Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

we
can all get on with our lives.’
    Mara looked up at the black hole, hesitating. ’I don’t want to be
any trouble.’
    Tahget laughed bitterly.
    ’I just wish I could speak to Sharn.’
    ’If we can’t manage that, maybe we can send a message,’ said
Michael Poole. He grinned, snapped his fingers, and disappeared.
    And reappeared in his skinsuit, out in space, on the other side of
the blister.
     
    Captain Tahget raged, ’How do you do that? After your last stunt I
ordered your core processors to be locked down!’
    ’Don’t blame your crew, Captain,’ came Poole’s muffled voice. ’I
hacked my way back in. After all, nobody knows me as well as I do.
And I was once an engineer.’
    Tahget clenched his fists uselessly. ’Damn you, Poole, I ought to
shut you down for good.’
    ’Too late for that,’ Poole said cheerfully.
    Futurity said, ’Michael Poole, what are you going to do?’
    Mara was the first to see it. ’He’s going to follow Sharn. He’s
going to download himself into the black hole air.’
    Futurity stared at Poole. ’Is she right?’
    ’I’m going to try. Of course I’m making this up as I’m going
along. My procedure is untested; it’s all or nothing.’
    Tahget snorted. ’You’re probably an even bigger fool than you were
alive, Poole.’
    ’Oh?’
    ’All this is surmise. Even if it was the Ideocracy’s intention to
seed the black hole with post-humans, we have no proof it worked.
There may be nothing alive in those thin gases. And even if there is,
it may no longer be human! Have you thought of that?’
    ’Yes,’ Poole said. ’Of course I have. But I always did like long
odds. Quite an adventure, eh?’
    Futurity couldn’t help but smile at his reckless optimism. But he
stepped up to the window. ’Michael Poole, please - ’
    ’What’s wrong, acolyte? Are you concerned about what your
Hierocrat is going to do to you when you go home without his
intellectual property?’
    ’Well, yes. But I’m also concerned for you, Michael Poole.’
    Poole did a double-take. ’You are, aren’t you? I’m touched,
Futurity’s Dream. I like you too, and I think you have a great future
ahead of you - if you can clear the theological fog out of your head.
You could change the world! But on the other hand, I have the feeling
you’ll be a fine priest too. I’d like to stick around to see what
happens. But, no offence, it ain’t worth going back into cold storage
for.’
    Mara said, her voice breaking, ’If you find Sharn, tell her I love
her.’
    ’I will. And who knows? Perhaps we will find a way to get back in
touch with you, some day. Don’t give up hope. I never do.’
    ’I won’t.’
    ’Just to be absolutely clear,’ said Captain Tahget heavily. ’Mara,
will this be enough for you to get rid of that damn bomb?’
    ’Oh, yes,’ said Mara. ’I always did trust Michael Poole.’
    ’And she won’t face any charges,’ Poole said. ’Will she,
Captain?’
    Tahget looked at the ceiling. ’As long as I get that bomb off my
ship - and as long as somebody pays me for this jaunt - she can walk
free.’
    ’Then my work here is done,’ said Poole, mock-seriously. He turned
and faced the black hole.
    ’You’re hesitating,’ Futurity said.
    ’Wouldn’t you? I wonder what the life expectancy of a sentient
structure in there is… Well, I’ve got a century before the black
hole hits Chandra, and maybe there’ll be a way to survive that.
    ’I hope I live! It would be fun seeing what comes next, in this
human Galaxy. For sure it won’t be like what went before. You know,
it’s a dangerous precedent, this deliberate speciation: after an age
of unity, will we now live through an era of bifurcation, as mankind
purposefully splits and splits again?’ He turned back to Futurity and
grinned. ’And this is my own adventure, isn’t it, acolyte? Something
the original Poole never shared. He’d probably be appalled, knowing
him. I’m the black sheep! What was that about more real?’
    Mara said, ’I will be with you at Timelike Infinity, Michael
Poole, when this burden will pass.’
    That was a standard Wignerian prayer. Poole said gently, ’Yes.
Perhaps I’ll see you there, Mara. Who knows?’ He nodded to Futurity.
’Goodbye, engineer. Remember - open mind.’
    ’Open mind,’ Futurity said softly.
    Poole turned, leapt away from the ship, and vanished in a
shimmering of pixels.
     
    After that, Futurity spent long hours studying the evanescent
patterns in the