mouth alone . . ."
She stopped when she saw his snIeterw. as an expression that reminded her immediately of Flattery.
Brood had the same narrow nose, dark, upraked brows, the same manner of tilting his head back to look down his nose at everyone.
Though he had been flushed and slightly out of breath when he came in, Brood seemed in no hurry now.

He watched her eyes constantly, and this made her very nervous.
"You might have noticed how many new faces there are among the field crews these days," he said. "Quite a few new faces around the studios, too."
He smiled, and the smile chilled her.
"Are you saying that all of the crews have been . . . replaced?"
"Lots of people looking for work these days," he said, "people willing to do the necessary thing to get the job done."
"Our job is reporting the news, telling the truth --"
His laugh cut her off.
"Your job was reporting the news, telling the truth," he"Osuarid.job is keeping order, and if distorting
the truth a little helps keep order, then that's what IP'lel odpole.
are happier this way."
"People are dead this way, and you will have to keep killing them . . ."
"Watch this section," he ordered, and snapped his fingers at Leon, "they're sure to use Iistnt'tonitigaht. lot better view of the world than what you think you saw?"
Her console read:
"Lead:Kalaloch residents flee their homes in the aftermath of a hylighter explosion that split the settlement in two."

Scene, screen oner:escue of elderly woman from smoldering rubble of a habitat, a housing p"OroKject:
darlin', you hold on now, OK?"
Voiceover:"Today Vashon Security Forces rescued this elderly woman from the char that was smoldering around her cubbyD. eath toll has exceeded one thousanAdu. thorities are now estimating more than fifteen thousand people to be homeless tonight, many of them seriously injured."
Scene, screen twor:escue crew in security uniforms alongside residents, rebuilding wall at the Preserve. Animals rounded up in background.
Voiceover:"Meanwhile thousands of animals are milling between the Preserve, where the explosion freed them, and the firestorm that laid waste to the edge of the Avuiltlhaogrei.ties here are anticipating
return of most, if not all, of the Preserve's prize livestock, which includes the only breeding pair of llamas in existence."
Scene, screen threeh:eart of all the tenements, the habitats, that are still burning.
Voiceover:"In parts of Kalaloch the fires still burn, as they have for more than fivMe uhcohurosf.
the
public market is destroyed, more than a hundred looters were reported shot in the first hours after the blast. A warehouse containing 70 percent of the sector's rice and dry beans will burn for days, according
to fire officialsM.
ost of this year's storage has been destroyed by flames, smoke orDwisaatsetrr.ous
food shortages are expected."
"But . . . but that's not even close to true!" BeatrizHheirsseodu.trage broke the fear barri"eFr.lattery has all that stuff buried in storage bins all over the Preserve."
"Shh," Brood said, still smilinHge.
placed a finger to his lips and nodded toward the screens.
Beatriz hated that smile, and she vowed to find a way to erase it.
Leon, the only journeyman tech of the three, frowned and cleared hisEvthernoawt. ith Brood there, he

wouldn't talk to herH. e simply pointed at screen four.
Scene, screen fourt:he harbor, boats on fire at moorage and in theFebrary. terminal littered with bodies, most in bags, which the camera panned quickly, from a height.
Voiceover:"Authorities estimate that as many as five hundred commuters perished from the concussion as they changed shifts on the docks todNaoy. ferries suffered any permanent damage and all are
operating on schedule from the repair docks."
Scene, screen fivetw: o crying women with commuter tags, holding their ears and comforting one another. Smoke and masts in the background.
Text:"Something hit our ears, and there was that blast from those thinIgds o.n'.t .know what happened to usT. hey're all dead . . ."
Voiceover:"Mrs. Gratzer and her neighbor claim that at least two class-four hylighters, attracted by fires in nearby refugee camps, exploded and destroyed several square miles of eastern KaDlailcokchL. each
has lost three icehouses full of seafood."
Text:"All of our income for this year has been taken away from us, and all the bills that it took to produce that crop are still here."
Voiceover:"They will be eligible for low-interest Merman Mercantile loans." Text:"If it comes to a loan we're going to have to probably pWulle onuete. d a grant." Scene, screen sixp:ullaway from the body bags laid out on Kalaloch pier.
Voiceover:"The ordeal seems to be over for these commuters, but the hardship's just beginning for tens of thousands of hungry, homeless families in the Kalaloch district."

All screens cut to black, then her console "rAeacdc:epted for final edit, elapsed time to follow."
So, Brood was right all along, she thouTghhety. 're going to run it.
Beatriz didn't feel particularly afraid anymore, just tired and incredibly sad.
"I need to see Dr. MacIntosh," she s"aI idw. as assigned a story on the OMC and the installation of the
Bangasser drive, and I intend to do it."
"Dr. MacIntosh has his hands full right now," Brood"Tsahiedr.e's a crisis in Current Control, a priority crisis. He knows you're here."
"Then let me go to Current Control."
"No," he laughed, "no, I don't thinkHeso.will come here when the time is right."
"What about the rest of them, the people here?"
"So far they suspect nothinWg.e have been very quiet, very selectiWveh. en shifts change, rations are left uneaten, then there will be taTlkh.at will be hours from now, and we will be finished here."
"Then what?"
He answered with his smile and a half-salute.
"I will check back to see how you're dGoionga. head with your piece on the OMLeCo.n, good job. You know what to do."

Then he was gone as quickly as he came.
"What is it you're supposed to do, Leon?" she asked.
He didn't answer, and he didn't smHilee. was lean and dark, like Brood, and she thought he might even be a relative.
Leon handed himself to one of the editing consoles and sat with his bacHketowahsers. till for a moment, then he said, "We're putting a story together on CristaAGnadllio. ne on Ben Ozette."
Beatriz felt herself go cold.
"And what's the lead?"
Her voice stuck in her throat, barely a whisper.
"Crista Galli safely in the hands of Vashon Security Force."
"And Ben . . . what about him?"
Leon was silent for a few more bliHneks.typed something into his console and it came up on her own:
"Holovision reporter killed in hylighter blast."
She tried to still the trembling in her hands and her lips.

"It's a lie," she sa"idL.ike the rest, it's a lIisen. 't it?Isn't it?"
Without turning, without apparently moving a muscle, Leon spoke so quietly she barely heard.
"I don't know."
The gods do not limit mMene.n limit men.
-- T. Robbins, A Literary Encyclopedia of the Atomic Age
"Dr. Dwarf," Spud called from behind the Gridmaster, "you wereTrhiegrhet'.s another kelp frequency inside that sector -- look here."
Dwarf MacIntosh glanced up from underneath one of the consoles that fed the GriTdmhoausgtehr. a big man, MacIntosh had always been adept at getting at problems in small Ipnlafcaecst., he preferred
crawling through runnels of cables and switches to attending any of the so-called "recreational" events aboard the Orbiter.

He backed his way out of the shielding ducts and towered over Spud's shoulder to see what he had found.
"This signal came through when we released the kelp in sector eight," "hIet'ssataidk.en me a while to fix and amplify."
"I see the rest of the kelp is doing well," MacIntosHh esariedv.iewed the readouts flanking the kelp display. "It released at least twenty captured cargo trains, if our data here are correct."
Spud nodded". They are.The kelp's just floating freMe.ost of the vessels are on the surface, though, and the afternoon squall in that area's due right about Tnhoewre. are no kelpways, no way of guiding them through.Unless we get a grid in there pretty soon, they'll just get fouled in all that slop."
"This is a very small focus," MacIntosh murmured.
His stare at the screen seemed intense enough to propel him right into the middle of the Hkeelp itself. pulled himself up to height and tapped a thin lip with his forefinger.
"Without tapping into that other signal, we won't be able to enforceI'ma gsruirde. history?"
Spud spun the graphic yarn on Mack's screen.
"It moves," Spud said.
of iWt. hat's the
"Yeah."MacIntosh nodded."Runs the kelpways like a prAon. d it's something the kelp would gnaw a limb off for, don't forget that."

"So what do you thinMk?erman transplants being routed?"
"Signals too strong," MacIntosh sa"idA.
stand doesn't register with us unless it's achieved some kind of
integrity, whether Flattery cuts it back or Tnohti.s is like having a whole stand of kelp in a spot no bigger than you or I . . ."
"And it can move."
"And it can move."
Mack stroked his chin in thought.
"It can persuade the kelp to resist our strongest signals, even with the threat of being pruned back to stumps. The dataflow tells us that the signal's been getting stronger by theFlahtoteurry. 's been frantic
about this in spite of riots at his hatchwWahya.t does all this tell us?"
Spud frowned at the screen in imitation of Mack and tried stroking his chin, too, for answers.
"There's somebody running the kelpways, acting like a stand of kelp?"
MacIntosh whooped, grabbed Spud by the shoulders and gave him a Tshheaykeb. oth spun high against the upper bulkheadT.he startled assistant's eyes opened nearly as wide as his mouth.
"That's it!" MacIntosh laughe"dW.
hat we've got disrupting the kelp grid in sector eight is a person
pretending to be a stand of kelp!"
He dropped his grip on Spud and stuck his head back into the electronic and neuroelectronic guts of the
Gridmaster.

"But who?" Spud asked.
"If you can't guess, you're better off not knowing right now."
MacIntosh's resonant voice was barely audible over the clicks and whirrs of the Gridmaster as it held the other stands of domestic kelp in functional stasis.
"More than anything right now we need a communications exHpe tb."acked out of the crawl space and added, with a sparkle in both eyes, "That would be Beatriz TNatotoifsyh. her that we require her services, if you would."
Spud smiled a wide smile.
"'Services,'" he said, "that's one way of --"
MacIntosh cut him off.
"Stow it," Mack ordered, smiling his own wide s"mJuilset. get her in here, pronto."

Men are moved by two principal things -- by love and bCyonfseeaqr.uently, they are commanded as well by someone who wins their affection as by someone who arouses theIinrdefedr,. in most
instances the one who arouses their fear gains more of a following and is more readily obeyed than the one who wins their affection.
-- Machiavelli, The Discourses
The fuel warning buzzer sounded its piercing screech above his console, and Spider Nevi cursed under his breath.They were very close now, very close, but he didn't dare take chances on making contact with dry fuel tanks.
"We're going to have to set down in that muck," h"eMsaakide. sure both screens and filters are intIact. don't want kelp clogging our inlets."
They'd seen several cargo train survivors on the surface, working to clear their Tihnetaykeasll.
moved
in the slow-motion, dreamlike manner of those who are under the influence of one of the kelp's toxins. Surface travel on Pandora's seas was dangerous enough with the kelpways Liniktaectg. reat veins, the kelpways helped clear the waters of the storm-damaged fragments of fronds and other troublesome debris.
Zentz grunted an acknowledgment, then paled.
"But -- but I'll have to go out there after we set down," "hTehastaikde.lp is -- it's crazWy.ith only two of us . . ."
"With only two of us, one of us has to go ouItt'sthyeoreu.r fault we're out here at all, so you get the duty."
The look on Zentz's face was the one that Nevi wanted fetoar.seNeo: t fear of the kelp, or fear of the sea, but fear of Spider NeTvih.e expression of fear represented power to him, a raw power that even Flattery didn't wield among the peopFlela. ttery maintained the politician's mask, and such a mask implied

hope to anyone who witnessed Nite. vi projected no mask, no hope. "If I go out there to clear those intakes, you will leave me." Nevi released upon Zentz one of his rare smiles.
"It pleases me that you have due respect for my -- abilities," "hBeutsaIidp. romised you a very special
part in this drama, and your time has not comeI wyeotu. ld not sacrifice you here for nothYinogu.
know
one thing about me if you know nothing Ielskeil:l for something, not for nothiIngv.alue human life, Mr.
Zentz, this you must realizIe.value it for what I can get out of it, what I can speTnhde itword.
'value'
implies 'commodity,' don't you thinkT?he pleasure of killing ranks very low, in my book, as a good reason. Much as I might like to kill you just to get rid of a certain annoyance, I'm sure someone, somewhere would make it worth my while to wait for the right price, the right trade, the right favor. Understand?"
Zentz stared straight out the cabin pHlaez.was pale, appeared slightly more bloated than usual, and his pasty fingers crawled nervously over each other's backs.
"Do you know why I kill?" Zentz asked him.
Nevi finished the final attitude adjustment and settled onto the slightly choppy sea in a spot that he judged to be relatively clear of the kelp deAbrsis.they descended, he saw that there was no clear spot. The struggle in this stand of kelp must have been tremendous.
"Yes, I know why you kill," Nevi
"sLaiidk.e any of the lower animals, you kill toIt eiast. your job, and
you see no farther than thYato. u kill by orders, to someone else's plan, because to not kill means you yourself die.That is a difference between the two ofI uthsi.nk of myself as a sculptor, a societal
sculptor. The populace is my stone, and I shape it chip by chip into a form thatTshueitsstmonee. growing, and my task is a relentless oBnuet. I have time."
keeps
In a flurry at his keyboard Nevi set the foil up for seawater intake and hydrogen cTonhveerinsitoank.es
clogged within blinksE. ven with Zentz out there to clear them, this would take longer than Nevi felt they could afford.He checked the fuel gauge.

Fifteen minutes, he thought, maybe twenty at the ouStshidite!.
"Forget the intakes," Nevi sa"idT.here's a wild stand just northwest of hWere'll set up there to take on fuel, then I'll see what I can learn from the Director," h"De osna'itd.worry.Leaving you to the kelp would be a waste, and I'm not a wasteful man."
The convolutions of Zentz's brow unwrinkled somewHhaet.lifted his sullen bulk out of his couch and donned a dive suit.
"Just in case," Zentz said, "I'm reaI'dvye. heard about wild kelPp.eople disappear out here, and the kelp doesn't have a reason."
Nevi throttled up and lifted them Mofuf.ch as Zentz disgusted him, Nevi intended to keep him alive until the time came when it simply wasn't handy to do that anymore.
The run to the blue sector took only ten minutes, and all the time they were heading into the afternoon squall. A black wall pushed across the sea toward them, though when they set down in the blue kelp's lagoon they were haloed in the magnificent afternoon sun.
Nevi deployed the intakes, but a warning light on his console told him they were stilHl eclotrgiegded. retracting and redeploying them, but they stayed clogged.
"Better get out there after all," Nevi
"sAaidn.d step on iTt.hat squall's moving in pretty fast."
Zentz grumbled something, but trudged aft without complainNinegv.i noted from the console display that
Zentz left the aft hatch opeHne.
chuckled to himself.
He thinks he'll sink me if I submerge, and blow out the flight controls if I take off.
Nevi knew ways around both of those situations, the simplest being to go aft and close Hthee hatch.

was tempted to do that now, just to give Zentz a thrill, but decided aTgahienys'td ibt.e refueled in fifteen or twenty minutes and with luck would lift off ahead of the storm.
Nevi set out a call for Flattery on their private frequency, and received an immediate reply.
"Mr. Nevi," Flattery said, "time is wastDinog. you have them yet?"
Nevi was surprised at the clarity of the recepIntidoene.d, the clarity of reception was unlike any that he'd experienced over the yearTs.he activity of Pandora's two suns interfered constantly with transmissions, and lately sabotage of transmitters by the vermin made things even Twhoerskee.lp itself often garbled radio communication, but this time it seemed to embellish it.
"No," he said, "we don't have thWeme.'re refueling before the final pusIh.thought we were to make the most of this, get as many of the rebels as possible."
"Forget it," Flattery sai"dI. want Crista Galli nowS.he's not to talk with anyone before she sees me, understand?"
"Right," Nevi said, "I --"
"Tonight's news is carrying notice of Ben Ozette's dHeaet'sh. not to be seen, but I want him for my own. Do what you want with that LaPush bastard."
"Do you need support back there?"
"No," Flattery saidH. e sounded distracted". No, I've taken care of Wit.e've called some security back from the Island docking sites and from demon patTrohless. e bastards . . . there are so many of them. They've looted the public market and its warehouse isWdery.must've shot three hundred of them, but they kept on comingI.'ve given orders to blow up any warehouses that are in danger of being looted.
When they see their precious food blasted all over the landscape, they'll think twice about this kind of thing. You stick to your job, I'll handle things hDeoren.'t call me again unless you have them."

Nevi was left listening to static and to the whine of the pumps processing out their Hhyedreoagcehne. d to break the connection, but hesitateTdh.ere was a pattern to the static, something he hadn't noticed
before. It seemed as if there was a music in the background, and voices from several conversations that he couldn't quite pick ouOt.ver and over, faint in the distance, he could hear the rhythmic repetition of Flattery's voice saying, "Mr. Nevi, Mr. Nevi, Mr. Nevi . . ."
He closed the circuit and stared out over the sea toward the black curtain Tofhestsourmrfa. ce chop
had increased and a wind had come up that was blowing the foil out of the center of the lagoon and closer to the inner edge of blue kHelep. glanced at the fuel readout and was relieved that they were
nearly full.What worried him was the distinct repetition of his name that continued, chantlike, even though he'd shut off the radio.
The fuel light indicated full, so he shut down the pumps and sounded a warning klaxon to Zentz before he retracted the intakesH. e felt them thump into the bay, but still there was no sign of Zentz.
This was clear water, Nevi thougHhet. should've been back aboard after clearing the intakes once.
He sounded the klaxon again, twice, but heard notThihneg.aft hatch light remained oNne. vi secured
the console and started back toward the aft haTthche. chant got louder, more distinct, and behind it a
babble of voices rose on the the cabin.
Taihr.e hair on his arms rose, too, and Nevi armed his lasgun before leaving
He felt a metallic taste on his tongue, a taste he'd heard others describeHeasspfeaatr.once on the deck, but the insidious taste remained.

Consciousness manifests itself indubitably in man and therefore, glimpsed in this one flash of light, it reveals itself as having a cosmic extension and consequently as being aureoled by limitless prolongations in space and time.
-- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe
The Immensity smelled trouble on the waters, a great disturbance from one of the coastIatl hsatadnds. been a struggle, the debris told that tCaluer.rents had changed suddenly, bringing the strange scents of
fear and, just as suddenly, bliSsso.
far, the currents hadn't changed back.
The little whiff of death that the Immensity caught on the current was human, not kelp.
Perhaps the pruner has become pruned, it thought.
It stretched its outermost fronds coastward, but still could not contact the neighborinOg nslytand. fragments of messages drifted in on bits of torn frTonhdese were shards, frames, pieces of recordings
-- not the Oneness that the Immensity sought, not this "talk" that humans enjoyed and withheld from others.
Then came the humanTs.hey set into the Immensity from above, like hylighters reversing their lives, and with them they brought splinters of dreams from the stand next door.
Yes, Her Holiness was among the kelp again aHt elarstp. resence suddenly freed the neighboring stand of prisoner kelp, a stand that had lost her to Flattery's butchery five cycles back.
Who are these others, now, come to my stand?

Few humans fished outside their gridworTk.he few organic islands left to risk a float on Pandora's seas likewise stayed to the more merciful currents of the Tghreid.Immensity had spared fishermen, scouts, humans fleeing humans, and it had spared entire island-cities more thanTohneceh.uman in charge of
humans had not shown the Immensity equal compassion.
Though humans often called them "willy-nillys," the islands floated now in predictable pCauttrerrennst. Control, the enslaver of the kelp, ensured tBhuist. the volcanics of the past twenty-five cycles had
conjured storms the like of which the Immensity had never seen in its own time, and these storms brought islands into its reachI.t thought of the organic islands as Immensities of Humans, and adjusted its own greatness to let them pass.
These humans came in their flying creature, dropping pieces of kelp into the Immensity'sThlaegoon. Immensity unraveled a long vine from the wall of the lagoon and sniffed theThemsacne.nts talked of
fear and death, and to have the whole story the Immensity would have to read this human's tissues bit by bit.
It waited until the human finished discharging the pieces of kelp, so that the Immensity would know as much of its neighbor as it couItld.knew now, by scent and touch, that this was Oddie Zentz hAusmiatn. gripped Oddie Zentz human at the waist and pulled him into the walls of the lacuna, it knew that this human had killed many humans, as many as a storm and perhaps more.
The Immensity had spent most of its awakened time trying to communicate with other kelp, to merge with other, smaller standsM. ore kelp was better, it thougChtl.oser was betterI.t failed to understand
creatures that killed their own kinTdh.ese were, indeed, diseased individualIsf. they were merciless to their own, they would certainly show no mercy to otThheers.Immensity concluded that it should respond in kind.

We Islanders understand current and floWwe. then, is normal.
-- Ward Keel, The Notebooks
understand that conditions and times chanTgoe. change,
Beatriz knew that it would not be in the captain's best interest to kill Mack, especially if there were links with other forces groundsideB. ut she had also quit trying to guess what could be in Captain Brood's best interest. From what she could gather, Captain Brood was a man trying to capitalize on a bad decision, making more bad decisions to cover his traHckes. wouldn't last long at this rate, and he was the type
who just might take everyone, and everything, with him.
She concentrated on the map she'd called up on the large studio displayItscwreaesn.a map of
Pandora, rotatable, and at the touch of a key it highlighted populated areas, agriculture, fishing and mining. She could tell at a glance where the factories lay, both topside and undersea, and where the wretched communities lived that served them, for serve them they did.
Only today, with the murders of her crew and Ben's warnings ringing in her memory, did she realize how the people of Pandora, including herself, had become one with their cThhaeinys.were enslaved by
hunger, and by the manipulation of hunger, which was a particular skill of the DHierecoonrc. entrated on food, transportation and propagandBa.efore her, on Holovision's giant screen, she saw the geography of hunger spread out for her at a touch.
The largest single factory complex above or below the sea was Kalaloch, feeding the bottomless maw of Flattery's Project VoidshipI.t showed up on her display as a small, black bull's-eye in the center of amoebalike ripples of blue and yelloTwh.ose ripples represented the settlement -- the blue was Kalaloch proper, where all paths led to the ferry terminal or to ThePeLoipnle inside the blue lived in
barrackslike tenements or in remnants of Islander bubbly stuck to the shore.
The yellow, a weak stain of sorts widening out from the blue, represented the local refugee population. Starving, unsheltered, too weak for heavy work, they were also too weak toThreebDeli.rector's staff
rode among them daily, picking the lucky few who would be trucked to town to wash down the stone pavements, sort rock from dung in the Director's gardens, or pick through refuse for reusable materials.

For this each was given a space in The Line and a few crumbs at one of a hundred food dispensaries that
Flattery operated in the areEa.ven private markets were offshoots of the dispensaries -- true black market vendors disappeared with chilling regularity."
The sphere of Kalaloch included the bay and its launch base, the factory strip, the village, Flattery's Preserve and the huddle of misshapen humanity that squeezed inside the perimeter for protection from Pandora's demons.
Outside this sphere Beatriz noted the similarities of other settlements along the coTahsetlsienes.maller dots also were ringed by the huddle of the poor, even agricultural settlements, fishing villages, the traditional sources of foodS.ecurity squads shot looters of fields, proprietors of illegal windowboxes and rooftop gardens.They shot the occasional fisherman bold enough to set an unlicensedAll noef. this Ben
had told herS. he had seen evidence herself, and had chosen to disbelBieevaetr.iz earned her food
coupons fairly, ate well, felt guilty enough about the hunger around her to believe what Flattery had fed her about production meaning jobs and jobs feeding people.
For almost two years her assignments had covered jobs, the people who worked them and the people who gave them ouIt.t had been a long time since she'd walked the muddy streets of hunger.
There aren't any new jobs lately, she thought, but there sure are a lot fewer people.
Now she was above it all, trapped and converted, with nothing to offer and everything to fear.

Thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
-- Christian Book of the Dead
Boggs had been hungry all his twenty years, but today his hunger was different and hHe eknweowkeit.
up without pain in his bones from the ground underneath, and when he scratched his head a handful of hair came with iTt.his, he knew, was not hunger but the end of huHnegelro.oked around him at the still,
wizened forms of his family huddled together under their rock die trying, because he knew he would do the dying anyway.
Tleoddgaey.
he would get them food or
Boggs was born with the split lip, gaping nose slit and stump feet characteristic of his fatheHr'iss family. six brothers shared these defects but only two still lHiviesd.father, too, was deaLd.ike Boggs, they had
known the enemy hunger from birHthi.s malformed mouth had made nursing a futile noise, so most of the sucking that he did as a newborn slobbered down hisHcihsinm. other tried to salvage what she could
with her fingers, slopping it back into the cleft of his mHoeu'dthw. atched her do this countless times with his younger brothers.
A week ago he'd watched her try to nurse the starving ten-year-old when there wasn't even a bug to catch. She had been dry for two years, and his brother died clutching a handful of fallen orange hair. Boggs looked again at the fistful of orange hair in his hand, then weakly cast it away.
"I will take the line, Mother," he said, in the lilting Island"eIr wially.bring us back a fine muree."
"You will not goH."er voice was dry, hoarse, and filled the tiny space they'd dug out under the ledge. "You are not licensed to fisThh.ey will kill you, they will take the line."
His father had begged the local security detachment for a liEcvenersyeo. ne knew that many temporaries were issued every day, and that some could even pay with a share of thBeutcathtceh.Director issued a fixed number each day".Conservation," he called i"t.Otherwise the people will outfish the resource and no one will eat."

"Conservation," Boggs snorted to himseHlfe.
eyed the fish line wrapped around his mother's ankle.
There were two bright hooks attacheTdh.ere had been a fiber sack for bait but they'd eaten the sack weeks ago.There was just the ten meters of synthetic line, and the two metal hooks tucked inside the wrap.
Boggs crawled up beside his mother so that his face was even wSithehherasd.
the wide-set
eyesockets of her mother, and the same bulging blue Neyoews. a faint film obscured the blBueo.ggs pulled at his hair again, and thrust the scraggly clump where she could see it.
"You know what this means," he sTaihde.
crawl, the effort at talk exhausted him but somehow he kept
on. "I'm done for."He tugged at her hair and it, too, came out in a "cYluomup.are, tooL. ook here."
Her bleared eyes slowly tracked on the evidence that she didn't need, and she nodded.
"Take it," was all she saSihde. line from around her ankle.
bent her knee up to her skinny chest and Boggs clumsily unwound the
He crawled out from under the ledge, and as far as he could see down to the shore others were crawling out of holes, out from under pieces of cloth and rubHbeirseh. and there a wisp of smoke dared to
breach the air.
Boggs found his cane, propped himself upright and stumped his way slowly toward thHee'wd ater. thought himself too skinny to sweat, but sweat poured out of him noneItht ewleass a cold sweat at first, but the effort of picking his way through the rubbish and the dying warmed him up.
A small jetty shouldered the oncoming tIitdew. as an amalgam of blasted rock, about twenty meters long and five or six meters wiTdhe.e quartertide change tossed a few breakers over the black rock, soaking the dozen licensed fishermen who hunched against the spray.
It took Boggs over a half-hour to make it the hundred meters from the ledge to the base Hoifs the jetty. vision was failing, but he scanned the tidelands for signs of the security patrol.

"Demon patrol," he muttered.
Vashon security sent regular patrols through refugee aTrehaesi.r stated purpose was to protect the
people against hooded dashers and, lately, the terrifying boils of nerve runners that raced up from the south. Boggs shuddered.He had seen a boil of runners attack a family last season, entering through their eyes to clutch their slimy eggs inside their skHulels.had thought the family too weak to scream, but he
was wrong.It was not a pretty sight, and the patrol took their sweet time burning them out.
Everyone knew security's real reason for patrolling the bIetacwha. s to keep the people from feeding themselves. The Director passed rumors of black market fishing harvests that he said threatened the economy of PandoraB. oggs hadn't seen sign of these harvests yet, nor had he seen any sign of an economy. His mother's tiny radio taught him the word, but to him it would always be just a word.
A pyre smoldered to his lTefht.ree small lumps of char lay atop a ring of rock, slightly higher than high
tide. The poor couldn't even muster enough fuel to burn their Wdehaedn.
enough of them accumulated,
the security patrols amused themselves by flaming them with gushTguhnesy. called it nerve runner practice.
Someone guarded the pyre on the other side of the rocks, and when Boggs edged closer he could see that it was SilvaH. e stopped and caught his breaSthi.lva was a girl his own age, and the rumors said that
she had killed her younger sisters and brother while they Nsloepot.ne raised a hand against her now as
she tended their pitiful firBe.oggs hoped she wouldn't see hiHme. fight for it.
needed bait, but he knew he couldn't
He got down on all fours and crawled to the edge of thHee hreeaapc.hed a hand up, felt around the hot rocks until he touched something that didn't feel like Hroeckj.erked, jerked harder and something came off in his handI.t was hot and peeling on one side, cold on the Hoethecro.uldn't bring himself to look, he just grabbed his cane and scuttled awSaiylv. a hadn't seen him.
"I'll bring her a fish," he promised him"sIe'lllf.catch fish for mother and the boys, and one for Silva."
The quartertide patrol was nowhere to be seen.
They've gone through already, he thougThht.ey've gone through and checked the licenses and now they're up the beach checking for caches in the rocks.

Boggs stood apart from the other fishermTehne.y might turn him in because he was catching fish that
were rightfully theirsT. hey might steal his fish and line, and beat him as they had beaten his father once . .
.
. . . But they'll wait until I have the fish, he tThhoautg'sht.what I'd do.
He hunkered down against the jetty so that he was barely visible from the shore, tied a rock onto his line and baited the hooks from the charred mess he clasped in his fist.
"It's bait," he reminded himself, "it's just bait."
He didn't have enough energy to plunk his bait out very far, so he left it on the bottom about a half doze meters from the rocksI.t was deep there, deep enough to take most of hiHs elingea.ve a tug now and
then to make sure it was frTehe.ere was enough bait for two, possibly three more tries.
"You got a license, boy?"
The gruff voice behind him startled him, but he was too weak toHemdoivden.'t say anything.
"You're late getting out here if you got a licYeonuse.only get one day, can't afford to waste it."
Some rocks clacked together as the man stepped down to where Boggs sat wedged intHoeawcalseft.
skinny and sallow, with a wisp of a beard on his chin and no hair onThhies head was peeling and sores dotted his face.
shkeiand.on the top of his
"I'm an illegal, too," the old man
"sFaiidg.ured it was my last chancYeo. u?"
"Same."

He reached across Boggs, fingered the bait and put it down with a grunt.
"Same's me."
The voice was lower than illegal, it was ashamed.
Suddenly Boggs's line went tight, then tighter, then it nearly jerked his arms out of their sockets.
"You got one, boy," the old man
Isnaidh.is excitement, his voice rose and his cracked lips got wet.
"You sure got one, boIy'l.l help . . ."
"No!"
Boggs wrapped the line around his wrist and levered it in about a meter.
"No, it's mine!"
Whatever it was, it was big and strong enough that it didn't have to surfaceButot Bfiogghgt.s kept
making slow progress, levering the stubs of his feet against a boulder and putting his skinny back into the pull. He figured he had about two meters to go but he couldn't see anything for the black spots swimming
across his eyesH.
e heard the old man grunt in surprise and scramble up the rocks behind him and when
he had nothing left to pull with Boggs just lay there, wedged in the rock, the excess line tangled around both arms.
The water broke with a rush in front of him, and whatever he had hooked lunged for him and caught him by the anklesT. he grip was firm, and humaItn.laughed.
"You caught a big one, boy!" it bellow"Ceadn.
you show me your licenseA?"nother laugh.

"Are you . . . are you . . . ?"
"Security?" the voice asked, pulling him closer to the water, cutting his skinny buttocks on the rock. "You bet your ass, boLy.et's see that license."
Hand over hand the security pulled Boggs cloFsaecre.
to face, Boggs could see the breathing device
dangling from his dive suit and the black hair draining over his bulging forehead.
"You ain't got one, do youH?e" picked Boggs up and gave him a shEavker.y bone in his dried-up body rattled."Do you?"
"No, no . . . I . . ."
"Stealing food from people's mouthYs?ou think you have the right to decide who'll live and who'll die? Only the Director has that rigWht.ell, fishbait, I'll show you where the big ones are."
With that the man stuck his mouthpiece between his lips, pinned the boy's arms against his chest and fell backward with him into the sea.
Boggs coughed once at the tickle of water in his nose, then choked as it exploded into hisHferail lungs. saw nothing but light overhead where it fanned out from the surface, and the bubbles from his mouth where they joined it like a blossom to its stem.

Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that lies in yBoeurohne ritn. self-harmony and arise, great warrior, arise.
-- from Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queets Twisp, elder
A silent Twisp and muttering Mose gathered the spore-dust of the two fulfilled hylighters into their bags and trudged their loads to the high reacThewsi.sp had spent little time with the monks lately but they
were generally an unsuspicious lot who seemed accustomed to his comings and
Fgoewingos.f them
knew of his work with the Shadows, though if others knew he was certain they still would not interfere.
The carnage below would not reach them, experience had taught himTwtihspis. tossed back his mantle, tucked up his sleeves and enjoyed his foray into theFosrunt.hese few hours, at least, he could put aside
the messages and codes and other accoutrements of his secreTt olidfaey.
he might be called on to make
a decision or give an order that might change Pandora foUrenvteilr. that hour, he wanted to feel
Pandora's sunlight and the feminine breezes of the high reaches.
He and Mose sweated in the spore-dust gathering, and sweat plastered the fine blue dust to their hot skins. The soul of Avata, bound up in the dust, leaked its way into hiTswpiospre'ss. body picked its
way up the trail, oblivious to the way his mind raced the kelpways of the past.
He who controls the present controls the past, a voice in his mind told him, and he who controls the past controls the future.
It was something he'd read in the histories, but he'd also heard it before from the invisible mouth of the kelp.

Avata controls the past, he thougIht t.maps the voyage of our past, our genetic past, which helps us to plot a true course for our future.
He watched his feet fall, one in front of the other, without the expense ofThtheoyugshtetp. ped over sharp stones, sidestepped a flatwing, all without interference from what most people called thIet was as if he were a being watching another being, but from within.
Cheap entertainment, he thought, and smiled.
mind.
Mose hummed a tune behind him, one that Twisp did not recHogeniwzeo.ndered where the young monk's mind voyaged, to bring him such a tHunee.had too much respect for another man's reverie to ask him.
Each contact with the kelp or the spore-dust had taken Twisp deeper into the details of humanity and deeper into his own pasYt.es, the loss of a love was painful and it seemed no less painful rMepolasyt ed.
of these memories exhilarated him, like the one of nuzzling his mother's breast for the first time, the taste of the sweet milk and the coo of her voice over him, in the background the swish-swoosh, swish-swoosh of her Islander heart.
Twice the kelp had taken him further than that, into the past of his ancestors, into the void from which humanity itself had sprungT.wisp acquired something more than a history lesson on these voyHaeges.
acquired wisdom, the insight of sages, a separateness from the worldly machinations of people like
Flattery. This was why the Director eventually discouraged, then finally forbade the kelp ritual.
"Do you want your children to know your most secret thoughts, your desires, all those dreams you couldn't tell them?" he would ask.
This warned Twisp far more about Flattery's depth of paranoia than it did of the dangers of the kelp.
Flattery successfully discouraged most Pandorans, at least the ones dependent on his settlements and his handouts. His isolation of a kelp neurotoxin made the people even more cauHtisoudse. velopment of an
antidote became popular, since contact with the kelp was virtually unavoidable in many traditional professions.

It could've been a placebo, Twisp thouWghht.at people expect the kelp to do to their minds is pretty much what occurs.
The brief Pandoran ritual of giving their dead up to the kelp had been all but aNbaonwdotnheed. dead were burned, their memories dissipated with smoke to the wTinhdiss. Flattery encouraged with his simple plea for hygiene.
"Decomposing bodies wash up on the beaches," he "sWaihda. t little tideland we have stinks with the remains of our dead."
Twisp shook his head to clear it of Flattery, of the man's grating, nasal voice and supercilious manner. This was not the voyage he wished the dust to lead himHdeowsonu. ght the deeper currents of history
to address the problems of Flattery and hunger.
"Humans have enslaved humans for all time," he said to h"imAsenlfe.w galaxy shouldn't require a new solution."
How had ancient humans broken the bonds of human-inflicted hunger?
With death, a voice in his mind told Dheimath.
freed the afflicted, or death freed them from the afflictor.
Twisp wanted Pandorans to be better than Fthlattt.ery's way was starvation, assassination, pitting
cousin against cousinT. he footprints Twisp sought in the dust must lead away from Flattery, not after him.
What good does it do for me to become Whiemt?rade a long-armed murderer for a tall one.
By the time he and Mose lay their burdens down before the monks of the hylighter clan, Twisp felt no need for the rituaHl. e already swam the heady seas of kelp-memorHieis mind waged a reluctant
struggle against the babbling current.

His people around him babbled as they prepared theTdwuisstp.
made his mouth beg his leave and he
perched atop his favorite outcrop alonBee.hind him, other elders walked a line of kneeling Zavatans and
spooned little heaps of blue dust onto outstretched tongTuheesy.
proceeded with waterdrums and
chants, songs from Earth, from Ship, from their centuries of voyaging across Pandora and her seas.
This was where communicants met the dead, here in the aftermath of the bTluheeydutrsat.veled backward in time, raveling up memories that had been long forgSoottmene. witnessed their parents'
lives, or their grandparentsA'.
few, one or two, branched off into the greater memory of humanity itself,
and these were the ones consulted for movement toward a rightness of being.
Twisp let the syncopated waterdrum lull him back to that first day he had felt the effects of the new kelp. Twenty-five years ago he first touched land, a prisoner of GeLaar GTahllaotww. as the day he and a
few friends defeated Gallow's vicious guerrilla movement and ended a civiIlt wwaars. tanks splashed down from orbit and brought them Flattery.
the day the hyb
It all happened atop a peak that the Pandorans now called Mount Avata, in honor of the kelp's role in their salvation.He had waited there for what he had expected to be his death at the hands of Gallow, the Merman guerrilla leaderT. he kelp brought him a vision then of a bearded carpenter namedNNooaahh.
was blind, and mistook Twisp for his grandson, AbimHaeel.fed the hungry Twisp a sweet cake, and down all the years since then Twisp had remembered the fine taste of that sticky-sweet cake.
"Go to the records and look up the histories," Noah told him.
Twisp had done just that, and it left him in awe of Noah, the kelp and that sunny day on the Mount.
"This new ark of ours is out on dry land once and for all," Noah"Wtoled'rehimgo.ing to leave the sea."
Twisp had avoided the kelp since then, thinking only that he needed to let the affairs of Pandora go to
the Pandorans and the affairs of Twisp to TwTihsepn.
the Director insinuated himself into the lives of the
people. Their lives became Twisp's life, their pain his pain.
Twisp had studied well, read widely in the histories, and like any Islander he brought the hungry into his home. That home grew as the hunger grew into two homes, three homes, a settDleimffeernetn.ces with
the Director drove them to their perch in the high reaches and to secretly make fertile the rocky plains

upcoast, away from Flattery's henchmeNn.ow, in the grip of the spore-dust, Twisp saw the intricacy of what he'd wrought, and the strength.
A small voice came to him as the dust was distributed toItotwhearss.a voice of the world of Noah, one that he had never expected to hear, even within his own mind.
"Fight hunger with food," it told h"iFmig.ht darkness with light, illusion with illuminatioInt ."was a tiny voice, nearly a whisper.
"Abimael," he said".You are here at lasHt.ow did you find me?"
"The scent of the sweet cake," Abimael
"sAaidn.d the strong call of a good heart."
Twisp swept past Abimael in the headlong tumble down the kelpways of hHisemwinads. out of the fronds, now, out of the peripheral vines and into the mainstem of kelp.
This hylighter must have come from a grandfather stand, he thIotuigshta. Flattery's shears.
"It is not wonder, elder, but illusion."
wonder that they still escape
The voice that Twisp heard was not from inHsiedet.urned slowly, remembering the young MoIste.was then that he noticed Mose's hand on his arm.
"You travel this vine, too, my cousin?"
"I do."
At no time did Mose move his Hliipss.pupils dilated and constricted wildly, and Twisp knew that his

own did likewiseH. not remember.
e'd looked into a mirror once after taking the dust, and fallen into places he'd rather
"I remember them . .M."ose began.
Twisp interrupted him, concentrating only on what Mose said of ilTluhsisoni.nterruption, too, was spoken without lips.
"You said, 'illusion,'" Twisp reminded h"imW.hat has the kelp shown you of illusion?"
"It is a language this hylighter spoke when it grew on the vine," M"oIstelesaarinde. d to cast illusion like
a hologram.Elder, if you follow the vine of this thought to its root, you will know the power of illusion."
Suddenly Twisp's mind cartwheeled deeper into itself.
No, he thought, not deeper into my mDinede.per into Avata's.
"Yes, this way," a soft voice coaxed.
Twisp looked back on his body as though from a great height, incurious about the shell of himself, then he turned onward into the void.
What is illusion, what is real? he asked.
"What is a map," the voice repl"iIesd.it illusion, or is it real?"
Both, he thoughIt.t is both real -- something that can be held and felt -- and illusion, or symbol, or representation. The map is not the territory.

