Coincidence, Hoshe told himself sternly, though it was an unsettling one. ‘Okay, so are you leaving tonight, or can you help me out?’
Kareem waved a hand at the crates. ‘I haven’t got everything yet. There’s a lot of medicine and shit I need. Books, too. The paper ones are hard to get hold of these days, and expensive. Did you know Ozzie’s got a library of all human knowledge printed out and stashed away somewhere on his own planet? That’s one guy who’s ready for the apocalypse.’
‘So you can help, then?’
‘Depends what you want, man.’
‘Giscard told me you’re the man to come to for software fixes.’
‘Yeah. Maybe. I know some moves. Place I work at, we got us some private teams for solving private problems, you catch?’
‘Caught. I’m paying too much tax.’
‘Ho, brother, we all do.’
‘I own a company that imports spare parts for the auto trade, and the government is killing me for it. I’m just trying to earn a living, feed my family, but those bastards . . .’
‘Yeah, right!’
‘What I need is a fix that covers over some of my trading. If I could just shift ten or fifteen per cent of my stock without them penalizing me for it I can keep afloat. What I need is some safe encryption that can resist the Revenue Department’s audit engines so I can run the money through offworld accounts.’
‘Sure, I can do that. Hell, I don’t even need to bring the guys in. What accountancy software are you using?’
Hoshe held up a memory crystal disk. ‘System and network is all in here.’
‘Excellent. A man who is prepared, I respect that.’ Kareem took the memory crystal and smiled. ‘That’ll be a grand for a full fix, payable in advance.’
‘Two hundred now.’ Hoshe slapped the notes into his hand on top of the crystal. ‘The rest when the installed fix is running.’
‘Okay, man, I’m cool with that.’ The notes were shoved into the back pocket of his jeans. ‘Must be my lucky week. This is the second private contract I’ve had.’
‘Oh really?’
*
To the Commonwealth’s general public, it was as if their new navy appeared by magic. One day President Doi announced its formation, and within a week it had become physical reality. Ships were already being put together over at High Angel, and planetary security teams started assembling worm-hole detectors on the worlds closest to the Prime threat. Things were safely under control. Even Alessandra Baron was moderately complimentary on her show, though possible tax raises received a detailed analysis.
Admiral Kime was surprised by how smoothly the transition went. Of course, it helped that the personnel and equipment from Anshun had all been transferred to High Angel while he was flying the scouting mission to the Dyson Pair. That left him free to concentrate his staff on the huge expansion of capacity and capability which turning the Agency into the navy entailed. In fact, precisely the kind of large-scale managerial role which had taken up ninety per cent of his adult life.
Navy Base One was primarily a cluster of freeflying starship assembly platforms holding station thirty to forty kilometres away from the High Angel in their own little archipelago. They’d kept the basic malmetal globe design used above Anshun; although these didn’t have a wormhole connection. A fleet of new cargo shuttles swarmed between them and the vastly expanded and upgraded wormhole station linked to Kerensk, ferrying out the components that would form the next generation of starships. Passenger commuters carried the freefall workforce between the assembly platforms and High Angel, where they’d taken over a considerable portion of the freshly grown Babuyan Atoll dome. The dome’s young buildings were also where Kime had set up his office along with the major part of the navy’s administration, design teams, crew-training facilities and research bureaus. At the centre of the parkland campus was a thirty-storey tower that had five concave-curving sides surrounded by a DNA helix of skyway rails – dubbed Pentagon II by Alessandra Baron, a name which was catching on rapidly among the media shows and reporters.
Wilson’s office was on the top floor. He didn’t like it. While he was away on the scout mission, the designer had gone for a retro-modern image: slick flowcurving furniture of white tragwood from Niska, monochrome illumination floors and walls. It was like working in an operating theatre. The one redeeming feature was the view it gave him out over the compact ecology of his new domain. Only a third of Babuyan Atoll had any urban structures, the rest was burgeoning parkland, with saplings and young bushes pushing up eagerly through the lush grass. Between the paths and lakes were flat patches resembling pearl-textured concrete, which would one day grow into buildings. He enjoyed the panorama, not least for the nightly sight of Icalanise and its fast-moving bands of tawny cloud as it drifted high above the dome’s crystal. It was surprising just how much the last few years had rekindled his old first-life wanderlust. Every time he looked out and saw the exotic gas-giant he was less sure he could ever go back to his old job at Farndale.
Anna was first in to the conference meeting which was scheduled to draw up the navy’s rules of engagement, but then she had the shortest distance to travel. With her promotion to lieutenant commander, and her position as his chief staff officer, she had the office next door, where she organized his days and acted as a filter against everyone who wanted his personal attention directed to their own particular project or cause. She came in with Oscar; Wilson heard them laugh together as they came through the door.
‘Kantil’s commuter shuttle docked a few minutes ago,’ Anna told him. ‘She’ll be up here soon.’
‘Right.’ He cancelled the data filling his virtual vision. She smiled warmly at him, which he returned. Her engagement ring shone brightly as she waved her hand teasingly at him. He’d proposed as the Conway docked. She’d said yes. Oscar said about time. They still hadn’t set a date for the actual ceremony, a classic case of work pressure, although they had taken a lavish apartment together in a block near the edge of the dome.
