The Machine's Child (Company) (12 page)

“Infinitely better, I should hope,” said Edward, focusing his gimlet stare on a real ashtray in which he was attempting to materialize a lit virtual cigar.

“Oh, piss off! If you’re so smart why can’t you do it, then?”

Nicholas, sitting beside them, closed his eyes and wished desperately he could close his ears as well.

I know, lad, I know. It be a tedious business, hearing them quarrel,
the Captain told him silently. Startled, he opened his eyes, but Alec and Edward were so busy snarling at each other they didn’t notice.

Fear not; I can speak in thine ear when I will. Wilt thou not try thy hand at Edward’s game again? Or what may I fetch for thee, lad? More books?

Two yards of hempen rope, if that were enough to hang a ghost,
said Nicholas, closing his eyes again.

Ah, now, son, thou mustn’t get to thinking like that.

Must I not? What harm, Spirit? There’s no Heaven I may be denied thereby, nor no Hell to gape for the likes of me neither, save what I myself made. Thou saw’st that place my sin was author to, and what my lady suffered there.

We got to have a parley about causality one of these days, Nick. Out of all them hundreds of steps it took to make Dr. Zeus mighty, thou wert only the first. There’s a thousand more folk whose guilt is worse, lad. Bloody hell, look thou at our Edward here, and what he done!

Small comfort in that, Spirit.
Nicholas opened his eyes and gave a sullen smile.
What say’st thou, is it not likeliest we are none but Antichrist himself? Made in the Last Days by wicked men, in a mockery of God. Wherefore did they take such pains the boy should be born of a virgin? And with a triparted soul to boot.

Aw, now, lad, you ain’t any such a thing. I’ll grant thee Edward’s a real bastard, but even he tried to do what he thought was right his whole life.

Ay, Spirit, and see what came of his labors! And mine. When I was most certain of my way, there was I most in error.
Nicholas watched, apathetic, as Edward assumed various conjurer’s postures in his attempts to make a cigar appear.
I did no thing that was not from vaunting pride, save only to love Rose, and see how I brought her to ruin. Shall I make her amends now? But what will she want with me? I have no flesh that I may embrace her; I wasted it in flame. If she can love still after what she hath endured, who should have her heart but thine Alec, Spirit? And he’s but a fool.

Aw, now, my boy’s smarter than you think.

But he is doomed. Innocent blood’s upon his head, and no other woman will have him now, so he must take my Rose to be his love. What’s in his heart but selfish need?
Nicholas looked broodingly across at Alec, who was chortling at Edward’s expression of frustrated rage.
And Edward’s a monster, Spirit. He loves what she is; but her soul he loveth not. He will offer her
usefulness
up to that void he serves. I know it. I meant to do the same, though it was God I served and not Science. Poor Rose . . .

At the least there might be a way to tell her yer sorry for what you done.

There’s balm indeed for my sick heart.
Nicholas sighed and put his head in his hands.

Whyn’t I fetch thee thy Scripture to study some more?

To what end? What may I learn therein? Where was God’s infinite mercy in Rose’s prison, Spirit?

Damned if I know, boy; I’m a machine, remember? I was hoping you could figure it out so my Alec will—

“There!”
said Edward, striking the table with his palm. “There, by God. I told you I could—” He halted, scowling, staring through the rising plume of virtual cigar smoke at Alec. “Wait a minute! Was that you?”

“No,” said Alec, looking too innocent.

“That was you, wasn’t it?”

“No! I swear.”

“You bloody little liar!”

“Oh, piss off!”

“Jesu Christ!” Standing up to seize control, Nicholas slapped the ashtray and its virtual contents across the room. Both Alec and Edward jumped and stared at him.

As the days passed they grew more nervous, more despondent and quarrelsome; increasingly they found themselves in the infirmary, peering into the hyperbaric chamber. At last they took to sleeping in the infirmary, though the single bed seemed cramped and awkward for them. Finally Alec ordered their meals served there. The last three days they never left the room at all, with its perfumed and glowing atmosphere, its steady heartbeat pulsing.

“The poetry of John Donne, eh?” Edward remarked, peering over Nicholas’s shoulder at the screen of the text plaquette. “Bravo. Can it be possible we’ve weaned you from the gospels?”

