The Naked God - Faith nd-6

by Peter F. Hamilton

  “Yes.” Quinn stared greedily into the absolute blackness revealed by the opening. “Yes!”

  The souls who had been cast back into the beyond brought with them a devastating tide of bitterness and fury as they raged impotently against the atrocity. Freedom existed, it was possible to regain a life. Now there was only purgatory again. No chink existed in the barrier between them and reality. They screamed their wrath, at the same time pleading with those they could dimly sense moving on the other side. Begging to be let back, for just one last taste of sensation. None of the living heard them any more.

  A fissure opened. One small precious gap leaking the most gorgeous human sensations into the cursed void. They flocked around it, rejoicing in its magic. And there was enough for all to feast upon. Every lost soul knew the touch of air upon skin, saw myriad constellations shimmering against the night sky.

  Quinn screamed himself raw as he was possessed by a hundred billion lost souls. Their violation was total, devouring the import of every single cell that was him.

  His body soared through the opening, carrying the burden of humanity with him. The wormhole closed behind them, cutting off the sight of the stars which humans had always known as their own.

  Chapter 15

  Though it would never be told this way, Louise actually spent most of the summoning ceremony unaware of what was happening. After Courtney shoved her down on the bench she rolled onto her side, fighting the dreadful nausea. Little of anything Quinn said registered through the pain and misery. The backlash from the energistic power marshalled by the possessed set off concussions of fright inside her skull.

  Then the solid rocket motors ignited, smothering her in choking smoke. She was on the floor retching desperately as the Orgathé drew up level with the gallery.

  She lay there shivering between peaks of flame and ice, crying wretchedly. Then all the external sensations began to die away, abandoning her in a stinking grainy grey smog that obscured everything save a few yards of the gallery.

  Footsteps crunched on the powdery debris that’d showered down when the escape pod hit the cathedral’s dome. They stopped beside her. She moaned, aware that the person was bending down. A hand stroked the side of her head, tenderly brushing the hair from her eyes.

  “Hello, Louise. I said I’d come back for you.”

  It was the wrong voice. An impossibility. But so utterly right. Louise blinked up, and tears flooded her eyes again. “Joshua!”

  His arms went round her, and he kept saying: “Shush, it’s all right, it’s all right,” as he rocked her shaking body against him.

  “But Joshua—”

  He kissed her gently, tapped his forefinger on her nose. “It’s okay, it’s all over. I promise.”

  “Quinn,” she gasped. “Quinn, he’s . . .”

  “Gone. Over. Finished.”

  Her head swung from side to side, seeing the tendrils of smog slowly withdrawing from the gallery. The cathedral below was shockingly quiet.

  “Here,” Joshua said. “Let’s get you sorted out.” He pulled the wrapping off a medical nanonic package, and applied it gently to her face where Quinn had struck her.

  She realized her neural nanonics were back on-line, and hurriedly put her medical monitor program into primary.

  “It’s all right,” Joshua said softly. “Our baby’s fine.”

  “Huh,” Louise grunted. “How do you know about . . .”

  He kissed her hand. “I know everything,” he said with that beautifully wicked Joshua grin. The very same one which had started all this. Louise thought she might even be blushing.

  “If you could hang on to the questions for a moment,” he said. “There’s someone you have to say goodbye to.”

  Louise let him help her up to her feet, glad of the assistance. Every part of her seemed to be aching and stiff. When they were standing, she just couldn’t resist giving him another kiss, making sure he was real. And no way was she going to let go of his hand. Then she saw Fletcher standing behind him.

  “My lady.” Fletcher bowed deeply.

  She drew a sharp breath. “The possessed.”

  “Gone,” Joshua said. “Except for Fletcher. And he’s not exactly possessing anybody any more; this is a simulacrum body.” He offered his hand to the solemn naval officer. “I wanted to thank you in person for looking after Louise through all this.”

