“It says,” John said, looking from the message to Blue Mercury impassively, “that the operation was a success.”
“Woohoo!” cried Blue Mercury, then suddenly became very serious. “Please tell me that means you’re not going to erase them all.”
“My request for an exemption was rejected,” said John. “I’m to shut down this universe immediately.”
“Okay, but the situation has changed,” said Blue Mercury. “Now there’s—”
“However,” John went on, “the situation has changed, so it behooves me to reassess matters.” He tapped a series of icons, bringing up various windows displaying graphs and charts, which he spent several seconds reviewing. “It would appear,” he said at last, “that the universes are stable.”
“It worked!” Blue Mercury cried. “Balderhaz, it worked! So there’s no need to shut them down, right?”
“From the perspective of my superiors,” John replied, “the situation has not changed. These universes were not authorized to be brought into being, and this project and all dependent universes are to be shut down immediately.”
“But the—”
“But there has been a complication,” John went on. “Any time a universe is annihilated, a UG-473 must be filled out, in triplicate. That’s thirty-six pages of paperwork per universe. For a total of—”
“Thirty-two thousand, seven hundred sixty pages,” murmured Balderhaz from the floor.
“That’s correct,” said John. “And the Iris keeps a record of all deleted universes, so unfortunately there is no way around this chore, assuming the Outpost is returned to headquarters according to protocol. Of course, occasionally a causal breakdown is so severe that it infects the Outpost itself, requiring that the Observer, shall we say, scuttle the ship.”
“You’re going to leave the Eye here?” Blue Mercury asked, helping Balderhaz to his feet.
“I don’t seem to have much choice. It’s either that or spend the next three years doing paperwork. The Outpost will be on autopilot, of course. I’ll disable the door so no one can enter. It will remain only as an energy source to power the universes you’ve created.”
“It’s much appreciated,” said Blue Mercury.
“Don’t thank me,” John snapped. “You’re lucky the weight of the bureaucracy is on your side. I have half a mind to annihilate the lot of you, just out of spite.”
Suddenly the door slammed open and Red Mercury, looking dazed and haggard, stumbled in. “Um, guys?” he said. “I could use some help out here. Lucifer has gone insane.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
A man came into being, motivated only by the thought of destruction. He had no name, no past, and no plans. His first thought was: this should not be.
But what is this? He wondered to himself. And he answered: all of it.
In this inchoate state, he was not fully aware of himself as a person, nor of the world around him, as he could not decipher the signals transmitted to his mind by his senses. He was merely a mind surrounded by something that was not-mind. And yet, even in this state, he yearned for something that was not. More precisely, he yearned for all of it, both mind and not-mind, to be obliterated. Oblivion was what he craved. But the craving itself mocked his desire: the stronger it became, the more of it there was to wish away. The mockery drove anger, and the anger mocked him as well.
Where did all this come from, he thought? The mind and the not-mind, the yearning and the anger. The Source, he thought. But what was The Source?
A phrase came to him: the Eye.
The Eye was watching him, even now, mocking his anger and his yearnings. The Eye was the source of it all, the mind and the not-mind. Yes, he thought, destroy the Eye and the rest goes with it. Oblivion.
He got to his feet, some sort of primitive muscle-memory reasserting itself despite his lack of awareness. I am in this body, he thought. This body was given to me by the Eye, so that it could see itself from the outside. But to do this, the Eye had to send a part of itself away. In the Eye’s vanity, it made a mistake: for with this body I can not only observe the Eye; I can also destroy it.
The Eye was not far away, relative to the body’s mode of movement. It had taken the form of a blue pyramid several times as tall and as wide as the body. The pyramid was not perfect, though: in the side facing the body there was a dark rectangle, just large enough to permit the passing of the body inside. A door, thought the man. The Eye has grown careless. I shall enter the Eye and destroy it from the inside.
