Tony Ballantyne - Recursion

“Strange. Exhilarating. Frightening. It was the moment we had been leading up to for a year, it is the moment that everything we have done since then has depended upon.”

“But it worked? You got it back to Earth.”

And that was it. Constantine felt a little catch in his voice as he spoke. He hoped she wouldn’t notice it.

“I did what I was supposed to do,” he said.

– She doesn’t know what it is. They don’t know where we took it! Got them at last! Blue was practically singing with delight.

“How did you conceal it, when you took it off planet?”

“I didn’t. I kept it in full view. They thought it was a museum exhibit. I suppose it was, really.”

“And then you took it to Frankfurt.”

“Come on, Marion. I don’t think we should discuss this anymore. We will have enough time for that tomorrow. Let’s wait until we’re quorate.”

Marion gave a shrug.

“Spoilsport. Are you always so firm with women?”

– Did she really just say what I thought she just said? said Blue in disbelief.

Constantine looked at his watch.

“After nine. We have an early start tomorrow. Maybe we should get to bed.”

Marion smiled knowingly. “Is that an invitation?”

Constantine grinned back. “You want to be careful. You could get a married man into trouble.” He laughed. After a moment’s hesitation, Marion joined in.

Constantine drained his glass and rose to his feet.

“Well, I’m off. Good night, Marion.”

He leaned across and gave her a peck on the cheek, then turned and walked from the bar.

A clamor of voices arose in his head.

– Well done! That was excellent! Blue was delighted with Constantine’s performance.

– It was good, said Red, though he sounded distracted.-Still, why pull that now? Why not just wait until the meeting tomorrow?

– Maybe they were worried things wouldn’t get decided? said Blue.

– Maybe. But I wonder. Maybe something else is happening out there. Maybe DIANA is moving in on them. Getting ready to free us.

– Maybe maybe maybe, said Blue.-What do you think, Grey?

No one expected Grey to answer. They were surprised when he did.

– I don’t know. I am seriously concerned. Now that we know what they are trying to find out, I think we may have been premature in trying to get a message out to DIANA. I hope that we will not come to regret our earlier request to Jay.

Marion came into Constantine’s room that night. He woke to find her standing at the foot of his bed, something in her hand, an odd smile on her face.

“Marion,” said Constantine. “How did you get in here?”

She held up the item in her hand. It was the same bottle Jay had given him earlier that evening.

“No, thank you, Marion. I’ve had enough to drink.” He yawned and rubbed his eyes. He wondered if his other personalities were sleeping.

– I’m here, said White.-I’ll wake them.

Marion’s smile widened a little, though there was a hint of pity in her eyes.

“Nice try, Constantine. Come on.”

She turned from the bed and walked toward the large picture window that looked out over Stonebreak. Constantine rose to his feet to follow. He was clothed in a simple, white, one-piece jumpsuit. He didn’t recognize it; he didn’t remember putting it on. With a sinking heart he followed her.

Marion took hold of the handle that opened the window leading to the balcony, the same balcony where he had spoken to Jay not twenty-four hours before. She gave Constantine a sympathetic look.

“Brace yourself,” she said.

Constantine wondered what she meant, then she slid open the window. There was nothing beyond it. Nothing. Just a dull grey space. Constantine shivered. The view was unnerving. At the wall containing the window that led to the balcony, the world had just been split in two. Through the glass of the sliding window that Marion had pushed to one side he could see the nightscape over Stonebreak. The dark space that was defined by the lights of the city, the stars and the moon. To the left of the glass, where he should have seen the balcony beyond, there was nothing. An emptiness, a lack of anything that made him feel quite terrified.

He was looking into oblivion. It was the gap beneath the sky. It was the end of his virtual life.

Marion stepped beyond the world. Constantine watched her walk out into the grey emptiness. She turned and beckoned to him to follow.

“Come on,” she called. “We need to talk.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Constantine stepped forward.

He walked into the greyness. There was nothing beneath his feet, and yet, as he walked, he seemed to move forward. It was an odd feeling; there was no resistance to his tread.

Marion was waiting for him up ahead. As he came level with her, she indicated that he should look back the way he had come. There he saw a rectangle hanging in the greyness, a portal that led back to the world. Through it he could see the cream corduroy carpet of the hotel room, the edge of his bed, the corner of a pastel print.

Marion spoke softly. “You’ve been very unlucky. Your message made it to the outside world, but unfortunately for you, the object code failed to destroy itself. It was analyzed in a routine efficiency scan just as its resources were about to be returned to the heap and it caused an exception to be thrown. Even then, we would have wondered at its meaning if it hadn’t been for something you said earlier.”

“What’s that?”

“Back in the concert hall, yesterday. You subvocalized something to your internal personalities: ‘I’m not sure the Night Jay will have a method of contacting the outside world.’”

“Oh,” said Constantine.

– Stupid, stupid, stupid! said Red.

– It’s too late to worry about that now, said Grey.

Marion continued. “You had the whole realside team in turmoil because of that. What did you mean, ‘outside world’? What was the Night Jay? They couldn’t believe that the simulation had been compromised. Most of them assumed it was some sort of code. They didn’t want to believe you had found out where you were. And then we found the message in the bottle.”

“Oh,” said Constantine. He didn’t know what else to say.

Marion touched his elbow. “Look, it was a mistake anyone could make. You’re up against a team of a hundred people.”

Again he was lost for words. Marion cleared her throat.

“Anyway. While I was busy trying to seduce you in here, the powers that be out in the real world were putting together an offer.”

Constantine nodded. “I’m listening.”

Grey spoke with cold finality.

– There can be no bargains.

Marion gave a tiny shake of her head. “I’m not sure that you would really understand what the offer means. You don’t understand what’s involved here. That’s why we’re going to show you.”

She reached out her hand into the nothingness and pulled it to one side. Another door opened in space. Through it Constantine could see a corridor, just a little wider than the doorway itself. A steep stairway, looking oddly familiar, led downward. He strained to see more, hungry for the touch of reality in the empty world. It looked so real . He could make out cracked paint on the ceiling; he could see how the stone of the steps was slightly dipped in the center where so many people had already trodden.

“Go on down,” said Marion.

Constantine did not need to be told. He was already stepping into the welcoming doorway. Anything to get out of this dreadful nothingness. He walked down eight or nine steps, feeling the reassuring solidness of the stone beneath his feet. He pressed a hand gratefully against the cool, cream-painted plaster of the wall. Marion stepped onto the top step behind him and pulled a cream-painted door closed behind her. She sat down on the top step and took a deep breath.