Bringer of Light (47 page)

Kerin went over and made a show of examining the suit. Damaru trailed after her, and his interest picked up once he saw this was no ordinary item of clothing but a piece of wearable tech. Taro and Jarek looked at each other over their bent heads and smiled. Jarek decided it was safe to leave them to it.

Back on the bridge Jarek checked their course; he’d had to ascend at a shallow angle and then loop back in again in order to use the safe approach corridor. Looking outside, he saw that the top section of the beanstalk was already in sunlight again, and as the ship got closer he noticed how the counterweight and transfer-station both shone; they were completely coated with solarfilm, providing easy, eternal energy. He had to admit that the Sidhe thought bigger and longer-term than humans; they’d always been as interested in the control of space as in the control of people. Augmenting their maintenance-free solar system with fusion would mean occasional refuelling and checks on the reactor, but that fitted in with Jarek’s plans for regular visits to Serenein from now on.

He kept half an ear on the proceedings below. From the sound of it, they were making some progress – at least he hadn’t heard any tantrums yet.

He brought the
Heart of Glass
round so the
Setting Sun
came into view. The Sidhe ship looked comparatively tawdry against the bright solarfilm-covered transfer-station. He thought about calling Kerin and Damaru up to see the unusual sight, but it sounded like Taro was teaching Damaru how to use the v-suit, which was rather more important.

He lined up with the
Setting Sun
, and docked, then put the ship into standby and went back down. Nual emerged from her cabin as Jarek stepped off the ladder. Jarek was pleased to see they’d got Damaru suited up, though from Taro’s expression he guessed it had been an uphill struggle.

Taro and Nual boarded the
Setting Sun
first. As Jarek followed with Kerin and Damaru he could see the tension in Kerin’s face; the last time she’d been here she’d had her will stolen by one Sidhe and killed another; Kerin herself had been shocked by the deep and single-minded hatred she had displayed.

Once on board, Taro fell into step beside Damaru. It sounded to Jarek like they were getting on all right, even if much of Damaru’s conversation sprang from a naked curiosity which would have been downright rude coming from anyone else.

While Nual made her way to the bridge he led his party to the
Setting Sun
’s cargo-bay. The room was dominated by a double row of comaboxes. Beyond them the loading doors were open to the dark transfer-station; though the station had shut down to save power, being docked to the
Setting Sun
meant it had kept its atmosphere, even if the temperature was on the low side.

‘So, those got Consorts in then?’

Jarek started at Taro’s question, and saw Kerin’s brow furrow. ‘Yeah,’ he said slowly, ‘that’s them.’ He had a good idea what Kerin was thinking: how the abilities of the sleeping boys could come in really handy in his fight against the Sidhe; and how, if he wanted to use them like that, there wasn’t a lot she could do to stop him. ‘Let’s go through to the transfer-station,’ he added hurriedly.

Or rather, to the edge of it. Once they reached the threshold of the massive shadowy room he asked Taro, ‘All set?’

‘Yeah,’ Taro said, brandishing the toolkit he’d taken from the
Heart of Glass
.

‘Be careful,’ he told him. The capacitors might be low on charge, but they could still be dangerous.

‘We’ll be fine,’ Taro said confidently.

Kerin went over and spoke with Damaru briefly; it looked to Jarek like the boy was eager to get to work.

The two boys took their first steps into the transfer-station, their suit-lights flashing in the darkness. Jarek said softly, ‘Don’t worry Kerin: he’s only a comcall away.’

‘Aye,’ she said. Turning to Jarek she added, ‘I wanted to ask you about your coms. It would be useful for us to have some of them below.’

‘I’ll see if I can sort that once we’ve fixed the point-defences. Are you all right to leave Damaru and Taro to it now?’ Jarek didn’t want to hassle her, but they had several hours’ work ahead of them, and the lasers only had to let in a large enough spec of debris with the wrong trajectory . . . He’d heard the spacers’ legend – hopefully just a spacers’ legend! – about a broken beanstalk that had wrapped itself around the equator of the planet it had been built to serve, cutting deep into the world’s surface like a wire through butter.

