Convergence

by David M Henley

  Piri? Where are you?

  I am at the Harvey’s home.

  I can’t find my way back to my body.

  You just have to let go.

  Let go? I’m trying to pull back.

  Release the bauble. Drop it.

  Tamsin felt for her arm, but couldn’t discern it from the thousands of others she could operate. People throughout Atlantic involuntarily clenched and unclenched their hands.

  Let me help.

  The bauble dropped to the floor and Tamsin was just Tamsin again. She stared out at one room.

  Salvator stood before her. She didn’t know how long he had been there. She would have to be careful. If being connected to the network made her lose awareness of her body’s surrounds … I wonder what happens if you die while connected to the psi network?

  Thank you, she thought.

  Though she could no longer feel the oneness through the nodes, she knew Piri would still be listening to her thoughts.

  That’s okay, the girl thought back.

  I couldn’t control it. It was too much.

  It’s easy, Piri said back. It is just like always, only bigger. The oneness is bigger.

  Easy for you maybe. She had been operating fine, moving person to person, but when she began to float around the minds of the crowd she had lost any sense of direction or self. She found she could only concentrate on three minds at a time before her control slipped. Piri didn’t seem as constrained. She had a natural affinity for the network.

  ‘Hello, Sal,’ she said.

  ‘Are you okay, Tamsin?’ Salvator asked.

  ‘I’m fine. You wanted to see me, doctor?’

  ‘Let’s not play today, Tamsin. You know why I am here and what I am thinking.’

  ‘As you wish,’ she said. ‘You disagree with what I am doing and want to distance yourself from us. Is that right?’

  ‘I am not the only one.’ Tamsin saw everything that was in his mind.

  ‘The reclamation is progressing well. Food and material supplies are secured. What’s wrong, Sal? You do not enjoy the peace?’

  ‘You know what I think about your “peace”,’ he said.

  Yes. Yes, I do. ‘Why you can’t enjoy it I don’t understand. The Cape is now safe for psis and look at the progress we are making.’

  ‘It isn’t right.’

  ‘When the World Union sees how it is here, they will have to leave us alone. We are outside their jurisdiction.’

  ‘If they want to destroy us, they will. They could ruin this whole ecosystem if they wanted to.’

  ‘Oh, doctor. Do you really think they are so mighty? Have you forgotten La Gréle, Doctor Sal? She is out there right now, taking the Will in hand.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘The Weave went down, didn’t it? That was the signal.’

  Sal spoke heavily. ‘And then will you have what you want, Tamsin? A world where the strongest dominate the weaker. Do you consider that advancement?’

  ‘Shut up, Sal.’

  ‘I will not. You will have to make me.’

  ‘I don’t want to do that. Don’t force me to do that.’

  ‘Me? Force you? That is not within my power, Tamsin. You are stronger. You have your precious amplifiers. There is nothing I can force you to do.’

  ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘I do know what you mean. Better than you do. Have you even thought through what comes next? You’re the oppressor now. You’re the controller.’

  ‘I would like to be relieved. You don’t need me to play diplomat any more.’

  True. The time for diplomacy has passed. The miracle has begun. ‘You know I can’t accept that. Everyone knows you have been with me from the start. The psis have to appear united.’

  ‘“One Will above others”?’

  ‘Just for now, Sal. We can’t afford to become divided again.’

  ‘We are divided now. I know that every tapper knows what I’m thinking. So you all know that we are divided already. And you created that schism.’

  ‘I am bringing the psis together.’

  ‘No, you aren’t. You are dominating all who resist you. That is not the same thing.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but is there another way? You complain about what we are doing but nowhere in your mind have you come up with an alternative.’ Have you, doctor?

  ‘There must be —’

  ‘Tell me what it is. If there is a better way to peace, you tell me and I’ll do it.’ She waited a moment to let him speak, but he said nothing. ‘Look outside, doctor. The miracle is happening. This is the dawning of a —’ Tamsin cocked her head and pushed her consciousness back into the bauble.

