Transcendence (48 page)

And he grew sick of Pehr Jackson, himself a wave in the ocean of destruction. Out here, on the cold, desolate moon—here in a human-made crater, no less—all life and death seemed crisper than reality. Reality itself seemed too crisp. His own thoughts were too present.

“
Leave him be,” Pehr said.

“
Those times weren’t your fault,” Janus said.

Pehr, shocked, wondered if she could read his mind. Then he remembered that he had told her everything. It seemed like a dream now, talking to her, telling her too much.

“
Well,” he said, embarrassed to be so transparent, “we have an alien artifact to see, right?” He pointed to the hidden object atop the tower. At least one thing hadn’t been spoiled by the hand of Man.

“
Up there,” he said, “we ought to be in line-of-sight of the city. We’ll surrender up there, and tell them where to pick up Eyes. It’ll be all over. We can pay for our crimes, or start new. Come on.”

Janus watched as Jack unfastened a three-pronged hook from his belt, looped rope through its eye, and tossed it up the side of the tower. It landed with an almost inaudible ping, as if the sound were coming from kilometers away. He yanked on the rope, turned to smile at Janus—though she could see his eyes were not happy; rather, confused and desperate—then began to scale the almost-vertical wall, feet finding purchase on nearly imperceptible bumps, fingertips gripping tiny cracks.

She blinked as she watched him climb. So strong, pulling himself up easily in the near-weightlessness, using his feet keep from spinning on the rope. She hadn’t imagined he was still so haunted by his youth. He hadn’t done anything wrong. She wanted to say it, wanted to cry it aloud. But she couldn’t, because her own childhood still haunted her, as well.

Jack was nearly to the top. She watched and thought. She had never intended to hurt Miguel when she left for EConaut training. Rachel was the one who loved him, anyway. Janus had stolen so much from Rachel already, dragging her away from home at such a young age, forcing her to stay away, living in a homeless complex. . . .

Oh, yes, and her own hatred. That was why she pitied Jack. She knew that, given the opportunity, she would have murdered her father. Yes, once I had struggled free of his grip, I would have been able to do it. The bastard, the dirty bastard. He set me up to be vulnerable to that filthy cyborg. And I will kill that thing, as soon as it is near. I will kill it, and poor Jack, you’ll know. I don’t want to hurt you this way, but Father and Cyborg have combined their efforts to try to ruin me inside. She saw herself as an ancient mansion, its walls of fieldstone still standing, but all the floors within collapsed into rubble in the basement.

Janus began to shake and then to weep. She flicked off her comm line so Jack wouldn’t hear. She was not sad; no, she searched for the source of these irrepressible emotions and found only anger, and beneath that helplessness and terror.

He—it—was coming. She turned back toward the basin and watched a tiny figure pick its way among the ice-flowers. It was using the encrusted shoreline to keep from sliding into the lake. It would eventually find her again, and get inside her again. And she would not allow that to happen. She would die first.

The rope around her waist tightened three times. Jack was trying to get her attention. She steadied herself and flicked her comm line back on.

“
What’s the matter?” Jack asked. His voice sounded far away and staticky. She looked up but couldn’t see him, only the rope hanging over the edge. “Come up here! It’s amazing!”

“
All right,” Janus responded. She tried to regain the enthusiasm that had fired her up when Miru first commed them. Even a few minutes ago, while she still thought the cyborg was dead, she had been able to get excited. But now. . . .

“
I’m coming,” she commed, and began to climb before the hatred ripped holes in her gut. She’d have her chance. And then, by god, she’d take it.

He helped Janus up the side of the icy butte, pulling the rope through the carabiner at his waist and reeling the slack around his shoulder. Finally, she stood at the flat top, beside him. Pehr smiled at her, then absorbed the view.

They stood atop the conical tower on a perfectly flat surface. Four paces that way, and they’d fall off. At the center sat a black globe three meters across, balanced on an impossibly small point for its size. Must have some kind of support pillar, Pehr guessed.

To his left, the crater dipped away and back up. Pehr could just see hints of what lay beyond: Boulders of ice, sparkling rays from the blast, distant hills and ridges. Mists that looked as unearthly as anything he could imagine clung in the crevasses and shallows; the pod’s landing-area now glowed like a small volcano, bubbling and seething, fog and gas spilling down into the trench and running like a river to the lake below. Eyes was still making his way around the shore.

Overhead, Neptune loomed as big as Earth from low orbit, filling a quarter of the sky, all blues and banded near-whites. He couldn’t discern any of the famed mining stations.

Pehr looked to his right and caught a glimpse of metal and glass beyond the icy boulders that lined the crater’s rim.

“
Is that the city?” he asked Janus.

“
It must be,” she answered. “Don’t comm them just yet, though. First, let’s spend a little time here with something crafted by alien hands. Power down your card.”

“
Completely? But what if they try to comm us?”

“
Don’t you remember what Miru said? Your card has to be off in order for the object to work on your mind.”

“
How was he talking to us, then?” Pehr asked.

“
Subvocalizer. Up until about 30 years ago, NKK didn’t automatically implant full-3VRD commcards into its citizens the way EarthCo does. Too expensive, they said. But when even AMRCO started doing it, NKK got embarrassed and offered its citizens 3VRD upgrades at low cost. I imagine Miru must’ve chosen to keep his subvocalizer. Lots of them did. Didn’t you pay attention to edufeed?”

“
I’m powering down,” Pehr said, feeling the dunce, wishing he had worked harder at school subjects.

