Waking Hell

by Al Robertson

  It struck her that Deodatus could have offered Dieter something similar, when he first persuaded him to sell his weaveself.

  ‘I wonder how it fell?’ asked Leila.

  ‘Maybe the old gods bought it down when the Pantheon escaped them,’ Cassiel speculated. ‘I hope there was time to evacuate it. Dragging a mountain back to Earth. Such rage!’

  ‘That would explain why Deodatus is building the laser in the Wart. He wants to break the surviving Station and finish the job.’

  ‘A revenge he’s planned for seven hundred years.’ Cassiel’s voice was cold. ‘Your human gods are brutal.’

  ‘He’s not one of ours, Cassiel.’

  ‘Then whose is he?’

  Leila had no answer to that.

  ‘You have to get into the Shining City and stop him,’ Cassiel told her.

  ‘Wait a second. What’s with this “you”? I thought we were going in together.’

  Cassiel’s voice was sad. ‘No. We’re going to split up.’ She pointed towards the two towers. ‘I have to rescue my people from corruption. And you have to find Dieter, then save yours.’

  The towers stood next to each other. Deodatus’ one was structurally identical to the Caretaker’s home – a pale tower lifting up from a saucer of circular streets. But it had none of that other structure’s life. There was no greenery, no bustling human movement, only dirty white buildings and grimy-looking streets. It was too far away to see if anyone moved through them.

  The second tower stood next to it like a dirty stick stabbed into the ground. Snapped off stubs poked out of it, supporting purple wreaths of corrupted nanogel. Its glow was a little darker than Cassiel’s, and a little dimmer, and it had a flicker to it that made it seem broken.

  ‘The snowflake that fell to Earth,’ said Cassiel. ‘Once I’m in it, I’ll expose every single fallen mind to the rest of the Totality. I’ll neutralise their command and control structures. I’ll understand how they fell. And then I’ll break it all apart. While you find your brother and stop Deodatus.’

  ‘I’ll do my best, Cassiel.’ The scale of the challenge hit her. ‘But I might not succeed.’

  ‘Of course you’ll do it. Without you, we wouldn’t have got this far.’ She chuckled. ‘To be honest, most of the time I’ve been holding you back.’

  ‘Good of you to admit it,’ said Leila, as Cassiel’s confidence infected her. ‘So, what next?’

  ‘We’ll open up the local weave. I’ll stay to make sure you’re fully transferred. Then I’ll destroy your disc and go after the fallen minds.’

  ‘And once that’s done, we can stop the rock from falling.’ Leila stared up at the fallen Station, once again overwhelmed. ‘And start coming to terms with that.’

  Cassiel gazed up with her for a moment. Then she pulled her gaze away from the past. ‘Do you want some advice from a pro?’ she asked.

  Leila nodded.

  ‘Don’t think about the big stuff too much. It’s too much perspective. Focus on the task in hand. Once that’s done, then you can let all this blow your mind. But for now, we’ve both got jobs to do. And nothing beyond them will mean anything if we don’t get them done.’

  ‘Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get virtual…’

  Leila spun up the cuttlefish and had it open a pathway into Deodatus’ virtual realm. A moment, then the world changed. The sky was dark again, soft clouds obscuring a pale moon. The building they stood on was a shining white monolith. Beneath them, a silver plain stretched out towards the Shining City. It was dotted with groups of woken sleepers, pixelated with colour by their pastel chitons. Softly glowing minds circled them like sheepdogs, guiding them away from Deodatus and into his invasion engines.

  The Shining City itself was all bone-white perfection, its bleached streets reflecting moonlight back out at the world. The tower rose up above it all, a white needle penetrating the sky. The face of Deodatus hung at its peak, a beacon of decay that revealed the truth of the perfect city beneath it. Next to it, the fallen snowflake was a streamlined, perfect lance. The broken maw of the wrecked Station was invisible. There was only the empty night sky, prickled with stars.

  ‘I always stayed inside the city,’ said Leila. ‘I should have looked out into the world. We might have worked out what it all was sooner.’

