A Deepness in the Sky Part 22

By leaning hands and forelegs on the wall, Viki and Gokna could keep their main eyes against the gla.s.s. It was an awkward pose, and the two skittered back and forth along the base of the window.

"Thank you, Master Digby. The Radio of Princeton secures itself proud by-" blah blah blah.

"She talks funny," said Gokna.

"I already told you that. She's a foreigner." Didire spoke abstractedly. She was busy with some arcane adjustment of her equipment. She didn't seem to be paying much attention to what was actually being said on the soundstage. Brent was watching the show with stolid fascination, while Jirlib alternated between the window and standing as close as he could to Didi. He was well cured of giving her technical advice, but he still liked to stand close. Sometimes he would ask an appropriately naive question. When Didi wasn't busy, that usually got her talking to him.

Gokna grinned at Viki. "No. I meant 'Honored Pedure' talks like a bad joke."

"Hm." Viki wasn't so sure. Pedure's clothing was strange, of course. She hadn't seen cleric shawls outside of books. It was a shapeless cloak that came down on every side, obscuring all but Pedure's head and maw. But she had an impression of strength under cover. Viki knew what most people thought of children such as herself. Pedure was just a full-time advocate of that view, right? But her speech had a certain menace.. . ."Do you think she really believes what she's saying?"

"Sure she believes it. That's what makes her so funny. See how Daddy's smiling?" Sherkaner Underhill was perched on the other side of the sound-stage, quietly petting his babies. He hadn't said a word yet, but there was a faint smile twitching across him. Two pairs of baby eyes peered fearfully out from his fur. Rhapsa and Hrunk couldn't understand everything that was going on, but they looked frightened.

Gokna noticed, too. "Poor babies. They're the only ones she can scare. Watch! I'm gonna Give Ten to the Honored Pedure." She turned away from the window and ran to the side wall-and then up the rack of audio tapes. The girls were seven years old, much too big for acrobatics. Oops. Oops. The rack was freestanding. It swayed out from the wall, tapes and a.s.sorted junk sliding to the edge of each shelf. Gokna reached the top before anyone but Viki realized what was happening. And from there she leaped out, grabbing the top molding of the soundstage window. The rest of her body swung down against the gla.s.s with a solid The rack was freestanding. It swayed out from the wall, tapes and a.s.sorted junk sliding to the edge of each shelf. Gokna reached the top before anyone but Viki realized what was happening. And from there she leaped out, grabbing the top molding of the soundstage window. The rest of her body swung down against the gla.s.s with a solid splat splat sound. For an instant, she was a perfect Ten splayed out across the window. On the far side of the gla.s.s, Pedure stared in stupefied shock. The two girls shrieked with laughter. It wasn't often you could give such a perfect Ten, flaring your underwear in the target's face. sound. For an instant, she was a perfect Ten splayed out across the window. On the far side of the gla.s.s, Pedure stared in stupefied shock. The two girls shrieked with laughter. It wasn't often you could give such a perfect Ten, flaring your underwear in the target's face.

"Quit it!"Didi's voice was a flat hiss. Her hands flickered across the controls. "This is the last time you little c.r.a.ppers get into my control room! Jirlib, get over there! Shut your sisters down or drag them out, but no more c.r.a.pping nonsense."

"Yes, yes! I'm so sorry." Jirlib really did sound sorry. He rushed over and plucked Gokna from the gla.s.s wall. A second later Brent followed him, grabbing Victory.

Jirlib didn't seem angry, just upset. He held Gokna very close to his head. "You must be quiet. For once you must be serious." It occurred to Viki that maybe he was just upset because Didi was so angry with him. But it really didn't matter. All the laughter had leaked out of Gokna. She touched an eating hand to her brother's maw, and said softly, "Yes. I'll be good for the rest of the show. I promise."

Behind them, Viki could see Didi talking-probably to the phone in Digby's ear. Viki couldn't hear the words, but the guy was nodding agreement. He had eased Pedure back to her seat, and now segued into his introduction of Daddy. All the action on this side of the gla.s.s had accounted for virtually nothing out there. Someday she and Gokna were going to get themselves into real trouble, but it looked like that adventure was still somewhere in the future.