‘Aye. Let us go,’ Kerin said after one last long look at the retreating figure of her son.

As they walked out of the hold, he asked, ‘How are things going down there anyway?’

‘We are progressing, slowly. The old Cariad encouraged mistrust and intrigue, and her ways still hold sway in the Tyr. Outside, the falling fire has passed, of course, though there was another, lesser ailment that came as it left.’

‘A new disease?’

‘Aye, a flux; quite unpleasant, though rarely fatal.’

‘Oh.’ He felt sick.

‘What is it, Sais?’

‘That might have been my fault,’ he admitted.

‘Your fault? How can a disease be your fault?’

‘Serenein has been isolated for a long time. I could have brought that disease with me without realising it. I could’ve just been a carrier, or maybe I had a really mild case myself, but your people wouldn’t have had any immunity. If I’d been in my right mind I might have thought of that at the time – and if I hadn’t been so distracted this time . . .
damn
. Well, it’s not too late. We’ve been pretty thoroughly decontaminated recently, but all of us should get checked out in the
Setting Sun
’s medbay before anyone leaves the ship.’

‘That sounds like a wise precaution.’

They had reached the engineering locker, which was actually a decent-sized storeroom. It didn’t take Jarek long to collect the right tools. He checked the schematics on his com.

‘Right,’ he said, ‘we need to lift the deck plating along the route of the central bus to expose the trunk cabling. I’ll explain what and why if you’re interested, but it’s basically just a matter of taking up a load of panels.’

Once they’d got started, Kerin said, a little apprehensively, ‘You said you had a gift for me – for us.’

‘Yes, I do. It’s a beacon, a device that can link you into human-space.’

‘So my world will no longer be lost?’

‘Exactly. Here, take this please—’

She lifted the first panel from his hands and propped it against the wall behind her. When she turned back to face him her expression was thoughtful. ‘Is Serenein the first such isolated world to join the many worlds of humanity?’

‘Yes and no. After the Sidhe Protectorate fell things went a bit crazy. Some systems suffered a catastrophic collapse; others were out of contact for decades, even centuries, although they were eventually rediscovered. But none of the systems we’ve found so far were deliberately hidden the way yours has been. Though the rest of humanity didn’t know about them, their inhabitants generally knew there was someone else out there.’

‘So there could be other lost worlds, as yet undiscovered?’

‘It’s possible.’ He carefully lined the screwdriver up with the furthest screw, then paused before pushing it home, thinking about how much he should actually say to her.

Kerin said, ‘Sais, do not think to save my feelings; you wonder if the Sidhe had more than one source of Consorts, do you not? You have explained what happens to the boys, that they become – I forget the word—’

‘Transit-kernels. You’re right; I’m sure that at one time there were more worlds like this, because shiftships were more common in Protectorate times, and the Sidhe would never have relied on a single location to breed their shift-minds. But that was then; these days I’m pretty sure it’s just Serenein.’

‘Which makes my world valuable, for all the wrong reasons.’ When he glanced up at her, Kerin’s expression was grim. ‘I am sure the people of human-space will not simply give us what we ask for out of kindness. What do we have to trade, Sais? If the answer is “our children”, then I do not wish this gift you have brought. I will not replace one unseen tyranny with another!’

‘Kerin, that was never the plan,’ Jarek said, bending over the panel again.

‘Then just what was your intended fate for my world?’ She sounded almost aggressively sceptical, a far cry from the meek woman who’d saved his life when he first arrived on Serenein. ‘Surely in this universe of plenty, a backwards world like mine is of little interest?’

‘Actually it is,’ Jarek said firmly. ‘We have this system – we call it beevee – which allows communication between different worlds . . . but it does more than that. The whole economy of human-space is based on it – specifically, on its capacity.’

