Эрик Браун - Starship Winter

The Ambassador gestured. “But known only to a small group of select people: yourselves, the friends of Matt Sommers.”

The alien sat back and all eyes switched to Matt. He began pacing back and forth, then paused and looked at us. “First of all”, he said, “I need to explain why Darius Dortmund visited Chalcedony, and specifically the exhibition.”

Kee said, “He was planning to steal the Epiphany Stones, no?”

Matt smiled. “Well, in a way I suppose he was.”

“In a way?” I said.

He resumed his pacing. “He wasn’t planning a traditional heist. His theft would have been◦– was ◦– even more audacious and seemingly impossible than any physical theft.” He paused. “To explain, you must understand the range of Dortmund’s abilities. We all know he was empathetic, perhaps even telepathic◦– and that exhibition the other night with the hleth barb: he was telekinetic into the bargain, though it drained him to perform such feats. He also had other mental abilities, gained through his empathetic talents and learned from the many races he met in his travels around the Expansion.”

He paced back and forth, then went on, “He was a driven soul. I think we all agree that he wasn’t a particularly pleasant human being. He’d turned his back on humanity and on human philosophy. He wanted more, and his entire existence was about gaining intellectual and philosophical understanding from the alien races he came into contact with. When he learned of the Elan, of their philosophies and their reverence of their ancestors via the Epiphany Stones, he wanted to investigate. He went to Epiphany some years ago, but was refused access to the stones.

“On Chalcedony, however, at my exhibition, he was not◦– and for the first time he could mentally engage, on a level we cannot even begin to imagine, with the stones and their unique contents.”

I recalled Dortmund’s first experience of the stones, his subsequent collapse, and then his later rapid sampling of the exhibits.

Matt was saying, “We became aware that something was wrong on the first day the exhibition was open to the public. That afternoon people reported that certain stones appeared to be losing their power, their strength. The Ambassador investigated and discovered that indeed some stones had mysteriously weakened. There seemed to be no explanation for this, until we examined a recording of the exhibition, and realised that only the stones experienced by Darius Dortmund had been affected, perhaps thirty in all.”

The Ambassador carved a fluid gesture in the air and addressed us. “Forgive me, but perhaps you cannot, being human, fully appreciate the meaning of what had happened to the stones. Words and phrases like ‘weakened’ and ‘lost their strength’, while conveying in factual terms the effect on the stones of Dortmund’s depredations, do not do full justice to the extent of his… ah… sacrilege.”

Matt went on, “Dortmund had not just ‘weakened’ the effect of certain stones in the display… I know this might sound fantastic and unbelievable to you, but he had drawn into his consciousness the essences of the Elan dead contained in the stones he sampled. He wanted the knowledge of the elders, their wisdom. In effect, he had abducted the souls of revered and worshipped Elan elders.”

The Ambassador used both hands to shape his emotion. “You cannot imagine the tragedy, the… the desecration, my friends.”

Hawk cleared his throat and said, “So that’s why the Elan Fhen killed Dortmund and fled?”

A silence met his words.

Matt glanced at the Ambassador, who said, “As I mentioned at the villa the other morning, we Elan do not kill. We do not kill animals, insects. We certainly do not kill human beings—”

Hannah said, “But perhaps Fhen, driven to go against his people’s ways by what Dortmund had done…?”

Matt was shaking his head. “Like the Ambassador said, the Elan do not kill, under any circumstances. Fhen didn’t murder Darius Dortmund.”

We stared at him. I said, “Then who…?”

Matt returned our collective gaze. At last he said, “I did.”

Looking back, I realise I was in shock for several long seconds. My pulse pounded, and I experienced hot and cold flushes as I tried to take in Matt’s words.

I stared at Hannah, who was staring wide-eyed at Matt. Hawk was open-mouthed, and Kee was clinging to him as if in fright. On the couch, Maddie had lowered her head and was inspecting her fingers; she looked up and smiled to each of us in turn. Obviously Matt had told her, at some point, of his actions.

Now he said, “Together with the Ambassador and Fhen, we went through how we should respond to Dortmund’s theft, and we came to a decision, hard though it was. The opportunity arose after Dortmund displayed his ability with the hleth barb, when everyone had retired that night. Minutes later I returned to the lounge with Heanor and Fhen and confronted him. I…” Matt drew a breath, evidently reliving the moment, “I didn’t take the murder of a fellow human being lightly, but I knew that it had to be done.”

“But,” I said, “but…” I was stuttering and shaking, failing to understand the actions of my friend. “But Dortmund had already… already weakened the stones. He’d done the deed. What was to be gained from killing him, other than revenge?”

Hawk said, “David’s right. What had happened to the stones, and the souls of the elders they contained, had happened. Revenge was useless. Dortmund’s death doesn’t achieve anything.”

Into the ensuing silence, Matt said, “But Dortmund is not dead, Hawk.”

I leaned back, resting against the foam-form for support. Hawk laughed, “ What? ”

“I didn’t ‘kill’ Dortmund for revenge, or to stop him continuing his desecration.” He turned to Heanor. “Ambassador…”

The little Elan stood up. “My friends, that evening when Matt consented to ‘kill’ Darius Dortmund, we had explained to him that Dortmund would not die, though it would seem so to the outside world. Dortmund contained, in his head, in his soul, the essences of our ancestors◦– and we wanted them returned.”

“But how…?” Hannah began.

“Fhen and I set up one of the emptied, desecrated stones”, said the Ambassador, “and the apparatus with which to convey the essence of Dortmund to it…” He stood, moved around the foam-form, and lifted into view a small valise. He opened it and carefully, with reverence, lifted out a long, faceted Epiphany Stone, sparkling emerald in the light spilling through the wall of the dome.

“My friends,” he said, “this stone contains the essence of Darius Dortmund◦– and also, more importantly, the essences of those ancestors he stole from us. They are now returned, and I give thanks.”

Hawk said, floundering for words, “But… my God. Dortmund is in… that ?” He gestured to the stone. “I don’t believe it!”

Matt smiled at the Ambassador. “Heanor, perhaps…?”

The alien nodded, rose to his feet with the stone and moved across the exhibition area to a vacant plinth. He set the Epiphany Stone in a recessed housing and nodded to Matt.

“I thought you might find the truth hard to take,” Matt said. “So I arranged for a little demonstration. If you’d care to…” and he gestured us towards the plinth.

Cautiously, as if we were expecting some kind of trap, we stood and crossed the floor. When we were gathered before the plinthed stone, Heanor touched a switch on the column of the plinth and stood back.

Matt said. “It’s ready now, if you’d care to step forward.”

Hannah looked at me, gripped my hand, and we moved towards the stone. We entered a nimbus of ruby light, and were soon joined by the others.