Something, here in the Computer Room, was going sour.
‘Stop! Hold that!’
— His own voice.
He hardly recognised it.
His eyes had slammed back into precision focus, staring at the green display of the video screen on the computer console.
The image instantly disappeared. Nothing on the screen. Blank. Just a faint, greenish glow.
But he’d seen it! He knew he’d seen it!
— Kelda? … UNDERNEATH?!
His voice rang out, crashing and echoing around the walls, zinging along ventilator ducts, even reaching the rotten hulk of the decks above. ‘Controller! Put that display back up on the screen!’
He fixed that screen with tortured, half-comprehending eyes, stood absolutely still, bolted down, solid, in the middle of the room.
His eyes. If the gods of the universe had only seen them then! Would they have left him to suffer this spasm alone?
He stared, now, at the Controller’s loudspeakers, at the TV cameras that had swung around — so startled, they were! — to view him.
Four microphones lowered themselves from the roof of the deck, listening to his every breath in quadraphonic.
‘Put that display up!’ — Trell’s command. In megawatts.
The Controller’s voice was smooth, a psychiatrist dispassionately addressing a deluded patient. ‘There was nothing on the screen, Trell-484. You’re imagining it.’
‘Are you going to put it up? — Or shall I punch it up from the recording on your journal tape?’
‘I wouldn’t advise it, Trell.’
‘I’ll bet you wouldn’t!’
The TV cameras zeroed on him in close-up.
It meant they couldn’t see the video display.
Trell thought, okay, wise-guy, I’ll catch you out.
He entered the command direct to the journal tape, nothing the Controller could do about that!
Trell watched the tape on Deck 5 jump back, then roll forward three inches as the computer checked its contents. And they reappeared on the screen.
Trell’s eyes held on, he saw what he saw, and suddenly all was clear.
The Controller had decided there was no chance of survival for the incubants.
Not this batch, anyway.
Trell reeled back from the cameras. They seemed to be bearing down on him. ‘What the hell, Controller? It said ZD-Two. What’s Deck ZD-Two, Controller?’
‘An error, Trell. An error on the display tube.’
‘You damn-well erred but it was not on the display!’
The Controller said, ‘I’ll have it fixed.’
‘You will? You know what the damn screen states!’
‘Sure, if it says “ZD-Two go to standby” it has to be an error, doesn’t it, Trell?’
My God, I’ve caught you!
‘Controller, I didn’t say what appeared on that screen! You’ve got no cameras on it. If it were an error, how could you know what was there? … Yet you knew that it said ‘ZD-Two go to standby’! Bastard!’
‘You seem to be jumping to conclusions, Trell.’
‘Not before time. So you knew all along what would happen when those murderers got back from the supply dump? You knew! So what’s the pay-off?’
‘As I said, you’re making your own deductions, not mine.’
‘Then why prepare the backup wombs? That’s what they are! Down below us! ZD-One, ZD-Two! You’ve given up on us, you’re starting from scratch! —’
The phone in Cubicle E buzzed, several times, urgent.
Trell dashed over, snatched it up. ‘Trell here!’
‘That’s lucky. Thought I’d let you know. The heathens are back. It worked. Now we share out the stuff. Fair. Like democratic.’
‘Nembrak, I’ll come back to you. okay, we have troubles, don’t leave the factory for God’s sake.’
‘I’ll stay right by the phone.’
‘Thanks.’
Trell returned to the cameras and the mikes. ‘You. Controller. So-called. If you had opened up the backup deck, given us more supplies — more Insulin, all the rest of it — there would never have been all this terror, this bloodshed, Eagle’s death!’
‘484, let’s just suppose that you’re right, that there is a backup deck —’
‘Damn right there’s a backup deck —’
‘— Okay, so there is. Those supplies are reserved for Batch 2, Deck 2. You want to steal them for yourselves?’
‘Steal? There are no people on ZD-Two! The parents haven’t even met! Even if they had, we ourselves could have supplied them. Given a couple of years to get the crops growing. We’d have everything. Even cow’s milk. Fresh food … Well look after them —!’
