The young man looked up and smiled briefly. He rose and put out his hand. Sessine shook it.
‘Good to meet you, Alandre,’ the young man said.
‘And you,’ Sessine said, hesitating. ‘… Alandre?’
‘Oh, call me Alan,’ his younger self said. ‘I’m only an abbreviated version of who you are now, though I’ve developed on my own in here.’
‘Having recently been abbreviated myself, I sympathise, Alan.’
‘Hmm,’ the other man said. ‘Well, the first thing to do is to get you out of where you are now. Let’s see…’ He looked down at the chess board and turned both the white castles upside down.
The board blossomed with a semi-transparent holo of Serehfa. Alan studied it for a moment, then reached into and beneath it – and Sessine saw the projection of the castle’s fabric bulge and swell around the young man’s hand as with an infinitesimal articulation of his fingers he plucked something out of the bowels of the model fastness – Sessine experienced a fleeting sense of vertigo – and deposited it at the side of the chequered surface. Then Alan folded up the chess board and the castle projection vanished.
‘Was that me?’ Sessine asked casually, leaning to glance at the board.
‘It was.’
‘So where am I now?’
‘Your construct now inhabits hardware situated within the curtain-walls.’
‘Is that good?’
Alan shrugged. ‘It’s safer.’
‘Well, thank you.’
‘You’re welcome,’ his younger self said. ‘So.’ He clapped his hands on his knees. ‘You’re my last incarnation.’
Sessine looked into his eyes. It was true; as the self aged, and grew to awareness, filtered and downloaded into a new version of the old body, a meta-aging took place over the lives: a serial, cumulative maturing that was visible in the face unless you strove by further tampering to eradicate it. How fresh and innocent this earlier face of his appeared, and yet this seeming youth had been forty years old when he’d recorded this construct and left it free – almost forgotten and just-short-of-unreachable -to flit between the interstices of his personal lives and his clan’s concerns: monitoring, collating, reviewing and evaluating.
‘Yes, I’m the very last,’ Sessine agreed. ‘And you are the ghost in the machine.’
He smiled, and wondered as he did so what possible point there was in the gesture. ‘So. What do you have to tell me?’
‘Well, for one thing, Count,’ Alan said, ‘I know who is trying to kill you.’
* * *
4
Translation
Av got a very good view ov thi fass-towr from heer. Am ½ lying & ½ sittin craidled by thi babil branchis & am lookin up fru a gap in thi foleyidje @ thi dirti grate hoojness ov thi cassils centril towr.
U forget thi towrs thare a lot ov thi time coz (a) itz usyuly bhind u if yoor lookin out thi way from thi cassil & (b) iss obskyurd by cloud moar than ½ thi time nway.
According 2 Mr Zoliparia thi fass-towr is whare thi spays elivaitr woz ankird 2 Erf.
Thass y iss cald a fassness, Mr Zoliparia sez; in Inglish fassness means a stronghold, & also bcoz when rings r tied hard agenst eech othir they r sed 2 b tyed fast 2 eech othir like thi spays elivaitr woz tyed fast 2 Erf, & in a sens tyed 2 thi Erfs surfis & spays togethir, 2 (I sed; + thi spays elivaitr woz a way ov gettin in2 spaice fast; but Mr Z sed no actuly it woz slower than a rokit or whotevir but mutch moar efishint). Mr Zoliparia thot thi spayce elivaitr woz a grate idear & it woz a shame weed got rid ov it & if we hadnt then we wooden b in thi pickl we r, i e about 2 get clobberd by thi enkroachment.
But I thot spaice woz juss ful ov nufink I sed 2 Mr Zoliparia. Whats thi point ov goan thare?
Bascule, he sed, u r so fik sumtimes.
He tole me thi fass towr led 2 thi planetz & thi starz; 1nce u were in spaice u had limitles enirgy & raw mateeryls & after that branepowir took u wharevir u wantid but weed throne ol that away.
Mr Zoliparia sez thi fass towr reprisentz sumfin ov a nigma, on account that we doan striktly speekin no whot’s actuly in thi top ov it; iss bin xploard up 2 about thi 10th or 11th levils but aftir that u cant get no hyer, so they say. Blokd on thi inside & nuthin 2 hold on2 on thi outside & 2 hi up 4 a balune or a aircraft 2 go. Thi nolidje ov whot’s up thare’s bin loss long ago in thi kaos ov thi kript, sez Mr Z.
