laughed and stopped. "She hasn't spanked you, has she?"
"No! She's too nice! And I'm not gonna make her want to!"
"She is nice," Jamie said thoughtfully. "Maybe too nice."
Demba cast a long gaze back at Jamie, perhaps because she saw her talking to Gregor. Jamie smiled inwardly. She might still behave badly as her mother's little girl but she felt justified for what she told Gregor. It then occurred to her that Demba could have heard every word of her conversation with Gregor. She had Marine-grade augments. She smiled outwardly at Demba, getting a raised eyebrow from her mother.
The parade of officials and guests passed through a grand opening and spread out along a balcony that only became a balcony when Jamie's mind was able to comprehend what her eyes saw. Here was a windowless verge onto a planetary vista curled into a tube of bright clouds and mountain peaks. She would only have known it was a tube - a giant cylinder - because it was a fact of history, as her eyes could barely translate that historical fact into an explanation of what she saw.
Less than three per cent of the human races who lived in the Union resided on a planet; however, every space habitat either disguised its living area as a planetary landscape, or at least included as much of a planet's features as it could. The Five Worlds was an extreme example of planet-duplication. Upon entering it you were forced to understand how vast its living space was and how precise and monumental its engineering was. You were also forced to imagine what a miracle it was that it even existed in its magnificent completed state, having been built in an almost constant state of disagreement and outright warfare among its constituent Earth cultures.
Jamie's perspective was god-like. She looked down and up and to the left and to the right and saw mountains capped with snow, hills green with forests, valleys cut by shining rivers. This three-hundred-sixty-degree universe projected away from her around a cylinder of partial cloud cover, until the haze of distance and of weather obscured the far end, two hundred kilometers away. Despite a previous experience of viewing an immersive image of the Five Worlds, reality remained the supreme experience. She and Sammy were captivated for a long time, until Demba broke their trance, urging them to move on.
A tubular net floated into position and attached the hoop of its mouth to a gate in the balcony railing. A small aircraft with transparent butterfly-like wings floated at the other end of the tube. They stepped through the hoop, from artificial gravity to weightlessness, and floated through the tube to the aircraft. Sammy seemed quite at ease in the micro-gravity and didn't need Jamie's help pulling himself along the open weave of the net. She wondered where he had become so accustomed to freefall. Seated in the aircraft, Jamie could see people launching themselves into the air from the balcony, their clothing sprouting translucent wings and other airflow control surfaces. The aircraft disconnected from the balcony tube and began its flight. The flying people outside waved their winged arms in bird-like fashion, propelling themselves forward and downward. They accompanied the airplane toward the rugged terrain below the clouds. Jamie could identify Gregor as one of the human fliers.
The airplane silently glided many kilometers away from the balcony, down through clouds, emerging above a green valley dotted with villages. They landed at one of the villages, floating silently into a grassy field between rows of quaint rock-faced houses with steep roofs. The flying people from the port arrived after them, doing expertly-timed stalls to hop onto the ground, their insect-like flying surfaces vanishing into their costumes.
Jamie walked behind her mother, Sammy, and Mnro down a brick and stone path that seemed much older than the Five Worlds. Their escorts followed in pairs behind them and hung back as they approached an old woman who sat on a granite bench under an apple tree. The seated person began a struggle to gain her feet and Mnro and Demba rushed to help her upward.
"Nori?" Mnro queried, supporting the ancient oriental woman by her arm and hand.
"I couldn't believe it was you!" the old woman said, grasping Mnro's hand that held hers. "Have you come to argue with me about my age? I almost turned you away."
"Nori," Demba spoke with deep affection, holding the other arm of the elder.
"So you are this Fidelity person! Zakiya! And where is Jamie? She was the only reason I let you come!"
The old woman gazed at Mnro and Demba with joy but turned away to spot Jamie's face. She frowned slightly to try to recognize her, then found Sammy standing next to Jamie. Sammy was staring at her in innocent wonder. Sammy wore shorts and his injury was obvious. The prosthesis didn't blend with the rest of his leg. The Old One glanced up at Mnro with a frown before taking Sammy's hand and smiling at him.
"I'm Sammy." He returned the smile, shaking her hand a little too hard. "You're old!"
