Necessity (37 page)

“It's a most interesting experiment,” Sokrates said. “The practical details may take a little working out. This is my house. Pytheas said I could have it back. I know Hilfa has a house.”

“Maybe it would make more sense if we looked for a house down near the harbor,” Jason said, sounding the way he did on the boat when he was laying out what needed doing. “And there's also Camilla and little Di. I have a responsibility to them.” He looked at Sokrates. “Their parents were killed at sea five years ago. They were friends of mine, we grew up together. I think I should ask Camilla and Di if they would like to live with our new family, or if they'd prefer to stay where they are in the sleeping houses. Would we get an allocation if we gave up our places and asked for a house, do you think, Marsilia?”

“I expect so,” I said. “There's not much precedent.” This was moving very fast. I hadn't thought at all about practical arrangements. Indeed, I hadn't thought it through at all. There would be political repercussions, too—I didn't know whether they'd be good or bad, but they'd certainly exist. A consul cannot marry without drawing attention, and this really was a kind of marriage. No humans had ever formed part of a pod before, so that was sure to cause comment. I couldn't even hope everyone would be so focused on the gods and the space humans that they'd take no notice, because Sokrates was involved. Well, it would never be boring, having Sokrates in the family. And Alkippe would love having somebody around to answer all her questions with more questions. And she'd be delighted to live in the same house as Camilla.

“Does forming a pod with citizens give me the right to stay in the Republic?” Sokrates asked.

He was looking at me questioningly. “Not inherently, no. But you have that right. You're already a citizen here,” I said, surprised.

“Am I?”

“Everyone who was a citizen at the time of the Last Debate remained a citizen of the Remnant if they wanted to be. Lots of people left and came back. Admittedly, it hasn't happened with an original citizen since immediately after the Relocation. I think my grandfather Nikias was one of the last. But it still holds.”

“But was I a citizen then? I was not a Master, for I never prayed to Athene to bring me here. The Children took oaths of citizenship and in token of that were given pins designed by Simmea, which I see you still use.” I withdrew my hand from Hilfa's and touched the bee on my pin, and saw Jason and Thetis making the same automatic movement towards theirs. The pins were all identical, whatever metal they were cast in. I had forgotten they had been designed by my grandmother. Sokrates's kiton was pinned with a plain iron pin. “I never took that oath, or went through any other form of citizenship. I regarded myself always as an Athenian citizen in exile.”

“And that's why you called this house Thessaly,” I said. “I've always wondered about that.”

“Krito suggested I escape to Thessaly instead of drinking the hemlock,” he said, smiling. “If he'd suggested this plan, I'd have had even stronger arguments against. But I'm here now, and from what I'm hearing, things are much improved from when I was here before.”

“You're Sokrates,” Thetis said, and indeed, that was enough. “Whether or not you're a citizen in your own mind, or legally, nobody would dream of saying you couldn't stay here. You're Sokrates, and this is Plato's Republic!”

“One of them,” Sokrates said.

“Do you want citizenship here now?” Jason asked.

“I'd have to examine the question, the implications and obligations, and also the details of your laws,” Sokrates said.

“You can take the course with Hilfa,” I said. “You'll love it. You can argue as much as you like, and debate every single point.” Thetis and Jason were both smiling, probably remembering their classes. “You can both take oath together, if you decide you want to. But Thetis is right. Whether or not you take our citizenship oath, whether or not you're part of a pod, everyone will want you to stay. Think how you were welcomed in Chamber this morning.”

“I wish you'd been on the course when I took it,” Thetis said.

“Oh, so do I! I think you should take the course all the time,” I said, suddenly realizing how wonderful that would be. “I don't mean teach it, though maybe you could, later, if you wanted to, but I think if you stay, you should always be around some of the time when the kids are taking the course. For one thing, there isn't a sixteen-year-old on this planet who wouldn't love being on that course with you to shake things up. But the real reason is that we have a tendency to become—well, Jathery said it yesterday about me. Piously Platonic. We accept it too much as received wisdom and we don't question enough. All of this has made me see that. If you were around the young people they wouldn't get complacent.”

