But we don’t know how they apply it,
Dariat said.
So we can’t defend ourselves against it.
Then we need to find out,
Erentz said simply.
And you have to admit, if this is how it moves about, we’ll definitely hear it coming.
Dariat cursed as she started to pick her way over the loose debris bordering the hole. He knew now why the personality had
picked her. She had more gung-ho optimism than a whole squadron of test-pilots. Reluctantly, he started to follow.
There were deep gouge marks in the floor that had torn the scarlet and lemon carpet into crumpled waves. The naked polyp underneath
was pocked with small craters in a triangular pattern every couple of metres. Dariat had no trouble picturing them as talon
marks. The visitor had bulldozed its way along the vestibule, cracking the walls and shredding the furniture and fittings.
Then it had veered off deeper into the interior of the starscraper. According to the personality, it was resting right against
the core. The door to a large apartment suite was missing, along with a considerable chunk of the surrounding wall. Erentz
halted several of metres short, and ran her suit’s wrist beams around the big aperture.
The vestibule on the other side is undamaged,
she said.
It has to be in there.
I agree.
Can you tell for certain?
I’m a ghost, not a psychic.
You know what I mean.
Yeah. But I feel okay so far.
She knelt down and began unhooking sensors from her belt, screwing them onto a telescopic pole.
I’ll just run a visual and infrared scan first, with spectral and particle interpretation programs hooked in, no active sweeps.
Try a magnetic scan as well,
the personality suggested.
Right.
Erentz added one last sensor to the small clump, then looked round at Dariat.
Okay?
He nodded. She extended the pole cautiously. Dariat used affinity to receive the results directly from the bitek processor
governing the sensors, seeing a pale image of the frosted wall sliding past. It was superimposed with translucent sheets of
colour that shimmered with diffraction patterns, the results of the analysis programs, which Dariat fully failed to understand.
He shifted the focus, cancelling everything but the raw visual and infrared image.
He watched the edge of the smashed wall go past. Then there was nothing.
Is it still working?
he asked.
Yes. There’s absolutely no light in there. No electromagnetic emissions at all. That’s odd, the walls should register on the
infrared no matter how cold they are. Its like the visitor has thrown some kind of energy barricade across the hole.
So go for an active scan,
Dariat said.
Laser radar, perhaps.
Simpler if you just go and take a peek,
the personality said.
No bloody way! You don’t know it’s an energy barricade; that might be the visitor itself hiding round the corner.
If it was that close, you really would sense it.
We don’t know that for sure.
Stop farting about like an old woman and go stick your head round the edge.
Erentz had already pulled the telescopic pole back. She wasn’t going to give him any support at all.
Okay, I’ll look.
The whole notion was even worse than when he’d taken that suicide pill back in Bospoort’s apartment. At least then he’d had
a pretty good idea what he was letting himself in for.
Shine as much light over here as you can,
he told Erentz.
She put the last sensor back on her belt, then pulled out the laser pistol and a small tubular flare launcher.
Ready.
They both moved over to the other side of the vestibule, giving Dariat a better angle. Erentz focused her helmet beams on
the gap as he crept towards it. There was nothing to see. The beams could have been trying to illuminate a cold neutron star
for all the effect they had.
Dariat was standing opposite the gap now.
Shit. Maybe it is an event horizon. I can’t see a bloody thing in there.
It was as if the universe ended inside the apartment. An uncomfortable analogy, given their circumstances.
Stage two, then,
Erentz said. She brought her flare launcher up, aiming it at the gap.
Let’s see if this exposes anything.
We shouldn’t rush into this,
Dariat said quickly.
Fine,
the personality interjected.
As you can’t see anything from outside, and you don’t want to use the flare, why don’t you just go in there and take a look
around.
It might think the flare is some kind of weapon,
Dariat said.
Then what do you suggest?
I’m just saying, that’s all. It doesn’t hurt to be prudent.
We’ve taken every precaution we can. Erentz, use the flare.
Wait!
Right out on the very edge of visibility, there was a perturbation in the curtain of darkness. Faint shadow-shapes moved
sinuously, the surface distortion of something stirring deep inside. The blackness started to recede from him with the leisurely
speed of an outgoing tide, uncovering the edges of the apartment.
His mind was aware of Erentz’s finger tightening on the launcher’s release trigger. Determination in her mind not to come
back without some useful information on the visitor.
No. Don’t…
The flare streaked across the vestibule, a searing-white magnesium blaze that punctured the pseudoveil across the gap. Dariat
looked directly into the shattered apartment.
______
Paradoxically, the new strength it had gained was weakening the Orgathé as a whole. As it absorbed the life-energy contained
within the stream of liquid, its once-quiescent riders began to rise out of their unity. It was no longer a singleton. The
collective which had originally formed the Orgathé was separating. Before, they had bound their meagre scraps of life-energy
together, a synergistic combination which had allowed them to fly free of the mÉlange. Together, they had been strong. Now
there was more than enough life-energy to make them strong individually. They had no real need for each other any more.
Physically, they remained in the same place. There was no reason to move. Quite the opposite. They needed to stay and consume
the life-energy which would finally allow them their independence. That ultimate condition hadn’t yet been achieved, though
it was very close now. Already the Orgathé’s physical composition was changing in anticipation of the splendid moment. Internally,
it had begun to compartmentalise; dividing in a mockery of biological cell multiplication, with each section attaining a unique
shape. The Orgathé had become a womb for a dozen different species.
Then it sensed the two entities approaching. Their flames of life-energy were too small and weak to be worthy of any active
intervention. The liquid supply of life-energy was far more enriching than any it would gain by devouring individuals. The
Orgathé simply coiled the darkness protectively around itself and carried on consuming.
