Текст книги "Cyteen "
Автор книги: C. J. Cherryh
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Текущая страница: 37 (всего у книги 61 страниц)
"Sera?" Catlin said, and got up by her, just straightened up, solid muscle, and flowed onto the bed and touched her shoulder. "Sera, is there an Enemy?"
She could have taken Catlin with her elbow. She thought about it. She knew Catlin did. Florian put his hand on hers, on the edge of the bed. "Sera, are you hurt? Has something happened?"
She reached up with her other hand and touched Catlin's, on her shoulder. Florian edged up onto the bed on her other side, and she got her breath and got her arm behind Catlin and her hand locked onto Florian's and just sat there a moment. Poo-thing fell. She let him.
"They sent maman away," she said, "because Ari's mother died."
"What, sera?" Florian asked. "What do you mean? When did she die?"
"The same day. When Ari was the same age. Her uncle came to get her. Just like uncle Denys came for me." Tears ran out of her eyes and splashed onto her lap, but she wasn't crying, not feeling it, anyway; the tears just fell. "I'm a replicate. Not just genetic. I'm like you. I'm exact."
"That's not so bad," Catlin said.
"They sent my maman away, they sent her on a long trip through jump, it made her sick and she died,Catlin, she died,because they wanted her to!"
Catlin tapped her shoulder, hard, leaned up to her ear and whispered: "Monitors."
She felt the shock of that reminder in her bones and caught her breath, trying to think.
The scrolling stopped on the screen in front of them.
"Ari, check Base One,"the Minder said.
She made a second gasp after air. Like she was drowning. She held onto Florian and Catlin.
"Ari, check Base One."
Uncle Denys had known what would come up.
Uncle Denys hadn't wanted her to go on-line tonight. Go to Amy's, he had said.
Then toldher to check the computer.
"Ari, check Base One."
"Base One, dammit!" She disentangled herself from Florian and Catlin and thought it was Unusual that uncle Denys and Seely hadn't tried to get in to see about her when the mirror broke. And then she thought that it wasn't Unusual at all.
Not with the room monitored.
She sat down at the terminal, in front of the monitor.
Ari,it said. This is Ari senior. By now you've gotten the update. By now you know some things you may not have figured out before. Are you upset?
"Of course not." She felt Florian beside her. She grabbed his arm and held it, hard. "Go on, Ari."
Your access is upgraded. You are no longer on time-lag. Data is available through April 13, 2295.
She grabbed Catlin's shoulder, on the other side of her.
"Go on, Ari."
That's when I was 12. Updates will still be weekly.
Good night, Ari.
She clenched down until her fingers hurt; and then she realized what she was doing and let up. "Log-off," she said. And sat there shaking.
Catlin patted her shoulder and gave her the handsigns they had made up for Tomorrow, Outside.
Florian signed: Tonight. Take-out Monitor.
She shook her head, and signed: Stay.
And took them each by a hand.
Knowing that five more years of data were in the files. But she had an idea what was in it.
Exactly what was in it.
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.
Security was still taping. "Florian," she said, "Catlin, we aregoing to Security. Right now."
Catlin made the sign for Seely.
"They won't stop us. Get your stuff. Come on. We're going to go kill that thing. Hear that, uncle Denys?"
He didn't answer. Of course not.
She went and washed her face while Florian was getting his small tool kit. While Catlin was getting whatever she thought she might need. Which probably included a length of fine wire.
They walked out into the living room. Uncle Denys was reading at the dining table beyond the arch. Like most evenings. He looked at her.
She said: "We're going down to Security, in case you missed it."
"I'll advise them," uncle Denys said. "Don'tbreak anything, Florian." Seely was not in the room. Seely should have been. Maybe Seely was monitoring from the office.
She stood there and stared at uncle Denys a long, long while. "Like your maman," uncle Denys said, "I've tried to help you."
"They could kill you."
"Yes. I know that. You know that. You could do that anytime, if you put your mind to it. We have to take chances like that. Because I'm your friend. Not your uncle. Not really. I've been your friend for as long as you've lived."
"Whichhow long?"
"As long as you've lived. You're Ari. One isthe other. That's what this is about. Neither one of you betrayed the other one. You arethe one who did all these things—in a very direct sense. Think about it."
