Proteus Unbound

by Charles Sheffield

  He paused and turned again to Ransome. "I don't know which one of these leads outward. Take your pick."

  "Left. Keep going." The voice was gruff, and Aybee could see beads of sweat on the man's face. They moved slowly forward, to a curved part of the corridor screened both ahead of and behind them. An open door leading to an empty maintenance chamber stood on the right-hand side.

  "Through there." Ransome nodded his head. "Both of you."

  Aybee tensed himself as he went through. Sylvia was between him and Ransome. If he turned to grapple with him, would she be able to get out of the way fast enough?

  He had to try. He was spinning around, reaching out his long arms, when the man behind him groaned and sagged forward against the inner wall of the room.

  "Aybee! Get him!" Aybee heard Sylvia's shout, but Ransome had fallen forward. His torso flexed itself, then straightened in a painful stretching movement that dropped it to the floor and jerked it two meters into the room.

  "Close the door. Keep watch for people," an agonized voice said. "I can't hold any longer."

  Then Ransome was twitching on the smooth floor while Aybee and Sylvia looked on in astonishment.

  "Ransome. Are you all right?" Sylvia was crouching down next to him.

  "Ransome may be fine." The voice was down to a whisper. "But I'm Bey Wolf. Help me, Sylvia. I need five minutes clear."

  The body was jerking into violent spasm. The contorted face that looked up at Sylvia was still Black Ransome's, but at the back of the pained eyes she saw something else. "Bey! Is it really you? What's happening?"

  The body had uncurled to full extension. It looked nine inches longer than before. The torso shivered. "I did what I told—my classes at Office of Form Control—never to do. Most stupid and dangerous thing in the world. Accelerated form-change, badly defined end-form—programmed from scratch—no chance to do parametric variations. I'm outside—region of stability. Size reduction through muscular contraction. Only have partial muscle control." Ransome's face worked to a twisted smile. "Five minutes more."

  "Hey, Wolfman, take your time." Aybee looked out along the corridor, and then he slid the door closed. "We're safe here. I'll watch this. Sylv, see if you can help."

  "Don't touch me. I'm getting there." An internal crisis had passed, and the twists and jerks in Wolf/Ransome's body were easing. "Aybee, you seem to know your way—around this place. How far—from the main communications center?"

  "Half a kilometer. Back along the corridor, and then head out toward the periphery. The place will be guarded, though, and it's not far from Ransome's own quarters. Ransome might be there."

  "I don't think so—I think he's been off-habitat. Anyway, we have to take the risk. I have maybe—one hour, before I have to get back to a tank. This form's a disaster." Wolf was grunting with pain and effort, forcing his body back to the shorter, more compact shape of Black Ransome. "We should be able to get into the com center. No one here argues with Ransome—not even the Roguards. They told me how to find you without a question. Help me up, Sylvia."

  "You look terrible. Take more time."

  "We don't have time. We've got to get to the communications center and send a message to the Cloud, saying where we are, before Ransome shows up again. Or someone does a random chromosomal check on me. Or I fall apart. Once the coordinates of this place are known, it doesn't matter so much if we're captured again. Right. Any time."

  The tics and twitches were subsiding, and the face had again smoothed to the pale, decisive countenance of Black Ransome. With Aybee leading the way and Sylvia ready to support Wolf if he needed it, they walked quietly on through the habitat and then made a turn outward. The twisting corridors were deserted, allowing Wolf to pause and rest along the way. During the final fifty yards Sylvia felt her face tighten with anticipation and tension and was sure she would be noticed. But the guards at the entrance to the communications facility merely stiffened to attention, stepped back a pace, and saluted as the three passed. Wolf/Ransome stood on the threshold and looked around. The center was empty. He nodded back casually to the guards and closed the door.

  "That's the most dangerous part over, at least for the moment." Bey sighed and moved across to the hyperbeam unit. "I knew just what Ransome looked like, even how he moved and sounded—I saw more than enough of the Negentropic Man—but I didn't know his speech patterns or the way he greets people."

