Hellspark. Part 26

When Megeve made no answer, Maggy said, "Buntec?"

"C'mon, kid," Buntec said, "let's get you out of here. He's what my momma would have called a bad influence. And Tocohl wouldn't like you hangin' around him. Neither of us should be hangin' around 'im." She started for the door, clearly expecting the arachne to follow.

"Bad influence?"

"Somebody you shouldn't imitate if you want to grow up to be a human being."

Maggy was not sure that applied to her, but since Buntec seemed to mean it sincerely, she decided to go along with it, and with Buntec-at least until she had a chance to talk the matter over with Tocohl.

She sent the arachne trotting after Buntec.

Once outside, she found the two of them momentarily alone. Rain still battered the arachne; she did not, however, expend the energy needed to compensate for the distortion it caused the arachne's eye.

Instead she sent the arachne at full speed after Buntec. "Buntec, wait!"

Buntec splashed to a halt in mid-puddle. Hands sheltering her eyes and face, she bent to the arachne.

"Buntec, I don't understand. And it's secret so I can't ask anywhere else. I'm not a kid, I'm an extrapolative computer, and I don't understand why Tocohl wouldn't want me 'hangin' around 'im.'"

"You may be a computer, kid, but that"-a sharp jerk of her elbow toward the storeroom made Megeve the referent-"that is a villain, and n.o.body's momma wants her kid hangin' around villains. You got it now?"

"Yes," said Maggy, for that one word, villain, explained it all. "I've got it now. Thank you!"

"You're welcome-now let's get the h.e.l.l out of the rain before we both get zapped."

Chapter Fourteen.

MAGGY HAD MUCH to think over-so much, in fact, that she spent most of the night swapping data from active files to inactive and back again, cross-referencing wherever she saw the need. She regretted that not all of her memory could be active simultaneously. Still, she supposed this to be what Tocohl called "concentrating on one thing at a time." If it didn't hurt Tocohl's thinking, Maggy saw no reason it should hurt hers.

Even in the infirmary the sound of thunder could be startlingly loud. Alfvaen had awakened to it twice; each time, layli-layli called on Maggy to interpret. Maggy did the best she could but Alfvaen still made little sense. As layli-layli did not seem disturbed by this, Maggy was content to wait and watch through the arachne at her side. Swift-Kalat did the same, although Maggy would hardly have described him as content.

Tocohl slept on, stirring only slightly at the sound of thunder. Maggy kept an active watch on the 2nd skin sensors. The normalcy of the readings rea.s.sured her, as did the fact that Buntec and Om im took turns guarding the infirmary throughout the night.

Morning came but the sky remained a dark patchwork of clouds, st.i.tched with flashes of lightning.

Despite all the questions, cued and waiting to be asked, Maggy did not wake Tocohl at the customary time. Rest, layli-layli had a.s.sured her, was what Tocohl needed most to heal. As long as there were no sprookjes in the camp, there was little for Tocohl to do but heal.

Still, questions were the next highest priority. Maggy sent the arachne across the room to peer up at Om im. "Will you tell me what I missed?" she asked, phrasing the question as Tocohl would have. Om im gave a sidelong glance at the sleeping Tocohl. Maggy said, "If the thunder doesn't wake her, we're not likely to."

"True," he said. He reached down and lifted the arachne to place it on the edge of Tocohl's cot, thecamera eye at a level with his own. "Where shall I start?"

"Where the daisy-clipper went down," Maggy said and settled the arachne to record it all. The account was far more interesting than Maggy had expected: not only did it differ in detail from Buntec's account of the same circ.u.mstances, but it differed in style of delivery as well. Om im's words were gentler, his gestures more extravagant-as if to compensate for the softness of his voice.

From time to time Tocohl stirred. Maggy's readings showed her close to consciousness-then, as if soothed by the sound of their voices, she would drift back into sleep. Layli-layli calulan woke to find Om im describing the duel between Alfvaen and Tocohl. To Maggy's surprise, she did not interrupt.

Without a word, she joined them-to the proper side of Om im-and lightly touched first Tocohl's rib, then her temples. What she found seemed to satisfy her, for she smiled and said only, "Good morning,"

before she moved on to check Alfvaen.

Maggy was glad layli-layli had not felt it necessary to interrupt. Maggy was disappointed that she had not seen the duel between Tocohl and Alfvaen for herself, but Om im's account was considerably better than Buntec's. Trained in a different form of dueling, he was a better observer of both the movements and formalities involved.

