Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Four

The last human they saw west of Bastee was a fat woman about to close a Cigna gas station.The gas station was already closed, but she drove for a while, allowing both cars to fill up.She lectured Dr. Duvaly in a Cantonese accent about how unwise it was to go deep into the desert.There was no one there, and even the drillers and pipeline workers, even the hirelings who had no money but hoped to get it, had all gone east of the desert after the first dust fall.It got worse there.she says. what's worse? It's just worse.And earthquakes. earthquake? Small earthquakes.Broke a lot of things, and that all has to be repaired, when it's safe to come back if you can.

Dr. Duvaly frowned.Turk said: Actually we are going to the West Bank, the other side of the desert. It's a stupid way to get there.The Cantonese woman said, and Turk could only nod and shrug. ☆ Alien dust mixed with sand piled up on the sun-bleached decking of the gas station.The wind blows from the south and is hot and dry.A world of talcum powder, Liz thought.She thought of Turk's West Bank, the other side of the desert.She imagined waves crashing on the beach and a few adventurous fishing trawlers moored in some natural harbor.Showers, greenery, the smell of water. The exact opposite of this unforgiving, sun-battered horizon.

It's a stupid way to get there.Oh, yes, exactly. ☆ During the long drive, Su Lian.Moy observes Avran.Du Valli and Anna.Rebka's behavior around the boy. Mrs. Rebuka, who was almost the boy's mother, took good care of the boy.Duvali is less direct (Isaac recoils from his touch), but his attention always lingers back to the boy. Duvale is an idolater, Suli Ann thought.He adores the grotesque.He believed Isaac had some key: not communicating with hypothetical intelligent beings, a clean and direct goal he'd long since given up on.He wants a leap of knowledge, an intimacy with a vast force that shapes the mortal and celestial worlds.Duvaly wanted Isaac to be a god, or at least someone who had been touched by a god, and he wanted to touch the edge of his robe again for inspiration.

Su Lian thought: what about me?What do I want from Isaac?She had wanted to prevent his birth, and above all, she had left the Martian embassy in New York to prevent this tragedy.She made herself a dour and often unpopular figure in the Earth Fourth Year group, living off their mercy while blaming their pride.Do not worship hypothetical intelligent beings, they are not gods.Don't try to bridge the divide between hypothetical intelligent beings and humans, the gap cannot be bridged.We know, we've tried, and we've failed.In the process, we make mistakes that can be called sins.We shape a human life for our own purposes, but in the end all we create is pain, nothing but death.

Twice during her wanderings on Earth she thwarted such plans in advance.There were two isolated fourth-year groups (one in Vermont and one in rural Denmark) trying to create hybrid children.On both occasions, Su Lianne alerted more conservative fourth-years, exerted the moral pressure they put on her Martian fourth-years, and successfully avoided tragedy.Here she fails.She is twelve years too late. But she insisted on accompanying the child on what was undoubtedly his last trip.She could obviously walk away and continue her work elsewhere.Why should you stay?She wondered if she, like Dr. Duvaly, would be as susceptible to the temptation of touch, although she knew that was impossible and absurd.

A more likely reason is that Isaac spoke a language he could not possibly know. That is to say: because she was afraid of him. ☆ Mostly your guesswork, said Turk, what did the lady say about the earthquake? He and Dr. Duvaly were in the lead car, driven by Dr. Duvaly.The wind was still blowing the serpentine pile of dust across the road, but most of the falling dust seemed to have been blown away, or absorbed into the soil, like the flapping thing was sucked into Isaac's skin Same. Another day's drive and they'd be at the outer edge of the oil zone.The target they triangulated was a few hundred kilometers west of there.

