Part 17 (1/2)

<they call=”” it=”” timestone.=””> ”But what is it?”Quath began to explain but Toby could not keep his mind on the talk, 211.compared with the slippery immediate feel to everything here, the give to air and rock alike. He let the information filter down to the parliament that was himself, where gobbets of succulent information fed the Aspects and Faces and the one smoldering Personality. They took to it eagerly, while he simply felt, scarcely thinking at all. s.h.i.+bo asked,So science has grabbed time and made it like a kind of s.p.a.ce?He relayed this to Quath, who clacked and said, <the esty=”” is=”” an=”” arena=”” for=”” the=”” struggles=”” of=”” particles=”” and=”” fields.=”” or=”” else=”” maybe=”” there=”” was=”” nothing=”” but=”” curved=”” esty--and=”” somehow=”” everything=”” else,=”” matter=”” and=”” motion,=”” came=”” out=”” of=”” curving=”” the=”” esty.=””> s.h.i.+bo was as unsettled by this as he had ever felt her.Maybe even in tiny pieces? Pebbles, sand? So that everything's really, down deep, esty?Isaac put in,Many ages ago our science abandoned the simple notion that physics was geometry. But in this place...Even Isaac seemed subdued by the silent strangeness.

Toby was restless from the strangeness of this place. ”Come on--let's go.”

<where?> ”Uh...” Getting away from the weight of father and Family had been giddy, liberating. But now his mind was blank. ”Just keep moving. I need to think.”

They went for a while without speaking. Quath's silence grew to seem like a precise criticism, all the harder to answer because it was unspoken.

They worked their way toward a distant upthrust of green, thinking it to be a gra.s.sy hill from which they could get a better view. But as they approached Toby saw striations working in the layers of it, colors mixing flame-yellow and reddish-brown and scattershot blue. Sometimes shards of emerald emerged, as if from a struggle of the light within.

Without warning a sheer cliff writhed in sc.r.a.ping agony above them, like something laboring to be born. A sheet peeled off, cracking and booming, curling away like a petal of an immense flower. Its base yanked free.

Toby ran back, trying to get clear. But the sheet did not fall.

Instead the still-curling layer compressed, contracting along its length and then along its width, shrinking, complaining in grating groans--all the while oozing burnt-orange rays, as though some unseen fire baked inside. The edges turned crimson and then curled back, showing a well21 2.done brown. Still it dwindled, crevices sputtering with fist-sized flares, and--crack! the sheet vanished. A sharp concussion knocked Toby flat. He felt as if somebody had smacked him in the forehead with a stick.

sty cannot=”” last.=””> Quath didn't seem disturbed. <somewhen else.=””> ”Why?”

.... Huh? You mean this whole place can't last?”

”Seems a funny way to build.”

Without their noticing it the glow around and above them dimmed.

Blades of radiance shot through filigree clouds. A chill edged the air. Toby said, ”Guess we're done for a while,” and sat down on a hummock sprouting a wiry yellow gra.s.s.

It had been long years since he had fled for a full and exciting day across unknown terrain, and despite all the worries he kept at the back of his mind, he felt unreasonably good. Never mind that his Family lay behind him, that he missed them already. Ache crept up his calves and a ferocious hunger sprouted in his belly.

”You got rations?”

”Me, too. Let's eat. Then some sleep. Talk later.”

<you realize=”” the=”” grave=”” course=”” you=”” have=”” set.=””> ”Yeasay. Feeling good for the first time in quite a while.”

”Funny--that's just what I do like, right now.”

2.

Time's Grip He woke up fuzzily. s.h.i.+bo was crooning to him, a soft voice playing down through his body, ma.s.saging his muscles and strumming along fibrous nerve nets.

Wake. I love you for what you did and I will help you through this place. Hard I can be, and soft, too. For you. But you must wake now, as much as you would like to stay down there in the syrup and cotton.”Uhhhhh... okay ...”--a liquid licking pleasure, soft darks, crooning winds outside, musky delights below, pulses hammering, sharp tang of blood from a bitten lip, quickening gasps--He pushed the feelings away. Pleasant, but he knew he had to wake up. A dream? Somehow more concrete than that...He lay sprawled across spongy gra.s.s, arms spread out, boots off, servos dead. Vulnerable. He tapped an incisor two short raps and felt his servos stutter back to life. His sensorium, spread wide for guard duty, contracted into a half-sphere. Nothing funny on the perimeter, no orange-haloed possibles lying doggo inside. Suit weaponry br.i.m.m.i.n.g, fresh-charged when he left Argo.Safe to stir. Long ago his father had taught him to appear dead when he awoke, until he was fully ready to fight. He lifted his right hand----and it wouldn't budge. It lay palm-up on smooth, cool timestone.

The flesh near his knuckles felt cold, stiff. He pulled harder. A little give, not much. He sat up awkwardly, hand pinned to rock. ”Quath.”<good morning,=”” though=”” the=”” light=”” here=”” does=”” not=”” properly=”” lend=”” itself=”” to=”” that=”” description.=””>”I'm stuck. Lemme--”

214.”It's got me.”<still-->He yanked hard. The right hand came free with an awful rippingsound--and a flash of white-hot pain. ”Ow!”The entire back of his hand was raw, a scarlet patch of oozing corpus cles. It had left behind a tattered rag still stuck to the timestone. Alreadyturning brown, blood thickening in air.

antic.i.p.ated-- >..

