Manta's Gift

  "You are offended and insulted, Manta," Latranesto said. "I understand."

  Manta smiled. "Actually, I'm neither," he assured the Counselor. "I mostly find it pleasantly ironic. Both our races, playing the same game against each other without knowing it. It's really kind of amusing."

  "Maybe to you," Latranesto growled. Apparently, he didn't like being considered amusing. "But amusement ends where the life of our world begins."

  "As it also does with the humans," Manta conceded, thinking back to what Faraday had said about the social pressures building up within the System's population. "I apologize, to both of you."

  "Anyway, please go on, Counselor Latranesto," Pranlo said. "What happens when one of the Wise gets to this place? What does he have to do then?"

  "If he has the strength of mind to reach the Deep, there is nothing more he must do," Latranesto said. "The Deep itself will carry him to another world."

  "Which other world does he go to?" Manta asked. "Are there any choices or decisions?"

  "No," Latranesto said. "As I said, there is nothing more he must do. Wherever he is going, the Deep chooses for him."

  "I see," Manta murmured. So there it was. Some strange combination of pressure, radiation, and convoluted magnetic fields deep within the atmosphere was somehow able to create a portal between Jupiter and similar gas giant worlds.

  Maybe between all of them, in fact. There could conceivably be a vast network of hyperspace portals buried deep within the atmospheres of every gas giant in the galaxy.

  A network accessible only to beings who had never even seen the stars.

  "Wait a pulse," Pranlo said slowly. "If only the Wise can go through the Deep like that, why are there Vuuka and Sivra here? Where did they come from?"

  "The Wise brought them, of course," Latranesto said. "Along with all the seeds of the food plants which we eat."

  "They brought the predators with them?" Drusni echoed. "Why in the world would they do that?"

  "They had no choice," Latranesto said mildly. "Look at your companions. Look at yourself, for that matter. What do you see?"

  Manta frowned at the others, and in the fading light saw them looking back at him with equal confusion. What was Latranesto getting at?

  And then, suddenly, he had it. "The skin lumps," he breathed, flicking his tails at the bulges dotting Pranlo's fins and body. "All those predators that have tried to take a bite out of you and gotten covered up."

  He looked at Latranesto in confusion. "But they're dead. Aren't they?"

  "Are they?" Latranesto asked. "Are they truly dead, or are they merely in a very deep sleep?"

  "Good point," Manta conceded. "I don't know."

  Latranesto flipped his tails in a shrug. "Neither do I. Neither do any of the Qanska. All we know is that when the Wise reach the next world, their outer skin is torn away and all those buried within are revived."

  "A remarkable capacity for regeneration," Manta murmured.

  "What was that?" Drusni asked.

  "I was just remembering one of the first things I ever heard about the Qanska," he told her. "That you have the ability to recover and rebuild your bodies after an attack. Maybe the Vuuka and Sivra have something of the same ability."

  "Or perhaps it is a unique property of the journey itself," Latranesto suggested. "There are a great many things about the journey that we don't know."

  He flicked his tails. "We're not a problem-solving race."

  The light of the sun was gone now, Manta noticed, with only the diffuse glow coming from deep inside the planet still there for them to see by. "So now you know the truth," the Counselor said after a ninepulse. "What will you do next?"

  "Well, the first thing to do is get some sleep," Manta said.

  "Sleep?" Drusni asked. "I thought we were in a hurry to get this whole thing up and swimming."

  "A reasonable hurry, yes," Manta agreed. "But it's hardly desperate. It's sundark, we're all tired, and I need some time to digest what Counselor Latranesto has told me. Besides, we have to go find the nearest human probe before we can talk to them."

  "I thought you could speak with them at any time," Drusni said.

  "I don't know if I can or not anymore," Manta said. "Besides, that method works in English. I'm not sure how well I know that language anymore. Simpler to find a probe."

  "There's one near the herd where Druskani and Prantrulo's children swim," Latranesto said. "It's less than a nineday away."

  "Sounds good," Manta said. "We'll leave at sunlight."

