The Red Queen (33 page)

By the time we reached the bottom of the steps, my legs were shaking. Directly in front of us were the vertically seamed metal doors of what must be an elevating chamber, though it looked enormous. The doors were twice the width and height of the elevating chamber doors I had seen in my Beforetime dreams and in Oldhaven. There was no square shining panel to be pressed or touched beside the doors, but as the androne approached, the vast doors split at their central seam to reveal an elevating chamber of such enormous dimensions that I could have ridden Gahltha into it. The androne entered, turned, and I flinched at the glare of its headlight, but it was only light, albeit blinding. Raising a hand to shield my eyes, I ushered Tash and Dragon into the elevating chamber before me. The moment I stepped in, the doors slid closed, again seemingly of their own volition. The elevating chamber shuddered and I felt the strange sudden lightness that told me it was descending swiftly into the earth.

God must be operating the doors, I thought, which meant it was probably controlling the elevating chamber mechanism as well. Ines had been able to control the lesser computermachines and devices in Oldhaven, too, and I wondered how much control God had outside of the Galon Institute, always assuming that was where it was located.

I noticed belatedly that Tash was clinging to Dragon and both girls were white-faced now. Moved by a rush of pity and affection, I put my arms around them, knowing they must be terrified, neither of them having been in an elevating chamber before. I could feel Tash trembling.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ I told them both. ‘I have been in one of these before. It is just carrying us down to another level.’ I decided it would be better not to mention how far down we were going for I remembered my own feeling of suffocating oppression upon discovering that I had been carried down many levels under the earth in the Oldhaven elevating chamber.

The androne’s headlight, reflecting off the shining walls and doors of the chamber, was painfully bright, but I closed my eyes rather than ask for it to be shut off. Long queasy moments later, I experienced the momentary heaviness that told me the elevating chamber was coming to a halt, and then the doors opened.

I stepped out, ushering the girls before me, feeling somewhat unsteady on my own feet. Tash’s face was paper white but Dragon’s was grey and sheened with sweat, the blood on her temple still oozing. I was worried about her, but I could do nothing until we reached Kelver Rhonin’s residence.

The only light was the wedge of brightness cast by the androne’s headlight, and it was reflected on the bare, dark, shining floor we were standing on, which ran away into the shadows, save where it lit several immense dark columns stretching up out of the light. I looked away and blinked until my eyes adjusted enough to the dimness and I saw that we had entered a circular space surrounded by a ring of columns. Beyond these, I could just make out dark panels of glass offering the strange reflection of Dragon, Tash and me and the enormous silver androne.

I looked up, but could not see the roof: the columns and glass panels ran up into impenetrable blackness. I bade the androne stop, for it had begun to move away, and it obeyed with gratifying immediacy, turning back to face me.

‘Do you wish to go somewhere other than the residence of Kelver Rhonin, User Seeker?’ it asked with the same bland courtesy that had so baffled and infuriated me when I had woken from cryosleep. I was about to tell it to continue, when I heard a choking sound. I whirled to see Tash bend over and vomit noisily.

‘The specimen has deposited biological material,’ the androne said. ‘Do you wish it to be collected, User Seeker?’

I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of its question, but instead I answered gravely that it was merely waste material and did not need to be collected. The androne answered that cleaning was performed regularly by unibots, and that the waste would be dealt with by them. Seeing that Tash had regained her composure, and noting that Dragon was now glassy eyed, I bade the androne continue so that we could take care of Dragon’s injuries.

To my surprise the androne turned to Dragon and bent down to look into her face. She flinched from the radiance of its headlight, but almost at once, it turned and set off again, passing through the columns. I hooked my arm through Dragon’s and bade her lean on me. Tash wiped her mouth on her sleeve before coming to take Dragon’s other arm.

‘I am sorry,’ she said.

‘No need to apologise,’ I told her. ‘Vomiting is better than fainting, though I would have forgiven you for that as well. You are being very brave.’

‘It is just all so . . . so . . . 
impossible
,’ she said.

