The Greatship (52 page)

Until that moment, the voice had been just so much noise.  It was interesting and entertaining noise, the words intriguing if not completely believable.  The narrative was compelling enough for the humans to feeling empathy for the creatures that could well have been their own ancestors.  Every portion of the disjointed tale deserved their attention as they tried to predict what would happen next and next after that; but there was no moment when they stopped wondering what kind of body was connected to the voice.  Until then, that was the central question that kept begging to be answered.

Then they heard the words, “My enduring Union,” and that simple utterance changed everything.

Wrapped around a bald statement was stiff, unyielding emotion.  Quee Lee and Perri heard the threat, the promise, the conviction and purpose—and they instantly believed what they heard.  Now both of them were considering what it would mean if this story, unlikely as it seemed, was in some fashion or another true.  And that was when the formless entity beside them—mysterious and unknowable, bristly and proud—became markedly less interesting than the grim bit of history it was sharing with them now.

Human hands grabbed one another.

Each lover felt the other’s body bracing for whatever came next.

Another silence was what the voice decided to offer.  And then from the perfect darkness came a sound not unlike a tongue or two licking against lips threatening to grow dry.

Quee Lee and Perri had been married for tens of thousands of years.  But as long as that might seem, marriage was infinitely older than their single relationship.  And there were species that took intimacy to higher levels than humans could manage.  The Janusians, for instance:  Their little husbands rooted into the body of female hosts, literally joining into One.  Yet among the human animals, Quee Lee and Perri were famous.  Their relationship had evolved gradually into a complex and robust, enduring and very nearly impossible to define melange.  There were a few humans who spent more time together than the two of them.  Unlikely as it seemed, some married souls enjoyed their physical lives even more than these two managed.  But no one could believe that any other human pair, on the Ship and perhaps anywhere else in the universe, was emotionally closer than that ancient Earth-born lady and her boyish life-mate.

At some point, everybody tried to tease them.

The happy couple generally welcomed good-natured barbs and admiring glances.  But when asked to explain their success—when some friend of a friend insisted on advice for less-perfect relationships—they grew testy and impatient, even a little defensive.  The truth was that they were helpless to define their relationship.  A marriage was always larger than its participants, and what they possessed here was as mysterious and unlikely to them as it seemed to distant eyes.  They couldn’t understand why they had drawn so closely together.  They didn’t see why life had not yet found the means to yank them apart.  But they were undeniably intimate and deeply dependent, up to the point where Quee Lee and Perri could never imagine being separated from one another in any lasting, hellish way.

“Can you read each other’s thoughts?” people wanted to know.

Not at all, no.

“But it seems you can,” some maintained.  “The way you know what each other wants, what you’re about to say and do—”

Did they do that?

“There’s a trick at work,” a few declared.  “Dedicated nexuses let your minds share thoughts and feelings.  Is that what you’re doing right now…?”

Not even a little.  In fact, they made a point of avoiding mechanical shortcuts to authentic tongue-and-expression conversation.

Eventually somebody would ask, “When have you felt closest?”

What did that mean?  Close how…?

“What was the day—the incident—when you felt as if you were a single brain shared by two independent bodies…?”

There were thousands of stories worthy of repetition, each able to satisfy the audience if not themselves.  Several dozen favorites had become minor legends among the passengers.  But the best answer was never offered, not even to the closest, dearest friends.  It happened on that particular evening as they sat inside the perfect darkness, deep within the unmapped Vermiculate, immersed in the most isolated corner yet discovered within the Great Ship.  That proud and stern and eternal voice promised them that it would do anything to protect what it loved, which was the Union; and for a singular moment, Quee Lee and Perri were one irreducible soul.

Now they finally believed the unlikely story.

Unseen tongues licked at dry lips, and the two lovers held each other with strong arms, sharing of flurry thoughts, speaking with nothing but the touch of fingers, the sound of breathing, the push of heavy breasts and the telltale flinch of a nervous penis.

“There is a Union,” they decided together.  “It is real.”

And in the next moment, it occurred to them that the Union’s loyal servant would never do anything that did not, in small ways or great, help its ageless cause.

