by Set Wagner
“But why, why would you think that?”
Vernie heaved himself up from the armchair. “I’ll try to catch some sleep, an hour or two,” he said, his eyes flickering with guilt as if he had confessed some criminal intention. He unlocked the door and then closed it behind him. The thick hall carpet immediately muffled his receding footsteps.
Chapter 9
I was happy! Happy, happy. I was choking with happiness, laughing. Screaming with happiness! And my voice, strong and beautiful as a god’s, lifted me from a deep sleep. My awakening was a slow and delightful swim through silken, sinuous waves—toward a gleaming coast of soft amber.
My eyes opened effortlessly, imperceptibly, discovering the silhouette of the day that waited for me shimmering through the window curtains. I rushed forward to meet that new day and opened the window. It streamed in like a joyous golden bird in flight!
And then?
Then a still, crystalline sky, the eye of a dearly beloved woman. And down there on the balcony and on the roof of the garage, all along the road, on the side path to the forest, sparkled millions, billions of little suns. Or no—tiny crystals that had absorbed the warm face of the sun of suns, of Ridon. Crystals—a gentle rain of crystals fell from the branches of the trees with their five noble trunks. The breeze cupped the crystals in its invisible palms, rocked them in the transparent air, and spread them like a miraculous ephemeral coverlet.
I leaned out of the window, stretched my arms, and stayed in this position for a long time, thirstily devouring the view. The hairs on my arms turned silver, my skin began to sparkle, my fingers looked shiny and smooth, free of ugly wrinkles, even fingernails. Laughing, I watched my arms becoming crystal!
And my face? I rushed impatiently to the bathroom mirror, and my laughter turned to tears of happiness when I saw this shimmering, almost unrecognizable face with its silver hair and brows, eyelashes and lips that looked as if they had been kissed by light. I skipped my shower—I was already crystal clean. Holding my left foot with my hand, I jumped on one foot to the living room—it was good exercise. And funny too. When I opened the door with my elbow, there, cuddled in one of the armchairs, was my adorable canine companion.
“Come on, Jerry, get up! You lay-zee thing!” I stuttered, hardly able to keep myself from bursting into laughter. “Get up, get up, enough sleeping!”
When Jerry didn’t react, I came closer and shook him. He still didn’t move! Of course, he was sound asleep. I quietly returned to the bedroom, put on the thinnest shirt I had and the lightest pants. I didn’t want to wear shoes but put them on for Elia. What a beauty! I will invite her to go for a long, crystal walk!
There were four doors along the hallway. I knocked on every one of them but didn’t get any answer. I went down to the second floor, sliding on the banisters to speed my progress. That was great fun, but at the bottom, I almost ran into a woman. I burst into hearty laughter.
“We almost had a collision, didn’t we?” I asked playfully.
“Don’t worry,” she replied. Maybe she didn’t show her admiration for my shimmering silver face because she was too shy.
“Worry?” I exclaimed. “Me? On such a day? No way! Do you know what Chuks told me once?”
“No.”
“‘We,’ as he put it ‘look for equalized generosity,’ or something like that.”
“Is that so?”
“Why should he lie to me? He’s not a fool.”
“Let’s go have breakfast.”
“You are a lovely lady!” I exaggerated to cheer her up, although she was attractive. She couldn’t compare with my Elia, but—she was small boned, had soft and tender light-brown eyes, and her features were as delicate as if an artist had drawn them on with the thinnest of brushes. Her hair pulled up in a smooth twist, she wore no makeup and a simple dark-blue dress.
“No, you are not Linda Ridgeway either,” I realized.
“No,” she said. “I am not.”
“But you have to be,” I corrected myself, “because there are only two women here.”
“You think so?”
“Why? Are there more?” I was thrilled at the prospect.
“No. What I mean is, do you think that if there are only two women at the base, one of us must be Linda Ridgeway?”
“Oh! Please! That wasn’t what I meant. But somebody else thinks that. Or, to be more precise, he said that. Or suggested it as a possibility.”
