The Wind From a Burning Woman: Six Stories of Science Fiction (18 page)

How can I fix myself here? he asked the walls. No answer came. He drank water from the fountain again and went to explore further.

The ground plan of Mandalas lowest level was relatively simple. It consisted mostly of trade and commerce facilities, with spacious corridors for vehicle traffic, large warehouse areas, and dozens of conference rooms. Computing facilities were also provided. He knew a little about computersthe trade office in Bethel-Japhet still had an ancient pocket model taken from a city during the Exiling. The access terminals in Mandala were larger and clumsier, but recognizable. He came across a room filled with them. Centuries of neglect had made them irregular in shape, their plastic and thin metal parts warping. He wondered what portions of them, if any, were alive.

Most of the rooms on the lowest level maintained the sea-floor green motif. The uniformity added to Jeshuas confusion, but after several hours of wandering, he found the clue that provided guidance. Though nothing existed in the way of written directions or graphic signs or maps, by keeping to the left he found he tended to the center; and to the right, the exterior. A Mandalan of ten centuries ago would have known the organization of each floor by education, and perhaps by portable guidebooks or signalers. Somewhere, he knew, there had to be a central elevator system.

He followed all left-turning hallways. Avoiding obvious dead ends, he soon reached the base of a hollow shaft. The floor was tiled with a changing design of greens and blues, advancing and flowing beneath his feet like a cryptic chronometer. He craned his neck back and looked up through the center of Mandala. High above he saw a bluish circle, the waning daytime sky. Wind whistled down the shaft.

Jeshua heard a faint hum from above. A speck blocked out part of the skylight and grew as it fell, spiraling like a dropped leaf. It had wings, a thick body for passengers, and an insect head, like the dragonfly buttresses that provided ventilation on Mandates exterior. Slowing its descent, it lifted its nose and came to a stop in front of him, still several feet above the floor. The bottoms of its unmoving transparent wings reflected the changing design of the floor.

Then he saw that the floor was coming to a conclusion, like an assembled puzzle. It formed a mosaic triskelion, a three-winged symbol outlined in red.

The glider waited for him. In its back there was room for at least five people. He chose the front seat. The glider trembled and moved forward. The insect-head tilted back, cocked sideways, and inspected its ascent. Metallic antennae emerged from the front of the body. A tingling filled the air. And he began to fly.

The glider slowed some distance above the floor and came to a stop at a gallery landing. Jeshua felt his heartbeat race as he looked over the black railing, down the thousand feet or so to the bottom of the shaft.

This way, please.

He turned, expecting to see Thinner again. Instead there waited a device like a walking coat-tree, with a simple vibration speaker mounted on its thin neck, a rod for a body, and three appendages jointed like a mantiss front legs. He followed it.

Transparent pipes overhead pumped bubbling fluids like exposed arteries. He wondered whether dissenting citizens in the past could have severed a citys lifelines by cutting such pipesor were these mere ornaments, symbolic of deeper activities? The coat-tree clicked along in front of him, then stopped at a closed hexagonal door and tapped its round head on a metal plate. The door opened. In here.

Jeshua entered. Arranged in racks and rows in endless aisles throughout the huge room were thousands of constructions like Thinner. Some were incomplete, with their machinery and sealed-off organic connections hanging loose from trunks, handless arms, headless necks. Some had gaping slashes, broken limbs, squashed torsos. The coat-tree hurried off before he could speak, and the door closed behind.

He was beyond anything but the most rudimentary anxiety now. He walked down the central aisle, unable to decide whether this was a workshop or a charnel house. If Thinner was here, it might take hours to find him.

He stared straight ahead and stopped. There was someone not on the racks. At the far end of the room, it stood alone, too distant to be discerned in detail. Jeshua waited, but the figure did not move. It was a stalemate.

He made the first step. The figure darted to one side like a deer. He automatically ran after it, but by the time hed reached the end of the aisle, it was nowhere to be seen.

Hide and seek, he murmured. For Gods sake, hide and seek.

He rubbed his groin abstractedly, trying to still the flood of excitement rushing into his stomach and chest. His fantasies multiplied, and he bent over double, grunting. He forced himself to straighten up, held out his arms, and concentrated on something distracting.

