Angel Stations (24 page)

‘I heard you—’

‘You hear a lot of stuff in this place,’ he said, a little too abruptly. Then he signed. ‘Look, sorry, but . . . you seen anything strange round the Station recently?’

Kim looked puzzled. ‘Like what?’

Pasquale picked up one of the cases and moved towards her.

She stepped aside, for the first time noticing a luggage palette sitting across the corridor, stuff already piled onto it. He walked over to it, lugged the case on top, then turned. ‘Like, like . . . bugs, you know what I mean?’

She stared at him. ‘No, I don’t know what you mean. You mean insects? Something escaped from the hydroponics? But that happens all the time, right?’ His obvious anxiety was infecting her now.

‘No, not like that. Like . . .’ He smacked his forehead with an open palm. ‘Like little silver bugs, is what it is. They look like insects, ’xcept when you get close to them, well, they don’t.’

‘Pasquale, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. What look like
what
close up?’

‘Like your worst nightmare,’ he breathed. ‘I know, ’cause I seen them. I’ve been telling people about them, but they don’t believe me. See, I was just out seeing a friend, he jockeys stuff all over the Station from the outside, gets bits of scrap and sells it on, right? He’s an engineer. He’s seen them too, on the outside of the Angel Station. Little silver bugs.’

‘I’ve never noticed anything like that.’

‘Lady, I hope you never will. Listen, you want my advice, sign up for anything going and get the hell out of here.’

She shook her head. ‘I have some things to sort out. I heard you found something really special out there. I need to talk to you about it.’

‘The Angel stuff ?’ he said. She nodded. ‘If that’s what it actually is,’ he continued. ‘I don’t know, I just found stuff. So maybe I’m a rich man, I don’t know.’ He walked past her, grabbed another case and hauled it over to the palette. ‘They won’t let me go back through the singularity for ‘‘security reasons’’.’ He put extra sarcasm into the words. ‘And trust me, I don’t feel too safe staying here right now. So that leaves just one place, and that’s out
there
,’ he said, stabbing a finger at the corridor ceiling.

‘You’re really worried about this, aren’t you?’

‘Kim, when I see little silver insects running around when they don’t even have any right existing, I get very worried.’

‘But what about security – Mayor Pierce or the Commander? Surely—?’

‘I tried all that, but they’ve got some kind of emergency on, and I’ll take a big bet it’s got something to do with little silver bugs. Seems they don’t want to talk to me or anybody else.’

Well
, thought Kim,
I guess I know where I’m going next
.

‘So you’re just upping sticks and heading out?’

Pasquale came up close to her and put one hand on her shoulder, making sure to look her right in the eyes. ‘Kim, I like you, really. I’m not crazy, and I don’t think aliens are beaming signals into my head or anything. But some very weird shit has been going on around here the past day or two. So take my advice, be a good girl, and get the fuck out of here while you still can.’

‘Something weird happened to me already, Pasquale. I think it had something to do with those things you discovered, maybe. I’m not sure.’

Pasquale just shook his head. ‘Nothing to do with me anymore. I gave it all to the science bods, and I’m just waiting for ’em to credit my accounts with the rest of the money they promised me. In the meantime’ – he shrugged – ‘take care of yourself, Kim. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

Sam Roy

He almost didn’t recognize Matthew when he saw him. He was different in some undefinable way. And then Sam realized: he’d mistaken Matthew for his father.

Whenever Sam reached the top of the steep path leading to the top of the cliff, he found food and water left on a shelf within a stone cairn that had been built specifically for that purpose. He ate and drank what he could as fast as possible, knowing time would be short. While he did so, he could look around.

The plateau stretched for a couple of miles, a high rocky shelf with a steep slope. From space, the Teive Mountains looked like a double row of teeth, a narrow valley lying between the two chains, which broadened out two or three hundred kilometres further east, before the land dropped towards the sea and became an island chain.

On the eastern flank of the plateau stood New Coventry, the name Vaughn had picked for their settlement. A dozen narrow streets, with a tiny town square paved with blocks of dark marble. Beyond that, the plateau fell rapidly away to steep cliffs. On the other side of the town, and below the cliffs there, were situated the deep caves Vaughn intended to hide in, along with everybody else, when the radiation came.

