Charles Sheffield - The Spheres of Heaven

Chan shook his head and did not speak.

“Chan?” Deb said.

Danny Casement added, “You’re the one who brought us here. You organized the whole thing.”

“I did.” Chan looked not at Danny, but at Deb. “I dragged you here, but I think that was my mistake. I know we haven’t deserted Chrissie and the others. Someone will go back for them. But I don’t think we’re qualified to do it.”

“Of course we’re qualified!” Danny looked shell-shocked. “We’re the team, the original can-do kids. You always told us that.”

“I know what I said. We’re the team, the best there is. We’re up to anything that the starways can throw at us.” Chan stared around at the bewildered faces. “I believed all that myself. But just look at my miserable performance since we started. I brought you through the Link entry point without knowing where we were going. When we arrived, I didn’t know where we were. We escaped to our own universe — but only because this ship happened to be available. We left our own ship and half of our party behind. We’ve been like a bunch of children, meddling in affairs too complex for us. And all the special skills, the ones that I thought made us a perfect mix, what did we do with them? Deb is a weapons master, and she didn’t use any weapons” — Deb seemed ready to speak, then closed her mouth — “Chrissie couldn’t find uses for her magic. Tully didn’t talk to any aliens, nor did Tarbush. Danny was a wasted talent. The only one who had to do a good job was Bony, and that was because we messed up in every other way. As for me, I didn’t do one thing right. So let me ask you, are we qualified to go back to Limbo? Are we qualified to go anywhere ? Shouldn’t we leave it to people who know what they are doing?”

Deb Bisson moved to Chan’s side and took his hands in hers. She did not speak, and the reply, when it came, was from an unexpected source.

“Of course you are not qualified.” The Angel’s tone was chiding. “Faced with unknown dangers, no organism is qualified . It cannot assure its own survival, still less can it guarantee the rescue and safety of others. At most, an intelligent being can seek to minimize risks. However, your team is more qualified than anyone else. You performed vastly better than a team of Tinkers and Pipe-Rillas. Better, even, than an Angel of Sellora. And you did all this, without ever resorting to violence . We ask you — we implore you — to take your team again to Limbo.”

As the Angel paused, a buzzer sounded through the cabin of the Mood Indigo.

“Critical recharge point, all systems,” Bony said. “Nearly there. Wait for it.”

The lights came on, dim at first but brightening. An air circulator gave its preliminary moan. The display screens came alive, and from the control audio a puzzled human voice said, “ Mood Indigo ? This is the Tortugas access node. Is that the Mood Indigo ? We are receiving your signal and ship ID, but we show you as lost from the system a year ago.”

“A year!” Liddy exclaimed. “A whole year?”

“Something we have to get used to,” Chan said slowly. “With the multiverse, time is really relative.” He turned to Gressel. “I hear your request. But there’s another human expression I’ve never heard from any Angel: Put your money where your mouth is .”

“We have no mouth. However, we are familiar with the saying.”

“Then act on it. You beg us to return to Limbo. If we went, would you come with us?”

“Why, no. Certainly not.”

“If we accept, will you come with us?”

“We? The Angel, Gressel? Why do you even suggest such a thing?”

“Because you are one reason for our survival. We need you. Even without a pooling of minds, a team of Stellar Group members is stronger than any individual species.”

“But there is danger on Limbo. We avoid danger.”

“So do we. For us, you are part of that avoidance. You speak of civilized peoples. Does a civilized being consider its own survival more important than the survival of other intelligent beings?’

“It should not.”

“Then if we return to Limbo, will you come with us?”

Gressel gave a very human sigh. “For us to entertain such a suggestion should itself be unthinkable. Look homeward, Angel . We ought to return at once to Sellora. However, we suspect that human insanity may be contagious.”

The Angel turned to Bony. “Allow us to use your communications system. Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise . We are ready to begin.”