Divergence

“No luck,” he said. “They’re already in Warp. I think they’re taking the Stranger on his way.”

In the kitchen, Edward slowly, carefully took down the teapot from the shelf. Ever so gently, so he could hear what Maurice and Saskia were saying. He didn’t need to keep that quiet. Saskia was shouting.

“Damn! Well, what about us?” She gave a hollow laugh. “I suppose we’ve just been discarded now the Stranger has got what he wants.”

“Mmm,” said Maurice. “It’s odd, that. I don’t think we’ve just been discarded. Don’t you even wonder how I know that the other ship is in Warp? The long-range senses are back online.”

“What?” said Saskia. “You’re telling me that they were fixed during the separation?”

Maurice bit his lip. “No. Not exactly fixed. More like improved. They are better now than they ever could have been before. It’s like that with the rest of the ship. Have you taken a look around? Haven’t you noticed? Everything is nicer than before. Feel this sofa, feel the carpets. Everything is softer, better quality; it’s not just like we’ve separated. I’ll tell you what it’s like. It’s like we’re playing a video game and our ship has just had an upgrade.”

Saskia sat down on the sofa opposite to Maurice’s. She tilted her head forward so that her hair covered her eyes.

“I never play video games,” she said.

“Oh, I do,” said Maurice.

“Good practice for combat, are they?”

Edward slowly spooned tea into the beautiful white teapot. He noticed Maurice was blushing as he explained. “Look, don’t you wonder what is going on here? Why did the Stranger have to separate the ships? Surely one Eva Rye would be enough to take him to wherever he was going?”

Saskia leaned back and sighed. “You’re right. Maybe there was more to the deal after all. Maybe we should have a little more faith in the FE software.”

She closed her eyes to think. Carefully, Edward poured boiling water into the pot, steam swirling about his hand.

“Saskia,” said Maurice urgently.

“What?” she said.

“I think you’d better look. It’s the Stranger. I’ll put him on the main viewing field.”

Edward put down the kettle and came forward. There was a shimmer in the air between the white sofas and another Eva Rye appeared there. It was not quite the old Eva Rye, just as their ship was no longer the old Eva Rye . The ship that floated in the middle of the room was still a rainbow of colors, only now there was some pattern to them. A glorious reproduction of the Mandelbrot set trailed along its teardrop hull, the squashed heart and wandering branches of the shape defined in heartbreakingly beautiful silver and rose.

“Oh, not the bloody Mandelbrot set again,” muttered Maurice. “We’ve wandered into a twentieth-century SF novel.”

Edward was leaning forward to get a better view. “It’s nice, but I think I like our ship better,” he breathed.

“Shhh,” hissed Saskia, waving a dismissive hand at him. “Maurice, zoom in on the front of the ship, between the two main lobes of the Mandelbrot set.”

“I was doing that already,” grumbled Maurice, sliding a finger along the surface of the console. The Eva Rye expanded, centering on the twisted cross of the Stranger, his four legs twisted downwards with tendrils spread out to grip the multicolored pattern of the hull.

“Hello there, Edward, Maurice, Miss Rose, Saskia!”

The Stranger twisted the four glassy lenses on its upper surface to face them as it spoke. Edward supposed Miss Rose must be watching this scene from her room.

“What’s going on?” asked Saskia. Edward thought she sounded annoyed at being mentioned last.

“Merely fulfilling the last part of our deal,” said the Stranger. “The Eva Rye was never going to work with the mix of people you had on board. I’ve merely rationalized your systems.”