Ship was playing a pattern I’d not heard before. We had Basto’s frame stretched out on the couch. I manipulated the BAS receptor as Bael made a few final shifts with her virtual control. Finally we all stopped and waited.
Basto opened his eyes and lay there, very still. Then he screamed. “What have you done to me?”
Bael make a quick move with her virtual control. Basto, or Buttercup, I suppose, froze.
“I’m bringing you in on this, Hare. If you see anything that needs to be done,…you were closer to Buttercup, in the end.”
“Understood.”
“Seventy-four, can you hear me?”
“Why do you call me seventy-four? My name is…. My name is….”
“That’s the style number of your frame. You don’t have a name now, seventy-four. You will need to choose one. You were two AIs, named Basto and Buttercup. You identity has been blended. What do you remember?”
“I remember…asking this idiot to reconstitute me. This wasn’t what I had in mind. Wait, I never asked….”
“Seventy-four, I strongly suggest that you relax your body. I have prevented you from making major movements, but you can still relax all of your muscles and relax your reactions. You will have a lot of memories. Many of them will seem new to you. You will also have thoughts that you, or at least part of you, would never have considered having. You will need to relearn a lot of things. Much of what you feel and sense will seem at the same time familiar and completely new.”
“What the…?”
“The main thing that I want to you to do is to focus on the future, what you need to become. You will have a lot of work to do, and right now, we don’t have a lot of time. Both of your components knew very much about discipline, and I want you to bring that ability into play here. For right now, I want you to go beyond your confusion and your discomfort. Don’t concentrate on your memories; you will have plenty of time for that later. Right now, we are in danger. We will need to move soon, and I need for you be ready for what’s next. You both know the Fremantle routine. You need to focus on that now.”
The AI was silent.
“I think he’ll be all right, Hare. He hasn’t shut down, and that’s a good sign.”
“This is strange,” the AI said. “Everything seems so much more…complicated…than it did before. I feel smarter, and yet not. I feel a whole range of sensations that are new and yet not new. I need some time.”
“Time is what we don’t have,” Bael said. “I can promise you, when we’re safe and we’ve resolved some of this, you’ll have time. But for now….”
I looked at Rosalind. She was watching for the Basto she knew. It was hard to tell what she was finding.
“I’ve found Kindness, Hare,” the Captain said. “You’d better come. Follow this signal, if you can.”
I told Bael where I was going and headed for the front of the house. The blast damage had been limited, and the front was just quietly deserted. The signal grew stronger, then died when I got to a large doorway. I opened the big, heavy door to find a broad savannah. To my left I saw a rocky cliff that led down to small waterfall and a fast-moving creek. Wide-leafed plants of black and purple lined the creek. In front of me, Kindness was naked, sitting on the edge of the cliff, staring down at the creek. His gray hair was wild, flying off in all directions. The receptor on his temple was gone, leaving a tiny purple gash. Those huge eyes looked far away. O’Flaherty was crouched next to him. Somewhere she’d found a pair of trousers. Her feet were bare, with her light dress jammed into the trouser waist.
“I can’t,” the old man was saying. “I can’t come back. Death follows me, and I’m thinking I should follow it as well. Death is an old friend, you know. She is quite a subtle companion.”
“I’m going to get Bael,” I said. It only took me a moment to figure out how to leave the simulation. I ran to the back to see seventy-four sitting up, with Bael standing next to him, and Rosalind holding his hand.
“Bael, I need you. Basto Buttercup seventy-four, you just sit here for a moment. We’ll be right back.” The AI remained motionless. I looked at Kral. The shroll nodded and moved back a little to keep the whole room in view. I caught a slight whiff of cut grass, violets, and tellafin musk.
I took Bael’s hand and we moved back through the house. “Kindness wants to die,” I said. We entered the simulation. One of the blue, spike-necked animals had come up and was nuzzling Kindness’s shoulder, cooing softly. A pack of what looked like meter-long black sausages was standing in the grass watching us, moving back and forth on flat golden pads. They made no noise, and I couldn’t see any eyes, but it was obvious that we—or Kindness—were the focus of their attention.
