Samuel, the Edenist Intelligence operative, was six metres from the foot of the scarp path when he saw the lone figure by the water bend over to take her boots off. That wasnt part of the humdrum formula which governed Mzus activities. He hurried after Pauline Webb, the CNIS second lieutenant, who had reached the beach ahead of him. She dithered in the grove of palm trees which huddled along the base of the escarpment, debating whether to break cover and walk openly on the sands.
It looks like shes going for a swim, he said.
Pauline gave him a cursory nod. The CNIS and the Edenists cooperated to a reasonable degree in their observation.
At night? she said. By herself?
The doctor is a solitary soul, but I concede this isnt the most sensible thing shes ever done. Samuel was thinking back to that morning when the news of Omutas sanctions being lifted had appeared in the AV projection at Glovers restaurant.
So what do we do?
Monica Foulkes, the ESA operative, caught up with them. She increased the magnification factor of her retinal implants just as Alkad Mzu pulled her sweatshirt off over her head. I dont know what you two are panicking over. Nobody as smart as Dr Mzu would choose drowning as a method of suicide. Its too prolonged.
Maybe she is just going for a quick swim, Pauline suggested, without much hope. Its a pleasant enough evening.
Samuel kept watching Mzu. Now her boots and clothes were off she was removing the contents of her backpack and dropping them on the sand. It was the casual way she did it which bothered him; as if she was without a care. I somehow doubt it.
Were going to look particularly stupid charging over there to rescue her if all shes doing is taking a dip to cool off, Monica groused.
The middle-aged Edenists lips pursed in amusement. You think we dont look stupid anyway?
She scowled, and ignored him.
Does anyone have any relevant contingency orders? Pauline asked.
If she wants to drown herself, then I say let her, Monica said. Problem solved at long last. We can all pack up and go home then.
I might have known youd take that attitude.
Well, Im not swimming after her if she gets into trouble.
You wouldnt have to, Samuel said, without shifting his gaze. Tranquillity has affinity-bonded dolphins. Theyll assist any swimmers that get into difficulties.
Hoo-bloody-rah, Monica said. Then we can have another twenty years of worrying about who the daft old biddy will talk to and what shell say.
Alkad datavised a code to the processor in her empty backpack. The seal around the bottom opened, and the composite curled up revealing the hidden storage space. She reached in to remove the programmable silicon spacesuit which had lain there undisturbed for twenty-six years.
Ione,tranquillity said urgently. We have a problem developing.
Excuse me, Ione said to her cocktail party guests. They were members of the Tranquillity Banking Regulatory Council, invited to discuss the habitats falling revenue which the massive decrease in starship movements was causing. Something needed to be done to halt the stock markets wilder fluctuations, so she had thought an informal party was the best way of handling it. She turned instinctively to face her apartments window wall and the shoals of yellow and green fish nosing round the fan of light it threw across the dusky sand. What?
Its Alkad Mzu. Look.
The image fizzed up into her mind.
Samuel frowned as Mzu drew some kind of object from deep inside her backpack. It looked ridiculously like a football, but with wings attached. Even with his retinal implants on full magnification he couldnt quite make it out. What is that?
Mzu fastened the collar round her neck, and bit down on the nozzle of the respirator tube. She datavised an activation code into the suits control processor. The black ball flattened itself against her upper chest and started to flow over her skin.
Both the other Intelligence operatives turned to look at the sharpness in Samuels voice. The two serjeants began to walk forwards over the beach.
Ione!tranquillitys thoughts rang with surprise, turning to alarm. I can sense a gravitonic-distortion zone building.
So?she asked. every starship emerging above Mirchusko registered in the habitats mass-sensitive organs. There was no requirement for the usual network of strategic warning grav-distortion-detector satellites which guarded ordinary asteroid settlements and planets, Tranquillitys perception of local space was unrivalled, making threat response a near-instantaneous affair. Is the starship emerging too close? Arm the strategic-defence platforms.
No use. Its
At first Samuel mistook it for a shadow cast by an evening cloud. There was still enough pearly radiance coming from the light-tube to give the circumfluous sea a sparse shimmer, a cloud would produce exactly that patch of darkness. But there was only one patch of darkness; and when he glanced up the air was clear. Then the noise began, a distant thunderclap which lasted for several seconds, then chopped off abruptly. A brilliant star shone at the centre of the darkness, sending long radials of frigid white light into the habitat.
Mzu was silhouetted perfectly against the white blaze reflected off the sea, encased in the black skin of the spacesuit, a consummate monochrome picture.
Shock immobilized Samuels body for a precious second. Out of the centre of the fading star a blackhawk came skimming silently over the sea towards Mzu; a compressed ovoid one hundred and thirty metres long, with a horseshoe life-support section moulded round the rear dorsal bulge. Its blue polyp hull was marbled with an imperial-purple web.
Jesus wept! Pauline said in an aghast whisper. It jumped inside. Its come right into the fucking habitat!
Get her! Monica cried. For Christs sake stop the bitch! She ran forwards.
No, stop! Come back, Samuel yelled. But Pauline was already charging out of the trees after the ESA agent, boosted muscles accelerating her to a phenomenal speed. Oh, shit. He started to run.
Meyer saw the small spacesuited woman standing at the waters edge, and Udat obligingly angled round towards her. Tension had condensed his guts into a solid lump. Swallowing inside a habitat, it had to be the craziest stunt in the history of spaceflight. Yet theyd done it!
We are in,Udat observed sagely. Thats halfway.
And dont I know it.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?tranquillitys outraged broadcast thundered into the blackhawks mind.
Meyer winced. Even Udat s calm thoughts fluttered.
The woman is a political dissident being persecuted by the Kulu ESA,meyer replied with shaky bravado. Of all people, Ione Saldana should sympathize with that. Were taking her where she will be safe.
STOP IMMEDIATELY. I WILL NOT PERMIT THIS. UDAT , SWALLOW OUT NOW.the force of the mental compulsion which the habitat personality exerted was incredible. Meyer felt as though someone had smashed a meat hook into his skull to pull his brain out by the roots. He groaned, clutching at the cushioning of his acceleration couch, heart pounding in his ears.
STOP!
Keep going, he gasped. His nose started to bleed. Neural nanonics sent out a flurry of metabolic overrides.
Alkad waded through the shallows as the blackhawk descended, gliding fastidiously round one of the coves small islands. She hadnt grasped how big the bitek creature was. To see that almighty bulk suspended so easily in the air was an uncanny marvel. Its rounded nose was streaked with long frost rays as the seas humidity gusted over polyp which was accustomed to the radiative chill of deep space. A huge patch of water below the hull began to foam and churn as the distortion field interacted with it. She suddenly felt as though the horizontal was rolling. Udat turned through ninety degrees, and tilted sharply, bringing the portside wing of its life-support horseshoe down towards the water. An airlock slid open. Cherri Barnes stood inside, wearing her spacesuit. Orange silicon-fibre straps tethered her securely to the sides of the small chamber. She threw a rope-ladder down.