Ash: The Lost History Part 71

I am unspeakably grateful for this chance to see Vaughan Davies's complete theory. Anna, thank you. I hardly dare ask more of you, but I would give anything to go to the family house and see if there are surviving family; if - more importantly - there are any surviving, unpublished, papers.

That is, I would give anything except the chance of seeing something *concrete* from Visigothic Carthage being gradually uncovered from beneath the decay of centuries - perhaps more relics; perhaps, even, dare I speculate, a s.h.i.+p?

Please, go in my place?

What surprises me most, now that I have read what you scanned in and sent to me, is that I RECOGNISE Vaughan Davies's theory. Although he has couched it as a metaphor, this is plainly a mid-century attempt to describe one of the most up-to-date tenets of particle physics - the anthropic principle that, on the sub-atomic level, it is human consciousness that maintains reality.

I am already contacting the colleagues I have on the net who are knowledgeable about this. Let me give you what I have from experts in the field - bearing in mind it's only my understanding!

It is we, theorists of the anthropic principle state, who collapse the infinite number of possible states in which the basic particles of the universe exist, and make them momentarily concrete - make them real, if you like, instead of probable. Not at the level of individual consciousness, or even the individual subconscious, but by a consciousness down at the level of the species-mind.

That 'deep consciousness' of the human race maintains the present, the past, and the future. However solid the material world appears, it is we who make it so. It is Mind, collapsing the wavefront of Possibility into Reality.

We are not talking about the normal human mind, however - myself, . you; the man in the street. You or I could not alter reality! Theoretical physics is talking about something far more like the 'racial unconscious' of Jung. Something buried deep in the autonomic limbic system, something so primitive it is not even individual, a leftover from the prehistoric proto-human primates who lived a group-mind consciousness. No more accessible or controllable by us than the process of photosynthesis is to a plant.

For Vaughan Davies ' s 'hands of G.o.d', therefore, read 'human species subconscious' . If I were a physicist myself, I could make this clearer to you.

Leaving aside all this 'new past as well as new future' nonsense, it is just about possible to make a case in theory for Vaughan Davies's 'fracture' - or at any rate, it is not possible to prove that it could NOT happen. If deep consciousness sustains the universe, one supposes deep consciousness might change the universe. And then the leftovers of the change - like a written-over file leaving bits of data in the system (you see how cognisant I am becoming of computers!) - would remain, to puzzle historians like Vaughan Davies.

Of course, not being able to prove something cannot happen is very far from proving it CAN happen; and Davies's theory remains one with the esoteric speculations of some of our modern physicists. But it has a certain beauty as a theory, don't you think?

I am very interested to know if he wrote anything between the publication of ASH: A BIOGRAPHY in 1939 and his death later in the war. Is there news?

- Pierce * * *

Message: #124 (Pierce Ratcliff) Subject: Vaughan Davies Date: 27/11/00 at 03 . 52 p.m.

From: [email protected] Pierce - Okay, okay. I'll go to Sible Hedingham. Nadia says she's going down again anyway.

I'm getting moderate media interest. I think it will depend on whether it's decided that the political-military problems you're having on-site make you too hot to handle, or whether it's those same problems that make you interesting and a probable media 'cause'.

Jonathan Stanley's handling that. I'm trying to keep him on general grounds. Even though your archaeologist found Troy where a poem said it was, I don't really want to have to explain that the ma.n.u.scripts you've translated are in any way questionable. I'll handle that when I HAVE to.

The Vaughan Davies stuff is fascinating, isn't it? Is this guy crazy or WHAT? I thought it was only the present moment that could be made into reality, and so become history? How could there be *two* histories of the world? I don't get it. But then, I'm no scientist, am I?

It's okay for you, Pierce, you can play around with theories, but I have to work for a living! One history is more than enough. It's going to take some neat handling by me to get this all to go right. When you finally meet him, for G.o.d's sake don't go telling Jon Stanley about all this! I can do without him telling me one of my authors is a mad professor.

- Love, Anna * * *

Message: #202 (Anna Longman) Subject: Ash Date: 01/12/00 at 01.11 p.m.

From: [email protected] Anna - I don't know how to tell you what has happened.

I'm handing you over to Isobel.