  He gazed out into the swirling winds. "And on the way," he added, "I'll tell you what I think the problem is, and why we'll need the humans' help to solve it."

  Latranesto sank downward toward the lower levels, where his natural buoyancy balance would let him sleep more comfortably. Drusni and Pranlo locked fins and drifted off to sleep together on the wind.

  Leaving Manta alone in the darkness. Trying to figure out what in the Deep he was going to do.

  Because as of right now, the bargaining plan he'd tentatively worked had gone straight down the Great Yellow Storm. How could he bargain in good faith with a stardrive that didn't exist?

  Especially for a stardrive the humans could probably never even get to?

  But one way or another they had to get the humans' help. The more he thought over his theory, the more he was convinced that the Qanska could never fix this by themselves. They needed the humans; and the humans wouldn't give that help without something in return.

  Unless he conned them out of it.

  The thought made his fins squirm. He could certainly argue that the humans had it coming to them. They'd sent him here under false pretenses, lying to him and the Qanska both as to their intentions.

  Not to mention that grand kidnapping/extortion attempt. That alone was a huge debt they owed the Qanska.

  But at the same time, the Counselors and the Leaders and the Wise hadn't exactly been forthright about their goals for this project, either. How much did that take off the humans' debt? What was the right equation to use, or the proper credit/debit balance?

  No. There was no equation to use here, no balancing of ethical scales. Whatever the humans had done to him and the other Qanska, lying to them would be wrong. He would not allow himself to sink to that level.

  And with that decision made, the rest of it fell simply and quietly into line. He could still bargain with Faraday; but he would make it clear from the beginning that he would be bargaining only for the secret of the stardrive, not the stardrive itself. If the humans balked at that, then they would just remain forever in ignorance.

  But they wouldn't. Manta had once been human, after all. He knew them better than that.

  Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his fins and let the wind take him. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day. He'd better get some sleep.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  "Colonel Faraday?" The muffled voice called, the words half buried in the staccato of nervous-woodpecker tapping on his door. "Colonel Faraday!"

  "Hold on," Faraday said, throwing off the blankets and blinking his eyes at his clock. It was just after four in the morning; and unless he was still dreaming, that was Hesse's voice out there in the corridor.

  "Colonel Faraday?"

  He wasn't still dreaming. Pulling on his slacks, Faraday grabbed a shirt and stepped to the door. Liadof's men still had a passcard to his room, but he'd learned how to gimmick the door at night to give himself a little privacy. Draping the shirt over one shoulder, he flipped on the light and pulled off the access panel to the opening mechanism. A couple of wires put back where they belonged, and the door was functional again. Pulling on his shirt, he keyed the release.

  Hesse had the slightly disheveled look of a man who's just thrown on his own clothing, and there was something tensely wild around his eyes. "Sorry to wake you, sir," he said as he stepped inside. His voice, now that Faraday could hear it more clearly, was as agitated as his eyes. "We've got a situation here."

 
"What are you talking about?" Faraday asked cautiously, the skin on the back of his neck beginning to tingle. Something was very wrong here; Nemesis Six wasn't due at Prime for at least another week and a half. There shouldn't be any crises happening now. "What's happened?"

  "I don't know," Hesse said, his breath coming in ragged gasps as if he'd run the whole way from his quarters. "All I know is that Liadof's been called urgently to the Contact Room, and there's word she's about to call you there, too."

  Glancing back at the closed door behind him, he reached into his inner jacket pocket and slid out a folded sheet of paper. "I wanted to get this to you before that happens," he continued, holding it out toward Faraday, "It's the guarantee from my backers that you wanted. Here; you have to sign it."

  "Put it on the desk," Faraday instructed him, sitting back down on the bed and snaring his shoes. "Open it up and lay it out; I'll read it while I finish dressing."

  "Do it fast," Hesse warned, fumbling the paper open and smoothing it out on the desktop. "They could be here any minute."

  Faraday stepped past him and sat down at the desk. It was official document paper, he saw: rip-proof, fire-proof, tamper-proof. This was serious business, all right. Leaning over to pull on his shoes, he began to read. The undersigned does hereby declare and state that he stands in alliance with the Citizens for Liberty—

  "The Citizens for Liberty?" he asked, frowning up at Hesse. "Isn't that the group that's been protesting the Mars crackdown?"

