The Artificial Kid

by Bruce Sterling

  “In the morning I told my uncle about the dream. We of the Church know about dreams; they come from the depths of the soul, and therefore they are close to the Great Soul that is the author of consciousness and dreams alike. We put on our plains boots, and we took our hiking staves, and we went out into the moors to look for the wheel, and on the second day we found it. It was a dancing ground of the moas, such as few human beings had ever seen. We could see their big three-toed tracks in the beaten dirt, and we saw the strange flat mushrooms that grow in the dung of moas all around its rim.

  “‘I knew we would find it,’ my uncle told me. ‘The Catechist, your great-great-grandfather, dreamed the site of Sanctuary long before we found it, and your grandmother, my mother, dreamed the site of the Iron Caves before the landslide exposed them. Look into your heart now, child, and tell me what we must do.’

  “For a little while I knelt in the blowing grass and prayed, and the answer came to me. And I said, ‘Uncle, you must leave me, and I must stay here. Something calls me to this spot and I must answer the call as best I hear it.’ So my uncle left me.”

  “But moas are dangerous,” Moses Moses objected. “They’re carnivorous; I’ve seen them fed in zoos. Those big beaks could rip off a man’s arm.”

  Anne nodded. “Yes. I’ve seen them tear moor goats to pieces in less time than it takes to breathe. But I wasn’t afraid, although I trembled. I pulled my hood over my head and laced my gray cape around my shoulders and pulled on my gray gloves and leaned on my staff of gray stonewood. I stared for a long time at the wheel with the eight spokes.

  “The sun began to set and it grew colder, and when the first pale star shone on the eastern horizon the moas began to appear. There were big blue-wattled males, and big red-wattled females, and little moa chicks no higher than my knee. They came in utter silence, because they are mute. I didn’t move at all, and none of them seemed to notice me. Then they danced. They ran around the circle, and they danced across the spokes, dipping their heavy heads, and spreading their wings, and leaping in the air. They danced until it was dark and I could not see them moving but only heard the thump of their feet in the dirt. After a while even that sound faded, and I sat down in the grass and drew my knees to my chest and covered up in my cloak and slept and dreamed. I dreamed that I danced with the moas in the form of a moa. In the morning I walked back to the gardening domes, which took all day. In the evening my stomach began to cramp and hurt and I bled for the first time.

  “I went to the dancing-ground many times after that, but I did not see any moas. When I was fifteen a mining expedition came to Sanctuary and the illegal population retreated into the tunnels. Everyone circumvented the population laws, and, until Rominuald Tanglin legitimized the illegal population, any of us could have been arrested and our parents heavily fined. And illegal people were denied the protection of the law as well—we could be robbed or beaten or raped and we wouldn’t have dared go to the police. Of course there were no such criminal problems within Sanctuary. Our Church family was well disciplined—we all knew one another and did not tolerate crime. But the miners were terrible. They wouldn’t have come to prospect if the Reverid Emigration hadn’t taken so much of our metals, by the way—that was one of the legacies you left us. But I don’t blame you for struggling to leave such corruption. The police had their agents among the miners. The Directorate didn’t like the idea of a powerful religious group with their own city and they sent their census takers to harass us.

  “But we were not helpless. We had the right on our side, of course. We appealed for the help of Rominuald Tanglin and put what power we had into his coalition. We had many Church brothers and sisters all over Niwlind, though Sanctuary was our holy city and our headquarters.

  “Naturally I personally had very little to do with this—I was in my teens when the mining controversy first began. But I followed the controversy avidly, we all did. We hated the miners, who brought vice and brutality with them and tried to exploit Church members for sexual purposes. We tried to expel them, but the demand for the metal was great and we were overruled politically.

  “I was still fascinated by the moas. When the Legitimation Act came through and I was granted my own identity, I was free to study them without harassment—thanks to Rominuald Tanglin, of course. Since we Church folk and the miners were the only people on the Upland Plateau, and since that was the moas’ only habitat, I became one of the planet’s top specialists on moas. I was very patient. I followed them on foot, I made no threatening gestures, and when I could I left them food. They grew used to my scent, to my presence. I often roamed with them for days. I had my own flock. I gave them names.