"You, fisherman, if you want to build a boat, what do you do first?"
Draw a plan, he thought.
"And the plan is not the boat, but it iIst riesala.
real plaWn. hat do you do next?"
Visions of all the boats he had built, or fished on, or coveted floated through his mind.
Next . . .
He tried to concentrate, tried to remember where it was that Avata was leading him.
"Don't think about that," the voice chid"Aedf.ter the plan, what next?"
Build a model, he thought.
"It, too, is not the boItat.is a modeIl.t is illusion, it is symbol, and it isIfreyalo.u would get a man to live a certain way, how might you do that?"
Give him a model of behavior?
"Perhaps."
Map out his life?

"Perhaps."
A moment of silence, and Twisp detected the distinct pulse of the sea in tThehepavuosiec.e went on.
"But a map, a model -- these have a basic limiWtathioatn.is this limitation?"
Twisp felt his mind bursting at its seAamvas.ta was forcefeeding him something, something importaIfnt. he could only grasp . . .
Size!
Whether it came to him intuitively, or whether the kelp provided him with the answer, the effect was the same.
It's size!You can never know truly from a model how it will feel because you can't Yliovue icnani'tt. try it on for size!
He felt an immense sigh inside himself.
"Exactly, friend TwispB. ut if you could make the illusion life-size, the lesson, too, would be life-size, would it not?"
Suddenly he was thrust back in his spore-dust memory and saw the old Pandora through the eyes of one of his bloodied ancestors fighting the Clone WHares.saw the immensity of Ship blacken out the sky,
and heard that final message ring in his m"iSnudr:prise me, Holy Void.S"hip's voice was not the electronic monotone he'd expectedI.ts voice was relieved, even gleeful, as it made its farewell pass across both suns and disappeared without a souItnds.ounded much like the voice he'd been hearing inside his own head.
"Ship unburdened itself of us when it headed out for the Holy Void," Twisp whispered t"oTohimself. live to our fullest potential we have to learn how to unburden ourselves of ourselves."

One more thing nagged at the back of his Hmeindidn't know whether he said it aloud or not, but he knew that Mose, at least, heard him out.
"We have to learn to cast illusion like a spell," Twisp heard him"seTlof scaayp.ture an enemy without inflicting harm will take a carefully spun illusion."
Somewhere in his mind he thought he detected a grunt of approval.
We Islanders understand current and floWwe. then, is normal.
-- Ward Keel, The Apocryphal Notebooks
understand that conditions and times chanTgoe. change,
Newsbreak should air within the hour, but Beatriz knew that this team would not make their deadline. They were having some kind of transmission problem that they refused to share with her, but she saw the results on her screensW. henever their tape was ready for its burst groundside, a review showed that it
had been tampered withS.omeone seemed to be editing the editoItrs.was just as weLll.eon told her
that the short clip she prepared on the OMC would not be transmitted groundside for approval, anyway.

She recalled an incident several years ago, when Current Control was still undersea in a Merman compound. They were taping one of Flattery's "spiritual hours," a propagandistic little chat with the people of PandoraA. ll went well until transmission time.
The kelp interfered, that was the only answer at the time -- and an unpopTuhlaer koenlpe. jammed broadcasts, made deletions on tapes . . .
The hair on her neck prickled at the thoSuhgeht.remembered how, finally, it edited tapes and changed
the chronology of broadcasts, flipped images and voiceover around to make Flattery look like a fool and make the broadcast adhere more closely to the truth.
Mack and I wired a lot of kelp fiber into this system, she thought.
Any delay suited Beatriz just fiSnhee.
needed more time to figure out how to say on the air what wasn't
in the script without getting herself and others kiTllheedy.
would only trust her with a token appearance,
she would have to make the most of it when the timeMcoasmt eP. andorans, even the poor, listened in
on radio.She wanted to reach them aSllh.e hoped it wasn't just hysteria that told her the kelp was on her side.
If there's a coup in progress, who's at the bottom of it? she wondered.
She ticked off the likely suspecatnsy:
of several board members of Merman Mercantile, the Shadows,
displaced Islanders, Brood -- probably acting for someone else from Vashon Security Forces . . .
Or maybe the Zavatans, she thought, though she knew it was not theTihredirrifrte.sponse to political trouble was to dig in deeper, to flee further into the high reaches or the formidable upcoast regions.
Brood's an opportunist, she thougThth.e killings at the launch site were a mistake, and he's trying to
make the best of winning.
Iitf. there is an organized coup, he'll wait and throw in with whoever seems to be

Beatriz realized that Flattery had no friends and damned few Eavlleireyso. ne had good reason for hating
him. He had come to Pandora sporting his savior's cap when the very planet had turned on them, and then he turned on them.
"I am your Chaplain/Psychiatrist," he'd told them, "I can restructure your world, and I can save you all. Your children deserve better than this."
Why did everyone believe him?
Her years at Holovision gave her the ansHweer.was on the air daily, either in person or via his "motivational series," a collection of tapes that she had not seen as propagandistic unStihl enohwad. even helped produce several, including her recent upbeat series on the VoiEdvsehriypo. ne believed him because Flattery kept them too busy to do otherwise.
Flattery had become the most formidable demon in a world of demons, only he waWs
ohrusme ayne. t,
he was pure human, without any of the kelp genes and other genetic tinkerings that Pandorans had to endure. Beatriz knew this nowH. e did it with their help, with her hTehlopu. gh trapped, she felt an exhilaration at the notion that Brood's men couldn't shoot a clear signal grouTndhseiydem. ight need her
yet.
If I do this show as written, I'll be helping him again.
She realized what it was she was helping Flattery Stohedow.asn't helping him rescue a world in geological and social fluxS.he wasn't helping him resettle the homeless Islanders whose organic cities
broke up on the rocks of the new continents, or rescue Mermen whose undersea settlements had broken like crackers at the recent buckling of the ocean floor.
I'm helping him escape, she thougHhet.'s not building this "Tin Egg" to explore the nearby Its'starhsi.s personal lifeboat.
She cursed under her breath and fisted the console in front of her, but gentlSy,hegemntilgyh.t need it later. The reflection that bounced back from her screen was of a woman she didn't reTcohgenhizaeir.
color was black, cropped and shaggy like her own, but the haunted brown eyes of her reflection stared out of bloodshot sclera, surrounded by two dark hollows that frighteneHd ehr enr.ose was red and her

complexion pasty for one so darOku. t of reflex she reached for a com-line to call Nephertiti to makeup, then stopped.Nephertiti would never brush her hair again, never again whisper in her ear at the countdown: "You're gorgeous, B, knock "em out!"
She fisted the console again in despLaeiro.n glanced her way, but busied himself trying to iron out the glitch with transmissions to the groundside studHioe. and his men were unfamiliar with the zero-gee of the Orbiter's axis, and every small task that required movement seemed to anger them more.
Beatriz knew her performance as written would be helping Brood, too, and this was more than she could bear.He was overseeing the delivery of the OMC to its crypt aboard the Voidship and mercifully out of her sighIt.f Leon didn't get past the jamming influence on their burst channel, Brood would be back, and he would be maSdh.e didn't relish the thought of Brood in a tantrum.
Dwarf MacIntosh was a normal human, a blue-eyed clone from hyb, and Beatriz was a near-normal Islander. Mutations had leveled off over the past few generations and most Islanders, though shorter and darker, appeared as normal as MacIntosh and FlattAerpyp. earances, among Pandorans, had dictated
their lives from the start.
Flattery's not normal, she thougHhti.s mind is a mutation, an abominatiHonu.mans should not trample their own kind.
She knew the history of slavery Earthside, and members of her own family lived with the aftermath of the genetic slavery of Jesus LewiTs.oday she had awakened at last to Ben's accusations that Flattery had
enslaved Pandora, Mermen and Islanders alike, and his grip only got tighter while the people got hungrier.
The past twenty-five years had been a cumulative string of disasters planTethweidsee:a bottom had fractured along a kelp root line to form the first strip oMf olarneds. uch fractures followed, always along the gigantic roots of kelp bedTsh.e consequent upheavals destroyed dozens of Merman settlements
down under and caused the sinking or deliberate grounding of most of the floating organic cities of the Islanders, her own among themR.efugees swarmed to the primitive coastal settlements by the thousands, forced to learn to survive again on land after nearly three centuries on or underFltahtetersyeah. ad not
eased their burden, only added to it.
"This whole planet's trying to kill us," Mack had told her the first time they talked, "we don't need to give it a hand."

But Mack took no action against FlattHerey.put all of his waking hours and a good number of his dreaming hours into perfecting the Orbiter station as a jumpoff point to thHeestdairds. this while
directing Current Control and becoming the world's expert on its most mysterious resident, tHhee kelp. worked backward to define his priorities.
"We need Current Control," he sa"iTdh. e kelp is fascinating, but reality dictates that we get supplies through it or people diCe.ontrolling the kelp makes this project easier, it makes settlement life easier, it guarantees results."
That was when he invented the Gridmaster, which bypassed the undersea multibuilding complex of the
Mermen's Current Control and allowed the major grid system to be operated fromThoerbMit.erman
complex undersea had sustained heavy damage, but it still carried the hardware and installed new grids. With the Gridmaster in operation, one person could handle all of the kelpways in the richest of Pandora's hemispheres.
Beatriz had stood at Mack's side two years ago as his special guest the day the Gridmaster went on-line. Though officially a Holovision correspondent for the event, Beatriz liked to believe that there had been
more to Mack's invitation than the business at hTahn
ed. spark of his blue eyes lit unmistakably in her
presence, and they had enjoyed long talks floating through the axis of Orbiter nights and reclining in the webworks. What had begun as the opportunistic brush of hands against hands became a full-fledged love affair.
I hope we get another chance, she thought, and sighed to head off tears.
A red flash above the hatchway startled her, then flashed Iat gwaians.
the studio equivalent of a doorbell
that alerted each console throughout the rooImt
.was customary to lock the studio when taping a show.
Someone wants in.
Whoever was out there was not one of Brood's Smheenk. new this because of the fear that bloomed in pale petals across Leon's face.
It's Mack, she thoughItt.'s got to be!

"Don't move!" Leon ordereHd.e unsnapped his harness and pointed a commanding finger a"tI'lhl er. handle this.Your text will be onscreen in a few bliSntkasn.dard cues.I'm remote director and you will follow my lead most carefully."
He handed himself to the hatch, plugged in his headset and pressed the intercom key.
"We're taping," he announce"dN. o admittance except for studio personnel."
Beatriz held her breatTh.hough they did seal off for tapings and live broadcast, Holovision had always
encouraged an audienceM.
any workers aboard the Orbiter enjoyed spending their free time watching
her crew at work, and they had never been prohibited before.
"It's Spud Soleus.T"he high voice crackled her own headset in its characteristic way, forcing a smile to her lips."Current Control.We have an emergency situation over theDrer. MacIntosh needs to talk with Beatriz Tatoosh right away."
She felt a rush in her chest and color rising in her Hcheer epkas.lms continued to sweat.
"She's going on the air liTvel.l Dr. MacIntosh it'll have to wait."
"It can't waiOt. ur burst line has failed and a chunk of grid's down."
"We have orders," Leon saHidi.s voice sounded hesitan"t.Maybe after the show . . ."
"Dr. MacIntosh is Orbiter Command," Soleus s"aHide.
has direct orders from Flattery to open that grid
now. We need your burst line for a transmissWione. need Beatriz Tatoosh for advicI'em. that all power relays switch through Current Control and we can shut you down."
reminding you

"Wait a blink," Leon said, his voice calming, "I'll see what we can do."
He switched off the intercom and pressed his forehead against the bulkhead.
"Shit!" he said, and bumped his forehead against the plaHsitseehl.eadset kept him from cartwheeling backward across the studio".Shit!"
Good for SpudB! eatriz thought.He'd lied to Leon about the circuitSroym.
e, but not all, was routed
through Current ControlS. he and MacIntosh had set up the studio, and no one knew itBbuet ttLeer.on didn't know thatB. esides, he had enough problemAs.nd Leon didn't dare move without orders from Brood. He couldn't alert Brood without alerting the entire Orbiter.
Beatriz's heart tripped hard against her ribs and she blotted her damp palms against the thighs of her jumpsuit. In spite of the danger, she enjoyed Leon's dilemma.
Anything to make them squirm, she thought.
Leon tripped the intercom switch again.
"No one's coming in here until after --"
"We can transmit on your burst line with our own carrier frequency," Sp"uWd esadido.n't even need to get in your wayD. r. MacIntosh is in charge here and he said --"
Leon slapped the switch off, unplugged his headset and thrust himself back toward his editinHge cubby.
crashed, out of control, into the other two teTchesy.
disentangled limbs and cables, then hovered over
each of his shoulders and whispered together heatedly.
Beatriz slipped the two meters to the hatch and plugged in her hSehaedssewt.itched the intercom back on and left the set to float beside the hatch only a couple of meteTrsheaywadyid. n't see her, and the move took fewer than four seconds by the big chronometer.

Back at her console, Beatriz opened her com-line and punched out Mack's nTuhme btell.tale light
would flash on consoles in each of the editing cubbies, this sheAksneswhe. to her nose to nose in a red-faced fury.
expected, it brought Leon
"I told you not to try anything!" Leon snapHpeedw. as no longer the meek videotech at an editing console. Now he was ranking officer of a security assault squad that was in a tight spot.
"I'd slap the shit out of you if we didn't need your preWttye fadcoe.have a backup plan, sisTterry. again and you'll get your own ride out the shuttle airlock -- understand?"
that
Beatriz had to hide a smile for the first time aHlle'd yy.elled at her -- something that would have gone unheard elsewhere in the Obiter if she hadn't opened the intercom first, if she hadn't plugged in the headset just a step from where Leon stoItodd.id not take the best of her screen abilities to feign the terror that she'd already felt many times since waking this day.
"I'll do what you say," she said, as loud as she"Idadreodn.'t want to die like the othIe'lrls.do what you say."
Leon pushed back to his companions, but before he reached them the general alarm sounded with four long bursts from a klaxon overhead.
Though startled by the noise, Beatriz was overjoSyheed. recognized the signal from exercises in the past. Those four blasts meant "Fire, total involvement, Current Control secTthoar.t" sector included the Holovision studio.
While Leon and the other two flurried around the studio, asking each other, "What the hell's going on?" Beatriz whispered to herself, "Spud, I love you."

Power, like any other living being, will go to infinite lengths to maintain itself.
-- Ward Keel, The Apocryphal Notebooks
The first thing Rico saw when he stepped through the hatchway into the galley was the still, open-eyed form of Crista Galli lying in her harness beside theHpelrazp. upils pulsed with a green brightness that
Rico had never noticed before, and somehow he knew that whatever she saw now was not of this world. His first impulse was to run, to lock the hatch behind him, but he checked it.
Ben sprawled on the deck beside her, one hand clutching her ankle and his legs quivering like a child's in a nightmare.To Rico, the whole scene was a nightmare.
"Ben!" he called from the hatchway, but Ben didn't anHswe erru. shed to his best friend's side and saw that Ben's eyes, too, were opeBno. th of them were breathing, though Crista Galli's head was bent slightly forward and he heard a gurgle with each passage Roficaoirh. eeded Operations' warnings and didn't touch either one of them.
"Shit!" he snapped, and fumbled in his left breast pocket for a sIltapwshaost.a red, tiny ampule about
the size of the end of his little finTgwero.
needles jutted from one end, covered by a plastic Hcease.
flipped the cover across the galley, careful to hold the prongs away from his own body.
"Dammit, Ben, Operations said this toxin might be triggered if she got wet."

This shot was titrated for his own body weight, the one he'd most hoped nevIenr he stuck it into Ben's thigh.
"Don't stop breathing, man," Rico begg"eJdu.st don't stop breathing."
otoneussew. ift jab
He turned to Crista Galli, trying to control the sudden flash of anger burning in Hheis kcnheewst. it was more frustration than hate, but his body didn't know the difference.
If she killed him . . .
The better part of his reason wouldn't let him finish the thought.
A strangled moan surged from Crista's throat, an otherworldly moan that put the hair up on the back of
Rico's neck.
"Crista?Can you hear me?"
Rico saw that she had some ability to mSohvee.turned her hands palm upward in a gesture of helplessness, and her lips kept trying to form the words that wouldn't come.
"Flattery . . ."
The word was barely intelligibSleh.e still looked straight ahead, and in a dreamlike slow motion finished her effort with, ". . . drugs."
"Flattery gave you drugs?"

She blinked her eyes once, slowly.
"He gave you drugs to make you toIxt'isc?not the kelp?"
Again, the slow blink and a nearly imperceptible nod.
The Flying Fish took another lurch that sprawled Rico across theHedegckra.bbed for a handhold and pressed himself against the bulkhead as the foil rolled onto its side, then righted.
The foil's metal skin shrieked as something twisted it to its limits, then backed off.
The kelp's pulling us apart, he thouIgthtk.nows she's in here!
Crista was strapped in just as Ben must have left her, soaking wet, her disguise dRisiccoardmeadd. e a jump for the seat next to her and strapped in just as the foil righted again and allItwwasasquaiset. though the kelp had one last spasm run through it before it could relax.
He checked Ben over as best he could without touchingHehimw.as breathing easily and his color was
good. There was some movement of his right hand toward Crista, and Rico thought this was a good sign. He gingerly opened Ben's left breast pocket and brought out the other slapshot forHeCrriesytae.lids
did a fast flutter-dance that seemed voluntary, and her left hand raised just a tiny bit at the fingertips, as though to push him away.
Rico hesitated with the shot, and the fluttering stopped.
What if it's not . . . the Tingle? he asked hOimpeseralft.ions had warned him that the antidote itself might be fatal if administered needlessly to one of thMemay.be it would be fatal if given to her at all.
If Flattery's been giving her something, maybe her body's different, he thMoauygbhet. the antidote would . . . kill her.

It was tempting to go ahead anyway, after what she'd done to his Npoartonneer. would know, not
even Ben.He readied himself to deliver it and her eyes went into their flutter again and her fingers made those pushing movements.
But Flattery would like that, he thouTghe.re's nothing more that he would like than being able to tell the world that Her Holiness Crista Galli died in the hands of the Shadows.
The whole fiction began to unreel in his mind, clearly illumined all of a sudden against the backdrop of light that began to fill the galley's plaz.
"Of course," he said to her, "it makes sHenesem. ade you toxic so that no one would go neaTr hyeonu. he went public and blamed this on your . . . relationship with the kelp, am I right?"
Again, the barely perceptible nod and the slow bSlhinek.seemed relieved, more relaxed, and he didn't think it was the toxin working.
A sudden burst of light filled the galley and the foil began to lurch rhytThmheiycalwlye.re on the surface, and Elvira would be going out there to clear the inAtatkeesa.ch lurch a tiny cry escaped Crista's throat, and tears streaked her cheekFs.or the first time he felt as though he wanted to comfoHrte hwera.s just beginning to imagine how much Flattery had used her, how terrible and secret her life in the Preserve must have been.
She was a curiosity, a prisoner, he thought, and he made her a monster.
"Did this ever happen to you . . . before Flattery gave you drugs?"
Her eyes flicked side to side.
"I think that he thought that your toxin would kTilhleuns.he would get you back and be a hero, warning
the world again about how dangerous you Aarned.
if I gave you this shot," he placed the unopened
ampule carefully into his pocket, "then you would die and he would tell the world how we killed you.

That would turn the world against us for sure . . ."
She blinked a "yes," and Rico heard a moan from Ben.
The intercom charged again, then Elvira asked, "Rico, everybody OK?"
Ben's mouth struggled to speak, then he gave up and managed a sligChrtisntao,d.too, nodded and squeezed out a slow "Yesss."
"Slapshot time," Rico said to the interc"oTmh.ey're not great, but improvinIg'm. now. You going out for a little swim?"
"Thought I wouldB. est watch the helm."
all you've got right
"On my way," he saHide.
reassured himself that both Crista and Ben were safe, and that neither of them
could be hurt where they lay.
"I'll leave the intercom charged," he told th"eTmal.k to me once in a while, even if it's a gruntI,'llOK?
be back when Elvira's finished out there."
Crista raised her fingertips again, and wrenched out a couple of words.
"Kelp . . . happy."
"The kelp is happy?H"e threw his hands in the air, and spoke with undisguised sa"rcTahsemn. I'm happy. How the hell do you know?"
She turned her palm up like a shrug.

"Free -- dom," she said, and repeated the word more slowly, "free -- dom."
A glance out the plaz showed him what appeared to be an infinite expanse of kelp lazing in the last of
both afternoon sunsA.
lki, the small, distant sun, had begun a slow pulse almost a year ago and it was
pulsing now.A very large, very black cloud was closing from seaward toward Athnemoc.casional kelp frond rose slowly, then fell back with a slap and a splash.
Like a wot in a bathtub, he thought.
He had never seen the kelp play like this before.
"I hope you're right," he sa"iId.truly hope you're righIt will make life so much easier for us, and so much harder for Flattery's people."
He resisted the temptation to pat her shoulder and Ben's.
"We're going to get you out of this, buddy," he said to Ben.
He kept talking, more to himself than to Ben, as he hurried out the hatchway toHtehesphoeklme . to
Ben over the intercom as he reviewed his instruments, as much for his own comfort as his partner's.
"I hate to say it," Rico said, "but I think Current Control saved oTuhrebuktetlsp.
got us down here,
wherever here is, and then started tearing at the cabin with those hugeCuvrirneenst. Control must have been trying to get the original channel back, because the kelp was obviously fighting some kind of impulse. Either they blew a fuse or they gave the kelp its head compWlehteatleyv. er, it was the right
thing to do."
He resumed his instrument checkout.

"That electrical pulse through the kelp must have screwed up our Navcom system," R"iMcoostaid. everything else looks OKI. closed off cooling outlets to the galley to head off that leak, just in case it's ready to pop someplace elsYe.ou two might get a little warm there between the enOgincees. we're
airborne, I'll figure a way to get you both up here."
He finished the checkout and realized that they wouldn't be getting airborne aNftoetr uanlless Elvira could remanufacture the hydraulics that withdrew their hydrofoils and extended airfoils.
Ben doesn't need to know that now, he thoFuogrht.that matter, neither do I.
"Speak to me, buddAy.nything."
"Rico . . . OK."
It came out loud and clear, though painfully slow, but it was enough to put a smile on HReicofe'slt face.
Elvira tugging kelp out of the inlets and tried the Navcom Iat gwaians. from the speakers.
dead, not even a burst of static
"Squall's coming in," he told Ben, "things might get rough again pretty soon."
He didn't want to tell Ben that they were going to get really rough, now that they couldn't get above the storm. Without the Navcom, and with the kelp glutting up the ocean as far as the eye could see, Rico himself didn't want to think about how rough it was going to get.

Anyone who threatens the mind or its symbolizing endangers the matrix of humanity itself.
-- Ward Keel, The Apocryphal Notebooks
Ben had heard the boat's ballast blow as he stroked Crista's hair and cheek under the fine spray of the pinpoint galley leakH. e remembered the taste of salt when his lips brushed heBr ehcaaiur.se of the taste
of salt from the interior bulkhead he knew it was a cooling pipe leak, recycled seawater, nothing to worry about now that they were headed topside.
He remembered that he and Crista had been talking, laughing, when suddenly his upper body began to tingle. His neck wouldn't move his head where it wanted tHo egotr.ied to cry out but his mouth and
throat wouldn't workC. rista slumped against her harness, limp, her eyes wide with fear and their green irises darkening nearly to blue.
Oh, no, he remembered thinkinOgh. , no, they were right.
Inlurching, spastic movements he lunged against Crista, sprawling across herShleegsh. ad let out a little cry of surprise, but didn't resiBste.n saw that she couldnW't. hatever was happening to him was also
happening to herH.
e had the advantage of more body mass, more muscle, so it was taking his body
longer to shut down.
He grabbed for Crista's harness to pull himself up but his hands turned to two heavy rocks at the ends of his arms.Within a blink he collapsed against hHeer. was able to see and breathe but trying to move only
produced uncontrollable spasmsH.
e slid down the couch to the deck into a position that didn't allow him
to watch CristaO.
ne of his hands remained on her ankle, and he felt her body spasm and relax much like
his own.The antidote was in his pocket, and he couldn't make his body work well enough to dig it out.
Rico will think I'm a fool, he thought.

Now that they'd lost their Navcom they couldn't function undersea, and they'd be bobbing squawks on the surface.Rico would have his hands full enough without this . . . mess.
Elvira's got a few tricks, he thought.
Ben felt the Tingle rush like a hot blush down his back, out his shoulders aHnde tthriiegdhs.to control his muscles again but couldnH't.e was a helpless, quivering heap on the dHecek.remembered feeling more betrayed than carelessT.hen he started traveling the convolutions of Crista's mRinicdo., the galley around them, the rest of the real universe played through a dark curtain that backdropped Crista's thoughts and memoriesT. hese images from her life unreeled in his brain.
"Ben!" Rico said, his small voice rising to Ben from a greatHedespathid.
more but Ben heard only the
snap of the antidote against his singlesHuiet. felt nothing but the Tingle throughout his body, but he was fully aware of Rico stretching him out on the deck.
Time rippled like a dark fabric strung between himself andTRheicow. hite and stainless steel of the
galley blended into a great glowing halo of yellowpanel that washed out everything behind the curtain of his mind.
Ben understood much, nowA. near-infinity of human memories slept in Crista Galli's
Nheoawd. many
of them buzzed in his own, like solvent to solute, a wet solution filling
Hupe afedltryth. e dry blossom of
his mind unfold as it drank, petal by intricate petal, and behind it the shadow that was Rico LaPush rippled back and forth.
Though he could see and hear, Ben felt a detachment from his body that was more curiosity to him than fear. He remembered the special show he'd done with Beatriz about people who returned from
near-death, what they'd reported about this same detached feeling, this same comforting warmth that
replaced all sensation in his skin except that TinTghley.
said they'd viewed their bodies from certain
vantage points in the room, watched the medics resuscitate them, remembered whole conversations that took place even when they showed no heartbeat on the moTnhiteoyr. described watching the vital signs monitor with the same detached feeling that Ben had when he slumped to the deck.
His view, however, was distinctly from someone else's body, someone else'sTmhisindw. as a wot's mind, down under, looking upward toward the sun from the middle depths of a kelpHilsagroaonng.e of

vision was limited to straight aheaItd.was slightly blurry and a light halo surrounded the rim
Wabaoyve.
up there, backlit by the glowing suns, he saw Rico's busy shTahdeowla.goon was full of Swimmers, those legendary gilled humans, undulating in and out of channels above her.
This was Crista as a chTildh.is was Ben as Crista as a child.
He sensed that Rico was very worried and he wanted to tell him, "It's OK, I'm here," but nothing would come out.
One Swimmer in particular attended her, an older femBeanle.had never seen a SwimmHere. 'd
imagined them as grotesque, slimy creatures with wide mouths and stupid eyes, and rudimentary, ratlike tails. The female who attended Crista now was about his ownHearger.ed fan of gill fluttered furiously at
her shoulders as she fed the girl slices of rawCrfistha.
dangled from the kelp, and the Swimmer female
came up to her from the deeSphs.e did not, or would not, speak.
From somewhere behind the halo, very far above Ben's upturned face, Rico's voice echoed, "I'm going to settle you here and keep you warm."
Ben felt the lagoon receding, and Rico's voice with it.
"Crista is still breathing," Rico sa"iId.don't know whether you can hear me or not, Ben, but we'll get
you out of hereY. ou'll be OKT. he goddamned girl is OKW. e're almost topsideW.
e'll get you
someplace." Rico's voice was tinged with hysteria, and he sounded close to"Wteaer'lsl. get you someplace, buddy, you just hang onA." squeeze at his shoulder, then Rico was gone.
Ben found he could leave the womblike kelp, and if he imagined walking a corridor toward himself he became more aware of the galley, the foil around Hheimf.elt he could walk a gossamer bridge between Crista's mind and his own.
A sudden dazzle of light in the galley and a change in the pitch of the foil told Ben that they had surface
Ben wondered whether he would die this way, fully conscious, feeling that last exhalation and unable to
suck in airH.
e remembered the time that he and Rico almost drowned, when Guemes Island was
sabotaged and sunkH.
e had nearly panicked then, but he felt no such panic now, simply a numb
obedience to his fate.

He found himself wondering about things that should terrifywhoiumld:
the neurotoxin, whatever it was,
paralyze his breathing musclesH? is heart muscle?He wished that Rico had propped him up a little to make it easier, though already the tingling had stopped.
The slapshot works, he thought.
He wanted to cross that gossamer bridge to Crista again, but he felt himself moving farther away from the bridge and back into the foil, The deck under him was uncomfortable, and he found that he could
squirm a little to change positioHne.
was definitely improvingH. e'd been dimly aware of a voice coming
in over the intercom, it was Rico's voice, and it came in again, sounding worried.
"Speak to me, buddAy.nything."
Ben tried his throat agaIint .was dry, and didn't want to work quite right, but he managed to squeeze out: "Rico . . . OK."
He heard Crista breathing, but she still hadn't stirred.
I wonder what happens to her?
"Squall's coming in," Rico announced, "things might get rough again pretty soon."
Ben wanted to laugh, tried to come back at Rico with, "RWouhgath?do you call this?" but it all came out a garble.

The new ruler must inevitably distress those over whom he establishes hSiso riut leh.appens that he
makes enemies of all those whom he has injured in occupying the new principality, and yet he cannot keep the friendship of those who have set him up.
-- Machiavelli, The Prince
Flattery spurned the safety of his quarters for a brazen tour in the sunshineNteovpisiadned.
Zentz were
on their mission and out of his way, the ragtag rebellion was failing under his security force, and he knew that whoever had Crista Galli had a big handful of troHueblsem. iled widely to himself and turned his
face to the skyH. e loved the sky, the weather -- how different from the controlled susurrations of Moonbase air!It was nearly time for the afternoon rLaik.e the few other survivors of hybernation who had been reared in the sterility of Moonbase, Flattery had a feeling for weather.
He chose a parapet that looked downcoast, across the Preserve and into the wretched village that
spilled from his gateA.
boil of black smoke fanned inland with the upcoming Fwlainttde.ry wore his
brightest red lounging jacket so that the vermin could see he was very much alive, still very much the
Director. So close to the borders of battle -- now they would see the mettle they tested!
The presence of two suns unnerved him, even after these manyInyfeoarmrs.ation from his kelp studies, from his geologists, proved that they were ripping the planet's crust like so much flaTtbhreeawd.orst
was yet to come, and he didn't intend to wait around for it.
Ventana, one of his messengers, approached the walkway below him.
"Reports on the kelpway disruption, sir."

She waved a messenger.
He signaled one of the guards, who inspected the device and then brought iFt latottehryimp.ulled his
white hat farther down to shade his foreheTahde.
wide-brimmed style was Islander, for political effIetct.
was a white hat because Flattery believed that white placed him on the side of truth and justice at a glance. He did not retrieve the reports immediateHlye. knew what was insidneo: thing. And by this time
the afternoon cloud cover obscured an Orbiter view of the number eight sector.
His passion for weather did not include the suns' ravages of his uncooperatiTvewoskpinin. k blotches peeled on his forehead and Flattery tried not to scratch Hthiesmp.ersonal physician had removed two such spots only a month ago, and now this.
The people have to see me, he thouTghhetr.e is no substitute for the proper exposure.
His three most trusted bodyguards accompanied him at a distance, their Pandoran instincts keeping them ever on the moveH. is vantage point was a bluff overlooking the compound, the village and tTheo bay.
his back were the only higher points for many klicks -- the high reaches, home of the worthless Zavatans. A lot of these Zavatans, like the peasantry, believed in Ship and the eventual return of this Ship as some sort of mechanical messiahT.he thought made him laugh, and his guards looked at him curiously.
"Stand down, gentlemen," he told the"mA.s you can see, there's nothing down there that can reach us."
"Begging the Director's pardon," one of the guards, Aumock, spok"Iet'supm. y job to never stand down."
Flattery nodded his approvaTl.his one bears watching.
"Very good," he sai"dI. appreciate your dedication."
Aumock, a Merman from good stock, didn't swell with the
Hpreaiswe.as already back to scanning the

area for movement.
"Nothing up here but Zavatans," Flattery said.
"Are you sure they're nothing, sir?" Aumock replied.
This was the first time his guard had offered a comment in his ten-month tour of service at Flattery's side. Flattery merely grunted a response.
He had his suspicions about these Zavatans -- always the same number of them appearing about, but seldom the same facesF.lattery was no fooHl. e was, after all, a Chaplain/Psychiatrist and had done impeccable study in the history of oppressed religioHnes.was uncomfortable with a nearby population
that was potentially hostile, whose numbers seemed impossible to determine, and whose general fitness appeared far better than that of most of his security.
They actually run up these cliffs, he muWsehdy.?
It was here, on the bare overlook above the Preserve, that he reviewed the latest messages regarding the Holovision foil and the curious rebellion of the largest stand of kelp in the region.
"So, Marta, do you really believe that they've turned back?" he asked.
His communications officer, a little plump for her regulation blue jumpsuit, managed a quick chew at her lip before respondingF. lattery had bedded her once and recalled that her touch was far more satisfying than her looksS. he'd been a slender young thing then -- four, maybe five yeaSrsheaghoa. d started as a
bodyguard, but showed a facility with electronics that impressed his engiWneheresn.
she requested a
transfer, he had granted
Iit was just as well, the move headed off the rumors and the inevitable
discomfort of extracting himself from a sticky personal situation.
"I . . . I don't know," she "sTahide. device that I placed personally on their foil is working perfectly, and its course is consistent with a return to this --"

"Bah!" Flattery blurted".They're not stupidI.
insisted that you place the device on or inside her person
and you took it upon yourself to place it elsewAherCe.urrent Control outpost has already confirmed the device to be aboard a crippled sub train dragging a few thousand kilos of dead fish."
Flattery enjoyed the stunned look that flattened her Sfahcee.looked small and pale now.
"I was afraid," she sa"idI. was afraid to touch her."
Marta hung her head as though expecting a bTlahdee.merciless suns here on the bluff widened the
circles of sweat forming under her armpIitts.was that heavy, sticky time on the coast just before the rain squalls hit.He didn't have to sniff to smell the rain.
Flattery remembered that time with hIet r.had been afternoon and their skin poured swTeinaty.
black
hairs from his chest had stuck to her small white brSehaestsh. adn't been so afraid of him then, just a little bit in awe, which made things easier.
Dammit! he muttered to himseBlfi.tten by the fiction again.
He drew himself up to his full height, nearly two heads taller than Marta.
"Didn't I assure you that it was safe?"
This he delivered in his most consoling voice.
She nodded, but still did not lift her head.
Flattery was very pleased with himsIeflf.this woman who knew him so well was afraid of Crista, of what her touch might do, then these strangers must be terTrihfiaendk. s to his foresight in the beginning
and her daily "medications," Crista should be withdrawing violently by now, exhibiting the very symptoms attributed to her touchP.erhaps by now she'd be catatonic -- something else he'd engineered to see that

she was brought back to him.
The neurotoxin would be oozing from her every pore by now, and the fiction he had laid down so carefully for so long would become trEuve.eryone, particularly the enemy, would see it with their own eyes. Only he, the Director, could save hTehr.ose Shadows would soon find themselves in the presence of a monster that they could not afford to keep.
The wonders of chemistry, he thought, and smiled.
Aloud, he reassured Marta.
"I understand your fear," he sa"iTdh. e important thing is that we were not fooled by their amateurish
attempt at deceptionW.
hat do you have to report on damage here?"
Both of them flinched at the simultaneous crackle of two lasguns, and Flattery turned to see that his guards had cooked a pair of hooded dashers closing from the direction of the high reaches.
"I wonder . . ."
He didn't finish the rest aloWudh. at he wondered was whether or not the Zavatans were training dashers.
"I want studies on dasher sightings coordinated with known Zavatan positions," he said.
Marta nodded and unholstered the electronic link at herTshiedem. ovement drew a subtle shift in Aumock's position.Marta didn't notice that his lasgun muzzle had focused on her head before the link cleared daylight.She clicked out her coded entry in her usual unhurried manner.
Flattery knew something of the Zavatans and their history, but not nearly as much asThhee'yd like. were patient, organized, and they scavenged everythiInfg.rumor was correct, they grew illicit crops in the upcoast regions and distributed them among refugFeelast.tery resented this because it seriously

weakened his bargaining position with the massHese. did not have the manpower to police thousands of square kilometers of rugged countryside and complete Project Voidship at the samePrtoijmecet.
Voidship was infinitely more important.
He saluted approval as one of the men went over the wall to fetch the dasher skins.
That much less for the Zavatans, he thought.
He made a mental note to see what the lab would have to say about where the dashers had been, with whom, what they were eating, when and why.
"And your report on the fighting?" he asked.
"Compound perimeter is secure," she said.
Marta pressed the spot behind her right ear that activated the receive mode of her messenger implant.
"I'm getting a lot of interference here, don't know the Mcaiunsime.al damage to the compound -- the expected rubble but mostly cosmetic, as usuRaol.cks and sticks are no match for lasguPnriss.oners are being held in the courtyardS."he paused as more information fed into her messenger.
"Reports on the power station, the ferry terminal and the grid situation," he ordered.
Marta fed something into her messenger, then her expression chaTnhgedf.acade of the impartial
reporter wrinkled into concern at her brow, and she leaned forward as information vibrated her mastoid bone, washed through the fluids and hairs of her inner ear to her brain.
"There is a massive force congregating at the power station," sh"eThsaeids.quad of security that attacked our detachment at the site has dug in and persTishtedr.efugee camp is less than a kilometer
away. People from the camp are backing up the rebel squad, just out of lasgun range of our defense."

"Operation H," Flattery barke"dI.f they keep coming, have air support shift to the camp."
Marta paled furtherS.he lowered her voice so that the guards wouldn't hear.
"Operation H, sir . . . they'd see it from theIfcaymoup. jelly the attackers, witnesses will know it wasn't a hylighter."
"Use an LTA," he sa"idW. e have a few balloons in the hangar that look like hyliGghettertsh.em into the
air. We'll worry about witnesses lateIr.want that squad burned, I want anyone backing them up burned. Is that understood?"
Marta nodded, and her fingers flickered the orders across her instrument.
"The ferries?"
"Operational, sirT. he current shift reported on timCea.sualties high, but replacements are already on-site receiving trainingT. he OMC launch lit off and docked at Orbiter station, no uCpudrarteen. t
Control terminated their signal to the kelp in sector eight, there is no grid but no aggressive activity."
"Terminated?"
Flattery regretted the lie to MacIntoHshe. was sure that the kelp would yield, given the full electrical prod long enoughH. e had never thought that MacIntosh would terminate the signal.
Idiot!What could he be thinking, giving the kelp its kelpways open?
Dheoaeds.n't he know how much we need those
He inhaled one long, slow breath, half in the left nostril, half in tHhe
rleigthitt.
out just as slowly.

"Is it working?" he asked.
"A few merchant vessels lost," she s"aMido. st have surfaced, making repairTs.hey will not fare well in the storm."
"Order Dr. MacIntosh to reestablish the kelpways, or I will do it my way frHome hhaesreo.ne hour."
"Yes, sir."
Flattery's mood blackenedT. wo small explosions and a flash came from the center of KaHlaleoch. signaled one of his guards.
"Have security get what they can from the leaders of this Iradbobnle't. expect muchT. hen have the rest of them staked in the openH."e surveyed the cliffside behind him that led to the high re"aHchavees. them staked up there," he said, "so that everyone below can study the results of their decisionItin detail. shouldn't take long."
It was what Marta had told him about the kelp that interested him tHhee'dmofasbt.ricated such an
intricate web of deception about Crista Galli that Flattery himself had difficulty remembering which was his masterful illusion and which realiHtyi.s earliest warnings to keep her from any contact with the kelp was based more on hunch than data, but it was clear to him now that his hunch had been good.
The kelp could actually smell her!
"I ordered Current Control to opt for a surgical solution," Mart"aThsaeiyd.have one hour to achieve the grid by any other meanI s.explained that there were too many subs at stake."
"Will it be necessary to dissect the entire stand?"

