Anvil Of Stars Part 15

One hour before part.i.tion, Rosa stood in the schoolroom, next to the star sphere, less than twelve meters from the silent War Mother. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, head bowed. Her hands shook slowly like leaves in a small breeze. She was naked but for a scarf tied around her neck. Dull light from the star sphere limned her pale skin.

Liam Oryx came into the schoolroom looking for Hakim, saw her, and immediately called Martin on his wand. He also called Ariel.

Martin arrived with Theresa, but William had gotten there first. William approached Rosa slowly, saying nothing.

"I don't need you," Rosa told him.

"Something wrong?" Ariel called from behind William. "Rosa?"

"I've seen it again," Rosa said. "There's something in the s.h.i.+p with us. It spoke to me. I can't stop seeing things that are real."

William stopped three meters from where she stood, beside the War Mother, which did not speak or move. "What did it say?" he asked.

Martin bit his lip, watching, his stomach sinking. So little time. Every child precious. So little time. Every child precious.

Theresa climbed around the schoolroom, hovered beside Ariel. Other children arrived until finally fifteen occupied the chamber, all Rosa's tree family and five others besides.

"What did it say?" William repeated.

"It's alive," Rosa said. "It lives out here, and it sees and hears things we can't. It's very large. I think it might be a G.o.d. Sometimes it hates us, sometimes it loves us."

Martin closed his eyes, knowing now-in his flesh and bones-what he had only known intellectually. She saw herself inside. She saw nothing real to us. She saw herself inside. She saw nothing real to us.

"It said Martin is a bad leader." She raised her head. "He doesn't know what he's doing. He's going to lead us to our death. He doesn't understand."

"How could anybody else know how good Martin is?" William asked.

"Stop it, Rosa," Ariel said.

"It isn't true," said Alexis Baikal. "That isn't what I saw."

"Quiet," William said, gaze fixed on Rosa. "Rosa, everybody saw something different. That means they saw what they wanted to see."

Rosa shook her head stubbornly.

"I think we are having a bit of panic," William said. "Only to be expected. We're young, and this is all very strange and difficult."

"Be quiet," Rosa said, tilting her head back, a large, naked Valkyrie in an opera. She appeared so vulnerable, and yet Martin could feel her threat to the Job as palpably as if she were a wasp stinging his flesh. No time to waste. No time to waste.

He said nothing, watching William.

William nodded to Ariel. "She's your friend, Ariel," he said. "She needs your help."

"She's a victim," Ariel said.

"Stop it," Rosa said.

"It's panic," William pursued. "You're feeling our panic, our anxiety. You're very perceptive. You see what we feel, Rosa."

"Come with me, Rosa," Ariel said.

"I will not fight," Rosa said. "None of you should fight. The Pan is wrong. He's-"

"Enough, please," Ariel said, voice thick with emotion.

Martin saw Theresa crying, and Alexis Baikal; but only when William turned back to look at him, and Martin saw his face was damp, did his chest hitch and his own eyes fill. He stepped forward.

"You don't have to fight, Rosa," he said.

Rosa Sequoia looked at the fifteen companions around her, clasped her trembling hands together, said, "But I've trained. I deserve it as much as any of you. Pan can't take my duty from me."

Pan/panic. The words danced. The words danced. If she goes on it will spread and we'll all go mad. We're that close. If she goes on it will spread and we'll all go mad. We're that close.

"I hate you," Rosa told Martin, eyes slitted, lip curling. "I hate everything you stand for."

Ariel took her by the arm. William took her other arm. Together, they led her away.

Theresa stood by his side as Rosa left the room. "Who'll take her tasks?" she asked him.

"Ariel can do them," he said, looking at the empty s.p.a.ce where Rosa had stood. "Rosa will be confined to quarters."

"And when we split?"

"She stays on the Hare. Tortoise Hare. Tortoise can't afford her." can't afford her."

"You'd better talk with Hans, then," Theresa said.

"Why does she hate me me?" Martin asked.

"That's silly," Theresa said, taking his hand. "You can't take what she says personally..."

"William was right," he said. "I don't want anybody to hate me. I want everybody to love me...h.e.l.l of a thing for a Pan. Hans wouldn't have this problem."

Theresa tugged on his arm, pulling him toward the door. "Forty-five minutes," she reminded him. Martin stared at the War Mother before yielding to her pressure. During this entire episode, the War Mother had done nothing.

So little time.

The War Mother preceded Martin and Hans down the second neck as they made final inspections of the points where the Dawn Treader Dawn Treader would split. The War Mother would go with would split. The War Mother would go with Tortoise. Tortoise.

