Empire of Bones

by Liz Williams

  “Desgusai,” Sirru said, evidently bewildered. She remembered Ir Yth’s interpretation.

  “The same? How can we be the same, Sirru? Oh, I wish you could understand.”

  ship: link-bond

  His hand snaked round to clasp her own.

  come with me

  Reluctantly, Jaya rose and followed. He led her through the maze of corridors and chambers, which more than ever reminded her of the veins of some great plant. As they descended, there was a smell of something green and growing, like walking through cut grass after a rainstorm. It reminded her of the watered lawns of the ashram. Sirru took her through the chamber with the growing tanks, but the shiny masses of seeds had been reduced to a cluster in a single tank. Jaya bent over to look as they passed, and Sirru patiently waited for her. The seeds were bigger, distended with water. Their membranes had become soft and pale, like fluid-logged skin. Sirru said something that Jaya did not understand.

  “What?” But he only led her onward, past the tanks and through the wall of the chamber into a part of the ship that she had never seen before; by the time he stopped, Jaya’s calves were aching. She couldn’t see anything special about the chamber they were in. It was empty, with a domed ceiling that arched only a foot or so above the top of her head. Veins ribbed the walls, and these were prominent and wet. There was a disturbingly familiar smell, which she could not place. Sirru settled himself on the floor; after a moment, she sat cross-legged before him. His gaze rested on a point just to the left of her shoulder, in a disconcertingly oblique manner. She squinted round, trying to see, but there was nothing there. Sirru’s golden eyes were distant and abstracted.

  “Sirru?”

  Something touched the back of her neck, like a quick soft hand. Jaya twisted around, striking out and meeting empty air—yet, not empty after all… The air was beginning to curdle around her. Her vision swam, as if she saw the world through tears, and she blinked, but nothing happened. Then, after a moment, everything became startlingly clear. Sirru was no longer sitting in front of her; he was nowhere to be seen. And the voice that she had heard over the years of her life was murmuring in her mind’s ear:

  This is what we must becomewe must join, something new must come of us/

  She couldn’t breathe. The voice was growing thunderstorm-loud and with it came the heat, waves of fever washing across her. She could hear the rattle in her throat, and a long way beneath the panic her small voice whispering: So this is what it’s like to die. She tasted blood in her mouth, and her body began to analyze it: old blood, alchemically changed. Distantly, she remembered smearing her menses on the wall of the ship, trying to mark her passage through the maze. She thought of Kamal, facedown in icy water that was turning red, not moving; never moving again.

  Her tongue felt cold, like a lump of frozen river water in her mouth. Her vision was gone and she couldn’t see the walls of the chamber, only darkness. And then, suddenly, she was looking inside herself. She could see a pattern chasing down her throat, changing as it went, corroding. And then, absorbed into her veins, latching onto smaller and smaller elements of her own body: a virus. It was a moment before she realized what was happening. The ship was infecting her.

  For a split second she watched her own mutated lymph system gearing into action, challenging the invader, but it was too late. The virus had locked onto DNA, skeining down genetic pathways, and it brought her down into a tight black heat.

  13.

  Depth ship, orbit: Earth

  “Link-bonding has commenced,” Sirru informed Ir Yth. “Soon the seed will be fertilized, and we can send it out to find a world of its own to spore over. A new desqusai world—think of that.” He tried to sound eager rather than smug, in order to allay suspicions, but the look that Ir Yth gave him was a sour one.

  Excellent news, Ir Yth said.

  “Isn’t it? And Jaya’s link-bonding with the ship proves that the Tekhein desqusai are compatible with the rest of their kindred. The Receiver has demonstrated that her people have reached the required level of development for further evolution”—Sirru couldn’t resist rubbing it in a little—“and thus the future of this planet is assured. It’ll take time and effort to bring the rest of the population up to this level, to repair the peculiar directions that the subspecies has taken, but at least we know it can be done. I suggest,” he added, cautiously, “that we communicate the good news to the Core.”

  He was expecting Ir Yth to greet this news with relief. After all, if the project succeeded, it would enhance her prestige as well as his own. But in the moment before the raksasa turned to face the viewport, she looked far from happy.

