“Mostly correct.”
“All right,” Hans said, shoulders slumping, hunching his upper body over where he sat. He lifted his wand and projected some crude colored sketches of the Brothers’ battle. “It seems obvious to me that you faced a decoy world, much as we did around Wormwood. It may have been a less sophisticated decoy—it was farther away from Leviathan—but that in itself could be important. We both got our asses wiped. Pardon me—”
“The analogy, for we us, is cords were skinned,” Eye on Sky said. “I we understand.” A steady progression of violin sounds, chirps, and smells wafted from Eye on Sky to the three temporary braids.
Hans smiled. “And after you were done, it seemed likely the killer probes would repair the decoy, start all over.”
“Yes,” Eye on Sky said.
“So in effect, your sacrifice was for nothing.”
“Yes,” Eye on Sky said.
“We’re all pretty awful at anticipating what the Killers can do. But then, so are the moms—your snake mothers, too, I assume. The closer we get to Leviathan, the more sophisticated the traps, until Wormwood itself seemed to actually be the target. I think we can assume Leviathan is the real center of interest. And the deceptions and defenses are going to be extraordinary. Am I right?”
The three braids stirred as Eye on Sky conveyed this to them.
“There is general agreement we our survival not good chances,” Eye on Sky said.
“But we have an advantage,” Hans said.
“Combined resources and knowledge,” Eye on Sky translated for the largest braid.
Martin added, “And the chance to compare notes and pool our minds. The Killers don’t know that we intercepted the Red Tree Runners’ ship. They don’t know that we’ve combined forces with you.”
“Right,” Hans said. “Some of our best brains are working with some of yours, and we’re getting along just fine. Now it’s time to make serious plans.”
The three braids moved closer together, heads almost touching. Smells of bananas and musty wine.
“I’d like our weapons crews to join with yours. I’d like the moms and snake mothers to make ships we can fly together.”
Martin felt a sudden and unexpected renewal of respect for Hans.
“We’re in this together,” Hans said, rubbing his face with his palms and wiping them on his overalls as if they were greasy. He looked at Cham and Martin, smiled, turned back to the braids. “We’re family. Am I right?”
“It is a good time for this,” Eye on Sky translated.
“We’re going to need a joint planning team,” Hans said. “Myself, Rex, Harpal, Martin, will be on it from our side. As soon as possible, we’ll need to know which braids will represent your side.”
“Agreed,” Eye on Sky said. “Makers of Agreement look sharply at we our crew, and choose, and then reassemble normal in two days your time. Stonemaker will announce to yours.”
“Perfect,” Hans said. He clasped his hands, bowed to Eye on Sky and the Makers, gathered up his party, and prepared to leave the Brothers’ territory. The largest temporary braid suddenly screeched shrilly and all turned to look at him.
“I we sees water clear, air clear,” he said, voice like a child’s recorded on a bad tape machine.
Hans nodded, waiting for more.
“This is the one,” the large temporary continued. “As you sound words, this is the one. Fine all if we we die for this.”
“Right,” Hans said.
“I we believes this one means—” Eye on Sky began.
“I understand him perfectly,” Hans said, raising his thumb. “We are in accord. Am I right?”
The humans nodded. In the corridor, once in human territory and away from any Brothers, Hans murmured, “God damn, I love the way they talk. If we could only speak their lingo-smello half so well-o!”
Martin felt unexpected tears begin in his eyes. Hans was still capable, still a leader; his decisions and ideas were strong and forward.
The moms and snake mothers took the joint weapons team into the weapons store and showed them three modified craft. Each could carry a braid and a human in separated compartments; this, they explained, in case one was injured or suffered problems that might interfere with the other.
Meeting after meeting, planning session upon session, ruminations between Brothers and humans, preparations for joint drills, yet despite their best efforts, never a sense of resolution, of full understanding. If this was what the defenders of Leviathan had hoped for, they had achieved it in spades: a deep sense of unease, far worse than when Dawn Treader had descended toward Wormwood.
Leviathan hung three and a half light months distant, a steady image of fifteen worlds.
In the nearly empty schoolroom, Silken Parts coiled near the star sphere and spread three grasping cords from below the tip of its trunk, each grasping a human wand. The first three pairs of claws along each cord curled around the wands with impressive dexterity. Images flew through the air for the benefit of Stone-maker and Eye on Sky, faster than Martin could intercept; the Brothers had the advantage of multiple sensory systems, each capable of absorbing and holding for braid assimilation. The Brothers’ briefing took less than a minute. Silken Parts than transferred all three wands to one cord and handed them to Hakim, Luis, and Jennifer.
“Thank you,” Silken Parts said, leaning forward to the human observers: his comrades on the joint search team, and Hans, Harpal, Rex, Cham, and Martin.
Hakim sighed in admiration. “It is frustrating to be human,” he said to Silken Parts and Stonemaker. Stonemaker made a sound like water over gravel and emitted a sickly-sweet flower scent, olfactory and auditory laughter, which Martin suspected was more politeness than true humor.
“I will present the results now for humans,” Hakim said, lifting one wand. “Slower, but with no more joy. We have spread our remotes to their farthest position, as agreed to by Hans and Stonemaker, and we have seen the Leviathan system with much greater detail.
“Civilization is apparent. It is very, very busy. There is continuous commerce between the fifteen worlds, especially in the vicinity of the fourth planet. If this is a false projection or deception, it is a masterpiece.
“Every planet is occupied. The density of activity on each planet is marvelous, even from what we can see at this distance. Commerce between the worlds flows unceasingly, and it appears to be conducted by a variety of beings. At least, that is my intuition, and it is shared by Silken Parts.” Hakim projected images of five of the planets, arrayed around his head like balls frozen in a juggling act.
“We are using numbers and Greek designators for each body,” Hakim continued. “The first planet outward from Leviathan is a rocky world. Yet as you see, it is very fuzzy. We believe the fuzz is a heavy layer of tethered stations suspended in orbit. We are seeing this planet from an angle of sixty degrees, and the fuzziness increases on this, the southern, limb of the planet, which indicates to me much activity around the equatorial plane, perhaps out to synchronous orbit. The planet is heavily modified, but must at one time have been comparable to Venus in size and composition.”
“I assume there will be more news on these tethers or whatever as our parallax changes,” Hans said.
“Yes indeed. In fact, I will have a ninety-degree shifted view within a tenday, because of our speed, because of its precession—it has a natural polar angle of thirty degrees with relation to the ecliptic—and because of parallax change.”
“Do you think they’re defenses?”
“They do not appear to be defenses. If they are tethers, they may be extended surface habitats—hanging buildings. How such a network of tethered structures could be maintained in orbit presents an awesome challenge.”