To Hold Infinity (40 page)

 

<<>>

 

Leaping from the kneeling position, the warrior launched herself at Yoshiko, halberd whirling like a propellor. Yoshiko jumped back, retreating from the demon which bore her own face, beating the naginata aside with her own.

The warrior came in at an angle, cutting off a sideways retreat, forcing Yoshiko back along the polished dojo floor.

Outside, pine forests on mountain slopes lay beyond the opened screens.

The warrior kept coming: implacable, fierce, unstoppable as a hurricane.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Every counterstrike Yoshiko made was smacked aside, and the demon-warrior, the kami-Yoshiko, kept on coming. Its naginata's blade whipped past Yoshiko's throat, and she knew that she could die here for real.

Yoshiko was terrified.

Acknowledging her fear, admitting it to herself, she stood her naginata on end, and waited for death to strike.

“
Eeeee!
”

The shadow warrior struck and Yoshiko gave in to her fear, flinching and crouching, but the flinch became a spin and as the blade came at her she cut sideways to
kote
, against the wrist. Her crouch became a leap forward into a kneeling position and she struck in
kesa
style, all or nothing, no defence, thrusting forward and hooking up and her blade bit into her opponent's larynx and tore its life away.

 

<<>>

 

A wind howled across the formless void, and these were the words it spoke:

“Here is the extra code you will need.”

 

[[[HeaderBegin: Module = Node728A.32l9 Type = QuaternaryHyperCode: Axes = 256

Priority = absolute

Status = resident always

Concurrent_Execute

     ThreadOne:.linkfile = LockChannelZero

     ThreadTwo:. linkfile = LockChannelOne

     ThreadThree:.linkfile = LockChannelTwo

     ThreadFour:.linkfile = LockChannelThree

End_Concurrent_Execute]]]

 

Modules that could hold infiltration code in an iron grip until LuxPrime rescue came.

Night fell, black upon black.

Over an infinite silver plain of snow, the endless night grew a galaxy of stars. Meteors fell, comets blazed, and the stars rearranged themselves into words.

 

WE WILL PRESENT YOU NOW.

 

Great wings flapped in unison, and the chill draught took her breath away.

The three pairs of winged horses banked downwards, and Yoshiko's chariot—its huge dragonfly wings glinting where sunlight struck—followed their arcing trajectory.

Triumphant joy filled her as she glided in above a quicksilver road. Bordered by pillars of blue flame, it floated above a plain of gold and silver squares.

The chariot settled upon a hovering dais, and Yoshiko stepped down as chariot and horses became twisting columns of scented smoke which broke apart, dissipated, and were gone.

She stood alone, in a vast auditorium, and a hundred thousand upturned faces gazed upon her.

The voice came from everywhere, the vibrations of the universe itself.

“WE PRESENT TO YOU…LUCULENTA YOSHIKO SUNADOMARI.

“BID HER WELCOME TO OUR STRATUM.”

The applause was deafening, a crashing roar of tidal sound.

Yoshiko bowed.

 

<>>

 

The three LuxPrime techs were bowing to her. Silently, they turned and filed out from the silent chamber.

The oval ceiling was a huge eye upon a green-tinged sky. The light it cast had shifted angle: hours had passed, though it might as easily have been seconds, or many years.

Accompanied by Maggie, Lavinia's bed moved across the floor, drawing close to the pallet upon which Yoshiko still sat.

“Luculenta Yoshiko Sunadomari.” Lavinia was smiling, though tiredness webbed her face. “My congratulations.”

“Not bad.” Maggie winked. “Do I curtsy, or what?”

Black clouds, lit up by lightning. Winds howled across the blasted heath. A small straggle-haired crone bent over a steaming cauldron, whose glow cast her oriental features in deathly green.

There were wisps of random colour, vagueness replacing sharp outlines. Resolution failure. Losing focus.

Control. Concentrate.

“
When shall we three meet again?
”
The crone leered.
“
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
”

“Nice one.”

“Hush. Don't interrupt her.”

A second witch, scarlet hair streaked with white:
“
When the hurly burly's done.
”

“Hey, I think I recognize that one.”

“
When Yoshiko has had her fun.
”

“So who could this be?”

The third witch performed a parody of a dance.
“
When Rafael's bad code can't run.
”

“Not me, for sure.”

“Oh, really?”

Then the three old women joined hands over the cauldron and chanted, while the cold winds blew revenge.

“
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

“
We'll catch the bugger anywhere.
”

 

<<>>

 

“Bravo!”

 

<<>>

 

“Nicely done, Yoshiko.”

Maggie and Lavinia clapped hands in mocking applause as Yoshiko withdrew from interface and the terminal powered down.

Yoshiko blinked, and rubbed her eyes.

