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Poseidon's Wake

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‘I had the strangest dream.’

‘I feel obliged to point out that not all of your dreams were dreams.’ Swift gestured at a pitcher of water and a glass on the table. ‘If you’re thirsty.’

Kanu continued looking around. ‘Am I really in this room, or are you feeding information into my skull?’

‘This is real. That thing you are wearing is your actual body. It needed rather a lot of repair, so I trust you still find it to your liking.’

Kanu looked at his forearm, the loose fit of the green-embroidered sleeve. He spread his fingers. The webs between them were still present.

‘I’ll ask again: what happened?’

‘You were seriously injured in the Reclamationist incident. It killed you, in fact. But we brought you back to life, stabilised you and set about rectifying the damage.’

He felt he needed a drink now. He tilted some water into the glass and brought it to his lips.

‘The others?’

‘Garudi and Lucien were killed outright — the flier was too close when the wreck came down.’

Kanu absorbed this news, but for the moment it was just there, unprocessed.

‘And Korsakov?’

‘Injured, but not too severely. He made it out of the wreck of the flier and his suit retained its life-support capabilities until he was rescued.’

‘But you saved me.’

‘It took a tremendous concentration of machine resources. We might have attempted to save one of the others, but the likelihood of failure would have been greater.’ After a silence, Swift added, ‘I am sorry to lose both Garudi and Lucien. But I am very glad we were able to save you.’

‘Does the world know I’m here?’

‘Not yet. We issued a statement through the usual diplomatic channels shortly after the incident. That was almost three weeks ago. We said we had recovered human remains and that they would be returned to the rightful authority in due course. Now we can proceed with the significantly better news that we have brought you back to life.’

‘Why didn’t you say so sooner?’

‘We didn’t wish to raise false hopes. Your survival was far from guaranteed.’

‘I’ll need to speak to my people.’

‘Of course. Your great powers are still knocking heads over the whole incident, deciding who is and isn’t to blame for wiping out three-quarters of an intergovernmental diplomatic party.’

‘Half,’ Kanu corrected. ‘I didn’t die.’

‘For long,’ Swift replied.

When the machines deemed him well enough to leave their care — which was only two days after his first intimation of consciousness — Kanu was provided with transport back to the embassy. He was glad when the flier brought him to the summit and the embassy’s landing deck opened to welcome him home.

Swift accompanied him from the flier.

‘We’ve issued the formal announcement concerning your survival,’ the robot said as they made their way down to the level of the main staterooms. ‘News is spreading, and of course there is criticism of our actions. I trust we can count on you to argue our side of things?’

‘I’ll give them the truth, Swift — no more, no less. You have nothing to apologise for.’

‘I hope it will not create difficulties for you in the wider sphere of human discourse.’

Kanu pushed open one of the heavy oak doors and stepped through into a room that felt larger and colder than he remembered. ‘Why should I care what they think of me beyond Mars? Everything that matters to me is here. This is my life. Pretty soon they’ll assign new ambassadors and we’ll carry on as we were before.’

‘But you must be mindful of the opinions of others. We have not often spoken of private matters — surely you have friends and loved ones elsewhere in the system?’

‘Not as many as you’d think.’

‘But you have lived a great many years.’

‘Thanks for reminding me. The truth is, though, that you burn through friends and lovers when you live as long as I have. I am what I am, Swift — an old merman. Too ancient and strange for most people to feel comfortable around.’ He paused to survey the stateroom, finding everything exactly as it had been before the expedition to the wreck, but at the same time every note of the room jarringly off-key.

Dalal had left a book open on one of the tables. Kanu walked to it and stroked a finger across the pages. The text was in Urdu, one of her four or five languages. He stared at the script, trying to remember how it felt to have the words resolve before his eyes, mysteries disclosed. How it had been before the Age of Babel.

‘I’ll miss Garudi.’

‘So shall we. But out of this calamity, perhaps some greater good can come?’

