Eye of the Comet

For Kathryn

1

Lydee’s head ached. Stretching out on her bed, she lifted a hand to her brow and then remembered. She no longer had to wear a circlet. Briefly, she touched her forehead near the spot where her implant had been inserted.

Through the tiny, implanted link, she would now be able to communicate with Homesmind whenever she wished, and with others as well. The link could be closed if she did not wish to speak, but she could not remove it. She was now bound to her world.

Lydee sat up. The hanging vines around her bed twisted, then curled up onto the grassy, green canopy above her. Tiny lights danced on the rough, barklike walls of the cave. Her mentor was not in their room; she wondered where he had gone.

Reiho is visiting his former mentor
, Homesmind’s voice said inside her. The voice was soft and gentle, yet insistent; Homesmind sounded as It had when It had spoken to her through a circlet.

Of course I sound the same
, Homesmind went on.
The circlet has trained you, and your link will work in the same way. You are now fully a part of this world, Lydee.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. Was Homesmind mocking her? She had lived on Home all her life — Home, the Wanderer, the Forest, the Refuge. People called this world all of those names and it was all of those things, but it was not really her world.

Don’t be nonsensical
, Homesmind replied to her unspoken thoughts.
Of course this is your world
.

“I don’t feel as though it is,” Lydee replied. She could not explain her feelings to the world’s Mindcore, though she did not have to in any case. Homesmind was undoubtedly sorting through her surface thoughts at that moment. She shut down that particular channel of her link, wanting to keep her feelings, at least, to herself.

Clearing her mind, she phrased her questions: Who am I? Who were my donors? Where am I from? Homesmind showed her only a mist; even now, linked as she was, she received no answers. Her friends had asked the same questions and had seen images of their donors, along with charts of their genetic backgrounds. Each of them carried the genes of several donors; each was the product of centuries of genetic manipulation and modification. They knew who they were. Lydee seemed to have been born from nothing, with no connection to anyone else.

“Where did I come from?” she said aloud. “You’ve never told me.”

Does it matter? You have grown up like all the others.

“It matters to me. Reiho knows, and I’m sure a few of his friends know, and they’ve never told me, either. Somehow that doesn’t seem fair.”

You will learn soon enough.

“Tell me now,” she insisted.

It is Reiho’s task to speak to you, and he is already preparing to do so. It is my hope that you will come to take some joy in the knowledge.
Homesmind paused.
Occasionally it is time to bring something new into the world. You may someday have a special task to perform, Lydee.

She sighed, closing her link. Homesmind could still speak to her when It wished, but would not receive her thoughts.

Her headache had vanished. She crossed the room, took a piece of fruit from a recess in the cave wall, and sat down on one of the giant mushrooms growing from the mossy floor. Homesmind’s tone had disturbed her. Her mentor, she felt, should not have to answer questions Homesmind could have answered.

Where had she come from? She had supposed that her original home was much like this world, that it too was yet another comet transformed ages ago into a garden world, a world in which human beings dwelled inside the giant roots of enormous trees that sprouted from the comet as if the comet were a seed. But she had never seen another comet world, and had not heard of one entering this part of the galaxy in the recent past. Humankind’s other comet worlds had voyaged far, and even Homesmind rarely spoke to them. She had learned enough about interstellar distances to understand that her chance of seeing another world like the Forest very soon was remote.

Homesmind had spoken of a special task, but Lydee could not imagine what It would ask of someone like her. Even the oldest adults, those who had lived for centuries and could recall the times when their world had wandered far from this planetary system, had no special tasks and were free to do as they liked. Homesmind cared for them all; It was the brain other world. Long ago, when human beings had fled to the Halo of comets at the edge of the solar system, Homesmind had been only a small Mindcore, a cybernetic and organic intelligence of colloids and crystals, but during the thousands of years since, It had grown in complexity until no human mind could fully encompass It. Homesmind had been humanity’s child. Now It was their parent, their guardian, their protector, their teacher, their willing servant, and their gentle master. Homesmind was the comet.

Lydee.

She opened her link again. “What is it?”

Nara and Pilo are approaching. Do you wish to visit with them? They are on the path outside.

“I’ll meet them there.”

