Alastair Reynolds - Poseidon's Wake

Goma and Ru were free to enter skipover whenever they chose, but neither was yet ready. Goma’s communications with Ndege had grown steadily less frequent as the distance increased, but at least there were communications. That would cease when she entered skipover, and cease for ever. Since the time was to be of her choosing, she could not bring herself to make the decision. She could spend years awake if necessary — there would always be someone else around for company, and no shortage of rations — but to die before reaching Gliese 163 would entirely defeat the purpose of her being on the expedition in the first place. For now, she had agreed with Ru that they would remain awake at least until Travertine stopped its acceleration boost and resumed spin-generated gravity. Very little could go wrong during the cruise, and when the drive was restarted to slow the ship down again, the technicians would have the benefit of all the knowledge they had gained during the acceleration phase, making a catastrophe that much less likely. It was a good plan, Goma thought. They were not yet bored with the ship, not yet bored with each other, and not yet ready to surrender to sleep. And if either of them changed their minds, skipover was waiting.

But Goma need not have worried about boredom.

‘Do you remember that business we spoke about a little while ago?’ Mposi asked.

Goma was alone with him. Once or twice a week he dropped by their cabin for a brief social visit, often contriving to make it look like he was simply stopping in while on his way elsewhere. Goma went to his room more often than he came to theirs, but she was inclined to draw no negative conclusions from that. It was simply Mposi being his usual shrewd self. Living in such a confined environment, it was virtually guaranteed that nerves would begin to fray over the span of the expedition. Being asleep for much of it would make very little difference; there would still be months or years of wakefulness when they reached their destination. Given that even the best of friends could grate on each other if pressed into the same space for too long, it made no sense to hasten that process.

Still, when Mposi came to see her that evening, it was immediately obvious that his mood was unsettled.

‘Hard to forget,’ she said. ‘Although I was hoping it had dropped off the agenda.’

‘So was I,’ Mposi answered, gravely enough. ‘Indeed, it was starting to look as if that might have been the case. Updates from Crucible — a suspicion that the original intelligence was no more than malicious rumour-mongering.’

‘And now?’

He sucked breath through his teeth. ‘It turns out there might be some truth in it after all. A while ago I asked you to be my eyes and ears. Have you picked up on anything?’

‘Not really. Then again, I haven’t been going out of my way to mix with the Second Chancers.’

‘I wouldn’t dream of blaming you for that. Here’s the thing, though. Let us suppose someone on this expedition has a very real desire to see it fail, one way or another. Very possibly someone prepared to die to serve that end. When the Watchkeeper took an interest in us, there was a chance that the saboteur wouldn’t need to do anything at all.’

Goma reflected on the prospect of imminent destruction they had all felt, followed by the uneasy sense of a stay of execution once the Watchkeeper vanished.

‘You mean the saboteur was hoping the Watchkeeper would destroy us?’

‘Not hoping — but allowing for the possibility, certainly, waiting to see what transpired. Why risk acting and being detected in the process if the aliens are going to achieve the same ends? It needn’t have been total destruction. For all we knew — for all the saboteur knew — the Watchkeeper might have just forced us off course, or damaged us enough to make us abandon the expedition and return home. There was every good reason to lie low and see what happened.’

‘And now?’

‘Things have stabilised. The Watchkeeper didn’t destroy us, and it appears to be content to hang ahead of us, clearing our path. Meanwhile, the ship seems to be working properly — well enough that people have already begun to go into skipover. Crucible’s intelligence is that the saboteur may have been instructed to resume working towards the original plan — whatever that might be.’

‘And you still don’t know?’

The door began to open. Goma had closed it as Ru’s return was unexpected.

Goma groped for the thread of a plausible conversation — anything to give the impression that they had just been passing the time of day rather than discussing a secret conspiracy against the expedition. She felt paralysed and looked to Mposi in the hope he had come up with something.

‘Am I interrupting?’ Ru asked.

‘Not at all,’ Mposi said, rising to leave. ‘We were just…’

‘What?’

‘Just catching up on gossip,’ Goma said, with what she hoped was the right note of breezy innocence.

Ru kept looking at them. She had opened the door but come no further into the room. ‘Fine.’

‘Ru…’ Goma began. ‘It’s not what—’

But Ru had shut the door, already on her way somewhere else. ‘I’m sorry—’ Mposi started.

‘We should have told her. I should have told her. If there’s anyone on this ship I trust…’ But before she could complete her own sentence, Goma was on her way out of the room. The door closed behind her, leaving Mposi alone. Ru was nearly at the end of the corridor, about to reach one of the stairwells. ‘Ru!’ Goma called out. ‘Stop, please! You’ve got to let me explain!’

Ru halted, but when she looked back her expression was icy. ‘Explain what? Why you feel the need to talk behind my back?’

‘It wasn’t about you!’

Ru started up the staircase. For a moment, Goma was torn between possibilities — return to Mposi to hear the rest of what he had to say, or repair things with Ru?

Her decision was as impulsive as it was heartfelt. Mposi would return, but she could not count on Ru forgiving her unless she made immediate amends. Ru’s footsteps rattled away up the staircase and Goma followed as quickly as she was able.

Ru could not have escaped her for long, and within a minute or so she stopped, squaring off against Goma on the next level up from their own.

‘Whatever it is, I’m not interested. I gave up everything to be on this fucking ship.’ Ru had raised her voice, but it was such a subtle modulation that only Goma would have noticed it. ‘My work, my world, my life. And this is my reward? We’ve barely begun and already there are secrets?’

‘Please be quiet,’ Goma said, speaking the words with soft authority.

‘Don’t tell me—’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I will tell you. This is not my doing. I promised Mposi that I wouldn’t tell you because he asked me to and I respect him. It was not about keeping anything from you, but from everyone else — the rest of the ship.’ She glanced around even as she spoke these words to make sure they were as alone as they appeared to be. ‘So I kept my mouth shut, and guess what, Ru? Mposi wasn’t kidding around. There is something serious happening — something I don’t want any part of, but now I know about it and I wish I didn’t, because I was just getting used to being here. And by the way, everyone gave up their old lives for this — including me and Mposi.’ But now Goma glanced down, her indignation burning itself out. ‘He was wrong, though. I should have spoken to you, and I’m sorry I didn’t. Actually, given what he just told me, I’d have insisted on sharing it with you now.’

‘So what did he tell you?’ Ru asked.

‘We can’t talk here. It’s best if you hear it from Mposi — I’ll make him tell you.’