disorientated state. Even those we have affinity contact with are unresponsive. As well as undergoing severe psychological trauma, their physiological condition has deteriorated.
So?
There are nearly three hundred of our relatives still in zero-tau. Your idea, remember? Kiera was holding them ready as an incentive for the hellhawk possessors. If they were to be taken out, we would have a functional work force ready to help, one that has a good proportion of qualified technicians among it.
Good idea . . . Wait, how come their zero-tau pods are working when everything else has failed?
The zero-tau systems are self-contained and made from military-grade components, they are also located in the deep caverns. We assumed that combination affords them some protection from whatever is affecting us.
If all you’ve got to do is flick one switch, why not just use a servitor?
Their physiological situation is even worse than the humans. All the animals in the habitat seem to be suffering from a strong form of sleeping sickness. Our affinity instructions cannot rouse them.
Does that include all the xenoc species?
Yes. Their biochemistry is essentially similar to terrestrial creatures. If our cells are affected, so are theirs.
Okay. Any idea what the problem is? Something like the energistic glitch which the possessed gave out?
Unlikely. It is probably a fundamental property of this realm. We are speculating that the quantum values of this continuum are substantially different from our universe. After all, we did select it to have a detrimental effect on the energy pattern which is a possessing soul. Consequently, we must assume that mass- energy properties here have been altered, that is bound to affect atomic characteristics. But until we can run a full analysis on our quantum state, we cannot offer further speculation.
Ever considered that the devil simply doesn’t allow electricity in this particular part of hell?
Your thought is our thought. We prefer to concentrate on the rational. That allows us to construct a hypothesis which will ultimately allow us to salvage this shitty situation.
Yeah, I can live with that. So what is it that you want me to do?
See if you can talk to someone called Tolton. He will switch off the zero-tau pods for us.
Why? Who is he?
A street poet, so he claims. He was one of the inhabitants we managed to keep out of Bonney’s clutches.
Does he have affinity?
No. But legend has it that humans can see ghosts.
Shit, you’re grasping at straws.
You have an alternative?
Ghosts can get tired. This unwelcome discovery made itself quite clear as Dariat trudged over the grassland towards the ring of starscraper lobbies in the middle of the habitat. But then if you have imaginary muscles, they are put under quite a strain carrying your imaginary body across long distances, especially when that body had Dariat’s bulk.
This is bloody unfair,he declared to the personality. When souls come back from the beyond, they all see themselves as physically perfect twenty-five-year-olds.
That’s simple vanity.
I wish I was vain.
Valisk’s parkland was also becoming less attractive. Now he had hiked out of the valley, the vivid pink grass which cloaked the southern half of the cylinder was grading down to a musky-grey, an effect he equated to a city smog wrapping itself round the landscape. It couldn’t be blamed entirely on the diminished illumination; the slim core of plasma in the axial light tube was still a valiant neon blue. Instead it seemed to be part of the overall lack of vitality which was such an obvious feature of this realm. The xenoc plant appeared to be past its peak, as if its spore fringes had already ripened and now it was heading back into dormancy.
None of the insects which usually chirped and flittered among the plains had roused themselves. A few
