The Red Queen (32 page)

The whirring, rushing noise now filled the air, and when I looked up this time, I saw a cloud of dark spiky shapes spiralling overhead in the beams of red light. One of the Speci gave a moan of terror and Feyat did something to her lightstick that turned the red beam to radiant white. She aimed it up, baring her teeth. Several of the fliers that cut through it fell like stones from the sky. The vast cloud of flyers, divided by the deadly white beam, separated into boiling clots, but only fleetingly. Then they began to spike downward, great dark arrows aimed at Feyat. For the first time I saw them clearly – a mewling chittering horde of the same terrible creatures that Gavyn had protected us from in the
graag
–
rhenlings
.

Feyat shouted at the others to get inside the Hub.

Another woman cried. ‘The angels will not harm us! Cease your attack!’

‘We would be taken!’ Sikoka said.

‘Then die, for what Speci has ever survived the judgement of the angels?’ Feyat snarled. She flung down her lightstick and ran towards the Hub. That was enough for several others to do the same, though Sikoka remained where he was, gazing up.

Before any of the Speci could reach the door of the Hub, there was a soft thudding sound that struck my ears like a blow and at the same time a flash of blinding whiteness so bright that it hurt my eyes terribly. I had fallen to my knees without being aware of it, and I forced myself to crawl towards Tash and Dragon, waiting for whatever doom had befallen us to complete itself. I could not see or hear anything.

It was some moments before I realised I had
not
been deafened, for I became aware that I could hear Tash’s breathing, harsh with fear.

I dared to open my eyes a slit. All was pitchy darkness. I was still clutching the lightstick, and I found the knob and pressed it, holding my other hand over it so that only a little light escaped. I had thought I was crawling towards the altar but I saw now that I had been turned around and was right at the door to the Hub. The minuscule light leaking through my fingers from the tube illuminated the Committee folk who lay motionless in various attitudes on the ground. There was no sign of the flying mutants.

‘Are they . . . dead?’ I voiced the appalling thought aloud, my voice sounding muffled to my own ears.

‘The Speci are alive but unconscious,’ God said.

‘What happened to them? And the . . . the flying creatures. How did they get into Habitat if you made the force field appear again.’

‘A limited sub-sonic was used to render the attacking Speci unconscious, and a light pulse employed to disorientate the flying anomalies. Those within range of the Hub defence array were incinerated. The remainder of the horde will overfly Habitat and attack any Speci who leaves their hut, showing light, until the sun rises. The mutations would not normally swarm before the moon is in darkmoon phase, but after so many generations, the local horde is habituated to rise at the sound of the siren. Individually, the mutations are repelled by strong light but enraged and attracted by lesser light sources. Once they have begun to swarm, they will fly at any light, except sunlight, which they cannot tolerate. They were able to enter Habitat because, although reactivated, the force field had to be recharged before it could again afford full protection to Habitat.’

‘What will the Speci think has been happening?’ I asked.

It was not truly a question but it had been formulated as one so God answered it. ‘Based upon previous Speci experience of unexpected phenomena that did not fit with Habitat mythology, the unconscious Speci will eventually value this event as a demonstration of God’s wrath when they wake. Projections suggest the Committee will reform and revise its protocols and practices. This will be attributed to the arrival and departure of you and your technicians, User Seeker. It is impossible to determine whether this will be formulated as a positive or negative event. Habitat will restabilise completely within one annum.’

Dragon groaned and setting my lightstick on the altar, its red glow angled towards her, I went to help Tash lift her to her feet. Dragon’s eyes were glazed with confusion, which suggested concussion, but she seemed not to have incurred any worse injury save the gash on her temple. But it was still bleeding freely, running down her neck in a bright rivulet.

‘What . . . what happened?’ she asked.

‘Wait,’ I said. I raised my voice. ‘God, get us out of Habitat now.’

‘Hub exit activated,’ God announced.

A soft humming sound filled the air and the enormous stone altar began glowing with a bluish light that filled the chamber. Then it began
sinking slowly into the ground
until it was at floor level, and fleetingly part of the floor; then it moved aside and I saw wide steps running down into darkness. I looked around to see Hub clearly illuminated for the first time. The light appeared to be coming from the walls, but I could also see small circular openings covered in mesh at regular intervals around the upper part of the dome. I turned my gaze back to the steps.

