Charles Sheffield - The Mind Pool

“I must.” She clung to him, moving as he moved. “I am an Artefact. And the Margrave of Fujitsu was my maker.”

“You can’t be. You helped to save me.” The hand holding the gun was white-knuckled and trembling. “When the Artefacts were attacking me, you didn’t help them, you helped me.”

“Of course I tried to save you. I could never kill anything. Fujitsu created me, in the vats of his Needler lab. But I was made for love, not death. I love you, Luther.”

She tried to reach up and kiss him. Brachis was pulling his face away out of reach.

“Feel pity, Luther Brachis, not anger.” It was Leah’s voice again, emerging from the middle of the Tinker swarm. “She became Fujitsu’s instrument, but not from choice. When the Margrave was alive, her only program was to watch you, and stay with you, and love you. When he died, that program was not cancelled. But his death also triggered her programing as a source of information for other Artefacts. They were able to follow you, to know your actions. But feel Godiva’s misery, as we are able to feel it. She loves you, yet she could not help providing information that might harm you. When you came to Travancore, she rejoiced — because she knew that no other Artefacts could follow you here.”

Tears were trickling down the flawless skin of Godiva’s cheeks. “It is true, Luther. Forgive me. I could not tell you what I was doing, no matter how much I loved you.”

“Love. Making money for Fujitsu, was that your idea of love?” Luther Brachis averted his face from Godiva, as again she tried to kiss him. He stared out over her shoulder. “Damn your soul, Fujitsu, wherever you are.” His voice was quiet, apparently unemotional. “You wanted your dues, and you took them. You win, Fujitsu. You win.”

He pushed the muzzle of his gun into Godiva’s soft belly and pulled the trigger. The explosion was muffled to a soft, harmless-sounding thump. But the shaped projectile blew a fist-sized hole right through Godiva’s opulent body.

She stared up into Brachis’s face and smiled a dreamy and loving smile. She stood up straight, arms raised in supplication; and then she fell. Even in dying, there was a strange grace to her. Luther Brachis stared down at her body and drew in a long, sobbing breath. Mondrian alone foresaw what might come next.

“Luther! No!” He jumped forward to grab at Brachis’s arm. The other man glanced at him, and almost casually began to turn his wrist. Mondrian pulled as hard as he could, but the arm movement did not slow. As the weapon came to point at his own head, Brachis stared down at the tumbled and bleeding form in front of him.

“I loved you, Godiva,” he said quietly. “I really did.” He fired the gun point-blank at his own forehead. A spout of blood and brain tissue jetted from the back of his skull. As he fell he pulled Esro Mondrian with him.

Chan started forward Mondrian was beginning to pull free, clambering to his feet.

And so, amazingly, was Godiva Lomberd. She held her hand to her back, where bloodied internal organs showed at the gaping exit wound, and she weaved where she stood. But still she began to move forward, to where Luther Brachis lay.

“Godiva Lomberd, do not try to lift him. That effort will kill you.” It was Leah’s warning voice. But Godiva was bending and putting her arms around Brachis, while blood streamed down her dress.

She shook her blond head. “We do not die easily, my kind. Not even … of sorrow.” Already she was standing again, Luther cradled to her chest while one hand supported the back of his shattered head.

Then she was hurrying out of the quarantine chamber.

Chan started after her — and realized that while they had all watched Godiva, Esro Mondrian was vanishing through the other door.

“Follow him!” said Leah’s voice. “With Brachis gone, Mondrian alone knows the Link sequence to take this ship back to Sol.”

Chan hesitated. Follow Mondrian — but Nimrod was still united, Angel was too slow, Shikari was disassembled. “S’greela!” Chan called to the Pipe-Rilla. “Come on. It’s up to the two of us.”

He ran out of the quarantine chamber, and at once found himself in the labyrinth of the Q-ship interior.

“Which way?” asked S’greela. She was bounding along at his side.

Chan had no idea. Before he could speak, a long tendril of Tinker components came streaming into the corridor. “Follow Ishmael,” called Leah’s muffled voice from far behind.

Nimrod at least must have some idea of where Mondrian was going, Chan and S’greela ran along behind the moving Tinker column, down one corridor and along up two short flights of stairs.

“The main Q-ship control room,” cried S’greela. She was ahead of Chan. “He is here.”

Chan ran through to join her. Mondrian was at a main panel, throwing switches. As Chan and S’greela entered, he spun around to face them.

“Get away from me, or we all die. I have initiated a Q-ship destruct sequence, and I alone can stop it. You have three minutes to surrender and place yourselves in sealed quarantine chambers.”

“Stay back,” cried S’greela. “He means it, he will do it. We must do as he says.”

“Wait!” called a voice from far along the corridor. It was Angel, creeping along as fast as the root system would permit.

“S’greela, you have to help Angel.” But before Chan’s command could be carried out, a blizzard of Tinker components appeared in the corridor. They crowded to lift and push Angel towards the control room.

When Angel reached the threshold, part of the swarm at once flew across to cluster thickly on Mondrian. Another group flew to settle on Chan and S’greela.

“Quickly!”

Chan did not know who had cried out. Already the mentality was awakening, faster than ever before. Chan felt Almas reaching out toward Mondrian, and then the shock of contact. CAN YOU REACH HIM? It was Nimrod, faint and far-off, connecting in through the Ishmael/Shikari link.

WE ARE TRYING. There was a long moment of probing, as the mentality sought to feel into a resisting mind. WE CANNOT.

Chan felt the full impact of that surprise and alarm. Mondrian’s mind had risen powerfully against them, stronger than Almas had believed possible. The mind pool was recoiling from the intensity of the emotion that it had encountered.

WE CANNOT BRING HIM TO UNION. The news flowed back to Nimrod. THERE IS A BLOCK. IMMOVABLE, PERMANENT, DEEP-SEATED.

CAN YOU BYPASS IT, AND REACH THE ABORT PATTERN FOR Q-SHIP DESTRUCTION? Nimrod’s message carried its overtones. The other mentality was moving towards the control room, but in the united form its pace was too slow.

IT WOULD DESTROY HIM. IT IS BURIED BENEATH ALL ACCESSIBLE LEVELS.

Now S’greela and Chan had joined Shikari to hold Mondrian. He did not resist physically, but his mind boiled and burned, rejecting all contact with the mentality. Almas tried again along a new path. Chan felt the union’s repugnance as it came to the seething undercurrent of Mondrian’s mind.

ONE MINUTE, said Nimrod. YOU MUST FIND THE ABORT PATTERN FOR Q-SHIP DESTRUCTION.

WE ARE STILL TRYING. IT CANNOT BE REACHED.

“Should we destroy Mondrian?” That was Chan, struggling to remain within the mentality, and yet provide an individual input to the mind pool. “His destruction might yield the abort pattern.”

NO — NO — NO. The gale of disapproval almost swept Chan away. He felt the shocked reaction from the other team members, as he struggled to pull back farther from the mentality.

He faced a terrible choice. He needed the mind pool to help him, at the same time as he needed to act independently from it. Chan channeled his energy and reached deeper, burrowing his way into a matrix of emotion that struggled furiously to resist him.