Read Xeelee: An Omnibus: Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring for Free Online

flight just wasn’t smooth. Oh, it wasn’t enough to disturb Gover’s extensive slumbers, but to Pallis’s practised senses it was like riding a skitter in a gale. He pressed his ear to the ten-feet-high wall of the trunk; he could feel the bole whirring in its vacuum chamber as it tried to even out the tree’s rotation.
    This felt like a loading imbalance . . . But that was impossible. He’d supervised the stowage of the cargo himself to ensure an even distribution of mass around the rim. For him not to have spotted such a gross imbalance would have been like - well, like forgetting to breathe.
    Then what?
    With a growl of impatience he pushed away from the trunk and stalked to the rim. He began to work around the lashed loads, methodically rechecking each plate and cask and allowing a picture of the tree’s loading to build up in his mind—
    He slowed to a halt. One of the food casks had been broken into; its plastic casing was cracked in two places and half the contents were gone. Hurriedly he checked a nearby water cask. It too was broken open and empty.
    He felt hot breath course through his nostrils. ‘Gover! Gover, come here!’
    The boy came slowly, his thin face twisted with apprehension.
    Pallis stood immobile until Gover got within arm’s reach; then he lashed out with his right hand and grabbed the apprentice’s shoulder. The boy gasped and squirmed, but was unable to break the grip. Pallis pointed at the violated casks. ‘What do you call this?’
    Gover stared at the casks with what looked like real shock. ‘Well, I didn’t do it, pilot. I wouldn’t be so stupid - ah!’
    Pallis worked his thumb deeper into the boy’s joint, searching for the nerve. ‘Did I keep this food from the miners in order to allow you to feast your useless face? Why, you little bonesucker, I’ve a mind to throw you over now. When I get back to the Raft I’ll make sure not a day of your life goes by without the world being told what a lying, thieving . . . little . . .’
    Then he fell silent, his anger dissipating.
    There was still something wrong. The mass of the provisions taken from the casks wasn’t nearly enough to account for the disruption to the tree’s balance. And as for Gover - well, he’d been proven a thief, a liar and worse in the past, but he was right: he wasn’t nearly stupid enough for this.
    Reluctantly he released the boy’s shoulder. Gover rubbed the joint, staring at him resentfully. Pallis scratched his chin. ‘Well, if you didn’t take the stuff, Gover, then who did? Eh?’
    By the Bones, they had a stowaway.
    Swiftly he dropped to all fours and pressed his hands and feet against the wood of a branch. He closed his eyes and let the tiny shuddering speak to him. If the unevenness wasn’t at the rim then where . . . ?
    Abruptly he straightened and half ran about a quarter of the way around the rim, his long toes clutching at the foliage. He paused for a few seconds, hands once more folded around a branch; then he made his way more slowly towards the centre of the tree, stopping about halfway to the trunk.
    There was a little nest in the foliage. Through the bunched leaves he could see a few scraps of discoloured cloth, a twist of unruly black hair, a hand dangling weightless; the hand was that of a boy or young man, he judged, but it was heavily callused and it bore a spatter of tiny wounds.
    Pallis straightened to his full height. ‘Well, here’s our unexpected mass, apprentice. Good shift to you, sir! And would you care for your breakfast now?’
    The nest exploded. Skitters whirled away from the tangle of limbs and flew away, as if indignant; and at last a boy half-stood before Pallis, eyes bleary with sleep, mouth a circle of shock.
    Gover sidled up beside Pallis. ‘By the Bones, it’s a mine rat.’
    Pallis looked from one boy to the other. The two seemed about the same age, but where Gover was well-fed and ill-muscled, the stowaway had ribs like an anatomical model’s and his