The Children of the Sky

Ravna gave a jerky nod. “And you expect this with the game-level access that Bili gave me today?”

Nevil gave her a smile. It was his first of the conversation, and perhaps more meaningful than all his friendliness of before the coup. “Sorry. That was all he has authority to pass out. I’ve discussed this with Woodcarver. She understands that you are best qualified to exploit what computational powers Oobii possesses. We’ll get you an office like this so you won’t have to waste time on frivolous distractions. We ask for two limitations: Your work should always leave other users with continuity of access. And second, Woodcarver—well frankly, me too—we don’t want you taking control.” He hesitated again. “You have some kind of bureaucratic authority over Oobii, right? Is that called ‘system administration’ on a machine this small?”

Ravna thought a moment. “Sysadmin is the usual term,” she said. And you have no idea what that means, do you, Nevil? Once upon a time, Ravna had been equally ignorant. It was Pham Nuwen and the Skroderider Blueshell who had shown her what a very special, terrible thing it was to command a starship.

“Ah. Well, I want to thank you for staying within the access that Bili gave you this afternoon. It shows that Woodcarver’s worst fears are groundless.” He looked a little embarrassed, another first for this conversation. “Nevertheless, we ask that you transfer that authority now.”

“To you.”

“Yes. That would only make the facts fit the result of the general vote.” When she didn’t reply he said, “It’s for the best, Ravna, and no more than what you accepted at the time of the meeting.”

She thought back to the last minutes of that meeting, right before the vote. She remembered her rage, and even now felt it return. She had turned away from physical force then.

Ravna bowed her head. She would turn away from it now.

Chapter 13

The clear weather moved inland and a new storm front rolled onto the coast. So while the first big snow fell on Newcastle, Johanna and Pilgrim had a chance to lift off from their camp to the southeast. Ravna went to bed late that night, worrying that the two were making a big mistake. The wind across Starship Hill was rising. What if the two arrived and found a blizzard in progress? Much safer to wait things out on the ground, even if far away. Three years earlier, Pilgrim had been stuck in the wilds for five tendays while storms danced across takeoff and landing points with perfect synchronization. This time … well, she knew the two travelers had heard only bits and pieces of what had happened here. She prayed they wouldn’t let their curiosity trump their good judgment.

The worry and the wind kept her awake for several hours. When she finally dozed off … she massively overslept. That had happened much too often since she’d moved to the town house. All her life she’d had convenient external reminder services. Her body’s natural system needed discipline that it had not yet learned.

In this case she was wakened by muffled pounding. She lay for a moment, trying to imagine what that could flag—then suddenly realized someone was banging on her front door. She skittered across the cold floor, out of her bedroom. Through the windows she had a glimpse of darkening overcast, snow piled deep on nearby homes, drowning the street below. The wind had died sometime during her sleep.

Ravna was halfway down the front stairs when the delicate lockbolt finally gave up its defense. The door crashed opened. Frigid air swept in around a figure in a heavy parka. “What damn cheap construction!” That was Johanna’s voice, and as the figure advanced toward the stairs, it pulled back its hood. Yes, it was Johanna.

She advanced through the cloak room, pulling off her parka as she came. A pack of five entered the house behind her. Tines in the arctic winter had deep pelts, but even they wore heavy jackets in cold like this. Nevertheless, Ravna recognized Pilgrim. Two of him were inspecting the shattered lockbolt while two others quietly shut the door. The fifth was keeping an eye on Johanna.

The young woman threw her parka to the floor. “That fucker! That motherless, shit-eating traitor! That—”

From there, Johanna’s criticism became more pointed. There were words Ravna was a little surprised Johanna would know, though maybe in the Straumer dialect they were more mellow than Ravna thought.

At last there came a pause in the verbal hellstorm. “You’re talking about Nevil, are you?”

Johanna glared at her for almost five seconds as she seemed to struggle for speech. Finally, she said, “In case you haven’t guessed, the wedding is off.”

“Why don’t we go upstairs and talk about it?”

They trekked up the wooden stairs, Ravna in the lead, Johanna thumping along behind her. Halfway, Ravna heard her muffled voice say something like, “Sorry about the dirty boots.”

Pilgrim’s voice came from further back: “We’ve talked to Nevil; I’ve had a hearts to hearts chat with Woodcarver.”

Maybe I won’t have to explain everything. Just the most embarrassing parts. “How long have you been back?”

“Five hours,” said Pilgrim. “We took a navigational chance, and it paid off. A mere twelve hours hanging in the air and then the wind died to nothing and the snow stopped, and here we are!”

As they entered the second level, Ravna turned on the glow panels. Johanna teetered at the edge of the carpet, then sagged down to sit with her back against the wall, her butt on the bare wood margin of the room. Pilgrim helped her take off her boots while he walked around the room, apparently admiring the carpet.

“We got only the most scattered fragments on our commset,” he said. “We—”

“You got screwed, Ravna” said Johanna.

Ravna sighed. “I can’t believe I was so naive.”

Johanna shook her head. “You knew I trusted him enough to marry him.”

Pilgrim’s voice was comforting even if his words were not: “Nevil is a big surprise for all of us, a political genius. He accomplished so much with so little effort. And I truly think he—”

Jo interrupted him, “You should have been there, Ravna. He was so full of deeply felt straight talk. He would have lost some teeth if Yngva and Jerkwad hadn’t been close by.” She looked up at Ravna, and her face seemed to crumple. “I love, I loved him, Ravna! I can’t believe Nevil is evil. I think he really b- believes he did the r-right thing.” She leaned forward, sobbing.

•  •  •

Johanna had moved to the room’s long sofa. Now she simply looked exhausted. Pilgrim’s big, scarred one was sitting next to her, his head in her lap. The rest of Pilgrim was lying at the traditional viewing positions on the carpet. “I’ve got to find Jefri,” Jo said. “Jef was so little when we left the High Lab. He was almost as talented as Jerkwad, but he didn’t have any training. I never thought he even liked the place. How could he betray—”

“He’s not the only Denier, Jo,” said Ravna, remembering the angry voices denouncing her.

“Yeah. I never paid attention to the whiners. For that matter, since … since I’ve been on this world, Tines seem much better friends than humans.” Her look got a little distant. “I thought Nevil was bringing me back from that.” She glanced at Pilgrim. “You know, there’s a more surprising idiot than any of us, and that’s Woodcarver. I can see she’d be pissed when Nevil told her about your secret snooping on Flenser, but Powers! , why would she let Nevil lead her around like all the rest?”

A soft chuckle rose from Pilgrim. “Ah, dear Woodcarver. She wouldn’t have been fooled if she weren’t going through a change of life.”

Jo was nodding. “I’ve been worried about her new puppy.”

“Yes. Sht. Keeping Sht was a mistake. Not a big mistake. Woodcarver and her broodkenners are too experienced for that; normally this would only be an inconvenience. Now with little Sht onboard, our co-Queen is a bit more … vindictive than before.” The four of Pilgrim on the carpet had been staring down into the weave of its design. Now they all looked up at Ravna. “I understand why you didn’t tell Woodcarver about your spying on Flenser. But telling Nevil—”

“May be my biggest mistake of all?” said Ravna.

The pack nodded heads. “Nevil’s revelation outraged Woodcarver far more than it would have pre-Sht. She rationalized this to me in some detail. She considers that she is using Nevil.”