They Also Serve: A Jump Universe Novel Part 3

"Yes, we were lucky," the priest agreed, tousling his grandson's hair. "We had some truly gifted botanists and agronomists. They managed to engineer Earth crops to survive here. Still, the first years were awfully scanty."

"And there were the fevers." The mayor's wife crossed herself; other women did likewise. The men stared at the ground.

"Those must have been hard times," Ray said softly.

"Easy it hasn't been, but we've made this place our home." The mayor hugged his wife; she flashed a smile and snuggled close. Ray felt a flush and wished Rita were here to hug. In the crowd of people seated around him were several women, large with child and many little ones. G.o.d, I miss you, Rita. But would he want her here, sharing a planet where mountains vanished?

Evening tiptoed in. The heat of the day fled, leaving behind a gentle breeze laden with the cool scent of green crops and satisfying beer. Somebody brought out a fiddle, another an accordion. Children collected around the musicians, doing little dances to the musicians' tentative efforts at tuning. Ray looked around for a place to relax on the gra.s.s.

"You're all going to h.e.l.l!" came from the far side of the shuttle. "Papist superst.i.tion is leading you straight to death and d.a.m.nation!"

"Not again," the mayor groaned.

"Grandpa, don't let him yell at me," David whimpered.

"I'll take care of this," the priest said, handing his young charge to the mayor's wife. He strode quickly to where a man in a flaxen jerkin was haranguing the lounging crowd.

"Repent your sins and you may yet be saved!"

"Reverend Jonah, these good people have worked hard today. G.o.d will not begrudge them a little rest and enjoyment." The priest's gentle words carried just as well as the other's shouts. People began moving away from the two. Well, most.

Five or six made their way toward the two men of competing G.o.ds. One of them was Big Sean, the bully Ray had paid for the use of his field. Oops. "Mary," Ray started, but Kat and Ca.s.sie were already on their feet, jogging for the gathering.

"And you priest would stop up their ears, deprive them of the true Word of G.o.d."

"No, Reverend, but I would respect their right to have a quiet evening without you or me interrupting them. Come back Sunday afternoon and we can talk to as many as want to gather under the tree behind the church."

"Sunday may be too late. The Lord is coining to judge."

"I'll tell you who's Coming to judge!" Sean shouted. "It's me fist in your mouth, man, if you don't get off me land!"

"We'll have none of that, Sean." The priest interposed himself.

"I don't need any papist protection." Jonah tried to fill the same s.p.a.ce in front of Sean the padre was stepping into. Neither got anywhere.

"Excuse me." Kat tapped the bully on his hip, about as far up as she could reach. "The amba.s.sador has rented this field. I believe he expects us to keep the peace here."

Big Sean turned on Kat with a sneer, raised his hand to her-and was sitting on the ground a moment later with no visible explanation, and a look of utter dismay on his face.

"Thank you," Kat smiled down at him.

Ca.s.sie took the minister's arm. "Sir, the amba.s.sador requests that you leave our facility. Our const.i.tution requires a strict separation of church and state. Use of these grounds for religious solicitation would be a violation of our code."

"What?" the minister said in wonder.

"Thank you, sir." Ca.s.sie continued, "I know it's difficult to understand different people's ways of doing things. If you'll come with me, we can talk about that." She took the reverend by the arm and escorted him away from the shuttle. Five people went with him. The priest stood for a moment, looking after them, then hiked back to the table. Taking David from the mayor's wife, he picked the boy up, hugged him, then sat him down on the bench and told him to eat his vegetables. The boy picked up a green bean and began eating it a millimeter at a time.

"Good riddance," the mayor breathed.

Mary eyed Ca.s.sie and the minister. "I hope he doesn't have a guitar handy. She might keep going," she chuckled.

The priest shook his head. "G.o.d bless them all."

"Who are they?" Ray asked. As a young soldier, religion had been something he'd been glad to share his foxhole with. As he rose in rank and found himself with less time on his hands for empty worrying, it faded. Or maybe his questions got harder and the answers more difficult. Whatever he might think of religion, here it seemed an important part of their lives.

"The O'Donalds lost their first child last winter. She always was one for the scruples. G.o.d forgive me, but I could not answer her demand to know why G.o.d would give her a baby to love, then take it away so soon. Young Phillip seeks the face of G.o.d and cannot find it among the familiar. May G.o.d be gracious to all of them and forgive me for what I could not be."

"Father, it's not your fault," the mayor a.s.sured him. "They're just wrongheaded." Murmurs of agreement came from around the table. The priest smiled his thanks and gave David a hug. Ray doubted the padre accepted his people's absolution. More and more, he was coming to like the fellow. How could you fault a man who so clearly doted on his grandkid?

