The Diamond Deep Page 23

  Onor held his tongue. He could still see Colin being ripped in pieces. He watched Ruby carefully. She didn’t respond right away, and her face looked set and worried. “What do you suggest?”

  “Can you talk to Aleesi?” Naveen asked.

  “No. We used Ix for that.”

  “But what about when you left?” Naveen was looking at Onor. “Aleesi wrote on your journal.”

  “I think she was still using Ix to help her. It was still doing basic care at that point.”

  “I think so, too.” Ruby looked thoughtful. “Is whatever communication we do have here enough to talk to her? I tried every day for a week after we first got settled, but nothing happened. She hasn’t looked alive, although I’m sure she is alive.”

  “It’s possible. Aleesi is not our tech, but she is probably more like our current tech than Ix.”

  “Will you help us try?”

  “I can.”

  “Will you protect Aleesi while you do it? I don’t want any footage of this, and I don’t want her hurt. I stripped her of her defenses, I took her from her sister-copies, and I brought her here, to a place she is afraid of.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can we try now?”

  Naveen laughed. “I need to do some research. And carefully. If I help you with this, and if I get caught, I could be in real trouble. So could you.”

  “So why are you willing to help?” Joel asked. “Why take the risk?”

  “Because I can make a lot of credit when Ruby does a tour of the ship.”

  “When Ruby what?” Joel’s voice sounded barely controlled.

  “She’s already popular. You saw what I gave to Onor. That was a tenth of what I owe you.” He smiled. “At least if you consider this an agent relationship. I can set up the venues, I can generate interest. You can’t. You don’t know enough.”

  Ruby looked thoughtful, Joel looked downright opposed even though he didn’t respond.

  Naveen continued. “Look, I’ll do it for just a year. I’ll write the contract so you can get out of it. It’s a win for both of us. And you need a friend here.”

  Onor froze as he realized Ruby, Joel, and Haric were all looking at him, as if waiting for him to decide. He did know Naveen better than they did. At a gut level, he trusted him and didn’t trust him all once. He glanced at Ix, captured in a silver ball on the table, and remembered how the AI had helped them win a different fight.

  He took a deep breath. “I trust him.”

  “We will think about it,” Joel said.

  Naveen stood. “Thank you. I’ll be back within a week.”

  After Naveen left, Joel picked up the ball of Ix and stared at it. “How do we even know this is Ix, and that it hasn’t been changed in some horrible way?”

  Ruby stood in line and watched a man who could hire her people as surreptitiously as she could manage. After failing for three days, she had spoken to Lake and requested his help. She’d learned that this man was a longshoreman from The Great Bastard, a ferry that had come up from Lym carrying clothes, food, and livestock. It had been unloaded, and now it waited for precious metals mined from the asteroid belt out beyond the orbit of the Diamond Deep. That was work that didn’t need the ability to interface with the Diamond Deep’s systems. Her people had a prayer of doing it.

  She studied the man. Tall. Deeply muscled for a spacer, his biceps surely a result of long days of heavy labor. Paintings of trees covered his body, each leg a forest, his arms turned to branches carrying blue birds hidden amongst fall foliage.

  Beside her, Haric tried to stand as tall as he could. She had spent precious credit to bring Conroy as well, as an example of the strongest men from the Fire. Not that Conroy had any size compared to the tree-man. He was big if Onor stood next to him, or Haric, or Ruby. But Conroy to the longshoreman was like Haric to Conroy.

  She watched him accept three workers and reject two. Not horrid odds, but not great. When he gestured them forward Ruby had to look up to meet his eyes. “We are from the interstellar ship that just came back. We have many excellent workers, and we would love a chance to help you.”

  He smiled, and for a moment she felt hope.

  “I am looking for experience.”

  She swallowed. “How will we get experience if no one teaches us?”

  “How will I get my ship unloaded with people who know nothing?” He started to wave them away.

  “Take two of us. That’s all. They can teach the others.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest, the tattoos of leaves and birds rippling as he moved. “I’ll take you.”

