backlash.”
They looked at each other, each of them replaying conversations from both the distant and the not-so-distant past in their heads.
“All right, Mom.” Quai nodded. “Not that anybody I deal with would arrange illegal public demos in U.N. City or anywhere else, but I’ll see if I can leak the generalities of this conversation where they’ll do some good.”
“That’s all I ask.” Su bowed her head briefly in a gesture of thanks.
A flicker of worry crossed Quai’s face. “Take care of yourself out there, Mom. Okay? I’d hate to see you lose your footing.”
Su smiled. “I will take care. I love you, my son.”
“Love you, Mom. Good-bye.”
Su said good-bye and shut down the screen. She shook her head and sighed. Quai was good people. How had that happened? Abandoned by a nervous father, left with an obsessive mother, he still managed to make his own way. He went overboard, it was true, but not as badly as some, and at least he really believed in what he did.
So do you, she reminded herself. At least, you’d better, or all your work’s going to fall apart and Helen’s going to be left out there on her own.
That thought stiffened Su’s shoulders. No, she would not permit that. She bent over her desk screen and laid her hands on the command board. Time to get back to work.
Chapter Four
T ’SHA’S KITE FURLED ITS bright-blue wings as it approached the High Law Meet. Unlike other cities, the High Law Meet’s ligaments ran all the way down to the crust, tethering the complex in place. The symbolism was plain. All the winds, all the world, met here.
“Good luck, Ambassador T’sha,” the Law Meet hailed her through her headset. “You are much anticipated.”
“Is it a pleased anticipation or otherwise?” asked T’sha wryly as the Law Meet took over her kite guidance, bringing it smoothly toward the empty mooring clamps.
“That is not for me to know or tell,” said the Meet primly. Amusement swelled through T’sha.
T’sha had always found the Meet beautiful. Its shell walls were delicately curved, and their colors blended from a pure white to rich purple. Portraits and stories had been painted all across their surfaces in both hot and cold paints. When the Law Meet was in dayside, the hot paints glowed red. On nightside, the cold paints made dark etchings against the shining walls. The coral struts were whorled and carved so that the winds sang as they blew past. More shell and dyed stiff skins tunneled and gentled the winds through the corridors between the chambers. The interior chambers themselves were bubbles of still air where anyone could move freely without being guided or prodded by the world outside.
T’sha sometimes wondered if this was a good idea.
As ever, the High Law Meet was alive with swarms of people. The air around it tasted heavy with life and constant movement. T’sha counted nine separate villages floating past the Meet with their sails furled so the citizens who flew beside their homes could keep up easily. All the noise, all the activity of daily life blew past with them.
Below, the canopy was being tended by the Meet’s own conservators. It was symbolically important, said many senior ambassadors, that the canopy around the High Law Meet remain vital, solid, and productive. But as T’sha watched, a quartet of reapers from one of the villages, identifiable by the straining nets they carried between them, as well as by the zigzagging tattoos on their wings, descended to the canopy. A conservator flew at them, sending them all winging away, back to their village with empty nets, no food, seeds, or clippings to enhance their diet, their gardens, or their engineers’ inventories.
T’sha felt her bones loosen with weariness. It must be kept productive. Certainly. But if not for our families, then for what?
T’sha inflated, trying to let her mood roll off her skin. There was important work to be done, and she had to be tightly focused. Her kite dropped
They looked at each other, each of them replaying conversations from both the distant and the not-so-distant past in their heads.
“All right, Mom.” Quai nodded. “Not that anybody I deal with would arrange illegal public demos in U.N. City or anywhere else, but I’ll see if I can leak the generalities of this conversation where they’ll do some good.”
“That’s all I ask.” Su bowed her head briefly in a gesture of thanks.
A flicker of worry crossed Quai’s face. “Take care of yourself out there, Mom. Okay? I’d hate to see you lose your footing.”
Su smiled. “I will take care. I love you, my son.”
“Love you, Mom. Good-bye.”
Su said good-bye and shut down the screen. She shook her head and sighed. Quai was good people. How had that happened? Abandoned by a nervous father, left with an obsessive mother, he still managed to make his own way. He went overboard, it was true, but not as badly as some, and at least he really believed in what he did.
So do you, she reminded herself. At least, you’d better, or all your work’s going to fall apart and Helen’s going to be left out there on her own.
That thought stiffened Su’s shoulders. No, she would not permit that. She bent over her desk screen and laid her hands on the command board. Time to get back to work.
Chapter Four
T ’SHA’S KITE FURLED ITS bright-blue wings as it approached the High Law Meet. Unlike other cities, the High Law Meet’s ligaments ran all the way down to the crust, tethering the complex in place. The symbolism was plain. All the winds, all the world, met here.
“Good luck, Ambassador T’sha,” the Law Meet hailed her through her headset. “You are much anticipated.”
“Is it a pleased anticipation or otherwise?” asked T’sha wryly as the Law Meet took over her kite guidance, bringing it smoothly toward the empty mooring clamps.
“That is not for me to know or tell,” said the Meet primly. Amusement swelled through T’sha.
T’sha had always found the Meet beautiful. Its shell walls were delicately curved, and their colors blended from a pure white to rich purple. Portraits and stories had been painted all across their surfaces in both hot and cold paints. When the Law Meet was in dayside, the hot paints glowed red. On nightside, the cold paints made dark etchings against the shining walls. The coral struts were whorled and carved so that the winds sang as they blew past. More shell and dyed stiff skins tunneled and gentled the winds through the corridors between the chambers. The interior chambers themselves were bubbles of still air where anyone could move freely without being guided or prodded by the world outside.
T’sha sometimes wondered if this was a good idea.
As ever, the High Law Meet was alive with swarms of people. The air around it tasted heavy with life and constant movement. T’sha counted nine separate villages floating past the Meet with their sails furled so the citizens who flew beside their homes could keep up easily. All the noise, all the activity of daily life blew past with them.
Below, the canopy was being tended by the Meet’s own conservators. It was symbolically important, said many senior ambassadors, that the canopy around the High Law Meet remain vital, solid, and productive. But as T’sha watched, a quartet of reapers from one of the villages, identifiable by the straining nets they carried between them, as well as by the zigzagging tattoos on their wings, descended to the canopy. A conservator flew at them, sending them all winging away, back to their village with empty nets, no food, seeds, or clippings to enhance their diet, their gardens, or their engineers’ inventories.
T’sha felt her bones loosen with weariness. It must be kept productive. Certainly. But if not for our families, then for what?
T’sha inflated, trying to let her mood roll off her skin. There was important work to be done, and she had to be tightly focused. Her kite dropped
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