by Neal Asher
"And he means it, too," Takahashi said dryly. "That's virgin territory beyond that sign. They've checked over this
building, and that's why we're allowed in—but don't touch."
They climbed up a meter-high ledge and stooped over to enter the hatchway. Recently installed locks and chains held more doors open. Patricia noticed other sensing devices—some covered with silvery tape—mounted on the walls, floor and ceiling.
"The machines would off load food, equipment, whatever the building needed through these halls. Automatic carts would deliver the goods to the appropriate chutes—they would lift them to different parts of the building. From this point on, though, we're not cargo; we're people."
Another open hatchway gave access to a large ground-floor reception area. Free-form seats and couches—apparently made of natural wood—furnished a sunken conversation pit near a broad, one-piece window that stretched at least twenty meters to the ceiling. A well-maintained flower garden stretched beyond the window. She was completely taken in by the illusion until she realized the garden was illuminated by sunlight and that blue sky showed through the trees. She stopped to stare and Takahashi waited patiently with hands folded.
"That's lovely," she said.
"The garden's real; the sunlight and sky are fake," he said noncommittally.
"I was wondering how they got along without sunshine and blue skies."
"If you went outside, you'd see the window's having us on."
"It looks very real."
The floor resembled shiny stonework but felt carpeted. Patricia shuffled her feet experimentally but her efforts produced no sound.
"Going up will take some will power," Takahashi warned. At the far end of the reception area were two open shafts sunk into the wall. "Not recommended for those with vertigo." They entered the left-hand shaft. Takahashi pointed down and reached out with his foot to tap a red circle on the floor. The circle glowed. "Seven," he said. "Both of us."
The floor receded. With no visible support, they flew up the shaft. Except for the appearance of motion there was no sensation whatsoever. Patricia's eyes widened and she reached for Takahashi's arm. Above the reception area, the shaft was featureless. There was no way of telling how many floors were passing.
"Only takes a second," he said. "Don't you love it? I don't know how many novels I've read with this sort of thing in them. In Thistledown City, it's real." This was the first time Patricia had heard him express delight. He seemed intensely interested in her reaction: Another spaghetti worm mystery, she thought. See how the girl screams.
She let go of his arm just as a portion of the shaft became transparent in front of them. They were smoothly, gently deposited on the floor beyond.
Patricia swallowed hard. "I am amazed," she said with some effort, "how well everything is working here, while nothing much works in the second chamber."
Takahashi nodded, as if acknowledging that was an interesting problem, but he was unable or unwilling to provide the
answer. "Follow me, please."
The hallway curved off to either side. It was round in cross section, and its color varied smoothly from rich forest green to dark maple. Always they seemed to walk in a circle of warm light. Patricia looked down and noticed that their feet touched an invisible plane above the floor of the hallway. "We're walking on air," she said, suppressing a nervous tremor.
"Favorite illusion for the Stoners. Gets dull after a time." They stopped and Takahashi pointed down at the floor to their right. "756" glowed in red beneath a faint leaf-green line. "This is a door, and it happens to be the door we want. Now, you do the honors. Hold your hand up to the wall and press anywhere."
She reached out and did as he suggested. A seven-foot-high oval vanished from the wall, revealing a white room beyond.
"The archaeologists found this one by accident. Apparently it was vacant before the exodus and this is the way prospective tenants checked out the apartments. All the other doors in the building are personality coded or otherwise blocked to visitors. And—as you know if you tried—information on interiors of private spaces in Thistledown City is not available in the libraries. Welcome."
Patricia entered the foyer ahead of him. The quarters were pristine white, furnished with ungraceful white blocks barely suggestive of couches and chairs and tables. "It's ugly," she said, taking a turn around the windowless living room. Oval doors led off to two equally white and blocky bedrooms—at least that was what she assumed they were. The beds could have been settees.
The only object in the apartment that was not white was a chromium teardrop on a pedestal. Patricia paused next to it. "Like the ones in the library."
Takahashi nodded. "Off limits." He indicated the little box attached to the base of the pedestal. "Any tampering and alarms go off in the security offices."
"It's a home library unit?"
"We assume so."
"It works?"
"As far as I know, nobody's tried. You might ask Garry."
"Why no windows? Is this an inner apartment?"
"None of the apartments had simple windows."
"And why so ugly?"
"If you mean plain, that's because nobody has chosen an environment. No design because nobody's living here. Vacant, you see."
"Yes. What would it take to decorate it?"
"Some sort of rental contract, I assume," Takahashi said. "Then it might respond like everything else around here. You could decorate by voice."
"Wonderful," Patricia said. "Nobody's entered any other living quarters?"
"Not in the third chamber. Locked up tight as a drum."
"Then how did they find this one? Just by accident?"