  ‘What is it?’ Sal asked.

  ‘They’re here.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘The World Union. A seabase is coming towards us.’

  ‘A seabase …’

  ‘Don’t worry, doctor. I am ready for them.’

  ‘Tamsin, please. Don’t be hasty. Hear them out.’

  ‘Oh, I will. And they will hear me. Though a fully armed seabase is hardly a sign of goodwill, I’ll see what they want.’ She stood up and looked at him. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to confine you.’

  PIERRE JNR BRINGS PEACE

  Seabase 3 moved at an excruciatingly slow pace. It was the second biggest vessel in the fleet, a grey mountain seven hundred metres long, one hundred metres wide, and deep, and attended on by a ring of support ships. Built originally to stop the Örjians from crossing the oceans, the five seabases still in operation mostly served environmental pursuits these days, or patrolled the coasts of the major non-Union areas: the Cape, Mexica, Greenland.

  Just as land was sighted — although it was still over a day away from where the water would become too shallow for the seabase to advance — a squib was detected on the radars and the senior officers gathered on the bridge.

  ‘They are pinging us, sir,’ the comms officer reported to the commanding officer, Fleet Admiral Raoul Stirling. Charlotte Betts stood behind the short, diminutive man, watching him watch the approaching target.

  ‘Connect,’ Stirling ordered. The officer routed the radio to the speakers and nodded at the captain.

  ‘This is Fleet Admiral Stirling. To whom am I speaking?’

  ‘This is Tamsin Grey, Fleet Admiral Stirling. Please reverse your course and discontinue your approach to our coastline.’

  ‘We are on a diplomatic mission. We request permission to come into port.’

  ‘You carry quite an arsenal for a diplomatic mission. Your request is denied. Come no closer or you will be destroyed,’ Tamsin Grey’s voice came back, just as a wall of water sprayed up out of the ocean in the path of the seabase. Tonnes of water leapt over the side of the deck and all those aboard felt the slight tremors.

  ‘Stop advancing, or be destroyed.’

  ‘Turn off the engines, Fleet Admiral,’ Charlotte said.

  Stirling nodded and pushed the command through his symb.

  ‘May I speak to her?’ Charlotte asked him.

  ‘Be my guest,’ he answered.

  Charlotte took an unnecessary step forward. ‘Tamsin Grey? My name is Charlotte Betts. Do you know who I am?’

  ‘I know you,’ came the reply.

  ‘I have been sent by Prime Abercrombie Pinter to discuss terms of peace between the psis and the World Union.’ Charlotte bit on her lip and scratched her fingers up and down her skirt as she waited for an answer. ‘Please, Miz Grey. Let me meet with you.’

  There was a drawn-out pause and everyone on the bridge listened to the static before Tamsin Grey spoke again. ‘You may come. Alone.’

  ‘No,’ Stirling said, muting the comm-link. ‘I can’t let you go into enemy territory without protection.’

  ‘They are not our enemy, Fleet Admiral. My aim here is to stop them becoming so.’ She stared the man down and opened the channel to Tamsin. ‘I accept your terms. How would you like me to arrive?’

  ‘You
may approach by boat. We will take command control three hundred metres from our shore.’

  ‘I will be with you soon. I look forward to a frank and open dialogue.’

  ‘Oh, me too, Representative.’

  Minutes later Charlotte stood on the bow of a small speedboat wearing an orange lifebelt. The prow sliced through the chop of the waves, the smacking of the hull on the water offset by suspension axles that kept the deck level. A white flag was raised on the front and rear of the ship, just below that of the World Union.

  ‘Are you ready, Miz Betts?’ the Prime asked her, appearing in overlay without her giving permission.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘I have no idea what I am to do.’

  ‘Then I want you to listen very carefully to what I am saying. This is the message they have to understand: I can stop them. And I will. That is it.’

  ‘A warning?’

  ‘Precisely. I’m sending you to show I’m serious about finding a peaceful resolution, but if they force me to act, I will only strike once.’

