Requiem (58 page)

'You could've
asked.'

'You would have
said I couldn't have any.'

No one said
anything.

Sear stood
without speaking, his arms crossed, watching Seline. Even now, he
gave away so little.

She coughed.
'So? What's new?'

'The
apocalypse,' said Belameir.

'You mean
Icarus?'

The Doctor
strode into the room. He followed everyone's eyes to Seline,
standing in the kitchen.

'Ahh, my
favourite patient is up and moving! I really do wish you'd stop
that. You shouldn't be up and you shouldn't be moving.' He looked
at her gown.

He looked over
the rest of the room. 'You are all in serious trouble. Why didn't
anyone follow the correct protocol. When a patient, wearing one of
the hospital gowns, is up and walking I am to be called
immediately
to ensure that the garment is appropriately
fitted to the patient and that the correct areas are covered and or
not covered.'

Seline took
another sip of coffee.

'We really
should run some tests to gauge your recovery, Seline,' said the
Doctor.

Seline looked
at him, her face expressionless.

'Alright,
alright,' said the Doctor, 'but I
will
run my tests on you
sooner or later. Eyesight, hearing, motor functions,
reflexes...'

The Doctor
walked briskly to an empty chair in the corner of the room and sat
down as if expecting to run his tests at any minute.

Seline turned
to the large screen doors that led out onto a private balcony.
Small drops of rain were beginning to fall. Without talking, she
walked to the balcony door, opened it and stepped out. The city was
grey beneath her. The rain was falling as sheets of drizzle that
drifted and swelled with the wind. The door opened and closed
behind her. She turned to see Sear standing there, silently holding
the umbrella over her head. She smiled faintly then turned back to
the rain. She said nothing for a long time.

'How long has
it been?' she asked.

'It's been
fifteen days since NeoCorp took you. You've been here at the
hospital for three days.'

She listened to
the rain tapping gently on the fabric of the umbrella. It pooled in
clear, transient shapes around her feet.

'Any news on
Icarus?'

'There are
things we need to discuss but it can wait.'

'What kind of
things?'

'They can
wait.'

She leaned
forward on the balustrade to take some of the weight off her legs.
'… I'm sorry I left. I'm sorry for wasting your time.'

'You wanted to
help a friend.'

'I ignored
everything you told me. It was obviously a trap and I walked
straight into it. The truth is I don't even know why I did it. I
just wasn't thinking.'

'I won't argue
that point.'

'It was
stupid.'

'It was.'

'I won't let it
happen again.'

'Whatever
compelled you to attempt to save her I'm sure it will compel you
again. When it does happen, I suggest you remember one thing. That
you aren't alone.'

She watched a
stream of maglev cars gliding silently behind the buildings,
carving channels through the rain.

'What did they
do with Abigail's... with her body?' she asked.

'She was
buried. We didn't know how long you would be out. We had to make a
decision.'

'Where?'

'She's at an
old burial site by the ruins that you looked at when you first
arrived. Belameir chose the site.'

'Thank
you.'

'Do you want to
see her?'

'No. Not
yet.'

Blue shades of
light pulsed in the sky, the sound of thunder rolled, ominous and
complete across the city.

'I missed you,'
said Sear.

The rain
dropped from the black masses above. Only the thunder could speak
above the pelting sound of the rain. Seline held her hand out and
smiled to herself.

Under the
Doctor's orders Seline had returned to her room. She was sitting up
in her bed, a soft light came through the window, illuminating her
fingers as they traced over the lines and contours of her bandages
A knock came from the door. Before she could say anything Belameir
entered.

'Hey,' he said.
'Alright if I come in?'

She nodded.

He closed the
door behind him and sat in the chair across from her bed. He
crossed his legs. It didn't suit him.

'So there
really wasn't anything a bit more personal on there? On the
blackbox I mean.'

'Maybe a few
files.'

'Anything you
want to talk about?'

'Not at the
moment.'

'Can I ask what
it was like?'

'Like what was
like?'

'When
NeoCorp... you know?'

'I don't have
the words to describe it yet.'

'Yet? So does
that mean you'll try some day?'

She looked at
the door then at Belameir's toes peeking from beneath his dress
pants. One of the nails was missing. She followed the seam up the
length of his leg. She couldn't tell if it was just too dark or if
he'd actually had his clothes ironed. 'Yeah. I guess. When I can
make sense of it a bit more.'

'So it wasn't a
slumber party like I imagined?'

'Not
quite.'

'How did
Abigail find you anyway?'

'Through the
Warlord, apparently. She managed to get into his group shortly
before he came looking for me. She didn't have time to explain it
to me. I just remember the Warlord talking about her betrayal...
then we were inside the ship in the dock... and the next thing I
remember is hearing Sear's voice.'

Belameir sat
without speaking for a moment. 'I wasn't sure about him at first,'
he said.

'Who?'

'Sear. I
thought he might just be using you, that he only wanted you around
because of the blackbox.'

She felt that
she could smile but stopped herself.

'I trust him
and I give you permission to trust him now.'

Seline smiled
now.

'You even had
Therin and Athene worried,' said Belameir. 'Mercer didn't say he
was worried but I think he was just trying to cover it up. He kept
talking about that girl Kylie he used to date, you know, the one
that ended up becoming Kyle? He kept showing me that scar on his
arm from where she threw the ashtray at him... If I have to hear
that story again...'

His words
lingered in the silence.

'Do you need
anything?' Belameir asked.

She looked
around the room, at the glass of water, at the inert x-ray screen
on the wall, at Belameir's hair, somehow scruffier than normal.

She said she
didn't need anything.

