Full Vessels (17 page)

Erik jabbed a finger at Jerome. “You heard
him, Twelve, go reload the wagon. Me and Natalia have the pier
under control.”

Their voices faded as Hess climbed into the
heart of the vessel. He turned at the sound of footsteps behind and
found Natalia following him.

“Are you sure this thing is seaworthy?”

“It's designed to tow ships in crowded
harbors,” Hess said. “I'm guessing the locals use it to rescue and
salvage ships that get torn up on the reef. It should be able to
handle deep ocean with no problems. The real question is how far it
can take us before we run out of fuel. Which is why you should be
hauling wood.”

Natalia waved at his obese form. “I could
haul more wood as an old woman than I can like this.”

“Fine. You're running the hand pump.”

“You know, I have the power of life and death
over you,” Natalia said.

“I'll be sure to kiss your ass once the
crisis is over.” Hess checked that the rubber tube reached all the
way to water, then demonstrated its operation: Lever up, lever
down.

While Natalia labored at the pump, Hess threw
open the door to the firebox and loaded it with some coal. On top
of that, he built a structure from wood kindling and lit it with
scrap paper and a magnesium striker.

Then Hess began moving wood from the deck of
the ship into the coal room. After a while, he checked the water
level using the three valve system. They were still low, so he
kicked Natalia off the pump and labored at it himself, taking
occasional breaks to feed more coal into the firebox.

Getting up to steam would take two hours,
which was twice as fast he would try if there wasn't a volcano to
worry about. Cold boilers tended to react poorly to rapid increases
in temperature.

When Hess next checked the water, it was at
an acceptable level. He resumed loading wood into the coal room.
Outside, Jerome had returned with the freight wagon and was helping
Erik move wood. When they finished, everyone climbed onto the deck
of the ship.

Erik glanced back at the mountain. “We ready
to go?”

“Let's give it another half hour,” Hess
said.

“Look Hess, I know it would be cool as fuck
to outrace a tidal wave of lava in a steamship . . . but I'd rather
not.”

Hess raised a brow. “Spoken like someone who
has never seen a boiler explosion.” He turned to Jerome. “When are
you opening the sky?”

Jerome glanced to the mountain. “I'm letting
the Creator dictate the time-line.”

They studied the smoke until Natalia broke
the silence. “We might as well use the time. I plan to decide my
choice of successor by plumbing the depths of your minds to
discover your underlying motives. Rest assured that I don't intend
to judge you by my personal standards of conduct, which would favor
none of you, but instead by your commitment to the truth.”

Natalia scratched his bulging abdomen.
“Dishonesty and disqualification walk hand in hand. I'm not keen on
laziness, either. Each of you should do your utmost to offer
sincere reflections. Erik, I'm going to start with you. You have
the advantage and disadvantage of being the most disgustingly
fascinating subject. My first question: why do you enjoy hurting
the people?”

“I'm doing research.”

Natalia made a rude buzzing noise. “Sincere
answers, Erik. Only honesty can preserve your life.”

The false cheer faded from Erik's face,
allowing something cold and reptilian to emerge like jagged rocks
rising from the sea at low tide. “Because,” he said. “I hate
them.”

“Why do you hate the people, Erik?”

“They don't appreciate existence.”

Natalia shook his head. “Not justifications,
Erik, reasons. You value your life more than anyone, so prove it.
Give me your reasons.”

Erik cleared his throat. “Can't we do this in
private?”

“No.”

Erik's face contorted into a pained
expression. “Why do I hate the people?
Why do I hate the
people?
Why do I hate the pathetic creatures? Why
wouldn't
I hate them? They are weak and soft and stupid and
cowardly. They are fucking pathetic. They deserve everything I have
ever done to them. Every fucking poke. Every fucking prod.”

“Why do you hate the people, Erik?”

Erik turned his glare on Natalia. “I just
told you. They are pathetic!”

“A reason to pity, perhaps. Why do you hate
them?”

Erik's lips clamped together.

