‘What the hell was that all about?’ she said. ‘It was a bit rude, even for you. I didn’t know where to put myself.’
‘Sorry, hon.’ Deira didn’t sound very sorry. ‘I don’t think Chayka will take offence. He knows me too well. And I’m sure it won’t affect your relationship with him.’
‘But what was it all about?’
‘Just an idea.’ She gave her a quick hug. ‘Got to go now. See you soon.’
‘Bye, Mum.’
Sol got only a fleeting moment for his own hug with Juliette because Deira had already formed a portal back home and was waiting impatiently for him to get a move on.
‘Take care, Jules,’ he said. ‘Love you lots.’
‘Love you, too, Dad. Bye.’
That was it. Deira grabbed Sol and pulled him through the portal with her. Once back in their living room, she closed the fold and stared at him excitedly. Though Sol was used to this sort of behaviour, the last few minutes had seemed rather extreme even by Deira’s standards.
‘So?’ he said. ‘What was that all about?’
Chapter 25
Okay, spill the beans. What’s on your mind?’ Sol was sprawled in his favourite armchair watching Deira pacing up and down. She had a deep frown on her face, the sort that meant she was thinking hard, and Sol was beginning to get impatient.
When they’d arrived home, she’d deliberately kept him on tenterhooks, refusing to talk about her idea until they’d had a proper meal. That was okay with Sol as far as it went, he was never one to turn down food when it was offered. Unfortunately, this food hadn’t been the best he’d ever tasted, just something the kitchen AI had thrown together from what was available – which wasn’t much. Deira had been so distracted that she’d been in no mood for conversation and the end result had been a hastily-eaten meal that Sol was convinced would give him indigestion later.
Deira stopped pacing and sat on the sofa, though she didn’t look like she’d stay there for very long.
‘It’s something you said.’ She started to get up again and then changed her mind. ‘You said, you thought Josh might be able to make a body for himself.’
‘Yeah, but …’
‘No, wait a minute.’ Sol looked surprised but shut up. ‘That idea got me quite excited for a while, but then I realised that, if it were possible, the sub-quantal entities would have manufactured bodies for themselves and escaped by now. That means it isn’t possible to manipulate normal matter from sub-quantal space.’
‘Sounds reasonable.’
Deira looked at him and he shut up again. She sank back on the sofa a little as if she’d made up her mind to stay there this time. ‘The thing is, it obviously is possible in normal space because the sub-quantal entities did it before they abandoned their original universe.’ This time Sol remained silent, waiting for her to get to her punchline. ‘So, why don’t we do it?’
‘Huh?’ He hadn’t been expecting that. ‘What do you mean by “we”? You and me?’
‘Yeah. Why not?’
‘Well …’ Sol frowned in concentration as he tried to get his head round this. ‘To begin with, it’s not like making a cake or something like that. You’re talking about a living body – a highly complex piece of machinery. I wouldn’t know where to start.’
‘Me neither. That doesn’t mean we can’t do it, though. And if we could, Josh wouldn’t have to wait for the cloned body.’
‘I don’t know.’ Though he knew he should be as excited as Deira by the prospect of building a body for Josh, Sol had a bad feeling about this proposition. He didn’t know why, but it felt profoundly wrong – and a single mistake would be a disaster. ‘Don’t you think it’d be better to wait for the clone?’
The sofa suddenly lost its attraction for Deira. She gave Sol a look of intense frustration, leapt up and began pacing again, leaving Sol wondering how he was going to deflect her from this. He knew she was probably right. It would almost certainly be possible to create a body for Josh – it was just a matter of manipulating a few functions. It was the associated risks he was concerned about. The last thing they wanted was to screw things up for Josh.
‘The clone isn’t guaranteed,’ Deira said. ‘We might wait for six months only to be told the thing’s faulty.’
‘Okay, so it might work,’ Sol conceded. He moved rapidly on as he saw the look of excitement come over Deira. ‘However, I think we should ask Tao about it first. This is Josh’s body we’re talking about, and I’d say she’s got a fair bit of proprietorial interest in it, wouldn’t you?’
