“What is it?” Finn’s hand rested on her shoulder blade, where he must have felt her heart thumping against her ribs.
A second realization hit, even more overwhelming than the first. “Finn, I think Scarabaeus can help you.”
He sat up beside her. “What?”
“Remember Haller? The jungle dissected him while keeping him alive. Perhaps it could remove the bomb from your skull without damaging you.” Something stopped her from telling him the full extent of her realization. She stuck with the part that really mattered. “The bomb is integrated into your splinter, and the splinter is biocyph. That’s something the planet can understand and manipulate…and destroy.”
She got to her feet and grabbed his hand to pull him up. She had to get back to the cavern and talk to Scarabaeus. To
Haller.
That part she couldn’t tell Finn. He would never put his life in Haller’s hands. The two men had hated each other, and for generally good reasons.
They scrambled into their clothes. Finn, who had only pants to put on, watched her finish dressing. She got the feeling he was humoring her, that he’d rather stay right here on the riverbank and wait it out.
“It might work,” she said breathlessly. “A wet-teck interface can’t be extracted from the cortex, but this is different. You only have a sliver of it in your head. The way the jungle dealt with Haller’s body and brain—so precise and delicate…It might work.”
She started up the bank, pausing when Finn did not follow.
“Finn, please. This is your only chance.”
“Brain surgery performed by plants. That’s my only chance?”
“Just come with me.”
He did, without further protests. They ran to the city’s edge, Finn apparently immune to the discomfort of travel
ing barefoot over rocky ground. Edie found the tunnel where she’d entered before.
“This way.”
As they jogged through the twists and turns, Edie spoke her thoughts aloud, hoping to reassure him.
“These aren’t really plants. This entire place is one being. One creature. One consciousness. It has autonomous functions, like the instinctive reactions of the wildlife to intrusions and the everyday calculations that keep it evolving. And it has a thinking, creative component that plans ahead and molds the evolution according to its desires.”
That part was Haller, she now knew. He’d spent the last year learning how to control the biocyph—not very successfully, but certainly well enough to confound Theron’s team.
“Why would it help me?” Finn said.
“Because it wants my help.”
That was going to be the tricky part—persuading Haller to help Finn, to not kill him. Haller would demand a price. Edie would agree to it. She’d help him turn this world into whatever he wanted. What did it matter now? In the future, humans were sure to try again to tame Scarabaeus—let them try. Finn would be alive and safe and free.
They entered the cavern. Phosphorescent patterns spun in greeting across the floor and along the stalactites. The retroviruses of Scarabaeus could taste her presence, and the planet was evidently pleased at her return.
“Jezus…” Finn looked around, marveling.
Edie pushed through to the BRAT. She’d left the jury-rigged biocyph commlink back at the pod, so she reeled out a hardlink and jacked in.
—I have been waiting.
“I’m here to make a deal, Haller,” she sent down the link, not speaking aloud. She’d debated whether to let Haller know that she knew who he was. Their relationship when he was a man had been tense at best, and sometimes abusive. But maintaining the deception would only waste time.
—A deal? What I offer you is so immense, so gratifying, it will be its own reward.
“No games. I know it’s you. I don’t care why you pretended otherwise—”
—I’m not the same as I used to be. But I didn’t know if you would see that.
Fair enough. She’d detested Haller the man, and he knew it.
“Well, I’m here and I’m prepared to work with you. I need more from you than the joy of experiencing your planet-sized brain. I’ve brought Finn with me—he’s unshielded, so you know he’s here.” Finn wandered around the chambers of the cavern, coming in and out of Edie’s view as he examined everything with a critical eye.
—Edie, I’ve no interest in deals. I could take you by force if I chose.
She doubted that. “What use would that be? I’m a cypherteck. Biocyph is my playground, not yours. If you force me, I’ll overpower you.”
—Perhaps. You will give your cooperation once you realize the wonders we can create together.
“I’ll do what you want, but here’s what I want. Remove the bomb from Finn’s brain. It’s integrated into his biocyph splinter.”
—What makes you think I’m capable of that?
