‘I am broken,’ Kai said quietly. ‘I was once given an inestimable honour. I was privileged to be shown a path of wisdom and compassion. But I squandered that knowledge. I took a risk I knew was great. I thought there was a shortcut to bring peace to humankind.’
Geoff realised Kai was himself near to death. He was physically bowed down, his face grey, his eyes bloodshot.
‘I acted impulsively,’ he continued. ‘As a result, I killed dozens of people who were nominally my enemy, but also my two closest friends. I am responsible for Huang’s death, because I am the one who ordered him to capture the whale-bot. And it was I who killed Leona, whom I loved, because she died trying to save me.’
Chen put his arm round Kai’s shoulder, but he shrugged it away.
‘You must forgive yourself,’ said Geoff. ‘You were manipulated by a malevolent power. Once upon a time, they would have said you were possessed by an evil spirit. It wasn’t your fault.’
‘Shetani was not alive. He was no more than a computer programme,’ said Kai. ‘I allowed myself to be corrupted by machine code. That is my shame.’
‘Evil spirits have always existed,’ said Maura. ‘Even if Shetani was not alive in the way we are, he could create wormholes, cause volcanoes to erupt, tap power from black holes. No human being could resist something that strong.’
‘But I submitted to him voluntarily,’ said Kai, raising his voice as the wind buffeted the hut, howling like a pack of wolves. ‘I agreed to be Shetani’s agent here on Earth. I thought I could use his power to stop humankind destroying itself. But I behaved like a criminal. I am a criminal. That is a burden I must carry alone.’
‘You make choice for good reason,’ said Chen. ‘You have good motive.’
‘You know, I saw Shetani in his death pangs,’ continued Kai. ‘He suffered all the pain of humankind. All the people he had forced to feel terror, agony, hopelessness – Shetani felt it all for himself.’ The lights in the hut dimmed and then recovered as the emergency generator cut in.
‘So Shetani got his just deserts,’ said Maura. ‘Don’t beat yourself up anymore. Perhaps Voorogg will back off now Shetani has been destroyed.’
‘Oh, Maura,’ said Kai. ‘I am sorry, but the Earth is in terrible danger. Shetani had been assisting the rebel Thiosh to conquer the world. I know, I relayed his messages to Voorogg, and may I be eternally damned for betraying the whole of humankind. But I am afraid that Voorogg no longer needs Shetani’s help. He will be strong enough to conquer the Earth unaided.’
Maura watched the snow driving against the windowpanes for a moment. Then she turned and spoke. ‘How can we can stop Voorogg? Atherlonne never wanted war. She knows him. Could she persuade him to back off?’
‘I do not think so,’ said Kai. ‘Voorogg wants to capture her, and possibly kill her.’
‘I’ll contact her again,’ said Maura. ‘She must keep herself safe. She knows the locations of all Earth’s hydrothermal vents, many more than you told Voorogg. I think Leona had a premonition we had to keep some of them secret.’
‘I’ll speak to Wally,’ said Geoff. ‘We need to know the location of all Voorogg’s forces. He should be able to track them with his telescope. Chen, can you find out the status of the Khitan army, please? I’ll try and get an update on the Hesperian military.’
‘Is there anything I can do?’ asked Kai.
‘There is,’ said Maura. ‘You can be our leader.’
Kai took a deep breath. ‘Thank you. You are good people, but I am not qualified to lead you. In my next life, I shall be condemned to eternal hell, but I will spend my remaining time on Earth as usefully as I can.’
It was late in the working day. General Flannery was startled by someone knocking rapidly on his office door. Before the general could respond, Major Breckenridge charged in clutching a piece of paper. Flannery slipped his glass of Bourbon into the bottom drawer of his desk and moved some papers to cover where he’d splashed some whiskey.
‘Suh, suh,’ said Breckenridge, his face twitching. ‘I dunno how they did it, but the aliens are on Earth. They’ve launched their attack. They’ve got satellites with gamma lasers, and they knocked out half the Fed’s missile silos and most of the navy’s ships.’
