Shadow Over Avalon
Page 24
Copper stalked to the door. His posture indicated his intention to brood in private. Shadow followed after. They were almost at Copper’s room when a call brought them both about.
The same young medi-tech who had tended Helga hurried up to them. “Shadow, I was looking for you. I’ve got your power pack. Can you come for fitting now?”
“This is something you should see,” she said to Copper, wanting revenge. “I need this procedure if I am to return to the surface. Are you prepared to learn what I am?”
“I’ll see for myself how they control my subject.” Copper’s mouth formed a hard line.
The medi-tech led them to the grav lifts, and Shadow felt too irritated with Copper to warn him what to expect. She enjoyed his gasp of terror as the device started up. Copper looked panicked by the time the doors slid open, and he dived out first, distancing himself as far from the contrivance as he could manage with his dignity intact. His eyes held a look of grave injury. The young medi-tech ushered them into his ready room, where Copper started forward on sighting a covered woman beyond a glass partition.
“No.” The medi-tech barred his passage. “Access denied. Your woman is in a clean-room for her own protection.”
“I’m not dirty.” Copper attempted to move around him.
“Copper, no.” Shadow grabbed at him. “No one is allowed in there without special clothing. She must be getting better, or they wouldn’t be so protective.”
“She had the growth removed this morning. We are in the process of regenerating tissue,” the young man said.
Copper looked through the glass. “She will live?”
“It might take a few weeks to repair her, as we are still working on a way to restore normality. Shadow has donated tissue for our comparison check.”
“Is there hope?” Copper looked at the figure with profound pity.
“We won’t give up on this. It’s too intriguing.” The medi-tech reached out for a slim silver box with lights and buttons. “While we’re on the subject, I want a full scan of you, since I understand curing is part of the treaty. This won’t take a moment.”
“Shadow—” Copper backed off.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she said, grinning at his obvious discomfort.
The device made a rapid sweep, and then the young man checked his instrument panel. He grunted in satisfaction. “Fertility is impaired by an unnatural metabolic rate causing too great a temperature. It is a careful piece of manipulation, but the area is too fragile for experimentation. I can insert an implant to compensate. It is a simple procedure, if I adapt a com-link. Report at first wake call tomorrow.”
Copper’s eyes bulged, and his hands clasped over his genitals. “What’s he going to do to me?”
“They remove a small circle of bone in your head.” She began to enjoy herself even more. “Metal threads lead from a flat device attached there into your brain to correct the problem. You will be asleep the whole time. Most of the Elite have one, including Ector. They use it to access information from our control data bank. Yours will be modified to personal need. Having one won’t make you their creature. It will mean you stay away from Harvester priests. We wouldn’t want them finding one of those.”
“What if I don’t want a lump of metal stuck in my head?” He backed away from the pair of them.
“Damage, courtesy of Harvesters, doesn’t heal. If you want the effects neutralized—” She paused. “Just how important is fertility? Submariners may develop a way to free our speech with such a device, so that we don’t need earrings. It won’t impede our special gifts, since those are protected as a priority. Think about it. No one will force the issue. It is a personal choice.”
“Some among us have much more intrusive implants to no ill-effect. Are you ready, Shadow?” the medi-tech asked, grinning.
Shadow stripped off her tunic, presenting her left arm to him, interested to see if he would remember.
“What would you do if I went ahead?” he challenged, chuckling. “Go sit down, I’ll get the power pack.”
“A certain arm makes so much difference? What’s he going to do to you?” Copper hovered over her.
“Watch and learn. I concealed this for good reason, but now . . . it’s best you learn.”
The sound of Copper gagging interrupted the peeling back of artificial skin and muscle layers. There was a pause while he got himself under control.
“It’s not flesh.” His face was a sickly white.
“Organs, we can regrow, some flesh, but not nerves.” The medi-tech continued his digging. “Shadow is a cyborg—part living, part mechanism. The mechanism needs an energy source to work. I am installing a replacement to enable normal activity to continue.”
“You call that normal function?”
“For her, it is. The alternative is disability inappropriate to her duties. Many Elite are cyborg to a greater or lesser extent. It goes along with the territory.” He poked a blunt glass rod into the exposed circuitry. A small disc gently rose from the opening, and its retaining clips loosened.
There was a faint sigh from behind, followed by a thud as Copper hit the ground, senseless.
Chapter 22
Earth Date 3892
Glowing blue water made a familiar sky above the flat rooftop of Elite barracks where Arthur mulled over his first major disagreement with the Archive. When he asked the sentient about the group of Terran slaves in the bowels of High Fort Shadow discovered, it reacted in the same way emotionless way to him as it had to her. The Archive was an autonomous, sentient intelligence, so what force could reduce it into an archaic behavior pattern? Those few moments when its established personality appeared to disintegrate sent shivers down his spine. Like Shadow, he changed the subject.
Thoughts of Shadow called up those of that other peculiar inhabitant of his dreams: the old-young man, who seemed to want something from him. Arthur contemplated quizzing this timeless specter, partly to discern whether it was linked to him as an insane extension, or a separate, outside influence. If he received answers to unresolved questions the next time it invaded his dreams – if those answers were outside his personal experience . . . yes, that would be a pivotal point.
