Strata

worlds. Proper worlds. Planets. We could build a planet for the Disc people. You know it is a fair copy of my home world?’
    YES .
    ‘Do you know why?’
    YES .
    ‘Will you tell me?’
    The screen stayed blank for several seconds. Then it was filled with words, so many that the Computers had had to reduce the size of the letters. Kin stood up and read:
    YOU WISH TO KNOW ABOUT THE DISC BUILDERS. YOU WISH TO KNOW THE REASONS BEHIND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DISC. WE CAN TELL YOU. BUT IT IS OUR ONLY BARGAINING COUNTER ON BEHALF OF OUR CHILDREN. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT YOU COULD LEAVE AND RETURN TO PLUNDER THE DISC, AS JALO HAD INTENDED. WE COULD NOT STOP YOU. YET WE REALIZE THAT KNOWLEDGE IS A PRIZE YOU GREATLY DESIRE. WE WILL GIVE YOU KNOWLEDGE. YOU WILL BUILD A NEW WORLD FOR OUR PEOPLE .
    Kin had already been considering it. It would mean building a G-type star within a few light-minutes of the Disc, unless there was a suitable one that could be moved …
    ‘We’d need access to Disc technology,’ shesaid. ‘Teleportation, the force-grow vat theories, the lot.’
    YOU WOULD HAVE IT, OF COURSE .
    ‘Then you will have your new world. If the Company won’t do it, I could float a Company of my own with that bait. I could go to one of the small operators – yes, I’ll do it.’
    WE HAVE A BARGAIN .
    ‘Just like that? You don’t need any – well, I guess I can’t give you any sureties,’ said Kin, surprised.
    WE HAVE OBSERVED YOU. WE ESTIMATE THERE IS A 99.87 PER CENT CHANCE THAT YOU WILL HONOUR THE BARGAIN. DON THE HELMET .
    Kin looked up at the padded metal rim above her head.
    WE TRUST YOU. TRUST US. THE HELMET WILL LINK YOU TO CERTAIN CIRCUITS DESIGNED FOR THIS SITUATION. WE CAN GIVE YOU NOT INFORMATION BUT KNOWLEDGE, THAT YOU WILL OBTAIN NOWHERE ELSE IN THE UNIVERSE .
    ‘The purpose of life is to find things out,’ said Kin doubtfully.
    YES. WHO WOULD SHUN KNOWLEDGE ?
    Kin sighed, reached up, grasped, pulled.
    The robots were busy in the centre of the deck. One of them rolled towards the horseshoe panel, trailing a cable behind it. The rest were clustered around an oddly-bent piece of mirror-bright rod. When Kin looked at it her eyes ached. It seemedto be twisted in ways that normal matter just couldn’t go, which meant she was looking at the heart of a matrix drive.
    She was glad – she’d had a horrible thought about what would happen if one didn’t get built.
    The robots had also built a proper pilot’s seat in front of the controls. Marco was sitting in it, swearing.
    ‘It’ll be like finding a hole in fog,’ he said. ‘I hope your tin friend builds good jets.’
    ‘The hole will show up on the screen,’ suggested Silver.
    ‘Yeah. But we’ll be going at a hell of a lick. Kin, are you sure it’s all worked out?’
    Kin smiled. ‘Right down to the Disc’s tumbling speed and the rotation of the Vault of Heaven. Don’t you believe that machines capable of running the Disc for seventy thousand years are capable of—’
    ‘—threading a needle ten thousand miles away by dropping the thread over a waterfall ? No. I want a chance to experiment with the jets.’
    ‘You’ll have it.’
    The roc’s wingbeats thundered in the night as it wheeled about and skimmed across the dark water. It dropped the ship, fought frantically for height again, wingtips brushing the waves.
    There was a moment of free-fall, then a slap as the ship hit. It bobbed, and spun slowly.
    The roc passed across the stars, wings booming,heading back to its secret valleys. And Kin relaxed. Through the hull of the ship there came a new sound, a soft murmur as of distant engines. The Rimfall.
    She waited, with the soft padding of the helmet pressing against her closed eyes. Nothing happened.
    Then she remembered . It came as a shock, but that dwindled as She took control over the body. How could She have forgotten? Then She remembered about that, too. Unless One forgot, how could One learn?
    She could feel Kin somewhere in Her mind, a little flask of tastes and textures, senses and experiences. Around Her She could experience the Disc, and She knew there was danger there. It would be too easy to lose Herself in the sheer exhilarating enjoyment of it. She turned her mind back to the Computers.
    You have done well.
    THAT WAS MY TASK .
    I will allow some recollection to Kin Arad. She is Me, after all. She will awake knowing something about Us. And she will understand about the Disc.
    YES .
    She reached into the mind within Her