causing the airlock to cycle open.
will tell you the course that will keep us in the
“It’s fueled, monsieur,” she said quickly.
fabricated sensor readings.”
“Good,” Belisarius said. He pushed Marie
Marie strapped herself into the pilot’s seat
ahead of him and made to close the lock.
and shut down the computerized pilot.
Marie pushed him aside and hurled her pink
“It’s good to see you again, Bel,” she said.
putty cubes across the deck. Then she pulled
The shuttle disengaged from the airlock and
the sidearm of the stunned guard from its hol-
moved to the bay doors, faster than the regu-
ster. The guards drew their weapons.
lations stipulated. He strapped himself in hur-
“Marie!” Belisarius whispered, grabbing her
riedly. “You have a job, don’t you? Can I get in
arm.
on it? How big is it? What do you need blown
But her arm was as unyielding as a piece of
up?”
steel. She squinted as she took aim and f ired
“You don’t have enough explosives to blow
an invisible laser. Belisarius’ brain constructed
up what we’re after,” Belisarius said. At the
its trajector y before her f inger f inished
end of the bay, Marie used far more thrust
squeezing.
than needed as Saint Matthew issued a stream
One of the pink cubes exploded, spattering
of expletives and navigational vectors.
chips of floor around the bay, knocking down
“Yes, I do!” she said, over Saint Matthew’s
some of the guards, forcing others to retreat.
instructions. “If they’d given me some ra-
None would dare f ire on a Scarecrow agent,
dioisotopes, I really could have made a mess.”
even if his companion was firing at them.
“We’re not blowing anything up,” Belisarius
Marie waved at the flattened guards.
said. “I need your technical skills.”
“It’s okay!” she yelled, waving the gun.
“Fine,” she said.
“I’m reformed. But next time somebody
“She’s going to blow things up!” Saint
wants magnesium salts, I want to see some
Matthew said. “None of her physiological
hustle!”
markers show acquiescence.”
She took one more shot at another of the
Belisarius sighed, rubbing his eyes, trying to
pink cubes, blowing a second shallow depres-
head off a migraine. “I know.”
sion into the f loor and f illing the bay with
Marie began whistling.
dust. Then she shut the airlock.
“Did you have to do that?” Belisarius de-
Chapter Seventeen
manded.
Cassandra felt lost in all the movement and
She looked at him in bafflement. “What do
noise. And the dirt. And the ugliness. Bel had
you mean?”
leased an abandoned mine on the dwarf plan-
“We’ve got to get out of here!” he said.
et Ptolemy. Coming from the serene, living
“Row in the same direction!”
beauty of the Garret, with its whispering birds
“This is rowing!” she said, waving around
and low green hills, the mine in Ptolemy was
the laser pistol and punching a code to cycle
hell. She didn’t know where to sit. What to
the airlock with practiced movements. “It’s
do. She wasn’t learning or discovering any-
nice to see you and all, but do you have a bet-
thing and that itched in her head.
ter plan than that one to get away from the re-
And she didn’t understand what Bel was
formatory? They’ve got external sensors and
doing. She understood the facts individually,
weapons.”
but not in relation to each other. Bel had
“Saint Matthew uploaded a virus to foul up
leased several used wormhole-capable cargo
their external sensors and give them false
ships, three asteroid mines, and a shipping
54
DEREK KÜNSKEN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
concern on the Port Stubbs side of the worm-
“I got to worrying about whether you’d got-
hole. His AIs had been gathering equipment
ten cold feet,” Bel said.
too—powerful computers, industrial robotics
“I wanted to see what sort of plan your big
factories, bioreactors, and protein and DNA
brain thought up without my help,” William
synthesis machines. None of this was bring-
said.
ing her any closer to the data he’d promised
Bel shook William’s hand hard, and then
her, and it didn’t f it into any patterns that
pulled the bigger man into a hug. William
would calm her engineered Homo quantus
stood stiff and awkward, and then hugged him
brain.
back.
And Bel was a stranger. Gone was the
A light f lashed. “Photogallery moment!”
brooding penitent who’d come to the Garret.
Marie said, lowering a palm-embedded cam-
Gone was the intense, brilliant researcher
era. “That was so sweet! I’ll magnify and send
she’d known as a teenager. He was worldly,
it around.”
bigger than his skin. He gave orders. He per-
“This is the Marie I heard you worked
suaded and cajoled. He mediated between in-
with?” William said.
comprehensible people. But how did any of
“She’s an acquired taste,” Bel said.
this help him? What did he learn from any of
“Fine, I won’t magnify it,” Marie said.
this? How could he stand not plumbing the
Then Bel met her eyes. “And this is Cassan-
depths of the laws of the cosmos, and instead
dra Mejía,” he said.
turn his genius to . . . this?