Xopi sat down amid general confusion. Usually the zipheads tried to keep these shows in approximate real time. Silipan claimed that was only partly his specification-the ziphead translators really liked to stay in synch with the word stream. In some sense, they really did like to act. Today they just weren't very successful at it.

Finally, Broute got himself together and gave a relatively smooth introduction to Sherkaner Underhill.

Sherkaner Underhill. Trixia Bonsol translated him. Who else could it have been? Trixia had been the first to crack the spoken language of the Spiders. Jau had told Ezr that in the early days of the live show, she had handled all the parts, children's voices, old people, phone-in questions. After other zipheads acquired fluency and there was a consensus of style, still Trixia had taken the hard parts.

Sherkaner Underhill: That might be the first Spider they ever had a name for. Underhill showed up in an incredible range of radio broadcasts. At first, it seemed that he had invented two-thirds of the industrial revolution. That misconception had faded: "Underhill" was a common name, and where this "Sherkaner Underhill" was referenced, it was always one of his students who actually did the work. So the guy must be a bureaucrat, the founder of the Princeton Inst.i.tute, where most of his students seemed to be. But ever since the Spiders invented microwave relays, the snoopersats had been sucking on an increasing stream of easily decrypted national secrets. The "Sherkaner Underhill" ID showed up on almost twenty percent of all the high-security traffic that flowed across the Goknan Accord. Clearly, they were dealing with some kind of inst.i.tutional name. Clearly. . . until they learned that "Sherkaner Underhill" had children, and they were on this radio show. Even though they hadn't figured it all out, there was some real political significance to "The Children's Hour." No doubt, Tomas Nau was watching this show over on Hammerfest. I wonder if Qiwiis with him. I wonder if Qiwiis with him.

Trixia spoke: "Thank you, Master Digby. I am very happy to be here this afternoon. It's time there be an open discussion of these issues. In fact, I hope that young people-both in-phase and out-of-phase-are listening. I know my children are."

The look Trixia sent Xopi's way was relaxed and confident. Yet there was a faint tremor in her voice. Ezr stared at her face. How old was Trixia now? The full ziphead Watch schedules were cla.s.sified-probably because so many were being run at one hundred percent. It should take a lifetime to learn all Trixia had learned. At least after the early years, every Watch he stood, there she was. She looked ten years older than the Trixia before Focus. And when she played Underhill, she seemed even older.

Trixia was still talking: "But I want to correct one thing that Lady Pedure said. There was no secret plot to keep the age of these children a secret. My two oldest-they're fourteen, now-have been on the show for some time. It's quite natural that they should partic.i.p.ate, and from the letters they got, I know that they were very popular with both current-generation children and their parents."

Xopi looked down the table at Trixia: "And of course, that is simply because they kept quiet their true age. On the radio, you can't tell such small a difference. On the radio, some. . .obscenities. . .go unnoticed."

Trixia laughed. "Indeed they do. But I want our listeners to think on this. Most of them are fond of Jirlib and Brent and Gokna and Viki. Meeting my children 'blind' on the radio showed our listeners a truth they might have missed otherwise: the oophase are as decent as anyone else. But again, I hid nothing. Eventually. . .well, eventually the facts of the matter were so obvious that no one could ignore them."

"So blatant, you mean. Your second clutch of oophases is scarce seven years old. That That obscenity even radio can not disguise. And when we met here in the studio, I see you have two obscenity even radio can not disguise. And when we met here in the studio, I see you have two newborns newborns suckling in your fur. Tell me, sir, is there any limit to how much evil you will do?" suckling in your fur. Tell me, sir, is there any limit to how much evil you will do?"

"Lady Pedure, what evil, what harm? Our audience has listened to one or another of my children for more than two years. They know Jirlib and Brent and Viki and Gokna as real and likable people. You see Little Hrunk and Rhapsa looking at you from my shoulders-" Trixia paused as if to give the other time for a look. "I know it pains you to see babies so far from the Waning Years. But in a year or two they will be old enough to talk, and I fully intend to have 'The Children's Hour' include all the ages of my children. From program to program, our audience will see that these little cobblies are just as worthy as ones born at the end of the Waning Years."

