Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

holes are
complicated beasts, Futurity. You’re a scholar; you should know that.
Who’s to say what’s possible or not?’
    ’Actually I don’t know anything about black holes,’ Futurity
said.
    ’You know, you’ve got a really closed mind,’ Poole said. ’You
Ecclesiasts have origins in an engineering guild, don’t you? But now
you want to be a priest, and the whole point of being a priest is to
keep your knowledge to yourself. Well, maybe you’re going to have to
learn to think a bit more like an engineer and less like an acolyte
to get through this.’
    Tahget was glaring at Poole. ’If you insist on this absurd chase
to the centre of the Galaxy, Michael Poole, you will have your way.
You are accorded respect here. Too much, in my opinion.’
    Poole grinned. ’Ain’t that the truth?’
    ’At least it will buy us time,’ Futurity said, trying to reassure
Tahget. ’But you must hope to resolve this situation before you reach
Chandra, where you will find there is no magical child in the
singularity, and the woman’s condition will veer from denial to
desperation.’
    ’Or it all works out some other way,’ Poole said evenly. ’Don’t
prejudge, acolyte; it’s a nasty habit. One condition. I’m coming
along too.’
    They both looked at him sharply.
    Futurity said hesitantly, ’I don’t think the Hierocrat would -
’
    ’Into Lethe with your bishops and their >copyrightdidn’t ask them to bring me back from the dead. I only want to see a
little of the universe before I get switched off again. Besides,
right now I’m the only sentient creature poor Mara trusts. I think
you need me aboard, don’t you, Captain?’
    Futurity opened his mouth, and closed it. ’As the Captain said, if
you ask for that I imagine it will be granted, though the Hierocrat’s
teeth will curl with anxiety.’
    Tahget growled, ’Your Hierocrat will have more to think about than
that.’ He grabbed Futurity’s wrist in one massive hand. ’If Michael
Poole is joining this cruise of ours, so are you, acolyte. When this
Virtual fool starts to cause trouble, I want somebody I can take it
out on.’
    Futurity felt panicked; for a boy who had never been further than
low orbit before, this was becoming a daunting adventure, out of
control.
    Poole laughed and rubbed his hands together. ’Great! Just leave a
piece of him for the Hierocrat to gnaw on.’
    Tahget released Futurity. ’But I have a condition of my own.’ He
waved his hand over the table, and its surface turned into a
schematic of the Galaxy. ’Here is our original route, planned but now
abandoned.’ It was a simple dotted line arcing from Base 478 in the
Core out to the sparse Galactic rim, where Earth lay waiting. There
were a few stops on the way, mostly at nominal political borders. One
stop was at a flag marked ’3-Kilo’, outside the Core, and Tahget
tapped it with his fingernail. ’This is the Galaxy’s innermost spiral
arm, the 3-Kiloparsec Arm. Whatever our final destination, we go here
first.’
    Futurity didn’t understand. ’But that’s the wrong way. 3-Kilo is
outside the Core.’ Leaving the Base was bad enough. His dread
deepened at the thought of being taken out of the brightly lit Core
and into the sparse unknown beyond. ’If we’re aiming for the centre
of the Galaxy, we’ll have to double back. And the bomb - the
additional time this will take - ’
    ’I know the urgency of the situation,’ Tahget snapped.
    Poole said, ’So why do you want to go to 3-Kilo?’
    ’I don’t,’ Tahget said. ’The Ask Politely does. On a ship like
this, you go where it wants to go.’ Tahget blanked the table display
and stood. ’There is much you will never understand about this modern
age, Michael Poole. Even about this ship. This meeting is over.’ He
walked out.
    Futurity and Poole stared at each other. Poole said, ’So it isn’t
just a cutesy name. On this ship, you really do have to ask
politely.’
    Futurity peered into the fish-tank display of Mara’s cabin, where
the woman hadn’t moved since she lay down in Poole’s presence.

 
IV
     
     
    The Ask Politely spent another day in orbit around 478. Then the
ship slid silently away into deep space.
    Futurity stood alone in the observation lounge, watching his home
planet fold over itself until it became a dull grey pebble, lost
against the glare of the Galaxy Core. He really was heading out into
the cold and the dark. He shivered and turned away from the
blister-window. It