Constance, however, appeared to think they needed a hint as to what was coming.
“I promise you, Jay, this is something you’ll recognize. Franky, I’m afraid I can’t say the same for you, brother.”
Oh boy, thought Houte. Now he felt suddenly nervous and placed his hands together in front of his face in prayer-like fashion. Drawing in a deep breath, he braced himself for yet another transition.
It began slowly, with a new background falling around them like rapidly-erected walls. The colors and fine details were alien to Houte, as Constance had alleged, but certain features were clear enough. Even though Houte couldn’t place their location, it was immediately apparent than they were standing someplace on Earth.
They were in a field of verdant green. A small cobbling of trees lay nearby, beyond which was a sprawling city that stretched across the landscape. The houses and domiciles occupied a low valley and stretched up onto the surrounding hills. And from their vantage point, Houte could see they too were standing on a hill.
Then came the smells and the feel of the air. It was warm, wet, and smelt strangely familiar. The last time he had experienced such a climate was so long ago, when they had lived in the African Union. That was back when both he and Constance were living what he thought of as their “first life”. Before Luna, before he had been forced to find her and bring them to the Outer Worlds.
Looking to his right, he noticed the thing that had Jay’s rapt attention. It was an old stone ruin, the remains of several walls arranged in a stepped configuration. Each wall stood a few meters high and was made up of stones, large and small, that were stacked without mortar. It was clear that they had once been tall, and what he was looking at were remains.
Houte walked to Jay’s side and looked at her face. The expression she wore was one that could only be described as utter amazement. Clearly, this place held some significance for her.
“Saksaywaman,” she whispered. Houte didn’t understand what she was saying, but the fact that she had a name for this place confirmed what he suspected.
“You’ve been here before?”
Jay shook her head. “No... not to this place. But I’ve been here... in this exact simulation before. He created it for me, said it was where my people came from, long ago.”
“He?” Houte repeated. “He who?”
“That would be me,” said a man’s voice from behind them.
Houte and Jay spun around simultaneously. Together, they now stood opposite two smiling figures. On one side was Constance, or rather Clio. Houte’s attention was squarely fixed on her Seeing her as she was: a rare treat that filled his heart with joy.
She was beaming brightly and looked exactly like she had when she and Houte were still young. Her skin was a healthy and dark, her eyes bright and brown. Her hair, which was full and unclipped, hung about her shoulders in beautiful strands. She wore a simple dress of light fabric that left her arms exposed, and her feet were sheathed in leather sandals.
Her bare arms were wrapped around the arm of the man standing next to her. It was only at this point that Houte paid him any mind. He was older, deep of complexion, and dressed simply in a light shirt and slacks. From all appearances, he didn’t appear to be augmented or enhanced, and wasn’t exactly ostentatious in his appearance. But he exuded a sort of magnetism that said he was anything but an ordinary person.
Jay, on the other hand, had been starting at him the whole time. If she was someone for whom tears came easily, Houte imagined she would be shedding them right now.
“Holy shit,” she muttered. The man laughed in reply.
“Surprised to see me, Amaru?”
Houte looked at Jay. “Amaru?”
“That’s my name, Janis Amaru,” she replied. She looked at Houte, noting the surprised look on his face. “You must have known I was using an alias.”
“Well, sure, but...” Houte couldn’t think of way to finish his sentence. Given the clandestine nature of their relationship, he had known she was holding back her true identity. Hearing it for the first time was still a bit of a surprise, though. And the fact that Constance’s “friend” knew her was also a bit of a surprise. Which naturally begged the question...
“Who is he?”
“Pinter Chandrasekhar,” said the man. He stepped away from Clio and offered his hand to Houte. “Pleased to meet you and at your service.”
“Pinter Chandrasekhar?” Houte said, taking the man’s hand in his. His face blanched a nanosecond later, which was how long it took for him to realize exactly who he was talking to. Well beyond Mars, that name carried weight. And the fact they were speaking to the man’s digital representation at this moment was nothing short of astounding.
“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
“I’m. But I’ve never been one to do what others supposed of me. I find defying their expectations to be far more fulfilling.” Pinter looked to Jay. “In that respect, we appear to have something in common, don’t we, Janis?”
Amaru laughed. “When I heard, I knew that Emile was responsible. I knew he would try to get rid of you the moment he thought we were dead.”
“He tried. But you don’t live as long as I have by not anticipating the worst, or by being unprepared.”
Letting go of Houte’s hand, Pinter turned to Amaru. She hesitated for a moment, but then wrapped her arms around him and gave him a big hug. Pinter accepted with a smile, hugging her back. When they were finished, he returned to Clio’s side.
“I’m glad we could finally make introductions,” said Pinter. “We have much to discuss, and it’s appropriate we do so on equal footing.”
ELEVEN
THE AIRSHIP WAS INCHING its way slowly towards Venera. At least, that was what Gallego’s eyes told her as she stared out the observation deck window. She knew it was a trick of the senses. With nothing but a featureless cloud deck, and a massive city in the distance to go by, their progress felt very slow. Yet, she knew in her heart they had to be moving rather by conventional standards.
