by Alex Lamb
‘So,’ said Mark, glancing at the screens in fresh understanding, ‘Will has his own fleet now?’
‘A huge one. He could probably take out what’s left of the human race with just what he’s already revealed. And at this range, a boser-hit on Snakepit is nigh-on impossible, which is almost certainly on purpose.’
‘We’re prisoners,’ said Mark, appalled.
‘Supposedly not,’ said Palla. ‘He claims we’ll be receiving a diplomatic tight-beam any time now. We’re supposed to imagine that we’re guests.’
‘Good, because I want to look him in the eye.’ He glanced at Rachel’s ashen face. ‘Does he know you’re here?’
‘No,’ said Rachel hollowly. ‘Not yet.’
‘We decided to keep that back,’ said Ira. ‘He’s not rational. That knowledge could make matters substantially worse.’
Mark rubbed his temples. His head was a fog of dismayed confusion.
‘If there are no threats here and nothing to stop Will leaving, why didn’t he come home?’ he said. ‘What the fuck is wrong with him?’
‘That’s what we all want to know,’ said Ira. ‘There must be some other force in play.’
‘What about that psycho witch, Nada?’
‘As yet unseen,’ said Judj. ‘I suspect we were tailed passively, though why she’s not on top of us already, I have no idea.’
‘How about you, Mark?’ Palla. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Like chewed shit,’ said Mark hoarsely.
‘What happened in there?’ said Palla. ‘Did you talk to them? Anything we should know about?’
Mark related his conversation with the Transcended while the others listened, stunned.
‘Threats, then,’ said Palla.
Mark nodded. ‘Nice vague ones. I’m supposed to solve the puzzle like a good doggie and then go and touch Ann. I don’t feel like handing them a victory, but this affects all of us.’
He felt their creaking unease. Given the unexpected circumstances, the Transcended warnings sounded worryingly solid.
He glanced at Ann’s window. ‘It definitely affects you. I expect you want your smart-cells back.’
‘Did they tell you that touching me would do that?’
‘No,’ Mark admitted. ‘They just implied it.’
‘Or you inferred it,’ she said. ‘Did they mention the ark?’
‘Not once.’
‘What do you think the likelihood is that they’ll let us keep it if we play their game?’
‘Low,’ Mark confessed.
‘Then it’s a choice, isn’t it?’ said Ann. ‘The ark we already have, or the powers I might get back.’
Mark grimaced. ‘That’s not a clear win, admittedly. On the other hand, things are getting hairy, just like they predicted.’
‘Except they didn’t bother to tell you how that would happen,’ Judj put in. ‘They’re deliberately screening. We don’t even know if Snakepit is the threat they were talking up.’
‘So you’re all okay with me holding out?’ Mark added. ‘I mean, it’s possible we’re playing with a lot of lives here.’
‘When has that ever not been true?’ said Ira.
‘If they won’t come clean with us, how can we trust them?’ said Palla. ‘Billions have died because of the Photurian threat they didn’t warn us about, and which they let persist. Who can say what they’re not telling us now?’
‘There’s something else going on here, too,’ said Judj. ‘The first thing they did was influence Mark’s thoughts, so it’s clear they don’t have a problem with human subversion. Then they made threats without supporting data despite having all the tools on hand to just take what they wanted. The Photes rewrite people all the time. With that level of tech, it’s not hard.’
‘They said they wanted us to make the right choice for ourselves,’ said Mark.
‘Exactly,’ said Judj. ‘That doesn’t suggest a weak enemy to me. It suggests one that’s constrained. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to think there might be two kinds of Transcended in play here, not one.’
‘Two?’ said Rachel.
‘One helping, one with another agenda entirely.’
She scowled. ‘Politics among the gods? I can’t see that ending well.’
Mark could only agree.
‘I hate this,’ said Clath, shaking her head. ‘This is all wrong. They opened the Zone for us. Don’t they have to be good at some level?’
‘Not if they did it for the benefit of the Photes,’ said Judj.
‘So we’re confused,’ said Mark tersely. ‘What else is new? Do you want me to hold off?’