Quee Lee pressed hard against her husband, and she shivered, and just before the voice spoke again, she whispered an obvious possibility into her husband’s ear and skull:

“Our friend is on a mission!  Now!”

And in the next instant, with thrilled horror, both of them thought, “It’s telling us the story for a reason…and we are the mission!”

With a sense of deeply buried pain, or at least an old, much-practiced anger, the voice continued.

“At last, I returned to the island.  At last, I touched down in the Sunset Plaza, on an ellipse of crimson glass brick reserved for my shuttle and my immortal body.  The plaza was flanked by tall apartment buildings buried beneath masses of vines—engineered greenery that thrived in the volcanic warmth, producing enough fruit and sweet nuts to feed the residents within.  A thousand of my grandchildren quickly gathered around me, while thousands more sneaked looks from behind the curtains of their comfortable little homes.  Every face made an effort to smile.  Every head dipped in a show of respect—a gesture that I had never demanded from my subjects, that arose long ago on its natural own.  Only one important face was missing, but the brave traitors anticipated my first question.  Several knelt before me, palms to the sky, and they explained that I had been gone longer than anticipated, and my arrival had proved quite sudden, but yes, my mistress was as happy as anyone could be.  In fact, she was waiting for me at the palace, rapidly making herself ready for my pleasures.

“The avenue was lined with pruned trees thriving inside big copper pots and rows of intricate geometric sculptures cut from the black native stone.  The smallest citizens barely noticed my passing.  They were the ants and fat beetles that I had reinvented for the purpose of little jobs, and unburdened by the demands of awe, they continued cutting down the weeds and disposing of trash.  But a crew of enhanced crabs was pulling superconductive cables under the pavement, and when I passed near, they paused long enough to salute me with their elegant pincers—a signal learned from the grandchildren.

“Everybody was working hard to appear worshiping.  Everybody wanted to shine with joy.  And a few even managed to convince themselves that they were being honest.  ‘You were gone too long,’ several complained, at different moments but always with the same worried, slightly put-upon tone.  And then one or two remarked, ‘We feared you were lost, that some horrid disaster had claimed you.’

“If that is what they wanted, those voices kept their thoughts hidden.

“Then at the mouth of an alleyway, I noticed a very young grandchild standing in the shadows, waiting for something.  Not for me, it seemed…but in his stance and attitude, I could see anticipation.

“I paused and asked his name, even though I had already found his face in the public files.  He introduced himself, and with a charming little smile mentioned that he had no memory of me.  I had left for my errand among the stars while he was still just a toddler.

“He was barely more than that now.  I smiled, telling him that it was my pleasure to meet him.

“He mentioned that I looked exactly as he expected, except I wasn’t tall enough of course, and then his gaze drifted off toward the island’s slumbering volcano.

“‘What are you waiting for?’ I inquired.

“‘For you,’ he replied.  But before there was any misunderstanding, he added, ‘I’m waiting for you to pass, and then I can go about my business.’

“‘What is your business?’

“‘To walk down to the Sunset Plaza and watch the night come,’ he explained.

“‘You like the setting sun, do you?’

“The young eyes smiled, and the mouth too.  Then a smart little voice said, ‘Yes,’ and nothing else.

“The bodies surrounding us began to relax.

“With a fond hand, I stroked the boy’s thick black hair and kissed him on the nose, and then continued with my triumphant stroll to the palace.

“No one was invited to follow me inside, and no one asked to join me.  My shadow passed first through the iron gates and beneath the brass arches and into the grand hall.  The air was scented with spice and smoke.  The floor and walls and high ceiling were tiled in a fractal pattern, cultured sapphires and diamonds lending accents to an example of mathematical beauty that I have always appreciated.  My throne stood at the end of the hall—the oldest object in the palace, gold flourishes and silk laid over my adoptive father’s original chair.

“My shadow hesitated, and so did I.

“My grandchildren stood in a crowd outside, waiting for me to vanish.

“Suddenly a great damp shape emerged from a back door, walking on long mechanical legs.  The creature was a leviathan whose ancestors had swum the local sea.  I had made him smaller while changing his lungs and flesh to where he could thrive in indoors, adeptly serving me with whatever little duty that I might require.

“With a high-pitched warble, he welcomed me home.

