When nothing in the world could save her, the whole cliff face erupted suddenly from top to bottom. It threw off a cloud of dust atoms like a shaken carpet. Instead of falling or spreading, the particles converged to form a dense gray plume that coalesced further as it swooped after Melissa’s plummeting body. When it was in the right position, it spread to form a gray blanket beneath her.
She must have seen it coming. She began to scream and flail, trying to avoid contact with the gray layer by changing the line of her fall. It was no good. The blanket reached her and folded itself about her. Drake saw her arms, protruding from the swaddling cover and beating at it desperately.
The downward plunge had been arrested. While he watched, the gray cylinder of blanket moved rapidly to the right, away from the main body of the mountain. In less than a minute it had vanished from his sight.
Drake stared down. Melissa was gone, but the rocky landscape at the foot of the cliff seemed to crawl and surge below him like an oily sea. His legs were too weak to support him. He cried out, and dropped to the rough surface of rock and gravel. He scrabbled at it with his fingers, trying to pull himself away from the edge.
He was still sitting, staring blindly into the fierce winter sunlight, when a wingless craft drifted down to his side.
“It’s all right, Drake.” Par Leon was inside the air-car. His voice was apologetic. A stony-faced woman was at his side. “Everything will be all right. We’re going to take you home.”
Chapter 8
Incomplete Superwoman
The woman’s name was Rozi Tegger. Par Leon made it clear, more from his body language than his comments, that she was not a close friend. Both he and Tegger were handling Drake with great care, responding to his dazed questions as the aircar flew them home.
To Drake, only two questions really mattered: Is she alive? Is she all right?
“Melissa Bierly is certainly alive,” Tegger replied. Leon yielded to her the first phase of explanation. “However, she is far from all right.”
“She’s hurt?”
“Not at all. Neither of you was in real danger, though we didn’t want you to know it. You were monitored from the moment that you left the lodge.”
“The hovercar?”
“That, and more than that. And far smaller. The automated safety service makes its own observing and protection units, and there were many billions of them in use all around you today. The ensemble that saved Melissa, after she threw herself off the cliff, is fairly typical. Each unit masses only a fraction of a gram. Each has sensors, flight capability, and real-time communication that allows all units to act in concert. Melissa tried to steer herself away from them and fall headfirst onto the rocks; but in reality she didn’t have a chance.”
“I saw, but I don’t understand. Melissa had everything to live for. Why would she try to kill herself?”
Par Leon and Rozi Tegger stared at each other. The tension in the car could not be missed.
“You have to tell him, you know,” Leon said. “If you don’t, I will. If you weren’t prepared to do this, you never should have started.”
“I never thought it would turn out this way.”
“Nor did I; but it did.”
“I know, I know.” Rozi Tegger sighed. “Very well, I’ll do it.” She turned to Drake. “How much did you learn from Melissa Bierly of her background?”
“I know that she was born one year before I entered the cryowombs. I know that she lived for twenty-four more years, then died and entered the cryowombs herself.”
“And that is all?”
“All I remember.”
“Very well.” Rozi Tegger, like Par Leon, could have been any age. She had thick, chestnut-brown hair, and now she ran her fingers through it. “Let me begin at the real beginning, fifteen years before Melissa Bierly was born.
“The structure of DNA had been known for fifty years, and the first mapping of the human genome had just been completed. Molecular biologists were riding high. A few people were already worrying about the ethical problems involved in playing with human genetic structure, but none of the rules that we have now had been put in place. In fact, to our eyes your original time is most perplexing. Those who felt comfortable about gene manipulation to cure disease were often the same people who were strongly opposed to mandatory genetic selection to avoid disease. Eugenics was a socially unacceptable word.
“When technology flourishes and suitable laws are not in place to constrain its uses, there will surely be trouble.
“A group of scientists with strong social and political goals decided to employ the emerging technology to benefit the human race. They were well intentioned, we do not dispute that. They were also permitted to operate with a freedom unthinkable today. They saw ways to modify the human genome so as to create persons stronger, more intelligent, more long-lived, and more resistant to disease. That is what they did.”
“Superman,” Drake murmured. But he did so in English, and Rozi Tegger frowned at him in confusion.
“Superior men,” Drake added, this time in Universal. “Supermen.”
Tegger nodded. “And superior women. Do I have to say more? We did not change the body of Melissa Bierly upon resurrection, as yours was changed. We did not need to. You saw her, yet you were exposed to little of her full potential. She could run to the top of Birhan, or mountains far higher than that, without breathing equipment and without feeling fatigue. She could spend a winter night naked amid mountaintop snow and ice, and come down unharmed. She could hang from the cliff where we found you by one finger, hour after hour.
“But those are mere physical improvements, and we judge them trivial. Of far greater interest are the mental characteristics of Melissa Bierly and others like her. She has outstanding intellect. In two months she has come to understand more of this time, and what is in it, than most of us. She mastered access to the general data banks as though born to them. She became conversant with a dozen languages, from Economics to Astronautics, and made their cross-connections with ease.
