“But even the war isn’t an end to this,” Hugh said. “Have you forgotten you have a soul? That you will die one day?”
Elana’s claws clacked irritably. “No, I haven’t forgotten. But right now I have a job to do. That’s what matters, that’s what’s important. When I die, I’ll confront the beyond fair and square. All this philosophising and moralising and agonising we’re doing, it’s all bullshit. When it comes down to it, you’re on your own.”
“Just like life,” Hugh said with a gentle smile.
Tim frowned at him. It was most unlike Hugh to offer any comment on death and the beyond; the one subject he (strangely) always avoided.
“You got it,” Elana boomed approvingly.
Tim said goodbye, and left her monitoring the zero-tau pods. “Live death like you live life, huh?” he chided Hugh when they were far enough away to be outside the range of the mercenary’s enhanced auditory senses.
“Something like that,” Hugh responded solemnly.
“Interesting person, our Elana,” Tim said. “The interview will need some tight editing, though. She’ll depress the hell out of anyone who hears her ranting on like that.”
“Perhaps you should let her speak. She’s been exposed to the possessed for a long time. Whether she admits it or not, that’s influenced her thinking. Don’t slant that.”
“I do not slant my reports.”
“I’ve accessed your pieces, you dumb everything down for your audience. They’re just a compilation of highlights.”
“Keeps them accessed, doesn’t it? Have you seen our ratings?”
“There’s more to news than marketing points. You have to include substance occasionally. It balances and emphasises those highlights you worship.”
“Shit, how did you ever wind up in this business?”
“I was made for it,” Hugh said, which he apparently found hilarious.
Tim gave him a bewildered glance. Then his neural nanonics reported his communications block was receiving a priority call from the Fort Forward studio chief. It was the news that the Confederation Navy had attacked Arnstadt.
“Holy shit,” Tim muttered. All around him, marines and mercenaries were cheering and calling out to each other. Trucks and jeeps sounded their horns in continual blasts.
“That’s not good,” Hugh said. “They knew what the effect would be.”
“Damnit, yes,” Tim said. “We’ve lost the story.”
“An entire planet snatched away to another realm, and all that concerns you is the story?”
“Don’t you see?” Tim swept his arms round extravagantly, encompassing the occupation station in one gesture. “This was the story, the only one: we were on the front line against the possessed. What we saw and said mattered. Now it doesn’t. Just like that.” His neural nanonics astronomy program found him the section of dark azure sky where Avon’s star shone unseen. He glared at it in frustration. “Someone up there is changing Confederation policy, and I’m stuck down here. I can’t find out why.”
Cochrane saw it first. Naturally, he called it Tinkerbell.
Not quite limber enough to stay in a full lotus position for hours on end, the hippie was sprawled bonelessly on a leather beanbag, facing the direction Ketton island was flying in. With a Jack Daniels in one hand and his purple sunglasses in place he possibly wasn’t as alert as he should have been. But then, none of the other ten people sharing the top of the headland with him saw it.
They were, as McPhee complained later, looking out for something massive, a planet or a moon, or perhaps even Valisk. An object that would appear as a small dark patch amid the vanishing-point glare and slowly swell in size as the island drew closer.
The last thing anyone expected was a pebble-sized crystal with a splinter of sunlight entombed at its centre arrowing in out of the bright void ahead. But that’s what they got.
“Holy mamma, hey you cats, look at this,” Cochrane whooped. He tried to point, sending Jack Daniels sloshing across his flares.
The crystal was sliding over the cliff edge, its multifaceted surface stabbing out thin beams of pure white light in every direction. It swooped in towards Cochrane and his fellow watchers, keeping a level four metres off the ground. By then Cochrane was on his feet dancing and waving at it. “Over here, man. We’re here. Here boy, come on, come to your big old buddy.”
The crystal curved tightly, circling over their heads to their gasps and excited shouts.
“Yes!” Cochrane yelled. “It knows we’re here. It’s alive, gotta be, man; look at the way it’s buzzing about, like some kind of inter-cosmic fairy.” Slivers of light from the crystal flashed across his sunglasses.
“Yoww, that’s bright. Hey, Tinkerbell, tone it down, baby.”
Delvan stared at their visitor in absolute awe, a hand held in front of his face to shield him from the dazzling light. “Is it an angel?”
“Naw,” Cochrane chortled. “Too small. Angels are huge great mothers with flaming swords. Tinkerbell, that’s who we’ve got here.” He cupped his hands round his mouth. “Yo, Tinks, how’s it hanging?”
Choma’s dark, weighty hand tapped Cochrane’s shoulder. The hippie flinched.
“I don’t wish to be churlish,” the serjeant said. “But I believe there are more appropriate methods with which to open communications with an unknown xenoc species.”
“Oh yeah?” Cochrane sneered. “Then how come you’re already boring her away?”
