John Wright - The Golden Age

"Is that wrong? If a strange woman looked like my wife and thought she was my wife, she would still deserve no love from me. Do you think I married my wife for her looks? Do you think I married her for the kind of surface qualities which can be copied into a doll? Just how shallow do you all think I am?"

A hard, harsh look came onto Phaethon's face then. He spoke again in a quiet, grim, and deadly voice: "Just how easy to stop do you think I am?"

The Chimera said: "If you and Helion and Daphne's relic were willing to enter into Composition with all of us, your fears would be soothed, your desires satisfied. Compromise and renunciation would satisfy your wishes, and hers, and his, and there would be no more conflict. Every defect and darkness in your soul would be supplied and enlightened by the thought of another in our Composition; all our thoughts and minds would mingle together in one whole symphony of harmonious love and peace and joy. You would be one with a thousand loved ones, closer than friends or fathers or wives, and all your self-centered pain would be sponged away.

"Find compromise," the Chimera concluded. "Submit your selfishness to the general good; renounce yourself. Do this, and you will find comfort and peace beyond measure."

"Indeed, sir? And what if I want something better than comfort, rest, renunciation, and peace?"

"But what else can there be to want?" The Chimera spread its hands, a mild smile showing puzzlement.

Phaethon stood tall, and said softly: "Deeds of renown without peer."

Phaethon knew what the Eleemosynary Chimera would say next: that the desire for a life of glory was nothing more than selfishness and self-aggrandizement; that all human accomplishment was the outcome of a collective effort.

Compositions generally talked all the same way. Mass-minds were the last refuge, in modern times, of that type of person who would have, in earlier eras, turned to collectivist political or religious movements, and drowned their individuality in mobs, in mindless conformity, in pious fads and pious frauds. Just the thought of it made Phaethon weary with disgust.

But the Chimera surprised him: "For what price will you forswear your present attempts to rediscover the contents of your hidden memories? For what price will you abandon, now and forever, that project which your earlier self agreed, at Lakshmi, to abandon?"

Phaethon realized that the Eleemosynary was not just any mass-mind but a Peer and a politician. A version of this same Composition once, long ago, had ruled all Asia. Perhaps it was not going to talk in that same pious way in which all other Compositions spoke. It was willing to make a deal.

The Chimera's snake head spoke: "We offer you Helion's place at our table. Join with us as a Peer, one of the seven paramounts of the Golden Oecumene. Helion may soon be declared legally dead: you are much like him, and would make a fit replacement. Wealth, honor, and respect will flow to you. The Solar Array may be yours. A central place in the coming Transcendence in December may be yours."

The Chimera swelled slightly in size, growing six inches taller. In Eleemosynary iconography, icons grew larger as more and more members of the mass-mind turned their atten- tion to the scene.

The eagle head spoke next: "You will have richness and prestige more splendid than any captain of industry history remembers, more than any mass-minds' multinational wealth, more than conquerors of empires in ancient times enjoyed.

The Eleemosynary Composition makes a preliminary offer of twelve billion kiloseconds of time currency, or its equivalent value in energy, antimatter, or gold."

It was an enormous fortune. With his connections to Rhad-amanthus shut, Phaefhon could not instantly calculate the energy value he was being offered with any precision; but, roughly converted to foot-pounds, it would have been enough to accelerate a large-sized space colony to one or two gravities for two hundred hours.

Phaethon spoke in a skeptical tone: "This is staggering largesse, even by Eleemosynary standards."

"Let us rejoice in sacrifices, howsoever great, provided they serve the good of all."

Phaethon's eyes narrowed. "Your motive is unclear."

"The inner thoughts of the Eleemosynary Ethics Oversight Unit are posted on public channels for all to see. Only individual minds, cut off and alone, can pursue secret plans or schemes based on dishonesty. We are not an individual; we can seek the good of the whole, even a good that includes your own."

"What of Helion's good? You talk with easy air about betraying him."

"The danger you pose is greater than the benefits he promises. He should be happy to be sacrificed for the common good. Besides, if Helion is truly dead, you come into possession of his copyright holdings, including his intellectual property. This includes his memory archives and personality templates; so armed, you can easily create a son, modified to be loyal to you, equipped with the skills and knowledge and persona of Helion, ready and able to run the Solar Engineering Effort."

Phaethon recoiled in disgust. Silver-Gray protocols forbade the duplication and editing of other people's personalities, whether their copyrights were lapsed or not. Obviously the constituent members of a mass-mind would have less than perfect respect for the mental integrity of individuals.

"I think we have nothing to say to each other, sir," said Phaeton coldly.

"You reject our offer to negotiate?"

"My soul is not for sale, thank you."

The Chimera stepped backward, its three heads glancing at each other in puzzled surprise. "Your every word displays you as a self-centered man; yet now, when you are penniless, you reject unimaginable fortune! Surely you do not pretend you serve some higher cause or fine ideal, not when all of society, all civilization, opposes you? How can you be so certain?"

Phaethon smiled in contempt and shook his head. "You should ask rather, what cause have I for doubt? For every question I ask, I am answered with lies, illusions, and amnesia. These are not weapons honest men are wont to use; you use them; the logical implication from this is hardly that I am the one who is in the wrong, is it?"

"You will not give us the benefit of the doubt?"

"Certainly. By straining the generosity of my imagination, I am willing to entertain the possibility that you all are merely cowards rather than scoundrels."

"Yet you consented to the Lakshmi Agreement. You now seek to circumvent it. Is this honest?"

"I have not seen this alleged agreement, do not remember it, and do not know its terms. The version of me who agreed is the version you and yours wanted erased! If I have broken it, feel free to attempt to take me to court. If not, then kindly mind your own affairs."

"No one says the Agreement has been broken, merely circumvented." The Chimera made a delicate gesture with one hand. "You seek to defeat the intent of the Agreement, even if you live up to its terms."

"Your point being?"

"Acts can be dishonorable and still be legal."

"That is true, but I am surprised you have the gall to say that to my face."

Two heads blinked in confusion. The snake stuck out its tongue. "Gall?"

Phaethon said, "Hypocrisy might be a better word. Or impertinence. You dare to stand there and tell me it is dishon-

orable for me to circumvent an agreement which you have not just circumvented but broken and ignored!"

"We have broken no law."

"Hah! The Agreement was that everyone would forget whatever it was that I had done. But so far I have not met a single person who does not remember! Are all the Peers above the law, or is it only Helion, Gannis, and you? No, excuse me, Wheel-of-Life also is ignoring the Agreement; it was she who detected my presence at Destiny Lake and informed Helion."