"Absurdity! Your scheme only wins if you sneak up on decent people a small step at a time, getting them to accept this waiver of morality and then that, until . . ."

"Until what?" Trixia asked, smiling benignly.

"Until-until-" Behind her semiclear huds, Ezr could see that Xopi was staring wildly. "Until decent people will kiss upon those ill-timed maggots you carry on your back!" She was out of her chair, waving her arms in Trixia's direction.

Trixia was still smiling. "In a word, my dear Pedure, 'Yes.' Even you see that there can be acceptance. But out-of-phase children are not maggots. They do not need a First Darkness to give them their souls. They are creatures who can become lovable Spiders in their own right. As the years pa.s.s, 'The Children's Hour' will make this obvious to everyone, perhaps even to you."

Xopi sat down. She looked very much like a debater who has been bested and is casting about for some different line of attack. "I see appeal to decency has no strength with you, Master Underhill. And there may be weak people in the audience who move to perversion by your gradual approach. Everyone has immoral inclinations, in that we agree. But we also have quite moral ones, innate. Tradition guides us between the two. . .but I can see that tradition has small weight with such as you. You are a scientist, not so?"

"Hm, yes."

"And one of the four Darkstriders?"

". . .Yes."

"Our audience may not realize so distinguished a person lurks behind 'The Children's Hour.' You are one of four who has actually seen the Deepest Dark. Nothing holds mystery for you." Trixia started to respond, but Xopi as Pedure rolled right over her words. "I daresay this explains much of your flaw. You are blind about the striving of previous generations, the slow learning of what is deadly and what is safe in Spiderly affairs. There are reasons for moral law, sir! Without moral law, diligent h.o.a.rders will be robbed by the indolent at the end of the Waning Years. Without moral law, innocents in their deepnesses will be ma.s.sacred by the first-getting-awake. We all want many things, but some of those are bottomly destructive of all desires."

"This last is true, Lady Pedure. What is your point?"

"The point is that there are reasons reasons for rules, in especial for the rules against oophaseness. As a Darkstrider you make trivial of things, but even you must know the Dark is the great cleanser. I've listened to your children. Today before air time, I watched them in the engineer's control room. There is a scandal within your secret, but not surprising. At least one of your children-the one named Brent?-is a cretin, is he not?" for rules, in especial for the rules against oophaseness. As a Darkstrider you make trivial of things, but even you must know the Dark is the great cleanser. I've listened to your children. Today before air time, I watched them in the engineer's control room. There is a scandal within your secret, but not surprising. At least one of your children-the one named Brent?-is a cretin, is he not?"

Xopi stopped talking, but Trixia didn't respond. Her gaze was steady; she wasn't scrambling to keep up with the intermediate-layer data reps. And suddenly, Ezr felt the strangest change in perspective, like a change in imagined-down, but enormously more intense. It wasn't caused by the translators' words or even the emotion in their words. It was the. . .silence. For the first time, Ezr knew a Spider as a person, a person who could be hurt.

The silence stretched on for several more seconds. "Ha," said Silipan. "That's pretty good confirmation on a lot of guesses. The Spiders breed in large clutches, and then Mother Nature kills off the weak ones during the Dark. Slick."

Liao grimaced. "Yeah, I guess." Her hand reached to her husband's shoulder.

Zinmin Broute abruptly broke the silence. "Master Underhill, are you going to reply to the Honored Pedure's question?"

