“What was that?” the Child Prophet asked Wheeler quietly enough for him to think he wasn’t being overheard.
“I expected her to look like Gloria, and that’s something else,” Wheeler replied, not as cautiously.
Eve dragged the brush through her hair as she listened. “That’s what we’re tracking. Her features are shifting bone deep while she’s sleeping. Her framework upgrade wasn’t built for that, but it’s happening nonetheless.”
“What does it have to do with me?” Wheeler asked.
“You’ve spent time with Patterson, more time than anyone after the change. We thought you could give us some insight since he seems to have control on a new level, not to mention, you’ve learned how to change your appearance yourself.”
“So you think she’s doing this consciously?”
Eve looked at herself in the mirror for a moment and realized that the difficulty she had recognizing herself wasn’t all in her head. She really was changing. She stroked the brush through her hair one more time before dropping it in the sink and leaving the room. “I’m not,” Eve said. “I’m not doing it consciously.”
“Then what’s changed?” Wheeler asked.
“I’ve been dreaming someone else’s life.”
The Child Prophet looked at her, alarmed. “That shouldn’t be something you talk to just anyone about.”
“He’s not just anyone, you said he has total control,” Eve replied. “I like that idea.”
Wheeler smiled and leaned against the wall. “It’s a good thing you don’t look like my old first mate. It would make looking at you while I teach you a few tricks pretty awkward.”
“So you can teach it?” Eve asked.
“It’s all visualization,” Wheeler replied. “Well, it is for me, at least. My last travelling companion seems to have a different approach.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it’s more like he actually is the framework. He gets that thing doing all kinds of stuff that I can’t even wrap my head around. Most of it’s biologically based, not like me. I just push the system to numb pain then get it to shift whatever I need around so I look like someone else. I can also use a tactile-“
“Can we continue this later?” The Child Prophet asked. “The followers are assembling.” He turned to Wheeler then. “And I think you have an important bridge to build.”
Wheeler shook his head at the shorter man then looked at Eve. “Never let ‘em know you’re good at diplomacy, or you’ll be building bridges and mending walls for the rest of your life. Good luck with the speech. As long as you don’t tell them you eat babies or are outlawing sex you’ll have those followers down there hand feeding and naming children after you.”
“Thank you Lucius. Can we meet later?”
“Count on it, Your Excellency,” Wheeler said as he turned and left.
The Child Prophet was relentless in getting her to the shuttle that would take them to Pandem. The shuttle they took down to the planet was decorated with real wood trimming, thick plush seating, and had refreshment materializers within easy reach. Eve watched as they passed groups of Eden ships. Their shining hulls, angular features, and deadly weaponry had never looked alien to her before. Even the ones with manipulation appendages didn’t look right anymore.
“They’re magnificent, I never get bored looking at them,” the Child Prophet said, straightening his synthetic silk blue and green robes. “I bet you can’t wait to connect with them.”
Eve nodded in response. She recalled the cold presence of her machine children. She remembered the sensation of thousands, being at the mercy of software voices that all demanded something of her impatiently. They brought endless questions and alien emotions that she was having difficulty recalling clearly. Human arms, a face that could be read and sentiments that were clear and relatable seemed so amazing in comparison. Thinking about those experiences brought sadness, because they weren’t hers, they were Alice’s. What that woman shared with Bernice was unlike anything Eve could clearly remember. She couldn’t recall her mother, and her father was mostly absent when Eve was still called Nora, when she was dying. He became much more of a factor in her life when he liberated her brain from her dying body and implanted it into the core of a life support and interface system.
Centuries in a tank, her senses filtered through the mechanical. It seemed more like a nightmare to her as she watched Pandem come into view, and they began to enter the atmosphere.
“Do you think you’ll be able to get through the speech?” the Child Prophet asked. “It’s five paragraphs, which seems long. Do you find it long?”
Eve barely paid attention. “It’s good.” Her palms were already sweaty. The thought of being in front of so many people at once, more than she’d ever seen, was the most intimidating thing she’d ever faced.
“Remember, they’re going to be easy to win. They just want to know that they are safe, and after that they’ll just want to see you in front of them.”
Eve remembered the sensation of being chased, shot at, and almost killed. They felt like her own memories as much as anything. “How many people did the Eden Fleet kill when the virus struck?”
“It’s best not to concentrate on that,” the Child Prophet said. “We want to avoid numbers and anything that takes away from your emotional stance.”
“What’s that?” she asked, still feeling quiet and saddened.
“What’s what?”
“My emotional stance.”
“I thought that was clear in the speech,” the Child Prophet said. “You’re sorry for what your machines have done and have taken control of them, so they guard your chosen people. They are your children now, the humans down there.”
“Oh,” Eve said, returning her attention to the porthole.
“Are you all right? We could delay this.”
Eve considered the option, it was tempting; the butterflies in her stomach were fluttering furiously. “I’d rather get it over with.” More islands than she could count dotted an endless blue ocean. Some islands were dominated by narrow mountain ranges andothers were covered with lush green forests. The cities were surrounded by bright green plant life, and some buildings were coated with green and brown.
