Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [55]
Aural, said logic-mind.
Tekton thought back over his most recent conversation with the Commander. Farr had emphasised several things. If he had more time, he could ask his moud to replay the entire conversation, but as it was . . .
‘Visiting Lostol, your taxi is here.’
‘Tell it to wait a moment.’
‘Detrivores are very active at present. The taxi will not be able to stay grounded for too long.’
‘Just a few damn minutes,’ snapped Tekton. Moud, search my last conversation with Commander Farr. Replay any verbal emphasis.
Yes, Godhead.
Tekton listened intently then chose one word of the twenty search items. ‘Shame.’
The black box remained inanimate.
‘Visiting Lostol, the taxi has detected a circling detrivore. It must leave.’
‘Why? There’s no driver, is there?’
‘Taxis have a proximity detector. Detrivores have been known to try and eat them. It is very costly.’
‘Costly!’ snapped Tekton. He walked quickly towards the door, listening as his moud repeated the list of Farr’s emphasised words. When he peered out, the taxi was beginning to lift.
‘Stop it!’ he roared.
‘I will try,’ sniffed the Lamin. ‘It is centrally programmed.’
A word from the moud’s list jumped out at him, as Tekton gave one last glance into the chapel.
Balance. It seemed right, somehow. ‘Balance!’ he shouted.
Across the room in the shrine, an image sprang alive inside the box, in what he’d thought to be a solid interior. From where he stood it looked like a swirl of colour - nothing more.
Capture that image, he ordered his moud.
Yes, Godhead. It is captured.
Tekton turned and ran the short distance across the platform to the taxi. He flung himself inside, banging his leg against the edge of the door. It tore a gash in his thin skin. Blood streamed from the wound as the taxi lifted and pitched wildly into the abyss.
Tekton seized the handgrips and clung to them, unable to secure his seat belt while the taxi rolled and dived. The proximity alarm began to blare. Then a detrivore crashed into the taxi’s underbelly. Tekton felt the shudder up through his feet; saw the dent appear like the hump from a small earthquake.
‘Lift,’ Tekton shouted at the automon.
But the detrivore buffeted the taxi again, this time from the side. A web of cracks appeared in the shatterproof window. The vehicle swayed from side to side of the abyss. Tekton glimpsed struts and pylons and girders dangerously close.
‘Farr!’ Tekton screamed. ‘Lasper Farr!’
But Lasper Farr did not appear to allay his terror.
His minds split apart under the pressure, leaving nothing to bridge the gap between them.
Free-mind was caught in the grip of bowel-evacuating fear.
But logic-mind was still making decisions. Moud, imprint the image from the shrine on my cerebral cortex.
May I enquire as to why you require a hard download, Godhead? the moud asked. My function and archives are entirely transferable to your next moud.
Do it, growled logic-mind.
A second detrivore had joined the first, ramming the small fibreplas bump under the nose of the vehicle that housed the navigation controls. The taxi began to spiral down.
Free-mind’s screaming intensified.
Logic-mind held back from chiding it about a sense of dignity or courage, and settled in to observe the changes in Tekton’s metabolism. Even akula had not brought such heightened responses. It also diverted some processing time to inspect the downloaded image from the shrine.
Tekton was too paralysed by free-mind to instruct the moud to identify it, so logic-mind referred to Tekton’s own memory’ banks for a clue.
Of course, logic-mind said, after a time.
Of course fucking what? bellowed free-mind. I’m about to die.
Its a representation of a strange attractor. A Lorenz strange attractor, to be exact.
Exact? Exact? You’re insane. Can’t you see what’s happening? free-mind shrieked back.
Why would Farr worship a strange attractor? logic-mind pondered. Is Farr’s god an ancient theory on the behaviour of dynamical systems? And if so, in what current context is that significant?
Tekton’s moud-bolstered