Amygdala

by Harper J. Cole

  Hunter looked to Annie. “Is that plausible? You can answer in English, I’ll translate.”

  The technician looked doubtful. “We’d need to build a particle condenser from scratch. That’s going a bit beyond my expertise. We’ve got the specs in our files, sure, but they’re stuffed full of calculations based around Earth’s gravity well. We’d be pretty much starting from square one here, and it took centuries of slow scientific progress to reach the KSD. Kohler and Schmid were standing on the shoulders of giants when they made their breakthrough, and there’s been plenty more giants since. Tech’s evolved in different directions for these Ramiran guys.

  “We might get there in the end, but it could take decades, and that’s me being conservative. I’d be an old woman by the time we’d be ready to go.”

  And I’d be a dead woman, Hunter added silently. “It’s going to be difficult,” she explained to Haji. “Any other ideas? Could we tinker with your monolith somehow?”

  The Grand Merchant waved a hand dismissively. “No, that won’t work. There’s no panels full of wires to reroute, only unyielding, inscrutable rock. If, as your hybrid says, even Vitana can’t help…”

  He trailed off abruptly. Hunter knew at once that he’d had an idea, maybe a good one, but he sat for several long seconds in thought. She wanted to shout at him to spit it out but forced herself to wait in silence. Glancing at her crewmates, she saw the same rapt anticipation on their faces that she felt in her heart.

  “There might be a way,” said Haji at last. “It may even get you straight home, if it works out. But it’s near impossible and liable to come to nothing, even if you gather all the pieces. The whole idea smacks of fantasy, I’ve always felt.”

  “Any chance is worth considering,” prompted Hunter.

  “Very well.” The Ramiran’s dark eyes regarded her with empathy. “It seems that Vitana may not be the only one of its kind. A higher power exists. A greater God…”

  VIII

  Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.

  – Desmond Tutu

  “It was on Ramira that the initial discovery was made,” said Haji. “A generation after our ancestors came here, a team of scientists conducted a dig at the base of the monolith. They hoped to find out how far beneath the surface the structure extended. In fact, they never did locate the bottom – I’ve a suspicion that the monolith runs all the way to the core – but they found something else.

  “A short distance in front of the doorway, and a little below the surface, the investigators discovered a fragment of stone. I say stone, but it proved to be much tougher than that; tougher, in fact, than any substance known to us, bar one.”

  “The monolith,” suggested Hunter. “It’d broken off it somehow?”

  “That was their first thought, but as I’ve said, Vitana’s handiwork appears near-indestructible. Also, there was writing on the fragment. The monolith has none.”

  “Writing … in your language? What did it say?”

  Haji raised a restraining hand, requesting that the captain wait a little for her answer.

  “The Ramiran government of the time opted to contact the other colonies. Were there similar artefacts buried near to their monoliths, they wondered?

  “There were. Six fragments on six worlds, in the exact same relative position. As you’ve probably guessed, the fragments would fit together perfectly. Taken as a whole, the writing inscribed on them reads, ‘Unite the six and open the road to a greater God’ on one side. On the other? A single word: ‘Vitana’.”

  Hunter found herself leaning forward over the little table, drawn in by Haji’s tale.

  “And when you joined the fragments?”

  The Grand Merchant winced slightly. “We haven’t. I’m sorry to say that relations between the colonies started to deteriorate rather rapidly after the exodus. Most particularly between the feuding neighbours, Monosade and Anasade; soon after the discovery, the fragment belonging to the former went missing, and the latter got the blame. Whether they truly did steal it, I don’t know, but the first of their many wars followed shortly afterwards.

  “That more or less killed any prospects of uniting the fragments. The largest colonies, Gatari and Kerin, now consider their pieces to be cultural artefacts; they won’t part with them for any price.”

  “And you?”

  “We still have our piece. As a matter of fact, we have two. Lega wanted nothing to do with any gift of Vitana’s – one of my predecessors was able to acquire their fragment for a paltry sum.”

  “I imagine,” said Hunter with a knowing smile, “that we’d get less of a bargain for your two pieces.”

  Haji’s face was serious. “Miriam, please don’t be in a rush to take this quest on. It would be exceptionally difficult, exceptionally dangerous … and there’s no guarantee that it would advance your cause. This ‘Greater God’ might have neither the ability nor the inclination to help you. It may not even exist; perhaps this is all some great joke of Vitana’s or a plot of the Chilu Raza as some among us like to say.”

  “Chilu Raza?”

  A dismissive wave. “I spoke in jest. The Chilu Raza are an urban myth; a secret society alleged to clandestinely run the colonies. Certain people will attribute any mystery to them.”

  “I’m glad we’re not the only species with conspiracy theorists.”

  “The point is that you’d be taking on a mammoth task for no certain reward.”

  “Would we?” Hunter’s gaze drifted to the broad square window, which dominated the nearest wall. The sun was still beating down, even in late afternoon. But somehow, the expanses of greenish sand beyond the house seemed a little less bleak and alien now, the pull of Ramira’s gravity on her body a little less draining.

