CHAPTER 29

Note

!N&#xc6;H: RETRO make it really clear somewhere that Riders are not plants.

There were dreams. He'd lost a captaincy once again, been busted down to tending potted plants in the ship's greenhouse. Sigh. Pham's job was to water them and make them bloom. But then he noticed the pots had wheels and moved behind his back, waiting, softly rattling. What had been beautiful was now sinister. Pham had been willing to water and weed the creatures; he had always admired them.

Now he was the only one who knew they were the enemy of life.

Note

!CHK what term did you use for Ship's surgeon before? 
!CHK QU how come this doesn't remind him of his resuscitation after the 
! escape from Relay? SOLN: He was more "out of it" then.
!V fixed earlier, by saying that he didn't remember that

More than once in his life, Pham Nuwen had wakened inside medical automation. He was almost used to coffin-close tanks, plain green walls, wires and tubes. This was different, and it took him a while to realize just where he was. Willowy trees bent close around him, swaying just a little in the warm breeze. He seemed to be lying on the softest moss, in a tiny glade above a pond. Summer haze hung in the air above the water. It was all very nice, except that the leaves were furry, and not quite the green of anything he had ever seen. This was someone else's notion of home. He reached up toward the nearest branch, and his hand hit something unyielding just fifty centimeters above his face. A curved wall. For all the trick pictures, this was about the same size as the surgeons he remembered.

Something clicked behind his head; the idyll slid past him, taking its warm breeze with it. Somebody -- Ravna -- floated just beyond the cylinder. "Hi, Pham." She reached past the surgeon's hull to squeeze his hand. Her kiss was tremulous, and she looked haunted, as if she'd been crying a lot.

"Hi, yourself," he said. Memory came back in jagged pieces. He tried to push off the bed, and found another similarity between this surgeon and ones of the Qeng Ho: he was securely plugged in.

Ravna laughed a little weakly. "Surgeon. Disconnect." After a moment, Pham drifted free.

"It's still holding my arm."

Note

!V CHKd "left arm"? In c28, there appears to be no specification

"No, that's the sling. Your left arm is going to take a while to regrow. It almost got burned off, Pham."

"Oh." He looked down at the white cocoon that meshed his arm against his side. He remembered the gunfight now.... and realized that parts of his dream were deadly real. "How long have I been out?" The anxiety spilled into his voice.

Note

!V CHK INCON 60ly 30h

"About thirty hours. We're more than sixty light-years out from Harmonious Repose. We're doing okay, except that now everyone in creation seems to be chasing us."

The dream. His free hand clamped hard on Ravna's arm. "The Skroderiders, where are they?" Not on board, pray the Fleet.

"W-what's left of Greenstalk is in the other surgeon. Blueshell is --"

Note

!V N&#xc6;H: ID The evolution of stuttering could be remarked upon (early in 
!       Part I) 
!V CHK INCON grep for use of the word "console"; what should it mean?
!V    when Rav hears about SjK destruction, she is using her console. 
!V    Use "command console" for what Pham is after now.

Why has he let me live? Pham's eyes roved the room. They were in a utility cabin. Any weapons were at least twenty meters away. Hm. More important than guns: get command console privileges with the OOB ... if it was not already too late. He pushed out of the surgeon and drifted out of the room.

Ravna followed. "Take it easy, Pham. You just came out of a surgeon."

"What have they said about the shoot-out?"

Note

!V CHK what Pham said at the time of the shootout? Probably no
!V problem, since I don't say what he said in his beamer message 
!V to her.

"Poor Greenstalk's not in a position to say anything, Pham. Blueshell says pretty much what you did: Greenstalk was grabbed by the rogue Riders, forced to lure you two into a trap."

"Hmhm, hmhm," Pham strove for a noncommittal tone. So maybe there was a chance; maybe Blueshell was not yet perverted. He continued his one-handed progress up the ship's axis corridor. A minute later he was on the bridge, Ravna tagging behind.

