The Appearance of Mutiny
from Disciplined log, year 1893 State = 370 SM:
MEDICAL READOUTS SHOWED THAT THE INHABITANTS OF CARM #6 LIED TO ME. THEY REACTED STRONGLY TO ACCUSATION OF MUTINY. I LOST MY CHANCE TO QUESTION THEM IN DETAIL. THEY MAY HAVE MUTINIED AGAINST LEGITIMATE HOLDERS OF THE CARM. HEREDITY WILL TELL.
IT’S A BAD HABIT. I WILL BREAK THEM OF IT.
SHARLS DAVIS KENDY, CHECKER
CLAVE PULLED HIMSELF OUT OF THE ELEVATOR FIRST.
Wings were tethered next to the cage, and he pulled one free and tied it in place along his left shin. “This was a good idea, Gavving. Wings aren’t much use in the tuft.”
“Oh, we’ll keep some there too. Hunters used to carry jet pods. Wings are better. But there’s no point porting them up and down every time someone wants to fly. What are you doing?”
“Fixing this.” He chopped with his matchet at his other wing. When ten ce’meters were gone, he tied the wing to his right shin. He felt distinctly lopsided. Jeffer and Gavving were also winged now. The three flapped out toward the CARM, spurning the convenient handholds the bark afforded. Clave’s flight wavered, then steadied. He’d been right. This was easier on the warped muscles in his thigh.
Jeffer was first through the airlock. “Prikazyvat Voice.”
The CARM’s deep voice said, “Ready, Jeffer the Scientist-“
A woman’s voice broke in. “Jeffer, it’s Lawri. I think I want to join you.”
“Come on up. Bring something to eat. We’ll be running the main motor for maybe two days.”
“Will do. Lawri out.”
“What was that about?” Clave asked.
“Lawri doesn’t trust me with the CARM.” Jeffer laughed. “Now we refuel the beast.”
Clave sighed. “Pump?”
“Right. You pump while 1 do a checklist. Otherwise we’ll lose the pondlet when we go under thrust.”
Some pumping had been done, but megatons of water still nestled against the trunk. Clave ran the hose from the CARM to the pondlet. The pump was a wheel and a tube and piston, all carved from hard branchwood. Clave braced his back and arms against the bark and kicked the wheel around with his feet on the spokes. “Help would be appreciated,” he grunted.
Gavving joined him.
The pump leaked. The pond didn’t dwindle fast, but it dwindled. They broke to drink thirstily, then resumed pumping. The sun had dropped from zenith to nadir- which at the midyear was not behind Voy, but north by three full degrees-when Jeffer poked his head through the airlock. “Stop! The tank’s full!”
Clave tossed his head to shake some of the sweat out of his hair.
“Come inside.” Jeffer ushered them forward to the front row of seats. “Strap down.”
He tapped, and vertical blue dashes appeared in the panel below the window. Four clusters of four each at the corners of a square, and a larger dash in the center. He tapped the central dash.
The sound within the cabin was like the roaring of wind at the treemouth. Clave felt a featherweight of tide and knew the tree was in motion.
Jeffer told them, “We’re already placed right, with the motor aimed west. We thrust eastward. That puts Citizens Tree in a wider orbit, so we slow down and drift west, away from the Clump.”
Clave wondered if he wanted to watch from outside. “Is it dangerous out there?”
“Could be. You don’t want to fall into the flame. Anyway, the view’s better in here.” Jeffer’s fingers danced, and the CARM window sprouted five smaller windows. “The ventral view got ruined when we fell back into the Smoke Ring-“
“Jeffer, you don’t lecture this much unless you’re nervous. What’s wrong? We’ve moved the tree before.”
Gavving laughed. It appeared that he had a touch of nerves too. “Remember how twitchy we were then? Merril was sure we’d break the tree apart and kill ourselves.”
Clave shrugged. He went aft and braced himself in the airlock.
What remained of the pondlet stretched itself out from the trunk, then broke into one big drop and a line of little ones. The mother pond they’d robbed twenty-two sleeps ago drifted west. The sun passed Voy and began to climb. A fat triple-finned bird, dead west by a klomter or three, suddenly went into an epileptic seizure, split into three slender birds, and scattered. Clave was late in understanding what he’d seen: a triune family suddenly washed by the invisible heat of the CARM’s exhaust.
Clave went in and strapped down again.
He had been anticipating Lawn’s arrival for some time, but the CARM’s roar covered her entry. He turned to see her halfway up the aisle ... and Debby behind her. And Ryllin. And Booce and Carlot. Clave fumbled to release the buckle that bound him to the chair.
It took too long. He was between Jeffer and Gavving, with Lawri behind him. He sighed. “What’s it all about?”
Jeffer’s fingers danced. The board went blank. He said, “We can fight or we can talk. Or we can talk and then fight, but there’s only one”of you. Clave. Cripple me and Lawri flies the CARM.”
Call for help? If he could get past Jeffer to use Voice, the elevator would still take a day to get up ... forget it. Voice connected to the silver suit, which Rather was now pulling headfirst through the airlock.
It would have felt good to hit somebody. Clave said, “I’ll be good. Now what’s it all about?”
“We’re going to visit the Admiralty,” Jeffer said.
Rather and Booce were moving things inside: two smoked turkeys, a huge amount of foliage, water pods.
“All of us?”
“Not you. Clave. Lawn’s staying too. Citizens Tree needs a Chairman and a Scientist.”
“How did you decide-“
There was a bit of an edge in Lawri’s voice. “We knew one of us would have to stay. Now I’ve missed my time of blood. I’m hosting a guest. I wondered why the copsik was being so affectionate.”
“You should all be staying. You’re taking the CARM?”
