The Marriage of the Living Dark

CHAPTER-18

the song of no-space

Chuang walked slowly around the edge of the circular pond, raised on her toes like a dancer, her arms out for balance, her back straight, her head back. Below her feet the fish circled slowly, a mix of dark and orange carp, their well-fed shapes appearing and disappearing among the bright green lily pads. Returning to her point of departure, Chuang looked across. Kim was sitting on the top step of the first tier, a notepad in his lap, writing. Behind him the great transparent dome of Fermi curved sharply upwards five hundred metres then levelled out Through it she could see where the blackness of no-space met Ganymede’s dull, orange-red surface in a sharply drawn arc.

Kin was dressed formally, the dark austerity of his cloak a sharp contrast to his normal, casual attire. It was almost three months since she had last seen him and he had changed a great deal in that time; his face was thinner, his hair grown steely-white. Chuang walked across and stood there, looking down at him. “What are you writing, Uncle?”

Kim glanced up, as if noticing her for the first time, then looked back at his pad. “If s nothing, just...”

She went round and stood just to the side of him, looking down over his shoulder.

Equations, the Machine said, its voice sounding clear in her head. He’s developing new notations for the folded-space equations.To her eyes the marks Kim was making seemed little more than complex doodles - for they lacked the clean line and simplicity of normal mathematical symbols - yet the Machine quickly showed her how their shapes reflected their use; how each corresponded to a certain mathematical formula. They were symbols. Symbols in a new mathematics.

She smiled. “If s like music.”

“Yes ... Yes, it is.”

He pointed to one of the marks, which resembled a flatfish being speared by an electrical charge. “Besides its mathematical value, each symbol contains an element of what you might call resonance and harmony. Factors that normal maths don’t have. If s a kind of language. I’m using it to try to express the physics of No-Space and Folding, but its base, as you say, is musical.” “Like a song?”

Kim grinned. “Precisely.”

“And does it help? I mean, does it make your task any easier?”

He shrugged, his large, dark eyes thoughtful, his forehead deeply furrowed. “I don’t know, to be honest with you, Chuang. I hope it will. As I get more fluent - as I find subtler ways of expressing the equations - I’m hoping that something will jump out at me ... will, if you like, open to me. But who knows? If s been a long time now.”

She saw the tiny flicker of doubt in his eyes and looked away, pretending that she hadn’t Kim had been stalled on this problem for more than fifteen months now. It was the longest he’d ever taken to solve any problem, and it was beginning to look as if this once he had over-reached himself. He could breach the membrane between realities, certainly -time and again he had created brief-lived, tiny windows between the universes - yet he could not make them big enough, nor permanent enough, to be of any use. Every attempt of his to create a larger, more stable window - one that was of practical use; that one could use to travel through -had failed. And with each new failure, Kim’s confidence had visibly diminished.

“He’s late,” Chuang said, changing the subject “I told you he’d be late.” Kim lifted the flap of skin over his wrist and glanced at the timer, then shrugged again. “If he’s late, he’s late. I can’t be blamed for that Besides, they can’t start without him, can they?”

“No, I...”

There were hurried footsteps just below them, then a shout “Father?”

“Up here, Sampsa,” Kim said, standing up and pocketing his notebook. He put a hand out for Chuang to take. “Come.”

Sampsa met them at the foot of the steps. He looked flustered.

“You’ve remembered everything?” he asked impatiently.

“Everything,” Kim said, patting his cloak pocket “Now come. Ai Lin is waiting.”

As they stepped out into the arena of Fermi’s smaller dome, where the ceremony was to take place, Ai Lin looked across from where she stood on the raised podium beside her sister, Lu Yi, and Tom, and gestured to them to hurry. Kim looked to Sampsa, seeing how nervous he was, then leaned close, whispering in his ear.

“She looks beautiful, Sampsa. Don’t keep her waiting any longer.” Tom was smiling. He had clearly known all along where Sampsa was, but, mute as he was, he had not been able to communicate it to the twins. As Sampsa stepped up onto the podium, Ebert detached himself from the little group he was standing with and walked across, taking his place before the two couples. A moment later Kim and Jelka joined him there, standing either side of him as the ceremony commenced.

