Chung Kuo - The Marriage Of The Living Dark Part 54

"No..."

"Then trust to that. You are a generous man, Kim Ward. If s one of the reasons why I love you. Maybe the greatest reason. So be generous this once. Give him this moment with us."

"With you."

She smiled. "Okay. With me."

He sighed, then gave the briefest nod.

"Then go," she said, watching him with kindly eyes. "I think he's waited long enough."

It was, perhaps, the strangest moment of her life, to see the two of them emerge from the door at the top of the steps and come towards her down the shadowed corridor.

Strange, yes, and dreamlike, too. And for a moment she wondered why she had not dreamed it beforehand.

She saw at once how alike they were, even as she saw the differences of build and height.

And then he saw her.

He stopped dead, almost as if he'd walked into some unseen barrier, his eyes visibly widening. And then he smiled. A great beaming smile of awe and love that had in it such depths of hurt and loss that her heart went out to him. For how could it not? This was her man. Through all eternity and in every universe, her soul mate.

She opened her arms and embraced him, hugging him to her, feeling him begin to sob, his arms wrapped tight about her, the way a lost child clings to his mother once she's found.

She stroked his hair and petted him, then kissed the side of his head, murmuring rea.s.surances.

"There ... if s alright now. Everything's okay . .." Her eyes met Kim's, who stood there looking on. And saw, to her surprise, that tears were streaming down his cheeks, as if whatever fear he'd had had crumbled in that instant She put out a hand, gesturing for him to come and hold her too. And so he did, and so they stood there for a while, the three of them, holding tight to each other in the very strangest of embraces. "It's alright," Kim said, after a moment, reaching out to touch and hold K.'s shoulder. "You're home now, brother. Home."

Karr waited at the door, his helmet under his arm, frowning down at the patterned marble beneath his feet As the door swung back, he looked up and smiled. "Ah, Jelka ... I came as quickly as I could."

She embraced him, kissing his cheek, then stood back, a mischievous glint in her eyes puzzling Karr.

"Well?" he asked, as she closed the door behind him. "Whaf s going on?" "Wait and see," she said, taking his hand and leading him through to the kitchen.

As they entered, Kim looked up from where he sat at the long table and smiled.

"Gregor ..."

Again that same secretive smile, as if some joke were being played on him. Karr huffed and, setting the helmet down on the table, demanded, "Come on, you two, what is going on?"

"Gregor?"

Karr turned, looking to the doorway, thinking for a moment that maybe Kim had learned to throw his voice, and then did an almost comic double-take. He turned, astonished, looking from one Kim to the other, then gave a little laugh, understanding in that instant what had happened. "It works!"

Both Kims nodded, with an eerie synchronicity. The new one - taller, Karr noted through narrowed eyes - came and stood behind the Kim he knew and placed his hands on his shoulders.

The new one spoke. "I understand you've problems, Gregor."

"I've dealt with them."

'Temporarily. But you haven't solved them."

"And you can?"

K. nodded.

"How?" Karr asked.

But K. merely smiled. "I want you to set up a broadcast, for this evening. I want it to go out on every channel and into every set We use the override and make sure every set is working."

Karr looked to Kim, but Kim merely nodded. "If s okay, Gregor. You can trust him."

Karr looked to Jelka, appealing to her. "Won't you tell me whaf s going on?"

She smiled. "I can't"

"Can't?"

"No. Because they won't tell me. But I trust them. I'd trust them with my life, wouldn't you?"

Karr hesitated, then nodded. He looked back at the strangely doubled image of his friend. "Tonight?"

"At eight," both Kims said, the movements of their mouths so perfectly synchronised that Karr found himself blinking at the sight, surprised. "I feel..." He laughed, as if it were too stupid a thing to say. "I feel like I'm dreaming, only I can't wake."

"I understand," K. said, coming round until he stood before the giant; looking up into his face. "Then it's time for us to make things real again."

At precisely eight that evening, every screen in Ganymede, in every room and every public place, on the four great s.p.a.ceships and in every transit vehicle, switched on, showing the image of Kim's face.

"Friends," Kim began, without prelude. "I am sorry to divert you from whatever you are doing, but something very important has happened. The breakthrough has been made. We have forged a door into another universe." He paused, letting that sink in, then continued. "That door is stable and it works. Yet we must use it wisely and expeditiously." Kao Chen, who had been relaxing in his living room, dipping into the second volume of the San Kuo Yon Yi and reading his favourite episodes, now sat forward, spilling his wine over the rug.

"w.a.n.g Ti!" he yelled. "Come see!" ". .. to introduce a friend," Kim was saying as w.a.n.g Ti hurried from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. "In fact, more than a friend. Fellow colonists and travellers, may I introduce my close friend, K."

"Aiyal" both Kao Chen and w.a.n.g Ti said as one, astonished by the vision on the screen.

