Part 54 (1/2)

”No...”

”Then trust to that. You are a generous man, Kim Ward. If s one of the reasons why I love you. Maybe the greatest reason. So be generous this once. Give him this moment with us.”

”With you.”

She smiled. ”Okay. With me.”

He sighed, then gave the briefest nod.

”Then go,” she said, watching him with kindly eyes. ”I think he's waited long enough.”

It was, perhaps, the strangest moment of her life, to see the two of them emerge from the door at the top of the steps and come towards her down the shadowed corridor.

Strange, yes, and dreamlike, too. And for a moment she wondered why she had not dreamed it beforehand.

She saw at once how alike they were, even as she saw the differences of build and height.

And then he saw her.

He stopped dead, almost as if he'd walked into some unseen barrier, his eyes visibly widening. And then he smiled. A great beaming smile of awe and love that had in it such depths of hurt and loss that her heart went out to him. For how could it not? This was her man. Through all eternity and in every universe, her soul mate.

She opened her arms and embraced him, hugging him to her, feeling him begin to sob, his arms wrapped tight about her, the way a lost child clings to his mother once she's found.

She stroked his hair and petted him, then kissed the side of his head, murmuring rea.s.surances.

”There ... if s alright now. Everything's okay . ..” Her eyes met Kim's, who stood there looking on. And saw, to her surprise, that tears were streaming down his cheeks, as if whatever fear he'd had had crumbled in that instant She put out a hand, gesturing for him to come and hold her too. And so he did, and so they stood there for a while, the three of them, holding tight to each other in the very strangest of embraces. ”It's alright,” Kim said, after a moment, reaching out to touch and hold K.'s shoulder. ”You're home now, brother. Home.”

Karr waited at the door, his helmet under his arm, frowning down at the patterned marble beneath his feet As the door swung back, he looked up and smiled. ”Ah, Jelka ... I came as quickly as I could.”

She embraced him, kissing his cheek, then stood back, a mischievous glint in her eyes puzzling Karr.

”Well?” he asked, as she closed the door behind him. ”Whaf s going on?” ”Wait and see,” she said, taking his hand and leading him through to the kitchen.

As they entered, Kim looked up from where he sat at the long table and smiled.

”Gregor ...”

Again that same secretive smile, as if some joke were being played on him. Karr huffed and, setting the helmet down on the table, demanded, ”Come on, you two, what is going on?”

”Gregor?”

Karr turned, looking to the doorway, thinking for a moment that maybe Kim had learned to throw his voice, and then did an almost comic double-take. He turned, astonished, looking from one Kim to the other, then gave a little laugh, understanding in that instant what had happened. ”It works!”

Both Kims nodded, with an eerie synchronicity. The new one - taller, Karr noted through narrowed eyes - came and stood behind the Kim he knew and placed his hands on his shoulders.

The new one spoke. ”I understand you've problems, Gregor.”

”I've dealt with them.”

'Temporarily. But you haven't solved them.”

”And you can?”

K. nodded.

”How?” Karr asked.

But K. merely smiled. ”I want you to set up a broadcast, for this evening. I want it to go out on every channel and into every set We use the override and make sure every set is working.”

Karr looked to Kim, but Kim merely nodded. ”If s okay, Gregor. You can trust him.”

Karr looked to Jelka, appealing to her. ”Won't you tell me whaf s going on?”

She smiled. ”I can't”

”Can't?”

”No. Because they won't tell me. But I trust them. I'd trust them with my life, wouldn't you?”

Karr hesitated, then nodded. He looked back at the strangely doubled image of his friend. ”Tonight?”

”At eight,” both Kims said, the movements of their mouths so perfectly synchronised that Karr found himself blinking at the sight, surprised. ”I feel...” He laughed, as if it were too stupid a thing to say. ”I feel like I'm dreaming, only I can't wake.”

”I understand,” K. said, coming round until he stood before the giant; looking up into his face. ”Then it's time for us to make things real again.”

At precisely eight that evening, every screen in Ganymede, in every room and every public place, on the four great s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps and in every transit vehicle, switched on, showing the image of Kim's face.

”Friends,” Kim began, without prelude. ”I am sorry to divert you from whatever you are doing, but something very important has happened. The breakthrough has been made. We have forged a door into another universe.” He paused, letting that sink in, then continued. ”That door is stable and it works. Yet we must use it wisely and expeditiously.” Kao Chen, who had been relaxing in his living room, dipping into the second volume of the San Kuo Yon Yi and reading his favourite episodes, now sat forward, spilling his wine over the rug.

”w.a.n.g Ti!” he yelled. ”Come see!” ”. .. to introduce a friend,” Kim was saying as w.a.n.g Ti hurried from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. ”In fact, more than a friend. Fellow colonists and travellers, may I introduce my close friend, K.”

”Aiyal” both Kao Chen and w.a.n.g Ti said as one, astonished by the vision on the screen.

Indeed, throughout Ganymede there was a sharp intake of breath as a second Kim stepped into view and stood beside the Kim they knew. ”I am Kim Ward,” the newcomer said, ”and in many ways I share a common history with my brother here. Yet our universes are not identical. There are many differences. And those differences will prove useful in the days to come. But I believe - and my brother here shares my belief - that it is our task to put an end to all such differences. To unify reality. And tonight we take the first step in that process. Tonight we return to our own s.p.a.ce and time. To our own universe.”

The camera pulled back until it showed the window behind them and the perfect blackness of the sky.

”Look!” two voices said as one. ”We return!”

And as if it were some great conjuring trick that blackness was suddenly alive - alive with s.h.i.+mmering points of light Again, throughout Ganymede there was a gasp.

They had left no-s.p.a.ce. They were back inside the universe of stars and motion.

And they were sailing full-tilt towards Eridani.

One could almost feel the relief.