The woman turned to him. âCan you now speak?'
âI can.'
âGood. Cowl's mind-fuck doesn't usually leave behind anything human, but it would appear that your mind, being so accustomed to programming and reprogramming, has retained its facility for self-organization. I suspect this is because he reamed you through your interface, thus leaving many natural, unconscious structures intact.'
âWhat are you to Cowl?' he asked.
âI'm his sister.'
Tack scanned the room for suitable weapons. Though a traitor, she was still Heliothane, so she would be strong and fast. But it seemed imperative he escape, and to do so it would be necessary to kill her. Then suddenly he felt how utterly wrong it would be to try and kill this woman who had tended to him, and his thoughts fell into brief confusion, out of which he re-arose, sick with anger. His immediate reaction had been caused by remaining emotional out-fall from his Heliothane programming, but he should not think like that. Now he knew that he had never been an assassin, that from the very moment Saphothere had found him he had been manipulated: his sum purpose that of a sacrificial goat. He owed the Heliothane nothing.
âDon't let that worry you.'
For a moment Tack thought she was reading his mind, then he got back on track. âYour brother nearly killed me, and tore my mind apart. So I shouldn't worry?'
âNo, Tack. What he did to you was a response to the assault upon him. I will not define that as
your
attack, because we both know you had no choice in the matter. And, anyway, the result of Cowl's violence, whether intended or not, is that you are now alive in a way that you never were before.'
It was true. Tack could now make choices, decisions, and with all that came a concomitant confusion. Perhaps he actually owed Cowl more than he did the Heliothane? But no, what good Cowl had done for him was by default, and to sway in that direction would be like holding out the hand of friendship to a crocodile. From the beginning of his life Tack had never been able to choose sides for himself, to choose anything really. But now he possessed free will, so had to ask himself which side he might choose, and if he should choose any side at all. Just for a second he wished for the easier road of external programming. Just for a second.
âDoes Cowl know about what you have done?' he asked.
âNo, I don't share my brother's views, nor his hatred.'
âWhich side are you onâHeliothane or Umbra?'
âMy own, Tack.'
And there it was, and he made his choice.
Seeing this war from both perspectives, Tack realized, in the perspective now utterly his own, that he did not think
anything
could justify what Cowl had been doingâhis negligent slaughter of the torbearers. And he was utterly
aware that the information Cowl now possessed was precisely what the Heliothane wanted him to possess. However, Tack could not forgive the lies and the programming forced upon himself, nor the Heliothane's ruthless extermination of the Umbrathane.
Asking himself which side he was on, he found his answer the same as Aconite's:
my own.
Â
IN INTERSPACE SAPHOTHERE MURDERED his mantisal by driving a tor thorn into its sensory juncture and breaking the thorn off. Shortly after this Meelan did the same, then also the third passenger, and they watched while the three thorns melded, then sprouted fibrous connections into the bioconstruct. By this means they subverted the process that would cause the tors they now wore to generate their own pseudo-shells and thus separate the three of them. Shifting back in time, they arrived in Silurian evening, unloaded their supplies and disembarked before the mantisal dematerialized. Then they made their camp in a shadowy clearing surrounded by tree ferns and arboreal gloom.
âI feel as though I have killed a trusted pet,' said Saphothere.
âIt was necessary,' Meelan replied, as she watched the third member of their group move off with the collapsible water container.
âI wonder how necessary. We are just a sideshow to the main event.'
âDon't get all maudlin on me, Saphothere. You know how important our sideshow really is. Cowl does not know the truth, which is why he has failed thus far to influence the future, but he could still send us all down the slope into oblivion upon learning that truth.'
âEven without
his
pet?'
Meelan did not reply immediately as she had opened a rations pack and was stuffing her mouth with food. Eventually she said, âWe know he has an energy sourceâhe's had three centuries behind the Nodus to prepare oneâso he is still dangerous. We mustn't forget that what he has made he can make again while he still lives.'
âThere is a second importantâ' began the big man, returning with a filled water container, before his words were cut off by a cough. He started again, his voice grating, âThere is another important aspect to our missionâaccess to tors.'
âFor “aspect” substitute “hope”,' suggested Saphothere.
âWe have five to spare already,' Meelan observed.
âOf how many thousands that we'll need?' asked Saphothere.
âWell, in that you are optimisticâyou think so many will survive?' Meelan asked.
âCowl will have a supply,' said the third member.
âSee, more optimism,' said Meelan.
The big man started to say something, but now broke into a longer fit of coughing.
âThat still bothering you?' Saphothere asked.
The big man touched the gnarl of scar tissue starting at his throat and running up under his chin.
âIt bothers me,' Coptic agreed.
Â
THE BRIGHTLY COLOURED ACANTHOSTEGA, a small amphibian that had been feeding voraciously on the the bony-headed fish of the swamp, fled as fast as it could through mud and decaying tangles of vegetation, and into the nearby forest. The looming cliff, rising over all, cast a shadow into the amphibian's small domain, and in its simple brain it sensed the danger of its extinction. Behind it, the swamp was boiling, and tonnes of reed mat were being sucked up as if by some vast combine harvester, fast disappearing into red slits that were giant maws. Then the same monstrous cliff reached the edge of the trees, and something began wrenching the forest giants from the ground, juggling them up into the air, where they, like the reed mat, were chomped down. Wriggling up the ramp of a decaying log, the acanthostega ignored swarming termites, disturbed from their abode by the shaking of the groundâcreatures which otherwise would have made it a tasty meal. At the summit of the log, with only a headlong drop ahead of it, it froze, instinct promulgating this reaction now flight was no longer an option.