“Whatever plots were lurking about, I sensed he was not involved and almost certainly unaware.

“I asked if I had been missed.

“‘Always,’ he replied with a quick series of clicks.

“‘Where is she now?’ I inquired.

“‘In your quarters, lord.’

“‘And has she been faithful to me?’

“‘No,’ the creature replied, without hesitation.  ‘I have seen her use her hands and several plastic devices.  And once, the edge of a large pillow.’

“‘Thank you for your honesty,’ I said.  ‘And good evening to you.’

“No shadow led the way now.  Alone, I climbed a long flight of dimly-lit steps and entered a narrow hallway that only seemed endless…an illusion lined with tall doors meant to impress and confuse the rare visitor.  I walked a short distance and opened what seemed to be a random door.  There was only one bedroom inside the palace, and it never occupied the same position twice.  I entered through a random wall, and my lover flinched in surprise, starting to pull the sheets over her naked body before realizing it was me, only me.

“Together, we celebrated my return.

“I had been absent even longer than I had anticipated.  The young creature that I had left in this bed was noticeably older.  A few white hairs and a hundred little erosions marked the natural decline of a creature not born immortal and never told to expect such blessings.  But she was just as fierce a lover as always, maybe more so.  She insisted on satisfying herself by various means, and whenever my attentions seemed to waver, she would offer encouragements or measured complaints.

“‘What kind of god are you?’ she teased me once, in the dark.  ‘Are you going to let this old lady beat you at your game?’

“‘I am tempted to lose, yes,’ I confessed.

“Perhaps she heard more than one message in those words, because she paused and pulled away from me.  Then like a hundred times before, she settled on my chest, legs spread, the smell of her thick and close.

“In a whisper, she mentioned, ‘Your journey must have been considerable.’

“‘My task was difficult,’ I said.

“‘We have continued with our work.’  She said, ‘Our work,’ to make certain that I would hear the loyalty in those words.  Then after a pause, she added, ‘But of course you kept track of our progress.’”

“‘Always,’ I said.

“‘Have we missed any goals?’

“‘Never.’

“‘Are you proud of us?’

“‘Along the narrowest tangents, yes.  Yes, I am very proud.’

“She refused to be surprised by my measured answer.  And what worry she let show was small and easily controlled.  The creature was exceptionally bright, after all.  And she was wise in rare, precious ways.  Extraordinary dangers were lurking, and she must have realized there was no way to keep me from seeing pieces of her scheme.

“Silently, she dropped her face to my face and kissed me.

“Then I placed my hand against her little throat, feeling her breath and the flinching of soft muscles, and I eased her back up into a sitting position.  With a flat, cool tone, I said, ‘It was reasonable, holding to the work schedule.  And I was most impressed by how you managed to fool my security systems.’

“Perhaps her plan was to claim innocence.  ‘I didn’t try to fool anything,’ she might have said.  ‘I don’t know what you’re accusing me of.’  Denial might have given the plotters precious time.  But it also might have angered me, which would have brought my wrath down on them even sooner than they had planned.

“So instead of lying, my lover decided on poise.  She shrugged her shoulders, asking, ‘What do you know?’

“‘That the good machine being built inside our mountain is almost finished.  But your lieutenants have surreptitiously slipped other devices into its workings.  You devised some very clever, extremely powerful bombs that you hope won’t be noticed, and you will soon obliterate the purpose of my coming to this world.’

“Most souls would have tensed, hearing those words.  Many would have panicked.  But for my lover, that moment brought relief.  Her duplicity was laid bare, and the simple fact that she was alive meant that perhaps she still retained some little chance of success here.

“I felt her throat relax against my hand.

“Then with great seriousness, I added, ‘I also know you hope to murder me.  Tonight, if possible.  You have an array of weapons hiding here, and you have modified any piece of machinery that might injure me.  I can even see dangers inside you, darling.  Your body fat has been laced with acids that can be set free with a thought, turning you into a burning puddle that falls over my writhing, helpless body…’

“She stared down at me.

“In her gaze, I could see her asking herself if this was the moment for suicide.  But why would I lie beneath her if I felt at all at risk?

“With a reasonable tone, she asked, ‘Can we kill you?’

