ORLI COVITZ
Dando Yoder, the old trader who had crashed on Ikbir, was distraught at how long repairs were going to take, but Garrison accepted the challenge, announcing to the insular colonists, “After I get the Prodigal Son ready, we’ll head out and arrange for replacement stardrive parts and an engineering team—along with whatever supplies Ikbir needs.”
For herself, Orli was both pleased and disappointed to be leaving this quiet, uninteresting place, and DD, of course, was happy to go wherever Orli went. Seth was anxious to get to Newstation and go back to Academ, an ambition that DD (and Garrison and Orli) strongly encouraged.
No, there was no reason for any of them to stay here.
Since Yoder worked for Kett Shipping, Orli decided it was time to take care of something she had meant to do all along. Rlinda Kett had given Orli another chance when she needed it, and even though she had dispatched a message to tell the big trader that she was all right, she needed to go see Rlinda in person. She would travel with Garrison and Seth to the Roamer capital, and from there she would arrange passage back to Kett Shipping.
After they packed up to leave Ikbir for good, Garrison and Orli offered Yoder their prefab dwelling. The scruffy trader seemed very pleased. “You’re giving me your home? I could always just sleep in my ship.”
“We don’t plan to come back,” Garrison said, “at least not anytime soon.”
Orli said, “You’ll have more room to stretch your legs here. Sleep on solid ground for a change.”
“Haven’t done that in years.” Yoder scratched his beard. “But I suppose it’s a day for new experiences.”
Taking their few possessions, Orli and DD went to the Prodigal Son, which felt more like home to them than Ikbir ever had. Garrison had been eager to jump out of bed that morning, rather than his usual slow and comfortable waking with Orli.
The colonists came to the spaceport, partly to wish them goodbye, but also to present lists of desired items. Orli’s most heartwarming moment was when her refurbished compies all came out to stand in front of her. “Thank you for staying with us, Orli Covitz,” LU said. “You gave us a new life.”
Sounding maternal, MO said, “I will take care of the colony for you, Orli Covitz. I promise it will remain clean and efficient.”
DD seemed worried, looking from the compies to Orli to Seth. “Shall I stay here with the other compies, Orli?”
Seth looked shocked, but before he could say anything, Orli reassured them both. “Of course not! You’re my personal Friendly compy. I—” Her voice cracked. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I am relieved to hear that, Orli. I don’t know what I would do without you, either. But I would do my best.”
Garrison was already in the cockpit, and Seth joined his father, while Orli and DD sealed the ship behind them. She usually felt bittersweet about leaving a place she called home—even places with terrible memories, such as Dremen and Corribus—but there were no roots holding her to Ikbir, so she experienced no real sadness. She would rather be with Garrison anyway, although she had business to take care of once they left Ikbir.
Watching him in the cockpit, she smiled at how Garrison let his son do the basic checklists and ramp-up routines. She felt strangely proud to watch Seth show off his skills. As he worked the controls, lifting off from the spaceport, Garrison explained parts of the in-system engines and navigation systems. DD added comments, because he had undergone the same training himself.
“Three days to Newstation,” Garrison said as they exited orbit and headed out of the Ikbir system, then he looked over at Orli, who sat close beside him, “but I’d like to make a detour on the way. If that would be all right with you? It’s something personal … something that Seth and I need to do. For my clan.”
She leaned on his shoulder. “Where are we heading?”
“I want to stop at Rendezvous.”
DD piped up, “Rendezvous is abandoned. The new Roamer center of government is located on Newstation, and according to my recent records, even the clan Reeves reconstruction efforts have ceased at Rendezvous.”
“Reconstruction efforts ceased because my clan left it all behind,” Garrison said. “My father must have realized the project would never be completed. Instead, they chased their dreams to what they thought would be a new home.…” He didn’t finish, didn’t need to finish. Orli was the one who had found all the members of clan Reeves dead aboard the derelict city.
“What do you want to do there?” Orli asked.
“Just pay my respects.” He looked at her. “If you don’t mind that we take the extra time? Thirty hours?”
“I’m in no hurry. Once we get to Newstation … then we have to decide what to do.” She placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezed. He put his hand over hers.
Changing course, they headed into deep space away from Ikbir’s sun. Before they engaged the stardrive, though, the Prodigal Son’s sensors detected strange anomalies ahead and around them. Orli blinked and felt a thrumming, chiming sound in her head. At first she thought it was barely audible feedback from the ship’s control console, but it seemed to be coming from out in space—and behind her eyes. She rubbed them, felt the vibrations increase. “Do you hear that? I can feel it getting louder…”
“No sound detected, Orli,” DD said.
Garrison looked at her, concerned. “I don’t hear anything.” He ran long-distance scans. “But there is something out here. Maybe you’re just more sensitive.” When he enhanced the images from the high-res scope, Orli was amazed at what she saw.
Delighted, Seth exclaimed. “Look, they’re bloaters!”
Orli couldn’t shake a tingling thrill that washed through her, and the chiming sound inside her head grew even louder. These strange floating nodules had cured her of the Onthos plague back at the Iswander extraction complex. She was surprised to see them out here, far apart and drifting individually in the emptiness. Previously, she had only seen a large cluster of the bloaters. She rubbed her temples again, but the strange feedback sound resonated inside her head. Was it coming from the bloaters? Orli had been immersed in the protoplasm inside one of those things; maybe she had made some kind of connection with them. If so, what were they trying to communicate now?
Orli studied the high-res screens, then looked through the windowports to see them with her own eyes, though very little light reflected from the greenish brown nodules. She recognized a startling pattern. “They’re like breadcrumbs, dropped in a line.”
The numerous bloaters were strung out in intersecting trails, lines heading toward Ikbir’s star and then extending out into the vast cosmic emptiness, like stepping-stones appearing from nowhere.
Garrison enhanced the windowport display with active phosphors. Seth gasped and grabbed the compy’s polymer arm. “It looks like a web!”
“All the bloaters appear to be moving together,” DD observed.
Though Orli could hear them in her unexpected way, she could make no sense of the sounds or music, but she continued to try.