‘I would,’ said Judj. ‘The fact that their strategy was “manipulate first, beg later” doesn’t fire my confidence much.’
‘Incoming signal,’ the helm told them.
A vid-window of Will appeared. ‘GSS Edmond Dantes,’ he said, smiling unpleasantly.
Mark blinked at the sudden sight of his half-father’s face. While the features were familiar, the grinning force that animated them was not. And then there was the crazy new uniform. The effect on Mark was one of deeply unsettled disappointment. All his years of effort had bought him, apparently, was a ticket to this sinister farce.
‘This is Will Kuno-Monet, representative god and king of all the Willworld. Do I have permission to approach your vessel?’
‘How far away are those nestships?’ said Mark. They were as big as Ann’s usual ride, he noticed – about two hundred and forty kilometres long and armed to the teeth.
‘Half a light-second,’ said Palla. ‘If that.’
‘Then how much closer does he want to be?’ said Mark.
‘All the way, presumably,’ said Palla. ‘I think he wants to land on the hull and send in some kind of presence.’
‘Give me the helm,’ said Mark. ‘If anyone’s wriggling up to this ship, I want options.’
‘Can’t do it,’ said Judj. ‘You’re in the quarantine core, which locks you out. I’m sorry, but that Transcended attack messed you up bad. You don’t have smart-cells, just chaos. Your body keeps manufacturing viruses. Every time I think I have the infection suppressed, it starts up somewhere new.’
Mark glanced around at the helm he couldn’t use with a fresh surge of indignation. They’d need to take the engines all the way offline to move him back, and that clearly wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Apparently, the Transcended were intent on stripping everything from him.
‘I think our answer should be no,’ said Clath. ‘Unless we really believe we can trust him. Do we want those things all over our ship otherwise? We’d be helpless.’
‘I don’t see that we have a choice,’ Ira put in. ‘He’s holding most of the cards. But at least he doesn’t know about the ark. If the worst happens, we still have somewhere to hide, presuming it works.’
Mark shot him a disgusted look. ‘Hide?’ he said. ‘What the fuck use is that?’
‘It’s better than dying,’ said Ira.
‘And if that machine inside it blows a hole through local space? Or ends the universe?’
‘Then none of us will have to worry about failure,’ said Palla. ‘Fuck it, I’m going to say yes. It puts the ship at risk, but that’s already happened. If we’re not here to talk to him, then why did we bother coming?’
‘Can I recommend we hide Rachel first?’ said Ira.
Mark cast a glance at his half-mother. She stood with her eyes glued to the new message window, her disgust at the universe a little deeper.
‘Agreed,’ she said tersely. ‘The touching reunions can come later if that thing we’re looking at turns out to actually be my husband.’
Palla opened a camera-frame to make a reply.
‘Will Monet, you have permission to approach,’ she said. ‘Our ship runs under full virtual. If you wish to send an avatar aboard, a sensor-cluster will be made available for you to connect to.’
A swarm of drones indistinguishable from the Photurian menace they’d been fleeing de
scended to hang around their ship like an almost solid cloud. A single drone nosed up to kiss against the sensor-cluster Palla extended. Meanwhile, Judj hid Rachel behind a ghosting screen.
‘We should use the yacht metaphor,’ said Judj. ‘Let’s not give him a handle on helm-space just yet.’
‘Agreed,’ said Palla.
They blinked to the deck where a simulated dinghy was approaching, carrying Will, who’d added an oversized bicorn hat to his ridiculous uniform. His boat was rowed by two stripe-shirted sailors wearing plaster masks of his face. Ira offered Will a hand up to the deck. Will smirked as he boarded with something entirely unlike friendship written all over his features.
The sight of Mark’s erstwhile guardian and genetic designer set his mind to scattered fizzing. He’d imagined a hundred different scenarios for this moment, some uplifting, some tragic, but none had involved comedy hats or deadly sarcasm. All the speeches and remarks he’d so long thought of saying bunched in his mouth, falling over each other so that none of them managed to escape.
‘Great to see you, Ira!’ said Will. ‘Funny to find you in a full virtual setting. Are you a roboteer now?’
‘We all are, after a fashion,’ said Ira carefully. ‘We copied and duplicated the shadow technology you gave Ann as best we could.’
