The Red Queen (44 page)

‘And you think the man whose home this once was went looking for Eden?’

‘It is only a guess, but apparently there was a govamen computermachine at Eden.’

‘He might have gone looking for his friend,’ Dameon said.

‘I don’t think he would have gone there thinking Erlinder was alive else he would have made contact with Kelver.’

‘But how could he, given that the connection between here and Northport was severed? Maybe when Kelver Rhonin went to Northport he actually found a link to Eden and used it.’

I considered the possibility, but at length I shook my head. ‘God told me Hannah found there was no connection between Northport and any govamen computermachine.’

‘Very well, I have a different notion,’ Dameon said. ‘You have told us more than once that you believe Sentinel cut off all the links between the computermachines and the govamen terminals in response to whatever precipitated the use of the Balance of Terror weapons. Wouldn’t a computermachine that could cut off the links between computermachines have the power to put them back as they were? And wouldn’t Kelver Rhonin likely know that?’

I stared at him. ‘You think he went looking for Sentinel!’

‘Unfortunately he failed to reach it if that was his destination, because the links were not restored,’ Dameon said.

I was less sure. ‘Unless he reached Sentinel but could not convince it to restore them,’ I said. ‘But there is something else. I am almost sure that the Great White was set off by the original Sentinel developed at Hegate. That would be the one that severed links to govamen computermachines.’

‘What other is there?’

‘I think that a copy of the Sentinel program was taken to the secret place where it was to be set up in its final form, Islak, apparently. It may even have been Elke Erlinder’s sister Marji who did it because she was involved in the creation of Sentinel back in its earlier days when it was called Guardian. I think that second sleeping Sentinel is the one I am meant to find, and that the other one was destroyed. Maybe it was even
because
the original Sentinel was attacked that BOT retaliated as it did and brought about the Great White.’

‘So if Kelver Rhonin went looking for Sentinel . . .’

‘He would either find a ruin or a sleeping computermachine with a hedge of weapons set up to attack anyone trying to get close to it. And even if he managed to get into it, the Sentinel within would not have been the one that severed the computer links. And this Sentinel is made to refuse any interaction with humans. If Kelver Rhonin had woken it – and how would he do that? – but
if
he did, it would have immediately closed itself to him. Then it would look around at the world and find it to be devastated. And while it might be an exact copy of the first Sentinel, that copy had to have been made and brought to the secret base before the first Sentinel caused BOT to bring about the Great White. So this newly awakened Sentinel might judge it an attack and react by summoning BOT to retaliate . . .’

‘We would not be here if he had wakened it, I think,’ Dameon said. His voice was calm but his expression bleak.

‘My quest is to make sure no one ever wakes it,’ I said.

Dameon reached out and took my hand, ‘You will not fail to do what must be done.’ For a moment, I was bathed in the warmth of his love and absolute faith in me.

When the sun rose at last, I was once again at the little screen, watching the colours of the desert change and thinking again how beautiful it was in its bare purity. There had been no sign of Ahmedri or his mysterious companion and the androne still stood frozen. Swallow came at length to say Ana and Dragon were back and that I should come and eat with them, for after the meal, he meant to go up to the surface. Seeing my reluctance to leave the screen, he bade me let God keep watch, since it was never sleepy or distracted. He was right, of course, and I went with him along the passage, thinking how quickly we had become used to letting God do things for us. This was how it had been for the Beforetimers and their devices and machines, and in the end, it had led to the creation of Sentinel.

Tash and Dameon were at the table, and Ana and Dragon, both with wet hair. Swallow immediately fell to speculating with Dameon as to who Ahmedri’s mysterious companion might be, if there was only one, and whether the others could possibly be waiting elsewhere and where they might have been all the while we slept in cryopods. Clearly it was a conversation that had been going on for some time.

I asked Ana how their explorations had gone, and heard more than I wanted about clever devices for getting water out of air, and food that could last for aeons and wanted only water to be brought to fresh life, and a platform that floated on a cushion of air. Finally I begged her to stop and Ana laughed and said I ought to see it for myself, then I would understand how exciting it was.

