“Seeds? We’ll plant them in the out tuft. Mark’s talking about building an extension to the lift before anything gets ripe enough to pick.”
“Cut some foliage so the sunlight can reach the plants. I can show you how to use water flow to move the lifts with less effort. You haven’t mentioned the fired mud rocket.”
“That’s nice, isn’t it? We don’t need the Admiralty’s treefeeding pipes.”
“You don’t need me,” Kendy said. He knew the risk he was taking. It was acceptable. “I’ve been looking at records. Most of what can be done with materials from Discipline can also be done with Smoke Ring resources. Lifts, housing, clothing, food, domestic animals. Now rockets. The Admiralty even has a heliograph.”
“No, we don’t need you,” Jeffer said, “but I never thought you’d know it.”
“A bad thing happened to me. I don’t trust my judgment any more. My intention has always been to make a civilization in the Smoke Ring, modeled on the State that shaped your ancestors. The Smoke Ring will never be that. How can I make a State in a place where I can’t even make maps?”
“Would we even like your State? Skip it. What do we do about that ship? I hope Sectry Murphy’s aboard. We’ll get some notion of what they want if Rather talks to her—”
“Hide the CARM in another tree. Tear out the dock too, or put the ceramic rocket there. Show them that. It’s not advanced, but it doesn’t need starstuff resources. It may impress them. Keep the CARM manned. There are two ways you might need it—”
“I won’t burn them!”
“One way, then. You can’t ignore the Admiralty. You’d really like to join as officers. You may have to show them the CARM before they’ll listen to that. Demand officer status, but they may settle for giving it to just the Chairman and Scientist—”
Jeffer laughed. “For a man who doesn’t trust his own judgment, you certainly—”
“I think fast. I plan fast. I make mistakes.”
“Anything else?”
“Mark might want to join the Navy. Sound him out. See if the Navy personnel might want him. I gather they don’t like older recruits, but Mark was trained in London Tree. Karilly may benefit from going back. Is she still mute?”
“Yes, but she’s also pregnant and happy. I’m not sure I want to fiddle.”
“I’m almost out of range. Back in two days. The code is HISTORY. Tell nobody of what you are about to learn.”
“K—”
“Unless in your judgment it would be beneficial.”
Kendy had never talked like this. “Stet.”
The face faded. Jeffer didn’t move for some time. Finally he tapped the white button. “Prikazyvat Voice.”
“Hello, Jeffer the Scientist.”
“Link to the pressure suit.”
“Done.”
“This is Jeffer calling anyone. Anyone home?”
“Hello? Scientist?” It was Jill’s voice.
“I want to talk to my wife.”
“I’ll get her. She’s on the branch.”
That would take most of a day. Jeffer started the HISTORY file and listened to it all the way through. Then he started it again.
Lawri climbed in through the airlock. “I didn’t have anyone but Rather and Jill for a treadmill team. Everybody else is on the branch. Now, what’s all the excitement, Scientist?”
“Prikazyvat Voice. Run HISTORY.”
Dead voices spoke. Discipline’s crew reported the discovery of a weird cosmological anomaly. Some of what followed was familiar from the cassettes. Some was entirely cryptic.
“How long have you had this?” Lawri demanded.
“Kendy only just filed it. I…I’ve been in contact with him since before we left for the Clump.”
Lawri was coldly angry. “That was mutiny! How could you not trust me?”
“I’m trusting you now. Listen.”
They heard a highly formalized quarrel. Some of the participants argued for settling the Smoke Ring; some were for moving on to an unnamed destination. Kendy spoke in favor of staying, then tried to terminate the argument. It continued.
There were parts of a broadcast from Discipline to Earth: it had been decided that they would settle the Smoke Ring environment.
There was a message from Earth: Retrieve your crew.
“And that’s it. Kendy got conflicting orders,” Jeffer said. “It tangles his mind. He can’t go for new orders because Earth is too far away, and he can’t make up his own mind because he’s a machine, and he can’t talk about it because it drives him nuts. If that’s all true, he must be close to crazy all the time. The question is, what do we do now?”
Lawri said, “We can play it through the silver suit. Play it for the whole tribe. Tell everyone.”
“It’ll start some fights.”
“Feed the—”
He rode her down. “There’s a Navy ship coming. The fights’ll have to be over when it gets here. A hundred days.”
“Stet. Play it at dinner.”
“…Stet.”
The situation was ideal in its way. They were together, but they couldn’t talk. There were only the two of them to run the lift. It took all their breath. Jill scrambled over the rungs, keeping up with him. Her tuftberry-red tunic was dark with sweat at chest and armpits. Her hair was a golden halo, as interesting and as beautiful as Sectry’s scarlet.
After the cages passed each other, they let the treadmill carry them round and round. Then it was time to throw their weight on the brake. The lower cage settled. Rather and Jill dropped into soft foliage and panted.
Rather found his breath…and found Jill watching him solemnly.
He said briskly (he hoped), “Mark says you own me. This is a thought that never crossed my mind.”
“He says that?”
“Yes. He says I own you too. What do you think?”
“I think Mark doesn’t have the right to say it.”
He was an arm’s length away. He couldn’t read her expression. He said, “It’s not just Mark. My parents — all four, or all three and a half, and everyone else too, including you, Jill. You all seem to know just where I fit and what I’m supposed to do for the rest of my life.”
“Well, you don’t take orders worth treefodder.” He was not sure that was a smile. “What’s bothering you, Rather? You came home on purpose. You’re on the cookpot because you volunteered to cook the earthlife. You’re the Teller because you’ve got stories and you like telling them. It gets you offtreemouth duty.”
“I like all of that. But I’m told where to sleep and I’m told who to marry, and everyone looked at me funny till I changed back into tuftberry red, and the whole damn tribe sent me to talk to you.”
“Okay. Talk.”
“Rather doesn’t take orders worth treefodder. You talk. Are you unsatisfied with me?”
“You went into the sky and left me behind.”
“I did.”
“Is that over now? Are you back for keeps?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Rather sighed. “I like coming home. I like seeing new things too. Some of us will have to go back to the Admiralty anyway, Jill. Ryllin wants to join Booce. Then there’s a whole sky out there! Lawri says our gene pool is too little. Fine. We’ll go find some other trees and get mates there.”
“Should I do that?”
Running endlessly up the treadmill, he’d had some time to think. “Maybe. Or you could marry me, but I’ll take trips, and you’d have to put up with that—”
She flared. “You’d be making babies with every woman who talks funny!”
That was manifestly unfair. Rather let it pass. “Or you could come with me.”
“Stet.”
“That quick? Are you sure?”