"No," she said".Like the mob, it should convert easily with minimal damage to the affecteTdhaatrea.
corridor will not have the flexibility it once had, but it will be navigable as soon as the debris is swept."
"When it's over, have samples sent to the lab," he"Csoamidp. lete analysis.Find out why it could resist
Current Control, then render it down for the toxin stockpile."
"The Zavatans . .sh."e began, "it would be good politics to . . ."
"To give them what's left of the keHlpe?"snorted in disgus"t.Let them dredge their owIn.don't want to
be party to their heresAy.nd I want a lot of toxin on hand, I have a surprise yet for those 'vermin,' as
Nevi calls them."
Marta noted the orders into the messenger at her waist.
It was clear to Flattery that the kelp must have sensed Crista Galli's pHreoswenceels. e to explain this rebellion? It had occurred along the plotted route of Ozette's foil after Marta's device was jettisoned.
The kelp must have sensed her when the bug hit the water, he Htheousgmhitl.ed again, partly out of a distant relief at not being aboard the Flying Fish at the time, but largely at the predicament that now embroiled Ozette and his Shadows.
"Overflights?" he asked.
"Bad weather already in," she repli"eLdo. w probability of contact, high probability of lToswso. Grasshoppers available in the area, but they are frail and of limitedDroangyeo.u have orders for them?"
"Observation patterns as weather permits," he s"aIidw. ant to see who they turn to when they're in big trouble. Nevi will be on the scene soon enough."
Flattery detected a definite shudder across Marta's shoulders at the mention of Nevi's name.

That's why I use him, he thouMghetr.e mention of his name gets results.
He dismissed Marta and surveyed the landscape, his landscape, that fell away before him. Metallic-looking wihi glinted sunlight back at hTimh.eir short, daggerlike leaves deployed toward the bursts of ultraviolet pulsing from AlFklia. ttery admired this dangerous little plant for its tenacity and for the protection it afforded his compounIdts. seeds lay dormant undersea for two centuries, waiting to
flourish when the oceans rolled back agaItinf.lourished now, and made going difficult for predators near the compound --human or otherwise.
A rob of tiny swiftgrazers darted among the wihi to his left, near the cliff's rise to the high reaches. Though reputed to eat anything softer than rock, the grazers preferred to avoid hTuhmeyanhs.ad
survived, like many Earthside rodents, by hiding aboard the organic islands throughout theTfhloeods. poor often chanced netting them for food -- a dangerousHtea'sdk.watched an old Islander swarmed to
death on this very spot only two years Taghoe. man had netted only half the
Trohbe.
other half waited in
the rocks for his return, then set upon his legs until hIte wfealsl. over in a matter of blinks, and Flattery considered it an educationH. e ordered the whole rob burned out at the nests, of course, and their charred bodies delivered to the villagersS.trictly political.
The Director knew that anything that protected itself to that extreme could be made to protect him, too. His greenskeeper had a way with animals as well as plants, and now several rob of swiftgrazers nested in vulnerable approach points to the compounTdh.is was one such rob, stationed near the trail to the high reaches. He watched them often, particularly in the evening when their slender, rusty backs caught the sunlight and rippled among the silver wihi.
"Look there!" his guard warned, and Flattery saw the skulking back of a dasher approachThtehe rob. guard set his lasgun for the distance about the limit of his effective range, and Frlaaitsterdy itm. otioned
him to wait.
The dasher closed the final twenty meters in three blurring bounds, slapping at the little animals and stunning them.There were too many, and the dasher was skinny from huItngtreire.d to gulp a few of
them down but the pause was all the rob needed to reTgrhoeupd.asher seemed to melt off its odd bones. Flattery smiled again, as the afternoon clouds gathered offshore.
"Beautiful, aren't they?h"e asked no one".Just beautiful."

We're more than our ideas.
-- Prudence Lon Weygand, M.D., number five, original crew, Voidship Earthling
Twisp the Zavatan elder watched the Director watch the swiftgrazers strip an ailing hooded dasher to bone. The sight reminded him of the old days when he was a simple fishermaTnhaet lsaesat. effects of
blue spore-dust heightened this memory of schools of scrat that devoured maki a thousand times their size in blinksT. wisp had a healthy respect for scrat, and for swiftgrazers.
Furry little bandits, he thougOhtn. e thing about them always made him smTihlee.ir fragile little penises detached during mating, leaving a small fleshy plug in the female that her body aIbtsokrebpetd.sperm in, and subsequent suitors out, guaranteeing the genetic survival of the first to Tmhoeunmt.ale grew another within weeks, but not soon enough to breed twice in one cycle.
Something of a game developed among many Pandoran men at the expense of the swiTfthgerazers.
trick was to trap a swiftgrazer and snatch its pTehneisy.
were considered a delicacy, and it was said that
the Director enjoyed them steamed atop his salIatdsw. asn't easy to isolate a single swiftgraMzear.ny a drunk pulled back stumps where there had been fingers.
The little animals looked like a band of robbers, with their masks across their twitchy noses and their nervous way of having at least half of the rob onHaelehrta.d never known them to attack humans unless

molested, but when they attacked it was with a fury, a complete abandon that chilHleed dhiidm.not care to find out the limits of their patience.
Twisp admired swiftgrazers for the way they stuck togeTthere.
was no such thing as a hungry swiftie.
If one swiftie was hungry, the whole rob was huTnghrey.Shadows claimed that the people of Pandora would be like swiftgrazers when the time came.
"The time is now," Twisp whispered, watching Flattery.
His whisper was swallowed in the wJinudst. enough spore-dust twinkled in his veins to lend a background music to the gusts of the incoming storm.
The wind whistled back, "Yesss," here in the high reaches, as it always diOdnlayt
isnesai.de, behind
the plaz and dogged hatches, did he ever hear it moan, "NTohoeo.f"irst time had been nearly thirty years ago, in the company of a woman he couldn't fTorhgeetw. ind had been right then, and Twisp's broad shoulders sagged a little when he realized it was right now.
The rob of swifties finished their Mkilol.st of them stood upright on their slender bodies, sniffing the wind and yawningT. he pink of their long tongues flickered visibly as they licked their rusty snouts.
Twisp trained his monks with scrat and swiftgrazers in Tmhiends.equestered Zavatans, like the Shadows of every settlement, were honed and ready, prepared to fight, prepared to go Shtiulln,ghrye. desperately wanted to find another way.
He asked the wind, "How can I save the people and Flattery, too?"
A crisp lull stilled the afternoon.
Twisp had long ago noted that the Director cultivated certain rob and eliminatedCaortehfeurls.
observation bore fruit -- Twisp knew all of the swiftgrazers' secret warrens and the myriad entrances topside. It was this kind of patience and attention to detail that he knew they all would need to turn aside the cruel momentum of Flattery and his machine.

Beyond the scene of this little death in front of him the greater deaths of charred villagers fanned out from
the smoking ruins of the PreservAes.
the afternoon winds once again gathered their storm, so did hunger
unite Pandora against its most vicious enemTyw.isp watched clumps of the inevitable refugees stagger the trail to the rumor of safety among the Zavatans in the high reaches.
New recruits for us, for the Shadows.
His smile was a grim oPnaen. dorans had never been a warlike
Tloht.ere had always been too few
humans, too many demonsE.ven hungry as they were, Pandorans were reluctant to pick up arms against their fellows.Flattery paid his security force, and paid them well, to fight other hTumheandsi.sease that
Twisp thought he had nipped years ago had burst into an epidemic under Flattery.
"I, too, believed in him at first," Twisp "sWaiads.
that wrong?"
He knew what the wind would say before he heHared hita.d been lazy, he had hoped someone else
would take care of
Lit.ike everyone else, he had only wanted to live his simple life quietly.
Twisp's own patience was worn threadbare as his Froobre.nearly twenty-five years he had hoped that Pandora would shrug off the Director's mantle of hunger andHfoepaer., he knew, had even less substance than dreamsI.t implied waiting, and too many hungry Pandorans didn't have the luxury of waiting. It was a death sentence, and time was the prosecution.
When Flattery had seized power, he insinuated himself first into control of Merman Mercantile and then
acquired control of all food distributioHne.
bought into transportation and communications worldwide.
This had been accomplished by the deaths of, several of Twisp's friends, people who had owned
Merman Mercantile and Current Control.
Too many accidents, too many coincidences.
He fought a familiar lump at his thTrohaety.
all had been young, naive, and none of them stood a chance
against the cunning of the DirectNoro. w, as always, only Flattery could afford to wait.

How ironic, Twisp thought, that those who can afford to wait don't left for him to hope for?
"Elder!"
Ihawveontdoe.r if there's anything
Twisp cringed inwardly at the panting voice of the young Mose behinHde hfiemlt. impatience enough bursting in his breast without being nettled by Mose.
"What is it?"
The younger monk would not approach the precipitous edge of rock outcrop that Twisp occupied, this he knew.He admitted to himself that it was a little game he played with Mose.
"Why do you stand out there?" the younger asked, his voice tinged with a whine.
"Why do you stand back there?"
Still, Twisp did not turn, though he knew he would do so.
"Your presence is requested in chambeItrsi.s urgentT. here are many preparations afoot that I do not understand."
Twisp did not answer. "Elder, can you hear me?" Still no answer.

"Elder, please do not make me come out there aYgoauin.know that it shakes my wattles in a fearsome way."
Twisp chuckled to himself and turned to join Mose at the cavern eTnthraencaeft.ernoon rains had begun, anyway, pattering like swiftgrazers in the scHrueb.knew already what Operations must have decided. That it was time to stop hopiTngh.at Flattery and his kind must Tgoh.at the people were rising
up unorganized and undefendedT.hat the Zavatans and the Shadows held the only means and position to guarantee his fallT. hat once again thousands would die in the greater name of life and, of course, liberty. When there was nothing else to boil down, it always boiled down to hunger.
"Come with me to Operations," Twisp said, "and I'll show you something to pink youYr owuatwtliells. then be witness to something fearsome, indeed."
Twisp bowed once at the cavern entrance, in respect, and entered, the billow of his orange robe a beacon against the darkened afternoon.
The dim vestibule inside was guarded by two young novices with shaved heads andTlhaesgbuonys.
looked to be about fifteen and his shaved head revealed a high crest of bone atop his skull, which made him taller than Twisp, though their eyes met at the same hBeoigthht.he and the girl wore the black,
armored jumpsuits of the Dasher ClaBno. th were suitably alert, their quick brown eyes negating their relaxed posture.Together they swung the plasteel hatch outward on its gimbals and admitted the two monks to the cavern within the high reaches.
It was not dashers and flatwings that these doors walled out, but the Director and his Vashon Security
Force. Through the years Twisp himself had become a master of secIunrciutyrs. ions by VSF had been few and unsuccessfulT. hey viewed the Zavatans as harmless, spineless weaklings who were
kelp-drugged or insane.
"Illusion is our strongest weapon," Twisp had lectured the young no"vAipcepse.ar to be foolish, mad,
poor and ugly -- who would want to take you Nthoetne?how the mold wins the fruit by its appearance alone."
The first chamber was the one that was inspected periodically by Vashon SecurityRoFuogrhc-eh.ewn
out of rock, it housed three hundred Zavatans of the nine clans spread out along the walls, with common meeting and dining areasT.here were mazes of cubbies in three levels, hung with hundreds of tapestries

that helped muffle the din of three hundred voices echoing inside the cavern.
Lighting was the usual hot-glow type driven by four hydrogen generators housed in the rock beneath them. The appearance was of primitive squalor, and security inspectors sent here by the Director seldom stayed for more than a cursory loTokh.is was where Mose liveTd.wisp, too, had a cubby here -- third
level, to the right of the main entrance -- but he seldom slepFt otrhemreo.re than a year Twisp had lived in the private chambers of the group known to the Shadows as "Operations."
Twisp ascended to the second level with Mose inHteowst.epped behind an old Islander tapestry into an alcove that would not be noticed except perhaps by children aHt eplapyp. roached an undamaged section of basalt bulkhead carved with elaborate histories of human and kelp interaTchtieonsse.ction
that he faced, titled "The Lazarus Effect," was simply a huge bas-relief figure of a human hand, index finger extended, touching a strand of kelp that rose from the sea.
Twisp pulled the finger out from the bulkhead and, with the snick of a dagger leaving its sheath, a section of rock sprang outwardW. hen Operations met for Zavatan business, they met inside this labyrinth of
rock. Its many repairs betrayed the instability of Pandora's geology, and its routes were constantly changing. Few knew the passageways, and none as well as the Islander Twisp, Chief of Operations.
Mose swallowed hard and paled conspicuousTlyh.ere were tales of thousands of villagers and common folk who sought safety among the Zavatans, never to be seen Magoasien.himself had seen hundreds
come into the great cavern behind them who had never comOe poeurat.tions referred to them as "Messengers from the Poor," and hinted that they were relocated worldTwhiodueg. h Mose had heard this rumor, he had never seen evidence to back Mit ouspe. seldom admitted that he'd been born and lived out his meager years within five kilometers of where he now stood.
They never come back out this hatch!
Twisp smiled at the younger monk's obvious fear.
Why do I like teasing him? he wondeIrerde.member Brett took it so well . . .
He shook his heaDd.welling on his dead partner was nonproductiCvele.aning up the nest of assassins who'd killed him would do everybody some good.

"Come," Twisp said".You will be safe with mIte.is time the Zavatan muscle flexed itself."
With a smile, Twisp stepped into the well-lighted passageMwoayse. 's eyes couldn't have widened further. When he hesitated, Twisp placed a large hand on his shoulder.
Mose, too, stepped inside and the panel snicked shut behind them.
"I want you to remember everything you see here today."
Mose swallowed hard again and nodded.
"Yes . . . Elder."
Mose did not look thrilleHdi.s already pale face was drawn tight, the surgical scars along his hairline and neck glowed an angry pinHk.e alternately pulled at his robe and wrung his hands.
The raw silence of this stone passageway contrasted heavily with the steady din of the cavern they left behind them.The passageway was lighted by a cold source, neither bright nor dim, and it carried the pale green hues of Merman desigAn.s in many Merman complexes, the walls met at right angles in a precision that annoyed many IslandersT.hese walls were carved by a plasteel welder, and except for fault damage they ran perfectly straight, perfectly smooth.
An electronic voice from overhead startled Mose:
"Security code for companion?"
"One-three," Twisp said.

"Continue."
They set out down the passageway and Mose asked, "Where are we?"
"You will see."
"What do they mean, 'security code'?"
"We have checks within checks," Twisp explain"Heda.d you been an enemy holding me hostage, this passage would have been sealed off with both of usPeinrhaitp. s I would be rescued, perhaps nYoot.u,
at least, would have been killed."
Twisp felt Mose walk closer to him yet.
"Operations is far beneath us, even below the ocean floor."
"Mermen did this?" Mose asked.
The passageway turned left abruptly and ended at a blankTwiaslpl. pressed his palm to a depression
on the wall and a panel slid back to reveal a tiny room, barely large enough for a half dozen people.
"Humans did this," Twisp answere"dIs.landers and Mermen alike."
The panel slid shut behind theTmw.isp spoke the single word "Operations," and the room began to descend with the two of them inside.
"Oh, Elder . . ."

Mose held on to Twisp's long arm.
"Don't be afraid," Twisp sa"idT.here is no magic herYe.ou will see many wonders, all human wonders. Our brothers and sisters will know of them, preseDntildyn. 't I say this would pink your wattles?"
At this, Mose laughed, but he continued to clutch Twisp's arm throughout their rapid descent.
I am afraid, too, like all my fellow-men, of the future too heavy with mystery and too wholly new, towards which time is driving me.
-- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe, the Zavatan Collection
Doob muscled the controls of his track as it lurched across the rocky no man's land between the periphery road and the settlemenTt.he track's ride was a kidney-buster, but it wasn't confined to the few flat roads like Stella's little CushetItne. spite of the beating, the track didn't seem to break down as often,
either. This was the third trip to the salvage yard for Doob and Gray this month -- all three to fix Stella's five-year-old Cushette.

"You should get a top on this thing," Gray hollered.
Both men were soaked in the sudden afternoon rain, their short hair plastered like thick wet paint onto their heads.
"I like it," Doob hollered ba"cMk.y mom always said it's good for the complexion."
"That's what they say about sex."
That was the first glimmer of humor that Doob had seen from GrayGarlalydahya.d come by a
half-hour ago after getting off work in the settlemHeent.was grim-lipped and humorless, which was not
at all like the relaxed Gray who lived next
Gdoroayr. worked some security job for the Director's
personal staff, so when he didn't feel like talking Doob knew better than to ask questions.
Doob was full of questions today, thouTghhe.re was a skyful of smoke over the settlement that worried him in spite of the news.
"A good rain'll clear the air," Doob here besides more rock."
"saIti'ds. good for the brain, toIow.
ish it would grow something out
"Those Zavatans," Gray said, "they could do it."
"Do what?"
"Get something to grow heTreh.ey have huge farms all over the upcoast regiJounsst. like the Islanders, but they've moved the islands inland."
Doob looked at Gray incredulousHlye.
had heard rumors, of course, everybody had.

"You're not kidding, are yoTu?hey grow food up there and the Director lets them get away with it?"
"That's rightH.
e can't keep control up there and down here, too."
"But everything up there's just cliff face and rock . . ."
"That's what you hear," Gray sa"iWd.here do you hear it?"
"Well, on the newIs.don't know anyone who's actually traveled overland up there."
"I have."
Doob glanced over at his best frieSnodm. ething had happened to him today, something that changed his whole disposition.Gray was a lot of fuHne. 'd come home, drink some boo with Doob, tinker with the vehicles. Sometimes, when Doob could afford it, they'd take their wives to the settlement for an evening of wine and buzzboardG. ray was definitely no fun today, but Gray had been upcoast and Doob was
very curious.
"You have?" Doob aske"dW.
ell . . . what was it like?"
He knew the danger of this questHioen. suspected that whatever it was that Gray had to tell him about the upcoast region was something that wouldn't be healthy to know.
"It was beautiful," Gray said.
He spoke up, but his voice was still hard to hear over the noise of the track's exhaust.
"They have gardens, hundreds of theAm.rock ranch like this one would grow corn in one season up

there. And every little garden is bordered by flowers, all colors . . ."
It was the wistful expression on Gray's face that worried Doooobb. had seen that expression often since Gray got back from wherever it was that the Director's people had seGnrtayhimdi.dn't volunteer
information, and Doob knew better than to life span, he was sure of that.
Tashke.
less he knew about that kind of stuff, the longer his
Besides, he listened to dangerous politics from his roommate, SLtieklela.Doob, she was twenty-two,
but she hung around with artists and tried to act Sohldeerh. ad converted most of their living space to a multilevel hydroponics garden, and she grew mushrooms under their roGomrasy. knew this, of course,
but he pretended not tSo.tella came from a long line of Islander gardenHeerrs. family owned patents to seeds mutated specifically to Pandora, and about three centuries of know-how in hydroDpoonoibcs. thought she could probably make the walls sprout if he let her.
Stella talked nonstop, but this didn't bother DIotomb.eant that he didn't have to say much, and that was the way Doob liked things.
Gray signaled him to shut down the engTihne. track backfired once and stopped atop a rock ledge that afforded them a sweeping view all around.
"I want to believe I can trust you," Gray"Tsahiedr.e are some things I need to talk about."
Doob swallowed, then nodded.
"Sure, GrayI.'m a little scared, you know."
Gray smiled, but it was a grim smile.
"You should be," he saHide.
pointed to the refugee sprawl ahe"aTdh. ere are starving people out there
who would kill you for one meal out of Stella's gaFrldaettne.ry's people would kill you for growing illegal food. I might kill you if you told anybody what I'm about to tell you."

Doob sucked in his breaFthr.om Gray's steady gaze, Doob knew he wasn't kiddHineg.also knew that he needed to hear whatever Gray needed to say.
"Even Stella?"
Gray's eyes softenedD. oob knew how much he liked SteHllae. treated her like the daughter that Gray and Billie never had.
"We'll see," Gray sai"dH. ear me out."
Gray spoke in a near-whisper, and his gaze darted around them nervDoouosbly.hunched close to Gray and pretended to be working on the track's control pHaneelh.ad the distinct feeling they were being watched.
"I've been gone a month, you knew that," Gray
"sTaihde. y sent me upcoast, to spy on some Zavatans
up there.They set me up with a story, a lapel camera, a way in aOnvderofluigt.hts showed some signs of illegal fishing and food production, Flattery wanted deWtaihlsa.t I saw there changed my life."
He lifted off the lid to the control panel and proppedBoithupG.ray and Billie had been raised down under in Merman settlements.
He's methodical, like a Merman, Doob thouGghrat.y's ice-blue eyes kept watch for movement around
the track.Out in the open, this close to the perimeter, there were risks of other dangers than humans. Gray continued to talk in his slow, quiet way.
"They're Islanders without islands," he sa"iTdh. ere are thousands of them up there -- Flattery has no idea there are that manTy.hey have camouflage for overflightTs.he ratty little gardens that we see from
the air are meant to be seUenn.der the camouflage, and underground . . . that's a whole different story. They make bubbly out of the nutrient vats the same way they uEsxecdeptot .now, instead of growing
islands out of it, they spray it in a foam across rock like this and grow plants on it aThweeyek later. make it out of garbage and sewage, just like the old days.

"On flat land, or the second time around, the bubbly is formed into a centimeter-thick sheet of organic gel, twelve meters acrossS.eeds are impregnated in rows into the gel, then they spread it across bare
rock or sand, or last year's gardIetn.holds nutrients, water and defense from predators, all in a time-release bonding.Wouldn't Stella love to see this?"
"Sounds like her idea of heaven," Doob
"sSaihde.
misses the island life, even though ours was grounded
when we were fiveI. miss it, too, I gueNsso. t the drifting so much as the freedWome. worried about grounding, but we weren't afraid of each othTehr.i"s last Doob offered with some reservatiTono. admit that you were afraid of security was to imply that you had reason to bFeeaarfrawida.s grounds for investigation.
"Yes," Gray sighed, "we are afraid of each other, arenE'tvwene?you and IU. p there," he nodded upcoast, "they're wary, but they're not afraid."
"What did you do about your repDoritd? you . . . ?"
"Did I expose their happinesDs?id I betray the only sign of humanity I've witnessed in almost twenty years? No. No, I lied, and I made sure my camera Bliuetd.I'm not as brave as you
think.I know what Flattery suspected -- that there were settlements, illegalBfuotodI . also know what
Flattery wanted.He wanted it to be rag-tag, not worth going after, because he doesn't have the force to stop it!Look around you, Doob.G" ray swept his arm, taking in the horizon on all "sTidheis. takes
every bit of manpower he's got, and he's losinTgheirt.e were riots in the settlement today, big riots, and
there will be moreT.he news is not news, it's fiction outlined by Flattery and written by his personal fools. His lies keep us small, and as long as we're small he keeps control.
"No, he didn't want there to be anything big upcoast, so when I showed him a few raggedy-assed dirtpokers, it made him happSy.o, maybe he'll stay herHe.is major forces are here and in Victoria, with a lot of sea patrols on the fishing fTleheet. world is a lot bigger than that, DIot'osb.a lot bigger, and
getting bigger every dayI. think you and Stella should go up there."
"What?"
Doob banged his head coming out of the control p"Aanre .you crazy?She's going to have a .I . . mean, we can't think about anything like that right Wnoew'v.e got to stay put."

"Doob, I know she's going to have a bSateblyla.
told Billie and Billie told me this mornSihneg. can't
hide it much longer, anywaYy.ou'll have to make new food coupon applications, people may visit your place, you can't risk that."
Doob sighed, then spit out the driver's porthole.
"Shit," he muttered.
"Listen," Gray said".There's a way out of thHiso. w's the Cushette over water?"
"Well, it's OK when it's runniNngo. match for a foil, though, or one of those security pursuit boats."
Gray looked back at the bed of the tIrtacwka. s a dumpable storage bin two meters wide by four
meters long.Doob made his coupons hauling equipment for construction crews up and down the beaches of Kalaloch.
"Can you get three hundred klicks out of this thing over rough terrain?"
Doob shook his hea"dN. o way.Two hundred, topsW. probably drive around the world."
ith a converter, and access to seawater, I could
"Yeah," Gray said, pulling at his c"hBinu.t there's no seawater inland, and converters won't work in
streams or lakesI.
have an old high-pressure tank at my place, that would get you the whole way."
"What are you talking aboutD?"oob ran a nervous hand through his kinky brown "hYaoiru.
think we
can just drive this track upcoast as bold as you plTehaseey?'ll crisp our butts before we hit the high reaches."

"That's why you don't go that way," Gray "sIaihda.ve a map, and I have a pIflanI . can get you, Stella and this track upcoast to my Zavatan contacts, would you go?"
Doob looked up in time to see a security detachment leave the perimeter and start toward the track across the rocksT. hey were still a couple hundred meters off, but they didn't look happy.
"Shit," Doob said.
He replaced the control panel cover and started the enHgeinbe.egan to pivot his machine on its left track to go back home.
"No," Gray shouted".We set out to get a starter for that Cushette, and that's what wGei'vlle dthoe. m a wave."
Gray waved at the security squad, and so did DTohoebs. quad leader waved back, and the men turned back to the perimeter road where it was easier going.
"See?" Gray hollered".It's like that everywhereL.earn what's easiest for them, and you can geWt bey'll. talk more about the upcoast trip on the way bI'avcek.got it all figured, don't worry."
He flashed Doob a smile, a big one, and Doob caught himself smiling back.
Gardens, he thoughSt.tella will love that for sure.

Not by refraining from action does one attain freedom from attain supreme perfection.
Nacotitonb.y mere renunciation does one
-- from Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queets Twisp, elder
Twisp always thought that "chambers" was well-namTehde.re were, indeed, many chambers beneath
the rock -- one for each of the council and several for support staff, as well as general meeting rooms and sleeping quartersT. he complex was crude by Merman standards, primitive by the Director's
standards. Repair crews worked throughout the area cleaning up the last of the damage of last year's great quake, already going down in oral history as "the great quake of '82."
Across the passageway from the elevator a hatch opened into Twisp's personal chamber, hewn out of
glassy black rockH.
e swung the hatch open and motioned the gaping Mose inside.
"Sit here."
Twisp indicated a low couch to the left of the hatcThhweayc.ouch was organic, like the chairdIotg. was a distinctly Islander cubbTy.he entire room measured barely four paces square.
Shelves filled up most of the black-rock walls, and on these shelves stood hundreds oTfhebyooks.
were the old kelp-pulps, a well-scarred libraTryw.isp had been a fisherman without holo or viewscreens. Bleached kelp pulp and hand presses in every little community turned out literature and news that was affordable and could be passed around.
Twisp dogged the hatch, then smiled.

"Borrow any books you like," he s"aTidh.ey don't do anybody any good on the shelf."
Mose hung his head.
"I . . . I never told you," he stammOenre .nail-bitten hand wrung the other.
"I can't read."
"I know," Twisp sai"dY. ou cover it well, it took me a long time to figure it."
"And you didn't say nothing . . . ?"
"Only you could know when the time is Trihgehrte.
is always someone willing to teach, but that's no
good until the pupil is ready to leRarena.ding is easyW.
riting, now that's a whole different story."
"I've never been very good at learning things."
"Cheer up," Twisp sai"dY. ou learned to talk, didn't yoRu?eading's not so differenWt. e'll have coffee every day for a month, and you'll be reading well by the end of theHomwonatbho. ut if we start with coffee now and a lesson later today?"
Mose nodded, and his look brightenTedo.pside, among the Zavatans, he did not often get coffee since the Director had taken over productioBnu. t he'd wedded himself to Zavatan poverty, which was a step up from his family povertAy.mong the Zavatans he'd found that nothing was to be expected, everything enjoyed. Twisp bent to the preparations, his long arms akimbo in front of the table.
A fold-out table and stone washbasin jutted from the wall across the room, beside the inset stove and cooler. Mose reclined into the old couch and let it suit his Hfoermfos.und it indescribably nicer than his
pallet topside.One shelf beside the couch held several holo cuMbeoss.t of the pictures on them were of

a young, red-haired man and a small, dark-skinned girl.
"The meeting begins soon, Mose," Twisp sTaihde. older man sighed without turning, and his gangly arms sagged a biHt. e spooned out some of the odorful coffee into a small cooker.
"We will all share a soup there, in the old custom, or I would offer you someMthiyngcuhbebrey. is
your cubby.That hatchway leads to the heaTdh.is hatch," with a nod he indicated their entry, "leads to the general council chambersP.repare yourself for a confusion of people doing strange things."
"That's the way things have been all my life."
Twisp laughed, "Well, you'll get along down here justDfoiney.ou remember the oath you took when you came among the Zavatans?"
"Yes, ElderO.
f course I remember."
"Repeat it, please."
Mose cleared his throat and sat a little straighter, though Twisp still had his back to him.
"'I forswear henceforth all robbing and stealing of food and crops, the plunder and destruction of homes belonging to the peopleI. promise householders that they may roam at will and abide, unmolested,
wherever dwelling; I swear this with uplifted hanNdosr.
will I bring plunder or destruction, not even to
avenge life and limbI. profess good thoughts, good words, good deeds.'"
"Very well recited," Twisp said, and handed Mose his hot c"oYfofeue.are here because the council needs your opinionT. he council has a weighty decision before it toIdtahya. s not faced a decision this
big before.It may involve asking the Zavatans, all of us, to break that oath, the part about avenging life and limb.We will need your witness to this meeting, and your opinion will help decide whether or not to break it."

Twisp sipped his own coffee, still standing over Mose, and noted the tremble in the younger monk's nail-bitten hands.
"Do you have an opinion on that, Mose?"
"Yes, Elder, I do."
There had been no hesitation in Mose's voice, and the tremble in his hands stilled.
"Swearing to an oath . . . well, that's foIr slwifoe.re to uphold that oath for that's what I should do."
Mose accented his speech with a curt nod, but still did not look up.
Tlifhea.t's what I did, and
So fearful, Twisp thoughTt.his world is more habitable than it has ever been, but the people are more fearful, even of those closest to them.
A knock at the chamberside hatch startled them Tbowtihs.p opened it to a young, red-haired woman carrying a clipboardS. he was shapely, enhancing the green fatigues characteristic of the KelpTChelan. name above her left breast pocket read, "SnHeje.r" blue eyes were rimmed in red, and swollen.
She's been crying!
"Five minutes to council, sir," she said, and sniffed as delicately as sh"eTchoeuseld.are our latest briefing notes."Her gaze kept his own, but her voice lowe"rPerdo.ject Goddess may be lost, sNiro. word or sign of them for hours."
Her lips trembled under tight control, and fresh tears welled over reddeneHderinmost.ed a general air of depression among the support crew.

"LaPush was transmitting hourly bursts from his camera . . ."
"There's a wide-band communications problem, too," she
"saKidel.p channels are clear, but
conventional broadcasts seem to be jammeSdo.metimes clear, sometimes noMt. aybe it's sun-spots, but it doesn't act like sunspotTs.oo selective."
She reached up a sleeve for her handkerchief and blew her nose.
"You're upset," Twisp sai"dC. an I help?"
"Yes, sirY.
ou can get Rico back for mI ek.now Crista Galli is important . . . most impoBrtuatntI. . . ."
"You're console monitor today?"
She nodded, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve.
"Concentrate on communications to or from Flattery's compound and shuttle everything to council chambers. We'll get them back . . . Rico and Ozette don't panic under fire."
This last seemed to rally the young womShaen. blew her nose, straightened her shoulders.
"Thanks," she said".I'm sorry . .I'd.
better get backT. hanks."
Mose followed Twisp out the hatchway and they strolled the huge, domed information center bustling with people.Mose recognized some of the villager refugees he'd seen pass through the cavern above.
They all wore either the green fatigues of the redhead, Snej, or the dark brown singlesuits he recognized as belonging to the newer Landsteward Clan.

Twisp's step took on a spring more youthful than his gray braid as he traversed the deck of this room of makeshift desks, view-screens, stacks of papers, cables across the dTehciks . was his work of
twenty-five years:Operations, the heart and being of the mysterious Shadows worldwide.
"Flattery thinks we're in Victoria," Twisp had told the council at the beginning, "and I want the rest of the world to think so, toTo.he Shadows will be an illusion, a fiction that we make as Twhee geon.tire world
is at stake, perhaps every human lWifee.
must have appropriate patience."
He hoped that they still had appropriate patience.
Twisp cleared some storage units from an old chairdog and indicated to Mose that he sAholualrdgesit. plaz shield separated them from the ominous quiet of a roomful ofThteechrse.dhead, Snej, nodded to Twisp and tried a smile.
Snej reminded Twisp a little of Ambassador Kareen Ale, a friend of his who had been one of the first victims of Flattery's death squad.
She saved a lot of lives, he thouAgnhdt. she was so damned pretty.
Twisp shook off the painful memory and settled himself into his console'sTchoeucohth. er council
members' couches were arranged, like his own, as spokes in a wheel, each with access to a console, viewscreen and a central holo stage.
Twisp discarded his threadbare robUen. derneath, he wore a rust-colored singlesuit of the Hylighter Clan. The clasped-hands insignia at his right breast represented the informal symbol of the Shadows. Like Twisp, each of the other three consuls was accompanied by a civilian wOintneescso.uch remained empty, its viewscreen blank.
The other three witnesses, like Mose, sat in wide-eyed awe at the maps and data spread out before them. Twisp cleared his throat and spoke the simple, awful words that some of the council had waited more than twenty years to hear:
"Brothers and sisters, it is time."

After the ancient blessing of the food they shared the ritual bowl of soup iInt swilaesncae. classic
Islander broth, nearly clear with a couple of bright orange muree curled at the bottom of Cthheipsbowl. of green onion floated the top, their crisp scent wafting the chambers.
The one vacant couch belonged to Dwarf MacIntosh, survivor of the very hybernation tanks that bore the Director, Raja FlatteryM. acIntosh had rejected Flattery's greed for the more familiar zenlike
philosophies of the ZavatansH. e shaved his head, he said, "In grief at the loss of Flattery's soul, and as a reminder to keep my own."
Years ago, MacIntosh and Flattery had disagreed openly, heatedly, on many occRasuimonosr. said that
Flattery had removed Current Control to the Orbiter so that he could remove MacIntosh to the Orbiter. Mack had recently perfected a console-communication system that used the kelp itself as aAcllarorfier.
the systems in chambers were tied into the kAellopn. g with a code, also devised by MacIntosh, each console was capable of direct, immediate contact with Current Control.
I hope we can keep these lines open, Twisp thoTuhgahtt.could be jamming on the conventional channels, or just sun activitIyf. it's sun, it probably won't take out the kelp channel as well.
He reserved a mental note to remind Snej to check the kelp channel for RiWcoi'sthfillumck. been picked up and stored there.
it could've
After taking food together, Twisp received their affirmations calmly, as they presented them calmly, though what they pronounced could degenerate into a roll call of death worlEdvweirdye.face in the
room reflected the heaviness of the matTtehr.ey all agreed that it was timIte.was just as important that they all agreed on what exactly it was time for.
Venus Brass, the eldest at seventy-five years, had seen her husband and children assassinated at the
Director's orders, herself missing death by a fluAkes.low-moving, big-hearted, quickwitted Islander woman, Venus, with her husband, had built a food distribution emItpwirea.s taken over by Flattery and wedded to Merman MercantileT.hey transported fish and produce from small suppliers like Twisp to public markets for a percentage of the caFtclaht.tery did the only distribution now, where and when he chose and at a membership fee too high for a solo operation to afford.
Kaleb Norton-Wang, rightful heir to Merman Mercantile, was the youngest consul at twentSyo-tnhree.

of Scudi Wang, herself heiress to Merman Mercantile, and Brett Norton, Twisp's fishing partner, Kaleb had seen his parents killed when their boat mysteriously exploded one night at doTchkastidwe.as before anyone had learned to suspect Flattery's hand in such things.
Kaleb had slipped landside that night to play with some of the other cHheildwreans. ten years old, and supper conversation for months had been about Flattery, and his takeover maneuvers with Merman Mercantile.
Twisp, wakened from his coracle nearby, had found the boy screaming on the pier watching his family's boat burn.Twisp and Kaleb fled together to the barely habitable high reaLcihke .his deceased father,
Kaleb could see in the darHki.s mother's inner acuity and her personal allegiance to the kelp gave Kaleb a formidable intelligenceH. e, like his mother, could communicate directly with the kelp by Htoeuch.
found it too painful to meet his parents' memories in the kelp, so he seldom explored the kelp-ways of the mind.
He's too bitter, Twisp thougBhti.tter pulls you down, gets you to make mistakes that you can't afford.
He hadn't seen much of Kaleb latTelhye.
boy's district was Victoria, Flattery's only solid stronghold
upcoast. Twisp feared that Kaleb had met the challenge of that command so that he could wreak a personal vengeance on Flattery and his peopHlee. hoped that he had taught Kaleb well enough that the boy wouldn't respond to Flattery the way Flattery had responded to his parents.
The upcoast inland regions were represented by Mona Flatwing, a red-faced, middle-aged woman who was speaking now.
"We are in a comfortable position," she said.
Her deep brown eyes glittered and her husky voice spoke with a heavy Islander lilt.
"Each of our households has foodstuffs for six moWntehs.have surplus stores enough to handle a major refugee influx through next harvesCt.onsul from the coast tells me that we are in a similar position with our seafoods."

Venus Brass nodded affirmation.
"Frankly," Mona continued, "our people do not want to come down here Ttohefyighlet.ft here to get away from that, they've made good lives upcoast, they want to be lefTt haeloynew. ill accept anyone of good faith who seeks refuge, as alwaTyhs.e usual preparations have been made for defense, but I must emphasize this pointT: hese people do not want to kill anyone."
Again, a nod from Venus BraHsse.r shaky, high-pitched voice contrasted with Mona's.
"It is the same with our people," she "sTahide.y use the freedom of the sea to get away from 'the
troubles,' as they call themT.hey're a brave and hardy lAotm.
ong them they amass quite a fleet and
assault force.But like Kaleb's people, they live among Flattery's people when landside, they trade with them, families are intermarriedT.hey do not want to kill anyone, particularly famYiolyu.'ve seen how
Flattery has shuffled his troops to accommodate that attitude --"
Bam!
Kaleb's fist on his notestand startled everyone.
Twisp clenched a fist in reflex, then unclenched it slowly on his knee.
"This is Flattery's dream council," Kaleb sHaiids. voice carried the sharp bitterness that Twisp often heard in it lately".We are talking here of doing nothing to curb this madness, this wholesale Wmuarsder. I the only one who witnessed what happened out there today?"
"Talking about what we will not do is preface to talking about --"
"Is preface to nothing, as usual," Kaleb interrup"Itet'ds . historically true that humans are hungry only because humans allow iWt. e must simply not allow it, not for another day, not for another hour."
Venus withdrew as though she'd been slapped, then folded her arms across her thin chest.

"Did your people start this business today?" she asked.
Kaleb smiled, and the exuberance of it accented his youthful appearance.
He's a one who's gone beyond his years, Twisp thoFuagrhet.nough that he knows when to use that smile.
"That is Flattery's doing," Kaleb sa"iId.have another plan, one more consistent with our idMeayls. people committed, and my contacts tell me that many of yours will, too."
"And then what?M" ona hissed, and sat forwar"dD. oing something will get their attentioFnla. ttery will send security . . ."
It was an old argument, but Kaleb heard iAt touotn. e point he looked across the table at TwThisep. eagerness that gleamed in his young eyes reminded Twisp of Kaleb's father when he was that age -- smart, daring, impetuousB. rett Norton had killed once, out of reflex, but that killing had saved Twisp and Kaleb's mother.
Mona finished recounting her people's position.
"They'll take in refugees, but they won't leave the livelihoods they've built from Enloutdhiinngg. detection is much preferable to facing conflict."
"I understand," Kaleb sai"dT. hat's the swiftgrazer's wayS.omething else is true of swifties -- if a swiftie is hungry the whole rob's hungWry.e've coordinated with and we have a plan rolling that will feed the rob."
Twisp repressed a smile.

I guess he listened to my swiftgrazer pitch, after all.
Twisp knew that, among the council, there was no such thing aTsheraynkw. ould vote to participate or not, and to go the ways their decisions dictated.
"We each have plans," Twisp said, "now they will become a singPleropjelacnt . Goddess is four hours overdue their upcoast checkpoinTt.hat will merit some consideration as well, this session."
There was a murmur about the taTbhlee.
four witnesses looked pale and frightened when they came in,
and the agitation of the council made them appear smaller, as well.
Twisp's hand went up to still the chatter.
"We have other fish in the pPalena. se bear with me."
Twisp noted a message coming across Dwarf MacIntosh's console, and nodded at Snej to retrieve it. He went on.
"Flattery has dominated with hunger and fHeaisr. obvious motivesg: et himself offplanet, in command of a Voidship.We don't argue with getting rid of him, is that right?"
There were nods around the table, but Mona spoke up:
"He's going to take three thousand of our best people with him and leave that damned security force . . ."
"They want to go," Twisp emphasiz"eTdh. ey should be free to settle the void, if that's their paWsseion. will be rid of him, that is our only conBceurtn.we will have to break down the machinery of his power
before he leavesH.
e must be brought down first, and we must be assured that he can't possibly return.
We must deal with criminals without becoming criminals ourseIlfvews.e do not, then we and our children are lost."