'Okay,' he
said. 'You know I wanted to bring some whiskey in for you but the
Doc said there's a strict no alcohol policy for you... he pretty
much strip searched me before I came in here.' He was fidgeting
with the buttons on his shirt. 'I gotta- I gotta get out of here,
you know how I am around hospitals.' He shuffled in his seat, was
about to stand but stopped himself. 'You gonna be okay, Sel?' he
asked, his voice beginning to waver.

She nodded.

'Okay... good,
cool.' He rose from his chair and stood by her bed for a moment
before walking towards the door. As he opened it he stopped and
looked at Seline.

'You know, I
don't think I've ever told you... but...'

She could see
that for once in his life he was struggling to find the words. That
for once he was uncomfortable in her presence, that any semblance
of confidence and self-assurance had left him.

'Are you coming
on to me?' she asked.

He smiled at
her. 'And I don't think I ever will.'

She smiled
back. He closed the door.

Seline leaned
against the balustrade, looked out at the serrated edge of the
mountains running alongside the valley. Sear stood next to her,
close enough to touch.

'I've waited
long enough, I think it's about time you told me what's happening
with Icarus. I already know that it's coming for Saranture and that
you're working on a virus...' Seline looked at her arm resting on
the balustrade. 'I heard your discussion with Therin.'

'You were
conscious?'

''Conscious'
may be a bit too strong a word, but I caught the gist of it.'

Sear sighed.
'Perhaps it's best if I begin from the start.' He leaned forward
with Seline. 'Do you remember the scouting probes we left in the
systems past the Tryil Gate?'

Seline
nodded.

'Several days
ago, those probes started disappearing. The recordings they
transmitted back to us before going dark showed that the Icarus
sentinels are responsible and that Icarus was retracing its
steps.'

'How do you
know it's not just one sentinel knocking the probes out?'

'Because I've
seen the waves of sentinels myself. Icarus has already passed into
the Tryil System. It is already at the Gate. As we speak, it is
probably passing through if it hasn't done so already.'

'Alright... so
what does that mean exactly?'

'It means we're
saving those that we can. That we're issuing warnings to the
systems and planets we can reach and sending transports to those
who need them.'

'Transports?
Where are they going to go?'

'Here.
Saranture. Most of the ships, when they arrive in our system, will
be left up in orbit around the planet.'

'So you're
going to leave them up there?'

'Yes. We can
keep better track of them up there.'

'You mean you
don't trust them.'

'Some of them,
yes but most of them... it simply isn't in our best interests to
open our world freely to the biological complications. We'll
provide them with what food and resources we can but they will not
be setting foot on Saranture.'

'How long until
you think Icarus will arrive?'

'Our most
reliable estimates put it just under two weeks but we can't be
sure. These estimates assume that Icarus will be harvesting the
systems it passes through, that it stops in each of these, it could
get here as soon as one week.'

'What about the
drone, the sentinel we brought back?'

'It has proved
useful. We've managed to learn a great deal about the miniature
anti-matter engine that it housed and the way it processes solar
energy. The virus you heard about is a prototype based off the
sentinel's coding and software designs.'

'The virus that
won't work?' said Seline.

'The virus
was
promising, but progress has slowed considerably in the
past two days.'

'Why?'

'We simply
don't know enough about the mind of Icarus. About how it thinks,
how it processes information. A virus can be coded but it would be
complete guesswork without more information.'

'You can't
learn that information from the sentinel?'

'Not enough.
And whatever drones Icarus encounters it destroys immediately.'

'So you've
learned nothing? And we still don't know how it's destroying these
stars so quickly?'

'We've learned
some things. It does look like Icarus controls the sentinels
through some kind of remote control. When we first saw the
sentinels destroying that star and you spotted that smaller body
separate from the rest? We believe
that
to be the control
centre of Icarus.'

'So Tialus was
right.'

'Yes. But that
means we can't learn as much as we'd hoped from the sentinels since
the real processing goes on inside that control centre. And, in
terms of how Icarus does what it does; the only way that a star
could be destroyed in such a short space of time is if it were
swallowed by a black hole. Decay, intense solar winds... you simply
couldn't destroy a star that quickly without a black hole.'

'But how could
it create a black hole? Is that even possible? Wouldn't it need a
ridiculous amount of energy?'

'From what we
understand. Icarus must be utilising anti-matter engines far beyond
the engines we've built so energy may not be a problem for it. And
while we can create micro black holes in the hadron colliders we've
built here on Saranture, they're incredibly unstable and short
lived. We don't know how Icarus is stabilising those black holes
and controlling them.'

'Either way
that doesn't explain its motives.'

'Assuming it
has any.'

Seline cleared
her throat. 'What about the blackbox? Have you had a chance to look
it over yet?'

'The
blackbox...'

'You don't
sound very confident.'

'Our early
speculations may have been right. Your mother may have discovered a
way to manipulate, at least open and close, the Atlas Gates.'

'That's good
news isn't it?'

'Yes. I'm just
reluctant to potentially overstate its value. We're still in the
early stages.'

'Well, it was
kind of a lot of trouble to get that information so it's nice to
know it's actually helpful in some way.'

'Whether or not
it's helpful to us, I'm sure it's been helpful to you.'

'It
has
almost gotten me killed... at least twice now.'

'I'm sure your
mother never meant for things to be this way.'

'I don't think
anyone meant for things to be this way... but... I guess things are
still pretty mixed up.' She sighed. 'Things aren't just going to
fit back together like... like pieces of a puzzle or whatever. I
have a lifetime, almost, that's just filled with a kind of absence,
where I was alone, just trying to survive and nothing more.' She
looked at the cast wrapped around her legs. 'I've spent so long
resenting things and I didn't even know why but... when I see my
mother's face it all just focuses in on her, like I can't help but
blame her, like I'd conditioned myself to forget her but not the
feeling of what she left me with.'