“We have our own enforcer, she’s called Kiera.”
“The Deadnight babe? No shit? I wouldn’t mind submitting my poor body to some enforcement by her.” Laughter rumbled across
the gap between the ships.
“You wouldn’t say that if you’d ever met her.”
“Tough bitch, huh?”
“The worst.”
“You don’t sound too happy about that.”
“You and I are in the same situation.”
“Yeah? So listen, maybe we can come to some kind of arrangement? I mean, if we have to go back to Almaden, the lieutenants
are going to make us eat shit for pulling this stunt. Why don’t you take us back to New California, let us off at a low orbit
station, or if you’ve got a spaceplane we could use that. If we get down there to the surface, we stay. Believe me. There’d
be no comeback.” “Fine for you.”
“We’ll get you a body. A human one, the very best there is. There’s millions of non-possessed left on the planet; we’ll get
one ready for possession and hold it for you. This way you get down there without any of the risk we’ll be going through.
Listen, you can sense I’m telling the truth. Right?”
“Yes. But it doesn’t interest me.”
“What? Why not? Come on! It’s the greatest deal in town.”
“Not for me. You people really hate this empty universe, don’t you?”
“Oh, like you don’t? You were in the beyond. You can hear the beyond. It’s always there, just one step away on the other side
from night. We have to get away from that.”
“I don’t.”
“Crap.”
“But I don’t. Really. Certainly I can still hear the lost souls, but it’s not as if they can touch me. All they are is a reminder
of that nothingness. They’re not a threat themselves. Fear is the only thing that drives you to escape. I’ve got over that.
Mindori
belongs here in the emptiness, this is its perfect milieu. Having this construct as my host has taught me not to be afraid.
Perhaps it should be you who try and find blackhawk and voidhawk bodies? Can you imagine that? It would solve everyone’s problem,
without all this conflict and violence. If after you die, you were to be given a voidhawk body to possess. Enough could be
grown for the lost souls, I’m sure of it, given time and commitment. Then ultimately, space would become filled with billions
of us, the entire human race transformed into dark angels flitting between the stars.”
“Hey, pal, know what? Possessing that monster didn’t cure you, it made you take a swan dive over the edge.” “Perhaps. But
which of us is content?”
“You got Kiera to worry about. Remember? How come you don’t flap off into the sunset?”
“As you say, Kiera is a problem.”
“Right, so don’t come over all superior.”
“I wasn’t. Your offer to deal interests me. It may be possible to come to some arrangement. I have a notion, but it’ll take
some time to check the requirements. Once you’re back on Almaden, I’ll look you up.”
______
Coming down to the gym in the Hilton’s basement always stirred Kiera’s darker animal feelings. She rather enjoyed her new
role of laid back vamp, letting her eye wander over the young men being put through their paces by a gruff Malone. Their apprehension
was pleasurable as they saw her watching, the nudges and worried glances. It wasn’t that she’d never had affairs back on New
Munich, she’d taken several lovers during her marriage, both before and after her husband’s fall from grace. But they’d all
been insipid, cautious encounters. Most of the thrill had come from the concept of having an affair, of cheating and not getting
caught. The sex had never been anything special.
Now though, she was free to explore her sexuality to the full, with no one to disapprove or condemn. Part of her allure came
from being a woman in power, she was a challenge to any male; the rest came from Marie Skibbow’s gorgeous body. It was the
second factor which brought her down here to the non-possessed. Possessed lovers, like poor old Stanyon, were so artificial.
Men inevitably gave themselves big penises, could stay erect all night, had Greek-god bodies. Strutting clichÉs, that spoke
volumes about their weaknesses and insecurities.
She much preferred the youngsters from the gym for the reality they provided. Unable to hide behind any mental or physical
illusion, sex with them was raw and primitive. Dominating them in bed, without a single inhibition, was utterly delicious.
And Marie herself had a surprising amount of knowledge which Kiera could extract and experiment with. Despised memories and
skill gained during a long river journey spent capitulating to an old man called Len Buchannan. Enduring the nightly humiliation
for one reason alone, the freedom which waited at the end of the river. The girl had a single minded determination which Kiera
quite admired. It came close to her own. Even now, captive and tragic, inside her mental prison, Marie clung to the notion
of deliverance.
