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ETERNITY · 173
Potato Thistledown," Mirsky said. "He was with me when we surrendered, and he
advised me during the bad times after . I last saw him before I volunteered to
go with the
Geshel precincts. You've lived through hard times, Viktor."
Garabedian continued to stare, his mouth slack. Then he turned to
Lanier. "Sir," he said in halting English, "You have not stayed youthful.
Some have. But Comrade General Mirsky . ."
"No longer a general," Mirsky said quietly.
"He has not changed at all, except . "Garabedian squinted at
Mirsky again, and said in Russian, "When you were shot, sir, you changed. You
became more resolved."
"I've been on a very long journey since."
"The people who brought me here . . . we seldom see them in Armenia.
They come to break up our little wars, to stop our plaques, to repair our
equipment. We were like children. We hated them so much. We wished to be let
alone."
"I understand," Mirsky said.
"This time, they did not ask me... Pavel." Using Mirsky's first name seemed to
strain the old man. "They came and said I was needed.
They said I was a witness. They were like police in the old times." His voice
rose. "How can they treat us so like children? We have sufferedl So many
died."
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"How have you suffered, Viktor? Tell me."
Lanier saw Mirsky's face become bland and accepting again, and a chill made
him clench his jaw muscles. Mirsky put his arms on Garabedi-an's shoulders.
"Tell me."
"Nothing is like it was," Garabedian said. "Nothing will ever be.
There is good and bad in that. It seems all my life I have been confused,
having seen this, and then gone back to the villages where my forefathers
lived. Having fought against the Hexamon, having lost . ."
,,yes?,, Garabedian held up his hands. "We went into poisoned lands. The soil
had become a serpent.' It bit us. We were taken out by Hexamon angels.
They apologized for not giving us new bodies. I could not go home.
There was nothing there. I moved into Armenia . . they call it North
Anatolia now. No nations, they say. No factions. Only citizens. I farmed and
raised a family. They were killed in an earthquake."
Lanier felt the familiar sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. CouMn't
save them all.
"I raised horses. I joined an Armenian cooperative for protection against the
Turks. Then the Turks made peace, and together we fought
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against immigrant Iranian farmers raising opium. The Hexamon came in there,
too, and pulled us out..
. Then they gave people something that made the opium useless."
Mirsky looked at Lanier.
"Some sort of immune response, blockers . . ." Lanier said. He knew very
little about this aspect of the Recovery. Mirsky nodded.
"Go on."
"It has been a long life, Pavel. I have suffered and seen many die, but until
now I have forgotten much of the pain. I see you, so young. It is indeed you?"
"No," Mirsky said. "Not the same one you know. I've lived a much longer time
than you, Viktor. I've seen much myself, triumph and failure.''
Garabedian smiled weakly, shaking his head. "I remember Sosnitsky.
He was a good man. I think often that we could have used him in Armenia
. . . Me! An Armenian, thinking that about a White Russian! Everything has
been turned upside down, Pavel, and it is still upside down. I
hated the Turks, now I am married to a Turkish woman. She is small and brown
and has long gray hair. She is not a city girl, not like my first wife, but
she's given me a beautiful daughter. I'm a farmer now, growing special plants
for the Hexamon."
Lanier thought of the Frant farmers on Timbl, the Frant homeworld, walking
through their fields, growing biologically altered crops for export to the
Way.
"Is it what you wanted?" Mirsky asked.
Garabedian shrugged, then smiled ironically. "It's a living," he said.
He grasped Mirsky's left hand in his and prodded him with a scarred finger.
"You! You must tell me."
Mirsky looked at Lanier with a sheepish expression. "This time I'll tell it in
words," he said. "Garry, you must go back to the others now.
Viktor, tell Ser Lanier. Am I Pavel Mirsky?"
"You say you are not exactly him," Garabedian said. "But I think you are. Yes,
Ser Lanier. This is Pavel."
"Tell the president."
"I will," Garry said.
Mirsky smiled broadly. "Now sit, Viktor, because I doubt that you will believe
what has happened to this Ukrainian city boy . . ."
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ET E R N I TY · 175
THIRTY-THREE
Thistledown City
Little of the Nexus debate took place in real time. Korzenowski and
Mirsky answered questions and discussed the problem in detail within an
isolated Nexus branch of Thistledown city memory; Lanier "listened in~'
to the debate. Hours of argument and information exchange whisked by in
seconds.
The debate was not nearly as exhausting as it would have been in open session.
Oeshels, neo-Oeshels and all but the most orthodox Naderites participated; off
and on, it lasted three days. It seemed to last several months. Not an aspect
of the reopening was neglected, not a nuance left unexplored.
There were proposals of such scale that Lanier's mind reeled; some
firebrands--if you could call any Nexus member a firebrand wanted the
Way opened, scoured of Jarts, and then human hegemony pushed even farther,
opening new wells every few dozen kilometers, establishing broad lengths of
territory before Jarts or other forces could push them out again. Others
scoffed at the grandiose schemes; still others, presenting depositions from
colleagues of Korzenowski who had been in precinct city memory for decades and
even centuries, theorized that the Way could be destroyed from the outside,
without reopening.
This suggested two possibilities: that those who wished to unravel the
Way could do so without the risk of confronting the Jarts; and if the Way were
re-opened and the Jarts defeated, they might exact revenge by destroying it
from outside. Mirsky, unveiling yet more of his character and capabilities,
demonstrated through complex mathematics equations that made even Korzenowski
furrow his brow--that this was unlikely.
The Russian seemed in his element during the debate. The level of discussion
was usually far beyond Lanier's comprehension, even when his mind was
augmented by loaned talents--a service he had never used before.
But Lanier could sense one thing perhaps not so obvious to the corp-
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reps and senators. Reverence for the Way was deeply branded into even those
who were terrified of re-opening. The Way had been their world;
most of them had grown up in it, and until the Sundering, most of them had
known no other existence. The debate, however fiery, was one-sided;
the question rapidly became not whether to re-open, but what to do after the
Way was linked again to Thistledown.
They gathered now in physical session to hear what the Nexus would recommend
to the Hexamon. In addition, a vote would be taken on whether to pass the
matter on with Nexus recommendations to the Hex-amon as a whole, or to
restrict voting to the Thistledown, mens publica, or to launch an educational
campaign on Earth and postpone the voting until that effort was complete,
which could take years. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]