  Before she could accept, Haric put a hand on her arm. She remembered her promises to Joel. “Take me and Conroy.” She pointed at Conroy.

  He laughed. “I don’t need strength, I need experience. Now get out of the way.”

  She stepped aside. They stood against a wall and watched at the man hired the next two people in line and then dismissed the line. So close.

  “It’s almost as if we’re being blackballed,” Conroy mused.

  “What?” Haric asked.

  “As is someone has told them not to hire us.”

  “I hope not,” Ruby mused. Would Koren go that far?

  “Now what?” Haric asked.

  “We keep trying.”

  “Most of the people who can hire us have already gone for the morning.”

  “So what? If we don’t start finding work, we’ll starve. We have people who worked on the gardens on the Fire. Let’s find a place for them. Surely that’s not skilled labor.”

  Ruby sat in the small kitchen with SueAnne beside her. SueAnne sat in the same wheeled chair, which she’d taken to using most of the time. Her fingers worked, twisting colorful cloth to make belts. The fabric was one of the few purchases Ruby had allowed; enough bright colors to help them fit into the vibrant chaos that was the station. Almost everything they had brought from the Fire was somber and faded. They had to look better to get hired.

  Five of the whispering women sat outside the door, singing softly. Not one of Ruby’s songs.

  At least their voices weren’t bad.

  Ruby stared at the figures on her slate. She had been able to place five people into a harvesting crew. Five out of thousands. Harvesting paid five credits a day; grunt work at best.

  KJ had done slightly better, but at a cost. Five of his dancers had signed on to be bodyguards for dignitaries; they’d demonstrated they could take down attackers in unique ways. They earned more. Fifteen credits a day. But KJ had offered to let them keep five each.

  It wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted all of the credit to come to a single place and be spread back out, so everyone could protect everyone else.

  KJ was trying to protect his own.

  She understood; so was she. She had just thought she and KJ were on the same page until she learned they weren’t. Even thinking about it made her stiffen.

  When she’d brought it up to Joel, he’d given her a look of mild curiosity and asked if she wanted to lose the protection KJ’s dancers offered her people.

  At least they were discreet.

  She had set up a system that recorded the credits they had banked in days of life for the whole population of Ash. She used a paltry three credits a day: air, water, and food plus a bit that she could dole out for transportation or to replace a broken slate. They’d lost almost a full day for every day they’d been here.

  Unacceptable.

  She sighed and sat back, catching SueAnne’s attention. “We have to do a hundred times better. Even if we learn how to use the Exchange as well as possible, if we get a quarter of the jobs available, it won’t be enough.”

  “There are other Exchanges.”

  “I don’t want to split us up.”

  “Or give up control,” SueAnne observed. “You cannot do everything, be everywhere. You will kill us all if you try. The job is too big for you.”

  “I’m not the only one! KJ is placing people. Haric is going out without m
e tomorrow, trying to find a cheaper way to buy food. Allen is looking for material to open a real bar, and bargaining with our own people for space. “

  SueAnne plopped a glass of water down in front of Ruby. “Drink. Unlimited water is built into the base credit. Go take a shower and revel in it. Write a song. This is not like you.”

  Outside the door, the women stopped singing for a moment, the quiet noticeable. They started a chant.

  She hadn’t finished a new song since they left the Fire. There hadn’t been time. She had a long list of ideas and scraps of lyrics in her slate: when she thought of anything—even in the middle of a meeting—she jotted it down. “I have to finish adding up all the numbers.”

  “No you don’t. You’re obsessing about them. Besides, they’re actually pretty simple. I’ll take over the accounting and give you a report every day.”

  “Really?”

  “An old woman’s got to have a way to be useful.”

  Ruby hesitated, but the offer was good. Maybe SueAnne was right, and she had let herself get too tired to be grateful for help. “Okay.” She drank the water. “Thank you. It will help. Can I show you what I’ve done?”

