Coven

conserving their stored energy, shutting down their production areas. Wade presumed that just about everything here sapped power in some way—power they no longer had. The psilight seemed to waver, soon in time with a familiar screech.

The hash room, Wade realized. That’s where the sisters had been filing to. He gazed into the channelwork and saw them.

There were hundreds.

“Power conservation,” Besser said. “Transception cells consume power, so we’re disposing of most of the sisters. Now that the initial bifertilizations are done, only a skeleton crew is required to maintain the replication systems.”

“You’re turning them into food? All of them?”

“Of course. It’s a perfect cycle, Wade. When things are no longer needed, we turn them into something else.”

Food, Wade thought. He watched the conveyor feed living sisters into the shredder one by one. Each shriek of the blades was followed by a soft splat. Gobs of black meat poured into hoppers, which then rolled to dropchutes and emptied.

“How many sisters will be left?”

“Just a few, to monitor the systems once we’ve departed. And when we need more” —Besser smiled— “we’ll make more.”

If this was perfection, perfection sucked. “You’ve got your holotype and surrogates now. What are you waiting for? Why doesn’t the labyrinth leave right now?”

“Wade, haven’t you learned anything in college? I’ve already explained, the labyrinth assimilates electromagnetic energy as a propulsion mode. The earth attracts EM waves to the contour of its physical shape. But the sun’s constant radioactivity, and its equally constant release of neutrons, exert force against any lateral EM plane. Thus, the field surrounding the planet is depressed on one side.”

“The side facing the sun,” Wade realized.

“Yes, and that’s why recharge must occur at night, when there’s more electromagnetic energy at our disposal.”

“The Supremate,” Wade remarked. “He’s one smart dude.”

“He’s part of the greatest intelligence that’s ever existed.”

“How about letting me meet him?”

Besser turned. “You want to meet the Supremate?”

Wade knew he was beaten. He wanted at least to see the face of the force that had beaten him. “It would be an honor to meet the guy responsible for unifying all collective life in the universe. It would be a trip.”

Besser pondered the request. “I’m glad you’re coming around.”

“Look, I’ve seen it all now and I know it’s all for the best,” Wade lied through his teeth. “So I might as well go with the flow.”

“A sound conclusion.” Besser’s face was a smiling nod. “Very well, Wade. You shall meet the Supremate.”

They extromitted through several subinlets. Again, Wade sensed they were rising. More signs floated by: SYSTEMSJUNCTURE#730, SYSTEMSJUNCTURE#525, SYSTEMSJUNCTURE#419. With each extromission they covered a great distance in no time.

“The extromitters are programmed by thought,” Besser mentioned. “Without that function, it would take weeks or even months to cross merely from one level to the next.”

“How long would it take to walk the entire labyrinth?”

“Years,” Besser said.

This impressive statistic deepened Wade’s despair. The further up they went, the more bizarre he felt, the more abandoned.

Was this how slaves felt before they met their lords?

Next sign: SYSTEMSJUNCTURE#1.

Wade felt light headed. Besser inserted his key and extromitted them into the Supremate’s shrine.

They stood tiny in vast, black space. Wade thought of an auditorium the size of a football field, with black walls, a black floor, and a black ceiling. Wade was about to meet the brains behind this entire business. What could something like that look like?

Set into the corner was a kind of inverted sconce. Wade could easily picture something grotesque sitting in it, an abominable, fleshy overlord with giant eyes and fish lips. Yet all that seemed to be resting in the sconce was a black box about the size of a VCR. The Supremate must be farther back in the nave, having not yet emerged.

The two sisters fell immediately to their knees.

“Okay,” Wade said. “I’m ready. Where is he?”

“Right there,” Besser said.

Wade squinted. All he saw was the black box in the empty sconce. “You mean the box?”

Besser nodded, his face uplit in a triumphant, twisted smile. “Say hello to your new master.”

Wade looked at the box and frowned deeply. “You’ve got to be shitting me. That box is the Supremate?”

“Yes.”

Wade was mortified. “That thing looks like my fucking CD player.” He glared disgusted at the meager black box. “I was expecting some big toad faced thing sitting on a throne.”

“It’s a logic circuit, Wade, an integrated processing terminal. It’s as conscious as you or I—only that consciousness is too complex for a physical body.”

The Supremate’s a machine, Wade thought. A bunch of transistors and solder. No, it was impossible. It must be a joke. “I cannot believe that the brains behind this entire operation is a ridiculous black box!”

—GREETINGS, WADE, the black box said.

Besser chuckled.

—HOW DOES IT FEEL TO MEET GOD?

««—»»

Her extromission seemed to turn her inside out and back again. Lydia stood in the mouth of a subinlet. The production warrens were in total darkness. The psilight was much dimmer now. And where were the sisters?

She spent a half hour extromitting from one random place to another. The mindsigns numbered in the hundreds, but each extromission progressed her only one number at a time. POINTACCESSMAIN#16, the next sign read. She examined the keyplate. It was just a black plate with a hole in it, nothing more. There weren’t even any buttons on it, just a keyhole. There had to be some trick to this, some way to program extromission to a specific location.

When she inserted the key, she was inadvertently remembering her brief stay in the temphold, and the absolutely disgusting thing that awaited her in the next cell. When she came out the next access, she expected to find herself at pointaccessmain#17. Instead, the mindsign glowed TEMPHOLDS.

Thought, she thought. Maybe that’s the trick. The idea had some definite possibilities, but before she could contemplate them, footsteps stopped behind her.

Lydia whirled.

—Lydia! You’re back!

One of the bigger sisters faced her, naked and grinning. Lydia gaped at the sight. The sister’s eyes were huge spheres. Her stretching grin showed a mouth crammed with teeth. And worse was what stood directly behind her: the same holotype that had been reserved for Lydia earlier. When it recognized her, it flexed up on its stout legs and howled.

Lydia was shaking, stepping back. The sister and her escort stepped forward. The holotype’s meaty face pinched up in lust.

—I can’t wait to watch, the sister said.

Lydia didn’t need to be told what she meant. The holotype’s preposterous genitals were already swelling in