Free Divergence by Tony Ballantyne Page B

can’t open them, Jesse. I can’t look at the plants.”
    Something touched her foot and she jerked it away. Something seized her by the wrist.
    She felt herself being dragged down the corridor, and she opened her eyes before she could stop herself. And then she couldn’t close them, because she just didn’t understand what had gripped her and she was trying to make out its shape. There was a silver rope wrapped around her waist, something like a silver crab claw held her wrist. That was about it. Something like legs scrabbled at the floor and she tried to see what they were attached to, but then a Dark Plant caught her attention. Dark vines spilled down a wall and a lacelike bloom turned to face her, the edges of its petals endlessly frilled.
    —Look away, said Jesse, and she did, and there was another plant just over there, hazily indistinct. She examined the delicate perforations built of perforations that made up its leaves, and she was now being dragged towards a hole in the wall. It was Jesse who noticed the thin meniscus stretched across it like a soap bubble; it was Jesse who saw the stars beyond. Judy was too busy looking at the mad plants behind her to notice the other passengers being pulled to safety. She didn’t notice the meniscus stretch around her and snap out into a bubble, carrying just enough air and pressure to support her life as she crossed the void.
    Dark Seeds rattled into the envelope she occupied, and were sucked up and ejected. The space around the Deborah was filled with little bubbles of life crossing from the stricken craft to the Free Enterprise.
     

     
    “A stellated dodecahedron!”
    The woman floating by Judy was speaking for the sake of it. She was very nervous, filling the space between herself and her approaching fear with words.
    “That’s what you call the shape of this thing. They must have grown it just to house us. Whoever they are. Who do you think they are?”
    “I don’t know,” replied Judy. She didn’t need Jesse’s MTPH-enhanced senses to tell her that the terrified passengers who were being poured into the enormous plastic bubble in which she floated were close to panic. They tumbled inexpertly in the zero-G space, gazing wide-eyed, through the clear plastic walls of the dodecahedron, at the stricken body of the Deborah lit up by nauseous green searchlights. A few last tiny bubbles were crossing through space, bringing the remaining humans to safety. Judy watched as one of the little bubbles touched the wall of envelope and discharged a tumbling passenger through its protective wall into safety.
    —I reckon they’ve now saved about half of us, said Jesse.
    “Who has?” asked Judy.
    “Who has what?” asked the nervous woman. She looked around. “Who are you speaking to?”
    “Never mind. Have you noticed that there are no facilities in here?” remarked Judy. “No beds, no toilets. Nothing. Just a lot of people floating in a great bubble.”
    A voice rang out in the great space.
    “Passengers of the Deborah .”
    The floating passengers quietened immediately.
    “This is the Free Enterprise —part of DIANA. We noted your distress and made all haste to rescue the Deborah . We are just in the process of bringing the last few of you aboard. After that we will be making the jump clear of the region of Dark Plants, en route for Fraxinus.”
    “Fraxinus?” said the woman, gripping Judy’s arms tightly. “Oh, Watcher save us. Where’s Fraxinus? Is that a safe place?”
    “DIANA?” wondered Judy. “I wonder what’s in it for the Free Enterprise, in this rescue? The old companies never did anything that wasn’t going to turn them a profit.”
     
    “What do you mean, what was in it for them?” asked Maurice. “You were in danger and they rescued you. What more is there to say?”
    Ask Saskia, thought Judy, noting the other woman’s hungry look. Edward dropped a pan onto the cooktop in the kitchen.
    Judy answered Maurice’s question. “The Free