“You’re taking the carm?”
“We are.” Gavving clapped him on the shoulder. “Think about it. We’ve got two sleeps to get ready. Whatever you decide, don’t mention this to anyone, particularly your mothers.”
“Father, you’d better tell it all.” Rather didn’t consider whether he had the right to ask. Clave wouldn’t like this; Minya wouldn’t like it; and if he agreed to this — it was only just coming to him — if Rather agreed, then he was the Silver Man.
Jeffer said, “It isn’t just the wealth of the Clump Admiralty. It’s—”
“Tell me what you’re going to do.”
They told him.
Chapter Six
The Appearance of Mutiny
from Disciplined log, year 1893 State = 370 SM:
MEDICAL READOUTS SHOWED THAT THE INHABITANTS OF CARM #6 LIED TO ME. THEY REACTED STRONGLY TO ACCUSATION OF MUTINY. I LOST MY CHANCE TO QUESTION THEM IN DETAIL. THEY MAY HAVE MUTINIED AGAINST LEGITIMATE HOLDERS OF THE CARM. HEREDITY WILL TELL.
IT’S A BAD HABIT. I WILL BREAK THEM OF IT.
CLAVE PULLED HIMSELF OUT OF THE ELEVATOR FIRST.
Wings were tethered next to the cage, and he pulled one free and tied it in place along his left shin. “This was a good idea, Gavving. Wings aren’t much use in the tuft.”
“Oh, we’ll keep some there too. Hunters used to carry jet pods. Wings are better. But there’s no point porting them up and down every time someone wants to fly. What are you doing?”
“Fixing this.” He chopped with his matchet at his other wing. When ten ce’meters were gone, he tied the wing to his right shin. He felt distinctly lopsided.
Jeffer and Gavving were also winged now. The three flapped out toward the CARM, spurning the convenient handholds the bark afforded. Clave’s flight wavered, then steadied. He’d been right. This was easier on the warped muscles in his thigh.
Jeffer was first through the airlock. “Prikazyvat Voice.”
The CARM’s deep voice said, “Ready, Jeffer the Scientist—”
A woman’s voice broke in. “Jeffer, it’s Lawri. I think I want to join you.”
“Come on up. Bring something to eat. We’ll be running the main motor for maybe two days.”
“Will do. Lawri out.”
“What was that about?” Clave asked.
“Lawri doesn’t trust me with the CARM.” Jeffer laughed. “Now we refuel the beast.”
Clave sighed. “Pump?”
“Right. You pump while I do a checklist. Otherwise we’ll lose the pondlet when we go under thrust.”
Some pumping had been done, but megatons of water still nestled against the trunk. Clave ran the hose from the CARM to the pondlet. The pump was a wheel and a tube and piston, all carved from hard branchwood. Clave braced his back and arms against the bark and kicked the wheel around with his feet on the spokes. “Help would be appreciated,” he grunted.
Gavving joined him.
The pump leaked. The pond didn’t dwindle fast, but it dwindled. They broke to drink thirstily, then resumed pumping. The sun had dropped from zenith to nadir — which at the midyear was not behind Voy, but north by three full degrees — when Jeffer poked his head through the airlock. “Stop! The tank’s full!”
Clave tossed his head to shake some of the sweat out of his hair.
“Come inside.” Jeffer ushered them forward to the front row of seats. “Strap down.”
He tapped, and vertical blue dashes appeared in the panel below the window. Four clusters of four each at the corners of a square, and a larger dash in the center. He tapped the central dash.
The sound within the cabin was like the roaring of wind at the treemouth. Clave felt a featherweight of tide and knew the tree was in motion.
Jeffer told them, “We’re already placed right, with the motor aimed west. We thrust eastward. That puts Citizens Tree in a wider orbit, so we slow down and drift west, away from the Clump.”
Clave wondered if he wanted to watch from outside. “Is it dangerous out there?”
“Could be. You don’t want to fall into the flame. Anyway, the view’s better in here.” Jeffer’s fingers danced, and the CARM window sprouted five smaller windows.
“The ventral view got ruined when we fell back into the Smoke Ring—”
“Jeffer, you don’t lecture this much unless you’re nervous. What’s wrong? We’ve moved the tree before.”
Gavving laughed. It appeared that he had a touch of nerves too. “Remember how twitchy we were then? Merril was sure we’d break the tree apart and kill ourselves.”
Clave shrugged. He went aft and braced himself in the airlock.
What remained of the pondlet stretched itself out from the trunk, then broke into one big drop and a line of little ones. The mother pond they’d robbed twenty-two sleeps ago drifted west. The sun passed Voy and began to climb.
A fat triple-finned bird, dead west by a klomter or three, suddenly went into an epileptic seizure, split into three slender birds, and scattered. Clave was late in understanding what he’d seen: a triune family suddenly washed by the invisible heat of the CARM’s exhaust.
Clave went in and strapped down again.
He had been anticipating Lawri’s arrival for some time, but the CARM’s roar covered her entry. He turned to see her halfway up the aisle…and Debby behind her. And Ryllin. And Booce and Carlot. Clave fumbled to release the buckle that bound him to the chair.
It took too long. He was between Jeffer and Gavving, with Lawri behind him. He sighed. “What’s it all about?”
Jeffer’s fingers danced. The board went blank. He said, “We can fight or we can talk. Or we can talk and then fight, but there’s only one»of you. Clave. Cripple me and Lawri flies the CARM.”
Call for help? If he could get past Jeffer to use Voice, the elevator would still take a day to get up…forget it. Voice connected to the silver suit, which Rather was now pulling headfirst through the airlock.
It would have felt good to hit somebody. Clave said, “I’ll be good. Now what’s it all about?”
“We’re going to visit the Admiralty,” Jeffer said.
Rather and Booce were moving things inside: two smoked turkeys, a huge amount of foliage, water pods.
“All of us?”
“Not you. Clave. Lawri’s staying too. Citizens Tree needs a Chairman and a Scientist.”
“How did you decide—”
There was a bit of an edge in Lawri’s voice. “We knew one of us would have to stay. Now I’ve missed my time of blood. I’m hosting a guest. I wondered why the copsik was being so affectionate.”
“You should all be staying. You’re taking the CARM?”
“The CARM, the silver suit, and the pipe from Logbearer.”
They all looked very serious. The background roar prompted Clave to ask, “Are you planning to set the tree moving first? Or was that a lie too?”
“We’ll give you a day’s thrust,” Jeffer said. “No more. I won’t be here to decelerate you, and I want to be able to find you again.”
“With what? Would London Tree have let you keep the CARM? The Admiralty won’t either!”
Patiently Gavving said, “We’ve talked that over. We won’t take the CARM into the Clump. They’ll never know it exists. Jeffer will hide the CARM somewhere. The rest of us will go in as loggers, with Booce and Ryllin to show us how.”
Clave’s mind was racing. “Now listen to me. Will you listen?”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“First, are you all volunteers? Rather, how did they suck you into this?”
“They can’t go without the silver suit,” the boy said.