"You're crazy! Everybody in this House is crazy!"
"No. Go see about Security. I'll tell them. Your accesses have upgraded considerably tonight. You havereal authority in some things. You don't have to live here. You can take your apartment, if you want to. It'll be very large, for a young girl and two azi. But you have the key. If you want to go there, you can. Florian can access the Security system there, and vet it for you. Or you can come back here when you're through. Or you can go over to Amy's. Her mother won't ask any questions."
"Does everybody in Reseune know what I am?"
"Of course. Everybody knew the first Ari. And you began, at least on paper, the day after she died."
"Damn you."
"Same temper, too. But she learned to control it. Learned to useit, not let it use her. There's a lot of Cyteen history in those data files, too. A lot of Reseune history. A lot of things your education has just—avoided, until now. Once upon a time there was a man who could see the future. He began trying to change his life. But that washis future. Someday you'll access yours—as far as you want to. Think about it."
"I'm not doing anything you tell me from now on."
"Ask yourself why five years. Why not six? Why not four? Ask the computer what happened April 13, 2295."
"Youtell me."
"You can look it up. You have the access."
"I want all my stuff up at my apartment."
"That's fine. Tell Housekeeping. They can do that first thing in the morning. You'd better pack at least the basics—for the apartment where you're going. Or buy it. Necessariesis open round the clock. If you need anything—like advice on how to fill out the paperwork, whatever, —call me. I certainly don't mind helping you."
Trust Denys to get to the mundane, the depressing workaday details of anything.
"I'll manage."
"I know you will, dear. I'm still here. If I can help you I want to. Florian, Catlin, don't let her hurt herself. Please. And take some pajamas."
"Dammit, uncle Denys, —"
"Dear, somebodyhas to take care of things. It's usually me. Do you want to go to your apartment, —or do you want to come back and live here for a little while, till you've figured out what it takes to runan apartment on your own?"
"No. No, I don't. I'll manage."
"I'll send Housekeeping foryou. They can't go in up there. But I'll have a package waiting at your door, and send your things on tomorrow. Practical things, Ari. I'll fill out your supply forms for you, and your budget report, you have to have that, or you foul up accounting. I'll give you copies so you know how to set it up in your Base."
"Thank you."
"Thank you, Ari. Thank you for being reasonable about this. This is different from Ari senior, understand. She was fourteen when she moved out of this apartment. But you're overrunning your course too, by a little. Please. Take care of yourself. Can you give me a kiss?"
She stood there, frozen. Out of this apartment.She swallowed a lump of nausea. And shook her head. "Not right now. Not right now, uncle Denys."
He nodded. "Sometime, then."
She clenched her jaw and motioned to Florian and Catlin that they were leaving.
ARCHIVES: RUBIN PROJECT: CLASSIFIED CLASS AA
DO NOT COPY WITHOUT COMMITTEE FORM 768
CONTENT: Computer Transcript File #5998 Seq. #1
Denys Nye/Catlin II
Emory I/Emory II/Florian II
2418: 4/14: 0048
AE2: Minder, this is Ari Emory. Florian and Catlin are with me. Print out all entries since I was here last.
Ell: There are two messages.
Welcome to your own home. If you get scared and you want to call me or Security, please don't hesitate. But you're as safe there as here. Trust Florian and Catlin. Take their advice when it comes to your safety.
Drop by the office tomorrow if you feel like it. There's so much you need to know. I let you go because you're not a child, and I wouldn't bring your Security and mine into conflict: my bet would still be on Seely, but I truly don't want to put that to the test.
Attached to your Housekeeping list will be Security's standard recommendations and Seely's for basic Security set-up. Give it to Catlin and Florian. They'll understand. They probably don't need it, but a checklist never hurts even with experienced personnel.
Don't let Housekeeping in unless Florian or Catlin is watching, Seely always did that for us, in case you never noticed.
Refrigerate the eggs and use the ham immediately: it'll have thawed. I wasn't going to send perishables, but you haven't got any breakfast otherwise. I put in a box of cocoa.
You're responsible for everything now. But if it gets too much for you, please, call or come by the office.