"Yes." The quaver in Trixia's voice was more p.r.o.nounced than before. "Brent is no cretin. He's not verbal and he learns differently than other children." Her voice picked up enthusiasm, and there was a shadow of a smile. "Intelligence is such a remarkable thing. In Brent I see-"

Xopi cut her off. "-In Brent I I see the cla.s.sical birth wreck of the oophase child. My friends, I know the strength of the Church suffers now in this generation. There is so much change, and the old ways are so much thought tyrannical. In previous times, a child such as Brent could only happen in backwoods townships, where barbarism and perversion have always been. In previous times, such was easy to explain: 'The parents evaded the Dark, like not even animals would do. They brought poor Brent into the world to live some years of crippled life, and rightly should they be loathed for their cruelty.' But in our times, it is an intellectual such as Underhill"-a nod in the direction of Trixia-"who makes this sin. He makes you laugh upon tradition, and I must fight him with his own reasons. Look upon this child, Master Underhill. How many more have you borne like him?" see the cla.s.sical birth wreck of the oophase child. My friends, I know the strength of the Church suffers now in this generation. There is so much change, and the old ways are so much thought tyrannical. In previous times, a child such as Brent could only happen in backwoods townships, where barbarism and perversion have always been. In previous times, such was easy to explain: 'The parents evaded the Dark, like not even animals would do. They brought poor Brent into the world to live some years of crippled life, and rightly should they be loathed for their cruelty.' But in our times, it is an intellectual such as Underhill"-a nod in the direction of Trixia-"who makes this sin. He makes you laugh upon tradition, and I must fight him with his own reasons. Look upon this child, Master Underhill. How many more have you borne like him?"

Trixia: "All my cobblies-"

"Ah, yes. No doubt there have been other failures. You have six that we know of. How many more are there? Do you kill the clear failures? If the world follows your perversion, civilization will die before even the next Dark comes, smothered in hordes of ill-conceived and crippled cobblies." Pedure went on in this vein at some length. In fact, her complaints were very concrete: birth deformities, overpopulation, forced killings, riots in deepnesses at the beginning of the Dark-all would follow if there were a popular move toward out-of-phase births. Xopi rattled on until she was visibly out of breath.

Broute turned to Trixia as Underhill: "And your reply?"

Trixia: "Ah, it is nice to be able to reply." Trixia was smiling again, her tone almost as light as at the beginning of the program. If Underhill had been unhinged by the attack on his son, maybe Pedure's long speech had given him time to recover. "First, all my children are living. There are only six. That should not be surprising. It's hard to conceive children out-of-phase. I'm sure everyone knows this. It is also very hard to nurture the out-of-phase baby welts long enough for them to grow eyes. Nature does indeed prefer that cobblies be created right before the Dark."

Xopi leaned forward, speaking loudly. "Take careful note, friends! Underhill just now admits that he commits crime against nature!"

"Not at all. Evolution has caused us to survive and thrive within Nature. But times change-"

Xopi sounded sarcastic: "So times change? Science made you a Darkstrider, and now you are greater than Nature?"

Trixia laughed. "Oh, I'm still very much a part of Nature. But even before technology-did you know that ten million years ago, the length of the sun's cycle was less than one year?"

"Fantasy. How could creatures live-"

"How indeed?" Trixia was smiling more broadly, and her tone was one of triumph. "But the record of fossil edgings is very clear. Ten million years ago, the cycle was much shorter and the variation in brightness much less intense. There was no need for deepnesses and hibernation. As the cycle of light and dark became longer and more extreme, all surviving creatures adapted. I imagine it was a harsh process. Many great changes were necessary. And now-"

Xopi made a cutting gesture. Did she make those up or were they somehow implied by the Spider broadcast? "If not fantasy, it's still not proved. Sir, I will not argue evolution with you. There are decent people who believe it, but it is speculation-no basis for death-and-life decisions."

" Ha! Ha!Point for Daddy!" From their perches atop Brent and Jirlib, the two girls exchanged quiet editorial comments. Where Didire couldn't see, they were also making maw-gestures at the Honored Pedure. After that first Ten, there had been no obvious reaction, but it felt good to show the cobber how they felt about her.

"Don't worry, Brent. Daddy's going to get this Pedure."

Brent had been even more quiet than usual. "I knew this was going to happen. Things were hard enough. Now Dad has to explain about me, too."

In fact, Daddy had almost lost it when Pedure called Brent a cretin. Viki had never seen him look quite so lost. But he was taking back lost ground now. Viki had thought Pedure would be a know-nothing, but she seemed familiar with some of what Daddy was throwing at her. It didn't matter. Honored Pedure wasn't that knowledgeable; besides, Daddy was right. right.