The musicians launched into a reel. People were on their feet and into the dance without a glance for those Ca.s.sie was still walking off the field. Ray watched through the first two songs, then turned to Mary. "We've got to set up camp and unload the shuttle."

"And you'll be wanting your field back," the mayor said, standing. "I'll have the fiddler dance them into town. You'll be wanting to go up early tomorrow with me to the County Clair Circle."

"Circle," Ray echoed, wondering where he'd missed a step and how far down it was.

"Aye, you've met with the Hazel Dell Circle." The mayor made a sweeping arm gesture that might have included the entire town, or just those close by. "You'll be wanting to talk to County Clair Circle next. I suspect Jeff will be going, too. You've sat in the Great Circle of Metalworkers, haven't you?"

"When Sis was busy and Mark out of town," the man admitted.

"Then I guess I'll be going to the next circle tomorrow," Ray agreed. Was the local chain of command more honest about how it ran people in circles? He grinned to himself.

Making a stop by the keg to refresh his mug, the mayor joined the musicians. In a moment, fiddler, accordion player, and singers began a careful retreat, not missing a beat. Dancers and watchers followed in a smooth flow that cleared the tables of serving dishes with no visible effort except for one young girl who came das.h.i.+ng back for a forgotten bowl.

Ray's work of arranging his mission and schedule was made easier; Mary had his command hut already set up. The shuttle was cleared for a return to the s.h.i.+p as soon as it was empty, and Ray called Matt to report. Matt had news, too. "One of those blimps doesn't make regularly scheduled runs like the rest. It's headed your way, or was until it settled down at sunset."

Someone cleared his throat behind Ray. He turned to find Jeff standing just outside the hut. "Any idea what's up?"

"Probably my sister, Victoria, headed here to take over."

Ray considered that for a moment. "We'll see." He turned back to finish briefing Matt on the day.

"Sounds like you've got things going fine dirtside."

"Too early to tell. I've got company around still. I'll talk more later. Send down the rest of the ground team. I'll need at least one doc. A local boy here has migraines. He's the priest's grandkid, but the whole village has kind of adopted him."

"Doc on the way. Anything else?"

"Not at the moment." Ray clicked off and turned to Jeff. "So big sister is headed our way." The man nodded; Ray knew the type. He'd had plenty of experience with second and third sons shuffled off to the army. "So what can we do for each other?"

The man entered slowly, fingering a map case. Clearly he wanted to say something. Just as clearly, he didn't know how. Ray waited, taking none of the pressure off him. Finally Jeff snapped open his case and pulled out several large photos. As if the pictures were coated with acid, he dropped them one by one on the table in front of Ray.

"Recognize the scene?" he asked, retreating back to the door.

In the shadows outside, Ray spotted Annie, the young woman who'd introduced Jeff. Waiting for her fellow? Ray turned to the pictures. Both showed the same mountain range. One shot was minus a peak.

"Annie, Da wants help gathering up the mugs!" came as a distant shout.

"In a minute, Nikki!" Annie shouted back.

"Has she seen these pictures?" Ray asked. Jeff nodded.

"Want to come in, young woman, and tell me what you think of them? Mary, see that the beermaster gets help finding his mugs. I don't want the shuttle finding one on takeoff."

"Yes, sir." Mary whispered orders into her commlink, but showed no interest in going elsewhere at the moment.

Annie glanced at the pictures. "One o' the mountains is gone missing."

Ray fixed Jeff with a "tough colonel stare." "And you want to know why?"

"If you can mine an entire mountain just like that..." the young man started and stopped.

Ray called up the before-and-after topography maps Second Chance had made on its first two orbits. He rested a finger on the hole in the second one. "You'd pay a lot for that technology."

Jeff stared wide-eyed at the two maps. "Yes."

"But it would tear the hills apart," Annie broke in. "That's no way to treat the earth that feeds us."

From the dark outside the hut came the rustle of a dress. Another pair of eyes watched them. Ray suspected the shouted-at Nikki had come to see what was keeping Annie. If he wasn't careful, he'd have the entire village back here.

"That's not the way we extract minerals," Mary cut in. "I can pull all the good stuff out of a mountain without disturbing a blade of gra.s.s."

"Then..." Jeff pointed at the gap in the mountain range.

"We don't know either," Ray finished.

"But if you didn't," Annie said slowly, "and we can't, who did?" From outside the hut came the sound of running feet. Ray caught a hint of a flying dress.