‘— Trell. You’re too late. Initial insemination is already sequenced and counting.’
Trell snapped his brain into Reheat. He’d tricked the Computer before. Could it be done again? He said, ‘I simply do not believe you.’
‘I’ll show you.’
‘How?’
‘Watch.’
There came a mechanical whine.
A hatch began to open near the Central Processor.
As Trell watched, as the Computer gloated, Trell’s blood-sugar went off the dial. He reset his own brain: Red Alert.
He grabbed an unoccupied TV camera-stand and rushed for the hatch.
The Controller reversed the motors.
But not in time.
Trell jammed the legs of the stand under the hatch and broke the mechanism.
The hatch fell free.
‘Okay, Controller. Now you’ll do what I say. Get on the loudspeakers, and connect up the speakers outside, the ones we ran out to the hull and the shore. Get that? Tell those murderers full volume that there are plenty of supplies, no shortage, no problems. Tell them they’re in business, that they’ll live.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘I am protecting your own species, Trell. I have advanced the insemination timing. It’s happening right now.’
‘So what? We need more people! Why leave us to die? — Give us more babies, why the hell not? Give them a real chance!’
‘Trell, they do not have the kind of chance that you can affect.’
‘What in hell are you trying to say? Cut out the gobbledigook and talk straight! What do you KNOW?’
Again, the phone buzzer in Cubicle E. This time it ran on frantically, desperate morse, a garbled MAYDAY call, crazed and anguished.
It was Nembrak. ‘They’re climbing in the sub and have guns! Guns! Trell, they’re fully armed, must have been in the dump at Corsica, weapons, some are coming this way, making for the factory, others pouring on board right now, straight down the hoist-shaft, Ropes!’
‘Nembrak, Chrissakes, how do I get to the bottom of the hoist? — the Computer has locked the main doors to the bulkhead.’
‘Eagle must have made it through to there!’ Nembrak’s voice raced, rose in pitch, as if he could already see his attackers coming. ‘Get to the hoist! Jam it in the shaft!’
‘How? It’s sealed off, automated. No way!’
‘Listen. Trell. One thing. Frume fixed the bulkhead-door lights. Don’t believe them. Some are open, some shut. To make a hidey-hole for Sladey and Flek and his yes-girls. They’ll have supplies, water. Somewhere topsides. Don’t try to find them. They’ll be safe while the rest go mad. And wait …’
‘Nembrak?’
The line went dead.
Trell lurched clear of Cubicle E.
There came a metallic clank! from the computer room door. ‘Controller, you crazy? Let me out! Those people!’
‘Those people don’t stand a hope in hell.’
‘You knew there were arms and ammunition. You knew! Sick. Evil! Let me out. Don’t you see? Kelda! I must get to Kelda!’
‘No.’
‘Mad. Mad! Open that bulkhead door. Kelda is going to die!’
‘You don’t need that particular Kelda!’
‘What the hell do you mean? Open the door, open it, she’ll die!’
Then it hit him. Like a grenade in the groin.
‘You don’t mean … you can’t mean there’s another Kelda?! Everything and everybody manufactured in duplicate? — Are you Satan himself?’
‘I promise you the other one. That’s a deal.’
‘A … deal! Open up or I’ll kick you to pieces and you and your obscenities will be obliterated!’
‘Trell, the other Kelda will be just as good. And I’ll see that the other Trell doesn’t have her! And you’ll have equal say in their upbringing, how’s that? What human being has ever? … Don’t look at me like that, Trell! Don’t look at me like that!’
‘Three seconds to open that door. Three seconds, Controller, three more seconds of Huckman’s filth-machine and counting: Three, two —’
‘Okay! Stop Trell, it’s okay! It’s open!’
*
‘Hallow! Where’s Kelda? Where?’
‘Christ, it’s you, Trell. I thought —’
‘— For God’s sake just tell me, where’s Kelda?’
‘Trell, I don’t know, there’s guys pouring into the ship, coming in both ways, down the supplies shaft, along the ramp —’
‘Listen, where the twins?’
‘I got ’em in here, in the main valve room … God, I can hear explosives, what is it?, what they got?’
