Kyo sighed and looked on at the stars up high, through the open window of the city dome.
‘We have enough to make a strong case to get him kicked-out,’ she said. ‘It would be in everyone’s interest.’
‘So what you’re saying it you think I should come forward?’
‘Yes,’ Sonja nodded. ‘But we can’t just yet.’
‘Oh - Why?’
‘Because the Lewis family have Atominii visitors.’ She explained. ‘If they see you-’
‘Oh,’ he sighed, reminded once more about his differences. Sonja touched his shoulder gently.
‘It’s not our fault,’ she whispered. ‘People here love you. You know they do. But those in the Atominii and surrounding hardlands…they don’t understand sweet heart. Their humanity is corrupted. But, look at me. I promise I’ll get you through this, we’ll never have to face this problem again.’
Kyo forced a smile and nodded. He cast his attention up to the sky and saw narrow streaks of light silently flair into space, curving a suddenly visible pale arch from the dark above.
‘Starnavis!’ They heard children calling on the roads, dashing through the plants and tall stalks of grass and pointing to the early twilight. ‘Starnavis, starnavis!’ They called to the spectacle, aware of their distant cousins out in space, aware of the legends and tales of humanity’s first attempt to reach beyond our world.
-25-
When Adamoss opened his eyes, his consciousness had been diminished by a factor of twenty six experiences, their individual life patterns lost from his reach and only the memory of the Hephaestus One now remained. He looked upon the room where he was now positioned in a new physical avatar. Unlike the majority of his avatars, this one was anthropomorphic and it used it strictly when addressing his human subjects. Adamoss stood to wonder, stepping out of his deep meditation. His legs unfolded and raised his steady body of naked artificial muscle fibres, straightening the rigging and plates of his complex and delicately designed spine to align his head with the doors of the Buddhist temple. His feet flattened out, the complicated small polymer bones spreading through their liquid and silicon epithelium, under which his regular and lineal arteries branched into straight service canals like copper and solder on a circuit board, the arteries glowing as they supplied nanomes to regulate the motion of the synergising ligaments and synthetic sinew. He moved lightly and quietly across the floor, his skin shining with a translucent quality like the larvae of fish, bones flexing, with dynamic supplicate designs all too human. The android crossed the cold stone floor with ease, conscious of each part of the avatar’s anatomically intricate design. He reached the temple’s door and opened it.
Adamoss entered a new room now, far from his meditation cushion on which he once perched. It was high above a nocturnal city of gold and neon blemished by a raging storm, all alight within the spotted windows of electric topaz and distant bubbles of transparent domes, visible from the penthouse suite of his head-quarters.
Waiting to meet with the android were a large group of multi-cultured men and women, scientists and eternals and world leaders, all dressed accordingly in their black opticidyne suits and black ocular lenses, their breath thick in the cold laboratory air.
The space here was dimly lit and amassed with wires and cables adjoining delicate computers with super freezers and temperature regulation machines and environment alternators all coordinated to operate the quantic relays of Adamoss’ consciousness.
It was the commander and chief of the Ameritropolis Atominii states who stepped forward. He was a bald and pale skinned fat man, with spotless eyes the colour of milk, staring out with a displeased concern.
‘Adamoss,’ he began, ‘what happened to the Hephaestus One?’
‘A most tragic event,’ he concluded. ‘I no longer have a signal with my relative avatar personalities working aboard the Hephaestus One. It would seem the avatars have been obliterated.’
‘By what cause?’ asked one of the women in the group, shifting to the front.
‘Unknown enemy attack,’ he explained. ‘The origin of which so far is alien.’
The crowd turned their heads and buffed their shoulders and hitched their belts as they muttered irritably amongst themselves.
‘Adamoss,’ said another, ‘determine the attack.’
‘Unable,’ he revealed, ‘I scanned the vessels before they made their assault and there is no sign of biological life. Furthermore, it would seem they were interested in obtaining the antimatter containment cells for the ship’s fusion reactors and engine feeds.’
‘They stole the antimatter?’ asked one of the more junior members, pulling his glasses down along his nose to see Adamoss with his own pale eyes.
‘That is a fact,’ said Adamoss. ‘Yes.’
‘Adamoss, where are these alien ships heading to next?’ asked another of the female members from the back.
‘Difficult to determine, ma’am,’ said Adamoss. ‘I have been trying to access other stations but so far no other contact has been reported. Considering the speed they entered the Solar System they have slowed down considerably, though it is safe to assume they’re moving extremely fast nonetheless.’
‘Is there any way to track them?’ asked one of the Megalo-Britai members of the group. He was a stocky man with a half colouration of white and black chequered squares to his face, the counter-side gloaming with a radiant green mask.
‘The three Xenotechs are moving rapaciously and their technology makes their signals hidden. During the siege of the Hephaestus One, I picked up the strongest signal only when they opened up their cores and brought down their shields to obtain the antimatter containment tanks.’
‘What can we do?’ asked another, a man from the Asiapires, his features oriental and his eyes like most Titans typically blackened. ‘If we cannot track their position, can we at least prepare to expect their arrival?’