“But these accomplishments are no better than those of many machines; although we can admire them, they are not the reason for Melissa’s resurrection. My own field of study is…” She paused, then said three syllables in Universal that meant nothing to Drake. “I’m sorry, I know that the subject did not exist in your time. You can think of it as the study of all modes of influence. How does one individual persuade another? It is certainly not by words alone. By sound, yes, but also by body position and touch and pheromonal transfer and many other agents. This has been true through all of history. It may well predate the use of spoken language. What fascinated me about Melissa were the records of incredible persuasive force reported for her and her kin. I could not explain it, and I wanted to see for myself. Could it be real?”
“It’s real.” Drake saw in his mind the sparkling sapphire eyes. “It’s more than what you say. She didn’t persuade me. She made me want to do whatever she liked. If she had asked me to jump off the cliff with her, I think I would have done it. But you haven’t explained what happened. Why did she jump?”
“She did not jump. She dived. The distinction is important.” Rozi Tegger looked at Par Leon, who nodded grimly.
“Go on. I know this is especially painful for you, but Merlin has earned our explanation.”
“Very well.” Tegger turned unhappily to Drake. “You spent days with Melissa. Did you ever see changes of mood in her?”
“You couldn’t miss it. Most of the time she was full of bounce and cheerfulness. But now and again she seemed angry or worried or desperate. It could switch in a second.”
“But you never questioned her as to the way in which she died, before she entered the cryowombs?”
“We didn’t talk about that.”
“Or of her siblings and kinfolk?”
“It never came up.”
“That is not surprising. There were sixteen children in that ‘superior’ experimental group, including Melissa
herself. So far as I can tell, each of them enjoyed an equal degree of physical and mental advantage. However, it is impossible to prove this. No other was placed with Second Chance. And for good reason. All of them, except Melissa, died in such a way that the brain was destroyed. All of them committed suicide. So did Melissa, but she did it by slashing her throat. She thought that no one would find her body for hours, by which time her brain would be past recovery. But she was wrong. She was discovered by accident, very quickly, and prepared for the cryowomb by the scientists who had made her. They knew that they had created an incomplete superior form, one who for unknown reasons was driven to self-destruction. They left posterity to decide where they had gone wrong.”
Rozi Tegger sighed. The aircar had entered a deep shaft and was descending. Their journey was almost over.
“And I,” she went on, “I in my hubris believed that I could succeed where my ancestors had failed. I would’ resurrect the one remaining ‘superwoman,’ to borrow your word. I would make changes, very minor ones, not to her body but to her mind. And then my experiment could begin. Melissa would be allowed to go her way; and by observing her I would learn the nature of her unnatural power to persuade others.
“But in truth I learned only one thing: that the changes I made to Melissa were useless; that the death wish is as strong in her as ever.”
“She didn’t know about the safety service,” Par Leon added, “any more than you did, Merlin. And she didn’t just want to die.”
“She wanted total self-destruction,” Rozi Tegger said. “You saw how she dived. She wanted to do what she had failed to do five centuries ago. She wanted her brain so completely pulped that there could be no thought of repair and resurrection.”
Drake saw again in his mind that dwindling blue-clad doll figure, dropping forever down the stark cliff face. Melissa
knew how to control her body attitude perfectly. She would have held the swan dive to the end. If the gray cloud of tiny rescue machines had not interfered, her head would have smashed and splattered against solid rock.
He felt sick: at the thought of what might have happened to Melissa, and also at the realization of the effortless power she had held over him. She had made him ignore his own vows in order to do her bidding.
“But Melissa is still alive. What will happen to her now?” He was almost afraid to hear the answer. If she were released, and came back to him…
“That decision is not mine to make,” Tegger said heavily. The car had come to a halt, and she was climbing down from it with the stiff-limbed action of an old, old woman. “It was decreed in advance, before permission could be given for my experiment. If I failed, Melissa Bierly would once more enter Second Chance. That is happening even as we speak. She will remain in the cryowombs until someone — some person much cleverer than I — can free her of that random and irresistible urge for self-immolation.”
“Will you be all right?” Par Leon spoke anxiously, and he was addressing not Drake but Rozi Tegger. “Shouldn’t you stay a while with us before you go home?”
“I can safely leave.” Rozi Tegger gave Leon a grim smile. “I thank you for your consideration, but despite my depressed mood I do not propose to do away with myself. For I am, as I have proved to you so very clearly, far from being a superwoman.”
Par Leon tried to pretend that the whole episode was over. Drake had to visit Leon and corner him, in person, the next day before they started work.
“There is something that was never explained to me,” he said. “I did not ask you when Rozi Tegger was with us, but I think you owe me an answer now.”
Par Leon was not good at dissembling. He craned his neck to one side and would not look at Drake. “Indeed?”
“Indeed. I can see very well why Rozi Tegger resurrected Melissa, because it related to her own field of study. But you never met Melissa, and you were never exposed to her power of persuasion. She could add nothing to the work that you and I have been doing, and she could detract from it by slowing our progress. So why did you allow me to go off with her to the surface? Why didn’t you say no?”
