« Wait a minute. Put the kinky sex on hold. Did you ever finish the quest? »
« The quest? » Ross frowns thoughtfully. « We forgot all about it. We were rather distracted by trying to make the new emanations feel welcome. And by Constantine. »
« Did it occur to you that it was important? It never fails to amaze me that Ash’s unshakable determination could arise from a composite entity whose constituent elements have the attention spans of fruit flies in an algebra class. »
« I suppose the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, » says Ross. « Honestly, I’m not completely buying that gestalt theory. »
« I’m going out to have a look around. »
I stand, but Ross blocks my way to the door. « You’re supposed to stay safely here. »
« While the pleroma is under attack? Is there any safety if that’s the case? Plus, I’m going to worry myself to death. »
We’re interrupted by the sound of the door latch. I grab for something, anything to use as a weapon. The best I can manage is a plastic spork from the emergency supplies. Ross is poised as though to protect me, but he’s a lawyer, not a warrior. I’m more likely to be able to handle myself in a fight. But then again, would those skills be of any use against a telepathic attack?
It’s a moot point, as our visitor turns out to be Marius. « You scared the fuck out of us. »
« I knew I had to come here, to protect Tara, so I abandoned my group, » he says, gasping for breath. It’s then I notice that his clothes are torn, soiled with mud and a good bit of blood where the right arm has been gashed.
« Did you get attacked by the telepath? » Ross asks.
« No. I got attacked by the pleroma. »
« What? »
« The minute we went outside, the weather went crazy – and then there were these bizarre apparitions. Swarms of locusts. Knights in armor riding giant dobergators. »
He points to his arm. « One of them lanced me, » he explains.
Ross inspects the wound. « It’s not too deep. But why isn’t it healing? »
I take this moment to rush for the door. Ross shouts and grabs for me, but Marius is in his way. The two of them chase after; I reach the hilift before they do, which forces them to take the emergency stair. I’m not too thrilled by the idea of going off on my own, but I’m certain that with two of them, they’d cart me back to the bomb shelter and keep me there. They’ll give me my way in anything, except when they perceive my life to be in danger. It’s insulting, patronizing, and has probably saved my neck on a few occasions since I have a tendency to charge in with guns blazing if I get pissed off enough.
I don’t want to have to fight them, not wounded Marius, and certainly not Ross.
Instead, I leave the door to the outside ajar, and hide behind a stand of potted plants in the Atlas lobby. It’s a trick that never would’ve worked in the material world – any one of Ash’s emanations would’ve smelled me immediately. But in here, their senses function according to that dreamlike logic – sometimes blindfolds work, if Ash doesn’t want them to see.
Ross points at the open door, and he and Marius run out into the storm. The storm stops. It’s suddenly quiet, and I can hear them talking.
« That’s really strange, » says Ross. « Why did the storm stop now, and not when Tara ran out into it? »
« Maybe the crisis is over? » Marius suggests.
« Or maybe Tara is still inside, » says Ross. « Wait a minute. »
Ross turns and heads towards the entry. I suppose you don’t get to be one of Dolparessa’s most successful lawyers by being easily conned.
The moment Ross steps through the doorway, the storm begins to rage again. Marius screams – it’s enough to bring me running from my hiding place. « What the fuck? » I ask.
« Go outside, » Ross suggests. « Just a little. I’ll grab your hand in case there’s a problem. »
I step out – as predicted, the storm stops.
Marius jogs back to the entry. He is soaked and battered by the gale. We pull him inside.
« Stay put, » says Ross, « I’m going to try something. »
Ross steps outside. The storm stops.
« That the storm responds to Tara makes sense, » says Ross. « But why is it reacting to me? »
« Maybe because you’re golden? » Marius suggests. « Congratulations, by the way. »
« That’s absurd, » says Ross. « Whether or not Tara feels anything for me has nothing to do with my ability to fight off an alien influence. »
« Stranger things have happened in the pleroma. Maybe it’s according the ones with Gold Cards some kind of protective status? »
« I doubt it, » Ross murmurs.