Will chuckled. ‘Of course. A perfectly rational explanation. And so logical that you should travel on a ship that’s basically a historic metaphor. I always liked those, as I’m sure you know.’ He took a moment to inhale the virtual air and stare out at the becalmed waters glinting in the afternoon light. ‘I particularly dig the fish. And let me say, you don’t look a hundred. Not a day over ninety, in fact!’
Ira smiled drily. ‘Why, thanks, Will. Likewise. It’s been a long time. It is Will I’m talking to, right?’
‘Oh yes, it’s me all right, in the digital flesh.’ He slapped his chest theatrically. Will looked around at the assembled team and noticed Mark at last. ‘Mark!’ he said jubilantly. ‘They sent you out here, too? Wonderful! What were the chances?’
He came over and embraced Mark with an entirely unsettling hug.
‘The Fleet sent all of us who might be able to reach you,’ Mark managed to say at last. He felt sure that they hadn’t reached Will at all. He was talking to something else with a lot of firepower and a very disturbing sense of humour.
‘So Ira is younger, but you’re older!’ said Will. ‘By ten years, maybe. Interesting.’
Mark found himself annoyed by the sinister jocularity. There was no sign of empathy on this stranger’s face – no surprise or relief. If Rachel’s bitter solemnity had been unnerving, Will’s joyless pantomime was grotesque.
‘We have life extension,’ said Mark. ‘Plus this is a virt. What did you expect? And great to see you, too, Dad, I think.’
Ira and Palla both shot him a warning glance.
‘And here’s the lovely lady with the unusual head decorations,’ said Will, turning to Palla. ‘I don’t recognise you, or either of your two friends here.’
‘I’m Autograd Palla Muri,’ said Palla stiffly. ‘This is Science Officer Clath Ataro and Security Officer Judj Apis. Welcome aboard.’
‘Such interesting names,’ said Will. ‘And you have a super ship. A very unusual design. And my respects on your security, Judj. I can feel it. It’s very dense. How many layers is that?’
‘Theoretically infinite,’ said Judj smoothly. ‘Our security layers reproduce and max out due to self-organised criticality in the buffer. If a layer breaks, competing mutant variants have room to spawn underneath, filling any possible gaps.’
‘Almost unhackable, then,’ said Will. ‘And an elegant solution. Thank you for warning me off from tinkering.’
‘It was good enough to hold back the Transcended,’ said Judj. ‘That’s a start.’
‘Wait,’ said Will jovially. ‘But where’s Ann? Didn’t I see her on your message, too?’
Ann opened a window. ‘I’m here,’ she said. ‘I can’t be present in person right now.’
‘Why ever not?’ said Will. ‘Aren’t I supposed to have given you all my powers? And what happened to your face, if you don’t mind me asking? You look so different – so pretty. That seems unlike you. You’re almost like an advert for yourself. More like what I’d want to remember than the actual you.’
Ann regarded him coldly. ‘It’s been a difficult forty years,’ she said crisply. ‘Maybe if you start behaving like a human being we can explain.’
Will laughed. ‘Of course. In due time. My … tenure, shall we say, on the Willworld has not been without difficulties of its own.’
Mark could restrain himself no more. ‘Like what?’ he said. ‘What happened? Why didn’t we hear from you? What did you do, spend forty years alone down there twiddling your fucking thumbs?’
‘Mark,’ Ira warned.
‘What?’ said Mark. ‘He knows me. Would he be more likely to believe I’m me if I don’t swear at his face for baiting us?’
Will’s gaze fizzed with feral glee. ‘Well said, Mark. And the answer is yes, after a fashion, lots and lots of twiddling.’
‘If you had all these starships, why didn’t you come back?’ Mark demanded.
‘We’ll get to that,’ said Will. ‘Mind if I look around your yacht?’
‘Be my guest,’ said Palla frostily.
Will wandered past them to the lounge. ‘Ooh, a piano!’ he said, tinkling on the keys. ‘I do like a piano.’
