Last Stand of the DNA Cowboys

Renatta poured herself another martini. 'But what's it like to actually live there?'

Blaisdell pulled a wry face. 'It's okay at first. Kind of relaxing. It gets tired pretty fast, though. You spend a hell of a lot of time watching the palms wave. There's one thing in its favor that you can always count on: By the time you get sick of them, you can be sure that they've gotten sick of you. In that respect, Palanaque's quite self-regulating.' He took another sip of bull's breath. 'So what happened to the metal men? How come they aren't carousing with us regular folk?'

'They took themselves off on their own as soon as we got aboard.'

Blaisdell seemed to be on his best behavior and even willing to mend a few fences. The Minstrel Boy wondered if he was genuinely trying to make the best of the situation or if it was just a display for Renatta. The Minstrel Boy had to hand it to Renatta. She sure as hell got around even in the most limited area of opportunity. The metal men were the only ones she had not bedded out of their less than magnificent seven.

Blaisdell was still thinking about Stent and Jet Ace. 'Did you ever wonder what those guys do when they're off on their own? What they do for fun?'

As he spoke, his eyes flickered to Renatta for an instant. The Minstrel Boy caught the look. He had had the same thought at exactly the same time. Just before the attack, things had not seemed to be going too well between Renatta and Blaisdell. Did that mean that her next move would be to Jet Ace or Lister Stent?

'I even wonder how much of that stuff they take off before they bed down for the night.'

Although Reave laughed, his mind was still back with what they had been through in Krystaleit. 'It occurs to me that Palanaque won't be too relaxing if Baptiste and Taraquin and the rest follow us there.'

'Why should they follow us?'

'Baptiste, at least, is somewhat obsessed about metaphysicians. He's going to be fit to be tied when he finds out that Krystaleit's got away.'

Billy's face lost its smile. 'You might have a point there.' He looked at Blaisdell. 'Does Palanaque have anything approaching a military?'

'It's got an army, but you can forget about it. They drill on the river plain in front of the city. Classic Macedonian. Strictly spear squares and cavalry. There are no projectile or beam weapons allowed in the settlement. Not even bows and arrows.'

Reave looked very unhappy. 'What about our weapons?'

'We'll probably get a dispensation, but I don't doubt that we'll have to argue about it for a while.'

The talk and drinking went on and the old stories came out as the nothings shimmered outside the observation windows. The only one who did not contribute to the bragging and bullshit about the good old golden days was Renatta, who seemed unwilling to let slip the slightest detail about her past. The Minstrel Boy had wondered on a number of occasions what there was in her history that made her treat it like a closed and sealed book. It hardly seemed possible that she had done something so disgraceful that she should be ashamed to talk about it in this present scurvy company. Unless, of course, she had managed to invent a truly disgusting and original sin. The girl was certainly resourceful enough.

Even in a reality as large as the R1009 it became very difficult to calculate the passage of time as they passed through the nothings. For a while the Minstrel Boy had kept it semipegged by counting his drinks, but eventually even that became difficult. It was thus that he had no idea how long they had been in theship's Silver Ballroom when Showcross Gee came looking for them.

'Gentlemen, lady. I have a very important announcement.'

The five of them turned and looked at him.

'As far as our lizardbrain simulacrum can tell, the city of Krystaleit is no more.'

Reave stiffened. 'What do you mean, no more?'

'It no longer registers even on our most powerful detection equipment. A short while ago, it simply vanished.'

Blaisdell propped himself up on the bar. 'Did any smaller reality mass remain behind when it vanished?'

Showcross Gee shook his head. 'Nothing.'

Blaisdell looked at the others. 'You know what that means?'

Reave nodded. 'The warlords destroyed themselves right along with the city. I know I shouldn't be pleased about a whole city being taken out, but it does come as something of a relief. I'd hate to go through that whole fight all over again.'

Showcross Gee nodded. 'Those are our sentiments entirely.'

Showcross Gee left, and the timeless drinking resumed. It started to seem that it was not even possible to get satisfactorily drunk while passing through the nothings. The Minstrel Boy was only developing a headache. When the airship suddenly lurched and he had to grab hold of the bar he imagined that it was in his own head and that he was drunker than he had thought. Then the second shock hit the R1009, and everyone went staggering. Beyond the observation windows, the nothings were suffused with red.

'What the hell is going on?'

As they picked themselves up from the silver floor, a vibration ran through the ship like a shudder. The airship lurched again, and everyone was once again thrown down. Renatta had a small cut over her right eye. Billy wrapped his arms around a stanchion.

'Grab hold of something and hang on! I don't think we've seen the worst of this.'

The vibration became increasingly violent. Bottles fell from the bar and smashed on the floor. A mirror shattered in its frame. It started to feel as though the ship were trying to shake itself to pieces. Outside, the nothings were a dazzling, pulsingcrimson. As well as shaking, the R1009 seemed to be fishtailing out of control and rolling from side to side.

'You think this could have something to do with the destruction of Krystaleit, like a shockwave or something?'

'Who knows? Anything can happen in the nothings.'

The Minstrel Boy clung desperately to a bar support. 'I hate unexplained phenomena.'

There was a bright red flash, and then the nothings went back to what the Minstrel Boy thought of as normal. Normal, that is, except for the large and diffused red sphere that was rapidly floating away from them.

'What?'

'We must have been inside that thing.'

Renatta wiped blood from her eye. 'I didn't think anything could exist in the nothings.'

'All we know is that we can't exist in the nothings. There could be a whole other universe out there.'

Billy smiled grimly. 'And it's probably as screwed up as this one.'

Just as they thought they were through the turbulence, the vibration started again and rapidly worsened. Soon the whole fabric of the ship was loudly protesting at the treatment it was receiving. It was buffeted as though it were being hit repeatedly by a giant hammer. Billy lost his hold and went sliding across the ballroom floor as the ship rolled through forty-five degrees. It was lucky that the chairs and tables were bolted down or he would have been buried by furniture. As it was, a drift of bottles and broken glass slid along with him; his hands were cut, and his clothes were soaked with an impossibly exotic mixture of alcohol.

'Goddamn it to hell! I'm fucking sick of this!'

Then they were out of the nothings. Of all things, snow was blowing past the window. There was a banshee howling outside the ship that was deafening after the oppressive silence of the nonmatter.

'This is not right.' The Minstrel Boy crawled hand over hand until he reached a window. The R1009 was bucking and barreling though a mountain range of implausibly sharp rock spires with a blizzard shrieking through its steep passes and deep ravines. The ship all but grazed one of the spindly peaks,missing it by a fraction. 'I think we've run head-on into some random reality.'