Poseidon's Wake

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‘Didn’t you?’ Vasin asked. ‘The expertise is specific, but you could have easily acquired those skills on the Malabar. Why he agreed to meet you alone, I don’t know. Regardless, you knocked him out, maybe even killed him — we only have half of his body to examine — and dragged him to the cargo elevator. You took him to the Knowledge Room, reprogrammed the nanomachines… and hoped that would buy you enough time to cover your tracks.’

‘I did all that?’ Grave looked impressed with himself. ‘You overestimate my ability to improvise, Captain.’

‘If we were down to our last gram of fuel, our final rations,’ Vasin said, ‘I might have a case for execution — or at least for throwing you out of an airlock. As it happens, neither fuel nor rations are a concern. Besides, Mposi would not have approved. Given that — and the uncertain legal standing of this trial — I only have one option. You’ve offered a defence, but it cannot be corroborated. On the other hand, you had the opportunity, the technical means and — as a conservative Second Chancer — a plausible motive.’

‘Case closed, then.’

‘No — case still open, but looking increasingly doubtful for you. You may or may not be guilty — I don’t have the evidence to decide — but I can’t run the risk of you doing further harm. You will be committed to skipover, Grave. Put on ice for the entire duration of the expedition.’

Dr Nhamedjo spoke up sharply. ‘I won’t be party to that.’

Vasin turned to him. ‘I’m sorry, Doctor?’

‘Regardless of what we might think of Grave, this doesn’t begin to satisfy his rights as a member of this expedition. And I won’t go along with some execution-by-proxy—’

Vasin spoke quietly, but she had no need to raise her voice to sound authoritative. ‘It’s not an execution, Doctor — it’s clemency. I’m doing him a kindness by not presuming his guilt. I’d prefer you to comply with this decision, but the truth is I don’t need you to. Under emergency provisions, any member of this crew is entitled to assist another into skipover.’

‘Only when the medical staff are indisposed!’

‘Or unable to discharge their duties, which at this point amounts to much the same thing. I’m sorry to state it so plainly, Saturnin — we are friends, and I’ve no desire to overrule you — but Grave will be going into skipover with or without your assistance. Would you rather stand by and watch one of us clumsily attempt to do your own work for you?’

‘Of course not,’ Nhamedjo said, with a surliness at odds with his pleasant, accommodating features.

‘Perhaps I made a mistake,’ Grave said. ‘Has it occurred to you that I achieved nothing by supposedly murdering Mposi?’

‘You acted carelessly,’ Vasin answered. ‘That isn’t my concern.’

‘It should be. I am not his murderer. Someone else is. You’ve found your demolition charges — good for you. Maybe they were part of a plot to blow up the ship, as you suspect. But if the real killer is still active, they’ll simply move on to a different weapon.’

‘Such as?’

‘I wish I knew. If I did, I’d be the first to tell you.’

Goma woke after the trial to find a transmission waiting for her from Ndege. She had been expecting such a thing, knowing that her mother had been informed of Mposi’s death through at least two channels. First there had been a personal communication from Gandhari Vasin, sharing the news and expressing her deep regret that this dreadful thing had happened to such a respected and well-liked figure. Vasin had allowed Goma to see the transmission before she sent it, and not long after that she had composed her own message to Ndege.

Vasin had done her a kindness, in that it did not fall to Goma to break the bad news. She had only to express her sadness and offer her condolences. It was bad enough that her uncle had been killed, but it was much worse for Ndege, losing her brother. Goma had only known him for the short span of her own life; Ndege and Mposi had been witness to centuries.

Both had separated knowing that a reunion was vanishingly unlikely, but neither had expected to learn of the other’s death. Mposi might have died before the expedition reached its destination, but by the time the news of his passing reached Crucible, Ndege would probably not be alive to receive it. Similarly, if Ndege were to die in the next few decades, news of it could not possibly reach the expedition for many decades to come.

Neither would have anticipated this. Travertine was still only a little more than a light-week from Crucible — its voyage barely commenced. It felt limitlessly cruel of the universe to force this development on Ndege, as if she had not suffered enough already.