  Realization struck Sirru like a physical blow. She doesn’t want the project to succeed. She wants it to fail, like Arakrahali. But why? If the project fails, the desqusai are up for termination. Granted, there was a constant jockeying for position among castes, and projects did get sabotaged—but not at the expense of an entire caste. Why would the khaithoi do such a thing? Status? To take desqusai temeni and colonies for their own, to enhance their standing in the Core Marginals, perhaps attain Inner rank?

  The idea was like a hot wire, singing down his nerves. It had never occurred to him before that one caste might deliberately connive at another’s destruction. The Core occasionally terminated those castes that had passed their sell-by date, that had proved unviable… but what if they weren’t unviable at all? What if such sabotage was a regular occurrence and everyone was just too mentally controlled to notice?

  He could feel the surge of the remaining suppressants trying to clamp down on these disturbing notions, but for the first time in his life, they failed. He wondered if Jaya had felt like this when they had rescued her from the prison of her own body. He, too, had been a prisoner. His thoughts were racing.

  Why had Ir Yth not taken action before? Presumably she’d had to wait for Sirru’s arrival, so that any and all blame could be securely placed upon him. The thought made him grow angry and cold. Well, Sirru thought, we’ll see about that.

  Contacting the Core will of course be necessary, Ir Yth told him. However, I recommend that we wait for a little while, until we are sure that the Receiver and the ship have truly link-bonded. We don’t want to risk embarrassment by a premature announcement.

  “Of course not,” Sirru said, and bowed. “I will be guided by your wise example.”

  Let Ir Yth think that she’s bought some time. He wondered, uneasily, whether he might have underestimated the raksasa, but she seemed to relax a little at his words.

  How is the Receiver? Ir Yth asked.

  “She’s resting. I suggest we undertake the tests when she wakes.”

  And Ir Yth, after a pause, said, Very well. She gave him a beady look. I have been meaning to remind you, now that we are so far from home, that there are obviously full facilities here for suppressant refreshment. You will be wanting to maintain psychological stability in the face of the demands of a primitive culture, and I would recommend that you increase your dose.

  Was that a threat? Sirru wondered, alarmed. Had she picked up on any of his thoughts? He wondered if he could find a way to increase the scale’s setting beyond its current maximum. If Ir Yth was starting to grow suspicious, he would need to work quickly to confirm this deduction. And to do something to stop her.

  When Ir Yth had gone, Sirru made his way back down to the bonding chamber. He knew that this was foolish, literally like turning back the earth to see if a seed has germinated, but he was anxious and the urge was difficult to resist. He did not enter the chamber, but touched the wall so that a small slit appeared. The slit was very small and very grudging, which Sirru took to be a good sign. He was unnerved to see that his hand was trembling. He put an eye to the slit and peered through. The chamber had changed. It had shrunk to a little more than half its original size. Filaments of viral nexi hung in slender webs from the walls and the floor of the chamber had become slightly ridged. Sirru noted these faint ridges with satisfaction. Vest
iges of a dark and rusty crust smeared the ridges, and Sirru frowned, concerned for Jaya. He stepped back, and the slit closed with a moist snap.

  Sirru walked swiftly down the veins of the ship to where Jaya lay. As he went, he noticed that the ship itself seemed to be changing. The atmosphere within it was old and stale, and the walls that surrounded him looked suddenly brittle. He thought of dead leaves in the winter wind, and his skin felt suddenly cold.

  He stopped and listened, but the ship told him nothing. He sent questions into the air, but the ship’s awareness was turned from him, becoming distant and remote. Swallowing a tight knot of tension, Sirru hurried to find Jaya.

  14.

  Depth ship, orbit: Earth

  Jaya woke, and knew something was wrong. She ached all over, as if with the aftermath of fever, but her head was clear. Her mouth had a familiar, sour taste of metal, and when she put her hand to her face she could trace dried trails of blood from lips and nose. Her crotch felt bruised. Tense with sudden dismay, she slipped her hand down her trousers, between her legs, and when she brought her fingers back into the light they were wet with blood. It wasn’t the dark clots of menstruation, either, but fresh and red.