I wanted to tell her that I thought we had seen the least of it yet, but decided against it. We crossed the shadowy floor and passed through the columns in time to see the androne approach one of the dark, shining panels. Two swung open of their own accord to reveal a narrow expanse of the pale, smooth, stone-like substance the Beforetimers had used for paths, and indeed, as I stepped onto it, I saw that it
was
a path that ran both left and right. Beyond it was a black road that ran left and right as well, but there was also a road running directly away from the open door, and it was this path the androne took.

Seeing these roads brought it home to me that Midland was not a single complex under the ground, like Oldhaven, but an actual city full of buildings like drowned Newrome under Tor, and we had come out of a building onto a street, a building that must be the Galon Institute. The androne’s headlight gave off enough light to show me that there were buildings either side of it, and I could just make out others beyond them. Opposite, on either side of the road leading directly away, were more buildings standing side by side and running up out of sight, with a grey path at their feet.

I glanced back at the doors we had come through, realising belatedly that the shining black panels were windows.

‘Androne, have we left the Galon Institute?’

‘Yes, User Seeker,’ said the androne. ‘Do you wish to change route?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘Go on and lead us to Kelver Rhonin’s residence, but go slowly, for Dragon is ill.’

Dragon tried to say she was fine, but to my dismay she slurred her words and I felt her stagger slightly. Certain she was suffering from concussion, I bade Tash support her on the other side, and in that awkward way, three clasped together as one, we followed the androne along the black road.

The road the androne was leading us along began to slope up and I realised it was exactly the sort I had seen in past-dreams, with one startling difference – this black road and the grey paths that cleaved to the sides of it, rose up into the air like a bridge without rails or supports. I could not see what was holding it up nor imagine why it would have been made in such a way, unless it spanned a silent subterranean river lost in darkness, but it felt perfectly solid underfoot. It was only when the androne turned onto another soaring road that curved out of the darkness to join the one we had been travelling on, that its headlight illuminated the buildings so that I could see they were not just buildings but the front rank of
rows
of scrapers.

The profound silence seemed all the more eerie, now that I had some sense of the vastness of the subterranean settlement. It could easily have been the same size as Newrome under Tor, but that crumbling city seemed smaller and less dense, for the fallen buildings had opening up great gaps between the other buildings and the rubble and mess at ground level was smoothed out by the dark waters of the Suggredoon, which flowed between the buildings. But this was not a crumbling city, and though silent and deserted, the buildings were so perfectly formed they looked new.

The road brought us back down to the base of the nearest row of buildings, where the flaring white light of the androne’s headlight and our forms were reflected in the gleaming window glass. We followed the androne along a grey path, his passage making almost no sound despite his height, and I became even more aware of the silence. Aside from our footsteps and the sound of our breathing, I could hear nothing at all. The absence of the natural sounds of the world – wind and water and foliage, the cries of birds and the whirr of insects – reminded me that we were deep under the earth, and also that this was only one of many levels that made up Midland.

I glanced at Tash, who was staring fixedly forward, keeping her eyes on the path, ignoring the dark, silent ranks of scrapers we were passing. Dragon did not react at all and her eyes were half closed. She had been leaning more and more heavily on us and I wondered how much longer she would be able to go on, and if the androne would carry her if she fainted. I prayed that she was only concussed, but that was dangerous enough. Roland had always said a bump on the head was a tricky thing. You could fall from a height and suffer no more than a headache, or bump your head lightly and die.

‘Androne, how much longer will it take us to get to the building we are going to?’ I asked.

‘Estimated time of arrival at designated destination, ten minutes, User Seeker.’

‘Good,’ I said, relieved.

We passed a building that seemed little more than sheets of dark, gleaming glass divided by ladders of shining metal running up out of sight, and I thought of what the androne has said about nanobots cleaning. Was it possible the glass in the building – in all of the buildings in Midland – was cleaned regularly? That might explain why everything looked so pristine and untouched. It was strangely pitiful to imagine God ordering an army of small machines to clean a city where no one dwelt, all the while keeping the only human beings it knew penned up in a sophisticated prison, utterly ignorant of reality.

When we came to a smaller intersecting road that broke the line of buildings, the androne turned into it.

‘Where is it taking us?’ Tash whispered.

‘Somewhere we can take care of Dragon’s wounds,’ I said, forcing myself to speak normally.

‘We are under the ground? Under Habitat?’ she asked timidly.