“Come now, Erik, you don't value your ego
over your life. Would you not do anything to ensure your survival?
Tell me the truth. Why do you hate the people?”

“Because.” Erik turned away from them.
“Because I once feared those pathetic creatures.”

Natalia patted flabby hands together in
subdued applause. “Well done, Erik. I'm quite pleased with your
progress. Now, Jerome, I have a different question for you. Namely,
why should I choose you?”

Jerome frowned. “What do you mean?”

“My meaning should be quite evident,
Jerome.”

“Well, for one, I'm not a sociopath. Also,
I'm not going to waste the next Cycle pining for a lost love –
sorry, Hess.”

Natalia tsked. “I didn't ask about your
competition. Why do
you
deserve to live?”

Jerome hunched his shoulders. “I never got
the chance to be one of them.”

“Of course you did,” Natalia said. “You
didn't take it. There is a tremendous difference. Try again.”

“Because I have been an obedient
Observer.”

“Not compelling.”

“Because I want to start over again. I want
to live a different life.”

Natalia chewed on the answer a moment. “I'll
accept the answer. It would be unfair to handicap you for lack of
drama. Hess, I must confess that you bore me. I of course respect
you as a man of honor, but the action hero persona never impressed
me. While well-intentioned, you remain a primitive reactionary.
Tell me why I should find you interesting.”

Hess blinked. Interesting? “Why should that
matter? The only reason we ever considered you interesting was
because of the rumor Griff started about you having sex with
animals.”

“Hess, my preferences are of supreme
importance in this matter. Convince me that you are worth my
time.”

He sucked in his cheek. “Fine.” He pointed
behind him. “Do you know how to operate a steam engine? I do. I
could even rebuild it given the proper tools. In case you weren't
aware, I'm not Elza's idiot sidekick. The perception that I'm
dependent on her for technical support is ridiculous. I can thrive
on a boat, in the desert, within the arctic circle, in the
wilderness, at court, or even an electronics repair shop. I am
capable.”

Natalia nodded. “I suppose it would be remiss
of me not to grant you credit for our timely escape. Providing we
do escape in time. Back to Erik. Assuming you are chosen, what
would you do at the start of the next world?”

A portion of Erik's cheer returned. “I always
like to start things off by hurting someone.”

“Why?”

He sighed. “This again? I hate them because
they . . . scared me . . . once upon a time. Ta-fucking-da.”

“Why does torture bring you pleasure? Do you
relish the sense of power? Does it reinforce your superiority? Does
the sight of their weakness ease your lingering shame?”

Erik chewed his lip as the questions came at
him. He flinched at the expectation on Natalia's face. “Maybe?”

Natalia's brows rose. “Are you asking
me?”

“I don't know.”

“You don't know if you're asking me a
question?”

“I don't know why I like hurting people. Why
don't you ask Hess why he likes sex so much?”

“We'll give you some time to ponder the
question, Erik. I would put the same question to Jerome. What would
you do at the start of a new world?”

Jerome raised his chin. “I would find the
other Observers.”

“And?”

“Talk to them. Tell them everything. No
secrets.”

“Dear Sir, I'm almost too disinterested to
ask, but why?”

“Because I want the next Cycle to be better
than this one.”

Natalia rolled his eyes. “Hess?”

He stood looking at the volcano in the
distance.

“Same question, Hess. New world. What do you
do and why?”

The gentle rocking of the boat, the creaking
of wood and crashing of waves, the taste of salt on the air all
fell away. What did he do when a world began? He found Elza.

“Hess?”

For over a hundred Iterations – close to a
hundred and forty thousand years – he had sought his woman with
single-minded tenacity until she stood at his side. Though their
tradition had grown ever more elaborate, its core had remained
unchanged. She awaited him at the largest city she could find;
assumed the name of an in-world state or province; worked at an
intellectual trade or profession; frequented quaint watering holes
where she would wait patiently for the right man to approach. He
lived for that moment, that giddy anticipation, the thundering
pulse and jittery legs as their eyes made contact. It brought him
back to Iteration two every time. The weary walk that had
threatened to never end. The endless wash of unremarkable faces.
And then his name on her lips.