"Pham. What's the matter? There's a lot we have to decide, but --"

How right you are. He dived onto the command deck, and made for the command console. "Ship. Do you recognize my voice?"

Ravna began, "Pham, What's this --"

"Yes, sir."

" -- all about?"

"Command privileges," he said. Capabilities granted while the Riders were ashore. Would they still be in place?

"Granted."

The Skroderiders had had thirty hours to plan their defense. This was all too easy, too easy. "Suspend command privileges for the Skroderiders. Isolate them."

"Yes, sir," came the ship's reply. Liar! But what more could he do? The sweep toward panic crested, and suddenly he felt very cool. He was Qeng Ho ... and he was also godshatter.

Both Riders were in the same cabin, Greenstalk in the other copy of the ship's surgeon. Pham opened a window on the room. Blueshell sat on a wall beside the surgeon. He looked wilted, as when they heard about Sjandra Kei. He angled his fronds at the video pickup. "Sir Pham. The ship tells me you've suspended our privileges?"

Note

!V INCON loops v restraints v what you say in this paragraph: 
!V Okay, I've removed references to "loop".

"What is going on, Pham?" Ravna had dug a foot into the floor, and stood glaring at him.

Pham ignored both questions. "How is Greenstalk doing?" he said.

The fronds turned away, seemed to become even more limp. "She lives.... I thank you, Sir Pham. It took great skill to do what you did. Considering everything, I could not have asked for more."

Note

!RETRO restrict the number of races in the concourse. Make clear that this 
! is just the rarity, a group that can congregate. (Actually, there might 
! be others, centered on different environments.) 
!PRB Yecco. QU How can I have there be suit recordings if I don't want 
! Ravna to see how enthusiastically Greenstalk turned traitor? For that 
! matter, there should have been recordings from Blueshell's cameras, too. 
! Maybe I have to skrag the idea Pham put recorders in his suit (might 
! be plausible if it was a home-brew he built in the ship's hobby center; 
! maybe always had a thing against flight recorders. But there's still the 
! question of Blueshell's recorders. 
!hld SOLN shoot up the records in the fight, and have partial records as 
!hld necessary 
!
!V [?] v (?)    I now vote for (?) when in ordinary narrative 
!see also my comment on this in c26

What did I do? He remembered firing on Greenstalk. Had he pulled his aim? He looked inside the surgeon. This was quite different from the human configuration: This one was mostly water-filled, with turbulent aeration along the patient's fronds. Asleep (?), Greenstalk looked frailer than he remembered, her fronds waving randomly in the water. Some were nicked, but her body seemed whole. His eyes traveled downwards toward the base of the stalk, where a Rider is normally attached to its skrode. The stump ended in a cloud of surgical tubing. And Pham remembered the last instant of the firefight, blasting the skrode out from under Greenstalk. What is a Rider like without anything to ride?

He pulled his eyes away from the wreckage. "I've deleted your command privileges because I don't trust you." My former friend, tool of my enemy.

Blueshell didn't answer. After a moment Ravna spoke. "Pham. Without Blueshell, I'd never have gotten you out of that habitat. Even then -- we were stuck in the middle of the RIP system. The shepherd satellite was screaming for our blood; they had figured out we were human. The Aprahanti were trying to break harbor and come down on us. Without Blueshell, we'd never have convinced local security to let us go ultra -- we'd probably have been blown away the second we cleared the ring plane. We'd all be dead now, Pham."

"Don't you know what happened down there?"

Some of the indignation left Ravna's face. "Yes. But understand about skrodes. They are a mechanical contrivance. It's easy enough to disconnect the cyber part from the mechanical linkages. These guys were controlling the wheels, and aiming the gun."

Hmm. On the window behind Ravna, he could see Blueshell standing with his fronds motionless, not rushing to agree. Triumphant? "That doesn't explain Greenstalk's sucking us in to the trap." He raised a hand. "Yeah, I know, she was bludgeoned into doing it. Only problem, Ravna, she had no hesitation. She was enthusiastic, bubbly." He stared over the woman's shoulder. "She was under no compulsion, didn't you tell me that, Blueshell."