“Scarabaeus pulled you apart cell by cell in order to merge with you. The biocyph knows how to do that. You just need to guide it so it knows when to stop. If you succeed, if he survives, I’ll help you.”
—You’ll help me?
She could sense Haller thinking it through.
—Edie, helping me is not enough. You must merge with me completely. I will take your body as Scarabaeus took mine. Your mind will integrate with the planet’s biocyph and you will join me. We will be Scarabaeus. It’s the only way to take complete control over this world.
Edie felt sick as visions of Haller’s grisly demise—his physical demise, anyway—came back to her.
I don’t want to
control this world,
her mind screamed. She wanted Finn to be safe. She wanted him to rejoin his friends and restart his life.
To get what she wanted, she had to give Haller everything.
Huddled against the BRAT seed, she found herself staring at her hands. This is what she would lose—skin, muscle, bone, but so much more. What would remain? Only the memory of what it felt like to touch another human. Would she even recognize herself?
There wasn’t time for philosophical pondering. Just as he’d done a year ago, Haller offered her an escape from the Crib. Perhaps, if she merged with Scarabaeus, she could even save it from the Crib’s interference. That, and Finn’s life, would have to be enough.
“I’ll agree to merge with you,” she sent to Haller.
—You will be amazed. Together we—
“But only if Finn survives,” she broke in. “And you need to hurry. Natesa’s on the way with a detonator to kill him at any moment.”
—Natesa! That woman will not cease trying to steal you from me until she’s dead.
Edie felt Haller’s attention fading. She called him back, desperately.
“Don’t destroy her ship, Haller. There are innocents on board. Save Finn from her, and then she won’t matter. She won’t have power over me anymore.”
The entire cavern vibrated in frustrated anger. Finn came over, alarmed.
“It’s okay,” she told him. “I’ve arranged it.” Finn looked confused, and she felt guilty about deceiving him. If she was going to set him free, it had to start now—she had to give him the freedom to make the decision even knowing what it involved. “Finn, the consciousness of the planet—it’s John Haller. His mind merged with the biocyph.”
“And you trust him?” Finn seemed more amazed by that than he did by the idea of a planet with a mind.
“Yes, because I promised to help
him
if it works—and he really wants my help. He won’t harm you.”
She kept the rest from him, knowing he’d refuse if he knew the cost. If he knew, he’d sacrifice himself for her, just as she’d chosen to sacrifice herself for him.
Finn didn’t look any happier, but to Edie’s relief he nodded. “He can’t kill me any more dead than Natesa will.”
“Haller.” She spoke aloud now, as well as through the link. “He’s ready.”
—Tell him to return to the chamber where he just was.
Edie cut the link and walked between the resin drapes at one side of the BRAT, beckoning for Finn to follow. The small chamber looked much like any other, its walls dripping with sticky fluid. The ground under Finn’s feet opened up. Instinctively, Edie backed away.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said, only because she was terrified.
As Finn was knocked to his knees, a milky, shimmering mass erupted from the disturbed ground and engulfed him. Hundreds of vines snaked around his body and lifted him up spread-eagled. She caught a split-second glimpse of his face—his trusting gaze locked with hers—before the column of vines raised him higher still. More vines dropped from the ceiling of the chamber and locked together to create a sturdy, twisted stalk as wide as the BRAT itself and three times taller. Finn’s body was suspended halfway up the column.
Thin filaments crept up the vines, their sensitive tips searching for a hold. They swarmed around Finn’s head and encased it. His body convulsed once, and he was still.
Edie crawled back to the BRAT over uneven, shifting ground, and pressed her fingers to the access port.
“Haller, don’t hurt him.” Hot tears burned her eyes.
—I remember your wasted feelings for this man. After you merge, you’ll realize that individuals are irrelevant.
Finn was now completely cocooned. The vines writhed around him, grotesque fingers prodding and manipulating while the fine tendrils invaded his body to latch onto the biocyph.
Edie sank to the spongy ground outside Finn’s chamber and waited.
