Lucia glanced at the girl. 'Why does she have to appear here, though?'
Pieter shrugged. 'Why not?'
'She's nothing to do with the clan, is she? She doesn't belong to any of our families,' Lucia said, her voice low, though the girl didn't seem to be listening, still throwing lobster-chunks towards the window. 'So why does she have to pop out of our vault; bit cheeky, isn't it?'
'I think it may have been sheer chance,' Pieter said, frowning a little. 'Whatever; she is here now and we must decide what to do with her.'
'Well what does one normally do with… asuras?' Gil asked.
'Gives them shelter and does not try to impede them when they want to move on, I believe,' Pieter said. 'Rather like any guest.'
The girl aimed and threw; a piece of lobster-claw bounced at the edge of the window between the softly blowing curtains, ricocheted through the rails of the balcony outside and disappeared down towards the garden. The pursuing cleaning machine trundled as far as the rails, and then stopped. It clicked a couple of times, then retreated into the room. The girl looked disappointed.
'Why, where's she going to go?' Lucia asked.
'I don't know,' Pieter admitted, nodding at their guest. 'Though she may.' He sipped at his wine.
They looked at her. She was holding another section of lobster above her, squinting up into it, one-eyed. Gil and Lucia exchanged glances.
'But what exactly is she supposed to do?' Gil asked.
'Again, I have no idea,' Pieter admitted. 'She may provide some fresh input for some section of the corpus, or possibly — indeed probably — she is what one might call a system test; a specimen signal-carrier whose only purpose is to ensure everything is in working order should the medium require to be used in anger — as it were — at some point in the future.'
Lucia and Gil looked at each other again.
'Could this have something to do with the Encroachment?' Gil asked, his expression serious. He squeezed Lucia's hand again.
'It might,' Pieter said, waving his fork while inspecting the oysters on his plate. 'Probably not.'
'Suppose she isn't just a signal test?' Gil asked with deliberated patience. 'What does she do then?' He refilled Lucia and his glasses.
'Why then, she will probably find her way to wherever she is supposed to find her way and deliver her message.'
'She can hardly talk in joined-up words,' Lucia snorted. 'How is she going to deliver a message?'
'She doesn't even have any implants,' Gil added.
'The message may be in an unusual medium,' Pieter said. 'It might lie in the precise pattern of flecks in the iris of one eye, or in one of her finger-prints, or in the disposition of her intestinal flora, or even in her own genetic code.'
'And this message is something the data corpus knows and yet doesn't know?'
'Quite. Or it may come from some system which isn't part of the main corpus and which can't communicate with it.'
The girl was watching Gil drink from his glass. She imitated the action and spilled only a little.
'Machines that can't communicate?' Lucia said, laughing. 'But that's…' she waved her hand.
'Diseases are communicated, too,' Pieter said quietly, folding his napkin. Their young guest seemed to be practising gargling.
'So?' Lucia said, with a contemptuous glance at the girl.
'Well, anyway,' Gil said emolliently, patting Lucia's hand while addressing his uncle, 'She's here and our guest; she may even prove amusing if she is so preternaturally naive. At least she appears to be house-trained.'
'So far,' Lucia said. 'Anyway; isn't there somebody we ought to tell about her?'
'Oh, I suppose one might report her arrival to the authorities,' Pieter said easily. 'But there's no hurry.'
The girl sat back, belched, looked pleased with herself, then farted. She appeared slightly taken aback, then just grinned.
'Air,' she said, nodding to the other three people round the table.
Pieter smiled. Gil guffawed. Lucia stared at the girl for a moment. Then set her napkin down primly. 'I am going to lie down,' she announced, rising.
Gil got up too, still holding Lucia's hand. 'Me too,' he said, smiling broadly.
Pieter returned their nodded farewells and watched the two young people leave.
He turned to the girl. She wiped one bloused forearm messily across her mouth then thumped her chest hollowly with her fist.
'Asura,' she said, grinning triumphantly, and burped again.
Pieter smiled thinly. 'Quite so.'
2
'The signal came at noon yesterday,' Clispeir said quickly, quietly. 'The observatory was stationary. Gad,' she laughed gently, 'all our preparations and cryptography went for nothing; the signal came in light all right, but not in any ancient code or any fancy wavelength, and not in frequency or amplitude modulation; they just manipulated the beam to make actual letters appear upon the plain, shining lines like the reflections waves cast on a wall or ceiling.'
