‘Maybe they started to turn against you,’ Nissa said. ‘Is that what happened? Did the people try to check your rise to power? Did they start to realise that you were something more than the other Risen – that you were really acting for the Watchkeepers?’
‘Walk with me,’ Dakota said, after a moment’s consideration. ‘We shall visit the skipover vault. I have something to tell you about the Friends. I believe you will find it interesting.’
Kanu and Nissa looked at each other.
‘We’ll stay here, thanks.’ Nissa said.
‘No, you will accompany me. And no harm shall come to you – that is my promise. Believe me, my own self-interests are served by your not coming to harm. But I have something to say, and I think my point will be best illustrated directly.’
They followed Dakota down the sloping ramps, first one way then the other, until they arrived at the observation gallery where Memphis had first shown them the sleepers. Dakota moved to the same control panel and performed some deft input with the tip of her trunk, bringing on the lights in ascending stages, illuminating each layer of sleepers in turn.
‘They were Friends to us then and are Friends to us now. One day, when the time is right, they will rejoin us. I wished you to be fully satisfied in your own minds that these sleepers can be revived. I wished there to be no doubt in your minds. Now that you have conducted a thorough examination of the technology, there is none – am I correct?’
‘Yes,’ Nissa said, with an edge of doubt in her voice echoing Kanu’s own growing qualms.
‘Then we are in agreement. These are not frozen corpses but potential lives. With a few exceptions, there is no barrier to their being brought back to consciousness. Allow me illustrate my point.’
Dakota touched the panel again. One block of sleepers a couple of levels below their vantage point turned dark.
‘Let me be clear. I have not simply removed the illumination from that section of the vault. I have removed the power entirely. Their units are no longer functioning. Insofar as the Friends have the capacity to live again, that capacity is now being slowly removed. Their cells are warming, but in an uncontrolled, disruptive fashion. They are dying. If the process continues, there will be nothing worth reviving.’
‘Stop,’ Kanu said, as the full horror of what she meant to do became clear.
Dakota touched the same control and the sleepers were again illuminated. ‘I have restored the power. The caskets will resume functioning and no lasting harm will have been done. It was only a few seconds. But it could have been longer.’
‘Then you never needed us,’ Nissa said. ‘You’ve always known how to operate this technology.’
‘That is not quite true. Achieving full revivification would still be a challenge for us. Your help would be beneficial – essential, even. But I do not need complete control or understanding of the technology to make it stop working. That is much simpler.’
‘Why would you do that?’ Kanu asked.
‘Because it is necessary to explain my position. I had hoped that the terms of our relationship would be cordial, but . . . you have put an end to that. The Friends will be our bond now. You have provided us with a ship, and you will see to it that the damage is repaired. In addition, I will now request some minor structural modifications to enable it to carry a small expeditionary crew of the Risen. Then we will use the ship, but only for a short journey.’
‘Poseidon,’ Nissa said.
Dakota tilted the ram of her brow in a great, slow nod. ‘We will learn many things, and then our debt will be satisfied. The ship will be returned to you. I will allow you to leave, or to remain, whichever you prefer. But until you have helped me, the fate of the Friends lies in your hands.’
‘You can’t do this to us,’ Kanu said, doubting that anything he now said would make a difference.
‘You have done it to yourselves by doubting my good intentions. I hoped that we might stay friends, and perhaps our trust can be reestablished, given time. But the ship will be repaired, and it will be made ready. Nothing will stand in the way of that.’
‘So what does that make us – your slaves?’ Nissa asked.
‘Elephants were the instruments of human will for centuries. We were strong when you were weak. We did your bidding. We crushed your enemies for you, moved your mountains – tore down your forests. In your gratitude, you offered us only death and mutilation. We are better than that – more generous, more forgiving. Is it so wrong of the Risen to ask this one thing of you?’
‘The Risen?’ Kanu asked. ‘Or the Watchkeepers?’
‘What does it matter? Why not serve us, as we serve another?’
Kanu looked at the sleepers again, thinking of the patterns of identity still enshrined in those countless frozen brain cells. The good memories and the bad, the joys and the sorrows, the wisdom and the foolishness, life’s accumulated bounty of kindness and cruelty. Those things made people what they were. Those things had made him, too. And he thought of the warmth stealing into those cold skulls, the patterns losing coherence, the hard-forged connections of a lifetime surrendering to heat and chaos.
That could not be on him. He would not murder these people.
So their work continued. From the outside, there was no essential difference in their daily activities. They spent their nights at the household, treated like human royalty, and by day they were either aboard Icebreaker, nursing it back to health, or dealing with the Risen who had been tasked to assist them. The supply lines ran efficiently; the manufactories spat out the parts they needed, materials and components which slotted together with ominous precision, as if the ship were willing itself back to life. Even the communicational difficulties with the Risen were behind them now as both parties learned to better understand each other. Each day brought fewer problems, less to go wrong before completion. Also, now that they knew the goal of the repairs, Dakota could communicate her requirements openly. Icebreaker had to accommodate the Risen now as well as humans and needed to be adjusted accordingly – its airlocks modified, its interior spaces enlarged, provision made for the Risen to use its control systems and data interfaces. The Noah, one of the short-range winged shuttles from the original settlement of Crucible, was to be attached to Icebreaker’s hull so that the Risen could travel within Poseidon’s atmosphere, perhaps even all the way down to its sea.