‘Who’s watching us?’ asked Sam as Matthew came up to him, his face partly hidden behind the fur trim of a parka.

‘I’ve got someone I can trust on duty today,’ said Matthew. It had been several years since they had last spoken to each other. The boy Sam remembered was gone. There was bitterness and anger on the face of the man who had replaced him, and a narrow scar ran along the edge of his jaw.

‘I don’t believe your father’s suddenly become so complacent,’ said Sam. ‘Perhaps you’ve forgotten what happened last time?’

‘I haven’t forgotten,’ snapped Matthew. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, his tone softer. ‘I’m a little nervous.’

‘If he had any idea we’re speaking to each other, he’d kill you. And I wouldn’t be so lucky.’

‘He doesn’t have any idea. He’s caught up in preparations for . . . for what’s going to happen.’ The shadow of a smile crossed Matthew’s face, then vanished in the darkness under his parka’s hood. ‘You know what he calls it? God’s Holy Light.’

‘Matthew, you’d better tell me what you need to tell me, then get out of here, for your own sake. He only let you live as an example. Remember that.’

‘I hadn’t forgotten. Don’t underestimate me, Sam. I know what I’m doing now. There’s nothing like the desire for revenge to get you motivated.’

How true
, thought Sam. How true.

Sam glanced behind Matthew. ‘You’ve brought the truck with you. Are you taking me back down the slope?’

Matthew grinned this time, and Sam saw a brief shadow of the boy he remembered. ‘As far as you’re concerned, I’m Luke.’ Luke was one of Vaughn’s most trusted soldiers. ‘So yeah, I’m taking you down.’

Sam was suitably thunderstruck. ‘What happened to Luke?’

Matthew’s grin got wider. ‘Let’s just say Luke’s not been quite the good little Primalist that Vaughn thought he was.’ Matthew glanced at him curiously. ‘You mean you didn’t foresee that? I thought you could foresee everything.’

‘The general events, yes; the specific details not so often, but sometimes. I know how most things are going to turn out, but the exact mechanism isn’t always clear.’

‘Well, anyway, Luke’s going to do what
I
tell him from now on, because if Dad ever has any idea what he’s been up to, Luke is a dead man.’

‘So what should I say next time I see him? Luke, I mean?’

Matthew shrugged. He gestured at the truck – a large, prefab snowmobile with an open trailer behind it – and walked towards it. Sam watched as he climbed into the truck’s cabin and reversed it next to where Sam stood with the great stone ball.

‘Here, let me help you,’ said Matthew, flipping down the tailboard of the trailer. He started to lay his hands on the stone.

‘No, don’t,’ said Sam hurriedly. He grappled with the sides of the stone, heaving and pushing until it rolled up the dropped down tailboard and into the trailer. Matthew had stepped back, looking slightly puzzled. ‘It’s just . . . a personal thing,’ said Sam, not sure why he’d felt so uncomfortable with it. ‘I need to do it myself.’
Because I’ve forgotten how to be any other way?
Sam wondered.
How strange
.

Sam hunkered down by the stone. ‘So what do you intend to do now, Matthew?’

‘Tell me, Sam. You’re the one who can see so much. Can you really see so much more of the future than my father?’

‘Of course,’ said Sam. ‘That’s why he’s happier with me well out of the way of the rest of you.’

Matthew stood by the open trailer, his hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his parka, against the bitter, freezing cold. ‘But he doesn’t kill you – or take you somewhere really far away, where nobody could ever find you.’

‘We’ve been over this already, Matthew, a long time ago.’

‘Because he’s terrified of you. Because if he can’t see you—’

‘And he can’t kill me either.’

‘He could drop you in a volcano?’

‘Careful there, Matthew. You don’t want him getting any ideas. He doesn’t because he knows he won’t. He can see that much. He can see
me
there, at the end. His greatest talent lies elsewhere.’

‘The far-casting.’

‘Yes, he can do it across astonishing distances, you know.’

‘Tell me what’s going to happen.’

Sam shook his head. ‘I won’t do that. Trust me, Matthew, there are some things you’re better off not knowing about until you get there.’

