Keeping It Real

KEEPING IT REAL

Justina Robson

Copyright c Justina Robson 2006
All righ
t
s reserved

The right of Justina Robson to be identified as the author of

this work has been asserted by her in accordance with

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2006 by

Gollancz

An imprint of the Orion Publishing Group

Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin's Lane,

London WC2H 9EA

This edition published in Great Britain in 2006 by Gollancz

13579 10 8642

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN-13 9 780 57507 907 6 ISBN-10 0 57507 907 X

Typeset at The Spartan Press Limited, Lymington, Hants

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham pic, Chatham, Kent

www.orionbooks.co.uk

The Orion Publishing Group's policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable

products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes

are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

For S
t
ephanie Burgis-Samphire

COMMON KNOWLEDGE

In the days that
followed the explosion at
the Superconducting Supercollider in Texas, at
some unknown

point
in the Lost
Year, 2015, scientists discovered a hole in the fabric of spacetime over the blast
site.

The collider itself - a ring some eighty-five kilometres in circum-ference built far beneath the Texas soil -

had utterly vanished, and only the surface buildings remained
.

The explosion had followed an unknown quantum catastrophe inside the machine
.
However, it
was not

the kind of explosion that blew matter to smithereens and laid waste to worlds. Its actions took place in

the near-infinitely tiny spaces between one raw energy flicker and the next. It
transmuted fundamental

particles into new states, altering the fabric of the universe as if changing cotton into silk. In less time than

it
takes to blink an eye everything had undergone subtle alteration, though the how and the what of it was

a matter which is still debated to this day - a matter not
helped by the fact that
nobody could remember

exactly or say with certainty how things used to be. In the meantime there were more immediate

problems to deal with, namely the stable but
infinitely mysterious hole inside the circle of the old collider,

and the fact that it led directly into another world.

In the five years since the Quantum Bomb, as it
is popularly known in Otopia (which was once called

Earth, according to records made prior to 2015), a total of five other realities have been discovered
.

They lie parallel to, or approximate with (all words, definitions and specu-lations are being assessed as

we write, since nobody has yet come up with a theory that can explain the phenomena completely) the

human universe
.

The first
of these is Zoomenon, the realm of the Elements. Zoomenon is hostile to human life and

manifests unpredictably in Otopian space

where it interpenetrates with it. Sturdily equipped expeditions replete with hardened adventurers have

reported the following: every raw element of the Periodic Table may be found there in abundance, from

Hydrogen to Ununbium; the primary colours may be observed there, randomly moving across the raw

rocks and sand of what appears to be the basic Zoomenon landscape, a place not unlike Earth in the

Hadean age; there are also beings here, of indeterminate energy composition, capable of forming

humanlike appearances - these are named Ele-mental, since they seem to be personifications of the

spirits of air, fire, water, earth, wood, metal. There are others, yet
to be understood or met
with. How

many others is unknown.

The second realm is Alfheim. Since early in 2016 a diplomatic relationship has been established with

the elves, as the inhabitants call themselves. The elves strongly dispute the QBomb theory. They claim

that they have known of Earth and Otopia since times that predate early human civilisations. Few

Otopian technologies function in Alfheim, which is the first
of the Adept
or Aetheric Realms
.
It
is a

pristine Eden, untouched by industrialisation despite the complex civilisations that have risen and fallen in

its massive history
.
However, there are tensions within elf society and frosty diplomatic explorations are

the only contact
that
regularly takes place with them. Their borders are closed to immigration of any kind

and they allow only a few of their emissaries out in turn. Common people of Otopia know only stories of

Alfheim
.

The third realm is Demonia
.
The demons are, like the elves, lifeforms which appear adept
in magic

Demon scientists have assisted humans in their discovery of the physically real presence of

extradimensional regions (I-space) since 2017, regions of incredible power and vitality which seem akin

to spacetime itself, yet co-exist with it. This region is known to demons and elves commonly as

Aetherstream, though their scientists and researchers have agreed to adopt the human name of Interstitial,

or I-space. Demons do not recognise the QBomb event as historical fact either, and also claim a lengthy

knowledge of 'the fourth realm' - Otopian Earth.

The fifth region, is Thanatopia. This unlikely place is bound tightly to the I-space continuum. To cross

into Thanatopia requires death and return is not possible to those not
greatly skilled in necromancy
.
Only

the Aetheric races possess necromancers, and not
many of them
.
It
is worth noting that
so far no human

of Otopian Earth has displayed

anything other than the most fleeting ability to detect let alone manipulate, I-space. Certainly no one has

ever been to Thanatopia, or, if they have, they have not returned and its true nature is a complete

mystery. The only human knowledge of it has been given by demon necromancers whose strength in

I-space permits them access. Officially we may state that the Undead shepherd the Dead of all realms,

though what this actually means is anyone's guess. All other knowledge con-cerning Thanatopia is

classified, and as such may not
be printed here.

