“Puppet freighters ship through the Axis all
electromagnetic.
the time,” he said. “They don’t care what you
“We’re not getting out?” Belisarius asked af-
move, as long as you pay.”
ter they’d f loated motionless for thirty-three
“We can’t afford their price.”
more seconds.
“If you can’t afford them, you certainly can’t
“We’re inducing a transient wormhole to
afford me.”
the Expeditionary Force,” Iekanjika said.
Her stare hardened, the bowstring drawn
The lights darkened, and everything around
tight. “We aren’t short of money,” she said,
them stilled. The tug shuddered once as the
“but they don’t want money.”
warship surrounding it thrust gently, then fell
“The Puppets do like to be paid in
into stillness again for 22.4 minutes. Then the
weapons.”
clamps finally released. The tug itself emerged
“They want half,” she said.
into space, and Belisarius felt Stubbs’ magnet-
“Half of what?”
ic field again.
“Half of a dozen warships.”
It was much fainter, meaning they were far-
ther from the Stubbs Pulsar, by about a tenth
Chapter Three
of a light-year. That would put them within
Belisarius had three days to back out. He
the comets and planetessimals of the Stubbs
didn’t have the first clue as to how to move a
Oort cloud. The cockpit windows cleared,
fleet of warships across the Puppet Axis. It ac-
and Belisarius craned his neck to see into the
tually sounded like a great way to get killed,
dizzying dark with his telescoping ocular im-
but he needed something complicated. His
plants. A dozen warships swung into view,
restless brain gnawed on all sorts of problems
speckling a two-hundred-kilometer volume of
he didn’t want it touching whenever he didn’t
space beyond the cockpit. His ocular implants
give it enough to do.
zoomed in on the images, lit by starshine and
So he crossed the Puppet wormhole on one
running lights.
of their commercial transports and stepped
They were old Congregate designs; this
off at Port Stubbs, three hundred and twenty
class of military vessel had been a second-line
light-years from the Puppet Free City. He
ship sixty to seventy years ago. Belisarius
hadn’t brought much equipment, just a dozen
counted two frigates, nine cruisers, and a bat-
sets of entangled particles stored in the but-
tleship so small it barely qualified in the navies
tons on his suit. Anything else he needed,
of today as a capital vessel.
Ayen would likely be able to provide. They
He squinted and zoomed the images. Not
met him at Port Stubbs in civilian clothes: Ma-
everything was old. Time-scarred plating
jor Ayen Iekanjika and Mothudi Babedi, a mili-
contrasted with shinier spots, and strange,
tar y attaché from the Consulate of the
raised blisters were rowed on the hulls. And
Sub-Saharan Union.
the drive sections were oddly shaped. Dis-
They rented a port tug boat and took Belis-
tended tubes pierced the hull superstruc-
arius out. After darkening the windows, they
tures from bow to stern. Those weren’t
sat him at the back of the cockpit so that he
normal drives.
couldn’t see any of the dashboard or the read-
A strange warbling signal pressed against his
outs. Maybe they didn’t know much about the
magnetosomes, ephemeral patterns that
Homo quantus and they were trying to keep
weren’t coming from the tug. It was hard to
him from knowing where they were going.
feel precisely through the hull, but the pres-
The magnetic f ield of the Stubbs Pulsar, al-
sure wasn’t uniform, like he’d feel from a
though weak as far as pulsars went, throbbed
strong magnetic f ield. Rich texture saturated
against the magnetosomes in Belisarius’ cells,
it, the kind of patterned granularity made by
imposing a reassuring polarity on the world
multiple layers of fields interacting with them-
and feeding his brain rough navigational data.
selves in quantum superposition, too fine for
After 56.1 minutes, a new magnetic f ield
most instrumentation to detect. What was it?
14
DEREK KÜNSKEN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
The microscopic universe always boiled
litical commissars instructed the Union to
with quantum indistinctness. For each particle
send an armed reconnaissance mission deep
and wave in the subatomic structure of the
into Middle Kingdom territory. It was meant
Universe, mutually exclusive possibilities ex-
to be provocative. I doubt anyone expected
isted in parallel, racing over one another, in-
the Sixth Expeditionary Force to survive.”
teracting, creating in every instant webs of
“Your squadron ran the other way?”
potential causal chains, histories of particle
“The Expeditionary Force did its job,” she
and field interactions, bubbling in unobserved
said with heat, “heedless of danger. But during
chaos. But macroscopically, that chaos always
the mission, some observations suggested to
evened out. This didn’t. He’d never seen quan-
one of our officers a new type of drive. A very
tum interference this sustained and complex.