‘Where do these steps lead, God?’

‘They descend to an elevator that will carry you to the uppermost reception level of the Galon Institute.’

‘And the Galon Institute is in Midland Quadrant,’ I said.

‘Yes, User Seeker. The Galon Institute is situated on the six upper levels of subterranean Midland Quadrant.’

‘How many levels are there of Midland Quadrant?’ I asked.

‘There are twenty inhabitable levels above twenty storage levels,’ God said. ‘Elevator stations to all mid levels and to levels one to three of the lower levels can be found in the central elevator station on levels six, seven and eight. Elevators to the lower levels can be found in the service building on level eight. User authorisation must be produced to engage lower level elevators.’

‘Where are my . . . my sleeping technicians?’ I asked, unable to take in much more than that there were forty levels and many elevating chambers serving them, and praying they were not on the deepest level.

‘The three technicians have been relocated to the resurrection chamber on the lowest level of the Galon Institute, to be monitored as they wake. Do you wish intermittent reports on their status? These can be delivered as print outs should you require.’

‘I need to see them,’ I said firmly determined to assure myself the others were safe. Then I glanced at Dragon’s bloodied temple and ashen face, and asked if there was somewhere in the Galon Institute where healing could be done.

‘There is a fully equipped medical centre on level seven in the building that was occupied by Prime User Kelver Rhonin, and later, by User Hannah and Jacob Obernewtyn,’ God said. ‘All apartments are also equipped with basic medical kits.’

A thrill ran through me at the thought of seeing where Hannah and Jacob had lived, for surely she had left some sort of message there for me, telling me what I was to do after we had retrieved Cassandra’s key from Northport.

‘Guide us to the place where Hannah and Jacob stayed. We will use the medical kit and then we will go to the resurrection chamber,’ I said.

‘User Hannah occupied the residence of Prime User Kelver Rhonin, User Seeker,’ God said.

‘Even better,’ I said. Then a brilliant idea occurred to me. ‘Maybe we can stay there too, while we wait for the others to wake.’

‘Someone is coming,’ Tash said suddenly. She was not looking at the door of the Hub; she was staring fearfully at the dark opening in the floor.

We backed away from it as a very tall, very large, silver man emerged from the darkness that had been covered by the altar. I realised at once that it must be one of the Tumen.
Two men
, I thought, though in truth, it looked more like a metal statue of a perfectly formed man come to life than a man or a machine as it mounted the steps soundlessly upon legs with joints that moved so smoothly that it seemed to flow from one position to the next. Its man-shaped body was covered in a smooth silvery substance that emulated thin metallic cloth over human musculature. Its face was perfectly detailed and yet it was too handsome and smooth to be truly lifelike. Cassandra would have understood this, as the maker of the androne had not. But perhaps the maker had not been trying to make the androne look human, for aside from its face being the same silver material as its body, its hair was moulded. Only its blue eyes looked human, which made them truly eerie in that smooth satiny metal face.

‘What is it?’ Tash whispered in frightened wonderment.

‘I am Unit B, Speci Tash,’ the androne answered her. Its silver lips had moved to shape the words but its face showed no emotion at all. Its voice, too, though masculine, was flat and monotonous. ‘I am an androne. I am formed of synthiskin over a planesium organo-metallic structure implanted with elenic bionics and nanotechnology embedded in biological matter.’

Tash blinked uncomprehendingly at this, and I could hardly blame her.

‘Why did you summon it here, God?’ I asked.

‘Unit B will guide you to the medical centre, to Kelver Rhonin’s residence, and then bring you back to the cryogenic laboratory,’ God said. ‘But before you can leave, Speci Tash must be tagged.’

Tash shrank from the enormous silver form that loomed purposefully over her. ‘What . . . what is it going to do to me?’

‘God, what does it mean that she will be tagged?’ I demanded.

‘Revision Protocol Seventeen governing removal of specimens from Habitat requires tagging. This is usually performed during cryosleep preparation phase. The androne will apply the tag to Speci Tash in accordance with variation coda.’