Hans and Martin shook hands, clasped each other. "Do it, brother," Hans said. "We'll come back for the mopping up. I envy you, Martin."

"I don't envy myself," Martin said, then blushed. "I wish they'd chosen you Pan."

"I voted for you," Hans said, smiling, not very sincere. "I'm just a born slacker. You'll get the Job done."

William waited behind Martin. The children mingled to say their farewells, hugging, kissing, patting shoulders, even singing one round of the wordless hum.

Rosa was not present.

In a few minutes, in the narrow s.p.a.ce around the weapons store, all the children divided, Hare Hare team to the right behind Hans, team to the right behind Hans, Tortoise Tortoise team to the left behind Martin. William and Theresa hung beside each other as the teams parted again. Martin felt a sudden misgiving, taking both of them with him. This time brought nothing but qualms. team to the left behind Martin. William and Theresa hung beside each other as the teams parted again. Martin felt a sudden misgiving, taking both of them with him. This time brought nothing but qualms.

The teams backed farther away, around the curve of the weapons store. Already the children in the rear of each group could not see each other.

They parted.

Throughout its length, the s.h.i.+p of the Law made a sound like a sigh, as if it laid down some tremendous burden, only to take up another. The children of the Tortoise Tortoise crew surrounded Martin in a newly made s.p.a.ce beside the weapons store. They waited apprehensively, listening to the s.h.i.+p's noises, some holding on to each other. Despite the drills, they were afraid, and Martin was certainly not least afraid among them. He remembered Theodore's words: crew surrounded Martin in a newly made s.p.a.ce beside the weapons store. They waited apprehensively, listening to the s.h.i.+p's noises, some holding on to each other. Despite the drills, they were afraid, and Martin was certainly not least afraid among them. He remembered Theodore's words: No machine works perfectly. Every machine can fail. Every day we are in danger. No machine works perfectly. Every machine can fail. Every day we are in danger. But Theodore had added, But Theodore had added, No planet lives forever. Every day on Earth, our lives were in danger... No planet lives forever. Every day on Earth, our lives were in danger...

No safety anywhere. And the s.h.i.+p of the Law had never failed them before...

Nor had it broken in two before.

Martin sat above a low couch in the center of the room. All around him, the children floated, squatted, stretched out, looking at each other or at nothing, trying to sleep, playing games with their wand projections, waiting, waiting.

The sigh turned into a strong wind moaning through the halls outside their chamber. Air pressure was being distributed before the walls closed.

Theresa came close to Martin. He held her in front of all, acknowledging this bond. No one seemed to mind; few seemed to notice, not even William, who played a game of matching colors with Andrew Jaguar.

"How are you doing?" he asked Theresa. She shook her head briskly as if s.h.i.+vering away the question.

"Waiting," she said. "You?"

The floor beneath them vibrated. Their cabin rotated as the orientation of this part of the dividing Dawn Treader Dawn Treader changed. Again the wind outside the walls, roaring like a storm; this was their only safe place, their calm cell within the turbulent body. changed. Again the wind outside the walls, roaring like a storm; this was their only safe place, their calm cell within the turbulent body.

"What will it feel like, the super deceleration?" Patrick Angelfish asked, standing beside Martin.

"Like what we feel in the craft, I suppose," Martin said. "Only more. Longer."

"I don't like the way that feels," Patrick said.

Martin looked at him with mock-sternness. Patrick smiled back.

"I know," he said. "I'm a wimp."

"Let's hope you're a strong-stomached wimp," Martin said, examining and reexamining his tone to see if it was right, if it was not too sarcastic where he did not mean it to be, if he was hiding from his words the complex of worries and fears he himself felt; if he was adopting the proper tone of command mixed with rea.s.surance and comradely banter. I am not a natural leader. A natural leader would not even worry about such things... I am not a natural leader. A natural leader would not even worry about such things...

The children drew closer as the vibrations continued, the sounds of the new s.h.i.+ps being made: belling and sc.r.a.ping, humming and faint rasping, heat in the cabin increasing for a few minutes, then cool returning. The air smelled different. Martin sniffed but did not mention it; Ariel came forward, frowning, and said, "Smells funny."

Paola Birdsong and Stephanie Wing Feather agreed.

"Smells like rain," Theresa said.

"'Tut tut, it looks like rain,'" Theresa quoted.

"We need a Pooh," Andrew Jaguar said. "Who should be the s.h.i.+p's Pooh?"

