Pushing Ice (72 page)

Bella suddenly noticed something: although the reeves had departed, there was still a mild breeze stirring the air. Then a faint, nearly subliminal flicker of motion caught her eye.

A line of black emerged from one blank face of the memorial cube. She followed it as it flowed through the air, out through the concourse, snaking through the space above her until it reached and pierced the concourse roof, tunnelling a path through to the clear vacuum beyond, and then pushing itself across eighty kilometres to Eddytown.

A hosing line of black femtotech, bleeding out of the cube.

“How much of you will it take?” Bella asked.

“More than I’d hoped.” Chromis’s jaw was stiff with determination. In that instant, Bella saw the political steel that had brought the memorial project into existence. Chromis Pasqueflower Bowerbird would not have been a woman to be crossed.

“How much of the cube have you sent so far?” Svetlana asked.

“I’ve pushed a hundred tonnes over already. It’s formed a shell, but it isn’t strong enough. It’s being assimilated as fast I can deploy it. It’ll need more of me.”

“How much more?” Svetlana asked.

“I don’t know. I’m doing everything I can.”

“How many have died? How many are still alive?”

Chromis didn’t reply.

Bella noticed, with consternation, that the cube was not as large as she remembered it. It was visibly shrinking as it gave up more and more of itself to the battle at Eddytown.

“Chromis…” she said, hopelessly.

“This must be done, Bella.”

“You’re dying.”

“I was sent to be useful.” Then she looked at Bella with a stern but conciliatory expression. “You still need that passkey.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Bella said, suddenly remembering that Svetlana still had not sent Wang the second half of the file. “Svieta — we need the rest of the data right now.”

“Send it all to me,” Chromis said, her tone commanding attention. “Both files, Svetlana. While I still have time, I will attempt to remove the worst bugs. Then there will at least be a remote chance that you may achieve success in a larger forge vat.”

Svetlana looked helpless. “How do I
send
it to you, Chromis?”

“You’re right. There isn’t time. Step forward.” Svetlana obeyed, almost without thinking. “Now, do you trust me?”

Svetlana looked at Bella. There was something in that look Bella had thought she would never see again. It was not friendship, or even affection — it was much too late for such things — but it was something very close to respect, and that in itself was something Bella had not seen in a long while.

Svetlana was asking Bella what she thought.

“Trust her,” Bella said.

Svetlana let Chromis touch her. The white woman immediately lost form and enveloped Svetlana, flowing over her like a wave of spilled milk. The white membrane trembled, held steady and then poured away to reshape itself into the form of a standing woman.

Svetlana was still there, her mouth open, breathing heavily.

“I have the data,” Chromis said. “This will take a few moments, so bear with me.”

Bella shuddered to think at the agonies of frantic computation Chromis was putting herself through. The politician must have known that she was dying, or would at least be left wounded and weakened by the battle she was fighting at Eddytown. The memorial cube was down to half its original size, still visibly shrinking with each passing second as the flow of matter intensified.

“It isn’t working, is it?” Bella asked disconsolately.

“Yes,” Chromis said, with savage emphasis, “it
is
working, finally. I said it was badly formed and I was right. It just took a little more time and effort than I anticipated —”

“Then you’re winning.”

“Yes.” But the cube was still shrinking. Bella wondered how much of it Chromis could afford to lose before the distributed simulation of her personality began to lose coherence.

“I’m afraid,” she said.

“You should be. A word of advice: when you start the next vat run, take the vat into space first. At least it won’t be able to gorge itself on surrounding matter if you get another rupture. The file is ready, by the way. It’s still far from safe, though I’ve endeavoured to remove the more egregious instances of sloppy assembly programming —”

“Can you send it to Wang?” Bella asked.

“It’s done. He already has it.”

“Thank you,” Bella said.

“I wish you the very best of luck with it, Bella. Unfortunately, I won’t be around to see the results.”

The cube had shrunk down to the size of a footstool and was continuing to shrink, like a chunk of abstract black receding into the distance.

“Chromis… no! You said you were winning.”

