Beowulf's Children (32 page)

Carlos was on his hands and knees, and his face smashed against the metal sheeting as the skeeter behind him crashed onto its side. He knew in that moment that he was going to die.

It pulled him toward the edge, and his knee hit the anchor ring. He scrabbled for it in the darkness, and found it, flipped it up, and clipped the line into place. It snapped taut in the next instant, and behind him he heard a scream, and a grinding crash, and he knew that Cadmann had gone over the side.

He was on the verge of muttering a prayer when he heard the groan.

"On my way!" he sang. He followed the cable to the wrecked skeeter, and climbed around it, finding handholds every step of the way. He came around to the other side and heard a thump. He peered over, and saw Cadmann hanging there, the cable tangled around his arm.

Jesus. "Cadmann!"

His friend looked up at him. Stunned, not injured. Weyland shook his head, like a water buffalo trying to clear itself, and looked down at the ocean, black and slow, far below him, and then back up at Carlos. "Help me," he whispered. And Carlos extended a hand to him, and helped him up.

Trish found Aaron in the main galley, supervising as the crates were hauled up from the hold and opened. Provisions, and equipment, mostly, and he had chosen well.

"We've got a problem," she said. "We've lost power in engines two and three. We're running on a single engine now."

Aaron's head snapped around. "What?"

"It's true. Five minutes ago. We lost two and—"

Her collar speaker crackled. "Trish. We just lost engine one. We have no power."

"What in the hell!" Aaron seemed to grow, his face reddening, and his entire body growing even as they watched. "We'll be blown back toward land, dammit!"

"I'm afraid so. We have the rudders and stabilizers—"

"I'm going up," he said. "Something is very wrong up there."

Carlos slapped Cadmann's shoulder as the first trace of a human figure appeared over the side of Robor.

The wind howled around them, and Cadmann had to scream.

"Get back, dammit. I have a grendel gun, and I'll use it."

"Cadmann?" Aaron yelled back cautiously. "Damn. How did you... ?"

"Power of human stupidity. Just get back down."

"We'll crash if we don't have our power, you know that."

"No, you won't. I'll give you engine one again. You are going to use it to turn around, and head back to land. And then you are going to put down."

"Cadmann. Your daughter died. We have to do something. We have to find out what it was, or her death will be for nothing."

Cadmann was tired and sore. His shoulder throbbed. "Listen to me. We can't talk about that now. I don't have any choice but to turn you around. Let's not let this get any worse than it is."

"Worse than it is. All right."

There was a flicker of movement behind him, and Carlos suddenly screamed, his entire body arcing, Cadmann spun and fired at a figure against the clouds. The grendel gun bucked in his arms. He fired a dart directly into Toshiro Tanaka's chest. Toshiro's hair flew out in a corona, and his teeth clamped on his tongue. Blood shot from between his clenched teeth and his hands lost their grip on the port access ladder. His body arced backwards and he fell screaming and twisting, to the sea far below him.

"Toshiro!" Aaron screamed.

Cadmann, cursing, checked Carlos. He was fine. Damn damn damn! The children had dialed their grendel guns down to stun. He had been too damned tired, too trigger-happy.

And Toshiro Tanaka would plunge two thousand feet to the water below.

And from that height, the water might as well have been concrete.

"One dead, Aaron," Cadmann said. And he could barely speak. His teeth were chattering, and not just from the cold. "One dead. Let's end this."

"You killed him, Cadmann," Aaron said. "He's dead, and you killed him. Why don't you tell your people about how you did this to save lives. All right. We're turning around." Aaron climbed back down. Cadmann collapsed against the wet cold plate of the deck and closed his eyes, feeling the rain pelt against his skin.

GRENDELS

Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;

And in the lowest deep a lower deep

Still threatening to devour me opens wide,

To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.

JOHN MILTON, Paradise Lost

VICTORY

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The whole colony was assembled in the meeting hall. In a few places entire families, First and Second, sat at one table, but most of the Second sat together and away from the First. By accident or design they had chosen tables on the highest tiers on the speaker's left.

