The Diamond Deep Read Online Free PDF Page B

celebration. Past time. Bright banners streamed digitally across all of the screens in the Fire , proclaiming tonight the Festival of Hope. She imagined people all over the ship getting ready, finding their best clothes, doing each other’s hair.
    Joel was elsewhere with his commanders.
    Jaliet had helped her choose a purple dress belted in gray. It swung loosely around her hips, the color shifting and changing with her movements. She felt pleased; Jaliet had driven her staff to create a color that Ruby had never seen rendered in fabric.
    She paced the room slowly, full of pent up energy. Ix had told her it could still be months before they got close enough to home to make voice contact, especially now that the Fire only moved at about a tenth of the speed it used between systems.
    Just yesterday she’d heard the rumor again—that Adiamo would be abandoned. To believe that would be to accept death aboard the struggling Fire . So, assuming there were people, what would they be like now? Although she didn’t understand why, Ix and Joel and others had told her more time passed in the Adiamo system than on the ship.
    â€œIx?” She spoke to the air. In this room, that was enough.
    â€œYes, Ruby?”
    â€œCould we start schools? To learn what we knew when we left home?”
    There was a slightly longer silence than usual. “What do you want to know?”
    She shook her head. Customs would have changed. Joel had helped her see that one of the great weaknesses of the Fire was that knowledge didn’t change fast or go deep. She had learned to repair bots, but she would never have been able to build one.
    Her hands fisted, and she took a deep breath and forced them to relax. “Can you make a list of what we used to know and don’t know anymore?”
    â€œKnowledge slip is a matter of degree. You have all been taught the skills you need for your jobs.”
    Damned AI. “Will you or won’t you?”
    â€œI will try.”
    She came up beside Haric, Ani, and Onor, who were leaning over the map table. Four pods blinked orange. The others were yellow or green. Ruby touched Ani’s shoulder. “What did you ask it?”
    â€œWhere you can go safely tonight.”
    Ruby squinted at the colors, memorizing the red ones. “How did you decide?”
    Haric answered. “Onor asked Ix where people are saying bad things about you.”
    Ruby frowned. “Then that’s where I should go.”
    Onor looked exasperated. “Some days I swear you have a death wish.”
    Ani interrupted the potential argument. “We’re classifying your enemies. There’s Lya and her crowd. Not too dangerous, although Lya’s still mad enough to slap you.”
    Ruby laughed. “I can take her. And there’s Ellis and Sylva. Do you know where they are?” That was a group she might just avoid.
    Haric answered. “Not in the outer levels. Not on command. So that leaves them in between.” He glanced at her. “You could stay away from there.”
    Hardly. “What about cargo?”
    â€œColin keeps that. It’s safe.”
    She smiled at Haric’s defense of his old boss.
    Joel came up behind her. “Are you almost ready?”
    â€œYes, sweetheart.” She loved the way she smiled at the sound of his voice. “Can we start in cargo?”
    â€œI’ll order the train to take us there.”
    The cargo bar hummed with activity. Most of Colin’s strength seemed to be on display: men and women with well-muscled limbs, stunners, and the periodic scar or disfigurement that went with hard work. These were the people who lived in the shadows of the ship, trading on goods, information, and services that the formal power structure needed but couldn’t perform itself.
    Colin came up to greet them, clad all in black. His clothes matched his graying black hair and intense dark eyes, and the tiniest bit of black beard. “The