The Marriage of the Living Dark

Hannah’s idea. And thank the gods for it

The corridor was empty. It curved away out of sight The ship was on emergency lighting, so only one in three of the wall-mounted lamps was lit It gave the corridor a mottled look with patches of brightness and shadow, spokes on a giant wheel.

He stepped out and to the left The drugs he’d injected were doing their job, holding him together, but he felt strange, like a sleepwalker. That wasn’t good. He needed to be sharper than this.

Daniel stopped and reached up to touch the back of his head, his fingers tracing the bandages. They were wet Blood was seeping through and trickling down his back.

Shit! He should have frozen it somehow. But it was too late now. There was a feeder corridor just ahead of him. It led straight down through the crew quarters and into the bridge itself. If they were anywhere, they’d be there, because that was where the shuttle bay was. And if DeVore had any use for them, that’s where he’d want to keep them.

As he came to the branch, Daniel stopped, hearing noises. The heavy clunk of boots against a metal runged ladder. In the strange topography of the ship it was hard to know exactly where the noises were coming from. Up and down were almost arbitrary notions in space. And sound carried in strange ways inside a ship. Especially in these circumstances.

There was the faint murmur of voices, low and deep.

Cautiously he peeped around the corner, looking “down” as if into a well. Two morphs stood at the bottom of that well, their backs to him, the helmets of their suits pressed dose. They were huge, almost twice the height of a normal man, and built accordingly.

It would be easy to shoot the pair of them. Easy, yes, but stupid, because it would lose him the only advantage he had. Surprise. Okay. So flunk. What are you going to do?

He moved back, then studied the walls surrounding the opening. There were various hatches, but he hadn’t a clue where any of them led. There were airducts throughout the ship, but he wasn’t even sure whether any of them were big enough to crawl along.

Nor did he know whether his strength would hold out He was drawing on reserves as it was.

The voices murmured again, then, unexpectedly, he heard the sound of boots on rungs again, only this time he knew exactly where they were. The feeder corridor. One of the morphs was climbing the well, coming directly towards him. He took out the scalpel and unwrapped it, then stood back, waiting. As the morph’s head poked through the entrance, he stepped out and, putting one hand over its mouth, dragged the scalpel across its throat, digging deep. The creature’s eyes widened with shock. It made a muffled noise, one hand whipping out to grip Daniel’s shoulder, but, abandoning the scalpel, Daniel formed his free hand into a fist and jabbed at the morph’s nose, putting every ounce of his strength behind the blow.

The morph’s hand loosened and fell away. As it slumped forward, Daniel twisted to the side, ensuring that it didn’t fall on him and trap him there. Blood gouted from the wound at its throat It gurgled, one hand trembling as it reached out to grasp Daniel’s foot, then it lay still. Daniel stared at it, his back pressed to the wall, the blood pounding at the back of his head once more. It didn’t hurt, but he could feel the wetness dribbling down his nape and knew that he had opened up the wound again. He gave a little shudder, then, stepping carefully over the fallen morph, looked down the well. It was empty. The other morph had gone. He swung out onto the ladder, then climbed down, expecting at any moment to be discovered; for the morph above to start yelling, or for an alarm of some kind to go off. But nothing. Only the pounding in his head and the wetness, the slow draining of his life-force.

At the foot of the tunnel he stopped, getting his breath. He felt exhausted. Only pure will power was keeping him on his feet From here on he would have to trust to luck Yes, and to Emily’s gun, for the scalpel was buried deep in the creature’s neck He closed his eyes a moment, fighting the giddiness that threatened to overwhelm him, then flicked them open again. Directly ahead of him were the crew quarters, six cabins in all, arranged three to each side of the long corridor, and beyond them, through a secondary airlock, the bridge itself. Daniel began to walk, slowly, limping he was so tired, his left hand supporting him against the wall, his right hand holding the gun. He was sweating now. And his eyes kept blurring over. Malfunctioning, he thought, almost amused by the realisation. I’m fucking malfunctioning, like some broken machine.

He stopped, leaning heavily against the wall, then lowered his head. It felt like he was going to be sick. The drugs ...

What if I made a mistake? What if they’re the wrong drugs? Daniel looked up, his eyes slowly coming back into focus. And as they did a morph stepped from the doorway not ten feet in front of him and turned. He shot it through the head - a single neat shot in the centre of the forehead.

It dropped like a cut marionette.

But the noise of the shot reverberated on and on in that narrow space: like an alarm going off throughout the ship.

Trembling now, he staggered over to the open doorway and looked inside. Four figures lay on couches on the far side of the room, bound hand and feet, their mouths firmly gagged; Han Ch’in, Kuei Jen, Hannah and, to the far left, Emily. As he stepped into the room he saw their eyes widen with surprise.

