A. Warren Merkey

by Far Freedom

  “Freddy is fine, and I won’t give your presence away if I use that name.”

  “That was a consideration but I wanted to honor my host. Fred is an ancient android and full of fascinating records of human activity. I spend a lot of time in his memory. I’m also trying to improve his algorithms, to make him better.”

  “Fred isn’t alive, is he?”

  “I wish he were. We could have so much fun.”

  “Do you want to accompany Sugai Mai and me?”

  “Yes, sir! It would be very exciting and gratifying. I want to meet Samson.”

  Fred rose from his chair and took a step toward the balcony railing. Fred leaned over the railing and looked down. “We have an intruder, Captain. Someone is climbing the outside of the building. It’s Denna.”

  “Who’s Denna?”

  “Pan’s adopted daughter. She’s no longer a resident in this household. I’m not sure if she would be welcomed by him. I would value your opinion as to what to do, sir.”

  Horss came to the railing and peered down. He saw the top of a head with pale curly hair, gloved hands reaching upward to grab and stick to the side of the building. A face tilted up to see him with blue eyes and a smile. “Let her come, Freddy.”

  She crawled up the wall at the side of the balcony, then above the railing and sideways, like a human insect, hugging the masonry. She pushed blunt-toed boots onto the building’s surface, maneuvering her bare legs downward, bringing herself vertical again. Her gloves and boots were made to cling to flat surfaces. Finally she stepped down onto the deck of the balcony. She carried a small pack strapped to her waist. She was very pale and nearly naked. She glistened with perspiration. She turned around. Her smile remained, even as she breathed heavily from her exertion. Her eyes seemed sad, despite the genuine smile. “Hello, Captain!”

  Denna pulled off her gloves as she stared at Horss. Horss couldn’t find the connection between his vocabulary and his voice. Denna sat down at the table and bent to unfasten her climbing boots. “If I interpret your silence correctly, Captain, I’m gratified in the female manner. I don’t often have such an effect on 90 Far Freedom a man.”

  “Women don’t usually make such an entrance into my presence! Is climbing buildings a local sport?”

  “From time to time. It gets boring. I usually do it naked and at night but it wasn’t quite dark and I didn’t know how you would react to that.”

  “I’m sorry I raised such concern in your etiquette.” Horss wasn’t sure of his own etiquette. When Denna started to peel off what little covering she had, Horss found himself waiving his hand to signal cessation. He was not really embarrassed but there was some reason he wanted to keep the encounter less prurient. Perhaps it was Fred’s presence. Sugai Mai was also now hovering over his post-Navy existence.

  Denna heeded Horss’s signal. She wiped her brow and mouth with the edge of her hand. Her smile became a grin and her eyes almost lost their natural sadness. “I’m soaked! Fred, would you please get a towel for me? I forgot to pack one.”

  There was something about Denna that was immediate and vital yet placed her just out of reach, in the sense that Horss felt he would never be fully accepted into her life. There was also something vaguely familiar about her. Perhaps the eyes.

  ” You don’t look so dangerous, Captain.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t uphold Navy tradition at the moment. Please, don’t report this to my superiors.”

  Denna laughed. She stopped laughing. “I haven’t laughed in such a long time!” She wiped the perspiration on her face and mouth again. “I think my smile muscles are getting tired from unaccustomed use. You are a pleasant surprise, Captain. Will you be here long? I’d like to know you better.”

  “I could be here a very long time.” That prospect was looking better to Horss, both in the probability of it happening and in the company he would have if he did stay on Earth.

  Fred returned quickly with a towel for Denna and Horss looked away while she dried herself. She opened her pack and took out a clump of sparkling fabric which became a dress when she held it out to unfold. She slipped it on. She turned around in front of Horss, modeling the garment for him. “I have so few good clothes now. Is it too cheap? Too sexy?”

  “That depends on the purpose of your clothes. My assumption is that you picked the right piece in your wardrobe. Your name is Denna.”

