Chapter 17: Slices of Life

"It does seem difficult," said Vasso, "at least on the surface."

This was the first time aboard the Slight ship and it was wonderful.We were in an enormous space hung with strings or threads or web or film or mould-it was very hard to tell what it was all for. There were holes in the walls; round, square that seemed to tunnel into the material of the ship. The walls had a greenish coating that had a moist feeling of life. The room we were in reached far up overhead, out of sight. There were dripping passages to other chambers; perhaps above and below. Our feet sank into a floor that squeezed a bit of moisture out when we stepped on it and left puddles where we had stepped; the whole interior appeared to be - edible. The light was clear and bright-but when looked at from another angle was rather more violet.The ship was far larger than we had guessed.

In the air hung thousands of Slight People. Some of them changed color when we looked at them.Some, who looked somehow familiar, dipped or bent in a greeting, I think. We smiled and waved.

Thinking seemed to be going on. Time stood still in the huge chamber, comfortably. We stood still; they hung in the space.

Finally, Vasso said again: "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too," intoned Vuud in his serious tone.

The conversation lapsed again. There was silence for what seemed like five to ten minutes.

"We have a very strong desire to help you, come what may", said Vasso.

"Speaking for myself," piped Ronnie, "I am already deeply in your debt for saving my life.And here we are again asking for help."

"Oh, don't worry about owe", said Vasso. "We are already more than paid."

"How?"I asked. "By the way, Vasso, are you the leader of these people?"

"Oh no!I'm just the speaker, the mouthpiece for the day. It changes all the time. Tomorrow it might be Sidi, or, perish the thought, Asso." They all exploded in laughter.

"But you asked about how we're paid. We're loosely associated with Gov.; the same Gov. that you have on Marble. The fact is that we're quite rich so what we do for Gov. is volunteer work. We do it to have something to do, but mostly for ourselves. We're assembling information on people-on how different ones live. We very much enjoy interacting with them, and especially helping them in any way we can-that gives us special joy. While we are around these beings, we select a moment here and there and excise it from their life. It feels like a tiny memory loss. That moment is collected to be studied, compared with others, shared. In that miniscule slice are the individual's memories, thoughts, sounds, sights, emotions, beliefs, music, morals, loves-just at that second, not their whole lives. And we don't tell them so it will be spontaneous."

"So, you're not stealing out souls?" I asked, only half in jest.

The whole assembly of slight people became very still. The mass of them had developed a blue-green tinge.

"Mica, no, nothing like that. Though this is not the first time this question has come up."

Vuud turned to me, "Remember how we have talked about this among ourselves? A tiny moment of disengagement when our friends visited Merkury? It even happened today when we came here once. But though I've been aware of it, I've never felt that it was a threat. I've felt a warm touch of trust and love everytime."

"Indeed yes, indeed," assented the Slight People in soft unison. Their color had softened into a yellowish or pinkish, depending on the person.

"I've felt it too," Ronnie said.

"I have as well", I agreed. "I guess I'm prickly and not so trusting of my feelings. But I'm really sorry if I offended all of you."

"We understand," said Vasso gently. "Believe me we run into this questioning often. Sometimes a feeling of violation never disappears. But actually, really there is nothing ill-intentioned about it. It's what you would call curiosity, respect, and really, affection."

A wall seemed to open and we could see seven large low rooms. They appeared to be filled with aquaria, clear containers of liquid perhaps two feet high. The view focused in on one of these; they were filled with hundreds of what looked like squash seeds, immersed.

"These seeds they're where we store our 'slices of lives'; no synthetic material could handle such a volume, but the living seeds can."

An excited whispering became a voice from the translucent throng: "Show them themselves."

A picture leaped out of one seed and hung in the air filling the cavern. It was Vuud, lifting his, elbow as he cleaned mockshake off a glass. But it was more than the colors, the shape of Vuud. There was an impact of smell, sound, belief, morality, medical knowledge, sympathy, rage, childhood, Amaline, everything that had constructed that moment. And a feeling of love and respect enveloped it. Vuud himself stumbled back a little as if hit by something heavy.

