The common, opium or breadseed poppy (Papaver somniferum) has a storied history; at times it has been cultivated for its medicinal, culinary or ornamental uses, at other times it has been banned and severe penalties – up to capital punishment – imposed upon its growers. It was completely prohibited on Earth by the Narcotics Act of 2671 and is currently extinct upon that planet. Conversely, it was included in the genetic banks and grown as a cash crop in many star systems, including the Domha’vei. For an emerging colony, the plant is unequalled in providing a cheap and readily available source of pain medication. The downside is, of course, its highly addictive properties and its propensity as a weed to infest land needed for cereal crops. It is a very successful propagator and notably difficult to suppress in an area where seeds are plentiful. A cultivar of the plant, Papaver somniferum var. Bubonic, was engineered by the interstellar crime syndicate known as the Ennead. A chemically altered derivative of this plant, Black Opium-27, is considered to be the most addictive substance known to humanity.
Illustration from Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen 1897.
Why Chase?
« He’s good at this stuff, » said Mickey. « He looks incompetent, but he couldn’t control the contraband trade if he was. It comes in handy since nobody buys it when I play dumb anymore. »
“Um,” said Chase, scratching his head. “Hey Elma, call Tara for me, would you? Tell her I went to get a bluedog in the park. No, tell her that Ash went to get a bluedog in the park. I don’t want to lie to her, but maybe it’s better if everyone else thinks that Ailann’s still around.”
« See? » said Mickey.
“You don’t have any Black Opium-27, do you?” he asked.
Great. Swap out the alcoholic for the junkie. We’re going down in the world.
“Only Gyre,” said Elma. “Do you know how many people die from Bube withdrawal?”
“Bube” was street slang for Black Opium-27. It was short for Bubonic plague – that is, the Black Death.
“Yeah,” said Chase. “The Ennead designed it that way. Only a moron would get addicted.” He scratched his head again.
« Are you sure…»
« It’ll work out, » said Mickey. « The Big Guy knows what he’s doing. »
*****
Chase purchased a bluedog and sat on the bench next to Jaxxon. “Excuse me,” the Cu’enmerengi said, “but I’m waiting for someone.”
Chase took a big bite of bluedog, chewed, swallowed. “Don’t you think the Archon would attract a lot of attention walking through the park, dude?”
I could see Jaxxon do a double-take. It’s really hard to believe how limited the Cu’enmerengi are. He was sitting right next to Chase, and he couldn’t tell.
“It didn’t turn out as planned,” said Jaxxon. “I have to tell you the truth.”
“Want a bluedog?” said Chase. “They’re pretty good.”
“I don’t eat corn,” said Jaxxon. “Especially not Eden turquoise.” He looked disgusted. “I don’t understand how you can possibly eat grain. But then again, I don’t understand how you could leave Dolparessa for months on end.” His gaze moved up along the ridge, until it rested on the enormous figure of the Atlas Tree, visible from any point in the park – visible for many kilometers down the strand, actually. “It’s hard to believe that’s you. It’s hard to believe that you’re a tree at all.”
“You know the security in the park is good,” said Chase. “Real good. It wouldn’t be smart to try anything here. I’m just sayin’.”
Jaxxon laughed bitterly. “I’m not as dumb as it seems from my blunders of the past few days. If you want to know what’s really going on, you’ll have to come with me.”
“They say that if you repeat the same thing enough times, it starts to sound like music,” said Chase. “I dunno about that. The only song I like is ‘Nights in White Satin’.”
“I suppose I can understand why you don’t trust me. But Mauve never intended to keep you prisoner. The Matriarch just freed you before I could come back. I don’t know how she could’ve found you that fast!”
“It wasn’t exactly a friendly thing to do, even so.”
“It wasn’t meant to harm you. We thought that once you saw the truth, you would help us.”
“I’ve got news for you. Ailann couldn’t see a thing. The room was dark and totally empty.”
“That was the point. Mauve said it would be good for you.”
“Dude, I hope you’re kidding because that almost made me cough up my bluedog. And now Valentin says I should’ve because it’s 52.9% preservatives, filler and artificial flavors, and he’s listing them all.”
“Look, we haven’t got time for this.”
“I’ve got plenty of time. Last I checked, I was immortal.”
“What can I say to convince you? Listen: it wasn’t Mauve that induced the Cu’enmerengi radicals to attack the Cantor Tree.”
“I have no idea who Mauve is. I’m guessing a Cu’ensali friend of yours?”
“Mauve leads the moderates. Puce leads the radicals – well, he did until yesterday. Now everything’s uprooted. Some of Puce’s allies are trying to accelerate the plan. Then you’ve got Amaranth and her suicide squads in the forests.”