  “Hope is our reward,” she said. “Hope and agency. If we stayed here and tried to make a new KSD on your planet, only a handful of our crew would have anything to contribute. Young Annie here would have to do most of the brainwork, together with your scientists – a crushing burden for her to take on.”

  “I’d be up for it,” said Annie, spine stiffening in defiance.

  “I know you would. But how painful would each failure and setback be for you? And what about the rest of us? We’d have nothing more to do than sit and watch the months go by. Helpless! Powerless! No … I refuse to let my final years drift away like that while alternatives still exist.” She turned to Haji. “We accept the challenge. And you’ve given us a mighty boost to our chances, saving us the task of having to deal with the Legans. We’re prepared to trade for your two fragments.”

  The Ramiran’s face was hard to read. Respect, Hunter hoped, but it might just as easily have been pity. The captain still hadn’t grasped all the nuances of Matan expression, but she was a quick study. At any rate, he made no further attempts to dissuade her from her chosen course.

  “You are courageous and perceptive. I’d like to help you, and in principle I don’t mind trading. We don’t care too much about Vitana here, or any other lifeforms of its type. We like our lives as they are – no interference from Gods is required.

  “That said, I am Grand Merchant of a world built on trade, and my first duty is to my people; I must ask a fair price. Some of the other colonies would pay lavishly for these fragments. What do you have to offer?”

  “Plenty. We’ve a number of artefacts from our home planet, as well as samples collected from your old homeworld.”

  “From Srisade? That could be interesting. I’d be happy to take a glance at anything representing your culture as well.”

  Ah, thought Hunter. I’m back in familiar territory. Even in a different arm of the galaxy, business is business. It’s the artefacts from Earth he’s really interested in, or I’m no entrepreneur.

  From the glint in Haji’s eyes, she guessed that he’d been reading her as well, and had realised that she’d seen through his initial bluff. He performed a truncated form of the Ramiran greeting gesture, as though meeti
ng her for the first time – a sign of respect, Hunter would learn, showing that she was rising in his esteem.

  “In the interests of fairness,” he said, “perhaps you should be given a little time to familiarise yourselves with our monetary system before the trading begins. I, in the meantime, shall have to confer with my council; Grand Merchants are given a high degree of autonomy, but it would be inappropriate to put such valuable items up for sale without their ratification. I don’t anticipate being overruled, though.

  “Of course, my planet has other, less expensive goods and services to barter with. Perhaps you’d like to restock your provisions, acquire information on the other colonies, add weapons to your ship for the more dangerous trips you’ll face…”

  Hunter raised a hand. “No weapons, thank you. We’ve had more than our fill of fighting already. As to the rest … maybe. Send me your catalogue and I’ll see what we want.”

  The captain rose decisively from her seat. The gloom in her mind had receded. For the moment at least, she could see a clear path ahead.

  She sketched a little bow to the Ramiran leader.

  “I look forward to doing business with you.”

  * * *

  The quartet of women quickly dispersed once they had returned to the Bona Dea. Daniella returned to her quarters, doubtless eager to chronicle the day’s historic events. Annie headed off to Engineering to confer with her fellow technicians on the practicalities of forging a secure link between the ship’s computer systems and those of Ramira.

  Rivers, who had barely spoken throughout the excursion, stalked off to brood in her office. Something in the scientist’s demeanour troubled Hunter, but she had more pressing concerns, getting a good night’s sleep not least among them. First, though, she wanted to speak with Chamonix.

  The captain entered the gym, finding it deserted. As per her orders, the hatch leading up to the hybrid’s room had been sealed, and the rungs leading up to it removed.

  No more need for secrecy, she decided, as she retrieved the rungs from an equipment cupboard and began the task of screwing them back into place. The physical exertion helped calm her mind, which had begun to leap unproductively from one of the day’s events to another. By the time she slid open the hatch and drifted into the low gravity room, her equilibrium had been restored.

  There was a strange air about the room, impressions of silence and darkness suggesting themselves to her senses at once. The thought crossed her mind that the hybrid might have suddenly died, but as she picked her way through the maze of bars she saw Chamonix’s grey eyes were open and fixed upon her.

  She wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved.

  “Good evening, Captain. Am I no longer considered contraband, to be hidden from view?”

  Chamonix was still hanging upside down. Hunter, considering herself at least a decade too old to match that pose, sat awkwardly upon a warped bar below and in front of the creature.

  Their eyes were level, perhaps five feet apart. The captain noted that two thick strands of the metallic hair that sprang from Chamonix’s head had embedded their tips in her cheek. Each day, it seemed, brought these little changes. Does she hate them? Or enjoy them?

  “The leader – co-leader, I should say – of Ramira knows you’re here,” she said aloud. “They seem to have very little paranoia about Vitana on this planet. We got lucky.”

  “Still, my presence aboard could cause problems in the future. You regret acceding to my request, perhaps?”

  “I stand by my decision.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “Does it need answering? I made a call – time will tell whether it was a good one. All we have now is guesswork.” She looked about her as she spoke. It was definitely darker than it had been for her last visit. “The lighting seems a little weak in here today.”

