by Neal Asher
Var felt slightly surprised at this admission of error.
He halted and turned to look at her. ‘Her troops boarded Argus and a lot of people died. We came close to losing and it was only by my boarding the Scourge and penetrating its computer system that we managed to prevail.’
‘So what did you do?’ Var asked.
‘I penetrated their ID implants and activated the biochips – killing them all with the Scour virus lying latent within them.’ He faced forwards and moved on. ‘We got the drive running again after that and hit the Scourge, which had retreated, with our drive bubble. That ship is back on course for Earth, and now doubtless full of corpses.’ He paused contemplatively as they walked, then added, ‘In reality the only person the Rhine drive actually saved was you.’
Var felt a surge of resentment at that, then shook it off as she contemplated all he had told her. So that was it: end of that chapter and turn over the page. He had summarized some of the most catastrophic events the human race had ever faced, also events that had opened out vast horizons; all had, as their root cause, himself. She found that somehow . . . unfair.
‘So what now?’ she asked, as they reached the cave mouth.
‘You always wanted to build spaceships, Var – that is one memory I retain,’ he replied. ‘Give me your opinion of Argus Station, in that respect.’
She shivered and, despite her weariness, felt a sudden excitement. ‘It was a stupid design.’ Yes, it was, but she couldn’t help feeling as if she was about to deliver a proposal to some Committee technology-assessment group.
‘How so?’ he enquired, flicking on his suit light to punch a beam into the dusty dark ahead.
‘The initial aim was to build a ring station that could be spun up for centrifugal gravity. They first put in the structural supports and then began building the ring, and only realized halfway through that they had positioned it over the Traveller engine, so wouldn’t be able to complete it if they intended to use that engine again – which they did. Then, instead of moving the engine so that it pointed either up or down in relation to the ring’s axis, they decided to turn the ring supports into the spindles for cylinder worlds, then went on to build the arcoplexes. It was a government hash from the start.’
‘Very true,’ Saul agreed.
‘We’ll have to move it,’ Var opined.
‘The engine or the station rim?’ he asked.
‘The Traveller engine, effectively, since we really need to get that asteroid out of there, cut it up and turn it into something useful.’
‘So you propose a ring-shaped spacecraft with the engine jutting below?’
‘I propose no such thing.’
He wasn’t walking into the cave, just leaning a hand against the wall of stone as he waited to hear what she had to say. In just a short exchange, this conversation had moved on from apparently idle speculation. But she felt sudden misgivings. After all he had done, why would he need her expertise? Was he just offering a sop to her pride? No, she couldn’t allow that thought to take hold: she could be just as good as him, just as successful. She closed her eyes for a second to try and remember the schematics of the Argus Station, and then consider what could be done with it.
‘The Alcubierre warp,’ she said, her eyes snapping open, ‘what is its size and shape?’
‘It presently generates at a diameter of seven kilometres – a kilometre from the station rim all round. It is oblate, with an axial thickness of four kilometres, though with half-kilometre indents at the poles.’
‘I notice your emphasis on “presently”,’ remarked Var.
Saul nodded. ‘Without the Argus asteroid at the centre of the station, the warp would be spherical.’
‘So that changes the kind of ship you could build,’ said Var. ‘If you intend to retain the drive you already have.’
‘True,’ Saul agreed. ‘What design of ship do you propose?’
‘They were a little two-dimensional in their thinking when they built the station. If the ship itself was spherical, you could build in greater structural integrity, maybe even position new arcoplexes inside it and move the Traveller engine round and then out along one axis – that is, if you feel you need to retain that engine.’
‘With the Rhine drive, we essentially fly blind,’ he observed non-committal.
She couldn’t help but feel he had been coaxing her to her next words. ‘You’ve managed to create a warp drive – something long considered impossible in conventional physics circles – so what about Mach-effect propulsion?’
‘I have been considering it,’ he acknowledged. ‘As with the Rhine drive, it may be that we already have a large portion of the necessary hardware in place simply with the EM field equipment.’
