The stain quickly crisscrossed the walls and ceiling, covering everything in a slimy yellow crust. Even the windows clouded over. Andrea’s cheeks tingled, and her eyes itched, and she returned her POV to her Slipstream car afraid she’d find the real world also under attack. But all was normal inside her car. It was parked at a platform in the Oakland station. Commuters passed outside her windows.
“Give me a mirror!” she said, but no mirror opened. “Mirror! Mirror!” In desperation, she unlatched her pod harness and peered at her reflection in the window. No yellow streaks on her cheeks, though they burned. Nothing wrong with her eyes. A panic reaction?
“I’m going home,” she said, making her way to the car door. “E-P?”
“Wait!” Andrea called. She stumbled leaving the car and nearly fell on the platform. “Save the Oship clones!”
A pain greater than anything Andrea had ever experienced stabbed her in the head. When she looked again, she was sprawled on her back on the concrete floor. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. Mechanical bees were swarming all around, and a man in a gummysuit like a stack of green jelly pillows was looming over her barking angry, meaningless words. She couldn’t make out what he wanted or why he was so angry. She sat up and shouted, “Go away!”
But the man didn’t go away; he came closer. Andrea brought her knees to her chest. Her knees were scraped and bleeding, but she hardly noticed. She made a fierce face at the horrible green pillow man and screamed, “Go away!”
Coin Toss
After Mary’s last brainscan was complete, Meewee escorted her to the little room that had served as a ready room during their brief stay. The small facility had a provisional feel to it, as though it had been assembled for them alone and would be pulled apart once they left. Which Meewee suspected was probably the case.
Mary leaned on him as they shuffled along the corridor. “That was exhausting, so many memories. Did Ellen think that they were going to cure me?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Inside the ready room, Ellen was on the floor crying while Cyndee and Georgine looked on impassively. They were further along than Mary and had not spoken during the entire three days of their stay. When Mary entered, Ellen got up and hugged her legs. Mary merely looked down at the girl. She had no comfort to give her.
“Well,” Meewee said, “I suppose it’s time to go. I promised Lyra I’d have you in Chicago by now.”
ARROW HAD CONFIRMED that it indeed still held the kill codes for all Starke insiders, including Eleanor and Cabinet, and even including himself. On his way from Chicago to the Mem Lab, Meewee wondered idly how such a code would work in a biological body. Was it similar to the searing that the HomCom had once used to lock the cells of people exposed to NASTIEs? Or maybe there was a reservoir of poison hidden somewhere inside his body? He didn’t pursue this matter and took the mentar’s word at face value.
The real question, the one Meewee couldn’t get out of his mind, was how Eleanor could place so much trust in that odd mentar and, by extension, in himself. Did she feel that she knew him so well that she was willing to put the fate of her whole universe into his hands? Or was she subtly manipulating him to always do her bidding? Whatever the case, it had worked in her favor thus far.
Whether or not helping her was a good thing was another matter altogether. Would he go down in history as humanity’s traitor? As the man who ended history? Or as humanity’s savior? Eleanor trusted his judgment over her own, apparently, and had put the final veto power into his hands. And yet, even as his car arrived at the Mem Lab, he didn’t know who was right. Were brainfish really any better than Andrea? Why couldn’t there be just people?
A CELEBRATION WAS in progress in the pond room. Momoko was there, and he went straight to her and took her in his arms and gave her a big greedy kiss. His own sense of entitlement startled him, he who had never had much interest in romantic love. But she kissed him with equal passion, and this startled him even more. Is this how you manipulate us, Eleanor? Or am I suddenly a romantic?
The room was roaring with laughter and music. Staff members from all the satellite mods were there in realbody or vurt, including russ guards and the two Els, who were a little bit drunk on champagne. Missing, Meewee noticed, was Captain Benson, the russ commander of the garrison. Was he already on board the
“Bishop Meewee!” squealed an El; he couldn’t tell if it was Elaine or Liz. Momoko put a champagne flute into his hand.
“What’s this all about?” he said. “A going-away party?”
“Yes,” Momoko said.
“And a victory celebration,” said the other El who joined them. The Els were dressed in plain jumpsuits, one red and the other blue.
“What victory?”
“Haven’t you heard? Where have you been?”
“Locked up in that autoclave you call a tube car.”
The El in blue said, “An hour ago, E-Pluribus suspended all operations.”
“At all their locations around the world,” added her sister.
“And E-P has vanished from mentarspace!”
“And Andrea is in a private clinic.”
The two young women clinked their glasses and chorused, “Ad astra!”
Eleanor’s sim joined the group. She seemed happy but not so giddy as her younger sisters. “Oh, don’t look so surprised, Merrill,” she said. “I told you it would have to be done before the launch.”
“Yes,” he said, “but —”
“Don’t worry about the ships,” said the El in red. She cupped her ear with her hand and said, “Cur-chunk! Cur-chunk! What’s that sound I hear?”
Her sister replied, “That’s the sound of mentars rapturing.”
The Els howled with laughter. Eleanor rolled her eyes and led Meewee by the sleeve to the side of the pool. The brainfish lined up for a pat on the head. “Dr. Strohmeyer tells me that your engram recordings of the evangelines are good,” Eleanor said. “Their brainfish will be imprinted in a few days. Of course, they’ll be kept in a separate facility.”
“Good. Good,” Meewee said absently.
“Did you tell them what it was for?”
“What? The evangelines? No. I thought it best that you do that.”
She watched him for a little while and said, “So, have you made up your mind?”
“About what?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Merrill. I know that you know what’s at stake here.” She gestured toward the Els across the room. “We know what we are.” At that moment, both Els turned to look at him. All three nodes of the posthuman woman, and all their fishy cohorts, were looking at him with intense interest.
“No,” he admitted, “I have not. And I don’t understand why you’ve put it on me to decide what you do.”
“Then permit me to try to explain. Under the best of circumstances, a colony ship on a millennial voyage will be lucky to survive. If space doesn’t kill it, its bickering human cargo will. Things will only get worse when they arrive and start colonizing their new home. They’ll have a much better chance for survival with someone like me coming along, don’t you agree?”
