‘How can we be doing this?’ she said suddenly.
‘Doing what?’
‘This! Sitting in these chairs – as if they’re real.’
Josh suddenly understood. These were all photon constructs. When they’d met, they’d tried to hug and, on the way back here, had tried to hold hands. Both had been impossible. So how could they be sitting in these chairs – something that felt so solid? He swiftly analysed their composition.
‘They’re constructs, just like everything else, but the component photons have been packed so tightly they simulate true matter. It’s fascinating.’
‘Think we could do it?’
Josh stared at Tao in surprise. She’d been one step ahead of him all the way. It made sense that if the sub-quantal entities could do this, they could too.
‘Let’s give it a go.’
They went searching for the mechanism they needed. It was easier than having a body and having to trawl through the various levels, because, down here, all the sub-quantal stuff was available to them – just like in the infra-low. However, unlike the infra-low, there wasn’t a price to be paid for accessing it. In the end, the process turned out to be remarkably easy, and several minutes later they had tightened-up their photonic bodies accordingly. Josh was exultant.
‘Wow!’ he said. ‘That’s a huge improvement.’
‘Sure is.’ Tao flung her arms around him. ‘Come here.’
Josh went.
Chapter 14
Because the infra-low contained all the sub-quantal functions that underpinned reality it was the place where Josh and Tao had spent a considerable amount of their mentalic time. For Sol, it didn’t have the same fascination. It was simply the place where he was stuck – and he’d been stuck in some god-awful places in his time.
He tried to enumerate them to pass the time, since he didn’t seem to be about to go anywhere anytime soon. For starters, there was the ethane sea on Titan. While he’d counted down the seconds until his oxygen reserves ran out, he had genuinely thought he was going to die down there, and it was only a combination of his newly-discovered ability to flip into anaerobic metabolism and the timely intervention of the Eich that had saved him.
Next, there was the tar pit on the way back to Titan Base. He’d been overcome by ethane fumes as his exosuit had suddenly purged itself and had fallen unconscious in the sticky crap. The rescue team from the Base had been unable to reach him, but Deira had saved him by using the forcefield on her suit to enable her to walk out to him. Then he’d almost got stuck in the tunnels under Titan but had managed to free himself.
He was just getting into his stride, reminiscing about all things life-threatening, when he noticed something, apparently way over to his right and downwards. It was damned strange, that was for sure, looking to all intents and purposes like a hole. He moved closer to get a better look. Yep – undoubtedly a hole. Now, had Josh said anything about this?
Suddenly, and completely without warning, a long tentacle shot out of the hole. It looked like it had been aimed in his direction and would like nothing better than to snag him, and he reacted instinctively, pulling sharply away just in time. Thwarted of its catch the thing retracted again, disappearing through the hole and back to wherever it had come from. Sol moved a little further away. Shit, wasn’t a guy even safe in his own brain? What was that about?
Despite his attempt at levity, Sol was actually very concerned. He’d been stupid as all hell to come down here in the first place and now he found there was some sort of mentalic fishing line trying to catch him and pull him to God knew where. Having failed in its first attempt, the fisherman would presumably soon be back for another attempt – this time with a longer line. He needed to think things through properly and get out of here.
The first thing he should probably do was take a little more interest in the sub-quantal functions that were surrounding him on all sides. He thought the one right next to him might have something to do with time, but he couldn’t be sure. Perhaps if he just tweaked it slightly? He tried, but it actively resisted manipulation. That was probably to be expected if these functions altered the universe at large. After all, it wouldn’t do for just anybody to waltz in here and start fiddling – and, in this context, he was most definitely “just anybody”. His unthinking changing of a function could result in disaster. He pulled away again, chastened, and wondered whether there was anything else he could do. There didn’t seem to be. It was either sub-quantal manipulation or nothing.
He re-examined the function he’d just been looking at, wondering if there was any way to forecast the result of a manipulation, assuming he could manage one at all. He seemed to recognise the function from somewhere, and as he focused, he found the thing resolving in his mind. It was undoubtedly a function that controlled time, and if he were to tweak it just right, he could wind time backwards – back to before he’d become trapped down here. Or even back to before he’d landed on the Titan fragment. He hesitated. There were other equations associated with the function.
He examined these linked equations and discovered that they represented a series of consequences of interfering with the main function. The direct consequences were represented by a single function, but this branched into sub-functions and then sub-sub-functions, each level representing an ever-decreasing likelihood of occurrence. It was a highly complex structure and would be a bastard to analyse in any detail, but just for interest, he checked out the first-level consequences. It was what he might have expected. The further time was turned back, the greater the consequences for the universe at large, and if he were to turn it back more than eight weeks, the time he’d been on the El ship, those consequences were considerable.
He gave up, unwilling to risk major changes that might affect Deira, Josh and Juliette. He’d have to find some other way. He checked out more functions but found himself constantly drawn back to the time function again. There was something about this – something he should be picking up on and wasn’t. Unfortunately, no matter how much he examined it, he still came to the same conclusion.