‘I see.’
‘So, what would you do first?’
‘You’ll need a lot of construction robots, and a lot more materials than you can obtain from the Argus asteroid. Robots first, then start building the skeleton of the sphere—’
He abruptly stepped away and gazed up at the sky.
‘Brigitta and Angela,’ he said, ‘I have sent instructions to the system which concern you. When you’ve finished clearing that mess in there, I want Robotics operating at full production. I’ve also instructed Le Roque to give you everything you need.’ He paused for a second, listening to a response, before continuing. ‘Yes, he’s having the smelting plants extended.’ He then turned to Var. ‘It begins,’ he explained. ‘Shall we?’ He gestured into the cave ahead then led the way in.
Of course, once they got deep inside the cave he would be out of contact with the computer systems of Argus Station. He’d set things in motion just then, which seemed fast for someone used to the bureaucratic delays and screw-ups usual in her previous employers. It was also exhilarating, but for the feeling that she was somehow being shifted into place like some game-piece.
Argus
Hannah gazed at the swirling debris spreading out from the ringside bearing installation of Arcoplex Two, noting the flare of welders throughout the station amid constant robot and human activity.
‘Madness,’ she exclaimed in exasperation. ‘He’s risking our lives to save a sister he doesn’t even remember.’
Even as she finished this outburst she felt mean and selfish and began to question her motivation. He wasn’t risking their lives because they could survive without him. With the Rhine drive, they could now avoid anything Earth threw at them, and they probably also possessed enough expertise to repair the station and return it to self-sufficiency. Materials and energy wouldn’t be a problem: the former could be gathered within the Asteroid Belt, or elsewhere in the solar system; while for the latter they could fly close to the sun, use their mirrors and solar arrays, and be away again before Galahad could send anything after them.
So why am I angry? Hannah wondered.
It was because she loved Saul and didn’t want him to die. It was because, without him now, she would feel alone. No. That didn’t really work. If she was truthful she had to admit she did not love him. She had once had an infatuation for the man he had previously been, when both man and infatuation had been human things. But loving the Alan Saul who rescued her from Inspectorate HQ London had seemed more akin to loving some especially efficient weapons system. And now he existed in an area far outside cosy one-on-one human relationships, having risen to the position of godhead or Owner, which was the title he had assumed out of contempt for all other titles, or perhaps arrogance. So what was bothering her?
Possessiveness.
Somehow he belonged to her, and she realized that this concern of his for his sister – his risking his life for this Var Delex, by flying that contraption of his to the surface of Mars, alone – was the source of her pique. She was jealous, and knowing that only annoyed her further. And, by Le Roque’s silence over radio, she guessed her reaction had made him uncomfortable. He was embarrassed for her.
Hannah swung round to watch an ant-like construction robot emerging from
one of the empty rooms inside the installation. It was clutching a human corpse in its big two-fingered forelimb. The corpse wore a grey vacuum combat suit painted with the symbol of the rising sun on the chest and back. This was not one of the Scourge assault troops Saul had killed with the Scour, for the head was missing and misty vapour trickled from numerous bullet holes. The corpse was off on its journey to be placed first in the hopper of a big robot normally used to carry construction materials, then conveyed, once that robot had a full load, to the overflowing rim mortuary. It struck Hannah that this task must be now becoming quite familiar to the robots here.
‘Did he have to kill them all?’ she asked abruptly, then winced. Where had that come from?
‘I’m guessing he didn’t have time to be selective, Hannah.’ Le Roque’s tone sounded somewhat patronizing over the com link. ‘And if he hadn’t been so drastic, we might all either be dead or imprisoned by now.’
Yes, those were the plain facts, but she didn’t want to apologize for her outburst. Why the hell should she? She’d been shot at, she’d killed people, become an unwilling participant in slaughter, damn it! Still, she pulled back on any further outbursts. Le Roque had suffered similar woes, and he had also lost friends. She realized she was behaving like a brat, and it was time to stop.
