The Orb

by Tara Basi

  Zip didn’t answer, instead bundling everyone into the hallway. Once the heavy double doors closed behind her, abruptly cutting off the noise of the whirlybird departing, Zip turned to the girls. “Listen, we’re guests and lucky to be here, so act like guests. Find yourselves bedrooms, get cleaned up, and we’ll meet in the kitchen in an hour. Alice, I’ll need your help in the cellar.”

  “I saw you at our house a couple of days ago. Who are you?” Jane asked, her eyes darting around as she took in her surroundings.

  Zip looked to Alice for help with that particular question. Her granddaughters knew that Zara had left Industries and become a Pilgrim two years ago. Pilgrim Granny had been disowned by Alice and banned from any contact with the girls. The girls weren’t even allowed to mention Granny’s name.

  “Her name’s Zip. You do what she says,” Alice said.

  “Oh, my Orb, she’s got a tail,” Heather squealed.

  Alice’s crinkled brow told Zip all she needed to know. She tucked her errant tail back under her dress and out of sight.

  “Jane, take Heather, find rooms. Please,” Alice said.

  Jane started to protest but changed her mind and grabbed the younger girl by the hand and bundled her towards the stairs. The sounds of Heather and Jane arguing slowly receded until Zip couldn’t hear them anymore.

  Zip turned her attention to Peter’s bunker. It wasn’t locked. She initiated the opening sequence. As the heavy outer door swung open, Zip turned to Alice.

  “There’s a bunker under the house. I’ll show you. Mute your Headgear alarms before you go down there. Girls too. There’s no Net.”

  Alice’s eyes narrowed. “No Net? On the surface? Why?”

  “It’s a military-grade bunker. Proof against blast, bio and cyber.”

  Alice relaxed. “Oh. That’s good, right?”

  Zip didn’t bother answering. She pulled Alice into the inner chamber and started the airlock cycle. The outer door swung shut with a loud thud, followed by extended hissing as the air was recycled. Alice squeaked in surprise when the decontamination process started. A few moments later, the inner door clicked and clunked before swinging aside.

  Zip motioned Alice to wait then stepped forward, triggering the lighting. Her daughter looked dazed. She was probably adjusting to the loss of the Net. Zip wondered how the girls would cope. It might be the first time they’d ever been offline.

  Cautiously, Zip made her way down the stairs, wondering what damage Mathew had wrought when he’d escaped the Industries’ troopers with Quattro. The walls were blackened with stains from pulse weapon fire, but the only real damage was to the floor. A large lighter patch of concrete in the middle of the room indicated it had recently been dug up and then cemented over. The equipment sent by Bunny had been set up against the back wall. Peter’s old-fashioned VR couches were exactly as she’d remembered them. They seemed undamaged except for a fine covering of concrete dust. Zip remembered the first time she’d been here; it reminded her of the doomed Quattro and a desperate Peter. This bunker would be as good a place as any to wait out the Event.

  Zip called up to Alice. “You can come down.”

  Alice slowly made her way down the stairs. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Whose house is this?”

  “Before the Orb Event, we need to stock this bunker with enough food and water to last a couple of days at least, and some tools in case we have to dig our way out.”

  Alice’s face set hard. “Orb Event? Is this really the time for all that Church, Pilgrim lunacy? I thought you’d finally come to your senses. It’s a terrorist threat; the broadcasts were clear.”

  Zip stared up at the concrete ceiling and thought about arguing, but why would Alice believe her? Maybe the latest emergency broadcasts might convince her daughter.

  “Let’s go back up. I need a Net connection. There may be news.”

  Standing in the hallway, Zip checked her Headgear. There’d been no contact from Bunny and no new announcements.

  Alice glared at Zip, her arms tightly entwined. “Well?”

  She held up her hand to indicate Alice should give her a minute then called Bunny on audio and linked the call to Alice’s Headgear, so she could listen in but not talk. “Bunny, what’s happening? Why has there been no announcement about the Orb?”

