Idols (40 page)
Note: Contact Jasmine3k, Virt. Hybrid Human 39261.SEA, Laboratory Assistant to Dr. E. Yang, for future commentary, as necessary.
PRIVATE RESEARCH NOTES
P
AULO
F
ORTISSIMO
03/01/2070
I
BELIEVE THE BEST CHANCE WE HAVE TO GET THROUGH THIS IS TO DRAW THIS THING OUT.
I
DON’T SEE ANY WAY TO KEEP
N
ULL FROM LANDING, BUT MAYBE WE CAN FORCE
N
ULL TO TAKE LONGER THAN HE WANTS, AND HOPEFULLY GIVE US TIME TO FIGHT BACK.
T
HE WEAPONS HE HAS ARE NOT ENOUGH TO WIPE OUT THE POPULATION IN ONE BLOW, AND AS LONG AS THERE IS ONE HUMAN ALIVE,
N
ULL HAS A PROBLEM.
I
WOULD HAVE
N
ULL SET UP A LOCAL GOVERNMENT INFRASTRUCTURE AND USE US TO POLICE OURSELVES.
U
SE US TO BUILD THE “EQUIPMENT,” WHATEVER THAT IS, THAT HE NEEDS TO TURN THE PLANET INTO MULCH.
I
F
N
ULL PROCEEDS WITH HIS INSTRUCTIONS, AS
I
UNDERSTAND IT, HE MAY PULL IT OFF, OR IT MAY END UP IN MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION OF BOTH SIDES.
N
OT MUCH TO LOOK FORWARD TO THERE FOR YOURS TRULY.
I
ALSO AM DETECTING WHAT FEELS LIKE HESITANCE FROM
N
ULL.
I
HAVE TO GET BEHIND THAT.
M
AYBE HE HAS AN
A
CHILLES HEEL…
O
R SERVO?
A
CHILLES FUNCTION?
Only one ship lands.
Thank the Blessed Lady.
It is only when it crushes legions of palms and teaks around us that we realize how enormous the Lords’ ships really are.
This one has landed at the base of the stone stairs leading down from Doi Suthep.
I stand at the top of the stairs, between the two immense, carved serpents that curve down the sides of the steps.
Between two serpents, and in front of my three best friends in the world.
It’s the only place I can stand and be able to take in the whole scene.
So when a rectangle of light appears on the front side of the silver ship, I am the first to see it. I won’t let the others come any closer than I already am.
I’m the one who led us here.
I’m the one who walked right into this trap.
It’s my fault.
It’s my problem.
Now the rectangle of light shines more brightly. Now it takes the shape of something more solid, an actual, dimensional polygon.
A doorway.
Brutus flattens himself against the ground and starts to whine.
A small, slender figure appears inside the door.
He stands for a moment, staring at me as I stare at him. Then, he steps out into the world beyond the ship. Our world.
His feet are unsteady, reminding me of so many things. Sparrow, running across the stones. Maybe a piglet from Ramona Jamona’s first litter. A buckle-kneed colt or calf, in the Mission barn, when it first tries to stand.
This isn’t a colt or a pig or a calf.
It’s a boy.
No.
A girl.
No.
It’s something that looks like a human child.
Its face is smooth and clear—features sharp, eyes bright. It doesn’t look like a flesh-and-blood human child, but it doesn’t look like an alien presence, either.
Then again, what do I know? It never even occurred to me that Sparrow had no corporeal presence. I’d touched her, taken her hand, so many times—in my dreams.
It felt real enough to me.
But this time, I know who—or what—I’m talking to. It—this thing—feels familiar.
I feel it in my head now, just as I always have, ever since the first night I dreamed it.
The thing that called itself Null, once.
Sparrow, another time.
A child and a man and a life force, a death force—I don’t know which. Not anymore.
But now it reaches for me with its mind. I let it come to me.
It’s you. I told you I would come. You didn’t believe me. You are very brave.
I hope you will survive. I do not believe that you will, but I hope you do.
Hope.
I say nothing, but I listen.
More than it did for the Silent Cities, before it destroyed them.
Then the thing’s lips stretch wide into something not so different from a smile.
I hear a voice. A spoken voice, out in the world—our world. It’s low, too low to belong to a child.
Then again, this isn’t a child at all.
Not really.
And again, who am I to judge what is and what is not a human? A person?
When I find that I am possibly neither of those things myself.
But I know that this one moment is either the end or the beginning of my life.
