The Ascendant Stars

by Cobley, Michael

‘This is not part of my memories,’ Robert said.

  ‘I know,’ said the drone. ‘All this time, despite the strenuous efforts to erase the emotional remainders, to exile me from his awareness and then to expunge me altogether, the memories still hung on, deeply, tenaciously buried – along with the guilt!’

  Shafts of light angled down from above, falling upon the roiling, indignant crowd. The form that descended towards the startled onlookers was identical to the upright squid-likenesses of the Tanenth, except that it was huge and purest white.

  ‘He is here!’ the empathic entity said. ‘The dream-simulation is adapting – the Godhead has now become entangled in its own dream!’

  ‘Can we stop those missiles?’ Robert said.

  ‘The Godhead has relaxed his control over the external communication channels … and other means of influence. As soon as we attempt to turn them to our purposes this will cause a ripple effect that will serve to bring the Godhead out of the dream-state. His subsequent displeasure is sure to be considerable.’

  Robert laughed, despite the pain of the straps still keeping him in the couch. ‘Well, if he’s going to wake up angry, let’s give him something to be angry about!’

  JULIA

  ‘ … a long-delayed departure from an undeserving continuum,’ Talavera was saying as the long-range sensor cam roamed across the undulating ugliness of the Godhead’s exterior. ‘And the catalyst will be an event unprecedented on the galactic scale, the simultaneous creation of five hundred supernovae … ’

  ‘Genocide, you mean,’ Julia said. ‘The destruction of hundreds of worlds and civilisations. The slaughter of billions upon billions … ’

  She froze in mid-sentence as a vermax snaked into her field of vision and lunged its eyeless, tapered head towards her, stopping just inches from her face, wavering there.

  ‘Now, Julia, I explained about the ecology of greatness,’ Talavera said. ‘Didn’t I? Superior lifeforms obey their own rules and pursue their own goals, their own paths to higher levels of overarching wisdom.’ She leaned in closer, gaze darting from Julia to the vermax and back. ‘There you are, residing in the bubble-mesh-matrix of that cranial implant and here we have a vermax, a technivore supreme. To his senses you’re nothing more than a luscious titbit – just imagine it tearing open that skull then biting into the implant, its incisors slicing into the metal and the components within. Maybe you’d actually feel it, maybe not, but remember that the next time you get the urge to be a sanctimonious bore. Otherwise, you’ll end up as a vermax snack.’

  She stepped away and the vermax withdrew.

  ‘Learn to curb your disrespect … oh, my master!’

  The big holopanel no longer showed the continental vastness of the Godhead. Instead, against a background of roiling blue a coldly androgynous humanoid mask stared out with blank, hollow eyes.

  ‘So,’ said the mask, its empty mouth forming a smile. ‘You’re the real Talavera.’

  Talavera’s demeanour went from beatific adoration to incandescent hatred in an eyeblink.

  ‘And you are not Him!’

  A moment later her eyes rolled up to show the whites and she collapsed to the floor like a puppet with its strings severed. The vermax shrank and dwindled as they escaped through gaps in the floor.

  ‘Correct,’ said the mask. ‘I am what He might have become.’ The mask then tilted slightly in Julia’s direction. ‘Now, Julia, the real Julia, there is very little time – do you know about the Godhead and the missiles?’

  She nodded. ‘Five hundred supernovae equals a gateway to a higher plane of existence.’

  ‘Yes, or a one-way ticket to hell,’ the mask said. ‘What you have to do is access the missile-targeting system and retarget them all on the Godhead.’

  Julia almost felt like laughing, feeling a trickle of something like hysterical panic.

  ‘There is a slight problem or two,’ she said. ‘Talavera has four or five thugs wandering around while I’m here, strapped to a couch and the new arrival is … ’

  Her voice trailed off as the Asiatic Kao Chih snapped the bonds around his wrists with casual ease then reached down and did the same to the cords around his ankles. Then to her astonishment his appearance, his very form began to change, darkening and growing taller while limbs became slender, matching the rest of his torso.

  ‘Ah, a member of the ancient and noble Roug,’ said the mask.

