Raft - Xeelee Sequence Part 20

Hollerbach smiled. "I'm impressed. Was this your idea?"

"Ah..." Gord scratched his cheek. "We did get a little guidance from a Mole brain. Once you ask the right questions - and get past its complaints about 'ma.s.sive sensor dysfunction' - it's surprising how..." His voice tailed away and his eyes widened.

"Rees." The vast voice came from behind Rees; the Scientist stiffened. "I thought I'd find you hanging around here."

Rees turned and lifted his face up to Roch's. The huge miner's eyes were, as ever, red-rimmed with inchoate anger; his fists opened and closed like pistons. Grye whimpered softly and edged behind Hollerbach. "I have work to do, Roch," Rees said calmly. "So must you; I suggest you return to it."

"Work?" Roch's filth-rimmed nostrils flared and he waved a fist at the Bridge. "Like h.e.l.l will I work so you and your pox-ridden friends can fly off in this fancy thing."

Hollerbach said sternly, "Sir, the lists of pa.s.sengers have not yet been published; and until they are it is up to all of us-"

"They don't need to be published. We all know who'll be on that trip... and it won't be the likes of me. Rees, I should have sucked your brains out of your skull while I had the chance down on the kernel." Roch held up a rope-like finger. "I'll be back," he growled. "And when I find I'm not on that list I'm going to make d.a.m.n sure you're not either." He stabbed the finger at Grye. "And the same goes for you!"

Grye turned ash white and trembled convulsively.

Roch stalked off. Gord hefted his jet and said wryly, "Good to know that in this time of upheaval some things have stayed exactly the same. Come on, Nead; let's get this thing mounted."

Rees faced Hollerbach and Grye. He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder toward the departed Roch. "That's why we are running out of time," he said. "The political situation on this Raft - no, d.a.m.n it, the human situation - is deteriorating fast. The whole thing is unstable. Everyone knows that a 'list' is being drawn up... and most people have a good idea who'll be on it. How long can we expect people to work toward a goal most of them cannot share? A second uprising would be catastrophic. We would descend into anarchy-"

Hollerbach emitted a sigh; suddenly he seemed to stagger. Grye took his arm. "Chief Scientist - are you all right?"

Hollerbach fixed rheumy eyes on Rees. "I'm tired, you see... terribly tired. You're right, of course, Rees, but what can any of us do, other than give our best efforts to this goal?"

Rees realized suddenly that he had been unloading his own doubts onto the weakening shoulders of Hollerbach, as if he were still a child and the old man some kind of impregnable adult. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't burden you-"

Hollerbach waved a shaky hand. "No, no; you're quite right. In a way it helps clarify my own thinking." His eyes twinkled with a faint amus.e.m.e.nt. "Even your friend Roch helps, in a way. Look at the comparison between us. Roch is young, powerful; I'm too old to stand up - let alone to pa.s.s on my frailties to a new generation. Which of us should go on the mission?"

Rees was appalled. "Hollerbach, we need your understanding. You're not suggesting..."

"Rees, I suspect a grave flaw in the way we live our lives here has been our refusal to accept our place in the universe. We inhabit a world which places a premium on physical strength and endurance - as your friend Roch so ably demonstrates - and on agility, reflex and adaptabilty - for example, the Boneys - rather than 'understanding.' We are little more than clumsy animals lost in this bottomless sky. But our inheritance of ageing gadgetry from the s.h.i.+p, the supply machines and the rest, has let us maintain the illusion that we are masters of this universe, as perhaps we were masters of the world man came from.

"Now, this enforced migration is going to force us to abandon most of our cherished toys - and with them our illusions." He looked vaguely into the distance. "Perhaps, looking far into man's future, our big brains will atrophy, useless; perhaps we will become one with the whales and sky wolves, surviving as best we can among the flying trees-"

Rees snorted. "Hollerbach, you're turning into a maundering b.u.g.g.e.r in your old age."

Hollerbach raised his eyebrows. "Boy, I was cultivating old age while you were still chewing iron ore on the kernel of a star."

"Well, I don't know about the far future, and there's not a d.a.m.n thing I can do about it. All I can do is solve the problems of the present. And frankly, Hollerbach, I don't believe we've a hope of surviving this trip without your guidance.

"Gentlemen, we've a lot to do. I suggest we get on with it."

The plate hung over the Raft. Pallis crept to its edge and peered out over the battered deckscape.

Smoke was spreading across the deck like a mask over a familiar face.

