NOTHING EXCEPT SLEEP

1563 4D

He craned his neck upwards along a vertical cylindrical tank of near-transparent fluid that glowed blue-white. The tank, a shaft rising through the black steel-grilled floor through an identically grilled ceiling, spread as wide as the span of his arms.

Two adult human forms, one male, one female, hung suspended in the tank vertically facing him, naked, their heads wrapped in soft thin helms of intricate tissue, their limbs intertwined in a somnolent embrace, their skins white with a faint pink flush showing delicate riverlike vascular traces in pale shades of blue and rose. Their hands and fingers, long nails soft in the tank fluid, moved gently as if they sculpted dreams in the liquid that held them. The male’s penis stood erect.

The helms, covering the faces except for thin half-mirror openings for the eyes, trailed off into long, heavy, twisted cables of hairlike wire that led to plates on the far wall of the column. Motes, glinting blue and violet sparks of light, drifted slowly and continuously downward in the fluid, giving a sense that the bodies were gradually rising.

“It’s an andro farm. Amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this. Come here, Leil, come and look.”

“What? Can we get any help from them?” Leil climbed to her feet and smoothed her coverall.

What? You mean, food? Oh, yes, I can sense it here, now. Turiosten‘s voice, now alert. As Leil stepped inside, her slowness showing Andrew her reluctance, the door closed again behind them.

“What do you mean, food? You eat andros too?” Andrew looked down; the cylinder went on below this level as far as he could see. A movement outside the cylinder, on the next level down, caught his eye. He tensed; it vanished.

Of course. They’re standard fare.

Andrew looked at Leil; her face carried a look of shame.

He said to her, “No, Leil, I was talking to Turiosten.” She couldn’t have done it herself. But Turiosten might have taken control of her, and then she wouldn’t be responsible.

Leil shook her head. “What you said, I did, or that thing did while it was inside me. Andrew, I’m so mixed up, it’s as if I’m in pieces.”

Another flicker of movement touched the outer edge of his left eye, and a voice said, “Who are you? This is ArCorp property, and you aren’t bio-isolated.” A tall, muscular woman in an ArCorp cleanspace coverall stood just an arm’s length away on the grillwork floor, a small jeweled emblem of corporate rank on her left shoulder. Her dark umber skin and hair, covered with a gossamer film, reflected the bluish lights of the tanks. Her right hand held a multifunction datacard. She seemed unafraid of them, imperious in her look. She began to finger the card, looking at them. Calling them in to someone.

Andrew put his hand on hers. “Stop,” he said. She paused, staring at him with a frown.

“We were prisoners,” he began.

“Exactly, and that’s why I’m doing this.” She resumed pressing on the panel’s indentations.

Andrew flicked out his hand, and the card flew against the nearest tank, clattering down past the grillwork to the next level where it came to rest. “No, you’re not,” he said. “Let me tell you what we’ve—“

She shot out a long arm, grabbed his neck, and shoved him sideways into Leil. He staggered, regained balance as her kick grazed his outer thigh. Reflexively, he seized her descending leg and wrenched it towards himself and twisted, taking her off her feet entirely. Her head slammed into a solid steel mooring for the floor grating. She didn’t move. Her eyes stared up, black pupils shining violet gloss.

Andrew bent over her, feeling for a pulse or a breath. A flutter, then nothing. Another death, and he wanted to shrug even while he shook his head; death had become commonplace, beyond his capacity to feel any more. “Look,” Leil said. The two figures in the tank had turned, facing them now with blind, masked heads. “Can they hear what’s happening out here?”

“No, that doesn’t make sense to me,” Andrew said. His hands shook. “This woman’s dead.” He looked up at the andros, drifting white above him; slowly they turned away to embrace each other again, their hands patting shoulders and backs. The male turned its head towards Andrew, shook it twice, then bent to the female again.

They see me, Turiosten said. They saw her die. The female said she has disappeared. They are afraid of me because I look so hungry to them. And I am hungry.

“Where’s this? Innerspace?” Andrew surveyed the body. Even sprawled in the dark on the grillwork, it looked strong. “Leil, the alien can talk with the andros here.”

“Ask it to find out how to get out.”

The answer came immediately. They laughed. That’s what they’d like to do, too. They want to know what it’s like out here, whether it’s like their learning space, where they are now.

“They laughed. They don’t know. And, Turiosten, tell them to stay in the tank, and I wish we could get in there with them.” At this, Leil nodded her head and ran her fingers through the thick tumbles of her hair. The redness in her eyes showed black in the bluish light.

Look, I’ve got to feed. Are you going to help me out with this meal while it’s still warm? You don’t take hints very well.

“Drop dead,” Andrew grated. He turned away from the body on the floor and shut his eyes.

I can just take over and do this myself.

“Go ahead. Just let me warn Leil so she doesn’t have to watch. Leil, the thing wants dinner, and it’s gonna take me over to get it. Don’t watch, okay?” Exhaustion invaded Andrew, making all his muscles and his eyes ache; he wanted nothing now except sleep.

“I can’t stand this any more.” Leil‘s voice, completely flat. “I’ll be on the other side of this tank. Don’t talk about it, don’t show me, don’t remind me. Just come and get me and we’ll go away from here and it won’t have happened.” She disappeared around the cylinder before Andrew could speak.

“Okay, take over,” Andrew said to Turiosten, “But just one thing. Make me forget. And keep your meal off this thing I’m wearing.”

As he blanked out, words came. No problem. Your outfit is so filthy, anyway.