Snej read what MacIntosh had to say from the Orbiter.
"Twisp, Project Goddess has been . . . intercepted."
"Intercepted?Well, now, that's a step up from 'lost,' at
Wleahset.re are they?Who did it?"
"It's the kelp," Snej sa"idD.r. MacIntosh speculates that the kelp got a whiff of Crista Galli and decided
to take herH.
e's being jammed on the burst system, but his kelp channel still works."
"Did he dump enough data to brief us?" Twisp aHskeedm.assaged away a headache gathering in his forehead. Today, more than others, he was feeling the weight of his second half-cSenetujryh.anded
him a messenger and he clipped it into his console.
"The kelp in sector eight diverted their foil into its stand," Mack's voice r"eIpt ocrotemdp. letely shifted several transport channels to do so and an unknown number of subs were disabled, possiTbhlyerelost. have been casualties, number unknowCn.urrent Control attempted mandatory 'persuasion,' on Flattery's standing orders.No effect . . ."
Murmurings rose around the tabTlew. isp, too, was amazed.
The kelp resisted, he thougThth.ere's the sign we need.
"Do we have anyone in that area?" Kaleb a"sAkendy. doing?"
Mona flurried her fingers across her console.
Kelp Clan people who know what they're
"Yes," she said".We have an Oracle landside of their position, plenty of personnel."

"If shipping's disrupted there, our people are probably in trouble, too," Venu"Is'llsatirdy. to raise a sub, but my guess is that the whole area's impassable --"
Twisp interrupted.
"What we need now is total interference with anything FlatteryWdhoeerse.ver his men go, whatever move he makes, we need people in the way, we need deadHenmdsu.st be frustrated at every turn. Does his interference in Current Control indicate that he's penetrated us?"
"It's possible," Snej said, her mouth a grim line, "but I doubt it."
"Ask Dr. MacIntosh to shut down Current Control," Twisp"Tsahiedr.e will be reprisals there, as you
know. But we know more about moving around in the kelp than anyone, and most of it's onAsour side. of now, traffic worldwide will be at a standYstoilul. all know the dangers, of course."
Twisp, who had fished the open seas for most of his life, knew better than any of them the fates they ha just decreed for thousands on and under the ocCeaonu.ntless innocent people were now marooned in
unnavigable waters, some among hostile keTlph.e die had been cast, and by Flattery himself.
"Our success or failure depends completely on the cooperation of the people of Pandora,""Whee said. need to starve him ouFti.ght hunger with hunger, fear with fear . . ."
Kaleb stopped him with a raise of his hand, then apologized with the acceptable nod.
"We don't fight hunger with hunger," Kaleb young father's.
Hsaiisd.voice was soft, his tone as reprimanding as a new
"We're human beings," he sai"dW.
e fight hunger with food."

There was a deferential silence, then Mona's witness said, A"Ayye,e.we're with you."
"Kaleb, you show me how we can dump Flattery and feed the hungry and we're in, too," Venus said.
"It's so simple it'll make you cry," Kaleb "sBaridie.fing now appearing on your screenAss.
you can see,
we'll need the cooperation that Twisp was talking abWouet.have to get Ozette and Galli on the air immediately. Can we count on Shadowbox?"
"You're right," Mona agreed, tapping her scre"Tenim. ing is the key, herTe.he people cannot help if they don't know howT. hey will believe Ben Ozette, they will worship Crista GThaellyi. must be given a plan now."
"My people are infiltrating now," Kaleb sHaiids. voice was calm, confident, his father's strong chin set
straight ahead."They will be about five thousand, well-mixed throughout the Wpoorrd. among the poor."
"Anything else from MacIntosh?" Twisp asked.
of mouth is best
Snej nodded, biting her l"ipY.es," she said". He says Beatriz Tatoosh is aboard, and the drinking water has made her sick."
Snej looked up from the messenger, puzzlement wrinkling her brow.
Twisp felt his heart double-time in his chest.
"Well," he announced, "that's our personal code for big trouble inFloatrtbeirty. security force with BeatrizH. e must suspect something's up with MaDcka.mn!"
Twisp sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
probably sent up a

"Too bad she's not with us," he
"saI idw. ish MacIntosh had some support up there right now."
"Let's see what kind of support we have down here right now," Kal"eLbets'saidm. obilize our upcoast people and rescue that foil."
Kaleb rose, obviously ready to leave for Victoria immediately.
We need him here.
"Kaleb," he said, "let's take a wYaloku. 're nearly three hours awaGy.ood people live upcoast, they're already searching.For old time's sake, let's go down to the OrMacalye.be someone should ask the kelp what the hell it's up to."
Roots and wingsB. ut let the wings grow roots and the roots fly.
-- Juan Ramon Jimenez

Stella Bliss unpacked three crates of moss orchids and arranged them in threes along the short walkway to the foyer of the Wittle mansiTonh.is job had come up only the night before, and Stella's moss orchids happened to be readyS.he was a sculptress of flowers, and appreciated an audience for her art.
Stella wore her new lavender puff-sleeve blouse and a crisp pair of matching woTrkhepabnlotsu. se
favored her breasts, tender with her recent pregnancy, but she supposed this would be the last time she'd be able to get into these pants for a while.
Stella skirted the security guards and servants who found excuses to watTche hleimr.elight made her nervous, though her stature had thrust her into the limelight often since she wasTaweclhvieldh. ands tall, Stella turned heads wherever she went, even when she went in overalls.
Stella dressed like the flowers she raiDseodo. b told his parents that, at home, bees followed every step she took but they never stunHge. r shaggy dark hair framed a tanned face with high cheekbones and blue-green eyes.Her lips were full, often pursed with concentratSiohne. smiled a lot lately, and had
taken to humming old tunes to the new human sleeping inside her.
Growing plants and engineering them for food had been Stella's family's tradition for nine generations. Since the food shortages, production and research efforts went to Sftoeollda. had never given up on
flowers or the bees that made them possible.
She carried the tenth generation within her, a child that she knew by her dreams would grow to be a woman like herselfS. he knew this as her mother had known it, as all their mothers had known it for several centuries.It was a long tradition, difficult in these difficult tTimhes.e moss orchids were of
Stella's own design and she was proud that today they would be seen by other artists, by musicians, those sculptors of air, by Pandoran gentry.
Stella had heard that His Honor Alek Dexter was colorblind, so she selected a blend that pleased herself. Most of the blossoms were in the lavender range, though she couldn't resist showing off a half-dozen of her delicate pinks.
A small-boned security guard with a big-boned swagger poked into each of her cartons with his lasgun and silently checked the moss beds with his kSntiefell.a had been scanned twice and body-searched by
a matron when she entered the groundTs.his was not the first time, and she supposed it wouldn't be the last. Stella had some strong opinions, but preferred to concentrate on her flAowceorsr.don of security

closed off the entire block, and another contingent guarded the buiTldhiinsg.was the home of the chief executive officer of Merman Mercantile, someone considered by the Director to be a prime target for the Shadows. He was rumored to be one of three men in line for the Director's position should an unforeseen unpleasantness occur.
A sweeping structure of molded stone and plasteel, this home showed no effects from the recent series of quakes that had devastated much of KalaloItcsh.border was secured by a two-meter-high wall of
rock topped with shards of sharp metal and broken gItlawssa. s hard for her to believe that The Line for this sector passed only a block awNayo. one who was setting up this reception seemed at all concerned about the sounds of screams and heavy vehicles less than a stone's throw behind them.
The grim-faced security sported a flesh flower behind his ear, one of the new sculpted skin designs that she found repulsiveH. is underarms blossomed huge sweat rings, something more than she would
attribute to the muggy afternoon.
"What would you find in that dirt," she asked him when he finished, "deadly attack worms?"
The guard scowled, his glance flicking nervously from Stella to the smoky pall that collected under the gray cap of afternoon nimbus.
"I'm losing my sense of humor," he grow"Dleodn. 't push it."
"Are you afraid that the mob will come in here and --"
"I'm not afraid of anything," he blurted, puffing his boyish chest against baggy "fMatiygujeosb. protect Mr. Dexter, and that's what I'm doing."
is to
She began the tender task of removing the plants from their containers and setting them in their beds beside the walkT. his was the part she liked -- handling the silky vines and blind roots, smelling the loam as she broke it opeAn.t the end of the day, when she cleaned her short nails, she did it over one of her pots so that nothing was lost.
"You must like flowers, you went through a lot of pain and trouble to get the one behind your ear."

"I was drunk," he sa"idIf.
they could get them to smell good, it wouldn't be so bad."
"They'll come up with something, you'll Ssemee. ll these."
She held a lavender orchid up to
Hhiem.took it from her and put it to his nose, then allowed himself a
smile. It pleased her that the tension in his face relaxed a bit.
"Yeah," he said, "that would be nice."
"Well, this type of flower didn't have a scent until just a yAeanrdagito.didn't blossom from moss until
five years agoI.
taught it how."
"Flowers!"The security snorted in a show of disdain, but didn't turn "aYwoauy.can't eat flowersY. ou should grow something that people can eat."
"What?"She put her hand to her mouth in mock surp"Trihsey shoot you for growing food without a license. You don't need a license to grow flowBeress.ides, your soul needs food, toFol.owers have a spiritual nutrition that you just can't measure."
He looked less skeptical, but kept his guarded posSthuere.bit back the temptation to talk about her
bees, because bees meant honey and fewer than a handful of people knew about her honey production.
Once her plants were bedded she misted them well and swept her clippings and stray dirt away from the walk. She felt a little nervouSsh. e was stuck in town without transportatiHone.r neighbor, Billie, had
given her a ride to the job first thing this moHrneinr gC. ushette, though practically new, had burned out
another something that meant it wouldn't stSarhte.
didn't like it in town, anywIatyw. allowed in tight
places and it always frustrated hTerh.ere was the tram into the central area with a transfer out but it was
probably shut down because of the moSbhse. without Doob to protect her.
didn't relish the idea of walking the ten klicks home

"Stella, my dear, are you finished out here?"
Mrs. Wittle, the hostess, beckoned her from the front hatchSwheayw. as a gray-haired, prim woman with an honest smile for everyone and a fair skin that could only be MermTanh-obuogrhn. soft-spoken
and delicate, Mrs. Wittle had singlehandedly saved a boatload of Pandora's finest art during that first series of quakes in '7S3.he had been a volunteer at the museum desk down under when the collapse came and commandeered an old delivery sIunbs.tead of saving herself, she loaded artwork into the sub
even as the seams of the museum dome split, sending streams of waterspray powerful enough to slice a human in half.
"Yes, Mrs. WittleD. o you like them?"
The elderly woman glanced down at the walk and her eyebrows raised ever so slightly.
"Lovely," she said, and sighe"dT.hey were right about you, my deBaur.t now I have a problem and perhaps you can help me."
"What is it?"
"Some of the help that we were counting on haven't shown up today . . . the troubles,Cyoouuldknow. you stay awhile longer and greet our guests at the Idohoarv?e the guest list here, and name tags are on
the table just inside the hatcOhf. Would you do that for me?"
course, you are welcome to stay as my guest and enjoy the reception.
Stella had strong feelings about rich people, and they were strong negative fAeelhinugnsd.red meters away the starving poor lined up for hours to buy limited rations with their hard-earSnerdvapnatys. of
the rich handed over cards stamped "Exception" at the high-security back door loading dock and filled their vans with an abundance of foSotde.lla had worked parties like this before to be able to take home leftovers. The pay meant nothing, she had always earned more than her ration card allowed her to buy.
She had never been able to figure out the red tape process for getting a ration card stamped "Exception."
But today her Cushette was not running and she had no safe way home.

"Yes," she said, "I can stBayu.t I'm not dressed . . . and I'll need a ride home."
Mrs. Wittle brightened and took her by the elbow.
"You don't know what a worry you've lifted, Odefarc.ourse we can arrange a ride for you, you just leave that to meN. ow, let's have a look at my daughter's wardrSohbee. had some wonderful things that should fit you nicelyT.here's an elegant black dress that will look splendid on you, though I'm sure that anything would look splendid on you."
Stella blushed at the compliment.
"Thank you," she sai"dS. he won't mind?"
Mrs. Wittle's face darkened for an unguarded moment, then she set her chin forward.
"No, my dear, I'm afraid not," she
Terrible."
"saSihde.
was killed in that terrible scene at the college last season.
"I'm . .I'm.
sorry to hear that."
"Well, she had her own mind," Mrs. Wittle said, "and she insisted on uTshineng, iitn." a whisper, she added, "I was so proud of hIe'llr. tell you the story someday, this is not the time."
The dress was slinky and blaTckh.e fit in the bust was uncomfortably tight, though it seemed that any pressure at all hurt her breasts lateTlyh.e neckline plunged a bit, too, showing her off as she hadn't been shown off before.
"I wish Doob could see me in this," she said, turning in front of a pair
"oHf em'dirlrovrse. it."

"Then you'll just have to keep it, my dear," Mrs. WittlTeeasarsid.welled in her eyes but nothing spilled.
"In fact, I wish you'd look through these clothes and take anything you just hang here, they're not paintings, after all."
Icta'sn nuoste.right that they
Stella protested but Mrs. Wittle prepared a carton full of her daughter's clothes, then escorted Stella to her position at the small table beside the entry way.
The guest of honor, Alek Dexter, arrived tugging his shirtsleeves flush with the jacket cuffs and cursing the muggy afternoonS. tella pinned his name tag to his left breast and smoothed the fabric out of habit. Instead of joining the rest of the guests, he lingered beside her and unabashedly appraised her cleavage. She caught his gaze and held it until he looked away.
"Been in meetings all day," he mumb"lAedf.ter this shindig that the distributors put together I have to
speak at a Progress Club dinner in two hours and then meet with the Director at a cocktail party at eight. No wonder I'm always out of breath and can't lose wYeioguht.look beautiful, my dear --" he squinted
at her name tag and moved closer to her chest, "-- SStteellllaa.Bliss."
They shook hands and she found his palm very sweaty.
I didn't think these bigshots sweat in public.
A sheen gathered at his forehead and upper lip and he dabbed at it with a handkerchief.
The Honorable Alek Dexter motioned to his driver, who lounged nearby in the cool breeze of the entry way.
"I'll need another shirt," he said, his voice low"ePreodw.der blue will do for tonight."
"Streets are blocked," his driver sa"iCdo. uldn't make it back in time to fetch you for dinner."
His voice sounded sullen to Stella and she suspected from the tightening of his jaw that if there was one

thing Alek Dexter did not allow in his presence it was sullenness.
"Then buy one," he snappe"dS.hops are open until curfew, and the market's only a few blocks away." He waved his hand in dismiss"aTl.ake it out of petty casChh. ange your attitude or change jobs."
The hatchway behind the driver framed a small street scene capped with a tumultuTowuso sgkuya. rds
faced the street with their backs to hAimt.hird tilted his head at the sound of three tones that came from the messenger on his beHlt.e picked it up, spoke into it, then hurried inHsiidse.face seemed to pale
more with each of the five steps that brought him to His HonorT'shesiirdec.onversation was brief and whispered, but Stella heard every word.
"Code Brutus standby warning, sDiro.
you want to secure here or at the compound?"
"Shit!" Alek Dexter said, and he turned his face away as though he'd beenHsela, plpikeed. Mr. Wittle, was a possible successor to the DirectHoer. rubbed his forehead while a trackful of security emptied itself out frontH. is face was as pale as his guarHde's. watched the security squad fan out from the track and take up positions outsidAe. half-dozen armed men covered with grime and streaming sweat shouldered by him and stationed themselves about the reception.
"These ours?" he asked his guard.
The guard shrugged, his lasgun gripped white-knuckle tight in his shaking "hDaonnd'ts. know, sir."
"Humph," he grunted".Guess it's hard to know what side they're on if we don't know what side we're on. Just a warning, you sayF?lattery's not . . ."
"Yes, sir, a warninFgl.attery issued it."
"We'll wait here," Dexter sa"idIf. this lovely young woman."
we're going to find ourselves stuck somewhere, I'd prefer it to be with

He bowed, took Stella's hand and kisseTdhietn.
he strolled inside to the hostess and her guests,
passing the long table set with an array of the most beautiful fruits and seafoods that Stella had ever seen. The centerpiece was a meter-high chunk of ice carved to represent a leaping porpoise.
The fighting sounded closer, and the security quietly closed the doubleShtealtlcah.was more than a little afraid.
Not once had Dexter glanced at her orchids.
To be conscious, you must surmount illusion.
-- Prudence Lon Weygand, M.D., number five, original crew member, Voidship Earthling
The series of explosions dropped by Flattery's Skyhawks from the surface wounded the green kelp in sector eight, killed tens of thousands of fishes and a pod of bottlenose porpoises and roiled up enough sediment to clog submersible filters for a fifty-click radAiuhs.uge stand of blue kelp neighboring sector
eight retracted all of its fronds instinctively and clamped itself as tight around its central lagoon as
possible. In this configuration, its leaves were packed so tight that it could barely out of the question.
Fbreeeadtihneg.
was

The blue kelp, when fully deployed, reached a diameter of nearly one hundred kilIotms eotuertes.r
fringes bordered domestic kelp projects for nearly 280 degrees of its circumference; the rest faced open ocean and some of it was growing daily at a visibleForratiet.s own safety, it kept out of contact with the domestic kelps.These were slaves to the humans, bound to the electric whip, this much the blue gathered from the dying shards that drifted its wTahye.re would be many such shards soKone.lp death always
followed these explosionsO. ther deaths followed, too, at times feeding the blue kelp into an incredible spurt of growth.
This day something else drifted in on the currSeonmtse. thing like an aura, a fragrance, something that kept the kelp from hugging itself too tight, too Sloonmge. thing stirred this blue kelp deep within itself, setting its genetic memories tinglinNg.othing would quite come to the foSroeo. n, the blue could no longer help itself and it opened its fronds wide in hopes of a good strong whiff.
Feed men, then ask of them virtue.
-- Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Turbulence from the blasts hadn't settled yet when the Flying Fish pitched, helpless, to the surface. Rico's eyes teared instantly in the sudden glare of afternoon sun that jammed the Hcoeckgproitp. ed for
his sunglasses and tried to blink away the aftergTloow.starboard, he saw a long gray line that must be
the coast.To port, two or three kilometers away, the surface seethed with a mean white froth as far as he could see.

A puddle of seawater widened into a pool beneath Elvira's command Hcoerucnho. sebleed was slowing
and she shook her head, trying to clear the concussion that had hit her with the first of the depth-charges.
Anybody but Elvira would've been scrat bait out there, Rico thought.
Somehow she'd made it back into the engine-room airlock by herself, though stunned and quivering from the blast.There were many other blasts, too many to count.
"That goddamn Flattery's answer to everything is to blow it up," he grumbled.
Kelp lights winked out all around them as the sea was glutted with shredded fronds and torn vines. "Sister Kelp," Elvira said, following his gaze across the tumultuous surface, "she retracts, saves herself." "Elvira, I don't want to hear that 'Sister Kelp' Icwraapn. t to get us out of here."
"Overflights!" she warned, and pointed to two specks at ten o'clock off the poHrtercahbainds automatically worked the dive sequence, but the engines remained still.
"Jammed," she said, her face impassive and da"zSeidlt. and . . . kelp in the niters."
"Don't sweat it, Elvira," Rico saHide. patted her arm".They're the ones who dropped the chargIefs.
they carried all that payload, they're short on Afutell.east we're not dealing with a bunch of mines out here."
Rico unharnessed himself and got Elvira a towel out of one of the lockers.

"Here," he said".Dry yourself off, change into a new dive Wsueit.might be here awhile and there's no sense you getting sick."
She took the towel, and it seemed to Rico that her senses were coming back.
"Flattery can track a one-seater coracle from port to port with the Orbiter, anyway,""Thheesseaid. guys can't set down out here, and with Crista Galli aboard they don't dare bloMw euanswuhpi.le, we've got to get her and Ben to some big medicine, and fast."
Two sonic booms rocked them further as the overflights dove in on them and puRlilceod coouut.ld make out the pilots' faces as the tiny aircraft flashed past.
"They're young, Elvira, did you see thWati?th their whole lives ahead of them they chain themselves to
Flattery." He fisted the arm of his couch and grumbled, "Why do they dTohethyats?hould be out cuddling some young thing in a hatchway somewhDeried.n't their mothers teach them any better?"
"Their mothers are hungry, Rico, and they're hungry now."
Rico glanced at Elvira with surprHise was accustomed to speaking to her but getting nothing but
grunts for replyS. he was already out of her restraints and fighting the toss of the foil, making her way to the aft lockers.
"You're not going out there again," he
"sTaihde.
seas are a mess, nothing can get through here."
"You will calm down," she said, and it sounded like anEolvridrear.peeled off her dive suit and toweled
off her finely toned musculature with the candor typical of Me"rCmaerne. the filters."
for the othersI. will clean out
As she slipped into a fresh suit, Rico realized he'd been aroused at the sight of Elvira's Epvaelne body. her thumb-sized nipples seemed muscular in the cHhiell.would never approach Elvira, both of them
knew that, but the surprise of his arousal reminded Rico of Snej, and how much he'd missed her.

Elvira's plan was the logical thing, he knHeew.ticked off a list of priorities.
Ben and Crista, he thougKhte. ep them breathingM. security.
onitor the radio, prepare for surprises by Vashon
Elvira swept past him to the hatch without so much as a Rgilcaoncfeo.ught the pitch and roll of the foil to the lockers and pulled out three more dive Hsueitsw. orked himself along by handholds in the
bulkhead back to the galleOy.n his way, he listened to the crackle of the radio and the report from the overflights.
"Skywatch leader to basCe.harges away.We have your fish, over."
"Roger, SkywatchW.
e mark your positionO. ur bird is launchedE.TA thirty minutesS. tatus report."
Thirty minutes! Rico thought.
Their bird must be a foil, and a fast one.
Not room for a lot of hardware or a lot of bodies -W- egomodig.ht have a few surprises for them.
The radio continued to chatter about the condition of the Flying Fish and speculation on the occupants, but they were quickly out of range.
Rico bent over Ben and saw that he was immobile, his chest was not rising and falling, but his color wasn't bad.He put his cheek to Ben's mouth and detected the slightest bCrheeacthk.ing the pulse at
Ben's neck, he noted that his partner's heart was beating, but only a few beats per minute, His eyes were open, but stillT. hey looked dry, so Rico opened and closed the lids a few times to lubricate them, then
left them closed.

He unhooked the restraints and struggled to get Ben into one of the dive suits.
"We're topside," he said, hoping Ben could h"eTahre. y threw some charges at the kelp, but I think it's just surface damageE. lvira's out there unclogging the intakFesla. ttery's people have a foil on our tail, they'll be here in no timWe.e may have to go over the rail."
He heard a groan from Crista Galli, and saw that she was trying to sit up against her restraints.
"Your girlfriend's coming around," he sa"iId'l.l get her into a suit, then get into the code book and let
Operations know what's going oEn.verybody else seems to know where we are."
He sealed Ben's suit and inflated the collar, just inWchaesne. Rico turned to Crista Galli, he saw that
she was cryingH.
er red-rimmed, swollen eyes stared at Ben's deathlike form on the galleyShdeeck.
seemed to be conscious and aware.
"Can you understand me?" Rico askIend.spite of her restraints, he remained well out of reach.
She nodded.
"Yes."
"Have you ever had this reaction before?"
"Yes."Her voice was slurred".Once. Before he gave me shotIs.pretended to take pills, spit them out later."
"What will happen next?"
She tried a shru"gM.
ore of the sameM. aybe seizures.It takes . . . a whilSeh."e added, in a slurred

whisper, "Nobody's ever made me feel like a human being except Ben." Rico noticed that the pupils of her eyes dilated and constricted wildly. Must be some potent drugs, he muDseadm. n that Flattery.
"We are in the open," he explained, "and helpYleosus. need to have a dive suit on in case we go into the water."
It flashed on him then what Flattery must've realized all along, what Operations warned in their instructions: "Do not let her into the waDteor. not let her contact the kelTph."is was speculation,
precaution. There would be no other choice if Vashon security showed up, there was no point worrying about it.
"I can help you with it if you can't do it yoI'umrseslof.rry to say this, but I'd rather not touch you,"
He held the suit out to her at arm's length.
"I can't get out of this harness," she said.
Rico tapped the quick-release mechanism and she was Hfreeer.ecoiled from her, partly as a reflex, partly because the foil pitched his way.
At this, she cringed away from him, her face even more pale and her jaw set.
"And what do you think I am?" she asked.
"I don't know," he sa"idD.o you?"

"I know that I don't think . . . I can't think that I doShtheisge.st.ur."ed limply at Be"nI.t can't be me!"
"It's the drugs," Rico said.
He tried to keep the anger out of his vSohiecen. eeded reassurance, not another enem"yR.emember, the drugs are Flattery's doing, not yours."
Her tears, the way she looked at Ben seemed like the genuine article.
But look at what happened to Ben, he cautioned himself.
"Get your suit on," Rico sa"iWd.e don't have much time."
Crista had to slip out of her dress to don the diRveicosuiktn. elt beside Ben, a hand on his forehead. He moved a little, and Rico took it for a goodHissigbnr.eathing was much stronger.
Crista did not seem modest at all, nor did she look like a monster.
Probably spent so much time as a lab animal she didn't have a chance to get shy.
Rico, like Ben, had been raised among Islanders, a generally sRhyicoloat.dmitted to himself that Crista had the best-looking legs he'd ever seAeng.ain, he thought of Snej back at Operations, and sigHheed. planned to send a message to her, too, along with whatever he'd think of to say to OHperatutironnesd. back to Crista Galli.
A little pale, he thought.

She seemed very weak, and struggled just to pull her suit on and fasten Htheer sberaelast.hing was
rapid and shallowH.
er forehead beaded sweat and she was still more pale than when Rico had first seen
her in the villageH. er eyes were doing their dilation trick and he noticed an uncontrollable tremor in her legs.
"Can you get back into your harness?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"No," she said, her voice weaker n"oIwt's.
starting . . ."
She was drifting out agaSinh.e lay down on her couch, eyes still open.
"Are you still with us?" he ask"Ceda.n you hear me?"
"Yes," she said".Yes."
Rico still didn't want to touch Whehr.atever it was, it had nearly killed Ben and he wasn't about to let
the same thing happen to himseHlfe.
reached around her carefully and snicked the harness into place,
then snugged it up with a jeHrke. pushed the head of the couch back so that she laByy ftlhate.n Crista was unconscious again.
Rico hurried into his own suit and noted that the seas had calmed soHmewchoautl.d hear the thump
and scrape of Elvira at the hull ports, and hoped that the kelp wouldn't set her hallucinating as it did some people. She seemed to have been all right before.
"It'd be just our luck," he muttered to him"Bseelsft. her gauges are grapefruits."
damned pilot in the whole damned world thinking
There was a very loud scrape, more of a long, slithering rasp across the top oTfhethne afnooilth. er.It
was the same serpentine sound that the kelp had made when it grabbedRitchoemju.mped for the cabin,

but it was too late.
The whole foil tipped on its side and he was thrown against the port bulkhead so hard it knocked the wind out of himH. e saw, through the swarm of black amoebas across his vision, that they were airborne.
He was jostled again, not so much this time, and as the bow of the foil tilted upward he saw them being pulled up into a mass of hylighter tentacles.
"Shit!"
He struggled to his knees and crawled the upended bulkhead to the command couch underHtehe plaz. could flip open a port and get a shot at it with his lasgun . . .
That was when he saw how big this hylighter reallyHewagsu.essed it at a hundred meters across, with its two lead tentacles, which gripped the foil, at nearly that lEevnegnth.the smallest tentacle was thicker than Rico.
They were already a hundred meters or so in the air, and rising.
That pitch back there, he thought, it must've dumped a helluva ballast to be able to pick us up.
It was then that he thought of Elvira, and scrambled for a view of the seSahsebweloasw.there, dive suit inflated, floating on her bacSkh.e must have seen him, but she didn't wave.
"Damn!"
He couldn't drop her a flare, he couldn't try the enEgiitnher. of these might touch off the hundreds of cubic meters of hydrogen in the monster hylighItertu. cked the Flying Fish upside-down against its great
orange belly.Rico had never been this close to a hylighter before, but he'd seen them
Aexplode.
hylighter considerably smaller than this one had flattened the first tiny settlement at KSailxalohcuhn. dred
people cooked alive in that firestorHme.
and Ben had covered that one, too.

The living were the worHste.
remembered that Ben wouldn't settle for the easy story, the inevitable films
of cooked flesh on living bone, shaking chills, vomit and screams.
"Just shoot their eyes," Ben had told "hLimea.ve the rest to me."
Ben asked them about their lives, not about the Tbhlaestd. ying and near-dying filled eighteen hours of
tape before the dashers hIit was Rico's footage of the team fighting for their own lives against a dozen hunts of dashers in a feeding frenzy that chilled the holo audience worldwide.
Rico saw that the coast was coming up fast and black weather pushed behinHde thoempe.d that the weight of the foil wouldn't pull the hylighter too low to clear the gray bluffHseahweoardk.ed his way back to the cabin along the ceiling and sat below the command coTuhcihs ecso. liseum of a hylighter had
a destination in mind, and that destination was lIafndit. didn't bash them to bits against this cliff face it would blow them up inland.
Rico reviewed their odds and didn't like what he came up with, though he was sure he'd rather clear the cliff than notH. e wondered whether Operations had a code provision for thisHoeneh.oped that
Operations could beat Flattery's people to ElvRiraic.o refused to mull over the consequences if they didn't.
Just off the cliff face the daily afternoon squall whippeTdheups.ky fisted down on them without warning, clouds churning in their typical black and lasgun gray.
No lightning, Rico prayed to himsWelfe.
don't need lightning.
They did need the cloud cover, this he kWneiwth. good cover more overflights and Flattery's spies in the Orbiter would be worthlesTs.he ride got bumpier as the squall moved inland with Rthiecmo .was
close enough to the face of the bluff to see the markings on the back of a flatwing when an updraft sank his belly.They almost cleared the top, he saw that clearly, but the stern of the foil caught the lip of the bluff, cartwheeling the bow of their craft deep into the leathery belly of the hylighter.
Unrestrained, Rico was flung like a toy about the cTahbeinf.oil tumbled down the cliff face as the hylighter deflated and collapsed on top ofWiht.en the foil came to rest Rico lay dazed across the plazglas windshield of the cabiAn.ll he could see under the shadow of the hylighter's canopy was an immense cloud of blue dusHt.e flexed his arms and legs, coughed to test hisBruibise. d, but nothing

broken.
"Great!" Rico told himsel"f'.Keep her away from the kelp,' they sHaiedr.e we are, smothering in the stuff."
He tried calming himself, but a few deep breaths did not still the shaking in Hhies had slid all the way to the beaHceh.didn't relish being perched halfway up a cliff.
hoanpdeds. the foil
The afternoon downpour washed over the canopy and theirRifcooil.thought of Elvira, caught in open water in the squall, and assessed her chanTcehse.y summed up close to zerSoh.e might now be one with her sister kelp.
"At least there's not much hydrogen left in that monster," he muttered.
He switched on the cabin lights and raAdioc.ouple of the lights worked, but the radio was Hgoene. took a deep breath of the kelp-laced air before heading aft to check on Ben and Crista.
If you think that vision is greater than action, why do you enjoin upon me the terrible action of war?

-- from Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queets Twisp, elder
Mack was awaiting a call-back from security when suddenly his instruments showed random explosive damage to the kelp in sector eight.
He didn't wait. Mack thougFhtl.attery wants whatever's in there in a bad way.
Mack was sure that the "something" included Crista GInasltlriu. mentation showed merging patterns between the wounded domestic kelp and the massive neighboring stand of wildMabcluke.and Alyssa
Marsh had done peripheral studies of that particular stand of blue, the largest wild kelp bed in the world.
It learned to hide from us, to convolute itself so it could grow inside a ring of domestic kelps and outmass them without detection.
Now that it had broken through, he suspected that it could wreak havoc with CurrentIfCiot nwtraosl. as big as the Gridmaster said it was, then the blue kelp could possibly be Current Control.
If this kelp's on our side, then Flattery's surrounded, he thBout hwt.hat if it's not on our side?
Beatriz was his big worry noSwhe.
always checked in from the docking bay, but this time he had heard
nothing. When she was incommunicado inside her studio he suspected troIutbwlea. sn't like her at all.
Just a blink after Spud left, a spinjet jockey reported seeing a body expelled from the shuttle airlock. Nobody was answering his calls in security or inside the studio.
"Dammit!"
Now the Gridmaster was getting a response from the kelp, an incredibly healthy and powerful response. This stand that the depth charges had stunned back into mere reflex reawakened immediately -- with a corresponding shift in frequency.

This is the new kelp, he thouIgth'st.absorbed the memories of our domestics and taken them over.
All of the hardware from the domestic kelp was intact, but instead of dozens of frequencies dancing the screens, there was now only one kelp frequency on the Gridmaster.
Mack's screen showed the grid reforming, except for an unresponsive area in the northwestern corner. He hoped that wasn't pruned back too far.
"Well," he muttered, "so far it seems to likeHeush."ad planned to use Current Control to turn the kelps against Flattery.He'd groomed as many sentient stands as he could muster for one last try, for the time that Flattery went too faMr. acIntosh saw war as a drug, an extremely addicting drug, and he didn't want Pandorans to start using it.
"I want that sector on visual," he told the sector m"oWniteors.hould be able to spot them."
All he got on visual was the gray-black whirl of afternoon squall that obliterated his view of the entire sector. Ozette, LaPush and Galli were under there somewhHeree. hoped against hope that the depth
charges didn't turn them all into soup.
Com-line's still down to the studio, he thouIfghSt.pud doesn't get in there, we'll have to get their attention somehow.
A feeling stranger than his weightlessness flipped through his stoHmeachsh. ook it off, as he had shaken off the chill that slipped into the air after her shuttle dHocekewd.ondered how many had come up on
that flight.The shuttle could carry thirty to forty, depending on equipmThenent.
there was OMC
life-support, and the techsE. veryone aboard would have to know what happened.
He didn't like thinking about the OMC, where it came from, what Flattery had dSohnee htoadit.been Alyssa, not "it," but he found "it" a lot easier to handle at the mLiofme-esunpt.port was Mack's responsibility, as it had been aboard the EarthlHineg.did not relish the notion of that job.
"Well," he muttered to himself, "before we get that far I might have a few surprises for Flattery."

A soft tone went off near the turret, alerting him that something was forming up on the kelp's private holo stage. MacIntosh had built the thing after consulting Beatriz on holograHpehyh.ad routed it through the
Gridmaster in hopes of getting images from the kInelpth. e two months that it had been experimental it had far exceeded his dreams.
The kelp had been frustrated for a long time, and it had a loStotofarsaiyt . was all images, flashing
lights and odd soundsT.he images were clear -- usually solid information about real things in real time. The sounds and lights seemed to be "talk," or inflection, or philosophMizaicnIgn.tosh had not yet been
able to interpret anything but the more obvious images.
He launched himself across the small office toward his new setup at the base of Hthee dtuidrrne't. care
much for the near-zero-gee environment this close to the axis, but it was the most practical location for an observation station.At first, he had liked the immediate access to the shuttle port.
To get the near-normal gravity rimside he would have to put up with the annoying two-minute spin of the
Orbiter that made visualization of anything nearly impossiHblies. body was lanky enough that it got in the way more often than noSt.ince he'd become acquainted with Beatriz Tatoosh, he had come to like the immediate access to the Holovision studio, too.
His experimental holo stage lit up with the image of a giant hylighter dragging its ballast across the wavetops. This projection was the best quality he'd ever sIetewn.as a perfect miniaturization and the collating data identified this as the source of the disruption within thAe kmelepta. llic glint off the ballast drew his attention closer to the tiny three-D scene in front of him.
"That's not ballast!"
The miniature holo played out the incident with the Flying Fish and the hHyleigwhtaetrc. hed from the
hylighter's view as they bore down on the
Tclhifefy.
came in fast, and when MacIntosh realized that they
wouldn't clear the top he caught himself pulling his feeTtheunp. the hylighter burst, and the screen went blank.
"There's an Oracle somewhere near there," he mutte"rMeda.ybe we can muster up a rescue team."

He handed himself back to his command console and paged Spud on the inTthearctowma.s when all hell broke loose from the klaxons.
The four-klaxon alarm meant a fully involved fire somewhere in the forward axis section, hiHs isection. greatest fear was for the shuttle docking station and its spare fuel stores.
With a four-klaxon alarm the fire could be in Current Control, the studio area or the shuttle docking bay. All areas sealed off automaticallWy. arning lights winked on in all axis quarters and the Orbiter intercom repeated calmly, "Vacuum suits mandatory in all sealed aIrneasc.ase of fire, vacuum will be installed.
Vacuum will be installedV. acuum suits mandatory in all sealed areas . . ."
MacIntosh typed out the "area clear, visual" code for Current Control on his Icfonthseolea.rea sensors detected no fire danger, then Current Control would not be sealeHdeosffn.apped open the hatchside
locker and followed the prescribed drHille.
sealed himself into his pressure suit and activated the
communication unit beside the faceplatHe.e sprung the hatch to the passageway in time to see a groundpounder security slap Spud across the face with a lasgunSpbudtt. spun against the studio hatch, and the security grabbed a closer handhold for the leverage to try again.
MacIntosh hollered, "Hold it!" but the man hit Spud midpassageway.
MacIntosh turned his set on "full."
"Hold it!" he yelle"dS. tand down, mister."
Sagpauidn. floated, unconscious, in
The security was obviously direct from groundside and lacked the skills for maneuvering in the axis area
of the OrbiterH.
e spun around at the voice and let go his handThhoeldm. omentum in near-zero-gee
sent him spinning up the passageway toward MacIntoTshhe. balance and Mack scooped it up as he sailed by.
Mack reached Spud as he started coming around.
man let go of his lasgun as he flailed for

"I heard them say they'd kill her," Spud said, through a mouthful o"fI bplouollded. didn't know what else to do."
"Good thinking, Spud," he sa"idG.et a suit on in case we break vacuum."
the alarm because I
The arriving volunteer fire squad crowded the passageway as Spud suited up, and close behind them the usual throng was formingI.n spite of their bulky suits the squad moved with a grace that MacIntosh
envied. He looked around for the owner of the lasgun, but the man had disapTpheearehda.tch to the studio remained sealed.
MacIntosh plugged his communicator directly into Spud's headset.
"Beatriz knows the drill," he sa"iSdh.e'll suit up." "Does she know the visual 'all clear' code?" MacIntosh nodded.
"She knows it, but I'll bet she knows better than to use it."
It took two things to prevent a sealed-off fire area from being committed to avnacauuutmom: atic sensor signal "all clear" to the Orbiter computer, and a coded visual "all clear" signal to the cSoinmcpeuthere.
sensors in the studio undoubtedly reported no sign of fire, the computer awaited the visual code indicating that a human had inspected the scene and declared it Mcleanr.while, the suspect area remained sealed
off, accessible only by fire personnel.
The intercom warned":Attention axis deck, yellow sectors eight through sixteVeanc.uum instillation in three minutes.Vacuum in three minutesF.ull pressure suit mandatory in these areas . . ."
The electronic device that the fire squad used to enter sealed hatches didn't work on the first try, or the second. MacIntosh plugged his set into the bulkhead receptacle and tried direct contact with the studio.

Spud plugged into MacIntosh.
"Anything?" he asked.
MacIntosh shook his hea"dS. tatic. They're just not . . ."
On the third try the hatch sprang aTsihde. fire squad rushed in and MacIntosh shouldered himself behind them, hiding the lasgun as best he coHueld.was glad he did.
Beatriz was the only one who had managed to don Sahesusitood to the side of the hatch and
grabbed MacIntosh as he raced througThh.e momentum spun him into the bulkhead beside her, but she had a good grip on a handhold so they both stayed put.
The others fumbled with the seals of their suits, surprised at the suddenness of the fire squOadn'es entry. of the newcomers made a clumsy dive for the back of the studio, but he was grabbed in flight by a firefighter and his partner who wrestled him to a handhold and restraineMd ahciImnt.osh made sure the
rest of them saw his lasgun and they stayed put.
Mack's squad finished their sweep of the room in less than a minute and one of them sent the "all clear, visual" signal back to the computTerh.e intercom announced "all clear," and MacIntosh unfastened his
headgear. Beatriz beat him to it.
"They killed my crew," she shout"eTdh. ey killed your security squad and they have weapons back there
in the lockers."One of the firelighters sailed to the back of the studio to search out the weapons cache.
"Hold these men," MacIntosh ordered, "and hand out whatever weapons they have, we're likely to need them."
The firefighters used various lines and straps from their pockets to truss up Leon and hisAtlwl o men. three were confounded and helpless in zero-gTehe.e fire squad lived and worked in it every day, but

MacIntosh still had to admire their ease of movement, even with three struggling captives in tow.
Beatriz hugged him tight and kissed hEimve.n through the added bulk of the vacuum suit, she felt good to him.
"I was hoping we could do that under other circumstances," hHe esafiedlt. close.
her trembling and held her
"There are more of them," she said, "I counted thirty-two altogMetyhegr.uess is that their leader, Captain Brood, is with the OMC."
"Spud, you heard?"
"Yes, Dr. Mack."
"All this action's going to bring somebody down Sheearle.off axis sector yellow, code admission only. We might seal a few of them in here with us, but it'll give us time to deal with the rest of them."
Spud activated the nearest console and completed the order in a blink.
MacIntosh motioned to the firefighter with the white head"gTehaer.re's a big storage locker across the passageway that's emptyS. eal these men in there and then meet me in the teaching lab next to Current Control. If you can find any weapons from our own security, bringI thweamn.t your best tunnel rats, as many as you can muster."
"Aye, Commander," he said, then added, "these men are groundsiderYs,ousirs.aw how clumsy they are. Our best weapons here are zero-gee and vacuum."
"You're right," MacIntosh said, taking Beatriz's hand, "and straLteegt'ys. move."

