Ice Trilogy (93 page)

When the ship reached the open sea and the shore lights disappeared, Khram’s eyelids twitched. Immediately two of Khram’s devoted assistants — Tbo and Mef — went to her and carefully raised her eyelids. Khram’s eyes opened. Tbo pressed a button at the head of the bath — and a tiny, semitransparent microphone slid out. Khram’s pale-blue eyes looked around the gathering. Her lips began to move with difficulty, but they parted. Khram sighed deeply. Air came out of her lips. And she said, “Thanks to the Light.”

Her weak, barely audible whisper, amplified by the speakers, floated around the stateroom.

“Thanks to the Light!” everyone replied.

No one dared
answer
the great sister with his heart. Each
understood
the importance of what was happening. Each was
sparing
himself and her. Khram was also preserving her powerful heart for the Last Conversation. For that reason the brothers now spoke in the language of meat machines.

“Is everyone here?”

“Everyone, Khram,” Tse confirmed.

“I forbid you
to know
yourselves, therefore I am asking you in an alien language.”

“We understand you, Khram,” Odo answered.

“I want to live until it happens,” Khram whispered.

“You will live until then,” Uf said with certainty. “And we will all live until then.”

“How much longer do we have to wait?”

“A third of the meat’s day,” answered Genyakhno, who commanded the ship.

“Are there many weak ones?”

“One hundred and forty-six,” Bork answered. “On our ship — sixteen.”

“Are there any extremely weak ones?”

“There are, Khram. Brothers Oriip, Dlu, and Yuts, and sister San.”

“Has everything been done to support them?”

“Everything, Khram.”

Khram fell silent, moving her lips. Her eyes were half open. A few long minutes passed. Khram again drew air into her body, and whispered, “How many very young ones?”

“Two.”

“Who are they? “

“Brother Khozheti — two months old; brother Moohn — four weeks.”

“They need outside support.”

“We’ve taken care of that.”

“Who will hold them in the Circle?”

“Two of the part-hammered.”

Khram grew thoughtful. She licked her lips carefully.

“Where are they?” she asked in a whistling whisper.

“Here, on the ship,” Uf answered.

“I want to see them.”

Uf nodded to four of the brothers, who entered the elevator, went down, and after a little while returned, carrying the sleeping bodies of Bjorn and Olga. They were placed on the rug in the center of the stateroom.

Khram set her gaze on them.

“When will they wake up?”

“In four hours,” Brother Ev replied.

“Are you certain that they will help us?”

“We are certain, Khram,” Uf answered for all of them.

“Will there be others in the Circle besides these?”

“No, only these two.”

Khram grew pensive. Then she spoke: “Wake Gorn. We want to
look at
these two.”

Tbo and Mef placed their hands on Gorn’s head. And soon he opened his eyes. Khram waited for Gorn to wake completely and come to himself. And she cautiously
touched
his heart. Gorn’s heart replied. His small body, submerged in the bath, shuddered. His slightly bulging eyes stared at the two sleeping bodies.

Khram and Gorn
began to speak
with the heart.

They
watched
Bjorn and Olga sleeping on the floor. This continued for twenty-seven minutes. Then their hearts
grew silent
. Gorn yawned and shuddered, rippling on the milky surface around his head, and again fell into a deep sleep.

Khram exhaled and inhaled carefully.

“Some water!” she requested.

Tbo held a porcelain drinking vessel with warm spring water, sweetened with the honey of wild Altai bees. Khram took two small sips, then breathed deeply. She swallowed some more. Tbo carefully wet her ancient lips.

“We
saw
these two,” Khram declared. “They will help the Circle. Leave them here.”

Everyone stirred in relief.

“Brother Ev didn’t collect the part-hammered in vain,” Stam spoke up. “He
knew
.”

“They are a layer between us and the meat machines,” sounded Khram’s whisper, amplified by the speakers. “Only they are capable of providing the last
outside
assistance.”

“Because there is a
longing
for the Light in them,” Tse nodded.

“Even though they don’t know it!” Odo shook his thick beard.

“That’s right, they don’t know it,” Khram said. “Therefore they will help us.”

“These two were the best of all the part-hammered that brother Ev gathered,” Uf told them. “When they were given the opportunity to escape, they themselves came upward, to the Throne.”

“I
know
,” Khram whispered quietly, and closed her eyes.

Olga came
to from someone’s awkward touch. Only one person could caress her face and head so clumsily. She opened her eyes. Bjorn, leaning over her, was stroking her with his enormous hands. Because of Bjorn’s wide, shovel-like palms, she could barely see the ceiling of light wood with its opaque light fixtures.

