She
I step back and imagine how I appear to these boys. I see one breathe in, as if he’s savouring my scent. It’s terrifying.
He
That’s it! You’ve got exactly the right connection. It’s the imagination!
She
I must look strange to them, an interpolator from another age. A gatecrasher, someone who’s changed the plot of their favourite story.
He
Yes, it’s all to do with the plot!
She
Do they see me as on the side of the magicians who conjured them into being then left them alone? They move closer and I feel a rage – it must be from them – at being taken out of one realm in which they were happy, had parents and put into another where they were treated as orphans.
He
That’s what they want, your empathy!
She
I look down at myself through their eyes and I’m startled to see how luscious my flesh looks, like orchid petals. My skin is translucent and I see my blood vessels throb with my goodness. I feel like prey.
He
That’s it! They’re hungry and you’re their sport.
She
They’re standing too close now and even if I tried, I couldn’t break away from them.
He
Don’t you see? They feed on your imagination. All the time we’ve been inside the game, we’ve been nothing but fuel. They used the plot to draw us in, like insects on the slippery ledge of a Venus flytrap.
She
We thought we were the investigators when, all the time, they were probing our minds.
He
Think literal, Nona, it’s your only defence! The VR game has been one huge trap to lure us to the place where these three can use us completely.
She
They seem to be hypnotising me. I feel the pupils of my eyes dilate and I let them in. This is something like rape but more subtle, because they’re feeding on… on - could it be… the story I’ve made up about them?
He
Think species of bird! The names of planets! Anything to take you away from the visions they’re hunting.
She
I hear him! Think birds. Ah! Blackbird, sparrow, robin…
He
That’s it! Carry on. What they hate is facts. Chaffinch!
She
Chaffinch! Uh… goldfinch! Woodpecker! Willow warbler…
He
They pull away from her and widen the circle. Tree creeper!
She
Heron! Barn owl! Crow!
He
Nona, take your chance and run!
*
She
When I get back, Campion’s just stirring.
He
So, you’ve seen the interface now. What do you think?
She
That the game’s not human.
He
It’s not an Earth vessel at all. You tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen.
She
It’s come from much further afield, from outside this solar system. Maybe from somewhere like the Great Attractor, or the Coma Cluster because you need that much time…
He
That’s about three hundred million light years away…
She
Yes, long enough for the ship and crew to have evolved into something so strange we didn’t recognise it.
He
It disguised itself, using what was in our own heads to look familiar.
She
You mean, it made itself look like our own ideas of a standard Earth ship of a certain period?
He
And that’s the key. It used our own ideas.
She
But the VR stories. We didn’t make those up.
He
No, they’re part of the ship. The marriage of human beings with animals and plants…
She
So we can read that as a kind of parable of the vessel’s history?
He
That’s right. The ship’s been travelling for millions of years. Since it set off there have been many generations of children born on board. They’ve grown up and had their own offspring time and time again. With such a small population, the gene pool must have become impoverished.
She
But where would they find more of their own species to mate with? We’re not talking humans here, are we?
He
No, they must have come across some inhabited places – the odd colony or even stray ships, and bred with the species they found there, incorporated them into their genome.
She
You mean, like Gwydion and Gilfaethwy turning into various creatures in the forest?
He
Yes, it must have happened several times, and the story reflected it.
She
They must at some point have come across plants which then travelled with them.
He
And when two forms of life have so much time in a closed environment with each other – remember, we’re talking millions of years – it’s not strange to find… I can hardly think it.
She
That they evolved together?
He
I mean that they became a new species. An amalgam of the two.
She
Just like the offspring of Lleu and Blodeuwedd, if they’d had children? Are you saying that the VR is, as we suspected, the history of what happened to these people?
He
Yes, but as a people, not individuals. We were looking for the story of three persons, but the events described are far more epochal than that – what can happen on a voyage of three hundred million light years or more.
She
However vivid it was in VR, the story’s over. The travellers died out and we just came across their ship, some aspects of which are still functioning. Big deal. Mystery solved. So, can’t we just leave?
