Now, for reasons unexplained, the Enzathi changed its stance.
“Ren. Cho. We share something unique ... maybe in all the universe. We didn’t ask for it, but we have a responsibility to see this through to its natural end. It’s telling me it needs to be whole again.”
Ren and Cho held hands. He’d seen them bond over the gift they shared. Were they in love? Did it matter?
“Telling you?” Ren asked. “How?”
“Over time, the floaters reorganized into a language base I sometimes understood. Many words still don’t translate to Engleshe. But it manifests into human form. It’s with me now.”
Their cheeks dropped at the revelation.
“You have dialogue with it?” Cho asked. “You never told us.”
“I couldn’t. I was paying off a debt.”
“What debt?” Ren said, his eyes slitted with skepticism.
“You remember when we gathered in my office on voting day for MR-44? All sixteen of us had a simultaneous tremor that morning. You insisted it meant something important. I put it aside until later.
“There was a kidnapping. No way to resolve it without casualties. The intelligence awoke inside me. It manifested in the form of my daughter. And it offered to help.”
“Help?” Cho said. “How?”
“When I was close enough to the kidnappers and their hostages, it released a bubble of energy, not the same as Mau’s. It wasn’t destructive. It put everyone to sleep. No one was harmed, but it asked for a payment.”
Ren nodded.
“Your silence.”
“Yes. In time, I realized it was, for lack of a better concept, putting itself back together. When the group met two weeks later, we held hands. You know what happened next.”
Their eyes ballooned at the revelation. They stared at him with a mix of dismay and reverence in equal measure. Cho spoke first.
“Thirteen minds cleared. You absorbed their fragments.”
“Yes. I didn’t feel any different at first. Had no idea. No one did. Days later, I saw an enormous change in the language base. The avatar talked to me in a clear voice. Simple Engleshe. It’s Mau. The man I met toward his end but gentler.”
Downright peaceful, actually. Gave Trevor no reason to distrust him ... so far.
“He’s there with you now?” Ren asked.
Trevor glanced at the quiet man with a half-smile.
“Yes. It’s called the Enzathi. It speaks with one voice, but I suspect it represents many. And it can’t move forward until it’s whole again. That’s why you’re here.”
“So you can take the last fragments.”
“Not take, Ren. I’ve learned many things, and one part is clear. It was never meant to stay inside us for long. In the final weeks before Mau died, the Enzathi realized it could not contain the Void gas any longer. It had been held in check for decades – not to save Mau but to protect itself.
“It convinced Mau to start transferring pieces of it into others. That’s why he infected people on the Crossway. He transferred the last and largest fragment to me right before he died. There was nothing left to contain the Void energy.
“The Enzathi spent months trying to reunite. It decided to merge inside me. I only realized this later, after I absorbed most of the fragments. The Enzathi was at a loss to understand why your fragments did not transfer. Until now.”
The next bit was, by any objective standard, a little on the nutty side, so Trevor allowed his friends to absorb the truth.
“What did you discover?” Cho asked.
“The last pieces don’t want to leave because they’ve bonded with you, inasmuch as they understand the concept. They bonded because you love them. You’ve made them part of who you are.”
That bit didn’t come out as articulately as Trevor hoped. He accepted Mau’s latest declaration without proof. Mau told him the Enzathi did not reach this conclusion until it finally translated a single foreign concept.
Love.
Ren and Cho held each other’s hands.
“No,” Ren said. “That can’t be.”
“Which part? That they bonded or that you love them?”
“We were given a gift,” Cho answered. “When they had the chance to leave, they stayed with us. You’re wrong, Trevor. The Enzathi is wrong. Our fragments stay because they feel safe in our care.”
Cho never spoke in such terms before.
“Have they told you this, Cho?”
“It’s the only explanation.”
Time for some tough talk.
