Flux - Xeelee Sequence Part 32

For the first time since leaving the "Flying Pig," panic spurted in her. Her breath sc.r.a.ped through her throat and she felt her capillaries expand throughout her flesh, admitting more strength-bearing Air.

Why should randomness upset her so? Because, she realized slowly, there were no vortex lines here, no neat Crust ceiling or Sea floor. All her life had been spent in a ruled-off sky - a sky where any hint of irregularity was so unusual as to be a sign of deadly danger.

But there were no lines here, no rea.s.suring anchor-points for her mind.

"Are you all right?" Hork sounded calmer than she was, but his eyecups were wide and his nostrils flared, glowing like nuclear-burning wood above his bush of beard.

"No. Not really. I'm not sure I can accept all this."

"I know. I know." Hork lifted up his face. In the starlight the intrinsic coa.r.s.eness of his features seemed to melt away, leaving a calm, almost elegiac expression. He waved a hand across the sky. "Look at the stars. Look how their brightness varies... But what if that variation is an illusion? Have you thought about that? What if all the stars are about as bright as each other?"

Her mind - as usual - plodded slowly behind his flight of logic. If the stars were all the same intrinsic brightness, then some of them would have to be further away. Much further away.

She sighed. No, d.a.m.n it. She hadn't hadn't thought of that. thought of that.

Somehow she'd been picturing the starry Ur-universe as a sh.e.l.l around her - like the Crust, though much further away. But it wasn't like that; she was surrounded by an unbounded sky throughout which the stars - themselves worlds - were scattered like spin-spider eggs.

The universe ballooned around her, reducing her to a meaningless mote, a spark of awareness. It was oppressive, beyond her imagination; she cried out, covering her face in her hands.

Hork sounded uncomfortable. "Take it easy."

Irritation burrowed through her awe. "Oh, sure. And you're quite calm, I suppose. Sorry to embarra.s.s you..."

"Give me a break."

She turned away from him, striving for calm. "I wish I knew what is is an appropriate response to all this - to be here in this ancient place, to be seeing through the eyes of the Ur-humans..." an appropriate response to all this - to be here in this ancient place, to be seeing through the eyes of the Ur-humans..."

"Well, not quite," Hork said gently. "Remember there are still walls around us, which must somehow be helping us to see. The Ur-humans didn't see things the same way we do. Ask Muub about it when we get back... We 'see' by sound waves which are transmitted through the Air." He waved a hand. "But beyond this little bubble, there isn't any Air. The Ur-humans didn't live in Air, in fact. And they 'saw' by focusing beams of photons, which..."

She wrinkled her nose. "They could smell smell the stars?" the stars?"

"Of course not," he snapped. "In Air, photons can travel only slowly, diffusing. So we use them to smell. And we 'hear' temperature fluctuations.

"In empty s.p.a.ce, it's different. Phonons can't travel at all - so we would be blind. But photons travel immensely fast. So the Ur-humans could have 'seen' photons... Anyway, that's Muub's theory."

"Then how did they hear? Or smell, or taste?"

He growled impatiently. "How the h.e.l.l should I know? Anyway, I think this third chamber is designed to let us see the universe the way the Ur-humans did." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "And there's still a setting left on the arrow-console, the fourth one... we haven't finished with our ways of seeing yet."

She'd forgotten about that last setting. Some core of her, buried deep inside, quailed a little further.

Turning in the Air she looked around, still searching for patterns. The sky wasn't uniformly dark, she realized; the elusive gas faded up from gray to a deep, crimson glow on the far side of the room. "Come on. I think there's something beyond the wormhole chamber..."

Still holding hands, they Waved past the control chair and around the darkened tetrahedron which contained the wormhole portal and the "Pig." Through the open door, Dura glimpsed their craft; its roughly hewn wooden walls, its bands of Corestuff, the slowly leaking stink of Air-pig farts, all seemed unbearably primitive in this chamber of Ur-human miracles.

