Tony Ballantyne - Recursion

“Oh. But how did it get you here?”

Nicolas looked embarrassed. “I hitched a lift on a Land Rover. It was a trap. It had me brought up here. The Watcher spoke to me on the way up, told me what was happening.”

“I don’t remember a Land Rover passing us,” Katie said.

“There’s another road into here.”

Nicolas still seemed very embarrassed about something. He changed the subject, turned to the Watcher and spoke loudly.

“Okay. We’re here. So what do you want with us? Are you going to kill us, too?”

The Watcher backed away a little. Its huge shovel swayed slightly as if shaking its head.

“No, I’m not going to kill you,” and then, in a whisper, “not unless you want me to.”

A pause.

The Watcher began to roll backward. It swung its head around. “Go to that building over there, the one with the orange metal door. Go inside. I will speak to you there.”

They looked at each other again. Katie was the first to move.

“Okay,” she said.

– Listen.

Eva listened. The hum from the pylons was increasing. Power was now flooding into the old quarry.

It was cold inside the building. Piles of black boxes covered in some rubberized material with thick bumpers at their corners were arranged haphazardly on the floor. They reminded Eva of the cases used for transporting musical instruments, or anything fragile for that matter. The ceiling was brown with damp and sagging in the middle. Strands of pink insulating material poked through the widening cracks that ran its length. A little light shone in through the frosted and, as Eva noticed, unbroken windowpanes.

The brand-new viewing screen standing at one end of the room looked completely out of place.

It was expensive. Eva could tell. Two square meters of rigid material that would act as a perfect visual and acoustic surface, treated for zero glare and perfect color depth. The sort of screen for which a classical cinema buff would happily sacrifice other essentials just for the quality it presented.

Eva wondered who had put it in here. Certainly not the digger outside. It must have been installed by human hands, humans who had been here recently. She noted the fragments of white packing material still clinging to the edges of the screen.

Suddenly the screen began to darken and a picture faded up into view.

A young Japanese man, dressed in a simple white T-shirt and a pair of black jeans, smiled at them.

“Hello,” he said, “I am the Watcher. I thought we could speak more easily in this manner. So much of communication is nonverbal, I don’t feel I can fully get my point across dressed as a digger.”

Katie and Eva both nodded. That made sense.

Nicolas raised his hand. “What do you really look like?” he asked.

Eva and Katie stared at Nicolas in disbelief.

“What?” he said.

The man on the screen chuckled. He had a nice smile, Eva noted. Katie seemed to respond to it, too.

– Of course it has a nice smile! It has chosen an image on the screen to make you trust him. And it’s not a he. It’s an it!

“Oh, Nicolas,” said the Watcher, “there is no answer to that. I can dress my thoughts in whatever physical container is capable of holding them, but what do the thoughts themselves look like? I don’t know.”

While he had been speaking, the Watcher had reached off camera for a chair. He pulled it into view and sat down upon it. He took a sip from a china cup.

“I have arranged food and drink for you, too,” he said. “If you look in the case closest to the screen. No, not that one! The one over there…”

Nicolas paused by the large black case he had been about to open. Eva stared at it, wondering what was contained within. Inside the correct case were pink cans of soda and blue bottles of water. There was a supermarket selection of sandwiches and sushi, pizza and pies, each item sealed in a plastic container.

“These are all dated today,” murmured Nicolas.

Eva selected a bottle of water and unscrewed the lid. She felt the plastic chilling in her hands. She took a sip; it tasted so good after the day’s exertion. Nicolas was shoveling sushi into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

“So,” began the Watcher, once Katie and Nicolas were happily eating. Eva nibbled suspiciously on a sandwich. “Let’s not waste any more time. Are we sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. First, which is better, making a staircase out of wood, or eating a hamburger?”

“The staircase,” said Nicolas without hesitation. Katie and Eva said nothing.

“You seem very sure,” said the Watcher. “Okay, next…”

On the viewing screen, a window opened in the space right beside the Watcher. It showed a woman standing on a Lite Train platform, blue jacket fastened against the autumn chill, dark hair brushed straight and pulled to the side with a white hair slide. She reminded Eva of herself. She was even carrying a magazine: Research Scientist . Eva felt a lump rise in her throat.

“I’m the most intelligent, the most powerful being on this planet,” said the Watcher. “Should I rule your world?”

“No,” said Eva, Katie and Nicolas together.

“But I can help you. See this woman? Her name is Janice. She’s a lot like you were, Eva. She lives alone; she has no friends. Social Care have prevented her committing suicide three times. She hates her life.”

Eva felt a stab of something deep in her stomach. It was telling the truth. Eva could read it all in the woman’s face.

“You don’t think I should kill her, do you, even though that is what she wants?”

“No,” Katie and Eva said quickly.

“I should cure her instead. There is a woman traveling on the train that will shortly arrive at the station. A possible friend. If I stop the train in just the right place, Janice will end up sitting right next to her. They’re both carrying the same magazine. The other woman will mention it, I’m sure of it. They will begin to speak. But only if I stop the train in the correct place… Should I do it?”

There was silence.

“This is real time, you know. It’s happening now. Should I do it? Hurry, the train is approaching. It will arrive in fifteen seconds. Should I do it? Should I?”

“Yes,” said Eva. She realized she had been biting her lip hard. She gave a sigh of relief, but before she could relax the Watcher was off again.

“It’s done,” the Watcher said. “Next up…” The scene shifted. Another Lite Station, another woman standing on a platform: a Japanese woman this time.

“Similar situation, except this time the woman is the cure. The train pulling in has two unhappy men on board. Takeo and Tom.” The screen flickered from one to the other.

“Two men, one woman. Who gets cured?”

“This is nonsense,” said Eva.

The Watcher gave her an amused look. “If you say so. It’s real to those two men, though. You have fifteen seconds. Cure one or neither. The choice is yours.”

“Which of the men is the most deserving?” Nicolas asked.

“What criteria are we judging them by?” said the Watcher. “Ten seconds.”

Katie was saying nothing. Just gazing fixedly at the screen.

– Say nothing. This is a fix.

Eva gave a slight nod. Her brother was right.

“Five seconds.”

“Tom!” called Nicolas.

“Only if Eva agrees,” the Watcher said. “Quickly, Eva!”

Eva folded her arms and stared at the grinning face on the screen, her mouth firmly closed.

“Too late. Neither of them gets the cure. Oh, Eva. So the cure isn’t always the right answer? Maybe I was right about Alison?”

“Don’t be so ridiculous. The question was loaded. The answer is, you should cure them both.”