The Evolutionary Void (62 page)

He looked across the cabin at Catriona, who was bestowing him with that
worshipful look again. He put his head in his hands.
She’s
not real. Nothing I have is real
. With biononics amplifying his
strength, he suddenly thumped his fist down on top of the micromanipulator
unit. It made a dull thudding sound, and some of the tiny components jittered
around inside. His fist rose again. This time his biononics added a weapons
pattern to the impact. The dome shattered, and the delicate little mechanisms
inside were crushed beyond salvation. Electronic components scattered across
the decking, ruined by both the violence and the air that contaminated their
flimsy molecular structure.

“Show me,” he told the SI. “And who is Bovey?”

“Come alone.” Araminta had been insistent about that.

Oscar appreciated the sentiment, but … Some things were just too big to
leave to goodwill and pleasantries. He took a table in the middle of Andrew
Rice’s restaurant at the bottom of Daryad Avenue, an ancient (by Viotia
standards) wood-and-carbon-paneled building barely a mile from the docks where
Elvin’s Payback
still sat in the warehouse, overlooked and
unnoticed by the managers trying to restore order to the docks. There weren’t
many people; the windows had just been replaced after having been smashed.
Oscar was sure it should have had more tables, too; the remaining ones were
certainly spaced unusually far apart. Perhaps some had been looted.
Who loots a table?

A human waiter came over to take his order, and he asked for a salad. He
rather liked the look of the enormous steak and kidney pies a couple of blokes
were eating at a corner table, but he’d only just finished his tea and twister.
It had taken less than ten minutes to walk to Rice’s from the
Elvin’s Payback
, which was cause for mild suspicion. Did
Araminta know their location? It was hard to see how.

Beckia was out in Daryad Avenue, keeping watch as she browsed through a
recently reopened store opposite the restaurant. Cheriton had taken up position
in a lane at the back, also scanning around for any sign of other agents or
some kind of trap or just something out of the ordinary. Oscar still couldn’t
figure out what was going on. The gaiafield quite clearly revealed Araminta
standing in the observation deck of the
Lady’s Light
,
where she had remained for the last couple of days. Ethan and Taranse walked
across the empty chamber to her and bowed in unison.

“Embarkation is complete, Dreamer,” Taranse said. He looked exhausted but
supremely content, a man who’d achieved his goal in life.

“Thank you,” she said. “You have done a remarkable job.” She turned to
Ethan. “Are we ready to launch?”

“Yes,” he said with open delight. “The ultradrives appear to be
functional.”

“Very well. Please ask the captains to lift and set a course for the
Void.”

“It will be done.”

“Is there any sign of Ilanthe?”

“No, Dreamer.”

“No matter. I’m sure she will make herself known before we reach the
boundary.” She turned back to the tall strip of transparent fuselage in time to
see the construction yard’s last layer of force fields deactivate. It was dawn
outside. A bright yellow-gold radiance illuminated the colossal Pilgrimage
ships, and she smiled at the sight of it. Then the decking trembled and the
Lady’s Light
slowly lifted out of its regrav suspension,
rising into Ellezelin’s clear sky.

“Holy crap,” Oscar grunted. He truly had no idea what he was doing here
now. In fact, he started to worry that Tomansio was right and Living Dream had
broken into her mind so they could clear up any possible remaining problems.
That was bollocks, he knew.
Why wait until now?

His salad arrived. He gave it a dispirited look.

“Ah, life just got interesting again,” Beckia said. “Here we go.” Her link
showed him a Mr. Bovey climbing out of a cab on Daryad Avenue just outside the
restaurant. It was the middle-aged black-skinned one Oscar had talked to
before.

“Yes! Your money is mine,” Cheriton declared. “Pay up.”

The team had been running a pool on who would actually show up at the
restaurant. Oscar had put his money on the elusive cousin, Cressida.

“Anything suspicious?” Oscar asked the rest of the team. Liatris, who was
flying coverage over Colwyn City in a modified capsule, said no, the area was
clear of any covert activity. Back in
Elvin’s Payback
,
Tomansio also reported a clean sweep.

