Nova

by Samuel R. Delany

He was a small man. The only thing red about him Lorq could see were the corners of his eyes. “You see—” Aaron looked tired—“I never mention his deformity. Never.” He looked upset. “I don’t want him to feel inferior. I don’t let anyone point him out as different at all. You must never talk about it in front of him, you see. Not at all.” Father started to say something. But the initial embarrassment of the evening had been his.

Von Ray shrugged. “She thinks it’s dangerous.” He laid the parka over a rock. “We read about your prize at Trantor last month. Congratulations. She may worry about you, but she was as proud as a partridge when she could tell all those stuffy club women you were her

Lorq looked at Brian. The stocky, brown-haired boy with coffee-colored eyes had changed his scuffed leather work-vest for a clean one with iridescent flowers. Lorq was only beginning to realize how dazzled this young man, who had hitched across the universe, was before the wealth, visible and implied, that went with a nineteen-year-old who could race his own yacht and just took off to parties in Paris.

Brian bit at his thumbnail and nodded. “That would be nice. Sometimes I think girls have forgotten I’m alive. Probably be the same, yacht or no.” He laughed. “You ever … brought a girl onto your ship?” Lorq was silent a moment. Then he said, “I have three children.” Now Brian looked surprised. “A boy and two girls. Their mothers are miners on a little Outer Colony world, New Brazillia.” “Oh, you mean you …” Lorq cupped his left hand on his right shoulder, right hand on his left. “We lead very different sorts of lives, I think,” Brian said slowly, “you and I.” “That’s what I was thinking.” Then Lorq grinned.

“And you!” Prince turned to Lorq. “I have a special one for you, too!” Laughing, he lifted down a pirate’s head, with eyepatch, bandana, scarred cheek, and a dagger in bared teeth. It went lightly over Lorq’s head: he was looking through mesh eyeholes in the neck. Prince slapped him on the back. “A pirate, that’s for Von Ray!” he called as Lorq started across the cobble street.

the Outer Colonies will be able to lower the cost of Illyrion by almost a quarter. During that time, Red-shift is going to try to kill us.” He paused. “Knock everything out from under the Von Rays, and ultimately, the whole Pleiades Federation. We have a long way to fall. The only way we can survive is to kill them first; and the only way we can do that is to figure out a way to get Illyrion down to half price before it goes down to three quarters—and how to make those ships.” His father folded his arms. “I didn’t want to get you involved in this, Lorq. I saw the termination of the whole affair coming in my lifetime. But Prince has taken it on himself to strike the first blow at you. It’s only fair you be told what’s happening.”

He frowned and put his hands on his hips, watching the twins amble down the corridor. Idas’ black back was a screen for fragmented constellations. After a moment Katin lifted his recorder, flicked the ruby pips and spoke softly: “Note to myself number twelve thousand eight hundred and ten: Intelligence creates alienation and unhappiness in …” He stopped the recorder. Blinking, he looked after the twins.

“Only if I spent all that time just getting ready, I’d never play a thing; and that’s a hint.”

Clark pointed out the psychological benefits to the society. Ashton Clark, it has been said, was the philosopher who returned humanity to the working man. Under this system, much of the endemic mental illness caused by feelings of alienation left society. The transformation turned war from a rarity to an impossibility, and—after the initial upset—stabilized the economic web of worlds for the last eight hundred years. Ashton Clark became the workers’ prophet. That’s why even today, when a woman or a man is going to change jobs, you send Ashton Clark, or his spirit, along with them.”

“You spoke of love, Lorq,” Ruby cried, gripping the hand. “And this is what it brings you? My death, and the death and destruction of all I’ve ever loved, all I might have loved, even you—?” “You’re in liquid, Prince, so you’ll see them afire before you go. Ruby, the places where you’re already burned won’t be able to sweat. So you’ll die first. He’ll be able to watch you a few moments before his own fluids begin to boil, the rubber runs, the plastic melts—” “No!” The hand jerked from Ruby’s, swung across the room, and smashed into the tank face. “Criminal! Thief! Pirate! Murderer! No—!”

“Ruby …?” Whether or not she had cut herself climbing over the glass, it didn’t matter. The kiss would have done it. So soon after severe burns, even with what the medico could do, she must have been in a hyperallergic state. The alien proteins in Prince’s nutrient fluid had entered her system, causing a massive histamine reaction. She had succumbed in seconds to anaphylactic shock. And Lorq laughed.