Indeed, throughout Ganymede there was a sharp intake of breath as a second Kim stepped into view and stood beside the Kim they knew. "I am Kim Ward," the newcomer said, "and in many ways I share a common history with my brother here. Yet our universes are not identical. There are many differences. And those differences will prove useful in the days to come. But I believe - and my brother here shares my belief - that it is our task to put an end to all such differences. To unify reality. And tonight we take the first step in that process. Tonight we return to our own s.p.a.ce and time. To our own universe."

The camera pulled back until it showed the window behind them and the perfect blackness of the sky.

"Look!" two voices said as one. "We return!"

And as if it were some great conjuring trick that blackness was suddenly alive - alive with shimmering points of light Again, throughout Ganymede there was a gasp.

They had left no-s.p.a.ce. They were back inside the universe of stars and motion.

And they were sailing full-tilt towards Eridani.

One could almost feel the relief.

"Our journey continues," Kim's voice said, speaking over the image of the star-spattered sky. "But some of us must go back, to face our old adversary, DeVore. And defeat him. And thus end all divisions. It is our purpose to make things whole again."

The broadcast ended, as abruptly as it had begun. But back in the room, unseen by the watching thousands, Kim turned to K "And you? What will happen to you when that happens?" K's smile was bleak and knowing. 'Then I will vanish from this world of yours, as if I'd never been."Kim stared at him, understanding that K. knew much - had considered much - that he had not yet even begun to think of. And reaching out, he held his mirror-self to him.

"Then we must use these moments well, neh, brother?"

That night, in the silence before midnight, Kim climbed from his bed and went to K's room.

K. sat up, a shadow among the shadows. "What is it?"

Kim sat beside him, reaching out to take his hand. Steeling himself to take it.

"I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking ..."

"Thinking, eh?"

Kim nodded, unable to see the other's eyes in the dark.

"And?"

In answer, Kim tugged at K.'s hand, making him follow him, out of the room and down the pa.s.sageway until they stood before the room where Kim and Jelka slept "Are you sure?" K. asked, knowing without being told what Kim meant by this. "No. But I know if s right. You are me. I am you. And to keep her from you, or you from her ... I couldn't do that" "Yes, but..."

Kim put a finger to K.'s lips. "There's so little time. Lefs make the best of it, eh?"

K. reached out, embracing him. Then, hand in hand, they walked over to the bed where their wife awaited them.

CHAPTER-21.

the feather in the coffin.

Li Yuan sat in the chair at the far end of the table, listening as Emily recounted what had been happening in the Wilds and itemised the details of her long guerrilla war against DeVore. The conference table was crowded. This was a full Council of War and besides Emily's own people, Li Yuan's full staff were in attendance, including both of his sons, the latter disconcertingly wearing a long, flowing dress over a very full bosom.

Hannah, standing by the door, looked on, part of her thrilled at being there on this momentous occasion, part of her watching a.n.a.lytically as Emily came to the end of her account and fell silent. Li Yuan sat forward slightly, steepling his fingers before his nose, then began to speak.

"Thank you, Mu Ch'in Ascher. It seems we have much to thank you for. It could not have been easy for you. But now we have a chance to rid ourselves of this disease called DeVore. To cleanse this world - and others - of his malice." Li Yuan paused, looking about him, a real authority in every glance and gesture. "But before we come to the matter of what actions we shall take, let me - if briefly - advise you of our own recent history. As you might know, the bombing of Boston led to a brief but very bitter civil war - a war from which we were fortunate to emerge the victors. But at a great cost. My son-in-law, Mark Egan, was a.s.sa.s.sinated and one of my grandchildren - Samuel - taken hostage." Hannah noted how Kuei Jen looked down at that, a tightness in her face. "For those crimes we captured Old Man Egan. I personally saw that he burned for them. Then, in the months that followed, thinking us weak, Coover made his move, attacking us in Denver and pushing east. We let him come on, two thousand li and more, until, at Memphis, we turned on him and annihilated his Banners, destroying every last man. Which left our enemies in the south." There was a brief smile before he spoke again.

"We invited them to a meeting, on neutral ground. There we offered them terms, but they sought to trick us. All of which my spies knew, of course. They meant to a.s.sa.s.sinate us in our seats, but they did not know that their a.s.sa.s.sins were already dead, garroted in the cell beneath the floor of the room in which we met And so their plans misfired and now their bones lie rotting in the desert" Hannah shivered. Though she had heard much and read even more of Li Yuan's life, this aspect of him - the sheer brutality - surprised her, and for a moment she found herself astonished that he should be sitting here at table with the, woman who had once been his greatest enemy.

But then, necessity makes strange bedfellows.

Emily, she saw, had lowered her head. Li Yuan was now looking at her, a strange expression in his eyes.