“Very impressive.” Lavinia lay back in her bed, looking weak but alert. “The LuxPrime guys went to town on device interfaces. But that's your natural imagination taking form in those images.”

“Not bad for an Earther, eh?” Maggie said.

Yoshiko performed some neck rotations.

“Hard work, huh?” Maggie's hand made a short gesture towards her pocket, then stopped.

She was obviously dying to get her video-globe out, to capture a new Luculenta's first unsteady steps to interface.

“Go on, Maggie, for God's sake. If you want to record anything, that's fine.”

“You mean it? I won't prepare a NewsNet item until—later.”

“I know that.” While Maggie readied her video-globe, Yoshiko turned to Lavinia. “Can I try editing ware? Amending the code in my mind?”

Lavinia's already pale face grew deathly white.

“Don't even think about it.”

“But I can see the code, if I just kind of—”

“No.” Lavinia's words held an icy intensity. “That's the danger, to look at the low-level code of your own mind. You're only aware of it now because you're still integrating. Later—later, movement through Skein, manipulating devices, forming images in fast-comm links, all become second nature. Like breathing.”

As she mentioned breathing, Lavinia lay back, taking fast shallow breaths.

Maggie looked concerned.

“It's all right,” Yoshiko said. “I get the message. I won't edit my own mindware. OK?”

Lavinia turned her head on the pillow to face Yoshiko, and smiled wanly.

 

Glass tears, floating.

“Isn't that your friend from Ardua Station?” Maggie pointed to the red-bearded image trapped inside a teardrop icon.

Eric Rasmussen. Forcing herself not to gesture, Yoshiko focussed intensely.

Nothing happened.

Lavinia, who had turned her head on her pillow to watch Yoshiko's attempt to check h-mail without gestures or voice, said softly, “Don't try so hard.”

No—yes.
The teardrop unfurled.

“Hi, Yoshiko.” Eric tugged at his unruly beard. “Er—I decided to take leave. I'm going to be on Fulgor next Sez'Day. Perhaps we can meet up at some point? Er—Endit.”

“Nice one,” said Maggie.

When Yoshiko looked at her, she added, “Being able to access the message just by looking at it. That's all I meant.”

There was a snort of laughter from the bed.

“Oh, good grief.” Yoshiko pinched the bridge of her nose. “You two are a great help.”

“We try to be.”

“Come on, Lavinia. No, we don't.”

“You're right. We don't.”

Yoshiko sighed. “Can I just concentrate on getting the other message?”

“Don't let us stop you.”

“Go ahead, Yoshiko. Say, Lavinia. Isn't today Sez'Day?”

“Now you come to mention—”

“All right, all right.” What could she say? “Look, Eric's a nice guy, all right? But I hardly know him, and I've—other things to worry about.”

“Sorry.”

“Yes. Sorry.”

Their apologies sounded unconvincing.

“So who's the other message from?”

“You think she's got
two
boyfriends? What a disgrace.”

Yoshiko cleared her throat, and the heckling stopped. She turned her attention on the remaining teardrop.

Bright shards arranged themselves into a sharp-featured Luculenta crowned with grey hair. Felice Lectinaria.

“Luculenta Yoshiko Sunadomari: warmest greetings.” In the image, Felice inclined her head in a regal bow. “I would like to offer my congratulations in person. I shall be at the Primum Stratum conference centre today, Sez'Day, in auditorium three alpha.

“Perhaps we can discuss the paper I sent you? Endit.”

The image faded.

Maggie said, “She wants to talk about Tetsuo, doesn't she?”

Yoshiko was capable of receiving a realtime SkeinLink comm, but Felice Lectinaria would not have expected that, so soon after upraise. It was logical to communicate via h-mail.

Perhaps the LuxPrime techs should have given Yoshiko the ability to initiate a SkeinLink.

“What are you going to do, Yoshiko?”

“I guess—I'm going to a conference.”

 

Maggie used her wrist terminal to check arrival times—Eric's shuttle was due to land in less than two hours—while Lavinia discussed tactics.

“Execute the lock-code, at the first hint of anything unusual.”

“Right.” Yoshiko's voice sounded more confident than she felt. The lock-code should stop Rafael's code from infiltrating her mind, but keep the comms-session locked so that LuxPrime techs could trace it back to him. But if they did not know exactly what Rafael's code did, how could they know their countermeasures would work?

“With luck,” said Lavinia, “the code will execute automatically, without your even willing it. There's nothing to worry about.”

Maggie flicked off her display. “I've ordered a taxi, Yoshiko. You can drop me off at the conference centre, meet Eric at the spaceport, and come back to the conference centre to meet Felice Lectinaria.”

“Er—”

“Or I can come straight to the spaceport with you first, and we can both meet this Eric.”

