A Deepness in the Sky

On the wall behind him a light grew and grew, shifted slowly sideways. A taxi was approaching the docking bay. The light slid around the curve of the wall, and a second later there was a mutedkchunk. Shallow ripples chased out across the fabric from the docking cylinder. The lock pumps kicked in. Here, their whine was louder than at the dock entrance itself. Ezr hesitated. The noise was enough to mask their conversation from the gang boss.Sure, and any surveillance bugs could hear through the racketbetter than our own ears. So when he spoke, it was not a conspiratorial murmur, but loud against the racket of the pumps. "Benny, lots has happened. I just want you to know I haven't changed. I'm not—"I'm not atraitor, damn it!

For a moment, Benny's expression was opaque...and then he suddenly smiled. "I know, Ezr. I know."

Benny led him along the wall in the general direction of the rest of his work crew. "Let me show you the other things that we are up to." Ezr followed as the other pointed to this and that, described the changes the Emergents were making in the dock protocols. And suddenly he understood a little more of the game.The enemy needs us, expects to be working us foryears. There's lots we can say to each other. They won't kill us for exchanginginformation to get their jobs done. They won't kill us for speculating aboutwhat's going on.

The whine of the pumps died. Somewhere beyond the plastic of the docking cylinder, people and cargo would be debarking.

Wen swung close to the open hatch of a utility duct. "They're bringing in lots of their own people, I hear."

"Yes, four hundred soon, maybe more." This temp was just some balloons, inflated a few Msecs earlier, upon the fleet's arrival. But it was large enough for all the crews that had been packed as corpsicles for the fifty-light-year transit from Triland. That had been three thousand people. Now it held only three hundred.

Benny raised an eyebrow. "I thought they had their own temp, and better than this."

"I—" The gang boss was almost within earshot.But this isn't conspiracy. Lord of Trade, we have to be able to talk about our jobs. "I think they lost more than they're letting on."I think we came within centimeters ofwinning, even though we were ambushed, even though they had knocked usdown with their war disease.

Benny nodded, and Ezr guessed that he already knew. But did he know this: "That will still leave a lot of space. Tomas Nau is thinking of bringing more of us out of coldsleep, maybe some officers." Sure, the senior people would be more of a risk to the Emergents, but if Nau really wanted effective cooperation...Unfortunately, the Podmaster was much less forthcoming about the "Focused."Trixia.

"Oh?" Benny's voice was noncommittal, but his gaze was suddenly sharp. He looked away. "That would make a big difference, especially to some of us...like the little lady I have working in this duct." He stuck his head partway through the hatch and shouted. "Hey, Qiwi, are you done in there yet?"

The Brat? Ezr had only seen her two or three times since the ambush, enough to know she wasn't injured and not a hostage. But more than most, she had spent time outside of the temp and with the Emergents. Maybe she just seemed too young to be a threat. A moment passed; a tiny figure in a screwball harlequin outfit slipped out of the duct.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm all done. I strung the tamperproof all—" She saw Ezr. "Hi, Ezr!" For once, the little girl did not swarm on him. She just nodded and kind of smiled. Maybe she was growing up. If so, this was the hard way to do it. "I strung it all the way past the locks, no problem. You gotta wonder why these guys don't just use encryption, though." She was smiling, but there were dark shadows around her eyes. It was a face Ezr would expect in someone older. Qiwi stood in the relaxed crouch of zero gee, with one checkered boot slipped under a wall stop. But she held her arms close at her sides, her hands clasping her elbows. The expansive, grabbing and punching little monster of before the ambush was gone. Qiwi's father was one of the still-infected, like Trixia. Like Trixia, he might never come back. And Kira Pen Lisolet was a senior armsman.

The little girl continued talking about the setup inside the duct. She was well qualified. Other children might have toys and games and playmates; Qiwi's home had been a near-empty ramship, out between the stars. That long alone-time had left her on the verge of being several kinds of specialist.

She had several ideas for how they might save time with the cable-pulling the Emergents required. Benny was nodding, taking notes.

Then Qiwi was on a different topic. "I hear we're gonna have new people in the temp."

"Yes—"

"Who? Who?"

"Emergents. Then some of our own people, I think."