Vernor Vinge - Tatja Grimm's World

Svir’s finger pressed the trigger. Jolle reacted with characteristic speed, bringing his weapon down before Svir could shoot. The alien’s left leg was blown off as Tatja loosed her bolt. The last thing Svir felt was the explosion as Jolle’s bolt smashed everything into darkness.

The daybat fluttered through the intricately wound branches of the needle tree, settled beside a large pink flower, and folded its blue and orange wings. Its tiny, sleek head moved back and forth as it wiggled between the petals and licked the juices in the base of the flower. This far from human settlement, most animals were not shy of humans—the flower in question was barely fifteen inches above Svir’s head.

O’rmouth was one hundred miles away. The mountains dominated the horizon to the east—if one chose to look through the leaves and green branches in that direction. Here the air was thick and rich, just warm enough so that the breeze moving along the ground was pleasantly cool. Here the sunlight was muted by green leaves, not reflected with merciless intensity by snow and ice.

Three hundred feet away, their battle group was setting up bivouac. The universe had chosen to wear its mask of light and love today. Svir recognized the deception. The real world was snow and ice and red thunderbolts that…

There was a crackle of branches as Tatja entered the little open spot by the tent and sat down beside him. The daybat jerked its head from the flower and looked warily about, then went back within the pinkness.

They sat in silence for several minutes. Tatja wore a gray fatigue uniform. There was about her none of the purpose or intensity that had driven her before. The Doomsdaymen were far behind them. There were no more threats to face.

Tatja’s hand slipped onto his elbow. Then her face was before his and her eyes bore the same quiet, personal interest that he had seen more than four years ago in a certain tavern in Krirsarque—where this dream had begun. “A lot of people died in this adventure, and I am truly sorry it had to be … but Cor I miss the most. The most.”

He tried to produce an ironic chuckle but all that came out was a croaking sound.

“What?” asked Tatja.

He opened his mouth again. The words came fast, low, slurred. “I was just thinking if Jolle’s golem had been a bit more accurate he could have had me too an’ maybe saved himself later on.”

She raised her hand to his shoulder. “The golem was perfectly accurate, Svir. By killing her, Jolle made you into a tool and eliminated a major threat. Of all the people there, Cor was the only one I might have listened to.” Tatja’s voice faded. “In all the world, Cor and Rey Guille were the only ones I might have listened to… How I wish I hadn’t frightened Rey away. I was just a brilliant animal when I found Tarulle; they made me a person. For a while I had a home, people I could talk to. Rey’s telescope was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. He and Cor seemed so smart, almost like me. The first days on the barge were the happiest of my life. Now years have passed … and those I didn’t drive away are all dead. Friends deserve better.” She made a peculiar choking sound.

“No, Svir. Jolle meant to kill Cor. And it was only luck that his plan did not work. You see, Profirio was less than one hundred yards from the bunker when the golem shot Cor. Pröfe had already been separated from his supporters. He was trying to move across the no-man’s-land to our side. He saw the murder; eventually he learned who had been killed. He talked to you during the walk up the snow tunnel. By the time we reached the observatory, he knew how Jolle was using you, and he knew how to approach you.

“He did sneak below the main floor, as we thought. But you remember that the water from the wind turbines had to go into those quarters. The pipe was too small for him, but the ground around the entrance hole was not rock hard. Pröfe dug his way out during the first hours. Jolle was too near his goal to take everything into account and I … I wasn’t thinking very straight myself. Anyway, Pröfe got outside, and while you and Jolle were mounting the signaler, he crawled onto the dome and down into the telescope.”

Svir looked at her face, saw without comprehension the tears in her eyes. His attention wandered back to the bat on the branch above them. The flower’s juices splashed over the petals and a sweet smell drifted down. He had no interest in what had happened in the last hundred hours—in whether the world had been saved or not. His hands clenched and unclenched as he considered what he would do if that bat were so incautious as to come lower.

“Svir, you aren’t the only one who had his world kicked to pieces.” She laughed, but it was not a happy sound. “I loved Jolle. He manipulated me just as I have all the rest. If I hadn’t been fooled, most of this would not have happened. Cor would be alive.

“But this doesn’t change the fact that I really loved him. Jolle turned out to be evil, but he was also … someone strong, who seemed to like me. Pröfe is a kinder man. But he’s not Jolle.

“I’m going to disappear tonight, for good. So is Pröfe. 1 won’t go into the details—I’m afraid they wouldn’t be completely intelligible—but Pröfe signaled his vehicle last night, and we have transportation now. 1 imagine Haarm Wechsler will be quite relieved. The bureaucrats will have to find a Crown Surrogate, but after the way I treated them above O’rmouth, I don’t think they’re interested in having a ruler as unreliable as me. They may even believe I’m something supernatural. Yet everything I did was child’s play.

“Now … I’m so scared. After tonight, everyone I meet will be as smart as me. Once more I’m just a bright animal. Pröfe can’t lie nearly as well as Jolle: Pröfe is really not sure if I’ll ever fit in with his people. I may be lost forever, too bright for this world, too dim for Pröfe’s.”

She faltered. Then her voice filled with forced enthusiasm.

“Svir, things are hard for you just now, but see the good that can come: You are going to live through the beginning of the most exciting time in Tu’s history. In the next two hundred years, the people of Tu will move science along to the beginnings of what you have seen with Jolle and Pröfe. No slavers will deny you progress. In three centuries human nature itself will change, and all that went before will have been chrysalis. Your descendants will be like me.”

The bat undid its wings and fluttered to the next flower, ten inches from the first. It was less than fifteen inches from his head.

“You will never see me or Pröfe again … I guess you’re just as happy about that.” The bat turned, and one wing draped down so low that Svir could see the individual blue and orange hairs that composed its fur. “But people like us will never be far away. We can’t give back what was taken from your ancestors, but we will see that your grandchildren regain it. There are many wrong turnings possible. There are pestilences that could kill all life on the planet—if you misuse the discoveries you will make. We will do our best to protect you—in appropriate, undetectable ways.” Svir’s clenched hands became claws as they flashed up. Tatja caught his wrists in the first four inches of motion. Her grip was unshakable. And for once she misunderstood his motives. “Please, Svir. I don’t mean protection like you’ve had the last few days. People were killed and ruined because we were fighting a superman, not someone who could be maneuvered.” She looked closely at him. “I hadn’t realized how twisted this has left you. You got caught right in the middle, as I did; but I was their equal—and you were nearly destroyed. If Pröfe had any equipment with him, he could cure you, make you realize that there are still ways out…