He
You try. You know that Mayday call. Do you think it went out?
She
Of course it did. It’s all on automatic. The Department will be here for us any time now.
He
Go check the log. If what I think is right, we could be waiting a long time for a rescue vessel.
She
Here, look! I’ll show you. Oh. That’s odd. There’s no sign of a Mayday. I know I sent it.
He
It’s as I thought. Do one more thing for me. You know when you sealed the hatch between the vessels because the hull was pierced. Will you go and check its status?
She
But I can’t do that without compounding the damage. The leak will get worse as I open the valve.
He
Trust me, Nona, just do as I say.
She
But… OK. I’ll only do it if you stay in here, behind this atmos shield. I’ll put on a breathing helmet and talk on the Joint Thought Channel, like before.
He
We don’t seem to need it any more. But activate it if it makes you feel better.
She
Yes, it does. And you’ll stay…?
He
Give me the shield.
She
Right, can you hear me? Good. I’m opening the lock and waiting for a sudden outrush of air any second.
Strange. I’m in the airlock now. I could have sworn the leak was just there. Where’s it gone? I can’t see it. Campion. There’s no sign that anything ever pierced the hull in here. Look, I can take off my helmet and breathe. You can come out from behind the shield. Everything’s normal.
He
Oh my God. Then it’s true.
She
Isn’t that good? That there’s no damage?
He
For an intelligent woman you can be obtuse…
She
No need to insult me. I’ve got better things to be doing than being spoken to rudely by you.
He
Nona, don’t you see what this means? There’s no breach.
/>
She
I must have been mistaken when I pulled you out of there.
He
And what about this wound in my chest? Is that an illusion?
She
No. Perhaps the seal slipped and is back in place now.
He
No, that isn’t it. The ship itself repaired the hole in the hull.
She
But that’s impossible. Ships don’t heal.
He
But minds do. This whole ship is a mind. Anything can happen in three hundred million years. We’ve already established that the inhabitants interbred with plants. Take it one step further, Nona. What if the travellers on board combined with the ship, became their own transport?
She
You mean mind travel?
He
No, I mean literally. The people became their ship.
She
But that’s crazy.
He
Is it? Evolution’s a joker, can do strange things. Who’d have imagined a giraffe? In the same way as the voyagers married with plants, they made a physical bond with the ship and it allowed them to travel further than ever before. What substance do human beings have an infinite amount of?
She
Carbon?
He
No. I don’t mean a chemical, an activity.
She
Ageing?
He
No, try again.
She
Bullshit?
He
No, but you’re getting close. Imagination. As ubiquitous as light. If a ship could be driven by make-believe then it would never ever run out of fuel, as long as it had occupants.
She
But what if the original travellers all died? No one’s immortal.
He
Imagine if those in charge made the ship itself a self-regulating system, so that it could lure other creatures on board wherever it found them.
She
Like off the orbit of Mars.
He
And so it could get a new supply of fuel.
She
Especially if it didn’t let them leave. Or prevented Maydays to other vessels. But I know I sent it.
He
No, you thought you did. Haven’t we both been infected with this myth?
She
So the ship could travel on infinitely through the universe, incorporating other minds into itself where it found them?
He
Lured in by our curiosity and then by our love of a story. And all the time the ship was drawing life for itself from our explorations. Like a sundew. And that’s how we’ve been caught.
She
That would explain my feeling of horror the first time we visited the VR. That wasn’t a physical rape, it was mental.
He
The ship’s been using our sensorium to feed itself and for us there’s no way out. We’ve given it freely exactly what it wanted. Women of flowers… sex changes in a forest, we’ve had a fine old romp through the imagination. And it’s taken it all and will never release us while there’s a shred of mind in us that it can still use.
She
So that’s why the forest boys drew close when I tried to imagine…
He
And once you stopped being empathetic they moved away.
She
But we could just leave.
He
I’ve already tried. The escape pod is jammed and none of the controls are answering my commands. We’re being absorbed.
