Reality Dysfunction - Expansion nd-2

by Peter F. Hamilton

  “I’d like to capture one of these sequestrated invaders if possible,” Jeroen van Ewyck put in quickly.

  What about the marines, Erato?auster asked. Do you think it’s worth a try?

  I’ll fly recovery if we can spot them,the pilot said. His thoughts conveyed a rising excitement.

  Auster acknowledged his leaked feelings with an ironic thought. Pilots were uniformly a macho breed, unable to resist any challenge, even Edenist ones.

  The Juliffe basin is proving difficult to resolve, Ilex said with a note of annoyance. My optical sensors are unable to receive a clearly defined image of the river and its tributaries for about a thousand kilometres inland.

  It’s night over the basin, and we’re still seventy thousand kilometres away,auster pointed out.

  Even so, the optical resolution should be better than this.

  “Commander Solanki, we’re going to attempt to recover the marines as well,” Auster said.

  “I haven’t been able to contact them for over a day. God, I don’t even know if they’re still alive, let alone where they are.”

  “None the less, they are our naval personnel. If there’s any chance, we owe them the effort.”

  The statement drew him a startled glance from Jeroen van Ewyck and the other two Adamists on the bridge. They quickly tried to hide their gaffe. Auster ignored it.

  “Christ but—All right,” Kelven Solanki datavised. “I’ll fly the recovery myself, though. No point in risking your spaceplane. It was me who ordered them in there to start with. My responsibility.”

  “As you wish. If our sensors can locate their fishing boat, do you have an aircraft available?”

  “I can get one. But the invaders knocked out the last plane to fly into their territory. One thing I do know is that they’ve got some lethal fire-power going for them.”

  “So has Ilex ,” Auster said bluntly.

  Joshua Calvert fell back onto the translucent sheet and let out a heartfelt breath. The bed’s jelly-substance mattress was rocking him gently as the waves slowed. Sweat trickled across his chest and limbs. He gazed up at the electrophorescent cell clusters on Ione’s ceiling. Their ornate leaf pattern was becoming highly familiar.

  “That’s definitely one of the better ways of waking up,” he said.

  “One?” Ione unwrapped her legs from his waist and sat back on his legs. She stretched provocatively, hands going behind her neck.

  Joshua groaned, staring at her voraciously.

  “Tell me another,” she said.

  He sat up, bringing his face twenty centimetres from hers. “Watching you,” he said in a throaty voice.

  “Does that turn you on?”

  “Yes.”

  “Solo, or with another girl?” She felt his muscles tighten in reflex. Well, that’s my answer, she thought. But then she’d always known how much he enjoyed threesomes. It wasn’t Joshua’s cock which was hard to satisfy, just his ego.

  He grinned; the Joshua rogueish-charm grin. “I bet this conversation is going to turn to Dominique.”

  Ione gave his nose a butterfly kiss. They just couldn’t fool each other; it was a togetherness similar to the one she enjoyed with the habitat personality. Comforting and eerie at the same time. “You mentioned her name first.”

  “Are you upset about her coming to Lalonde with me?”

  “No. It makes sound business sense.”

  “You do disapprove.” He stroked the side of her breasts tenderly. “There’s no need to be jealous. I have been to bed with Dominique, you know.”

  “I know. I watched you on that big bed of hers, remember?”

  He cupped her breasts and kissed each nipple in turn. “Let’s bring her to this bed.”

  She looked down on the top of his head. “Not possible, sorry. The Saldanas eradicated the gay gene from their DNA three hundred years ago. Couldn’t risk the scandal, they are supposed to uphold the ten commandments throughout the kingdom, after all.”

  Joshua didn’t believe a word of it. “They missed erasing the adultery gene, then.”

  She smiled. “What’s your hurry to hit the mattress with her? The two of you are going to spend a week locked up in that zero-gee sex cage of yours.”

  “You are jealous.”

  “No. I never claimed to have an exclusive right to you. After all, I didn’t complain about Norfolk.”

  He pulled his head back from her breasts. “Ione!” he complained.

