Brian Stableford - Man in a Cage

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ManinaCage

Man in a Cage

Brian M. Stableford

AN [e-reads] BOOK

New York, NY

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or

mechanical, including photocopy, recording, scanning or any information storage retrieval system,

without explicit permission in writing from the Author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s

imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locals or persons, living or dead,

is entirely coincidental.

First e-reads publication 2003

www.e-reads.com

ISBN 0-7592-4770-6

For Katharine Madge

and Chris Macrae

Other books by Brian M. Stableford also available in e-reads editions

YOUNG BLOOD

Table of Contents

MADMAN’S DANCE: Genesis

Titan Nine: There and Back Again

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Cage of Darkness: “The Secondhand Life of Harker Lee,” by Harker Lee (Annotated by J. F. 
Segal) . . . Chapter One
MADMAN’S DANCE: Sensual Experiences in a Virgin Universe
Titan Nine: Security
Cage of Darkness: Claustrophobia
MADMAN’S DANCE: Tempus Fugitive
Titan Nine: Letter to Canaan
Cage of Darkness: The Bottom Falling Out of the World
MADMAN’S DANCE: Mime to Silent Music
Titan Nine: Horizons
MADMAN’S DANCE: A Question of Characterization
Cage of Darkness: Me and My Shadow (Chapter 9 — The Final Chapter — of “The Secondhand Life of 
Harker Lee”)
MADMAN’S DANCE: Recombinations in the Kaleidoscope
Titan Nine: Sobieski’s Shield
Cage of Darkness: An Innocent Man
MADMAN’S DANCE: The Acquired Taste of Desolation
Titan Nine: I’m Writing a Letter to Daddy, His Address Is Heaven Above
MADMAN’S DANCE: Embracing Oblivion
Cage of Darkness: “The Secondhand Life of Harker Lee,” Chapter Six: How to Be a Successful 
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Schizophrenic
MADMAN’S DANCE: Crying in the Wilderness
Titan Nine: The Titans
Cage of Darkness: Survival
MADMAN’S DANCE: While the Gods Sleep Restfully, the World Is Free from Nightmares
Titan Nine: Five-Card Stud
MADMAN’S DANCE: Lost in the Metaplastic Maze
Titan Nine: The Waiting Game
Cage of Darkness: The Man Inside
MADMAN’S DANCE: In the Prison of My Dreams
Titan Nine: The Man Who Came Back
Cage of Darkness: Contacts
MADMAN’S DANCE: Eternity in the Balance
Titan Nine: Just Lie Down and Relax — This Isn’t Going to Hurt a Bit
Cage of Darkness: We All Need Somebody to Look Down On
MADMAN’S DANCE: Vanished from My Hand, Left Me Blindly Here to Stand
Titan Nine: Standing on the Brink of Infinity, Looking at My Watch
Cage of Darkness: Time Isn’t onMy Side
MADMAN’S DANCE: Specific Spatiotemporal Patterns of Neuronal Activity
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Titan Nine: Tomorrow Morning Is the Beginning of the Rest of Your Life

Cage of Darkness: Strategies

MADMAN’S DANCE: You Can Drive a Horse to Water, but a Pencil Must Be Lead

Titan Nine: Where No Man Has Gone Before, Beyond the Split Infinitive

MADMAN’S DANCE: Adeste Fideles, Laete Triumphantes

Madman’s Dance

Genesis

In the beginning, you create the heaven and the earth. That’s the first thing you do, every time — build

cages. And the second thing you do is to pin the labels on.

And the earth is without form, and void; and darkness is upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit moves

upon the face of the waters.

And you say, Let there be light: and there is light.

And you see the light, that it is good: and you divide the light from the darkness, and the pattern of light

and darkness is one of the cages.

And you call the light Day, and the darkness you call Night. And the evening and the morning are the

first day. And you rest. You’re not attempting the record. That’s right. Play it safe. Play it by the book.