  “But the mining went on at a redoubled pace, and foreign Niwlindids poured in from all over the planet in a rush. More than once I found moas shot dead or caught in cruel traps. The moas were not entirely innocent, of course, but it was their land. The intruders were ruthlessly developing their sacred places. Yes, sacred places, you needn’t look so surprised—why should they dance so, if not to worship?

  “The intruders were afraid of the moas, and with good reason. More than one wanderer on the moors was found with beak-marks on his bones. I can only say that my flock never killed a human—they lived near Sanctuary, where Church folk defended native life with their own bodies if need be. The miners were anxious to exterminate the moas, and they started the bureaucratic process that would have granted them that right—or that wrong, I should say. But thank God for Rominuald Tanglin! He got wind of this evil procedure. His upright soul was filled with righteous indignation.

  “He visited Sanctuary in person. We gave him the finest reception we could—after all, by this time he was First Secretary, though his position was shaky. He seemed pleased by our acclaim, but it was hard to judge for sure, as he was in many ways a peculiar man. Those strange sticks linked with a chain—the weapon you use, Kid—he kept them with him at all times. He never let them get farther away than his fingers’ ends. He, of course, never put them to the ignoble uses of violence, though. He used them only for healthful exercise, I can assure you.

  “Secretary Tanglin spent several hours in close conference with our Mysteriarch. They got along famously, which very much pleased and surprised us, as the Mysteriarch usually had a short way with outsiders. She was over four hundred years old and did not tolerate sin easily, but apparently she found the Secretary to be morally sound. Or maybe it was the Secretary’s famous ability to charm.

  “You can imagine my shock and surprise when I, myself, Anne Twiceborn, was called to their conference chamber. Of course I had no right to be in such a place. I had not even been canonized yet—in fact I was only twenty years old.

  “It was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. Never in my most cryptic dreams had I had a hint of such a thing—meeting the planet’s First Secretary in person! And not merely a First Secretary, though they are rare enough, but Rominuald Tanglin! I was so excited that I actually cried. I must have committed fifty sins of vanity that day—it was shameful.

  “I can remember every word the Secretary said. It was very strange. I had never moved in such exalted circles, so I didn’t know what to expect; but it was very odd even so.

  “The first thing I noticed was the strange way the Mysteriarch was behaving. She and Secretary Tanglin were both sitting in formal armchairs, and he was in his usual position, the one you always see in the tapes: with his right leg hooked over his left knee. And she was in the same position! It was so unusual for her that I gasped a little. And he said smoothly, in that famous voice that I had heard a thousand times, “This is her? Well, Alice! That’s more like it! Oh, she should do famously!” Then he did something very peculiar. He held out his hands in front of him and made a little square with his thumbs and forefingers. Then he looked at me through the little square, moving his hands around so that he framed my face.

  “‘She’s marvelous,’ he said to the Mysteriarch. ‘You say she’s your great-grandchil
d? Well, it’s easy to see where she got her looks.’ He grinned, and the Mysteriarch smiled and said, ‘Thank you, Rominuald.’

  “I was amazed. I couldn’t have been more surprised if the sun had changed color. They were calling one another by their first names! Perhaps it wasn’t so surprising in the Secretary—he was called the People’s Friend, after all, and he was known for his informality. But the Mysteriarch! Crossing her legs under her black robe! Smiling! Answering to the name Alice! I hadn’t even known her name was Alice. She’d always been just the Mysteriarch to us. I couldn’t imagine what had made her do it.

  “Then the Secretary spoke to me. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you, child. I am Rominuald Tanglin. And your name is …?’

  “After an embarrassing pause I stuttered, ‘Anne, Mr. Secretary. Anne Twiceborn.’

  “‘Anne,’ he said musingly. Suddenly he nodded. ‘Anne. A fine name. Couldn’t have thought of a better one myself. Marvelous, be sure you keep that name. How old are you, Anne?’