The Mr. Bovey walked straight into the restaurant and sat down next to
Oscar. He was wearing a conservative gray toga suit that barely shimmered,
which made him look quite dignified.

Oscar’s biononics threw a small privacy cloak around the table. “Mr.
Bovey,” he began in censure, which he was about to follow up with something
along the lines of
what’s she up to?
when the man
simply grinned and shook his head. “No,” he said emphatically. “That’s Mr.
Bovey over there keeping an eye on you.”

Oscar twisted around. The two men eating steak and kidney pies waved
solemnly. “I don’t get …”

“I’m Araminta. Araminta-two, I suppose. I borrowed one of my fiancé’s
bodies. This one, to be precise. I always liked this one.”

“Ungh?” Oscar grunted.

“I’m starting to go multiple. It’s an interesting lifestyle, don’t you
think?” He gave Oscar a lopsided smile.

“Fuck me.”

“Quite. You said you could help?”

“Oh, shit, yes!” Oscar’s skin was actually tingling from astonishment. He
couldn’t help it; he started laughing in delight.
Maybe
there is hope
. “If you’d like to come with me …” Biononics and secondary
thought routines had to regulate his neural responses, filtering down his
adrenaline rush so he could concentrate properly on the mission. He had to stay
focused.

Araminta-two gave him a modest shrug and stood up.

“Cover us,” Oscar told Beckia and Cheriton. “Liatris, get us out of
here.”

“Way ahead of you,” Liatris said.

Oscar couldn’t remember being both elated and terrified to such an
extent. If they were going to be intercepted, it would be now, after this
version of Araminta was identified for what s/he was. As they walked to the
door, he wanted to shove his integral force field up to full strength, activate
all weapons enrichments.
Keep cool. Keep calm. It’s a
brilliant maneuver. No one could anticipate she’d do this
.

Liatris brought the ingrav capsule flashing down directly onto the
pavement outside the restaurant, earning several angry glances from pedestrians
who had to dodge out of the way. The door opened, and Oscar virtually shoved
Araminta-two inside. Then they were rising fast, already curving toward the
docks.

Araminta-two nodded cheerfully at a thunderstruck Liatris, then looked
around briefly. “You know, some people think ingrav shouldn’t be allowed in
this city.”

“Right,” Oscar said.

“There’s a chance it screws up the deep geology. There could be
earthquakes.”

“Uh huh.” This was so the opposite of anything Oscar was prepared for, it
had shifted over to vaguely surreal.

Their capsule dipped down to hover in front of the Bootle & Leicester
warehouse. The doors curtained apart, and they nudged forward. Oscar just knew
that was going to draw attention from the dock staff. It didn’t matter anymore.
They had Araminta, so nothing else mattered.
Actually, one
Araminta, not the whole person. Maybe that’s why she—he—whatever—is a bit …
flaky
.

Tomansio was in the middle of the starship’s cabin as the three of them
rose up through the airlock. The floor solidified underneath them. Oscar
couldn’t help the vast grin on his face. He jabbed a finger at Tomansio. “I
told you so!”

“Yes,” Tomansio said softly.

That was when Oscar’s biononics told him Tomansio was executing an
extremely thorough field scan of Araminta-two. He almost protested, then
realized he should have done it back in the restaurant.

“Clear,” Tomansio declared. “In fact, very clear. You don’t have
biononics; even your macrocellular clusters are basic.”

“Mr. Bovey is multiple,” Araminta-two said. “He doesn’t depend on the
technocentric systems other Commonwealth cultures revolve around.”

Tomansio dipped his head. “Of course. But you do understand what you’re
saying is difficult to accept without proof.”

“I know. Watch through me.”

