Dreamsnake

Our Hero

by Nisi Shawl

I am not going to tell you about the time Vonda trimmed my toenails. If she were alive and in charge of this essay, she’d prefer me to dwell on that sort of demystifying anecdote, but she’s not. So I get to let my high-flown praise soar free, unhindered by her briskly deployed self-effacement. I get to say stuff like this:

Calling all who adore the sublime made actual, and all who revere those among us who are reaching beyond the comfort of assumption and habit to find new delights: Here is a set of shoulders we can stand on. Here is an oeuvre challenging the status of every quo. Vonda N. McIntyre excelled thoroughly, joyfully, fiercely, and bravely in creative writing, a genre combining the best of play and learning. In these books, she explores in skillful detail scenarios dramatizing the science fictional implications of her social justice–based philosophies. And she does this so well that even decades later they remain gratifyingly resonant with current progressive thought.

Take feminism. Vonda N. McIntyre’s books are to the tenets of feminism as constellations are to stars: her imagination knits the movement’s far-flung truths into fiery nets of meaning. Women are people, according to feminist theory, and that’s who they act like in Barbary, and the Starfarer series, and in everything Vonda wrote. Her female characters are stowaways and astronomers, doctors and mathematicians and politicians and thieves. They’re various. They’re multidimensional. And they hold together half the sky—they do things. In the novel named for her, Barbary smuggles her pet cat aboard a space station and averts galactic catastrophe. Superluminal’s Laenea Trevelyan pilots starships between galaxies. They’re active heroes—not passive, Joseph-Campbellian heroes’ rewards.

Or take anti-colonialism. Through differences imposed on their physical bodies, the characters of Fireflood and Superluminal demonstrate some of the ways colonizing systems can become deeply rooted in the colonized, and also how this rooting’s unforeseen consequences can aid activists organizing against the dominant paradigm. In The Moon and the Sun, much-scorned Caribbean colonial Marie-Josèphe fights the decadent court of Louis Quatorze for the rights of a sentient sea creature.

Then there’s the struggle to overthrow ableism. Vonda’s depiction of Marie-Josèphe’s romance with Count Lucien, a dwarf, shows her lucid understanding of the issues, a lucidity also at play in the short story Wings, and elsewhere in her work.

But don’t let all this relevance scare you. Vonda N. McIntyre’s writing is not only politically sound, it’s good. It’s gorgeous: She flew toward the mountains of sunrise until darkness engulfed her and the stars seemed so close that she might pull them across her shoulders, reads a sentence midway through The Mountains of Sunset, the Mountains of Dawn. It’s funny: She gave up her heart quite willingly, declares the first line of Superluminal, introducing us to its surgically modified star-pilot hero. It’s grim, sad, surprising. It’s lush when lushness serves the story’s aims, and spare when too many words would get in the way of what just must be said.

It’s a gift. And it’s ours to cherish. Ours to grow on. Ours to love. Ours to learn from. Our legacy.

Way back in 1973, one of Vonda’s earliest forays into writing science fiction, Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand, helped the genre transform itself from a literary community awkwardly stuck in valorizing patriarchal values into a wildly and joyously inclusive one. A woman’s-eye view of post-apocalyptic life and healing that draws on the author’s education in biology and genetics, that story combines rigorous science with a radically different vision of cultures to come. It won Vonda her first major award—the 1974 Nebula for Best Novelette—and became the first chapter of her Hugo- and Nebula-winning novel, 1979’s Dreamsnake.

Between winning her first and second Nebulas, Vonda kept pushing at the genre’s self-limitations. In 1976 she coedited the first anthology of feminist science fiction, Aurora: Beyond Equality. And before that, in 1975, she published The Exile Waiting, her first novel, a debut praised by sister-iconoclast Joanna Russ as beautifully, vividly real.