He was in the midst of demonstrating those movements for her when van Zoveel burst into the infirmary, flinging droplets of water from the end of every ribbon on his tunic. As if it had been a planned part of the demonstration, Om im crossed to intercept him.

Not, Maggy was sure, that he thought van Zoveel any threat to Tocohl; he simply did not want van Zoveel to wake her. Enhanced sound confirmed this. Keeping his voice very low, Om im said, "Not yet, Ruurd. Layli-layli calulan says she needs the sleep."

Van Zoveel fairly stamped with impatience but he too kept his voice low. "You don't understand," he said, "Captain Kejesli said she had gotten Megeve's sprookje to echo her. I must know how. There's a clue that I'm missing."

"You'll learn soon enough," layli-layli calulan said, joining the two. "Give her a few more hours of healing."

"I don't need her for heavy lifting, layli-layli. I need her for talking."

"Not now," said layli-layli calulan.

"I waited all night..."

"Then you've had practice. You can wait out the storm. I won't have her disturbed until there's a reason for it, and she can hardly demonstrate without a sprookje to echo her."

Glaring, van Zoveel started once more toward Tocohl but Om im spread his hands in the Bluesippan shrug, discreetly cutting off his approach. "We'll both have to wait for our answers," said Om im.

"You will wait elsewhere," layli-layli told van Zoveel. Maggy watched as the two of them glared at each other for a long moment, then van Zoveel gave way, and stamped back to the door. "If she wakes..." he began.

"If she wakes, she'll have breakfast," layli-layli calulan told him, "and then I'll notify you."

Van Zoveel muttered a word under his breath that Maggy had been taught was impolite to say aloud in Zoveelian society, but he left nonetheless. Neither of the others took offense; clearly they did not recognize that any had been given. Maggy wondered if she should explain it to them but decided against it. All but a handful of times that Tocohl had been in an a.n.a.logous situation, Tocohl had said nothing.

Maggy settled on adding that query to her growing list.

She wanted Tocohl awake as much as van Zoveel did, she found. Experimentally, she rocked the arachne from side to side, imitating to the best of its ability his impatient stamp, to see if that had any effect on the matter. It did nothing to help, except obliquely-for Tocohl came awake.

"Your pardon, Tocohl. I did not mean to wake you. I was only experimenting."

Tocohl blinked puzzled eyes at the arachne. "Experimenting at what?"

Showing her the bit of tape of van Zoveel, Maggy explained. By the time she was done, both Om im and layli-layli calulan had joined them and were watching the arachne with thoughtful looks. "It doesn't do anything," Maggy concluded, "I guess that means it's a null gesture?"

With a glance at layli-layli calulan, who smiled in return, Tocohl corrected, "I'd say it worked,Maggy. That's an unconscious attention-getting device. You used it correctly, and for you, it worked.

You have my attention."

"But I didn't mean to wake you. Layli-layli calulan said you needed the rest. That's why she told van Zoveel to go away. "And as the possibility had just now occurred to her, she added, "Now she'll make me go away too!"

"No," said layli-layli calulan with another smile-this one directed at the arachne. "You can stay, Maggy; talking to you comforts Tocohl. Read your sensors: they're steady."

What she said was true, Maggy saw, although how layli-layli calulan could tell she did not know.

Again, the ability must have something to do with the shaman's different perception.

Once more, a figure burst through the door. This time layli-layli calulan's response was quite different. "Ah," she said, "John." It was as if she used the name as greeting. She turned to Om im and said, "John the Smith will keep watch for a while. It's time you had a chance to clean up." Om im glanced at Tocohl, but layli-layli calulan went on, "Go. I'll see she gets breakfast."

Tocohl said, "Go ahead, Om im. I'll be fine."

Maggy considered the stubborn set of Om im's face and said, "I'll call you if there's trouble."

That seemed to rea.s.sure him. He woke Buntec and together they plunged into the courtyard, lost to sight in the downpour even before the door membrane slapped shut. Thunder rattled the room.

Approaching layli-layli calulan on the side which gave him high status, John the Smith said something into her ear which Maggy couldn't make out; enhancing only enhanced the sound of thunder.

The Smith looked serious and seemed surprised when layli-layli calulan answered him only with her most beautiful smile.

(Tocohl?) Maggy asked.

(I'm sure we'll find out,) Tocohl said. The sensors in her 2nd skin showed that she was not disturbed. Maggy folded the arachne's legs and settled it beside Tocohl as layli-layli calulan approached the cot once more.

For a long moment, layli-layli calulan looked down at Tocohl and at the arachne. At last she said, "Hitoshi Dan believes that maggy-maggy is an extrapolative computer."

