Human Company

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Human Company
A Novel by Robert Petty
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HUMAN COMPANY
A Novel by Robert Petty
CHAPTER 1
-- MECHANICALS
The trouble with women is that all you get is sympathy. They will probably still be patting me on the head when the Elevator destroys the world.
As I searched for Redblood, I took a deep breath to ease the tightness gripping my chest. This would be her last chance. She either helped me or else.
Was she gone? A dark shape moved on the left -- only a horse in the stables. Across the square, the open gate framed a deserted drawbridge. Why did it have to get dark so soon? At last I saw someone to the right, standing on the castle wall. Shadows from the tower hid her features, but she stood straighter than the farm girls. It was Redblood.
She frowned, I thought, when she saw me on the ladder, and when she extended her hand to help me onto the walkway, she tilted her head to make my name a question. "Gypsy?"
"It's cold."
It wasn't, not really, but she let me snuggle against her while she stared up at the mechanicals' garage. Several times I started to speak, but what could I say when her thoughts were so clearly on tomorrow.
So I watched the shadows chase the last rays of sunshine off the peaks and tried to marshal my arguments. I was too young, she would claim, but fifteen years -- no, thirty winters, that sounded older -- was almost grown. They would make me marry next year.
Finally, after the white rock of the cliff below the garage faded into darkness, she broke the silence. "I'm worried about Apogee."
"You should worry about the Elevator."
"Have patience little one." Her hand stroked my hair. "Your time will come."
I pulled away. "Just look at it. You can see that it curves."
She turned. The motion took her eyes to the east, but she didn't bother to look up. "It's always been that way."
"Not in ancient times. It was straight then."
My eyes sought the vertical line. The darkness of the land hid its base, but higher up the setting sun caught the silver thread as it rose into the sky.
Once, two elevators carried women to their orbiting starships. But the old Femdom was gone: destroyed when the Western Elevator fell. The Eastern Elevator was the last of their ancient wonders, and now it too was in trouble. Up where the stars poked pinholes in the darkening sky, I could see it curve gently to the south. It was falling.
They would blame me. They said not, but they blamed my ancestors when the Western Elevator fell, and in the end, they would blame me too.
"It's up to me to save it," I said. "I need your help."
Redblood spread her hands. "You know that I'm committed to Apogee."
"I told you. It's not about him."
"I'm sorry."
"But he always gets everything." I bit my lip. Law. I might as well have stamped my feet.
"Good night Gypsy," she said, making the words a sigh that signaled the end of her patience. She had no time for kids. Not now.
I watched her walk away. She paused for the briefest moment, but her glance was to the garage, not to me. Then she faded into the shadows.
I would have thrown myself off the wall except my hand, acting on its own, crept into my pocket. So I let my fingers caress the cool, slick sides of the cards, as they always did, until they felt the cards warm to life. Then they traced quickly over the smooth edges to find the one card separated from the others.
I drew it out. The Mech Card, omen of adventure. Sometimes the cards were like that: so right, yet you still had to think about what to do.
The Mech Card. It had to be about tomorrow. I would have one last chance.
#
Smoky aromas from the breakfast fires still lingered in the air when the trumpeters blew their horns and the procession came out through the castle gates. Everyone, even the people from the fair, crowded into the narrow street to watch them pass. They got in the way and you couldn't see anything except the pennants dragging a bubble of applause and commotion through the village.
I couldn't get to the front, but as the procession passed, I found a box to stand on. Even so, I still had to raise up on my toes to see over the women's heads. I could just make out Redblood leading the way with Apogee on her arm. Redblood's company flanked them: Stoneheart carried Apogee's pennant; Slayer,