Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

’Through where?’
    ’Through the transfer booths. Imagine carrying plates and forks
and knives into another universe!’
    ’What are they supposed to take?’ Mela asked reasonably.
    They came to a kind of kitchen, where a nanofood replicator was
still functioning. Symat asked it to prepare him something warm, and
soon rich smells filled the air.
    ’It probably needs restocking,’ Mela said. ’You can scrape up some
algae from the canal, I guess.’
    Chem said sharply, ’If you can keep from getting stuck!’ He and
Tod laughed.
    Mela reproved the boys. Symat sat at a table and ate in dogged
silence. The Virtuals stood around the table, watching him.
    Chem said, ’Of course you won’t have to put more glop in the
nanofood box if your parents come for you.’
    ’They won’t come,’ Symat said, chewing. Mela watched him with that
quiet gravity, and he felt impelled to add, ’They don’t know I’m
here.’
    ’Are you hiding?’ Chem asked. ’Did you run away?’
    ’Did you do something wrong?’ Tod asked, wide-eyed.
    ’They want me to go into a transfer booth with them. I don’t want
to go.’
    Chem said, ’Why not?’
    ’Because it would feel like dying. I haven’t done with this
world.’
    Chem said brightly, ’I’d go with my parents. I always do whatever
they want.’
    Tod said maliciously, ’They would go without you. They probably
have already.’
    ’No, they haven’t.’ Chem’s lips were working. ’They’ll come back
to me when - ’
    ’When, when, when,’ Tod sang. ’When is never. They’re never coming
back!’
    ’And nor are yours!’
    ’But I don’t care any more,’ Tod said. ’You do. Ha ha!’
    Chem, in a tearful fury, flew at Tod. The wrestling boys fell to
the floor and crashed through table legs. Pixels flew and
protocol-violation warnings pinged, but the table didn’t so much as
quiver.
    Symat watched curiously. He lived in a world saturated by
sentience, where everything was aware, everything potentially had
feelings. He understood Virtual children could be hurt, but he didn’t
necessarily know what might hurt them.
    ’Enough.’ Mela waded into the mêlée and
pulled the boys apart. Chem, crying copiously, ran from the room.
Mela said to Tod, ’You know how it upsets him when you say such
things.’
    ’It’s true. Our parents are never coming back. His aren’t. We all
know that.’
    Mela put her hand on her heart. ’He doesn’t know it. Not in
here.’
    ’Then he’s stupid,’ Tod said.
    ’Maybe he is, maybe not. But we have to look out for him. All we
have is each other now. Go after him.’
    ’Aww - ’ Tod pulled a face, but he went out obediently.
    Mela looked at Symat. ’Kids,’ she said, smiling faintly.
    Symat, his head full of his own issues, chewed his food.
    When he had done eating, the apartment was a little more like a
home, a little less like a strange place. And, his muscles still
aching from his time in the water, he realised he felt tired. He
found a bathroom, and a bedroom stripped of light furnishings. He sat
on a pallet.
    The three Virtuals clustered in the doorway, looking at him.
    ’I’m going to sleep,’ he said.
    ’All right.’ They receded into the shadows.
    Symat lay down on the pallet, and his clothes, sensing his
intentions, fluffed themselves up into a warm cocoon around his body.
Experimentally he ordered the room to dim its lights; the command
worked. He turned over and closed his eyes.
    He thought he slept.
    But he heard murmuring. He saw the two boys in the dim light,
standing at the foot of his pallet - no, hovering, their feet just
above the ground. And they were talking, softly, and too rapidly for
him to hear, like speeded-up speech. He heard a name: ’The
Guardians.’ Then one of them whispered, ’He’s awake!’ And they fled,
sliding through the solid wall like spectres, accompanied by a soft
pinging.
    So much for protocol violations, Symat said to himself. Those
Virtuals were creepy. He didn’t understand where they had come from,
what they wanted. But he reminded himself they were artificial; and
like all artefacts they were here to serve humanity - him. He huddled
down in his clothes and went back to sleep.
     
    When he rose and walked out of the apartment into the unchanging
sunlight, the three Virtuals were waiting for him. They were sitting
on a low stone wall, or at least they looked like they were doing so,
Mela in the centre with the two boys to either side.
    ’Um, thank you for