by Mark Henwick
All of it.
It’s all finished now. At last.
A strange peace descends on him.
Without the material of the curtains and the thick glass in front of him, he can see the people again. They’re clear to him now. So clear.
All that time, hiding himself behind barriers, feeling his people were drifting further and further away, and really, it was him, drifting away from them.
He steps out onto the small balcony.
People down in the plaza see him. Some of them are pointing. Distant shouts float up on the wind. It feels like they’re calling to him.
“I thought I did it for you, my people,” he says. “Hubris. I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
He shivers. Spring is coming slowly, and the air is cold.
He breathes it in deeply; savors its chill bite, the hint of spring, the slight tang of the distant sea, so characteristic of Iruña, so like Newyan, so full of promise. His heart swells with love for his home world. There is nothing like it, he is sure, in all the worlds that humanity has touched. Nothing.
He looks down into the plaza again.
It is time.
Chapter 70
Zara
The Dowreth have decided they will no longer hide. Morgen’s standing here in sight of everyone in the courtroom, in sight of the recording devices, her head monstrously misshapen with the glistening decopus.
She’s flanked by Danny and the Xian marines.
The Terran marines who came in first were expecting a room of unarmed people. Most of them weren’t even holding their weapons in their hands. Now they are bottled in by very heavily armed troops, all of whom are holding weapons. The Xian aren’t exactly pointing their plasma rifles, but all of the soldiers on both sides have started to move slowly and carefully. No one wants to be the reason the shooting starts.
Taha doesn’t even seem to notice Morgen. “Invasion, Captain!” he says to Ndungane, his finger stabbing at the Xian marines. “Now do you believe us?”
“Xian troops are no more an invasion than Terran troops,” Bleyd says. “Captain Ndungane, I caution you and your troops to proceed with extreme caution. No one has fired a shot yet, and we want to keep it that way.”
I’m not watching the soldiers. I’m watching Morgen. The woman behind her steps up nervously. I recognize Dr. Zaval, the Ministro for Health, whose Bureau is in the next building. Not one I had down for a member of the Hajnal.
Dr. Zaval is clearly fascinated by Morgen. She doesn’t seem to feel she’s under arrest.
Why has Morgen brought her?
Then I see what she’s carrying and I understand. My legs feel suddenly wobbly with relief.
Thank the Goddess. The Commissioners will have to listen to her.
I ask Justinian to cease the display of Berges ordering the Duhalde’s captain.
Morgen and Dr. Zaval both walk down to the front and Taha gets his first good look at Morgen.
“What the nova is going on now?” Taha yells, standing up. “What is this?”
“Congratulations, Commissioner,” Morgen replies. “You are among the first humans, outside of Kernow and Newyan, to become aware that there are other intelligent races sharing human space. I am a symbiont, after a fashion. I’m acting as a voice for the Dowreth.” Her hand indicates the decopus. “They are what human xenobiologists would term a telepathic gestalt intelligence or a hive mind. The remainder of them are in the seas of Kernow and on the Shohwa above us. I am the voice specifically for the gestalt on the ship.”
A shiver goes through the room at the thought of a telepathic alien, but no one doubts her word, even for a moment. Beyond the shock of how she looks with the decopus around her head, there’s an other-worldly air about her. We can feel her pressing on our minds. And she’s not talking like the Morgen I met. She sounds very different. Very alien.
“What are you doing here, in this courtroom?” Ivakin says, her voice taut. “Why are you with these invading Xian troops?”
Morgen calmly responds: “The Xian and Dowreth are here because they both recognize this as a turning point. We... all of us, have to get this right, or the consequences for humanity and the Dowreth are bleak, to the level of extinction.”
“Preposterous.” Ivakin slaps the table.
“You’re very quick with your estimation, knowing nothing of the true situation,” Morgen says.
“And you’re very brave, considering you’re standing in a room full of armed men, and you’re part of an invasion.”