The man began to walk slowly, deliberately across the surface between him and the Eye. He was vaguely aware of other bodies around them—hundreds of other people who had also come into being, some of them just waking up. These people did not matter. Soon they would not be, along with everything else. He walked past the other bodies to the door of the pyramid and went inside.
He found himself in a sort of entryway. There seemed to be no one inside. No other bodies to meet him. He sensed no intelligence within; no mind inside the Eye. He was disappointed. He wanted the Eye to know its doom had arrived. Words came to him.
“YOUR DOOM HAS ARRIVED!” he screamed.
Nothing seemed to happen. The man continued through the entryway into the next room, which was nicely appointed with leather couches and chairs.
“YOUR DOOM HAS ARRIVED, EYE!” he screamed. Still there was no response.
He picked up one of the chairs, finding it surprisingly easy to lift. Some part of him was aware that he was channeling energy from the Eye itself in order to lift the chair. The thought made him angry. He threw the chair against the wall, and the chair splintered into pieces. He felt better. It felt good to destroy. He picked up one of the couches and did the same thing. When he had destroyed all the furniture in the room, he moved on to the next room, which was large and whose walls were lined with wood shelves. On the shelves were items he recognized as books. A word came to him: library.
The thought of destroying a library filled him with glee. Much better than destroying chairs. Books had entire worlds inside them. Fire, he thought. Fire is the way to destroy books. I can use the energy from the Eye to make fire. He pulled a book off one of the shelves and began to concentrate. The energy became heat, and the heat manifested itself as flame.
“Hey there,” said a voice.
Startled, the man dropped the book. The flame went out. He scowled and looked toward the source of the voice. It was another body—a man. Taller than his own body, with silver hair on top. A strange man.
“I will destroy it all,” said the man.
“Fire is good for that,” said the tall man.
The man nodded uncertainly, not sure if this man intended to help him or hinder him. “Fire good,” he said.
“Indeed,” said the tall man. “You don’t recognize me, do you?”
“You are tall man,” said the man. “Other body, not mine.”
“Ah, so you’ve heard about me, then,” said the tall man. “Yes, I’m known in several universes for being tall man, other body, not you. Some call me Mercury. Say, how about we step outside and discuss this plan you have for destroying it all?”
“No,” said the man. “Stay inside the Eye. Destroy the Eye. Destroy it all.”
The tall man sighed. “So this is what’s left of you, eh, Lucifer? Your memory and personality are completely erased, and yet the urge to destroy persists. It’s kind of pathetic, to be honest with you.”
“Tall man not help destroy,” said Lucifer.
“Tall man not help destroy,” said Red Mercury. “I’ll tell you what, though. There’s a place called the Iris, just down here. It’s the nerve center for the Eye. If you want to destroy it all, that’s where you want to be.”
“Nerve center,” said Lucifer. “The Mind for the Eye.”
“Exactly,” said Red Mercury. “Just follow me and I’ll take you there.”
Lucifer regarded Red Mercury suspiciously for a moment, but then nodded. “Tall man take me there.”
>
“This way,” said Red Mercury, leaving the library through a door on the opposite side. Lucifer followed him. Together, they took a circuitous route through the innards of the pyramid, passing a dining room, a kitchen, a study, various laboratories and workshops, and many rooms whose purpose was impossible to determine at a glance. Finally, they ended up in a sort of entryway.
“The Iris is right through that door,” said Red Mercury, pointing to an open door through which bright light was pouring. “That light is the, um, reactor core.”
Lucifer took a few steps toward the door, then stopped and looked around at his surroundings. “Not inside,” he said at last. “Outside. Tall man, other body trick me!” He turned and let out a furious scream.
But the tall man was nowhere to be seen.
Chapter Forty-Nine
“Lucifer started out insane,” said Blue Mercury.
“That’s what I’m saying,” said Red Mercury. “I think… I mean, never mind. The important thing is that he’s lost it. Like, really lost it. He’s all of the bad parts of Lucifer without any of the intelligence or charm. Hyde without Jekyll. The Hulk without Bruce Banner. I tried to trick him into going back outside, but no dice. I think he’s tearing up the kitchen now.”
