Mindwarp

by James Follett

  Jenine closed her eyes, leaned on the parapet, and let the golden light of the setting sun play on her face with her eyes closed. For Ewen there came a snapshot moment of her, lips slightly parted, her face serene, that he wanted to preserve forever. It was one of those instants that are rare even with lovers, and are that much more cherished because of their scarcity.

  “Breathe in,” said Jenine. “Deeply.”

  Ewen inhaled. A thousand unfamiliar but delightful scents played on his senses.

  “You can almost taste the smells,” Jenine murmured. She took Ewen’s arm and they continued walking in silence, each wrapped in their own thoughts, not wishing to intrude on what the other was thinking.

  “For the first time,” said Jenine at length. “We can actually go for a walk in the outdoors without a care in the world. No fear of the coming night. No worries about tomorrow’s food. Or keeping a fire going.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “We could have a nice home here. A garden. A swimming pool… Time for each other… Children.”

  Ewen stopped walking. He turned to Jenine and gently cradled her face in his hands. “You don’t want to go, do you?”

  “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. But I do know that I want you to think of all this before you make up your mind. All our lives we’ve been shut up in Arama. All your life you’ve had your dreams of the blue dome. Now you’ve realised those dreams, and you’re thinking about being shut up in a star ship. It’ll be Arama all over again.”

  “It won’t be Arama, Jenine. There’ll be a purpose.”

  “It’ll become just like Arama, Ewen. It’ll be worse because Challenger Three will be more permanent than this planet. Generations will live and die on it. People don’t change. There’ll be those that crave power, who’ll fight for it, and who’ll subvert the freedom of others to hold onto it. Original dreams will be forgotten or stamped out. Perhaps that’s what happened to the first Challenger. It won’t mean freedom any more than this place does, but at least here we’ve got open spaces, freedom to go places, be ourselves.”

  They turned back towards the golden headquarters building.

  “Why are you so hostile towards the project, Jenine?”

  “I’m not hostile; I’m merely suspicious. Perhaps the motives behind Challenger Three and Arama are worthy, but they are the products of one man’s monumental vanity and arrogance. Can good come out of that?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The young archeologist. The man who discovered the drawings of Challenger Three 600 years ago; the man who led a revolution, who started the star ship’s building programme, and founded Arama, and herded the populace inside, and has ruled it ever since. Isn’t it obvious? Caudo Inman was that young archeologist!”

  For a moment Ewen was too stunned to speak. And he remembered Inman’s words:

  “I’ve watched over all of you gifted ones right from the very beginning.”

  “Suspended animation,” he muttered.

  “Exactly.”

  Something worried Ewen. “But the long periods he would spend in suspended animation would make him vulnerable, Jenine. If he were evil, it would be easy to switch off the systems that keep him alive. And look at the deep respect that Simo has for him.”

  “I believe him to be evil,” said Jenine with finality.

  They stopped walking and stared up at the building as if expecting to see Inman looking down at them.

  Ewen had difficulty putting his thoughts into words. “You may be right, but-”

  “I know I’m right.”

  “But I want to go, Jenine. It’s something I can’t define. Something to do with the thought that there’s another great ship out there somewhere. Something tells me that I must be on Challenger Three tomorrow.”

  Tomorrow…?

  Strange how he used the word in its new context with such ease.

  They mounted the steps, deep in thought, and entered the golden building.

  “Would we ever adapt to living here?” Ewen wondered.

  “We already are adapting, Ewen. We’ve just used those steps outside without thinking about it.”

  Leinka came forward to greet them, asking if they had enjoyed their walk.

  “Leinka,” said Ewen. “Would it be possible for me to see Caudo again? I have some questions to ask him.”

  “But, of course. He won’t be sleeping until midnight. Just take the lift up. I’ll tell him you’re coming.”

  Ewen turned to Jenine and squeezed her hand. “I won’t be long,” he promised.