* * *

Nara’s short, white curls fluttered in the breeze. She was wearing a band of gold cloth around her hips, another gold band around her breasts, and the belt everyone wore. Pilo was in a red loincloth. They did not have to walk; the pathway’s glassy surface flowed, carrying Lydee toward the girl and the boy as it drew them closer to her. Lydee’s cave was one of many on the side of the cliff; the pathway was a narrow foothold.

Pilo grinned. Lydee’s breasts shifted, pressing against her band of blue cloth as she waved. She had looked like the others as a child; now her hips were wide and her breasts large. No woman or girl she knew had such a shape; their hips were narrow, their breasts small. She pushed her shoulders forward, trying to flatten her chest.

“Congratulations on your link,” Nara sang out as she stepped to the side of the pathway; she was now at the edge. Pilo and Lydee stood near her. Lydee’s cave was near the top of the vine-covered bluff; far below, a blue ribbon wound through a green valley. On the other side of the valley, another cliff faced them, striped by the shimmering streaks of the pathways; vines drew away from the mouths of caves as other people left their rooms.

Nara waved at one dark-haired man; Lydee recognized Nara’s mentor, Chilon. He signaled to Lydee with his hands. “Congratulations,” his voice whispered inside her through her link. She thanked him.

Pilo shook back his thick, black hair, thumbed his belt, floated out from the cliff, then dropped toward the valley below. Lydee and Nara stepped out after him. The white-haired girl fell quickly, arms over her head, her feet pointed; Pilo was diving headfirst. Lydee sat on a pillow of air, then hooked a finger around her belt, slowing herself. A strand of dark hair lashed her eyes; she brushed it away. Nara swooped toward the river, alighted, and sat down on the bank, swirling her pale feet in the water; Pilo landed next to her.

Lydee hovered over the water, then flew toward her friends, scooping up water with her hands. Pilo laughed as she splashed him; droplets glistened on his dark-brown skin. She floated down to him and seated herself.

A tall woman was walking toward the young people, stepping lightly on her toes as if performing a dance. “Genlai,” Nara called out, greeting the woman.

Genlai waved at them languidly. Her brown hair was loose around her shoulders; her blue eyes stared past them. “Lydee, you have your link,” she said, smiling wistfully. “You’ll draw closer to the world as I prepare to leave it.”

“Stay,” Lydee replied.

“Oh, no.” Genlai shook her head. “I’m much too weary. I can welcome death now. I’ll say my farewells to you, and go my way.” The woman walked on, holding out her arms as if seeking an embrace.

Nara giggled when Genlai was out of sight. “She’s preparing to die again,” she said, covering her mouth.

Pilo shrugged. “Maybe she means it this time.”

“Chilon says she’s made her farewells dozens of times, always telling everyone how weary she is, but she always decides to live in the end. I suppose it’s her way. She can gaze at the world as if she’s seeing it for the last time, and that probably makes it seem more beautiful. It’s her little art.”

Five small children were on the other side of the river; a tall, slender man was speaking to them. The children sat down and he handed each a thin, silver circlet. As the children put the circlets on their heads, the man pointed toward the colored stones along the bank. One child began to read them.

Lydee could read the stones without Homesmind’s help; the position of each bit of rock told the story, which was a simple one about the river’s travels through the valley. She gazed at the children; their naked bodies seemed vulnerable, their skin too fleshy, their bones too fragile. As they grew, their skin would gradually be replaced by a stronger, more durable membrane, tiny electrodes would strengthen their muscles, a nearly invisible web of slender wires would encase their skulls, their bones would become like steel. Lydee remembered her own childhood as a time of bruises, aches, cuts, and twinges that had faded as her body acquired the supplements that had made it nearly invulnerable. She stretched out one light-brown hand, flexing her fingers.

A small globe floated toward them, its tray bearing three glasses, a bottle of wine, and a bowl of tidbits. Nara waved at the globe; she had apparently summoned it. The globe settled next to them as Nara poured out the amber liquid; Pilo nibbled at a vegetable cracker.

“To Lydee,” Nara sang. “May your new link bind you even more strongly to the world, and to us, and to all who dwell on the Wanderer.”