“There is an invasion, but it’s not the Xian or the Dowreth. Anyway, the loss of one of us is nothing,” Morgen says. “On the other hand, we have calculated that the loss of Newyan to the Hajnal leads to an outright war and likely extinction.”
“I am sick of hearing about this conspiracy theory! There is no such thing as the Hajnal. It’s a ploy used to recruit—”
“Hear her out.” Bleyd’s amplified voice cuts across him.
Morgen nods, and turns her back on the Commissioners.
“Doctor Zaval, for the purposes of the Enquiry recording devices, please tell us your position in the government.”
“I am the Ministro of the Bureau of Health for Newyan.”
“You have a medical device with you. Are you familiar with its operation?”
“Of course I am. I was a doctor long before I was a politician. Still am. I still use scanners like this all the time.”
“Thank you. Explain its function, please, again for the purposes of the recordings.”
“Well, it’s a preliminary diagnostic scanning tool for doctors. It analyses physical structure, tissue from contact, even the chemical components of any aromas that might be evaporated from your skin or expelled by your body. It’s obviously not as comprehensive and sensitive as those in a hospital, but it is extremely portable and useful.”
“Can it be electronically interfered with?”
“Not while I have it in my possession. It’s not connected to the InfoHub.”
“Would you scan Commissioner Taha, please?” Morgen turns back. “Commissioner, just a moment and it will become clear.”
With poor grace, and one eye on the soldiers, Taha puts his hand in the scanner’s aperture. A few moments later a green light comes on and he takes his hand back.
Dr. Zaval looks at the screen of the device and smiles blandly. “A perfectly normal sort of reading. General good health, extreme indicators of stress, but that’s hardly surprising, is it?”
“And me?” Morgen puts her hand into the aperture.
Dr. Zaval is considerably more eager to get Morgen’s results. She peers closely at them when they arrive.
“Fascinating! These indicators—”
“There will be plenty of time for that in due course, doctor. I’m human, though?”
“Well, yes, of course. Some anomalies, but—” Zaval’s words trip over themselves.
“Primer Ministro Eneko! Ministro Loiola! Not leaving us, are you?” Morgen calls out.
They are at the back, at the door Sánchez used to come in and out. Loiola doesn’t stop. He pulls the door open and tries to run through, only to bounce back. Ruslan is blocking the way, Kat behind him.
For the first time, the implications of where this is going seem to register with Taha.
His face becomes extremely pale, and he doesn’t protest when Ruslan and Kat force Eneko and Loiola back to the bench, where the diagnostic scanner waits.
Even the troops suddenly seem to be watching this more than each other.
Dr. Zaval doesn’t believe the first readings, from Loiola. She frowns and shakes her head, refusing to say anything.
Kat puts her hand in and proves the machine is analyzing correctly.
Then Eneko’s hand is pushed in to be analyzed.
Dr. Zaval rocks back on her heels, frowning.
“Just like Ministro Loiola. The physical structure is fine, as far as the scanner can see,” she says. “But the chemistry...”
She shakes her head, frowning even more fiercely.
“It’s not human,” Morgen says.
“Eh? Oh. No, absolutely not human. Absolutely not.” Dr. Zaval sucks air through her teeth, and rocks to and fro. “Fascinating. Nothing like it in the medical literature,” she mutters.
Loiola and Eneko have stopped struggling. They’re just standing there with blank faces. It’s that, more than Morgen’s words, that adds conviction to the Ministro of Health’s pronouncement. Suddenly, the two of them don’t look human any more.
“Commissioners Taha and Ivakin,” Captain Ndungane breaks the silence, “in accordance with the military powers vested in the Accords, I am suspending the Enquiry temporarily in favor of a military—”
“No,” I say firmly and see Bleyd nodding encouragement from the corner of my eye.
“Now, you want the Enquiry?” Ndungane says, his eyebrows raised incredulously.