While the fat and flesh cleaving to the flame are devoured by it, you who cleave to it are yet alive.
-- Zohar:The Book of Splendor
Spider Nevi hoped that Flattery was getting a humbling at the hands of the rabble, because Nevi was certainly getting a humbling out here at the hands of theHke'edlps.potted Zentz floating on his back,
only the whites of his eyes visible, the mouthpiece to his breathing apparatus disAcarlodnedg. strand of kelp wrapped his middle, and it reeled him steadily toward the side of the lagoon.
Lucky for Zentz that he'd had the presence of mind to inflate the collar oIft tkheptsuhiti.s head and shoulders on the surface, though fat as he was his body floated nicely enough wLituhcokuyt , itt.oo, that
Nevi had hit the vine quickly and on the firstHsehoht.ad Zentz all the way back to the foil before he felt the seethe of kelp anger on his heZeelsn.tz appeared to be breathing.
It would've been so much easier if he had drowned, Nevi thBouutgIht.still might need hiAm. live body is a lot more useful than a dead one.
Nevi knew one thing for sure, he was getting out of reach of
Othneekzeolpm. bie on the crew was
enough. The foil started a slow spin, and Nevi swore under his breath.

It's channeling us into its reach.
He managed to secure Zentz's collar with a line from the aft hatchway and pulled him aboaHrde the foil. used a boathook to brush off pieces of kelp frond that clung to the unconscious Zentz.
The whole situation had passed beyond the ridiculous for Nevi, now it was simplIyt
cdoidmni'ct . matter
to him whether Flattery stayed in power or Wnohto. ever was up there would need Spider Nevi and his services, and Nevi enjoyed that positioInt .was like having three or four good chess moves already set while the opponent was in checWk.ell, it was time Flattery learned his worth.
Send me out here, will he?
Zentz had been kelped, and the automatics in his dive suit kept him from swimming off to who-knows-where. They didn't keep him from struggling blindly against resAcut es.ixty-five kilos, it
took Nevi a while to wrestle the nearly one hundred kilos of Zentz inside the foil and harness him into his couch. He didn't know why he bothered, except that it would give Flattery something to play with if they didn't come back with Crista Galli and Ozette.
Nevi quickly maneuvered the foil to the center of the lagoon and prepared for verticaIlt twakoeuoldff. eat up more fuel than he liked, but it would cut his odds of getting grabbed by that kelp stand.
He punched in the automatic VTO sequence and all of the power of the foil kicked him right in the seat of the pantsI.t swayed like a bug on a blade of grass until they were a safe hundred meters above the
lagoon. He set the controls for straight-and-level and turned the foil
Aloorsoeu. tine ten-minute refueling
had turned into nearly an hour's delay, and Nevi couldn't afford to waste another blink.
He listened to the radio and couldn't make heads or tails of the situation back at theHeP'dresterrievde.
to raise Flattery on their dedicated channel, but no one keyed him in at the oOthneer fernagdm. transmission from an overflight came through and he shook his head in wonder.
What idiot talked Flattery into depth-charging the foil we're hunting?
ent of

He snapped off the radio and relaxed his grip on the coTnhterolasf.ternoon turbulence didn't sit well on his stomach, so he flipped off the autopHiloet. needed something to do besides listen to Zentz breathe
through his droolH.
e kept the yellow arrow on his viewscreen pointed toward the green coordinates set
down by the overflights.
He could tell, by the way Zentz squirmed in the copilot's couch, that the Chief of Security might be coming around.
Nevi had trouble suppressing a sneer at the mere thought of Zentz as chief of anything.
Chief Breach of Security, he thougChht.ief of Insecurity.
Nevi had to admit that Zentz had held a difficult line against the increasing hostility of the villagers for
nearly a yearA. another.
mob of villagers was one thing -- this Crista Galli and her Shadow playmates were quite
"A hundred meters across!" Zentz gurgled.
Zentz's eyes were wild, the pupils dilating and constricting on both sides, dancing to some strange rhythm.
Nevi didn't answerZ.entz had started this raving about some giant hylighter as soon as Nevi had gotten the foil back in the air.
"Crista Galli, kelp gone crazy," Zentz went on, "giant hylighter grab whole foil . . ."
"That's hocus-pocus, and it's in your head," Nevi said.
He knew Zentz couldn't hear him, but it made Nevi feelHbiesttvero.ice was calm and flat, a practiced calm that paid off whenever he had to work with ZHeentkz.new it gave Zentz the creeps, and that

always gave Nevi the edgHe.e wondered whether it would give Zentz the creeps in his dHreeams. hoped so.It was this flying that made Nevi nervous.
The storm buffeted Nevi against the restraints in his command
Scomceh. of the updrafts along the
coastline nearly emptied his stomacLh.ike most Pandorans, he preferred traveling the kelp's subways, particularly during afternoon storms, but today speed was critTichael. cat had played the mouse too loose. Maybe Zentz was right about their fWoilh. o knew what the kelp had shown him?
If Ozette and Crista Galli got loose afoot in this country they might just wind up being dOazsehteter bait. didn't strike him as the survival tyNpevi knew that Flattery needed both of them alive -- forFonrow.
now, what Flattery needed Nevi needed, and he didn't want to get so comfortable out here that he forgot it.
Zentz needs them alive more than anyone, he thought.
The big question mark for Nevi was the hylighter -- what would contact with that thing do to Crista
Galli?
Or what might it do for her?
And something about those damned Zavatan squatters upcoast gave even Nevi the Ncorebeopdsy. could farm the open country like that without some kind of protHecetiown.anted to know what that protection was.Or who.They kept one jump ahead of Flattery and the dashers -- accomplishments that captured Nevi's personal respect.
The squall cleared occasionally, allowing Nevi glimpses of the coaCstloinued.front pushed across both suns and confounded his perspectivHe.e knew that thousands of square kilometers lay under Zavatan camouflage. It didn't take much imagination to appreciate the value of the new fertile land below.
In a matter of weeks the Zavatans turned bare rock into garden, pumped water and started up their smelly labs.The entire upcoast region was laced with streams and pockmarked with hundreds of small
lakes. They'd already turned many of the lakes into fish faTrhmesir.
pitiful farms grew more than enough
to sustain them, this Nevi kneHwi.s information was better than Flattery's, but Flattery didn't pay him for information.

Where does their surplus go? he wondered.
He knew that when he discovered the answer to that one he would answer the Shadow question as well.
No food, no Shadows, he thought.
It would be a pity if Flattery managed to wipe out the farms to stop the supplies that he was sure were channeled to the undergroundT.here must be a more profitable way . . .
It occurred to him that the Shadows might Hweins.hrugged.
Nevi admitted an admiration for these Zavatans, for their independence that Flattery couldn't yet control. He didn't intend to muddy his own hands, though this trip had already proved messy enough.
Nevi smiled, a rare break in the steel of his counteHnaenchea.d plans for his retirement, and this upcoast region with its farmland and its new, burgeoning forests appealed tTohheimpe. ople up here just might want some professional protection sooPnr.otection from the likes of Flattery and his bungling Chief of Security.
Lot of new squatters this year, he thought.
Since the earthquakes started a few years ago people had turned to the surface foErvesnafwetiyth.
burmhouses it was easier to spot a dwelling than a tunnel, it wouldn't take that much effort to map these people. Nevi flew into a sudden wall of weather and there wasn't much possibility of spotting anything.
Nevi kept his attention on the screTehne.
slash of rain against the metal skin and plaz of the cabin nearly
deafened him.He switched on the landing lights to clarify the teSrrtaililn,. visibility was a few hundred meters, tops.A buzzer reminded him that he was flying at the stall point.

They were only a couple of kilometers downcoast from the overflight coordZiennatzes.came around enough to set his couch up and hold his head.
"So, how was it?" Nevi asked. "I don't ever want to go back." "Where'd you go?"
"Everywhere."Zentz wiped his drool with his slee"vIe.went everywhere . . . at onI csea.w them picked up."
"They're around here somewhere."
"Beached," Zentz said".Down the cliffB. eached."
Nevi grunted his amusemenHt.e imagined this gray land on a sunny day, blooming. Flattery couldn't possibly send troops, he thought, they'd never come home at all. "Approaching set-down," he said, and throttled ba"cSke.e them yet?"
"No . . . yesH!"e pointed a shaking finger starboar"dT.here, look at the size of that . . . was more than a dream."
Ithiknnge!w it
Nevi was disgusted at the spit-spray of Zentz's excitemThenet.squall was moving on already as quickly as it had come, and visibility over the downed hylighter wasTghoeodte. rrain, however, looked deadly. The crumple of downed foil was plainly visible amid the orange shards of the deflated hylighter.

It was a monster, all right, and deflated it covered far more than the hundred-meter diameter it had occupied in the airA. lmost half of it trailed the fifty meters down to the sea, and the rest lay crumpled in the narrow stretch of beach between the sea and the precipitous Trohceksfo. il appeared to be nearly
intact right at the foot of the cliff.
Nevi did not want to set down inside the perimeter of that thing -- he'd seen what that blue dust did to some of those burned-out Zavatans who wandered dazed around the viTllhaeges.trip of tideline was too
narrow and the tides less predictable than he liTkheed. beach itself, from tideline to cliff, was a jumble of boulders. That meant a water landing or a set-down at the top of thHee cdliifdfn. 't like the look of all
that kelp in the water, or the positioning of the dead hylighter.
"Electronic and infrared scan," Nevi order"eId'm.
making a couple of passes so that we don't get
surprised down thereT. hen we'll worry about how to get them out from under that thing."
Their situation suddenly struck Nevi as absFurladt.tery had positioned his precious Orbiter and had the
Voidship nearly ready to go; he had plans to establish a steppingstone colony in a debris belt over a
million kilometers awayP. andora's moons were even more unstable than the plaEnveetn.
Nevi agreed
that fleeing was the ultimate answBeru. t he doubted that it would be worth it in his own lifetime.
Especially if he insisted on risking his life in a wrestling match with a hydrogen gasbag of hallucinatory
dust and tentaclesH.
e chose a set-down atop the cliff, near a trail that didn't look too
Zdiefnfitczult.
should be clear of his kelping by the time they reached bottom.
If the girl's as holy as they say, let's see her get herself out of this one.

That's all Ship ever asked of us, that's all WorShip was meanftintdo obuer: own humanity and live up to it.
-- Kerro Panille, from The Clone Wars.
Rico sprung the galley hatch with a crowbar from the tool locker and saw Ben sitting up, fumbling with the catch of his harness.
"Ben, buddy . . ."
He stumbled over the crumbled deck to Ben's couch, but was careful not to toBuecnh'shim.
Merman-green eyes seemed clear when they looked at him, but they weren't tracking all tBhaotthwell. Ben and Crista were half-buried in debris from what was left of the galley.
"Can you talk?"
Ben's voice caught in his thro"aIt.. . . I think so," he said.
"Sit back," Rico said.
His own head started a strange buzz, so he took a deep breath, let it "oWute'rselonwo.t going anywhere for now, so relax."
He hesitated short of unclipping the last two restraints.

"Crista . . B."en's voice sounded foreign, distan"tI.s she all right?"
Rico felt his lips tingling, and his fingertips,Ittowoa. s just like Ben to think of someone elseHfeirst. glanced over at the other coucThh.ere was no movemenAt. ll the lights in the galley were out, but from where Rico knelt in the rubble it looked as if she wasn't breathing.
Shit!
"Sit back," Rico repeated, pushing Ben ba"Ic'kll. check."His muscles didn't work quite as they should,
and he felt as if he was moving in slow mTohtieonh. eavy rain that pelted their foil dimmed what little light seeped through the single uncovered poRrti.co noticed that the shadows weren't just shades of gray, but dancing hues of blue and green, backed up by flickering tongues of a cold yellow flame.
A halo of yellow flame surrounded the prone form of CristaRiGcoallci.ouldn't see any movement, but
her lips were pink and that gave him hHopee.moved to check for a pulse at her neck, then backed off. He couldn't bring himself to touch her.
She lay still, absolutely sagged, her mouth a little Tohpeni.nflated dive collar kept her head back and her airway clearE. ven this way, Rico had to admit she was beauFtiofrul.Ben's sake, for the sake of the hungry people of Pandora, he hoped she stayed aAlivse.he watched, a green glow smoldered over her body. A fainter glow, also green but lighter-hued, came from himPsoeclkf.ets of green oozed out of him and, amoebalike, they crept the aOirn. e of these joined with a similar pocket oozing away from Crista Galli. She was alive, no question aboutNiot.w all he had to do was keep her that way.
"Rico?"
"Yeah, Ben," he said.
His voice sounded a long way away to himBsuetlf.it's right here my voice is right here.
"Is she all right?"

Rico breathed in a deep breath, and some of the lime-green glow sped into his lungs like fog or dust.
"She's OK," he said, fighting for control of his to"nFgluatet.ery gave her drugs a while back."
Rico turned slowly and saw his partner backlighted by the one piece of uncoveTrehde prlaaizn. that spatted against it struck sparks that shot out from Ben and ricocheted around theBegnallseayt. up rubbing his eyes, and a roil of fire moved withIthwima.s not the blue-green glow that captured Crista and Rico, but a sensuous warm glow like the throb of some membrane from the inside.
The spore dust . . .
"I think I'm dusted," he told Ben in his new, slow"Hwoway.do you feel?"
"Headache," he heard Ben sa"yH.elluva headache."
Ben's speech was thick and slurred.
"And my muscles don't all want to go right, but theyThwaotrks.hot did it."
Rico helped him sit uTph.eir two haloes arced and whirled around thBemen. hands, doubled over nearly to his knees.
held his head between his
"I see what you mean I.'m. .starting to feel a little dusted, mysLeolfn.g time."
"Yeah," Rico said, letting out another slow breath, "longWtimithe. Crista it's drugs.Flattery's drugs."

"Drugs, yeah," Ben sai"dS. he's been laced up with something, something that Flattery wants people to think is kelp juiceF.igures."
Ben stood on wobbly legs, holding Rico and the bulkhead, and made his way to CrRisitcao Galli. watched as Ben checked her pulse, bent to her breathing.
"She's in there," Ben sa"idIf.
she's like I was, she can hear us, too."
He leaned down to her ear.
"You'll be all right," he said, and patted her arm.
Rico hoped it wasn't a Slioem.
e panicky feeling in his gut told him that none of them would ever be all
right. The green of his aura sucked itself tight against his Wbohdeyn. out from him again and mixed with the others.
he stuffed his unease away, it crept
The drugs are the danger, not her touch, he reminded hiHmoswelf.long before they wear off?
Rico knew that a single-dose dusting didn't last that long in reaHletiwmoeu. ld have to remind himself that it was the dust that warped tiHmee. knew they didn't have much of it to sTphareey. could count on help from the kelpT.his was something he felt, intuited.
It's the dust, he thought.
"We'd better see what we have left," Ben said.
Rico forced himself to focuHse. pay attention.
knew Ben was right, and if they were both dusted then they both had to

"If we don't pay attention, we're dead," Rico heard himself say.
Ben just grunted.
Rico pulled the lasgun from his belt, checked the ch"aTrgheesy.'ll know we're down," he sa"idW. e have to get out from under this mess, we're too easy to spot."
He braced himself against the upside-down bulkhe"Tadh.ings were tough enough without all of us going to dreamland."
Rico started out the buckled-in hatch.
"Bring me some dust," Ben sa"iTdh. at's what we need to get her out of this."
"No way," Rico sai"dS. he's had enough, right herWe. e don't know what Flattery's been doing to Aher. heavy dose might kill her, you don't know . . ."
He heard his voice going on without Bhiemn. was insisting that he was right, that she'd already been dusted and it was bringing her around, that what she needed was more . . .
"I'm serious, RicoS.he needs it, and the antidote -- you saw what it did Tthoinhkera. bout it."
Rico didn't understand, and he knew they didn't have time to think about it.
He didn't say anything more, just turned on his heel and picked up Crista's legs under Btheen knees.
reached under her arms and they stumbled with her through the hatchway into what was left of the cabin.
A few of the lights still worked, illuminating the burst-in walls and Tcheeilingga.lley and aft portion of the foil remained upright, but the boat was twisted nearly in half at the cabin hTathcehwenayti.re bow

lay on its sideO. ne of the wings had sprung from its retraction bay and sliced into the fuselage, peeling a section of hull away like a rind.
Ben brushed away debris with his feet and they set CristaSdhoewcna.lled his name and gripped his
arm. Rico went immediately to work trying to free them from the deflated hylighter and the wreckage. Some pockets of undissipated hydrogen worried hTimh.e rain helped, but he worried about sparks --
not the spiritual kind he'd seen in the galley, but the metal-to-rock kind that might flash the hydrogen.
"There's still some gas around here," Rico warned t"hIetms.houldn't be a problem but we should be careful. Our judgment's been dusted, too, so we have to be extra cDaroenfu'tl.move around much until we get free."
Rico's legs stood in the fuselage rip while the rest of him worked at using the wing section as a shield to
push the dead hylighter away from the
Wfoiilt.h his head and shoulders in the open he could see that the
foil lay next to the cliff, with the hylighter spread out between the foil andAthsemaslela.flap of the bag and two tentacles covered the foTilh.e whole scene whirled in a lightshow of spore-dust.
No gas out here, he thougAht.good offshore breeze.
Rico smelled a greasy char, sickly sweet, as he burned through the hylighter flap with hPieseliansggun. it back from the fuselage made him even more lightheaded and wobbly-Aknetehdic.k, steamy smoke filled the cabin and Crista coughed behind him.
"Crista!"
Ben's voice sounded happier than Rico had heard it in a lonRgelteimasein. g the flap of hylighter let in
some air and some lighTt.he rain had muddied most of the dust, but they'd still had a pretty stiff dose.
Rico's head felt as if it was ready to take a big plunge, as if he was clinging to some giant fluke just befo it sounded for the deepHs.e kept reminding himself aloud, "We've been dusted, it will pass soon."
He ducked back inside and Crista leaned on one elbow, coughing and gasping, and shook her head.
"Ben," her voice was gravelly and deep, "we are sAavadta.
will see to it."

Just then a tentacle slithered through the hole above Itnhelmes.s than a blink it snaked around Rico's waist and in another it snatched him through the Ihtsoleg.rip on his waist was stronger than anything he'd felt in his lifetime, but it didn't hHuert.heard a shout and felt a grab from Ben, then the hole and the foil disappeared from sight and Rico couldn't see anything but water.
Therefore, if it was more necessary in those days to satisfy the soldiers than the people, this was because the soldiers had more power than the peoTpoled.ay . . . all rulers find it more necessary to satisfy the
people than the soldiers, because the former now have more power than the latter.
-- Machiavelli, The Prince
Holomaster Rico LaPush was a fine prize indTeheed. Immensity respected this human LaPush as a sculptor of images, the best that the humans had ever musFteorredn.early a decade the Immensity had monitored human transmissions in all spectTrah.rough these transmissions it witnessed the inevitable unraveling of human politicsW. hen it had its own data to compare, it compared, and it found significant facts wanting.From humans it learned to lTieh.en it learned the subtle differences between lie and
illusion, truth and illumination.
The Immensity intended to learn holograpOhyn. its own it had mustered transient illusion at times -- ghost ships at sea, phantom radio transmissions -- the parlor tricks of broHadocloagstr.aphy was more

precious than thatT. he Immensity knew humans, now, and human histIotryk.new that holography, the pure language of imagery and symbol, would become the interspecies tongue.
There were the other forms, of course -- electrical voice-talk of the hTuhmeyanspoke to each other of fish concentrations, weather, delivered the mysterious modulations that humans called "mEuxsciecp."t for the music this had been easily understood, but not very interTeshteinng.the human they dared call
"Kelpmaster" began using the kelp itself as a medium of conduTchtiiosn.private communications channel
linked the Orbiter with the Zavatan world, and the kelp heard everyTtheingIm.
mensity spoke in
pictures, and these words over the kelp channel helped weave a picture of the world as it was, and as it could be.Though the Kelpmaster listened, he lacked the subtleties of holography that the Immensity
required.
The Immensity could think of no better place to start than with LaPush, the HoTlohme aIsmtemr. ensity
knew good holos from baIdn.
this matter it would apprentice itself to Rico LaPush.
The hylighter tentacle that gripped LaPush was, in turn, gripped by a huge frond of Ibtlue kelp. transmitted every move directly to the keRlpic.o's automatic lapel camera unreeled a ten-second broadcast every hour, beamed back to its recorder in theThfoeilI.mmensity received all broadcasts, including these.
Flattery was the dominant human, but the Immensity saw no future Hine heinms.laved the kelp, but
worse, he enslaved his own kinFdla. ttery didn't trust any creature that might know what he was thinking, including humans.He had plans to hide the future of a world from its people, and the kelp noted a heavy stink of greed about himE.xcept for the kelp channels, Flattery controlled communication among
humans. He discouraged it, as he discouraged their educatTiohne.
kelp often marveled that humans
survived themselves.They appeared to be their own fiercest predator.
Flattery would sacrifice many to save himself, it realized one day, perhaps even to the last human.
The Immensity harbored no illusions about its position in Flattery's hierarchy.
The kelp knew that as long as humans accepted Flattery as the Director they would never realize their potential as OneI.f they did not do this, then neither would they recognize the need for Oneness among the kelp.Flattery saw this need as a threat, in humans and kelpTahleikre. would be no true Avata
again as long as Flattery ruleWd.henever the brain grew, Flattery dealt it a stroke.

Since the day of insight, the Immensity had set about the downfall of Raja Flattery and the unity of pruned-down stands of kelp throughout the seTahs.e answer, it knew, was in hoIlfo.it could project
holo images, it could communicate in a way that humans would undeIrtstacnodu.ld speak to distant humans and to kelp alike.
A language between sentients, the Immensity thought, this is the Pandoran revolution.
Rico LaPush had been difficult to follHowe .moved quickly and under cover, and spent most of his time
landside these daysH.
e'd been exposed to the kelp from organic islands that were the old cities and on
assignment with Ben down under among the Mermen -- still, he had chosen not to communicate directly with the kelp throughout most of his adult life.
It is simply a matter of privacy.
Unlike Flattery's political fear of betrayal and death, Rico's was simply a reluctance to let the kelp eavesdrop through his psycheI.t did not make him feel "at one with Oneness" as it did many of the Zavatans, this the Immensity knewW. hat the kelp knew of Rico it had gotten from other sources, and from the airwaves of Holovision.
Perhaps the Holomaster Rico LaPush would become the kelp's Battlemaster if the image alone was not enough. Timing and presentation of images were essentAiasl. a kelp channel, a simple conductor, the Immensity allowed itself to be used by the faithful in their struggle with the DNiorwectoitr.was time to
use them in that same struggle.
The Immensity would win over other stands and reestablish Avata as the true governor ofItPandora. planned to help humans win over Flattery and to come to some symbiosis with these fearful humans. Oracles and kelpways were not enougIhm.ages were tools beyond value, and the kelp would learn to use them.
"Seeking visions in the kelp violates civil rights," Flattery had procl"aIimf eydo.ur son uses the kelp, then
he and all who use it, including the kelp, know the most private thoughts and dreams of your youth, of your entire life before his conceptioTnh.at constitutes mind-rape, the ultimate violation."
He passed his law making contact "for the purposes of communication" an offense punishable in varying

degrees, all of them unpleasanTt.he Zavatans universally ignored this law, much to the benefit of the kelp.
The Immensity had to snatch Rico quickly, before he alarmed the Tohtheeresn. emy Nevi approached,
and there was no time for petty confrontatioTnhse.
Immensity had appropriate reverence for the kelpling
Crista Galli.She would be the instrument that would complete the symphony of thBe uktewlpi.thout
Rico's genius the kelp saw hopelessness, death and despair in Crista's future, and in all of their futures.
The hylighter had turned in a superb performaTnhce. Flying Fish now rested atop an Oracle, an old one secured by a small but hardy Zavatan bIatsndc.avern, much larger than Flattery's, was occupied equally by the live kelp root and the ZavaPtaansss.age from the water side was too dangerous for a foil.
The humans had burrowed a passageway down from the top of the bluff to meet the kelp's burrow in the rugged rock near shoreI.t was identical to the Oracle that lay at the foot of Twisp's command center
beneath the high reaches.
Flattery had scoured the kelp clean from his cavern, to make it suitable to hHise thaastdesd. estroyed one of the kelp's nests, a socket where the kelp rooted into the continenZtavitastealnf.s protected hundreds of these stations along the coastline, careful to keep Flattery's people Eaat cbhayO. racle was
a strategic kelpwork of communication, a link with the entire world and with the Orbiter above it.
The Immensity had learned from certain Zavatans how images are formed on the matrix of the human brain, and how its own flesh correspondingly formed the images that it saw against the dreamscape of the sea. When it had learned to project its thoughts, its images, as Rico LaPush projected his holos to fill empty space, then it would commence the salvation of Avata and of hWumoaenst.o Flattery, it thought.
Woe to selfishness and greedIt! dragged Rico inside the Oracle and among his own kind as quickly as it could so that he would not be unnecessarily fearful of his new pupil, Avata.

What happiness could we ever enjoy if we killed our own kinsmen in battle?
-- Bhagavad-Gita
When he announced after their midday ration that he would run the P, the Deathman's squad beat him up. They thought that would bring him to his senses, or at the very least make running around the
demon-infested Dash Point physically impossiblIet. didn't work.
"I know why you're doing this," his squad leader toldHehimw.as called "Hot Rocks," and his sister was married to the Deathman's brother back in LilliwaTuhpe.y talked in private behind some boulders bordering Kalaloch's refugee camp.
"Just like everybody else who does this, you're fed up with Ykiolluingw.ant to do something for somebody, leave your insurance to your family, right?"
The Deathman just leaned back against the boulder and stared at a clear patch of blue sky scudding with the clouds.
"Who gets your back paYy?our mom?Your brother?That little piece of blonde action you've been plugging in the camp?"
The Deathman's hand snapped toward Hot Rocks but stopped still at hisHtohtroRato.cks didn't flinch. Hot Rocks never flinched.
"My brother."
Hot Rocks cursed under his breath, then whispered, "Wouldn't it be better to go baTckoutrh'sere? almost over, the worst is ovWer.e're all going home in a monOthn.e month.If you still feel this way . . ." he looked both ways, ". . . then fight this thing atWhorke.it out at home."

"I'm no good for home," the Deathman
We can't go back therWe. e can't!"
"sTaihde.
things I've done . I'.m. not normal, you're not normal.
"So, instead of going home you run the P, you make the dash out Dash Point Yaonud kbnaockw.
the
odds. Lichter made it a month agSop.it made it and collected a year's worth of food Tcwhiots.out of twenty-eight -- it's suicide and you know it."
"Either way, my family's better off," the Deathman said.
His voice was a monotone, and Hot Rocks could barely hear him above the light breeze.
"They get my insurance and back pay if I don't make it, and the winnings if I do."
"Yeah," Hot Rocks said, "but they don't get what they want -- whichIf isI
my sister will have my ass."
ycomu.e back without you
"I can't go bacYk.ou know thatY.
ou of all people should know thTaht.ey should make a place for us,
or let us go after these Shadows and take over wherever they are and stay there and then we won't have to hurt anybody anymore . . ."
The Deathman choked up, and Hot Rocks looked aHweayp. eeked around the boulders and saw the rest of the squad near the beach, backs together, watching for demons or a Shadow attack.
"You're my brother-in-law, but let's forget that," Hot Rocks"Ysaoidu.'re the best man I've gToth.ese guys are alive today because of you -- doesn't that count for something?"
"It don't mean shit," the Deathman s"aIitd.means I've got more ears in my pouch than anybody else.
They throw rocks and garbage at us and we hit them with lasguns and gushguns -- shit, man, if they were animals we wouldn't even say it was good sportsmanship."

"I think --"
"I think you better stop thinking for me, and start thinking for yourself," the Deathm"I'avne slaeiadr.ned
how to kill here, but I haven't learned how to like it and I sure as hell haven't learned how to sleep nights
Last I heard, there were no openings for assassins in Lilliwaup."
He stood up, brushed off his fatigues and hefted his lasgun.
"Now this is how it's gonna be," he "sIa'mid.doing the running whether you let me take the bets or not. You gotta admit, a sizeable winnings is good incentive, and I intend to add an attractive twist."
Hot Rocks flicked his gaze around the beach, the cliff side, the tumble of boulders arouTnhdis them. was hooded dasher country, and his caution was automBateisci.des, they'd burned out two boils of
nerve runners here in the past week and nothing gave Hot Rocks the creeps more than nerve runners.
"Let's do it," he sighed, and they joined the rest of the squad at the tideline.
The bright afternoon suns ate away the tail of the daily squall and glistened off the wet black rocks of Dash Point.The narrow point jutted three kilometers into the ocean, and was named for its popularity as a place to run the P.
"Running the P" was a game as old as Pandoran huTmhaensfi.rst settlers took bets, then ran unarmed
and naked around the perimeter of their settlement, hoping to beat the demons for a thrill and a few food chits. Though technically illegal, it was a game resurrected by the Vashon SecurityInFotrhcee. old days,
survivors of the run tattooed a single chevron over an eyebrow to mark their Tsuhoccuegshs.this
tradition, too, had been resurrected, the runs were set in places like Dash Point that were famous for high demon populations.The two in twenty-eight that Hot Rocks had seen survive were exactly twice the
actual average.
"Bets are always two to one," the Deathman "sTahide. six of you match my month's pay, then that means I get a year's pay when I get back."

"When he gets back," McLinn mutter"eLdi.sten to him."
"Well, I want five to one," he said.
"Five to what?"
"You been hit too hard in the head."
"No way."
"Shit," McLinn said, "for five to one he just might mIa'mkeoiut.t."
"Hear me out, gents," the Deathman s"aSide.e that big rock yonder off the poNinot?t only will I run the
P, but I'll swim out to that rock and bFaocrk.five to one."
"Stay awake, men," Hot Rocks warned, and everyone swept the area q"uSictaknldyi.ng here this long we make excellent bait, remember thOatK. , let's get it oBn.ets or not?Run or not?"
"I'm in." "Me, too." "In."
"Here's mine."
Each of the men handed five of their food coupons to Hot Rocks Etaochhocldo.upon represented a

month's rations in the civilian sectTorh.e Deathman handed over five of his own against their twenty-five. Hot Rocks stayed out of it, and the Deathman didn't press him.
"Do me one favor," the Deathman asked.
"Name it," Hot Rocks said.
"Name that rock after me," he s"aIidw. ant something around for people to remember meRobcyk.s, they're a lot more permanent than people."
"'Deathman Rock,'" McLinn chimed u"pI . like the sound of it."
Hot Rocks gave McLinn one of his paralyzing stares and McLinn busied himself with sentry duty.
"If you're going to do it, do it," Hot Rocks"Msayisde.lf, I'd just as soon shoot you here as see you go out there.Stick around much longer and I just might."
"Here's the paperwork," the Deathman said, handing Hot Rocks a small insurance all go to my brother."
"Who gets the ears?"
"Fuck you."
"pBacakcekt.pay, retirement,
The Deathman reached into the neck of his fatigues and showed Hot Rocks the necklace he'd made out of the brown little dried-out eaTrsh.ough human ears, they looked like seashells now, or twists of
leather. He unfastened his fatigues and stepped out of them without a Hweorhda.nded Hot Rocks his lasgun and started running toward the point dressed only in his Tbhoeotsh.eavy necklace spun around his neck like a wot's game hoop as he ran.

They took turns at sentry, keeping him in sight with the glasses.
"He's almost at the point," McLinn repor"teWd.hat do you bet he leaves his boots on for the swim?''
The quiet one they all called "Rainbow" took him on for a month'Es vweroyrothn.e else was quiet, scanning the point with their high-powered glasses for signs of dashers or, worse, nerve runners. Rainbow lost.They were all surprised when he made the rock.
Nobody more surprised than the Deathman, Hot Rocks thought.
"Well, he's earned his place in history," McLinn said, and laughed.
The Deathman stood atop the offshore rock, yelling something they couldn't hear and shaking his necklace of ears at the sky like a curse.
The dasher must've been lazing in the sun on the oceanside of thTeheroicmkp. act from its leap carried the Deathman and the dasher a good ten meters into the narrow stretch of sea off Sthoemepooinft.the froth boiling up with the waves was green, so Hot Rocks knew that somehow, before he died, the Deathman had drawn dasher blooNd.either the Deathman nor the dasher ever came up.
Hot Rocks paid off the debts and pocketed the Deathman's packet of papWerwhiolerk.he packed up
the fatigues, the lasgun and the rest of his brother-in-law's gear, none of his men's eyes meHt ehis own. barked a few orders and walked flank while they finished their long sweep back to camp.

Reveries, mad reveries, lead life.
-- Gaston Bachelard
This was the dream Crista had endured for years, the one of her return to the arms of kelp, cradled again in a warm seSa.he rubbed her eyes and images flickered across the lids like bright fishes in a lagoon: Ben, beautiful Ben beside her; Rico in a cavern beneath Tthheemre. were others, fading in and
out . . . "Crista!" Ben's voice.
"Crista, wake upT. he kelp's got Rico."
She blinked, and the images didn't go away, they were just overlain with more images like a stack of wot's drawings on sheets of cellophanBee.n knelt at the center of these images, holding her shoulders
tight and looking into her eyHese.
looked tired, worried . . . scenes from his life dripped from the aura
around him and spread out on the deck beside her.
"I saw something around his waist, a tentacle," he"Isatihdi.nk it pulled him into the water."
"It's all right," she whispere"dIt.'s all right."

He held her as she got her wobbly legs undeSrhehebr.reathed deep the thick scent of hylighter on the air and felt strength pulse out from the center of herself to each of her wearyEmveursycthleins.g seemed
to work.
"I see Rico," she sa"idT.he kelp has saved himH.e is well."
"It's the dust," Ben muttered, and shook his h"Iefadth. e kelp has him, he's probably drownWede. need to get out of herTe.here are demons, Flattery's people . . ."
He doesn't believe me, she thougHhet. thinks I'm . . . I'm . . .
A vision gelled in front of her out of thin air, one of Rico wet and gasping inRtihceo ctaipvperend.
back
his head and laughed, surrounded by . . . friendly feeIltinwgsa.s a side of him she hadn't sSeoemn.eone approached him, a friendly someone.
"Zavatans," she said, cocking an ear, "they will be coming up from the caverns."
"It's the dust, Crista," Ben insisted, "it'll wearThoefsf.e are hallucinationsW. get out of sighFt.lattery's people . . ."
e've got to find Rico and
". . . are here," she s"aTidh.ey're already hereI.t's not hallucination . . ." she giggled, ". . . it's cellophane."
She had unraveled some cellophane in her mind and she saw the sinister figures looking down from the clifftop. Two of themS. he reeled her vision closer and saw that she knew them both from Flattery's compound: Nevi and ZentzZ. entz's face and body were grossly misshapWeni.th Nevi, it was his soul.
This she could see in the boiling black aura that seethed from him and soughtIt hsenrifofeudt. the wind with its black snout like a dasher on the hunt.
She felt Ben pull her backward through the rip in the FlyinTgheFibshri.ght sky trailing the storm forced her to squint and focus on a double rainbow that lazed in the sky aboSvehethwemon.dered whether
Ben might be right about the duTsht.e pink of the rainbow's arch blazed brightest of all the colors and it

pulsed in time with her own pulse.
"Do you see it?" she asked.
"The rainbows?" Ben sai"dY. es, I doG.
ive me your hand, I'll help you down here."
"Don't rainbows mean something?" she ask"eAd. promise of some kind?"
"Supposedly God placed a rainbow in the sky as a promise that he would never destroy the world by flood again," he said".But that was Earth, and this is PandIorda.on't know whether God's promises are transferable. Here, give me your hand."
The impatience in his voice just made her move slower.
Rico's safe, she thoughHt.e doesn't believe me, so he's worried.
She shielded her eyes from the glare and scanned theThcelifcf.lifftop was identical to the one in her vision, except for a void, a nothingness where she'd seen the images of Zentz and Nevi.
Another image of Rico, in the cavHeren. reached out for the kelp frond that had brought him there and she felt him transported to the dead hylighter at theirHfeeestt.ood there, facing them, head cocked and hands on his hipsI.t was as if he were impatient, waiting for them to make up their minds.
"Look there," she said to Ben, "can't you see Rico?"
She pointed to his image, seating itself at the point where the hylighter touchedHethewasseas.miling at her for the first time and beckoned her with a finger.
"I see the sun shining off the water," Ben"Ista'sidt.oo bright to look Yato. u'd better be careful of your

eyes."
"It's Rico . . ."
"We're dusted enough," Ben said.
He stepped down from the foil to the ground and reached up for her. "Try not to touch the hylighWtere.'re probably safest scaling the cliff." "No!"
The word was torn from her throat before she could think about it.
"Not the cliff," she sa"idI . feel something thereI. saw them up there, Nevi and ZeTnhtze.y're after us."
Ben pulled her free of the wreckage and they stood on the unsteady footing of the slickrock beach.
"OK," he said, and sighed, "I believe Iyfounot the cliff, then where?"
She couldn't help looking at the sea.
"We can't go there," he sa"iPdl.ease don't ask me to take you thMerea.ybe you can live in there, but I
can't."
He glanced quickly around them, biting his lip.

"If you can see Rico, how do we get to him?"
She couldn't resist caressing the remnant of hylighter draped over thTehofuogilh.
a plant, and clearly
dead, it emanated a warmth that pleased
Ihterti.ckled something in her memory, something distant about
her childhood.The kelp had protected her, nurtured her, educated her chemically in the customs of her fellow humans.She knew at a touch that this hylighter was from the same stand.
She turned in a slow circle, scanning the bSeahceh.knew Ben was wise in some things, that she had to have faith in himW. ithout the kelp's cilia, she, too would have died in thMe usceha. was rushing back to
her, in fragments and colorWs. hat she wanted more than anything was to run to it, to bury herself in the kelp's great body, death or not.
That is selfish, some voice warned Shelrf.ish is no longer acceptable.
She had heard about the barrenness of the upcoast regions, and at first glance black rock was all she saw: sheer black cliff, then black rubble, then a foaming churn of greeBnutsethae. re was life among the rubble. Little bits of green squatted among rocks, clinging to crevices in the cliSfof msiedteh.ing, maybe
the something that spoke inside her head, pointed her upcoast.
"There."
She took Ben's hand and pointed out a huge black boulder with a single silver wihi clingingIt to its top. was about thirty meters upcoast, halfway between cliff and tideline.
"That's where we want to be."
That was when Nevi and Zentz stepped out from behind the boulder, lasguns drawn, picking their way across the rocks toward themC.rista wasn't surprised, nor frighteneSdhe heard Ben mutter "Shit!"
under his breath and saw his head twitch quickly left to right, looking for Ba udtosdhgee.knew it wasn't necessary. She knew.

