Starmind. Part 23

Rhea thought so too. They were at the ocean sh.o.r.e east of Provincetown, just where the upthrust arm of Cape Cod curls its wrist back toward the mainland. Before them was the sea, next stop Europe; behind them to the west, between them and P-Town, lay kilometers of sand dunes. The weather was perfect, and had been since they had watched the sun rise together over the Atlantic several hours ago. It was now almost time for the Hour of Remembrance, and she and Colly were just finis.h.i.+ng the food they had brought with them from home.

There were few others here, even on this global holiday. There were too many beaches a P-Towner could reach without having to walk several kilometers of sand, too many boats available to take them out on the water, especially since the fleet was not fis.h.i.+ng today. Nonetheless Rhea had never seen this particular stretch of sh.o.r.e so heavily populated. The idea of Courage Day had caught on.

The spot did not feel crowded; there was no rowdiness; the general mood seemed to be a kind of subdued celebration. People spoke less than usual, and in softer voices; those who listened to music or news did not inflict it on their neighbors; even teenage boys were not horsing around. Rhea suspected things would get more festive later, after the Hour was past, but for the moment there was a kind of solemnity in the air that seemed to call for decorum. It had been a long long time since so many saints had been martyred at once.

"Do you feel like Trancing?" Colly asked.

Rhea looked around. There were a few individuals dancing, but no group had formed as yet. She did not see anyone she knew nearby. "Maybe later, hon. After the Hour."

"Okay." Colly liked trance-dancing well enough, but was not as attached to it as Rhea had become in recent months. "I'm surprised you have the energy," Rhea added idly. Colly had only been back on Earth for a few days after visiting her father in orbit.

"I know," Colly said. "Me too. Yesterday I was tired as galoonies-but today I feel like Waldo. You know what I mean? Like he must feel. Like, I know I'm weak, but I don'tfeel weak."

It took Rhea a second to get the reference. "Oh,Waldo- your new friend in the s.h.i.+mizu. I forgot all about him." Come to think of it, Colly hadn't mentioned him once since her return. "How is Waldo?"

Suddenly Colly was a textbook ill.u.s.tration, labeled Nonchalance. "Okay," she said off-handedly, studying her fingernails. "His frog died, and he likes that dopey cla.s.sic rock music now, and his teacher says he understands calculus." Beat. "And he said he wants to marry me when we're bigger."

Rhea's heart turned over in her chest. She didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry, only that she must do neither out loud.And so it begins, she thought. "Oh," she said, with equal casualness. "I'm . . .

sorry to hear about his frog."

"Yeah. Hip was cool."

"So, uh . . . what did you tell him? About the marriage thing."

"I said I'd think about it."

"I see. Did that satisfy him for now?"

"I guess." Another pause. "He wanted to kiss me."

Rhea chose her words with care. "How was it?"

Colly had run out of fingernails; she segued smoothly to toenails. "Okay, I guess." Suddenly she turned and looked her mother in the eye. "But honestly, Mom, I don't get what the big deal is."

Rhea refused herself permission to smile. It cost her. "You will, baby," she said solemnly. "You will."

"Yeah, butwhen?"

"You won't miss it," she said. The words made her think of Manuel Brava, and she glanced at her watchfinger. "Hey, it's almost time."

It was about five minutes before the Hour. All up and down the beach, conversations were ending, people were sitting up straighter and facing the sea. Boats out on the water killed their engines, and their pa.s.sengers came out on deck. Rhea felt a sudden pang of loneliness, the kind that a child's presence does not a.s.suage. Holidays are always the worst time for those with no significant other.

"Mom? We're rich now, right?"

The non sequitur made her smile. "No, dear. But we're richer."

"Well . . . can we afford to call s.p.a.ce for an hour?"

Automatically Rhea started to do mental arithmetic . . . then abandoned the equation unsolved. Herdaughter had sideswiped her for the second time in less than a minute."Yes, Colly! That's agreat idea!

