The Sentients of Orion

by Marianne de Pierres

  As Amaury bit into a pastry, Thales became aware that he was waiting patiently for him to speak. ‘My apologies again, Amaury. Meditation sometimes leaves me preoccupied. Rene, my wife, calls it my introspection hangover: His laugh was intentionally bitter. ‘Not only that, but I am somewhat uninformed about wider political topics. I have been so consumed by Scolar’s own problems. Though it seems that little changes out there. OLOSS maintains its deep suspicion of the Extropists, and continues to hold to its ridiculous apartheid. Since the Stain Wars no one travels to the Extropist quarter of Orion.’

  ‘You are not fearful of the transhumans, Thales?’ asked Amaury.

  Thales answered plainly. ‘I am more fearful of my own demons.’ He glanced up from his last mouthful of egg. ‘Does it shock you to hear that?’

  But the old man was still smiling. ‘There is very little that would shock me and, in truth, I am of the same mind. If humanesques were more concerned with mastering their own “demons”, as you called them, and less with mastering the demons of others, then harmony would not be merely one of our ideals.’

  ‘Aren’t ideals our vocation?’

  ‘Ideals are our life force,’ corrected the old man. ‘Realising those ideals is our vocation. Anything less is our failure.’

  Thales detected something then: a conviction within the man that was as compelling and fervent as any he had known, but so delicately... so subtly veiled that it might have slipped past unnoticed. And yet the very quietness of it, the surety, stirred Thales’s passion. ‘Have you heard of the discovery near Mintaka? A godlike Entity, it is being called.’

  Amaury leaned forward, his eyes alight and keen. ‘Only scraps. Tell me what you know.’

  ‘Precious little, other than that it is a manifestation of dark energy which has the means to communicate with regular sentients.’

  ‘And how did this energy make itself known?’

  ‘There is talk of it saving the life of a simple mineral scout, an average man who now goes by the title of God Discoverer. From that point a bevy of researchers have collected to study it. It is said to have intelligence far beyond anything we could imagine. Hence the title of God.’

  ‘It is curious, our obsession with the concept of all- knowing and how so many of us cling to it as their vision of God. When, I wonder, will we be brave enough to cut our umbilical cord to the notion of something greater?’

  ‘You sound like an atheist, Amaury.’

  ‘It is not a word I acknowledge. For as you know, Thales, giving credence to one thing gives equal credence to its opposite. I would personally erase all religious concepts—including the naturalistic.’

  ‘You mean God within nature?’

  Amaury nodded. ‘We lose autonomy each time we lend our thoughts to these beliefs.’

  Thales felt a tingling in his body. The man’s discourse was both stimulating and uncomfortable. ‘You mean we refuse to grow up.’

  Amaury nodded. ‘You. Me. All of us, Thales.’

  ‘But surely choice is more important than anything else. We should be free to choose what we believe.’

  ‘Only when we can see the whole picture, Thales, not just our little corner of it.’ Amaury’s eyes sparkled. ‘Surely you agree that informed choice is the best choice? And humanesques are eternally mired in their own limitations. Now tell me, is the Entity old by our measuring?’

  Thales shrugged. ‘One would expect so, although I have not seen any empirical reports.’

  Amaury moved his fingers in the air as if flexing them, yet Thales knew it to be more of a mental stretching than a physical. ‘Why would an ancient wisdom choose now to reveal itself? Has anyone thought to question its appearance?’

  ‘OLOSS has sent Astronomeins to study it and has allowed Geneers, Lawmon, Dieters and archiTects into its tutelage—but no philosophers and no Extropists.’

  Amaury shook his head slowly. ‘Once we were the first to be thrown a challenge. Now it seems we are not to be challenged at all.’

  ‘I pleaded with the Pre-Eminence to lobby OLOSS for a position with the Entity, but just yesterday I learned that they refused to do so.’

  ‘Is that what precipitated your disagreement with your beloved?’

  Beloved? Was she still that? Thales pushed back from his empty plate and stood. He walked a few paces and retraced them, aware that Amaury was watching him with the same calm patience.

  ‘That amongst other things. Rene has changed; position and comfort have become more important to her than anything else.’

  ‘One cannot dictate another’s beliefs, Thales. Even those of one’s chosen partner.’