  ‘I can’t say that to them,’ Charlotte said. ‘I can’t bluff.’

  ‘Who says I’m bluffing? If it makes you feel any better, Charlotte, you won’t have to say anything. When you get there, I presume Tamsin Grey will pick through your brain and know what I have said without you having to say a word.’

  ‘That is most unsettling to think about.’

  ‘I imagine it is. But I’ve encountered telepaths before. You really don’t feel a thing unless they want you to.’

  ‘Are you trying to make me fear them, Prime?’

  ‘At the least I want you to understand why the rest of the world does.’

  ‘Stop it. Stop filling my head with this fear. What do you want me to do? Am I negotiating a surrender?’

  ‘No. A cessation of aggression to prevent escalation. We need them to agree to measures to protect our society.’

  ‘You’re mad. They won’t agree to it. I haven’t even landed and I know they won’t agree.’

  ‘All you have to do is open the dialogue. Today is just a small step.’

  ‘It was a small step until you put all this in my head.’

  ‘Well, we haven’t much time, do we?’

  ‘What do you mean? What’s happened? What aren’t you telling me?’

  ‘Nothing, Charlotte, I’m just projecting forward to what will happen if you don’t get their help. You’re close now.’ Through the image of him she could see people waiting at the dock to meet her. ‘Good luck, Representative. I’ll be watching,’ he said and disappeared.

  Of all the things her mind conjured up, of all the situations she thought she was entering, she hadn’t expected there to be cameras.

  They were everywhere; hovering dragonflies with eyes and microphones recording every moment from every angle. It was like a regular public appearance.

  She knew little of Tamsin Grey except for her record as a psi agent, and then for the moment she strode onto the world stage by carving a declaration of war upon the gates of Shima Palace.

  The young woman who stood before her was quite beautiful. Not soft like a normal WU girl. She was strong and uplifted, standing at peace with those around her and holding the hands of two small girls in each of her own. She looked like a goddess walking amongst mortals.

  Why thank you, Representative. I must say, the freedom does feel good.

  We mustn’t speak like this. I have to record everything we say.

  Of course, Charlotte, of course. Smile for the cameras. Everyone is going to see this.

  She straightened and bowed to the leader of the rebellion.

  ‘I am Charlotte Betts. I have been sent by the World Union to discuss the current conflict with the psi peoples.’

  ‘I am Tamsin Grey and I speak for the people of the Cape. I accept you as the Representative of the World Union. Please, allow me to welcome you with a tour of our home.’

  What is happening? she thought.

  You wanted peace, didn’t you? I will show you peace. Now don’t forget the viewers.

  Charlotte bowed again and formally accepted the invitation.

  Side by side they walked up the dock into the city. People had come out to watch. Clean healthy women, children and men. They smiled and sometimes called out things like ‘Peace be with you!’, or personal greetings like ‘Hello, Aunt Janet and Uncle Robert! We miss you.’

  A few held up signs with messages of peace, love and united humanity.

  Others put their welcomes directly into her mind.

  Welcome, Representative Betts.

  We welcome the World Union.

  Peace be with you.

  Peace and love. Peace and love.

  Everyone, please, don’t overwhelm her, she heard Tamsin admonish them. Sorry. They are just excited to see someone from the World Union. Many of them miss it.

  ‘As you can see, Representative. The people here are happy. Prosperous.’

  ‘Yes, it seems so,’ she answered.

  An open-topped squib waited for them at the top of a flight of stairs and Charlotte followed the two small girls to sit in the back.

  I’m Piri, said a new voice in her head.

  ‘Hello, Piri,’ Charlotte answered.

  That’s my friend, Molly. I’m on your right.

  ‘Oh, sorry. Hello, Molly, nice to meet you.’

  Tamsin swivelled in the front seat to face her as the driver took off. Relax, Charlotte. No harm will come to you.

  Charlotte was a little taken aback at what she saw. Fleet Admiral Stirling had been showing her the satellite views of Atlantic since she landed on the Seabase — the areas thought to be occupied by the psis. Since the Weave went down they had had no update, so it was a surprise when the uneven, pocked road suddenly became smooth and litter-free. This isn’t how I was told it would be.

