Threshold Shift (23 page)

“Wait
here,” Seth ordered before disappearing through a pair of large
inner doors. Jeremiah adjusted his red tunic and smiled absently. The
remaining guards breathed heavily through thick sharp teeth. Jon
could not help but be revolted. Their breath reeked of rotten
vegetation and decay.

“Michael
has closed his communication channel,” Jeremiah announced
cheerfully. “He is on his way.”

Jon
nodded and turned to the guards. One of them began to grind its claws
together. Jon thought they were sharp enough already. Jeremiah pursed
his lips, his hands clasped together behind his back. He even began
to whistle. Ten more minutes passed this way. Jon felt his neck
muscles tense.

The
doors opened briefly and Seth took his place with the others. As Jon
looked on a bell chimed three times.

“All
hail the Lord Michael,” a loud vocoder announced. The guards
bowed as the double doors swung open and Michael stepped into the
room dressed in long flowing white robes hemmed with gold. The two
followers at his side wore brown, and bore long wooden staffs carved
with symbols Jon could not discern.

“Jeremiah,”
Michael said. “Welcome to my home.”

The
red garbed avatar bowed briefly. “Thank-you for receiving us,
Lord Michael,” he motioned towards Jon. “You will of
course know Jon Klein.”

“Yes,
of course, any friend of Jeremiah’s is welcome in my home.”

“Jon
was instrumental in my efforts to release your nephew Paul,”
Jeremiah said, “despite the wishes of his late father.”

“I
am thankful,” Michael replied, “although Paul did not
quite describe events in that way.”

Jeremiah
pursed thin lips. “I can assure you that without Jon, Paul
might well be dead.”

“Yes,
well,” Michael said. “You forget that he was responsible
for Paul’s capture in the first place.”

Jeremiah
peered down at his feet for a moment before defiantly meeting
Michael's gaze. "I forget nothing."

Two
guards reached for the avatar, but discovered he could not be
touched. Jeremiah glanced towards them, and the one called Seth
collapsed to his knees.

Michael’s
acolytes looked from the guard to Michael, but the Threshian in white
appeared unperturbed. “Forgive me for being impolite,” he
said. “I believe refreshments are being prepared in the
library. Please follow me.”

Jon
and Jeremiah followed Michael and his followers down a long hallway,
past an ornate staircase to a pair of doors decorated with miniature
Threshian figures. Michael briskly opened the doors and walked
inside. Two walls were filled with bookshelves reaching up towards a
spiral patterned high ceiling. A tray with two bottles and three
glasses stood upon a varnished antique table at the centre.

“Please
leave us,” Michael said, motioning to his entourage. “I
have private matters to discuss with these, ‘men’.”

The
Threshians lingered.

“Go,”
Michael said. “I will call for you when I need you.”

The
disciples and guards reluctantly filed from the room. Michael turned
his attention to a book shelf and ignored them. Finally the double
doors closed behind them. For a minute there was only silence.

“You
shouldn’t have come here,” Michael said finally. “It
is not wise to remind my people that we have human allies.”

“I
am not human,” Jeremiah said. “But I take your point.”

“Why
have you come?” Michael asked. “And why bring him?”

Jeremiah
strolled across to a book shelf, casually removing a title. “I
have a proposal for you,” he said. “One I thought to
deliver in person considering your feelings on the matter.”

“I’m
listening.”

“Allow
me to conduct all remaining humans off planet. Threshold will still
be yours, but the slaughter will cease.”

Michael’s
vocoder erupted into repetitious hails of simulated laughter. “You
can’t be serious.”

Jeremiah
opened the book. All Jon could see were blank pieces of paper.

“I
agreed to help you retake your world,” Jeremiah said. “I
gave you weapons. I removed Espirnet and the threat of any orbital
strikes. I even removed the ability for the humans to call for help.
You have won, the planet is yours. All I am asking is that you let
the humans go. Those that remain are no threat to you.”

“They
are human,” Michael said. “They must die.”

“No,”
Jeremiah replied. “They do not have to.”

“I
refuse your proposal,” Michael said. “Even if I were to
agree, my people would not, they will not be happy until every human
has been killed, every indignity repaid.”

