A Deepness in the Sky

Her smile blazed for an instant, and then she forced her enthusiasm down with a visible effort. "I-I was over at Hammerfest. Podmaster Nau wanted me to check out the coldsleep gear before they move it toFarTreasure. I...I saw Mama, Ezr. I could see her face through the transp. I could see her slow-breathe."

Benny said, "Don't worry, kid. We'll...Things will be okay for both your mom and pop."

"I know. That's what Podmaster Nau told me, too."

He could see the hope in her eyes. So Nau was making vague promises to her, becoming poor Qiwi's lifeline. And some of the promises might even be true. Maybe they would finally cure her father of their damn war disease. But armsmen like Kira Pen Lisolet would be terribly dangerous to any tyrant. Short of a counterambush, Kira Lisolet might sleep for a long, long time...Short of a counterambush.His glance flickered across to Benny. His friend's stare was completely blank, a return to the earlier opacity. And suddenly Ezr knew that there really was a conspiracy. In a few Msecs at most, some among the Qeng Ho would act.

I can help; I know I can.The official coordination of all Emergent orders passed through Ezr Vinh. If he were on the inside...But he was also the most closely watched of all, even if Tomas Nau had no real respect for him. For a moment, fury rose in Ezr. Benny knew he wasn't a traitor—but there was no way he could help without giving the conspiracy away.

The Qeng Ho temp had escaped the ambush without a scratch. There had not even been pulse damage; before they maimed the local net, the Emergents had a great time mining the databases there.

What was left worked well enough for routine ops. Every few days, a few more people were added to the temp's population. Most were Emergents, but some were low-rank Qeng Ho released from coldsleep detention. Emergents and Qeng Ho, they all looked like refugees from disaster. There was no disguising the damage the Emergents had suffered, the equipment they had lost.And maybe Trixia is dead. The "Focused" were kept in the Emergents' new habitat, Hammerfest. But no one had seen any of them.

Meantime, conditions in the Qeng Ho temp slowly got worse. They were at less than one-third the temp's design population, yet systems were failing. Part of it was the maimed automation. Part of it—and this was a subtle effect—was that people weren't doing their jobs properly. Between the damaged automation and the Emergents' clumsiness with life-systems, the other side hadn't caught on. Fortunately for the conspirators, Qiwi spent most of her time off the temp. Ezr knew she could have detected the scam instantly. Ezr's contribution to the conspiracy was silence, simply not noticing what was going on. He moved from petty emergency to petty emergency, doing the obvious—and wondering what his friends were really up to.

The temp was actually beginning to stink. Ezr and his Emergent assistants took a trip down to the bactry pools at the innermost core of the temp, the place where Apprentice Vinh had spent so many Ksecs...before. He would give anything to be an apprentice forever down here, if only it would bring back Captain Park and the others.

The stench in the bactry was worse than Ezr had known outside of a failed school exercise. The walls behind the bio-weirs were covered with soft black goo. It swayed like old flesh in the breeze of the ventilators. Ciret and Marli retched, one barfing inside his respirator. Marli gasped out, "Pus! I'm not putting up with this. We'll be just outside when you're done."

They splashed and spattered their way out, and the door sealed. And Ezr was alone with the smells. He stood for a moment, suddenly realizing that if he ever wanted to be completely alone, this was the place!

As he started to survey the contamination, a figure in goo-spattered waterproofs and a respirator drifted out from the filth. It raised one hand for silence, and passed a signals unit across Vinh's body. "Mmph. You're clean," came a muffled voice. "Or maybe they just trust you."

It was Jimmy Diem. Ezr almost hugged him, bactry shit and all. Against all odds, the conspiracy had found a way to talk to him. But there was no happy relief in Diem's voice. His eyes were invisible behind goggles, but tension coiled in his posture. "Why are you toadying, Vinh?"

"I'mnot ! I'm just playing for time."

"That's what...some of us think. But Nau has laid so many perks on you, and you're the guy we have to clear every little thing with. Do you really think you own what's left of us?"

That was the line that Nau pushed even now. "No!Maybe they think they've bought me, but...Lord of Trade, sir, wasn't I a solid crewmember?"

A muffled chuckle, and some of the tension seemed to leave Diem's shoulders. "Yeah. You were a daydreamer who could never quite keep his eye on the ball"—words from familiar critiques, but spoken almost fondly—"but you're not stupid and you never traded on your Family connections....Okay, Apprentice, welcome aboard."