“I see,” she said. “But let’s not stay here talking any longer.”
I preferred to walk the rest of the way down with her rather than using the banister this time. I really liked this woman. When we reached the kitchen, we prepared our own coffee and sandwiches and took them into the dining room.
“You don’t like robots.” I shook my finger jokingly.
“No. I don’t like them.” She was wonderfully direct.
“And I do like them, even if that sounds unbelievable.”
“Why should it be unbelievable?” she asked.
Her honesty required a similar response, but I had other responsibilities, so I answered more evasively. “To really like somebody, you have to get to know him. As far as the robots are concerned, I couldn’t say I know them. This is why I don’t believe I really like them. I am only imagining I could. Does that make sense?”
“Completely,” she replied.
I got another sandwich, then a third, or fourth—I didn’t count them.
“Hey, you’re not eating!” I reproached her, pouring myself more coffee.
“Well—in fact, I am not hungry. I had breakfast—before Ridon rose.”
“Good for you! You are an early bird. And the commander? Where is Larsen?”
“Why do you need him?”
“I want to pay him a visit.”
“When?”
“Right now! The sooner, the better.”
She looked at me, preoccupied. “Wouldn’t it be better if you don’t rush it? Take a long walk first and relax.”
“That’s right! A good long walk! And Larsen can go to hell! Will you come with me?”
“You go ahead. I’ll catch up a little later.”
It was clear she wasn’t planning on catching up with me, but I wasn’t angry with her. I got up and gently touched her shoulder. “What’s your name?”
“Odesta Gomez.”
“I want you to be happy, Odesta! As happy as I am!”
“I have been even happier. That’s why I recommend that you take a long walk and then nap for an hour or two. Around noon, everything will be all right.”
I sincerely laughed at her concern, gave her a friendly wave, and ran outside. The white crystal rain was ringing and singing around me—its clear tones showering me with tender caresses. I walked down the winding path of light, deeper and deeper into the strange forest, under a smooth blue sky covered with the miraculous silver lace of branches etched on its surface. Each step summoned the whisper of a thousand crystal voices. I closed my eyes, dazzled and dazed by their friendliness, smiling because I knew I was all white, white even in my thoughts.
As I walked, everything in my past seemed very small, very insignificant. Yes, light-years away, beyond stars and the vastness of space, lay our confused, vague Earth with its equally confused, vague people wandering around lost, loaded down with confused, vague suspicions. Is it possible that I was like them? That I was sent from Earth to this paradise to find murderers? How absurd!
A strange new quaver high above drew my surprised attention. The branches had started rocking, but not as if a wind was blowing. The rocking was somehow purposeful, and its rhythm steadily increased. Gradually, the rhythm captured the silver trunks that resembled reaching arms and then even the strong star-shaped roots.
The forest was dancing! The trees bowed and bent in quick, rhythmic steps! Back and forth, back and forth. Myriads of the playful tiny crystals that reflected the sun were dancing everywhere as well. The crystal rain grew stronger, its quiet ringing becoming a s
olemn triumphant hymn. The air thickened, and I gulped its fresh aroma with gasping insatiability and felt it pouring down my throat, filling up my lungs, cleansing my body, my spirits. I was becoming a part of…of…
I snuggled up to one of the trees, and it cradled me, back and forth, back and forth. The trembling tree felt almost hot through my thin shirt, as if I could experience the impetuous circulation of juices under its hard skin. My beautiful, living, incomprehensible being! My face is being scratched by your rough caress; my eyes are filled with tears of ecstasy. I know the truth is in you, but what is it? What! I stepped back to admire the dark red of my blood against its white trunk, a beautiful contrast reminiscent of some ancient sacrificial rite.
Suddenly the rain stopped, and the crystal mantle of the forest started to float downward. As it flowed down my face, arms, and clothes, I left the path, wandering without direction, amazed and touched by this unexpected metamorphosis. The silver world around me slowly turned yellow, calming down, mellowing into a deep delightful sleep. The bulging tree roots slowly sank back into the ground. The tamed trunks became shorter, sighing quietly, and wearily lowered their splendid crowns. I saw their branches, covered with mist, extend toward each other and interweave into graceful golden clusters. I saw how these clusters became thicker and blended into ghostly curtains, casting yellow-purple shadows around.
