The Ships of Earth: Homecoming: Volume 3 Read online

  PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE HOMECOMING SERIES

  On THE CALL OF EARTH

  “Suggests a setting and a theme vaguely reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke’s The City and the Stars—the rediscovery of human will in a society whose technological control begins to falter—but overlays this with an odd mix of biblical overtones and Machiavellian militarism. There seems little doubt that the whole series will prove as readable—and as morally committed—as we’ve come to expect from Card.”

  —Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

  “Involving and persuasive.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “[Card has] found his own voice, and turned into a thoughtful and inventive stylist.” —Los Angeles Daily News

  “Like any Card book, this sequel to The Memory of Earth involves many complicated decisions made by machines as well as humans.... Well-rounded characters keep [the plot] viable, and the dialogue is superb.” —Publishers Weekly

  “The emphasis in The Call of Earth is on a family saga (centering around the remarkable matron in Basilica) and a political upheaval (instituted by one brilliant, ambitious general). A genuinely interesting feminist quasi-utopia clashes with power politics, while the Oversoul plies its wiles and the book’s Biblical elements raise odd echoes, with their patriarchs and Cities of the Plain, their prophets and tempters, Jezebels and wise virgins.” —Faren Miller, Locus

  On THE MEMORY OF EARTH

  “As a maker of visions and a creator of heroes whose prime directive is compassion, Card is not to be outdone.”

  —Library Journal

  “Mr. Card writes with energy and conviction.”

  —The New York Times Book Review

  “Card is a master storyteller, and The Memory of Earth is eminently readable.” —The Seattle Times

  “The Memory of Earth succeeds because Card lets his characters dominate the story. The plot develops smoothly, revealing the structure of Harmon’s society in a way that seems natural, and when the world’s ideological assumptions are explored, their explication is never forced. The author examines big issues, but he is showing rather than telling, leading instead of lecturing. He creates anticipation for the next volume.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

  “Card is an excellent storyteller who conveys not only action, but complex family relationships and difficult ethical dilemmas.” —The Denver Post

  “The Memory of Earth is several notches above the typical post-apocalyptic quest story set in a low-tech society with oddly high-tech features.... This may turn out to be the kind of series that all other of its type inadequately imitate.”

  —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  “Card continues his practice of exploring ethical and moral dilemmas through finely crafted characters, realistic narrative, excellent pacing, and top-notch action scenes.”

  —The Kansas City Star

  “The Memory of Earth succeeds.... The plot develops smoothly, revealing the structure of Harmony’s society....[Card] left me anticipating the next volume.”

  —The Philadelphia Inquirer

  “There is no denying the power of his storytelling, and the vision. There is no chance that this commercial House of Card will topple.” —SF Commentary

  HOMECOMING: VOLUME 3

  THE SHIPS OF EARTH

  ORSON SCOTT CARD

  The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make this e-book publicly available in any way. You may not copy, reproduce or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of your personal devices.

  Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

  THE SHIPS OF EARTH

  Copyright © 1994 by Orson Scott Card

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

  Cover art by Keith Parkinson

  Map by Ellisa Mitchell

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor.com

  Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-8125-3263-0

  ISBN-10: 0-8125-3263-5

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-42549

  First Edition: February 1994

  First Mass Market Edition: January 1995

  Printed in the United States of America

  0 9

  To Bill and Laraine Moon

  with fond memories of temples and malls,

  of copy machines and newsletters,

  of great kids and good company;

  of love freely given and honor unyielding.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This was the novel that fate did not want me to write. I had set aside a good part of the summer to write it—even canceled a free trip to Australia because it would have come right in the middle of this project. Then, because that’s how the world works, I suddenly found myself touring America signing copies of Xenocide, which for various excellent reasons had been released a couple of months early. Then, when I got home, we were caught up in the process of getting ready to move across town into a new house—we were going to be renters no more! Add to that the seductive details of remodeling the new house to contain not so much us as our computers, and I could see there was no way I’d be able to concentrate on writing Ships of Earth unless I went into hiding.

  Which is precisely what I did. Poor Clark and Kathy Kidd! They must have thought that somehow, accidentally, back in the Pleistocene, they had spawned a child who now had come home to live with them! I descended on their house in Sterling, Virginia, took over their diningroom table, and then buried myself in writing. I surfaced only when two different computers failed on me and I had to whine and beg for Northgate to replace them. And when Clark and Kathy got a free weekend at Rehoboth Beach, there I was, tagging along—the first draft of Chapter 6 has Delaware sand in it. Yet through it all, the Kidds pretended they were having a wonderful time, and I’m grateful to them.

  Much as I owe Clark and Kathy, though, I owe as much again to my wife, Kristine, and our assistant, Erin Absher, who kept our home running, our children alive, and the remodeling of the new house on track despite a plethora of disasters, major and minor. Kristine also managed to read this book and comment on it, making me take out the really icky parts—which greatly improved the novel, you may be sure! I can’t write without peace of mind, and that was the gift that, among them, Kristine and Erin and Clark and Kathy gave to me, each in their own way.