"He's right," Tocohl said. She glanced across the room, pointed a polite little finger. "Swift-Kalat would tell you the same."

Layli-layli calulan smiled beautifully once again. "I do not think so, tocohli, not in Jenji."

That sent spikes through all the sensors in Tocohl's 2nd skin. "What do you mean?"

The smile went from layli-layli calularfs face. "Have you thought what the h.e.l.lspark ritual of change might mean on some worlds?"

Sensors spiked again, this time higher than the first, but no change showed on Tocohl's face. Tilting her head to the side, she said, "No, I can't say that I have."

"I thought as much. You and maggy-maggy have much to discuss. I'll see to Alfvaen and then to your breakfast. Think over what I've said." One last time, she gave Tocohl her most beautiful smile, then she turned and walked away.

(Maggy? I hope you know something about this "h.e.l.lspark ritual of change" business?) (I lied to swift-Kalat. I would have asked you, Tocohl, but I couldn't.) (Don't get excited. Just tell me what happened.) She shifted in the cot-getting comfortable, as she called it. Something she did before someone began a long report.

Maggy took this to mean she wanted the full story. She began at the point where she had lost contact with Tocohl, and because she needed Tocohl's advice, she explained her own actions as she went along.

At the "Hey presto!" Tocohl laughed aloud and said, (Oh, Maggy, that was perfect!) Tocohl's laugh alleviated any further worry: the reasoning that had led Maggy to use the "Hey, presto!" as she had was sound.

(So that's how swift-Kalat got to see layli-layli when she was in deep mourning,) Tocohl said, (I'd been meaning to ask you about that.) Still smiling, Tocohl closed her eyes, and Maggy could tell from the sensors that she was getting tired again. Layli-layli calulan was right: healing required rest.(You should sleep again,) Maggy said, and seeing layli-layli approach with a tray, she repeated it aloud, "She should sleep again, layli-layli calulan."

"She should eat first."

Maggy checked the sensors again. "She's very tired."

"Maggy," said Tocohl firmly, "that's nothing compared to how hungry I am. Which doesn't show on your sensors, so you know absolutely nothing about it. Greed you've a fair grasp of; hunger, no. Let me eat." Tocohl eased herself cautiously into a sitting position-Maggy was pleased to note that the action no longer made her sensors spike as emphatically as it had the previous day-and accepted the tray from layli-layli calulan.

"Thank you," said Tocohl. She gave a sidelong glance at the arachne which seemed to imply that she thanked the shaman for something other than the meal. With a similar glance at the arachne, layli-layli calulan said, "You are quite welcome."

Their manner gave Maggy cause for concern. When layli-layli calulan returned to Alfvaen's side to wake swift-Kalat, Maggy said, (Did I do right? You told me I could lie.) (You did right, Maggy,) Tocohl said, around a mouthful of food. (I hadn't intended to grant you blanket permission, but you seem to use discretion-and since it saved me a long, painful walk through the flashwood out there, I can scarcely complain.) (I won't lie to you.) (I won't lie to you, either. Between friends, it's not good policy.) That brought a sudden sense of conflict. (Is swift-Kalat my friend?) Tocohl stopped eating. (I think he'd be able to say so.) (But then I shouldn't have lied to him. Lying causes him distress, even when a stranger only mentions it.) (Maggy, I don't think he'll hold it against you. Even Jenji permits the establishing-the creating-of a useful ritual. If I put it to him that you did not lie, but rather created what was needed to suit the circ.u.mstances, he won't be distressed. Any more than he'd be distressed if someone in the camp had built a machine that overrode the Hayashi jammers and allowed him to find us safely. Do you see the distinction I'm making?) (I think so. I'm not sure.) (Well, let me a.s.sure you the ritual you created is useful, and will be used in the future. Layli-layli calulan has plans for it already. And I know a dozen traders who'll be very happy to turn it to their advantage: all of them male and all of them, up to now, unable to trade successfully with the Yn.) Maggy skimmed her files on the Yn one more time. (You mean, if you make Geremy your sister, he could deal with the Yn female to female?) (Compared to some of the other male traders, Geremy has done pretty well. He's always had the advantage of his sharpness, and of his name. If we make him our sister, he'll-) Sensors in the 2nd skin spiked; this time pain was not the cause. Maggy said, (What is it?) Instead of answering directly, Tocohl frowned at the tray of food. Maggy judged that she was thinking something over and waited politely, not wishing to distract her. She was pleased that Tocohl ate while thinking-that, at least, meant she could rest as soon as she was done. Meanwhile she took the opportunity to update her files on lying.