“I’ll be damned. So Cüinn was right about immolation. But it makes zero sense. Why would sprites set fire to their own trees?”
“It takes one tree to make a forest fire, Amaranth says. Besides, once you know the truth – Puce completely deceived the Cu’enmerengi. He’s playing both sides against each…”
Then the world went dark.
*****
« Tranquilizer dart, » said Valentin.
« What? But how…? »
« Chase sleeps, » said Cüinn, « and Chase’s body doesn’t moderate the effect of drugs. Any other emanation would’ve shrugged it off in a few seconds using alchemy. It was probably dumb luck that the dart worked. »
« Why didn’t the Cu’ensali know that? » asked Valentin.
« They keep underestimating us, » I replied. « I think it’s probably because they never even tried to understand us. »
« But they didn’t actually underestimate us, » said Lens. « Chase is out of it, and I didn’t see the attack coming. I just saw the swarms of fireflies getting in my way. »
« What happened to the fucking airtight park security? » asked Cillian.
« Any human entering the security perimeter is immediately scanned for an extensive list of combustibles, explosives and herbicides, as well as laser and plasma weapons, » said Mickey. « Then that human is tagged and recorded by microcams. Chase was attacked by a sprite with a blowgun. »
« The dart was drugged with a large dose of zomorphinol, a perfectly legal tranquilizer, » adds Valentin. « A touch of DMSO made the effect immediate on contact. »
« That’s an enormous fucking security hole, » said Cillian.
« Actually, it’s a very small security hole, » corrected Valentin. « For very small sprites. »
« The Twist are even smaller, » said Cillian. « We’ve never considered the ramifications of a Twist attack. »
« The Twist are pacifists, » said Lucius. « They’ve never gone to war. And it would be self-defeating for them to consider harming Wynne’s tree. Can we ramp down the paranoia, please? »
« Why would we possibly be paranoid? » asked Lorcan. « We’ve only been captured twice in as many days. »
« I thought the reason for using Chase was to avoid capture, » I said, reaching for the scotch.
« Chase is much better suited to handle the situation, » said Tarlach. « He’s functioned without memory; he’s functioned while being cut off from the rest of us. In truth, he’s much more likely to keep a cool head under the circumstances than you are. »
« But I thought that the point was not to be captured again? »
« The point was not to fail, » said Dermot. « That’s different. »
Then I heard a distant sound, a scratchy voice which reminded me of a primitive gramophone. “It’s working, but the energy’s not leveling out as expected.”
Chase blinked his eyes. There was a buzzing sound in his ears, a low, electric hum. His whole body felt weak, and he shivered despite the heat of his skin, like a feverish man. He was enclosed by an unusual pattern of energy, reminiscent of a force bubble, but it had a sort of moiré effect that he found disconcerting. It made his eyes throb to look at it.
« Hey, » said Ethan. « I know what that is! It’s the cage that Esau St. John used to imprison me on Eirelantra. It’s impermeable to nul-energy beings. It causes a sort of interference that makes it impossible to function. »
« Weird, » said Cüinn. « It must be sucking power like crazy. Why not just use another nul-matter box? »
« Oh! » said Owen. « Then we can all relax. »
« What? »
« Something that power-greedy will cause a spike in the energy grid. When Tara comes looking for us, SSOps will be sure to pick up on that. Since this cage won’t suffocate us or anything, all we have to do is sit tight. »
I had to admit that despite the distress it seemed to be causing Chase, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the nul-chamber. We were still awake and functional; Chase could still hear us. Nevertheless, it made me nervous.
« Yeah, but where the fuck did they get it? » asked Cillian. « That’s CenGov tech. »
Something darted out of the corner. Chase narrowed his eyes. The voice we had heard earlier came from a small pinkish speck which was now hovering near a control panel across the room. A sprite.
“Hey!” called Chase. “’Sup?”
It halted in midair, then turned abruptly, swooping within several centimeters of the barrier in front of Chase. It was female, no larger than a bee, and flew with a jerky vibration that increased the insectoid resemblance. However, the fact that she was made of glowing nul-energy made confusion impossible.
The sprite regarded him for a moment. “Moron,” she said.
“My name is Chase,” he offered.
“I am called Fandango,” buzzed the little being irately.
“That’s a pretty name. Like a dance.”
“It is not a name. We would not deign to have a name. It is merely a descriptor. We have discovered that in this universe of infinite differentiation, it is inconvenient not to have an identifier. My color is fandango.”
