A Deepness in the Sky Part 8

Ezr had latched on to a spot near the ceiling. Without huds, the only view was through the room's wallpaper. Hanging from here, he could see the three most interesting windows-at least when other people weren't coasting across his line of sight. One was a full-disk view of the OnOff star. Another window looked out from one of the microsats in low orbit around the OnOff star. Even from five hundred kilometers, the star's surface did not look threatening. The view might have been from an aircraft flying over a glowing cloud deck. If it weren't for the surface gravity, humans could almost have landed on it. The "clouds" slid slowly past the microsat's view, glimmers of glowing red showing up between them. It was the sullen red of a brown dwarf, a black-body redness. There was no sign of the cataclysm that was due to arrive in another. . .six hundred seconds.

Nau and his senior flight technician came up to join Ezr. Brughel was nowhere to be seen. You could always tell when Nau wanted mellow feelings-just check for the absence of Ritser Brughel. The Podmaster grabbed a spot next to Vinh. He was smiling like some Customer politician. "Well, Fleet Manager, are you still nervous about this operation?"

Vinh nodded. "You know my committee's recommendation. For this Relight, we should have moved the volatiles behind a single rock and taken it further out. We should be in the outer system for this." The s.h.i.+ps of both fleets and all the habitats were moored to one side of the largest diamond rock. They would be s.h.i.+elded from the Relight, but if things started s.h.i.+fting . . .

Nau's technician shook his head. "We've got too much on the ground here. Besides, we're running on empty; we'd have to use a lot of our volatiles to go flying around the system." The tech, Jau Xin, looked almost as young as Ezr. Xin was pleasant enough, but did not have quite the edge of competence that Ezr was used to in senior Qeng Ho. "I've been very impressed by your engineers." Xin nodded at the other windows. "They're much better than we would be at handling the rockpile. It's hard to see how they could be this sharp without zip . . ." His voice trailed off. There were still secrets; that might change sooner than the Emergents expected.

Nau smoothly filled the pause in Xin's speech. "Your people are good, Ezr. Really, I think that's why they complained about this plan so much; they aim for perfection." He looked out the window on the OnOff star. "Think of all the history that comes together here."

Around and below them, the crowd was cl.u.s.tered into groups of Emergents and Qeng Ho, but discussion was going on in all directions. The window on the far wall looked out onto the exposed surface of the rockpile. Jimmy Diem's work crew was spreading a silvery canopy over the tops of icy boulders. Nau frowned.

"That's to cover the water ice and airsnow, sir," said Vinh. "The tops are in line of sight of OnOff. The curtains should cut down on boil-off."

"Ah." Nau nodded.

There were more than a dozen figures out there on the surface. Some were tethered, others maneuvered free. Surface gravity was virtually non-existent. They sailed the ties over the tops of the icy mountains with the ease of a lifetime of outside operations-and millennia of Qeng Ho experience beyond that. He watched the figures, trying to guess who was who. But they wore thermal jackets over their coveralls, and all Vinh could see were identical forms dancing above the dark landscape. Ezr didn't know the details of what the conspiracy planned, but Jimmy had set him certain errands and Ezr had his guesses. They might never have an opportunity this good again: They had access to the ejets aboard the Brisgo Gap. Brisgo Gap. They had almost unlimited access to the outside, in places free of Emergent observers. In the seconds following the Relighting, some chaos was to be expected-and with Qeng Ho in charge of the stationkeeping operation, they could fine-tune that chaos to support the conspiracy. They had almost unlimited access to the outside, in places free of Emergent observers. In the seconds following the Relighting, some chaos was to be expected-and with Qeng Ho in charge of the stationkeeping operation, they could fine-tune that chaos to support the conspiracy. But all I can dois stand here with Tomas Nau. . .and be a good actor. But all I can dois stand here with Tomas Nau. . .and be a good actor.

Ezr smiled at the Podmaster.

Qiwi Lisolet flounced out of the airlock in a rage. "d.a.m.n! d.a.m.n and f.u.c.k d.a.m.n and-" She swore up and down as she ripped off her thermal jacket and pants. Somewhere in the back of her mind she made a note to spend more time with Gonle Fong. Surely there must be more offensive things she could say when things got this messed up. She threw the thermals into a locker and dived down the axis tunnel without taking off her coveralls and hood.

