Among the Powers (33 page)

Bredon, there at the insistence of Geste,
Imp, and several of the former captives, made himself as
inconspicuous as possible in a back corner.

“All right, Geste,” Lady Haze demanded,
“what are we doing here? What’s so important we had to come in
person?”

“I wanted you all here in person so that
there won’t be anyone refusing to abide by the majority decision,”
Geste replied.

“What majority decision?” Gold the Delver
asked.

“One that we haven’t made yet, but that I
hope we will.”

“All right,” Lord Carlov said, “get on with
it; what decision do you want?”

“I have a bit of a speech I want to make
first. Bear with me.”

Several people shifted uncomfortably.

“Get on with it,” Hsin of the River
called.

“I will.” Geste stepped up onto a floating
table and began, “We came to Denner’s Wreck on a holiday, came to
get away from the problems of life in the mainstream of
civilization. We came, and we settled down, and we’ve had a good
time here, all in all—but we’ve been irresponsible as hell about
it, and we’ve made a mess of the planet.”

Several people stirred, but no one protested
aloud.

“Not only that, we’ve done an incredible
amount of harm to the people who were here before us. Thaddeus
killed hundreds of them; I know Rawl has killed several, as well,
in his self-appointed role as judge, jury, and executioner...”

“Only four, Geste,” Rawl interrupted. “Four
in four hundred years, and all four were murderers several times
over.”

“All right, four. And I’m sure some of the
rest of you have killed people here, accidentally or
otherwise—haven’t you?”

Again, several people shifted uncomfortably,
but no one spoke.

“You’ve
killed people
,” Geste
repeated. “Not animals, or plants, or machines, but
people
,
as conscious and genetically human as any of us. We don’t have any
right
to do that.”

Several people did start to speak this time,
Rawl among them, but Geste held up a hand and silenced them.

“I know all the arguments—they’re just
short-lifers, they’re only losing a few years, they’re so primitive
that their lives aren’t worth living, they deserve it. That’s crap.
They’re
people
, and we have no business interfering with
them.”

“It’s hard to avoid them, if we’re going to
live here at all,” Brenner remarked.

“Not that hard,” Geste replied. “The
Skyler’s avoided them all, and Shadowdark, and Arn and
Hollingsworth don’t see them very often, I’m sure.”

“I don’t, either,” commented Lady Haze.

Lord Hollingsworth mumbled, “Never hurt any
when I
did
see them, either.”

“Furthermore,” Geste went on, “even when we
haven’t killed them or messed up their lives directly, we’ve done
it indirectly, just by being here and allowing ourselves to be
seen.”

“If you’re talking about messing up lives,
Geste...” Starflower began.

He held up a hand. “I know, I know, I’ve
been guilty of plenty of interference myself—not up to
your
level, Starflower, but enough. No, too much. But let me finish. To
these people, we’re practically gods. They call us the Powers—you
all know that. They credit Lady Sheila with controlling the weather
and bringing the seasons; did you know
that
? Did you know
that the Nymph is considered the goddess of erotic love? That Gold
is lord of the underworld? That Sunlight is responsible for every
flower that ever blooms? And Starflower here, who correctly
admonishes me for my pranks, has been actively accepting their
worship. We have completely screwed up the culture these people had
when we arrived by allowing them to misinterpret us like this!”

“We didn’t
ask
for this,” Starflower
retorted.

“It’s none of our business,” Lady Haze
added.

“But it
is
our business, and at least
one of us, Starflower,
did
ask for it—or do you claim that
you never encouraged those ceremonies honoring you? We
are
responsible,” Geste insisted. “When we came here, we took a vote on
whether or not to introduce modern technology to these people,
whether to make any of them immortal or establish interstellar
commerce, and we voted not to do any of that. Why? Because we had
no right to interfere in their culture—that was what we
said
. Do you remember that?”

