Venus of Dreams (66 page)

The image disappeared, as if someone had cut the Linker off.

"I thought Anwara agreed with us," Olaf said.

Iris sighed. "They probably did, as long as they thought we'd get away with it."

"But didn't Mukhtar Pavel tell them what we were going to do?" Tonie asked.

"I don't know," Iris said. "He might have told those he trusted. He might have figured that, after the Habber ships were here, it wouldn't matter what Anwara did."

"There's one thing we can do," Olaf burst out. "We can flee to the Habber ships and get away. They won't stay here to fight our battle, I bet."

Chen turned his head toward the big man. "Would you really leave the Islands for a Hab?"

"Your son did."

"Our son was wrong," Iris replied. "You'd better calm yourself, Olaf, you'll just spread panic. Anyway, use your head. There are almost fifty thousand people on the Islands and Bats now, counting the Habbers. We couldn't possibly get them all to the ships in time."

"But the Habbers can leave by themselves."

"I suppose they can, if they leave soon."

Chen was silent. He was sure that some of those on Anwara must have known ships from Earth were on their way before now; had they warned the Islanders earlier, an escape might have been possible. He scowled. The Anwarans, whatever their sympathies with the Islanders, had proven their loyalty to Earth by remaining silent until this moment.

"The Habbers can fight," Fei-lin said as he struck his palm with a fist.

"And then what?" Iris asked. "What happens to Earth? Things would be harder there if there's a battle with the Habs. And what happens to us?" She held out a hand. "Listen, Earth has to be careful. If they're so concerned about controlling the Project, they can't risk destroying us. This might just be a show of force designed to show everyone the Nomarchies aren't afraid to act. Maybe Earth is ready to give us the help we need, now that they've seen how desperate we've grown."

Chen bowed his head. He felt no surprise; somehow, he had been expecting something like this to happen, and he suspected that this wouldn't end the matter. Given a choice between preserving the Project and showing their power, the Mukhtars might risk the destruction of everything here.

Iris felt that the dome had closed in around her. She would pace along the paths or stumble through a garden or wood, and no matter how far she walked, she would always come within sight of the platform that circled the Island and the dome that imprisoned them all.

The threat from Earth, she knew, however she tried to minimize it, was real enough; this was only the first move in the game, and she was not sure where it would lead, yet at the same time, the threat seemed unreal. During the past hours, the Islanders had clustered around the screens that were their only link to outside events. They had seen images, transmitted by orbiting sensors, of the Habber ships, those oddly elongated slender cylinders attached to the giant globes that housed their engines. They had viewed charts and diagrams that plotted the course of the approaching Earth ships. They had listened to the hum of messages from the other Islands, whose people seemed to be looking to the Administrators of Island Two for some sort of solace. Yet it all seemed distant, as if the Islanders were enclosed in an impermeable bubble. Words flowed over them and faded; the diagrams and images were only pictures of events that were happening elsewhere.

Pavel had taken advantage of the air of unreality. His face had appeared on the screens intermittently; his voice had been soothing. Iris could no longer recollect what he had said, but it didn't matter; he had sounded unperturbed, with no worries for the Islands' future. He had seemed prepared for Earth's move; she wondered if he had in fact foreseen it or was only trying to avert panic.

She heard voices up ahead, beyond the trees; people had gathered in front of the Habbers' stone dwelling. The Habbers would have to leave very soon if they were to join those on their ships above; she wondered how the crowd would react at seeing them go. She turned away and walked on until she came to the wider path in front of the Administrators' ziggurat.

More people had assembled here. Iris stood at the edge of the crowd. A few Administrators stood at the top of the steps, flanked by a few Guardians. Iris shivered. What would the Guardians do if Earth ordered them to act? Would they continue to obey their commander here, and understand that they were too few to act against the Islanders? Or would they try to take control of the Islands? It would be futile to do so, but many people could die or be wounded in the meantime.

"Listen, all of you!" one of the Administrators was shouting; his voice could barely be heard. Amir Azad was near him, gazing out over the crowd. "Pavel will soon have more to say. Go to your residences, keep your screens open for messages. There's no need to gather here."

The people below were silent.