  ‘I don’t believe it is just a matter of changed beliefs. It’s as though an apathy sickness has taken her.’

  Amaury nodded thoughtfully. ‘Tell me what it is that you would learn from the Entity near Mintaka?’

  Thales stopped his pacing. ‘Infinite knowledge, of course.’

  ‘And what would “infinite knowledge” give you?’ Amaury prodded.

  Thales thought for some time before he answered. ‘Initially I would say knowledge is its own gain. But what lies beyond that?’

  Amaury smiled. ‘What lies beyond that... is what you really seek.’

  JO-JO RASTEROVICH

  Petalu, the chair, and the alien creature met at a speed that made a wet crunching sound that Jo-Jo knew he would remember for ever.

  Petalu fell on his back but the creature only staggered, despite a crack in its exoskeleton, and recovered quickly. Its mouth lobes unfolded and long feelers extruded into the air. They wavered down towards Petalu’s face.

  ‘Pet!’ shrieked Bethany.

  But the big man was dazed, grabbing the back of his head and moaning.

  ‘Crap.’ Jo-Jo darted out and seized a shard of the chair leg.

  The creature’s feelers flickered in his direction and then back to Petalu as if confused by the choice.

  Jo-Jo didn’t wait for it to decide. He stabbed the shard into the crack in its exoskeleton with all his strength, jerking the piece from side to side. A large fracture opened along its abdomen and an opaque fluid began to leak out.

  The creature doubled over as if surprised, and its feelers reached towards the fluid. The tiny maws on the end of each one began to swallow the fluid from the wound. It seemed to forget Jo-Jo and Mau altogether—but across the trade court others were beginning to move in their direction.

  Jo-Jo tried to drag Petalu towards the lift. ‘Beth!’

  Bethany grabbed one of Petalu’s massive arms and heaved with a strength that startled Jo-Jo. They dragged and rolled and pushed the big man into the lift and Bethany pinged the doors shut.

  As the lift headed to the top of its shaft, Jo-Jo straddled Petalu’s chest. ‘Come on, man. No time for wimping.’

  ‘We can’t carry him any further,’ said Bethany. She knelt near Petalu’s head, rocking on her knees, hands clasped together.

  ‘How did you get so strong?’ Jo-Jo asked her.

  She exhaled softly. ‘Fear makes you strong. Isn’t that what they say?’ She turned wide serious eyes on him. ‘And I have never been this scared, Joey.’ There was no brave follow-up smile, no laugh.

  No one had called him ‘Joey’ since his mum. She’d run off with a Galaxy Productions sales manager. Not that it ever stopped Jo-Jo from buying Galaxy sims. On the contrary, he felt compelled to do so. Just to make sure that his mother hadn’t wound up on the screen. Something about Bethany reminded him of his mother. Except that Bethany had balls—and a sense of decorum.

  ‘Me neither.’ Jo-Jo sighed. ‘I will live to regret this,’ he muttered.

  He slapped Petalu Mau across the face with enough force to get the man’s attention. Then he leaned close to him. ‘What am I gonna tell Mama Petalu? That you got knocked down and wouldn’t get up? That you had your fat arse whipped by a slug?’ Jo-Jo taunted. ‘THAT YOU LAY DOWN AND DIED!’

  Mau’s eyes focused. ‘Mama Petalu,’ he said hoarsely. He edged up onto one
elbow.

  Thank Crux—

  Then one huge fist knocked Jo-Jo sideways into the lift wall.

  ‘No one tells Mama Petalu her man is a wimp.’

  Bethany hugged his neck. ‘You saved us, Pet.’

  The man patted her gently and sent Jo-Jo a dirty look.

  Jo-Jo righted himself and rubbed his jaw. It felt broken—dislocated at the very least.

  ‘Which way is the Savvy?’ he asked clumsily.

  Mau pointed to his left. ‘Long walk.’

  ‘Along the flute?’

  Mau nodded and sat up. Little bits of exoskeleton peppered the skin on his arms and face as if he’d rolled in liquid and been crumbed.

  Bethany tore some cloth from her shirt and wiped off what she could. ‘Might be toxic,’ she said.

  Mau sat still like a docile animal.

  His submission to her ministrations baffled Jo-Jo. As though the pair of them had known each other for years. He shrugged off the notion and climbed to his feet. They were only a few levels from the top of the station now.