Message: #203 (Anna Longman) Subject: Ash Date: 01/12/00 at 02 .10 p.m.

From: [email protected] Ms Longman - At Pierce's request, I am conveying to you some very unfortunate news. I regret that it will have an effect on the publication of his book, as well as on our expedition here.

As you know, the great 'find' of this dig has been the Visigothic 'messenger-golems' - one intact and complete, one in remnants. Because the fragmentary golem was already in pieces, I chose that one to be sent off to be tested.

Among the tests we do is C14 radio carbon-dating. When it comes to marble and other forms of stone, dating an object by this method is impossible - one merely gets the age of the rock before it was carved into an object. However, the 'messenger-golems' also include several metallic parts. The broken one had sections of a ball-joint for one arm.

I have now had the radio-carbon dating report back on this bronze joint. I have also doubled-checked with our archaeometallurgist here.

Bronze is an alloy of copper, tin and lead. These metals are smelted together and then cast. During the casting process, when the metal is poured, organic impurities can become mixed in; and a study of the crystalline structure of this joint, when shaved down, showed that just this sort of impurity *had* become incorporated into the structure.

When subjected to radio-carbon dating, these organic fragments gave an extremely odd reading. The tests were repeated, and repeated again.

The lab report, which arrived today, states that in their opinion, the readings show that the organic fragments in the metal contain the same levels of background radiation and pollution as one would expect to find in something which has been growing today.

It seems that the metal for the joints and hinges of the 'messenger-golems' must have been cast during a period of much higher radiation and atmospheric pollution than existed in the fifteenth-century - indeed, a high enough level to make me certain the metal was cast during the last forty years (post-Hiros.h.i.+ma and atomic testing).

I am left with only one possible conclusion. These 'messenger-golems' were not made in the 1400s. They were made recently, possibly very recently. Certainly after the date that, as Pierce tells me, Charles Wade brought the 'Fraxinus' doc.u.ment back to Snows.h.i.+ll Manor.

Frankly; these 'golems' are modern fakes.

I have had little enough time myself to take in this news. Pierce is shattered. You realise that one of the reasons for the extreme security of the dig is that such things do happen in archaeology - fakes are a constant problem - and I never make any announcements until I am sure.

I realise that this leaves Pierce with doc.u.ments that have been re-cla.s.sified as fiction, rather than history, that now have no significant archaeological evidence to support them.

I expect that you will want to consider this news before you make any decisions about publication of Pierce's translations.

Colonel HHHH has authorised offsh.o.r.e diving to resume at first light tomorrow. Despite our problems, I am reluctant to lose any opportunity, given the political instability of the region. I am no longer sure if the images from the ROV cameras are relevant, but of course we shall be following up this area of investigation.

We shall therefore be leaving for the s.h.i.+p at daybreak. I think, if you could contact Pierce, he would appreciate a kind word.

I am so sorry. I wish I could have brought you better news.

- Isobel Napier-Grant * * *

Message: #137 (Pierce Ratcliff) Subject: Ash / archaeology Date: 01/12/00 at 02 .31 p.m.

From: Pierce, Isobel- ARE YOU SURE?.

- Anna.

PART EIGHT.

10 September-11 September ad 1476.

'Ferae Natura Machinae'

Chapter One.

The darkness went on for what seemed hours.

Ash had no way of judging the time. The world was anything she could feel with her fingertips, at arm's length, in cold blackness. Brick, mostly; and damp nitre. Mud or s.h.i.+t underfoot. She found the darkness rea.s.suring. No light must mean no breaks in the sewer-covering: therefore these particular brick pa.s.sages could be safe to traverse.

If there are no pits. No shafts.

If I were with Roberto, now, we'd get drunk. Talk about G.o.dfrey. I'd get so drunk I couldn't stand up. I'd tell him G.o.dfrey was always a d.a.m.n peasant at heart. One time I saw him call boar. Wild boar, out of the forest! And they came. And I forget how many times he's listened to me when I needed to talk to someone who wasn't one of my officers- Not a father. Who needs fathers? Leofric calls himself a father. A friend. Brother. No, more than a brother; what would it have cost me to love you, just once? Just once?

Falling-down drunk. And then we'd go off and get into a fight somewhere.

Jesus, what's Roberto going to say when I tell him this?