Lord of Trade, how could they do this to her? She'd been kicked indoors to stand around with her finger up her nose, while the work she she should be doing was taken over by Jimmy Diem! should be doing was taken over by Jimmy Diem!

Pham Trinli floated thirty meters above the insulation canopy they were tying across the iceberg. Trinli was official head of stationkeeping operations, though he made sure that any orders he gave were bl.u.s.tery generalities. It was Jimmy Diem who made most things happen. And surprisingly, it was little Qiwi Lisolet who had the best ideas about where to place the electric thrusters and how to run the stationkeeping programs. If they had followed all her recommendations, the Relight might go without a hitch.

And that would not be a good thing at all.

Pham Trinli was a member of the "great conspiracy." A very minor member, and not to be trusted with any critical part of the plan. All that was fine with Pham Trinli. He tipped around so that now his back was to the moonlike glow of the OnOff star, and the rockpile hung almost over his head. In the deep shadows of the rockpile, there was a further jumble: the lashed-down s.h.i.+ps and temps and volatiles refineries, hiding against the light that would soon storm out of the sky. One of the habitats, Hammerfest, was a rooted design; it would have had a certain bizarre grace if not for all the gear around it. The Trader temp just looked like a big balloon tied to the surface. Inside it were all the waking Qeng Ho and a big hunk of the Emergent population.

Beyond the habitats, partly hidden by the shoulder of Diamond One, were the moored ramscoops. A grim sight indeed. Stars.h.i.+ps should not be tied together like that, and never so close to a jumble of loose rocks. A memory floated up: piles of dead whales rotting in a s.e.xual embrace. This was no way to run a s.h.i.+pyard. But then this was more a junkyard than anything else. The Emergents had paid dearly for their ambush. After Sammy's flags.h.i.+p was destroyed, Pham had drifted for most of a day in a wrecked taxi-but plugged into all the remaining battle automation. Presumably Podmaster Nau never figured out who was coordinating the battle. If he had, Pham would have ended up dead, or in frozen sleep with the other surviving armsmen on the Far Treasure. Far Treasure.

Even ambushed, the Qeng Ho had come close to victory. We wouldhave won if the d.a.m.n Emergent mindrot hadn't wiped us all. We wouldhave won if the d.a.m.n Emergent mindrot hadn't wiped us all. It was enough to teach a body caution. An expensive victory had been turned into something close to mutual suicide: There were perhaps two stars.h.i.+ps that were still capable of ramscoop flight; a couple more might be repaired by scavenging the other wrecks. From the looks of the volatiles distillery, it would be a long time before they had enough hydrogen to boost even one vehicle up to ram speed. It was enough to teach a body caution. An expensive victory had been turned into something close to mutual suicide: There were perhaps two stars.h.i.+ps that were still capable of ramscoop flight; a couple more might be repaired by scavenging the other wrecks. From the looks of the volatiles distillery, it would be a long time before they had enough hydrogen to boost even one vehicle up to ram speed.

Less than five hundred seconds till Relight. Pham drifted slowly upward toward the rocks, until the junkyard was blocked from view by the insulation canopy. Across the surface of the rockpile, his people-Diem and Do and Patil, now that they had sent Qiwi indoors-were supposedly doing final checks on the ejet arrays. Jimmy Diem's voice came calmly over the work-crew channel, but Pham knew that was a recording. Behind the canopy, Diem and others had disappeared around the far side of the rockpile. All three were armed now; it was amazing what you could do with an electric jet, especially a Qeng Ho model.

And so Pham Trinli was left behind. No doubt, Jimmy was just as happy to be rid of him. He was trusted, but only for simple parts of the plan, such as maintaining the appearance of a functioning work crew. Trinli moved in and out of view of Hammerfest and the temp, responding to the cues in Jimmy Diem's soundtrack.

Three hundred seconds to Relight. Trinli drifted under the canopy. From here you could see jagged ice and carefully settled airsnow. The shadowed pile dwindled off beyond the canopy, finally met the bare surface of the diamond mountain.

