Gravity Wells (Short Stories Collection)

by James Alan Gardner

  The dog had run off, upset by the vampire's shouting.

  Rogasz released his grip and dropped to the ground, landing heavily on the scattered debris. It was slick with the rain; he slipped and went sprawling. If he injured anything, if he broke bones in the tumble, he was no longer able to feel such insignificant pain.

  Juliet's face was wet in the twilight, her clothes lightly soaked. He didn't like seeing her that way, but he didn't want to cover her up. The rain had made the charcoal letters of her name bleed down the frame where he'd written them. Rogasz stared at them for a time, wondering if he should wipe the words away and write them again. No. The frame was wet, all the charcoal, too; he might not be able to write anything this time, and a streaky epitaph was better than nothing.

  "I could have saved you," he said. Gently, the vampire laid his hand on her cheek. "I could have made you like me; then you would have survived…like me. You wouldn't thank me for that, not in the long run. Still, maybe I should have given you the choice. I don't know. I don't know."

  He bent over and kissed her cracked crusty lips. "You died in a church," he whispered to her silent face. "You'll be all right. And here…" His knife was lying atop the rubble a short distance away. He retrieved it and folded the girl's limp hands around it, laying it across her chest. "This will keep you safe." He was tempted to add, You need the knife more than I do; but he recognized the words were empty. Just said to prove something to someone. Rogasz had no need for such words—not in this quiet twilight.

  Instead, he said, "I don't know." He kissed her again. "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know."

  He smiled and patted her hands, making sure they held the knife firmly.

  When he lifted his head from Juliet's corpse, the Adversary was leaning against the ruined piano. "So," the Lost One said, "how are you feeling tonight?"

  "I don't know."

  "Redeemed?"

  Rogasz let himself take a deep breath. "Unlikely—I haven't done anything to deserve it."

  "What did you want to do? Slay a dragon? Heal a leper?" The Adversary waved his hand dismissively. "Melodramatic crap. A childish need for flashy resolutions. Same as if you dropped to your knees and wailed that you were finally embracing God. That's not salvation; that's just trying to be the star in some grandiose show. Trust me, I know what salvation isn't." He laughed. "Still, you survived the whole day."

  Rogasz shrugged. "I've survived a lot of things."

  "True." The Adversary pushed himself away from the piano and sidled forward over the debris. "Who's the girl?" he asked, nodding toward the ground.

  Rogasz opened his mouth, then closed it again. "Just a street kid," he said at last. "I've been calling her Juliet."

  The Adversary raised his eyebrows. "And you're Romeo?"

  "No. I'm not Romeo and she's not Juliet. She's just dead."

  The Adversary stared at Rogasz silently. "You sound calmer," he said. "More at peace than when we last spoke."

  "Just too burned out for rage. A day of shock therapy. Don't expect it to last."

  "Nothing lasts, little brother. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Everything changes in time."

  "Have I changed?" He looked down at the dead girl. "She's changed. She has definitely changed. But I'm still here. My injuries will heal like always, and then what? The same old thing?"

  "That's up to you," the Adversary replied. "But if a vampire can find a moment of grace…who knows who might be next?" He gave the ghost of a bow. "Stay sane, little brother; I look to you as my inspiration. Stay sane, stay sane, stay sane."

  With a backward wave of his hand, the Adversary walked into the darkness. Full night had fallen: a night rinsed with soft rain.

  Rogasz decided to wait beside the corpse a while longer—maybe the dog would come back.

  The Last Day of the War, with Parrots

  It was a sprawl-shot, and this time I was sprawling hips-down on top of a bunker, just behind a hole where something had disintegrated a corner of the roof.

  When the cameras turned in my direction, I was supposed to lift on my forearms, with my shoulders high enough that every lens got an ample view down my cleavage. I wore a deep scoop-neck blouse, of course, ripped and ragged and thinner than gauze. I wondered if I should make up business cards—Lyra Dene, singer: backup and boobs. But tape wasn't rolling at the moment, and I'd scrunched up rump-high, because if I stayed in the rehearsed cheesecake pose, the navel battery-pack for my microphone dug sharply into my stomach.

