An End (24 page)

“And where exactly did you get this host?”

“Shipment of biologic from the outer. Selected at random.”

“You bring the bodies back?”

“Special ops. Next generation nearish development.”

“When did this program start? Using dead people for—”

“I can’t discuss this with you.”

“I have full clearance, Pasty.”

“Not for this.”

Judith stood up, placed both hands on Doctor’s shoulders. She leaned in close, spoke into its “ear.”

“Pssst. I’m the girl who talks to God. You can tell me anything.” She kissed Doctor’s cheek and smiled warmly.

Doctor’s eyes narrowed. “I guess you’ll find out somehow anyways.”

“Of course I will. Now spill it.”

“The outer systems have been burning for decades.”

Burning: euphemism for the machine war that never really ended. Resistance to the drowning. The way the polite castes referred to the non-surrender of the barbarian horde. What a joke.

“This I know.”

“What we’ve just realized, though, is that prolonged exposure creates abnormalities.”

“I thought we sent nearish to the front lines.”

“Nearish need reals to lead them.”

Slurry slurp. Judith turned to see God finishing his second (third?) bowl.

“What kind of abnormalities?”

“Sub-genetic, for the most part.”

“For the most part... What else have you found?”

“I really shouldn’t—”

“Tell me.”

“Cardiac abnormalities.”

Judith felt gooseflesh stipple her forearms.

“One heart?”

“How did—You couldn’t have known that.”

She ignored the near, sat back down at the table in front of God while unwinding a length of hardlink cable. She snapped the link into her chestshield, maneuvered the other end around pudgy sticky resistance fingers and plugged home between his hearts.

Nothing.

“Come on, baby.” She twisted the link in the port, felt a tickle of connection at the base of her skull. “Come
on

wings of wind and i will
we
there were in that time gods of
taken from and stolen with
hidden
deep with-in deepness
and over the sky i have
returned to

make sure the fire’s out.”

She blinked in confusion as God kicked dirt into the remnants of the campfire. Acrid smoke, dust and dirt. She wiped sleep and soot from tired eyes. The sky was dark. One sun... A wounded sun. Gauzy, webbed. Around them, shattered buildings. Clothing on racks. Signs in a stranger language.

“Where are we?”

He stopped his kicking, shook his head. “I’m not sure anymore.” He was the man from the other encounter, yet this time there were deep lines around his eyes, and a black pattern of lines on his forearm. She looked down and wasn’t surprised to see a similar marking on her own arm. On his chest, writing in alien letters. A name.

“Haze and smoke. The air’s changed, and the heart’s gone.”

“Yeah.” There was a pack strapped to God’s back. He unbuckled the clasp and placed it on the ground. “Sorry about the puppet they put me in. I was trying to talk to you, but it was impossible. The host’s flawed.”

“You heard, though?”

“I heard.”

“Have any ideas?”

“I’ve seen all the information they collected about the young woman. Maire.”

“Doctor says she’s not the only one with the abnormalities.”

“No. This host body is flawed.”

“No shit.”

“Not just mentally. Not just the heart. There’s something I can feel but can’t describe.”

“Is it safe?”

“Doesn’t really matter. I’m God.”

“So one specimen slipped away, and now we’re seeing more and more with the changes.”

“Yes.”

“And they’re coming from the outer.”

“She couldn’t have caused the spread.”

“Do you think the machines are behind this?”

“I was under the impression that she was trying to end the machines.”

“What better way to destroy them than to do it from the inside?”

“We have to get her away from here.”

“Do you have a place in mind.”

God nodded.

“Here.”

sir, we can’t just—

“You don’t have a choice. Get me off this planet.”

we could tell—

“Hannon will have you killed regardless. You’ve seen too much already. He just needed a real to head this mission because he doesn’t trust
them
.” Berlin’s eyes targeted Elle, masked as she was in desired projection.

fuck you.

Berlin
stood from the table, walked up to the near. As tall as she was, he still looked down on her.

“I don’t like you. You don’t like me. But we’re both going to die soon if you don’t help me.”

Task shoved Berlin back. The commandant scoffed.

“In love with a nearish. How appropriate.”

do you want our help or not?

“I want your help. Not hers. We don’t need the machined.”

she’s coming with us, or I’m not helping you.

His hands clenched to fists. Eyes blazed. “Fine.”

and what exactly are we supposed to do once we pick you up?

“We have to get to the command vessel.”

you’ll be killed.

“They’re about to sentence Maire.”

yes. and you want to be there?

“I have to stop her.”

stop her from what? she’s already done the damage.

“It’s not over yet. We have to get to that ship.”

and once we’re there?

“I’ll kill her.”

but—

“No more questions. Get down here.”

how much do you know, berlin?

“Enough to know that Maire has to die, and I’m the one who has to do it.”

you seem in a hurry to get out of here.

“I suspect things. I know this place won’t be safe for long.”

Task shook his head.
it’s the silver. you know something about it. it’s not over. it’s spreading, isn’t it?

“They’ve woken up God. They have him on the command ship.”

and maire’s on the same vessel.

“Yes.”

she’s going to kill God.

Berlin’s face was stone.

where does it go from there?

“I don’t know.”

we’ll be down to get you. look for us.

“Understood.”

Task grabbed Elle’s hand and they were gone. Berlin slumped into his chair. They had to make this work. There would be no second chance to stop the catalyst.

Berlin
opened his eyes and

the mute nearish troops stood over him. The halo channel near’s body was on the floor, lifelessish. The others waited mindlessly, patiently. They’d wait forever if he made them. So obedient.

Task’s vessel would drop shortly.

Berlin
bent to his wife’s silvered form. The face was intact, an illusion of thick glitter makeup. If he touched her... If he kissed her. He inhaled deeply.

take me with you to the
and there we will
the nighttimes of

and this heart, for you

i love

He wondered if any of the featureless voices screaming in his mind belonged to
Kath. Botanist.

Bent to her (
not her
) form, kissed as gently as he could her cheek. No longer softest. Tickle of grit and smell of copper (blood) taste(?). He knew it would happen, but when the cheek collapsed under the lightest pressure, his breath still stuck in his throat and the sobs came. One, another, his hands moving to cover face from gaze of creatures of biologic who neither cared nor could care.

Lightest touch, but the cheek collapsed, cheek and skull, neck and chest. Lightest touch and she was gone, not gone, but gone: pile of silver dust that danced in the empty air of a dead room. He inhaled deeply

take me with you
a part of me
forever with you
take me

and coughed, violently. Metal scoured his mouth, throat.

is this all there is?

He reached into the pile of silver, withdrew the locket from where her neck had been: sliver of wood, taken from the last of those magnificent flora after the planet had been harvested. He held the locket to his face. Her scent was there, faint, masked in that blood echo.

Rumble of

the time when we first laid by the fire and i explored every inch of your face with my lips because we were both too terrified to kiss

slitherjets above. Task and Elle.

Berlin
turned from what had been his wife and walked away.

*snap*
and she was out of the reverie, hardlink cable falling from limp hand and sparking the metallish floor as she slumped forward into Assistant’s arms. She was exhausted, but adapting. She fought off the sleep that her mind was struggling to impose.

“Now. Call them together. God’s ready for sentencing.”