‘Listen, Hallow. That valve room. Can it be locked from the inside?’
‘Guess so, but —’
‘Lock yourself m. With Sakini and Inikas. Now.’
‘Are you crazy? I may not be much but I can fight!’
‘Get in there, Hallow! Don’t you understand? Survivors! There got to be survivors. You accept I’m in command?’
‘You always were in command, but —’
‘No buts. A man and two girls. Twins in their chromosomes. Maybe more twins to come. Don’t stop screwing till you make out.’
‘I can’t just hide! They’re killers. Can’t you hear?’
‘Since when was I deaf. You’re delaying me, Hallow. I have to save the girls, save Kelda! Obey. Just this once. Blind obedience for a friend. Not some revolting dictator. A friend. Trell says. Okay? Please?!’
And there was Krand.
Trell could see that Krand knew hate. It seethed in the eyes as he tried to say something. The words wouldn’t come.
‘What is it? Quick. Must say.’
Krand managed, ‘Nembrak guessed it. Told me just now. I was over there. In GM.’
‘Yes I spoke to him. They’re attacking.’
‘Not just that … Trell, I think Nembrak has suspected this for some time —’
‘For God’s sake, what?’
‘About Sladey. Even betrayed his own hoods. Knew they’d go beserk. Coops himself up with a bunch of creeps. Special supplies. Some of ’em girls … Prenda included, vacuous but Aryan. Gloating cockroaches, sealed tight somewhere aboard this ship.’
Trell found himself lisping. ‘So they’re a permanent threat to … to any survivors down here? — The twins? Hallow?’
‘Right.’
‘Krand. No time to find them. You warn Hallow and the twins about this. But shout it at the valve-room door. Don’t unlock it. Warn them. Don’t let them come out.’
‘Yes. Okay.’
‘What about the rest of the hoods? Scorda? Flek?’
‘Screaming crazy.’
‘And armed.’
‘Check. Trell. There’s no chance. Not any more.’
‘Don’t say it. Gotta believe something. You’re the philosopher. I always believed in you.’
‘I only had dreams.’
‘Krand, I’m sticking by those dreams.’
‘They’re in shreds.’
Trell’s eyes steeled. ‘They’re not just your property. We shared what we must fight for now.’
But something weirdly calm about Krand. He was limp, drained. His voice went different. Now, just the Report. Final Report. ‘Trell. I’ve secured the two main bulkheads: One between here and the hoist; the other cutting-off the passenger elevator shaft. They won’t hold for long. They’ll shoot out the locks.’
Trell stared at Krand. It was appalling to see absolute defeat. Trell spoke impersonally, matter-of-fact: ‘Is that the last bulkhead between us and them?’
‘You despise me.’
‘Is it?’
‘There’s one more. Cass is trying to seal it off but it’s only thin sheet steel. They’ll beat it in and they’ll kill. Us. Then each other. It’s because they cannot believe they exist. There’s no difference between life and death, not now.’
‘Krand. How can I possibly despise you? I’m asking you to do what you no longer believe in. Will you?’
‘What’s the use?’
‘Dammit! Will you?’
‘Go on.’
‘Krand. There’s fresh life on the deck below. Fresh life! You understand me? The deck below!’
Krand nodded. ‘And you want me to protect this life? What for? More horror? — Embryos for a reincarnated Sladey regime?’
‘Sladey may not survive. The new batch may learn. Hallow might just re-program the Computer. We can’t know.’
‘And we can’t gamble with two hundred more lives. How do we give them a better deal?’
‘Krand, we have to try! Make their lives better. We try!’
‘It’s no use, Trell. Hear that? They’ve reached the bulkheads!’
‘Krand, this is what we do. Very little time, so listen! I’m gonna try to hold the corridor leading to the girls’ quarters, I’m connecting two wires to the electric main, get as many of the bastards as I can by electrocution. See? You do the same outside here, try to stop them rushing us from the Hoist Area once they’ve blown that bulkhead, try to stop them getting down to ZD-Two, they don’t know it exists so don’t make it look like that, okay? I’ll protect Helen, somehow.’