The air became so dense that its resistance made my progress slow and clumsy, and my hair floated up and down as if I were trying to walk under water. As I passed, the stiffened five-trunk trees were sinking down, awry, stretching up, bending to the side—like phantom yellow runners frozen after the first moments of a false start.
How strange it all was, how bizarre: the complete immobility, this deep, almost material silence. No fluttering birds, no buzzing bugs, and no whisper of leaves. The soil was so elastic that my steps made no sound. Stillness and silence. Combined with a constant sensation of satiated life, life completely fulfilled.
At the end of the forest, I stopped under the bright light now flowing all over me. I reached the beginning of a gentle slope, from where I could see the whole complex of garages, storage units, laboratories, sports complexes, and fields of the Eyrena base. I sat there and enjoyed the view for a long time, realizing that I had made a large semicircle during my walk. Now the lodge stood directly in front of me, on the other side of the horseshoe-shaped hollow and almost at eye level. Its orange tile roof was glittering, generously lit by sunbeams; the weather cock proudly pointed like a finger into the sky. For some reason, the windows were diamond shaped rather than rectangular, which impressed me as unique. As a matter of fact, I liked the building, with all its eccentricities.
I liked everything! As I gazed around admiring everything, my attention was caught by the sports building on the left, closest to me. I imagined its cool blue pool and rose immediately, deciding that taking a swim would be wonderful. I started running down the slope, slipping often, but I managed to keep my balance, and when I reached the sport building, I wasn’t even out of breath. I had no problem finding my way to the dressing room and threw my clothes into the first locker I came to. Stayed a minute or two under the shower. Found a bag with a pair of swimming trunks on the shelf across the shower, opened it, and put them on.
Not a soul in the corridor. I ran into a robot, essiko, of course, but didn’t pay any attention to him. I didn’t pay any attention to him at all! However, when I headed for the pool, he wouldn’t leave me alone. He started following me closely, adjusting his steps to mine.
“What is it?” I asked over my shoulder.
“A lot of things,” he said. “What do you want to know?”
I stopped to think. Then I realized that he misunderstood my question and started walking again. As did the robot behind me.
“Get lost,” I suggested, over my shoulder again.
“I have to be here today.”
“‘Here’ could be also there.” I pointed to one of the side benches.
Now he stopped to think. Meanwhile, I jumped on the diving board a few times and then dove in. The water was icy cold. Just the crawl stroke! Only do the crawl! I was swimming in the far right lane, and the robot walked beside me at the edge of the pool. I didn’t see him on my way back because I was taking breaths only on one side. Then I saw him again, and then I didn’t.
All of a sudden I felt very tired. I was almost in the middle of the pool and would have to struggle to reach the ladder. It felt as if I were pushing through sand, not water. I noticed the robot leaning over me and felt his hard, inhuman fingers in my hair. I jerked abruptly—I don’t know where I found the strength—and grasped the ladder. It must have taken me a few minutes to pull myself up, and I heard myself whisper hoarsely, “Go away, go away, go away.”
Before my eyes, on the robot’s square shoulder, the huge blurry patch that read essiko kept coming closer and then going further away. I fell into the closest lounge chair. The incident didn’t alarm me, but fatigue felt like a ball on my chest or a big, quiet cat purring me to sleep, sleep. All that kept me awake was a vaguely troubling thought, a muted concern about something half-forgotten—concern for another sleeper—also laboring under the weight of an unnatural, impossible sleep. Poor Jerry!
I strained to get up and thought I had. Then I realized I was still flat on my back in the cavernous lounge chair. I couldn’t move a muscle. Held immobile by some monstrous, malignant force. Without the strength to fight my way out. I couldn’t. And Jerry? Of course he hadn’t been sleeping. No—I wanted to cry in my frustration, but no tears were running down my face. They too were paralyzed, frozen as solid as crystal behind my closed, motionless eyes.