  “You know what I came for. Let’s start with your name, Captain.”

  ” Jon Horss. Maybe I don’t know what you came for.”

  “Nothing ever happens here! Oh, maybe a few murders or suicides. But the Navy, now that’s dangerous and exciting. Are you here alone?”

  ” You know I’m not.”

  “I heard there was a child with you.” She hesitated before adding: “I had a child.”

  Denna spoke softly and slowly. She gave her information as though it was part of her act of spying, but Horss could sense pain in her voice. It was part of his skill as a captain to pick out the true meaning in the words of those speaking to him. “You had a child? Or should I not question that?”

  “It spills out when I least want it!” she said with irritation. “Daniel died.”

  “I offer sympathy for your loss. Did he not live long?”

  She took a deep breath and for a moment Horss thought she would not reply. He hoped she wouldn’t unburden herself too much. In the aftermath of Samson’s injury, he was not ready for more tragedy. This woman, however, could probably command anyone’s attention and anyone’s sympathy. “He was only seventeen when he died. My husband paid so little attention to him. He ran away one day. He was attacked by a tiger.”

  “That’s terrible!” Horss stifled his imagination to keep it from painting an unwanted scene of horror. He wanted Mai to arrive soon and transmat with him to the old artist’s residence. But the wait was certainly filled with interesting people. People made life worth living, made life difficult to live. He wondered if Denna realized how she affected people, how her personal tragedy gripped the feelings of any sensitive person.

  “I was the one who found his remains. They took that memory away from me but they didn’t take away my imagination. It was so many years ago but I still have nightmares, even after rejuvenation.”

  Horss’s memory flashed and he saw Samson’s severed leg in the corridor of the African Space Elevator. He grimaced. Denna seemed unaware of his discomfort as she walked into the residence and looked around. Horss and Fred followed her inside.

  “Where is he?” Denna asked.

  “Pan? He was invited to dinner.”

  “We’re here alone?”

  “Just the three of us.”

  “Fred, go away.”

  “Sir?”

  ” Stay. I need help. Do you remember her son, Fred?” It was not a question he wanted to ask. He just wanted to involve Fred in the conversation.

  “We were good friends.” Those four words carried enough meaning that both Horss and Denna had to stare at the android, waiting for it to continue. Freddy seemed to sense his mistake - that he revealed a hint of sentience. He kept Fred silent.

  Horss didn’t want to pursue the subject of children further but Denna’s pain bothered him and in his current state of mind he wished he could do something about it. “How long ago did you know Daniel?” Horss inquired of Fred.

  “Sixty-one years ago, sir.” Freddy made his voice almost too mechanical and flat.

  “And after all this time you still grieve for him,” Horss said to Denna. “Why?” When Denna wouldn’t respond, he turned to Fred.

  “Denna was severely damaged by the death of her son. Her treatment was ineffective. Subsequent events have perhaps served to maintain Denna’s state of mind. She refuses any further treatment.”

  “It’s the same as death!” Denna declared. “You become someone else. I am who I am. I’ll always be who I am, until I die. I won’t change. I won’t forget!”

  “We all become someone else eventually,” Horss s
aid. “You would rather be unhappy.”

  “Damned right! Do you have a child, Captain Horss? Do you have any idea what I might feel about remembering my son?”

  “I have an idea.” Horss thought about the daughter he could have had. He also thought about Samson.

  Denna dropped onto a sofa and put her feet up on a hassock. She seemed to turn off her emotions, or at least turn them to a different polarity. “You sound pretty decent for a Navy man, Captain. Fred, I’m thirsty. Do you still do butlery around here?”

  “Yes, ma’am. What would you like to drink?”

  “Ice water with carbonation and a squeeze of lime.”

  Fred departed for the kitchen. Horss sat down in a chair next to the sofa.

  “Pan adopted you, I hear,” Horss said. “Is that something you would talk to me about?”

  “I’m supposed to be asking the questions.”