Diamond. Where Pham Trinli had been a child, diamonds were an ultimate form of wealth. A single gram of gem-grade diamond could finance the murder of a prince. To the average Qeng Ho, diamond was simply another allotrope of carbon, cheaply made in tonne lots. But even the Qeng Ho had been a little intimidated by these boulders. Asteroids like this didn't exist outside of theory. And although these rocks weren't single gems, there was a vast, crystalline order to them. The cores of gas giants, planets blown away in some long-ago detonation? They were just another mystery of the OnOff system.

Since work began on the rockpile, Trinli had studied the terrain, but not for the same reasons as Qiwi Lisolet, or even Jimmy Diem. There was a cleft where the ice and airsnow filled the s.p.a.ce between Diamond One and Diamond Two. That was significant to Qiwi and Jimmy, but only in connection with rockpile maintenance. For Pham Trinli. . .with a little digging, that cleft was a path from their main work site to Hammerfest, a path that was out of sight of s.h.i.+ps and habitats. He hadn't mentioned it to Diem; the conspirators' plan was for Hammerfest to be taken after they grabbed the Far Treasure. Far Treasure.

Trinli crawled along the -shaped cleft, closer and closer to the Emergent habitat. It would have surprised Diem and the others to know it, but Pham Trinli was not a born s.p.a.cer. And sometimes when he climbed around like this, he got the vertigo that afflicted Chump groundlings. If he let his imagination go. . .he wasn't crawling hand-by-hand along a narrow ditch, but instead he was rock-climbing up a mountain chimney, a chimney that bent farther and farther back on him, till he must surely fall.

Trinli paused a second, holding his place with one hand while his whole body quivered with the need for crampons and ropes, and pitons driven solid into the walls around him. Lord. Lord. It had been a long time since his groundsider orientation had come back this strongly. He moved forward. Forward. Not up. It had been a long time since his groundsider orientation had come back this strongly. He moved forward. Forward. Not up.

By his count of arm paces, he was just outside Hammerfest now, near its communications array. Odds were very high some camera could image him if he popped out. Of course, the odds were fairly good that no one and no program would be monitoring such a view in time to change things. Nevertheless, Trinli stayed hunkered down. If necessary, he would move closer, but for now he just wanted to snoop. He lay back in the cleft, his feet against the ice and his back against the diamond wall. He reeled out his little antenna probe. The Emergents had played smiling tyrant since the ambush. The one thing they made ugly threats about was possession of non-approved I/O devices. Pham knew that Diem and the core of the conspiracy had Qeng Ho huds, and had used black crypto across the local net. Most of the planning had been done right under the Emergents' noses. Some communication avoided automation altogether; many of these youngsters knew a variation on the old dots-and-dashes game, blinkertalk.

As a peripheral member of the conspiracy, Pham Trinli knew its secrets only because he was filthy with forbidden electronics. This little antenna reel would have been a sign of sneaky intent even in peaceful times.

The thread he spun out was transparent to almost anything that might s.h.i.+ne on it here. At the tip, a tiny sensor sniffed at the electromagnetic spectrum. His main goal was a comm array on the Emergent habitat that had a line of sight on the Qeng Ho temp. Trinli moved his arms like a fisherman repositioning his cast. The slender thread had a stiffness that was very effective in a micrograv environment. There. There. The sensor hung in the beam between Hammerfest and the temp. Pham eased a directional element over the edge of the cleft, aimed it at an unused port on the Qeng Ho temp. From there he was hooked directly into the fleet's local net, and around all the Emergent security. This was exactly what Nau and the others were so afraid of and the reason for their death-penalty threats. Jimmy Diem wisely had not taken chances like this. Pham Trinli had some advantages. He knew the old, The sensor hung in the beam between Hammerfest and the temp. Pham eased a directional element over the edge of the cleft, aimed it at an unused port on the Qeng Ho temp. From there he was hooked directly into the fleet's local net, and around all the Emergent security. This was exactly what Nau and the others were so afraid of and the reason for their death-penalty threats. Jimmy Diem wisely had not taken chances like this. Pham Trinli had some advantages. He knew the old, old old tricks that were hidden in Qeng Ho gear.. . .Even so, he would not have risked it if Jimmy and his conspirators hadn't bet so much on their takeover scheme. tricks that were hidden in Qeng Ho gear.. . .Even so, he would not have risked it if Jimmy and his conspirators hadn't bet so much on their takeover scheme.