“You're asking me to corrupt your youth?” Sokrates asked. “You know I have a conviction for that at home?”

We all laughed. “Yes, you're perfectly qualified, and it's precisely the kind of corruption we need for our youth,” I said.

“I have made a committment to join this pod,” Sokrates said, smiling. “I'd also like to explore the other cities, and indeed the other worlds. But I'm an old man. Don't count on me being around to help with these things long-term.”

He was hale and fit, but definitely an old man. “The space humans were talking about possibilities of medical and technological rejuvenation,” I said, remembering what had been said in the morning's meeting.

As I spoke, I looked at Hilfa again, and I realized he hadn't spoken since Jathery left us.

“Are you all right, Hilfa?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, in that flat way he had. The pink marks on his skin were the brightest I'd ever seen them. “I am free. I belong to Plato. And I have helped free all the Saeli here. I am very all right.”

“What did gla say to you?” Jason asked.

“It's hard to translate,” Hilfa said. “Gla said gla could have reunited me with gla, and that he wished me joy of my folly. And then gla said that Our Parent wants us to learn and experience and comprehend new things.”

“What?” Sokrates asked, completely focused on Hilfa now, not a shred of amusement left in his face. “Do you mean to say gla told you what Zeus wants? The purpose of life, spat at you like a curse? Gods! They're not fit to be entrusted with their responsibilities. They're like a bunch of heavily armed toddlers.”

“Can that really be the purpose of life?” I asked.

“We can't trust gla,” Thetis said, decisively.

“Even if we could trust what gla said, is that for Hilfa alone, all the Saeli, our pod, or for everyone?” Sokrates asked.

“I don't know,” Hilfa said. “It is like what many Saeli believe. Plato says excellence is the greatest good, but our culture, the religion we follow, has always put discovery first, science, knowledge.”

“This is the religion that's more like philosophy?” Sokrates asked.

“Yes. Other Saeli cultures worship other gods and have other priorities. But those of us who went into space, with Jathery, value discovery. I have heard that the Amarathi prioritize ubiquity and connection over everything else.”

“Perhaps it is meant for the Saeli, because gla gave me no hint of that when I was trying to talk to gla outside,” Sokrates said. “But how interesting. Learn, experience, comprehend?”

“Pity gla didn't stay around so we could ask gla now whether it's for all of us,” Jason said.

“Let's ask Grandfather,” I said.

“Or Athene,” Sokrates said, thoughtfully.

Jason let go of my hand, and it tingled where he had been holding it. He had hugged me earlier, when he came in. I hadn't meant to trick him into a form of marriage. I knew he was in love with Thetis. But since she was included, I hoped he didn't mind too much. He seemed to be taking it very reasonably, thinking about the details, exactly like you'd expect from a Silver really. Though Sokrates was thinking about details too. We'd work it out.

II.
Thetis

Everyone looked up as we went out into the garden. The night was growing chilly, though nothing like as cold as the night before. “What have you been up to?” Dad asked, his brow furrowing as his eyes passed over us.

“We have been forming a pod,” Hilfa said, all at once like that with no warning.

“What!” Dad could sound so cold and disapproving sometimes. I shrank back, then stopped myself. Never let them think you're inferior.

“Jathery was attempting to attack Hilfa,” Sokrates explained. “As pod members, we had the right to witness the interaction. Without that, gla would have done something unreasonable.”

“Unreasonable! You probably did exactly what gla wanted,” Athene said, rolling her eyes.

“I think so. I freed Hilfa. I freed all the Saeli,” Marsilia said to her.

“You've been forming a pod with my daughters and Hilfa?” Dad looked at Sokrates as if he was about to erupt. Ikaros was grinning.

“And Jason,” Sokrates said, reproachfully, waving a hand at Jason, who was standing next to me looking embarrassed. I took his hand defiantly. “The number five seems to have some significance to Saeli. I don't know if this is empty numerology, or if it truly has a kind of Pythagorean significance.”