  Inman steepled his gnarled fingers and regarded Ewen across his desk. He nodded sagely. “She’s right, of course. A most perceptive young lady…” He gestured to the window. “I was watching you from there. I guessed that you would want to see me. I’m glad because there are some matters I need to talk over with-” He broke off in surprise and stared at the radio capsule that Ewen placed before him.

  “An obstacle course,” said Ewen coldly. “A game. If I can remember your exact words… “The crewmen will be the talented men and women of Arama’s millions who have demonstrated enterprise, resourcefulness, courage, even physical strength, and sheer dogged tenacity to work out the clues to find, and use the hazardous escape routes from Arama that were deliberately set for them. The worthy torch-bearers of the human race who will be the crew of Challenger Three.” Am I right?”

  “More or less.”

  “Then why did I have help with this! Wasn’t I resourceful enough? Tenacious enough?”

  “Some were helped, Ewen. Simo would have told you that.”

  “But why me?”

  “Your old tutor, Technician-Father Regen Dadley, was very fond of you.”

  “And I was of him. He gave me that. Why?”

  “Like Jenine, he guessed the truth about me. At least a little of the truth. He thought I meant you harm. He challenged me on one of my visits to the GoD Centre.” Inman nodded at the memory. “A very brave old man. I told him the truth, or as much as I dared tell him, and swore him to secrecy. I gave him that radio to give to you.”

  “But why me?”

  Inman showed some irritation. “It only provided advice, Ewen. In many ways you were exposed to more dangers than anyone else. There were obstacles-”

  “You intervened in person at my trial!”

  The older man rose to his formidable height. For a moment the autocratic First Secretary of Arama was back. But he seemed to change his mind. He relaxed and perched on the edge of his desk. “I hadn’t reckoned on your defence doing such a good job. Even so, I still had to stop the chairman ending your studies. Ten days community service…” He gave a wry smile. “I thought that was a safe sentence. It never occurred to me the idiots would send you to the front… You killed Tarlan, didn’t you?”

  Ewen nodded. The memories were too harsh to permit words.

  “I’m sorry, Ewen. That was something I never foresaw.”

  “But you still haven’t said why me.”

  Inman took a deep breath. “It goes back to your mother and her selection test as a little girl. She was exceptionally clever but had little curiosity. She was brilliant but she lacked that essential spark that crewmen need. I vetoed her selection because I wanted her to marry and have children.” Inman fidgeted as though suddenly angry. “Their stupid suppression of sexuality! It has denied us Arama’s full potential. Your mother led a normal life, grew up, and got married. Not a successful marriage. She was still a virgin when she went to the donor centre.”

  Ewen grasped the implication even before Inman had finished speaking. “My father - her first husband - was not my father?”

  Inman nodded.

  “Then who was?”

  There was a silence. But as Ewen looked up into those bleak, forbidding eyes, he knew the answer. So confused were his thoughts that it seemed that the office was spinning around. He heard himself blurt out: “And Tarlan?”

  “No. Not Tarlan. The seco
nd donor was anonymous.”

  “Did she know that the first one was you?”

  “No.” Inman returned to his chair and watched Ewen carefully. “Jenine is right - I am arrogant. I believed that the product of my blood and your mother’s blood would produce an exceptional child. But my arrogance has always stood me in good stead. And I was right. The union has produced an exceptional child. One who can take over from me.”

  Ewen’s inner turmoil became even more confused. “I don’t understand.”

  And then Inman’s eyes were alight with a strange fire. “Do you really think that once Challenger Three was completed and sent off for, perhaps, tens of years, or even centuries, that I would abandon the people of Arama? They are my responsibility. I devised Arama. I put them there. We need another project. One that might take thousands of years to realise, but if we can dream it, we can do it! Can you even begin to think what I have in mind? Can you?”

  There was a silence in the room. “For me to guess that would require me to plumb the full depths of your arrogance,” said Ewen slowly, meeting Inman’s stare. “Yes… I think I can guess… You need grandiose plans, don’t you, Caudo?”

