Chaos Mode

CHAPTER 10—MALADY

BURGESS liked traveling on the Virtual Mode, but did not like constantly encountering rough or sloping terrain, so that the others had to carve a path for him or haul him along on a wagon. He needed a way to travel without being a burden to the others.

He discussed it with Nona, while they waited for the remaining amazons to be brought across to their new hive. Communication between them was not good, but the problem was evident: he needed a way to traverse irregular ground, and to mount slopes. They experimented, and came up with something promising. Nona generated a long flat piece of material that was light but firm. She laid this on the ground, and he floated along it without difficulty. Then she took it to the countryside and laid it over the brushy, rocky terrain. He was able to float along it, but tended to slide off the side when it wasn’t level. She modified it to have ridges along the sides that enabled him to stay on. She made a second piece, which she set at the end of the first, so that he could cross from one to the other. While he floated along the second, she used her magic to float the first to the front, where it became a continuation of his path. It was working! He was able to traverse much rougher terrain than before, because the smooth, flat artificial path gave his air purchase. This would enable him to move much more readily by himself. Instead of undertaking the tedious job of filling in sand to make a path for him, they could lay down the artificial path.

But the problem of slope remained. The path was no help there; he could not get enough forward motion to propel him up it. He could come down it by pumping through less air, so as to touch the surface and drag, but that was slow. He needed a way to move at normal speed.

Seqiro had a suggestion: the horse could pull him along on a rope. They experimented with ropes, and it helped; Burgess could float on a slope if held in place by the rope. When the horse pulled, Burgess traveled along. He held on to the rope by sucking on a ball at its end; when he wished to let it go, he merely stopped sucking. They practiced and got better. It was easier than using a wagon, and faster, because they didn’t need to take time to grow the wagon to size. It wasn’t perfect, but would do. Now Burgess could travel with somewhat greater independence.

By the time Darius and Colene returned, they had it working fairly well. Colene was pleased when she learned; she kissed him on an eye stalk. She was supposed to be an unhappy creature, but he was learning joy from her.

In due course they returned to the Virtual Mode. Burgess moved along better than before, because of the path. Because it was one continuous piece, formed from the material of an anchor world, it extended across the Mode boundaries when pushed through the boundary. It was there, beyond, but disappeared, looking as if it had been abruptly cut off, because their vision was limited to whatever Mode they were in. When they came to a hill, Nona fastened the length of rope to Seqiro’s harness, and it too extended invisibly across the boundaries but remained firm. Then Burgess floated on up the slope, balancing on his air as the rope provided forward motion. Nona, following, picked up the path as he left it, and stepped ahead to put it down in front. She popped out of view as she went ahead, then reappeared as he caught up to the next joining.

The process became automatic, and they moved along well.

Then they came to a broad marshy plain. The feet of the humans and horse sank down in the muck, making progress difficult for them, while Burgess floated along without trouble. Now the situation was reversed; they were the ones who required assistance.

They considered, and decided to make a kind of sledge without runners, that would rest on the surface of the swamp. It would not be exactly a boat, but would serve similarly. They did this, growing a craft large enough to hold the four of them. But when they tried to move it, it wedged in the muck and advanced only so grudgingly that it was evident it would be useless for traveling.

“I wish we could float across, the way Burgess does,” Nona remarked.

“Say, maybe we can,” Colene said, her mind taking hold. “He floats on a thin cushion of air, never actually touching the gook below. If we could get air like that, we wouldn’t bog down either.”

“But he is constructed to pump air,” Darius said. “We are not.”

“But maybe if we had an air pump, we could do it. Force air down below the sledge, so it bubbles out around, making a cushion. Maybe it wouldn’t exactly float, but those bubbles would sure be less restrictive than this muck. Then maybe we could pole it along at a decent crawl.”

“But we don’t have anything to pump air,” Darius pointed out. “That’s not the kind of magic I do, and Nona doesn’t either. We don’t know enough of your science to make such a device.”

Then Colene fixed on Burgess. “Maybe we could use you, Burg. How much air could you pump, if you had to?”

There was no answer for that. Burgess moved all the air he needed to, to float.

