The Betwixt Book One (30 page)

That was the Rain Man? He was a blue ant?

I stared down at the tiny creature, waiting for it to puff out
its small little chest and squeak back a polite welcome. I had seen
a couple of things working in the diner, but never itty-bitty ants
that were meant to hold the wisdom of races.

I tried not to look rude, tried not to let my eyes bulge – but
really, I was waiting for an ant to talk back.

But talk he did not. In another moment, he scuttled off right
between Jason's feet, causing the Commander to stiffen and track
the little creature with quick flicks of his eyes. I didn't blame
him – we were going to have a hell of a time trying not to squash
our host if he was going to charge our shoes like a
raging . . . ant.

I expected the ant to patter off to the center of the room,
maybe climb up onto some piece of furniture so he could be assured
that the clumsy humans didn't sit on him. But he kept on moving –
shot straight past everything till he dived into a bookshelf –
squeezing right between the spines of some dust-free
tomes.

I looked at the Commander, too polite to ask out loud what on
Earth was going on, but hoping he picked up my implicit question
anyway.

‘
Watch,’ he mouthed. Then he straightened up even further,
shifted his shoulders and hips until they were in perfect
alignment.

So I watched. In another second, the ant popped back out and
stood there for a bit. Then another ant popped out from a behind a
neat row of datapads on a different shelf. Then, on a shelf housing
stacks of holodiscs – several more ants appeared.

Then, then were thousands of them. From every single nook and
cranny, between every single page and datapad – ants came scuttling
down the shelves. It was a sea of tiny, pattering blue.

I fought the urge to leap back – my body prickling with a
surge of fear at such an uncommon, freakish sight. But the
Commander wasn't shifting, he wasn't heading for his gun or running
down the corridor as he screamed about the insanity of it
all.

So I swallowed hard, and stood my ground.

The ants started to mass in the center of the room till, to my
continued disbelief, they started to climb each other. It was
like . . . it was like . . . hell,
I'd never ever seen anything like this before. The ants were
jumping up on top of each other, forming pillars, trunks – that
eventually merged into one.

The Commander watched, his face still neutral, but his eyes
darting to take in every detail. But he didn't look overwhelmed by
it, didn't look that bothered. Hell, he probably saw things like
this every other day. It was only me that was finding this strange,
finding this jaw-droopingly insane. I'd never seen shape-forming
ants in the diner – I couldn't even imagine how I would go about
serving one a Star Duster cocktail.

The ants seemed to move as a coordinated whole, standing on
top of each other till the shape they formed
looked . . . . human. It was like a big, blue,
spotty human that was staring back at me. They'd even formed the
indents of the eyes, the line of the mouth that seemed to open just
like real lips, even two nostrils that flared like they were
breathing in the air.

‘
We only accepted to meet you because you brought us valuable
data,’ it said, if the noises that issued from its mouth could ever
be referred to as words, that was. It was an incredible sound made
up the tiny voices of each little ant, till they combined to one
steady pitch.

Every single hair on my body stood more erect than a
regimental soldier before the Central President himself.

‘
She is not data,’ the Commander rebuked, voice harsh. ‘And may
I remind you that you were legally bound by Central law to accept
my—’

‘
She is the last of her race, last of the People – she is data.
Her story is data, her history is data, her future is data. We will
collect it.’

Okay, so now I really wanted to run. All my anticipation had
flown out the airlock when the eight-foot-tall human ant-creature
had started referring to me as a simple set of facts and figures. I
tried to suck it in, to keep it together, but I found myself edging
towards the Commander in the hope he could hide me from the
creature's gaze.

‘
I understand your culture finds no qualms in referring to
living beings as data – just as I understand that you know our
culture does. We do not refer to ourselves as objects, and neither
should you when you address us.’ The Commander crossed his arms,
and stared evenly at the blue ant-man before us.

The Rain Man didn't have an expression, though – how could it?
Perhaps each and every ant that made it up was staring back in mock
horror, but the humanoid creation before me was as still and even
as cloudless sky.

‘
We understand this convention, and accept it for the terms of
this meeting. We will exchange verbal information, we will not
exchange data.’

The Commander didn't roll his eyes, but I could tell he was
close. ‘We have some questions to ask you.’ Jason cleared his voice
abruptly. ‘I have some questions regarding an official GAM
inquiry.’

‘
You will go first, we will go second,’ the Rain Man's mouth
actually moved as he spoke, in perhaps the most eerie attempt at
feigned speech since Old Earth ventriloquist dolls. ‘But you will
not ask – she will ask.’

The Commander blustered – his chest popped out that little bit
more, his head ticking to the side. ‘Perhaps you didn't hear
me—’

‘
We heard. Her questions are more interesting, yours are dead
and will bore us.’

The Commander put up a hand, ready to stop traffic or distract
the Rain Man as he went for his gun. ‘That's not how this is going
to work, I need to—’

‘
Her needs are more acute. But we see your rules and your
tenacity. You can ask one question.’

The Commander clicked his neck from side to side – either in a
move of intimidation, or just pure physical frustration at the
blunt, impossible answers of the Rain Man.

‘
We will go into the Main Chamber,’ the Rain Man continued
without waiting for the Commander's answer. ‘We will have privacy,
we understand the GAM value a secret.’

The Commander slowly let out a breath. It was apparent that he
had just conceded.

The Rain Man turned to move, and it was almost horrifically
fascinating to watch. Bits of him seemed to lag behind – seemed to
stagnate in the air as the rest of him stretched off in the
direction they were all meant to be heading. But somehow, it
maintained its form, lurching from side to side as it led the
Commander out of the room. ‘You will have use of the Assistant
Librarian,’ the Rain Man called out as it headed off.