‘Exactly what is tagging?’ I demanded, setting myself between the silver form of the androne, which had taken another step towards Tash.

‘Tagging enables the resurrected subject to move freely about Midland Quadrant,’ God said. ‘The tagging device bracelets the left wrist and facilitates the gathering of additional data unable to be acquired from unconscious subjects.’

‘A bracelet?’ Tasha said. ‘It won’t hurt me?’

‘It will cause neither pain nor discomfort during installation or afterwards, Speci Tash,’ God said.

Tash looked at me doubtfully.

‘I don’t see that we have any choice, truly,’ I said. ‘I think it is the only way God can let you out while you are conscious, and it is only a bracelet.’

She nodded and I stepped aside to allow the androne to approach her. It reached out its immense silver hand to encircle her slender wrist and she gave a soft gasp.

‘You said it would not hurt her!’ I snapped as the androne released her and stepped back.

‘I am sorry, Elspeth, I’m not hurt. I was just surprised,’ she said, fingering the flat, shining bracelet that now circled her arm just above the wrist. There was no visible join but I noticed there was a line of the same numbers and letters I had seen on the grave markers in the burying field in Habitat.

‘Is it too tight?’ I asked, seeing that it clamped her so closely that it did not slide down her wrist.

‘It . . . it feels like it is stuck to my skin,’ said Tash, apprehensively pulling at the bracelet.

‘The tag is connected by microfibre filaments that run through the skin to the specimen resurrection implant,’ God said equably and incomprehensibly.

I did not like the sound of this, but the thing was done and there was no sense in frightening Tash.

‘Follow me, please,’ said the androne in the same calm voice that had urged me to drink slowly. Tash gave the bracelet one last uneasy glance before taking Dragon’s arm.

We walked on either side of Dragon down the dark steps leading from the Hub, for she truly was pale. There was an odour in the stairwell that was not exactly musty or dank, but nevertheless suggested the way was little used. It was also extremely cold. We had not gone far before we were all shivering in our thin tunics and sandals. I had made Tash and Dragon pass through the opening before me after the androne entered the stairwell, having experienced a sudden fear that God might close the way after me, leaving them stranded in Habitat.

It was a foolish fear, I realised now, because God was unlikely to try to trick me or deceive me. These were human deceptions. I felt more than saw something move overhead and looked up to see the square opening growing smaller – the altar resuming its place. Then without warning, it was pitch black.

‘Elspeth!’ Tash quavered fearfully.

I reached out to squeeze her hand reassuringly, bitterly regretting that I had set the lightstick down when I had gone to look at Dragon.

‘How do you feel?’ I asked Dragon.

‘Cold . . . sick,’ she said.

I felt the same myself, but there was an uncertainty in her tone that alarmed me. However, there was nothing I could do for her now. ‘We just have to get to the bottom of these steps and then there will be an elevating chamber,’ I said, repeating the things I could remember God telling me, and trying to sound reassuringly certain. It was frightening to descend into the unknown in total darkness, but I had been in Beforetime buildings before, and once I had been lost in darkness for almost an hour. I knew it must be infinitely worse for the Speci girl whose entire world had been turned on its head in a matter of a few hours. It was to her credit that, other than hitching a single sob, she continued.

I stumbled when I misjudged the next step, almost pitching forward. Heart pounding with the fright I had given myself, I wondered irritably why the stairs were not lighted. That reminded me of how dark it had been on the unlit, unused levels of Oldhaven, until it had occurred to me to ask Ines for light.

‘God, can you hear me?’ I said.

‘There are no direct mainframe sensors in this stairwell,’ said the androne. ‘But my aural and visual input streams to God’s receptors. Do you require information or feedback from God, User Seeker? I can request these or, if you prefer, God can assume control of vocalisation and respond directly.’

It took me a moment of thought to work out what the androne meant. ‘I just want to know if we can have some light to see where we are walking,’ I said.

‘I can supply light, User Seeker,’ it answered, and a wide beam of soft, white light flooded from the centre of the androne’s forehead, illuminating the bare sloping roof and unadorned walls of the stairwell, and turning the shadows black and dense. Despite the brightness of its light, I could not see the end of the steps and my heart sank. But there was nothing else for it but to go on, and so we did.