But how? Kiera wondered lightly.
Somehow. One day.
Not with me in command of you.
Nothing lasts forever. As
you
know.
Kiera dismissed the impudent girl from her thoughts with a derisory mental sneer. Her gaze found a rather delicious nineteen-year-old
hammering his fists into a long leather punch bag. The desperate aggression and sweating muscles were highly arousing. He
knew she was standing behind him, but refused to turn. Hoping if he avoided eye contact she would pass by. She crooked a finger
at Malone, who came over reluctantly.
“What’s his name?” she asked huskily.
“Jamie.” The squat trainer’s thoughts were full of contempt.
“Are you frightened of me, Jamie?”
He stopped punching, steadying the bag. Gentle grey eyes stared at her levelly. “You, no. What you can do, yeah.”
She applauded languidly. “Very good. Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.” She glanced down at Malone. “I’ll bring him
back to you in the morning.” Malone took his cap off, and spat on the floor. “Whatever you say, Kiera.”
She walked right up to Jamie, enjoying his discomfort at her proximity. “Oh dear, I’m not that bad am I?” she murmured.
He was a head taller than her. When he looked down, his eyes were drawn the rich tanned skin revealed by her mauve summer
dress. Embarrassment warred with other, more subtle emotions. Kiera grinned in victory. At least something was going right
tonight. Capone and his damn sedition plans! She took his big hand in hers, and began to lead him out of the gym like a giant
puppy. Before she reached the double doors, they swung open. Luigi barged through, carrying a pile of towels. He caught sight
of Kiera, and glared angrily. Commander of the fleet, now running trivial demeaning errands for the nonentity Malone. The
resentment twisting him up was almost strong enough to manifest itself as pernicious violence; he was sure she was here simply
to witness his humiliation first hand. The boss’s new favourite gloating over her ex-rival’s downfall.
“Luigi,” Kiera said brightly. “Fancy seeing you here. How wonderful.”
“Piss off, bitch.” He elbowed past her, scowling.
“After the towels, will you be going down on your knees to tie up their shoes?”
Luigi twisted in mid step, and marched back to her. He thrust his head forward so their noses were touching. “You’re a whore.
A very cheap whore. With only one thing to sell. When the Organization has used up your hellhawks, you’ll be nothing. Best
thing is, you know it’s coming. Your bullshit ice empress routine doesn’t fool anyone. This whole damn asteroid is laughing
at you.”
“Of course it’s coming,” she said serenely. “But they wouldn’t be used up if the fleet was commanded properly.” Confusion
marred his face and his thoughts. “What?”
That uncertainty was enough for Kiera. She patted Jamie’s heavily muscled forearm. “Why don’t you take those heavy towels
from Luigi, darling. It looks like I won’t be needing you tonight, after all.”
Jamie peered over the pile of towels unexpectedly dumped in his arms, watching the doors close behind Kiera and Luigi. “I
don’t get it,” he complained. Part of him had actually been quite looking forward to the sex, despite what the others kept
saying about the Deadnight witch.
Malone patted the big lad’s shoulder in a paternal fashion. “Don’t worry about it, my boy. You’re well off out of that kind
of scene.”
______
Given Dr Pierce Gilmore’s senior position within the CNIS’s scientific staff, weapons analysis division, it was inevitable
that a large part of his nature tended towards the bureaucratic. Precise and methodical in his work, he believed strongly
in following sanctioned procedures to the letter during his investigations. Such adherence to protocol was something of a
joke among his department’s junior staff, who accused him of inflexibility and lack of imagination. He endured their behind-his-back
humour stoically, while politely and consistently refusing to take short cuts and play up to wild hunches. To his credit,
it was exactly the kind of leadership the weapons division needed. Eternal patience is a prime requisite in the dismantling
of unknown weapons that have been designed illegally (mostly under government patronage) and tend to incorporate elements
that actively discourage close examination. In the seven years he’d held his post, the division’s safety record was exemplary.
