watching him intently—and Rita Liao watching Jau. They would come if they didn’t have their three little ones. And even now, there was a chance. Pham still had four days to persuade them. Xin had been Pilot Manager for Nau’s uncle before the voyage to Arachna. And the latest comm from Balacrea showed the Nau clique was back at the top of the heap.
Pham looked from face to face as he described the plans. Ezr and Qiwi, Trixia and Victory, certainly Jau and Rita:They don’t really thinkthis is a wake. They understand we have a good chance, but they worry forus. “And we’ve been studying Nau’s records and the transmissions that he received—that we’re still receiving from Balacrea. We’ve spoofed them into thinking the Emergents won here. We plan on being able to get in-system before they realize that we aren’t friendly. We understand alot about the internal factions at the top of their society. All together—” All together, it might not be something he should undertake. But Anne was right about Focus, and Anne wanted this more than anything. And afterward, well, there washis great project, and having Anne in on that would be worth all the risks. “All together, we have a chance. It will be a gamble, an adventure. I wanted to call our flagship theWild Goose, but Anne wouldn’t let me.”
“Hah!” said Anne. “I thinkEmergents’ Reward is a much more proper name. After we win,then you can name it theWild Goose !”
The first course of the banquet was already arriving, and Pham didn’t have a chance to answer her back. Instead, he showed the others that you really can tuck a half-liter of wine back into a drinking bulb without creating any smaller droplets. He grinned to himself. Even the other Qeng Ho hadn’t seen that. It was just one of the advantages of being well traveled.
The banquet lasted a number of Ksecs. They had time to talk of many things, to remember where they had been and the friends who had died in making the present day. But the greatest surprise didn’t come until right at the end, when Anne pointed out something that none of the Spiders, not even Victory Lighthill, had guessed at.
Anne had relaxed as the dinner progressed. Pham knew she still was uneasy with groups of people. She couldact almost any role, but inside there was a shyness that didn’t come out except when she was being open. She had learned to trust these people; as long as the conversation stayed clear of what she must do with the Emergency, she could genuinely enjoy herself. And Anne Reynolt still had many things that her friends here needed. More than anyone, she understood the exFocused. Pham listened to her chat with Trixia Bonsol and Victory Lighthill, suggesting ways they might get even more translation services.From the first moment I saw you,you seemed very special. The flaming red hair, the pale, almost pink skin. Such a contrast to his own black hair and smoky complexion. On this side of Human Space, her looks were rare indeed. But then he had learned what was behind those looks, the brains, the courage…. Following her to Balacrea would be worth it even if there were no plans for afterward.
After-dinner drinks were floated around to the humans. The Spider equivalent were little black balls to puncture and suck and spit into elaborate cuspidors.
Pham found himself toasting to the success of each group’s endeavor—and the meeting they had set for two centuries later.
Ezr Vinh leaned around Qiwi to look at him. “And after our remeeting? After you free Balacrea and Frenk? What then? When will you finally tell us about that?”
Anne smiled at Pham. “Yes, tell them about your wild-goose chase.”
“Hmmpf.” Pham wasn’t entirely pretending embarrassment. Except with Anne, he hadn’t talked about this. Maybe it was because the scheme was grandiose even compared with his grandiose scheming of the past. “…Okay. You know why we came to Arachna: the mystery of the OnOff star and the existence of intelligent life here. We spent forty years with Tomas Nau’s boot on our necks, but still we learned amazing things.”
Ezr: “True. In one single place, Humankind has never found so many different kinds of wonderful things.”
“We humans thought we knew what was impossible. Only a few nut cases still wondered otherwise, mainly astronomers watching far enigmas. Well, OnOff was the first of those that we’ve seen close up. And look at what we found: a stellar physics we still don’t properly understand; cavorite, which we understand even less—”
Pham broke off, noticing the look in Qiwi’s eyes. She was remembering something from a nightmare. She looked away, but Pham didn’t continue, and after a moment she spoke very softly. “Tomas Nau used to talk like this. Tomas was an evil man, but—” But evil men, the most dangerous of them, often have sharp ideas. She swallowed, and continued more firmly, “I remember when the Focused ran DNA analysis on the ocean ice we had brought up. The variety—it was greater than a thousand worlds. The analysts thought it was caused by the variety of life niches on Arachna. Tomas… Tomas thought instead that there was so much variety because once, very long ago, Arachna had been a crossroads.”