‘Certainly,’ said Adamoss, ‘this would be the safest procedure.’
‘Is it safe to assume these things mean to harm us?’
Adamoss began to calculate. ‘There were no casualties,’ he explained, ‘no human sentient life was aboard the Hephaestus One, but they refused to acknowledge my communication efforts. If then they are machines their programs may not include protocols set to receive messages. To consider this we must assume that whoever sent these Xenotech machines did so, not with the intention to communicate, but with the intention to deliver a payload. And they now have antimatter material.’
‘Excuse me,’ another voice issued, ‘Xenotech, what’s that?’
‘It is the neologism we are using to describe this new encounter,’ the android explained.
‘And it would seem these creatures mean us harm?’ said the commander and chief.
‘So just apply the articles of warfare.’ Said another of the Asiapire members.
‘The articles of warfare are the next logical protocol.’ Another of the group agreed.
‘Then we’ll alert the Orbital Guard,’ said one of the senior men, his voice hoarse and gravelly like stones etching their lines across a concrete wall, and he puffed on a smoking pipe that billowed in opaque clouds in the cold, confidently doling rings from his lips. ‘And we’ll alert our private global defences or the Shield of Spheres for example and see if we can contract their resources.’
‘As a sub routine, I am advised to recommend that you raise the level of multiple defences, both international and private, if necessary. I would deem it even wiser to alert the Omicron station. Assuming these Xenotech are destroying starnavis and stations then Omicron will be the next point of call, followed closely by Mars, then Earth. If they do not visit Mars, the colonies may at least inform us if they see anything.’
‘Not Omicron directly,’ said the man with the smoking pipe. ‘Check with defence contractors in the region, see if they can intercept. Maybe we can receive some intel on these things first.’
‘Make the arrangements,’ said a young woman from th
e back, ‘make sure the hardlanders remain unaware of this scenario, Adamoss. We don’t want this to get into the public ears just yet. You know how excited people get about the potential for alien life. This could be the Olympians up to no good, in which case we don’t want people to know. Inform The Randian we are excluding coverage for those mutant bastards.’
‘I concede your requests, ambassadors,’ said Adamoss with a light bowing of the head, turning also to the commander and chief. ‘Mister President.’
*
The dark had long since swallowed up marble pale and bronze flesh, where bodies lay torpor and silent knotted in velvet. Malik saw little in the darkness. The strong smell of wax and woodstove tainted the warm air still otherwise faint with the sweet scent of sex. He sat up, pushing away arms and pulled himself from under the weight of legs, and made his way through the dimly lit space. There was a sound in the room, the faint hiss of static and a dull, bass pounding, throbbing in his ears. He knew that sound. It was the same on the Erebus, hissing through the darkness, the sound of the Charybdis. Malik suddenly felt the turbulence of gravity shift and he dropped to his knees and cried out. His hands were flat on the floor, the turbulence drawing him back to his stomach flat against it. Malik Serat put up a fight, resisting the gravitational pull. He lifted his head and saw the long dark corridors of the Erebus, its piezoelectric floors shimmering with light, rippling waves of gravity shifting through the surface like electric snakes.
‘NO!’ He growled, struggling to urge his arm out. He sallied forth and his chin hit the black marble with considerable force.
Then all at once the visions were gone. The memory had vanished. But the static…well that was still there, faintly whispering through his head like hailstones on a window. And Malik breathed carefully and collected wits again.
*
The elevator doors eased silently open and Malik was once more standing in his brother’s penthouse suite. A long black robe caped around his naked body, tied at the waist, and he stared through wisps of black hair, matted wildly from last night’s orgy. A voice was coming from the centre of the large area. He saw a light emission, faint.
‘Mainly radioactive shield plates,’ said the voice. ‘The initial explosive successfully ruptured the oxygen cylinders. You can view the full report on the following link.’
‘Good,’ said Vance, suddenly stepping into view as he sauntered around the holographic display field. Malik stepped a little further forward. Filipe was still lay on the sofa, his arm spread out, eyes shut, mouth gaping and choking on his snores.
‘By all accounts the Erebus should have fallen inside,’ the voice continued. ‘It’s a miracle they made it home.’
‘I don’t believe in miracles, Mr. Duval’ said Vance. ‘But let us be honest. Nobody expected Zemi to pull through for his crew. I do believe we need to learn more about this chaos cipher.’
Vance suddenly caught Malik listening and the hologram field shrank away into a mote of light and winked out of existence. Vance straightened his back, pocketed his hands and smiled.
‘Malik,’ he addressed casually. ‘I assumed you’d still be familiarising yourself once more with your human senses. I wasn’t expecting you.’
‘No,’ said Malik Serat distantly. ‘You weren’t.’
Vance knew his brother well enough to see that there was no pulling the wool over Malik’s eyes now. He was far too sharp for that.
‘How much did you hear?’
Malik didn’t respond. He stared.
‘Malik,’ said Vance, ‘come now. Have a drink with me.’