The crystal changed direction, speeding away to fly over the main headland camp. Cochrane started running after it, yelling and waving.
Sinon, like every other serjeant on the island, had turned to look at the strange pursuit as soon as Choma informed them of the crystal’s arrival.
“We have an encounter situation,” he announced to the humans around him.
Stephanie stared at the brilliant grain of crystal leading Cochrane on a merry chase and let out a small groan of dismay. They really shouldn’t have let the old hippie join the forward watching group.
“What’s happening?” Moyo asked.
“Some kind of flying xenoc,” she explained.
“Or probe,” Sinon said. “We are attempting to communicate with affinity.”
The serjeants combined their mental voice into a collective hail. As well as clear ringing words of greeting, mathematical symbols, and pictographics, they produced a spectrum of pure emotional tones. None of it provoked any kind of discernible answer.
The crystal slowed again, drifting over the headland group. There were over sixty humans camping out together now; Stephanie’s initial group had been joined by a steady stream of deserters from Ekelund’s army. They’d broken away over the past week, sometimes in groups, sometimes individually; all of them rejecting her authority and growing intolerance. The word they brought from the old town wasn’t good. Martial law was strictly enforced, turning the whole place into a virtual prison.
At the moment, her efforts were focused on recovering as many rifles as possible from the ruins and mounds of loose soil. Apparently she still hadn’t abandoned her plan to rid the island of serjeants and disloyal possessed.
Stephanie stood looking up at the twinkling crystal as it traced a meandering course overhead. Cochrane was still lumbering along thirty metres behind. His annoyed cries carried faintly through the air. “Any reply yet?” she asked.
“None,” the serjeant told them.
People had risen to their feet, gawping at the tiny point of light. It seemed oblivious to all of them. Stephanie concentrated on the folds of iridescent shadow which her mind’s senses were revealing. Human and serjeant minds glowed within it, easily recognizable; the crystal existed as a sharply defined teardrop-filigree of sapphire. It was almost like a computer graphic, a total contrast to everything else she could perceive this way. As it grew closer its composition jumped up to perfect clarity; in a dimension-defying twist the inner threads of sapphire were longer than its diameter.
She’d stopped being
amazed by wonders since Ketton left Mortonridge. Now she was simply curious.
“That can’t be natural,” she insisted.
Sinon spoke for the mini-consensus of serjeants. “We concur. Its behaviour and structure is indicative of a high-order entity.”
“I can’t make out any kind of thoughts.”
“Not like ours. That is inevitable. It seems well adjusted to this realm. Commonality would therefore be unlikely.”
“You think it’s a native?”
“If not an actual aboriginal, then something equivalent to their AI. It does seem to be self-determining, a good indicator of independence.”
“Or good programming,” Moyo said. “Our reconnaissance drones would have this much awareness.”
“Another possibility,” Sinon agreed.
“None of that matters,” Stephanie said. “It proves there’s some kind of sentience here. We have to make contact and ask for help.”
“That’s if they understand the concept,” Franklin said.
> Choma said. >
> Sinon said. >
> Choma said. The mini-consensus queried him.
> he explained. >
They focused their minds on a stone lying at Sinon’s feet, fourteen thousand serjeants conceiving it as a small clear diamond with a flame of cold light burning bright at its centre. It rose into the air, shedding crumbs of mud as it went.
The original crystal swerved round and approached the illusion, orbiting it slowly. In response, the serjeants moved their crystal in a similar motion, the two of them describing an elaborate spiral over Sinon’s head.
> Choma said confidently.
Cochrane arrived, panting heavily. “Hey, Tinks, slow down, babe.” He rested his hands on his upper thighs, glancing up with a crooked expression. “What’s going on here, man? Is she breeding?”
“We are attempting to open communications,” Sinon said.
“Yeah?” Cochrane reached up, his hand open. “Easy, dude.”
“Don’t—” Sinon and Stephanie said it simultaneously.
Cochrane’s hand closed round Tinkerbell. And kept closing. His fingers and palm elongated as though the air had become a distorting mirror. They were drawn down into the crystal. He squawked in panicked astonishment as his wrist stretched out fluidly and began to follow his hand into the interior. “Ho shiiiiit—” His body was abruptly tugged along, feet leaving the ground.
Stephanie exerted her energistic power, trying to pull him back.
Insisting he return. She felt the serjeants adding their ability to hers.
None of them could attach their desperate thoughts to the wailing hippie.
His body’s physical mass had become elusive, it was like trying to grip on a rope of water.
The frantic yelling cut off as his head was sucked within the crystal’s boundary. The torso and legs followed quickly.
“Cochrane!” Franklin yelled.
A pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses with purple lenses fell to the ground.