Easy now.

And you say, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the

waters.

And you make the firmament and divide the waters which are under the firmament from the waters which

are above the firmament: and it is so.

And you call the firmament a cage of darkness. And the evening and the morning are the second day.

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That’s right. A cage of darkness. Face it. Make it what it is. Start with a clean sheet. No hypocrisy. You

and I, Titan. Never forget that. Come the time, we go running home, right back into the cage of darkness.

Don’t forget the door. Face the facts. You’re not God, you’re just playing the game. Come the time, the

game ends. You and I, we have the sense to go home, whether it rains or not. It’s a game, only a game.

And you say, Let the waters under the cage of darkness be gathered together into one place, and let the

dry land appear: and it is so.

And you call the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters you call Seas: and you see that it

is good.

And you say, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after

his kind, whose seed is in itself the earth: and it is so.

And the earth brings forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose

seed is in itself, after his kind: and you see that it is good.

And the evening and the morning are the third day. Careful now, it’s taking shape. Think carefully, when

you fill these cages, is there anything you could well do without? If there is, should you? How much self-

indulgence can you permit yourself? How much can you permit yourself inyour image? If anything. Dare

you tamper with the script? Dare you get more than a few little words — just a label — out of line? How

much can you give yourself? It’s only a game. You have to remember that. You have to go back. The

door is open now, and you’re free. But you’re on parole. You’ve got to leave that door where it is.

You’ve got to carry that door with you wherever you are. And if you’re everywhere, then that door has to

be everywhere, too. You have to have that door. Don’t make a world for yourself which will shut that

door, which won’t permit that door to be open, and to be with you. Be careful. Be careful. The book is

safe. You know the book.

And you say, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night: and let

them be for signs, and for seasons and for days, and years.

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the cage of darkness to give light upon the earth: and it is

so.

And you make two great lights; the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night: you

make the stars also.

And you set them in the firmament of the cage of darkness to give light upon the earth.

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and you see that it

is good.

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And the evening and the morning are the fourth day. You have to have the stars. The stars are necessary.

Without the stars there’s nothing to laugh at you from beyond the bars of the cage. Without something to

laugh at you from beyond, how are you going to remind yourself of the cage, while you are yourself

beyond? Look at the stars, Titan, look at the stars.

And you say, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may

fly above the earth in the open sky.

And you create great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the water brings forth

abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and you see that it is good.

And you bless them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply

in the earth.

And the evening and the morning are the fifth day. No sweat. But the difficult bit is right around the

corner. Tread softly, for you trespass on my dreams. Play it by ear, but play it well. This passage is the

crucial one. Slip here and you can kiss good-bye to that cage which caresses you with such exquisite

claustrophobia. Count your motives, and keep time. Whatever you do, keep time.

And you say, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and

beast of the earth after his kind; and it is so.

And you make the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that

creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and you see that it is good.

And you say, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish

of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over every creeping

thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So you create man in your own image, in the image of yourself create you him; male and female create

you them.

And you say unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have

dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth

upon the earth.

And you say, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,

and every tree, in the which is the first of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the

earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it is so.

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And you see every thing that you have made, and, behold it is very good. And the evening and the

morning are the sixth day. Thus the cage of darkness and the earth which it contains are finished, and all

the host of them. And you have to live with this, and in this, and for this. You just don’t know what you

might have done. How can you?

Inyour image.

And mine, because don’t kid yourself that your image isn’t mine. In our own image, you have created

man. You have created Sam Mastervine and Luis Dalquier and Nathan Petrie. And Judas Dancer. In our

image.

Was there somethingwrong with Adam and Eve? This is a game, you know. A game of God, but a game

just the same. You, of all people, cannot afford delusions of grandeur. You cannot afford to be avain god.