Toby clutched his hand and swore. He popped open his medicali.; pouch, fished out supplies and slapped an all-purpose bandage on the:.

b.l.o.o.d.y damage. ”How'd--what--””Feels solid.””What 'event'? That stuff tried to eat me.”<do not=”” ascribe=”” intention=”” to=”” physical=”” law.=”” your=”” skin=”” became=”” weddedto=”” the=”” esty.=”” it=”” began=”” to=”” diffuse=”” into=”” the=”” occurrence-s.p.a.ce=”” which=”” this=”” substance=”” is.=””>”You mean everything here can sop us up, like sponges?”;....

<only if=”” you=”” dwell=”” long=”” enough=”” in=”” close=”” proximity--within=”” a=”” few”i=”” atomic=”” lattice=”” s.p.a.cings,=”” say.=””>”This gra.s.s, even the air?”<not at=”” all.=”” they=”” are=”” ordinary=”” ma.s.s,=”” the=”” simple=”” form=”” of=”” matter.=””>Toby shook his head. ”Look, let's eat some of that ordinary stuff.Provisions, I mean. I'm woozy.”Quath threw him a ration.Toby barely heard this. The bandage was a living layer doing its work, regrowing his skin. Already the back of his hand wriggled, a sc.u.mmy green mat eating his drying blood and making epidermis. But Family bioengineering--when it had existed as a living craft--had dictated that repair came first. Nurture was far down the list, so the pain still made him grit his teeth. He turned off most of it by going though his subcontrols, but it took time. Pain could also be a useful reminder, so it was not easy to block.

He ate some of his rations, sitting gingerly on gra.s.s a good distance from any timestone. Morning was nothing like sunrise here, though there was a crisp bite in the air. Patches of stone exuded pale beams of light that scattered among the twisted trees. Distant peaks brimmed with slow-s.h.i.+fting colors. When the clouds far above parted he could see other sources of radiance giving off diffuse glows that came and waxed and flared again in long, patient pulses.

215.

<this light=”” seems=”” to=”” come=”” from=”” the=”” accretion=”” disk=”” around=”” the=”” black=”” hole.=”” it=”” becomes=”” trapped=”” in=”” the=”” esty=”” and=”” carried=”” along=”” by=”” solidified=”” past=”” events.=””>”Seems enough to grow trees.”<the virulence=”” of=”” the=”” disk=”” is=”” muted=”” here=”” until=”” it=”” sustains=”” life.=”” this=”” cannot=”” be=”” accidental.=””>”Who you figure made this?”<not even=”” the=”” philosophs=”” know.=”” i=”” am=”” too=”” humble=”” to=”” speculate.=”” use=”” of=”” the=”” fabric=”” of=”” s.p.a.ce-time=”” as=”” construction=”” material=”” is=”” a=”” skill=”” beyond=”” my=”” comprehension.=””>”How 'bout us?”<you? primates?=””>”Why not? We made Argo, a long way back. And don't forget the Chandeliers.”<you do=”” not=”” understand=”” how=”” much=”” greater=”” the=”” esty=”” is.=””>”Ummm. You're impressed by big ideas. Me, I'm impressed by a tore-up hand.”Toby had meant the suggestion as a joke anyway. He had long ago given up trying to understand where things came from. Time enough for such luxuries when he felt safe. If ever.Down the s.h.i.+ning air came a bird. It was the first he had seen since Snowglade, in the years before Citadel Bishop fell. The mechs had found birds a fairly trivial exercise in extinction and had easily blown them from the skies.This one was far larger than anything he had seen aloft that was not mech. It neither fluttered like a b.u.t.terfly nor soared like a predator hawk, but instead sported with proud reliance on the fields of the air. He watched it snag something he could not make out. Then it wallowed through a milky strand of congealing vapor, more like swimming than flying.The cup of mottled air blew over Toby and he felt a sudden sharp chill.

He tried to raise his arm and found it would not go, that he could not even bat his eyes. His chest froze. Muscles locked up. Then the stuff like translucent gla.s.s was gone and he could breathe. The bird had wafted by without a twitter or slightest show of concern. Only as it pa.s.sed did he see that it had four wings and an outsized head. Yellow wings churned against a gathering breeze and the air thickened around it. Winds curled. Theatmosphere turned a color like chalk meeting rust.”Quath!”<wait. it=”” pa.s.ses.=””>”Some weather,” was all Toby could manage to say.sty can=”” sublime=”” into=”” vapor,=”” i=”” believe,=”” even=”” liquid--or=”” so=”” the=”” ”introductory=”” text”=”” implied.=”” it=”” mingles=”” with=”” the=”” air.=”” try=”” not=”” to=”” breathe=”” it=”” in.=””>Toby got his breathing right again. His chest hurt. Rock that turned to air? And maybe back again? He let his aching lungs subside.Another bird came slow-flapping down a pa.s.sing draft. With admira- 216.

tion Toby followed its artful course on vagrant winds. ”I dunno about this place, old bug-girl. If you have to check it out before you draw a breath-”Quath shot the bird. It blew to pieces. Toby cried out in alarm.

