There was danger in his voice, almost fanaticism. Cor swallowed her fear because she knew he was right. The war they’d started was going to swallow them up if they didn’t get it settled. The idea was making her sick to her stomach and weak in the knees, but they were running out of merciful options.
Jay still looked grim. “You’re going to find the rest of Stone in the Wall’s family, Cor, so we’re ready when word comes. I’m going with you. I don’t like the way you’ve been talking.”
Cor just nodded. This was wrong. This was not the way it went. If it was necessary to ride out a civil war, that was what you did, ride it out. You didn’t slam your hand down over them. But there was too much at stake here.
Whatever the Family does with the People will be better than what the Vitae will do, she reminded herself.
It has got to be.
6—May 16, in the Net, Hour 22:34:34, Planet Time
…They say nothing will happen if the Human Family remains divided. This is true. The cycles of rise and fall will continue unabated and we who have lost our Evolution Point will remain at the mercy of a universe that does not and cannot care for the children it has spawned.
Walls towered solid and insurmountable on all sides, leaving only one tiny chink for Dorias to squeeze anything through. He extended his arm, slowly and painstakingly. There was barely enough room inside to grope for useful pathways without disturbing the existing network. Still more walls hemmed him in. Dorias strained, stretching out his fingers as far as they would go, carefully feeling his way along the quivering veins that carried packets of information. All of the veins threaded their way straight into the walls. They left no space wide enough for Dorias to even attempt to fit through. Dorias withdrew his arm and sent a probe back to the storage space to see if there were any explorer modules ready and waiting. Dorias seldom moved his entire self. It was an uncomfortable, unwieldy process. He had to squirm his way into fibrous paths and drizzle his consciousness into processors that were so loaded with their own data that each thought would become a leaden weight dropped without any accuracy. As he let his thoughts go, they would vanish completely, and he could only hope for their return.
Instead of enduring that, Dorias had designed a retinue of mobile parts that could travel the networks for him. Smaller and quicker than he was, they could bring back information, or perform tasks that required the manipulation of machines and datastreams light-years away from the direct line of thought from his den.
The probe came back. Luck. A module had returned today and its information had been emptied into storage, waiting for assimilation. Dorias sent the probe to fetch the explorer. When it arrived he lifted it into the newly discovered space. The explorer was smaller than his hand, but it was still a tight fit. As Dorias watched, the explorer began to methodically catalog and examine each vein where it met a wall, looking for patterns, vulnerability, usefulness. The explorer automatically posted a sentry for itself. If anyone watched it too closely for too long, it would withdraw to storage with its report.
PING!
Dorias shrugged aside to make room for the incoming signal.
PING!
The signal shot into his path and Dorias caught it neatly. It proved to be one of his wanderers. Wanderers piggybacked out on ships or stations, sometimes with preassigned tasks, sometimes just to wait quietly in case he needed a presence there.
This one’s home was aboard the U-Kenai and it held a new message from Eric Born in its teeth.
Dorias drew the wanderer into himself and waited while the message it carried dispersed into his working consciousness. The message said only that the U-Kenai was finally on its way to May 16, and that Eric was on his own. Bare facts, thrown together without much thought. Eric in a hurry, and more than likely, Eric worried.
About the Vitae, thought Dorias. The name brushed against old sores. The Vitae built walls that enclosed whole worlds and left him clawing at the entrances. They blockaded old pathways, dropping barriers between him and the wanderers, so he had to design searchers to retrieve them. The rescues could take years, or never happen at all.
Dorias didn’t mind that the Vitae made life difficult for him. Challenges were stimulus, not obstacles. What he did not like was the nagging idea that they might manage to make life impossible for him, or anyone else like him.
He was also worried about the fact that Eric hadn’t told him where the woman, Aria, was. It didn’t take much work to guess that if she wasn’t with him, Eric had probably taken her to Perivar as contraband. But the fact that Eric hadn’t volunteered that information spoke volumes about how little he trusted Dorias’s offer to help.
Dorias sent the wanderer back to storage. He could replace it aboard the U-Kenai when Eric arrived. Dorias activated the monitors surrounding his den. All communications would be checked, categorized, and stored for the duration. Projects in progress would be monitored and he would be alerted if any strayed too far from the herd.
He called for a talker and a dancer and attached leashes to them. Then he opened one of the dozens of lines that ran out of his den, shot the explorer down its length, settled himself at its mouth, and waited.
Seventy-six seconds later, the leash jerked into life, humming and tingling with the myriad signals that made up a human voice. Dorias drank them in.
“Ross, here.”
“This is Dorias, Madame Chairman.” Holding the end of the leash, Dorias felt the talker relay his signal while the dancer began to move, painting and repainting his portrait across Ross’s video screen.
“What can I do for you, Dorias?”
“I have just gotten a message from Eric Born. He is on his way to May 16, but he is not bringing the woman.”
“Damn.” She followed the curse with a five-second pause. “Well, we knew that was a danger, didn’t we? Has he said how much the Vitae found out?”
“This is what I have from him.” Dorias shook the leash so a copy of Eric’s message spilled itself along the line. The dancer took up the new pattern and repeated it on the screen and waited while Ross assimilated it for herself.
“Not a lot there.”
“I believe he had other concerns at the time.”
She chuckled. “Can’t argue with that, can I? And before you have to ask, yes, I’ll see he gets landed as soon as he gets in-system.” Another pause. “And, of course, I’ll extend our offer in person. What do you think he’ll say?”
Dorias felt through the places where his memories of Eric Born lay stored, looking for the right answer. “It’s difficult to say,” he admitted at last. “I think he’ll be more likely to agree, as long as he doesn’t know his brother-in-law is helping our team in the Realm. He’s never said what grudge he holds against Heart of the Seablade, but it is a strong one.”
“Mmmmph. How does he feel about the war, then, do you suppose?”
“He’s concerned. Eric works very hard to make it known that he does not care what happens in the Realm, but much of that is bravado. It is my guess that he did not wish to bring the woman, Aria Stone, to May 16 because he didn’t know if it was safe for her here. Teachers, you see, are bound to protect the lives of the People.”
“Mmmmph,” Ross said again. “Important considerations, but at this point, he can’t have any wish to see the Vitae in the Realm, can he?”
Dorias didn’t answer.
“Is there anything else you think I should know?” Ross asked finally.