Leon did not answer at once, and when he did his question astonished Drake. “Did you, uh,” he said, “uh, did you… that is…” He paused. “Forgive me for asking, but did you and Melissa Bierly enter into a sexual relationship?”
It was Drake’s turn to hesitate. “Yes,” he said at last “Yes, we did. When we were staying at the lodge.”
It was a lie, and a possibly unsafe one. Drake knew that he and Melissa had been monitored from the time that they left the lodge. Wasn’t it likely that the same automatic safety service had observed everything inside the lodge? And although sex would presumably not have triggered the rescue process, the records of the night at the lodge might be on file somewhere in the data banks.
But Par Leon was nodding and smiling. “I thought so. And that is why I agreed to your going, although I knew that we would sacrifice a little work time.
“I had been worried about you,” he went on, before
Drake could express his perplexity. “I like to work hard, but you seemed to work incessantly. You did not — forgive me for my intrusiveness, but I thought it important, so I checked — you did not ever form a relationship with any man or woman, although your body modifications at resurrection permit and actually benefit from sexual activity. You had remained celibate for four years. And there was the matter of the woman in the cryowombs, your former wife. Several times, you alluded to her.”
Had he? Drake did not recall doing so, but there was no reason for Leon to lie.
“I wondered,” Leon continued. “Your obsession with the woman Anastasia was supposedly cured during resurrection. But was it possible that it had been done incorrectly? I wondered this, long before we learned yesterday of another case where changes made at resurrection were unsuccessful. So I was delighted when you called me, to request time to travel with Melissa Bierly. I knew little about her at the time, except the important thing: she was not Anastasia. I agreed, gladly. And as you see, although Rozi Tegger is disappointed by the outcome, I am not. You proved that you have indeed conquered your old obsession. There is no danger of a new obsession, with Melissa
Bierly. My fears have been put to rest, and our work can go forward together with new confidence.”
He beamed at Drake, who slowly nodded. “I have only one more question. Why did Melissa choose me, of all the Resurrects?”
“I can only pass along to you the conjecture of Rozi Tegger. You alone possess an independence of mind and spirit. The other Resurrects cluster together and follow each other. You pursue your own agenda, steadfastly. Melissa Bierly liked that. And also, she conceivably thought of it as a challenge to her own powers.”
It had not been, not at all. Drake realized that. He was dismayed by his own lack of resolve. From now on, he would keep his goal clearly in focus.
And one more thing, above all others: he must never again, under any circumstances, mention Ana’s name to Par Leon.
Par Leon’s great project continued, faster than expected. He and Drake worked together as a perfect team. By the middle of the sixth year they were approaching completion. They had also become close friends, or as close as Drake dared to permit; close enough, however, to sense that Par Leon, a good man by any moral compass that Drake would ever be able to comprehend, was beginning to worry about something else.
He said little to Drake, beyond hinting at other possible collaborations. Drake read the deeper concern. What would the future hold when the project ended? It had apparently not occurred to Par Leon six years ago, but a resurrection was not unlike a birth. And now, like a parent, Par Leon felt responsibility for the future of his “offspring.”
Drake was soon able to reassure him, and in an unexpected way. While they were still putting the finishing touches to their mammoth study of the “ancient” music of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, he started to compose again. He had learned during the project that musi
cal knowledge of the time before his birth had some big gaps in it, and facility in different musical idioms had always come easily to him. He could steal tricks from the giants of the past, dress them in a modern style, and pass it off as innovation.
In less than a year he had a burgeoning reputation, which he knew was undeserved, a group of imitators, largely untalented, and — most important — a growing financial credit.
At last he could delicately explore a long-postponed question. He chose his moment carefully, when Par Leon was euphoric over a particular section on thematic influences that Drake had just completed.
“A couple of days more, and I will be finished.” Drake did his best to sound casual. “How about you?”
He knew the answer. They had agreed that Leon would be responsible for the final overall review, to ensure uniformity of style.
“Four weeks,, at least, from the time that I have all the pieces.” Leon sounded apologetic. “I can’t do the final assembly in any less time.”
“You shouldn’t rush. The last review is the most critical one.” Drake stretched and yawned. “I could stay around and help you, you know. On the other hand, if you don’t need me while you’re working through the material, I thought maybe I would take a vacation.”
“Do it. You’ve earned some time off — more than earned it.” Leon sounded relieved. The last thing a successful project needed was two people trying to direct the final pen.
“I was thinking of having a look at some of the rest of the solar system. You know, in my time we’d seen pictures of all the planets, but only a handful of people had been as far as the Moon.”
“Which is considerably farther than I have been — or choose to go!” Leon’s furry eyebrows went up. “Why would you want to travel so far? You are not an astronomer, or a terraform designer, or an astronaut. There’s absolutely nothing out in space for a musician.”
“I think it might help me in composition. New visual experiences always stimulate my musical imagination.”
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