It's not that I don't believe her.Dr. Duvali said quietly.What did the news say? Turk had plugged the radio into one ear before, but reception was intermittent.They are far from the aerostat.No mention of the earthquake.I wouldn't rule out the possibility of an earthquake though.At this time, he wouldn't even rule out the possibility of the villains and dinosaurs from the Mengqi Kingdom.They say fallout is still possible.Do you think this is possible? I have no idea.Dr. Duvali said no one knew. Except maybe Isaac, Turk thought. ☆ They stopped for the night at a place where there was a gas station, food, and a place to stay.It used to be a place to serve tank truck drivers, but it is now deserted.

The reason for the obsolescence is obvious.Alien growths sprawled across the roof of the building, gaudy tubes disintegrated like lace.But they must have been heavy in life, for several roofs gave way under their weight.Not only that, something formed by blue tendrils also invaded the restaurant, with randomly intertwined thick and thin lines, covering everything within a few meters of the entrance (including the floor, ceiling, dining table, chairs, and a cart).These tendrils are rotting, turning to a foul-smelling powder on contact. Turk found the room key.He opened each room to find a few that weren't damaged, enough to give everyone some much-desired privacy.Turk and Liz share one room, and Duvale shares another.Su Lian.Moy agreed to share a suite with Diane, Mrs. Rebuka, and Isaac.

☆ Su Lian was quite happy with the arrangement of the room.She didn't like Mrs. Rebuka, but she wished she could be alone with the boy. That night, the opportunity came.Duvaly called everyone into what he called a group meeting.Of course Isaac couldn't attend, so Su Lian volunteered to stay with him.She has nothing to contribute to the discussion, she said. Mrs. Rebuka reluctantly agreed.As soon as she walked out of the room, Su Lian walked over to the boy's bed. He was fever free and even fairly alert, able to sit up, walk around, and eat.Luckily he was quiet in the car, as if some terrible need had left him since the flying thing attacked him.Duvaly didn't like discussing that event because he couldn't understand it, but it was the child's first in-depth contact with the half-lived creations of supposedly intelligent beings.Su Lian wondered what that felt like.Is that thing still in his body now?Was it broken down into fragments to circulate in his blood?If so, why?Is there any rationality in this, or is this just another unintentional tropism that has evolved over untold millions of years?

She wished she could ask Isaac, but she only had time for the most pressing questions. She forced herself to smile at the boy.Isaac also smiled back at her as quickly as possible.I'm his friend, she thought, his Martian friend.I knew someone like you, she said, that was a long time ago. I remember.Isaac said. Su Lian felt a pounding in her chest. Do you know who I'm talking about? Two words: Ash. You know about Ash? Isaac nodded gravely, his golden-spotted eyes cast a distant gaze. What do you know about him? Isaac begins to talk about Ash's brief childhood at Bakia Station, and Sulian is surprised to hear the boy speak Ash's Martian dialect again.