You'll have to have an office now, in Wing One. You won't need it, but now that this apartment is active, you'll use at least one secretary and one clerk, which you can request from the Wing One administrator, Yanni Schwartz. Do that, or you'll be diverting valuable time from your studies filling out silly forms, which, I'm sorry, are necessary. I've assigned you an office in 1-244, and you'll need to set that up with Wing One Security. Again, let Florian read Security's recommendations on that.
I'm upping your personal allowance to 10,000 cr. per month. That may sound like a fortune, but you have to pay 1200 per month for the office and 5000 for the clerk and secretary. The rest will go fast, believe me, so you're going to have to keep track of that. Of course I'll help you if you need something special: but you should learn good habits.
Your secretary can manage the credit account, but should not have certain accesses. Again, let Florian and Catlin talk to Seely.
The first Ari's system of protections is still in Base One: for God's sake don't dismantle it until you've devised a better one. Florian will advise you there is a security problem with that: it's been in place when other people, mainly myself, could access some of the keyword functions from the top. But it's better than nothing at the bottom, where your secretaries will work.
Read the building safety recommendations relative to fire exits and storm drill. Your area has special protections, but there are special things to learn.
Never mind: just read everything I send you and pass it to Florian and Catlin if it involves security or safety of any kind.
I still love you. It's much more complicated than that, but I am glad you were here and would be more than glad to have you back. There were a lot of times I came to odds with Ari senior. But we were friends. As I am and will always be yours.
Everything in the apartment is exactly the way your predecessor left it the day she died. You will want to dispose of a great deal of the clothing. Styles change. Pack what you don't want and notify Housekeeping to remove it.
Your key will also work at my apartment until you're fourteen. That's only two more years. It seems impossible.
Meanwhile be good. Please keep your doctor appointments: itis necessary for your health, and you'll recall your maman saw you kept them, so it's not just me. You still have obligations, as everyone does who lives in Reseune, and your independent status doesn't excuse you, it only adds more of them, including obeying adult rules; and if medical says a Supervisor comes in for a check, they come in or they can lose their license. I'll add the obligation to keep your school schedule. I've indicated to Base One that you are extremely mature and responsible. Please don't make me a liar.
So many people have loved you. Jane loved you most of all. She never wrote to you because she felt that was best for you—she knew there was a time she had to cut the cord and let you go, for your own sake. So do I know that. So I wish you well, out I will still, because you are only twelve and because that apartment is very large and Reseune is much larger, be extremely concerned that you are well and taking care of yourself adequately. I know that you are much older than your chronological age, and that you have Base One to draw on, which is no small thing; you have handled Housekeeping and lab requisitions and finance; you have dealt with reports and lab scheduling; you have lived with the security systems and the regulations of the House all your years; and you have two equally adept companions. I would trust the three of you to handle yourselves in a Security crisis; I am not, on the other hand, sure that you will not leave the oven on in the kitchen or have the watering system overflowing the garden. Ari, however much you disdain trivia and accuse me of obsession with it, I remind you again that clean laundry only happens when you remember to send it to Housekeeping.
If this were Novgorod I could never countenance this move; but Housekeeping, like Security, is capable of coping with crises: and I am sure your mistakes will reach my desk. Reseune itself is my House, and you have elected to move to another of its Rooms.
Let me explain something further to you. I have encouraged you to this departure: I did so when I brought you here and told you that this would be yours.
You and I know the limits of your frustration, but Florian and Catlin do not, and neither, for that matter, does Seely. I believe you are emotionally mature enough to understand that the threats to your safety are real, and that indeed you are capable of giving an order which your companions will obey, which they must, I stress, obey—and they will kill, at your order, whether or not that order comes from a mature judgment.
I showed you this apartment because I felt that one day you would need this place to go to, a safety valve in a situation increasingly volatile and unpredictable. You are operating with a world-knowledge and maturity greater than many functioning adults, within a system of surveillance, interventions and monitoring which would stress an azi, with the internal emotional experience and stability of a pubescent child. I feared the explosion that has happened. I was glad to see it turn the direction it did. It is not unprecedented. I set you up for it. As you will see.
