Ice Trilogy

by Vladimir Sorokin

  We worried, lying in our boxes. We were the eyes of the Brotherhood. If these eyes were to close, it would be very difficult to search. And the search for the 23,000 would be drawn out for decades. Our hearts moaned from the insurmountable but long-awaited. We loved the Brotherhood. We wanted so badly to become the Light again. We hated the Earth.

  But we were aging and weakening. Life was fading in our bodies. Only our hearts lived, as before. They worked.

  The war spread.

  The meat machines of the Country of Order moved east, to the two main cities of the Country of Ice. They laid siege to these cities. The meat machines of the Country of Order penetrated the south and west as well. New countries were drawn into the war. Gradually there were forty-seven of them. Millions of meat machines, sitting in iron machines, pushed their way into enemy countries, spit hot metal from wide pipes, killed other meat machines that spoke different languages, destroying their cities.

  Millions of meat machines died in combat, in destroyed cities and villages. Among them our not-yet-found brothers and sisters. Fer and I could feel their deaths. And we hurried the Brotherhood. In the mountains we formed a Small Circle, closed our eyes, and spoke in the language of the Light. Younger brothers and sisters learned from us. Fer and I were happy to give them everything we could and knew. Our shriveled hands touched their faces. Our hearts jolted their hearts: we must hurry! We showed them where to search and for whom. Our mouths opened, we whispered in the language of the Earth the names of newly acquired brothers and sisters. They looked for them. But they weren’t able to find and awaken all of the newly acquired in time. Not all of them lived to feel the saving blow of the Ice hammer. Many were lost in the chaos of war. Many perished in bombed cities and in battles. Their hearts died without awakening.

  The war dragged on for several years. Meat machines of the Country of Ice, gathering strength, manufacturing many iron machines and pipes that spat hot metal, began to crowd out the meat machines of the Country of Order. They resisted and the others began to retreat. Gradually they retreated to their own borders. A large and powerful country, separated by an ocean, entered the war. In the war it was on the side of the Country of Ice. The meat machines living in it called it the Country of Freedom, since it did not have a single, all-powerful ruler as the countries of Ice and Order did. Thousands of meat machines from the Country of Freedom boarded floating and flying machines and arrived at the shores of countries enslaved by the Country of Order. The meat machines of the Country of Freedom began to spit hot metal from their powerful iron pipes at the meat machines of the Country of Order and to drop iron eggs on their cities. The meat machines of the Country of Order resisted furiously, but soon they began to retreat under the onslaught of meat machines that floated over the ocean.

