The Diamond Deep Read Online Free PDF Page A

hand-lettered signs with Ruby’s name on them, and he saw three shirts with her name worked into them as well: dyed, and in one case, embroidered in multi-colored thread.
    Onor touched the pin he and Marcelle wore. The flattened-oval pin was the same shape as the Fire , and the only way to tell he and Marcelle were on patrol.
    Screens around them hummed alive, still blank but ready. Ix’s most commanding voice played from all of the speakers at once. “Please take a seat. We are gathered to honor the life of Ben Lubuck, a member of the peacekeeping force of The Creative Fire .”
    There weren’t enough places to sit. Children got pulled fussing into laps and some adults chose to simply lean against any available wall space.
    There was no way for this ceremony to avoid echoing Owl Paulie’s funeral, where Ben had stood beside Ruby as she sang “The Owl’s Song,” which—in a way—had started all of this.
    Ruby chose to play up the parallel. Everyone in the cramped room with her had dressed in a mishmash of uniform colors. She’d even gotten Joel to change his usual green dress shirt for a gray one. Onor smiled, wishing he’d had a surveillance bot on the wall for that conversation. Instead of the usual two blue attendants, Ani stood at Ruby’s side, and beside Joel, Chitt, who had been a red—a peacekeeper—like Ben. Also like Ben, Chitt had supported Ruby’s bid for equality early. It also meant there was a green, a blue, a red, and a gray on the stage, all of them wearing mixed up colors now. Onor admired Ruby’s choices.
    Joel spoke first, his voice booming through the speakers. “Thank you, thank you. Thank you for the honor of your attendance. I don’t know how many of you knew Ben, but when we are done with his story, all of you will know him, and will know how much he meant to this ship.”
    An interesting opening.
    On-screen, Joel continued. “Ben started his career as a peacekeeper in command. He was my bodyguard when I was in school. He escorted me to and from school, to and from play sessions, and kept me safe. He stopped a plot to steal Garth’s daughter, Alinia. He was hurt in the process, but highly decorated for saving the young woman’s life. After he recovered, he was offered a job with fewer physical requirements, but he refused. He asked to go out to gray and help there.”
    Wow. A whole backstory Onor hadn’t known at all. Interesting.
    â€œAnd now, I’ll pass the storytelling onto Ruby Martin.” Joel gave a little flourish.
    A smattering of clapping started.
    She put her hands up, palms out, to request quiet. After it came, she said, “I hope that clapping was for Ben. Without him, I wouldn’t be wearing these colors. I wouldn’t have sung for Owl Paulie all those months ago. Ben watched over me and my friends when we were children. He failed to report us when we snuck into workshops and onto roofs, although he chased us back home. He gave us grief for bad choices, but he didn’t let them ruin us.”
    Onor felt his eyes sting and his jaw tighten. He had the same memories, the same love for the old man whose body lay wrapped in red cloth at Ruby’s feet.
    Marcelle’s arm slid around Onor’s waist and he leaned into her a little, forgetting to watch the crowd.
    â€œBecause of Ben, we learned enough fear to be careful. Most importantly, Ben taught us that reds were not all evil. Oh, he could be tough. I saw him turn in a thief once, and catch a man who drank and beat his wife and children. But he didn’t overplay his hand on the simple transgressions of childhood. He acted like a father to us. That was something none of the three of us had.
    â€œI met other reds who used their power for evil, who raped, who killed, who tormented.”
    She paused, and Onor remembered uncountable nights alone. Reds had killed his parents.
    Ruby spoke into the silence of his