Maybe he should have talked to Jimmy Diem straight out. There were too many critical things they didn't know about the Emergents. What made some of their automation so good? In the firefights at the ambush, they'd been clearly inferior in high-level tactics, but their target queuing had been better than any system Pham Trinli had ever fought.

Trinli had the ugly feeling that comes when you've been maneuvered into a corner. The conspirators figured that this might be both their best and last chance to knock over the Emergents. Maybe. But the whole thing was just too pat, too perfect.

So make the best of it.

Pham looked at the display windows inside his hood. He was intercepting Emergent telemetry and some of the video they were transmitting to the temp. Some of that he could decrypt. The Emergent b.a.s.t.a.r.ds just trusted their line-of-sight link a little bit too much. It was time to do some real snooping.

"Fifty seconds to Relight." The voice had been counting off in a flat monotone for the last two hundred seconds. In the auditorium, almost everyone was watching the windows in silence.

"Forty seconds to Relight."

Ezr took a quick look around the room. The flight tech, Xin, was looking from display to display. He was visibly nervous. Tomas Nau was watching the view that came from low above OnOff's surface. His intentness seemed to hold more curiosity than fear or suspicion.

Qiwi Lisolet glared at the window that showed the insulation canopy and Jimmy Diem's work crew. Her look had been dark and scowly ever since she flew into the auditorium. Ezr could guess what had happened. . . and he was relieved. Jimmy had used an innocent fourteen-year-old as camouflage for the plot. But Jimmy had never been an absolute harda.s.s. He had taken a chance to get the girl out of harm's way. But I bet Qiwiwon't forgive him, even when she knows the truth. But I bet Qiwiwon't forgive him, even when she knows the truth.

"Wave front to arrive in ten seconds."

Stillno change in the view from the microsat. Only a mild red glow peeked between the sliding clouds. Either "old faithful" had played a cosmic joke on them, or this was an absolute knife-edge of an effect.

"Relight."

In the full-disk view, a point of brilliance burned in the exact center of the disk, spread outward, and in less than two seconds filled the disk. The low-alt.i.tude view had vanished sometime during that spread. The light got brighter and brighter and brighter. brighter. A soft, awed sigh spread around the room. The light cast shadows on the opposite wall before the wallpaper damped its output. A soft, awed sigh spread around the room. The light cast shadows on the opposite wall before the wallpaper damped its output.

"Five seconds after Relight." The voice must be automatic. "We're up to seven kilowatts per square meter." This was a different tech, speaking in a flat Trilander accent. Not an Emergent? Not an Emergent? The question flickered past Ezr's attention, swamped for the moment by the rest of the action. The question flickered past Ezr's attention, swamped for the moment by the rest of the action.

"Ten seconds after Relight." At the side of the room was a smaller window, a view of the Spider world. It had been dark and dim as ever, but now the light was coming back from it and the planetary disk glowed with its own brightness as ice and air woke to a sun that was already five times as bright as Sol standard. And still brightening: "Twenty kilowatts per square meter." A strip graph was playing out below the image of the new sun, comparing its output with the historical record. This Relight looked as powerful as any before.

"Neutron flux is still below detectable limits."

Nau and Vinh exchanged relieved looks, for once sincere on both sides. That That was the sort of danger that couldn't be detected from interstellar distances, and one of the oldentimes fly-throughs had failed at about this point. At least they wouldn't fry in radiation that no one had seen from afar. was the sort of danger that couldn't be detected from interstellar distances, and one of the oldentimes fly-throughs had failed at about this point. At least they wouldn't fry in radiation that no one had seen from afar.

"Thirty seconds after Relight."

"Fifty kilowatts per square meter."

Outside, the mountainside that s.h.i.+elded them from the sun was beginning to glow. glow.