  "Bey, we got troubles you don't even know about." Aybee held out a hand to prevent Wolf from touching the hyperbeam communication console. "It's not safe to send a message to the Cloud—Ransome has Cinnabar Baker in his pocket. I've seen messages from her."

  Wolf shook his head and turned on the communications set. "It's not news to me; I suspected as much. I didn't like the idea when I had it myself, but I knew there was a leak—and I didn't see how it could be anybody but Baker."

  "But if we can't trust her, who can we trust?" Sylvia asked, "We don't trust anyone. We send the message everywhere, spray it across the Inner and Outer Systems. Aybee, can you take over all the communications channels?"

  "For a general broadcast?" Aybee glared at the panel for a few seconds, then slowly nodded. "Guess so. Takes a few minutes to set it up—and if I grab 'em all, we'll be noticed. I'll have to push a hundred other users right off the system. Everyone in Ransome's Hole will head this way."

  "That's a different worry. Get the com system ready. Sylvia and I will work on the message."

  "Give me five. Make me a formatted data set, all ready to send." Aybee bent over the panel and began to work. After a few minutes he swore and looked up. "Problem. System's not set up for general broadcast."

  "Can't you jury-rig?" Bey could hear the sound of his own voice changing, and his hands were starting to tremble. He did not have long to get to a form-change tank.

  "I can. But I'll have to sit here and baby it. It's a low data rate, too—I'm going to need half an hour's transmission. But as soon as we start, this whole habitat will start to buzz."

  "Agreed." Bey stood up. "Sylvia, you can finish the message. We want everyone in the system to know that Ransome is the cause of control and communications breakdown. Tell them the location data for Ransome's Hole, what he's been doing, all you know about him. Ask help from anyone who can give it. Say we need a hundred ships or a thousand, from anywhere in the system, and while you're at it add a note saying that there's a leak in Cinnabar Baker's office. If it's Baker herself, that takes care of it. If not, she'll do something fast. And you, Aybee, as soon as you're ready, grab the outgoing circuits and send the message."

  "What about you?" Sylvia had stood up when Bey did, supporting him as he swayed to his feet.

  "I've got to guarantee Aybee his thirty minutes. Hold the fort here. Don't try to leave, even if you finish sending the message. Just he low until I get back."

  "Bey, you look terrible." Sylvia could feel his arm trembling. "I ought to come with you."

  "No. You couldn't help me, and sending that message is top priority. Get it ready, then help Aybee send it."

  "What are you going to do?"

  Bey gave her a wan smile. "I wish I knew. Don't worry, I'll think of something. Aybee, take a ten-second break and tell me how to get to Ransome's personal quarters. Maybe I can cut off our trouble there, right at the top."

  Aybee nodded, paused for a moment, then rattled off a series of directions. Then he bent back to his control panel. It was Sylvia who watched unhappily as Bey blundered toward the door. He still resembled Ransome in general appearance, but his body language was subtly wrong. His movements had become jerky, with violent and random twitches of muscle in his arms and legs.

  Sylvia kept silent and forced herself to watch him go. Bey thought he had another half hour before he was forced to find a form-change tank. She suspected that was irrelevant. Long before that, Bey would be unable to pass as Black Ransome to anyone with eyes or ears.

  CHAPTER 27

  "God does not play dice."

  �
�Albert Einstein

  "God not only plays dice, but also sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."

  —Stephen Hawking

  "God knows what God does."

  —Apollo Belvedere Smith

  There was silence in the communications center for five minutes after Bey left. Sylvia quickly completed the formatted message and defined a directory reference for it, but then she was reluctant to speak and break Aybee's concentration. He was setting up the master sequence that would take over in one swoop every outgoing message circuit in Ransome's Hole, and it was important to provide no hint of that intention until the moment came for override.

  Finally he glanced across to Sylvia and nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be. Where's the message?"

