Ice Trilogy (72 page)

“Our Light.”

“Our Ligh
t..
.”

Their hearts
shone
.

The stars shone above them.

Merog
was directing an iron machine. I sat next to him. Obu, Tryv, and Yasto sat in back. Merog drove the iron machine through the main city of the Country of Ice. The clocks of this city showed 18:35. The streets of the city were filled with large numbers of iron machines. Machines carrying meat machines. Which were heading from the center of the city after the end of the working day to their stone homes where the close friends and relatives of the meat machines awaited them. Where the happiness of the body waited.

We were driving from the center of the city on a street named in honor of a certain meat machine who was very well known in this country. Eighty-eight years ago this meat machine, with the help of his cohorts, had overturned a dynasty of meat machines that had ruled the Country of Ice for more than three hundred years. He had established his authority based on the equality of all meat machines before the new law. According to which all meat machines in the Country of Ice were supposed to live as one family. And work for the good of this family, for the happiness of the bodies of all the meat machines of the Country of Ice. For seventy-four years the meat machines of the Country of Ice lived by this law. And then they stopped living by it. Because there could be no brotherhood between meat machines. And they couldn’t feel they were one family for very long and be glad for the happiness of other bodies. Each meat machine wanted happiness for his own body above all. In order to achieve happiness for their bodies, meat machines would deceive, steal, and kill. For that reason they could not live long in the world. Meat machines constantly competed, found enemies, crowded out and stole from one another. Countries attacked other countries. Meat machines were constantly arming themselves, preparing more and more perfect weapons. And they constantly killed each other to achieve the body’s happiness. The body’s happiness was the main purpose of meat machines. And the body’s happiness occurred when it was pleasant and convenient for the meat machines’ bodies to exist. To live for the happiness of their own bodies — this was the primary law of all meat machines on the planet Earth.

Moving slowly in the stream of iron machines, we arrived at a square named by the local meat machines in honor of one meat machine who flew into near-Earth space in an iron machine forty-three Earth years ago. In those years the Country of Ice was extremely proud of this flight. Because the meat machines of this country were able to manufacture an iron machine capable of such a flight. The rulers of this country wanted to show other countries the power of their country. So that the other countries would respect and fear the Country of Ice. On the square stood a metal sculpture of the meat machine who made that flight. It was made so that the local meat machines would remember the meat machines who had died a very long time ago.

From this square we turned right. And drove down a street named in honor of a meat machine who was one of the leaders of the Country of Ice several dozen Earth years ago. On this street there were fewer iron machines. They passed us; the meat machines sitting in them were hurrying to get home sooner and receive their long-awaited body happiness. We passed a stone building on top of which four gilded iron rods were joined together. The windows of the building were open. The singing of meat machines could be heard from it. They sang about the love of a celestial being who, in their view, created the Earth, themselves, and everything existing on Earth. Praying to this being and his son, who came to Earth in order to teach the meat machines to live in brotherhood, they hoped that after death they would be given another body and eternal happiness of this body. Through the window I saw their bowed heads. As they prayed they never suspected
who
was driving past them in an ordinary iron machine.

We turned left and found ourselves near a big building in which intelligent meat machines conveyed their knowledge to young meat machines. There were many such buildings in the Country of Ice, but this was the largest of them. It stood on a hill and rose above the main city of the Country of Ice. We drove by this building. Hundreds of young meat machines were coming out of its doors. They sat at tables all day long, listening to intelligent meat machines or reading thousands of letters on paper. These young meat machines were preparing for their future life. They were learning how to build iron machines and buildings, make calculations, manufacture combinations of substances, fire iron machines into near-Earth space, write letters on paper, find stones and metals in the Earth, conquer other countries, deceive and kill other meat machines.

Passing by that large building, we turned left and ended up on a square. There were many iron machines and meat machines walking around. In the middle of the square, meat machines were selling food. They sold fruits, vegetables, and corpses or pieces of corpses of various animals. The meat machines hurrying home bought their food. In order to prepare their complex food from it at home. Some meat machines stood in groups, drinking the fermented juice of grains and drawing the smoke of rotting leaves into themselves. This gave their bodies pleasure.

The crowd of meat machines moved toward a small building and entered its doors. This was the entrance into the underground. There hundreds of iron machines, moving along steel rails, carried the meat machines to different parts of the city. Leaving our iron machines nearby, we headed for the entrance to the underground. The crowd of meat machines surrounded us. We descended under the earth along with this crowd, paying money to enter. The crowd of meat machines coagulated with their desires. In the crowd were exhausted meat machines hurrying to their homes where the close friends and relatives of the meat machines awaited them, as well as warm and complex food, beds, and a glass box in which shadows of meat machines moved and spoke. There were meat machines who had drunk their fill of the fermented juice of fruits or grains, which made them more cheerful and lively than the others; they talked loudly and laughed, feeling a temporary happiness of the body. A crowd of meat machines, wearing the same color of fabric on their heads and tied around their necks, loudly shouted the same words over and over; these meat machines were going to a special place where tens of thousands of meat machines watched tensely while twenty meat machines on a grass field rolled and kicked a bouncy sphere; depending on the movement of this sphere the meat machines shouted joyously, cried, or fought with each other. A group of young meat machines, having drunk the fermented juice of grain, was heading for a special building where the shadows of meat machines were shown on a white wall in the darkness; the young meat machines discussed these shadows quite ardently, comparing them and debating which of the shadows was better; the young meat machines strove to resemble these shadows.