He could hear shouting now and running feet.

The room seemed suddenly massive, more a hallway than a cabin. His head swam briefly, then cleared again.

Another shot. Give yourself another shot.

Throwing the gun down, he pulled out the injector and held it to his arm, giving himself both of the remaining shots.

For a moment he stood there, half doubled-up, then slowly, very slowly, his head cleared again.

Daniel looked across the cabin. Emily was staring at him, his eyes imploring him to do something.

He staggered across, then turned, looking about him for something to cut their bonds.

“Shit!”

They’d be here any moment He heard the ventilation duct that led from the airlock begin to hiss, which meant they were coming through from the bridge area.

He went back and, crouching down, picked up the gun again. There was nothing for it. He would have to shoot the bonds off them.

Returning to Emily’s side, he placed the mouth of the barrel tight against the bonds that secured her wrists. The explosion would burn her, certainly, but that couldn’t be helped.He twisted the gun around, so that it pointed straight out through the open doorway - the last thing he wanted was to have a bullet ricocheting about the cabin - and pulled the trigger. This time the detonation threw him back. He fell, going down awkwardly, the back of his head smacking against the side of one of the couches as he went down. And then blackness.

Joseph sat in Kim’s chair, reading K’s journals and notebooks at a speed that Karr, looking on, found disconcerting.

Jelka had taken the news badly. Kao Chen, concerned for her, had had Wang Ti come to Kalevala to comfort her. The two woman were upstairs even now, locked in a room together, grieving.

The gate between the worlds had been closed temporarily, but only after they had brought the bodies back from the Paradigm World. The two of them now lay in makeshift coffins on the desk in Kim’s study, an honour-guard of Osu minding them. In time they would be buried, but first there was the little matter of DeVore to deal with.

“Well...” Joseph said, closing the last of the journals and looking up. “This is an eye-opener.”

“So what do you suggest?” Karr said, looking to Ebert and Kao Chen who stood close by. “Are the craft ready?”

“I believe so. Kim and K. had been working on adapting them. Jelka would know.”

Joseph nodded thoughtfully. “I would rather we did not disturb Jelka right now.

Where are the craft?”

Bcuro, who came into the room at that moment, answered him. “They’re outside. On the surface.” He stared at Joseph a moment, as if surprised to see Kim so enlarged and “normal”, then, looking down, embarrassed by the way he’d stared, said. “And yes, they’re ready.”

“Then we have only to decide who will go through,” Joseph said, his eyes studying Dcuro. “Gregor ... you say each craft will take three, correct?” “And sufficient weaponry.”

Joseph met kbit’s eyes. “You really think this is something that can be resolved by such means?”

Karr nodded. “If we kill them if s over. For good.” Ebert for once agreed. “Karr’s right DeVore’s the source. Whatever’s twisted emanates from him. I, for one, would welcome another crack at him.” “And I!” Karr and Kao Chen said at once, then laughed.

“And you, Bcuro?”

Dcuro nodded.

“Then thaf s five of us ...”

“Six,” Jelka said, stepping into the room.

Joseph stood. All turned to face her.

“But Jelka ...” Karr began

She turned on him. “You would deny me my revenge?”

Karr stared at her, then shook his head.

“Then let us prepare what we need and go,” she said, magnificent at that moment, her golden eyes burning. “Let us finish what my husbands so gallantly began.”

As the glide set down on the executive parking pad Li Yuan hurried the two women ahead of him out of the irising door, carrying the two cases himself. He had spoken to Cho Yi on the flight down, and though the markets had stabilised, there was a sense of fragility about affairs that seemed to bode ill. War had not broken out between America and China, but that was not to say that, later in the day, it wouldn’t And then the spaceports would be closed and there would be no chance at all to get away.

Which was why he was going now. Because, as a gambling man, he understood when to play a hunch. And his hunch was that the whole pack of cards was about to come tumbling down.

He had sent a message to Han Ch’in, telling him what he was doing, but making no

reference to the girl and her mother. If Han came and joined him at Tongjiang,

they would sort matters out between them then. But he had not wanted to have what might be their last conversation spoiled by bitter acrimony.And so you lied to Han. For the first time in your life ...

He did not like what he had done. In fact, his soul rebelled against it It seemed a crime against not only brotherhood but against the mother who had died bearing him.

As they hurried across the apron towards his ship, he noted the increased activity on all sides.

So I’m not the only one flaying a hunch.

Ships were rising up into the air even as they came to the foot of his own craft, the noise so loud that they drowned out his shouted instructions. He waited a moment, until the rumble of one particularly loud craft faded, then shouted again.

“Wait here! I’ve got to deactivate the alarm!”

