War in Heaven (5 page)

"Lord Nikolos," Danlo interrupted.

Lord Nikolos took a quick breath and said, "What is it, then?"

"There is something that the Entity told me about the Silicon God. About all the gods."

"Please, do tell us as well."

"The Entity believes that we ourselves hold the secret of defeating the Silicon God. We human beings."

"But how can this be?" Morena Sung, the Lord Eschatologist broke in.

"Because this secret is part of the Elder Eddas," Danlo said. "And the Eddas are believed to be encoded only in human DNA."

In truth, no one knew what the Elder Eddas really were. Supposedly, some fifty thousand years ago on Old Earth, the mythical Ieldra had written all their godly wisdom into the human genome. Now, millennia later, trillions of men and women on countless worlds carried these sleeping memories in every cell of their bodies. And it was through the art of remembrancing alone (or so the remembrancers claimed) that the Elder Eddas could be awakened and called up before the mind's eye like living paintings and understood. Some experienced the Eddas as a clear and mystical light. Some believed that this wisdom was nothing less than instructions on becoming gods — and possibly much more. Danlo, who had once had a great remembrance and apprehension of the One Memory, sensed that the Eddas might contain all consciousness, perhaps even all possible memory itself. If true, then it would certainly be possible for a man — or perhaps even a child — to remember how the Ieldra long ago had defeated the Dark God and saved the Milky Way from annihilation. This was the grail that the Solid State Entity sought in Her war against the Silicon God, and it was possible that Danlo and the Sonderval and Lord Nikolos in his bright yellow robe — and everyone else sitting in the hall that day — carried this secret inside them.

"I haven't heard our remembrancers speak of any war secrets contained in the Elder Eddas," Lord Nikolos said. Here he turned to exchange looks with Mensah Ashtoreth, the silver-robed Lord Remembrancer who sat at a table nearby shaking his head. "As for the Neverness remembrancers, who knows what they have discovered in the years since the Order divided and our mission came here to Thiells?"

He did not add that the many thousands of converts to the new religion of Ringism sought remembrance of the Elder Eddas as well. Lord Nikolos could scarcely countenance an information so mysterious as the Elder Eddas, much less the possibility that some wild-eyed religionary on Neverness might uncover secrets unknown to his finest academicians.

"And yet," Danlo said, "the Entity hopes that some day some woman or man will remember this secret."

"But not," Lord Nikolos said, "some god?"

"Possibly some god," Danlo said. "Possibly my father. But most of the gods are nothing more than vast computers. Neurologics and opticals and diamond circuitry. They ... do not live as a man lives. They cannot remember as we remember."

"And do you believe that the Solid State Entity would have us remember for Her?"

"Yes."

"Then She would use us — our Order — as the Silicon God uses the Architects and the warrior-poets?"

"My father," Danlo said, smiling, "once wrote that the Entity referred to man as the
instrumentum vocale.
The tool with a voice."

"And you find this amusing?"

"Truly, I do," Danlo said, looking down at the flute he held in his hand. "Because these tools that we are also have free will. And our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence."

"What songs will we sing, I wonder, if we become involved in the gods' wars?" Lord Nikolos asked.

"I do not know," Danlo said. "But if we could remember this secret of the Eddas, then in a way it would be we human beings who used the Entity to destroy the Silicon God, yes?"

"Is this what you advise, Pilot? That the Order use its resources in helping the Entity fight Her war?"

Danlo suddenly fell into silence, and he gripped his flute so hard that the holes along the shaft cut into his skin. He said, "I ... do not believe in war at all. The Lord Akashic must know that I have taken a vow of ahimsa."

Never to harm any living thing
, Danlo thought.
Even at the cost of one's own life, never to dishonour another life, never to harm, never to kill.

"Well, I don't believe in war either," Lord Nikolos said from his chair. "War is the stupidest of human activities, with the possible exception of religion. And as for the kind of
religious war
of which you've spoken today ... "

Lord Nikolos let his voice die for a moment as he turned to catch the eyes of the Sonderval and Morena Sung and the other lords sitting near him. He shook his head sadly as if all agreed that religious war was by its very nature insane. Then he continued: "Nevertheless, it is upon us to consider this war that the Architects fought among themselves and would bring to other worlds. Perhaps we must also consider the wars of the gods."