‘So, what do we do while he’s gone?’ she enquired as she began heading for the arcoplex elevator at this end. ‘Has he relayed any instructions?’
Le Roque emitted a dry laugh. ‘Oh, he’s given us some chores to be getting on with while he’s out of contact in a cave system down there. The detail on them came close to crashing the system, until he slowed things down a little.’
‘What?’
‘We all have our instructions, and reconstruction is ramping up to the maximum possible given the limited power available, and we’ve restarted mining operations on the asteroid. I’m trying to get a handle on it, but it’s not all obvious. He has some robots building a fuel drop tank for the Mars space plane down there, and Brigitta and Angela are running Robotics at full capacity.’
‘More robots?’ Hannah queried.
‘More robots,’ Le Roque confirmed, ‘though we have to await some new schematics that he’ll send once he’s back in contact. We also have provisional – but yet to be approved – designs for thousands of different station components, including what look like new arcoplex spindles.’
Arcoplex spindles? Hannah wondered as she stepped into the elevator. ‘Okay,’ she said, ‘I’m heading back to my cabin now.’ She cut the link.
Suddenly feeling very weary, Hannah leaned back against one wall of the elevator, almost glad that the damage to Arcoplex Two had made it necessary to cut its spin again. She was pleased not to have to trudge through an artificial one gravity to her quarters near her laboratory. As the doors opened to admit her to the arcoplex, she opened her suit visor and was immediately hit by the smell of burned plastic and cooked human flesh, and sharply reminded of what had happened here. To distract herself she thought about the meaning of the instructions Saul had issued.
He seemed to be mapping out the immediate future and keeping everyone busy, but what about afterwards? Obviously he was aiming to rebuild Argus Station, almost certainly turning it into the spaceship he had once named it. Doubtless he intended to ensure it was self-sufficient, manoeuvrable, powerful . . . and then? Did he intend to move against Earth or move away? Did she, in all honesty, have any chance of understanding his future aims and divining his present plans?
Mars
Saul had understood, from the moment Var breathed easily again, that it was time to start acting and stop reacting. Images from Earth he had viewed during his descent to Mars showed that, while the Scourge had been out here hunting them, Serene Galahad had not been idle. He counted at least ten mass drivers operating, the framework of three huge ships taking shape amidst the ever-expanding Mars Traveller construction station, also a structure down on Earth that already looked like a test bed for something similar to the Rhine drive. If he continued just reacting they would die, so he needed to work harder and faster than the sum industrial and technical might of Earth.
‘We’ll need more power than what’s available out here,’ said Var.
Saul focused his human facet on her, aware already that he was dealing with someone angry and prideful and little in love with being merely a subordinate. Whether his sister had always been like that he did not have sufficient memory of her to know. He also wondered if her recent experiences here might have changed her.
‘Fusion should supply enough power to begin the work, but, yes, I agree: we need more power.’ He turned and stepped into the cave. ‘I’ll take Argus close to the sun when we are done here.’
‘And what do you intend to get done here?’
‘As I said, I want to get the Mars-format space plane up and running,’ he said. ‘The people here will be relocated to Argus while I strip Antares Base of anything useful, like the fusion reactor.’
‘You’ll give them no choices?’ she asked, apparently pleased by the idea.
‘They can stay on Mars and die, if they so choose,’ he said bluntly.
The floor of the cave was uneven, and in places they had to scramble over boulders, after which Saul found himself panting, despite weighing just over a third of what he weighed on Earth. Deeper in, he began to note calcite formations – the nubs of stalactites and stalagmites that had never had a chance to get as big as anything similar on Earth. They had to be billions of years old.
‘But, still, there is the problem of Rhone,’ Var observed.
Saul grimaced, annoyed with himself now because he had not thought to bring a weapon. Just getting here and rescuing his sister had been an uncharacteristically overriding concern, while anything after that, down here, had seemed of little importance compared to everything else he had needed to do. Now, because he hadn’t been paying attention, the problems down here could become critical. Once out in the open again, he could take over their systems, but there were no readerguns he could use to remove Rhone. He and Var could sneak in and maybe seize some weapons – he had confidence enough in his own abilities in that respect – but all that seemed untidy, and there was still a chance that one or both of them might get killed.