Rafael Columbia arrived, dressed immaculately in his black uniform. He quickly asked if they’d set a date yet. ‘My own engagement record was fifteen years,’ he said. ‘I’m sure you can beat that if you set your minds to it.’
Wilson gave him a martyred smile. The lack of a firm date was turning into a standing joke around Base One.
Columbia had become vice admiral when President Doi formed the navy, taking over responsibility for the planetary defence operation, making him Wilson’s second in command. He’d sited his division’s office on Kerensk, and was rapidly assimilating the various Commonwealth directorates and agencies which now formed the basis of his expanding empire. Given the more political nature of pressuring planetary governments into installing or upgrading force fields around their major population centres, it was a task he was eminently suited to. The only real argument to date between him and Wilson had been about who had direct control over Natasha Kersley’s Seattle project.
Columbia had argued for it to be incorporated within his planetary security division, and the project sited on Kerensk. Wilson eventually overruled him, pointing out Kersley’s systems would ultimately be carried by starships, and should therefore be part of Base One’s operations. A quick call to Sheldon had secured Executive support, and confirmed the decision. Columbia hadn’t challenged him again.
Daniel Alster was shown into the office with Dimitri Leopoldovich.
Wilson was mildly surprised. He’d expected Alster to share the commuter shuttle with Patricia Kantil. Both of them were representing the oversight committee during the meeting, while Leopoldovich was an academician specializing in tactical analysis at the StPetersburg Institute for Strategic Studies. It was a field with few practitioners, used mainly as an advisory and research service by the Commonwealth when secessionist and national autonomy movements started to use physical force against their legitimate planetary government. During his time on Farndale’s board, Wilson had often heard senior politicians and
their staff disparagingly refer to tactical analysts as war games nerds with a history degree. But then astronomy was a minority profession before this, he thought in amusement.
Dimitri had undergone his third rejuvenation a few years back, leaving him with a mid-twenties body whose lank blond hair had already begun to thin out. His skin was pale, verging on albino white, which combined with a diet of fast food and total lack of exercise gave him the appearance of a podgy vampire. He nodded at Wilson and took his usual seat, which left him facing away from the broad window.
‘How was Bose?’ Anna asked Daniel Alster.
‘Re-life always freaks me out,’ Daniel confessed. ‘Those accelerated growth clones just don’t look human.’
‘But his personality is intact?’ Wilson pressed.
‘Oh yeah. The download from his secure store was completely successful. The last thing he remembers is making a short update on the Second Chance before going over to the Watchtower.’
‘And Emmanuelle?’
‘The same. Though she’s a lot calmer than Bose.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘I only met Bose once before, he seemed quite edgy then. That trait has become . . . amplified a little. The doctors said the information he’s received subsequent to re-life hasn’t helped.’
‘You mean the warning we were given on the scout mission?’
‘Yes, partly. It’s unfortunate that we don’t know exactly what did give you that warning. Re-lifers often worry that their earlier self is alive somewhere. In this case, the prospect is throwing up some unique schizophrenic problems.’
‘The warning specifically said the Primes killed them.’
‘I know. But Bose is obsessed by what actually transmitted that warning at you. He suspects his original self is still alive back there, in some form or other, which is reasonable enough. It hasn’t helped that his wife has told him she’s divorcing him, either. The psychologist says that’s he’s interpreted that as a rejection of his new self, which reinforced his focus on his old self.’
Wilson and Anna exchanged a look. ‘We always wind up feeling guilty about him, don’t we?’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ he said uncomfortably. ‘So what else did the docs say about him?’
‘The clinic will discharge him in a couple of months. Physically, he’ll be in top shape by then. Mentally, well they say that every re-life case takes another life to get over the trauma. Bose is no exception. Dose him up on anti-depressants and let him get on with it.’
‘Did he say what he wanted to do afterwards?’
‘No. He’s receiving a lot of offers from media companies, not just for his life story as a biogdrama, they want him as a commentator on the Prime “situation”. I expect his university will welcome him back. We can drop a hint to that effect, a strong hint. He can’t do much harm back on Gralmond.’
‘So he doesn’t want to join the navy, then?’
Daniel grinned. ‘No. You’re perfectly safe this time around.’
Oscar laughed at the relieved expression on Wilson’s face.
Patricia Kantil walked into the office. ‘Thank you for waiting,’ she said with ever-professional courtesy.
‘You’re not late,’ Daniel said. ‘Just to finish off on Bose, there will be some kind of ceremony when he and Verbeke leave the clinic. Patricia, that came from your office?’
‘It did. Given their profile, especially Bose, we thought some official welcome back to Commonwealth society would be appropriate for them. They’re the nearest things we have to heroes right now. The Vice President will be there, and it would be nice for some of their shipmates to participate as well.’
Wilson almost groaned out loud. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘We’ll send someone on the day. Now, if we can get started.’
‘My report’s simple enough,’ Oscar said. ‘We haven’t had any contact with the scoutships yet.’