“Wait a minute.” Lavinia held her hand up. “Yoshiko, just a simple addition to your code—”

{{{HeaderBegin: Module = Node38V7.2215 Type = TrinaryHyper-Code: Axes = 27

Priority = absolute

Status = resident always Execute

     contact = {{Luculenta Lavinia Maximilian, ident6654χ8
•
{sept5ΘΞ}}}

     LockChannelZero.append(SkeinLink(contact))

End_Execute}}}

Lavinia, trembling, lay back.

“You're not supposed to interface.” Maggie, concerned, looked around as though for help.

“I'm OK. Yoshiko—that will notify me, if your lock code activates.”

“Thank you, Lavinia.”

Maggie stood up, and straightened her jacket. The video-globe bobbed above her shoulder.

“I guess we should be going. Are you sure you'll be OK, Lavinia?”

“I'm in the biggest med-centre in Lucis City.”

“That's a yes, then.” Maggie leaned over and kissed Lavinia's cheek. “Take it easy.”

“You, too.”

Yoshiko and Lavinia clasped hands.

Maggie was the first to reach the door. She stepped through, with Yoshiko on her heels.

A giant figure stepped into their path, blocking their way.

 

Grey rain misted across the encampment.

“Watch out!”

It coated the dripping trees, turned the ground to mud, made everything slippery to the touch.

“I've got it.”

Straining, Tetsuo hefted the wet crate up into the flyer's hold, earning respectful glances from his smaller Simnalari companions.

Dhana tapped on his shoulder. “Our flyer's about to lift.”

“Right.” He nodded to the Simnalari. “See you, guys.”

“Cheers, Tetsuo.”

Rain plastered his short hair to his scalp, and trickled down his smartgel-coated skin. Feeling strangely lighthearted in the cold, damp air, he and Dhana made their way across the churned-up ground to a battered old cargo flyer.

“You're settling in.” Dhana peered at him from under her jumpsuit's peaked hood. “You didn't have to help them.”

“I know.”

He helped her aboard, and scrambled inside himself.

“What are you doing here?” A youth, staring at Tetsuo's headgear.

Along the rows of seats, people turned to look.

Tetsuo nodded in Dhana's direction. “I'm with her.”

“Oh, right.” The youth looked at Dhana, and grinned. “That's cool.”

Dhana snorted. “Can you keep the noise down?” She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. “Some of us need rest.”

The youth winked, and turned to talk to his own companion.

 

Guido. That was the name. Yoshiko remembered seeing him, when she had called Federico. This was the man who had fought so brutally, injuring his subordinates.

“I'm very sorry, Professor.” Beside her, a young man spoke. It was Brian Donnelly, the young proctor with whom Lavinia—Vin, then—had danced. “We're supposed to keep you under guard.”

“We know that.” Maggie's voice was sharp. “That's the whole idea. You're supposed to come with us—” She gestured down the corridor, where half a dozen more fit-looking men and women, all armed, stood watching. “—along with the rest of your people.”

Guido shrugged his massive shoulders.

“You ain't goin' anywhere.”

Yoshiko remembered: Federico had assigned TacCorps members to Major Reilly's team. It had not occurred to her that Federico's people might outrank the other proctors assigned to her.

Brian Donnelly looked thoroughly intimidated.

“You can't detain this woman,” said Maggie, “She's a Luculenta.”

“Can't see any pretty headgear.”

“You—”

“Never mind.” Yoshiko laid a hand on Maggie's arm. “Let's not argue with the man.”

Guido breathed in, and tensed the great slabs of muscle in his chest, his massively swollen arms.

“Sensible move, ladies.”

“Come on.” Yoshiko led Maggie back inside.

 

Bright holo banners danced above the sea of bobbing heads, like orange ribbons caught in the breeze. Against the greyish sky, tainted with washed-out green, the letters fluoresced with unnatural clarity.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Like a human river, they flowed down the emerald slopes, heading for the extended buildings of the Primum Stratum conference centre. Widespread white wings, the building's hovering roof, glowed in contrast to the surrounding gloom.

Tetsuo looked back. On the ridge, a score of flyers was parked. Like flocking birds, more vessels were spiralling in to land.

“You OK?” Dhana squeezed his hand.

“Sure.” At least the rain had not reached this far.

He had never been among a crowd this big. With an unsettling singularity of purpose, the marchers moved slowly but steadily along.

“Look.”

Beyond the conference centre, an orbital shuttle was swooping in to land at Cicanda Spaceport.

Mother.
It was an unavoidable reminder that she was here, on this world. She must be worried sick about him, and he had no way of contacting her.

A plaza lay before the conference centre. As the crowd's vanguard reached it, a small group of proctors came out of the building. One of them, Tetsuo thought, spoke briefly into a comm-ring.