A long pause. Finally, "Yes, Sir Pham."

Ravna turned, drifting back so she could see both of them. "But, but ... it's still absurd. Greenstalk has been with us from the beginning. A thousand times she could have destroyed the ship -- or gotten word to the outside. Why chance this stupid ambush?"

Note

!V apparent INCON Unfortunately for my plot direction, the Riders 
!V were perfectly positioned to snoop for the 
!V Perversion; they even suggested the search for Jefri, on the basis 
!V of their trip to Straum. Yecco.

"Yes. Why didn't they betray us before...." Up until she asked the question, Pham had not known. He knew the facts, but had no coherent theory to hang them on. Now it all came together: the ambush, his dreams in the surgeon, even the paradoxes. "Maybe she wasn't a traitor, before. We really did escape from Relay without pursuit, without anyone knowing of us, much less our exact destination. Certainly no one expected humans to show up at Harmonious Repose." He paused, trying to get it all together. The ambush, "The ambush, it wasn't stupid -- but it was completely ad hoc. The enemy had no back up. Their weapons were dumb, simple things --" insight "-- why, I'll bet if you look at the wreckage of Greenstalk's skrode you'll find her beam gun was some sort of cutter tool. And the only sensor on the claymore mine was a motion detector: it had some civil use. All the gadgets were pulled together on very short notice by people who had not been expecting a fight. No, our enemy was very surprised by our appearance."

"You think the Aprahanti could --"

Note

!PRB there were other ways to do the ambush: Like quietly pervert both 
! Riders, get them on the ship and then immobilize the humans. Have to 
! come up with some explanation (perhaps implicit) for why this wasn't 
! tried. 
!V SOLN You may want to explicitly comment that the Blighter Fleet 
!V looks ad hoc -- related to the fact the Blight has been focusing
!V its searching upon the High Beyond.
!V CHK INCON 500 
!V June 9, 1991 CHK 500 ships Aprahanti CHRON PRB June 14, 1991 
!V June 14, 1991 One point here might be that the full weight of
!V   pursuers has not yet arrived YES June 20, 1991 
^ V June 20, 1991 "listening for" slightly AWK

"Not the Aprahanti. From what you said, they didn't break moorage till after the gunfight, when the Rider moon started screaming about us. Whoever's behind this is independent of the Butterflies, and must be spread in very small numbers across many star systems -- a vast set of tripwires, listening for things of interest. They noticed us, and weak as their outpost was they tried to grab our ship. Only when we were getting away did they advertise us. One way or another, they didn't want us to get away." He jerked a hand at the ultratrace window. "If I read that right, we've got more than five hundred ships on our tail."

Note

!V June 9, 1991 INCON numbers are far larger than the Aprahanti  
!V   fleetlet that was at RIP (20, you said back then) 
!V June 20, 1991     FIXED

Ravna's eyes flicked to the display and back. Her voice was abstracted, "Yes. That's part of the main Aprahanti fleet and ... "

"There will be lots more, only they won't all be Butterflies."

"... what are you saying then? Why would Skroderiders wish us ill? A conspiracy is senseless. They've never had a nation state, much less an interstellar empire."

Pham nodded. "Just peaceful settlements -- like that shepherd moon -- in polyspecific civilizations all across the Beyond." His voice softened. "No, Rav, the Skroderiders are not the real enemy here ... it's the thing behind them. The Straumli Perversion."

Incredulous silence, but he noticed how tightly Blueshell held his fronds now. That one knew.

"It's the only explanation, Ravna. Greenstalk really was our friend, and loyal. My guess is that only a small minority of the Riders are under the Perversion's control. When Greenstalk fell in with them she was converted too."

"T-that's impossible! This is the Middle of the Beyond, Pham. Greenstalk had courage, stubbornness. No brainwashing could have changed her so quickly." A frightened desperation had come into her eyes. One explanation or another, some terrible thing must be true.

