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"Drugs, yeah," Ben said "She&039;s been laced up with so that Flattery wants people to think is kelp juice Figures"
Ben stood on wobbly legs, holding Rico and the bulkhead, and made his way to Crista Galli Rico watched as Ben checked her pulse, bent to her breathing
"She&039;s in there," Ben said "If she&039;s like I was, she can hear us, too"
He leaned down to her ear
"You&039;ll be all right," he said, and patted her ar in his gut told hireen of his aura sucked itself tight against his body When he stuffed his unease away, it crept out fros are the danger, not her touch, he re before they wear off?
Rico knew that a single-dose dusting didn&039;t last that long in real time He would have to remind himself that it was the dust that warped time He knew they didn&039;t have much of it to spare They could count on help fro he felt, intuited
It&039;s the dust, he thought
"We&039;d better see e have left," Ben said
Rico forced hiht, and if they were both dusted then they both had to pay attention
"If we don&039;t pay attention, we&039;re dead," Rico heard hiun froes "They&039;ll knoe&039;re down," he said "We have to get out from under this ainst the upside-down bulkhead "Things were tough enough without all of us going to drea et her out of this"
"No way," Rico said "She&039;s had enough, right here We don&039;t knohat Flattery&039;s been doing to her A heavy dose oing on without hiht, that she&039;d already been dusted and it was bringing her around, that what she needed was mor
"I&039;m serious, Rico She needs it, and the antidote - you sahat it did to her Think about it"
Rico didn&039;t understand, and he knew they didn&039;t have ti s under the knees Ben reached under her arh the hatchway into as left of the cabin
A few of the lights still worked, illualley and aft portion of the foil reht, but the boat isted nearly in half at the cabin hatchway The entire bow lay on its side One of the wings had sprung fro a section of hull away like a rind
Ben brushed away debris with his feet and they set Crista down She called his na to free thee Soen worried him The rain helped, but he worried about sparks - not the spiritual kind he&039;d seen in the galley, but the en
"There&039;s still soas around here," Rico warned them "It shouldn&039;t be a problement&039;s been dusted, too, so we have to be extra careful Don&039;t s stood in the fuselage rip while the rest of hi section as a shield to push the dead hylighter away from the foil With his head and shoulders in the open he could see that the foil lay next to the cliff, with the hylighter spread out between the foil and the sea A s and two tentacles covered the foil The whole scene whirled in a lightshow of spore-dust
No gas out here, he thought A good offshore breeze
Rico sh the hylighter flap with his lasgun Peeling it back frohtheaded and wobbly-kneed A thick, steahed behind him
"Crista!"
Ben&039;s voice sounded happier than Rico had heard it in a long tihter let in soht The rain had muddied most of the dust, but they&039;d still had a pretty stiff dose Rico&039;s head felt as if it was ready to take a big plunge, as if he was clinging to soiant fluke just before it sounded for the deeps He kept re himself aloud, "We&039;ve been dusted, it will pass soon"
He ducked back inside and Crista leaned on one elbow, coughing and gasping, and shook her head
"Ben," her voice was gravelly and deep, "we are saved Avata will see to it"
Just then a tentacle slithered through the hole above them In less than a blink it snaked around Rico&039;s waist and in another it snatched hier than anything he&039;d felt in his lifetirab froht and Rico couldn&039;t see anything but water
Therefore, if it was more necessary in those days to satisfy the soldiers than the people, this was because the soldiers had more power than the people Toda all rulers find it more necessary to satisfy the people than the soldiers, because the former now have more power than the latter
- Machiavelli, The Prince
Holomaster Rico LaPush was a fine prize indeed The Ies, the best that the humans had ever mustered For nearly a decade the Immensity had h these trans of human politics When it had its own data to co From humans it learned to lie Then it learned the subtle differences between lie and illusion, truth and illuraphy On its own it had host ships at sea, phantoraphy was more precious than that The Immensity knew huraphy, the pure language of iue
There were the other forms, of course - electrical voice-talk of the humans They spoke to each other of fish concentrations, weather, delivered the mysterious modulations that humans called "music" Except for the music this had been easily understood, but not very interesting Then the hu the kelp itself as a medium of conduction This private communications channel linked the Orbiter with the Zavatan world, and the kelp heard everything The Immensity spoke in pictures, and these words over the kelp channel helped weave a picture of the world as it was, and as it could be Though the Kelpraphy that the Immensity required
