CAPACITY

The Atomic Judy 4: 2240

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She just stands there and watches it happen.”

The atomic Judy knelt on the floor, staring as Kevin’s death played over and over again in the viewing field. Frances stood by her shoulder, her attention divided between the digital world and the atomic. Outside the private shuttle, she could see the forty-ninth section of the Shawl sliding past. Such was their ship’s stealth capability, the section was not yet aware of their presence. Frances signaled to the docking station, requesting an approach.

“What is the matter with her?” Judy murmured. “I questioned if it was right to allow Helen to accompany Judy 3, but I never expected this. She just stood there and watched it happen. Frances, answer me honestly-am I like Judy 3? Am I becoming a mere observer?”

“A little,” Frances said. The robot stood at her left shoulder, her push buttons level with Judy’s face. Judy looked at them now in a different light since her vision on Earth. She had an urge to reach up and press them. Would that violate her own virginity? Was the act physical or mental? She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Strands of hair slipped out of place, dropping down before her eyes. The strange drug was still lingering inside her. Who had administered it to her? Chris? But why would he do that? Did it have anything to do with his presence on the hypership on its return from its ill-fated journey?

“We’re about to dock,” Frances said. “Turn off that viewing field. We need to concentrate on the job in hand: David Schummel.”

The robot widened the external viewing field until it filled the whole cabin. Looking up, Judy could see the tiers of Shawl sections hanging down towards her. It reminded her of the time she had stood in a river, the water cool at her feet, her body shaded by an old weeping willow that drooped all around her. Looking up through the branches that trailed down, enclosing her…

She shook her head. Everything was a metaphor. When would the drug leave her system?

The black wall of the section ahead of them was moving. Insects stepped out of its smooth expanse like the lizards from the Escher picture. They formed themselves into a tube-an odd sight, creatures that came from nothing returning to nothing.

The nose of the shuttle worked its way into this tube and the air in the cabin began to cool to meet the temperature of the section beyond.

“This will probably be the last time we do this,” Judy said. “My own section will be gone in a few days.”

“There will be other sections,” Frances said.

Judy rose to her feet. “Yes, but why should it be that way? You heard what Kevin said.”

“Kevin is an expert at manipulating emotions.”

“So am I,” said Judy darkly.

Since their departure that morning, the World Tree had been draped in black and red ribbons. Red and orange petals drifted down from above, forming a thick carpet on the ground. The silver-mirrored entrance to the docking area was set in a shallow depression in the grass, and Judy and Frances found they had to wade through the drift of stuff that had settled there, kicking their way over the smooth lawn that formed the base of this section.

“I should change in honor of the tree,” Judy said, looking down at her kimono.

“Later.” Frances craned her head upwards. As a bodiless AI, she had viewed this section from every possible angle. Even so, to walk out here onto the grass and see the silver-grey trunk of the World Tree, sliding up from the green lawn some 200 meters from where she stood, was to see a smooth grey wall rising to heaven. Frances had seen a cross section of the Shawl: in that picture the tree seemed thin and elongated compared to its surroundings. The upper apartments lining the section walls needed ramps and walkways to link them to the tree itself, but seen from here, looking up…

Frances craned to see the long white banners spelling out messages in different languages trailing from the undersides of the branches. With her enhanced vision she could make out fireworks strapped to the tree, and she laughed at the sheer exuberance of the gesture. The tree was going to burn up as it reentered the atmosphere, but why stop there? Would Sukara and Lemuel and Cadence get the joke? She doubted it. Sometimes you had to become human-size to think human-size thoughts and realize how big the universe was in comparison. Only then could you measure yourself against it.

“You know,” she said thoughtfully, “maybe you’re right. Maybe we should change.”

“No,” Judy said, striding towards the spiral ramp that led up the World Tree, “there will be time for that later. Come on. David Schummel lives about halfway up the tree.”

Frances picked up on her friend’s unspoken words. They were there, written in her brain, obvious to all.

“I don’t think it is a coincidence that David Schummel lives here, Judy.”

“Do you think that Kevin was really looking for him?”

“I think so. Which means someone else was expecting you to go looking for him.”

“Chris?”

“I think so.”

“And just forty-eight hours before my home dies. Do you think that’s significant?”

Frances said nothing. She could read Judy’s fears clearly and she didn’t want to add to them. It was difficult to think otherwise, when it was written all around them. They were now walking past a long banner, black Gothic letters against the white fabric.