“The Cassandra?” William asked.
A loud woman called Marie, a serious
“Yeah, he doesn’t really stop talking about
woman called Iekanjika, and an AI called Saint
her, does he?” Marie asked.
Matthew had been with them for days, setting
Bel looked sheepish. Cassandra felt her ears
up the f irst mine. Later, a sharp-eyed man
warming. She looked at Bel questioningly. He
called Del Casal and an exiled Puppet called
talked about her? William smiled at all the
Gates-15 arrived on a one-way shuttle. Then
awkwardness, and then stepped in and kissed
came an angry, swearing Homo eridanus
her hand.
called Stills, sealed in a pressurized container
“When Belisarius was just fresh out of the
massing several tons. Its external walls held
Garret, he didn’t have much to talk about oth-
manipulators and sensors, but it was other-
er than his research,” William said. “He spoke
wise barely mobile and creaked under the
very highly of the intelligence of his co-re-
pressure of the water inside.
/>
searcher.”
Although she didn’t think anyone else no-
“Thank you, Mister Gander,” Cassandra said.
ticed, she started catching Bel telling lies. She
They moved to the commissary that robots
watched him and tried to stay close, partly be-
had almost made comfortable. Cassandra
cause most of these people made her nervous.
stood uncertainly amid a row of tables and
When one of them spoke to him, he always
benches and stuffed chairs. Bel was in front of
steered the conversation away from himself.
everyone, beside a service band on the table
And when he failed at that, most of the things
over which f loated the hologram of Caravag-
he said about himself to the others were lies.
gio’s Saint Matthew. Iekanjika sat stiffly on one
What was he doing? And more importantly,
of the benches, away from everyone. Even if
he’d promised to tell her the truth. She tried to
he’d wanted to, Stills couldn’t do much to join
decide if he was lying to her too, but she
them in his great metal box against the wall.
didn’t know how. If Bel had turned his consid-
Del Casal lounged in one of the new chairs,
erable intellect to lying, his decade of practice
smoking a thick cigar, while Marie, consider-
might mean she would never know when he
ably shorter, sat beside him, doing a fair im-
told the truth.
pression of the geneticist with her own cigar.
They assembled when one last pod arrived.
Gates-15’s feet dangled off a cheap plastic
Cassandra hung behind Marie and Iekanjika as
chair. William sat uncertainly on a couch.
Bel met an older man at the airlock. William
Cassandra sat down beside him and crossed
Gander took off his vacuum helmet. He had a
her arms.
kind face. The two men stood uncertainly, un-
“This job is diff icult, dangerous, and com-
til Bel slapped William on the shoulder.
plicated,” Bel said. “But when we pull this off,
THE QUANTUM MAGICIAN, PART I
55
ANALOG
we’re looking at a few million Congregate
this drive will tip more than a few balances of
francs. Each.”
power.”
“Your clients got this cash just layin’ around
“Damn,” William said appreciatively.
in buckets?” Stills asked. Cassandra hadn’t got-
“No one but the Puppets know that the
ten used to his voice. It boomed from a speak-
Union has this drive,” Bel said. “And they’re
er on his steel chamber. Software to capture
not telling because they think they have the
and translate his electrical intonations into nat-
Union f leet trapped, and they want it all to
ural speech was available, but Stills had opted
themselves.”
for an emotionless, droning voice that was off-
A hologram lit above the table, showing a
putting.
cross-section of the Puppet Free City gnawed
“Major Iekanjika?” Bel said.
out of the frozen crust of Oler like an anthill.
The Union officer touched the patch on the
And at the bottom of a deep shaft, right in
back of her hand. A hologram of a weird shut-
the middle of the city, was a glowing red
tle appeared in yellow and green. A hollow
disk, one of the mouths of the Axis Mundi
tube speared the long axis.
wormhole network. Cassandra had seen this
“What is it?” Del Casal asked.
diagram many times. She’d always wanted to
“Your payment,” Iekanjika said. “A fast shut-
see the Puppet Axis, any Axis, up close. Be-
tle, fifty-three meters long, riding an advanced
side this cross-section f loated a schematic of
drive.”
the other end of the wormhole, the Axis
“What kind of drive?” the speaker on Stills’
mouth at Port Stubbs, shown in green. It
pressure chamber demanded in French.
f loated free in space. A town of habitats and
“It’s the fastest sub-light propulsion system
factor ies had been built around it. Bel
ever invented, capable of sustained accelera-
zoomed out of the view of Port Stubbs, ex-
tions of twenty to fifty gees.”
panding the image to show the Stubbs Pulsar,
“Fifty gees?” Stills demanded over the mur-
its few broken planets, and its Oort cloud.
muring. The translation program seemed to in-
Within the inner edge of the Oort cloud, tiny
f lect the question with a tone of soulless
pink dots clustered.
longing. “Bull. There’s no room for fuel.”