‘Listen,’ said Mark, approaching. ‘We’ve beaten our way through Backspace to get to you. If you’re surprised to see us after forty years, I understand. If you don’t want to believe we are who we say we are, fine. We’ll leave you in peace. But know this: this is your chance. Unless you really enjoy twiddling, I recommend you just tell us what the fuck is going on.’
‘Mark,’ said Ira heavily. ‘We have no idea what happened to Will down there. We didn’t even expect him to be alive. So let’s cut him a little slack, shall we? Until we know more.’
But Mark’s head was thundering again. He was done with mind games. And the Transcended puzzle had restarted its pulsing in the corners of his vision.
‘Another thing,’ he told Will. ‘We were chased here by a fleet of Photurian ships. By our estimates, you have less than twenty-four hours before they attack. Can you understand that?’
Will shrugged. ‘I’m not without defences,’ he said, ‘as you’ve seen. Don’t worry – if they chase you in here, I’ll see them off. You have my protection, after all. In the meantime, I’m keen to learn all about the interesting things that must have happened on good old Galatea while I’ve been away. And why the “GSS” signifier on your ship, by the way? What happened to IPSO?’
‘War,’ said Mark. ‘What did you think? Why else would we have been gone so long? We’ve been fighting the fucking Photurians.’
‘All this time?’ said Will. ‘Gosh, that sounds exhausting.’
‘We’re down to four colonies,’ said Palla. ‘Each has to fend for itself. That’s why we made the effort to come here – we want to ask you to participate in our defence.’
‘Of course,’ said Will. ‘How natural. And how much of my defensive force would you like? All of it, I’m guessing.’
‘As much as you can spare,’ said Palla.
‘I’ll tell you what,’ said Will, picking up the revolving message icon that Palla had left hovering over the piano. ‘I’ll think about it. You share some history files with me, and if I like them, I’ll share some of mine with you, and maybe come and solve your Phote problem. Love the contraction, by the way. Very human.’ He tossed the icon gently into the air and caught it again. Then he took a bite.
‘Mmm, human software,’ he said with a wink. ‘So simple and delicious.’
‘We can send you a complete historic database,’ said Palla.
‘You’re going to just accede to this?’ said Mark.
He no longer believed they were talking to Will. He’d met Phote
spies with more convincing emotions. He found himself itching to mention Rachel just to see what would happen.
Ira held up a warning finger to Mark and stepped forward. ‘Will,’ he said. ‘As you can probably tell, this isn’t the kind of reunion we expected. We’re still getting used to who you’ve become and you evidently have doubts about us. Maybe the next best step is for us to call it a day and go over each other’s data. We’ll happily look at anything you feel ready to share.’
The predatory mirth in Will’s gaze deepened. ‘Certainly,’ he said. ‘Let’s do that. How about I start with a little potted history of the prior Photurian attacks against this system and their subsequent annihilation. A catalogue of their shitty little underhanded tricks and how they all failed. Every time. Would that work for you?’
‘If that’s what you have, old friend, we’ll take it,’ said Ira.
‘Okay,’ said Will, ‘we have a plan. I’ll see you later when we’ve all had a nice nap. Toodeloo!’
Will strode back to his dinghy and climbed in while his masked sailors saluted. The boat rowed away and promptly vanished.
In the wake of his departure, the crew fell quiet as everyone tried to accommodate this latest twist on their shared condition. Eventually, the storm of conflicting emotions in Mark’s chest polarised into urgency.
‘Whatever that thing is,’ he said, pointing at where the dinghy had been, ‘it sure as shit is not Will Monet.’
‘No,’ said Ira. ‘But it has us pinned.’
Judj brought Rachel back into the room. Bitter fury crackled in her gaze.
‘Mark said it already,’ she told them. ‘That wasn’t my husband. If that’s who’s on Snakepit, then my husband is dead, just like I thought.’
‘He doesn’t seem to think we’re real,’ Palla observed. ‘The implication is that he still thinks we’re Photes.’
‘Whatever intelligence we’re talking to, that’s all it’s seen for decades,’ said Ira.
‘So maybe his distrust is understandable,’ she said. ‘Let’s hope our history files are more convincing than we were. If we can’t win him round, he may start shooting, and he has a lot more guns than we do.’