"Very well, then. If you must wait here, we'll give you Pavel's next message as soon as we can." The Linkers began to retreat toward their entrance.

Amir had caught sight of Iris. He descended the steps as the people around him began to seat themselves. She waited until he had come up to her, then tugged at his sleeve as she led him away toward the trees.

In the dim light and the shadows, she could not see Amir's face clearly. "What are the Habbers going to do?" she asked.

"What do you think? They're going to remove their ships."

Iris felt mingled relief and disappointment. "Then they can't defend them."

"That isn't what they've said," Amir replied. "They say that if they showed their true strength, many lives would be lost. They say that they won't take the lives of those aboard Earth's ships, who are only following the orders of those above them. Pavel is with some Habbers now. They'll make the announcement with him."

Iris leaned against a tree. "There's more," Amir continued. "The Habbers who are here now intend to stay. They say they want to go on with their work."

"But Earth asked them to leave."

"Their ships were asked to leave. The Habbers here will stay on the Islands. It's a technicality, I suppose, but Pavel believes it may be to our advantage. There won't be hard feelings and possible disorder, as there would be if our people had to watch them escape. It also shows that the Habbers here don't fear any action Earth might take."

"But if their ships leave," Iris objected, "that will show fear."

"That's not how they see it. They want to avoid a destructive conflict. They're prepared to back down for now. But the Habs will warn Earth that if any harm comes to the Habbers here, Earth will pay for it, and their presence may give us some protection as well." Amir chuckled mirthlessly. "Why, I've been told that the Habbers have enough materials on the surface now to continue with dome construction for some time, as a sign of good will and a demonstration that they believe this crisis will be resolved."

She let out her breath. "Then we're safe?"

"For now. Until Earth decides what to do next."

She plucked at his sleeve. "You have a Link. Why aren't the Linkers here speaking directly with those on Earth, trying to—" She paused. "Or have you already?"

"Oh, Iris."

"Some on Earth might listen to you."

"Don't be a fool. First, it was blocks, closing us off from certain channels of information, so that we couldn't ascertain Earth's plans. We are now cut off completely. Do you understand? We've been severed. Even our cyberminds are no longer Linked with those on Earth." His fingers dug into her shoulder. "I shouldn't be telling you that. If others knew—"

"You know I won't speak." She shook off his hand. "What have we come to?" She recalled her meeting with Pavel. "What have I done?" she whispered. "I should never have gone to Pavel. Amir, we'll lose."

"That may be. I've thought so almost from the start. Then you came to Pavel, and I had second thoughts. I knew after that I wouldn't change Pavel's mind, and I wanted to protect you however I could. I believed I might be able to exert some restraining influence on him. I was wrong, of course, and now we cannot turn back. There's still a chance that some of the Mukhtars will restrain others, that Earth will limit itself simply to rattling its swords at the Habs."

Iris felt dizzy. The unreal atmosphere of the past several hours had infected Amir, too, and, as a Linker, one who had always dominated others, he probably felt that he couldn't be touched. The world, to him, was only data to be manipulated and understood.

"Iris," he said. She felt his breath on her face. "Pavel and the Habbers with him will speak soon." The Linker was speaking in Arabic now. "Come with me, to my room. We shall hear him speak together. We can still seize a bit of joy for ourselves at such a time, and the danger that may await us later will add some—"

"I don't want to hear him," she cried. She spun around and ran; she was panting by the time she emerged from the trees. She hurried along the path and passed some people sitting in a garden; someone had set up a screen there, and she could hear the calm, measured voice of Pavel Gvishiani. She moved more quickly until the voice faded.

After a while, she noticed that the Island had grown quieter. She imagined that everyone had suddenly vanished, that she was alone.

She rounded a bend and saw two women sitting on a bench. One of the women looked up; she was holding a pocket screen. She gestured to Iris wordlessly.

Iris walked toward the women and peered over their shoulders at the screen. A Habber ship was moving against the backdrop of space; in the right corner of the screen, eight tiny bright specks flickered. The Habber ships were leaving now, she saw, and Earth's ships would soon be near Anwara.

"They're leaving us," one of the women said. Iris saw that the woman was barely more than a girl. "I wonder what'll become of us now."

