Galaxies by Barry N Malzberg

Author:Barry N Malzberg [Malzberg, Barry N]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780575102316
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2011-09-28T22:00:00+00:00

XXXII

To what degree can she disentangle from what she inhabits? This is part of her problem, and the other part is how much of what she inhabits has overtaken her so that she is no longer herself? She may have no more reality than the cyborgs. She may be a cyborg herself, of a more sophisticated type and without memory of how she was created; how otherwise could she have survived this? The originals would have the answer to this; so would the Bureau, but there is no way to make contact. What has been done to her? Are all of them here merely machines and the Skipstone a living being which contains them? Where is the line of demarcation between humanity and the machines?

“Well,” the third cyborg says, not in response to this (the devices are certainly not telepathic), “well, I feel that I should make a statement here, too.” In a rather nervous gesture, absurd because these things are said not to feel, it twitches one of its cubes, revolves it slowly in position as it averts its line of sight from the omnipresent and dreadful portholes covered again. Do they really see, these things, or do they receive sensory impressions in a code which she could not understand? What is the quality of their consciousness, are they indeed conscious or merely feeding tape in a predetermined way for responses … and does it matter? Does any of this matter at all? For all the difference that it would make to her, they might see nothing.

“Ah, yes,” the first says, “there is another point of view to be presented here that I think we should all attend to very closely.”

“Right,” the second lisps, “that’s definitely right There should be a whole range of points of view, after all. All articles of faith should be represented. What I am saying is right; it is the full and final truth of the matter, but I will be happy to know that other positions are represented and they should be, they should all be given their say. After all, this is an important decision here, very crucial.”

“Crucial,” the first whispers, “absolutely crucial. Everything is crucial and becoming increasingly so. Nothing will ever be trivial here.”

“Indeed,” the third says. It inclines its surfaces toward the second. “That has been stated very well, and as a matter of fact I couldn’t have done it better myself. It really should be taken into consideration. I wanted to discuss what could be called the more cosmic implications of what is going on here.”

“You should,” the first says, “and so you very definitely should. I’m glad that you had the courage to bring it up. That shows very rare courage.”

“Right,” the third says and then to Lena: “Now listen here. Listen to me and attend this. You’ve fallen into a neutron star, a black funnel. It’s utterly beyond your puny capacities to escape it, and the dimensions of what has happened here would reduce you to inconsequence.

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