"Who's most popular?" Martin asked, glancing around. "Not me," he said.

Mei-Li groaned. "Pans are never Poohs," she said.

"How about Ariel?" William suggested.

"Bolsh," Ariel said quickly.

"She's very very cuddly," Mei-Li agreed. cuddly," Mei-Li agreed.

Ariel looked around the circle, unsure whether to be angry or to shrug this off.

"We think it's a fine idea. You have to be Pooh," Hakim said, smiling serenely.

Ariel made a sound of disgust. "Cut the c.r.a.p."

"We mean it," Mei-Li said with uncharacteristic force, and Andrew Jaguar added with a tone of implied threat, "You're chosen."

Martin did not know whether to interfere or let the game continue. He did not know if Ariel understood that the teasing was a display of affection. Leveling the road; no b.u.mps. Leveling the road; no b.u.mps. "All right." Ariel swept her arms out, stalking the children in the circle starting with Mei-Li, who giggled and backed away. "Come to "All right." Ariel swept her arms out, stalking the children in the circle starting with Mei-Li, who giggled and backed away. "Come to momma. momma. Come hug the Come hug the Pooh." Pooh." She mugged, menaced and threatened with a grim smile. No one offered themselves to her arms until she came to William, who sighed, cast his eyes to the ceiling, and said, "Take me, I'm yours." She mugged, menaced and threatened with a grim smile. No one offered themselves to her arms until she came to William, who sighed, cast his eyes to the ceiling, and said, "Take me, I'm yours."

"Oh, oh, Christopher Robin Christopher Robin!" the children cried out.

Ariel embraced William, and expertly, they waltzed and flew around the cabin, swinging through the children as if they had rehea.r.s.ed for months. A marvel; Martin had not known William could dance, much less Ariel. In truth, he saw they surprised themselves.

"May I b.u.t.t in?" Mei-Li asked, tapping Ariel on the shoulder.

"Buzz off," she said with a haughty shudder. "I'm Pooh."

"Buzz off! You can fly fly," Andrew Jaguar sang. "You can fly, you can fly, you can fly!"

William took Ariel around the waist and swung her legs up over the heads of several squatting children, who ducked and laughed.

"Bravo!" Theresa cried.

Martin clapped his hands in time to the loops of the dance, and the children joined in, making music, humming a waltz. Ariel a.s.sumed a pose of dignified involvement in her art, chin lifted, nose out-thrust, eyes half-closed, fingers tipping along William's fingers, swirling, swirling.

Martin noticed the War Mother had entered the room. The dance continued until William said, "Oh Lord, enough, I'm worn out." Ariel let him go and he echoed off the wall, grabbing a ladder field, laughing and waving one hand in time with the hummed waltz.

"Who's next?" she called, swinging closer to the center. Her face glowed with exertion, eyes on fire, and she focused suddenly, unexpectedly, on Martin, hooded her eyes seductively, leaned back in an abbreviated S with fingers extended. "You, Pan? Dance with Pooh?"

Martin blushed, laughed, and extended his hand. Ariel touched it with an expression of anything but addle-headed Pooh-bear affection, and was about to swing him off when the cabin lurched violently. The children instinctively dropped to the floor, fingers clutching uselessly. Martin felt their weight increase: a tenth of a g, half, three quarters...He glanced at Ariel, sprawled across from him, eyes wide, scared, then rolled over to find Theresa on his other side; the couches had collapsed into the floor, leaving an un.o.bstructed, cus.h.i.+oned environment.

The War Mother grounded against the floor, fastening itself. Ladder fields sprang up and the air vibrated with milky rainbow colors.

Martin tuned his wand to show Tortoise's, Tortoise's, exterior. Like a wooden stake s.h.i.+vered by the tap of an axe, the exterior. Like a wooden stake s.h.i.+vered by the tap of an axe, the Dawn Treader Dawn Treader had split from the third homeball forward. The last tissue of connection-Martin noticed the flexibility of that connection, so unlike metal-parted, and had split from the third homeball forward. The last tissue of connection-Martin noticed the flexibility of that connection, so unlike metal-parted, and Hare Hare leaped with new freedom. leaped with new freedom.

"Separation?" Theresa asked, though the answer was obvious. Belief did not necessarily follow seeing.

"The s.h.i.+p of the Law is now two s.h.i.+ps," the War Mother said. They had already moved a dozen kilometers from Hare, Hare, and the distance quickly increased. and the distance quickly increased.

"We made it," Martin said.

"s.h.i.+t," said Ariel, crossing her legs on the soft floor.