“I mean, suppose we tied you down over a hole in the sledge, and you pumped air down through that, so it came out around the edges? It might take a lot of pressure. Would that wear you out, or suffocate you or something?”

Suffocate on air? He was learning enough of their concept of humor to know that was funny.

They tried it. They fashioned the sledge with a hole in the center, covered by netting, so that air could pass through while the muck was restrained. They made a kind of enclosure so that Burgess could rest within it, and the outflow of air around his canopy would be blocked. They put ropes over him so that when he pumped air he would not rise. It all seemed complicated and ineffective, but he was willing to try what they wanted, especially when Colene requested it.

He pumped air. There was some resistance, so he pumped harder. This forced the air down under the sledge and along its bottom. The air began to bubble out around the edges.

But it didn’t bubble evenly. It made a few channels, and burped out through them, leaving the sledge mired.

“Hm,” Colene said. “We need to make that air more viscous, so it forms a sheet supporting the sledge. Only problem is, how do we do that?”

No one knew. It looked as if they would simply have to slog slowly through the muck for the days or weeks it would take to reach solid land again, or else retreat and look for some other route through the Virtual Mode.

“This is no good,” Colene said. “We have to keep moving. For one thing, suppose that mind predator spies me again? I’m not using my bit of telepathy at all, on the Virtual Mode, so as to keep a low profile, but it might make a routine check and find me. I need to be able to get to an anchor in a hurry, if that happens. And the rest of you don’t want to be bogged down in muck forever, or going back over familiar ground.”

“Those may nevertheless be our choices,” Darius said.

“I don’t accept those choices!” she flared. “We need new choices!”

He shrugged, which was a kind of stretching and relaxation of his upper body in a manner not available to Burgess. “How do we get new choices?”

“Maybe we should brainstorm,” she said.

The others were not familiar with the concept, and she had to clarify it: all members of the hive thinking new thoughts at a rapid rate, without regard to reasonableness. It was hoped that from such a deluge would come something useful. Possibly something which at first seemed impossible.

They tried it. The three humans touched Burgess’ contact points, and the horse strengthened their ability to communicate, making the hive fully current. “Remember, anything at all can be suggested,” Colene said. “And we take it seriously. We consider it, and if then it doesn’t work out, we go on to the next. Like, I’ll suggest we all sprout wings and fly across. What do the rest of you say to that?”

“I don’t need wings to fly,” Nona said. “I can levitate myself or others, but I lack the strength to lift us all.”

“I don’t fly, I conjure,” Darius said. “But it’s not safe to conjure blind, or across Mode boundaries. Otherwise I could move us across this bog.”

Burgess didn’t fly, he floated; he could not rise more than a trace above the ground.

“You’re all being too negative,” Colene protested. “Don’t tell us what you can’t do, tell us what we maybe can do.”

But the rest of them lacked Colene’s ready intelligence and initiative. They could not have ideas the way she could.

“Burgess is right,” Nona said. “We need to have Colene’s mind, to do this well.”

Darius could multiply joy and other emotions. Could he multiply intelligence? If so, he could give them all Colene’s smartness for a while.

“Yes, what about that?” Nona asked. “Burgess has another interesting idea. Can you multiply Colene’s mind, Darius?”

“I doubt—”

“Nuh-uh, diaper worshiper!” Colene said. “Have you ever tried it?”

“Intelligence is not the same as mood or emotion.”

“How do you know?” Nona asked. “Perhaps Colene is smart because she feels smart, just as she is depressed because she feels depressed.”

Perhaps Colene was smart because she was depressed.

Nona laughed. “Then I don’t want to be smart!”

“I can multiply her emotion,” Darius said. “But that will bring her depression. If, however, that enables the rest of us to think more clearly—”

“Can you reverse it, after we get an idea?” Nona asked.

“By drawing from a happier person,” he said.

“Who is the happiest among us?” Nona asked.

They considered. “Seqiro,” Colene said.

She was right. The horse loved being with intelligent and friendly minds, even when they were depressed minds.

“So first you multiply Colene,” Nona said. “Then you multiply Seqiro, after we have an idea.”

“I think this is foolish—”

He was drowned out by the others: no negative thoughts allowed.

