Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework (37 page)

"This is Haven Shore?" asked Roman, the
voice rolling out of what Kimberly felt was her own mouth.

Ayan's reply seemed to have more weight, her
British accent loaded down by her weariness. "This is the beginning
of the Fifth Era, marked by a failure to make restitution, and the
universal falling of mankind. I watched from this beach as the
Fourth Fall of Humankind came to a conclusion, and thought I could
create a home for the people I cared for. The people I had left, in
any case."

"I never reached you," Roman concluded.

"I eventually arrived at your bedside. The
confidence you inspired in me helped a great deal; my entire life
was eventually redirected towards the creation of Haven Shore, but
I was unwary. I arrived on this island and only left twice in the
nine years since. This became a refuge, and a base of operations
for what became a golden time." She stopped and turned, gesturing
for Roman to look behind him.

As his gaze turned towards the burning
wilderness and a half fallen tower holding landing platforms like
wrecked arms, Kimberly Harrison could feel the breath catch in his
chest.

Ayan went on. "Lorander and the British
provided the work force, while the Carthans supported our
independent offensive against the Order of Eden. Over the last nine
years it's been our medical centre, base of operations for hundreds
of missions, home to ship builders, and a beacon for small ships in
trouble or looking to join the fight. Before it was finished, Jacob
Valent ruined the progression of events that you and Citadel worked
to put into motion. I only know this because Sol Defence has
recently been forced to join the fight. The jeopardy that Citadel
predicted for Earth decades ago has become a reality. You know
exactly which event can cause this."

"Pandem was saved," Roman gasped. "How?"

"You died. Liam Grady took the Victory
Machine, saw a future history he could not abide and sent Jacob
through a crush gate that landed him somewhere near Lister Hampon
and Eve herself. We thought it was a great victory, despite the
sacrifices Liam Grady and Jacob Valent made. Carthans,
Freegrounders, the British, and a hundred other nations all
applauded the defeat of Eve and her Order. Pandem was saved. Within
days, the population there turned, and millions of grateful
immigrants became a human military force that joined the Eden Fleet
in honour of two martyrs. The chain leading to these events is
short. The encouragement you gave me in the short time we had to
speak became the fuel that burned in my friends, and in Jacob. Liam
Grady is gone, somewhere in the universe with the Victory Machine.
Jacob returned last year after I was sure he was destroyed in orbit
around Pandem. I should have known better, that's what Jacob does:
for better or worse, he comes back."

"So he is the rogue element after all."

"No," Ayan corrected, a flash of anger
behind the word. "I was his inspiration, he's told me as much. Even
after everything he went through, he doesn't blame me but himself
for everything that's happened after Eve and the True Prophet were
killed. He also blames himself for infecting me with framework
technology a few years ago, even though it's always been to my
benefit."

"I have been pondering the path to
expediting peace so humanity can be whole again for as long as I
can remember now, and this was my best answer. Everything was in
place. All I needed to do was make sure that there was a haven.
There has to be an innocent place, where the wholeness of family
can be remembered or the humanity of Earth will never recognize
itself in the men and women of the stars," Roman told her. It was
more like a recitation, being his mission in life for so long.

"You've found it. War and the silence of
extinction are the quickest way to peace for humanity. A few
frameworks will survive, like my people boarding the Triton. We can
be immortal, in the image of humans, but we'll never be the same
again. We’ll breed and normal humans will be born, but we won’t be
able to resist implanting framework technology in them at birth.
The Order of Eden is in decline. The Eden Fleet has enslaved them
as a combined construct of human and machine. They're taking over
system after system, and it's not even clear as to why they
eradicate every human they find now. Optimism destroyed everything
you and Citadel arranged by inspiring over-confidence in me which
indirectly provoked others to violence."

"Then the turning point isn't far from the
present, only weeks."

Fleet Warden Kimberly Harrison's connection
to the direct projection overlay was severed. "What happened?"