  “You’ve already shown me.” SueAnne held the half-finished belt up in front of her and squinted at it. “Twice”

  “Okay.”

  “Go,” SueAnne said, her fingers tugging and pulling at some of the thin colorful ropes to make them more even. “Damn, it’s hard to make this thing lie flat.”

  “Go where?”

  “Sleep, and take a shower. Rest. Clean up.”

  “I have to go back to the Exchange. I want to talk to Lake. He’ll tell me how to do better there.”

  SueAnne gave her a long, measured look. “Then you had best rest and clean up, and put on something pretty. If you find me in a few hours, I’ll be done with this belt. You can wear it.”

  Ruby trailed her fingers along the old woman’s shoulders. “I didn’t used to like you. But sometimes it’s all right to be told a few things.”

  SueAnne didn’t let Ruby see her face, but she reached up and took her hand for just a second.

  The new belt fit well. She’d thought it might be small, but it wasn’t. She should remember to eat more often.

  Ani and Jaliet sat next to her on the train to Exchange Five.

  “What if Lake won’t help us?” Ani asked.

  “Then we’ll find someone who will. We just need to learn enough to help ourselves.”

  “You haven’t heard from Naveen?”

  “No.” She was beginning to wonder if Naveen really would help them with the AIs, or if he’d decided they were a lost cause. Or maybe he was just busy selling her songs. She wanted to know that, too. Maybe there was another day or two of life in that.

  The three of them stepped off the train and Ruby watched Ani’s face. It was the first time she’d been to the Exchange, and the look of sheer wonder in her eyes rewarded Ruby for bringing her. “I’m so impressed,” Ani said. She fingered the bright colored ribbons Jali had braided into her three braids. “I see why it mattered what we looked like.”

  People’s colorful clothes varied in a hundred different ways. Shorts and boots and dresses and simple wraps and work uniforms eerily reminiscent of the Fire’s work jumpsuits.

  Multicolored skin abounded, including blues and reds and purples and stripes and other designs. Even though Ruby had been here every day since Koren first brought them, it always shocked her system to see the variety of humans and robots.

  Vendors called from booths, advertisements broadcast from invisible speakers, people chattered in numerous dialects.

  “Come on, I sent Lake a note to meet us in a little cafe I like.”

  Ani frowned. “What’s a cafe?”

  “A galley, only it’s not free.”

  “You’re going to let us spend credit?” Ani asked.

  “Only a little. Order lightly.”

  “Yes, oh obsessed one,” Ani said.

  Jali frowned at Ani but said nothing. Ruby managed to get both of their attention for a moment. “I don’t know how much I trust Lake. But he claims his job is to help put people who need work in touch with people who need workers. He’s been nice so far, and some of his ideas have helped. Some haven’t.”

  “Look at that!” Jali pointed at a girl weaving through the crowds on a board with wheels.

  Ruby glanced at the skater, wishing she had that much freedom in this unfamiliar place. She turned back to the task at hand. “We have to do better. I have Haric and KJ both looking for manual labor, but there must be other ways to earn credit. I want your eyes and ears.”

  Lake stood outside the cafe, waiting for them. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been in reds. This time he had chosen a set of browns almost like Naveen’s usual colors, although in Lake’s case they were splashed with bright red flowers and orange birds the color of his long ponytail. “Good afternoon, Ruby the Red. Welcome, welcome.” If he noticed the shocked look on Ani’s face or the curiosity on Jaliet’s, he didn’t react. “I’m Lake. And you are?”

  They made it through Ani’s stammered introduction, and Jali’s cool one, and ended up at a very nice table under a tree with a pitcher of iced water, an orange pot full of tea, and a small platter of little cakes. “I’m happy to see that you came to ask me for additional help. I’m sorry my lead about The Great Bastard didn’t work out, but there are others brokering work.” He held a small cup in a large hand, took a small sip, smiling. “It would be easier to find room for more bodyguards.”

  “We have thousands of people. Only a few can do that job.”