He glared around at them all, then
continued, “That was what we
said
, but what we meant was
that it wasn’t our problem, that it was more fun to play demi-god
and not worry about the poor savages. We interfered in their
culture anyway. Hell, we didn’t just interfere, we practically
ruined it. We played God all over the place—and I was as bad as
almost any of you, I admit it. We played at being gods while we
preached noninterference. It’s time to stop, now. It’s gotten
serious. One of us went berserk and killed hundreds of innocent
people, and of all the rest of us, only three did anything—and even
those three only got involved when Thaddeus threatened other
immortals. He could have gone on killing people forever if he
hadn’t started interfering with
us
, couldn’t he?”

He paused, and several people shifted
uncomfortably. The Skyler’s expression shifted from
self-satisfaction, as she heard herself included in those who had
helped, to uncertainty as she remembered how she had backed out
toward the end.

“Well, it’s time to stop the fun and games,
people. Imp and Aulden and Sheila and I intend to take Mother and
go back home, to get Thaddeus some psychological repair
work—repairs that should have been done centuries ago, but which
nobody wanted to get involved in. And when we get there, we’re
going to tell whatever authorities are concerned with this sort of
thing that there’s a planet here full of short-lifers who deserve
better, and we’re going to see that a proper development company is
sent out here to Denner’s Wreck to clean up our mess. Now, the
rules of this little organization say that we need a majority vote
to leave. We intend to get that majority vote right here and now,
one way or the other.”

The Skyler asked, “Do you expect all of us
to go back?”

Geste looked at her, surprised not by the
question, but by the source.

“Not necessarily,” he said. “You can stay if
you like, but the terms will be a bit different. Mother won’t be up
there in orbit any more, to help out with long-range
communications. And you had better not screw around with the locals
any more, because starting right now, you’ll be held accountable
when we get some proper authority out here. These people have
rights, and we’ll see that they’re protected. Which brings up
another thing—I think it’s high time that we started providing
these people with some of the benefits of our presence, as well as
the inconveniences. It’s time we started giving them a little basic
technology, improving their agriculture, their medicine, and so
forth. Anyone who stays should plan on doing what he or she can to
assist the short-lifers in the area.”

“That’s fine with me,” the Skyler said. “As
long as I don’t have to deal with them personally.”

“I’ve been doing some of that already,”
Leila said.

“I’d also like to say,” Geste went on, “if
you don’t care about altruism, that we haven’t been doing ourselves
any good staying here this long. It’s too isolated, we have too
much time to ourselves. Look at us! We’ve all gotten into ruts,
become stereotypes. Listen to the music the Skyland is playing for
us—popcult songs a thousand years old! Isn’t it time we got
ourselves out of this backwater and back into the mainstream?”

No one answered, and after a pause the
Trickster concluded, “All right, then, that’s my speech. Now the
vote; who says we take Mother and load Thaddeus aboard and go home,
immediately?” He raised his hand.

Imp’s hand shot up, and Aulden’s
followed.

The Skyler raised her hand.

Lady Sunlight hesitated, then raised
hers.

Sheila raised hers calmly and
gracefully.

Madame O’s hand rose, then Khalid’s, then
Arn’s, Isabelle’s, Lady Haze’s, Leila’s, and Nymph’s.

“Oh, what the hell,” Starflower said, “I was
getting tired of it anyway.” She thrust her hand up.

Rawl raised his hand, followed by Tagomi of
the Seas, but by then it no longer mattered; the majority had
spoken.

“Good!” Geste said, speaking loudly to cover
the unhappy muttering of a few of the dissenters. “We leave
twenty-eight hours from now—two planetary rotations. If you aren’t
aboard Mother by then, you’re staying, whether you want to or
not—and if you stay, remember that you’ll be held accountable for
your actions from now on.” He stepped down from the table and
turned away.

Bredon slipped out of his corner and made
his way toward the Trickster. Lady Sunlight noticed him and
followed.

He caught Geste at the door.

“Hello, Bredon,” Geste said politely upon
noticing him.

“Hello, Lord Geste,” he answered.

‘“Geste’ is fine,” the Trickster said. “You
don’t need to give me any titles. And I was never a lord.”

“All right, Geste, then.”