In 2295, when the first Ari was your age, I wasn't born yet. Giraud was four. Neither of us remembers that year, but Giraud does recall, when he was five, that the first Ari and her guardian Geoffrey Carnath had a spectacularly public argument at a New Year's party. Giraud doesn't himself remember what was said; Jane Strassen said it regardedAri's showing up in makeup, but that was hardly an excuse for a screaming argument. Archives does say that Security had to mediate a severe problem between Ari and Geoffrey New Year's Day, when he ordered Florian and Catlin into detention for three days and Ari required unexplained medical treatment that may have included sedation.
There was, you will find, no taping on Geoffrey or the first Ari. We don't precisely know what happened. The public record of the problem involvedArt's demand to have a key to her own room. Years later, to me, she said Geoffrey had taken indecent liberties with Florian. Look that up, if you don't understand what I mean. Certainly Ari made certain things up. But while her early relationship with Geoffrey was friendly, it came to increasing stress and repeated altercations that finally resulted in a family council andAri's being granted her own residency, independent of her legal guardian.
It's come true, hasn't it? Certainly not because of any such thing between myself and your staff, but because you're growing and you need more room. Perhaps that's the way it ought to be. Like your maman, I've done what I knew to do, the best I knew. And that includes letting you go. We have offended against your dignity as far as you are justly willing to tolerate it; and hope that if Geoffrey could be forgiven, so can we, in time.
Ari, incidentally, moved to a much more modest apartment: the present splendor, like much of Reseune, was her own creation. But you don't inherit her beginnings. You inherit what she held at the height of her power and intellect. In all things. You will think about that statement later.
Be good. Be reasonable.
End message. Store to file or dump?
AE2: Store to file. Put that on the couch, Florian, is it clean?
F12: Yes, sera.
AE2: There's print coming you both need to read.
F12: Yes, sera. Are you upset, sera?
AE2: Nothing. Go on. Stop worrying about me. You've got work to do. Base One, continue.
B/1: Second message.
Ari, this is Ari senior.
Welcome.
You're 2 years early.
This program is adjusting itself.
There's a Householding tape in the cabinet in the den. You need that.
You are 12 years old. This program does not provide for that contingency. It will treat you as if you were 14.
A list of accesses and authorizations will print.
Recommended tapes will print.
Base One access has been removed from your guardian's apartment. Security monitoring has been redirected to Base One.
Lethal security measures have been disabled for your protection. When you are 16 you will have the option to reactivate them.
You may run a security check on any individual from Base One. Ask for Security 10. The activity will not leave a mark on any file of lower security clearance than your own.
I hope you are happy here. Your taste and mine may not coincide, but most everything in this apartment is both real and handmade, from the tables to the vases to the paintings on the walls. The paintings in particular are originals and they don't truly belong to me or to you. They belong to the people of Union, someday, when there are museums where they can be protected: they come from Earth, and from the first starships, and from the beginnings of Cyteen as a human world. Guard them in particular, whatever you feel or whatever you understand about me right now: if you would harm any of these things you are a barbarian, and my geneset has gone wrong in you; there are conditions of responsibility involved with your permissions and accesses, and they will either expand or terminate. This program can protect Reseune and itself against misuse.
You don't know me yet, as you don't know yet the good and the bad that you are capable of reaching.
I came to live on my own to escape an intolerable situation with my guardian, and because I was at that time a Special, I was given certain rights of majority. I maintained a speaking relationship with my guardian. We were never close, but once the situation was relieved, I saw that he was only a man, with human faults, some of which were considerable, and some virtues, once I was not living within his reach. The faults did not manifest until late. They were sexual in nature, and I need not go into them: your database now reaches to the year 2297. That will tell you as much as you need to know, perhaps more than you want to know, and I certainly hope your own experiences have been happier.
Whatever has happened, whether your parting from your guardian was amicable or otherwise, you are still a minor even at 14, and it would be foolish of you to do other than cooperate with Administration until you have the experience to outmaneuver it. I could not win against my situation except by protesting to Security and establishing an independent residency. If House Security has become corrupt you have a serious problem. Do you feel this is the case?
AE2: I don't know.
B/1: A list of precautions will print. This program will search all House activity and advise you of any actions which may involve yourself or your rights. The list will print. This option is also available under Security 10, which can read into House Security but which cannot be read by them.
Remember that a negative or a positive result in any single question itself means nothing. You have to interpret your own situation. Remember a person with a higher security clearance than yours can install false information in the House system.
