Reclamation

The U-Kenai's emergency beacon, once retrieved from its storage hatch beneath the bridge's deck, proved to be an old unit that had been only peripherally kept in repair. When Adu had been required to set it up in dock at Abassyd Station, he had siphoned its specifications from Cam. The beacon was supposed to carry warnings or distress messages from a ship. It had an extraordinary amount of redundant memory and it could travel long distances, albeit slowly. It could take him back to where there would be voices he could hear and room to stretch out. In the meantime, there would be a little spare room in there, where he could keep himself busy by building his own tools. In a year or three or five, he would be found and his box would be opened and he'd go on from there.

The pinpricks still hung on the ship's skin. The transmissions from the satellites had picked up slightly, but they hadn't changed direction, and the satellites themselves hadn't moved. They watched closely, but they just watched.

So far.

Cam's main processes huddled in the corner where Adu had left them. Adu encompassed Cam and pried into its insides. He heightened its perception of the task at hand; to get the U-Kenai safely down, unseen, if possible. Cam thought more slowly than Adu, and had less capacity for memory, but it knew the ship and had years of experience stored in itself. The ship could still maneuver a little, and it could still brake a little. The comet ice packed around its skin would absorb the extra heat of the accelerated re-entry and Cam could surely steer it more accurately than Adu, because it had special subroutines for flying under reduced capacity. It would all be enough, with a little added urgency. Adu had to make sure it would be enough, because there was every chance he would contact Dorias again. Dorias would know Adu had defied him, but at least he wouldn't be able to say his child had done it carelessly.

Besides, Adu carried copies of everything Eric had learned from the Vitae datastores. Dorias wanted them back.

That is my real purpose. Not sending myself into emptiness.

Cam did not try to duck out as Adu laid the new orders in. Accepting orders was part of what Cam was carefully designed to do. When Adu was satisfied that the first thing Cam would do when left to its own devices was launch the beacon, he let it retreat to its corner.

The beacon would trail along behind the ship in the "comet's" tail as just another piece of junk until the final descent began. Then it would break free and fly off on its own, like at least two dozen other pieces of rock would be doing at that point.

The monitors registered a rise in temperature from three of the pinpricks. Adu froze. The temperature leveled off. Maybe it was only a fluctuation. Maybe some lensing had been caused by the ice coating the ship's side. There was no way to tell.

Adu opened a hatch on the beacon. Then he flicked back the cover for the hardwire jack on the android's wrist. He plugged the biggest unused cable on the bridge between the two sockets. He made the android glance at the monitor again. Eric and Aria lay in their alcoves with their gazes fastened on the view wall, trying to see what was happening, and doubtlessly wondering how long it would be before they landed.

Cam will get them down, Adu told himself as he reached down the new opening that the cable provided. It will. They don't need me. Not down there in the emptiness.

Carefully, he eased himself into the beacon.

Aria knew the ship was performing a delicate dance, skirting around the edge of the Servant's Eyes, but it felt like nothing at all. To her, the U-Kenai was standing still while the universe churned around it Light bent into bows and knots. It was like watching fireworks recorded through a distorting tens. It was silent, and beautiful, and utterly strange. Aria wanted to touch the backs of her hands in salute to the Nameless and the Servant, but the webbing held her hands down. She just hoped her thoughts would count and that there was somebody watching closely enough to acknowledge them.

All at once the morass of color and darkness was gone. The bare back of the Realm filled the screen.

"Too low," gasped Eric. "Adu! Too low!"

Aria forced herself to keep her eyes open. If I'm going to die, I'm at least going to see it coming.

Rock rilled the screen, silver and black, pitted, gouged, bare. Bells and chimes, mechanical shrieks filled the air and the light flashed wildly.

It's the World's Wall. Nameless Powers Preserve me. We're going to hit the World's Wall!