There was no entertainment tonight. The circles of conversation went abruptly quiet when Zack Moskowitz came in from the adjacent council room. He was followed by six others: five of the First and Katya Martinez. Zack went to the podium. Katya came down from the stage, looked up at the other members of the Second, and went to sit at the table with Cadmann and her father.

Justin barely saw her. Carlos smiled at her, then looked up at the Second. "Montagnards," he said.

Sylvia looked the question at him.

"From the French Revolution," Carlos said. "The Jacobins sat in the highest seats in the meeting hall. They called that the ‘Mountain.' Katya, are your friends contemplating bloody rebellion? Guillotine the ancient regime?"

"Not that they told me," Katya sat between Carlos and Justin, across from Cadmann. Cadmann was flanked by Sylvia on one side, Mary Ann with the baby on the other. Cadzie was wrapped in a dark blue blanket.

Cadzie blue, they were calling that color. The blanket was an exact copy of the one wrapped around Cadzie at Deadwood Pass. There were hundreds already, and more being claimed as fast as they could be manufactured. Mary Anne had wanted to keep the original, but that was being analyzed as no bit of synthetic wool had ever been analyzed in human history, and she had to settle for a duplicate.

Invisible death had stripped every living thing at the minehead, Avalon crawling and flying crabs, Avalon Joeys, the scrubby bushes, Earthly mammals, Linda's straw hat, leather belts and cotton cloth; everything but one baby. Was it the blanket? The color, the scent, the texture, the inorganic origin? The cocoon geometry of a blanket encircling a baby?

Dark blue flashed here and there in the meeting hall. Nearly every nursing mother had an Orion blanket in Cadzie blue.

Katya took Justin's hand for a moment, and looked up toward Jessica. Jessica conspicuously was not with her family, but with the Second, at Aaron's table on the Mountain. It was a large table, with room for Edgar, Trish, and Chaka, and, surprisingly, Ruth Moskowitz. Katya thought it over. She could ask Justin later.

"What did you decide?" her father asked her.

Katya shook her head. "Zack wants to make the announcement." She looked from Carlos to Cadmann, then at Justin. "It's all right."

Zack Moskowitz was at the podium. "This is an official meeting of the members of the Avalon Colony to hear the decision of the special commission investigating the death of Toshiro Tanaka, a member of this colony," he said. "I call this meeting to order."

There was a hushed and expectant silence.

"The commission has unanimously reached the verdict of death by misadventure," Zack said. "For those without a legal background, this means that it was an accident. A majority of the commission has also determined that no further action is required, and the case is therefore closed."

There was another moment of silence. Then Carolyn McAndrews stood up "Missster Chairman! This wasn't a misadventure! The boy was killed as a consequence of his own criminal actions! He had accomplices. They should be punished! All of them!"

There were a few scattered murmurs of approval, and a couple of shouts of "Sit down, Carolyn!" One of the Second said, loudly enough to be heard all over the room, "Ice on her mind."

"The commission considered that, Carolyn," Zack said evenly. "The suggestion was rejected."

She looked around for support and found none. Her children were looking at her strangely. Sharon McAndrews had been at a second-tier table with other Grendel Scouts. Now she came down to Carolyn's table and put her arm around her mother.

"You'll be sorry," Carolyn announced, and sat down with infinite weariness. Sharon hesitated for a second, then sat next to her.

There was a stirring at the tables of the Second. Trish was standing.

Posing, Katya thought. "There should be a trial, all right," she shouted. "But not of us! Mr. Chairman, I charge Cadmann Weyland with murder! You Firsts have been telling us what to do, treating us like children or slaves all our lives! Now you've killed Toshiro Tanaka, and you think you're being generous when you don't charge the rest of us with murder?"

"You're out of order," Zack said.

"Is she?" Carey Lou Davidson demanded. The others at his table, all recently graduated Grendel Scouts, applauded. "I know we won't win a vote, but we would if there was any justice!"

Trish had been sitting next to Jessica. Jessica Weyland's head was bent, face half-hidden. Trying to make herself invisible, Katya thought. What kind of grief was that girl buying? Justin looked as embarrassed as Jessica did. Katya massaged his neck one-handed, but he didn't look up.