Also to his credit, he didn’t indulge in the usual internal empire building so beloved of government employees, especially
those who, like him, were essentially unaccountable. As a result, his office was a modest one, roughly equivalent to the entitlement
of a middle manager in some multistellar company. There were few personal items, some ornaments and desktop solid images;
a shelf of Stanhopea orchids flourishing under a slim solaris tube. The furniture was formal, a comfortable reproduction of
the flared dark-wood Midwest-ethnic style he’d grown up with. Broad holographic windows of Cheyenne’s heroically rugged countryside
did little to disguise the room’s actual location, buried deep inside Trafalgar. In its favour, the electronic suite Gilmore
had installed was a top-of-the range Edenist processor array verging on AI status. Such a system helped facilitate the twice
weekly multi-disciplinary councils he chaired to investigate the capabilities of the possessed.
This was the second time the team heads had met since Jacqueline Couteur had made her bid for freedom in maximum security
court three, and the aftermath was still affecting everyone’s mood. Professor Nowak, the quantum physicist, was first to arrive,
helping himself to some of the coffee from the percolator jug which Gilmore kept going full time. Dr Hemmatu, the energy specialist,
and Yusuf, the electronics chief, came in together talking in low tones. They gave Gilmore a perfunctory nod and sat down
at the conference desk. Mattox was next, the neurology doctor keeping to himself as usual, choosing a chair one along the
desk from Yusuf. Euru completed the group, sitting directly opposite Gilmore. In contrast to the rest of them, the dark-skinned
Edenist appeared almost indecently happy.
Gilmore had known his deputy long enough to see it wasn’t just the usual contentment which all Edenists shared. “You have
something?” he enquired.
“A voidhawk has just arrived from the Sinagra system. It was carrying an interesting recording.” Hemmatu perked up. “From
Valisk?” The independent habitat had supplied a large amount of very useful data on the behaviour of the possessed before
it vanished.
“Yes, just before Rubra and Dariat took it away,” Euru said, smiling broadly. He instructed his bitek processor block to datavise
the file to them.
The sensevise they received was a strange one, lacking the resolution normally associated with full nerve channel input. Conversions
from Edenist habitat memories to a standard Adamist electronic format were notoriously quirky, but this was something else
again. Nesting within its environment of pastel colours, tenuous scents, and mild tactorials, Gilmore tried bravely to avoid
using the connotation: spectral. He failed dismally.
The memory was of Dariat, while he bobbed about on the surface of some icy water inside a dark polyp-walled tube. The cold
was severe enough to penetrate even his energistic protection, judging by the way it was numbing his appropriated limbs, and
making him shiver. A plump black woman clung to him, shaking violently inside her strange waistcoat of cushions.
Did you gain any impression of size?
the Kohistan Consensus asked Dariat.
Not really, a universe is a universe. How big is this one?
Consensus received his quick recollection of the beyond. His soul had become a feeble flicker of identity adrift in a nowhere
at one remove from reality. Nowhere full of similar souls; all of them with the same craving, the sensations available on
the other side.
The memory of someone else’s memory: if the sensenviron of the Valisk starscraper waste tube was tenuous, this was as insubstantial
as a nearly-forgotten dream. The beyond, as far as Dariat was concerned, lacked any physical sensation, all that betrayed
its presence was a transparent tapestry of emotions. Anguish and yearning flooded through the realm Souls clustered round,
desperately suckling at his memories for the illusion of physical sensation they contained.
Confusion and fear reigned in Dariat’s mind. He wanted to flee. He wanted to plunge into the glorious star of sensation burning
so bright as Kiera and Stanyon forced open a path into Horgan’s body. The beyond withered behind him as he surged along the
tear through the barrier between planes of existence.
And how do you control the energistic power?
Consensus asked.
Dariat gave them a visualization (perfectly clear this time) of desire overlaying actuality. More handsome features, thicker
hair, brighter clothes. Like a hologram projection, but backed up by energy oozing out of the beyond to shore it up, providing
solidity. Also, the destructive power, a mental thunderbolt, aimed and thrown amid boiling passion. The rush of energy from
the beyond increasing a thousandfold, sizzling through the possessed body like an electric charge.