We
teach life as a sacred river, its headwaters in the hot primordial seas of four
billion years ago, branching out over the continents of the planet, its streams
at last bursting over the high banks of the Earth to populate the thousands of
orbiting colonies...in time the river will flood our solar system, and beyond
that, who can say?
Dr. Abraham
Cohen
Lecture on
Britannia colony
2375
Nicholas
stood before the soaring window of the sky lounge in the Mourin spaceport,
located in the shell of the spherical colony.The view served as a powerful enticement for travelers on stopover to
spend their vacation here, or at least to make a mental note to return in the
future.
Rivers
poured down from mountain peaks to crash through densely forested canyons and
join the distant ocean.Because of his
perspective from the lounge, the sea was actually inverted high above
Nicholas's head, past the elongated twist of clouds.The pristine landscape stretched away into
the distance, well beyond the vanishing point of his vision.
He could not see any of the
meditation temples or quiet resorts from here; they were carved into the rock
shelves, even their facades sculpted and colored to blend in with the
neighboring cliffs.Many of them could
not be reached by road or river, but only by navigating the steep trails and
dense forests on foot.Haunting mists
rose as far as he could see.The
peaceful beauty of the land made him ache inside.
Why shouldn't he stay here, as he'd
told his captain he would?He could
spend a few days studying sacred texts and learning proper yoga posture on the
rocks by a roaring waterfall.He might
reconnect with the Great Man's teachings of peace and acceptance, and return
home ready to take up his former duties.
"Mr. Kilharne," a voice said behind
him.It was the name of one of his two
backup identities. Nicholas turned to see the thin gypsy pilot in his ragged
wool and leather jacket. "We're preparing to depart.Might want to pick up some provision for
yourself."His grin revealed sharp,
uneven teeth. "We don't have fancy meals like the big Triod ships, you see."
Nicholas looked again at the
inviting panorama.He didn't want to
leave this place for the smoke and metal hell of his true destination: Stellax
colony.However much he longed to stay,
to cultivate peace within himself, he'd made his choice.He could never return to his old life.
Tearing his eyes away from the
serene forest, Nicholas followed the pilot to his ship.
The trip to
Stellax lasted several hours, with a stopover at the busy port of ReTokyo.Nicholas found himself cramped into a corner
of the small, dirty cabin, where the crew's socks and underclothes dried on a
taut line.The ship had a foul stench,
like rotten cabbage.
He shared the worn bench seating
with a few other passengers.All of them
were cyborgs.Nicholas tried to inspect
their metal arms and eyes without being too obvious.He could not understand why anyone would
attach such machinery to themselves when the Aescelan priests knew how to
regenerate missing organs and limbs.To
install machinery in one's own body was one of the deep sins, an offense
against life itself. Sharing a small room with people who debased themselves so
thoroughly caused him a nervous, twitchy discomfort.He could sense the depth of difference between
himself and the repulsive, alien people around him.He was truly striking out into apostate
worlds, where many had never even read the prophet's teachings.
He would
have to grow accustomed to their inhuman appearance, and quickly.Stellax served as a manufacturing base for
the Triod Corporation, which dominated the cybernetics and spacecraft
industries, but made its true wealth constructing new colonies under contract
to various clients.Stellax attracted
those who wanted to modify their bodies into something less than natural.The colony had a notorious reputation as a
den of data pirates and flesh-choppers, the black market surgeons who
specialized in transforming human beings into machinery.
Stellax was
an unholy place, without a single Aescelan temple.This, along with its infamous criminal
element, attracted Nicholas on his mission.On Stellax, a person could find almost any information he needed, though
Nicholas feared the price would be much more than he could afford.
Nicholas
ate a small meal of fresh fruit and dried roots he'd purchased on Mourin; he
assumed it had come from the monastic forest.He chased it with berry-flavored vitamin water.His cyborgs companions paid no attention to
him.A couple of them stared straight
ahead with distant eyes, as if not really present in the cramped cabin.They wandered inside their own circuitry, or
perhaps linked up to the satellite network that connected the sprawling
billions of humanity.
Looking at
the crew's drying laundry, Nicholas wished he could do the same.The damp chemical smell seemed to grow
stronger every minute, and to make things worse, the ship's crew played
strange, abrasive music over the rusty sound system, with lyrics in a tongue he
couldn't understand.