‘Its
capacity
?’

‘Sorry, I’ll explain. These beacons, like the one I’ve got for you, allow a fixed amount of information to pass through them at a fixed rate, and they transmit it without any time-lag. The universe is short on constants like that. And every system has this capacity, because every system has a beacon. So they trade capacity – well, it’s more
the promise
of capacity . . . to cut a complicated story short, most people accept this capacity –
cap
– as the universal currency. They don’t need to think any more about it than that. From your point of view, what you need to know is that just
having
a beacon gives your world an intrinsic value.’ He pulled out the final screw with a flourish.

‘So you give me a beacon, for nothing, and I trade its output for all the advantages of human-space? That sounds too good to be true!’ said Kerin as she leaned forward to take the panel from Jarek.

Jarek moved along to the next floor-panel. ‘You’re quite right; of course there’s more to it than that. If you’re going to buy medicines, or much in the way of tech, you’re going to need more than just the revenue your beacon’s capacity can provide – but that’s okay, because that leads me on to Plan B. Er, can you take these and put them in the tray in the toolbox?’

Kerin accepted the handful of loose screws, put them away, then waited for Jarek to continue.

‘You remember I mentioned the beevee network?’ he said as he began undoing the next panel. ‘Well, to trade your beacon’s cap – capacity – you need to be linked into it, and that’s going to cause quite a stir – especially when people discover that your world has been going its own way since Protectorate times. They’re going to be absolutely fascinated. Beevee transmits sound, and images too, so they’ll be able to see this amazing lost world for themselves – that’s a privilege they’ll be more than happy to pay for,’ he added confidently. It helped that the Sidhe had already put surveillance satellites in orbit, and instituted rules, like all acts of worship taking place under the open sky, to ensure the populace were easy to observe.

‘So what you are saying is that our backward nature is our main asset . . .’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ said Jarek slowly. Somehow his big idea didn’t sound so brilliant when he said it out loud.

‘Sais, we are not some sideshow for others to gawp at! We are a
world
, we are many thousands of people – we may not have great knowledge or magical machines or all the advantages your people have, but our lives are no less valid!’

‘I
know
that, Kerin’ he said, ‘and I’m not trying to belittle you, but you have to understand how human-space is likely to react to Serenein. Most people live full and comfortable lives without ever leaving their home world – but they do crave novelty. Entertainment is
big
business.’

‘But only while we remain primitive?
That
is the feature which makes us of interest, is it not? But it is exactly such isolation and ignorance I seek to end.’

‘Yes and that’s the catch.’ He turned his attention to a recalcitrant screw on the current panel. Once he’d freed it, with Kerin remaining silent he said, ‘This is all optional. Until I register your beacon, it isn’t tied into the beevee network, so if you don’t want me to do that, I won’t.’

‘Would people want to come here, if this world interested them enough? You say travel is rare, but it must happen, must it not? For you are one such traveller.’

‘In the long run yes, there might be enough interest for people to come out here. Probably tourists, and possibly other traders, if I—’

‘Sais, the situation below is very delicate! The arrival of strangers from the sky . . . I shudder to think of what effect that might have.’

‘As I say, it’s all optional. You could veto visitors. There are panhuman Treaties in place that allow systems to remain physically isolated if their inhabitants prefer it that way.’

‘Good. But in that case, how would the benefits we might buy come to us?’

‘We can use the revenue from the cap and beevee rights. I’ll organise whatever you need and bring it to the transfer-station. In the long run, maybe I can also pick up items for trade – handmade stuff, embroidery, pots, that sort of stuff. It’ll fetch a good price because it’s unique to Serenein, which makes it rare. We can exchange the goods when the carousel makes its annual ascent of the silver thread at – what’s it called again? Oh yeah, Sul Esgyniad – or more often, once you’ve got people to accept changes to their old ways.’