  I must also tip my hat to Shirley Strum, author of Almost Human, the book that gave me the baboons in Ships of Earth, which are some of my favorite characters; and to Beth Meacham, my editor, and Barbara Bova, my agent: Thank you for enduring all my whimpering, and helping me in so many ways that the public will never know about and that I will never forget.

  CONTENTS

  MAP

  NOTES ON PARENTAGE

  NICKNAMES

  NOTES ON NAMES

  PROLOGUE

  1. THE LAW OF THE DESERT

  2. BINDING AND UNBINDING

  3. HUNTING

  4. THE TREE OF LIFE

  5. THE FACE OF
THE KEEPER

  6. PULSES

  7. THE BOW

  8. PLENTY

  9. PERIMETER

  10. SHIPMASTER

  NOTES ON PARENTAGE

  Because of the marriage customs in the city of Basilica, family relationships can be somewhat complex. Perhaps these parentage charts can help keep things straight. Women’s names are in italics.

  WETCHIK’S FAMILY

  RASA’S FAMILY

  RASA’S NIECES

  (her prize students, “adopted” into a permanent relationship of sponsorship)

  Shedemei Dol Eiadh Hushidh and Luet (sisters)

  HOSNI’S FAMILY

  NICKNAMES

  Most names have diminutive or familiar forms. Thus Gaballufix’s near kin, close friends, current mate, and former mates could call him Gabya. Other nicknames are listed here. (Again, because these names are so unfamiliar, names of female characters are set off in italics.)

  Basilikya—Syelsika—Skiya

  Chveya—Veya

  Dabrota—Dabya

  Dol—Dolya

  Dza—Dazya

  Eiadh—Edhya

  Elemak—Elya

  Hushidh—Shuya

  Issib—Issya

  Izuchaya—Zuya

  Kokor—Koya

  Krasata—Krassya

  Luet—Lutya

  Mebbekew—Meb

  Motiga—Motya

  Nadezhny—Nadya

  Nafai—Nyef

  Obring—Briya

  Oykib—Okya

  Padarok—Rokya

  Panimanya—Panya-Manya

  Protchnu—Proya

  Rasa—(no diminutive)

  Serp—Sepya

  Sevet—Sevya

  Shedemei—Shedya

  Spel—Spelya

  Umene—Umya

  Vas—Vasya

  Vasnaminanya—Vasnya

  Volemak—Volya

  Yasai—Yaya

  Zalatoya—Toya

  Zaxodh—Xodhya

  Zdorab—Zodya

  Zhatva—Zhyat

  Zhavaronok—Nokya

  NOTES ON NAMES

  For the purpose of reading this story, it hardly matters whether the reader pronounces the names of the characters correctly. But for those who might be interested, here is some information concerning the pronunciation of names.

  The rules of vowel formation in the language of Basilica require that in most words, at least one vowel be pronounced with a leading y sound. With names, it can be almost any vowel, and it can legitimately be changed at the speaker’s preference. Thus the name Gaballufix could be pronounced Gyah-BAH-loo-fix or Gah-BAH-lyoo-fix; it happens that Gaballufix himself preferred to pronounce it Gah-BYAH-loo-fix, and of course most people followed that usage.

  Basilikya [byah-see-lee-KEE-ya]

  Chveya [shvey-YA]

  Dabrota [dah-BROH-tyah]

  Dol [DYOHL]

  Dza [dzee-YAH]

  Eiadh [A-yahth]

  Elemak [EL-yeh-mahk]

  Hushidh [HYOO-sheeth]

  Issib [IS-yib]

  Izuchaya [yee-zoo-CHA-yah]

  Kokor [KYOH-kor]

  Krasata [krah-SSYAH-tah]

  Luet [LYOO-et]

  Mebbekew [MEB-bek-kyoo]

  Motiga [myoh-TEE-gah]

  Nadezhny [nah-DYEZH-nee]

  Nafai [NYAH-fie]

  Oykib [OY-kyib]

  Padarok [PYAH-dah-rohk]

  Protchnu [PRYO-tchnu]

  Rasa [RAHZ-yah]

  Serp [SYAIRP]

  Sevet [SEV-yet]

  Shedemei [SHYED-eh-may]

  Spel [SPYEHL]

  Umene [ooh-MYEH-neh]

  Vas [VYAHSS]

  Vasnaminanya [vahss-nah-mee-NAH-nyah]

  Volemak [VOHL-yeh-mak]

  Yasai [YAH-sai]

  Zalatoya [zah-lyah-TOH-yah]

  Zaxodh [ZYAH-chothe]

  Zdorab [ZDOR-yab]

  Zhatva [ZHYAT-vah]

  Zhavaronok [zhah-VYA-roh-nohk]

  PROLOGUE

  The master computer of the planet Harmony was full of hope at last. The chosen human beings had been drawn together and removed from the city of Basilica. Now they were embarked on the first of two journeys. This one would take them through the desert, through the Valley of Fires, to the southern tip of the island once called Vusadka, to a place where no human being had set foot for forty million years. The second journey would be from that place across a thousand lightyears to the home planet of the human species, Earth, abandoned forty million years ago and ready now for human beings to return.

