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429 lines
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OOOO .OOOO OOOO OOOOOOOOo OOOO OOOO"
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OOOO oOOOO OOOO OOOO "OOOO. OOOO OOOOo .OOOO'
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OOOO oOOOO ""OOOO OOOO "OOOO OOOOOO
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| There Ain't No Justice |
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| #114 |
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|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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- Metamorph -
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Chapter 03
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by Arifel
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III
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The Wise One must wander among the
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Worlds... - Apollonius Sophistes
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i looked around the back yard. a washing line; a wheelbarrow; some
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hanging baskets that once contained plants. the cats had gone up to
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Queensland with the rest of my family and the house was being sold. all
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of my old posessions had been moved into storage. the place looked
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empty, forlorn; not at all like Mission Control. not even the most
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objective assessment of the back yard could identify it as the site from
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which Lydya and i would launch ourselves out into space, to Nereid, to
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add our names to the Metamorph monument.
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`do you know where we're going?' i asked. we were both speaking in that
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vague way we have when we're concentrating on complex internal changes.
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`four three three four point four three two million kilometres. if we
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use bananafishbone's half-field drive, we can reach forty percent of the
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speed of light, once we're above the plane of the ecliptic. no, i don't
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know exactly where we're going. i have a rough idea of where Neptune
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is, this time of year. we can use mass sense to find it once we're
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within about one hundred and fifty million K'.' i consulted my
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ephemeris.
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`Neptune: right ascension nineteen hours, thirty-one minutes,
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thirty-four seconds. declination minus twenty-one degrees, nine
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minutes, twenty-one seconds. currently thirty-one point one four six
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AU's, say four thousand six hundred and fifty-nine million kilometres
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away. assuming we can get up to one hundred and twenty-four thousand
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km/s... about ten and a half hours. what's this half-field drive like?'
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`i've never used it myself, but i'm told that it creates a low-level
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field around you that moves you partially out of reality. shifts you
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from zero to forty percent of the speed of light, instantaneously.' i
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raised my eyebrows.
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`it sounds ludicrous; i won't ask where all the energy for that comes
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from. all the components are biological?' she nodded.
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`it's possible for one person to create the field. it's easier for two.
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the breakeven point is five people, but we two can get there and back
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easily.' i looked up the plans, noted that they required some pure
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aluminium. i considered synthesising it, but decided that there was
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enough refineable material around, in the form of discarded cans. as
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usual, Lydya had been thinking ahead; she produced a crumpled can,
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crushed to the size of a golf ball. i smiled, accepted it from her, put
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it in my mouth and swallowed. my stomach would take it apart, atom by
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atom, discarding the dross and storing what we needed. other parts of my
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stomach were preparing the drive itself, creating links of
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superconducting material, tiny diamond struts, channels which i pumped
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clear of matter, perfect vacuum, ridges in which sliding iron pellets
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would act as control surfaces.
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the objective observer i mentioned earlier would have thought that we
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were simply sitting cross-legged on the grass, dispassionately
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meditating. on one level, that's all we were doing. on another, i was
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re-categorising the volumes of information i'd copied from her, creating
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indices for data which i personally found particularly interesting; on
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another, i was enjoying the feeling of mild summer sunlight on my skin;
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on another, somewhat more human level, i was marvelling at the feelings
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she'd inspired in me. it wasn't that she'd worked the Change (and was
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therefore something akin to a mother to me); i felt i loved her for her
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other qualities, her dark sense of humour, her appropriate seriousness
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when required and her discordian frivolity when being serious wasn't
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appropriate.
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about twenty minutes later, we'd both completed our drives. she passed
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me a pellet which contained notes, biomodifications which would allow us
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to survive in vacuum for extended periods. my body implemented them
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automatically. whoever had worked them out was good; we looked
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unchanged, externally, but i noted all channels into the body had been
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reinforced, from the inside; we stopped breathing. our skins toughened,
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requiring just a little more effort than usual to bend. we weren't going
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to change, internally, that much; i for one wanted to stay at the
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biological level for the moment. this was a stage that some Metamorphs
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went through, apparently; exchanging all of their soft, organic
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components for ones made of other, stronger things; living, but not
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DNA-based. less fragile; more adaptable. there were some that went what
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was termed `the whole "Childhood's End" path', changing their forms for
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structures of energy. we never heard from them again.
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she sat on the grass, staring at me. i stared back, not wanting to use
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any special means for determining what she was thinking; i should be
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able to work it out. she was either unsure about wanting to go on this
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trip, or wanted to know if i was completely sure that i wanted to go. i
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waited.
