Divergence

sinister shape of a watchtower rising from the center.

“I don’t understand,” Judy said. She was close to tears. She had wound herself up for this confrontation, only to be cheated now at the end. “Where is it?” A thought struck her. “Is it disguised?”

“No,” said Constantine, “there is nothing there but the watchtower.”

Without even thinking, they crossed the wide square to stand at the foot of the tower. Judy looked up to the honey band circling the top. She had to tilt her head and body right back to see it.

“We should have checked,” Maurice said, gazing at his console. “All that time spent on the ship and we never thought to check. It’s been like this for years.”

He was the only one not captivated by the faint horror of the tower. This close the watchtower loomed over them like an adult towering over tiny children. Perpendicular to the wall, millions of needles emerged bristling from the tower’s interior, fine hairs sensing the cold air that filled the empty square. Saskia reached out and brushed her hands across some of them.

“Uggh! They’re horrible!” she yelped, recoiling. “They suck at you!”

“Keep away, Saskia,” Edward said, close to panic. “Judy, I don’t like it here. It’s listening to us.”

The cold wind blew harder. It brought the smell of winter ice and the faintest hint of spices. The city resumed at the distant edge of the vast square, and over there human beings could be seen walking about, drinking spiced wine or eating chocolate-dipped fruit. All those human activities: laughing and arguing, smiling and frowning, shaking hands and flirting.

And every one of those activities was being tasted and smelled and felt and heard and observed by towers just like this one.

Maurice felt someone at his side. Saskia was huddling close to him for comfort.

“What’s the matter with you?” she hissed at him. “Why do you keep pulling away from me?” She blushed deep crimson. “I’m frightened,” she whispered.

Her words cut through Maurice. It was such a huge admission from Saskia that he felt dizzy and ashamed. Holding his console in one hand, he placed an arm around her shoulders. They adjusted their active suits so they could feel the warmth and comfort of each other’s bodies. He doesn’t know what to do any more than I do, Saskia realized. We have so little in common . She thought back to the night they had spent together. It seemed like months ago now. The only thing we really share, she thought, is that we’re so emotionally fucked up that we can’t even take a moment’s comfort from each other without putting a price on it. Sadly, she let go of Maurice.

“Sorry,” she said. “But thank you.”

Maurice was blushing, too. To cover it up, he turned back to his console. He began to speak in an overly loud voice.

“This tower was built six years ago, at the same time as all the other ones. Before that it was residential flats. They were constructed from VNMs out of the ruins of the DIANA complex.”

Edward was tugging at Judy’s arm now. “Judy, I really don’t like it here. Please, let’s go somewhere else.”

Judy didn’t appear to hear Edward, she just continued gazing up the tower’s side. Maurice cleared his throat. “Edward just made a suggestion, Judy. I shouldn’t have to remind you, but he is leader, after all.”

Judy’s eyes kept darting back and forth. “What do you suppose those black bands do?” Her voice sounded wobbly. She was still ignoring Edward, tugging frantically at her arm.

“What’s the matter, Judy?” Saskia asked.

Judy felt sick. She could see Edward beside her, but she could also see Eva. She was back in the concert hall in the Russian Free States, all those years ago, realizing suddenly what Eva had understood. That there was a huge difference between Edward and herself. Edward barely grasped what was going on, and yet he stood here beside her at the end of a journey that had taken them both across the galaxy. There were Maurice and Saskia, wanting to hold on to each other but too proud to do so. They understood things so differently that they may as well have lived in different worlds. But their differences were nothing compared to hers with Edward. Edward who could barely read, who never really understood anything, yet was a positive genius when measured against those people in the concert hall whose bodies didn’t even work properly, the ones who drooled as they sat there twitching and who couldn’t even keep time on a drum. All of us so different, thought Judy, and yet all of us human .

“Edward wants us to go somewhere else.” Maurice tried to keep the smug triumph from his voice. Saskia could hear it. He was getting his own back, she knew. Getting his own back for the times they had all deferred to Edward against Maurice’s wishes.