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Poseidon's Wake

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118

Ve had arranged a display of the space around Poseidon, collating data from both Mposi and Travertine. It was as up to date as the latency of time lag and sensors allowed, showing the relative positions of the moons and spacecraft with high accuracy.

Something was happening to the moons.

‘Kanu passed through,’ Loring was saying. ‘We all saw it? Happened just as Eunice warned us? One of the moons chased down his ship, swallowed it, put them through… what did you call it?’

‘The Terror. The ultimate line in the sand, which the moon clearly deemed Kanu fit to pass.’ Eunice was rubbing at the welts on her wrist where she had been restrained. ‘But that didn’t surprise me — Dakota had already made the crossing, so why would it turn her back now?’

‘A million reasons,’ Vasin said. ‘Still — what’s the significance of this? Have you seen anything like this before?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘You don’t think so?’

‘At my age, you become forgetful. But no, I believe this is new to me. Shall I speculate?’

‘The floor’s all yours,’ Vasin said.

‘Kanu was scanned by the M-builders the way the Trinity was and they’ve allowed him safe passage to Poseidon. But the moons see us as more of the same — just another extension of the same interested intelligence. They must recognise some basic kinship between us and them — something that indicates we share the same biological concerns and imperatives — for now. It’s allowed him through, so for the moment the gates are open. The moons are giving us clear passage.’

‘You can’t know that for sure,’ Ru said.

‘And your contribution to this debate is… what, exactly?’

Still, it was true about the moons — they were not following their usual orbits, or rather their orbits had begun to bend, lining up into a single flat ecliptic. They had not yet settled into that configuration — it would take hours at the present rate of change — but the end-state could be easily predicted.

‘Ru’s right, though,’ Goma said. ‘That could just as easily be a final “keep out” as an invitation.’

‘Thank you,’ Ru answered, pushing her words through clenched teeth.

‘It’s of theoretical interest,’ Vasin said, ‘but it changes nothing. We haven’t suddenly become a different ship, and all the barriers to landing on Poseidon I’ve already mentioned still apply.’

‘Then we don’t,’ Eunice declared. ‘You said the ship isn’t built for atmosphere. But we could land on top of one of those wheels, couldn’t we? Give me a reason why that wouldn’t work.’

‘How about because it’s totally pointless? We still wouldn’t be able to get help to Kanu.’

Eunice looked around the room, eyes wide with disbelief. ‘Give me a break, Gandhari. This ship is stuffed with supplies.’

‘Which would still be a hundred kilometres from the surface. The time it would take to climb down… if there was a way to do that… and then what?’

‘Lower supplies to them — rations, clothing, medical gear, whatever they need. Enough to keep them going until Travertine arrives. And if that doesn’t work, they can tie themselves to the rope and let us haul them back into space.’

‘One hundred kilometres?’

‘Why not?’

Vasin sighed. ‘Because I reviewed the equipment manifest myself so I know exactly what we have aboard. We have docking tethers, surface-penetrating grapples and power winches. But the tethers won’t reach that far — we brought them to help us hook onto Zanzibar, if it came to that. I saw no need for longer lines on this trip, and I’m not even sure Travertine could have supplied them if I had.’

‘How long,’ Goma said, ‘is the longest tether?’

‘Forty, fifty — no more than that. They’re not made to be joined together, either.’

‘It’s not enough,’ Ru said.

‘Next time you put together a supply manifest,’ Eunice said, ‘ask for some help.’

‘Nobody could have anticipated this,’ Vasin said. ‘Not even you.’

CHAPTER FIFTY

Kanu had gone back to the two surviving Risen, who were still in their hammocks. ‘You should prepare yourselves,’ he told them. ‘There’ll be a bump, I think, but nothing worse than what we’ve already been through. How are you coping with the gravity? Do you think you can stand it?’

‘I believe the gravity may be the least of our problems, Kanu. I shudder to imagine the depth of water beneath us, that it can swallow half the width of that wheel. Have you seen it?’

