The Life of the World to Come (47 page)

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Authors: Kage Baker

Tags: #Adult, #Science Fiction, #Adventure, #Fantasy, #C429, #Extratorrents, #Kat, #Travel

BOOK: The Life of the World to Come
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Mars, he’d been responsible for all those people dying on Mars.
No, that had been before …
Mendoza. She’d been arrested, he’d failed her.
No, that had been before …
He wasn’t even a human being. He was a Recombinant, one of those creatures who’d been illegal for centuries, who lived now only in the most lurid of horror fictions. A genetic test pattern, an experiment, an organic thing worked out on a graph before he’d ever drawn breath. Even poor mad Elly not his kin, he’d been no more than a parasite in her womb, no child of anyone’s. Dr. Zeus had meddled with a twist of DNA and produced a nonperson.
Somebody moaned. Somebody else was lying on the floor of the saloon, breathing harshly.
Alec lifted his head and looked.
Two other men lay near him on the floor, their heads close to his, each lying at an angle away from the other, forming a three-branched figure.
One wore an old-fashioned suit, vaguely familiar to Alec from cinema. One wore nothing but a long white shirt and what looked to be black tights. In every other respect, however, they were identical to Alec. They were lifting their heads now just as he had done, and staring at him and at each other with just such an expression of horror and disbelief as he himself wore.
With a cry he scrambled backward from them, more terrified than he had ever been in his life. He could get no more than a body’s length from either man, however, no matter how he struggled.
The one in the shirt had dragged himself into a sitting position, and shut his eyes tight. He was reciting something to himself in an undertone. The third man was looking rapidly from Alec to the other one, his gaze hard. He sat up and gestured oddly, running his hands over his clothing as if he were searching for something. He didn’t seem to be able to find it. He smelled like blood and fireworks.
Alec knew, not wanting to know, that his name was Edward. The other one, the one who was now opening his eyes and looking at Edward with such loathing, was Nicholas, and he reeked of smoke.
“Murderer!” Nicholas said.
Edward smiled coldly. “I suppose so. I don’t seem to be burning in Hell for my crimes, however, have you noticed? And it wouldn’t appear that Jesu Christ has answered your prayers, either. What do you suppose is going on?”
“I’ve lost my mind,” gasped Alec, and promptly wished he hadn’t, for both the others turned their pale eyes on him.
“Stop blubbering, boy,” Edward said. “You made a second Pompeii on Mars; if you can bear that, you ought to be able to bear our company.”
“You’re not really here,” Alec said, squeezing his eyes shut, rocking himself to and fro. “I’ve fried my brain somehow. I’m hallucinating.”
That’s all it is, matey, to be sure.
All three of them jumped.
“Captain,” Alec shouted, “I’ve crashed myself!”
It ain’t nothing to worry about, son. Never you mind them two duppies! Remember the spooks you saw, that time you tried them mushrooms? But you’ll be all right, now, here’s old Billy Bones with something to put you to sleep—
The servounit came scuttling into the saloon, extending its arm with the anesthesia mask. For once, Alec was ready to welcome it. He’d have given a lot to lose consciousness just then. Nicholas gave a yell of horror, drawing back from the skull-faced thing, but Edward leaped to his feet.
Alec felt himself pushed aside somehow, watching as Edward attacked Billy Bones with incredible speed and ferocity. The mask was sent flying, and Billy Bones wound up across the room on its back, scrabbling vainly at the air with its steel legs.
Ow! Alec, what in thunder did you do that for?
“My name is Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax,” Edward said. “Don’t attempt to drug me again. You’re the mechanical servant, aren’t you? Perhaps you can answer my questions! Have I been made immortal? Has the Society accomplished its purpose?”
There was a long, long pause.
What Society would that be, now, sir?
the Captain inquired politely. He was scanning Alec with great care, noting
that his brainwave pattern was distinctly different when Edward was speaking.
“The Gentlemen’s Speculative Society, of course! We were about to found an epoch of science. We were to conquer death and transform the world,” Edward said.
There was another long silence, broken by a bitter laugh from Nicholas.
“Fool,” he said. “Hast thou no understanding? We are dead men, thou and I. Yet thou art not in Hell, nor I in Heaven neither; and the reason is, we have no souls to go thence. Some necromancy created us, no more but homunculi.” He pointed at Billy Bones. “Look how the boy hath made a brass head to sail his ship! And lo, the same alchemy hath made the boy and us.”
Edward’s eyes narrowed. “Medieval theological rubbish. I tell you, I was one of a brotherhood of men working to bring a golden age to mankind! We were on the brink of wonderful things when I—”
“Thou wert never one of their number,” Nicholas said. “Thou wert no more than their tool, and when they’d brake thee, they cast thee away.”
“Liar!” Edward took a menacing step toward Nicholas. Alec felt himself pulled closer too, and struggled to draw back. Edward’s progress was arrested. He turned, glaring at Alec. Alec shoved him. He felt real, and when he threw a punch at Alec, Alec seized his wrist and felt the heat of solid flesh, the texture of his sleeve. As they struggled, locked together, Alec saw every tiny detail of the brass cuff links Edward wore, with their device of a fouled anchor. Alec shuddered. Edward for his part was peering in baffled rage at the tiki pattern of Alec’s shirt.
“Beat it, dead man!” Alec growled.
Er, excuse me, sirs—
said the Captain.
“Speak when you’re spoken to, machine,” snapped Edward.
Oh, aye, sir, to be sure. Captain Henry Morgan at yer service, sir, and I was just trying to do me duty like I was programmed. With respect, sir, I believe I can throw some light on the subject of yer Society, Commander Bell-Fairfax, sir. Perhaps you didn’t have time to take in the contents of this
here file when everything happened so quick just now, but if you’ll have a closer look—
