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Poseidon's Wake

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‘I shall,’ Loring said.

They were soon on their way back up the sloping corridor, Eunice almost sprinting ahead of the others.

‘We have superb medical facilities on Travertine,’ Vasin was saying. ‘Anything in Ru’s blood, or which has spread to the rest of us, we can isolate and treat. You just have to trust us.’

‘And where has trust got us, exactly?’ Eunice said sharply. ‘One dying Tantor, and two more that won’t be far behind?’

‘We came across light-years of space to answer your call,’ Vasin answered. ‘Gave up our lives, our futures. We made sacrifices you can’t begin to understand. Mposi even died for you.’

They reached the accommodation level, all of them breathless except for Eunice. She barged through chairs, brushed aside kitchen utensils to reach a dusty communications console. ‘Atria? Can you hear me now?’

‘Yes, Eunice,’ came the Tantor’s voice. ‘We should like to come in.’

‘You can’t, not yet. The humans have brought a sickness with them. Sadalmelik is very unwell.’

‘How unwell? Will Sadalmelik pass into the Remembering?’

‘I don’t know. I’m doing what I can, but I won’t risk the rest of you becoming infected. I want you to remain in your suits, outside, until I’m sure the air in here is safe to breathe.’ She sniffed, rubbed a hand under her nose. ‘Can you do that for me?’

‘We can remain outside if we need to. But you must open the secondary lock, Eunice.’

‘Why?’

‘We found a man outside. We think he may have passed into the Remembering.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Nothing was wrong with their rooms in the household, nothing obviously amiss with the amenities on hand, but Kanu had never experienced a more restless night’s sleep in his life. He was back aboard Icebreaker, haunting the corridors again — ghosting their long, darkened lengths, returning to his periodic vigil at Nissa’s sleeping station. There were only so many hours in the night but his dreams felt like they contained weeks or months of mindless wandering. When at last he surrendered to day — the blue of the chamber’s ceiling lights had returned to its prior brilliance after dimming for the night — he felt as drained as if he had lived through every one of those wandering hours. He looked at his little finger, irritated again by the torn fingernail he had noticed on first waking from skipover. How had that happened, exactly? The inside of a skipover casket was smoothly contoured — there was nothing to catch a fingernail on.

He rose, gathered a sheet about his midriff and moved through the adjoining rooms to the washbasins and shower cubicles. He filled a basin with the odd-tasting water and doused his face, removing some of the night’s grease and grime.

‘What do you think Swift knows?’

‘About what?’ Kanu asked, turning around.

‘Everything. Us. The Tantors. What Dakota really wants. What happened to Chiku and the others.’

Nissa had entered the room through the other doorway. She was naked, her free hand resting on one hip, a chunk of fruit held in the other, the posture unselfconscious and one that Kanu found unavoidably arousing. They had been married, once, and then lovers again so recently it was easy to think that everything that had happened in the meantime was no more than a momentary loss of affection, a lovers’ spat. But years had passed since their divorce — decades, in fact — and even the reunion that began in Lisbon had been predicated on his ultimate betrayal of her.

After all that, how did he dare allow himself to feel that he might have fallen back in love with her? How did he dare hope that his feelings might be reciprocated? The universe did not contain enough forgiveness for that.

‘The thing is, I keep coming back to this: everything I know about you says you acted in service to what you thought was the common good. You’re not a bad man and you want the best for everyone — in so far as you understand it. But that still leaves us with a little difficulty, doesn’t it?’

Kanu swallowed hard. ‘Swift.’

‘Swift. Yes. And you know what? I’m almost at the point of thinking you might have earned my trust. Maybe even my forgiveness, although let’s not run before we can walk.’

Not wishing to hurt his chances of being viewed in a better light, Kanu nodded eagerly. ‘Let’s not.’

‘You’re an idealist, and you’re also hopelessly naive. But you’re not a fool, and nothing that’s happened to us was because you were acting selfishly, or for personal gain. I keep reminding myself of that. It’s the bridge that’s helping me find a way back to forgiving you. But here’s the difficulty. However I might end up feeling about you, I’m reserving that clemency for you, not the other voice in our heads. And — yes — I don’t doubt for a minute that he’s listening in.’