Deira stopped pacing and looked thoughtful.
‘You know, that’s not such a bad idea. If anyone can tell us whether it’s possible or not, its Tao. She might even be able to do it.’
‘I think we’re already asking quite a lot of young Tao,’ Sol said. ‘Let’s just take it one step at a time. I know you won’t like it, but her mission to the El ship to get hold of their data is far more important than speeding up Josh’s replacement body. If she thinks building a body’s possible, it’d be better if she could give us some pointers, so we could do it.
Deira glowered at him for a moment and Sol expected the worst. Then she sat down on the sofa again, smiled weakly, and took his hand in hers.
‘You’re right – again. You’re getting good at this, aren’t you? I guess I’m just not functioning entirely rationally just now. I’m still feeling a bit giddy about having you back with me – and now I want Josh back too, so we can be a family again.’
‘I understand.’ Sol sighed with relief at having successfully navigated this little episode. He gently pulled her to her feet. ‘Come to bed. We’ll make a much better decision tomorrow after a night’s rest.’
Hand in hand, they went up the stairs.
§
The next day, Tao was up early and had already had breakfast by the time Deira and Sol stumbled somewhat blearily down the stairs. She was fully attired in her agent’s uniform and appeared to be eager to get going.
‘Time to get on the road,’ she said, briskly. ‘I’ve been doing far too much lying around over the last couple of days. It’ll be good to be active again.’
‘Yeah – about that.’ Deira sat her down again and briefly outlined her ideas of the previous day. ‘So, what do you think? Is it possible?’
‘I’ve no idea unless I check it out, and if I go back down to the infra-low, I’m going to be stuck in bed again for hours. Much as I’d like to get Josh out quickly, I think the El data is more important.’
‘That’s what Sol said.’ Deira began looking at the angles, how they might make some progress even in the absence of any help from Tao. ‘Suppose one of us went down to the infra-low instead? Do you think we could do this?’
‘I literally haven’t a clue,’ Tao said. ‘I wouldn’t normally have thought you’d have a snowball’s chance in hell. However, knowing how you two function I wouldn’t like to predict what you could do. All I’d say is, if you’re hell-bent on doing this, be very, very careful. You can cause serious side effects by manipulating some of those sub-quantal functions.’ She looked imploringly at Deira. ‘Can’t you wait until I get back? It probably won’t be long.’
Deira knew she was being obstinate and recognised the sense in what Tao was suggesting. However, she was still desperate to do something to help Josh.
‘How about this?’ she said. ‘We’ll have a scout around the infra-low and see what we can find, but we won’t take any action until you get back.’ She smiled and hugged Tao. ‘Don’t worry. We won’t put a firecracker under the space-time continuum while you’re away. We’ll just window-shop. It’ll be good for us.’
‘It’ll be very tiring, too,’ Tao said. ‘You’ll need plenty of sleep.’
‘Yeah, there’s that too. That’ll keep us out of trouble, if nothing else.’
‘Well, best of luck.’ Tao walked away a couple of metres and stood ready to activate her portal. ‘Wish me well – this is going to be a first.’
/> ‘Wait!’ Sol strode up to her and, to her surprise, copied Deira’s hug. He pulled away and went to stand with Deira. ‘Take care – for Josh’s sake.’
‘Will do.’
She stood for a moment while Jiao fixed the position of the Earth survey ship that was orbiting Mars. She ’d already determined that she’d need the survey ship’s X-ray scanning facilities to identify the position and orbital characteristics of the El ship within its folded-space barrier. Once she had that data, a time-space-fold should be possible – though the slightest miscalculation would leave her floating briefly in the Martian atmosphere before she was incinerated by the intense heat.
For the sake of courtesy, she put in a short call to the ship warning them that she’d be appearing on the bridge at any moment and received a curt acknowledgement from Captain Sleeman in return.
‘Orbit established,’ Jiao said. ‘You may fold in your own time.’
‘Folding now.’