  “You reeked of guilt. Was she very beautiful?”

  “She was . . . sweet.”

  “Sweet? Why, Joshua Calvert, I do believe you’re getting romantic in your old age.”

  Joshua sighed and dropped back on the mattress again. He wished she’d make up her mind whether she was jealous or not. “Do I ask about your lovers?”

  Ione couldn’t help the slight flush that crept up her cheeks. Hans had been fun while it lasted, but she’d never felt as free with him as she did with Joshua. “No,” she admitted.

  “Ah hah, I’m not the only one who’s guilty, by the looks of it.”

  She traced a forefinger down his sternum and abdomen until she was stroking his thighs. “Quits?”

  “Yes.” His hands found her hips. “I brought you another present.”

  “Joshua! What?”

  “A gigantea seed. That’s an aboriginal Lalonde tree. I saw a couple on the edge of Durringham, they were eighty metres tall, but Marie said they were just babies, the really big ones are further inland from the coast.”

  “Marie said that, did she?”

  “Yes.” He refused to be put off. “It should grow all right in Tranquillity’s parkland. But you’ll have to plant it where the soil is deep and there’s plenty of moisture.”

  “I’ll remember.”

  “It’ll grow up to the light-tube eventually.”

  She pulled a disbelieving face.

  I will have to run environmental compatibility tests first,tranquillity said. Our biosphere is delicately balanced.

  So cynical.“thank you, joshua,” she said out loud.

  Joshua realized he had regained his erection. “Why don’t you just ease forward a bit?”

  “I could give you a treat instead,” Ione said seductively. “A real male fantasy come true.”

  “Yes?”

  “Yes. There’s a girlfriend of mine I’d like you to meet. We go swimming together every morning. You’d like that, watching us get all wet and slippery. She’s younger than me. And she never, ever wears a swimming costume.”

  “Jesus.” Joshua’s face went from greed to caution. “This isn’t on the level,” he decided.

  “Yes, it is. She’s also very keen to meet you. She likes it a lot when people wash her. I do it all the time, sliding my hands all over her. Don’t you want to join me?”

  He looked up at Ione’s mock-innocent expression, and wondered what the hell he was letting himself in for. Gay gene, like bollocks. “Lead on.”

  They had walked fifty metres down the narrow sandy path towards the cove, Ione’s escort of three serjeants an unobtrusive ten paces behind, when Joshua stopped and looked round. “This is the southern endcap.”

  “That’s right,” she said slyly.

  He caught up with her as she reached the top of the bluff. The long, gently curving cove below looked tremendously enticing, with a border of shaggy palm trees and a tiny island offshore. Away in the distance he could see the elaborate buildings of the Laymil project campus.

  “It’s all right,” she said. “I won’t have you arrested for coming here.”

  He shrugged and followed her down the bluff. Ione was running on ahead as he reached the sand. Her towelling robe was flung away. “Come on, Joshua!” Spray frothed up as her feet reached the water.

  A naked girl, a tropical beach. Irresistible. He dropped his own robe and jogged down the slope. Something was moving behind him, something making dull thudding sounds as it moved, something heavy. He turned. “Jesus!”

  A Kiint wa
s running straight at him. It was smaller than any he’d seen before, about three metres long, only just taller than him. Eight fat legs were flipping about in a rhythm which was impossible to follow.

  His feet refused to budge. “Ione!”

  She was laughing hysterically. “Morning, Haile,” she called at the top of her voice.

  The Kiint lumbered to a halt in front of him. He was looking into a pair of soft violet eyes half as wide as his own face. A stream of warm damp breath poured from the breathing vents.

  “Er . . .”

  One of the tractamorphic arms curved up, the tip formshifting into the shape of a human hand—slightly too large.

  “Well, say hello, then,” Ione said; she had walked up to stand behind him.

  “I’ll get you for this, Saldana.”

  She giggled. “Joshua, this is my girlfriend, Haile. Haile, this is Joshua.”

  Why has he so much stiffness?haile asked.

  Ione cracked up, nearly doubling over as she laughed. Joshua gave her a furious glare.