She
That explains… the rage of Blodeuwedd. I wonder if she represents some being forced to be part of this vessel against her will. If so, her distress has left its mark on her character.
What are we going to do?
He
We probably shouldn’t even be talking, as that itself takes imagination.
She
We’ve got to talk or we’ll both go mad.
Why don’t we rest a while and try not to give the vessel any fuel and see what that does?
He
I’m afraid it’s far too late for that and just too difficult. Have you ever tried not to think about something? It makes it ten times more present and obtrusive. No. There has to be another way out.
She
What if we do what they least expect and go back into the VR? After all, the whole story is written in there, if we had eyes to see it. There may be some information that we’ve overlooked.
He
I don’t know…
She
Well, I’ll be damned if I’m waiting here till I go mad. If this vessel really is a cannibal ship, at least I want to use my own mind until the last moment. We know it uses us when we’re asleep, I’d rather be active and see what comes.
He
You’re right. We’ll go in. But on one condition. That you take exactly the part I tell you to. And if I say run, you go hell for leather for the escape pod and leave, no matter what.
She
I promise.
He
Right. We have to go back into the forest.
She
I hated being by that tree. It’s spooky.
He
Yes, but don’t you see? It’s the centre of everything. The whole vessel’s controlled by the interface with the three lost boys.
Are you ready?
She
I am. Hold my hand.
He
Right. Think of the meat tree.
She
But this doesn’t look like the same place at all. This is… I don’t know what. Look at those wires going into... no!
He
It’s something like flesh. They look like veins. I can see them pulsing. This is still the meat tree but now we’re seeing what it really is – where the spaceship merged with human bodies, became something else. It’s evolution.
She
So we’re to be next? What are we supposed to do?
He
Go back to the story. It’s been our guide so far.
She
Why did Lleu come here, to the meat tree, at his moment of crisis? I’d have thought he’d want to escape the story that had failed to give him a wife and nearly killed him.
He
But don’t you see that Lleu knows he’s entirely a creature of illusion? He could have been like the three lost boys. They’ve hardly any human biography, but they know what they are. Lleu would be less than nothing, were it not for his uncles’ sleight-of-hand. Strip that away and he’s an emaciated bird of prey, being fed on by a sow.
She
Look! Some action! Back at the court. Math and Gwydion in consultation with Lleu. All three are demanding recompense from the hunter and Blodeuwedd.
He
I’ll take the part of Lleu. You stay and observe.
She
But I want to help and I’m good at this.
He
You promised to do as I said. This way it’s safer. I’ll tell you what’s happening as we go. I don’t want you taking on any roles until we know more.
Lleu demands to be avenged on the hunter.
First they deal with Blodeuwedd. When she and her ladies hear that Math is coming, they flee. They’re so afraid that they run looking backwards and all of them fall in a lake, where they drown. Except for Blodeuwedd.
She
I’m taking her part!
He
Nona! I told you not to do it!
She
Too late, I’m in. And I’m being cursed.
No, it’s not drowning they have in mind for me, but turning me into a bird. My maids turned their faces round like an owl’s to look over their shoulders. My heart is at the end of its passion. I’m still beautiful with a beak, and a splay of feathers as if a wind blew constantly into my eyes and ruffled my feathers into a face. I have talons.
I try to laugh because compared to being a plant this is up the evolutionary ladder! But it comes out mournful. I flee the day
because what they give me is shame and blood at night. Remorse is always hunting and finding its prey.
He
For Lleu and Gwydion and Math are men of honour. So is the hunter.
She
Campion! Listen to Blodeuwedd. It’s you who should get out. I’ve got to tell you…
He
Your voice has turned soft, I can hardly hear you. Gwydion demands that the hunter stand in the spot where Lleu was tricked and receive the same blow.
She
The reason they made me an owl…
He
The hunter asks if any of his men will take the hit on his behalf.
She
Is because I’m a master bird of prey. Don’t you see?
He
But nobody will.
The Meat Tree Page 11