You have that door to carry behind you, in your pocket, in your hand, on your back. You can’t close that

door on the whole damn human race. You’re not Lindquist — you know better than he did. Youknow

about that door. When Lindquist went into the labyrinth he didn’t have any way back, but if you get lost

it’s you and you alone. We have to goback, you and I. Back into captivity, back into that cage of darkness

with all the rest of the animals. You know that. I know what you have up your sleeve. Adam carried the

can: he took the responsibility that should never have been his, and he caged humanity in blood, sweat,

and tears. But you can’t do that, because I won’t let you. You can’t hand over the responsibility and the

blame to Judas Dancer. I won’t let you.Judas won’t let you. He doesn’t have to take that from you, and he

won’t. We’re free, Judas and I, and we’re free to go back to our cage. You can’t stop us. We’re not going

to let you carry this game into all eternity.

We’ll keep that door open if you can’t. If you won’t.

You sleep, you dream. But I’ll be awake inside your dream, and come the time I’m going to sound an

alarm like you never heard, and I’ll take you through that door if I have to blast your universe apart!

Titan Nine

There and

Back Again

It was as hot as hell inside the Chevy, but I wasn’t complaining. It could have been a lot worse — an

armored van with blacked-out windows, for instance. Plus manacles. I was privileged, and it was

advisable to be seen to be appreciating it. No time off for good behavior, of course, buteasier time — and

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you can’t appreciate how much that means.

The desert looked like a well-kept woman — all powder and rouge on the surface, but pleasantly shaped

and good looking in spite of it all. I appreciated that, too — you get a taste for dead space eventually.

We could see the tower above the big iron gates from a good few miles away.

“That it?” the driver asked me. How the hell was I supposed to know? I told him I guessed so. The guy

beside me grinned, but he didn’t say anything. We’d already been through all the banal remarks like how

much I was looking forward to a change of scene and how the project was shut up so tight it would be

just like Block C except the personnel would be crazier. We’d ridden most of the way in silence. How

can you build up a conversation out of idiot cracks like that? Not that these guys were idiots, mind — just

that we didn’t exactly have a lot in common.

The driver reined in the car about ten yards short of the gates. He looked expectantly toward the

guardhouse, but he didn’t make a move. Neither did I. There’s protocol to be observed at times like this.

They could come out and fetch me.

There was a pause before the gateman came out. He’d been on the phone. He looked us all over, with

speculative contemplation, as if he were playing on a panel game on TV. Spot the loony. It wasn’t

difficult. The honor guard were in uniform. I wasn’t.

My companion leaned across to unlock the near-side front door. The gateman opened it and held it while

I pushed the seat forward and climbed out. The security man followed me. The titan man was a corporal

— just the commissionaire. Titan obviously thought it was too hot to leave a reception committee kicking

their heels in the guardhouse. There would be time to waste while they got out here so that I could be

handed over with all due ceremony.

I looked up at the tower, where the Pfc. was pointing his beady eye down the barrel of his machine gun,

sighting on the end of my nose. I didn’t know whether it was idle amusement or regulations — I sure as

hell wasn’t contemplating violence and/or escape.

“Just stand where you are and take it easy,” said the corporal. He was drawling slowly, to cover up his

uneasiness. His eyes drifted to the light moccasins on my feet, and he shook his head slightly as he raised

them slowly past the old denims and the red corduroy shirt.

“Sorry, son,” I said. “Just seems like I hadn’t got a damn thing to wear.” It had been ten years and more.

Perhaps the soldier expected that the powers that be would let me keep my nice prison uniform for

occasions like this one. No chance. Government property.

I took a few deep breaths of clean air and let my eyes roam around the far horizon.

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“You’re taking a chance making me stand here,” I said, to no one in particular. “I’m not used to it. I could

drop dead of agoraphobia any second.”

“Like hell,” said my guardian angel. “You ain’t been away from empty space so long that you’ve

forgotten what it looks like.”

“Looks like, no,” I conceded. “Feels like, yes.”

