interface communication protocol on a multi-spectrum sweep. Dariat allowed his affinity bond to decline to a background whisper. “Come on,” he told a frowning Tolton. “We’ve got to find a window.”
The visitor didn’t respond to the interface protocol. Nor did it show any awareness of the radar pulses fired at it. That was perhaps understandable, given that they produced no return signal. The only noticeable change as it spun and danced ever-closer was the way shadows congealed around it. Visually it actually appeared to grow smaller, as though it were flying away from the habitat.
That’s like the optical distortion effect which the possessed use to protect themselves with,dariat said. he and tolton had found a snug bar called Horner’s on the twenty-fifth floor. The two big oval windows were misted over inside, forcing Tolton to wipe them clean with one of the coarse table cloths. His breath kept splashing against the icy glass, condensing immediately.
Well we did choose a realm suitable for ghosts,the personality said.
I’ve never heard of a ghost that looked like that.
The visitor was within five kilometres of the shell now, about where the filigree of nebula strands began. There was only empty space between it and the habitat now.
Maybe it’s scared to come any closer,the personality said. I am considerably larger.
Have you tried an affinity call?
Yes. It didn’t respond.
Oh. Well. Just a thought.
The visitor left the convoluted weave of the nebula and flashed towards the vast bulk of the habitat. By now its deceptive
It streaked over to within fifty metres of the shell then veered round to follow the curve, wriggling wildly from side to side. The quick serpentine orbit allowed it to cover a considerable portion of the habitat’s exterior.
It’s searching,the personality said. That implies a degree of organisation. It has to be sentient.
Searching for what?
A way in, I imagine. Or something it can recognize, some method of establishing communication.
Do any of the spaceport defences still work?dariat asked.
You have to be bloody joking. We need all the allies we can get.
Before we fused, you used to be the mother of all suspicious neurotic bastards. I think that would be a preferable attitude for you right now.
Well that’s the effect of your mature calming influence for you. So you’ve only got yourself to blame. But don’t worry, I’m not going to send the MSV after it.
Thank Tarrug for that.
Our visitor should be coming over your horizon any second now. Perhaps your eyes will do better than my sensitive cells.
“Wipe the glass again,” Dariat told Tolton.
The soaking table cloth smeared the moisture in long streaks. Tiny flecks of frost were glistening dull white over the rest of the big oval. Tolton switched off two of his lightsticks. Both of them peered forward. The visitor arched over the rim of the shell, lensing thin spires of vermilion and indigo light as it came. They wavered in the runnels of water, wobbling insubstantially before sinking back down into the visitor’s core. Now all that remained was a black knot in the continuum’s fabric racing over the dark rust-coloured polyp.
Tolton’s weak grin was bloated with uncertainly. “Am I being paranoid, or is that heading towards us?”
In the earlier time and place, long ago and far away, they had called themselves the Orgathй. Now, names had lost all meaning and relevance, or perhaps they themselves had devolved into something else, such was the way of this atrocious existence. There were many others adrift in the dark continuum, sharing their fate. Identity was no longer singular. A myriad of racial traits had blended and faded into a singleton over the aeons.
Purpose, though, purpose remained steadfast. The quest for light and strength, a return to the sweet heights from whence they had all fallen. A dream sustained even within the mйlange. Few forms existed now outside of the mйlange. The process of diminution claimed every life to fall into these depths. But this one had risen yet again, buoyed up by the tides of chaotic chance that rioted within the mйlange, spat out to roam the murk for as long as it had strength. The freeflying state of such escapees was still that of the Orgathй, though the essence of many others rode upon its wings. Its chimerical shape was a tortured mockery of the once glorious avian lords who ruled the swift air currents of their homeworld.
Ahead of it now drifted the exotic object. It was composed of a substance to be found only in the oldest of the Orgathй’s memories, those that pre-dated the dark continuum. How strange that it could barely recognize the antecedent of its own salvation.
Matter. Solid organized matter. Alive with a heat so fierce it took the Orgathй some time to acclimatise to the radiance; elevating itself to a near ecstatic level of warmth. Incredibly, just within the scorching surface, a sheet of life energy burned bright and vigorous. The entire object was a single mighty entity. Yet passive. Vulnerable. This was a feast which would sustain a huge proportion of the mйlange for a long time. It might even trigger a total dispersal.
The Orgathй slithered close to the object’s surface, feeling the mind within follow its flight. Vast swirls of rich thought flowed underneath it as it basked in the warmth. But there was no way to reach the abundant life- energy through the hard surface. If the Orgathй attempted to claw its way through, it would surely incinerate itself. Contact with so much heat for so long could probably not be sustained. But the craving within itself from proximity to so much vital life-energy was overwhelming.
There must be some way in. Some orifice or chink. The Orgathй coasted along over the object, heading for the spikes radiating out from the centre. They were smaller, weaker than the rest of it. Long hollow minarets leaking their energy away into the dark continuum. The life-energy was shallower here, the heat not so intense. Each of the structures was broken by thousands of dark ovals, curtained by cooler sheets of transparent matter. Light twinkled briefly through some of them, never lasting long. Except one. A single oval burning steadily.
The Orgathй glided eagerly towards it. Two flames of life-energy gleamed behind the transparent sheet. One naked, the other clad in hot matter; both enraging the Orgathй’s craving. It surged forward.
“FUCK!” Tolton screamed. He dived to one side, scattering tables and chairs. Dariat jumped the other way just as the Orgathй hit the window. Frost blossomed like a living thing, strands of long delicate crystals multiplying across the glass, then reaching out through the air. Shapes moved on the other side of the hoary fur, dark indistinct serpents, thicker than a human torso, that could be tentacles or tongues scrabbling furiously at the outer surface. The unmistakable grinding shriek of deep score lines being ripped into the material penetrated the bar, drowning out Tolton’s terrified cries.
Do something!dariat wailed.
You name it, I’ll do it.
Tolton was scuttling backwards on his hands and legs, unable to take his eyes from the window. The serpent shapes were writhing with rabid aggression as they clawed their way through. A badly stressed
It’s coming through!dariat cried. when he tried to clamber to his feet, he discovered he didn’t have the strength. Fatigue was numbing every limb.
“Kill it!” Tolton bellowed.
We can try and zap it,the personality said, like we did the possessed.
