«No!» Jade Nomun shouted. «No! I am Nomun. No other can be. You are lying, or you are wrong.» Jade Nomun took a deep breath, struggled visibly for control. «And Nomun is not so uncommon a name. Why must the Nomun who seeded the memwort be related to us?»
«If not,» said Blue Nomun heavily, «then we witness an astounding coincidence. All of us rose from the same genetic root; each calls himself Nomun. If the Nomun of the memwort is not our clonebrother, then what other explanation for our presence here would you suggest?»
Nomun saw a fearful madness kindle in Jade Nomun’s cloudy eyes. «No, I will never believe it.»
Blue Nomun shrugged. «As you will. I care nothing for what you believe. Here is an undeniable fact: at least nine of us are clones of the original Nomun. Nomun the Great. Nomun the Emancipator. Nomun the Scourge. Some of my titles now seem ludicrous to me. Nomun the Only, for example.» Blue Nomun stopped, and silence filled the shelter.
Finally Blue Nomun spoke again. «Are any of us old enough to be the true Nomun? You, for example?» He gestured at Scar Nomun.
«I will not say,» answered Scar Nomun.
«Just so.» Blue Nomun lay back on the cot with a sigh, as if his metal body was tired. <
«Perhaps it’s him, the old one.» False Nomun was watching Nomun, his eyes full of fearful coi\jecture.
«Nonsense. I am the Nomun,» snapped Jade Nomun. «Besides, the wrinkles he wears are cosmetic; I know this from bitter experience.»
No one else spoke. After a bit the others settled in their cots, though no eyes closed. Young Nomun looked up at Nomun. The boy was still confused by the blow to his head, or so it seemed to Nomun. «I would like to sleep,» Young Nomun said. «But I’m afraid. I might never wake.»
«Sleep,» Nomun said. «I’ll watch. Later you can do the same for me.»
Somewhat to Nomun’s surprise, Young Nomun smiled agreement, and his eyes fluttered shut. He still trusts, Nomun thought. How sad.
Young Nomun slept away the short Coal day. Nomun felt little desire to rest; he was too conscious of the others and their hatred.
When the shadows were long, Nomun went to the entrance to the shelter and looked out.
Dead Nomun stood motionless on the beach, not five meters away. The black photoreceptors regarded Nomun steadily, but the killmech did not otherwise react to Nomun’s presence.
Nomun’s gaze dropped to the three plastic bags ML attached to the killmech’s chest. Except for the Nomun killed by Scar Nomun on the terminal beach, the faces did not look dead. They seemed to sleep, though Soft Nomun’s eyes were open. Trophies? The thought seemed true, and he wondered what sort of man would make trophies of his own face. A monster, certainly.
«Why are we here?» Nomun asked. Dead Nomun showed no reaction. Nomun tried another question. «Who is your master?» The armor that protected the killmech’s speaker grille lou- vered open. «Nomun is his name.» The louvers closed.
Nomun retreated within, chilled. False Nomun stood there, hands twisted together. «Who were you talking to?»
«The mech’s here. The sun is going.» Nomun brushed past him, going to Young Nomun’s cot.
Nomun shook Young Nomun’s shoulder lightly. «Wake up,» he said.
Young Nomun came to with a start and struck out blindly. Nomun caught his arms. «Calmly, calmly...,» Nomun said. Awareness flooded back into Young Nomun’s eyes. He sat up too quickly and winced.
False Nomun spoke in a wheedling voice. «Are you the one? Will you spare me? I only took the name to get a little respect, to have some of the things that come so easily to others. I did no harm; I took none of your money. Please, let me go. Why must I die?»
Nomun found False Nomun repellent; the sweating staring face, so like his own, made him a little sick. «I can’t help you,» he said. False Nomun shuffled away, muttering incomprehensibly.
Young Nomun was still pale. «I don’t want to die either,» he said.
«Nor do I. Are you strong enough to climb the next node?» Young Nomun smiled, touched the gash on his forehead. «I’ll have to be, won’t I?»
«Listen,» Nomun said. «We can keep within shouting distance.
If you’re attacked, call out, and I’ll come. You can do the same. Do you agree?»
«With relief....»
Just before sundown, the seven Nomuns left the tent and stepped warily away from the killmech, which did not move. «Perhaps it has malfunctioned,» said False Nomun hopefully. Jade Nomun laughed carefully. «You’re the greatest fool of us all, clone.» Jade Nomun wore an improvised binding around his ribs, tom from the full sleeves of his shirt. «You’ll die soon, and we will no longer have to look at your quivering face.»
Of them all, only Pump Nomun seemed calm. He stood a little apart from the others, close to the water, watching the breathboats come ghosting in. His eyes were dreamy; he caressed the keyboard of his pump with languid fingers. «Beautiful,» he said softly. He turned to the others. «Isn’t this lovely? Look around. I marvel. The perfect darkness of the sea, the fading lavender of the sky, the sand that shimmers. The boats, like dreams. Even that thing.» He pointed to Dead Nomun. «Its color the perfect counterpoint to this world, its purpose in perfect resonance with our lives.» He shook his head. «Have you killed as often as I have, brothers?» His thin face twisted with transitory pain. «My pump is nearly dry. I’d meant to top it up, just before I was taken. Had I done so, this adventure might have ended differently for me.»
«Rothead nonsense,» said Scar Nomun.
«Yes, yes, you’re right. Wonderful nonsense,» said Pump Nomun, smiling. «But my chemicals... they insulated me from what Nomun must do, all these centuries, so that I could act– and not be corrupted by the terrible tenible things Nomun must do, if he is to be Nomun. It saved me from becoming a mindless brute like you.» Pump Nomun looked at Jade Nomun. «And from your hungry nothingness.» He looked at False Nomun. «From your fear.» At Blue Nomun. «Nor did I give up my humanity to a machine. The pump was my armor.»
Then Pump Nomun’s face grew sad. «But it wasn’t the perfect solution. It has taken my strength.»
The breathboats anchored off the beach, closer than they had been the first night. The pale-haired captain came down from her pulpit and stood at the rail, apart from the passengers. Her shadowed face held some strong emotion. Sorrow? Concern? Despair? Nomun could not tell.
«Vultures,» said Scar Nomun, and spat into the water.
The killmech moved, and the Nomuns retreated toward the second node, all but Pump Nomun.
«You must leave the beach now,» Dead Nomun said, and gestured at the next node.
Pump Nomun turned to look out over the water. «Lovely,» he whispered, and triggered his pump. His eyes rolled back, and he stood there for a moment, shuddering, before he fell face down on the sand. A last tremor shook him; then he was still.
The killmech bounded forward. It turned the body over. Pump Nomun’s face had become a red ruin. As they watched, more of Pump Nomun’s head deliquesced and ran through the killmech’s hands into the sand. Dead Nomun emitted a terrible wordless grinding sound and slashed off the remnant, but by the time it had clipped the bag to its chest clamp, the bag held nothing but the chempump, floating in gray-pink slime.
The corpse was gone, melted into the beach, leaving behind only a pile of empty clothing.
«Clever,» said Blue Nomun. «He cheated our captor of his trophy. A hyper-efficient enzyme, no doubt.» The cyborg seemed envious. «I wonder did he always carry it, hidden in the pump?» «What does it matter?» said Scar Nomun, and went into the jungle. Jade Nomun followed, still moving with painful care.