The sky-glow intensified as they neared its source. At last the glow drowned out the stars. Dura felt herself pull back, shying away from new revelations. But Hork enclosed her fingers in a tight, smothering grip and coaxed her forward. "Come on," he said grimly. "Don't fold on me now." At the center of the glowing sky was a single star: tiny, fierce and yellow-red, brighter than any other in the sky. But this star wasn't isolated in s.p.a.ce. A ring of some glowing gas circled the star, and - still more astonis.h.i.+ng - an immense globe of light hung close to the fierce little star. The globe was like a star itself, but attenuated, bloated, its outer layers so diffuse as almost to merge with the all-pervading gas cloud. Tendrils of gray light snaked from the globe-star and reached far into the ring of gas.

It was like a huge sculpture of gas and light, Dura thought. She was stunned by the spectacle, and yet charmed by its proportion, scale, depths of shading and color.

She was seeing the gas ring around the star from edge-on... in fact, she realized slowly, the Ur-human construct around her was actually inside inside the body of the ring. And she could see beyond the central star to the far side of the gas ring; distance reduced the ring's far limb to a line of light on which the little star was threaded, like a pendant. the body of the ring. And she could see beyond the central star to the far side of the gas ring; distance reduced the ring's far limb to a line of light on which the little star was threaded, like a pendant.

She could see turbulence in the ring, huge cells big enough to swallow a thousand of the Ur-human colonies. The cells erupted and merged, changing as she watched despite their unthinkable scale. And there seemed to be movement around the star, a handful of sparks dipping into its carca.s.s...

"Then it's true," Hork breathed.

"What?"

"That we're not in the Star any more. That we've been transported, through the wormhole, to a planet outside it." Ring-light bathed his face, casting complex highlights from his beard. "Don't you see? That's our star - the Star the Star - and, just like the map said, we're on a planet circling the Star. But the map didn't show the ring." He turned to her, excitement in his eyes. It was the excitement of understanding, she realized, of piecing together a puzzle. "So now we know how our Star's system is put together." He mimed with his hands. "Here's the Star, at the center of it all. The gas ring encircles it, like this. The planet must drift within the ring. And hanging above it all we have the globe-thing, glowing dully and leaking gas." - and, just like the map said, we're on a planet circling the Star. But the map didn't show the ring." He turned to her, excitement in his eyes. It was the excitement of understanding, she realized, of piecing together a puzzle. "So now we know how our Star's system is put together." He mimed with his hands. "Here's the Star, at the center of it all. The gas ring encircles it, like this. The planet must drift within the ring. And hanging above it all we have the globe-thing, glowing dully and leaking gas."

Dura stared at their Star. It was small and mean, she thought, disappointing compared to the glorious lanterns which glittered in other parts of the sky. And yet it was home; home; she felt a strange dislocation, a pang of sadness, of loss. "Our world is so limited," she said slowly. "How could we ever have known that beyond the Crust was so much wonder, immensity, beauty..." she felt a strange dislocation, a pang of sadness, of loss. "Our world is so limited," she said slowly. "How could we ever have known that beyond the Crust was so much wonder, immensity, beauty..."

"You know, I think that big sphere of gas has a glow of its own. It isn't just reflecting the Starlight, I mean."

The globe was like an immense pendant on the ring, utterly dwarfing the Star itself. Hork seemed to be right; the intensity of its gray-yellow glow increased toward its rough center. And it wasn't actually a sphere, she realized slowly; perhaps it had once been, but now it was drawn out into a teardrop shape, with a thin tip attached to the ring by an umbilical of glowing gas. The outer layers of the globe were misty, turbulent; Dura could see through them to the darkness of s.p.a.ce.

"It's like a star itself. But..."

"But it doesn't look right." Dura searched for the right word. "It seems - unhealthy." unhealthy."

"Yes." He pointed. "It looks as if stuff is being drawn out of the big star and put into the ring." He glanced speculatively at Dura. "Perhaps, somehow, the Star is drawing flesh from the big star to create the ring. Perhaps the planet we're on is constructed of ring-stuff."

She shuddered. "You make the Star sound like a living thing. Like an eye-leech."

"A star-leech. Well, perhaps that's as good an explanation as we'll ever get..." He grinned at her, his face spectral in the ring's glow. "Come on. I want to try the arrow's last setting."

"Oh, Hork... Do you have any any capacity for awe?" capacity for awe?"

"No." His grin broadened through his beard. "I think it's a survival characteristic. Mental toughness, I call it." He led her back around the inner portal-chamber and eyed her roguishly. "So we've seen the stars. Big deal. What's left?"

