The Lost Goats, 58

And while this was going on...

"They've got to run out of ammo soon," Galen shouted over the gunfire.

"Which side?" Probity yelled back.

"Either side!" Galen bellowed.

"This is ridiculous," An muttered. She got to her feet, ignoring Probity's frantic gestures, and walked forward. "Listen to me, all of you--"

The first shot took her through one wing, the second low in the torso. Her halo flickered, blazed brightly, and went out, and she turned in the air like a dancer and fell, oh so slowly. Probity screamed and leapt up, heedless of the bullets, but even as she flew to An's side everyone still standing in the control room was lowering his or her weapon, shocked into inaction by what they had seen.

At the door, Voltimand Nyrond lowered his head into his hand, trying to hold back tears. Beside him, Arioch and Adhemar looked fearful. Even in their minds, removed from their human origin by aeons of immortal life, the ancient eidolon held power.

Probity leant over An, tears filling her eyes too. On the floor, An smiled up at her.

"It was the only way," she whispered. "Someone had to get shot, or they'd have been at it all day."

"I need to get you to a hospital," Probity said between choking sobs.

"No need," An said. "I'm...due a vacation anyway. I'll...see you...soon." She reached up and put her finger to Probity's lips. "Look after him. Make sure he knows this was my choice, not his." The eyes flickered, drifted shut. "Love you...Probity."

Golden sparkles softly surrounded her body, and when Probity's dazzled vision cleared, An was nowhere to be seen.

Swiftlly her rational mind took control. What had just happened was inexplicable, and therefore of low immediate priority. She moved to Galen's side. "This wasn't your fault," she said, speaking quickly. "You said yourself, you didn't even know why she was here. You didn't bring her, neither did I. There's no reason to--"

Galen turned and looked at her. "Viscera, what are you doing?"

Probity frowned. "Trying to keep you alive. Your deathblock--"

Galen smiled. "But she's not--" Then he checked. "Uh, yeah, you're right. Uh, thank you, Viscera. Yes, not my fault. I must remember that."

At the door, Voltimand suddenly lifted his head as if listening to something, as if someone was whispering in his ear. Slowly he smiled, glanced at Adhemar and Arioch, and nodded. His hand went to his shoulder, as if covering another's hand there; then he advanced into the now deathly quiet room and began taking guns from the numbed hands of Vigilante and henchperson alike. Adhemar and Arioch shook themselves, and followed him. Gradually a pile of weapons began to build up in the centre of the room, and the shocked combatants, biddable as cattle, allowed themselves to be shepherded out of the double doors.

"What's happening now?" Probity demanded.

"We're done here." Galen said. "Vigil on the surface will arrest the pirates and other criminals. There won't be any more trouble." He looked around. "You know, I bet I could get Wuk Affiliated if I..." His voice died away into mumbling.

Probity looked fondly at him. He really was coping very well. She moved toward the passageway down which Snood had bolted, and whither Zander had followed him. Someone had better make sure everything was secure at that end.

********

On the surface, the Vigil Commander was assisting Jenny into his troop ship, while reading her her rights as understood by the Corps.

"...and you have the right to make your peace with whatever deity or deities you worship, if you do not worship a deity one will be assigned to you to peacemaking purposes only..."

Jenny smiled at him as he secured her seat belt.

********

Snood awoke. There, in front of him, in the stairwell, unavoidable, was the hanging body of Osmotherley Habbinge.

"You did this." Zander spoke in a low voice on one side of him. "If you were a Nyrond--if you were worthy--you'd be dying right now."

"You're a sheep in goat's clothing," Soren said, on his other side, "and this is goat territory. You don't belong. You can't do it right."

"People talk a lot of nonsense about sheep and goats," Zander said. "They think one or other is better, or happier, or more free, or more intelligent."

"But none of that matters to a sheep or to a goat. They are what they are. All that stuff is part of the way humans think about them."

"Like you. You think sheep are stupid, that it's better to be a goat." Zander looked him in the wide, terrified eyes. "Do you still think so?"

"The Vigil are preoccupied with the real pirates," Soren said.

"You, as you pointed out a while back, have committed no actual major crimes," Zander said.

"On the other hand, you have caused suffering, sorrow and death by your actions, which might trouble even the conscience of a goat."

"Here's your choice." Zander laid something on the floor in front of Snood. "You can take this, buy passage to an Affiliated world, get yourself some decent medical help, find a job if you choose, write a book, live your life. Sheep aren't slaughtered any more, and you won't be troubled with goats, wolves or any other metaphorical predator."

"Or," Soren said, "you can take this, run, go into hiding, blow it all on some other stupid scheme for revenge on a 'verse that never really even knew you existed, keep on trying to be a goat, and probably get yourself killed. You don't have the moral compass to live well like that, but we can't stop you trying."

"And frankly," Zander added, "we don't care."

He and Soren both stood up. "One thing, though," Soren said. "Before you leave, get Habbinge down and bury him decent. He loved you, for what that's worth, even if you never knew or cared. And a little spadework might do you some good."