« Stop being humble, » says Marius. « It’s a plausible hypothesis. »
« We have to find out what’s happening, » I reply. « And no, I’m not going to sit it out in the bomb shelter. Don’t we have some way of monitoring the activities in the pleroma? »
« Not that I know of, » says Marius. « Although it would make sense if we did. »
« The pleroma does make sense; it’s only the emanations which seem to be lacking it sometimes. » I grab each of them by the hand and march back into the lobby of Yggdrasil and onto the hilift platform. « Monitoring room, » I command.
« Level 84, Monitoring Room, » the hilift responds.
« Well, how about that? » murmurs Marius.
« You’re right, » says Ross. « There is an internal logic to this place. Hopefully, the invader won’t figure that out. »
« Knowing Ash, that’s exactly why you guys haven’t figured it out. »
Marius raises an eyebrow.
« You’ve known for a while that certain parts of the pleroma either seem hidden from you or appear as if just created. It’s also very fishy that Lens and Marius only knew of this attack minutes before it began. I think Ash was keeping that information from you deliberately – because if the attacker is a telepath…»
« Anything we think can be used against us, » Ross finishes.
We arrive at the monitoring room. The walls are covered with flat screen displays: the center of the room is an array of holographic projectors.
« Whoa, » says Marius. « Where are these places? »
« Look at this, » says Ross. He points to an image of a cliff wall hanging out into what appears to be fog. But there’s something disconcerting about the haze: it doesn’t move, doesn’t seem the least bit translucent. It’s solid, and yet the boundaries of it can’t be grasped. It reminds me of how it’s impossible to describe the borders of peripheral vision. What does it look like when vision just stops?
« It’s the edge of the world, » Ross murmurs. « Or at least the edge of our world. »
« We’ve got a problem, » says Marius. He indicates one of the holographs, an image of Patrick running frantically through a shopping concourse while chased by several nasty-looking bloobirds. A Dolparessan bloobird, I should mention, has much less to do with the Terran species of similar appellation, and much more to do with a pterodactyl.
« So much for your theory of the golden boys, » says Ross.
At the edge of the image, I can see Rand on the second floor of the concourse, trying to throw something at one of the bloobirds. Then Balin leaps from the railing, landing square on the beast, attempting to wrestle it to the ground.
« He’s really hardcore, » says Marius.
« Where are they? We’ve got to help them. »
« You’re not going to fight those bloobirds, » says Marius.
« No, I’m not. If Ross and I go there, the attack will probably stop. »
« She’s right, » says Ross. « The danger to her is from the telepath, not from the pleroma. I only wish that we had someone more cognizant of telepathy in our group to defend her. Hurley or Jamey, perhaps. »
« I can defend her, » says Marius. « That’s my job. That’s my nature. »
« I thought you were a ski instructor, » says Ross.
Marius looks angry for a second, but both Ross and I start to giggle. « That was your first vocation, » I tell him.
« No, my first vocation was volcano-wrangling. That seems to be a skill more appropriate to the occasion. »
« Ah ha! » says Ross. « I think I found the controls for co-ordinate display. »
« Can we get a map? »
« Over here, » says Marius. He points to an image projected on the wall. Our own position is made obvious by the presence of a gold star. It’s on a section of the map which looks identical to the Dolparessan coastline near Court Emmere. However, as the shoreline moves away from Merenis Port-of-Call, the sleepy coastal town where Daniel used to live, it begins to diverge radically. The continental body has nothing to do with the outline of Dolparessa’s major continent. At a short distance south of our position is the island where the Ashvattha emanations dwell.
« I wonder what this control is for? » asks Marius, passing his hand over it.
Instantly, the display flips on its side, extending into a holographic projection. What seemed to be our location bifurcates; the Yggdrasil Tower and Ashvattha Island are now on completely different levels than the Atlas-Goliath Treedominium. There’s also a section on the opposite end of the continent which extends at an oblique angle to the rest of the map.
« The first image showed our perception of this reality, » says Ross, « but the second is showing an interface with external reality. Yggdrasil and Ashvattha are actually located in different galaxies from Atlas and Goliath. I’ll bet that extension at the top is Circinus. »
Marius swipes his hand over the display again, reverting it to its original orientation. « Could it be there, that outpost? » he asks, gesturing at a tiny red dot on the map. « That would be a long way out as an HQ for the Ophion guys. »
« Benbow likes to travel, but that could be brutal on Vassali. The swan boat would have to go all the way around the continent to reach it. »
« There must be some kind of express service, » says Ross. When I looked at him curiously, he continues: « There’s a tunnel between Atlas and the Ashvattha Island which can be walked in a few minutes. It’s like you said, there’s a dreamlike logic at work. I don’t think that I and I would strand a tree so far out with no easy access. »
« Well, this isn’t helping those guys at the concourse, » says Marius. « But the numbers on the map seem to correspond to the numbers on the monitors. »
« This projector is 407b. »
« 407b, hmmm, that’s this one, » says Marius, pointing towards the center of the continent.
