The Namura Stone (The Ammonite Galaxy, book 6)

Chapter 24

SIX STEPPED DOWN into the cavern of ortholiquid on Pictoria fully expecting to find his wife waiting for him, recovered from her injuries. After all, that was what the ortholiquid did, wasn't it? But there was no sign of any of the morphics.

He shouted, but no-one came.

A cold feeling began to take over his stomach. He knew that something was wildly wrong; he could feel it in his bones.

"Diva? DIVA? DIVA!"

The call echoed around the huge cavern and was returned to him with ever-diminishing volume. 'DIVA! DIVA! DIVA! DIVA! DIVA!'

Nothing happened. Six turned towards the ortholake, ignoring a few amorphs which were scattered around the floor of the cavern. If they were not on the shore, then they must be inside the ortholiquid itself. That was the only thing that made sense. But he knew it was not a good sign. Diva would have come, if she had been able to. She would never keep him waiting, worrying like this.

He flung himself into the ortholiquid, using his hands to speed his progress towards the central column. That didn't go too well, either – the lack of viscosity meant that his hands swept through the liquid in a very strange way.

Soon, he was swimming towards the centre of the lake. His eyes darted from side to side. They must be here somewhere. She must be here somewhere.

But he had seen no sign of them by the time he reached the central column. He came to a halt and put one hand on the rock, which poured down from the dipping ceiling of the dome rather as though one huge inverted candle had been fused to another, upright, one. He trod ortholiquid, by now terrified at the thought of what had happened to Diva.

The only thing he could think of to do was to feel his way around the central rock, gradually letting himself slide out of the lighter part of the cavern and into the darkest zone.

Which is where he found them.

The visitor saw him first. The bimorph moved over immediately to hover above his head.

"I am sorry, Six. We hadn't heard your arrival. You see ... that is..." He couldn't go on.

"Diva ...?"

The bimorph flickered. "She ... I ... I am afraid that she is not healing."

"What in Sacras do you mean, not healing?" Six demanded, his blood thudding disconcertingly in his veins. "The ortholiquid is healing her. You said it would."

The visitor prickled at that. "Well it isn't. And she has lost a lot of energy. Her life is draining away."

Six tried to push him out of the way. "Let me see her!"

"You won't be able to help. Nobody can. I am sorry."

Six stared at him. "You can't mean ...? No, that can't be! She ... she was fine ... she just had pains in her imaginary legs! How can that kill her? That one neuron of yours must have fried itself! You aren't making any sense!"

The visitor spun. "We don't understand it either, Six. It seems that what she perceives as blood loss is really a seeping of her vital energy. She has lost so much already that she will not be a viable being for much longer. We have been with her, and the ortholiquid doesn't seem able to cure this. If anything, the loss is becoming greater. There is no way we can stem it. We have tried everything."

"What about Vion? Maybe he could do something!" But Six knew that was impossible. Even if they did bring Vion over, if they did tell him that Diva had not died in the explosion, how could he know how to treat a morphic? It was a stupid suggestion. "Oh, all right, don't answer that!"