Communion of Dreams, page 35
Slowly the girl shook her head, then said, “Is too many people, too far away. But Ling not need to sense. Ling can tell Mr. Jon where Mr. Mallory is.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. He at dome with artifact. Or soon will be.”
“How do you know that, Ling?”
“Is like game. Mr. Mallory needs to make decision where to find Mr. Commander Navarr. Mr. Commander Navarr needs to make decision where to find Mr. Mallory. The dome with artifact is best place for both to choose.”
“But . . . ” Jon stopped himself. “OK, we’ll go there. Tug on my hand if you sense Mallory before we get to the dome.”
Chu Ling nodded, and they set off.
* * *
The inner door to the airlock cycled. Two of Navarr’s Marines stood there, large ugly carbines in their hands, wearing a funny black angular armor over their normal combat environment suits.
“Let ‘em in,” said Navarr, off to one side.
The two guards moved, but their weapons didn’t waver. Jon squeezed Chu Ling’s gloved hand and stepped inside, taking off his helmet and gloves, then helping the girl with hers. He looked at Navarr, standing there with his helmet popped open, wearing the same kind of armor as the two door guards. “Mallory has a stealth-suit.”
Navarr’s eyes narrowed. “That changes things.” He looked at one of the guards. “Maintain radio silence, but get the other two in here.” He looked back at Jon. “Why’d you bring the girl? What happened up there? Sidwell rushed in here and said that you’d been shot by Mallory, then he went down in the pit to the artifact, touched it and collapsed.” He assessed Jon carefully. “You don’t look shot. You OK?”
“Yeah,” Jon lied. The image of the dead shuttle pilot was still fresh in his mind, and there was a deep tremor in his gut that reminded him of just how tired he was, stimulant or no. “Where’s Sidwell?”
“Down in the pit, said he was going to touch the gel burl, demanded to be left near the artifact after it knocked him out. We closed him up in his suit just to be on the safe side, set him off to one side out of the way. I sent the rest of the civilians over to his habitat dome. It’s double-walled, so should be able to stand up to any explosives Mallory might have left. They should be safe. We shut off the AG generator to make it more difficult for Mallory, too. My people are trained for low-G combat, he’s not.” Navarr looked again at Chu Ling. “Why’d you bring her?”
“She . . . might be useful in finding Mallory, seems that she can ‘sense’ him at short distances.”
An eyebrow rose slightly. “Could be handy.”
“Yeah, and she told me that the logical place for him to come is here, anyway.”
“Good thinking. Mallory can’t do anything with the fusion weapons, so has to come here . . . ”
“You sure? He said he had codes . . . ”
Navarr laughed dismissively. “Fat lot of good it’d do him. I disabled the weapon in the field shelter as soon as I found out someone had sent me a false message to meet you down here, figuring it was some kind of trap, and the other one is buried and hidden enough that it’d take a week to find it using microbots.”
“OK, good. Well, Mallory’s the one. He had a bug in the cyberware he built for me and Jackie, so was able to find out everything we knew. He shut down Salim, then sent you down here. He caught me in the arboretum, wearing that stealth-suit. Told me that the Edenists have been working for years to develop this new virus, and will now release it on Earth as part of their ‘cleansing’. I left Jackie and the others trying to establish contact with Earth, to warn them. But I needed to get down here and make sure you knew about the stealth-suit, and that we have to protect the artifact and Seth.”
“Well,” Navarr hesitated. “Sidwell did something to your expert. Seth has been off-line since the old man touched that artifact. Why do you need him, anyway?”
“He’s got all the information about what Tops had discovered so far about Diabolus. We need to get that information to Earth ASAP, give them a head start on developing an antiviral.”
“Got it. OK, go on down and see if there’s anything you can do, and check on Sidwell while you’re down there. We’ll just hunker down and wait out Mallory. At most he has another couple of hours of air and power in his suit. When he comes, we’ll be expecting him, and the stealth-suit will give him minimal advantage inside the dome, since it’s well-lit and clear.”