  “Industries and the Church are adamant that the Orb information can’t be made public and the rumours should be denied. Their excuses are many. Their greatest dread is that the Orb will simply vanish when the countdown expires. A worst-case scenario they’ve long imagined. Plans are in place to project a holographic Orb inside the Cuboid and pretend nothing has happened. This suits the Church and Industries. Announcing an Orb Event that they have no control over, cannot explain and may not happen is unattractive.”

  Zip could hardly contain her anger. “What about the Pilgrims? Are they still gathering?”

  “Over a million have assembled in Hyde Park, and the stationary Waves are filling up with those coming out of the tunnel.”

  “Bunny, the announcement must be made; we can still persuade some Pilgrims to get to safety.”

  “Bunny has a proposal. The announcement will be made, the walls of the Cuboid will be made invisible, revealing a real-time image of the Orb inside. Pilgrims who won’t head to the safety of a Church and insist on staying in the park or seated on the Waves will be looked after but encouraged to move further back, since the Orb will be visible from a great distance.”

  “Sounds great, but how can you make the walls disappear?”

  “It’s always been possible. The internal walls host a myriad of sensors, and the external walls are capable of displaying any image. It is merely a matter of connecting the input to the output.”

  Zip smiled. The Orb in the park was going back to the way it had looked when it first arrived, before the Cuboid was built. “Let’s do it.”

  “Bunny will issue the broadcast now and announce the virtual removal of the Cuboid at midnight. A sudden change might cause unnecessary distress.”

  “What about Industries and the Church? They’re not going to like any of this.”

  “In due course, they will seek their revenge, if they survive the Event. For now, and for a little longer, they have no choice.”

  Zip signed off, and, almost immediately, her Headgear pinged with an emergency broadcast message. She didn’t need to study it, but from the look on Alice’s face, her daughter was.

  “What the—?” Alice spluttered, as she finished digesting the broadcast. “Who were you talking to? How are you doing this?”

  “The countdown’s real. Let’s rest tonight and get ready tomorrow. I’ve got some catching up to do.”

  Alice held her arms rigid at her side and clenched her fists. The wobble of her ample breasts kept time with her angry breathing. “Catching up? Damn you, tell me what’s going on.”

  Zip sighed. “I know how you feel, and I wish I could. Listen, I don’t think I attempted suicide. My memories are coming back. Well, some of my Record is for that week. I need some time tonight to watch it. It’s the key to everything.”

  Alice’s frown changed to a half-smile, and she grabbed Zip by the shoulders. “Maybe you’re not a Pilgrim after all?”

  Zip shrugged and could only echo her half-smile. What else could she do? She couldn’t tell Alice that being a Pilgrim was the only thing that was certain.

  Alice gave Zip a hearty hug and left to check on the girls.

  Zip checked her Headgear for updates on her lost week. Seven hours of her Record would be available soon, and another four hours would be accessible shortly after. Bringing back any more was not guaranteed. It would be infuriating to find the bits of her restored Record were of mundane periods of inactivity: sleeping and eating. All the inevitable periods of boredom and utility, even in the most eventful of weeks. Those dull moments would tell her nothing about how she came to have a note to Peter and an AI cyber-weapon planted in her Headgear, or why she had Professor S
immons’ Record that was really a trigger, or why her throat was cut. The less of her Record she recovered, the more likely it would be useless or worse: only uncover more cryptic puzzles.

  She decided to go and look for Peter, and immediately realised she had no idea where he might be in the house or how it was laid out. Zip had only stood in the hall and visited the cellar on her one and only visit.

  Zip followed the sounds of her granddaughters’ voices up a staircase of dark wood to a long, wide hallway hung with art. Beautiful pieces, from what Zip could see. Nearly a third of its length appeared open to the sky, courtesy of a stretch of glass in the ceiling. The stairs continued on up, but she heard Alice’s voice coming from an open doorway further along the hall. She stood at the threshold and looked in. Alice was comforting Jane, who was shaking and sobbing quietly. Zip couldn’t see Heather.

  “We’ll be safe here. You saw the broadcast; they’re just being careful. You know, nothing might happen,” Alice was saying as she hugged Jane.

  “Everything OK?” Zip asked, realising as she said it that everything was obviously not OK, for her, for Jane, for most everybody.

