Skye Object 3270a by Linda Nagata Page B

instinct.
    â€œAren’t the communion mounds off limits to tourists?” Devi asked.
    Zia gave him a dark look. “I said we were taking the elevator down. I didn’t say we were going on a regular tour. Regular tourists are escorted by nasty little robot wardens, so that they can’t get away with anything. However” —she patted Buyu’s knee— “we are lucky enough to have a trained explorer in our midst.”
    Buyu blushed. Even in the dim light, Skye could see it.
    Zia went on with her explanation. “Buyu hasn’t been placed on an explorer team yet, but he is allowed to escort small parties down on day trips, so we won’t have to take a robot warden along. With any luck, we can tap a mound and city authority will never know the difference.”
    Skye shook her head. Already she could see a hundred things wrong with the plan—not the least of which was that Buyu would be risking the career he wanted so badly. If it was discovered they were tapping the mounds, Buyu might be permanently suspended from the explorer corps. “It might be all right for me and Ord to try it,” Skye said, “but you three . . . you’ve got nothing to gain and everything to lose by defying city law.”
    Zia pouted. “That is not the answer I coached you to say. Try again.”
    â€œSooth, Zia’s right,” Devi said. “Try it again, because we have a lot to lose too. Skye?”
    Buyu nodded. “Don’t make me kidnap Ord and go by myself, Skye. Without you, the little guy would melt into a puddle at the bottom of my pack.”
    She laughed softly.
    â€œSay it,” Devi whispered.
    â€œSay it!” Zia commanded, louder.
    â€œSay it,” Buyu muttered. “Please Skye?”
    Skye closed her eyes, thinking of the thousands of lifeboats that might even now be falling in long slow orbits around Kheth. If there was no cure for this plague, they would be falling forever. She opened her eyes, and looked at her friends, one by one. “You all are crazy! Crazier than me. But okay. If you know how, if you want to do it, then I ’ ll go for that! Okay?”
    â€œSlick,” Zia said, nodding in satisfaction.
    â€œFirst elevator down tomorrow,” Devi added.
    Buyu had already turned to more pressing matters. “We never ate dinner,” he moaned. “I’m starving! ”

Chapter 8
    N o one was more real than Yulyssa Desearange. She was the oldest person in the city, and yet she had not let the years harden her thoughts and beliefs. Her eyes and mind were always open to the subtle changes of the world around her. She saw everything, and she could read meaning into every detail. When Skye walked into their apartment, Yulyssa took one look at her and asked, “Are you all right? What’s happened?”
    She lay half-reclined on the sofa, a small woman of delicate build, several centimeters shorter than Skye. In the evening Yulyssa often lay on the sofa, visiting friends through the atrium in her head. Now she sat up. Her long, black hair slipped like a veil across her finely sculpted cheek. As with any real person, her age did not show in her face or in her body, but only in the weight of her gaze and the calmness of her bearing. Compared to Yulyssa, Skye felt that everything about herself was in a muddle: her health, her hair, her judgment, her dress. “Oh, I—” She searched for something to say. “I’m exhausted. It’s been a terribly long day.”
    Yulyssa’s eyes continued to take her measure, but she asked no more questions. “I heard you and Zia set a jump record.”
    â€œSooth. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.”
    Ord had slipped into the kitchen. Now it came out with a glass of water for Skye. She drank it gratefully, while Yulyssa made a space on the sofa for her. Skye sat down. “I met a new boy tonight. I’ve never met anyone like him