Nicholas scowled and drew his elbows up on his chest, pulling the plaquette closer to his face. “He was canon of St. Paul’s,” he informed Edward. Edward fell back laughing.

“You were reading
To His Mistress Going to Bed,
” he said. “You canting hypocrite! I’ve always rather admired him, myself. You might have been another Donne, if you hadn’t had that unfortunate tendency to martyrdom.”

“If you hit him, you’ll just pitch all three of us off the bed,” Alec advised Nicholas in a resigned voice. “Ignore it.”

“I was complimenting Nicholas, you ignoramus,” Edward told him. “Though I suppose you can’t help what you are, any more than he can. Thank God one of us was born during an enlightened time.”

“There is no end to thy pride, is there, devil?” said Nicholas and sighed.

“I was born in modern times too, you creep!” protested Alec.

“Ah! But not in an
enlightened
time,” Edward said. “You were born during what I’d term the Third Age of Technology.”

“Oh, man, you’re going to lecture us again, aren’t you?” Alec moaned.

“Why shouldn’t I?” countered Edward. “God knows you need the instruction, and it’s not as though we’ve anything better to do.”

“I was reading,” said Nicholas icily.

“To be sure, you were. I won’t keep you from your guilty pleasures, then,” said Edward. Nicholas glared at him and turned his attention to the text plaquette. There followed a sullen silence of about thirty seconds before Alec asked:

“Okay, Deadward, why’s it the
third
age of technology? What’s that mean?”

“I shall ignore your infantile humor and will be happy to explain, since you’ve inquired,” said Edward condescendingly. “I have formulated a theory of cycles of development in the history of mankind. They repeat in ever-expanding patterns, producing ages of Technology, Faith, and Reason.”

“Oh, that’s crap.”

“No, it isn’t. Technology was the first age, when primordial Man crawled from his dark shelter and discovered that by the simple expedient of striking flints in various ways he could provide himself with both fire and weapons,” Edward said. “Will you grant me that?”

“Okay,” said Alec grudgingly. “And?”

“And so the brute beast found himself, as it were, master of his universe. He had, of course, no idea of any consequences. He simply forged ahead, lighting fires and making spears, as fast as his clumsy hands could go. The result was, potentially, a greater lifespan for Man, but new and terrible responsibilities which he utterly ignored,” said Edward.

“Nowadays you’re supposed to say Humanity, you know. There were women back then, too,” Alec told him.

“Allow me my metaphor, if you please,” snapped Edward. “To continue: over the ages, the consequences of Technology did begin to make themselves evident to primitive Man. Fires, and bloodier warfare, prompted fear in his dim mind. With so much death in evidence, it was impossible not to wonder about his own inevitable demise. This prompted shamans to caper about and pretend their ancestors were giving them advice on the problem, and so was born the First Age of Faith.”

“And everybody went to Hell?” said Alec. Nicholas snorted.

“Not at all. Religion’s quite useful, at a certain level. It provides a notion of moral behavior and, as such, is the origin of ethics,” said Edward, steepling his fingers. “It is, at least, a system of thought, if it doesn’t
degrade into mysticism. It got Man’s attention away from how he might more effectively spear his neighbor long enough to allow Civilization to begin.”

“So you’re saying religion’s a good thing?”

“I say nothing of the kind! It’s a tool, like the flint, and as such is nothing but potential. Whether it is used to good or evil effect depends on Man, the user,” said Edward seriously.

“Okay.” Alec nodded. “I’ll agree with you on that.”

“I will not,” muttered Nicholas.

“Weren’t you reading? In any case, Order took form out of Chaos, and pure rational thought, Man’s highest achievement, leapt into existence!” said Edward with relish. “It attained its fullest expression amongst the classical Greeks, but the Romans applied it with the greatest effectiveness. Systematically and logically they spread Civilization throughout the known world, to a degree that was not equaled for a thousand years.”

“The Romans were vile and depraved,” said Nicholas, setting the text plaquette aside.

“They became so,” Edward agreed. “They discarded the disciplines that had made them strong. With no moral code informing their lives, life became meaningless. This coincided with what one might call the Second Age of Technology. The superior engineering skills, the advances in metallurgy, all the tremendous and brilliant machine of their empire roared along with no purpose other than serving the appetite of its creators, who had no thought for the inescapable consequences any more than brute Man with his flints had.”