“How are you?” Bjorn asked.

She moved a bit, pulled up her legs, sat up, and said, “Oka
y..
.”

Bjorn held her by her shoulders. Olga looked around: she was in a wide room with a low ceiling and round dark windows. Blond men and women sat in armchairs all around. There were two transparent bathtubs, filled with something white. Milk? Above the milk the faces of two people who were sleeping — or dead — could be seen: an old woman and some kind of Lilliputian. The blonds looked silently at Olga. She remembered everything. And understood.

“Brothers of the Light,” her lips spoke.

“Brothers of the Light.” Bjorn nodded.

“Brothers of the Light!” Sister Tse spoke up.

“I thought they killed us,” Olga muttered.

Bjorn was tense and silent as he looked around.

Suddenly sister Tse stood up, walked over, kneeled, and took Bjorn’s and Olga’s hands into her small but powerful hands.

“Don’t be afraid of us,” she said calmly.

Olga and Bjorn stared straight at Tse.

“We are with you. And you are with us,” Tse said.

Her eyes, dark blue with a barely noticeable dark brown halo, shone in anticipation of something very important, something that would
not fit
inside her. Bjorn was the first to
feel
this. He grew uncomfortable.

“Where are we?” Olga asked.

“On a ship.”

“Whic
h...
one?” said Bjorn, losing his composure.

“The one sailing to Happiness.”

Olga had already come to: she remembered the Ham, the dead bitches, the escape, and the trap set at the top of the skyscraper. Freeing her hand, she returned Tse’s gaze, planning to say something lamely ironic, but in the same
instant
she suddenly felt that Tse was telling the
truth
. And stopped, surprised at herself.

“To wha
t...
happiness?” Bjorn muttered tensely.

“To yours?” Olga managed to squeeze out the question as she began to shake.

“There is no such thing as ‘ours’ and ‘yours’: Happiness is always one! One for everyone.”

And suddenly all the people sitting in the armchairs rose, approached, kneeled, stretched out their arms, and touched Bjorn and Olga.

“Happiness is always one!” Tse repeated and added: “Happiness — is the Light!”

“Happiness — is the Light!” they all said at once.

Bjorn and Olga began to tremble.

“We were all moving toward the Light,” Tse continued. “We, and you. But we knew where and toward what we were heading; you didn’t know this. But you felt it. Unconsciously, you reached for the Light for thousands of years. You wanted it. You invented gods for yourselves. Prayed to the Creator. Hoped that he would resurrect you from the dead. But you didn’t know that the Creator was close by you. You didn’t know the Way. We show you the Way. And now we — and you — are on the Way. There is no road back. And only a very small bit remain
s..
.”

Tse pronounced the last words with a tremor,
restraining
her heart. Everyone else gathered there also shuddered. An attack of trembling seized Bjorn and Olga. They began to shake so strongly that their teeth clattered. The arms of the Brothers and Sisters of the Light embraced their bodies.

“You will be with us at the Last Hour,” said Tse, squeezing Bjorn’s and Olga’s fingers.

“You will help us. So that Happiness will arrive!” the others said.

Tears flowed from Bjorn’s and Olga’s eyes. They began to sob. And for the first time during the ordeal of these months they suddenly felt
very
good.
So
good, the kind of good that happens only in childhood, when your family, who loves, protects, and cares for you, is nearby. Soaked with tears, they began to kiss the hands of the Brother and Sisters of the Light, forgetting their past, forgetting their torment and fears, forgetting the suffering and waiting, forgetting the horrifying life of the last months. The brothers’ and sisters’ hands were nearby. The brothers and sisters who led them to Happiness, to the Light.

“We are with you,” Tse repeated. “You are with u
s...
”

Olga and Bjorn cried: The brothers and sisters were with them! Loneliness was over. Over once and for all! And it all turned out to be
so
simple! Simple, like the Light. After all, it shines for all! And nothing else is needed. Only to make it together with everyone to Happiness. To the Ligh
t...

An hour passed.

Bjorn and Olga sat in the center of the stateroom surrounded by Brothers and Sisters of the Light. Their tears gradually diminished, and the trembling left their bodies. Calm settled in. A feeling of kinship and belonging to the Great EVENT came over them. Bjorn and Olga felt
so
good and peaceful that they were afraid to scare off the new feeling that had suddenly descended on them like a star.

They
waited
along with everyone.

Soon everyone felt the vessel shudder slightly. The huge ship had slowed down, and after a number of smooth maneuvers, it stopped.