Flannery glanced through the major’s printout. It ended abruptly, midway through a sentence. ‘The Septagon overreached itself,’ he said. ‘They put everything they had into the fight with Khitans. It was shit or bust. There’s only a squaddie and his dog left to defend the Federation.’ Shielding his right hand with his left, he entered the combination code for his safe and took out a red com-phone. Then, with a sigh, he put it down on his desk. ‘Fuck. It’ll take an hour to get through, and then an hour for a reply – if there’s anyone left to answer. It looks like we’re on our own, Major.’
‘Suh?’
‘But at least we’ll be alright. Just make sure the subs have caught every last one of those fucking sulphur-eating fish. As long as we’ve cleaned up the sea here, we can manage okay on our own. Meanwhile, keep trying to find out where these alien bastards are lurking on Earth. We may be able to send them a little present from Europa.’
Return to the Empire
Geoff, Maura, Kai and Chen gathered by the fire in the communal lounge.
‘I’ve been sharing with Atherlonne,’ said Maura. ‘She says Thiosh are very sensitive to gravity waves. When Geoff’s virus wiped out the Virtuon, the gravity tsunami that washed through space–time would have been felt by all Thiosh. Voorogg will have realised something happened to Shetani, but Atherlonne doubts it will change his plans.’
‘I am afraid she is right,’ said Kai, sadly. ‘Shetani used me to tell Voorogg what to do. His robots will invade both the Federation and the Empire. But he will use his main force to destroy the Khitan and Hesperian armies in Xizang.’
‘Kai, you know what weapons Voorogg have?’ asked Chen.
‘Shetani gave me designs for robot infantry, which can move through terrestrial cities from building to building, clearing out any opposition with gas grenades and plasma guns. Other robots will be armed with sniper rifles. They lock a laser onto a target and guide a smart bullet. Voorogg will have built a cavalry division, using humanoid robots mounted on machine-mules. They will gallop over rough ground at high speed, or climb over mountains.’
‘Could Atherlonne make machines to oppose him?’ asked Geoff. He began to pace back and forth inside the hut.
‘I don’t think she’ll want to do that,’ said Maura, frowning at Geoff. ‘As you know, she’s a pacifist at heart. But I’m sure she’d support us behind the scenes. You know, with intelligence, that sort of thing.’
‘She can make better our defending?’ asked Chen. ‘Make barrier to stop robots?’
‘It may be too late,’ said Geoff. He stopped pacing and sat down. ‘I have information from the guy we met in Oztralia. Voorogg’s sent a fleet of landing craft into the Indian Ocean. It’s heading for Bangla Bay.’
‘What’s he up to, do you think?’ said Maura.
‘The rebel Thiosh want to defeat both armies,’ said Kai. ‘First they will destroy the Hesperian force approaching Lhaza, and then they will crush the remaining Khitan resistance.’
‘It could all be over within a few weeks,’ said Geoff. ‘Voorogg’s army could establish a beachhead in the mouth of the Ganjes and travel overland, through Bangla, and across the mountains to Xizang.’
‘That’s over the most mountainous regions on Earth,’ said Maura.
‘Yes, but they’re robots,’ said Geoff. ‘They won’t be affected by cold or lack of oxygen. They’ll certainly find a way through.’
‘What should we do, Kai?’ asked Maura.
‘If humankind is going to keep its liberty, then the Hesperian and Khitan armies must fight together for the freedom of us all.’
‘I like your sentiment,’ said Geoff, ‘but how can they? The two armies are probably running out of ammo fighting each other.’
‘I do not k
now the answer yet,’ said Kai. ‘But I am certain it will never be possible unless Khitans and Hesperians combine forces. Geoff, I must go to Lhaza. How can I fly the shuttle without it being shot down by Voorogg’s satellites?’
Geoff was deep in concentration. He didn’t notice Maura standing by him until she spoke.
‘Wake up. What have you been doing? You missed your dinner.’
‘Oh, sorry, I forgot.’
‘It’s half past one in the morning. Are you designing something?’ She peered at the geometric shapes glowing on the screen.
He got up and stretched his cramped muscles. ‘It’s not easy refracting high energy gamma rays, but it’s possible with silicon prisms. But you need an array of them to bend the beam through 180 degrees. See what I mean,’ he said, zooming out to show the full picture.
‘Leona had a necklace like that,’ said Maura.