"Yitshak Jacob went from floor to floor, alone, and walked around the circumference of the building on each floor. This was the only apartment that had a number glowing."
"How would anyone know when they were home?"
"Maybe their number would glow and the door would open as they approached. Maybe they had other ways. We're far from understanding such basic things."
If we don't know the basics, Patricia thought, how can I ever hope to understand the embellishments ... the sixth chamber, the corridor?
"We'll go back the way we came," Takahashi said, "and try to get to that meeting before it begins."
They barely made it. The cafeteria in the first science team compound had been rearranged, and a low stage, lectern and rows of seats now occupied the dining area. Rimskaya stood near the stage as interested team members entered the cafeteria, talking and looking for good vantage points in the rows.
Patricia and Takahashi entered at precisely 1100. Most of the seats were filled, so they sat in the back. Karen Farley turned in her seat and waved at them. Patricia returned the wave and then Rimskaya came to the lectern.
"Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, our report this morning has to do with the exodus from the Stone. We have made substantial progress with this problem and can now present our conclusions with some degree of confidence." He introduced a slight man with wispy light brown hair and delicate Apollonian features. "Dr. Wallace Rainer of the
University of Oklahoma will present our conclusions. Today's meeting should not last more than thirty minutes."
Rainer looked to the back of the room, received an affirmative nod from a woman on the projection system and stepped up to the lectern, brandishing a collapsable metal pointer. "All of the archaeology group has worked on this report, and several members of the sociology group as well. Dr. Jacob is indisposed, and I drew the short straw."
Amused chuckles from the audience. "Jacob never delivers reports," Takahashi said. "Very shy. He prefers deserted ruins."
"There has always been some puzzlement as to the coexistence of the second chamber city, known as Alexandria, and the far more advanced Thistledown City in the third chamber. We've all asked the question at one time or another: Why did the Stoners keep Alexandria in its earlier state, rather than rebuilding and modernizing? Certainly
people with
our present-day temperament would feel awkward living in comparatively primitive surroundings when more modern facilities could he had for the price of a little urban renewal.
"We know a great deal now about living conditions in Alexandria but substantially less about Thistledown City. As you know, security—Stoner security—is very tight at Thistledown City, and unless we want to do some extensive breaking and entering, we have only one location where we have access to living quarters. Alexandria is more open, in some ways more friendly, if I may be excused a very unanthropological judgment.
"All of us here have level two security; we are aware the Stoners were humans, and that they came from a culture remarkably similar to our own. In fact, they come from a future version of the Earth. We know that there were at one time two major social categories: the Geshels, or technically and scientifically oriented peoples, and the Naderites. I'm wondering, by the way, who's going to tell Ralph about this."
Weary laughter from the audience. "Old joke," Takahashi whispered to Patricia.
"We now know that Alexandria, before the exodus of the Stoners, was occupied largely by orthodox Naderites. They seemed to cling to technologies and styles predating the twenty-first century."
Patricia, with something of a jolt, realized none of these people except herself, Takahashi and Rimskaya would know the reason why that particular dividing line was important.
"In this way, they were something like the Amish. And like the Amish, they made concessions—the megas and other architectural innovations among them. But their aim was clear; they chose to retain the style of Alexandria and rejected the more advanced style of Thistledown City. We are not at all sure when this division of the orthodox Naderites and their more liberal fellows and Geshels occurred, but it was not early in the Stone's voyage.
"We are fairly certain now that Thistledown City had been evacuated and locked up at least a century before Alexandria. In other words, the exodus had occurred in the third chamber almost a hundred years before the final evacuation of the second chamber. There is substantial evidence that the second chamber was finally emptied by force.
"The Stone was emptied, then, not simply because of a mass social migration, but to fulfill a definite plan. The people behind the plan apparently, gave their more conservative fellows a century to comply, and when they still proved reluctant, moved them out against their will. Oddly enough, we have evidence that some of the orthodox
Naderites were forced to live in Thistledown City for a few years.
"We assume that all the Stoners exited by way of the corridor. We have no physical proof of this, and no knowledge yet why the exodus occurred, or why the powers behind the exodus wished the Stone to be completely deserted."
The presentation ended with a series of projected pictures showing living quarters in Alexandria and diagrams of theorized population levels for different centuries in the second and third chambers. To scattered applause, Rainer returned the lectern to Rimskaya.
"The anthropology and archaeology groups have done a wonderful job, don't you agree?" he prompted, gesturing to those in the front row of seats.
Patricia stood as there was more applause. Takahashi followed her out of the cafeteria and into the tubelight. "That's fascinating," she said, "and I appreciate the tour today. They're working in the dark, aren't they?"
Takahashi shrugged, then nodded. "Yes. The sosh and anthro groups don't have level three clearances. Rimskaya guides them as best as he can without breaching security."
"Don't you get sick of this charade?"