“People of City Fermi,” Ebert began, the twin probes above his head circling much slower than usual, “We bear witness today to the solemn joining of these two couples. We shall hear their vows and give our communal blessing, as is our custom.

But before we begin, let me say a word or two about the young, men and women standing here before us today.”

There were smiles from the crowd of two to three hundred who had gathered in the arena. There had been few weddings these past two years, so this was an especially joyous occasion. Things had not been going well for the colony - a spate of recent suicides not the least of their problems - and so most found this occasion not merely welcome but almost an affirmation of faith in the future.

It was also the first time in more than six months that Kim had made a public appearance, and many in the deeper levels of the domed cities turned on their screens to watch for that alone; to look at Ward and judge whether there was any substance to the rumours of his illness.

For now, however, the cameras switched between the blind-eyed face of Ebert and the two couples who stood transfixed before him. Ebert looked directly at Sampsa and smiled benevolently. “Our friend Sampsa we all know and love. No one, I believe, has worked harder for the colony these past two years. Nor has anyone, I feel, done more to raise our spirits under trying circumstances. It would be no exaggeration to say that he has carried an immense burden, yet carried it with good cheer and without complaint” Kim looked up, surprised by the words, then glanced across to where the giant, Karr, stood with his wife and daughters, beside Kao Chen and his family. Karr was looking down, slowly nodding to himself.

“What most of you will not know, however, is just how hard he works. Indeed, so concerned is he with the personal problems of our citizenry, he almost did not make it here this morning.”

Sampsa gave Ai Lin an apologetic smile.

“But now that he is, let me move on quickly and say a word or two about his assistant on the Council, Tom Shepherd.”

“You’d best,” Lu Yi said, grinning, “for he certainly won’t!”

There was laughter. Tom grinned.

“So it is,” Ebert said, smiling, “yet as the old saying goes, actions speak much louder than words, and by his actions Tom has shown himself to be a good friend to all of Ganymede’s citizens. His work with children, especially his classes on signing, has been of benefit to all and future generations will surely profit by having a language that can be used in vacuum conditions.”

Tom nodded to Ebert, making the hand sign for “thank you”, which Ebert returned with a gesture of gracious emphasis - “thank you.” “But before we think that the men alone are worthy of praise, let me mention the long hours of work that Ai Lin and her sister Lu Yi have put in supporting their partners. Moreover their visits to the sick and injured have been greatly appreciated by many. In a small society such as ours such actions are the cement that binds us together and we should not forget their importance.” Ebert paused, momentarily speaking beyond the small circle surrounding him. “These past few years have been difficult It is not easy to live without a sense of movement, of destination. It is hard to maintain faith in a condition of No-Space. Yet we shall come out of this, and today’s ceremony is not merely a matter of personal joy for these two couples who stand before me, but a more general celebration of faith - that we shall come through. That we shall arrive at Eridani. And the children of these unions - for I hope there will be children - will come to stand upon a new world, beneath a new sun. And so the race of man will continue.”

Ebert was silent a moment, then, looking to Kim, he held out his hand, palm open. Kim stared a moment, then, understanding suddenly what he meant by the gesture, fished in his pocket for the rings, spilling all four out into Eberf s palm.

They were simple gold rings, like the rings he and Jelka wore A symbol so old it seemed almost to predate history.

The drde forged. The halves made whole.

He watched Ebert turn and smile at the two couples, and felt a great flood of warmth wash through him. Reaching out, he took Jelka’s hand behind Eberf s back, squeezing it, conscious of the look of love and pride in her face. If only Mfleja were here to see this, he thought, his eyes suddenly moist But Sampsa seemed unaware of any shadows. He glanced sideways at his beloved Ai Lin, his face lit with delight, then looked back at Ebert as the words of the ceremony began.

Afterwards, Karr came across to him and taking him aside, said quietly, “Can I see you, Kim? We need to talk.”

“Of course,” he began. “H you want to come over tomorrow evening.”

“No,” Karr said, his face stern. “I meant right now. There’s a room nearby.”

“Gregorl Whaf s going on?”

‘If s important, that1 s all I can say.”

“Important?”

But Karr would say no more. Taking Kim’s arm, he led him away. And Kim, looking about him, saw how several of those gathered there glanced at him then quickly looked away.

“Well?” he asked when they were inside the room, the door locked behind them.