I was glad to be distracted from my anxiety about Dragon, and I said gently, ‘You have seen enough to know that much you were told in Habitat is untrue.’

She looked around. ‘Did the people who lived here in the time before die in Cataclysm?’

‘I do not know what happened to them, truly. It may be that they died here, or they could have fled to some other place before Cataclysm.’ Though I did not know why they would have done that when Midland had clearly been untouched.

‘Who made Habitat?’ she asked.

‘Some of what the Speci believe is true,’ I said. ‘Habitat was build by God, or at least, God had a plan for it which it used to make the andrones build the settlement. In case you have not realised it, God is not human nor a Lud, but a machine that speaks and thinks, and all of the things it does are things it was told by humans to do. Habitat was just a small forgotten part of a plan God had been given, which was supposed to ensure the rescue of survivors after some great and terrible event like Cataclysm. The andrones, which you call Tumen, were to go out and rescue survivors, bring them back and put them in cryopods that would let them sleep, unageing and unharmed, until they could be safely awoken. God didn’t decide to follow the plan. What you call Cataclysm happened and it was a disaster far greater and more terrible than anyone could have imagined, so most of the Beforetimers died. As I said, I do not know what became of the people who dwelt here, but after a long time a man came here and found it empty, and something he did accidentally prompted God to start following the plan it had been given. It sent the andrones out to rescue people and brought them back and put them in cryopods, just as it had been made to do. They did this for hundreds of years, and there were more and more sleepers, but none could be wakened and freed because the plan didn’t allow for that. Only someone from an organisation called govamen could do that, but they had all died. Finally a Beforetimer came and found that a lot of the cryopods containing rescued people had failed and many sleepers had died. Even so, God could not release the rest, so the Beforetimer convinced God to create Habitat so that at least some of the sleepers would live. That was the woman you call Naha.’

‘We were taught the govamen were to . . . to signal God to let the Speci out of Habitat when the world was clean again . . .’ Tash said. ‘I always wondered what a govamen was.’

‘Govamen was a powerful organisation that existed in all of the territories of the Beforetime. Either they ruled or they served the rulers. But govamen didn’t own or rule this place, which is called Midland and is just one of the four settlements that make up Pellmar Quadrants. They had the Galon Institute, and those who worked there were simply trying to discover ways to save people after a disaster. The creation of God was part of that, and its maker was a man called Kelver Rhonin. It is his home we are going to, now.’

‘Who is Hannah?’ Tash asked. ‘I heard God say she lived in that place, too.’

‘She was Naha,’ I said. ‘God told me that she lived here in Midland for two years or so before she came into Habitat.’

‘And the resurrected babies?’ Tash said.

‘I don’t know where they come from, but I suspect the babies must have been asleep since the . . . since Cataclysm, and God is putting them in because they are healthier and because Beforetimers were able to have babies more easily.’

‘The numbers in Habitat have been falling for generations . . .’

‘There is much I do not know,’ I said.

‘Why did Naha lie to us?’ Tash asked. ‘Why didn’t she tell us the truth?’

‘She may have told the Committee some of it,’ I said. ‘But I think the lies and the Covenant were meant to keep you all calm and quiet in Habitat. If you believe there is nothing outside Habitat, you won’t bother trying to escape. If you believe you were chosen, you will feel content.’

‘How can a machine want people to be content?’

‘It doesn’t,’ I said. ‘God can’t want anything, but it was designed to keep you safe. That is its purpose. So once it had built Habitat and wakened sleepers in it, it had to find ways to keep you as happy as possible.’

‘We were like seeds from a store being planted,’ Tash said bitterly. She looked at me. ‘Do the Committee know the truth?’

‘They know more than ordinary Speci know. They knew the red token was not sent by God, and I believe Feyat knew the angels were not angels capable of recognising a good Speci from a bad one, but I think they do believe that God chose the Speci and put them in Habitat and that it is the only truly safe place in the world.’

‘It seems so strange to build a place like Habitat when there is all of this,’ Tash said. She looked around and then shuddered. ‘Though maybe it is better to live in the sunlight where things can grow.’