Twice now, Jessica had entered her father's home to commit sabotage or theft. Now she sat with her father's accusers. She hadn't yet alienated all of her family, Katya thought, but she seemed to be working on it—

Katya saw Aaron reach around Jessica to take Trish Chance by the wrist. He whispered in her ear. Trish nodded and settled back in her chair.

"Vote!" Carey Lou shouted.

Aaron Tragon stood. "Mr. Chairman, may I be recognized?"

Zack hesitated, then nodded. "The chair recognizes Aaron Tragon."

"Mr. Chairman, with your permission—" He turned to Carey Lou. "Sit down, please."

"I still say—"

"No, you don't say," Aaron said. "Sit." There was ice in his voice.

Carey Lou sat.

"Thank you. Mr. Chairman—Uncle Zack—everyone here regrets what happened, and it is utterly pointless to portion out blame. Yes, we tried to mount an expedition to the mainland. We made a lot of mistakes, but we didn't kill anyone—"

"You just shut up!" Mary Ann shouted.

Cadmann shook his head. "Let him finish," he said softly.

"But—"

Cadmann took her hand. "He can't hurt us. Let him talk."

"We didn't kill anyone, but Toshiro wouldn't have died if we hadn't acted as we did," Aaron was saying. "I think the commission has acted very wisely. ‘Death by misadventure,' they said, and death by misadventure it was. The important thing is there shouldn't be any more misadventures!

"We still have to go back to the mainland. It's more important than ever," Aaron said. "You all know that Tau Ceti's flaring up. Another Avalon Surprise, and already we've seen changes. Eels. Weather. Edgar says there'll be more—" He glanced down the table, waited for Edgar's nod. "You've got more on that, Edgar? Good."

"Mr. Chairman," Julia Hortha said.

"Please," Aaron said. "I'd like to finish."

"You have the floor," Zack said.

"It's doubly important to understand what happened to Joe and Linda now," Aaron said. "We need the supplies from the mines, and it will take years to find and develop new mine sites as good as the ones we had." He had been speaking directly to Zack, but now he turned to include everyone in the room. "We're all concerned because there aren't enough raw materials. If we don't get a new supply we'll be making hard choices soon enough! And in case anyone doesn't know, there are no suitable mine sites on Camelot Island, and the only mainland sites anywhere near as good as Deadwood Pass are far in the interior or down at levels where grendels live. Deadwood has both organics and metals. It will take years to bring a new site up to the production we had from Deadwood Pass."

"But Deadwood's a wreck!"

Aaron didn't look to see who had spoken. "Yes, but not a hopeless wreck. There's a lot of machinery there. We could have it back up to production in a few months."

"How do you know that?" Hendrick Sills asked.

"Edgar Sikes helped me direct Cassandra to do a study," Aaron said.

"Edgar?"

Edgar Sikes stood, "The minebit mommy isn't that badly damaged. It's not at the tunnel nexus, it's backed off into a side corridor. The programming might have got shook up, but Cassie's got a duplicate on file, and that's unharmed. I looked. Ask for Operation Restore Deadwood. It's all there, at least in preliminary—"

"I've looked at much of it," Zack said from the podium. "I think he's right about that. I'm not sure I share his conclusions, but even if we picked another mining site, we'd have to move that entire minebit factory—"

Katya leaned close to Justin. "He's got it all worked out, hasn't he?"

"Pretty much," Justin said.

"Which makes it more important than ever to understand what happened at Deadwood Pass," Aaron said. "But we will never understand that in isolation. Whatever killed Joe and Linda doesn't live up there. We won't know what it is until we understand far more of Avalon's ecology than we know." He turned to face Big Chaka, who sat with his son down among the First. "Sir, don't you agree?"

Big Chaka stood. Standing, his eyes were at a level with Little Chaka's. "I do agree." He and Little Chaka nodded in unison.

"Everyone in this room regrets what happened to Toshiro," Aaron said. "Death by misadventure. The misadventure was this senseless distrust between First and Second, Earth Born and Star Born. If Toshiro's death has any meaning at all, it's to serve as the end of that! Mr. Chairman, I move that volunteers go back to the mainland, to reclaim the mines and more, to claim what is our own. Let us honor Toshiro's memory by completing the work we should all be doing together. I so move."