Divergence

thoughts, think happy thoughts. Think of old Earth .

In the hills, in the morning, looking through the thinning mist at the slowly emerging shapes of the surrounding buildings, desolate in the damp greyness, there was sparseness to the scene that brought a longing to the heart of the complacent.

There was a sudden jerk and the feel of the shuttle sliding across the floor of the hold.

“What happened?” called someone. “What happened?”

“Easy,” said Maurice. “There was a buildup of energy in the gravity field. It’s dispersed now. It won’t happen again.” He was trying to sound calm, Saskia knew. Think of old Earth. Every window on Earth looks out onto a beautiful view .

Living in the massed city blocks, residents marveled at the way the sunlight reflected back and forth on the cunningly angled windows of the silver spires, now in rose, now in gold, now in silver, forming abstract mosaics that flickered as the Earth slowly revolved. And then the shadow of the Shawl came creeping across the silver mirrors, with the stars shining in reflection in the middle of the day…

This was the legacy of the Watcher: the legacy of the superintelligent AI controlling Earth’s affairs for the past two hundred years, endlessly shaping the environment and the population to perfection. What would Earth be like now?

It was quiet in the shuttle. The last of the Dark Seeds were gone, batted into nothingness by the Schrodinger kittens.

They sat in silence, listening to the ancient hum of the air conditioning, gazing at Maurice, who was still fiddling with his console. He cleared his throat.

“We’ve landed,” he said. His voice was shaky.

Saskia let out a long sigh. She noted the way that Judy had closed her eyes, and she took hold of the white hand resting beside her on the arm of the flight chair and squeezed it.

“I’m okay,” said Judy.

There was a pause, and then, as if responding to an unspoken signal, they all ripped open the crash webbing constraining them and got to their feet.

“I don’t understand,” Edward said. “Where are we? Have we made it to Earth?”

Constantine was helping Miss Rose up, his metal arm under her frail shoulder.

“Yes, Edward, we’re on Earth. The Bailero has gone, though.”

“What do you mean, gone?” Saskia asked.

“It’s no longer out there. It’s destroyed. It’s gone.”

“I don’t think that’s all that’s gone,” Judy murmured.

She had opened the hatch of the shuttle and was peering out into the large white hold. Long feathery white splinters lay scattered over the white tiles. Broken white wooden bones were spread amongst them.

“The venumbs are dead,” she said tonelessly.

Saskia came up behind Judy and saw melted drops of silver metal among the wreckage. Judy, meanwhile, sat on the edge of the hatch and dropped to the floor of the hold beyond.

“Hold on, Judy,” Saskia called in alarm. “Where are you going?”

“Outside, onto the planet, of course,” Judy said, kicking her way across the floor. White splinters stuck to the shoes of her passive suit.

Saskia dropped herself to the floor and ran after her. “But shouldn’t we use the ship’s senses to take a look outside first, see if it’s safe?”

“What’s the point of that?” Judy asked. “This is where I am supposed to be.” She turned back to the shuttle, looking tiny in the vast space of the large hold. Saskia could see the long scars on the shuttle’s side where the venumbs had hit against it during the ship’s descent to Earth. Now the others were descending from the shuttle. Constantine had stood Miss Rose on the retractable ladder and set it descending. He dropped to the white-tiled floor in time to help her safely onto the ground.