‘Suppose she isn’t just a signal test?’ Gil asked with deliberated patience. ‘What does she do then?’ He refilled Lucia and his glasses.
‘Why then, she will probably find her way to wherever she is supposed to find her way and deliver her message.’
‘She can hardly talk in joined-up words,’ Lucia snorted. ‘How is she going to deliver a message?’
‘She doesn’t even have any implants,’ Gil added.
‘The message may be in an unusual medium,’ Pieter said. ‘It might lie in the precise pattern of flecks in the iris of one eye, or in one of her finger-prints, or in the disposition of her intestinal flora, or even in her own genetic code.’
‘And this message is something the data corpus knows and yet doesn’t know?’
‘Quite. Or it may come from some system which isn’t part of the main corpus and which can’t communicate with it.’
The girl was watching Gil drink from his glass. She imitated the action and spilled only a little.
‘Machines that can’t communicate?’ Lucia said, laughing. ‘But that’s…’ she waved her hand.
‘Diseases are communicated, too,’ Pieter said quietly, folding his napkin. Their young guest seemed to be practising gargling.
‘So?’ Lucia said, with a contemptuous glance at the girl.
‘Well, anyway,’ Gil said emolliently, patting Lucia’s hand while addressing his uncle, ‘She’s here and our guest; she may even prove amusing if she is so preternaturally naive. At least she appears to be house-trained.’
‘So far,’ Lucia said. ‘Anyway; isn’t there somebody we ought to tell about her?’
‘Oh, I suppose one might report her arrival to the authorities,’ Pieter said easily. ‘But there’s no hurry.’
The girl sat back, belched, looked pleased with herself, then farted. She appeared slightly taken aback, then just grinned.
‘Air,’ she said, nodding to the other three people round the table.
Pieter smiled. Gil guffawed. Lucia stared at the girl for a moment. Then set her napkin down primly. ‘I am going to lie down,’ she announced, rising.
Gil got up too, still holding Lucia’s hand. ‘Me too,’ he said, smiling broadly.
Pieter returned their nodded farewells and watched the two young people leave.
He turned to the girl. She wiped one bloused forearm messily across her mouth then thumped her chest hollowly with her fist.
‘Asura,’ she said, grinning triumphantly, and burped again.
Pieter smiled thinly. ‘Quite so.’
* * *
2
‘The signal came at noon yesterday,’ Clispeir said quickly, quietly. ‘The observatory was stationary. Gad,’ she laughed gently, ‘all our preparations and cryptography went for nothing; the signal came in light all right, but not in any ancient code or any fancy wavelength, and not in frequency or amplitude modulation; they just manipulated the beam to make actual letters appear upon the plain, shining lines like the reflections waves cast on a wall or ceiling.’
‘What did it say?’ Gadfium asked. They sat together on the small bed, curtains drawn, light dimmed, whispering like school girls conspiring a prank. She was not sure if it was some ancient memory that made her head spin, some genuine reaction to the impoverished air in the observatory, or the import of what they were talking about.
Clispeir laughed. ‘At first it just said, “Move”,’ she said. ‘Oh, Gad, you should have seen us. We stared at the letters on the salt for a full minute before we pulled ourselves together and decided that even if we had gone plain-crazy, and it was some mass hallucination, we might as well shift. So we did; we moved a couple of metres. The letters stayed where they were, then disappeared. When they reappeared it was as though they had followed us.’
‘But what did they -?’
‘Ssh! I’m coming to that!’ She pulled on a chain round her neck and drew a slim pen from inside her tunic, unscrewed it and pulled out a piece of flimsy paper which she unrolled and handed to Gadfium. ‘They came in groups every eight seconds. Here; read for yourself.’
Gadfium stared at the scribbled writing.