  The cameras were scattered all over the battlefield, some on the ground, some hovering on chunky anti-grav platforms. Each had its ready light glowing green, but the operator who ran them all was sitting in a lawn chair beside the control console, reading a book. His hand rested on the fog machine beside the console; occasionally, he had to sweep away threads of mist that dribbled from the machine's nozzle and trickled across his reading screen.

  In front of the console loomed the remains of a giant subterranean battle-tank. The most visible part was its drill-like snout, jutting up at a 45-degree angle and reaching five or six stories above the ground. The tank must have been ambushed just as it surfaced. Enemy lasers had drilled a dozen clean-edged holes in its hull, and something had blasted its caterpillar treads off their sprockets, splaying them over the ground like black lasagna noodles.

  Three people stood at the base of the drill-snout: Helena Howe, director of the video we were supposed to be shooting; our songwriter, Roland Simard; and Alex Kilgoorlie, probably the only one you care about.

  Soon after I got hired as Alex's backup vocalist, I read an article claiming that 63 percent of all human households had downloaded his debut album, Ghost of the Tattered Heart. One review said: "His songs are compelling dreams…or nightmares." I don't mind admitting I'd dreamed about him myself. The dreams centered on a gaunt, disquieting man walking moodily over a bleak landscape…and like on the Ghost album cover, he wore a loose white shirt that billowed in the wind.

  In my dreams, the front of Alex's shirt hung open to the waist; but it was still buttoned to the throat that day around the battle-tank. While Helena and Roland stood irritably over him, Alex crouched, making kissing sounds with his lips and holding out a cracker in his hand.

  "People are waiting, Alex dear," Helena said. I could hear her voice through the tiny receiver tucked into my ear and hidden by my hair. All of us wore such earphones; when she gave an order, she wanted everyone's undivided attention.

  "Just another sec," Alex whispered. A concealed mike amplified his whisper clearly. He made more kissing sounds.

  In front of him was an animal about the size of a mouse, part of the local wildlife. I could see the beast was brightly colored, a splash of green and crimson stripes against the drab dirt background; but it was too far away for me to make out much else. It inched toward the cracker Alex held out, its head wobbling back and forth slightly. I guessed it was sniffing, trying to make up its mind about the food and the human that held it. The animal seemed just about to nibble when a voice yelled, "Don't!"

  Every head jerked up, including the little beastie's. Scrambling over the partly buried tank came Jerith, our archeologist and resident expert on the planet of Caproche. He'd lived on these abandoned battlefields for years, alone except for his robots, excavating dozens of sites as he tried to determine who had fought here and why.

  I flattened down on the bunker roof. In the two days our group had been on Caproche, Jerith had already passed his quota for peeks down my blouse. I didn't fuss about it—he seemed harmless, just a guy who hadn't seen a woman in a long, long time—but I refused to give him the ogling opportunities provided by a sprawl-shot.

  "What's wrong?" Helena asked. "Is the animal dangerous?" She put a hand on Alex's arm and tried to pull him away from the creature.

  "No, no, they're harmless," Jerith said, scooping up the little beast with a sweep of his hand. He cradled it against his chest and began stroking it the way you'd pet a hamster. "I call
them parrots."

  "It doesn't look like a parrot," our songwriter Roland said. "More like a lizard."

  "It's brightly colored like a parrot," Jerith answered. "Anyway, the point is, everyone should leave them alone."

  "I wasn't going to hurt it," Alex said in a wounded tone.

  "You never know," Jerith told him. "Earth food can be poisonous to aliens. The tiniest nibble might kill this little guy."

  "Polly doesn't want a cracker," Roland smirked to Alex.

  "And even if Polly does, we have work to do," Helena said briskly, "Come along, Alex. Recording time."

  "Can I pet the parrot for a sec?" Alex asked, reaching out his fingers. Jerith shied away and Helena grabbed Alex's arm with both hands.

  "We're going to work now," she said, "and I mean right now. Jerith, take that animal away. Roland, get off the set. Alex, I want the Singer, and no more putting it off. You aren't fooling anyone with these delaying tactics; I want the Singer now."

  She turned her back on him and marched to the control console. The console operator quickly shut off his book and tried to look busy. Helena glared but said nothing.

  Back in front of the tank, Jerith turned to walk away, still caressing the parrot. Roland patted Alex on the back, said, "Break a leg," and sauntered toward the control console too.

