Gravity Wells (Short Stories Collection)

'The same thing happened earlier tonight, when the blood on his hands assailed him with strange unsettling voices; Alex retreated in confusion, and lo, I was there. I'm always backstage, milady, waiting in the wings. Biding my time for the show.

'And now it's showtime again.'

He held the radio transmitter to his lips and murmured, 'Resume. Take her to the bunker.' Immediately the robot hoisted me off the ground…not roughly, but it clearly hadn't been programmed to maintain a woman's dignity. Its gripping arms didn't care where they gripped, and it held me on a slight downward angle—I could feel my blood draining into my head. When it started to walk, each step was spring-loaded: not jarring, but a big upward movement, then a sudden dip down as the bot shifted its weight to the next leg. Up, down, up, down, very smoothly, and if I'd been an archeological artifact, I wouldn't have felt jostled a bit. Being human, however, I got seasick after the first three steps.

The Singer walked beside the bot for a few moments, watching me surge up and down with the bot's motion. Then he tossed something light onto my pinioned body. 'That is your costume for the song,' he said. 'Please do me the honor of donning the outfit when you reach the bunker.'

I craned my neck to get a better look at the clothes. Scanty and gossamer, of course. 'Are you going to tell me what I do in this song?' I asked.

He shook his head. 'I prefer it to be a surprise.'

'No rehearsal, no direction, a brand-new song and I don't know the words or the tune…'

He caressed my hair with his long, cold fingers. 'You'll be superb, milady. I have faith in your professionalism.'

The bunker smelled of mildew and cement; its only illumination was a gun slit that let in a strip of light from the beam-lamps outside. The robot lowered me carefully to the floor, withdrew the cable tentacles wrapped around me, and took up a position blocking the exit.

Queasily, I got to my feet. 'Let me leave,' I ordered the bot, and stepped toward the door. It couldn't hurt me, could it? Robots are programmed not to injure humans. But the moment I moved, the bot spread its cables wide, closing off the doorway like a spiderweb, with a big bot spider in the middle. I wasted a minute trying to pry free enough cables to give me room to escape; but steel is stronger than fingernails, and at last I gave up. I wasn't getting through that door till the Singer ordered the bot to let me out.

Sighing, I turned away and looked over the rest of the bunker's interior. It would cheer me no end to discover some functional weapon left from the war, a snare rifle, a jelly pistol, or whatever alien armament once fired through the gun slit; but the bunker had been emptied as meticulously as the rest of the planet. All I could make out in the shadows were cobwebs, dirt, and weeds sprouting from cracks in the concrete.

I began to pace, idly fingering the flimsy costume I was supposed to put on. One strong pull could rip the fabric to swatches, but that wouldn't help—the Singer would just drag me out naked. Angry at the thought, I gave the wall a good solid kick.

<SPLINK>

'That damned Silk sure gets around,' I grumbled. But if it really was a biological weapon, I shouldn't be surprised it could take root in enemy strongholds. During the day, enough light would come through the bunker's doorway for the Silk to keep growing.

I tapped the wall with my foot.

<SPLINK>

<SPLINK>

<SPLINK>

Tiny feet scuttled across the floor toward the sound.

'Hello,' I said. 'Rotten little beasts.'

A few minutes later, I was dressed in sheer see-through and making final adjustments on the sash about my waist. The sash wasn't part of the original costume—I'd made it from folding and twisting the blouse I'd been wearing—but I needed the sash to hide my hitchhikers: two parrots that had come scurrying at the sound of popping Silk. I'd slung them at my hips like six-guns, tucked under the sash and sleeping placidly after a full meal. Their small bodies pressed lightly against me, just inside the ridges of my pelvis, on either side of the flat of my stomach. Even under the bright beam-lamps outside, they'd be completely hidden.

The parrots weren't touching my skin—with stockings wrapped around my hands, I'd picked up the parrots and nestled them between my costume and the outer sash. It was hard to resist touching the little beasts just once, just the brush of a finger to hear if other minds were nearby. But now was not the time for pointless voyeurism; I had a different plan.

Once before I'd tried to close my mind to the Singer, trying to drown out all thought with the Trash and Thrash song. It didn't work. As the Singer said, he lived in songs, especially songs that were hard-edged and troubled…not to mention that the parrots were designed to broadcast trouble loud and clear. To hide, I had to lose myself in gentleness, restrict my thoughts to the kind of caring and concern where the parrots were mute.

I had to fall in love.

Concentrate on Alex: his face, his smile. I'd made love with him on the hill, clumsily, tenderly. No, to be honest it wasn't making love, it was just running away from my fear of the Singer, and the jangle of emotions aroused by using the parrots; but it could turn into love, couldn't it? Alex, beautiful, gentle child. In need of protection from himself and the world. Alex, who had tears in his eyes as he held unconscious Roland's hand. And Alex, coming to me in my own hut, stumbling over his words as he talked about his concern for Roland…if that really was Alex, and not just the Singer pretending to be Alex. No, it was Alex, it was Alex, even if he was feeling the Singer creep up inside his mind as the parrot blood took effect. It was appalling to imagine that: Alex hearing an icy other voice lurking beneath the surface of his thoughts, a second personality slowly gripping…

Damn. Concentrate, Lyra.

Deep breath. Falling in love with Alex. Who was kind and eager and vulnerable. A handsome prince held prisoner by his evil twin and now desperately yearning for a loving minstrel-girl to save him.