“What if he has more explosives? Wouldn’t that give him an edge?”
“Yeah, if he had any, that’d give him a big advantage. He might catch some of us out of our suits when the dome ruptured. Titan’s atmosphere would pour in, and the stealth-suit would hide him pretty effectively. But I doubt he has any left, or he would have used it by now. There’d be no advantage in waiting.”
“That makes sense.”
“Still, keep your suit on and your helmet handy. Stay off the radio, though — we have to assume that Mallory can monitor it.”
Jon nodded. Again he felt the tremor of exhaustion.
Navarr noticed it. “You sure you’re OK?”
Jon hesitated. Then he said quietly to Navarr, “You know how Duc was able to clear your system of the virus, how you felt worn out after?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s possible to do much more than that. Mallory did shoot me. Jackie got to me in time. But it was Darnell who kept me alive until she could do so.”
“Sweet Jesus.”
“Yeah. Like that. I’m heading down into the pit.”
He and Chu Ling descended. Jon went instantly to check on Darnell. The girl stood next to him, looking at the artifact. She studied the infolding brilliant blue orb that floated in the place of the artifact. Finally Jon asked, “What do you see, Ling?”
“Old deva. Ling try understand why it has dark, too.”
Jon searched the orb. It still reminded him of some kind of flower: beautiful, tempting, alive in the way it continued to flow into itself. But he could see no ‘darkness’ to it at all. “Sorry, Ling, I guess I can’t see that.”
“Not now. Is only deva light now. But when we heavy, deva gone, just darkness.”
“Oh, you mean when the AG field is on . . . ” Then a thought struck him. That which emerges from darkness gives definition to the light. He looked at her, said, “Thanks, Ling. I think I finally understand something.”
He went over to Seth’s container. No indication that there was anything at all wrong with the functioning of the expert’s matrix or any of its support systems. Seth just wasn’t ‘home’. As before, Jon thought he knew what he had to do to find the expert. He looked over at the burl of gel, then at the girl. “Chu Ling, could you come join me? I think we want to see if we can find Seth. You want to do that?”
She looked at the burl. “Mr. Jon think deva have Seth?”
“Well, let’s just say that I think the deva can lead us to him.” He reached out a hand to her. “Come, let me show you.”
Ling came over to him, and together they slowly approached the burl and the brilliant orb hovering above it. Jon got down on his knees, Chu Ling standing beside him, and reached out with his bare hand to touch the dancing surface of the burl.
The shift was instantaneous, smooth, and comfortably familiar. The cave, the burl swirling under the touch of his fingers, that deeper sense of reality. He looked to the side, found the young woman Chu Ling would become. She held his hand still, but her wide eyes were riveted on the burl, and with her free hand she reached forth to lightly touch it. She turned and looked at him now, then looked past him at something else.
“Hello, Jon.” Seth, as solid and real as a person, calmly stood there, hands grasped together, smiling. “I’m glad that you came. I’m glad that both of you came.”
“Seth, are you OK? You know you’re . . . stuck . . . here again?”
“No Jon, not stuck this time. Just waiting. For you.”
“Why for me?”
“Because you should be here for this,” said Darnell, now there beside Seth. The young/old man didn’t smile, but there was a delight in his eyes which was unmistakable.
“Be here for what?”
“That unexpected opportunity I mentioned before.” The young/old Darnell reached over and patted Seth on the shoulder with affection. “I. . . it . . . never hoped to have one such as this down here. He can . . . join . . . with us. He is ready.”
Jon looked at Seth. “I thought you were afraid of the artifact.”
“I was,” said Seth, nodding. “But it was just fear of . . . of growing up.”
“You sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Perhaps not. But isn’t that what it means to be aware of your own existence: nothing is certain, ever again?” Seth shrugged, then stepped forward, hand outstretched. “I would like to have your blessing.”
Jon reached out and took his hand. And in that moment of contact, had a flash — a hint — of what Seth had experienced when in limited contact with the gel, and he knew the yearning, the hunger that the expert felt for the very first time, the desire to awaken fully from his dream. “Good luck.”