‘I allowed Swift inside me — offered him sanctuary beyond Mars. To that extent, I’m responsible for him.’

‘Yes, you are. In which case you’d better hope he’s still on our side. That our ends are the same as his. Because if one or both of us gets in the way of whatever Swift really wants… well, who knows what might happen?’

‘Let’s try not to assume the worst.’

‘There you go again: always the optimist.’ She bit into her fruit. ‘You’re an old fool and you’ve made some terrible decisions. You’ll probably make more. But deep down you’re good and kind and I think you still want to make the best of things. Shall I tell you something?’

‘Go on.’

‘When I found myself trapped aboard your ship, being shot at on our way out of Europa, I’d have gladly strangled you. I mean literally — no exaggeration.’

‘I believe you.’

‘You should. But on another level, I can’t quite say that I’m sorry it happened. I may not be an artist, but I’m a scholar of the arts — a seeker of wonder and novelty, if you like. I like it when life surprises me. And this morning I woke up to find three tiny elephants putting fresh fruit out for us.’ She levelled her palm at hip height. ‘They were this big. Not baby elephants, exactly, but miniature ones. They were clever, too. They could talk and answer questions. Their little piping voices came out of those contraptions they have strapped to their foreheads. We have elephant butlers. How marvellous is that?’

Kanu grinned. He felt flooded with joy, filled with the promise of her forgiveness. It was not there yet; it was nothing he could count on, but it was at least within the scope of his future, and for now that was enough.

‘Elephant butlers. I wish I’d been awake to see that.’

‘I suppose you’ll get your chance. Have you washed?’

‘I was in the process.’

‘Then finish. I’d like to make love to you. Do you have any particular problems with that?’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘On the evidence, I didn’t think so. Afterwards we’ll have breakfast, and then we’ll see what Dakota has in store for us. And, Swift, if you’re listening in? Go and think machine thoughts for a while. You’re not wanted here.’

They were returned to their broken ship. Once aboard, Kanu satisfied himself with a quick check of the systems, verifying that Icebreaker had not been tampered with during their absence. All was well — or as well as when they disembarked. The ongoing repair processes had inched forward, although there was no useful change in the ship’s capabilities.

‘That door is sealed now,’ Nissa said, meaning the entrance to the polar berthing dock, ‘but if we had to get through it, I’m sure we could find a way.’

‘Icebreaker won’t be much use as a tool of persuasion — at least, not for a while.’

‘But we still have my ship. Granted, it’s not big enough to ram its way out, but it could still do some damage that I’m sure the elephants would rather avoid.’

‘Including our own suicides?’

‘I didn’t say it was a perfect plan. While you think of a better one, would you like some chai?’

Kanu began to dig through the repair summaries, running a finger down the list of tasks. Icebreaker had taken care of itself up to this point, but now it needed materials and parts it could not easily synthesise. Weeks or months of further work looked inevitable. After the year they had already spent in skipover between Poseidon and Paladin, though, Kanu supposed the additional delay was acceptable.

‘All this for an instant of damage!’

‘Stop complaining — we’re alive.’ She handed him a bulb of tepid chai, the best that could be managed in the weightless core.

‘Oh, I’m not complaining. But I’d much rather not be in her debt.’

‘She’s getting the better side of this bargain, Kanu. Have you seen the size of this place? She won’t miss a few thousand tonnes of materials, but in return she regains those sleepers.’

‘She strikes me as clever enough to have worked out how to do that herself,’ he mused. ‘You’d think they’d have made more of an effort if the Friends mean so much to them.’

‘Be grateful there’s something we can do for her.’

‘Oh, I am.’

When they had done as much with the repair tasks as could be managed in a day, Memphis met them at the airlock and brought them back to Dakota. Along the way, Kanu debated asking for another chance to view the recording of Chiku, but his instincts told him not to sound too eager to view it again so quickly.

Especially as Swift appeared to think there was something he ought not to blink for.