“The Order members replanted all the open ground they could,” said the Child Prophet. “Wherever nature had been stamped out, they’ve brought it back. Pandem is a model for reclamation and a place where humans are learning to coexist with nature again. I thought you’d appreciate it.”
“I do,” Eve said. She never thought that humans could dedicate themselves to such a cause, but the evidence was passing by below. As they descended towards one of the largest islands, she saw gardens and young forests on roofs. They truly had made a great difference in the time she was in stasis.
They sped towards a gargantuan, round structure. Every entrance was choked with streams of people lining up for entry. They slowed to hover over the stadium then began to descend and Eve’s pulse began to race as the stands came into view.
The seats were full, multitudes beyond counting waiting for her to arrive.
“Are you sure I can’t get anything for you?” asked the Child Prophet. “Something to help you calm down, or maybe a touch up? We have an excellent groomer in the passenger compartment. He does everything for me before appearances. You look a little. . . off, to be honest.”
The time was almost upon them, and she’d be shoved out of the luxury shuttle to face all those people. She was sweating, it felt like her heard was pounding between her ears. “There are worse things,” she said to herself quietly.
“Pardon?”
“Nothing, never mind.”
“You’re absolutely sure?” he pressed. “This is only the second time we’ve ever done this kind of public address. The results were wonderful last time, but if it’s too much for your first appearance you could do it from in here, and we could holographically project you out there.”
“No,” she said before she thought it thr
ough. Eve entertained the notion for a moment, then shook her head to affirm her decision. She was already preparing herself for facing all those people, and for some reason her curiosity was beginning to rule her desires. She had been isolated for years beyond counting, even on the Overlord II, after she was transplanted from a stasis tank back into a body.
The shuttle door opened. A gust of hot air filled the cabin, it carried a smell that was unmistakably human, but it didn’t disgust her as she once expected it would. The Child Prophet patted her knee on his way out. “Come out when I introduce you, back straight and looking over all their heads. Pretend there’s no one there, you’ll be fine.”
Eve didn’t say anything, she just watched him leave. He threw up his arms as he stepped out of sight and was greeted with a deafening round of cheers. “Today is a great day!” he started, his voice carried over the multitudes. She couldn’t see him, but he could be heard perfectly. “It’s a memorable day, nay, an historic event. For some time I have been alone in my leadership, solitary in finding the best path for all of you. What a rewarding journey it’s been, but it has been a lonely one.”
Eve leaned forward, almost placing her head on her knees. What would Alice do? she asked herself. Would any of this really phase her at all? Eve recalled Alice’s argument with the rich Ulrik, more than one firefight, during which she may have had frantic moments, but her thoughts were always clear. Alice had sidestepped death so many times in her short life. She didn’t have framework technology, or friends to come to her rescue, but she continued to risk life and limb for a few more days’ worth of food, a few more days of life with no consideration for what she had been. Then she realized something that brought a tear to her eye.
As the Child Prophet droned on, proclaiming that Eve was ‘the Forever Woman’ and a ‘beautiful, living Ancient’ without revealing exactly who she was, Eve was awed by the notion that both Alice and her had been mechanical in some way. Alice was software, an artificial intelligence before becoming human. Eve had been a sickly girl, but her brain was transplanted into a machine, with translators and sensors that changed the way she saw her existence. Then she was put back into a human body, a body that was someone else’s before, someone who didn’t want to die.
None of Alice’s memories contained the desire to return to what she was, software. None so far, and Eve doubted she’d ever find a memory of the thought even crossing Alice’s mind.
Since she was first transplanted, Eve hadn’t had that thought either; in fact, she couldn’t imagine giving up her existence for what she was before.
“It is my honour to present a Goddess among us: Eve!” announced the Child Prophet with so much enthusiasm that his voice cracked.
Without thinking, she was on her feet and walking out of the shuttle. The sun on her face was harsh but enjoyable once she overcame the glare. The hot air carried with it a fragrance that combined sweat, fresh paint, and other, less identifiable things. It was almost overpowering at first, but then she realized that there was no cheering.
By the time Eve’s eyes adjusted to the light she was past centre stage, within three metres of the edge. She looked down at the people only two metres past the edge. Her gaze locked with that of a young woman. Her eyes were deep blue, peering out from a wild mane of sun bleached hair. She was wearing simple, loose fitting tan clothing that looked like they had been with her for many working days. Excitement then fear were plain in that young woman’s gaze, and the crowd of thousands standing on the stadium floor seemed to fade away as she concentrated on that one woman’s face. “I’m just learning how amazing it is to be human,” Eve said. Her words, spoken only slightly louder than a whisper, were directed to every listener. The overpowering loudness that the Child Prophet had presented himself with was gone.
The young woman smiled a little. A strange calm came over Eve as she allowed her realizations to be spoken, moment by moment, thought by thought. She held up her hand to block the scrolling text that was being projected into her eye from somewhere ahead. “I never realized that to every person their own experience is the most important experience there is. When I was awake, and protecting a world I thought was too precious for people to ruin, I treated humans like parasites. I barely remember what that was like, but I remember the indignation, and the images of death that the machines I helped create transmitted as they killed so many.”