“I
am
winning. Don’t doubt that for a second. Unfortunately, the task is using up more of me than I can spare for computation.”

“But when the containment’s dealt with — can’t you reassemble?”

Chromis shook her head regretfully, as if it was Bella’s misfortune they were discussing rather than her own imminent destruction. “There won’t be much femtotech left, either from me or the runaway kernel.” Chromis sighed and fingered the fabric of her gown again. “I can’t spare this mass any longer, I’m afraid. I’ll have to throw it into the fray. It’s a shame. It was rather
nice
to have a body again after so much time in the cube.”

She vanished.

Bella stared, numb with loss, at the space where she had been. An instant later, Chromis reappeared.

“It’s all right,” she said, “only you can see or hear me now, Bella. I can’t stay around long in this form, either — I’m running very low on processing capacity now. I just want you to know that I enjoyed being found.” Bella started to say something, but Chromis cut her off with gentle insistence. “No — please let me finish, before I go. I’m not the only one, Bella. I told you we sent out a great many memorial cubes. If this one survived, others might have, too. Somewhere out there, there could be others like me. You only have to find one.”

“But it wouldn’t be you.”

“But it
would
be Chromis,” she corrected kindly. “And every Chromis deserves to find her Bella one day. You have made me very happy. Now do the same kind deed for another one. Promise me that, will you?”

“I’ll do my best,” Bella said.

“That will have to do.” Chromis smiled, held up a hand in farewell and vanished. It was for good this time. Bella knew this on a neural level: suddenly there was an echoing emptiness in her head, like a house grown too large after the departure of a guest. She had liked Chromis, and she knew she would come to miss her quiet wisdom in the times ahead.

She looked for the cube, but there was nothing left of it.

For a long time no one dared speak. Even those who had never known Chromis were moved by her sacrifice, and there was a collective unwillingness to disturb the reverential silence that followed.

It was Bella, finally, who spoke. She nodded at the bailiff. “Detain Parry Boyce, please.”

Parry made no effort to avoid the robot as it stalked over to him and reapplied the bonds. Everything Bella thought she knew about him had told her that he would not resist, but she still allowed herself an upwelling of relief that he had not disappointed her.

“Now summon other bailiffs,” she said, then turned to the three representatives from Eddytown.

“What now?” Svetlana asked.

“I’m resuming control,” Bella said, forcing any hint of triumph from her voice. It was not difficult. All she felt was a dejected sense of obligation. Someone had to pick up the reins again.

“Then what?” Svetlana said.

“We continue with the evacuation. Nothing’s changed there: we’re still sitting on a ticking bomb. In the meantime I’m going to organise a rescue party to Eddytown.” She looked at Axford. “Ryan — you’d better warn your people to expect casualties. All we have to do is keep them alive until we reach the embassy. Nothing else matters.” Then to Shen, “Liz — I want you to get on to Nick and see what he can spare from his end. Assume anything up to a hundred and twenty people are going to make it out.”

Shen nodded. “I’ll speak to Wang as well. He can start brewing emergency rations and clothing.”

“By all means, but remind him that we still need the passkey. If he can’t give us anything without delaying work on the key, we make do with what we already have.”

“Okay,” Shen said, on a falling note.

“We need that passkey,” Bella insisted. “Nothing else will matter if we can’t get that door closed.”

“I’m on it,” Shen said, heavily.

Svetlana said, “You haven’t mentioned landers. A lander could reach Eddytown in a few minutes.”

“There are no landers on this side of the Sky,” Bella snapped back, annoyed at having to remind her of this fact. “And forget about drilling through the plug at Underhole: it’d take too long.”

“The Musk Dogs drilled a new hole — that’s how I came back through.”

Bella had completely forgotten about the new hole. She wondered if she would have remembered it if Svetlana hadn’t reminded her. “Is it big enough to squeeze a lander through?”

“One of the old ones should fit easily enough —
Crusader
or
Avenger
.”

Bella glanced at Shen. “Get on it, Liz. It’ll take time to fuel and prep them, so we’ll still need the maglevs and tractors. You’ll need to designate a landing area near Crabtree, preferably within reach of a docking umbilical from one of the outlying domes.”