« How did they get all the way in there? » says Ross. « We’ve only been in the pleroma for a few hours. »
« Express service, I suppose. All right, Ross, since that was your idea, how do we get to said express? »
« Let’s use your tactic, » he suggests. « Go to the hilift and ask for the express terminal. »
The express terminal turns out to be on level 35. It’s a hovertrain platform. Ross and I pass through the turnstiles immediately, but Marius is blocked.
« This is wearing very thin, » says Marius.
I go out the exit, then enter behind Marius. The instant the turnstile recognizes me, I shove him through. « Let’s hope there isn’t a conductor to check our tickets, » I mutter.
The train, of course, is empty. We sit in first class. A service droid comes past with a cart full of high-quality snacks and alcohol.
« This would be a nice way to travel, if we weren’t in the middle of a crisis, » notes Ross.
« Maybe we should ask not only how did Patrick’s group get out there, but why? »
« It was probably their assignment, » says Marius. « My team got an assignment, too, but I went AWOL. I knew that first and foremost, I had to protect Tara. »
« Maybe that’s why you’re being attacked, » says Ross. « You went off the plan, and now the pleroma doesn’t recognize you as one of its own. »
« That doesn’t explain the scene in the shopping concourse. »
Just then, the train stops.
« If Manasseh were here, he’d ask if there were something on the tracks, » says Marius.
An unidentified man emerges from the conductor’s compartment. He is holding a sophisticated-looking laser rifle, CenGov manufacture. He stares at me and I hear a voice saying, You’re not one of them.
« If there were tracks, there would be something on them, » says Ross, gesturing towards the window. Both Marius and I look; our attacker, wisely, figures it’s a bluff.
He’s wrong. « Is that a dragon? » asks Marius.
« No, it’s a hydra. » At that moment, one of the heads comes crashing through the window, scattering unonion puddins and Eden-prawn biiskits everywhere. The unidentified man wheels and begins shooting at the hydra, his rifle set in burst mode. A shot enters the eye, and the brain begins to smolder. After a moment, there is an explosion. Fragments of skull and boiling hot cerebrum fly everywhere. They pass harmlessly through Ross and me. Marius and the intruder aren’t so lucky. Marius dives behind a seat, but is still pelted with organic shrapnel.
The gunman struggles to his feet. You aren’t one of us either! He gestures at me with the rifle.
The car lurches as a second head pokes through the window.
What the hell? he screams silently, cocking his rifle yet again.
« You really don’t get the trick of this hydra thing, do you? » I ask.
« Why are there fucking hydras in the pleroma? » asks Marius.
« Auto-defense system, » says Ross. « I just don’t understand why it’s reacting to you. »
Panicked, the gunman shoots three more blasts into the second head, then wheels back and takes a shot at me. Marius is up, leaping in front of me. He’s hit as his body makes impact, sending the two of us sprawling to the back of the car. In that moment, Ross dives at the intruder, grasping the rifle and trying to wrest it from him.
Let go, he grunts, then looks Ross directly in the eye. Ross stumbles back, flinching in pain. But there’s a voice, a woman’s voice, loud enough for all of us to hear crying, NO! and then, You idiot.
The man is screaming now, and it’s one of the most agonized things I’ve ever heard. The third head of the hydra pokes itself into the car, grabs the intruder in its jaws, and gulps him down whole. Then it snakes back towards Marius.
« Stop! » I scream at it. « This is Marius! Don’t you recognize him? »
“Marius?” It’s a man’s voice, and I’d swear it was coming from…outside?
Ross stumbles forward. For a moment, his eyes glaze over. « It’s the new emanation, » he says. « He’s trying to get the situation under control, but he doesn’t know any of us. » And then I hear yet another voice, that weird, distant announcement – Ross hears it too, I can tell by his expression.
