Part 48 (1/2)

”What you said,” she answered, a faint smile on her lips now. ”What did you imagine, Kim? That we'd meet a giant spider and be whisked off into No-s.p.a.ce? Did you imagine that?”

”No, but...”

”Then hold fast, my love. The answer's close. Remember my vision. You'll get the answer. I promise you you will. And when you do ...”

Kim stared at her a moment, then shook his head. ”I'm not sure I believe that any more. Remember what Master Tuan said. From this point on nothing is certain, not even the visions. I mean, if it was to have come true, it would have by now, surely?”

Jelka made to answer but he spoke on.

”And then there's these latest notations. Try as I might, I can't get them to work. Ifs as if there are still pieces missing. But that can't be so.” ”You're sure of that?”

”No. To be frank, I'm not sure of anything any longer. The more I stare at it, the vaguer it seems to get. Ifs like ...” He raised a hand then let it fall, unable to complete the image.

”You need a rest, Kim. You're tired. Mentally tired.”

He laughed. ”Nonsense. When was I ever tired, mentally.” Jelka stared at him a while, then shook her head. ”You know, I've watched you these past few months and kept from commenting, but I can't keep silent any longer. You're ageing, Kim. Growing old before my eyes. Ifs like if s eating away at you from the inside. Those lines at your brow and about your eyes - were they there before?”

Almost comically, Kim put his fingers to his forehead, his eyes, tracing the deep furrows there, then frowned deeply. But it wasn't comic. Not for Jelka. Kim was destroying himself, day by day grinding himself against the rock of this No-s.p.a.ce problem, and day by day she had to watch him. ”Won't you take a break? Please, Kim?”

For a long long while he stared back at her, then with a shrug, he looked away.

”Okay,” he said. ”I will.”

Kim sat there a long time after Jelka had gone, then stood and, going through to the bedroom, quickly changed out of his formal clothes into the wine red one-piece he more normally wore.

Old Tuan, he thought I have to speak to Old Tuan. He left the house by the back door and, crossing the lawn, stepped out under the thick branches of the surrounding wood. There was a silence here, a darkness that one found nowhere else, that was profoundly different from the absolute nullity beyond the dome. It was a deep, primeval darkness, like a rich loam, from which, he knew, his own kind had come, a billion years before. And to which he would eventually return. Unless s.p.a.ce took him first.

”Tuan? ... Tuan Ti Fo?”

He stepped out into the clearing, remembering as he did all those other times he had stood here beneath the windswept branches, the moon s.h.i.+ning down like a polished mirror, the stars like the dust from a cut diamond, the waves breaking on the rocks below the tower ...

Kim s.h.i.+vered, feeling a sudden homesickness. A longing, so pure, so overwhelming that it sent a tingle through every nerve end. ”Was I wrong, Master Tuan? Was I wrong to come out here?”

Out into the pitiless dark.

He waited, calling now and then, but Old Tuan did not come. Sighing, Kim turned, meaning to leave the clearing and return to the house. Yet as he did, he saw, peripherally, a movement between the trees just to his right.

He whirled about ”Who's there? Who's ...?”

Kim caught his breath, astonished.

Kim? his mirror-self mouthed from where he stood, a shadow among shadows, on the far side of the clearing.

He took a step toward the form, but even as he did the other raised a hand, as if to warn him to come no closer. The air about him seemed not so much clear as translucent. It s.h.i.+mmered, as if an unseen fire were burning under it, heating the air and making it waver.

He found his voice. ”Kim?”

The other nodded, then made a gesture with his hand. Kim frowned and shrugged, and the other repeated the gesture, describing the shape he'd made with an exaggerated care.

This time Kim understood. It was one of the new notations he had come up with. Fascinated, he watched, as his other self described a dozen or more of the symbols in the air, writing each with a clarity that could not be mistaken. Kim laughed. ”Of course,” he breathed. ”Of courser Seeing that he understood, the other raised a hand in a gesture of parting. The air about him s.h.i.+mmered and grew solid once again.

He was gone.

Kim walked across, looking about him at the place where his other self had appeared. There was no sign, no mark of any presence having been here, and yet he knew that what he'd seen was more than just a vision. Yes, but was it real?

In answer, he saw the symbols once again, then formed them with his own hands.

The other had been like him, very like him, but not exactly him. Which meant... Kim laughed. This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Turning he ran towards the house, his bare feet making no sound, his eyes looking inward as his mind already began to fit the new pieces into the equation, seeing how the original equations were doubled - twinned with these new equations. Of course, he thought Of course!

”Kim? Kim, are you there?”

Jelka walked over to the bed and peered into the shadows. No. He wasn't there.

The bed was empty, the sheets untouched.

She turned, looking back at the doorway. He couldn't be... not after he'd promised her.

Angry now, she walked quickly through the ancient house until she came to the stair that led down into his workroom. The door was open, the light on the stairs was on.

She went down, slowing on the final few steps, realising that the big room beyond the doorway was in darkness. And in that darkness something shone with a ghostly presence.

Jelka stepped inside. Kim was standing with his back to her, operating the hologrammic viewer. Just in front of him and slightly to his left, was the source of the light, a large hovering sphere of silver light in which danced a whole series of golden symbols.

Even as she watched, Kim added element after element, each locking into its correct place, until the thing was finished, the structure of it a solid, complex shape of gold within the gleaming silver. Now that it was complete she could see the pattern of it. In its new twinned form it was aesthetically much more pleasing than before, but she knew it was more than that. In its new form, it had the sleek, functional look of a complex molecule. ”Thaf s it,” he said, sensing her there behind him. ”That1 s itT ”Yes, but how do you use it?”

Kim turned to face her, the moist surface of his eyes lit with the gold and silver light, his face more alive than she'd seen it in months.

”Call Sampsa,” he said. ”Tell him to come at once. Oh, and call Gregor, too.

Tell him to call off the dogs. And tell him I've something to show him.

Something to show everyone!”

Sampsa turned, then reached across in the darkness to cut the summons. Sitting up, he took a moment to come to, then, pulling up the sheet to cover Ai Lin, he spoke.

”Vision only.”

The screen at the far end of the bedroom immediately lit, showing his mother's face.

Fearing that something bad had happened, Sampsa slipped from the bed and pulled on his robe, then went across and stood before the screen. ”Full sound. Vision both ways.”

At once his mother's eyes registered his presence. ”Sampsa? I'm sorry to disturb you, especially right now, but...”

”Is father all right?”