Ascending - James Alan Gardner [84]
Anyway, I am sure she found it far more satisfying to bludgeon a door out of its frame than to twiddle tiny gears until something went click. There is far too little bludgeoning in the human navy.
A Great Fright
After Festina worked her trick with the lock, she could easily pull the door open. To my surprise, the cabin appeared empty; baby Starbiter nestled securely on a padded chair, but there was no sign of Nimbus. “Where has he gone?” I cried.
“Check if the floor’s sticky,” Uclod said bitterly. “Maybe whatever zapped the defense nanites took out Nimbus too.”
“Is that possible?” I asked in Great Consternation.
Festina shook her head. “I don’t think so. Zaretts are made of biological components; nano is mechanical.”
“On a microscopic scale,” Uclod said, “how much difference does it make? Both Nimbus and the nanites are just fancy organic molecules.”
“So are we,” Festina replied. “And we’re still alive.”
“We’re natural creatures,” Uclod told her. “Nimbus wasn’t.”
“You’re not natural,” Festina said. “The whole Freep species was bioengineered.”
“We’re a minor variation on natural Divian stock—just a few tweaks away from the original. But the Shaddill created Nimbus from scratch. God knows, his components may have been closer to nanites than real living cells. We should check for smears on the rug.”
“Husband,” said Lajoolie. “Hush.” She turned to the rest of us apologetically. “He’s still distressed about his grandmother. Pay no attention.”
She gave a reassuring smile…but it had no effect on the butterflies fluttering in my stomach. Until now, I had never quite grasped that Nimbus was an artificial being: built by the Shaddill as a gift to the Divian people, just as my own race had been built as a gift to ancient Earthlings. Surely Nimbus and I possessed similar design features, with many DNAs and other Chemicals in common—were we not both transparent, clear and colorless? So in a way, we were brother and sister by virtue of our Shaddillish origins.
And now my brother might be dead? As lifeless as the black nano-things coating the floor like soot? What was wrong with this universe, that so many people kept dying?
Feeling scared and angry, I strode across the black residue encrusting the carpet, straight into the cloud man’s cabin. “Nimbus!” I cried. “Come out right away! Do not make us think you died from some foolish Science not even intended for you. Where have you gone, you poop-head cloud?”
For a moment, I sensed no response. Then, with a great whoosh, mist poured through a ventilator grid high up on one wall. The fog circled me once, a thick stream impossible to feel through my jacket; then it swept toward baby Star-biter and coalesced into the shape of a ghostly man seated on the infant’s chair.
“I’m back,” said Nimbus. “What’s the problem?”
“You went away!” I was most furious with him for the fright he had given us. “You foolishly left; you abandoned your child! Whom you are supposed to take care of, so others do not have to. We are not such ones as know which hydrocarbons are best for a Zarett of tender years.”
“Sorry to upset you,” Nimbus said without sounding sorry at all, “but I went to see what was happening. The power died, and I heard a sort of crackle in the ventilator; when I investigated, I found my nanite guards were all settling out of the air, dead as dandruff. I decided I’d try to find someone to ask what was happening, but…” A ripple went through his body. “I got lost in the air ducts.”
“You got lost?” I asked. “That is most irresponsible, you foolish cloud, when certain persons might choose to worry about you. Persons such as Uclod and Lajoolie. And little Starbiter. But not me, not even a little bit.