machines have mutated.”
“Eh? The nanugs? They were immobilized a thousand years ago.”
“But not killed. They are not the kind of thing that can be killed. Landgrave, did you know that people call me Death?”
Gloriana rolled her eyes. He caught it, and smiled gently.
“Yes, Harriet, so I’ve heard. Ignore it, dear machine. People can be silly and thoughtless.”
His kind words did ease my anguish, somehow. I said, “We should have considered the possibility. During the long, long voyage, the dormant, silenced nanugs shifted their chemistry. Their atoms migrated. Their coding changed, atom by spinning atom. They grew intrinsically less…vehement.”
Surprise showed in his face. “I see. They mutated and evolved inside my body’s ecology.”
“And now have muted their message. Reversed it, indeed. Not hatred and murder, this year, but love and detachment.”
Gloriana rose, already bored. She touched the swelling in her belly. She was undisputed queen of Harvest world, no longer ruined.
“I don’t care for this conversation, Ullie. Come stroll with me in the park.”
The Landgrave rose also, solicitous. As he departed he said to me, over his shoulder, “I am frightened by this thought, Harriet. Either way, the worlds will not escape extreme change. What flips one way can flip back again. Dear oh dear, this will require some investigation.”
I watched them walk out into the sharp, luminous morning of Harvest, its air fragrant with grasses and fruit. I thought I knew which way things would turn out.
To the memory of Cordwainer Smith.
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