  Not want to shake hands? Not want to initiate human greetings ritual? Not want to be friends?the kiint sounded mournfully disappointed.

  “Joshua, shake hands. Haile’s upset you don’t want to be friends with her.”

  “How do you know?” he asked out of the corner of his mouth.

  “Affinity. The Kiint can use it.”

  He put his hand up. Haile’s arm reached out, and he felt a dry, slightly scaly, bud of flesh flow softly around his fingers. It tickled. His neural nanonics were executing a priority search through the xenoc files he had stored in a memory cell. The Kiint could hear.

  “May your thoughts always fly high, Haile,” he said, and gave a slight formal bow.

  I have much likening for him!

  Ione gave him a calculating stare. I might have known that charm of his would work on xenocs too, she thought.

  Joshua felt the Kiint’s flesh deliver a warm squeeze to his hand, then the pseudo-hand peeled back. The itchy sensation it left in his palm seemed to spread up along his spine and into his skull.

  “Your new girlfriend,” he said heavily.

  Ione smiled. “Haile was born a few weeks ago. And boy, does she grow fast.”

  Haile started to push Ione towards the water, flat triangular head butting the girl spiritedly, beak flapping. One of her tractamorphic arms beckoned avidly at Joshua.

  He grinned. “I’m coming.” His scalp felt as if he’d been in the sun too long, an all-over tingle.

  “The water eases her skin while she’s growing,” Ione said as she skipped ahead of the eager Kiint. “She needs to bathe two or three times a day. All the Kiint houses have interior pools. But she loves the beach.”

  “Well, I’ll be happy to help scrub her while I’m here.”

  Much gratitude.

  “My pleasure,” Joshua said. He stopped. Haile was standing at the edge of the water, big eyes regarding him attentively. “That was you.”

  Yes.

  “What was?” Ione asked, she looked from one to the other.

  “I can hear her.”

  “But you don’t have an affinity gene,” she said, surprised, and maybe a little indignant.

  Joshua has thoughts of strength. Much difficulty to effect interlocution, but possible. Not so with most humans. Feel hopelessness. Failure sorrow.

  He swaggered. “Strong thoughts, see?”

  “Haile hasn’t quite mastered our language, that’s all,” Ione smiled with menace. “She’s confused strength with simplicity. You have very elementary thoughts.”

  Joshua rubbed his hands together determinedly, and walked towards her. Ione backed away, then turned and ran giggling into the water. He caught her after six metres, and the two of them fell into the small clear ripples whooping and laughing. Haile plunged in after them.

  Much joyness. Much joyness.

  Joshua was interested by how well the young Kiint could swim. He would have considered her body too heavy to float, but she could move at a fair speed; her tractamorphic arms spread out into flippers, and angled back along her flanks. Ione wouldn’t let her go out to the little island, saying it was still too far, which ruling Haile accepted with rebellious sulks.

  I have seen some of the all-around’s park space,she told Joshua proudly as he rubbed the dorsal ridge above her rump. Ione has shown me. So much to absorb. Adventureness fun. Envy Joshua.

  Joshua didn’t quite understand how to collect his thoughts into a voice Haile could understand, instead he simply spoke. “You envy me? Why?”

  Venture as you please. Fly to stars so distant. Welcome sights so strange. I want this, muchness!

  “I don’t think you’d fit in the Lady Mac . Besides, human ships that can carry Kiint have to be licensed by your government. I haven’t got that licence.”

  Sadness. Anger. Frustration. I may not venture beyond adult defined constraints. Much growth before I can.

  “Bumming round the universe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Most of the Confederation planets are pretty tame, and travelling on a starship is boring; dangerous too.”

  Danger? Excitement query?

  Joshua moved down towards Haile’s flexible neck. Ione was grinning at him over the xenoc’s white back.

  “No, not excitement. There’s a danger of mechanical failure. That can be fatal.”

  You have excitement. Achievement. Ione narrated many voyages you have undertaken. Triumph in Ruin Ring. Much gratification. Such boldness exhibited.