Note

^ V QU Dialog too melodramatic? 
!
!V N&#xc6;H (because it highlights possible contradictions, and telegraphs 
!V too much): 
!V ID maybe back when Greenstalk first brings up the Rider Myth, 
!V she might call it a time of great peace 
!V INCON Given all this, it's a little strange that she remembers with 
!V horror her being owned by the Perversion.... Possible SOLN: On the 
!V other hand, you could use this as all grist for Pham's suspicions

And I'm still here, alive and talking. A datum for godshatter; maybe there was yet a chance! He spoke almost as the understanding hit him. "Greenstalk was loyal, yet she was totally converted in seconds. It wasn't just a perversion of her skrode, or some drug. It was as if both Rider and skrode had been designed from the beginning to respond." He looked across at Blueshell, trying to gauge his reaction to what he would say next. "The Riders have awaited their creator a long time. Their race is very old, far older than anyone except the senescent. They're everywhere, but in small numbers, always practical and peaceful. And somewhere in the beginning -- a few billion years ago -- their precursors were trapped in an evolutionary cul-de-sac. Their creator built the first skrodes, and made the first Riders. Now I think we know the who and the why.

Note

^ V June 20, 1991 IMPER do you use the term "Rider Myth" consistently
^ V   compare here with its introduction and the way you use it in c38

"Yes, yes. I know there have been other upliftings. What's marvelous about this one is how stable it turned out to be. The greater skrodes are 'tradition' Blueshell says, but that's a word I apply to cultures and to much shorter time scales. The greater skrodes of today are identical to ones a billion years ago. And they are devices that can be made anywhere in the Beyond ... yet the design is clearly High Beyond or Transcendent." That had been one of his earliest humiliations about the Beyond. He had looked at the design diagram -- dissections really -- of skrodes. On the outside, the thing was a mechanical device, with moving parts even. And the text claimed that the whole thing would be made with the simplest of factories, scarcely more than what existed in some places in the Slow Zone. And yet the electronics was a seemingly random mass of components, without any trace of hierarchical design or modularity. It worked, and far more efficiently than something designed by human-equivalent minds, but repair and debugging -- of the cyber component -- was out of the question. "No one in the Beyond understands all the potentials of skrodes, much less the adaptations forced on their Riders. Isn't that so, Blueshell?"

The Rider clapped his fronds hard against his central stalk. Again a furious rattling. It was something Pham had never seen before. Rage? Terror? Blueshell's voder voice was distorted with nonlinearities: "You ask? You ask? It's monstrous to ask me to help you in this --" the voice skeetered into high frequencies and he stood mute, his body shivering.

Note

^ V June 20, 1991 "Pham of the Qeng Ho" AWK corn?

Pham of the Qeng Ho felt a stab of shame. The other knew and understood ... and deserved better than this. The Riders must be destroyed, but they should not have to listen to his judging. His hand swept toward the communications cutoff, stopped. No. This is your last chance to observe the Perversion's ... work.

Ravna's glance snapped back and forth between human and Skroderider, and he could tell that she understood. Her face had the same stricken look as when she learned about Sjandra Kei. "You're saying the Perversion made the original skrodes."

Note

!V N&#xc6;H: CHK INCON has Pham (especially) or Rav used the term "Blight" 
!       before?

"And modified the Riders too. It was long ago, and certainly not the same instance of the Perversion that the Straumers created, but...."

The "Blight", that was the other common name for the Perversion, and closer to Old One's view. For all the Perversion's transcendence, its life style was more similar to a disease than anything else. Maybe that had helped to fool Old One. But now Pham could see: the Blight lived in pieces, across extraordinary reaches of time. It hid in archives, waiting for ideal conditions. And it had created helpers for its blooming....

He looked at Ravna, and suddenly realized a little more. "You've had thirty hours to think about this, Rav. You saw the record from my suit. Surely you must have guessed some of this."