He saw a head that looked very much like Thinners. It was wired to a board behind the rack, and fluids pulsed up tubes into its neck. The eyes were open but glazed, and the flesh was ghostly. Jeshua reached out to touch it. It was cold, lifeless.

He examined other bodies more closely. Most were naked, complete in every detail. He hesitated, then reached down to touch the genitals of a male. The flesh was soft and flaccid. He shuddered. His fingers, as if working on their own, went to the pubic mound of a female figure. He grimaced and straightened, rubbing his hand on his pants with automatic distaste. A tremor jerked up his back. He was spooked now, having touched the lifeless forms, feeling what seemed dead flesh.

What were they doing here? Why was Mandala manufacturing thousands of surrogates? He peered around the racks of bodies, this way and behind, and saw open doors far beyond. Perhaps the girlit must have been the girlhad gone into one of those.

He walked past the rows. The air smelled like cut grass and broken reed stems, with sap leaking. Now and then it smelled like fresh slaughtered meat, or like oil and metal.

Something made a noise. He stopped. One of the racks. He walked slowly down one aisle, looking carefully, seeing nothing but stillness, hearing only the pumping of fluids in thin pipes and the clicks of small valves. Perhaps the girl was pretending to be a cyborg. He mouthed the word over again. Cyborg. He knew it from his schooling. The cities themselves were cybernetic organisms.

He heard someone running away from him, slap of bare feet on floor. He paced evenly past the rows, looking down each aisle, nothing, nothing, stillness, there! The girl was at the opposite end, laughing at him. An arm waved. Then she vanished.

He decided it was wise not to chase anyone who knew the city better than he did. Best to let her come to him. He left the room through an open door.

A gallery outside adjoined a smaller shaft. This one was red and only fifty or sixty feet in diameter. Rectangular doors opened off the galleries, closed but unlocked. He tested the three doors on his level, opening them one at a time with a push. Each room held much the same thinga closet filled with dust, rotting and collapsed furniture, emptiness and the smell of old tombs. Dust drifted into his nostrils, and he sneezed. He went back to the gallery and the hexagonal door. Looking down, he swayed and felt sweat start. The view was dizzying and claustrophobic.

A singing voice came down to him from above. It was feminine, sweet and young, a song in words he did not completely catch. They resembled Thinners chaser dialect, but echoes broke the meaning. He leaned out over the railing as far as he dared and looked up. It was definitely the girlfive, six, seven levels up. The voice sounded almost childish. Some of the words reached him clearly with a puff of direct breeze:

Dis em, in solit lib, dis em... Cloed in cloes ob dead...

The red shaft vanished to a point without skylight. The unfamiliar glare hurt his eyes. He shaded them to see more clearly. The girl backed away from the railing and stopped singing.

He knew by rights he should be angry, that he was being teased. But he wasnt. Instead he felt a loneliness too sharp to sustain. He turned away from the shaft and looked back at the door to the room of cyborgs.

Thinner stared back at him, grinning crookedly. Didnt have chance to welcome, he said in Hebrew. His head was mounted on a metal snake two feet long; his body was a rolling green car with three wheels, a yard long and half a yard wide. It moved silently. Have any difficulty?

Jeshua looked him over slowly, then grinned. It doesnt suit you, he said. Are you the same Thinner?

Doesnt matter, but yes, to make you comfortable.

If it doesnt matter, then who am I talking to? The city computers?

No, no. They cant talk. Too concerned with maintaining. Youre talking with whats left of the architect.

Jeshua nodded slowly, though he didnt understand.

Its a bit complicated, Thinner said. Go into it with you later. You saw the girl, and she ran away from you.

I must be pretty frightening. How long has she been here?

A year.

How old is she?

Dont know for sure. Have you eaten for a while?

No. How did she get in?

Not out of innocence, if thats what youre thinking. She was already married before she came here. The chasers encourage marriage early.

Then Im not here out of innocence, either.

No.

You never saw me naked, Joshua said. How did yon know what was wrong with me?

Im not limited to human senses, though El knows what I do have are bad enough. Follow me, and Ill find suitable quarters for you.

I may not want to stay.

