Old Earth Stories Part 14

She glared at him. She took back the knife and cut through the Ghost's intestine with a savage swipe. Dark fluid poured out, congealing onto the ice, freezing immediately. The Ghost subsided, as if deflating. Five faced Donn. "I knew you were a weak one the minute I saw you."

"Then you were right."

"We only survive here by killing Ghosts. If you won't kill, you have no right to live."

"I understand that."

She held out her hand. "Your suit. Give it back to me. I'll find a better use for it."

He nodded. He had nothing else to say. He reached up and pinched his hood by the cheeks. One firm tug and "Wait."

A human being came walking out of the calamitous Ghost city-walking without a pressure suit, city-walking without a pressure suit, of Ghost skin or otherwise. It was Eve Raoul. And a Ghost rolled at her shoulder. It was the Sink Amba.s.sador, Donn knew it must be. of Ghost skin or otherwise. It was Eve Raoul. And a Ghost rolled at her shoulder. It was the Sink Amba.s.sador, Donn knew it must be.

The humans, Hama and Kanda and the rest, stood back from their butchery. They were crusted with frozen blood, weapons in their hands.

Trembling, exhausted, Donn felt irritated. irritated. It could all have been over in an instant. No more changes, no more transitions, no more choices. Death would have been easier, he felt, than facing whatever came next. It could all have been over in an instant. No more changes, no more transitions, no more choices. Death would have been easier, he felt, than facing whatever came next.

Around them, the Ghosts were starting to organize.

"We can still get out of here," Five said, "if we run. Now."

"No more running for me," Donn said. "Whatever happens."

"That's wise, Donn Wyman," said the Amba.s.sador.

Eve Raoul stood at its side. She looked down at her feet, up to her ankles in frozen air. The Virtual protocol violations must be agonizing for her, Donn thought; it was supposed supposed to hurt if you walked out into the vacuum without a suit. She turned to the Amba.s.sador. "I did the job you wanted. I snagged their attention." Yes, Donn thought. As no Ghost, among a million Ghosts, ever could. "Let me go now. Please." to hurt if you walked out into the vacuum without a suit. She turned to the Amba.s.sador. "I did the job you wanted. I snagged their attention." Yes, Donn thought. As no Ghost, among a million Ghosts, ever could. "Let me go now. Please."

"Thank you, Eve Raoul."

Eve turned to Donn. "Listen to the Amba.s.sador. Do what it says. It's more important than you can imagine." Her voice trailed off, and she broke up into a cloud of blocky pixels that dwindled and vanished.

Donn said, "How did you know I would be here?"

"You are not hard to track," the Amba.s.sador said. "Your biochemical signature-none of you can hide. Not even you, Sample 5A43."

Five flinched. "You know where we are, our bunker?"

"Of course we do."

"Then why don't you hunt us down, kill us?"

"For what purpose? We brought you here to understand you, not kill you."

Hama said, a knife in his hand, "Perhaps seeing humans in the wild like this helps you understand a bit more, eh, Amba.s.sador?"

Kanda said, "You do not stop us even when we come to slaughter you?"

The Amba.s.sador lifted off the ground and hovered over the deflated corpses of its kind, impaled on the crude human traps. "We seem to have trouble antic.i.p.ating such actions as this. We do not think the way you do. I suppose we lack imagination."

Donn said, "What do you want, Amba.s.sador? Will you take me home?"

"Not yet." It was another voice. A Silverman came walking from the chaotic city city the the Silverman, Donn saw, the one from Minda's Savior, with its human-tech neck band and one arm lopped off above the elbow. "We need your help." Silverman, Donn saw, the one from Minda's Savior, with its human-tech neck band and one arm lopped off above the elbow. "We need your help."

"'We?' Amba.s.sador, since when have you and the Silver-men const.i.tuted a 'we'?"

"Since you made this one as smart as any Ghost. You Reef-born made him intelligent enough to suffer. But sentience always has unexpected consequences. In fact, he has been intelligent enough, and human enough, to be able to antic.i.p.ate what humans will do next."