She found herself at once faced with another dilemma. While layli-layli calulan approved of lying, and did it well herself, she also fell into the category of friend. Maggy knew that friend overrode a great many other priorities, both behavioral and cultural. Tocohl had approved of her action at the time, but Maggy needed to know why, in order to know whether the same approval was still operative. The question was imperative, worth distracting Tocohl to ask. (Tocohl?) (Um?) (Should I tell layli-layli calulan the truth?) Tocohl laid the tray aside. (The truth about what, Maggy?) she asked as she eased herself down.

Maggy replayed the bit of tape. Once again, layli-layli calulan asked what was the probability that Megeve had killed Oloitokitok. Once again, Maggy answered that her information was insufficient.(Stick to your story, Maggy. I'd have asked you to lie in that case anyway. I'd like to hear your reasoning, though.) (Layli-layli calulan intended to kill van Zoveel because of Oloitokitok's body. The probability-do you wish the figures?-is extremely high that she would kill a man she thought responsible for Oloitokitok's death. While the odds that Megeve was responsible are low, perhaps due to insufficient information, layli-layli calulan acted upon lower odds when she followed the search technique I suggested to look for you.) (Maggy, I'm proud of you. Your reasoning is impeccable.-Now, add this to information about Megeve, if it isn't already in your stores. In Yn, the sound ee has strong meaning. Do you understand that, in some cultures, specific words are thought to have power beyond their simple communicative use?) (Sympathetic magic,) Maggy said. (When you feed a code word into a computer, it brings an entire program into being. Is that the derivation of the idea in human context?) Tocohl grinned. (I rather doubt it: there were humans and sympathetic magic long before there were computers, but that's a good a.n.a.logy.) She went on, (All right. Y is the name of layli-layli's world, that world being the source of all life and, hence, the greatest, most potent magic of all.

(Please remember, I'm describing a cultural att.i.tude, not a fact.-And the t.i.tle laylee-laylee calulan also indicates a power, the doubling of the term expressing her espabilities.) Maggy saw what she was getting at and interrupted to save her further explanation: (So Geremy and Timosie and maggy-maggy are all names of power!) (That's it! Not as potent, perhaps, as layli-layli calulan, especially now that she knows you're an extrapolative computer, but your name might be sufficient to give your words more weight with layli-layli than anyone else's.) She twisted to address the arachne directly. Clearly, she used the arachne as a focus sometimes, too; Maggy moved it to a position that did not require her to turn.

(Thanks,) said Tocohl, (I see I'm falling into that little habit, too. You shouldn't have bounced it on the bed; it did get my attention, in more ways than one.) She was silent for a long moment, then she went on, (I'm thinking that the ee in Timosie Megeve might have been very important in all this...) (I don't understand.) (I'm thinking that Timosie's very name might have given his words more weight to Oloitokitok.

Suppose Megeve suggested to Oloitokitok that no one would believe, for instance, that the two of them had seen the sprookjes behaving in a sentient fashion.) She focused her eyes at some point beyond the arachne. (Or suppose... Maggy, Sunchild was Megeve's sprookje! She was willing to chance a ride in a daisy-clipper! The equipment failures... Megeve's acting as if the sprookjes would mess with his equipment! Suppose the sprookjes did mess with the equipment. Suppose...) (Too many supposes,) Maggy interrupted. (I can't give an accurate probability on any one of them.

I'm not sure I even follow your line of thinking.) (Why would Megeve want Oloitokitok dead?) (Well,) said Maggy, knowing that esthetically such an important question required a pause before the answer, (he wanted you dead, if I understand this correctly, because he thought the four of you were the only witnesses to the sprookje's gift.) (Yes. Suppose there had been an earlier gift, one only Megeve and Oloitokitok witnessed.) (Why wouldn't Oloitokitok tell everyone about the gift?) (That's where the name Timosie comes in. If someone named John the Smith had said, "They won't believe us. Let's wait until we can get some real proof," Oloitokitok would have said, "There are two of us. We've both seen it. Let's tell everyone and they'll help us look for real proof." But if Timosie said the very same thing, Oloitokitok would have said, "All right, let's wait until we can get some real proof.") (Tocohl, that's silly.) Tocohl laughed. (I never said it wasn't. But I've seen it happen. Geremy-because of the ee in his name-does a rousing business trading with Yn males. They think he's special and important.)Only one response seemed appropriate. Maggy made the rude noise.

