The Mercy of Gods

Tkson leads the research team through winding hallways. They pass many other aliens, including Rak-Hund, Soft Lothark, and others they don’t recognize. Tkson says they’re allowed access to these pathways and the complex where they’ll work. Tkson shows them to a laboratory resembling the one they used in Anjiin and explains that the team will continue the kinds of work they did at home.

It shows them a creature that looks a bit like a turtle and then something that looks like red berries on a branch, explaining that the specimens come from two different planetary systems. Their task is to translate one biome to the other, so that the berries will nourish the “not-turtle.” Dafyd asks what happens if they can’t do it, and if other alien groups have been given the same task. Tkson replies, “The only test is whether a subject species is useful. Usefulness is survival” (156).

The team confers. They suspect that they’ll be killed if they fail this test. Tonner is strangely excited and makes plans to expand the research they began at home. Rickar watches everyone’s reactions. Jessyn seems energized by the sense of purpose. Dafyd stands at the back, watching silently. Tonner orders the team to work in pairs, with round-the-clock shifts so that someone is always in the lab while the others rest in their quarters. The pairs will be Tonner and Dafyd, Jessyn and Irinna, and Else and Campar. Synnia refuses to help. Rickar asks who he’ll work with, and Tonner orders him to stay out of the way.

Ekur of the cohort Tkalal is a “subjugator-librarian for the sixteenth dactyl of the third limb of the twentieth exploratory body” (161). It commands lower-level librarians and takes its orders from a higher-ranked librarian, who in turns receives commands from the Sovran. Aboard a colony ship, Ekur approaches a new planet that the Carryx plan to conquer. The Carryx observed the Indigenous species, the Eelie of planet Ayayeh (who appear powerless) and are ready to attack.

Ekur orders its colonizing force to the planet, anticipating an easy victory. Then, reports arrive that the Indigenous species is resisting. Half the force is killed in one attack. Reports of more losses arrive. Ekur realizes that it’s a trap. Rifts in space open, and enemy ships pour out. Ekur sends a message to its superiors, requesting instructions.

The battle rages for three weeks. Ekur loses ships but gains prisoners. As the Carryx battle, Ekur laments its place in society. Though librarian status is higher than soldier status, they’re both genderless “genetic dead ends” (169) consigned to interact with the animals they subjugate. The gendered moieties of the Carryx tasked with production view them both with contempt.

Finally, Ekur receives instructions from its superiors to abandon the other ships, take the prisoners it has captured, and retreat.

Jessyn tries to distract herself from her deteriorating mental state. She begins to imagine herself drowning but tells herself she isn’t truly suicidal until she starts actively making plans. The pairs work on the experiment, testing the cellular composition of the berries and the not-turtles. Over time, the team discovers that the berries are colonies of tiny organisms. The team expresses frustration with their meager supplies, which don’t include paper or pens and hinder their progress. While they work in the lab, another alien species that look like monkeys harasses them. No one can understand them or determine if they’re trying to communicate with them or annoy them.

Later, Jessyn stands in their kitchen with Campar, Rickar, and Irinna. Suddenly, Campar freezes and begins to hyperventilate. Jessyn recognizes a panic attack and gently talks to him until he calms down. He apologizes for being broken, but Jessyn says they’re all broken, which is understandable under the circumstances.

The perspective shifts. The swarm lies on its bed, surprised by its own sensations of fear, hunger, and desire. It wasn’t built to experience such things, but its interactions with its hosts have irrevocably altered it. It can smell Campar’s panic and hear Jessyn’s calming voice. The swarm is frustrated because it’s the first of its kind to gain access to a Carryx ziggurat. It wants to investigate but can’t risk discovery. Instead, it mimics the behavior of those around it.

Tonner and Dafyd discover that the tiny organisms that make up the red berries are a kind of microorganic farm or nutrient factory. Tonner calls it “an environment […] under management” (185). He thinks they may be able to reprogram the microorganisms to create any kind of nutrient they want. Campar and Else arrive to replace them, and they head back to their quarters. However, Dafyd decides he needs space, so he wanders through the hallways to an enormous common room that all the resident species share. He calls it the cathedral room because of its size and vaulted ceilings.