“There have been human-Worker marriages,” Crocus said, as he and Grandfather came closer to join the group, no doubt attracted by the volume of Dad's expostulation. It was still strange to see Grandfather looking not much older than me. I wasn't used to it.

Dad turned to look at Crocus, took a deep breath and calmed himself. I wish I could do that. I almost never lose my temper, but I'm always bursting out crying whenever I feel something strongly. “This is all very unexpected,” he said mildly, then turned back to me. “I don't know what your mother will say.”

“Unexpected for us too,” I said, which was an understatement. Ma would be fine with it if I were the one to explain it to her. We always understood each other. And she often said we should get married.

“More importantly,” Sokrates said, turning to Athene. “Jathery told Hilfa that Zeus wants us to learn, experience and comprehend. Is that something he wants of everyone, or only the Saeli?”

Athene exchanged a glance with Ikaros. “All of us,” Athene said. “Saeli, humans, gods, everyone.”

“You told us you didn't know what he wanted,” Sokrates said to Grandfather, with a tiny hint of accusation in his tone.

“I didn't know when I told you that, long ago, here in this garden. This is something we learned when we spoke to him now, after we came back from being out there.”

“Out in Chaos?” I asked.

“It isn't Chaos. Well, it isn't only Chaos,” he said.

“That's what Athene has been telling me,” Ikaros said. “How marvelous and unexpected. I have to rethink everything. I can't wait to see it.”

“You're there,” Athene said.

“Everyone is there. Everything,” Grandfather said. “I have a song about it. I'll sing it tomorrow in Chamber.”

“Do you want to sing before the session?” Marsilia asked. “The way you legendarily did to stop the art wars?”

“Are you chair tomorrow?”

“I am,” she said, apprehensively.

“Who's supposed to go first?” Pytheas asked.

“Androkles. Then Porphyry and the others. Then Sokrates,” she said.

“I'll sing after Sokrates,” Pytheas said.

“All right,” she said, biting her lip as if she wasn't at all sure.

“And Athene and I can debate, like at the Last Debate,” Sokrates said cheerfully, grinning at Athene, who smiled unrepentantly back. “For now, I only have one more question about what Zeus wants from us. What should we learn, experience, and comprehend?”

“Everything,” Athene said.

“Yourself,” Pytheas contradicted her at once. She glared at him. “Well, you should know yourself first, and then once you do, you can move on out to everything else,” he said.

“Do I take it Zeus didn't specify?” Sokrates asked.

Ikaros laughed, and the owl flew off Athene's arm at the sound and circled silently around the garden before perching back on her shoulder.

“He didn't specify, but he seemed to approve of what Athene has been doing,” Pytheas said.

“So should we put knowledge ahead of excellence?” I asked.

“No,” both of them said together, and the owl twisted its head around to stare arrogantly into my eyes.

“Excellence must always be our priority,” Crocus said.

“Pursuing excellence will lead to everything else,” Dad said.

The gods, the owl, and Sokrates nodded in unison.

“I'll sing the song for you tomorrow, and then you'll understand,” Grandfather said.

“But that way Jason and Hilfa and I won't hear it,” I said. “Or is it a song that only philosophers should hear?”

Grandfather looked at me. “Do you want to know?” he asked.

“Of course I do! How could anyone not want to know what the gods want of us?” I asked.

“She is a philosopher too,” Sokrates said, and exactly as it had when he had made this claim the night before, it simultaneously filled me with happiness and confusion. I knew I wasn't really a philosopher, not the way Marsilia was, but I did love wisdom, and I did want to know the answers to questions.

“Everyone in the cities is more of a philosopher than even philosophers are elsewhere,” Athene said.

“That's one of the fascinating results of your experiment,” Ikaros said. “Did you intend it?”

“Did Plato intend it?” she asked.

“Plato divided people by class because he believed souls really divide up that way,” Ikaros said.

“There are some people who are completely incurious, even here,” Athene said. “So to that extent he was right.”