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`are you certain you want to do this?' i'd given it some thought.
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`you told me of the Berserker stage.' this was where the Metamorph
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finally realised its position and `went to town', doing strange, bizarre
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and sometimes dangerous things. throughout the ages, these incidents had
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given rise to many (for humans, anyway) inexplicable characters, such as
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Heracleitus, Spring-heeled Jack, the Wandering Jew, Gilles De Rais, most
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of the ex-rulers of Wallachia who'd ever been accused of being vampires,
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Adam Weishaupt, and such (i had been relieved to learn that Jesus wasn't
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a Metamorph - he had merely been misquoted). i knew enough of myself to
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know that when i hit this stage, i would hit it hard; i though that this
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trip might avert it for a while.
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`delaying that stage may make it worse.' she said, following my
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reasoning. i stood and stretched, not from any need to do so, but
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simply because it felt good.
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`so be it. if i'm going to be the silliest Metamorph there ever was,
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there's no avoiding it.' she gave me a warning glance, and i recalled
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what she'd told me of our Law:
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A Metamorph may not kill another Metamorph.
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If a Metamorph should step outside the Law, a conclave of Five was
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required to bring the Rogue to justice. the sentence is death.
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Each Metamorph may bring one other being to become a Metamorph.
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(interesting, that one; i'd thought the `one begets one' law a
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mechanical limitation)
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Maintain secrecy.
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Maintain a semblance of rationality.
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i'd come to know their standards for rationality; they were broad and
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completely unrelated to human standards. with interest, i noted the
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absence of any rule that forbade killing humans, and i thought of my
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list of people i didn't particularly like. maybe i'd look some of them
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up when we got back.
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she stood, the sunlight through the branches of the lemon tree dappling
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over her face. `you don't want to wait until night, so that no-one
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will see us?' she smiled.
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`rules for Metamorphs, number seventy-one: act as strange as you like.
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chances are people won't believe their eyes.' i acknowledged this with
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a nod.
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`let's do it.'
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inside my body, energy began flowing along conduits within my bones. it
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wasn't electrical energy, and i could do far more with it than the
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tricks mankind had learned to perform with electromagnetism. my view of
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the world around me wavered as an ellipsoidal field grew around me. a
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similar field enveloped Lydya's body and we both lifted from the ground,
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like balloons drifting on the wind. the music playing through my mind
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was the sweeping organ solo from `stagnation' (a track from the very
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first Genesis album, and i tried not to think of the lyrics) as we rose
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above the treetops, above the roof-tops... wau, this was like one of my
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dreams. between my feet i could see power-lines strung from one pole to
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the next, over the house, along the street. in my dreams, i used to
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dread flying into them.
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we rose rapidly. i had no idea as to what our motive force was; a
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cursory check of my archives told me it was a gradual lessening of
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earth's gravitational field's ability to hold my body, which meant that
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once we were in open space, we'd drift. of course, once we were out of
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range of any gravitational fields, we could point ourselves at Neptune
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and activate the Half-field drive.
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for a few moments, i resisted the temptation to look down at the
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receding earth, and instead i glanced over at Lydya. her body was
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encapsulated in the field, and she'd managed to give it a glittering,
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golden aspect. well, two can play at that game, i thought. a brief
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flurry of what i'd come to know as Inner Secondary Thought occurred, and
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my mind was presented with options for colouring the field. i ran
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bright blue-green hexagonal grid lines over my field, red fireflies
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darting along the lines and flaring yellow when they intersected. i
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wasn't concerned with wasting energy on such displays; i knew that, if
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necessary, i could collect sunlight, or scoop hydrogen from the air, or
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even convert some of my own mass to energy. the options were endless.
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there was little chance of being stuck halfway, out of fuel.
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i modified the shape of my field, so that it followed the contours of my
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body, spread my arms out and together, we shot up out of the atmosphere.
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the gradual change of the colour of the sky, from summer azure to
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midnight blue, was something i wanted to see again and again.
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unfortunately, i hadn't activated my sensory recorder, so if i wanted to
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see it again, i'd have to drop down to the earth and start over. i was
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on the verge of doing this when i felt insistent waves of, something,
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gravitic in nature; at least, it wasn't on the EM spectrum - of course.
