Children of Time, #2
Children of Ruin
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Contents
PRESENT 4: THE FACE OF THE WATERS — CHAPTER 7.
Overview
Helena and Portia are taken by an enthusiastic octopus faction onto a radically advanced ship, apparently for a mission centered on physics rather than on Helena as a host. Helena realizes the faction may have stolen them from other octopuses, exposing how fractured and volatile octopus civilization is.
Their small craft performs a near-impossible high-acceleration rendezvous with a larger science vessel, demonstrating technology beyond human or Portiid capability. The mission is immediately threatened when a hostile octopus vessel allied with the Profundity of Depth approaches to prevent their rescue attempt from continuing.
Summary
Helena and Portia try to interpret the intentions of the octopus faction holding them. Portia suspects the octopuses might want Helena as a living host, but Helena’s instinct says the faction is driven instead by intense interest in a complex scientific problem. The octopuses transmit equations and deep-physics data that neither Helena’s systems nor Portia can fully understand, though their enthusiasm is obvious.
Helena and Portia have already agreed to go with the faction, but the octopuses delay departure by attempting to explain more than their guests can process. Helena reflects that octopus priorities ebb and return rather than remaining fixed, which helps her see their factional shifts as unstable but not meaningless. Eventually Helena and Portia are taken aboard a small chained-globe vessel, with one sphere modified to hold air and lined with cushioning gel.
As Helena observes the hangar, she realizes the surrounding octopuses are increasingly angry and that the crew seems worried. Helena concludes that she and Portia may not have been officially released but stolen by one faction acting against others. The vessel launches abruptly, using a brutal slingshot around the water planet and accelerating so hard that Helena and Portia are pinned in the gel while Portia extracts flight data from octopus transmissions.
The small vessel intercepts a larger linked-globe science ship with extraordinary precision, attaching itself just as its own fuel runs out. The larger ship, called by an emotional name Helena renders as Looking at a Thing from Outside, has immense fuel capacity and accelerates faster over interplanetary distance than Portiid or human technology could manage. The octopus crew largely ignores Helena and Portia afterward, while the former prisoner-ambassador remains nearby, isolated and uneasy.
After Helena sleeps, Portia wakes her because the prisoner-ambassador has turned white with fear. Helena asks what is wrong, and Portia interprets the data: another octopus ship is approaching with hostile intent, backed by other vessels in the void. The pursuing faction is connected to the Profundity of Depth, the ship that destroyed the Lightfoot, and one ally, Shell That Echoes Only, is moving to stop the rescue mission before it can reach its goal.
Who Appears
- HelenaInterprets octopus motives and realizes she and Portia may have been stolen by one faction.
- PortiaAnalyzes transmissions, flight data, and hostile approach using Portiid pilot understandings.
- Prisoner-ambassadorUneasy octopus intermediary traveling near Helena and Portia; warns through fear and data.
- Looking at a Thing from OutsideLarge octopus science vessel carrying the mission with technology beyond human or Portiid capacity.
- Shell That Echoes OnlyHostile octopus ship allied with the Profundity of Depth, approaching to stop the rescue mission.
- Profundity of DepthPowerful hostile octopus vessel linked through communications to the forces pursuing Helena and Portia.