“I’m on that, too,” Shen said.

Bella turned to Svetlana. “You were right. I shouldn’t have forgotten about the landers.”

“Let’s just hope it works, okay?”

“Let’s.”

“What’s going to happen to us?”

“Protsenko and Nadis are free to go. They can report to Nick Thale and offer assistance at Underhole after they’ve handed over their suits.”

“What do you want with their suits?”

“I want them for the rescue operation. I’ll need two volunteers to wear them, preferably people who’ve had at least some experience of Chakri fives.”

“I’m in,” Parry said automatically, before Protsenko or Nadis had a chance to say anything. “I’ve used a five, and I know Eddytown as well as anyone here.”

“Count me in as well,” Takahashi said, stepping out of Bella’s group.

Bella shook her head flatly. “No way, Mike. We didn’t bring you back to lose you again.”

“Parry goes, I go.”

“You don’t know Eddytown. You’ve probably only logged an hour of suit time since you came back from the embassy.”

“Parry can show me the ropes on the train. Don’t argue, Bella. This is a miner thing.”

She glared at him for a moment, then sighed. “All right,” she said, knowing this was one battle she could never win.

Protsenko and Nadis started removing their suits, ready to hand them over to the two miners.

“I’m in as well,” Svetlana said. “My daughter’s there. I’m not letting anyone else go after her in my place.”

Bella stared hard into her eyes. “You know I’m still going to have to arrest you when we get back from Eddytown. You disobeyed a direct ruling not to talk to the Musk Dogs. In addition, you owned and operated an illegal forge vat and ran an unauthorised construction file. Your actions may cost us Janus. You’ve already cost us Eddytown. I’m hoping there are survivors, Svieta, but I’m damned sure there are going to be casualties.”

“Done with the lecture?”

“Pretty much. For now.”

Svetlana’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What you just said — about ‘us’ getting back from Eddytown — that was a slip, right?”

“No — I’m still coming with you.”

“But you think Janus is going to blow.”

“Yes.”

“And you’re still willing to go back there, even though you could go with everyone else to the embassy?”

“Yes.”

Something behind Svetlana’s eyes gave in. “You don’t have to do this,” she said softly.

“Oh, I think I do. Like Mike said: it’s a miner thing. Once upon a time we were all miners, all in it together. Pushing ice.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Still appears to be about the only thing we’re good at, if this mess is anything to go by.”

Takahashi and Boyce were already inside the Chakri fives Nadis and Protsenko had vacated, the conformal suits adjusting their dimensions to match the differing builds of the two men, elongating here, tightening there. “You’ll need a suit, too,” Takahashi told Bella. “Have one of the bailiffs bring you down a five, then we can move out.”

“I haven’t trained in them,” Bella said. “As a matter of fact, it’s about thirty years since I last wore any kind of suit, even an Orlan.”

“You need something, Bella,” Takahashi insisted.

“There’ll be emergency suits on the train. As long as it holds air, I’m not fussy.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

The train came to a vicious stop on the vertical face of Junction Box, the line ahead of it buckled and broken. They had just crossed the boundary where the lines of perpetual-motion wheels were still turning, gyring like crazed windmills. They were spinning faster than Bella remembered from her last visit, as if the brakes had failed.

She dimmed the cabin illumination and stared through the windows at the place where there had recently been a community of more than a hundred people. It would have been easier if there had been no trace of it: then at least she could have closed her mind to the remote possibility of any survivors. But something of Eddytown was still there, picked out in the harsh clarity of the train’s forward headlights: a fringe of structures bordering a bowl-shaped absence. Many of the structures had been torn in half, or pancaked down as if they’d been stepped on with bullying force. Only those furthest away from the depression were in anything approaching one piece, but there was no sign of power or lighting in any of them.

“I’m sorry,” Bella said, aware that Svetlana was looking over her shoulder at the same grisly scene. “It doesn’t look very good. That depression must be where the femtotech accident happened —”

“The vat was in the middle,” Svetlana said numbly.