“This is the Sub-Saharan Union’s Sixth Expe-
“There is no fuel,” Iekanjika said. “Exotic
ditionary Force,” he said. “The twelve ships of
physics.”
the Expeditionary Force want to get to the Es-
“I call bull.”
pilon Indi system, through the Puppet Axis.
“I’ve examined the shuttle, f lown it, and
The Puppets are willing to let them through,
taken recordings,” Bel said. “I’ve got copies of
but the cost is half their ships. The Puppets
the f iles here if you want to look for your-
have a strong defensive position but no real of-
selves and check for tampering.”
fensive capabilities. And they have little reason
Bel seemed perfectly at ease, even with all
to negotiate; they’re the only game in town.”
the anger in the air. Cassandra wanted to hide.
“And they’re loco,” Stills said, “present com-
“If this air-sucker isn’t lying, then this is
pany included.”
worth more than a few million each,” Stills
Gates-15 lifted his chin slightly higher.
said.
“The Expeditionary Force, on the other
“A few million is the lower limit of the pay-
hand, is in a hurry,” Bel said. “Every day they
off,” Bel said. “The Ummah, the Middle King-
wait, the chance grows of the Congregate
dom, or the Anglo-Spanish would pay a lot to
finding out about them. So we’re going to get
reverse-engineer this drive. I’ve already lined
the Union ships through, despite the Pup-
up a broker who can auction very high-end
pets.”
goods.”
“You’re stupid as a burro, or got a pair of
“This is what the Puppets want from you,”
oversized cojones,” Stills said in his droning
William said to Iekanjika.
voice.
“We’ve offered this to the Puppets,” the ma-
“Getting close to port is dangerous,” Bel
jor said, “but they don’t have the scientif ic
said. “The Port Stubbs defenses are based on
know-how to reverse-engineer a toilet. They
two asteroids: Hinkley and Rogers, twenty-
want our warships.”
three kilometers and eig
hteen kilometers long
“Warships?” Del Casal said. “Warships with
respectively. They’re fortif ied with missiles,
56
DEREK KÜNSKEN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
lasers, and particle weapons. One co-orbits
Stubbs. The viruses will activate simultaneous-
the pulsar a hundred thousand kilometers
ly, immobilizing the fortif ications for a few
ahead of Port Stubbs. The other follows the
hours, maybe a little more, allowing the Expe-
port ninety thousand kilometers behind.
ditionary Force to transit the Axis. By the time
They’re like a couple of big bodyguards. Hink-
the Puppets get their systems back in order,
ley and Rogers are capable of laying down
the Expeditionary Force will be well away
enough cross-f ire to make giving away half
from Oler.”
the f leet to the Puppets look like a good
“Breaking into an Axis mouth ain’t never
deal.”
been done,” Stills said. “Not even by the Con-
Marie frowned, looked like she was going
gregate.”
to say something, then sat back.
“It’s certainly going to surprise everyone,”
“Once we get the Union ships through the
Bel said.
defenses and into the wormhole, there’s still
“Those fortifications have been tested twice
the other side to worry about. Other than the
by the Congregate and the Anglo-Spanish
wormhole below the surface of Venus, the
Banks,” Stills said. “Besides, distraction is just
Axis in the Puppet Free City is the most inac-
distraction. Most of the time, you still gotta
cessible wormhole in civilization.
kick somebody in the balls.”
“The mouth of the Axis is two kilometers
“What’s the distraction?” William asked in
below the surface of the dwarf planet Oler,”
resignation.
Bel continued. “The shaft leading to the Axis
“Marie will be designing very powerful ex-
is blocked by four successive sets of armored
plosives to work in the subsurface ocean of
bay doors. Each one is ringed with weapons.
Oler,” Bel said. “Stills, our deep diver, will be
Individually, each weapon deserves to be in a
setting those charges around the Free City, in
museum, but when all of them are aimed at a
the four lobes of Blackmore Bay itself.”
target with no maneuvering space, they’re
“Coño,” Del Casal said. “How deep?”
deadly. And the surface fortifications are built
“He’ll have to start twenty-three kilometers
Analog Science Fiction and Fact Page 16