The Diamond Deep (27 page)

The drink was giving his voice soft edges. “So, who are the thousands? Why are people interested in us?”

Naveen grinned again, his teeth a bright white and his smile warming his whole face. “I have made them interested in you.” He shrugged. “And you are new. You will be interesting for a while. After all, even though there are over fifteen million people here, it is kind of a boring place. A hard place. At least, for most. But trust me, something else new will come here. By then you will need to have claimed your place.”

A woman wearing only underwear, a tiny top, and comfortable shoes brought them a plate of breads and fruits. Her eyes were as flashy as Koren's, and her hair was purple, blue, green, and gold, shifting color as she moved her head.

Wow. She did, in fact, look more exotic than Naveen or Koren. After Onor watched her walk over to a bar, he turned to Naveen to find the camera on him again. The camera stopped him from opening his mouth to ask a question. He sipped his drink and tried to look as cool as possible while he observed the myriad strange-looking people and robots either sitting nearby or wandering about together.

Naveen waved a hand at him. “That's Lysa. She's been running this bar for a long time. She came over to get a look at you.”

“She's tall.”

“She's pretty, too, huh?” Naveen coaxed.

“Sure. But I like our women.”

“Do you have a mate? A woman from the
Fire
?”

“Yes.” He didn't want to talk about his confusions regarding Marcelle. Or Ruby. “Tell me what this food is, and if I can share pictures with my own people?”

“Do you have your slate?”

“Yes.”

“Take a picture.”

“How?”

Naveen showed him.

Oh. He could be recording as much as Naveen. The idea fascinated him. He took pictures of Naveen, and pictures of Lysa when she came back to check on them, and Naveen took pictures of him taking pictures.

Onor tried some of the bread, which tasted like nuts and had seeds that stuck in his teeth so he had to pick them out. The fruit tasted like orbfruit, but blander.

Hopefully the new food wouldn't make him sick.

The next stop did include a drink, a bottle full of something blue that seemed slightly less alcoholic, although somewhere in the back of his brain Onor remembered that they'd pulled the tastes-lighter-than-it-is trick on Naveen back on the
Fire
. Maybe Naveen was trying to get
him
to talk.

At least they didn't sit for long, but instead walked into a compartment full of plants, with air so damp it stuck his hair to his cheek. He took pictures of red flowers as big as his head with a thick, cloying scent that warred with the equally sweet smell of his drink. “What part of that do you eat?” he asked.

Naveen laughed. “It's for looks.”

“Nothing on the
Fire
was for looks.”

“Not even Ruby the Red?”

Onor laughed, bumping into Naveen on accident but managing not to spill his drink. “Don't be obsessed about something you'll never have.”

“Sounds like you know about that.”

Onor took another sip of the drink. “Doesn't matter. We'd have come in as slaves without her, or I'd be dead. Or she'd be dead, or both of us.” He fastened his attention on a single tree that stood twice as tall as the biggest orbfruit trees they'd had in the orchard, but was not even half as wide. The leaves were thin needles in at least five shades of green. “Can you eat that one?”

“It helps make medicine.”

Onor tried to capture the actual size of the tree in his next picture. “I thought you made everything you need.”

“Simple things. Materials. Clothes. Some substances are better grown than made. Human bodies prefer grown food, for example. The bodies of spaceships are stronger when they're made with nanotechnology. The
Fire
wasn't, and that's part of why your return is a miracle. A medium-sized space rock could have destroyed your ship.”

Onor settled for taking three pictures of the tall tree. “What is this place? If you're not eating what you grow, what is it for?”

“There are very rich people on the station. Owners of starships, nano-programming companies, miners. This was given to us, with enough resources to maintain it. It's a place where some of almost all the wild things from Lym live.”

Joel's words came back to him. “Rich means having a lot of credit?”

“Yes.”

“And having a lot of credit means having a lot of power.”

“Yes.”

“So we need to get credit.”

“Isn't that what I told you on the way in? Or you need influence. Ruby can get you influence. She's already popular.”

“How popular?”

Naveen grinned. “Very. I'd say she's the current wonder of the
Deep
.”

Onor found his drink glass was empty. “Is there plain water somewhere?”

“Sure. There's a fountain in the next room.”

Onor was pretty sure he was drunker than Naveen. At least Naveen didn't seem to be slurring his words. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because telling your story gives me influence.”

And so you can get near Ruby. But she can take care of herself. “And influence gives you?”

“Power.”

Damn. Things were never as easy as he needed them to be. He shouldn't have had so much to drink. “Water?”

Naveen led Onor through a door that reminded him of an airlock, with an inner and an outer door, each made of thin metal screens. Inside the set of doors, plants grew in a profusion of colors. A silver cylinder offered water as Onor walked up to it, and he savored the fresh, cool taste and splashed some on his face. He stood up, dripping. “Even after all our work in the water purification systems, your water tastes better than ours.”

“That's because we make it.”

“Oh, right. Water is simple.” Onor looked for a towel, Nothing. He dried his face with his sleeve, feeling slightly stupid.

Naveen pushed a button and warm air puffed out of the wall.

Onor laughed. “You know how you can impress Ruby?”

“I'd like to.”

“Give her classes. Knowledge. We don't understand your science.” And that might be part of the path to power. Learning what the people in the
Diamond Deep
already knew.

“I can do that after Koren is finished mining you for history. Can't do it before. That would pollute you.”