They huddled together under the port wing of the craft as Li Yuan went round and, reaching up into the panel underneath the fuselage, punched in the code. Satisfied, he stepped out and, taking the controls from his pocket, pointed the light-pencil at the cockpit Lights flashed. The machine came alive.

Li Yuan smiled and looked to the two women, about to tell them to come, across, then saw the expression on their faces. Fear. Sheer naked fear. He half turned, suddenly aware of someone just behind him. A small, neat-looking man with short black hair was standing there, holding a gun up at the level of his head.

“Li Yuan,” DeVore said, smiling unpleasantly. “Long time no see.”

The fighting had been hard and uncompromising - to the death - but now the ship was theirs.

“We’re losing air,” Li Kuei Jen said, from where she sat in the co-pilot’s seat ‘Til have to seal off all of the lower deck sections. Ifd take us far too long to search and find out where the leaks are.”

“Okay,” Emily said, wondering how much time they had before DeVore hit back, “but make sure we haven’t left anyone down there.” The trouble was, they were trapped up here. DeVore had the only shuttle, and that was down there, on the world below.

She turned, looking to Han Ch’in, who had just stepped onto the bridge. He seemed troubled.

“Han?”

Han Ch’in came across. “He’s bad, Emily. I don’t know whether he’ll come through this time. The surgeon reckons there’s extensive damage to the brain.” Emily grimaced. “Is Hannah with him?”

Han Ch’in nodded.

“Okay. I’ll finish here, then go down and see her.”

“He saved us,” Han said, matter-of-factly.

“Yes,” she said. “Strange, huh? DeVore’s prize pupil. And look how he turns out?”

Han laughed, then gave another sigh. ‘Td kill that bastard if I got my hands on him.”

Emily’s smile was tinged with a faint irony. She looked down at her own burned hand. “That’s if you can get your hands on him.” “Do we know where we are yet?”

Emily nodded. “Thafs our home world, all right. Geographically. But from the transmissions we’re tapping into I’d say that it has a history thaf s entirely different from our own.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning that DeVore somehow shifted us into an alternate reality.” Han Ch’in gave a laugh of disbelief. But then, seeing that Emily was being serious, he narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“That’s right. If s even possible that there are alternate versions of ourselves down there.”

Han Ch’in took that in. “So what are we going to do?”

“We wait There’s nothing else we can do.”

“Thafs not entirely true,” Li Kuei Jen said, turning in her seat “We could destroy the morph ship.”

“Destroy it?” Emily frowned. “Why?”

“Because if 11 send a signal back to him.”Emily smiled, then nodded. “Okay. Lef s send the bastard a message!”

“Do I know you?” Li Yuan asked.

The first of them looked up from where he was busy binding the older woman’s hands and grinned at Yuan. “Not in this world.” The other, who had arrived just after they had climbed on board, now reappeared in the cabin’s doorway. “Okay. We’ve clearance. If you’re ready, Howard.” “Ready and willing!” the first said cheerfully. Then, straightening up, he smiled at the three of them, who now sat in their chairs, trussed up tightly. “Everyone comfortable? Good. Because we’re going on a little trip. A visit to an old friend. And I want you all to be on your best behaviour, because if you aren’t, I might get a little angry. And when I get angry, I’m not a nice person to be with, understand?”

The two women nodded enthusiastically, but Li Yuan simply glared. The man was little more than a common bully. A thief who used violence to get his way. Even so, the situation was dangerous and he did not want to force the man’s hand.

“Okay,” the man went on, “now listen carefully. When we get closer to our destination, I want you, Li Yuan, to speak to our friend - his name is Joseph Josephs, by the way - and get us permission to land on the pad at the top of the building he rents.”

Li Yuan glowered. “Why should I do that?”

“Because if you don’t, your young friend here,” and he indicated young Fei Yen, “will have a second mouth, slightly lower than her first” The gesture of a throat being slit was unmistakable. Li Yuan studied the man’s eyes and saw that he meant it “Okay,” he said. “But what if they say no?”

“They won’t say no. And the reason they won’t is because you’ll tell Mister Josephs that you have information that is crucial to him. Information about myself.”

“And why should that interest him?”

“Because, Mister Li, I’m behind all of this. I sent the market into free fall. I had President Newell assassinated. I pushed the world to the very brink of war.” Yes, Li Yuan thought, staring back at him and knowing in that instant that the man, though psychotic, was telling the truth; you may have done all that, but if I’m right, our friend Josephs stopped you somehow. And now you want to get to him.

And he could prevent that But could he just sit by and watch the bastard cut her throat?

Li Yuan looked down. “Okay,” he said. “Just tell me what I have to say.”

The wheel of fire burned in the air above Kalevala; a massive, turning hoop that lit the cratered surface of the ancient moon. Close by the two craft squatted like strange insects as the six besuited figures approached them. Watching from the window of his father’s study, Sampsa shivered, wondering if he would ever see those six again.