  Ione turned her giggle into a cough. You’re a flirt, girl.

  Incorrect access mode to human males, query? Praise of character, followed by dumb admiration for feats; your instruction.

  Yes, I did say that, didn’t I. Perhaps not quite so literally, though.

  “That was a while ago now,” Joshua said. “Of course, life was pretty tricky in those days. One wrong move and it could have been catastrophic. The Ruin Ring is an ugly place. You’ve gotta have determination to be a scavenger. It’s a lonely existence. Not everyone can take it.”

  You achieved legend status. Most famous scavenger of all.

  Don’t push it,ione warned.

  “You mean the Laymil electronics stack? Yeah, it was a big find, I earned a lot of money from that one.”

  Much cultural relevance.

  “Oh, yeah, that too.”

  Ione stopped rubbing Haile’s neck and frowned. “Joshua, haven’t you accessed the records we’ve been decoding?”

  “Er, what records?”

  “Your electronics stack stored Laymil sensevise recordings. We’ve uncovered huge amounts of data on their culture.”

  “Great. That’s good news.”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “They were extremely advanced biologically. Well ahead of us on the evolutionary scale; they were almost completely in harmony with their habitat environment, so now we have to question just how artificial their habitats were. Their entire biology, the way they approached living organisms, is very different to our own perception. They revered any living entity. And their psychology is almost incomprehensible to us; they could be both highly individual, and at the same time submerge themselves into a kind of mental homogeneity. Two almost completely different states of consciousness. We think they may have been genuine telepaths. The research project geneticists are having furious arguments over the relevant gene sequence. It is similar to the Edenist affinity gene, but the Laymil psychology complements it in a way which is impossible to human Edenist culture. Edenists retain a core of identity even after they transfer their memories into the habitat personality at death, whereas the Laymil willingness to share their most private selves has to be the product of considerable mental maturity. You can’t engineer behavioural instinct into DNA.”

  “Have you found out what destroyed their habitats yet?” Joshua asked. Haile shuddered below his hand, a very human reflex. He felt a burst of cold alarm invading his thoughts. “Hey, sorry.”

  Fright. Scared f
eel. So many deaths. They had strength. Still were defeated. Query cause?

  “I wish I knew,” Ione said. “They seemed to celebrate life, much more than we do.”

  The Isakore was bobbing about inertly on the Zamjan as though it was a log of elegantly carved driftwood, ripples slopping against the hull with quiet insistence. They had rigged up a couple of oarlike outriggers to steer with during the first day—the rudder alone was no good. And they’d managed to stick more or less to the centre of the river. It was eight hundred metres wide here, which gave them some leeway when the current began to shift them towards one of the banks.

  According to Murphy Hewlett’s inertial-guidance block they had floated about thirty kilometres downriver since the micro-fusion generator had been taken out. The current had pushed them with dogged tenacity the whole time, taking them away from the landing site and the burnt antagonistic jungle. Only another eight hundred plus kilometres to go.

  Jacqueline Couteur had been no trouble, spending her time sitting up in the prow under the canvas awning. If it hadn’t been for the ordeal they’d been through, the price they’d paid in their own pain and grief, to capture her, Murphy would have tied the useless micro-fusion generator round her neck and tossed her overboard. He thought she knew that. But she was their mission. And they were still alive, and still intact. Until that changed, Lieutenant Murphy Hewlett was going to obey orders and take her back to Durringham. There was nothing else left, no alternative purpose to life.

  Nobody had tried to interfere with them, although their communication channels were definitely being jammed (none of the other equipment blocks were affected). Even the villages they had sailed past had shown no interest. A couple of rowing dinghies had ventured close the first morning, but they’d been warned off with shots from one of the Bradfields. After that the Isakore had been left alone.

  It was almost a peaceful voyage. They’d eaten well, cleaned and reloaded the weapons, done what they could about their wounds. Niels Regehr swam in and out of lucidity, but the medical nanonic package clamped over his face was keeping him reasonably stable.

  Murphy could just about allow himself to believe they would return to Durringham. The placid river encouraged that kind of foolish thinking.