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opera. She appeared so vulnerable, and yet Martin could feel her threat to the
Job as palpably as if she were a wasp stinging his flesh.
No time to waste
.
He said nothing, watching William.
William nodded to Ariel. "She's your friend, Ariel," he said. "She needs your
help."
"She's a victim," Ariel said.
"Stop it," Rosa said.
"It's panic," William pursued. "You're feeling our panic, our anxiety. You're
very perceptive.
You see what we feel, Rosa."
"Come with me, Rosa," Ariel said.
"I will not fight," Rosa said. "None of you should fight. The Pan is wrong.
He's "
"Enough, please," Ariel said, voice thick with emotion.
Martin saw Theresa crying, and Alexis Baikal; but only when William turned
back to look at him, and Martin saw his face was damp, did his chest hitch and
his own eyes fill. He stepped forward.
"You don't have to fight, Rosa," he said.
Rosa Sequoia looked at the fifteen companions around her, clasped her
trembling hands together, said, "But I've trained. I deserve it as much as any
of you. Pan can't take my duty from me."
Pan/panic
. The words danced.
If she goes on it will spread and we'll all go mad. We're that close
.
"I hate you," Rosa told Martin, eyes slitted, lip curling. "I hate everything
you stand for."
Ariel took her by the arm. William took her other arm. Together, they led her
away.
Theresa stood by his side as Rosa left the room. "Who'll take her tasks?" she
asked him.
"Ariel can do them," he said, looking at the empty space where Rosa had stood.
"Rosa will be confined to quarters."
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"And when we split?"
"She stays on the
Hare. Tortoise can't afford her."
"You'd better talk with Hans, then," Theresa said.
"Why does she hate me?" Martin asked.
"That's silly," Theresa said, taking his hand. "You can't take what she says
personally& "
"William was right," he said. "I don't want anybody to hate me. I want
everybody to love me& Hell of a thing for a Pan. Hans wouldn't have this
problem."
Theresa tugged on his arm, pulling him toward the door. "Forty-five minutes,"
she reminded him. Martin stared at the War Mother before yielding to her
pressure. During this entire episode, the War Mother had done nothing.
So little time
.
The War Mother preceded Martin and Hans down the second neck as they made
final inspections of the points where the
Dawn Treader would split. The War Mother would go with
Tortoise
.
Hans and Martin shook hands, clasped each other. "Do it, brother," Hans said.
"We'll come back for the mopping up. I envy you, Martin."
"I don't envy myself," Martin said, then blushed. "I wish they'd chosen you
Pan."
"I voted for you," Hans said, smiling, not very sincere. "I'm just a born
slacker. You'll get the
Job done."
William waited behind Martin. The children mingled to say their fare wells,
hugging, kissing, patting shoulders, even singing one round of the wordless
hum.
Rosa was not present.
In a few minutes, in the narrow space around the weapons store, all the
children divided, Hare team to the right behind Hans, Tortoise team to the
left behind Martin. William and Theresa hung beside each other as the teams
parted again. Martin felt a sudden misgiving, taking both of them with him.
This time brought nothing but qualms.
The teams backed farther away, around the curve of the weapons store. Already
the children in the rear of each group could not see each other.
They parted.
Throughout its length, the Ship of the Law made a sound like a sigh, as if it
laid down some tremendous burden, only to take up another. The children of the
Tortoise crew surrounded Martin in a newly made space beside the weapons
store. They waited apprehensively, listening to the ship's noises, some
holding on to each other. Despite the drills, they were afraid, and Martin was
certainly not least afraid among them. He remembered Theodore's words: "
No machine works perfectly. Every machine can fail. Every day we are in danger
. " But Theodore had added, "
No planet lives forever. Every day on Earth, our lives were in danger
& "
No safety anywhere. And the Ship of the Law had never failed them before&
Nor had it broken in two before.
Martin sat above a low couch in the center of the room. All around him, the
children floated, squatted, stretched out, looking at each other or at
nothing, trying to sleep, playing games with their wand projections, waiting,
waiting.
The sigh turned into a strong wind moaning through the halls outside their
chamber. Air pressure was being distributed before the walls closed.
Theresa came close to Martin. He held her in front of all, acknowledging this
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bond. No one seemed to mind; few seemed to notice, not even William, who
played a game of matching colors with Andrew Jaguar.
"How are you doing?" he asked Theresa. She shook her head briskly as if
shivering away the question.
"Waiting," she said. "You?"
The floor beneath them vibrated. Their cabin rotated as the orientation of
this part of the dividing
Dawn Treader changed. Again the wind outside the walls, roaring like a storm;
this was their only safe place, their calm cell within the turbulent body.
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