The Integral Trees

"Citizens, this is Kendy for the State. Speak, and your reward will be beyond the reach of your imagination."

The passengers looked at each other.

"I am Sharls Davis Kendy," the face said. "I brought your ancestors here to the Smoke Ring and abandoned them when they made mutiny against me. I have the power to send you into Gold, to your deaths. Speak and tell me why I should not do so."

Too many were looking at the Scientists. Was this some trick of Lawri's? The Grad could feel the hair rising in a halo around his head but somebody had to speak. He said, "I am the Qui

"And I am the London Tree Scientist," Lawri said firmly. "Can you see us?"

"We are lost and helpless. If you want our lives, take them."

"Tell me of yourselves. Where do you live? Why are you of different sizes?"

The Grad said, "We are of three tribes living in two very different places. The three tall ones—" He kept talking while his mind sought a memory. Sharls Davis Kendy?

Lawri broke in. "You were the Checker for Discipline"

"I was and am," said the spectral face.

"The Checker's responsibility includes the actions, attitudes, and well-being of his charges,'" Lawri quoted. "If you can help us, you must."

"You argue well, Scientist, but my duty is to the State. Should I treat you as citizens? I must decide. How did you come in possession of the CARM? Are you mutineers?"

The Grad held his breath…and Lawri said, "Certainly not," contemptuously. "The carm belongs to the Navy and the Scientist. I'm the Scientist."

"Who are the rest of you? Introduce me."

The Grad took over. He tried to stick to lies he could remember, naming the copsiks of London Tree — Jayan, Ji

"Now, Mark is a mutineer," he said. "He tried to steal the carm."

Would the dwarf brand him a liar? But the rest would back him up except Lawri…Mark let his eyes drop. He looked sullenly dangerous.

Sharis Davis Kendy began to question Mark. Mark answered angrily, belligerently. He created a wild tale of himself as a copsik barred from citizenship by his shape; of trying to steal the carm by activating the main motor, hoping to immobilize all but himself, then finding that the ferocious thrust left him as helpless as the rest.

The face seemed satisfied. "Scientist, tell me more of London Tree. You keep some who are barred from citizenship, do you?"

Lawri said, "Yes, but their children may qualify."

"Why does a tree come apart?" the face asked, and "How does London Tree move?" and "Why do you call yourself Scientist?" and "Are many of you crippled?" and "How many children do you expect to die before they grow to make children?" It wanted populations, distances, durations: numbers. Lawri and the Grad answered as best they could. With these they could stick close to the truth.

And finally the voice of Kendy said, "Very well. The CARM will reenter breathable atmosphere in eleven hours. The air will slow it. Keep the—"

"Hours?"

"What measure do you use? The circuit that Tee-Three makes around the sky? In about one-tenth of a circuit, you'll be falling through air. Air is dangerous at such speeds. Keep the bow forward. You'll see fire; don't worry about it. Don't touch anything at the bow. It will be hot. Don't open the airlock until you've stopped. By then you'll have fuel to move about. Do you understand all of that?"

Lawri said, "Yes. What are our chances of living through this?"

The face of Kendy started to answer-and froze with its mouth halfopen.

Update: Cabin pressure has returned to normal.

They had blocked the leak! How? A man without glands might naturally feel curiosity and duty as his strongest emotions. For Kendy these were now in conflict. And the CARM was about to pass out of range.

Kendy had never intended to tell them that they would not live to see reentry. Medical readouts implied that they had lied to him too…and he dared not accuse them of it.

This changed everything. The savages might actually return to describe Kendy and Discipline. He could stop them, of course, by beaming some wild course change to the CARM. Or he could spend the next few minutes…indoctrinating them into the State? Impossible. He could take one trivial step in that direction, then try to impress them with the need to talk to him again.

And when they did that-years from now, or decades-he could begin the work that had waited for half a thousand years.

The face said, "You have stopped the leak. Well done. Now you must kill the mutineer. Mutiny ca

Mark went pale. Lawri started to speak, the Grad rode her down. "He'll face trial on our return."

"Do you doubt his guilt?"

"That will be decided," the Grad said. At this point he probably became guilty of mutiny himself, but what choice did he have? If Mark didn't talk to save himself Lawri would. And I captain the carm!

"Justice is swift in the State—"

The Grad countered, "Justice is accurate in Qui

"Our swiftness may well depend on instant communication, which you clearly do not have." The face began speaking louder and more rapidly, as if in haste. "Very well. I have a great deal to tell you. I can give you instant communication and power that depends on sunlight instead of muscle. I can tell you of the universe beyond what you know. I can show you how to link your little tribes into one great State, and to link your State to the stars you now see for the first time. Come to me as soon as you can…”

The voice of Kendy died in a most peculiar fashion, blurring into mere noise, as the brutal face blurred into a wash of colored lines. Then the voice was silent, and the storm pattern around Gold glowed blue and white through the bow window.

Chapter Twenty-two

Citizens' Tree

KENDY'S READINGS WERE BEGINNING TO BLUR. FRUSTRATINGLY, the CARM's aft and ventral cameras worked perfectly. He had two fine views of the stars and the thickening Smoke Ring atmosphere. Plasma streamed past the dorsal camera, and Kendy sought the spectral lines of silicon and metals: signs that the CARM's hull was boiling away. There was some ablation, not much more than he would have expected when the CARM was new.

Inside the cabin the CO2 content was building. The jolting looked bad enough to tenderize meat. The passengers were suffering: mouths wide, chests heaving. Temperature was up to normal and rising. A blurred figure snapped its safety bands loose and struggled to tear its clothing away. Kendy couldn't get medical readings through the growing ionization, but the pilot had been under terrific tension earlier.

It looked chancy, whether the CARM would live or die. Kendy wasn't sure which he preferred.

He had bungled.

The principle was simple and had served the State before. To further the cause, a potential convert was ordered to commit some obscene crime. He could never repudiate the cause after that. To do so would be to admit that he had committed an abomination.

The caveat was simple too. One must never give such an order unless it would be obeyed.

Kendy was ashamed and angry. He had attempted to bind their loyalty to him by ordering an execution. Instead, he had almost turned them all into mutineers! He'd had to back down gracefully and fast.

He'd had no chance to recover from that, with the ionosphere building up around the CARM, cutting communications. His medical readings told him that they had lied to him, somewhere. He shouldn't have forced them to do that either! He didn't know enough even to guess at what they were hiding.