Takahashi shook his head vigorously. "No. It is essential."
"Maybe," Patricia said doubtfully. "I have a lot of work to do before Lanier returns."
"Certainly. Do you wish an escort?"
"No. I'm going back to Alexandria for a while. Then I'll be in the seventh chamber if you need me for anything."
Takahashi paused, hands in his pockets, and nodded, then returned to the cafeteria.
Farley came out seconds later and caught up with her by the garage outside the compound. "Hitch a ride?" she asked.
"Rupert's given me driving lessons. I think it would relax me to drive for a while."
"Certainly," Farley said. They signed out a truck and climbed aboard.
*14*
The room smelled of stale smoke, air conditioning and nervous labor. When Lanier and Hoffman entered, there were four others already inside, all men. Two wore silver-gray polyester suits; bulky, balding, comic-opera Russians. The other two wore tailored wool worsteds; their styled hair and their girths were just barely respectable. Hoffman smiled at all as amenities were exchanged, after which everyone sat around an oval conference table. An awkward silence
drew out through several minutes as they waited for Hague and Cronberry to arrive.
When the groups were evenly matched, the senior Russian official, Grigori Feodorovski, removed a single sheet of paper from a cardboard folder and laid it on the table. He then pulled a pair of wire-frame glasses over his nose and behind his ears with one smooth sweep of a hand gripping the temple piece.
"Our governments have some necessary points of discussion concerning the Stone or, as we call it, the Potato." His English was excellent. His expression was calm and unhurried. "We have presented these objections to ISCCOM, and now we must hear what you have to say.
"While we concede under protest that primary exploration rights go to those who first visited the Stone—"
That, Lanier recalled, had been a concession two years in coming.
"—we feel that the Soviet Union and our allied sovereign states have been cheated of their rights. While Soviet scientists have been allowed on the Stone, they have been constantly harassed and not allowed to conduct their work. They have been denied access to important information. In light of these and other grievances, which are at this moment being presented to your President and the Senate Space Advisory Council, we feel that ISCCOM has been compromised, and that the Soviet Union and sovereign ally states have been..." he cleared his throat, as if embarrassed—"treated most malignantly. Our fellow states have been advised that further participation in the multinational Stone investigation, dominated as it is by the United States and NATO—Eurospace, will serve no purpose. Therefore we will soon withdraw our personnel and support for this enterprise."
Hoffman nodded, her lips pressed tightly together. Cronberry waited for the requisite ten seconds to consider the statement, then spoke. "We regret your decision. We feel that allegations made against ISCCOM, NATO-Eurospace and the Stone personnel in the past have proven unfounded, based on unfortunate rumors. Is the decision of your
superiors final?"
Feodorovski nodded. "The ISCCOM agreements made with regard to the Stone demand the withdrawal of all Stone investigators until these issues are resolved."
"That's completely impractical," Hoffman said.
Feodorovski shrugged, pursing his lips. "Nevertheless, that is what the agreements stipulate."
"Mr. Feodorovski," Hague said, putting both hands on the table, palms up, a gesture which Lanier studied closely, "we believe there are other reasons, not yet stated, for the withdrawal of your personnel. May we discuss these things?"
Feodorovski nodded. "With the warning that none of us are empowered to negotiate or make formal statements."
"Understood. Neither are we. I think we all need to relax a bit, to see our way clear to ... deal honestly, forthrightly, with each other." He looked at Feodorovski and the others, eyebrows raised in query. They nodded. "Our President has been informed that the USSR believes dangerous information of a technological, weapons-oriented nature has been discovered on the Stone," Hague said.
Feodorovski's face was blank, held in an attitude of polite attention.
"While it is true that NATO-Eurospace has begun the investigation of certain heretofore neglected aspects of the Stone's second and third chambers—"
"Against our wishes and protests,
" Feodorovski said.
"Yes, but with your final agreement."
"Under duress."
"Indeed," Hague said, again raising his brows and looking down at the desk. "While this has been our ceded area of investigation, there has been no such information discovered aboard the Stone."
And indeed, there had not. The libraries contained no specific information on weapons.
"Under the agreements, any such discovery would be reported immediately to the arbitration board in Geneva."
"That may be so," Feodorovski said. Lanier wondered what purpose the other three served—place-keepers? Backups?
Overseers keeping tabs on Feodorovski? "But we are not concerned with such reports. Let me speak frankly." Now he, too, placed both hands on the table, palms up. "I cannot speak formally, remember. As a private citizen, allow me to express my concern in this matter." He took a deep breath, full of worry. "We are all, in a sense, colleagues. We have many of the same interests. Let me say that this report about new weapons technology, this is not an important issue. My government, and the governments of our sovereign ally states, are far more concerned about reports that libraries on the Stone, in the second and third chamber cities, to be specific, contain accounts of a future war between our countries."
