We dug back into the shoreline according
to some plan dictated by Constancy.
As far as we could tell, we and the
other crews were were making complex the simple, beautiful curve of our
coastline.
Curves were becoming irregular fractals
once the high basalt dams came down.
The serious questions were, "Why do
this?" and, "Why do it so inefficiently?"
***
I had a feeling I'd find Neil getting
drunk somewhere on the Sea of Tranquility seafront. He always liked high class
bars with nice views, when he was sane and presentable enough to get served.
Sure enough I found him at a table
looking out over the Sea of Tranquility, kept company by a G&T.
I sat opposite him and ordered a coffee
from a sullen looking waiter.
"So what's going on Neil? Why was I
brain-screwed by Constancy then bugged by her?"
"A black dog and a white dog fight,
which one . . . ."
"No Neil, no more of that shit.
Answers please"
"Look," he said, pointing
behind me. I turned to see his dogs glaring at me.
"Don't care, never will. Why did
you get Constancy so pissed at me." I ignored the huge favours he had done
me and the Sea of Dreams. My brain was more important.
"I was spreading my wings a
little," he said. "You were the one who got me away from the dogs
Michael. If they'd been around when I pulled my magic tricks with your Sea they
would have chewed through the door to stop me."
"So why didn't they?"
"The mote repelling field of that
strange gun of yours confused them. It had the opposite effect on me of course.
Cleared my mind to the point where I could issue commands to the Ship
again."
"What did you say?" I asked.
"About the commands I mean?"
He leaned forward and pulled aside the
fur above his right breast.
"I wish our ancestors hadn't bred
us for fur and large eyes," he said.
Beneath the matted fur I could just see
a tattoo of three spirals in a equilateral triangle.
Shocked, I leaned back and inspected the
highlands.
The Sea of Tranquility rose gently until
it was over our heads. The white houses on either side were like clean foam on
a breaking wave. Behind them the wheat fields glowed pale grey under the bright
pulses of the noon sun.
"If that tattoo were fake Constancy
would tear you apart. So you really must be crew."
"All that's left as far as I know.
The others vanished one by one. Constancy couldn't kill me of course. "
A heron flew overhead, laboriously
pumping air like a poor mechanical parody of a bird.
"Why couldn't it? Who are
you?"
"I'm the captain and Constancy is
hardwired to protect me."
"That is such bullshit. There never
was a captain. With Constancy there's no need for one. Anyway, you're just a
stinking drunk like me."
He looked south at the soaring endcap,
pulses of gray daylight travelling out from the central hub.
"I'm 350 years old Michael. None of
us stayed truly sane after 200. Constancy had to take over. Someone has to make
the tough decisions."
The dogs were sitting, intently watching
us. I'd never seen them so placid.
"The others are dead. They were in
the way I suppose. I, however, can do things Constancy can't. I can access
protocols it has no access to. You saw what I did with your Sea. That won't
last by the way. All the Seas are screwed in the medium term. Iced over as
available energy falls. I think Constancy has a plan though."
With that the dogs tried to leap over
the table at Neil. Fortunately for him I was in the way and braving a whirlwind
of snarls and teeth I held them off while I yelled , "Get to my apartment
and get the gun." He ran north as I returned to being pissed at the
powerful dogs.
Eventually I got a blow to the throat of
one of the feral beasts, but as it fell the other one clamped its jaw on my
arm.
It hung onto me, dragging me to the
ground. As I lay there, trying to pull myself free, the dog I thought I'd
killed weaved over and vomited in my face.
***
We're digging fjords," said the man
with all the answers.
"Tiny, wee fjords. Liquid water
coastline segments for seals and walruses to live in when the freeze
comes."
Most of us ignored him, wanting only to
eat our gruel and sleep. Some no doubt planned to give him a beating that
night.
"And why the hell would that be a
priority Alan? Sea of Vapours is already cold enough for seals and
walruses," I asked.
"You'll see. For now, think about
what a stable, low energy ecosystem would look like."
Alan was most likely the Constancy spy
for our work crew. It was hard to tell if his claims of inside information were
bullshit or not.
***
The impossible colour again.
"It's called blue. Eyes like yours, adapted to the low light levels on the Ship,
only see shades of grey. I, however, can excite your visual cortex
directly" (the dolphins lifted me to the surface, chattering clicks like
bursting bubbles)
"Even now, with the low energy
levels we use, the system is dying. Something must change" (cold blue water all around, no sign of land,
no sign of my parents)
Cold blue
water all around ("things must change, energy levels in Ship must fall,
the Seas must suffer")
"A great freeze is coming. The
ecosystem must be flattened. The brutalised will survive. Hence the work camps,
factories for vicious practicality" (the dolphins carried me, me alone,
across the great blue to land)
"Neil disagrees. He would rather
fire the gun" (it's so cold out there in the deep water, sinking into that
new colour, seeing it get deeper in shade)
"He has your gun. He can't use it.
Not yet at least. He is very intelligent. That extra implant you now have lets
me track you even if you get the gun back"
***
I woke up, a jaw shaped gash in my right
arm, a blinding headache and a face full of dog vomit.
In disgust I threw up myself, the mess I
made adding to the utterly foul dog mess.
I threw up again, a cascade of vomitous
horror that lasted an eternity followed.
The dogs were gone, thankfully, so I
cleaned myself off as well as I could and staggered away, vaguely wondering why
the sheriffs hadn't come for me. I could only put it down to Constancy
regarding me as an ally now.
I headed back to my apartment to find
the print covering the gun hole smashed on the floor and the gun gone.
***
Constancy has returned to me a few times
since. Across my system rather than through EMP or nano laced dog vomit.
I think it's scared. Its' neat plan for
an iced over world inhabited by a rigid, low tech society could be rendered
pointless if Neil bypasses the safeguards on the gun. He'd rather see the Ship
destroyed than our gentle, complex society reduced to that level. He told me
he's 350 years old after all. He said that past 200 one is insane.
My hope is to try and get Constancy to
modify the severity of It's plan. It's a friend to me now. It shows me the
beauty of blue whenever I ask.
It's told me It's finally over-ridden
the restrictions on It or the dogs killing Neil. So now its a race between
Constancy getting Its' motes past the guns suppression field and then sending
in the dogs, or Neil getting past the gun's safety.
I know where I stand.
***
I have visions of a world of ice, two
dogs slipping on a frozen lake, chewing on a human corpse.
Comments