“Thank you, Jon. It means a lot to me that you are here for this.”
“Hey, Seth, I’ve always thought of you . . . ”
Jon didn’t have time to complete the sentence, was interrupted by Chu Ling squeezing his hand and saying with a note of panic, “Mallory. Mallory comes . . . ”
“Damn!” exclaimed Darnell, who seemed to turn and dive for the burl. Seth looked uncertain, caught between desire and duty. At that moment the dreamtime collapsed, and Jon felt the very real bite of extreme cold as he came to in the swirl of Titan’s atmosphere.
* * *
His earpiece screamed “Thompson, stay down!”
By instinct and long training, Jon popped his helmet on and sealed it as the ruddy fog of Titan’s atmosphere mixed with the air inside the dome, creating a sudden, brief snowstorm of water ice and tholin precipitate. He didn’t remember doing it, but saw that his gloves were already on by the time he turned to help Chu Ling with her helmet. The girl had almost gotten it herself, enough so that there was very little to purge from her suit when he had it properly sealed. Fumbling in the darkening dome, he helped her with her gloves, then grabbed her and ducked down behind one of the large pieces of equipment nearby, using the manual override to switch off the automatic lights on their suits.
The thick ochre fog filled the dome. The ovoid flower floating above the burl was still clearly visible, but cast no light. He pulled the pistol he had from one of his suit pockets, checked it to make sure it was ready. Putting his helmet in contact with Chu Ling’s, he said “We have to hide. Can you tell if Mallory is in the dome?”
She nodded, pointed up past the lip of the pit. Jon risked rising enough to look, and could see the upper part of a hole in the dome wall, off well away from either of the two airlocks. It didn’t look like it had been created by an explosion. He ducked back down.
“OK, Ling, I want you to tell me if you sense Mallory come down into the pit. Understand?”
“Ling understand.” She took his free hand, held it tightly. “Ling scared, want to run.”
“It’ll be OK. But we’re going to move over there closer to the wall, behind that big crate, OK?”
She nodded. Staying low, moving in a crouch, Jon led her over toward the wall. Just as they reached this new position, he heard the bass-shifted thump of gunfire, saw the flash as the ceramic-lattice rounds hit and plasma flared. Someone tumbled over the edge of the pit not too far from where he was, falling slowly in the reduced gravity, landing inert on the bottom.
He patted Ling’s arm. “Stay here.”
Jon scrambled as best he could over to the fallen figure, his exhaustion growing heavy upon him again. It was one of the Marines, wearing the black angular armor he had seen them in. The armor had done its job where he had been hit in the back, and had absorbed the energy of the bullets. But another one had gone right through the back of his helmet, killing him instantly. He still held his carbine, but Jon left it where it was, since it was useless without the necessary military codes, and he no longer had the emergency file that Magurshak had given him. At least Mallory didn’t have the gun. He returned to where he left Ling.
Jon’s suit radio came alive with Navarr’s hard, commanding voice. “Mallory, give it up. You may have the stealth-suit, but you’re trapped in here. We’ve got the breach covered, and the rest of my troops are on their way over from Sidwell’s. Next time you fire that weapon, we’ll know exactly where you’re at, with or without your stealth-suit.”
“Like I care. My next shot will be into that burl of gel. Ever thought what one of these rounds would do to it? I’m betting it’ll splatter like a ripe melon. Or maybe explode. Either way, it’s bye-bye artifact.” He snickered. “You had your chance. Now it’s our turn. The chosen will be able to reclaim the Earth, remake it God’s Eden, purge it of your obscene machines and filthy ways.”
“You won’t see it,” said Navarr.
There was a pause. “No, I won’t. But I am willing to return Home, I have done my task. My reward will be waiting for me.”
Chu Ling tugged excitedly on Jon’s arm, then pointed over toward the canister that held Seth’s matrix. Without saying anything, Jon nodded, and shifted so that he had a clear view of the container, not too far to the side of the artifact itself. And in a moment he saw again the peculiar shimmer of the stealth suit being pulled aside, so that Mallory would have a free aim at the burl of gel. Without hesitation, Jon took aim with his own pistol and fired. Plasma flared as the bullet hit, and Mallory spun to the left. When he hit the ground, he stayed there.
