It feels odd, almost frictionless. Its sort of ugly, too. He frowned at Helen. Im surprised they left it here in the arboretum. Its hardly natural, is it?
Helen frowned. Kevin, people have resigned over that point! The consensus is that this cube is just as natural as any of the hybrid venumbs found in here. As much a living thing as the McCuskers Miracle you were just looking at. This cube replicates itself, just like the beeches and the willows do. The EA therefore counts it as a life form.
Really? said Kevin, sounding surprised. Do you mean that thing is still replicating?
Oh, yes. The original unit was seeded about three kilometers down and one kilometer west of here. Some organization wanted a complex of rooms beneath the ground, all to be protected by stealth technology. Thats what gives the cube its silver sheen and frictionless feel. Industrial espionage was rife back then, so a secure location was essential. All appeared fine at first, but someone got the telomeric procedures wrong and the VNMs just kept replicating themselves. Rooms kept being built onto previous rooms. Go inside this cube and youre at the top of a four-kilometer-high tower that has burrowed right up from beneath the earth.
Kevin looked at the cube in fascination.
How did it go on reproducing for so long? Why didnt they stop it?
Helen laughed. They didnt know it was happening! It was a stealth construction, remember? They didnt detect any activity!
She laughed again, and the console around her waist emitted another puff of pheromones. Helen looked delightful when she laughed; she had been told as much many times. Kevins console must have caught the spray; to be sent a puff of pheromones was a flattering invitation, but at the moment he seemed utterly fascinated by the construct.
Can we go inside? he asked. He suddenly switched his attention back to her and, caught by the force of his all too apparent intention, she felt her stomach flip over.
Oh yes, she said, looking up coyly from beneath her lashes. There is a door around the other side.
Heart pounding, she led the way along one side of the cube. Sunlight, flickering its way through the green leaves above, formed jigsaw patterns on the ground. Grass and moss grew right up to the VNMs very edge but no further, unable to get a grip on its stealthy surface.
Its got no roof, said Kevin as they reached the other side. The tilt of the cube allowed them to see the unformed top surface of the VNM.
Ah, began Helen, the EA slowed the replication process right down. The thing is still growing, but now at about one billionth of its original rate. The EA does the same with a lot of the hybrid venumbs here in this park. Theyre technically alive, but with restricted ability to absorb any more of the arboretums capacity.
Kevin glanced at the entrance to the cube. It had been surrounded with thick, clear
plastic that formed a collar around the door-shaped hatch.
He stood back and held out an arm, using an anachronistic gesture that still had the power to charm.
Ladies first.
Oh thank you, Helen simpered, and stepped through the hatch. She felt a cold breeze as she did so, and a sudden stab of fear that came from nowhere.
She shrugged her shoulders. She was being ridiculous.
Level Zero
A rich pool of green grass lapped the walls of the cubes interior. It was as if someone had filled a tilted square bottle with green water. The process had not yet begun that would flush the cubes inside clean and start the construction of floors and internal walls. A second plastic collar, set in the grass near the far wall, enclosed a set of steps leading down to the fully formed cube that lay immediately below ground, the first of a descending sequence of stealth rooms that extended obliquely deep into the earth . Kevin followed her into the cubes interior, face now serious, and Helen felt a squiggle of danger inside her . She was alone with a man she had only met two hours ago. Alone in an area where her console would not work; the stealth circuitry in the half-formed walls was functioning well enough to block any incoming or outgoing signals.
Still, Social Care would know where she was. Their AIs would have seen her enter the cube; they would wait for her to exit.
Kevin walked towards her, his expression odd. Helen took a step back.
Whats the matter, Kevin? She heard the tremble in her own voice. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
Helen, do you know what a Strangler Fig is?
Helen suddenly felt very small and alone . Though his tone was just the same as before, the warmth seemed to have completely drained from it.
I know what a Strangler Fig is, said Helen, her attempt at a casual tone tight and forced. She was suddenly very aware of the distance to the visitors center, of her nonfunctioning console.
Kevin held out his hand, a little white object on the palm.
This is a seed from a hybrid venumb based on the Strangler Fig, said Kevin. I want you to swallow it.
Whwhy?
Because all self-replicating objects are valid forms of life and have a right to exist. You said as much yourself. This seed was built by the Sterkarm Company back in the mid-twenty-second century, just when the EA was bringing war to an end. This seed never had the chance to realize its potential. Here in the arboretum is the very place for it to finally do so.