And before that, in 1971, she did me and countless other marginalized writers a solid favor by starting the six-week writing workshop Clarion West. Modeling it on the original Clarion she attended in 1970 (alongside her new friend, Octavia E. Butler), Vonda made a stunning array of teaching professionals serially available. She brought Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel R. Delany, Joanna Russ, Frank Herbert, Avram Davidson—and more! writers galore!—together with dozens of eager students, some of them now acclaimed professionals themselves. From the get-go, Vonda imbued the workshop’s culture with her enthusiasm for diversity. It has made a literal difference in the face of the field, coloring in its membership to match humanity’s wide spectrum. Clarion West, in turn, inspired the Writing the Other book, essays, and courses I teach, courses made more accessible to would-be practitioners of inclusive writing via the Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Scholarship fund. A donation Vonda made founded the fund, which was named in honor of one of her Starfarers characters, the squidmoth Nemo. So far, it has provided Writing the Other students with over $20,000 in financial assistance.

As the years pass, I’m sure we’ll discover myriad more ways Vonda furthered science fiction’s maturation. I’m sure there are many, many accounts out there of how she supported underrepresented voices and helped some of us establish ourselves as literary forces to be reckoned with. Here are a couple of narratives I can share to illustrate this: Vonda pitched in beside me when it was time to build my website, pointing me to online resources for background graphics and offering wise and timely counsel as to the site architecture. She also answered my no-doubt-scientifically-naïve questions about how to get a character I was creating to grow gills over the course of a weekend.

I know there are other stories along these lines, just as I know that Vonda is sorely, sorely missed. I know lots of us long for the warm scones she baked and the cool jokes she made at her own expense, right up till the end. (It’s alive! she shrieked on March 28, 2019, rising claw-handed from the blankets under which she died a few days later.) I know that we who received her beaded sea creatures treasure them and wish more were being crocheted by her once-again-active fingers. And I know we wish we had more of the stories she should have, could have, would have told us. We don’t. We can’t.

But we can have these. And the more often we have them, the better.

Though she died years ago, Vonda’s work continues to blaze away in our literary heavens like newly synthesized gems. Or like relevant dreams, or like stars that are homes to mysterious aliens flying faster and further than thought. Pick a metaphor for brilliance and you’ll be describing what Vonda wrote.

Of course her stories shine brightest when they’re read. That’s the whole point of publishing them in these new editions: getting them read. Read and also reread, because each interaction between an author’s story and her audience births a new understanding of it. And each new understanding births a newly imagined world.

And each newly imagined world demonstrates her power. Ours too.

Welcome to the ever-fresh, continually expanding, immortal works of Vonda N. McIntyre. Our hero.

Chapter 1

The little boy was frightened. Gently, Snake touched his hot forehead. Behind her, three adults stood close together, watching, suspicious, afraid to show their concern with more than narrow lines around their eyes. They feared Snake as much as they feared their only child’s death. In the dimness of the tent, the strange blue glow of the lantern gave no reassurance.

The child watched with eyes so dark the pupils were not visible, so dull that Snake herself feared for his life. She stroked his hair. It was long, and very pale, dry and irregular for several inches near the scalp, a striking color against his dark skin. Had Snake been with these people months ago, she would have known the child was growing ill.

Bring my case, please, Snake said.

The child’s parents started at her soft voice. Perhaps they had expected the screech of a bright jay, or the hissing of a shining serpent. This was the first time Snake had spoken in their presence. She had only watched, when the three of them had come to observe her from a distance and whisper about her occupation and her youth; she had only listened, and then nodded, when finally they came to ask her help. Perhaps they had thought she was mute.

The fair-haired younger man lifted her leather case. He held the satchel away from his body, leaning to hand it to her, breathing shallowly with nostrils flared against the faint smell of musk in the dry desert air.

Snake had almost accustomed herself to the kind of uneasiness he showed; she had already seen it often.

When Snake reached out, the young man jerked back and dropped the case. Snake lunged and barely caught it, gently set it on the felt floor, and glanced at him with reproach. His partners came forward and touched him to ease his fear. He was bitten once, the dark and handsome woman said. He almost died. Her tone was not of apology, but of justification.