Tocohl laughed again. (Agreed,) she said, (but that doesn't change the possibility. I never said human beings were logical, or reasonable, or even sane.) (I know,) said Maggy. (But they are very confusing.) (Admit it: we keep you from being bored.) Tocohl flashed a smile at the arachne that Maggy judged every bit as beautiful as layli-layli calulan's.

(Yes,) Maggy said, (you keep me from being bored.) (Good. Now think about this. Megeve never took you into account as a possible witness. There was someone else he never took into account as well...) (The sprookjes.) (That's right. If only we can find the words to ask, Sunchild may be able to tell us what happened to Oloitokitok. In the meantime, I agree with you: it's safer not to give layli-layli any odds at all that might make her do something rash.) Through the arachne's eye, Maggy saw layli-layli calulan approach long before Tocohl reacted to her footsteps and turned. Tocohl began to rise, but layli-layli said, "This is only a lull between storms, Dyxte tells me. There'll be no sprookjes for several hours, a.s.suming the next is the day's last."

"So Tocohl should sleep," Maggy said aloud.

"Yes." Layli-layli calulan stripped her rings from her fingers and laid them beside the arachne, giving Maggy an excellent chance to observe them closely. To Maggy's disappointment, they seemed to be ordinary bluestone, so she recorded the movements of layli-layli's hands instead, first as they touched the injured rib. Maggy could tell from the sensors that Tocohl was reinforcing her healing ritual simultaneously. Then, as layli-layli's fingertips brushed Tocohl's temples, the same sensors began to indicate drowsiness.

Tocohl sighed and sank farther into the cot. Her eyelids parted ever so slightly. (Maggy,) she said, glancing sleepily up at the infirmary roof, (where are you?) It took Maggy only a split second to weigh the pros and cons. Then she formed the image of the Flashfever starfield Tocohl would have seen from her position had the roof and light pollution of Flashfever not intervened. She hesitated a moment-Flashfever had no constellations she knew of so there were no established groupings of stars. That made the task more difficult, but at long last she decided upon an aesthetic place to put the glittering point that would represent herself. She added an indicatory arrow and projected the resulting image onto Tocohl's spectacles, all before Tocohl had drawn another breath.

And when she drew it, it was a sudden, sharp intake... Maggy knew a sound of delight when she heard it from Tocohl, and the slow, drowsy smile that followed merely confirmed Maggy's a.s.sessment.

(I missed you, Maggy,) Tocohl said, very softly.

(I missed you too,) Maggy said; then she was silent, letting Tocohl drift into sleep.

All in all, Maggy concluded, she had done right. Tocohl knew that she could not see the ship from here, so Maggy had not lied to a friend. She had told a pleasing story, and she was very proud of her new ability.

The storms continued throughout the day and into the night, but morning at last brought to the skies a clear pale-blue stillness. A fresh wind swept the last tang of ozone from the camp. Buntec took a deep contented breath of it, scrambled into her boots, and skipped down the steps of her quarters into the first pale rays of sunlight.

She was the first. If there had been a gong to ring to wake the other members of the team, she'd have rung it. But there wasn't-and for the moment, she could not bring herself to venture into shadow long enough to knock at various doors.

The stillness was loud enough to wake others. One by one, the surveyors stumbled out, blinking up into the sky, and smiled. Buntec waved at Edge-of-Dark who waved back, glanced down at her own bare feet, reddened, and darted back inside.

It took Buntec a second or two to realize just what sequence of events had sent Edge-of-Dark backinto shadow. Once she had, she was spurred into action without any further thought.

She splashed across the compound, raced up the steps to Edge-of-Dark's quarters, and stuck her head in, uninvited. "Don't," she said, "don't, Edge-of-Dark. I can stand your f-feet"-though the word was hard to get out when it wasn't an obscenity, when she didn't mean it as an obscenity, she managed to say it and go on to the important part of her objection: "Don't miss the sun just because of me!!!"

Edge-of-Dark paused in the midst of pulling on her second boot. Her jaw dropped, then closed abruptly to draw her mouth into a brilliant smile. "Buntec," she said, "you are one of the nicest people I've ever met. That makes up for any sunshine I missed for these!" She pulled the boot to, tapped it with a long green nail.

Embarra.s.sed, Buntec ducked her head. "I wish," she said, "there weren't so many traps between us.

I like you too, Edge-of-Dark. I like you a lot. I don't know how to get from here to there"-she gestured at the expanse of floor that separated them and found she knew the perfect expression-"without, as the Trethowan say, putting my f-foot in it." It was minimally easier to speak the word the second time-and Edge-of-Dark's peal of delighted laughter made it worth every bit of the effort.