“That’s better. Now, you look like you’re
after something. What can I do for you?”

“When will you be taking me home?”

Geste looked at him, startled. “Home?”

“Back to my village.”

“Oh! You know, Bredon, I hadn’t realized
that you
wanted
to go home; I had thought, somehow, that
you’d be coming to Terra with us.”

Bredon was speechless; his mouth opened,
then closed, but nothing came out.

Behind him, Lady Sunlight said, “Oh, do
come, Bredon; I think you’ll be amazed. And back there we can get
you a proper symbiote, adjust your body a little, extend your
lifespan—we don’t have the right equipment here yet.”

“I can come?” Bredon managed at last.
“Really?”

“Of course—if you’re sure you want to.”

“Want to?” The question seemed absurd. To
travel above the sky, faster than light, to the homeworld of
humanity—to live in the light of another sun—of
course
he
wanted to go!

Then other images welled up, images of his
parents, his siblings, Kittisha and Mardon and his other
friends.

That all seemed unreal. He had learned so
much since he had left his village. Could he ever really go back?
Could he live the life of a hunter, using a grass rope and a spear,
after what he had seen and done?

No, he knew he could not. He brushed the
images of family and friends aside.

“Of course I want to come!” he said. “I’d
like to go back to my village for a light or so, to tell them all
what happened, though.”
That
, he thought, would be quite a
tale; he wondered what it would sound like by the time old Atheron
had interpreted it into something the village could accept.

“But even if you can’t spare the time,
that’s all right,” he said. “Of
course
I want to come!”

“Good!” Lady Sunlight said, as she spun him
around and kissed him.

Name of applicant: the-Hunter, Bredon

Honorific, patronymic, epithet, or other additional
nomenclature: “son of Aredon the Hunter”

Citizenship number: None

Planet of origin: Denner’s Wreck, catalog 2356-CS-6,
246-Aurigae III.

Place of origin: village, no recorded name,
28°16’30” N. 15°24’00” W.

Unaltered height: 1.71 meters

Education: None

State of health: Fair. No significant risk of
contagion. No symbiotes.

Genetic pattern recorded: Yes, by sponsor

Neural pattern recorded: Yes, by sponsor

Sponsor: Sunlight, C.H., Lady, CN 0456-4530-5072

Clearance granted, 3-8-7154.

—
from the records of Terran
Immigration

Shadowdark

Thaddeus the Black

The Dragon Lady

Rawl the Adjuster

Lord Grey the Horseman

Khalid of the Tents of Gold

Lord Carlov

Madame O

The Lady of the Lake

Tagomi of the Seas

Lady Haze

Isabelle

Brenner of the Mountains

Gold the Delver

The Lady of the Island

The Skyler

Arn of the Ice

Hsin of the River

The Lady of the Seasons

Aulden the Technician

Leila of the Mountain of Fire

Lord Hollingsworth

Lady Sunlight of the Meadows

Lady Tsien

The Nymph

Starflower

Geste the Trickster

Imp

Among the Powers
, originally published under
the title
Denners Wreck,
has a surprising amount of history
for what would appear at first glance to be a fairly short
stand-alone novel written early in my professional career.

For one thing, it’s not as independent as it
appears.
Among the Powers
,
Shining Steel
, and
Nightside City
are all set in the same future, one that I
began planning out when I was still in high school, though no two
take place in the same century or the same solar system. Some parts
of that future history still hold up almost forty years after I
started devising it; others look adolescent and naïve.

The basic outline still seems viable, if
less likely than it did in the 1970s—virtually the entire world is
unified late in the 21st century under a government descended from
the United Nations, called the United Nation, which uses
slower-than-light starships to send malcontents and troublemakers
on one-way trips to colonize other star systems. A century or so
later the inhabitants of one colony, on Achernar IV, invent
faster-than-light travel in the form of the Wheeler Drive, and send
a mission to Earth, triggering the collapse of the United Nation
and the rise of the Interstellar Confederacy. Most of the lost
colonies are then contacted and added to the Confederacy.