Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3 (82 page)

“I understood that to be an accident.”

“It was, yet I find myself wondering if it was a contrived accident. I have been at some pains recently to keep myself away from Atheron, but the invitation to visit the
vimpic
room was not made by him. I believed him to be safely quite a long way away, or I should never have entered.”

“He intends to run Sell himself?”

“Oh, definitely. It was only the way the meeting last year backfired on him which put a stop to his plans. But it will be difficult to ensure that he doesn’t get his way.”

“You will have to be very careful.”

“I know. I have people around me I can trust, and things will be easier next year, after the Second Valhai Votation. After that, many of our laws will have been changed for good – at least for another thousand years. That will discourage people from trying to snatch the power here. I think I will be safe after that.”

“Then you need to keep yourself safe until then?”

Mandalon nodded. “There is nothing we can do at the moment. Atheron has friends in high places, and until we have irrefutable proof I can bring no case against him. I believe him to be building a small army around him – dissatisfied Elders from Kwaide, together with a sprinkling of Coriolans, Sellites and Xianthans, but I must wait.”

“You are brave.”

Mandalon smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate that comment very much.”

“But you want something from me?”

Mandalon nodded. “Yes, I do. I know that you sometimes give your friends orthogel bracelets, so that they can call you if necessary?”

Arcan nodded. He could see where this was going now.

“—I would like you to give me one, just until the Second Valhai Votation. Then, if anything happens to me, I can call you.”

“That will only be successful if he gives you enough time to call me.”

“True. But I would sleep a little more easily at night knowing that you could find me anywhere he might take me.”

“Very well. What would you like me to give you?”
 

“Nothing that can be seen. It must be something hidden from everybody else.”
 

A tiny piece of orthogel detached itself from Arcan, and covered the base of the nail of the little finger on Mandalon’s right hand. It was transparent, and impossible to detect.

“If you need me, bite or knock hard against it, three times,” said Arcan. “I will come immediately.”

“I am glad that we have become allies,” said the boy.

“Yes. I am not fond of Atheron either.” Arcan flickered and then disappeared, leaving Mandalon alone on his couch, pensive.
 

WHEN THE DONOR Headquarters on Xiantha finally rolled into view the following day, it turned out to be an imposing building which reared out of the Great Plain, a modern anachronism in the semi-desert, almost like a mirage.

They left their canths to forage on the outside of the installations, and walked up to the solid doors, which opened for them automatically to pass inside. There were, after all, signs of technology on the planet. They must be running a generator to keep the place at this low temperature, too. Six gave a whistle. They had certainly not been expecting this show of luxury here.

A small woman came forward to greet them. “
Valhai
Diva,” she said, inclining her head, “this is indeed a great honour for us.”

“You know who I am!”

The woman looked shocked. “Of course I do. You are the only living
Valhai
to ever visit our installations. How could I not know who you are? You and your friends are most welcome here, and I am at your disposal.”

“I was hoping to see what has happened to my … err—”

“Your progeny, I understand. If you would come with me …?”

Grace pulled back. “Actually, if you don’t mind, I’d rather stay here while Diva and Six go to see some of the children. I would like to talk to the director, if that could be arranged.”

The woman bowed again. “Certainly.” She waved an arm towards a luxurious couch. “If you would like to take a seat, he will be with you shortly. I will tell him that you have requested his presence.”

“My name is—”

“—We know exactly who each of you is,” she said. “Your fame has preceded you.”

“Told you so!” whispered Six.

“Shh! Are you staying with me, or going with Diva?”

Six gave a sigh. “I promised I would go with Diva. Will you be all right?”

Grace smiled at him. “Of course. You go with Diva. We will see each other later on.”

“Fine. Take care.”

“As if anything could ever happen on this idyllic planet!”

Six shook his head. She didn’t know much. “Never call the wind when Kwaide is looking to Lumina,” he muttered.

“What?”

“Never mind.”

“OK. See you later!”

