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[velocette]

Well, what do you know, they updated the Pearly Gates. I always thought, you know, if we got to an afterlife it wouldn't be brimstone. Probably wouldn't be a crocodile and a set of scales either.

[The Motorcycle Boy has to pause to light a cigarette]

I didn't figure the Gatekeeper would be so much more fair than the Man in the Book. You can never get a square deal in life, maybe it’s about time we got one in death.

[There’s another pause, this one more lengthy. His eyes don’t focus on the camera anymore, but on something just above it.]

How many souls are we ferrying?

Comments

[routemistress]

Did you know most of the Ancient Egyptian religious iconography came from the Osirians 'aving parked an offworld prison of their own down there?

[velocette]

[No he hadn't. He watches her, smiling a little.]

Were they as voracious as the Egyptians?

[routemistress]

Quite a bit worse. Amazing 'ow a culture can run into the billions of years and not get even a little civilised.

[velocette]

[There's a sad flicker of a smile.]

Well, societies are only as civilized as their end goals. You can't fault them for always wanting more.

[routemistress]

...I really can, you know. Every chance I bloody get.

[velocette]

But isn't their sin the same as ours? To keep living we have to keep consuming, keep moving...keep wanting. What'd they do that's different?

[routemistress]

...That's a good point, actually. For me, it's a question of scale and degree, I think? You're right that a certain amount of ...call it predatory behaviour's built into bein' alive. But I've seen it applied on galaxy-wide scales. It's not a thing you forget easy.

Take it on a case by case basis, usually. Same like people, come to that.

[velocette]

[He nods, but mostly he's watching her, steady and unblinking.]

But then again...who's to say you have to find all genocide immoral. The same creatures aren't being killed, not for the same reasons. Murder's up there with calculus for all its complexities. Or so I'd like to think.

[routemistress]

[She watches him back, plainly fascinated.]

You've spent a lot of time thinkin' on this. I'm not sayin' you're wrong - it's people that are complex, all sides of their lives and deaths and loves. I don't think too 'ard about relative morality meself, it gives me an 'eadache. I find I usually know what I need to put a stop to when I walk into it.

[velocette]

What needs stopping here?

[routemistress]

It varies. Usually just the odd murder. We've 'ad people spark off rabies epidemics and mandrake bombs just for kicks though. Generally we try an' nip that sort of thing in the bud if we can.

What about you, lovey? What decided you to come 'ere?

[velocette]

Mandrake bomb. [And there's a faint smile. It's vague, somewhere between bemused and amused.]

I came, because I had a hunch. And I got shot in the head. Seemed like a good idea to try life one more time, see if it'd be different away from the same old streets.

[routemistress]

I missed out on that one - made everyone in the mess hall see monsters. It were a bloodbath. This boat's got some dangerous people on board, even with their teeth pulled for the duration.

[She smiles back; she'd have a hard time articulating reasons just yet, but her approval's genuine.]

Good a reason as any. Maybe better'n most. A hunch - in my experience those are usually a future echo. The multiverse leaving you a clue.

[velocette]

I figure anyone can be dangerous. We have prisoners, and we have people to keep 'em in line...and we're keeping the peace because right now we have more power than our inmates. It's a dangerous mine we're digging.

[He says it smoothly, almost cheerfully.]

You're the first person in a long time who's talked about the multiverse. The last girl, she ended up doing horse, I guess she couldn't handle a life knowing there's more and never being able to touch it.

[routemistress]

[It's the last story that makes Iris wince in sympathy.]

...I've been lucky. I'd shrivel inside if I couldn't keep explorin' too. I take people with me a lot.

[She stops short of her almost-spoken offer to go find that girl right now. This is what Iris does, and the thought of someone scrabbling fruitlessly at a barrier Iris is privileged to move through easily hurts horribly. But the beauty of time travel is that no matter how urgently painful, most things can still wait without waiting. But she won't forget.]

It's a diamond mine. It's worth it. I... it doesn't sit easy on me, workin' in a place 'alf the passengers didn't choose to be. We do right by 'em though, we're 'ere to set 'em free. More free than most of 'em've ever got to be before.

[velocette]

I don't think they could tell you what 'free' really means. Half of them, if they got what they say they're after, they'd just find another set of bars to hold them back from what they think they really want.

[routemistress]

[And that's when Iris' face lights up, her eyes sparkling.]

Yes. That's it, sweetheart, that's it exactly. That's what we're 'ere for. Break 'em out of the bars in their 'eads. It's bloody 'ard work. But you see why I love it 'ere, now.

[velocette]

You'd have to dig pretty hard for most of 'em. You know how most people just skate on the surface their whole lives...seems like some of the inmates don't even do that.