03. Masters of Flux and Anchor (37 page)

Like their mother, they preferred generally to wear as little as possible, and nothing around home, unless they needed it for warmth or protection. Although pampered all their lives, they considered the rough life an adventure, even to going out and pumping the water, then heating it on the stove, then carrying it over to the tub to take a bath. They did not mind getting dirty in the least, but it seemed that that was because it gave them an excuse to take another bath, trouble or not.

They were curious about the outside world and the past, and he was free and honest with them, within reason. There were, however, disconcerting cultural problems, such as when he described independent women who led indepen¬dent lives and did many of the same jobs men did either as well or better.

"Why would they want to?" they asked him. Try as he might, and he tried mightily, he could not convince them that the role of women in New Eden was limiting, or unfair, or even undesirable. For a woman not to want a husband and family and to prefer to work at whatever career she wanted they considered sick, a mental illness. Like Sindi, long ago, they actually pitied men the roles they had to play. Men's lives were all work and worry and pressure, and society gave them generally uninteresting bodies. Even their dress and manner was dull and boring. Girls, they told him, were far more free in society than men were. "Let's see you kiss a man in public and not have everybody drawing all the wrong conclusions about you," they taunted.

He told them, with some hesitancy, about their own origins. He felt he had to, when he figured out the right way to do it. He told them about Cassie's origins and her legendary rise and fall, and he even eventually told them about Spirit and who her parents were, and why they hadn't married. "When your mom came here, she fell in love with your dad. but she had too much of a burden on her mind, too many memories, and, I guess, me, too." And that was why, he concluded, both their moms had chosen to have their memories just wiped away. He emphasized that they chose to do so, and did not describe the coercive nature of both their arrivals in New Eden.

They were fascinated by the romance of the adventures but unable to reconcile the two women who'd raised them as having done all that in the past, and they ultimately rationalized it as two girls who'd been raised in a sick society who'd been forced by accidents into roles girls shouldn't ever have to play, who'd eventually found true peace and contentment here.

Sondra found the twins fascinating and delightful, but she also continued to play her other role. "There are very strange things going on," she told him. "Lev's been meeting with Champion and a bunch of other old officers from the early days. Secret meetings, mostly at night and away from the city. Some of the names are commanders of places that are very far from here. None of the Judges know, I'm sure, but I've heard Sligh's name and some¬body named Conrad."

"Sligh's chief administrative officer," he told her. "That fits."

"But the craziest thing is that in Lev's study I saw some pictures taken by balloon, I think, showing what they're doing at the Gate. It looks like a tower all right, but there's no power lines anywhere. Not even poles. Just a big. ugly black line like a snake going right down into the Gate!"

With that, he went to Tilghman, making certain that there was no one who could overhear. "My stringers have been taking a good look at the broadcast tower at the Gate," he told the Chief Judge.

Tilghman frowned. "How could you do that? That's off limits to everybody."

"We have our methods in the Guild. You should know that."

"Or expected it. What of it? You knew the plans."

"But your power cable doesn't run south to the city or to any generating plant we can see. It runs into the Gate. That's how they're going to tap the required power. They've found out how to patch into the step-down transformer that feeds Flux to the temples. It'll black out everything left that runs on Flux, including the west's factories, but it'll send one hell of a signal. It'll send a signal straight out of New Eden and straight through Flux in all directions all the way to the poles. It'll trigger remote control devices on the other Gates that I'll bet are either already in place and booby trapped like mad or soon will be. I warned you, Adam!"

He shook his head in wonder. "But how is it possible? I mean, any downward shift on a cable that size, and even gravity will cause some of that, would activate the de¬fenses and vaporize the cable."

"There's some kind of signal you can send to turn it off. Coydt knew it, so I assume that it's somewhere in those records of his and the Seven finally discovered it. I know that signal exists because I've walked in a Gate just that way myself."

"My God!" Tilghman breathed. "I'll get the army on this right away."

"No. That's why I made such a search of this place. I'm using a gadget now that scrambles our conversation beyond a few feet and plays hell with all listening devices. There are a half dozen in this room. The major army commanders are all in on it. Sligh, too. He'd have to be, as well as all the old Coydt loyalists except you politicians who would oppose it."

Tilghman looked suddenly very old and very weak. "Champion, too?"

"And Levett, I'm very sorry to say, and most of the district commanders."

"Not all," the Judge said, suddenly growing firm and angry. "I made certain of that early on. Few know I'm much of a wizard at all, and only a very few know just how powerful I am. I can count on at least ten thousand good men from West Borough—if I can sneak them through." He paused a moment. "You're certain about this?"

"I wish I wasn't."

"How long do you estimate until they're ready to go?"

Matson shrugged. "I didn't see the place myself, after all. When did they tell you the master tower would be completed?"

"In ninety days."

"Count on that, then. Right now they're probably planning a whole charade, with you and the others lined up to cut the ribbon and make the first broadcast. They'll probably put up four walls and string some meaningless wires that'll look convincing. But that broadcast will be heard 'round the world, and you'll still be standing there when whoever or whatever shows up in that big hole out there."

Tilghman was all thought now. "What will you do?"

"I'm overdue to visit Spirit, and the twins have been anxious to meet her and also see what Flux looks like. I'd like to use that as an excuse to coordinate with Mervyn and see what steps can be taken to dismantle those remotes on the other Gates or, failing that, to prepare for invasion. They'll think it's normal and be glad to be rid of me. Stringers might also try, if we have the time, to jam or disperse that signal. But I'll be back here in plenty of time for the deadline, no matter what."

"I'll start things in motion as soon as I can devise a safe way to do it. If it's this pervasive, though. I don't know if anything will work short of bombing the thing from spring-launched gliders."