So Darius embraced Colene, and drew from her, then sent it out to all of them. Burgess felt distinctly less positive than he had before, but he also felt the urge to explore and understand the mysteries of things, and a desire to move rapidly on out of this marsh before the mind predator came again. He thought there should be a way, if they could only find it.

“I want to get the Hades out of this hole!” Nona exclaimed uncharacteristically.

You and me both, luscious body, Seqiro responded, similarly uncharacteristically.

“Great fishes and little gods, you sound just like me!” Colene exclaimed, laughing.

If Darius could multiply mood and intelligence, could he also multiply magic? Such as Nona’s ability to lift things? Because then he could make the sledge with its burden light enough to float on air.

“Why not?” Colene asked. “Darius uses magic, and Nona uses magic. Maybe they can mix!”

Both Darius and Nona tried to demur—and were stopped by the others, again invoking the no-negative rule.

So Darius embraced Nona. “I will try to draw and multiply her magic,” he said. “If I succeed, all of you will acquire it, so all of you must focus on the sledge, trying to make it light. You, Burgess, will know whether it becomes easier to push air under it.”

He drew from Nona, and sent it out. Burgess concentrated on his air pumping, trying to make it more effective by making the sledge magically lighter.

He felt the air moving more readily. The sledge lifted. In a moment the entire sledge was floating just above the surface of the swamp, in the manner Burgess did when unattached. It was working!

“It’s working!” Colene echoed. “I feel it! I’m drawing on Nona’s magic!”

So am I, Seqiro thought.

“And I,” Darius said. “I have her magic!”

“Let’s see just how strong it is, with all of us doing it,” Colene said. “Everybody get on the sledge!”

They got on, one by one, until all of their weight was there, and still it floated. It had been made so light that Burgess could lift it exactly as he did himself, with the air no longer bubbling because the sledge no longer touched mud. When it tilted slightly, Burgess directed more air that way, and this righted the structure.

However, it was only floating, not moving. Burgess lacked the control to do more than float it.

“That’s easy,” Colene said. “We can pole it, same as a boat, or maybe we can magically pull on something ahead, the same way Nona does when she flies.”

They tried it. The sledge lurched forward—and sank into the muck.

“Too many diverted their attention,” Darius said. “We need to have one or two do the pulling, and the others do the floating.”

They experimented again, and found that Seqiro had to focus on floating, because he weighed more than all the rest of them combined. He could float his own weight, but none of them could float him. So Nona and Colene, the two least massive members of the hive, concentrated on pulling.

The sledge moved, at first jerkily, then more smoothly. It passed through the next Mode boundary. They were on their way!

The swamp was large, but now they were moving well, and made visible progress across it. The complexion of the plants in it shifted from Mode to Mode, but its general nature didn’t change. Some Modes were raining, and in some the marsh became open water, but it didn’t matter; Burgess could handle water as readily as solid land. They moved more swiftly than they would have in a boat, because there was no liquid drag. They realized that there might be danger, crossing boundaries so rapidly, but there also might be danger in lingering in any.

Gradually the sledge became heavier. Those wielding the magic of lightening were tiring, and so was Burgess. He normally did not pump air at a high volume for an extended time. But the far shore was approaching, and it seemed they could make it the rest of the way across before the fatigue became too bad.

Then they passed through a region of obnoxious flying creatures. They seemed to be a cross between shears, insects, and the birds in Colene’s mind. They spied the sledge as it passed through, and dived in. Burgess had only a few stones to fire at them. Then Darius took up a stick of wood and used it effectively to bat the creatures out of the air as they came close.

The watery marsh became a lake. Things swam in it. Some had fins which projected above the surface. The fins changed size and color with each new Mode, but the creatures seemed to be just as interested in the odd craft. Some showed impressive teeth. This did not seem to be the time to pause.

At last they reached the bank. They climbed onto land, and unfastened Burgess. It felt good to float free again!

They made a quick camp, ate, and settled for the night. But though they were all quite tired, they maintained a watch, because they could not know what lurked on this land. Colene had a small device she called a watch, with a picture of two little sticks on it. Each time the larger stick pointed in a certain direction, it was time for a new person to begin a turn. So the one on watch also watched Colene’s wrist, and the picture on it.

