Now Elemak lifted off the cloth and held the Index in his hands.
Nothing happened.
He turned to Issib. "How does it work?" he demanded.
"Like that," said Issib. "Just what you're doing."
"But it's not doing anything."
"Of course it's not," said Issib. "The Oversoul controls it, and he's not speaking to you."
Elemak held it out to Issib. "You do it, then. Make it do what I tell you, or Hushidh ends up with Nafai on the storeroom floor."
"I'll try, but I don't think the Oversoul will be fooled just because I'm the one holding it. It's still not going to submit to you."
"Shut up and do it," said Elemak.
Issib sank lightly to the floor and received the Index as Elemak laid it in his lap. He put his hands cm it. Nothing happened.
"You see?" said Issib.
"What usually happens?" asked Elemak. "Could it just be slow to respond?"
"It's never slow," said Issib. "It's just not going to work while the starmaster is not in control of the ship."
"Starmaster," said Elemak, as if the word were poison in his mouth.
"We're going to run lower and lower on oxygen," said Issib. "The ship can only break up carbon dioxide so fast, and we have too many people breathing."
"What you mean is that the Oversoul is trying to use the oxygen supply to force me to surrender."
"It's not the Oversoul," said Issib. "He doesn't control the life support systems, not directly, and he certainly couldn't override them in order to cause human beings harm. The machines have failsafe systems built in. It's just the way things are."
"Fine," said Elemak. "We'll just put to sleep all the people I don't want up. I might even let Nafai go to sleep for the rest of the voyage-though I think he might stay tied up like that during his nap."
"And come out crippled worse than me at the end?" asked Issib.
"That's a thought," said Elemak, dearly approving of the idea. "I never had any trouble with you."
"Doesn't matter what you plan," said Issib. "The Oversoul can stop you from starting up any of the suspended animation chambers. All it has to do is keep sending a danger signal to the computers that control them. You can't override that."
Elemak contemplated the idea for a while.
"Fine," he said. "I can wait."
"You think you can outwait the Oversoul?"
"I think the Oversoul doesn't want this voyage to foil," said Elemak. "I think he'll eventually realize that I'm going to lead the colony, and he'll make his accommodation."
"Not a chance," Chveya echoed.
"Oh, really," said Elemak, turning to her. "Is the Oversoul talking to you now?"
Chveya said nothing.
"The Oversoul can accomplish her main purpose even if everybody on the ship is dead," Chveya said.
"Or so it tells the people it deceives," said Elemak. "I guess we'll have an interesting few days, as we find out just how sincere the Oversoul is."
"The babies will the first," said Issib. "And the old people."
"If one of my babies dies from this," said Elemak, "then as for as I'm concerned everybody can die, myself included. Death would be better than another day being ruled over by that lying, sneaky, smart-mouthed, traitorous bastard that Father foisted on me as a brother" Elemak turned to Chveya and smiled. "Not to say anything bad about your father in front of you, little girl. But then, since you take after him so thoroughly, it probably sounded to you like praise."
Chveya's loathing overcame her fear of his anger. "I would be ashamed of him," said Chveya, "if a man like you didn't hate him."
Did Obring chuckle softly behind Elemak? Elemak whirled to see, but Obring was all innocence.
You've already lost, thought Chveya. The Oversoul was right. We've already beaten you. Now let's just hope that nobody dies before you finally realize it.
EIGHT - UNBOUND
Luet was angry, but not with Elemak. To her, Elemak had become almost a force of nature. Of course he hated Nafai. Of course he would seize on any excuse to hurt him. There was too much history between them now, too much old resentment, too much guilt at Elemak's earlier attempts to kill his brother. You didn't manage the situation by trying to change Elemak. You managed it by finding ways to avoid provoking him.
You did this, Luet said to the Oversoul. It was your idea. You pushed it. You maneuvered Nafai and me and the parents of the other children to play these little games with time.
You just didn't count on them waking up, is that it?
My babies are having trouble breathing. They can hardly eat because swallowing takes so long they're gasping for another breath by the time it's done. We're dying, and you tell me everything will work out?
Well, that makes me feel so much better.
You set it up. You put us in the situation.
Oh, no, we won't be on our own on Earth. We'll have the Keeper of Earth to look out for us. And if she has half the love and care for us that you have, we'll all be dead within a year.
That's nice to hear.
No, we mustn't have douded judgment, as we pant to get enough oxygen, as we watch our children getting sluggish and torpid, as we think of our husband twisted and bent, his hands and wrists garotted with cords....
So went Luet's conversations with the Oversoul, hour after hour. She knew that when her rage was spent she would fall silent, would reconcile herself to the situation, would even, in the end, probably agree that things had worked out for the best. But they hadn't worked out yet. And if this was the best, it was hard to imagine what the worst-or even the next best-might have been. That's the one thing that could never be known: what would have happened. People spoke as if it could be known. "If only that alarm hadn't gone off." "lf only Nafai had not had such a smart mouth as a boy"- that was Nafai's own favorite, Luet well knew, as he took the blame for everything on himself. But nothing is ever caused by just one thing, Luet knew, and removing or changing one cause does not always make the effect go away, or even make things better.
I will someday stop feeling this deep, unreasonable rage at the Oversold, but not now, not with the sight of Nafai in such cruel bonds so fresh in my mind, so alive in my nightmares. Not with my children gasping after each swallow. Not with bloody-hearted Elemak in control of the people on this ship.
If only we had all withstood the Oversold and not held school during the voyage.
In her heart she raged; ranted at the Oversold; invented long, viciously cutting speeches that she knew she could never deliver to Elemak, to Mebbekew, to all who supported them. But to the others she showed a calm, impassive face. Confident, unafraid, not even annoyed, as far as she would let anyone else see. She knew that this more than anything else would unsettle Elemak and his followers. To see that she did not seem much worried would worry them; it was the most she could do, little as it was.
They. We. In her own mind, she had taken to thinking of Elemak's followers and their families as "the Elemaki"-the people of Elemak-and of those who had taken part in the voyage school as "the Nafari." Normally such endings were used to refer to nations or tribes. But are we not tribes, here on this ship, however few in numbers we might be?