  "I put it into a restricted access bank for safety—so no one can take a peek by accident."

  "Right idea. Password?"

  " 'LUCKY.' "

  "Yeah. Let's hope." Aybee entered the final call sequence and sat back in his chair. There was a moment's pause, then a flicker of lights across the full display. He nodded. "Okay. We're in business. Now the fun starts—people are being bounced off com circuits all over the habitat."

  "Will they know the command came from here?"

  "Dunno. Probably. I couldn't see any way to stop it, but I did my best to make 'em freeze. I slapped Ransome's name on everything, so it looks like he's the one grabbing circuits." He stood up. "Keep your eye on that readout. If it goes to zero, yell. It means I'll have to take over. We'll be all done when it hits two eighty. Then we can release the channels."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Still don't know. Bey said lie low, but we don't want to just sit here. We need to be useful." Aybee went to the door, opened it a fraction, and peered out. At once he drew back and allowed the door to close.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Guys outside. Four of 'em."

  "Heading this way?"

  "No. Not even looking. Just standing there. Bey's doing, for a bet. He sent 'em here to stop anybody getting in. But it means we're stuck." Aybee stared around the communications center, then walked across to a horizontal trapdoor set in the curved floor. He lifted it and peered through.

  "That won't help." Sylvia had followed his actions. "There's only a kernel down there. The door just gives access to the outside of the shields. You won't be able to get out that way."

  "I know. I just want to take a look. I've been itching to get close to a live kernel ever since I arrived here." He paused with the trapdoor half-open. "How's that counter?"

  "Up to one seventy."

  "Going smooth. Let me take a little peek here." Aybee lay down with his head through the opening of the trapdoor. "It's a live one, all right. Whopping cable for the sensors. Big junction box, too—just like it was on the space farm's kernel." He craned farther into the opening, wriggling his body forward across the floor until only his hips and legs were visible to Sylvia. "And its own computer console." His voice was muffled. "Seems like there's a direct link from the kernel sensors to the habitat's central computer. Now, why do that, unless . . ." Another eighteen inches of Aybee disappeared through the trapdoor.

  The count in front of Sylvia had been climbing steadily. It finally reached 280 and froze there, lights blinking softly. A message complete indicator flashed on. She released all the com circuits and walked across to the trapdoor. She tapped Aybee on the thigh.

  "What's up?" His body twisted around so he could look at her.

  "Nothing bad, but we're all done with the message. If you want to go down there, you'll find it easier feet first." She waited as he turned, then followed him down the narrow ladder until they were both standing on the outer shield of a kernel. Sylvia stared down at the black, polished surface.

  "How do you know this is an active kernel?"

  Aybee pointed. "There's the control unit for angular momentum. I've checked a bunch of 'em these last couple of weeks. Most of them aren't connected to spin-up/spin-down systems, so they're not ready as energy sources or energy storage. Matter of fact, I'm not sure just what they are doing." He paused. "This is a live one, though. Hooked up and active and ready to roll."

  The kernel's control panel was a compact unit sitting on the curved shield surface. Aybee squatted down by it. "So far, so good. Want first crack at it?"

  "I wouldn't know where to start. But if you know a way to tell what's inside the shields, you can check what Bey suggested to me when we were working on the message. He thinks there's some new form-change product in there, something that can survive near a kernel. He tried to scan the shield interior back on the Marsden Harvester, looking for something unusual, but he didn't find a thing. He wasn't sure he was doing it right, though. Leo Manx told him to ask you, because this is your line of work. But you were off having fun on the space farm."

  "Yeah. Had a great time there. Real pleasure trip." Aybee was already at the control panel, staring vacantly at its complicated console. "This layout's a strange one for a power kernel console. Too many functions. And it's directly linked with the habitat's central computer."

  "Can you scan the interior?"

  "Dunno." Aybee listed the control function menu and studied it for a few seconds. "Guess I can. Only thing inside the kernel shield—apart from the kernel—should be the radiation monitors. I'll use them to do an interior scan and output it to the screen. We'll pick up an image of anything inside the shields. But I'll bet my butt that we don't find anything in there."