“No,” I repeat and clear my throat, suddenly nervous. The Terran navy would be better than the Enquiry, but still wrong. Newyan needs to heal itself, and it needs to start now. I square my shoulders. “The current government of Newyan is suspended with immediate effect. I am forming a temporary, emergency government with a clear commitment to return to the rule of law, and to hold elections within six months. I thank the Terran navy for their efforts and good intentions, Captain Ndungane, but the Accords will not be operational unless and until re-activated by the newly elected government.”
Goddess, I’m sounding like my grandfather.
“You’re insane! You can’t do this. You have no such authority,” Ndungane says.
“On the contrary, although the laws of this system were in the process of being dismantled, there remain on the statutes clauses that envisage exactly such a situation of catastrophic breakdown in law and order. There is even an old, officially recognized term for it: the Government of Names. And if any other Name disputes my right to lead, I will be delighted to entertain their alternatives.”
I turn to the Bureau of Justice’s AI.
“Justinian, transmit the relevant clauses for the formation of the Government of Names to the TSS Annan, and the destroyers Santoña and Biháriz. Attach notice of my assumption of leadership.”
“It is done, Irana Aguirre.”
The title makes me flinch. It’s a seal of approval from the Bureau of Justice’s own AI. I don’t want it, but I see no other way. Its effect on the Newyan people in the room is both subtle and profound. They’re dazed by what has happened, and eager for someone to fix things. Eager for the comfort of the familiar and traditional after the seismic shock of glimpsing the truth of what they’ve been party to. They’re looking at me, and their eyes are full of need.
I hate it already.
I look guiltily at Bleyd, but he’s still smiling.
Shohwa appears in the projection next to him. They exchange a word, and then Shohwa speaks: “Both Xian and Kernow fully support this action by Irana Aguirre-Tremayne. Captain, I believe you should withdraw your troops immediately, and be prepared for the evacuation of the staff of the Enquiry.”
Ndungane holds up a hand without replying, distracted by his systems, no doubt displaying Newyan law side by side with the Accords.
They will confirm to him that what I’ve done is legal.
We wait.
And into this frozen tableau runs a court clerk, shouting wildly. Rifles twitch, but the young man is so disturbed he doesn’t even realize.
“It’s Ministro Sánchez,” he gasps, his head swiveling from side to side to work out who’s in charge. He gives up and his hands gesture urgently out at the Plaza Nagusia. “An accident... dead.” His eyes are wide with shock and he can’t speak clearly.
It appears the Ministro has fallen from his high window, down onto the entrance steps of the Bureau, into the shadow of the statue of Themis.
Chapter 71
Hwa
It is the worst time to be having such intense feelings... so naturally, Hwa is overflowing with them.
It would be embarrassing just to be in the presence of Raul and Xing, because she knows they would sense the turmoil in her, but she’s actually mentally interfacing with them. And Shohwa.
She didn’t realize how much she loves them all, in such different ways. But now is not the time to be distracted by that.
They’re on the Shohwa, sitting cross-legged between the dizzying ranks of processors in the heart of the ship. They’re here because Xing has to be extracted from his quantum state symbiosis with Raul, without damaging either of them.
It’s well documented to be a dangerous operation.
Shohwa managed it with Zara and me, Hwa thinks. This shouldn’t be any different.
Maybe it feels like safe and routine for Raul and Xing, but Hwa, as the observer this time, is panicking.
Wait, wait, Hwa wants to call out.
“I think we should review our knowledge of the Hajnal and make sure our summary for broadcast is succinct and complete,” Shohwa says, physically present in her nanostructured form and speaking aloud.
“An excellent idea,” Raul/Xing replies. “Hwa should start...”
She swallows and tries to calm herself.
The data sets on the Shohwa are a league beyond the impressive capabilities Xing had in the server room at the delegation. Their sheer depth and breadth is intimidating, but Hwa was once part of Shohwa, and manipulating these sets feels as familiar as breathing now is.
“I’ll summarize what we have from physical evidence,” Hwa says. “The autopsies.”