“‘If I was foolish and a little blind, perhaps.  But I am not, and I am not.’

“She nodded, accepting that verdict.

“And then she tensed through the shoulders and along her back, and with a small furious voice, she asked, ‘But why shouldn’t we try to kill you?  When your work is finished, you intend to murder all of us.  Isn’t that so?’

“I didn’t respond immediately.

“‘You told me as much,’ she claimed.  ‘When you sang about your secret Union and your need for nameless places…you practically confessed that when you were finished with this place, you wouldn’t leave witnesses behind.’

“I waited for a moment.  Then I warned her, ‘You don’t quite understand.’

“Then I dropped my hand, the fingers and broad palm stroking her body down to the point where her legs joined together.  ‘You are a special, special soul,’ I told her.  ‘My work would have been finished in another few years, and my plan was to take you with me.  Out to the stars, out into the rich cold darkness.’

“The shock rolled across her features.

“Quietly, almost angrily, she said, ‘No, you’re lying.’

“But I was speaking the truth.

“With a fond, slightly paternal voice, I asked, ‘How do you think I was brought into the Union?  No one is born into this noble service.  The rank and responsibilities are earned only on exceptionally rare occasions.  In my case, another servant visited my home world and built several marvels before retreating back into the darkness with his treasures, and one of the treasures was the man lying beneath you now.’

“‘No,’ she whispered.

“And then, in pain, she said, ‘Maybe.  But this changes nothing.  I wouldn’t abandon my world, and I certainly won’t let you to blow up this volcano and make it as though this place never was.’

“‘Is that what you think will happen?’ I asked.  ‘That I would slaughter you and yours for no reason but my convenience?’

“She hesitated.  Then with a figurative acid on her tongue, she asked, ‘What do you mean?’

“‘Unless provoked, I will not murder.’

“By the light of the moon, my lover looked into my face, and the beginnings of an explanation occurred to her.  ‘You won’t murder, but you might take back all of your gifts.  Our minds.  The genetic manipulations.  Wipe clean the ideas and concepts you brought down here to serve your damned Union.’

“I threw my palm across her mouth.

“Then I yanked her close, saying, ‘Yes.  That was my kind, responsible plan.  You would come with me, and my magical device would come with us, and the other grandchildren would wake the following morning to discover…nothing.  There would be a shared dream of a magical civilization, a public memory that would turn to legend in another day, and in another ten generations that would vanish into a muddled, impossible story.’

“She lay against me, her heart beating against what passed for my ribs.

“‘I am sorry,’ she told me.

“Into my ear, she said, ‘Really, we haven’t done anything wrong.  Not yet.  I can give commands, and every weapon will be put away, and you won’t have to worry about any of us lifting so much as a lard-knife against you.’

“‘That is not enough,’ I said.

“‘And you can kill me,’ she promised.  Then she repeated her offer, sounding as if she was begging.  ‘Kill me, and maybe the other adults.  But leave our children.  They don’t know anything.’

“‘Like the boy I spoke to?  That child waiting between the plaza and the palace?’

“She hesitated.

“‘At this moment,’ I said, ‘that tiny fellow is sitting beside the water, bare toes in the surf.  And do you know what he is watching with all of his interest, every shred of passion?  He watches the sky.’

“She did not move.

“‘The sky,’ I repeated.  ‘And in particular, he stares at this night’s brightest stars.’

“The woman could not breathe.

“‘You are a crafty soul, my dear.  My darling.’  I told her, ‘I am extremely impressed by the thoroughness and audacity of your plan.  Threatening the machine as well as my own immortal self…those are the tactics that anyone would expect.  But you also dispatched a team of technicians to the mainland.  You convinced the worshipful souls living there that they should help you.  Since then, our people and theirs have been living in a distant valley, secretly fabricating an amazing machine of their own.

“‘A radio beacon, as it happens.

“‘To the best of your ability, you have been marking my passage across the heavens.  You guessed that I was subverting a set of prying eyes, and you were correct.  Your hope was to broadcast a huge, important signal.  You wanted to be noticed.  You wanted the probe to see you, perhaps.  Or if you missed that mark, then at least one loud intelligent scream would race its way through the heart of our galaxy…