Alastair Reynolds - Poseidon's Wake

Vasin tilted her head in fond sympathy. ‘If I told you that just about everyone on the ship will have experienced something similar, including myself, would that make it a little easier to bear?’

They were in Vasin’s cabin, drinking chai. The room was slightly smaller than Goma and Ru’s own accommodation, but then again Vasin had no one to share it with, and she had obviously chosen the space and furnishings to reflect her own modest needs A small annexe with a bed and washing facilities was visible through an open doorway, and the main cabin contained a low coffee table, a console, some chairs and soft cushions. The main feature, spread across most of one wall, was a painting of the sun rising over a lake framed between grey and purple crags. At least, Vasin had told her that the name of the painting was The Sun . To Goma’s eyes, it might as well have been a depiction of some destructive stellar event, or even the violent birth of the universe itself — a primordial explosion of light and matter.

Their captain made a point of arranging these little social occasions. As far as Goma could tell, she was not being singled out for any special favours.

‘Even you, Captain?’

‘Gandhari, please.’

‘All right, Gandhari. But I can’t believe you have weak moments.’

‘More than my share. Not necessarily to do with Crucible, although I was happy enough during my time there, but I have fears enough of my own. I would not be a very effective captain if I did not. Our fears keep us on our toes.’

‘Are you worried about the ship?’

‘Oh, I trust the ship with my life. I’d better! Of course, a lot could go wrong. But then again, we have the best technical crew Crucible could muster. No, my fears are external — directed at the factors I can’t control.’

‘Like the Watchkeepers?’

‘They have certainly been uppermost in my concerns. It was always a gamble, taking a ship out on an interstellar heading. We couldn’t guess how they’d respond. So far, though…’

Behind Vasin, on the wall next to the one displaying the painting, was a schematic of the solar system. It was a real-time image, updated according to new data as it became available to Travertine . The arc of their trajectory formed a bold, straightening stroke, arrowing out from the middle. The orbits of Crucible and the other major planets were squeezed into increasingly tight ellipses, crowding around 61 Virginis. But there were also cone-shaped symbols dotted around the schematic, each of which indicated the known location of a Watchkeeper.

‘They’ve not moved?’ Goma asked.

‘No response that appears directly connected with our departure. In a way, it’s almost too good to be true.’

‘Don’t say that.’

‘I expected to draw some interest, at the very least, but I won’t complain if they leave us well alone. Perhaps we’ve been too cautious, all these years?’

‘One in the eye for the Second Chancers, in that case. They’ve been the main fear-mongers, haven’t they? Going around telling everyone that the instant we leave Crucible, we’ll feel the wrath of alien judgement.’

‘In fairness,’ Vasin said, ‘that viewpoint isn’t just shared by Maslin and his disciples.’

‘It’s a point of view. It’s also idiotic.’

Humans had first encountered the Watchkeepers around Crucible as the holoships slowed down from crossing interstellar space. After the agreement brokered by Chiku Green, the Watchkeepers had departed Crucible space — to all intents and purposes vanishing from human affairs and leaving the colonists free to explore the Mandala. So it had remained for a century. But they were back now in significantly larger numbers. Not just in Crucible space, but also in Earth’s solar system and around every extrasolar world where humanity had staked a significant presence.

No one knew what to make of them. In the early days of their return some ships had been destroyed. But whether that was because those ships ventured too close to the alien machines or because they were imposing a general injunction against interstellar travel, no one was quite sure.

Interstellar travel had continued but at a much reduced level. Once or twice, the Watchkeepers had acted to destroy or incapacitate in- or outbound ships, but there was no obvious pattern to their interventions. The result was nervousness and a growing political conservatism. Each system had its own specific manifestation of this trend, whether it was the Consolidation of Earth space, the Bright Retreat of Gliese 581’s colonies or the Second Chance movement of Crucible. Interstellar travel was deemed a risky provocation, with the more extreme voices calling for its complete abandonment, at least for a few centuries. None of those voices was louder, or more strident, than the Second Chancers’.

‘You really don’t have a lot of time for Maslin’s people,’ Vasin said.

‘And you do?’

‘I’m a pragmatist. So’s your uncle. Getting Crucible to agree to hand over this ship to an expedition took a lot of doing, Goma. The Second Chancers were dead against it.’

‘So why the hell are they here, stinking up the place?’

Vasin wrinkled her nose as if the bad smell were right before her. ‘That was Mposi’s masterstroke — and the only reason he secured agreement for the mission. They’d have organised a block vote against us, and that would have been the end of it. But offering them a place on the expedition as observers?’ She shook her head in admiration. ‘Even I couldn’t have come up with that, so hats off to Mposi.’

‘Compromise. What about sticking to your principles?’

‘If it’s a choice between the expedition happening or not, I’ll take compromise over principle any day. Incidentally, I’ve heard about your run-ins with Karayan and Grave. I’m trying to maintain a happy ship — are you going to keep making more work for me?’

‘I can’t stop being a rationalist just because it upsets some people.’

‘Nor would I expect you to. But you appear far more upset by them than they are by you.’

Goma looked down at her chai. All of a sudden the temperature in the room felt cooler than when she had arrived. She set the cup on the coffee table. The liquid surface threw back her reflection, but the mirror was imperfect, blurred by the tiny but constant vibrations that worked their way along the ship from the relentless, roiling furnace of the Chibesa engine.

Another reminder that home was falling further away with each breath.

‘I didn’t realise I’d been called here for a dressing-down.’

‘You haven’t. You’re the most critical member of this expedition and I respect your opinions. I trust everyone else to do the same. But I also need cohesion. Believe it or not, the other scientists are looking to you to take the lead on this. No one’s asking for the world here — I don’t expect you to start embracing Maslin’s beliefs. But if you could at least make a gesture towards mutual cooperation, accepting that they have as much right to be here as we do?’

‘You know what they did to my mother.’

‘And I know what it must mean to you to have left her behind. But the Second Chancers weren’t the only reason your mother was locked away, Goma. You have to allow that she had her critics from all corners of Crucible, people of all stripes, all persuasions — even hard-nosed scientists like yourself.’

‘You weren’t there.’

‘I didn’t have to be — I know my history.’ Vasin offered a conciliatory smile. ‘Difficult, I know, all this. But just do your best. Who knows? There may be friends among the Second Chancers you’ve yet to meet.’

‘I doubt it.’

‘But time will tell. Set an example, Goma. Reach out. What’s the worst that could happen?’