"Do?"

"When you learn what we have been up to. Donn Wyman, we need you to tell the humans. They would not listen to us. You, though, might be believed. We will show you. Come."

The Silverman turned and walked back toward the city. The Amba.s.sador followed.

Donn saw that they were heading for the dodecahedral transfer station. "You want me to get into that thing?"

"Yes," said the Amba.s.sador.

"Where will it take me?"

"To somewhere beyond your imagination."

"And what will I meet there?"

"The one known in your human rumors as the Seer."

Kanda laughed. "You lucky cuss. Go, man. Go!"

But still Donn hesitated. "I'll come with you if you let these others go. Back to their cave under the ice. And send them home. Don't harm them further."

The Amba.s.sador didn't pause. "Done."

"Thank you," whispered Hama Belk.

Kanda grinned. "A brief life, Hama?"

"Not that brief, thanks."

Donn said, "One more thing, Amba.s.sador."

The Amba.s.sador rolled. "Jack Raoul would have admired your nerve."

"Find my brother. Benj Wyman. He's here somewhere, one of your 'Samples.'"

"Not mine. The faction who "

Donn cut him off. "Find him. Send him home, too."

"Done."

"All right." Donn took a step toward the Amba.s.sador.

"Wait." It was Five. "Take me with you, virgin. If you're to meet the Seer, I want to be there."

"Why? To kill it?"

"If it's necessary, you'll need somebody to do it. You You won't, that's for sure." won't, that's for sure."

Donn asked, "Amba.s.sador?"

The Amba.s.sador rolled. "Abandon your weapons, Sample 5A43."

"Five. My name is Five."

"Abandon your weapons."

Five was obviously reluctant. But she took her heavy projectile weapon and her quiver of arrows and her stabbing sword and handed them all to Hama.

Donn held out his hand to her. "Come, then. But no more of the 'virgin.'"

She clasped his hand; he could feel her strength through the double layer of Ghost fabric. They walked together, following the Silverman and the Amba.s.sador, back into the devastated city.

The flow of Ghosts into the dodecahedral transport terminal had stopped, perhaps disrupted by the chaos the humans had caused. But Ghosts were still pouring out of the crumpled heart of the city, while more were flowing the other way, as a purposeful operation of recovery began. Donn found it hard not to flinch, as if all these suspended ma.s.ses might come tumbling down on his head. The Amba.s.sador a.s.sured them they would be safe.

Five's gloved hand grasped Donn's hard.

Donn asked, "So how are you feeling?"

"Like I'm two years old again," she said. "Stripped of everything I've built for myself. They've got me back, haven't they?"

"No," Donn said firmly. "You walked into this-your choice. And you'll be walking back out of it, too."

She thought about that. "You promise, virgin?"

"I promise." And you were wrong, Hama, And you were wrong, Hama, he thought. he thought. I did get to save her after all-or at least there's chance. I did get to save her after all-or at least there's chance. "So, Amba.s.sador. This device is this how you've been s.n.a.t.c.hing people?" "So, Amba.s.sador. This device is this how you've been s.n.a.t.c.hing people?"

"Shall we avoid such loaded words, Donn Wyman? We have been developing a new nonlocal transportation technology. It is the outcome of a wide-ranging program of physical research."

The Ghosts' origin, under a failing sun, had led them to believe they lived in a flawed universe. So they wished to understand its fine-tuning.

"Why are we here?You see, there is only a narrow range of the constants of physics within which life of see, there is only a narrow range of the constants of physics within which life of any any sort is possible. We study this question by pushing at the boundaries-by tinkering with the laws that sustain and contain us all. Thus we explore the boundaries of reality." sort is possible. We study this question by pushing at the boundaries-by tinkering with the laws that sustain and contain us all. Thus we explore the boundaries of reality."

"While s.n.a.t.c.hing children," Five said.

