How old are you? I asked, refusing to
budge. Id snatched the question out of midair, spurred on by desperation to get something more, however slight. The only thing shed so far shown any willingness to talk about was herself.
She hesitated, and this time she was definitely seized by a genuine uncertainty. She couldnt quite bring a lie to bear in time to stop the truth tripping off the tip of her tongue.
Older than you, she said.
It wasnt an answer I had expected, but I was quick enough to follow it up. How much older?
Again she hesitated, and again she decided to shame the devil, although she didnt actually answer the question Id asked. I was frozen down in 2090, she said, and revived three hundred and fifty years ago, give or take a couple. It can be done, if thats one of the things you want to know. Our kind can adapt, become emortal, and get a life. You can find a place in the scheme of things too, Mr. Tamlin, if theyll only give you the chance.
She was trying as hard as she could to be kind to me, I realized. There was an element of fellow feeling in her determination to help me, because shed gone through what I was going through herself except, maybe, for the feeling of betrayal. I took note of the fact that she was now talking about a they as well as, or instead of, the we shed referred to before. I decided that it was time to start playing along, and let her steer me back toward the cupboard door.
Thanks, I said, touching the dressing on my nose but not meaning that alone.
Youll be okay, she assured me, also not meaning my nose. You really have to go now. You can tell the others that we really are trying to help and protect them. Well do our best to make sure that no harm comes to you.
I wished that she sounded more confident about that. I was grateful that she had taken the trouble to patch me up, albeit crudely, and I wanted to acknowledge the fact. I also thought that it might be a wise move to offer her something in return, in order to tighten the bond between us. Unfortunately, I didnt know what I had that would constitute a worthwhile offer. I settled, for some reason I couldnt fathom even at the time, on a trivial personal confession.
Alice is a curiously reassuring name, I told her, as I paused in the doorway. Ive always had a thing about names, including my own. Tam Lin was a man who was kidnapped by fairies, and served their queen as a lover and champion while generations went by on Earth. In the end, he got back again thanks to a young woman but he came perilously close to being sent to Hell in the interim. I hope Ill be as lucky.
Oddly enough, my fascination with my namesake was something Id only ever mentioned to one other person not, as it happened, Damon Hart, but Diana Caisson.
You have to go back now, was all she said in reply, as she shoved me out into the darkness. Ill try as hard as I can to get permission to tell you everything, but I darent go ahead without. The situations too tricky.
Its okay, I told her. I dare say we can make up a few stories of our own in the meantime.
Twenty-Four
Charity
Ihad gone into the darkness a victim, but I came back as the only man who had met the enemy. I was the new star of the show.
They dont seem to have the medical facilities to fix us up properly, so wed better be extra careful in future, I told the others when they crowded round me, putting on a display of being concerned for my welfare. This dressing is early twenty-first century and the anesthetic is beginning to wear off already. These are codeine thats an ancient morphine precursor. I showed them the bottle of pills, but didnt mention what Alice had said about maybe having something better available tomorrow.
I didnt know it was you, Solantha Handsel said, yet again. I didnt mean to hurt you.
I know, I said. It could have been anyone. Theres a lesson in that for all of us.
What did you find out? Niamh Horne cut in. Where are we? Earth?
There is absolutely no possibility that were on Earth, Lowenthal was quick to say. Theyre simulating Earth-gravity for deceptive purposes. How could anyone on Earth have the knowledge necessary to hijack a Titanian spaceship?
How could anyone else? the cyborganizer came back.
All of which deflected sufficient attention away from me to let me shuffle through the crowd, heading for the door of the cell from which Id emerged. My heads pounding and Ive lost more than a litre of blood, I muttered, harshly. I have to lie down.
That helped to refocus their attention. Tell us what you found out first, Lowenthal said, in what might have passed for a polite tone if hed been a better
actor.
I decided to keep my hand hidden, for the time being, on the grounds that the few cards I held might look a bit more impressive when Id worked out how best to play them.
I didnt find out anything much, I told him. She says she wants to tell us everything but needs permission she wouldnt say from whom. She says shes trying to protect us, but wont say from whom. She says that shes trying to prevent a war, but reckons I dont have the imagination to understand who might be fighting it or why. The only solid fact I know is that her names Alice.