  ‘You had limited time and you had to find your brother. You were right to focus on that,’ replied Cassiel. ‘Now, let’s jump over there. And then I’ll be on my way.’ She zoomed in on its streets. Woken sleepers drifted through them. There were a few fallen minds. ‘The sleepers probably won’t see us,’ said Cassiel. ‘But we need to watch out for the minds.’

  Leila followed her gaze. ‘How about that alleyway?’ she asked. ‘Looks empty. Once I’m in, I’ll jump to Dieter’s workshop.’

  Cassiel nodded, then they both leapt into the city. An instant of darkness, and the Shining City was there around them. They stood at the end of a short, narrow alleyway.

  A sobbing gasp came from behind them. They turned together.

  ‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Leila, stepping back.

  Cassiel didn’t move. ‘Even if they could see us, they wouldn’t notice us,’ she said.

  A couple leant against the alley’s end wall. The woman was pushed back against it, fabric pulled up around her hips. The man drove into her, his face buried in her neck. Her face was just visible over his shoulder. Her eyes were open and she looked up at the sky, her face an emotionless vacancy. It had an absent beauty to it. They thrust against each other like components of a machine. The woman gasped again. The man sought the woman’s lips. They kissed. His face was as blankly perfect as hers. His unblinking eyes looked through her. The kiss ended and he pulled back. They shuddered in unison.

  They stayed pressed together for a moment, then the man pulled away from the woman, pastel chitons dropping back down to cover their perfectly formed bodies. The man turned and walked out of the alleyway without a backward glance, disappearing into the street. The woman followed him, staring straight ahead, turning in the other direction.

  ‘Wow,’ said Leila. ‘Are they stoned?’ She moved to the end of the alleyway. Perfect people moved up and down the white street beyond. None of them noticed her. ‘You were right about them not seeing us.’

  Leila felt data arrive from Cassiel. The mind had scanned them. ‘Being stoned would be a step up,’ she told Leila. ‘They’re so limited. Basic sex and acquisition drives only.’

  ‘The Pornomancer and Kedrov, stripped right back.’

  ‘Yup. There’s barely any deep empathy or long-term memory there. Even if they could see us, they wouldn’t react to us. They’ll take basic orders and follow them, in return for basic rewards. And that’s it.’

  ‘Dieter’s army.’ She sighed. ‘Thank the gods it’ll never reach Station. And what would all these people even do there? Wander round screwing and shopping?’

  ‘Then they’d fit right in,’ said Cassiel. ‘But remember that, under the weave overlay, each of them carries corruption. That’s where the danger is. The flies are a delivery system for Deodatus. Spreading his corruption wherever they go.’ A moment, then she nodded. ‘And you’re fully transferred into the city. I’m going to wipe the disc and destroy it. I don’t want Deodatus finding it and reconstructing any part of you from it.’ She paused for a moment, then, too suddenly, said: ‘Goodbye.’

  Leila felt the word sadden her. She’d been through so much with Cassiel beside her. She thought of the robotic sexual act they’d just witnessed. Their union was its opposite. But now, at the end, they would be apart, finding separate resolutions for the problems that faced them. She nerved herself. Time was pressing. There was none available for drawn-out farewells. And of course there would be new memories to share, after all this was done.

  ‘I’ve learned so much from you,’ Cassiel told her. ‘Thank you.�
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  ‘Always glad to help a professional,’ Leila told her, forcing a smile.

  ‘No, really,’ replied Cassiel. ‘Thank you. There was so much I didn’t know – about humanity, about fetches.’ She sounded very serious.

  ‘I’m glad. I mean – we’ve done a lot together. I’m sorry we can’t end it all together, too.’

  ‘Yes,’ replied Cassiel. ‘It does seem unfair.’ She paused. ‘And now I’m going to learn about sacrifice, and you’re going to learn about loss. I suppose that’s something we both have to do on our own.’

  Leila didn’t want to understand Cassiel. She touched the mind’s arm. ‘I’m going to find Dieter and take care of Deodatus. You’re going to shut down the fallen minds,’ she said determinedly. ‘Then we’ll get together again and get the hell out of here.’