Gallego also noted that from a distance, Venera looked much like Ishtar. In truth, all of Venus’ floating cities looked similar. Bright, glittering, and elongated. It was another Cytherean eccentricity. When construction on the colonies truly began, almost two centuries ago, they had been built based on a singular configuration. Without a surface to build on, or local features to dictate the nature of the buildings, the cities of Ishtar, Venera, Aphrodite, Magellan, and Sahasra were all built according to the same modular configuration.
It began with a single hexagonal platform, each one with its own lighter-than-air tanks. Gradually, more modules were connected, forming a honeycomb on which the city would be built. On the first module, the most essential infrastructure would be built - an administrative center, industrial fabricators, tenements, and a reactor complex. As more modules were added, the city would grow. More tenements for colonists, recreation facilities, and places where special goods and services could be acquired.
When the cities grew large enough, and technology had advanced sufficiently, lighter-than-air tanks were replaced with antigrav harnesses. An economy was slowly built based on the capture of elements from the atmosphere as well, particularly carbon. At about this same time, settlements, facilities, and full-fledged cities were being built across the Solar System. The demand for Cytherean-made nanodiamond, diamondoid, carbyne and other miracle materials was therefore quite high.
After nearly two full centuries, the differences between one city on Venus and the next were only cosmetic. In the end, they all served the same function - planting the seed of humanity on a world where nothing lived.
Gallego glanced back at the cabin and noticed that every other passenger was seated comfortably and waiting. They were using the time to either liaise with distant people or while away in one virtual environment or another. Only she was interested in the view and monitoring their progress towards Venera right now. Her motives weren’t entirely pure, though. Ever since she
had dropped a line for Burhan, she had been avoiding his inevitable reply. She already knew what he was likely to say in response, and she wasn’t interested in arguing the point with him yet.
Not when she still had to meet with the person Elenko had partnered her with. It wasn’t clear why she needed to travel halfway across the planet to do this, but Elenko had stressed that she was still in the final stages of preparing for the mission. What this entailed, she wouldn’t say, and Gallego had chosen not to press the subject. Asking Elenko for clarification was like asking the universe for predictability. It was a fight that could never be won.
Calling up an overlay, Gallego ran the woman’s information across her visual field. A picture and the woman’s basic information appeared in her visual field a nanosecond later. She gave it another quick pass, hoping it might show her something she had missed before.
Adelaide Cheboi.
Age: 42
Birthplace: Sahasra, Venus
So, she was Cytherean-born, and quite young by local standards. But it was her professional description that was the most telling.
Securities/Contingencies Expert
Gallego didn’t need a dictionary to know what these words meant. This description was often used by factions and the Solar Council to describe professional problem-solvers, people who specialized in threat identification. Beyond identifying them, they could also be counted on to neutralize them when the situation demanded it. As for contingencies, that implied that she was skilled in infiltration and exfiltration.
I’ve been assigned a body-guard, she concluded. Elenko was counting on Gallego’s knowledge and worldly experience to get this job done. But she wasn’t about to let Gallego go it alone. Such a mission required two creatures to fulfill its purpose. A fox to sniff out the traps, and a lion to scare off the predators.
Venera loomed larger in the observation window now. In a few more minutes, they would be close enough for her to see the spaceport. This feature, and few others, was what distinguished the city from Ishtar. Its glittering lights and its hangars, which sat open to the sky, were one of the few things Gallego was looking forward to seeing again.
AS SOON AS SHE DISEMBARKED, Gallego called up the directions Elenko had given her. Almost immediately, a series of navigational markers appeared in her visual field. Her implants also connected to Cisne - the planet’s Level IV sentience - and its impressive geo-location system. An automated voice was communicating with her through the direct link established to her brain.
Within seconds, she was apprised of all her options for travel. Most of the information was needless since Gallego knew Venera’s public transit options quite well. She opted to take the aerial route, as that was how most Cythereans liked to travel.
She indicated this to Cisne, who cheerily added her name to the transit manifest and indicated where she needed to go.
“In twenty meters, take a right into the aerodrome. Join queue thirteen. Your shuttle departs in fifteen minutes.”
Gallego started walking, taking the time to do a little people-watching. The patrons that were wandering about her looked quite familiar, though she didn’t recognize a single one. They all had the look of Cytherean ancestry. In the earliest days of colonization, those people who called themselves Cytherean had been rather eclectic. But over time, a common profile began to emerge, one which involved dark and tan complexions, dark hair, and softer facial features.
While most of the people around here appeared to have multiple ancestral lines in their DNA, a few were more monoethnic than others. Here and there, she could see people who were identifiably Sudamericano, Europea, and Afrikan. But of course, such distinctions were largely meaningless. Regardless of where they had come from before arriving on Venus, they were all Cytherneans now. The collective struggle to make a go of life on a planet that was inherently hostile to it had erased the old dividing lines.
