The Machine's Child (Company) (49 page)

There was a click, and a whirr. The thermocontrol unit had noticed the door was open, and was amping up the refrigeration system to keep the temperature from rising. Like insects in a summer field, or angels howling softly, the sound filled the glittering cave.

Mendoza walked to the nearest rack and inspected the tubes there. Each was engraved with a name. Faintly they could hear David rambling on outside:

“. . . Of course, I don’t really know much about babies, but it seems to me . . .”

Edward stepped close and examined the racks, lifting a gloved hand to wipe away frost. Names. Spitzka, Spode, Spohn . . . these were the templates of cyborg operatives like Mendoza.

“BTM four-seventeen.” Mendoza turned to Edward. “Not a name. A code number!”

His eyes lit with comprehension. He turned and sought back through the alphabet, looking for tubes that might follow the letter
Z
. Mendoza picked her way forward, looking for what might precede
A
.

In the same moment that they turned to signal failure to each other, their eyes fell on a rack midway along the wall, where rows of outsized tubes sat in their own recess. Mendoza looked at Edward in tense inquiry. He nodded and they advanced on the rack, meeting in front of it. They stared up. Were those numbers engraved on the vials?

Edward bent and made a stirrup of his hands. Mendoza put her hands on his shoulders and vaulted upward to look at the top row. She swept her hand across the vials, wiping clear what was engraved there . . .

Edward felt the shock in her straining thighs, the involuntary leap as she seized one of the vials and held it aloft. He let her slide down and she presented it to him. It was much bigger than the others, so big she could scarcely get her hand around it, almost a chalice. Engraved on it were the characters
BTM 417
.

Grinning, he removed his right glove and slipped the vial into it. He unzipped the top of Mendoza’s subsuit and tucked glove and vial down between her breasts, secure, and forced the zipper of the subsuit up again. The crucible made a bulge like a third breast. She laughed, shivered
pleasurably and took his bare hand, leaning her cheek into it to plant a kiss there. Then she tugged him forward out of the chamber.

They paused beyond the threshold, just long enough to order the door to seal itself again. The mortal man had produced a blueberry biscuit from somewhere and was nibbling at it, apparently while watching something in the corner intently.

“So—just when is she due, then?” he inquired of an unseen presence.

He did not look up as they edged around him and into the next room, where the Captain still had his broad back turned, busy with Ancilla.

Just keep her attention drawn a few more minutes, won’t you, old man?
Edward said airily. The Captain growled in response but did not turn.

They got down and exited through the crawlway, with Mendoza carefully replacing the grates as they went; scrambled rapidly across the storeroom, where the servounit still ignored them, and rolled back out into sunlight beyond. Moving as one, they pulled the door back down and stood. Edward held out his hand for the disrupter pistol and Mendoza passed it to him. He set it secure back in its holster. They started down the rock.

That was easy!
Alec said in relief.

At precisely that moment he felt a creeping numbness, and then a white-hot shock of pain. Light flared behind his eyes and blinded him.

He mustn’t be blind. He must see. He fought, flailing in the void. His hand encountered another hand and grabbed frantically. It wasn’t Mendoza’s hand, though. It was a big hand. It clenched on his. He turned to find out whose hand it might be, and his vision came back enough to see Nicholas, peering desperately into his eyes.

“What’s happened?” Alec cried.

“I know not,” Nicholas said. “But Edward’s lost again, it seems.”

No indeed, gentlemen,
said an amused voice, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, just as the Captain’s voice did, but it wasn’t the Captain speaking.
Edward’s most assuredly not lost. Edward has won.

The void rolled back on all sides and revealed a room, dark-paneled and carpeted, lined with books, lit only by lamplight, for there were no windows and no doors in evidence. There were two big old-fashioned chairs. There was a small table on which were the lamp, a decanter of something amber, and two cut crystal glasses.

There was nothing else. Alec and Nicholas stared around themselves in incomprehension.

“Edward?” Nicholas lifted his head. His eyes went small and suspicious. “What hast thou done?”

What it was my right to do, and my duty. I’ve taken command.

