Cryptikon Far Freedom Part 2

procession entered a thickening mist and soon came out of a thin cloudbank into sunshine and cold air. At this elevation they could easily see the other side of the world, the snow-capped peaks pointing down at them, the hazy green valleys and blue lakes, the geometry of agriculture, roads, and the knots of dwellings in villages.

  Many people had arrived at the sacred site before them. A security force kept them at a distance from the center of the bowl-like park grounds. Many thousands stood on the slopes of the bowl and farther up, into the trees. In the bottom of the bowl was a formal garden of flowering shrubs with radial patterns of paved walkways. A grass-covered mound rose up from the center of the bowl, on top of which a slab of natural stone supported a small mausoleum. Gregor and a few agents of his security force led Jamie's group through the gardens to a stone walkway that circled the grass-covered mound. The outer circumference of the walk was lined with benches. There were no markers or signs or inscriptions to identify the place or its purpose. Nori sat down on one of the benches and gazed up at the mausoleum with a faint smile.

  "I don't remember it quite like this," Mnro said, looking around, "but the box is sending good data."

  "A box?" Demba queried, indicating the mausoleum. "Inside that?"

  Mnro stepped over a decorative barrier - a simple chain fence - and started up the grassy mound. She halted when the crowd on the slopes all around the bowl responded with shouted complaints and started downslope toward the sacred mausoleum, overwhelming the small security force.

  "REMEMBER WHERE YOU ARE! REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!"

  Jamie could actually hear the voice of Gregor, even though she knew it was sent only to the communication augments carried in the bodies of the thousands of citizens gathered in the grave site and memorial gardens. She and Demba stood close to Sammy and watched the crowd surge toward them. The Old One stood up and struggled to step over the barrier to join Mnro on the mound. Mnro helped her, then accompanied her up to the mausoleum. The crowd, restricted by the radial walkways and impeded by Gregor's security force, finally halted its advance. Gregor motioned for Jamie and Demba to join Mnro and the Old One. Jamie stayed to talk to Gregor.

  Jamie waited several minutes while Gregor managed to calm the crowd, giving instructions to his security people and also speaking directly to the crowd. Jamie was impressed by his success. She remembered the bloody history of this place and it renewed her appreciation for the miracle Dr. Mende achieved here.

  "We are good people," Gregor said to Jamie. "We just need to remind ourselves. And this is where we come to be reminded. I can't say, however, that I'm happy you have tested us."

  "You may be tested further," Jamie said. "By the Navy. The Navy pursues us. They will ask you questions about what we were doing here. They will probably not like your answers."

  "You are Navy, yet the Navy pursues you? And you place us in danger?"

  "I'm sure Demba understands the risk she has caused you to face, and that would be a measure of how important Phuti Mende is to us. Please cooperate with the Navy and don't make them do bad things."

  "Why would the Navy...?"

  "Time is too short and I'm too lacking in understanding to explain our situation to you. No matter whether we take Mende or not, the Navy will be more dangerous than usual."

  "Dr. Mende is very important to you," Gregor stated in a deliberate manner, so that Jamie thought he might be talking to others at the same time, perhaps everyone in the crowd, or even everyone in the entire Five Worlds habitat. "Does that mean that he is not truly dead?"

  "Come," Jamie said, indicating they should go up the mound to Dr. Mnro. They crossed the barrier and climbed the little hill. "Is Dr. Mende in stasis?" Jamie asked Mnro. "Gregor wants to know. Everyone wants to know. I want to know!"

  "More than that," Mnro answered. "He's been rejuvenated."

  "But he won't be the same person you knew," Jamie argued. "And still you want him back?"

  "I am not even the same person I knew," Mnro said. "We all change, given enough time. But I still remember, and Phuti will still remember, just as you can remember. It isn't easy but we can remember, not everything but enough! We have a job to do and Phuti can help us. He will remember!"

  "Are you not the same people I remember?" the Old One asked. "Will you just... rob us?"

  Demba and Mnro gazed at each other, and Mnro, more than Demba, seemed troubled. "One more mistake I've made," Mnro said despondently. She stepped down from the stone slab.