“You can’t go inside,” said the corporal. His eyes flicked sideways and slightly upward. There was a

remote-control camera mounted on the guardhouse side of the gate. The lens was staring at me with frank

curiosity.It’s not me, fella, it’s the camera. I could have died laughing.

“This is my best side,” I said, turning away from the lens altogether to transfix my pet security man with

a gaze of injured innocence. He opened his mouth to say something nasty, but his thoughts caught up

with his tongue, and he permitted himself to make allowances for the fact that I was crazy. He didn’t like

me, but he wasn’t a bad guy by any means.

The soldier simply stared. Eventually, I went back to grinning at the lens. There was a buzz from the

corporal’s cubbyhole. He backed up to it and pulled a phone receiver from its hiding place like a rabbit

from a hat.

“You got the papers,” he said to the security man. He had to come forward and take them, because my

traveling companion had strict orders to stay behind me every possible moment. Nobody turns his back

on Harker Lee. I wonder why not.

“The captain’ll be here any moment,” muttered the corporal, turning an anxious eye back on the road

which led away from the gate. That was a pointless exercise, because the road ridged about two hundred

yards beyond the guardhouse, and the whole of titan base was hidden in a crater.

“You get lonely out here?” I asked him, helping to pass the time. “Or do you talk to him?” I jerked a

thumb toward the kid in the tower, who was still playing make-believe games with his machine gun. I

hoped the safety catch was on. Do machine guns have safety catches?

“It’s not so bad,” the guard replied. “I can read.”

“Clever boy,” I said, and he colored slightly.

More silence.

“We could unload my luggage,” I commented idly. But my guardian angel just handed me the briefcase

without having to move. He had it ready all the time. There was nothing in it but paper. I travel light. Not

even an alarm clock.

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A jeep roared over the hill and swooped down the long, dusty curve to the guardhouse. The driver

deliberately skidded it when he slowed it around to a halt at right angles to the gate. Fancy man, I

thought.

The captain got out. He was alone. His shirt was stained with sweat, and he hadn’t combed his hair. He

was a disgrace to his uniform. I noticed that he didn’t have a sidearm, and I began to wonder what the act

was all about. Were they trying to appear informal in the hope of making me feel at home? Trying to

emphasize my change of scene, making it obvious that I was no longer an animal in a cage but a guinea

pig on a dissecting block?

The corporal waved at his little friend up in the tower, and the gates began to slide back. The Pfc. never

moved from his machine gun, though.

The gates screeched. Obviously, they weren’t opened and shut with any frequency. They, at least, were

honest. They knew that once I was inside I wouldn’t be coming out again.

The corporal and the captain swapped muttered comments, and the mysterious papers changed hands yet

again. The captain pulled a pen out of his pants pocket.

My God, I thought, the bastard’s actually signing a receipt for me. I felt like registered mail.

The receipt went back to my erstwhile custodian, via the corporal, while the captain affected a casual

stroll as he came to shake me by the hand.

I gave his sweaty palm a dirty look, but I shook it and gave him one of my nicest smiles. No point in

starting out on the wrong foot. After all, this crowd were going to expect me to be grateful because they’d

taken me out of my crowded grave and brought me back to the land of the clean and wholesome. I didn’t

want them to be too deeply shocked too soon. Not that I was afraid they’d send me back and catch

another victim. I just didn’t want to shatter their illusions.

“I’m Goodman,” said the captain.

“Where’s Jenny?” I replied. He looked startled. “Why didn’t she come out to meet me?” I elaborated.

His eyes replied: Why the hell should she? What he actually said was: “I was detailed to meet you and

take you to see the colonel. We’ll . . . hand you over . . . to Dr. Segal after that.”

“I see,” I said amiably. “Brass first, happy reunions later. Mind if I say good-bye to my last nursemaid?”

Goodman’s stare whipped past me to catch the eyes of my ex-guardian angel, who smiled beatifically.

Now that I was out of his hands he could afford to be patronizing. He wasn’t a great fan of the military.

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