If Robert's alive.

The sound of water running deep and smooth ahead of her made her slow her steps. The wall under her fingertips turned a corner. She paced slowly forward around it, putting her feet down toes-first, testing for broken ground.

The sewers went on.

I shouldn't leave him.

I can't do anything else.

I could ask my voice for the way out of here- no, it doesn't know places, it only solves problems- Can I even talk to the Stone Golem, now?

Other -voices?

What are they?

Does Leofric know? Did the Caliph know? Does anybody know? Christ, I want to talk to Leofric! Did anybody know anything about this before today?

I shouldn't have left him.

Pale light made geometric shapes on her retinas.

Ash stopped, her bleeding hand still touching brickwork. The light was strong enough to show her what planes and surfaces it illuminated. A junction of tunnels. Flat walls, curving walls, sweeping up to a cracked roof that let in faint light. Running water. Walkways. Rubble.

This could go on for miles. And it could all come down on my head any second. The earthquake must have shaken a lot of stonework loose.

A noise.

'Valzacchi?' she called, softly.

Nothing.

Ash raised her head. Above, four or five stones had fallen from the tunnel roof. Enough to let through a faint glow of Greek Fire. She thought she heard a confused noise, this time outside, but it faded as she strained to listen.

How long before the rest of this part of the sewer collapses?

Time to be somewhere else.

Unexpected grief bit at her. Her eyes flooded over with tears. She wiped them on her sleeve. She had a moment of knowing, beyond doubt, her responsibility. And I can never say to you that I'm sorry you came here because of me.

Ash pressed her filthy hands over her face, once. She raised her head. Grief will come, she knows, in seconds and minutes when she does not expect it; will bite harder when this shock fades and she accepts into herself the knowledge that - when the reasons are found, the responsibilities accepted, her confession made - it does not matter. It does not change the fact that she will never speak to G.o.dfrey again; he will never answer her.

She whispered, "Goodnight, priest."

Something white and moving caught her eye.

Her hand flashed to her belt and met only the empty scabbard. She flattened her back against the tunnel wall, staring ahead.

Something small and white scuttled across the walkway and off into the darkness.

Ash stepped cautiously forward. Her sandals grated on brick. Two more white things darted off out of her way in a low-slung scuttling run.

"Rats," Ash whispered. "White rats?"

If the earthquake breached the sewers built under the Citadel's streets, could it have breached the walls of the houses cut down into the rock? Am I near House Leofric?

Maybe.

Maybe not. If they are his freak rats, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm close. Rats can move a long way; it's got to have been an hour since the quake, maybe more.

"Hey, ratsies ..." Ash chirruped softly. Nothing moved in the dim light.

A thought came into her mind, of what rats might feed on, down here. She glanced back, into darkness.

"G.o.dfrey ..."

She began to edge around the corner of the junction, treading silently, unwilling to disturb the air and the cracked brickwork sh.e.l.l above her head. She stopped. She looked back.

"You won't approve, G.o.dfrey . . . You always said I was a heathen. I am. I don't believe in mercy and forgiveness. I believe in revenge - I'm going to make somebody hurt because you're dead."

A distant chittering echoed from further down the sewer.

The sweet stench of s.h.i.+t grew worse. Ash started to walk on, with her wet sleeve clamped over her nose. She had nothing left to vomit up. Water flowed sluggish and silent below the brick walkway.

The last light from the cracked roof caught on an irregularity in the wall. She reached out, touched brick, touched darkness - touched emptiness.

With her fingertips, she traced out a long brick slot, as tall as her two hands together. She tentatively reached in. Her knuckles barked on bricks and mortar, no great distance in front of her. Frowning, she slid the flat of her hand up the wall in front of her, and her palm slipped into air, into another slot. And above that, another.

The lower edge of each slot had a lip, made of brick, perhaps two inches thick, and three inches high. Strong enough to bear a man's grip and a man's weight.

Gladness flooded her. She breathed in, unawares; coughed at the sweet stench, and laughed aloud, her eyes running. She slid her hands up and down the surface of the wall, to be sure there was no mistake. As high over her head as she could reach, the brickwork had slots built into it. And it was not a curving wall, not here at this junction of tunnels: the wall above her went straight up.