  Not just any human beings. These human beings. The ones born, after a million generations of guided evolution, with the strongest ability to communicate with the master computer, mind to mind, memory to memory. However, in encouraging people with this power to mate and therefore enhance it in their offspring, the master computer had not made any attempt to choose only the nicest or most obedient, or even the most intelligent or skillful. That was not within the purview of the computer’s program. People could be more difficult or less difficult, more or less dangerous, more or less useful, but the master computer had not been programmed to show preference for decency or wit.

  The master computer had been set in place by the first settlers on the planet Harmony for one purpose only—to preserve the human species by restraining it from the technologies that allowed wars and empires to spread so far that they could destroy a planet’s ability to sustain human life, as had occurred on Earth. As long as men could fight only with hand weapons and could travel only on horseback, the world could endure, while the humans on it would remain free to be as good or evil as they chose.

  Since that original programming, however, the master computer’s hold on humanity had weakened. Some people were able to communicate with the master computer more clearly than anyone had ever imagined would be possible. Others, however, had only the weakest of connections. The result was that new weapons and new methods of transportation were beginning to enter the world, and while it might yet be thousands or tens of thousands of years before the end, the end would still come. And the master computer of Harmony had no idea of how to reverse the process.

  This made it urgent enough for the master computer to attempt to return to Earth, where the Keeper of Earth could introduce new programming. But in recent months the master computer and some of its human allies discovered that the Keeper of Earth was already, somehow, introducing change. Different people had dreamed clear and powerful dreams of creatures that had never existed on Harmony, and the master computer itself discovered subtle alterations in its own programming. It should have been impossible for the Keeper of Earth to influence events so far away … and yet that entity which had dispatched the original refugee ships forty million years before was the only imaginable source of these changes.

  How or why the Keeper of Earth was doing this, the master computer of the planet Harmony could not begin to guess. It only knew that forty million years had not been kind to its own systems, and it needed replenishment. It only knew that whatever the Keeper of Earth asked for, the master computer of Harmony would try to supply. It asked now for a group of human beings to recolonize the Earth.

  So the master computer chose sixteen people from the population of Basilica. Many were kin to each other; all had unusual ability to communicate with the master computer. However, they were not all terribly bright, and not all were particularly trustworthy or kind. Many of them had strong dislikes or resentments toward others, and while some of them were committed to the master computer’s cause, some were just as committed to thwarting it. The whole enterprise might fail at any time, if the darker impulses of the humans could not be curbed. Civilization was always fragile, even when strong social forces inhibited individual passions; now, cut off from the larger world, would they be able to forge a new, smaller, harmonious society? Or would the expedition be destroyed from the beginning?

  The master computer had to plan and act as if the expedition would s
urvive, would succeed. In a certain place the master computer triggered a sequence of events. Machinery that had long been silent began to hum. Robots that had long been in stasis were awakened and set to work, searching for machines that needed repair. They had waited a long, long time, and even in a stasis field they could not last forever.

  It would take several years to determine just how much work would be needed, and how it should or even could be done. But there was no hurry. If the journey took time, then perhaps the people could use that time to make peace with each other. There was no hurry; or rather, no hurry that would be detectable to human beings. To the master computer, accomplishing a task within ten years was a breathless pace, while to humans it could seem unbearably long. For though the master computer could detect the passage of milliseconds, it had memories of forty million years of life on Harmony so far, and on that scale, compared to the normal human lifespan, ten years was as brief a span of time as five minutes.

  The master computer would use those years well and productively, and hoped the people could manage to do the same. If they were wise, it would be a time in which they could create their families, bear and begin to raise many children, and develop into a community worthy to return to the Keeper of Earth. However, that would be no easy achievement, and at the moment all the master computer could really hope for was to keep them all alive.

  ONE

  THE LAW OF THE DESERT

  Shedemei was a scientist, not a desert traveler. She had no great need for city comforts—she was as content sleeping on a floor or table as on a bed—but she resented having been dragged away from her laboratory, from her work, from all that gave her life meaning. She had never agreed to join this half-mad expedition. Yet here she was, atop a camel in the dry heat of the desert wind, rocking back and forth as she watched the backside of the camel in front of her sway in another rhythm. It made her faintly sick, the heat and the motion. It gave her a headache.