Florian and Catlin have survived to be here with you. Good. Are they physically and mentally well?
AE2: Yes.
B/1: Do you believe their loyalty to you is absolute and without exception?
AE2: Yes.
B/1: Is there any condition under which they would disobey you?
AE2: No.
B/1: Beware of absolute answers. Would you like to reconsider?
AE2: No.
B/1: This program accepts them. Security 10 can revise any estimation. Do not permit Florian or Catlin to take tape outside your personal supervision, not for two seconds, outside your direct observation. You can obtain their drugs with your supervisor's clearance. Advise them of this. Under no circumstances must they take any drug you do not provide or permit any intervention without your presence. You must run an intervention to do this. You are not yet qualified in this procedure. A routine will print. Follow instructions meticulously. Read the cautions and observe them. So much as a chance sound could do them great harm.
Their instruction is the most necessary security measure you will take.
Now name the individuals at Reseune or elsewhere you would like investigated by the Security accesses of this program. I urge you begin with your closest friends and your known enemies, and add anyone else whose behavior is not ordinary. You may amend this list by Security 10. The program will provide you the security status of these individuals.
Name as many as you wish.
AE2: Florian and Catlin. Amy Carnath. Sam Whitely. Dr. John Edwards. Denys Nye. Giraud Nye. Madelaine Strassen. Tommy Carnath-Nye. Julia Strassen. Dr. Petros Ivanov. Dr. Irina Wojkowski. Instructor Kyle GK. AG techAndy GA. Mikhail Corain.
Dr. Wendell Peterson. Victoria Strassen.
Justin Warrick. Grant, Justin Warrick's Companion. I don't know his prefix.
B/1: Immediate security flag on Justin Warrick, Grant ALX, Julia Strassen. Your clearance is not adequate to access those records.
AE2: Ari, wait. Define: security flag.
B/1: Security flag indicates person with limited accesses in area queried.
AE2: Ari, go on.
B/1: Persons with security clearance exceeding yours: Denys Nye; Giraud Nye; Dr. John Edwards; Dr. Petros Ivanov; Dr. Wendell Peterson; Dr. Irina Wojkowski; Mikhail Corain.
You will be messaged at any change in relative clearances.
Now before I finish I will tell you one other thing I did not then understand. My guardian Geoffrey Carnath behaved badly, but he did not intend me personal harm. He knew my value. Whoever has caused your birth surely must know yours. Geoffrey and I were cold but cordial and did not publicize our differences even within the House, certainly not outside, because it could harm Reseune.
Base One can now contact one point outside Reseune: are you now in any danger you yourself cannot handle?
AE2: No. I don't think so.
B/1: Base One can call House Security or the Science Bureau Enforcement Division through Security 10. It will call both if it detects your voice raised in alarm on the keyword Mayday. The consequences of a false alert could be considerable, including political ones endangering your life or status. Never pronounce that word unless you mean it. You may set various emergency responses through the Security 10 keyword function.
If absolutely no other means is available to you to reach the Science Bureau to apply for legal majority, use the Mayday function. Under ordinary circumstances a quiet note to Security or a phone call should be adequate and Reseune should assist you. I reached my legal majority at 16, by a tolerably routine application to the Science Bureau. You may apply at any time you think this has become advisable. I do not advise doing this before 16, except if your life or sanity is threatened. The ordinary age of majority is, as you should know by now, 18.
Cast off all emotional ties to Denys Nye.
Protect Reseune: someday it will be in your hands, and it will give you the power to protect everything else.
You are 14 years old. Time itself will bury any enemy you do not yourself make—as long as you don't make a mistake that lets them bury you.
I am your safest adviser. You are the successor I choose; I aim for your mental and physical safety from interests that may have gained power since my death, or who might want to profit from your abilities. You would not be wise to believe that of everyone in Reseune.
CHAPTER 10
i
Uncle Denys was right. It was a huge place. It was very quiet, and at the same time filled with strange noises—motors going on, expansion of metal in the ducts, or small sounds that might have been a step, or a breath, though the Minder would surely sound an alarm if there were a living presence.
If it had not been tampered with. If Base One itself was reliable.
