Unnerby.’ Such quaint names for monsters.”
The three climbed out onto an arching spike of stone. A fourth Spider, already on the precarious structure, clambered to its pointed end.
Nau turned from the Spiders’ hall to look at the crowd at Benny’s. They were silent, watching in vast shock. Even Benny Wen’s helpers were motionless, their gaze captured by the images from the Spider world.
“Introductions by the Parliamentary Speaker,” spoke a ziphead voice. “The Parliament will come to order. I have the honor to—” Around the sensible words, Ritser’s spy robot sent back the reality, the hissing clatter, the stabbing gestures with forelegs that ended in rapier points. In truth, these creatures did look like the statues the Qeng Ho had seen at Lands Command. But when they moved it was the chilling grace of predators, some gestures slow, some very very fast. Strangest of all, for all their superior vision, it wasn’t easy to identify their eyes. Across the fluted ridges of the head, there were patches of smooth glassiness, bulbous here and there, with extensions that might be the cool-down points for its thermal infrared vision. The front of the Spider body was a nightmarish eating machine. The razor mandibles and clawlike helper limbs were in constant motion. But the creature’s head was almost immobile on the thorax.
The Speaker left the tip of the stone needle, and General Smith climbed up, negotiating a tricky passage around the other. Smith was silent for a moment, once she reached the point. Her forelegs waved in a little spiral, as if encouraging foolish persons to get close to her maw. Hiss and clatter came from the speaker. On the “translated” image, a legend appeared over her representation:SMILING GENTLY AT THE AUDIENCE.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament.” The voice was strong and beautiful—Trixia Bonsol’s voice. Nau noticed Ezr Vinh’s head jerk slightly at the sound of her. The diag traces on Vinh rose with the usual conflicted intensity.He’ll be usable, just long enough, thought Nau.
“I come here speaking for my King, and with his full authority. I come here hoping I can offer enough to win your trust.”
“Ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament.” Rank on rank, the Elected looked back upon Victory Smith. All their attention was hers, and Hrunkner felt the power of the General’s personality flowing as strongly as ever it had done. “I come here speaking for my King, and with his full authority. I come here hoping I can offer enough to win your trust.
“We are at a point in history where we can destroy all progress that has been made—or we can make good on all the efforts of the past and achieve an unbounded paradise. These two outcomes are the two sides of our one situation. The bright outcome depends on trust for one another.”
There were scattered hoots of derision, the Kindred partisans. Unnerby wondered if all of those had tickets off Southland. Surely they must realize that any lesser payoff would leave them as dead as the country they were betraying, once the bombs started falling.
The General had told him that Pedure was down here herself. I wonder… Unnerby looked in all directions as the General spoke, his gaze most intensely upon the shadows and sergeants-at-arms.There. Pedure was sitting on the proscenium, not a hundred feet from Smith. After all these years, she was more confident than ever.Wait a little longer, dear HonoredPedure. Maybe my General can surprise you.
“I have a proposal. It is simple but it has substance—and it can be put into place very quickly.” She motioned for Tim Downing to pass the data cards to the Speaker’s clerk. “I think you know my position in the force structure of the Accord. Even the most suspicious of you will grant that, while I am here, the Accord must show the restraint it has publicly promised. I am authorized to offer a continuance of this state. You of the Southland Parliament may pick any three persons of the Accord—including myself, including the King himself—for indefinite residence at our embassy here at Southmost.” It was the most primitive peacekeeping strategy, though more generous than ever in the past, since she was offering the choice of hostages to the other side. And more than ever in history, it was practical. The Accord Embassy at Southmost was plenty big enough to house a small city, and with modern communications it would not even cripple the important activities of the hostage. If the Parliament was not totally corrupted, this might stick a bar between the legs of onrushing disaster.
The Elected were silent, even Pedure’s buddies. Shocked? Facing up to the only real options they had? Listening for instructions from their boss?Something was going on. In the shadows behind Smith, Hrunkner could see Pedure talking intensely to an aide.
When Victory Smith’s speech ended, Benny’s parlor rang with applause. There had been stark shock when the speech began, when everyone saw how living Spiders really looked. But the words of the speech had fit the personality of Victory Smith, and that was something most people were familiar with. The rest would take a lot of getting used to, but…
Rita Liao caught Benny’s sleeve as he sailed by with drinks for the ceiling. “You shouldn’t have Qiwi up front all by herself, Benny. She can squeeze in here, and still talk to everyone.”
“Um, okay.” It was the Podmaster who had suggested the front-row solitude, but surely it couldn’t matter when things were going so well. Benny delivered the drinks, listening to the happy speculations with half his attention.
“—between that speech and our meddling, they should be safe as temps at Triland—”
“Hey, we could beon the ground in less than four Msecs! After all these years—”
“Space or ground, who cares? We’ll have the resources to dump the birth bans—”
Yes, the birth bans. Our own, human version of the oophase taboo. MaybeI can finally ask Gonle— Benny’s mind shied away from the thought. It was tempting fate to act too soon. Nevertheless, he suddenly felt happier than he had in a long time. Benny avoided the tables by diving across the central gap, a quick detour in Qiwi’s direction.
She nodded at Rita’s suggestion. “That would be nice.” Her smile was tentative, and her eyes had barely flicked away from the parlor’s display screens. General Smith was climbing down from the speaker’s platform.
“Qiwi! Things are working out just like the Podmaster planned. Everyone wants to congratulate you!”
Qiwi petted the kitten in her arms gently, but with a kind of intense protectiveness. She looked at him and her expression was oddly puzzled. “Yes, it’s all working out.” She rose from the table and followed Benny across the space to Rita’s table.
“I have to talk to him, Corporal.Immediately. “ Rachner drew himself up as he spoke the words, projecting fifteen years of colonelcy into his manner.
And for a moment the young corporal wilted before his glare. Then the oophase cobblie must have noticed the traces of fizz barf on Thract’s maw and the bedraggled state of his uniform. He shrugged, his gaze watchful and closed. “I’m sorry, sir, you’re not on the list.”
Rachner felt his shoulders droop. “Corporal, just ring down to him. Tell him it’s Rachner, and it’s a matter of… of life and death.” And as soon as he said the words, Thract wished he hadn’t asserted this absolute truth. The cobblie stared at him for a second—debating whether to throw him out? Then something like sick pity seemed to rise in his aspect; he opened a comm line and spoke to someone inside.
A minute passed. Two. Rachner paced the visitor holding box. At least it was out of the wind; he’d frozen the tips of two hands just climbing the stairs from Underhill’s helipad. But… an external guard, and a holding box? Somehow, he hadn’t expected such security. Maybe some good had come out of his losing his job. It had wakened the others to the need for protection.
“Rachner, is that you?” The voice that came from the sentry’s comm was frail and querulous. Underhill.
“Yes, sir. Please, I’ve got to talk to you.”
“You—you lookterrible, Colonel. I’m sorry, I—” His voice faded. There was mumbling in the background. Someone said, “The speech went well… plenty of time now.” Then he was back, and sounding much less drifty. “Colonel, I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
FIFTY-THREE
“An excellent speech. It could not have been better if we had scripted it.” In the flat video from theHand,
