The Enigma Score by Sheri S. Tepper Read Free Book Online

girlfriends, though. All women were rivals, no matter how young or old. Poor Celcy. Dear Celcy.
    ‘You said dinner?’
    ‘After the show, he said. He wants to talk to you.’
    Jaconi caught him at lunch, very full of his newest theory. ‘I’m convinced I’ve found a repetitive sequence, Tas! A similarity that crops up in over ten percent of all successful Petitions and Justifications.’
    ‘Don’t be pedantic, Jacky. Call them PJs like everyone else does.’
    The older man flushed, ran his fingers through his gray beard as though he were combing mice out of it. ‘Habit. Trying to stay dignified in front of the students. Hell, you were my student.’
    ‘I remember. And you were a good teacher, too. You should have stayed with it instead of taking the library job.’
    ‘Well, it gives me time to – you know. I know you call it my hobbyhorse, Tas, but it isn’t just that. Really. Some days I think I’m that close.’ He held up a pinched thumb and finger, almost meeting. ‘That close. I know we’re actually talking to the things! It almost seems I can understand what the words are….’
    ‘Until someone comes along with a new PJ?’
    ‘No, that’s been the trouble up until now. I’ve been assuming all the … PJs should have a common element, right? But what if Erickson was right? What if it is really language.’ Jaconi’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, and he looked around to be sure no one was listening. ‘I mean, we don’t always say the same things under similar circumstances. Suppose I step on your toe. I could say, “Gee, I’m sorry,” or “Excuse me,” or “That was clumsy of me,” or “Oh, shit,” or any one of a dozen other things, all equally appropriate.’
    ‘That’s true.’ Tasmin was interested, despite himself.
    ‘Always before, I was looking for identical elements. All those translators I bought, I was always looking for words or phrases or effects that were the same and had the same effect. But if we don’t always say the same thing to convey the same emotion, then maybe the Presences don’t either and what I should be looking for is clusters. Right?’
    ‘It sounds logical.’
    ‘Well, so that’s what I’m looking for now. I may even have found some. There are similar elements in about ten percent of all PJs.’
    ‘What do you mean, similar?’
    ‘Tone progressions of vowel sounds, mostly. With similar orchestrals. Horns and drums. There’s percussion in ninety-five percent of the clusters and horns in over eighty percent, and the other twenty have organ effects that are rather like horn sounds.’
    Jaconi’s description had set off a chain of recollection in Tasmin’s mind, and he reached for it, rubbing his forehead. ‘Jacky, I brought you the new Enigma score a week or so ago.’
    ‘You poor guy. I looked it over after you left it and it was a bitch.’
    ‘Well, yeah, it was complex, but not that bad, really. The Explorer’s notes were excellent; I’ve never seen better. It did have a long sequence at the first of the PJs, though, lots of vowel progressions in thirds and fifths and percussion and horns.’
    ‘Who came up with it?’
    ‘Some explorer who normally works way up in the northwest. Don Furz? Does it ring a bell?’
    ‘Furz’s Rogue Tower Variations. Furz’s Creeping Desert Suite. Furz’s Canon for Fanglings.’ He pronounced it ‘Farzh.’
    ‘Oh, Farzh . I should have realized.’
    ‘When’s it scheduled for trial?’
    ‘It isn’t. The Master General wanted it on file, that’s all.’
    ‘No volunteers?’
    ‘That’s a bad joke, Jacky. We’ve been trying the Enigma for about a hundred years and what’s the score by now? Enigma, about eighty. Tripsingers, zero. We won’t have a volunteer unless we have someone set on suicide.’
    Celcy had spent the week prior to the concert creating a new dress. Deepsoil Five was hardly a hotbed of fashion, and she often made her own clothing, copying things she saw in holos from the