  “I don’t need them, but if I have the imagination to conceive them, then it would be foolish of me to deny that talent.”

  Ewen stared beyond the hills where the setting sun was locked in a bloody crimson duel with the darkening sky and the coming night.

  “Well?” Inman prompted. “Can your imagination soar higher than mine?”

  “I don’t know how high your imagination can fly, Caudo. But if I were in your position, I would plan to take earth out of its orbit around the sun, and take it in search of a new and stable sun. That’s what I would consider if I were you.”

  9.

  For a moment Inman looked lost for words. He recovered his composure and gave a crooked smile. “You are me, Ewen. My flesh and blood. Yes - that is the next great plan. The Solaria Plan - to move the earth. It can be done. It will take 500 years to cancel its axial rotation alone. But it can be done. I’ve had a team of scientists carry out a feasibility study. With the will… And the time, it can be done.” He looked speculatively at Ewen. A sadness filled his eyes. “I’ve lived 600 years, Ewen. I’ve built a great ark. And now I want to naturally live out what years I have left, with my son taking on my work. I want you to head the project. I will continue as First Secretary of Arama if that’s your wish, but you will be in charge of the Solaria Project.”

  No one spoke for a while. Ewen thought of the hologram image of Challenger Three in the lobby; he thought about the first Challenger, somewhere in the far reaches of space; he thought about the people on board - people like him; born on their ship - never having known the brief joy that he had known by being in the outdoors. He thought of Jenine rising from the sea, water streaming over her full breasts, and the times they had made love with the sun’s warm and friendly touch on their skins, blessing their union. He gazed long and hard at the man before him; a man he been in fear of, and who was now waiting for him to speak.

  “Do I have a choice, Caudo?”

  “I wouldn’t deny you that, Ewen.”

  “Supposing I decide to do neither? Supposing I don’t want to fall in with any of your schemes-”

  “I call them plans, Ewen.”

  “And I call them schemes, Caudo. Supposing I tell you that I’m not interested in your Solaria Project, or joining Challenger Three, and that I too want to live out a normal life here with Jenine? Maybe have a job or something? I don’t know how the economics of Challenger City works. What then, Caudo?”

  Inman regarded the younger man steadily. “Then I’ll admit to being very disappointed. I have great plans for you, Ewen.”

  “Your plans don’t matter to me,” said Ewen with a hint of harshness. “What matters to me is what I want and, more important, what Jenine wants.”

  “You have been earmarked for greatness-”

  “You’ve earmarked yourself for greatness, Caudo. You see yourself as founder of a dynasty-”

  “Which I am!”

  Ewen grinned suddenly when he saw that he was shaking Inman’s usual calm. “A dynasty needs descendants. The emperor’s crown passing from father to son. That really appeals to your ego, doesn’t it, Caudo? Except that this son might not accept-”

  Inman’s patience snapped. He jumped to his feet and stood menacingly over Ewen, his face livid. “Ego!” he spat. “Ego! You dare to talk to me of ego! You know nothing, young man. Well I’ll tell what I know. I’m an archeologist. I’ve studied previous civilizations. There were many. Some ruled by despots; some ruled by the cruel who thought nothing of torturing and murdering thousands of their unfortunate subjects. But not all were like that. The most stable civilizations were those that had hereditary rulers. The society that built the first Challenger and designed Challenger Three was such a civilization. And you know why they succeeded where others failed? Because the power held by the crown was power denied to others. Whenever an ambitious general or politician tried to seize power, they were invariably thwarted in their ambitions by the power vested in the throne.”

  He paced the room as he talked, gesturing angrily, providing Ewen with a valuable insight into how this remarkable man had imposed his iron will on so many for so long.

  “That’s why I created a phoney imperial family for Arama, Ewen. For all its faults, the system works.”

  He stopped and stared down at the young man, towering over him, his eyes wide and staring, possessed of a terrible energy. “But we’re building something different here. A civilization that will outlast all those earlier civilizations because it will be the first to survive a holocaust. And it will go on surviving to bring peace and prosperity and safety to my-to its people. And you dare to talk to me about ego!”