She feels dizzy.Ash.she whispered. Isaac speaks English this time: he can't hear you. But you can hear him? He can't talk, Sulian.He is dead.You know. Of course she does.She had held his dying body in her arms and hated herself for helping him escape into the desert to what he wanted so badly.This is what Isaac wants, which is hypothetical intelligent beings, which is death. She said: But you can speak in his voice. Because I remember him. do you remember him That is, I don't know how to explain him! The boy became anxious.Su Lian suppressed her panic and forced a smile that she hoped was reassuring.You don't have to explain.It's a mystery.I don't understand either!You just tell me what it feels like. I know what I am, I know what they want me to be, Dr. Duval, Mrs. Rebuka, they want me to talk to hypothetical intelligent beings, but I can't.Sorry, but I can't.There's something in me though. He pointed to his ribs.There are also pointers to the desert.There are a million things something remembers, and Ash is just one of them.Just because he resembled me, that thing gave me the memory of him.I mean Su Lian rubbed the boy's head.There was grit in his straight hair.During this long journey, there was no water to bathe at all.poor child.Please don't be sad. Something in me remembers Ash, and I remember what Ash remembers.When I look at you, I see two. two? One is what you are now, and the other is what you were then. That should be a big contrast, Su Lian thought. Can Ash see me too? No, I told you, he's dead and can't see anything.he's not here.But I know what he would say if he were here. What would he say, Isaac? He can speak Isaac speaks Martian again.Even after all these long and difficult years, his tone is still so familiar.He would say: Hello, Big Sister. It was Ash's voice, unmistakable. he will also say say what?tell me. He would say: Don't be afraid. Oh, but I can't do it, Sulian thought.So she backed away from the bed, almost to the door.She didn't hear the door coming in, but she knew Dr. Duvaly was standing there listening.His face flushed with emotion, a jealousy no less than anger. ☆ How long have you known this thing about him? To get away from the others, Duvale insisted on walking a short distance from the truck stop, into the horrific landscape that had surrounded them for days.It was as if the Martian desert had been recreated in this hotter other world.The great sky domes over the emptiness of night, and as for the works of man, there remains only the most gaudy. Ash, Ash, she thought.After walking so far, I heard his voice again.few weeks.She finally said it. few weeks!Are you planning to share this information with us? There was never any information.Just a possibility. But it is a very important possibility.Isaac and your Martian subject, this one named Ash, have the same memory Ash was not an experiment.He's a kid, Dr. Duval.he is my friend. You are dodging the question. I didn't shy away from anything.I am not your accomplice.If possible, I'd stop your project at the very beginning. But you didn't make it, and now you're here.I think you should examine your own motives, Ms. Moy.I think you're here for the same reason we created Isaac.Because you've spent your entire life trying to understand hypothetical intelligent beings. How long has it been?Eighty years?Ninety years?Not much more progress than when you were younger. Of course, the hypothetical intelligent beings were never far from her thoughts, especially after they devoured Esh.An obsession, yes, maybe, but it never clouded her judgment did it? As for whether she knows about hypothetical intelligent beings, they don't exist.she says. I'm sorry, can you say that again? Hypothetical intelligent beings.They don't exist, not in the way you think they do.What do you picture when you think about them?Some huge and wise ancient figure?Creatures with infinite intelligence beyond our tiny minds?This is exactly the mistake that Martian 4th year people make.As long as there is the possibility of talking to God, which risk is unreasonable?But they don't exist!In that starry sky there was nothing but some gigantic working logic connecting one mindless machine to another.Ancient, complex, but it is not mind. If so, Duvally said, who were you talking to just now? Su Lian opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again. ☆ That night, Liz and Turk made out for the first time in days.The privacy of being alone in a room is aphrodisiac.They didn't discuss it, and there was no need to discuss it.In the candlelit darkness, Liz undressed and Turk undressed.She blew out the candles and found him by the moonlight dimmed by the dust.He smells bad, and so does she.Do not worry about it.This moment is a kind of communication that they have always been good at.For a moment, she wondered if the fourth year elsewhere in the ruins would hear the creak of the spring bed.Maybe, she thought.But if they heard it, it might be good for them, and it might bring some vitality to their old and lifeless life. Turk finally fell asleep with his arm around her chest.She snuggled up to him contentedly in the fading light. But in the end she had to remove her body from his arms.Although after the passion, she couldn't sleep.She thought of how far they had come, and recalled a passage she had read in a very old book: the thin end of the wasteland, whittled to bits. The night is as cool as water.She