Pham Trinli had the public audio channel playing. Even without it, Relight would have been obvious. But for the moment he held those events in a small part of his mind and concentrated on what was going over the private links out of Hammerfest. It was at moments like this, when technicians were overwhelmed by externalities, that security was most likely to slip. If Diem was on schedule, he and his crew were now at the mooring point of the Far Treasure. Far Treasure.

Trinli's eyes flickered across the half-dozen displays that now filled most of his hood's view s.p.a.ce. His fleet net programs were doing a good job with the telemetry. Ha. Ha. You can't beat old trapdoors. Now that they needed lots of computing power, the Emergents were using more and more Qeng Ho automation, and Trinli's snooping was correspondingly more effective. You can't beat old trapdoors. Now that they needed lots of computing power, the Emergents were using more and more Qeng Ho automation, and Trinli's snooping was correspondingly more effective.

The signal strength faded. Alignment drift? Trinli cleared several display windows and looked at the world around him. The OnOff star was hidden behind the mountains, but its light glared off the hills that stuck up into its view. Where ice or airsnow was exposed, vapor steamed out. For the moment, Jimmy's silver canopy was holding, but the fabric slowly swayed and flapped. There was an almost bluish color to the sky now, the mists of thousands of tonnes of water and air boiling up, turning the rockpile into a comet.

And s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up his line of sight on Hammerfest. Trinli wiggled his antenna. Losing the link couldn't have been the mists alone. Something had s.h.i.+fted. There. There. He was picking up Hammerfest's traffic again. After a second his crypto resynchronized and he was back in business. But now he kept an eye on the storm around him. The new sun was even more of a show than they had expected. He was picking up Hammerfest's traffic again. After a second his crypto resynchronized and he was back in business. But now he kept an eye on the storm around him. The new sun was even more of a show than they had expected.

Trinli's network feelers were inside Hammerfest now. Every program had its exceptional circ.u.mstances, the situations that the designers a.s.sumed were outside the scope of their responsibility. There were loopholes that the present extremities had shaken open. . . .

Strange. There seemed to be dozens of users logged into system internals. And there were big sections of the Emergent system that he didn't recognize, that weren't built on the common foundations. But the Emergents were supposed to be ordinary Chumps, recently returned to high technology with the help of the Qeng Ho broadcast net. There was just too much strange stuff here. He dipped into the voice traffic. The Emergent Nese was understandable but clipped and full of jargon. ". . .Diem. . .around front of rocks. . .according to plan."

According to plan?

Trinli scanned related data streams, saw graphics that showed just what weapons Jimmy's crew would carry, that showed the entrance he intended to use to sneak aboard the Far Treasure. Far Treasure. There were tables of names. . . of the conspirators. Pham Trinli was listed as a minor accomplice. More tables. There were tables of names. . . of the conspirators. Pham Trinli was listed as a minor accomplice. More tables. Jimmy Diem's black crypto. Jimmy Diem's black crypto. The first version was only partially accurate; later files converged on precisely what Jimmy and the others were using. Somehow, they had been watching closely enough to see through all the tricks. There had been no traitors, just an inhuman attention to detail. The first version was only partially accurate; later files converged on precisely what Jimmy and the others were using. Somehow, they had been watching closely enough to see through all the tricks. There had been no traitors, just an inhuman attention to detail.

Pham jerked down his equipment and crawled a little farther. He popped up, pointing his directional at a slanted overhang of Hammerfest's roof. From here the angle should be right. He could bounce a beam down at Far Treasure Far Treasure 's moorage point. 's moorage point.

"Jimmy, Jimmy! Can you hear me?" It was Qeng Ho encrypted, but if any enemy heard, both ends of the link would be nailed.

All Jimmy Diem had ever wanted was to be a crewleader good enough to make management track. Then he and Tsufe could get married, all perfectly timed for when the voyage to the OnOff star began to pay off. Of course, that had been before the Emergents arrived and before the ambush. Now? Now he was leading a conspiracy, betting everything on a few moments of h.e.l.lish risk. Well, at least they were finally acting. . . .

