The Ghosts of Mercury by Mark Michalowski

Author:Mark Michalowski
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Steampunk, Fiction
ISBN: 9781611871821
Published: 2014-05-06T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

“In Which Colonel Shawbridge Faces an Impossibility”

1.

Corporal Heath caught up with Annabelle as she stepped out onto the beach. She caught the look on his face, and whether he shared her anger or was simply in pain from his injuries she couldn’t tell.

“And that thing back there says there’s no God,” he said, shaking his head. “Who does he think made him, then?”

“If Hermes has been here, under the surface of Mercury, for all those thousands of years without seeing beyond it, blind and deaf to the universe, perhaps it’s no wonder that he can’t conceive of a god.”

“Nah, miss,” said Heath with a shake of his head. “I don’t think it’s that. I reckon it’s more than that—I reckon he’s evil, plain and simple”

“Is that what you really think?”

“Think what?” asked Nathanial, catching up with them, his feet slipping on the gritty sand.

“The corporal here thinks…thinks that that thing might be evil. And I’m half inclined to agree with him. Those things that he was saying—about the soul and God.” She glared at him. “And you just stood there and didn’t challenge him, did you? Either of you!” She rounded on Arnaud who had almost caught them up. He skidded to a halt at the ferocity of her words, little puffs of sand jetting up in front of him.

Annabelle looked down at her own grubby blouse and trousers.

“But Annabelle,” protested Nathanial, “that was just…” He gave a shrug. “That was just talk. Hypothesising.”

“That is not how it appeared to me. That thing is convinced that God doesn’t exist, that we have no souls and that when we pass away…well, that we just stop existing. Like someone turned out a light. That’s a little more than hypothesising, isn’t it? How dare he be so dismiss—”

“Annabelle, Annabelle,” said Nathanial gently, placing his hands on her folded forearms. “Don’t let it distress you so. It was just words. And you have to admit, it did have some very interesting ideas.”

“I don’t have to admit anything of the sort, Nathanial Stone,” snapped Annabelle, pulling away from him. “I might expect that sort of poppycock from simple-minded savages or even children, but that thing has had thousands of years to sit and think in his clammy little cave—and that’s what he’s come up with. And you were encouraging him,” she added. “What’s happened to you, Nathanial? You used to be as strong of faith as I am.”

“My faith is as strong as it ever was, Annabelle.” She could see the steely look in his pale grey eyes. “But you have to admit we have seen some queer things since we left Earth, things that we’ve made sense of through science. You have a brilliant mind, Annabelle. Don’t close it down like this. At least think about what Hermes said. We can talk about it later, if you—”

“Talk about it later? So that you can convince me that Hermes is right and that I’m wrong?”

“Of course not.” Nathanial looked aghast, but Annabelle was not to be fobbed off.

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