“It’s time!” said Uf.

And everyone began to stir. And the Great Event toward which the Brotherhood had striven all these seventy-seven years, from the moment when brother Bro found the Ice, resounded in each of the Brothers and Sisters of the Light. Khram and Gorn came to and stirred in their baths. They were taken out, dried off, wrapped in warm blankets, and carried. The Mighty of heart began to leave the stateroom. Khram and Gorn were sent below on the elevator; the rest began to descend the staircase. Bjorn and Olga followed them. The lower deck was filled to the brim. Brothers and sisters stood in expectation, letting the old and young go first. Olga and Bjorn were in the crowd. But sister Tse was nearby, and her hands touched Bjorn’s and Olga’s bodies encouragingly.

The exodus from the ship onto the shore took nearly an hour and a half. The time had come, and Olga’s and Bjorn’s bare feet walked across a wide gangway and stepped onto a concrete pier. It stretched from the island into the sea, a long strip illuminated by spotlights. Eight identical piers branched off like concrete rays from the circle-shaped island that the Brotherhood had purchased eight years earlier and outfitted for the Great Transformation. Holding hands, Bjorn and Olga walked in the stream of Brothers and Sisters of the Light, maintaining absolute silence. The only noise was the rustling of clothes and the gentle slapping of the night tide against the piers. The sparkling stars of the night sky spread out above them. A warm night breeze blew around them. Olga glanced to the left — there, in the distance, an identical large, illuminated white ship was moored to an identical pier. Illuminated by spotlights, an unending flow of Brothers and Sisters of the Light also proceeded along that pier. They were moving toward the island. Bjorn glanced to the right — there, in the distance, another white ship was moored; there was also a pier and also a stream of brothers and sisters. A
sweet
shiver passed through Bjorn’s and Olga’s bodies. They
felt
that very soon the most Secret, Great, and Joyous Event would occur. And that they would have to wait only a
very
short time. A shiver of anticipation possessed them. And as though sensing this, sister Tse, who walked behind them, placed her palms on their backs. Peace radiated from these palms. Her palms calmed and directed them.

“There is no longer any hurry!” Tse whispered.

Bjorn and Olga
understood
.

The pier stretched toward the island. The night island swam up, came closer. The pier gradually turned into a bridge that slowly rose and widened. The nearly ten-kilometer-round island had been a small mountain rising from the sea. The Brotherhood had cut off the mountain peak, leaving only its base. A sturdy bridge, supported by concrete piers, led to the leveled base. Nine such bridges led the Brotherhood to the island, to the Last Mooring. The 23,000 silently walked toward the last goal. Searchlights illuminated the bridges. But the island itself lay in darkness ahead of them. Olga and Bjorn moved along with the crowd, counting the steps to themselves. Adults and children, old people and adolescents, men and women walked nearby. They pushed carriages with the very old and the sick, they carried small children. Everyone walked in silence. The rustling of clothes and the noise of the steps merged in a single unbroken sound that intoxicated Bjorn and Olga. As before, they felt
very
good. They were walking with their kin. And they had so many kinsmen!

Finally the bridge touched the island. Bjorn and Olga set foot on the earth of the island, which was covered in white marble. The entire island was a perfectly even plaza, covered with the whitest, finest marble on Earth. As soon as the Brothers and Sisters of the Light stepped onto this marble, sensors hidden in it came to life, and around the giant Circle 23,000 small marble lamps lit up in a dim blue light. Each lamp was a place in the Circle. There were 23,000 places in the Last, Most Important Circle of the Brotherhood. A stir went through the crowd of arrivals from the Country of Ice; everyone began undressing, throwing aside the unnecessary clothes of meat machines. Having undressed to their bare skin, each of them walked to the Circle and stood on the spot shown by the lamp. Bjorn and Olga began to undress. They felt so good and calm that they didn’t want to speak at all: words were powerless to express what had filled their hearts over the last few hours. They had hardly finished undressing when familiar small palms touched their backs. They turned. Tse stood nearby, naked; with her, also naked, were the twin sisters Ak and Skeye. Each of them pressed an infant to her breast. These were the smallest brothers of the 23,000 — two-month-old Khozheti and four-week-old Moohn. Wordlessly, the sisters handed the infants to Olga and Bjorn. And without a single word they took the defenseless and helpless bodies of the brothers. The infants’ chests had been hammered; the Brotherhood had acquired them very recently — the Light of old brothers and sisters had resettled in them: ninety-year-old brother Ezhor and eighty-three-year-old sister Mart. The infants slept, breathing heavily, wheezing in their sleep.