Katabasis

Rich tourists pay a fortune for the honor and misery of walking across an alien habitat, and a few powerful porters make their livings helping the tourists endure the impossible gravity. Katabasis is like nobody else. A species with a population of one, she came to the Great Ship by the most unusual means, and in the course of her duties as a porter, she will meet the most singular human.

"The girl always woke early, long before the sun set. Bad dreams woke her, and good ones too. The heat woke her. Breathing the thick, toxic, and very dusty air hurt her lungs, and she would roll to her side and cough hard and ache all the worse, unable to fall back to sleep. Sometimes her lover woke her with his coughing and his dreams, and then they would lie in the hot shadow beneath the mirrored tent, talking about critical matters -- water rations and food stocks and the distance to be covered tonight and the little hints of terrain visible in the fiery glare of the plains. It was important to plan your night's walk and then grab an early start. The People were moving in a wide line, shoulder to shoulder as they pushed across the wilderness, and it was best to get ahead of the dust kicked up by all of those feet and wheels. And if there was time after their planning, or if one of them was especially sad, the other would mention the humans and their Great Ship. These were the ambitions, and everyone needed ambitions. Not like they needed water, no, but the Great Ship was everything that water and food couldn't supply. It didn't represent hope; it was the only hope. Its hallways and giant wedge-rooms offered rest to the weary, and the body and mind would be rejuvenated and then enlarged -- relentless long life and profound brains ready to be filled with experience and joy that would endure for thousands and millions of years."

Robert Reed has been writing Great Ship stories for more than two decades. "Katabasis" was nominated for the Nebula Award.


Genre: Science Fiction