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What if this legend of Colonists and ancient technologies held some grain of truth? Then perhaps,
Hork speculated, some of these devices could still exist, deep in the Quantum Sea. An Interface
would be worth having...
"Muub," he asked thoughtfully. "How could we penetrate the Quantum Sea?"
Muub looked at him, as if shocked by the suggestion. "We cannot, of course, sir. It is impossible."
His eyes narrowed. "You are not thinking of chasing after these absurd legends, of wasting resources
on a..."
"You will not lecture me, Physician," Hork snapped. "Think of it as a a scientific experiment. If
nothing else we would learn much about the Star, and about our own capabilities... and, perhaps,
disprove once and for all these fanciful legends of Colonists and antique wonders." Or, he allowed
himself to imagine, perhaps I will uncover a treasure lost to mankind for generations.
"Sir, I must protest. People continue to die, all over the hinterland. Parz itself may be overwhelmed
by the flood of refugees approaching. We must abandon these fantasies of the impossible, and return
our attention to the immediate, the practical."
Hork studied the Physician Muub was stiff, trembling in his cocoon of rope. His irritation with
Muub's stiff anger was eclipsed, suddenly, by respect for this decent man. It must have taken a lot of
courage for the Physician to speak out like that. "Muub my dear Muub as soon as I close this
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meeting I will be immersed in the immediate, the practical... in the pain of ten thousand human
beings." He smiled. "I want you to take charge of this project. Reach the Quantum Sea."
Muub ground out, "The task is impossible."
Hork nodded. "Of course. Bring me options, within two days."
He turned from them then, and, straightening his back, thrust through the Air to the door and his
duties.
17
After she'd endured a brief, unsettled sleep in Deni's cramped quarters, a messenger from the
Committee called for Dura. The messenger was a small, rather sad man in a scuffed tunic; his skin
was thin and pale and his eyes were bruised-looking, discolored deep inside the cups. Perhaps he had
spent too much of his life doing close work inside the City, Dura thought, shut away from fresh Air.
She was led away from the Hospital and through the streets. They passed through the Market, and
Waved Upside along Pall Mall. The great avenue seemed quieter than she remembered. The lines of
Air-cars moved much more easily than before, with clear Air between the sparsely spaced cars, and
many of the shops were closed up, their wood-lamps dimmed. She began to understand how the
disaster in the hinterland had impacted the economy of the City.
Even so, the noise was a constant, growling racket and the few fans and illumination vents seemed
hardly sufficient. Soon Dura found herself fighting off claustrophobia. And yet, only days before,
she had been feeling restless in the limited company of the upfluxers. Her experiences really had left
her a misfit, she thought gloomily.
They took a turn off the Mall close to its Upside terminus and emerged, surprisingly, into clear Air-
light. They had entered a huge open chamber, a cube a hundred mansheights on a side. Its edges
were constructed of fine beams, leaving the faces open to the clear sky this place must be clinging
to the side of the City like some immense wooden leech but, oddly, the Air was no fresher here
than in the bowels of the City, and there was no discernible breeze. Looking more closely, she
realized that the apparently open faces of this cube were coated with huge panels of clearwood; she
was inside a transparent wooden box big enough to hold she estimated quickly a thousand
people.
It was impressive, but utterly bizarre; Dura felt bemused as so often before by the strangeness of
the City.
The messenger touched her elbow. "Here we are. This is the Stadium. Of course it's empty today;
when it's in use it's crammed with people... Up there you can see the Committee Box." He pointed to
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a thin balcony suspended over the Stadium itself; his voice was thin, ingratiating. "People come here
to watch the Games our sporting events. Do you have Games in the upflux?"
"Why have I been brought here?"
The little man shied away, his bruised-looking eyecups closing.
"Dura..."
Farr?
She whirled in the Air. Her brother was only a mansheight from her; he was calm and apparently
well, and dressed in a loose tunic. There were people with him Adda and three City men.
She saw all this in the heartbeat it took to cross the space between them and take her brother in her
arms. He hugged her back but not as an uninhibited child, she slowly realized; he put his arms
around her and patted her spine, comforting her.
She let him go and held him at arm's length. His face was square and serious. He seemed to have
grown older, and there was more of their father about him.
"I'm well, Dura."
"Yes. So am I. I thought you might have been injured in the Glitch."
"I wasn't in the Bells when the Glitch came. It was my off-shift, and I was in the Harbor..."
"That doesn't matter," she said bitterly. "You're too young to have been sent down in those things."
"It's just the way things are," he said gently. "Boys younger than me have served in the Bells. Dura,
none of it is your fault... even if I'd been hurt it wouldn't have been your fault."
He was comforting her. He really was growing up.
"Anyway, I haven't been back to the Harbor for a while," Farr went on. He smiled. "Not since Adda
had Hork send for me. I've been staying with Toba."
"How are the family?"
"Well. Cris has been teaching me to Surf." Farr held his arms out in the Air, as if balancing on an
invisible board. "You'll have to try it..."
"Dura. You've made it; I'm glad." Adda came paddling through the Air toward them. Dura glanced
quickly over the old man; his shoulders, chest and lower legs were still bound up with grubby
bandages, but he was moving freely enough. He was towing an object which looked like the skin of
an Air-pig; sewn up and inflated, it bobbled behind his clumsy progress like a toy.
She found a clear place on his face away from the eye-leech and kissed him. "I'd hug you if I
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wasn't scared of breaking you."
He snorted. "So you got through the Glitch."
Briefly she told her story; Farr's eyes grew round when she described the Xeelee ship. She told them
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