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other blended with his self and all that lay beneath that self; and together,
that combination mixing yet again into a larger ocean of otherness.
He could not subvocalize. He could not recover the toolkit or any portion of
it. He could not will himself out.
With an even greater sensation of loss and terror Martin realized his last
defense
awareness of circumstance was fading. He would not even know what had
happened;
all memory and all judgment fleeing in the face of this universal solvent.
One last word hung like a custom neon sign and flashed several times before
winking out.
Underestimate
Margery walked between the still forms of Burke and Neuman, fastidiously
examining the connections, the displays. She noticed that a massive jootz
across channels had occurred and wondered what the team was up to. Out of
curiosity, she charted the extent of the jootz and realized that the probe
locus had been moved out of the hypothalamus completely, to the farthest
radius of her premapped points in the hippocampus.
Puzzled, she rested her chin in one palm and tried to calculate the advantage
of being so far from the prechosen channels. Had Burke come across something
unusual? He was much closer to deep dream channels those associated with
fixing of final permanent memory and reduction of temporary data storage-than
he was to the channels commonly associated with the Country.
Erwin, look at this.
Erwin walked up beside her. He calmly looked over the display and lifted an
eyebrow. Then be called up Goldsmith s neural activity chart and pointed to a
spike and a fold. There s something going on in deep dreams, he said.
He s in neutral sleep. Memory fix dreams don t happen in neutral sleep.
Not normal mf dreams, Erwin said.
Should we contact them and find out what they re up to?
Erwin considered this possibility, frowned and shook his head. They have
ripcords.
Their traces are close to normal. Spike and fold might signify surprise but
maybe that s good; maybe they re finding something significant. Let them
wander for a while. I m sure Burke knows what be s doing.
Margery shook her bead but finally agreed; Burke had been up Country many
times.
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The New Marassa
They had been born an age ago twin brothers one white one black children of
the great white father Sir who brought them up in the land of Guinée Under the
Sea and who
favored the white brother over the black, the black being favored by his
mother Queen
Erzulie, who lived far from Sir in a small home acrots the gulf. At low tide
the twins often sailed across the gulf in a tiny shell boat of their own
manufacture, their oarsman an ancient chimpanzee who told them stories of the
refugees and the slaves, stories that broke their hearts but especially the
heart of the black twin, whose name was Martin
Emanuel.
The white twin s name was Devoted to Sir. He was the more feminine of the two
in appearance; at times he grew breasts and sprouted long brown hair, to
startle his brother, but this was a land of magic and change and anything
might be expected. Both Sir and
Erzulie told them they were gods and had the great responsibility of looking
over all the citizens of Guinée Under the Sea. The twins carried Out this
responsibility solemnly and carefully but could not always satisfy Sir, who
would fly into a hideous rage when some aspect or another of the ceremonies
was not observed properly or something else went wrong.
When snow fell on Guinée Under the Sea and covered the towns to their
rooftops, Sir would be reminded of his defeat and death in the old times and
become terribly angry.
When he was angry his white skin would darken like the mantle of a storm cloud
until he was black as night, block as sin, black as iron black as sleep black
as death.
Sir s rage went beyond all bounds and he beat Martin Emanuel severely but only
cuffed Devoted to Sir. Erzulie took Martin Emanuel in her arms and comforted
him and said this would all soon be over. Your father is a strong and willful
man, she told him.
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