  Nauseated and shaking, she crawled across to the nutrient drip and used the glutinous extract to clean herself as best she could. When her hands were clean, she milked more nutrient into her palm and licked it. The nutrient didn’t taste the same. It was sour, like milk on the turn, with a moldy aftertaste. Jaya hastily spat, thinking: God, what’s the matter with me? What happened? Was I raped? By whom? Or by what?

  She huddled against the wall, arms wrapped defensively around her knees, trying to make herself as small and unobtrusive as possible. She couldn’t remember a thing, and it panicked her. She’d rather know the worst; at least then she could get angry. Her ribs ached with the legacy of physical exertion.

  Colonists always bring the gifts of sickness. The British gave us cholera… But not only colonists; the colonized, too, had weapons at their disposal. What if I’ve poisoned the ship? Given it something that will kill it, like thrush or the common cold? She could not know what she was dealing with, and neither, perhaps, did Sirru and Ir Yth. We’re all in a great experiment: we’re all rats in the maze. What the hell has happened to me?

  She found herself suddenly missing Kamal with a raw torrent of sorrow. Somehow, no matter how bad it got, he’d always been able to comfort her. He’d always known the right thing to say, the practical, sensible thing that defeated panic.

  The wall was opening. Jaya glanced sharply up and saw Sirru. The mediator’s eyes were anxious, and she could feel a tension emanating from him like a taut wire. He crouched by her side and reached out to touch the remnants of blood on her face, making a curious clucking sound such as one might make to reassure an animal. She scrambled away.

  “Don’t touch me!” He drew back immediately. “Sirru? What’s going on? What have you done to me?” Her hand brushed the wall, and it felt as frail as paper. It crumpled beneath her fingers and tore away in a thin epidermal skin. Sirru reached out, and the grip of his hand around her wrist was painful. She tried to break free, snapping back against his thumb, but the long digit just bent and rotated, twisting her arm.

  “Let me go!”

  “Jaya’ chantha …”His exasperation washed over her, followed by a sense of urgency and panic that left her limp.

  ShipIr Yth—danger/. Suddenly, she was filled with his own mistrust and alarm. And ship is sick.

  “The ship’s sick?” Jaya stared at him in dismay.

  Ir Yth … —followed by a cool rush of certainty flowing from Sirru’s skin to her own.

  “Are you trying to tell me that Ir Yth has done this?”

  A twinge of uncertainty, then again: Ir Ythdanger/.

  “I knew it.” Jaya hauled herself to her feet, disregarding the pain. She couldn’t trust either alien, but from what she’d seen of the raksasa, she’d take Sirru’s side any day. There seemed a good enough chance that he was the lesser of two evils. She wished she knew more about these people, but until that knowledge could be gained, she’d just have to rely on her instincts. The trouble was, those instincts had to some degree been guided by the voice of the ship, and now the ship was dying. First Kamal, then this. Now I really have to rely on myself.

  She reached down and pulled Sirru to his feet.

  “Come on,” she said, aware that she was effectively talking to herself. “If there’s nothing we can do about the ship, we’re at least going to get some answers out of the raksasa.”

  15.

  Depth ship, orbit: Earth

  It would have to be carefully played. Antagonizing the raksasa would be a mistake. Sirru hoped he had understood Jaya, but he was by no means certain that they were acting in accord. Jaya stood beside him now, silent and with arms folded.

  “I do not wish to worry you, Ir Yth, but the ship is dying,” he informed her.

  Indeed?

  Sirru said with as much restraint as he could muster, “Forgive me for my impertinence, but why is it that you do not seem more alarmed?”

  Ir Yth gave a fluid four-shouldered shrug. Desqusai.

  “And what is that supposed to mean?” So much for restraint.

  Ir Yth’s petaled mouth fluttered in a simper. Your caste is not, of course, to be blamed for its inability to control its instabilities. It is primitive, with little appreciation of the aesthetics of modulation. Your conceptual vocabulary is limited. Clearly, the Tekhein project will not, after all, be suitable for ripening. Must I spell it out? Link-bonding has failed. The Receiver’s subspecies is not, as I feared, at an appropriate level of development. Her modulations are crude to the point of destructiveness. Link-bonding is an ancient and traditional ritual, which has rarely gone awry over countless millennia. But instead of Jaya’s ovum being fertilized by the ship’s seed after the gathering process, she has infected it.