In less than forty seconds, they had run four thousand meters, all the way around the sunside of the jumble. That would have been a good piece of free s.p.a.ce rappelling even if the sun had not been blowing up, even if they hadn't been wrapped in silver foil. They'd almost lost Pham Patil. A fast rappel depended on knowing exactly where to put your next ground spike, exactly how much force the piton could take when you accelerated out from the surface along your cable. But their surveys of the pile had all been done for placing the stationkeeping jets. There just hadn't been an excuse to test the rappel points. Patil had been swinging out at nearly half a gee when his ground spike slipped free. He'd have floated out forever if Tsufe and Jimmy hadn't been securely tied down. A few seconds more and the direct sunlight would have fried them right through their makes.h.i.+ft s.h.i.+elds.

But it worked!They were on the opposite side of the stars.h.i.+ps from where the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds would expect visitors. While everyone's eyes had been on the sun, and blinded by that, they had gotten in position.

They hunkered down just short of the Treasure Treasure 's mooring point. The s.h.i.+p towered six hundred meters above them, so close that all they could see was part of the throat and the forward primer tanks. But from all their careful spying, they knew this was the least damaged of all the Qeng Ho s.h.i.+ps. And inside was equipment-and more important, 's mooring point. The s.h.i.+p towered six hundred meters above them, so close that all they could see was part of the throat and the forward primer tanks. But from all their careful spying, they knew this was the least damaged of all the Qeng Ho s.h.i.+ps. And inside was equipment-and more important, people people -who could take back freedom. -who could take back freedom.

All was in shadow, but now the coma of gases had spread high. Reflected light softened the dark. Jimmy and the others shed their silver covers and thermal outerwear. It felt suddenly chill wearing just full-pressure coveralls and hood. They slipped from hiding place to hiding place, dragging their tools and improvised guns, and trying to keep it all out of the light from the glowing sky. It can't get any brighter, can it? It can't get any brighter, can it? But his time display said that less than one hundred seconds had pa.s.sed since Relight. They were perhaps another hundred seconds short of maximum brightness. But his time display said that less than one hundred seconds had pa.s.sed since Relight. They were perhaps another hundred seconds short of maximum brightness.

The three floated up the moorage pilings, the maw of Treasure Treasure 's throat growing huge above them. One nice thing about sneaking aboard something as ma.s.sive as a ramscoop, there wasn't much worry that their movement would bob the vehicle around. There would be a maintenance crew aboard the 's throat growing huge above them. One nice thing about sneaking aboard something as ma.s.sive as a ramscoop, there wasn't much worry that their movement would bob the vehicle around. There would be a maintenance crew aboard the Treasure. Treasure. But would they expect armed visitors in the middle of all this? They had thought and thought on those risks, and there was no way to make them better. But if they took the s.h.i.+p, they would have one of the best remaining pieces of equipment, real weapons, and the surviving Qeng Ho armsmen. They would have a chance of ending the nightmare. But would they expect armed visitors in the middle of all this? They had thought and thought on those risks, and there was no way to make them better. But if they took the s.h.i.+p, they would have one of the best remaining pieces of equipment, real weapons, and the surviving Qeng Ho armsmen. They would have a chance of ending the nightmare.

Now there was sunlight coming through the raw face of the diamond rock! Jimmy paused for an instant to stare, bug-eyed. Even this high up, there were at least three hundred meters of solid diamond between them and the naked light of OnOff. Yet that was not enough. Scattered off a million fracture planes, bounced and diminished and diffused and diffracted, some of OnOff's light made it through. The light was a glitter of rainbows, a thousand tiny sun-disks glowing from everywhere across the face of the rock. And every second it grew brighter, until he could see structure within the mountain, could see fracture and cleavage planes that extended hundreds of meters into diamond. And still the light got brighter.

So much for slipping by in the dark.Jimmy shut down his imagination and dashed upward. From the ground, the rim hatch was a tiny pucker at the edge of the ramscoop's maw, but as he ascended it became larger and larger, and centered over his head. He waved Do and Patil to either side of the hatch. The Emergents had reprogrammed the hatch, of course, but they hadn't replaced the physical mechanism as they had aboard the temp. Tsufe had snooped the pa.s.scode with binoculars, and their own gloves would be accepted as matching keys. How many guards would they face? We can take them. I know we can. We can take them. I know we can. He reached up to tap on the hatch control, and- He reached up to tap on the hatch control, and- Someone pinged him.

