‘It’s the ship,’ Clavain said mildly, determined not to disappoint Felka.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It’s the ship. But you don’t understand. It’s more than that. It’s much, much more.’
Now he was beginning to feel slightly worried. ‘It is?’
‘Yes. Because I’ve seen it before.’
‘Before?’
‘Long before we ever came here, I saw it.’ She turned to him, peeling hair from her eyes, squinting against the sting of the spray. ‘It was the Wolf, Clavain. It showed me this view when Skade coupled us together. At the time I didn’t know what to make of it. But now I understand. It wasn’t really the Wolf at all. It was Galiana, getting through to me even though the Wolf thought it was in control.‘
Clavain knew what had happened aboard Skade’s ship while Felka was her hostage. He had been told about the experiments, and the times when Felka had glimpsed the Wolf’s mind. But she had never mentioned this before.
‘It must be a coincidence,’ he said. ‘Even if you did get a message from Galiana, how could she have known what was going to happen here?’
‘I don’t know, but there must have been a way. Information has already reached the past, or none of this would have happened. All we know now is that somehow, our memories of this place — whether they’re yours or mine — will reach the past. More than that, they will reach Galiana.‘ Felka leaned down and touched the rock beneath her. ’Somehow this is the crux, Clavain. We haven’t just stumbled on this place. We’ve been led here by Galiana because she knows that it matters that we find it.’
Clavain thought back to the beacon he had just been shown. ‘If she had been here…’
Felka completed the thought. ‘If she came here, she would have attempted communion with the Pattern Jugglers. She would have tried swimming with them. Now, she may not have succeeded… but just supposing she did, what would have happened?’
The mist had closed in completely now; there was no sign of the looming sea-tower.
‘Her neural patterns would have been remembered,’ Clavain said, as if speaking in a dream. ‘The ocean would have recorded her essence, her personality, her memories. Everything that she was. She’d have left it physically, but also left behind a holographic copy of herself, in the sea, ready to be imprinted on another sentience, another mind.’
Felka nodded emphatically. ‘Because that’s what they do, Clavain. Pattern Jugglers store all who swim in their oceans.’
Clavain looked out, hoping to glimpse the ship again. ‘Then she’d still be here.’
‘And we can reach her ourselves if we swim as well. That’s what she knew, Clavain. That’s the message she slipped past the Wolf.’
His eyes were stinging as well. ‘She’s a clever one, that Galiana. What if we’re wrong?’
‘We’ll know. Not necessarily the first time, but we’ll know. All we have to do is swim and open our minds. If she’s in the sea, in their collective memory, the Jugglers will bring her to us.’
I don’t think I could stand for this to be wrong, Felka.‘
She took his hand and squeezed it tighter. ‘We won’t be wrong, Clavain. We won’t be wrong.’
He hoped against hope that she was right. She tugged his hand harder, and the two of them took the first tentative steps towards the sea.
Alastair Reynolds, Redemption Ark
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