Oh, I hope he's not . . . no, they won't be working in orbit, either." She was already autodialing, half-wis.h.i.+ng the car was near so they could have visual too. s.p.a.ce images would have been appropriate during the Hour. Ah well . . .

Rand answered almost at once. "Hi, Rhea! Is Colly there? Of course she is-hi, princess!"

"Hi, Daddy!" Colly called back.

Rhea adjusted the volume for privacy. "Hi," she said.

"Where are you guys? No, wait-let me guess. Audio only, so you're out in the boonies somewhere.

From the sound of the waves, ocean rather than bay side. The Dunes, right?"

How could someone who knew you that well be hundreds of miles away? "That's right."

"Is Uncle Jay around?" Colly asked.

"Right here, cutie," Jay's voice said.

"Hi, Uncle Jay! Hi, Duncan!"

There was the sound of laughter, then, "Hi, Colly," from Duncan.

Rhea monitored herself to see if Duncan's voice caused any internal fluttering. Nothing. She hoped he and Jay would make a success of it. "Where are you guys, anyway? No wait-let me guess." It couldn't be one of the Solariums: Rand and Jay were celebrities. Somewhere private, with a good view . . . got it!

"You're all in Eva's window, aren't you?"

"Right," Rand said. "As a matter of fact, I think I can see you from here. Wave, Colly."

She looked skyward and did so. "Here I am, Daddy!"

"I see you," he a.s.sured her. "You've got mayonnaise on your chin."

She checked-and burst into giggles when she found he was right.

"We're planning to do some damage to the legacy Eva left me, as soon as the Hour is over," Jay said. "I wish I could send you down a snort."

"Me too!" Rhea said. "Look, I know the Hour's almost here. We don't have to talk or anything-but can we all stay on-line together until it's over?"

"It's something Terrans and s.p.a.cers should share," Duncan said.

"It was my idea," Colly said proudly.

"And a good one," Rand told her.

"Are you okay, Uncle Jay?" she asked. "Are you sad about Eva?" His answer was slow in coming. "Let me put it this way, honey," he said at last. "I'm not exactly okay yet-but I know I'm going to be. You know what I mean?"

"I know exactly what you mean," she said solemnly, and Rhea felt a brief stab of guilt. "Daddy, tell him that thing Captain Kirk said."

"Huh?"

"You know, about leaving."

A chuckle. "Oh. Not Captain Kirk, honey: Rahssan Roland Kirk.An Old Millennium jazzman. He said once, 'n.o.body dies. They just leavehere .'"

There was a pause, and then Jay's voice said, "I think that's true. Thank you, Colly."

"Two minutes," Duncan said.

"It feels like we ought to bedoing something," Rhea said. "Colly told you we've been Trancing a little, right? Maybe we should all dance or something."

"Well," Jay said, "I figure like this: Reb was Soto Zen. One of his favorite sayings used to be, 'Don't just do something-sit there!' Do you guys know how to sitzazen ? That's what we were thinking of doing."

"Sure," Colly said with just a hint of scorn. "Duncan taught us once. Well,kukanzen, notzazen, but they're prac'ly the same." She began manipulating sand into an improvisedzafu, and Rhea followed her lead. She was cautious about exposing her child to organized religion, but Zen did not meet her definition of a religion. It had no deity, for one thing-but more important, it did not require either killing or converting unbelievers.

"It's okay to get up if you get antsy, Colly," Jay said. "Reb wrote a book once called RUNNING JUMPING STANDING STILL. Any of those would be appropriate, I think. And there's a walking meditation calledkinhin, for groundhogs, anyway. Or you can Trance, if you like. But let's sit a little at first, at least at the start."

"Sure," she agreed.

"I'm theDoan today," Jay said. "The timekeeper. I'll ring a bell three times when the Hour strikes, and again when it's over, and we'll all be silent in between, okay?"

"Are you studying Buddhism now, Jay?" Rhea asked.

"Aw, I've been fiddling with it for years. But yeah, I'm getting into it more lately. It's a lot like drinking Black Bush, only cheaper."