  Fletcher nodded gravely. “I confess I have been curious as to what man might be worthy of Lady Louise. I see now why she speaks of no other.”

  Louise knew for sure she was blushing this time.

  “Am I now to return to that purgatory, sir?”

  “No,” Joshua said. “That’s something else I wanted to tell you. You were there because of your own decency. Leaving your family and your country, mutinying against your king, were all terrible crimes. You convinced yourself of that, and imposed your own punishment. Purgatory was what you believed you deserved.”

  Fletcher’s eyes darkened with remembered pain. “In my heart I knew what we were doing was wrong. But Bligh was cruel beyond any man’s endurance. We could withstand no more.”

  “It’s over now,” Joshua said. “It’s been over for nearly a thousand years. What you have done for Louise and others this time is enough to pardon a hundred mutinies. Have courage, Fletcher, the beyond is not all there is. Sail through it. Find the shore that lies on the other side. It is there.”

  “I could never doubt a man of your valour, sir. I will do as you say.”

  Joshua stood aside.

  “My lady.”

  She hugged him tightly. “I don’t want you to go.”

  “This is not where I belong, my dearest Louise. I am adrift here.”

  “I know.”

  “But still, I consider myself privileged that I have known you, however bizarre the circumstances. You will prosper, I foretell, and your child too. Your universe is a many-splendored thing. Live your life in it to the full.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  He kissed her on the brow, almost a blessing. “And tell the little one I shall think of her always.”

  “Bon voyage, Fletcher.”

  His body began to attenuate, its boundary dissolving into wisps of platinum stardust. An arm was raised in a farewell salute.

  Louise stared at the empty space it left for some time. “Now what?” she asked.

  “A few explanations, I think,” Joshua said. “I’d better take you over to Tranquillity for that. You need to clean up and rest. And Genevieve is doing truly awful things to the servitor housechimps.”

  Louise began to groan. Her breath stalled as the lush parkland of the habitat quietly materialized around her.

  Samual Aleksandrovich had spent the last ten minutes accessing the station’s external sensor suite. Even so, he had to see for himself before he could truly believe. The SD control centre had been alarmed by the number of starships which kept appearing above Avon, but swiftly discovered they were all ships who had been en route to other stars. They’d been snatched from interstellar space, emerging in the designated zones above the planet. Once the First Admiral confirmed they weren’t an attack force, he and Lalwani took a lift capsule to the observation lounge.

  The big compartment was crowded with naval personnel. They parted reluctantly to allow both admirals through to the curving transparent wall. Samual looked out in trepidation at space without stars. The station’s rotation slowly brought the galaxy into view; its core shining gold and violet, embraced by the silver shimmer whorl of satellite stars.

  “Is it ours?” Samual asked quietly.

  “Yes sir,” Captain al-Sahhaf said. “SD command is using the sensor satellites to identify neighbouring galaxies. They correspond to the known pattern, which puts us approximately ten thousand light-years outside.”

  Samual Aleksandrovich turned to Lalwani. “Is this where the possessed come, do you think?”

  “I’ve no idea.”

  “Ten thousand light-years. What
in God’s name did this to us?”

  “Joshua Calvert did, sir.”

  Samual Aleksandrovich gave Richard Keaton a very suspicious look. “Would you care to qualify that remark, Lieutenant?”

  “Calvert and the voidhawk Oenone succeeded in their mission, sir. They found the Tyrathca Sleeping God. It’s an artefact capable of generating wormholes on this scale.”

  Samual and Lalwani traded a look.

  “You seem remarkably well informed,” Lalwani said. “I’m not aware of any communication from Oenone or the Lady Macbeth reaching us since we arrived here.”

  Keaton gave an embarrassed smile. “I apologise that you didn’t know in advance. Nonetheless, Calvert transferred every Confederation world out here.”

  “Why?” Samual asked.

