Chapter 46 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 46 — The Reminiscence Hydra

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: The Father · Previous: Chapter 45 — Asher · Next: Chapter 47 — Operation Slut Stomp · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by Crawler Milk, 6th Edition>

Summary

The trailer burns. The rest of the chat is still watching their own memories; Carl does not tell Donut about Asher. An outside gun like the Glock would blow apart in his hands unless every round is re-yielded in the bomber's studio. Zev reports that they have been locked out of all their controls.

The keymaster rises on the flaming hospital bed: the Reminiscence Hydra of Malicious Compliance, a level-125 city boss made for the Royal Court, nine heads on stalks — Asher, Tami-Lynn the stepmother, Monobrow Sam, Bea's mother, Sugar Cube, Dick the supervisor, Mr Roth the landlord, Sally from billing, and Judge Lucian holding the cards. The AI tells the universe the planned boss was Carl's father and it refused: 'I do what I want.'

Its tangent explains the rules: the council of nations banned reconstituted loved ones under maturity and ordered the rest used 'Sparingly'. The mantises own a few solar systems, their main one Hive Home, built on someone else's abandoned factories: macro AIs, infant versions of the technology that keeps the inner system running, grown in nurseries before installation — or jettisoned into a star, a fact from a recent lawsuit brief that the AI says it will circle back to. Days before this season the mantises made a breakthrough, a GMO AI with an error-replacement net the AI calls the lobotomizer, a step toward replicating the Eulogist, which they mistake for a stable primal engine. The AI, insisting it is alive, changes one molecule on each head and makes only the keymaster head obey card rules; the rest are minions.

Mordecai's advice: physical damage on the necks only; find the fire head, cut it clean and cauterise, then burn the whole. The hydra brings its own cards — Alpha Male Carl, level 69, with Carl's father's voice and explosive hob-lobbers, and King Croissant, the cat Beatrice and Carl really wanted. Moonshine sets the hydra alight; Carl collars Bea's mother's head, shrinks it off and jams a jug into the stump; Geraldo, Raul and both clockwork Mongos are lost.

Shi Maria eats heads from the top, then asks which one is Asher and opens her fifth eye on Carl, a needle running from her head to his own. In Carl's mind she promises not to blind him in the way he thinks; Asher's echo says he wishes he had known Carl too, and she tells Carl his kin now rests — she has done something for him, and soon he will do something for her. Carl feels the spike as a dam on a river, something building. Tami-Lynn's head, last, says she saw what happened to Carl and made sure Ash would not go through the same thing. The body bursts. Winner.

Characters

• Carl — Set alight, shredded, stepped on; hears Asher's last words and the spider's price.
• Princess Donut — 'I am not fat!'; out-plays Lucian's hand.
• Shi Maria — Eats six heads; opens her eye on Carl and muffles his brother.
• Mongo — Two clockworks lost; the real one saves Carl.
• Asher — A head on a stalk, lightning, 'I wish I'd known you, too.'
• Tami-Lynn — Tami-Lynn: 'I made sure it was done right.'
• Judge Lucian — Cat-show judge, deckmaster, sniffer.
• Alpha Male Carl — The son the father wanted, with the father's voice.
• King Croissant — The kitten Bea and Carl really wanted.
• Bea's mother — The fire head; a breeder's cage.
• Sam — A death ray.
• Jola — Half a face gone; timed out hissing.
• Geraldo — Skeletonised mid-flip.
• Raul — Killed by a dude-bro's fist.
• Mordecai — The hydra method.
• Zev — Locked out of the controls.

Locations

• The trailer — Burning to the ground, the yard a battlefield, the cliff eating the park.

Motifs

• The System AI — 'I do what I want'; 'I'm alive. I'm valid. I'm older than time'; one molecule changed.
• The Eulogist — Named: the engine of the centre system the mantises try to copy.
• Primal engines — Hive Home, nurseries, the lobotomizer, infants jettisoned into stars, an amusement park.
• The Burrowers — The mantis team quit the day the AI learned of the jettisoning; 'we'll circle back.'
• Carl's family — Every face he knew as a monster that says what they never said; a father's voice in his own mouth.
• The river in Carl's head — A needle, a dam, a debt: 'soon you will do something for me.'
• This is what we lost — The president as a pterodactyl; Conner; Sparingly.
• T'Ghee totems — Deshroud, Snatched, Force Discard; minions versus keymaster.
• Bea — Her mother's face and cattery; the better kitten.
• Explosives — Moonshine jugs, snap collars, a shrink wand.