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.Bannen pulled himself almost aimlessly among the debris, the superstructure of new tents.Occasionally he would stop a monkey in its task of rebuilding, describe the Doctor, ask if they’d seen him.Always the response was the same.‘What is Doctor?’‘What is Doctor?’‘What is absolution?’∗ ∗ ∗199Ace didn’t know what to expect when the joining happened.She prepared herself for pain, recited a mantra she’d learned in Spacefleet, felt her muscles tense, screwed her eyes up tightly even though she could see nothing.What she felt was a tickling sensation in her ears.Then light bloomed around her.She could see.See through another’s eyes.Witness first-hand another’s thoughts and memories.The experience overwhelmed her.The light brightened, the flood of images and emotions and memories strengthening, threatening to wash her away like rubbish on the tide, immerse her own personality and completely overwhelm it.She tried to withdraw, but didn’t know how.She tried to scream but found she’d forgotten how.Her mind was an open gate and a lifetime flooded through.A lifetime later there were words.A woman’s voice.Gail’s voice.‘– all right? Did you find out anything important? Ace.Are you –’‘Surf’s.up.’ she said weakly.Gail leaned closer as Midnight withdrew from Ace’s body.‘Ace? Wake up.Talk to me! Are you all right?’‘.wipe-out.total.’‘Stop talking about surfing.’‘.not.surfing,’ Ace managed weakly.‘ Genocide.All life in solar system.Under threat.Wipe-out – no, wiped out.unless.’‘Unless what?’‘.don’t know.’But she did know.She knew almost all of it.What little she didn’t know she could piece together from other evidence, from the things that had happened to Gail and Bannen and Midnight.She ordered her thoughts.‘Anyone got any grub?’ she asked.‘I could demolish a plate of greasy fat burgers and chips.’‘There’s probably some fruit around,’ said Gail.‘I don’t recommend the meat course.’ She glanced sideways at Bernice.‘Sounds good,’ enthused Ace.‘Find me some grub and I’ll tell you my thoughts.Or rather Midnight’s and the Doctor’s thoughts.’Drew lay in his bed, pretending to be asleep, trying not to feel any more sick than he already was now that he was back in zero gravity.He had spent what seemed like a long time thinking about Ace and what she had done to 200Rhiannon.Ace seemed to be getting on all right with Gail.That might make things harder for him later on.But it wouldn’t stop him.In the meantime he decided to conserve his strength and listen to what they had to say.Anything might be an advantage.They were talking about the Doctor and about the Artifact.Some of what they said he already knew.The rest was a revelation.The Artifact was alive.Alive but very old.A long-lived species.A parasite.According to Ace and Gail, its life cycle worked like this: after birth in a nutrient sac which essentially comprised an average gas-giant planet, and a nutritious breakfast of ammonia and methane as found in its atmosphere, the young parasite would start looking around for the most readily available source of liquid hydrogen.That is to say: water.Ace postulated that one reason the Artifact might do this was because it could not reproduce sexually.That idea made Drew blush, and he squirmed inside his bedcovers.Fortunately, neither Ace nor Gail noticed.Ace went on to say if this was the case the Artifact would need a source of base genetic material from which to construct its own DNA.Drew frowned at this.Did she mean it was stealing DNA from other life forms? Perhaps that was what the ‘cancers’ were that Gail had talked of earlier.Organic laboratories for synthesizing DNA.The next stage in the Artifact’s life, and the longest, according to Ace, was the parasitization of water-bearing planets and the shipping of inconceivable quantities of water through itself [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]