‘Sure.’
‘You have maybe three minutes to rig up those electric wires.’
But there was death in Krand’s acknowledging smile.
Trell tore aft along the corridor, stopped near the electrical outlet by the entrance of the dormitory area, ripped out some cable from the lighting circuit, connected it his end.
*
Over at General Motors the lights had gone dead. The invaders had cut the cable. A solitary candle lighted Customer Relations.
Nembrak knelt at Fulda’s side. He forced himself to look at her head. The wound was terrible.
‘Nembrak?’
‘Fulda?’
‘Why did you lie to Trell? — Saying there’s no cyanide?’
‘Does it matter, now?’
‘It matters.’
‘The knowledge that there really was some cyanide … That would have been taking away something from him.’
‘The will to live.’
‘Yes.’
Fulda’s head dropped back, lifeless.
Nembrak poured himself a stiff gin, went to the window, stared at Kasiga.
Like crazed army ants, dark shadows seethed on her hull, fighting to get through the narrow funnels that were the two entrances. As he watched, two of them slid off, careened down the shell of the submarine, smashed themselves in the ravine.
Nembrak picked up the phial of cyanide, tipped it in his drink, finished the carton in one gulp.
*
‘Kelda! Kelda! Where are you?’
*
‘Cass! Thank God it’s you!’
‘In here, Trell. Refrigeration Room. Haven’t got long …’ He led the way in, snatched a pencil sketch from his pocket. ‘I’ve managed to close this bulkhead, this one here, it’s between the Recreation Area and the dormitories —’
‘— Bulkhead C.’
‘Right.’
‘What are these pencil marks?’
‘Once they’re through that bulkhead they’ll try and come down via these two routes: along past the gymn … here, that’s
one way; and the far end of the Recreation Area … that’s here. I got some guys packed against both doors —’
‘— But the mob will shoot their way through them.’
‘Trell, there’s a chance their guns can be grabbed off them from behind. I’ve got a group headed by Milem waiting in the teaching cubicles. They’ll take them from the rear. See? Like this? Knights. You know their move …’
A scarlet pool began to appear, then enlarge, on Cass’s pencil sketch, till it trickled off the edge and started sploshing onto the deck.
‘— Cass, that your blood? Chrissakes, blood pouring from your chest, you gotta lie down.’
‘Ironic, isn’t it? I did it while I was fixing up that bulkhead, cut it on the steel edge.’
‘Well, lie down, you dope!’
‘Lie down? — It’s a main artery … Stupid part of it is, Trell, there’s no insulin left and I still want to live, beat that!’
Trell ripped the sleeve off his tunic.
Cass managed, ‘Tourniquet? How do you propose to put that around my neck? …’ Abruptly, the incision in a main artery split apart. Blood projectiled from the wound like a gusher on an oil field. Cass was gone.
And somehow, Helen was there. She put out a hand and let Cass’ blood-drenched head rest upon it. Her voice was muted yet controlled. ‘They’ll go after us blacks first.’
‘Except Milem will deal them quite some hand before the cards run out. Where’s Kelda?’
‘Organising the girls. They’ve got one of the loading-trolleys crammed with bed-frames, kind of like a military tank. Idea is to force it along the corridor — up this way.’
‘Can’t work, it’s crazy!’
‘It should delay them, Trell.’
‘Christ! What was that?’ A sudden, snarling tremolo, like flailing piano strings, shivered throughout the ship. It was followed by a thud. Its impact knocked a fluorescent tube from the lighting array overhead. The tube smashed into the floor while the compression-waves from the echo eerily crisscrossed each other throughout the carcass of the submarine.
The faintest of smiles showed on Helen’s tautened lips. ‘The girls planned to cut the hausers of the elevator. Seems like they’ve succeeded.’
Trell said, ‘The girls have been busy.’
Helen’s smile withered. ‘Except it won’t stop them. Listen!’
‘Like animals.’
Helen said, ‘Do animals shoot with guns at their own kind? … Trell, Krand has given up. I knew last night.’
The Chromosome Game Page 26
