Strata

terrible bird eyes. Sometimes she shrugged her shoulders to dislodge the ice, which flashed and tumbled as it began the long fall.
    Kin knelt on the floating platform and watched the microfigures of Silver and Marco thread their way through the tunnels.
    Elsewhere Disc machines were lurching into action. She wondered what would have happened if some medieval farmer was Chairman now. Could he have helped the Computers start the long repair?
    She stood up and ordered the platform to the walkway at the rim of the map hall, and hurried up the worn stairs to the interface room.
    HALLO , said the screen.
    ‘You don’t need me,’ said Kin. ‘I’ve given you all the instructions you need to repair yourself. It will take you a long time, but you can do it without affecting the biosp – oh boy, the biohemisphere, I suppose – too much. But you can’t go on like it – not unless you get fresh materials from outside.’
    WE KNOW. ENTROPY IS AGAINST US .
    ‘You can’t go on cannibalizing old machines for spare parts. You may last another hundred years, that’s all.’
    WE KNOW .
    ‘Do you care about the people on the surface?
    THEY ARE OUR CHILDREN .
    Kin stared at the glowing letters. Then she said softly: ‘Tell me about Jago Jalo. He must have seemed a godsend.’
    YES. WE WERE ALREADY AWARE THAT THE DISC WAS DOOMED. IN THOSE DAYS WE MAINTAINED AN ARRESTOR SCREEN AGAINST METEORITES. IT WAS COMPARATIVELY EASY TO EXTRACT THE RESIDUAL VELOCITY FROM HIS SHIP. WE WATCHED HIM BRING HIS SMALLER SHIP WITHIN THE VAULT OF HEAVEN. UNFORTUNATELY WE COULD NOT CONTACT HIM. THAT SHOULD HAVE MADE US SUSPICIOUS .
    ‘You allowed him to land, though.’
    UNFORTUNATELY HIS SHIP ATTRACTED THE ATTENTION OF A ROC DURING THE DESCENT .
    ‘A roc?’
    A LARGE BIRD .
    * * *
    ‘I don’t believe it,’ said Marco. ‘I see it, but I don’t believe it. It’s going to take us home, is that it?’
    Below them land flashed past in a dusty blur. There was a brief impression of surf and then the roc was arrowing out to sea.
    ‘Didn’t you see the big egg in that garden where you were caged?’ said Kin weakly. ‘Didn’t you wonder what laid it? Of course it can’t take us home, it’s just a big bird. I saw the specifications, back in the Hub.’
    ‘It seems a little stupid to say this in the circumstances,’ said Silver, ‘but such a creature could not exist in flesh and blood. It would collapse under its own weight.’
    ‘It doesn’t weigh more than five tonnes,’ said Kin. ‘It’s one of the Disc builders’ finest constructions. It’s alive. It’s got sinews like Line cord and its bones are pneumatic. Just tubes filled with gas under pressure. The Computers showed me. Marvellous, isn’t it?’
    ‘Why is it losing height? We’ll land in the sea,’ said Marco.
    ‘Yes,’ said Kin. ‘I should get back into your couch if I were you.’
    ‘You mean we are going to land in the sea?’
    Marco looked down at the rushing waves. They were low enough for every crest to be visible. Then he looked at what, on the Disc, had to be called the horizon. The sun was just a redglow, half hidden by strips of cloud, tipping the wave tops with fire. Marco thought.
    ‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you’re not planning to do what I think you are planning to do …’
    ‘If it helps you any,’ said Kin, ‘Jago Jalo was insane even by the standards of an insane age.’
    IT BECAME OBVIOUS. WE HAD NOT CONSIDERED THAT ANY RACE WOULD SEND ITS MADMEN INTO SPACE .
    ‘In a ship like this, only a madman would go.’
    HE CAME TO THE HUB WITH A DEMOUNTED GEOLOGICAL LASER, HE KILLED THE CHAIRMAN OF THE TIME .
    ‘You didn’t try to stop him?’
    WE WERE NOT INSTRUCTED TO DO SO. BESIDES, THE MAN WAS OBVIOUSLY FROM A TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURE. WE HAD TO WEIGH THE FUTURE OF THE DISC. HE ORDERED US TO BUILD HIM A SHIP. IT WAS NOT DIFFICULT. WE CALCULATED THAT IF WE ASSISTED JAGO JALO BACK TO HIS HOME WORLD IT WOULD NOT BE LONG BEFORE WE HAD FURTHER VISITORS. THEREFORE WE SENT WITH HIM ONE OF OUR SPY BIRDS - THE RAVENS, THE EYES OF GOD, OUR BEAUTIFULLY CREATED BIRDS .
    ‘Then why didn’t you contact us as soon as we arrived? Hell, I’ve had fleas, I’ve nearly been burned alive, I was shoved in a seraglio—’
    WE DECIDED TO OBSERVE YOU FIRST. WE COULD NOT BE SURE THAT JALO WAS AN EXCEPTION. ANDTHEN THE FOUR-ARMED CREATURE ADDED WEIGHT TO OUR SUSPICIONS .
    Kin watched the letters fade. She said: ‘You know that we can build