I got up to fetch water and to warm the pot of porridge for a second helping, and when I returned, Swallow and Dameon were talking of Kelver Rhonin and the possibility that he had gone looking for a govamen computermachine after finding there was no connection to one from Northport.

‘Elspeth thinks that he may have gone looking for a place called Eden and her dreams have shown that Sentinel is in the same land . . .’ Dameon began.

Suddenly Ana half started to her feet, saying she had meant to tell us at once, but had forgotten in the excitement of the news about Ahmedri’s appearance.

‘Tell us now,’ Dameon invited, smiling a little at her.

‘It is just this – your talk of Eden made me remember: God . . . well it was Unit B but God was speaking through him the way she does, and she told me Kelver Rhonin talked of crossing the Andol Sea to reach Eden. And I was wondering if this sea might not be the Beforetime name for the Clouded Sea that lies between our vast Land and the Red Land.’

I visualised the map shown to me by map mistress Gorgol aboard the
Umborine
, and remembered a wide body of water running between the two landmasses. But it seemed to me the Clouded Sea was some way west of the Spit, and not between the two lands, unless that body of water had the same name. I told this to the others.

‘Maybe there is the Clouded Sea
and
the Andol Sea but both are part of the great sea and run between the Red Land and this land,’ Dragon said excitedly and I looked at her, sensing that she was thinking of her land, where her people waited. It shamed me to realise that I had never once thought to ask how she felt about being kept from her destiny. But what was I to say if she told me it grieved her to the bone? And none of us knew what was happening there, nor how many of the four ships that had set out had survived the journey, which must be over more than a year since. From my dreams, at least one ship had been destroyed by storm, and if we could draw any conclusions from the glimpses we had seen of those who had travelled aboard them and those who waited in the Red Land, then the battle they went to fight had been lost. Or at least, not won decisively.

I thought for a moment of Rushton, standing on a slave block, being sold, then hiding under it as people screamed, and wondered if it had been a true dream, or merely a nightmare. I seemed to see his clear dark-green eyes in that moment, looking out searchingly, but I dared not let my thoughts go too far in that direction – there was too much loss in it. I hardened my heart, for my own quest was greater that my need for Ruston and his for me, greater even than the need of Dragon’s people for their queen.

‘I have been wondering what a glide is,’ Swallow said. He glanced at Ana. ‘You remember, you said God told you Kelver Rhonin had spoken of crossing this Andol Sea in one.’

‘It must be some sort of ship,’ Dameon said.

‘It is a flying machine,’ Ana said lightly, and we all gaped at her, even I who had seen such things in dreams and visions of the Beforetime. She gave me a swift brilliant smile and said, ‘I have been thinking that since Kelver Rhonin was speaking of taking a glide after leaving Northport he must have known there was one there and that one man alone could fly it.’

‘No!’ Swallow said, staring at her half in wonder and half aghast. ‘Tell me you are not suggesting we find and fly a Beforetime machine.’

‘Is it so mad a notion?’ Ana demanded of me, shafting a glare at him. ‘Imagine being able to do as Kelver Rhonin intended and fly to Eden! From there we would only have to find our way on foot to Sentinel.’

‘Why not fly there too, and then to the moon while we are about it?’ Swallow shouted incredulously.

I ignored him, saying evenly, ‘Supposing there is a glide in Northport, we don’t know how to make it work, let alone how to find our way in it to Eden. Nor whether it would work after all these aeons of time.’

‘Look at how this city is, after aeons!’ Ana said, getting to her feet and sweeping her hand in the direction of the window, beyond which scrapers rose, gleaming and perfect in the false sunlight. Then she gestured at the table. ‘Have we not just eaten food that is aeons old, made with the help of a computermachine aeons old? And God can help us get to Eden, can’t you God?’ Ana asked.

‘I have asked God for a map from here to Eden,’ I said. ‘But it told me that the map details will be based on the lands and seas as they were in the Beforetime. I think the best we can hope for is that it will let us know what direction we are to take.’