'What did it say?' Gadfium asked. They sat together on the small bed, curtains drawn, light dimmed, whispering like school girls conspiring a prank. She was not sure if it was some ancient memory that made her head spin, some genuine reaction to the impoverished air in the observatory, or the import of what they were talking about.
Clispeir laughed. 'At first it just said, "Move",' she said. 'Oh, Gad, you should have seen us. We stared at the letters on the salt for a full minute before we pulled ourselves together and decided that even if we had gone plain-crazy, and it was some mass hallucination, we might as well shift. So we did; we moved a couple of metres. The letters stayed where they were, then disappeared. When they reappeared it was as though they had followed us.'
'But what did they — ?'
'Ssh! I'm coming to that!' She pulled on a chain round her neck and drew a slim pen from inside her tunic, unscrewed it and pulled out a piece of flimsy paper which she unrolled and handed to Gadfium. 'They came in groups every eight seconds. Here; read for yourself.'
Gadfium stared at the scribbled writing.
* (flash)
MOVE /
NOW MOVE BACK /
THANK YOU/
LOVE IS GOD / ALL ARE HALLOWED / * WE HAVE — NOTED / THAT YOU ATTEMPTED / TO COMMUNICATE WITH / US IN THE PAST / HOWEVER STANDBY / SYSTEMS THEN FUNCTIONING / WERE NOT ENABLED TO / REPLY OR INSTRUCTED / TO COMMENCE / OUR REACTIVATION / THIS HAS NOW / OCCURRED DUE TO / SOLAR SYSTEM'S APPROACH /TO INTERSTELLAR/ DUST CLOUD / WHICH EVENT YOU CALL / ENCROACHMENT / THIS CONCERNS US ALL / CURRENT ESTIMATES / OF EFFECT ON EARTH / GIVE CAUSE FOR / ALARM / WE HAVE NOT / RECEIVED NOR DO / WE BELIEVE YOU HAVE / RECEIVED ANY / COMMUNICATION FROM / OFF-PLANET THERE / FOR WE MUST ACT / ALONE TO SAVE / OURSELVES / ACTION OPTIONS / INCLUDE CURRENT / LOWER-LEVELS / ATTEMPT TO CONSTRUCT / ROCKETS FOR / EVACUATION / THIS IS ALMOST / CERTAIN TO FAIL / IT IS KNOWN / SECTIONS OF LOWER— / LEVELS COMPETE / AGGRESSIVELY FOR / SUBSIDIARY SPACE / TECHNOLOGIES BUT THIS / TOO IS UNLIKELY / TO SUCCEED / ALSO NOTE DANGER / WORKINGS IN L5SWSOLAR / * HALLOWED BE / THE CENTRE THE / ABSENCE THAT / GIVES STRENGTH / GIVES MEANING / * THREATEN SIGNIFICANT / FABRIC INTEGRITY LOSS / CORRECT ANSWER MUST / LIE IN CRYPTOSPHERE / OR AN ASSOCIATED / BUT COMMUNICATIVELY / REMOTE SUB-SYSTEM / WE BELIEVE AS / WE BELIEVE YOU DO / THAT TECHNOLOGY EXISTS / TO SAVE US ALL / BUT ACCESS TO / DISCOVERY OF THIS / TECHNOLOGY EVADES / US AND WE ARE / UNABLE TO CONTACT / CRYPTOSPHERE / DIRECTLY DUE TO / CURRENT CHAOTIC / INFECTIOUS STATE / OF SAME / GIVEN RUMOURED / EXISTENCE OF EMERGENCY / META-PROTOCOLS / WE THEREFORE URGE / YOU TO REMAIN / VIGILANT AS SHALL / WE FOR ADVENT / OF EXTERNAL DATA— / CARRYING EVENT OR / SYSTEM-EMISSARY / (ASURA) / PLEASE ALSO NOTE / WE BELIEVE RULING / SECTIONS OR LOWER— / LEVELS KNOW THEIR / APPARENT ATTEMPTS / TO ESCAPE CERTAIN / TO FAIL / WHY IS THIS / WE QUESTION / REPLY THROUGH / HELIO SEMAPHORE OR / SIGNAL-LAMP ONLY / * LOVE IS FAITH / IS UNKNOWING / BE ALL HALLOWED / IN THE EYE OF / NOTHING / SHANTI / END *