Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 727
operation. "So do we."
"Sir, we confirmed the test message. Now they're
sending. The message is..."
Lavin staggered over and sat down heavily next to the
man. "Yes, yes?"
"The message... the message is..." The lieutenant took
the telescope away from his eye and rolled over. He looked at
Lavin with a puzzled expression. "It said, 'The queen is alive.'"
Lavin felt his whole body go cold.
What a terrible, terrible joke to play on him. I will kill
the man who thought of this, he decided.
"Signal them. Tell them to stop fooling around and tell
us what’s happening."
The lieutenant ran to comply. Lavin sat gasping. It took
all his willpower not to leap to his feet, and hurl the bast
standing over him into the sky.
The flag man lay with his head and shoulders over the
opening, and began waving the bright banners of his trade.
The lieutenant sat on his legs as he did this. He was still
holding the telescope, so Lavin crab-walked over and snatched
it from him. The metal was freezing cold, like everything at
this altitude. Lavin lay down, inched up to the edge of the door
and looked down.
He was immune to heights now, since he'd felt like he
was falling for days.
It took him a while to find the semaphore man on the
ground. When he did the man was in mid-message. "--is
alive," the flags said. "Galas is here."
"No." He wiped his eyes and looked down again.
Each letter took several waves of the flag, so the next
message came to him with excruciating slowness.
When the message completed he rolled away from the