Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

Galaxy’s Core.
    Poole, a man of the fourth millennium, seemed stunned. ’Two
thousand years? ’
    Captain Tahget leaned forward and peered into the fish-tank.
’Virtual, we once fought a war that spanned tens of thousands of
light years. We learned to plan on a comparable scale in time. During
the war there were single battles which lasted millennia.’
    Poole shook his head. ’And I imagined I thought big. I really have
fallen far into the future, haven’t I?’
    ’You really have, sir,’ Futurity said.
    Poole sat down again and faced Mara. ’I can see why you didn’t
want to leave. Your roots were deep, on your Greyworld.’
    ’Time was running out,’ she said. ’We knew that. Our black hole
was slowly spiralling deeper into Chandra’s accretion disc. Soon the
turbulence, the energy density, the tides - it would have been
impossible for us to hang on.’
    ’Although,’ said Poole, ’the black hole itself will sail on
regardless until it reaches Chandra’s event horizon.’
    ’Yes.’
    Poole said, ’I still don’t understand. If you knew your world was
doomed, you must have accepted you had to evacuate.’
    ’Of course.’
    ’Then what - ’
    ’I just didn’t like the way it was done.’ Her face worked, deep
emotions swirling under a veneer of control. ’I didn’t get a chance
to say goodbye.’
    ’Who to?’
    ’Sharn. My daughter.’
    Poole studied her for a moment. Then he said gently, ’You see,
you’re losing me again, Mara. I’m sorry. According to the ship’s
manifest you don’t have a daughter.’
    ’I did have one. She was taken away from me.’
    ’Who by?’
    ’The Ideocrats.’
    ’But you see, Mara, there’s my problem. I saw the records. Once
the evacuation was done, there was nobody left on Greyworld. So your
daughter - ’
    ’She wasn’t on Greyworld.’
    ’Then where?’
    ’She lives in the satellite black hole,’ Mara said simply. ’Where
the Ideocrats sent her.’
    ’In the black hole?’
    ’She lives in it, as you, Michael Poole, live in light.’
    ’As some kind of Virtual representation?’
    Mara shook her head. ’I’m sorry. I can’t explain it better. We
aren’t scientists on Greyworld, like you.’
    He thought that over. ’Then what are you?’
    ’We are farmers.’ She shrugged. ’Some of us are technicians. We
supervise the machines that tend other machines, that keep the air
clean and the water flowing.’
    Poole asked, ’But why are you there in the first place, Mara? What
did the Ideocracy intend? What is your duty?’
    She smiled. ’To give our children to the black hole. And that way,
to serve the goals of mankind.’
    Futurity said quickly, ’She’s probably doesn’t know any more,
Michael Poole. This was the Ideocracy, remember, heir to the
Coalition. And under the Coalition you weren’t encouraged to know
more than you needed to. You were thought to be more effective that
way.’
    ’Sounds like every totalitarian regime back to Gilgamesh.’ Poole
studied Mara for a long moment. Then he stood. ’All right, Mara. I
think that’s enough for now. You’ve given me a lot to think about. Is
there anything you need? More food?’
    ’I’m tired,’ she said quietly. ’But I know if I lie down that
Captain or the acolyte will sneak in here and disarm the bomb, or
hurt me, and - ’
    Poole said, ’Look at me, Mara. Things will get flaky very quickly
if you don’t sleep. Nobody will hurt you, or change anything in here.
You can trust me.’
    She stared at his Virtual face. Then, after a moment, she lay down
on her bunk, her knees tucked into her chest like a child.
    Poole’s fish-tank representation popped out of existence.
     
    Poole, Tahget and Futurity faced each other across the table in
Tahget’s office.
    Tahget said, ’We need to resolve this situation.’
    Poole had another glass of Virtual whisky in his hand. ’That woman
is determined. Believe me, you don’t separate a mother from her
child. She’ll blow us all up rather than give in.’
    Tahget said coldly, ’Then what do you suggest we do?’
    ’Comply with her wishes. Take her back to Chandra, back to the
centre of the Galaxy, and to her black hole Garden of Eden. And help
her find her kid.’
    Futurity said, ’There is no child. She said the child lives in the
black hole. That’s just impossible. No human being - ’
    ’Who said anything about it being human?’ Poole snapped. ’I’m my
mother’s son, and I’m not human. Not any more. And black