Alex's smile. His eyes. His need.

When it flows, it flows.

The lights bake the stage, the beat is driving hard, the music stabs you like a grimy finger. Your heart pounds, and if you don't kiss the first face you see, you'll grab the throat and squeeze. You feel hot style. You want to put on a show.

And if you're in love, the flow is creamy juicy lightning.

The music starts and you're on. Cue the backup singer. Showtime.

THUNK THUNK THUNK-AH THUNK. THUNK THUNK THUNK-AH THUNK…a heavy tenor drum, stomped full force, began pounding the night outside the bunker. I recognized the beat as the intro for 'Moth Metamorphism,' a cut that we'd scheduled to record later in the week. I should have known. All on his own, the Singer couldn't lay down instrumental tracks; for his new song, he must have written new lyrics to existing music.

The flow inside me clicked a notch higher. I knew this music, knew the through-line, the harmonies. I could kick the hell out of it.

When it flows, it flows.

The robot in the doorway began to whir, receiving radio orders from the Singer. I didn't resist as it wrapped a tentacle around my wrist and led me from the bunker; the bot could barely keep up with me as I strode out into the night, up to the plateau where the beam-lamps shone. A second bot appeared, carrying a microphone. I grabbed the mike, no time to wait, the music still booming. One slap to stick on the throat patch, a second slap for the battery pack, check the adhesive on both, and then I was surging forward, into the heat of the lights.

I stepped onto a green expanse of meadow, showing only one sign of the war: a glistening patch where the soil had been seared to black glass by some energy weapon. In the middle of the glassy surface stood a stone altar, a prop made for the recording of 'Dead Man's Prayer'; and just back from the altar lurked the fog machine, hooked up with an extra hopper of dry ice.

The mist would really roll tonight.

All right, all right, keep going. The Singer wasn't here, but keep going. Set up for a sprawl-shot on the altar. What else could the Singer want? I slid up on top, sprawling, waiting, shaking, THUNK THUNK THUNK-AH THUNK.

And Alex appeared.

He came over a rise, just a silhouette, sharply backlit with sprays of yellow sparks—nothing more than a black outline against a fountain of fire, but I knew it was Alex. The Singer moved more gracefully, more intentionally, like he was trying to prove a point; Alex just moved. I lifted myself higher, hands and knees, truly believing I could simmer Alex's blood just by staring.

THUNK THUNK THUNK-AH THUNK.

Alex picked his way down to the plateau, trying to hurry but slowed by clumps of weeds on the hillside. Once he lifted his head and maybe he called to me, but the drumbeat drowned that out.

THUNK THUNK THUNK-AH THUNK.

Now Alex hurried into the light of the beam-lamps. His shirt was buttoned and he was shouting, 'Get out of here, Lyra! Get out!'

I simply shook my head.

'I pushed him down for a minute,' Alex said as he ran to me, panting. 'He'd been outside for a long time, he was tired. But he'll be back, he will, and you can't…' Alex held out his hands, showing the brown bloodstains. 'This will drive you crazy, it really will. The noise gets so loud, it deafens you. And it's all so angry. I never knew people were so angry. Back at camp it was like a chain reaction, a little hostility, people getting angry in return, then everyone going furious… in five minutes, they were honestly trying to kill each other. And him, the Singer—he was in the middle of it, egging them on…'

I took Alex's hand. The blood on his skin was dry, textured like satin. 'It will be all right,' I said. 'Don't worry, it will be all right.'

'It won't, it won't. He loves the anger, he thrives on it, but it'll rip you apart. He wants to see it rip you apart. He wants to see you snarl like an animal.'

'Alex,' I said again, threading my fingers through his, 'it will be all right.' I squeezed his hand tightly, wanting to squeeze my strength into him.

'You don't…' He pulled his hand from my grip and pressed it against his forehead. 'You aren't…' His head snapped down, then up again, and he roared, 'Where are you, milady?'

The Singer emerged in gentle Alex's face like ice crystallizing in water. His eyes narrowed; his mouth grew hard. 'Damn the fool!' he screamed, and with both hands, he grabbed the collar of his shirt and ripped downward, tearing fabric and scattering buttons onto the ground. Gasping, he lunged forward to support himself unsteadily on the altar. 'He caught me by surprise. What has he done with milady? Milady! Milady!'

The man was staring straight at me, blind to my presence. All the rehearsal I'd done before, trying to make myself love Alex—that was pure nonsense, just priming myself to put on a good show. But in the moment of transition, when simple well-meaning Alex was crushed away by the Singer's rage, something sparked in my heart and made the love real. The love didn't feel like Romeo and Juliet or Trash and Thrash. It probably wasn't woman/man love…mother/son maybe, or big sister/kid brother. So what? My heart and brain filled with compassion, and to the Singer, I was invisible.

I rocked back onto my knees and thrust both hands into my sash. Two parrots, the last weapons to be drawn in Caproche's long war. As I touched them, the blare of the Singer's thoughts struck my brain like thunder, hate mixed with fear mixed with anger; but I was moving and mere noise couldn't stop me.

At the last instant, the Singer's head jerked up and his eyes met mine.

With all my strength, I clapped the parrots against his temples, slam, both sides of his head. The parrots burst in my hands like rupturing bags of blood, gushing across the Singer's face in brown spatters. For a split second, I could hear the echoes of fragmented thoughts outside me: the roadies, Helena, Roland, screeching far away. Then a jagged ripping sound split inside my head and my brain shattered.