There was a scream and a crash from somewhere outside the Iris.
“How did he get inside?” asked Blue Mercury.
“Reboot opens the door,” said John. “Safety measure.”
“Yeah, it seems really safe,” said Blue Mercury. “Hats off to the engineers for that one.”
“Eventually he’s going to find his way in here,” said Red Mercury. “I’m not sure we can stop him without causing serious damage to the Eye. John, I realize you’ve washed your hands of this whole business, but we could really use your help here.”
“I’m forbidden to raise a hand against any sentient creature,” said John.
“We saw you zap an ape to death!” Red Mercury exclaimed.
John shrugged. “He was right on the edge.”
As he spoke, the door to the Iris crashed open. Lucifer staggered in, his eyes wild. “YOUR DOOM HAS ARRIVED!” he shrieked. The two Mercurys turned to face him. Balderhaz backed against the wall. John remained at the pedestal, calmly tapping icons, as if oblivious to the crazed demon in the room. Lucifer charged the pedestal, and the Mercurys braced for his attack. When he was a couple steps away, though, a portal suddenly opened in front of him and he vanished. The portal closed as quickly as it had opened.
“I can, however,” said John, “trap him in an alternate universe.”
“Nice!” exclaimed Blue Mercury. “Where’d you send him?”
John shrugged. “One of the universes you created. This one.” He pointed at a window on the display. “I picked it at random.”
“Well done,” said Red Mercury.
“What happened to him anyway?” said Blue Mercury. “Why’d he flip out like that?”
“Apparently,” said John, examining the display, “the Outpost was struck by lightning. Wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem, but the system was already overwhelmed from you overloading the compile buffer with your nine hundred universe trick. There was a momentary burst of ontological energy. Wiped out Lucifer’s memory while intensifying the core attributes of his soul-thingy.”
“Making him an even bigger asshole,” said Red Mercury. “What about Green Mercury and the others?”
John brought up the display of the pyramid and its surrounding. From this distance, the cultists seemed to be dazed but unhurt.
“They look okay,” said Red Mercury.
“Undoubtedly their memories have been affected as well,” said John, bringing up some sort of graph on the display. “And there may have been other… changes.”
“So it’s over,” said Blue Mercury. “The universes are saved, and insane Lucifer is no more.”
“Hmm,” said Red Mercury.
“What?” replied Blue Mercury.
“Well,” said Red Mercury, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s gone. He could have done a hell of a lot of damage from inside the Eye. But…”
“You feel a little bad for that universe.”
“Yeah,” said Red Mercury. “I mean, it doesn’t stand a chance. Eventually Lucifer is going to come to his senses, and he’s going to be just as dangerous and evil as he was here. If there are no angels in that universe, he’s going to be in charge of the whole universe soon enough. The Earth part of the universe, anyway.”
“And there’s no guarantee he’ll stay there,” said Blue Mercury. “If he manages to build a portal generator…”
The two Mercurys traded glances. “Shit,” they both said at once.
“It’s the Gray timeline,” said Balderhaz. “I suspected as much.”
John nodded. “So it would seem. What you remember of the Gray timeline is consistent with it being the universe in which I trapped Lucifer.”
“That means one of us has to go there to stop him,” said Blue Mercury.
“We can’t stop him,” said Red Mercury. “He takes over the whole plane. We already know that.”
“But we’re the resistance,” said Blue Mercury. “Things would have been even worse there without us. Without Gray Mercury, I mean. And if Gray Mercury hadn’t been there when we accidentally opened a portal to his universe, he wouldn’t have been able to warn us to shut down the portal. If Gray Lucifer had come through at that point, there’s no telling what might have happened. One of us has to go.”
“Why us?” asked Red Mercury. “What about Green Mercury?”
They looked at the window that was still showing the cultists staggering about, obviously confused. After a moment, they located Green Mercury, who was standing alone, scratching his head and staring at the Eye.