As the cliff advanced, things began pushing through the undergrowth all around. Not far from the amphibian, slimy lungfish were hauled from their shallow pool by snakelike extrusions of the same cliffâonly these snakes were without eyes, possessing only mouths that were vertical slits lined with incurving teeth. One such snake was squirming along the forest floor towards the small amphibian, and in response, the acanthostega arched its back, more prominently to display its bright poisonous coloration. The slit mouth rose above it and opened, then abruptly snapped shut. Then the snake things withdrew from the forest and the devastation immediately ceased. The earth still shaking, the cliff began to withdraw. Now the amphibian, sensing that the danger had passed, moved downwards along the log and began lunching on the termites.
Eventually the acanthostega returned to its little swamp but there found only a muddy cavity. Its vision was not sufficient to see the utterly denuded landscape beyond, and its mind was not sufficiently sophisticated to comprehend such concepts as âluck'. It could not comprehend what vast beast had come to feed in its world, or how that feeding must necessarily be limited. That the beast had to cease before being forced back down an incomprehensible slope as a result of its destruction of
this
history.
Â
âI'M NOT SO SURE I'm glad to see you well.'
That came from Polly, the girl he had tried to add to his list of victims millions of years in the future. So she had not been a hallucination earlier and he was glad she was alive. Though all those others before her were most definitely dead. He had killed them. Made mute by what he was suddenly feeling, he moved on past her to one of the arched windows and gazed out into darkness, trying to blink the strange after-images there from his eyes. In a moment he realized these were no after-images; he really was seeing shimmering hints of nightmarish shapes, as of open mouths and snakelike bodies, beyond the rain-beaded window.
âWhat is that out there?' he eventually asked, his voice dead.
âSomething you caused.'
Tack surveyed the occupants of this strange room. That familiar voice had not come from the Roman soldier, the Chinese man, or the boy, for they were all over on the other side of himâthe first two working on something inside the back of the boy's head. Tack tried to take sights like that in his stride: the boy with the back of his head open like a hatch, and two men who should have no conception of such work, probing inside with various finely polished tools, discussing in low voices what they were doing. Perhaps the boy was an android or something. Nor did the voice issue from the Neanderthal, who was sitting carving circuit patterns into a club fashioned from the rib of a large animal. Tack's attention then strayed to the wasp robot squatting beside the sofa Polly occupied.
The robot spoke again, âIt is the incursion overspill from the torbeastâthat always happens when Cowl summons it up from the bottom of the slope and establishes a communication link, but not normally intruding to this extent. Perhaps, Mr U-gov
facilitator,
you can
explain
exactly what fuck-up you have caused.'
Polly, sitting with arms crossed, flicked her gaze to Wasp, then brought it
back to Tack. âYou have to understand that Nandru may be even less glad to see you than I am.'
Tack stared at the robot, then looked at Polly, who pointed to the Muse 184 at her throat.
âNandru?' he said, even more confused.
Polly just stared at him silently, a hint of a smile twisting her mouth.
âThe dead soldier uploaded to the device Polly wearsâand which now speaks to you through Wasp,' explained Aconite as she entered the room. âBut however he speaks, his questions are still pertinent.'
Tack was not even sure he cared, for moment by moment he could still feel elements of his mind knitting together. All those missions for U-gov, all that
facilitation â¦
even the Heliothane reprogramming had not brought him to this level of consciousness.
âSo what have you caused here? Why is my brother reacting in this way?' Aconite asked.
Tack swallowed dryly and tried to shove his mangled history away from himself. He considered not telling Aconite anything, but decided he did not owe his silence to those who had sent him to this time. No matter how he felt about Saphothere, the traveller had sent Tack on a suicide mission. Tack managed to admit, âInside my mind ⦠Cowl found a way to attack Sauros.'
âSauros?' Aconite asked mildly, unsurprised.
Tack concentrated on the
now
, and found that by doing so he could control the horror growing between his ears. While the other three in the small group moved over, Tack told of Goron's project, of the city and the wormhole, how it fed energy for accurate mantisal jumping, and how the Heliothane were pushing backwards in time finally to get to Cowl. He then repeated, verbatim, those particular segments of conversation that had been of such interest to Cowl, and had now caused this reaction. He did not tell them what Thote had said, however, or of his own thoughts about distance weapons and sacrificial goats. That was for himself.
After a long silence, Aconite said, âThis Sauros is what you saw, Polly.' She turned back to Tack. âI somehow doubt that either Goron or Saphothere would be so negligent, but it appears to me that this Palleque might not have been entirely in their employ.' She looked thoughtful and bowed her head, supporting her chin on her heavier hand. Musingly she continued, âI can think of only two possibilities: if the information Cowl extracted from you is true, then Sauros will become vulnerable when it shifts, and the torbeast my brother is now
summoning will kill everyone in it. Thereafter, it being impossible to shut down the wormhole without catastrophe, the beast will then push through to New London and to the Heliothane Dominion.'
âThey'll be able to deal with it there, won't they?' asked Polly.
âThat I very much doubt,' said Aconite. âIt will kill billions and destroy New London, thus causing that catastrophic shutdown. Most likely resulting vacuum will then kill it, but it is tough and, should it survive to somehow reach Earth or the solar colonies, billions more will die.'
âOption one don't sound so good,' said Nandru. âYou got anything better?'