Six lifted and lowered his head to say goodbye, and turned to follow Diva, who was already disappearing with the small woman along a long corridor to their left.

DIVA AND SIX soon found themselves in a clinically sterile room filled with magmite furniture and rexelene containers and test tubes. They looked around with interest. The whole facility seemed in opposition to the rest of the planet, colourless amidst the splash of vividness which was Xiantha.

“
Valhai
Diva!” An old man with hideous teeth scuttled forward, and touched hands with her. “What an honour! Xiantha has waited so long for one of the
Valhai
to visit! You grace our day and bring colour to this laboratory.”

“I wanted to find out what happened to my … my progeny,” she said, using the word the woman had used.

“Naturally. When we heard that you had come to Xiantha we assumed that you would wish to see some of them. The vehicle is ready and waiting for you. If you would like to come this way?”

Six and Diva exchanged glances, and then fell in behind the man. He led them at a slow and deliberate pace in and out of the magmite, along several passages, and up to a large chamber, containing five objects which looked rather like sleds. The man indicated the nearest of these, and waited to hand Diva into it, escorting her to a seat which was fixed to the sled. Then he repeated the gesture for Six.

“What makes this thing go?” asked Six in a suspicious tone.

The old man, who had told them that he was the head physician on the donor program, and had introduced himself as the man who contrived children, smiled. “They are the only ones of their kind on Xiantha,” he said. “They were imported specially from Sell itself!”

“And are powered by …?”

“They are called magsleds, but they work on a combination of helium chamber, slight magnetic levitation, and hover capabilities. Here near the north pole, where the magnetic field is so strong, and the field lines nearly vertical, we only use magnetic levitation. In the lowlands we need the full hovercraft facilities, since magnetic levitation doesn’t apply. We still use magnetism for steering, though.” The old man spread his arms. “The Sellites developed them for us centuries ago, after the last big flare from Almagest, and I am afraid we do not really know how they work. They need little maintenance, and only a small amount of fuel. It is almost magic.”

“How fast do they travel?”

“It was necessary to have some rapid form of travel for the genetic manipulation. Genetic material could not be brought here either by cart or by canth – it would spoil before it arrived. These platforms can travel at about five hundred miles per hour.”

Six blinked. “Sacras! That is fast! From the spaceport here in a couple of minutes then?”

The man inclined his head. “Exactly. We would have been happy to fetch
Valhai
Diva from the spaceport, but since we knew nothing about her plans to come to Xiantha …”

Diva looked uncomfortable. “No.”

“This not being an official visit organized by the Sellites …”

“Quite. And now you are taking us …?”

“Once the canth keeper informed us of your presence here on Xiantha I took the liberty of mapping out a journey which will take the
Valhai
to see some twenty of her offspring in situ in their adoptive homes. This will take us about five hours.”

“Perfect. Whenever you are ready.”

The correct button was duly pressed, a rexelene cover closed the canopy, and the heavy sled rose into the air, hovered without moving for a few seconds, and then took off very quickly in a southerly direction, accelerating all the while. It was hard to assess the speed, for there was no vibration or discomfort whatsoever. Only the trees and hills flashing past made them realize how fast they were traveling.

“Now we know how the Sellites travel when they come here!” said Six. “I had a feeling they wouldn’t be spending days in a cart, or on top of a canth, come to that.”

The physician shook his head. “Sellites always travel by magsled when they visit our planet. They bring little colour to us, unfortunately. The number of Sellites who have been adopted by canths is very, very low. They are uninterested in our customs. Their energies are concentrated on financial gain – a concept quite foreign to Xianthan philosophy.”

They traveled on in this way for perhaps half-an-hour before the platform began to slow down. Diva was almost hanging out of her side of the sled, eagerly awaiting the chance to see one of her own children.

They finally stopped alongside a neat one-storey building, in front of which a large family had duly assembled. There were gnarled ancients, bent elders, still-strong farmers, upright adults, and two small children. They smiled and waved at the visitors. All were dressed in many-coloured loose garments, and all appeared happy, except the oldest of all the ancients, who was in a two-coloured cloak. The physician saw Diva looking at the old man.
 