"Somehow he's sensed that we're watching
playback from his link to the Victory Machine," Doctor Sewell
explained from where he stood in front of the image of Roman in
bed.

He was sitting up, putting on his suit and
looking straight at them as though he was simply in the next
room.

"You're assuming too much," Doctor Kershaw
told Sewell as she instructed the environmental system to add a
calmative to the air in Roman's room.

Light began to emanate from the small box
containing the Victory Machine, and Doctor Sewell shook his head.
"He's draining energy from it early. Get people out of that
section, we can't predict how big the crush gate he's creating is
going to be."

"He's leaving?" Warden Harrison asked,
alarmed. "Track him. I don't care how, I don't care what it
takes."

Roman finished sealing his thick hood and
disappeared.

“Put it down, and all will be forgiven,”
Amber told Alice, her evening robe fitfully flapping in the cool
evening air. The balcony ran the length of her luxury apartment,
overlooking the vast cityscape and the ocean below. The gravity was
only eighty one percent of optimal, but it just added to the airy
feeling throughout Illihd Prime.

Alice would have subdued her before walking
into her open safe, but the woman seemed occupied when Alice gained
entry to her apartment. Little did Alice know that Amber’s
horizontal dancing partner was one of her guards. The alarms went
off when Alice left the safe with the Amber Heart safely tucked
into a protective bag. He didn’t bother putting on clothes before
arming himself and trying to corner her.

That’s how she ended up with her back to a
railing, with a naked security guard pointing a nasty looking
double-barrelled needle thrower at her. “Drop it, lady!” he
barked.

“You know, I’m pretty sure you’re going to
look back on this situation and laugh,” Alice said.

“You’re my replacement, aren’t you?” Amber
asked with a sneer. “When did you start sleeping with him? Before
or after I left? Did he promise you could keep that rock if you
went back to him?”

“He’s not my type,” Alice replied. “But he
seems to miss this more than he misses you, so he might forget to
chase you if he gets the Amber Heart back in one piece.”

“That doesn’t belong to you,” Amber said,
planting her hands on her hips and blowing a strand of dark hair
out of her face. “Last chance.”

“Coming up to you, got a little distracted
hiding from patrols,” Lewis told Alice through her subdermal
communicator.

Alice glanced from the security guard to
Amber and said. “You’re lucky this is all your husband is
interested in,”

“Ex-husband!” Amber shouted.

“All right, ex-husband. He could have hired
killers instead of thieves. If you let me go right out the front
door, I won’t tell him where you are. You can just get on with your
life with your security staff,” Alice said. “Well, maybe not the
whole staff.”

“He’s probably tracked you here anyway,”
Amber retorted. “I already have to leave, thanks to you. And I was
just starting to settle in.”

“I’m tracker free, I just got tested,” Alice
said, hoping that wisecracks and smiles would buy Lewis enough
time.

“Shoot this bitch,” Amber said.

Alice leapt over the side of the railing,
saying, “I hope you’re getting into-“ She was interrupted by a
ripping pain that travelled from her temple through her eye. The
air whistled in her ears as she plummeted towards the black waters
below. Alice clutched the bag with one hand as she protected her
bleeding eye socket with the other. She struck the freezing water
with less force than she expected, but harder than she liked. Lewis
hadn’t gotten there in time.

* * *

Eve sat up with a jerk and realized that she
was back in her quarters. She was still in the long dress she’d put
on that morning. Her reflex was to mentally reach out to the ship
network, but all she connected to was the small computer assistant
she’d built for herself days before. It told her three hours had
passed and that she had passed out from dehydration.

They used something called an N-Slip to feed
her in her sleep. Eve brought up a hologram of it and watched the
diagram as a chubby worm-like biodevice filled with nutrients
crawled down the patient’s throat to their stomach. The Regent
Galactic marketing text hailed it as a reliable and easy way to
feed the unconscious. Just the demonstration made her queasy.

