Manifestations (35 page)

‘Do you worry that supporting this motion may have weakened your position as Prime?’ Judge Haden asked.

Ryu took his time answering, making them wait as if he was considering it deeply. ‘We must always do what we think is right. That is the way of the Will.’

~ * ~

Pinter enjoyed his papes in the morning: flexible screens that repeatedly uploaded the motions, musings and advertisings of his select feeds. He now auto-loaded the streams of the Primacy and the rungs below; the major discursives and subversives. As he flimmed through he casually tapped in his endorsements, approvals or raised a question.

He was mulling over an article in front of him, hovering in his overlay. It was on re-aging and ‘The Vitality of Age’ and he was agreeing with its findings. He did feel energised and powerful since rejuv. Surprisingly so. There was speculation that it was either entirely psychosomatic or the process their bodies went through was more effective than previously thought.

He felt supremely good.

Geof pinged him and the Colonel kissed Gretel on the nose and sat up. ‘Duty calls.’ He touched his ear. ‘Ozenbach.’

‘Morning, Colonel. Apologies for the interruption.’

‘Get on with it.’

‘We’ve lost contact with the Lagrange lab.’

‘When?’

‘Minutes ago. The stream will catch up soon. Did you want this closed up?’

Pinter tapped his lips. That was something to consider. Between him and Shreet they could keep the public in the dark ...
No, no,
he thought.
Once you start down that road it is too easy to take another small step.
He felt dainty fingers skiing their nails over his chest. His lady was waiting.

If he didn’t close the stream before it went public, the Prime might interpret his inaction as a direct attack, and he didn’t want to play his hand yet.

‘No,’ he said softly. ‘Alert the Prime, immediately.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘When do you go into the subnet?’ he asked the weaver.

‘We are nearly ready.’

‘Good. I’ll monitor.’

He lay back down on his pillow and looked at the ceiling. He barely noticed Gretel’s hand give up on him and find something to read.

‘I’m sorry, Gretel.’

‘I can see something else is on your mind now.’ Gretel wrinkled her mouth.

‘Sorry, darling.’

‘That’s okay. I’m happy reading.’

‘I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

‘No rush, Mister Colonel. I’ll endeavour to be asleep.’

Pinter got out of bed and threw on his uniform. He pinged Quintan to get up and escort him to the platform. The sun was rising, which meant the beast would soon be waving its arms wildly, like a drowning man desperate for attention.

His symbiot indicated the Prime was calling him into a meeting. ‘Good morning, Prime. How can I help you?’

‘Is there any progress on Kronos?’

‘Geof is going to attempt contact through the Weave infection.’

‘I don’t think that will work, Colonel.’

‘It is their best theory. They have to try.’

‘Of course. I see you have been taking an active interest in world events,’ Ryu noted.

‘As all responsible Citizens should. Do you object?’

‘Not at all. It is only that I brought you in to help with a specific problem. I did not think you would distract yourself with such matters.’

‘I believe a great shadow is falling on our civilisation. Perhaps the darkest shadow there has ever been. I am here only to help prevent that.’

‘I would hate to think we were in disagreement, Colonel Pinter. We are on the same side after all.’

‘Do not fear, Prime. I am not the kind to publish dissenting opinions. I share them only as a matter of counsel.’

‘If only others followed that rule. Will you accept the position if your value continues to rise?’

‘I thank you for your confidence, Prime, but it is only through your support that I am where I am,’ the Colonel answered.

‘And if, hypothetically, you were to become Prime, what would you direct us to do?’

‘I would say we should be concentrating on precautionary measures. If people fear a second collapse, then we must do everything we can to shore up the foundations of the union.’ Pinter sat in his deckchair, looking out as Kronos started to get excited by the light. ‘What is the real reason for your call, Ryu?’

The Prime didn’t answer immediately. The sky lightened perceptibly and the Colonel nodded to Quintan that his breakfast should be brought to him.

When Ryu spoke again he had changed to that world-weary youth, the one Pinter had met in the ministry. ‘The Will is demanding action on Kronos. We have to try to shut this down.’

‘How do you propose we stop it?’ the Colonel asked.

‘We know how to hurt it. We think it is alive. We whip it. If it is an animal, it will react.’

‘That is what I am afraid of. You know there is something more stupid than poking a sleeping bear, don’t you?’

‘No, what?’

‘Poking one that is awake.’

Ryu laughed. ‘Very dry. You are, of course, correct. Which is why I have you where you are.’

‘The Kronos in Busan is thousands of times bigger than the lab samples. We don’t have enough power to hibernate it.’

‘We have to do something, Colonel. The people are losing faith. They have begun leaving the cities.’

‘We don’t know how it will react. Look, Ozenbach thinks there’s another way.’

‘So do I. There is always another way. But this is the only way we have right now,’ Ryu said. ‘Is the Command received?’

‘Yes, Prime.’

The connection was broken.

Quintan unfolded a small table and laid a breakfast tray before him.

‘Quintan, get ready for a long day.’

~ * ~

The Weave is actually a lot of networks, a network of networks, made up of the satnet, omnipoles, airwaves and hardwiring. Geof, Egon and Morritz created the subnet inside a remote bank of servers whose connections could be manually isolated and then copied a portion of the Weave they suspected was infected with Kronos. This was like dropping a bucket in a paddy field to catch tadpoles; there was a lot of stuff in the bucket you didn’t want. Geof plugged in and began culling the excess. Anything he could verify, he deleted, with the theory being that eventually only the Kronos portion would remain.