Rhea checked her daughter. "No, honey, like this. You don't have to lace your fingers together in a gee field, remember? Left hand on top of right palm, thumbtips just touching."

Colly corrected hermudra, and straightened her spine. "Are we supposed to look downward?"

"Technically, yes," Jay said. "But for today I think looking up is okay. There's really no wrong way to do it, if your heart's in the right place. Just follow your breath . . . and remember Eva and Reb and all theAdepts."

"Get ready," Duncan said. "It's almost time."

The beach was hushed, now, save for the omnipresentwhush of waves. The sky was nearly cloudless, baby blue. Rhea felt an electricity in the air. It was awesome to think that at this moment, all over the world, most of the human race was about to do just what everyone here was doing. Had humanity ever acted with anything like this kind of unanimity before? What a pity it took a tragedy to bring it about. But wasn't that always the way? Nothing brought people together like a good disaster. . . .

"Ting. Ting. Ting,"said the phone. Rhea composed herself, drew in a measured breath through her nose- And the sky turned gold.

Not "gold" in any metaphorical or a.n.a.logous sense, as one can be said to have "red" hair when it is not really red at all. The whole sky was literally golden, the color of burnished 14-karat gold, the color of the wedding ring Rhea had still not been able to bring herself to remove. It happened all at once, seeming to mushroom outward from several sources like a crystal forming in an instant. It was like a translucent gold roof cast suddenly over the world, s.h.i.+mmering and twinkling, backlit by the sun.

Everyone on the beach-very nearly everyone alive-gasped, and stared upward in wonder. Rhea found that she and Colly were clutching each other's hands,mudra be d.a.m.ned. An indescribable sound began to come from the people on the sh.o.r.e. Rhea had once, many years ago, been caught in a riot, and would carry the memory of that indescribable, unmistakable sound to her grave. This was its opposite: a vocal sharing of awe. Perhaps the Israelites had made such a sound when the Red Sea parted.

Some of it seemed to be coming from the phone. "Can you guyssee this?" she cried. "It's unbelievable!"

"We see-" Rand began, but she did not get to hear what he saw for some time, because his voice was drowned out by another. It seemed to come from everywhere, yet did not have the echoing quality of loudspeaker broadcast; it was as though every AI on the beach had been co-opted at once.

"This is Shara Drummond, calling the human race. I need your attention."

Rhea knew that her heart should be racing. Shara Drummond-the first Stardancer! Addressing all mankind directly, for the first time since her original Stardance, sixty-five years ago . . .

Yet somehow Rhea felt herself growing calmer. She met Colly's eyes . . . and they resumed formalzazen posture, side by side, but continued to hold hands.

"I have taken over all data channels and AI's in human s.p.a.ce to talk to you, because something unprecedented is about to happen. A radical change. It may seem frightening at first, but I promise you it will be all right, if you do as I ask. The Starmind is here to help you through this . . .

but you must do your part, and no one can do it for you. The first thing you must do is get everyone on Terra outdoors, and everyone in Luna onto the surface. I meaneveryone.Essential services personnel, hospital patients, the dying, the housebound, prisoners in solitary, all human beings. If you know of someone trapped indoors, get them outside now.And hurry! There is no time to lose. I will tell you what I can-but don't stop to listen if you know of some human whoneeds help getting outdoors; the information will be repeated many times.

"A turning point has come in the history of the human race-one set in motion by the Fireflies on the day they came here for the second time, the dayof the Stardance. We Stardancers were created in large part to help you through it."

Rhea thought quickly. Thank G.o.d Tia Marguerite and Tia Marion were out on Ti Louie's boat-it was an hour's hard walk back to the car. Everyone else she knew in town was mobile too. Suddenly she missed Rand so much her stomach hurt. "Are you guys hearing this too?" she murmured.

The phone's LED said the circuit was still open, but there was no reply. She thrust it absently into her breast pocket.

"I'm afraid your life is about to change forever. Your old life is over; a new one is about to begin.

