The Smoke Ring

“Is this standard, Booce? Anyone can join the Navy?”

“Not just anyone. They wouldn’t have Carlot because of her legs. Otherwise…well, any savage could join, but he might not get beyond Spacer First until they’ve watched him for years. The Navy wants loyalty. They take more men than women, and they won’t take you if you’re too old to be trained.”

“Loyalty?”

“If you’re loyal to your tribe, you’re not loyal to the Navy. Navy above all, even family.”

“The question is, if Rather goes in, can he get out? Booce?”

Booce mulled it. “Up to a point. It would be…convenient if Rather let Petty Wheeler make his pitch. Rather, the Navy could put certain kinds of pressure on me until I talk $ou into doing that. They want the Wart, but they can slow things down for me, and we don’t want the Navy taking a hard look at us.”

“No,” Clave said.

“But when Wheeler interviews you, he might leam that you’re simply not suited to Navy life. I can help you to help him reach that conclusion.”

Carlot said, “He could get out later than that. Rather, my cousin Grag says they treat you like a copsik in Basic, but after that you’re supposed to think you’re better than the citizens. They do think they’re better than us, and they don’t take just anyone. When you’re ready to leave, just do something wrong. Or get sick and stay sick. Tree dwellers do get sick in the Clump. They’ll bounce you out.”

“You think I should do this?”

She shrugged unhappily. “Whatever you want.”

Jeffer said, “’I’d really like to get him into the Library.”

Booce shook his head. “No dwarf gets beyond Guardian unless he was born an officer, and even then…well, Wayne Mickl is officer and dwarf. They need him as a Guardian, so he’ll never use his higher rank. Guardian is the lowest rank that can reach the Library, but they can’t use it because they aren’t taught to read. And you wouldn’t be a Guardian for years, Rather.”

Jeffer jumped on it. “But he could reach the Library. And Rather can read, and I can teach him how to use a CARM keyboard!”

Rather was feeling trapped. He knew how to talk to Jeffer the Scientist, but how could you argue with a door?

“I hate to pass up the chance,” Clave said. “Rather, you’re reluctant. How do the rest of you feel? Debby?”

“It feels like we’re selling him as a copsik. I’m against it.”

Thank you, Debby!

Clave stared at her. Then: “Rather, does it feel like that? I wouldn’t do that. We’re just talking now—”

“They want his loyalty, stet, Booce? They’ve been doing this for going on four hundred years,” Debby said. “Maybe they can get his loyalty—”

Clave snapped, “Treefodder, Debby. London Tree was keeping copsiks for about that long. When the chance came to bust loose, they did it!”

“Not all of them, Clave!”

“…Uh-huh. Booce?”

Booce said, “We’re talking about power. Navy power, and it cuts two ways. If Rather was Navy, the Serjents would see a certain friendliness emerge. I’d love to put a son in the Navy.”

“Carlot?”

She spoke to Rather, not Clave. “If you can stand it. Remember what I said about Basic. They worked Grag’s tail off…hey. You’re stronger than Grag. You lived in a tree. You just might give them a shock.”

“We know you can fit a silver suit,” Booce added. “Even Bosun Murphy doesn’t know that.”

“I’m scared.”

Clave just nodded, but Jeffer snarled like static. “Oh, Rather! We’re here already! Back in Citizens Tree, that was the time to be scared.” Pause. “What are you scared of?”

“It’s all too strange.” Rather was suddenly, unbearably homesick. This wooden house, all angles—

“It’ll keep being strange. Nobody fooled you on that.”

“Scientist, I came here looking for strange. I wouldn’t be here if it was going to be just like Citizens Tree—”

“Then—”

But Rather had the words straight in his mind now. “I followed you here, but the idea was to face the Admiralty in the company of my friends and my elders! And my father. Are we all going to join the Navy now? Is that what we’re talking about?”

Clave said, “Jeffer?”

The door said, “I’m for it, of course, but the boy’s got a point. It’s his risk, not ours.”

Rather wasn’t finished. “You’re asking me to swear to something that isn’t true. I am not loyal to the Navy. If you thought I was, you wouldn’t like it.”

Nobody wanted to answer.

“You can feed your secrets to the tree. I will not join the Navy. But I can go talk to Wheeler, if you think it’ll help. I’ll do that.”

“I go with him,” Debby said firmly.

“And Booce, you tell me how to look unsuitable.” A black depression was settling over him. He felt rejected by all of his companions save Debby; but Carlot wanted him out of the way. For Raff Belmy.

Chapter Eighteen

Headquarters

from the Citizens Tree cassettes, year 384, day 2050:

JEFFER THE SCIENTIST SPEAKING. CANDIDATES ARE CONSIDERED UNSUITABLE FOR THE NAVY IF THEY ARE SICKLY, OR UNDEFENDABLE, OR EASILY LOST OR DISTRACTED, OR LOYAL TO SOME ENTITY OTHER THAN THE NAVY. THEY MAY HAVE UNACCEPTABLE MOTIVES FOR JOINING. IF A FAMILY MEMBER ACCOMPANIES, CANDIDATE MAY BE RELUCTANT OR MAY NEED SUPERVISION.

ACCEPTABLE CANDIDATES WOULD PRESUMABLY HAVE OPPOSITE TRAITS. DATA ARE AS ACQUIRED FROM BOOCE AND CARLOT SERJENT.

HEADQUARTERS WAS A PILLBOX: A SHORT, WIDE CYLinder, blurred to Rather’s weeping eyes. The rim was dark wood. The nearer flat face was concrete covered with a variety of doors, platforms, winches, coils of line…and a broad strip of glittering stuff very like the hull of the CARM. Two rockets were moored near the hub. A third, larger, was being winched in nozzle-foremost.

Debby looked back. Rather was far behind. When she stopped flapping, a gust of wind caught her wings and turned her on a random axis. She sighed and flapped back to rejoin him. “I wish I could help,” she said.

Rather made himself laugh. “I did it to myself. Debby, you fly better than me.”

“I watched the crew when we went to Market. Keep up a steady kick. Don’t try too hard. If you kick with all your might the wings just bend and don’t take you anywhere.”

“What I need is longer legs.”

“Longer wings might do it. Try the Navy wings too. Now, what door did Carlot say?”

“I can’t tell. Pick one.”

“No, I—”

“Debby, pick one at random. I don’t mind if Wheeler thinks I got lost.”

“Oh. The one in the middle, with the guards. We’ll ask them.”

It was big and round and rimmed in scarlet paint. The four guards wore helmets and torso and leg armor and carried harpoons. Debby backpedaled to stop within a meter of the harpoon points. She said, “Looking to join up.”

One smiled and said, “I hope they take you, beautiful.” His harpoon pointed. “That one, just next to the rim.”

“Thanks.” She rejoined Rather. Half blind, he’d been afraid to fly close to sharp spears. “It’s over there. — Lovely beard on that one. Like goldenwire plant, and clean. The .crew keep themselves cleaner than Carther States people ever did. Maybe I’ll see him again.”

“Jeffer’d like that.”

“He would, wouldn’t he. He probably likes my seeing Grag too. I wonder what they’re guarding?”

The door they sought was a rectangle with curved sides, marked in print along one edge: RECRUITMENT.

The room within was sizable, but of the same odd shape. A man made marks on thin white sheets fixed to a slab of sanded wood. His pants and tunic were blue with Navy markings. No armor. He ignored them for a bit, then looked around. “Yes?”

Rather pointed to the wooden rectangle. There were clips along the edge, and stacks of paper leaves in the clips. “What would you call that?”

The man frowned. “You never saw a desk before? What do you want?”