"Jimmy, Jimmy! Can you hear me?" The voice was tiny in his ear. A telltale claimed it was the decryption of a laser burst from the roof of the Emergent hab. But the voice was Pham Trinli's.

Jimmy froze. Worst case: the enemy was toying with him. Best case: Pham Trinli had guessed they were going after the Far Treasure Far Treasure and now was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up worse than anyone could have imagined. and now was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up worse than anyone could have imagined. Ignore the fool,and if you live, beat the c.r.a.p out of him. Ignore the fool,and if you live, beat the c.r.a.p out of him. Jimmy glanced at the sky above Hammerfest. The coma was pale violet, slowly roiling in the light of OnOff. In s.p.a.ce, a laser link is very hard to detect. But this was no longer ordinary s.p.a.ce. It was more like a cometary surface at close pa.s.sage. If the Emergents knew where to look they could probably Jimmy glanced at the sky above Hammerfest. The coma was pale violet, slowly roiling in the light of OnOff. In s.p.a.ce, a laser link is very hard to detect. But this was no longer ordinary s.p.a.ce. It was more like a cometary surface at close pa.s.sage. If the Emergents knew where to look they could probably see see Trinli's link. Trinli's link.

Jimmy's reply was a millisecond compression flung back in the direction of the other's beam. "Turn that off, you old s.h.i.+t. Now!"

"Soon. First: They know about the plan. They saw through your black crypto." It was Trinli, and yet different. And Trinli had never been told about the crypto. "This is a setup, Jimmy. But they don't know everything. Back off. Whatever they've got planned inside the Treasure Treasure will only make things worse." will only make things worse."

Lord.For a moment, Jimmy just froze. Thoughts of failure and death had haunted his every sleep since the ambush. To get this far, they had taken a thousand deadly risks. He had accepted that they might be discovered. But never had he thought it would happen like this. What the old fool had found might be important; it might be worthless. And backing down now would be nearly a worst-case outcome. It's just too late. It's just too late.

Jimmy forced his mouth to open, his lips to speak. "I said, close down the link!" He turned back to the Treasure Treasure 's hull and tapped the Emergent pa.s.scode on the hatch. A second pa.s.sed-and then the clamsh.e.l.ls parted. Do and Patil dove upward into the dimness of the airlock. Diem paused just a second, slapped a small gadget onto the hull beside the door, and followed them up. 's hull and tapped the Emergent pa.s.scode on the hatch. A second pa.s.sed-and then the clamsh.e.l.ls parted. Do and Patil dove upward into the dimness of the airlock. Diem paused just a second, slapped a small gadget onto the hull beside the door, and followed them up.

TWELVE.

Pham Trinli shut down the link. He flipped and climbed rapidly back along the cleft. So we were suckered. So we were suckered. Tomas Nau was too clever by half, and he had some strange kind of edge. Trinli had seen a hundred ops, some smaller than this, some that lasted for centuries. But he had never seen the sort of precise fanatical attention to detail that he had seen in those snoop logs the Emergents kept on the black crypto. Nau had either magic software or teams of monomaniacs. In the back of his mind, the planner in him was wondering what it could be and how Pham Trinli might someday take advantage of it. Tomas Nau was too clever by half, and he had some strange kind of edge. Trinli had seen a hundred ops, some smaller than this, some that lasted for centuries. But he had never seen the sort of precise fanatical attention to detail that he had seen in those snoop logs the Emergents kept on the black crypto. Nau had either magic software or teams of monomaniacs. In the back of his mind, the planner in him was wondering what it could be and how Pham Trinli might someday take advantage of it.

For now, survival was the only issue. If Diem would only back off from the Treasure, Treasure, the trap Nau planned might not close or might not be so deadly. the trap Nau planned might not close or might not be so deadly.

The sheer diamond face on his left was sparkling now, the largest gemstone of all time s.h.i.+ning sunlight all round him. Ahead, the light was almost as brilliant, a dazzling nimbus where icy peaks stood in OnOff's light. The silver suns.h.i.+eld was billowing high, tied down in only three places.