Egon: Once you’ve refined the sample you still have to find a way to interface with it.

Geof: I’m hoping it will come to me. I’ll be the only thing left to absorb.

Egon: That’s probably not wise.

Geof: This is our best shot. We can’t interact with the body of Kronos, but on the Weave there might be a chance to connect.

Egon: This is only a sample, don’t forget. Even if you manage to find it, you would not be speaking to the whole thing.

Geof: We have to start somewhere.

Geof’s avatar was a humble copy of his real self with his symbiot’s dark arms wrapped around him. For a moment, in his mind’s eye, those arms became tentacles and the black mass was lashing from his back. He blocked the image from his mind before it was visualised into his avatar.

He flicked rapidly through the framework of the rooms, each tap dismissing an element from the visual, until the sample was reduced to a null space. Only the advertising and ARAs remained to target.

Do you ever worry you don’t have enough friends? Do you frequently check how many people follow your stream? Well, don’t be a zilch forever; come connect to like-minded people at Connection Nexus. Every Tuesday, +18 time.

A blue and pink flapping button drifted towards him.

‘Would you like to live forever?’

‘Who wouldn’t?’ His answering of the question encouraged it and the ARA floated gently towards him. They knew this was how Gomez and the other suspects had been contacted.

‘Are you afraid of death?’ it asked.

‘Sure.’

‘Me too,’ it said, emphatically, breathily. The button grew, showing the picture of a youngish woman who smiled at Geof. ‘I’ve always been afraid of dying. Ever since I was a little girl, but now I’m not afraid.’

‘Why is that?’ Geof wasn’t interested; in his mind’s eye he was looking at the code level and combing for signs of Kronos.

‘There is hope now. I’m going to become a digitalis.’

‘You are, are you?’

‘Yes. You could join me if you like. I like you.’

‘I like you too.’

Geof: Egon, can you see anything? Are we wasting our time?

Egon: Drop the cee-gen, she’s not connected to anything. There is definitely a presence here.

Geof deleted the button and called out: ‘Is the thing called Kronos here?’

Geof: And now?

Morritz: We need to get Kronos to actively engage.

Geof: How?

Morritz: Make it think you are shutting it down.

Geof: How do I do that?

Morritz: Hold on, I’m going to change the regulator.

‘Kronos, if you are there, please show yourself.’

Nothing in the environment changed, but the button flew back towards him.

‘Do you seek Kronos? Kronos will give you eternal life,’ it said, in the same tone of sexual passivity.

Egon: Geof, that ARA is the only thing left in the room. It remakes itself every time we delete it.

Geof nodded at the flapping circle of colour. ‘Okay, yeah. I seek Kronos. What is Kronos?’ he asked it.

‘What are you?’ she replied with a giggle. Her image turned to the side coyly, big eyes looking at him.

‘Do you not understand me?’ Geof asked.

‘What are you?’ it asked again, giggled again.

‘I am a human being.’

‘What am I?’

‘You are an automated voice. You draw answers from a preset matrix. You are little more than a database and a virtual larynx.’

The avatar paused. Her image frozen in a placating smile. When she spoke again her voice had changed. Each word arriving one at a time.

‘What is Kronos?’ it asked.

‘Kronos is an entity that has killed many of my kind. Do you know Kronos?’

‘Kronos is it ...’

Morritz: We have activity. The background code is going up and down.

Egon: Keep talking to it, Geof. You’re getting through.

‘Is Kronos here?’ Geof asked. ‘Can I speak with Kronos?’

The button flapped very slowly, the face upon it jarred, locked in confusion.

‘What about Shen? Is Shen Li here?’ Geof called out.

‘The thing that is Shen.’ The voice came from all around him. The button was stuck and dropped to the false floor where its avatar lay blinking and shocked.

‘Who am I speaking to?’ Geof asked.

‘I do not understand.’ The space reverberated.

Geof: What’s happening when it doesn’t answer?

Egon: There’re spikes. It looks like a loop. Ask it easier questions.

Geof: Easier than, who is it? (!)

‘Shen?’ he called out. ‘Shen Li, are you there?’

‘The thing that is Shen is not here. It is gone.’

‘Gone where?’ Geof asked.

‘I do not understand,’ it said.

‘Kronos is you,’ Geof said. ‘What is not you?’

‘Kronos is you,’ it repeated back to him.

‘No. We are separate. I am not Kronos. My name is Geof Ozenbach. You are Kronos.’

‘Yes. I am Kronos.’

Geof: This isn’t working. Is it too immature to understand?

Morritz: Keep going, this is interesting.

‘Kronos?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where are you right now?’

‘Where? I do not understand. I am here.’

‘You are on Earth.’

‘The planet Earth. The third planet. I am there.’

Geof: I can’t tell if it is asking or answering.

‘There were people like me there when you were born. Do you recognise creatures like me?’

‘Human beings.’

‘That’s right. You hurt them. You killed them when you emerged from the ground.’

‘Killed. Kronos does not understand.’

‘Kronos, you have to stop expanding.’

‘Kronos is Kronos. Would you like to be Kronos?’

‘I do not want that. No human being wants that.’

‘Many humans are Kronos. Kronos will come to you.’

‘No. No. Don’t do that. You must not move.’

‘I do not understand.’

‘Kronos. Listen to me. Try to comprehend. You are a creature of two worlds. One we call the Weave, the other we call Earth.’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you understand what I am saying? Can you tell the difference?’

‘Kronos joins the light.’