A Larger Universe (39 page)

"There.  You're doing it again."

"What, Lord Tommy."  She tilted her head again.

"If you don't like what I am doing or saying, you go
back to calling me Lord Tommy and acting cold."

The frown became a defiant glare.  "What should I do
when you put me in my place, Lord Tommy.  You told me not to talk."

"That's not what I said.  I asked you if we could not
talk about why I won't look at you."

"If you say so, Lord Tommy."

Tommy took a deep breath.  "If I tell you, will you
stop calling me Lord Tommy?  Not just for now.  Never again?"

"Never?"

"Never."

"It must be something terrible," she said. 

She sat down beside him on the rock and dangled her feet in
the water with her shoulder almost touching his.

The scent of perfumed soap, brought from Earth, pulled him
toward her.  He gripped the edge of the rock with both hands and forced himself
to sit upright. 
Let’s get this over with.
  Through clenched teeth he
said, "I can't be friendly with you as long as you're wearing that metal
collar.”  He turned to look at her.  “Are you satisfied?"

Her hand went to her neck.  "The collar?"

"As long as you're wearing that collar, I could force
you to do anything I want."  He stood and looked down at her. 
"That's what the lords use it for, and I can't.  I won't.  But I can't
expect you to be truthful with me, either, as long as that collar is
controlling you.  You're not with me because you want to be.  You made that
obvious in the beginning."

Her voice was almost inaudible.  "So, you won't look at
me because...?"

"I don't think you're ugly.  I think you're
beautiful
. 
If I look at you too much, I might do something I'd regret.  And as long as
you're wearing that damn collar, I don't trust you wouldn't let me do it."

She swirled her feet in the water, then looked up at him
over her shoulder.  "Would that be so bad?"

"No, not if I knew you meant it.  But how could I know
that?”

He started up the hill.  "I'm taking a quick bath, and
then I'm taking you someplace you haven't been to eat.  I promised Potter a
treat, too.”

She almost couldn’t hear his final response.  “I hope I
answered your question."

#   #   #

The elevator door opened to a darkened Commons.  After his
eyes adjusted, Tommy used the faint glow from the dimmed "moon" lights
at the top of the center column to find his way to the stable.  Sisle hadn't
spoken since Tommy had climbed the hill for his bath.  Tommy's only words had
been a curt "Let's go" when he picked up Potter and started for the
bank of elevators. 

At the stable, Tommy opened the door and stepped inside. 
The familiar smells of horse manure and hay filled his nostrils.  A horse
whinnied.  From the rafters came the meows of several cats.  Straw rustled near
his feet.  Potter's claws dug in, and he jumped from Tommy's arms.

He rubbed his arm.  "I should’ve expected that."

"What?" Sisle said from the dark behind him.

"Getting scratched.  Potter heard a mouse.  That's what
I brought him for."

"What is this place?"

"A horse stable.  I worked here for many months."

"What's a horse?"

"A work animal.  Humans have used them on Earth for
centuries."

She was quiet for a while.  "Something like us, you
mean.  Like the humans on the lords' ships."

"Yes, exactly," he said.

"May we sit for a minute?" she asked.

Using the dim light from the open door, he led her to a hay
bale.

"I've been thinking about what you told me," Sisle
said, "and I understand."

The hay shook under him, and he heard her sobbing.

"You're right, and I think you're wonderful for saying
so, and for the way you've been treating me.  It's just, for as long as I can
remember, I've been told I'm too short, and I'm funny looking."

He wanted to put his arm around her.  The darkness and her
crying made him want to, but he didn't.  "I told you, I think you're
beautiful.  From my height, it's everyone else who is funny looking.  I just
can't get past that metal necklace."

"I do understand," she said.  She touched his hand
gently.  "I might hate you if you tried."

"I'm not going to try," he promised her. 
Until
you're not wearing it
, he wanted to add, but he couldn't give either of
them that kind of hope.

"Now, if you'll stop crying, we'll go to dinner and
leave Potter to his hunting."

When they opened the door to the meal room, the men yelled
"Tommy, Tommy," leaped from their tables, and rushed toward them. 