“The CARM, the silver suit, and the pipe from Logbearer.”
They all looked very serious. The background roar prompted Clave to ask, “Are you planning to set the tree moving first? Or was that a lie too?”
“We’ll give you a day’s thrust,” Jeffer said. “No more. I won’t be here to decelerate you, and I want to be able to find you again.”
“With what? Would London Tree have let you keep the CARM? The Admiralty won’t either!”
Patiently Gavving said, “We’ve talked that over. We won’t take the CARM into the Clump. They’ll never know it exists. Jeffer will hide the CARM somewhere. The rest of us will go in as loggers, with Booce and Ryllin to show us how.”
Clave’s mind was racing. “Now listen to me. Will you listen?”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“First, are you all volunteers? Rather, how did they suck you into this?”
“They can’t go without the silver suit,” the boy said.
“Oh, they’d go. Wouldn’t you, Jeffer?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going anyway,” Rather said.
He didn’t look like he’d change his mind. Rather didn’t even bother to argue, though the boy was good at that. Clave knew how he would enlist a fourteen-year-old boy. Put him in the silver suit, call him the Silver Man, offer him status and adventure ... “Carlot?”
“I’m going home,” the girl said defiantly.
“Debby?” But aglance told Clave he’d lost that battle. Debby was fiercely happy. He hadn’t seen her like this since the War of London Tree. “What about Anthon?”
Debby said, “I never told him. Jeffer, I did get him talking. He likes Citizens Tree just fine and he doesn’t want any changes. Have you noticed how fat he’s getting?”
“Too bad,” Jeffer said.
Clave said, “Stet. I accept that you’re going to do this. I’ve heard your speeches, and you’ve heard mine, and the treemouth can have them both. But don’t you see that this will tear Citizens Tree apart? It’s mutiny. Hold it! I mean it’s mutiny the way you’ve planned it. If we don’t fix that. Citizens Tree will never recover. It’s got to look better than it does.”
The mutineers looked at each other.
“Here’s how it’s got to be,” said Clave. “First, I’m going. Gawing isn’t. You said it and you’re right. The tree needs a Chairman and it’s Gawing.”
Gawing said, “That’s silly. You’re-“
“I’m the treefeeding Chairman, and if 1 go the expedition is official. Besides that, I’ve got to see to it that you return the CARM and the silver suit. The citizens would be crazy to settle for less. I hereby appoint you my Chairman Pro Tern until I return.”
Coolly Gawing asked, “Anything else?”
“Yes. You don’t get both Booce and Ryllin. One of them stays. There has to be some reason for the Serjents to bring us home.”
“We can’t do that,” Ryllin said. “Booce takes care of Logbearer. I take care of business. I do all the buying and selling. Anyone who sees one of us in the Clump will expect to see us both.”
Clave was massaging the lump on his thigh. Sometimes that helped him think. Think! “The citizens you deal with, the ... merchants? If they deal with Booce, what will happen?”
Ryllin said, “My husband is very good with machinery, not so good at trading. He did much better after he had the good sense to marry me. But Logbearer understands him, he-“
“Without you they’ll get a better trade?”
“Damn right they will,” Booce said bitterly. Then:
“Yes, they will.”
“They’ll like that? They won’t be too curious about where their luck comes from?”
It was Ryllin who nodded. “It’s all right, love. Think of a story. They’ll want to believe it.”
“But we’re missing three daughters too!”
“The house. They must have finished building our house by now. The girls and I are with Logbearer or we’re at the house, wherever you’re not. Maybe I’m somewhere in the Market buying furniture. That was the whole point of this last trip, we were going to-we were-“ She turned away suddenly.
Emotional displays weren’t needed here! Clave said, “We’re not hiding anything but the silver suit and the CARM. Otherwise we can tell any story we want. What’s next? Gawing, Lawri, Ryllin, you back each other up when you go back to the tuft. Whoever’s asking, the Chairman had to be talked into this, but I did agree, and I put the fine details in.”
Rather called from aft. “Jeffer, the pipe’s moored to the hull. We’ve got everything else, but it all has to be moored.”
“Go ahead. I’ll check you later. Gawing, are you willing?”
“Treefbdder. Well, it’ll probably keep Minyafrom killing me ... Clave, will this work? Is it enough?”
“Only if we come back. We come back with the CARM and something else too. It almost doesn’t matter what.”
“Stet. I’m the Chairman Pro Tern.”
Jeffer killed the main motor. “Somebody go out and get our lines untied.”
Rather went. Debby joined Booce aft. They began mooring what remained of the cargo: two big hooks, spare clothing, sacks of undyed cloth, harpoons, crossbows.
Lawri said, “Jeffer, let me show you something.” She eased up next to him and tapped at the controls, whispering. Her shoulder blocked Clave’s view. Clave’s mind still raced, seeking flaws ... he was looking for holes in a harebrain net! There was no way to make mutiny smell sweet.
“Are we bringing the spitgun? No, of course not.” The weapon Mark had been carrying when he was captured was now in custody of the Chairman. “Gavving, it’s in the older part of my hut, what used to be the common room. If you don’t have the spitgun, you’re not the Chairman. Get it before anyone notices.”
Rather scrambled back through the airlock. Gavving, Ryllin, and Lawri left. Jeffer let them get well clear before he pulled away on the little jets.
The tree receded. Three tiny citizens fluttered toward the elevator dock, A cage had nearly reached the dock. One of the occupants was shrieking and waving its fists.
“Somebody must have found Mark,” Debby said. “Relax, Clave, we only tied him up.”
“Yeah. But if I’d known a rescue party was coming ... skip it. You’d have closed the airlock in their faces. 1 hope you treefeeders can find something worthwhile in the Clump. It’s my reputation on the line now.”