  The shapeshifter being gave a slight but grave bow of the head. ‘My sincere apologies for the subterfuge – although I am acquainted with the esteemed Kao Chih, I am not him. I am Mandator Qabakri, sent by the High Index of the Roug to assist in any way that I can.’

  ‘Julia,’ said the mask. ‘You must find a way to target all those missiles on the Godhead without delay. We do not know how long it will be before the Godhead emerges from the dream-state we have fooled him into. It would also be advisable to bind Talavera’s limbs.’

  ‘Who are you?’ Julia said. ‘Are you Human?’

  The mask smiled eerily. ‘We are embers, the embers of one Human life, and the embers of a fading conscience. Go now – do what must be done.’

  Then the mask was gone, replaced by that daunting view of the Godhead’s bizarre vista.

  ‘Human Julia,’ said the Roug, ‘is this a normal occurrence?’

  She looked round and gasped to see Arkady gingerly swing his legs off his couch and press his naked feet down on the tiled floor.

  ‘Arkady,’ she said hoarsely. ‘The readouts said that there was no brain activity, that you were gone.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Julia, but he is definitely gone.’ Arkady spoke but the voice wasn’t quite his. ‘We’ve been watching via the shadow system and when we heard our snake-loving friend here revealing her Godhead colours we decided to act. Which is how I came to be downloaded into this body’s implant.’

  ‘And into this one … ’

  Thorold was likewise getting down from the next couch along, swaying on shaky legs. Julia stared, knowing she should be feeling something strong, something like anger or even fury as she recognised the intelligence that was looking back at her from those two well-remembered faces. She shifted her posture, sitting straighter on her own couch.

  ‘Harry,’ she said, glancing at the Roug. ‘And no, this is not a normal occurrence.’

  ‘I know, two of me,’ said Harry-Arkady. ‘Can the cosmos stand the strain?’

  ‘At least you’re showing some initiative,’ Julia said. ‘Time is not on our side, so can you find out how Talavera shut down my access and reverse it?’

  ‘I know exactly what she did,’ Harry-Thorold said, bending down to examine her couch’s control panel. ‘Saw it all on the surveillance feed.’

  ‘So did I,’ said Harry-Arkady. ‘But I can see that you’ve got this one.’

  ‘I see what you mean,’ Julia said. ‘Twice the wit.’

  Harry-Arkady raised an eyebrow and pointed to Talavera’s prone, unconscious form. ‘You know, our mysterious masked ally had the right idea. Might be wise to keep the queen of the snakes tied up.’ Nearby, the Roug Qabakri nodded agreement.

  ‘And that’s the lockouts cancelled,’ said Harry-Thorold, straightening with the VR headset in his hands. ‘You’ll probably need this to set up the full access again.’

  It was true – all the channels and networks were once more open to her.

  ‘Right, I’m going to find a way through to Konstantin and change the missile targets.’

  With headset settled about her crown, she activated the menu and eye-touched through to Target and Guidance then Immersive Interface.

  For a brief moment minor distortions rippled through her visual field. Blurring was accompanied by a passing dizziness and when she looked up she was standing in a walled courtyard before a two-storey brick building. Like the sky, the bricks were a cold, grainy blue. She was facing a heavy door in an otherwise solid unbroken wall – the only windows were on the upper floor and were small and quartered. A face appe
ared at one of them, the face of Konstantin, who smiled, waved and moved out of sight.

  There were several bushes planted along the front, low with dark bluish-green leaves. Julia tried the door but it was secure and wouldn’t budge – the lock was a lever-tumbler type and seemed to be the only way of opening the door, which was impervious to her blows and kicks. Julia felt a certain irritation, aware that the seconds were ticking by. She then decided to move back a few yards, to see if she could get Konstantin’s attention, but as she did so her trouser leg brushed against one of the bushes, causing a faint clinking sound. Frowning, she crouched down and saw that several identical steel-blue keys were hanging from the bush. Other bushes she discovered sported different key types, and she swiftly amassed a good selection before returning to the door.