curled up against Turk again, seeking his warmth. She was still awake when the house started shaking. ☆ In and Su Lian.In the room shared by Moy, Mrs. Rebuka, and Isaac, Diane.Dupree was still up. She focused on Isaac's breathing, thinking how strange life must be for Isaac.He grew up motherless (Mrs. Rebuka wasn't exactly a mother), fatherless (unless you count Dr. Duvaly's malevolent visit), and indifferent to affection.This is a difficult, stubborn child. Earlier today, she overheard part of Su Lianne.Moy and Dr. Duvaly's dispute, some uneasy questions came to her mind. The Martian woman is right, of course.Dr. Duvali and Mrs. Rebuka are not scientists. They use unconventional methods to study hypothetical intelligent beings.They are on a pilgrimage, and at the end of the road they expect something holy and redeeming. The same longing had nearly brought her to her death.That was many years ago.Diane had been so enamored of her first husband's faith that he took her to a religious retreat, where she contracted a disease that nearly killed her.The cure for her was to shift into what the Martian Vanovan called the fourth-year stage, the adulthood of adulthood. When she was fourth year, she thought she had let go of that longing.It was as if, after the longevity therapy, something calm and methodical jumped out and took control of her life.There's something soothing, even if a little dull.No more reckless blaming of heaven.She leads a smooth and rewarding life. But could she be wrong about how much she left behind, and how much she still kept?As Isaac's impulses were triangulated and the lines crossed across the map, Diane felt a familiar longing for the first time in oh, many years. She felt the longing again when she discovered that Isaac had access to the memory of a long-dead Martian child he had never known. The hypothetical sapient remembers Ash, Diane thought. What else might hypothetical intelligent beings remember? Her brother Jason died while attempting to merge with a hypothetical intelligent being.Do they remember it?Do they still remember Jason? If she asked, would Isaac speak in Jason's voice? She sat up straight, almost as guilty as if she had done something wrong.Just then, the house began to shake and shake.In a trance, she thought: the fortress has been breached, the four walls of heaven have fallen. ☆ By the time Turk managed to light a candle, the shaking had stopped. That Cantonese woman was right, he thought.It's an earthquake! He turned to look at Liz, who was sitting on the bed with the blanket wrapped around her waist.He said: Are you okay?Just a slight tremor. Promise me we won't stop.she says. Turk blinked.Her skin looked unnaturally pale in the candlelight.stop? When they got where they were going, she turned her head away, and he realized that she was referring to those in the fourth year.We're not going to stop, are we?We continue on to the West Bank?like you said? of course.what are you worried about?It's just a tremor, Liz.If you live in California, you must have experienced many small earthquakes like this one. They're crazy, Turk.They sound sane, but this crazy extravaganza was something they had planned long ago.I don't want anything to do with it. Turk goes to the window to make sure the stars aren't exploding or something, because she's right, crazy stuff is going on.But there was only the desert of central Equatoria stretching out under the thin moon.This sight, this desert, makes one feel small, he thought. Another tremor rattled the useless lamp on the small table. ☆ Isaac felt a tremor, but couldn't quite wake up.He's been sleeping a lot lately, and has lost some of his ability to tell when he wakes up. The clock of the stars moved mercilessly within him.In the dark, he would dream of things that cannot be described in words.There are many things he can't say, and there are some things he knows but doesn't understand, and he can't define them.For example, the word love. I love you, Mrs. Rebuka had whispered to Isaac once when only he could hear. He didn't know what to answer, but it didn't matter.She didn't seem to need to answer either.I love you, Isaac, my only son.She said so softly, then turned her face away. What does it mean? What did it mean when he closed his eyes and saw stars swirling in circles, or the smoldering fire of an invisible thing deep in the deserts of the West?He can feel its liveliness and strength, what does that mean? What does it mean that he can hear a million voices, more voices than there are stars in the sky?And from so many human voices, he could remember the voice of Ash, the dead Martian boy, what did it mean?Is he remembering Ash, or is something through him remembering Ash's voice with the air in Isaac's lungs? What Isaac does know is this: for the motion of his being summoned, and the motion of those collapsing machine fragments of hypothetical intelligent beings being summoned from their slow paths through the sky, is an act of memory. This memory action is bigger than the whole world. He felt it coming.The planet's crust trembled, the tremors came up through the foundations of the old house, through the floorboards and columns and beams and bedsteads and mattresses, until Isaac shook with it, and the motion filled him with a cold joy, the memory striding forward with nothingness, as far away as continental landmass, until at last he asked himself: Is this love?