CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Haunted?" Fabian's eyes widened in delight. "How can an asteroid be haunted?"

"I've no idea; it was only a rumour," Charlotte replied idly. She hugged one of the den's cushions. It was fun doing it on the cushions, there were lots of combinations they could be used in, imagination and gravity the only limits. None of her usual patrons could have coped with her inventiveness; even with their expensive clinic treatments joints creaked, muscles soon tired. But Fabian was more than capable, and becoming increasingly proficient under her tutelage. "How does anywhere get to be haunted?"

It was gloomy in the den, Fabian had turned the biolums off, leaving just the light from the fish tanks and the flat-screens to illuminate them. A black and white videoke scene they had recorded earlier was playing on the biggest flatscreen, showing Charlotte going through one of Charlie Chaplin's slapstick routines. Fabian had stolen a dinner jacket and trousers from his father's wardrobe for her to wear. They were baggy enough to complete the 'little tramp' image, but even after five goes she couldn't get the movements quite right. The holographic exoskeleton which choreographed her limb movements was inordinately difficult to follow. She was beginning to respect just how gymnastic Chaplin must have been.

"If something really terrible happens to a chap, like a murder or something, then his spirit is so heavy with grief that it lingers," Fabian said. "That's what I heard, anyway."

"Hmm, don't think there have been any murders in New London yet. They used to say that shooting stars were the souls of emperors ascending to heaven; perhaps they all migrated into the asteroid."

Fabian giggled. "Napoleon, Caesar, and Queen Victoria all spooking up the habitation cavern together, they'd have a right old time."

Charlotte counted that observation as quite a victory. The Fabian who'd leered at her during the Newfields ball would have launched into a lecture about how shooting stars were actually meteorites breaking apart in the atmosphere as they were coming down. So, stupid, how could they be spirits going up?

She wanted Fabian on her side, not that she had any choice when it came to allies. However, she did have some considerable advantages. He was a fifteen-year-old sex maniac, and completely in love with her. On top of that, he was fascinated with space. And she could satisfy each desire. Got him by the heart, balls, and mind. Poor old Fabian.

"Queen Victoria?" Charlotte enquired.

"Absolutely, she was empress over the biggest empire there ever was."

"Oh, yes. I think we'd better scrap that idea, then. She would be pretty distinctive even as a ghost. The Celestials couldn't mistake her."

"Celestials?" Fabian rolled over onto his belly, resting his chin on his hands. He flipped his hair aside. "Who's that? Go on, tell me. You know you will."

"All right. But you're not to tell anyone else. No showing off to your party friends that you know something they don't."

"Promise. Really, Charlotte, I do."

"All right. The Celestial Apostles are a group of about two hundred people who live up in New London without official clearance."

"You mean like tekmercs?"

"No, not at all like tekmercs. Their name is a bit of a cover-all for all the illegals up there these days. But the original Celestial Apostles were founded as a religious community. From what I could understand they're waiting for something like the Second Coming."

"Why can't they wait for it on Earth?"

"Revelation, chapter four, verse one: there is a door which opens into Heaven—presumably New London."

"Oh, crikey!" Fabian whined in disgust. "All the religious nuts always quote Revelation to back up their visions. It's pure junk, just like Nostradamus. You can read anything you want into it if you're stupid enough."

"I know. Convenient, isn't it?" She flashed him a bright smile. "Anyway, chapter four goes on to say: "Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter." Which is why the Celestials chose to stay in New London, because that's where they'll see whatever it is that's coming. It does have a kind of internal logic."

"I suppose so."

"What started off as a fringe religious movement attracted more people when they realized it was possible to stay up there without Event Horizon's permission; the idealists who really believe in space, the old High Frontier dream. Construction workers mainly, ones whose contract with Event Horizon ran out after the main section of the colony was finished. A whole host of oddballs threw in with them, from research professors right down to maintenance engineers who'd been fired for negligence. All of them determined not to be flung out of what they see as the human race's greatest hope. So the Celestial Apostles preach two kinds of salvation now. Both wings of the movement expect New London to be a fulcrum in human events. I think they may be right, too, the technological Celestials. There are another four asteroid-capture missions in progress; it's the way the future's going. One day there could be hundreds of inhabited asteroids in orbit around Earth, and think how that kind of industrial capacity would boost the global economy."

"But how could these Celestials stay up there if their contracts ran out? I thought only active workers were allowed to live in New London."

"How would you find them, Fabian? There are fifteen thousand people living and working in New London, plus another four or five thousand tourists at any one time. How can you spot two hundred illegals in that crowd? Especially as there's only about seventy police officers, with maybe twice that many Event Horizon security staff. It would be a fulltime job for the lot of them. And the Celestials hide good, Fabian. New London's habitat chamber, Hyde Cavern, has a surface area of twenty-three square kilometres, then there's the tunnels, hundreds of kilometres of them, and natural caves, fissures in the rock that Event Horizon has never mapped out."

Fabian's expression was remote, junky eyes gazing at her. "They live in caves?"

"Yes, most of them, or the unused apartments."

"How come you know all this?" he asked suspiciously.

"I met a couple of them. They try and get round as many tourists as possible, asking us to join. They were very serious, almost evangelical. Everyone's welcome, they said. Not my cup of tea."

"Crikey, you mean they're recruiting more people to join them?"

"Yes."

"But you said there was over two hundred Celestials already. They'd never be able to buy food for that many, not in a closed environment. Besides, the banks would burn their cards. What do they eat?"

Charlotte laughed. "Whatever they want. The only plant you can't eat in Hyde Cavern is the grass, the rest is all fruit and vegetable, every type you can name. A vegetarian's paradise. It looks spectacular, too. Most of the plants were gene-tailored, and the New London Civil Council insisted they were given decent flowers." She drew a deep breath, remembering. "And the scents! Fabian, there's nowhere on Earth that smells so fresh."

He deflated in frustration. "Bloody hell, I want to go there."

She leant over and kissed the nape of his neck. "I'm sorry, Fabian. I didn't mean to make you jealous."

"I'm not. It's just… I wish Father would trust me more."

"He's a busy man right now." She moved her lips on to his spine, tasting warm saltiness. His downy hair brushing against her cheek. "And New London is going to be there for a long, long time."

"Oh, Father's always busy."

"He told me he'd got some very important contracts to tie up this week."

"Crikey, you're not kidding. I'm not even allowed to use my terminal's datalink to the communication platforms. How am I supposed to get hold of the latest VR games, and the new videoke releases?"