“Marius del Eden’d, Supreme and Excellent Voivode of the Skarsian Matriarchy. 37th to emanate, 95 in the color scale, resonates to 499. 1.749 meters tall, cock size 16.72 cm when erect, apparent age 35. Ski instructor and personal bodyguard to the Matriarch. Totem is Pinus lambertiana, the sugar pine, fixed star is Aldebaran, the follower, also known as the Watcher of the East. Esoteric symbol is the Minchiate trump Il Toro, Taurus. Dessert is the Volparnu Volcano, nau’gsh ice cream baked in meringue and topped with salted caramel sauce. Function is establishing stabilization, proto-conscious tendency is aggression, designated Attacker. Blazon is flossflower, a tressure sable, an axe, blade to dexter, and a ski pole, in saltire, argent.”
« That’s me all right, » says Marius. « What’s that blazon thing? »
“Tara?” murmurs the new emanation.
« I’m here. What’s your name? »
« He doesn’t know, » says Ross. « And finding a mirror is not an option. He’s deep in some kind of trance state, trying to sort things out. »
« Things need a lot of sorting. Did you recognize that voice? I mean the woman. »
Ross nods. « It’s Molly. »
« Molly? » asks Marius. « I thought she was arrested, under lock and key. »
« She is, » Ross insisted. « When we made peace with the People’s Earth Government, she was on the extradition list. Some of her old friends in the Telepathic Resistance Front intervened for her, even though at the end she was colluding with CenGov. We fought root and claw to keep her where we could watch her. To the best of my knowledge, she’s rotting in the Matriarchal Detention Dungeons, down the hall from Christolea. »
« I should’ve just shot her, » I mutter.
« It wouldn’t have been lawful. »
« Was it lawful when Patrick suffocated my uncle? »
« Not under human law, » says Ross. « But under Cu’enashti law, he had every right to protect his Chosen. »
« And I don’t have a right to protect my husband from a psychopath who hates him? »
« Human law doesn’t work that way. I suppose you could’ve ordered her execution using aristocratic fiat, but recently, the public hasn’t take well to that sort of thing. That’s what you get when you start treating the proletariat nicely. »
« If Molly is safely in prison, then how can she be here? » Marius asks.
Ross looks at him incredulously. « She’s a telepath, » he says.
« That cell was proofed against telepathy. And even if it wasn’t, to be able to attack someone on Dolparessa, when she’s on Skarsia? No telepath is that powerful. »
« The SongLuminants are, » says Marius.
« That’s not quite real telepathy, » says Ross. « Besides, why would the SongLuminants team up with Molly? »
« They wouldn’t, » I reply, « but CenGov would. And her friend had a CenGov rifle. I wonder how many more of them there are? »
« Tara, this hydra is making me a little nervous, » says Marius.
Suddenly, I realize that during this conversation, the head has inched closer and closer to Marius.
« Oh shit, » says Marius.
It growls, opening its enormous and threatening jaws, and extends an enormous and slimy tongue. It bends towards Marius and licks the shrapnel wounds and the earlier puncture wound on his arm, which heal immediately. But the larger burn on his leg from the laser rifle is unaffected.
« Looks like the pleroma has decided to recognize you. You know, that weird announcement about you – I heard one about Ross right after I found myself in my bedroom. I’m going to make a wild guess here. Ross, you used the metaphor of an immune system. Maybe the presence of telepaths is causing some kind of allergic reaction, causing the pleroma’s defense mechanisms to turn on you? »
« That’s crazy, » says Marius. « I mean it’s literally insane. The Mover is made up of us – the emanations and the trees. »
« But what is the pleroma? » asks Ross. « It’s like some kind of insane hallucination which allows our three phases of life, man, tree and nul-being, to interface. I don’t even have a metaphor for it – is it a house, a shell, a dream, a virtual reality module? »
« It’s possible that you have to do something to get it to remember you, » I suggest.
« Maybe it’s protecting Tara, » says Ross. « It stopped attacking you when you got in the way of that gunshot. »
« We can talk on the way. We’d better find out what’s happening with the others. » I step into the conductor’s cabin. « I can get the train to run on automatic to the station we wanted. We should be all right if we go back into an undamaged car. »
« The seats aren’t nearly as nice in tourist class, » Marius grumbles.