  Alice looked at Zip over Jane’s shoulder and smiled. “We’ll be fine. We need a shower, some food and a good night’s sleep. Right, Jane?”

  Jane sniffled and wiped her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. The broadcast was a bit of a shock. I mean it’s never done anything ever. Why now?”

  Zip could only nod in agreement, shrug and give Jane her most reassuring smile. “We’ll be safe here, like your mum said.”

  Alice picked up a simple, blue, sleeveless dress from the bed and held it out to Zip. “One of Jane’s. It should fit, and you have to get out of that dress; it really does reek.”

  Zip lifted her arm and sniffed. She ponged. “Thanks.” Zip took the dress and was about to leave when Heather appeared behind her.

  “This place is huge. Can we stay here forever? There’s an old guy sleeping upstairs. Who is he? Isn’t it amazing about the Orb finally doing something?” Heather fired off without pausing for breath.

  Alice frowned. “Zip, who is this man?”

  “My client. This is his house. We’re his guests.”

  “Wow, he must be a famous ultra-Broadcaster to have a place like this, up here in the Green,” Heather decided.

  “Actually, he’s a professor, works for Industries. His name is Peter Morris,” Zip said to Heather.

  “Boring.”

  “What if he throws us out?” Jane whispered.

  Zip put her hand on Jane’s shoulder and squeezed. “Thanks for the dress. It’s lovely. Listen, no one’s going to throw us out. Now settle in and get cleaned up. I’m going to check on Peter.” Even if Peter wanted to throw them out, she wouldn’t let him.

  As she climbed the next flight of stairs, Zip hoped he wouldn’t try. He was in the last room at the end of the hall. Two walls were floor-to-ceiling glass with fantastic views across a meadow towards a copse of trees and, way in the distance, the wall. The other sides of the room were clad in a dark wood, the colour of old red wine. Momentarily, Zip was puzzled by the ceiling, which was nearly a third glass in one corner with views to the open sky like the hallways. Then she remembered how the house was structured with large oblong blocks stacked on top of each other but at different angles, so sections protruded out over the garden to hang in the air.

  Peter groaned. While she’d been looking around his room, he’d sat up and was sitting on the edge of the bed with his head on his hands. His bruised eyes stared blankly out of a pale face, seemingly unable to focus. Gradually, his eyes settled on Zip. “What did you do?” His voice was weak and the words were slurred.

  She guessed he wouldn’t be so calm for much longer. This might be her only chance to reason with him.

  “Peter, listen carefully. All of this is connected to my missing week. It might not be missing for much longer: my Record is being recovered. We can watch it together. It might have some answers. If I’m hiding something, Peter, I don’t know what it is.”

  Some of the colour was returning to Peter’s face, and his eyes sockets were looking less bruised, but his lips were still bloodless. He chewed at his lower lip as though digesting Zip’s words.

  “I want to see it, now!” Peter snapped.

  “Later, Peter. My daughter and grandchildren are here. They’re frightened and hungry. Let’s eat first and get them settled. We’ll watch it when they’re asleep.”

  Zip could see that Peter was struggling to get words out of his mouth. Eventually, they burst past the constraints of the drug Bunny had administered, and he spat them out. “Hypocritical bitch! You made sure your daughter was safe, but you helped kill mine. Why are they here in my house?”

  She was rapidly losing patience with Peter. “Check your Headgear. It’s all there. You give me or my family any grief and I’ll keep you drugged and tied up in the cellar. I’ll watch the Record alone and tell you nothing. In two days, after the Orb Event, we’ll be out of here and you can go to hell.”

  His eyes softened and tears started to trickle down his cheeks, then his eyes rolled up, and she guessed he was accessing the emergency broadcasts. Finished, he looked at her and nodded.

  Zip smiled. “A hot shower will help. Please come down and eat with us. I’m not your enemy, Peter.”

  He nodded again, and Zip made to leave when he spoke. “Where’s her body?”

  Zip hesitated, wondering if her answer would set Peter off again. She needed him calm but wasn’t convincing herself to lie. There’d been too many lies and half-truths already, and they hadn’t helped anyone. “Still in the lab with Bunny. I’ve sent you contact details. Bunny is running everything. It controls all Industries and Church systems. It’s not telling me much, but maybe it’ll open up to you.”

