Against That Time

by Edward McKeown

  There is a long pause. “My kind are inherently selfish. We create progeny only to inhabit their bodies. New personalities are only possible because of the surplus. How different it is for these oxygen-breathers, who create their children to hand them their future. They will even sacrifice themselves to protect their children. That would be insanity in my kind. Well, perhaps I have been exposed to too much insanity in too long a life. My existence has only been that of a valued slave and a tool. Why should I regret leaving space-time?

  “Tell me, Friend Maauro. “You are the most powerful and complicated entity I have encountered. Do you believe that there is an existence after this one?”

  “You mean an afterlife of heavens and hells such as the biologicals hope and fear for?”

  “Yes.”

  “I do not know, Friend Agrille. Only minutes ago I would have said no. But in those glimpses into the possible futures, I saw a wiser and more experienced me. That Maauro was certain there was and that she would be reunited with her beloved there.”

  “I hope,” he said, sadness coloring his matrix, “for both our sakes, that she is right. Now, my friend, I give you permission to kill me. I would do it myself but I am warded from such acts. You must free me.”

  Sorrow sings within me. “Perhaps if there is a life after this, Friend Agrille, we shall meet in a happier time.”

  “Farewell, Maauro.”

  I strike instantly.

  Chapter Thirty

  For a second everyone in the room stood frozen, looking at Maauro and the smoking remains of the Predictor.

  There was a blast of static and Eldfaran fell to the knees of his environmental suit then onto to his forearms. Diralia, moving as if in a dream, crossed over to him. Others in the room sobbed, or covered their faces. Malich looked at us with undisguised hatred, but on several faces I thought I saw, relief? Perhaps it was merely my imagination. I kept my weapons pointed at the floor but ready.

  Maauro turned to Eldfaran. “The being I killed was named Agrille. He valued the lives of others above his own. He should be much honored among your people.”

  Eldfaran did not look at her. “Was there a personality left in there? We were never sure. Did he agree with what you did?”

  “He gave me permission to release him. He approved.”

  Eldfaran stood with Diralia’s aid. “Then perhaps it was well done. I hope so. I fear that I shall not know true rest again.”

  “I cannot answer for that. But what was done was necessary. The last Predictor is gone. I have destroyed all data related to this project in every system I can reach. The future belongs to itself once again.”

  “What do you wish me to do?” Eldfaran asked.

  “Convey this truth to the forces outside the station. Explain that the Confederacy has made this ruling through its representatives here. Further conflict is useless.”

  “I will. Some will bless you and others curse you for this. I do not know that they will let you leave with what you know.”

  “Leave that to me,” Maauro said.

  Eldfaran walked off. Shon rejoined us.

  “All others,” Maauro said. “Please seat yourselves on the floor. Dr. Malich, I will allow you sufficient access for you to have your security stand down. Additional conflict with us is unlawful and useless.”

  He nodded. “I’ll do it. I don’t want any more death on my watch.”

  Maauro indicated the speaker.

  “All security forces, this is Malich. Stand down. Return to the security station and remain there. Do not seek to interfere with the intruders…with the Confed military who have landed and taken possession of the lab. Await further instructions there.”

  He looked at her. “I can’t guarantee they will listen.”

  “Understood,” she replied.

  I upload all the information I have discovered to the Stardust’s computer AI, itself a clone of some of my more basic abilities. I set the autopilot and order it to break orbit and head for the warp point with all the information secured in its computers for Confed Intelligence to review. No crewed vessel can overtake her as she can exceed the limits of her AG field. If we are killed, our revenge will overtake the Ribisans. Pisces remains in orbit to provide our escape, if we can only reach it.

  Eldfaran returns. “I have reached a military officer commanding ships of the Commandant. He says he met you and conveyed you to the O2 portal after your meeting with the Pillar. Your reference for him would be Adjutant.

  “Yeah, we remember him,” Wrik responds.

  “I have explained to him who you are, though I have said little about you, Maauro, lest I confuse him. I have told him that you and Lt Fels are equals in Confed Military Intelligence.”

  “I will speak with him,” I say. While I could do so from inside the privacy of my own head, I use the labs equipment so Wrik and the others can hear me.

  The screen in front of me lights up. I see the adjutant.

  “The Predictor has been destroyed, along with the accompanying body of research. I have not injured any of the non-security civilian personnel to this point,” I advise.

  The Ribisan officer’s sensory apparatus is fixed on me. “Your position is untenable. You must surrender into our custody immediately.”

  “My position is quite secure,” I return calmly. “We are agents of the Confederacy with which your government is in alliance. We were sent to investigate the unlawful detention of oxygen-breathing, full member state sentients and irregular operations on board a Confed registered oxygen-breather station in low orbit of this gas giant. You may recall the station manager recognized our authority.”

  “On that station perhaps,” the Ribisan returns.

  “This is merely an auxiliary station to the main one in a lower orbit and also operated for O2 breathers,” I continue. “Our jurisdiction applies here too.”

  “You have destroyed valuable Ribisan government property and injured personnel. You are under arrest.”

