Skye Object 3270a by Linda Nagata Page A

He sounded half-angry, half-elated.
    â€œThe governors are the microscopic guardians of this place,” Buyu went on. “They’re a nanotech system left here, 30 million years ago, by the intelligent species that used to call this planet home. They were designed to defend this world . . . against the Chenzeme, we guess. Luckily for us, they don’t attack unless they’re attacked first . . . otherwise we wouldn’t be here talking about it, because we don’t have any Makers that can beat them.”
    Skye nodded. The governors were the reason no warship had ever been seen near Deception Well. Not only were they everywhere on the planet and in the city, but they inhabited the nebula too. She glanced up at the milky filaments shimmering in the night sky. If a warship entered the system, it would be infected by the governors. They would take it apart if it tried to attack.
    Buyu stroked the fuzzy line of beard that traced his jawbone. “The Well governors can out-maneuver any nanotech systems the Chenzeme have too. Even Chenzeme plagues, Skye. Remember city history? You know it’s happened before.”
    â€œOnce,” Zia said. “It’s happened just once before. When a man named Jupiter Apolinario was dying of a Chenzeme plague he went down to Deception Well, and he was cured. You don’t need the monkey house, Skye. You don’t need to take a chance with them. Be like Apolinario, go down the Well and let the governors clean that Chenzeme death wish out of your cells.”
    It sounded crazy. Go down the Well? City authority would never let her go down the Well and hang out—la di da—until she was cured. It was mystic, magic, wishful thinking. Besides, there were microscopic governors everywhere in the city too. If they could cure her, why hadn’t they done it already? “I don’t think—”
    â€œAh, ah!” Zia said, pointing an accusing finger. “Remember what the right and proper answer is? You rehearsed it.”
    â€œBut why go down the Well?”
    â€œThat’s not the right answer.”
    â€œWell then, how could I go down the Well?”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Take the elevator, ado. What did you think? Tours go down every day.”
    â€œOh sure, but those people have to come right back up.”
    â€œNot really,” Devi said. “They’re down for seven or eight hours.”
    â€œDo you think that’s long enough . . . ?”
    â€œProbably not,” Buyu said. “Apolinario was down there for days.”
    â€œAnd his plague was active,” Zia added. “Skye, the fact that you have ‘puzzle pieces’ is a pretty good sign that the governors don’t even recognize your infection as a threat. But you know I’ve been interning with a planetary biologist, and believe me, Deception Well is a crazy world. With the help of the governors, the biosphere has learned to grow its own libraries. There are hundreds of thousands of communion mounds sprouting from the soil. They’re made up of thousands of different organisms, some native, some Chenzeme, some from Earth, all living together as one. Maybe that had a purpose once, though really I think they’re just a chaos of smart biology that learned how to get along. The point is, they act like libraries of biological data, especially human biological data. If there’s already a cure for Compassion in the biosphere of the Well, then we’re going to find it in one of those mounds.”
    Skye felt her pulse quickening in anticipation. Communion mounds were not found in the city, but only in the Well. “We could bring Ord with us. It could sift through a mound, and find the molecular structure we need.”
    â€œExactly. Let the little chemist be useful for once in its pointless existence. Where is it, anyway?”
    Skye shrugged. “Around.” Ord was always around. That was its deepest