And he was on a real pounce now: "Strange that tradition should not show more interest in the earliest past, Lady Pedure. But no matter. The changes that science is making in this current generation will be so great that I might better use them to ill.u.s.trate. Nature enforced certain strategies-and the cycle of generations is one of them, I agree. Without that enforcement, we likely would not exist. But think of the waste, my lady. All our children are in one stage of life in each year. Once past that stage, the tools of their schooling must lie idle until the next generation. There is no need for such waste anymore. With science-"

Honored Pedure gave a whistling laugh, full of sarcasm and surprise. "So you admit it there! You plot that oophase be a way of life, not your isolated sin."

"Of course!" Daddy bounced up. "I want people to know that we live in an era that is different. I want people to be free to have children in every season of the sun."

"Yes. You intend to invade the rest of us. Tell me, Underhill, do you already have secret schools for the oophase? Are there hundreds or thousands like your six, just waiting for our acceptance?"

"Uh, no. So far we have not found playmates for my children."

Over the years, all of them had wanted playmates. Mother had searched for them, so far without success. Gokna and Viki had concluded that other oophases must be very well hidden. . .or very rare. Sometimes, Viki wondered if maybe they really were d.a.m.ned; it was so hard to find any others.

Honored Pedure leaned back on her perch, smiling in an almost friendly way. "That last is comfort to me, Master Underhill. Even in our times, most folk are decent, and your perversions are rare. Nevertheless, 'The Children's Hour' continues to be popular, even though the in-phase are now more than twenty years old. Your show is a lure that didn't exist beforetimes. And our view exchange is therefore terribly important."

"Yes, indeed. I think so, too."

Honored Pedure c.o.c.ked her head. What rotten luck. The cobber realized that Daddy meant it. If she got Daddy to speculating. . .things could be very sticky. Pedure's next question was spoken in a casual tone of honest curiosity. "It seems to me, Master Underhill, that you understand moral law. Do you consider it, maybe, to be something like the law of creative art-to be broken by the greatest thinkers, such as yourself?"

"Greatest thinkers, fooey." But the question had clearly caught Daddy's imagination, drawing him away from persuasive rhetoric. "You know, Pedure, I never looked at moral rules like that before. What an interesting idea! You suggest that they could be ignored by those who have some innate-what? Talent for goodness? Surely not.. . .Though I confess to being an illiterate when it comes to moral argument. I like to play and I like to think. The Darkstriding was a great lark, as much as it was important to the war effort. Science will create wonderful change in the near future of Spiderkind. I'm having enormous fun with these things, and I want the public-including those who are are experts at moral thought-to understand the consequences of the change." experts at moral thought-to understand the consequences of the change."

Honored Pedure said, "Indeed." The sarcasm was there only if you were listening as suspiciously as Little Victory was. "And you intend somehow for science to replace the Dark as the great cleanser and the great mystery?"

Daddy made dismissing gestures with his eating hands. He seemed to have forgotten that he was on the radio. "Science will make the Dark of the Sun as innocuous and knowable as the night that comes at the end of every day."

In the control room, Didi gave a little yip of surprise. It was the first time Viki had ever heard the engineer react to the broadcasts she was supervising. Out on the soundstage, Rappaport Digby sat up as straight as if someone had stuck a spear up his rear. Daddy didn't seem to notice, and Honored Pedure's response was as casual as if they were discussing the possibility of rain: "We'll live and work right through the Dark as if it was just one long night?"

"Yes! What do you think all the talk of nuclear power means?"

"So then we all will be Darkstriders, and there will be no Dark, no mystery, no Deepness for the mind of Spiderkind to rest within. Science will take all."