  “You blame the Receiver?” Sirru said, as the knot of fear that had been contracting within his abdomen snapped and expanded, spreading a chilly weakness throughout his body. Jaya glanced sharply at him, clearly trying to work out what was going on. He motioned her to stay quiet.

  I see no other casual agent. Do you?

  “But the desqusai can’t afford another failure, not after Arakrahali,” Sirru said, failing for once to guard his words. Silently, he cursed the slip. Ir Yth’s serrated shoulder blades rippled beneath the folds of her robe.

  That is a desqusai problem; nothing to do with me. I must now go to the translation chamber and appraise the Core of the project’s collapse. Then you and I will return to our First Bodies. She seemed to brighten. We’ll be going home.

  “What about Jaya?” He gestured toward her, and felt her question. “What about the colony?”

  Ir Yth’s eyes widened in surprise. The Receiver will remain here, of course. The colony will be taken care of as the ship’s orbit decays. Once I have permission from the Core, I will activate the spread of killer spores. Best that the colony be brought to a tidy end.

  Thinking fast, Sirru inclined his head. “As always, I will be guided by your actions.” True enough, he thought as Ir Yth swept from the room. He waited for a moment, then checked that the setting of the scale was still at maximum closure. In a way, he reflected, it was a good thing that the ship was so distracted—it was unlikely to betray his presence to Ir Yth. His head started to throb. Jaya touched his arm, made gestures. She pointed toward the wall opening.

  “Ir Yth?” she asked. He could feel her mood: a steely coldness.

  Ir Yth he confirmed. Jaya was already heading through the opening. Swiftly and silently, they followed the raksasa along the decaying corridors of the ship.

  16.

  Depth ship, orbit: Earth

  The pungent odor of green decay filled Jaya’s nostrils as they hurried through the passageways of the ship. Trailing skeins of skin were peeling from the walls and ceiling, revealing a tarry ooze. Jaya had understood litt
le of the conversation between Sirru and Ir Yth, and she hated not knowing what was going on. But it felt good to take action again, after the aimless, unsettling time on the ship. They hurried through the growing chamber, and with a sick dismay Jaya saw that the seeds had died in their tanks, turning to pondweed and slime. A film of mold covered the surface of the nutrient vats. The place smelled like a stagnant marsh.

  Sirru paused, turning from side to side. He reminded Jaya suddenly of a hunting dog; it was as though he was scenting the air. Was he searching for a trace of Ir Yth? Striding off, he led her down a narrow corridor.

  “Sirru,” Jaya hissed, though she had little expectation of being understood. “Where are we going?” She was certain that she had never been this way before. Sirru stopped so abruptly that she cannoned into him. He thrust an arm against her, pinning her against the wall, and she almost cried out. Peering over his shoulder, she could see into a small, glowing chamber. Banks of moving lights were writhing up the curved walls like underwater fireworks. After a moment, Jaya saw Ir Yth, sitting hunched in the middle of the chamber with her back to the door. Her form was indistinct, wavering in the light. All four hands were a swift blur of movement. Jaya plucked at Sirru’s sleeve and pointed.

  “What’s she doing?”

  Sirru exuded dismay. Ir Yth—homeAlone!/Must not!/

  Had she understood that correctly? Was Ir Yth running out on them? Sirru looked down at her, and Jaya could see a sudden uncertainty in his face. Alien though he was, she recognized that look. It was the expression of someone who was entertaining second thoughts. Then she remembered the alarm that had poured from him.

  Ir Ythdanger/

  It was a terrible risk, but it wasn’t the first time she’d had to act on little knowledge for high stakes. She wormed swiftly past Sirru into the chamber. Another stride took her to Ir Yth. Before the preoccupied raksasa had time to turn, she struck Ir Yth as hard as she could on the side of the head. The raksasa crumpled to the floor without a sound.