Flux - Xeelee Sequence Part 21

The Colonists had emerged from the Core. Brief, shattering wars were fought.

Human machines were destroyed or dragged into the Quantum Sea. The human population was devastated, the survivors pitched into the open Air virtually without resource.

Within generations, the stories of man's origin on the Star, the tale of the Colonists, became a dim legend, another baroque detail in the rich word-painting of human history, of the invisible worlds beyond the Star.

Muub laughed out loud, his long, aristocratic face creased with mirth. "I'm sorry, sir," he said to Hork. "But here we are compounding myth on myth. How long are we to continue with this charade? I have patients to attend."

"Shut up, Muub. You'll stay here as long as I need you."

Hork thought hard. He had d.a.m.nably little resource to spare. He had to tend the wounded and dest.i.tute, and, in the longer term, rebuild on the hinterland, alleviate the hunger of the people.

And yet, and yet...

If - by a small diversion of effort - he could remove the fantastic Xeelee threat from the City - the whole world, in fact - then he could become the greatest hero of history. - by a small diversion of effort - he could remove the fantastic Xeelee threat from the City - the whole world, in fact - then he could become the greatest hero of history.

There was pride, self-aggrandizement in such a vision, Hork knew. So what? If he could repel the Xeelee, mankind would rightfully acclaim him.

But how to go about it?

He certainly couldn't devote armies of scholars to piecing together the fragmentary legends of man's origin. And he didn't have the years to wait while some such discipline as Muub's "a.n.a.logous anatomy" cogitated over its subject matter. He had to prioritize, to go for the most direct benefit.

He looked at Adda sharply. "You say these beings - the Colonists - took the Interfaces, and the other magical machines, back into the Quantum Sea with them. Beyond the reach of our Fishermen. So we've no reason to believe the devices were destroyed?"

Adda looked up; the leech nibbling at his eye, disturbed, slid across his cheek. "Nor any evidence that they survived."

Muub snorted. "Now the old fool has the effrontery to talk of evidence!"

What if this legend of Colonists and ancient technologies held some grain of truth? Then perhaps, Hork speculated, some of these devices could still exist, could still exist, deep in the Quantum Sea. An Interface would be worth having... deep in the Quantum Sea. An Interface would be worth having...

"Muub," he asked thoughtfully. "How could we penetrate the Quantum Sea?"

Muub looked at him, as if shocked by the suggestion. "We cannot, of course, sir. It is impossible." His eyes narrowed. "You are not thinking of chasing after these absurd legends, of wasting resources on a..."

"You will not lecture me, Physician," Hork snapped. "Think of it as a - a scientific experiment. If nothing else we would learn much about the Star, and about our own capabilities... and, perhaps, disprove once and for all these fanciful legends of Colonists and antique wonders." Or, Or, he allowed himself to imagine, he allowed himself to imagine, perhaps I will uncover a treasure lost to mankind for generations. perhaps I will uncover a treasure lost to mankind for generations.

"Sir, I must protest. People continue to die, all over the hinterland. Parz itself may be overwhelmed by the flood of refugees approaching. We must abandon these fantasies of the impossible, and return our attention to the immediate, the practical."

Hork studied the Physician - Muub was stiff, trembling in his coc.o.o.n of rope. His irritation with Muub's stiff anger was eclipsed, suddenly, by respect for this decent man. It must have taken a lot of courage for the Physician to speak out like that. "Muub - my dear Muub - as soon as I close this meeting I will be immersed in the immediate, the practical... in the pain of ten thousand human beings." He smiled. "I want you to take charge of this project. Reach the Quantum Sea."

Muub ground out, "The task - is - impossible."

Hork nodded. "Of course. Bring me options, within two days."

He turned from them then, and, straightening his back, thrust through the Air to the door and his duties.

17.

AFTER SHE'D ENDURED A BRIEF, unsettled sleep in Deni's cramped quarters, a messenger from the Committee called for Dura. The messenger was a small, rather sad man in a scuffed tunic; his skin was thin and pale and his eyes were bruised-looking, discolored deep inside the cups. Perhaps he had spent too much of his life doing close work inside the City, Dura thought, shut away from fresh Air.

She was led away from the Hospital and through the streets. They pa.s.sed through the Market, and Waved Upside along Pall Mall. The great avenue seemed quieter than she remembered. The lines of Air-cars moved much more easily than before, with clear Air between the spa.r.s.ely s.p.a.ced cars, and many of the shops were closed up, their wood-lamps dimmed. She began to understand how the disaster in the hinterland had impacted the economy of the City.

Even so, the noise was a constant, growling racket and the few fans and illumination vents seemed hardly sufficient. Soon Dura found herself fighting off claustrophobia. And yet, only days before, she had been feeling restless in the limited company of the upfluxers. Her experiences really had left her a misfit, she thought gloomily.