I know that will not be welcome news for many of you. No baby wants to be born; they all come out crying. But they stop. I'm afraid you have no more choice in the matter than a baby does: the contractions are beginning, and no power in the Solar System could stop them now. All we of the Starmind can do is see that the birth takes place as smoothly and painlessly as possible. We have sacrificed much to that end . . . but today is notourCourage Day, but yours. I can only ask you to trust in me-and in the Fireflies, who refused to let me die in orbit so many years ago.

"On that day, my planet was like a womb whose fetus is overdue for delivery. Such a fetus grows too large for its environment, begins to pollute its ecosystem with its own waste products, begins to degrade its surroundings. In the decades that followed, you-and we, the Starmind-have cooperated to help correct most of the damage to our home planet, using nanotechnology to minimize new wastes and recycle old ones efficiently. The womb is repaired-but it is time for the fetus to leave it behind now."

Rhea did not guess what was coming; it was only a shadowy intuition. But it was enough to make her heart sink. She stared around that perfect beach, that eerie golden sky, as if to memorize it, and clutched Colly's hand. At an answering pressure, she met her daughter's eyes-and found them serene, untroubled.

"It's okay, Mom," she said. "It's Courage Day."

Shara Drummond's voice continued: "You know that the Fireflies seeded this planet with life. You know that much of what you are is written in yourDNA. Some of you may know that large segments of the information encoded there appear to be gibberish, and do not express somatically-the so-called junkDNA. These genetic 'instructions' are never carried out, because they lack the end-begin codes that would activate them.

"In just a few minutes, a kind of telepathic trigger signal will go out from t.i.tan. There is no way to avoid or s.h.i.+eld against it: it will be as unstoppable as a neutrino, and faster. Designed by the same beings who designedDNAin the first place, it will insert end-begin codes in certain introns-and switch them on. Everywhere in the Solar System, the nature of human tissue will change, permanently.

"It will become transparent to gravitons. In plain language, it will become immune to gravity." Rhea moaned.

"Please listen to me and try to be calm. Many of you on Terra may have the idea that what is usually miscalled centrifugal force will send you flying off the planet at high speed. This willnot happen. When you go weightless, the net upward force acting on you will not exceed .003 gee.

Your clothing should suffice to hold you in place; even shoes will probably be enough. Ask your AI if you don't believe me; I'll be releasing it to your control again soon. Nonetheless you will be in free fall, with the usual physiological symptoms most of you know: dizziness, stuffy nose and so forth.

"This period will last for perhaps five minutes. Then machines will turn themselves on. There are three of them. One is buried deep in the core of Terra, one at the heart of Luna, and the third at the core of Mars, though no one is there to be affected by it now. Each is designed to generate antigravitons . . . a special kind of antigraviton which willonlyaffect altered human tissue."

The next sentence was delivered slowly, deliberately.

"Like it or not, you will find yourself rising into the sky."

A wordless cry went up all around the beach-doubtless around the planet-a discordant amalgam of clas.h.i.+ng emotions. Shara Drummond seemed to antic.i.p.ate that, and waited for it to die down.

"DO NOT FEAR,"she said then."It is not death that waits for you in the sky, but a new kind of life. You will not freeze or suffocate as you climb, I promise you.

"For the last sixty-five years, the Starmind has worked at modifying our Symbiote, in preparation for this day. The gold you see in the sky is the variant we have shaped, a variant designed to survive, for a time, at the interface between Terra and s.p.a.ce. It cannot come down to you . . . but you will find it waiting for you about five kilometers above the ground, just as the air is getting too thin to breathe. Touch it anywhere, drink it, and it will shape itself to you. It will breathe for you, and bring you higher, changing from gold to red as you leave the atmosphere behind.

"This is why the Adepts made their sacrifice. If the Group of Five had gotten their way,allof you would have died this day. The Five knew nothing of this, nor could we tell them. Without a Starmind, you would have suffocated as you left the stratosphere-and would not be hearing me now. But thanks to Tens.h.i.+nReb Hawkins and the others, you will live to reach s.p.a.ce.