Destiny's Road

"I share your pain."

Lloyd laughed wildly. "Well. You're here. Should we go home in the morning?"

This was the part-owner asking the pit chef: Is there anyone left to run the i

"How's Mommy?" Brenda asked.

Jeremy took his seat. "Hanging on. Brave. Brenda, I don't know anything about Destiny Town medicine. You tell me. How is she?"

"I could lie to you?"

Only one answer to that. "Sure."

"Daddy, she got badly hurt. We're not wizards. Superskin is old settler magic, but it still has to grow on her."

He'd known she could die.

He couldn't speak of that. So: "Brenda, dear, how did they 'find' my identity?"

"Ask Gran Harlow."

Harlow said, "I wrote it in. That computer you're sleeping with, it died before I moved in here, but one of my friends got it going. Brenda told me what to say. Are we likely to be caught in an inconsistency, Jeremy?"

"That story held up for twenty-seven years," he said.

They all seemed to be studying him: a sudden stranger. Harlow asked, "Was it supposed to?"

"What d'you... ?" Then he understood. "Harlow, I wasn't sure what I wanted. I needed refuge. I didn't know what was possible. Maybe I'd follow the Road the rest of the way to Destiny Town and see where Cavorite ended. Maybe I'd go home. Maybe there was a way to serve time in the Winds and come out as a citizen. I didn't know how to do any of that, but I thought I knew how to keep a restaurant and get some breathing space."

"So now you've seen Cavorite."

"Yes." He looked at Harlow in wonder. He hadn't known it, here in his bones, until now. "I've seen Cavorite. I've seen the end of the Road. Harlow, thank you."

"Is that a big thing?"

"Harlow, what we learn is all wrong. We're told that the Twerdahl

contingent got bored. Cavorite went off with all the wealth of the colony and was never heard from again, just like Argos. I followed the Road all the way down to the Neck, and I found it again in the Winds. Cavorite's crew saved Spiral Town. They set up the Windfarm and worked it to grow speckles. They set up the caravans to keep the speckles coming."

"They did more than that," Brenda said. "Ah?"

"Daddy, do they have teaching machines in Spiral Town?"

"Sure."

"There's a computer in Medical, in the library. Look up speckles, Daddy."

29

It's the Law

Cavorite calling Base One. We remain camped halfway along Haunted Bay. We've found aquatic animals like little armored Volkswagons. They like to pull things. The language seems to be mostly body language. Most of us have swam with them, and Parnelli has made a surfboard.

Will somebody please talk to me? Are you all right? It's been two months since I talked to anything but a damned recording.

-Oliver Carter, Ecology

Moving only her eyes, Karen watched Brenda help Jeremy into a chair. She said, "That limp's getting worse, isn't it? You should go to Medical."

Lloyd laughed himself into tears. They told Karen what had been done to his knee. They talked about Wave Rider, then about his first return to Destiny Town in twenty-seven years. Had he been to see his old home?

Under Brenda's censorious eye he told Karen, "I haven't been anywhere. The bus this morning was a nightmare. Lloyd and Brenda had to get me on and off. I don't think I want to visit anyplace before I heal a little."

"Not even Cavorite?"

Those first few years he'd talked of burning lights settling on the sea just out of sight; of space and Argos and Cavorite. Spaceport perso

He said, "For Cavorite I'd walk on my hands. Would they let me in?"

"I don't know."

"Can just anyone get in there?"

Lloyd said, "Brenda went."

"Mustafa took me through," Brenda said. "Pilots get in. Mustafa came to visit while he was in training and I was at Wide Wade's, Daddy. I used to wonder why you never came. If you ask-" She caught herself.

Yes, he could ask his wife's son the shuttle pilot to guide his stepfather through the old lander. But it was a risk.

He gave Karen a hand massage, both hands, he and Brenda trading chairs. When he had put her to sleep, Brenda stood up. "When are you going to tell her?"

"When she isn't on drugs. When I figure out how to tell her about her sister Barda. When I think it won't kill her."

"Look up speckles. We'll see you at di

He tracked down Dr. Nogales in a third floor office.

Rita Nogales

Surgery

Surgeon and Anesthesiologist

She was reading a computer screen. Jeremy told her, "Karen doesn't look good."

"Karen Winslow?" She tapped at a virtual keyboard. The configuration jumped: a torso with highlighted internal organs, then with highlighted patches of skin; a requisition form; a block of text. Nogales hadn't looked around. "You wouldn't look good either if you'd scalded seventy centimeters of skin off your body. Your wife?"

"That's right."

"We put superskin on. We wait. It's a life-form, you know. Human genes trimmed in some lab in Sol system to make it a universal donor. Wonderful stuff." Now she looked up at him. "We wait. It attaches itself. Eventually the patient gets up and goes home. There are old guys walking around with superskin faces and hands. Women too. You can just barely tell."

He knew her. Narrow head, narrow nose, yellow-brown skin, and Oriental eyes: handsome, but an impatient, angry woman.

He couldn't quite remember, and he couldn't just stare. "I know you've got her on drugs. Is she in a lot of pain?"

"Would be. She's taking Novabliss. With that in her she's happier than you are." Her eyes widened in shock. "No birdfucking allowed!"

Oh.

There being nowhere to run, he said, "It's the law."

"I didn't know you till you smiled. Jeremy... Jemmy."

"How's Dolores?"

"Died."

"Damn!"

"I got pregnant. A man killed her after I wasn't there to protect her."

"Anyone I know?"

"No. I'll know him. Everyone comes to Medical sooner or later. Winslow, like Barda? Married Barda's... sister?"

"Right."

"Clever. Jeremy, anyone could find out I served time in the Windfarm, but I don't call attention to it."

"Sounds good to me."

She was still studying him. "That's right, you're a Crab shy! How on Earth did you get here at all? Fake records. What's with the knee?"

He told her. She nodded, nodded, used her keyboard. "Okay, it says you're real, and your credit is midlevel. You can buy di

"Can I go to the library?"

"The computers see you as a surgery patient. You can use the library while you wait for a doctor. I'll take you away from Brendan, and I can't fit you in for... is six hours enough? Then I'll look you over and we can talk."

Lisa Schiavo was on duty in Reception and Recovery. Jeremy watched her for a bit. "Got your computer back?"

"Winslow. How's, ah, Karen?"

"Dr. Nogales won't make any promises."

"She's good that way. I mean, I'm sorry it's bad news, but Nogales won't lie. How's the knee?"

"Dr. Nogaies wants to look it over later today. Doctor, is everyone here a doctor? Aren't there any nurses or aides or-?"

"Doctor means you're doing something to run a hospital. It's courtesy. Like in a restaurant, saying Herr'ober gets you someone who can bring you food or clean your table? It used to mean headwaiter. But patients get put on diets, so even the commissary chefs are doctors-Winslow, I've got to work."

"I'd like to wait in the library if you're not using it."