Suddenly the plate jerked through the air, bowling Pallis onto his back. With a growl he reached out and grabbed handfuls of the netting that swathed the fragile craft. "By the Bones, innkeeper, can't you control this b.l.o.o.d.y thing?"

Jame snorted. "This is a real s.h.i.+p. You're not dangling from one of your wooden toys now, tree-pilot."

"Don't push your luck, mine rat." Pallis thumped a fist into the rough iron of the plate. "It's just that this way of flying is - unnatural."

"Unnatural?" Jame laughed. "Maybe you're right. And maybe you people spent too much time lying around in your leafy bowers, while the miners came along to p.i.s.s all over you."

"The war is over, Jame," Pallis said easily. He let his shoulders hang loose, rolled his hands into half fists. "But perhaps there are one or two loose ends to be tied up."

The barman's broad face twisted into a grin of antic.i.p.ation. "I'd like nothing better, tree swinger. Name the time and place, and choice of weapons."

"Oh, no weapons."

"That will suit me fine-"

"By the Bones, will you two shut up?" Nead, the plate's third occupant, glared over the charts and instruments spread over his lap. "We have work to do, if you recall."

Jame and Pallis exchanged one last stare, then Jame returned his attention to the controls of the craft. Pallis s.h.i.+fted across the little deck until he sat beside Nead. "Sorry," he said gruffly. "How's it going?"

Nead held a battered s.e.xtant to his eye, then tried to compare the reading to entries in a handwritten table. "d.a.m.n it," he said, clearly frustrated. "I can't tell. I just don't have the expertise, Pallis. Cipse would know. If only-"

"If only he weren't long dead, then everything would be fine," Pallis said. "I know. Just do your best, lad. What do you think?"

Again Nead ran his fingers over the tables. "I think it's taking too long. I'm trying to measure the sideways speed of the Raft against the background stars, and I don't think it's moving fast enough."

Pallis frowned. He lay on his belly and once more surveyed the Raft. The mighty old craft lay spread out below him like a tray of fantastic toys. Suspended over the deck and marked by the occasional plume of steam he could see other plate craft, more observers of this huge dislocation. A wall of smoke climbed up from one side of the Rim - the port side, as he looked down - and, additionally, each of the trees in the central tethered forest had its own smoke cloak. The smoke was having the desired effect - he could see how the trees' cables leaned consistently to his right as the flying plants sought to escape the shadow of the smoke - and he imagined he could hear the strain of the cables as the Raft was hauled aside. Cable shadows were beginning to lengthen over the deck; the Raft was indeed moving out from under the star which hung poised over it. It was an inspiring sight, one which Pallis in his long life had seen only twice previously; and for such cooperation to be achieved after the turmoil of revolution and war - and at a time when so many of the Raft's best were occupied with the Bridge project - was, he decided, something to be admired.

In fact, perhaps the need to move the Raft had provided the glue which had held society together this far. Here was a project which would clearly benefit all.

Yes, it was all admirable - but if it was too slow it wouldn't mean a d.a.m.n thing. The falling star was still miles overhead, and there was no immediate danger of impact, but if pressure was maintained on the trees for too long the great plants would tire. Not only would they prove unable to drag the Raft anywhere - it was even conceivable that some might fail altogether, threatening the Raft's security in the air.

d.a.m.n it. He hung his head over the lip of the plate, trying to judge where the problem lay. The Rim wall of smoke looked solid enough; the distant stars cast a long shadow over the masked workers who labored at the base of the cliff of smoke.

Then the problem must be with the tethered trees themselves. There was a pilot, plus a.s.sistants, in each tree, and each of them was trying to maintain his own fence of smoke. Those small barriers were probably the most significant factor in influencing the movement of the individual trees. And, even from up here, Pallis could see how ragged and insubstantial some of those barriers were.

He thumped his fist into the deck of the craft. d.a.m.n it; the purges of the revolution, and the fevers and starvation that had followed, had left his corps of pilots as depleted of skilled people as most other sectors of Raft society. He remembered Raft translations of the past: the endless calculations, the s.h.i.+ft-long briefings, the motion of the trees like components of a fine machine...

There had been time for none of that. Some of the newer pilots barely had the skill to keep from falling out of their trees. And building a lateral wall was one of the most difficult of a pilot's arts; it was like sculpting with smoke...

He spotted a group of trees whose barriers were particularly ragged. He pointed them out to Jame.

The barman grinned and yanked at his control cables.