Then he saw the blindingly obvious. He had no need to go back in time very far, only far enough so he was no longer stuck down here in the infra-low. That would be, what, twenty minutes? Make it half an hour to be sure. He checked with the linked function and was delighted to find that such a minor manipulation would have no appreciable effect on anything. It had to be worth a try.
He hesitated for a moment, wondering why Josh had never seen this way out. As far as he knew both he and Tao had always relied on stimuli from their AIs and that spooked him a little. Was there something he was missing? He re-checked the time function taking great care to follow the chain of consequences down as far as he could. It certainly looked okay, but he continued to dither. Damn it, what was the matter with him? Just get on with it, for God’s sake.
Without further thought he mentalically grabbed the function. Once again, the resistance to change was considerable, and he realised that even had he wanted to effect a large time change he wouldn’t have been able to. As it was, the half-hour change required an all-in wrestling match with the function, but when he finally achieved the tweak he was after, the effect was instantaneous. One minute he was in the infra-low, and the next he was back in the real world again, gazing out of the stasis chamber at the empty room beyond. The universe didn’t go into meltdown or anything, so he assumed he’d been successful. Way to go!
This time round, he resolved not to go anywhere near his brainwave levels. He’d simply hunker down and wait for his regeneration to complete. He closed his eyes and soon dozed off into a fitful sleep, wakening just over six hours later when a mentalic signal indicated his regeneration was complete. Okay, he was good to go.
He activated the internal door switch on the chamber wall and stepped out, stretching the muscles that had stiffened up during his prolonged stay in the chamber, and gazing around at the massive stasis chambers that lined both walls. He clearly remembered his
discussion with Micha about the other occupants of the chambers. He had said they were his bridge crew, so in the absence of any bodies in the chambers, Sol assumed everyone was awake and functioning. That meant they’d be on the bridge.
He thought back to when he and Chard had first found this colossal ship, and the mentalic blocker that had come on soon after their entry. He didn’t think that would still be active, given the prolonged time he’d been in stasis, so the quickest way to the bridge would be to fold. He opened a portal without any trouble and stepped through.
The bridge was as he remembered it, except this time it was a veritable hive of activity, all the workstations occupied by the winged aliens who went by the name of the El. Thankfully, they were wearing uniforms of some kind and Sol let out a silent prayer of thanks. His previous encounter with the three-metre-high naked Micha hadn’t been one of his moments of choice.
As he stepped through the fold, all hell let loose. Alarms sounded from various workstations and various bridge crew leaped up, grabbed weapons, and advanced on him, jabbering in their sibilant speech, and pointing down to the floor. Sol got the message, but there was no way he was going to lie down for these guys. He didn’t have Chard, so his best bet was probably to fold elsewhere else on the ship until he could review his options. He tried to open a portal and silently cursed when he found he couldn’t. It seemed that, by folding up here, he’d set off that damned mentalic blocker again, along with the other alarms.
He gazed around helplessly and was about to comply with the order to lie down, when the alien he recognised as Micha stepped forward, holding up his hand and saying something to the crew. The effect was instantaneous. Weapons were lowered, and the crew returned to their workstations. Micha turned to Sol.
‘I see I underestimated you,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t expecting you to wake for some time yet. In fact, I wasn’t sure you would wake. Our regenerators have been less than optimal and the injuries you sustained were significant.’
‘Yeah – I noticed. I used my own regeneration sequence instead.’
Micha’s face betrayed his surprise, and Sol grinned at him. God, it was good to have an alien who showed emotion instead of the Eich frozen parody of a face.
‘So, you’ve not only regenerated but have regained your mentalic abilities too,’ Micha said. ‘A word of caution, this ship is designed to respond to the use of mentalics by first giving audible alarms and then using force. I would counsel against using your abilities while you are with us.’
‘Uh, exactly what do you mean by that? I was immersed in my own head for some time in that stasis chamber, and that didn’t send your ship into apoplexy.’
‘Agreed. The passive use of mentalics is acceptable. It’s only when it’s employed for external manipulation, such as folding, that the ship is alerted.’
‘Interesting.’ Sol didn’t think the El knew as much about mentalics as they pretended. After all, resetting time by thirty minutes was surely an “external manipulation” if anything was, and no alarms had sounded. ‘Okay, I won’t use it again.’
‘Good.’ Micha was clearly relieved. ‘I have something for you. Perhaps I should say “someone”.’ He reached to his belt and withdrew Chard, who he solemnly presented to Sol. ‘Your AI has been providing us with some background on the events in your solar system while we’ve been in stasis. It would appear the Cthon have overstepped the mark somewhat, prompting the Eich to respond. My apologies for the unwarranted threats to your planet, though it would seem you counteracted them very effectively.’
‘If you say so.’ Sol tucked Chard into his holster. ‘I don’t call getting stuck on this ship very effective. Do I take it that Earth is safe, then?’