  "Nori," Demba said, facing the Old One, "I believe we are still the people you and Phuti knew. You went through rejuvenations yourself, long ago. Do you feel wrong for having done that?"

  "But I didn't want to remember," Nori said. "It was a terrible life, my father gone, my mother murdered. Phuti saved me, brought me here, gave meaning to my life. Now, at the end of this life, you turn it up-side-down! And you threaten the people I love!"

  "I think your people have grown up," Demba said. "They have every reason to distrust us and resist our intentions, yet they restrain themselves and await explanation, like kind and reasonable people. I will try to explain to them."

  "As I hear you," Nori said to Demba, "they will hear you. So many people hear me and listen to me, as though I had precious wisdom to offer them. If I comfort them, I suppose that is enough. I have no wisdom. I'm just old. Nor do I command them. My only clear thought is that Phuti gave his life to them, and perhaps they can give it back. It would help if you could say something more eloquent."

  "Speeches are not my strength," Demba said. "Perhaps my eloquence lies in song. Do they have a song that is theirs? Perhaps they already have words they should hear again. Do they play the pipes here? My husband played the pipes. It's a mountain instrument."

  Demba waited several long moments until finally, from high in the tree-covered slopes, a series of notes sounded on panpipes. In another direction a different tune followed the first, also played on pipes. A third melody was offered by a harmonica from near the mausoleum mound.

  Demba began to sing. She sang one verse of a song. Jamie listened as her mother started a second song, sang its principle melody and theme and began yet another. Jamie was not well acquainted with such old music but she could guess at their cultural origins: one of each of the five Earth cultures that made up the Five Worlds habitat. It no longer amazed her that Demba's singing could enthrall people so completely but it did amaze her that Demba could pull from her data augment the best songs and words - and sing them perfectly and immediately.

  Now Demba seemed to be reminding the people of the Five Worlds they were once brave and proud, capable of greatness, capable of building this magnificent home far from Earth. She had sung the five short songs in succession, but now she started through them again. The crowd became restless. Jamie worried about what could happen. She looked over at Gregor and saw a thoughtful look on his face. Jamie realized Demba had changed the memorable lyrics of the first song. Then she changed the melody. It was almost the same song but with part of one of the other songs added into it. It was almost the same lyrics but borrowed words from yet another of the five songs. Finally, it was not songs she sang but a story she was telling. She told the history of the peoples of the Five Worlds. It was not just history of the Five Worlds but of the five origin cultures on Earth. Every face Jamie could see wore an expression of concentration and wonder.

  At the proper point in history, Demba sang the modern Anthem of the Five Worlds, causing the crowd to sing it with her. The mass of voices overwhelmed the serenity of the setting, charged the mountain air with the electricity of emotion, and thundered to an abrupt silence in which only Demba continued to sing. As she came to that sad moment in history where the old anthropologist Dawa Phuti Mende was laid to rest, Demba sang a stanza of "Amazing Grace." Jamie detected some further reaction in the people.

  "Now we know who she is," Gregor said quietly, having moved closer to Jamie on the mound. "We remember her now. We have all seen and heard the old recordings of this woman
at the funeral. Now it will be a good thing."

  Demba stopped singing and paused to listen to the flavor of the silence. She began a short speech. "Dawa Phuti Mende was an anthropologist but also an explorer. The study of human culture was less important to him than exploring, I think, and that gave him the emotional distance to be objective enough to help you solve the human problems you had in building and sharing the Five Worlds. Phuti loved climbing mountains and exploration, which is really what being alive and being curious is all about. I think he will want to go exploring again with his old friends, with Aylis and me. If you will let him go, I would see that as a possibility that you understand Phuti and respect his love of discovery. I would urge you to think about this moment as an opportunity to spread Phuti's legacy into unknown places of need. You don't need mountains to be who you are. Traditions are portable. Your ancestors paid dearly to provide this home for you, but home is that place you love even more when the journey brings you back to it."

  Demba fell silent. The crowd was silent. She looked at Jamie. Jamie looked at Gregor. Gregor looked at the Old One. Nori stood mute for several moments. Finally she reached for Jamie's arm and held it for support.

  "Please take me with you," Nori said, looking to Demba. "I will go, even if you do