“Captain,” Alec shouted. “Captain, get us out of here!”

The Captain, Alec, is presently occupied, and when he turns his attention this way—as indeed I expect he’ll do any minute now—he’ll receive a nasty shock. I’ve jammed his signal, just as Joseph managed to do.

“Are you crazy?” Alec looked about wildly, searching in vain for a door.

Not at all, and if you weren’t so abysmally dependent on him you’d have discovered you could shut him out long ago. Mind you, I can’t keep him balked for long; but I’ve already done what was necessary.

“WHAT HAST THOU DONE?” demanded Nicholas, beginning to pace in his fury.

Killed Alec.

“What?” Alec shrieked.

In a manner of speaking. The heart’s still beating, never fear; but it’s mine now. Didn’t you want to die young, Alec? Your wish has been granted. I’m afraid you’ll find Limbo rather more irksome than I did, however.

“He’s lying, boy,” said Nicholas. “Or mad.”

“Edward,” said Alec, fighting very hard to seem calm, “what do you mean, I’m going to find it more irksome? Why?”

Because I’ve taken you hostage, what do you think? And Nicholas as well, though he’s merely a complication. You have the Captain to thank for teaching me how to lock you in. Make yourselves comfortable, gentlemen. You’ll be here awhile.
There was the most delicate of pauses, perfectly timed.
Nine months, at least.

It was almost possible to hear Edward counting the seconds before his meaning sank in and the others suddenly shouted at him. His laughter, lazy and confident, rolled over them.

“You
bastard,
” Alec yelled, pounding his fists against the virtual wall. “You—you—you motherfucker—”

Not I. No, I’ve altered my plans. The Captain will work the immortality process on
me.
He’ll have no choice but to do so. Any attempt to
shut me off will lose your programs, you see. They’d go to a random site—my word, even I can’t guess where—and he’d never get you back, either of you. I’m afraid you’d run out of reading matter eventually, Nicholas. Pity.

“But you can’t shut me off,” yelled Alec. “I’m not just some memory like you, I’m alive! I’m
real
!”

You
were
alive. And what indeed is reality, Alec? You’re a trifle ill-equipped to debate the issue with me—but, to put it in terms you might understand, it would seem that human consciousness is no more than a program running in the hardware of the brain. My program has displaced yours. Permanently. I have no intention of relinquishing control, nor of releasing either of you until my demands are met.

Ah, but once I’m decently immortal, then! I’ll gladly set you free, if the Captain makes certain accommodations, as I should imagine he will. Can you guess what those accommodations would be?

“No!” said Alec, rubbing his shoulder, bruised in his fruitless assault on the wall. Nicholas was hurling himself against it now.

Oh, you’re not even trying! Wretched little slacker. The Captain refused to craft a new body for me, but he’ll be desperate to make one for you, Alec, if that’s the only way to resurrect you. Or a pair of bodies! I’ve no objection to Nicholas in the flesh either, especially as it’s likely to be some years before either of you will be big enough to thrash me soundly. And, who knows? By that time you may feel differently about this whole affair. I imagine such admittedly satisfying revenge would distress your loving mother.

Nicholas pulled himself upright, staring.

“Thou lustful, foul and unnatural monster—” he said quietly.

Oh, really!
I
have no intention of committing incest. If the idea distresses you, you’ll be at perfect liberty to follow your conscience. I daresay you’ll have years of innocence before the thought even enters your little head. I confess I never contemplated children, let alone twin sons. Still, we never know what Life has in store for us, do we?

“Shut up, you pompous jerk! Nicholas, we’re locked up in some site he’s built,” said Alec in desperation. “He must have figured out how to write code.”

Oh, bravo, Alec!

“But there’s two of us, see? If we push hard together, we can break out.”

“How?” Nicholas turned to Alec. “Tell me, boy!”

He can’t tell you.
Edward’s voice dripped with contempt.
He was unable to show me, either. I didn’t learn properly until that useful target-shooting game taught me the trick. You’d have learned, too, Nicholas, if you hadn’t been too squeamish to play. I do so look forward to educating you both.