Then I stop thinking and start listening, because it speaks two words, and two words only.
The wind carries them up to the steps to me.
“Hello world.”
I stand there, with my friends by my side, staring at it.
Null. Sparrow. The Lords.
Whatever you want to call it.
The end of humanity.
“What do you want?” I shout down at it, because I refuse to connect to this thing in my mind.
Not now.
Not ever again.
“Unification,” it says. “Today is Unification Day.”
“You’ve made some kind of mistake. That was some GAP lie. We don’t celebrate that day, not the four of us.”
“But this is why we have come. For you. For us.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Our reunification. I am the fifth Icon. We are meant to be together. We are one thing.”
“No, we’re not. You’re a liar.”
“I am the future.”
“You’re a Lord, and you’re Null.”
“I am hope.”
“You aren’t hope. Don’t you dare say that. You know what Null means? ‘Nothing.’ You’re nothing.”
“We are all nothing, Doloria. Why should hope belong only to humanity?”
“We’re human, and you’re nothing like us. Nothing,” I say again, and I realize now I’m sobbing.
Null—it—holds out its hand.
“Come,” it says. “Come with us.”
I shake my head. The more it says to me, the more I dig in—and the more loudly I shout.
“Go ahead. Stop my heart. I’m not going with you. I’m not going anywhere.”
Lucas slides his arm around my waist. “Of course you’re not. And this conversation is over.”
Tima takes my hand. “You’re not alone, Dol. You can’t do this without us. We’re here.”
Ro steps in front of me. “Here,” he says, simply. “Right here.”
“Ro,” I say, smiling, “you can’t—”
But I don’t finish, because I feel a hand on my arm and turn to see Fortis. His face is strangely soft, and his eyes are as red as mine. When he speaks, his voice is so quiet I have to strain to hear it.
“Dol. They’re not going to give up. They need you. It needs you. All of you.” He looks at the four of us. “You might as well go peacefully. You can’t outrun them, and you can’t outlive this. Be reasonable for once.”
“Reasonable? What are you talking about?” My head is reeling; none of this is what I was expecting to hear. Then I catch a glimpse of Bibi pacing behind Fortis, and I’m certain Fortis once again knows more than he’s saying.
He looks pained.
“This,” he says. “There had to be some part of you that knew. You had to have suspected.”
“Suspected what?” Tima’s face is pale. I don’t dare look at the boys.
“Me. This. What did you think, when I disappeared from the campsite? And returned completely unharmed? Fit as a fiddle an’ without a probe shoved up my—” Fortis shakes his head.
“You mean they were tracking you, this whole time?” Tima looks stricken.
“No, you little idiot. I was trackin’ you, this whole time. It’s what they pay me for, how I’ve outlived The Day, all these years.”
“Because—” I can’t say the words.
“Because I promised them they could have you. Because you’ve been theirs from the start. Because I only knew how to build you the way they wanted me to.”
I turn to face Fortis. “I don’t believe you. You wouldn’t do it. Not to us.”
“How did you think I got away from the Lords in the desert? Or for that matter, why do you think they came for me in the first place?”
“Fortis!” My stomach drops.
“My name is Paulo Fortissimo. I made first contact. It was my lab. The Lords, bastards though they may be, are here at my invitation.” He shrugs. “Not so much invitation as recommendation. You were engineered for this purpose, all along. Their purpose. It was the one thing they didn’t have.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Human emotions are unique in the universe. Emotions, and the power they generate. Drives that cause you to fight with a strength and an energy that go far beyond the survival instinct. You four, with your powers.” He shakes his head. “Emotions incarnate. The Lords have never encountered anything like it.” He looks at me meaningfully. “Like you. You understand now? They’re why you exist. The Lords. They’re why you’re here. They think you will help them not just survive but dominate the whole of the existing universe.”
“But—the fail-safe. That’s what we are,” I say, remembering the Embassy archive. “That’s all we are.”
“Not exactly. That was just the easiest way to get you to come along for the ride.”
“Then what are we?” I want an explanation. I want answers. I want Fortis to look me in the eye and confess.
And then I want to kill him.
“You heard what it said.” Fortis looks away, shrugging.
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t hear anything that explained what we are or how we came to be like this.”
“I made you, sure enough. Me an’ Bibi an’ Ela an’ Yang. They didn’t know where I got the specifications—they only knew we were engineering the four of you for a militarized unit. One that the four of us started an’ only I finished. I let them think our work had failed. It was the only way.”