Kanu was torn. He could think of nothing worse than succeeding – with the sole exception of failure. If he gave her the ship, in the condition she dictated, she would commit herself to folly on behalf of the Watchkeepers – and take Kanu and Nissa with her. It was not just their own lives at stake, but the collective security of the entire human species. But if he failed in the repairs, she would exact her revenge on the sleepers.
The equation was trivial, he knew. Against the possible consequences of her expedition, the lives of the Friends barely registered. In rational terms, there was only one sensible course of action open to him. But to admit such thoughts was poison.
Their meetings continued. On the surface, there was a sort of lingering cordiality. She made her pleasantries and flattered Kanu and Nissa that she found their company stimulating. Even after showing them what would happen if they let her down, she still acted as if they were her honoured guests. Chai was always served, and if some urgent business needed discussing, she would always take her time getting around to it. Kanu wondered if she was in a state of denial, a kind of conscious forgetting of the unpleasant matter of the Friends.
But one day she was unusually direct.
‘Another ship has entered the system,’ she said, without preamble. ‘Do you know about this?’
Kanu did not need to put on a front of feigned ignorance. ‘No. What ship? Where?’
‘That is an excellent question. Since your arrival, the Watchkeepers have raised their level of vigilance, alert to any other intruders. But perhaps
they need not have bothered – it was a Watchkeeper that heralded the arrival of this new ship.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘It accompanied this ship across interstellar space – that’s my inference, at least. Now the Watchkeeper has removed itself to the edge of the system – they feel safest the further they are from Poseidon – and there has been a great deal of interest in this new ship. They whisper to each other – a chatter of blue lights across light-minutes, light-hours. Sometimes I have been allowed a glimpse of these thoughts of theirs.’
Kanu thought back to the message from Chiku. ‘They’re hollow. They’ve forgotten how to be conscious. You’re listening to the whispering of zombie machines.’
‘Be that as it may, I can’t help but be intrigued by this new arrival. It has come from Crucible, of all places.’
‘Maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised by that.’
‘No?’
‘When we first met, I mentioned a signal – the reason we came here in the first place. You claimed to know nothing about it. But the signal originated in this system, and it was aimed at the people of Crucible. It was only a matter of time before they responded.’
‘Is this true, Nissa?’
‘As far as I know,’ she answered.
‘Then how did it come to your attention, Kanu?’
‘I am – or was – a diplomat,’ Kanu said. ‘I had ready access to many information channels. This signal was never public knowledge, not even in the Crucible system. But I learned of it, and decided I needed to make an independent investigation.’
‘Were you planning to arrive before the ship from Crucible?’
‘I didn’t even know they were sending a ship. I’d have come anyway.’
‘News of the signal had to reach Earth before you could begin your journey. How did you arrive sooner than them?’
‘We started our journey later than they did but had less distance to travel, and their ship can’t be much faster than mine. Have you responded to it?’
‘No, and nor do I intend to. I see it as a nuisance, not an opportunity. Still, it must be addressed. You have had a chance to review the repair work since you awoke – I trust there are no setbacks?’
‘No, it’s all going smoothly,’ Nissa said sullenly.
‘You do not sound encouraged.’
‘Part of me would rather report bad news, provided it wasn’t too serious. You’d accept the delay and the status quo would continue. Kanu and I would still be of use to you, and there’d be no reason for you to hurt the sleepers.’
‘Very candid of you to admit as much.’
‘I find honesty helps,’ she said.
‘Do not mistake me – either of you. My word is good. I have no intention of hurting you or of harming the Friends. If I did not think well of them, would I have kept them cold through all the years before your arrival?’
‘Perhaps you thought they’d come in handy as a form of blackmail,’ Kanu answered.
‘You are much too cynical lately. Tell me the truth concerning the repairs, regardless of whether the news is good or bad, and nothing untoward will happen.’
‘“Untoward”,’ he said. ‘That encompasses a multitude of meanings.’
‘I see you are both beyond reasoned discussion. Never mind – we will restrict ourselves to the strict practicalities. I do not want this new ship interfering with the good work we have already done. Your ship is nearly ready for testing, is it not?’
Kanu glanced at Nissa, wondering if she shared his disquiet. ‘We’re weeks away from that.’
‘Then make it days. I do not need the interstellar capability of your Chibesa drive, merely the means to reach Poseidon. If the Noah had been capable of doing so on its own, I would already have taken it, but its range and agility are not sufficient. This other ship must not be allowed to complicate my arrangements.’
‘Then ask the Watchkeepers to destroy it. They’re capable of that, aren’t they?’
‘Callous of you, Kanu.’
