A Deepness in the Sky

Their flyer switched to fans and trundled across the city, slowly descending. The sun was very low, and the streets were mostly in twilight. But every kilometer the streets seemed narrower. Custom composites gave way to cubes that might have once been cargo containers. Sammy watched grimly. The First Settlers had worked for centuries to create a beautiful world; now it was exploding out from under them. It was a common problem in terraformed worlds. There were at least five reasonably painless methods of accommodating the terraform's final success. But if the First Settlers and their "Forestry Department" were not willing to adopt any of them...well, there might not be a civilization here to welcome his fleet's return. Sometime soon, he must have a heart-to-heart chat with members of the ruling class.

His thoughts were brought back to the present as the flyer dumped down between blocky tenements. Sammy and his Forestry goons walked through half-frozen slush. Piles of clothing—donations?—lay jumbled in boxes on the steps of the building they approached. The goons detoured around them. Then they were up the steps and indoors.

The cemeterium's manager called himself Brother Song, and he looked old unto death. "Bidwel Ducanh?" His gaze slid nervously away from Sammy. Brother Song did not recognize Sammy's face, but he knew the Forestry Department. "Bidwel Ducanh died ten years ago."

He was lying.He was lying.

Sammy took a deep breath and looked around the dingy room. Suddenly he felt as dangerous as some fleet scuttlebutt made him out to be.Godforgive me, but I will do anything to get the truth from this man. He looked back at Brother Song and attempted a friendly smile. It must not have come out quite right; the old man stepped back a pace. "A cemeterium is a place for people to die, is that right, Brother Song?"

"It is a place for all to live to the natural fullness of their time. We use all the money that people bring, to help all the people who come." In the perverse Triland situation, Brother Song's primitivism made a terrible kind of sense. He helped the sickest of the poorest as well as he could.

Sammy held up his hand. "I will donate one hundred years of budget to each of your order's cemeteria...if you take me to Bidwel Ducanh."

"I—" Brother Song took another step backwards, and sat down heavily. Somehow he knew that Sammy could make good on his offer. Maybe.... But then the old man looked up at Sammy and there was a desperate stubbornness in his stare. "No. Bidwel Ducanh died ten years ago."

Sammy walked across the room and grasped the arms of the old man's chair. He brought his face down close to the other's. "You know these people I've brought with me. Do you doubt that if I give the word, they will take your cemeterium apart, piece by piece? Do you doubt that if we don't find what I seek here, we'll do the same to every cemeterium of your order, all over this world?"

It was clear that Brother Song did not doubt. He knew the Forestry Department. Yet for a moment Sammy was afraid that Song would stand up even to that.And I will then do what I must do. Abruptly, the old man seemed to crumple in on himself, weeping silently.

Sammy stood back from his chair. Some seconds passed. The old man stopped crying and struggled to his feet. He didn't look at Sammy or gesture; he simply shuffled out of the room.

Sammy and his entourage followed. They walked single-file down a long corridor. There was horror here. It wasn't in the dim and broken lighting or the water-stained ceiling panels or the filthy floor. Along the corridor, people sat on sofas or wheeled chairs. They sat, and stared...at nothing. At first, Sammy thought they were wearing head-up-displays, that their vision was far away, maybe in some consensual imagery. After all, a few of them were talking, a few of them were making constant, complicated gestures. Then he noticed that the signs on the walls werepainted there. The plain, peeling wall material was simply all there was to see. And the withered people sitting in the hall had eyes that were naked and vacant.