Stephanie couldn’t even sense the hippie’s thoughts any more. She waited numbly to see who would be devoured next. It was only a couple of metres from her.
The crystal sparkled with red and gold light for a moment, then reverted to pure white. It shot off at high velocity across the rumpled mudlands towards the town.
“It killed him,” she grunted in horror.
“Ate him,” Rana said.
> Sinon said to his fellow serjeants.
The shocked humans probably wouldn’t want to hear quite such a clinical analysis.
> Choma said. >
>
> Choma said. >
> Sinon said. >
> Sinon conveyed a slight uncertainty with his thought. >
>
Sinon watched the crystal slicing freely across the land. It had become a cometary streak. >
Annette Ekelund had established her new headquarters on top of the steep mound which used to be Ketton’s town hall. Rectangular sections of various buildings had been salvaged from the ruins all around and propped up against each other; energistic power modified them into heavy canvas tents printed with green and black jungle camouflage. Three of them contained the last remaining stocks of food. One served as an armoury and makeshift engineering shop where Milne and his team worked repairing the rifles which had been dug from the wet soil. The last, sitting right on the brow, was Annette’s personal quarters and command post. She had the netting rolled up at both ends, giving her a good view out across the island’s blotchy grey-brown land right to the scabrous edges. Maps and clipboards were strewn cross the trestle table in the centre. Coloured pencils had marked out the army’s defensive fortifications around Ketton, along with possible lines of attack based on scout reports of the terrain outside. Serjeant positions and estimated strengths were all indicated.
The information had taken days to compile. Right now Annette was paying it no heed; she was glaring at the captain who stood to attention in front of her. Soi Hon lounged back in his canvas chair at the side of the table, watching the scene with no attempt to hide his amusement.
“Five of the patrol refused to come back,” the captain said. “They just kept on walking, said they were going to pitch in with the serjeants.”
“The enemy,” Annette corrected.
“Yes. The enemy. There was only three of us left after that. We couldn’t force them back.”
“You are pathetic,” Annette told him angrily. “How you were ever considered officer material I don’t know. You don’t just go with your men on walks around the perimeter, you’re their leader for Christ’s sake.
That means you know their vulnerabilities as well as their strengths. You should have seen this coming, especially now you can sense their raw emotional state. They should never have been allowed out to betray us like this. Your fault.”
The captain gave her a look of incredulous dismay. “This is ridiculous. Everyone here is worried shitless. I could see that in them clear enough. There’s no way of telling what they were going to do about it.”
“You should have known. You’re on null rations for thirty-six hours, and demoted to corporal. Now get back to your division, you’re a disgrace.”
“I dug up that food. I was in the shit up to my elbows for two days working for it. You can’t do this. It’s mine.”
“It will be in thirty-six hours. Not before.”
They stared at each other across the table. Sheets of paper stirred silently.
“Fine,” the ex-captain snapped. He stormed out.
Annette glared after him, furious at how slack everyone was becoming.
Didn’t any of them understand how critical these times were?
“Well handled,” Soi Hon said, his voice verging on a sneer.
“You think he should go
unpunished? You wouldn’t believe how fast things would unravel if I didn’t enforce order.”
“Your society would unravel. Not individual lives.”
“You think another kind of society can survive here?”
“Let go, and see what evolves.”
“That’s major bullshit, even by your standards.”
Soi Hon shrugged, unconcerned. “I’d love to know where you think we’re actually heading if not oblivion.”
“This realm offers us sanctuary.”
“Will you cut my ration if I make an observation?”
“It wouldn’t make any difference. I know you. You have your own little stash somewhere, I’m sure.”
“I have learned prudence, I don’t deny. What I suggest you consider is the possibility that the serjeants might be correct. This realm might offer us sanctuary if we were on a planet. However, this island does appear to be terribly finite.”
“It is, but the realm is not. We came here instinctively; we knew this was the one place where we would be safe. It can be paradise, if we just believe in it. You’ve seen how our energistic power operates here. The effects take longer to form, but when they do the change is more profound.”
“Pity they can’t slowly grow us some food, or even air. I’d probably settle for a little more land.”
“If that’s what you think, why stay with me? Why not run away like all those weak fools?”
“You have the food secure, and there is no bush for me to hide in. Not even a single bush, in fact. Which pains me. This land is … not good. It has no spirit.”
“We can have what we want.” Annette was looking directly out of the open end of the tent at the sharp, close horizon. “We can give the land its spirit back.”
“How?”
“By finishing what we started. By escaping. They’re holding us back, you see.”
“The serjeants?”
“Yes.” She gave him a smile, content that he understood. “This is the realm where our dreams come true. But their dreams are of rationality and physics, the old order. They are machines, soulless, they cannot understand what we can become here. They hold our winged thoughts back in cages of steel. Imagine it, Soi, if we rid ourselves of their restraints.