The Dreamer’s gifting to the gaiafield revealed her view through the
front of the
Lady’s Light
. From her position she
could see the curvature of the planet starting to fall away below as the
starship rose ponderously out of the atmosphere. The dawn terminator line was
etched by a gold corona that skittered off ocean and clouds alike. The
Dreamer’s mouth opened. “Trust me, Tomansio, I am very real,” she said.

Across the gaiafield, those billions of Living Dream members watching in
envy as the Pilgrimage began reaffirmed their devotion to her. Tens of millions
wondered who Tomansio was.

Araminta-two lifted an eyebrow at Tomansio. “So?”

“Okay, that was pretty convincing. A multiple of two. Who’d have
guessed?”

“Not you,” Araminta-two said.

“Let’s hope I’m not alone.”

Oscar grinned again. “I was right. She didn’t betray us.”

“Oscar, I love you dearly,” Tomansio said. “But if you don’t shut up
about that, I will shove you headfirst into—”

Oscar chuckled. “Yeah, yeah.” The smartcore showed him two capsules
arriving in the warehouse. Beckia and Cheriton came sprinting out. It took the
edge off his humor slightly. He ordered the smartcore to launch as soon as the
other two were in the airlock.

Tomansio gave him a startled look as the
Elvin’s
Payback
punched clean through the warehouse roof and accelerated
vertically at twenty gees. The internal gravity countered some of the force,
but they all had to sit down quickly on the couches extruded by the cabin
floor.

“A little drastic,” Tomansio mused.

“Tactically smart. Up here we can run if we have to.”

“You’re the boss.”

Beckia and Cheriton emerged from the airlock and gave Araminta-two
incredulous looks as they lumbered over to their acceleration couches.

Oscar’s initial jubilation was draining away. Viotia spaceflight control
was directing a lot of queries and warnings at them, but nothing appeared to be
in pursuit. Space above the planet was relatively clear; none of the starships
the sensors could detect were threatening. “All right,” he said to
Araminta-two. “What the fuck is going on?”

“I was running out of options,” Araminta-two replied. “Becoming the
Dreamer is a diversion.” His confidence faltered for a moment. “I hope. That’s
where you come in.”

“I wasn’t lying,” Oscar said. “We’re here to help in any way we can.”

“Why? I know who you are. I checked. But I’d like to know who’s backing
you.”

“Fair enough; it was ANA, but now we’re just hanging on by ourselves.
Hoping for something to turn up. And … you did.”

“What do you need?” Tomansio asked. “Are you going to crash the
Pilgrimage fleet into the boundary or something?”

Araminta-two’s dignified face produced a sad smile, making him look even
older. “There are twenty-four million people on those starships. Idiots, yes,
but still people. There is no way I will slaughter them as an example to the
rest of the galaxy not to go in. No, if they arrive at the Void boundary before
we can stop them, then I’ll have to get the Skylord to open the way for them.
So you see, I really need help.”

“Name it,” Oscar said.

“Bradley suggested I find Ozzie. He said Ozzie is a real genius, and if
anyone can come up with a solution, it will be us in combination.”

Oscar’s skin chilled right down. “Bradley?” he asked lightly. The others
gave him a curious look; it must have been because of what his emotions
revealed.

“Bradley Johansson,” Araminta-two said. “I met him on the Silfen paths.”

“Bradley Johansson is alive?”

“Bradley is a Silfen now.”

“Holy crap.”

“Do you speak the truth of this?” Tomansio demanded almost in anger.

Araminta-two faced him down. “I speak the truth.” He turned back to
Oscar. “Bradley told me you and he fought together in the Starflyer War. He
said I could trust you, Oscar. And you did help me back at Bodant Park.”

“Bradley a Silfen,” Oscar said in wonder. “How about that. We both
survived the Planet’s Revenge in our own ways.”

“He lives,” an incredulous Beckia murmured. “The greatest of us all, our
founder, humanity’s liberator. He lives! Do you realize what—” She broke off,
too overwhelmed to speak.

“I don’t wish to disappoint,” Araminta-two said. “But he’s not coming to
help. I’m afraid the best he could do was send me.”