“He is losing his mind. When we lose our minds, we lose our colours. It is sad, but also inevitable. That man has had a long and happy life, with many colours in it, but now he is fading.”

“I see.” Diva couldn’t help but look at the children. They were little more than babies, but they were already wearing two colours, and they were running around their older relatives with gusto. They looked very happy. She turned to the physician.

“May I speak to them?”

“Most certainly.” The functionary waved at one of members of the waiting family, who bent to scoop up one child in each arm, and walked up to the sled.

The old man introduced them. “This is the man who whispers to the cornfields, the Elder of the family, and these are his children, the boy who is always outside and the girl who is very naughty.”

Diva looked into their eyes, which were like hers, but unlike hers at the same time. She could see the resemblance, but these were not clones, these were children who appeared Xianthan in every way.

She nodded at the Elder. “Thank you.”
 

The man was waved back out of the way by their guide, who fiddled with the buttons of the sled once more. “I will take you to the next family,” he said, putting action to words. The sled lifted off the ground, hovered, and then left. Diva put up one hand to wave regally, and the whole family replied.

“They have never seen a real
Valhai
, before, of course. This visit brings them much colour.”

“They look very … very … Xianthan?” Diva didn’t know what she had been expecting, but it had not been these hardy, brown children so obviously content with their lot. They had the strong craggy features of the Xianthans, too.

The functionary nodded. “They are most special cases. You see, normally children are conceived between two
Valhais
. This is, of course, the safest method of ensuring that there is no contamination by radiation. However, in this case, no male
Valhai
donor was available. So we were forced to look closer to home. There are small pockets of Xiantha which remain untouched by the radiation – the canth farm is one, for example, and over the years the few Xianthan nationals who have remained clear of irradiative mutations have donated their genetic material. This was only really intended for research, but when your oocytes were later not matched to a male
Valhai
, we were forced to use the local donations.”

“So these children are actually half Xianthan,” mused Six. “No wonder that they look so at home here!”

“The Xianthan genes are noticeable,” agreed the man who contrived children.

The magsled sped on across the country until it drew up in front of another low house which lay in a fertile valley. Again the whole family had hastily been gathered to receive visitors, and again the two nut-brown children were clearly completely happy with their lot.
 

This was repeated over the following few hours. They visited a total of nine homesteads, and found that all the children were sound, well-fed and comfortable. They stared in awe at Diva herself, and showed no signs of wanting to get to know her any better. She became progressively more and more silent as the afternoon wore on. Six kept looking at her sideways, worried about how she was taking it.

It wasn’t until they were almost back inside the Donor Headquarters that she spoke again.

“How many?” she asked.

“How many children?”

Diva nodded.

“I believe it was a hundred and fifty-four thousand, seven hundred and eighty-two. Those are all the children who matured successfully to adoption age, and who have now been placed with families. We had a very high survival rate with this batch. Most satisfying. We lost less than thirty percent.”

“And there were enough local donors?”

“It was a great disappointment to us that there were no male
Valhais
two years ago. Luckily we had just enough local radiation-free donors to be able to utilize all the oocytes. Or almost all of them; there were some few dozens of oocytes left over. Your visit is rather a coincidence – they are scheduled to be destroyed later on today. They are at the very limit now of viability.”

“You mean that there are some viable oocytes still available?”

“Only a few dozen. They will be destroyed later today.”

Diva got to her feet, rocking the sled. “I don’t think so!” she told him.

“But,
Valhai
Diva, there are really no further Xianthan donors available,” he explained. “These things cannot be arranged so quickly.”

“I don’t care how you arrange it, just do it!” said Diva, jumping down from the sled. Six could sense her emotion from a full two metres away.

GRACE HAD BEEN waiting for what seemed like ages when a well-groomed man came over to her couch, introduced himself as the director of the facility, gave his name as the man who spoke in public, told her that he was a panchrome, and asked her what he could do for her.