  For the Brotherhood it was clear that the war would end in victory for the countries of Ice and Freedom over the Country of Order. But we also realized the leader of the Country of Order would pursue his main passion DURING the tormented loss of power. And that in pursuing this passion he would try to destroy as many meat machines as possible. We had to find our new brothers and sisters in time, and save them from the death of those found earlier. The leader of the Country of Order and his assistants had organized several secret places for the destruction of meat machines. They thought that these meat machines were alien to the idea of Order. According to the leader’s convictions, these meat machines hindered the establishment of complete order in the country by their very existence. Although they were no different from the rest of the meat machines of the Country of Order either outwardly or inwardly. They did the same thing as all meat machines: they worked, gave birth, battled, built, grew old, and died. They weren’t the enemies of the Country of Order, like the meat machines of the countries of Ice and Freedom. The only thing different about them was that their ancestors had not lived in the Country of Order. These meat machines came to the Country of Order from the east. Therefore, the ruler and his assistants thought of them as aliens. The Brotherhood immediately took an interest in the places where the meat machines were destroyed. We used these fenced-in and well-guarded places to search for ours. Brothers wearing the clothes of the military meat machines were able to fix things so that the blue-eyed and light-haired meat machines weren’t destroyed but were kept in a large wood barn. When enough had been put there, they were taken to a secret place where Fer and I looked through them. This took place three times. We found forty-eight brothers and twenty-nine sisters. But toward the end of the war the destruction of meat machines began to increase. A great number of them were destroyed in one place located in a country that had been seized by the Country of Order. In this place were many blue-eyed, blond meat machines. And they were selected and set apart for us. They were supposed to be taken off, but the Country of Ice strengthened its attack and the Brotherhood found that it was impossible to export them. They were supposed to be destroyed, like others before them. It was imperative to immediately reach this place and look through the prisoners. The brothers, making use of military meat machines, traveled to this place. We were put in our boxes and taken with them. At first we traveled in an iron machine along the usual road, then the brothers transferred to a long iron machine that carried us along an iron track. The place we were heading was fairly large. It was located in a field and fenced off with iron strings with thorns. It was guarded by meat machines with iron pipes that spat out hot metal. This was done so that the meat machines that had been prepared for annihilation wouldn’t run off. Our long iron machine drove into this place. And the gates were locked after it immediately. When the brothers took Fer and me out of the machines and placed us on the ground, we instantly sensed a seeing heart. One of the two we were looking for to replace us. This heart was beating somewhere nearby. We became joyously excited in our boxes. The place where we were whirled with thousands of lives. Meat machines from several countries had been placed in wooden barns. They awaited annihilation. In this place there were five large ovens. Near each oven there was a stone cave. The meat machines chosen for destruction were brought to this cave. They were told that it was a bathhouse where they would wash themselves. The meat machines took their clothes off. But instead of water, poisonous air flowed down on them, air created by the intelligent meat machines to kill other meat machines. This poisonous air asphyxiated the meat machines. When they were all dead, the stone cave was opened and aired out. Then other meat machines threw the bodies of the asphyxiated meat machines into the ovens. In the ovens the bodies burned and turned into ash. Ash lay in a thick layer everywhere in this place. The majority of the meat machines awaiting annihilation knew that poisonous air, and not a bath, awaited them inside the stone caves. But they submissively waited for death. Although they were far more numerous than the guards, the meat machines didn’t try to unite and attack those who destroyed their meat machines. They awaited their fate. Many hoped that they would survive. We heard the swirling drone of their lives. And among them we distinguished ours. The brothers talked to the head meat machine of this place, who directed the destruction of meat machines. The head meat machine did not want to give us the chosen blue-eyed, light-haired meat machines for some time. The head meat machine had many questions for the brothers who had arrived. The brothers gave the meat machines several stones, very expensive ones in the world of meat machines. And the head meat machine of the place permitted us to take the chosen ones. They were in two large barns. The guards gave them an order and they walked from the barn to our long iron machine. Many of them were extremely emaciated from hunger and moved slowly. The seeing but unwoken heart moved along with them. Fer and I realized that it was among those who had been picked out. When they all got into the long iron machine, they were locked up. And our long iron machine pulled out of the place for the destruction of meat machines. Fer and I trembled: our hearts could feel the presence of many of ours among these meat machines. And we felt the presence of a seeing heart. We began to hurry the brothers. The iron mac
hine traveled along iron rails for a quarter of a day, and they stopped it on the edge of a forest. There was a large ravine there. The brothers ordered the meat machines to get out of the long machine and gather in the ravine. The meat machines submissively fulfilled the order. They descended into the ravine and stood there. The brothers ordered them to sit down. The meat machines sat on the ground. The brothers carried Fer and me out of the train, set the boxes on the edge of the ravine, opened them, and took us out of our boxes. We were set down on the edge of the ravine. We began to look through the meat machines. They stared at us silently. They were not at all afraid of how we looked because they themselves were very similar. But they didn’t understand what we were doing. We began to find ours. The brothers immediately took them out of the gully and put them on the long machine. We found the seeing heart almost immediately. It was a brother who possessed it. He was put on the machine. We found seventeen brothers and thirty sisters. They were all put on the long machine and locked up. When the search was finished, the brothers picked us up and carried us into the long iron machine. The brothers, who were using the clothing of military meat machines and guarding the meat machines in the ravine, also got on the long iron machine. The machine slowly moved away. The meat machines who remained in the ravine watched us. They didn’t understand why we were leaving. They were certain we had gathered them in the gully in order to destroy them with pipes that spit hot metal. But we went on our way with the newly acquired. On board the brothers retrieved the store of Ice hammers and prepared to strike those we had found. Fer and I pointed out the brother with the seeing heart. We were longing for him to awake first. He was thin, with a gaunt, young face. He was twenty-three years old. When the brothers undressed him and began to tie him to the wall, he made absolutely no effort to resist. He only prayed. And clutched in his right hand a piece of crumpled gray paper. Fer and I saw his life and understood what this piece of paper was. When he was taken to the place of destruction, a certain meat machine had given him this paper. This meat machine knew many prayers, and in its former, peacetime life, meat machines would come to it so that it could tell them how to live correctly. When it gave him the crumpled paper, the meat machine said that this paper — was him. And what he would be depended on him — whether he would be all crumpled up or straightened out. And in the place of destruction he smoothed out the paper on his palm every night. And in the morning he crumpled it up. Tied to the wall, he squeezed the paper in his fist. As soon as the Ice hammer struck his emaciated chest, the crumpled paper fell out of his hand. And his seeing heart spoke.