“Is there a reason for this cloak-and-dagger stuff?” “A very good reason,” Karr said, indicating that Kim should take a seat “We think there’s a plot to overthrow the Council. A plot that involves killing all of us then turning round and going back to Chung Kuo.” Kim gave a laugh of disbelief. “But that”s impossible!” “You know that and I know that, but there are some here who think we’ve been lying to them.”

“Lying?” This got more incredible by the moment. “Are you serious, Gregor?” “Never more so. Your life... all our lives... are in danger. We must act soon, Kim, or go under.”

“Now wait a moment You say there’s a plot, so I suppose there is one. But are you sure about this? Are you sure they mean to kill us and supplant us?” “Not certain, no. But if what we’ve heard is right...”

“If what you’ve heard? Then why have I heard nothing?” Karr gave a bleak laugh.

“When did you last speak to me, Kim?”

Kim thought “Two weeks ago? No ...” “That’s right Five weeks. And Sampsa, when did you last see Sampsa before today?”

Kim looked down. “Have I been that engrossed in things?”

“Obsessed is more the word.”

“Then why didn’t someone say something?”

“Because we thought what you were doing was important But right now this is more important, hence the hastily-arranged ceremonies. You see, we are all being watched. And had we gone to you at Kalevala, they would have known. As it is, they’ll probably suspect So maybe we’ve not long at all in which to act. Maybe they’ll choose to strike tonight.”

“A coup?”

Again Karr nodded.

“So what do we do?”

“We round them up.”

“And then?”

“We place them on board one of the ships and cut them loose.”

Kim gave a low whistle. “Are things that bad?”

“Worse. There’s not a single citizen who doesn’t feel somehow imprisoned. We’re suffocating, Kim. Not literally, but psychologically. And maybe that1 s worse. Maybe that7s far worse in the circumstances.”

“Then I must find the answer.”

Karr sighed. “You think there is an answer?”

“Don’t you?”

“I don’t know any more. When you got so close, I thought ... Well, I thought it would be days, not years. I thought...”

Kim nodded. “I understand.” He was quiet a moment then. “Okay. Let’s do what must be done. But no violence unless we must And give them all they need on the ship. I would not have them come to harm. It was not their fault that we came into this No-Space.”

Karr looked to him then bowed, as if taking orders from his general, then turned and, unlocking the door, went out, leaving Kim to ponder how far things had degenerated.

I didn’t know, he thought. Why, I didn’t even guess!

Back at Kalevala, Kim went to his study and sat down in the big leather chair behind his desk, brooding. He was still brooding when Jelka came into the room. “I heard,” she said.

He looked up, his dismay etched in his face. “If s falling apart, isn’t it?”

She went to contradict him, to somehow lift him, but she could see from his eyes that he didn’t want that; this once he wanted the truth, whether it hurt or not. “Maybe,” she said, fearing to say an unequivocal yes. “But Gregor”s no fool. If anyone can hold things together, he can.”

“Yes, but at what price?” Kim sighed, forlorn now. “I knew there’d be times when spirits would flag, but this ... I never imagined this.” She laughed, making him look up at her. “What?” he asked.

“What you said,” she answered, a faint smile on her lips now. “What did you imagine, Kim? That we’d meet a giant spider and be whisked off into No-Space? Did you imagine that?”

“No, but...”

“Then hold fast, my love. The answer’s close. Remember my vision. You’ll get the answer. I promise you you will. And when you do ...”

Kim stared at her a moment, then shook his head. “I’m not sure I believe that any more. Remember what Master Tuan said. From this point on nothing is certain, not even the visions. I mean, if it was to have come true, it would have by now, surely?”

Jelka made to answer but he spoke on.

“And then there’s these latest notations. Try as I might, I can’t get them to work. Ifs as if there are still pieces missing. But that can’t be so.” “You’re sure of that?”

“No. To be frank, I’m not sure of anything any longer. The more I stare at it, the vaguer it seems to get. Ifs like ...” He raised a hand then let it fall, unable to complete the image.

“You need a rest, Kim. You’re tired. Mentally tired.”

He laughed. “Nonsense. When was I ever tired, mentally.” Jelka stared at him a while, then shook her head. “You know, I’ve watched you these past few months and kept from commenting, but I can’t keep silent any longer. You’re ageing, Kim. Growing old before my eyes. Ifs like if s eating away at you from the inside. Those lines at your brow and about your eyes - were they there before?”