  “So let’s do a deal,” Ewen broke in.

  Inman was about to launch into another tirade, but Ewen’s suggestion pulled him up. “A deal?” He looked as if his ears had deceived him.

  “A deal,” Ewen confirmed.

  “A deal with me?”

  “There’s no one else in the room, so it’ll have to be you.”

  Ewen’s flippancy was not well received. “I never do deals, young man.”

  “Then now’s the time to learn, old man.”

  For moment it looked as if Inman was about to fly into a rage, but his self-control asserted itself. “What sort of a deal?”

  “Why not sit down?” Ewen suggested.

  Far from taking offence, Inman lowered his tall frame into his chair and regarded Ewen with hostility and suspicion. “So let us hear this… deal.”

  Ewen outlined a plan that, to his surprise, Inman did not dismiss out of hand. Nevertheless the negotiations were as tough as they were brief. They were over in five minutes. Ewen, stood, uncertain who had manipulated whom. But he was satisfied.

  “How do you know you can trust me?” Inman asked as Ewen was about to leave.

  “You gave me your word, Caudo.”

  “And that’s good enough?”

  Ewen nodded. “It’s more than good enough for me, Caudo.”

  The hard face softened a little. “Hearing you say that gives me more pleasure than you’ll ever realise, Ewen.”

  10.

  Leinka entered Ewen’s and Jenine’s apartment and placed two glasses of water and two yellow tablets on the low table in front of the settee.

  “You don’t have to take them,” she explained to the couple. “The choice is yours. But if you do take them, you are committing yourself to the project. You will fall asleep as you normally do, and will wake up in ten-years when Challenger Three will be ready to leave.” She looked nervously from one to the other. “You do understand? It’s my duty to make it absolutely clear to you.”

  “And it will seem like tomorrow?” said Jenine.

  The petite brunette nodded and smiled. “Just like tomorrow.”

  “Would you go if you were free to do so?” Ewen asked
the girl as she moved to the apartment’s door.

  Leinka nodded. “Oh, yes - I wouldn’t hesitate.” She opened the door. “I’ll be back in the morning. Good night.”

  They bid the girl goodnight and sat staring at the tablets.

  Jenine laid her hand on Ewen’s arm. “What did Inman have to say?”

  “That you were right about him being the young archeologist.”

  “Nothing else?”

  “A couple of things.”

  She curled her legs under her and put her arms around him. She settled her head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, not speaking, enjoying the closeness the moment and thinking how it would be if they didn’t have each other.

  “I’ve been thinking,” said Jenine. “I’ve never had dreams like you. I’ve been following your dreams. Do you think that’s selfish?”

  Ewen stroked her curls. “Why should I think that?”

  “You dreamed about the outdoors, and you found it,” said Jenine. “Now you’re dreaming about the first Challenger, and you want to find that too.”

  “Yes.”

  “It won’t be like the search for the outdoors, Ewen. You could use your resourcefulness and your lateral thinking, but you won’t be able to on the ship.”

  Ewen kissed her forehead. “They got us into more problems than solved them.”

  “We’d be two junior members of the crew among four thousand.”

  He remembered his deal. “We don’t have to go. When I spoke to Inman he said that if we decided not to, we could have senior jobs here, and be assigned one of those large houses.”

  “He did!” Jenine bounced onto her knees and stared at Ewen, her eyes alight. “He actually said that?”

  “Yes.”

  “But he wants us to become crewmen?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why-”

  “Jenine. Listen carefully. I did a deal with Inman. Either we both stay or we both go. If we decide to stay, then we get a house and top jobs. But I promised him that the decision would be yours. If you want to stay, then I will want to stay. And I swear on my love for you that I will never, ever reproach you if we do stay. I promised him that I would not influence you apart from telling you that I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you, no matter where we are. If you take that tablet, then I will take mine. If you decide not to, then I will decide the same.”