Through a
narrow window, he could make out the Earth, closer now than he was accustomed
to seeing it.Heavy, yellow-tinged
clouds swirled over its surface.Eight
space elevators extended out from the planet's equator to orbital transit
stations, where the products of the colonies were sucked down for consumption
on Earth: timber, agricultural produce, manufactured goods, minerals quarried
from the asteroid belt.
He lifted
his wife's caduceus necklace from his pocket.The little icon of intercoiled serpents, one silver and one lapis
lazuli, could have balanced on his thumbnail.He brushed a fingertip across it.He missed her.
"You're
praying?" one of the cyborgs asked.His
voice was deep and resonant, almost too loud, as if artificially
amplified.It took Nicholas a moment to
realize the man was talking to him. "You pray?"
"I am," he
said.
"You
believe in gods?"The man's expression
proved difficult to read.A web of
gleaming circuitry was etched into the left side of his face, and the eye there
was a cold, dark blue video lens.
"I believe
in the teachings of the Great Man, and in the river of life which unites us
all."
"Superstitions
won't get you far where you're going.Coin is the only law on Stellax."
"Then what
do you believe in?"
"I believe
in freedom, and the strength to hold it."The man lifted a robotic arm plated with discs of steel. Its servos
purred as he opened and closed a fist. "If I'm going to be programmed, I want
to do it myself.Don't need any priests
doing it to me."
"I don't
understand.The priests show us the
truth--"
"They show
you their truth, and you believe it."
"I believe
it because I have faith.If I did not
have faith, I would still believe, because I can see the results.Healthy children, a thriving ecosystem.What else could matter?"
"Did you
ever think that you believe it because you have no choice?You were born into your religion?" "I was.My family has been devoted to the Teachings
for generations."
"Then how
can you know whether you see the truth?They programmed you as an embryo, didn't they?Of course you're going to believe them."
"I don't
understand."
The cyborg
leaned forward, touching the caduceus that hung from Nicholas's neck with one
long, skeletal steel finger. His dark video eye seemed to penetrate Nicholas's
skull, as if he studied the brain underneath."What's to stop them from making you obedient?With the opportunity to shape you before
birth, why wouldn't they make you a blind, devoted follower?"
"Stop this
heresy!" Nicholas snapped.A couple of
the other cyborgs, bulky armored men, glanced over with a look that might have
been mild amusement. "The priests do no such thing!They are only interested in removing disease
and enhancing our natural abilities."
"How could
you know?" Nicholas's voice became low
and hard as he glared at the apostate cyborg."Do not speak this way any longer.You tread on holy ground."
The cyborg
gave another sharp grin. "You seem like a decent man.More decent than me, I would gamble.What could bring someone like you to a
godless place like Stellax?"
Nicholas
chose his words carefully. "Research."
"I would
stay away from the Triod facilities.They're heavily guarded, and more concerned with security than the
safety of innocents."
"No, no,
I'm looking to purchase rare information.For myself.Nothing to do with
Triod technology."
"Data can
be costly."The cyborg reached into a
jacket pocket under his mechanical arm, and Nicholas tensed, ready to fight if
necessary.Instead of a weapon, though,
the man produced a data cube inscribed with flickering, stylized runes.He set it on the armrest between them and
nudged one of the cryptic symbols.
Light
poured out of the cube's top, swirled, and formed into a complex, three-level
playing board, each level connected by miniature staircases to the one above
it.Two rows of golden figures appeared
on the lowest level, just in front of Nicholas--rampant dragons, cowled
sorceresses, and mounted knights.An
identical silver army appeared before the cyborg, facing Nicholas.On the small tier at the top, a golden
emperor and a silver emperor faced one another.
"Knights
and Dragons," the cyborg said. "Do you play?"
"I've
played a simplified version.Just two
levels."
"Good
enough.We've got a couple of hours
before we dock on Stellax.First move's
yours."
Nicholas
felt a genuine smile creep across his face.He hadn't expected to make friends on this trip, or to have a moment for
recreation.
The various dragons stretched their
wings or pawed the air, and unleashed miniature howls.One of Nicholas's even vented a jet of
flame.The knight's horses tramped in
their squares, while their passengers hefted swords or lances.Even the tribunes read scrolls in a squeaky
nonsense language that sounded like remixed baby talk.The figures acted impatient to play.
Nicholas touched an archer and it
jogged forward two squares.It drew a
needle-sized arrow from its tiny quiver and notched it into a bow.
"Risky." The cyborg sent a silver
knight galloping towards his archer.Three squares forward, and one to the side.
As the game progressed and Nicholas
began to focus on his opponent's strategy, he let himself relax.It was the first illusion of peace he'd felt
in days.