They took a turn off the Mall close to its Upside terminus and emerged, surprisingly, into clear Air-light. They had entered a huge open chamber, a cube a hundred mansheights on a side. Its edges were constructed of fine beams, leaving the faces open to the clear sky - this place must be clinging to the side of the City like some immense wooden leech - but, oddly, the Air was no fresher here than in the bowels of the City, and there was no discernible breeze. Looking more closely, she realized that the apparently open faces of this cube were coated with huge panels of clearwood; she was inside a transparent wooden box big enough to hold - she estimated quickly - a thousand people.

It was impressive, but utterly bizarre; Dura felt bemused - as so often before - by the strangeness of the City.

The messenger touched her elbow. "Here we are. This is the Stadium. Of course it's empty today; when it's in use it's crammed with people... Up there you can see the Committee Box." He pointed to a thin balcony suspended over the Stadium itself; his voice was thin, ingratiating. "People come here to watch the Games - our sporting events. Do you have Games in the upflux?"

"Why have I been brought here?"

The little man s.h.i.+ed away, his bruised-looking eyecups closing.

"Dura..."

Farr?

She whirled in the Air. Her brother was only a mansheight from her; he was calm and apparently well, and dressed in a loose tunic. There were people with him - Adda and three City men.

She saw all this in the heartbeat it took to cross the s.p.a.ce between them and take her brother in her arms. He hugged her back - but not as an uninhibited child, she slowly realized; he put his arms around her and patted her spine, comforting her.

She let him go and held him at arm's length. His face was square and serious. He seemed to have grown older, and there was more of their father about him.

"I'm well, Dura."

"Yes. So am I. I thought you might have been injured in the Glitch."

"I wasn't in the Bells when the Glitch came. It was my off-s.h.i.+ft, and I was in the Harbor..."

"That doesn't matter," she said bitterly. "You're too young to have been sent down in those things."

"It's just the way things are," he said gently. "Boys younger than me have served in the Bells. Dura, none of it is your fault... even if I'd been hurt it wouldn't have been your fault."

He was was comforting her. He really was growing up. comforting her. He really was growing up.

"Anyway, I haven't been back to the Harbor for a while," Farr went on. He smiled. "Not since Adda had Hork send for me. I've been staying with Toba."

"How are the family?"

"Well. Cris has been teaching me to Surf." Farr held his arms out in the Air, as if balancing on an invisible board. "You'll have to try it..."

"Dura. You've made it; I'm glad." Adda came paddling through the Air toward them. Dura glanced quickly over the old man; his shoulders, chest and lower legs were still bound up with grubby bandages, but he was moving freely enough. He was towing an object which looked like the skin of an Air-pig; sewn up and inflated, it bobbled behind his clumsy progress like a toy.

She found a clear place on his face - away from the eye-leech - and kissed him. "I'd hug you if I wasn't scared of breaking you."

He snorted. "So you got through the Glitch."

Briefly she told her story; Farr's eyes grew round when she described the Xeelee s.h.i.+p. She told them how the Human Beings had fared in the Glitch - of their twenty dead. As she recited the familiar, lost names, she was reminded of the simple, moving name-litany ceremonial of the lumberjacks.

She told Adda and Farr of the five upfluxer children lodging, for today, with Deni Maxx. Farr and Adda smiled, and promised to visit the kids.

"Now tell me what we're doing here. And why you're towing a dead pig about the place."

Adda grimaced, making the leech slither across his crumpling cheek. "You'll find out... d.a.m.n foolishness, all of it." He glanced around to the rest of the party; Dura recognized Muub, the Hospital Physician, with two other men. "Come on," Adda said. "We'd better get on with it."

With Dura and Farr helping Adda, the three Human Beings made their way to Muub and his companions.

The six of them hovered together close to the center of the huge emptiness of the Stadium; Dura felt cold and isolated despite the clamminess of the Pole. Ropes and guide rails were slung across the huge volume all around them, silent evidence of the crowds this place was designed to accommodate.

The Physician, Muub, was dressed in a severe, dark robe. As before, Dura found it impossible not to stare at the grand dome of his bald head. He greeted them with a smile which seemed professional enough but a little strained. "Thank you for your time."

Adda grinned. "Oh, we had a choice?"

Muub's smile thinned. Briskly he introduced his two companions: a Harbor supervisor called Hosch, cadaverously thin, who seemed to know Farr, judging from the sour glances he cast at the boy; and a tall, wispy tree-stem of a man called Seciv Trop whom Muub described as an expert on the Magfield. Like Muub's, Trop's fine old head was shaven, in the style of the academics of the University.