  The lift halted and the doors pinged open. ‘Keep it open for me, Beth.’

  Jo-Jo felt his way to the door and peered around the edge. The little he could see to the right seemed impregnable: plastic conduits twisted around fallen metal joists and giving off a God-awful stinking gas where the fire had melted them. The left was clearer with enough room for single-file access.

  ‘Let’s go,’ he told the others. ‘Mau, show us the way.’ He stepped out to let him pass.

  The big man lumbered ahead. Bethany followed.

  Jo-Jo found it impossible to see around Mau’s bulk, so he fell to glancing nervously behind. Would the creatures follow them? Maybe he should have destroyed the lift panel—but what if they needed to get down again? What if the Savvy had already gone?

  The titanium corridor of the flute section was tarnished with wear. Dark green oil had seeped along the floor from a ruptured hydraulic, and Jo-Jo and Bethany slipped every few steps. Mau was surprisingly steady on his feet, his bulk leaving little gap between either side of his body and the sloping walls.

  Eventually the corridor opened on to a narrow mesh platform that hung above a huge scallop-shaped chamber filled with crusted tanks. A long pipe ran from one tank to the next, then joined another to make a thick conduit that disappeared through the chamber wall.

  Mau pointed to one particular tank. ‘Bad shit, that. Made Mau piss green stuff.’

  Bethany took a spontaneous step away. Her reaction made Jo-Jo want to laugh. Right now pissing green stuff seemed more attractive than having his body fluids sucked out. Then he remembered that his Health Watch had expired.

  He took a step that put him even further away from the tank than Beth.

  Mau pointed to where the pipes converged into one. ‘Go through underneath there. You first.’ He turned his finger to Jo-Jo and prodded him in the chest.

  From his expression, and the jab of the finger, Jo-Jo figured that Mau hadn’t forgiven him for the bagging yet. It didn’t seem like the right time to make up.

  He squeezed past Beth and Mau to take the lead. The narrow gallery was joined to an even narrower ramp that spiralled down into the chamber in a looping slope. As Jo-Jo jogged ahead of the other two he noticed globs of dried uuli secretions on the ramp grating. He’d heard they had a high tolerance of heavy metals. Maybe that was why they smelled so bad.

  When he reached the bottom he realised that Mau was walking sideways to fit the constricted passageway. Bethany was only a little way in front of him, making gestures of encouragement.

  Her patience and consideration impressed Jo-Jo. His own mind was firing off a bunch of wild messages, including one that he should leave the others behind.

  ‘Hurry!’ he bellowed helpfully.

  Bethany shot him an annoyed look.

  Jo-Jo shrugged and ducked in under the convergence of pipes. In the recess behind them sat a docking hatch whose display strip flashed unoccupied above, it.

  The Savvy had gone.

  Jo-Jo sagged back against the pipe, his mind racing even faster. They could return to the lift and search level by level for survivors. Or they could try to get through the trade hall to the main docking area. He discarded the second idea as a last option: the creatures must have come in that way.

  How they got to Dowl in the first place was another thing. They didn’t seem smart enough to transport themselves, which meant that someone else had brought them in. Araldis must be their target.

  Jo-Jo suddenly felt exhausted. He hated all the crap that went with worlds. If he hadn’t followed that manipulative little cunt Tekton here he would never have got slammed in confinement. No confinement—no wrong place, wrong time—no scrabbling around this toxic craphole looking for a way off. He spat on the filthy acid-scoured floor.

  ‘Josef?’

  Beth’s anxious face appeared beneath the pipes.

  He waved his hand at the display above the hatch. ‘Savvy’s gone.’

  She made a despairing sound.

  Mau squeezed under to join them. Sweat streamed from his face. His skin was as crimson as an Araldisian native’s and his breath came in irregular grunting gasps.

  ‘We’ll have to go back,’ said Jo-Jo.

  But then a noise above them had them all craning their necks. Two of the aliens were on the high platform.

  ‘They look like slugs,’ said Jo-Jo.

  ‘Not slugs,’ said Bethany. ‘Maybe arthropods of some type. They have an exoskeleton. And they can see.’

  ‘Call ‘em what you like, Beth. Mau? Ideas?’

  ‘Go out onto dock.’ Petalu Mau leaned past them and banged the hatch panel. It popped its seal with a sucking sound.