Chapter 10
I woke up with an unpleasant feeling that before I fell asleep something was amiss. When I was fully awake and remembered the morning, I realized that what had not been completely all right was my own head. Then I remembered Jerry and sprang out of the lounge chair. The robot was still here—in my way.
“Drink this,” he said and tried to put in my hands a glass filled to the brim with some greenish garbage.
I ducked under his outstretched arm and dashed for the swimming pool exit, remembering my clothes only because I ran past the dressing rooms. I put them on, hopping into my shoes and buttoning my shirt on my way out. I covered the four hundred meters to the lodge in record time and didn’t stop until I reached the door of my apartment. I listened carefully, but only silence greeted me.
“Jerry, Jerry!” I called quietly.
Still no sound. I went in and frantically searched for him.
“Jerry, Jerry!”
He wasn’t there. I stood across from the armchair where I left him and could still see him lying there curled into a ball, a little helpless pet.
Probably some robot took him out.
A knock at the door startled me. I made an effort to calm my voice. “Come in!”
Elia entered and, behind her, Jerry! He ran to me to show how happy he was to see me, and I petted him with an indulgent smile.
“I was just wondering where he was.” I turned to Elia.
“I took him right after you left,” she said and then added, “We don’t have any other pets here.”
I nodded thoughtfully, as if everything were clear to me. Elia looked at me ironically and left the apartment. I put Jerry in my lap and started to recall my unnaturally exultant behavior in the Eyrena forest. Thank God I had sufficient proof to convince myself I was still in my right mind, and after the hints from Vernie and Odesta, I was beginning to understand that Ridon rising in the forest had affected my mind and caused my temporary condition. Since the others had had this experience and managed to live through it, then I could too. But for how long? How many other mornings like this one would I have to endure? And why had nobody at this damn base bothered to warn me?
I fed Jerry a generous meal that was too much for him to finish. After all, he was only three months old. I left him resting and, after a few unsuccess
ful attempts to cover the scratches on my face, decided to visit the base commander.
“Take me to Larsen!” I ordered a robot stationed in front of the lodge. He led me back toward the sports complex.
We soon passed two annoyingly exotic Chinese gazebos and went down to the lake via a staircase I hadn’t even noticed while storming back from the swimming pool. We started around its western side, crossed the sports field that had apparently never been used, went around the laboratories, and skirted two warehouses, bunched together like a pair of deformed bugs, before reaching a ranch-style olive-green building. We crossed through a vestibule so pretentiously furnished that any rich parvenu would love it and entered an irrationally wide hallway to the left, decorated floor to ceiling on both walls with paintings. The robot stopped before a door and announced, “His office is here,” before promptly obeying my dismissive gesture.
Pushing a small rectangular button in front of me produced a cloyingly melodious ringing. These Yusian gadgets were getting on my nerves. Nobody answered. I tried the door, which was unlocked, but Larsen wasn’t there. I nervously looked around and, glancing at the departing robot, entered the room.
A rug so thick it could suck me in; an imitation fireplace with artificial flames; a carved, inlaid and polished double wardrobe; a rocking chair lit by a pink silk-shaded floor lamp; a leather love seat and, next to the window, a huge antique desk with carved lion’s paws for legs—was this office decor or the accoutrements of a boudoir? I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the base commander appear in a flamboyant Japanese kimono!
Not more than two minutes later, Vernie stormed into the room.
“Ha! Simon!” His surprise was too melodramatic to be convincing. He stared at my scratched face and then sat on the love seat. “I’m looking for Larsen, but I found you! How are you?”
“Fine.”
“I see. I need his expertise in cybernetics today, not as a commander.” Apparently Vernie liked to explain only what he could easily keep to himself. “We’ve been building a very important piece of equipment for several months now, and the work has been proceeding according to schedule. Naturally we’ve encountered a few setbacks too. And Larsen has brains. He shows up, takes a look around, and all of a sudden comes up with a clever idea.”