Redemption Ark

They would be instructions for making things, clues or signposts that pointed them in the right direction rather than detailed blueprints. Or there would be edicts or warnings. But by the time those distant transmissions had reached the participants in the Exordium experiments, they had been reduced to half-heard echoes, corrupted like Chinese whispers, intermingled and threaded with dozens of intervening messages. It was as if there was only one open conduit between the present and the future, with a finite bandwidth. Every message sent reduced the potential capacity for future messages. But it was not the actual content of the messages that was alarming, rather the thing that Felka had glimpsed behind them.

She had sensed a mind.

‘We touched something,’ she told Remontoire. ‘Or rather something touched us. It reached down the corridor and grazed against our minds, coming through at the same time as we received the instructions.’

‘And that was the evil thing?’

I can’t think of any other way to describe it. Merely encountering it, merely sharing its thoughts for an instant, drove most of us insane, or left us dead.‘ She looked at their reflections in the glass wall. ’But I survived.‘

‘You were lucky.’

‘No. It wasn’t luck. Not entirely. Just that I recognised the thing, so the shock of encountering it wasn’t so absolute. And because it recognised me, too. It withdrew as soon it touched my mind, and concentrated on the others.’

‘What was it?’ Remontoire asked. ‘If you recognised it…’

‘I wish I hadn’t. I’ve had to live with that moment of recognition ever since, and it hasn’t been easy.’

‘So what was it?’ he persisted.

‘I think it was Galiana,’ Felka said. ‘I think it was her mind.’

‘In the future?’

‘In a future. Not ours, or at least not precisely.’

Remontoire smiled uneasily. ‘Galiana’s dead. We both know that. How could her mind have spoken to you from the future, even if it was a slightly different one from ours? It can’t have been that different.’

‘I don’t know. I wonder. And I keep wondering how she became like that.’

‘And that’s why you left?’

‘You’d have done the same thing.’ Felka watched the mouse take a wrong turning; not the one she had hoped it would take. ‘You’re angry with me, aren’t you? You feel that I betrayed her.’

‘Irrespective of what you’ve just told me, yes. I suppose I do.’ His tone had softened.

‘I don’t blame you. But I had to do it, Remontoire. I had to do it once. I don’t regret that at all, even though I wish I hadn’t learned what I did.’

Remontoire whispered, ‘And Clavain… does he know any of this?’

‘Of course not. It would kill him.’

There was a rap of knuckle against wood. Clavain pushed his way into the space, glancing at the maze before speaking. ‘Talking about me behind my back again, are you?’

‘Actually, we weren’t really talking about you at all,’ Felka said.

‘That’s a disappointment.’

‘Have some tea, Clavain. It should still be drinkable.’

Clavain took the bulb she offered him. ‘Is there anything you want to share with me about what happened in the Closed Council meeting?’

‘We can’t discuss specifics,’ Remontoire said. ‘All I can say is that there is considerable pressure for you to join. Some of that pressure comes from Con-joiners who feel that your loyalty to the Mother Nest will always be questionable until you come in from the cold.’

‘They’ve got a bloody cheek.’

Remontoire and Felka exchanged glances. ‘Perhaps,’ Remontoire said. ‘There are also those — your allies, I suppose — who feel that you have more than demonstrated your loyalty over the years.’

‘That’s more like it.’

‘But they’d also like you in the Closed Council,’ Felka said. ‘The way they see it, once you’re in the Council, you won’t be able to go around putting yourself in dangerous situations. They view it as a way of safeguarding a valuable asset.’

Clavain scratched his beard. ‘So what you’re saying is 1 can’t win either way, is that it?’

‘There’s a minority that would be quite happy to see you remain out of the Closed Council,’ Remontoire said. ‘Some are your staunchest allies. Some, however, think that letting you continue to play soldier is the easiest way to get you killed.’

‘Nice to know I’m appreciated. And what do you two think?’

Remontoire spoke softly. ‘The Closed Council needs you, Clavain. Now more than ever.’

Something unspoken passed between them then, Felka sensed. It was not neural communication but something far older, something that could only be understood by friends who had known and trusted each other for a very long time.

Clavain nodded gravely and then looked at Felka.

‘You know my position,’ she said. ‘I’ve known you and Remontoire since my childhood on Mars. You were there for me, Clavain. You went back into Galiana’s nest and saved me when she said it was hopeless. You never gave up on me, through all the years that followed. You made me into something other than what I was. You made me into a person.’

‘And now?’