Pallis tried to ignore the gale in his face, the stink of steam; he put aside his nostalgia for the stately grandeur of the trees. Beside him he heard Nead curse as his papers were blown like leaves. The plate swooped among the trees like some huge, unlikely skitter; Pallis couldn't help but flinch as branches shot past, mere feet from his face. At last the craft came to rest. From here those smoke barriers looked even more tenuous; Pallis watched, despairing, as raw pilots waved blankets at wisps of smoke.

He cupped his hands to his mouth. "You!"

Small faces turned up to him. One pilot tumbled backwards.

"Build up your bowls!" Pallis called angrily. "Get a decent amount of smoke. All you're doing with those d.a.m.n blankets is blowing around two fifths of five per cent of b.u.g.g.e.r all..."

The pilots inched their way to their bowls and began feeding fresh kindling to the tiny flames.

Nead tugged at Pallis's sleeve. "Pilot. Should that be happening?"

Pallis looked. Two trees, wrapped in distorted blankets of smoke, were inclining blindly towards one another, their amateur pilots evidently absorbed in the minutiae of blankets and bowls.

"No, it b.l.o.o.d.y shouldn't be happening." Pallis spat. "Barman! Get us down there, and fast-"

The trees' first touch was almost tender: a rustle of foliage, a gentle kiss of snapping twigs. Then the first snag occurred, and the two platforms locked and shuddered. The crews of the trees gaped with sudden horror at each other.

The trees kept turning; now sections of rim were torn away and wooden shards rained through the air. A branch caught and with a scream like some animal's was torn away by the root. Now the trees began to roll into each other, in a vast, slow, noisy collision. The smooth platforms of foliage shattered. Fist-sized splinters sailed past the plate craft; Nead howled and covered his head.

Pallis glared down at the crews of the dying trees. "Get off there! The d.a.m.n trees are finished. Get down your cables and save yourselves."

They stared up at him, frightened and confused. Pallis shouted on until at last he saw them slide down rippling cables to the deck.

The trees were now locked in a doomed embrace, their angular momenta mingling, their trunks...o...b..ting in a whirl of foliage and branch stumps. Wall-sized sections of wood splintered away and the air was filled with the creak of rending timber; Pallis saw fire bowls go sailing through the air, and he prayed that the crews had had the foresight to douse their flames.

Soon little was left but the trunks, locked together by a tangle of twisted branches; now the trees' anchoring cables were torn loose like shoulders from sockets, and the freed trunks pirouetted with a strange grace, half tumbling.

At last the trunks crashed to the deck, exploding in a storm of fragments. Pallis saw men running for their lives from the rain of wood. For some minutes splinters fell, like a hail of ragged daggers; then, slowly, men began to creep back to the crash site, stepping over tree cables which lay like the limbs of a corpse among the ruins.

Silently Pallis motioned to Jame. "There's nothing we can do here; let's get on." The plate craft lifted and returned to its patrols.

For several more hours Pallis's plate skimmed about the flying forest. At the end of it Jame was muttering angrily, his face blackened by the rising smoke, and Pallis's throat was raw with shouting. At last Nead placed his s.e.xtant in his lap and sat back with a smile. "That's it," he said. "I think, anyway..."

"What's what?" Jame growled. "Is the Raft out from under the b.l.o.o.d.y star now?"

"No, not yet. But it's got enough momentum without further impulse from the trees. In a few hours it will drift to a halt far enough from the path of the star to be safe."

Pallis lay back in the netting of the plate and took a draught from a drink globe. "So we've made it."

Nead said dreamily, "It's not quite over for the Raft yet. When the star pa.s.ses through the plane in which the Raft lies there will be a few interesting tidal effects."

Pallis shrugged. "Nothing the Raft hasn't endured before."

"It must be a fantastic sight, Pallis."

"Yes, it is," the pilot mused. He remembered watching cable shadows lengthen across the deck; at last the circ.u.mference of the star disc would touch the horizon, sending light flaring across the deck. And when the main disc had dropped below the Rim there would be an afterglow, what the Scientists call a corona...

Jame squinted into the sky. "How often does this happen, then? How often does the Raft get in the way of a falling star?"

Pallis shrugged. "Not often. Once or twice a generation. Often enough for us to have built up skills to deal with it."

"But you need the Scientists - the likes of this one-" Jame jerked a thumb at Nead "-to work out what to do."

"Well, of course." Nead sounded amused. "You can't do these things by sticking a wet finger into the wind."

"But a lot of the Scientists are going to b.u.g.g.e.r off, on this Bridge thing."

"That's true."

"So what's going to happen when the next star comes down? How will they move the Raft then?"