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it was Lydya. i tuned in:
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`increase the field's opacity to full. we'll need to be left behind by
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the earth - you know what i mean? we'll need to drop out of its gravity
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well completely before we can use the drive.' i waved an
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acknowledgement and complied, rather more quickly than i'd intended; i
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shot away from her so fast she appeared to vanish. i tumbled end over
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end, righting myself with difficulty, orienting feet-downward by force
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of habit.
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the sight was breath-taking. it was the standard NASA shot of the earth
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from space, but being there made all the difference. the silence was
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profound, and i felt the cold as an absence of heat, not as something
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crippling. we were in the shadow of the earth, a crescent of sun
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lighting the curve before me, like the span of a huge bridge. i forgot
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about Lydya for a moment, and simply hung there in space, like Tetsuo,
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taking in the view. awesome. i could understand the astronauts who
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took it as a religious experience, and i could understand those who saw
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the earth as a living being. of course she was.
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i saw a flare of bright green light off to my left and below me;
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instantly, my eyes centred on it, ranged, zoomed it. it was Lydya, not
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merely freeing her body from the influence of gravity, but expending
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energy to drive towards me, energised atoms trailing from her feet. i
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laughed.
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`you look like Astro-boy!' i sent to her, using the gravitic band as
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she had. she came level with me, her hands on her hips.
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`what did you do?' i checked back.
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`let's see... uh, i drove field strength up to one hundred percent...
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ah. if you do that in less than a certain period - say, zero point zero
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zero four milliseconds - the field strength goes up over theoretical
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limits, and forms a sort of repulsion field. it repelled earth's
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gravity and your field, too, so i got shoved away. it won't happen
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again, captain.' she gave me a mock-stern look.
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`see that it doesn't, ensign.' she turned to take in the view.
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`wonderful, isn't it?' i nodded.
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`we aren't on any sort of tight schedule, are we? i'd like to stay and
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watch the sunset from up here.' she mm-hmmed her agreement. just then,
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i felt more waves, these definitely EM-based, coming from behind us. i
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turned to look. using the waves as a guide and by amplifying the
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available light, i could just see it; a satellite of some kind. `what
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do you make of that, Lydya?' i asked, pointing.
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`spy satellite. American. oops - we're over their territory, aren't
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we?' i looked down, nodded. a wicked grin animated her features.
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`let's go pay our respects.' i grinned back at her.
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we dimmed our fields' special effects to the point where it appeared
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that we were simply hovering in space, unprotected, and then we drove
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ourselves towards the satellite. i grew wary when i saw what looked
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like particle weapons on the thing.
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`do you recognise those funnels?' she nodded.
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`yeah. our skin-shielding will be adequate. you might want to go
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clear, though.' this meant modifying the field around us so that light
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would be bent around it. it only worked effectively at a distance.
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`don't be rude! let's go say hello.'
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we approached something about the size and shape of the Apollo command
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module, white-painted metal, detailed with antennae and fish-eye ports
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which concealed cameras. the funnels pointed forwards, along the
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thing's main axis. we floated around it until i saw a tiny United
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States flag and the NASA emblem. there was a third symbol, between the
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others. i couldn't believe my eyes.
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`i always wondered about that one.' i sent, pointing to the red, white,
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black and gold eye-in-the-pyramid symbol.
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`oh, that's just Kelly. he did that, just after they were launched.
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he's a notorious put-on artist. always has been, ever since he worked
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with Dr. John Dee back in the sixteen-hundreds.' i regarded the design
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with my head to one side.
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`not bad. it lacks something. to be frank, it's not Art.' Lydya
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looked up at me sharply. `something wrong?'
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`that's one of the signs i've been warned to look for in possible
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Rogues. that infamous three-letter word.' i frowned.
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`i haven't been a Metamorph for more than a week! give me a chance to
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hang myself properly!' she smiled. i moved closer to the satellite,
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extended my index finger; i expanded some of the capillaries and made
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some radical alterations to the blood flowing in them. when it came
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spraying out, it was bright yellow acrylic paint. distributing other
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colours from the middle and ring fingers, it took perhaps four minutes
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to render a creditable copy of Vaughn Bode's `Cheech Wizard', giving the
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finger. i added a speech balloon; `BLESSED ARE DA PEACE-MAKERS.'
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Lydya examined it critically. when she looked up at me again, that
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manic grin was back.
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half an hour later, we drifted back a few metres to get a better idea of
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the whole work. frankly, it looked more like a hippie's kombi-wagon
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than an orbital defence satellite, bright pink and purple swirls that
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would have done any Moscoso poster proud, or like a subway train that
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had been shunted into an unguarded area. i was particularly proud of
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the doves.
