'I think so,' he said slowly. 'Cipse is a Navigator. His job is to work out where the Raft should move to.'
Jaen nodded. 'And the reason we have to do that is to get out of the path of the stars falling in from the rim of the Nebula.' She jerked a thumb at the glowing sphere above. 'Like that one. In the Bridge they keep records of approaching stars, so they can move the Raft in plenty of time. I reckon we'll be shifting soon… That's a sight to see, Rees; 1 hope you don't miss it. All the trees tilting in unison, the rush of wind across the deck — and if I get through my appraisal I'll be working on the moving team.'
'Good for you,' he said sourly.
With a sudden seriousness she patted his arm. 'Don't give up hope, miner. You're not off the Raft yet.'
He smiled at her, and they spent the rest of the journey in silence.
The bus reached the edge of the Raft's gravity well. The Rim approached like a knife edge against the sky, and the bus strained to a halt beside a broad stairway. Rees and Jaen joined a queue of passengers before a supply dispenser. An attendant sat sullenly beside the machine, silhouetted against the sky; Rees, staring absently, found him vaguely familiar.
The supply machine was an irregular block as tall as two men. Outlets pierced its broad face, surrounding a simple control panel reminiscent to Rees of the Mole's. On the far side a nozzle like a huge mouth strained outwards at the atmosphere of the Nebula; Rees had learned that the machine's raw material was drawn in by that nozzle from the life-rich air, and it wasn't hard to imagine the machine taking huge breaths through those metal lips.
Jaen murmured in Ms ear: 'Powered by a mini black hole, you know.'
He jumped. 'A what?'
She grinned, 'You don't know? I'll tell you later.'
'You enjoy this, don't you?' he hissed.
Away from the shelter of the flying forest the starlight from above was intense. Rees found sweat droplets trickling into his eyes; he blinked, and found himself staring at the broad neck of the man in front of him. The flesh was studded with coarse black hair and was glistening damp near the collar. The man raised a wide, pug face to the star. 'Damn heat,' he grunted. 'Don't know why we're still sitting underneath the bloody thing. Mith ought to get off his fat arse and do something about it. Eh?' He glared inquisitively at Rees.
Rees smiled back uncertainly. The man gave him a strange look, then turned away.
After uncomfortable minutes the queue cleared, passengers squeezing past them down the stairs with their packets of food, water and other materials. Watched by the sullen attendant, Rees and Jaen stepped up to the machine; Jaen began to tap into the control panel one of the Scientists' registration numbers, and then a complex sequence detailing their requirements. Rees marveled at the way her fingers flew over the keyboard — yet another skill he might never get the chance to learn…
And he became aware that the attendant was grinning at him. The man sat on a tall wooden stool, arms folded; black stripes were stitched into his shabby coverall. 'Well, well,' he said slowly. 'It's the mine rat.'
'Hello, Gover,' Rees said stiffly.
'Still skivvying for those old farts in Science, eh? I'd have thought they'd chuck you into the nozzles by now. All you mine rats are good for…'
Rees found his fists clenching; his biceps bunched almost painfully.
'So you're still the same nasty piece of work, eh, Gover?' Jaen snapped. 'Getting thrown out of Science hasn't helped your character development, then,'
Gover bared yellow teeth. 'I chose to leave. I'm not spending my life with those useless old space-wasters. At least with Infrastructure I'm doing real work. Learning real skills.'
Jaen lodged her fists on her hips. 'Gover, if it wasn't for the Scientists the Raft would have been destroyed generations ago.'
He sniffed, looking bored. 'Sure. You keep believing it.'
'It's the truth.'
'Maybe once. But what about now? Why haven't they moved us out from under that thing in the sky, then?'
Jaen took an angry breath… then hesitated, having no easy answer.
Gover didn't seem interested in his small victory. 'It doesn't matter. Think what you want. The people who really keep this Raft flying — Infrastructure, the woodsmen, the carpenters and metalworkers — we are going to be heard before long. And that will be the start of the long drop for all the
parasites.'
Jaen frowned. 'What's that supposed to mean?'
But Gover had turned away, smiling cynically; and a man behind them growled, 'Come on; move it, you two.'
They returned to the bus clutching pallets of supplies. Bees said, 'What if he's right, Jaen? What if the Scientists, the Officers are — not allowed to work any more?'
She shivered. 'Then it's the end of the Raft. But I know Gover; he's just puffing up his own importance, to make us think he's happy with his move to Infrastructure. He's always been the same.'
Rees frowned. Maybe, he thought.
But Gover had sounded very sure.
A few shifts later Hollerbach asked to see Rees.
Rees paused outside the Chief Scientist's office, drawing deep breaths. He felt as if he were poised on the Rim of the Raft; the next few moments might shape the rest of his life.
Pushing his shoulders back he entered the office.
Hollerbach was bent over paperwork by the light of a globe over his desk. He scowled up at Rees's approach. 'Eh? Who's that? Oh, yes; the miner lad. Come in, come in.' He waved Rees to a chair before the desk; then he rested back in his armchair, bony arms folded behind his head. The light above the desk made the hollows around his eyes seem enormously deep.
'You asked to see me,' Rees said.
'I did, didn't I?' Hollerbach stared frankly at Rees. 'Now then; I hear you've been making yourself useful around the place. You're a hard worker, and that's something all too rare… So thank you for what you've done. But,' he went on gently, 'a supply tree has been loaded and is ready to fly to the Belt. Next shift. What I have to decide is whether you're to be on it or not.'
A thrill coursed through Rees; perhaps he still had a chance to earn a place here. Anticipating some kind of test, he hastily reviewed the fragments of knowledge he had acquired.
Hollerbach got out of his chair and began to walk around the office. 'You know we're overpopulated here,' he said. 'And we have… problems with the supply dispensers, so that's not going to get any easier. On the other hand, now that I've shed that useless article Gover I have a vacancy in the labs. But unless it's really justified I can't make a case for keeping you.'
Rees waited.
Hollerbach frowned. 'You keep your own counsel, don't you, lad? Very well… If you were going to ask me one question, now, before you're shipped out of here — and I guaranteed to answer it as fully as I could — what would it be?'
Rees felt his heart pound. Here was the test, the moment of Rim balancing — but it had come in such an unexpected form. One question! What was the one key that might unlock the secrets against which his mind battered like a skitter against a globe lamp?
The seconds ticked away; Hollerbach regarded him steadily, thin hands steepled before his face.
At last, almost on impulse, Rees asked: 'What's a gee?'
Hollerbach frowned. 'Explain.'
Rees bunched his fists. 'We live in a universe filled with strong, shifting gravity fields. But we have a standard unit of gravitational acceleration… a gee. Why should this be so? And why should it have the particular value it does?'
Hollerbach nodded. 'And what answer would you anticipate?'
'That the gee relates to the place man came from. It must have had a large area over which gravity was stable, with a value of what we call a gee. So that became the standard. There's nowhere in the universe with such a region — not even the Raft, So maybe some huge Raft in the past, that's now broken up—'
