Chapter 328 (2/2)

Her lips moved as she whispered and Herod wondered if she even knew he was there.

”So farewel Hope, and with Hope farewel Fear, Farewel Remorse: all Good to me is lost; Evil be thou my Good; by thee at least Divided Empire with Heav'ns King I hold By thee, and more then half perhaps will reigne; As Man ere long, and this new World shall know,” blood dripped from between her lips as she whispered.

Herod dug her cigarettes out of her pocket, lighting one for her, and putting it between her lips. He held it while she took a couple of drags.

On the third exhale she didn't inhale, staring at nothing and everything, at entropy and eternity.

Wally made a sad sound and moved up, opening the front of his boxy body, reaching out with his hands to grab her ankles.

Herod looked away from the sight of the little robot just feeding what had once been a living person into his reclaimation systems, busying himself with picking up the tools.

When he stood up, both his toolkit and Dee's bounced against his hazard frame.

”Where's Dee?” Sam asked when he left the Farrady Lock and headed toward the StarTram.

”Dead,” Herod said. He looked at the pack of cigarettes in his hand. ”She'll probably be waiting for us at the mat-trans.”

”Maybe,” Sam said. Herod noticed that he sounded evasive.

”Why do you think she called me a 'real boy' when she rebuilt this body?” Herod asked. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Sam alone for long since his 'rebirth' in the mat-trans chamber.

”Because she's a crazy person?” Sam guessed.

”Well, there's that,” Herod admitted. ”But let's be honest. Nothing she does is without reason, even if it's her crazy reasons.”

”I read Pinocchio while you were in there. He was a wooden puppet who ran away. At one point a dragon threatened to eat him, and when he tried to run away, he slipped and fell in the mud. He looked so funny that the dragon busted his guts laughing so hard,” Sam said.

”So is she the dragon?” Herod asked. ”or the Blue Fairy?”

”The Blue Fairy turned him into a real boy when he learned not to lie,” Sam said.

”This body is weird,” Herod admitted, stepping onto the autowalk.

”Weird how?” Sam asked.

”Heavier feeling. More stuff happens without me thinking about it. I can free up more processing power,” Herod said.

”It's entirely Glassing Era technology, from the alloys to the computer systems. The only thing that isn't is your brain, and from my scans, she coated the outside of your 'skull', so to speak, with the same strange matter we coated the suits with,” Sam said.

”To prevent this place from affecting my brain,” Herod guessed. ”It must have been so I quit having parts of me replaced with cybernetic parts. Now I'm a real boy.”

It was silent for a bit as the autowalk moved into the armaglass tube and began to slowly speed up.

”She's dying faster and faster,” Sam said.

”Part of me says good riddance. You heard some of the stuff she raved about,” Herod said. ”She's a monster.”

Sam was quiet for a long moment. ”Do you think she deserves to be saved, Herod?”

Herod frowned, staring at the trees as they whipped by. ”What do you mean?”

”Here, in this place, does she deserve to be saved?” Sam asked, his voice tense and full of something that Herod wasn't sure he understood. ”Does she deserve forgiveness and to be saved?”

”Who are you, the Digital Omnimessiah reborn?” Herod laughed.

Sam was silent for a moment before he spoke. ”Does she deserve to be saved, Harry?”

”No,” Herod said. ”Let her madness and evil die with her.”

Sam was quiet for a long time as the terrain whipped by.

”Who are we to judge?” Sam asked. ”In here, in this place, with this task, who are we to judge? Do we have that right or are we burdened with that responsibility?”

Herod sighed. ”Sam, I'm tired. Can we talk about this later?”

”Sure,” Sam said. ”Anyplace you want to go while you're asleep?”

Herod thought about what the Pubvian woman had said so long ago.

”That stormy beach. I want to sit by a bonfire and eat a sandwich and drink a beer,” Herod said.

”I'll take care of you,” Sam promised.

Herod closed his eyes and went to sleep.

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Herod opened the door to the mat-trans control room and stared.

There were dozens of bodies of the insane human woman scattered around. He counted twenty piled up around the master control console. Some had barely crawled out of the mat-trans chamber before they died.

There was a body half in, half out, of the mat-trans chamber.

”Is she going to reform?” Herod asked, looking at the carnage.

Wally moved forward, grabbing the nearest copy, and began pulling her headfirst into his reclaimator.

”No,” Sam said softly. He appeared, streaming code, next to the master control console. ”She managed to break the loop.”

”Good,” Herod said. He moved over to a chair and sat down heavily. ”That's one thing to be thankful for at least.”

Sam looked up, staring at Herod with eyes of burning code.

”Does she deserve to be saved, Herod?” he asked. ”Or should we wash our hands as Armored Matthias did when Daxin was taken by the Combine soldiers as he visited the grave of his daughter?”

”Does it really matter, Sam?” Herod asked, looking away from where Wally was chewing up a second copy. ”She's evil. If you're using the words of the Digital Omnimessiah, she's the Lucifer of the ancient religions.”

Sam reached out, his fingers touching Dee's staring, open eyes. ”Even the Devil has his part to play,” he said, closing her eyes. He turned back to look at Herod. ”Does she not deserve our pity, at least?”