"I say all of this not by way of boasting, but to explain how things were. The past few years have seen much ugliness and much brutality. Nor is it easy to steel oneself to do those things that one must do. Yet they had to be done For there was always a greater enemy to face, and if I had not triumphed in America, he would have gone unchallenged. And time, I knew, was running out. Though we held the high ground of s.p.a.ce, we could not keep him contained much longer." Emily looked up. "I understand.""Do you?" Li Yuan was suddenly like a rock. Like Pai Shan itself. '1 am not proud of what I have done in my life, Emily Ascher, and looking back I can see every reason for you to have opposed me. I was not always a good man and many times I claimed necessity as an excuse. But it is not always necessary to be brutal, or callous. Only now, at the end of the world, do I understand that" Emily narrowed her eyes. "Then you really think it is ending, Li Yuan?" "a.s.suredly so. The only question now is whether it is DeVore or these new forms - these floraforms, as you call them - who inherit That is why, yesterday, I launched a full scale a.s.sault on DeVore's forces. We struck from s.p.a.ce, targeting his main nerve centres. We hit his camps and factories, his warehouses and s.p.a.ceports. But in doing so we left ourselves open to counter-attack, and DeVore was quick to retaliate. He hit our satellites. Put out our eyes." "And the Three Palaces?" Emily asked.

"Have survived, it seems. They were too heavily defended. None of our rockets got through. Yet his strength is broken."

"So now ifs cat and mouse."

Li Yuan nodded. "Our time on this planet is over. We must seek our destiny elsewhere. But I will not go without a fight" Emily smiled. "Nor I."

"Then let us talk of strategy." Li Yuan paused. "I believe that DeVore means to destroy it all."

It was Daniel who interrupted. "Everything?"

Li Yuan nodded. "Everything. And the quickest way to achieve that would be to destroy the oxygen generators. It would make this planet a barren, lifeless waste." He sighed. "Indeed, if my information is correct, he has begun already." The news clearly shocked Emily. "What have you heard?" "That the Iceland Station was. .h.i.t, yesterday, just after dark."

And now Hannah felt that same shock reverberate within her. So it was finally happening. DeVore had finally had enough of the game. He was kicking away the legs of the board by systematically destroying Chung Kuo's atmosphere."So whafs to stop him?" Emily asked, her voice much smaller than usual. "Us," Li Yuan answered. "I've set up temporary defensive positions about the remaining eight generators in Europe. But they are only temporary, and were DeVore to make a concerted effort against any of those forces, he would succeed."

"Then what is to be done?" Daniel asked.

"We must outguess him. Work out where he means to strike next and be there." Li Yuan smiled. "And then it will be him or us. A battle to the last" "And if we win?" Emily asked. "Do we then turn and fight the floraforms?" "No," Li Yuan answered her. "If we win we leave here. Find a new home." "So you have become a Dispersionist in your old age?" Emily laughed at the irony of it "Then Ward was right."

"So it seems," Li Yuan said, smiling in agreement "Things change. We cannot stand still. That is the lesson of history, neh, Han A?" Hannah, addressed directly, blushed. She gave a little bow, acknowledging the truth of what Li Yuan had said, then looked to Daniel, who was staring at her, a mixture of love and pride in his eyes.

"Then we will do as you say," Emily said, giving Li Yuan a tiny bow of respect.

"The years have given you great wisdom, Li Yuan."

"Maybe," Li Yuan acknowledged. "But then I have had a good teacher."

Tuan Ti Fo sat in the sunlight in the s.p.a.ce between the palaces, the board before him, the game balanced at a crucial stage. It was there that DeVore came upon him.

"Master Tuan?"

Old Tuan looked up. "Will you play, Howard?"

DeVore stared back at him, astonished. "How did you get here? The guards ..."

"Are only human." Tuan smiled calmly and gestured to the seat facing him. "Come.

You've time to play one last game with me, surely?"

DeVore sat, bemused, then, with a tiny shrug, focused on the board. At once his attention was drawn into the pattern of the stones.

"Ahhh ..." he said, the noise like the sighing of the wind. For a long time after that he was silent, concentrating, then he looked up, meeting Tuan's eyes once more. "You are white, I take it'"

But Tuan Ti Fo shook his head. "This once I am black." "But..." DeVore looked back, surprised. "Then who have you been playing?"

Tuan laughed, a gentle, mocking laughter. "Why you, of course. Do you not recognise your own play, Howard? Or have you forgotten everything, brother?" "Forgotten?" And then he noted what Tuan had said. "What do you mean, brother?"

"Then you have indeed forgotten."

Tuan seemed to swell, to extend himself backwards, changing even as he did, until a huge, giant spider squatted in his place - a great metallic beast with two abdomens and long, steel spikes for legs.

DeVore's eyes were wide now, but not with surprise; his expression was one of recognitioa "AiyaV he said softly, putting a hand to his brow. And even as he did, his human form seemed to split like a husk and his true form emerge. Yet whereas Tuan's form was beautiful and polished, like a sculpture of burnished steel, his own was mottled and cracked, as if it had been subjected to intense heat The two Edderimmaru glared at each other across the tiny board.