  “‘Twenty, sir,’ I said.

  “‘Twenty!’ he said. ‘In many ways still our mental peak! Marvelous! Turn a little and show me your profile, dear. Have you ever been on tape before? Have you ever used tape?’

  “‘A little,’ I said. ‘I’ve taped the moas in their native habitat.’

  “‘Excellent. Then you’ll be a new face. Your delightful ancestress here informs me that you know the moas very well indeed. How many years have you studied them so far?’

  “‘Five, Mr. Secretary. Three years full-time.’

  “‘That’s all?’ he said, frowning. ‘Still, that’s remarkable for one so young. I just wish they were better known before I.… You have a lovely skin considering the time you’ve spent outside, child. Those freckles would melt the heart of a man on ice. Do you like moas, child? What would you do to save them from their persecutors?’

  “‘Anything,’ I said.

  “The Secretary turned to my great-grandmother. ‘I like this child of yours,’ he said. ‘She gets to the point with alacrity. I think she’ll do just fine. Are we still agreed, then?’

  “The Mysteriarch nodded. ‘Yes, Mr. Secretary.’

  “‘Excellent.’ He lifted both hands and fluffed up the curls in his hair. He really was very handsome—it wasn’t just the makeup.

  “‘Anne,’ he said, ‘will you come with me to the capital? I can’t offer you anything but work and suffering—and this at your tender age, as well. But I need you and that means the planet needs you. I want you to speak for the moas, since they have no voices. You may be the only person on the planet who can save them. It will destroy your privacy and your peace of mind and change you forever. But your help is crucial to their cause and my cause and the cause of all of us. Will you do it?’

  “I looked at the Mysteriarch and she nodded slightly, and I said, ‘Yes, Mr. Secretary.’

  “He said, ‘Good. I knew you wouldn’t fail me. I could tell it just by looking at your face. A lot of people will be looking at that face of yours in the months to come, Anne. And I know they’ll see the simple honesty and goodness that I myself see in it. Ah, these Uplands are a stern land, but they breed fine, sturdy women. You’ll carry quite a burden on those square little shoulders of yours, child—the kind I carry myself. Such burdens can be galling. Sometimes they’ll make you weep. But they’ll make you strong.’ He turned his head to my great-grandmother. ‘When can she leave for Peitho?’

  “‘As soon as you like, Rominuald,’ she said.” Anne broke off suddenly and said to Moses Moses, “Peitho is the planetary capital now. In your day it was Miclo.”

  Moses Moses nodded. “I’ve never heard of it. Built after my time, I suppose.”

  Anne nodded absently and drew in a deep breath. “Then the First Secretary got up from his armchair and stepped off the dais and to my side. He put both his hands on my shoulders and looked down into my eyes. He was tall—taller than you, Kid, by three or four inches.”

  “He must have been wearing block heels,” I said.

  “He said, ‘This is sudden, Anne, I know. We’ll be leaving tomorrow, and I’ll be taking you from all you love best. You may not see this land again for months—maybe longer. You’ll move into a new world—a complicated world, full of danger and ruthless sin. It will confuse you, and hurt you terribly if you are not careful. I’ll have to guide your steps at first—you’ll have to depend on my advice, and obey it, even if you don’t understand all the reasons behind it. You see the sense in this, don’t you?’ And he looked into my eyes with his wise old eyes—like yours, Kid, but bigger and shinier, like black whirlpools.

  “And I said, ‘Yes, Mr. Secretary. I’ll follow your advice. You will guide me.’ And I looked away, because his stare was so intense. I couldn’t meet his eyes.

  “‘Good,’ he said. ‘When we leave tomorrow we’ll have a long talk together on the way to the capital. There will be cameras and lights and noise and more people than you’ve ever seen in your life. But Anne, you won’t be afraid, because your cause is just and I will support you. Do you follow me?’

  “‘Yes, I follow you,’ I said, but I only whispered because I was about to cry. He embraced me for a moment, and then he turned and bowed to the Mysteriarch, so low that the two sticks leaned down from his neck and touched the floor. Then he left the room without another word. When the door closed behind him I couldn’t hold back my tears. I flung myself at great-grandmother’s feet and cried into her lap.

