Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent by Stephen Baxter Page A

snapped, ’I’m not here to surrender, Hama Druz, but to ask for
your help.’
    ’I don’t understand.’
    ’I know about your mission to Callisto. To the enclave there. Reth
has been running a science station since before the Occupation. Now
you are going out there to close him down.’
    He said grimly, ’These last few years have not been a time for
science.’
    She nodded. ’So you believe science is a luxury, a plaything for
easier times. But science is a thread in the tapestry of our humanity
- a thread Reth has maintained. Do you even know what he is doing out
there?’
    ’Something to do with life forms in the ice - ’
    ’Oh, much more than that. Reth has been exploring the nature of
reality - seeking a way to abolish time itself.’ She smiled coolly.
’I don’t expect you to understand. But it has been a fitting goal, in
an era when the Qax have sought to obliterate human history - to
abolish the passage of time from human consciousness…’
    He frowned. Abolishing time? Such notions were strange to him,
meaningless. He said, ’We have evidence that the science performed on
Callisto was only a cover - that many pharaohs fled there during the
chaotic period following the Qax withdrawal.’
    ’Only a handful. There only ever was a handful of us, you know.
And now that some have achieved a more fundamental escape, into
death, there are fewer than ever.’
    ’What do you want?’
    ’I want you to take us there.’
    ’To Callisto?’
    ’We will remain in your custody, you and your guards. You may
restrain us as you like. We will not try anything - heroic. All we
want is sanctuary. They will kill us, you see.’
    ’The Commission is not a mob.’
    She ignored that. ’I am not concerned for myself, but for my
daughter. Sarfi has nothing to do with this; she is no jasoft.’
    ’Then she will not be harmed.’
    Gemo just laughed.
    ’You are evading justice, Gemo Cana.’
    She leaned forward, resting her hands on the desk nonchalantly;
this really had once been her office, he realised. ’There is no
justice here,’ she hissed. ’How can there be? I am asking you to
spare my daughter’s life. Later, I will gladly return to face
whatever inquisition you choose to set up.’
    ’Why would this Reth help you?’
    ’His name is Reth Cana,’ she said. ’He is my brother. Do you
understand? Not my cadre sibling. My brother.’
    Gemo Cana; Reth Cana; Sarfi Cana. In the Qax world, families had
been a thing for ragamuffins and refugees, and human names had become
arbitrary labels; the coincidence of names had meant nothing to Hama.
But to these ancient survivors, a shared name was a badge of kinship.
He glanced at Gemo and Sarfi, uneasy in the presence of these close
primitive ties, of mother and brother and daughter.
    Abruptly the door opened. Nomi Ferrer walked in, reading from a
data slate. ’Hama, your ship is ready to go. But I think we have to -
’ She looked up, and took in the scene at a glance. In an instant she
was at Gemo’s side, with a laser pistol pressed against the pharaoh’s
throat. ’Gemo Cana,’ she hissed. ’How did you get in here?’
    Sarfi stepped towards Nomi, hands fluttering like birds.
    Hama held up his hand. ’Nomi, wait.’
    Nomi was angered. ’Wait for what? Standing orders, Hama. This is a
Category One jasoft who hasn’t presented herself to the Commission. I
should already have killed her.’
    Gemo smiled thinly. ’It isn’t so easy, is it, Hama Druz? You can
theorise all you want about justice and retribution. But here, in
this office, you must confront the reality of a mother and her
child.’
    Sarfi said to Hama, ’If your guard kills my mother, she kills me
too.’
    ’No,’ said Hama. ’We aren’t barbarians. You have nothing to fear -
’
    Sarfi reached out and swept her arm down at the desk - no, Hama
saw, startled; her arm passed through the desk, briefly breaking up
into a cloud of pixels, boxes of glowing colour.
    ’You’re a Virtual,’ he