  “Ub! Ub! Ub!”

  And Fer and I realized that Ub was one of our two successors. He could see the world just as we did. If he were paired with another seeing heart. We would find this heart as well. The war would end, the meat machines would begin to restore the damage and give birth to children. The Brotherhood would strengthen itself even more firmly in this world. Our mortally exhausted bodies would die, our hearts would stop, the Light would leave them. But the hearts of Ub and his partner would beat and search. They would find EVERYONE. And the acquired hearts would form a Large Circle and pronounce the 23 words with their hearts. And the Light would begin to shine. And the Earth would disappear. And Time would stop. And Eternity would arrive.

  But we had to continue to live in the present.

  The brothers unhooked the parts of the iron machine that were empty. Without them the machine was shorter, but the brothers and the newly acquired all fit. The machines traveled faster. We had to get the newly acquired to a secluded place as soon as possible, a place where they could receive treatment. Many of them could not even stand because of constant hunger. But no one died from the blow of the Ice hammer: their woken hearts helped them. Fer and I sat next to Ub. He had lost consciousness and his breathing was shallow. We held his hands. They were almost as thin as ours. We touched his face. We took care of his heart.

  After the sun went down the iron machine turned north. We had to bring those we found to a prearranged place where the brothers were waiting for them. By morning we had reached this place. It was a place where iron machines that traveled along iron tracks stopped. Many of them stood there. During the trip the newly acquired had been dressed in normal clothes. When our machine began to stop, Fer and I were again put in our boxes. We had a hard time letting go of Ub’s hand. The machine stopped. But something was moving over it. High above. In the sky.

  Fer and I cried out in our boxes: our hearts could see the four flying machines above. The flying machines opened their bellies. And dropped huge iron eggs filled with a fierce substance. Iron eggs flew down from above. There were forty of them. We saw them over us. And realized that one of us would perish. The iron eggs began to fall. As soon as they struck the ground, the fierce substance tore them apart. And with them — everything else around. The shells of the iron eggs flew forcefully in all directions. The iron eggs exploded near our machine. The shells of the iron eggs pierced the walls of our machine and passed through the bodies of eighteen brothers and twelve sisters. The shells of the iron eggs passed through the head of brother Ub. The shells of the iron eggs passed through Fer’s torso.

  It passed all the way through Fer’s body.

  Through Fer’s heart.

  And Fer’s heart stopped.

  Time

  The earth’s Time is many-colored. Each object, each living being, lives in its time. In its color. The time of stones and mountains is dark crimson. The time of sand is purple. The time of the black soil is orange. The time of rivers and lakes is apricot. The time of trees and grasses is gray. The time of insects is brown. The time of fish is emerald. The time of cold-blooded animals is olive. The time of warm-blooded animals is sky-blue. The time of meat machines is violet.