  The noise carried high.

  ‘They’ve seen us,’ said Beth. ‘Josef.’ She grabbed his chin between her hands and forced him to look into her eyes. ‘In case... promise me you’ll find my daughter and tell her that I tried to come after her, that I didn’t abandon her. Promise me.’

  Jo-Jo pulled away, perturbed by the strength in her fingers and by her emotion. ‘I don’t do promises, Beth.’

  Her head went up and she gave him a fierce look. ‘Promise me or I’ll—’

  ‘Hatch stuck,’ Mau interrupted.

  ‘Shit!’ Jo-Jo added his effort to the battle against the malfunctioning safety mechanism until the aperture was wide enough for Bethany to get through.

  ‘Go down the tube,’ Jo-Jo instructed her. ‘There’ll be a secondary hatch somewhere along it. Stick your head outside it and see what’s there. There’s got to be some other way off this piece of crap.’

  She nodded and disappeared while he and Mau continued to push at the door. It opened wide enough for Jo-Jo but not for Mau.

  Mau suddenly stopped pushing, exhausted, and fell back against the pipe. His face crumpled, looking as though he might cry. He pointed upward. ‘You tell Mama Petalu that Mau died brave. Tell her not let my little Kia handfast with Toki Lomas. No good, that family.’

  Jo-Jo groaned and glanced roofwards. The arthropods were over halfway down the ramp. Goading Mau again might work or... Mau just might kill him.

  Short on options, he took a deep breath. ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever. But I figured you could handle tough situations, man. Turns out you’re green as that stuff you’ve been pissing. I’m reckoning Beth’s got bigger balls than—’

  The muscles in Mau’s neck corded in fury. His big fists came up from where they had dropped by his sides. He charged at Jo-Jo who ducked to one side.

  Mau caught the corner of the hatch at full tilt. His momentum sprang the hatch—and cracked his collarbone. He doubled over, moaning, but Jo-Jo didn’t give him a chance to suck in the pain. He pulled him through the door and into the docking tube.

  Halfway along, Bethany was leaning out through a flexi-hatch. She heard them and turned awkwardly around in their direction. ‘What’s wrong with Mau?’

  Jo-Jo didn’t answer. He squashed down next t
o her and peered out of the hatch.

  The dock was grime on grime. Rubbish filled every corner of the chamber and metal littered the floor space like a shower of food scraps.

  From what he could see the berths at each of the four flexi-tubes were empty. The Savvies had most certainly gone.

  Jo-Jo jumped down onto the floor and felt the crunch of crystallised corrosion under his feet. He skirted the perimeter of the chamber, praying that his soft detention bootees would survive whatever was eating away at the floor. He couldn’t think of many worse places to die.

  Soon his feet began to tingle. He lifted one. The fabric was dissolving.

  Shit.

  Along the farthest wall, though, he spied a dull glow above another hatch. He ran over to the hatch’s spyhole and rubbed it clear. A tiny tubular lug with a one-operator cabin drifted on an external mooring. It wouldn’t get them far but it would get them off Dowl. Hopefully, someone would pick them up. Hopefully, there were ships out there still...

  ‘There’s a lug left,’ he bellowed.

  Bethany stuck her head out of the flexi-hatch again and signalled that they were coming. She jumped down, naked to the waist. Mau followed, his shoulder strapped with her shirt.

  Jo-Jo gaped at her as she approached.

  She scowled. ‘Stop acting like you’ve never seen me naked before. You know my butt better than I do.’

  Jo-Jo gave her a grin and unhooked an EVA suit from the wall. ‘Lug’s got a one-person cab. Better be Mau because he won’t fit into one of these.’

  Beth took the suit and deftly folded her small body into it.

  ‘Done this before?’ said Jo-Jo as he struggled with his own.

  ‘I’m a biologist, remember?’ She grabbed the collar of Jo-Jo’s suit and yanked it upward in one smooth movement. ‘There.’

  ‘There!’ echoed Jo-Jo. Only now he was looking back at the flexi-tube. It was vibrating as if it had suddenly filled with a lot of shifting weight.

  He turned to the lug controls and set them to wind it in. A few precious minutes passed while Jo-Jo and Bethany fumbled with their helmets and primed their airflow. Jo-Jo’s suit had about a half-hour supply, Bethany’s a bit more.