Dafyd finds the size of the space and the multitude of aliens around him awing and terrifying but resolves to accustom himself to it. He remembers fearing spiders as a child. He forced himself to hold a spider day after day until it no longer frightened him. When he showed his mother his success, she laughed and said, “My little Dafyd just hates anything telling him what to do” (189). He hates to be controlled by anything, even his own impulses and phobias.

Dafyd observes the aliens, including a species that look like bone horses. He notices that some aliens have small black boxes he recognizes as translators. This means that the Carryx allow some aliens to communicate but not others. He has the sudden insight that the Carryx have strange blind spots about what humans do and don’t need and that their instructions leave much open to interpretation. He approaches a Carryx in the hallway and asks if he can speak to his librarian. The Carryx leads Dafyd through more corridors to a door. Inside, Tkson greets him dispassionately.

Hours later, Dafyd returns to the team’s quarters, smiling triumphantly and carrying something like paper. He announces that he even got pens.

Jessyn obsessively worries about her medication. She has one pill left, though she has been spreading them out dangerously and fears for her sanity. One day in the lab, she has the sudden inspiration that if they can train the microorganic farm to make any nutrient, she might be able to coax it into making her medication. Excited, she leaves Irinna alone in the lab to retrieve the pill from her room for testing.

However, when she returns to the lab, it’s burning and destroyed. The monkey aliens are attacking Irinna and smashing their equipment. Jessyn fights them off, though she’s injured. Irinna says the monkeys set an explosive and then attacked. Fighting through pain, Jessyn carries Irinna back to their rooms, explains what happened, and then collapses. When she wakes, Else says that Irinna died.

Tonner orders Dafyd to lead him to Tkson’s room. He furiously demands protection, insisting that they can’t work if they aren’t safe. Tkson is unmoved. Dafyd interrupts Tonner to ask about the aliens that attacked them. Tkson says they’re called Night Drinkers, and they’re performing the same test. Dafyd understands that if they can complete the test before the Night Drinkers, they’ll prove they’re more useful. The competition is part of the point. They leave Tkson and head back to their rooms. Tonner admonishes Dafyd for interrupting him and reminds him that Tonner is in charge.

The team realizes that they misunderstood the rules of the test; the Carryx clearly encourage competition and sabotage. Tonner says they’ll move the experiment to the kitchen so that they can guard themselves better, and then they’ll solve the puzzle before the Night Drinkers do.

Later, Tonner speaks with Jessyn. She explains that she takes medication for “emotional and cognitive issues” (212), which she wished to keep private for fear of bias against her at work. Even after the Carryx attacked, she habitually kept it secret. She hoped to replicate her medications. Tonner is furious that she left Irinna and that she kept this secret for so long. He blames her for Irinna’s death.

That night, Tonner enters Else’s room. Though Else has rebuffed his advances since they came to the ziggurat, telling him that things are different now, he says he needs her support as the second team lead, not as a girlfriend. He believed that he could keep the team safe if they did what they were told. Now, he doesn’t know what to do and is afraid. He cries, and Else hugs him.

The swarm sits on the bed with Tonner’s head on its chest. Its feelings and Else’s have mixed. Else once found Tonner powerful and attractive. Now she finds him exhausting. Instead, she recalls her kiss with Dafyd just before the Carryx attack, though she was already dead; the swarm had taken control. The swarm shares these feelings. It feels regret and desire. It realizes that it was “designed as a tool of war” (216) but has somehow become something much different.

Following the Night Drinker attack, life continues. They pick up their work again. They cook, sleep, and tell jokes. They salvage supplies from the ruined laboratory and set up a station in their kitchen. With Irinna gone, Tonner allows Rickar to rejoin the team. Jessyn offers to help despite recovering from her injuries. Tonner again accuses her of getting Irinna killed and tells her to stay away.

Dafyd thinks Jessyn might have inadvertently saved them by providing them with more information. The attack revealed things they didn’t know about the test, the other aliens, and what the Carryx want from them. He now suspects that part of the test of proving their usefulness is proving that they can provide for themselves rather than being a drain on the Carryx’s own resources. Tonner is annoyed with Dafyd for once again interrupting and disagreeing with him. Campar and Else both consider Dafyd’s analysis of the situation sound. Campar thinks this moment is a power shift, as Tonner’s authority with the team wanes and Dafyd’s increases.