Divergence

Then the feeling vanished. Judy registered what Saskia had said.

“No,” said Judy. “I mean, yes, yes. I’m fine. Come on now, Miss Rose.”

Past the open door of the conference room, Maurice was in there, whispering something into his console.

“I thought you were looking after Edward!” Saskia said accusingly.

“He’s okay,” Maurice said, looking up. “He’s down in the small hold at the moment, checking if there is any cargo we should salvage. I’m going there directly to help him.” He glanced at his console. “Listen, we’re approaching the region where the Watcher’s gaze is most intense, hence the flux of Dark Seeds will be most intense. Kevin and Aleph say we’ve got about twenty minutes until we run into trouble, but I reckon it’s only fifteen. Basically, once you’re in the shuttle, stay there! I’ll join you ASAP.”

“Okay, Maurice.” Saskia blushed. “You make sure you and Edward are in there in time. Don’t do anything silly.”

Maurice looked at her, softening enough to give her a tight little smile in return.

“I won’t,” he said. He folded up his console and walked quickly off. At a much slower pace, the three women followed him. They shuffled along, past the conference room and around the complicated junction where the corridors leading to the two holds and the living areas and the exits met. The ceiling there sloped downwards, following the curve of the teardrop hull that lay just beyond it. Saskia and Judy slipped their arms through Miss Rose’s, holding tighter as they stepped forward over the corner of the large hold. Miss Rose gave a little scream as the variable gravity pulled them around through two hundred and forty degrees.

The air of the ship pulsated: it felt greasy and too warm. It felt as if something was trying to snatch hold of them. Judy could half hear distant calls, imagining that someone was speaking to her, trying to catch her attention, an effect of the increasing flux of Dark Seeds.

But there was something else as well.

They had walked a good fifty meters down the corridor when Judy felt it again. The black-carpeted corridor of the ship faded away, leaving her standing in greyness. Now she could smell grass and flavored vodka.

“What is it? Judy, what is it?” Saskia’s thin face wavered into focus. The real world was reasserting itself. Judy felt the bony arm of Miss Rose clasped in her hand. She felt dizzy.

“Saskia, can you go on with Miss Rose? I just need to check on something…”

“We’ve only got fifteen minutes!”

But Judy was already gone. Back up around the kink in the corridor to the twisted knot of the junction. She looked back along to the living area. The smell of spiced lamb still hung heavy in the air. All else was dead. Heavy silence filled the abandoned rooms at the forward end of the ship. The silence of the tomb?

“Maurice?” she called. There was no reply. “Kevin? Aleph?”

They should have been able to hear her. They had senses all the way through the ship. Why couldn’t they hear her?

Five corridors led away from the junction, twisted at strange angles by the geometry of the ship. There was a voice calling to her, but Judy didn’t know from where. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and the silver machinery of the meta-intelligence lit up in her head. She was here, somewhere. There she was again. Only this time her voice was clearer. It was like someone had flung open a window on a summer’s day, to let in the fresh air and the feel of the wind.

Judy opened her eyes.

The geometry of the junction had changed: there were now six corridors. Six corridors seemed to suit the space better; corridors ran up and down and also north, south, east, and west. This was how the junction should be, thought Judy. One of the corridors had been hidden all along, and no one had ever noticed it.

She fumbled at her console, setting an alarm to sound in five minutes, and then in ten, twelve, fourteen, and fifteen minutes. She had to be on the shuttle when the Eva Rye hit the exclusion zone, whatever happened. She didn’t want to be trapped out here in the empty, ghostly decks of the ship, all alone with the Dark Seeds. She didn’t want to be pulled down and tied by BVBs, left shouting into the pulsating air for help that wouldn’t come.

Outwardly calm, her heart pounding, she stepped forward into the sixth corridor.

This corridor felt cooler than the others. The walls and floor seemed to retain the coldness of space, and the air felt as if the chill was still being warmed off it. Had this part of the ship been sealed off completely from the living spaces, until its awakening? Tentatively, she padded on. The black-and-white patterns on the walls faded, leaving only bare metal, and Judy had the impression she was approaching the heart of the ship. The carpet thinned to nothing, there was nothing but the beat of her footsteps and the claustrophobic feel of grey metal closing in around her.