Abruptly, Pham's hands and knees were kicked out from under him. He spun out from the path, caught himself by one hand. And through that hand he could hear the mountains groan. Mist spewed out from the cleft all along its length-and the diamond mountain moved. It was less than a centimeter per second, stately, but it moved. Pham could see light all along the opening. He had seen the crew's rock maps. Diamonds One and Two ab.u.t.ted each other along a common plane. The Emergent engineers had used the valley above as a convenient placement anchor for part of the ice and snow from Arachna. All very sensible. . .and not well enough modeled. Some of the volatiles had slipped between the two mountains. The light reflecting back and forth between One and Two had found that ice and air. Now the boil-off was pus.h.i.+ng Diamonds One and Two apart. What had been hundreds of meters of s.h.i.+elding was now a jagged break, a million mirrors. The light s.h.i.+ning through was a rainbow from h.e.l.l.

"One hundred forty-five kilowatts per square meter."

"That's the top of the spike," someone said. OnOff was s.h.i.+ning more than a hundred times as bright as standard solar. It was following the track of its previous lightings, though this was brighter than most. OnOff would stay this bright for another ten thousand seconds, then drop back steeply to just over two solars, where it would stay for some years.

There was no triumphant shouting. The last few hundred seconds, the crowd in the temp had been almost silent. At first, Qiwi had been totally involved with her own anger at being kicked indoors. But she had quieted as one and then another of the silver canopy's ties had broken, and the ice had been touched by direct sunlight. "I told Jimmy that wouldn't hold." But she didn't sound angry anymore. The light show was beautiful, but the damage was far more than they had planned. Outga.s.sing streamers were visible on all sides-and there was no way their pitiful electric jets could counter that. It would be Msecs before they got the rockpile gentled down again.

Then, at four hundred seconds into the Relight, the canopy tore free. It lifted slowly, twisting in the violet sky. There was no sign of the crewfolk who should have been sheltering under it. Worried murmuring grew. Nau did something with his cuff, and his voice was suddenly loud enough to be heard across the room. "Don't worry. They had several hundred seconds to see the canopy was going, plenty of time to move down into the shadow."

Qiwi nodded, but she said quietly to Ezr. "If they didn't fall off. I don't know why they were up there in the first place." If they had fallen off, drifted out into the sunlight. . .Even with thermal jackets, they'd just cook.

He felt a small hand slip into his. Does the Brat even know she didthat? Does the Brat even know she didthat? But after a second he squeezed her hand gently. Qiwi was staring out at the main work site. "I should be out there." It was the same thing Qiwi had been saying since she came indoors, but now her tone was quite different. But after a second he squeezed her hand gently. Qiwi was staring out at the main work site. "I should be out there." It was the same thing Qiwi had been saying since she came indoors, but now her tone was quite different.

Then the outside views jittered, as if something had hit all the cameras at once. The light leaking through the naked face of Diamond Two brightened into a jagged line. And now there was sound, sound, a moan that grew louder and louder, its pitch scaling first up and then down. a moan that grew louder and louder, its pitch scaling first up and then down.

"Podmaster!" The voice was loud and insistent, not the robotlike reporting of the Emergent techs. It was Ritser Brughel. "Diamond Two is s.h.i.+fting, lifting off-" And now it was obvious. The whole mountain was tilting. Billions of tonnes, loose.

And the moaning sound that still filled the auditorium must be the moorage webbing, twisting beneath the temp. "We're not in its way, sir." Ezr could see that now. The immensity was moving slowly, slowly, but its slide was away from the temp and Hammerfest and the moored stars.h.i.+ps. The view outside had slowly rotated, now was turning back. Everyone in the auditorium was scrambling for tie-downs.

Hammerfest was built into Diamond One. The big rock looked unchanged, unmoved. The stars.h.i.+ps beyond. . .They were minnows beside the bulk of the Diamonds, but each s.h.i.+p was over six hundred meters long, a million tonnes unfueled. And the s.h.i.+ps were swaying slowly at the end of their mooring points on Diamond One. It was a dance of leviathans, and a dance that would totally wreck them if it continued.

"Podmaster!" Brughel again. "I'm getting audio from the crewleader, Diem."