“If he’s in as rough a shape as Lucifer, he’s not going to be much help. I’m sure we could toss him into the Gray universe and he’d figure it out soon enough, but it seems like a nasty trick to play on him.”
Red Mercury nodded. They were silent for some time. At last he said, “You realize what this means, right?”
“Seven thousand years on the Gray timeline. And then…”
“Yeah. So… we flip the quoin?”
Blue Mercury shook his head. “No more universe splitting. No more leaving things up to chance. I’ll go.”
“What?” said Red Mercury. “Why?”
“Free will,” said Blue Mercury. “If I choose to go and you choose to stay, it proves we’re not just copies of each other. We’re individuals.”
“Bah,” said Balderhaz. They ignored him.
“Anyway, it’s my destiny. I’m Blue Mercury. One of us had to take the sad ending, and it’s me. It just fits.”
Red Mercury frowned. “You’re contradicting yourself,” he said. “Is it your choice or is it your destiny?”
“Both,” said Blue Mercury. “Frankly, I don’t envy you. At least I know what’s in store for me, and there’s an end in sight—even if it’s seven thousand years away. You’re stuck having to figure out your own fate.”
“I’ll manage,” said Red Mercury.
“We always do,” said Blue Mercury. He turned to John. “Would it be possible for you to open another portal to the Gray universe, just for a second?”
John regarded him for a moment. “You’re certain you want to do this?” he said. His voice revealed for the first time something that sounded like sympathy.
“Yeah,” said Blue Mercury. “I’ve thought it through. Somebody’s got to be the foil for Gray Lucifer, and somehow I always knew it was going to be me.”
Red Mercury regarded his counterpart for a moment but said nothing.
“All right,” said John. “Give me a moment.”
“Oh, and one more thing,” said Blue Mercury. “Balderhaz, eventually you’re going to figure out how to travel between all these different universes. That is, I assume it will be you. Somehow I doubt there’s another Balderhaz out there. Someday you’ll even bui
ld a planeport connecting them all. But you are to forget all about the Gray universe. I don’t want Lucifer’s hellhole infecting the rest of the planes. No portals to the Gray universe, ever. Nobody outside this room ever knows it exists. Do you understand?”
Balderhaz nodded. “As good as forgotten,” he said sadly.
“Thanks,” said Blue Mercury. “You’ll see me soon enough.”
A glowing circle appeared on the floor next to them.
“Well, I guess this is it,” said Blue Mercury. “Once I step on that portal, I’ll be Gray Mercury.”
Red Mercury shook his head. “No,” he said. “You’ll be Mercury. You always were. Just as much as I, and probably more.”
“Thanks, man,” said Blue Mercury. “Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment, considering you’re a raving narcissist.” The two Mercurys grinned and clasped hands for a moment. Then Blue Mercury stepped onto the portal and was gone.
Chapter Fifty
“Well, thank God that tiresome bastard is gone, eh?” said Red Mercury. Balderhaz shrugged.
“Strange,” said John.
“It’s a defense mechanism,” said Red Mercury. “I miss the other me just as much as you guys do.”
“What?” said John. “No, I’m referring to this.” He pointed at one of the little universe icons, and it grew to fill the display.
“All I see is desert,” said Red Mercury. “It looks like all the other universes we created.”
“That’s exactly it,” said John. “It looks just like them, but this doesn’t appear to be one of the universes you created. Not intentionally, anyway. The timestamp predates by several minutes the moment you accessed the Iris.”
“One of the universes we created with the quoin survived,” said Balderhaz.
“When we tried the combinations, you mean?” said Red Mercury.
“The timestamp fits,” said John, frowning. “It came into being at the exact moment the door to the Outpost was opened.”
“But all the other combinations were supposed to have resulted in oblivion,” said Red Mercury. “There was only one possibility for success, and we took it. There can’t be another universe created at that moment.”
Mercury Shrugs Page 29
