David Marusek: Mind Over Ship

“Well,” Meewee said, “I suppose it’s time to go. I promised Lyra I’d have you in Chicago by now.”

ARROW HAD CONFIRMED that it indeed still held the kill codes for all Starke insiders, including Eleanor and Cabinet, and even including himself. On his way from Chicago to the Mem Lab, Meewee wondered idly how such a code would work in a biological body. Was it similar to the searing that the HomCom had once used to lock the cells of people exposed to NASTIEs? Or maybe there was a reservoir of poison hidden somewhere inside his body? He didn’t pursue this matter and took the mentar’s word at face value.

The real question, the one Meewee couldn’t get out of his mind, was how Eleanor could place so much trust in that odd mentar and, by extension, in himself. Did she feel that she knew him so well that she was willing to put the fate of her whole universe into his hands? Or was she subtly manipulating him to always do her bidding? Whatever the case, it had worked in her favor thus far.

Whether or not helping her was a good thing was another matter altogether. Would he go down in history as humanity’s traitor? As the man who ended history? Or as humanity’s savior? Eleanor trusted his judgment over her own, apparently, and had put the final veto power into his hands. And yet, even as his car arrived at the Mem Lab, he didn’t know who was right. Were brainfish really any better than Andrea? Why couldn’t there be just people?

A CELEBRATION WAS in progress in the pond room. Momoko was there, and he went straight to her and took her in his arms and gave her a big greedy kiss. His own sense of entitlement startled him, he who had never had much interest in romantic love. But she kissed him with equal passion, and this startled him even more. Is this how you manipulate us, Eleanor? Or am I suddenly a romantic?

The room was roaring with laughter and music. Staff members from all the satellite mods were there in realbody or vurt, including russ guards and the two Els, who were a little bit drunk on champagne. Missing, Meewee noticed, was Captain Benson, the russ commander of the garrison. Was he already on board the Hybris in a cryocapsule?

“Bishop Meewee!” squealed an El; he couldn’t tell if it was Elaine or Liz. Momoko put a champagne flute into his hand.

“What’s this all about?” he said. “A going-away party?”

“Yes,” Momoko said.

“And a victory celebration,” said the other El who joined them. The Els were dressed in plain jumpsuits, one red and the other blue.

“What victory?”

“Haven’t you heard? Where have you been?”

“Locked up in that autoclave you call a tube car.”

The El in blue said, “An hour ago, E-Pluribus suspended all operations.”

“At all their locations around the world,” added her sister.

“And E-P has vanished from mentarspace!”

“And Andrea is in a private clinic.”

The two young women clinked their glasses and chorused, “Ad astra!”

Eleanor’s sim joined the group. She seemed happy but not so giddy as her younger sisters. “Oh, don’t look so surprised, Merrill,” she said. “I told you it would have to be done before the launch.”

“Yes,” he said, “but —”

“Don’t worry about the ships,” said the El in red. She cupped her ear with her hand and said, “Cur-chunk! Cur-chunk! What’s that sound I hear?”

Her sister replied, “That’s the sound of mentars rapturing.”

The Els howled with laughter. Eleanor rolled her eyes and led Meewee by the sleeve to the side of the pool. The brainfish lined up for a pat on the head. “Dr. Strohmeyer tells me that your engram recordings of the evangelines are good,” Eleanor said. “Their brainfish will be imprinted in a few days. Of course, they’ll be kept in a separate facility.”

“Good. Good,” Meewee said absently.

“Did you tell them what it was for?”

“What? The evangelines? No. I thought it best that you do that.”

She watched him for a little while and said, “So, have you made up your mind?”

“About what?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Merrill. I know that you know what’s at stake here.” She gestured toward the Els across the room. “We know what we are.” At that moment, both Els turned to look at him. All three nodes of the posthuman woman, and all their fishy cohorts, were looking at him with intense interest.

“No,” he admitted, “I have not. And I don’t understand why you’ve put it on me to decide what you do.”

“Then permit me to try to explain. Under the best of circumstances, a colony ship on a millennial voyage will be lucky to survive. If space doesn’t kill it, its bickering human cargo will. Things will only get worse when they arrive and start colonizing their new home. They’ll have a much better chance for survival with someone like me coming along, don’t you agree?”

He nodded noncommittally.

“But what every human colony needs as much or more than someone like me must be someone like you .”

“I don’t follow.”

“Look at it this way,” she went on. “I’ve often thought of you as a modern-day Moses in the desert. Don’t laugh, I’m serious. Moses brought his people to the gates of the Promised Land, but he was barred from entering it himself. It’s the human condition, as I see it, the old belong to the old and may not cross over to the new. But we’re not entirely human anymore, Merrill, and the old laws don’t apply. Our new reality needs you. Come with us to our thousand new worlds and help us write our new commandments and put order to our new societies. We need your wisdom and judgment. Not to mention your humanity . Come with us, Merrill.”

Moses? First he was a wild card, and now he was a mythological figure from the Christian Bible wandering in the desert? Meewee decided to test his powers. < Arrow > he said < if I ordered you to kill all of the Eleanors and her brainfish and her Cabinet, could you do it? >

< Would you do it? >

Eleanor made no comment, though she must have heard and understood. She merely gazed at him and nodded her head.

The Els came over and one of them said to him, “It’s time to choose which one of us is going. Will you help?”

The hidden meaning of the request was not lost on him. They were forcing the issue, forcing him to decide. It was now or never, all or nothing, the status quo or the Promised Land. Momoko came to stand by his side and entwined her arm in his. She was trembling. The room grew still as others began to watch their little group. In the end, he knew there was no choice because there could never be a status quo; it didn’t take the wisdom of Moses to see that. E-P and Andrea may be down for the count, but they or some other machine would try again and again until they succeeded.

“How can I help you choose?” he said.

“We want you to flip a coin.”

Meewee said, “But I don’t own a coin.”

“My sister has one,” said the El in blue.

“No, I don’t,” said the other. “I gave it to you.”

“I distinctly remember giving it to you.”

Eleanor quipped, “Well, so much for a shared mind.”

The girls checked their pockets and the one in blue found the coin. She held it out to Meewee. “Will you?” It was a small copper-zinc disk that, even in its heyday, was the least valuable coin of the realm. Meewee accepted it from her. How fitting to decide the fate of a species with a penny.