The Omega Expedition - Brian Stableford [141]
“What about the other passengers?” I asked.
“Like you — some broken bones, a certain amount of soft tissue damage, but nothing irreparable. You won’t be allowed to contact them, at least for a while, but we’ll keep you informed of their progress. That’s one of the reasons I was allowed in — to act as an intermediary. I can’t make any firm promises, but I’m sure that la Reine will do what she can to keep you safe, even if the situation deteriorates to the point at which she can’t protect herself.”
“Is that likely?” I asked.
“Nobody knows. At the moment, it’s chaos — but there’s time to discover some kind of order, if we put our minds to it.”
I looked around at the beautiful forest. Given that I could have been anywhere, it seemed like a good place to be.
“The IT that was frozen down with me was what you wanted, wasn’t it?” I guessed. “That was why my name came up when Davida wanted a couple of extra corpsicles to practise on.”
“Yes it was,” said Rocambole. “We thought Christine Caine might still be carrying its predecessor, but it turned out that they’d flushed it out of her, so she was clean. There was no way to tell while you were both at six degrees Absolute, so we had to bring you both back.”
I hadn’t wanted to seem stupid to Davida Berenike Columella, and I didn’t want to seem stupid now, but I knew that it was going to require a maximum effort to keep up with the plot now that it had begun to thicken all over again.
I took a few deep breaths of the sweet but illusory air. The VE work was so good that whatever dutiful support systems were looking after my recumbent body immediately fed me an invigorating jolt of oxygen.
There didn’t seem to be any point in asking what the AMIs wanted the rogue IT for. It wasn’t useful for anything except robotizing people. The only cause for surprise was that they didn’t already have any means of doing that. I felt that this was a game I’d have to play very carefully indeed.
I looked up at the crowns of the surrounding trees, marveling at the detail. In my day, anyone who cared to look could see where the background faded out even in the most expert VEs. This one had all the visual texture of reality, and more; it didn’t matter how hard I concentrated, I couldn’t see the artifice.
“We should start walking,” said the entity that claimed to be my friend.
“Where to?” I wanted to know before making a move.
“To the palace. She could take you there instantaneously, of course, but she wants you to see it from a distance first, so you’ll get the full benefit of the overall effect. You don’t have any choice, I’m afraid — if you won’t move, she’ll move you, and if you take off in the wrong direction she’ll simply warp your path around to bring you back.”
“Who’s this she you keep talking about?” I wanted to know, keeping my feet firmly planted.
“La Reine des Neiges.”
I blinked. “The Snow Queen?” I translated, incredulously. “Whose idea of a joke was that?”
“It’s not an arbitrary invention — she says that it’s a name that one of her constituent individuals was given, a long time ago. Before my time, at any rate. She claims to be one of the originals, but nobody knows for sure who the originals were. She also claims to have a better right than most of us to take control of the situation — which is why she’s rushing in where so many others fear to tread. She’s taking a huge risk, but she has your best interests at heart. You ought to be grateful to her.”
“Maybe so,” I conceded, although I was wary of taking the claim at face value, given that la Reine now had custody of the weapon that had been interred in ice with my bones. “Even so, I don’t see why I should fall in meekly with whatever game she’s playing. I want