As she rolled out of bed she realized
something. They hadn’t installed a limiter chip yet. She was sure
they’d use her food or water to deliver one, but she was wrong, and
she couldn’t understand why. Before she reached the bathroom, she
noticed the stars shimmering through the expansive view in her
quarters. They were in a wormhole.

A mental query offered no results. The door
opened, admitting the Child Prophet, who was grinning from ear to
ear. “Feeling better?”

“Sure, but I’d rather eat on my own next
time,” Eve replied. She retrieved a brush from her bathroom before
returning her attention to him.

“The medics said you hadn’t eaten in well
over a day, so they had to do something. They say the device was
better than a tube or a more permanent solution. There’s something
so much more important to talk about, now that you’re well again.
Your speech.”

“I’m sorry, that must have been terrible, I
was half out of my mind,” Eve said, not investing much emotional
effort in the apology.

“Are you kidding? You won them! There was so
much heart in what you were saying. Not all of it made sense, mind
you, but it didn’t have to. Most of the people in the arena didn’t
even see you collapse, just the first few rows. We caught you with
a holographic overlay before anyone really noticed what went on.
The broadcast version went out absolutely glitch free.”

“What do you mean? You used my image after I
collapsed?” Eve asked.

“We used everything we could right up until
the medics rushed the stage, then this took over,” the Child
Prophet said, summoning a holographic image of the stage with her
standing on it.

The holographic version of her said, “It’s
so hot,” and instead of collapsing, she knelt down and accepted a
bowl of water from the young woman Eve remembered paying so much
attention to. She took a wet cloth from it and wiped her face, then
that of the young woman’s. “That’s better,” she said, smiling up at
the audience.

Eve stood up and backed away from the edge
of the stage, looking across the masses there. “So many of you have
risen through the ranks, earning accolades and proving that you are
the brightest, most dedicated in the Order of Eden. We promised you
rewards, we promised you paradise, and I’m here to make a new
promise to you today. Humankind has dreamt of perfect immortality
since we realized that each one of our existences would end. Our
technology has allowed us to make perfect imprints of our memories,
our DNA, and we’ve had incredible success in copying ourselves into
clones, computer systems, and synthetic biological constructs of
all kinds.”

The Eve on stage sighed and shook her head
slowly. “That’s creative propagation, a new kind of breeding, just
a copy. The original still dies, there’s no question that one
existence has to end. If I were only human, and an assassin were to
attack me right here, right now, I would come to an end under
normal circumstances.” She stopped and smiled at the crowd, slowly
scanning from left to right. “What a gift this life is, how
precious, how rare, and how we love our time in this universe.
Thanks to the gifts of the Order of Eden and the Regent Galactic
Corporate Group, I will live forever. When my mind was freed from
stasis and placed in this body, this miraculous form, it wasn’t
without upgrades. I’m fully human, I can have children, I can
bleed, and I’m not an android or cyborg in the ancient sense. I’m
an immortal human, and I can maintain my youth if I want to, heal
faster than most injuries can occur, and survive in any
human-friendly environment indefinitely. All the pleasures of the
human experience are available to me for all eternity. I had this
done to myself first, so I would know for certain that it was safe,
that it was perfect. Now I’m ready, now I’m sure it’s time to share
it with the best of you. When I return to my ship, I won’t be going
alone.”

Eve watched as the holographic version of
herself knelt down as if to get closer to the audience and smiled.
“The journey to paradise begins with the next stage of your
existence. Those that have made the right rank will be given my
gift, the gift of immortality in the body you dwell in right now.
There will be no transfer of consciousness or termination of an old
human form to preserve your uniqueness. You’ll go to sleep after
taking a pill and wake up feeling the same as you did before, only
you’ll be immortal. Paradise will be only a few ranks away, your
glorious fate awaits.”

The hologram stood up straight and raised
her arms. “I love you all, and thank you for your good service! The
rewards are real! Immortality is real! Paradise can be yours!”