And yet she accepted it with what appeared to Goma to be extreme stoic forbearance. She spoke with dignity, acknowledging her sadness, yet proud that her brother had the courage to join the expedition, and the deeper courage to act to protect it. In the end, he had let none of them down — except Goma, perhaps, who would not now have his companionship and wisdom to draw on. Ndege was sorry for that, but she said there was a simple answer. What Mposi had been to Goma, Goma would now have to be to the rest of the expedition. Mposi’s qualities were in her — she just needed to find them.

‘You will not have to dig very deeply, daughter. I have confidence in you. I always have done. Now go, and choose wisely, and if it is within your capabilities, bring Mposi back to us. He came to love this hot, green world, and I think we owe it to him to bury him under a blue sky, under stars he would recognise. As for you — you already have my love, but if it were within my power I would send you twice as much of it. Be strong for me, be strong for Ru, be strong for the others, but above all else be strong for yourself. Good luck, my daughter.’

Goma’s first instinct was to reply at length, but on reflection she chose something simpler.

‘You say you should send twice your love, but you have already given me more than anyone ever deserved. Mposi isn’t here, but your good thoughts are. And in turn, I hope — I know — that you can feel mine. They wronged you, my mother, but you never hated them for it. And even when the world thought the least of you, I never wanted anyone else to be my mother. I am proud of my name, proud of what I am — proud of the place that shaped who I am, proud of the ancestors who stand behind me. I cannot replace Mposi — none of us could, except perhaps you. But I will do my best, and keep trying harder, and perhaps I will not disgrace his memory. And when this is done, I will bring Mposi home to Crucible.’

If more needed to be said, the words were not there. She did not even replay the transmission before committing it to deep space, arrowing back to her planet of birth.

She could expect a reply in under twenty days, allowing for time lag, but she did not think there would be an answer. They had said what they needed to say, absolving each other of a lifetime’s slow accumulation of unhappiness and bitterness and guilt. That was all gone now, wiped clean by a death.

When all that was left was love, words were superfluous.

The door opened at the command of her bangle. Goma stepped into the nearly darkened room, waiting a moment for her eyes to adjust to the low green lighting. The form on the bed stirred, sensing her uninvited presence. At first Grave appeared untroubled, thinking perhaps that he was receiving another inspection from the captain or the medical staff. But then he must have recognised that this was not one of his normal visitors.

‘Goma,’ he said, raising himself from the bed, speaking quietly. ‘How did you get in here? No one told me to expect you.’

Behind her the door closed automatically.

‘You made a mistake,’ Goma said.

‘Did I?’

‘You mentioned that Mposi showed you how to reprogram the bangles.’

In the green half-light she made out his frown, his sleepless eyes, wide awake yet full of exhaustion.

‘How was that a mistake, exactly?’

‘Because it told me it could be done. Once I know a thing’s possible, that’s halfway to figuring out how to make it happen. Neither you nor Mposi would have had access to security tools, so finding the reprogramming mode couldn’t have been particularly complicated.’

He gave a half-smile, equal parts amusement and anxiety. ‘And did you?’

‘No, it was too difficult. Even for Ru, and she’s ten times smarter than me. But I went to Aiyana. I knew ve’d be up to it.’

‘And was ve?’

‘Already had it figured out. But like a typical scientist, once the puzzle was unlocked, ve lost interest in it. It never occurred to Aiyana to open any doors ve wasn’t meant to.’

‘I’m surprised you mention Loring’s name. Isn’t that a little rash if what you’re doing is against all the rules of the ship? Won’t that get Loring into trouble as well?’

Goma had moved to his bedside. Grave was keeping an eye on her but making no effort to leave the bed. She wondered if he thought she might have a weapon.

‘There isn’t going to be any trouble,’ she said. ‘What do you think I’ve come to do — kill you?’

‘It crossed my mind.’

‘In a little while, Grave, you’ll be as good as dead anyway. I’d be a fool to jeopardise my own standing on the expedition, wouldn’t I?’

‘Then I’m not sure what the point of this little visit is.’

‘I think you killed my uncle.’

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