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Lydya floated over to me and gave me a mock-worried look.
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`do you think we'll get into trouble for this?'
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we both laughed as we drove off into space.
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we'd pushed up at about forty degrees to the plane of the ecliptic for
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about half an hour; i had no idea how fast we were going, but whenever i
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queried the sensor which measured gravitational fields, it reported that
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we were still too close to the earth. the half-field drive would only
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function when we were outside the gravitational field, and i hadn't
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bothered to work out how far that was. i gave the problem to my
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back-processor, and almost immediately it spat back an answer; at this
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velocity, we'd be at the jump-off point within five minutes. i devoted
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four seconds of this time to establishing the exact orientation we'd
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need to assume before jumping off if we were going to reach Neptune; the
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rest of the time i mulled over an idea i'd had long before i became a
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Metamorph. i wanted to design a tiny robot, a Von Neumann machine, no
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bigger than a grain of rice. its task was going to be, firstly, to build
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several hundred thousand copies of itself by mining a large asteroid (or
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small moon, i hadn't decided which yet), establish nanogravitic
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communication with the others, link with them to form a sort of
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low-level gestalt mind; secondly, to map the surface of this large
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asteroid or small moon, construct a 3D map of the surface and then
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proceed to sculpt it into a perfect cube. seeing the end result in my
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mind, i wondered if it would be overkill to get them to carve the
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designs of a certain well-known puzzlebox into the sides of the moon. i
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decided why not, what the hell, and incorporated the designs into the
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seed device's instructions. i was using a system very much like DNA,
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except with better redundancy, more compact storage and only slightly
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slower chemical transcription speed. the end result was a lot like that
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lacewing fly in some respects. i'd first considered powering it by the
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common Metamorph system, something like low-end fusion, but i couldn't
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rely on it being able to find ice to use as fuel; i considered the next
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step up, which was a system which utilised the total conversion of mass
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to energy. this (without spending a serious amount of my time
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considering alternate designs) raised the minimum unit's size to just
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over a cubic centimetre (about the size of a large bee), which would
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slow down reproduction time and reduce the numbers of units which could
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be made from a given amount of raw material. unacceptable. i'd consider
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this more on the way; we'd arrived at the jump-off point.
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the earth was a pale blue-white tennis ball somewhere far below, between
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my feet. stars glared at me from all around; i'd never been aware of
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the range of colours they'd had before. Lydya drifted a few metres
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away from me. she beckoned, and i jetted closer. we hadn't bothered
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re-colouring our fields since leaving the American satellite, and she
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was harshly lit, shadows falling in stark, sharp lines. distant
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starlight glimmered through stray strands of her hair, and i felt an
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impulse i hadn't felt since i'd been changed. unfortunately, the
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mechanics of copulation in a vacuum were too many and varied to bother
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with now; besides, we were on a pilgrimage. possibly on the way back.
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smiling, i could see that the same idea had occurred to her.
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we embraced, legs entwined, chins nestling on each other's shoulders,
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our fields merging. i felt her half-field drive powering up; i
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activated mine. it was a considerable drain on my reserves; i was glad
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we were pooling resources, otherwise i would have had to make serious
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modifications to my storage systems, which would have entailed major
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physical changes. the stream of information from my senses, my primary
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link to the real world, gave a slight hiccup; the light i was receiving,
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radiant energy on several different frequencies, mass-sense information
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from the distant earth, all seemed to give a tiny hitch, as if i was
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hearing it all on the AM radio in a car and i'd just driven under some
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high-tension power lines. it was all still there; i could see black
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space peppered with stars, but there was a difference, an indefinable
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hazy something. i had the strange sensation of being a spinning top,
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balanced on a point somewhere outside reality. by leaning slightly in
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any direction, the half-field would throw us in that direction at over a
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hundred thousand kilometres per second. it wasn't a physical leaning; i
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asked my back-brain, and it replied (in so many words) that it was a
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function of the field's control system.
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we'd oriented in the proper direction; we were going to skim above the
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plane of the solar system like a record player's needle scratching out
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from the last track to the first on an old LP.
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together, we counted: `One... two... three!' and together we leaned
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forward. at first, i couldn't see any change; the stars ahead seemed
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brighter; those behind noticeably dimmer; the earth had shrunk to the
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size of a pea and was receding rapidly. i giggled.
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`ahead warp factor four, ensign!' Lydya laughed back.
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`engage!'
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