“Hess?”

He turned back to face them. “Feed more coal
every twenty minutes, but don't let the pressure rise above the
first tick before two hours are up. Then start sprinkling the
rocket fuel. You should be able to figure out the engine room
easily enough.”

Natalia raised a finger. “If you leave, you
forfeit the contest.”

“I should never have been in it.”

Erik seized his arm. “The fuck, Hess? You
giving up? Suiciding?”

“The opposite of giving up. I'm going to find
her one last time.”

As Hess pulled his arm free of Erik, Jerome
wrapped him in a firm embrace. Hess shoved the man away. “Enough of
that, Jerome.”

“Sorry,” Jerome said. “I know the Ron thing
still bothers you, but you can't say goodbye to your best friend
without a hug.”

Erik scowled at them. “Fucking pathetic,
Hess.”

“As much as I'd love to continue this
conversation, I've got a woman to find. Good luck everyone.” All
three stared at him, cataloging his actions with the alien,
attentive gazes of Observers. He turned away to begin his hunt, his
mind taking up the new puzzle.
Where on this island would Elza
go to await the end of her last world?

He found her on the roof of the resort,
reclining against sun-warmed brick to face the rumbling mountain's
outline against the setting sun. She didn't move at his approach
other than to touch a wine bottle to her lips. “How did you find
me?”

Hess slid down the wall to sit at her side,
leaving a finger's width of space between them. He gestured at the
view before them. “You always preferred to watch from a distance.
How did you know it was me?”

Elza shrugged. “An unfounded assumption. I've
spent so much time waiting for you.” She touched the full wine
bottle to her lips once more. Several more, unopened, rested by her
feet. “Who won immortality?”

“I had to leave before that was decided.”

Her eyes flashed to his. “Hess,
no
.
What are you doing here?”

“Finding you. Did you know that a good woman
is worth a whole tent?” He took the wine bottle from her hands,
inspected the label, and took a large swallow.

“Don't do this for me, Hess. Please
don't.”

“Do you know why I hate Zack Vernon so much?”
Hess pressed the bottle back into her hands. “Zack despised
existence. He was a miserable bastard who couldn't find a single
reason to live his own life.”

“Then fight for your life, Hess.”

“The rest of them think I'm romantic by
nature because of the circumstances they met me under, but you
should know better. Hess of Kallig's tribe was an angry man who
despised his own existence. He treated his women well while they
were his, then discarded them when they showed signs of age –
ignoring the plight of a childless older woman because he
did
not care
. Hess of Kallig's tribe was not a happy man and not
even a good man. He was an ignorant savage who blamed the Creator
for everything. The best that could be said of him was that he had
enough empathy to imagine a better world.

“I remember that man, Elza, even if you
pretend not to. And I can tell you from first-hand experience that
the distance between him and Zack wasn't as great as you think.”
Hess stared at the setting sun. “For most of my life I've been
someone very different, but only because I had you by my side.”

For a moment, the rooftop was silent. Then
Elza took a swig from the bottle. “I may have glossed over a tiny
sliver of your history, but I know who you are, Hess. You don't
understand me at all.”

“That's ridiculous. I guessed where on the
entire island you would be in five seconds.” Hess gestured. “And
here you are.”

“Two Iterations ago, you thought I cared for
the people.”

“
What?
”

She pointed a finger at him. “You thought I
was upset because the people were dying!”

Hess blinked. “You really think I'm that
naive?”

Her finger drooped. “But . . . you kept
trying to shield me from news.”

Hess cocked his head. “Because you kept
getting upset.”

“I was responding to you. You are the one who
loves the people.”

“No, it wasn't the people. It was
science
. Science was bad, Elza.”

For a moment, she stared at him, then Elza
pushed the wine bottle into his hands. “Science is an experimental
methodology, Hess. It's fundamentally amoral. It
can't
be
bad.”

“It destroyed an entire world, Elza. That's
pretty bad.”

“People destroyed their world,” she said.
“And they didn't use science to do it. They used technology.”