  He turned on the display and set the interior monitors to perform a slow scan within the innermost kernel shield. The kernel itself, pouring out gigawatts of radiation and particles, appeared as a tiny, intense point of light on the monitor. The triple shields, reflecting back that sleet of energy, showed on the same monitor as a softer continuous glow.

  They both stared at the screen, waiting in vain for any anomalous pattern. When the scan had finished, Sylvia shook her head. "That does Bey in. He was sure there had to be something inside. What now?"

  "We gotta use pure logic." Aybee was back at the controls. "One: There's an information source inside the kernel shields. Two: There's nothing inside the shield but the kernel. Therefore—nice clean syllogism—the kernel must be the information source. I've been skirting that for weeks, wondering if I'm off my head—but no one would let me get near a kernel and find out!"

  "Aybee, let's not get too ridiculous. A kernel is a power source. It isn't an information source. And how can there be anything inside a kernel? It's only billionths of a centimeter across. And even if there were anything inside, it couldn't ever get a message out. A kernel is a black hole!"

  Aybee was shaking his head and changing the scale on the output display. He had zoomed in to the area around the kernel itself. "Come off it, Sylv. Black holes stopped being black in the 1970s, two hundred and fifty years ago! Hell, you know that—why else do you need shields? You know black holes pump out particles and radiation. Every kernel has its own radiation temperature and its own entropy. Maybe its own signal."

  "But it's too small! You couldn't possibly pack a signal generator in such a tiny volume."

  "We don't know how much space there is inside, or what the inside of a kernel is like—no idea at all. The interior has its own geometry, its own space-time signature, probably its own physical laws. Hell, people have been saying for centuries that the inside of a black hole is a 'separate universe,' but we never bother to think through the implication of that. If the inside of each kernel is a separate universe, anything could be in there—including somebody capable of communication."

  "Somebody? You mean something alive? How did it get in there?"

  "Hey, you'd better define life for me. If you mean something capable of generating nonrandom signals, then, yeah, I mean alive. As for how it got there—it's been in there all along."

  "But how? And what could something inside a kernel possibly want to say?"

  "One question at a time, Sylv. Do you want to find out wha
t's going on, or do you want to run a debate? Remember, thermodynamics only tells what's happening on average for a kernel's radiation. It doesn't say what gets emitted at any particular moment—so let's take a look at this." Aybee turned on a second screen. "We don't see a thing when we just monitor the total radiation output of the kernel, because the average level is so high. But I can display the time variation of the radiation—the deviation from the average. See that fluctuation? Now, it could be a signal. Information, coming from the kernel—from nowhere. Just what Bey was looking for, as bad inputs to the form-change process. And I'll bet this could be responsible for breakdown of communications all through the system. Don't forget there are active kernels in all the important places, everywhere from the harvesters to the space farms. It could be the cause of the snake wrapped around the Kernel Ring, the giant woman walking across the space farm collector, flaming blue swords, giant red space hounds—you name it."

  Sylvia was studying the rise and fall of the radiation pattern. "But it doesn't look like a signal. It's like pure noise."

  "A perfectly efficient signal looks like noise—until you know the rules." Aybee was tracing the circuits leading from the kernel monitors. "Before the signal can be interpreted, it needs to be decoded. And that's where the computer systems must come in. See, this signal is fed as an input data stream to the computer—the central computer for Ransome's Hole. Let's have a look at what the computer thinks it is seeing. It starts by—uh oh." He was staring at a new signal on the screen.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Bad news for Bey." The alert signal vanished and was replaced by a flashing message. "While I was playing with the com system, I took a precaution. I set up a priority interrupt for information about Ransome." Aybee was frowning at the screen. "According to this, Ransome is in two places at once on the habitat. I asked for positional fixes, but all I get as an answer is 'No Defined Location.' Bey might run into the real Ransome."