Muub rapidly sketched in the background to Hork's directive. "Frankly, I'm not certain about the value of this program; I may as well tell you that from the start. But I do sympathize with Hork's thinking." He looked about him, his expression hard. "I only need to be here, in the fragility of this Stadium, to recognize that we have to find some way to protect ourselves from the random danger of Glitches."

Dura frowned. "But why are we here? We Human Beings, I mean. You need experts. What can we possibly add?"

"Two things. One is that you are are experts - or the nearest we have - on the Xeelee. So Hork believes, at any rate. And second, there's no one else." He raised his arms as if to embrace the City. "Dura, Parz may seem a large and rich place to you, but the economy has taken a severe battering from the Glitches. All our resources are devoted to coping with the consequences, to rebuilding the hinterland... all but us, and we are all Hork felt able to spare." He smiled at them. "Six of us, including a boy. And our mission is to save the world. Perhaps we will succeed; and what plaudits we will earn if we do." experts - or the nearest we have - on the Xeelee. So Hork believes, at any rate. And second, there's no one else." He raised his arms as if to embrace the City. "Dura, Parz may seem a large and rich place to you, but the economy has taken a severe battering from the Glitches. All our resources are devoted to coping with the consequences, to rebuilding the hinterland... all but us, and we are all Hork felt able to spare." He smiled at them. "Six of us, including a boy. And our mission is to save the world. Perhaps we will succeed; and what plaudits we will earn if we do."

He fell silent. The six of them hovered in a rough ring, studying each other warily - all but the Magfield expert Seciv Trop, who stared into the distance with his finely chiseled eyecups.

"Well," Muub said briskly. "Hork asked me to come up with options to achieve the impossible - to penetrate the underMantle, more deeply than any human since prehistory. And I, in turn, asked Hosch and Adda to bring us suggestions to work with. The Bells from the Harbor descend to a depth of about a meter. Our first estimates indicate that we must penetrate at least ten times as deeply - to a depth of ten meters below Parz, deep into the underMantle. Seciv, you're here to comment, if you will, and to add anything you can."

Trop nodded briskly. "I'll do my feeble best," he said in a thin, mannered voice. Seciv Trop was clearly the oldest of the group. His almost-bare scalp was populated by fine clumps of yellow-gold hair, left carelessly unshaven. And his suit - loosely fitting and equipped with immense pockets - was more battered and patched than Dura had come to expect of the grander City folk.

This old fellow was rather endearing, Dura decided. Farr asked, "Why are we here? In this Stadium?"

"Because of your friend." Muub eyed the pigskin doubtfully. "Adda tells me he would prefer to demonstrate his idea rather than describe it. I thought I'd better obtain as much s.p.a.ce as possible."

The Harbor supervisor, Hosch, twisted his face into a sneer. "Then maybe we'd better let the old fool get on with it before his d.a.m.n pig corpse starts stinking out the building."

Adda grinned and hauled on the short rope which attached the inflated pigskin to his belt. He held the grisly artifact before him, obviously relis.h.i.+ng the squeamish reaction of the City men. The skin was was revolting, Dura conceded; its orifices had been crudely sewn over and Air pumped in to inflate its boxy bulk, causing its six fins to become erect. Its sketchy, inhuman face seemed to be staring at her. And, she realized, it actually did stink a little. revolting, Dura conceded; its orifices had been crudely sewn over and Air pumped in to inflate its boxy bulk, causing its six fins to become erect. Its sketchy, inhuman face seemed to be staring at her. And, she realized, it actually did stink a little.

Hosch sneered. "Is this some kind of joke? The old fool thinks we could all don pigskins and swim to the b.l.o.o.d.y Core."

Adda waved the inflated skin in the supervisor's face. "Wrong, City man. You people travel around in chariots hauled by pigs. At first I wondered if humans could travel in one of those all the way to the Core... but of course the pigs could never survive the journey into the underMantle. So we build build a pig... an artificial pig, of wood and Corestuff. Strong enough to withstand the pressures of the underMantle." a pig... an artificial pig, of wood and Corestuff. Strong enough to withstand the pressures of the underMantle."

Seciv nodded. "How is this device to be propelled?"

Adda jabbed a finger at the pig's jet orifice. "With jetfarts, of course. Like the real thing." He flicked the inflated fins. "And these will keep it stable." Now he pressed the skin between his arm and his bandaged ribs; Air squirted out of the jet orifice and the pig-corpse wobbled through the air in a ghastly, comic parody of life.

Hosch laughed out loud. "And where do the farts come from, upfluxer? You?"