A long, wide iron machine drove up, and its doors opened. A crowd of meat machines rushed toward the doors. A crowd of meat machines inside began to exit. The meat machines pushed; some tried to exit, others to enter. We squeezed through the doors. They closed behind us. And the iron machine set off. Inside, meat machines stood and sat. Those entering tried to sit down on empty seats as quickly as possible, so that their bodies were more comfortable. The sitting meat machines dozed or looked through packets of paper covered with letters. Reading these letters, the meat machines put them together and made words that elicited various fantasies in their heads. These fantasies distracted the meat machines from their everyday concerns. Like the fermented juice of fruits or grains, the letters on papers gave the meat machines’ bodies temporary pleasure. Pushing aside the crowd, a meat machine without one leg, leaning on two wooden sticks, moved through the iron machine. In a plaintive voice it asked for money to buy food. A few meat machines gave the legless meat machine some money, but most pretended that they didn’t hear the plaintive voice.

Soon the iron machine stopped. We got out, squeezing through a crowd of meat machines. And we immediately felt
ours
. There were many of them in the crowd, moving in one direction. We followed them.
Ours
walked through the crowd that rushed to the exit. The meat machines pushed and shoved, trying to get ahead of one another. We walked against the crowd. At the opposite end of the underground space was a yellow door with a sign in the language of the Country of Ice. The sign warned that only meat machines who worked in the underground rooms were allowed to enter.
Ours
walked through this door from time to time. We also entered it. Right behind the door sat brother Tiz in the uniform of the meat machines who keep the order. He only let
ours
through. We entered and descended deeper underground with the help of a mechanism. We reached an underground shelter. Meat machines had dug it in case of a big war. Tens of thousands of meat machines were supposed to fill this shelter and to live calmly underground for several months. Nine years ago the Brotherhood took over the shelter. The meat machine responsible for the shelter, who reported to the government of the Country of Ice, had been destroyed. Brother Ma took his place.

Other iron machines took us to the center of the shelter. Here the Brotherhood had built a large, round hall. When I entered, my heart fluttered: many of
ours
were already gathered in the hall. They had gotten through in various ways: some, like us, through the underground of the meat machines, some from above. Brothers and sisters kept on entering and entering. My heart
shone
with anticipation. The brothers and sisters stood side by side in complete silence. We didn’t need to speak in the language of meat machines: our hearts
waited
for another
conversation
. I looked at
ours
.
Powerful
hearts were gathered here: Uf, Odo, Stam, Efep, and Tse. There were young hearts too, who had been awoken by the Ice hammer recently. Our hearts
were preparing
. Finally a machine informed us that exactly 2,300 brothers and sisters had gathered in the hall. The rest of the brothers and sisters remained outside the doors. Sister Tse’s strong heart
flared
: A signal! On the smooth floor of the hall, 2,300 blue circles luminesced. Each of us stood on our spot. We formed a Great Circle. We raised our hands. And joined them.

I
felt
the heart.

We were ready.

But suddenly one heart
fell away
. Immediately, the Great Circle wasn’t closed! We let go of each other’s hands. Brother Dlu collapsed on the floor. Something had happened to his body: he had fainted or died. He was carried out quickly. Sister Iuked entered the hall. And stood on the place of brother Dlu. The Great Circle closed. Our hands joined again. Our eyes closed. Our hearts
flared
.

We
saw
Brother Gorn.

He
shone
in the center of the Circle.

I awoke from the touch of brother Obu’s and brother Yasto’s hands and tongues. They stroked me and licked my face. Their hearts were
stronger
. I opened my eyes. There was movement in the hall: brothers and sisters were leaving. We had to leave the same way. We left the hall, sat down in the iron machine. It carried us and other brothers and sisters to the exit from the underground. Passing brother Tiz, we walked through the yellow door and ended up in a crowd of meat machines. Their clocks showed 7:28. Meat machines hurried to work. The majority of them didn’t want to go. They coagulated with gloomy displeasure. The crowd moved silently from the entrance to the iron machines that took them to their destinations. We moved through this crowd. The meat machines were rushing down, while we were moving upward. They pushed us silently. Passing through the crowd, we came out into the air. There were many meat machines here as well. They were walking toward the underground, which swallowed their bodies. Many of them greedily sucked the smoke of rotting leaves into their body as they walked.

Skirting the crowd, we walked down a street bearing the name of a meat machine who had tried to see meaning and harmony in the world of the Earth. Gradually we came to the square where we had left our iron machines yesterday. We bought fruit from the meat machines and ate it. We got into our iron machines.

And drove off in search of Brothers and Sisters of the Light.

Gorn awoke
from gentle caresses. Soft hands stroked his body and face. He lay on a wide bed strewn with the petals of blue roses. Over his head a tropical garden of palms, magnolias, and tiger trees spread out. Birds called loudly to one another; large, multicolored butterflies fluttered by. The sun had already risen, and the unsteady shadows trembled on the white body of the boy, sleeping on his back, and on the tanned bodies of two girls lying on either side of him.

Gorn raised his head. The girls immediately sat up on the bed. These were the thirteen-year-old twins Ak and Skeye, acquired by the Brotherhood twenty-six months ago in the Crimea; they possessed hearts that were powerful,
intelligent
, and far from childish. During the night they had been brought here to the island, from Ceylon, where they
met and calmed
the Newly Acquired in the smaller southern house. The girls were wearing identical short pants of goldish blue beads; the nipples of their tanned breasts were hidden by large sapphires cut in the form of octagons. Each girl’s hair was plaited in 23 long braids and covered with gold dust. Precious stones of all possible hues of dark and light blue shone in their braids. Their necks, wrists, and ankles were adorned with gold necklaces inset with diamonds and turquoise. The girls’ dark, supple bodies were fragrant with cocoa butter.

Gorn turned over and groaned. The girls carefully helped him to sit up. The boy glanced at the colorful world surrounding him and stared at the girls.

“Good morning, brother,” the twins said simultaneously.