Jon covered the distance quickly, noting that around the rim of the pit he could see figures dropping in slowly. He got to Mallory, fell to his knees beside the man, who was laying on the ground holding his side. Unthinking, Jon peeled off his glove and shoved his hand into the open wound, sealing the breach in the Edenist’s suit. Instantly he felt the pulse of the blue healing energy start to flow, and knew that in spite of his own exhaustion, he had to try and heal the man.
Something struck him heavily in the side of the head, so forcefully that even through his helmet it stunned him. A second blow, this time to the face, jerked his head back and he felt his hand pull out of Mallory, the blood on it freezing instantly in Titan’s frigid cold.
“Mallory, no!”
But the Edenist had rolled to the side, bringing his pistol up and pointing straight at the burl of gel floating just a few meters away. Just as his weapon fired, someone stepped in front of the burl and was knocked back by the impact of the bullet as it flared. From all around Jon carbines flashed, and Mallory was ripped open by the multiple flares of plasma. But all Jon could do was scream one word: “Darnell!!!”
* * *
“Tears are for cleansing the spirit. Remember that,” said Darnell, standing before the burl in the cave.
Jon reached out, took Sidwell’s hand. He felt profound sadness sweep over him, and with a quiver in his jaw, pulled the old prospector close, giving the man a hug. Tears leaking down his face, he was silent for a long moment. “Did you have to do that?”
“Yeah.” Sidwell reached out and caressed the burl. “There are others. But we needed this one. Mallory was right: the bullet would have ruptured the coherence, lost the opportunity.”
“For Seth?”
“For all of us.” Darnell sighed. “I. . . I’ve been alive a long time, Jon. I never should have lived through the first pandemic. But somehow, using that light . . . being the servant of that light . . . the first time, well, it gave me a strength I never understood. Not until I found this burl.”
“But still . . . ”
“But still, it’s hard to go.” He looked over at Seth. “You ready?”
The expert, now somehow more solid than even a normal person, nodded.
“What happens next?”
“I’m . . . not really sure,” said Darnell. “The artifact . . . is no longer open to me. But I remember knowing that it is the right thing. The necessary thing. I remember that.”
Seth was peering into the burl. “It’s a new home. Waiting for me.”
“Then you should go.” Jon reached out and took the expert’s hand, felt it strong and full of vigor, almost bursting with potential. “Then you should go, my old friend. Good luck.”
Seth smiled but said nothing. He let go of Jon’s hand, then reached out to touch the burl. The moment he made contact with it, there was a shudder, a ripple, that ran through the cave, and he disappeared. The burl changed, taking on a golden hue, and Darnell slumped forward into Jon’s arms.
“Darnell?” Jon lowered him to the ground gently, kneeling beside him.
The prospector turned to face him. His face was aged, weather-worn, but his eyes still had a brightness to them. “It’s OK. But it’s my time.”
Jon cradled the old man’s head, and found himself back in the dome, tears splattering the inside of his faceplate.
“Is there anything . . . ” the question, voiced by Navarr, drifted off.
“No, he’s gone.” Jon looked up from holding Darnell, saw that the ovoid flower had taken on the same golden hue that he had seen in the burl. “It’s over.”
Chu Ling came to Jon’s side, draped an arm across his shoulder, but said nothing. Jon looked back at the prospector, and the second part of the dream he had been trying to remember came back to him. It was of Darnell, dancing naked and free under the rich orange sky of Titan.
“Jon? We’ve reestablished contact with Titan Prime. What do you want to do now?”
Jon looked up at Chu Ling, then Navarr and the other troopers standing around. “Tell them to send shuttles down for us. I think we’re done here.”
Navarr looked up where a section of the dome was missing. “What about that? Looks like Mallory used Sidwell’s microbots to open the dome.”