  “Moving a possessed body through the specific class of wormhole we just came through closes the rift which allows a soul to extrude from the beyond into this universe. He simply did it en masse. The lost souls have all been returned to the beyond. He also brought back all the planets which the possessed had taken away.” Keaton gestured at the empty void outside. “The whole Confederation is here. There is no more possession crisis.”

  “It’s over?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Samual narrowed his eyes as he contemplated his staff captain for a long moment. “The Kiint,” he said eventually.

  “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, I am one of their operatives.”

  “I see. And what part did they play in all this?”

  “None.” Keaton grinned. “This surprised the hell out of them, too.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.” Samual glanced out at the galaxy again as it began to slide from view. “Is Calvert going to take us back?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “The Kiint agreed they would help us with medical supplies if we solved this crisis. Will they honour that promise?”

  “Yes sir. Ambassador Rulour will be happy to extend the Kiint government’s full cooperation with the Confederation.”

  “Good. Now get your shabby arse out of my headquarters.”

  The doors parted before Joshua could datavise his arrival.

  “Welcome home,” Ione said. She dabbed a platonic kiss on his cheek.

  He led Louise into the apartment, enjoying her little gasp of astonishment as she saw the glass wall looking out over the bottom of the circumfluous sea.

  “You’re the Lord of Ruin,” Louise said.

  “And you’re Louise Kavanagh, from Norfolk. Joshua talks about you all the time.”

  Louise smiled as if she didn’t believe. “He does?”

  “Oh yes. And what he hasn’t told me about you, Genevieve certainly has.”

  “Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine. I’ve got Horst Elwes looking after her. They’re on their way. Which should just give you time to freshen up.”

  Louise glanced down at Andy’s dilapidated clothes. “Please.”

  Joshua poured himself a hefty glass of Norfolk Tears while Ione was showing Louise the bathroom. “Thanks,” he said when she came back.

  “You did it, didn’t you? That’s why we’re here.”

  Yeah. I did it. No more possessed.

  A plucked eyebrow was raised delicately. And when did you pick up this ability?

  A little gift from the Sleeping God.he let the memories flood out directly, showing her and Tranquillity what had happened.

  I was right about you, all along.her arms circled round him, and she stood on her toes to give him a kiss.

  Joshua gave the door to the bathroom a guilty glance.

  Ione smiled wisely. Don’t worry. I won’t mess things up.

  “I don’t know what to do about her, Ione. Damnit, I ruled the universe, I was given the answers to everything, and I don’t know what to do.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Joshua, of course you know. You’ve always known.”

  Brad Lovegrove regained control of his body as if waking from a debilitating coma. Every thought, every action, was dreadfully slow and confused. The whole period of Capone’s possession retained the constituency of a feverish dream, flashes of revolting clarity stitched together by slipstream blurs of sensation and colour.

  He found he was sitting at a glass-topped table. It was in the lounge of a five-star hotel suite. A big picture window showed New California sliding past outside. There was a pot of hot coffee in front of him, cups, a plate with a pile of scrambled eggs. A thick pool of blood was spreading over the glass, flowing round the plate to reach the edge. Big scarlet drops splattered onto the carpet around his feet.

  A woman in the chair opposite was crumpled over her half of the table. Three quarters of her body was covered in green medical nanonic packages; with a navy-blue towelling robe worn over them. One package from her throat had been removed and placed on the table. The skin it exposed had a savagely deep cut, opening her carotid artery. There was a small fission blade knife nestling in the hand of her outstretched arm.

  Brad Lovegrove fell off his chair, burbling incoherently with shock.

  Joshua and Louise waited by the airlock hatch of docking bay MB 0-330. They’d both accessed the sensors around the bay, watching Lady Macbeth settle lightly on the cradle. Her chemical verniers puffed out fast bursts of bright yellow flame around the equator as Liol brought her in. She touched the cradle in perfect alignment, and the holding latches closed. Utility hoses and cables rose up to jack in one by one. Thermo-dump panels folded down into the hull, and the whole assembly started to sink down into the bay.

