wipe drugs. The Volkep body took the array necklace from my neck and smiled proudly. I could feel the connection with myself reducing, darkness replacing the joy and color of my true memories. One contact remained, a single thread of experience: the alibi trip to Ormal. Damn, that stewardess was great-looking. I wish I hadn’t been so wrapped up on a mission.
Then I was alone. And the drugs kicked in, and I knew nothing more.
Then I was without one of me. Just for an instant, I felt regret. But I am many. The loss of a single body is irrelevant. That’s what I am, a New Immortal. That’s why I am. I continue even after the loss of one, or more. I live.
I was shivering when the glare of color and sensation subsided into simple knowledge. Paula Myo was looking down at me, pulling her suit jacket back on. The flare of activity within her OCtattoo was subsiding.
“Bitch!” I couldn’t sense me. For the first time since I nested, I was devoid of myself. One body with a single mind, completely alone.
“Good-bye,” said Paula Myo.
“No. No!” A Justice Directorate orderly had entered the loom. He was carrying an infuser. Paula Myo nodded at him.
“Carry on,” she ordered.
“Why have you done this to me?” I cried. “This is inhuman!”
She turned in the door, her face blank as she stared at me. “You are the person who committed the crime. The whole person, now. This is your sentence. The sentence you tried to avoid. Justice has prevailed.”
The orderly pressed the infuser against my neck. I screamed, my mind crying out to the rest of me, to help me, to comfort me. There was no answer.
----
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER
Nelson Sheldon was waiting in the entrance hall of the Justice Directorate as Paula came out of the elevator. “How did it go?” he asked.
“Successfully. The true Dimitros Fiech is now serving his sentence.”
“Shame about the rest of him.”
“Not really.”
“Oh?”
“When suspension was first introduced, the Justice Directorate examined the idea of leaving convicts aware while their bodies slept. It was abandoned almost immediately. The experience was too much like sensory deprivation. The minds went insane very quickly under such circumstances.“
“So how does that help us?” Nigel asked curiously.
“Dimitros Fiech is now unaware of his predicament. He’ll sleep soundly for the next two and a half millennia, and he’ll be offered extensive therapy when he gets out-assuming the Commonwealth is still around. Meanwhile, on Merioneth-”
“Ah. Svein Moalem’s nest knows part of him is in suspension. And as an Immortal-”
“He’ll endure those two and a half thousand years aware of the Fiech body’s state. The punishment is shared. Or rather, it isn’t, because it’s all his. Just experienced in different ways.”
Nelson smiled. “We can live with that.”
“Good, because I have no intention of returning to Merioneth.”
“Thank you for going in the first place,” Nelson said. “The Dynasty is most grateful. We don’t forget who our friends are.”
Paula grinned back shrewdly. “I'll remember that.”
----
OWNER SPACE
Neal Asher
Taken from the Short Story Collection “Galactic Empires” (2008) edited by Gardner Dozois
----
Born and still living in Essex, England, Neal Asher started writing at the age of sixteen but didn't explode into public print until a few years ago; a quite prolific author, he now seems to be everywhere at once. His stories have appeared in Asimov's, Interzone, The Agony Column, Hadrosaur Tales, and elsewhere, and have been collected in Runcible Tales, The Engineer, and Mason's Rats. His extremely popular novels include Gridlinked, Cowl, The Skinner, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, The Voyage of the Sable Keech, The Engineer Reconditioned, and Prador Moon: A Novel of the Polity. Coming up is a new novel, Hill diggers.
In the wild and pulse-poundingly-suspenseful adventure that follows, he vividly demonstrates that it might be a
Then I was alone. And the drugs kicked in, and I knew nothing more.
Then I was without one of me. Just for an instant, I felt regret. But I am many. The loss of a single body is irrelevant. That’s what I am, a New Immortal. That’s why I am. I continue even after the loss of one, or more. I live.
I was shivering when the glare of color and sensation subsided into simple knowledge. Paula Myo was looking down at me, pulling her suit jacket back on. The flare of activity within her OCtattoo was subsiding.
“Bitch!” I couldn’t sense me. For the first time since I nested, I was devoid of myself. One body with a single mind, completely alone.
“Good-bye,” said Paula Myo.
“No. No!” A Justice Directorate orderly had entered the loom. He was carrying an infuser. Paula Myo nodded at him.
“Carry on,” she ordered.
“Why have you done this to me?” I cried. “This is inhuman!”
She turned in the door, her face blank as she stared at me. “You are the person who committed the crime. The whole person, now. This is your sentence. The sentence you tried to avoid. Justice has prevailed.”
The orderly pressed the infuser against my neck. I screamed, my mind crying out to the rest of me, to help me, to comfort me. There was no answer.
----
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER
Nelson Sheldon was waiting in the entrance hall of the Justice Directorate as Paula came out of the elevator. “How did it go?” he asked.
“Successfully. The true Dimitros Fiech is now serving his sentence.”
“Shame about the rest of him.”
“Not really.”
“Oh?”
“When suspension was first introduced, the Justice Directorate examined the idea of leaving convicts aware while their bodies slept. It was abandoned almost immediately. The experience was too much like sensory deprivation. The minds went insane very quickly under such circumstances.“
“So how does that help us?” Nigel asked curiously.
“Dimitros Fiech is now unaware of his predicament. He’ll sleep soundly for the next two and a half millennia, and he’ll be offered extensive therapy when he gets out-assuming the Commonwealth is still around. Meanwhile, on Merioneth-”
“Ah. Svein Moalem’s nest knows part of him is in suspension. And as an Immortal-”
“He’ll endure those two and a half thousand years aware of the Fiech body’s state. The punishment is shared. Or rather, it isn’t, because it’s all his. Just experienced in different ways.”
Nelson smiled. “We can live with that.”
“Good, because I have no intention of returning to Merioneth.”
“Thank you for going in the first place,” Nelson said. “The Dynasty is most grateful. We don’t forget who our friends are.”
Paula grinned back shrewdly. “I'll remember that.”
----
OWNER SPACE
Neal Asher
Taken from the Short Story Collection “Galactic Empires” (2008) edited by Gardner Dozois
----
Born and still living in Essex, England, Neal Asher started writing at the age of sixteen but didn't explode into public print until a few years ago; a quite prolific author, he now seems to be everywhere at once. His stories have appeared in Asimov's, Interzone, The Agony Column, Hadrosaur Tales, and elsewhere, and have been collected in Runcible Tales, The Engineer, and Mason's Rats. His extremely popular novels include Gridlinked, Cowl, The Skinner, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, The Voyage of the Sable Keech, The Engineer Reconditioned, and Prador Moon: A Novel of the Polity. Coming up is a new novel, Hill diggers.
In the wild and pulse-poundingly-suspenseful adventure that follows, he vividly demonstrates that it might be a
Similar Books