"And you are so young!" she responded in Twenglish. "Why are you here? I didn't know children traveled on Navy ships."
"Zakiya is my mother now and I have to stay with her. She didn't want me to come here because of my leg, but I can walk! I'm sorry I said you were old. It doesn't mean I don't like you. I do. Rafael is old and I like him a lot."
"He likes to talk." Demba said, smiling.
"Oh, yes!" Aylis Mnro agreed.
The old woman chuckled, released Sammy's hand, and turned to Jamie. She looked up at her and Jamie almost felt obliged to lower herself to ease the strain of the stooped elder having to peer up at her. The old woman raised her hand and Jamie did bend over, not realizing she was going to snatch her cap from her head.
"Turn," she said, pointing to one side. "Now stand up straight."
She handed Jamie's cap back. She caught one of Jamie's hands in hers. Her hands were dry, bony, the skin like speckled paper, but warm and strong.
"She is his daughter," the old woman said to Demba, "and she must be yours. I must have shrunk! I don't remember her being so tall! She is Jamie, isn't she?"
"Yes, Nori," Demba replied. She looked to her daughter. "Jamie, Nori's father is Koji Hoshino."
Jamie had no idea who Koji Hoshino was, until she mentally reviewed the portrait of the Frontier's crew. It seemed that she still had an eye for good-looking men. She seized the chance to ask an important question about fathers.
"Who is my father, Nori? They won't tell me!"
"Why not? You must know your father. Alexandros is your father! He would be proud of you! You are such a fearsome warrior now, but you still have the simple loveliness for which Direk expressed his pleasure to me. Ah, Direk! Aylis's misunderstood son. Some of the old times are still inside my brain. Do you remember when you and he stopped here to visit with Phuti and me?"
Jamie wanted to know why Nori considered Direk misunderstood but an incredibly sharp and pungent memory caught her and stopped her from talking or even breathing. On their visit to the Five Worlds, Phuti (Jamie had addressed Doctor Mende as Phuti!) mistakenly assumed she and Direk were lovers and found them romantic accommodations that caused them to investigate the possibility of physical intimacy. The results were embarrassing and comical at best. Even so, the memory shocked her, pushing tears out of her. She vaguely heard Demba speak a warning to the old woman not to mention Direk.
"Nori, we don't have much time," Mnro said. "We came to see Phuti."
The Old One paused to think. She was extremely aged but Jamie felt she was still mentally alert and capable.
"I did not think it was only me you wanted to see," the Old One said. "Word has already reached me that you want to take Phuti away with you."
"Do you signify resistance?" Mnro asked.
"If you cannot be made to abandon your desire for Phuti, then we must walk. We must walk to him and see what happens. If it can be done, then it can be done. Resistance, yes, there will be that!"
"Will you go with us, Nori?"
"I'll go as far as I can."
They began walking in the sunlight of this small mountain valley and into the next nearby village with its stone-paved streets and small shops and restaurants. As they passed through, in the middle of the c
entral street, all activity ceased. Merchants and tradesmen closed their businesses and joined their customers in the procession behind Nori's group. A small school opened its doors and a dozen children rushed into the street to follow.
"Children!" Jamie said with awe. "So many of them!"
"We're not continuous," Nori commented. "The Mnro Clinic is no more than a medical assistance here. Even so, they've let me live too long! I am their poor substitute for Phuti. When I die, another child can be conceived."
In a few minutes they reached the pastures at the edge of the village where goats and sheep nibbled in short grass. They turned up a well-worn road whose stony ruts sparkled with bits of quartz. Ahead were terraces of grain and field vegetables on the slopes. Behind them, many of the inhabitants of the village followed, walking quietly. Farmers came to the road and joined the procession as it passed.
They rounded a promontory and entered a higher, narrower valley. The road steepened and Nori moved more slowly, straining her aged body. Sammy seemed to begin to feel the drag of the prosthesis on his amputated leg. Jamie helped the old woman, holding her hand. Demba took one of Sammy's hands.
They stopped to rest at an overlook where sheer rock walls captured echoes from far below. The quiet parade of people stopped along the road behind them. They waited for Nori to recover.
It became very quiet, so quiet it