  “Unwise. The crews in our starships above have all of our reports to date, with particularity in regard to the Predictor. One ship has left orbit at high speed and I do not believe you will be able to intercept it. Should you make the ill-advised choice to interfere with our remaining ship, you will find it is more formidable then appearances suggest. Even if you succeed, you will merely have endangered your government with attacks on Confed personnel and ships in free navigation.”

  “You place me in a difficult situation,” the Ribisan admits.

  “Allow me to suggest means of extracting us both,” I continue. “Your concerns with the dissidents and fundamentalists are an internal matter. The Confederacy has no desire to interfere in the internal affairs of even an associated member state.

  “Our circumspect withdrawal from this world, with Diralia Shon, and to be followed by those O2 breathers wishing to return to Confed O2 territory, will end the matter as far as our employer is concerned. Our employer has a joint interest with your government in keeping information about the predictor technology under wraps.”

  “How can I trust that?”

  “It is not in Confed interests to have member states find out that their losses of billions of lives and credits might have been avoided if your government has shared what it knew about the coming of the Conchirri and the Evolvers. One can only assume that the rest of the Confederacy would see such a betrayal as an act of war. Interstellar war is not in anyone’s interest.

  “This technology’s further development is unlikely, but will be banned in any event. We therefore have the most secure of bases for trust: mutual interest and needs.”

  “I cannot agree to this on my own,” the Ribisan replies. “I must consult those below. But I confess I am relieved by the rationality of your response. We will in the meanwhile keep dissidents and fundamentalists away from both stations, using deadly force if necessa
ry.”

  “I urge speed,” I return. “It would be unfortunate if in the midst of our rapprochement we are struck by an aircraft flown by vengeful fundamentalists, as our crews have instructions to make sure these matters are revealed to a wide variety of our superiors if we do not return. The more people in possession of a secret, the less likely it is to remain so.”

  “We concur in that. It may be…it may be that we are all best served that this Predictor no longer exists. Some among the dissidents have feared that it could undermine the fabric of existence.”

  Is the adjutant a dissident? Aloud I say, “Such fears seem most reasonable to me.”

  The Ribisan studies me, he either knew or suspected that I was more than the oxygen-breathing biological that I appeared to be. The Malich and the lab station personally will confirm it in any event. “I will be back to you as soon as I can, please maintain the status quo until then.”

  “Agreed, save that a shuttle will be landing on this base in twenty-minutes. If anything happens to it, the full sanctions that I mentioned before, will apply.”

  “It will be protected,” the Adjutant assures.

  The image flicks off the screen.

  Wrik whistles. “Remind me never to play poker with you.”

  I nod. “It would not likely work out for you.”

  He grins for some reason.

  I turn to Wrik. “I have signaled Jaelle. She will be here in the Guild craft soon.”

  “They may eventually get tired of us stealing their ships.”

  “I have a favor to ask, Wrik. I will tell Diralia what I want and she will not risk gainsaying me. But with you, dear…friend, Wrik, I can only ask.”

  His gaze at me is troubled. “I’d do anything for you. You know that.”

  If I had a heart it would skip a beat. “My emotional outburst before and what I said to you was the result of something that may or may not happen in the future. I wish it to remain only between us. It is something deeply personal to me, and it may never come to pass. Still, if she knew, I believe it might trouble Jaelle. I care for her. I would not be the cause of distress to her if it can be avoided.” Honesty makes me add in the last caveat. I have seen a future and in it she was not immediately present. So I must acknowledge that it may not be avoidable.

  He stares at me lips compressed. I am asking him to lie in a way, a lie of omission but a lie nonetheless. It will trouble him, yet I must have this. Finally he nods slowly. “Will you tell me more of what you saw?”

  “Not now, dearest friend. Please do not be angry at me, but not now.”

  “Maauro, I trust you. I trusted you even when you were M-7. I will never be angry at you.”

  More than I want anything, I want that to be true. “Thank you, Wrik. Let us leave this place now.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Maauro looked back at the gaggle of scientists of both species, then at the destroyed Predictor. “We are leaving now. Please do not attempt any interference. I have no wish for any additional life to be lost today, for any reason, but I will defend my network…my people, with all force.”

  Malich looked at Maauro with undisguised hatred. “There’s no point now. You’ve worked your madness and destroyed irreplaceable knowledge. There may never be another way to access this power.”

  “That, Doctor, may be the greatest hope that sentient life has,” Maauro replied.

  He blinked in surprise but his look at her remained grim and unforgiving.

  We left them in Eldfaran’s care and quickly made our way back through the deserted corridors to where we had landed only an hour before. From there we could watch the platforms outside. There was no place to bring the large shuttle into the loaded bay with all the damaged machinery lying about.

  The heavy-lifter shuttle slid slowly over the surface of the platform, a welcome sight. We watched from the bay where we’d entered. “Dusko’s piloting,” I said.

  Maauro looks at me. “True, but how did you know?”

  “By the way he flies her – very, very cautiously. Jaelle has flair, but pain me as it does to admit it, Dusko is the better technical pilot. He’s not using the ALS either.”

  “No, although I assured him the automatics are not compromised, he does not trust them as this is a hostile base.”

