In Heaven and Earth (7 page)

“
There!” he
said, a little breathlessly. “I’ve caught you.”

“
I’m supposed
to be catching you,” Reuben complained, but the sweetness of the
air and the strangeness of the moment softened him, and he smiled,
just a little.

Vairya’s eyes widened.
“He smiles! Is such a thing permitted to knights of your solemn
order, oh most virtuous and humble of penitents?”

“
What are you
going on about now?” Vairya had ended up sprawled over his chest,
and he was staring down at Reuben with mischief in his eyes
again.

“
I’ve decided
you’re a penitent friar. It’s the only thing that accounts for your
bad temper. Celibacy and flagellation do that to a man.”

“
I’m not a
flagellant!” Reuben snapped. “Morons, all of them. And I’m damn
well not celibate, either.”

In his ear, Meili snorted
with laughter and said, “Interrogation going well,
then?”

“
Fuck off,
Meili.”

Vairya’s eyes widened
again. “Your colleagues can hear us?”

“
They can hear
me.”

“
Well, that
could be fun.”

“
Or,” Reuben
said, biting back his smile, “you could just answer some questions.
Exactly what do you think you know about me?”

“
Reuben Akosa
Cooper, Doctor of Medicine, born thirty-three years ago in the
Darwin Memorial Hospital on Rigel, only child of Olafemi and
Ezekiel. Is that a certificate in Mathematics at the age of seven?
A first degree at fifteen? How precocious.”

“
Are you
reading my personnel file?” Reuben asked mildly. “You could just
ask.”

Vairya frowned faintly,
leaning a little closer, until Reuben could see every silvery fleck
in his blue eyes. “No anger? I would have predicted
indignation.”

“
Still trying
to find my weaknesses?” Reuben asked. Vairya was almost close
enough to taste, and Reuben wondered idly if he would taste as
sweet as the roses or as sharp as steel and starlight.

“
I was,” Vairya
said a little peevishly. “Now I’m just confused. Don’t you mind me
invading your privacy?”

“
Privacy is an
illusion,” Reuben told him and smiled wryly. How had Vairya lived
so long without learning that? “Most people don’t realise it, but
once the Senate prosecutors and worse, the media, have torn apart
every decision you’ve ever made, you realise there are no secrets
left in the world. We just pretend there are to keep the masses
happy. There are thousands upon thousands of people who have made a
study of me and my choices. If you lined up everyone who thinks
they know me, I wouldn’t even be able to remember a fraction of
their names, let alone know them in return. Life’s much easier once
the whole galaxy has judged you and found you wanting. You no
longer need to fear the reactions of others. You are free to simply
act as you believe. No one’s opinion matters any more. They can’t
think any worse of you. When everyone watching despises you, and
there’s no one left to care, you may as well just be completely
alone. You can do whatever you like.”

“
Coop,” Eskil
breathed, his voice shaking.

Reuben ignored him. He
was more interested in Vairya’s reaction, how steadily he was
staring down, his lips slightly parted.

Then, very softly, he
said, “That’s a terrible way to live, Reuben.”

And he leaned forwards to
kiss Reuben’s forehead lightly.

Reuben hadn’t expected
that. “What the—”

And Vairya kissed his
mouth as well.

His kiss was too warm for
steel and too firm for flowers. It was only a quick press of lips,
more kind than passionate, but it silenced Reuben.

“
There,” Vairya
murmured. “That’s better. You should stay here with me. I won’t
judge you.”

“
I have a
mission. I have to wake you up.”

“
But I belong
here. It’s beautiful here, Reuben. There’s sunlight and flowers and
knowledge and soon, very soon, my people will be here. We don’t
have much time left, but we will spend it together. You could spend
it with us. There’s always room for another hero.”

“
I
can’t.”

“
Then you must
go. Take your colleagues and run, to the furthest ends of space,
and pray it is not too late for you.”

“
Why?”

Vairya’s eyes lost none
of their warmth or laughter but there was a hint of something
terrible in them now, a fear so vast that Reuben could not make
sense of it. “I have a mission too.”

“
What
mission?”

“
I have to save
the human race,” Vairya said and gave a shaky smile. “No matter
what the cost.”

“
What does that
mean?” Reuben cried out in frustration.

“
It means that
you won’t need the Fleet to destroy us,” Vairya said, and he was so
calm that Reuben went cold. He recognised that sort of peace, the
type you only found when all hope had failed. “I initiated the
self-destruction protocols three days ago, as soon as I realised I
couldn’t transmit my people out of here. You have approximately
five hours before the evacuation period ends and the city’s engines
begin to move us towards the sun.” Then, just as tranquilly, he
looked up and said, “Ah, here are the people now.”

He rolled off Reuben and
stood up, holding his hands out and smiling, so joyously that
Reuben knew, with a sudden sick certainty, that he must be
mad.

And then, with a shiver,
the flowers opened, the air growing thick with sweetness, and
Reuben saw what had been hidden behind their folded
petals.

Each rose contained a
human face, caught in peaceful sleep.

As Reuben struggled to
his feet, they began to open their eyes, blinking sleepily. Lips
parted, stems shuddered, and flower heads lifted. Then, in a roar
like the wind, the silent garden filled with startled
voices.

“
Why?” Reuben
choked out.

Vairya turned to face him
again. The wind was still dancing through the garden, and it
tumbled through his golden curls even as the sunlight washed over
him. He had never looked less human. “Heaven is a sunlit garden,
Reuben. They will not suffer now. When the Enemy takes their
bodies, it will kill their souls without noticing. This was the
last thing I could do for them and even there I failed. But if we
cannot be free, at least we can be together.”

“
What enemy?”
Reuben roared.