Following the directions given to her, Gallego turned into the aerodrome and joined the line waiting for the next air shuttle. The patron in front of her looked back and smiled but said nothing. Like the others, he patiently waited in front of a pair of sealed doors. They were clear and looked out onto a small platform that was bathed in the same yellowish light Gallego had watched for most of the journey in. In a few minutes, an airship, one that was several orders smaller than the one that had brought Gallego to Venera, would land.
Faced with the wait, Gallego finally opened her comm and checked her messages. Sure enough, there was one from Burhan in the unread folder. She sighed, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to relax until she played what he had to say. At the same time, she considered that she didn’t want to while standing among several other patrons.
The anxiety won out and she called up Burhan’s message, bracing herself for a verbal onslaught. To her surprise, Burhan’s tone was rather cool. His expression, contained within the display window, also looked rather dejected. She immediately realized this was going to be worse than she’d thought.
“Hello, Nika”, he said calmly. “I wish I could say I was surprised by this news, but I’ve come to accept certain things about you. In the time we’ve known each other, you’ve rarely stayed in one place for long. And despite my best efforts to help you see a life for us here in the Reach, I’ve thoroughly failed. I’ve also come to accept that you have certain ties with your home that can’t be cut. So, no, I’m not angry to hear that you’re taking the offer.”
Gallego wanted to feel encouraged by his words, but she knew the other shoe was about to drop. She took a breath and let the recording of Burhan lay it on her.
“However, I can’t help but feel that you’re sending a message with this decision. The most obvious consequence of you agreeing to Xenia’s offer is that we won’t likely see each other for a few years. While this is entirely normal in your line of work, I get the distinct impression that you’d prefer it that way. I know that my saying this may upset you, but I can’t see it working out otherwise.”
Gallego muttered an expletive to herself. It was worse than she expected. He wasn’t only mad, he was inconsolably hurt and drawing some rather unpleasant conclusions. She was surprised he was remaining so calm about this. She could only assume he had had time to gather his thoughts and feelings into a coherent statement.
“I know that we’ve joked a lot about your past relationship with Xenia. I know you like to say that she never takes no for an answer, despite your best efforts. I’m not passing any sort of judgment here. I don’t know what this says about her having some residual hold over you, but I feel that it says something about us. I clearly don’t have a competing claim to your heart.”
Burhan paused. The last bit of his message required that he summon some hidden reserve of strength before he said good-bye at last. Gallego knew how he must have felt composing this, as if it might be their last communication. He wanted to get the words right if that was to be the case.
“Good luck out there, Nika. I’ll be here when you’re done with whatever it is you have to go do, but I can’t say I’ll be waiting for you to return. As much as I hope that you’ll come back when this is all over, I suspect you’ll have reasons to stay away. Just contact me when you can to let me know you’re all right. I think we owe each other that much.”
The message ended, and Burhan’s face disappeared. Gallego stamped her foot and swore aloud. This prompted the man in front of her to turn around, shooting a concerned look in her direction.
“Ma’am is everything all right?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, raising her hand defensively. “Just got some bad news from home. I guess I’m not taking it too well.”
“Home? Where’s home?” the man asked, looking suddenly confused. “I had you pegged for a local. Where are you from, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Gallego considered the question carefully. Prior to Burhan’s message, she wouldn’t have hesitated to say that her home was with the Gyros. But having now listened to his heartfelt story of rejecti
on and competing loyalties, she felt like she was currently between homes.
“It’s complicated,” she said finally. The man nodded and slowly turned back around. Beyond the sealed doors, the shadow of an airship fell across the platform. A few seconds later, a set of vertical takeoff and landing thrusters and an undercarriage also came into view. The undercarriage touched down on the platform via retractable landing legs, and Cisne sent a message directly to Gallego’s brain.
“Your airship has arrived. Boarding will commence shortly.”
Gallego repressed the urge to tell Cisne to fuck off.
TWELVE
THE REST OF THE JOURNEY passed without incident for Gallego. She was barely aware of the ride between Venera’s aerodrome and her designated stop. Leaving the airship behind, she followed the navigational markers in her visual field. She still had a few hundred meters to go but refused Cisne’s offer for a ground car. She had an aching pain in her chest that she wanted to walk off.
Gallego also ignored the alerts coming from her bio monitors, which indicated she was experiencing a deficit in terms of serotonin and norepinephrine production. Being sad and pissed was an entirely appropriate feeling right now, and she had no interest in interfering with it. She also looked forward to focusing her anger on the person she was about to meet. If she couldn’t take out her frustrations on Elenko, whom she blamed for this development with Burhan, she would settle for the person Elenko had paired with her with.
“You’ve reached your destination,” said Cisne. Gallego looked up to see a small, relatively nondescript building. Like all the other structures in the region, it had a white façade that looked like it had been hewn from a single piece of marble. In truth, its chemical properties were rather similar, though it weighed barely a fraction. Within several layers that looked like misarranged tiers, there was a central dome jutting out of the top.
“What is this place?” Gallego queried.
The Jovian Manifesto (The Formist Series Book 2) Page 8