  Alone, Alex stood dejectedly for a moment, his eyes moving aimlessly around the battlefield. I smiled when he looked in my direction, but I don't think he saw. He sighed an amplified sigh that echoed through the surrounding ruins: a litter of shattered war-machines that stretched as far as the eye could see. Then he reached up and undid the top button of his shirt.

  He stood straighter.

  Another button. His hands took on some flourish, like the hands of a concert keyboardist.

  "Cue the fog," Helena's voice whispered in my earphone. The nozzle of the fog machine gushed a cataract of mist, flowing along the ground and pooling at Alex's feet.

  Another shirt button. He shook out his ringleted brown hair and flicked it off his shoulders.

  "Cue the wind," whispered Helena, and massive fans on anti-grav platforms began to turn, slowly at first, then faster and faster until they were silent blurs. The anti-grav platforms banked slightly to resist the force of the wind. Alex's hair caught the breeze and grew wild.

  The final button. His head lifted. His cheeks were gaunt, his eyes feral and glittering. A dangerous face: a striking, compelling danger.

  "Cue cameras," whispered Helena.

  Time for work, I said to myself. But I found I was already in my pose, sprawled and primed; roused without thinking when Alex became the Singer. Sure, I'd rehearsed this scene till it all came naturally, but there was no feeling of rehearsal—just pure reaction to the Singer's presence. I was panting, budding with prickles of sweat.

  "Cue music," came a far-off whisper.

  The ground rumbled with a heavy bass riff. Wind washed across me, whipping my hair against my shoulders; I screamed into the gale, and no rehearsal had taught me to scream with such fear and desire.

  Then silence. The eye of the storm. And the Singer stepped forward through swirls of mist to whisper,

  You have entered my heart, milady;

  Now I shall enter your mind…

  He swiveled sharply and pointed his finger directly at me.

  Betray me not, milady,

  For then I shall be…unkind.

  I'd laughed at the lyrics in rehearsal as Alex good-naturedly waved a finger in my direction. Now the words came from the Singer, skeletal, ominous; and the threat in his voice chilled me. He blazed with danger…and I, in ripped and ragged clothes, shuddered at my vulnerability.

  "Close-up on Lyra," I heard Helena whisper.

  I screamed again. On cue.

  "That Kilgoorlie is a spooky guy," Jerith said.

  It was after supper and we were in a Quonset hut in Jerith's camp. Three of us, Jerith, Roland, and I, stood at a workbench where we brushed dirt off chunks of metal that Jerith claimed were archeological artifacts. The piece I had to clean was slightly bigger than my hand, fairly solid, and heavier than it looked. It was mostly copper-rust green, but a trumpet-like mouth at one end had its interior streaked with bronze. Like most of the artifacts on Caproche, this was probably a broken weapon.

  We were dusting off the past because we had become archaeologists-in-training. Technically speaking, the planet Caproche was classified SIO, Scientific Investigation Only; but seven hundred years ago, unknown alien races had warred here from tropics to tundra, and the resulting devastation fit Alex Kilgoorlie's music like a chain mail glove. Helena had decided she must shoot Alex's next album on Caproche. To get around the Planet Protection Agency, she paid Jerith a great deal of money to claim our party was helping him in his studies; so when we weren't in recording sessions, we made a show of devotion to the digs. Well…most of us made such a show—Helena had yet to touch a shovel. And Alex got so enthusiastic the first time he came to the work hut, he'd somehow smashed the lens of a heavy-duty battle laser; so Jerith excused him from future duty.

  "Alex isn't spooky," Roland said. "He's the most normal person here."

  "Don't give me that," Jerith replied. "I saw him this afternoon. When he was singing…it was like he was some kind of wraith. That's exactly the word, a wraith."

  "You're confusing Alex with the Singer," Roland answered calmly. "Alex is a regular guy; the Singer is something else." He busied himself with dabbing at a clot of mud that clung to the snarl of wires he was cleaning, then added, "The Singer is spooky as hell."

  Jerith stared at Roland for a long moment. "Are you talking split personality?"