  “There is a large ship, The Lady’s Love, coming in from Mammot in a few days. I will be talking to the crew-bosses there.”

  Jali asked, “And that work will be?”

  “The usual. Unloading.”

  Jali sipped at her tea and looked only the slightest bit interested. “And how many jobs might be available for a group such as ours?”

  “Maybe twenty. Maybe a few more.”

  “That would pay . . . ?” Ruby asked.

  “I don’t set the price. Probably five credits a day.”

  So little. Ruby sighed. She looked over at Ani, who held her own cup but didn’t drink the tea. She seemed entranced by the others in the cafe, slightly shell-shocked. But then Ruby remembered how exhausted she had been the first day she came here. She leaned over and whispered in Ani’s ear. “Drink water.”

  Jali spoke to Lake, “And in trade for that, you would like to have?”

  “There are many things I would like. Credit eases a man’s way, but it is very traceable. What might you have to offer?”

  Ruby answered. “We have people who can count and keep inventory. We have trained robot repair crews. We have others who know how to keep bar, or to make still.”

  Lake set his cup down carefully. “You know how to repair our robots?”

  “We can learn. I did the job myself, once.”

  “And your hands are entirely too pretty, and your voice worth too much for such a thing.” He leaned back, his look measuring. “I can arrange almost anything if you can help me do so.”

  Ruby went cold. No wonder she hadn’t had any success, no wonder Lake had given her certain looks from time to time, as if waiting for her to say ritual words. He wanted a bribe. How could she have been so naïve? She bit her tongue, and blessed Jali for saying, “We do not have spare credit to help you in a meaningful way. Perhaps we will be able to provide assistance in some other way?”

  “There are many forms of commerce of a station this size. Your people are—somewhat unique in how original you are.”

  “What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

  “You have a following now. Naveen has stirred up interest. There will be people who would like to sit across a table from you—like I am now—but who will be unable to do so. There may be other ways to satisfy their appetites. Perhaps you have a few young girls who are looking for opportunities to serve as c
ompanions?”

  Before Ruby could react, Jali spoke again. “We do not participate in that trade. What else might help you plead our case convincingly?”

  Lake looked at Ruby, his eyes as warm and friendly as they had always been, as if what she had just heard him say changed nothing. “Sometimes I am allowed to organize events here. Perhaps I can work with your manager to put on a concert, and you can pay me well enough that it covers my time to sell tickets.”

  Ruby swallowed, still furious and slightly confused.

  Once more, Jaliet saved her. “Naveen may contact you in a few days. In the meantime, please consider us when The Lady’s Love arrives. Surely you are also rewarded by the crew who are able to find the right workers.”

  Lake shook his head. “More people need ways to earn credit than there are opportunities.”

  Ruby had read him completely wrong and wasted days. But she also did not want him as an enemy.

  Lake stood and gave them a slight bow. “Keep me in mind if you need anything.”

  Ani watched him leave. “How are we going to learn everything we need to learn?”

  Jali laughed. “One step at a time.” She turned to Ruby. “He will need to be paid to help us. And I suspect his appetite is not small.”

  “I suppose he helped us get a few jobs to demonstrate that he could, and then made sure we missed on others to show his power?”

  Jali shrugged. “He’s looking out for himself.”

  “We all are,” Ruby said.

  “We’ve got to figure out the systems,” Jali said. “We need something like Ix.”

  Ruby hadn’t told her about Ix, or about the idea that they may be able to load Ix into Aleesi. She didn’t like the idea. But it would be better than selling their children. She still remembered her friend Nona, who had been murdered while selling herself to a red. That past had seemed dim, but now it felt real again and almost immediate, Nona’s bloody face close in her memory. She couldn’t let those days return. “We need a safety net.”

  “Naveen wants you to tour,” Jali said.

  “We need more than me.”

  Jali stood up. “No. But if you weren’t here, what would we have? We’ll work on getting skills for everyone else, and learning how to trade. But that will take time. Fox would have taken this opportunity, and we should learn from what he did for us.”