Grail - Elizabeth Bear [104]
Danilaw was sad to see them go, but as much as he would have liked to prolong the interlude, she was right.
“We need to call the Council.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I think we do.
19
the lathe of evolution
In the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme,
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights.
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 106
When Benedick came with Chelsea and Jordan to arrest Damian Jsutien, they found the Astrogator in his quarters, as Nova had reported. The door stood open, welcoming company, though Benedick did not think Jsutien often entertained.
Jsutien’s room was spare, by Engine standards. The lushness of the corridor vegetation ended at the threshold. Rather than garish colors and a verdancy of symbiotic plants and animals, Jsutien affected surroundings imbued with simple serenity. Stripped of plants, the walls of his chamber revealed convoluted surfaces of piping and ductwork, painted in shades of sand and eggshell-white, eggshell-brown. On the floor, a pallet lay rolled aside and in use as a bolster upon which Jsutien had propped his back. A tray across his lap held hair-fine manipulators and a partially disassembled toolkit. The toolkit, under anesthesia, breathed calmly in and out through a mask.
Draped sheets and ultraviolet established a sterile operating field, and Jsutien’s fingers—Oliver’s fingers, Benedick reminded himself for the first time in years—were coated in a layer of plum-colored surgical spray.
“Just a moment,” Jsutien said. He wiggled a chip into a socket until it emitted a satisfying click. The toolkit, even under sedation, stretched against its restraints and made a small pleased noise.
Jsutien closed it up with surgical glue and speedheal, turning off the anesthesia before releasing its restraints. By the time he’d unfastened the last delicate limb, the faneared device was sitting up and grooming between the toes on the opposite foot. It looked familiar to Benedick; the pattern of spots and stripes reminded him of one he’d destroyed in service, and he felt a momentary pang for the gallant little artifice.
Jsutien wadded up his surgical drapes and peeled the purple down his fingers in wormy inside-out tubes. “There,” he said. “That’s a stopping point. How can I be of service?”
Jordan looked at Benedick, engendering a pang of sympathy he would never demonstrate. It was a difficult time and situation under which to find oneself thrust into a position of authority. Battlefield promotions generally were, and Benedick had endured his share. But that did not dim his fellow feeling for the new and inexperienced Chief Engineer.
He was about to take pity on her when Chelsea, on her left hand, stepped forward. She straightened her back and cleared her throat, leaving Benedick wondering why excellent posture was never a good sign. “Damian Jsutien,” she said. “You are under arrest on suspicion of harboring an unknown daemon, and suspicion of complicity aware or unaware in the murder of Caitlin Conn.”
He stopped, half standing, not yet quite having risen from his crouch. Benedick tensed, a hand on the hilt of his sword, but Jsutien only tilted his head up and blinked at her. “I see,” he said. “I’ll get my shirt. By the way, the extra memory you wanted installed in your toolkit is done.”
Chelsea crouched down and clucked. The fuzzy beast scampered to her, hesitating infinitesimally to sniff her outstretched fingers before swarming up her arm. Under the sweep of her long hair, it quickly made itself into a fur collar.
“Thanks,” she said. She stood, tilting her chin up to look Jsutien in the eye.
“Check that for sabotage,” Benedick said.
She nodded. “Damian, you know we’ll take the best possible care of you, even if you’ve got somebody else in your head.”
He pulled a dress shirt on over his head and tugged the collar laces. When it was settled to his satisfaction, he ran a hand