Redemption Ark

A man forced his way through the connecting throat. He floated into the room, arresting his drift with a press of fingertips against polished wood. She could see his face faintly. His bald skull was not quite the right shape. It seemed even odder in the gloom, like an elongated grey egg. She stared at it, knowing that, by rights, she should always have been able to associate that face with Remontoire. But had six or seven men of about the same physiological age entered the room, possessing the same childlike or neotenous facial features, she would not have been able to pick Remontoire out from them. It was only the fact that he had visited her recently that made her so certain it was him.

‘Hello, Remontoire.’

‘Could we have some light, please? Or shall we talk in the other chamber?’

‘Here will do nicely. I’m in the middle of running an experiment.’

He glanced at the glass wall. ‘Will light spoil it?’

‘No, but then I wouldn’t be able to see the mice, would I?’

I suppose not,‘ Remontoire said thoughtfully. ’Clavain’s with me. He’ll be here in a moment.‘

‘Oh.’ She fumbled one of the lanterns on. Turquoise light wavered uncertainly and then settled down.

She studied Remontoire’s expression, doing her best to read it. Even now that she knew his identity, it was not as if his face had become a model of clarity. Its text remained hazy, full of shifting ambiguities. Even reading the commonest of expressions required an intense effort of will, like picking out constellations in a sprinkling of faint stars. Now and then, admittedly, there were occasions when her odd neural machinery managed to grasp patterns that normal people missed entirely. But for the most part she could never trust her own judgement when it came to faces.

She bore this in mind when she looked at Remontoire’s face, deciding, provisionally, that he looked concerned. ‘Why isn’t he here now?’

‘He wanted to give us time to discuss Closed Council matters.’

‘Does he know anything about what happened in the chamber today?’

‘Nothing.’

Felka drifted to the top of the maze and popped another mouse into the entrance, hoping to unblock a stalemate in the lower-left quadrant. ‘That’s the way it will have to continue, unless Clavain assents to join. Even then he may be disappointed at what he doesn’t get to know.’

I understand why you wouldn’t want him to know about Exordium,‘ Remontoire said.

‘What exactly is that supposed to mean?’

‘You went against Galiana’s wishes, didn’t you? After what she discovered on Mars she discontinued Exordium. Yet when you returned from deep space — when she was still out there — you happily participated.’

‘You’ve become quite an expert all of a sudden, Remontoire.’

‘It’s all there in the Mother Nest’s archives, if you know where to look. The fact that the experiments took place isn’t much of a secret at all.’ Remontoire paused, watching the maze with mild interest. ‘Of course, what actually happened in Exordium — why Galiana called it off — that’s another matter entirely. There’s no mention in the archives of any messages from the future. What was so disturbing about those messages that their very existence couldn’t be acknowledged?’

‘You’re just as curious as I was.’

‘Of course. But was it just curiosity that made you go against her wishes, Felka? Or was there something more? An instinct to rebel against your own mother, perhaps?’

Felka held back her anger. ‘She wasn’t my mother, Remontoire. We shared some genetic material. That’s all we had in common. And no, it wasn’t rebellion either. I was looking for something else to engage my mind. Exordium was supposed to be about a new state of consciousness.’

‘So you didn’t know about the messages either?’

‘I had heard rumours, but I didn’t believe them. The easiest way to find out for myself seemed to be to participate. But I didn’t start Exordium again. The programme had already been resurrected before our return. Skade wanted me to join it — I think she thought the uniqueness of my mind might be of value to the programme. But I only played a small part in it, and I left almost as soon as I had begun.’

‘Why — because it didn’t work the way you’d hoped?’

‘No. As a matter of fact it worked very well. It was also the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.’

He smiled at her for a moment; then his smile slowly vanished. ‘Why, exactly?’

‘I didn’t believe in the existence of evil before, Remontoire. Now I’m not so certain.’

He spoke as if he had misheard her. ‘Evil?’

‘Yes,’ she said softly.

Now that the subject had been raised she found herself remembering the smell and texture of the Exordium chamber as if it had been only yesterday, even though she had done all she could to steer her thoughts away from that sterile white room, unwilling to accept what she had learned within it.