‘Then we need to talk – about the Plan.’

‘So you’ll help me? Help me make it happen?’

‘My God, yes,’ said Matthew, fervour filling his voice. ‘I want to hurt him so badly, Sam.’

‘Take me back down now. Do we have enough time to talk once we’re there?’

‘A little while, yes. There are things you should know. He found something inside the Citadel . . . some kind of reproductive machine. I think he’s intending to use it against the Station up there.’

‘Angel tech?’

‘Yeah. Sometimes I hear things, even things Dad doesn’t want me to know about. You know how most of the shuttles had their orbital capacity disabled? He put one back together, a while back.’

‘Who went off planet?’ asked Sam.

‘I’m not sure anybody did. I think it was done by remote – like he meant to plant something up there.’

Matthew pushed the tailboard back up and locked it in place. Sam watched clouds drifting between the distant mountain peaks as Matthew ferried him back to the bottom of the path.

Ten

Vincent

It had been some years since Vincent had experienced zero gravity. Okay, not quite zero gravity, since the exotic material the Station was constructed of had a tiny, almost imperceptible pull, but it was close to zero. He was here for a purpose, but he knew he needed an ally. Except the last time he’d encountered anyone who seemed like a potential ally, she’d run away from him as fast as she could.

There were maybe several dozen children on board the Station. At first he’d assumed they were all here with their families, but one or two had this weirdly feral look about them that made him wonder. When they propelled themselves through the tunnels, they did so in a way that brought the words
animal grace
to mind. They literally sailed through and around the crowds of adults all around them. He saw one girl, in a heavily customized jump-suit, work a kind of corkscrew pattern through a roughly circular tunnel with plenty of handholds, using them to boost herself up to an astonishing speed. She had flickered past Vincent in the blink of an eye.

Vincent watched them carefully. He’d always been a fast learner.

He’d never understood what it meant to feel powerless until now. He’d managed to speak to Commander Holmes on just two occasions, each time catching him briefly outside of his office. Holmes had listened with patience for a few moments, clearly distracted, before excusing himself by saying they were in the middle of an emergency. The armed soldiers accompanying him had made it clear that a few moments was exactly as long as Vincent was going to get. Holmes hadn’t reacted the way Vincent had hoped.

Vincent had certainly noticed an increased presence of armed military in the corridors over the past forty-eight hours. Something was clearly up. The problem was, every time he tried to speak to someone, anyone, he sounded completely crazy.
The end of the world is coming!

It was surprisingly difficult to get through to even the scientists on board, and it became depressingly clear the Station lay on a kind of interstellar lunatic’s highway of seers and prophets, all inflicting their own religious visions on their fellow Station-dwellers. The problem was the absence of Eddie. Eddie had clout. If Eddie had been here, it would be impossible to ignore him. He could pull too many strings, knew too many people for that to happen.

If only Eddie had been here.

So Vincent spent time watching children shooting down the corridors like bullets down the barrel of a gun, sometimes several moving at once, their bodies describing a peculiar airborne ballet as they sailed by.

It was another few days before he saw Kim again. This time he wasn’t going to lose her. Once more, she was at the far end of a crowded corridor, at a kind of nexus where several gutted hulls had been welded together to create a kind of pedestrian highway. Vincent had practised a little during the Quiet Time. He kicked himself effortlessly up in the air, and slapped both his feet off a cushioned projection with a thump. This sent him sailing forward, and he grabbed another handhold to propel himself forward even faster.

He’d been worried about crashing into people, but they moved out of his way without seeming entirely aware he was there, so he needn’t have worried. Kim looked up and spotted him, an alarmed expression appearing on her face.
It’s been years and she still looks beautiful
, thought Vincent.

She didn’t try to run away.
How do I stop now?
thought Vincent, panicking. It had been easy during the Quiet Time, when he’d had near-empty corridors to practise in. Then he’d sort of skidded to a halt, braking himself by bumping along the walls until he could grab on to something.
She’s definitely not going to run away this time
, he realized with alarm. In fact, she looked rooted to the spot.
What’s going to happen when I get to her?

He found out a few seconds later, as she ducked.