Almost comically, Kim put his fingers to his forehead, his eyes, tracing the deep furrows there, then frowned deeply. But it wasn’t comic. Not for Jelka. Kim was destroying himself, day by day grinding himself against the rock of this No-Space problem, and day by day she had to watch him. “Won’t you take a break? Please, Kim?”

For a long long while he stared back at her, then with a shrug, he looked away.

“Okay,” he said. “I will.”

Kim sat there a long time after Jelka had gone, then stood and, going through to the bedroom, quickly changed out of his formal clothes into the wine red one-piece he more normally wore.

Old Tuan, he thought I have to speak to Old Tuan. He left the house by the back door and, crossing the lawn, stepped out under the thick branches of the surrounding wood. There was a silence here, a darkness that one found nowhere else, that was profoundly different from the absolute nullity beyond the dome. It was a deep, primeval darkness, like a rich loam, from which, he knew, his own kind had come, a billion years before. And to which he would eventually return. Unless space took him first.

“Tuan? ... Tuan Ti Fo?”

He stepped out into the clearing, remembering as he did all those other times he had stood here beneath the windswept branches, the moon shining down like a polished mirror, the stars like the dust from a cut diamond, the waves breaking on the rocks below the tower ...

Kim shivered, feeling a sudden homesickness. A longing, so pure, so overwhelming that it sent a tingle through every nerve end. “Was I wrong, Master Tuan? Was I wrong to come out here?”

Out into the pitiless dark.

He waited, calling now and then, but Old Tuan did not come. Sighing, Kim turned, meaning to leave the clearing and return to the house. Yet as he did, he saw, peripherally, a movement between the trees just to his right.

He whirled about

“Who’s there? Who’s ...?”

Kim caught his breath, astonished.

Kim? his mirror-self mouthed from where he stood, a shadow among shadows, on the far side of the clearing.

He took a step toward the form, but even as he did the other raised a hand, as if to warn him to come no closer. The air about him seemed not so much clear as translucent. It shimmered, as if an unseen fire were burning under it, heating the air and making it waver.

He found his voice. “Kim?”

The other nodded, then made a gesture with his hand. Kim frowned and shrugged, and the other repeated the gesture, describing the shape he’d made with an exaggerated care.

This time Kim understood. It was one of the new notations he had come up with. Fascinated, he watched, as his other self described a dozen or more of the symbols in the air, writing each with a clarity that could not be mistaken. Kim laughed. “Of course,” he breathed. “Of courser Seeing that he understood, the other raised a hand in a gesture of parting. The air about him shimmered and grew solid once again.

He was gone.

Kim walked across, looking about him at the place where his other self had appeared. There was no sign, no mark of any presence having been here, and yet he knew that what he’d seen was more than just a vision. Yes, but was it real?

In answer, he saw the symbols once again, then formed them with his own hands.

The other had been like him, very like him, but not exactly him. Which meant... Kim laughed. This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Turning he ran towards the house, his bare feet making no sound, his eyes looking inward as his mind already began to fit the new pieces into the equation, seeing how the original equations were doubled - twinned with these new equations. Of course, he thought Of course!

“Kim? Kim, are you there?”

Jelka walked over to the bed and peered into the shadows. No. He wasn’t there.

The bed was empty, the sheets untouched.

She turned, looking back at the doorway. He couldn’t be... not after he’d promised her.

Angry now, she walked quickly through the ancient house until she came to the stair that led down into his workroom. The door was open, the light on the stairs was on.

She went down, slowing on the final few steps, realising that the big room beyond the doorway was in darkness. And in that darkness something shone with a ghostly presence.

Jelka stepped inside. Kim was standing with his back to her, operating the hologrammic viewer. Just in front of him and slightly to his left, was the source of the light, a large hovering sphere of silver light in which danced a whole series of golden symbols.

Even as she watched, Kim added element after element, each locking into its correct place, until the thing was finished, the structure of it a solid, complex shape of gold within the gleaming silver. Now that it was complete she could see the pattern of it. In its new twinned form it was aesthetically much more pleasing than before, but she knew it was more than that. In its new form, it had the sleek, functional look of a complex molecule. “Thaf s it,” he said, sensing her there behind him. “That1 s itT “Yes, but how do you use it?”