"Piffle. On this one small world, there will be no more real darkness. But there will always be the Dark. Go out tonight, Lady Pedure. Look up. We are surrounded by the Dark and always will be. And just as our Dark ends with the pa.s.sage of time in a New Sun, so the greater Dark ends at the sh.o.r.es of a million million stars. Think! If our sun's cycle was once less than a year, then even earlier our sun might have been middling bright all the time. I have students who are sure most of the stars are just like our sun, only much much younger, and many with worlds like ours. You want a deepness that endures, a deepness that Spiderkind can depend on? Pedure, there is a deepness in the sky, and it extends forever." And Daddy was off on his s.p.a.ce-travel thing. Even graduate students glazed over when Daddy started on this; only a hard core of crazies specialized in astronomy. It was all so upside down and inside out. For most people, the idea that lights as steady as stars could be like the sun was a leap of faith greater than most religions asked for.

Digby and Honored Pedure watched open-mawed as Daddy built the theory up in more and more elaboration. Digby had always liked the science part of the show, and this had him all but hypnotized. Pedure on the other hand. . .her shock faded quickly. Either she had heard this before, or it was tending away from the path she wanted to follow.

The clock on the control-room wall was ticking down toward the orgy of commercial messages that always ended the show. It looked like Daddy was going to get the last word. . .except that Viki was sure Honored Pedure was watching that clock more intensely than anything in the studio, waiting for some precisely chosen strategic instant.

And then the cleric grabbed her mike close, and spoke loudly enough to break into Sherkaner's flow of thought. "So interesting, but colonizing the s.p.a.ce between the stars is surely beyond the time of this current generation."

Daddy waved dismissively. "Perhaps yes, but-"

Honored Pedure continued, her voice academic and interested, "So the great change during our time is simply the conquest of the next coming Dark, that which ends this cycle of the sun?"

"Correct. We-all who hear this radio broadcast-will have no need of deepnesses. That is the promise of nuclear power. All the great cities will have sufficient power to stay warm for more than two centuries-all the way through the upcoming Dark. So-"

"I see, and so very large building projects must happen to enclose the cities?"

"Yes, and farms. And we'll need to provide-"

"And this then is also the reason you want an added generation of adults. This is why you push oophase births."

"Oh, not directly. It is simply a feature of the new situ-"

"So the Goknan Accord will enter the coming Dark in fact with hundreds of millions of Darkstriders. What of the rest of the world?"

Daddy seemed to realize that he was headed for trouble. "Um, but other technologically advanced countries may do the same. The poorer countries will have their conventional deepnesses, and their awakening will come later."

Now Pedure's voice had steel in it, a trap that was finally sprung: " 'Their awakening will come later.' During the Great War, four Darkstriders brought down the most powerful nation of the world. In the next Dark, you will be Darkstriders by the millions. This seems not different from a preparation for the greatest deepness ma.s.sacres in history."

"No, it's not like that at all. We wouldn't-"

"I'm sorry, lady and sir, our time has run out."

"But-"

Digby rumbled on over Daddy's objections. "I'd like to thank you both for being with us today and-" blah blah blah.

On the soundstage, Pedure stood up the moment Digby finished his spiel. The microphones were off now and Viki couldn't hear the words. The cleric was evidently exchanging pleasantries with the announcer. On the other side of the stage, Daddy looked very nonplussed. As Honored Pedure swept past him, Daddy stood and followed her offstage, talking animatedly. Pedure's only expression was a haughty little smile.

Behind Viki, Didi Ultmot was pushing levers, tuning the most important part of the broadcast, the commercials. Finally, she turned away from the controls. There was something a little dazed about her aspect. ". . .You know, your dad has some really. . .weird. . .ideas."

There was a sequence of chords that might have been music, and the words, "Sharpened hands are happy hands. Brim the tinfall with mirthly bands-"

Spider commercials were sometimes the high point of Princeton Radio programs. Molt refresh, eye polish, leggings-many of the products made some sense, even if the selling points did not. Other products were just nonsense words, especially if it was a previously unknown product, and second-string translators.

Today, it was the second-stringers. Reung, Broute, and Trixia sat fidgeting, cut off from the signal stream. Their handlers were already moving in to clear them from the stage. Today the crowd in Benny's parlor pretty much ignored the commercials, too: "Not as much fun as when the kids are on, but-"

"Did you get the angle on s.p.a.ceflight? I wonder what this does to the Schedule? If-"