I’m sorry, the younger man said. It’s— He gestured toward her; he was trembling, but trying visibly to control himself. Snake glanced to her shoulder, where she had been unconsciously aware of the slight weight and movement. A tiny serpent, thin as the finger of a baby, slid himself around her neck to show his narrow head below her short black curls. He probed the air with his trident tongue, in a leisurely manner, out, up and down, in, to savor the taste of the smells. It’s only Grass, Snake said. He can’t hurt you. If he were bigger, he might be frightening: his color was pale green, but the scales around his mouth were red, as if he had just feasted as a mammal eats, by tearing. He was, in fact, much neater.

The child whimpered. He cut off the sound of pain; perhaps he had been told that Snake, too, would be offended by crying. She only felt sorry that his people refused themselves such a simple way of easing fear. She turned from the adults, regretting their terror of her but unwilling to spend the time it would take to persuade them to trust her. It’s all right, she said to the little boy. Grass is smooth, and dry, and soft, and if I left him to guard you, even death could not reach your bedside. Grass poured himself into her narrow, dirty hand, and she extended him toward the child. Gently. He reached out and touched the sleek scales with one fingertip. Snake could sense the effort of even such a simple motion, yet the boy almost smiled.

What are you called?

He looked quickly toward his parents, and finally they nodded.

Stavin, he whispered. He had no breath or strength for speaking.

I am Snake, Stavin, and in a little while, in the morning, I must hurt you. You may feel a quick pain, and your body will ache for several days, but you’ll be better afterward.

He stared at her solemnly. Snake saw that though he understood and feared what she might do, he was less afraid than if she had lied to him. The pain must have increased greatly as his illness became more apparent, but it seemed that others had only reassured him, and hoped the disease would disappear or kill him quickly.

Snake put Grass on the boy’s pillow and pulled her case nearer. The adults still could only fear her; they had had neither time nor reason to discover any trust. The woman of the partnership was old enough that they might never have another child unless they partnered again, and Snake could tell by their eyes, their covert touching, their concern, that they loved this one very much. They must, to come to Snake in this country.

Sluggish, Sand slid out of the case, moving his head, moving his tongue, smelling, tasting, detecting the warmths of bodies.

Is that—? The eldest partner’s voice was low and wise, but terrified, and Sand sensed the fear. He drew back into striking position and sounded his rattle softly. Snake stroked her hand along the floor, letting the vibrations distract him, then moved her hand up and extended her arm. The diamondback relaxed and wrapped his body around and around her wrist to form black and tan bracelets.

No, she said. Your child is too ill for Sand to help. I know it’s hard, but please try to be calm. This is a fearful thing for you, but it is all I can do.

She had to annoy Mist to make her come out. Snake rapped on the bag, and finally poked her twice. Snake felt the vibration of sliding scales, and suddenly the albino cobra flung herself into the tent. She moved quickly, yet there seemed to be no end to her. She reared back and up. Her breath rushed out in a hiss. Her head rose well over a meter above the floor. She flared her wide hood. Behind her, the adults gasped, as if physically assaulted by the gaze of the tan spectacle design on the back of Mist’s hood. Snake ignored the people and spoke to the great cobra, focusing her attention by her words.

Furious creature, lie down. It’s time to earn thy dinner. Speak to this child and touch him. He is called Stavin.

Slowly, Mist relaxed her hood and allowed Snake to touch her. Snake grasped her firmly behind the head and held her so she looked at Stavin. The cobra’s silver eyes picked up the blue of the lamplight.

Stavin, Snake said, Mist will only meet you now. I promise that this time she will touch you gently.

Still, Stavin shivered when Mist touched his thin chest. Snake did not release the serpent’s head, but allowed her body to slide against the boy’s. The cobra was four times longer than Stavin was tall. She curved herself in stark white loops across his swollen abdomen, extending herself, forcing her head toward the boy’s face, straining against Snake’s hands. Mist met Stavin’s frightened stare with the gaze of lidless eyes. Snake allowed her a little closer.

Mist nicked out her tongue to taste the child.

The younger man made a small, cut-off, frightened sound. Stavin flinched at it, and Mist drew back, opening her mouth, exposing her fangs, audibly thrusting her breath through her throat. Snake sat back on her heels, letting out her own breath. Sometimes, in other places, the kinfolk could stay while she worked.

