That’s crazy. You cannot be me.
But we are. Your memories and personality fused to Rubra’s within the neural strata. Remember? The change to us, to the neural strata’s thought routines, was corporeal and permanent. We remain intact. You, however, were a possessing soul, you were torn out by the habitat’s shift to this realm.
A realm hostile to the possessed,he said rancorously.
Exactly.
Don’t I know it. I’m a ghost. That’s what the shift did to me. A bloody ghost.
How intriguing. We cannot see you.
I’m in the valley.
Ah.
Dariat could feel the understanding within the personality. It knew which valley he meant. A true affinity.
Can we have access to your sensorium, please. It will allow us to analyse the situation properly.
He couldn’t think of a reasonable objection, even though the idea sat uncomfortably. After thirty years of self-imposed mental isolation, sharing came hard. Even with an entity that claimed to be derived from himself.
Very well,he griped. he allowed the affinity link to widen, showing the personality the world through his eyes—or at least what he imagined to be his eyes.
As requested, he looked at his own body for the personality, walked about, demonstrated how he had no material presence.
Yet you persist in interpreting yourself as having human form,the personality said. How strange.
Force of habit, I guess.
More likely to be subconscious reassurance. The pattern is your basic foundation, the origin of quintessential identity. Retention of that is probably critical to your continuation as a valid entity. In other words, you’re very set in your ways. But then we know that already, don’t we.
I don’t believe I’m that self-destructive. So if you wouldn’t mind cancelling the insults for a few decades.
As you wish. After all, we do know how to cut the deepest.
Dariat could almost laugh at the impression of dйjа vu which the exchange conjured up. He and Rubra had spent days of this same verbal fencing while he was possessing Horgan’s body. Was there a reason you wanted to talk to me? Or did you just want to say hello?
This realm is not hostile to souls alone. It is also affecting our viability right down to the atomic level. Large sections of the neural strata have ceased to function, nor are such areas static, they flow through the strata at random, requiring persistent monitoring. Such failures threaten even our homogenised presence. We have to run constant storage replication routines to ensure our core identity is not erased.
That’s tough, but unless the failure occurs everywhere simultaneously, you’ll be safe.
As may be. But the overall efficiency of our cells is much reduced. The sensitive cell clusters cannot perceive as clearly as before; organ capability is degrading to alarming levels. Muscle membrane response is sluggish. Electrical generation is almost zero. All principal mechanical and electrical systems have shut down. The communication net and most processors are malfunctioning. If this situation continues, we will not be able to retain a working biosphere for more than ten days, a fortnight at most.
I hate to sound negative at a time like this, but what do you expect me to do about it?
The remaining population must be organized to assist us. There are holding procedures which can be enacted to prevent further deterioration.
Physical ones. You’ll have to ask the living, not me.
We are attempting to. However, those who have been de-possessed are currently in an extremely 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.