It took me a while to realize he was talking to me. ‘Wh—’ I
began. I didn't like the sounds of an 'Assistant Librarian'. The
head librarian was already one of the freakiest things I'd ever
seen, I sure couldn't stomach being left alone in a room with his
sidekick.

But before I could squeeze out the rest of my question, a
simple hologram popped up in the center of the room. It was just a
line to begin with – a blue string of lights just floating in the
air. Then with a ping, it started to shift shape. ‘Analysis
complete, primarily human life form identified – switching to
Standard English and generic humanoid form.’

And sure enough, a fairly standard hologram of a human
appeared in front of me.

It was an AI program, I realized with a bit of a relieved
sigh. I'd dealt with these before – they were fairly standard, we
even had one on the station that operated as a tour guide, of
sorts.

‘
What is the human's question?’

I relaxed more, letting my stance soften, feeling the blood go
back to my legs. ‘Ah . . . where am I?’ I asked for
no apparent reason, I mean, I knew where I was.

‘
You are on-board the registered heavy cruiser Raining, docked
at—’

‘
Um, never mind,’ I cut in before the thing could fill me in on
our exact geo-location. Who knew how much time I had with this
thing, and who knew how much information it could unlock for
me?

I wet my lips and cast around for a question, a good question.
‘What . . . what information do you have on a race
called the People?’

‘
We have 409,899 recorded references to the galactic race known
as the People. Accessing files—’

‘
No, no! Ah . . . do you know
what . . . . Ah . . . do you
know what . . . .’ I was choking, this was my
big moment, and I was choking. I couldn't think of a single
question that wouldn't end with this AI going off on some
commentary of galactic proportions.

‘
Does the human require a suggested question?’

‘
Yes,’ I leaped upon the suggestion like it was a rope thrown
to me as I drowned in a storm. ‘Yes, the human does require
this.’

‘
In referencing the People, I suggest the human begins with a
succinct summary of their history, culture, origins,
achievements—’

‘
Yes, yep – that sounds good.’ I had to hurry things along, I
couldn't wait for this thing to take an hour to push out a single
sentence.

‘
The People are one of the oldest sentient races in the known
Universe. Their exact evolutionary beginnings are unknown, and due
to the disappearance of all extant People, or any remainder of
their genetic heritage – it is a secret unlikely to ever be
answered. However, after undertaking a lengthy cross analysis of
all available references to the People, their technology, and their
fate, across all galactic races – a vague history can be
plotted.’

‘
Okay,’ I said, for the simple purpose of breaking up the
thing's block-like explanations. This wasn't anything new – I knew
all of this already, well, everything except the bit about there
being no remainder of their genetic heritage. I was pretty sure
there was a striking example of the People's lineage standing right
in this room – but I wasn't about to put my hand up to the AI and
tell it when it was wrong. ‘Continue.’

‘
It seems likely that the People possessed, not only remarkable
intelligence, enabling them to develop and adapt technology at
incredible speed, but sensory organs otherwise non-existent among
the other races of the galaxy. With a peculiar adaptation to their
ocular organ, the People had an overdeveloped ability to perceive
light. Due to the sensory and analytical resources that their
brains would use to process such an ability – it is estimated that
light would have played an absolutely central position within their
culture. As smell is paramount to an Earth species of dog; and
sound, via vibration, is the primary sensory function of Earth
snakes: the perception of light would have been the main adaptive
advantage of the People.’

I blinked at the sudden and overwhelming gush of information.
So, we had a strange ability to see light – I kind of already knew
that, though not in so many words . . . Still, for
some reason the hair along my arms was starting to prick up and
spread a slight unease over my body.

‘
It is upon this assumed fact that the history of the People
has been estimated,’ the AI continued. ‘As occurs within any race
that achieves a certain level of technology, intelligence, and
environmental dominance – the conquering of life's challenges would
have led to the introspective analysis of the meaning of existence.
Such an analysis, based on the People's peculiar evolutionary
traits, may have resulted in their concluding that light is the
spiritual source of existence.’

‘
The spiritual source of existence,’ I parroted, almost in the
same tone of voice the AI used. ‘What does that mean?’

‘
Creative source, the force behind reality, the underlying
origin and structure of the universe, the point from where all
things began, and the point to which all things return,
the—’

‘
Okay . . . so . . . but
light?’

‘
Yes, based on our calculations, this is what we believe the
People would have—’

‘
Never mind, just continue.’ It was like a torrent down my body
now – this shifting, wavering, flowing awkwardness that set my
stomach to stone. I just felt . . . I
just . . . did I really want to know this? Wait, of
course I did. So why was I having such a strange, ominous
feeling?

‘
While the above is conjecture, one thing is known for certain
about the People – they sought enlightenment. With all their
technological, scientific, and intellectual skills – the People set
about achieving the final goal in adaptation to existence. Based on
their fascination with light – it is through this medium they
considered the ultimate.’ The AI never paused for breath, of
course, and could probably keep going till I was long
dead.

I needed time to analyze what it was saying, though – to
really take it all in. They wanted enlightenment? Really? Was this
AI right? Was that the sole, driving force of my people? What about
the Twixts? Weren't the People, in a way, honor bound to fight them
– to keep the scourge at bay? Why hadn't they been mentioned
yet?

My unease started to grow, till I virtually had to clutch my
stomach to keep it all in.