Irritated by the triteness of this sentiment, Kanu snapped shut the book. This in turn made him feel irritated with himself, as if he had lost Dalal’s place in the text. Where on the Earth did her family live? he wondered — Madras? Perhaps he should make a point of returning the book to them. It would be a small kindness, and his bones could do with a dose of Earth gravity now and then.

‘And they say I’m the optimist.’

Swift was at the high-fretted window. ‘There has always been disunity regarding how best to deal with extremists. Now, perhaps, it will not be so hard to make a persuasive case for clamping down on the Reclamationists.’

‘Be careful someone doesn’t make an equally persuasive case for clamping down on you.’

‘I thought that had already occurred.’

A console chimed with the small, annoying tone that indicated a stored message was waiting. Kanu guessed it had been making that chime for some time.

‘This might be a private diplomatic matter, Swift. Do you mind stepping out of the room?’

‘I would be overjoyed to accommodate your request.’

‘And don’t try to listen in, either.’

‘Very well.’ Swift made an impatient gesture with his hand as he headed for the door. ‘Pray take your precious call.’

When he was alone, Kanu stood before the console and used his diplomatic authority to accept the message.

A face appeared above the console. It took Kanu a second or two to recognise it as belonging to his old colleague Yevgeny Korsakov. The ambassador for the United Orbital Nations had changed quite markedly in the three weeks since the terrorist attack. His hair had been shaved to the skull, perhaps in connection with emergency surgery. His face, craggy and gaunt at the best of times, now looked ghoulishly drawn.

The recording began to play.

‘May I offer my warmest congratulations on your return to life, Kanu. Given the circumstances, it is remarkable.’

‘Thank you, Yevgeny.’ The playback paused as soon as it detected Kanu’s intention to speak. It would embed his response into the flow of Korsakov’s words exactly as if the two men were speaking normally, without the hindrance of light-minutes of separation and time lag.

‘But I am afraid I must temper my congratulations with news that you may find less than agreeable,’ Korsakov allowed. ‘You know full well that your relationship with Swift had become problematic. It was possible to turn a blind eye to that error of judgement, at least until now. The machines should have handed you over to human medics, but instead they opted to heal you themselves. Worse, they neglected to keep us properly informed of your condition.’

‘I’m sure you were most concerned.’

‘I can only speak for my delegation, Kanu. You are compromised. I have even heard it said that you have been tainted — that your basic loyalty to humanity can no longer be relied upon. I do not believe that myself — of course not — but it is the wider perceptions that count. And because of those perceptions I am sorry to inform you that you must reconsider your position as ambassador. We are seeking a unanimous cross-governmental vote to have you replaced, for the sake of confidence in the embassy. I do not think we will have too much trouble. Even your own government has come to view you as a soft-liner.’

Kanu was not surprised; he had been expecting as much from the moment Korsakov began speaking.

‘I will resign if I am required to do so by the United Aquatic Nations or the intergovernmental panel,’ Kanu stated. ‘Until then, I will continue to fulfil my duties as ambassador.’

While his reply was on its way to Korsakov, Kanu called Swift back into the room.

‘I’m sorry for shutting you out of that.’

‘Forgiven and forgotten. Judging from your demeanour, though, the news wasn’t good?’

‘Not exactly. That was Korsakov calling to tell me there’s a vote to have me removed as ambassador. There’s no reason for it not to go through. When it does, they’ll ship me back to Earth.’

‘This is official?’

‘As good as. Korsakov wouldn’t have called unless he was certain of the outcome.’

‘But your own government will defend you!’

‘Until it becomes politically expedient to switch me out for someone with a harder attitude to your kind.’

Between them was the table and Dalal’s book. Kanu felt a swell of sadness rise up in him like a tide. They had disagreed on many things, but he felt sure that Dalal would have spoken up for him.

‘We placed you in this unfortunate position, Kanu.’

‘It’s not your fault. And this isn’t about you — it’s about ignorance and fear.’

‘Will returning to Earth be so bad? There must be a great many people there who would value your diplomatic experience.’