‘User Seeker, pre-Cataclysm flight coordinates to Eden were sent to Prime User Kelver Rhonin by Elke Erlinder not long before I was set to sleep mode. I have examined my record and they show that after the Cataclysm, Prime User Kelver Rhonin travelled to Northport in order to find a computer with a connection to a govamen terminal. But if he did not find such a thing, he intended me to send the Eden coordinates from Elke Erlinder to a glide, once he had reconnected the Pellmar Quadrants so that I could communicate with the mainframe there. That is when he spoke of using a glide to cross the Andol Sea and journey to Eden.’

‘How could you send anything, if you were asleep, as you told us?’ Swallow demanded.

‘My basic programs remained functional even in sleep mode, Technician Swallow, and the sending of coordinates is not a complex task,’ God said.

‘Elspeth . . .’ Ana began.

I shook my head again decisively. ‘Kelver Rhonin didn’t reconnect Northport to the govamen’s terminals or to Midland or any other of the Pellmar Quadrants. Maybe the broken link between Northport and the govamen terminals made it impossible. Or something else was broken. But even if God had been able to send those directions – coordinates –
we
still would be incapable of flying a glide, never mind landing one. And even if we could learn to do so, the directions God would send to it belong to a world that is no more!’

‘Then what happened to Kelver Rhonin?’ Ana demanded.

‘It does not matter,’ Swallow said, and she gave him such a blazing look that he frowned and fell silent.

‘God, is it truly impossible for us to use the glide to find Eden?’ Dragon asked softly, which silenced all of us.

God spoke into the silence. ‘The flight coordinates of Eden from Northport are based on pre-Cataclysm distances, as User Seeker says, and they will result in flight destination error of up to 200 kloms. But a programmed golator unit could be provided to guide you to the golator of Kelver Rhonin.’

‘This is madness,’ Swallow snapped. ‘We don’t even know if he got there, since he didn’t use a glide!’

‘We don’t know that he didn’t use one,’ Ana said hotly. ‘Just because he couldn’t get the directions from God doesn’t mean he didn’t know how to use a glide. For all we know there might have been a map to Eden in the glide.’

‘Now you are being absurd,’ Swallow said.

‘She is right in one thing at least,’ I said. ‘We don’t know what happened to Kelver Rhonin, but since we have to go to Northport to get Cassandra’s key, we may learn the truth of it.’

‘And if God has directions to Eden that can be given to a glide, what is to stop us taking the directions and using one?’ Ana said, stubbornly avoiding my eye. ‘Go on, God, have you answers to Elspeth’s other objections?’

‘User Elspeth spoke of the problem of operating a glide without experience,’ God said. ‘Pre-Cataclysm fliers all had auto capacities enabling take off, flight and landing on autopilot, so long as the coordinates given were correct.’

‘Which they are not,’ I said, exasperated. ‘We might land in the sea, if the coastline has changed! Or fly into a pile of stones!’

‘The glide computer can be instructed to activate terrain-sensitive course-correct capacities,’ God said.

‘And how is it to be instructed since we have already established that you cannot reach Northport to instruct it?’ Swallow said. ‘Nor can your andrones,’ he added, with a glance at Ana.

‘I cannot reach Northport but one of the andrones can revert to its original range specification and have its memory augmented to enable me to input the capacity to operate of its own will. It can also be readied to perform the steps that will link Northport to Midland, and enable me to communicate with the glide computer. I would then be able to activate the terrain guidance system.’

Ana began to smile. ‘So it
can
be done! In fact there are two ways it could be done.’

I did not know what to say. I felt as if I had strolled all unawares to the edge of a precipice. I was genuinely astonished at Ana’s willingness to entrust herself to a Beforetime machine, while I, who had seen in my past-dreams how easily the Beforetimers used them, felt sick to the stomach at the thought. No wonder Garth had taken to her and she to him. She was as wildly brave and heedless in this moment as he would have been!

‘What of the beasts? Would they fit in a flying machine?’ Dameon asked, but mildly.

‘God?’ Ana asked. ‘Will a glide be too small to carry a horse?’

‘Several horses,’ Swallow said through his teeth. ‘And maybe wolves as well. A whole pack of them.’

God evinced no astonishment at this fantastical exchange. ‘A Z-class glide seats one hundred and fifty human passengers and has hold space for luggage and mail. There would be room enough for many animals.’