"You mustn't think that way," the other woman said. "The Project's still safe, we still have Habbers here to help us. Pavel knows what he's doing. He got help here when we needed it, and he'll see that we're safe. You heard him. It was clever of him to persuade the Habber ships to leave while getting those Habbers here to stay on."

Iris's mouth twitched. She could imagine how Pavel had twisted his words to convey that impression; he would even make the Habbers' decision seem like his own, part of his plan. She stared at the screen and watched the Habber ship grow smaller until all she could see of it was its dimly glowing globe.

For a week after the departure of the Habber ships, there was no word from Earth or Anwara. Four of the arriving ships from Earth were in orbit around the planet; the others had docked at the satellite.

The Islanders had begun to resume their usual tasks. Chen was grateful for the work, which kept him from worrying, at least for a little while, about what Earth might do; it also kept him from thinking about Iris. During the past days, she had sunk into a morose silence, and he had been unable to cheer her even for a little while.

Before the departure of the Habber ships, Iris had convinced herself that Pavel Gvishiani's gamble would work; now, she seemed to have lost faith in his actions. Chen, on the other hand, could feel grateful that Earth had, at least so far, not reacted more harshly. A battle had been averted, and Chen had no way to affect the future course of events; therefore, he would do what work he could in the meantime and refuse to think about the matter.

He had been sent to the residence of the Habbers to replace a few worn circuits in their door. He stood in the open doorway as his hands moved automatically along the wall bordering the entrance. He took off panels, tested components, replaced defective ones with new parts; the routine work, which he had done so many times before, was soothing. Occasionally, a Habber walked through the bare and empty room and greeted Chen; otherwise, the place inside was silent, with no sound of chatter in the halls.

Two Guardians sat outside on the grass near the path leading to the door; one of them threw back her head and laughed. The two seemed carefree enough. Chen supposed that they could afford to be calm; they had done no more than follow their commander's orders, as they had been trained to do. More important, the fact that they had thrown in their lot with the Islanders had eased more of the hard feeling against them.

The door's scanner seemed about to fail. Chen pried out the damaged component and installed another, then replaced a panel. He dropped the worn-out component in his bag; if he could not repair it, he might find use for bits of it elsewhere. Earth's stinginess had made all of the workers more economical.

Chen was about to pick up his bag and close the door when the wall screen inside the stone building lit up. The angular, stern face of a dark-haired man stared into the room; Chen imagined him reaching for the door with one giant hand. Two Habbers had just entered the room; they turned toward the screen.

"There's something on the screen," Chen shouted to the Guardians; the two got to their feet and hurried toward the entrance.

"People of the Cytherian Islands!" the man on the screen called out. "I speak for the Council of Mukhtars and all of the Nomarchies of Earth. You know me as Abdullah Heikal."

Chen tensed as one of the Guardians gasped. Abdullah Heikal was a Mukhtar, and it was rumored that he controlled the Council of Mukhtars. Clearly, Earth had come to a decision, and a Mukhtar was addressing them directly, instead of having someone on Anwara speak for Earth. That was ominous.

"You Islanders have acted without consulting us, or our representatives on the satellite Anwara. Not only have you shamed us but you have also shamed yourselves. You have turned to Habbers instead of seeking our guidance to overcome your difficulties. Do you think that we are so lacking in resources? Do you think that we are so lacking in power that we would let this pass?"

A few more Habbers had entered the room; they were gazing impassively at Abdullah Heikal's lean, implacable face.

"People of the Islands! You have conducted yourselves as if you were independent of us. Your Administrators have led you astray." Abdullah showed his teeth. "But we know that most of you cannot be held responsible for this. Here is our message to you, and note it well, for it will be the last one I send. If you give us the Administrators who betrayed our trust, all of them, every man and woman on each Island's Administrative Committee, we shall allow the rest of you to remain with the Project. If the Guardians among you will give up their commander, they too will be forgiven their actions. We know that many Habitat-dwellers still live among you. They will be allowed to leave peacefully, though the shuttles carrying them must dock at Anwara first so that we can be certain no Islanders are trying to escape with them. From Anwara, the Habitat-dwellers will be allowed to return to their homes."