An End (23 page)

Hand of God clasped through the gelatin, of its own power.

“He’s ready. Let’s fish him out of there.”

“Still nothing.”

“Why are we wasting our time?”

Task grasped the hemispheres of his observation environment and pulled them apart with the click of mechanics and hiss of dissipating interface flux. He rubbed his eyes and pulled himself out of the bubble. Elle was waiting with smoker in one claw and igniter in the other.

Task swam past his co-pilot to the underside viewer. “Best view we’ve had all day.”

“Of what?”

“The delivery vehicle. We’re over the impact site right now.”

Elle was hesitant.

“Not much to look at. Can’t believe that it did all this.”

The crater that the impact of the starship had carved into the surface of the planet was the most impressive part of the spectacle. Not a circle... The vessel had hit at such an acute angle that most of the debris had been cast hundreds of miles in front of the actual strike, covering City Four completely in a blanket of shattered stone.

“How did she survive the fall?”

“She didn’t. They picked her up in a slither in upper orbit.”

“She was trying to escape?”

“She wasn’t trying to do anything... The slither was harddocked to the delivery vessel. It released automatically when the carrier hit critical gravity.”

“Escape system.”

“She probably didn’t know that she was going to escape. She wasn’t even alive when they found her.”

“The catalyst?”

“It came from her.”

The delivery vessel was a giant half-buried in the surface, one nacelle towering thousands of feet into the atmosphere, the other snapped off and flung miles from the impact site, now resting in the ruins of a village. The conical body of the vessel itself now stuck from the desert hardpan like an addict’s needle. Many of the dispersion ports had bent or torn off completely from the collar upon impact. Elle noted the empty slither-shaped port just above the collar at the vessel’s top. The rest of the ship dwarfed the slot from which Maire had poisoned the atmosphere of the planet with a universe of machines.

“She wanted to die on that ship.”

“They won’t let her die now.”

Beeping alert. Elle swam to the cockpit.

“Action above City Seven.”

“Visual.”

A flurry of lights erupted from the surface, arced upward to strike the underside of the main planetship. It solidified into a tightbeam linking the vessel to the planet.

“Is that weapons fire?”

“No.” Elle adjusted the viewer. “It’s a halo. Comm nanos. Someone must have deactivated their link.”

“Berlin’s the only one down there. Nears wouldn’t switch off.”

“Why would Berlin turn off his link?”

“Could be dead.”

“Could be.”

“Could be the silver.”

“Could be.”

“He might need help.”

“He might.”

“What should we do?”

“Let’s listen to what they’re saying.”

Task switched in.

Dark room.

Elle reached out to take Task’s hand. He hadn’t expected the contact. In this flux, Elle’s projection was a female, green eyes instead of white, tan flesh instead of gray, black hair instead of none. She smiled, blushed. Task squeezed her hand, but placed one finger to his lip to signal silence.

They walked forward into the ambiguous expanse. There was a table at the room’s center, two men on opposing sides, faces contorted in angry conversation, hands animated in frustrated fists.

subvocal:
no sound?

i’m surprised we’re in this far. atmosphere must be interfering with the audio.

compensating.

“And what does that mean?”

“Maire’s taking a little trip.”

“And I’m going with her?”

“You could have been a brilliant leader. Such a waste.”

“She killed my family!”

“You should have considered that possibility before helping her.”

“I never—”

“You did. Helped her just enough.”

what are they talking about?

looks like berlin was in on it.

“We didn’t help her do this.”

“Guilt by association. You should have told us.”

“The machines would never have believed it.”

“But we might have.”

“And we’re the ones in control?”

Hannon slammed his palm to the table. “The war is
over
. They won. We have to live with that.”

“And what does God think about all this?”

“I’ll tell you in a few hours.”

Berlin’s lips parted but the words remained lost inside.

they woke up god.

we shouldn’t be listening to this.

“That’s right. He’s awake.”

Berlin
studied the featureless tabletop.

“Make your peace with your family. I’ll be in touch.” Hannon waved his hand before his face, shooing the nanos away. His image disappeared.

let’s get out of here.

“Don’t.”

Elle’s greens widened considerably and her gaze locked on Task.

“He couldn’t see you. Must have been the interference.”

commandant?

“Yeah. I know you’re there.”

sir, we didn’t—

“Of course not.”

and if we—

“You’re dead if he finds out you listened in.”

we didn’t know—

“And now you do.”

we won’t tell—

“No. You won’t. You’re not going to tell anyone about this.”

sir?

“Help me.”

how?

“Get me off this planet.”

Hearts pounded. Hannon was furious.

He batted at the remaining nanos. They hovered like nibblers until winking out, drained of residual phase.

There was a time...

And then there wasn’t. Berlin was a traitor, regardless of other times and places. He would be punished accordingly

or else they’ll
get
you

because that was the way the system worked. It was a good system.

He had to meet soon with the medium and God and the council. He didn’t feel like talking. He didn’t feel like facing God after placing him in the slumber for so long. It hadn’t really been his or His decision, but those had been awkward times. Heroes of war and night. A new order.

There was a time.

They had been young

men on the last field of war: Berlin’s blood on Hannon, Hannon’s blood on Berlin. Twin stars above, twin hearts racing with the rage of battle. How that knife had slipped into flesh, the blade turning slightly, notching the neck as his fingers gouged out the left eye. The final scream: four vital pipelines severed and cool black splashing the front of gray armor. Pressure and the blade cut farther, remaining eye rolled back and scream ended as the head was removed.

Machines in the sky, too close overhead: the wake of their passing knocked them to the ground. Berlin helped Hannon to his feet. Their eyes locked, revealing the shared knowledge of defeat without surrender.

The space between the suns danced with silver.

City on fire, plains on fire, men on fire. The horror of black metal slamming to the ground.

They’d fought on the right side, and the machines were forgiving.

“He’s awake.”

“So I gathered.” Judith walked through the chamber door. Doctor and Assistant parted to let her past.

God sat at a table, a tray with utensils and a bowl of viscous gray nutrition slurry before him. He eagerly shoveled the food into his mouth. Some of it actually hit target instead of dribbling down his chin.

Judith leaned over the table, pushed God’s head up with left hand while opening his eyelids with the right. She looked for damage.

“Couldn’t you have gotten a better host body?” His projection in the flux had been delicious. This bald middle-aged creature sitting at the table was a travesty.

“It was short notice.”

Judith slumped into the chair across from the deity. “Good food?”

He looked up quickly, face blank besides drippage. Back down into the bowl. Splashing spoon launched a droplet of slurry onto Judith’s cheek.
effin’ fuck!
She wiped it from her face and sighed.

“He’s a mess. I’ll have to hardlink him for the entire conference.”

“At least he’s mobile now.”

“You could have put wheels on the fucking static tube.”

“Host body transfer is standard—”

“
Viable
host body transfer is standard procedure.” Something about that little shop of wind and dark bitter liquid... His eyes had been beautiful. A ring of silver on a shaking glittered hand. Deus Ex Machina.

how do i know these things?

God smacked his lips, smiled and nodded his head as Assistant placed another bowl in front of him.

“He’s so
dumb
.”

“The host body withstood all the standard testing.”

“Was it like this before? Was he a retard in real life?”

Doctor shook its head. “God was not a retard.”

“Filtered?”

“He was filtered, yes.”