  “Give and take.”

  “I had two brothers and three sisters. Does that shock you?”

  ” You were illegal. The Population Authority came and broke up your family.”

  “You already know my story?”

  “Logical deduction.”

  “They did. I was twelve. I was a big twelve-year-old. I ran away. I made people think I was a rejuve, not a child. I came to Earth because there was no law here to bother me. Pan found me and tried to take care of me, and for a long time I was reasonably happy. Where did you grow up, Captain?”

  “A frontier star. There were no surface-habitable bodies. We lived in the asteroid belts. I was one of eight children. Does that shock you?”

  “Amazing!”

  “I was the youngest. Two of my siblings died before I was born, three more before I was old enough to escape to the Navy. It was a tough life, mixing the primitive nature of our old Earth culture with asteroid mining. We were hunter-gatherers, in a sense even more primitive than the plains folk who were my ancestors on this continent.”

  “Were you married?”

  “An arranged marriage, beneficial to the cooperation between tribes. But I was very young and not wise and not patient. And I had all my older siblings to view as examples of the life ahead of me. A Navy ship stopped for supplies when I was about ten and I got to visit inside the ship. From that moment onward, I knew where I would go and what I would do when I had the chance.”

  “Did you serve in the war?” Denna asked.

  “I joined the Navy after the war.”

  “The child, the boy. Is he yours? How old?”

  ” Samson is about nine. No, he isn’t mine.”

  “What does he look like?”

  “Skinny and sunburned. Needs a haircut. Mixed parentage: Asian and European.”

  “Was he injured?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me.”

  “How badly?”

  “I don’t think I should tell you. I’ve already made you talk about the death of your own son.”

  “It was serious then.”

  She was about to weep, Horss thought. “Don’t let your imagination run away. Samson is doing fine, or he would be in the Mnro Clinic.”

  “He isn’t in the Clinic? The admiral. Is he with the admiral?”

  “You know about the admiral.” Horss sensed alarm in Denna’s last question. “Is something wrong?”

  “Did the admiral serve in the war?”

  “She was killed in the war. Why are you interested in Admiral Demba?” “I’m more interested in you, Captain Horss, but some friends of mine want to know if she might be Commodore Keshona. They say she looks like her.”

  Now Horss became concerned. Pan had insisted Admiral Demba was the singer he had known. But he said she was also someone else, someone Horss would want to know. Every Navy officer would want to know the legendary Commodore Keshona. Every Navy officer would want to ask her how she was able to reach Rhyandh to destroy its rulers. Horss was mildly surprised he could accept that Demba might have been Keshona. That possibility, however, could place Samson in even greater danger. Did Demba know who she was? “Your friends know what the real Keshona looked like?”

  “They carry what they think is an accurate image of her.”

  “Your friends are Rhyan ex-military. Who has seen her here, to be able to tell them?”

  “Jarwekh. Pan’s deputy. I’m sorry! I didn’t think those fools would do anything!”

  “Do you think differently now?”

  “Jarwekh knows where the admiral and the boy are. He has free use of Pan’s transmat, which is the only way to get to them. Jarwekh would never harm the boy.”

  “But he isn’t the only Rhyan, is he?”

  Fred returned bearing the water requested by Denna.

  “What took you so long?” Denna asked, accepting the drink.

  “Finding a lime.”

  “Thank you, Fred. But you could have brought me plain ice water and I wouldn’t have minded.”

  “Then you’ve changed.”

  “That wasn’t nice! Did Daddy change your attitude program for my benefit?”

  “I choose not to answer that.”

  Denna cocked her head to one side, regarding Fred the android with a perplexed expression on her face. Then she shrugged and swung back to Horss. ” So Daddy is probably having dinner with Admiral Etrhnk?”

  “Probably.”

  “You’re hiding something. Is Daddy all right?”

  “As far as I know. Does she really call him ‘Daddy?’” Horss looked to Fred for the answer.

  “Only when she needs something from him.”

