The Evolutionary Void (61 page)

Mareble and Danal exchanged a sardonic look and closed their ears to the
bawdy talk and dirty laughter. It was amazing how some people interpreted the
fulfillment the Pilgrimage was bringing them to.

Eventually, after far too long in a Honious-like limbo, they arrived at
the base of ramp 13. After the chaos she’d endured, she let out a quiet sob of
relief.

“It’s real,” she whispered to Danal as they began the slow walk up the
slope. The Dinlay girls followed them up, but the crowd here wasn’t so bad.
Thousands more were still trudging slowly along the avenue behind and below
her. She was rising above them now in every sense.

He gripped her hand and squeezed tight as his mind let out a surge of
gratitude. “Thank you,” he told her. “I would never have made it without you.”

For one brief instant she thought of Cheriton and the short, hot
comforting time she’d spent with him after Danal’s arrest, how in turn he’d
given her the fortitude to get through that period of misery and disorientation.
Somehow she didn’t let the pang of guilt out. After all, even the Waterwalker
had lapsed when he tried to bind the world to his faulty notion of unity. From
that he had emerged triumphant.

“We made it, though,” she said. “I love you. And we’re going to wake up
in Makkathran itself.”

“Och, that’s very sweet,” a loud amused voice said.

Mareble fixed on a blank smile and turned around. The man behind her on
the ramp wasn’t quite what she was expecting. Not that she had any
preconceptions, but …

He was taller than Danal, dressed in a kilt and very bright scarlet
waistcoat with gold buttons. Not something she ever remembered anyone on
Querencia wearing. She was about to say something when a flicker of silver and
gold light shone through his thick flop of brown hair, distracting her.

“They call me the Lionwalker,” he said. “But I got that label a long time
before our very own Waterwalker came along, so that’s okay, then. Pleased to
meet you.”

“Likewise,” Danal said stiffly as he introduced himself.

“So are you two lovebirds going to get hitched in the Lady’s church?”
Lionwalker asked.

“Mareble is my wife,” Danal said with such pride that she ignored how
rude the stranger was being and smiled up adoringly at her husband as his arm
tightened around her.

“Aye, well, yes, but a marriage blessed in that church would be a
blessing indeed, now, wouldn’t it? And take it from a man who’s seen more than
his fair share of every kind of bride and groom there is, a marriage needs
every bit of help it can get.” Lionwalker pushed his hand up in salute, showing
off an antique silver hip flask. “Cheers and bon voyage to the pair of you.” He
took a long nip. “Aaah, that’ll keep the cold off my toes on the voyage.”

“We don’t need extra help,” Mareble sputtered.

“If you say so. Mind, it’s a particular person who needs no advice in
life.”

“I’ll thank you to keep your homilies to yourself,” Danal told him. “Our
guidance comes from the Waterwalker himself.”

They’d reached the top of the ramp, which frankly Mareble had wanted to
achieve in slightly more dignified circumstances. The Lionwalker took another
nip, winked lecherously at her, and sauntered into the
Macsen’s
Dream
as if he owned the starship.

“Well!” Danal grunted indignantly. “Some of us clearly have a lot longer
to go before reaching fulfillment than others.”

The chamber behind the airlock was a junction of seven corridors. Small,
neat solidos flowed smoothly along the walls, indicating the zone where their
assigned medical capsules were located.

“Come on,” Danal said, gripping her hand.

Mareble narrowed her eyes, staring along the corridor down which the
Lionwalker had vanished. “I know him,” she said uncertainly. The memory was
elusive. But then the squad of Dinlay girls was shrieking wildly and running
down their corridor like a football team going onto the pitch, which made her
chuckle. She let Danal lead her into the labyrinthine interior of the starship.
Instinctively she reached for the Dreamer Araminta’s gift, finding her standing
on the observation deck of the
Lady’s Light
, alone
and resolute, staring out through a huge curving transparent section of the
forward fuselage.

Reassured her idol was watching out for all of Living Dream, Mareble
strode on with renewed confidence.

The SI’s icon appeared in Troblum’s exovision, requesting a connection.
At least it was asking, he thought, rather than intruding.

Mellanie’s Redemption
was still secreted away
in transdimensional suspension above Viotia. Troblum couldn’t quite help that.
He had been completely taken by surprise at Araminta’s defection to Living
Dream. Given how long she had spent trying to elude them, suddenly turning up
and claiming their leadership lacked any kind of logic, at least the kind he
understood. He did assume it was some kind of ruse—again, not one he could
fathom.

So he waited for her endgame to become clear. After all, if he took
flight to another galaxy and, however unlikely it was, she resolved the whole
Pilgrimage problem, he’d never know.

“Even if they don’t Pilgrimage, there’s still the Accelerators and
Ilanthe and the Cat,” Catriona had pointed out.

“A solution to the Pilgrimage will by definition have to include and
neutralize them,” he explained patiently.

“I thought you were keen to find out what happened to the transgalactic
expeditions.”

“I am. But the time scale is so short now before we know if Araminta
succeeds in getting the Pilgrimage fleet through the barrier, I can afford to
wait and see if the expansion begins as predicted. If it does, we can outrun it
now that we have ultradrive.”

“What about Oscar? The SI said it knows where his ship is.”

“Irrelevant now. All that’s left is Gore and Ilanthe, the two real
players. This is their war.”

“Are you scared to meet Oscar?”

“No. There’s simply no point.”

“You might be able to open the Sol barrier.”

“No!” That was the truth. He’d spent day after day analyzing the files in
his storage lacuna, working through the theories and equipment they’d developed
during his time on the Accelerator station building the Swarm. There was no way
around it that he could see, no way to overwhelm the barrier. And he didn’t
have enough data on the individual components of the Swarm to see if there was
a backdoor. In any case, most of it had been constructed after he’d left; all
he’d done was help set up the manufacturing systems. They would have made a lot
of changes and improvements over the decades; he wasn’t current.