The sixth realm, which most
quickly adopted protocols with Otopia and has generated the most
traffic

is Faery. Faery has issued tourist
visas since 2018. Faery culture, as with all other realms, is unique and

complicated
.
Faeries assure us they have had a long association with certain regions of the Earth over the

more interesting parts of human history and the author is not
willing to dispute the point, even -especially

- in writing.

For the last
two years an increasing familiarity with and acceptance of the six-realm structure has led to

a steady popularity of migration and trade across willing borders, but human beings have a lot yet to

learn.

One year ago Alfheim closed its borders and cut off trade. It
began an exclusionary policy which

diplomatic negotiations have so far failed to lift. The reasons for this change of heart
are classified

information. At
the time of writing, in 2021, an uneasy state of affairs exists between Alfheim and the

other realms.

The story of how The No Shows got signed was one of those legends that
seem completely

manufactured by the celebrity press.
Rolling S
t
one
ran it as lead story the day their first single was

released for download. Lila Black reviewed it as she travelled to a meeting with the owner of Ozo

Records, Jelly Sakamoto.

A few months ago Jelly had been the producer of a modestly successful indie music label. He was sitting

in his office playing a quick five-minute game of Dune Car Rally on his pod, which had become an hour

long frustrating game of Dune Car Rally by the time his AftR girl burst in without
warning and said

breathlessly,

'You gotta hear this!'

Jelly was used to being told that, but he knew that
Lucie was frequently right. Still, no point in breaking

old habits
.
He saved and shrugged without looking up, 'What?'

'This great new band. They play their own gear, write their own material, and do this kind of weird

heavy rock Mode-X number. The backing vocals are all faeries, the DJ is that chick from Zebra Mondo.

And - get this - their lead singer is an
elfV

'Elves don't rock,' Jelly said, unknowingly coining one of the great-est quotes in the history of popular

music and the phrase that would follow him to his deathbed. He added, rather more forgettably, 'They

pavane and jig, they play the flute and the triangle, they do orchestra, they do chant, they sell shitloads of

that. They sing like cats with firecrackers up their asses. The only time they ever get sampled is when

they've been pushed through an audio sieve so human listeners don't
shit
themselves, or when they're

slowed down ten times to scrape the

frequencies for distortion effects to shove behind Crash bands. So, what? Does she mime? Does she

look good?'

'Here.' Lucie threw a Berrypic of the band down on the desk. 'He sings his own lyrics.'

Jelly ignored her and the invitation of the Berry's flashing Play command, got up and went out, allegedly

to the toilet, although he claims in a later interview that he was going to fit some new EarWax with higher

grade buffers, in order to protect his hearing
.

Lucie hung out waiting and when she convinced herself he must
have gone down the fire escape she

stormed out, leaving the Berry face-up on his empty desk
.
An hour later in came Roxanne, the sales

director for Northern Otopia at Ozo Records, the largest music company in the Four Realm Trading

Bloc
.
Fed up of waiting for Jelly, who was notoriously late for everything, she sat
herself down in his

chair and, glancing down at the Berry, pressed Play
.

Twenty minutes later Jelly comes into his own office and she says, 'Why didn't you tell me you were

going to be sending me a million-bytes-a-minute-shifter? I need another month at the least
to prep

publicity! Honestly, you'd be late for your own funeral.'

Jelly bought
Ozo Records on the first
week's sales and Lucie ran it
for him in her new post
as

executive director, whilst
he fussed around producing a whole lot
of other bands and arguing with The

No Shows' volatile addict
of an agent, Buddy Ritz.

The rest, Lila reflected as she re-read the tale, was the talk of the medianets every other day of the

week. There was no hotter property than The No Shows at
the moment.

Lila Black was undercover. She was pretending to be a bodyguard working for Doublesafe, a

company specialising in personal security for celebrities. It was an easy job since she was already kitted

out
for much more active duties as part of her job in the Otopian National Security Agency's Intelligence

and Reconnaissance Division, or Incon. The only difficulty she had was in concealing those parts of her

body which were entirely metal prosthetics, but she'd found a silk trouser suit and smart boots to do that

for her. The synthetic skin on her hands and arms was thankfully wearing well enough to pass for the real

thing. As she took a sidelong glance at herself in the mirror at Ozo Records' Reception she saw a tall,

powerful young woman in elegant
black flares. Her silver eyes - the irises and pupils perfect mirrors

-could easily be put down to decorative contact lenses beneath the soft