  “Fred, I don’t understand why the Boss has turned you so against me. Is this for Captain Horss’s benefit? He already knows I’m working for the bad guys.”

  “She calls him ‘Boss,’” Fred said. “While I don’t think she would turn against him, she may expect him to protect himself, should her Rhyan friends go after the admiral.”

  “They wouldn’t attack the admiral if they knew the Boss was with her,” Denna said. “They wouldn’t bother her at all if I had some proof she couldn’t have been Keshona.”

  “Commodore Keshona has passed into legend,” Horss said, “and is protected by having her identity erased. I don’t see how there can be any proof one way or the other.”

  “You think she may be Keshona. I can see it in your eyes. When you talk about her something in you changes.”

  Horss must have lost something in the translation to this different version of himself. The admiral broke his emotional opacity mechanism. Even Pan - as

  preoccupied as he was - could see what he was feeling. He realized now, more than ever, that Demba was a special person.

  “Denna’s object is to keep us occupied,” Fred said, “while Jarwekh and Daidaunkh go after the admiral.”

  “You may be right,” Denna said. “They insisted I come here. I just wanted to meet a Navy captain. I’m sorry!”

  “Pan will likely be detained by Admiral Etrhnk,” Horss said.

  “Fred, you should check the transmat,” Denna said anxiously.

  Fred turned quickly toward a doorway, followed by Horss and Denna.

  Section 011 The Sleeper Awakes

  The signal came and it destroyed her.

  The Clinic on Earth sampled a certain DNA identity. It sampled Pan’s code on a fairly regular basis and so she assumed that was what the alarm signified as it routed its message to her private workstation. Pan was one of many people of special interest to the Clinic. He was a political refugee and the Clinic still protected him from being identified. He was also a charming, handsome man of great musical talent. She always wanted to meet him, but she always denied herself the pleasure. It was a little mystery why she found him so fascinating yet could not bring herself into his presence. Perhaps because he never left Earth and she was afraid of the poisoned Earth.

  This time, however, the genetic identity was not Pan’s and the alarm was much more urgent. The message did something to
her. It seemed to trip switches in her mind to release data to her consciousness. The process became familiar to her as it occurred, easing the anxiety it first produced. Then the data became familiar, being facts and memories she caused herself to forget. The facts startled her and rebuilt her anxiety. The memories were at once wonderful and deadly. She needed to send a Denial of Service to the Earth Clinic, without any explanation. She needed to leave work. She needed to go home and consider the meaning of this development.

  She toured her residence while she contemplated what little remained of her future. She knew the tour was an unconscious acceptance of her fate, even though she told herself otherwise upon arriving home. As the tour progressed, so did her acceptance of her duty. She avoided the heavy gravity paths, skipping softly in the moon’s light gravity, examining the everyday objects that journeyed the centuries with her. She had mementos, replicas of art, awards: treasures of memory from a thousand places, a thousand moments. She kept nothing of commercial or intrinsic value in her home. The Mnro Clinics kept those objects of physical or cultural value in its museum. She, more than anyone, knew the value of the captured moment, the memory. Memory was priceless. Memory was life.

  She wandered the grounds of the estate and the paths through the gardens. She marveled at the flowers and trees as though seeing them for the first time. Every time she met one of the staff she greeted them warmly, knowing she would never see them again. The artificial day faded into a night illuminated by the smile of the crescent Earth. She stared for a long time at Earth hanging above the crater’s jagged rim, before turning back inside.

  She descended into the crust of the moon. The elevator dropped quietly for a long time, slowed imperceptibly, and only when the door opened did she realize she arrived at her destination: her tomb. She walked down a carpeted hallway past vault-like doors until she reached the one at the end. The heavy door opened at her approach, sliding quietly to one side. Lighting awakened in a soft glow. A window appeared in the far wall of the small room. As she touched a pattern on the wall next to the window, the glass thinned to nonexistence. Moisture entered the arid room through the opening.