  Through trial and error she found the right key and the unlocked door slid rather than swung open, revealing a second door. She then found that she only had about ten seconds to unlock the second door before the first one slid shut and locked itself. And behind the second door was a third, which demanded more trial and error and reopening of the first two doors till at last she stepped through to the foot of a staircase. A door opened at the top as she climbed to the final steps and Konstantin was there, looking tired, grey-haired and dressed in a grubby lab coat.

  ‘Good to see you again, Julia,’ he said, offering a weary smile. ‘Welcome to Talavera’s puzzle-house. She’s been keeping me here for … well, I’m not sure how long … ’

  ‘Konstantin,’ she said, ‘we have to stop those missiles – Talavera has targeted them on five hundred suns to create five hundred supernovae … ’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ Konstantin said. ‘Has the Godhead arrived yet?’

  Julia was surprised. ‘How did you know?’

  ‘It is surprising how much these narcissistic sociopath types will reveal if you can convince them that you are practically an extension of their will.’ He gave a dry laugh. ‘Talavera told me about the ecology of greatness, and later, piece by piece, the Godhead’s plan for its elevation to a higher continuum, a plane of superior existence, complete with hot and cold running enlightenment. All it required was five hundred supernovae and an unimaginable slaughter.’ His lip curled in disgust. ‘So bit by bit I built my own subversion system which would allow me to retarget all five hundred missiles with just a few commands.

  ‘Unfortunately, I underestimated that paranoia of hers – it’s so reflexive, so ingrained that it’s more than just an ego state. I must have said or done something to touch it off which led to my captivity here, and the isolation of all my control interfaces.’

  He beckoned her over to the small quartered window, which no longer looked down into the enclosed courtyard. Instead, about ten yards away there was a long wall of big stone blocks topped with broken glass and rows of spikes. But the window was high enough to reveal that this was just one side of an immense maze. There was an entrance, a gap in the wall a fair distance off to the left. Konstantin pointed towards the centre of the maze.

  ‘That’s where my control interfaces are,’ he said. ‘So Talavera locked me up in here. But now that you’ve unpuzzled the door I can get outside … ’

  ‘How long will it take to get through that maze?’ Julia said. ‘Time is short.’

  ‘Trust me, Julia, I always have a plan B.’ He gave her a sidelong glance. ‘You’ve changed – you’re less of a martinet than you used to be.’

  I’m less Human than I once was, she thought.

  ‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that,’ she said. ‘So, what’s plan B?’

  ‘First, we get outside … ’

  She followed him back down to the triple door, which, as she half-expected, now opened onto the flat pebbly ground facing the maze’s outer wall. Immediately, a high-pitched keening came from either side.

  ‘Now we run!’ Konstantin said, dashing over to the wall.

  Julia spotted dog creatures converging from left and right as she ran after him. They had tapered black vermax heads rather than something less disturbing, which at that moment could have been almost anything else.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I forgot to mention Talavera’s pets. Quite nasty, aren’t they? … Ah, here it is.’

  Fumbling along the wall, he stopped at a square, off-colour block and slapped his splayed-out hand against it.

  The closest charging vermax-dog suddenly slowed and the ground it was on began to move backwards. The maze wall curved outwards to either side, bulging and flowing. Konstantin was unfazed by it all and was quick to grab her arm as she staggered, steadying her. It was as if this strange metacosm was being shoved through a fish-eye lens, a quivering, stretching, eye-defying distortion.

  Abruptly it all sprang back to normal – except that now there were odd sections of wall jutting from the outer barrier. Nonplussed, Julia turned to Konstantin, who was grinning widely.

  ‘Everything is fine,’ he said. ‘I just inverted the maze – the edge is now the centre and vice versa. A little secret functionality I built into it … for the fun of it, really.’ He jogged out from between the wall sections, then backed away, looking to either side. He pointed to his right. ‘And there it is!’

  As he strode in that direction, she hurried to catch up. ‘How quickly can you retarget the missiles?’ she said.

  ‘In moments, but you’ll have to manually launch them from one of the consoles back in the real world.’