You must leave, she said gently. It’s dangerous to frighten Mist.

I won’t—

I’m sorry. You must wait outside.

Perhaps the fair-haired youngest partner, perhaps even Stavin’s mother, would have made the indefensible objections and asked the answerable questions, but the white-haired man turned them and took their hands and led them away.

I need a small animal, Snake said as he lifted the tent flap. It must have fur, and it must be alive.

One will be found, he said, and the three parents went into the glowing night. Snake could hear their footsteps in the sand outside.

Snake supported Mist in her lap and soothed her. The cobra wrapped herself around Snake’s waist, taking in her warmth. Hunger made the cobra even more nervous than usual, and she was hungry, as was Snake. Coming across the black-sand desert, they had found sufficient water, but Snake’s traps had been unsuccessful. The season was summer, the weather was hot, and many of the furry tidbits Sand and Mist preferred were estivating. Since she had brought them into the desert, away from home, Snake had begun a fast as well.

She saw with regret that Stavin was more frightened now. I’m sorry to send your parents away, she said. They can come back soon.

His eyes glistened, but he held back the tears. They said to do what you told me.

I would have you cry, if you are able, Snake said. It isn’t such a terrible thing. But Stavin seemed not to understand, and Snake did not press him; she thought his people must teach themselves to resist a difficult land by refusing to cry, refusing to mourn, refusing to laugh. They denied themselves grief, and allowed themselves little joy, but they survived.

Mist had calmed to sullenness. Snake unwrapped her from her waist and placed the serpent on the pallet next to Stavin. As the cobra moved, Snake guided her head, feeling the tension of the striking-muscles. She will touch you with her tongue, she told Stavin. It might tickle, but it will not hurt. She smells with it, as you do with your nose.

With her tongue?

Snake nodded, smiling, and Mist flicked out her tongue to caress Stavin’s cheek. Stavin did not flinch; he watched, his child’s delight in knowledge briefly overcoming pain. He lay perfectly still as Mist’s long tongue brushed his cheeks, his eyes, his mouth. She tastes the sickness, Snake said. Mist stopped fighting the restraint of her grasp, and drew back her head. Snake sat on her heels and released the cobra, who spiraled up her arm and laid herself across her shoulders.

Go to sleep, Stavin, Snake said. Try to trust me, and try not to fear the morning.

Stavin gazed at her for a few seconds, searching for truth in Snake’s pale eyes. Will Grass watch?

She was startled by the question, or, rather, by the acceptance behind the question. She brushed his hair from his forehead and smiled a smile that was tears just beneath the surface. Of course. She picked Grass up. Watch this child, and guard him. The dreamsnake lay quiet in her hand, and his eyes glittered black. She laid him gently on Stavin’s pillow.

Now sleep.

Stavin closed his eyes, and the life seemed to flow out of him. The alteration was so great that Snake reached out to touch him, then saw that he was breathing, slowly, shallowly. She tucked a blanket around him and stood up. The abrupt change in position dizzied her; she staggered and caught herself. Across her shoulder, Mist tensed.

Snake’s eyes stung and her vision was oversharp, fever-clear. The sound she imagined she heard swooped in closer. She steadied herself against hunger and exhaustion, bent slowly, and picked up the leather case. Mist touched her cheek with the tip of her tongue.

She pushed aside the tent flap and felt relief that it was still night. She could stand the daytime heat, but the brightness of the sun curled through her, burning. The moon must be full; though the clouds obscured everything, they diffused the light so the sky appeared gray from horizon to horizon. Beyond the tents, groups of formless shadows projected from the ground. Here, near the edge of the desert, enough water existed so clumps and patches of bush grew, providing shelter and sustenance for all manner of creatures. The black sand, which sparkled and blinded in the sunlight, at night was like a layer of soft soot. Snake stepped out of the tent, and the illusion of softness disappeared; her boots slid crunching into the sharp hard grains.