"Twist the arrow and find out."

He did so.

The universe - of stars and starlight - imploded.

Dura screamed.

26.

THE STARS - ALL EXCEPT the the Star - had disappeared, dragging all the light from the sky. The Star, with its ring and its huge, bleeding companion, hung in an emptied sky... Star - had disappeared, dragging all the light from the sky. The Star, with its ring and its huge, bleeding companion, hung in an emptied sky...

No, she realized, that wasn't quite true. There was a bow around the sky - a multicolored ribbon, thin and perfect, which hooped around the Ur-humans' habitat - and, she saw, pa.s.sed behind the Star itself. behind the Star itself.

It was a ribbon which encircled the universe, and it contained all the starlight.

Hork loomed before her, the starbow adding highlights to the gray illumination of his face. "Well?" he demanded irritably. "What now?"

She rubbed her forehead. "Each setting of that device has shown us more of our surroundings - more of the universe. It's as if successive layers, veils, have been removed from our eyes."

"Right." He lifted his eyes to the starbow. "So this must be the truth? The last setting, which strips away all the veils?" He shook his head. "But what does it mean?"

"The sky we saw before - of stars, scattered around the sky - was strange to us... even awesome. But it looked natural. natural. The stars were just like our Star, only much further away." The stars were just like our Star, only much further away."

"Yes, Whereas this seems distorted. And how come we can still see our Star? Why isn't its light smeared out into this absurd hoop, too?"

Smeared starlight... Yes. I like that. Good; that's very perceptive...

Dura whirled in the Air, trying to suppress a scream. The voice, dry and soft, emanating from the emptiness of the huge room behind her had been utterly terrifying.

"Karen Macrae," Hork said, his voice thick with hostility.

A sketch of shoulders and head wrought in pale, colored cubes of light hung in the Air a mansheight from them. The definition was poorer than within the underMantle - the colors washed out, the jostling light-cubes bigger. Karen Macrae opened her eyes, and again Dura was repulsed by the fleshy b.a.l.l.s nestling within the cups.

Hork had been right; somehow Karen Macrae had ridden with them in the lump of Corestuff attached to the side of the "Pig," all the way from the depths of the Star to this remote, austere place.

The starlight is smeared; yes. And it's crucial that you understand why it's smeared, what's happening to you. The walls of this place aren't windows; they have processing capacity - they're virtually semi-sentient, actually - capable of deconvolving the Doppler distortions of...

Hork growled and Waved forward. "Talk straight, d.a.m.n you."

The blurred head rotated slowly. Doppler distortion. Blue s.h.i.+ft. You - we - are traveling enormously quickly through s.p.a.ce. Almost as fast as light itself. Do you see? And so... Doppler distortion. Blue s.h.i.+ft. You - we - are traveling enormously quickly through s.p.a.ce. Almost as fast as light itself. Do you see? And so...

"And so we outrun starlight," Hork said. "...I think I understand. But why is it we still see the Star itself, and its system of ring and giant companion?"

The Colonist seemed to be retreating into her own half-formed head; the fleshy things in her eyecups slid around like independent animals.

Dura struggled to answer Hork. "Because the Star is traveling with us. And that's why we can still see its light." She looked at him doubtfully. "Does that make sense?"

Hork growled. "This Colonist and her riddle-talk... All right. Let's a.s.sume you're right. After all, we haven't any better explanation. Let's a.s.sume we, and the Star, are traveling through s.p.a.ce as fast as light. Why? Why? Where are we coming from? And where are we going?" Where are we coming from? And where are we going?"

There was no answer from Karen Macrae. Light-cubes crawled over her face like leeches.

Hork and Dura stared at each other, as if seeking the answers in each other's exasperated faces.

They looked around once more, trying to make sense of the distorted sky. Dura felt small, fragile, helpless in this ensemble of hurtling worlds. There was a symmetry to the smeared light around them, and after some argument they decided that their departure point and destination must lie at the poles of an imaginary globe around them, the globe whose equator was marked by the starbow.

Hork reached for the arrow device. "All right. Then let's see if we can see what lies there..." He set the pointer at its penultimate setting.

The stars fled from the crumbling starbow and back to their scattered homes around the sky.