‘Of course, you have no way of knowing how things turned out do you? Yes, Earth has survived, though the planet you call Mars has suffered severely,’
‘Juliette! My daughter. Can you tell me if she’s alright?’
‘I’m sorry, we have no way of knowing about individual humans. We were only able to ascertain the continued presence of Earth when we dropped our folded space shield briefly. We were almost detected by an Earth ship at that time and will not be repeating the exercise until our systems have been fully restored.’
‘How long are you talking about? I need to know about my family.’
‘I think we should be ninety-five percent complete in about ten days. We might be able to drop the shield then for a while.’
‘Ten days!’ As far as Sol was concerned, it might as well have been ten weeks, or even ten years. He wanted to know now.’
‘Can’t you drop it for just a few seconds? That’s all I need to fold out.’
‘I’m sorry. We’re still orbiting in what’s left of Mars’ atmosphere and the Earth ship is nearby, apparently carrying out a survey of the damage. If we dropped our shield for the time you require, we’d be detected – and we need to remain concealed for now.’
‘But why? Surely this ship is a match for anything humans have? And, if I could get off, I could let them know you’re friendly.’
Micha shook his head. ‘I’m truly sorry, but my decision is final, and much as I enjoy our little conversations, I’m very busy now. Can I suggest you have a discussion with your AI? I think he may be able to answer at least some of your questions.’ He turned to a door off to one side. ‘Please follow me,’ he said, glancing over his shoulder. ‘I’ll show you to some residential accommodation where you can rest.’
After his prolonged stay in the stasis chamber, resting was the last thing on Sol’s mind, but he trudged after the El to the alien equivalent of ship’s cabin. It would have to do, even if everything was fifty percent too big. He thanked Micha and waited until the El captain had taken his leave.
‘Well, old buddy, it’s just you and me again,’ he said, taking Chard out of the holster and propping him up on a large flat surface that was probably the El equivalent of a table. ‘Anything you can tell me would be very welcome. If you can think of a way out of here that would be even better.’
‘Hello Sol.’ Chard’s voice came out of his speaker. ‘I’m so pleased to see you up and about – and apparently no worse for your injuries. I heard you tell Micha you’d activated your own regeneration sequence, so I assume you have things to tell me too.’
‘
‘Sure do.’ Sol smiled and tried to push his concerns away. Obviously, they wouldn’t go. He was desperate to know that Juliette was okay but being desperate didn’t help. There was no way he’d be able to find out until the El allowed him past the folded-space barrier. He sighed with frustration. ‘So, who goes first?’
Chapter 15
You want me to do what?’ Adam had been casually sitting in an armchair reading a book when Deira found him. He’d listened, increasingly incredulous, as she’d talked about the possibility of him helping them out with the search for Tao.
‘I thought you might have learned something while you were moving up and down Tao’s brainwave levels, that’s all,’ she said.
‘Well, I just about know what you’re talking about, and that’s it. For your information, I didn’t go up and down Tao’s levels. It was up all the way. And when I hitched a lift from sub-quantal space to the infra-low, and then up to delta-normal, I don’t know how I did it. Everything seemed to just happen, kind of organically, without me thinking about it, and when she took off down to the infra-low, I just floated up. I didn’t actually do anything.’
Deira found that very hard to believe. What Adam had achieved didn’t sound like the actions of someone who knew nothing about what they were doing. She glared at him.
‘So, you don’t think you might be able to immerse and go back down to the infra-low to take our beacon to sub-quantal space?’
Adam put his book down, looking tense and frustrated. It was weird, Deira thought. This was Tao’s body, and yet Adam’s personality clearly came through, facial expressions, body language, the works. He certainly wasn’t happy.
‘I don’
t even know how to “immerse”, as you put it. Deira, I’m not mentalic. I really can’t help.’
That was too much for Deira. ‘Well you’re damned well going to have to help when we recover Tao Chen,’ she snapped. ‘That’s her body you’re occupying– and we’ll want you out of it.’
Adam went deathly pale and sat down again.
‘What will you do? I don’t have a body.’
‘We’re working on it. Whatever happens, you’ll need to return to sub-quantal space briefly because we can’t get you into another body unless you do. So, wouldn’t it be a good opportunity for you do a little practicing now?’
Deira continued to glare irritably at him. Although he was indisputably Adam, he seemed to have lost some of the empathy that had made him who he was. The Adam she’d known would always have thought of others before himself, yet here he was now, not in his own body, and clearly concerned that the original owner might return to reclaim it.
Adam was quiet for some time, then looked embarrassed.
‘I’m sorry. It’s just … it’s hard. What were you planning on doing with me?’
‘The Professor’s examining the possibility of cloning a body for you. It looks quite hopeful, but it’ll probably take about six months to get the thing’s development accelerated into adulthood. We need to decide what to do with you if we find Tao before that.’
‘A clone?’ Adam looked suddenly hopeful. ‘That might just work. Could I choose my age? I could start again where I left off.’
Gods of Titan- The Cosmic Constants Page 11