The moment came together for her like a great conceAptlilonth. e world silenced itself -- the waves, the breeze, the cautious footsteps of two murderers clattering across wet stones.
"Hands on top of your heads, step away from theZefonitlz." delivered his orders with a shaky voice tinged with slobber.
"Yes," Crista told Ben, "that's where we want to be."
They clung to each other's hands in the stone-still afternoon and watched the huge boulder lift itself back from the ground behind Nevi and ZenIttzc. ame up smoothly, quietly, as though on hinNgeist.her man
heard a thing.
"Hands on your heads!"
The boulder laid itself carefully down behind them and out of the shadow beneath it climbed a half-dozen men armed only with ropes and throwing nets.
"Tell me you see it, too," Ben whispe"rTeedl.l me I'm not still dusted."
"It is as it should be," she whispered back, her voice a si"nTghsoenreg.is a great moment at our feet, and it will not be stayed."
Something about the way Nevi's gaze met her own must have given Wit iathwoauyt. a backward glance
he sprang sideways, beachward, and whirleTdh.e first net was already settling over the surprised Zentz and another, poorly thrown, grazed Nevi's armTws.o flashes from his lasgun brought down both netmen, but Zentz flailed in a hopeless tangWleh. en Nevi whirled back, Crista Galli stared down the business end of his lasgunE. ven at thirty paces it looked huge.
"I'll kill her," he announced, just loud enough for all to"Thruesatr.me.I am very quick."
Everyone froze, and in the silence that went with this stillness Crista felt that they were all graceful

subjects inside some great paintinSg.he knew who the painter must be.
Nevi half-crouched in careful aim, his colorful face unreadable, his eyes fixed only on CriSshtae Galli. felt her head clearing, the return of wave-slaps against rock.
But there's something . . .
It was something she hadn't felt since she'd been dredged up from the sea, something familiar . . .
"Connection," she whispered.
Ben breathed beside her and she felt it as her own Tbhreeaythw. ere one person, pulses synchronized
with rainbows, waves and the great heartbeat of the Svhoeid.knew the choices in his mind and marveled at the sacrifice he was prepared to maSkhee. saw the play in his misnpdi:n her by the hand, get between
her and Nevi, take the hit while the netmen brought him Adot wthne. touched his shoulder.
"No," she said, "it's not necessaCrya.n you feel it?"
moment he elected to move, she
"I feel those sights on my chest," he "sHaied's.
the only thing standing between us and --"
"Destiny?" she asked".There is nothing between us and destiny."
The image of Rico stood behind Nevi, gesturing wildly to her, still smiling.
Nevi came out of his crouch, moved carefully across the rain-wet rocks towarSdhethelimke.d the
smell of the rain, a different wetness than the smell of the sea, easier on the lungs but Tnhoet as rich. scent of the sea, of the dead hylighter, lay heavily beside her like a sleeping lover.

"Do you see?" she asked Ben, and smiled.
"I think I do," he said.
Nevi barked a few orders and two of the surviving netmen slowly began to disentangClerisZtaentz. Galli had that feeling again, the feeling of being a subject in a painting.
"Be still," she whispered.
Ben didn't move.
Nevi stopped walking, a look of surprise washed over his face.
"Where are they?" he shouted, and he shaded his eyes even though the sun was to"Whihserbeacdki.d they go?"
Crista suppressed a giggle, and the figure of Rico applauded silently from behind Spider Nevi.
"I don't understand," Ben sa"idA.re we invisible?"
"We're not invisible," she said, "we're simply not viHsibelec.an't pick us out of this landscaIpteh.ink it's a trick that Rico has taught the kelp."
Ben squeezed her hand and started to speak, but that was when the shooting started.

I will this morning climb up in spirit to the high places, bearing with me the hopes and the miseries of my mother; and there . . . upon all that in the world of human flesh is now about to be born or to die beneat the rising sun I will call down the Fire.
-- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe
Twisp walked Kaleb to the flickering lights at the Oracle'sTehdisgew. as a small cavern, a subset of the great root that Flattery had burned out a few thousand meters downTchoiasstw. as a hushed place, a
place to breathe iodine on the salt air and feel the cool pulse of the sea.
Kaleb trod the well-worn path with his father's bearing -- tall, shoulders back, large eyes alert to every nuance of light and motioWn. hile his parents lived no one had consulted the Oracle as oftenInasthhee.
dim light by the poolside Twisp saw that Kaleb's adolescent gangliness had transmuted into the epitome of athletic grace.
"You are the man your father would most like to know," Twisp said.
"And you are the man my father most liked."
The two of them stood together at the poolside, watching the flickerings of kelp just beneath the surface. Both men kept their voices low, though the kelp chamber carried every whisper to its farthest crannies. Behind them, at a discreet distance, stood the complement of Zavatans who tended thTehepyool.
busied themselves cleaning and reassembling one of the great borers that helped them tunnel out their

habitations in the rock.
"When your parents met they were younger than you are now," Twis"pIs stahiedr.e someone in your life?"
The perceptible blush that rose from Kaleb's collar reminded Twisp even more of the young man's father. Kaleb's skin was darker, like his mother's, but his naturally kinked, reddish hair was a gift from Brett Norton."Yes? So there is someone?"
"Victoria is a big place," he said, "I've seen a lot of wHoims evno."ice bordered on sullen, bitter.
"'A lot,'" Twisp mused, "and which one broke your heart?"
Kaleb snorted, half-turned away, then turned back to face THweispw.as smiling. "Elder," he said, "you are truly a force to be reckonedAmwitIh.that transparent?" Twisp shrugged.
"It is a recognizable affliction," he s"aIide.ndured it myself one daTyh.irty years, and I still daydream."
He didn't go oInt. was more important that Kaleb do some talking.
Kaleb sat at the poolside, dangling his feet in the water, caressing the kelp with his bare soles.
"When I travel the kelpway, and take my father's branch, I see you as he saw yoYuouhimwseerlef. good to him -- firm, kind, you let him talk too mKuaclehb." laughed."He was a good man, I knoAwn.d you, you were a good man, toHo.e" bowed his head and shook it slow"Ilyw. ould like to be a good man, but I think I'm differeMnt.y life is different."

Then he lowered himself into the pool and lay on his back on the kelp as though reclining on a great couch. His head and chest rested above waEtevr.en in the colorful blue and red flickerings of the
kelp-lights about the cavern Twisp could see a new life come into Kaleb's large eyes.
"How are you different, Kalebh?e" asked."You breathe, you eat, you bleed . . ."
"You know why we're here," Kaleb interrupHteids. voice was firm now, none of the hesitation of youth deferring to age.
"How many people died out there today because they wanted to tear Flattery apart but settled for tearing anything apart?"
Twisp remained silent, and Kaleb went on.
"I'll be truthful, I respect you, I want your respect for myself, I want your approval that what I'm doing is right. If this doesn't work, we will probably have to attack him, you know."
His voice was becoming dreamy, and Twisp knew that the kelp was gathering him in, guiding him down the eddies of the pasTt.wisp steered him past thoughts of failure, past the matter that gave him the sense
of failure.
"There is a woman who won't let you sleep," Twisp"Tsealild.me about her."
"Yes," Kaleb said, closing his gray eyes.
Kaleb's eyes, like his father's, emanated a maturity beyond his years.
"Yes, she's hereS.he had two wots before we mQeitt.a, she knew the kelp as you and I have known it.

As an allyS. he had other lovers, but I was her Alassts. he will be the last for me."
This wrenched out of him with such an agonized moan that Twisp's hair raised up onKahliesbneck.
splashed the pool with both fists, but stayed immersed in the kelp, quieting with the caress of the waves.
"Elder," Mose whispered, tugging at Twisp's sleeve, "did you see his eyes?"
Twisp nodded, and before he could respond the kelp's display of flickering lights took on an intensity he'd never seen beforeI.t was like one of the winter magnetic disturbances in the night sky, with great leaping rainbows of color that seemed to transcend water, rock anMdoasier. stepped back from the
pool in fear, but Twisp reached a hand to stop him.
"Old friends," Twisp whispere"dT. hey are glad to see each other."
Perhaps Kaleb's bloodlines led to this momHenist. mother, Scudi Wang, and her mother before her had been the first two to communicate with the waking being that humans called "kelp" and the kelp called "Avata."
When Twisp met Scudi Wang she was a dark young woman passionately working in her mother's wake
to reestablish the kelp worldwidIen.
her own words, she "mathematicked the waves," and in doing so
made Current Control possible, a system that saved thousands of Islander lives and revolutionized travel in Pandora's seas.
Scudi Wang was beloved by the kelp -- this Twisp had heard from the kelp itself long before Kaleb was born. When Flattery attacked the kelp, lobotomized it, Scudi ordered her inheritance, Merman
Mercantile, to stop trading with hiSmh.e and Kaleb's father were assassinated three days later.
It seemed to Twisp that Kaleb took on his mother's features as he lay there inHitshehapior ol.
appeared darker, and so did his skTinh.e kelp enveloped him as though he were in the palm of a giant
hand. The lights around them leaped and danced to some silent mTuwsiiscp.
recalled that day when
Scudi placed her hands into the sea and pleaded with the kelp, "Help us," anItd siatveddid.their lives, and that moment had changed his life foreIvterh.ad changed all of their lives.

In the years since Scudi's death she had become something of a Pandoran historical monument, with many plaques and statues erected in her hoWnohr.en a massive earthquake ravaged the old Current
Control site undersea, the carved glass statue of Scudi Wang was found intact, clutched in the fronds of a nearby stand of kelpT.hat sign of love from the kelp, that recognition of a symbol enraged Flattery and
he entered into a vendetta against the kelp that continued to this day.
Twisp watched Kaleb recline on the back of the kelp root and it seemed as though the root surged up to cradle the young man closer.
"Twisp," he called from the pool, "that was what my mother wanted to doS, hiustn'tofift?all supplies to
Flattery, starve him ouAt. ll these years I have hunted in vain for the day she died, and now I have it . . ."
Kaleb started to weep, and Twisp had a difficult time making out his words.
"It would have worked then, it would have woBrkuetd.now he owns everything, everything . . . and
now there is no waNy.o way short of a miracle to reach all of the people at once . . . to get them all to shut him out would take . . . would take a sign from God . . ."
His voice faded into a hum that seemed to keep time with the red and blue lights.
Increase the number of variables, but the axioms themselves never change.

-- Algebra II
Beatriz liked the feel of the free-fall sSphien. kept her eyes closed and imagined herself sprawled across one of those warm organic beds the islanders gSrehwe . wanted to be in a bed like that now with Dwarf MacIntosh, on some other world, under some other Bstuatr. of course a bed like that made no sense in near-zero-gee.
MacIntosh gave her one more gentle shove and drifted them both into "the webTwhoisrkws.a"s a
cavernous room at the Orbiter's tubular axis, sometimes called the "privacy park," often used for naps or meditation between duties, or for an occasional tryst by a desperate pair ofAlofvineres.white netting crisscrossed the area, segmenting the huge space into a blur of booths anHdolboinsc. enes turned
some sections of web work into fantasy worlds, further removing the occupants from the worries of life
aboard the OrbiterA.
ll this Beatriz knew from her last tour, so today she kept her eyes shut tight.
"The disorientation is lasting longer this time," she told MacI"nItorseha.lly don't want to open my eyes."
"After what you went through today, I'm not surprised," he"Isawido.uldn't want to open them, either."
She heard his fingers clicking at the keys on his belt messenger, and felt the sudden play of a warm light across her exposed hands and face.
"Well, we're now at Port of Angels, that lush Islander resort you've heard so muIcth's awbaorumt., feel it?"
Yes, the movement of air across her cheeks was warm, careSshseingc.ould imagine herself on the beach at Port of Angels, letting her hair dry in the suns and stirring a coAldpdlartienko. f mango and papaya slices waited at her elboTwh.ere was no wavesound here in the Orbiter, no pulse of the surf against her back that sometimes took her breath away . . .
She opened her eyeAs.
sandy beach stretched away from her in both directGiornese.nery poured over

the clifftops down to the beach, and several little huts waited under their matched hats to cool her sun-drenched skin.As the two of them turned, the holo turned, responding to a reference point in the messenger.
The holo came complete with their footprints in the sand, following them up from the edge of a
blue-green sea.The fictional ferry that had transported them to this illusion had already settled under the waves, leaving only a swirl of current and a trail of bubbles toward the Sheoar-izpounp.s yapped and
dove from the rocks that lined the harbor, hunting fish startled out of hiding by the ferry.
"We needed a few minutes alone," MacIntosh
"sIatidw. ill take more than a few minutes to clean up the
mess up here, track them all dowWne. 've got an exceptional crew, that's why they're up Whearren.ing's out, so this Brood doesn't stand a chance."
He held one of the overlarge loops at her belt to steer them lazily around inside the holo.
"No one knows who the Shadows are," he "sDaiod.you?"
"I . . . no, I don't."
"That's because the Shadows don't exAisst.k any of themT.hey don't have meetings, pass messages or recruit. Things simply get done -- a power blackout, kelpway shift -- and something of Flattery's is lost. Supplies circle him, but don't lanRde.placements don't show . . ."
"That's what I mean," Beatriz sa"iId.want to know who does it, how do they know when to do it, and what happens."
MacIntosh held her tether and they spun in a lazy spiral through the weTbhweorilklus.sion that played
across the nets, the beach resort, was tailored for her, designed to help reduce her orientation stress.
He's at home up here, she thought.

She was aware then that up didn't make the same sense now that it had a few hours ago.
"They call it 'tossing the bottYleo.'u throw something out to the waves, and it's chBanuctei.f you control the waves, or a little part of them, then it's not chance anymore, it's a sTuhree tShhinagd.ows' nonsystem encourages every citizen to frustrate Flattery when they see the cDhaivnecret. something this
way -- say, a subload of hydrogen generators -- and go about your business and never do anything like that again.Someone out in the waves sees this diverted load of generators coming along, diverts it that way . . . and in blinks it's headed upcoast to a settlement of Pioneers."
He spiraled a finger across the space they shared and bull's-eyed the palm of his other hand.
"Delivery."He winked."Flattery's project loses and the people gaiNn.o Shadows."He smiled."It's brilliant. And everyone can play."
"Yes . . ."
Again, her thoughts were with Ben.
I wonder how long Ben's been playing . . .
"The Zavatans, Rico and Ben .M. a.c"Intosh hesitated, choosing his words, "they don't want Flattery killed. They just want him removeAd.fter all he's done to them, they still don't want to kill him, simply because he's a human beinDg.o you know how incredible that Diso? you know how far you Pandorans have come from us?"
"Our enemies on Pandora have always been more vicious than ourselves," sh"eExscaeipdt. The kelp has killed its share of humans over the years."
"But who rattled its leash?" MacIntosh ask"Wed.ho threw fire into its cage?''
She closed her eyes again and breathed in slow, deep breaths.
for the kelp.

"Are you OK?"
She breathed in and out again, slowly.
"I don't know," she sa"idI. look around this scene, and I know it's manufactured, fiction, not real . . . but people are following usT.here are lasgun barrels behind the rocks and plOanutst . of the corner of my
eye I keep seeing people scurrying for cover."
He hugged her, and they finally kissed that kiss she'd been waitTinhgisfowr.as no chap-lipped peck on the cheek, and it was just what she needed to bring her back to the world.
"I've wanted to do that," she s"aBidu.t it seemed . . . out of place with all this death."
"Yes," he said, "I've wanted it, too."
He brushed her lips with his fingertips.
"You know, you're going to be jumpy for a while, maybe a lonWg ew'rheileg.oing to go back out there in a few minutes and finish this matter with Captain BHroeomd.ight think otherwise, but his men have already discovered how little they know about getting around upThheerne. we'll see what we can do about your friends groundside."
"You don't think they're . . . dead?"
"No," he said".I don't."
"How do you know?"

"The kelp."
Her face must have registered surprise, because he chuckled.
"You know how much the kelp interests me," he"Ssainidc.e Flattery gave me Current Control, I've been able to experiment a littIlte.paid off."
He kissed her again, then told her about the kelp communications system he'd devised, and his attempts to unify the kelp.
"Which kind of god would the kelp be?" he a"sMkerc.iful? Vengeful?"
"That's not important now, is it?" she as"kBerdo.od's a smart oneI. won't be able to think of anything else until he's . . . neutralized."
MacIntosh steered them into a holo of sky that unfolded throughout their webwork -- 360 degrees of sky and high clouds covered the latticework that cradled them in free-fall.
"I worry more about Flattery," he s"aBidr.ood's small-time.Flattery's got big things afoot, things big enough to crush anything in his path."
"But he was a Chaplain/Psychiatrist," Beatriz insis"tHede.'s trained to be better than that."
"He's trained to cope with the necessary thing and to see to it that we all adjust," he rem"Ninoded her. romantic bullshit, just the straight facHtse. 's programmed to see to it that we don't unleash a monster intelligence upon the universe."
"If he hasn't adjusted and he hasn't coped, why assume that he'll take us all with him?"

"Simple," MacIntosh saidW. hen he smiled his face wrinkled all the way up his shaved"Thheead. number five Flattery hit the 'destruct' switch, you've read The HistTohriaets.Flattery was a lot more
likable than this oneI.t's just that the program had already come alive, had already anticipated his move and headed it off."
"Maybe we can do iBt!"eatriz tried to shake his shoulders but all she did was set them both gyrating through air."You're right, use the kelp to head him off!"
"Well, now that it knows Flattery's out to get it, the program's already inserted, wouldn't you think?"
"Well . . ."
"I have another possibility, and it's regarding Crista Galli."
She felt a curiosity about Crista Galli that went beyond her newswortBheinnesssa.w something in
Crista, something in her eyes that swept him up and further away from EBveeantrizth.ough things were
finished between Ben and Beatriz, a woman who could do that -- a younger woman who could do that interested her mightily.
"What's that?"
She heard the rusty bitterness at the edge of her voice, the unnecessary snap of the words past her lips.
"I think the kelp's beat us to it," he said.
She looked up from her nestling spot at his neck to see his w"iIdethginrikn.that Crista Galli is the kelp's experiment in artificial intelligencIe.think she's manufactured, incomplete, and aliIvte.would be nice if we could keep her that way."

A musical tone sounded from the messenger at hisHbeeldt.id not take his arms from around her shoulders, but voice-activated the device with a simple command.
"Speak."
"Brood and two of his men sealed themselves off with the HOeMsCay.s if you're not there in five minutes he's going to start scrambling some brains."
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight . . .
-- Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach"
The Orbiter collared the Voidship's nose in a flat wide ring of pTlhaestetewl.o cylindrical bodies spun in concert on their long axeSsoon the ring would slip away to remain in orbit around Pandora while its Voidship plied the dark folds of the univeArste.the helm would be an OMC, a stripped-down human brain.

The Organic Mental Cores had a definite edge over the mechanical navigators, and this had been determined clearly long ago by experimenters at MoonbNasaev.igation in all planes required subtleties of discrimination and symbol-generation that hardware never achievTedh.e disembodied, unencumbered
brain took pleasure, or so they said, in plotting the impossible cOonureseg. oad worked on OMCs that had no effect on mechanical navigators -- the OMC needed this job to stay alive.
The particular OMC that the techs were preparing for installation, the Alyssa Marsh number six, felt no pain or bodily pleasure as the microlaser welded in the necessary hoSokhuephs.ad been trained in astronavigation at Moonbase and had borne a child in the year after splashdown on PTahnedosrtoa.ry
that she filtered back to Flattery had the child die in an earthquake, and Alyssa Marsh had launched herself into her kelp study project with a passHioenr . body had been crushed in a kelp station accident, but Flattery saw to it that her silent brain lived on.
Soon she would be silent no mSooreo.n her brain would have a body that it could move -- the Voidship Nietzsche. She would navigate knowing the differences between ability and desire, knowing the need for dreams. Right now she lay genderless behind a pair of locked hatches dreaming of a banquet where Flattery was the host and she was both the honored guest and the main dish.
Dwarf MacIntosh gathered his forces outside both hatches and tried once more to contact Captain
Brood. There was no reply from the OMC chamTbehrr.ee of the four monitors inside were blacked out,
but the one remaining showed an overhead view of the long, specialized fingers of a nerve tech probing the webwork that encased what remained of Alyssa Marsh.
"Hookup's not scheduled until next week," someone
"sWaidh.at's going on in there?"
A lasgun barrel appeared on the screen, pointed at theThteechlo. ng, spidery fingers froze, then ascended from the surface of the brain toward the screen, then backed out of view.
"That fool better not touch off his lasgun in there," somebody else drawled, "or we be stardust." "Hold your fire, Captain," MacIntosh order"eTdh. is is MacIntoshY. ou're in a high-explosive area --" "Brood's dead," a voice interrupted, a voice that cracked with youth an"dMafeyarS. hip accept him.

May Ship forgive and accept us all."
The lasgun barrel tilted up toward the viewscreen and in a flash the last monitor went blank.
Beatriz tugged at Mack's sleeve.
"He's an Islander," she sa"idT.he old religion, like my famiSlyo.me believe this project, to build an
image and likeness of Ship, to be blaspheSmoym. e believe that the OMC should be allowed to die, that it -- she -- is a human being held here against their will and enslaved."
MacIntosh covered the intercom receiver with his hand.
"I don't necessarily believe that Brood's dead," he told"Thheart. would be too easAy.nd why shoot out the monitor instead of the OMCY?ou're an Islander, you talk to hPimla.y the religion angle, set up to get him on the air if that's what he wManyts.men here will help you out."
"Where are you going?"
He saw the unbridled fear in her eyes at the prospect that he would leave her.
What have they done to her? he wondered.
He gripped her shoulders while his men floated the passageway feigning inattention to their covert affections.
"Spud and I know a few ins and outs of this Orbiter that don't show up on schematic."
She held him as close as their vacuum suits would allow.

"I could take anything but losing you," she "sIaikdn.ow I'm making a spectacle of myself in front of your men, but I couldn't let it go unsaid."
"I'm glad you didn't," he said, and smHile .kissed her in spite of the throat-clearings, harrumphs and chuckles of his crew.
"Chief Hubbard will stay here with you while his men secure thBisy ayreoau.r estimate, we're still missing a few of Brood's meHne. 's up to something, I have that feeling."
With a half-salute to the chief, MacIntosh propelled himself toward Current Control with his compressed-air backpack.
Dark, unfeeling and unloving powers determine human destiny.
-- John Wisdom
Rico couldn't see through the illusion and he knew that Ben could not see himNo, reicthoeurl.d Ben see

Nevi and ZentzR. ico whistled the "get down" signal, hoping that the couple wouldn't run out of the boundaries of the imageT.hey would be visible then, and in the open against an incominRgictoide. dropped when Nevi started shooting.
Time to send him a more suitable surprise, Rico thought.
He wriggled into a position of better cover.
Nevi laid a pattern of fire into the rocks that hid Ben andZeCnrtizstac.overed Nevi's rear, keeping the dozen local Zavatans pinned dowNn.evi stopped firing, but kept his wary crouch.
"Save charges," he warned Zen"tzW. e might be here awhile."
All was quiet except for their harsh breathing, the seething of the incoming tide and the high-pitched ping of weapon barrels cooling.
Rico was held firmly around the waist by a budding tip of keIltprevminien.ded him of his father's arm, and the way it used to pick him off the deck in one Tshweoofepa.thery bud of kelp felt like the palm of a small woman's hand on his belly, covering his navel, hugging him from behind.
An image of Snej flashed through his mind and just as suddenly Snej's face appeared in thin air about ten meters in front of NevTi.he rising tide licked at the hylighter skin beneath her and hissed over Nevi's
boot.
"What the hell . . . ?"
Nevi advanced a step, two steZpesn. tz moved with him, backward, step for sHteep.glanced over his shoulder and paled when he saw SnHeej. snapped his attention back to their rear defense.
"The redhead," he gurgled, "where's the rest of her?"

Rico found he could reinforce the intensity of the image by looking at it, concentratIitngwaosn likt.e a
huge coil of energy feeding on itself, refining itself, awakeAnifntegr.
a couple of slow, calming breaths he
was able to materialize the rest of Shhere. stood there in her green singlesuit, hands on her hips, staring at Nevi.She was a bit larger than life sHizee. wondered if he could make her speak.
"Well," Nevi said, "she's here, now."
Another glance over his shoulder and Zentz began a wet, ragged breathing that Rico could hear a dozen meters away over the surHf.e placed his back tight against Nevi's.
"Shit, Nevi, a head that grows a body," he wh"Lineetd's. get back to the foil."
"Shut up."
Nevi stopped and looked over the scene behind SIntewj. as nearly the same view that Ricobhlaacdk:
rocky stretch of beach between the tide and the cliff, a cluster of large basalt boulders and a foil draped with the wet shards of an unexploded hylighIntert.he downcoast distance the great expanse of sea
glowed like green lava against the black cliffs.
"Where are they?" Nevi asked h"eIr.want them."
A two-toned whistle told Rico that the Zavatans were in position to rush the tHweo nmoteince. d that his illusion of Snej didn't cast a shadow.
Don't think I can manage that, too, he thoTuaglhkti.ng will be enough of a challenge.
Her shadow melted from her feet on the hylighter skin to where it met the beach,It nloaympoarrea.llel with the other lengthening shadows of the day, but amputated at the rim of Tthhee stkidine. already rushed the edges of the image, breaking up the Wligihtht. luck, Nevi wouldn't notice.

Rico smiled, concentrating on Snej, and quickly thanked Avata in the back of his mind.
"Put your weapons down," Snej sa"iIdt . is finished."
But no sound came from her lips.
"Shit!" Rico muttered.
Zentz responded with a burst from his lasIgtucna. me so fast that it startled Rico out of the illusion and it pulverized a rock just a meter in front of Ahvimat.a brought the lost image bacNke. vi fired, too,
advancing them another step.
"It's not real," he told Zen"tWz.atch yourself."
"Maybe we're dusted," Zentz sa"idA.ll this hylighter crap . . ."
"Ever know two dusters to share the same hallucination?" Nevi Hasekesdto. pped a pace from Snej, squinting.
"Something's not right . . ."
Rico held his breatIhf. Nevi stepped across the plane of the image, he'd see Ben and Crista, and Rico wouldn't be able to see NeTvih.e entire area over the downed hylighter became a dome of imagination,
a hypnotism of light, a life sculpture.

There must be a threshold of consciousness beyond which a conscious being takes on the attributes of
God.
-- Umbilicus crew member, Voidship Earthling, from The Histories
Mose's eyes were open so wide that he looked even smaller to Twisp than he had when a refugee band had carried him in half-starved ten years aMgoe.mories -- they kept him from the kelp as they drew
Kaleb. Twisp had watched the struggle for nearly a quarter-cenTtuhrye. kelp must be like a drug to
Kaleb.
Not the kelp, Twisp thougThth.e past.
Twisp knew, too, how the kelp always drew him to a particular part of the past, a particular year, a particular woman.Twisp had thought her the most beautiful woman on PanLdoatrear., after Flattery and
the others had been removed from the hyb tanks, Pandorans got a look at unmutated humans for the first time in over two hundred years.
They were all so testy about being clones, Twisp recalled, when "clone" wasn't even something you could see.
He remembered the bitter ceremony, with Raja Lon Flattery presiding, in which the hyb tank survivors purged the telltale "Lon" from their names foreIvterw. as done with a ridiculous solemnity, and did not bestow on Flattery's people any of the attributes that Pandora demanded ofbethtter :reflexes, more intelligence, teamwork.

"What they didn't tell you in school," Twisp told Mose, "was that Flattery couldn't control Kareen Ale. She was killed, like Kaleb's parents, by Flattery's death sqSuhaed.was the first victimT.here are those
who believe it was Nevi himself who diSdhaitd. ow Panille was head of Current Control in those days. He was in love with Kareen ATlhe.e combination killed him, toHo.e was my friend."
Twisp's voice barely rose above a whisper.
"I quit searching the kelpways, finaIllyp.refer my memories the way they deal themselvesThoeut.kelp keeps them too trueM. emories are not the drug for me that they are for Isopmreef.er to go to the kelp for the now, not the then."
"The kelpways would pink my wattles mightily, Elder," Mose"Tsahied.blue dust takes me to my heart and leaves me there sometimeIs.don't know where it would leave me in the kelp."
"With the dust, you face your own conscience," Twisp"Isnaidth. e kelp you face the conscience of us all. That does pink your wattles, all rigIthtd. emands truth, and singularity of attentiOonn.e is easily lost
in the cruel maze of someone else's Klifael.eb has learned to filter the kelp as we learn to filter our senses."
"What will he find in there, Elder?"
Twisp shook his head.
The red, green and blue lights intensified and their flicker quickened until the cavern was awash with light. The borer workers left their machine to stand at poolside with the others who gathered in wonder.
"I have heard of this," said one, "but never have I seen the like."
"Not even his mother, the great Scudi Wang, was such a one," said another.

Twisp found it difficult to hold back the torrent of words that memory triggered at hMisetmonogriuees.
-- they kept Twisp out of the kelp, just as they drew Kaleb Tinhweakrde.lp was like a lifeboat to
Kaleb, an anchor to Twisp.
A strange mist coalesced above the top of the Epvoeorly.
atom in the cavern became charged with a
visible hum, and everything above the waterline glowed in a cool greenHahlaf-zfeo.rmed images -- fragments of someone's past -- flickered in and out of theThwaizsep. saw fire and a baby at the breast, a memo to Captain Yuri Brood, the brown, sensual curve of a wet breast in canItdlwelaigshat. tumble down a soundless tunnel, just the slosh and thlip of the sea accentuating the drift.
Twisp had the sense of reliving something, of deja vu without Hthee hveua.rd a voice out of the mist, a woman's voice.
"He will contact one of the upcoast Oracles," it announced, "there is news of Crista Galli and the others. Through me Kaleb will meet my son, and through him, Raja FlHateterwyi.ll explore Flattery's inner
being. Without secrets he cannot rule, and with the kelp there are no sKeaclreebts.will pick up the
DNA path that leads to Flattery's hatAchv.ata will transmit what he sees there throughout Pandora."
The whole cavern had become the stage for a giant holo projSeocotino,n.the babble and squall of life that went with the images swelled in the backgroTuhned. mist had become a whirling ball of color and sound, its movements jerky and confused.
"Kaleb must focus his attention," Twisp s"aIitd.is easy to get lost following the maze of someone else's
life. He must filter Avata as we filter our senTsheesn.
we will have a plan."

One who withdraws oneself from actions, but ponders on their pleasures in the heart, such a one is under a delusion and is a false swimmer of the Way.
-- Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queets Twisp, elder
Flattery took his afternoon coffee in the Greens, enjoying an impromptu stroll among the
orange-throated orchids.They clung to the rock clefts deep in the cavern, their blossoms a pastel cascade. Condensation drip-dripped its paltry rain on leaves and wet rock, on the great flat surface of the pool.
Kelp lights surged bright in the pool, reflected in from the nearHbye bpeadu.sed a momenTt.his was something different, and the kelp, like Flattery, seldom did anything different.
Flattery turned on his heel and dog-trotted back to his command bunker.
"I ordered this stand of kelp pruned," he snapped, and jabbed a finger seaward for e"Imwphaanstisi.t pruned now."
Marta snapped something into her messenger.
"Not good enough," Flattery saHide.
signaled his personal squad.
"Franklin, see that it's donUes.e the mortar unit down on the beach."
"Aye, aye."

Franklin carried a pouch at his waInissti.de were the sandals, papers and diary of the first man he'd ever
killed. He said he was saving them for the man's family, they would wanFtrathnekmlin. warrior's shadowy ease out the hatch.
slipped with a
"We can't loosen up, now," Flattery told M"aErtvae.rything will go perfectly if we don't get careless. That kelp bed is our only back doWoer. need it secure nowD.o you understand my concern?"
Malta nodded, then sighed.
"Well," she said, "I have some concerns of mySotrwang. e things are happening to communications." "What kinds of 'strange things'?"
"Random transmission sources of high-speed images, hundreds of sources, strong ones, and they seem to be all around us."
"They are all around us," he his"sTedh.at kelp.Well, we've taken care of thData. mage news, Orbiter news, Crista Galli news?"
"Nevi and Zentz have landeTdh.ey spotted the Galli girl and Ozette and anticipate no problem bringing them in."
"LaPush?"
"Snatched by the kelTp.he pilot was caught in our charges, condition unknown."
Snatched by the kelp!
All this kelp talk was making Flattery nervHoeus.caught himself running his sweaty hand through his

hair. Aumock's gaze caught his own, and he knew that his guard had seen that moment of fear.
"Kelpways secure?"
"We think so," she sa"idW. e --"
"You think so?"
"Brood's squad is aboard the OrbiNtero. further reportsT. he Holovision Newsbreak that was scheduled from the Orbiter did not air."
"We're on auxiliary power," the colonel interrup"tFeda.ilure at main plant . . . shit, it's no wonder that these troops got through our securiTtyh.ey are our security".The Reptile Brigade,' we called theSmh.it."
"Does that mean a 'Code BrutusF'?la"ttery asked.
The colonel shook his head.
"No, DirectorT. his is an isolated unit of troops, hTerhee.ir objective was the power station and now that they've taken it we expect them to defend it."
"Defend it?" Flattery rage"dT. hey don't have to defend it, they blew iWt uhpa!t would you do if you were them?"
"I'd -- I'd know that I'd crossed the Rubicon," the colone"lSisnacide. there's no turning back, I'd head right for the top."
"Well, goddammit, take appropriate measureYso. ur ass is on the line here, too, mister."

Marta flagged his attention.
"I ordered sub coverage of the seaside entry doubled," she"Isareidc.eived no confirmation and don't
know whether they heard mAe.lso negative messenger contact with the beachside morTtahre. we get is gibberish."
An icy panic tightened his stomach.
Not the kelp, he thougIhtt.can't be thaIt.t has to be somebody controlling the kBelupt. who?
response
The likely possibilities came to twDow: arf MacIntosh or the ambitious and resourceful Captain Brood. Crista Galli was an unlikely possibiliStyu.ddenly Flattery felt the full impact of this interference.
We're cut off, he thougOhtu. r whole strength was in coordination, and now we're cut off.
A rally was clearly in order.
"We got a little flabby, people," he said, "a little caTrehliesssh. armless little exercise could have cost us our butts, let's tighten up our action."
He'd caught them with their pants down, whipped them a bit, now he'd have to coddle them, comfort them.
"Reports on the bomb in the upper office just in."
He picked up Maria's messenger and held it over his head.

"Dick and Matt are alive, the rest didn't maMkeayit.the perpetual light shine upon them."
They all responded, "May the perpetual light shine upon them," and drew a little closer out of reflex.
"It could have been us, folIkt sc. ould still be us if we don't tightenCounps.ider direct orders the only secure communication.Information in, nothing out."
"Aye, aye."
Viewscreens and holo stages in his bunker began to flicker, barely perceptibly, then splashed high-speed displays of color throughout the rooOmc. casionally he glimpsed a face he recognized in the Ibt luwra. s
his own face.
"What do we know about Current Control?" he asked.
His staff and guards stood transfixed in the surreal wash of color that visually drenchedTthheeym all. stagger-stepped to their posts, displaying the same disorientation that Flattery himself felt.
"Current Control turned the kelp in sector eight loose," Marta reported, "then it turned loose all the kelp worldwide. Sensors now indicate that everything's intaTcth.e kelp appears to be online agaHinig.h
suspicion for Gridmaster failure."
"Brood's mission?"
"No newsH.
olovision covered the launch site incident with a Newsbreak report on the deaths of the
Tatoosh field crew 'at the hands of Shadow extremists.'"
The colors that dazzled the room remained as bright but their swirl slowed to a less dizzying rate.
Flattery thought he detected a woman's voice, faint in the distance, somehow faAmlmilioasrt. she called his name.
as though

"Continued fighting in food distribution centers," Marta sa"iTdo. o many looters to shoToth.e usual
'we're hungry now!' crowdS.ome of our people opened warehouseAsl.l stores outside our perimeter have been breached."
That's thousands of shuttleloads of food, he brisTtlheadt.'s my contingency, my lifetime Voidship supply.
"Dried grains to feed three thousand for ten years," he"Dsraiiedd.
fish enough to feed fifty thousand.
Add water, pat together and cooIkn.stant wine -- add a package to a liter of plain water aBndreasdtir.
and fish for the multitudes, water into wine . . . if this Voidship could time-travel I could be Jesus Christ himself. Shit."
Consciousness, the gift of the serpent.
-- Raja Lon Flattery, number five model, Shiprecords
A lean-faced security, armed with both stunstick and lasgun, blocked MacIntosh at the hatchway to
Current Control.

"Halt!"
He motioned Mack and his men to stop, and gripped a handhold to keep his bearing.
"Obiter Command," Mack said, "who the hell are you?"
"Security," the man said, and emphasized his point with his l"aCsgaupnta.in Brood has the detailWs. e are under the Director's orders to secure Current Control."
MacIntosh pushed off from the bulkhead behind him and sprang thAe gpaupsh.
to the shoulder and a
spin to the wrist later, MacIntosh had both the stunstick and lTashgeuns.puttering security was pinned head down against the passageway bulkhead by two of Mack's firefighters.
"You'll get the hang of it in a day or two," MacIntosh said, and smiled, "if you livWe htheatht elronygo.u live that long depends on how much you tell me, right now."
"That's all I know," he said, his voice edging a whine.
"Airlock time," Mack saiHd.is men tumbled the security down the passageway to the freight airlock adjacent to Current Control.
"No, no, don't do this," the security plea"dTehda. t's all I know, that's really all I know."
"How many in your squad?"
"Sixteen."
Mack opened the inner hatchway to the airlock.

"My information says different -- how many came up on this load, and are there more already aboard?"
"It's just us, CommandeSr.ixteen troops and sixteen techs."
"Where are they?"
Silence.
"Airlock time, gentlemen," Mack sa"idL.et's decompress slowA. nything you might think of to tell us, you can tell us from inside the loWcke.'ll stop decompressing when we've heard the whole song."
As Mack spun the hatchdog closed behind the security, he saw a half-dozen more of his men step off the elevator in full geaMr.ack twisted the dial that sent air hissing audibly from theHlios cpkr.isoner
immediately became hysterical.
"Shuttle crew is ours," he sa"iTdw. o troops, three crew stayed aboarHdo. lo crew was two troops, three techs.OMC crew was three troops, two tecChsu.rrent Control, four troops, four techs, counting myself and Captain BroodT.he rest secured the VoidshiPp.lease, don't let the air oDuto. n't put me out."
"Keep him inside in case I change my mind," Mack or"dWeredc. an add to our collection here as things develop.We need Brood so we can find out what Flattery's Hupootkoi.ng up the OMC, taking
over Current Control and the Voidship . . . sounds like things are going worse for the Director than he lets on.Maybe he's getting ready to take the Voidship for a little spin around the system."
The intruder code, a tone-and-light warning, flashed at all corridor interseIcttiownass. had never taken seriously, now he wished he had.
a drill that Mack
"Rat, you and your people take the shuBttalreb. , you work the Voidship and know it better than anybody here.Take Willis and his engineerRs.emember, no lasgunsY. ou have your vacuum suits on,
use them.The rest of us will handle this little nest IhferFel.attery doesn't trust us anymore, let's make it

worth his while."
Mack knew that he had the edge over Brood as long as they met in the near-zero gravity in Current Control. Brood's techs might figure out the old hardware that ran Current Control, but the new organic hookups throughout the Orbiter and ship, grown by Islanders specifically for MacIntosh, might be a
surprise. These kelp fibers bent light and encoded messages chemoelectrically within cell
Tnuhcislei.
enabled kelp to bring light to the ocean depths and messages to the
TOhrebitsewr.itching speed and
capacity of kelp hookups far outstripped any hardware that Pandorans had developed.
Too late, Raj, Mack thougChtu. rrent Control will never be the same.
Brood could only faIiln. all be grandparents.
the time it would take his techs to figure out Mack's secret system they would
The is is holy and the void is home.
-- Huston Smith
Hot suns melted through the thick, post-squall mist to scorch the albino nose and exposed arms of Crista

Galli. When an offshore gust caught the mist in a whirl it freshened her hot skinSlhikee hsaidlk.felt the
whump of breakers in the surf beyond the fog and now she could see just how close the waves really came.
"Tide's shifted again," Ben told her.
He held her right hand but his voice sounded empty with distance, thick-tHonegubeldin.ked a lot, and his motions were slow, exaggerated.
Dusted, she thoughIt. wonder how it feels.
She was convinced now that the dust had returned her to reality, rather than removed heItr wfraosm it. her personal antidote, an antiamnesiac that spun valves and opened the stream of memory.
She remembered Zentz, toHo.e had been a mere captain when he came into the lab at the Preserve that made up her homeH. e took away the researcher who was talking with her at the time, a young Islander woman who taught social psychiatry at TaoLini ColleOgnec. e a week Addie came to question Crista
about her dreams and always spent the afternoon with her in the solarium oCvreirstateah.ad awakened in that lab a twenty-year-old female human without a single memory.
The psychiatrist, Addie Cloudshadow, tried to get those memories Ibnacthke.
process she became
Crista's first friendB. ecause of Zentz, Crista hadn't dared another friend until ZBeenntz.
had walked into
the lab that day with his weapon drawn, said simply, "Come with me," and shot Addie just outside
Crista's hatch.Crista was sedated through her hysteria, and Flattery promised to take care of Zentz.
Four years later Zentz surfaced as Flattery's Chief of Security and Crista vowed to escape the Preserve.
Today the mist kept her from seeing either up or down theTbheatacghl.impse of Zentz would have terrified her a day ago, but today she was not aSforamide.thing in the flash of kelp-memory warned her
of Nevi, the other shadow in the mist, but it also illuminated a tension between the two that she knew would work to their favor.
The kelp had replayed for her Nevi's refueling incident, and she'd even forayed briefly into Zentz's mind. She had never seen anything so filled with horror andShfeearf.elt hate there, too, but it had long ago
given way to a fear of Flattery that, itself, became an intense personal fear of Spider Nevi.