Their footsteps resounded on the bare boards. The front door slammed.

The Lost Goats, 59

"I just wanted a new hat," Soren said into his drink. Nobody paid any attention.

"What's going to happen to the pirate lady?" Voltimand inquired.

"Same thing that happens to everyone Vigil 'arrests'," Zander said. "They'll hold her for questioning for a while, in case she names some accomplices, and then some smooth item with a briefcase will come sweeping in on cue, tell her not to say anything, insult the officers in charge and sweep her out. I can't rule out the possibility that the phrase 'we're done here' might be uttered."

"Vigil's privately funded, which means it's for-profit, which means they thrive on throughput," Soren explained. "Keeping prisoners isn't cost-effective. Executing them formally would raise a whole lot of questions they'd rather not answer."

"Like by what right, and so on," Zander said.

"It's immoral," Galen said, "but the showy arrests and the gun battles do have a certain deterrent effect to the uninformed."

"But don't imagine that they're not a threat, young Voltimand," said Soren. "They may be a joke, but like a lot of jokes, they're based on cruelty."

"I'll be careful," Voltimand said, "Soren."

"Oh, did you hear?" Zander said suddenly. "Palinurus's lot think there might be some mineral resources here."

"On Wuk?"

"I know, but times and technology have changed. They need different things now. One of the lasses was talking about deep omber, glim, possibly even traces of lucanol. Enough to make it worth a proper terraforming job."

"And then they'll turn it into another Oisenfeld," Galen said gloomily.

Zander shook his head. "Mining techniques have changed as well. They can lift the stuff out so gently you could pasture sheep on top of it."

"Or goats," Probity said, and Soren and Zander laughed. She frowned. "What? It was a serious suggestion!"

"Well, I can provide the terraforming know-how," Galen said. "All Fettorini's resources are still preserved on Otslag." He brightened. "That would play into my plans too."

"Plans?" Soren queried.

"You don't want to know," Zander said.

"I wish An were here," Probity said. "I don't know how we're going to tell Dik that she's--"

"Let's not worry about that now, Viscera," Galen said. (In fact, Dik had called him earlier that day, to say that An had mentioned she would be taking a leave of absence from the team, and that she had asked him not to bother Galen with it till the current crisis was resolved. She had not been able to give a precise date for her return to work, but had promised it would be as soon as possible. Galen was not looking forward to explaining that to Probity.)

"Well," Zander said, getting up, "I don't know about you lot, but Soren and I have a delivery to make to the homeship. And someone's going to have to go and fetch Cesar. His ship's here."

"Couldn't you maybe swing by and--" Galen began.

"NO!" Zander and Soren said in unison.

The Lost Goats, concluded

"Ah, you're back," Abelard said, swinging round decisively in his swivel chair. "At last. Do you know what I've had to put up with while you've been off gallivanting? Ceribraun nearly staged a full-scale rebellion over the foodsynth outside his quarters. I had to fight to stop him leaving again. Adhemar and those other two actually did, and from what I hear that was your fault as well."

"Now listen," Soren began. Zander shushed him.

"We had a few hiccups," he said, "and you know perfectly well you get bored without at least three crises on the go at once. The other three are on their way back, as is Cesar."

"And what about Palinurus and Galen?" Abelard demanded. "I hope you brought them back too."

"Ah, no. They weren't keen, and they're not doing any harm where they are. Possibly even some good. But we got their coup files, well most of them anyway." Zander hefted the stout hand-woven fabric bag in his hand and passed it over.

"Ah, good, good." Abelard seized the bag, took out a handful of files, leafed through them. "I understand some of them were destroyed, unavoidably I assume. Can't be...helped...I suppose..." His voice died away as he began to read. Zander and Soren waited.

"These are the coup files you collected from our runaways, are they?" Abelard said.

"Well, yes," Zander said.

"They'd better be," Soren added. "I checked...well, most of them off against your list. Only, I, er, lost the list."

"Have a look at this one," Abelard said with deceptive sweetness. "Do those look like Caedmon's markings to you?"

Zander snatched the folder and flipped through. "No," he said, in a sort of groan. "No, this isn't from our library at all."

Soren peered over his shoulder. Then he delved into the bag and pulled out another bundle. "There's two more here."

"You realise what this means," Abelard said meaningfully.

"Well, three fairly obvious conclusions occur," Zander said. "One, there's another homeship in the region which is also experiencing runaway problems. Two, their runaways are swapping files with our runaways..."

"And three?" Abelard said eagerly.

"Three," Zander said, putting the files into Abelard's hands and motioning Soren towards the door, "find someone else."



FIN

OTHER FISH PARTS

TWO MORE FINS

Again, thank you for staying the course, and I hope it's been fun. My plan, subject to representations from my colleague, is to meet up at some point for tweaking and polishing (hammering, sawing, ripping out, knocking through and taking away the number we first thought of) with a view to actual publication in some form. And who knows, maybe we can do this again some time...