Divergence

“No, you don’t,” Judy said. “The Eva Rye has to take me to Earth. You can all board the Bailero and go somewhere else.”

“No way, Judy.”

The voice came from a silver spider sitting on the table. Maurice realized that it had been there all along.

“I don’t recall inviting you to our meeting, Kevin,” Judy said easily.

“I’m a member of this crew now,” said the spider.

“Actually, you’re part of the cargo, Kevin,” she replied. If Maurice hadn’t known better, he would have said that Judy was smirking. “You were traded to this ship as part of a Fair Exchange conducted by the Free Enterprise .”

“So I was. And if you take the Eva Rye and leave me behind, I will judge the trade to be over. I will revert to being a free agent. Anybody left on board my ship will then become my property. I suggest you take your crew with you, Judy.”

“They’re not my crew, they’re Edward’s.”

“You can all do what you like,” Edward said.

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” Saskia said. “We’re all coming with you, Judy. We’re not staying behind with that mad fucker.” She pointed to the silver spider on the table. Judy spoke matter-of-factly. “If Kevin is going to be a problem, we will just wipe him from the processing space.”

The spider laughed. “An empty bluff. Social Care doesn’t kill.”

“You’re not alive, Kevin. Your copies have assured me of that in the past.”

She meant it, Maurice realized with some surprise. She really would wipe out Kevin. Judging by his reply, Kevin knew it, too.

“Anyway,” he said, after the smallest of pauses, “are you sure you’ll be allowed to go on your own? The crew of the Eva Rye made a deal using the FE software. They said they would take you to Earth.”

“Actually,” said Maurice, “we were only supposed to go as close to Earth as was safe. But you do raise an interesting point. We could copy the FE software across to the Bailero ’s processing space, I suppose, but that doesn’t alter the point: who made the deal? Was it the software itself, or us as individuals, or us as a crew? What if one of us dies? What if the crew splits up? Where is the deal held then?”

“I don’t know,” said Judy. “Aleph? Do you know?”

A viewing field expanded above the table in which Aleph could be seen floating, a broken swastika clinging to the hull of the Bailero.

“Where is the deal held?” asked Aleph, a chuckle in its voice. “That’s a matter for individual conscience.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Maurice called out. “You know, the more I think about FE software, the odder it is. Where does it actually come from?”

“From the very fabric of the universe itself,” Aleph replied mysteriously. Maurice snorted. “Yes, you could say that about anything. Answer me, where did you get your copy from, Aleph?”

“I was born with it.”

Maurice smacked his hand on the table in frustration.

“That’s not what I mean. Where did our copy come from? It was on the ship when it replicated. Where on earth did it come from originally?”

“Where on Earth?” Aleph asked. “Oh, from some old guy in the past.”

Saskia looked up at that point. “Some old guy? The Stranger said the same thing. What was his name?”

“Oh, I can’t remember. Some old guy from a book. There were twelve of them—or was it thirteen?

They killed him in the end. Nailed him to a tree or something. What was he called?”