The portal formed, and she could see the light of the survey ship’s bridge on the other side. So, phase one of this little adventure was a success. She turned and waved to Sol and Deira. Then she stepped through and was gone.
Deira turned to Sol
‘Time for us to get started too, I think.’
‘You’re really keen on this, aren’t you?’
‘Too right I am. Okay, I want to go first, and I’ll need Chard to pull me out. That okay with you, Chard?’
‘Of course, Deira. I’m only too pleased to help. How long would you like me to give you?’
‘I’d have thought about five minutes for the first time,’ Sol said.
‘Make it ten.’ Deira grinned at him.
‘You just can’t resist it, can you?’
‘I like to see the look on your face.’ She sat on the sofa and leaned back. ‘Ready Chard?’
‘Ready on your mark, Deira.’
‘Okay. Immersing in three, two, one, mark.’
She dived into alpha-normal and went straight to the infra-low, pausing only briefly to take in, once again, the incredible beauty of the place. It might be composed purely of sub-quantal functions, but the way they interacted to form the visible and invisible universe was a thing of great beauty. She shook herself out of her reverie and began to hunt for the functions she required.
This was where her problems arose – and they were obvious if she’d only stopped to think about it. While she’d had training in advanced mathematics and statistics before going on to study codes and code-breaking, Deira had never received any training in sub-quantal mathematics. The previous time she’d been down here, she’d been searching for a DNA fragment which carried a specific signature she could home in on. This time, she needed functions related to building a body, and she had no idea what to look for. She gazed about her in confusion. These things meant nothing to her. There was no way she was going to be able to self-develop at this level until she’d got herself the necessary knowledge of the maths. She was stymied.
She cursed to herself and wished now she hadn’t been quite so quick to get down here. She might have been able to have achieved more in delta-normal, given its emphasis on the molecular and atomic. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she thought that might be where the means to build a body existed. And now she’d have to wait until another occasion to find out, because, following emergence, she was going to be too tired to try again for some hours. Shit.
She gazed around helplessly and saw the hole again, partially hidden behind a group of functions right down at the bottom. The tentacle was nowhere to be seen but was almost certainly lurking on the far side waiting to snag her if it could. Unconsciously, she moved closer, drifting slowly down as if the thing was exerting a magnetic attraction on her. It was the presence of Josh on the other side, of course. She’d do almost anything to see him again, and the urge to allow herself to be dragged into sub-quantal space was almost overwhelming. She drifted closer still to the hole.
It was lucky for her that time had passed faster than she’d appreciated because, as she made a close approach to the hole, two things happened almost simultaneously. Almost simultaneously, but not quite. First, she received a sudden shock as Chard administered the pulse to pull her back out. Second, the tentacle shot out of the hole and tried to grab her. It would have succeeded, too, if she hadn’t already been on the move, and it missed her by a mere hair’s breadth. As she passed through into delta-normal, she looked back wistfully. Left to herself, she would have embraced the tentacle’s touch. It was a good thing it hadn’t been down to her alone.
She emerged into the real world feeling somehow deprived. She knew it was irrational – she would have been no good to anybody stuck with Josh in sub-quantal space – but at least she’d have been with Josh. As her rational side reasserted itself, she thought it would be better if she stayed clear of the infra-low for now. She couldn’t accomplish anything at that level until she’d gained some understanding of sub-quantal wave functions, and the temptation to slip through the hole might be too hard to resist next time.
She slowly got off the sofa. There was no way she was going to tell Sol about this. He was already looking concerned and the last thing she wanted was to give him another worry. She grinned and tried to play it straight.
‘I’m no good for this unless the process is at delta-normal. I don’t know what all those functions in the infra-low mean. I doubt you’ll do much better, Sol. We’re probably going to have to leave this to the youngsters.’
Sol brightened up when it was clear she was non-the-worse for her little expedition.
‘I’ve been down there before,’ he admitted. ‘On the El ship. I didn’t realise what I’d got myself into, and it was only due to good luck that I escaped. But here’s the thing – I understood it all. Don’t ask me how, but it all made sense.’
