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. I guess he had too much else to do, I should have talked to him."
J.D. thought it more likely that Gerald had either
METAPHASE 211
ignored Infinity's message or deliberately discounted it. But she was not
about to say so to Infinity.
Satoshi knew Gerald heard him, but the acting chancellor stalked through
the trees, slapping every branch that got in his way.
"Gerald!"
Satoshi caught up to him.
"Come on," Satoshi said. "This isn't doing anybody any good."
Gerald plowed on, a few more strides, then stopped and glared at Satoshi.
"No, apparently nothing I do does anybody any good."
"That isn't what I meant."
"It is what everybody else means."
"Gerald . . ." Satoshi tried to think of something soothing to say, but
the truth was that a lot of people found Gerald abrasive. When he
supported the proposal to decommission Starfarer, he won himself no
friends; when Arachne crashed, he made enemies. Satoshi believed him when
he said he had nothing to do with it, but other members of the expedition
did not.
"What are you trying to do?" Satoshi asked. "It's too late to stop the
expedition."
"I'm trying to make sure we all survive it!" Gerald exclaimed. He caught
his error and looked away. "All the rest of us, I mean, of course." He
met Satoshi's gaze again. "I'm certain--certain-no one was meant to be
killed in the system crash."
"Is that what the chancellor said?"
"I . . . haven't put it to him directly. But I'm certain nonetheless. I
very much regret the journalist's death. By all reports he was a talented
young man."
"Yes. And a nice guy. He was closest to J.D. and to Stephen Thomas."
Satoshi was not about to tell Gerald that Stephen Thomas had buried
Feral's body on the wild side.
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212 VONDA N. McINTYRE
"You could probably make them both feel better," Satoshi said, "if you told
them what you just told me."
"Oh, indeed," Gerald said, disgusted. "And have your partner attempt to
knock out all my teeth again. No thank you."
"When you say stuff like that," Satoshi said mildly, "I can kind of
understand his urge."
"What would you have me do?" Gerald shouted. "I'm responsible for
Starfarer, for all of you-"
"Bullshit," Satoshi said.
-and I'm completely losing control. . . . I beg your pardon?"
"You're not Sir Francis Drake, for god's sake. You don't have life and
death responsibility and you don't have life and death power. You aren't
losing control."
"Perhaps I've maintained that appearance."
"You never had control of the expedition," Satoshi said gently. "How could
you lose it?"
Gerald opened his mouth, then closed it again. His shoulders stiffened.
"I had to take over the chancellor's duties. I had no choice."
"That isn't the point. You can't control the expedition. There are a couple
of people who could, if they wanted."
"Such as who?" Gerald asked belligerently. "Do you mean the spy? I suppose
he could, with enough blackmail and extortion."
"Griffith? No."
It surprised Satoshi that Gerald confabulated power with force. Satoshi had
been thinking of ethical power, a quality Griffith lacked almost entirely.
Professor Thanthavong possessed it, and so did Kolya Cherenkov. Either one
could take over the expedition in a second. Satoshi thought they had that
power because they did not want it.
"You're trying to get people to do what you think they should be doing,"
Satoshi said. "Then you want us all to do it the way you think it ought to
be done. Why's that important to you?"
METAPHASE 213
"Someone has to be sure the work gets done."
"But the work is getting done."
"It isn't getting done right."
Satoshi did not say anything about Gerald's current score at getting work
done right; he did not want to rub the assistant chancellor's nose in
what Infinity had just pointed out.
To his credit, Gerald got the idea.
"I'm doing my best," he said, stiff but sincere. "If you have
suggestions, I'd be most happy to hear them."
"Okay. People think you're conspiring with Blades. That isn't doing you
any good."
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"Conspiring!"
"You, and Derjaguin, and even Orazio."
"Just because we're the only ones who'll speak to the man? I still
consider him my superior."
"That's not likely to win you any points," Satoshi said dryly.
"And I have the same sympathy I'd have for any other victim of unjust
political imprisonment."
"Unjust-!"
"And don't cite your partner's spurious evidence anymore! Ile found it
in Arachne, and Arachne was severely damaged. Besides, Stephen Thomas had
a motive to find the chancellor guilty."
"Stephen Thomas liked Blades," Satoshi said.
"He liked Feral better."
Satoshi had to concede that point. "The chancellor's safe, thanks to
Infinity."
"Safe? He's in solitary confinement! I have no intention of abandoning
him to go mad in that cave."
Nerno's ship continued to pace Starfarer, but Nemo remained silent. The
LTMs watched the squidmoth, and J.D. watched the LTM transmissions.
Beneath the mother of pearl chrysalis, the structure of Nerno's body
dissolved. Only the single exposed tentacle remained.
Every so often, one of the attendants crawled in, staggering, burrowed
into the chrysalis, and disap-
214 VONDA N. McINTYRE
peared. Luminous white pearl closed the burrows, sealing the attendants
inside. Once they touched Nemo's amorphous shape, their forms, too,
dissolved.
In the window seat of her house, J.D. sat back from the holographic
projection of Nerno's central chamber. Her back twinged and her shoulders
ached fiercely. She tried to massage her trapezius muscles, but aside
from the difficulty of giving oneself a massage, her bicepses and
tricepses hurt as well.
Zev looked Lip from the book he was reading.
"Is it time to go to Victoria's house?"
"Just about," J.D. said. "If I can get up."
"What's wrong?" He jumped to his feet and came over to her, leaving the
book open and face-down on the floor. J.D. was glad she collected books
for the words and not their physical value.
"I didn't realize picking oranges was such hard work," J.D. said
ruefully. She did not think she could jump to her feet if her life
depended on it. She reminded herself that she was more than twice Zev's
age. "I thought I was in pretty good condition, but I hurt all over."
"I thought it was fun," Zev said. "Easier than picking mussels."
He urged her forward, knelt behind her, and rubbed her shoulders. She
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leaned back against his hands with a groan of pleasure and relief.
"That feels so good, Zev."
He moved his hands down her spine, and massaged low in the small of her
back.
"You picked more oranges than I did," he said.
She chuckled.
"I guess I did. But you moved them farther than I did."
"Faster, anyway."
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