  “She said nothing but only waited patiently until I had recovered myself, and she dried my eyes with her black skirt. ‘I’m glad you cried, my child,’ she said, ‘because those tears will have to last you for a long time. They must be your last tears, do you understand? You will have to be brave from now on.’

  “‘Oh, Madame, what shall I do?’ I asked her.

  “She was quiet for a few minutes as she tapped the deep waters of her holy intuition. ‘Do as he says,’ she said at last. ‘Ah, I hate to trust you to him, a man with as many sins as he has hairs. But I must. I’ve spoken with him, dear, and without meaning to, he has opened his heart to me. He is mad. He is the only one who can help us, but he is mad. He has many enemies but he has built others from the ghosts of the past, the far, far past. His fears obsess him, and his end must be near because death has already set his seal in the lines of that man’s face. And yet I must trust you to him.

  “‘It may be that he will try to corrupt you. He might find that an amusement for an idle hour, and he is a charmer, isn’t he? Repulse him if you can, but do not anger him. Give in to him rather than risk his anger. The survival of our faith outweighs one young woman’s personal modesty. Child, you cannot sin if your heart remains pure. Remember that.’

  “‘I will, Madame,’ I said.

  “‘Then I have one last word of advice,’ she told me. ‘Beware of his wife! He trusts her absolutely, and that worries me. Stay away from her!’

  “‘Yes, I will,’ I said, and that was all she said.” Anne sighed wistfully. “That was the strangest day of my life. It meant more to me than any days that followed, even the last day of my trial, when I was sentenced to exile. I was famous for a while, you know—more famous than you, Kid, because six billion people knew my name. I won’t bore you with the political side of my life—I hated it anyway, and I only did it out of duty. And it certainly wouldn’t have meant much to you, Mr. Chairman—a man who could buy and sell a whole planet. I only wanted to save a small patch of land and a few of its birds from the great devouring mouths of the six billion. And in the long run I failed even in that.

  “If the First Secretary had lived longer we might have won. I thought we had won at first, when Mr. Tanglin passed the Biome Preservation Act. But he declined rapidly as his wife undermined his sanity with subtle hints and horrible skill and probably drugs and poison too, I wouldn’t doubt it. Too many of her enemies have died convenient deaths. She is a devil.

  “He left for Reverie just two years after we met. He taugh
t me everything I knew about taping and testifying and talking to crowds, huge crowds sometimes, hundreds of thousands. And after his madness seized him then his enemies tried to blacken his memory, claiming that he’d done all kinds of horrible things. It was typical of those cowards, slandering him when he was unable to fight back. Later we learned that he had killed himself. I cried for days. I loved him. Purely. And he never said an impure word to me, or made an unclean suggestion. He always treated me with pure affection and respect.”

  I smiled sadly at these last words. All the dignity and conviction in the world couldn’t have masked that tiny undertone of regret. I looked at Moses Moses; his face was grave and impassive, but he must have caught it too.

  “Thirty years have passed since I last saw Secretary Tanglin,” Anne said. “A great deal happened, of course. For the first five years I agitated. Those were the days of my finest commitment, when I felt most exalted in the right. When I thought we had firmly defeated the opposition, I went back to Sanctuary. But I had changed, of course, as the Secretary warned me, and I found Sanctuary very constricting. I returned to the moas and followed them for ten years. I taped their dance, and I learned bits and pieces of their peculiar language. It is all gestures of course, movements of the head and wings and feet, and some other element—scent probably, but I’m not sure. They hurt me several times, but I had the scars removed when I returned to public life after the repeal of the Preservation Act.

  “That was when the slaughter began. We preservationists joined together in a united front. The preservation issue attracted many followers other than Church members. In fact we Church folk were greatly outnumbered, but we led the others because of our firm moral stance and strict ideology. We were considered the movement’s most radical elements until the violence began. It was about this time that I was canonized.