Something large did approach during Burgess’ watch. But it was beyond the Mode boundary, so could not reach them. Indeed, Burgess crossed the line beside the tent, and the thing disappeared. It was probably walking right through the region of their camp, but in its own Mode, where there was no camp. The creatures who could reach their camp would be those they could see coming from the tent itself. Burgess was merely circling the tent, passing through boundaries on either side of it.

In the morning they assessed their situation. The intelligence and magic had worn off, being temporary effects, as had the depression. That was just as well, because it seemed that their notion of gaining joy from the horse would not have worked well; it would have been an overlay on the two prior transfers. They saw that the new terrain was rugged; the swamp abutted the jagged slope of a mountain range, with snow showing above. But that was the way toward the next anchor, so they had to go there.

They considered, and decided not to try to borrow Nona’s magic again. It had helped when they needed it, but the process also depleted her slightly, making her less magical, and that was not good. The same went for Colene’s intelligence: they did not want her to become less intelligent. These assets needed to be conserved.

They used their path and rope system to haul Burgess along. Again the others disappeared as they crossed the Mode boundaries, with only the end of the path and the end of the rope showing. But the terrain seldom changed significantly between adjacent Modes, so he knew approximately where he was going.

They crossed the foothills, traversed a high valley, and started up the main slopes. Nona made heavy jackets for them, including the horse, but it couldn’t be managed for Burgess. He needed full access to the air. So when it became cold, she made some fire to warm the air of the vicinity, and he was all right.

Then the pull on the rope abruptly stopped. Burgess settled to the ground and waited while Nona disappeared ahead. Soon she was back with news that they had encountered a discontinuity: the ground level of one Mode was not continuous with that of the next. This was not natural; something had excavated it. In fact, Darius said it seemed to be a mine: a huge hole left when something of value beneath was taken away. That, Darius said, could be trouble.

The pull resumed, and Burgess joined the others on the chill upper slope. The mountain continued unabated. But when he floated cautiously to the next boundary, the feeling changed; the path had no support there. The mountain had been scooped away, as if hivers had sucked out the dirt. Now Burgess appreciated the problem.

Darius explained that when he had traveled the Virtual Mode with another person, Provos, who had later terminated her anchor so that Burgess could establish his anchor instead, they had encountered pits like this, and fallen to the bottom of one, and had difficulty getting out of it. There had been creatures made of metal excavating the pits. Colene called them robots. They looked and acted like living creatures, but they were not alive. It seemed best not to get captured by such creatures, because they might choose to render living folk dead, to match themselves.

Burgess agreed. The assorted odd living creatures he had encountered (no offense to present company) were sufficient. Odd dead ones might be an experience best left for some other adventure. But how were they to get past the mine pit?

They would have to try to get around it. Unless it happened to be only a single Mode wide, in which case they might bridge it.

Nona went ahead, flying above the slope, disappearing as she passed the boundary. In a moment she returned: the pit was indeed only one Mode wide.

But Darius was not satisfied. The pits he had encountered before had been many Modes wide, with different robots in each. It seemed that there were likely to be similar species in adjacent Modes, who could indulge in similar activities. So it would be better to verify whether any of the Modes beyond had pits.

Nona flew across again, and this time was gone for a longer period. There were two pits: the one in the next Mode, and another three Modes beyond. That seemed to be all. She had not flown up the entire mountain, but had noted that the nature of the rock changed, so that once they were beyond this stratum, there would probably not be any more pits. It was not clear what they wanted from the one type of rock. Colene said it could be anything from gold to uranium.

Nona expanded Burgess’ two paths, so that each was more solid. Then they put each across the next Mode, so that one end was anchored in this Mode, and the far end in the third Mode. The humans crossed, and then Burgess floated along, drawn by the rope Darius held, out of sight in the next Mode. Burgess found the sudden chasm awesome and had to retract his eyes and trust Nona and the rope to guide him blind. Finally Seqiro crossed, his right hooves on one path, his left hooves on the other. It seemed precarious, but with Colene leading him he stepped along confidently enough, not looking down.

They were safely across, but Burgess concluded that he was not comfortable with this region. A broad flat plain would be much more to his liking.

