Greg Bear - Hull Zero Three

THE OLD WOMAN was my true mother. And my true partner. She made me. She saved me. After she was gone, I carried her to the forest, with Tsinoy’s help, and gave her over to the monkeys, who took her where they took the last of the mummies, to a place we do not know and do not care to find.

Eventually, I tell the others. Nell and Tomchin do not judge. Tsinoy and Kim, to my surprise, prove the most reluctant to accept the old woman’s story—my fable—or any part of what I think I saw.

Even when I remind them of the laser that saved my life. They have no answer for that.

This much seems clear. Ship has to earn the right to live. The only way to pass this test is to defeat Ship’s original design.

Ship has to find a conscience, or the chaperone could still destroy it utterly.

CENTURIES HAVE PASSED since we left Earth. It’s taken me this long to write about it. The books are almost full. This is the last of them.

We place the children in the old woman’s capsule. Tsinoy is despondent. She misses them. We will assign her other work. The monkeys have gone into hiding, preparing for what comes next. There is still much for the rest of us to do.

We will not be allowed to grow old together.

Nell has found us a star, within the degrees of freedom left as Ship coasts. Once, apparently, this sun was hidden by an arm of nebula, invisible to those who made our first desperate choice. Only in the last few months has it emerged.

Perhaps something knew all along.

The calculations seem to fit. In a hundred years, Ship will send fuel to the hulls. It will warm the engines, make a slow turn of a fraction of a degree, then cool again and sleep. We must conserve fuel in the sphere to power the shields, but even they will be weaker than they have been through our time of trial.

Our chosen is beautiful. A sun with at least twelve planets, two of them in a zone of habitability, and a decent halo of outer ice—something like the Oort cloud.

In two hundred years, after traversing a clear, calm void, almost empty of stardust, Ship will rise from cold slumber. Long before, Kim and Tsinoy and I will have purged the Klados of the dark pages of the Catalog. The hulls will finally join, and Ship will perform its last, century-long braking maneuver, sacrificing nearly all that remains of the moonlet; then it will take the long plunge into the inner system.

The infants will be awakened—raised, educated, and placed in charge. They will be the first new crew. Some of us will freeze down to become teachers. Perhaps one will be me, but that is no longer important or essential.

And in the end, once the final decision has been made—go or no go—the infants, now old, will pass away, as will those who raised and taught them, making room for Ship to grow a fresh crew and create landing vessels, seedships….

Oh, there will still be deception. The fresh crew will emerge as adults, will have memories of past training and lives. Our stories, our lives, will go on. I refuse to allow that love to die, just because it was never real.

The sphere is growing cold. Nell and I seek last warmth together.

I saw it again last night. Shining and lithe, like polished moonlight. Nell was beside me but saw nothing. I thought it knew me, acknowledged me, but I could have been dreaming. I’m half-dreaming now. I can barely write, and the pages of this eleventh book are almost full. There will be no others.

I see our world so clearly. Cloud modest

I feel the warmth

she’s waiting

she smiles she’s all I ever wanted

WE

ARE

HERE

Hegira

Beyond Heaven’s River

Psychlone

Strength of Stones

The Wind from a Burning Woman (collection)

Corona

Songs of Earth and Power

Blood Music

Eon

The Forge of God

Tangents (collection)

Sleepside Story

Queen of Angels

Eternity

Anvil of Stars

Bear’s Fantasies

Heads

Moving Mars

New Legends (anthology)

Dinosaur Summer

Foundation and Chaos

Slant

Darwin’s Radio

Collected Stories of Greg Bear

Vitals

Rogue Planet

Darwin’s Children

Dead Lines

Quantico

City at the End of Time

Mariposa

Hull Zero Three

Copyright © 2010 Greg Bear

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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First eBook Edition: November 2010

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The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN: 978-0-316-12302-0