  ‘I’m afraid I haven’t been very clear.’ A soft, definite sadness suffused the mind’s voice.

  ‘Oh,’ said Leila. The meaning in Cassiel’s words insisted on itself, determined to worm its way inside her. ‘But we’ll both survive, Cassiel. The way you fight – of course you’ll make it. And I’ve always done all right. For an amateur. I’ll be fine.’

  ‘You’re not an amateur anymore, Leila. You haven’t been for a while now. You’ll find Dieter, break Deodatus and make it back home. But I won’t.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you will.’

  ‘You’ve seen what I can do with this body. Now I need to go even further. I’m going deep into the fallen snowflake. I’ll have to dilute myself too much to do it.’

  ‘But you’ll come back. You’ve done it before.’

  ‘No.’ She held a hand up in front of her face. ‘You’ve seen how much energy this body contains…’

  Leila nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  ‘Once my nanogel has pervaded the snowflake I’m going to detonate every single part of it. I’ll break everything that holds the fallen minds together, but I’ll be lost. I have no choice, Leila. And I’ve been detached from the Totality and its back-up systems these last few weeks. These memories I have of our time together only exist here, in me. They will die with me. This I that loves you will be gone.’

  Chapter 41

  It was the memory of Dieter that brought Leila back to herself. She found that she was walking down a pale avenue. Looking around confirmed that the whole city had changed. There were barely any sleepers left. The newly-woken thronged the streets. They had a dream-like air of distraction to them, their wide eyes staring blankly out at Deodatus’ limited world. Every so often, she’d pass small groups of them, gathered together by pressure men, ready to be moved out of the Shining City and – she assumed – into another empty tower block. Deodatus’ tower stretched up above them all. His face loomed out, a relic of yesterday overseeing a city of sleepwalkers.

  The cuttlefish pulsed alongside her, a reminder of another past. It contained Cassiel, who was lost to her, and Dieter, who might not be. Leila quickened her pace. She found his workshop but it was empty. She told the cuttlefish to lead her to him, worried for a moment as it queried the local weave for his location. Relief flooded her as it found him. She jumped and he was there in front of her, walking down a street. He was as she’d seen him last, a shimmering, imprecise version of himself. But he was also alert and active, focused on the task at hand. Then, too, there was relief. She hadn’t damaged him.

  Part of her wanted to just unmask herself and leap forward. But there was so much at stake. She needed to be sure that she was ready to say the right things in the right way. So, before revealing herself, she decided to observe him. She also wanted to understand a little more about the role he was playing in this revivified city. Thirty-four hours remained before the rock fell. There was still time.

  She watched her brother bustle through the streets, moving with an urgency absolutely at odds with the dazed wanderings of the woken. He shimmered through different versions of himself. The most predominant one wore scruffy jeans, a black T-shirt, and a dark leather jacket greyed by time. He stopped when at last he found a sleeper, kneeling down to roll her over. It was a woman. He laid his hands on her face and stared at her intently. She sighed.

  ‘You’re ready,’ he told her, relaxing a little.

  He opened each of her eyes. She stared blankly up. Then he gestured a command into the air. A blue globe appeared, hanging above him. It was about the size of a football, and looked like a perfect drop of deep ocean. Leila recognised the memory ball that Dieter had drawn out of Kedrov and the Pornomancer. She remembered how he’d created a ball of his own memories to share with her. And so, when he reached up and pulled the ball down over his head, she wasn’t surprised. He was immersing himself in the past, ready to pour it back into the present.

  He fumbled for the woman’s face, laying a hand over each blankly staring eye. His arms stiffened and his back arched. The veins in his neck were suddenly blue-black. Dark lines wrote themselves across the back of his hands. He lifted up his palms. Liquid memories poured out of them, pooling in the sleeping woman’s eyes but never overflowing beyond them. A minute or so and they slowed. Dieter’s veins lost their dark colour, vanishing back into his skin. The pools subsided, re-exposing the sleeper’s eyes. The globe vanished and Dieter slumped forward, exhausted.