‘What do you suggest?’ he asked, turning to study her.
‘I want to kill Rhone,’ she said tightly, leaning against the cave wall and seemingly grateful for the pause. ‘But that’s personal. Maybe, if you can link me through, I can talk to the whole base – let Rhone and the rest know the situation and get their response.’
It was vague, imprecise.
‘You could demand that Rhone step down,’ he suggested.
‘I don’t want to be their leader.’
‘You’ve fallen out of love with the idea?’ Saul commented, moving on.
‘Give me something to build and teams to command, and I’m fine. Making life-and-death decisions about people’s future I’m not so fine with.’
Of course, her pride had taken a heavy blow, and now Saul had offered her a way out. She wanted to deal with the nuts and bolts of a major space engineering project, as if that would be so much easier.
‘I collected what data we have on you,’ he said. ‘On top of all your other qualifications you’re a synthesist, which makes you much more qualified to lead people than many others who would like the job, including this Rhone. Sometimes the job chooses you and there are no other options.’
He considered Hannah up on Argus as he said this: how sometimes it was necessary to accept responsibility because really there was no one else who could.
They trudged on through the darkness with long slow steps, their suit lights stabbing ahead of them. In his mind, Saul tracked their position on an old seismic map of this cave, pausing occasionally to study his surroundings. Some hours of silence passed as they laboured on, at one point crossing the bed of an ancient underground stream scattered with rounded pebbles. As he paused to aim his light i
n each direction along the pipe cut through the rock on either side of them, Saul understood that Var’s decision to take Antares Base underground had been the best one in the circumstances, but that would have come to nothing once the might of Earth reached out here. It really did not matter how capable were the individuals or minor groups scattered about the solar system, because they simply could not bring to bear the kind of resources Serene Galahad had available. He started to move on, but Var suddenly swore and sprawled on the ground.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
She got back up onto all fours, then probed her side with one hand. ‘I need to rest.’
‘Are you hurt?’
‘Cracked rib, but that’s not my main problem.’ She stood up. ‘Thinking I was going to die, I didn’t waste much of the little time I had left on sleeping.’
‘We’ll take a break here,’ Saul said. ‘Do you have food?’
‘Some.’
‘Then eat and rest.’ Saul stepped over beside the wall of the stream bed and sat down, feeling grateful for a break himself. Var sat opposite him, sucking from her suit spigot for a while, but did not seem inclined to talk further. He watched her eyelids sag then finally close, detected the change in her breathing, and envied her – she’d fallen straight into a deep sleep. Checking his own physical condition, he felt no need for sleep, for he had slept long enough, but did feel the need for his body to recharge. He sucked from his own suit spigot – a protein paste packed with sugars, vitamins and minerals – until it was dry. He then switched over to fluids and gulped down a litre of some unidentifiable citrus liquid. Then he consciously ramped up the activity of his organs, cleaning out poisons and recharging all round, doing the best to bring his body to optimum efficiency in the shortest time. But even all this, involving considerable detail, occupied only a small portion of his intellect, so he considered other matters meanwhile.
Saul summoned up in his mind a schematic of the standard construction robot, along with ideas he had played with before about how it could be vastly improved. At present it was a singular machine and, though it looked like an ant, the idea of social insects had not been taken to its logical conclusion, and beyond. The robots must be designed as parts of a logical whole – all their components rendered interchangeable down to even their minds. Robots that consisted of three body parts and three sets of limbs should be made capable of both separating and conjoining. He visualized robots with just one body section and one pair of limbs mating up with similar fellows to create robots with any number of body sections and pairs of limbs, even up to centipede monsters. Outlining this general idea, he next concentrated on the specific: the alloys and meta-materials to be used, the dimensions of all the components, a new design of processor to run a whole new kind of software. Seven hours later, by the time Var reopened her eyes, he had perfected every detail.