Jeremiah
smiled. “Fair enough.”

Jon
blinked. “What?”

Jeremiah
turned to Jon. “Well, I tried. We should return.”

“I
don’t understand,” Michael said. “That’s it?”

“Well,”
Jeremiah said. “I could threaten to break our agreement, but I
am not going to. I need the Larson ore more than I need humans to be
alive. Of course, you could use releasing the humans as a negotiating
tool with the interplanetary authority, maybe even delay a
counterattack. Wun is coming with more ships, but it is possible he
may arrive too late. You did get us started with this uprising a
little before schedule.”

Michael
pointed at Jon. “He gave me no choice! They would have carted
Paul off world, used him as a hostage to influence me. I couldn’t
allow that.”

“Asher
secured Paul’s release,” Jeremiah said. “But you
had no faith in him. Now look what has happened.”

“Let
them come,” Michael said. “I have loaded the three mines
with explosives. If the humans counterattack I will destroy the ore.
They will have nothing.”

Jeremiah
blew out his thin lips and bowed his head wearily. “Oh Michael,
there is Larson ore all over the planet. The mines merely represent
the richest and most accessible veins. Blowing them up will not stop
an invasion. It will simply make reprisals more vicious. You must
release the humans.”

“No!”

Jeremiah
sighed. “Very well then, Jon, do you have anything to add?”

Jon
took a deep breath as Michael turned his back on them and walked
towards the window.

“I
think you know that this isn’t right,” Jon began, “you
can’t hold us responsible for the crimes of our grandparents.
The humans of Threshold are innocent. Just let them go.”

Michael
snorted with contempt. “Innocence, I don’t believe I
correctly understand the concept. You and your kin are innocent
because you did not commit the crime? But the crime didn’t end
sixty years ago, little one. It didn’t even end last week. My
planet has been raped of its most precious resource and my people
used to make it happen. It would continue still if we had not risen
up. The crime ended yesterday, and all those who committed it are
being held to account.”

Jon
looked to Jeremiah. The man in red smiled wanly in response.
“Thank-you Michael,” the avatar said. “Your
eloquence is most inspiri...”

“Wait,”
Jon interrupted. “You are talking about people who had no
choice, who were born into a situation they couldn’t change.”

Michael
faced him. “They could change it if they wished. They did not.”

“What
about me?” Jon asked, storming across the room. “I was
just a child when Daniel murdered my mother and kidnapped me. How
could I have been responsible? Why punish me? How many other children
must suffer, children who never had the power to change anything?”

Faster
than Jon could react, Michael struck him across the cheek with the
back of his hand. Knocked off balance, Jon fell noisily across the
table into the tray of drinks. Recovering himself, he tasted blood in
his mouth.

“You
talk of punishment,” Michael said, standing over him. “I
will show you punishment.”

“Careful,
Michael,” Jeremiah interrupted. “I will not see Jon come
to further harm.”

Michael
rounded angrily on the avatar, but Jeremiah refused to be cowed. “Do
not get ahead of yourself, ‘My Lord’.”

“Give
him to me!” Michael demanded.

“Control
yourself!” Jeremiah retorted. “You are not a savage, you
are a rational being. Behave like one.”

Michael
hissed an untranslatable concept and stared at Jon with glaring red
eyes. “I accept his mother was killed by my brother, but Daniel
received due punishment for that crime. In fact, he is still
receiving that punishment.”

Jon
struggled to his feet, wiping the blood from his lip. “Daniel’s
alive?”

“I
wouldn’t call it that,” Michael said. “Would you
like to see, little one? Would you like to see what your father did?”
Without waiting for a reply he marched across to the library doors
and wrenched them open.

“Come
with me and I will show you.”

Chapter
Sixteen

Jake
sat alone in the spaceport cafeteria considering the dinner plate of
food set out on the table before him. It was still hot. He could see
the steam rising from the brown sauce that concealed some unknown
form of meat. The smell of it was inviting, but even though his knife
and fork were clutched in both hands, he couldn’t bring himself
to eat it. He didn’t feel hungry, and absently he recognised no
food had passed his lips since his creation. He found himself
thinking about Jon, wondering how the boy was and hoping that he
could overcome the many challenges ahead. Jon had also called him
‘Dad’. Not a grudging admission, but an offer of
something more. It made him feel like he wasn’t a sim, that he
might actually be real.