advanced drive. Under the terms of our Pa-
His heart thumped with excitement.
tron-Client Accord, something like that has to
Babedi docked the tug in one of the dorsal
be turned over to our patrons.”
bays of the f lagship. In the zero-g, Belisarius
“And the political commissars already knew
followed Iekanjika awkwardly through an um-
of this new idea,” Belisarius said.
bilical into the hallways of a battleship that
“So we arrested all the political commis-
smelled of people and plastics. Its electromag-
sars,” she said, “and ferreted out all the sleep-
netic field pressed against his magnetosomes,
er agents the Congregate had hidden among
hiding the mystery outside.
our crew and officers. Then we headed out of
Middle Kingdom territory.”
Chapter Four
“To get all the way to Stubbs in forty years,
Controlling his engineered curiosity had
you must have headed straight out into deep
never been a sure thing, and Belisarius forced
space,” Belisarius said, “away from all the
himself not to f idget. Iekanjika returned in
known wormholes of the Axis Mundi.”
uniform. The poised watchfulness that had ill-
“We had to design the drive and then build
it into each of our warships.”
hard gem had been returned to its setting. She
“What do your drives do?” he asked.
led him to a brief ing room. Belisarius’ hands
Iekanjika’s eyes narrowed, measuring. She
found the rungs awkwardly in zero-g. At times
didn’t trust him. Which meant that she proba-
he overcompensated and almost kicked a soft-
bly didn’t agree with the decision to contact
faced MP sergeant who followed them. At the
him.
brief ing room, Iekanjika swung in and
“Your people got a con man instead of a mil-
strapped herself into a seat. Belisarius took
itary solution,” he said. “Union intelligence
considerably longer. Her eyes narrowed in im-
operatives must have considered all the pri-
patience until he clumsily snapped the har-
vate covert operatives across Epsilon Indi. Let
ness closed. A series of warship schematics
me guess: they couldn’t find a single one who
projected in hologram between them, as well
wasn’t already attached to a rival service, or
as detailed tactical analyses and diagrams of
who didn’t have a bigger incentive to sell you
Port Stubbs. In the moments she took to con-
out.”
sider her words, Belisarius memorized the dis-
“Babedi told me the Homo quantus were a
plays.
new human species of contemplative. You
“What do you need to know to propose a
don’t sound very contemplative.”
plan for getting the f leet across the Axis?”
“I’m not so fond of being someone’s last
Iekanjika asked.
choice, either,” Belisarius said. “What can
“A history lesson,” Belisarius said. “Maybe
your ships do?”
one in politics too. Your little f leet looks out
Iekanjika touched a finger to a transparent
of date. What are they doing here, so far from
patch on the back of her hand, tapping with-
home?”
out looking. He hadn’t seen that kind of inter-
Iekanjika seemed to work through some in-
face before. The room responded, darkening.
ner debate. “It’s been a long time,” she said fi-
The hologram of the flagship, the Mutapa, ex-
nally. “Forty years.”
panded.
Belisarius felt himself staring.
Clean lines in pale blue showed the classic
“Forty years ago,” she said, “Congregate po-
Congregate design that had been cutting-edge
THE QUANTUM MAGICIAN, PART I
15
ANALOG
eighty years ago, powerful and competitive
caused the ongoing expansion of the Uni-
sixty years ago, and surpassed by newer de-
verse. In some theories, a wave of inf lation
signs forty years ago. Modifications glowed in
was self-reinforcing, a runaway effect. Their
pale yellow. The axis of the warship had been
own drive could destroy them. And the ener-
rebuilt as a hollow cylinder, with the super-
gy cost must be enormous. Then it clicked.
structure riding this immense tube like a
“Virtual inflatons,” Belisarius said. Iekanjika
colony of barnacles encrusting a pipe.
started.
“This is a new kind of drive,” Iekanjika said.
Virtual particles were pairs of particles and
“It doesn’t use reaction mass, so there’s no ex-
anti-particles that could jump into existence as
haust velocity to measure, but the drive’s
long as they vanished back into nothingness
thrust is equivalent to an exhaust velocity of
quickly enough.
half a million kilometers per second.”