He saw sadness in her face. ‘That’s what gave me the idea. I think she’s helping us even now.’
‘I hope so, I really do. But how could you make it? It needs special glass.’
‘Actually, I’m planning to use the lenses from the old lighthouse.’
‘Are you serious? What’s it for?’
Geoff gave Maura a lopsided smile. ‘Just an idea I’ve had. I expect Voorogg will want to reflect on it.’
Geoff entered the hangar and sniffed the air. There was a peculiar odour he’d never noticed before. It seemed like a cross between rotting fish and toilet cleaner, but then his sense of smell hadn’t been the same since the fight with Huang. He looked around for Chen and found him stirring a brown sludge in an open drum.
‘Shuttle ready for take-off, but no more fuel for rocket-sledge,’ said Chen.
‘Have you checked all the buildings?’
‘Special tank hold all rocket fuel.’
‘So we’re stuck here. Kai’s taking the shuttle, we’ve lost the whale-bot and now we can’t use the rocket-sledge.’
‘It okay. I make more fuel.’
‘What’s your idea, Chen?’
‘We have big stock nitrate, yes?’
‘It’s fertilizer for the horti-tunnel,’ said Geoff.
‘We mix ammonium nitrate with whale oil. AN plus WO. It make ANWO fuel.’ Chen gestured at the contents of the drum.
‘I’m not sure. It looks like a slurry of oily crystals to me.’
‘I add water and it make emulsion,’ said Chen, smiling broadly.
‘So, you can pump it into the combustion chamber. Okay, I see what you’re saying. You have my permission to do some experiments. But be very careful, okay? Your ANWO is likely to be very unstable.’
Kai circled Mount Gephel and, expertly spilling the air from the shuttle’s stubby wings, he settled the craft down in the main courtyard of the huge monastery.
The rocket exhaust shut off abruptly and Kai climbed out of the cockpit. The Abbot hurried over to the craft and bowed low. ‘What a surprise!’ he said with a twinkle in his eye. ‘Welcome to Drepung. Have you come far?’
‘Yes, Father. From Antarctica.’
‘Very well. Perhaps you would like to rest a while and then join us for evening prayers?’
‘Forgive me, but my first priority must be to camouflage my craft. I do not want it to be seen by orbiting satellites.’
‘Do you think white sheets will look like snow when seen from space?’
‘Yes, Father. I am grateful.’
‘Have you come to help us fight the Hesperian devils?’
‘No, Father, I have come to persuade you to make friends with them.’
Kai entered a hall, the walls lined with statues of Khitan gods. Food was being prepared, and the smoke from the open fire stung his eyes. The Abbot got up and introduced him to Shan Chonglin and Yul T’an, leaders of the Khitan resistance army. Shan must have been in his fifties, a distinguished man with natural gravitas. His feathery moustaches were an inversion of his wispy eyebrows. Yul, however clearly kept herself ready for battle, in spite of her young, cherubic face. She wore her fur coat loosely over crossed bandoliers of ion gun cartridges.
A monk gave them each a bowl of rice, egg and vegetables. Kai suspected meat was in short supply, now the Hesperian army had cut off trade from the south. He scooped up the rice with his chopsticks, feeling all the time he was being watched by the statues, their exaggerated features made more grotesque by the flickering light of ghee lamps. He asked the Abbot about the history of the monastery and its teaching, partly from politeness, but also out of genuine interest in view of his own experience as a monk.
As soon as the rice bowls had been cleared away, they spread out maps on the plain wooden tables, and marked the mountain passes where the Khitans had halted the advance of the Hesperian army.
‘Soon you will be attacked by another army,’ said Kai. ‘A legion of alien robots.’
Yul stared at the ceiling and clasped her shaven head. ‘You speak the babble of a madman.’
‘Wait,’ said Shan. ‘Let us hear what he has to say.’
‘I was a pupil of Wu Jiu Li,’ said Kai. ‘I believe he was aware of the existence of intelligent alien life living on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Other Khitan adepts may also know of these beings, through psychic experience.’ The Abbot and Shan exchanged glances.
