“Chen ...” he groaned. “Kao Chen ...”
Chen turned his head blindly. “Gregor? Is that you?”
“Yes ... he’s dead, Chen. I got him.”
Chen laughed, such relief in his voice that Karr thought for a moment he was going to cry. “You’re sure?” he said. “I mean ... if s really him?” “Yes ... but ...” He swallowed, then went on, steeling himself to voice his fears. “I think Hans is dead.”
Chen’s groan, the grimace of pain on his face, mirrored how Karr himself felt inside.
For a moment silence. Then, quietly. “But we got him, Chen. We finally got him.”
Master Tuan had felt the disturbance in the air as the first of them had died.
Now there only remained the one.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LIVING DARK
“When he is gone the breach will be healed, the universe made whole.” Kim, standing beside him, looked out at the scene before the ancient temple as they brought Eberf s body from the craft and laid it in the sunlight He watched them gather about the bier and saw the sadness in their faces, and wondered, not for the first time, what was the purpose of it all. “One must not think in terms of purpose,” Tuan said, as if he read Kim’s thoughts. “One must learn to live for the day.” “Would it were that easy,” Kim said. “Or do you forget I am dead?”
“In this world, yes. But in the world to come ...?”
Kim looked to him, surprised. “What do you mean?”
“Wait and see, Kim Ward. Wait and see.”
Jelka turned as the three men stepped from the air. This time she was ready for it This time she steeled herself not to show the turmoil within her. Even so, it was a shock to see that Kim was smiling.
“Prepare yourselves,” he said, K. echoing the words alongside him. “If s time.” Behind him, Tuan Ti Fo turned and, stepping within the no-space, walked over to where his twin crouched, suspended in his natural shape. For a moment he seemed to hunch, as if in prayer, and then, from within his cloak, he withdrew a long, thin blade that seemed to flicker with a strange light Stepping forward, he plunged the blade deep into the creature’s abdomen, embracing it, merging with it even as they watched. There was a cry of intense, almost unbearable pain, and then the air about the two creatures shimmered Buildings wavered and vanished. The two gate-craft flickered and were gone. In an instant all was changed, transformed.
A ripple, and then stillness.
A bird called, high and clear.
Jelka blinked. Where Kim had been, Joseph now stood. But not just Joseph, for in his eyes she saw both Kim and K., the three in one.And flowers! Everywhere one looked, flowers!
Jelka laughed, astonished, then turned. All about her, her friends were looking down and staring at themselves, as if they had been bom anew. As indeed they had!
Even Ebert, who had died, now stood among them, his blue eyes staring about him in amazement Karr laughed and held up his right arm. It flared a brilliant gold in the sunlight “Look!” he called, amazed. “I’ve got a metal arm!” Jelka stared, reminded terribly of her father at that moment, then turned back, facing Joseph. Facing the stranger who was now her man, throughout all time and all realities.
“If s done,” he said, coming over and embracing her. “This is all there is now.
The rest...”
He touched his head gingerly, then laughed.
“What is it?” she asked, concerned.
His eyes met hers, sparkling eyes that seemed more alive than she had ever seen them. “If s just that I’ve forgotten.”
“Forgotten? But you never forget”
“The equations. I know there were some, but...” She put a finger to his lips. “Let them go, my love. Let them go ...” Then, savouring the moment, finding it strange that she did not have to bend to kiss him, she put her mouth to his and closed her eyes.
EPILOGUE - WINTER 2250
last quarters
Yellow dust and dear water beneath the Fairy
Mountains Change places once in a thousand years which pass like galloping horses. When you peer at far-off China, nine puffs of smoke: And the single pool of the ocean has drained into a cup.
· Li Ho, A Dream of Heaven, 9th Century ad
last quarters
Eridani burned golden in the morning sky. Orbiting it, ninety-five million miles distant, its fourth planet was a green, earth-like planet; a lush, unspoiled world.
A world without predators.
It had taken them three years to catch up with the New Hope and another two to finish their voyage between the stars. For three years now they had lived on the surface of this new world, acclimatising, living in airtight domes as they slowly assimilated the bacteria of this agreeable yet wholly alien environment. Bacteria which, had they not taken care, would have killed them as effectively as any gun or bomb.
There was sickness and death, but things quickly improved. Thanks to Joseph and his skills, the next generation would be natives of this world and live outside beneath its pleasant, yellow sun.
, In the last day of Autumn, Joseph stood in a patch of sunlight, one hand resting lightly against the curve of the dome’s glass, looking out into the world they had inherited. Behind him, in the garden he had made for Jelka, his four-year old grandchild, Sampsa’s daughter, ran along the maze of paths, singing to herself as she went For a moment longer he looked out at that overwhelming tide of green, then he turned, watching the child, a broad smile on his face. Earlier he had shown her how the spider wove its web and had told her the story of the Edderiminaru and how the universe had once been split And she, crouched beside the glistening web, had listened awe-struck to the tale.”Is that true, grandfather?” she had asked when he had finished. “Is it really true?” He laughed and straightened up. “So they tell me,” he had answered with a wink. Now, looking across the interior of the dome, he shared something of her disbelief.
“Mileja!” he called, beckoning her to him. “Come! Lef s go see Nanny Jelka!” He scooped her up in one arm and carried her through into the next dome, smiling with pleasure when he saw that they had guests. “Kao Chen! Gregor! Why didn’t you tell me you were here?”
Gregor came across and embraced him. A moment later, Chen did the same. “We didn’t want to disturb you,” Chen said, grinning up at him, then bending down to smile at Mileja, who hid shyly behind her grandfather’s leg. “And how are all your grandchildren?” Joseph asked, looking to each of them. “Thriving,” Karr answered, then shook his head. “I thought four daughters was a handful. But a dozen grandsons!”
Chen nodded sagely. “It must be the air, Gregor.”
“You think so?” Then, seeing that Chen was ribbing him, he grinned. Chen himself had eight grandsons and five granddaughters, and claimed that they would shortly have to build a bigger family dome if this went on. “We called by,” Karr said, “because Hannah asked us to.” “Ah...” Joseph nodded. “And how is our Hannah? It seems an age since I last saw her.”
“Oh, she’s been working hard, Joseph. But it seems she’s finished.”
“Finished?”
“Oh, not completely,” Chen interceded, “but enough to give a reading.”
Joseph’s face lit “A reading? When?”
‘Tomorrow evening. In Fermi.”
Joseph looked up through the dome at the crescent of Ganymede in the sky overhead. “Then we must be there!”
Karr smiled. “She hoped you would be.”
“And Ben? Will Ben be going, too?”
Karr looked to Chen, then smiled. “He too has a new piece of work to display.”
“A painting?”
Chen shook his head. “He says ifs something called a symphony. He calls it Song For Eridani.”
Joseph nodded thoughtfully. “I didn’t know ...” “No,” Chen said. “Nor any of us. But he has had some of the youngsters practising it these past few months, though not a word got out about it That alone is a wonder; these youngsters talk so much!” At that moment Jelka came out from the main house, flanked by Marie and Wang Ti. The three wives looked at their menfolk a moment, then huddled together, giggling.