  Peter’s face wrinkled as though he’d put something particularly sour in his mouth. “I was trapped with that … thing for days. It never told me anything. For a while, I thought it had saved Quattro.”

  Zip didn’t know what to say. It was another conversation that was going nowhere. She felt so tired and dirty and desperately needed a little time to herself before joining Alice and the kids in the kitchen.

  Zip remembered, “Your kit from the lab is in the cellar. Did you really bring back the Tramp? No, don’t tell me, not now; I’m too tired. Bunny seems to think we’ll need the Tramp before this is all over.”

  Peter’s face relaxed a little, and he waved her away with his hand. “I’ll try talking to that murderous machine. You go and rest.”

  Zip left Peter and went to find a bed and a shower for herself. It hadn’t gone so badly. She was starting to relax. Jane’s blue dress was still hanging over her arm. It would be nice to be wearing clean clothes once her lingerie had been washed and dried. Things weren’t working out so badly.

  She’d promised Peter he could watch her Record with her, and she had no idea what it might reveal. Maybe she had killed herself and maybe …? Zip didn’t want to imagine all the terrible things she might have done. She would know soon enough.

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Zip and Peter Replay

  Peter hated being in the cellar. There were too many hurtful memories hiding in its dark corners. He knew his girls were all down here: little ghosts made of static, silently whispering their terrible accusations. Murderer, murderer. Five times over, murderer.

  “Do we have to do it here?” Peter said.

  Zip was already seated on one of the VR couches. She looked very pretty in a simple, blue dress. Mercifully, her tail was tucked somewhere out of sight. Her family had been surprisingly normal. Peter actually liked the girls, Jane and Heather. It was a bittersweet feeling to have the sound of a young girl’s voice rattling through the house again. Since Kiki had died, his home had sunk into a morose silence. It hadn’t been a happy house since the Revelation had claimed his wife. Alice was a good sort: forthright in her disdain for the Church and pitiless towards Pilgrims. Did she know, he wondered, that
Zip was a Pilgrim? Probably, by the looks Alice kept giving Zip whenever they got onto the subject of the Orb. Oddly, neither Jane nor Heather seemed to be aware that Zip was Zara, their grandmother. Zip had made it plain to Peter earlier that Zara’s relationship to Zip was not to be discussed with the girls.

  Peter had tried contacting Bunny, but the murderous machine had told him it was too busy to talk to him. Its processing capacity was already overloaded from co-ordinating the evacuation and trying to ensure the welfare of the Pilgrims who refused to leave the vicinity of the Cuboid.

  “It’s quieter down here,” Zip said. “I don’t know what we’re going to find or how many hours of Record we’ll have to trawl through. We won’t disturb them, and we won’t be disturbed.”

  She was nervous, not at all like the confident, aggressive woman he’d come to know. Maybe she was telling the truth, that she really didn’t know what was in her Record of her missing week. Once she linked him in to the Replay, she wouldn’t be able to hide anything, not without it being obvious. Peter nodded and sat down.

  “Ready?” Zip asked.

  Peter lay on his VR couch. They wouldn’t be using the VR circuits. That was unnecessary, but with hours of Record to review, they might as well be comfortable. As he laid his head down, he thought of something. “You’ve got smoothing Replay?”

  “The best. Let’s get started,” Zip answered.

  Without smoothing, Replay could be a nauseating experience. He would be watching a real-time, first-person perspective of everything in the Record period: all the sounds, sights and smells without any control. The smoothing software took away the jagged and unsettling movements, eliminated the blinking and balanced out the sound: all the things Zara’s brain would have done when the Record was being made. It was an exact copy of her sensory input. He wouldn’t know what Zara had been thinking or her exact emotional state at the time. Good Replay software could analyse life signs, heartrate, blood pressure, pulse and suggest an emotional state. If Zip had bothered with a good smoothing app, as she claimed, then she probably had the emotional analysis suite. His own reanimation software dug far deeper to recreate a consciousness. It required a lifetime Record to have any chance of success. Her Replay app would likely provide superficial emotional intelligence information at best. It would be enough to know if she was lying to whomever she was talking to.