Линда Нагата - Edges

Urban existed on only a single timeline, occupying the high bridge, when the Bio-mechanic messaged him: *The avatar is on the move.

He replicated into the library, and linked into a sensory web established by the Bio-mechanic. The web allowed him to monitor the progress of the avatar’s cocoon as it slid through the ship’s tissue. Ninety-two minutes later, the cocoon merged with the warren’s barrier wall, releasing its occupant into an empty chamber.

Lezuri had waited only three days to make his return.

Urban opened a window. Filled it with the updated personnel map, now capable of tracking the location of the avatar.

The Scholar appeared, uninvited, within his frameless window. “Let me be with you when you talk to him.”

Urban considered this, then nodded his assent.

In the bedroom of Clemantine’s cottage, he awoke, his memories already synced by a submind. The Scholar joined him, a ghost presence residing in his atrium and riding on his senses, perceptible to him, but to no one else.

The personnel map showed Lezuri waiting to cross from the zero-gravity of the warren to the rotating gee deck.

“Look there,” the Scholar said, highlighting a point on the map as Urban walked into the front room. “Naresh is waiting to meet Lezuri.”

It did look that way. The physicist was loitering by the transit gate, behind the amphitheater. Urban considered and then rejected the possibility that the entity had signaled Naresh.

The Apparatchiks on Griffin remained suspicious that the document containing the Naresh Sequence had been a plant, that Lezuri had somehow gained access to Naresh’s atrium, and through that, to the network. But there was no evidence for it, and the DIs assigned to watch for unusual activity had found nothing of note.

“Naresh must have instructed a DI to monitor the map, and alert him,” Urban said.

The points representing Lezuri and Naresh crossed the pavilion together—but not toward the path that led most directly to Urban’s location. Instead, they went the other way around the gee deck. Riffan and Vytet joined them, and then a few others. Tarnya, Mikael, even Alkimbra among them. The group did not go even as far as the dining terrace, gathering instead on a small lawn.

“I thought he would come to see you,” the Scholar said, bemused.

Urban had thought so too. Lezuri needed him, wanted his cooperation.

“Will you go see him?” the Scholar asked.

“It’s what he wants, isn’t it?”

“It would put you in the position of supplicant.”

“Does that matter in this circumstance?”

“I doubt it matters to Lezuri, but how would it affect you?”

Urban thought about it and decided he would let Lezuri come to him. He could wait and he would miss nothing because Vytet could be trusted to make a record of everything that was said.

He continued to watch the map. Others joined the little gathering. He saw Clemantine among them. He was about to message her, but she messaged him first: *Riffan has loaned Lezuri a tablet .

Clemantine knelt on the edge of the gathering. She counted fourteen admirers, sitting with Lezuri on a small span of lawn. Vytet, Riffan, and Naresh closest to him.

“It’s Urban who controls access to the ship’s network,” Naresh was saying. “He is the ultimate authority here.”

“You will understand,” Vytet said, “that we must insist on certain security precautions. We cannot open the network to you, but we’re happy to answer any questions you have.”

“I would like to see where we are,” Lezuri answered. “Our precise position within the void.”

“Oh, I can show you that,” Riffan volunteered. He had a tablet with him. He checked the display and then handed it to Lezuri.

Clemantine gasped. She wanted to cry out, to tell Riffan, No! No, don’t give our enemy this doorway into Dragon’s network!

Instead she messaged Urban: *Riffan has loaned Lezuri a tablet .

Urban responded: *He’s looking at astronomical data.

*He’ll try to penetrate the network.

*I’ve throttled access. Don’t worry. Then he added, *Show me what’s going on.

She complied, opening a link that allowed him to see the video she was recording through her atrium.

After several seconds, Lezuri handed the tablet back to Riffan, saying, “It’s a relief to me to know we are still a safe distance from Tanjiri.”

“Oh yes,” Riffan said. “We’re still years away.”

“Tell us about Tanjiri,” Vytet urged him.

Lezuri cocked his head, eyeing Riffan with a thoughtful expression. “Long ago, when you first came to speak to me—I was not then capable of response—you described to me the history of this ship. You told me Urban is its master.”

“That’s right,” Riffan said. “But this is a shared mission, we are all bound together for the old worlds, to discover what might be there. And we understand there will be dangers—”

“No,” Lezuri interrupted gently. “You have no conception of what lies ahead of you.”

Clemantine rose to her feet. “Do you?” she asked him. “I had the impression you were marooned for centuries, if not millennia. What has changed since you were last at Tanjiri?”

He eyed her for several seconds. Debating an answer? Finally, he said, “I have not been to Tanjiri. I would not trespass there.”

This drew a flurry of questions. He ignored them all, turning to Vytet, to Naresh, asking questions of his own, “Who is it that decides the destination of this ship? All of you together? Or is it Urban who makes this decision for the rest of you?”

An uncertain silence fell across the gathering. Even Clemantine wasn’t sure how to frame an answer. Finally, Vytet offered a cautious explanation: “We have always treated it as a matter of discussion.”

“But the final word is Urban’s,” Naresh added. “The ship is his. He is the ship. You will need to persuade him if you want to see this ship go somewhere other than Tanjiri.”

Lezuri nodded. He rose to his feet. “Please excuse me. The lifespan of this avatar is limited, and it seems I must visit Urban after all.”

From Urban, a soft, self-satisfied chuckle. He told Clemantine, *Come home. You’ll want to see how this plays out.

Urban looked over his shoulder at Clemantine as she walked in from the bedroom, breathless, her face shining with sweat. She’d put her experience playing flying fox to good use, shortcutting through gardens and over rooftops to arrive at the backdoor well before Lezuri crossed the threshold.

“No one has told him you can command the ship,” Urban said.

“Let’s keep it that way.”

“Agreed.”

She took a seat on the sofa while he walked to the door. The gel retracted. Lezuri was outside, alone, crossing the patio.

“Come in,” Urban said.

Lezuri came in talking. “You want to believe you are strong, wise, ruthless—”

“Not so much,” Urban broke in. “But I can learn. I imagine there’s a lot I could learn at Tanjiri.”

Lezuri hesitated, eyeing Clemantine. She gestured at the other end of the sofa. “Please. Have a seat.”

He ignored this offer, returning his attention to Urban. “Tanjiri is not for you. You are not ready to encounter what exists there.”

This could be true , the Scholar said, speaking from within Urban’s atrium where no one else could hear.