Stavin’s family waited, sitting close together between the dark tents that clustered in a patch of sand from which the bushes had been ripped and burned. They looked at her silently, hoping with their eyes, showing no expression in their faces. A woman somewhat younger than Stavin’s mother sat with them. She was dressed, as they were, in long loose desert robes, but she wore the only adornment Snake had seen among these people: a leader’s circle, hanging around her neck on a leather thong. She and Stavin’s eldest parent were marked close kin by their similarities: sharp-cut planes of face, high cheekbones, his hair white and hers graying early from deep black, their eyes the dark brown best suited for survival in the sun. On the ground by their feet a small black animal jerked sporadically against a net, and infrequently gave a shrill weak cry.

Stavin is asleep, Snake said. Do not disturb him, but go to him if he wakes.

Stavin’s mother and the youngest partner rose and went inside, but the older man stopped before her. Can you help him?

I hope so. The tumor is advanced, but it seems solid. Her own voice sounded removed, ringing slightly false, as if she were lying. Mist will be ready in the morning. She still felt the need to give him reassurance, but she could think of none.

My sister wished to speak with you, he said, and left them alone, without introduction, without elevating himself by saying that the tall woman was the leader of this group. Snake glanced back, but the tent flap fell shut. She was feeling her exhaustion more deeply, and across her shoulders Mist was, for the first time, a weight she thought heavy.

Are you all right?

Snake turned. The woman moved toward her with a natural elegance made slightly awkward by advanced pregnancy. Snake had to look up to meet her gaze. She had small, fine lines at the corners of her eyes and beside her mouth, as if she laughed, sometimes, in secret. She smiled, but with concern. You seem very tired. Shall I have someone make you a bed?

Not now, Snake said, not yet. I won’t sleep until afterward.

The leader searched her face, and Snake felt a kinship with her in their shared responsibility.

I understand, I think. Is there anything we can give you? Do you need aid with your preparations?

Snake found herself having to deal with the questions as if they were complex problems. She turned them in her tired mind, examined them, dissected them, and finally grasped their meanings. My pony needs food and water—

It is taken care of.

And I need someone to help with Mist. Someone strong. But it’s more important that they aren’t afraid.

The leader nodded. I would help you, she said, and smiled again, a little. But I am a bit clumsy of late. I will find someone.

Thank you.

Somber again, the older woman inclined her head and moved slowly toward a small group of tents. Snake watched her go, admiring her grace. She felt small and young and grubby in comparison.

His body tensed to hunt, Sand slid in circles from Snake’s wrist. She caught him before he could drop to the ground. Sand lifted the upper half of his body from her hands. He flicked out his tongue, peering toward the little animal, sensing its body heat, tasting its fear. I know thou art hungry, Snake said. But that creature is not for thee. She put Sand in the case, took Mist from her shoulders, and let the cobra coil herself in her dark compartment.

The small animal shrieked and struggled again when Snake’s diffuse shadow passed over it. She bent and picked the creature up. Its rapid series of terrified cries slowed and diminished and finally stopped as she stroked it. It lay still, breathing hard, exhausted, staring up at her with yellow eyes. It had long hind legs and wide pointed ears, and its nose twitched at the serpent smell. Its soft black fur was marked off in skewed squares by the cords of the net.

I am sorry to take your life, Snake told it. But there will be no more fear, and I will not hurt you. She closed her hand gently around the animal and, stroking it, grasped its spine at the base of its skull. She pulled, once, quickly. It seemed to struggle for an instant, but it was already dead. It convulsed; its legs drew up against its body and its toes curled and quivered. It seemed to stare up at her, even now. She freed its body from the net.

Snake chose a small vial from her belt pouch, pried open the animal’s clenched jaws, and let a single drop of the vial’s cloudy preparation fall into its mouth. Quickly she opened the satchel again and called Mist out. The cobra came slowly, slipping over the edge, hood closed, sliding in the sharp-grained sand. Her milky scales caught the thin light. She smelled the animal, flowed to it, touched it with her tongue. For a moment Snake was afraid she would refuse dead meat, but the body was still warm, still twitching, and she was very hungry. A tidbit for thee. Snake spoke to the cobra: a habit of solitude. To whet thine appetite. Mist nosed the beast, reared back, and struck, sinking her short fixed fangs into the tiny body, biting again, pumping out her store of poison. She released it, took a better grip, and began to work her jaws around it. It would hardly distend her throat. When Mist lay quiet, digesting the small meal, Snake sat beside her and held her, waiting.