“I’m lost,” said Chase. “You look pink to me.”
“Pink repatriated in the first round of immolations,” said Fandango. “He lacked conviction. I remain true to Puce’s original plan. If a final solution is not implemented, we will simply fall prey to the same nightmare over and over again.”
“That final solution stuff,” said Chase. “You know it’s got bad connotations to humans?” Chase was beginning to tremble violently, and he was slightly nauseous. I wondered if the situation was triggering memories of the terror we had experienced while trapped in the nul-chamber.
« I’ve got a different theory, » said Cüinn. « I figured out where the energy to power the cage is coming from. It’s coming from Chase. »
« What? »
« That moiré pattern is causing a slight amount of irritation, enough to trigger Atlas into channeling nul-energy to alchemically repair Chase’s body. But the energy is being bled off to power the cage. »
« Is the damage serious? »
« Shouldn’t be. That would be counter-productive because if he needs too much repair, not enough energy will feed back into the cage. »
“I know nothing about humans, and have no desire to do so,” said Fandango. “Mauve used to say that animals were protoplasm that decided to unionize.”
Chase snorted. “Mauve has a sense of humor.”
“I think animals are disgusting. I can’t imagine why you allow yourself to be contained by such a form, except that you are completely insane.”
“I’m not crazy. I’m a little depressed, lacking in self-esteem and motivation. At least that’s what Tarlach said, and he did a lot of tests.”
Fandango tossed her tiny antennae in an obviously irate fashion. “I don’t mean you, stupid Chase. I mean Ashtara. I mean all of the Cu’enashti. Mauve thought he could restore sanity to you, but that was ridiculous. The Matriarch crushed our only hope.”
“Okay, there’s something that makes no sense. If you hate it so much, why bother to emanate? Why don’t you guys just stay in your trees?”
“I can’t believe the stupidity of that question. I don’t know why I’m bothering to talk to you anyway. I just have to make sure the cage is working.”
“This cage,” said Chase. “This is a Terran design, isn’t it?”
“Ha! Although they built the devices, we gave them the plans. But I’ve altered this one to improve its efficiency.”
“You gave it to CenGov?” Chase winced as his hand suddenly cramped, sending a stab of pain through us all.
“We’ve been helping them for years. We helped them engineer the Great Blight of 3592. We taught General Panic how to hide herself from prophets and trees.”
« That could explain a lot, » said Malachi. « From the initial ambush of Ross to the malfunctioning Panic-Droids at the casino. »
« But wait. If the cage is powered by our own energy, it isn’t going to cause a spike in the power grid, » said Cillian.
« Probably not, » Cüinn admitted.
« Then we’re fucked, » said Cillian.
« I’m not so sure of that, » I murmured. There was something about this situation, something familiar. I could feel it crawling under my skin.
“Now it makes negative thirty-seven sense. You know that CenGov wanted to get rid of us, right? Their official policy was deforestation.”
“Of course, imbecile. That’s the point.”
Chase doubled over, clutching his knees to his chest. “What are you doing?” asked Fandango.
“Vomiting,” said Chase.
“That’s disgusting. I’m going to go now.”
“Um, how long do I have to stay here?”
“Forever,” said Fandango. “Or until the restoration.”
Fandango flitted away through an exit near the control panel. Chase took the opportunity to retch in privacy. When the spasm had finished, he said, “Marty, if you’re there, now would be a good time.”
« Datons can’t travel through this energy configuration, » said Cüinn. « There are Twist around, but they can’t communicate through the cage either. »
“Not happy,” said Chase, rocking back and forth as his stomach cramped again.
« You know, Fandango said we were morons, but she didn’t even notice that the energy being drawn by the cage was decreasing, » said Cüinn. As if in response, the pattern flickered and sputtered.
« It’s because he is taking damage, » said Owen. « They must have fucked up the calibration. They’re hurting him too much. »
« No. That isn’t it at all. I and I predicted this. Chase was exactly the right emanation. »
« All right, Ailann, » said Cillian. « What are we missing? »
« Get under the nausea and the cramps and feel that itch, that craving at the back of his brain. »
“He’s right,” Chase moaned. “I needed a fix back at Elma’s. I must’ve been knocked out for a while.”
« The cage is going to fail, » said Owen. « Chase’s withdrawal is causing enough damage that the energy will stop being sufficient in less than three minutes. But he’d better get ready to run in case Fandango comes back. »
« I’m not so much worried about the sprite, » said Cillian. « She didn’t drag Chase here. It must’ve been that Jaxxon punk, and he must’ve had help. There are probably more Cu’enmerengi nearby. »
“Run?” said Chase. “You’re fucking joking. The only place I want to run is the toilet.”
