John Wright - The Golden Age

"The Agreement provisions allowed to the Peers an exception. The redacted memories are permitted to us when they are directly pertinent to the conduct of our interest and efforts, or for other reasons of public need."

"But not to me, not even when I need those memories to defend my interests in a lawsuit?"

"The exception provision does not extend to you. That was not a point for which you negotiated."

Phaethon thought this might be another clue as to what his original self had intended.

But he said: "I am more confused than ever about this alleged Agreement. It seems, at best, poorly put together. If you did not want me to even investigate my loss of memory, once I had discovered my memory was gone, why didn't you make that one of the provisions in the Agreement?"

"Frankly, that idea that you would become curious about your missing memory was never seriously discussed. The Agreement provisions were put together rather hastily."

"But surely the Sophotech lawyers drafting the Agreement ran predictive scenarios of every possible outcome, didn't they? They must have foreseen possible problems. That's what Sophotechs are for."

"No Sophotech was involved."

"What? What do you mean? I thought Nebuchednezzar Sophotech advised the Hortators."

"Nebuchednezzar had an extension present on Venus, but refused to aid the Hortators in this case. The College of Hor-

tators proceeded without Sophotech help, and drafted the Agreement themselves."

Phaethon fell silent a moment. He was not certain how to take this. The famous Nebuchednezzar Sophotech refused to advise the Hortators? Refused?

According to the diary memory files Daphne had shown him, Daphne had spoken with Helion in a sane period between his eternally repeated self-immolation. During that conversation, Helion had expressed frustration that Aurelian was not cooperating with the Lakshmi Agreement.

The same diary file had also shown him her memory (when she had been leaving the dream-weaving competition) of the Aurelian Sophotech criticizing the Hortators. Aurelian had spoken of the attempted mass amnesia with jocular contempt.

And the Earthmind, whose time was so precious that She hardly ever paused to speak to anyone, had paused to speak to him, asking him to stay true to himself. Not what one would say to someone to make them content with false memories.

And ... and what had he—the forgotten version of him— what had he been relying on when he made the Lakshmi Agreement in the first place? What had made him so certain?

Then, a feeling like a light began to rise up in him. He could not help but smile. "Tell me, my dear Composition, your very structure makes it impossible for you to hide thoughts in one part of yourself from other parts, isn't that true?"

"There are forms of mental hierarchies which control internal information flow; but Compositions are democratic and isonomial."

"The Transcendence in December, when all available human minds will gather to decide what must be decided about the coming millennium... it is just another form of Composition, isn't it? A temporary one ... ?"

"If you are thinking of using the Transcendence as a podium from which to denounce the Peerage to the rest of mankind, you will be disappointed, I fear. While there are no official controls on information flows, there are informal con-

trols, social controls. Few people heed the ravings of an outcast; everyone's attention will be focused on those people who are central to public attention ..."

"In other words, the Peers. Just now you offered me a central place in the Transcendence. Helion's place, I assume. So, if I refuse, he will be honored by having crowds of visitors flood through his brain."

"You express it crudely. His thoughts, dreams, and visions will swell to encompass wide audiences ..."

"And in his thoughts are the knowledge of what I did. So if I'm in the audience .. ." His smile grew broader.

The Chimera stood stock-still, as if stunned. Then it began to shrink. Evidently the icon was no longer the center of the mass-mind's attention. The Eleemosynary Composition was consumed with higher-priority thought.

Phaethon was wreathed in smiles. He said, "Maybe Nebuchednezzar refused to advise the Hortators because what they planned was so stupid. So self-defeating. The Peers could not resist the temptation to open their forbidden memories. After all, you had to know what it was that I had done in order to defend against it, didn't you? In order to prevent me from stumbling across it again, didn't you?

"If all of you redact your memories again, in time to hide all your thoughts before December, then I'll have a free hand, unobserved, unopposed, to continue to investigate my past. There's plenty of evidence floating around, including records which cannot legally be edited or altered, such as finance records or property contracts. If I spent my fortune, there must be a record about what I spent it to buy.

"You can make me forget what I did. But you cannot make it so that it never had happened. That's the whole paradox of lies, isn't it? The problem is that, ultimately, every part of reality is logically connected to every other part. As long as I do not cooperate in my own self-deception, then you cannot lie to me, and reject one part of reality, without trying to reject all of reality."

Phaethon, seeing the perplexity of the Chimera, had to laugh aloud. "No wonder my past version had not been fright-

ened by this horrible amnesia Agreement! Its downfall is inevitable, like the downfall of every system not based on reality. My victory is and has always been assured. All I have to do is wait until December, and not open the box."

The Chimera said, "Your plan sounds logical."

"Thank you."

"But logic is not paramount in human affairs."

Phaethon uttered a noise, half snort, half laugh. "It is from hearing comments like that one, sir, that I derive that certainty of mine which was puzzling you earlier. Logic is paramount in all things."

"Then why did your earlier self consent to the Lakshmi Agreement? If the dangerous project which so obsessed you had actually been your highest concern, you would not have agreed. You speculate that your earlier self had been relying on the December Transcendence to return the lost memories. Your memories are gone for eighteen or nineteen months. But why?"

Phaethon frowned, displeased. "Perhaps I merely needed a vacation, or—"

"You were hoping to avoid the penalties imposed by the Hortators for your negligent behavior. You thought you could deceive them into forgetting your offenses for a time. Isn't this the same type of deception you have just condemned as illogical?"

"Well, I..." (What had his earlier self been intending, anyway?)

"Does anything prevent the College of Hortators, once they recall your negligence, from publicly condemning the same project they condemned before, and for the same reasons? No, Phaethon, you pretend you are an isolated individual, separate from the world, from society, and able to defy them. But when that separation became a reality, it was you, you Phaethon, who could not accept what that reality was."

"What do you mean?!"

"It was you who drove your wife to enter a permanent delirium tantamount to suicide."

"No! I cannot accept that!"

"An odd comment! It must be assumed you do not mean to reject reality, since you have criticized those who do so heavily." There was a gentle irony to the human head's tone. The eagle head spoke loudly: "Does this mean there is a plan for recovering your wife?!" The cobra head was quiet: "The Eleemosynary Composition is not without sympathy. We are also not without resources."

Phaethon grew very still. He spoke in soft, leaden tones: "What are you implying ... ?"

"This is a cruel and callous society in which we live. Those who cannot pay their housing bills are thrown into the streets. Recorded minds of any type who cannot pay the rentals on their computer brain space are deleted. Those who are trapped permanently in the dreamscapes, who cannot pay the fees that service requires, are cut off, and ejected into reality.