Blue Remembered Earth

‘It’s Memphis,’ Lucas said. He was standing next to the mummy-like form lying on the ground.

‘What?’ Geoffrey asked, stupefied.

‘Memphis was late back at the household,’ Hector explained. ‘This morning.’ He was flustered, sweat prickling his forehead. ‘He was expected at a particular time – we were supposed to be meeting him, to talk about the household accounts.’

‘No ching bind could be established,’ Lucas said, repeating himself a moment later. ‘No ching bind could be established.’ As if this very fact implied the opening up of an entire chasm of existential wrongness, a baleful perversion against the natural order of things.

‘We came out here straight away,’ Hector said. ‘His airpod . . . we could see where he’d landed.’

Geoffrey pushed Hector back until he was standing next to Lucas, who was staring blankly at the ground. He coughed some more dust from his windpipe. The ocean, the turquoise realm of Tiamaat, the night dance of the merpeople, felt like a lovely dream from which he’d just been abruptly woken. No medical diagnosis was needed to tell Geoffrey that Memphis was dead. His body was visible through the protective chrysalis that had been sprayed around him. Through its emerald tint, Memphis’s bloodied and crushed form looked like a toy that had been given to a boisterous, vengeful child. He would have been unrecognisable were it not for his signature suit, caked with dirt and blood but insufficiently so to conceal the familiar pinstriping. One of Memphis’s black leather shoes had come off his foot, exposing a dusty sock. The shoe was on the ground, outside the chrysalis.

‘What happened?’ Eunice whispered, appearing next to him.

‘Not now. Of all times, not now.’

She kept looking at the body, saying nothing. The robotic form that had been stooped over the chrysalis rose to its full bipedal height. It was one of the household’s usual proxies, Geoffrey saw – Giacometti-thin, with holes and gaps in its limbs, torso and head-assembly.

‘There’s nothing you could have done,’ the proxy stated, with a smooth Senegalese accent. ‘Judging by these injuries, he was killed very quickly. There will have to be a full medical examination, of course, given the accidental nature of his death, but I doubt there will be any surprises. You say his body was found near elephants?’

‘He was working with them,’ Lucas said, glancing at Geoffrey.

‘Elephants didn’t do this,’ Geoffrey said.

Hector placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘I know it will be hard for you to accept . . .’

Geoffrey nearly wrenched his cousin’s hand off. ‘It wasn’t the elephants.’

‘These are crush injuries,’ the proxy said hesitantly, as if it didn’t want to get dragged into a family dispute. ‘And this wound in his abdomen . . . it is consistent with a tusk injury.’

‘Seen a lot of those, have you?’ Geoffrey asked. ‘I thought accidents were supposed to be rare these days.’

‘I’ve seen wounds like this in the textbooks,’ the proxy replied.

‘The doctor’s only trying to assist us,’ Hector said placatingly.

‘He’s right,’ Eunice said, in little more than a murmur. ‘It’s not the proxy’s fault, or the fault of the physician on the other end.’

But Geoffrey still couldn’t accept the evidence of his senses, or the honest testimony of the medical expert.

‘Elephants didn’t do this,’ he said again, only softer this time, as if it was himself he was trying to convince.

‘He should not have come out here alone, at his age,’ Hector said.

‘He was only a hundred,’ Lucas pointed out.

‘He’s not been looking strong to me lately. This was a risk he should never have taken. What was he doing out here, Geoffrey?’ Hector had his hands on his hips. ‘This was your work, not his.’

In a monotone, Geoffrey said, ‘Memphis always helped me.’

‘You should not have asked it of him,’ Lucas said. ‘He had enough to be doing at the household. You imposed on his good nature.’

Geoffrey took a swing at him, but missed. His own momentum sent him spinning off balance. He would have fallen had Hector not reached out to steady him.

‘This isn’t the time for recriminations,’ Hector said, directing the comment at his brother. ‘This is upsetting for all of us.’

‘Get a grip on yourself,’ Eunice admonished, her arms folded disapprovingly. ‘If the Mech was any thicker, it would have dropped you like a stone just for thinking violence.’

Geoffrey gave a last cough. There was dust in his lungs, up his nose, in his watering eyes. ‘He was just doing routine work for me,’ he said in a wheeze as Hector relinquished his grip. ‘While I was away.’

‘You still haven’t told us where you were,’ Lucas said.

‘Because it’s none of your fucking business, cousin.’

The proxy swivelled its head, reminding them that it was still present, still being chinged.

‘I’ve called for a scrambulance. The body will be taken to the hospital in Mombasa. They’ll do what they can, but I should tell you now there’s little prospect for revival.’

Hector nodded gravely. ‘Thank you for your honesty, Doctor.’