‘My pleasures have been exhausted.’
‘Nonsense my brother,’ Vance smiled, ‘they’ve only just begun. We need to get you into the Nexus yet.’
‘What have you discovered about the Erebus?’
‘Well,’ Vance said, moving to sit in one of his large comfortable armchairs. ‘As you must know I took over many of the investment companies who had financed the Erebus project so essentially I’m the last port of call anybody can send information to. What you just heard was a discussion about the starnavis engineering report which came back from Orandoré today.’
‘I heard you discussing the explosion.’ Said Malik.
‘Yes,’ Vance said clearing his throat. ‘My engineering team found that the initial explosion on the Erebus, which caused most of your problems, was set off not by an impact, but by a ruptured oxygen cylinder sparked by a naked flame…All observational evidence points to that being the problem.’
‘You know about the chaos cipher?’
Vance took a moment to think, eyes shifted to the lift slightly.
‘Ah yes,’ he smiled. ‘Curious. No, I was only inquiring you see. It seems your crew suffered from a sort of paranoid delusion I’m hoping to get to the bottom of.’
‘I didn’t tell you about the chaos cipher.’
‘No,’ Vance agreed, quickly answering. ‘Barnes. The other Chrononaut.’
‘Did he show you what it is?’ Malik, now lurking around to Vance’s side.
‘He told us you were trying to document moments in time,’ Vance explained, staring forward. ‘He told us you were obsessed and occupied with this thing.’
‘Your engineers have seen my work?’ Malik asked. ‘My calculations scribbled on the walls of the Erebus?’
‘Oh yes,’ Vance smiled.
‘What does it say?’
‘Very hard to determine, actually,’ Vance was happy to admit, ‘our best cryptographers believe it has no structure, no order. The scribbling of a madman.’
Malik Serat started to laugh as he walked behind Vance’s chair and came about his other side.
‘Did he tell you what it does?’
‘No.’
‘Are you curious to know?’
Vance was looking up now as Malik Serat came full circle and stopped by the table.
‘Yes,’ Vance said assuredly.
Malik Serat picked up an empty bottle of wine and smashed it on the corner of the table. The shower of glass and the impact caused Filipe to jump out of his sleep in time to see Malik holding a large shard of glass, cutting deep into the wooden table, carving a large X. Vance watched; face twitching, eyes blinkered with anger.
‘Time is an illusion,’ Serat explained. ‘All that exists is a state of motion, a state of entropy, and a state of energy seeking equilibrium all conveyed as gravity conducting like electricity over water. Just as water can be ice and gas, so too can the process we call time be transferred from one state to the next.’
Vance got to his feet, but Malik put his hand out and slowly pushed him back into the chair, the shard of glass tip first now in Vance’s direction.
‘Do you know who sabotaged the Erebus?’ he asked.
‘We don’t know,’ Vance promised.
‘Are you lying to me little brother?’ Malik said, feigning his mother’s accent, ‘because I do hope you are not without sincerity Vancy wancy? Hmm?’
‘I swear it,’ Vance seethed. ‘As much as my disdain for you was at one point in my life unbearable, I had not the means to sabotage the Erebus.’
‘Ahh,’ Malik realised with a sense of gaiety. ‘Now the truth emerges. Your disdain for me still exists…after all this time.’ And Malik pressed the edge of the glass against Vance’s cheekbone. ‘I knew you’d remember me again…little brother.’
Vance knocked away the glass aggressively and stood above Malik, his breath harsh on his face.
‘I will have respect in my own home,’ he demanded.
Malik dropped the shard of glass and sauntered away simpering proudly.
‘What is the chaos cipher?’ Vance shouted after him.
And Malik paused.
‘Finish up my neurophase and access some of my memories,’ Malik said slyly. ‘I’ll show you what it does.’
-26-
Aday of celebration was underway in Cerise Timbers and the day’s festivals were in full swing. There were dancers and gymnasts, acrobats a
nd fire breathers populating the area with an astonishing show of entertainment. There were costumes and actors and poets, and a supply of special tea, the magic fudge and vapour pipes.
A whole carnival of fun had begun around the city, and Enaya Chahuán had taken part in helping show their visitors around. By no means had Pierce Lewis extended any further hospitality toward Vilen Krupin since he had arrived, other than the boxing match and the victory celebration. Enaya sensed their guests would feel uncomfortable, so she got in touch with the away supporters and asked volunteers to help her show them around the city.
‘I’m not interested in plants,’ said Krupin curtly.
‘Sure,’ Enaya chuckled, ‘which is why I’m taking you to the garrison. I think military training would more suit your interests.’
‘Plants are boring.’ Krupin said, looking around. ‘Are all these people celebrating plants, really?’
‘The Meadows aren’t about how we cultivate food. Minerva Meadows is about how we cultivate fun and recreation.’
‘I think your sports and training facilities are small.’
‘They’re as big as they need to be in this area,’ she explained. ‘Most our activities are outdoors and more cooperative rather than competitive.’
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