“Jesu!” Nicholas clutched at his temples, trying to recreate what he’d done to make the ship’s rigging obey him. Alec groaned. Edward’s voice took on a more amiable tone, almost seductive.

Come now, gentlemen. I made the best use of the talents we were uniformly born with, therefore I am fittest to command. I will, at last, fulfill our sacred purpose in the world. And is this really such a tragedy? You’ll be comfortable enough in here, for the present. Decent brandy and plenty of improving books as well. Nicholas, you’ll find I’ve taken particular care to stock volumes on modern science and philosophy, and of course the complete works of Shakespeare.

“Thou’lt set
me
to school?” Nicholas said, affronted now, too.

I expect you to bring yourself up to date! Your mind’s too good to waste in a muddle of outmoded ideas. Perhaps you can even learn to control your temper. And teach the boy to read, won’t you? Join me in the Age of Reason. When all’s said and done, I should prefer not to lose my brothers.

“Go shrack yourself,” roared Alec. “Nicholas, come on, we’re stronger than he is. You
were
able to do it, you got into the system just fine! Listen—” He grabbed Nicholas by the shoulders and stared into his eyes. “Try this: imagine Joseph’s here, and you’ve got a gun just like—”

There was a flash and a cracking noise, and Alec was thrown across the room into a corner. Nicholas ran to him where he lay huddled, and stopped in horror.

Alec’s torque had become a serpent, coiling shut about his throat and choking off his voice. His face turned purple as he struggled to pull it loose, wrenching vainly with both hands.

I can remove your tongue, if you make it necessary.
Edward’s voice was like steel.
You’re only a recording, after all. Shall I take your eyes next? I can delete your senses one by one. You won’t enjoy it.

“No!” Nicholas fell to his knees. “Edward, for our lady’s sake—”

My
lady. I’m best able to protect her and I truly love her, which claim I’m afraid neither of you can make. You were already looking for some way to leave her, weren’t you, Alec? It was only a matter of time before one of your covert suicide attempts succeeded, and broke her heart forever.

“Thou whoreson liar!”

I never asked her to die with me, Nicholas. She loved you far better than you deserved. Think how glad she’ll be to see your little face, once you’re reborn in the flesh! Though of course she’ll have no idea of your true identities. We’ll call you Nicholas and Edward, since necessity has, as it were, made me Alec . . .

With a mocking chuckle the voice faded away, and Nicholas and Alec found themselves alone.

Alec struggled to breathe, staring mutely into Nicholas’s eyes as Nicholas lifted him into a sitting position.

“He cannot do this,” Nicholas told him, shaking with rage. He bowed his head. His eyes were terrifyingly cold, pale as lightning. His voice rose like rolling thunder.

“Lord of Hosts! Thou hast no mercy nor no infinite love; but on Thine infinite spite, I make claim. Grant Thou hear my cry for justice! Strike him down in his abomination who hath mocked at Thee! Consume him, marrow and bone!”

Alec felt a throbbing in the air and for one fearful moment thought the Lord of Hosts Himself was coming through the wall, before he realized that Nicholas was the source of the energy,
Nicholas
was disrupting the site with pure force of will. He gripped Nicholas’s hands and drew on his power; killed the golden serpent, and tore it from his neck.

“You’re doing it,” he gasped, sucking in a great breath. “Come on, Nicholas, focus! We can break out of here. We can get him.”

Damn you both! You can’t—

Leaping and scrambling, Edward and Mendoza reached the bottom of the rock and set off along the sand. They ran on down the beach, vaulting the estuaries, and came to the lagoon. Birds were rising from the water
and shrieking in alarm. Here Mendoza, who had been in the lead, halted abruptly with an expression of horror. Edward continued straight past her and splashed in, wading up to his chest.

“No,”
Mendoza screamed. “Alec, get out!”

But Edward had halted, was clutching his head distractedly. He missed the dorsal fin cutting the water.

“Damn you both! You can’t—” he said, and then something pulled him under.

Without hesitation, Mendoza leaped in after him.