And, just like that, St. Paul’s Cathedral sprang up before him, surrounded by a slick, black wall that enclosed the equivalent of several city blocks. Bright sun lit the tan stone as if he were back on Earth. He staggered back.

The cathedral faced him: Two towers—the right one bearing the clock—rose high above the wall, as did the broad dome; ornately crowned pillars defined each level, statues stood at nearly every corner, and wide steps leading inside were barely visible beyond the outer wall. The massive cathedral inspired in Pehr all the awe he had felt when he first saw its 3VRD during Susahn’s wedding preparations, the unimaginable effort required to build such an place when those who did so could use only the energy of men and animals. And pleasant memories of Susahn floated across the surface of his mind, of the early years when he still believed she loved him.

“
God damn,” he muttered. He got hold of his senses before he fell off the tower—remembering he still stood atop a narrow cone of ice and not on an endless plain that seemingly surrounded him. Even the sky had altered, now swirly colors that concentrated especially at the horizons. Pehr set the grappling-hook and an adhesion-piton onto the ground at his feet. He glanced at Janus.

Her eyes met his, glowing with joy. Her lips moved, but Pehr couldn’t understand the tinny sound that actually passed through the air to him. He leaned toward her and pressed his helmet against hers.

“
You see it too?” she asked.

“
St. Paul’s Cathedral.”

Her eyebrows dipped momentarily. “Interesting. When Liu Miru found this place, he saw a Buddhist temple with his card off. You see St. Paul’s Cathedral, and I see the Great House of Aldebaran; silly, yes, I know. It’s the castle where the ruling class of the Benignus. . . .
Never mind.”

“
Oh, I know what you mean,” Pehr said. “I watched that series a few times. Aliens. The Benignus were the intelligent aliens who lived on
. . .
I can’t remember the world, but their sun was Aldebaran.”

Janus looked so lovely when she smiled. He wished she would always smile.

“
Do you suppose a real race of Benignus made this? Oh, that’s stupid,” she said, immediately after the question. “That was a fictional show.” She went on:

“
It seems we all see something, well, holy—not in the religious sense, god forbid, but in the secular. Numinous, I guess.”
Holy, shit
, she thought.
Why bring something like religion into a sacred place like this?

Janus turned her attention back to the Great House. Lined in a row like stone ribs, three parabolic arches rose 30 meters over an untended garden of red- and yellow-blossom tigercherry trees, multicolored flowering shrubs, tall palm-like trees, and an assortment of fruit-bearing vines—plants from all across the world. Pebbled paths weaved through the growth, and one or two Benignus—diminutive, humanoid, hairless—could be seen pruning plants from the walkways. Brass steps and railings edged the arches. The arches suspended the Great House proper, a series of concentric circles stacked atop one another 25 levels high. Each level served an individual locality of Benig, though everyone attended meetings in the Grand Chamber at its center. Dozens of glass-domed rooms sat upon each level, and a large, pearl-colored dome crowned the structure and provided light for the Grand Chamber.

Janus felt the presence of alien intelligence all around her, their actual physical heat and sweat. Nothing humans could make could ever fill her with such emotional and intellectual delight. Despite standing amid a fictional setting, this was real, in some unquantifiable way.

“
To me,” she explained, “the Benignus represent the ultimate society. They had no laws because they didn’t need them. Only after NKK traders arrived and began robbing them did they need to impose rules. Even to save everything she owned, no Benignus would fight the traders. That’s how the scriptwriters contrived to get EarthCo involved. Save the ignorant aliens from the enemy.”

“
I didn’t watch the show much,” Pehr said. “But I understand. Let’s find the way inside. Miru found an entrance, right?”

“
Yes. We need to follow the wall until we see an irregularity. Miru kept his hand on the wall as he walked; I don’t know how important that is, but we’d best do exactly as he did.”

“
Damn, Janus,” Pehr said, smiling that crooked smile of his, “you’re the first best friend I’ve had since I was a kid. Feels good to go exploring with a best friend.”

Janus smiled at him and stepped back. She, too, felt giddy like a girl. She remembered Miguel; she never really loved him—
But I don’t even know what love is
, she thought.
He was just my best friend. He felt good to sleep beside at night, and he didn’t ask for sex more than once every few months. God knows he’s happier with Rachel
.

Janus shook her head and smiled at the memory and at the present. What had happened to the hate?
Ah, there it is
, she thought. It was simply buried beneath joy and discovery. They began to walk.

After only a few minutes, something jerked at Janus’ waist and she had to stop. She looked down and saw that the rope had tightened. Pehr stepped next to her and touched helmets.

“
We’ve run out of cord,” he said. “We can either take the precaution and stop every 50 meters, or we can detach and just stay close to the wall. Do you think we’ll be safe just keeping against the wall?”

“
Of course,” Janus said. “Miru’s suit camera recorded him walking around and around the artifact. He kept his hand on the wall—which was the physical surface of the artifact. We’ll be safe enough. Cut us free.”

Jack stepped back and released the carabiner at his waist and the rope fell to the ground, giving enough slack for Janus to do the same. When she stepped out of the loop of rope, she felt somehow more part of the exploration, more in touch with the Great House that stood before her than with the past that crouched behind.

They walked on. Jack moved more slowly without the rope, but soon his pace was back to normal. Before long, they hurred along the wall. Janus had the odd sensation of jogging in a tight circle—even though she seemingly moved in a broad arc. She felt giddy and walked even faster, overtaking Jack.

About the time her stomach was beginning to tighten with hunger—Why didn’t we eat before we entered the escape pod?—Janus noticed that she was coming upon the front of the Great House once again. Now she burst into an awkward run.