Her gaze dropped from his. "A little," she finally said. At least she was no longer denying.

"You know what we have to do," he said softly. Now that he understood what must be done, the godshatter eased its grip. Its will would be done.

"What is that?" said Ravna, as if she didn't know.

"Two things: Post this to the Net."

"Who would believe?" The Net of a Million Lies.

"Enough would. Once they look, most folk will be able to see the truth here ... and take the proper action."

Ravna shook her head. "No," barely audible.

"The Net must be told, Ravna. We've discovered something that could save a thousand worlds. This is the Blight's hidden edge," at least in the Middle and Low Beyond.

She just shook her head again. "But screaming this truth would itself kill billions."

"In honest defense!" He bounced slowly toward the ceiling, pushed himself back toward the deck.

There were tears in her eyes now. "These are exactly the arguments used to kill m-my family, my worlds.... A-and I will not be part of it."

"But the claims are true this time!"

"I've had enough of pogroms, Pham."

Gentle toughness ... and almost unbelievable. "You would make this decision yourself, Rav? We know something that others -- leaders wiser than either of us -- should be free to decide upon. You would keep them from making that choice?"

Note

!V PRB "chin up" overused?
!V    This is the only usage; I think okay

She hesitated, and for an instant Pham thought the civilized rule-follower in her would bring her around. But then her chin came up, "Yes, Pham. I would deny them the choice."

He made a noncommittal noise and drifted back toward the command console. No point in talking to her about what else must be done.

"And Pham, we will not kill Blueshell and Greenstalk."

Note

!V small INCON  he used voice to get console privileges in the first 
!V place 
!V June 9, 1991 Critical issue:

"There's no choice, Rav." His hands played with the touch controls. "Greenstalk was perverted; we have no idea how much of that survived the destruction of her skrode, or how long it will be before Blueshell goes bad. We can't take them along, or let them go free."

Ravna drifted sideways, her eyes fixed on his hands. "B-Be careful who you kill, Pham," she said softly. "As you say, I've had thirty hours to think about my decisions, thirty hours to think about yours."

"So." Pham raised his hands from the controls. Rage (godshatter?) chased briefly through this mind. Ravna, Ravna, Ravna, a voice saying goodbye inside his head. Then all became very cold. He had been so afraid that the Riders had perverted the ship. Instead, this stupid fool had acted for them, voluntarily. He drifted slowly toward her. Almost unthinking, he held his arm and hand at combat ready. "How do you intend to prevent me from doing what has to be done?" But he already guessed.

She didn't back away, even when his hand was centimeters from her throat. Her face held courage and tears. "W-what do you think, Pham? While you were in the surgeon ... I rearranged things. Hurt me, and you will be hurt worse." Her eyes swept the walls behind him. "Kill the Riders, and ... and you will die."

They stared at each other for a long moment, measuring. Maybe there weren't weapons buried in the walls. He probably could kill her before she could defend. But then there were a thousand ways the ship could have been programmed to kill him. And all that would be left would be the Riders ... flying down to the Bottom, to their prize. "So what do we do, then?" He finally said.

"As b-before, we go to rescue Jefri. We go to recover the Countermeasure. I'm willing to put some restrictions on the Riders."

A truce with monsters, mediated by a fool.

He pushed off and sailed around her, back down the axis corridor. Behind him, he heard a sob.

They stayed well clear of each other the next few days. Pham was allowed shallow access to ship controls. He found suicide programs threaded through the application layers. But a strange thing, and reason for chagrin if he had been capable of it: The changes dated from hours after his confrontation with Ravna. She'd had nothing when she stood against him. Thank the Powers, I didn't know. The thought was forgotten almost before he formed it.

So. The charade would proceed right to the end, a continuing game of lie and subterfuge. Grimly, he set himself to winning that game. Fleets behind them, traitors surrounding him. By the Qeng Ho and his own godshatter, the Perversion would lose. The Skroderiders would lose. And for all her courage and goodness, Ravna Bergsndot would lose.