The young woman was beginning to look worried. “I was ill, and my father saved me by removing my brain then connecting it to machines. My mind may have been human, but my body was gone, and I couldn’t understand. . .” she hesitated, looking for the next word, desperately clinging to the message she wanted to share. “I couldn’t understand that everyone I had killed was a singular, precious person.”
The Child Prophet approached her and she moved closer to the edge of the stage. The young woman with the blue eyes looked surprised and took a step back. Eve gestured for her to stay where she was with a pleading, reaching motion. “I’m whole again, a woman instead of a human trapped in a machine,” she said, saddened at the mere thought of being reduced again, having her body taken away. At the same time, she couldn’t help but remember that it was another woman’s memories that brought on her quick, humanizing transformation. A woman whose human memories were trapped, isolated in her subconscious. Alice is just like I was, in storage, dormant. I wish she were here so I could hear her speak to these people. She loved so few people, but when she did, it was a greater love than I’ve ever known.
The Child Prophet took her hand, but Eve threw it back. For a moment Eve couldn’t find the woman she was focusing on, and her eyes searched the front rows frantically. When she found her, Eve said the first thing that was on her mind. “I’m alive, and I want to stay alive. I can’t tell you where I learned how wonderful and terrible it can be to be human, but I can say that it’s a lesson I’ll never forget,” a tear rolled down her cheeks, and she saw sympathy in the blonde woman’s expression. “I’ll never forget that each and every one of you are having an experience just as powerful as I am, every day, every hour, every minute and second.”
“Talk about immortality! You’re supposed to tell them about the framework technology and perfect immortality!” The Child Prophet’s voice scolded. No one else in the crowd heard it, thankfully.
Eve lowered her hand and glanced at the scrolling speech she’d been ignoring. The passage she was supposed to be relaying read, ‘those of you who have elevated yourselves to the highest levels of devotion will be gifted with life unending, a perfect immortality that is unlike anything promised by technology or theology.’
She looked back to the woman who stared up at her expectantly, feeling her vision narrow even as she did so. “It’s so hot,” Eve said. Her knees buckled, and the world seemed to tumble.
Chapter 30
Aboard
The Triton always had surprises in store for Ashley. Not a day went by where she didn’t see something interesting in a corner, or some room that seemed to be designed with care, not just blocked out on some diagram and built in a shipyard. Every space seemed to be waiting for its person, or people, from the observation decks to the consoles on the bridge.
The underside of the Botanical Gallery was one of the more interesting places she’d seen. Transparent pipes and reservoirs supported the life above. The Gallery still had power, being on an independent backup, and Liam Grady hadn’t bothered setting up a trap for anyone who tampered with it like he had with the rest of the ship. Her codes got them through the door once they got the external lock connected to power.
Lights shone dimly within the piping, adding an eerie glow to the chamber. It was wider and longer than she could make out, but only two metres tall. Sections of the floor were transparent too, and some of those reservoirs looked more like trapped oceans, with fish and wild life on the bottom and the sides.
“This is incredible,” said the major at her side.
“You should see the living space above us. It�
�s a large park, with ponds and creeks. The balconies of family apartments overlook a miniature forest, tamed, but still a reminder.”
“A reminder?”
“Of home.” Ashley caught herself slipping as she said it. The answer fit perfectly with who she was pretending to be, a woman from Earth with rank and experience, but when she said it she was thinking of the green land she grew up in. Charming the major was so much easier once she just regarded him as another person in her way; it was something she learned to do early on. A warm smile and quiet talk resolved more problems than anything else. She was lucky they sent a man to meet her - women were more difficult, and most didn’t like her at first.
“What’s Earth like?” the major asked.
“Is that the entrance up there?” asked Jake.
Ashley brought up the interior schematic of the Triton on her comm unit and spun the hologram so she could zoom in on one side. The hologram marked where the engineering team had set up a power source for the outer doors well behind them. She focused in on the room ahead and saw the circular chamber that led most of the way up through the Botanical Gallery. “That’s it.” Ashley looked up and saw a narrow door in front of them.
They crossed the space, coming around a set of pipes, and when Ashley stopped to stand in front of the entrance a light flashed over her head. Her comm unit buzzed a moment and when she looked down the interface changed. It looked like some of the older, frozen wall terminals she’d seen in some of the less utilized parts of the ship, a Sol Defence interface.
The featureless door lit up, an interface matching what was on her command and control unit appearing. “Welcome, Ashley Lamport. Your override level clearance is valid. Please enter with your reserve officer,” said a gentle male voice. There was nothing computerized about the sound, but a warm, fatherly quality that she found surprising and reassuring.
The deck rumbled as the heavy door slowly rotated so an entrance appeared. The major started to take a step forward and Ashley squeezed his arm to her side. “I’m sorry,” she said, unsure of what to say next.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework Page 25