5
Megaship
Vavatch lay in space like a god’s bracelet. The fourteen-millionkilometer hoop glittered and sparkled, blue and gold against
the jet-black gulf of
space beyond. As the
Clear Air Turbulence
warped in toward the Orbital, most of the Company watched their goal approach on the main
screen in the mess. The aquamarine
sea, which covered most of the surface of the artifact’s ultradense base material, was spattered with white
puffs of cloud,
collected in huge storm systems or vast banks, some of which seemed to stretch right across the full thirty-five-thousand-
kilometer
breadth of the slowly turning Orbital.
Only on one side of that looped band of water was there any land visible, hard up against one sloped retaining wall of pure
crystal. Although,
from the distance they were watching, the sliver of land looked like a tiny brown thread lying on the edge
of a great rolled-out bolt of vivid blue,
that thread was anything up to two thousand kilometers across; there was no shortage
of land on Vavatch.
Its greatest attraction, however, was and had always been the Megaships.
“Don’t you have a religion." Dorolow asked Horza.
“Yes," he replied, not taking his eyes away from the screen on the wall above the end of the main mess-room table. “My survival."
“So… your religion dies with you. How sad," Dorolow said, looking back from Horza to the screen. The Changer let the remark
pass.
The exchange had started when Dorolow, struck by the beauty of the great Orbital, expressed the belief that even though it
was a work of
base creatures, no better than humans, it was still a triumphant testimony to the power of God, as God had made
Man, and all other souled
creatures. Horza had disagreed, genuinely annoyed that the woman could use even something so obviously
a testament to the power of
intelligence and hard work as an argument for her own system of irrational belief.
Yalson, who was sitting beside Horza at the table, and whose foot was gently rubbing the Changer’s ankle, put her elbows on
the plastic
surface beside the plates and beakers. “And they’re going to blow it away in four days’ time. What a fucking waste."
Whether or not this would have worked as a subject-changing parry, she did not get a chance to find out, because the mess
PA crackled
once and then came clear with the voice of Kraiklyn, who was on the bridge: “Thought you might like to see this,
people."
The view of the distant Orbital was replaced by a blank screen onto which there then appeared a message in flashing letters.
WARNING
/
SIGNAL
/
WARNING
/
SIGNAL
/
WARNING
/
SIGNAL
/
WARNING: ATTENTION ALL CRAFT
!
VAVATCH ORBITAL AND HUB WITH ALL ANCILLARY UNITS WILL BE
DESTROYED REPEAT DESTROYED MARAINTIME A
/4872.0001
EXACT
(
EQUIVALENT G-HUB TIME
00043.2909.401:
EQUIVALENT LIMB THREE TIME
09.256.8
: EQUIVALENT IDIRTIMERELATIVE QU’URI BALTA
359.0021
: EQUIVALENT VAVATCHTIME SEG
7
TH.
4010.5)
BY NOVALEVEL HYPERGRIDINTRUSION
AND SUBSEQUENT CAM BOMBARDMENT. SENT BY
ESCHATOLOGIST
(
TEMPORARY NAME
),
CULTURE GENERAL SYSTEMS VEHICLE. TIMED AT A
/4870.986
.
MARAINBASE ALLTRANS… SIGNAL SECTION END… SIGNAL REPETITION NUMBER ONE OF SEVEN FOLLOWS:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.WARNING
/
SIGNAL
/
WARNING
/
SIGNAL
/
WARNING…
“We just ran through that message shell," Kraiklyn added. “See you later." The PA crackled again, then was silent. The message
faded from
the screen and the Orbital filled it again.
“Hmm," Jandraligeli said. “Brief and to the point."
“Like I said." Yalson nodded at the screen.
“I remember…" Wubslin said slowly, staring at the band of brilliant blue and white on the screen, “when I was very young one
of my teachers
floated a little toy metal boat on the surface of a bucketful of water. Then she lifted the bucket by the handle
and held me up against her chest
with her other arm, so that I was facing the same way she was. She started to go round and
round, faster and faster, letting the spin send the
bucket out away from her, and eventually the bucket was straight out,
the surface of the water in it at ninety degrees to the floor, and I was held
there with this great big adult hand across
my belly and everything spinning around me and I was watching this little toy boat, which was still
floating on the water,
even though the water was straight up and down in front of my face, and my teacher said, ‘You remember this if you’re
ever
lucky enough to see the Megaships of Vavatch.’ "
“Yeah." Lamm said. “Well, they’re about to let the fucking handle go."
“So let’s just hope we’re not still on the surface when they do," Yalson said.
Jandraligeli turned to her, one eyebrow up: “After that last fiasco, dear,
nothing
would surprise me."
“Easy in, easy out," Aviger said, and the old man laughed.
The haul from Marjoin to Vavatch had taken twenty-three days. The Company had gradually recovered from the effects of the
abortive attack on
the Temple of Light. There were a few small sprains and grazes; Dorolow had been blind in one eye for a
couple of days, and everybody had
been quiet and withdrawn, but by the time Vavatch came into sight they were all starting
to get so bored with life on board ship, even with less
of them on it, that they were looking forward to another operation.
Horza kept the laser rifle which kee-Alsorofus had used, and carried out what rudimentary repairs and improvements the
CAT
’s limited
engineering facilities would allow him to effect to his suit. Kraiklyn was full of praise for the one he had taken
from Horza; it had lifted him out of