Danlo looked at Lord Nikolos then, and quickly bowed his head.

"Pilot," Lord Nikolos asked, "have you finished your story?"

"Yes."

"Then I must ask you to wait outside while we consider these stupidities and crimes that you have brought to our attention."

Danlo bowed his head. He knew of the rule that only lords and masters may attend the most serious deliberations of the Order. He stepped out of the black diamond circle and moved to pick up his wooden chest where it sat on the floor.

"A moment," the Sonderval said suddenly. He slowly stood away from his chair and stretched himself up to his full eight feet of height. "I would like to applaud the Pilot's accomplishment in discovering so much and falling so far."

So saying he rapped his diamond pilot's ring against the table. Helena Charbo and Aja, sitting across the room at the master pilots' table, knocked diamond against wood, as did Lara Jesusa and Alark of Urradeth. But none of the other lords and masters in the hall that day wore rings, and so they had to content themselves with clapping their hands together and bowing their heads in honour of Danlo's great feat.

"And now," the Sonderval said, "I would like to ask Danlo wi Soli Ringess to remain here with us today."

At this unexpected presumption, Lord Nikolos turned abruptly and shot the Sonderval a puzzled and offended look.

"I would like to ask him to remain as a
master
pilot," the Sonderval explained. "Can anyone doubt that his accomplishments merit his elevation to a mastership? I think not. And therefore, as Lord Pilot, I welcome him to the rank of master. We will hold the ceremony later in the Pilots' Hall."

For a long time Lord Nikolos and the Sonderval stared at each other like two cats preparing to spring at each other's throat. True, as Lord Pilot, the Sonderval had the power to make new masters as he chose. But he was supposed to put the names of all candidates before a board of master pilots who would make their recommendations according to each candidate's prowess and worthiness. And then by tradition, if not rule, the Lord of the Order himself would approve the elevation and make the first welcoming of the new master. Precipitous times often require precipitous decisions, but the Sonderval usurped Lord Nikolos' prerogatives less from need than pure arrogance. Since the Sonderval thought that he himself should have been made the Lord of the Order on Thiells, he exulted in acting in Lord Nikolos' place whenever he could.

"Very well," Lord Nikolos finally said, forcing the words from his tight thin lips. He turned to Danlo, who still stood at the centre of the hall watching this little drama between the most powerful lords of his Order. "Very well, Master Pilot, would you please remain here while we make our decision as to what must be done?"

Danlo bowed formally, then smiled and said, "Yes." Then he carried his wooden chest over to the table where the master pilots sat and took his place on a chair between Lara Jesusa and Alark of Urradeth. Alark, a quick, hot-tempered man who had once crossed the Detheshaloon solely as the result of a dare, embraced Danlo and whispered his welcome as he rapped his ring against the table.

"And now," Lord Nikolos said, standing to address the lords, "we must reconsider our mission in light of all that Danlo wi Soli Ringess has told us."

So began the great war debate in the Hall of the Lords. At first, it was more a personal argument between the Sonderval and Lord Nikolos. Although no one favoured full war, the Sonderval wanted to lead a group of lightships to the Civilized Worlds, there to intercept and destroy Bertram's Jaspari's fleet along the stellar Fallaways before they could reach Neverness. Lord Nikolos, however, a frugal man always concerned to husband his resources, pointed out that the New Order's lightships were few in number, and every ship would be needed now that Tannahill had been found. For the Order's mission, Lord Nikolos suggested, was still to the Architects of the Old Church. An embassy would have to be sent to Tannahill. The Order would have to provide the Architects with ships and pilots so that the Church's missionaries could spread their new programs to every corner of the Vild. Architects everywhere must know that they were no longer permitted (or encouraged) to blow up the stars.

"We must not become involved in these wars between religions and their sects," he told the assembled lords. And here he turned to smile at Danlo. "And as for the wars between the gods, unless one of us suddenly remembrances these war secrets of the Elder Eddas, then we
cannot
become involved, for there is nothing we can do to touch the gods or influence them in any way."

Most of the lords accepted the logic of Lord Nikolos, but the Sonderval turned to him and asked, "But what of the Iviomil fleet that the warrior-poet and the renegade lead towards Neverness? Are we simply to abandon the world from which we came?"