‘When was the first due to report back?’ Daniel asked.
‘The StAsaph should be back at Anshun within another ten days, assuming they didn’t find anything.’
‘And if they did?’
‘They’re searching fifteen star systems three hundred light-years from the edge of phase three space, basically their course is a big curve to take them within hysradar range of each star. If the Primes have opened their giant wormhole to any of those systems she’ll be able to detect it. But given the nature of the flightpath, the journey back will be a long one. As they’re not back yet, we know that they didn’t find anything at the first eleven stars.’
‘Or they did, and the Primes caught them,’ Rafael said. He shrugged into the silence. ‘Just being realistic.’
‘The remaining six scoutships we’ve got out there should be returning over the following two months,’ Oscar continued. ‘Between them, they’ll have covered over a hundred star systems. Admittedly, that’s not many considering the distances involved and the number of stars between us and Dyson Alpha. But if the Primes are coming this way, then one of those stars will be used as a staging post. We need to find it; at the very least that will enable us to start building realistic tactical scenarios.’
‘Are these scouting patrols going to be constant?’ Patrica asked.
‘Yes,’ Wilson confirmed. ‘We need to establish some early warning if the Primes are moving in our direction. It’s a three-stage approach. Rafael is overseeing our short-range detector network which will find any wormhole opening inside the Commonwealth. The fleet will be running scout ship flights past the stars within one hundred light-years in the direction of Dyson Alpha on a continual basis; if the Primes appear at any of them we’ll know about it within three days maximum. Outside that, we’ll fly regular patrols to more distant stars, but the revisit times will be months apart rather than days.’
‘When does this come into effect?’
‘We’ve already begun siting the first elements for the border network detectors,’ Rafael said. ‘If they come at us directly, we’ll know about it. Our estimates for completing the full Commonwealth-wide network are anything up to a further eighteen months.’
‘I see. Admiral, what about the scout flights?’
‘It depends on ship numbers, of course. Once this preliminary operation we’re running now is finished, I’m going to pull back those scoutships to begin patrols of the closer stars. We’ve got two more scoutships undergoing flight trials, and the remaining five of batch three will come off their assembly platforms over the next four months. That’ll give me fifteen, which is enough to provide the near-border patrols. The distant patrols will require another ten scoutships, though I’d prefer fifteen to twenty.’
‘They cost three billion Earth dollars each,’ Patricia said tersely.
‘I’m aware of that; and their operating and maintenance costs as well. The Executive knew the budget would have to increase almost exponentially for the first three to five years of the navy’s existence.’
‘I’ll take those preliminary figures back with me. What about the warships?’
‘The first batch of three is due to finish assembly in four months. After that, we’ll be building one every three weeks. How many we ultimately need depends on the nature of the Prime threat.’
Everybody turned to Dimitri Leopoldovich. Since the return of the Second Chance he’d been consulted by the Commonwealth Executive and the Senate on an increasingly regular basis. The experience gave him a degree of confidence facing down high-powered questioners in a way that wasn’t evident in his appearance. ‘Just about the only thing we know for certain about the Primes is that they cannot be assigned human motivations,’ he said in mildly accented English. ‘Even with such a huge civilization contained within a single solar system, a vast amount of their resources had to be diverted to construct the giant wormhole which my team have named Hell’s Gateway.’ His lips twitched, as if expecting censure. ‘We do not fully understand why it was built on such a scale. One of the most obvious possibilities is that it was built without a
ny reference to economics because it is a species survival route. The Primes fear the return of the surrounding barrier, and are trying to spread their seed across the galaxy. Arkships will travel through it, carrying breeding stock and enough machinery to support a colony. If they switch the other end of the wormhole to a new star system every week, or even every day, they will have dispersed themselves in such a fashion that will make it very difficult for the barrier builders to imprison them again. In effect, a fast-forward version of our own Commonwealth.’
‘Wait,’ Patricia said. ‘You’re claiming they’re not even a threat to us?’
‘Not at all, my team is simply providing you with theoretical possibilities. A second option is that they know the location of the barrier builders, and have crossed interstellar space to confront them and finally wage the war which the barrier was put up to prevent. A third option is that they built it to reach the Commonwealth. This is the only option which concerns us. We have to emphasize here that we cannot assign a satisfactory motivation to this, but we are hampered by the human perspective. As the Silfen and the High Angel have demonstrated, our logic and behaviour-patterns are not universal. And the very existence of Hell’s Gateway demonstrates how true that is. Therefore, for the purposes of this meeting, it doesn’t matter why they are coming here, only that they are. Those are the terms on which we must consider their actions. They have now had two opportunities to begin peaceful contact procedures with us, and have chosen not to do so on both occasions. Following this, it is my team’s conclusion that if the Hell’s Gateway was constructed to allow the Primes access to the Commonwealth it is for hostile purposes. We recommend that if the Primes open a wormhole either close to or within the Commonwealth the navy should respond with maximum force.’
‘Won’t that be tantamount to us declaring war on them?’ Patricia said. ‘I’m not sure the Executive, or even the Senate, would approve those rules of engagement.’
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