Realware

Jostled by a knot of bewildered lifters, Phil was seized with a sudden terror that he'd lost Yoke's alla. He dug out the contents of his pocket. His fuzz-knife, his "fishbowl," and, yes, Yoke's alla. Wubwub happened to look over at Phil just then, and did kind of a double take, as if he was surprised at the stuff in Phil's hands.

But then the Snookses had arrived. At the very last moment before they opened fire on the aliens, the air around the Metamartians flickered, and a silvery disk-shape formed to enclose them. The supersonic flechettes from the rail-guns bounced off the silver disk like hail off a tin roof; the hot tongues from the flamethrowers licked against the disk as harmlessly as water on a stone. The flying saucer lifted slowly into the sky, gave a twitch and shot off toward the heartland at an incalculable speed. Kevvie stood in the center of the deck, stretching up her arms and screaming that she wanted to come along. Tempest and her dog got into a Snooks moldie and headed for Santa Cruz. And Phil and his friends hurried down the gangplank toward Babs's warehouse, not looking back.

CHAPTER SIX

YOKE, BARS, RANDY, YOKE

Yoke, February 26

"Pig!" is what Yoke had been about to shout --defiant to the last. But the sound never made it to her lips. As soon as Kevvie said "Begone," Yoke felt the alla-mesh tingling on her skin, and the next instant she was air. There was an unca

I'm dead, thought Yoke. I'm a ghost!

She could sense the people who'd been all around her just now, not that she could see them anymore, but she could feel their presence: her mother, and Babs and Randy, and Phil -- had she really said she'd marry him? Kevvie's vibe was out there too. Triumphant.

Yoke convulsed in a spasm of stark hatred. It was disorienting, and when she tried to find Ma and the others again, she couldn't. It was like being blindfolded and feeling around in a china shop with baseball-bat arms, even-thing getting smashed and falling apart, oh no this was the end -- but, wait, what about her alla? Randy had said her alla could remember her, which meant--what? Yoke couldn't seem to think logically, there was dark slush all around her and something was coming for her, something making a sound that wasn't a sound.

Krunk krunk krunk.

It was prying at her--ow--scraping at her like she was a stain on a piece of cloth -- krunk krink krunky -- oh this felt bad. And then she was drifting out into some other level, she was out of normal space entirely and -- yes! -- she could see something bright.

It was a light, a White Light. Yoke was flying gladly toward it. God. There were others flying with her. Yoke flashed a vision of someone driving a car in a snowstorm with the snow-flakes flying into the headlights, not that Yoke had ever seen snow in real life, but now she did see it, she was the driver, tasting coffee in her mouth, and then she was one of the snowflakes, rushing through the cold black toward the car, yet never reaching it, as if the path to the Light were being stretched.

Yoke was a flat little thing endlessly tumbling after the Light. It felt good to do this, she was happy, getting good vibes off that Light but--zow! -- now something shot past in front of her, a thing like a Bardo demon, gulping down a bunch of the snow-flakes, danger, danger--zow!--another one going by with something like a beak, but, oh well, nothing to be done, once you're dead the worst has already happened, right, and once you're born you're in for it too--zow! --"Hi, there!"

Yoke kept flying on toward the Light and kind of laughing at the Bardo demons, they made it interesting was all, the demons were woof shuttles for this tapestry, with Yoke and the other souls the world-line warp threads on the White Light loom, it was good and--zow!!-- why worry, the Light would take care of all things.

And then all of a sudden it was like in a flying dream when your dream self remembers you can't really fly--and you fall, pulled down from the heavens by reality's anchor-rope --"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaauuugh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaauuugh! Aaaaaaaaaa-aaaauuugh!"

"It's okay, Yoke!"

"She's back!"

"Oh, Yoke! Dear little Yoke!"

"It's me, darling!"

"Hold her, she's going to fall!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaauuugh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaauuugh! Huh?"

Yoke could see! She was back in good old three-dimensional space, her mother and her friends all around her, yes, Ma and Phil, Randy and Babs, Cobb squeezing in too, even Planet and stupid Willa Jean, all of them touching her, oh dear life. Yoke slumped to the floor sobbing. There was something hard and rubbery in the back of her throat; she coughed it out; it was the nose blocker. Half an hour later she felt like her old self again, sitting on Babs's ant-patterned silk couch talking with the others. Phil and Darla sat on either side of her, and Babs and Randy were on another couch. Cobb was flopped down on the floor, his head sticking out of a formless puddle. A huge green brocade fabricant tapestry covered the nearest wall.

"What happened to your foot, Ma?" asked Yoke. "Your little toe is gone."

"It happened when Om's powerball swallowed me on Christmas Eve," said Darla. "I tried kicking my way out."

"Poor Ma. You were in there for a long time. Thank God you're back."

"I don't matter that much, Yoke. I'm old. Thank God you're back." Yoke kept testing her thoughts and looking down at her body, her precious flesh, touching herself, her leg, her stomach, her face, yes, all of her was back, even the same clothes that she'd been wearing --her new stretch leather pants and plush green shirt--and even the gem necklace Phil had given her, as well as his father's gold ring, loose on her finger. She was going to have to think about that one.

"Did you see the SUN?" asked Cobb.

"The White Light," said Yoke. "I saw it." If she looked within herself, she could still see feel the Light. A savor of serenity, a sense that everything was okay.

"I saw it too," said Phil. "When I was peeking out of Om. Da flew into it."

"It had good vibes," added Darla. She was wearing a shapeless dress with purple patterns on it. Not like something she'd normally wear.

"The best vibes ever," said Yoke. "It's wonderful to know that God is real. And then you guys brought me back?"

"Slick as snot on a doorknob," said Randy. "All I did was hold your alla, and it goes, 'Shall I actualize a new Yoke Starr-Mydol or shall I execute a fresh registration?' And I go, 'Yaaar, make me one o' them Yokes.' And then here you come, screamin' your head off."

"It was quite a shock," said Yoke. "I was already in heaven, I guess." The impossibly bright memories were fading. "And now I'm back to -- this." Though life was wonderful, it was hard. There were so many things to see and feel and think about. Phil kept putting his hands on her, for one thing, and it was a little bit a

"It's about time I got an alla!" interjected Cobb. "Fuck this 'humans only' bullshit. Anyway, I am human. I'm the same damned information I always was."

"I'm starting to see your point," said Yoke. "Now that I'm made of realware. Stop touching me every second, Phil."

"I want an alla too," said Darla on Yoke's other side. "Just think what I could do to our cubby, Yoke. We could have a swimming pool. Can you really make me one, Phil?"