  Chamonix didn’t object to the change of subject. She indicated the wall to her right. “A couple of fluorescent tubes have ceased functioning. Not my doing, if you’re wondering. It happened shortly after we landed here; an adverse reaction to the higher gravity, perhaps.”

  “You could ask the technicians to take a look at it.”

  “More pressing concerns exist, I suspect. They’re a woman short, after all. I’ll manage.”

  “Fine.” As always seemed to happen when she visited, Hunter found her gaze drawn to the hybrid’s eyes. For all the shifting horrors of her body, those steady orbs remained her most prepossessing feature. Chromium grey sclera, falcon grey irises, wide pupils. Back when Hunter had been building Lilith Transports, her interstellar business empire, she’d gained quite a reputation for having the most piercing stare in the business world – only the toughest negotiator could endure eye contact with her for more than a few seconds before timidly dropping their gaze. She knew that Chamonix would never do that. The stone eyes locked on hers, unblinking and unreadable.

  “We’ve made progress today, though not in the way we’d hoped.” Hunter gave a brief account of what they’d learned. “I trust Haji,” she finished. “But it doesn’t hurt to check. Is this story of a second member of Vitana’s species plausible, based on your insights?”

  “Plausible?” Chamonix pondered for a moment. “Yes. It never directly mentioned another in the time I spent communing with it, but I do have the impression in my mind of … something greater. Something unseen for millennia. Another of its kind? A parent, even? Possible. If you feel this man to be honest then I suggest you proceed accordingly. I am a little surprised that Vitana would create this mechanism of the six fragments, though.”

  “It seems rather like the Tower of Babel in reverse to me. A divine reward on offer if the colonies can put aside their differences and work together.”

  “Yes, I understand the principle, but it seems a trifle hypocritical – the colonies would already be working together as a single people if Vitana hadn’t sent them into exile. But it is a cold and capricious entity, as I’ve said before.”

  “Cold, yes. That reminds me of an interesting remark made by Haji today. He claimed that Mahi Mata is home to numerous predators. I daresay it was when his people left, but we didn’t see a single one in all the time we were there, including a three-day hike across the woods for some of the crew. Where were they hiding, I wonder?”

  Chamonix offered a hint of a smile. “A rhetorical question, Captain? I can answer it, in any case. Vitana destroyed them shortly after the exodus. All land-based carnivores were eliminated. A ‘predicide,’ if you will.”

  Hunter shook her head in disbelief, both at the enormity of the slaughter and this calm recounting of it.

  “So much death. I thought humans had a chequered past, but even we haven’t wilfully butchered millions at a single stroke.”

  “Tens of millions might be a more accurate order of magnitude.”

  “So why did it happen?”

  “The herbivorous creatures you named manticores pleased Vitana’s aesthetic sense. It decided to promote them to the top of the food chain. The mass killing was initiated with neither malice nor regret.” Again, a slight smile. “You see, perhaps, why I was eager to escape Vitana’s influence. I have no wish to lose the gift of empathy.”

  “Even the most unfeeling machine might hesitate to smash a world’s natural order like that. I’m amazed that the ecosystem could survive the trauma.”

  ‘Left to itself, I daresay it would have collapsed into chaos, but Vitana was there, pervading the whole planet. It made the adjustments necessary to create a new ecosystem. A peaceful one, as you have seen. Peace founded on death.’

  Chamonix turned her face aside. Shadow fell across the pale flesh, but Hunter could still see those steady eyes, their gaze now turned inwards. Or backwards, perhaps, to an alien past.

  “One can indulge in playing God,” mused the hybrid, “when one is a God…”

  IX

  … I like to say that I have two parents but three mothers. As much as my father’s influence shaped the woman I a
m today, it was through studying the lives and works of my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother that I became the feminist I am today.

  I never met the first of that line. Irene Hunter died seven years before I was born, but reading her work, learning what she went through to create a brighter future for women – for women like me – I experience that same connection, that same pride that I felt when my daughter got her first A plus grade. I live Irene’s dream.

  What has she taught me? Above all else, the value of sticking to your principles, even when dealing with those who have none. Living through the misogynistic nightmare of the 2030s, she never stooped to the level of those she was trying to change. Abuse was met with civility, anger with patience, heckling with polite discourse. She emerged through the great trials of her life the same woman who entered them.

  If she could do all that, I realised, maybe I could too …

  – Miriam Hunter, Wake Up Call

  Okay, so it’s eight noni in a bani, eight bani in a shuwaru, eight shuwaru in a pikiru …

  Not for the first time that day, Captain Hunter heaved a sigh. The Matans possessed the most frustrating monetary system she’d ever come across. Not the most complicated, by any means, but the most difficult for a newcomer to pick up.

  The principle was very simple: eight of each unit equalled one of the next unit up. There was no highest form or currency, no equivalent of dollars or pounds. The Matans simply made up a new unit when required; the newest, the eighteenth, had come into play quite recently.

  It made the task of mastering the Ramiran economy, which would surely be headache-inducing at the best of times, into something of a nightmare. Hunter could perceive but a single saving grace of this system – each of the Matan colonies used it, so she only had to learn it once.