"Get to the point, Amba.s.sador," Donn said.

"We have found a way to adjust the value of Planck's constant, which gives, in human physics, the scale of quantum uncertainty."

Donn frowned. "Jack Raoul was involved in a situation where Ghosts messed with Planck's constant. They reduced it."

"Yes. We were endeavoring to produce an AI of arbitrarily large capacity."

"It was a disaster."

"Well, yes. But in the end, a useful technology was derived-Ghost hide, as you call it."

Five was struggling to follow all this. "And is this what you've done here? You've decreased this Planck number again?"

"No. This time we have increased it, Five."

Donn saw it. "You've increased the uncertainty in the universe or a bit of it." He thought fast. "A particle has a quantum function, which describes the probability you'll find it in any given location. But the probability is nonzero everywhere, everywhere, throughout the universe. And if you increase Planck, then you increase all those probabilities." throughout the universe. And if you increase Planck, then you increase all those probabilities."

"You're beginning to see it," the Amba.s.sador said. "It is hard to imagine a more elegant mode of transport, in theory: you simply make it more likely that you are at your destination than your starting point."

Donn was stunned by this audacity. "In theory." "In theory."

"The engineering details are soluble."

Donn laughed. "Evidently. Or we wouldn't be standing here, would we?"

"'Soluble.'"

"'Evidently'" Five stared at Donn. "You're talking to this Ghost as if all this is normal. normal. As if you're discussing a new kind of stabbing sword." She turned to the Amba.s.sador. As if you're discussing a new kind of stabbing sword." She turned to the Amba.s.sador. "How "How do you change the laws of physics?" do you change the laws of physics?"

"Quagma," said Donn immediately.

He understood some of this. The principle of the GUT-drive, which powered ancient ships like his mother's own Miriam Berg, Miriam Berg, was related. Quagma was the state of matter that had emerged from the big bang, a magma of quarks a quagma. And at such temperatures, the fundamental forces of physics unified into a single superforce. Quagma was bound together only by the superforce. And when quagma was allowed to cool and expand, the superforce decomposed into the four sub-forces. By controlling the decomposition, you could select the ratios between those forces, ratios that governed the fundamental constants including Planck's constant. was related. Quagma was the state of matter that had emerged from the big bang, a magma of quarks a quagma. And at such temperatures, the fundamental forces of physics unified into a single superforce. Quagma was bound together only by the superforce. And when quagma was allowed to cool and expand, the superforce decomposed into the four sub-forces. By controlling the decomposition, you could select the ratios between those forces, ratios that governed the fundamental constants including Planck's constant.

Humans knew the importance of quagma. Donn's father's family had a legend of an earlier Wyman involved in a jaunt nearly two hundred years ago, when humans had raced Ghosts to retrieve a lode of this primordial treasure.

Donn said, "You scare us, with what you do, you Ghosts. You always have and always will."

The Ghost rolled and bobbed. "Sometimes we scare ourselves, believe it or not. Shall we proceed?" And it swept boldly into the open dodecahedral chamber. Doors dilated closed around it, and when they opened, only a second later, the Ghost had gone, a tonne of spinning flesh vanished.

Donn and Five were left alone, surrounded by anonymous shoals of Ghosts. Donn grabbed Five's hand again. "Together?"

"Let's get on with it."

The chamber was a blank-walled box, silvered like all Ghost architecture. When the doors closed behind them, they were suspended in the dark, just for a heartbeat.

And when the doors opened, they were not in the dark anymore.

"Do not be afraid," said the Sink Amba.s.sador.

The Ghost hovered before them, bathed in dazzling light. Behind it Donn saw the silent figure of the Silverman, the stump of its severed arm a jarring asymmetry.

Five squeezed Donn's hand. "Virgin?"

"It's all right. I mean, if they were going to kill us, they'd have done it by now. And stop calling me 'virgin.' Come on." Deliberately, he stepped forward, into the light. Keeping tight hold of his hand, Five followed.