To Hold Infinity (45 page)

Blade, stinging her throat, as sweetly as a lover's kiss.

Be firm.

Be strong.

Never
give in.

<<
>>

<<>>

<<•
{sept
}>>>

<<>>

 

As Yoshiko cut into her own carotid artery, she centred herself, dug deep into her spirit, and visualized the invocation for her waiting scanware.

A simple symbol:

∞

 

The trigger.

<<>>

<<>>

 

Scanware, impelled by the infinity symbol, dragged Rafael's mind into hers. Offering herself, reversing the process of a Baton Ceremony, pulling a layer of consciousness through the comms-channel created by Rafael's own infiltration code. He dragged in her executing scanware, which ploughed through his extended mind and spewed it back towards her.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Horror screamed inside Yoshiko.

Rafael's fear, or her own?

But then, but then…

That
other
she had felt, at the edge of her awareness, became scattered perceptions, tiny mind-fragments, tenuously connected…

There were hundreds of them…

Raw, and alive. Hundreds of minds: flying, running, burrowing, swimming…

There was a place for her. A tiny splinter of Yoshiko would live in each of them, every soaring bird and sprinting mammal, after she was dead.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

There was an escape route. He could follow Yoshiko along the path to the scattered animals, but the connection would vanish when the scanware was done, and only scattered splinters of scarcely sentient awareness would remain among the hundreds of disconnected tiny brains. No consciousness at all. Everything that made him Rafael Garcia de la Vega would be gone.

 

Death sang amid the howling storm.

Some part of her was aware, then, of chill wind and distant motion; regardless, she drew her blade across her throat as surely as she drew Rafael into her dying brain.

Adrenaline's rush; blood in her mouth as her fangs bit into the kill; crisp air cutting cleanly beneath her soaring wings; a universe of pungent forest scents as she tracked her prey.

 

No! No! No! No!

Dirty, crawling animals. Links to the primitive, the disgusting…To all that he had grown beyond.

Damn you. NO!

 

Rafael's fear screamed, and her connection to the distant animals was lost.

Just her, then, and Rafael.

Everything stopped.

 

For a moment, the universe froze into icy stillness, as he locked his own mind.

Clever, clever…

Yoshiko, redirecting scanware, scanning his mind into hers. But Rafael was the greatest Luculentus of them all. His mind covered the face of Fulgor.

He
was
Fulgor.

He was the planet, and he was its god. No one, no one could stop—

A mind, across the face of the world.

Hold…

 

I will
not
give in.

 

<<>>

Disintegration…

<<>>

 

He/she screamed as the blade's pain burned into her/his throat.

Don't—

The hand holding the knife—

Too late.

He was here, trapped inside Yoshiko. There was no escape.

Cutting her
own
throat. But he was here, too…

Yoshiko's will was unbreakable. The hand, set into motion, could not be stopped.

Spitting hatred, Rafael learned his final lesson.

Defeat.

 

<<>>

 

<<>>

 

<<>>

 

Phase transition.

Rafael and Yoshiko becoming one…

Oh Ken. You should see this!

…one with the universe.

Perception: distinction versus pattern.

<<>>

 

Yoshiko/Rafael, thoughts spanning the Fulgor-wide nexus, fostering new modes of cognition, intuitively merging with the Tao Function's flow, the cosmic-connective wave-pattern, the dance of Shiva. All those lives. All that wonder.

She/he simultaneously saw:

—subquantum fluctuations, birthing particles in antichaotic simplicity,

—autocatalytic feedback: life itself arising,

—species' state-spaces' complicit intersection: parasitism, predation, and evolution,

—from a sea of bacteria, eukaryotic cells,

—from an ocean of people: love, economies, racial hatreds, cooperation,

—biospheres; stellar systems; galaxies and clusters; the Great Attractor,

—and, tantalizing, the overarching pattern, the self-awareness, the living thoughts of God Itself, the universe.

She/he did not know how, but silver rain drenched her/his distant self or selves.

Storm. Dying, dying, in the raging of the storm. Sweeping away the world.

Thunder crashed, for the very last time. Tears bade the universe farewell.

Lightning. Blade. Throat.

The storm howled and blessed water swept scarlet blood away; lightning flickered once and it was cold, cold, the chilly dark, and icy cold; oh, wait for me, my love; sleep now; as darkness falls and shadows come to rest and the cold, cold dark goes on forever; and we're at the
end: goodbye my friends, goodbye, for love is all; and light, drawing back in all directions: black, inky black, final black, as all thought ends, all feeling fades, and the universe itself grows cold and silent.

Sliding sideways through the air, amid the torrential downpour, it edged away from the clustered buildings with rainbows glittering across its surface. It spun, and arced slowly downwards, and crashed onto a plaza.

“My God.” Dhana gripped his arm. “I think there was a man on that roof.”

Tetsuo said nothing. A blast of static had shaken him: a random burst of control code. Whatever had generated it, the secondary effect must have been to shut down the lev-field generators of the conference centre's hovering roof.

Through the heavy rain, from here at least, no body was visible among the crumpled wreckage.

Inhaling, Tetsuo's breath was shaky. The scents of grass and mud were fresh in his nostrils. Life.

Beside him, the lynxette hissed.

“Shush,” said Dhana. “It's all right.”

Tetsuo's head swam. He had not asked her about the injured girl, the girl she had pulled from the mob. He did not even know how Dhana had found him.

The TacCorps agents, weaponless, were making their way down towards their surrendering comrades. They paused as a skimmer drew close, but it ignored them and they carried on.

The skimmer was heading towards Tetsuo and Dhana.

“Listen, I wanted to tell you—”

“Tetsuo, it's all right. There'll be time to talk, later.”

Later. He had thought there would be no more time, none at all.

As the skimmer drew close, a woman jumped down and strode towards them. She pushed rain-soaked hair back from her grim features.

“My name's Maggie Brown.” As she spoke, the video-globe above her shoulder bobbed closer. “I'm a friend of Yoshiko's.”

“Who—?” Dhana stiffened.

“My mother?” Tetsuo felt suddenly sick.

“I'm sorry.” Rain glistened like tears on Maggie's cheeks. “I'm afraid the news isn't very good.”