They’ll be okay, Tom said inside his head; but Sampsa could sense Tom’s own uncertainty behind the words.

It seems harder to stand and watch than go oneself, he answered silently, speaking to Tom across the distance between Kalevala and their rooms in Fermi. You think we should have gone, then?

Sampsa nodded. He turned briefly, staring across at the two figures in the room behind him, stretched out in their coffins. He had always thought his fattier would outlive him. Why? Because Kim had seemed so invulnerable But time and circumstance had caught him like the rest of them, and now he lay there, those distinctive atoms that had made him what he was, slowly returning to the universal mix.

He felt Tom’s unworded sympathy and smiled.

Turning back, he saw that they had arrived beside the craft and were climbing into the seats. The two machines had the look of fairground rides that have been dismantled and abandoned. They looked quite incapable of the task they would be asked to accomplish. But if his father had designed them, then they would work.

That’s what I’ll miss the most, he said to Tom; the magic of it.

Kim would have frowned to hear you call it that.

Yes, but what else was it?It dtdn ‘t ever seem like normal science.

And yet it worked.

Yes, Sampsa said, and sighed aloud. Out on the surface, the six were now strapped in. There was a moment’s inactivity, and then the generators at the centre of each craft began to glow, as if a luminous electric snake was endlessly climbing a pulsing silver pole.

Slowly the two craft lifted, then turned towards the massive, burning wheel. “Good luck!” he called quietly, hearing the echo of the words inside his head as Tom, too, said them.

Good luck ...

The explosion lit the late evening sky over Beijing. Flying back in from Tientsin, DeVore looked up, then shielded his eyes. “Howard! Get up here quickly!”

As the light faded, DeVore stepped into the cabin. “What is it?”

‘The starship. If s blown up!”

Taking a seat beside his twin, he started to tap out the code that would connect them to the starship’s bridge. There was a green glow on the panel.

“No, look ... if s still there”

“Then what?”

A face appeared on the screen above them. “Howard... oh, and Howard, too. How good to see you both!”

“Ascher!” DeVore said, snarling.

“Who?” his twin asked, glancing at him.

But DeVore’s attention was fixed on the screen. Emily smiled. “You let me go once before, Howard. I thought you would have learned from that mistake. Never take prisoners, you told me once. Never. Well, you should have killed me while you could.”

“I’ll kill you yet.”

“You can try, arsehole.”

‘Til...”

The screen went dead.

DeVore sat back, then slammed his fists down on the console. “Shit! Fucking shit!”

“Problems?” his twin asked, a faint amusement on his lips.

“No,” DeVore said distractedly. “No ...”

“No? Then what was that explosion?”

DeVore blinked. “The no-space ship ...”

“So there’s no way back now, eh?”

DeVore slowly shook his head.

“Ah well...” the other said, reaching out to pat his arm. “We’ll just have to make do with fucking things up here!”

Emily sat back, chuckling to herself. “Did you see his face? Did you see it!”

Han Ch’in was grinning. “Looked like he’d eaten a whole orchard full of lemons!” “Maybe,” Kuei Jen said, sounding a cautionary note, “but we’re still limited as to our options. And if he gets hold of a ground-to-air missile, we’re done for.” “Then maybe we ought to move out of range,” Emily said, sobered by that thought “Can we manoeuvre this thing?”

“Absolutely. Only how far away is safe? And if we do get back out of range, how is that going to help whaf s going on down there? No, Emily, we need to get back into the game somehow. We need some way of getting down there” “Could we land this thing?”

Kuei Jen shook her head. “Not a chance. It isn’t designed for it By destroying all but one of the shuttles, DeVore made sure only he could come and go.” “So we sit here?” Han Ch’in asked, disgruntled.

“Looks like it” his half-brother answered.

“Hmmm.”

“What are you thinking?” Emily asked, seeing the frown of concentration on his face.

“Just that there have to be other craft that we could use as a shuttle.”

“Maybe. But they’re all earthside.”

“Then maybe we could coax one of them up here. To help us out.”

“How? We don’t know anyone down there.”

“Don’t we? I thought Emily said just then that there are other versions of us down there.”

“I said there might be.”

“Well... why don’t we appeal to some of them? Tap in to their media channels and see what happens. They certainly seemed interested enough in our appearance.” Emily looked to Kuei Jen, who shrugged.

“If s worth a try.”

“Then lefs do it,” Emily said. “Anything’s better than sitting on our hands up here!”

Kuei Jen grinned, then sat forward, meaning to make the connections, when the whole of the sky in front of the craft seemed to light up. A great hoop of burning light was rotating in the darkness between them and the planet below.