The data sets shuffle. There’s a lot of data, and yet very little information.
“We detained Eneko, Loiola and seventeen minor government officials alive, before the news got out. All refused to communicate in any fashion. All simply shut down and died within two days, regardless of medical intervention. A further fifty-two people committed suicide. One suspect, Berges, tried to escape and her body is not available for analysis.”
Hwa knows Shohwa is just keeping her occupied with this task, but she’s grateful. She’s connected closely enough to Raul and Xing that she can feel a sliding sensation, as if the room has tilted. The preparations to transfer Xing back to processors are moving relentlessly forward while she speaks.
“The testing of the population is continuing, but there have been no new discoveries of people with aberrant biological signs.”
She pulls the summaries to the fore.
“The testing of all seventy-one bodies yielded very similar results. All showed normal human physical structures. However the blood, lymphatic system and all organs were infested with microorganisms of an unknown type. The organisms have a nucleus and membranes, so they are tentatively defined as eukaryotes. However, they display viral behavior, specifically in the methods they use to propagate: by taking over human cells, and then using the biology of those cells to replicate themselves.”
This is better. She’s calmed down as she swims in the sea of data.
“The higher function of these microorganisms is unknown, but all humans infested behaved in the same way as far as we can tell. No other instances of these microorganisms has ever been found to our knowledge.”
Shohwa takes over.
“The full history of this Hajnal invasion, as far as we can piece it together, shows it is indisputably driven by an outside force.”
As she speaks, the far wall of the room seems to ripple with supple movements. Beyond the clear barrier is a water habitat where the shipboard Dowreth live. The original shoal filled an entire cargo module, but most of them are now in Newyan’s oceans. A sub-shoal has taken up permanent residence in the Shohwa.
Hwa can taste the weight of their thoughts on the mental interface they’re all sharing. It feels chaotic, but Shohwa believes she is making progress in communicating directly with them.
As she speaks, Shohwa pulls up views of datasets that the others have not yet seen.
“The timing and direction of the takeover o
f planets show that the Hajnal arrived in the remotest Frontier planets about fifty years ago. Progress was slow at first. However, within the last ten years, they have constantly accelerated and their targets have increasingly been more successful planets, culminating in the attempts at Kernow and Newyan, apparently with the aim of breaching the Inner Worlds. As they’ve ramped up their efforts, they have displayed an utter indifference to the fate of previous planets which can no longer provide anything to the Hajnal. Whole communities on the edges of the Frontier have died.”
The three-dimensional graphic display of the progress of the Hajnal invasion shows a clear intent to penetrate deeply into human space, rather than to attack planets not on that direct line.
“This confirms an external driving force and an attack on humanity.”
They may want to deny it, but the Terran Council cannot fail to see this.
Raul is offering no insights, but with a start, Hwa senses Xing is already separated enough that he’s using the Shohwa’s processors.
Hwa edges closer to Raul and takes his hand. He responds with a squeeze. His face is still blank, but he’s come through. More, Hwa has a similar sensation of mind-sharing with him as she has with Zara. Not as well defined, though she senses he may have that closeness with Xing.
That will be… a little challenging at times. So be it. Hwa takes a deep breath, feels inside herself and shares that core of happiness with Raul. He responds.
“Which leads us to speculation on the nature of the Hajnal,” Xing says, his voice amused, making it plain he knows about the byplay between Hwa and Raul.
“Should we still use ‘Hajnal’?” Hwa asks. “It’s a human name from Tavoli.”
“Until we have something better,” Xing says.
“A parasitic infection that changes behavior in the host,” Hwa says, for argument’s sake. “This is seen in many biological systems.”
“Not at this level of sophistication, and never for such a highly organized, deferred benefit.”
“What if the microorganisms are part of a life cycle?” Xing asks.
Hwa shudders at the thought of some alien DNA in the microorganisms suddenly triggering a change and cannibalizing the human hosts to feed the next step in the cycle.