Divergence

“How?”

What was going on with the venumbs? What could they hear? Constantine had half an ear trained on the space around the ship, listening for whatever it was. The other ear, however, was fixed firmly on Judy’s story.

“At night I dream of a hand over my face—”

“What do you mean by that?” Maurice demanded.

“It’s an anxiety dream,” Judy explained. “When I’m feeling stressed, I dream of a hand hovering just over my face. It reaches down from the ceiling, like it’s trying to smother me.”

A long creak echoed through the large hold. The farthest wooden venumb looked as if it was crouching, ready to spring. Slowly the humans turned back to face Judy.

“You’re changing the subject. How do you know Constantine?”

And it all came out. Judy spoke.

“I told you most of it already when I first came on board. Twelve years ago I met a robot called Chris. It told me that the Watcher had actually killed someone. It told me that it was going to kill again in the future.”

“That’s silly,” Edward protested. “The Watcher doesn’t kill.”

“He does,” Constantine said. “I witnessed the murder. I felt the EM pulse that ripped through that ziggurat.”

A spasm of pain crossed Judy’s face. “Chris told me that was going to happen. I was supposed to prevent that murder.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Because I’ve spent the last ten years running. Trying to get away from Chris and the Watcher! Both of them want me to help them—”

“Why? Why you?”

“ I don’t know why me! Chris wants me to help him to destroy the Watcher. He says that I will help him in the end. What if he’s right? He is more intelligent than I am. I feel like a puppet. I am a puppet! ”

And at that, the first little crack in the dam that had held back forty years’ worth of emotion appeared. A tear ran down Judy’s white face. She wiped it away. The dam held steady. And then, in perfect synchronicity, both of the venumbs pounced.

There was a cracking explosion of wood. White splinters crackling across the floor. Saskia yelped and slapped a hand to her cheek, blood welling through her fingers, a white sliver protruding. Constantine was behind her, his body arched as he absorbed the force of three larger pieces of wood.

“How did you get there so quickly…?” she began.

Constantine didn’t answer; he was now thinking and moving in quick time. He could see that the furthest venumb, now missing its front leg, was trying to make its way across the floor to a second huge wobbling grey-black mass that had suddenly appeared inside the large hold. It was a Dark Seed, but swollen, mutated until it was bigger than Constantine himself.

—Constantine, this is Aleph. Can you hear me?

—I hear you.

A rain of smaller, though still misshapen, Dark Seeds were beginning to fill up the hold. The nearest venumb was swinging its head this way and that. Wherever it looked, the seeds instantly vanished. Aleph spoke. —Kevin has brought us within range of something huge and dark. I think some battle must have been fought here between the Watcher and…something else.

Beneath the wooden feet of the venumb, the kittens jumped and pounced, catching Dark Seeds beneath their paws.

Judy was staring at the huge wobbling grey-black mass of the mutated seed. Maurice was meanwhile helping Saskia to pull the splinter from her cheek.

—You have a disintegrator built into your body, Constantine. Use it.