“The Homo quantus have a particular in-
“What?” Belisarius blurted. She stared at
sight into virtual particles,” he said.
him with an edge of def iant pride. “That’s
That was something of an understatement.
more than the maximum thrust of anything in
The ocean of virtual particles frothing at every
civilization . . .” he said. “What is it?”
point of spacetime created the tremendous
“You only need to know the specif ica-
noise through which the Homo quantus had
tions.”
to filter. Iekanjika looked sour, as if she’d said
“Not even close. Have you used the drive in
too much.
a wormhole? Something that exotic in a space-
“Don’t worry, Major. None of your secrets
time tunnel could be real dangerous.”
are lost. You create a pair of virtual particles to
“We’ve moved the f leet through induced
brief ly expand spacetime, and in the instant
wormholes,” Iekanjika said, “but we’ve never
before it shrinks back to normal, your warship
activated the drive inside.”
gets thrown forward, doesn’t it?”
“What’s the exotic?”
“You’re a dangerous man, Arjona,” she said.
Her stare was uncomfortable. He turned to
He wasn’t sure if she meant it in the way that
the blues and yellows of the schematics, more
suggested she was about to draw her pistol
for the color than the lines, which he’d already
and smear his brains on the wall. “How many
memorized. Like bets in a card game, some
other Homo quantus would make similar
conversations needed to be waited out.
guesses?”
“It’s an inflaton drive,” she said finally.
“Most Homo quantus have split personali-
“What?” She’d surprised him twice in ten
ties and are highly unstable,” Belisarius lied.
minutes.
“They can function in quiet, low-stimulus en-
“You don’t have the knowledge to under-
vironments. One in a hundred can get along in
stand how it works.”
the world like me.”
“Probably not,” he said, squinting at the
“But most of your people could make these
schematic. “Can you magnify?”
logical leaps?”
He watched the motion of her fingers as the
He shook his head. “Most Homo quantus
image of the Mutapa expanded, f illing the
are so impractical that they consider cosmolo-
room.
gy too applied for serious debate. My interests
“Turn the stern to me?” he asked.
have always been more immediate than
Her fingers swept a different motion on the
theirs.”
patch on her hand, and the image turned nine-
“It’s dangerous to have too many interests,
ty degrees, until, through the hollow core of
Arjona.”
the warship, he was looking at the far wall.
“We may as well get all the danger out of the
From this angle, the blisters on the side
way at once, then. Why is the drive on your
showed in relief, larger than they’d appeared
ship open a
t the front? It’s not a ram scoop.
from the side.
It’s not feeding on the interstellar medium.”
An inflaton drive. He wondered if she was
She arched her brow this time and crossed
lying. He usually could tell, but he didn’t think
her arms. “You tell me, Magician.”
she was. She was tamping down her own
He stared at the hologram of the Mutapa,
pride in the telling. How did they do it? Infla-
thinking about it as if it was the hand Iekanji-
ton particles carried the inflationary force that
ka was playing across a poker table from the
16
DEREK KÜNSKEN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
Congregate. If he was to play the player, and
didn’t sound so immense. “What’s the pay?”
not the cards, his f irst data point was that
She changed the holographic display and a
Iekanjika felt pretty good about her hand.
small ship appeared in yellow.
Bluffs didn’t work against the hegemonic
“What’s the scale?” he asked, leaning for-
power of the Congregate, so she thought she
ward in the straps.
held winning cards. Why?
“Fifty-three meters from bow to stern,” she
The Sixth Expeditionary Force was forty
said.
years old, carrying equipment that had been
The ship was sleek. A narrow structure of
outdated before the f leet had ever been lost.
cockpit, engines, cargo, and life support
Numerically and ship for ship, forty years ago,
wrapped around a tube. It was a small craft
they wouldn’t have lasted an hour in a battle
with its own inflaton drive. Any of the patron
against a patron nation. Now, in refurbished
nations would pay anything for it.
warships, their eagerness to get back into civ-
ilized space tingled in the air. They weren’t
Chapter Five
homesick. They dreamed of a war of indepen-
Belisarius had no idea if he should take the
dence, and no one spoiled for a war they
job, but he didn’t need to answer yet. Iekanji-
didn’t think they could win.
ka led him into the corridor where the MP still
“Turn the display a hundred and eighty de-
waited. Belisarius gripped for the rungs, but
grees,” he said.
his movements were clumsy. Then he grasped
The movement of her fingers on the patch
with futile, panicked reaching and somehow
rotated the image until the tube stared him in
began slowly rotating in the middle of the hall-
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