  ‘Which one … ’ she started to say, but then her surroundings stuttered and froze, with Konstantin paused motionless in mid-pace. Then all this was blotted out by double images and blurred trails which quickly faded into a dark blur. She was back on the couch in the round passageway, and the VR headset was gone, which implied nothing good. She caught the smell of smoke and there was a haze in the air, becoming visible as focused vision returned.

  ‘Ah, welcome back, Julia! You missed the start of the party but I just know that we can make up for it. I may even disregard how you all took advantage of my temporary blackout.’

  Talavera was rubbing reddened wrists as she came over to stand next to her couch. She wore a cold-eyed smile as she adjusted its height and angle, then tightened the restraints again. Julia saw a blank-faced Harry-Arkady sitting in a plastic chair a few feet away.

  ‘The other body-snatchers should be here soon and then we’ll have some fun.’

  Talavera was bleeding from a cut on her forehead, dark red smeared across the skin. She also had a heat-burn on her cheek and shortened hanks of hair on the same side, sign of a lucky miss. And around her arms the vermax were entwined. Julia considered the horrible things for a moment before glancing over at the propped-up body of Arkady; the fist-sized bloody hole in his left temple showed where the vermax had entered to get at the implant. Which meant that Harry had been devoured, one of him anyway.

  Julia stared at twice-dead Arkady and wished she could feel something.

  Or do something. As before, when Talavera had pulled her from Irenya’s metacosm, Julia’s access to the main systems was blocked. But – had Konstantin been likewise imprisoned or had he managed to retarget the missiles? And even if plan B had succeeded, who was going to get near enough to one of the consoles to carry out the manual launch?

  Talavera smiled down at her with unconcealed malice, then moved away to sit at the console directly across from Julia’s couch. She fingered some touch controls and a holopanel appeared. She gave Julia a brief glance, then studied the holo-image for a moment then tapped another board symbol.

  ‘Oh, dearest Julia, you really have been a monumental pain in my arse, you know that?’ She spread her vermax-wound arms, as if theatrically gesturing to the entire Great Hub station. ‘Yet here we are, at the focus of it all. I’ve foiled your sad little ploys at practically every turn, and now the countdown to the autolaunch is ticking and clicking the seconds away … ’

  Julia was half-listening while the greater part of her attention was fixed on the only option left. Access to
all of Talavera’s systems was blocked but the implant’s links to her brain’s neural pathways were still fully open. The implant was capable of mapping and transloading her fractalised sentience back into her organic brain, but there was neural damage somewhere among those pathways and she had no way of knowing how it would affect her.

  Actual damage to the brain’s structure could affect my mind, she thought. Or lead to death. But if I do nothing, I’m dead at Talavera’s hands anyway …

  The attempt had to be made. She configured the implant for enhanced transloading and let it run.

  Was the light being poured into her, or was she that was the light being poured into emptiness? All the sense-impressions of Talavera’s smoke-veiled HQ faded away, as if she was falling or flowing from one place to another … then they all surged back, the textures, the pressure of the restraints, the smoke-laden air rasping in her throat, tingling in her nose, the grittiness in her eyes, the hollow hunger in her gut, the sheer synergistic impact of reality rushing back in, along with Talavera’s voice going over her triumphs, her brilliant tactics, and the glories yet to come.

  Julia worked a hand free, keeping her eyes on Talavera as she loosened straps across her upper chest and waist … and froze as the woman stood up, still mouthing her egoistic waffle, and started in Julia’s direction. She had barely taken two steps when a cluster of bright barbs cut through the air before her. She whirled and ducked into the gap between a couple of consoles, then held out her arms. The black vermax sinuously spiralled off them and flew along the corridor. A cry of pain came from the other end and Talavera rose from her refuge, smiling.

  Julia, though, had unfastened the remaining straps and was shakily, quietly climbing out of the couch. Which was when she saw poor Arkady’s body, lying on the floor where someone had discarded it. The sight of it hit her like a body blow, and other memories broke loose, Harry, Irenya, Thorold, the hellish spectacle of the Brolturan battleship’s destruction … a terrible rage detonated in her chest and turned into a wordless howl as she lunged at Talavera from behind. She grabbed her by the hair, swung her head round and slammed it against an upright equipment rack.