Ty felt something in his chest. The awareness that he had failed, and that people knew it. It was not a feeling to which he was accustomed, and he did not like it. “So,” he said, “the Diggers ate it up?”
“They signed an alliance with Red on the spot. Red recognized their claim to the entire land surface of Earth and urged Blue to follow suit.”
“Just as a matter of basic human decency,” Ty said sourly.
“Of course. The saber-rattling began the next day . . .”
Esa Arjun broke off as he noticed, and focused on, Sonar Taxlaw, who was standing next to Einstein, who was telling her how the gliders worked. Ty had grown used to it; all those two did the whole time they were awake was explain things to each other. But it was new to Arjun.
“She’s the . . .” Arjun said, and trailed off. Ty tried to put himself in Arjun’s shoes: laying eyes on a rootstock human for the first time in his life, seeing someone who was clearly human and yet not of any identifiable human race, thinking about all that her ancestors had lived through.
“Yeah,” Ty said.
Arjun managed to snap out of his reverie and looked back at Ty. “The narrative being put out is that you abducted her.”
“Of course.”
Einstein said something funny. The Cyc laughed and leaned into him affectionately. His arm found its way around her waist, the hand sliding down to the hip.
“Are those two . . .” Arjun began.
“Fucking? Not yet. But only because we’ve been on the run.”
“The Diggers, from what intelligence we’ve been able to scrape together, believe in strict gender roles and . . .”
“Not fucking. Yeah. I’ll talk to Einstein. Tell him to not fuck her.”
“But you didn’t . . .”
“Abduct her? No, she just tagged along.”
Sensing doubt, or at least curiosity, from the Ivyn, Ty continued: “And more would do the same given the chance. The transition to surface life is putting their culture through a blender. Which is why their leaders are being so reactionary.”
Arjun nodded. “And how’s your Moiran?”
Ty sighed. “She saw Doc and Memmie die, and suffered a blunt-force trauma to her arm, and was forced to draw her kat, and to use it. As soon as it happened she went into what I’m guessing is a classic POTESH.” This was military jargon for post-traumatic epigenetic shift.
“That is confirmed,” said Hope, who seemed to have finished an initial scan of Kath’s vital signs. “Higher metabolism and hyperacute senses are observable. Her microbiome is a mess; I’m tuning it up with probiotic supplements that’ll be a better fit with her new phenotype. Suggested by the nausea are big hormone shifts. Possibly predictive of some future . . .”
“Testosterone poisoning?” Ty suggested, finishing Hope’s thought. Hope responded with a diffident nod of the head.
Ty turned his attention back to Arjun. “So three billion people just learned that the Diggers exist. How are they taking it?”
“Well, obviously it is a sensational bit of news,” Arjun said. “People are intensely curious.” He turned his head again to study Sonar Taxlaw. “As am I. I admit it.”
“Does the general public know how badly the first contact went wrong?” Ty asked.
“None of the identities of your Seven are public knowledge. Certainly no one has the faintest idea that Hu Noah had anything to do with it.”
“So Red hasn’t been trumpeting that.”
“It wouldn’t be to Red’s advantage, as I see it,” Arjun said. “Now that they are allied with the Diggers, they want to make the Diggers out to be sympathetic. Revealing that they killed Hu Noah and his nurse would hardly serve that end.”
“So we are just being made out to be some sort of anonymous thug squad. The Diggers chased us off with help from Red. We abducted a hostage as we were running away.”
Arjun looked him in the eye. “No intelligent person in Blue believes that, of course.”
“But Blue hasn’t put out a countervailing narrative yet either.”
“It isn’t Blue’s strong suit.” Arjun sighed. “Never has been, right? We’re technocrats. We make decisions like engineers. Which doesn’t always line up with what people imagine they want.”
“Are you speaking of Blue in general?” Ty asked. “Or Rio in particular?” Using the name of the Ivyn central habitat as synecdoche for its culture.
“Both. A Blue mentality that places us at the top of the decision-making pyramid. There’s a reason why the very few A?dans who have become prominent in Blue have been musicians, actors, artists.”
“They’re supplying something our culture lacks,” Ty said.
“You were supposed to supply it,” Arjun said. Meaning, as Ty understood, the Dinan race. “And you did, during the heroic age.”
Ty could feel a not altogether cheerful smile on his face. “By actually doing things, you mean,” he said, “as opposed to pretending to do them in made-up entertainment programs.”