Ezr took Qiwi’s hand. “Not just Tomas Nau. We’ve all wondered about these things. There’s way too much crystal carbon around—the diamond forams, the rockpile. Somebody’s computers? But the forams are too small, and our L1 mountains are too big… and they’re all just dead stone now.”
From across the table, Jau Xin said, “Maybe not quite. Thereis cavorite.”
Belga Underville rasped something that did not sound impressed; Victory was buzzing laughter. After a moment, Zinmin’s translation came. “So the Distorts of Khelm have a new believer, except that now our world is a junkyard and we Spiders are evolved from the gods’ garbage-vermin. If this is true, where is the rest of the super- empire?”
“I… I don’t know. Remember this was fifty to one hundred million years ago. Maybe they had a war. One of the easiest explanations for your solar system is that it was a war zone, with a sun destroyed, and all planets but one volatilized.” And that one survivor protected by some great magic. “Or maybe the empire grew into something else, or is leaving us to develop at our own pace.” Some of the possibilities sounded very foolish when he said them out loud.
Underville’s eating hands spread in a gesture that Pham recognized as a doubting smile. “You do sound like Khelm! But see, your theory ‘explains’ all sorts of things without helping to do anything, much less providing tests for itself.”
Gonle Fong jabbed at the air with her hand, a Spiderish gesture unconsciously adopted. “So what’s to disagree? ‘Arachna was a place where once all the Failed Dreams were true.’ Fine. It’s a simple, unifying assumption. At the same time, we live in the here and now, a few hundred light-years, a few thousand years. Whatever the explanation, there is a lifetime of profit to be made just playing with what we see on Arachna now!”
Pham nodded politely. “Yes. A good Qeng Ho attitude. But, Gonle—I was born in a civilization of castles and cannon. I’ve lived a long time—not counting coldsleep—and I’ve seen a lot. Since the Dawn Age, we humans have learned a little here, a little there—but mainly we’ve learned of limits. Planetary civilizations rise and fall. At the height they’re wonderful things, but there is so much darkness.” Castles and cannon, and worse. “And even the Qeng Ho—we survive and prosper, but we’ve found limits that we can only edge toward, like lightspeed itself. I broke myself on those limits at Brisgo Gap. When I learned about Focus, I thought it might be the way to end the darkness between civilizations. I was wrong.” He looked into Anne’s eyes. “So I gave up my dream, the dream of my whole life… and then I looked around. Here at Arachna, we’ve finally found something from outside all our limits. It’s a tiny glimpse, shreds and dregs of brightest glory. Gonle, there are planning horizons and there are planning horizons…. Ezr asked me what I was going to do after we bring down the Emergents, after we all meet again. Well, just this: I’m going whence Arachna came.”
Trixia’s translation of his words rattled on a moment longer, and then there was absolute silence all around the table. Ezr sat transfixed. Pham had kept this between himself and Anne; considering all else that was happening, it had been an easy secret to keep. But Ezr Vinh had lived his whole life admiring the Dawn Age and the Failed Dreams, and now he saw how they might yet be attained. The boy stared for a moment, enraptured. Then critical thought came awake again. His words weren’t complaints; he wanted Pham’s plan to succeed, but—
“But what bearing will you take? And—”
“What bearing? That’s the easy question, though we’ll have a couple of centuries to think it over. But look, Humankind has been staring at the stars with high technology for thousands of years. At one time or another, almost every Customer civilization has mounted arrays of hundred-meter mirrors, and undertaken all the other clever ways to snoop on things far away. We see some far enigmas. Here and there across this galaxy we see