The Captain excerpted the dossier on
Adonai’s
second sequence, the same text and pictures that a certain trio of learned gentleman had studied at their leisure in Regent’s Park. He fed it directly to Alec, modifying the signal to accommodate Edward’s brain patterns.
Edward stiffened and went pale. Alec let go of his arm.
Sorry about them autopsy pictures, sir, I reckon they’re a little distressing.
Edward collapsed into a sitting position.
“Damn them,” he said at last. He covered his mouth with his hands.
Aye, sir, that’d be my feeling on the subject, too. Now then, gentlemen—I reckon you’d better sign articles amongst yerselves to keep the peace, because you ain’t in no position to quarrel, d’you see? And let’s put cards on the table.
Yer Society’s called Dr. Zeus Incorporated nowadays, Commander Bell-Fairfax, and they conquered death, all right; but they ain’t exactly brought about no golden age. What they done is amass more power and wealth than anyone’s ever had, mostly by making themselves a lot of immortal slaves to get it for them. But they wanted to make sure history turned out to their profit, so they needed a few dirty tricks played. That was why you were made, sir.
“Damn them,” Edward repeated, raising his furious countenance. “They told me it was for the greater good of mankind. They
used
me. My God, the blood I’ve spilt! The things I’ve done!”
“Call not on thy God,” Nicholas told him. “Science had all thy worship, and
civilization.
And here thou art, now, no more than a ghost in the earth, with no claim on Heaven.”
“As if you could ever get to Paradise,” replied Edward angrily. “You did your share of brawling and lusting after wenches, if I read your memories aright. And can you read mine? Can you read the boy’s?” He grinned in savage amusement. “Your God’s been pitched off His throne long since, it seems.”
“I was no murderer—” began Nicholas, and then flinched
at the data Edward was sending him in a pitiless flood. He caught his breath, absorbing the impact of the scientific discoveries, the advances in scholarship, the inevitable dwindling into insignificance of issues that had mattered more than his life. He closed his eyes, turned his face away, but he couldn’t stop his understanding.
“You see?” said Edward. “They’re all happy pagans nowadays. When they take the trouble to worship at all. Enlightenment swept most of that nonsense away, and good riddance!”
“Oh, leave him alone,” said Alec, growing alarmed, for Nicholas, doubled over, was mute and wide-eyed, regarding through his fingers the horror of the void. “Look, man, don’t feel too bad—I know it’s got to be a shock, finding out your religion’s dead, but we’ve got this new thing called
nonselective altruism,
so people are still—”
“My death was wasted,” said Nicholas quietly.
Not quite, sir. You did preach that sermon, when you was tied to the stake and the fire waited for you. Maybe you recollect? You impressed the good people of Rochester no end afore you burned, sir. One boy named Crokeham, he was so inspired by what you said, he run away to sea just so he could fight for England. Sailed the Spanish Main. Went ashore with a landing party on an island, all hot to kill himself a Spaniard, and what he found there—
Edward lifted his head. “Document D,” he said in amazement.
Aye, I see you’ve guessed. He found something that didn’t ought to have been there in 1578. Drake made damn sure nobody talked, but he wrote it up in his logbook and gave it to Elizabeth’s ministers, with an eye to national security. They didn’t know what to make of it, so it sat in the classified Crown archives until 1852. You know who found it there, Commander Bell-Fairfax, don’t you? And you know what he done with it.
“The Santa Catalina Expedition,” said Edward.
“But—Catalina’s where Dr. Zeus has its laboratories,” said Alec.
Right you are. So you see, Nicholas? If you hadn’t preached that sermon, the Company might never have been
founded Not that an old sailor like me understands paradoxes in temporal physics, mind you, but that’s the way it looks from here. If our Edward was a pawn for Dr. Zeus, weren’t you the one as made the opening move in the game?
Nicholas sat staring. Edward gave a brief laugh.
“What a nest of snakes,” he said.
Aye, sir, you might say so. And all of ’em biting their tails.
Silence followed this observation, until Nicholas cried out
“Rose!” he said hoarsely. “I left thee amongst devils—”
“Not devils,” said Edward, sitting bolt upright. “The Society. Good God! Your Rose and my Dolores—they were one and the same. And you—” he turned to Alec.
“Mendoza,” said Alec, as the implications hit him.
“She was an immortal creature,” said Nicholas. “Their slave. God forgive me. God forgive me. I never knew until the last—and I thought she could disobey them—”
She could. That’s why she were a prisoner when you met her, Alec. She’d run afoul of her masters, trying to keep Commander Bell-Fairfax here from getting killed.
Edward blanched.
“But that means she—” Alec was unable to complete the thought.
I said she was a cyborg. She’d had a bit more than a porting interface installed, though, lad, if you want the truth. I been trying to tell you this, but you didn’t want to hear. She was a living machine, like yer old friend Blaise. The difference was, she loved you. She knew who you were, and she knew you’d been set up to die again, just like these two fine gentlemen. So she disconnected the intercept and saved yer life.
“You mean—she was one of those
things
?” Alec’s voice shook with horror. “I slept with a machine?”
Edward turned and slapped his face, with such force his head rocked on his shoulders.
“If you ever speak of her that way again, I’ll kill you,” he said. “You feel disgust, do you, a thing like you? For a machine da Vinci himself might have designed? Good God, I was enchanted once I knew! For the little while I had to know.”
“Listen to me, boy,” said Nicholas desperately. “She could
not help what they made her! What art thou, to despise her? Wilt thou betray her, too?”
“
Thing
indeed.” Edward glared at Alec. “Has it penetrated that thick skull of yours yet, Alec? She preserved your life, even though she must have known what they’d do to her if she were caught. What will happen to her now?”
Alec saw the dark field of his nightmare again, the pits of flame.

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