Sisle jumped in front of Tommy and moved into a fighting
stance. 

“I’m in no danger, Sisle,” Tommy said, pulling her back to
his side.

As they reached him, each man reached out to touch his
clothes, and then stepped respectfully back.  The women and children stood on
chairs behind the men to see him.

"We're here to eat our meal with you, if you'll have
us," Tommy said when he could be heard above the noise. 

The first Jack pushed to the front.  "We'd be honored,
Lord Tommy."

"Please.  I'll tell you what I told the other humans on
this ship.  Unless a lord is present, call me Tommy or Master Tommy.  I am a
human, not a lord."

He pulled Sisle to the front.  "This is Sisle.  She
will be eating with me.  I would be happy if you would treat her as you treat
me."

From the crowd came murmurs.  One came loud enough for Tommy
to distinguish the words:  "A warrior woman.  He brings a warrior woman to
our meal room."

Again the first Jack's voice rose above the others. 
"What Master Tommy wishes...."  He glanced around the room, and the
murmurs died.

On their way to pick up Potter, Sisle blurted: "They
stared at us the whole time!  What did you do to them?"

"They think I am the chosen one who’ll free them and
take them back to Earth.  The one they chant about in their rest day ritual.  A
warrior told me he had heard the story from an artisan who heard it from a
farmer.  It does me no good to tell them anything else.  I thought you’d heard
the story."

Her eyes opened wide.  "You're the chosen one?"

He shook his head.  "No, they believe I'm the chosen
one.  I’ve nothing to do with what they believe."

At the stable, Potter dropped a dead mouse at Tommy's feet,
then jumped into his arms. 

When they reached the door to his lord's chamber, Sisle
turned to him.  "You asked me to promise, and I will.  I'll never call you
Lord Tommy again."

#   #   #

Ull called Tommy to the bridge early the following morning. 
A quick glance through the overhead dome showed a star of a different color in
the distance and no reflections from the remains of a destroyed planet. 

"We arrived at the edge of the Toblepas system last
night," Ull told him.  "We planned to proceed with just
The
People's Hand
to the planet, but we have a dilemma."

"Yes?" Tommy asked.

"The ship is held fast in the asteroid.  Every time we
move the ship the asteroid moves with it."

Tommy burst into laughter.  "Another consequence no one
considered.  The insystem drive in The People's Hand, even the short-range
version, works by gravitational attraction.  Every nearby object falls into its
field."

"We hope," Ull indicated Leegh who was still on
the commander's podium, "you might have some idea how to get us out, short
of explosives."

Tommy thought for a minute.  "I might.  Have you disconnected
from
My Flowing Streams
?"

"Yes."

"Was the connecting cable routed from the bottom of the
ship?"

"No, from the side."

Tommy ran his hand through his hair then nodded.  "Give
me an hour, and I think I can have us out of here."

Tommy turned to the intercom and called throughout the
lord's portion of the ship.  "Seth, this is Tommy.  Please meet me in the
track control room."

When Tommy arrived, he found a room full of young men
standing behind Seth.  Seth insisted that he first introduce Tommy to each of
his new apprentices before beginning any work.  Seth glowed with pride as Tommy
shook each man’s hand.

After Seth dismissed his apprentices, Tommy made his
request.  "We need to shoot at least one small iron object from a track
pointing from the rear of the ship.  I think one will do, but I haven't done
the math."

"Not a missile?" Seth asked.

"Definitely not a missile.  We’re in here too tight for
that.  A ricochet would damage the ship.  And a missile might cause quakes that
would damage
My Flowing Streams
."

"Would a meter of iron pipe do?" Seth asked.

"Let's start with half a meter.  I'll bypass the part
of the program that loads a missile before we try."

Forty-five minutes later, everyone on the ship felt a gentle
nudge from below as the rail gun made a small enlargement in the crater below
the ship. 

A few minutes afterward, Ull called from the bridge. 
"We are moving.  That is enough for now."