The sense of another presence disturbed his meditation. A few heartbeats of gentle scan revealed Ector about to access the roof; no mistaking the flavor of his mind, despite the careful privacy barriers. Ector wanted to catch him by surprise, did he? Arthur shut his eyes, waiting until Ector padded near in the soundless way learned from Brethren.
“I know I’m skipping classes, so if you’ve come to chastise me, it’s a wasted effort.” He waited out a controlled silence from his superior. “Ector, I’m not going back until I’m ready. I’m quite prepared for any accrued punishment.”
“You knew who found you.” Ector sounded irritated. “Good guess, but it could easily have been a quorum of seers, bent on sneaking up to recover a lost acolyte. It would be too late by the time we came up with a legal process to yank back a reluctant meal from the shark’s belly.”
“I knew who searched. I always know.” Arthur opened his eyes and smiled. “They can’t steal what they can’t see or sense. This roof would appear empty if I wanted to stay hidden.”
“Arthur?” Ector frowned, looking uncertain. “Can you really screen to that extent?”
He considered demonstrating, but Arthur didn’t want to be diminished in Ector’s eyes. “I don’t hide from friends. Sometimes I need to be alone, and Sanctuary isn’t a good place for that, so I worked out my own way to avoid seers.”
“Screening leaves an aftertaste,” Ector said. “Any initiate could pick it up.”
“Not my method. They use mind link and eyes to locate. I project an image of myself doing various things and moving off before they get there. It was the only form of exercise some of them got before I left.”
“Arthur, no one can do that. You’d have to split your mind in two.”
“I’ve had plenty of time to practice.” He stretch
ed to ease a kink in his back. “As long as the projection sticks to predictable behavior patterns, it almost runs itself. Watchers get frustrated, but they don’t believe anyone has the capability to generate such a realistic image for long, so they don’t suspect.”
Still frowning, Ector sat beside him, leaning back against an air duct with his hands behind his head. “I can’t say I’m astonished you have the Great Control, given your mother’s abilities. If I had any doubts left on that score, they have just evaporated.” He chuckled. “One day you will learn how much you upset Sanctuary. Oh, this is too good.”
“Who is my mother?” Arthur sat up to watch Ector’s face for any minute betrayals. The woman must be one of the Elite. He wouldn’t raid for data – he couldn’t without losing a friend – but he could still read body language.
“She will tell you, or I will, when I think you are mature enough to handle the consequences. That day is drawing close.” Ector shut his eyes and relaxed his face muscles, as if aware of Arthur’s scrutiny. “What bothered you so much that you needed seclusion? Dreams again?”
“No—Shadow. Years back she found a topic the Archive didn’t like. It started spouting antiquated security restrictions. I tried to access data on that subject with the same result. I suppose I was conceited to imagine I might get answers where she failed. Did she ever discuss the experience with you?”
“She didn’t. Show me both incidents.” Ector’s shoulders tensed.
Arthur tried to put his exasperation aside. Ector must know his mother well. Perhaps she was one of the Elite support staff, or maybe an active seer member? Would it be Suki? She was still a popular addition to any landing party. He suppressed a sigh and transmitted Shadow’s experiences of the Archive in exact detail. The sense of shock and wonder radiated from Ector as the scenes played out in his mind.
“The Archive shouldn’t be subject to security overrides. This is a revelation. I’m tempted to check that incident in Shadow’s files myself, just to see if it’s still there.”
Ector propped himself up on one elbow looking out at Sanctuary for a moment as if drawing strength from the presence of the place. The twin towers in daytime were jeweled with inner lights against the dark walls to present an irresistible focal point.
“I started an unwelcome line of thought some time back also.” Ector yawned. “I wasn’t satisfied at the explanation for continued life on the surface after the holocaust. I can’t see why every animal life form wasn’t annihilated. Avalon had a fifty-year food supply stockpiled when the catastrophe happened, and the ability to generate food from hydroponic units, so how did repopulation occur on the surface, given only a few underground shelters were known to exist with the same food resource? Why are some animal species unaltered, while others mutated to primeval condition? Then there are beasts which shouldn’t exist in nature, being throwbacks to long extinct species.” Ector yawned a second time. “It’s happening again. Every time I think about this problem I start to fall asleep.”
Arthur projected a flow of pure energy to Ector. He met with unconscious resistance – a resistance not controlled by his friend.
“Think about my encounter instead for a moment,” he urged, shaking Ector’s shoulders. “I’ll investigate your discovery if I get a chance.”
Ector made an effort, immediately looking more alert. “The Archive is not the only source for data. Avoid sensitive topics when you access it. Two of us with a sleep problem aren’t going to accomplish much.”
“I’ve a resource I intend to explore tonight. Whether it will prove useful is another matter.”
“Be careful with those dreams of yours. Shadow has spent years in digging ancient ruins for lost technology. She might have discovered data, but she may have created a memory block when returning to Avalon. There is a core of isolation remaining in her that none of us have ever penetrated.”