‘Just looking at this from your perspective. Why not have them destroy it?’
‘I’m sure they would if they felt the act was necessary. But they are watchers, recorders, gatherers of knowledge rather than butchers. More than that, though, they’re not mine to command. Did you think otherwise?’
‘I’m not sure what to think. Do you know what you are to them, Dakota? Do you really understand?’
‘What is there not to understand?’
‘The Terror,’ he answered.
‘You could not know of such a thing.’
‘And if I did?’
She regarded him with cool superiority. ‘Terrors must be faced. I will have my ship, Kanu, and you will accompany me in the gathering of knowledge. We will not flinch in the face of the unknown. Move Icebreaker beyond Zanzibar once more. Make ready to test the Chibesa engine.’
He sat on the edge of the made bed, bent over with his hands joined in his lap, considering the ways in which he might feasibly end his own life.
‘I know what you are thinking,’ Swift said.
‘Then give me an answer.’
‘You have never been suicidal. Even in your darkest moments – and there have been several – that was never something you considered.’
‘Nothing’s changed,’ Kanu answered.
‘You do not appear to be depressed. If you were, I would see it in your brain chemistry.’
‘I’m not depressed and I’m not suicidal. What I am is trapped. There’s a distinction. Can you see it?’
‘I am trying.’
‘I’m in a hopeless position, Swift. There’s no good course of action open to me.’
‘And killing yourself – that would be the solution? Have you forgotten the Friends, the fate of those poor frozen people?’
‘Think it through,’ Kanu said, hating himself for wondering just how far Swift’s empathy really extended. ‘They’re just a bargaining tool to her – they give her some measure of control over me. If I’m out of the equation, she gains nothing by harming them.’
Swift tapped his pince-nez against his chin. ‘Mm. But she might do it anyway, out of anger – or to reinforce her determination to Nissa, who I need hardly add will still be alive. There is human DNA in that elephant, Kanu – do you think she’s incapable of spite?’
‘Nissa can’t finish the work on her own. I’ve had you in my head to guide me through every difficult part of the repair process. She won’t have that luxury.’
‘Dakota will nonetheless force her to try, and she may resort to extreme measures in her attempts to persuade. She’ll break Nissa like the proverbial butterfly on a wheel. Do you really want that on your conscience?’
‘I wouldn’t have one.’
Swift strode around to stand before him, clenching his hands. ‘Please don’t speak that way, Kanu. I gave you back your life when you should have died. Do not insult me by speaking of a human life as something disposable.’
‘Then don’t speak as if you understand a single thing about being alive.’
‘I understand life more than you realise, Kanu. At least, I have begun to. How could it be otherwise after being inside you all this time? After the dead years of skipover, when I gained a little sense of what it would mean not to exist? Do you honestly think this hasn’t given me some miserable insight into the human condition?’
‘It’s not a “condition”, Swift. It’s being alive.’
‘I know, and I feel it, and I will not permit you to squander such a gift. Especially when the circumstances are nowhere near as dire as you imagine.’ Swift adjusted his sleeves and cracked his knuckles. ‘Chess. A game of chess. That will put things into perspective.’
‘I’m not in the mood.’
‘Immaterial. I am.’
Kanu pinched at the skin aroun
d his eyes, trying to shrug off the sense of hopelessness he now felt. Swift was perfectly correct: he had no desire to end his life. But when he set out his options, when he stepped back and analysed them dispassionately, suicide looked by far the most logical course of action.
‘You mean well, Swift, but you can’t see how bad things have become.’
‘On the contrary. I have as ready a grasp of our predicament as you or Nissa. But I do not think we have exhausted all our options yet. Nor should you. There is always hope, Kanu – provided you remain alive.’
‘Platitudes.’
‘We shall see.’ Swift conjured the chessboard into existence and set it between them. He lowered himself onto an invisible stool, adjusting his frock coat in the process. ‘Your mood is black, therefore I shall open proceedings.’
‘How thoughtful of you.’
They commenced the game.
‘Things are not as dire as you imagine,’ Swift declared, a few moves in.
Kanu responded automatically, barely caring who won or lost. ‘In which way are they not dire? We know about the Terror. We know that Chiku and Eunice were both against the idea of going any nearer to Poseidon.’
‘For which they surely had their reasons. But we are not them. Did we come here to wither at the first test, Kanu, or to challenge ourselves?’
‘Even if we make it to Poseidon, we’ve no guarantee that we’ll get the ship back afterwards. Or that Dakota will honour her promise concerning the sleepers. For that matter, we have no idea what she or the Watchkeepers will do next – or how we fit into that.’
‘The situation is not entirely ideal.’
‘I’m glad you agree with me on something.’
Swift move his piece with a decisive clack. ‘But neither is it hopeless. To begin with, we do need our ship repaired – and since assisting Dakota in her expedition helps achieve that, I do not think the cost is too great. Secondly, our aims are not entirely at odds with hers.’
Kanu responded with a weak countermove. ‘Aren’t they?’
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