Lydee sipped; Nara had varied the traditional toast a little. “‘Even more strongly.’ Are you saying that I need to be bound more than others?”

She had spoken a bit too harshly. Nara’s pale-blue eyes widened. “Why, Lydee,” she answered softly, “doesn’t the link bind everyone more strongly?”

“Of course.” Lydee, as usual, had been too clumsy. Eventually she might provoke someone to the raising of a voice, or even an argument, and that would never do. “But you know perfectly well that I was given life elsewhere.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” Pilo said as he stroked Lydee’s hand.

“Some of the oldest people here lived on other comets once,” Nara said. “You’re no different from them.”

“Except that they know where they’re from, and I don’t.”

“You grew up here, and you’re here now.” That seemed to settle the matter for Nara.

They finished their glasses of wine in silence. Nara seemed preoccupied by the children and their teacher; Pilo was staring calmly at the river. Lydee stretched out, gazing up at the yellow glow above the valley, and was soon lost in a reverie. Her mind soared toward the light. The valley and its cliffs were only a small part of one root, one of the many roots of the giant trees that grew from the comet, spreading their massive leaves in black space to catch the distant light of the sun.

As she closed her eyes, Homesmind showed her the comet as it would appear from a distance, a seed green with life, its bright tail pointing away from the pinprick of light that had made life possible. Other stars dotted the darkness. One small body was not a star, but a tiny blue globe with an even smaller companion. Eons ago, all of humankind had dwelled on that blue, cloudy world, but that world, called Earth, had been abandoned.

The image faded; her peaceful mood had been broken. Reiho and his mentor Etey had seen Earth, had walked on it when Reiho was a boy. They had persuaded Homesmind to remain in the solar system for a time, and they had even spoken to some of Earth’s primitive inhabitants.

The presence of humanlike creatures on that world had come as a shock to the cometdwellers, who had believed that no one was left. It was said that the Earthfolk were hardly human at all, that they were barbaric creatures who wanted no contact with the comet. Yet Homesmind remained near that world; Lydee supposed that It wanted to add new facts to Its store of knowledge before traveling on.

She had once asked her mentor about his adventures on humankind’s ancient home; the pain in Reiho’s eyes had been so intense that she had dropped the subject. Later, he had told her that Earth was best left alone, but she had always known that. It was the world that had driven Home’s creators away.

“What are you going to do?” Nara asked. Lydee opened her eyes and sat up; the other girl was pouring more wine. “I only ask because you haven’t told anyone, and I was wondering if you’d made up your mind.” Nara, as Lydee had expected, was thinking of being a botanist. She had already sketched out some ideas for new floral species, though her mentor Chilon had chided her, in Lydee’s presence, for being a bit too garish with her designs. Pilo wanted to do work in brain physiology; his goal was to design an implant that would, as he put it, produce a “perfect and pure transcendence.”

“I don’t know,” Lydee replied, suddenly struck by the fact that all her friends had decided on a life’s work, or at least a pursuit that would keep them occupied during their first century, and that she had not been surprised by any of the choices. She remained uncertain. Nara’s flowers and Pilo’s mental states seemed trivial somehow. She thought of other close friends; Jerod and his jewelry designs, Tila and her striped butterflies. Lydee wanted to do something more adventurous, but was afraid to admit it, knowing that it would only accentuate her individuality. Everyone prized individuality as long as one was not too distinctive.

They finished the bottle of wine. Nara waved the small globe away, then stood up. “I must get you your gift,” she said to Lydee. Thumbing her belt, the white-haired girl drifted up toward the trees bordering the riverbank. Nara’s errand, Lydee knew, was only an excuse; her friend had no doubt sensed that she and Pilo wanted to be alone for a while.

The children across the river had been led away. Pilo reached for her hand and held it gently. She smiled. He leaned toward her; her grip tightened as she gazed into his black eyes. He drew back a little.

She was being too intense; her hand had clutched at his too tightly. Blushing, she released him. She had surprised Pilo the first time they had made love. He had expected playfulness, not passion. Even Reiho had warned her against being too emotional. She would have to request more aid from Homesmind in controlling her balance; she slipped into intensity too often.