There was also an unprecedented degree of cooperation between star systems national groupings to ensure that the warning reached everybody and was taken seriously. Within a day of a flek courier voidhawk arriving, even the smallest, most distant asteroid settlement was informed and urged to take precautions.
Within five days of Admiral Lalwani dispatching the voidhawks, the entire Confederation had been told, with just a few notable exceptions. Most prominent of these were starships in transit.
Oenone raced in towards Atlantis at three gees. There were only sixty cases of Norfolk Tears left clamped into its lower hull cargo bay. Since leaving Norfolk, Syrinx had flown to Auckland, a four-hundred-light-year trip. Norfolk Tears increased in price in direct proportion to the distance from Norfolk, and Auckland was one of the richer planets in its sector of the Confederation. She had sold sixty per cent of her cargo to a planetary retailer, and another thirty per cent to a family merchant enterprise in one of the systems Edenist habitats. It was the first shipment the Auckland system had seen for fifteen months, and the price it raised had been appropriately phenomenal. They had already paid off the Jovian Bank loan and made a respectable profit. Now she was back to honour her deal with Eysks family.
She looked through Oenones sensor blisters at the planet as they descended into equatorial orbit. Cool blues and sharp whites jumbled together in random splash patterns. Memories played below her surface thoughts, kindled by the sight of the infinite ocean. Mosuls smiling face.
Were not going to stay very long, are we?Oenone asked plaintively.
Why?she teased. Dont you like talking to the islands? They make a change from habitats.
You know why.
You stayed in Norfolk orbit for over a week.
I had lots of voidhawks to talk to. There are only fifteen here.
Dont worry. We wont stay long. Just enough time to unload the Norfolk Tears, and for me to see Mosul.
I like him.
Thank you for the vote of confidence. While were here, would you ask the islands to see if anyone has a cargo they need shipping outsystem.
Ill start now.
Can you give me a link through to Mosul first, please.
It is midnight on Pernik. The personality says Mosul is unobtainable at the moment.
Oh dear. I wonder what her name is?
Syrinx.
Yes?
Pernik is wrong.
What do you mean? Mosul is available?
No, I mean the personality is different, altered. There is no joy in its thoughts.
Syrinx opened her eyes and stared round the contoured walls of her cabin. Familiar trinkets she had picked up on her voyages were lined up in glass-fronted alcoves. Her eyes found the fifteen-centimetre chunk of whalebone carved into a squatting Eskimo which Mosul had given her. But Oenone s unease was too unsettling for the crude statue to register the way it usually did, bringing forth a warm recollection intrinsic to both of them.
Perhaps there has been an accident on one of the fishing boats,she suggested.
Then the grief should be shared, as is proper.
Yes.
Pernik hides behind a facade of correctness.
Is Eysk available?
One moment.
Syrinx felt the voidhawks mind reach out, then Eysk was merging his thoughts with her. Still the same old kindhearted family elder, with that deeper layer of toughness that made him such a shrewd businessman.
Syrinx,he exclaimed happily, we were wondering where you had got to.
Did you think Id skipped out on you?
Me?he projected mock horror. Not at all. The arrest warrant we had drawn up was a mere precaution.
She laughed. Ive brought your cases of Norfolk Tears.
How many?
Sixty.
Ah well, my family will be through that lot before the weeks out. Are you coming down tonight?
Yes, if its not too late.
Not at all. Ill have some servitors lined up to unload your flyer by the time you get down.
Fine. Is everything all right on the island?
There was a moments hesitation, a thought-flash of bemused incomprehension. Yes. Thank you for asking.
Is Mosul there?
Sex, thats all you young people think of.
We learn by example. Is he there?
Yes. But I dont think Clio will welcome an interruption right now.
Is she very pretty?
Yes.he generated an image of a girls grinning face, half hidden by long dark hair. Shes bright, too. They are on the point of formalizing the arrangement.
Im happy for him, for both of them.
Thank you. Dont tell Mosul I said so, but shell make a splendid addition to the family.
Thats nice. Ill see you in a couple of hours.
Ill look forward to it. Just remember, Mosul learnt everything he knows from me.
As if I could forget.she broke the contact.
Well?Oenone asked.
I dont know. Nothing I could put my finger on, but he was definitely stilted.
Shall I ask the other islands?
Goodness, no. Ill find out whats troubling them once Im down. Mosul will tell me, he owes me that much.
Hooked into the flyers sensors, Syrinx couldnt be sure, but Pernik appeared aged somehow. Admittedly it was darkest night, but the towers had a shabby look, almost mouldered. They put her in mind of Earths Empire State Building, now carefully preserved in its own dome at the centre of the New York arcology. Structurally sound, but unable to throw off the greying weight of centuries.
Thirty-two years old, and you see everything in such jaded terms, she told herself wearily. Pity that Mosul had formed a permanent attachment, though. He would have made a good father.
She clucked her tongue in self-admonition. But then her mother had conceived two children by the time she was thirty.
Theres always Ruben,Oenone suggested.
It wouldnt be fair to him, not even to ask. Hed feel obligated to say yes.
I would like you to have a child. You are feeling incomplete. It upsets you. I dont like that.
I am not feeling incomplete!
You havent even prepared any zygotes for my children yet. You should think about these things.
Oh goodness. Youre starting to sound like Mother.
I dont know how to lie.
Rubbish!
Not to you. And it was you who was thinking of Mosul in that light.
Yes.syrinx stopped trying to argue, it was stupidly blinkered. What would I do without you?
Oenone wrapped her thoughts with a loving embrace, and for a moment Syrinx imagined the flyers ion field had leaked inside the cabin, filling it with golden haze.