And Erentz fired the flare into the apartment. Dariat saw the vast bulk of the Orgathé clinging to the far wall, a sagging
glossy-black membrane with flabby protuberances that pulsed in discordant rhythms, as if something was scrabbling round underneath.
Tentacle-like bands of raw muscle were wound round it so tightly they quivered with tension.
The flare smacked into a wall, bounced, dropped to the frost-sprinkled carpet where its started to burn through into the polyp.
Heat and light drenched the apartment in equal proportions. The Orgathé could ward off the light, but not the heat. That penetrated
right through its fractions, bringing a wave of pain with it.
Dariat watched the Orgathé peel apart like segments of rotting fruit as it fell off the wall. A torrent of ice-frothed sludge
poured out of two puncture holes it had been suckling from. The thick bubbling tide swept a grotesque menagerie of malleable
creatures across the floor before it. They tottered and rolled chaotically in the dimming light, churning up the slough. Multi-jointed
legs scrabbled round in the same fashion as a newborn deer attempting to stand. Damp wings fluttered ineffectually, flinging
off fantails of sticky droplets. Mouths, beaks, and gullets pumped and gasped in silence.
Oh fuck,
Dariat moaned. The habitat’s affinity band was stunned into mortified silence as he shared his vision with everybody.
Erentz started to back down the vestibule, fear sending cold shivers along her limbs. The flare sputtered and died, sending
up a final spiral wisp of smoke. Just before the light vanished, Dariat thought the creatures were solidifying, their skin
hardening. In the darkness, he heard a
clack
as might be made by teeth in an excessively large jaw snapping shut. Dizziness struck him like a rubber truncheon. He staggered
away from the apartment, almost unaware of Erentz’s suit lights bobbing about wildly as she started running.
Move, Dariat!
The level of worry in the personality’s plea goaded him into taking a few shaky steps.
Come on, boy. Get the fuck out of there.
He took a few more steps, sobbing in frustration at the weakness that had infected his spectral limbs. Lodging in his mind,
though not through the gateway of affinity, was an awareness of the visitor’s stupendous hunger.
Dariat had stumbled on for several metres before he even realized he was going the wrong way. Wretched despair produced a
pitiful growl in his throat. “Anastasia, help me.”
Come on boy. She wouldn’t want you to give up, not now.
Angry at the injustice of her memory being used against him, he glanced over his shoulder. Erentz’s lights were almost out
of sight as she raced away. He saw a halo of darkness eclipse the thin slices of fading light behind him. His legs almost
gave out at the sight.
Keep going. I’ve got you a way out.
He took a couple more fumbling steps before the personality’s words even registered.
Where? Next lift shaft. The door is jammed open.
Dariat could see very little now. It wasn’t just the lack of light, his vision was misted with grey. Only his memory placed
the lift shaft for him, and that was being reinforced by the personality. Four or five metres ahead, and on his left.
How’s that going to help?
he asked
Simple, the lift is stalled ten stories down. You just jump. Land on top, and walk through the door. You can do that, you’re
a ghost.
I can’t,
he wailed.
You don’t understand. Solid matter is hideous.
While the visitor right behind you is… what?
Sobbing he ran his hand along the wall, and found the open lift door. The visitor was sliding smoothly and silently towards
him; chilling him further. He sank to his knees, perched right on the edge as if in prayer.
Not ten stories. That’ll kill me.
Exactly which of those solid bones in your transparent body do you think you’ll break? Listen to us you little shithead, if
you had any scarp of decent imagination at all you’d just float up to the lobby. Now JUMP!
Dariat could actually sense the polyp dying all around him as the visitor swept towards him.
Lady Chi-ri, help me.
He topped over the lip and into the eternal lift shaft.
Erentz sprinted as hard as she could back down the vestibule. Something was stopping her frantic muscles from delivering their
best. She felt feeble. She felt nauseous. The rucked carpet did its devious best to trip her.
Keep going,
the personality implored passionately.
She didn’t actually look round. Didn’t need to. She knew something was coming after her. The floor was vibrating as a heavy
body pounded along. Strident screeches were repeated again and again as some claw or fang ripped across the polyp. And cold
was penetrating her suit as if there was no insulation at all. Without ever looking back, she waved the laser pistol behind
her and fired off a series of wild shots. They had no apparent effect on her pursuer.
Affinity showed her the group up in the lobby. Her relatives were snatching up their weapons, thumbing the safeties. Tolton,
in ignorance from his lack of affinity, was becoming frantic, shouting: “What? What?”
You are approaching the hole in the floor,
the personality warned.
“Shit!” She intended it as a defiant bellow. It came out as a whimper. Her body was twice its proper weight. The weakness
seemed to amplify her fear, clotting her mind with dread.
An easy jump,
the personality promised.
Don’t stop running. It’s just a question of timing and sure footing. Where’s Dariat?
she asked suddenly.
Four more paces. Concentrate.
It was as though she was already losing her balance, leaning too far forward and having to windmill her arms to keep upright.
The edge wobbled towards her. Her knees were bending and she didn’t know why.
Now!
The personality’s command fired her muscles. Erentz leapt across the hole, flinging her arms forward. She hit the floor on
the other side, and collapsed, tumbling painfully. Elbows and knees managed to hit every jutting chunk of rubble.
Get up. You’re almost there. Come on!
Groaning in anguish, she staggered to her feet. As she turned, her wrist beams shone back across the hole. Erentz screamed.
The Orgathé itself had come after her. Still the largest and strongest of all the dissociated collective, it clawed its way
along the vestibule after the small fleeing entity. There was no way it could fly in here. Even though it was diminished in
physical size by the separation of the others, the vestibule was too narrow for its wings to be extended. As it was, the Orgathé
had to hunch in on itself to avoid the ceiling.