The Spheres of Heaven

Liddy was close to screaming now. “It’s because I wouldn’t feel safe if he was on watch, he’d do something stupid. But I feel safe with you. Indigo and I know we can rely on you to do anything that’s needed. Doesn’t that mean he bought you even more than he bought me?”

“The arrogant little bastard.” In his anger Bony brushed off her question. “He talks to you like you’re a moron. He makes you share his bed and he forces his body on you. When I think of you screwing with that mouse-brained idiot—”

“Mind your own business, Bony.” Liddy’s voice turned icy.

“It is my business.”

“Oh, is it? Since when? You think now you own me, instead of Friday Indigo? Well, let me tell you, he owns you a lot worse than he owns me. With me, it’s only an hour or two every few days. I can stand that, I was trained for it. Can you say as much? It’s twenty-four hours a day for you, every day, servant and slave. How do you stand it, Bony Rombelle?”

Any thought of whispering was long gone. Bony was drawing in his breath for another loud exchange when he stopped, frozen. He was facing Liddy, and over her shoulder at one of the ports he saw a faint, pale circle.

He reached forward and placed his hand over her mouth. He dropped his voice back to a whisper. “Don’t move. Don’t make a noise. There’s a Limbic behind you, right outside the ship.”

One of the bubble people was floating high above the sea floor, its round head level with the port. Green globe eyes pressed to the thick transparent plastic.

“I don’t think it can see us.” As Bony placed his mouth next to Liddy’s ear he could smell the faint fragrance of her hair. “There’s just enough glow outside for us to see it, but I doubt it can see much in here. I certainly can’t.”

He felt her breath on his cheek, and she murmured softly, “It was the noise, all the shouting and screaming. My fault.”

“No! Mine, I got carried away. When I think of Friday Indigo—”

“Shh!”

He felt her hand on his mouth, and her body shaking. Was she shivering? No. She was laughing.

As she took her hand away he muttered, “Aren’t you frightened?”

“No. Should I be?”

“I don’t know. With all this.” He made a gesture toward the outside, which he realized she could not see. “Uncertainty is enough to scare most people.”

“Are you scared?”

“I can’t say. This is almost too interesting to let me be frightened at the same time.”

“Well, Friday Indigo isn’t frightened, either. He’s sure you can handle anything that comes along. Do you want me to have less faith in you than he does?”

“He’s a fool and you’re not. He thinks if you have enough money, you can buy safety. He thinks you can buy anything. He thinks he owns you, and any time he wants to stick his—”

Her hand was on his mouth again. “I don’t want to hear what he sticks, and I don’t want to think about where.” He felt rather than saw her move to his side on the padded bench seat. She whispered, “Do we really want to start on Friday Indigo all over again? If we’re going to talk about anybody, shouldn’t it be you and me? But not yet!”

The pale face was still at the port. They waited, now in silence, for whatever might come next. Bony, with Liddy’s body warm against his, felt willing to wait forever. At last there was a stir outside the port, and the round head with its green bubble eyes sank away out of sight. Liddy said in his ear, “What now?”

“You sleep. I keep watch.”

“Would you like to trust me as much as I trust you?”

“Of course I would.”

“Right then.” She slid farther along the bench and pulled Bony down so that his head was pillowed on her lap. “Trust me. You did most of the work today, and you’ve looked exhausted for hours. You need sleep more than I do. I keep watch.”

“I can’t let you do that.”

“Because you own me, right, and you can order me around just like Friday Indigo does?”

“Of course not. But if he gets up and finds me asleep in this position, instead of being on watch—”

“You mean that you don’t own me, but he owns you twenty-four hours a day? Bony, answer me one question. Is anything going to happen before morning?”

“I don’t think so. I’d be very surprised if it does.”

“So lie quiet, and go to sleep. Trust me.”

He ought to sit up and argue, but Liddy was stroking his hair and cheek and he didn’t want that to stop. He decided that he would enjoy a few minutes of relaxation, then switch with her. After that he would watch and she could sleep.

Bony thought of the Limbics in their circle outside the ship. It was odd, but they seemed less ominous now that he had seem them close up. There was a thought you had to resist. Often the most dangerous things looked the most innocuous. It was still a mystery, though: Why had they come? To destroy, to communicate, from sheer curiosity? Maybe an answer would be provided after the long night watch.

* * *

A short time later Liddy moved her position. Bony grunted and opened his eyes.

Impossibly, the cabin was filled with diffuse sunlight streaming in through the ports. He turned his head to ask Liddy what had happened, and found that a cushion had replaced her lap.

He sat up. Liddy was over at the other side of the cabin. She heard his movement and turned.

“Sleep well?”

“Great. But you were awake all night.”

“Don’t kid yourself. I lack your sense of dedication. I woke up just a couple of minutes ago when I heard knocking on the hull.”

“The Limbics?”

“That seems a reasonable assumption.” Liddy was standing by one of the ports. “I was going to rouse you and Indigo in two more seconds if you hadn’t woken by yourselves. Come look at something.”

Bony moved to her side, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“They must be early risers,” she said. “They were all up and about, and they noticed me as soon as I went to the port. I’d like to know if you have my reaction. What do you think they’re doing?”

Bony stared out of the port. Down on the seabed the Limbics had moved from their guarding circle. Now they stood in a group. Forty or more bubble arms waved in unison in the quiet water.

Bony took a deep breath. He waited one more moment to make sure, but there was really no doubt.

“They’re signaling,” he said. “Those waves of their arms mean, Come outside. We want to meet you. ”

12: RECRUITING TULLY O’TOOLE

She knew something she was not willing to admit. Chan, walking the darkened tunnels beneath Mount Ararat at Deb’s side, kept glancing at her profile. A mirthless half-smile was on her lips. He could not see her eyes, hidden within the depths of the black hood, but whenever she turned her head his way her forehead was furrowed and her eyebrows lowered to a frown.

He wondered what surprises lay within the cloak. It was sure to be packed with hidden pockets and secret sewn-in compartments. Chan had been around Weapons-master Deb Bisson long enough to be ready for anything that popped out from the cloak’s inner recesses. He had seen tiny mutated snakes, smaller than a finger, spring from a cloak pocket on command and kill with a single drop of neurotoxic venom delivered from minute fangs. He had watched a thief, tracked by blue-green borer beetles released from a vial in the cloak and tuned to pheromones