They continued up the slope, then crossed the next pit Mode in similar manner. Now all they had to worry about was the jagged icy ridge of the mountain pass ahead. Burgess did not like that prospect much better than the chasms.

In one Mode there was a snowstorm in progress. The humans bundled up further, and covered the horse with more warm padding. Nona took metal nails from their supplies and enlarged them into pitons to provide firm anchorage. They hammered these in, and left them behind, just in case they had to return this way. The storm was uncomfortable, and it rendered visibility bad, but in a moment they were through it and back in sunlight. That was one thing about the Virtual Mode: if they did not like the weather in one Mode, they could readily change it by going to the next.

There was one benefit of the snowy reaches: Burgess no longer had to use the portable path, because the snow leveled the surface. Now all he needed was the rope. Nona diminished the path segments for easy portability, and they continued.

Burgess began to feel fatigued. But as with the swamp, there was nowhere to go but on, so he did not express distress. However, he could not conceal it, because Nona touched one of his contact points frequently, and soon realized his situation. “Once we pass the ridge, you can slide down on the snow, with no further effort,” she said encouragingly.

They did pass the ridge, braving the cutting wind which crossed it, and started cautiously down. Burgess did relax as he slid, and Nona continued to heat the air around him with fire, but his fatigue increased. He began to feel negative, as if his system were functioning imperfectly. His eye stalks, already cold, worked poorly. His air lost power, and he dragged in the snow.

Then Colene was with him. “Burgess, what’s wrong? You were tired on the bog—we all were—but not like this.”

Burgess did not know. He seemed to be suffering a malady, perhaps occasioned by the effort of the climb and the cold snow. He had not felt this way before in his life. Perhaps when they reached the foot of the mountain, where it would be warm and green and level, he would recover.

“Level,” she said. “I wonder—you could be suffering from disorientation. You’re a creature of level land, but you’ve been at a tilt for hours now. Like motion sickness; we can get real sick from that, sometimes.”

Burgess did not know.

“I can make a level sledge,” Nona suggested. “It will vary some as the slope changes, but it should be an improvement.”

She made it. They put Burgess on it, and now he was level though the slope remained. They let him down on the rope, and he did not even have to float. That helped. He withdrew his eyes and let himself sleep, as his energy was low and there was nothing he could do to assist his own travel.

In time they reached the warmer depths, and finally they were on warm, relatively level land again. In fact it became a series of plains which extended as far as they could see. But Burgess did not feel better. Perhaps it would be best if they left him on a Mode and went on without him, as he seemed to be dying.

“No way!” Colene exclaimed unreasonably. “Listen, Burg—we’re coming onto my anchor Mode. I can tell; the terrain’s starting to look like Oklahoma. I never wanted to go back there again, and there could be some real complications, but you’re sick, maybe the way I was when the mind predator laid siege to me, and I think we’d better just get you onto an anchor Mode and see if that helps. We aren’t going to just let you go.”

Burgess would have appreciated that, if he had had more energy. As it was, he couldn’t even float, despite the ideal terrain. It was all he could do to pump enough air to sustain his gills.

Nona put her hands on his contact points and concentrated. He knew that she was exerting her magic power of healing. She had used it to fix the scrapes and bruises they had incurred along the way. But though he felt her magic passing through his body, and it was a warm and comforting thing, it did not make him better. He seemed to be too alien for her to heal.

They reshaped the sledge and put him on it. Then Seqiro hauled it, and Burgess went with them though he did nothing on his own behalf. He regretted becoming such a burden to the hive, but lacked the energy to protest.

Time passed. He was aware of this because once when he extended an eye stalk and looked around it was dark, and another time it was light again. Now that he was using very little energy, he was not growing worse at the same rate as before, but neither was he improving. Colene’s efforts had merely extended the time it would require for him to die.

They came to the oddest region of the Virtual Mode yet. It had paved paths which were straight and wide, ideal for floaters to float on. But there were no floaters. Instead there were monstrous hurtling things traveling the paths at extreme velocity. Burgess would have been terrified, if he had had sufficient energy. Colene was careful to keep them to the sides of the broad paths, so as to be clear of the metal monsters, but each time they crossed a boundary into a new Mode, more of the things appeared. Sometimes they came to sudden halts, screeching their protests, then after a brief pause they lurched forward again. This was a region of ferocious madness.