* (flash)
MOVE /
NOW MOVE BACK /
THANK YOU/
LOVE IS GOD / ALL ARE HALLOWED / * WE HAVE – NOTED / THAT YOU ATTEMPTED / TO COMMUNICATE WITH / US IN THE PAST / HOWEVER STANDBY / SYSTEMS THEN FUNCTIONING / WERE NOT ENABLED TO / REPLY OR INSTRUCTED / TO COMMENCE / OUR REACTIVATION / THIS HAS NOW / OCCURRED DUE TO / SOLAR SYSTEM’S APPROACH /TO INTERSTELLAR/ DUST CLOUD / WHICH EVENT YOU CALL / ENCROACHMENT / THIS CONCERNS US ALL / CURRENT ESTIMATES / OF EFFECT ON EARTH / GIVE CAUSE FOR / ALARM / WE HAVE NOT / RECEIVED NOR DO / WE BELIEVE YOU HAVE / RECEIVED ANY / COMMUNICATION FROM / OFF-PLANET THERE / FOR WE MUST ACT / ALONE TO SAVE / OURSELVES / ACTION OPTIONS / INCLUDE CURRENT / LOWER-LEVELS / ATTEMPT TO CONSTRUCT / ROCKETS FOR / EVACUATION / THIS IS ALMOST / CERTAIN TO FAIL / IT IS KNOWN / SECTIONS OF LOWER- / LEVELS COMPETE / AGGRESSIVELY FOR / SUBSIDIARY SPACE / TECHNOLOGIES BUT THIS / TOO IS UNLIKELY / TO SUCCEED / ALSO NOTE DANGER / WORKINGS IN L5SWSOLAR / * HALLOWED BE / THE CENTRE THE / ABSENCE THAT / GIVES STRENGTH / GIVES MEANING / * THREATEN SIGNIFICANT / FABRIC INTEGRITY LOSS / CORRECT ANSWER MUST / LIE IN CRYPTOSPHERE / OR AN ASSOCIATED / BUT COMMUNICATIVELY / REMOTE SUB-SYSTEM / WE BELIEVE AS / WE BELIEVE YOU DO / THAT TECHNOLOGY EXISTS / TO SAVE US ALL / BUT ACCESS TO / DISCOVERY OF THIS / TECHNOLOGY EVADES / US AND WE ARE / UNABLE TO CONTACT / CRYPTOSPHERE / DIRECTLY DUE TO / CURRENT CHAOTIC / INFECTIOUS STATE / OF SAME / GIVEN RUMOURED / EXISTENCE OF EMERGENCY / META-PROTOCOLS / WE THEREFORE URGE / YOU TO REMAIN / VIGILANT AS SHALL / WE FOR ADVENT / OF EXTERNAL DATA- / CARRYING EVENT OR / SYSTEM-EMISSARY / (ASURA) / PLEASE ALSO NOTE / WE BELIEVE RULING / SECTIONS OR LOWER- / LEVELS KNOW THEIR / APPARENT ATTEMPTS / TO ESCAPE CERTAIN / TO FAIL / WHY IS THIS / WE QUESTION / REPLY THROUGH / HELIO SEMAPHORE OR / SIGNAL-LAMP ONLY / * LOVE IS FAITH / IS UNKNOWING / BE ALL HALLOWED / IN THE EYE OF / NOTHING / SHANTI / END *
She couldn’t take it all in; she started, got half-way through, lost it again, started more slowly, then read it in full a second time.
By the end of it, Gadfium was staring at the piece of paper; she could feel her eyes bulging from her face and sense the tension in the surrounding skin. Her head still felt as though it was spinning. She gulped, looked at the smiling, shining face of Clispeir.
There was a knock at the cabin door. ‘Ma’am?’ Rasfline asked, voice muffled.
Gadfium cleared her throat. ‘I’m alive, Rasfline,’ she called, her voice shaking. ‘Just let me rest. Ten minutes.’
‘Very well, ma’am.’ She could hear his hesitation.
‘Yes, Rasfline?’
‘We should not stay much longer, Chief Scientist… and also, there is an urgent message from the Sortileger’s office. He would like to see you.’
‘Inform him I’ll be on my way in ten minutes.’
‘Ma’am.’
They waited a few moments, then Clispeir seized the other woman’s shoulders, glancing at the paper Gadfium held. ‘I know some of it seems like nonsense, but isn’t it just the most exciting thing?’
Gadfium nodded. She put one shaking hand to her brow and patted Clispeir’s shoulder with the other hand. ‘Yes, and very dangerous,’ she said.
‘You really think so?’ Clispeir said.
‘Of course! If Security hear about this, we’re all lost.’
‘You don’t think if you could somehow get this to the King he’d, well, have a change of heart? I mean: realise that the best thing was for us all to work tog -?’
‘No!’ Gadfium said, appalled. She shook the other woman’s shoulders. ‘Clispeir! The message itself mentions the King and his pals seem to have some secret agenda; if we tell them we know they’ll just silence us!’
‘Of course, of course,’ Clispeir said, smiling nervously. ‘You’re right.’
‘Yes,’ Gadfium said, ‘I am.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Now, we have ten minutes – may I keep this?’ She held up the sheet of paper.
‘Certainly! You’ll have to make your own copies for the others.’
‘That’s all right. Now, as I was saying; we have ten minutes to decide what to do.’
* * *
3
The Palace was situated in the Great Hall’s central lantern, a tall octagonal construction protruding from the centre of the steeply pitched roof which in a humanly scaled version of Serehfa would have been open and hollow and have helped light the Hall’s interior below.
The Palace filled a hundred tall storeys within the lantern and projected downwards into the Great Hall for another ten levels; those lower floors were mostly devoted to the Security services and their equipment. Lush gardens and broad terraces graced its outer walls, and within it were housed its own great halls, ballrooms and ceremonial spaces. Its summit was capped by further walled gardens and a small airfield.