The
Mellanie’s Redemption
stayed above Viotia
because it was as good a place as any to wait. After his futile attempt to
analyze the Sol barrier, he even managed to catch up on some sleep. Time was
spent on reviewing the starship’s basic systems, getting up to date on
maintenance procedures, fabricating some replacement components in the small
high-level onboard replicator. There were also a great many files his u-shadow
acquired for him from the unisphere, information and entertainment that would
make a life of exile in another galaxy more bearable.

When the SI’s icon appeared, Troblum didn’t authorize the link at once.
First of all, he was busy. And then … the last couple of weeks had eased him
into a state of acceptance. He knew he was leaving; it was simply a question of
timing now, and he didn’t really even have to make that decision. The Void’s
final expansion phase would begin, and he would leave. It was that simple.

The SI, though, would bring complications back into his life.

“I know you,” Catriona Saleeb said. “Not knowing what it wanted to tell
you will eat you up. And it’s being polite. It could have forced its way into
the ship’s link with the unisphere.”

“Yes.” Troblum sighed. He canceled the blueprints in his exovision
display and looked down at the micromanipulator he was using. Underneath its
transparent dome, the clean-environment unit contained a scattering of newly
replicated components that he was slowly assembling into a solido projector.
He’d obtained enough base programs to construct a reasonable I-sentient
personality. It would be himself, he’d decided, a younger, physically fitter
version that would be able to share Catriona’s bed. He’d redesigned the sensory
correlations with his own biononics so that they were a lot higher than a
standard version, allowing him to enjoy the experience to the full.
Incorporating those customizations took time. By itself, it was an intriguing problem
to solve, one that had absorbed his intellect for several days. It was almost
like becoming multiple. Catriona had said she was looking forward to it as
well.

His u-shadow opened the link.

“I have an interesting development to report,” the SI said.

“What?”

“Oscar Monroe has just received a secure call from someone at Bovey’s
Bathing and Culinaryware. That’s a macrostore in the Groby touchdown mall in
Colwyn City.”

“So?”

“The originator claims to be Araminta. The link was established through a
one time code which Oscar issued. Nobody else knew about it except him and the
person it was given to.”

“And you. So any decent e-head could find it.”

“I only know about it because I’m monitoring all the links going in and
out of Oscar’s hidden starship. Once I’d intercepted it, cracking the code was
tough even for me. It would be beyond most e-heads in the Commonwealth.”

Troblum frowned at the tiny electronic components inside the
micromanipulator case glittering like so many diamonds. “But it can’t be from
Araminta.” His u-shadow had put the Pilgrimage departure into a peripheral
exovision image; he could see the Pilgrimage fleet on Ellezelin. They had
finally finished their chaotic embarkation. Several live feeds were showing
Araminta standing on the observation deck of the
Lady’s
Light
. “She’s in the flagship. They’re about to launch.”

“Exactly. So why is a onetime code given to her personally by Oscar being
activated from Colwyn City?”

“I don’t understand.” It did make the puzzle of why she’d defected to Living
Dream more absorbing. Troblum liked puzzles. Not that it changed anything.
“What did they say?”

“Nothing much. She asked Oscar to meet her in a restaurant on Daryad
Avenue in fifteen minutes.”

“But …” Troblum pulled the news feeds to center. The protective force
fields over the construction yard were powering down, leaving the skies wide
open for the colossal ships to launch. “She’s on board the
Lady’s
Light
. I’m accessing the feed right now.”

“Yes. So either she’s bringing the entire Pilgrimage fleet to Viotia for
a quick visit, or there’s something else going on.”

“What?”

“Are you taking an interest, Troblum? Are you considering contacting
Oscar now?”

“I’m not talking to him. For all I know, this is some trick of yours.”

“If it is, it’s a little late in the day.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I’m infiltrating nodes inside the restaurant. Oscar’s team is running
checks to provide cover for their man. They’re good, but I can elude them.
Would you like to observe the meeting?”

Troblum closed his eyes. Images from the starship’s sensors showed him
Viotia as a vast intrusion within spacetime’s gravity field. The planet was
only a hundred thousand kilometers away, although the SI didn’t know that.
Or perhaps it does
.

The fear and worry that had ebbed away slowly over the last week suddenly
resurged, elevating his heart rate. Tiny beads of sweat oozed out of his pores,
chilling his skin. Biononics smoothly countered the physiological aspects, but
they couldn’t quell his anxious thoughts. He couldn’t begin to guess what was
going on.
I don’t understand people, fuck it. Why is
Araminta doing this? Why is she trying to kill the galaxy? Why is she calling
Oscar? And he must know she won’t be meeting him
.

“You said Oscar’s people are checking out the restaurant?”

“Yes. Two of them are physically deploying to cover the building. He’s
already on his way.”

“But he knows where Araminta is; he knows she won’t be there. It must be
a trap, yet he’s going into it.”

“A trap set by who? And why? And why now? No weapon in the galaxy can
stop the Pilgrimage ships; we know that. Your Commonwealth Navy can’t break
through the force fields Ilanthe has provided, nor can the warrior Raiel.”

“Are you saying it isn’t a trap?”

“I’m telling you what’s happening and offering to share.”

“Why? Why do you want to involve me?”

“To finally achieve what I’ve so often wrongly been accused of doing:
influencing the outcome of human affairs. We must have more options ranged
against Living Dream and Ilanthe. And the Cat, of course. You may yet be able to
play a true part, Troblum. Do you want that?”