"Have you heard me speak of abandonment?" Lord Nikolos asked.

"I haven't heard you speak of protecting our brothers and sisters on Neverness!" the Sonderval said with great passion. Once, years before, he had lost his beloved when a comet struck her planet, and since that time he had never been with another woman. "I would hope this isn't because you're afraid of risking a few tens of lightships."

"There are always risks no matter what course of action we choose," Lord Nikolos said. "But risks must be calculated. Costs must be assessed."

"Calculations and costs!" the Sonderval mocked. "Thus do the merchant-pilots of Tria speak."

"Thus does any sane man speak who must accomplish difficult things with limited means."

"As Lord Pilot of our Order," the Sonderval said with great pride, "it's my charge to encourage my pilots to attempt impossible things beyond what we conceive as our limitations."

Here he bowed to Danlo, honouring him as an exemplar of the pilots' greatest traditions. Many of the lords suddenly looked his way, and Danlo freely met their eyes even though he hated such public attention.

"As Lord Pilot of the Order nothing more could be asked of you," Lord Nikolos said to the Sonderval. "But as
Lord
of the Order, I must constrain the heroics of my pilots, even such a great pilot as yourself."

This mixture of compliment and veiled criticism momentarily flustered the Sonderval, who sat glaring at Lord Nikolos. Lord Nikolos seized this opportunity to deliver his crowning jewel of logic in avoidance of conflict. "I propose that we send three pilots to Neverness. Three of our finest pilots in our swiftest ships. They will warn the lords of Neverness of Bertram Jaspari's Iviomils and this star-killer that their fleet brings with them. The Old Order has more pilots than we — let the pilots of Neverness fight this war with the Iviomils, if indeed any war is to be fought."

Lara Jesusa traded a quick look with Alark of Urradeth, and the brilliant Aja turned her dark eyes to meet Danlo's. Already, it seemed, the master pilots had accepted Lord Nikolos' plan and were vying to see who might be selected to journey home to Neverness. The lords, too, could find nothing to argue with. They sat silently in their seats, looking back and forth between Lord Nikolos and the Sonderval. For a moment, it seemed that the lords would make the obvious decision and that war had thus been averted.

But the universe is a strange place, always alive with irony and cosmic dramas. Sometimes the play of chance and impossible coincidence may persuade us that we are part of a larger game whose purpose is as infinite as it is mysterious. Sometimes, in a moment, a woman may act or a man may speak, and history will be changed for ever. As Lord Nikolos called for a formal vote as to his plan, such a moment came to the Hall of the Lords. The great golden door through which Danlo had passed scarcely an hour earlier swung suddenly open, and three men made their way into the hall. Two of these were novice horologes, young men in tight red robes who had volunteered to guard the hall and act as guides for any ambassador or luminary who had business there. The third was an uncommonly large man dressed all in black. He had a thick black beard and blackish eyes and purple-black skin, and his mood at the moment was pure black because the horologes were harrying him, clutching at his arms and trying to prevent him from entering the hall. "Let go of me, goddammit!" he shouted as he swung his great arms and flung off the two small novices as if they were insects. "Let go — haven't I explained that I've important news for your lords and masters that won't wait? What's wrong with you? I'm no assassin, by God! I'm a pilot!"

Although a score of lords had risen in alarm, Danlo smiled and his eyes filled with light because he knew this man. He was Pesheval Sarojin Vishnu-Shiva Lai, commonly known as Bardo, a former pilot of the Order and one of Danlo's oldest friends.

"Please restrain yourselves!" Lord Nikolos commanded in his steely voice. "Please sit down."

"Yes, sit down before your knees buckle and you fall down," Bardo said as he strode to the black diamond circle at the centre of the hall. "I've much to tell, and you'll need all your courage to hear it."

"You," Lord Nikolos said pointing at Bardo, "are no longer a pilot of the Order."

Twelve years before, in the Hall of the Lords on Neverness, Lord Nikolos and many other of the lords (and Danlo) had watched as Bardo had flung his pilot's ring against a granite pillar, shattering it and abjuring his vows as a pilot. And then, after drinking the sacred remembrancers' drug and preaching the return of his best friend, Mallory Ringess, he had gone on to found the religion known as the Way of Ringess.