Sister Alice by Robert Reed

Author:Robert Reed [Reed, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hard SF, Science Fiction, Far Future, Immortality
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PRIDE AND SACRIFICE.

The words were still cut into the granite above the doorway, and as people filed inside, listening more to each other than to their guide, Ord couldn’t help but leap up, touching the dense pink stone with his damp little fingertips.

That was his habit, his little ritual.

Xo saw the gesture, and froze. Other Nuyens triggered silent alarms that engulfed the Earth, then jumped across the solar system, alerting the appropriate AIs and humans. Before the little group of sightseers could reach the stairs, a multitude of defensive networks were begging for information and new instructions.

Ord observed the carefully rehearsed panic, and in the same instant, he concentrated on closer, more immediate hazards.

The mansion was a trap. Or more accurately, it was a series of ingenious, closely nested and independent traps. Antimatter mines lay beneath the stairs and behind solid walls. Null-field generators waited to ensnare anyone foolish enough to stumble too close. Overhead, inside Ord’s old bedroom, an AI assassin waited to inject its victim with quantumware toxins and assorted eschers designed to muddle the most sophisticated mind. But the most dangerous enemy stood behind him, pressing lightly at the small of Ord’s back. “Please don’t,” said the dry, smooth, and worried voice. “Don’t touch the emblems, son.”

With a boy’s voice, Ord said, “I’m sorry. Sir.”

Each guest stood on his own stair, and they were being lifted, spiraling their way up through the famous structure.

With a stronger voice, Xo asked, “What would you like to see first?”

“The penthouse, please.” The boy smiled at his adoptive parents. “I want to see where Alice lived when she came home.”

The Nuyen smiled, and said, “Naturally.”

Ord could feel an invisible bulk. Xo was a respectable age, but he had been transformed in the most peculiar ways. Ord smelled weird abilities stretched over his ape bones. Dark matter and profound energies clung to the Nuyen, reaching for kilometers in every direction. There were eschers and quantumware toxins as well as charismatic talents that Ord couldn’t quite weigh. Every other danger in the house was tangible and forgettable. But an enormous quantity of human genius had spent the last millennia doing nothing but preparing this one soul for Ord’s return.

Ord nourished a healthy fear. Thomas had taught him that critical skill. But glancing over his shoulder, a genuine terror took hold. What if he had come all this way for nothing? Instead of answers, what if he was captured? Dismembered? Or worse?

How could he help rebuild the Great Peace when he was dead?

Unless that was what Alice had always wanted. My death saves the galaxy, somehow. It was a seductive, fatalistic notion that found a ready home inside him. The idea spread through him like an explosion, and he just as abruptly realized from where that crippling notion had come…and he threw it aside…

Xo.

For an instant, Ord considered fleeing.

But that was another one of Xo’s tricks. Ord crushed that idea, too, telling himself that he wouldn’t change plans now. Then to be sure that nobody could grab his reflexes, he closed off his easiest escape routes.

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