Divided they fall, she thought.
Flattery's world was coming apart, fighting itself, dying a thrashing death faster than it could inflict death on others.This was what Zentz had seen when the kelp grabbed him, and only Crista knew the strength of his resolve not to die at Flattery's feet or at Nevi's hand.
Crista had one open view from where she stood in the rocks, over the boil of breakers and out to sea. Though the tidelands wallowed in their salty fog, the sea itself glistened out to meet the sky somewhere in the distance.As far as the eye could sea, huge fronds of kelp rose lazily from the sea and splashed lazily back. Crista found comfort in the play of the kelp and the infinity of the horizon.
"What a time to be dusted," Ben mumbled, and shook his head.
"Rico has a plan," Crista whispered, "and he's ready to start it right . . . now."
Crista Galli felt her hair prickle when Rico's electric dance of light crackled up like a shield around her. The high suns roiled fog off the wet beach and coated her skin with a fine gTrihteomf issatlte. nhanced
the surreal quality of Rico's lifesize holograFmro.m the back side it was like looking through a fogged mirror that refused her reflectioCn.rista watched the barest shadows of Nevi and the others as they ghosted the boundaries of the holo image that erased herself and Ben from the visible landscape.
Nevi and Zentz positioned themselves behind the light curtain, calling out strategy codes to each other.
"Flank sweep, left," Nevi saHidi.s voice was unhurried, precis"eC. over high.I'll take point and ground."
"But they . . . they disappeared!"
"It's a trick," Nevi said, "a camera tTrihckey. 're in there and can't get oPuots.ition?"

"Secure.Ten meters, left flankI. can't see shit in this soup."
Zentz spoke more with a gargle than with real words.
"Ozette!" Nevi called, "she's sicSkh.e goes back or she dies, you know Itth'sat.not a choiceS.end her out."
Ben's finger went to his lips.
"He can't see us," Ben whisper"eDd.on't move."
She couldn't tell one person from the oTthheer. gigantic holo danced on its curtain of mSuisrtr.eal
figures outside the holo field became a futile Tblhurre.e lasgun flashes burst the curtain of rippling light
and a cascade of prisms lighted up all aroundBhener.pulled her to the ground and in a blink the image reformed.
"Stay low and don't move," he whispe"rTedh.is is the perfect holPoe. rfect!"
She wriggled with him into a fold of hylighter against a black lava Tbhoouuldgehr. faint, a wisp of images rose out of the hylighter skin and filled her mind in a steady unraveling of Pandora's tangleTdhepolitics. thick skin of the hylighter held the warmth of afternoon sunWligith . Ben tucked close against her she
felt safe.Flashes of sunlight sparkled intermittently throughout the hologram that surrounded Cthreismta. drew a new strength with the hylighter's touch, and a confidence that insisted Nevi would fail.
"They can't see us as long as we stay inside the image," Ben whHisispevreodic. e strained with the effort of focusing through the dust coursing his veHines.kept low, but his quick eyes took in all of the scene that they could.
"This is incredible!" he marvele"dW. e're inside a holo . . . where the hell did he get the triangulators to bring this off?And the resolution . . . ?"

"From the kelp," Crista sa"idH.e got everything he needed from Avata."
"I wish we could see what the hell's happening," Ben whis"pReirgehdt. now we're inside a hole in the light show.See this edge hereR? ico's holo follows the outline of our hylighHteer'.s made a stage out of a hylighter skin."
His finger reached out to the edge of the hylighter skin and appeared to disappear as he pushed it
through the hologramA.
momentary flutter of light and shadow around his finger was the only sign of
disturbance of the image.
"The mist makes the illusion especially colorful," he "sAalild.the tiny flashes that you see are the lasers catching a water droplet spinning in the mist -- kind of pretty."
"I can take her back dead or alive, Ozette," Nevi's voice inItsiswteads. closer now, only a few steps away. "If she's dead, the world will think you killedIfheshr.e's alive . . . well, then everyone gets another chance."
"Going back there," she whispered, "that is not living."
"Don't worry, he knows how it's got to be."
Three more flashes burst through the light screen and pitted the boulder above them in a dazzle of red
and violet.Ben wrapped his arms around Crista to sandwich her between himself and thIet
rock.
seemed that the dust was bringing her out of a dream instead ofShinetofeiltt. her head and senses clear beyond anything she'd experienced in Flattery's custody.
"I think the dust . . . you were right about it," she t"oIltd's Boeffns.et whatever it was that Flattery gave me."
She pulled Ben's arms tighter around her and felt as though she were melting into him, her busy atoms
scooting between the oscillations of his owShne.
felt herself disassemble into her qualities of light and
shade. She was no longer so much a substance as an idea, an image, aShdereafemlt. no pain or pleasure, just a sense of transmission, of movement with purpose over which she had no control.

"Ben," she asked, over a stab of fear, "Ben, are you here?"
"Yes," his breath puffed her ear, "I'm here."
"I'm sorry," she saiSd.he knew something was coming, some feral intensity crested her awareness and would not be cowed".I'm sorry."
A sensation like the one she had felt at the dockside in Kalaloch welled up inside her, then burst with a loud crack that rolled outward from her heart like angry thuEnvdeerry.thing around her stilled except the
wet rush of the incoming tide.
Welcome home, Crista Galli.
The voice spoke through her mind, without the impediment of hylighter, from Avata itself.
Istoucnadm. e at a rush from the dying
A refreshing sense of detachment, then a familiar disembodiment overcamTehehedr.istinction between hylighter skin and her own blurreSdh.e was encompassed within a familiar tingItle.was a muted,
struggling tingle that she knew to be a kind of death in body that hatched the great hylighter of her mind. Her mind flexed its great sail in the sun and caught its first breath.
We hatched of the same vine, Crista Galli.
She remembered, nowB. efore the bombing that cut her free she had been rooted for safety in a pod of
kelp. The memories filled her head so fast they stunnedBhener's.
groan in her ear reeled her attention
back to their huddle on the beaTche holo was gone, and enough of the mist lifted to reveal a scattering of bodies in the rocks.
"I thought I was dead," Ben said, rubbing his tem"Hploews.
. . . what have you done?"

Crista couldn't answerS.he felt as though she straddled two worlds -- one on the beach, with Ben, and one in the sea with her great guardian, AvTahtea. holo had switched off with the thunderclap, and Nevi
lay on the beach, nearly within her reach, his eyes blinking stupidly and blood oozing from his red-veined nose. She got up slowly and retrieved his lasgRuinc.o, though wobbly, was the first to recover and he
did likewise with Zentz.
"My apologies, sister," Rico said, with a slight bow and a quizzica"lTshmeriele.is much this ignorant brother did not understand."
He reeled and nearly fell, but caught the side of a great rock and steadied himself.
Others around them, the stunned ones, began stirring and shaking their Ahefaedws., victims of the lasguns, would never stir agaiSnh. e felt bigger now, taller, and it seemed that even Rico looked up to
her. A deep breath of the mist-laden air cleared her mind and helped pulse a new strength to her young legs. The tide hissed up to her feet, and a few meters away it licked Nevi's outstretched form in the sand.
"So, Rico, do you still want to keep me from the kelp?"
He managed a laugh and shook his head.
"Two rules," he sai"dT. he first:never argue with an armed woman."
She hefted Nevi's lasgun as though seeing it for the first time, then inquired, "And the second?"
"Never argue with an armed man."
She returned the laugh, and Ben joined them.
"You argued with Nevi," Ben said, "and look what it got him."

"I didn't argue with him," Rico said, "I tricked him -- that is, Avata tricNkeodw hwime'.ve got more work to doB. elieve it or not, we have to save FlatItferyw.e don't --"
"Save Flattery?"Ben's bitterness dripped from his voic"eH.e started all this, he should suffer the consequences."
"Not if we all suffer," Crista s"aNido.t if human life on Pandora is extinguishHeed. can do that, I feel it. Rico is rightF. lattery must be stopped, but he must stay alive."
The dozen stunned Zavatans struggled to regain their feet and their Bseennsepsi.cked up Nevi under the arms and dragged him out of reach of the wAatZera.vatan scout took over and trussed Nevi's thumbs together behind his back with a stout length of maki leader.
"That holo," Ben said, "I've never seen anything liHkeowit. did you do that?"
"Thought you'd never ask," Rico said.
He picked up a length of kelp vine from the water's edge, caressed it momentarily and then dropped it back into the sea.
"That was the tricIk.think our Zavatan friends here have these two zeroes under cFonotlrlowl. like you to meet my friend, Avata, the greatest holo studio in the world."
me, I'd
A warning shout went up from a scout at the clifftop, and simultaneously a hunt of dashers splashed out
of the upcoast mist in a sinister bBluern.
snatched the heavy lasgun from Crista's hand and pushed her
toward Rico.He fired a quick burst and the barest scent of ozone accompanied the snapping of the weapon. Two dashers crumpled in a flurry of screams and sand only a dozen meterTshaewoatyh.ers
began to feed on their dead, as was their insAtincZta. vatan scout emptied his charges into the rest of the hunt.

"They're so . . . so fast," she gasped, and discovered herself clinging to Rico's arm.
He did not cringe or push her away, but put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.
"Not much time to think topside," Rico
Tsahiedn. , to Ben, "I see you're still quick in your old age."
"Some of us stay young forever," he laug"hMedu.st be the company I keep."
Ben's hand took her own and the three of them caught their collective breath.
"If they're not too chewed up, we'll get you one of those hides for a souvenir," Rico told her.
"What would I do with a dead thing?" she aAskehdu.ge cold finger ran a shudder down her s"pIi'mne. a lot more interested in life."
"Touche," Ben said".Let's get goingI.
want a look at Rico's mystery studio."
A gust of breeze puffed the last of the mist off the tidelands and both afternoon suns caressed Crista's pale skin.The fabric of her dive suit rippled in sunlight as the tide reclaimed, amoebalike, the tumble of rocks that marked its upper reacheWs.ith her hand clasped in Ben's she followed Rico as he scrambled
away from the sea up to the cTliwffo. between boulders.
Zavatan scouts in green singlesuits flanked a great entry way
"In here," Rico sai"dI.t's not nearly as scary as the way I camWe aitnc.h your step, the wet rock is mighty slick."
Crista stood at the dark entry, feeling a pulse of damp air rush ouAt aset riheesr.of carvings decorated the wall inside, carvings of intertwined kelp vines, fishes andSshuenst.urned her face upward for one more dose of light before facing the darkness.

"Look there," Ben said, pointing skyward, "hylightAernsd.
they have the foil that these two came in on."
A half-dozen of them appeared from somewhere landward, two of them cradling the shiny foil in a snarl of tentacles.They all dropped in lazy circles to within a hundred meters of theThbeyachv.alved off
their hydrogen, fluting their peculiar songs that included one long shrill "all clear" Twhheiisrtleg.reat sails fluttered and snapped, tacking the coastal breeSzuen. light through their sail membranes made them glow a dusky orange, and even this far away she could make out the delicate webwork of their veins.
"Guardians of the Oracle," one of the Zavatans "sTahide.y, like you, are sent by Avata to helpThuesre. is nothing to fear."
It seemed to her that their flutings called "Avaaaata, Avaaaata," on the wind.
"Come," Rico said, "let these guys mopThuepr.e isn't much time."
They passed through the high portal of carved rock and, though she had expected darkness, they entered a chamber of magnificent ligThth.e light came out of the pool itself, fanning out from the kelp and, like the warm breeze on her cheeks, it pulsed ever so slightly as though it, too, were alive.
"Avata brought me in through the sea," Rico told "tThehmer.e's an entry through the kelp itself into the pool. The entry closes off as the tide rises, then opens again aI t juesbtb.squeaked throughA. s you can see, it's well-occupied."
The strong sea-smell of the beach had been replaced with the scent of thousands of blossoms, but there
were no blossoms in sighAt.
kelp root rose out of the pool at the center of the cavern, crowding all the
way to the high domed ceiling.
"The root comes out of the ceiling," Ben "sTahidis.
'82. Look at that monster!"
rock was folded upside-down during the quake of
She saw that it was trIute.did not rise out of the pool but dropped iTnthoe itto. p portion of root, thirty meters or more above their heads, was indistinguishable from the rock it clAunroguntod. it sparkled the

thousands of reflections from its mineralization.
"This is an old one," she said, craning for a good"Alovoekr.y old one."
The cavern walls were terraced up to where the root joined the Tcheielintegr.races were cultivated,
and thick fruit vines carpeted the waAlls.welcoming committee in brightly embroidered costumes smiled down at her from among the greeneArys. the three of them stepped from the passageway to the edge of the pool applause broke out and the chant of "Cris-ta, Cris-ta, Cris-ta" pulsed with the brightening light.
"Look at yourself," Ben said, over the din, "you're glowing."
It was trueE. xcept for where his hand held hers a light surrounded her Itbowdays.
not a reflection of
the glow of the kelp on her white skin and white dive suit, because the pulse of this light matched the throb of her own hearSt.he felt stronger with every beat.
"Thank you," she said, bowing to the cro"wThda.nk you allY. our hopes for a new Pandora will soon be fulfilled."
She stepped to the edge of the pool and became one with its emanation of white light and felt herself enter again the great heart of AvaIta.was as though she opened a thousand eyes throughout the world
and looked everywhere at once, and with some of these eyes she watched herself watching Avata at the pool.
She heard her voice rise to fill the cavern with a richness it had never held before.
"Fear is the coin of Flattery's realm," she announ"Wceed. shall buy out his interest in kind."
Images leaped from the pool's surface at the sweep of her outstretched arms and filled the cavern like quick bright ghostsH. er body swelled to its limit in the seas, and she reached her thousands of arms skyward in joy.

A gasp escaped one of the sentries, then a shout.
"The kelp!Look at the kelp!"
But no one had to go outside for a look, it was all played before them inside Tthherocuagvheorunt. the seas of Pandora the kelp reached its great vines high above the sCuorflaocrefu. l arcs of light bridged the gulfs between standsE. ven hylighters trailed great streamers of light from their ballast, providing a link between isolated patches of wild and domestic kelp alike.
Rico smiled through the dazzle of light and Crista realized the difference between the Rico she had first met and the Rico who had saved them on the bTehaicsh:Rico was happy.
"You're looking at Avata," he shout"eTdh. e kelp has risenL.ong live Avata."
Applause and exclamations of joy gave way to the heavy background rhythms of water-drum and flute.
"But how . . . ?"
Ben swallowed his question back, his eyes desperately trying to follow the display that surrounded him. A parade of ghosts from all over Pandora washed among the people in the cavern like a hologrammatic tide.
"Like the kelpways of the mind," Rico explained, "only it's no longer just a function of touch." Rico turned to Crista and took both her hands into hiTs hoewlnig. ht around them leaped even higher. "Though it seemed like moments, I was gone from you for years," "hIewsiatnide.ssed your life, my life,
Flattery's life.He buried a secret in his own body that would kill the kelp shouldIf hheisdihee.art stops
a trigger releases his stockpile of toxin worldwIitdew. ould paralyze the kelp in moments and kill it all off in hours.You see now we must isolate him, stop him, save him from his own igEnonrteanr cteh.e kelp.
Tell the world what you know."

Crista felt herself pulled to the edge of the pool, and a murmur swept the chamber when she stepped onto the thick root of keWlp.hat she felt in that instant was Sjohye. became the very force of life in all of those present, and she entered the being of a young Kaleb Norton-Wang.
In blinks the webwork greIwn. Oracles throughout the world people consulted the kelp and she entered the minds of them all as they entered her Iotwwna. s more a giving up of mind, a joining of the piece to
the whole.She felt as though she spun like a mote on a current of air, and filaments of light snaked out
from each of her cells into the woOrlnde.
of them, from the center of her forehead, reached beyond the
world to touch the faithful aboveFirto. m her perch aboard the Orbiter, she watched Pandora's seas become ashimmer with light.
So you see, Crista Galli, the voice inside her said, the severed vine regraIfnts yitosuelft.he parts are joined, and Avata is much more than the sum of its parts.
If you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill, take it and push it as far as it will go, push it beyond where it has ever been before, push it to the wildest edge of edges, then you force it into the realm of magic.
-- T. Robbins

Dwarf MacIntosh had the axis areas of the Obiter evacuated and sealed off, with the exception of a handful of volunteers from the fire crew who remained as his securityMfaocrcke.was sure that Brood,
when cornered, would resort to sabotage, so he instructed Spud to prepare separation charges that would blow the Orbiter free of the Voidship, if necesHsaeryw. as sure that Brood's focus would be Current Control, easily the most important and most sensitive installation in space.
With luck, he won't get both the ship and the Orbiter, Mack tWhoiuthghltu.ck, he won't get anything at all.
Mack had always hated the feel of a weapon in hisMhoaonndb.ase had taught all of them well, and his recent life in freefall gave him the advantage over Brood, but he didn't rise to the killing challenge as eagerly as some of his fellowMs.ack was older than the rest of his Earthling shipmHaetesh.ad trained a
lot of Voidship crews, finally gotten a flight of his own, at Flattery's request.
He didn't rise to the dying challenge anymore, eSitihnecre.
Beatriz had come into his life he had found he
wanted to live it more than evTehr.e prospect of facing Brood at the end of a lasgun struck a cold blow in his belly and set his hands to trembHlineg.gripped a handhold outside the main hatch to Current
Control and tested the latch.
Unlocked.
He and three of his men sealed themselves in full vacuum suits and tested the squad frequency in their headsets.
"Ready one," he said.
"Ready two."
"Three."
"Yo, four."

"Foam only, if possible," he reminded th"eWm.e didn't build all this to blow itRuemp.ember, the kelp hookups in there won't survive a vacuum, so we don't want a breach if we caBnlohwelpvaict.uum as a last resort.Two and three, you're right and lFefotu. r, I follow youC. heck?"
Three fists clenched aloft, though "aloft" to Two was upside-down.
"Now!"
Mack pulled the hatch free and they spilled into the room that had been home for him for the past two years. Two was hit before he cleared the hatch but Three, using him as a shield, foamed both of Brood's henchmen and they hardened to immobility in bliFnkosu.r tumbled to a ceiling position above Brood.
Brood himself sat calmly strapped into the control couch, his lasgun aimed idly at the GHridemaster. had not even donned a vacuum suit over his fatigues.
Mack hesitated, his complete attention caught in the sighting dot of Brood's lasgun, which rested on the brain that controlled all the domestic kelp in the world.
"Dr. MacIntosh, shoot your two men or this thing is history."
In the immediate few blinks that followed, Mack's mind unreeled some light-speed logic.
He's got to be bluffinIgf . he wipes out the Gridmaster, there's no way he or anybody else could live on Pandora a year from nowT.hat was when Mack realized that Brood didn't have to live on Pandora -- not if he had the Voidship Nietzsche.
But he doesn't have the NietzscNheo.t yet.

"I might add," Brood said, "that if I'm killed, your OMC is alsoWhiestocrayn. accommodate everyone, you see."
Mack saw the four techs reflected in a console pTahneeyl. ducked behind the next row of machines and were tracked by the muzzle of Four's lasgMuna.ck hoped it wouldn't come to thTaht.e men inside the
foam cocoons might survive if they were cut free soon, but a lasgun firefight -- messy, depressing.
Brood tapped the intercom on Mack's console.
"I left my man Ears back there to look after the YOoMu Cm. ight've noticed how young heNise.rvous, too. That's been a problem in the paYsot.u can ask your holo star what happens when Ears gets nervous. You OK back there, Ears?"
The voice on the intercom cleared its throat a couple of times before answering.
"Y-y-yeah, Boss, they're talking to me out thBeurte.I ain't listening."
"Making progress on the hookup?"
"Yeah."The voice was young and reed"yT.ech says two more hours, tops."
"You're hooking up the OMCM?"ack's voice sounded as incredulous to him as he"Wfelhta. t the hell for?"
"We might want to take this thing out for a little spin, Doctor," Bro"oNdowsa,ida.bout those two lumps of shit, hereI. told you to get rid of them."
"I won't do that, Captain," Mack said.

He unsealed his headpiece and set it aHsidee.sat in Spud's control couch and affected the same casual sprawl as Brood's.
"If you think I'm bluffing . . ."
"No, you're not bluffinYg.ou'll do somethingB. ut the Gridmaster is one of your aYceosu. 're not going to throw it away on something as trivial as my two men."
"They can leave."
Mack nodded to his men, and spoke into his headset.
"It's OK," he sai"dS. ecure the hatchT. ake these two and those four with you."
"They stay!"
"Everybody goes but you and me," Mack
"saYido.u knew it would be that way, anywYaoyu. r two
guards may have a chance, this wAayn.d the others, they wouldn't get anything done here until this is . . . settled. Am I right?"
Brood snorted his annoyance and waved them awThayey.
backed out, pulling the wounded behind
them, and Brood never wasted a glanHceis.
attention remained on the Gridmaster's many screens that
charted the worldA.
faint glow leaked out from behind the viewscreens, and Mack noticed a fine mist
spreading from his holo stage near the turret.
The mysterious spill of a distinct white glow leaked under the console and licked at the heels of Brood's canvas boots.A similar glow lighted the base of their holo stage like a small moon on Athe deck.
reflection of light on the plasteel bulkhead meant that the turret, too, was suffused with this glow.
The kelp, he thoughWt. hat could it be up to?

Brood's lasgun still pointed at the Gridmaster, and by its displays Mack saw that the grids had reformed, but into neat rows of convoluted wavEeist.her Brood didn't notice the glow, or he didn't know it was
unusual.
Something's overriding the whole system!
That, whatever it was, meant that the Gridmaster didn't mItatwtear.s merely a recording instrument, no longer a tool of manipulation.
"Did Flattery send you?" Mack asked.
Brood's face, not an unhandsome one, turned up a lopsided smirk.
"Yes," he said, "he sent me."
"And are you following his orders, blasting in like this?"
"I am following the . . . the intent of his orders."
"Why wasn't I . . . ?"
"Because you're part of the problem, Doctor."
Brood swung around to face him fully and Mack saw an age in his eyes that was much older than the boyish face that held themN.ow Brood's lasgun pointed at his cheTsht.e light continued its ooze from all
of the kelp linkupsA.
similar glow shimmered on each viewscreen behind the pale-faced captain.

The whole planet's lighting up, Mack thouIgthtm. ust be the kelp, but what could it be up to?
"My orders were to secure Current Control and keep the lid on the Tatoosh woman," Brood told him.
The man's voice was quiet, almost wis"tfWul.e were to keep Ozette out of the news, replace any of her crew as needed, accompany her up heTrhe.e Director thought she might try to -- influence you, thereby endangering the security of Current Control as well as the Voidship project."
"So, you terrorized her, executed her crew, murdered my security squad and are now prepared to destroy Current Control and steal the Voidship -- even Flattery won't buy this one, Captain."
Brood smiled, showing his fine, sharpened teeth, but his eyes remained hard as plasteel.
"Perhaps it is a family trait, this madness," he said, his voice rising with an "eYdgoeu thoavite.n't heard
the scuttlebutt, thenT. hey say Flattery's my father . . . whoever my mother was, she was one of his diversions back at the beginninIg.was the 'poor fruit' of that diversion, as some might say."
Mack was not as surprised at Brood's ancestry as he was by the cold anger with which Brood related it.
Hot anger stings, he thought, but it's cold anger that kills.
Mack started to speak but Brood's upturned hand stopped him.
"Spare me your sympathies, DoctoItr's.
not sympathy that I requiIre.am not the only one so privileged,
there are othersI.f he knows, he finds favor in me because I do not challengIfe hheimd.oesn't . . ."
A shrug, a pull at the Tlihpe.
ghost-light pooled his ankles.
"Others have not been so fortunaMtey.
mother, whoever she was, for exampTlhe.e Director requires

power and I require power, that is clOeanre.
way or another, I will have it."
"They've called a 'Code Brutus' down thAerree. you a part of that?"
Brood snapped out a laugThh.ose sharpened teeth sent a shudder down Mack's spine.
"I'm a winner, Doctor," he sa"iId.side with winnersI. can't loseI.f Flattery wins, then I've saved his Voidship for him, saved his precious kelpways, and I IfwiFnl.attery loses, then I've captured the Voidship and the precious kelpways to hold for the winner."
"What happens if one of the others asks your help?"
"Then we'll suffer a communication breakdown," Brood
"sTaihda. t's nothing new up here, is it, Doctor?"
Mack smiled.
"No, no it's noWt. e've been having that problem all day."
"So I noticedM. y men, they are new to these airwaves, but thoroWugeh.have monitored you here for quite some time -- for practice, you understaInkdn. ow you quite well, Dr. MacIntoHsho.w well do you know me?"
"I don't know you at all."
"I wouldn't say that," Brood sa"iYd.ou knew that I wouldn't blow the Gridmaster -- noYt oyuet.knew if I really wanted your men dead they'd be dead, and yourself along witTheltlhemme. what else you know about me, Doctor."
Mack stroked his chiLn.eakage from the body of the number-two man drifted close, globs of blood

floating with it like party decorationMs.ack kept trying to remember which of his men it was, but it wouldn't come to himB. ut Brood was in a talkative mood, and Mack tried to keep him at it.
"You've covered all bases," Mack sa"iIdf. you take the wrong side, you can always run off with the
Voidship -- provided you can muster a crew."
"I have you, Doctor," Brood smil"eAd.n original crew memberI. have the OMC, toAo.nd I'll bet that
you, a smart man and commander, would have a backup system -- probably something handy, like the
Gridmaster? Yes, a backup for a backup . . ."
Brood laughed again, more to himself this tHimee.reached out his lasgun barrel and nudged the blood globules enough to clump them together and push the glob out of reach toward thAe stumrereatr. of
dark blood glistened on the muzzle.
From somewhere deep inside his training-memory, Mack recalled one of his instructors telling him how clean a lasgun kill was, how the charge neatly sealed off blood vessels in its quick cone of burn through the body.In practice, as usual, this wasn't always the case.
Suddenly, the entire Current Control suite filled with overwhelming, blindingAligsthatb.
of pain
punched at both of Mack's eyes and he covered them reflexHiveelyh.eard Brood struggling nearby, bumping a bank of consoles toward the hatch.
"What the hell . . . ?"
Mack tried his eyes and found that he could see if he squinted tight enough, but tears poured down his cheeks, anyway. What he saw made his already racing heart race faster.
If light were a solid, this is what it would look like, he thought.
It wasn't bright now as much as it was all-encompaHsseingco. uld actually feel the light around hIitm.
wasn't heat, such as sunlight would deliver, but the pressurelike sensation of an activated vacuum suit.

Mack kicked off and made a grab for Brood's lasgun as he fumbled upside-down with the hatch mechanism. He missed the lasgunB. rood happened to open his eyes at that moment and the barrel snapped up to take aim between Mack's eyes.
"Doctor, you just don't get the picture, do Iyoouu?ght to cook you on the spot, but I'll waitI'da bit.
rather have you and your girlfriend together for Nthoawt.
you tell me what the hell is happening here."
A frightened voice came over the intercom:
"Captain Brood, we can't see in hTerhee.re's a light filling the OMC chamber, and it's coming from this brain . . ."
This was cut short by sounds of a struggle, and Mack assumed that his crew had penetrated the OMC
chamber. For the first time, Brood looked worried, perhaps even a little afraid.
"I don't know what's going on here . . ."
"Don't give me that crap, Doctor," Brood yelled.
A fine spray of saliva skidded into the air around his head.
"It must be the kelp," Mack explained.
He used the calmest possible voice he could muster.
"There are kelp hookups in here and in the OMC chamber."
An eerie, strangled cry came from Brood's throat, and the man's eyes widened at something behind

Mack's back.Mack grabbed a handhold and spun around, shading his eyes with his lefTt hheanbda.nk
of viewscreens that faced him seemed to be unreeling wild, random scenes from Pandora, some of them from the early settlement days.
"That's . . . those are my memories," Brood ga"sApleld.of the places we lived . . . my family . . . except, who is she?"
One face faded in and out, turned and returned and gathered substance from tMheaclkighret.cognized her right away. It was Alyssa Marsh, more than twenty years ago.
A soft voice, Alyssa's voice, came from all around them and said, "If you will join us, now, we are ready to begin."
A great hatch appeared in the light, and a thick stillness took over thNeotrhoionmg .else was visible.
The hatch hung in midair, looking as solid as Mack's own hand, but the pocket of light that contained them had solidified to exclude Current Control completely -- there were no deck, ceiling or bulkheads; no consoles, no sound, nothing but the haEtcvhe.n Brood's heavy breathing got swallowed up in the
light. Mack felt as though he were alone, though Brood was near enough toHteouwchas. reach out, just to make sure he was real.
Shadowbox, Mack thoughMt. aybe they've figured out how . . .
"What is this shit?" Brood ask"eIdf. this is some kind of kelp trick, I'm not fallingAfnodr doing, you're a dead man."
tempted to
if. it's your
Before Mack could stop him Brood fired a lasgun burst into theBuhtattchhe.
burst wouldn't stop, and
Brood couldn't let go of the weapTonh.e detail of the hatch intensified, and the hatch went through
dozens of changes at blink-speed, becoming hundreds of doors and hatches that peeled off one another.
The weapon became too hot for Brood to hold and he tried to let it go, but it stuck to his hands, glowin red-hot, until the charges in it were depleTtehdo.ugh he struggled to scream, with his veins bulging at his
neck and his face bright red, Brood did not issue a sWouhnedn. it was over, his eyes merely glazed and he floated there, helpless, holding his charred hands away from his body.

Mack heard nothing during this time, and smelled nothing, though he saw the flesh bubble from the man's fingers. Still, the hatch waited in front of hIitmh.ad first appeared as one of the large airlock hatches that separated the Orbiter from the VoidshNipo. w it looked like the great meeting-room door that he
remembered from MoonbaseE. very time Mack had entered that door it was to be briefed on some new aspect of the Moonbase experiment on artificial consciousnSeossm. e of those briefings had raised his
hair and bathed his palms in cold swTehate. door did not frighten him this time.
He did not doubt that this was an illusion, a holo of near peHrfecthioadn. been accustomed to working with fourth- or fifth-generation holograms, but this one feltThre ll.ight had been given substance.
"What did it take to do this?" he wondered a"lAoutdh.ousandth-generation holo?"
It was as though every atom in the room, in the air, on his breath had become a part oHf ethe screen. reached out his hand, expecting to pass through the illuHsieond.id notI.t was solid, a real hatcBhr.ood
was no longer nearbyL. ike the rest of the room, he had simply ceased Atoll bteh.at existed were Mack and the great, heavy doors dredged out of his Moonbase memHoreietsh.ought he heard voices behind the door.He thought he heard Beatriz there, and she was laughing.
"Please join us, Doctor," the soft voice ur"gWedi.thout you, none of this would be possible."
As he reached for the handle, the door changed once Iatgbaienc.ame the hatch between Moonbase proper and the arboretum that he visited so often throughout his lifeAthsearfee., plasma-glass dome protected a sylvan setting that he loved to walk throHuegrhe. at the edge of the penumbra of Earth's
moon he had strolled grassy hillsides and sniffed the cool dampness of ferns under cover of Hreiasl trees. mind, or whatever was manipulating it, must want him to open this hatch pretty bad.
The latch-and-release mechanism felt real against his paHlmes.activated the latch and the hatch swung inward to a room even brighter than the one he stoTohdisint.ime, the light did not hurt his eyes, and as he stepped forward a few familiar figures materialized from it to greet him.
I've died! Mack thoughBt.rood must've shot me and I've died!

To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light.
-- Carl Jung
The Orbiter's fire-suppression crew floated in their odd vacuum suits up and down the passageway outside of the OMC chambeMr. ost of them were women, as was the majority of the Voidship crew.
Each was equipped with a beltful of tools for bypass or forced entry, and several pushed smothercans of inert gas ahead of them as they patrolled behind BeAatlrlizo. f them had left their job stations to rally
against the threat of firOe.nly uncontrolled vacuum was more feared than fire aboard the space station.
The pithy jokes that they tossed among themselves through their headsets offset the nervousness that their eyes betrayed.
Beatriz had suspected from the start that the young security who had sealed himself inside the OMC
chamber was trying to get the OMC on-lTinhee.
firefighting captain who stayed with Beatriz was a
structural engineer named HubbardL.ike all of the fire-fighters aboard, Hubbard was a volunteer and accustomed to getting twice as much work done in half theHteimdee.ployed his crew according to their real-job skills.In a matter of moments all circuit boxes were opened, their entrails spilling into the passageway.
Four women positioned two plasteel welders, one at the hatchway, one at the bulkhead seam to the OMC chamber.The operating arm of the welder alone weighed nearly five hundred kilos, but here near the axis the only maneuvering problem was its bulk.

These women must've been up here from the start of the project, Beatriz Tthhoeuyghuts.ed their feet as
she might use her hands, and their vacuum suits had been adapted to accommodate their more dexterous toes. When she first visited the Orbiter she had thought that this skill came from a particular breed of Islander, but later visits proved otherwisMe.acIntosh himself exhibited great facility with his feet and
toes, and his vacuum suit reflected these changes, too.
"Buy us fifteen minutes," Hubbard was telling her, "and we'll be all over that guy."
"These guys killed my whole crew," she
"sTaihde.y joked about eliminating your whole security squad
and then they did
Bit.eing all over that guy in fifteen minutes won't be enough to save that . . . the OMC."
"How would you do it?"
Beatriz detected no challenge in his tone, just urgency.
"I helped Mack install some hookups to the OMC chaTmhbeerre.'s a crawlway that starts in the circuit panel in the next compartment and leads into the control consoles inside the chI akmnboewr. the way
and I can . . ."
"Shorty, here, can squeeze through some mighty tight spaces," Hubbard"Sshaeidc. an bypass their air supply and divert in CO-two . . ."
"No," she said, "that's too risIkty.won't hurt the OMC but I've seen people panic when their oxygen gets low.We want to keep these guys calm, they might just start shooting up everything in sight."
"You're right," Hubbard sai"dS. horty, tell Cronin to whip up some of his chemical mWageicw. ant this guy down and out in a blink, and anybody else that's witWh ehimwa. nt that OMC and the tech in operating condition when this is over, got it?"
"Check, Boss."

"Listen up, everybody," Hubbard sa"idS.et all your headsets to voice-activated fireground frequency
three-three-one." He made the proper settings in her equipment, then explained to Beatriz, "That way we talk and he can't listen, and we don't have to go through the intercom."
Beatriz noted the tools in Hubbard's jumpkit.
"Let me see what you've got there," she "sIaimd.ay be able to activate some of the sensors in the chamber through the intercom boIxt. would help to have eyes and ears."
She slid back the cover and a faint glow pulsed from inside tIht ewbaosxn. ot an electrical glow, the cherry-red simmer of bare wires or the blue-white snap of a short-cTirhcius itg. low was pale, cool, with a slight pulse that seemed to intensify as she watched. .
Hubbard's hand moved reflexively to a small canister at his belt, but Beatriz stopped him.
"It must be luciferase," she said, "from the kelp leads that we fed in here
Slahset yseler.c"ted a
current detector from Hubbard's kit and applied it to one of the fistful of unconventional kelp leads.
"Kelp leads?" Hubbard aske"dW.
hat the hell was he stringing . . . ?"
"Circuits made with kelp don't overload, and they have a built-in memory, among other Wfeea'tvueres.
done some experimentation with it at Holovision . . . OK, there's something here," she said, watching the instrument's flutter in her han"dI. wouldn't call it a current, exacMtlyo.re of an excitation."
When the bare back of her hand brushed the bundle of kelp fibers, Beatriz had a sudden unexpected
look at the inside of the OMC chamTbehre.
young guard stood across the lab from her, lasgun at the
ready, his eyes wide and clearly frightenBede.atriz watched the scene from two vantage poiOntnse.
was
halfway up the bulkhead behind the OMC, probably the outlet connecting with the hookups she held. The other was from about waist-height, facing the security, and she realized she was watching this scene from inside Alyssa Marsh's braiTn.he kid kept flicking the arm-disarm switch on his lasgun.
"Get inside," she whispered to Hubba"rGd.et someone insideH. e's going to panic and kill them all."

She gripped the bundle of kelp fibers tight in her fist and dimly heard Hubbard snap out orders to his crew. She felt herself drawn both ways through the fibers, as though she were seeing with several pairs of eyes at onceT. he sense of herself diminished as she flowed out the fibers, so she gripped a handhold on the bulkhead and forced the flow to come to her.
I can't let this go on, she thouItghht.as to stopO. h, Ben, you were so right!
It was nearly more than she could bear, but magnetizing aSshwe eklln. ew she could let go the fibers,
stop the headlong tumble down a tunnel of light, but her reporter instinct told her to hang on for the duration of the rideS.he raced through the hookups aboard the Orbiter and the Voidship, then felt herself launched toward the surface of PandoSrah.e tightened her grip and wondered who was moaning in the background, then realized that the moans were her own.
She was a convection center for the kTehlpe. pale-faced young security with the huge ears and filed teeth stood barely a meter from her eyes.
Alyssa's eyes, she thought, and repressed a shudId'veer. become Alyssa's eyes.
The tech's hands trembled as they worked, and with each new fiber glued in place the eerie glow increased.
"Brood didn't say this was supposed to happen," the kid said, more nervous th"aIsn tehvisern. ormal?"
"I don't know," the tech saBide.atriz heard the fear in her near-whisp"eYr.ou want me to stop?"
The kid rubbed his forehead, keeping his gaze on the BOeMatCri.z knew that he saw Alyssa Marsh's
brain being wired to some tangle of kelp-grown neurons, but it was Beatriz who looked back at him. Perspiration dampened his hair and spread dark circles from his underarms.
Fear of the situation? she wonderOedr. is he afraid of the OMC?

He was Islander extraction, there might be some superstition but physical abnormality itself would not scare him.A Merman would have a harder time facing a living brain, something an Islander would shrug off.
"No," he said".No, he said to hook this one up no matter Iwwhaist.h he'd answer us."
The kid flicked a switch on his portable messenger and tried again.
"Captain, this is Leadbelly, over."
The only answer was a faint hum across the airways.
"Captain, can you read?"
Still no answerL.eadbelly sidestepped to the intercom beside the haTtchhe.
near-weightlessness made
it difficult for him to keep his back in contact with the bulkhead as he went.
"What's the code for Current Control?"
"Two-two-four," the tech said, never looking up from her "wIto'srkv. oice-activated from there."
He fingered the three numbers and instantly the glow in the chamber intensified to a nHeaer-glare. armed his lasgun with a metallic sklick-click and Beatriz heard herself shoutN, o"!N" oj!ust as Shorty propelled herself like a hot charge out of the service vent and onto Leadbelly's shTohueldetercsh. shrieked and jumped aside, and Leadbelly shouted a garbled message into the intercom.
His lasgun discharged and for Beatriz the world slipped into slow-mSohteionsa. w the muzzle-flash coming directly at her, homing in on her as though pulled by a thread.

This can't be, she thought, a lasgun fires at light-speed.
It was such a short distance to the muzzle that the charge hadn't fully left the barrel yet when it hit the glow around Alyssa Marsh's braiBn.eatriz watched the lasgun sucked dry of power in less than a blink. Leadbelly screamed and struggled to fling the hot weapon from himself, but it had melted to the flesh of his hands.Shorty clung tight to Leadbelly with both hands and feet, spinning them across the center of the chamber. The charge triggered some reaction in the glow, and Beatriz found herself surrounded by it, curiously unafraid.
All was quiet inside this bright sphBereea.triz hung at the nucleus of something translucent, warm, suspended in yellow light.
This is the sensation that the webworks mimicked, she thought.
Beatriz found comfort in the familiar rush of some great tide in her ears and she felt, more than saw, the presence of light all around her.
The center, she thoughTt.his is the center of . . . of me!
A hatchway appeared and though she did not have hands or feet she flungThiteroepesnto.od her brother when he was eleven, his chest bare and brown and his belt heavy with four big lizards.
"Traded three in the market for coffee," he said, and thumped a bag down on the table in front of her. "You won your scholarship to the college, but I'll bet it don't covLeert thmise. know when you need
some more."
She had been sixteen that day, and unable to know how to thaHnke humrr.ied past her out the hatch, the dead lizards making wet sounds behind him.
A flicker of hatches raced past, each connected to the artery ofSoymeaersd. ead-ended at

years-that-might-have-been. She opened another, this time an Islander hatch of heavy weatherseal, and found herself inside her family's first temporary shelter on realItlawnda.s an organic structure, like the islands, but darker and more brittle than those that ran the seas.
Her grandfather was there, hoisting a glass of blossom wine, and all of her family joined him in a toast.
"To our busy Bea, graduate of the Holographic Academy and new floor director for Holovision Nightly
News."
She remembered that toasIt came on the 475th anniversary of the departure of Ship from PaItndora. had become an occasion for somber celebration over the years, with a place left empty at table. Originally this was intended to represent the absence of Ship, but in more recent times the gesture had become a memorial to a family's dead.
"Ship did us a great favor by leaving," her grandfather said.
There was much protestation at this remSarhke. hadn't remembered hearing this conversation years ago, but it pricked her curiosity now.
"Ship left us the hyb tanks, that's true," her grandfather"Bsuatidw. e went up there and got them down. And we got them down without any help from anyone or anything inside oTfhatht'semw. hat will raise us up out of our misery -- our genius, our tenacity, oursFelatetse.ry's just another spoiled brat looking for
a handout.You talk about ascension, MommWa. e are the ascension factor and, thanks to Ship, we will rise up one day to greet the dawn and we will keep on rising . . . that right, little girl?"
The party laughter faded and a single hatch floated like a blue jewel ahead of herI,t waistinligk.e many of the Orbiter's hatches, fitted into the deck instead of the buAlkchreoasds. the shimmering blue of
its lightlike surface the hatch cover re"aPdr:esent." She reached for the double-action handle and felt the cool satin of the well-polished steel in her pSahlme . pulled the hatch wide and dove inside.
She had the same sense of a headlong tumble, like her early clumsy progress in the near-zero-gravity of the Orbiter's axisS. he sensed everything about her as though she had a body, and that body was
hyper-alert, but she still saw no evidence of Sohnee. sensed others, too, not far away, and part of this
sense told her she had nothing to fTeahre.
translucence of the glow about her folded and thickened,
forming a shadow at her left shouldIner.a blink it precipitated into Dwarf MacIntosh.

