'Lady, I'm not seeking a blessed thing. I never wanted to make this trip. We're here because we were brought here.'
'Yes. Your case is special. You carry the Origin Experiment.'
'What's that, if I may ask?'
'A black cubical object. Do you have it?'
'Uh… not on me.'
'Can you get it quickly?'
'Not very quickly.'
She seemed disappointed. 'I desire to possess it. You will give it to me.'
'I will?'
'You will. I will give you something in return. This.' She held up the cylindrical object.
'What is it?' I asked.
'That which you seek. The key to the road you call the Skyway.'
'Lady, that's the last thing I want.'
She was silent a moment, regarding me. 'I find that difficult to believe. The others want it very badly.'
'What others?'
'Those others of your kind who came here. They are your enemies, are they not?'
'Yes, they are.' I saw no use in denying it.
'You wish to see them obtain this thing?'
I considered it, and decided I really didn't know what to think about that. 'Not especially.'
'Then take it.'
The object floated out of her hand and drifted toward me. I reached and grabbed it. It was ordinary-looking computer pipette, a conventional data recording and storage device.
'I thought you wanted the Black Cube,' I said.
'I do. You will give it to me. I give you this thing as a token of good faith. I-'
Something seemed to disturb the air. The woman's image flickered.
'I must leave,' she said. 'I will tell you this. Do not listen to the being who calls himself Prime. He is… misguided. His plans for you will come to no good.'
The image wavered again, blurred and grew dim, then brightened and sharpened again., But, I thought, it can't be just an image, unless the pipette in my hand was an image, too. It felt real enough.
'I must leave you now. I have other artifacts which you may want. Other things. Believe in me and you will prosper. Farewell.'
Another flash blinded me. When I could see again, the room was dark and empty, and the smell of ozone came to me. I looked at the pipette. If the White Lady could be believed, this was the Roadmap.
The real one. 'Oh, hell,' I said.
7
The dream and the vision stayed with me as I wandered through Emerald City for at least an hour. I didn't cover much territory because there were some interesting things lying about, and I stopped to look at a few of them. What they were, I couldn't tell. More alien wizardry, I supposed.
'Jake! Where the hell were you?' Susan hugged me as I walked into the suite.
'Carl,' I said, 'I'm sorry I chewed you out for getting lost.'
'Easy, wasn't it?'
'You bet. Are you guys okay?'
'We're all fine,' Sean said. 'Though `I hae dream'd a dreary dream.''
'Did you dream it, too, Jake?' Darla asked.
'Yep.'
'Good morning.'
The crew turned around to greet Prime.
'I hope you're all refreshed,' he said brightly. Everyone nodded.
'Breakfast, then?'
'I'm starved,' Susan said.
'Good. My servant will come to conduct you to the dining hall, where I will meet you very shortly. Until then.'
He bowed and strode out of the suite. We all sat down to wait.
'He's always so polite and, like, formal all the time,' Lori commented:
'Yeah, like he has a poker up his butt,' Carl sneered.
'Carl!' Lori said indignantly.
'Sorry.'
'I wonder what this servant is like,' Liam mused, 'and if he calls Prime `Your Lordship' or something.'
'I thought he meant another of those light spheres,' Roland said.
'Sounded like he meant a real live servant,' Susan said. 'Didn't he mention that he had one?'
'I think he did,' John said. 'But I wonder what real and live can mean in this context.'
'I'm thinking about the dream,' Yuri said.
'What was it like for you guys?' I asked.
Zoya told me, 'We've been discussing it since we awoke.'
'I saw those… beings,' Susan said. 'The ones who were having the debate.'
'Anybody have any thoughts on what they were talking about?' I asked.
'It was just overwhelming,' Susan said, taking a deep breath. 'I can't believe that somehow I've been chosen to be witness to what will happen ten billion years in the future, that I'm a part of things happening on a cosmic scale-literally. Maybe it's too much for me. Prime's right-it's frightening.'
'I think, perhaps, I have a dim understanding of the project they were contemplating,' Yuri said. 'A group mind of some sort. A union of conscious entities, such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Obviously this was the Culmination, or the beginning of it.'
'According to Prime, the Culmination is already a reality,' Sean said.
'Apparently it is.'
'Or so he says,' I put in.
'You doubt him, Jake?' asked, not incredulously, but John as if he had doubts of his own.
'I have reason to believe-' The thought of telling them about the White Lady crossed my mind. But no; Prime very well could be monitoring our every word. He probably was. 'I don't think,' I went on, 'we should take everything that Prime tells us at face value, and that goes for what comes by way of mystical dreams and visions. Granted, we don't have much of a way to check out his story. But a good dose of skepticism never hurt anybody.'
'Jake's right,' Yuri said. 'We should all bear it in mind. I'm certainly far from accepting it all on faith.'
'Well, I guess I'm a born believer,' Susan replied. 'I mean, the dream was so real. It didn't have that surrealistic quality that most dreams do. I don't want to say I'm completely convinced, but…' She scratched her scalp, scowling. 'The only thing I can't figure out is what our part in this is supposed to be.'
'Prime wants us to join the group mind,' Roland said.
'I get the overwhelming feeling that Prime is to us as we are to a clam.' Yuri said. 'Or an amoeba, more likely.'
'But why? I mean, why us? Why would anybody want my poor, mixed up little birdbrain?'
'I can't imagine,' Roland said dryly.
Susan threw a pillow at him. 'Or yours, you insufferable creep.'
'Or any of ours, for that matter,' Yuri said.
'He certainly is slumming, then,' I said.
'He may not be God, but he must be a god, for all practical purposes. And this is his Olympus.'