  "That's the one," Hesse confirmed, glancing back at the door again. "My backers have been sponsoring them as sort of unofficial public-relations arm. They're using the CFL to help stir up public sentiment against governmental excesses."

  "I hope that's not their only outlet," Faraday grunted. "The CFL sounds awfully strident sometimes."

  "No, they're just one of several groups," Hesse said. "It's a standard wide-spectrum PR approach. The CFL reaches the people who are the most angry at the crackdown, while other groups concentrate on connecting with the moderates and undecideds. The CFL is just the one that's getting the most press at the moment."

  "Ah," Faraday said, looking back down at the paper as he started fastening his shirt.—with the Citizens for Liberty against the blatantly illegal actions of Arbiter Katrina Liadof and the Five Hundred...

  He finished with his shirt and rested his left elbow on the edge of the paper, cupping his chin in his hand as he skimmed down the rest of the document. "Doesn't look unreasonable," he commented when he had finished. "Only I thought your backers were supposed to be supporting me. This looks more like a guarantee of me supporting them."

  "Well, of course it has to work both directions," Hesse pointed out. "They can hardly give you a blank check for support without acknowledgment that you're on their side, too. That's why the word alliance is used. That makes the whole thing mutual."

  "I suppose that makes sense," Faraday agreed. "I might have felt more comfortable if they'd looped me in with one of the less radical groups, though."

  "The idea isn't for any of us to be comfortable," Hesse said tartly. "What we need is for people to be angry about this, angry enough that there's real public pressure on the Five Hundred to back away from what Liadof's side is doing. From everything they're doing, from the Martian crackdown on down. That's the only way you're going to be able to protect Drusni's children and the other Qanska from getting nukes thrown down their throats. We've got to throw her out, and we've got to get her out now. There's no time to let you ramp up from concerned to annoyed to righteously indignant and finally to angry."

  "I suppose not," Faraday conceded.

  "So sign and let's get on with it." Hesse looked at the door again. "And make it quick," he added. "I think I hear someone coming."

  He was right; Faraday could hear the approaching footsteps, too. Picking up a pen, he rested his hand on the edge of the desk and scrawled briefly across the line at the bottom. "There," he said, tossing the pen aside and standing up. "Better tuck it away out of sight. I'll get my jacket."

  His timing was perfect. Even as he stepped away from the desk, there was a fresh pounding at his door. "Colonel?" a deep voice demanded.

  "Come on, take it," Faraday hissed.

  Lunging to the desk, Hesse scooped up the paper, hastily folded it back together, and stuffed it away inside his jacket.

  Just in time. Behind him, the door slid open and one of Liadof's Sanctum cops strode in. "Colonel, you're wanted at the Contact Room," he announced. His eyes seemed to suddenly notice that Faraday was fully dressed. "Which I take it you already know," he added, throwing a brief and unreadable look at Hesse. "Come with me."

  The corridors were mostly empty and quiet as Faraday followed the cop to the Contact Room, Hesse trailing behind them. The security officer at the entrance had obviously been briefed; he passed all three of them through with only a perfunctory glance at their IDs.

  Liadof was waiting for them, standing in front of the command chair, her posture unnaturally stiff. "Colonel Faraday," she said formally. "I apologize for awakening you at this hour."

  "No apology necessary, Arbiter Liadof," Faraday said just as formally as he glanced around the room. Despite the late hour, he noted, Beach was in his usual spot at the communications station. Either he'd been moved here to Gamma Shift, or else Liadof had roused him out of bed, too. The other three men seated at the wraparound control panel were complete strangers to him. "What seems to be the problem?"

  He looked back at Liadof in time to see her lips compress briefly. "It's not really a problem," she said. "We've just heard from Mr. Raimey."

  She flicked a glance in Beach's direction. "And there seems to be a certain confusion as to what exactly he's trying to say."

  Faraday frowned. "The computer can't make it out?"