‘I think it is better to know the truth and to be free to decide what to do; after all, the Speci could still live in Habitat if they want, or they could go and see what else the world might hold. But whatever they would choose is irrelevant, for God can’t let those in Habitat go free until the govamen contact it to command the waking of the sleepers and that can never happen.’

‘So the Speci will never go free,’ Tash said sadly.

I was struck by the fact that she had responded to all that I had told her with sorrow rather than anger and outrage, perhaps in part because Habitat had been shaped to quell the expression of violent emotion. Ironically, that made Balboa unique, because she had managed to retain and express passion despite being in Habitat. The pity of it was that the emotions were anger and jealousy.

‘Why did it let
us
out of Habitat?’ Tash asked after a time.

‘It let me out because I came here knowing what to say to make it free me and my three companions, but the Committee acted before I could discover how to use what I knew,’ I said. ‘It freed you because the govamen had a special interest in Misfits – God calls them special anomalies. In fact I think God was given instructions about anomalies and it might be that the Committee somehow came to think of them as bad Speci because God took them out of Habitat when it was sure of what they were.’

‘And what happens to them?’

I hesitated, not wanting to lie to her, but not wanting to frighten her either. ‘I am not sure what God has been told to do with them. Perhaps we can ask it. In any case, as you might have heard, it agreed to let you out of Habitat because it thinks you might be a special anomaly, and because I told it you would be in danger. The fact that this convinced it tells me it does not want you to be harmed.’

‘That is why the androne . . . tagged me,’ she said, glancing down at the flat shining bracelet. ‘Because it wants to be sure if I am an anomaly.’ She was silent for a time and then she told me there had been disappearances in Habitat but talk of them was frowned upon. ‘I thought it was because God had claimed them, but maybe all of those who disappeared were special anomalies.’

‘Why did God let you and Dragon out without tagging you? Is it because you knew what to say to it?
How
did you find out?’

I shrugged. ‘I have learned many things on my journey here, and the words I needed to say to God to make it think of me as a User were among them. It just took me a while to discover how to use them.’

‘Why did you come here?’

She was no fool. ‘I was looking for something, and I and the others were near, I think, when the andrones took us. The next thing we woke in Habitat. For a time I thought what I was seeking might actually be in Habitat.’

It was far from a complete answer to her question and the furrow between her brows told me she knew this. But she said nothing for a long time, and it occurred to me that her reticence came from living in Habitat where, like all of the Speci, she had been accustomed to incomplete information. No doubt she was also being guided by her empathy and my emotions.

‘You are trying to prevent another Cataclysm,’ Tash said slowly. ‘A worse one.’ She looked into my face and smiled a little at my astonishment. ‘I may be a seed from a crop of ignorant seeds, but I am not deaf. I heard you say it to . . . to God.’

‘We will talk more of it later,’ I said. She nodded and fell silent with all the exquisite sensitivity of a Dameon.

In truth there were many questions that wanted answering, not the least of which was exactly how Hannah had made God accept her authority and why she had introduced the red token to Habitat. But I needed to focus on my quest, which meant waking the others, finding and waking Miryum, and travelling to Northport to get Cassandra’s key. After that, I could only pray that Miryum, or Dragon’s memory, or a message from Hannah would reveal to me what I still needed to know.

I caught a movement across the black road and my heart punched at my chest in fright as I thought of the
rhenlings
, but when I turned my head I saw it was only our hurrying forms reflected in the dark shining windows on the other side of the black road. How insignificant we looked, the three of us, hurrying behind the shining metal androne, its headlight reaching before it into darkness, making a path, the enormous deserted city rising all about us. It was strangely difficult to imagine people had ever lived here.

The androne stopped at yet another road cutting across our path and made its way towards the wide front doors of a triangular building set back with wide steps running up from the paved triangular area that mirrored it at the corner. Unlike most of the buildings we had passed, this one was not all severe unadorned straight lines. Instead, it presented a face that was a series of overlapping curves, like waves in the great sea breaking one after another on a sandy shore. The large doors opened as we mounted the steps, and Tash and I followed the androne into the building, all but carrying Dragon’s full weight now. The androne made its way directly across an entrance chamber, where the floor glimmered with small tesserae showing glimpses of ship fish through deep green water. The design was very beautiful and intriguing, and but it also startled me, even though I had known that ship fish had existed in the Beforetime.