“I thought she was on our side,” Arthur objected.
“Shadow doesn’t have a side, unless it is her own. She’ll be returning with her son soon for a replacement power pack. You tackle her with my problem, and I’ll try yours on for size. I’ve an idea you might get sent to sleep if you don’t dump your pet project.” Ector offered a hand up as Arthur rose. “Don’t collect any more demerit points. I don’t want to discipline you.”
Arthur found his leisure time curtailed by extra training on his return. This meant his time accessing the Archive ceased to exist for the next three days, but this was not the punishment intended, given his new knowledge about the sentient. The first night he was so exhausted he had no trouble falling asleep on returning to his dwelling unit. The dream sequence started immediately, almost as if it had been stalking him.
*
The cave seemed unchanged at first. Water dripped, slowly building on a crystalline structure rising from the floor. The old-young man sat in the same position by his fire, his white hair and beard looking out of place on an unlined skin. Smoke spiraled in lazy upward drifts to the sound of waves crashing against rocks. A sharp scent of ocean mingled with wood smoke.
“Those who would lead others must first govern themselves; my second lesson to you. There was no resistance to my company. Does this mean a return to wisdom?” The cave-sitter lifted fathomless black eyes to Arthur for the first time. They looked like openings to a bottomless abyss, black upon black, waiting to suck out life from the unwary.
“Why did my mother abandon me?” Arthur wondered if this subject would get an answer. He gazed at the fire rather than those compelling eyes.
“Which mother? You have had many rebirths.”
“The current one,” Arthur said, disturbed by the cave-sitter’s suggestion. He glanced at his hands fearing to have his deepest terror confirmed, to be in another body, yet unwilling to remain in ignorance. Those hands were young – his own.
“The current vessel is compatible to the first. That woman also sacrificed her heart for your safety.” The cave sitter stirred up the fire with a stick, sending the flames leaping. “Watch and learn.”
A young woman’s face appeared in those tongues of fire. She had long, fair hair and an elfin expression, a delicate beauty beyond comparison. Her love for the child she cradled in her arms elevated that beauty to the realms of the exquisite. She looked up at an intrusion Arthur couldn’t see, appearing to listen. Her face drained of color, of all emotion. In that moment, a terrible purpose reduced the loving mother to an empty shell. She now resembled a marble statue as she handed over her heart’s joy to unseen hands. There were no tears at that parting, no outcry, only the terrible hurt driving inwards. The picture faded.
“Why?” Arthur whispered.
“Your continued existence outweighed your mother’s wish to raise you. She did what she needed to preserve her child, heedless of personal sacrifice. The current vessel also armed her child with mighty weapons upon parting.”
“Was that her?” Arthur said.
“The first one. You will find the current incarnation without my help.”
“Just like all the others: you wave a bone in my face to attract attention, and then snatch it away when I get close enough to start gnawing. No one will answer those questions.”
“Ask me another. Without curiosity you will not grow, Arthur,” the strange man advised. “A ruler must be open to all threads of thought.”
“Why did animal life on the surface degenerate after death day? Why did they survive at all?”
The cave-sitter bowed his head. He seemed to forget Arthur’s presence for an unwholesome time as the drips of water fell, one by one. “They did not survive, Arthur.”
“But . . . how were they replaced?” Arthur closed his mind to the broader implications, frightened to acknowledge them in case the source of information suddenly dried up.
“If that were revealed, the need to correct a problem would be less urgent. Your people need a strong leader. They always have in times of crisis. I give you a clue to implement in your present incarnation.”
“A leader must recognize and become intimately acquainted with the enemies of his subjects if he is to subdue threat,” the cave sitter said.
“‘Know thine enemy’?”
“Who is your enemy?”
“Ones who threaten my— no, ones who threaten those I love.”
“Who do you love, Arthur?”
The question slashed tangentially across his awareness. Who did he love? No individual came to mind any longer. Circe had refused to answer his vid calls, since his defection to the Elite.
He remembered looking down from the lofty heights of Sanctuary, watching as ordinary citizens went about their everyday concerns, safe in the knowledge that they were protected and innocent because of this, and then Shadow’s agony at the hands of Nestines. She had done no wrong and yet had come to such a terrible punishment that the very thought of it tore into his being. If Nestines won, those scuttling masses wouldn’t exist. Their lives would be snuffed out in pain and fear, ordinary lives, men, women and children – gone. Great anger began to build. An urge to protect flowed through him.
“The innocents. I love the innocents,” he said, his voice rasping with emotion.
“Love responds to love—hate to hate. You are learning hate from the one called Shadow. Her active usefulness is almost spent. Learn while you can.”
“Shadow can’t die. She is all that holds our alliance together.” Arthur was stunned by the information.
“Shadow must evolve into a higher form. Her replacement is ready to assume the mantle of power she holds in trust. Never grieve for a mortal until you see their bones picked clean, and then be sure you have the right set of bones.”
“She’ll live?” Arthur held his breath for the answer, suddenly terrified by a future without her, without the connection to her life through the Archive playbacks.
“Uncertain. Even I can’t predict an outcome to her release, save that it will happen soon.”