They paused to add wheels to the sledge, so that now it could roll along the side of the path. This made it easier for Seqiro to pull.

Objects appeared along the sides of the paths. They were large and cubic, and seemed to have been fashioned of wood or stone. Some were so high they looked like small mountains. They were in many colors, and patterns of colors, with oblong designs on them.

Colene brought the party to a halt. “Look, we’re not at my anchor yet, but I don’t know if it’s smart to show ourselves to the natives of these adjacent Modes. Could be trouble. Let’s enclose Burgess’ wagon, so no one can see him.”

Soon he was inside a box, with openings so that enough air could enter, and Nona was riding with him. Through her, he remained aware of what was going on outside, and did not need to look himself. That was good, because he lacked the energy to do so. Nona’s communication through his contact point was enough.

At last they came to a longer halt. “This is it,” Colene said. “The next Mode or two will be mine. But there is a problem. Last time I was here, with Provos, they tried to stop me from leaving. I just barely made it through the anchor. If we just go through now, someone will see us, and we’ll be in trouble right away.”

“My magic does not work, here,” Darius said. “Remember, at first you did not believe in me, because of that. But perhaps Seqiro’s does, or Nona’s. If so, we may be able to stay away from trouble.”

“Gee, I hope so! ‘Cause we’ve got to get Burgess onto an anchor Mode and see if that helps.”

I believe my telepathy will work, Seqiro said. I have encountered no Mode where it does not, though it may be limited on some.

“And perhaps one or two of my abilities will work, as they did on the Shale Mode,” Nona said.

“Well, let’s try you first,” Colene said to Nona. “We’ll step across, and you see if you can make the illusion of nothing. Because if you can, we can all go there, and no one will see us.”

Nona left the wagon, and she and Colene stepped across the next boundary. There was a wait. Then they returned. “It works!” Colene exclaimed. “All her magic works! Everything she tried, anyway. We were invisible.”

So Seqiro pulled the wagon through the anchor, and they were all in Colene’s Earth Mode. They were all under Nona’s illusion of nothing, and could not see themselves. This had one small advantage for Burgess: the wagon was also under the illusion, so could not be seen; now Burgess could see outside with his own three eyes.

“That’s my house, there,” Colene said. “Right here is where my hideout, Dogwood Bumshed, was. So if you’re staring, Darius, you invisible man, that’s why: they took it away, thinking it was the anchor. But the anchor’s not a thing, it’s a person and a place.”

“I was staring,” Darius admitted. “I spent some time, confined to that shed, learning to love you.”

“Yea, that’s why I kept you locked up,” Colene said fondly. “And now you’re back here.”

“Is it safe to camp at this site?” Nona asked. “So we can go back through the anchor if we need to?”

“Should be. My folks never come out here anyway. With nothing to see, they sure won’t bother. So it’s the best place. I know my way around from here. Can you make material for a tent, Nona? Might as well camp out in comfort.”

“Certainly,” Nona replied.

“Seqiro, does your telepathy work here?” Colene asked next. Then she paused, and burst out laughing. “Of course it works! We’re all understanding each other, aren’t we? What an idiot I am! So we have it all: Nona’s magic and Seqiro’s telepathy. I never wanted to see Earth again, but since we’re here, I’m glad it’s this way.”

“If you were always this happy, I could marry you,” Darius said.

“If you’d marry me, I’d be this happy!” she retorted.

“This seems like a pleasant enough Mode,” Nona said. “Except for all those hurtling vehicles.”

“Hey, Burgess, are you feeling better?” Colene made her way to the wagon, and climbed in to join Nona and touch a contact point. “Damn! You’re not, are you? But maybe a few hours here will do it.”

They set up their tent and diminished the wagon, so that Burgess could be in direct contact with the ground. But it did not seem to help. He lacked the energy or desire even to eat. He was still sinking.

He faded into uncomfortable sleep. But after the darkness came, and the light again, he was no better.

“Damn, damn, damn!” Colene repeated. “I thought maybe Earth, so similar to Shale, would be good for you. But it’s not, is it? What are we going to do?”

Burgess no longer had the energy to send an answer through his contact points. It was time for him to die.