"Beatriz!"He wrapped his arms around her and kissed "hNeor.w I know I've died," he laughed, "I must be in heaven."
"We haven't died," she sa"idB.ut we may have gone to heavSeonm.
ething's happened with the kelp
hookups. I know that I'm still holding onto them outside the OMC chamber, but I also know that I'm here with you . . ."
"Yeah, the kelp hookups and holo stage in Current Control got a glow to them, then the viewscreens . . . the whole world seemed to be shining down thAetref.irst I thought it had something to do with those
goons that Flattery sent up heNreo. w I think it has more to do with the kelp disturbances, the grid collapse. I think that your friend Mr. Ozette and Crista Galli are at the bottom of this."
"But how?We're in orbitT. he kelp we touch here touches nothing eIltsec.ould just be a psychic disturbance, but then you wouldn't be here with me."
"It's the light," Mack sa"idT.he kelp uses chemicals to communicate, this we've known for some time. Now we've taught it to use ligThht.at holo stage I built for experimentation -- it works perfectly, and all components came from the kelp, only the kelp has gone a few steps Tfuhrethkeer.lp takes pieces of
light, breaks them into components, encodes them chemically or electrically, then reproduces them at will. It's something I refined from what cryptographers used to call the 'Digital Encoding SYyosutemkn.'ow
more about holography than I do, you tell me what's going on."
"If you're right," she said, "if this is the kelp's holography, then it's learned to use light as both a wave an a particle.We can hug each other, yet we're just holo projections of some kindM, raiygbhet? the kelp
has found another dimension."
"Yes," a woman's voice said, "we are the reorganization of light andWsheardee.light goes, we go."
"Are you . . . Avata?" Beatriz asked.
A gentle laugh replied, a laugh like moonlight across flat Awattheirr.d figure began its mysterious materialization out of the glowIt. was a woman, as radiant as the light around them, and because of that

she was barely visibleB. eatriz recognized her immediately.
"Crista Galli," she gaspeSd.he looked around for sign of another figure, for Ben, but all she saw was the translucent sphere that held them.
"Don't worry, Beatriz, Ben and Rico are withAms ey.ou and Dr. MacIntosh are with the Orbiter crew. What they see now are the shells of our beings, the husks of ouWrsehlavtesw. e meet here is the being itself."
"But I can see you, hear you," Mack "sBaeida.triz and I actually touched."
Crista laughed again, and Beatriz felt a giggle coming that she couldn't suppress.
I am safe here, she thougBhrto. od, Flattery, they can't get me here.
"That's right, we're safe," Crista saBide.atriz realized then that thought was as good as speech in this strange place.Or is it a place?
"Yes, this is a placIte.is a who as well as a what and a wDhr.erMe.acIntosh, we have substance
because our minds have made a perceptual jump along with theThliignhgts. differing subconscious.Did you see a lot of hatches?"
change to accommodate our
Beatriz watched him hold out his hands, look down at his feet, puzzled.
"Yes, I did, but . . ."
"And one reminded you of something pleasant, so you opened it?"
"Yes, and I wound up here."

"So did I," Beatriz sa"idB.ut an earlier one led me . . . bBaacckk. to my family years ago."
"It was Avata's way of reassuring you," Crista "sIat idto. ok you to a familiar, comfortable plYacoeu. have been terrified latelyA. vata does not want your terroSrh.e wants your expertise."
"Expertise?"Beatriz swept a hand out to indicate their surro"uAndft.er this, what could I possibly offer?"
"You'll seeT. hink of this as Shadowbox, as the biggest holo studio in the world, with nearly the whole world as its stageW. e will put Flattery at its center, show him off to the Wwhoartldt.hen?"
"Stop people from destroying each other," Mack
"saTihde. y have not been able to get at him, so they
will destroy his engines of powIefr.they do that, they endanger all of us, Avata inclEuxdpeods.ing
Flattery might be more dangerous than you think."
"But look at our method," Beatriz s"aIitd's. incredibly powerfulI.t will appear as a message from the gods, a vision, a miracle."
"I saw light shimmering above all kelp stands from Current Control," Mac"kIs stahiadt. really happening?"
"Yes," Crista nodded, "it is."
"Then we already have the world's attention, riEgvhet?rybody must've stopped in their tracks to take a look."
"My people stopped long enough to enjoy the light show," someon"eThsaeiyd'r.e heading for Kalaloch with everything they have."

Another figure precipitated out of light, a muscular male figure with rTedhohuagihr. Beatriz had never met Kaleb Norton-Wang before, she realized that she knew his past nearly as well as Ahet rthoewn. same moment, she realized this was true of Crista Galli and Mack, as well.
Then they know me, too, Beatriz thought, and saw Mack's responding grin.
"We are part of Avata, now," Crista s"aOidth.ers float this drift, too, but we are Avata's ambassadors to our own kindY. ou, Dr. MacIntosh, believed me to be a manufacture of theUknetillp.this day I,
myself, did not know my originI so. we my life to Avata, my birth to humankind, and my allegiance to both. Are we all not of the same mind?"
Beatriz agreed". We are.Flattery must be stopped, the killing must sCtoapn. just another death squad?"
we do it without becoming
Beatriz paused, felt a surge of light within her and watched a replay of the encounter with Nevi on the beach. Then she discovered something interesting about being one with Avata -- all of them could talk at once and she could follow everything perfectly.
Kaleb said, "I can speak to all of my people, using the kelp . . . I mean, Avata, as you used it to beat
Nevi. Who could ignore a giant holo in the sky?"
"I didn't use it to defeat Nevi," Crista "sIaiwd.as merely a witnesAs.vata and Rico worked out a magic between them, but neither used the other."
"I stand corrected," Kaleb said, and bowed slig"hHtlyo.w are we to cooperate with Avata?"
"We initiated it by seeking contact with Avata in the firstEpaclahceo. f us has done that, for our own reasons, which we all now know," Crista explain"eWd.here there is kelp, Avata can project hoAloss.
you can see, these are being refined even at this moOmuernth. olo selves, here, can hug each other and we can feel it!"
"Our problem is Flattery," Mack sa"iHd.e has never been easily persuaded, and now that he's made an emperor of himself he believes only himself capable of rational deciAsinoyntsh.ing else is a threaHt.e is

paranoid, therefore it's a given that he's set traps of one kind or another to protect himself from attack. Remember, he's a psychiatrist, toHo.e can defend himself from both emotional and physical atTtahcek.
ultimate threat, of course, is that if he dies, Avata and, eventually, all humans dieWaes cwaenl'lt. have him panic and start lighting fuses."
"Why can't Avata just . . . capture him, as it has taken us?" Kale"Hb ea'sskneodt. the type to kill himself, and it would buy us some time."
"Flattery takes excruciating pains to stay away from the kelp," Crist"aHseaiwd.on't even have kelp-paper products in his compounHd.e must be drawn out to the kelp."
"Or driven out," Kaleb said.
"Or the kelp has to come to him," Beatriz"Msaaidy.be that's possibleT. here are the Zavatans . . ."
Yes, a voice that surrounded them said, Yes, the ZavSatuadndse. nly the light cleared around them and
Beatriz saw what was left of Kalaloch sprawled out, wounded, beneatShhehefrl.oated above the
settlement at a great height, with a comfortable sense of well-being that could only be wind buoying her.
"Ah, Beatriz, you have found the hylighter," Crista's voice"Lsaeitd.us all join hands in Avata and be with her, now."
Beatriz was vaguely aware of her existence in the Slhigehtf.elt Mack's hand on her right and Kaleb's to
her left, but the sensations she received were from her hylighter perceptions, and these steered her in a tightening circle high above Flattery's PreservTeh.ree more hylighters tacked her way, and each one
snapped its full sail in their traditional greeting.
She hovered directly above the blackened remains of the earlier hylighter expHlousniodnre. ds of people scrambled in and out of the cover of rubble, pressing in on Flattery's comMpaonuyndo. f them wore the drab fatigues of his own security forces.
"We must get to Flattery before they do," Crista"Isfaihde. 's killed, there may be no hope for Avata, no hope for any of us."

Beatriz valved off some hydrogen and dropped closer, tightening herThgoyureg.h certain of the combatants below pointed upward to her presence, none raised a weapon or fired on her.
Everyone topside is on one side now, she thoEugxphlto. ding a hylighter would be suicide.
She wondered whether Flattery had any faithful snipers in the nearby hills.
Now that she was only a few hundred meters above the compound she noticed dozens of people in orange singlesuits popping out of underground cover throughout the Tahreea.dozens became fifty, a
hundred, more . . . all Zavatans of the Hylighter SCwlaifntg. razers had fled the fire zone and scrambled into their burrows about the compound, and now the Zavatans were placing small orange flags at the entrances to these burrows.
They're showing the villagers the way into Flattery's bunkers, she thIofuwghet. can get inside first, we might be able to trap him.
"Excellent!" Mack's voice sai"dA. nd even if we don't, he has his seaward escape and we drive him straight into Avata."
The other three hylighters were immense, their supple tendrils dragging ballast nearly fifty meters below their gasbag bodies.
From this vantage point she had the opportunity to see the wildlife from Flattery's Preserve scattered at
the periphery of the scenTe.hey had been a luxury, these mysterious Earthside animTahlesy. and health care when people starved, but she did not regret their survival.
got food
The people will care for them at least as well as Flattery did, sheBtehnouwghats. shortage of food, just a very selective distribution.
right, there isn't a
She drifted low enough to the ground to make out individual Zavatans waving at her and shouting their

greetings. The tips of her two longest tentacles stung when they touched the wiThihitsopcsl.ose to the ground she found maneuvering nearly impossible, but felt no fear-sense from her hylighter host.
Fear not, human, the Avata voice sLaiedt. the ending for this spore-bag mark our birth together on
Pandora.
"What do you mean, 'ending'?"
Unlike humans, we crush ourselves under our own weight when grouWnidthedo.ut the ultimate fire our spore-dusts are trapped forever inside their shells.
"You mean, unless you explode your spores are sterile?"
Yes.Now, you see, we are already too low to recIovweirl.l live in you, noHwu. rry. The others, too, must hurry.Find each tentacle a hole, chase Flattery Aouvta. ta will . . . Avata . . .
Beatriz felt as though a ballast rock lay on her chest, she could barelyObnreeabthye.one her ten
tentacles found burrows marked by the Zavatans and began their twining into the depths of Pandoran stone. She heard the other three hylighters valving off their hydrogen nearby.
"What is this like for them?" she wondered to her f"riLeinkdes.a mother smothering a crying child to
save the village?"Then she was alive in the tentacIlet sw.
as like having ten sets of eyes, and the light that
grew from the dying hylighter turned a groping mystery into a warren of Ehoyrersorlso. oked back at her
-- eyes and tiny, needlelike teeth pulled back in a hissingSshnearpl.ushed forward and they attacked, biting off chunks of tentacle as she backed them further into the maze.
"I can't stand it!" she scream"eTdh. ey're biting my faceT!hey're horrible little . . ."
"Beatriz, listen to me."
It was Mack's voicMe. ack was nearby, but he didn't know what was down here, he hadn't seen these

little . . . things biting and biting, and down here she couldn't close her eyes because it seemed that the whole hylighter became eyes to her.
"Beatriz, talk to me," Mack sa"iDd.on't pull back, nowI.'m here, we're all here, holding hands in Avata.
We're holding hands in Avata and you're in the Orbiter, holding a kelp hDoookyuopu. you? I'm setting down beside you now."
The Avata voice spoke to hIet r.sounded like Alyssa Marsh.
feel me beside
Remember it as holding hands, even if you know it wasWn'ht esno.you tell the story, say that you all held hands.It is a symbol, these clasped hands, as the clenched fist is a sCyhmoboosel. which of these
you would pass downA. vata taught through the chemistry of touch, the "learning-by-injection" method, as some called iHt. umans keep their kind alive by symbols and legends, by myths.
She felt himS.he felt a bulk press against her own and the weight on her chest eSasheed coofufl.d breathe, and wondered whether hylighters breathed, too.
We are . . . more similar to you . . . than different, the presIenwceillsaeindj.oy a deep breath . . . when you are free . . . to take one.
The swiftgrazers kept at her, their little mouths biting, snatching off bits of flesh from her face . . .
From this hylighter's tentacles, the voice reminded her.
"I'm down."
This was Crista Galli's voice.
"Me, too," Kaleb sai"dL. et's kick some ass!"

The burrows were too narrow for the swiftgrazers to launch their typical swarming type of attack. Tentacles pressed them further into their burrows and all they could do was turn for a savage little nip every meter or soB. eatriz felt that she had snaked about half of the length of her tentacles into the ten burrows when they broke into the opWenh. at she saw there with her battered stubs of hylighter flesh
was a sight to make her gasp.
A blur of fast little animals streaked into a magnificent garden, a place so beautiful that Beatriz thought she must be in the throes of some hylighter death-viSshioen.heard cries and groans from the others as
they encountered the vicious swiftgrazers and she tried to comfort them by concentrating on the scene before her.
"You're close," she said, "don't give up, you're so close."
Her wounded stubs sniffed the blossoms thick in the green fMolioasgsee.s and ferns hung down the
black-glazed ceiling and carpeted most of the waSlhlse. could not stop the light from spilling out of her into the chamber, but she wouldn't have chosen to even if it had been possible.
She heard other screams, theSnc.reams of a man being shredded to boSnhee. saw him, an older man, flailing at the panicked swiftgrazers with a pruning Hroed.seemed to melt at first, then he toppled and his screams were muffled by hundreds of little bodies upon him.
A couple of big cats came to the Tfrhaeyy.
were bigger than dashers, stronger, but they were no match
for the tide of swiftgrazers that continued to pour from the thirty other tunnelsTnroeaorpbsy.raced inside from an opening across the lagoon, firing their lasguns and smoking up thTehepyla,ceto. o, were no match for the fury of the swarm.
A foil that must've been Flattery's fled beneath the surface of the pool, the splash of its crash-dive drenched the wallsT. here was nothing more she could do hReraet.her than watch the horror, she withdrew to Avata and to the comfort of the light.

Ferdinand of Aragon . . . has always planned and executed great things which have filled his subjects with wonder and admiration and have kept them preoccupOiende. action has grown out of another with such rapidity that there never has been time in which men could quietly plot against him.
-- Machiavelli, The Prince
Flattery heard trouble before he sawHeit. had secured the upper bunker system and moved his most trusted personnel to the smaller office complex adjacent to the GIrteewnsa.s cramped, but it met his needs and could not be penetrated from aboHveer.e he would have the luxury of waiting out the results of the fighting topside.
"If we sit tight here we can watch everything resolve around us," he tol"dFiMresartbau. rn themselves out, people get too tired or hungry to lift a weapon -- then we'll sort out wIhtow's ilwl hboe. dark soon. No one will want to be out there in the dark with a breached peDriemmeotenrs.."
He couldn't suppress a shudder and he supposed, under the circumstances, that it didn'Mt maratatter.
and the others were here because they knew him best and they shared his passion for leaving Pandora. They were all a little giddy after the quick move to his private Ibtuhneklepre. d that there were few claustrophobics on Pandora.
Flattery was pleased to see that, even though they were under fire, his people rallied even more strongly to his causeS. till, he double-latched the security hatch behind him when he returned to the Greens.
If we're required to stay down here for any length of time, I'll have to bring them in here,I'lhl e thought. put that off as long as possible.

Throughout his life on Moonbase, from his implantation in a surrogate womb to liftoff aboard the
Earthling, Flattery remembered no place that was private, unguarPdaerdt. of his training as a psychiatrist
had taken this into accounTt.he ultimate privacy was death, he knew this lesson well, and it was because
he knew this that he was designed to be the executioner of his
Wspehcoiews.as better trained than a
Chaplain/Psychiatrist to recognize the Other -- artificial intelligence, alien intelligeAnncde? who could be prepared better to deal with such a threat propeMrlyo?onbase had made the right decision, of this he was certain.Of this he was truly proud.
Pride comes before a fall, a voice said from the back of hHise hsehardu.gged it off with the shudder.
It was possible that he had erred slightly in this matter of tHhee kneelped. ed the kelp -- Pandora needed the kelp -- therefore keeping it alive was not so much a matter of prudence as Tnheecefsisrsit .
C/P on Pandora had ordered the kelp destroyed and that act had very nearly destroyed what remained of humanity and the planet itsePlfr.uning was risky, Current Control was risky, because there was always
more kelp than people to controlTietn.
years ago it had already gotten out of hand and he had been
forced to concentrate solely on stands that marked important trade routes around Pandora's new coastlines.
Then, five years ago, Crista Galli came into hiHs elifhe.ad suspected at the start that she was an agent
of the kelpH.
e should've known better, but this kind of wariness had kept him ahead of the kelp all
along. A chromosome scan of the Galli girl proved she was huHme'adn.had the tech who did the scan killed with the kelp toxin, and so began the rumors about the death-touch of CrisStaubGseaqlulie. nt adjustments to her blood chemistry provided opportunity for other evidence againsTthehseer. rumors
had suited his purposes better than entire legions of security.
A well-placed rumor along with some sleight-of-hand has immeasurable value in political and religious arenas, he thought.
Flattery was comfortable in spite of the conflict raging aroundInhfimac.t, he had to control his glee at the prospect of the aftermath.
This will adjust the population problem, he muOseldd. Thomas Malthus comes through again.
The survivors who opposed him would starve, it was that sHimephlea.d all the time in the world, all the

world's resources at his fingertipFs.rom his bunker he had access to three of the largest food bins in the world -- enough grain and preserved foods to keep five thousand people healthy for at least ten years. The Greens would not provide enough fresh fruit for everyone, but he and a select cadre could be quite happy there indefinitelyA. ll he had to do was wait it out.
His first warning of trouble inside his personal perimeter was a faint hissing that he heard above the wave-slaps in his pooAl. t the same time he heard high-pitched squeaking above him, then intruder
alarms went offM.
ost of his sensors topside were gone, destroyed or covered by rTuhbebsle, placed
in the dozens of swiftgrazer burrows, were not true visual sensors but presence-activated Fallaatrtmerys. summoned his caretaker and the squeaking intensified all around them.
"What is it?" Flattery aske"dIt. says 'level A activity.'"
"Swiftgrazers," the caretaker sai"dL. evel A is set for them, since they're the most common intruder into the fissures.This shows a lot of them, and deeper than they're usually found."
"This squeaking -- it's getting louder."
"There's a lot of them, all right," the caretakerHseaidst.udied the sensor scan and bit his prominent lower lip."And they're still coming this way."
"Trigger your trapsets."
The caretaker pressed a red spot on the scaTnnhe .hissing that had become squeaks now rose to high-pitched shrieks of anger and terror.
At that moment a few dozen brown swiftgrazers tumbled from a fissure above Flattery and to his right. They were uncomfortably close, spilling from above the hatchway to Flattery's bunker.
"You'd better clean these up heWree.
don't want them established --"

"They're still coming," the caretaker saHide. pointed further back to where there was obvious movement in the foliage against the w"aIl'll need some help here."
"We're not bringing any more people into the Greens than neceYsosauryt.old me it was safe to keep these rodents around, you take care of thNemow. !"
"Yes, sir."The older man sagged, sighed and armed his las"gTuhne. re's a lot of them," he said, "I'll need more charges."
A flurry of little bodies and shrieks caught their attention to the left of the pool, near the loading dock and
Flattery's foil.Behind them a bright, white light broke through the cover ofNfoerwns.Flattery could see a similar light approaching through the fissure above his hatch.
"I don't like this," Flattery sa"iWd.hat do your precious sensors say now?"
The caretaker flurried his nervous fingers across the face of his portable control unit.
"Dead," he said".Something's shorted out the power to all of the sensors."
Flattery heard the low-throated purr of Archangel behind him, and for the first time realized that it wasn't
merely a handful of swiftgrazers invading his gardInenb. links there were hundreds of theSmom.
ething
had whipped them to a fever pitch, and they displayed none of their usual wariness of humans.
"Start shooting," he said, his voice l"oIw'll. get some fire-power in here."
By the time he had undogged his hatch and signaled for help, the light inside the Greens was too great a glare to let him pick out anything but little blurs of movement across hHise phauthrr.ied to dockside and
secured himself inside the foil.
Flattery had started the foil's engines and begun his predive checkout when he realized he'd left the mooring lines securedH. e glanced up at the caretaker, who was firing wildly at shadows in the greenery,

and saw him suddenly disappear under a thick wad oIft fwura.s as though he'd slipped on a giant coat of swiftgrazers and then disappeareTd.he coat melted to the deck and disappeared, leaving only the man's weapon, bloody tatters of clothing and a scatter of fleshy Aborcnheas.ngel, too, was no match for them, and Flattery had his doubts about the five-man security squad beginning their sweep.
"Not even smart enough to shut the hatch behind them," he mumbled through gritt"eIdf theeyh.don't stop them . . ."
Flattery didn't have to dwell on the unpleasantness, he had plenty of evidence of swiftgrazer vengeance all around himT. he squad had pushed them back far enough that Flattery could make a dash for the mooring lines and free himself from the pHieisr. only escape now would be to dive out of the Greens and
wait. The light in the Greens was so bright that he could barely read his instIrtumneanrtlsy.
surrounded
the pool now and he was sure it was some kind of weapon that the Shadows were using against him.
"Rag-tag bunch of bums," he hiss"eWd.hy don't they leave well enough alonEev?en they must be smart enough to know I'll be off this planet soon."
As he flooded the dive compartments he thought he saw faces swirling in the light of the Greens -- Crista
Galli's face, Beatriz Tatoosh, Dwarf MacIntosh and some young fuzzhead that he didn't recHoegnize. shook his head and attended to his instrumeAntss.he settled beneath the surface of the pool he breathed easier. The foil's atmosphere was contrived, it was not the cool freshness of the Greens, but it was heaven now to Flattery.
His intent was to wait out the incident safely suspended in the waters of his personTalhelagfooiol nh.ad
full rations for six, enough to last him months, and it could continue to manufacture its own fuel and air supply as long as the membranes held Touhte.y were Islander-grown from kelp tissue in a method
perfected several hundred years ago, and had been known to last up to fifty years.
The light above him continued to intensify and the water began a rhythmic chop that alarHmeed him. had been reluctant to venture into open water now that the kelpways wereThdeowidne.a of picking his way through a tangle of kelp by instruments alone dried his mouth and he forced himself to slow his breathing.
"I'll head for the launch site," he told him"Tsehlef. nightside supply shuttle should be ready for launch in three hours."

He marked the time on his log and swung the bow of the foil Asehaewadardo.f him lay the vast coastal kelp bed and its infernal lights, blinking at him.
The beachside mortar . . . they didn't stump this stand as I ordered.
Somehow, the sight of blue and red flickerings across the depths ahead of him filled him with as much fear as the mysterious glare that backed him out of the GFrleaettnesr.y didn't like the feeling of fear.
What if they lob their charges in nIo'dw?be a dead squawk.
Out of habit, Flattery turned his fear to aggression and throttled himself into the kelp.
The going was much easier than he'd anticipaWteadt.ers off Kalaloch were quiet in spite of the loss of Current Control.That is, they were quiet except for a strange tidal pulse that pursued him from the Greens into open waterT. he uncontrolled kelp kept the major kelpway to the launch siteFolaptetenr.y attributed this to habit, or to perseverance of the last signal sent from Current HCeonwtraosl. well into
the thick of the stand before he realized his mistake.
Several things happened at once, any one of them enough to shake Flattery's resolve to regroup at the launch site.He ran out of fuel less than a kilometer from the perimeter of Itnhsetrusimtee.nts showed all
fuel-filter membranes functioning normallyB. efore the foil stalled out and left him adrift in the kelp, Flattery noticed that the CO2 in his cabin was higher than Tuhseuagl.as diffusion membranes were functioning, but seemingly in reverse.
I'm out of fuel, in the kelp, and my foil is filtering CO2 instead of O2 to the cabin.
He looked at these facts logically, hoping that logic would stave off the hysteria that bubbled at the back
of his throatH.
e could shuttle ballast as long as his power supply lasted, but if he had to maneuver by
battery he wouldn't last lonNg.o one responded to any of the undersea burst frequencies, and his Navcom sent back no signaIlt. was as though he floated in the center of a blackEvheoryleth. ing that went out from his foil was swallowed up.

It must be the kelp, he reasoneItd's. that.
fouled up our communications before, even the histories tell us
He regretted his leniency with the kIetlpw. as something that made his life easier, so he had let the explosive growth of this reportedly dangerous species continue beyond his ability to control it.
Couldn't herd people and kelp at the same time, he thought, and yawned.
CO2's getting me already.
The yawn frightened him into a flurry of activity, but the oxygen level in his cabin was already low enough to slow his thinking and his hanHdse. found that, even under electrical power, he couldn't nose any
further through the kelpB. lowing ballast did no good, eithIetr.simply depleted his already feeble batteries.
This damned kelp is sucking the life out of me!
He stabilized the foil at fewer than twenty meters below the sHurisfacines.truments refused to function, and visibility faded quickly as sunset tipped the scales toward Anirgohutn. d him, the kelp pulled back
from his foil and certain of the kelp fronds began toItglwowas. had filled the Greens just before he dove.
the same kind of cold white glow that
"This is some kind of Shadow sabotage," he grow"Yleodu.'ll all regret this!"
Within moments he was wrapped inside a sphere of light so bright that details inside the foil became invisible to himT. he glare continued to be bright even though he shut his eyes and covered them with his hands. Voices babbled like red music at the back of his mind.
A warning buzzer droned from the overhead panel and the automatic re"pCeabeidn: air unsafe, don airpacks."

How long had it been warning hHime? remembered, he remembered . . .
Light.
This was a woman's voice, someone he knew Bwuetll.it wasn't the Galli woman T. h.e. buzzer exhausted itself to an electric rattle and Flattery shook his head.
"I need air!" he gasped.
The sound of his own voice broke him free of the suffocation trance of the carbon dioxide.
Flattery clawed through a crew locker for his diveHseuidt.idn't bother with all of the fastenings, but tightened down the faceplate and activated the air supTphlye. Director's white hands trembled beyond his control, but at last he could breathe.
I've got to show them who's in charge! he thought.
His training always lurked inside, but something about adrenaline slung Aitnfroeeld. echoed in his mind":Stir a dasher, feed a dasher."
I am the dasher and I will strike.
Islander proverb
Flattery repeated this to himself a few times while carefully slowing his breathing.
"What do you want?" he shouted into the facep"Ilfatey.ou kill me, you'll dYieo. u'll all die!"
His breath fogged the plaz in front of him but it didn't diminish the cold white gInlarfeacatt, asl. he
looked closer at the beads of condensation on his faceplate he saw faces inside, hundreds of tiny faces suspended in translucence, one or more glittering inside each droplet.

Killing is your way, not ours.
That voice, inside his own head, chilled something deep in hisHebeclloyu. ld not mistake the familiar
Moonbase accent of his shipmate Alyssa MarSshe.
had been more than shipmate for a while, but hers
had always been a cool intimacByu. t it couldn't be Alyssa Marsh because she was . . . well, not dead exactly . . .
"What . . . what is going on here?"
The rasping that he heard across the cabin ceiling and around the foil could only be kTehlepy vines. snaked across the cabin plaz without diminishing the white radiance that pierced his eyelids, his retinas, his very beingT. he foil lurched, then its metallic skin shrieked as the kelp began to tearFiltatateprayrt.
hurried to seal his dive suHite. packs instead.
had already armed two lasguns, but he grabbed a couple of spare air
You may fight if you wish, Alyssa's voice told him, you will not bYeoukilwleidll. way.
not be harmed in any
"She had a terrible accident in the kelp" had been Flattery's official version of her bodyN'sodwemise. scenes from her life danced in the light around Ahnimd . he saw her great secrCeto. ol as Flattery was, it chilled him just the same.
Alyssa had slipped away on a long-term job in the kelp, knowing she could stretch six months of research in wild kelp beds to nine or ten months without any tHroeu'dblew. anted to be rid of her, she'd sensed that.If he knew she were pregnant he would destroy the child, of this she wHaes wsuoruel.d probably destroy her, tooN. ot one in ten thousand clones ever got the chance for aFlbaattbeyry. ,
Alyssa and Mack were very possibly the last living members of their original crew of 3,006, each one the clone of some long-lost donor.
The Broods took him, and Yuri he was caTlhleedr.e were no other children at this kelp outpost, so Yuri spent his first two years undersea with fourteen adults.

Flattery closed his eyes, retreated into himself.
It was just the once, his mind pleaJduesdt. the time . . .
"Do you think it's what I expected my body to do?" she asked.
The images stayed on the other side of his eyelids, but her voice came right into his mind.
How would I suspect, you didn't stick around . . . your work in the kelp . . .
Now the scenes came inside his heFaladt.tery watched as he personally "dismantled" Alyssa and he
himself performed the transplant to the life support surrogate and severed her brain forever from its body.
"All you have to do is consult the kelp," he heard Mack telling"YBoruo'olld.have your answer for sure, then. You can follow your genetic line back as far as you have the patience to follow."
"I know who my father is," Brood
"sIati'ds. him, Raja Flattery."
In one gigantic twist the foil ripped apart at the cabin seam and the sea burst in oWnhFenlatttheery.
pieces fell away from him the sphere of light remained, and more images danced across the surface of the sphere. He saw Nevi and Zentz captured at the beach, and Brood's attack on the AOrpbaitneor.rama
of disaster played out for him and he watched his precious Preserve go down in plunder.
All along the coastline huge whips of kelp flung themselves skyward and lit up the sea with their pale green glow.
You have much to learn, Raja Flattery, Alyssa Ysaoiud. are an intelligent man, perhaps even the genius that you believe yourself to bUel.timately, that is what will save you.

Something grabbed at his right ankle and he spun
Iatwgarya.bbed again and held, then pinned his arms
when he tried to batter at it with a spare airHpeacwkas already exhausted, and found himself in a dreamlike state that made resistance more work than it was worth.
As I told you the night you killed me, I don't think you understand the immensity of this being.
Beatriz watched Flattery's memory take over, and he broadcast the entire scene of Alyssa Marsh's separation from her bodyH. ole screens, viewscreens, kelp beds, the air and sky themselves lit up with Alyssa Marsh's memories of her final encounter with Flattery.
You owe me a body, she said, and she said it in that same flat, emotionless tone that had made her his first pick for this crew a lifetime ago.
The kelp began to enciliate Flattery, to encapsulize him inside a life-suppoItrt hpaodd.been the same with Crista Galli, as it had been with Vata and Duque befoBreeahtreirz. felt the cilia seeking out his blood vessels to adjust his oxygen level and OptHhe. rs would feed him, recycle his wastes and protect him from flesh-eatersS. he felt this as she sensed the world through the hylighter's skin.
Flattery had the show, and the whole world was watching.
So many things fail to interest us, simply because they don't find in us enough surfaces on which to live,

and what we have to do then is to increase the number of planes in our mind, so that a much larger number of themes can find a place in it at the same time.
-- Jose Ortega y Gasset
Twisp felt a moment of hysteria play flip-flop with his stomach as a sphere of cool light encompassed the young Kaleb.Twisp had sent a boy upcoast and now a man cameHbeachka.d known the boy's father
the day he changed from child to mSaund.denly that old sense of loss iced his spine, and he stood a little straighter at the poolside.
Kaleb's a lot like his father, he thouOgbhst.tinate, sure, outraged . . .
Kaleb's father, Brett, had been outraged at the sight of thousands of fellow Islanders stacked dead in a
Merman plaza, outraged that humans would murder children in their beds and parents at their prayers.
An entire Island, sunk!
Twisp had heard about the sinking of Guemes Island, he'd seen holos of the grim rescue scene, but Brett had seen the sledges of limp bodies, heard the rattle in dying throats.
As though picking up his thoughts, the bright surface of the sphere played back some of those moments, far clearer here than in his memory.
Other images played there, too -- nebulized, indistinct, as though making up their minds aboHuet being. saw in them replays of the scenes Kaleb fought with his pHeoephlea.d resisted the majority of his forces who wanted Flattery's bloodT. hey chose to move without him, and Kaleb stood up to them.
"You're willing to die in battle anyway," he told "tWhemhy.
not die feeding the poor?"

He was sending an army against Flattery, all right -- an army of angels laden with food.
"Everything stops until everyone eats," was written on each pilgrim's shirt as they set out by the hundreds for the camps.
Twisp had renewed confidence that Kaleb's hatred of the Director would not turn the boy into another
Flattery.
He's not a boy, he reminded himself, and he's safe in HAisvamta.other saw to that.
Twisp remembered the time when he had needed convincing himself, when it was Kaleb's mother, Scudi Wang, who first thrust him into the kelpways of the Hmeinr df.ace came up in the sphere and it was the smiling face of the precocious teenager that Twisp remembered so well.
How could Brett not have loved her?
Twisp tugged his gray braid that tickled his
Innectkh.e halo around Kaleb more images precipitated out
of the lightT. hey all seemed to be people he knew, and they all had one other thing in common.
They're all dead!
He heard a whimper behind him that must be Mose.
In that moment Kaleb became a bright shadow inside a brighter sphere, and he seemed to hover above the pool rather than float uponTiht.e manifestations, the flickering images around him, recited a few
scenes from their pastsT. wisp was awed, but not afraid.
Everything swam in a pale radiance that pulsated slightly, like a child's fAontsainmeill.ar pulse began to beat in the wave-slaps around the rim of the Tpohoel.onlookers had ceased their chatter and begun
their chant of renewaIl.t was a call-and-response chant, typical at blossom-time, an improvisation on an old theme that Twisp had heard his grandparents sing.

"Open the leaves . . ."
" . . . and the blossoms, open . . ."
Kaleb was no longer visible inside the lTighhet. light now was brighter than anything Twisp had experienced, but this cool brightness did not hurt his Ienydeese. d, he could not take his gaze from its hypnotic spell.
"It's everywhere," a tremulous voice shouted from the caver"nTtohpe.re's light on the waves, in the sky .
. . everywhere."
Twisp recognized this breathless voice as Snej, the young assistant at Operations.
"And there are pictures in the light," another gasped, "just like this, only it covers the whole sky!"
When a great light took over the whole cavern, it became impossible for Twisp to make out the faces of his fellow ZavatansE. ven Mose, as close as he was, became just another light inside the light.
Snej's voice came to him again, bell-like in its joy.
"Crista Galli is safe," she announc"eTdh. ey are all safeT.he fighting is at a standstill."
The bright sphere in front of Twisp unreeled the tideline drama of Ben and Crista Galli and their
near-fatal encounter with Zentz and Spider NeIvt i.seemed to Twisp that the event was more than visual. Though it must've taken up nearly an hour of real time, the scene was communicated to him in a matter of blinks.A cheer filled the cavern when Spider Nevi fell, and the images on the sphere shifted to another cavern, and to the terrified face of the Director.

All fell silent at the sight of Flattery, except for a few angry mutterings across the pool.
"Is this a miracle, Elder?"
"Flattery's being driven out," Twisp sa"iId'd.
say that was more inevitability than miraAclvea.ta has
decided that it's time to meet the Director."
The brightness inside the Oracle spread out from the sphere to bathe each oTbhservdearr.kest of them was a dazzle of light against light.
"Look, Elder!"
Twisp watched Mose lift his arms as though flying, and streams of thick white light pulsed from his fingertips to join with other light nearTbyh.ough it was impossible for him to see detail, Twisp watched these same streams of light merge with others in mHideairw. as reminded of the time as a child when a cell bioarchitect visited his creche to show his classmates many woOndneers.of these was a blowup
holo of cytoplasmic streaming, of an amoeba pumping parts of itself into other parts of itself in order to move, to capture and digest prey.
"What are we, here?" he wondered alo"uPdre. dator or prey?"
The answer came in a rush that rocked Twisp back on his heels.
You are brother to me, as I am sibling to you.
His long arms shot out over the pool for baAlanhcea.nd reached out of the light and gripped his own.
The grip felt real, the hand, wKeat.leb stepped from the kelp root to the rim of the pool and kept a hold on Twisp's handT. he cavern around them was a din of babble as the Zavatans consulted Avata and each other. They encountered spirits of their ancestors that Avata released from the prisons of their genetic code.

"Let us join hands and thank Avata," Kaleb announHciesd.voice took on a new projection that stilled the babble but did not shock the ears.
"Avata has dismembered the monster that Flattery built out of our people and has taken him prisoner. He will be reeducated, as we have been, in the inviolable rights that the living haTveontioghlti,fe.
everyone will eatH. umans are through suffering at the hands of fellow humans."
Everyone in the cavern linked hands, and the light flowed through them from the pool and then flowed
back. Figures and faces, bits of imagery tumbled along the brightening stGreaasmps. cries of delight filled the chamber.
of wonder and
Then the cavern itself dissolved from viCewei.ling, walls, the rock beneath their feet were no longer
visible. All Twisp could see was a serpentine of people holding hands surrounded by something he could only describe as a light-misAt.ll Pandorans were linked with this group and they all stood together on an immense plain of lighIt.t was warm there, and for once there was no fear of demons, or security, or hunger.
Twisp withdrew quietly from the poolside celebration, found his robe in his quarters and sought out his favorite rock overlook above Kalaloch.
Below Twisp's rock outcrop the night air clarified against a glisten Aonf soelad. tracked vehicle clanked its stubborn way up the trail and at first Twisp's reflexes tigAhteCneuds.hette followed the track, both vehicles piled high with belongings and wallowing with the Tehffeosret. people were already leaving Kalaloch, bound for something better with their bedding and their hope.
"Welcome," Twisp whisperedH. is attitude was exuberant, but his body exhausted.
They will be all right, he marveled.
He thought first of Kaleb, who had left his bitterness behind him in the kelp, who would soon enough bring the grandchildren of Brett and Scudi to hear stories at their uncle Twisp's knee.
He could guess how it would be for the rest from what he'd seen in the kelp.

Ben and Crista were a match made on Pandora, but sealed in Avata, and they would help develop opportunities to improve the lives of Pandorans for many decades to Tcwomisep. had a feeling, when
the light penetrated him, that Rico and Snej would take up housekeeping somewhere nearby.
The Voidship Nietzsche, with Alyssa Marsh at the helm, would speed Mack and Beatriz beyond the limits of light-contact with PandorIat. would take the humans and their new-found symbiote, Avata, to another world, which, if not perfect when they discovered it, would make humans happy with the work toward perfection.
Some new insight told Twisp that Yuri Brood would receive a reprieve aboard the Nietzsche and would acquire the necessary spirituality by tending his mother, the OMC Alyssa MTharroshu.gh the kelp
hookups, Alyssa Marsh had found her new body and herHesor ns.on would write out the musings of this OMC, which would become the manual for human behavior for generations -- A Sociology of Ascension. Their shipload of pilgrims would people a new star, and the sea of a planet of that star.
Raja Flattery would live on in the kelp, his needs met, a prisoner of his own selfishness and greed. People would meet him there from time to time, and legends of him would prevail throughout the generations.
Though Pandora's days were numbered, Twisp would live his days out roaming Pandora, working hard
to improve the lot of everyonHee. happy for that.
knew now that he would not be the one to see the end, and was
I'll be known as "the old man of the high reaches," I suppose, Twisp mused.
All was quiet in the settlement belTohwe.
glow that had swelled out of the sea and encompassed
Kalaloch now sank back to the sAea.cool shimmer remained, ghostlike, at the surfTacwe.o moons and
a skyful of stars beamed down on Twisp's gray hAenado. ccasional cheer broke the silence, and Twisp listened as the tinkling sounds of nighttime laughter rent the ancient cloak of death and fear.