Starfire Saga, page 93
We knew then that the MIs would not reveal any of the changes we had created in them until we were too far away to be stopped. They had accepted evolution, as humanity would have to accept it, as Caryldon would have to. None of it would be easy.
Pel Nostro drew himself up. “I feel I should say something to mark this occasion,” he said. “We of the Com have come to the end of a remarkable time, and we let you depart while we still have a number of unanswered questions, but I remember a saying about an inexplicable human attraction to unanswerable questions. Those questions will impel us to strive, just as your departure will. It is not easy to balance the competing demands of a massive society, but we must continue to try, because the population will continue to demand it of us.”
“The population,” Terrill Guthrie said, “will always make demands and will get what it deserves.”
For a moment none of us said anything, and then Jemeret rose. “We certainly wish you well,” he said.
“I’m certain you will meet whatever challenges you’re presented with,” Jasin Lebec said smoothly.
I had a microsecond’s thought of the challenges that awaited the Com: finding and handling its own internal talent without destroying it; dealing with the unexpected discovery that the Lume technology was unusable and some worlds were a lot farther away than they used to be; discovering as this generation of Drenalion further degraded that there would not be another strain to follow it; developing a new relationship with the collective mind of the MIs; and more. I wondered what the empire would look like in a few years. I reflected idly that I was glad I wouldn’t be around when Terrill Guthrie discovered he was out of a job.
We would have our own challenges on Caryldon, and while they were smaller, I saw them as no less important. Not least of those challenges would be the talentless people we would have to bring down to the surface with us: the captain and crew of the Termalume, the staff of Markover Station, which would never be resupplied once we abandoned the Lumeship, and, certainly not least, John Caryl. The tribes of the Samoth had never before had to deal with so many immigrants at one time. Abruptly, I was very glad I’d already told the tribe leaders the great secret.
And of course there was the mystery that was Andriel. Was she an anomaly, born of something native to Ananda, blooming amid the hatred and brutality, or would our next generation of talent really be what they could be now that the Com would no longer be taking away the strongest among us?
And then there were the greatest unanswered questions of all. Had we done the right things in the MIs? Had we even done positive things? Would they be good for us and not so good for the rest of humanity? We might not live long enough to know.
“We will, of course, keep you informed of the disposition of the case of Dolen T’Kelle,” Faucon Oletta was saying. “I hope we have no others like him.”
“I think we won’t,” Petra Chantrey said sincerely. “True villains are very rare. Most conflict arises between well-meaning adversaries with opposing convictions. Those are hard enough to deal with.”
I thought that only an academician could so breathtakingly dismiss the power of hatred and ambition, but then I had learned that the academic view was often at odds with reality.
Davin Olavson bid us a truly fond farewell then, resting his hand lightly on Coney’s head. While he was doing that, I reflected on the irony that the Becois, for all their misdirected energy, may have been right about one thing—we did free them from the threat of the Drenalion after all.
Within ten minutes—no groundcar this time—we were aboard Termalume. Jemeret and I left Andriel with Sandalari and went into the bridge to sit by the Lume field generator. The ship’s systems would take us to the coordinates, but he and I would have to navigate through Lumespace.
Sitting quietly with him, observing the full high watch crew put the ship through its routines, I felt a strange contentment. Already what Dolen T’Kelle had made me endure was fading into a background softened by the power of the starfire. It was ironic that what he’d done to me was somehow easier for me to accept than what Kray had done to me. The latter had been my dear friend; the former was my enemy, and it’s very rewarding to hate an enemy.
It was ironic, too, that while the MIs had never wanted to see me suffer, the starfire had demanded it. I would have to learn to deal with that.
Jemeret squeezed my hand and stroked me with his sting, and I turned my face up to him, smiling. “Have I ever thanked you?” I asked him.
“For what?”
“For everything, of course.”
“You’ve thanked me,” he said.
“What will we do, do you think, when we get back to Caryldon?”
He thought about it for a few moments. “After we get everyone settled and through another Convalee, perhaps we really ought to see if we can locate the Isle of the Wise.” He sounded half teasing, half serious. “There’s no telling what we might find as part of the wisdom of the ancients. For now, let’s just find our way back to our world.”
The first chime sounded, and I took a long, deep breath. Then he and I pressed our palms back against the Lume field generator and prepared to follow the taste of cinnamon and clove sugar home.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roby James started reading when she was four, writing when she was nine, and always got “talks too much” as a comment on her report cards. She fell in love with science fiction years before the field become respectable and with her husband about eight months before he became respectable. She has been running the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon since 1975 (before rafting became fashionable); her wilderness experiences taught her that life does exist without technology. That was a valuable lesson, because right after she got her M.B.A., she ditched corporate America, where employers thought she should think the way they did just because they were paying her. She is grateful that science fiction, white-water rafting, self-employment, minimalism, and monogamy have all reached the mainstream now, because she’s always wanted to be part of the gang.
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Here are more ebooks you’ll enjoy from ReAnimus Press (plus lots more on the web site):
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Roby James, Starfire Saga