It seemed like hours later that she was distracted by sounds in the distance—laughter and shouting drawing nearer. It couldn’t be…
Through the strands of dried sap, Edie saw Galeon rush into the cavern. The other children followed, eyes wide with joyous wonder. They still wore their PJs along with an assortment of adult-sized clothes from the meager lifepod supplies.
“Macky!” Galeon headed straight for the BRAT, almost tripping over himself on the soft uneven ground.
Edie could do little more than scramble to her feet and watch the children in horror. Why were they here? The slaters could have attacked them. Then she saw they wore no e-shields.
Edie grabbed Galeon, and he winced as she dug her fingers into his wrist harder than she’d intended. “What are you doing here? Where’s your e-shield?”
“Macky asked us to come. He said it was safe.”
“
Asked
you? How?”
“We’ve been talking to him.”
Galeon pointed to Pris, who was running her hands over the velvety surface of a phosphorescent cell suspended in a
resin stalactite. Strapped to her arm was the biocyph commlink.
Edie should have predicted this—the children’s curiosity for Macky was insatiable. “You weren’t supposed to use that,” she said.
“Well, we did. Then Cat and Corinth fell asleep and we snuck out.” Sneaking out was, of course, Galeon’s forte.
“Macky needs our help,” Pris said.
“Give me the commlink.”
Pris unstrapped the device and handed it to Edie without objecting. She gave Edie a beatific smile and went on to explore the next chamber. The other two girls were out of sight, although she could hear them.
Edie hit Cat’s callsign on her regular commlink. Oddly, she got no response, as if the link could not connect. That had to be bad news. As she walked through the chambers, trying to keep track of the excited children, she pressed her fingers to the port on the biocyph wafer attached to the commlink, to gain a remote connection to the BRAT.
“Haller, what did you tell the children?”
His reply came through the datastream.
—Ah, the children. They contacted me several hours ago. At first I thought it was a trick, but they are so guileless.
Edie was filled with fear for them. And for Finn, who was now a helpless hostage.
“What did you tell them? If you’ve made any kind of deal—”
—They wanted to meet me.
“In the middle of the night?”
—
Dawn is breaking. Don’t worry. I ensured their safety from the retroviruses and slaters. They told me who they are. Talasi cyphertecks, like you. They even showed me what they can do, as far as the link would allow. I realized I need their help with this procedure. I would like them to jack in.
“No. Never.”
—This surgery is trickier than I had anticipated.
Was he about to blackmail her? His transformation to planethood did not seem to have changed his personality much. What if he liked what he saw when the children jacked in, and wanted them to merge with him? She doubted it would take much to persuade them to go “willingly.”
“Don’t touch them, Haller. They’re innocent pawns of the Crib.”
—I have already touched them, and I think you’ll be pleased.
“What do you mean?”
—They had the same defect as you. A design flaw. I corrected it.
“You cured their neuroxin dependence?”
—Yes. I have released retroviruses to repair the biocyph in their cells and destroy the remaining neuroxin in their implants.
“Then they’re free…” Edie murmured.
And so was she. She looked down at her hand, the one that had grabbed Galeon, her touch a vector of transmission. The retroviruses would work on her the same way. They were free from their homeworld. No longer reliant on the Crib to provide them with neuroxin. Their future was theirs to make…if she could keep the past, in the form of Natesa, from catching up with them.
Galeon tugged at her sleeve. “Is Finn in there?” He pointed to the column of vines in the nearby chamber.
“Yes. Macky’s helping him.”
“Macky wants us all to help,” Pris called. She was at the BRAT, already jacked in. Beside her sat Hanna and Raena, jacked in as well.
Before Edie could stop him, Galeon hurried over to join them. Frozen by indecision, Edie stayed where she was. Did she have a right to stop them? She’d taken it upon herself to plan their future, destroy their past—hoping, at least, to remove them from the Crib and this life of endless datastreams. Yet they loved it. They’d anticipated meeting Macky for days.
And Haller had cured them. Why would he bother doing that if he intended to merge with them? Perhaps it was safe enough. Edie spoke to Haller again using the remote link.