She heard footsteps in the sand.

I’m sent to help you.

He was a young man, despite a scatter of white in his black hair. He was taller than Snake, and not unattractive. His eyes were dark, and the sharp planes of his face were further hardened because his hair was pulled straight back and tied. His expression was neutral.

Are you afraid? Snake asked.

I will do as you tell me.

Though his form was obscured by his robe, his long, fine hands showed strength.

Then hold her body, and don’t let her surprise you. Mist was beginning to twitch, the effect of the drugs Snake had put in the small animal. The cobra’s eyes stared, unseeing.

If it bites—

Hold, quickly!

The young man reached, but he had hesitated too long. Mist writhed, lashing out, striking him in the face with her tail. He staggered back, at least as surprised as hurt. Snake kept a close grip behind Mist’s jaws, and struggled to catch the rest of her as well. Mist was no constrictor, but she was smooth and strong and fast. Thrashing, she forced out her breath in a long hiss. She would have bitten anything she could reach. As Snake fought with her, she managed to squeeze the poison glands and force out the last drops of venom. They hung from Mist’s fangs for a moment, catching light as jewels would; the force of the serpent’s convulsions flung them away into the darkness. Snake struggled with the cobra, aided for once by the sand, on which Mist could get little purchase. Snake felt the young man behind her, grabbing for Mist’s body and tail. The seizure stopped abruptly, and Mist lay limp in their hands.

I am sorry—

Hold her, Snake said. We have the night to go.

During Mist’s second convulsion, the young man held her firmly and was of some real help. Afterward, Snake answered his interrupted question. If she were making poison and she bit you, you would probably die. Even now her bite would make you ill. But unless you do something foolish, if she manages to bite, she’ll bite me.

You would benefit my cousin little if you were dead or dying.

You misunderstand. Mist can’t kill me. Snake held out her hand so he could see the white scars of slashes and punctures. He stared at them, and looked into her eyes for a long moment, then looked away.

The bright spot in the clouds from which the light radiated moved westward in the sky; they held the cobra like a child. Snake nearly dozed, but Mist moved her head, dully attempting to evade restraint, and Snake woke herself abruptly. I mustn’t sleep, she said to the young man. Talk to me. What are you called?

As Stavin had, the young man hesitated. He seemed afraid of her, or of something. My people, he said, think it unwise to speak our names to strangers.

If you consider me a witch you should not have asked my aid. I know no magic, and I claim none.

It’s not a superstition, he said. Not as you might think. We’re not afraid of being bewitched.

I can’t learn all the customs of all the people on this earth, so I keep my own. My custom is to address those I work with by name. Watching him, Snake tried to decipher his expression in the dim light.

Our families know our names, and we exchange names with our partners.

Snake considered that custom, and thought it would fit badly on her. No one else? Ever?

Well … a friend might know one’s name.

Ah, Snake said. I see. I am still a stranger, and perhaps an enemy.

"A friend would know my name, the young man said again. I would not offend you, but now you misunderstand. An acquaintance is not a friend. We value friendship highly."

In this land one should be able to tell quickly if a person is worth calling friend.

We take friends seldom. Friendship is a great commitment.

It sounds like something to be feared.

He considered that possibility. Perhaps it’s the betrayal of friendship we fear. That is a very painful thing.

Has anyone ever betrayed you?

He glanced at her sharply, as if she had exceeded the limits of propriety. No, he said, and his voice was as hard as his face. No friend. I have no one I call friend.

His reaction startled Snake. That’s very sad, she said, and grew silent, trying to comprehend the deep stresses that could close people off so far, comparing her loneliness of necessity and theirs of choice. Call me Snake, she said finally, if you can bring yourself to pronounce it. Saying my name binds you to nothing.

The young man seemed about to speak; perhaps he thought again that he had offended her, perhaps he felt he should further defend his