Seciv frowned, his crumpled hair waving. "You could mimic the internal operation of the pig's anatomy. The car could carry tanks of Air, heated by a stock of wood in a nuclear-burning boiler and expelled through a valve orifice." With a delicate finger he reached out and poked at one flabby fin, tentatively. "You could even make an attempt at steering, by mounting these fins on gimbals worked from inside the craft. And the fart nozzles could be made directional, with a little ingenuity." The old man nodded approvingly to Adda. "A practical suggestion in many respects."

Adda - despite himself, Dura realized - swelled at the praise; Hosch looked disgruntled.

Farr said seriously, "But how could it survive the underMantle? Adda, I learned in the Bells that it's not pressure alone that would destroy such a craft, by crus.h.i.+ng it..." He snapped his fist closed suddenly, making Dura flinch; she wondered where he'd learned such crude dramatic tricks. Farr went on, "Nuclear matter - ordinary matter - would dissolve."

Hosch said rapidly, "Well, of course it would. Anyone with a fingernail of experience knows that. Our Bells are protected from the pressure by magnetic fields sent down from the turbines in the City."

Seciv Trop shook his head. "That's a misapprehension, Supervisor. To be precise, the Bells are fed by electrical currents electrical currents which are generated in the Harbor... but the protective magnetic sh.e.l.l is generated at the Bell itself, by superconducting hoops which girdle the Bell." which are generated in the Harbor... but the protective magnetic sh.e.l.l is generated at the Bell itself, by superconducting hoops which girdle the Bell."

Hosch looked the old man up and down. "You're a Fisherman, I suppose. We must have been on different s.h.i.+fts..."

Muub touched Hosch's shoulder. "Seciv designed the current generation of Bells - the Bells you ride every day. Hosch, your life depends upon his expertise; it suits you ill to mock him."

Hosch subsided. "Well, what of it? The boy's point stands."

Seciv seemed impervious to offense. "One would simply need to gird this artificial pig around with superconducting hoops, and carry equipment to generate the magnetic field from within." He frowned. "Of course, the bulk of the craft would be increased."

Dura asked, "Wouldn't it get hot inside the wooden pig, with nuclear burning going on all the time?"

Seciv nodded. "Yes, that would be a difficulty... though not in itself insurmountable. A more serious problem would be the supply of propellant Air. Compression ratios in even our best-made tanks are not very high. Sufficient for a jaunt to the ceiling-farms in an Air-car, but hardly enough for an expedition of this magnitude." He eyed Adda sadly. "Again, perhaps this could be overcome. But there are two far more devastating flaws. First, a lack of stability. There is more to an Air-pig than an a.n.u.s and a few fins, after all. The pig has six eyes to guide it..."

"Well," Adda said defensively, "you could have six windows of cleargla.s.s. Or more."

"Perhaps. But the windows would each be manned by a pilot - yes? - who would then have to relay instructions to a crew - five or six men who would haul laboriously at the directing fins, hoping to adjust the motion. Adda, your wooden pig would flounder in the Air, I fear."

Dura said, "But you don't have to use fins. The thing doesn't have to be exactly like a pig, after all. Maybe we could use jetfarts, coming from the sides of the pig."

"Yes." Muub looked thoughtful. "That could be far more precise."

Seciv smiled indulgently. "Still, I would expect instability. Besides, I fear my second objection is fatal."

Adda glared at him, his eye-leech slithering across his cheek.

"Your mode of propulsion could not work within the underMantle, let alone the Quantum Sea. In high-pressure conditions Air could not be expelled; it would be forced back into the body of the pig."

Hosch scratched his head. "I hate to be constructive about this stupid idea," he said, "but couldn't you throw a magnetic field away from the pig's hull? Then the farts would be expelled into Air at normal pressure."

Seciv looked at him and ran bony fingers through his sc.r.a.ps of hair, evidently searching for a simple explanation. "But the expelled Air would still be inside the magnetic field, which in turn would be attached to the s.h.i.+p through the field lines. The Air would push at the magnetic sh.e.l.l, which would drag back the s.h.i.+p. It is a matter of action and reaction, you see..."

Muub waved him to silence. "I think we can take your word for it, Seciv." He smiled at Adda. "Sir, the consensus seems to be that we can't proceed with your suggestion; but it was ingenious, and perhaps - do you agree, Seciv? - some aspects of it may survive in a final design. Also, it sounds to me as if we could use this idea to make Air-cars of a different design from those we have at present - Air-cars which wouldn't need pigs to draw them. None of the problems we've talked about would arise if the craft operated in the free Air, after all."

Adda, clutching his retrieved pig with his one free arm, looked inordinately pleased with himself. Dura nudged him and said quietly, "You're enjoying this. You're forgetting you're a miserable old b.u.g.g.e.r. You'll confuse them."

Adda glared at her. "Well? Who's next? This Fisherman's been so clever about my suggestions; now let's hear what he has to say."

"Indeed. Hosch?"