  And only we, the brothers of the Light, have no earthly color. We are colorless, as long as the Primordial Light is in our heart. For the Light — is our time. And it is in this time that we live. When our hearts stop and the Light leaves us, we acquire a color. Violet. But not for very long: as soon as the body grows cold, its time becomes dark yellow. The time of corpses of living creatures on Earth is dark yellow.

  Sister Khram

  Seven years have passed since Fer’s death.

  My hands move slowly. My fingers stir with difficulty. They rarely touch things. Things of the Earth. Ephemeral things. Which rot and fall apart. The brothers and sisters love my hands. Because they know them. They place them on their faces. And stop stock-still. And I take care of my brothers and sisters.

  My eyes no longer see the world of things. The darkness of the Earth’s world stands before me. But my heart sees. My heart knows many things.

  The war of the meat machines ended. The countries of Ice and Freedom were victorious. The Country of Order lost. Its meat machines seethed with exhaustion and desperation. They killed and perished. Their leader fulfilled the tormented desire of his life: he heroically lost a great war. Fleeing deep into the Earth, he killed himself with metal from an iron pipe. The victorious meat machines put the leader’s assistants on trial. They were hanged by the neck with ropes so that they couldn’t breathe. And the leader’s assistants suffocated. The victorious meat machines began to rebuild what had been destroyed. In the place of burned cities they erected new ones. The meat machines gave birth to meat machines. Newborn meat machines were growing. And inhabited the new cities.

  I see this.

  New iron machines, even more powerful than the ones that were crushed, are being built. Thousands of new pipes that spit metal are created every day. Millions of iron eggs that destroy cities again await their hour.

  I see this.

  At the end of the war the meat machines created a powerful, fierce substance that had never before existed. When exploded, this substance could destroy entire cities. The most intelligent meat machines created it. This substance was packed into two large iron eggs and dropped on two cities. In exploding, the eggs entirely destroyed both cities. In these
cities, 223,418 meat machines perished instantly. But there were none of ours among them. Ours perished in other places.

  And I saw this.

  In four years of war the Brotherhood lost forty-nine brothers and seventy sisters. They died in different countries. From hot metal, in crashes of iron machines, in burning cities, from illnesses and wounds.

  These losses did not deplete us. The foundation of the Brotherhood had been laid before the war. It was correctly laid. And remained firm.

  After the war the Brotherhood strengthened in six countries. We stood firmly amid the work of meat machines. We owned stone caves, complex machines, expensive objects. We possessed places that produced things that meat machines could not do without: clothes, footwear, objects for stone caves.

  The Brotherhood came to have a lot of money. This helped us to search.

  But the main difficulty remained: after the death of Fer, the Brotherhood had been deprived of an All-Seeing Eye. Alone I could not differentiate ours in the crowd. My heart couldn’t manage it. It choked in the drone of the crowd. I could only sense ours. I could only guide the search.

  My heart needed Fer’s heart. Fer and Ub, our hope, perished together. My box was no longer needed by the Brotherhood. It was burned.

  I am alive.

  And as long as I am alive, I know where to search.

  I guide the brothers as well as I can. But all the same, for the moment they are searching blind. Kidnapping blue-eyed, light-haired people, they strike each with the Ice hammer. This is complicated and laborious. But there’s no other way. And so we search.

  After the war, a great deal of Ice was needed for striking.

  The Ice lay in the Country of Ice.

  It needed to be brought to countries where the Brotherhood had based itself. Where the search was being carried on. The brothers took on the procurement and delivery of the Ice. They were able to arrange things so that the meat machines began to mine the Ice. Near the place where the Ice lay, settlements of meat machines that had committed offenses in the eyes of the law of the Country of Ice had been established. For this they were usually forced to cut down trees and mine rare metals from the earth. But the brothers were able to persuade the authorities of the Country of Ice that the Ice was crucial to strengthening the might of that country. Intelligent meat machines helped us in this. The Ice began to be extracted and shipped to the main city of this country. From there the Brotherhood secretly transported it to the necessary countries. The brothers sawed it into hundreds of pieces. And manufactured hundreds of Ice hammers.