Hork Waved toward one of the imagined poles, peering through the blocky Ur-human cloud devices and into s.p.a.ce. To Dura, who remained close to Karen Macrae, he looked like a toy, a speck swimming against the Ur-humans' vague immensities.

"Nothing here," he called at last, sounding disappointed. "Just an anonymous patch of stars."

"Then it must be at the other end of the chamber. The other pole. Come on."

She waited for him to return. Then, hand in hand, they Waved in the Star's direction of flight.

...And there was was something at the pole of the sky: something set against the backdrop of stars, something huge - if diminished by distance - and precisely defined. something at the pole of the sky: something set against the backdrop of stars, something huge - if diminished by distance - and precisely defined.

Karen Macrae was saying something. The rustling words sighed across the huge silences of the chamber.

Dura and Hork hurried back and pressed their faces close to the Colonist's cloudy lips. "What is it?" Dura demanded, almost despairing. "Won't you try again? What are you saying to us?"

...The Ring. Can you see it? I've so little processing power here... hard to... the Ring...

Dura turned away and looked at the artifact; and a fear borne of childhood tales, of old, distorted legends, welled up in her.

The car sailed away.

Adda hung on to the ward's improvised doorframe and sucked Air into his lungs. He glanced around the sky. The panorama, now somber and deep yellow, grew less and less like the secure, orderly Mantlescape he'd grown old with: the vortex lines were discontinuous shreds of spin loops struggling to reform, and the starbreaker beams continued to cut down through the Air and into the Core, unnaturally vertical.

Tired as he was, something probed at the edge of his awareness. It seemed darker darker than before. Why should that be? He pushed himself out of the ward and Waved a few weary mansheights into the sky. Behind him, the Skin was a limitless wooden wall which cut away half of the sky. It was bounded about by the huge anchor-bands and punctuated by a hundred crude gashes; a slowing trickle of cars and people still dribbled from the opened-up walls and diffused into the wastes of the Air. The Skin was dark, intimidating... than before. Why should that be? He pushed himself out of the ward and Waved a few weary mansheights into the sky. Behind him, the Skin was a limitless wooden wall which cut away half of the sky. It was bounded about by the huge anchor-bands and punctuated by a hundred crude gashes; a slowing trickle of cars and people still dribbled from the opened-up walls and diffused into the wastes of the Air. The Skin was dark, intimidating...

Too dark. That was it. That was it.

Adda Waved a little further and twisted his head around, surveying the Corestuff anchor-bands. The huge hoops were like a gray cage over the City's wooden face - but they were dull, lifeless, where a little earlier they had crackled with blue electron gas.

The glow of the gas had gone.

So the dynamos, the huge, wood-burning lungs of the City, had failed at last. Perhaps they had been abandoned by their attendants; or maybe some essential part of the City's infrastructure had failed under the strain of holding the City against the fluctuating Magfield.

It scarcely mattered.

There was a sharp explosion. A hail of splinters fanned out from the base of the City, at the junction of the Spine and the main inhabited section. The splinters sailed away through the showers of sewage material still falling from the base of Parz.

There might be no more than heartbeats left.

Adda Waved strongly back to the improvised Hospital port and dived into the melee of swaddled patients, hara.s.sed staff and volunteers. He found Farr helping Deni Maxx to fix a patient's bandages. He grabbed Farr's and Deni's arms roughly; he hauled them away from the unconscious patient and toward the exit.

"We've got to get out of here."

Deni stared at him, the deep yellow Air-light scouring shadow-lines in her face. "What is it? I don't understand."

"The anchor-bands have lost power," Adda hissed. "They can't sustain the City, here above the Pole. The City's going to drift - come under intense stress... We have to get away from here. The City will never withstand it..."

Farr glanced back to the patients and helpers. "But we're not finished."

"Farr," Adda said with all the persuasiveness he could muster, "it's over. "it's over. You've done a marvelous job, but there's nothing more you can do. Once the effects of the band failure hit we won't be able to complete the evacuation anyway." You've done a marvelous job, but there's nothing more you can do. Once the effects of the band failure hit we won't be able to complete the evacuation anyway."

Deni Maxx stared into his face, her mouth tight. "I'm not leaving."

Adda felt his scarred old heart break once more.