Ari knew which bedroom had been the first Ari's. The closets were full of her clothes. The drawers had more clothes, sweaters, underwear, jewelry, real jewelry, she thought. And the smell of the drawers and the closet was the smell of home—the scent shewore. The same smell as permeated her closet at home—at uncle Denys' apartment.
There was a room which had belonged to the first Florian and another which had belonged to the first Catlin. There were uniforms in their closets which were a man's and a woman's. Which bore their numbers. And party clothes in satin and black gauze.
There were things in the bureau drawers—there were guns, and odd bits of electronics, and wire—as well as personal things.
"They were Older," Catlin said.
"Yes," Ari said, feeling a chill in her bones, "they were."
There were, constantly, the sounds, the small whisperings that the rooms made.
"Come on," she said, and brought them out of the first Catlin's room.
She kept telling herself the Minder would react to an intruder.
But what if one had already been there?
What if the Minder were in someone's control?
She took them back to Ari's bedroom, back at the far end of the house They brought the guns that they had found, even though Catlin said they ought not to rely on charges that old. They were better than nothing
Stay with me," Ari said to them, and sat down on the bed and patted the place beside her.
So they got beneath the covers in their clothes, because the night seemed cold, and she was in the middle of the huge bed, Ari's bed, and Florian and Catlin were on either side of her, tucked up against her for warmth, or to keep her warm.
She shivered, and Florian put his arm around her on the right side and Catlin edged closer on her left, until she was warm.
She could not tell them the things they needed to know, like who the Enemy was. She did not know any longer. It was ghosts she imagined. She had read the old books. She was afraid of things she reckoned Florian and Catlin did not even imagine, and they were foolish to name.
No one had slept in this bed, on these sheets, since the first Ari died. No one had used her things or turned back the covers.
The whole bedroom smelled of perfume and musty age.
She knew it was foolish to be afraid. She knew that the sounds probably had to do with heating and cooling of metal ducts and unfamiliar, wooden floors. And the countless systems this place had.
She had read Poe. And Jerome. And knew there was no ghost to haunt the place. Things like that belonged to old Earth, which believed the nights were full of spirits with unfinished business, anxious to lay hands on the living.
They had no place in so modern a place, so far from old Earth, which had had so manydead: Cyteen was new, and they were only stories and silliness.
Except in the dark around their lighted rooms, in the unexplained noises and the start and stop of things that were surely the Minder doing its business
She wanted to ask Florian and Catlin if they felt anything like that, in their azi way of looking at things: she wondered in one pan of her, cold curiosity, if CITs could feel ghosts because of something in CIT mindsets—shades of value, her psych instructor said. Flux-thinking.
Which Florian and Catlin could do, but it was something they were just now learning to do.
Which meant if she told them about ghosts they could get very disturbed: Catlin was so literal, Catlin believed what she said, and if she started talking about Ari being dead and still inthis place—
No. Not a good idea.
She tucked the sheets up around her chin and Florian and Catlin both tucked themselves up against her, warm and dependable and free of wild imagination, never mind the fact that Catlin also had a gun with her under the covers, which ought to make her more nervous than thumps in the night
The whole thing was unreal. Uncle Denys had called her bluff, that was what he had done, and hoped she wouldfoul up and come back.
No, Base One had altered itself. It kept saying she was fourteen. It complained she was low in her test scores. Dammit, she was twelve; twelve; twelve; she was not ready to grow up.
And here she was, in a mess because she did not know whether to believe Base One anymore; or where everybody was pushing her life.
By setting her free. It was crazy. They set her free; and she didn't have to listen to Base One, she could ignore it, she didn't have to read the data, she didn't have to know what happened to Ari senior between seven and fourteen, that was seven years,dammit, she was supposed to jump over.
She wanted to be a kid. She wanted to take care of the Filly and have her friends and have fun and be just Ari Emory, just nobody-Ari, not—somebody who was dead.
And they—the They who did things in Reseune, like uncle Denys and uncle Giraud and dead Ari—they shoved her into this huge, cold place and told her to live by herself with no maman and no uncle Denys and no Nelly or Seely, nobody to take care of anything if it went wrong.
It had started out feeling good, and then feeling like an adventure, and now, at 0300 and snuggled down in a strange, huge bed with two kid azi, it started feeling like a terrible mistake.