Kim turned to face her, the moist surface of his eyes lit with the gold and silver light, his face more alive than she’d seen it in months.

“Call Sampsa,” he said. “Tell him to come at once. Oh, and call Gregor, too.

Tell him to call off the dogs. And tell him I’ve something to show him.

Something to show everyone!”

Sampsa turned, then reached across in the darkness to cut the summons. Sitting up, he took a moment to come to, then, pulling up the sheet to cover Ai Lin, he spoke.

“Vision only.”

The screen at the far end of the bedroom immediately lit, showing his mother’s face.

Fearing that something bad had happened, Sampsa slipped from the bed and pulled on his robe, then went across and stood before the screen. “Full sound. Vision both ways.”

At once his mother’s eyes registered his presence. “Sampsa? I’m sorry to disturb you, especially right now, but...”

“Is father all right?”

Her laughter answered him. “Never better. In fact, he wants to show you something.” His eyes widened. “He’s done it?” ‘It looks like it” He whooped, then, hearing Ai Lin stir behind him, said more quietly. ‘Til be right over.”

Sampsa cut contact, then went through to the bathroom to shower. As he dressed, he could not keep from smiling. So Kim had done it He’d finally done it One could not overestimate the importance of the moment. “Sampsa?” A sleepy-looking Ai Lin looked round the door at him. “Is something the matter?”

“Nothing. If s dad. He’s finally cracked it!”

Her face lit “He’s done it?”

Sampsa nodded, then. “You want to come along and see?”

“You just stop me.” And, pushing past him, she began to shower.

There was a tickle in his head. Tom was waking.

Tom? he said, feeling Tom’s mind come into focus. He felt as much as heard Tom’s laughter, as Tom read what was in his mind; experienced Tom’s exultation. Ill be there, he said. Then, as an afterthought, Don’t let him start without me.

I won’t, Sampsa said, turning to look at Ai Lin, the image of her naked back superimposed upon a vision of Lu Yi asleep on her back beside Tom, her nakedness the very image of Ai Lin’s. And bring Lu Yi. She won’t want to miss this.

Kim was out there on the surface when they arrived, suited up, his equipment already in place. As Karr’s cruiser set down, Kim waved up at it, before he turned and busied himself once more.

Karr cut the engines then turned to Kao Chen who sat beside him at the controls.

“Are you nervous, Chen?”

“I guess I am,” Chen said, his smile uncertain. “But then it isn’t every day that you quell a rebellion then get to see someone punch holes in the walls of reality.”

Karr laughed. They had been up all night rounding up suspected members of the coup, and had barely finished when Jelka’s call had come. Leaving the prisoners in Aluko Echewa’s charge, they had hurried here. Chen sighed and looked down, drawing one hand over his smooth and mottled pate.

“What is it?” Karr asked.

Chen shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t feel easy about this. Call me a simple peasant, Gregor, but I don’t feel it is for the likes of us to be tinkering with reality. What if Kim succeeds?What if he does find a way to travel between realities? What then? Does it all unravel?”

“Unravel?”

He looked up and met Karr’s eyes, his own deeply troubled. “If we can travel there, then they can travel here.”

“So?”

“So if s like being suddenly in a room with no walls. Open to attack from any side. And how can one defend against that? How can one make sure one’s children and grandchildren can ever be safe?” Karr nodded. He hadn’t thought of that. “Yet we must do this. To defeat DeVore.”

“So Master Tuan says. But even he admits that he cannot see what will transpire.

And if even Master Tuan is uncertain, then we should exercise great care.”

“And what do you suggest, old friend?”

“That we use this knowledge sparingly, and then - once we have achieved what must be achieved - we lose it, for good.”

“Lose it?”

Chen nodded. “Or hide it, where it can never be found. For someone like DeVore to have this knowledge ...” “Then we must make sure we kill DeVore.” “In every world?”

Karr looked away, his gaze resting on the dome of Kalevala and the eastern airlock, from which two suited figures were emerging. “You think he’s everywhere, then?” “I think if s likely.”

“Then there will be other Chens and other Karrs, willing to do battle with him. In every place he exists, we shall be there, too.” Chen frowned. “I wish I could believe that But I feel... exposed.” “Yes,” Karr saw that. He nodded slowly. “Yet we must do our best, neh?”