  "The computer's translation is ambiguous," Liadof said. "Mr. Beach seems to think it's not ambiguous at all. As the other local expert on Qanskan tonals, I thought it might be interesting to get your take on it, as well."

  "I'll do my best," Faraday said, trying hard to read her face. What new game was she playing now? "You have a copy?"

  "Mr. Beach?" Liadof invited. "Play him the raw, pre-grammar-adjusted message."

  Beach touched a switch, and the room filled with the rumbling sound of Qanskan tonals. My name is Manta-born-of-humans with the World In-between Machine-of-the-clouds-above attempting to converse, the words rolled from the speaker. I will with Colonel Faraday about the secret of the Qanskan path between worlds to speak only.

  The message began to repeat; and Faraday felt his breath catch in his throat. The Qanskan path between worlds. "He says, 'This is Manta, child of the humans, trying to talk to the Jupiter Prime space station,' " he translated, trying to keep his voice steady. So Manta had done it. He'd found the Qanskan stardrive. " 'I want to speak with Colonel Faraday only about the secret of the Qanskan stardrive.' "

  "Yes, that's basically the way the computer translated it," Liadof agreed. "The sticking point is what exactly the word 'only' means here."

  Faraday blinked. Only? "Have you asked Manta about it?"

  "We've tried," Liadof said. "He hasn't responded to our transmissions. So tell me, Colonel: what does 'only' mean here?"

  Faraday frowned, listening to the message again as it ran through another repeat. To him, it seemed perfectly straightforward: Manta wasn't going to give them the actual stardrive, but would only discuss the secret technology involved with it.

  Yet from what Liadof had said, it sounded like Beach was arguing for some other interpretation.

  Granted, Beach was more versed in tonals than Faraday himself was. But not that much more. What could he be hearing in Manta's message that Faraday wasn't getting?

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Beach turned halfway around at his station. Beach, who had refused to stand with the rest of his Alpha Shift teammates when push had come to crunch. Beach, who had instead preferred to keep his head down, stay in Liadof's good grac
es, and keep his career intact.

  Beach, now looking back over his shoulder at Faraday. An odd intensity in his eyes; an equally odd stiffness in his back...

  And then, suddenly, Faraday got it.

  He smiled to himself, that last nagging thorn in his side finally fading away. McCollum, Sprenkle, Milligan—each of them had taken advantage of an opportunity to help him and Manta when the chance had come their way. McCollum had slipped Faraday a sketch of the Omega Probe; Sprenkle had given Manta the hint that broke Liadof's implanted McCarthy control over him; Milligan had fiddled his sensors to give the Manta the time he needed to free the Qanskan hostages. Only Beach had refused to rock his own boat, putting himself and his career above anything so petty and expendable as loyalty.

  Or so Faraday had thought. So, probably, had the rest of Alpha Shift. So, certainly, had Liadof, or she wouldn't have kept him on duty.

  They'd all been wrong. Beach hadn't defied Liadof for the simple reason that the proper opportunity to do so hadn't yet come along for him.

  Now it had... and as he looked at the stiffness in Beach's posture, Faraday finally realized what he was up to.

  "It's perfectly obvious, Arbiter," he told Liadof calmly. "Manta's saying he'll discuss the stardrive; but that he'll only discuss it with me."

  The lines in Liadof's face deepened. "Really," she said suspiciously. "How very convenient."

  Faraday shrugged. "You asked my opinion," he reminded her. "But Mr. Beach is the real expert. What does he say?"

  Liadof looked over at the other. Beach, Faraday noted, had quietly turned back around to face his board. But he could also see that much of the tension was gone from the big man's back. He'd taken a big gamble, as big as any of his Alpha Shift teammates had. If Faraday hadn't caught on in time and backed up his interpretation, Beach would quickly have joined the others in Liadof's doghouse.

  But he had. And faced with that unity, Faraday couldn't see that Liadof had any choice left but to capitulate.

  Neither, apparently, did she. "Very well, Colonel," she said with clear reluctance. "You're hereby reinstated to full duty with Project Changeling. Mr. Beach, see if Mr. Raimey's ready to talk to us yet."