‘I myself have met the aliens,’ said Kai. ‘We know them as Thiosh. They were essentially a peace-loving race, but they were threatened by the Hesperians who built a base on Europa. A hostile group have found their way to Earth and have built a robot army to dominate all humankind. Their robo-troops are approaching in two columns, passing through Bangla. Soon they will be in the foothills of the mountains.’
‘How do you know this?’ queried Yul, leaning forward over the table. ‘We have heard nothing. Do you have secret information? Where are your spies?’
‘I will tell you all I know about the robo-troops. I trust you will be just as open with me.’ Kai paused, looking from face to face. Shan and the Abbot nodded and Kai continued. ‘I have surveillance information obtained from a high-resolution telescope sited on the Moon. It was relayed to me by an astronomer in Oztralia, who is sympathetic to our cause.’
‘Oztralia? Is he Hesperian?’ asked Yul, smiling unpleasantly.
‘Yes.’
‘Who else knows this?’ asked Shan.
‘I share the information with other Hesperian friends.’
‘More Hesperians? How can you trust them?’ Tiny flecks of Yul’s spittle flickered momentarily in the lamplight.
‘The Hesperian Government regards them as traitors,’ said Kai. ‘They escaped from a prison and have been hunted ever since.’
‘All your friends seem to be double agents,’ said Yul. ‘You ought to be more careful who you associate with.’ She stood up and began rolling her hips and stretching.
‘No, you must be careful,’ said Kai. ‘Powers are at work beyond your imagining.’
Yul stopped exercising. ‘Is it a power beyond our imagining that switched off the surveillance satellites? The Hesperians have maintained a no-fly zone for the last three months. Yet you landed your Hesperian shuttle in our courtyard. Could it be that you are a double agent yourself?’
‘It was not the Hesperians who launched the satellites, but the rebel Thiosh. They are equipped with gamma lasers, which can destroy anything on land, in the air or on the sea. When the robo-troops are near enough to hold the ground, they may also destroy this monastery.’
‘You are talking drivel!’ cried Yul. ‘You say hostile aliens control the sky, but you flew here, unharmed.’
‘Ha! There is much that I cannot expect you to understand. What I can tell you is that a brilliant Hesperian computer engineer designed a gamma ray reflector. We shone a searchlight at a satellite. When it fired its laser, we reflected it back to disable it. The satellite was geostationary, monitoring the segment of Earth I needed to fly over. But I expect it will soon be replaced.’
‘Tell us the truth. Who you are working for?’ s
aid Yul, resting her hand on the butt of her tezla pistol.
‘Regarding my allegiance, it is true I was a puppet owned by something more powerful even than Thiosh, and yet my friends found a way to destroy it. But perhaps to you, I will always sound like a lunatic.’
‘I sense you have suffered greatly,’ said Shan, gently. ‘Do you want to tell us your story?’
‘In time, maybe. But my own experience is not relevant to our present circumstance. Let it suffice that my Hesperian friends, whom you distrust, saved my life and my honour. I have come to give you a message. You must act now to save yourselves.’
Robot Attack
Geoff and Maura spent most of the day in the lab, monitoring the Antarctic environment.
‘The uni-net’s been off for a while,’ said Geoff. ‘It’s back now, but it’s different.’
‘How different?’
‘It doesn’t look good. The normal search engines no longer work. Instead there are pages and pages of stuff about reordering society: orders for food distribution, plans for sulphur mines, manufacture of workers’ overalls, destruction of private houses, construction of tower blocks. It’s a rebel Thiosh manifesto.’
‘How’s the war going? Are the Federation and the Empire still at each other’s throats?’
‘I asked Wally what he could see through his Moon telescope. The rebels don’t know about the 8105 code yet, but they’ll crack it in the end, I’m sure. As far as he can tell, the human armies are still fighting in the mountains. They’re playing straight into Voorogg’s hands. His robots will march in and pick up the pieces.’
‘God between us and all harm,’ whispered Maura.
‘We’ve been in jams before . . .’
Geoff was interrupted as Chen burst into the lab. ‘I disturb, sorry. But distraydar show ships come. What we do now?’
‘Voorogg’s robots!’ said Geoff. ‘The rebel Thiosh want to punish us for knocking out their satellite. What’s their ETA, Chen?’
The Hesperian Dilemma Page 17