Jacked into the Wanderling's shipnet, Magda called up navigational
charts, referenced data from the two orthogonal arcs,
and plotted their course. Numbers slipped like cool streams through her
mind, pulling behind them bright connectors to multiple levels of
direction.Concepts bloomed. It all fit together, forming an intricate
whole she could never have known, unaugmented.
With the course fixed and held, she turned her attention to the other
center of ship awareness. Kadzin was engrossed in the last few seconds
of drive system diagnostics. Combined, their minds acquired virtual
senses that listened to schematics of containment rings and magnetic
coils as if they were music, and touched through shielding densities
like swatches of textured silk.
Kadzin mindspoke. ~All set.~ And Wanderling veered out of orbit. The
ring of habitats dropped away from view, looking like small, filigrees
of gold beneath the Wanderling's radiator fins.
In a few minutes, they'd disengage from shipnet, unclasp the webbing,
and make their way to the small lounge. But for now Magda wanted to
linger, savoring the combination of intimacy and expansion the net gave.
But these moments of peace were too-soon broken by their joined
consideration of the cargo the ship carried: a small set of info stacks.
~Already, many of the liners grown at the Yard are Turing grade,"
Kadzin said. "There's no holding back the future.~
~Guess not.~ She sighed. ~How long do you think we have before spacers
are seen as unnecessary baggage?~
~However long — that future's not yet, Magda, and hopefully
it won't be, till we're dead and out of it. Well out of it.~
Magda laughed a soft virtual laugh. ~I think death is one more thing
that's going out of style.~
----------------------
Jenessa struggled to pull herself from the conversation going on inside
her head. It became more and more compelling. Some of the words she
recognized, remembering them from before. How strange to have a new
language building inside her.
But Meera stirred and cried out. "Mumsa, where are you?"
Jenessa lay the child's head in her lap, and stroked her crest
— swollen, flushed and moist from the effort of her body to
dissipate the heat of its healing processes. "Your mumsa's gone out,
Meera, remember? She asked me to stay with you."
Meera opened her eyes, gazed for an instant at Jenessa's face, then
jerked her head back and forth. She pushed herself up, elbowing Jenessa
in the stomach. "Why aren't we at home, Jen? Where is this?"
"Just a temporary shelter. We'll go back to town in a day or so. You've
been sick, Meera. As I was. We needed to go away, and not pass our
illness on to anyone else."
"But . . ." Meera frowned, then lay back down. "All right. I'd rather
be home though. My head hurts, and things are crawling!"
Meera drew up her knees and began to scratch her legs.
"They're crawling on my back, Jen. Bugs! Get them off."
Jenna gently rubbed the little girl's back. "There are no bugs. What
you're feeling is something happening inside your body.
From the sickness. It won't last more than a few hours."
"Are we the only ones in the whole town to have this? Why?"
"I suspect it's my fault," Jenessa said. "Last week, when I was out
with the hunting party, I went off on my own for a while. The next day
I was hot and itchy, like you are now."
"Oh— and you talked funny, while you were sleeping. I
remember. I came into your house, and you were in bed, during
daylight. You said not to tell anyone about what you'd said. And I
didn't."
Jenessa sighed. "I'm sorry, Meera. If I'd had any idea this would
happen, I would stayed on familiar ground that day, but I just gave no
thought to possible danger. There was a light, glowing orange and
yellow, in the direction of Highridge. After riding toward it for a
couple of hours, I realized, that whatever it was, must be further than
I expected. I was already late in getting back to the others. So I had
to turn around." Jenessa laughed. "Though I didn't want to. I wanted to
know what that light was. I don't know how my riding in that direction
caused me to get sick — or even if it did so, for sure. But I
think it did, Meera."
"I wanted to go hunting with you," Meera said.
Jenessa laughed. "You always want to go with me."
"Um. And you always say to wait till I'm older. Well, I'm with you now,
away from town.
So, I guess I'm older."
"Yes. I guess you are."