“And taking me drinking doesn't pollute me?” Onor realized he was having fun, that it was easy to talk to Naveen, that he liked the funny fountain and he loved the trees. He couldn't remember feeling so good. Surely he shouldn't be feeling so good. “Showing me flowers and trees doesn't pollute me?”

Naveen shrugged, grinning, looking as happy as Onor felt. “I don't really care if I pollute you, or if I make Koren mad.”

“You want to, don't you? You want to make Koren mad. That's why I'm here.”

“That's only a little bit of it. I like you.”

“And you're recording this?”

“Some of it.”

Onor couldn't quite think about whether he should worry or not. Naveen clearly had plans for them. Koren had plans for them. Ruby and Joel were too busy managing day to day stuff and dealing with Koren to make their own plans. He looked deeply into Naveen's eyes, noticing again the difference in color, the deep brown that was not natural to anyone from the
Fire
. “Can I trust you?”

“Trust me for what? I'm straightforward. I don't hide things. I'll answer any question you have. But if there's one piece of advice I have for you about the
Diamond Deep
, it's be careful who you trust.” With that, Naveen opened the door and ushered Onor through.

Movement attracted him. He looked up to see a flash of bright orange darting overhead, soon lost in dark green leaves with yellow stripes on them. It had to be a bird. He'd seen pictures of birds. “I never thought I'd see one.”

“A bird?”

“Yeah. Next thing you know, I'll get to see a sun.”

Naveen smiled a secretive smile, and then he pointed. “Look over there.”

A blue bird with a tail as long as his arm sat on a thick branch at Onor's eye level, its feathers shading to black near the end of the tail and at its wingtips. A maroon circle of feathers marked the breast, with more maroon on the head. Three long feathers stuck out from behind its head and almost touched its back.

He had imagined what a real animal might look like. This was more . . . It was as alien to him as Aleesi the robot-spider-girl, but somehow it also felt familiar, and friendly. He found he couldn't say a thing or take a step until the bird flew away.

When it did, he discovered tears on his cheeks, and looked up to find Naveen recording them.

To Ruby, Marcelle still looked more like a fighter than a creche worker. The muscle definition in her legs and back showed through her clothes, a black pants outfit that clung to her thin frame. When she turned to respond to Ruby's greeting, she revealed a baby held close to her breast and above her barely-swelling tummy. Even the child only stripped a bit of the warrior look from her.

“How are you?” Ruby asked.

“Tired.”

“That's because you're pregnant.”

“No. It's because there's so much work. You look the same.”

“I suppose I do. But you should be resting. There's the baby.”

Marcelle stroked the infant's head. “Kids are getting sick. A lot of them.”

“Adults, too.” Ruby said. “The infirmary reported that ten people checked in this morning. I'm setting aside the lower level for sick, moving well people up.”

“We might all get it.”

“The numbers of new cases are falling.” Ruby gestured one of her guards close. “Can you take the baby back to the creche?” She spoke to Marcelle. “Let's walk.”

Marcelle still looked torn, but she kissed the child's cheek and handed it to the guard, which left Chitt and another woman, Samara, to guard them. Well enough.

They walked through crowded corridors. “I don't want you to work at the creche until this sickness passes.”

Marcelle reacted with a tightening of her jaw, and by thinning her lips almost to nothing. Her cheekbones stuck out like shelves.

“I think it's the food here that's making us sick,” Marcelle commented. “The damned squares of tasty color. Or maybe the air. Or the fact that the we're all ten pounds lighter with the gravity change. Or the way everything is different.” Her voice rose into a light whine that the twelve-year-old Marcelle might have indulged in. “The walls are slick, my clothes feel slick, my hair sticks out.”

Ruby laughed. “My hair does the same thing. Jali has me keep it in a braid now. The tea is from the
Fire
. I've been saving some for special occasions.”

“Anything from home would be wonderful.” Marcelle leaned close to Ruby and whispered, “I hate it here.”

Ruby wanted to just agree so badly the words almost escaped her lips. “We have a lot to learn still.”

“We have no freedom.”

“I'm working on that.
We're
working on that. Joel and I are going out with Koren tomorrow.”

“What about Onor? He went with that Naveen. Shouldn't he be back?”

Ruby bit her lip. “Yes. Maybe. It's too early to worry.”

“But you are worried.”

Marcelle always knew what she was thinking. “There's nothing for it but tea.”

“Is that what we're reduced to? Tea? We used to fight things we didn't like.”

“Don't you want the tea?”

“Of course I do. But I'm also going to worry about Onor.”

Ruby laughed. “You used to tell me how much you hated him.”

Ten minutes and one short stop in a common galley and Ruby had managed to lead Marcelle, frizzy hair and all, into a small alcove that left them nestled by slick walls on two sides. Chitt and Samara stood a respectful distance off, watching outward. “I don't think I've sat down like this for three days,” she told Marcelle.

“Tell me what you've learned about the station?”

Ruby shook her head. “Not much. I'm more worried about how many people are sick. I'm also worried about what we're going to do next. Everyone here is used to working half of every day. We've had to work to get settled and organized and set up schools for children. We need schools for us. We need Ix or something like Ix back. We need something to make or fix or grow. Already there have been three fights. We have five more people in what passes for lock-up now than we brought out of the
Fire
.”

Marcelle raised an eyebrow. “Is that all?”

“More room. We need more room.”

Marcelle took a long slow sip of tea and said nothing for a few long minutes. It wasn't like her to be so quiet, so Ruby waited her out, finishing her own tea and wishing she'd brought food even though she hated the food squares.