Gregory Benford by Beyond Infinity

Author:Beyond Infinity
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PINWHEEL

AS A GIRL, she had gotten used to friendships with other girls that began in intense, shared revelations and moved into comfortable small talk. With Seeker there were some early revelations and a lot of hard talk, none of it small. And she was never fully comfortable. Sometimes she could not read its facial expressions, and when she mentioned this, Seeker said, “At my age, I have the face I deserve.”

So she stuck to what she knew, as they moved quickly through the shrouding forests, avoiding the flitting ships above. They passed by colonies of plants that had a social life, communicating through pollen sprays their needs and distresses. Cley could read these from childhood on, and was pleased to find that Seeker asked for instruction. Some of these signals her Meta had adjusted and seen propagated around the globe by genetic invader seed. These were the log crafts her Meta had cherished. They were part of a philosophy the Originals had brought to the world and, with Supra help, had been applying to this latest of many revivals old Earth had seen.

Cley knew these lessons deeply. The chant of her Meta had ingrained them:

Fast learns, slow remembers. The quick, small things instruct the slow and big by bringing change. The big and slow control by constraint and constancy. Fast gets all the attention; slow has all the power. A robust system needs both.

They had recited it every day at breakfast. She yearned for those lost days, gone forever, and the next time they slept, she had dreams about her Moms, her lost life, and of her shadow-faced father.

They set out at morning and quickly became uneasy. Both she and Seeker sensed an ominous tone flavoring the air. Cley had perceptions that linked to the forest, unconscious yet alert. Her alarm bells were ringing. “Stop,” she said. “Sit.”

Seeker sniffed. “I agree.“

“Don’t move.”

Something was seeking them, and it had seeped into the woods. The only way to hide was to be embedded deeper than it was.

They sat with the sun at their backs, so approaching animals had to squint. Cley shed any clothing that wasn’t a natural color, and rubbed the rest and her skin with a sachet of bayberry and pine. She flattened herself against a tree to blend in. Her Meta’s ruddy skin color did not stand out, and she knew to make only measured movements.

Birds nearby gave chip-chip calls, alerting all to these strangers squatting below. So she gave back pish through clenched teeth, an alarm call of a similar species. To introduce a new sound she made an injured-mouse squeak by sucking the back of her hand. A squat reptile predator came running for a meal, distracting the birds nearby. When it found nothing and went away, the area settled down, the traces of her and Seeker forgotten. Only then could she slowly sense the microbial mat carrying a slow rise and ebb of information.

The world took on a gentle, undulating movement. Leaves rode on the swell of the water, and light glanced along their edges with an ageless rhythm.

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