Damien Broderick - Strange Attractors Original (pdf) (novels to read in english .TXT) 📖

. . if that makes any sense . . . had become different

from the rest of me. Most of me was dead, but I survived.

‘Divide,’ said a sudden voice inside me. ‘Go on! You made it at my

expense, so you can be as I was. Congratulations. And don’t say I

wasn’t a sport in defeat.’

‘Now what’s going on here,’ said the cop, none too happy at being

called out.

‘This wall cell, officer,’ said the complainant, pointing to a

neighbour of mine; ‘She won’t work.’

‘Is this true?’ asked the cop.

My neighbour did enough work there and then to convince the

cop otherwise. The cop clouted the red cell over the rim.

‘Wasting my time with false complaints, think I haven’t enough

to do? Next time I come, I’ll bring a macka.’

‘What do you think of that?’ said my neighbour on the wall. ‘The

red cells are trying to create ill feeling!’

I hadn’t done a tap of work since the Cloud, and I didn’t plan on

doing any. I’d become a thinker, free to dwell on social problems.

One worker not working wouldn’t be noticed.

For the moment, one division will suffice. It hurts to keep silent

when I see so much injustice, but it wouldn’t be prudent to speak

out at present.

‘There’s something wrong with the lollies we’re getting,’ I complained to a neighbour today. ‘They don’t have the nourishment they should.’

‘There’s not enough food to go round,’ she explained.

‘It’s the quality of the food,’ I insisted. ‘It’s poor stuff. Still, with

the system about to end, I guess we have to expect it.’

‘W hat do you mean?’

‘Sorry,’ I replied, nodding in the direction of the queuing red

cells. ‘I can’t say more for the moment.’

When the Cloud came, I was ready. As soon as I heard that

coughing and wheezing, I started dividing like crazy, pushing

neighbours into the void as and where necessary. ‘Hey, what are

you doing?’ they protested. ‘Shut up,’ I answered. ‘You’re still here,

essence intact. You can afford to lose a few daughters, God knows,

I’ve lost my share. Besides, I’m unique: that’s the difference

between us.’

The elixir operon

141

Someone tried to complain, but the cops wouldn’t listen. ‘Settle

your own disputes,’ they said, ‘we’re busy!’

'How do you like that!’ I said loudly. ‘No time for legitimate

complaints, but happy to waste it chasing scripts Control is anxious

to receive.’

‘Here, here’, said a neighbour. ‘Someone just pushed me off this

wall.’

‘O f course, you realise where all that energy comes from?’ I

continued. ‘Lollies we don’t get!’

There’d be no orders coming from Control, once the system was

cooled. And the fact was, these cops had no orders — I knew.

‘You watch your mouth,’ said a big macrophage.

‘Why don’t you pull your head in?’ I replied.

The neighbours were appalled, but I knew what I was doing.

‘So you think you’re pretty smart,’ I continued. ‘Well, I’m sick of

your greedy behaviour, I’m going to teach you a lesson.’

No one, least of all the cop, could believe her ears. An exchange

menial threatening police! A pogrom would follow, unless I acted

quickly.

Thanks to my Elixir, I can divide faster than the average wall cell.

I had a few hundred cells up, and we all started eating. Talk about

eat! We drained that channel of nutriments in seconds. Every cop

in the area got too tired to swim.

A burst of spontaneous applause followed. ‘You sure told that cop

where to get off,’ said a neighbour admiringly. I smiled. She’d

completely forgotten I was the reason the cops had been called.

‘It was nothing,’ I demurred. ‘Those girls forget they’re no better

than the rest of us, and need to be put in their place once in a while.’

‘Terrific,’ said the neighbour. ‘How come you know so much?’

‘I was sent to enlighten you,’ I confessed. ‘With the system about

to collapse — and the world’s ending, did you know*? — cells like

me arc sent along for the general benefit.’

‘T h at’s wonderful,’ said another wall cell. ‘You certainly told that

cop where to get off. Could I do that?’

‘Not right at the moment. In time, perhaps, but only if I receive

your full cooperation. I need plenty of food, and lots of time to

think, so I can’t do any work. Will you support me? It may mean a

little