  ‘It’s not what you were expecting, is it?’

  ‘No, not at all. How are you doing this?’ Charlotte craned her neck as they went past a row of new buildings under construction. Bricks were flying through the air to form walls. ‘This is … very impressive.’

  Charlotte put her hand to her mouth. The sight of all that humanity working in perfect harmony was a utopian vision she had never imagined. The streets of Atlantic, abandoned to time and corrupted by history, now reconstructed and reformed.

  ‘It’s miraculous,’ she said.

  ‘I hope you see that it is something worth fighting for,’ Tamsin said. ‘This is the psi miracle, Representative. We work in harmony here. Together.’

  ‘Amazing, truly amazing.’

  The squib stopped at another building site and Tamsin led Charlotte and the two girls over to a roped-off area.

  ‘Look,’ Tamsin Grey pointed.

  Just a few metres ahead the ground had been broken open and they could see below. Ladders led down the far side of the crevice where Charlotte could see men and women standing on rungs while rotten supporting walls eroded under their eyes and dropped to the ground.

  ‘What are they doing?’

  ‘Reclaiming the basement. Let me introduce you to someone. He will be up in a moment.’

  As they waited, they continued to watch the workers lower themselves step by step and the line of demolition crept down with them.

  ‘Here he comes,’ Tamsin said.

  A man covered in sweat and dust climbed over the edge, wiped a rag over his face and came to greet them. Molly let go of Tamsin’s hand and ran towards him. She floated into the air and straight into his open arms.

  Molly’s father.

  He came to join them and ducked his head respectfully.

  ‘Representative Betts, this is Ben Harvey, he is overseeing our major construction works. Ben, can you explain to Miz Betts what this project is about?’

  ‘Of course, Tamsin. Representative.’ He dipped his head again. ‘The basement has been in disuse for nearly a century, since the second ground floor was put in to get above the tides. The area below has been left to ro
t and waste, but we are opening it back up.’

  ‘What will you do with it?’

  ‘We will keep breaking down the sides until there is a more natural slope down towards a canal which will lead deeper inland. The sides will become parks and farmland.’

  ‘That is most ambitious. How many people are working on this?’

  ‘At the moment, just the benders — I mean, the kinetics. Once the demolition is complete, we have hundreds of volunteers ready to help with the landscaping.’

  ‘How long will it take you?’

  ‘Well, it is slow going. This gap has taken us nearly a whole day and we have kilometres to go. I’ve estimated a month to complete the ravine, perhaps a year to connect to the nearest river.’

  ‘Remarkable.’

  ‘Thank you, Representative.’

  ‘Thank you for your time, Mister Harvey.’

  ‘May I say that this is only possible because of Tamsin Grey. She has brought us together for a common cause. We just want a home, Representative Betts. That’s all.’

  ‘Alright, thank you Ben,’ Tamsin said, smiling at him.

  ‘Of course. Sorry, Tamsin.’

  ‘That’s quite alright. Could you take care of the children? I think the Representative and I need to talk privately.’

  ‘Of course. Come along, Piri. You and Molly can have your own section.’

  Charlotte watched the three of them clamber down the ladders and she and Tamsin were alone.

  ‘Not the menace you thought we might be?’ she asked.

  ‘I didn’t —’

  Be careful. Don’t forget about the cameras, Charlotte. Everyone is going to see this.

  ‘I know how we are presented. And I acknowledge what some psis have done in the past, but we were desperate, Miz Betts. I hope you and the rest of the world can see that.’

  What? Is this all a show?

  A little bit, yes. I intend for the whole world to see what we are trying to do here. To show them we want nothing more than to be left in peace.

  ‘I request that we keep this conversation verbal so it can be recorded.’

  Of course, Charlotte. ‘As you wish. But you should record that I still know everything you’re thinking whether you say it out loud or not.’ Do you want me to repeat everything you think for the audience?