"That's a chance. As a last-ditch attempt. I doubt if the big boys have told the ones in on the plot that the opening of the Hellgate is the plan. They must think they're going to overthrow you for some reason—old grudges, going too fast, whatever. I can't imagine why Lev would make four babies and then go open the Gate."

"Matson—take care of my daughters. Leave them with Spirit for the duration if you can."

"No, Judge. For one thing, I can't hide anything from them. You must know that. For another, they're very loyal Fluxwives. Where I go, they go—remember? Besides, if these idiots actually open those fucking Hellgates what difference will it make where any of us are?"

17

TWISTS AND TURNS

For one with rank and position, getting to the border was not the ordeal it had been only a few years earlier. Matson didn't really trust the steam trains, as they were being called after the stringer trains of Flux, but he had to admit they were faster.

The driver car in front didn't look like much; a giant steam boiler on wheels with a large stack a little more to the front than center of the boiler. In the rear was a platform for the driver and the fueler, whose job it was to haul wood from the platform on the next car back and get it into the boiler furnace at a steady rate while keeping from knocking the driver off the platform and controls. In the rear, held to the engine by heavy steel pivot bolts, were a half-dozen cars each the size of the engine, one of which was for carrying horses and other livestock, one for passengers which was basically four thin wooden walls and a wooden roof atop a flatcar base to which ten benches that must have come from some Anchor park were bolted, and  a  series of wooden cars  with  low  or no  sides  to which was lashed cargo.

The first line had been from the coal fields and peat bogs of the northeast to New Canaan, passing through much virgin forest which provided a lot of wood for fuel and construction. The second line had been to West Borough, so that the industrial products there could be easily shipped to the center of the country. They had not yet gone all the way to North Borough, the former Anchor Logh, but the land was flat, track-laying had been easy, and they were only thirty kilometers south of the old wall now, close enough to cut the time north for passengers from twenty days' hard horseback riding to just about thirty hours at the engine's average speed of fifty kilome¬ters per hour. That meant New Canaan to Anchor Logh in just about two days even with the ride at the end, and that was blinding speed to any of them, although many of the strongest men quaked with terror at the thought of going fifty kilometers per hour.

It was still a very uncomfortable ride, being shaken and tossed all over by the minimal springs on the car. It was nearing the end of the hottest season, which meant that the car soon became stifling if you kept the windows shut, but filled with foul-smelling smoke and occasional cinders if you dared leave them open for the breeze. If you had to go to the bathroom you had to wait for one of the fortunately frequent stops for the engine to take on more boiler water and use the open pit toilets usually found there, or, consid¬ering their smell and condition, bushes or fields. You ate and drank what you brought with you, although there were usually water towers supplied from rivers and streams available to fill up canteens.

What had started out as an exciting adventure for the twins quickly turned into the grueling ordeal Matson expected. There was no privacy, and there were always members of railroad building crews, army men, and the like jumping on and off at the water stops and forcing the girls to act the expected ways and not kill the time with Matson's stories and general conversation as they did at home.

An extra ten hours were added as well because the trainmen still weren't confident enough to run at night except in emergencies. The schedule was set so that they arrived just after nightfall at a small complex of shacks that was a now-abandoned former rail gang camp. Since the buildings were run-down and jammed with sweaty, tired men, once Matson and the girls had seen to their horses they elected to sleep outside under the stars.

Ever since reading Haller's journal, Matson had been unable to look at the night sky without wondering what great strings between those points of light his forefathers had ridden. One intangible string at least reached from them down the years to him. The Signal Corps still existed, and still functioned as a service and fighting unit.

Although it was almost dark at the end of the second day and they all felt like they'd been shaken, battered, and bruised enough, they agreed to ride well away from the forward rail camp, with its rough, hard-drinking men and its "service girls." He had no intention of being killed in a fight with some drunken railsmith over the twins.

Although it would have been a simple day's ride to their old home, he elected almost immediately to head west. Once out and away from the sights and sounds of the new technology he felt very comfortable, and the twins were able to relax and treat it as an adventure once more. He wasn't sure if they were just playing up to him or not, but they seemed to have a genuine liking for the quiet and emptiness of the bush and they certainly had taken to long rides as if born to it.

Six days after setting out from New Canaan, they reached the Flux wall, looking as solid and imposing as ever. Incredibly, neither of the girls had ever seen it before. They had spent their whole lives in the capital of New Eden, then rode south in wagons to New Canaan. They were awe-struck and a little afraid, as he'd expected they would be. To one who'd never seen it before, it looked as if the very planet stopped there. Looking at their faces, with so much of their mother in them, his mind flashed back to those earlier, simpler times. Then he said, "Come on. After that damned steam train this will be nothing, and it'll be warm and quiet in there." He went on, and they followed, but reluctantly.

The void embraced him and felt like an old friend. He saw the girls tense, then relax as they felt the peace and quiet without threat that was there. It was still about the same temperature here as in New Eden, about twenty degrees centigrade, but as they pushed in it began to rise as the conduction was lessened. Overall, New Eden's creation had caused Flux to drop about half a degree.

They came to a blue string wound with great complexity, and from it he read its code which told where it went and where on it they were.

"What's that?" the girls asked.

He was surprised. "You can see it?"

"Sure. A funny blue line of fuzzy light. A bunch of them, sort of all twisted together."

"Most people can't see it. It means you have the power."

That excited them. "You mean we can do magic like you said?"

"Maybe. It depends on how much of it you have. When we get to New Pericles we'll have Mervyn take a look at you, if he's there."

Mervyn was there, and he was fascinated by the twins. "Just as a guess, they're each at least at their mother's potential, but the fact that they're so closely linked men¬tally gives an enhancement possibility that staggers even me," the wizard told Matson. "They have a Flux bond so strong that they are essentially one individual."