All around him the garden
went quiet, flowering faces turning their way in fear. Vairya
smiled at him, sad and triumphant. “The only Enemy. Caelestia has
been invaded, Sir Reuben. You will need your knights if we do not
die fast enough. I disabled their engines, you see, once they
landed, but they will grow new ones. And this may not be the only
ship to break free. It could happen again. You need to warn my
brothers and sisters, Reuben. Tell them our first purpose stands.
We must still serve.”

“
What
ship?”

“
The one from
Old Earth,” Vairya said, and all around the garden people drew in a
shocked breath. It went sighing and whispering out over the
roses.

No. No, no, no. This was
worse than Ahrima.

“
That’s
impossible,” Reuben whispered.

“
I wish it
was,” Vairya said and reached out to cup his hand around Reuben’s
cheek. “I think you should wake up now, Dr Cooper. Take your people
and run.”

“
Vairya!”

“
This
one
is
an
emergency exit,” Vairya told him, before he leaned forwards and
kissed Reuben lightly. “Goodbye, Reuben. You are a good
man.”

And threads of silver
light rose up around Reuben, spearing out of the ground like prison
bars. He lunged for Vairya, but it was too late. The garden was
gone, and he was surrounded by light, with no path back.

“
Eskil!” he
shouted. “Wake me up!”

He came awake with a
jerk, to Eskil’s disapproving face. “It really isn’t good for you
to keep—”

Reuben sat up,
shouldering him aside to override the bed’s controls. Vairya had
mentioned the ansible, which meant they could get confirmation of
his story. “Eskil, can you get a drone close to the city’s ansible
installation?”

“
Sure, it’s
just round the outer curve of the asteroid. What’s going
on?”

Reuben ignored him to tap
for a com. “Captain, you there?”

“
Awake already,
Dr Cooper?”

“
Vairya has
just informed me that a ship from Old Earth is currently docked on
Caelestia.”

Meili gasped and Eskil
whipped round to stare at him, blanching.

“
Get that
damned drone out to confirm it!” Reuben snapped at him.
“Captain?”

Chanthavy sounded shaken.
“Do you believe him, Dr Cooper? Old Earth has no spaceflight
capability. It was all destroyed.”

“
They’ve had
two hundred years to invent some,” Reuben pointed out. “He
believes. He claims to have activated the city’s self-destruction
protocol.”

“
Destroy the
city?” Meili interrupted. “Is he mad?”

“
Given the
alternative,” Reuben said grimly, thinking of Vairya’s laughter, “I
damn well hope so. He uploaded their personalities, captain. Every
one of them who was connected to the net is now saved to his
memory.”

“
No wonder it
was damaged,” Eskil said. “Drone’s out, but it will take a few
minutes to get into position.”

“
We need
definite confirmation before I inform Sirius,” Chanthavy said, her
voice steadying. “On this, of all things, we cannot cry
wolf.”

Meili strode
over to the wall. “
Juniper
, patch into the city net and
show me the morgue in the city hall.” To Reuben, she said, “That’s
where we’ve been moving the bodies.”

A viewscreen opened up
slowly, showing the shadowy interior of a great hall. Bodies lay
across the floor in neat rows, bagged and numbered.

Reuben had always thought
body bags looked too close to rubbish sacks, as if taunting the
survivors with what they lost. These, however, looked like nothing
he had ever seen before.

They were transparent and
gleaming, as if the floor had been covered with swells of glass. In
the dim light, he could only see the barest impression of familiar
shapes: the curve of a jaw, a swirling pattern which might have
been loose hair, the ridges of fingers. As they watched, the walls
of the hall began to change, solid pseudo-oak shimmering and fading
as it transformed.

“
Oh, god,”
Meili whispered. “Oh, god, it’s true.”

“
Drone’s in
place,” Eskil whispered. “Visuals on screen.”

A second window opened
up, showing the rocky underside of the city. Here too the light of
the local sun blazed off streaks of diamond. The remains of a ship
were smeared across the rocks, also diamond, except in the places
where a purple haze swirled and bubbled through the
wreckage.

“
I think that’s
a quantum disruptor warhead,” Eskil said, sounding impressed.
“Someone certainly tried to blow the shit out of them.”

“
Didn’t
succeed, did they?” Meili said harshly. “Captain, are you getting
all this?”

“
Yes,”
Chanthavy said quietly. “I’m contacting High Command
now.”

“
We were all
down there,” Meili said, her fists clenching and her words coming
fast. “We all touched those bodies.”

“
You were in
suits,” Eskil said.

“
It doesn’t
matter, not with nanites! We could all be next and he’s almost
certainly infected!” She pointed at Vairya.

“
And?” Reuben
asked, moving to stand between her and the unconscious
cyborg.

She stared at him, and
then her anger faded to horror. “And nothing! What did you
think—we’re not all barbarians, Cooper.”

“
Stop it!”
Eskil said before Reuben could respond. “Just stop it! Stop
fighting!” His voice cracked a little.

Meili took a sharp
breath, but didn’t say anything. Reuben reached out and squeezed
Eskil’s shoulder, trying to keep it gentle.

“
They’ll send
help,” he said, trying to inject some certainty into his voice.
He’d talked nervous recruits through a battle before. He knew how
to lie convincingly, for all he hadn’t needed to bother for years.
“For now, let’s get out of here. I’m starving. Whose turn is it to
cook?”

“
Eskil’s,”
Meili said promptly. He wasn’t sure if she was picking up his cues
or just glad for a change of subject, but it helped. Eskil looked a
little less lost.

“
Good,” Reuben
said. “I was worried we might get one of your two recipes
again.”

“
Nothing wrong
with a little consistency,” she fired back. “Least I’ve never given
anyone food poisoning.”

“
That was
once,” Eskil said indignantly, but hesitated when she tugged at his
elbow. “Should we leave Vairya here?”