01. Midnight At the Well of Souls Read Free Page B

do what you wished."
    "The Markovian brain," Skander whispered.
    "Yes. That's what they discovered. But this brain—this device—seems to be for local use only. That is, it would affect this planet, perhaps the solar system in which it lies, but no more. But, somewhere, there must be a master unit—a unit that could affect at least half, perhaps the whole, galaxy. It must exist, if all the rest of my hypothesis is correct!"
    "Why must it?" Skander asked, a sinking sensation growing in his stomach.
    "Because we are stable," the boy replied, an awe-struck tone in his voice.
    Only the mechanical sounds of the lab intruded for a minute after that, as the implications sank home to both of them.
    "And you have the code?" Skander asked at last.
    "I think so, although it goes against my whole being that such equations can be correct. And yet—do you know why that energy does not show by conventional means?" Skander slowly shook his head negatively, and the mathematician continued. "It is the primal energy itself. Look, do you have that filter with you?"
    Skander nodded numbly and produced the little case. The boy took it eagerly, but instead of placing it in the microscope he went over to the outer wall. Slowly he donned protective coveralls and goggles, used in radiation protection, and told Skander to do likewise. Then he sealed the lab against entry and peeled back the tent lining in the one place where it covered a port—not used here, but these tents were all-purpose and contained many useless features.
    The baleful reddish landscape showed before them at midday. Slowly, carefully, the boy held the tiny filter up to one eye and closed the other. He gasped. "I was right!" he exclaimed.
    After a painful half-minute that felt like an eternity, he handed the little filter to Skander, who did the same.
    Through the filter, the entire landscape was bathed in a ferocious electrical storm. Skander couldn't stop looking at it.
    "The Markovian brain is all around us," Varnett whispered. "It draws what it needs and expels what it does not. If we could contact it—"
    "We'd be like gods," Skander finished.
    Skander reluctantly put down the filter and handed it back to Varnett, who resumed his own gazing.
    "And what sort of universe would you create, Varnett?" Skander almost whispered, reaching under the protective clothing as he spoke and pulling out a knife. "A mathematically perfect place where everyone was absolutely identical, the same equation?"
    "Put your weapon away, Skander," Varnett told him, not taking his gaze from the filtered landscape. "You can't do it without me, and if you think about it you'll realize that. In only a few months they'll find our bodies and you here—or dying in the city—and what will that get you?"
    The knife hesitated a long moment, then slowly slid back into the belt under the protective garment.
    "What the hell are you, Varnett?" asked Skander suspiciously.
    "An aberration," the other replied. "We happen, sometimes. Usually they catch us and that's that. But not me, not yet. They will, though, unless I can do something about it."
    "What do you mean, an aberration?" Skander asked unsurely.
    "I'm human, Skander. A real human. And greedy. I, too, would like to be a god."
    * * *
    It had taken Varnett only seven hours to crack the mathematics, but it would take a lot longer to make the Markovian brain notice them. Their project was so intense that the others began to take notice and inquire, particularly the research assistants. Finally, they decided to take them all in on it—Varnett because he was certain that, once in contact with the Markovian brain, he could adjust the others to his version of events, and Skander because he had no choice. While they worked the lab, the others combed the city and, using small flyers, the other cities and regions of the planet.
    "You are to look for some sort of vent, entrance, gate, or at least a temple or similar structure that might mean some kind of direct