U heer roomers that ther r peeple up thare in thi top ov thi towr but thas got 2 b nonsins; howd they breev?
Mr Zoliparia iznt thi onli persin 2 ½ feeries concernin thi big towr; Ergates thi ant told me ther used 2 b 3 spaice elevaitrs; 1 heer, 1 in Afrika neer a place calld Kilomenjaro & 1 in Kalimantan. According 2 hir, thayve ol been dismantled long sinse ov coarse but weev got thi biggist stump on acount ov hooever disined thi American Kontinent spays elivaitr had thi wizird idear ov makin thi terminus particularly spektaklier & so desined it 2 luke like a hooj cassil, viz thi vastniss ov thi fastniss (which she claymd used 2 b calld Acsets, which wos anuthir ov them nacronyms, aparrintly).
I thot this ol soundid a bit iffy & askd Mr Z if heed evir herd ov ther bin uthir fass towrs & he sed nope, not as far as he new, & shurenuf when I serchd thi kript 4 info ther woznt eny on no othir elevaters & when u actuly luke in2 it ther dozen seem 2 b enywhare whare it sez strate out ‘Thi fass-towr usd 2 b 1 end ov a spaice elivaitor,’ tho iss not a secret. Nway, Kilomenjaro is a lake & Kalimantan is a big island (itz got a Crater Lake 2) & I think Ergates imajinayshin wos runnin away wif hir a bit thare & bsides if her feery wos rite thi name ov this plaice wood bgin wif a K not a S or a A, stands 2 reesin.
Poor Ergates. I stil wundir whot happind 2 that deer litl ant, evin tho Ive got plenty ov othir things 2 wury about now.
I turn ovir in thi litl nest Ive made 4 myself in thi babil branchis & luke down thi curvd trunk 2 thi wall. Nobodi els aroun. Lukes like I gaiv thi bastirds thi slip.
My sholdir stil hurts. So do my rists & my nees.
O whot a sorry state weer in, yung Bascule, I sez 2 myself.
I juss no that soonir or later am goan 2 ½ 2 go bak in2 thi kript 2 find out what on erfs goan on, evin tho thi last fing thi big bat sed woz not 2. Doan think iss goan b much fun.
Am fritend.
U c, Ive bcome a outcast.
I ½ 2 say I had a very plesint lunch wif Mr Zoliparia & a good game ov Go which he 1 ov coarse (like he alwiz duz) in this travelin restront. Thi restront starts in a verticil vilij in thi babil neer thi top ov thi grate hol gaybil & sloely dessends 2 flore levil ovir thi next cupl ov ours. Good food & vews. Nway, I had a ver nice time & almost toatly 4got abowt Dartlin & thi jiant brane in bird space & orribl skind heds & fings whot go gididibibibigididibigigi & so on.
Me & Mr Zoliparia tokd about loads ov stuf.
Eventuly tho it woz time 4 me 2 go bcoz I stil had evenin callz 2 do 4 thi Little Big Bruthirs & they like u 2 b thare in thi monastry 2 do them & Id alredy dun 1 lot on thi hoof as it wer that mornin in thi hydrovater so I thot 4 thi evenin 1s I ot 2 actuly b thare wifin thi preesinkts.
Mr Z saw me 2 thi west wol toob trane.
U promis u woan go bak in2 that kript until u ½ 2? Until yor bak wit de bruders? Mr Z sed 2 me, & I sed, O ol rite then Mr Zoliparia.
Good boy, he sed.
Evrifin went as per normil til I got 2 thi othir end whare ther woz a long wait @ thi hydrovater. I thot ov a betir idear & took a travelater acros thi alure 2 a fewnikuler line up a flyin buttriss; Id get 2 thi monastry by dropin from abuv.
Ther wer a cupl ov noviss bruthirs in thi fewnikuler car wif me; they wer a bit drunk, & singin loudly. I thot 1 ov them seemd 2 rekognise me but I juss lookt away & he ignoard me 2.