Divergence

“Maurice?” said Saskia. “What about Edward?” Her voice was shaking. “Don’t you mean Maurice and Edward?”

“Didn’t you just say it yourself, Saskia?” asked Kevin. Her own words were played back in her ears: “

‘You fucking dummy, what are you going to do here? You poor idiot!’ That’s what you said, isn’t it?

Well, be honest, what am I going to do with a fucking dummy?”

“Judy,” pleaded Saskia. “Judy?”

But Judy had slumped forwards, her hands clasped to her head.

“Judy? What’s the matter?”

Judy was looking through a mosaic of impressions that had suddenly engulfed her, pushed into her mind by the meta-intelligence. She was being swamped by half-understood images and impressions. Saskia was pushing at her, pummeling her shoulders, but that was just one window on reality lost among the many. There was also the smell of fire and the feel of fur between her fingers, the sound of whistling and an image of two tall buildings, their windows filled with people staring out at each other. She heard the voices of the others:

“No! I’m not leaving you, Edward.”

“It’s okay, Maurice, I’ll be all right. You can’t fool FE.”

“It’s Judy, she’s lost it. The strain has been too much!”

“Get on board the ship, Maurice, or I go without you!”

“Not without Edward!”

“Maurice, get on the ship!” That was Saskia. “What else can we do?”

The Dark VNMs were stirring; they were moving, gathering, ready for the kill.

“Judy,” Kevin asked wonderingly, “what are you doing?”

I’m not doing anything, Judy thought, lost in a wave of color and motion. Saskia was gripping her hand. “They’re forming into a cloud,” she said, and then the wave of images passed from Judy, leaving her feeling sick and empty.

“What happened there?” asked Saskia.

“I don’t know,” said Judy. “I felt so much…look!”

“Judy, what have you done?” Kevin’s voice was pale with wonder.

Judy and Saskia looked up as the Dark VNMs coalesced into a definite shape. Clouds of silver VNMs rose all around them; they came from apertures that opened up in the hull, rushing towards the pale blue shape forming in the center of the Bailero . The shape was growing, getting bigger and bigger, forming a bulge at one end. Taking on the shape of a teardrop.

“I told you,” said Edward quietly, “you can’t fool FE.”

“But that’s impossible,” Kevin said. “It had gone. It was completely broken apart.”

Judy found herself nodding in agreement. It was impossible. And yet, high above them, in the middle of the hull, they watched in astonishment as the Eva Rye was reborn.

The Eva Rye had been upgraded yet again.

It was still being reborn, still being formed by the streams of silver spiders that flowed together from all directions, but its essence was clear.

Judy gazed at the way the black-and-white harlequin patterns swept in a liquid tide over the hull of the ship. They looked plainer now, and yet at the same time sleeker. Something about the ship breathed quiet power and confidence. Even dwarfed as it was by the ice-blue enclosing shell of the Bailero, the Eva Rye drew the eye and left no doubt which was the superior ship.