Engrossed
in the game, Nicholas did not even notice when Stellax colony slipped into
view. The cyborg pointed it out to him
and watched his reaction closely.
Nicholas
shuddered at the sight.Stellax was
built like a giant, slowly turning wheel with twelve spokes.He'd seen colonies this shape before, but
they usually had a simple, graceful curve all the way around.Colonists lived in the well of the wheel,
where centrifugal force held dirt, crops and cities in place.The usual black web of solar collectors
provided energy.
Stellax
looked like a nightmare version of such a place.Triod corporation had added modifications and
extensions jutting out like metal spikes from the basic wheel shape, pointing
in every direction.Steel beams and raw
asteroid rock composed much of the outer structure, as if aesthetics had simply
never entered the minds of the builders.Heavy black smoke poured from multiple exhaust vents, staining and
scorching the hull, giving him the impression that the interior of the colony
might be a giant furnace.
They passed
over a factory platform on the outer hull of the wheel.Workers in spacesuits climbed and floated
among the incomplete skeleton of a new space freighter, which would have been
much too large to construct inside the living space of the colony.Some workers maneuvered modules into place
with oversized robotic arms like small cranes, while others welded the frame
together using blowtorches mounted in place of their hands.Long ago, Triod had determined it efficient
to merge its labor pool and its construction machinery into a single, adaptable
force.
Nicholas did not have a good
feeling about his visit here.He'd been
foolish to leave his home for worlds he did not understand.
"Your move," the cyborg said.
Nicholas turned his attention to
the shimmering game board.Time to move
in for the kill.He directed his knight
up the stairs to the third, "palace" level, where the cyborg's silver emperor
stood unguarded.One more move and he'd
have the game.
The cyborg shook his head. "You
forget somebody."He touched his
remaining sorceress.The little figure
raised her hands, and a transparent ball formed above her head.Lightning crackled inside it.
Nicholas held his breath.A sorceress could do three small spells or
one large one per game.He'd eliminated
the cyborg's other sorceress twenty or more moves ago.He could have sworn the cyborg had used the
remaining sorceress at least once--but apparently not.She had sat in her original position,
untouched throughout the game.
A storm cloud swirled into view
above his golden knight.Lightning and
brimstone rained down on it, annihilating the knight, leaving nothing but a
black smudge on the square.The silver
sorceress dissolved, too, her powers spent.
Nicholas sighed.The cyborg had an archer poised to climb the
steps to the palace level, and he had nothing with which to stop it.He'd ignored the archer as being too slow to
reach the emperors before his knight.
He advanced his remaining dragon up
to the second level, but it was futile.Over the next three moves, the silver archer ascended the stairs, approached
the golden king, and fired an arrow through its heavy robes.The emperor clutched the arrow, performed
several melodramatic spins, and then collapsed and dissolved. The assassin
pranced around in the gold imperial square and cheered its victory in a tiny
voice.
"Good game," Nicholas said.Was this a bad omen?
"You're just overconfident," the
cyborg told him. "You kept your focus narrow and closed up your options too
soon."
"Thanks for the analysis, doctor."
He glanced out the window to see the approaching round dock set into the colony
hull. "So you live here?"
"As much as I live anywhere.You got a name, shopper?"
"Kilharne." Nicholas gave the same
name he'd given the ship pilot. "Michael Kilharne."
"Sure it is." The cyborg gave half
a smile."My name's Drexx."
"Sure it is," Nicholas replied, and
they shared a laugh.
The ship's frame boomed and
shuddered as the hull made contact with the docking bay. "I'll have to run when
we arrive.If you're looking for a good
data pirate, you could do worse than talk to a guy named Axon.He's a bartender at the Neksus.Knows a lot of people, for a fee."
"Thanks."Nicholas stood and stretched. He slung his
almost-new travel pack over his shoulder. "What if I want another game of
Knights and Dragons?"
"You'll find someone to play. I
have to turn invisible for a while."
"I understand that."
"I'm sure you do."The ship's crew opened the airlock, then
stepped aside for their handful of passengers to exit.No pretty holograms showed up to thank
Nicholas for his business, to hope he had a nice flight, or to wish him a
pleasant stay at his chosen destination.
He stepped into a dark corridor
that reeked of scorched metal, grease, and human sweat.Customs officers in heavy, spiked cyborg
armor waited ahead.Nicholas reached for
a false identicard.He hoped Ludovic had
been very thorough.