“I think I will, yes. Or maybe I should cure you. Here I am, expert MTPH counselor, and you a broken mind. I could counsel you; put you back on the road to mental health. Is that what this is all about? Is that why you had me brought here?”
“No, Judy.”
“Then why? Why did you bring me here?”
The Watcher did not answer immediately. The corridor was silent. Just the sound of Judy and the Watcher breathing. The clean smell of the Watcher, containing the edge of something like cologne.
“Tell me this, Judy,” the Watcher said suddenly. “You’ve seen what it is like on Earth now. Every minute there is another infestation of Dark Seeds appearing somewhere on the planet.”
Viewing fields wobbled to life all around Judy and the Watcher. A Japanese garden of raked pebbles, dry grey rocks rising amongst them. Dark Seeds lay there among the regular patterns coaxed into the ground. In the background, colorful lines of people slowly walked away from the infection; clockwork rescue fliers were already dropping in from the sky.
“There are only enough fliers to save fifty percent of them,” the Watcher sighed at Judy’s side.
“Who shall we save?” He strode into the scene, his feet disturbing the elegantly raked stones of the garden. “Shall it be this young couple?” He pointed to two people who walked hand in hand away from the infection. “They will be so happy together. And yet, if I leave the woman behind, the two children following her will have a place on the flier.” The Watcher shook his head sadly. “A couple’s happiness or the promise of the future? Which should it be, Judy?”
He came back and stood directly before her.
“I make these decisions every day, Judy. What would you do?”
Judy grinned. “You pulled that trick on Eva Rye,” she said. “You fooled her into playing that game all those years ago. You fooled us all into playing along. Well, you don’t fool me any longer. The answer is:
The viewing fields shimmered and vanished. The Watcher was silent once more.
“I think you’ve been aware of that for some time,” Judy continued. “Now tell me, why am I here?”
The Watcher lost his impassive mask.
“You are fulfilling a Fair Exchange undertaken between Chris and myself, though I don’t think either of us realized how far-reaching the consequences would be. Come on, we need to go this way. Let’s see if you can interface your console with this building.”
Judy’s console plugged itself straight into the building’s datasphere. That was no surprise, as she was apparently DIANA property.
“This way,” said the Watcher, and he turned off the corridor and passed through a series of rooms ranged with low shapes, like half-submerged diamond whales. “Very high-capacity memory,” said the Watcher. “Normally they wouldn’t be this deep in a gravity well, they weigh so much, but DIANA must have wanted to keep their contents a secret.”
“You want to ask me what is in them, don’t you?”
“Each contains a human life,” said the Watcher, but he didn’t elaborate further. The next room contained more of the massive shapes, and the next one. They passed room after room of semisubmerged diamond whales.
Finally, they passed into a different area of the complex and entered a low-ceilinged room containing a few sofas and a desk. A reception area.
“Through here,” said the Watcher. Beyond the reception area the whole feel of the building changed. It became more homey, more like a living area. They passed through another set of rooms, emerging finally into one that Judy recognized.
“A delivery room,” she said.
She looked around the familiar space and felt a sense of homecoming. She belonged here. The faint smell of talcum powder in the air brought a sense of smothering happiness to her. There were thirteen cribs in the room, one for Judy and each of her twelve sisters. A sense array hung from the ceiling, just another shape amongst the glittering twirling mobiles that dangled down to entertain the newborns. The walls were decorated with bright primary- colored shapes that stimulated the mind and senses. The floor was something of an anticlimax, covered in a plain
