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"I see. Actually, I think it's about time."
Zref said, remembering that Mautri invoked Deity with no expectation of
remaining mortal, "The rest of us should pray in our own ways, then we can all
have breakfast here." He sent in their standard order.
At that moment, the three writers appeared, Neini gazing curiously at the
retreating backs of the kren.
As the newcomers were being brought up to date, two messages arrived
simultaneously. The Mautri sundown ceremony had not been held now for three
days, and was suspended for the duration. Zref flicked this onto the screen in
Jocelyn's room, while motioning Arai aside. Relating his success with the
Glenwarnan File, he added, "And this is the bad news. Glenwarnan is as hard
hit by the epidemic as Mautri. Sidenl is still well, but he sends word his
aklal won't be able to help us again soon. Apparently, they were aware when we
evoked the cube. Now I understand how that works."
In Zref's expanding concept of reality, the entire universe was one huge
comnet -every point connected to every other point, with every sentient mind
like an Interface.
When they rejoined the others and brought them up to date, Zref adding that
he'd set up a search for the Enemy's identity last night, Arai announced, "I'm
going to pray for the enlightenment of the Enemy being willing to give my life
to ac-
complish that without abusing power."
Neini and Waysjoff agreed, but Zref said, "My life isn't mine to offer, but
otherwise, yes, that's my prayer. I'll add, however, the vision of health
among the ill, asking how to use our aklal to retard the growth of this
virus."
Ley and Jocelyn agreed with Zref and they settled in their favorite chairs.
Zref composed himself to allow the magma of emotion beneath the fragmented
floor of his mind to rise, knowing only that self could pray. But it
frightened him. He could stay open to it only a few seconds.
The prayer he'd spoken exploded into his consciousness,-flashing a vision of
the MorZdersh'n nursery before his eyes: the kren infants, usually actively
demanding, lay quiet, some surrounded by sterile tubes and pumps. The silence
was frightening, but even more so was an insubstantial, black dome stretching
over the house, leaching away all vitality.
Offended, Zref flung the white-hot magma of his emotions at the blackness,
scorching holes in it to let the health-giving sun of Camiat shine in. He was
a viewpoint without body, but he seemed to turn in midair and look downward
into the house. He bathed each of the children in pure radiance.
At Mautri and Glenwarnan he did the same washing the ill in beautiful light,
washing away the dark sickness.
When it came to the Enemy, he couldn't frame a request to Deity. Lifetimes,
he'd assimilated the Mautri idea that it was an insult to imply, by
supplication, that Deity wasn't already performing at optimum. Instead, he
simply accepted responsibility for all he'd done, in whatever lifetime.
His meditation was interrupted by a scanner echo, and another and
another ships behind and around them.
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They were sublight now, so he used an astrogation relay to identify those
ships but they were unregistered. He alerted the Captain seconds before the
watch officer did, then added fresh news from the Guild Astrogation relay. A
squadron of Escorters was approaching from ahead of them, assigned to them for
all five remaining stops on the Cruise.
The Captain was on the bridge within minutes of Zref's first message, and she
surveyed the scopes carefully before asking Zref to relay her orders to the
approaching Escorters under Guild Security Seal so the pursuit couldn't
intercept.
The Captain then dictated a series of rapid course changes, cutting days off
their travel time. "And notify Pallacin Orbital Control we're coming in on an
emergency approach. Use our missing dish as an excuse."
Zref handled the traffic swiftly, and then monitored the maneuvers. Once he
relayed a refinement of trajectory to one of the Escort ships. The
unregistered ships disappeared from the edges of their screens, and all
breathed a sigh of relief.
By the time the kren rejoined the group, breakfast was ready. But almost
immediately, Zref was called to the bridge to act as Ship's Interface on the
approach to Pallacin. Orbital Control was worried about the missing dish and
didn't trust Epitasis without a "real Astrogator" working her.
"This time," said Zref, "come with me, Arshel. It should be quite a show." He
apologized that he couldn't take the rest of them onto the bridge during a
planetary approach. "But I'll , put the view onto the comtap here for you." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]