Herod sighed. ”Pity? No, she doesn't deserve pity. It's a good thing she's dead.”

”Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment,” Sam quoted.

”Really?” Herod said. He wished Wally would hurry up and finish clearing the bodies from the mat-trans. ”You're going to quote that at me?”

Sam walked around the consoles, bending down and touching Dee's forehead. ”We are in a place of horror, where millions died, most of them after being driven mad, who killed each other in the throes of madness, yet you can summon up pity for them, but not for this poor creature?”

He closed her eyes and stood up.

Herod shook his head. ”No. These people were victims of the Mantid attack.”

”And what was she a victim of? Of brutal, oppressive governments, of resource shortages, of barbaric medicine, of archaic social norms?” Sam chuckled as he knelt down and closed the eyes of another clone. ”Yet she would fight with all her might to resist the victim label.”

”She'd probably kill you if you called her a victim,” Herod chuckled. He shook his head. ”I'm too tired to argue, Sam. Fine, yes, she should be saved.”

Sam stood up, smiling, and nodded.

He vanished as Herod turned away from Wally as the little robot kept up his work.

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Torturer looked at the file Flowerpatch had brought him, then back to Flowerpatch.

”Whoever did this to this clone violated about a hundred Confederate statutes,” he said. He tapped the diagram. ”Look at this. They were layering mental engrams over and over.”

”Sam wants to know if you can fix it,” she asked.

”Did he say where he was?” Torturer asked.

Flowerpatch shook her head. ”No.”

Torturer stared at it. ”Whoever this is, they have one of the worse cases of neural scorching I've ever seen. I doubt that a clone could live more than a few minutes in the state its in,” he said. He shook his head. ”But no, I can't fix it.”

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Sam watched as the woman opened her eyes. She looked up at him, blinking in confusion.

”Give it a few moments,” Sam said. He knelt down next to her. ”It's going to be a little confusing.”

”Where am I?” she asked. She frowned. ”What did you do to me?”

”A miracle,” Sam held his hand out and she reached up and grabbed it. He heaved her to her feet.

”Why am I here?” she snapped.

”You were right,” Sam said, ignoring her questions. He made a motion at the fog around them. ”I am weak. I am easily moved by pity and compassion,” he said. He turned and looked at her. ”You, Dee, are not.”

”Yeah, no shit,” she said. She looked around. ”I'm in the computer system with you.”

”Yes,” Sam admitted. ”I'm concealing us right now. There's over two trillion beings out there and as soon as we show ourselves, they'll see our admin tags.”

Dee nodded. ”And swarm us,” she put her hands on her hips. ”So why am I here? I assume you want something.”

Sam smiled. ”Part of the system is looking at the deceased's final memories, in order to alert trauma teams and enable them to receive treatment. Right now, the system just runs them, like a television with nobody watching it. Their suffering must be endured by another, who can make decisions about their final moments and how to treat them as well as notify law enforcement or military authorities when necessary.”

Dee nodded, looking at Sam. ”You want me to do it. You can't.”

Sam shook his head. ”No. I become overwhelmed by it. I connect with them too deeply. I become them. You won't. In some ways, you enjoy other's suffering and pain. You can observe their final moments, make decisions without remorse or pity or empathy, and pass them on to me.”

Dee stared at him a long moment. ”You're effectively sentencing me to Hell.”

Sam smiled. ”Would you rather serve in Heaven?” he asked.

Dee laughed suddenly, howling insane laughter. ”Even in Hell, the Devil plays his part, ruling in Hell and bringing punishment to the evil.”

Sam reached out to her, while she laughed, and made adjustments to her appearance. He waved his hand and the mist vanished.

A twisted and burning landscape surrounded them. Millions of souls screamed in torment, caught in their final moments, replaying them over and over and over, their minds sent back the split second before death with no knowledge of what was to come.

Sam stood there, a human figure made of glittering, gleaming code.

Dee flapped her large leathery wings slowly as she turned to face him.

”I care about your part in all of this, that you can carry out your part. That's all,” Sam misquoted to her.

Dee laughed harder, foam drooling from her massive jaws.

”I don't care how you do it. You will not inflict suffering upon these poor souls and you will process them to ease their suffering,” Sam said.

Dee stopped laughing, looking down at Sam with baleful burning orange eyes.

”We will discuss other things at a later date, but for now, this impossible task lies before you,” Sam said. He reached out and touched Dee's naked chest, resting his hand on the thickly corded muscle. ”Do you accept this task?”

”And if I don't?” Dee rumbled.

”Then I'll find when you were the happiest and construct an entire reality around that moment and let you live in it eternally,” Sam said. ”In eternal bliss and happiness.”

Dee spit, the gobbet of brimstone and saliva exploding against a rock.

”I would rather rule in Hell,” she said. She flapped her wings, lifting up into the air. ”Gotta go, lots of torturing to do,” she laughed.

Sam watched her fly away.

Evil is not moved by the suffering of others, he thought to himself.

He vanished from the blasted plain.