‘You understood it?’ Now Deira was really pissed off. Not only was she the only agent not to have a PWC, but it seemed she was also the only one who couldn’t hack the infra-low.’
‘I did. So, I might be able to find something for Josh’s body.’
‘Yeah. I guess.’ She yawned. ‘God, but I’m tired.’
‘You need to sleep. While you do, I’ll see what I can find.’ He saw her about to protest. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be careful, and ten minutes should be plenty of time to find what we need if it’s down there.’
‘I can stay awake for ten minutes,’ Deira said. ‘I’ll wait for you.’
‘Alright – if that’s what you want. Chard, ten minutes from … now.’
He immersed.
Chapter 26
Tao stepped through the fold from the MacMahon sitting room onto the bridge of the Earth Survey Ship Discovery, where Captain Sleeman was waiting for her.
‘Welcome Agent Tao.’ He produced what Tao thought was as close as he came to a smile and offered his hand.
‘Thank you, Captain, though it’s Agent Chen. I’ve westernised my name.’ Tao shook his hand briefly but didn’t return the smile. Unlike Deira, she had no wish to be friends with Sleeman, and that seemed to suit him just fine. He turned on his heels and headed off the bridge.
‘Shall we adjourn to my ready room?’
She followed him through a sliding door into a space that wasn’t much more than a large closet. It just about had enough room for a small desk and two chairs and Sleeman took his place behind the desk and indicated she should sit.
‘So, what can I do for you, Agent?’ He folded his arms and gave her an appraising look. ‘You told me you wanted my help in exchange for some important information. My help is guaranteed. What’s the information?’
Tao smiled to herself. Deira had mentioned Sleeman when they’d been exchanging stories a while back, and he didn’t disappoint. He was straight to the point – no attempt at social graces. Tao found it quite refreshing.
‘I’m sure things can get a little boring up here,’ she said. ‘How do you fancy a little excitement?’
Sl
eeman arched his eyebrows and grimaced.
‘I happen to be perfectly happy with our so-called ‘boring’ routine,’ he replied. ‘Excitement usually means danger, and my crew didn’t sign up for that.’
‘My apologies if I’ve given offence,’ Tao said quickly, realising Sleeman was even more prickly than she’d thought. ‘There’ll be no danger. I happen to know there’s a very large alien craft currently orbiting Mars. I need to know its precise location.’
Sleeman looked almost disdainful. ‘Agent … Chen, we’ve been observing Mars for some time now. I think we’d have detected such a craft if one existed.’
‘No, in this case, you wouldn’t. It’s protected by what we term a folded-space barrier. The only way of detecting it is by means of an X-ray scan.’
Sleeman uncrossed his arms and leaned forwards. ‘We’ve used X-rays on a number of occasions and nothing like you describe has shown up. Perhaps you’re mistaken.’
Tao matched his body language and stared straight into his eyes. ‘I’m not mistaken. You’ve simply missed it. What I suggest is a planet-wide X-ray scan. You’re in a higher orbit than they are, so you should detect them eventually.’
Sleeman leaned back again, looking slightly uneasy. ‘And if such a ship does exist? What am I supposed to do about it? Are they a threat? You must be aware we have no weapons at our disposal.’
‘I have no reason to believe they’re a direct threat to this ship. However, they could represent a threat to humanity if they carry out their mission.’
‘Which is?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. My mission is to get on board that ship and talk to them. Try to persuade them to back off from their proposed action. If nothing else I need to obtain the data they’re basing their mission on.’
This talk of a threat to humanity finally seemed to get through Sleeman’s self-imposed thick skin. ‘You can get past this barrier?’ he said, looking worried.
I hope so.’ Tao smiled. ‘It’s my first time trying something like this. I just hope it won’t be my last time. I’d have done it from Earth had it been possible, but I need to know the data relating to the ship’s orbit if I’m to have a good chance of success. That’s why I needed your help.’
Gods of Titan- The Cosmic Constants Page 20
