Against blurring pressure he still managed to feel surprise. The forests of umbrella-topped trees—they must have grown from the Skysower’ s own seeds. Snatched up on the harvesting vines, they had now been ćarried aloft. Some deep biochemical command had activated their stores of fuel. Far from being a mech energy resource, as Killeen had guessed, these trees were now expending their stored chemical energy to launch themselves away from their mother plant.
Another tree shot past. Yellow plumes pushed it to high velocity. It hurtled after its fellows, which were already shrinking logs.
After conferring with Grey (not an easy business, I assure you) I calculate that our speed exceeds thirteen kilometers per second. In your terms—
“Skip the techtalk,” Killeen muttered. “What’s it mean?”
This creature—and I do not necessarily agree that it is simply a plant, given its many animallike functions, including an active circulation system—is spreading its progeny. They leave it here, at the top of its arc, with maximal velocity. They can easily reach the outer precincts of this solar system. From there they can drift to other stars. Seeding, pure and simple.
Killeen stared at Shibo and thought fruitlessly, rummaging for some way to repair her systems’ failure. She grew whiter.
I am repeating the speculations of the Grey woman, of course. I have done the calculations and what she proposes is marginally within possibility.
“So… so in every one of those trees there’s a seed for another Skysower?”
Killeen could barely breathe. He watched the trees jet away on their columns of flame. To swim the sea of stars. To grow into more Skysowers. Life persistent and undeniable. They hung within view over the still body of Shibo.
His bones seemed to stretch. He grasped for Shibo and could not reach her. Distant bass notes came strumming through the Cyber’s body as waves made the woody surface thrash and twist.
Suddenly the Cyber freed its hold on the bark. All of its visible legs withdrew their steel grapplers and instead pushed against the brown surface. Instantly the oppressive weight lifted. Killeen floated in complete freedom.
“Are you—” He hugged Shibo. Did her eyes flutter?
In complete silence the Cyber rose away from Skysower’s slim silhouette. The turning ribbon now pointed straight down into the wounded planet.
They shot out along a tangent to Skysower’s whirling arc. Soon it had rotated below them. It was again a thin line cutting across the face of the ruined world.
We are properly pointed, the strangely liquid thoughts of the Cyber came. My sisters have stilled the Cosmic Circle so it presents no obstacle. We are entering a rendezvous orbit.
“Where?”
Close to the station. Your vessel lies there. There is a task awaiting your kind.
“Hurry! There’re medical supplies on Argo—”
Killeen peered ahead and saw a glimmering that beckoned and promised.
But Shibo died long before they could reach it.?
SAILING WITH THE TIDE
The Cap’n walked the hull again.
A long time seemed to have passed since he last was here. Only a few weeks, he knew. But time was not truly measured by the ticking of unseen arbiters. It made its lasting marks in the soul.
In that distant time he had watched the approach of the station, wondering what forces marshaled there. Problems of command had vexed him. He had fretted over whether to assault the huge, silvery construction. He could see the station now, too—a platinum-hard dab of light swimming near the brown crescent of New Bishop.
The name mocked him. The Bishops had found the same ageold trials here. This place had meant more struggle, not a peaceful destination. And losses. Huge, bitter losses.
“Shibo,” he said. “Is this link working?”
The light voice came hesitantly.—I, I, yeasay.—
“Toby?”
—I’m here, Dad.—
Yes, Killeen thought, we’re all here. Together in the only way possible now.
Toby lay in the control vault with complex apparatus enclosing his head. Close comm link brought his voice to Killeen. And Shibo… she was only an Aspect of Toby’s now.
“You sure this won’t do you harm?” Killeen asked.
—No, Dad. I trust her techcraft.—
Through Toby, Shibo had engineered this union. Normally an Aspect could never speak through its host. The term for that was “Aspect storm” and Family would take immediate measures to pull the offending Aspect chips from the host’s neck.
But this was different. Killeen was tapped directly into Toby’s sense of Shibo. The intricate meshing was Shibo’s invention and, used cautiously, might extend the Family’s abilities. She had modified techniques known to Family Pawn, she said. There had been no call for such a trick before, one that verged on Family taboos.
Now it was pure necessity. Only Shibo’s deft command of Argo could save them.
“Any better fix on that Cyber ship?”
Shibo’s wispy Aspect voice replied,—It has executed another dodging maneuver.—
“Damn! What’s Quath say?”
Toby answered,—She’s calibratin’ somethin’. You want, I can tap her in here.—
“Naysay, let her work. Her last estimate said we still got a few minutes before they start firn’.”
—Argo is ready,—Shibo sent reassuringly.
He still had trouble getting used to her voice. It was a fully incorporating Aspect and gave every appearance of a complete operating personality. He and Toby had managed to get Shibo’s body into the recording room of Argo before there was significant damage from oxygen loss. The machines had spoken of potassium balances and digital matching matrices but it had all taken place someplace far from him, under glass.
He knew from sad experience that some people survived grotesquely bloody wounds while others seemed to die of a scratch. That had not helped when Shibo had slipped away from them, her systems simply tapering to zero.
Toby had taken the Aspect, of course. Not simply because Family rules were firmly against carrying a dead lover; that was inviting disaster. No, the overpowering reason had been that Killeen was too shaken to accept Shibo’s Aspect. He had recovered only when her voice spoke to him through Toby. She had chided him and somehow dragged him back into the world. He had clung to her voice.
But it was only a voice. He would never see her again, never touch her silky skin, see the glinting mirth in her eyes—
He made himself stop. It was pointless. Stupid.
Killeen had told himself this a hundred times through the last few days. His emotions were held in check only by the necessity of command. Chaos would not wait for his grief to abate.
He looked back at the crescent of New Bishop. Explosions still flickered there on the nightside. Cyber conflict still raged. Quath’s allies seemed to have the upper hand now, though.
The Family had been fortunate to take only a few dozen casualties there. Only because humans mattered so little had they been able to slip away.
Cermo and Jocelyn had been resourceful and brave in getting the Family off the planet. In the chaos that followed His Supremacy’s death, they had held the Family together and slipped away from the Tribe.
The revelation that His Supremacy was a mech interloper had been enough to shatter the Tribal organization. The remaining Cybers had inflicted more casualties, but they, too, had seemed leaderless.