”What'd you--”<look at=”” it.=””>Toby found parts of the body in some stumpy gra.s.s. Blood everywhere, guts glistening fresh, an acid scent. Head cracked open, eyesstaring. At the back of the skull, s.h.i.+ny electricals.”d.a.m.n! It's got mech parts.”<made by=”” them.=”” adroitly=”” disguised.=””>”And here.”

”All this time I thought we were safe.”<so do=”” many.=”” they=”” scrupulously=”” filter=”” visitors=”” such=”” as=”” ourselves=”” for=”” mechanical=”” spies,=”” for=”” microscopic=”” agents,=”” for=”” intrusive=”” programs=”” in=”” human=”” computers.=”” andro=”” said=”” these=”” measures=”” were=”” effective.=””>”Double dog d.a.m.n. That bird, it looked real pretty.””They did before, remember? That crazy leader on Trump, thatSupremacy--his head was packed with stuff like this.”

<true. i=”” should=”” have=”” generalized=”” from=”” that.=””> ”But who'd think? Inside a bird, even.””If it had time to send a signal to whatever made it--”<quite so.=”” what=”” are=”” the=”” chances=”” that=”” a=”” mech=”” device=”” would=”” find=”” us,=”” in=”” the=”” labyrinths=”” of=”” the=”” esty?=””>”Ummm. Depends on how many Lanes there are.”

<there may=”” be=”” uncountably=”” many.=”” the=”” mathematics=”” of=”” this=”” place=”” is=”” oy=”” with=”” infinities.=””>Coy? Quath picked some pretty funny words, sometimes. ”Depends on how many spies the mechs're sending, too.”<this bird=”” implies,=”” then,=”” that=”” the=”” mechanicals=”” are=”” much=””></this>< p=””>

That they are hunting you.>”Me? C'mon, my father'd like to get his hands on me, but mechs? I'm not important to them.”Quath's servos wheezed uneasily. <uncertainties converge.=”” i=”” believe=”” we=”” must=”” again=”” make=”” use=”” of=”” the=”” esty's=”” prime=”” property--concealment.=””> 3.

The Rock of Chaos To ”make use” meant moving fast over unknown terrain, looking for a pore-opening. Toby thought of the wrenching places where the esty boiled open as sick-making confusions, but Quath spoke of them as the finest work of intelligence she had ever encountered.Toby tried hard to understand as they ran, loping over sheets of timestone. His hand still hurt fiercely and he stepped lively, afraid that the apparently solid rock would suck him in. Quath made her screeching, ratchetlike laugh about this but he did not think it was funny.Part of his problem was envisioning time and s.p.a.ce all gumboed together to make something he could walk on. He was acutely aware of the time, all right. Of the enhanced, vivid now that divided the known but fading past from the unknown, ghostly future. But how did you marry that to distance?”Time, well, n.o.body can stop it, yeasay? And s.p.a.ce, that's what keeps everything from mas.h.i.+ng together--so what've they got in common?”Toby was trying to provoke her, but Quath took it all very solemnly.

Gravely she explained.Listening, Toby caught an occasional glimmering. Humans had an awareness of things becoming, bursting forth into concrete solidity, and then fading into a limbo of memory. Quath said that s.p.a.ce-time, the esty, contained real time, and the transience of human experiences was only an illusion peculiar to living creatures.And what did their opinion matter, Toby thought wryly, since they were around for such a short glimmering? His Isaac Aspect tendered up an ancient rhyme, Time goes, you say? ah no!Alas, time stays, we go.

--and cackled with weird glee.

21 8.They pa.s.sed by huge blank timestone walls, porous with blurred light. Giant towers worked and popped with energy nearby, growing like triangular trees. Some seemed able to s.h.i.+ver the sky and wrench the stars apart with their restless energy. Quath and Toby hurried by. They ventured with scarcely a pause into abrupt turns, mazy avenues of timestone. Toby had kept himself in pretty fair condition on Argo, he thought, but he had a trial in just keeping Quath within sight. His lungs burned. Servos ran hot.

He stopped abruptly. ”Quath, I was wrong. Dead wrong.”

<how?> ”We've run out on the Family. That bird--what if mechs're all over this place now?”

<you believe=”” the=”” mechanicals=”” will=”” seek=”” all=”” the=”” humans=”” here?=””> ”Bishops, anyway. Come on.”

<where?> ”I'm heading back.”

He felt good about himself for the next few hours, while they backtracked.

Quath kept quiet. After a while Toby saw why.

”Uh... which way from here?”

”We came this way, yeasay?”

”The Lane connection, it was somewhere around here.” Hills, trees, sky--all different.

<the esty=”” is=”” strongly=”” stochastic=”” at=”” the=”” lane=”” connections,=”” for=”” those=”” are=”” the=”” instability=”” loci.=””> Toby sagged down, eyes blank. ”So we can't find our way back?”