Nead sipped a drink easily. "Well, our observations show that the next star - a long way up there - " he pointed upwards " - is many thousands of s.h.i.+fts away from endangering the Raft."

Pallis frowned. "That doesn't answer Jame's question."

"Yes, it does." Nead's blank young face bore a look of puzzlement. "You see, by that time we don't expect the Nebula to be sustaining life anyway. So the problem's rather academic, isn't it?"

Pallis and Jame exchanged glances; then Pallis turned to the rotating forest under his craft and tried to lose himself in contemplation of its steady serenity.

Rees hardly slept during his last rest period before the Bridge's departure.

A bell tolled somewhere.

At last it was time. Rees rose from his pallet, washed quickly, and emerged from his temporary shelter, feeling only a vast relief that the time had come.

The Bridge in its box of scaffolding was the center of frantic activity. It lay at the heart of a fenced-off area two hundred yards wide which had become a miniature city; former Officers' quarters had been commandeered to give hopeful migrants temporary accommodation. Now small knots of people walked uncertainly toward the Bridge. Rees recognized representatives of all the Nebula's cultures: the Raft itself, the Belt, and even a few Boneys. Each refugee carried the few pounds of personal belongings allowed. A queue was forming at the open port of the Bridge, behind a human chain which pa.s.sed into the interior a few final supplies, books, small environmental monitoring instruments. There was an air of purposefulness about the scene and Rees slowly began to believe that this thing was actually going to happen...

Whatever the future held he could only be glad that this period of waiting, with all its divisiveness and bitterness, was over. After the moving of the Raft, society had disintegrated rapidly. It had been a race to complete their preparations before things fell apart completely; and as time had pa.s.sed - and more delays and problems had been encountered - Rees had felt the pressure build until it seemed he could hardly bear it.

The amount of personal animosity he had encountered had astonished him. He longed to explain to people that it was not he who was causing the Nebula to fail; that it was not he who decreed the physical laws which constrained the number of evacuees.

...And it had not been he - alone - who had drawn up the list.

The preparation of that list had been agonizing. The idea of a ballot had been rejected quickly; the composition of this colony could not be left to chance. But how to select humans - families, chains of descendants - for life or extinction? They had tried to be scientific, and so had applied criteria like physical fitness, intelligence, adaptability, breeding age... And Rees, embarra.s.sed and disgusted by the whole process, had found himself on most of the candidate lists.

But he had stayed with it; not, he prayed, merely in order to ensure his own survival, but to do the best job he could. The selection process had left him feeling soiled and shabby, unsure even of his own motivations.

In the end a final list had emerged, an amalgam of dozens of others drawn together by Decker's harsh arbitration. Rees was on it. Roch wasn't. And so, Rees reflected with a fresh burst of self-loathing, he had finished by neatly fulfilling the worst expectations of Roch and his like.

He walked to the perimeter fence. Perhaps he would see Pallis, get a last chance to say goodbye. Burly guards patrolled, hefting clubs uncertainly. Rees felt depressed as he stared along the length of the fence. Yet more resources diverted from the main objective... but there had been riots already; who was to say what might have happened if not for the protection of the fence and its guards? A guard caught his eye and nodded, his broad face impa.s.sive; Rees wondered how easy it would be for this man to fight off his own people in order to save a privileged few...

An explosion somewhere on the other side of the Bridge, like a ma.s.sive heel stamping into the deck. A pall of smoke rose over the scaffolding.

The guards near Rees turned to stare. Rees hurried around the Bridge.

Distant shouts, a scream... and the fence was down and burning along ten feet of its length. Guards ran to the breach, but the mob beyond seemed overwhelming, both in numbers and in ferocity; Rees saw a wall of faces, old and young, male and female, united by a desperate, vicious anger. Now fire bombs rained toward the Bridge, splas.h.i.+ng over the deck.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?" It was Decker; the big man took Rees's arm and pulled him back toward the Bridge.

"Decker, can't they understand? They can't be saved; there simply isn't room. If they attack now the mission will fail and n.o.body will-"

"Lad." Decker took his shoulders and shook him, hard. "The time for talk is over. We can't hold off that lot for long... You have to get in there and launch. Right now."

Rees shook his head. "That's impossible."

"I'll show you what's b.l.o.o.d.y impossible." A small fire burned amid the ruins of a fire bomb; Decker bent, lit a chunk of sc.r.a.p wood, and hurled it into the scaffolding surrounding the Bridge. Soon flames were licking at the dry wood.

Rees stared. "Decker-"