« Opiates, » said Tarlach. « They have an effect on…»
« I’m starting to get why the Cu’ensali are so squicked by animal bodies, » said Cillian. « As soon as the cage fails, we need to swap emanations. »
« It won’t happen, » said Malachi.
« It doesn’t matter. Without interference from the cage, he should be able to synthesize the drug he needs. I’ve done it many times. »
Chase struggled to stand, gave up, and then began to pull himself agonizingly towards the spot where Fandango had retreated.
The cage vanished. Now we could see that he was inside of a small underground bunker. We could sense the Atlas Tree not too distantly – only several kilometers away, up the headlands. As sick as he was, Chase’s attention went immediately to Tara, whom he could feel combing the Ipsissimal Park with several dozen SSOps agents. One of them was holding the bluedog vendor against the side of his concession, pointing a gun at his head.
“Tara,” moaned Chase, dragging himself towards the door.
Chase managed to get to his knees, but he was too dizzy to walk upright. Like a dog he crawled through the door. It led to a tunnel which he would’ve had to squeeze through anyway – the bunker had probably been designed for Cu’ensali, and made only big enough to accommodate Chase.
The tunnel was not long, but the crawl was agonizing. I couldn’t understand why Chase had to suffer. Now that he had access to the full power of Atlas, it shouldn’t have been difficult to repair the areas of his brain which had been despoiled by exposure to the toxic drug. His body was human, but we weren’t human. Addiction was a matter of choice.
« As if, » said Davy. « When did we ever choose anything? »
« Well, it is true that I and I wanted him to stay addicted. If that’s so, then why not synthesize the drug? You can’t believe that I and I wants…»
Chase was clawing his way up a steep incline of muddy, half-decomposed leaves when he felt the urge to vomit again. For a moment he lay still, choked by the smell of must and mold and his own sickness. Then he pushed himself back to his knees.
The smell was overwhelming, and blocked the scent of the men approaching, the sound of their footsteps getting louder and louder. Chase didn’t have the strength to flee, but he was almost sure it didn’t matter. He could feel that they were human.
A rifle cocked. “Hey! You! Don’t move.”
Chase raised an eyebrow, as if to say, Do I look like I’m moving?
Another joined him, a woman. “Aw, he’s just some junkie. Let’s round him up and get back to real work.” She crouched near Chase. “Let me see some id.”
Chase shook his head.
“All right, put your hands on your head.” Chase tried, but his arm jerked spasmodically, and he winced with pain. “Hey, Verka, this guy looks bad. He’s clammy, and his skin is like ice. I think he’s going through withdrawal.”
“Damn Bubiots deserve what they get. We don’t have time for this. Leave him here. He’ll probably die anyway.”
“Verka! We can’t do that.”
“This is what I put up with. Regular cops. Wusses. I said leave him.” He kicked Chase in the ribs, to emphasize his point. “He’s dead, and we’ll be too, if we don’t find the Archon.”
“Um,” said Chase. “I…”
“Fucking SSOps,” muttered the cop. “Just a bunch of thugs. Hang tight buddy. I’m calling for medical.” She followed her partner down the slope.
« Mickey, I think we really need to have a talk about quality control in agent recruitment, » said Driscoll.
« SSOps hates the Ennead, » said Mickey. « It’s an old rivalry. By extension, they hate Black Opium-27 and its users. »
“I kinda encourage that attitude,” muttered Chase. “Ennead cuts into RR-2’s profits.”
« It’s karma, » said Driscoll.
« That’s a horrible thing to say, » Lugh chastised.
“Nope,” said Chase. “He’s right. I was addicted to an Ennead product. If I wanted to be addicted, it should’ve been to a drug Tara designed. I violated my n’aashet n’aaverti. This is my punishment.”
« At the time, you didn’t have a choice, » Whirljack protested. « It was the only drug that worked. »
Chase pushed himself to his feet. “It’s been years since I needed it. It’s my own fucking fault. Or it’s I and I’s fault. Same difference.” He stumbled a few steps forward. Then he stopped, staring in the direction of all light, all warmth. He knew Tara was there, but now she was approaching. Approaching quickly. He could feel her running up the other side of the hill, a sunbeam burning through clouds.
“Chase!” she called. “I knew it when those cops said they’d found an opium addict lying in the mud. Fucking morons.”
Chase stooped, resting his hands on his shaking knees. “Come on,” said Tara. “We’ll get you what you need.”
Chase shook his head. “I’m done. I don’t need it anymore.”