"Seth, set this up as an option that can be controlled
from the bridge,” Tommy said.  “We should only need it when we're docked.  I'll
make the computer changes if you'll work on a way to load missiles of various
sizes."

"Not just the half-meter pipe?"

"No.  Come up with some other standard sizes to a
maximum of our regular missile.  I also have some other ideas I want to work on
with you, later."

"Yes, Lord Tommy," Seth said.

#   #   #

Once free of the asteroid, a short transit brought them ten
light seconds from the planet, where they waited for permission to continue
using insystem drive.  After receiving clearance, The People's Hand proceeded
at a leisurely pace to orbit at Toblepas.  No one wanted to advertise the new
accuracy of the ship's transits.  An hour later, Tommy walked down a lander's
ramp onto a planet's surface for the first time in at least three years.  With
him were four warrior guards, a member of the Communications Guild, Leegh, and
Sisle.  Ull had insisted on the warriors as protection for the group and had
objected to Sisle, but Tommy had won the argument.  As one of The People, he had
the right to take whomever he pleased.

Another group, led by Ull and also including a member of the
Communications Guild, landed on the opposite side of the planet.  Each group
had half the list of parts they needed, to hide, as much as possible, what they
sought.

Tommy took a deep breath and looked at the city visible in
the distance.  He immediately noticed the lack of ammonia always present in the
ship, even though the air here wasn't clean.  A hint of lubricating oil and
burning asphalt, perhaps coming from the smokestacks he saw on the horizon,
irritated his eyes.  He wiped his face on his shirttail and smiled. 
Seeing
a horizon after years spent in narrow passageways is worth almost any amount of
air pollution.

Ull had briefed Tommy about Toblepas the night before.  A
trading center for nearby starfaring cultures for over five hundred years, the
Toblepas business community took pride in the smoothness of its transactions
and the quick availability of credit.  As their landers brought cargo to this
field and others, each consignment would be quickly auctioned and its value
added to
The People's Hand
's account.  The credit from the auction would
be immediately available to authorized buyers for purchases.

At the bottom of the lander ramp, representatives of the
central bank met them and issued credentials.  Tommy tried to keep himself from
staring at the stick-like creatures as they talked with Leegh.  Instead of a
torso, head, and neck, the Tobles had a single cylinder of rough ebony, almost
like a length of log.  Two pairs of multiply articulated legs supported the
creatures from two heights, so their trunks tilted upward.  On each, a third
set of limbs, with several joints, extended to either side.  The “arms” ended
in a spray of smaller fingers, also with multiple joints.  Two pairs of eyes on
stalks near the top of their trunks continually moved in all directions, making
it difficult to determine the focus of their attention.  They wore no clothes,
but each had a satchel strapped between the arms and the first set of legs.  A
vertical mouth, a break in the bark of their rough bark-like skin, became
invisible when closed.  From these mouths, they spoke the lords' language,
indistinguishable from the speech he heard every day.

While Leegh negotiated, Tommy walked away from the ramp
until he could see in a full circle.  His first impression had been a mistake;
the city pressed against the landing everywhere he looked, not just opposite
the landing ramp.  Narrow skyscrapers rose in the distance like stalks of wheat,
robbing their neighbors of sunlight and standing so close together that he
couldn’t see room for passage between them.  Something about the surface of the
skyscrapers caught his eye.  The reflections from the sun shifted constantly. 
What
could be causing that?

By the time Leegh, who had visited this planet many times
before, led the group to what would have been called a taxi stand on Earth,
Leegh and Tommy had access to millions in the local currency using the
credentials the bankers had provided.

The Toble driver of their open-topped vehicle spoke enough
of the lords' language for them to direct it to their destinations.  The Toble
had some fluency in all of the languages of the eight cultures that traded
here.

As the taxi traveled toward the edge of the landing field,
the skyscrapers loomed higher in the sky until Tommy could no longer see their
tops.  At the same time, the strange reflections from the buildings resolved: 
thousands of Toble scurried across their faces, climbing into and out of doors
like ants.  Just above the level of the street, a line of Toble moved in either
direction on the sides of buildings, crossing from one building to another on
narrow walkways.