The Smoke Ring

“Everybody’s got secrets…Kendy? The Checker?”

“Tell him, Jeffer.”

Jeffer said, “ Kendy’s back. He pointed out the Wart for us. He talked to me the day we rescued the Serjents. We’ve talked since. I gather it costs him something, maybe shortens his life, and he still can’t reach us more than once every two days.”

Rather said, “The tales Mark and Gavving tell, Kendy would have killed you all if he’d known you stole the CARM.”

“I don’t think he could have done that,” Jeffer said, “but he might have wanted to. We stole the CARM to get away from London Tree. We had Lawri tied to her seat, and Mark the Silver Man too. Kendy might have called it mutiny. You know some of this.”

Rather said, “You were copsiks. They owned you. I never understood how you could live with Lawri and Mark after that.”

Clave said, “What were we supposed to do, throw them into the sky? They earned their citizenship. Rather. When the air was leaking out of the CARM, Lawri found the way to plug the leak. When Kendy was asking questions, Mark covered for us. We could have told Kendy we were escaped copsiks, but I’m not sure how he would have felt about that. Maybe Kendy’s people kept copsiks.”

“Kendy.”

“Yeah. He — Scientist, you understand this better than I do.”

Jeffer said, “Give me a minute.” He was moving the hoses. “Need to refuel the legs one at a time…”

“Stet. Now, Sharls Davis Kendy claims to be the recording of a man. I don’t understand that. Neither does Lawri. We don’t even know how cassettes work, really. I wondered if he was just some madman who reached the old starship, like we almost did, and was living aboard. But it’s been fourteen years, and he doesn’t sound any older. He wanted to know all about us. Whether we were mutineers. Well, treefodder, we did steal the CARM, we were mutineers, much as I hate the word.”

“That’s all in the past,” Clave said.

“Yeah. Now he wants to see the Clump. Clave, remember how he talked fourteen years ago? I think he still wants everyone in the Smoke Ring to be one big happy tribe taking orders from Sharls Davis Kendy.”

The dark pond blazed at its eastern edge. Rather wondered if there would be time for a swim. He was not comfortable in this maze of secrets. “Kendy isn’t the Chairman. We don’t have to do what he says.”

“No.”

“Well, we want to see the Clump too. And if he can’t touch us — Why not tell the Serjents?”

“Boy’s got a point,” Clave said.

“You didn’t tell them either.”

“Maybe that was just reflex.”

“Just talk to Kendy, Chairman, and then I’ll point out something.”

Clave merely nodded. To Rather, he said, “One more thing. Kendy hears everything anyone says aboard the CARM.”

Rather laughed.

Jeffer asked, “Anything else to discuss? I think I’m finished here. Now let’s refuel the CARM. Go back in and strap down.”

“We still don’t have a pump.”

The Scientist’s answering grin was a little mad. Clave sighed.

Jets grumbled, then died. Rather watched a wind-riffled wall of water move toward the bow window.

Clave asked, “Shouldn’t you close the doors?”

Jeffer gri

Clave said, “I wish to point out. Captain, that we’re going to hit that pond.”

“Yeah.”

The pondlet struck. Rather sagged in his straps. Clave grunted. He asked, “Do you honestly know what you’re doing?”

“I honestly do.”

Through the great window the interior of the pondlet was open to view. A flock of tiny silver torpedoes sped away through the murk and disappeared through the shivering silver surface.

“The CARM’s hundreds of years old and nothing’s hurt it yet. Now I reduce the interior pressure.” Jeffer’s fingers moved; the air system hissed; water entered the airlock in an expanding silver bubble.

The doors closed. Water remained inside, flowing over the aft walls, the curve of it becoming more and more concave. Waves curled and sloshed as Jeffer turned the CARM away from the pond.

He gri

“It’s treefeeding wet in here, Scientist!”

“But you don’t have to pump. Next on the agenda is Kendy. Checker, when you hear this, please introduce yourself.”

Clave asked, “What if he’s not there?”

“He’ll hear it when he runs the record—”

There was a face in the bow window.

Kendy was a dwarf. Rather had expected that, but he was still taken aback. Deepset eyes examined him, judged him, within a face like carved rock. A giant’s gravelly voice said, “Kendy for the State. Hello, Chairman Clave. Hello, Rather the Silver Man. Scientist, your ma

Jeffer looked nettled. Clave said, “Welcome back, Kendy.”

“Thank you, Chairman.”

“Why did you hide from me?”

“I felt that Jeffer was better equipped to judge his political situation than I.”

Clave bridled. “And I’m not?”

“If Jeffer had told you, he would surely have had to tell his wife. Do you trust Lawri’s judgment?”

“I give up. Between you, you…stet.”

“I watched your nonmutiny with some interest. You’re a natural leader, Clave. You should be ruling many more than your thirteen citizens.”

“Thank you, Checker. Where do you propose I find another thousand citizens, all of whom are inclined to trust a tree-living outsider?”

The language was cold and stiff. Jeffer and Clave did not trust Kendy, and Kendy clearly knew it. He said, “You need not turn a compliment into a policy statement, Clave. I can’t force you to obey my orders. You can’t stop me from observing through the CARM’s instruments. You know that I know things you do not. Can’t we work together?”

“Maybe. Thanks for showing us the Wart.”

“You’re welcome. Has Booce found a way to confine the pipefire?”

“Not yet.”

“Even with sikenwire, the pipefire is dangerous. You do have a source of metal. You can make a firebox from the Wart.”

Clave gri

“You probably don’t have the facilities to make a smelter—”

“What?”

“A smelter refines metal. It melts metal ore and bums away impurities. You shape the metal by pouring the liquid into forms. Gravity is needed, or tide, or spin. The Admiralty may have such technology, but I gather you do not.”

“We do not. You’d set the tree on fire for sure!”

“But you do have a saw. It was moored in the cargo section. Use it to cut slices from the Wart.”

“Kendy, you’d ruin the teeth.”

“No. That saw was taken from Discipline. Most of the tools aboard Discipline were made to last. Even with trivial items, the major cost was transportation. The chicken wire must have been made in the Admiralty, but your hose is reinforced with hullmetal alloy. The pipe is hullmetal. So is the saw. You won’t damage it by sawing slices from a mass of soft iron. Here—”

Kendy’s angular visage was replaced by a line drawing of the steam rocket, then another line drawing: a rectangle with tabs at its edges. “Cut three of these. Use the first as a template—”

“How do we hold the parts together? Tethers would bum.”

“Set the plates in place and pound on the tabs until they bend down. They’ll fold over each other.” Three rectangular plates formed a triangular prism. The tabs along the edges blinked green, then bent themselves over to interlock. Logbearer reappeared, and the three-sided box now enclosed the pipe and pipefire.

Clave said, “I’ll ask Booce. You won’t get much air flow to the coals.”

“Mount the rocket two or three kilometers in or out from the center of mass. The wind will keep the coals alight. You couldn’t make a completely closed box anyway. It will leak.”