Standing
up, Jake picked up his tray and deposited it onto the conveyor belt
that would feed it into the automated kitchen behind the wall. For
just a moment, he paused to gaze at the painting of a silver
dorsal-finned spacecraft in flight. The painting was vibrant and
alive, promising the excitement of the stars for all those that would
have been eating a very ordinary dinner. He smiled to himself,
passing each row of tables in turn until he arrived at the automated
door. Sensing his movement, the door slid aside and let him go.

It
had been a long day, this first day of his life. He recalled how
confident he had been at the start and how that same confidence had
disappeared when Paul had moved far faster than he could hope to
match. Replaying the Threshian’s escape in his mind, it was
like he was the one in slow motion while Paul had simply moved
normally. It made him question himself. Was he slowing down? In order
to answer that question he attempted to draw his gun a few times, and
each time he did feel slow, slow and awkward. He was beginning to
understand why the original Jacob Klein had turned to Jopo H. The
younger Threshians were much faster than he would have believed
possible, and Jacob had only been getting older. Something had to
give.

The
hallways of the spaceport were silent except for the mutterings of
the promotional vidcaps that were still playing on the wall screens.
He ignored the special offers on exclusively imported goods and
searched out Roe and Andy. Eventually he found them in one of the
smaller ‘private’ spaceport lounges. Roe was wedged
underneath an entertainments console while her brother knelt nearby,
passing a three pronged implement to her outstretched hand from an
open orange toolbox.

“Hello,”
Jake said as he entered the lounge. “What’s going on?”

Andy
turned to him furtively. “Any sign of Jeremiah?”

Jake
shook his head. “Outside and up in his ship, but not here.”

“Good,”
Andy said. “We think we can tune this console into the
spaceport’s communication array.”

Jake
took a few steps closer. There wasn’t much of Roe visible, but
he could see a tangle of multi-coloured filaments hanging down from
an exposed section of the console.

“Almost
there,” she said as a hail of blue sparks rained down. “Ow!”

“Everything
OK?” Jake asked.

“Yes,”
Roe replied assuredly as more sparks escaped.

Andy
turned to him and put a finger to his lips. Jake nodded and retreated
to an armchair next to a coffee table.

“Stupid
machine!” Roe roared. “Why won’t it just…?
Ow, ah, there it is.”

Jake
heard the thud of repeated impacts as she pummelled the insides of
the console with either the three pronged tool or her own fists. It
was difficult to tell.

“Connected,”
she said triumphantly. “We should have access to the spaceport
antennae.”

“Good
work,” Jake said.

Andy
took hold of her legs. “I’m pulling you out.”

“Hold
on, hold on,” she replied. “I’m a little tangled.
Just give me two seconds.”

Jake
twitched his nose at the distinct smell of burning circuitry. The
console was smoking. “Get her out now!”

He
leapt to Andy’s side. The young farmer was already pulling his
sister out.

“What
are you doing?” She demanded as she came into view. Half a
dozen wires were coiled tightly around her chin. Jake quickly reached
down and wrenched them free. She was clear just as the console
explode. Jake exhaled sharply and leant back, it was a blackened
mess.

“You
stupid idiot,” she shouted, springing to her feet. “Why
did you do that? It was all working.”

Jake
stood up and brushed himself down. “Fine,” he said. “Next
time we’ll leave you there.”

Roe
frowned at her brother, and he dodged her kick as she rounded on the
console. “So close, if you hadn’t…” She
thumped the wreckage with her fist.

“Stop
it!” Jake ordered. “Enough. It was never going to work.”

Blood
was dripping from her hand, and her eyes were reddened, puffed up and
accusing.

“You’ve
hurt yourself,” Andy said, scrambling towards her.

Roe
stared at Jake, squeezing the wound tightly with the fingers of her
other hand. “It’s nothing.”