  "I asked a psych-tech about that once," Roland answered. "She laughed at me. Everyone knows split personalities only exist in low-budget grislies. These days, potential splits are detected in childhood and sewn right back up. Oh yes, that perky little psych-tech had herself a real giggle over my naïveté."

  "Sorry," Jerith said. From the tone in his voice, I guessed that our resident archaeologist had also been laughed at by women sometime in the past.

  "I went to school with Alex," Roland said, making a show of attention to his work. "Good guy. Everybody's friend. Not too bright…not very bright at all…" Roland slapped his brush roughly at the dirt. "But he was everybody's friend. Women loved him." He looked up at me accusingly. "What do you think of Alex, Lyra? Not the Singer, but Alex. Kind of cute, kind of helpless, right? Sweet lovable guy?"

  "I like Alex," I replied, trying not to sound defensive. "What's wrong with that?"

  Both men looked at me silently. Neither one came close to Alex's easy charm. Roland, overweight, his hair thinning though he was only twenty-five, and his lips too red and blubbery. Jerith, with his droopy face and weak chin unsuccessfully hidden by a patchy blond beard, uncombed and scraggly…no doubt he'd known people like Alex too, and…

  Jerith turned quickly away from me. His hand went reflexively to his beard. I told myself I must have been staring and I felt like shit.

  "There's nothing wrong with Alex," Roland said quietly as he went back to cleaning his artifact. "I admit, the problem was mine. I envied him like hell. Especially back when we were starting our band. Eighteen years old, both of us, playing school dances and grotty little booze bins. Me playing keyboards, writing all the songs, doing the work!" He dug the brush into the gap between two metal tubes and twisted it hard. "Alex sang my songs, my songs, every word mine, not his…but who did the women steam for? Pissed me off, pissed me right…" He stopped and calmed himself. After a moment he said, "These days I can handle it. I'm not writing to impress people, I'm not writing to get laid." He gave me a pointed look. "I'm writing to say something and the message is what counts. If the only way to be heard is putting my words in the Singer's mouth, so be it."

  There was a lengthy silence, a painful one. I felt guilty without knowing why, like I'd been accused of some crime…as if I were a slut waiting to fall at Alex's feet just to spite Roland
. I wished Jerith would say something, anything to ease the tension.

  And he did.

  "You still haven't talked about Alex and the Singer," Jerith said, sounding like the words came awkwardly to him, but clearly doing his best to break the silence.

  "Oh, that," said Roland. "Do you believe in possession?"

  "No," I answered, though the question was directed at Jerith.

  Roland laughed without humor. "I don't believe in it either. But I'll tell you, when Alex and I first started performing, we stank. I have no idea why—he had a decent voice, and I knew the songs were brilliant…" He laughed again. "We just didn't have the chemistry, that's all. Then one night in this ratty blow-bar called Juicy's…one night this woman came to see us backstage between sets. An older woman, maybe as old as thirty. Hey, I was eighteen, she was ancient. I thought she was a hooker and I was prime self-righteous the way only teenagers can be, so I made some cutting remarks and stomped out for some air. What you'd call a very pointed exit.

  "By the time I got back, she was nose-to-nose with Alex, talking about ways to improve the act. That pissed me off, this woman telling us our jobs. I grabbed Alex by the arm and dragged him off toward the stage, but she called to Alex's back, 'And undo your shirt. Strut the flesh, for Christ's sake. Put some groin into it. When people watch the stage, they don't want the boy next door. They want a goddamned performer.'

  "Well. We hit the stage for the next set, and Alex started trying stuff. Rolling his eyes, swiveling his hips…completely forced, and embarrassing. He wasn't that kind of guy—not a drop of sleaze in him. When he tried it, I'm telling you, he just had no clue! I told him to smarten up, but that woman was watching from a front row table, and Alex must have figured he could get lucky if he played up to her.

  "The mood of the bar shifted from bored to hostile; we'd been mediocre before, but now the act positively turned your stomach. Even Alex sensed how ugly the crowd was getting. One guy, built like a tank, dressed in leather from head to toe, this guy pulled out a switchblade and started clicking it in, out, click, click, making sure we saw him. I broke into a cold sweat, and Alex, he panicked completely. Panic was the only thing that could have made him unbutton his shirt, because believe it or not, he was shy about his body, showing it in public.