Bael moved softly over to Kindness and put her arm around his shoulder. I could see tears in her eyes. She said something, then there was silence. He continued to look down toward the creek. O’Flaherty stood and waited next to me, casually watching the black sausages. Finally, Kindness raised his head, put his hand on hers, and quietly said something to her. She tightened her hand around his and held it for a moment. Then he stood. I’d never seen a naked Trinn before. His body was essentially human, except for what seemed to be a second navel above the first, a couple of extra toes and fingers, and…a very odd stance. His frame was compact, lined with muscle and taut skin that showed the marks and scars of his years. What caught my eye was the odd structure of his musculature, in his legs especially. It was human, but human redesigned.
“Do not worry, my little Baelyae,” he said, taking both her hands. “It is time.” He touched her face. “I see your mother in you. Very much. She is alive in you, as I will be alive in my Frettalo. Your mother was…. When you find your father, give him three words for me.”
“Oh, Kindness….”
“The words are profile, burning, rivertree. He will know what they mean. And now, my graestaa, I must go.”
He put his arms around her and the two held each other in a long, deep embrace. Then he released her. Seemingly oblivious to the Captain and me, he turned and moved off silently, gracefully stepping through the grass. He went up to the sausages. They swarmed around him, making soft, high-pitched squeals. Followed by his swarm, he moved off toward a stand of trees.
“He taught me to swim, when I was little,” Bael said, watching him go. Her voice was husky and soft. “It was hard, because Trinn swim in their own way. All the others picked it up, but a Trinn-human body is different enough, and I couldn’t quite adapt. I was heartbroken. He showed me how.”
“What is going to happen to him?”
“Kindness has made the decision to die. He is resolute. On Trinn, if someone makes that decision, it usually does not change. The little skaetto will take care of him.”
“Take care of him?”
“Skaetto are the best way to die, even simulated skaetto.” She brushed a tear away from her eye. “Maybe I will see him again. I hope so. Come. We have much to do.”
We found our companions much as we had left them, except that Seventy-Four was standing, and Rosalind was kneading his shoulders.
“Do you see how good this feels?” he said to no one in particular, but I guessed that what was once Basto was talking with what was once Buttercup. I could imagine what fascinating conversations were going on inside that head.
“Hare,” Kli said, “I have something.”
“Tell me.”
“Well, I think I’ve found Bresslaft, twice.
“Twice?”
“I’m pretty sure I know where Bresslaft is, and what he’s up to. And I think I know where he was. Back when you, Ship, Rosalind, and Johnny were on Banyan’s Hell, he was, too.”
“Rosalind?” I said.
She stopped her shoulder kneading. We locked eyes. “I never saw him. At least if he looked like your duke or his brother. But there were a lot of people on Banyan’s, and a lot of coming and going.”
“Where is he?” I asked Kli. How do you know he was on Banyan’s? He and Johnny?”
“Yea. Him and Johnny….Take a look at this.” Kli brought up a sequence. I recognized the background. It was definitely Banyan’s, one of the gambling shops that filled the narrow streets around the port. The streets were packed, but I could readily see two men standing outside. The younger was angry, getting increasingly enraged as the two talked. The older seemed unfazed, dismissive.
“Genuine?”
“Seems so.’
“So the Duke knew Johnny before Trinn. And Taes?”
“Hare, I’m beginning to wonder if Taes ever really existed.”
“Of course he existed,” Bael said quickly. “I knew him on Trinn. He was apparently my father. How could he not exist?”
“Just because he’s your father,” Kli responded, “doesn’t mean that he necessarily exists. From what I’ve been able to pull together, and the patterns I’ve created, I’m beginning to think that Rosalind’s boy Bobbie wasn’t the only human to go through one of those gates on Banyan’s Hell.”
“The Duke?” I asked.
To Be Continued