As I understand it, youve come here to be made whole. That can be done, and I can arrange it. But patience is always a virtue.

Jeshua nodded at the familiar homily. She speaks Chaser English. Is that why you were with the chasers, to find a companion for her?

The Thinner-vehicle turned away from Jeshua without answering. It rolled through the cyborg chamber, and Jeshua followed. It would be best if someone she was familiar with would come to join her, but none could be persuaded.

Why did she come?

Thinner was silent again. They took a spiral moving walkway around the central shaft, going higher. Its the slow, scenic route, Thinner said, but youll have to get used to the city and its scale.

How long am I going to stay?

As long as you wish.

They disembarked from the walkway and took one of the access halls to an apartment block on the outer wall of the city. The construction and colors here were more solid. The bulkheads and doors were opaque and brightly colored in blue, burnt orange, and purple. The total effect reminded Jeshua of a sunset. A long balcony in the outer wall gave a spectacular view of Arat and the plains, but Thinner allowed him no time to sightsee. He took Jeshua into a large apartment and made him familiar with the layout.

Its been cleaned up and provided with furniture you should be used to. You can trade it in for somewhere else whenever you want. But youll have to wait until youve been seen to by the medical units. Youve been scheduled for work in this apartment. Thinner showed him a white-tile and stainless-steel kitchen, with food dispensers and basic utensils. Food can be obtained here. Theres enough material to customize whatever comes out of the dispensers. Sanitary units are in here and should explain themselves

They talk?

No. I mean their use should be self-evident. Very few things talk in the city.

We were told the cities were commanded by voice.

Not by most of the citizens. The city itself does not talk back. Only certain units, not like myselfnone of the cyborgs were here when humans were. Thats a later development. Ill explain in time. Im sure youre more used to books and scrolls than tapes or tridvee experiences, so Ive provided some offprints for you on these shelves. Over here

Seems Im going to be here for a long time.

Dont be worried by the accommodations. This may be fancy by your standards, but it certainly isnt by Mandalas. These used to be apartments for those of an ascetic temper. If theres anything you want to know when Im not here, ask the information desk. Its hooked to the same source I am.

Ive heard of the city libraries. Are you part of them?

No. Ive told you, Im part of the architect. Avoid library outlets for the moment. In fact, for the next few days, dont wander too far. Too much too soon, and all that. Ask the desk, and it will give you safe limits. Remember, youre more helpless than a child here. Mandala is not out-and-out dangerous, but it can be disturbing.

What do I do if the girl visits me?

You anticipate it?

She was singing to me, I think. But she didnt want to show herself directly. She must be lonely.

She is. Thinners voice carried something more than a tone of crisp efficiency. Shes been asking a lot of questions about you, and shes been told the truth. But shes lived without company for a long time, so dont expect anything soon.

Im confused, Jeshua said.

In your case, thats a healthy state of mind. Relax for a while; dont let unknowns bother you.

Thinner finished explaining about the apartment and left. Jeshua went out the door to stand on the terrace beyond the walkway. Light from God-Does-Battles synchronous artificial moons made the snows of Arat gleam like dull steel in the distance. Jeshua regarded the moons with an understanding hed never had before. Humans had brought them from the orbit of another world, to grace God-Does-Battles nights. The thought was staggering. People used to live there, a thousand years ago. What had happened to them when the cities had exiled their citizens? Had the lunar cities done the same thing as the cities of God-Does-Battle?

He went to his knees for a moment, feeling ashamed and primitive, and prayed to El for guidance. He was not convinced his confusion was so healthy.

He ate a meal that came as close as amateur instructions could make it to the simple fare of Bethel-Japhet. He then examined his bed, stripped away the coversthe room was warm enoughand slept.

* * * *

Once, long ago, if his earliest childhood memories were accurate, he had been taken from Bethel-Japhet to a communion in the hills of Kebal. That had been years before the Synedrium had stiffened the separation laws between Catholic and Habiru rituals. His father and most of his acquaintances had been Habiru and spoke Hebrew. But prominent members of the community, such as Sam Daniel, had by long family tradition worshiped Jesus as more than a prophet, according to established creeds grouped under the title of Catholicism. His father had not resented the Catholics for their ideas.