"That was me! In that moment."

We were silent, taking it in.

Finally, I asked, I'm not exactly sure why, "How many slices of us three do you have so far?"

"We never collect more than twenty of any individual, hundreds of thousands can be stored on a single seed."

"But, I mean how many do you have of each of us?"

"We have eight of you so far, ten of Vuud, and fifteen of Ronnie."

"Oh," I said. Then I quickly added, "Thank you for explaining this all. I hope you'll forgive my suspicion; it's just-the way I am." I felt that they did. I also guessed that they knew that in some dark corner of myself, I wasn't entirely satisfied.

From a distance, we watched the Slight ship as it headed toward the cloud of crazed hurtling space junk. The Slight people had insisted on being physically connected to us through a mag tether. "We know we're not magic," they said."We're going to let them hit us and collect a few on our surface, but we are vulnerable to a number of things. Please stay connected, and if we should experience any incapacitating damage, we're trusting you to tow the ship with you to Wentworth We are, however, expecting good things. "

So, their enormous green squash shaped vessel moved deliberately off ahead of us. I had presented to them the dangers that had defeated and almost destroyed us, but they insisted that nothing would make them happier than this adventure which could also benefit us.Which they did actually seem to be eagerly anticipating.

The Slight people called their ship "Seemax". It was effectively towing us along toward the drone cloud through the Mag tether. We did give them plenty of space and had no plan for joining the excitement.

Seemax appeared to hesitate before entering the bright sparkling orbits of metal as if making last minute preparations. Then the gigantic craft entered the cloud. It must have been using some kind of focused wave generator because the approaching drones did slow as they approached the ship and then sank into its succulent hide. Already there were fifteen or twenty of the objects embedded and of course many more were coming each moment. We held our breath, but saw no damage or even any sign of an impact to their immense hull.

I called them. "Seemax, you have already succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. "Please withdraw from the drone cloud now."

"Mica, this is very exciting and we have sustained some minor damage already. We'll collect a few more and then follow your direction."

Again we watched, sweating, at least I was, I don't know if my shipmates sweat. A small explosion flashed against the ship. It began to reverse its course and return to where we sat. Its skin prickled with more drones. This was an incredible haul in terms of money and as---.Suddenly two identical large drones swooped down from above the green ship to where the pumpkin stem would have been, if it had been a pumpkin, and slammed into it at very high speed. Seemax seemed to shudder. It trembled. Its exterior seemed to squirm like fur rippling on a cat. Abruptly it changed from green to brown.

A thin voice reached me from the Slight People. "You were right Mica, we're gone now. Sending ---(garbled) Sell the drones on Wentworth. Thank you for----."

There was no other sound or movement. No telltale stirring, no pregnant silences followed by their usual giggling; only eternal silence from the Slight ship.I couldn't help but think how this lively crew had boldly thrown themselves into this dangerous venture simply to secure money for me to land on Wentworth. But mostly I was smitten by the loss of our friends. I already missed having them in our sky, shepherding us with their reassuring presence.

We maneuvered Merkury away from Tantus and the horrible satellites swirling endlessly, towing a dead ship.

A tiny thing bounced against Mekury and rolled along out hull. We tensed for the explosion or ripping sound. Then I realized that the thing was from Seemax. As the object rolled past the aft vac ports, we brought it in. It was a rounded oval silvery seed shaped thing; about six centimeters long and pregnant looking. As Ronnie turned it over, it opened up, revealing a small collection of Slight People. Their familiar voices, almost as cheerful as usual caused tears to come to our eyes.

"Something happened Mica. We're the only ones left. Our ship is dead, at least for now. All our people are gone. We were in this safety shell where we can survive and perhaps even multiply. There are fifty of us here. Do not feel sad or sorry. We did what we wanted to do. But please take charge of Seemax, bring her in to Wentworth. Sell the drones. But please make sure the ship is kept secure. And please keep us close by or at least safe in our silver shell."