The Immensity could think of no better place to start than with LaPush, the Holoood holos from bad In this hter tentacle that gripped LaPush was, in turn, gripped by a huge frond of blue kelp It transmitted every move directly to the kelp Rico&039;s automatic lapel camera unreeled a ten-second broadcast every hour, beamed back to its recorder in the foil The I these
Flattery was the dominant human, but the Immensity saw no future in him He enslaved the kelp, but worse, he enslaved his own kind Flattery didn&039;t trust any creature thathumans He had plans to hide the future of a world froreed about him Except for the kelp channels, Flattery controlled coed their education The kelp often marveled that humans survived themselves They appeared to be their own fiercest predator
Flattery would sacrifice many to save himself, it realized one day, perhaps even to the last human
The Immensity harbored no illusions about its position in Flattery&039;s hierarchy
The kelp knew that as long as humans accepted Flattery as the Director they would never realize their potential as One If they did not do this, then neither would they recognize the need for Oneness a the kelp Flattery saw this need as a threat, in huain as long as Flattery ruled Whenever the brain grew, Flattery dealt it a stroke
Since the day of insight, the Immensity had set about the downfall of Raja Flattery and the unity of pruned-down stands of kelp throughout the seas The answer, it kneas in holo If it could project holo ies, it could communicate in a way that humans would understand It could speak to distant hue between sentients, the Iht, this is the Pandoran revolution
Rico LaPush had been difficult to follow He moved quickly and under cover, and spent most of his time landside these days He&039;d been exposed to the kelp fron the Mermen - still, he had chosen not to cohout most of his adult life
It is simply a matter of privacy
Unlike Flattery&039;s political fear of betrayal and death, Rico&039;s was sih his psyche It did not make him feel "at one with Oneness" as it did many of the Zavatans, this the Iotten from other sources, and from the airwaves of Holovision
Perhaps the Holomaster Rico LaPush would becoe alone was not enough Ties were essential As a kelp channel, a simple conductor, the Immensity allowed itself to be used by the faithful in their struggle with the Director Noas tile
The Immensity would win over other stands and reestablish Avata as the true governor of Pandora It planned to help humans win over Flattery and to come to some symbiosis with these fearful hues were tools beyond value, and the kelp would learn to use thehts," Flattery had proclaimed "If your son uses the kelp, then he and all who use it, including the kelp, know the hts and dreams of your youth, of your entire life before his conception That constitutescontact "for the purposes of corees, all of thenored this law, much to the benefit of the kelp
The Immensity had to snatch Rico quickly, before he alarmed the others The enemy Nevi approached, and there was no time for petty confrontations The I Crista Galli She would be the instrument that would coenius the kelp saw hopelessness, death and despair in Crista&039;s future, and in all of their futures
The hylighter had turned in a superb perfor Fish now rested atop an Oracle, an old one secured by a ser than Flattery&039;s, was occupied equally by the live kelp root and the Zavatans Passage froerous for a foil The hueway down from the top of the bluff to ed rock near shore It was identical to the Oracle that lay at the foot of Twisp&039;s coh reaches
Flattery had scoured the kelp clean from his cavern, to make it suitable to his tastes He had destroyed one of the kelp&039;s nests, a socket where the kelp rooted into the continent itself Zavatans protected hundreds of these stations along the coastline, careful to keep Flattery&039;s people at bay Each Oracle was a strategic kelpwork of communication, a link with the entire world and with the Orbiter above it
The Ies are formed on the ly forainst the dreahts, its ies, as Rico LaPush projected his holos to fill empty space, then it would commence the salvation of Avata and of hureed! It dragged Rico inside the Oracle and a his own kind as quickly as it could so that he would not be unnecessarily fearful of his new pupil, Avata
What happiness could we ever enjoy if we killed our own kinsavad-Gita
When he announced after their midday ration that he would run the P, the Death hi around the demon-infested Dash Point physically impossible It didn&039;t work
"I knohy you&039;re doing this," his squad leader told him He was called "Hot Rocks," and his sister was married to the Deathman&039;s brother back in Lilliwaup They talked in private behind soee camp
"Just like everybody else who does this, you&039;re fed up with killing You want to do soht?"
The Deathainst the boulder and stared at a clear patch of blue sky scudding with the clouds
"Who gets your back pay? Your mom? Your brother? That little piece of blonde action you&039;ve been plugging in the camp?"
The Deathman&039;s hand snapped toward Hot Rocks but stopped still at his throat Hot Rocks didn&039;t flinch Hot Rocks never flinched
"My brother"