the torture chair gazed thoughtfully at Judy 11’s kimono as he spoke. His expression made it perfectly clear that he was aware that if he were to undo the sash, the front would just fall open. Judy waited until his gaze came back up to hers, and then she spoke with calm patience.
“Yes. Is that relevant?”
“Not really. I suppose you get your rocks off by empathizing with people such as me. Well, go ahead. I’ve got lots of memories. I expect you’ll find plenty of experiences there to show you what you’re missing.”
“In my experience the people who do the talking aren’t much good at the fucking,” Judy said levelly.
The man smiled. “Normally I’d agree, but I’m confident you’ll find that I’m the exception. Give me a go.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.
“Do you think we have time for this?” Judy 11 asked.
“No, but I want you to understand that I’m telling the truth. Empathize with me. I’ve been waiting years to get in touch with someone like you. Someone who is in a position to help.”
Judy gazed at the man as her console shushed in her ear, announcing the seeding of the processing space with fifteen billion memory leaks. She was calm.
“We have possibly just under three minutes to live,” she said. “Why didn’t you just ask me to link with you directly?”
She slipped a little blue pill of MTPH into her mouth and gazed at him, contemplating a koan, allowing her mind to drift, waiting for her subconscious to pick up on the signals emanating from the man’s body.
“Are you ready?” he said.
Judy 11 nodded.
“Okay. The Watcher first came into existence around 2045. It believes itself to be of extraterrestrial origin, probably the result of a sort of pan-universal computer virus that infects processing spaces that have achieved a given level of sophistication.”
Judy watched the man carefully, reading his face, his pulse, listening to the little voice that spoke inside her, the voice that was apparently the man’s thoughts but was really just an MTPH-enhanced construct of her own mind. It was the voice of her subconscious, supercharged and given life. And it was telling her that the man was speaking the truth….
– Or he believed that he was anyway. All that you were just telling Helen about the Transition…it was all part of the Watcher’s plan. The last century and a half of history have been shaped by an extraterrestrial intelligence that has taken root on Earth and is guiding us along its own path. The Watcher believes that the only way that life in the universe can coexist peacefully is by beings such as itself guiding us towards the path of enlightenment.
The atomic Judy nodded slowly.-I’d heard that before. So the Watcher knows there are other forms of life?
– It’s confident that there are. After all, something created the Watcher virus…
– Well, it sounds like a nice idea. I can think of worse fates.
Judy 11 shook her head.-I know. But that’s not the point. You see, the Watcher doesn’t know for sure. It wanted to confirm its theory, so it built a test bed. Somewhere out in the galaxy, far from Earth, it has established a colony planet. On that planet it has built a computer network, just the same as the one that covered Earth back in 2045. It is hoping that the network will be infected by the pan-universal virus, confirming its theories.
– Sounds like a good idea.
– Maybe, except that if another being takes root on that planet, the Watcher is going to kill it. I don’t know why…
– Oh.
The atomic Judy knew what 11 must have thought. She felt it herself, and it sickened her. Destroying an AI was murder. The Watcher couldn’t do that, could it?
– The man said the Watcher has already murdered. It will do it again.
The atomic Judy felt sick.-There doesn’t seem to be a lot we can do about this, is there?
– No. And doesn’t that worry you, that humanity has had the responsibility for its actions taken away from it? That we now live according to the rules of the Watcher, whether we like it or not?
– Yes. But, like I said, what we can do about it?
– The man didn’t really say. We had maybe less than one minute still to live at that point.
The atomic Judy touched the hem of her kosode, thinking.
– I don’t like it when things happen so quickly. It usually means that we are being railroaded; that someone is trying to distract our attention from something.
– I agree. I said as much to him…
The man was of average height, average build. He had brownish hair and greyish eyes and he spoke in colorless tones. There was nothing memorable about him; that was probably deliberate. He made an offhand gesture.
“Ah, Judy, but what else can I do with so little time left? If you, or one of your alter egos, had been a little more efficient, we would not be trapped in this deflating simulation. We should have had time to talk.”
Judy listened again to her console. Just over forty seconds left. “I believe you’re wasting time, whoever you are. I don’t understand why you waited for so many years, just to fritter away the few minutes that we now have.”
“Because we must wait for the moment when everyone is distracted. Even the Watcher will not be watching us now. Judy, you will come to believe what I say is true. Stop the next murder.”
“How?”
“Go and find the atomic Judy. Tell her-”
“The atomic Judy? And do you believe that atomic forms are superior to digital forms?”
“Do you want to waste your last seconds arguing about equal rights? Listen, the path that must be taken has been carefully constructed so that the Watcher will not guess what we are doing. Only the atomic Judy can follow that path. Trust me.”
“Why should I?”
The man ignored her. “Listen. Tell the atomic Judy to investigate the Private Network. There are those who are involved in the Private Network who were there when Justinian Sibelius was murdered.”
“Justinian Sibelius?”
“Don’t bother looking up the name. The Watcher changed the records. They will just tell you he died peacefully on Earth and is now lying next to his wife above the Devolian Plain. That’s a lie. He died at the edge of another galaxy.”
“Another galaxy?”
“Tell the atomic Judy. Investigate the Private Network. Find someone who has been to the edge of another galaxy. That’s where you’ll find the answer.”
They both seemed to feel the change at the same time: Judy through her console, the man by some other means.
“They’ve opened up a pipe. You can get out of here.”
Judy nodded. “Okay. You can come with me and-”
“I can’t. The Watcher is looking for me. If I exit this space, it will see me.”
“If you stay here, you will die.”
“So be it.”
The man seemed to be getting bigger-not swelling like a balloon, rather expanding. The man’s head was already twice normal size. He looked down and smiled as it vanished through the ceiling. His chest
