The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [201]
‘I was shown scenes like this,’ Robert said, feeling shaken. ‘But from a distance, not this close.’
The mass suicide played out again and again in different settings, in a communal home, in some kind of factory, in an outdoor arena – it was the sight of hundreds of thousands of sentient creatures voluntarily ending their lives. Robert felt the tears burning on his cheeks.
‘Maybe these are sequences you were shown but have been unable to recover till now,’ the empathic entity said. ‘Or perhaps these memories are not yours, in which case … ’
Robert and the drone were now back in the circular gathering place. As the scene began to repeat itself, several larger beings identical to the Tanenth appeared and moved through the crowds, calling out with booming voices. These were the Advisers, the Godhead’s messengers, and as they spoke the Tanenth responded angrily and many arguments ensued.
‘This is not part of my memories,’ Robert said.
‘I know,’ said the drone. ‘All this time, despite the strenuous efforts to erase the emotional remainders, to exile me from his awareness and then to expunge me altogether, the memories still hung on, deeply, tenaciously buried – along with the guilt!’
Shafts of light angled down from above, falling upon the roiling, indignant crowd. The form that descended towards the startled onlookers was identical to the upright squid-likenesses of the Tanenth, except that it was huge and purest white.
‘He is here!’ the empathic entity said. ‘The dream-simulation is adapting – the Godhead has now become entangled in its own dream!’
‘Can we stop those missiles?’ Robert said.
‘The Godhead has relaxed his control over the external communication channels … and other means of influence. As soon as we attempt to turn them to our purposes this will cause a ripple effect that will serve to bring the Godhead out of the dream-state. His subsequent displeasure is sure to be considerable.’
Robert laughed, despite the pain of the straps still keeping him in the couch. ‘Well, if he’s going to wake up angry, let’s give him something to be angry about!’
JULIA
‘ … a long-delayed departure from an undeserving continuum,’ Talavera was saying as the long-range sensor cam roamed across the undulating ugliness of the Godhead’s exterior. ‘And the catalyst will be an event unprecedented on the galactic scale, the simultaneous creation of five hundred supernovae … ’
‘Genocide, you mean,’ Julia said. ‘The destruction of hundreds of worlds and civilisations. The slaughter of billions upon billions … ’
She froze in mid-sentence as a vermax snaked into her field of vision and lunged its eyeless, tapered head towards her, stopping just inches from her face, wavering there.
‘Now, Julia, I explained about the ecology of greatness,’ Talavera said. ‘Didn’t I? Superior lifeforms obey their own rules and pursue their own goals, their own paths to higher levels of overarching wisdom.’ She leaned in closer, gaze darting from Julia to the vermax and back. ‘There you are, residing in the bubble-mesh-matrix of that cranial implant and here we have a vermax, a technivore supreme. To his senses you’re nothing more than a luscious titbit – just imagine it tearing open that skull then biting into the implant, its incisors slicing into the metal and the components within. Maybe you’d actually feel it, maybe not, but remember that the next time you get the urge to be a sanctimonious bore. Otherwise, you’ll end up as a vermax snack.’
She stepped away and the vermax withdrew.
‘Learn to curb your disrespect … oh, my master!’
The big holopanel no longer showed the continental vastness of the Godhead. Instead, against a background of roiling blue a coldly androgynous humanoid mask stared out with blank, hollow eyes.
‘So,’ said the mask, its empty mouth forming