  “That’s Dusko. Still, sometimes a little paranoia is a good thing.”

  “Then you will be pleased by my going out first. I will take up station where I can cover you all in case someone has changed their mind about our leaving.”

  Worry strikes immediately. “Out in that! Maauro you were frozen—”

  “Do not worry. It will be the work of mere minutes and I am undamaged and at full power. There is no alternative. In those clumsy suits you could neither fight nor run effectively.”

  “True enough,” Diralia adds.

  The shuttle landed. The light on the lock began blinking red.

  Maauro turned to the airlock. Her hands were empty; evidently she preferred her onboard weaponry for the gas-giant’s atmosphere. I watched on the screen as she decompressed the lock and still had to fight a spasm of fear as the outer door opened. Ok, she was a deadly fighting machine from fifty millennia ago, but she still looked like a girl. Maauro took station on a beacon, easily climbing above the deck and taking no evident notice of the 1.8Gs and corrosive atmosphere.

  “Let’s go,” I said, snapping my helmet closed and setting the servos to max for the gravity outside the AG field. I hustled Diralia into the airlock and with a last careful glance at the bay, closed the lock and hit the depressurization.

  “Step carefully,” I said as the door opened. We set ourselves as we passed through the AG gradient and the misery that was 1.8gs grabbed us. We made our best speed to the shuttle. Its overlarge airlock, made for people in environmental suits, opened, and I sent Diralia in first. I stood with my back to it, waiting for it to cycle, watching Maauro climb down and walk briskly over to me. She smiled and then took up station directly in front of me.

  The light blinked red and the lock doors cycled. I stepped in. At the last second Maauro joined me. A green glow bathed us, indicating the atmosphere was safe, and I opened my faceplate. “So far so good.”

  The inner door opened and Jaelle stood there, wearing a more practical outfit then when I last saw her, a ship’s jumpsuit. “Hey! No making out in the airlock.”

  I laughed out of sheer relief. Maauro merely gave me a small smile that somehow looked a little sad. I saw that Diralia was almost out of her environmental suit already. I moved in slowly, clumsy in my suit. There was time for a quick kiss with Jaelle, then she went back to helping Diralia. Maauro helped me out of my suit, easily handling the weight, without needing to use the onboard servers to walk the suit to a lockdown.

  “Step it up people,” Dusko cracked. “We are damned exposed out here.”

  “Take the second seat, Wrik.” Jaelle urged.

  I slid past her to find myself looking down at Dusko. The pupilless blue eyes stared back. I carefully put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for the ride.”

  The Dua-Denlenn looked surprised. “Yeah, okay. Buckle in.”

  Behind me, Maauro settled Diralia in the third row of seats. She and Jaelle then took the pair behind Dusko and me.

  “All check,” Jaelle said.

  Dusko throttled up the shuttle, which lifted with agonizing slowness off the pad. He then pushed it into a long gentle slope upward as we sank into the special gel seats that distributed our weight to make the climb more bearable.

  “Gods, by the time we get off this hellhole, my ass will be a mile wide and my tail will be crushed,” Jaelle growled.

  “Sorry, no special seats with cutouts,” Dusko said, strain clear in his voice. “We got an hour to low orbit. You can bring the Pisces down? Right, Maauro?”

  “The ship’s AI is doing a bra
king orbit now. It will come as low as it can so we can use a boarding tube to abandon this shuttle. We will add the pinnace and Jaelle’s shuttle to the bill for Candace.”

  “Well, that cheers me,” Dusko replied.

  On the screen in front of me, lettering and code appeared. “I have the course and speed for docking. Checking and putting on your board, Dusko.”

  “Altering course, increasing thrust,” Dusko said.

  We settled in for the long uncomfortable climb, I could see us being shadowed by Ribisan craft in the distance but there was nothing we could do if they elected to gun us. Nor could I tell if the occasional flashes in the distance were Cimer’s horrible weather, or some engagement between the various forces that circled the base now disappearing into the murk behind us. Our safety lay in Stardust’s high-speed run out of the system on autopilot. If the data onboard her could not be destroyed, then we could not be safely killed. Or so we so earnestly hoped.

  There was nothing to do but think. Talking was far too much effort, which suited me just then. Whatever the others were thinking, about success, escape, or the scads of money to be collected from Confed Intelligence, my thoughts wandered down other avenues.

  I flicked my eyes to the pilot-mirror overhead and the source of my deepest concern. Two women, for though one was of an alien species and the other was manufactured, they were unquestionably women to me. Two whose lives mattered to me far more than my own. They were so fundamentally different, some people might even argue that one wasn’t alive in a true sense, but they’d better not do so with me.

  Jaelle was light and heat, sensuality, sexuality and movement, as alive as any creature by whatever God you cared to imagine. Her yellow-gold eyes coveted the experiences of being in the universe.

  And then there was Maauro, who was depth and stillness to Jaelle’s dancing movement: a lifeform over 50,000 years old, but capable of a child’s delight with a bit of yellow ribbon or a starry night. Gentle, yet deadly, sensitive, yet sometimes bound outside of the world of biological life.