‘Yes. It’s magnificent. And humbling. Whoever made it, they weren’t exactly lacking in confidence.’

‘No, I do not think they were. I saw some of it through the window. I would very much like the time to know it better — the time to study those writings. Do you know the strange thing, Kanu?’

‘This is all strange, frankly.’

‘Then let us talk of specifics. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted nothing more than to be here, inside the mysteries of Poseidon. Within the sentinel moons, having once more endured the Terror, close enough to see the wheels, close enough to understand them for myself. And yet now that I am here, I realise there can be no understanding. Not for me, at least. I gather information, but I was never intended to be anything more than a recording instrument, a conduit to transmit observations to the minds of the Watchkeepers. I am their eyes, a branch of their extended nervous system — nothing more.’

Once again Kanu marvelled at the bony prominence of her forehead, holding back the force of her mind like the wall of a dam.

‘I think you underestimate yourself, Dakota.’

‘I think they would say that I have failed them. I might say that I have failed myself.’

‘No,’ Kanu said. ‘Not yet.’

‘You ought to despise me, knowing what I ordered done. But while there is time, I would like to absolve Memphis of any complicity in my actions. Should the opportunity present itself, I would ask you to present this information to your fellows — the other humans. If they find Zanzibar again, Memphis ought not to be blamed for the deaths of the Friends.’

Kanu phrased his question as softly as he was able. ‘Because he was only following orders?’

‘Because there were no deaths. I deceived you. The hundred cold corpses? They were already long past any chance of revival. I told Memphis to use only those who could never live again.’

Kanu nodded slowly — he had no means of validating this claim, but it did not strike him as a lie. She had continued to value and respect the Friends long before his arrival, and he believed that she felt genuine remorse for the humans who had perished during the time of troubles.

‘And if another hundred had needed to die?’

‘I trusted that my point would be adequately made by those first hundred.’

He smiled. ‘It was.’

‘What became of me, Kanu, to bring us to this place?’

‘Nothing you need blame yourself for.’

‘I made questionable choices.’

‘So did we all.’ He set his jaw, tried to look confident in the face of dauntless odds — one of the oldest tricks in the book of diplomacy. The void was still inside him — it was going to take more than a few hours of his life to eclipse that darkness. But like a stiff new spacesuit, cumbersome at first, he was beginning to adjust to its presence. ‘We’ll be hitting the water very soon. The odds are that the ship isn’t in excellent shape, but we’ll do our best to hold it together.’

‘We always do our best.’

The impact was hard, but perhaps not as bad as he had feared. After the initial bump, Noah’s momentum carried it through the water, bellying up and then settling into a level configuration. Water sizzled where it touched the still-hot hull and fanned out in butterfly wings of spray on either side. And then they were resting, with barely any rocking from side to side as the lander floated. Dakota and Hector began to extract themselves from their hammocks, Hector labouring over it at first, then appearing to find some of his old strength.

Kanu went forward. Nissa was already out of her seat.

‘Well, we’re down,’ she said. ‘More than I was expecting when that shock wave hit us.’

‘We’re in one piece. How is the ship?’

‘I wouldn’t bet my life on it — or yours. If the hull’s as damaged as it thinks it is, we may not remain afloat for long.’

Kanu leaned down for a better look through the window. ‘You did well. Hard to say, but I don’t think we can be much more than five kilometres from that wheel. We should be able to cross that, and then find a way to set up camp on the wheel.’

‘I hope they packed some climbing gear.’

‘We’ll manage,’ he said.

But the simpler truth was that he could think of better ways of dying than drowning in a sinking ship. Dying in open water was scarcely an improvement, but if it came to it, at least the choice would have been his. He knew they had no hope on the wheel, not now that its sheer size was so clear. And although it might only be a short distance from the waves up to the nearest groove — a scant few metres, probably — what use was that to an elephant?

They would die, all of them. But at least they would be moving.

‘That’s it,’ Nissa said, nodding at the horizon. ‘We’re picking up a definite list to the right. Noah’s flooding.’