“Well?” said Alec. “So what happened?”

“The judgment of God came on Rome,” said Nicholas.

“Absurd! Rome fell because of errors in
its
judgment,” Edward argued heatedly. “Without rational guidance the great machine destroyed itself, and so followed the Second Age of Faith.”

“The Dark Ages of Christianity, right?” said Alec. Nicholas turned to him with an expression of outrage and Edward snickered. “It’s true,” Alec insisted. “And it wasn’t just Christianity. Islam happened, too. All those people beheaded and burned at the stake over nothing, man.”

“Ay. Nothing,” Nicholas agreed sullenly. “Sacrifices offered up to a God of bestial cruelty. Yet even so, in that Dark Age, who but Christ’s disciples
had thy precious
Civilization
in their keeping? Who but they, and the Jew, and the Moor with his Koran, made books and schools, lest that Aristotle become a mute ghost? It was Faith sustained knowledge.”

“And sold men pieces of the True Cross,” said Edward slyly. “And pretended to work miracles with bits of chicken bone. Charlatans feeding on ignorance! You denounced it yourself. You and Erasmus and Luther and all the rest who finally had the courage to use the damned brains God gave ’em!”

“Because they told the Pope to go shrack himself?” inquired Alec.

“Because they began the Renaissance, which led to the Enlightenment. The Second Age of Reason,” Edward crowed. “True science and clear thinking at last! An Empire with real moral purpose.”

“Oh, hark at the Crown of Creation,” jeered Nicholas. “I’ve seen the dust wherein thine Empire fell. Rags, shrouds and cobwebs! Love was no part of its design, but only profit, and its loveless heart went to ashes at last. And thou too art humbled in thy pride, and liest here a phantom like me, dead and forgotten.”

Edward considered him, tight-lipped. “That remains to be proven,” he said at last. “And if the great wheel brought my age to an end, it will turn again.”

“The Enlightenment didn’t stop,” said Alec. “It’s still going on. We got out into space, didn’t we? We’ve got more science than you ever had.”

“No; you have Technology,” said Edward, a little wearily. “Tremendous power, wielded unwisely. The rest of human knowledge has been jettisoned as unnecessary. You’re illiterate, you believe in nothing, your lives have no meaning, no moral compass, no
point.
”

“Maybe because we’ve learned something you haven’t,” said Alec in a cold voice. “You and your logical systems! You think you know everything. There’s nothing to know, man, except that our genes will do anything to copy themselves. What makes you imagine the world is a rational place?”

“
Your
world isn’t, to be sure,” Edward replied. “And unless I’m mistaken, the next Age of Faith is already looming on the horizon, in the person of the Ephesian Church. Serves you right, too.”

Alec shuddered.

“But if it’s all just this big wheel going around endlessly—then we’re right, believing in nothing,” he said. “There is no point.”

“Yes, there is,” said Edward and Nicholas together.

“There is Love,” said Nicholas.

“There is Progress! And if, just once, a new cycle began that unified, rather than rejected the advances made by the previous ages,” said Edward, “if Faith were able to make its peace with Reason, or Technology able to grasp the principles and purpose of the other two, Mankind might make
real
progress at last! Don’t you see that once we’ve brought the Company down, our true work can begin?”

Gentlemen?

“What is it?” Edward demanded irritably.

If yer still interested, lads, it’s time. I’m draining the chamber.

“Jesu!” Nicholas turned and stared at the hyperbaric chamber, where the blue veiled thing within was—was it moving? Or only swaying with the pitch of the ship?

Trembling, Alec scrambled from the bed. The level of fluid in the chamber was beginning to go down; the hazy figure was sinking with it, dropping into a crouch, sliding over at last to sprawl motionless on its side.

“She’s drowned,” said Nicholas.

“No, you fool, she can’t be,” Edward snapped. Alec yanked the door open in panic before the tank had quite finished draining, and the regenerant fluid slopped out and ran on the tiled floor. Ignoring it, they splashed in and he knelt beside the figure. Its face was hidden in a tangle of trailing hair.