Текст книги "Regenesis"

Автор книги: C. J. Cherryh

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 45 (всего у книги 45 страниц)

Thatwas a lengthy process. Notice of filing had to reach all stations, a matter of months; and then anyone at those stations also filing had to communicate that news to reach all stations, for everybody’s consideration. Three months for campaigning, and the months of voting…not only for Defense, but also for Citizens. Corain was assuredly going to file to keep his seat, and the man who’d filed against him would have a hard time out‑campaigning the long‑serving Councillor who’d opposed Khalid in Novgorod, stowed away in a cargo container, and left a hospital bed to be here for today’s public session in front of the cameras. The opposition wasn’t going to top that one.

And there’d be elections in Information. Ari wanted to appoint another Proxy, and said she had in mind one of the senior reporters who’d been covering Reseune all her life; that man would then file for the seat–file for it, and win, if they were lucky. Reseune had had a lifelong ally in Catherine Lao, and without Lao–they needed an ally, to keep the balance on Council what it was.

Himself, he just hoped Yanni would get through recovery all right.

He caught Grant’s eye, while business proceeded. Didn’t quite look at Jordan, didn’t want to give him any encouragement, or start anything.

But Jordan had showed up. To see his son sit where he had wanted to be. Justin was convinced of it.

BOOK THREE Section 6 Chapter xii

NOVEMBER 24, 2424

0745H

The tanks changed, contracted, tilted– pushedtheir contents out onto soft foam.

Abban AB and Seely AS came gently into the world within seconds of each other–were severed from the umbilicals, caught up in azi arms, encouraged to draw their first breaths, again, within seconds of each other.

They were wrapped in soft blankets, hugged in living arms, carried, separately to cradles, which, sealed, would speak to them reassuringly and insulate them from all shocks, all stress, on their way to the creches. They were not scheduled to meet for years. And then the records would see they did.

Giraud slid down into the tray–slid onto foam, startling sensation, and once the nurses had gotten him free of the umbilical, and gotten him breathing, Nelly wiped him vigorously and hugged him.

She was older, Nelly was, years older than when she’d been Ari’s nanny… Ari watched her with a little worry, a little jealousy still. Nelly was sweet, was what she was, just kind, and sweet, and loved babies until they got to be older, and contrary minded, and did things Nelly couldn’t understand. That was why Uncle Denys had had to send Nelly away from her–because she’d have driven Nelly into therapy.

She worried just a little that Giraud was going to be a handful for Nelly–but Nelly was experienced, no question, and she’d made the assignment herself; Yanni needed the help.

Nelly carried Giraud over to Yanni–put the blanket‑wrapped bundle into Yanni’s arms, and Yanni, thin from his recent ordeal, and ordered not to lift heavy things, took up a hell of a burden, took it up as gingerly as if it were a ticking bomb, and then moved the blanket to look in its face, and touched it, and was, Ari thought, pretty well committed. Yanni had found arguments against it. But there was nobody better, nobody in all the world, who’d know how to keep ahead of Giraud Nye. For the next few months, Nelly would do most of the work.

And that was that. Giraud was in the world. He had his CIT number from birth–the law had changed; she was why it had. He’d be Giraud Nye from this day on, and systems would recognize him–if they weren’t locked against him; and they were, thank God and Base One.

She cast a look at Florian and Catlin as they fell in with her, on her way out of the labs. “I think we’ll walk across,” she said. She’d had enough of the tunnels. “It’s a sunny day.”

“You didn’t bring enough coat, sera,” Florian said.

“I won’t freeze,” she said.

There might be a nip in the morning air, weather advisories said so. But the pale sun had warmth, still, in autumn.

They went out in the daylight, under Cyteen’s morning sky. There was color still in the east, a warm blush of dawn on the cliffs that rimmed Reseune, and a gentle breeze was moving. Florian was right, the coat wasn’t quite enough, and the chill got through, but that was proof the world was random and she was alive in it.

That was all she asked of the day.