Annie must have, too. "I'd better be helping Nikki and Da."

Jeff collapsed into a camp chair beside Ray. "That is the question, isn't it."

"Yes," Mary agreed. Ray nodded; his job had just gotten a whole lot harder.

"Daga. Daga," Nikki half-whispered, half-shouted at her girlfriend's window. "Daga, you can't be asleep."

"I'm not, and neither is the house with you shouting like a banshee," Daga said, ma.s.saging her temples. "What's wrong with you?"

"They know about the mountain. They know it's gone."

"Who knows?"

"Everyone," Nikki squeaked. "Jeff's got pictures from his brother's survey and one he just made, and the people from s.p.a.ce even have a map. Daga, they know!"

"But they don't know what we know. They don't know how it happened. Nikki, you worry too much. There's no way they can tell it was us, or anything."

"But...but..." Nikki couldn't figure out what to say after that, but she knew there was more to it than Daga wanted.

"No buts, Nikki. Go home, go to bed. Don't say anything, and they won't know anything."

"But what are you going to do?"

"I haven't made up my mind yet."

Even in the dark, Nikki could see Daga's grin. It was wide, and like it always was with Daga, it was sure.

Caretaker studied the new ones as they slept. They were like the other new ones; already their bodies rejected this world. Their body temperatures rose as they twisted in sleep, scratching and sneezing. Just as it had three hundred years ago, Caretaker released the viruses to make the necessary adjustments. This time it would go easier on the strangers; this time the Caretaker knew where to touch these strange bodies.

Even as Caretaker worked, its own simple processes tried to extrapolate the significance of these new arrivals. These had landed close to itself; to that central core that Caretaker thought of as its very being. Did they know that? Would they help or hinder Caretaker's work? It was very difficult dealing with a species that resolutely refused to enter into any communication with the Caretaker.

Certainly the Central Font of All Knowledge would know what to do. But apparently it had gotten slow over the years, too. Its slow message had said it was coming, but had to mend many nodes between the center and a distant, minor subsystem such as Caretaker.

Caretaker would wait. In the meantime, it would do what it could. That was what the Caretaker was for.

Ray walked in a garden, his bladder painfully full. The gravel crunched under his feet, but he heard nothing else and smelled nothing at all. He rounded a hedge. An old man in dirty work clothes watered roses. His hose aimed a high, proud arc of water over the flowers. The image left Ray desperately holding back his own need to spray.

The Gardener noticed Ray with a smile. He looked familiar; Ray remembered the old fellow who kept the flowers so tenderly outside the dining hall at the Academy. "Do what you need, fellow, I won't mind," the old one said.

Ray reached for his zipper....

And came awake before he wet the bed. Ruefully, Ray reached for his canes. Hot and sweating, he struggled up, cursing the battle wound they didn't fix.

As he did his business, he became aware of a headache. Nothing too bad; his back hurt worse. Ray ignored the pain meds Mary had laid out on the table next to a gla.s.s of water; he didn't want more water in his system. Besides, this was nothing compared to how bad it could get.

Ray gritted his teeth against the pain and waited for sleep to come.

FOUR.

A WEEK LATER, Amba.s.sador Ray Longknife relaxed into his seat, contemplating the night. Stuffed-in far too many ways.

He'd been wined and dined from one circle to another as he moved from village to county to state and finally to Lander's Refuge. Local after local had shaken his hand, kissed his cheeks, and done their d.a.m.nedest to pick his pocket-in the nicest way. Every step of the way he'd been offered undying friends.h.i.+p and kind words. As he got farther up, smiling officials had thrown in huge land grants, personal bribes, beautiful women, and a seat among the powerful with a growing panic that made Ray feel right at home. "d.a.m.n, humans are all the same."

"What'd you say, sir?" Mary asked from the front seat. She was driving a mule, a four-wheel, go-anywhere vehicle; its efficient solar cells and storage system made it the envy of everyone here. Mary was his aide, bodyguard, driver...and nurse as much as he let her. Ray was traveling light among the natives. So far, he did not regret it.

"Take us back to the residence," Ray said automatically, then rethought. "No. I've got to talk to Matt tonight, and I trust my room is well bugged. Take us somewhere I can have a little privacy."

"How about that beach we saw yesterday?"

Ray grinned. Their visit to the fis.h.i.+ng fleet and North Beach had been Mary's first encounter with more water than she could drink. Water, free and playing with beach and sand and wind and sky had enthralled her. Ray suspected the woman was in love. "Do it."

"I'll head for the north end, sir. This mule can take us where these people only dream of going."