  He did that well, Joshua admitted to himself. How are you doing?he asked syrinx.

  Almost there,she told him.

  Affinity showed him the big voidhawk sticking close to the Mindori and Stryla as the blackhawks curved round the spaceport spindle to chase the habitat’s docking ledge. The two blackhawks needed guiding and coaxing: their personalities were almost traumatised into catatonia by the possession. Both of them desperately wanted their lost captains. It wouldn’t happen, Joshua knew, Kiera had destroyed the bodies back on Valisk, forcing the newly possessing souls into the blackhawks.

  They will recover with time, Oenone said softly. We will be here for them.

  I’m sure you will.

  Congratulations, Joshua Calvert,the jovian consensus said. And our profound thanks. Samuel has told us that it was you alone who communed with the singularity.

  I had plenty of help reaching it,he said. a smile image flashed between himself and Syrinx.

  Your method of terminating the crisis was spectacular,consensus said.

  Believe me, it was one of the quiet options. God-power is a modest understatement for the singularity’s abilities.

  Are you still in contact?

  Yes. For the moment. There’s a few loose ends I want to tie up myself. After that, it’s over.

  To abandon such power requires considerable strength of character. We are happy to see Samuel’s faith was not misplaced.

  To be honest, a life spent jumping round the Confederation righting wrongs really doesn’t appeal. From now on all I carry is a message.

  Joshua Calvert, missionary,syrinx teased. Now there’s a real miracle.

  Will you be returning the Confederation stars to their original position?consensus asked.

  No. I want them to stay here. That also is my decision.

  And one we will have to abide by. After all, it will not be easy for us to send a starship back to the Sleeping God from here.

  It’s not impossible. But then that’s the whole point.

  Would you explain?

  Humans have been lucky in the past, expanding and colonising our way across the galaxy. I’m not knocking it. Things were pretty bad back there on Earth for a while. As a species we needed to get away, as the old saying goes, to put our eggs in more than one basket. But it can’t go on forever. We have to face up to the future, and develop in different ways. There are eight hundred stars out here in this cluster, that’s all. Ther
e can be no more physical expansion at our current social, economic, and technological level. No more running away from our problems; we’re mature enough to address them now.

  And our isolation will ensure that we do.

  I’m hoping it will concentrate a few minds, yes.

  We will live in interesting times.

  All times are interesting if you know to live them properly,joshua said. I have the new coordinates of the other stars for you. You’ll have to send out voidhawks to them and spread the information, put us all back in contact.

  Of course.

  Joshua let the information flow out of his mind and into the Consensus.

  The airlock opened, and his crew came flooding out yelling raucous greetings.

  Liol hugged him first. “Fine bloody captain you make! You abandon us there to have fun all by yourself, and the next thing we know we’ve got Jupiter’s SD command screaming at us.”

  “I brought you back, what more do you want.”

  Sarha squealed and wrapped herself round him. “You did it!” She kissed his ear. “And what a view.”

  Dahybi slapped his back, laughing ecstatically. There were Ashly and Beaulieu, pushing at each other to get at him. Monica said: “Looks like you got it right,” without sounding too much of a grudge. Samuel chuckled at her obstinacy. Kempster and Renato chided him for cutting off their observations so abruptly. Mzu barely thanked him before asking about the singularity’s internal quantum structure.

  In the end he held up his arms and shouted at them all to shut the hell up. “Party in Harkey’s Bar, right now, and the drinks are on me.”

  Beth and Jed were pressed up against the big port in the lounge as Tranquillity expanded outside.

  “It looks just like Valisk,” he said excitedly.

  “Let me see!” Navar demanded.

  Jed grinned, and they stepped aside. The lounge was weird now. The outlines of the steamship fittings ran through the actual walls and equipment, solid ridges cutting through composite and alloy alike. Hints of the false colours and textures were still there if he squinted hard and remembered what had gone before.