The Tomorrow Log by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller & Steve Miller

Author:Sharon Lee & Steve Miller & Steve Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space opera, science fiction, pirates, spiders, liad, sharon lee, steve miller, liaden, pinbeam, trident
Publisher: Pinbeam Books

Chapter Forty-Three

The cabin he had chosen for his own smelled faintly of flowers and the bed he had rumpled showed signs of having once been lovingly ordered. The locker, obedient to a tweak from Number Fifteen, opened to display a Spartan wardrobe of trousers and shirts, all meticulously clean, several carefully patched—all sized to fit a Corbinye who was no more. Gem stared at them, dry-mouthed and heart-stopped, for several frozen seconds, before shutting the door and turning away to sit on the bed.

He pulled the Trident across his lap and bent his head to study the whirls and whys of the old, alien circuitry. Absently, he patted his pocket and pulled out the little urn that held the Fearstone. He laid that aside and groped in the pocket again, barely looking up from the Trident long enough to screw the loupe into his eye.

It was there: Blasted bits of wiring; broken transistors; the remains of capacitors—Yet all was not destruction, he saw as he bent closer. Here and there whole systems remained coherent, connected. And who was to say whether the nuts, shells and gemstones were not also part of a system or systems, independent of or integrated with the bits of system he very nearly recognized?

He put his attention on one seemingly whole system of wires, tracing the route through the rubble, noting where it made connection with a capacitor, where it crossed another system of wires, where it wound tightly, over and under, a faceted gem, where—

Gem sat back and pulled the loupe from his eye.

"How long has it been since the Smiter was damaged?" he asked, not bothering to turn, knowing that the other would be standing near, attentive to all.

"There are several Memories which show that the Smiter did—overreach event, Anjemalti. One of those was during the time of Chief Ral Ean Te, who brought the ships of the Bindalche's enemy—"

"Down from the skies," Gem finished, and twisted 'round on the bed so that he could see Witness where he sat in the doorway. "Was that the most recent time?"

Witness blinked.

"The most recent Memory of the Smiter's overreaching dates from the War Against The Combine, where Seeker-to-be-Chosen Vin Ean Li called upon the powers residing within her secret heart to join with the powers of the Smiter to blast the minions of foulness and destroy their unholy dam, which was a blasphemy upon the world and a hardship to the Bindalche, who live in the world."

Gem waited, then, when it seemed no more information was forthcoming, asked, "And did she succeed, Seeker Vin Ean Li?"

"Alas," said Witness, "but she did not, which is the reason the Bindalche find themselves shackled and contained to the home worlds. But it was a glorious striving, Anjemalti, full of rage and righteousness and worthy of any of the great Chiefs of the past. Many of The Combine's men went mad and drowned themselves before event cast forth its net and the Smiter was caught."

"How?" Gem asked. And, when Witness

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