  A moment, and the sleeper blinked, then blinked again. She took a sobbing breath. Her body shook. Dieter bent down, his mouth to her ear. Leila could just hear him whisper: ‘Get up. Walk. Reawaken your body. Prepare yourself for further orders.’

  The woken sleeper pulled her arms up and stretched out. Her movements were stiff. She rolled over on to her side, then stood, rising awkwardly to her feet. It was as if she was controlling her body for the very first time. A step, then another step, then she was almost walking. She tottered down the street in a straight line, her movements becoming less awkward as she went. When she reached the corner she was moving in a way that was almost human. She rounded it without looking back.

  Dieter was still kneeling. He watched her go. He was all slump. He looked exhausted. ‘One more done,’ he said to himself, then: ‘Onwards’. He stood, swaying slightly, and started down the street again.

  Leila followed him through the dazed throng. These crowds were his work. Cassiel was right, Leila said to herself. They’d fit right in in a Homelands shopping mall.

  Dieter found another sleeper and repeated the process, pushing new motivations into him then watching as he stood up and walked away. Leila glanced around at the silent, busy streets. He must have been working non-stop for days to bring all these people back. And now she had to convince him to return to her and his true past. She touched the pendant. It could no longer force memories on her brother. Instead it described one version of the truth about him – the version that Leila had lived with all her life, and wanted so desperately to find again. Very soon, she hoped, she would.

  She waited until he’d finished. He stood up slowly. The degradation had progressed. He was too many versions of himself at once. Every single one looked exhausted. She wanted to pull him to her and hold him tight, forcing comfort on him. But that wouldn’t work.

  She decloaked. ‘Hello, Dieter,’ she said, making no move towards him.

  It took him a moment to take in her presence. ‘What the hell?’ he groaned. ‘Oh, no. You again.’

  ‘So you remember the last time?’

  ‘You tried to force-rewrite my memory. Crashed me.’ He took a step back. ‘Nearly did a lot of damage. It’s not the sort of thing you forget.’

  ‘Did any of the memories take?’

  ‘Fuck no.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing.’

  ‘You were trying to take me away from all this. From my work. But you failed. And now I’m almost done.’ He looked around. ‘Pretty much all of them woken. Ready to remake Station.’

  Leila want
ed to tell him that Deodatus just wanted to destroy Station, that he could only deploy the woken sleepers down here on Earth. But she bit her tongue. She didn’t want to force her brother into an argument.

  ‘You look sad,’ she said.

  ‘Of course I do,’ he replied. ‘Because you’re here. A weapon made out of memories. An abuse of history. Did the Fetch Counsellor create you? Or one of the Pantheon?’

  ‘Nobody created me. I’m the real Leila. And I’ve come for you.’

  ‘You are very like her. But you tried to kill me.’

  ‘I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was trying to help you. I was desperate and I got it wrong. I’m very sorry about that.’ She reached up and pulled the pendant from her neck. ‘The memories are gone. It’s inert now. It can’t hurt you.’

  A pause. ‘All my shields are up. Damn right you can’t hurt me. And I’ve already told Deodatus you’re here. He’s sending security for you.’

  ‘They can take me. I’m really not here to attack you. I just want you to remember who you really are. And all we’ve really shared.’ She thought of Cassiel. ‘It would be so sad to lose that.’

  As she spoke, the outlines of three fallen minds shimmered into being around her.

  Leila stepped forward towards her brother. She reached for Dieter’s hand as she whispered in his ear: ‘Deodatus rewrote our past.’ She pushed the pendant into his hand before he could realise what she was doing. ‘This is the true shape of your memories. The space that your weaveself left behind when you died. Compare it with the shape of your past now, you’ll see so much difference. Look back, there’ll be broken moments.’ She knew she couldn’t push him, but she did want to warn him. ‘The Shining City is going to be destroyed, very soon. If we’re not out of here by then, we’ll both die a true death. I’m going to be taken to Deodatus. I’ll hold out for as long as I can. Think about who you want to be, who you really are. Please, choose me, not him. And then come and find me, and we’ll escape together.’