The two suited figures had made their way across and now stood beside Kim, who was leaning forward over a temporary control board, making last minute adjustments.

Karr looked to his friend. “Shall we suit up and join them, Chen? Or do you want to watch from here?””We’ll go down,” Chen answered, suddenly more like the old Kao Chen - the one who got on with things and did not question why. “If it’s our fate, so be it. We cannot change it now.”

They stood in a little group beside the airlock, a dozen or more in all, as Kim began the experiment. Jelka had stayed in the house, explaining to everyone that as she had seen the vision from the window so she had to be there, to help it to come true.

Sampsa stood beside his father at the board, helping as he’d helped these past twenty years, acting as his father’s hands as the apparatus began to glow. The apparatus was like a great hoop, long gleaming twists of silvered metal reaching up almost twenty metres, like massive coils of DNA, one final spiral twist growing thinner and thinner until it seemed to vanish like a wisp of smoke. So it had been all along, but Kim understood the structure now -knew why he’d had the instinct to make it so. It had needed only the finest of fine adjustments to incorporate the new equations.

The glow intensified. Initially, they were tapping power from the line that ran from Kalevala to the grid in Fermi, yet once the thing was working it would generate its own power.

If the theory was correct.

“Slowly,” Kim said, noting the strange ripples of light that were beginning to form about the arms of the hoop. “We want to push the door open, not blast a hole in it” Sampsa laughed. “If I went any more carefully we’d be here until Doomsday!” “We cannot be too careful,” Kim answered him, remembering the worst of his failures. There was still a great crater on the far side of Kalevala from that one.

The ripples intensified. The metal arms were glowing bright red now, a mist of atoms forming about them where they were reacting against the vacuum that surrounded them.

“Look,” Kim said quietly. “Look at that! A double pulse.”It was true. The apparatus was taking the single pulse that Sampsa was feeding it and doubling it, pushing it out again like a heartbeat, the first pulse more intense than the second. With infinitesimal care, Sampsa increased the feed. For a moment nothing, and then there was a great whoosh, as if a match had caught a stack of bone-dry kindling. A massive flare of light rushed up each arm of the hoop and met with a great crackle.

The air overhead seemed to darken and then explode with light - a great circle of light that, in a blink, became a hoop, five hundred metres above where they stood - a great wheel of fire that roiled and boiled as it circled. For a moment or two pure shock paralysed Kim. He stared up at the fiery hoop, one hand shielding his eyes against the glare, his mouth open, eyes wide. And then he laughed, his laughter joined after a moment by Sampsa’s. “If s stable!” he shouted, a feeling of intense excitement washing through him.

“Look at it, Sampsa! Look at how it balances the energy within itself!” He turned, looking back at the house, knowing that Jelka was watching him, then pointed at the wheel, feeling almost drunk with the power of what he’d done. “There!” Sampsa shouted back at him, his voice ringing in Kim’s helmet “What mother saw was true!”

“Yes,” Kim said, turning once more to stare, awed by the reality of it

Banton sat at the back of the cell, on the unmade bunk, his head down, his hands resting on his knees. Kim, looking at the shadowy image on the screen above the door, wondered what had brought the man to contemplate such a desperate measure. Banton had been a fine man once, a responsible citizen and a good father to his three sons, but the past two years had clearly worked a change in him. “Open up,” Kim said. ‘Td like to speak to him alone.” “Do you think thaf s wise?” Kao Chen asked from where he stood between Dcuro Ishida and Karr. “We must begin somewhere,” Kim said. “And where better than with the ringleaders? We must build bridges now. Yes, and give these men hope, if that is still possible.”

“Do you want this?” Dcuro asked, offering Kim the comset he’d recorded the experiment on.

Kim hesitated, then took it A moment later the locks clunked open and the cell door hissed back.

Kim stepped inside.

Banton looked up wearily, then made a face of disgust “Have you come to gloat?”

“You don’t deny it, then?”

“What’s the point? Even if I did, you’d not believe me.” “So you’re innocent, eh?” Kim shook his head. “I think Karr’s right I think you meant to kill us all. It would have been pointless, you know. You couldn’t have gone back, not without me.”